Shipping Up To ...er Reading

This afternoon I'll be getting up with the Dropkick Murphys for Flannigans Ball on the main stage at reading festival. spent last night binge smoking our way round london with Tim Brennan and James Lynch. hopefully i'll be able breathe properly again by this afternoon...

Currently listening : Howlin Wolf: The Chess Box By Howlin' Wolf Release date: 1991-11-12

3:09 AM - 7 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

Ronnie Drew

There's nothing that I can really add to all the tributes that have been paid to Ronnie since his passing, but I would just like to say that I feel immensely privileged to have known him and to have been able to call him a friend. R.I.P

10:59 AM - 7 Comments - 12 Kudos - Add Comment

Filthy Thieving Bastards!

i'll be doing some shows on the west coast with the ftbs in september, destroying both our respective legacies in the name of jesus. you'd best check their page for the details, they know what's going on.

Currently listening : Pod By The Breeders Release date: 1992-06-23

6:17 AM - 3 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

shout out louds

in an hour and a half i will be playing with the shout out louds down at dingwalls. for those of you who might not know, they are a really smart, interesting band from sweden with tunes that crackle with heat and light yet have undercurrents of darkness and agony. In short, they are everything that modern pop groups should be but almost never are. i don't really know why i'm telling you this because its sold out but check 'em out anyway if you haven't already.

12:08 AM - 1 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

earth

still in dublin after oxegen. going to whelans to see dylan carlson's earth. very intense, very heavy drone metal. don't imagine i'll see any of you there.

so , as i'm here what else can i write? two great shows over the weekend. oh, and last week me and louise were on fashion tv as guests of designer todd lynn. also there was gary powell (dirty pretty things), judith paternoster, film maker john bland (check out his short films, there's all sorts of great stuff there - lady ane angel (who anyone who has seen the urban voodoo machine would know, a brilliant short film of gary talking and drumming and another on todd.)

gotta go and see earth.....

9:58 AM - 2 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

on the radio

i'm on mark radcliffe's show tonight on radio 2 and i'll be playing....the slits. the bastards only let me choose one song.

Currently listening : Romance at Short Notice By Dirty Pretty Things Release date: 2008-07-01

4:01 AM - 4 Comments - 4 Kudos - Add Comment

the lake and the woods...

at last. today i received the information i need. i shall have to go upstate to confirm my theory but i don't expect to be proved wrong. the dates, the co-ordinates and now this final piece of the jigsaw... i think this whole business will be cleared up in no time at all. just a few days by the lake and the woods to make some final recordings and i'll be ready to write up my findings. besides i could use some fresh air.

7:29 AM - 2 Comments - 2 Kudos - Add Comment

a late announcement.

if anyone's interested, i'm djing at stagefright at the boogaloo (archway road, nr. highgate tube - you know the score) from about 7.45 tonight. just in time to miss the football, though hopefully it'll be showing as a filmic accompaniment, so to speak.

Currently listening : Psalms for I By Prince Far I Release date: 2002-04-17

7:09 AM - 2 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

the lake and the woods...

they are closer now, i am sure. i couldn't leave the cabin until well after 11 - there were tendrils of mist still coiled around the trees, lingering, somehow, in the undergrowth and among the dark leaves, despite the warm sun shining brightly on the placid surface of the lake - and when i reached the water's edge i realised i'd forgotten where i had concealed the recorder. i didn't really have time to search, i'll have to try again - tomorrow, probably - but i know they are closer, much closer than before. i think they will be here soon.

9:07 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment

but my darling, when think of thee

ok, i've already lost this once. if i lose it again, i give up.
so this is a new one. i was recently rewatching the boys from the blackstuff (for those of you who don't know, dig it out from amazon, or wherever. its as good a starting point as any for anyone who wants to get an idea of the grim, desperate reality that was everyday life for so many people in thatcher's britain. also, hence the title - it is set in liverpool, as in the leaving of). anyway, i was watching the episode that details the disintegration of yosser hughes and was tranfixed by his naked, bellowing anguish as he tries to find out in which dark corner the system his children have been secreted. so i sampled a snippet of said anguish, layered and treated it and stuff, added an electronic rhythm track i found somewhere and butchered that a bit, stuck on some seminoise loops i'd made with the lap-steel and the space echo pedal - plus one louise made on our partially eaten electric mandolin - smeared on some hyla joannae (its a bolivian toad) and some disparate synth textures, chopped it all up and stuck it back together again.as soon as james walbourne stops drinking for ten minutes, i'll be doing some more guitar-based stuff (in the vein of six organs of admittance, woven hand, recent tom waits - you know the kind of thing). anyway, PLAY LOUD! as they used to say on old beatles 45s.

Currently listening : Matrix By Ryoji Ikeda Release date: 2004-01-01

10:35 AM - 4 Comments - 5 Kudos - Add Comment