Friday Farce Bonus Edition: 911 is a Joke

So yeah. Been in Dunedin for Lines of Flight. More soon.

But I thought since a Friday-Farce-missed is a Friday-Farce-lost, I'd stump up a bonus edition. And it's not even Friday. Holy crap! Simon Le Bon, John Taylor et. al. vs Flavor Flav, Chuck D, Professor Griff and crew. Me? My money's on the Flavor*.

Duran Duran - 911 is a Joke (2.41 MB mp3: right-click and Save As to download)

Yep. *Thanks Niwi.

NP: Mammatus - Mammatus (myspace)

Risible

For anyone who read in the Dominion Post today that Wi Huata composed the 'poem' which he dictated to journalists outside the Court of Appeal:

You may write me down in history with your bitter, twisted lies.
You may trod me in the very dirt but still, like dust, I'll rise.
Does my sassiness upset you? Why are you beset with gloom?
'Cause I walk like I've got oil wells pumping in my living room.
Just like the moon and the sun, with the certainty of tides,
just like hope springing high, still I'll rise.
Did you want to see me broken, bowed head with lowered eyes,
shoulders falling just like teardrops weeping by my soulful cries?
Does my haughtiness upset you? Don't you take it awfully hard.
Because I laugh like I've got gold mines digging in my own backyard.
You may shoot me with your words, you may cut me with your eyes,
you may kill me with your hatefulness but still like air I'll rise.
Does my sexiness upset you? Does it come as a surprise?
Because I dance like I've got diamonds at the meeting of my thighs.
Out of the huts of shame I rise.
Out of the past that's written, rooted in pain I rise.
I'm a black ocean, leaping and wide,
welling and swelling, I bring in the tide.
Leaving behind the lights of terror and fear I rise.
Into the daybreak that's wondrously clear I rise.
Bringing the gifts my ancestors gave,
I am the hope and the dream of the slave.
I rise, I rise, I rise.

.. I felt it necessary to point out that the 'poem' is actually by African-American writer Dr. Maya Angelou (wikipedia) (which makes much more sense of the diamonds at the meeting of my thighs line, in particular, not to mention the whole slave bit as well).

..just in case someone reading it was so moved they decided to award him an OBE for Services to Literature. Or something.


NP: Burzum - Det Som En Gang Var (Burzum home)

Bowles

Is brandishing a Paul Bowles (wikipedia) paperback now somewhat akin to wearing a pink triangle badge?

Is is the gay-male equivalent to the whole bananas-in-the-shopping-trolley thing?

NP: Cutting Pink with Knives - Didi Got Fisted at the Smiths Disco (20JazzFunkGreats blog)

Stumps vs. Stomps

Thanks to everyone who ventured out in the cold and wet last Wednesday night to see The Stumps playing with Birchville Cat Motel and The Dukes of Leisure at Valve. It was a great show and a fantastic turnout.

On Thursday The Stumps and B.C.M. head down to Dunedin to play in the Lines of Flight festival. The Stumps are up on the first night, at Arc Cafe, with Rory Storm and the Invaders, Crude, and Dave Black; the show kicks off at 7.30pm sharp. Birchville Cat Motel is playing the next night at Dunedin Public Art Gallery, again from 7.30pm sharp, with Sam Hamilton, Gate, and Greg Malcolm.

It's gonna be great to be playing L.o.F. again; the last time I was there was in 2000 and funnily-enough I was playing in Birchville Cat Motel at the time. It was freezing cold and Dunedin was far more grimy than I would have ever expected, but the beer was good and I had a really fantastic time.

Hopefully I'll see some of yuz there!

...

Speaking of Birchville Cat Motel, more specifically, my contribution to the band: Last Visible Dog, a record label operating out of Providence, Rhode Island in the U.S.A., has recently released a 3CD set of live B.C.M. performances called Curved Surface Destroyer. It spans 1998 - 2006 and includes recordings of shows in New Zealand, Japan, Denmark and Scotland. Anyway, one of the concerts was recorded when I was playing in the band - in 2000 at The Space, in Newtown - and it was a really good one, too.

...

Apparently there's a Stumps-tribute band called The Stomps kicking around in here in Wellington. Ok so I'm lying about the Stumps-tribute bit. Cool.


NP: Ike Yard - Cherish (20JazzFunkGreats blog)

Hey. Now that's more like it.

Hey. Now that's more like it. I was hoping the way, way better version of Heart of Glass as performed by the the Associates (allmusic) would turn up.

And whaddayaknow.. it did.

Associates - Heart of Glass [good version] (2.51 MB mp3: right-click and Save As to download)

This one is from vol. 2 of the posthumous collection Radio One Sessions 1981-1985 which appeared on Strange Fruit records in 2003.

The difference between this, and the later single version, is the difference between night and day. Massively-talented Alan Rankine's influence is utterly tangible in the markedly better production, and dig that intro belying MacKenzie and Rankine's origins in the cabaret-style band Caspian. Hear Billy MacKenzie actually live up to his reputation as a vocalist of note, with this idiosyncratic and charismatic performance. Hear the Associates do the cover thing right as they make this song their own. Joy!


NP: Nadja & Fear Falls Burning - We Have Departed The Circle Blissfully (Conspiracy records)

Up

Whoo hoo.. the calendar has ticked over and I've got bandwidth again. Or at least, you've got bandwidth again, dear reader, with which to peruse my banal musings. Unfortunately what I DON'T have are the posts full of essential issue which I prepared during the downtime and (or so I thought) carefully saved.

I shall not attempt to recreate; I shall just leave you with this thought: It's really fun getting hate-mail. Much more than you'd think.

NP: Atavist - Atavist (Invada records)