Top Twenty for Autumn

After a musically barren few weeks my inclination for listening to music is back with a vengence. I must have sniffed a new album in the breeze because last week I had an overwhelming desire to listen to Snow Patrol. It is great when you have a break from a band and then rediscover them - it is like hearing them anew all over again.

This week the same thing happened with Keane. I bought "Hopes and Fears" by Keane a ccouple of years ago, listened to it a bit and then pretty much forgot about it. Then for some inexplicable reason this week I had a driving urge to listen to it, I had forgotten what a great album it is - I liked it when I bought it but I like it even more now, so much so that I found myself in HMV today buying the next two.

Top Twenty Tracks for Autumn

1. Keane - Bedshaped
2. Pendulum - The Other Side
3. Snow Patrol - Run
4. Elbow - Mirrorball
5. The Levellers - Battle of the Beanfield
6. New Model Army - Green and the Grey
7. Suede - The Wild Ones
8. Kings of Leon - Use Somebody
9. Keane - Somewhere Only we Know
10. The Last Shadow Puppets - My Mistakes Were Made for You
11. Wheatus - The London Sun
12. Joe Strummer and the Mescaleros - Ramshackle Day Parade
13. White Stripes - Dead Leaves on Dirty Ground
14. Elbow - The Bones of You
15. Sigur Ros - Hoppipolla
16. REM - The One I Love
17. Chemical Brothers - All Rights Reversed
18. Placebo - Pure Morning
19. Pulp - Pencil Skirt
20. Primal Scream - Some Velvet Morning

Primal Scream vs Kasabian

I was listening to the track "Swastika Eyes" by Primal Scream today (one of my favourites and sudenly found that it was reminding me of another track "Reason Is Treason" by Kasabian. I had never noticed this before but sure enough if you play the tracks one after the other there is some definite similarity although I can't put my finger on what it is - maybe it is the sirens and pulsing beat.

In the Dust

I have been playing around more with the idea of juxtaposing text onto surfaces where you wouldn't expect to see it. I especially liked this pne as the text looked like it had been there for a long time. If you want to read more about artistic process visit my artists blog at:http://visual-poetics.blogspot.com/

Edinburgh and all that

Have Just got back from the Edinburgh Festival, the highlight of which, for me was a comedian called Tim Minchin, who was extremely funny (as well as a very good singer). He is coming to Norwich in November and I would higly recommend seeing him if you get the chance. There is quite a bit of his stuff on You Tube but mostly not as funny as his new show - plus you really have to have the whole package with the talking as well as the songs.

I wasn't that impressed with the shows at Edinburgh this year, although there were some good ideas in the shows we saw they generally just seemed to be lacking something.

Lattitude

Lattitude Festival was fun. highlights for me were:

Simon Armitage reading from his new book "Gig"

Gig is not a book of poetry, it is about Armitage's lifelong passion for music and is very funny. Hearing him reading from it made me want to go out and buy it immediately but I am holding out for the paperback.

Carol Ann Duffy who read extensively from her book "The World's Wife".

Franz Ferdinand whose performance was great but who could have done with a little better rapport with the audience.

but the highlight of the weekend for me was definitely Sigur Ros. I have to admit that even though I am a big fan of the band I did initially have some reservations when I saw that they had been programmed as the headlining band on Saturday night. But I needn't have worried they were amazing. Giving an energtic and electrifying performance with great lights and effects.

All in all the festival was great, but it was considerably bigger than last year and they had not increased the size of the venues within the site. That was ok for the outside stages but for the inside venues it was a real problem. It was really hard to get anywhere near to the comedy tent and even the literature and poetry tents were full to bursting with may disappointed people who could not get in. I felt that their biggest mistake though was to programme bands as big as Blondie and The Coral in the Uncut tent, which, was just too small for the crowds who wanted to see them. You couldn't even hear them properly outside as the music from the main stage was too loud.

Lorca and The Clash

Is it a coincidence I wonder that one of my favourite poets of all time Federico Garcia Lorca is mentioned in a song by the Clash? Or was I subliminally programmed to like him after spending years as a teenager listening to the album London Calling. Lorca is mentioned in the song Spanish Bombs.

Spanish Bombs

Spanish songs in Andalucia

The shooting sites in the days of '39

Oh, please, leave the vendanna open

Frederico Lorca is dead and gone

Bullet holes in the cemetery walls

The black cars of the Guardia Civil

Spanish bombs on the Costa Rica

I'm flying in a DC 10 tonight

[Chorus]

Spanish bombs, yo te quiero infinito

yo te quiero oh mi corazón

Spanish bombs, yo te quiero infinito

yo te quiero oh mi corazón

Spanish weeks in my disco casino

The freedom fighters died upon the hill

They sang the red flag

They wore the black one

But after they died it was Mockingbird Hill

Back home the buses went up in flashes

The Irish tomb was drenched in blood

Spanish bombs shatter the hotels

My senorita's rose was nipped in the bud

[Chorus]

The hillsides ring with "Free the people"

Or can I hear the echo from the days of '39?

With trenches full of poets

The ragged army, fixin' bayonets to fight the other line

Spanish bombs rock the province

I'm hearing music from another timeS

panish bombs on the Costa Brava

I'm flying in on a DC 10 tonight

[Chorus]

Spanish songs in Andalucia,

Mandolina, oh mi corazon

Spanish songs in Granada, oh mi corazon

my other blog

I have another blog about art and the written word.
you can visit it at http://www.visual-poetics.blogspot.com or click the link.