James profile picture

James

Shyness is nice, but shyness can stop you from....

About Me

Now well into the realms of the 30 something age bracket but still raging against the dying of the light and trying to maintain some dignity, that is if the two things are both possible at the same time...Buy far too many CDs for my own good, and still far too easily convinced into buying what turn out to be £15 drinkmats, thank the lord for Fopps's 'suck it and see policy'. Used to be in a couple of bands, but now keep my guitar playing to within my own 4 walls, generally now take out any frustrations by writing the odd pithy and sometimes downright rude reviews for websites, and otherwise generally hang around the music and film business for a living

My Interests

Listening to music, reading, the odd concert, seeing friends, a bit of a conversation, red wine, playing the guitar, going to the odd art gallery, a bit of travelling every now and again

I'd like to meet:

Would have said Syd Barrett, but thats not going to happen, I'm a pretty accomodating person, everyone is welcome

Music:

Jeff Buckley, John Coltrane, mid-late 70's dub, XTC, Kraftwerk, Neil Young, Blur, Beatles, Roxy Music, Talk Talk, T Rex, The Kinks, Bob Dylan, Television, Jimi Hendrix, Richy-era Manics, The Clash, Curtis Mayfield, Johnny Cash, The Byrds, AC/DC, Tim Buckley, Beach Boys, Miles Davies, Serge Gainsbourg, , Talking Heads, Captain Beefheart, Velvet Underground, Scott Walker, Can, Neu!, Brian Eno, Super Furry Animals, New Order, Joy Division, Johnny Thunders, Nick Drake, Led Zeppelin, Gene Clark, Dr John, Albert Ayler, 70's Post Punk, Sly and the Family Stone, The Who, Burt Bacharach, Stereolab, Sufjan Stevens, David Bowie, Primal Scream, White Stripes, Flaming Lips, John Martyn, Bob Marley, Charles Mingus, Archie Shepp, LCD Soundsystem, Arcade Fire, Pink Floyd, Syd Barrett, Joni Mitchell, Elliott Smith, Eric Dolphy, Peter Green, Albert King, PJ Harvey, James Brown, Augustus Pablo, Beta Band, The Stones, The Yardbirds, Pharoah Sanders, James Blood Ulmer, Sonny Sharrock, Sonny Rollins, Nirvana, Radiohead, The Go Betweens, The Pixies, Rufus Wainwright, Randy Newman, Hank Williams, Tom Waits, MC5, The Stooges, Sonic Youth, Public Image Ltd, Howlin' Wolf, Fela Kuti and afrobeat in general, any decent delta, or generally raw blues, Elbow, Stone Roses, Smiths, Queens of the Stone Age, Patti Smith, My Bloody Valentine, acid folk.....have I missed anything out?

Movies:

Sergeo Leone in general, mainly also 70's US cinema, Scorcese, Terrance Malick, Coppola, Woody Allen, also The Coen Brothers, Dead Man's Shoes, Sideways, Withnail and I, Magnolia, Donnie Darko, Stanley Kubrick, David Lynch, Quadrophenia, Paris Texas and Wings of Desire, Polankski, The Long Good Friday, Midnight Cowboy, Jim Jarmusch, Magnificent 7, Amelie, Unforgiven, Get Carter, City of God, Wicker Man, and The Wild Bunch, plus the odd music documentary i.e Don't Look Back, The Filth and the Fury

Television:

Not a massive fan, more into DVDs of old shows, i.e Old Gray Whistle Test, The Beatles Anthology, The Muppet Show, Simpsons, Phoenix Nights, The prisoner, Father Ted, Monty Python, quite addicted to news though

Books:

Loads of music biographies, otherwise generally US writers like Raymond Craver, Richard Ford, Denis Johnson, Sam Shepard, Richard Yates, a bit of JG Ballard and the odd bit of poetry if I'm in the mood

My Blog

Daft Punk - Musique Vol. 1 1993 - 2005

10 years ago, it felt like the French had come to save house music. Immaculate streamlined disco with all the cheese removed leaving nothing but the funk mixed with enough acid era burps and squelches...
Posted by James on Tue, 09 May 2006 01:49:00 PST

The Fallout Trust - In Case of the Flood

Its really not a good idea to trumpet the fact that you got the idea for your band listening to Bowie and Iggy Pop Berlin era albums and your living/rehearsing space is called Q Quarters. In case you ...
Posted by James on Tue, 09 May 2006 01:47:00 PST

Depeche Mode - A Pain That I'm Used To

The overall thumbs up from the critics that Playing The Angel received was perhaps as much praise for the album itself as relief that after a couple of post Gahan-rehab albums Depeche Mode had finally...
Posted by James on Tue, 09 May 2006 01:45:00 PST

Jaed - Gutter Girl

Like John Lennon in his primal scream therapy period, listening to someone baring their troubles so explicitly can be an extremely uncomfortable experience. For while you acknowledge their courage in ...
Posted by James on Tue, 09 May 2006 01:44:00 PST

Trashcan Sinatras - Wild Mountainside

Quoting from a press release is normally the first refuge of a hack stuck for inspiration, but in this case its worth going into details. Wild Mountainsides blurb trumpets the fact that it is in-fact ...
Posted by James on Tue, 09 May 2006 01:42:00 PST

Imperial Vipers - Promised Land

God, this is rubbish. The lack of any imagination on this record is staggering. It follows such a well-worn template that it might as well have been recorded from samples of other songs. Leather-lunge...
Posted by James on Tue, 09 May 2006 01:40:00 PST

Liars - It Fit When I Was A Kid

'IFWIWAK continues down the path Angus Andres strode out on with their last album They Were So Wrong We Drowned. A constant tom-tom drum beats out a stark pulse behind what sounds like a hooded cha...
Posted by James on Thu, 08 Dec 2005 11:36:00 PST

Audio Bully - Generation

Ok, lets get this straight out of the way first&The Streets, Im sure that the Audio Bullys hate the comparison but if youre making the kind of music that could only occur within Londons metropoli...
Posted by James on Thu, 08 Dec 2005 11:33:00 PST

Richard Hawley - Coles Corner

Unbelievably, Richard Hawley spent most of the Britpop era as the guitar player in The Longpigs before releasing his first solo album in his mid thirties. By rights Coles Corner should subsequently ...
Posted by James on Thu, 08 Dec 2005 11:31:00 PST

The Dandy Warhols - Honey

Anyone watching Dig! recently will have probably come out of the cinema with an impression of The Dandy Warhols as a bunch of corporate career monkeys who launched a career off the back of one of th...
Posted by James on Thu, 08 Dec 2005 11:30:00 PST