From: owner-idealcopy-digest@smoe.org (idealcopy-digest) To: idealcopy-digest@smoe.org Subject: idealcopy-digest V7 #2 Reply-To: idealcopy@smoe.org Sender: owner-idealcopy-digest@smoe.org Errors-To: owner-idealcopy-digest@smoe.org Precedence: bulk idealcopy-digest Tuesday, January 6 2004 Volume 07 : Number 002 Today's Subjects: ----------------- [idealcopy] Kidney Bingos ["Jason Rogers" ] [idealcopy] Best of 2003 ["Keith Knight" ] [idealcopy] Shootings ["Keith Astbury" ] Re: [idealcopy] Of lists... [Ian Grant ] Re: [idealcopy] Shootings [=?iso-8859-1?q?Monochromatic=20Man?= ] Re: [idealcopy] Kidney Bingos ["Keith Astbury" ] [idealcopy] manscape......the truth revealed [PaulRabjohn@aol.com] Re: [idealcopy] manscape......the truth revealed ["dan bailey" Subject: [idealcopy] Kidney Bingos >Date: Mon, 5 Jan 2004 07:37:46 -0000 >From: "Clements, Bruno - BUP" >Subject: RE: [idealcopy] RE: Pixies Prayers/Robert Smith > >Jason - Now Playing: Wire - "Kidney Bingos" (I'm in the process of making a >mix CD >to listen to on my commutes to work.) > >Yeah, but you want the version on Coatings. Far superior to the album >version/mix. > I actually burned the song from the 1985-1990 A Sides disc. The Coatings version is a nice one, though. By the way, I've always wanted to ask this... What is "Kidney Bingos" about? Jason Now Playing: The Rapture - "Sister Savior" _________________________________________________________________ Check your PC for viruses with the FREE McAfee online computer scan. http://clinic.mcafee.com/clinic/ibuy/campaign.asp?cid=3963 ------------------------------ Date: Fri, 2 Jan 2004 15:15:12 -0000 From: "Keith Knight" Subject: [idealcopy] Best of 2003 Happy New Year to all. Here's my twopennorth. ALBUMS 1 Farewell Sorrow - Alasdair Roberts. An extraordinary record by a Scottish folk singer who refuses to regard himself as part of the folk movement. Yet most of these (self-penned) songs sound like they were found in a bower in the greenwood - lyrics address lost love, lost children made of 'bud and blossom', people turning into animals. But what seem traditional lyrics on first listen later reveal contemporary references - he refers to his gamekeeper grandfather and the rest of the band by name on 'Join Our Lusty Chorus', black olives and red wine on 'Come My Darling Polly' and the Clyde, which rarely appears in traditional songs in my experience - among the mentions of lutes, hunting, bridles and merry May mornings. He's not afraid to conjure up images which are ur-folk ("And so I'll leave my native land / clad in birch and rhododendron / in Kernow, Albion and Man / may river flow and ever wend on"). Three songs mention imaginary love, Polly, in often disturbing ways ("I will squeeze your lungs like the bellows of an organ") and he takes risk with song structure - he repeats the phrase 'My body was your instrument of lust", then "Your body was my instrument of lust" eight times consecutively on 'Come My Darling Polly', to remarkable effect. Roberts uses a small band who are incredibly successful at creating an intimate sound and his singing is affecting. There's not a weak link on this record and it never left my side during the summer for more than a few days. Encouragingly after months of apparently being ignored it's appeared in various end of year round-ups including a mention from Noble of BSP as his record of the year and a six-month late five star review in the Guardian. I suspect many of you would run a mile from this but for those with a taste for folk it's a remarkable work. 2 Regard the End - Willard Grant Conspiracy. A great collection of songs, mainly about death, played and sung by a band who have found their voice. A substantial achievement. 3 Elephant - The White Stripes 4 World Without Tears - Lucinda Williams 5 Tour de France Soundtracks - Kraftwerk 6 Band Red - KaitO. Almost a greatest hits album for those fortunates familiar with their live set. 7 Cast of Thousands - Elbow. Not up to Asleep in the Back standards but damn fine stuff nevertheless - needs work though. 8 Singing Bones - The Handsome Family 9 Cuckooland - Robert Wyatt. Another album which needs work, but which is endearing itself more to me with each listen. Encouragingly well received by the press. 