#1 PRODUCTS OF A

cutting edge creativity & culture

GASEOUS BRAIN
Spring 2010 Catalogue

inside: Plus:
The Scottish BAMS albums of 2009
Record & Gig
2010: Is it too late to save the world? Reviews
Robot Love in Edinburgh: Cybraphon & ASIMO I Hear a New World
New York travelogue Top 5 Albums of the
In Mourning for The Wire Decade
Hunter S Thompson - Where Did it All Go Wrongzo Visual Art
Britney Spears: Misunderstood or Muppet?
About
Welcome to the first ever
Products of a Gaseous
Brain Catalogue - thanks
very much for having a
look. Whether there is
another one really depends
on your reaction, so please
let me know what you think
(constructive criticism only
please!)

Email:
gaseous.brain@gmail.com

Cowardly anonymous type?

You can use:
www.formspring.me/
gaseousbrain

Milo

Editor/Writer: Milo McLaughlin

Contributors: Stuart Lewis, Digital Plamf, Iain Radcliffe,
Macarenses
Contact: gaseous.brain@gmail.com
Website: www.gaseousbrain.com
Twitter: www.twitter.com/gaseousbrain

All content copyright the respective authors - please do not

reproduce without permission ©

2
Technology
Why I’m a Reason?
“Paytard”
I want to get paid for being creative.
Mac fanboys and girls are Whether that be my writing, or some
sometimes described as other outlet, I want, no - need to get into
"Paytards" for being willing the position where I can support myself
to shell out cash for on my creative endeavours. And if I don't
programmes and apps that support others financially for providing
could be easily found for free me with an excellent service or product,
on a PC. The opposite of a whether it be a great album, an ebook or
Paytard is of course a an iPhone app, then I can't expect to get
Freetard. The obvious money back in the future. This may seem
argument against each a bit airy fairy but I do firmly believe that
position being: you get back what you put out.
■ Paytards are stupid for paying a premium price
for something they could easily get for free and The irony of this is that the way I currently earn my
for signing up to locked-in systems which money is not rewarding or satisfying as it doesn't involve
purposefully restrict users freedoms (e.g. most any creativity. So I can have all the niceties I want, but
Apple products!) until I change my working life to one that's satisfying,
■ Freetards are stupid for wasting a lot of valuable those things are never going to make me happy.
time messing around with illegal downloads and
inferior products when they could just pay a I guess I need to cut down on some of my spending and
reasonable price for a product which works well start saving so I can change jobs/careers, which may lead
out of the box - and in the case of a locked-in to a substantial pay cut for a while at least. Perhaps I will
system, works seamlessly as part of a larger need to stop being such a paytard... (now what iPhone
whole. app shall I buy today....)

Which one works for you depends on whether you have a

lot of time or a lot of money. A lot of people have neither,
and up until recently I was one of those.
Watch!

So I had to go for the freetard route but didn't have

enough time to fully take advantage of it. Now I have
The Gaseous Brain Guide to the
more available cash than I have available time (not a lot
iPhone (which was also featured
more but enough to afford the odd luxury), so it makes
on Just Another iPhone Blog's best
sense for me to pay for products and services which
iPhone laughs of 2009)
provide added convenience to my life.
http://www.vimeo.com/gaseousbrain
3
Local
Technology
Robot Love in Edinburgh: ASIMO and Cybraphon

After reading about

Cybraphon everywhere,
including wired.com, and
seeing footage of him
everywhere including US TV,
I finally got to see "him" last
week at the inspace gallery in
Edinburgh, and was blown
away. It reminded me of
when ASIMO, Honda's
humanoid robot, visited the
city back in April as part of
the Science Festival.

At first the link may seem quite

tenuous, as I'm not even sure if
Cybraphon could be termed a
robot in the strictest sense of the
word, but what both share is their
human qualities. In ASIMO's case
this is "his" physical resemblance
to the human body and his ability http://cybraphon.com
to walk in a similar way
(something which took Honda's engineers years of testing to achieve). In Cybraphon's case it is
his huge ego. His emotions, as anyone following him on twitter or facebook will be well aware,
fluctuate wildly from dismay to rapture - and it's all driven by how popular he is on a variety of
internet search engines and social networking sites (believe me, I know the feeling).

When we saw him I'm pleased to say he was well at the upper end of the scale, varying slightly
from outright rapture to bliss. The music he plays is of course excellent, being programmed by
Edinburgh band Found.

I missed the event where Found played with their (and Prof. Simon Kirby's) creation but I
asked my friend Iain Radcliffe to give his report of the event - see sidebar on next page.

4
 What was most surreal about my own experience
“The other night I went to see a lecture
visiting Cybraphon was when we were asked to applaud
about and performance by autonomous,
him when he finished each song Though it wasn't clear
emotional, robot band Cybraphon at the
that this would have any affect on its mood, what we
Inspace Gallery on Crichton Street (free
were doing was applauding a wardrobe. But it was a
entry and free beer too). Created by
wardrobe with human qualities - the ability to make
fantastic Edinburgh band/art/film collective
music, and to have a range of emotions.
FOUND, Cybraphon blends the old
fashioned with the ultra modern,
I got the same strange feeling at the ASIMO event
combining the look of Victorian mechanical
earlier in the year and as you can see from the short
orchestrions with the modern musician’s
video below there was also much applause for this
need to be noticed. “Image conscious and
amazing robot. Just watching it walk across the stage I
emotional, the band’s performance is
hope you get an idea of just how eerily human it's
affected by online community opinion as it
movements make it seem. During the presentation
searches the web for reviews and
ASIMO delivered a round of drinks, walked upstairs
commentsabout itself 24 hours a day.” It
(which was another massive challenge to its creators
has been described as “the barmiest
due to the unique way the human body works) and even
object ever conceived by anyone” – what
danced while the audience clapped along.
better recommendation than that?
Now obviously Cybraphon is a fantastic and
Highlights were the incredibly complicated
innovative piece of art, whereas Asimo is a
wiring diagram of Cybraphon’s brain,
masterpiece of scientific progress with huge
comparison of web stats for Cybraphon
amounts of funding behind it, and designed by
and FOUND (Cybraphon much more
Honda strictly with consumers in mind.
popular) and the video of Cybraphon on
Dallas TV news show/pictured in Italian Let's face it he's designed to fulfil rich people's
magazine. Its popularity seemed to soar desire to have a butler/servant that they don't have
after being picked up by Wired magazine. to feel too guilty about. But in both cases the
But Prof. Simon Kirby explained that after humans present, myself included, treated the robot
all that attention, its ego has been as if it were a human - and we were thrilled to see
designed to crave more, so can slump the robot act in a very similar way to ourselves.
from delirium to depression pretty quickly.
It probably didn't help when Found Were we in fact applauding prototypes of our
frontman Ziggy Campbell slagged off his future masters? Were we celebrating the early
creation, saying, “I personally don’t rate stages of the encroaching singularity? Are these the
it…you can’t play along with this thing.” ancestors of the robot uprising of 2174? Only time
will tell.
Iain Radcliffe

Robot Love in Edinburgh, featuring

footage of Asimo and Cybraphon
Watch!
http://www.vimeo.com/gaseousbrain
5
Brainstorm

Consumption vs Creativity

As a self-styled "creative person", how can I get a balance between the amount of media I
consume on a daily basis, and actually producing something creative myself?

I'm an avid reader, whether it be ye olde fashioned tree-books or ye new fangled blog posts via
Google Reader, or various magazines and newspapers. Working as a media monitor for nearly 3
years involved going through all the daily papers most days and then there's the other media I
consume - TV news all day at work and then all the people I follow on tumblr when I get home,
plus the odd TV programme that I enjoy.

But I consider myself a creative person - so how can I find time to actually be creative rather
than just a giant media sponge? We are living in the information age, where it is quite literally
EXPLODING in our faces everyday as we log onto the infinitenet. We now have the knowledge
that it took Doctor Who (albeit a fictional character) lifetimes to acquire, at our slightly
calloused fingertips. We can be sucked in by images, videos, music - all an incredibly strong
draw to our unconscious minds which like nothing better than feeding on visual and audio
stimulus for it's own, often unclarified ends. And as we forge connections online, we also
become involved in a competitiveness to find the next best amusing link, the killer photograph
on flickr on weheartit, the blog post that explains the meaning of life itself in ten perfectly
crafted bullet points or the mac application that's going to change our lives - and to find it
before everyone else.

