devolute.net

I like Banksy. Okay, sometimes it feels like everything he does is “a pathetic cry for help” but it’s a consistently funny pathetic cry for help. His latest stunt? Replacing copies of Paris Hilton’s new album with a doctored copy. 500 copies apparently, spread across the UK. The changes are a little less than subtle but he’s left the original barcode on so they can still be purchased. The music has been replaced by a basic beat and some choice Paris Hilton ‘catchphrases’. The cd cover and inlay are all doctored and include Paris with a dogs head and some choice wording, my favourites being “Every CD you buy puts me even further out of your league” (qft!) and “Why am I famous? What have I done? What am I for?” Poor Paris. She is taking rather a bit of flak recently. I wonder why that is? Jealousy over her fortune? Her well-photoshopped good looks? Musically I’ve heard worse pop-music but maybe she just personifies all that people hate about the current state of celebrity? Hey, I guess this means Jennifer Lopez can continue unchecked now then.

Picture shown is not the Banksy job, I should warn you that his is a little NSFW. More details in the Indie and thanks to Flickr user Sharl for this wonderful set where you can see Banksy’s alterations in the flesh (as it were).

I’ve just returned from a terribly pleasant weekend in Manchester. It’s a city that’s tantalisingly close, yet is just far away enough from me to be inconvenient to visit. A pal of mine, Ste, is a resident and like me is a recent graduate from the University of Hull. He (or perhaps more accurately; his unbelievably accommodating parents) were kind enough to put me up all weekend (or should that be ‘put up with’?). Aside from visiting Ste, the reason for visits to Manchester usually revolve around one thing: seeing bands.

The band in question this time were biro-artists extraordinaire, ‘Marmaduke Jinks‘. They were friends of Stes, but I’d heard very little of them. Still, they turned out to be one of the most delightful bands I’ve seen for quite a while. I always feel somewhat uncomfortable trying to describe bands by comparison and I know I really shouldn’t do it, but hard cheese. I’m going to; It was all rather Belle & Sebastian meets the Divine Comedy… oh, y’know what? I think I had someone else in mind but I’ve completely forgotten. Sod it. There we go, another clumsy comparison. Regardless, they were pretty damn competent musicians and their songs were genuinely funny. Well, I giggled anyway. I wouldn’t completely rule out some real success, they certainly deserve it (doubly so since we ended up at the bassists house, drinking his beer). Being a fiercely anti-Murdoch sort of chap, I’m not planning of making a habit of this, but here is a link to their MySpace page on which you can listen to some of their songs. Do so. Perhaps whilst sipping some red wine and nibbling on a bit of camembert. That’s a serving suggestion by the way.

The rest of the weekend involved meeting some of the lovely, friendly, but perhaps the slightest bit crazy, folk of Bury. I’ve been a bit nomadic recently (Gloucestershire, Derby, Nottingham), where next? I feel the mighty H calling again….

I’m free! Well, I mean I’ve finally finished my exams. I’ve made it through university which is pretty much a shock to everyone I think. The exams went okay, here’s hoping they let me graduate! The end of last week has been rather a blur and it cumulated with a night out at Funky (which was held at the Welly Club) where the seemingly conjoined ‘Mr Beasley’ also performed. It was the best night out I’ve had for a while, but to be honest I’ve had so few nights out for a while, what with the exams and all. Me and my co-horts danced it up to the max and one of my friends decided (against my advice) to show off her party trick. This showcases her magnificent sense of balance by placing a full pint of lager on her head. Fortunately the glass didn’t smash as it (predictably) fell to the ground and we were just left with a moderately sodden dance floor. Still, it’s impressive when it works! I’m going to be looking at jobs this week and getting my PHP up to scratch in order to hopefully enhance my employability. It’s nice to know that as I’ve been studious, the rest of the world has carried on as normal:

