expressionism through it's many outlets and forms, music & recording, painting, listening to records while painting, watching oldish foreign films surreal in nature, while listening to records, while painting, all kinds of music, r&r, jazz, blues, the art of Jamaican dub, early reggae('67-'70) trashy garage rock 'n roll, music of Africa (Highlife, Afrobeat, Congolese Rhumba, guitars from agadez, Ect.), noisy crap, political science, comic books (NOT super hero comics), graphic design, photography, 60's & 70's subcultures (the birth of blah blah blah), 60's Vespa & Lambretta scooters, world history, cultural anthropology (i once had a teacher what partook in a cannibal ritual...he ate a bit of his grandma), animals, cats. i like cats.
I'd like to meet:
Cindy Sherman or A mergirl.
Music:
@#%#%^&*&^%$#@!@#$^^$#@ 5;$%$)*(*)*(&^*&^%&%^$$^#%%#$+%
Dr. Who-Bi-Thursdays, dub club-Wednesdays, part time punks-Sundays @ the echo & punky reggae party-Fridays @ La Cita, downtown. these nights encompass some of what I'm into. recommended nights if you're looking to hear some blah,blah,blah. Anyway, I get inspired by all kinds of sounds from all over the world. I'll list some stuff that I've been listening to lately.
there's of course too much to name but that urinals 45 is great. I love every song on that clean anthology. GREAT! .P.I.L., can, boredoms, Thee Headcoats, cherubs, family fodder (thanks benny) ,maximum joy, the pop group, i like all that funky punk rough trade/fast product type stuff, wire, Ian Dury, Eno, The Buzzcocks, The Slits, Kleenex, essential logic, Y pants, liquid liquid, Teenage Jesus & the jerks, Chatham, way too many to name this is ridiculous. some new stuff, love is all is great, no age, Qui (amazing), cause-commotion, broadcast, silver daggers, sometimes i go for the noise, Masonna, Merzbow, haters, the ruins, back to the old stuff...i dunno. The Minutemen, The Stranglers. those first Scars singles are good. (check out punky reggae vol.13!). The Velvet Underground. The Mekons, suicide, Alan Vega's "jukebox baby" is a real modern R&R stomper. Ever heard the 1st Flying Lizards record? no? "Deciet" by this heat is brilliant, as is that crazy 'Lifetones' record. *__+
...Where is Killdozer!? "I was born feet first! It shows in the way I think! I work down at the sausage plant, it makes my clothes stink!!" see, those guys new how to write a great song! The "head" album by The Jesus Lizard. The Swans "filth" lp. that's a good one for listening to in traffic. The Yummy Fur. Flat Duo Jets, Unwound. The Cows (fuckin' miss the cows)! old stuff again. Swell Maps. Fire Engines. The Sods. The Homosexuals. The Germs. The Birthday Party. this is dumb...just check the punky reggae party playlists. ^__^ lemme talk some about J.A. sounds cause I like those music, mon.
I love anything by the Maytals (also the maytones, the bleechers, the teqniches, the pioneers, the wailers, the ethiopians, alton ellis, Ken Booth, derrick harriot, derrick morgan, laurel aitken, ect.), especially from the years 1968-'70. But the maytals made some of the most spirited, upfull reggae, bar none. first to use the term "reggay" (as it was then spelled) in a song, and look at that suit, man. for other JA sounds, check out Gaz' TOP SKA comp. on Trojan. Ethiopians "reggae power" on Trojan. y'know, real reggae is very rare today. I'm also crazy for vintage Cuban & Brazilian music; the "Tropicalia" comp. on Soul Jazz Records is brilliant. The "Esmeralda" album by Jorge Ben (1974), or any recordings pre "Ben Jor" era, is so good. ask charlie bean. For Cuban, Chano Pozo, Machito, Cachao, Los Zafiros, Carlos Puebla, ect. soundtracks - I like Alfie (sonny rollins), Breakfast @ Tiffany's, Experiment In Terror (Mancini), The Wild One, The Russ Meyers films, Morricone, ect. everything I've heard by Lalo Schifrin is amazing. Alex North's work is a favorite, coolest sounds (A Streetcar Named Desire, the first soundtrack to use jazz.) Classical - Chopin, Ludwig Van, Johannes Brahms, Bach, Debussy, Ravel (Bolero!). Erik Satie late at night, or on the toilet. as you can see I'm all over the place. Michael, you found me that London underground record. thanks! Does anyone out there own a copy of "contact" by silver apples (the LP)?
Another scorcher from sound way! These sounds are top shelf.
Guinean orchestras from '65-'80. Beautiful stuff; especially The Bembeya Jazz National Orchestra music from the late 60's & 70's. Also amazing is this comp. of Iraqi music. So sick! Makes modern Jamaican dancehall sound really soft by comparison. Completely hypnotic, yet hard, sonic Arab sounds! Haven't heard anything quite this bad ass in a while. (sublime frequencies).
