“Everything is banal and jejune”

Last night I saw one of the coolest men on a stage anywhere: Nick Cave, with the Bad Seeds.

I got to the Hammersmith Apollo early enough to catch first act Barry Adamson. Adamson was a Bad Seed for a while and played bass on four of the band’s early albums. Since then he’s made solo albums and done work for film soundtracks (Lost Highway, for instance). Adamson’s dub-tinged jazz songs are as cheezy as they are swinging. I’ve got his last album, Back to the Cat, and it’s pretty cool. The cheese and swing were there live, too, and I think Adamson’s taken dancing lessons from Nick Cave. It was a fun set, and I probably liked “Spend A Little Time” best (I uploaded it to the Box here on The Plummet Onions the other day, scroll down to find it).

But of course Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds were the main attraction. I’ve always liked Nick Cave but I never became a big fan until the dual albums Abbatoir Blues / The Lyre of Orpheus came out a few years back: I love those albums. I loved his garage-band Grinderman album (and the show I saw them do in that incarnation last year). Returning as the Bad Seeds, new album Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! continues the awesome album streak. Really, their latest albums have been phenomenal, I think.

And man, they did not disappoint live last night. The band rocked and Nick Cave was awesome. He is just too cool. Far cooler than any middle-aged man with a receding hairline and a dubious mustache has a right to be. He strides the stage and flails his gangly arms and legs about like a goth-blues Mick Jagger. Cave writes like Bob Dylan and Tom Waits - wry and complex and Biblical and literate - but he’s a confident Thin Black Duke on stage. And his songs rock a lot more.

They played a lot of songs from Dig!!! Lazarus Dig!!! of course since it’s new, but that’s fine with me. They pulled out a few classics, as well, which we gladly sang along to. I was just three bodies back from the front of the stage so I had perfect seats to watch Nick grab us, hold us fast, and do the twist until we returned the favour.

Nick kicked over his lyrics stand in the very first song, though he managed to recover them for the most part. The rest of the band pretty much just sits back and does their thing, the only other visual oddity being Warren Ellis with his wild beard and tiny guitars. Two drummers gives you the ability to sound very heavy live, too.

I’m not sure whether the guy in the crowd who kept yelling, “Blixa!” during the set wasn’t aware that he left the group in 2003 or whether he was just an asshole.

The highlights from the night were the crowd loving “Red Right Hand”, Nick’s bile during “We Call Upon the Author”, one of my favourite cuts “The Lyre of Orpheus” (although - whether for brevity or from forgetfulness - he left out a few verses, including my two of my very favourites*), and the closing, vicious version of folk-blues standard “Stagger Lee”. But everything sounded really, really good. The show was just completely cool.

I’m pretty sure this is the correct setlist:

• Night of the Lotus Eaters
• Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!
• Tupelo
• Today’s Lesson
• Red Right Hand
• Midnight Man
• Your Funeral, My Trial
• Deanna
• Lie Down Here and Be My Girl
• Hold On to Yourself
• Nobody’s Baby Now
• We Call Upon the Author
• Papa Won’t Leave You Henry
• More News From Nowhere

1st Encore

• Far From Me
• The Lyre of Orpheus
• Get Ready For Love
• Hard On For Love
• The Ship Song

2nd Encore

• Moonland
• Stagger Lee

*They are:

Orpheus strummed till his fingers bled
He hit a G minor 7
He woke up God from a deep, deep sleep
God was a major player in heaven

The well went down very deep
Very deep went down the well
The well went down so very deep
Well, the well went down to hell

COME ON, TOM!

Tom Waits says he’s coming to Europe.

BE SPECIFIC!

When Michael met Bojo

New, bike-commuting London mayor Boris Johnson - who will henceforth be referred to on The Plummet Onions by his latest nickname, Bojo - has made his first mark by outlawing the drinking of alcohol on London’s transport systems. No more cans of lager on the tube or bus from the beginning of next month.

This is the first move in a plan Bojo made very clear during his campaign: to be tough on London crime using the model that New York City used in the mid-’90s. That is, if you’re tough on the minor crimes, on the smaller anti-social behaviours, it removes the type of environment that results in bigger crimes. Bojo’s so keen to follow in NYC’s kinder, gentler footsteps that that city’s mayor, Michael Bloomberg, will be here on Friday to have a face-to-face with our new Etonian leader.