According to Pitchfork the latest Fall tour has ‘Descended into Chaos’. Ah, M.E.S. is playing up and God’s in his heaven, all’s right with the world! Actually, placing the blame at the foot of Mark E Smith is somewhat unfair this time; his only mistake was to let the Fall play with some MySpace band plebs whose leader decided to throw a banana skin at him. Apparently he found Smiths behaviour frustrating. Well durr, had he even heard of ‘The Fall’? Was he surprised? Did he expect polite banter and straight-faced professionalism? The Fall went off stage to chants of USA! USA! USA! Seriously, were there any real Fall fans at this gig? You don’t get such behaviour in Manchester. It’s worth reading the full eyewitness report at Pitchfork for such gems as; “MARK E. SMITH a.k.a MR. BURNS”. Bless ‘em.

As I’ve probably said in the past, I love it when people funk up a good bit of Radiohead. This video uses a very cool horn-heavy cover of ‘Just’ (one of my favourite Radioshed songs) and magically animates graffiti found on the streets of London village. Amongst the recognisable streetart is that of Banksy, SpaceInvader and Pure Evil. I think. Either way, it looks and sounds ace. You can download it by ‘save-as’ing the High Quicktime stream.

> Watch Mark Ronson feat. Alex Greenwald – Just

via MetaFilter

Me and a mate of mine, Chris, have always liked At The Drive-in. When the band split, I was upset but at least the products of that split, namely the Mars Volta and Sparta were pretty fruitful. They are two fine bands, however they never managed to encapsulate the raw hardcore energy of ATDI and this was a great shame. Last night we went to see a band that does so many things that were great about ATDI well: The Fall of Troy. They hail from Washington state and are really very similar, which sounds lame but in my opinion they fill a gap that really needed filling since ATDIs 2001 split. They played at Fibbers in York, which is a dinky little place but was perfect for The Fall of Troy. They impressed as much as we hoped and I’m currently enjoying their latest album Doppleganger very much. Also, with song titles like ‘We Better Learn To Hotwire A Uterus‘ it’s pretty clear that they’re not taking themselves too seriously. Although their set was disappointingly short, I’d recommend a look if they play near you.

The Brit awards occurred recently. They’re boring. There were no surprises at all. Napalm Death didn’t perform. Coldplay and fellow pop-misery-fest, James Cucking Funt won 37 awards or something. Chris Martin announced; “You won’t see us at one of these for many years… We won’t see you for a long time, goodbye.” Bare in mind however, that before they released their last album, they also said that they were doing something completely new and that the new album would sound “completely different” to their previous one. Like it or not, this is without a doubt the biggest porkie pie ever. I’m sure these bastards will be hanging round for ever. At least someone had the decency to display a fitting tribute. Somewhat childish use of the word ‘poo’ perhaps, but pretty much completely on point. Taking lectures on Fair Trade off these Clear Channel money-spinners, is like taking advice on race-relations from Hitler.

> View the fitting tribute in question at the Wooster Collective

Saw a band last night; Nine Black Alps. It was a worthwhile trip. One of the mates I went with said he was reminded of Nirvana. A lazy comparison, but not a completely unreasonable one. Either way, they rocked. They played unpretentious, downright enjoyable grunge-rock. I’d only heard their 5-track EP before and a couple of the songs from that turned out to be probably the best of the evening; I’m pretty sure they played ‘Cosmopolitan’ twice. I’m told they said some pretty funny things about the beautiful scenic river that flows through Hull as well, although I missed that due to me being somewhat deaf.

Obviously I have a complaint. Not with the bands, they obviously put full effort into the whole evening, but with the venue. The gig was held at Hull University Union. This has never been the best place for a band to perform but hey, it’s what we’ve got. However the management seem determined to make a bad situation worse. They split the venue across two rooms and you weren’t allowed to buy or consume alcohol in the same room as the bands played. Now, I can get through a gig without drinking, but this just encourages people to miss the support acts and only pay attention once the main band starts to play. I can’t see this being welcoming for any bands which visit (which isn’t many, unfortunately). Maybe they just hate live music?

