Straitjacket Fit
I love the rock and roll! I love the sheer coarseness of it all, the sweet rambling mayhem that a standard guitar set-up and Marshall amps stacked to the roof can generate. The audacity of it. The messed up, cat strut that every singer worth their rider will turn on when there’s more than handful of goggle-eyed, half-trashed punters in the room. So hit that power chord, my friend, raise two fingers to the heavens and send me soaring far, far into the stratosphere – free, unhinged – a rock and roll time bomb just waiting for that moment of pure sonic catharsis. Sure I’ll probably be deaf by the age of 40. But I ride the volume on my stereo low, and the sucker still has a long way to go. Eleven? Ha! Mine goes to twelve. And you ain’t heard nothing yet. Yes, it seeps into my skin like the smoke from an hour-long bonfire, shattering my mind with every numbing crack of a 16-inch snare. I talk it, sing, play it, swagger it, living at least part of my life vicariously through music’s most iconic figures. Eric Clapton, Angus Young, Keith Richards … Now there’s a face that tells a thousand stories. If only his wrinkles could talk. For those about to rock, I salute you. Just remember to wear your earplugs.
Tagged: rock music, Rolling Stones
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The Dark Was The Night compilation
The crew at 4AD, watching over perhaps the hottest artist roster of any independent label in the world, have put their collective minds together and come up with an album that holds every potential of being the finest release of the year. The formula is simple: you grab a batch of the hottest bands and artists around at the moment (take your pick from Arcade Fire, Yeasayer [pictured above], Bon Iver, Beirut, Sufjan Stevens; the list continues without the slightest dip in quality), throw in David Byrne for a touch of that priceless musical wisdom, quickly hammer together a few inspired duos, like Gillian Welch and Conor Oberst, or The Books and Jose Gonzalez, name it after a seminal Blind Willie Johnson track, and then get the brains behind one of the great bands of the last few years, The National, to produce it. Finally — take a deep breath — all the proceeds go towards the fight against AIDS. Dark Was The Night isn’t released until February 16th, but the scent on the wind is good. David Byrne and the Dirty Projectors’ opening track (listen below) is brilliantly fresh, while Yeasayer have channelled their wild spirits into a song textured as intricately as a Peruvian silk skirt, with a rainstick for effect.
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When looking at the beautiful paintings of Mamma Anderson, I almost get the impression that the art world is being forced to look back upon itself. The body of her work seems to present itself like a textured snapshot of galleries, coffeshops and well-designed interiors. The rough, folksy execution of these paintings stands in pretty stark contrast to the particularly slick world she chooses to depict. Refreshing, to say the least. Read more
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I spent the formative first six years of my life in Wellington, New Zealand, a beautiful windswept city framed by a magnificent harbour in one direction and a stunning collection of green, rolling hills in the other. It was here, on a return visit many years later and deep amongst the clipped accents and ruddy faces of the weather-beaten locals, that I stumbled upon the vast catalogue of the then Dunedin based record label Flying Nun. And what a roster of acts they housed — The Chills, The Bats, The Clean, Tall Dwarfs, The Verlaines, and my favourite guitar-pop band, Straitjacket Fits. Read more
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