This might turn into Ollie Simpson’s Great Moments in Rock and Roll, but oh well. Edgar Winter from The Old Grey Whistle Test in 1973, and he is taking no prisoners. There are so many points where I want to scream “YEEAAH!!” at the screen with clenched fists, but a definite highlight can be found at 6:23 where Edgar attempts to kill his keyboard in the style of a puma.

“Dutch Indo-Rock. Sensational rock ‘n’ roll show. Live Dutch TV January 1960. With lead-guitarist, singer Andy Tielman, the uncrowned king of Indo-Rock.
Lineup: Andy Tielman (lead gt.), Reggy Tielman (2d lead gt.), Ponthon Tielman (double bass) and Loulou Tielman(drums).

Indonesia once was a colony from the Netherlands, leading to mutual influences. When Indonesia finally gained independence many Indonesians came to the Netherlands, which secured the still lasting Indonesian influence on the Dutch culture.
Just as it spiced up our food it also spiced up our music. The ‘invention’ of rock ‘n’ roll lead immediately to the invention of ‘Indo-rock’. The Tielman Brothers one of the most important, if not the most important, bands of the Netherlands,
shaped rock ‘n’roll in the Netherlands, added the necessary sex element through their great and acrobatic shows and left a vast collection of music.”

Well, you learn something new every day. Absolutely spectacular.

As mind-bending what-the-fuck acid-flashback warped terror freakout flicks go, Alexandro Jodorowsky’s 1973 opus The Holy Mountain has to be in the 95th percentile. Where to even begin…. The film’s (at times extremely) loose narrative follows a central christ-like figure and a band of oddballs on a quest for the titular mountain, and the secrets of enlightenment and immortality held by it’s nine shadowy keepers. Along their journey we are treated to an unforgettable visual feast of often grotesque and sacrilegious scenes surrounding those seeking the mountain and their leader (played by Jodorowsky). What unfolds is a vast universe of surrealism, humour, nausea, nightmare, satire, spirituality, blood and delirium. It’s difficult to explain in words the aesthetic level The Holy Mountain resides on, but suffice to say I’ve never seen anything else that even comes close.

Rather than struggling to make sense of what is being presented, and dismissing any aspects of the film which don’t have any obvious immediate or symbolic relevance, you really have to let yourself go with this one. Don’t fight it, feel it (man). Years ago I would have thought of this film as being completely overblown and far too obtuse and difficult for it’s own good, style over substance if you will. These days however, I really relish in the way Jodorowsky forces you to put as much into the film as you can hope to take with you having seen it. If you’re willing to put in the effort, a very rewarding film.

Cleverly I managed to see The Holy Mountain in the afternoon and Jodorowsky’s first film El Topo in the evening. Given the choice again, I would have liked to have seen them the other way round but what can you do, I had a rainy Sunday off and both were almost at the end of their run. The director appears again as El Topo or “the mole”, a wandering man-with-no-name figure in what begins as a beautifully shot but almost straightforward western (at least in comparison to THM). Again, the central figure has a very heavy jesus-vibe, and Christian and Kabbalic imagery is rife throughout. While there are still long sequences that don’t make any immediate ‘sense’ in a traditional way, things generally tend to subsequently come together somewhat with long forgotten elements of the film making a comeback when you least expect them to.

Again, visually this is absolutely incredible stuff, and as with THM, the scale of the production is frequently amazing. The heavy contrast between the first and second ‘acts’ is played to incredible effect, and there are moments when the bold statement on the lobby poster about this being the greatest film ever made begin to see quite reasonable.

The Holy Mountain and El Topo have both just been given a full DVD release for the first time courtesy of those excellent folks at Tartan.

Good call.

MUSIC
Raccoo-oo-oon
Meneguar
Woods
Lords
The Goslings
Church of Misery
Electric Wizard
Growing
Mouthus
Prolapse
Om
Excepter
Iron Monkey
Animal Collective
Comets on Fire

LIVE
Sunburned Hand of the Man in Cambridge [March]
Boredoms at Primavera
No-Neck Blues Band at Primavera
Lords and Hey Colossus in Cambridge
Bilge Pump in Cambridge
Lightning Bolt in Nottingham
Dinosaur Jr at Primavera
The Flaming Lips at Primavera
Ligament in London
Comets on Fire in Nottingham

FILM
Watched so many films in the last 2 months that it’s kind of hard to come up with any kind of list of favourites. Here then is a random selection of things that weren’t shit:
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer
X-Men 1-3
The Living Dead at Manchester Morgue
Psychomania
The Wizard of Gore
The Gore Gore Girls
Satan’s Slave
Frightmare
Con Air
Vampyres
If… / O Lucky Man / Britannia Hospital

BOOKS
Promethea by Alan Moore
Jimmy Corrigan: The Smartest Kid on Earth by Chris Ware
Notes From a Defeatist by Joe Sacco
Akira by Katsuhiro Otomo [again]
Buddy Does Seattle by Peter Bagge
Been a bit rubbish with actual books this year.

