P.S. Thanks for the wings! It's A Wonderful Life...

Sometimes, not always, but sometimes, it's not all about music. 

Here's a little piece about film.


P.S. Thanks for the wings! It's A Wonderful Life...

It was a typical Christmas Eve as we all headed to watch the film. Typical not in the Christmas card sense of robins, reindeers and snow; but in a freezing and blowy miserable way. We rushed through the door to get out of the cold and get a hot drink. We were there to watch an old film, a film that’s nearly 60 years old, a black and white film that wasn’t even a success at the time it came out, but now, after all this time, has become a part of Christmas just as much as robins, reindeers and snowy scenes.

We were at the Phil to watch Frank Capra’s “It’s A Wonderful Life.” Of course we had all seen it many times before on TV and DVD, but this was the first time we had seen it at the cinema, on a big screen with a lot of other people. Additionally this was the first time that we’d seen it with an old-style cinema organ playing before the film started. This would make a change from half an hour’s worth of trailers and adverts. Not only were we going to see a film that was older than any of us, but we were going to experience filmgoing in a way that was from a distant age. It was going to be different.

I rather not give too much away regarding the plot of the film; in fact, I’d rather not give anything away just in case you haven’t seen it. I wouldn’t want to spoil it. It is such a magical film, such a special film which tells a story that has sadness, humour, darkness, light, love, death and joy running through its core, that saying too much about could ruin it. Needless to say it’s perfectly directed by Capra, perfectly paced and with a cast that includes James Stewart (being totally James Stewart-ish), Donna Reed (truly captivating) and Lionel Barrymore (evil personified) you can’t go wrong.

It’s the ultimate “what if?” plot. While you’re watching it and enjoying it, it makes you wonder yourself about the choices, the simple and seemingly meaningless trivial choices that we all make every day of our lives. Some of the choices that Stewart has to face within the film are difficult ones and they are ones he struggles with to the point that he seems to really have no choice at all. Whichever way he turns, all he can see is disaster and heartbreak awaiting him and his loved ones. He bitterly regrets some of the choices he has made, yet in the end, thanks to divine intervention, all works out for the best.               

Last Christmas Eve, we walked out of the Phil, having laughed and smiled, wiped away tears and knew that we’d seen the best film ever at somewhere that wasn’t a soulless multiplex. It was still cold and freezing, but the world seemed so much better. It was Christmas Day in the morning. It is a wonderful life.  

"Totally Shuffled" extract- Elf Power (& naming bands)

extracted from "Totally Shuffled -A Year of Listening to Music on a Broken iPod"

September 17^th

Elf Power-Needle In The Camel’s Eye-When The Red King Comes

           

I’m sure I mentioned this before but any band with the word “fuck” (or derivation thereof) in their name has a bit of a head start. It would be like giving an athlete a 10m start in a race with Usain Bolt. Bolt may still reach the finish line first, but that 10m would make them look a bit more competitive.

(See Holy Fuck (Bolt would win), Fuck Buttons (a closer thing but still Bolt), The Fucking Ocean (a photofinish)).

Of course, I’ve bought and got hold of many records based entirely on the name of the band. 

This is working on the principle that if it sounds good then it must sound good. There are many records (much more so in the vinyl years) that I bought just because the sleeve art looked good; but that’s another piece altogether. Applying a principle that a good name for a band results in music of a certain quality is a bit hit and miss. So much miss in fact that there isn’t really a principle. I’ve got a lot of music-usually by American bands-with such good names that I felt it was a bit of a given the music would be equally as challenging and exciting. Sadly, for the majority of cases this has proved to not the best starting point. 

Actually, most of the time it seems as if the band have spent more time, effort and creativity in deciding what they would be called rather than the music they would make. It’s as if they had a finite amount of artistic thinking to use and most of it was used up in dreaming of a cool name that they could be called. 

When it came to producing the music itself , then everything was gone and it would suffice to put out any old generic rubbish.(Examples of this include tracks that have already shuffled up this year; Chin Up Chin Up and You. May. Die. In.The. Desert etc). Whilst I can’t recall if I wrote that they were particularly special or even competent at the time, it would be considerably difficult for anyone to come up with music which is as good as what they called themselves.

As we all love lists here are a few bands with cool names that make cool music; Sonic Youth, Sun O))), Die! You Bastard, Big Star, American TV Cops. Some bands with crap names who make good music; The Fall, Vampire Weekend, The National.