I wonder about this direction for two reasons:

1. I’m not sure that the cause-and-effect of the broken-window policy in NYC is true. There seems to be debate about how much was due to those policies, how much was due to larger societal trends, better crime management and statistics tools, or even the controversial Freakonomics legal abortion link. Getting nitpicky with public behaviour may not change overall crime.
2. I’m not sure that London is really that crime-ridden. Of course if you read The Sun or any other conservative tabloid you think it is. Bojo ran on a tough-against-crime platform, and he won, so some people must believe it. Crime stats are hard to summarize, since there are many types of crime, and they can go up and down in different areas. But I haven’t seen any attempts at all to do such a summary: just heated reported of any particular knife crime or shooting and lusty cries that something must be done to prevent them ever again. My eyeballing of several types of crime in several boroughs over several years from the Met’s stats page leads me to believe that overall crime may not be that bad to begin with and may be getting better in many (most?) areas.

That aside, Bojo may not have thought out some of the more obvious implications of this no-transport-drinking policy, though, as explained by Rail Maritime & Transport union leader Bob Crow:

Perhaps the mayor will come out with his underpants on over his trousers like Superman one Saturday to show us how it should be done, and maybe tell a crowd of Liverpool supporters that they can’t drink on the train.

To be fair, though, I think his plan to provide more weekend activities for city youth is an admirable idea. I do believe that having something to do (which makes you meet people and develop goals) is essential for kids’ development.

To smash together protons moving at 99.999999% of the speed of light

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a particle accelerator at CERN, Switzerland, is going to fire up this summer. I’m very excited, and much more optimistic than the guy who - as reported recently on Mental Floss - is suing CERN because he believes that their experiments might create a black hole that destroys the planet.

Check out that Mental Floss link, above, for a superb 15-minute video from physicist Brian Cox about the LHC and what mysteries of the universe they hope it will reveal: namely, the confirmation of the existence of the Higgs boson and possible verification of supersymmetry. The bottom of that page also has some nice photos.

Sexy science, for sure.

Nothing more to add

From the brilliant Language Log:

“My neck will burn as we kiss and I’m sick in your mouth.”

Fun gig last night at Koko to see UK indie scene darling Lightspeed Champion.

The fist act (catching me off guard, since they weren’t advertised) was (I found out later) actually Lightspeed’s bass player with backup from a couple of other musicians. He played guitar and sang in a bluesy sort of rock style. It was rough and only lasted a couple of songs, but I liked what he was attempting.

Then came Ox.Eagle.Lion.Man, a four-piece band of young guys that I thought were pretty cool. They come across a bit oddly at first: sort of prog with the guitar wankery and rhythms, but a bit like Nick Cave with precise enunciation although deeper and shoutier. But I liked their wry lyrics and their different sound. The first couple of songs were pretty intense. Dev Hynes, ol’ Lightspeed himself, came out to play some guitar on their last song.

Next were Operator Please. I didn’t know anything about these guys, but it seems they’ve been getting some attention. They’re from Australia, won their high school battle of the bands in 2005, and were a MySpace discovery. They’re an upbeat rock band with some added violin. They also all look like they’re 10 years old. I was reminded of both The Gossip and Franz Ferdinand. They were okay; they’re still very young. I liked their cover of Devo’s “Whip It”. Because I was, by far, the oldest person in the room I’m not sure if anyone else liked it.

A short wait and out came Lightspeed Champion. LC was the name of a comic strip that Star Wars-obsessed singer/guitarist Dev Hynes doodled in his textbook margins when he was in high school, and when short-lived indie band Test Icicles broke up he took the name for his solo act. Friends from other bands helped him record his first album, Falling Off The Lavender Bridge, which has stormed the NME scene like nothing else in the last few months. Many of those friends were along to be LC’s live band last night, including Emmy the Great.

In short, it was awesome. LC writes sad, I’m-a-loser indie songs with folk elements and killer melodies. They all sounded great live, and Dev himself is a good showman. He moves around a lot, gets into it, and goes googled-eyed and open-mouthed. He’s got charisma and is charmingly self-deprecating (which he may come by honestly - read the insecurity on his blog). His suit jacket, constant fuzzy hat with earflaps, and nerd glasses add to the fact that he knows he’s filling an oddball role.

The full band - guitar, bass, drums, and four people on strings - made the live songs sound as rich as they do on the album. Despite their depressing content, the upbeat melodies and singalong choruses make you feel uncontrollably happy. Dev’s a better guitar player than I’d guessed, too.

