Rutland Weekend Television
Tuesday, March 28th 2006
I was delighted over the weekend to get a hold of a copy of the two series and Christmas special of this mid-70's comedy series and in really excellent quality as well. RWT was Eric Idle's post-Python series that he made with former Bonzo Dog Band member Neil Innes (never released on DVD or video apparently due to legal problems - I'm guessing between Idle and Innes).
I've watched the first five episodes of the first series and it's very enjoyable. Recognisably made by one of the Python team it has the same air of silliness about it. It's a fine idea for a series, basically the premise being that you're watching a low budget television station (and since they had next to no budget for the series, it's very authentic). This allows Idle and his cast to create all manner of parodies of documentaries, quiz programmes, music programs, cookery programmes and so on. This is mixed in rather nicely with Neil Innes's songs. Having converted a work colleagues vinyl collection of Innes albums to CD I know most of these songs pretty well but it's nice to be able to put them in context with the sketches in which they featured.
It remains to be seen whether the second series can match the first and I'm looking forward to seeing the Christmas special featuring as it does a guest appearance by George Harrison dressed as a pirate. I've had a bootleg of his song from this episode for years, it starts as a normal version of My Sweet Lord before veering off into different lyrics 'Oh I'd like to be a pirate, a pirate's life for me...'. Again nice to put this into context, I always wondered where it came from. Also looking forward to seeing the first appearance of The Rutles and the sketch that inspired Lorne Michaels from Saturday Night Live to finance 'All You Need Is Cash'.
This series certainly deserves a proper release on DVD and it's a shame that one hasn't been forthcoming. It would be worthwhile if for no other reason than to highlight Neil Innes's work outside the Bonzos which, for too long, has been neglected.
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The musical taste of a three year old
Tuesday, March 28th 2006
Watching TOTP with a three year old is an enlightening experience. Boys with guitars get a big thumbs up, The Strokes were a hit on Sunday (and Placebo the week before were a hit as well although Brian Molko did ellicit the question 'Is that a girl?'). Girls singing get a thumbs down, they go on too long, apart from P!nk who inspires much jumping around and air guitar soloing.
Much of the rest was just boring though that may just have been eagerness to get away and play with the blue and green tractors.
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Marit Larsen - Don't Save Me
Friday, March 17th 2006
These days, as I keep track of my listening preferences as never before, via iTunes playcounts and submissions to last.fm (formerly Audioscrobbler), it's become apparent that out of all the possible genres of music, pop is the one I love most of all. Oh sure, I've dallied with jazz, swayed to soul and chilled out to reggae but it's always the poppier side of those genres that has tickled me most.
In the past admitting to liking pop music was a rocky road, sneered at by the so-called hip and difficult to defend in the era of production line SAW records. It should be pointed out that I never liked those records then and they don't sound any better now even in the rosy glow of nostalgia (well some do, Mel & Kim's singles still sound quite fine for example). I'm not sure what 'the kids' buy these days but it doesn't seem to be the pop music you'd think they'd like, Rachel Stevens, Annie and Girls Aloud for example, makers of some of the finest pop music over the last few years perform pretty dismally in chart terms. Are the kids buying records at all?
These records almost have built in nostalgia attached mind you - Dee C Lee covers, Adam And The Ants references and misty eyed rememberances of clubbing days past are all reflections of the age of the producers of these records and therefore are likley to appeal to your average over 25 year old rather than your under 10 and your average 25/30 year old probably isn't out buying singles. They may however be the main age group of your music blogger, hence the love for these records in that domain.
Still we're veering off the point of this post, all this preamble is to introduce a new song which is resolutely POP! and which is currently rocking my world. It seems to fit the criteria of several singles that I've loved over the last year (Mark Owen's 'Blame It On The Boogie' and Junior Seniors 'Take My Time' (still not released in the UK!) for example) - I found out about it online but no one in the real world seems to have noticed it. To be fair it's premature to say this about this record, it has after all just been released in Norway and it has yet to be released anywhere else. In addition Stylus reviewers also gave it the highest praise I've seen for any single reviewed there (9.0) and the album just got an A- review too.
As you'll have seen from the post title I'm talking about Marit Larsen's 'Don't Save Me' (follow the link for video and streaming audio). It's upbeat, doesn't outstay it's welcome, features lots of strummed acoustic guitars, a killer chorus, those big piano chords so beloved of ABBA and Steve Nieve on Olivers Army, a proper middle 8 rather than a lazy key change. Handclaps! Hell it's even got a harmonica solo. There's also something about the Scandinavian accent when singing (cf The Cardigans, Annie etc).
I would suggest you check it out at the above link and let me know what you think.
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Rocking good new camera
Thursday, March 16th 2006
I've been playing late at night with my new camera. Discarded many many shots as I play with the features. I haven't taken too much care over composition and so on, just really taking test shots to see what's possible. Despite this I've already taken some pretty cool shots.
Last night I discovered the features that allow you to change colours in the camera before you've actually taken the shot. One of these settings allows you to choose a colour in the scene and then when you take the shot every other colour apart from that one is in black and white. That leads to shots like the one below. I should have taken more care over what's in the background but it still looks pretty cool.
