Yesterday I made a 'music-card'. I thought of giving it to mum with three cd's with live Ulf Lundell music. But I might save it and give it to my friend Linda a long with some new music. She really need some (new) music after she split with her boyfriend and he took with him most of the music they had.

The quote on the card is from Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr and it says: Take a music bath once or twice a week for a few seasons and you will find that it is to the soul what the water-bath is to the body.  Oh so true!

I've taken some music baths lately. First I dived into Maria Mena's newest album Cause and Effect and I fell deeply in love with it. It's wonderful. i think it might be her best so far! Some say she's too personal and I can agree with that to some extent, but still - it's very beautiful.

Now I'm really into Bo Kaspers Orkesters's latest album 8. It's their 8th album, hence the title. At first I wasn't too found of it, I was a bit disappointed. But it has grown on me. The songs keep getting better and better. It's not as good as their last album 'Hund', but good! I told you that they are coming to play in Oslo. i think it's early november. i think I need to go see them - just need to find someone to go with. I asked Linda, but she refused since she almost hate them. haha. I didn't know that. So I'm thinking of asking her brother. We've talked about it, but we never decided anything.

Other new music is Oasis news album. I haven't had the chance to listen to it that much. Only had one listen. Sounds promising. Last month I bought Q. They had a Oasis special - 50 pages about them. You could choose if you wanted the cover with Liam or Noel. Pretty cool. Very interesting to read the interviews about the crazy Gallagher brothers. Can't say I like their personalities that much, but the music they create is great.

Last new album is Travis - Ode to J. Smith (or something like that, too lazy to look it up). I haven't heard it at all yet, so I can't say much about it. Travis is coming to Oslo too. I wanna go.... Can't buy any tickets now, doesn't have any money for that. And there is a artist I think I would like to see more than Travis and that is the swedish rapper Timbuktu. Saw him in Stockholm summer of 07. He's great!! Ellen wants to go too. So if there are tickets left when we get our salery, I think we'll order tickets.

Me and Ellen went to see the Lemonheads last monday. Cool, but a bit strange concert. At least the ending. They played for about an hour. Not long if you ask me, but whatever. After 45 mins, the band left - the lead singer Even Dando was left. He sang some songs alone for 15 mins, then the light flashed in our eyes and he left withou saying anything. And then the concert was over. I was like WTF?  Not sure I will go see them again, but it was cool to have seen them. The support band Racoon, from the Netherlands, were great. When the lead singer found his harmonica, I was sold. heh.

From music to photography... I've delivered the photographes to mum and her colleague got them today. She was very happy and liked them a lot! That's good to hear. Now I'm waiting for a new assignment... but I don't have any. Sigh.

The weather has been so unstable these last days. On sunday it was lovely, but yesterday and today has been clouded and so-so. No nice light to catch. You can't go shooting in grey weather. I bet that the weather will be great tomorrow when I don't have time to go shoot. After work I'm gonna meet Ellen. We're gonna go eat some chineese food and then go see Wall*E. Will be out all day, be home way too late and dead on thursday.

It's late. I should go to bed right now. I should've been in bed long time ago. But I can't seem to get things right. Sigh. But that's a whole another story and I'm not going to start on that.

Next time...

Klingt irgendwo zwischen Beatles, Lemonheads und so Songwritersachen. Sind auch diese Tage grad in .de am touren. Dienstag in Hamburg, im Molotow. Hmm, hmm. Ne Konzert-Exkursion wäre ja schonmal wieder was feines, eigentlich...

Gibt's bei myspace, last.fm und auf der ihrer eigenen Seite sslyby.com.

This song comes from the album "It's a shame about ray" by the Lemonheads.

I'm starting with this song as it fits (seen as i'm just back from Berlin and thought about the song while flying there) It was the time i went to a German college in Ennis, for which i won a scholarship to attend (i was a smart ass with the German language back then). I was 16, my first time going anywhere on my own and had to spend 3 weeks at this place. I had a great time, even though it did feel like jail, as we couldn't leave the school and could only speak German.

So anyway, one of the girls i got friendly with introduced me to the Lemonheads. I bought their album, "Its a shame about Ray", of which i still have, actually i have the cover of it, i lost the cd :(

Premier à monter sur scène, Tahiti Boy nous livra un set plus qu’honorable autour de compositions pop nous rappelant que la beauté s’exprime avant tout par la simplicité. Je suis impatient d’écoute son album.

