Fascinating history of US presidential campaign logos here.
Public Service Announcement (5)
1 hour ago
Wednesday 5 November 2008
Gunpowder Treason & Plot
'Remember, remember the Fifth of November,The Gunpowder Treason and Plot,
I know of no reason
Why Gunpowder Treason
Should ever be forgot.
Guy Fawkes, Guy Fawkes, t’was his intent
To blow up King and Parliament.
Three-score barrels of powder below
To prove old England’s overthrow;
By God’s providence he was catch’d
With a dark lantern and burning match.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, let the bells ring.
Holloa boys, holloa boys, God save the King!'
Until the nineteenth century there was a special Church of England service for this commemoration in the Book of Common Prayer. Guy Fawkes Day became a public holiday in 1606 when it was proclaimed by an Act of Parliament. In commemoration of the Gunpowder Plot on this day in 1605, when Guy Fawkes and his comrades tried to blow up King James I and the whole English Parliament, English people still burn a 'guy' in effigy.
More here.
Tuesday 4 November 2008
James 'Blood' Ulmer - Are You Glad To Be In America?
The former sideman for Ornette Coleman and proponent of 'harmolodics' will be coming to Australia for the ATP Festival at Mount Buller in January. Details here.
Australian Poll Finds Bush Made World Less Safe
A majority of Australians believe the world is less safe due to the eight years United States President George W Bush has spent in the White House.
Though Americans are the ones heading to the polls on Tuesday to vote for a new US president, Australians are excited by the prospect of change at the top in Washington.
A survey by UMR Research, which polled 1,000 people online, found 60 per cent believed the past eight years of US foreign policy had made the world less safe.
Another 18 per cent thought it made no difference, while nine per cent believed the world was safer.
The Bush years have also seen Australians' opinion of the US deteriorate, with 64 per cent saying their opinion of America was worse because of the time Bush had spent in office.
The UMR study mirrored other Australian polls showing overwhelming support for Democratic candidate Barack Obama.
It found 72 per cent of Australians preferred Obama over his Republican rival John McCain. In contrast, only nine per cent favoured McCain as the next US president.
Another Australian study on the US election, by Essential Research, showed that 68 per cent of people thought the Bush presidency had been bad for the world.
Six per cent believed he'd been good for the world, and 11 per cent thought his presidency had made no difference.
Nearly half of the 1,000-plus respondents thought an Obama presidency would be better for Australia, with 48 per cent choosing the Illinois senator against seven per cent backing McCain.
Australia's chief representative in Washington, ambassador Dennis Richardson, has met, and is impressed, by both candidates.
"They're both tremendously impressive people," he told Fairfax Radio Network.
"They've got incredible life stories. They've got the intellectual depth and the toughness you'd expect in someone running for office."
And both, Mr Richardson says, are familiar with Australia.
"Senator Obama, when he was a young kid living in Indonesia, he used to travel between Indonesia and Hawaii, where his grandparents were, via Sydney," he said.
"So he's actually got a sense of the place.
"Senator McCain has a long involvement with Australia. His father was head of the US Pacific command and his parents used to go to Australia quite regularly."
While most attention is fixed on who will be the next US president, the political argy-bargy is focusing on a conversation between Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and Mr Bush about the global financial crisis.
Details of the conversation, which canvassed the use of a G20 meeting to discuss the global turmoil, were leaked to a national newspaper.
The newspaper report suggested that Mr Bush had asked Mr Rudd: "What's the G20?", a claim denied by both Mr Rudd and the Bush administration.
Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull again called on the government to come clean about how details of the conversation were leaked to the media.
And he moved to blunt an attack by Mr Rudd over comments by former prime minister John Howard last year that an Obama win would be a victory for terrorists.
"For the record, I firmly believe that the next president of the United States, whether it is Senator Obama or Senator McCain, will be resolute and robust in dealing with the threat to free societies posed by terrorism," Mr Turnbull said.
Mr Rudd earlier called on Mr Turnbull to apologise for coalition attacks on Obama.
"It is extraordinary that one side of politics could make such extraordinarily partisan remarks," he told reporters.
(The Age - Nov 3)
Monday 3 November 2008
Happy Birthday to you...
For one of my sons who turns 22 today over in Amsterdam.
Here is Paul Kelly with 'How To Make Gravy', 'Every Fucking City' & 'To Her Door' (and I bet you still remember every word to that song!)
Happy Birthday from us all...
Every month Paul Kelly has been releasing solo acoustic versions of all his songs from A - Z as downloads. If you haven't done so already then sign up here now.
Here is Paul Kelly with 'How To Make Gravy', 'Every Fucking City' & 'To Her Door' (and I bet you still remember every word to that song!)
Happy Birthday from us all...
Every month Paul Kelly has been releasing solo acoustic versions of all his songs from A - Z as downloads. If you haven't done so already then sign up here now.
Sunday 2 November 2008
Quintessential
Bob Quine 1942 - 2004"Someday Quine will be recognized for the pivotal figure that he is on his instrument — he is the first guitarist to take the breakthroughs of early Lou Reed and James Williamson and work through them to a new, individual vocabulary, driven into odd places by obsessive attention to 'On The Corner' - era Miles Davis ."
