[E.O.M.S.]

Saturday, 5 September 2009

Ha! (Thanx Longy!)

GQ's self censorship battle over Putin story (Audio)

Timothy Fadek/Polaris

Scott Anderson, a veteran war correspondent, says he's disappointed GQ was frightened of circulating his story. "If you're worried about repercussions and you bow to them, you're basically surrendering to the other side." It was the reception his story ultimately received in the United States. "It was quite mysterious to me," Anderson says. "All of a sudden, it became clear that they were going to run the article but they were going to try to bury it under a rock as much as they possibly could." Anderson, 50, is an accomplished reporter and novelist who has written previously for Harper's Magazine, The New York Times Magazine, and Vanity Fair. His investigative piece, published in the September American edition of GQ, challenges the official line on a series of bombings that killed hundreds of people in 1999 in Russia. It profiles a former KGB agent who spoke in great detail and on the record, at no small risk to himself. But instead of trumpeting his reporting, GQ's corporate owners went to extraordinary lengths to try to ensure no Russians will ever see it.

@ 'NPR'

Bass sigh!

Julie Slick

"Material, A Band of Many Faces" by Robert Palmer (NY Times April 1981)

For a rock group with a particularly solid-sounding name, Material is curiously elusive. Sometimes this increasingly influential band, which has been singled out as one of New York's most original new groups by critics in this country and abroad, appears as a trio; sometimes it's a quintet. Tomorrow night at the Bond International Casino, it will be a four or five piece group with the pioneering free-jazz guitarist Sonny Sharrock as principal soloist.

On records like its recently released "Temporary Music Compilation" (on the French Celluloid label), Material has sounded something like a progressive-rock band with jazz leanings; with Mr. Sharrock on guitar, they sound more like a blizzard of shattering glass with a rock backbeat. Members of Material have recently been involved in even more diverse projects, ranging from a disco-funk record with the singer Nona Hendryx to meditative electronic-music with the composer and technical innovator Brian Eno, and punk rock with Richard Hell and the Voidoids.

"We've got a lot of directions to pursue" Bill Laswell, Material's bassist, said the other day. "We do get involved in quite a few projects, and we like bringing different people into Material. It's healthy for us as players, and it's a way of exposing good musicians to new audiences. But even though were fluid, we definitely are a band. And since whatever we play tends to have a strong pulse to it, I'd say we're a rock Band.

Mr. Laswell grew up in Detroit, and played with a number of disco-funk bands before arriving in New York City in 1978, where he met Michael Beinhorn, who plays synthesizer and manipulates pre-recorded tapes, and the drummer Fred Maher. These three first played together in a group called the Zu Band, but by summer '79 they were working as Material, with Cliff Cultreri, as the first of several guitarists to pass through the ranks.

Mr. Laswell is the most experienced member of the band. "Fred is just 18," he said, "and Michael is 20. But when I first met them, they bad this energy and attitude I was interested in."

The word "energy" crops up frequently in Mr. Laswell's conversation. It was energy that originally attracted him to Sonny Sharrock, who first recorded with Pharoah Sanders and other jazz musicians during the middle and late 1960's. Mr. Laswell played with Mr. Sharrock in a trio before introducing him to the other members of Material.

"Sonny is part of the band," Mr. Laswell maintained. "When Fred, Michael and I play with him, the four of us get a band sound that's definitely recognizable. It's really a challenge to work with him. When I was 15, he was my favorite guitar player, and he's been playing the way many of the new-wave rock guitarists play, and he has a lot of power."

But Material has also featured the English guitar experimentalist Fred Frith, the jazz trumpeter Olu Dara, and the saxophonists Byard Lancaster and Henry Threadgill among others. How can a band pursue such a revolving door policy and still be a band?

"Playing with really strong musicians changes our playing," Mr. Laswell responded. "We improvise and play off one another. We may sound somewhat different, depending on who's playing with us, but to me, that's an advantage. Most rock bands sound the same every time."