6
Brainstorm
There is no doubt in my mind that internet addiction is a serious, and growing problem - it's
something I think I may be suffering from myself as I struggle to achieve other goals such as
keeping fit or learning the guitar because I've spent so much time keeping up with 'the
netbours'. And very often, it's the most creative people who are drawn to it. Blogging or
tumbling that reacts or recycles already produced images/music etc has a creativity to it of
course, but it's lower on the scale than actually producing original content yourself - just as
there can be an art to journalistic criticism of music, films or books when done well, but it's hard
to hold it up there with the art of crafting a song or a film or a novel. Even when those things
aren't done particularly well, there's still a stronger flame of creativity at work in producing
something original, in my opinion.

The problem is that consumption is EASY.

There are few barriers, apart from abject poverty, to getting hold of information in our culture.
You don't have to set aside time to read a blog, you just do it at some point throughout the day at
work. You can pick up a book anytime. Most of us have an ipod or mp3 player crammed full of
music which we can use anytime. And the TV, well that's always on in the corner of the room,
right?

To produce something creative, whether it be writing, music, film, or

photography, you have to set aside the time for it. You have to do this in advance,
and you have to make sure you stick to that plan.

The same goes for achieving anything worthwhile, whether it be learning a new skill, getting fit,
or even maintaining friendships or contact with your extended family. Unfortunately this is a
discipline I find extremely difficult - it's so much easier to distract myself with endless
information/entertainment. But.. I'm trying.. and that's why sometimes my online output is
erratic - because I'm not sure how beneficial it all really is. I love making connections with
people, and that's what keeps me doing it, but Im wondering if there isn't a less time consuming
way of doing that than what I'm doing now..

The Centre for Net Addiction: http://www.netaddiction.com

7
 Music - Best of 2009
Whilst I’m aware of how dull it can be to trawl
through the endless number of end of year lists out
there on the web, this year I was kindly invited by
Lloyd of http://peenko.blogspot.com to contribute
to The Scottish Bloggers and Music Sites
Award 2009 top ten albums of the year, and I do
think it’s a worthwhile list, not only because it
shows the amount of enthusiasm out there at the
moment for Scottish music on the internet, even if
that isn’t being reflected in the mainstream UK
music press.
"This makes us feel very honoured because the

Mr Peenko asked a whole bunch of (mostly opinion of people out there giving opinions is what
Scottish) music bloggers to take part and although matters most, rather than the financially influenced
it wasn't specifically Scottish albums he had in
press. It always amazes me that people would take it
mind, in the end the crown was taken by Glasgow's
upon themselves to go out and champion a band or
The Phantom Band. Though the band say they’re
an album or a band for no material gain, but it gives
also not usually big on lists, they seemed happy
with this one, as they told Mr Peenko (see side me faith in human

column). See the next page for the full list as well as nature. Blogs and
my own top 9 albums of the year. reviews have been the

only advertising we've

The other "BAMS" who took part:
ever had. Apart from

17 Seconds, AyeTunes, Dear Scotland, all those people who

Earz Mag, Elba Sessions, Glasgow got online and promoted
Podcart, Hooligans Lament, Jim
us, we'd like to thank those little almost-stale
Gellatly, JocknRoll, Jockrock,
doughnuts you get in big tubs from Sainsburys for
Kowalskiy, Last Years Girl, Love Shack
keeping us fat during the recording. We obviously also
Baby, Manic Pop Thrills, My Portiswasp
Says, Off the Beaten Tracks, The Pop have our Producer Paul Savage and the wonderful

Cop, Song By Toad, The Blues Bunny,
The Daily Growl, The Spill, The
Steinberg Principle, The Vinyl Villain
and Under the Radar.
people at Chemikal Underground to thank for letting
us do what we want. These guys are the quiet heroes
of Scottish music for sure."
Andy Wake, The Phantom Band

8
Music - Best of 2009
SCOTTISH
BAMS
BEST OF 2009
The Full List:
1. The Phantom Band - Checkmate Savage
2. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post
Pavillion
3. De Rosa - Prevention
4. King Creosote - Flick the V's
5. Withered Hand - Good News
6. The Twilight Sad - Forget The Night Ahead
7. We Were Promised Jetpacks - These Four
Walls
8. Beerjacket - Animosity
9. Mumford & Sons - Sigh No More
10. Camera Obscura - My Maudlin Career
11. My Latest Novel - Deaths and Entrances
12. Malcolm Middleton - Waxing Gibbous
13. The Pains of Being Pure at Heart - s/t
14. You Already Know - s/t
15. Broken Records - Until the Earth Begins to
Part
16. The XX - s/t
17. The Antlers - Hospice
18. Sufjan Stevens - The BQE
19. And So I Watch You From Afar
20. Wilco - The Album
Fence Homegame 2009- Video Diary
My top 9 albums of 2009 were:
■  King Creosote - Flick The V's
■
■
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - It's Blitz
Withered Hand - Good News
■ The Phantom Band - Checkmate
Savage
■ The xx - self titled
■ Ambulances - The Future That Was
■ My Latest Novel - Deaths & Entrances
■ Malcolm Middleton - Waxing Gibbous
■ Grizzly Bear - Veckamist
This was also included in the Sweeping The
Nation poll of UK Music Blogs. To find out
the results go to:
http://sweepingthenation.blogspot.com/
2010/01/uk-blogger-albums-of-2009-poll-
results.html
Read review of King Creosote s Flick
the Vs plus interviews with King
Creosote, The Pictish Trail & James
Yorkston at
www.gaseousbrain.com
Watch!
http://www.vimeo.com/gaseousbrain
9
Music - Scrobbling Off
Scrobbling Off is all about music that
you're not SUPPOSED TO ADMIT
LIKING. So when your listening
habits are recorded by the likes of
last.fm or pandora, you turn
scrobbling OFF so no-one knows just
how many times you've listened to
that Shakira song - Products of a
Gaseous Brain likes to do things a bit
differently so we celebrates that shit.

I love getting mixtapes from friends, and have discovered some of my favourite ever music
from them. Of course they started out on actual tape cassettes, moved on to CD, and now they
can come via the likes of USB stick, Spotify, YouSendIt or Dropbox. Not only that, but there
also a bunch of websites sharing mixtapes.

As anyone who follows me on Twitter will know, I've been seriously digging a site called
Friday Mixtape. Each week they kick off the weekend with a brilliant collection of tunes,
remixes and mash-ups. Not all of the songs they feature float my boat, but I regularly find
gems there I wouldn't have found anywhere else.

Another place where I've found some superb remixes is Palm Out Sounds who have been
doing Remix Sunday (and their Sample Wednesday is excellent too) until Google fucked with
them. Luckily they've started doing them again recently. Of course there's also the massively
popular Hype Machine which is another great way to find remixes of songs you love.

I have to admit I'm mainly enjoying those with pure party music - so it's perfect for the
weekend, especially if like me you're trying to avoid actually going out and getting wasted.
Instead you can dance around your living room/bedroom like a loon and nobody except your
long-suffering neighbours is any the wiser (unless you go on about it on your blog).

Today I also found the bloody brilliant tumblr blog thankgoditsmixday or TGIM! for short,
who aggregrate mixtapes from all over the web - today I downloaded a mix called Express
Yourself with some classic hip hop tunes (discovered via extraawesome)

If you’re reading the print version, go here to access the links and to download the
accompanying mixtape: http://www.gaseousbrain.com/home/scrobbling-off-wheres-your-
favourite-place-to-find-party-mix.html
10
Music Top 5 Albums of The Last Decade

I was invited to contribute to Finbarr Bermingham's Five of the Best series on his Scrawls & Bawls blog (which also
features his superb interviews with the likes of Johnny Rotten and Frightened Rabbit as well as Five of the Bests by
himself and a number of other excellent music writers.

This is the five albums of the decade that are most important to me - I certainly don't claim that this is an objective
choice, just those which I personally enjoyed most. I really enjoyed writing this too, mainly because of Finbarr's
excellent questions which helped spark memories of the great gigs I've been to since the turn of the decade.

#1: The Fall - The Real New Fall LP (formerly Country On The Click)
(2003)
When I first heard it
This was the first Fall album I really got into. I was in a weird kind of comedy band at
the time called Swivel Chair and we’d been described as a cross between The Fall and
Kraftwerk but I’d never really listened to either band with my full attention. A girl at
work gave me a cassette with some of their older stuff on and I liked it. But it was this album that persuaded
me of the genius of Mark E Smith.

