unpopular

Into town this morning to pick up the mail and post a few things including a pack of badges to Sweden. To Malmo in particular, which reminds me that Dick will be off there very soon to perform as Lovejoy at a music festival. I think Shade Tree will be playing also, so there will be an Unpopular presence, which is cool. Dick is taking some of his singles and more Unpop badges to try and sell, so I hope there are more Malmo indiepop residents willing to part with some cash!

The mail being collected included the test pressings for Unpop 1 and Unpop 3. They sound terrific (the turntable is working fine after its plug disaster) and I can’t wait for the finished products to arrive.

Whilst in town I also pottered around in Virgin, not really sure what I was looking for but ending up coming out with a trio of CDs: The new Jonathan Richman, which I am listening to right now and enjoying greatly; the new triple CD set of the reissued Village Green Preservation Society (still one of my all time favourite albums); and finally the new Hidden Cameras album even though I have had it on promo for a month or so. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again – it’s important to support the artists you love when you can. And buying the record made me feel slightly less guilty for not writing a ‘proper’ review…

Then I spent the afternoon laid out on the sofa sleeping and watching the big mountain stage of Le Tour. I kind of wanted to go for a ride myself but really I am totally drained, I feel almost ill. I think all I can manage is to idle along until next week is over.

Staring blankly at a screen, dreaming of escape. Or at the very least of this time next week.

Last night I tripped the fuse box for all the upstairs sockets by not noticing the frayed wire on the plug for the turntable before moving everything around. It spat sparks at me and everything went dead. It was kind of scary. I hope the turntable still works, because I am expecting the test pressings for the new Unpopular singles to arrive tomorrow. It’s very exciting.

Yesterday also I was part of the judging panel for the Year 9 song writing competition. It was fun. Chis was MC for the event and introduced me as a music journalist and record label owner, which was quite funny. So some kids asked me today if it was true that I really had my own record label, and I said yes, it’s run out of my attic, and they laughed. Which is fair enough. I think next year I will offer to take a work experience student and they can do all the work like sending out promo CDRs and stamping up labels…

I have been pondering getting in a bunch of those nifty 3” CDs for the ‘i wish i was unpopular’ releases. I think they would look super cute. They would go sweetly inside those 4” square envelopes, it would be like having a generic label bag like those Postcard sleeves and stuff. I think I’ll do it, damn it, starting with the Champion, Alberta EP maybe. God, what a great record that is.

Someone posted a comment asking if people still wear badges in 2004, and, well you know that seems to be my sales problem I think. I mean I think people SHOULD wear badges because they are really cool: why doesn’t everyone want to look like Peter Blake in that self-portrait where he's wearing all his badges? Huh?

Hmmm. But as ever I guess the truth of course is that only geeks and nerds wear them. Which explains my fascination.

The Unpopular badge sets now come in a hand stamped brown square ‘wages’ type envelope incidentally. They have ‘I wish I was unpopular’ on one side and a small Emily Ryan drawn face on the back. They are cute. Honest.

Terms of reference

Okay, so what’s been playing all morning? Why it’s the Silk Purse Ep by Champion, Alberta. Actually this three piece come from Edmonton, Alberta, and are another to join my list of Canada’s greatest bands ever. This is a sublime five track CDR that conjures a variety of connections to things are as varied and marvellous as the Sea And Cake, Seefeel and a variety of sweet Soft Pop. At moments they also make me think of Appliance meeting The June Brides in a rainy rooftop parking lot. Or The Playwrights slinking down dark alleys with the Popinjays. They sound magnificent, and if I had my way (actually, if I had the money) I would be drawing straws to see which two cuts would make an Unpopular piece of vinyl and I’d be writing that cheque and mailing away the master tomorrow. As it is, I’ve got my fingers crossed that they’ll allow these five tracks to wish they were unpopular… Check them out here and here.

When I'm Not Around

John Carney was right, the Junior Boys' Last Exit album is quite delicious... You don't have it yet? Shame on you.

Faded Glamour

Another workshop today, another year 5 class although hugely different to Monday’s. It actually ended up being the best workshop I thought, probably because I planned it a bit better, didn’t try to stick too much into the day, focused on some fairly straightforward tasks that we could repeat with slightly increasing complexity each time. It was good. Knackered again by the end of it though.

Had to go to town when I got home, some records and assorted other items to mail, and the post box to check. Then coffee, and by the time I was finished there I figured I might as well go to Herbies for dinner so I did that and read more of Vicious Spring whilst eating non-vegan Nachos. Big mistake. My stomach said no thank you very much to the dairy, and now I am supping peppermint tea and trying to recover. I guess it’s partly stress too, and tiredness, and… aw, and all the ands of life at the end of terms, or this term in particular. Jenny compared her diary for next week with the same time five years ago. It was scary. Five years ago it was almost empty. This year’s is stuffed to the gills. I guess if I could do similar comparisons I would see the same.

