unpopular

Total Trash

yellow & blue, originally uploaded by Big Red Robot.

I know some people have been down on Flickr recently due mainly, it seems, to speed and reliability issues. I have to say I haven't experienced that much and I still love it to bits. We used Flickr in class last week to great effect for commenting on some comics work. The results were very exciting. Anyway, this Trash set is one of my favourite recent finds. So many great shots. I am sure there are many people who would find me terribly sad for getting excited about these kinds of photos. Maybe they are right. Who cares.

Hear Emily play

It's been pointed out that the links I put up a year and a half ago to the long-lost Rub-Al-Khali album and Irony EP by Emily have become defunct. Well, in a moment of efficiency, I have now fixed them. Download them here and here respectively.

Saturday

A message from the Clientele:

Please come and help us fill the slightly voluminous Bush Hall this Saturday. The Clientele play at 9:45pm, we have support from Lawrence Arabia, Bobby Cook and Dylan Montegreen. Doors are at 7pm, tickets £8 advance / £9 on door. There will be films projected and Djs til late.

Frankly, if you are around in London, you would be daft not to be there. Get tickets here.

On The Scene

One more not-so-subtle reminder there is another offering of the finest Pop sounds at the Exeter Phoenix tonight. If you can’t make it, you could always download my playlist here and pretend.

Maybe Tomorrow - The Chords
The Good Old Days - The Lodger
You Didn't Say A Word (The Ballad Of Plum Tucker) - The Autumn Leaves
Try And Stop Me - The Creation
Sound Of Confusion - Secret Affair
I'm Not Like Everybody Else - Wolfhounds
Denmark Street - The Kinks
Mother's Little Helper - The Rolling Stones
Never Ever - The Action
A Solid Bond in Your Heart - The Style Council
Respectable Street - XTC
Sunday - The Claim
Pleasant Valley Sunday - The Monkees
May I Take a Giant Step - 1910 Fruitgum Company
Strange Fruit Or David - The Wave Pictures
You Can't Change that Boy - Wake The President
I Will Die With My Head In Flames - Felt
Discord - Port Sulphur
Tallahassee Bop - Slow Down Tallahassee
Paris - Friendly Fires
On the Scene - World Of Twist

Seeing Ghosts

Terrific piece in the Guardian today about George Plemper’s Thamesmead photographs. Kevin alerted me to them, saying it was like looking at ghosts. He’s right, and I see these very much in the light of John Carney’s The Outside Of Everything – evidence of another world beamed in from the past. A memory of a past that is often at odds with the ‘officially’ remembered versions. Like Dave Haslam’s Not Abba, or even Life On Mars to some extent (but not Ashes To Ashes), it goes against the grain of the accepted collective memory. What’s also really interesting to me is that Plemper had these photos unpublished for three decades before he was able to share them through his Flickr pages. And it is in sites like Flickr that there is that interesting relationship between the global publishing power of the Internet and the personal scale of things. The personal becomes public. Or vice versa.

I do not agree with Plemper’s statement that you cannot be an idealist in teaching though. I  think that teaching is the perfect way to have idealism challenged, as you inevitably come into contact with so many different people with different stories to tell. Things suddenly don’t seem to be so black and white. It does not mean that you suddenly become a hardened realist, but it does make youthful idealism sometimes seem pretty silly. Or that at least you are mde to modify that idealism and consider how it can be put into practice. It very much challenges you to think creatively about how you can do what you think is right. It’s one of the reasons I love the job so much. I think Plemper also acknowledges this on the last slide in the Guardian article when he quotes Dylan’s “I was so much older then, I’m younger than that now” line.

The other thing that strikes me is that you could really not get away with taking these kind of photos now. I’ve had this conversation with people before, about the fear of photographing young people. It will be interesting to see what the visual record of young people in school today will look like in another three decades. Will it be reflected in rigidly posed press release images and/or scrappy candid snaps and video taken on mobile phones? And whilst that just doesn’t sound so appealing now, will the patina of time make it seem quaint and vaguely old fashioned?

Wait and see.

And Colours In Between

Some news from the always fabulous Left Outsides for you. Something to entertain all you London types on a Wednesday night.

The Left Outsides album launch night - Wednesday 14 May - The Strongrooms, London


To celebrate the official release of our debut album 'And Colours In Between', we are having an album launch night at The Strongrooms in London's Shoreditch. We will be performing songs from the album and playing records too, and it won't cost you a penny because its FREE. Further details are below. We'd love to see you there, so come and say hello.

'And Colours In Between' album launch night

Wednesday 14 May

FREE ENTRY  - 8pm

The Strongrooms

120-124 Curtain Road, London

EC2A 3FQ

*Brought to you by 3 Bar Fire*

The album is released on the 'Transistor ' label on Monday 12 May. It is distributed by Pinnacle in the UK and by Rough Trade distribution in Europe. It will also be available to download via itunes.

It will be available from all good record shops from 12 May, but we'd prefer it if you bought a copy direct from us from our online shop . The first 75 copies sold will include a limited edition CDr of previously unreleased Left Outsides material including session tracks and cover versions. This is not available in the shops. It's called 'And Colours In Between - Appendix'. Here is the tracklisting:-

The Left Outsides - 'And Colours In Between - Appendix'

He Was a Friend of Mine

The Streets of Laredo

Happiness

Masquerade

You Told Your Secrets to the Sea

Losing Touch with my Mind

Now Its Over



Copies of the album, along with the 'Appendix' CDr will be available to buy at the show on Wednesday 14th May.