10 Quick Frozen Small Yellow Cracker - Schwervon! Needless to say there's various stuff I haven't heard or not heard enough - Outkast, The Fiery Furnaces, Herman Dune, The Fall - and stuff I don't even know exists. I disallowed Send from consideration. This was the first year Peter Hammill hasn't released an album in 35 years. Some great work from the last few years which I only caught up with this year deserves mention - 'The Man comes Around' - Johnny Cash; 'Trust' - Low; 'Hot Rail' - Calexico; 'The Last Time I did Acid I went Insane' - Jeffrey Lewis. Re-release - 'On the Beach' - Neil Young Compilation - 'Stop Me if you think you've heard this one before' - 25 Years of Rough Trade SINGLES 1 Hey Ya! - Outkast. A record which seems more complex every time I hear it and yet retains a danceability factor which is impossible to ignore. Coupled with a great video this is the best pop single in a fine year for pop singles. Shake it like a Polaroid picture! 2 Lavender Moon - King Creosote. I first heard this song live in the oven that was the ICA on the hottest day in known British history. This bunch of Scottish songwriters from Fife called The Fence Collective were fourth on the bill and they did a half hour acoustic set which included this lovely song. They referred to it as 'Lavvy Moon' and it took me some time to track down - it's both on 7 inch vinyl and on King Creosote's album 'Kenny and Beth's Musakal [sic] Boat Rides'. King C is really Fence Records 'supremo' Kenny Anderson and the song is written by his brother Een, who styles himself Pip Dylan (Mojo readers can find a handy article on Fence on pps 20/21 of the January issue). It's a hugely beguiling lost love song, sung in a gruff voice and with some subtle guitar picking and (I think) squeezebox accompaniment. Why this song affects me but not, say, Ed Harcourt or Turin Brakes I don't really know but I love this song so much it's the sort of thing I'd like played at my funeral (a potentially lengthy ceremony). As far removed from Hey Ya! as pop music can get. 3 All the Things She Said - tATu 4 Bad Day - REM 5 Hurt - Johnny Cash 6 Hey Girl - Delays. A record that sounds like it was minted in a hit factory. 7 Maps - Yeah Yeah Yeahs 8 Christmas Time (Don't let the Bells End) - The Darkness 9 Alone Again Or - Calexico. Virtually a note-for-note copy of the Love original but beefed up - the ideal Calexico cover - get that Mariachi sound going! 10 Move Your Feet - Junior Senior LIVE The best year for live gigs in 25 years probably (all London unless otherwise stated) 1 Biting Tongues - ICA, 29 May - after a series of post-punk influenced bands it was extraordinary to see the real thing, as if beamed straight from 1981. And I'd never even heard of them (I'd come to see headliners Crispy Ambulance). It made me realize what is missing these days from many live bands - a willingness to make noise for noise's sake and an attitude which forces the audience to either join up or give up. This gig divided the people I was with right down the middle. Funk bass, terse declaimed vocals and squalls of noise from sax, trumpet and keyboards - the presence of the Gang of Four and the noise of The Pop Group. A wonderful night out, as Mr Bursa can testify. You can download two songs from this gig here: http://www.bitingtongues.com/sounds.html 2 KaitO - Garage 16 Oct - difficult to believe, given that they were at the top of their game from day one, but KaitO continued to make strides forward as a live act this year. As usual they were second on the bill and as usual the headliners couldn't hack it in this company - Erase Errata were the patsies on this occasion. This was a confident, thrilling performance from a band who knew that they finally had some secure future. God knows how much better they can get. 3 Sigur Ros - Hammersmith Apollo, 12 Feb - even in this barn, Sigur Ros wove their magic, delivering poise, control and beauty. If I experienced this when I was 16 this would still be the best gig I've ever seen 30 years later. 4 The Polyphonic Spree - Astoria, 8 Feb - second on the bill again - - we left before The Datsuns came on. I'd been up for this for weeks and the Spree didn't disappoint. Everywhere - on stage and in the audience - people were grinning and there was a 25 minute stretch as the 'hits' came out one after another which was just extraordinary. 5 Wire - On The Rocks, 24 April - the Pink Flag warm-up and second on the bill, natch (to the dread Klang). Just wonderful to hear these songs, many for the first time live. The look on Graham's face as he sang ' Can't wait for 78' (a mix of amusement, absurdity and puzzlement) lives in the mind as does Colin dancing sans guitar. 'Pay attention!'. 