Why I love it

I was converted from the very first second that Green Eyed Loco Man snarls into existence. Sparta FC is the
best football song ever (not that there’s much competition). Smith apparently recruited the band who play on
this album from hanging around youth clubs or something, so they’re all about half his age and not even
proper musicians. And then there’s his surprisingly attractive (and presumably extremely patient) wife on
keyboards. Anyway due to the younger influence this is a pretty energetic and straight down the line punk rock
album in many ways, so is probably their most accessible album. Of course there is still the requisite rambling
stream of consciousness from MES that makes it uniquely ‘The Fall’. I’ve listened to most of their studio
albums now and I reckon this one still stands up as one of their best.

What it reminds me of

Has to be the gig they played at Edinburgh’s much-missed shithole The Venue in February 2004. It was mainly
this album they played, and me and my pal got ridiculously drunk and dived into the mosh-pit (I’m too old for
that kind of thing these days). MES even looked like he was having a good time and didn’t storm off early or
anything, which I’ve seen him do since. Just one of those gigs that always makes you smile when you think
about it.

Standout track

For me, Contraflow because it makes for a brilliantly cathartic singalong for somebody who spent his teenager
years going slightly insane in a thatched cottage in the middle of rural Ireland (the chorus goes “I hate the

11
 #2: James Yorkston - The #3: Arcade Fire - Funeral

Year of The Leopard (2005)

(2006)
When I first heard it

When I first heard it

I met my friend Sean Michaels
This choice won’t be much of from saidthegramophone.com

a surprise to anyone who at a meeting for the short-lived

knows me, God knows I Scottish magazine Noise (a

banged on enough about it at the time. I was given a copy precursor to The Skinny) and he told me about The Arcade
to review for The Skinny and was immediately bewitched Fire, a band he loved from back home in Montreal. A short

by Yorkston’s dulcet tones. while later they appeared on Jools Holland and I was
blown away. I got the album as soon as I could.
Why I love it

Why I love it
It’s produced by Paul Webb who did the Beth Orton solo
album, and he seems to be amazing at creating a really Others will no doubt have written more eloquent

warm and intimate atmosphere, and of course Yorkston’s descriptions of just why this album is so good, but for me
songs are beautifully crafted, with great lyrics. Put this on it’s just a powerful, positive, onslaught of passion, drama

and you just instantly feel more relaxed. Like the audio and energy. I didn’t get into their follow-up as much but
equivalent of a roaring open fire and a bottle of red wine. this still stands alone as an amazing debut.

In fact, it has such a dramatic effect on me I think it

What it reminds me of
actually makes me more of a gentle, kind person. If

everyone in the world appreciated this album, it would

Seeing them live in Princes St Gardens where they
probably bring about world peace.
supported Franz Ferdinand and blew them away.

What it reminds me of
Standout track

Basically just spending time with my girlfriend, chilling

It’s a beast. I don’t want to pick a single track that I prefer.
out, plus going to see him playing live in numerous
intimate venues. In fact we saw him play to a half empty

field (he was on very early in the day) at the first Connect
Festival at Inveraray Castle near Loch Fyne, so it reminds

me of that beautiful setting, a lot of mud, and seeing Bjork

later on in the day. Good times.

Standout track
Advertise YOUR
Wow. This is hard, because Woozy With Cider, which is an
product here
amazingly personal spoken word piece accompanied by a
(haggling welcomed)
subtle electro backing, is probably the one that grabbed me
Contact: gaseous.brain@gmail.com
first, and drew me into the album - but I have to vote for I
Awoke because it’s the most heartbreaking and beautiful

song ever written about infidelity and relationships. I’m

welling up now just thinking about it.

12
#4: Sufjan Stevens - Illinois (2005) #5: Yeah Yeah Yeahs -

Fever To Tell (2003)

When I first heard it

When I first heard it

I can’t exactly remember, but I

heard the track For the Widows I’m pretty sure I bought it

in Paradise; For The Fatherless when it first came out. I

In Ypsilanti from his Greetings remember making up a compilation for a bunch of folk

From Michigan album on a Rough Trade compilation and including about 5 tracks from the album on it. I also

and I was instantly smitten. Then this album came out included some tracks by the band Electric Six on that

and I had to admit the guy was sickeningly talented. compilation but I probably shouldn’t admit that as the

YYYs have aged considerably better.

Why I love it

Why I love it
I was reluctant to choose this because it’s so obvious, but

when it comes down to musicianship, it’s head and It’s hedonistic, ridiculous, sexy, and it oozes belligerent,

shoulders above almost everything else I’ve heard. In youthful, energy from every pore, and it barely lets up,

fact, I should hate it, because it almost put me off with one track after another slamming the message

making music myself as there was no way I would ever home. And Karen O is clearly a superstar.

be able to create anything this gorgeous musically in a

What it reminds me of
million years.

Seeing them at Glasgow Barrowlands. The songs from

Okay so I admit it, I just love the banjo.
this album had the entire place jumping, from the first

What it reminds me of row to the back row - one of the best gigs I’ve been to.

Christmas. Even though he also did a Christmas album, Standout track

this has the same kind of feel about it. You know,
Has to be Maps really doesn’t it - though it is the least
cheerful and colourful and all that kind of stuff that
representative, its a gloriously unique and heartfelt
you’re only allowed to be once a year.
ballad that still completely retains the unique YYYs

Standout track: Chicag0 sound. It might just be perfect.

Scrawls & Bawls: http://truckstop83.blogspot.com

13
Out & About
Playing With the Past,
August 2009
This combination of film and live music was my
highlight of last year's Edinburgh International Film
Festival, bringing together three of my favourite
Edinburgh bands eagleowl, Meursault and Found, to
provide original soundtracks to some bloody ancient,
but fascinating pieces of footage.
The picture above is from the film Granton Trawler,
for which eagelowl provided a lovely instrumental
sea-shanty, complete with a brilliant replication of a
creaking boat, which Bart somehow created merely by
twisting his guitar strap (via an effects pedal). Living
in the vicinity of Granton Harbour, it was great to see
this genuine slice of life from over 70 years ago, and
although the fisherman's life looked very tough
indeed, it's hard not to romanticise their seafaring
ways just a little bit when you're stuck on the number
8 bus due to endless roadworks. Notice I didn't
mention the word 'salty' once. The 'owl also provided
a fast and furious accompaniment to a strange little
animated film from Canada called Begone Dull Care
which let us see the other, less laid back side of the
band.
Meursault were up next, for Stan and Ollie, a bizarre
piece of newsreel about Laurel and Hardy's visit to
Edinburgh, back in the day when there were those
old-fashioned trams.. (cough). Their accompaniment
to this piece was quite subtle, with their main
contribution to the event an epic twenty minute piece
de resistance to the 1936 short Night Mail, about the
postal train from England to Scotland.
This was a bit of a blast from the past as I was shown
this film as part of my degree many moons ago. Like
Granton Trawler it made by the GPO film unit, which
was a pioneer of British documentary, if I remember
rightly
Finally it was Found (who I've seen live so often
recently they must think I'm stalking them). They had
a particularly tricky piece called Camera Makes
Whoopee, which included montages of various
instruments, making it difficult for them to deviate
from the footage, but the band cleverly brought in
samples and beats to match what was on screen.
What I enjoyed about this was the creative, and
different approach taken by each band, and the
genuine enthusiasm of the crowd. I'd like to see some
contemporary local film-makers teaming up with the
city's musical talent more often, but I can see that it
would take a lot of work to come up with something
like this completely from scratch.
14
Out & About
The Cave Singers &
Espers @ The Electric
Circus, Edinburgh Nov
14th 2009
This was billed as the Shred yer Face III tour but
luckily no facial injuries were incurred. I was casually
aware of both of the main bands previously and had
liked what I'd heard (we missed Woods who played
first), but only ended up at the gig because my pals Stu
and Chris won free tickets at the venue's music quiz.
When we arrived it seemed no-one had thought to
mention this to the doorstaff so we didn't quite get the
VIP treatment we expected but we did get in
eventually. Although we had an additional wait due to
a barman with apparent short-term memory loss as he
seemed incapable of remembering who he was serving
and who had been waiting the longest.
So Espers had already started playing to the packed
venue by the time we had our drinks and we had to
squeeze in at the back. Our view was interrupted by a
constant stream of hen parties heading to the karaoke
booths, who must have been bemused by the 60's
throwbacks on stage and the congregation of mainly
bearded men who were there to watch them.
Watching Espers play their lengthy psych-folk
oddysseys really was like being transported back to
San Fran in the days of free love (though they are a
Philadelphia band), or being an observer on the tour
bus featured in the film Almost Famous. Despite, as
one member of the crowd suggested, their close
resemblance to Scooby Doo's mystery gang, their
music was excellent, especially nearer the end of the
set when their extended jams really took off with some
mournful cello and dirty Neil Young style electric
guitar. Unfortunately just as they seemed to find their
mojo the set was abruptly called to a halt to make way
for the night's headliners.
And Seattle's The Cave Singers truly deserved their
billing. I was won over from the first track. The lead
singer, who resembled Arab Strap's Aidan Moffat but
with an even more outlandish beard, has a rich,
distinctive voice, somewhat reminiscent of the bloke
from Kings of Leon (The Cave Singers struck me as a
more authentic version of that band).
The guitarist, previously a member of Pretty Girls
Make Graves, was something else - finger-picking an
electric steel guitar at lightning speed and combined
with an excellent drummer who later added some
skiffle to the mix, the threesome sounded as good as a
band with twice the personnel.
What was great about them was they were utterly
danceable, in a hoe down sort of a way, and they had
the entire crowd whooping and yee-hahing with
delight. The songs they played were taken from both
of their studio albums which I will now be
investigating thoroughly. I don't think I would have
bothered listening to them at all had I not made it to
this gig, so it fairly revived my faith in live music .
15
Out & About
Seasoned gig goer Stuart Lewis only writes about the ones he really really enjoys.. here’s one of them:

The Flaming Lips @

The Glasgow Academy,
15th November 2009

photo by Stuart Lewis

Almost six years to the day after one of the greatest gigs we had ever seen, my good friend David I
returned to the Glasgow Academy to see the band that gave us such a great night - the Flaming Lips.

A lot has happened in six years, of course. We now have three kids between the two of us – clearly the
lights of our respective lives, but also a major factor in restricting the amount of bands we now get to see
together.

And we’ve also lost touch with Wayne Coyne. It was hugely disappointing to find that, following a
slightly stalker-ish encounter with the grey haired, cream-suited messiah on that night six years ago, that
not only had he forgotten to put us on the guestlist, but didn’t even phone in advance to say that he’d be
in town. Pah.

No matter – we were happy to put our differences with famous imagined friends aside to enjoy our
seventh (yes, seventh – did I use the word stalker-ish above?) Flaming Lips live experience.

David reckons the new album is something of a classic; I have to admit that I find the improv-jam nature
of some of it rather hard work, but with the Flaming Lips, it’s never just about the songs is it?

16
From the moment the band emerged from a giant flashing vagina onto a stage that looked like the set
of Blake’s 7, it was pure theatre all the way. After Wayne’s now traditional foray into the crowd in his
‘space bubble’ – he was at pains to point out that it’s most definitely NOT a hamster ball – it was
straight into Race for the Prize, one of the most uplifting pop songs ever written. If there were any
doubters that they could once again pull off a stunning show they would surely have been won over
by its opening drumbeats.

At this point I have to declare that I was among those doubters. Having seen them play the Usher
Hall on the ...Mystics tour in 2006 I was a little disheartened that their set had varied little from all
the times we'd seen them tour Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots. It was also the same schtick between
numbers, the same quirky bits and between-song videos. I was anxious that we wouldn't simply get
more of the same.

So it was refreshing to find that things had been shaken up considerably. Yes, there were still
costumed fans dancing at the side of the stage. One side looked like the Wampa from the Empire
Strikes Back, the other appeared to be scantily clad - and disturbingly attractive - sheep.

After the sheer euphoria of Race... they crashed straight into newie Silver Trembling Hands, and it
was absolutely stunning. The rumbling bass and driving percussion made it sound like something
Black Sabbath or Hawkwind would have been proud of, and each of the other new album tracks got a
similarly thunderous treatment.

Balloons bounced joyously around the crowd, cannons blasted glitter and streamers into the crowd at
regular intervals and 2,000 people jumped around like kids on fizzy juice. And when the band rolled
out the crowd pleasers like the Yeah Yeah Yeah Song and Yoshimi, they were received like the second
coming. Other ...Mystics tracks, especially The W.A.N.D. also fitted in seamlessly with the bass-y
growl of the new songs.

Even a few seemingly random curveballs like Pompeii am Götterdämmerung went down a treat
amidst the flashing lights and burst balloons and the night was rounded off with the spectacular
double whammy of She Don't Use Jelly and Do You Realize. The latter provoked a delightful stop-
start singalong that the band seemed to enjoy as much as the crowd, and the Flaming Lips left the
Academy stage to rapturous applause once again.

Having seen the Cave Singers the night before, and been craving bourbon immediately afterwards,
after this night I felt like overdosing on Sunny D and LSD. But unfortunately I had work in the
morning. Damn.

Stuart Lewis

More live reviews: www.gaseousbrain.com

17
I Hear a New World @ Ten Tracks

Employee of the Month - Brainwave - Corrupt

In case you don't know, Ten Tracks is
a Scottish-based music download
Call it jazz or post-rock if you like, and it’s true that
service where music fans can get ten
Employee of the Month bear comparison to the likes of
tasty audio treats for the
Boards of Canada and Tortoise, but their hyper-modern
extraordinarily cheap price of a
aesthetic is all their own.
pound, whilst making sure the
musicians involved get something Withered Hand - Religious Songs (early EP version)
back.
“Not many religious songs contain the line “I beat myself
That's right, for the price of a box of off when I sleep on your futon” but the title track from
Maltesers (admittedly also an Withered Hand’s new EP combines themes of faith, doubt,
excellent purchase), you get to sex and inexplicably uncomfortable furniture without
download ten of the best tracks which blinking an eye.
have featured on previous I Hear a
New World podcasts, a number of Kazoo Funk Orchestra - Robots in Your Eyes
which aren't available anywhere
else. Here are the details of each All songs about robots are brilliant – FACT. This 1:12

track. minutes of mechanical mayhem is even better than that

one from the Flight of the Conchords and will probably

single-handedly hasten the onset of the singularity, when

machine intelligence finally overtakes our own (if that

hasn’t happened already).

18
Les Enfant Bastard - Michael Jackson White Heath -

When the
Lo-fi genius Les Enfant Bastard is trying to convince us that Watchmen
although he appears to be a skinny white bloke, he is in fact Leave Their
the facially-challenged post-black moonwalking nutjob who Stations
refers to himself as the King of Pop.

You know you're

Ambulances - Raasay in for a treat right

away when a big

Get your tie-die dress on and skip bare-foot down to the
feckin' tuba kicks
river, light up a giant spliff (if you like that sort of thing - or a
in, but just wait for the chorus when it all comes together in a
nice cup of camomile tea if you don't). Raasaay is a laid-back
swinging, serenading New Orleans-march-through-the-
love-in that will make dreamers out of over-achievers.
streets-then-onto-a-boat-down-the Mississippi-river of

lovestruck majesty.
Gummi Bako - I'm Depressed

Wounded Knee - Anthem for the Call-Centre

Here, Gummi seems to have the bakery-related blues (“too
Worker
much hot-cross loving”), but then things take an abrupt turn

for the positive and you realise he has the ability to free
Edinburgh’s Wounded Knee takes the corporate-speak
himself from adversity through sheer, glorious absurdity.
of the robot voices that greet us on the other end of the
line and reclaims them as a call to arms for all
Men Diamler - Black as a Cat in the Morning
downtrodden customer service representatives. Using

Men Diamler is pure mental, he sings about cats and suicide his sublime skills with repeating vocal loops, he

and screams "one of these days you'll feel much better". He transforms a common depression into a perversely

gets up and runs about like his arse is on fire. He makes us all uplifting anthem.

sing along. Thing is, we feel better right away.

Meursault - William Henry Miller Part 1 (acoustic Grab these ten musical
version from the Nothing Broke EP) gems for the barely
noticeable price of one
Meursault are perhaps better known for their blistering single quid
electronica-based live sets but here they excel in the acoustic at www.tentracks.co.uk
realm with impassioned vocals, banjo, handclaps and

harmonies.

