Days such as these

Well, that went from crappy to ‘end of days’ whatthefuckery very quickly!

It’s tough not to have a sense of everything just got very trivial compared to what is unfolding less than 2500 kms to the east. I have experienced a mix of emotions.

Mostly dark, accepting the full despotic nature of not just what Putin has done but the complete propagandist twist of every evil action into something for the ordinary Russian to cheer on. The lower levels of disgust experienced in looking at the British government’s spinning of their decision not to enable Ukrainians to come into the UK in any numbers or at the Republicans and their facilitators at Fox News glibly parroting Putin’s line while using the situation to take shots at Biden. The pride in the constant, unrelenting, unperturbed resistance that the Ukrainian nation has shown. The immense balls of Zelensky, the immense balls; contrast his behavior with the puffy little guy in the jacket and tie at the end of the 50′ table in a bunker? The smile when Anonymous does the type of hybrid technical hacks that we expect to get from Russian. The amazing response of people all across Europe; nearly every town in France has collection points for support and aid for Ukraine. Towns like La Rochelle, donating 55 hospital beds and delivering them to Ukraine, towns organizing to rent buses and providing drivers and support to go and pick up a bus load of women and children to welcome them to their homes.

I hope that somehow we take something good out of this carnage and destruction, maybe Putin is done at some point in the near future and his regime crashes down with him and then all the other tinpot despots, propped up by Russia, in Kazakhstan, Belarus and Turkmenistan tumble over too. It would also be timely if the oil and gas price spike encouraged a quicker transition to sustainable energy rather than a rush to start fracking everywhere again and augur a commitment to address the climate crisis.

In the meantime I have been distracting myself with this playlist of music. It’s a selection from the various albums old and new that I have been playing this grey and cold March. Let’s listen to it while doing something to help Ukraine!

Jarvis Cocker – Save The Whale – Mister Deltoid Remix – Sheffield’s favorite son in groovy deep remix of one of his confinement classics on the 2020 ‘Jarv Is’ album

Animal Collective – Prester John – the three strangely named guys from the Collective back with new toons and familiar fey electo-pop. Rachel and I saw Panda Bear play at a barn behind a winery in Napa. We rented an AirBnb that the hostess tried to pretend the place was ours in privacy, only to find she had snuck in during the night to sleep in the other bedroom…..

Black Country, New Road – Concorde – uniquely English noisy jazz poprock. The angsty sounding lead singer managed to screw the collective pooch by announcing he was leaving the 7-piece band on the eve of the new album’s release; his voice is a big part of their sound so how they transition will be interesting.

Cate le Bon – Running Away – the one time I managed to fly Concorde Simon and Jasmin Le Bon were the only celebs on the same flight, or at least the only ones I recognized.

Chudahye Chagis – Binasoo+ – Holly’s friend Suzie introduced us to the rabbit-hole that is Korean Folk music. So this, to stretch the allegory, is as Fairport Convention is to Dolly Collins, as these new Korean artists are to the 16th-17th century folk songs. The singer Chudahye Chagis is part of the SsingSsing band whose visuals are fabulous.

Talking Heads – The Overload – as this downbeat song overlooked on the superb Remain In Light album describes today’s terrible days – “The gentle collapsing of every surface’

Ian Sweet – Sing Til I Cry – Jill Medford’s songs are always double sided and this is that slow building, take down that is classic Sweet. Her best recent song is of course F*ckthat but this flows rhythmically better.

Eno – Fat Lady of Limburg – I was introduced a couple of weeks ago to the live 801 album from 1976 which I had probably written off at the time as being ridiculous, old school Prog, on my drive for the new wave at the time. It is a fabulous window into a time when some very clever musicians came together for a very short period of time and luckily, for posterity, they were recorded live on a real soundboard. They did a super version of this song but Spotify of course does not have it so I went back to the original, to share.

Big Thief – Time Escaping – these folks are the archetypal new hippies in many ways. They ‘woodshed’ most albums, even before Covid times; they include former lovers amongst the line-up yet are insanely productive, so no spats but the energy is working for sure. This is from the latest double album and well, yes….

Lana Del Ray – Dealer – this is a throw away track on Blue Bannisters, its from aborted sessions with Alex Turner and Miles Kane’s side project the Last Shadow Puppets. As most of you know I am a massive Lana fan and try not to miss an opportunity to preach the gospel of Norman Fucking Rockwell.

Findlay – Strange One – trailer for the new album, “The Last of the 20th Century Girls”, which is a title that could be applied to Putin.

Soul Coughing – Screenwriter Blues, another old song but as you might have spotted from a prior blog the line about its “5.00am and you are listening to Los Angeles” is from this on the money take down of Glitter Town.

Leenalchi – Tiger is Coming – yes, its Korean folk again and if you do not listen to this and start dancing you need to drink more. Here is an essential video.

Butcher Boy – Carve a Pattern. I heard this first on the excellent The Culture Bunker podcast, chosen by Stuart Murdoch of the much loved institution that is Belle & Sebastian, they are a fellow Glaswegian band.

Joy Orbison – swag w/ kav. Some gorgeous grungy UK dance from a superb album: Still Slipping Vol 1. which is on Bandcamp here

Ural Thomas – Dancing Dimensions. As war is about to break out over the Urals an 80 year old soul singer from Portland OR is getting us to dance, what more can you want?

Squid – G.S.K. – a song about drugs in a name check that I am sure Pharma giant Glaxo Smith Kline would rather do without, just keep channeling nice Lucazade thoughts…

Yard Act – The Overload – another overload in the same playlist, how lazy is that! The hottest thing out of Yorkshire since Bielsa has been thrown to the curb. More angry young British lads speak/singing; but if you had to endure their government you would be driven to protest in any way possible. Yet again I am so embarrassed about my fucking generation and how we have destroyed a nationstate in the pursuit of personal self gratification. ” What does tomorrow’s world have for me?” what indeed?

Mannequin Pussy – Drunk II – if you have not been drinking more in the past two years it can only be because you have taken the pledge. This song demonstrates why we probably should drink less.

Jarvis Cocker/Hot Chip – House Music All Night Long – To finish up, dance away with two acts from an earlier more dishonest time when we celebrated English exceptionalism as if that was something to be proud of rather than serially embarrassed about. Another remix but the original album is so good if it nudges you to check it out, my mission is complete.

“Who the hell would live in a house like this?
Head deep in the basement, one foot on the pedal bin
This ain’t easy listenin'”

If you missed the link to the tunes bove go here: sorry Pete, still only Sportified…https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7b6rLOZ2QRpdCgfmzyFLg7?si=820495e1c08547c1