Ensuite, ce fut le tour de Pivot, un groupe australien, qui a du rendre sourd bon nombre de kangourous tant ses morceaux surement très élaborés n’eurent malheureusement comme effet que de me faire regretter de ne pas avoir pris de boules Quiès.

Puis, les Futureheads prirent la scène d’assaut et furent sans nul doute les électrochocs  de cette soirée. J’eu l’impression d’écouter les Jam en accéléré. Une vraie claque comme je n’en avais pas pris depuis longtemps. Ah la prude Albion est décidément une bien belle telle musicale….

Enfin, après une certaine attente voire une attente certaine, Evan Dandon et ses nouveaux musiciens enchainèrent les titres qui firent les beaux jours des Lemonheads durant les années 90. Mais, la magie ne fut malheureusement pas présente. En effet, dès les premières minutes, il n’y eu plus aucun doute, Evan Dando n’avait pas mis à profit son break de plusieurs années pour régler ses vieux démons. C’est donc avec une voix éraillée, cherchant ses mots voire même ses accords qu’il nous apparu. J’essaya tant bien que mal de penser à ces petits bijoux finement ciselés que j’avais en tête en venant au concert mais je ne pu assister à ce massacre plus longtemps. C’est donc l’âme en peine que je quitta la salle avant la fin de cette triste prestation. Certains m’ont répondu sur un autre blog que c’était là une constante dans la carrière d’Evan Dando et que cela faisait partie de la beauté de l’artiste, sorte de loser magnifique… à chacun sa part de vérité. 

The Lemonheads' singer, Evan Dando, was the indie-rock pretty boy of the early 1990s.  He dated Winona Ryder.  He dated, but supposedly and infamously did not sleep with, Juliana Hatfield.  Kathleen Hanna wrote a weird zine about his fame.  He appeared in People magazine's list of the 50 most beautiful people.

And then he became a crack addict.  Good-bye slacker sexpot fame!

The following cover of "Mrs. Robinson" was released in tandem with the video release of The Graduate.  Supposedly, the band hated it and didn't want it to be released.  But why then shoot a video?  Why record it in the first place?   If they hated it, I completely understand.  I hate, hate, hated this version when it came out.

... On the other hand, I just listened to it, and I don't find it as offensive as I once did.  Am I just nostalgic for the early 1990s?  Or have I heard it so many times that I have succumbed to its sound?

I've been on Blogfresh Radio a few times in the past, and always enjoyed the experience. I used to chat to Bill Pearis, which was always fun, but he's moved on now. These days when I talk to them it's with a chap called Dev Sherlock who has proved to be just as much fun to chat to as Bill. A little too much fun actually - it seems to be traditional that when I talk to Blogfresh I prattle on endlessly for fucking ages, and then they face the unenviable task of trying to cut it down to a concise minute or so. Poor bastards - still, someone's got to make them work for their money.

Anyhow, in addition to the more usual approach where a blogger chats a little bit to introduce a song they're really enjoying at the moment, Blogfresh have very kindly done a profile on Song, by Toad on their latest show. There's inevitably vanity at play here, of course there is, but I am nonetheless really chuffed that they decided to feature this blog on their recent show. It's nice because I like what they're doing, and they're nice people. So go an listen and make a point of listening regularly. Their shows are short and sweet, unlike my rambling dispatches, and give you a really good taster of what's going on on the blogs that week. It's weird to hear a blogger's actual voice, because sometimes I'd imagined something entirely different, but rather cool nonetheless.

In other news, I am back on Fresh Air Radio (click on the Listen Live thingy) this weekend. I have two shows, Saturday 12-2pm and Sunday 2-4pm both this weekend and next.  So if you want to hear me successfully managing to not swear - no seriously, it happens - tune in.  It's Freshers Week at the uni as well so I might concentrate on a bit of an introduction to the Edinburgh music scene, and also play some songs from my own time as a first year student. That'll give the game away something chronic about just how bloody old I am but fuck it, why not, it sounds fun. And there's nothing to help people settle down and get over their nerves about being new to a place that finding some silly old fart to snigger at.

