i’m stealing chris summerlin’s thing of making a mixtape tracklisting. this seems like a good plan since the tape ring ground to a halt, and it will hopefully quench my desire for stupid pointless lists of bands.

side a
mike patton & melt banana: area 877
antioch arrow: chaos vs cosmos
behead the prophet n.l.sl.: in the garden
men’s recovery project: get the fuck out of my office
love lost but not forgotten: means to no end
my lai: twenty/twenty

side b
the eyesores: nausea
neutral milk hotel: oh comely
low: weight of water
johnny cash: i see a darkness
royal trux: money for nothing

there it is. short/sweet/shit. should you want a copy for yourself, please send me no less than £20 cash and 5 blank tapes in case i screw it up. thanks.

I saw Hirameka Hi-Fi, Electro Group and Fighting Red Adair last night. I don’t remember much about it though. I remember driving back to my house with eleven people in an eight seat van and with a traffic cone still on the roof. I remember it being loud. I remember the sound being rubbish. I remember Fighting Red Adair being mental and ill. I remember being impressed with Electro Group and buying their album. I remember missing Ben FM from the Hirameka live experience. I remember people giving me free records. I remember standing on my balcony this morning in the spring sunshine.

Things I Like:
Unwound: discordant guitars, mmmm
The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists: still one of my favourite books. Bunch of painters at the turn of the century paint houses and discuss socialism in their lunch break. Much ‘throw im out the bloody winder’, drinking of petrifying liquid and the sort of socialist idealism that makes you want to cry.
All Tomorrows Parties countdown: Two weeks today!
Sitting in the 13th Note on a sunny afternoon drinking Irn Bru: What could possibly be better?

Things I don’t like at all:
Flat hunting: blah
Job hunting: double blah

ok, so appleseed cast were pretty good, but not exactly sensational. one of them looked like jason lee, which was rather amusing. cursive, on the other hand, were cack. pavement meets dexys midnight runners? not today thankyou.

avid followers of this blog (you know who you are) will remember some time ago that i won a competition with three lobed recordings and i got the first part of my prize today. it was a subscription to the purposeful availment cdep series, and today i got cds by bardo pond and six organs of admittance. woohoo, free stuff!

also, has anyone else noticed that the new issue of fracture has a full colour glossy cover? they’ll be asking people what ringtones they have quicker than you can say “newmusicalexpress”.

I like New Scientist:

Copy protection on Celine Dion’s new CD makes it harder to play. (A good news story).

And TV makes you violent. The best thing about this story is that no matter how conclusive the evidence (25 years worth, economics controlled for) folk are still trying to wriggle out of it by blaming the content. Uhuh. Don’t try and say that over 25 years these people only watched the violent stuff and that’s why they went bad. It’s the medium, it makes you a callous moron. And it’s brainwashing you. Seek help!

it was pretty fun. not tremendously exciting or anything, but entertaining enough. today i’m very, very ill. food poisoning or something. i attempted to watch Akira on dvd but ended up falling asleep for about the 7th time today.

things i like:
ice cream: doesn’t everyone? i want some. but i’d never keep it down.
stephen king: why did i never read anything of his before? great stuff.
signed system of a down stuff: fanboy!

things i don’t like:
vomiting: five times in a day. right on.
days off work when you’re actually ill: i’m so bored it hurts. ouch.

things i like:
ice-cream: i discovered today that an ice-cream van stops in the car park of where i work, and we’re all allowed to go and buy some. treat!
new issue of the diskant zine: good columns and interviews, plus wil forbis mentioned me. woo!
fugazi dvd: inspiring stuff. plus dvd extras!
wolves of greece: as previously mentioned.

things i don’t like:
the daily mail: “free queen mother rose for every reader”.
lenny kravitz: someone please explain how this man has any kind of a career.
pollen: my eyes! etc

i’m also going to see appleseed cast and cursive tomorrow, which should prove to be an education if nothing else. i’ve been reliably informed that this is a rare opportunity to see some ’emo’ bands in an ‘intimate’ venue. with ‘the kids’. i’ll be sure to let you know how it goes.

yeah.

The new Death Cab for Cutie album seems to have far too many songs on it about wearing jumpers and mittens. Didn’t hear anything about milkshakes or kittens or park benches but I’m still a little worried about where this is heading. Errrr, not that I’m listening to the new DCfC album when I’ve still got eight records to review before tomorrow afternoon. erk..

And can someone help me with this:

April

16th: Dianogah at the 13th Note

16th: Blectum from Blechdom at Nice’n’Sleazy’s

24th: Trail of Dead at the QMU

24th: The New Year at the 13th Note

27th: Do Make Say Think and Hood at King Tut’s

27th: Smog at the 13th Note

Sometimes living in Glasgow is just too good.

ok, so i’m drunk and in no state to blog, but marceline insisted. when the overlord calls, what can you do?

um was, as ever, a lyrical genius, and managed to get through his own set, despite there being a crowd of about seven people, quite superbly. this man deserves awards. give them to him. now.

sunnyvale, despite 15 minutes of technical problems,. managed to get their groove on quite severely. hats off to smint and stu.

and then crs*, while playing a very short set, managed to charm the pants off most of the audience, and they even got some bookings on the strength of their set. so, yeah, rock!

so, an all dayer. i managed about five hours before scuttling home, inebriated and exhausted. take heed kids. entering your 20s does bad things to a person.

Things I did included looking at the Warhol exhibition. Some amusing things about it:
* The sculpture of replica Brillo boxes was a replica of the sculpture of Brillo boxes.
* The film of the Empire State building (supposed to last all night) is the edited highlights.
* You aren’t allowed to take pictures of paintings made from photographs ripped out of magazines.

Still not sure what I think of Warhol. The pictures I like and you’ve got to respect how ubiquitous they’ve become (I can’t see Marilyn Monroe without thinking of the yellow hair and pink lips silk-screened on). The other stuff, the celebrity worship and glossy surfaces, I’m suspicious of. It feels like he is used to justify all sorts of annoying tedious crap, a fig leaf for artists that revel in their own pointlessness and vapidity. Once he did that he left no further for artists to go down that route and if the route wasn’t so commerce-friendly it would be seen as just a pretty little cul-de-sac.