Tomorrow night's show at Bond's should prove particularly interesting. Material and the explosive Mr. Sharrock will play first, and they will be followed by the guitarist James (Blood) Ulmer, whose fusing of freeform jazz and dancable funk and rock rhythms has influenced a number of New York bands and paralells Material's experiments along simlar lines. Mr. Ulmer, who is both a jazz musician and a popular performer in New York's rock clubs, recently signed a contract with Columbia Records. It seems that the fusing of exploratory jazz-disco-funk and punk rock that has been shaping up in Manhattan during the last few years, is finally going to get national exposure.

Material is also involved in several recording projects for major-distributed labels. Tbe band's single with Nona Hendryx, who was formerly with the popular vocal Group La Belle, will be released by Ze Records within a month, and all three of of Material's core members, as well as Olu Dara, have appeared on what is expected to be Brian Eno's next album.

"We were interested in working with the larger record companies,but we don’t want to commit everything we do to any one company," Mr. Laswell explained. "A year ago we took a loft in Brooklyn and began building our own studio, which is now fully operational. We recorded with Nona Hendryx and Brian Eno there, and we've had other sessions, including a really interesting mix of musicians recording for the American Clave label."

The American Clave sessions included three generations of jazz saxophonists, two atonal guitarists, veteran Latin percussionists and other musicians.

"Having our own studio helps us stay independent of record companies," Mr. Laswell added. "We don't have to ask them to pay for studio time or to underwrite our recording sessions, and we keep our options open. We want to keep making dance music, but we also want to make music that isn't as commercial, some free-form improvising, maybe a big band at some point. Recording all these projects is the most important thing to us right now, but we're going to be performing around town once a month or so,and we hope to play some places besides the rock clubs. At the same time, exposing rock audiences to people like Sonny Sharrock and Olu Dara, has been really worthwhile, and we want to continue doing that."

Jazz musicians have worked in groups with constantly shifting personel for years, but Material's approach is new to rock. Will it work in the long run? Mr. Laswell noted that so far, the members of Material have been able to keep their various projects going simueltaeously with a minimum of conflict, and the groups work with Mr. Eno and other well-known musicians is generating a certain commercial momentum.

"As for the future," Mr. Laswell said, "We'll just work with as many musicians as we can. There's really no end to the people we can add to Material, and no end to what we can do."

Yet more assholes!

Talking of assholes!

Glenn Beck tries & fails at art history.
@ 'HuffPo'

"An escape valve, just letting off steam..." Assholes!

Condom ads

!?!

The reality of war

Defense Secretary Robert Gates is objecting “in the strongest terms” to an Associated Press decision to transmit a photograph showing a mortally wounded 21-year-old Marine in his final moments of life, calling the decision “appalling” and a breach of “common decency.”

US politicians do not want the people to see photos like this.
This is the reality...
NB: This is not the photo in question mentioned above.
The Wayback Machine at the archive has a lot more photos that perhaps would sway public opinion against all wars.

Friday, 4 September 2009

The making of Lou Barlow's 'Goodnight Unknown'

Cath Carroll remembered...

Peter Terzian, editor of the anthology Heavy Rotation, and two of the collection's contributors--Martha Southgate and Joshua Ferris --talk about the unique and essential relationship between life and music and talk about the record albums that have inspired them.

Who is Cath Carroll I can hear you collectively ask?

The Rolling Stones - Exile On Main Street Blues

The Rolling Stones - Loving Cup

Dot Allison - My Widow

Dot Allison - Paved With a Little Pain

Penguin Books design

A brilliant pool of photos at Flickr
As David Pearson who uploaded the photos says:

"I photographed the journal as part of my research for ‘Penguin by Design’. It currently resides in the Bristol University Archive (Special Collections). I certainly wouldn’t want to be responsible for it!"
Thanx to 'Boing Boing'
Jan Tschichold at Penguin Books (PDF)
Here

Influential people

Chinese Artists Dai Dudu, Li Tiezi, and Zhang An, 2006, oil on canvas

Go here to this painting of famous people. Hover your mouse over a person and it will usually bring up a Wiki link to that person. The camel leads to people who look like camels! Ha!