6 KaitO - Metro, 22 May - a blinding 'greatest hits' set with Dave the guitarist on outstanding form. This time the Yeah Yeah Yeahs' drummer's band The Seconds were the poor sods who had to go on after. 7 Peter Hammill - Milton Keynes Stables, 19 Feb - a, by now, standard line-up with PH swapping between guitar and piano and Stuart Gordon on violin. Hammill was in great voice and Gordon can now extemporise around his songs with telepathic skill. The encore was a version of 'Refugees' (another for the funeral service) sung beautifully with piano accompaniment. By going to this gig I missed the London performance the day after, when Van Der Graaf Generator reformed for one song. That'll teach me. 8 The Polyphonic Spree - Cambridge Corn Exchange, 3 July - more of the above 9 Herman Dune - Water Rats, 27 May - a pair of Swedish brothers, living in Paris, who started their set in such a shambolic fashion that it seemed we were in for embarrassment then got it together to make this the lost enjoyably loose performance I've seen since early Pavement. By the end there were about nine people on stage including a band spotted in the audience, invited on to sing a Go-Betweens number they didn't know. Substantial smoking even when singing and a Theremin - what more can you ask for? 10 Wire - Barbican, 26 April - a great night out in that I knew about 30 people at this gig. The Es Devlin set was great, the Pink Flag only less so because of the Chapman's relatively disappointing involvement (although the real exercisers coming on was great). 11 Hood - ICA, 4 Oct 12 Eliza Carthy and Eleanor Waterson - Michael Tippett Centre, Bath, 7 Nov 13 The White Stripes - Brixton Academy, 11 Apr. 14 Jeffrey Lewis - Water Rats, 27 May - a gig which finished outside on the streets of Kings Cross 15 Low - Union Chapel, 14 Feb 16 Subway Sect - Bedford Esquires, 29 Mar - thanks to John Roberts for notifying this one, hugely enjoyable. 17 Interpol - Astoria, 8 Feb 18 Flotation Toy Warning - Barfly, 16 Apr 19 Hope of the States, Cambridge Corn Exchange, 3 July 20 Schwervon! - Bush Theatre, 21 Nov Actually. looking back on last year's list, Wire, KaitO, Sigur Ros and Hammill all featured in the Top 10. Hmm. Best line-ups - Jeffrey Lewis / Herman Dune / Schwervon! The Polyphonic Spree / Interpol The Polyphonic Spree / Hope of the States Calla / Flotation Toy Warning / Delays Worst performance - Har Mar Superstar Most disappointing - Yeah Yeah Yeahs Venue - the abandoned village of Imber on Salisbury Plain FILM 1 Return of the King - an incredible achievement which raises the bar of what cinema is capable of. 2 Ordet (Carl Dreyer 1955) - a slow meditation on faith which builds to a climax which is frankly staggering and one of the great scenes in cinema history. 3 The Best of Youth - six hour Italian TV movie which chronicles a family from the mid 60s to the present day. My only complaint was that I could have done with a few hours more. 4 City of God - kinetic Brazilian movie, brilliantly realized. 5 The Seventh Continent (1989) - extraordinary early Michael Haneke movie, detailing how a middle-class family decides, wordlessly in a car wash, that's it's time to commit suicide for apparently no other reason than life is ordinary. A gruelling experience. 6 Day Of Wrath - Dreyer again (1943) - a film about witchcraft in 17th century Denmark and how it affects a village. Again, superb. 7 Werckmeister Harmonies - extraordinary visuals from Hungarian surrealist Bela Tarr - e.g. men standing around braziers in a town square surrounding a trailer containing a stuffed whale - which doesn't quite add up the sum of its parts. 8 Master and Commander - the LoTR effect must be paying off this was as adult an epic as Hollywood has produced in years. Look - no women! Debates on evolution! 9 Bande a Part (1964) - one of those films which has escaped me up to now, Godard at the peak of his powers, in love with Anna Karina and almost playful. 