Unititled

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Porter’s neithwr. Gwd nosweth. Three highly contrasting bands and all three flipping blydi brill at what they do. Los Blancos Eädyth Telgate Excitin’! (at Porter's Cardiff) https://www.instagram.com/p/BoyuB-qjcWg/?utm_source=ig_tumblr_share&igshid=86ggvvvw5ddb

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Preaching to the Converted

Ok I've seen cool dudes Eddie Izzard, Steve Coogan and Maxine Peake wax lyrical about the merits of the labour party and the evils of the Tories (yeah you tell em Maxine! Say it like it is Partridge! Sock it to em Izzard) but to the determined Brexit obsessed conservatives, these people represent the liberal elite that they so proudly got shot of in the referendum last year (shut it Izzard, fuck off Partridge, hang on isn't that that bird out of Dinner Ladies? The young un, y...es! What's she been up to I wonder? Not much if she's resorting to supportig Corbyn hahahaha).

More echo chambering preaching to the converted comfort fodder. We need to hypnotize some national treasure type shitnose like Jim Davidson or Noel Edmonds or that prick from Take That to advertise for the opposition. Or maybe torture them and force them to read things out convincingly. Or pay them. Yes pay them - that'd work. That's the lingo they love. I'm setting up a crowdfunder. Simon Cowell will tell us how to vote. Trust me.

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The whole Gigantic collection back together. #MelodyMaker #Gigantic #freetapes #indiemusic

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20th Century Women (2016)

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Saw this last night

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Here’s another intensely interesting post for you all to ignore:

For a change to the usual end of year round-ups, Top 10 live songs performed in 2016 and witnessed by me.  From memory and limited to one song from each band (you gotsta have rules):

10. Ezra Furman – cover of “(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher” at Green Man Festival

9. Roky Ericksson – (I’ve Got) “Levitation” at Pontins Prestatyn

8. Grandaddy – “The Crystal Lake” at Green Man Festival

7. Charlotte Church – cover of “Holland 1945” at Pontins Prestatyn

6. Teenage Fanclub – “Everything Flows” at Glee Club, Cardiff

5. Selector Dub Narcotic – “Hotter Than Hot”, in-store at Spillers Records Cardiff

4. Future of the Left – “Lightsabre Cocksucking Blues” at Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff

3. Pixies – “Vamos” at Motorpoint, Cardiff

2. The Cure – “Killing An Arab” at Wembley Arena

1. Dream Wife – “FUU” at Clwb Ifor Bach, Cardiff (Swn Festival)

This list excludes all the songs from gigs by Michael Rother and Cavern of Anti-Matter at Green Man and Richard James (Richie Gork) at ATP, because I didn’t know the titles of any of the songs but suffice to say that all of the songs in all three gigs were better than probably 9 of the top 10 listed above. So the true top 10 (based on my strict self-imposed rules) should include a song from each those three gigs.  I’m sure Rother played Hallogallo but it wasn’t the standout number so I can’t include it.  And Caverns played Insect thingybob but again dunno if it was the best one.  Richie’s gig was one long heady sound experience like downing a couple of gallons of awesomeness nectar without taking a breath.  He may have got No.1 but That Dream Wife number was freaking amazing.

I kind of want to do a Top 20 so I can include Kristin Hersh, Darling Buds, Japanese Breakfast covering Cranberries and something by Datblygu but that’d be pushing it.

No SFA! I know! Unbelievable!

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Pixies at Cardiff Motorpoint

They started with Bone Machine and finished with Vamos!  What more do you want? Then after doing an actual showbizzy bow they finished again with Into The White, in the fog.

I feared the worst.  No Kim.  No mischievous goddess of indie rock.  Kim was a hugely important part of the Pixies sound but I obviously forgot that the other three are each a force of nature and together they could more than make up for the lack of Kim.  Black Francis was in full-on Surfa Rosa Pixies Black Francis mode as opposed to Frank Black Black Francis mode (a more contained, grown up version, which is what I expected).  “REPEEEEENT!!” was as blood curdling as it ever was.  It’s like he’s been to the garage and had his larynx deregulated.  He was young again!  Caribou was amazing.  Dave’s drumming was HUGE and his voice was in proper crooner mode for La La Love you.  Joey’s guitar was Joey’s guitar – only tighter.  Black Francis’s guitar deserves a mention too.  I’d almost forgotten about how profoundly exciting guitars could sound.  These people are fucking geniuses!

They knew not to play Gigantic but they played everything else.  I’ve Been Tired, Isla de Encanta, Mr Grieves (do ya hava nutha piniun?) and Crackity Jones were particular personal highlight.  Debaser’s intro got a rapturous reception (obviously) but was slightly disjointed and tame (unlike Tame, which they didn’t even play).  Debaser, which I think they’ve grown tired of playing, was relegated to flatly disappointing when Vamos followed it and devoured everything in its path – it felt gigantic (unlike Gigantic, which etc etc).

Havalina was fucking beautiful, proving that they can also do the traditional gentle ethereal 4AD stuff as well as anyone.

Even the songs from the new incarnation, which I’m not familiar with, were great.  It was a bit like discovering a new band.

After the gig I heard Mark from Cyrff (or Mark Catatonia for non-Welshies) talking about suspected utilisation of backing tracks especially for the Kim bits in Where Is My Mind.  He might be right but it didn’t really matter either way.  It did sound like Kim though.  The ghost of Kim lives on.

