Alain William

'God, life's relentless.'

[alainwilliam]

The Great War for Civilisation – Robert Fisk

[alainwilliam]

Pigs with the heads of men spat acid

[alainwilliam]

Whose Lord are you naming When you start to break things?

[nevver]

Still life, Kimi and 12

[noondaytune]

Solitary Daughter - Bedouine

Bedouine is the musical project of Azniv Korkejian, born in Syria to Armenian parents, moving to Saudi Arabia and, eventually after winning the Green Card Lottery: America. 

Bedouine, the self-titled debut is split between Leonard Cohen, Nick Drake and Joni Mitchell-influenced folk classics and something eerier. This track, however, would fit in perfectly amongst any of the previously mentioned artist’s catalogues or contemporaries.

Lyrically, too, it’s beautiful: “With the conviction of the woman you made me/I find/Blades of grass from the island you lent me/I find/On every floor/In every drawer/Though I’m not an island I’m a body of water/Jeweled in the evening a solitary daughter…”

I’d recommend the video, too: styled consciously as a nostalgic TV performance, complete with television static, snow and on-screen trivia. 

I often seem to say this, but this is easily one of my favourite albums of the year so far.

Contributed by @AlainWilliam89.

[noondaytune]

Cred Woes - Liars

Liars have a new album out and its first single seems to be in keeping with some of the themes they’ve established years back. On 2001′s ‘Grown Men Don’t Fall in the River, Just Like That’ they sing: “Everybody in his or her own life needs a hobby, fills the voids up/Work and rent, create” and this dissatisfaction with modern life is revisited here in a hilariously depressing way: “I push down all the terrible thoughts inside/Down to my minimum wage routine/Tramp of the portables, temp full-time/All upper management in their teens”. 

Beyond their morbid humour though, the song is catchy as hell and filled with crunchy guitars and I can’t wait to delve into the rest of the album.

There’s also a music video for this song here if you’re interested. 

Contributed by @AlainWilliam89

[noondaytune]

You’re Crazy for Taking the Bus - Jonathan Richman

Jonathan Richman made his name fronting the super popular and critically acclaimed Modern Lovers but then moved on to have a prolific, diverse solo career, too. Whether paying tribute to the Velvet Underground on ‘I, Jonathan’ or writing extremely charismatic country tracks for ‘Jonathan Goes Country’, his personality seems to always shine through: a combination of sincerity, humor, and eccentricity.

Something about this song always cheers me up – it’s genuinely catchy with a kind of folky, story-telling appeal about the joys of taking the bus, and I can’t help but love him for it.

Also, this video shows off his great dance moves. Well worth it, too.

Contributed by @AlainWilliam89

[noondaytune]

Fallin’ Rain - Karl Blau

Having been designated the Sunday slot, I was more than tempted to go for a selection of the Solid Gold variety (think: Glen Campbell; America; George Harrison) but this isn’t 702 and so I compromised with something slightly more contemporary. Fallin’ Rain is a Link Wray cover from Karl Blau’s 2016 album ‘Introducing…’

Blau, the perennial weirdo reinvents himself here by subverting the long-held expectations of his work and instead delivers a straight-faced, sincere album of covers, ranging from the Bee Gees’ ‘To Love Somebody’ to Townes van Zandt’s ‘If I Needed You’. This whole album is great, featuring top production and featured guests such as Jim James of My Morning Jacket and Steve Moore of SunnO))) (on piano).

This track, however, is a stand-out, and perfectly suitable for a slow-burning Sunday afternoon. It cuts through the irony and weirdness of Blau’s previous work and delivers a song reminiscent of 70s AM hits and soulful country classics, at times even bearing a striking resemblance to Gene Clark’s exceptional ‘No Other’. As much as I like Blau’s previous work, this is a well-appreciated new direction and a thoroughly enjoyable song and album.

Contributed by @AlainWilliam89

[alainwilliam]

Yves Klein - Big Blue Anthropometry

[alainwilliam]

Le Saut dans le vide (Leap into the Void); Photomontage by Shunk–Kender of a performance by Klein at Rue Gentil-Bernard, Fontenay-aux-Roses, October 1960

[alainwilliam]

Joachim Patinir, St. Jerome in the Desert, c. 1520

[alainwilliam]

Hans Memling, Resurrection Triptych, 1490.

[alainwilliam]

[alainwilliam]

From Mary Ruefle’s Madness, Rack and Honey.

[alainwilliam]

"I stood there looking at the things I'd been seeing all my life—a sky that went on forever, the creek flowing angry-like down below there, a sleeping horse, the dirt street, the kilns—and I was struck by the thought that I was just another weed growing along those banks, coming up between the soap-worts and the bone piles of the tanneries. What was supposed to grow out of trash heaps if it wa'n't us?"

Jorge Luis Borges "Man on Pink Corner"

[theparisreview]

A page from Chris Ware’s sketchbook from 1993. “What one thinks of as pictures in comics are really the equivalent of drawn words—words meant to be read, not looked at—which is analogous to the way humans perceive the world. Looking is a part of it, but not all of it.”

[alainwilliam]

“That weavers in particular, together with scholars and writers with whom they had much in common, tended to suffer from melancholy and all the evils associated with it, is understandable . . . It is difficult to imagine the depths of despair into which those can be driven who, even after the end of the working day, are engrossed in their intricate designs and who are pursued, into their dreams, by the feeling that they have got hold of the wrong thread.”