RIP Ray Lowry

Johnny Green at Ray Lowry exhibition

London Calling

The Ray Lowry designed sleeves for the 'London Calling' album and 12" (and the original inspiration).
Go here for 'London Calling' by The Clash from the new release 'Live At Shea Stadium'.

Ray Lowry 1944 - 2008

Just found out that Ray Lowry died last week.
For anyone brought up on the NME in the 70's & 80's you will know his work.
He designed the 'London Calling' sleeve for The Clash and went on tour with them to America in 1979, dubbed the 'war artist' by Joe Strummer. The resulting drawings were used in Road Manager Johnny Green's Clash book 'A Riot of Their Own'.
There is an obituary from MOJO here.

One of my favourite cartoons of his was of a blues player's funeral procession with the words ..."well apparently I didn't wake up this morning" coming from the coffin!

kill yr idols

Pitchfork has this documentary available to watch online for the next 5 days or so here.

Kiki et Loulou Picasso - BAZOOKA GRAPHIQUES

Unfortunately not that well known outside of France.
The Bazooka crew have been graphic terrorists since the mid seventies.

You can step into their world here.
If you speak French there is an 8 minute audio documentary here and more examples of their work can be found here and here.

Killer Luka's Amazing Dolls!

Killer Luka has five of her incredible creations over at Dennis Cooper's blog today.
Please check them out.
They are truly amazing.

The doll above is 'Edie as The Broken Girl'.

March 6th 1970 Fillmore East NY

'Miles Runs The Voodoo Down'
(Early & late show versions.)
here.

Imagine Miles Davis as the opening act for Neil Young? But that's the deal in the '70s, especially when you wanted to play New York's Fillmore. The Davis Sextet opened for Neil Young and Crazy Horse and The Steve Miller Blues Band for two nights at the Fillmore East, March 6-7 (Friday-Saturday).

This was the Miles who had released In A Silent Way and Bitches Brew less than a year before, had put out Live-Evil the previous month and would release Jack Johnson the following month.

If playing support act bothered Miles, it didn't show in his music. Miles wrote in his autobiography of that period: "The sound of my music was changing as fast as I was changing musicians, but I was still looking for the combination that could give me the sound I wanted. Jack DeJohnette gave me a certain deep groove that I just loved to play over, but then Billy Cobham gave me a more rock-like sound. Dave Holland played the stand-up bass and I could groove behind that in a way that I couldn't when Harvey Brooks brought in his electric bass sound. The same thing with Chick (Corea), Herbie (Hancock), Joe (Zawinul), Keith (Jarrett) and Larry (Young), too. I was seeing it all as a process of recording all this music, just getting it all down while it was flowing out of my head."

There were two shows each night. Columbia recorded both nights, but this show remains unissued. This two-night gig was Wayne Shorter's last as a member of the Sextet. (He did remain with Davis for a studio date on March 17.) Columbia finally released the March 7 show as It's About Time in 2001. This series of shows at the Fillmore in the '70s was available at Miles Trees and the general consensus was that this March 6 recording sounded much better than the official March 7 release.

As an aside, between these two shows Bill Graham brought in a Sabrett hot dog vendor off the street to feed the bands, the crew, and some members of the audience.

If you like the electric Miles or the jazz-rock Miles, this one's for you.

Lineup:
Miles Davis - trumpet
Wayne Shorter - tenor & soprano saxophones
Chick Corea - electric piano
Dave Holland - acoustic & electric basses
Jack DeJohnette - drums
Airto Moreira - percussion

(BigO)

Dear Red States...

Dear Red States,

We're ticked off at the way you've treated California, and we've decided we're leaving. We intend to form our own country, and we're taking the other Blue States with us.

In case you aren't aware, that includes Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, Minnesota , Wisconsin , Michigan, Illinois and all of the Northeast.

We believe this split will be beneficial to the nation, and especially to the people of the new country of New California.

To sum up briefly:

You get Texas, Oklahoma and all the slave states.

We get stem cell research and the best beaches.

We get Nancy Pelosi. You get Sarah Palin.

We get the Statue of Liberty. You get WalMart.

We get Intel and Microsoft. You get WorldCom.

We get Harvard. You get Ole' Miss.

We get 85 percent of America 's venture capital and entrepreneurs. You get Alabama .

We get two-thirds of the tax revenue. You get to make the red states pay their fair share.

Since our aggregate divorce rate is 22 percent lower than the Christian Coalition's, we get a bunch of happy families. You get a bunch of single moms.

Please be aware that Nuevo California will be pro-choice and anti-war, and we're going to want all our citizens back from Iraq at once. If you need people to fight, ask your evangelicals.

They have kids they're apparently willing to send to their deaths for no purpose, and they don't care if you don't show pictures of their children's caskets coming home.

We do wish you success in Iraq, and hope that the WMDs turn up, but we're not willing to spend our resources in Bush's Quagmire.

With the Blue States in hand, we will have firm control of 80 percent of the country's fresh water, more than 90 percent of the pineapple and lettuce, 92 percent of the nation's fresh fruit, 95 percent of America's quality wines (you can serve French wines at state dinners) 90 percent of all cheese, 90 percent of the high tech industry, most of the U.S. low-sulfur coal, all living redwoods, sequoias and condors, all the Ivy and Seven Sister schools, plus Stanford, Cal Tech and MIT.

With the Red States, on the other hand, you will have to cope with 88 percent of all obese Americans (and their projected health care costs), 92 percent of all U.S. mosquitoes, nearly 100 percent of the tornadoes, 90 percent of the hurricanes, 99 percent of all Southern Baptists, virtually 100 percent of all televangelists, Rush Limbaugh, Bob Jones University, Clemson and the University of Georgia.

We get Hollywood and Yosemite, thank you.

Additionally, 38 percent of those in the Red states believe Jonah was actually swallowed by a whale, 62 percent believe life is sacred unless we're discussing the death penalty or gun laws, 44 percent say that evolution is only a theory, 53 percent that Saddam was involved in 9/11 and 61 percent of you crazy bastards believe you are people with higher morals than we lefties.

By the way, we're taking the good pot, too. You can have that dirt weed they grow in Mexico .

Sincerely,

Blue States

(thanx to smeggers)

JAY SPACEBUBS! - This post is for you...

Why did Piglet go to the toilet?
He was looking for Pooh!

J - there's a bear in there -
in the 'com-pooh-ta'!

love Daddy
X
X
X

'Horses' (Live) - Brooklyn Academy of Music December 1, 2005

Here is a live recording of Patti Smith and her band performing the album 'Horses' from 2005.
Tom Verlaine on guitar as well.

Stormin' Normisms - Happy Birthday George Wendt (for yesterday)

George is a big (no pun intended) music fan.
There were always reports in the 80's NME that he was at this gig or that one in London.
Mostly post-punk bands.

Obama roasts McCain

Dudu Pukwana

Dudu Pukwana & Spear
'Flute Music'
Here.

As already mentioned here I was lucky enough to live in London when Dudu was playing around town.
In fact I saw him in London, Glasgow, Liverpool & Amsterdam.
I also worked at a jazz club in London for a while (100 Club) and when he would play there we would have a few ales...
At the end of the night we often found ourselves catching the same bus and Dudu would play his sax to me and whoever else was there at the bus stop.
Wish that I had thought to record those impromptu sessions on my walkman.

This music is just perfect as the weather starts warming up.

There is a Dudu Pukwana discography to be found here.