Search for “i hear a new world podcast” on the iTunes Store or alternatively you can
visit www.gaseousbrain.com/podcasts

19
Unsung Heroes
Digital Plamf’s Unsung Heroes #1: The Male Nurse
I'm grateful to Digital Plamf for recommending The Male Nurse to me a while back. All
I've heard is a few songs they recorded for John Peel, 'Back On The Pills', 'German
Sleeps in My Bed' and 'The Vestibule Song'. Back On The Pills is now one of my
favourite songs of all time, and I played it pretty much everyday for ages.

When I did my first ever 'I Hear a New World' radio show on Edinburgh’s Student Radio
Station Fresh Air, I made them the "Unsung Heroes" of the week, and Digital Plamf then took over the slot for
most of the other shows I did with some brilliantly obscure Scottish bands - the first of which is included here.

Digital Plamf’s Unsung Heroes #2: Lowlife

Lowlife's 'Gush' was recorded at Mighty Reel studios in Edinburgh in 1995 - this studio
was on East London Street next to the dry cleaners'. Neither of these businesses exist
anymore - the dry cleaners' is now the Bella M'briana italian restaurant, and the unit
next door was for a few years the Lost Sock Diner, the owner (who'd also co-owned
Mighty Reel) carefully picking a name whose initials spelt LSD. I had my dinner there
once, but it wasny very psychedelic, although the name was quite funny.

So, who'da thunk that this anonymous tenement on the edge of Edinburgh's New Town was the place that a brace
of classic Scottish albums would be recorded. One of these classics was Lowlife's underpromoted and practically
invisible LP. Indeed, I wasn't even aware of its existence until a few years ago, and it took about six months of
trawling Amazon Marketplace before I could finally buy a copy.

Standout tracks are 'Truth In Needles', 'Swell' and 'Tocopherol'. By this stage in the career the band's stadium size
sound was largely gone, replaced by an amazing, almost Martin Hannett style, 'slower-but-faster' production, with
songs that told -sometimes painfully - stories that you could only hope for their writer's sake weren't
autobiographical.

A note on the production - the producer, BeBop, was (I believe) a member of Edinburgh "legends" Gods of Glam
who do have a MySpace page, but I won't link to it here, for pro-Beatles White Album reasons.

Right. So that's that then. Ah wait though, I did say a brace of classics was recorded at Mighty Reel - so what was the other

one? Well, it was Brutal, whose CD "Bullshit Attitude and Experience", can only be described as psycho-biohazard. It sounds

more like an experiment than an attempt at recording an album - an experiment in the fusion of loud noise with even louder

noise. (If Jake and Dinos Chapman had recorded this album it'd be worth millions - and rightly so). Eponymous track "Brutal:

the Harbour of Fools (Bladerunner Mix)" is a heavy-going 8 minutes of larynx-bleed shouting, layered guitars, and lumbering

Front 242 with a broken drum machine beats. As for the track "Tart", think of a Scottish Notorious B.I.G. with no sense of the

existence of R&B. Digital Plamf

20
Records
James Yorkston & The Big Eyes poaching quite a bit -

Family Players - Folk Songs the tracks Hills of

Greenmore,
Thorneymoor Woods,
I have to admit I found the prospect of sitting down
and Rufford Park
to a whole album of ‘proper folk’ rather off-putting,
Poachers all feature
even though it was recorded by James Yorkston
such bloody activities
(who it is no secret I am a massive fan of).
heavily. Yep, he seems quite taken with that whole
poaching thing. As a non-meat eater this was all a
You see, my old man is the folkie really and I
bit disturbing for me as I listened to it whilst
consider myself more of an aficionado of modern/
drifting off to sleep at night, and I awoke with vivid
urban/anti-folk. And while I’ve enjoyed the
pictures of dying, bloody animals in my mind. Not
traditional folk covers included on Yorkie’s last
one to send Morrissey for Christmas, I suspect.
couple of releases, with his storming version of Lal
Waterson’s Midnight Feast on ‘When the Haar
Of course this is a little unfair, as the first track,
Rolls in’ and an early version of Blue Bleezin’ Blind
Hills of Greenmoor is on closer listening, from the
Drunk on his 'Roaring the Gospel' compilation, it
point of view of both the hunters and the hunted -
was always within the context of his original songs.
the kind of clever twist in perspective that still
hasn’t permeated into mainstream songwriting and
Despite these songs origins, spanning the entire UK
doubtless never will.
and Ireland, and the fact this was recorded with a
different group of musicians, the distinctive
Truth be told, tracks like Little Musgrave which
Yorkston style remains (apart from the singular
comes from way back in the 16th century, are quite
Spanish tune, a Galicia gypsy hoe-down which may
amazing stories set to melody that would rival the
well be my favourite track for its sheer novelty).
best River City omnibus. There’s a haunting quality
about these dark, twisted tales that have been
See, Yorkston embodies the characters in these
passed down the generations because they still ring
songs as if they were his own; and he changes the
true in quite a spooky way, like the best ghost
melody when it suits him - and James Green and
stories round the campfire. So whilst not completely
the accompanying musicians from the Big Eyes
converted, I do think I will explore the world of trad
Family Players add their own influences, bringing
folk a little more, and Yorkston’s own track-by-track
Can and Johnny Cash inspired basslines to the mix,
liner notes are the best place to start for hints on
as well as a hypnotic combination of accordion and
where to look if you’re interested, with plenty of
strings.
info of who have recorded these songs before such
as the "bonny" Anne Briggs.
One thing this collection seems to bring to light is
Yorkston’s apparent obsession with “a poacher’s
www.jamesyorkston.co.uk
life”, being a poacher, and generally hunting and/or

21
Records
Musée Mécanique - Hold This
Ghost
Hold This Ghost feels like a proper record, a
real collection of songs that works best
listened to as a whole. Based around the
songwriting partnership of Sean Ogilvie and
Micah Rabwin, from Portland Oregon, Musée
Mécanique are named after a collection of
vintage amusement and musical instruments
in San Francisco, aptly so because the album
has the feel of a treasured item. In fact, as
gorgeous as it sounds playing via my
computer, it would probably sound best on
vinyl, placed carefully on an old gramophone
in a dusty attic, beams of daylight making the
dust dance to its gentle rhythms.
Quite clearly influenced by Mercury Rev’s
Deserter’s Songs, each song is more like a
fluid dreamscape, awash with the theremin-
esque sounds of the musical saw, accordions,
glockenspiel, and melodica. There is also a
strong country influence, particularly on the
late night bar-room piano melancholy of ‘Fits
and Starts’. Elsewhere the rolling finger-
picked guitars are definitely folk-influenced
but subtly so, and lead vocalist Micah Rabwin
is reminiscent of the (pleasantly) mannered
Murray Lightburn from The Dears, but with a
lighter touch and higher range somewhat
reminiscent of the Flaming Lips’ Wayne
Coyne.
As much as I hate to say this given we’ve just
endured so many from last year, this album
ticks all the boxes for ending up in a lot of
people’s 2010’s end of year lists (although it
was seemingly originally released in the US
way back in 2008). It may not do anything
dramatically new or mind-blowing, but the
atmosphere and emotion are more than
enough to justify repeated listens.
www.myspace.com/museemecanique |
www.souterrain.com
Emily Scott - abcdefg.. etc..
This little gem
arrived in a
beautiful hand-
made package,
and the feeling
of meticulous
care and
attention carries
through to the
music inside,
which although it fits in with the folky feel
that’s prevalent right now around Edinburgh,
also has a definite 1930‘s Cole Porter vibe
which has me picturing gentle trips down a
country lane in a horse-drawn carriage,
picnics in meadows and romantic liaisons in
rowing boats.
Though it does have a jazzy jauntiness,
Emily’s gorgeous voice also has a melancholy
feel, and is beautifully accompanied by her
own delicately plucked guitar, piano and
double-bass as well as banjo and harp.
There’s also a similar feel to some of James
Yorkston’s songs, and it just happens that the
album is mastered by his long-time
accomplice Reuben Taylor.
“I’m so tired of moving on” she sings, taking
on the role of a restless soul who’s had
enough of searching for something that might
not even exist. The track ‘Don’t You Tease
Me’ is bursting with metaphors about an
irresistible, incorrigible flirt, but we’re none
the wiser to whether these are based on her
own experience or merely literary creations. I
think it’s best not to know and just go along
for the blissful boat ride.
www.aufgeladenundbereit.com|
www.myspace.com/emilyscottmusic
22
 Records
Daniel Johnston - Is And Always Was (Domino)

If you expected Daniel Johnston to be eternally lo-fi and perpetually at risk of

unravelling musically, with records that are little more than snippets of a
damaged soul captured on tape cassette in his mum's basement, then this
album may come as a shock to you.