(Lester Bangs)
Ikue Mori, Robert Quine & Marc Ribot - El Dorado
Jody Harris & Robert Quine - Flagpole Jitters
Robert Quine & Fred Maher - Village
Robert Quine - Film Music 9 (unreleased)
You can get them all here.
Robert Quine's favourite piece of music 'He Loved Him Madly' by Miles Davis here.
Recent article on Robert Quine's death by James Marshall and more music here.
Richard Hell on Robert Quine here.
Bob Quine - guitar
Matthew Sweet - Girlfriend
Lou Reed - Waves of Fear
Richard Hell & the Voidoids - Blank Generation
Studs Terkel - RIP (CURIOSITY DID NOT KILL THIS CAT!)
Studs TerkelMay 16, 1912 - October 31, 2008.
Obituary - 'The Guardian'.
Tribute page at the 'Chicago Tribune' (includes Videos)
Saturday 1 November 2008
Friday 31 October 2008
Grateful Dead - 'Dark Star' - Halloween 1991
Here is the Grateful Dead with 'Dark Star>Jam>
Drums>Space>Dark Star' followed by a version of the Stone's 'The Last Time' from the 31st of October 1991 at the Oakland - Almeda Coliseum.
More 'Dark Stars' here, there and everywhere.
Spooky
(...girl with gun #3...)You can get 'Spooky' by Lydia Lunch here.
Taken from the album 'Queen of Siam'.
If you only know Lydia's work with Teenage Jesus and the Jerks or 8 Eyed Spy this album's gentleness (!) will surprise you.
'Queen of Siam' also features the world's most underrated guitarist, the late great Bob Quine.
Taken from the album 'Queen of Siam'.
If you only know Lydia's work with Teenage Jesus and the Jerks or 8 Eyed Spy this album's gentleness (!) will surprise you.
'Queen of Siam' also features the world's most underrated guitarist, the late great Bob Quine.
Thursday 30 October 2008
Halloween Hits - Volume 5
1. Jesus And I Go To Hell - Old Time Religious Radio
2. Betty Boom, Little Monster, Doogie And Peggie At The Witches Castle - The (Saint Thomas) Pepper Smelter
3. The House Is Haunted - Kay Starr
4. Ghost Face - Valentine Six
5. Bouche Of Ghosts - Vialka
6. Sorrow Evoker - Witchcraft
7. Sequence 2 - Zombi
8. Frankenstein - Edgar Winter Group
9. Helter Skelter - The Beatles
10. The Black Widow - Alice Cooper & Vincent Price
11. Lucifer Sam - Pink Floyd
12. I Won’t Betray You - The Satanic Gowns
13. Monster Cocktail - Les Maledictus Sound
14. The Monster - Evans Carroll
15. Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde - The Emersons
16. Do The Devil - Amazing Royal Crowns
17. Haunted House - Jumpin’ Gene Simmons
18. Creeping Terror Dance Hall Twist - Frederic Kopp
19. Mr. Ghost Goes To Town - The John Buzon Trio
20. Bébé Vampire - Lio
The previous 4 compilations are also available here for a couple more days.
Grateful Dead - 'Dark Star' The Empire Pool Wembley London 8th April 1972
Continuing the series of versions of 'Dark Star' played on the Grateful Dead's European tour of 1972.Here is the 'Dark Star' from The Empire Pool, Wembley in London on the 8th April 1972.
The first night of the tour had taken place the night before also at Wembley but 'Dark Star' wasn't played.
(This version is taken from the 'Glastonbury Fayre' triple album released in1972.)
Rotterdam 'Dark Star' here.
Wednesday 29 October 2008
Audio interview with Jerry Garcia October 2nd 1977
WolfAudio of informal interview with Jerry Garcia backstage at The Paramount Theatre, Portland, Oregon on October 2nd 1977.
Topics discussed include his 'Wolf' guitar, the upcoming Dead shows in Egypt and 'out-of-tune' Western music.
WARNING: Everyone is obviously suffering from 'really heavy colds'! (SNIFF!)
Get it here.
Tack>>Head
The Tackhead saga goes back to the mid-70's, when Doug Wimbish and Skip McDonald
teamed up in the 'disco' boom when they attained cult success with Wood, Brass & Steel and with such tracks as 'Push Push In The Bush' from Musique. They first met up with Keith LeBlanc in 1979 on the newly-formed Sugar Hill Records.
teamed up in the 'disco' boom when they attained cult success with Wood, Brass & Steel and with such tracks as 'Push Push In The Bush' from Musique. They first met up with Keith LeBlanc in 1979 on the newly-formed Sugar Hill Records.
They soon became the label´s house band providing backing, both live and on disc, for the ground-breaking Sugar Hill Gang (Rapper's Delight), Grandmaster Flash (The Message) and Melle Mel (White Lines) helping to launch the onslaught of 80's rap. After the demise of Sugar Hill and drawnout
legal wranglings, the three musicians continued to work on various projects. Described by The New York Times as 'one of todays most extraordinary rhythm sections' they included recordings for the Tommy Boy label.
