“Why, it’s time to cast some beef!” Murray replied with authority.
This is not our final logo, because it is crappy, but anyway, here's a dumb thing I did in like two minutes.
So ladies, and men who look like ladies, here it is, the third instalment of the Islay Beefcast. Technically this is just the second Beefcast, but this is definitely episode 03, so wrap your heads around that.
I know I mentioned it last time, but no logo just yet. We do have theme music though! Well, we don’t really, but we thought it might be fun if we improvise some music at the start of every episode instead, something unique and collaborative. So this week it’s myself on classical guitar, and Murray on that Banjo Dulcimer thing I got off eBay years ago. Just a bit of fun – bear in mind neither of us are competent musicians.
Anyway, here’s the podcast. Shorter than last time, but still too long and full of dumb crap. Just the way we like it!
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This week we chit-chat about life, and love, and peeping Tom, Christmas hats, badminton, the illusion of memory, Supersonic Festival… ALL KINDS OF CRAP REALLY. And then Murray tries to end it prematurely at which point I realise we haven’t covered all the stuff we normally try to cover. Then we get onto topics like Buffy the Vampire Slayer, filmic depictions of male pregnancy and rape, bad reality TV, British social norms. And then finish on a cover of Thick as a Brick by Jethro Tull.
So I recorded some noodling on my Mute Synth this afternoon, and for reasons unknown figured it might be worth sharing with people? Here you go, if you like bleeps and bloops and horrible “random” noises, this is a piece of “music” which contains those, without the burden of having to be, you know, musical, or listenable, or of any social redeeming value.
I think it’s dynamically and tonally interesting, if not musically interesting.
Well, I’m writing this on the train home right now, and it will be posted later tonight when I am home, but it’s time to write about yesterday, by which I mean Sunday, an eventful day which felt like two days, for reasons we shall get to.
Here's me prior to heading out of my hotel cave, into the bitter daylight of a Birmingham October Afternoon.
My first shift started at 1.00PM, so I headed over to the Custard Factory and took a few snaps around the site.
So, I took a couple photos of the site, while I was out wandering. Here's some socialist propaganda.
This was the bridge from Floodgate Street into the rest of the site. Very industrial.
I assume this used to be a canal. Now it's kind of not... Anyway, I took this from the above bridge.
Yo crazy tree man statue! I haven't seen you in a year. What's happening? Really. Huh. Yeah. That's interesting. Oh by the way, YOU ARE STILL AWESOME.
I headed over to the production office for the usual signing-in, then checked what my shift duties were. I was particularly interested because I had to re-schedule Saturday’s shift in order to take part in the Dirty Electronics Mute Synth performance. I was surprised and slightly alarmed to learn that my second shift, 9.30PM all the way through to 2AM was in the Space2 bar. I had of course never worked behind a bar in my life. More on that later.
My first shift was a five hour stint on box office again, so I reported to box office manager David on Floodgate Street. After shuffling some stuff around, and informing early arrivals that we were not opening till 2PM, we got to work.
These chaps were a understandably little miffed they had to wait till 2.00 for gates to open, after arriving at 1.30. But they were perfectly reasonable and nice about it, and they were first in line so first in.
It actually turned out to be an easy shift that went by fairly quickly. It helped that I was able to sit down for most of it, and chat with Rachel, David, and Ioannis. Rachel joked that next year they should rename it National Beard Weekend, and later a guy tried to enquire about a “student discount”, and upon discovering none was available, a “beard discount”. I joked that if you don’t have a beard, you’re not allowed on festival grounds. I also bumped into a couple of my fellow Mute Synth workshop attendees which was nice. Also, I saw the arrival of MC Dalek and his new project, which was kind of cool.
I checked my phone’s weather app, and found out that sunset was around 5.55PM, five minutes before the end of our shift, and the sun happened to be directly in line with the street we were on. Unfortunately it was a little too cloudy to enjoy, but the colours were okay. Then before I knew it, I was done on box office. Myself and Rachel took off.