He played three new songs last night, opening with one called “Happy Birthday”; another was called “Marlena” I think. And then he played just about every track off …Lavender Bridge. Nice. “Galaxy of the Lost” was tops, I think, an incredible song that also got the best crowd participation.

He brought out another indie-folk singer, Kid Harpoon, for last single “Tell Me What It’s Worth”. Ox.Eagle.Lion.Man vocalist Fred MacPherson came back out to sing on “All To Shit” while Dev played drums, and I thought it was cool. Other nice touches were throwing in the classic guitar riff from the start of Heart’s “Barracuda” to kick off one tune, and a nifty violin-led run through “Star Wars Theme” and “Imperial March (Darth Vader’s Theme)” to start another.

They closed with the epic “Midnight Surprise”, and we all left with smiles on our faces.

A day in Bedfordshire

At the start of the long weekend, the weather forecast was calling for heavy rain on Monday. By the time Monday rolled around it seemed the rain has stayed in the west. Making the most of the unexpected sunshine meant going to a county I’d not visited before: Bedfordshire.

In short, it’s small but nice.

We dusted off our English Heritage memberships for free entry to Wrest Park, a manor with fabulous gardens. It’s got a nice mix of open lawns, wooded areas, water features, out-buildings, statues, and flower beds. There were families picnicking, the sun was shining: very pleasant.

Afterwards we drove to the pretty village of Turvey to do one of the Ouse Valley Ramblers walks (detailed route in a large PDF here, if you’re interested). It wasn’t the most picturesque walk we’ve done, but it covered over 9km of farmland without seeing another soul (just rabbits, deer, and woodpeckers). Afterwards we stayed for a drink and dinner at The Three Cranes pub.

Giving us The Slip

Trent Reznor is giving a surprise new Nine Inch Nails album away for free. Just to say thanks to fans. And anyone else who wants it.

Go to nin.com (or here, if they change the link on the front page) to download it in a variety of formats, with PDF booklet.

Thanks, pal.

“This is a flight stabilizer and it’s perfectly harmless.”

Iron Man was good, but not that good. It was no Spider Man 2. But it was pretty close, and definitely better than most superhero movies.

All the reviews say that Robert Downey Jr. was a good choice for Tony Stark, and they’re right. He’s good with Gwyneth Paltrow. The scenes where he builds and tests out the stages of his armor are very good. The final battle felt a bit like I’d seen it all before.

It’s a good start to an obviously lucrative franchise.

More films

To take my mind off the shame and despair of new London mayor Boris Johnson, I watched some films this weekend (I need to clean up the PVR; you’ll soon learn why). Here’s what I’ve seen:

Withnail and I - Two unemployed, eccentric, and inebriated actors leave London for a holiday in the country. This a cult classic in Britain. I can see why: Richard E. Grant is very funny, and there are some well-orchestrated scenes. But overall, this film is awful. It’s  been overrated by people who watched it whilst drunk or stoned, and it lives on in Ironic Counterculture Fame.

Brick - Awesome teen noir, as a schoolkid tracks down those who put his ex-girlfriend in trouble. Modern-day update of a Humphrey Bogart detective flick, right down to the rapid-fire reveal by the protagonist to the femme fatale.

Last Night - Nifty little film from Canadian writer and director Don McKellar. The world will end in six hours; what do the people of Toronto do? Interesting, and not too trite. Features Sandra Oh, Sarah Polley, and David Cronenberg.

Tonight, however, comes Iron Man.

London in the Boris era

Well, I spent most of yesterday wandering around sunny London to see how we were adjusting to Boris as mayor.

There was, as yet, no wailing and gnashing of teeth. I didn’t see people hurling themselves (or others) off buildings. I didn’t see poor people being spat on. Nor did I see tousle-headed posh boys guffawing at “ethnics”.

As yet.

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Cripes!

That isn’t a protest vote, it’s a practical joke vote gone horribly wrong.

And - even worse - the goddamn xenophobic, racist, anti-EU, anti-foreign aid, isolationist, pro-capital punishment BNP has won a seat in the London Assembly.

What’s happening to this city?

Two important musical artists

Unless I’m preparing for a upcoming gig by immersing myself in one artist I usually listen to my iPod in shuffle mode. I like a mix, and I like being surprised.

Yesterday morning my tube trip to the dentist and back was no different: my iPod wired to my head, Apple’s randomisation algorithm my DJ. In the mix - which was, overall, a very good one - I heard two artists whose greatness made me sit back and reflect. They’re not new or unfamiliar; they’re both old, both of them dead in fact, and with substantial entries in my iPod. But I think I’d taken them for granted, allowed them to fade into ubiquity. Quite wrongly.