It's full band and full throttle, with Beck and Air producer Jason Falkner bringing Johnston's ideas closer to the
way he always heard his songs in his own head (and any musician can tell you how wide the disparity can be
between what you actually create and what you intended to create). DJ himself is in brilliant voice and sounds
like he's revelling in playing with the band. It took me quite a while to get used to the sheer professionalism of
the album myself in fact, but I'm really loving it now because the more I listen to it, the more the whole feel of
the album is utterly and completely uplifting.

Stand out tracks on the first few listens are the old school jam of Fake Records of Rock n Roll and canine tribute
Queenie the Doggie (a song title and subject only someone as perma-innocent as Johnston seems to be could
sing with a straight face), as well as the Sesame Street on crack cocaine keyboard riff of 'Without You' which is a
bit musically trite but has grown on me.

Where he excels of course is as a unique songwriter, and at this stage he's pretty much a genre to himself. You
either hate him, love him, or find the fetishisation of his mental health issues by some fans difficult to stomach.
But it's difficult to deny the unblemished honesty of his lyrics and genuineness of his vocal delivery.

www.hihowareyou.com

eagleowl - Sleep The Winter Almost all my

(Single) favourite Scottish

music blogs are very
excited about this
The wind is battering the windows, whistling through
release and rightly so.
the doors and buzzing through the nooks and crannies
As well as making
of my ancient old tenement flat. It's winter alright.
amazing music,
eagleowl are lovely people and the slow, sure beating
I'm playing the new single by eagleowl, Sleep The
heart of Edinburgh's alternative scene. The addition of
Winter. It's achingly sad, like standing on the
this band to any bill makes it a special night.
windswept petrol-perfumed deck of a ferry and seeing a
beautiful coastline of a country you never wanted to
www.eagleowlattack.co.uk
leave fading into the distance.

23
Records
François & The Atlas Mountains
Paper Planes
- Plaine Inondable - Doris Day

Though predominantly a Scottish This Glasgow

label, Fence Records seem to have band has all the
found a rich vein to mine in Bristol, ingredients that
with OLO Worms, Rozi Plain, and are likely to excite
Scotland and of
now François Marry all being signed to the label. Marry is, me: they count the
course those
as his name suggests French, but came to the label’s likes of the Cramps,
reliable Glasgow
attention through playing with Rozi Plain, and clearly has the Velvet
Podcarters. Though
excellent credentials having also toured with Camera Underground and
the rest of the band
Obscura. Uncle John &
are Scots,
Whitelock as their
Plaine Inondable (which translates as flood plains), is a influences; they're frontwoman Jennifer

rich, piano-based album with some shades of Herman working with Lucky Paley is from New

Dune in the likes of the trumpet laden French language Number Nine and Jersey and as others

lament ‘Moitiée’, whereas the upbeat-to-the-point-of- Say Dirty Records have noted, sounds a

daftness ‘Be Water (Je Suis De L'eau)’ is Serge Gainsbourg who have an lot like Karen O, but

and Brigitte Bardot frolicking in a ball pool after eating too excellent track luckily they are far

many smarties. record, and they've from being just an

homage to the YYYs,
got a hot female
There is plenty of the expected French tweeness then, but preferring sleazy
vocalist with attitude.
this is offset nicely by some gorgeous instrumentation rockabilly riffs and
And yes, that last one
influenced strongly by 70’s African funkadelia. Marry’s own punky pop tunes. I'm
is pretty superficial of
voice is a low gentle croon, accompanied beautifully by hoping to check them
me. But luckily they
gorgeous harmonies courtesy of Bost Gehio who to quote out live as soon as I
also sound fantastic.
the press release are “an all-female polyphonic voice group can, and slapping
from the Basques country”. He is also joined on the album What's crazy is that myself forcibly on the
by a band called Unkle Jelly Fish, from his hometown of they've only been forehead for missing
Saintes on France’s West Coast, where he recorded the together a year this the gigs they did last
album. month, and yet their year in Edinburgh..

first single Doris Day

Tracks like 'Otage' have a more reflective mood, feeling like www.luckynumberni
has a swagger and
a summer afternoon spent writing a letter to a long-lost ne.co.uk/shop/ |
confidence most
friend, and Years of Rain is full of archly epic anger and www.myspace.com/
bands would kill for,
faded grandeur, like an episode of Poirot scored by John glasgowpaperplanes
and they've already
Barry. It’s an album with a massive breadth of musical and
got acclaim from
geographical influences, but which nevertheless feels
pretty much every
absolutely natural and genuine - and well worth
publication in
discovering. http://www.myspace.com/francoisinbristol 24
Visual
In Mourning for The Wire -
the best TV drama ever?
I have now watched all 5 series of The Wire. If you
haven't seen it yet, you've probably heard someone
banging on about how great it is by now, and with good
reason - it is, in my humble opinion, the best TV drama
of all time.
When I was told about it last year by my friends Bernie
and Cat, I was intrigued, and when Bernie declared that
it was possibly better than The Sopranos, of which I was a
huge fan from Day One, I knew I had to watch it and
judge for myself.
So on their recommendation I purchased the first series
and myself and my better half have religiously watched
the entire thing over the last 6 months or so - making
sure to take our time and savour every episode and
season, knowing that eventually it would all be over - and
alas, that day has come.
Now in my opinion the first series of The Sopranos is
close to perfection, with its scenario of a powerful
matriarch, Tony's mother, subtly undermining her own
son's efforts to run a major New Jersey crime family,
based on creator David Chase's own relationship with his
mother. But later series, though still excellently written,
acted and filmed, never quite lived up to its potential
(partly due to the death of the actress who played the
mother Livia Soprano, and thus removing the
crux of the idea).
Too many opportunities for exciting conflict
were dodged, seemingly in the name of being
unpredictable, but in retrospect many of them
seemed a cowardly way of extending the lives of
the main characters. And that last episode whilst
it wasn't as awful as some made out - well it was
more a whimpering dog going off to die under a
car than an explosive finale.
But whilst it was obvious from the very start that The
Sopranos had an original concept and style, on first
viewing The Wire Episode 1, you'd be forgiven for
thinking it was just another bland TV cop show. In fact if
you tuned into a random episode of it on the FX channel,
a tiny cable channel which hardly anyone watches that is
the only UK channel to show the series so far, you'd be
forgiven for asking 'what's the fuss all about?'
That's because The Wire is all about the details and the
subtleties that are only apparent to the most attentive
viewers. So much so that creator David Simon explained
to thingy on the Culture Show that his approach was
"fuck the casual viewer". I can't remember another show
where it was quite so vitally important to watch it with
your full attention. The sheer breadth of characters over
the course of the 5 series, most of whom reappear each
series, led to a complexity rarely seen on TV. And though
each season deals in part with different characters and
topics, and not all of the five seasons were equally great,
these were masterfully crafted plots that never gave you
that 'making it up as they go along' feel of most TV
dramas, or the 'predictably formulaic' nature of most cop
shows. Far from it..
25
Visual
David
Robertson's
Dump: Issue 1
(Fred Egg
Comics)

Dump is a small
press comic by
David Robertson
which brings
together a number
of short pieces
most of which were
originally produced
by the author for
other outlets.