They encored with “Into The White”; a Kim Deal number.  Ooh.  They let the new girl* have a go on lead vocals and she absolutely killed it right in the face – it was bloody brilliant!  Kim who?

*She’s got a name, it’s Paz.  She’s not a girl, she’s a 42 year old woman.

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#NowPlaying FUU by Dream Wife

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Tape 5. The first foray into found photography. The #penguins are sorry. #homemadetapecovers

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Tape 3 - had lots of yellow card going spare at the end of the 80's. #homemadetapecovers

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Tape 2 (freehand pencil won't last beyond Tape 4) #homemadetapecovers

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Tape 1

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Selectir Dub Narcotic at Spillers Records, #Cardiff

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Tory Conference Bullshit

It's strange how the Tories are claiming the centre ground from Labour whilst simultaneously charging to the right like a bunch of angry National Front skinheads from 1979.

TM (Theresa May not Thaggie Matcher, or is it?) and her merry band of lofty cohorts have sussed out that adopting the Brexiteer method of fantastical bullshitting and broken-before-they're-given promises will win them votes. And it's working.

A panel of politically eclectic Brummies on Newsnight last night fell for everything that TM spewed out in that speech, even the Labour supporter. Not one of them was shouting "it's bollocks!" across the table whilst slapping the biggest Tory on the forehead repeatedly till he kicked off violently and shouted "fuck off you peasant!" (or something worse, probably). The LibDem woman was repelled by the sickly sentimentality of parts of the speech but even she was generally impressed by it. 'Ksakes.

It's bullshit mate!

[sparkie71]

Contemplating Leftist Labour Post-Brexit

Centrist calls to oust Corbyn could signify the death knell of left-wing politics in Britain at a time when world has tilted and everyone is sliding to the Right.

It seems to me that the reason Corbyn is considered a poor leader is down to a combination of Labour MPs not wanting him to lead them in the first place and the right wing media's determination to demonise him because he is a natural enemy to their exploitative propaganda machine. So everyone thinks he's incompetent because everyone's been told he's incompetent not because he actually is incompetent.  He still seems to be receiving the love from the hardcore Labour members.

His downfall will ultimately be that he doesn't represent the middle classes. He represents the working class. So if you are middle class you're not going to want him, however lefty you might consider youself to be. Corbyn's heart was never in the Remain camp; it never has been and it was strange to see him supporting the campaign at all, albeit late and rather half-arsedly. 

If you are a grass-roots labour supporter you should support him and his properly leftist cohorts in their efforts to make life better for working class people. If you're more of a Blairite Brownie who wants Dave Miliband back because he looks proper dapper in a suit and talks a good game then you're going to get rid of Corbyn to increase the likelihood of Labour getting into power. Which is fair enough. It might work. But it might not repair the party's disconnect with working class people and therefore it might not work. And if it did work it would be a short-term solution to reach a goal that is only step one of what is required. Corbyn didn't lose the people; his predecessors did. And now they've found a new hope in Ukip and all its cynical posturing.

The most frustrating thing is that a lot of working class people think Corbyn is a chump because that's what they've been told.  In the same way they've been told that immigrants are a threat. 

Brexit is an almighty clusterfuck of historical proportions. Even the USA think we're idiots. But people have been pushed to kick out at the etablishment due to lack of investment and badly paid jobs all emanating from austerity measures forced on us by the Tories (and approved by EU btw). So we need to think about how the status quo needs to change for the most hard-done-by. And we need to understand how desperately they needed things to change. So desperately they had to bring the country to a standstill and the PM had to resign. Job done. 

If we have another referendum I'm convinced the Remain vote will win the day. Convinced - purely because so many have publicly regretted their decision. But then the people at the bottom will definitely stay where they are under the current regime (why wouldn't they? That's where they now are after all). "Anything is better than this. It can't get any worse." Except it can. But only because we've handed the reins over to the wrong side. Instead of leaving them with the bad side, we've handed them to the really bad side. As in REALLY bad. 

Labour needs to talk to the people who have nothing, listen to their concerns and not judge their so called poorly educated decisions. They should stop pandering to the comfortably-off because that's the Tories' job. Remember that the left consider others less fortunate whilst the right is all about the self.

New labour were probably further to the right than Old Tory in some respects, but they seemed to have better taste and were more PC; nicer.  It's how they won Middle England - they ditched the socialism.  New Tory is way further to the Right again now to please Old England. Now it's resulted in Brexit.

All of this mess is down to that kind of Conservatism. It is also the fall-out of capitalism running riot. If you are currently slagging off uneducated poor people (none of whom you know) and you voted Tory in the last election then give yourself a slap (in the face not on your back). The reason they're uneducated is the lack of investment in education by several governments in a row (including centrist Labour ones). And if they were better educated, doesn't necessarily mean they would have voted Remain when their communities and families are being run ragged. But neither may they have listened to the xenophobic fear-mongering rhetoric of Ukip and the Daily Mail. There is a difference.

We obviously need some redistribution of wealth and I'm not sure it'll ever happen without Corbyn and his bunch of looney lefties.  In fact I'm sure it won't.

PS A bit blurty that, but I haven't really got the time. That's what's been going on in my head after the initial shock of Brexit.  Searching for hope, I suppose.

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Gwenfys

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#NowPlaying In The Evening (It's So Hard To Tell Who's Going To Love You The Best) by Karen Dalton - oh my sweet baby jesus god

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Fuzzy leaves