“Every morning I jump out of bed and step on a landmine. The landmine is me. After the explosion, I spend the rest of the day putting the pieces together.” - Ray Bradbury
My Canadian drinking buddy and part time yoga studio sweeper Jason Kent has released his splendid eponymous album for your delight and enjoyment. I think it’s only out in Canada right now, so those non-Canadians out there will have to fly over here and buy it. Off you go now…
In the meantime, here’s Jason demonstrating his musical talents by running through the entire album in one go (with Jen, owner of the best yoga studio in Montreal, on camera):
I’m in a total Talking Heads fest right now. It’s funny really, as I was never a big fan of their hits back when they came out, now after some water under the bridge I’ve realised quite how outstanding they were and how much they’ve influenced modern bands. That and lead singer David Byrne was one of my more regular celeb spots back in New York, striding purposefully around the East Village with his spiky gray hair.
Amazingly this year’s Glastonbury Festival did not sell out over the weekend.. This is a slight change from previous years where the tickets were all but gone within a few hours. I guess that means all my friends will have tickets, but unfortunately I’m at a wedding that weekend so I won’t be there. Ah well.
As to why there are still tickets left, well a number of reasons are being suggested. The ticket pre-registration process was the same as last year, so it is doubtful that that was the reason for the slow down. Most likely culprit is the current line-up which is seen as pretty crap, generally because Jay-Z is the biggest touted headliner and most hardcore Glasto folk are more indie/rock/dance than rap – not that I’d mind seeing him perform as I’m sure it’ll be a good show. Another reason is the explosion of alternative festivals in Britain now, each aiming to be a new Glastonbury. Perhaps we are seeing a social network effect in real life, with big social networks becoming less common and focused, niche networks sprouting up to directly support the needs of smaller groups of people. Would you rather go to a festival that just plays music you like with all you friends, or to a large, expensive, crowded festival that tries to be all things to all people?
Just got back in from a splendid night down in the Old Port of Montreal, watching the ever splendid Daedelus. He played an hour set, half an hour less than scheduled for some reason, but what an hour. The beats ranged from mellow hip hop to near techno, with seamless mixing and live playing from a range of film samples and of his own creation. It even snowed a little which just made it seem all the more magical. Thanks again, Mr D.
As usual Daedelus was creating live tracks on his wonderful box of lights ‘n buttons, which you can buy now should you so desire. Samples are started via the box on the fly and you can watch the lights moving across in time with them as they play. The samples can then be adjusted, repeated, replayed or played as if on a keyboard all from the same box. It’s amazing to watch in action if you get the chance.. oh wait, here’s a live clip from youTube so you can see (not Igloofest!)
Go see him if you get the chance – or check out one of his amazing albums. He’ll be huge soon, and deservedly so.
For those of you who like the surreal – check out the ‘SleeveFace’ group on flickr. They take photos of themselves and their friends with album covers with faces in front of their own faces. Very funny. [Thanks to BoingBoing]
The ever wonderful Daedelus is coming to play Montreal on the 25th January, as part of this year’s IglooFest. Plus he has this awesome video out to keep me going till then, splendid.
Maybe I’ll try and give him a CD of all the photos from his gig at APT the other year. He seems to like one of them at least, since it’s currently his mySpace profile pic. Bless {:).
Well Led Zeppelin have just finished their one-off gig at the O2 arena in London. From the Radio 6 broadcast I’m listening to the set list was full of classic Zeppelin tracks – Song Remains the Same, Kashmir and Stairway to Heaven all featured. Hopefully soon someone will put some bootleg tracks up and we can all have a jolly good listen to find out how the old rock fogeys have held up. Some of us can’t afford £86,000 for a pair of touted tickets y’know.
In related news, the Vicar owner of Bron-Y-Aur, the small cottage in Wales near Machynlleth, has asked that Led Zeppelin fans refrain from doing the pilgrimage to his remote home. Back in my young student days in Birmingham I made that trip as part of an ill fated camping weekend. I hadn’t planned on it being a special visit, but as soon as I saw that cottage named on the Ordnance Survey map I had to go. It was dusk when I got there, so I snapped a photo of the wonderfully atmospheric, tree covered driveway then went home – happy to see the place where Page & Plant had spent a weekend creating some amazing songs.
Steve Lamacq over at BBC Radio 6 has an interview with Radiohead this coming Monday – 19th November*. This should be interesting listening, as its their first interview since In Rainbows was released online for the wonderful price of ‘whatever you feel like paying’. Also on that page is a great cover of The Smiths from the Radiohead boys which I’ve embedded below:
* Don’t worry if you miss it on the 19th, you can listen to it on the BBC’s player for a week after that.
Whatever happens this will certainly be an interesting experiment. Radiohead are, I suspect, getting paid directly for all the money paid for the download as they recently completed their contractual obligations to EMI with their wonderful last album ‘Hail to the Thief’. They could be the first of many of the major bands to reject the record company middle men and work directly with fans, something normally the domain of the startup bands on mySpace.