On Saturday I am going to see my mam fly a plane but if I wasn’t then I would be going to the benefit gig at Stereo from 3pm. It’s for the Glasgow Autonomous Project who I met at the SchNews tour the other day and are nice. There’s 3 bands playing, one of which has a cello (I lost the flyer). All glaswegians should go, it’ll be good.

I would try and make this sound as interesting as it really is but I am very tired. Feel free to add some exclamation marks and capital letters to this using a felt-tip pen.

This year the All Tomorrow’s Parties people are taking advantage of the glut of talent travelling to Camber Sands and arranging a UK tour so that the sand-allergic can join in the fun. The first gig takes place on the 22nd of March at Stereo in Glasgow and features Jackie-O Motherfucker, Bardo Pond and special guests who might be Threnody Ensemble. It’s an impressive line-up and given the size of the bands an ambitious one. I emailed Jackie-O guitarist-mainstay Tom Greenwood to see what we canto expect when the psychedelic freeform circus comes to town.

Who’s all in the band’s line-up for this gig / tour and what are they playing?

Brooke and I are the only two left from previous glasgow gigs….we’ve added Dave Bryant (godspeed) on guitar and tapes….Fluffy Toast (montreal) on banjo/saw/electronics….Jeff Mooridian (vaz) on drums /electronic drums/sequencer….Genevieve Dellinger…vocals, etc….Andy Cvar…lap steel guitar. Brooke plays piano/vibes/guitar…and I’m still playing guitar/turntables.

Being improvised I guess you can’t tell us exactly what to expect from the show but are there any clues you could give us? Like how did it go the last time you played at Stereo?

We’re working on something completely different than ever before…the sound has evolved a lot this year, due to a bunch of touring/recording…etc. Expect something that covers a huge spectrum…from tiny microscopic sounds, to giant swelling waves!!

Last time you were here I think you played with Volcano the Bear. Are they a band you feel some kind of affinity with, and are there others?

We had a great time playing with them….however, we are kind of solitary and hermitish at the moment. We’d love to open ourselves up a bit more, and i’m hoping to develop a residency in Glasgow this summer so we can do that….

Can we expect members of Bardo Pond to join you onstage at the gig?

Not likely…as we are working on a 45-60 min. composition that takes the entire set!…

Your name is quite (/very) confrontational but your sound, at least on your album for Textile Records, I found quite open and laid-back. Is this deliberate, accidental or am I completely off-planet with this question?

Things have changed a great deal from when we started the band 10 years ago….but the name is so cute…doncha think?

Work is generally crap but it does lead to lots of ways to kill time. Like playing baseball with pengiuns.

I never saw Punch Drunk Love, that’s why I didn’t vote for it.

Actors I like? I’d rather not notice that someone is acting in a film, so I find it hard to think of ones. I’m with Ollie on Phillip Seymour Hoffman (so to speak), cos I only recently found out his name after 3 or 4 films. And I’d go see Samantha Morton in a film, cos of how impressed I am with Morvern Callar.

“…..The AM feature former members of Jeff Buckley’s band. Support from Glasgow band How to Swim.”

(paraphrased from today’s Metro)

As if handing over a fat chunk of the regeneration budget to the cloth-eared fuckwads at MTV wasn’t enough (‘cos the capital’s coke dealers need the extra trade now there’s a bit of a banking recession, presumably), at the same time, NATO is invading:

“‘After Iraq – a new transatlantic consensus? NATO at a crossroads!’ As well as high ranking military chiefs and political leaders, the 49th meeting of the North Atlantic Treaty Association will also be attended by top executives of the world’s largest arms manufacturers including BAe and Lockheed Martin. Among those attending will be Supreme Allied Commander of Europe: General James L Jones (USA); Geoff Hoon, MP Secretary of State for Defence (United Kingdom); US Ambassador to the UK: Ambassador Nicholas Burns; Rt Hon Lord Robertson of Port Ellen, PC, Secretary General, NATO and Russian Ambassador to the UK: Ambassador Yuri B. Kashlev. Events will also include a Royal reception at Holyrood Palace, an evening on the Royal Yacht Britannia, a trip to see the Scottish Crown Jewels and a visit to Stirling Castle”

This is from the 4th-8th November and the schedule is up on Indymedia. Go spoil their party.

If I hadn’t spent half my life in the town, I’d advocate nuking the EICC.

I need a shower after thinking about this. And don’t get me started on this Musicworks pish either.

I should maybe follow Simon’s example….