Also worth a quick mention; this weekend I saw d+b star High Contrast dj at the ever excellent Funky. I danced. Like a loon. As per usual. Brilliance.

Freedom of speech is a beautiful thing. I’m not an expert on the details; while I know it means you can’t be stopped from using your voice to express your point of view; though I’m not so sure about using someone else’s.

RX seems to be of the opinion that it’s fair play, and given the results, I’ll go along with it. Though there’s plenty of mashups of George W Bush speeches this is the first time I’ve heard him cover Grandmaster Flash’s “White Lines” or “Imagine”. Give it a listen, they’re all free.

Make sure you give “Dick is a Killer” and “Let’s Get Fucked Up” a listen.

[edit: Dick is a killer seems better since Cheney got a bit handy with a shotgun -Ian]

> Visit thepartyparty.com to listen to RX’s work

This show has been making a tour of the blogs and I feel compelled to mention it here. Zoe is only 15 and hell, she has better musical taste than most of my friends of any age! I remember when I was that age I didn’t have anything like the range of tastes that she does. Maybe thats down to the ‘mp3 generation’. Theres something here for any music fan; Kanye West, The Books and Deerhoof were all in the last show I listened too. Lets hope that she keeps the broadcasts up this year (note; there is no way I’m using the phrase ‘podcast‘.)

> Visit zoeradio.com to listen

Ah! Pitchforkmedia! Like the NME it’s a brilliant place for music news, yet we like to moan about their pretentious musical twit-snobbery as much as is humanly possible. The sort of thing we love to hate! We treat those we love the worst though don’t we? Admittedly, I do eagerly await their annual top 50 albums. I was expecting to be writing a big bitching session right now, but some of my top albums (like Deerhoof and M.I.A.) appear in the top ten. More importantly the two almost universally over-rated ‘indie’ albums of the year; ‘Silent Alarm’ by Block Party and the yawn-tastic ‘X&Y’ by Coldplay are missing from the top of that list. So I begrudgingly say “hurrah Pitchfork”. Ugh. I’m going to go and take a shower.

> The Pitchforkmedia top albums of 2005

Went to perhaps one of the finest gigs in quite a while last night. The Hull  Adelphi played host to the ‘anti-folk‘ New Yorker; Jeffrey Lewis and some of the ‘Artists Against Success‘. Jeffrey Lewis was brilliant. He combined some brilliant rock with humour and education (I kid you not).

He’s really quite a talented comicbook writer/drawer/whatever and he used this in his on-stage ‘music videos’. He flicks through his large drawings and tells a tale about them as he goes along. The highlight for me was the story of Mark E. Smith and The (Mighty) Fall. He gave us all a brief history of punk rock and despite managing to sound a little bitter about the whole Clash/Sex Pistols thing, it was very funny and most educational.

The first band to play were the ever-so-slightly-terrifying Cracktown. They bordered on the hillarious and muchos respect is deserved for incorporating darlek-like vocals into the act. The other bands that performed were completely new to me. The first band was The Frankie Machine was really music to kill yourself to, but they were pretty good and managed to make an inappropriate joke about children. Don’t ask. But I did laugh. The Hector Collectors comprised of one Glaswegian chap. Despite most of the songs seeming to be about looking round high-street shops and watching naff daytime telly, he was pretty funny. Especially as he seemed to spend the gig staring at my friend sitting infront of him. If you want Robs number Mr. Hector Collector, I’d be happy to  provide it I got the feeling that each of MJ Hibbetts songs were a desperate cry for help but when he played “Hey Hey 16k” (the games you get today/ they might be very flash / but they’ll never beat the thrill / of getting through jetpac), an ode to tape-load gaming, it dawned on me that I’d heard this chap before at b3ta. A cult-geek classic then. Always nice to hear.

links:

Jeffrey Lewis

The Frankie Machine

The Hector Collectors

MJ Hibbett

thisisull.com article on Cracktown

The Hull Adelphi