I popped back into the production office and informed the volunteer organisers that I had never worked in a bar before in my life. They offered me an out, but I said I would give it a shot. After-all, I seem to have recently adopted a policy of saying yes to trying new things. One of the bar managers took me over to the Space2 bar so I could sign the appropriate paperwork that would qualify me to tend bar, and give me a brief rundown of the drinks on sale.
I headed over to enjoy the tail end of Barn Owl, which was pretty fantastic, though obviously I would love to catch a whole set next time I see them.
There's an interesting metaphor that Philip K. Dick once wrote, involving an owl. Look it up. Anyway, here's Barn Owl, Barning, and Owling, and generally Barn Owling it up on stage.
After Barn Owl, I opted to cross the bridge back to the new stage Boxxed, where iconAclass, the new project from Dälek, were getting ready to roll. Pretty similar to Dälek, but with less of a dissonant noise influence, the set opened with DJ Motive spinning and cutting his decks like a mad man, before Dälek himself walked out and whipped out his trademark angry word flow. This festival needs more underground hip-hop like this.
Tower block crushing beats and angry lyrical flow. That's iconAclass for you.
Tony Conrad came next, and his performance consisted of himself, on modified violin, and various stringed “things” attached to a table. With a single light shining up at him, he bowed and droned and overtoned away for a while, lulling me into a genuine trance-state, which I then suddenly awoke from by almost collapsing for no apparent reason. I stumbled forward, bumped into a guy, got very disoriented for a moment, took a drink, and then suddenly realised I needed to go to the bathroom, which I did, and from where I could hear Mr. Conrad exactly as clearly out on the venue floor that I had just recently nearly collapsed onto.
The haunting image of an avant-garde violinist's projected shadow looming large behind him.
Anyway, after a refreshing break, feeling very weird about this strange incident, I headed back out onto the floor just as Mr. Conrad started doing something I happened to find very exciting. He was pulling what looked like metal-beaded cords dangling from the shoulder-end of the violin, across the fingerboard and the other strings, then bowing these cords, producing sounds somewhat akin to that of a saw cutting into a priceless antique bureau. Beautifully strange, tonally rich sounds, of no traditional musical value. I loved it. I took some video of it in fact, because I wasn’t sure if this was something I’d be able to get on record. Here it is in case you’re wondering what exactly I was so excited about:
See? No? Oh well. I liked it.
Then I popped over to the Old Library for Fire! Featuring Oren Ambarchi. I only stayed for the first half of the set, but I enjoyed what I heard. They sort of noodled around in the upper atmosphere for a while before a groove appeared, which they really wrung for all it’s worth. I then returned to Space2 for Envy, but after a couple of songs, I decided to pop out and get me that Japanese chicken curry I had promised myself the day prior. Very tasty. I headed back in, and before long it was 9.30PM, time to sink or swim.
The Space2 bar manager gave me a brief introduction, but sensibly waited till Envy finished and there was a break between acts, before giving me my actual training. Simply really, alcohol £3.50, soft drinks £1.50. I then learned how to pour a pint of ale, and a pint of lager. I messed up a couple lagers before I got it right, but I kind of got the hang of it. Also, learned how to make a dark & stormy with Kraken Rum and ginger beer, which I tasted a little sip of – very nice. I just got down to it, did my best, and sometimes made mistakes, but I think I did pretty well.
We later found a couple of the cups-tacks were nothing but cracked cups, but not until after selling a couple drinks in them to disgruntled punters.
The lager taps started to slow down and stopped producing a head, and we kept running out of the Kraken, but all-in-all it went fairly smoothly. From the bar, I saw Circle, and then later, Turbonegro, which I had been dreading, because if there was any band on the bill that encourages excessive drinking, it would be Drunk in Hell. Or Turbonegro.