Here's a couple that I might well consider:
Lemonheads - Being Around (Acoustic)[audio http://www.matthewjamesyoung.com/sbt/Lemonheads-BeingAround-Acoustic.mp3]
James - Say Something[audio http://www.matthewjamesyoung.com/sbt/James-SaySomething.mp3]

Or my first year in Glasgow:
Gene - Sick, Sober & Sorry[audio http://www.matthewjamesyoung.com/sbt/Gene-SickSoberandSorry.mp3]
Pulp - Common People[audio http://www.matthewjamesyoung.com/sbt/Pulp-CommonPeople.mp3]

1-Van Halen - Oh, Pretty Woman (Roy Orbinson cover)

2-Jeff Buckley - When the Levee Breaks (Led Zeppelin cover)

3-Radiohead - Ceremony (New Order cover)

4-The Polyphonic Spree - Lithium (Nirvana Cover)

5-The Go! Team - Bull in the Heather (Sonic Youth cover)

6-Foo Fighters - Never Talking To You Again (acoustic Husker Du cover on Radio 1)

7-The Lemonheads - Skulls (Misfits cover)

8-Hot Chip - Sensual Seduction (Snoop Dogg Cover)

9-Hooverphonic - Shake The Disease (Depeche Mode)

10-Adrian Van Meter - Mad World (Tears for Fears cover)

BEZZI

Aber dies ist ja ein Musikblog, räusper: Die Alben It's a shame about Ray und Come on, feel zaubern mir immer ein Lächeln auf die Lippen. Kleine feine Songs reihen sich da wie auf der Perlenkette aneinander. Und ich werde bei Evan Dando und den Leomonheads sicher auch noch mit rüstigen 80 an meine werte alte Freundin K. denken, die mich damals mit dem Mini-Kosmos Lemonheads vertraut machte. Was ein Glück.

Für K. hier My drug buddy (ehrlich gesagt waren wir echt ganz harmlos) vom Album It's a shame about Ray, für den Rest der Welt und vor allem für mich Evan mit kurzen Haaren im Video von Big gay heart vom Album Come on, feel.

You may be wondering why he said "two guys" instead of three and it's because singer Robert Plant is finishing up his tour with Alison Krauss.  I think it's safe to assume he'll be joining them once he's back in town.  And if we're already assuming that we may as well go ahead and assume they'll tour.  The reviews from the lone show they played in December of last year were by and large glowing raves.  I surfed in vain for a YouTube video from the show that was of decent quality to add to this post but it turns out cell phone cameras aren't really made for recording quality video at insanely loud concerts.  Depsite this, I encourage you to take a look for yourself some time because it's more than apparent that the old men sounded pretty amazing.  And, by God, this is a reuinon tour I can get behind.  I don't see anything degrading about replacing the late John Bonham with his more than capable son.  That doesn't feel like it's cheapening any legacy to me.  That makes sense.  I honestly don't need a new album from this band...but I would sell my children to see them live.  Somebody make it happen.

Moving on.

Wednesday seems like a good day for something light and fluffy and I think I've got just the number for you.  In fact, it's a number about numbers.  Back in the salad days of nineties alternative rock Atlantic records put out a disc of cool bands doing covers of the songs from Schoolhouse Rock!, called Schoolhouse Rock! Rocks.  You got your Pavement, and Ween, and Lemonheads, and Moby, and Daniel Johnston, and Skee-Lo.  In hindsight, this sounds like a failry terrible idea for a record to me but I bought it at the time mainly because I was a big fan of the band Chavez (who I'll get to some other day, I'm sure).  Unsurprisingly, I can't possibly recommend this disc unless you're a huge Schoolhouse Rock! fan and if you are then I have to imagine you'd prefer the original recordings instead, and also why on earth are you a huge Schoolhouse Rock! fan?  What's that all about?

What did surprise me is that my favorite song by far on this disc was by the band Blind Melon.  I didn't see that coming.  I never minded Blind Melon but I never actually bought any of their albums either.  I'm sure you remember that song "No Rain" with the video with the little girl in the bee costume.  It's catchy enough, just not really my thing.  Not only that, but by the time this compilation came out singer Shannon Hoon had been dead from an overdose almost six months earlier.  Blind Melon was finished as far as I knew.  So, against my own personal snobbery I grew to just absolutely love this version of "Three is a Magic Number."  It's as silly as a song can get, but what can I say?  It makes me want to sing along.  And count.  And those are two things I'm really quite terrible at.

