Lana Del Rey afslutter et for hende fantastisk år med udsendelsen af denne 14-minutters video…
kommentarsporet brænder, Bunnymen!
Strummer, 17 år borte i dag
I slept and I dreamed of a time long ago / I saw an army of rebels, dancing on air I dreamed as I slept, I could see the campfires, A song of the battle, that was born in the flames, And the rebels were waltzing on air.
I danced with a girl to the tune of a waltz That was written to be danced on the battlefield I danced to the tune of a voice of a girl A voice that called “Stand till we fall We stand till all the boys fall.”
As we danced came the news that the war was not won 5 armies were coming, with carrige and gun Through the heart of the camp Swept the news from the front A cloud crossed the moon, a child cried for food We knew the war could not be won.
So we danced with a rifle, to the rhythm of the gun In a glade through the trees I saw my only one Then the earth seemed to rise hell hot as the sun The soldiers were dying, there was tune to the sighing. The song was an old rebel one.
As the smoke of our hopes rose high from the field My eyes played tricks through the moon and the trees I slept as I dreamed I saw the army rise A voice began to call, stand till you fall The tune was an old rebel one.
Strummer/Jones
Verdensmestre
Marching Pogues?
Elias fra Iceage synger for på sit fritidsprojekt Marching Church’s så absolut langtidsholdbare julesang fra i forfjors. Man tænker, en vis Shane MacGowan kunne høre denne sang på en dunkel pub somewhere, og i sin virkelighedstågede brandert et kort rationelt øjeblik lede efter tanken, hvornår det var, at han og The Pogues egentlig havde indspillet denne sang. For så klassisk fin er den, og så endda udsendt på 7’er-single i både gennemsigtig rød eller grøn vinyl…
Musik af en anden verden
I 1980/1981 er hidtil så dissonante Siouxsie and the Banshees pludselig blevet et overraskende perfekt singleband, rejsende i catchy, postpunk-dunkel pop med indfriet hitlistepotentiale. Indenfor de to år udsendes fem singler; ‘Happy House’, ‘Christine’, ‘Israel’, ‘Spellbound’ og ‘Arabian Knights’, den ene mere profileret og skarpskåren end den næste. Hvilket ikke mindst – bag Siouxsie’s så letgenkendelige identitet – skyldes Banshees’ guitar-es John McGeoch, der med sine innovative stemningflader virkelig forstår at iscenesætte bandets dynamiske numre. Tjek bare hans vægtløse sound og udsøgte temaer her på ‘Arabian Knights’. For de lidt mere, uhm, afslappede pladesamlere udgør de fem nævnte singler iøvrigt hele side 2 på Banshees-opsamlingen Once Upon a Time: The Singles (1981)…
Døde pladebutikker
Sådan så plastikposen ud, som kunderne tog deres nyindkøbte vare(r) med hjem i, når de havde købt ind i 70’ernes musikmekka på Strøget i København, Bristol Music Center. Et album jeg husker at have købt der er The Clash’s debutalbum, ikke mindst fordi den stadig har en lille BRISTOL IMPORT-sticker oppe i venstre hjørne af coveret. Bristol var også stedet hvor selveste Scott Walker tidligere, mens han boede i Danmark, plejede at komme hver mandag, at tjekke ugens nye udgivelser fra England og USA ud. Og hvornår lukkede den såvidt huskes yderst velassorterede Bristol så endeligt ned? Formodentlig i vinteren 1981-82, for i marts 1982 åbnede Frank Arnesen ialfald sin Arnesen Sport i de selvsamme lokaler. En københavnsk æra var forbi.
Nocturnal them
Det er den 16. december i det herrens år 1983. På det engelske TV-program The Tube live-debuterer Liverpool’s Echo & The Bunnymen sangen ‘Nocurnal Me’, der først pladeudgives på albummet Ocean Rain det følgende forår. I denne periode er Ian McCulloch og hans band retteligt at regne som et af verdens absoult bedste af slagsen. Det fornemmes i ånden på denne vibrerende råskitse…
Introducing…Molly Nilsson!