We have to oversee the moving of the Art dept to our new rooms next week and the week after. I can’t say I am looking forward to it. It will be dusty and crappy and I will be grumpy. So nothing new there.

Sigh.

I got the new Animals That Swim retrospective CD Faded Glamour in the mail today and I am playing it now. God, I LOVED that band. So of course this collection is a MUST. It’s out on July 26th, so mark your diaries and iCals NOW.

Oh, and the Raspberries CD also came in the mail today. See, I am determined to crack that early ‘70s blind spot in my cultural appreciation. But oh, the hair! The clothes! Shiver… And hmmm, I didn’t know that there was a link between Raspberries and The Choir. Very cool.

Hmmm, and then today on the way home as we crossed the Stoke Canon bridge I started thinking about Demin’s ‘The Osmonds’, sparked by seeing the headline on the Express and Echo board outside the newsagents that said: ‘Exclusive Donny Osmond interview’. I kid you not. So I was thinking about ‘The Osmonds’ and what a great song that was/is, and ah, whatever did happen to Lawrence? I hear he is still be glimpsed at record fairs searching for rare Bell 7”s, and maybe that’s how it should be. I don’t know. But Kevin is right: there should be a plaque on that bridge over the canal in Water Orton.

Another hectic day filled with another workshop, this time for year 6 kids doing stuff with cameras and Photoshop and iPhoto. It was good, but I am really knackered, not least because after that I had to wait around for the whole new Year 7 parents evening, that ended at half 7. I didn’t get to meet my new tutor group yesterday on their sample day, so this was the first time I had come across them, or they me. They seem okay, but you can’t tell on such fleeting first meetings really…

So yeah, this evening I just put on the Portal CD that I got in the mail last week. I played it last night for the first time and thought it was terrific, so I figured I’d check again, and yeah, two tracks, both fantastic. I’ve played them through several times and have now dug out those old Wake albums, the Portal being Caesar and Carolyn of that great band making new sounds. The two tracks would make for a magic 7”, and I’m hoping we can arrange something for later in the year, or maybe for early in 2005 if the money isn’t there (and it usually isn’t, such is the way of money after all).

Alex passed on the details of the Joy of 8 project… It looks like a great idea and I am sorely tempted to do something. Even though I know I don’t have the time.

Times are tough. We can still picnic.

Just added Daniel’s wonderful review of the Go-Betweens recent show at the Barbican to Tangents. It makes me jealous in two ways. Firstly, I wish I could have been there, wish I had just taken that Monday sickie and gone and hang the consequences. And secondly, well, secondly, I wish I could write like that. I read my own attempts of late and by comparison they seem limp and lacking in insight and poetry.

But life (and indeed love) goes on anyway.

Also I’m exhausted tonight after a day of year 5 (nine and ten year olds) making animations using paper and computers. The paper bit is the real art content of course, the computer just the bit that helps put it all together. We played with colour and shape and had a whale of a time. They are like little dynamos, it’s kind of scary. No way I could teach those all day. Man, it would be just too much. But it was okay for a day… Except I’m doing it all again tomorrow and Friday. Glutton for punishment or what?

Hmmm.

Izzy and her gang had a picnic at the weekend in spite of the dubious weather. I haven’t had a picnic in years. I always rather liked the idea of the Sinister picnics but no-one ever seemed to organise any down here and I could never get to the London ones and anyway would doubtless have just sat in the corner of the park pretending I was someone else, but heh… It reminded me of that old Postcard / OJs slogan ‘Times are tough. We can still picnic’ that I pinched for my ‘death of postmodernism’ Flash art piece some years ago. And hmmm, you ponder, was not ‘the death of postmodernism’ itself half-inched from a Postcard publication of the early 90s? And the answer is yes it was but what’s it to you anyway?

And I’m very disappointed that no-one has wanted to buy any of my lovely badge sets. Admittedly my math failed me at the weekend and I priced them too high, but still and all. I am hoping people are waiting for the Clientele and Playwrights singles before splurging on badges. Otherwise I’m gonna be standing on street corners passing them out to bemused passers-by.

scrambled

This is a symptom of how scrambled my head is at the moment: This morning I told Carrie that Max Mosley, the president of the FIA, was the son of Walter Mosley. She looked confused and said ‘but he’s English. And white…’ At which point I realised the error of my ways. ‘OSWALD Mosley… I meant he’s the son of OSWALD Mosley’. Sigh.

Good to see someone else getting all hot and bothered about the wonderful Metric Mile and their How To Beat The SAT EP. Not picked up a copy yet? Shame on you. Get on over the to the Unpopshop and treat yourself. And whilst you’re there, order a set of badges! You know you want to.