The cure for what ails you is ale apparently. I kind of wanted to try some of the ale out of curiosity, but I did not. Anyway, here's some of the other bar staff at work.
Actually though, for the most part it went pretty smooth. It was harder to hear people’s orders, but I got through it. Unfortunately, after they finished the bar managers announced to the stragglers, £1 per pint of ale. Most of the people were happy about that, but the people who wanted cider were not, and then when we were closing up, and all we had out were half-pint glasses, one horribly drunk woman became disproportionately upset that she would have to take her ale in two half-pints instead of one full-pint. There was a bit of an ugly scene there for a bit, part of why I try to avoid people when they have been drinking a little too much. On the whole though, it was manageable. Would I do it again? If I had a choice, no I would not. I don’t know how people do this for a living.
The white tape indicates lager, the others were cider. Turns out pulling a pint of lager isn't that hard, but in an environment like this, it's hard to maintain the pressure necessary to get proper head. Look at me, talking about lager-pulling like I have any idea what I'm even saying...
My hands got real sticky by the end, and my clothes soaked in ale, but I stayed an extra 15 minutes to help with the tidying up a little. Then I signed out, and was invited to a) A volunteer party on Wednesday, and b) an after-party happening right then in Boxxed. I declined the former due to my having to be back in Glasgow and the latter due to this very train journey I am currently on. So I headed back to the hotel, and got me some sleep in a state of about 97% sobriety. I figure I lost 3% for the sip of the rum & ginger beer combined with nearly five hours of alcohol fumes. And that’s all folks.
Supersonic Festival over for another year, and as always, plenty of people to thank. Everyone in the production office, David, Rachel, Ioannis, Hewell (is that how it’s spelt?), John Richards and the Dirty Electronics crew, Becks, and all the other people whose names I have forgotten, never learned or can’t spell. My brief highlights of the weekend: Secret Chiefs 3, Mute Synth, Bardo Pond, the last fifteen minutes or so of Tony Conrad’s set, and iconAclass. I’ll probably do one final wrap-up post a little later in the week just to cap things off, but for now anyway, my work is done. Thanks for reading.
I hope you enjoyed reading my little account of Supersonic Festival 2011, even if you have no idea what I’m talking about or who any of these artists are. I think the quick-and-dirty photos help a bit. I try to make it more like a diary than a review, because I think that’s more interesting for people who don’t have any grounding in the kind of music I’m talking about.
It is Sunday morning, and after a solid 8hrs of sleep, it is time for me to write up yesterday’s happenings, of which there were quite a many. Earlier this week, my volunteering schedule was changed to allow me to participate in the Dirty Electronics workshop and performance, so I was not volunteering at all yesterday. Instead, I am working almost ten hours today, so that’ll be quite something… No idea what I’ll be doing yet, but that’s part of the fun. Right up until I find out it’s site clean-up.
Anyway, back to Saturday’s events. First up, the Mute Synth workshop with John Richards of Dirty Electronics.
Here's some people polishing some circuit boards, or sitting on chairs, waiting on a delivery of tables.
It took me about 2 hours to solder the board together, during which time I did not burn my fingers once, surprisingly enough. To my great surprise, the device even worked right the first time.
Almost done! At this point soldering was complete, all that was left was battery and IC installation.
My very own completed Mute Synth, all ready to go.
The Mute Synth is controlled by touch and tilt controls, and makes horrendously cool noises. It does vaguely what you direct it to do, but there is always some uncontrollable element of chance in its design. I recorded myself noodling with it when I got back to the hotel last night, so here’s a sample of this thing’s noisemaking:
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I also got to play around with some Sudophones/Merztins, which was great. I was getting some real expressive bird-like noises out of them. We roughly planned the performance for that evening, in terms of what devices were going to be used, and what we were going to do with them, but it was kept fairly loose.