The other thing I was trying the other night was taking shots of water drops. Again I wasn't really taking enough care over this. No tripod and my focusing could have been better executed. Holding the camera in one hand and a dripping water bottle in the other (in the dark) is kind of tricky. Still out of about 60 shots I got 2 that are not bad and at least indicate what could be achieved with a tripod and a bit more care.
Click on these to see them larger.
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Comps
Wednesday, March 8th 2006
Before you ask, here's the tracklistings of those two mix CD's I made.
"SHIMMY SHIMMY SHIMMY"
1.Art Brut - Formed A Band
2.The Strokes - Juicebox
3.The Fall - Clasp Hands
4.The Darkness - English Country Garden
5.Figurines - I Remember
6.Malcolm Middleton - Devestation
7.Linda Perhacs - Paper Mountain Man
8.The Decemberists - The Engine Driver
9.The Left Banke - Dark Is The Bark
10.Os Mutantes - Panis Et Circensis
11.The Tammy's - Egyptian Shumba
12.Handsomeboy Technique - Walk Across The Rooftops
13.Acoustic Ladyland - Iggy
14.Mew - The Zookeeper's Boy
15.Paul McCartney - Jenny Wren
16.Ringo Starr - Early 1970
17.Belle & Sebastian - The Blues Are Still Blue
18.Jamie Lidell - Multiply
19.Polar Bear - To Touch The Red Brick
20.Johnny Boy - You Are The Generation That Bought More Shoes And You Get What You Deserve
21.Nouvelle Vague - Too Drunk To Fuck
"PERFECT IMPERFECT"
1.The Beatles - It's All Too Much (8min alt mix)
2.The Monkees - Girl That I Knew Somewhere (1st Version)
3.The Pipettes - Your Kisses (Radio 1 Session)
4.Vanity 6 - Vibrator (Unreleased Prince song)
5.Barry Gibb - Woman In Love (Demo)
6.The Divine Comedy - Bad Ambassador (Live on French Radio)
7.Bob Dylan - Leopard Skin Pillbox Hat (Liverpool 14.05.66)
8.Arctic Monkeys - Mardy Bum (Live on French Radio)
9.Elvis Costello - I Don't Want To Go To Chelsea (Alt Ver)
10.Prince - Neon Telephone (Unreleased)
11.The Beatles - What You're Doing (Take 11)
12.Slade - Getting Better (Radio 1 Session)
13.Bob Dylan - Quinn The Eskimo (Basement Tapes)
14.David Crosby - Lady Friend (Demo)
15.Stone Roses - She Bangs The Drums (Demo)
16.Pete Townshend - Substitute (Demo)
17.Harry Nilsson - Cuddly Toy (Demo)
18.The Beatles - Can You Take Me Back (Full Version)
19.Talking Heads - Psycho Killer (Demo)
20.Joni Mitchell - Both Sides Now (Live 1968)
21.Nick Drake - Saturday Sun (Take 1)
22.Elvis Costello & Brodsky Quartet - God Only Knows (Live)
23.Brian Wilson - Smart Girls (Unreleased-thankfully)
That last track has to be heard to be believed. Brian Wilson raps as bits of Beach Boys records are badly cut up and placed in the song.
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Idiot
Wednesday, March 8th 2006
As I mentioned in the previous post I was out for a few drinks last night with a friend. We meet up every month or two and have a fun time talking about film, music, books and life in general. One of the rituals of this is the making and swapping of mixtapes and more recently mix CD's.
It always takes me ages to make a mix so last time we met I was up till 1am or so putting together a really good 2CD comp only to find out I only had 1 CD-R. Irritating. This time I was well covered in that department, lots of CD-R's to hand. I had decided just to burn the comp from last time with a couple of changes but wanted to make another one with live tracks, demos and outtakes as something a bit different. Again I was up until 1am what with compiling, burning and writing of tracklists. What did I do? Left the discs in work. Damn! That was so annoying.
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Preciousssss
Wednesday, March 8th 2006
One of the drawbacks of shopping online is you miss the instant gratification of taking home the goods you've bought right there and then. As I've discovered over the last few days though, this is more than made up for by the anticipation of waiting for ordered goods to arrive.
This is especially the case if you're given a tracking number once your order has been dispatched. Much time can be spent checking the website to see where your package was last scanned. Time is also spent speculating what the course of action may be should your package arrive whilst there is no one at home vis a vis alternative pick up arrangements. It's great.
Well, actually no it's not. It's torture. I want my stuff NOW!
Thankfully yesterday I was put out of my misery. Of course I had chosen last night to go out for a few drinks with a friend after work so though my stuff was delivered in the afternoon I wasn't able to get at it until 11.30pm when I got home. It was worth the wait though, the Canon S2IS digital camera is lovely and shiny and has lots of buttons on it. Given the lateness of the hour that's about as much of a review as I can give it just now - apart from the fact that all the reviews were right, there's no way that lens cap is staying on.
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