The title may lead

you to think that
the comic contains
some scatalogical
humour, and
'Contemplating
Suicide While
Someone Else Craps' is indeed a one page
piece with some very black toilet humour.
However 'It's Delhi Belly', a piece drawn for
an anthology unsubtly called 'Crap Your
Pants', is actually a sober tale about
someone who finds out they've contracted
Crohn's disease. It's a factual piece which
made me think it was autobiographical, but
according to the notes at the back of the
comic it was thoroughly researched and
written with the truth in mind.
It also contains a story which is itself called
'Dump' which is not in fact a bathroom
related tale, but about the protagonist of
Robertson's former comic Berserkotron
starting a new job at a scrap metal yard/
council dump. I sense that this is a story that
could follow through to future issues rather
than being standalone.
Other tales in the comic include one which
considers how positive discrimination would
affect humans in a Star Wars style universe
where we have a relatively short lifespan,
and an undisguised autobiographical account
of a single day for the Hourly Comics Day
project. Robertson's unique way of thinking
makes each story interesting, and is also
evident in the section where he imagines the
thoughts of the models from his life drawing
class.
There's something of Harvey Pekar in the
straightforward and commonplace nature of
many of the events, and the art is simple yet
effective which perfectly matches the tone. If
Robertson were to weave some more
emotional aspects into his stories he could
develop to be a storyteller to watch.
Info: http://fredeggcomics.piczo.com

Watch! Long Live Oink! A tribute to

the under-rated kid's comic
http://www.vimeo.com/gaseousbrain

26
Visual
Gallery: Macarenses

See more at www.macarenses.co.uk

27
 Travel
New York (A Personal Account)
The Strand Bookstore and other sights

We tried to take the advice of the people who'd

commented on the blog and on Facebook, and we
managed to do most things we wanted to do, but
there's so much left to do that I'm desperate to get
back.

Many thanks to Tart of the loveshackbaby.com for

the tip about the Strand Bookstore. I think both of
us could have spent hours and many many dollars

“All of us had such a fine time wining and dining in there. We were too far away to grab breakfast at

around the city that I have no recollection of any the Tick Tock diner as suggested by my friend Nick, and

daytime hours, and even my recollections of night-time we just didn't have time for Ellis Island unfortunately

are foggy." but we did go on the Staten Island Ferry and had a
wonderful walk over the bridge to Brooklyn, where we
Suze Rotolo, A Freewheelin' Time: A Memoir of ate lunch, drank Brooklyn Lager and walked along the
Greenwich Village in the Sixties promenade with it's awesome views of Manhattan.
Great place for wedding photos:
Okay maybe that isn't a completely accurate description
of our New York trip, as we did get out and about during
most days, and I do remember what we did (during the
day at least). But my cousin Rory and his wife Michelle
did make sure at least one full day was a write-off, as we
drank and drank until the early hours on the Sunday
night, but seeing as it was an amazing night we'll forgive
them. In fact they were amazing hosts and we were
treated like royalty by them and their friends the whole
time we were there.

Central Park
The things we missed out on are a great reason to go

The main thing I have to report is that on the first full back as soon as possible! The city is so exciting, so fast-

day we were there I proposed to my long suffering moving, with something happening on every corner.

girlfriend on a rowing boat on 'The Lake' in Central Park The people are friendly, helpful and very welcoming,

and, perhaps overcome by the city fumes, she foolishly plus there are so many characters, interesting people to

said yes. Despite nearly crashing into numerous other look at and listen to snippets of their conversations, and

boaters, we made it safely back to the shore. As most so many beautiful women! (I know, I know, I shouldn't

people have said, after 11 years, it was about time! be looking). Frankly if I could get a visa and afford the
28
rents, I'd move there right away.
 Travel and I knew I had the crowd behind me. I think it went
pretty well, and I had fulfilled one of my ambitions, to
play at the Sidewalk in NYC.

The Sidewalk Open Mic

My open mic experience on our final night followed the

night we got absolutely hammered so here I was in New
York, on my own, with the hangover from hell, ready to
take to the stage. We spent the next day checking out Greenwich Village
and a few of Bob Dylan's old haunts and I felt I'd got a
When I get nervous I clam up and become even more great taste of the city and it's cultural history. Before I
socially awkward than normal (if that's possible) and so I left I put It's Blitz by Yeah Yeah Yeahs on my iPhone
sat in the corner quietly sipping my water. When the really loud and wandered about near where we were
time came to queue I was delighted to be picked ninth, staying around Fifth Avenue (and popped into the 24
especially as the queue was out the door and the signing hour Apple Store and a cool toy shop with lego Darth
up process took over three-quarters of an hour! So after Vaders and Chewbaccas). Sad to be leaving and still in
some amazing acts it was my turn. I had managed to awe, Karen O's expansive melancholy hit me hard as the
borrow a guitar off a very generous lady who had towering buildings spun round me, and I bid NYC a
announced on stage that she was moving from New York reluctant farewell.
to Toronto - (my nerves prevented me from
remembering her name even though she told me it twice)
and just before I went onstage, the lovely Nan from
Schwervon appeared, who I had chatted to when the
band stopped in Edinburgh a couple of months ago as
part of their UK tour promoting their excellent new
Watch!
album Low Blow. She was also playing the open mic that
night (she rocked!) and was very supportive. It was great
to have someone who I knew there gunning for me, and
it helped my confidence a lot as I fumbled with the guitar
strap etc. NYC Travelogue
http://www.vimeo.com/gaseousbrain
I really threw myself into it and when the whole room
started clapping along to my song I Ain’t Your Mailman
29
Archive
Where Did It All
Go Wrongzo?
Gonzo: The life & work of
Hunter S. Thompson

Both an inspirational and cautionary

tale, this documentary about the
"walking monument to misbehaviour"
Hunter S Thompson is an enjoyable, if
uneven take on the gonzo figurehead's
life.

Disclaimer: What follows is less a review than

the thoughts it provoked about the life and
work of one of my writing heroes.

This film persuaded me/reminded me that

being a writer can be very worthwhile, and
fired me up to try to make more of my own
writing talent, even if I will never come close
to Hunter at his best. But it also showed,
once again, that drink and drugs and the
whole rock n roll myth can be very
destructive. Thompson invented a persona
which made him famous, but he became a
slave to that one dimensional image and the
fame that went with it.
He struggled with demons as do a lot of
creative people, in particular an anger and
rage that was at times uncontrollable -
which no doubt drove him to write in the
first place but was ultimately self-
destructive in nature. What really stood out
for me was his bravery in the early days -
riding with the hell's angels must have took
some guts, and he certainly wasn't scared
of being blacklisted by the Washington big-
wigs when he covered the 72 US election
campaign. What he showed was that truly
great writing isn't just about being able to
string a few sentences together, it's about
taking a stand, taking a risk, going out on
the edge, and being a visionary.
This film persuaded me/reminded me that being a
writer can be very worthwhile, and fired me up to try
to make more of my own writing talent, even if I will
never come close to Hunter at his best. But it also
showed, once again, that drink and drugs and the
whole rock n roll myth can be very destructive.
Thompson invented a persona which made him
famous, but he became a slave to that one
dimensional image and the fame that went with it.
He struggled with demons as do a lot of creative
people, in particular an anger and rage that was at
times uncontrollable - which no doubt drove him to
write in the first place but was ultimately self-
destructive in nature. What really stood out for me
was his bravery in the early days - riding with the
hell's angels must have took some guts, and he
certainly wasn't scared of being blacklisted by the
Washington big-wigs when he covered the 72 US
election campaign. What he showed was that truly
great writing isn't just about being able to string a
few sentences together, it's about taking a stand,
taking a risk, going out on the edge, and being a
visionary.

30
 Instead of electing a man who would have
ended the Vietnam War immediately and
brought through other social reforms, the US
public elected the morally vacuous and
bizarrely-faced Richard Nixon, and the iconic
plastic mask of him is used in the film as a
recurring motif to represent Hunter's own
dark side.

Again, parallels were drawn with recent

events, with Nixon and Bush shown as
interchangeable figures. Thompson was
devastated by the result then of course, and
later when George W was elected he sunk
into a depression which can only have
strengthened his long-standing decision to
take his own life. In fact the film opens with
Hunter's reaction to 9/11, one of the few
events that got him fired up enough to
summon his old talent in his later years. It's
an extraordinarily lucid and prescient piece of
writing.

Though to many his shotgun suicide was a

He was, of course, renowned for his ability to ingest
truckloads of booze and drugs with barely noticeable
effects - and as with his sometimes wholly fictional
Gonzo journalism, he exaggerated the extent of this for
effect, particularly in order to appall "the squares".
heroic way to go befitting of the way he lived
life, the film's message, through the words of
his closest friends and his own family, was
that this was in fact a cop-out by a man
whose talent could have continued to have a
positive impact on the world - but then as he
himself was aware, he had ceased being a
great writer many years earlier when the
drugs and drink took their hold.