After this, the festival properly started, but since Orthodox weren’t on until 5.15PM, I decided to walk up into the Bullring and get me a shirt for work, and a pair o’ fingerless gloves as mentioned previously. If you want to work in a retail store in Birmingham, may I advise not working in the shops in the Bullring, because they are real busy non-stop.
Got my gloves, headed back for Orthodox, who were good, but I wasn’t really feeling it for some reason. I figured it was a come-down from Secret Chiefs 3.
Just what Spanish doom metal needs, massive blue beam lights!
I popped outside for some food, and found some pretty big burgers for £5. Expensive, but tasty and filling. Tonight I’m probably going to get some Japanese Chicken Curry.
This burger had the taste of a home-made burger, rather than a shitty fast-food burger, which was very welcome. As were the mountain of gherkin slices they put in instead of tomatoes. Mmmm, gherkins...
At this point there was nothing I specifically wanted to see, so I wandered over to the Old Library and saw Agathe Max, performing solo violin to a pre-recording of piano and drones. It was pretty great actually. Without the burden of expectation, I just let myself zone out and enjoy the sound.
After that, I similarly had no idea what I wanted to see next, so I wandered back to Space 2, where Bardo Pond were playing, and that turned out to be the right choice because I went from having never heard of Bardo Pond to being really excited about Bardo Pond in the space of the last half of a song whose front half I missed. They played a kind of psychedelic shoegazey kind of thing, very spaced out and cool.
Pretty lady with a sweet voice, fronting a very excellent band that I previously knew nothing about.
I am going to buy me a bunch of Bardo Pond records. The merch stand got real busy after their performance, and several of the CDs got sold out. Congrats Bardo Pond.
Next up was Wolves in the Throne Room. This is a band I like, but like most black metal related artists, I find hard to really listen engage with them for long periods of time. I do really appreciate their woodsy aesthetic though, and they had a bunch of paraffin lamps and five banners with reversed words that I deciphered as “manifest”, “beauty”, “dethrone”, “unveil” and “love” respectively.
Note the five banners. Owl, heron, wolf, deer and rat/squirrel-looking thing?
Their set was pretty good, but very samey.
After Wolves it was finally time for the Dirty Electronics performance in the theatre. When we showed up though, they were showing the last ten minutes or so of a tour documentary of the band Oxbow filmed by their sound engineer. I love me some Oxbow, so it seemed a reasonably entertaining document of the parts on a tour where nothing happens. Then the director gave a brief Q&A before they cleared the stage for us.
At this point nerves set in a little, but I figured I would just go for it. They set up the four pieces, and after a brief introduction we were off… First, the ICA cubes, which made all kinds of crazy unpredictable noises. Initially the three workshop leaders started, tweaked a few knobs, then one by one placed them on the stage floor. Then, we, the workshop participants, were free to walk on, tweak them in any way we liked, and make some contribution. I walked out and found a knob which produced some ear-shredding high frequencies at its extreme, so I tweaked that for twenty seconds, then walked off.
Next up, some kind of kinetic sound generators, for three performers, conducted by John Richards. In one hand, an electromagnetic generator tube which feeds into a capacitor, in the other, a button which controls capacitor discharge.
Third, a collection of twenty or so Sudophones were lying at the front of the stage under a microphone. John Richards suddenly, and without warning or introduction charges and collapse, pushing his hands into them. Causing them to crackle and chirp in contact with one another. One by one, other participants do the same, randomly manipulating the cans with their hands, one by one they left, and the cans kept chirping. Suddenly when everyone had left, John Richards turns around and gestures saying “come on, let’s pile in again!” But this time, it’s only me who heeds the call, so lying on the floor, with my hands on a bunch of chirping cans, I gently manipulate several of them, and then slowly stop, and together we started to gently separate the cans and bring this piece to a close. Honestly, I’m not sure what the hell I was doing, but when they started to crackle out into silence, I felt pretty good about it.