As for bands who have both crap names and make crap music you can’t go wrong with the rule of thumb that any band with a four letter name is inherently shite; Blur, Ride, Lush… and Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you the absolute paragons of this rule…Muse.

Where do you think that Elf Power falls into this all of this? 

Part of the Elephant 6 collective from Athens, Georgia, Elf Power have been around since 1994 and this track is taken from one of their early albums. They’re kind of lo-fi, indie, concept-albumish. 

Kind of. 

But there’s something a lot more under that surface. They’ve ploughed their own furrow and even though lo-fi and indie are now terms of ridicule and abuse, I do like their ramshackle approach. The thing is, I am unsure if I’d like them as much if they had a four letter name rather than Elf Power. 

Branding; that what it all boils down to.

Get "Totally Shuffled" as  Kindle book here :

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Totally-Shuffled-Listening-Music-Broken-ebook/dp/B00CJYZ3CA 

or as paperback! here: 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Totally-Shuffled-Listening-Broken-iPod-/dp/149495687X 

 

Totally Shuffled extract- A Sudden Sway

extracted from "Totally Shuffled; A Year of Listening to Music on a Broken iPod"...

January 27^th

A Sudden Sway-Dance of Joy-To You With reGard E.P.     

Rumbelows were an electrical retail chain pre-Dixons/Comet/PC World etc. They sold stuff like irons, fridges, cookers and the like. They were mired deeply in the post war 50’s-70’s retail style. Their store in Liverpool was spread over three floors and was full of the technological wonders of the age; deep-fat fryers, Sodastreams and Breville sandwich toasters. (The store in Liverpool was actually the old NEMS store from which Brian Epstein launched his career).

In the basement of the store there was still a record department. This was distinctly old-school. You could still see where old listening booths had been back in the NEMS days. If you wanted a record by, say Vera Lynn, then you fully expected to be asked if you would prefer it as a 78 or on wax cylinder. 

Anyway, in 1982, Rumbelows decided to shut the Liverpool store and as part of an intense closing down “everything-must-go” sale over about two weeks they attempted to make the best of a bad situation by selling all the records off at low prices. They were that desperate to get rid of everything that it evolved over these two weeks into a musical jumble sale. Prices were slashed day by day, to the eventual ridiculousness of one price in the morning and a lower one in the afternoon. By the end you could haggle and name your own price. 

I kept bumping into friends in there at random times, and we were all trying to get records at the lowest price possible. Matters reached levels of absurdity if we were all after the same record. We started to hide it in the racks so it couldn’t easily be found by each other, in order you could return at a later date when the price had dropped. (I remember hiding Neil Young’s “After the Goldrush” within the M-S section so that my friend Andy wouldn’t see it reduced to £1.49 and hoping it would have plummeted to less than a quid when I went back later. It did, and I got it for 79p. Sorry, in retrospect, Andy).

There was no such hunt for A Sudden Sway’s “To You With reGard” E.P. though, but there should have been. That there was such an esoteric record being sold next to hairdryers and four-ring hobs defies all understanding. 

It had been released on such a small independent label and had had little or no press coverage. I think that there was a tiny four line review in one of the music weeklies and I never even heard it on the John Peel show. 

It was a mystery, an audio piece of driftwood, the fact that it had ended up filed beside Paul Simon and Sister Sledge in an electrical retail shop. Unless you were actively looking for it, it could have stayed there for years, as the sleeve was so nondescript. It was a 4 track 12” E.P. in a murky blue matt sleeve. The name of the band was in small print and the only artwork was a strange white line drawing of a weird character (a wizard-y type I think).

I’d never heard anything by A Sudden Sway until I got back home and listened to it. 

Even now, after 30 years it still is a totally unique record. I would not know how to categorise it-avant-garde, progressive, dance-y, poppy. Hummable, ethereal, melodic and mysterious. I searched high and low on the internet for a copy of it for years after I foolishly sold my copy. After a decade of being online, I finally found an mp3 of it and for once, it lived up to the reputation I had given it. This is truly a classic record and should have been a massive hit. 

The fact that it wasn’t means it counts for so much more.      

"Totally Shuffled" here as a Kindle e book

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Totally-Shuffled-Listening-Music-Broken-ebook/dp/B00CJYZ3CA 

and here in a paperback

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Totally-Shuffled-Listening-Broken-iPod-The/dp/149495687X