Category: [Music]

The final show (until the next one)?

OOOOH. I’m not particularly thrilled by some of the support acts (so much for Slayer breaking up, too, eh), but if I were able to travel at all I’d be sorely tempted by this. One more go round—avowed “final” shows don’t always turn out that way, do they?—but this time with Bill Ward back in the saddle? Oh my. I’m assuming this means everyone is actually fit for the task, given Bill’s health got in the way of the reformation and tours around 13 and Ozzy hasn’t been a picture of health himself either (though those spinal injuries seem to have been dealt with), and I have a more than sneaking suspicion this could wind up being a slightly sad display of four old blokes pushing a once-great thing beyond the point where they should’ve let it rest… but goddamn, if I were in any position to go to this thing, I absolutely would.

So long Marianne

RIP Marianne Faithfull. Given the life she lived from the late 60s into the 80s, I wonder if she ever imagined she’d eventually live long enough to just die of old age… albeit old age with quite a lot of health complications along the way and not just from the many years of substance abuse. But certainly when she did bounce back from all that, she not only survived but evidently thrived. It was a hell of a life.

RIP Garth

Garth Hudson, second from right in the above photo of The Band, has left us at the age of 87. I was surprised to discover he was actually the last surviving member; either I’d forgotten that Robbie Robertson passed in 2023 or somehow I never got that news. I always loved the story that he only joined The Band on condition that they buy him a new organ and take him on as their “instructor” so that his parents would think he had a real job instead of just hanging out with some rock’n’roll band. Great player, great beard, even better forehead.

Victor’s short on his dough, apparently

It’s quite an arc to go from being annoyed at Trump using “YMCA” at his gatherings to letting him use it and making money therefrom to now being happy to participate in Mushroom Cock’s inauguration. And Victor Willis knows he’s going to piss off a lot of VP fans doing this, cos he admits it… so much for having supported Kamala in the election, eh. Whatever price Victor got for his soul, I hope it was worth it…

The FUCKIN’ songs!

If all else fails this year, and it probably will, we at least got a cracking new episode of “What Makes This Song Stink” from Mr Finnerty… Pat may never quite top the “Kravitz Bowl” video, but this is beautiful in so many ways too. I’d never heard of “Lonely Road” until now, and Jesus fuck it is RANK, a hideous interpolation of a certain John Denver song. It’s the sort of thing that makes me glad I’m mostly out of touch with what constitutes pop music these days. But—and this is truly impressive—it’s actually NOT the worst song featured in the video. There’s actually at least one song in here (that “Chevrolet” nonsense) that sounds even worse. Also, Pat has threatened us with a video about Disturbed’s version of “Sound of Silence”, so THAT’s something for us all to live in terror of if there weren’t enough such things…

Karlheinz Stockhausen at Disneyland

So I’m browsing through someone’s Tumblr archive just now, and one picture catches my eye, and I wonder “is that Karlheinz Stockhausen? And why does that building behind him look like something from Disneyland?”

And that was because it was in fact a picture of Karlheinz Stockhausen at Disneyland, apparently in 1966. Yeah… um… I don’t know what to say about this, other than this is one of the most incongruous things I’ve seen since that photo of Ingmar Bergman inspecting the shark on the set of Jaws. This is a weird head scratcher.

Live music!

Goddamn, I actually LEFT THE HOUSE last night and SOCIALISED! I can barely believe it myself, and yet here is photographic evidence… I don’t do a lot of socialising like this any more, usually when I do go out it’s to a club, and actual live music is something I do even less (last gig I went to was in August last year). But a bunch of friends’ bands were playing at Moshpit in Newtown, so I decided to take the opportunity to go see some people I know at a venue I’d never been to before and give the new phone camera a test drive… click to embiggen.

First up, Moroderhead, who weren’t quite as heavy as their amusing name may suggest, and who only lacked mullets to complete their overall 1986-ness. I was thinking this was the first time I’d seen Alberto not playing as half of Neuropa, but now that I think of it I have very vague memories of seeing him at the Hopetoun in 2006 when he was still doing Junk Circuit as well…

I got this shot of the stage backdrop while waiting for Burnt Souls to start…

…Which they did a few minutes later. Lineup’s changed since I last saw them at the Town and Country a couple (?) of years ago—new guitarist, new bassist, no more drummer—but at least Colin’s still got the tallest hair in the room…

…And finally Sounds Like Winter, who I was mainly there for, cos Ant has also recently reconstituted what he calls “version 3.0” of the band, though the band’s always had a somewhat wobbly lineup including a Spinal Tap-esque revolving door of bassists, so I think “version 3.0” was technically about eight or nine years ago… anyway, whatever number the new arrangement may or may not be, they’ve had a similar change to Burnt Souls (new guitarist & bassist, no drummer) and it sounded good. New album is apparently about half done, so presumably we’ll have that by the end of the year.

RIP Richard Perry

Now here’s a man with a hell of a career. Seriously, just look at that list of production credits… great list of production clients—Tiny Tim, Captain Beefheart, Leo Sayer, Barbra Streisand, Nilsson, Fats Domino, Ringo Starr, a whole bunch more—and a stack of hit songs, plus an eight-year romantic relationship with Jane Fonda:

And somehow, despite all of that, until news broke of his death a few days ago, I’d never heard of the guy to the best of my knowledge. I suppose it’s good to be reminded sometimes of how little I actually know…

It’s sentimental, I know

Ain’t there one damn song that can make me break down and cry? Well, this comes closer than most. I am not especially a fan of Christmas, it’s just one of those things I stopped having any use for a long time ago, and yet something about this is just… exactly right, and I start tearing up in the last part of the song when he starts envisaging future Christmases with his daughter as she grows up. It’s sentimental, all right, and it hits me in the gut every goddamn time.

Victor Willis vs… God?

Spotted this tonight:

I don’t know when this was posted, so I don’t know if this was from before or after that silly story about Victor Willis from the Village People threatening to sue people for claiming “YMCA” is a gay anthem broke the other day, but I did have a fantastic vision of news headlines about Victor suing “God” now…