10 Belleville Rendez-vous - finally saw this on TV on Christmas Day. Great French animation with a weird story and superb characters, esp the dog. BOOK - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon An amusing and moving story narrated by a teenage boy with Asperger's syndrome - so he takes everything literally, is prone to describing everything he sees in minute detail and has odd phobias. Brilliantly realised and very touching as he starts to work out what has happened to his own life. The scene when he boards a train to London on his own is terrifying - one really feels his terror at having to leave what he is familiar with. Commendably short too and overlooked for the Booker prize which is never a bad thing. TV - 24, Curb Your Enthusiasm, Six Feet Under, State of Play, The Second Coming, BBC4 generally That's quite enough of that I think. Another the Keith ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 5 Jan 2004 18:38:03 -0000 From: "Keith Astbury" Subject: [idealcopy] Shootings There's lot of things I hate about the UK, but I am so glad that we have = our gun laws and not those of our American friends here. Sure we have = shootings ovber here as well, but no wonder Michael Moore felt moved to = make that excellent Bowling For Columbine film.=20 KINKS SINGER SHOT BY MUGGER By Mark Sage, PA News, in New York The Kinks front man Ray Davies was recovering today after being shot in = the=20 leg by a mugger, police said. Davies, 58, who penned Waterloo Sunset, was fired on as he chased two = men who=20 had snatched a bag belonging to a woman he was with. He was in New Orleans, Louisiana, at the time of the attack, city police = said. Captain Marlon Defillo said: "He was walking east of the French Quarter = with=20 a female friend. "Two men walked up. They apparently took the female friend's purse. He = chased=20 them. One of those persons turned and shot him in the leg and we have arrested = one=20 person." Captain Defillo said Davies was taken to a local hospital and was = treated=20 before being released. His injuries were not serious, the officer said. The woman was not injured. And the attached link refers to .... Former Meat Puppets bassist Cris Kirkwood is in the Good Samaritan = Regional Medical Center in Phoenix after being shot in the abdomen by a = post office security guard on Friday afternoon.=20 Keith http://www.rollingstone.com/news/newsarticle.asp?nid=3D19137 [demime 0.97c-p1 removed an attachment of type application/octet-stream which had a name of RollingStone.com News Cris Kirkwood Shot.url] ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 05 Jan 2004 18:46:43 +0000 From: Ian Grant Subject: Re: [idealcopy] Of lists... At 13:04 02/01/2004, Aaron wrote: > > Aesop Rock - Bazooka Tooth (it's still hugely disappointing, mind) > >I feel similarly -- it's great, but since it's substantially flawed in >areas that Aesop Rock has already showed his strength in (which is to say, >it's not a cohesive record, and it doesn't have the emotional weight of >his earlier stuff) it's hard not to wish it were different. Mmmm, yes. I have some sympathy with him on that score, in that it must have been damn difficult even to attempt to live up to expectations...and damn tempting just to wipe the slate clean and start again to get around the problem. The result is a record that, without quite resorting to bluegrass or something, seems determined to sound as little like its predecessor as possible. (I'm reminded of Souls of Mischief, whose follow-up to the peerless, endlessly wonderful "93 Til Infinity" was deliberately unrecognisable, and utterly turgid. And I'm also reminded that this is a tightrope that Wire have always walked with remarkable poise.) Which is all right, as a staging post on the way to somewhere new...and even rather magnificent in its own right, in some places. But I can't help feeling that "Labour Days", aside from being pretty much the finest hip-hop record of the last decade, represented a seam that could've and should've been mined further. Apart from anything else, it was thoroughly accessible, despite its depth and complexity. It always rewarded you with something fresh to chew on...and it kept your head nodding to the beats in between. This time, he seems almost ashamed of that. Maybe next time, I guess. Cheers, ig. ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 5 Jan 2004 18:53:34 +0000 (GMT) From: =?iso-8859-1?q?Monochromatic=20Man?= Subject: Re: [idealcopy] Shootings I suppose we'll all be killed by guns in the end... --- Keith Astbury wrote: > There's lot of things I hate about the UK, but I am > so glad that we have = > our gun laws and not those of our American friends > here. Sure we have = > shootings ovber here as well, but no wonder Michael > Moore felt moved to = > make that excellent Bowling For Columbine film.