Inveresk Street Ingrate

Saturday, January 02, 2010

Frontrunners (2008)

Friday, January 01, 2010

Ladies and Gentlemen, The Fabulous Stains (1981)

'Riot, Revolt and Rebellion in the pre-Modern World'

I've yet to watch this video of Gwynn Thomas speaking on the subject of 'Riot, Revolt and Rebellion in the pre-Modern World' from this year's SPGB Summer School, but as someone from Stockholm has just stumbled across the blog after typing 'youtube spgb' into the google search engine, it would be a bit piss-poor of me if I didn't post this video up pronto whilst my tea is steeping:

Enjoy Johannes. You can see the other parts of the talk at the following link.

Hat tip to Rob W and Dave C for making and sharing the video of the talk.

Blood and sand

Absolutely amazing old clip from Ukraine's Got Talent. (I thought I'd be the 10,923,845 viewer of the clip on YouTube before mentioning it on the blog.)

'Sand artist', Kseniya Simonova, tells the story of 'The Great Patriotic War with 'sand animation'. Watch it all the way through. It's worth repeated viewing.

Tony Hart was unavailable for comment but James Donaghy picked up on the performance four months ago on the Guardian website.

Talent triumphed as Kseniya won Ukraine's Got Talent (there's no truth in the rumour that Olg Vernik came third in the final with his simultaneous impersonation of 13 Workers' Internationals), and she has no plans to tour with Susan Boyle but she is chewing over the offer of designing the next Chameleons album cover . . . if they ever reform . . . and if the tittle tattle I make up on this blog ever comes true.

New old music for the New Year

Not enough of you click on the links of the music blogs placed under the Thank You For The Music banner, so a very quick intro to a few of the blogs listed:

Walk Out To Winter - The name of the blog is a giveway. A music blog recently established which is a hymn to singles dating from - but not exclusive to - the period 1978 to 1983. If your musical tastes are for early goth, post-punk and the burgeoning indie scene from that time then this a blog you have to bookmark. I'm guessing the blogger is basically going through their record collection. High Fidelity for the Zig Zag magazine generation.
Consolation Prizes - CP overlaps a bit with WOTW but moves on a few more years and is more rooted in C86 indie pop. The sub-heading marks itself down as dedicated to "guitar pop/indiepop/neo-acoustic/wimp pop/powerpop punk/new wave/post-punk/pre-punk" and, like WOTW again, focuses primarily on singles. A lot of material isn't to my taste but a lot of the bands are new to me. This blog is very much a wee brother to the long established music blog, Take The Pills, which comes out of Brazil, and earned extra brownie points for introducing me to this superb Martin Newell single from 1980 that I hadn't previously come across before.
Moody Places - And it's three in a row for excellent 7" music blogs. I say 7" but Moody Places operating out of Belfast is firmly rooted in the period of the CD single and the multi formatting rip off that we all came to learn to hate in the early 90s. Very much the indie pop kid but his musical tastes are much too eclectic to simply be pigeon-holed as a Brit Pop music blogger. One of the few music bloggers out there who shares my affection for the criminally underrated Diesel Park West. Also check out his sister blog, Grand Passion, which throws up cover version compilations arranged around a particular theme, season or year and can be either 'interesting', left-field or execrable . . . and sometimes all three within the same track if it involves either the Wonder Stuff, Kingmaker or Jesus Jones.
The Post-Punk Progressive Pop Party - Also known as 5P round my way and old favourite that's been mentioned many a time on the blog previously. Still the best place to go on the music blog circle if you're trying to locate dates of releases, record sleeves or *cough* mp3s from the 1978-1984 period. The perfect companion to Simon Reynolds post-punk primer, Rip It Up and Start Again.
Jangle Pop Boutique - Arguably the most obscure of the music blogs mentioned, Jangle Pop Boutique comes from the same mystery music blogger who brought us the excellent Best Kept Secrets blog. Another love letter to obscure jangle pop from the mid-80s period. Bands so obscure that Andy Strickland didn't even namecheck most of them in the sadly defunct Record Mirror back in the day (Though Strickland's Caretaker Race does get a mention on the blog.) With obscure band after obscure band featured on the blog it highlights from that time what was almost a throwback to the punk period with the recurring scenario of four blokes with the same fringe shambling together for the duration of a couple of singles and a feature on a indie compilation record -print run of 500 - only to drift apart in the direction they originally came from. Most of these blokes now have receding hairlines and are now either working in IT or teaching Maths in educational establishments well placed in the school league tables year on year. Take a chance on a music blog who's most famous featured bands are McCarthy, The Close Lobsters and The Boy Hairdressers.

Happy hunting, and feel free to also check out this old post from the blog which very much goes over the same old ground with the same jokes, phraseology and writing everything in threes.

I'm an old blogging dog and I have no new tricks.

Disclaimer Time

This post was written in haste, with no recourse to revision, re-reading or reflection. The typos, spelling mistakes and alliterations are part and parcel of the post and in keeping with the spirit of the music under discussion. Now I'll shamble off in the direction of the kitchen for a cup of tea.

Bulletins over broadway

Weekly Bulletin of The Socialist Party of Great Britain 131

Dear Friends,

Welcome to the 131st of our weekly bulletins to keep you informed of changes at Socialist Party of Great Britain @ MySpace.

We now have 1560 friends!

Recent blogs:

Marx on terrorism and censorship
Is Britain Going Fascist?
Did Jesus ever live?

Quote for the week:

"My dialectic method is not only different from the Hegelian, but is its direct opposite. .... With him it is standing on its head. It must be turned right side up again, if you would discover the rational kernel within the mystical shell." Marx, Afterword to the Second German Edition of Capital, 1873.

Continuing luck with your MySpace adventures!

Robert and Piers

Socialist Party of Great Britain

01/01/10

Ticking over.

To be reviewed again in six months time.

News from the shithouse

Is this response to a recent post on the Socialism Or Your Money Back blog, a strong early contender for blog comment of the year?:

"Thomas More speculated that chamber pots and Lenin that public urinals would be made of gold once money was abolished. Might work because of gold's anti-corrosive properties."

Surely Marx had a view on such weighty matters or did the carbuncles colour his judgement?

On the to do list . . .

New Year's resolutions for the new decade?

Still working on my list from 2006.

Or, rather, I'm still working up to working on my list from 2006. It's a slow process and takes a lot of due consideration.

However, I know one thing about that list: I'm sure I'll learn Spanish before I ever finish that Dave Eggers book. (Daft thing is, is that living in our new neighbourhood I might be better off learning Russian or Hebrew instead.)

I will add one addendum to that wish list that can be acted upon right away. I undertake to get back to publicising the current issue of the Socialist Standard on the blog. I know I've been better in recent months but I really was slacking earlier on last year. Not good. Must do better.