unpopular

Arty Hard or Hard Art?

stairway, originally uploaded by unpop.

I stood in the gallery and watched people pass through. Seldom did anyone stop and pause for more than a few seconds. Everyone looking but none seeing. No-one seemed to be interacting with the art in any way other than how one might with products in a supermarket. Art as a global corporate entity, consumed in the same way as any other tourist attraction.

Sounds like a Warhol/Pop Art fantasy? Perhaps, but perhaps not. I watched people pose beside his cow wallpaper as they would the Tower of London. Their friends and partners snapped photos on their phones. Proof of their existence. A reminder that they were there. A moment already forgotten even as the shutter snapped closed. Not even fifteen seconds of fun or fame.

Elsewhere on the walls his skull paintings sulked, all but ignored. In the next room a self portrait sang with a blue that vibrated as exquisitely in the air as Poussain’s. A phrase that now takes me back and makes me smile.

I stood and enjoyed the sound of the blue alone. If I had counted I would have lost track of how many bodies passed by in flickers of emptiness. If I were capable of plumbing deeper depths of sadness in that moment I surely would have.

I wonder though if it is really so much different to the past? After all, didn’t Quentin Crisp sum it all up so eloquently? What can I add? Well, quite.

Later in the book shop I stared at a deafening babble of media. A t-shirt recommended that I ‘Arty Hard’. I scowled in disgust, as any sane person would. A voice somewhere outside my head was telling me to lighten up. I told it to fuck off.

In the past I have argued that modern technologies have allowed everyone to engage with the creative process because the means of publication have become broadly democratic. I have argued that this is a good thing. These days I am not so sure. It reminds me of the supposedly ‘D.I.Y’ ethics as espoused by Punk Rock: anyone can do it. Well, yes, but that doesn’t mean that everyone ought to. Not everyone can be an artist. Perhaps we should stop telling people they can, or should be. Perhaps we should celebrate Gove and his Tory fiends: a culture and a curriculum that attempts by subterfuge to devalue the arts may end up being their greatest ally. We should not ignore the power of filtration by struggle and elitism.

So ‘Arty Hard’? I think not. Instead let us make it once again harder to create and share. Let us celebrate the pleasure in exploring in depth. Let us take the time to delight in difficulty.

Those days, those nights

So what has filled your January listening list? If it is anything like mine then it will have been peppered with songs from records that you have been catching up with from 2010. All those records you missed that someone said you ought to check out. Some of them you even like.

I had good intentions for January. Don’t we always? I was going to take a stance against all those blogs who post track after track but never actually tell you much about the music aside from some biographical details that honestly you couldn’t give a fuck about. I mean, does anyone remember words? Does anyone remember what it’s like to read poetry about music? I mean, sure, it’s frustrating to read that music is like ochre kissed fields in a darkening January twilight only to discover that it’s actually just another bleary, easy cash in on the current trend (in other words it just sounds like a weak Best Coast or Wild Nothing copycat). But it’s better than just coming to that conclusion from simply clicking on an embedded music file, no? No? Just me then?

The irony of course is that my own January listening mix is shared here without any words about the music at all and is filled with many songs culled from those very kinds of blogs.

So I’m a hypocrite. Deal with it.

I Know I Fucked Up - Darren Hayman & Elizabeth Morris
Not Today - White Wishes
Weathervane - Early to Bed
Homework - Big Deal
Yarrow - WOJCIK
Jigsaw Falling Out Of Place - Zoo Kid
U & Eye - Chaim
Cover The Walls (Dreamtrak Diamond Sound) - Internet Forever
Running Up That Hill - Bank Heist
Hole In Your Heart - Secret Shine
Those Days, Those Nights - The Notes
Freakscene - Insect Guide
You Girls Smoke Cigarettes? - No Joy
Dirty Boots - Sex Beet
Romantic Girl - Bare Wires
Kudzu Girlfriend - Standard Fare
The Accidental - Modern Rivals
Buffalo - The Deloreans
Golden Age - Beat Radio
Last Train To Clarkston - Bubblegum Lemonade

Download the mix here. Usual rules of engagement apply: If you like something, buy the damn records (unless it’s free anyway, in which case send the artists your love and devotion) and spread the word.

Pink Thing

Did I dream it, or did Herbie Sykes’ book about Franco Balmamion fail to enter the recent list of ‘50 Best Cycling Books’ as put together by 'Cycle Sport' magazine? For what it is worth it would have been in my list, certainly in place of any one of the titles about Lance Armstrong. Of course if you are a cyclist and have not read 'The Eagle of the Canavese' you may still be aware of Sykes’ writing from his string of articles for 'Pro Cycling'. These sharp, evocative pieces have turned a brief spotlight on some forgotten faces of Italian cycling and have been some of my favourites in recent months. They surely set us up perfectly for the forthcoming publication by Rouleur Books of his ‘Maglia Rosa - Triumph and tragedy at the Giro d’Italia’ tome.

I told myself after my Le Tour and La Vuelta series of songs in 2010 that I would not do one of those projects again. But the lure of the Giro is strong, and after all, what else will I do with those songs in my music library with the word ‘pink’ in the title? Well let us just see what happens when May 7th comes around...

Meanwhile, let’s just look forward to March 3rd when we can pre-order ‘Maglia Rosa’ from the Rouleur shop. I’ve certainly got it marked in my calendar.

XTC - 'Pink Thing'

I was a champion...

Here's one for Freddy Maertens.