=20 ===== /\ /\ /\ { o _ o }  \ _--_ / --Try it now! ) GWS Ltd http://www.fortunecity.com/uproar/mental/111/ ________________________________________________________________________ Want to chat instantly with your online friends? Get the FREE Yahoo! Messenger http://mail.messenger.yahoo.co.uk ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 5 Jan 2004 15:25:02 EST From: RLynn9@aol.com Subject: Re: [idealcopy] Shootings In a message dated 1/5/04 12:56:06 PM Central Standard Time, xj23@yahoo.com writes: > I suppose we'll all be killed by guns in the end... > NO! ASTEROID!!!!! RL p.s. lighten up guys...we all gotta go sometime! ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 5 Jan 2004 13:32:07 -0800 (PST) From: Ari Britt Subject: [idealcopy] shootings From:Subject:To: [input] [input] [input] [input] I suppose we'll all be killed by guns in the end... Not me,I wear a sign 'I'll sue anyone who kills me',no-one has,so it must work.....A Find out what made the Top Yahoo! Searches of 2003 ------------------------------ Date: Mon, 5 Jan 2004 21:42:57 -0000 From: "Keith Astbury" Subject: Re: [idealcopy] Kidney Bingos > >Jason - Now Playing: Wire - "Kidney Bingos" (I'm in the process of making a > >mix CD > >to listen to on my commutes to work.) > > > >Yeah, but you want the version on Coatings. Far superior to the album > >version/mix. Can't remember that version off hand - it's not the one on Melody Maker's 'Gigantic' cassette is it? I know I wasn't so wild about that version last time I played it though. For those who haven't got it, here's what Bruce & Graham had to say in the booklet about it in May '88... Bruce: It's a classic Wire device...somehow the nastier or more cryptic the message, the sweeter the song. One tries to avoid working methods that are classic, and I'd hate to think we had ever found the classic Wire sound... Graham: We use a very metaphorical approach because you've got to keep a constantly fresh perspective, alter the way you look at things all the time according to the changing tones and colours of the times. Things come and go, ebb and flow. Think those sentiments probably still hold true for Wire. Keith ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2004 01:22:42 -0000 From: "Tim" Subject: Re: [idealcopy] Faves of 2003 > michael mayer - fabric13 (incredible microhouse mix with an 80s feel) Ta! picked it up today on that recommendation and v.good it is too ( although more maxi than micro to these ears) Nena of 99 Red Baloons fame crops up on one track. And my labelmates M83 with a very good track that sounds to my ears basically a better produced take on what we do (and they get a promo budget cos they've got some licensing deal with EMI France), so we really are Crispy Ambulance to their Joy Division.... Also got FabricLive.09 which is Jaques Lu Cont mashing up electro-house with Tom Tom Club, Devo via Steve Miller Band and ending with The Pixies perfectly followed by Eno's 'Here Come The Warm Jets' which sounds like The Pixies in a huge echo chamber, which is something I hadn't realised before (which is what makes some of these Mix CDs worth getting even if you've already heard some of the songs) Peelie did one of these fabric CDs as well, perhaps they should ask Mr Newman to do one? ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 06 Jan 2004 03:58:55 -0500 From: PaulRabjohn@aol.com Subject: [idealcopy] manscape......the truth revealed the obseerver magazine defines a new , vogueish , word every week. this weeks is "manscaping" , which is defined as the art of body hair trimming. apparently its "the 21st century's first popular art form". it defines a "shave guevara" , but it's maybe more information than you all need this early in the day. current manscaping slogans include "don't call it vanity when i snip my humanity" , "how much trim time to how much gym time?" , "free speech and pubic topiary" and "please don't torch it". good to see the lads remain ahead of the game. p ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 6 Jan 2004 03:08:38 -0600 From: "dan bailey" Subject: Re: [idealcopy] manscape......the truth revealed lice in the manscape? dan >the obseerver magazine defines a new , vogueish , word every week. this weeks is "manscaping" , which is defined as the art of body hair trimming. apparently its "the 21st century's first popular art form". it defines a "shave guevara" , but it's maybe more information than you all need this early in the day. current manscaping slogans include "don't call it vanity when i snip my humanity" , "how much trim time to how much gym time?" , "free speech and pubic topiary" and "please don't torch it". > >good to see the lads remain ahead of the game. p ------------------------------ End of idealcopy-digest V7 #2 *****************************