But when he failed to cover the Rumble in the Jungle,

opting instead to drink whisky in his hotel swimming
pool, it marked the turning point where he was no
longer in control of his 'medicine' because it was now
in charge of him. Whilst Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas
was what turned me on to him, I'm not a fan of the
unthinking celebration of drugs use for the sake of
adolescent rebellion, and I wasn't much a fan of the
film version of the book which relied too heavily on this
(Though one of the producers of the film, Naila
Nebulsi who met Hunter on the set of SNL, was
insanely hot in her younger days and still looking fine
in her interviews here).

The film had a lot of interesting footage from Hunter's

attempt to run for sheriff of Aspen and how what
started out as a prank became a real possibility,
though ultimately ended in (genuine) disappointment.
Also his backing of the underdog democrat candidate
McGovern (Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail
'72) may have helped him get nominated - though a
very bad choice of unnaturally sweaty man Thomas
Eagleton as vice-presidential candidate (with eerie
echoes of Sarah Palin), who was forced to resign after
it was revealed he had undergone shock therapy 3
times, would put paid to his bid.

31
 Archive
Britney’s so-called comeback
Now you might consider it wrong that I care about
Britney Spears at all given that most of us think of her as
a white trash pop muppet with little more than two
brain cells to rub together, who deserves any shit she
gets from the press because she "got into bed with
them" in the first place. But I kind of feel sorry for her.
And it may be because of her producers, but I enjoy
some of her tunes.
OK, I admit it, my knowledge of Britney began, like
everyone else, with Hit Me Baby One More Time and its
controversially saucy video, in 1998. Dodgy as it was, it
was also obvious from that and subsequent hits that
Britney had "it". You know, the X-factor. Forward ten
years and there she was, miming on Simon Cowell's
show of the same name, watched by 12.8m UK viewers
(extraordinary ratings in these days of increasingly
fragmented audiences), and was then thoroughly
"I have 'come
back' so many
times, people
are just like, 'Is
this another
one?' It's kind of
like a joke to me
now."
Britney Spears
panned in the tabloids for not singing live like the
contestants.
Not sure what they expected - she's never been known
for singing live. But never mind, it sold a few papers to
give her a bit of a kicking. Personally, having heard
Diana Vickers attempting to sing a Dido song and
sounding more like a mouse with asthma, I vote for
miming every time.
Womanizer is not a bad pop tune. It fits in with much of
her earlier light-as-a-low-fat-chocolate-mousse pop
material - but doesn't really come close to her last
album, Blackout. Produced brilliantly by Danja (for the
most part), it's a slick, hyper-modern, sexy pop record,
blistering with vocoderised, disturbing dirty talk and
breathy bi-sexual/a-sexual groans. When Britney
works with cutting edge producers she's at the top of
her game - witness I'm a Slave 4 U with The Neptunes.
32
 Archive
Unfortunately her record company kiboshed
the demos she did with DFA (LCD
Soundsystem's James Murphy), and because
Blackout didn't do particularly well in the US,
it's back to basics and working with mainly
her early pop producers for Circus. Therefore
it's much more of a bland, conformist pop
album which seems to put her back in the
eternal teenager mode that her US fans seem
to be most comfortable with.  It even includes
the last single from Blackout, Radar, as a
bonus track - which only goes to highlight
how much better that material was.

Of course, while her record company were

releasing the songs from Blackout, Britney
Spears was going through hell, divorcing her
husband and fighting for custody of her
children. Obviously struggling with an
addiction, probably to drugs, she was lashing
out at everyone around her. And who can
blame her? Mollycoddled by her parents and
management since her early teens, and then
Photo: Matthew Rolston 2003

ending up in an unfulfilling marriage with a

bunch of kids to look after, is it any wonder
she wanted to break free? And it just
happened that she made her best music
when she did.

"I think Circus is a little bit

lighter than my last album. I
Now she's been brought back into the fold - her
Dad has taken over all of her affairs and has her on was going through a very
a tight leash - and she's back in the gym, looking dark phase in my life when I
much more like her old, sexy, pre-packaged, did Blackout so a lot of the
record company approved self. She's revealing songs reflect that. Circus is
nothing in magazine interviews but don't believe
very much pop where as
that's because she has nothing to say - it's because
she has nothing she's allowed to say. It's like that Blackout is darker, edgier
scene at the end of One Flew Over the Cuckoo's and more urban because I
Nest where Jack Nicholson comes back from electric was in a dark place back
shock therapy a sedated, smiling idiot. then."
See, within that pop puppet you loathe is someone
- a human being, screaming to get out. But in the
Britney Spears
pop industry/mainstream media, body fascism and
conformity win every time, and the result is a
disappointing album, and a woman back in the
prison of her own popularity, doomed to a lifetime
of pretence.
33
 Soulsearching
Thoughtpiece Below image by Paul Sizer

Is it too late to save the world?

So here we are in the future. 2001 may have been a

year that resonated with sci-fi fans everywhere for
obvious reasons, but in terms of actual futuristic shit
going down, it was pretty much a disappointment. But
2010 is a different story.

Not only do graphic design geeks love the fact this

year's digits look incredibly cool typographically (or
written out in full as above), we are also living in a
world which has changed dramatically from the one I
grew up in. At the age of 32, it's weird to be part of the
last generation that grew up entirely without the
internet in a world where it's now so prevalent.

Ok, so we don't have the jetpacks and the flying cars,

but technology has already completely transformed the
way we live. It's hard to believe that YouTube only
came into existence in 2005, and remember dial-up
Everyone except the most stubborn luddite now knows
internet? How did we cope?
that newspapers and books as we know them now are
on the way out sooner rather than later, as new
In the last couple of years with laptops, wifi and
contraptions such as Amazon's Kindle and other ebook
handheld computers (aka smartphones) becoming
readers, the aforementioned smart phones (or
commonplace, if not de rigueur, the mainstream
superphones as Google would have it) and the new
western world is now totally, totally wired (as Mark E
Apple Tablet, bendy Skiff and numerous other products
Smith would say).
make an early bid to becoming the new way of
consuming content. Ok, these overpriced gadgets may
The Geeks Shall Inherit The Earth
only be adopted by the technological elite for now, but

I've been described as a geek on more than one where they lead, everyone else quickly follows.

occasion, and even have the badge to prove it. But

The Web Is Not Enough
really, in a world where almost everyone uses the likes
of Facebook and most have a phone that surfs the web,
But as excited as I get about developments in media
the only distinction I have is that I actively seek out the
and technology, there's no doubt that the world is
new stuff earlier (if I can afford to) and having lived
changing in other, more fundamental and terrifying
without this kind of cool stuff for so long, fully
ways, specifically with the threat of climate change. All
appreciate it for the massively exciting opportunities it
of our incredible scientific and technological progress
brings.

34
Soulsearching
may be for nothing, if we humans destroy the very
world we have been lucky enough to inhabit. If we
don't consider this seriously now, in 2010, it could well
be too late.
Even our use of the web is contributing to this
destruction, with every google search and every video
uploaded to YouTube using up a lot more power than
we assume - it's not limited to the minimal impact on
our individual electricity bills - there are massive
server farms full of computers that power our online
adventuring, and it's ultimately as unsustainable as
indiscriminate air travel and petrol-fuelled cars.
Of course those who worship at the altar of progress
believe we will find a technology to save us from the
near-certain ecological doom of our own making, but
too often their optimism is fuelled by personal/
economic interest.
The Copenhagen Climate Summit of 2009 proved one
thing- the politicians aren't going to save us. And it's
been proven time after time again that they aren't
going to 'Make Poverty History' or 'Give Peace a
Chance' either. These are topics so overwhelming that
to consider them fully leads to a feeling of deep
powerlessness and despair. No wonder those of us
who live in relative prosperity bury our collective
heads in the sand, turning to the quick fix of
entertainment and the heavily skewed/selective 24
hour news cycle. Or booze, or drugs, or sex & porn.
Human nature can be massively positive, leading to
amazing creativity, scientific and technological
advancement. But our insatiable desires for more,
more, more are also ultimately massively destructive.
Trying to change the fundamentals of human nature
may be a waste of energy, but those of us who have the
luxury of free time, free choice and freedom of speech
have to stop kidding ourselves and face the reality of
what's going on in the world head on.
Here, now, in 2010, as we rush headlong into the
cutting edge of the future, would be the ideal time for a
massive 'pattern interrupt' for the human species.
Whilst that would take a miracle, it is surely at least
possible to take a look at our own lives and ask,
"if this year was our last chance to do whatever
we could to help save the world, what would
we do about it?"
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