The two artists are John Lee Hooker and Stan Rogers. I apologise in advance to those who already completely familiar with these artists, but I feel I need to salute their coolness.

John Lee Hooker was an American bluesman. One of the quintessential bluesmen, in fact. He was born in Mississippi, developed his style playing songs in the delta, but moved to Detroit after WWII looking for work. He garnered more attention up north, as guitar players weren’t as common there as they were in the south. His style straddled the north/south blues divide of America, with both delta slide and boogie-woogie elements.

Like a lot of bluesmen, lots of people (and especially Hooker himself) exaggerated stories about him: his age, what he’d written versus what he’d adapted, etc. But that’s all part of the mythology. Hooker was a deeply respected and influential musician: he’s in the Blues Hall of Fame, the Rock and Rock Hall of Fame (and has two songs - “Boogie Chillen” and “Boom Boom” - on their list of 500 songs that shaped rock and roll), won three Grammys and a lifetime achievement award, and has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame. He’s been covered by a lot of artists and was, famously, in The Blues Brothers.

To me, Hooker’s music has a deeply primal groove. His playing and singing are more rhythmic than they are melodic. And the absolutely coolest thing about him is that he doesn’t stick to the rules: many of his blues are not 12-bar. He starts and stops phrases when he feels it fits. Often his verses don’t rhyme. It must have been hell for a band to stick with him, because he just seemed to let the blues take over and sing and play what felt right in the moment. It’s as unpolished as if he were playing on your front porch.

I was scheduled to see John Lee Hooker play live at a bluesfest in Ottawa many years ago. Unfortunately, Hooker fell ill and didn’t make the date (Gladys Knight filled in). A couple of years later, in 2001, Hooker died in his sleep of old age.

You can listen to many full John Lee Hooker tracks here.

Stan Rogers was a Canadian folk singer. He had a strong baritone singing voice. His songs had lyrics and sounds that reflected the Irish heritage of the Maritime provinces which his family originally came from. As a Nova Scotian myself, I feel a deep affinity for Rogers (also, his music was drilled into me both at home and at university).

Rogers’ songs are all about real, working-class people and their lives. Most are based in historical events or places or legends. They’re so rich, so compelling, because they’re sung with a completely believable mix of earnestness and good humour (which I believe is another Celtic element). They tell tales of loss, of striving for a better life, and - occasionally - of a good life found.

His opus is definitely a song called “Barrett’s Privateers”, a tale about brigand seafaring gone wrong. Every eastern Canadian knows it, and every other Canadian has heard it. I still smile when i think about the description of it given in allmusic’s Canadian music feature of a couple of years ago:

Walk into any Halifax bar after sundown and you’re sure to hear [Stan Rogers' "Barrett's Privateers", a] rousing tale of the good ship Antelope, from the rowdiest corner of the room. By learning the lyrics ahead of time, you’ll make friends fast and avoid being hit in the face with greasy bits of haddock as your mind cruelly empties itself of any Sloan anecdotes.

That’s not exactly true. Walk into any pub after sundown and you’ll hear it.

Stan Rogers died in 1983 when an Air Canada plane he was on burst into flame whilst still on the ground.

You can listen to a whole bunch of full Stan Rogers tracks here.

People you don’t want to piss off

I’m just back from my regular teeth-cleaning visit to my dental hygienist. I made the unwise decision of talking politics with her, specifically today’s London mayoral election. She and I are, it seems, at opposite ends of the decision-making spectrum.

This is a woman who can already tut-tut me into shamefulness. She could also cause me great tooth-scraping, gum-prodding discomfort if she so wished. It was, in hindsight, a discussion I should have steered clear of.

Luckily, the discussion happened after my morning’s visit was over. I only hope that her professionalism and the six months until I see her next are proof against any future retribution.

London votes

Tomorrow, May 1st, London votes for mayor and assembly members. The incumbent Labour mayor, Ken Livingstone, has served for 8 years and is seeking re-election. There are the usual suspects in the running: a Lib Dem candidate who will get some votes, a Green candidate who will get a few, and a bunch of candidates (BNP, Christian People’s Alliance, etc) who haven’t a hope of any significant numbers.

I’ll be voting around mid-day.

There’s a really nifty web page that explains how the London election will work. Especially pleasing are the animations - narrated by broadcaster Sir Trevor MacDonald - on How do I vote? and on how the supplementary voting system works in What happens to my vote?

