Week in Music and More September 7 - 13th

I interviewed John Higgs for the latest Etcetera ETC With Young Southpaw podcast this week. Great conversation. Recently read his 'Stranger Than We Can Imagine: An Alternative History Of The 20th Century' and loved it. Really looking forward to delving into 'Watling Street' and 'The Future Starts Here'. Recently there was a reissue of his book about the band TC Lethbridge, written before they'd ever played a gig. I really dig that opening ROCK riff:

Matthew Reed Baker tweeted about Can's 'Future Days' which had me throwing the album on, and this bootleg. And thinking how wonderful it must have been to have made this music.

Mostly stuck in my head this week is Carla Easton's fantastic POP song 'Never Knew You'. First time I heard this, I looked up to see if my computer hadn't suddenly started playing Taylor Swift. Infectious chorus. Great video too

Realized that although I had bought John Higg's KLF book when it came out in 2012, I had never finished it. I'd read about 80% of it back then but I decided to re-read the whole thing this week. Excellent stuff. Such an insane, fantastical, and inspiring story. Spent some time watching the old KLF videos too. 'Stand By The JAMS' stuck in my head too:

And their performance at The Brits in 1992. Oh man. So amazing that something like that would ever happen at a music industry event

Diana Rigg's passing really hit me hard. She was just so wonderful. Iconic as Emma Peel and Tracey Draco/Bond, and as herself, watching interviews with her, her spirit was just so...well, wonderful. She will be missed. I watched the one episode of her 1973 US sitcom 'Diana' on YouTube - if anyone has the others, I'd like to see them - and these fun and insightful tv interviews. 

I started reading Kathleen Tracy's biography of her too, which I had picked up at The Iliad bookshop in LA right before lockdown. 

With so much Avengers on my mind, Honor Blackman & Patrick Macnee's 'Let's Keep It Friendly' has been stuck in my head too. 

I had a dream last night that Martin Newell had a new song that used the same chords and feel as Hanoi Rocks' '11th Street Kidz' and it was as EXCELLENT as that sounds. It kind of morphed into 'Cheyenne' when I woke up and that was stuck in my head most of the early part of today.

Then L-Space posted about favourite songs not in English and I listed 7 right off the bat. There's tons, and I was very pleasantly reminded of this Nina Brodskaya song from the 1973 screwball Russian comedy 'Ivan Vasilievich: Back to the Future'. Such a fantastic pop song, full of spirit, longing, and drive.

Been way into Aquirax Uno again lately. His illustrations are full of wonder and very aesthetically pleasing to me

Read a very good article on Thomas Pynchon's 'Vineland' by Peter Coviello

And this great interview with writer/illustrator Matt Kindt, whose work I've been a fan of for years, especially recently with 'Ether'

Week In Music August 31st - September 6th

First up this week for getting stuck in my head, hitting home more and more as the years go by, is The Melting Ice Caps' 'Selfish Bachelor'. The original, fully orchestrated version which unfortunately isn't on the internet, but there is a live performance of something close to it from 2010

I interviewed Carla Easton for this week's Etcetera ETC With Young Southpaw episode. Her 'Weirdo' is currently my pop album of the year. It's fantastic; enormous energy, huge sound. My favourites switch all the time, which is one of the signs of a great album. 'Never Knew You' is amazing, great video too. On my first listen to the whole record, I looked up during the first verse to see if my device hadn't started playing Taylor Swift for some reason. 

Most stuck in my head this week has been Blast Off Country Style's 'Cutie Pie'. Which was the first song I heard when I turned on college radio when I got to college. Went straight down to Newbury Comics and bought the cd. Incredibly catchy and fun. 

Fightmilk have a new single out. Need I say more?

Bought that, the Illuminati Hotties album, and Honeyblood's 'Killer Bangs' single on this last Bandcamp Friday.

Downloaded all the texts from my friend Andy who passed away last week. 262 pages since November 2018 when I switched to iPhone. Looking forward to grabbing all my old phone's messages when I get back to them. When I was driving cross country in February, rushing to meet up with him in Phoenix for the day and a half he'd be there, I mentioned I had listened to 120 Lucksmiths songs one day in the car. He'd never heard them but I was sure he'd appreciate them. He asked me to send him their best song so I sent him 'There Is A Boy Who Never Goes Out'. He said it was 'pretty good' but then YouTube starting playing him The Beths and he got REALLY into them. Loved 'em. So I listened to their album again which is pretty great. I love the sound of their guitar lead lines.

Then yesterday I woke up with a song stuck in my head and I was wondering how I was ever going to remember what it was. This dismayed me but I remembered I emailed a friend about it sometime in the past year and if it came down to it, I could go through all our old emails. Luckily it didn't come to that and I finally placed it as 'Come In You'll Get Pneumonia' by The Easybeats. It's basically one big great chorus

Today I woke up with Diane Coffee's 'Like A Child Does' stuck in my head and it has stayed

Week In Music August 17th-23rd

Digging Carla J. Easton's new high energy tunes. I've been a fan since TeenCanteen, interviewed her for The Counterforce podcast in 2018 for her first solo album. New solo record out this week. Looking forward to it. The first couple days of this week no music was really stuck in my head. Then I heard 'Weirdo'

The tune features Honeyblood. A name I knew but hadn't really heard anything by. So I went and listened. 'Killer Bangs' is my favourite from what I've heard so far. Excellent chorus.

And Stina's solo My Light Shines On performance is great. What a voice

I follow Carla's brother Murray on Twitter . He posts a lot of good stuff and on Friday posted Andy Bell (Ride)'s new single and an interview with Andy on his blog. Digging the single. Catchy and sounds like it could've come out in the early 90s, which is good by me

I interviewed Steve Kilbey from The Church for my ETC podcast last week. Had a great conversation. He played a great new tune on his weekly Instagram show called 'Tantric Hammer'. 

Steve also covered a bit of 'Crimon & Clover' which got that stuck in my head. I've always liked the Joan Jett version.

Mostly stuck in my head this week was Taylor Swift's 'betty', which, along with 'mirrorball', is my favourite from the new album

And I'm re-watching Letterkenny. So good. Letterkenny and Wodehouse are really what have kept me going this year, still being able to laugh. Glen's "Christian post-alt-rock emo superband" at the talent show is fantastic