More tomorrow.  3. 6. 9. 12. 18.  Crap!

I went to see Evan Dando play a solo gig at the Dutchess in York the other night. It was an intensely moving experience for me and I was waxing lyrical about it in the office the next day when someone said their friend had been to the same gig and had said how awful it was. Their friend's analysis was that Dando was out of his face on drugs, played sloppy guitar, rushed his songs and had zero interaction with the audience. It's true that he played the first ten songs immediately one after the other (and he did get through a huge number of songs in the set) and that he held no eye contact with the audience, but to be honest this is kind of what I was expecting (having never seen him play before).

For me though The Lemonheads and Evan Dando's songwriting represents some key moments in my youth, especially when it comes to my relationship with my wife (it's out 10 year wedding anniversary today). When the dude sloshed out 'Drug Buddy' I held Nicola's hand, closed my eyes and sang along - it was beautiful because it took us back to being 20 years old and driving across Scotland, where we were living at the time. I'm a guitarist and have always loved played loads of Dando's songs - he's a genius songwriter - and because he played so many songs we even got to hear some of the ones we least expected him to play.
The whole experience was further intensified by the fact that it was my first trip to the new Dutchess in York. The Dutchess was a seminal Leeds indie punk club that broke the best bands, played the best music and served the wickedest Sunday roast ever. Leeds City Council, worshipping Mammon (rather than the soulful youth underground scene which is the real beating heart of Leeds)
kicked the goths out of The Dutchess and turned it into a Hugo Boss store which I've never been inside. Thanks.
After running and recently selling York's premier music venue Fibbers the Dutchess owners have all but recreated the Dutchess over in York, complete with a rubbish black and white TV showing what's on stage, black peeling bubbling paintwork and an appitite for great music.
So while there was someone else in the audience thinking it was rubbish I was blown away, because it meant so much to me.
It's the personal and the meaningful which makes things powerful to us. It's when things really matter that we're touched.

Ann Spencer Gates, a former Boston area disc jockey and later, publicist for Matador Records has died of breast cancer. By all accounts, Gates was above all, a tremendous champion of music.

From the Cambridge Chronicle:

Ann Spencer Gates, of Cambridge, known to her friends as Spencer, died peacefully at home on July 6, 2008, after a courageous two-year battle with breast cancer. Spencer moved to Boston in 1978 from her hometown of Buffalo, to attend Boston University. She quickly fell in love with the Boston music scene, introduced by her brother Peter Gates, already established as a DJ at MIT’s WMBR. In 1981, she and her best friend Sheena (Lisa Buchholz) became hosts of the beloved show “The Mystery Girls” on WMBR, which ran Friday afternoons for 5 years, and was, by Spencer’s own admission, “the most unprofessional thing ever on the radio.” The show featured many of the bands of the city’s burgeoning punk rock scene, including Mission of Burma, Lemonheads, Nervous Eaters, Sorry, and Moving Targets, and was an irreverent Friday afternoon cocktail party on the air, signaling the start of the weekend. Every week they would assume different personas. They were the Mystery Girls, and had the power at will to become the characters they chose. It didn’t matter if they couldn’t quite agree on who they should be or remember who they decided to be. Said Mission of Burma’s Clint Conley, “As a person Spencer was such a gas —so funny, and sassy and tuned in. I was a dedicated listener of her show in the ‘80s — total irreverence, anarchic fun, such a psych hearing them getting all jacked up over the music they’d be checking out that weekend. Thinking of Spencer, I am more convinced than ever that the most inspired part of any cool music scene usually has less to do with the musicians than the musicians would like to think. Unlike shows of the time playing only the punk rock canon, the Mystery Girls played country, blues, and even the odd show tune, as long as it was American and fit their thread. It would not have been unusual to hear Patsy Cline with Flipper, Fear or X. And if they changed their mind, it was equally likely that they’d change tracks mid-song. If someone dared to play a British band or anything else not to their liking, it wasn’t unusual to hear the sound of a needle scratching across a record. They were hostile to structure of any kind. If a guest was perceived as whiny during an interview, Spencer would cut him or her off unceremoniously. It was perhaps the most memorable punk rock radio show of the era. They recruited as their “official phone answerer” Michael Patrick MacDonald, a traumatized Southie punk-kid they’d taken under their wing, who partly recounts his time with them in his book Easter Rising. Said MacDonald, “It didn’t pay but it was the first time I ever felt proud of something I had to show up for. And Spencer and Sheena were immediately my adopted big sisters, introducing me to books, films at the Brattle, and music that expanded the definition of ‘punk.’ “ On most nights, Spencer and Sheena could be found, dressed to kill in cocktail garb, at a club like the late lamented Rat or Chet’s Last Call hosting a party for a touring band who would soon be famous. The Mystery Girls loft in downtown Boston, hosted many legendary after-hours happenings of the time. According to former Lemonheads manager Joyce Linehan, “The paradox of the Mystery Girls was that they were finishing school girls who brought comic civility and good manners to punk rock by being unbelievably uncivil and ill-mannered. Yet it was never mean-spirited, and even the most outcast of the outcasts were a welcome part of the fun.” After leaving Boston, Spencer lived in the apartment above the legendary Hoboken club Maxwell’s, and also spent time in Minneapolis and Los Angeles. She moved to New York in 1988, and later took a job as a publicist at Matador Records, where she worked with Liz Phair, Pavement, Cat Power, Bettie Serveert, The Fall, Mark Eitzel, and Yo La Tengo. After leaving Matador, she was a publicist at Atlantic Records. Eventually disillusioned by an increasingly corporate and less creative music business, Spencer moved to Rhinebeck in 2000, where she worked in retail. In 2005, she moved back to Boston, to the delight of many of her friends, and took a job in Harvard University’s Division of Continuing Education, where she enjoyed working with new students to introduce them to her beloved adopted hometown. When she became too sick to work full time, she took a part time volunteer position in the marketing department at the Huntington Theatre Company in Boston. According to Tom Johnston, manager of Buffalo Tom and Bettie Serveert, “Spencer was one of the greatest, most dazzling people I ever had privilege to get to know. She had great taste, a wicked sense of humor, and was so extroverted that many of the friends I have today, I credit directly to her and her charm and gift of gab.” Since her breast cancer diagnosis in April of 2006 until the final week of her life, Spencer took every opportunity presented to spend time with family and friends, and to go to plays, concerts, movies and other events. In addition to being a fan of music, photography and theater, she was an environmental activist and an animal lover.

]]> http://lmuston.wordpress.com/?p=31 Sat, 28 Jun 2008 07:17:43 +0000 lmuston http://lmuston.fr.wordpress.com/2008/06/28/music-review-evan-dandoray-phiri/ OLD MUTUAL ACOUSTIC ENCOUNTERS (fringe, music, featuring Evan Dando and Ray Phiri until June 29).

WATCHING Evan Dando’s pathetic excuse for a stage act, one can easily understand why his grunge act The Lemonheads disappeared off the radar after a couple of hits in the early 1990s, never to be heard from again.

The American singer keeps his eyes closed almost his entire performance and when he does open them he stares at the ceiling, never making eye contact with the audience.

In fact, Dando may as well have been playing at home alone in his bedroom, because to him the audience didn’t exist, never acknowledging them and not even pausing between songs to allow a moment for applause.

By comparison Phiri was a far more accommodating and inviting performer, joking with the audience and thoroughly enjoying himself.

After each playing individually the two teamed up, but this seemed barely rehearsed, concentration etched on both performers’ faces as they tried to comprehend what the other was doing.

It was one of the most anticipated performance of the Festival … and one of the most disappointing. No wonder two thirds of the audience left.

1. Big fat lemonheads. This has been my favorite candy since the third grade. Give me a lemonhead over anything else!
2. Extra sharp cheddar cheese: melted over homemade whole wheat toast--breakfast, lunch or dinner!
3. Cottage Gardens: hollyhocks, poppies, peonies, bleeding hearts and sunflowers
4. Old Picket fences
5. Iron gates--preferably with a bit of rust or chipped paint. Nothing new-looking for me!
6. Three year olds
7. Blogging--of course, or I wouldn't do it so much, right?
8. Shopping for awesome, never before see items at thrift stores and garage sales
9. Reading: fantasy, history, character driven, classical...
10. Brick pathways with just a tinge of green moss growing over the edges of the bricks
11. Pink houses with white shutters and gingerbread trim
12. People with personality--not just culture or education
13. Hot, rich, strong and creamy coffee with whipped cream on top

See more Thursday 13 lists here...