Moving on from the early 80's rap explosion drummer Keith LeBlanc already released some solo work on Tommy Boy Records (Maneuvres, Uh, on the sampler Masters of the Beat); mixing the (now legendary) DMX drumbeats with his own special drumsound. His release 'No Sell Out' featured the cut-up raps of civil rights activist Malcolm X pitched against the infamous DMX drumbeat to acknowledged as the first ever 'sampling record'.
Ahead of the time and timeless. LeBlanc's 'No Sell Out' brought him to the attention of London's dub-master extraordinare and On-U Sound label owner Adrian Sherwood. A foremost producer of reggae in the early 80's Sherwood began to take his dub methodology to the limit creating a unique form-distorted media and environmental collages of 'mind' sounds. Michael Williams (a.k.a. Prince Far I) was the spiritual teacher of Adrian Sherwood's art of dub.
In 1984 while working on a remix of On-U Sound act Akabu's 'Watch Yourself' for Tommy Boy he met Keith LeBlanc. After a productive meeting between Sherwood and LeBlanc, McDonald and Wimbish later joined them in London to begin work on a new project which they christened Fats Comet. LeBlanc's beat, pitched with Sherwood's dub methodology taken it to the limit (and far beyond...) creating unique form distorted media where the heavily distorted sound of McDonald's guitar and Wimbish's funky bass art made things complete.
As LeBlanc sums it up, "We started Fats Comet as a studio experiment. The stuff we considered being 'non-commercial' got stuck on Adrian Sherwood's label and Doug Wimbish came up with the name Tackhead; which is New Jersey slang for homeboy." After releasing a couple of 12", like the vast underground club and science fiction dancehall classics
'Mind at the End of the Tether' and 'What's my Mission Now?' Tackhead already gained a lot of credits and popularity, especially among those who tied up to the industrial virus. An album was inevitable and 'Gary Clail's Tackhead Sound System's Tackhead Tape Time' was bound to be a classic from the very day of its release.
In the meantime, they also found the time to back former Popgroup main man Mark Stewart as The Maffia; a collaboration which resulted in probably some of the most deranged hip-mutant-funk-metal-dub-hop records ever to be made. 'Tackhead in the area!' became the common chant after the 12" 'The Game', which featured TV soccer commentator Brian Moore alongside Jerry & The Pacemakers' 'You'll Never Walk Alone', a legendary Liverpool football evergreen. The band also started touring live, which resulted in the initial release of the live album 'En Concert', quickly withdrawn after release because the band never wanted it to be released.
'Friendly as a Hand Grenade' the band's debut album as Tackhead marked a new direction. They had now been joined by fellow American and ex-Peech Boys vocalist Bernard Fowler, giving a soulful edge to their beats and making them more accessible to a wider audience. Bernard Fowler's introduction to the band came through the Mick Jagger-connection. Jagger is a big Tackhead-fan. Bernard Fowler still is background vocalist with The Rolling Stones.
In 1990, Tackhead released the album 'Strange Things' which, despite some good tracks turned out to be the band's major malfunction! They were dropped by record company EMI and until now we hardly heard anything from Tackhead as a band apart from some 'live' gigs and compilation releases on Blanc Records, Keith LeBlanc's label. The German label Echobeach re-issued 'Strange Thing's in 1999, with additional mixes ass bonus tracks.
But the Tackhead-members have never stopped recording. They have worked together under various names such as Interference, Strange Parcels and of course Skip McDonald's solo
project Little Axe.
Adrian Sherwood is a renowned producer (Primal Scream, Sinead O'Connor, Air, Asian Dub Foundation, to name but a few), and finally released his first solo album in 2003, called
'Never Trust a Hippy?', assisted by the usual suspects.
Keith LeBlanc remixed tracks by The Cure, Nine Inch Nails and Godfathers, delivered many sample cd's and is working 'solo' with the help of the other three Tack>>Heads...
Skip McDonald is concentrating on Little Axe.
Doug Wimbish released his first solo album, 'Trippy Notes for Bass', in 1999, apart from projects such as Jungle Funk and Black Jack Johnson, that involve Living Colour mate Will Calhoun. Wimbish and Calhoun are Head>>Fake and are of course part of the Living Colour reunion.
Besides the previously mentioned activities we should not forget to mention that the Tackhead members played, produced and remixed as guest musicians for high class quality productions: James Brown, Africa Bambaataa, George Clinton, Seal, BB King, Robbie Robertson, Annie Lennox, Mick Jagger, R.E.M., Tina Turner, Charlie Watts, Miles Davis, Bob Marley, Sly & Robbie, Depeche Mode, Bomb The Bass, Robert Palmer, Neneh Cherry, Malcolm McLaren, ABC, Jalal, Madonna, Brooklyn Funk Essentials...
...and then we're not even mentioning the +100 releases and formidable productions by the whole On-U Sound posse; Dub Syndicate, African Head Charge, Gary Clail, Mark Stewart, Bim Sherman, Ghetto Priest, Jesse Rae...!
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