Sig hallo til svenske Molly Nilsson, der bor i Berlin, hvor hun først kom til og arbejdede i garderobe på Berghain, for at tjene penge til udsendelse af sin underspillede synthpop, der lige siden kom i en lind strøm af albums udsendt i beskedne eksemplarer og alenesomhed. Her længes hun i 2011 efter, at dø samtidig med sin eneste ene…
Game over i Melbourne
| What, oh, what is Ku Klux furniture? SERGE, PROVINCETOWN, USA Have you ever reached the same highs when sober as when you were on some sort of lovely substance? CRAIG, LEEDS, UK |
| Dear Serge and Craig, ‘Deanna’ is a collision of dissonant imagery, beautiful transgressions, reckless theatrics, secret admissions, impossible lusts, erroneous politics and fuck you swaggering, that ultimately resolves itself into a pure expression of the monstrous rapture of youth. It represents a time of joyful and wilful abandon, into drugs, into music, into danger, into love, into life itself. Like love, the song cannot be broken down into its respective parts without doing a grave injustice to its mystery and its glory. ‘Deanna’ is a capsule of incautious adoration that alerts us to the futility of judging the actions of our past through the lens of what we have become, no matter how much wiser, more aware and insightful we think we are. As an old guy, I probably have no right to sing it, yet I do as ‘Deanna’ holds a special place in my heart and it propels me back to a fearless and less fractured time. It remains “a song that yearns to be sung.” …No carpet on the floor / And the winding cloth holds many moths / Around your Ku Klux furniture / I come a death’s head in your frock… As for your question, Serge, Deanna’s mother was American and each Christmas she would leave Melbourne and head back to the U.S. for the holidays, leaving her maverick daughter in charge of the house that sat high up on the south bank of the Yarra River. Perhaps anticipating our behaviour, her mother covered the furniture in the living room with protective white sheets—the Ku Klux furniture, we called it. What happened to Deanna? I’m not really sure. She went to live in the States, and we lost touch. But for me she lives inside the song, imprisoned there, just as I am in all my songs, and that is the melancholy beauty of them; songs become a form of entrapment—you write one and then throw away the key. Craig, I’m not sure if I have quite reached the same highs as those times while sober, but then again I also haven’t reached the kind of lows that eventually came with taking those ‘lovely substances’— bashed up in police stations, dehumanised in rehabs, near-death experiences, suicidal thoughts, routine overdoses, reduced motivation, broken bones, being ripped off, liking Charles Bukowski, social and physical anhedonia, herd mentality, dead friends, fucked up relationships, abscesses, car accidents, psychosis, reading The Hobbit, malnutrition, creative impotence, epic time-wasting, singing flat (still working on that), talking shit (still working on that too), life-threatening diseases, and not ringing my mother on her birthday. Love, Nick |
Game over i London
Den store by ved Themsen brænder i år 1666, dog ikke af den kedsomhed, The Clash 300 år efter beskriver sammesteds. En ukendt maler har foreviget the Great Fire of London, der rasede over fire døgn.
Game over i Paris
Klaveret spiller denne søndag i mol for Anna Karina, Danmarks store filmstjerne, der som ung tog til Paris, blev new wave-instruktøren Jean-Luc Godard’s muse/hustru, og her danser syngende tæt i stilfuldt sort/hvidt med Serge Gainsbourg. Anna Karina døde i går i Paris, 79 år gammel, RIP!
Game over i Amsterdam
Det er over midnat og denne blogs tålmodige læsere kan endelig slippe for mere snak herfra om det der overhypede album med The Clash. Vi ringer istedet søndagen ind med noget ligeså intenst omend langt mere gammeldags, Jacques Brel’s sang om sømændene og fordærvelsen og knuste drømme i Amsterdam. Var selv i den hollandske by for et par uger siden, og på langs/tværs af utallige som uendelige kanaler – de er overalt dernede! – var netop den sang på playlist en så smukt iscenesættende følgesvend at have med. Er sikker på, Joe Strummer må have elsket både Brel’s overdramatiske intensitet og denne specifikke sangs råkogte billede af menneskelige behov og svimle fald…
London kalder
Stort tillykke! Fra the faraway towns til The Only Band That Matters. Verdens bedste London Calling fylder 40 i dag. Evig ungdom, tak!
Pimlico calling
The Vanilla Tapes er det nu officielle navn på det kasettebånd, The Clash i sensommeren 1979 indspillede til deres kommende producer, Guy Stevens, så han kunne komme ind i det nye materiale. De grove demoer fra øvelokalet Vanilla i Pimlico, London – i mange år bortkommet, men siden genfundet på Mick Jones loft – er ret beset mest af musikarkæologisk interesse, men enkelte givende undtagelser er der. Da ikke mindst det kommende titelnummer, der i denne langsommere og mere ikke-swingende demo er endnu mere undergangsramt end slutresultatet nogle måneder senere, ikke minst takket være den anderledes mørke sangmelodi fra Joe Strummer…
...London Calling to mods on the run
Stomp out forecast seaside fun…