I was a big fan of The Lemonheads back when they were riding the wave of indie pop fame back in the 1990s. Evan Dando was a poster boy of hunkiness, and he was paired with alt-pop-queen Juliana Hatfield. (Immortalized in the Barenaked Ladies song "Jane" in the line "no Juliana next to my Evan.") I even lived near them in beautiful Allston, MA (although I never saw them). Sarah and I even used "Into My Arms" as the entrance song at our wedding reception.

Having a favorite band disband when they are doing pretty well is always a mixed blessing; obviously you don't want them to break up, but you also don't want to see them descend into badness.

But even weirder is what appears to be the inevitable reunion. So many 90s bands are reuniting for better or worse: Dinosaur Jr, Meat Puppets (although they never really went away), The PIxies (with no album...yet) and even the grandfathers: The Police. I'm not big into the "reunion" thing, as it mostly seems to be just a cash in, and I have yet to get the Dinosaur Jr. record--even though I loved them back then, and I hear it's very good (and I still may get it)--but I had to go for the Lemonheads.

And I'm really glad I did. I regret not getting the solo Evan Dando records that came out (and are now out of print) because it's clear that he hasn't lost a thing. The songs on this record (even though they are not all written by Dando) sound like classic Lemonheads. The main difference is that the guitars are a bit louder, having something of a grunge feel that the Lemonheads never had even during the height of grunge (even though they were punkier on their early releases). The melodies and vocals feel like the Lemonheads, but something about it says "it's been a while and we've learned some new tricks"

Right from the start though, it's like welcoming back an old friend. Dando's voice sounds great. The supremely catchy verse/chorus structure falls right into place, and the lyrics go from funny to vulgar and back. There's not a bad song on the collection. They're mostly short (about 3 minutes) and range from fun rollickers like "Black Gown" and "Poughkeepsie" to darkly countryish "Baby's Home." There's even a few solos by head Dinosaur Jr man J Masics (which of course makes me want to get the new Dino Jr record).

If you were worried about the quality of this reunion, don't be. It makes for a great continuation of the Lemonheads catalog, and sounds like they only took a little time off, rather than TEN YEARS(!)

[READ: March 2008] Stepmother.

I didn't know what to expect about this book when I when I bought it or even when I started it. It is a McSweeney's catalog book, and given the title and the artistic cover I assumed it would be a children's story of some sort. However, after reading the blurb on the back, I realized that it would be far more wicked and more delightful.

This is something of a mythic story. It takes many elements of fairy tales and either turns them on their heads or strips them naked and exposes them. There are three main characters in the story: Stepmother, The Reaper and The Old Soldier. Each of these is a mythic creation; however, Coover plays with our ideas of them. The Reaper is really an old man who has been to every execution in town (which is how he acquired his name). The Old Soldier is a former soldier for the king who was unceremoniously dumped by the king and now tells stories about his conquests (on and off the battle field). And the Stepmother is a kindly woman who takes in stray daughters. However, it seems that every daughter she takes in is destined to run afoul of the kingdom and eventually be executed. While she does her best to save them, using magic and trickery (and some special trinkets from the Old Soldier) the girls cannot really escape fate.

The focus of this tale concerns stepmother's current daughter who, after being rescued from prison, is ultimately captured by the Kingdom's three princes. Their idea is to kill off their dumb, youngest brother (whom they despise) and blame her for it. There is a fascinatingly dirty story about how this transpires (especially dirty given the fairy-tale like atmosphere), and the daughter is set to be executed.

Stepmother's final act is an attempt to rescue her from her fate.

The story was quite short (only 90 pages) but it packed a lot into it. I admit to getting a bit lost from time to time. The story seemed to go into diversionary areas, or at least used langauge that confused the details of the story (such is the nature of fairy tale forests, I suppose). But overall I was very intrigued by the proceedings. I don't think it could have gone on much longer, but I did enjoy it until the end.