To Serenade a Rainbow

I do not really know anything at all about Space Pirates except that C has been showing the clip of them doing ‘She’s A Rainbow’ to her classes. It makes me laugh, especially with the ‘music to paint to’ jingle. On the CBeebies site it says it’s ‘She’s A Rainbow’ by The Rolling Stones, but it seems clear to me that it is in fact Space Pirates covering World Of Twist covering The Stones. And that’s important. Well, kind of important. If you are a sad geek like me.

It made me go and play ‘She’s A Rainbow’ again. Now I love the Stones, but this song will always be about World Of Twist for me. It was on the flip side of ‘The Storm’, and that was a magnificent single that was everywhere in my life that Autumn into Winter into Spring of 1990 into 1991.

Well, whatever, it got me trawling the iTunes Library for more ‘rainbow’ songs. There are a fine number, of which I compiled nineteen into this multicoloured mix of delight.

She's a Rainbow - World Of Twist
Chasethatrainbow - Girlsareshort
To Serenade a Rainbow - P.M. Dawn
Finley's Rainbow (Slow Motion Mix) - A Guy Called Gerald
The Rainbow - Talk Talk
Rainbows - Dennis Wilson
Pocket Full Of Rainbows - Jan & Dean
Rainbow Wood - The Cake
Looking For A Rainbow - Talulah Gosh
Paint A Rainbow - My Bloody Valentine
She Talks To Rainbows - The Ramones
Quick As Rainbows - Kitchens Of Distinction
Rainbow Babe - Luna
My Little Rainbow - East River Pipe
Rapid Rainbow Times - Don Cooper
Neon Rainbow - Left Outsides
Rainbow River - Vashti Bunyan
No Rainbows For Me - Saint Etienne
Where The Rainbow Ends - Television Personalities

Random Play

I spied this on Ylwa’s gang blog. I was looking for any excuse to avoid working at lunchtime, so I had a go. The idea is you put your iPod / iTunes on random and then hit ‘next song’ for each question. It’s kinda diverting fun for a few minutes.

Will it be ok? 
 These Are the Things (Pale Fountains)

How are you feeling today? 
 A Sea With Three Stars (Nectarine No.9) The sleeve image has a ‘C’ and three stars, or C***. Read into that what you will. I actually feel pretty good today.

How do your friends see you? Ghost In You (The Psychedelic Furs)

Will you get married? Wilderness Of Love (John Phillips) Erm… 

What is your best friend's theme song? 
 Then You've Never Been Blue (Helen Carr)

What is the story of your life? 
 Denatured (Boyracer).

What was high school like? 
 Let Nothing Separate Us (Arthur Conley) Actually it was probably more like ‘let EVERYthing separate us’… Though I guess this would be applicable to the Troon Velo crew at the time.

How can you get ahead in life? 
 On Some Faraway Beach (Brian Eno). Ah, if only.

What is the best thing about your friends? 
 End Of The Night (Small Hours)

What is today going to be like? 
 Electric Sensation (Headquarter). Hell, yeah…

What's in store for the weekend? 
 Pagina Cuatro (Prefuse 73) Page four? Hopefully I’ll read way past that.

What song describes you? 
 One Face (Sophie and Peter Johnston) As opposed to ‘two face’ obviously. I like to think this is actually fairly accurate, but I am sure some would disagree.

Which song to describe your grandparents? History Of Love (Still Corners). I don’t remember my grandparents much, but I think they probably did have a history of love together. At least I hope so.

How is your life going? 
 Blues From Beyond the Grave (Thurston Moore) Yikes! I like to think it’s rather more positive than that. Maybe last year this would have been way more accurate.

What song will they play at your funeral? Playing With Fire (TV21) I’m assuming it will be a cremation, in which case this would be rather apt.

How does the world see you? 
 The Black Ice Cream Song (The Mountain Goats). Whatever the hell THAT means.

Will you have a happy life? 
 Beauty Is A Rare Thing (Ornette Coleman)

What do your friends really think of you? 
 Pong Fat 6 (The Nectarine No.9). Ha ha ha. It’s funny because it’s (very probably) true.

Do people secretly lust after you? 
 That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore (Simpatico). Wooo, how scarily accurate. And not even The Smiths’ version.

How can I make myself happy? 
 Menina Ao Pe Duma Piscina (The Durutti Column) Not sure what this translates as. Is it Portuguese?

What should you do with your life? 
 Happy Together (The Turtles) Seems as good a suggestion as any

Will you ever have children? 
 Like You Believe It (Downpilot) Heh heh, honestly, this WAS random, as indeed were all the songs.

Less Structure

" 1995 was a vintage year for LPs. We were spoilt for choice, what with the Sea & Cake, Raekwon, T-Power, Pram, Genius, Springheel Jack, Wagon Christ, Mobb Deep, Spain, Red Snapper, Patrick Pulsinger, LaBradford, Speedy J, and plenty more. Yet, with the benefit of hindsight, I'd argue that the best of the bunch, in terms of durability and inventiveness, has to be Bedouin Ascent's 'Music For Particles', sadly one of the more neglected records of the year."

Kevin Pearce was right. 1995 was a vintage year for albums, and all of those stand up in their own ways still. Are people out there digging for those records or are they just scrabbling around for second rate guitar jangling chancers? Me, I just re-acquainted myself with the first two A Tribe Called Quest sets. '91s The Low End Theory in particular sounds marvelously refreshing.

Babylon Revisited

Babylon Revisited, originally uploaded by unpop.

If I had a time machine I would go back and KILL to be at that Laugh / East Village show.