– New York is more interesting at night
– the Subway’s not that scary, Harlem’s not that scary and Brooklyn’s not that scary
– everyone downtown looks like a model and/or is trying too hard
– midtown is boring, downtown is fun but expensive
– on my first night I missed more good gigs than I would see here in a month
– barstaff who get tipped are more helpful and chatty and give you free drinks
– people like Scottish accents and they say “I’m scottish too”
– nobody goes to Central Park to relax, they go to Do Things, like run in a very determined manner
– Johnny Cash’s death got as much attention as some sitcom “star” I hadn’t heard of
– there wasn’t a shortage of people to tell me how much they disliked George Bush
– Boston has more bikes than the whole of Scotland (maybe)
– the Lucy Parsons Center on Columbus Avenue is my favourite bookshop
– even I am better than the average American at football
– any kind of weird music you like, you can easily find a bunch of people who are into it here
– taxi drivers really do keep talking at you after the journey’s over. I met a revolutionary socialist from Romania
– trucker caps are out
– it’s hard to find shops that are interesting and not just big
– you can read the most beautiful poem ever but in a competion you’ll always get beat by the girl talking about giving head
– CBGBs is like punk was never happening; Bowery Ballroom is a top venue
– USA doesn’t get youth hostels

I take back everything nasty I’ve ever said about the place.

Excellent edition of Mixing It last night which you can stream from Radio 3 for the next week or so. It was about the music scenes in Glasgow and Edinburgh and illustrated quite nicely how much more there is going on at this side. Featured interviews with Mount Vernon Arts Lab, The Pastels, Future Pilot AKA and folk you mightn’t have heard of but should do. Good coverage of some of the music I’ve been most interested in here lately, the improv and electro things happening. Tantalising clips of tracks by Frog Pocket, Colditz and the mighty Scatter.

Some of the interviews took place at Tchai Ovna, officially The Nicest Place in Glasgow, who were telling me at the weekend about their upcoming Tea in the Shop festival on the 27th September. Lots of folk playing: Scatter, The Pendulums, and Future Pilot DJing confirmed so far. Tickets are £10 and the money goes to Spirit Aid for to restore a bombed-out and landmined flour mill in Afghanistan (remember Afghanistan? It was like Iraq but the bad guy had a beard instead of a moustache).

Last night I went to see a film called Rien a Faire. It was worth watching if you had nothing to do.

Why go home after work anyway?

First i went to see Show Me Love, Lukas Moodyson’s first film (Fucking Amal to us sophisticated European / pottymouthed types). I’d heard good things about it but I wasn’t prepared for exactly how life-perfect and damned sweet the thing is. It might be set in Sweden and the two characters falling in love might both be female but apart from that it felt like me and every person i know / knew. It’s joined my list of films I wish I’d seen as a teenager. It’s on again on sunday and i might well be back at the cca for the double bill of this and Together / Tilsamanns. I defy anyone to see it and not go “awwwwwwwwww”.

After that there was the gig by Glasgow’s premiere pianopunk outfit Lapsus Linguae over at Stereo. They were definitely On Form tonight. No technical hitches or heckles, just room enough to marvel at the – what ? The Lapsus-ness of it. I haven’t heard a band like them and they are damn good. Go See Them if you haven’t already, though this was the end of their tour I think. News!: they have arranged an album release for the spring, even if the songs haven’t been written yet. Support band Sea Change are also worth a listen. More conventional song-style (obviously) but with a violin / shoegazey sound.

While I was there I got a flyer for a new Glasgow club, DeathKill4000. At the Woodside Social Club every Thursday from the 26th. I like the playlist’s silly-but-sensible-to-me mix: Aphex Twin, Alec Empire, Big Black, Bobby Conn, Chicks on Speed, Dead Kennedys, DJ Assault / Shadow, Horrorist, Iron Maiden, The Locust, Megadeth, Motley Crue, Peaches, Public Enemy, Slayer, Spinal Tap, 10Benson, Trans Am and Turbonegro. Multiplies playing live. Plenty variety in type of tune but no let up in quality it sounds like. Well worth yr £2 from 10-2 on Thursday the 26th June I’d suggest. I may even be there myself, competing for the “best dancer” bottle of vodka.

Alternatively, I could not see Erase Errata and stay in doing fascinating technical stuff instead. If I unplug the phone, rearrange my furniture and perch on the end of my bed, I now have internet access.

Wow.

My hotmail account has disappeared and wiped all my messages because I didn’t use it for a whole month. How needy and insecure is that? Tossers. There were photos of friends from the other side of the world in there, cheers Bill.