Movies:
Black Orfeus, Mr. Hulot's Holiday, Withnail & I, All films by Mike Leigh (especially Meantime & Naked), Film Noir, M (all films with Peter Lorre!), The Big Heat & Clash By Night (both directed by Fritz Lang), Sunset Blvd., The Killing, Streetcar Named Desire, The Maltese Falcon, Rumble Fish, Barfly, Divorce Italian Style, Fists In Pocket, 8 1/2, La Strada, Il Bidone, Satirycon, La Dolce Vita, Amarcord, Mondo cane, Night of the living dead, savage planet, Lolita, 10th victim...those films & cd's that sublime frequencies put out are completely mesmerizing. i just watched "life & debt". anyone vaguely interested in world economics should see it. "Peace, Propaganda & The Promised Land" can be viewed in 10 parts on youtube. crucial stuff.
This is just such a great film. "With its dunderhead millionaires, erudite bums, effulgently dysfunctional families and beneficent providence, my man godfrey is the depression era comedy par excellence." - diane jacobs
"Seduced & Abandoned" is the follow-up to the classic "divorce Italian style". both films directed by the great Pietro Germi and are both set in Sicily sometime between the mid 50's & early 60's. "night of the iguana". what a great movie. Tennessee Williams & John Houston.
Crucial for anyone who really wants to know what is really going on with those shits in office is this talk given by Noam in Manchester. scary.
Television:
The situationists believed that rediscovering play was the remedy for "the poverty of everyday life," the feelings of alienation amid abundance generated by Western consumer society. Above all, they wanted to smash "the spectacle," all those mass-media forms of entertainment such as television that enforce passivity rather than participation. -Simon Reynolds (Rip It Up & Start Again)
Books:
"the painted bird" by Jerzy Kosinski. man that's a heavy book. If you haven't read Frankenstein yet, do it. angry youth comics has to be the foulest "literary" pleasure anyone could have. it's the best toilet reading, although sometimes i can't decide whether to @#$% my #$% with it or frame it. my old house mates used to ask me not to leave it around. it's that good! "blecky yuckerella" is really good stuff as well.
thank you mike watt for this book. minutemen lyrics & stories! "drove up from pedro...".
This guys art is amazing. It looks pretty innocent at first, but upon further study it's very twisted. The book itself is put together so well. You can find it at Wacko on Sunset.
Heroes:
yeah heroes er, well this will be very random but let me start with the mighty boosh guys,the great sufi master hafiz, marcel duchamp, nick cave, charles darwin, david lynch, kurt vonnegut, martin luther king,fela kuti,prince buster, u-roy, linton kwesi johnson, marley the tuff gong,krishnamurti, kahlil gibran, george orwell, stanley kubrick, duke ellington, count basie, charlie parker, coltrane, hermeto pascoal, lord kitchener, jackie mittoo,j imi hendricks, Serge Gainsbourg, baden powell, gilberto gil, joao gilberto, jobim, marcello mastroiani, the meters, james brown, stevie wonder, can, the clash, the minutemen, sun city girls, peter tosh, noam chompsky, luis bunuel, fellini, truffaut, milos foreman, peter sellers, alex north, alberto sordi, mel brooks, the skatalites, franz kline, merzbow, john lydon, david yow, the MC5, glenn branca, the contortions, the boredoms, bowie, eno, the butthole surfers, stranglers, dick dale, the kinks, bob log III, the slackers, tank girl, chewbakka, tommy mccook, leonard dillon, desmond dekkar, joe white, chano pozo, sabu martinez, ray baretto, machito, tito puente, cachao, willie bobo, john lee hooker, the maytals, winston rodney, justin hinds, lord creator, count machuki, king stitt, john & gaz mayall, joey altruda, tom waits, ras congo, curtis mayfield, don letts, alton ellis, marcia griffiths, ernest ranglin, rico rodriguez, roland alphonso, eddie bo, family man barrett, oskar kokoshka, max beckmann, george grosz, john hartfield, frida, all the dadaists like andre breton, tristan tzara, jenny holzer, francis bacon, andy warhol, robert rauschenburg, basquiat, francesco clemente, manuel ocampo, leon golub, max ernst, robert crumb, toshiro mifune, ennio morricone, nino rota, piero puccioni, roberto benigni, perry henzell, jim jarmusch, fats waller, bo diddly, hasil adkins, slim harpo, howlin wolf, muddy waters, sam cooke, roy orbison, link wray, gene vincent, eddie cochran, art blakey, dexter gordon, chico o' farril, cal tjader, joao donato, billie holiday, babs gonzales, DIZ, lambert hendricks & ross, dazareen & angelo moore, mark gonzales, mikey dread, the gun club, bad brains, iggy, sonic youth, borbetomagus, lee morgan, donald byrd, bobby hutcherson, sun ra, dexter gordon, thelonius monk, miles davis, otis redding, jimi hedrix, booker t., slim gaillard, sharon jones, tennessee williams, ray bradbury, rod sterling, ernest hemingway, henry miller, charles bukowski, norman mailer, billy childish, cymande, the last poets, k.r.s.one, madlib, de la, jungle brothers, dj premier, pete rock, dr. john, poets of rhythm, antibalas, cut chemist, shadow, tomas,c okni, hier, daz, dj dusk(r.i.p.)...&