All I know is: if that idiot Boris Johnson wins, I’m leaving town.

Spring bloggers meetup + jazz

I stopped by another meetup of the London Bloggers social group last night. It was at the same location - the upstairs function room of Soho’s Coach & Horses pub - as last month, a good spot for it.

I had nice (although some too brief) chats with bloggers I’d met at earlier events, like meetup organiser Andy from Marketing Blagger (who was a bit under the weather last night), blogger-of-all-trades Tiki Chris, fellow chocoholic Francine, fellow Qyper Siany, Peter from My London Diary, and working-on-a-Wordcamp Tony.

There were plenty of new folks, too (or, at least, folks I met for the first time), and I spent at least a moment talking to Mehrdad about his clever image blog, Paul from affilinet, the life-loving (but sometimes contemplative!) Epicurienne, work-blogger Rajesh, Pat from music biz blog The Lip Service Journal, dark beige comedy blogger Matt, Cristiano on Tech/Life, and shamanic counsellor, healer, and soul retriever Zoë. Blogger meetups are certainly not uniform affairs.

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After a couple of drinks I took my leave and jumped a bus to head down Oxford Street. My friend Bec had tipped me about a free-admission jazz night at a club near Bond Street tube station, so I thought I’d check it out on my way home.

I’d never been to Corks Wine Bar before. It’s a small, funky underground club. It looks like they usually have R&B, funk, and house music nights through the week, but last night was an open jazz night.

It was nearly empty when I got there, but the band - saxophone, trumpet, drums and keyboard - were swinging. As I looked around it appeared that the handful of others there were almost all other musicians themselves, waiting their turn for a set. And sure enough, they’d each in turn get up and do a tune or two: one woman played tenor sax, another guy sat in for the drums, a bass player joined. It was fun, loose, very jazzy, and a friendly feel. I couldn’t stay very long, but I enjoyed what I heard. If jazz nights become a regular fixture at Corks then I’ll go again (although based on last night’s attendance that might be unlikely).

Colossally cool

An extremely rare Colossal Squid, caught in Antarctica in January, is being examined by scientists in New Zealand.

Interestingly, the Te Papa museum where this is taking place recently caught a squid post I made back in 2005 and commented on their upcoming examination.

The museum is obviously excited about what they hope to learn about this huge animal. So am I: it’s thrilling to think about beasts this massive that are still such a rarity because they live in the unknown depths of the ocean.

And as this video shows, you don’t need to have a backbone to be a badass.

You wouldn’t like me when I’m angry

What the…! Qyper of the Week on the Qype blog.

Things Fade Away

I have to draw special attention to one of the albums I just listed in my current rotation: the Neil Young live album Time Fades Away. This is special for Young fans like me: it’s from 1973, is long out of print on vinyl, and to this day has not yet been published on CD (Neil’s a hardass about these things).

It has therefore long been a sought-after Neil bootleg. But to make it easy-peasy, our knowledgeable music friends at Buddyhead have put it up for download. Get it. As allmusic rightly says, there was some of that Dylan-goes-electric tension in these live shows:

Young’s natural inclinations to travel against the current of audience expectations were amplified by a stormy relationship between himself and his touring band, as well as the devastating death of guitarist Danny Whitten, who died of a drug overdose shortly after being given his pink slip during the first phase of tour rehearsals. The shows that followed turned into a nightly exorcism of Young’s rage and guilt, as well as a battle between himself and an audience who, expecting to hear “Old Man” and “Heart of Gold,” didn’t know what to make of the electric assault they witnessed.

New* music I’m enjoying

• Youth Novels by Lykke Li
• New Amerykah Part I (4th World War) by Erykah Badu
• Antidotes by Foals
• The Midnight Organ Fight by Frightened Rabbit
• Back to the Cat by Barry Adamson
• In the Future by Black Mountain
• Shine by Estelle
• Love, Ire and Song by Frank Turner
• I Need You To Hold On While the Sky Is Falling by Kelley Polar
• Life Processes by ¡Forward Russia!
• Damaged by Black Flag
• In My Head by Black Flag
• Saturday = Youth by M83
• Paralyzed by Witch
• Vantage Point by dEUS
• Una Volta by DeVotchka
• The Age of the Understatement by The Last Shadow Puppets
• Rip It Off by Times New Viking
• Bugged Out! presents Suck My Deck mixed by Boys Noize
• Time Fades Away (live) by Neil Young

*Although most actually are new, a few are just new to me.