bevester

What the fuck are we all doing on this bus? What makes us persist with this drab demeaning dehumanizing routine day after day? It's dark, has been since I clocked off. When I left my kids this morning it was barely dawn. I think my face has seen about 15 minutes of direct sunlight all day, most spent in half-light at the bus stop this morning awaiting the first act of the day's cattle train express. It is all an act. A sick show. A sideline to real life, awaiting real life to begin, to be won, to be earned (literally). Have any of us seen this real life, or did we miss it? Did any one of us on this state sponsored conveyer belt enjoy even 5% of what we did today? I mean really enjoy. Even kinda enjoy. It's a trap, a ploy, a ruse. We're all making money for someone, all being dangled enough of a carrot to keep us "happy". All up to our scared skinny necks in debt, all waiting 'til it gets easier. While we wait we get comfy and dig our selves a bigger hole. Hard to leave when it's so nice in. Just stay a while longer, a repreive from the tyrants, a reward for our suffering, a chance to just stop. C'mon, stay. It's so nice in.

I'm not here, this isn't happening

Headin' to work, bit before 7, fuckin' dark and fuckin' cold. This is what the daylight savings naysayers are on about... They're wrong of course, i'll take light at night over light in the morning anyday. Too sleepy to appreciate the stinkin' morning anyway.

What is this, norway?

Do you think Last.fm is struggling with the revised daylight savings end date in Australia this year?

Daylight savings blues

Top Artists this Week (see more)

23 Mar 2008 – 30 Mar 2008

4	1		Nine Inch Nails	151
1	2		The Black Crowes	100
1	3		Eric Clapton	86
	4		The Raconteurs	38
1	5		The Beatles	33
3	6		David Bowie	12
2	7		Eddie Vedder	11
	7		Dead Meadow	11
12	7		Iron Maiden	11
10	7		Radiohead	11

It's been too long since I had time to put my weekly chart up, or indeed, felt it was interesting enough to do so.  It's been a bit samey for a while.  I really enjoyed my music this week, so here's how it played out.

This week sees the atmospheric, creepy, totally instrumental 'Ghosts I-IV' from Nine Inch Nails grab the top spot, with a bit of 'Year Zero' thrown in the mix. 'Ghosts' is the new album that Reznor has released totally online without a record company.  Building on the Radiohead model, he lets you download 'Ghosts I' for free (about 9 tracks) or the whole 36 tracks for $5.  You get a PDF booklet plus plenty of wallpapers too.  That's a good deal.  I paid $5.  I don't regret it, and I have a warm fuzzy for not downloading it illegally.

Black Crowes.  Seeing them live this week.  Love the new 'Warpaint' album, and have been throwing on the old ones too in preparation.  They simply are one of my favourite bands of all time.  They're cool, their influences are cool, they do what they want and they in turn do things to me.  Never seen them live before, they haven't been to our shores since the early 90s I believe, so it's gonna be one spiritual evening (thanks Axeman).

Clapton.  Those 86 plays are entirely due to '461 Ocean Boulevard'.  Had it on vinyl for ages, but my vinyl lives out in the garage due to too many children vs not enough rooms in the house, so I don't play them much.  Got a digital copy of this one, and I simply can't get enough.  It surely must be second only to his Derek & The Dominos album in amazingness, although, that's a big call I know.  And I love the song title 'Willie & The Hand Jive' ;-)

New Raconteurs seems good, loving Bowie's 'Aladdin Sane' all over again, Beatles have got a running mainly with 'Rubber Soul' and the White Album. 

Good week, good tunes.

The Beatles at Twickenham Film Studios

A bit of Beatles history to bring us all up to speed for this here post. The album 'Let It Be' came out in 1970 and was the final Beatles album to be released. However, it wasn't the final album to be recorded -- it was actually the result of some aborted recording sessions at Twickenham Studios and elsewhere which took place before the sessions that became Abbey Road (their true final album). These aborted sessions were unpleasant due to the surroundings, the filming that was going on (paul's idea was to make a movie of the sessions) and nasty in-fighting. Some songs were reworked and ended up on Abbey Road, but those that weren't/didn't were given to Phil Spector to turn them into an album, which became 'Let It Be', and which was released just after the Beatles split was announced.

This was a nasty time in Pepperland, as Paul was suing the rest of them and the split wasn't pleasant in general. John was the only one really involved in any way with Phil Spector's work on 'Let It Be' and Paul especially objected to what was done to his songs. Lavish string arrangements were added to 'The Long And Winding Road' and 'Let It Be' which wasn't what Paul wanted (it was Phil "wall of sound" Spector though...it can't have been a total surprise).

Cut to a few years ago and the album is re-released using a completely stripped-back un-Phil'd mix. Called 'Let It Be...Naked', it largely served as a vehicle for Paul McCartney's songs to have the strings removed. Thus, for the majority of the album any differences were hard to spot and the whole thing seemed like a largely unnecessary stroking of Paul's ego. I think I listened to it twice and put it away.

Looking for some Beatles to play the other night, I didn't feel like their other stuff so I chucked it on. Largely, it confirmed what I already thought, but then I listened closely to John's 'Across The Universe' and found a real gem. The original Spector version has strings, ascending 'whoa whoa' male choral lines and a tinny sound, but this 'naked' version has a real warmth and honesty to it. You can almost hear the genesis of the song with the clear acoustic strumming and intimate vocal sound.

Perhaps still not reason enough for the album's existence, but a pleasant find nontheless, and reminiscent of John's very beautiful, very posthumous 'Acoustic' album of recent years (but luckily without Yoko's awful "production" which near ruins that album but for the songs). Here they are for comparison, see which you prefer.

Across The Universe

The Beatles

Across the Universe

The Beatles

This is a photo of a booger. It is stuck to a toilet cubicle wall. This toilet cubicle wall is not in a shopping mall or other public place. Rather, it is in my workplace. Societal norms would suggest that this is not the most appropriate for an unwanted nose turkey. Nor is it the place to cultivate an army of nose turkeys, on every stall wall, beside the urinals, probably under the very toilet seat i'm sitting on.

Boogerman, we're getting closer to you, you dirty motherfucker. This cannot continue.

Boogerman strikes again

Top Artists this Week (see more)

17 Feb 2008 – 24 Feb 2008

–	1		Iron Maiden	196
	2		Radiohead	39
	3		British India	27
	4		Opeth	26
3	5		Robert Plant & Alison Krauss	18
	6		Bruce Dickinson	17
	7		Monster Magnet	14
	8		Ramones	10
	8		Black Mountain	10
	10		Joy Division	9

A far more sensible chart than last week, but clearly I have not yet overcome my addiction, following on from the fucking amazing Maiden concert a couple of weeks ago.  In fact, on Thursday last week I FORCED myself to put something else on, even though I saw no need to.  Since then, I've only kept 3 Maiden albums on my PDA, so there's been a much more even spread.

Opeth's a new one for me, recommended by Mendosus now that I seem to have conquered my death-metal-growl phobia.  Dark new musical doors are open, much to my wife's chagrin ;-)

British India were recommended by my wife, and I'm really enjoying them.  They've got a real Arctic Monkeys vibe, but they're from Melbourne.  They've got those great frenetic rockin' riffs and they make you wanna move about, something best not done in public my yours truly in any form other than foot tapping.

Next week should be a more balanced affair...