Perhaps the best part of the book, however, were the illustrations. Beautiful wood-cut-style art depicting all manner of aspects of the story. The printings were all the more striking for the three colors. I was unfamiliar with the artist, Michael Kupperman, but I'd love to see some of his other work. The cover, also, is quite beautiful.

This was one of McSweeney's earlier releases, when they seemed to pay a lot more attention to packaging than they do now. This is not a criticism of McSweeney's as they do a lot of wonderful, albeit plain-looking novels lately, but those earlier books really looked great.

Ontem (23/04) foi realizada a primeira edição do NME Awards nos EUA. A premiação contou com apresentações do The Lemonheads e do Jane's Addiction, que se reuniu mais uma vez especialmente para a ocasião.

O programa foi exibido via MySpace. No blog do evento há mais informações, principalmente de bastidores. No próprio site da NME, há um link que traz as "fofocas" da festa.

Veja, abaixo, quem foram os vencedores.

Leitores
Melhor banda: The Killers
Melhor artista solo: Albert Hammond, Jr.
Melhor banda ao vivo: My Chemical Romance
Melhor álbum: 'Echoes, Silence, Patience and Grace' – Foo Fighters
Banda revelação: Vampire Weekend
Artista solo revelação: Mark Ronson
Melhor show de banda revelação: Vampire Weekend
Melhor canção: 'Tranquilize' – The Killers
Melhor banda (internacional): Arcade Fire
Melhor artista solo (internacional): Kate Nash
Melhor banda ao vivo (internacional): Arcade Fire
Melhor álbum (internacional): 'Favourite Worst Nightmare' – Arctic Monkeys
Melhor canção (internacional): 'Golden Skans' – Klaxons
Banda revelação (internacional): Klaxons
Artista solo revelação (internacional): Kate Nash
Melhor show de banda revelação: Klaxons

NME
Artista mais inovador: Santogold
Canção mais inovadora: MGMT: 'Time To Pretend'
Disco clássico: Lemonheads, 'It's A Shame About Ray'
Prêmio "Inspiração": Mick Jones
Melhor vídeo: 'D.A.N.C.E.' - Justice
Melhor programa de TV: Heroes

Melhor filme: Juno

Which is why this record was received by a grateful public like a cold beer on a warm day. Shaking aside that it was - and is - brilliant, it looked right. The cover still looks perfect. The band looked great. Evan Dando was a million-dollar movie star in a Gram Parsons t-shirt. It was a perfect summer record. Songs like 'Confetti' and the title track stand up 16 years later as the shimmering pop beauties they are. Sure, it was the cover of 'Mrs. Robinson' that kicked it all off, but it didn't matter what got people to check this album out - once they had, they were hooked.

Looking back, it's still a small (33 minutes) cornucopia of treats. 'Bit Part' is such a smashing little love song with a great lyric ('I want a bit part in your life, a walk on would be fine, rehearsing all the time, for a bit part in your life'. 'Alison's Starting to Happen' sounded like a manifesto to me when I was starting to go to parties and find a taste for sickly substances and sticky girls. (Also, 'Alison's getting her tit pierced, Alison's growing a mohawk' would indeed soon become a template for teen rebellion.)

It wasn't all pop - 'My Drug Buddy' still has one of the most grubbily realistic depictions of scoring I've ever heard ('Is this some of the same stuff we got yesterday?') and apparently the title alone gave CBS a heart attack. The wonky cover of 'Frank Mills' from Hair was a bona fide moment of humour in a rock era almost entirely devoid of it.

So it's back, and rather pointlessly re-issued with the usual raft of 'How It Was Made' booklets and slight extra tracks (if a track wasn't good enough to get on to an album they had to tack a cover version on to the end to get it over half an hour 16 years ago, it isn't good enough now.) But it has been re-mixed, and sounds magnificent. This is either a great nostalgic drive or a trip to a cool new neighbourhood. It makes you regret Dando's descent into drug-crazed joke in the second half of the 90's. Still, highly recommended.

Never Said Nothing

Lemonheads, däremot, har gjort en jävligt underskattad skiva, en av världens bästa popskivor någonsin. Pet Sounds, Revolver och It's a Shame About Ray. Även Ray re-releases. Det ger jag 10/10. Så det så.

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