The Heartbreakers Live w/ Richard Hell (1975)

Going Steady, Chinese Rocks & Pirate Love. VERY RARE. Uncut, really bad quality!

Miserable

The New Adventures of Hitler was a satirical and surreal (one scene has Hitler opening a cupboard to find Morrissey singing Heaven Knows I’m Miserable Now) strip based on the claims of Hitler's sister-in-law Bridget Dowling that Hitler had lived with her, her husband Alois Hitler, Jr., and her son William Patrick Hitler in Liverpool from 1912 to 1913. It first appeared in Cut, a Scottish arts and culture magazine and became instantly controversial, and some interpreted Morrison to be a Nazi due to his use of Hitler in what was essentially a humorous story.
Via 'Coisas do Arco da Velha'

XLR8R TV Episode 81: The Bug & Warrior Queen

Smoking # 33

US soldiers smoke at FOB Solerno in Paktika province, Afghanistan.

At last a new release from Grant Hart

Hot Wax
01 You're the Reflection of the Moon on the Water
02 Barbara
03 Charles Hollis Jones
04 Schoolbuses Are for Children
05 Narcissus Narcissus
06 California Zephyr
07 Sailor Jack
08 I Knew All About You Since Then
09 My Regrets

Due: October 6

Thursday, 3 September 2009

Suicidddde...so sadddd!

Artificial Paradise Inc

Dot Allison

Photos by Lorna Roach
The very beautiful Dot Allison releases her new album 'Room 7 and a Half' on Monday. There are contributions from James Johnston, Mick Harvey, Paul Weller and Pete Doherty. There is also a cover of one of my favourite Scott Walker songs 'Montague Terrace (In Blue)'.
You can download an alternatve version of 'Buzzin' Round The Honey Pot' here.
You can listen to other tracks from the album here.

Gulp! # 2

A father-of-two has come up with a way to encourage children to eat healthy meals. Mark Northeast set up a website called Funky Lunches, which features ideas for parents struggling to get healthy food into their kids' daily routine..

Gulp!

The spiral galaxy of Andromeda over a period of about three billion years as the dwarf galaxy Triangulum move away from it, then back towards it, where Triangulum will be ultimately devoured by Andromeda

WWF/WTF? (The Video)

After the WWF appeared to initially deny approving the ad, DDB Brasil and the WWF hammered out a statement posted in Portuguese on both groups' Brazilian websites Wednesday afternoon apologizing for the ad and attributing it to "the inexperience of some professionals on both sides, and not bad faith or disrespect toward American suffering."
The statement continued, "WWF-Brasil and DDB Brasil reaffirm that the ad never should have been created, approved or run. They deeply regret that this happened, and apologize to everyone who has been offended."
DDB Brasil has been the WWF's local agency in Brazil for the past three years and has won numerous creative awards for its work for the conservation group. The agency was also named Agency of the Year at the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival in June for winning more Lions than any other agency.
In a separate mishap in a bad week for DDB Brasil, "Tsunami" accidentally ended up in a folder for work to be sent to journalists by the agency's public-relations department and was mistakenly sent to Ad Age sibling Creativity this week as though it were a new print ad. It was described in the e-mail as "a great campaign."
A DDB Brasil spokesperson in Sao Paulo said a video version of the ad being circulated on the internet was not done or authorized by the agency or the client. She said DDB execs first saw the video, which features slightly different copy, on the internet and don't know who created it.
@ 'Ad Age'
And now they are denying making the video and as one comment there says...
"...Because complete strangers are always picking print ads at random that ran once and duplicating the exact same art perfectly for a :30 spot. No, yeah, happens all the time."
Update:
Now the video has been removed from You Tube because of a copyright claim by DDB Brasil! Hmmm!
You can still watch it here with the news that the video was actually entered into the Cannes advertising awards!