Unrepentant Anglophile, a music obsessive with a fetish for luxuriously packaged objects, and an armchair traveler.
W-S Burn| Lois Maffeo (wiki)| | Os Mutantes (Myspace)| Richard AMP| AMP
AMP/Third Eye Foundation, “Ombres” [from AMP/3EF/Sadaar Bazaar split 7”, 1996]
ICU, “Fortune Cookie” [from Selector Dub Nation, 1998]
Os Mutantes, “Panis et Circenses (Reprise)” [from Tecnicolor, 2006]
Courtney Love, “Don’t Mix the Colors” [from Rock Stars Kill, 1994]
W-S Burn, “The Inverted Color Wheel of Love” [from One Egg’s Way of Becoming Other Eggs]
IMAGES: JOHN ROBSHAW TEXTILES
Listening to
Oh, sequels. They unilaterally suck, right? David Byrne and Brian Eno have sidestepped the whole thorny issue by following-up their legendary 1981 collagist-funk masterpiece My Life in the Bush of Ghosts with something completely different in tone — namely, Everything That Happens Will Happen Today, an optimistic, brimming-over pop record with duties neatly split between Eno (music) and Byrne (words + singing). Done exclusively via email, the results have their own quirky, laid-back charm. Available via download on August 18th. Also released this week: Byrne’s Big Love: Hymnals.
Reading
Urban Outfitters’ ubiquitous album cover frames are a thoroughly depressing curio, because to me they suggest nothing so much as the lost heyday of the album. Despite being mute objects, their very existence raises a valid point: Who listens to a record all the way through anymore? I reluctantly raise my hand while decrying the depressing state of affairs. I, too, have fallen victim to the relentless iPod-ification of the long-playing LP —this mixtape culture we live in.
Black Dog must have been thinking along the same lines when they green-lit Old Rare New, an oversize tome dedicated to rapturous recollections of the (nearly) endangered species, the Record Store. It looks like great fun, with contributions from fans like Chan Marshall, Bonnie Prince Billy, St Etienne’s Bob Stanley, and The Wire’s Byron Coley. (Old Rare New, Emma Pettit, editor. US $29.95.)
Watching
Guy Maddin’s delirious Brand Upon The Brain (Criterion). Or at least, I will be, just as soon as Amazon sees fit to send it my way. (Such are the perils of the free shipping option.)
Everything That Happens| David Byrne (official site)| | Big Love Hymnal | Brand Upon the Brain!| Old Rare New
David Byrne & Brian Eno, “America Is Waiting” [from My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, 1981]
David Byrne & Brian Eno, “Strange Overtones” [from Everything That Happens Will Happen Today, 2008]
PHOTO BY ANDREA FELDMAN, “TROPICALIA, NYC”
22 year-old Mute signing Polly Scattergood is a stylistically narrow yet oddly intriguing songwriter whose work is hard to define. Her piano-driven songs may wallow in Tori Amos-style theatrics one minute, only to wryly undercut all the gloom the next. Her lyrics are imagistic and sly, painting a portrait of harried city life while emphasizing the dark loneliness at its core.
The very British playfulness and humor of this track harkens back to one of my favorite Mute tracks of the near-distant past, from Derek Jarman’s Last of England. Produced by Polly’s confrere Simon Fisher-Turner, this fantastic collaboration between Mayo Thompson and painter Albert Oehlen (both of Red Krayola) sampled Tilda Swinton’s dialogue from the movie to marvelous effect. Hard to find on CD, but well worth tracking down on ebay.
View more Polly Scattergood news.
Polly Scattergood, “Nitrogen Pink”
Mayo Thompson & Albert Oehlen (with Tilda Swinton), “Disco Death” [from The Last of England soundtrack]
STILL FROM DEREK JARMAN’S THE LAST OF ENGLAND [1987]
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