MAGS
Found
Dirty Found
Psychotronic
Little White Lies

BEST THING
Barcelona/Primavera

WORST THING
Crippling illness

OVERALL
Had it’s moments, but not a patch on 2005

What better way to break my rather lengthy blogging absense than an annoying Myspace style quiz? Would have posted this as a comment to Mar-C’s but it had too many line breaks apparently….

First record you bought and do you still own it?
Please Hammer Don’t Hurt ‘Em by MC Hammer, on cassette, and no.

Last record you bought
Moon Pix by Cat Power, ebay bargain.

Last song you downloaded
New Harvey Milk album.

Last song/record you went to enormous lengths to find
Trunk edition of The Wicker Man soundtrack. After what seemed like years of looking I scored a pristine copy on ebay for £20, which was fine by me.

Most elaborately packaged record you own
The Harmony of the Spheres 3xLP box set on Drunken Fish. Real nice.

Last song you listened to
Flight of the Eagle by Om

Favourite mixtape someone made you that you still listen to
No one makes me mixtapes (HINT)

What records are you going to buy next?
Top of the list right now are:
Gareth Hardwick/LOTRH lathe cut
Comets on Fire – Avatar
Om – Conference of the Birds
and a million others.

What are your top 10 most listened to songs on iTunes/last.fm/whatever.
1. Animal Collective – The Purple Bottle
2. Scout Niblett – Miss My Lion
3. Panda Bear – untitled
4. Growing – Freedom Towards Death
4. Growing – untitled
6. Animal Collective – We Tigers
7. Neutral Milk Hotel – Song Against Sex
8. Neutral Milk Hotel – Oh Comely
8. Animal Collective – Grass
8. Black Eyes – Some Boys

In other news I have been ill in one way or another pretty much since 2006 began. Which has been rubbish. I did attend Cambridge’s annual Palimpsest Festival last month, which was as excellent as last year led us to expect. Some very special sounds in particular from Sunburned Hand of the Man, Directing Hand and Alasdair Roberts. And as Mar-C mentioned not so long ago, ATP is only a few short months away. If anyone would care to join me in pushing the carnage envelope please do speak up.

Very quick THINGS I LIKE
The films of Herschell Gordon Lewis
The onset of autumn
Newcastle Brown Ale
Alan Moore’s Promethea

And NOT
Missing Blood Red Shoes at the Portland tonight
The public

Listening To: Part Chimp – I Am Come, I’m Being Good – early 7″s, Animal Collective – Feels (about 3 times daily), first three Mercury Rev albums, Deerhoof – Green Cosmos, The Auteurs – How I Learned to Love the Bootboys, Espers – The Weed Tree, Eyes and Arms of Smoke – A Religion of Broken Bones

Reading: The Wild Highway by Bill Drummond and Mark Manning, before that Geek Love by Katherine Dunn.

Working on: Putting on Part Chimp next month. By ‘working on’ I mean trying not to shit it any more than is absolutely necessary.

Looking forward to: Getting a new phone delivered tomorrow cos I’m a massive loser, ATP which is NEXT WEEK.

Long overdue.

YES PLEASE
Blood Red Shoes 7″ on Jonson Family
Little White Lies magazine
The onset of massive autumn gig action
Last.fm – Get with it already

NEIN
Learning the hard way that being an office temp is no fun at all
ATP still being about a year away
The end of film as we know it

For quite possibly the first time in living memory, something TRULY FUCKING EXCITING is happening in my town….

Harvest Time presents…

PALIMPSEST FESTIVAL

An all day event of new music and outside folk sounds.

Saturday 13th August, 2PM-11PM
All Saints Church, Jesus Lane, Cambridge

Featuring performances from:

Alasdair Roberts [Drag City]
Josephine Foster [Locust]
Mi and L’au [Young God]
Kiila [Fonal]
Lionshare [Harvest Time]
Um [Strange Lights]
Dan Merrill [Mutebox]
Fuzzy Lights

And DJs American Booze, Sami (Kiila) & Bad Timing
along with video projections and record stall

Tickets: £8.50 adv / £10.00 on the door

Advanced tickets from Harvest Time Records (all major cards accepted)

More information at the Palimpsest site

My Cat Is An Alien (Mincing around with laser guns)
Haeti (Three times! Lovely)
Elephant Micah (Twice! Also lovely)
Last of the Real Hardmen (Chris something)
Hot Snakes (Great! See comments below)
Metal Gear Solid Madonnas (Loud!)
MV+EE (Fantastic, nicest folks ever)
Cos (Veteran weirdo)
The Magic Band (Decent, but glad I didn’t pay £18 for the pleasure)
Magnolia Electric Co. (Played Farewell Transmission. I was happy)

Haven’t had a good night’s sleep or an actual meal in roughly forever. Today is my last day of work after which I will become a unemployed pauper. Tomorrow is Strawberry Fair, Hawkwind are headlining. After this I plan to never leave the house again.

PS. Giz a job.

I haven’t been able to stop looking at this for like a week.

Funny stuff.