Bunky and Jake - 'I was a champion'

Gale Force Wind

So, right, in December my friend Stephen mentioned something about a wee project he and a colleague were planning for a paper 'zine type thing. The idea was that each issue would have a theme and the first was to be 'weather' and would I like to do something? And of course I said 'yes' because it was the holidays and I always say 'yes' to projects in the holidays because my brain rapidly forgets the paralysis of term time. And, see, I had all these great ideas. Well, couple of ideas at least. And not necessarily great. One of these was a kind of 'infographics' analysis of weather themes in song titles in my music collection (111 'snow', 83 'sunshine', that kind of thing...), another was a series of short connected fifty word fiction pieces based on a mix-tape of 'weather' songs. Perhaps inevitably the stories never made it to reality, although the mix did. It's bloody good, too.

In a Misty Morning - Gene Clark
Let It Rain - Bronze
Gale Force Wind - Microdisney
Rainy Day - APB
Sunny Weather - Swamp Children
Damp - Two Lone Swordsmen
Hail Stones - The Upsetters
Distant Showers Sweep Across Norfolk Schools - July Skies
Rain Stops Play - The Wolfhounds
Hurricane - The Verlaines
It's Not Really Cold When It Snows - The Russian Futurists
Sunshine - Girlsareshort
All The Words For Snow - Appliance
Synthesisers In The Rain - Denim
Kisses & Fog - The Pines
When The Wind Blows - Dotti Holmberg
Blueberry Frost - The Mountain Goats
Fog Round The Figurehead - Gravenhurst
Sauget Wind - Uncle Tupelo
Hear the Wind Blow - Opal

Walk a tightrope in a gale force wind

i've got a safety pin stuck in my heart for you...

I think Pitchfork may have posted this Zoo Kid video this past week, but of course I am too fucking cool for Pitchfork, and instead I saw it at Keyboards Is Drunk. Certainly it’s resulted in a little froth of interest, and that’s no bad thing. Me, I love it. I see and hear something of Patrik Fitzgerald in there. Is that just me showing my age? Well, whatever.

I’ve been playing the Zoo Kid songs that I swiped from KIS all week. They really have me hooked. I particularly love those tracks that have a dub-step feel with Durutti Column / Deebank guitars floating on top. Damn, but they are good.

Plussing as which, there is a picture of Concorde on the Zoo Kid Bandcamp page. Genius.

If Zoo Kid isn’t up near the top of my end of 2011 chart you have my permission to slap me around the ears.

in the mail this morning...

The Notes 'Wishing Well' detail and badges, originally uploaded by unpop.

... came a package with The Notes' 'Wishing Well' EP. Gatefold sleeve, two 10" pieces of coloured vinyl, limited edition print, a couple of nice wee badges. Oh, and fantastic music. Pure Pop Art indeed.

Get yours from Bleeding Gold.

The Notes: 'Those Days, Those Nights'

Wishing Well

I read a few people making some mean comments about lists and those who make them at the end of the year. That is such a cheap shot, and such an easy time of year to take it. Personally I really like the traditional end of year lists that people make. Not the ones in the mainstream press so much (as lists of ‘important’ stories peopled by personalities I do not recognise they tend only to reaffirm my detachment from everyday life which, I may add, I am quite happy about) but certainly the ones by friends and those whose tastes have in the past tended to overlap at least partly with mine. So yes, those lists are nearly always entertaining and useful. They give me glimpses of what I missed out on and alert me to things to try and keep track of in the year ahead. Also the very ‘end of year-ness’ is crucial as it brings together the act of review and reflection with a period when I just might have time to read and follow up on things.

So it was that my eMusic allocation for January was used up in just one day of frenzied downloading, and my iTunes and Amazon accounts got hit for six. Avi Buffalo, Chaim, Darkstar, Deerhunter, The Fresh and Onlys, Harlem, Matthew Dear, No Age, Violens, Women, Zola Jesus and more... Some great sounds. Some in spite of cynicism.

Elsewhere, like many others, I’ve been catching up with White Wishes. Someone said they were lost for words when they heard their record on Shelflife, but I wouldn’t got that far. I’ve been mildly diverted by ‘Today’ and rather hope it will continue to seduce me with its slightly creepy tendrils throughout the rest of the month. Time will tell.

More immediately captivating has been the ‘Wishing Well’ EP by The Notes. Now I first heard The Notes at the end of September last year with their ‘Introducing The Notes’ EP. I though I had shared it here as part of a mix, but a quick search shows that is clearly not the case. Perhaps it may sneak onto an end of January mix here. We shall see. For that is one of my thoughts for the coming year: end of month reviews of whatever has caught my ear in mix format, perhaps accompanied by a few words. I like the thought of fewer ‘off the cuff’ posts but more considered, fully formed (and edited) articles.

But yes, for now, The Notes. If you know your indiepop story you know how this sounds: it’s todays sound of yesterday, tomorrow. So, you know, take a splash of noisy surf melody, a dash of drums that sound like cake tins in an echo chamber and a smattering of breathy detached vocals and hey presto! Instant indiepop for the second decade of the third millennium. As a result, part of me should hate The Notes. After all, other groups of this ilk have raised my ire in the past and no doubt will again. But hey, if you want to lift a guitar and dress up in pretty dresses, you have to accept that risk: I’m either gonna love or hate you. Not that you’d care much, but at least give me the illusion of having influence. Even if it’s only on myself.

So I love The Notes. The Notes are hitting all the right targets. The darkness takes the edge of the prettiness; the noise discordant enough to cannon off the melodies and leave an imprint of intriguing shape and pattern. In the January gloom, it’s more than enough.

Download the ‘Wishing Well’ EP from The Notes’ bandcamp page (pay what you want) and/or order the double 10” aqua coloured vinyl disc artefact from Bleeding Gold.