And finally, the Mute Synths themselves come into play. Unfortunately, we’re short on inputs, so some of us have to swap during the performance. John Richards again conducted us, using broad unplanned gestures, and we jerked and spasmed our way through. Funnily enough, I thought the Mute Synth was the least effective of the group performances, because there were just too many of them going at once. I don’t know what it sounded like for the audience, but that’s the nature of performance I guess.
I know some of it was filmed, so I’m looking forward to seeing that. Due to the physical nature of it, I was not able to take any video myself, but I did shoot some of the rehearsals in the workshop itself. I will post clips in the future as soon as I can.
That strange and exciting experience over, I headed outside to sit by the pool. The pool which in previous years was drained and housed the outdoor stage. Alexander Tucker was due to start at 11.00PM and I kind of wanted to see that. Unfortunately, while I was sitting, a ridiculously massive queue had amassed, going all the way around two sides of the pool. Way too many people to fit into the theatre, so I decided to call it a night.
Alexander Tucker proving too popular for a tiny theatre.
I checked out Electric Wizard for all of five minutes, before wandering off disinterested and ending up in Boxxed, the new venue for this year, across the canal. Here, The Skull Defekts started up, and were actually pretty good. I stayed for the first half-hour, then decided to actually call it a night, so I could get me some decent sleep in advance of my gruelling Sunday volunteering schedule (9.5hrs, right up to 2.00AM) which I have now done.
Now if you’ll excuse me, I have to be there at 1.00, even though the first band isn’t on till 2.15, so I’m going to get ready and head out for some lunch.
Okay, it’s Saturday morning now. Time to do a quick wrap-up of yesterday’s happenings I feel.
So, got to the site, got signed in and got my shirt, then headed out to the box office which looked like this:
My job was to stand on the left and deal with paper tickets, and door sales. Mostly paper tickets though. Rip the stub, mark the hand for friday only, wristband and programme for weekenders. Easy.
We kicked off around 9.05, and just as with last year, the queue was super-busy for the first hour, non-stop people. After a while, I stopped even looking at people’s faces, getting into the routine of ripping the ticket and slapping on a wristband. After the first hour, it died down to dribs and drabs. There were a couple of people looking for a nightclub, slightly confused as to what was going on, but otherwise, fairly uneventful.
Having completed my shift, I walked across the canal bridge and headed over to Space 2 for to be ready for the mighty Secret Chiefs. Playing at the time, Mike Watt & the Missingmen, they sounded okay, but I missed the bulk of the set, so I wandered over to the merch table. Unfortunately, no SC3 hoodies on sale, but they did indeed carry the new 7″ vinyl, featuring Ishraqiyun on one side, and the first new FORMS material since 2004 on t’other.
Yeah! I now have five 7" records, all of which are Secret Chiefs 3 satellite bands.
Next I watched the Secret Chiefs 3 setting up, which was cool. Lots of instruments being tuned in ways that western minds never intended.
Trey Spruance, on the left, one of my musical heroes, fiddling with his electric saz. Which he would later play.
Their set actually kicked off a good five minutes earlier than scheduled, which was nice, and lasted for over an hour. My brief summary of it, is that it was one of the best musical performances I have ever seen. I don’t think I can really overstate how enjoyable it was. Personal highlights included The 3, Vajra, The 4, Brazen Serpent, Book T: Exodus, and as if for a treat just for me, they whipped out Labyrinth of Light for an encore.
New guy Matt Lebofsky on keys, a perfect fit for this band I think.
These are some of the best musicians in the world, for sure. Shazad Ismaily on bass, and Timb Harris here playing trumpet for Book T: Exodus (of cover of the theme from the film 'Exodus'), but he also played guitar, violin and some keys.
Trey Spruance is quite a fellow, playing all manner of guitars and other stringed instruments. He also happens to have assembled a very formidable touring ensemble. So three cheers for the man with the masterplan, and long may his fine works continue.
After that, I went back to the hotel, ate some crisps and went to bed, for t’was about 2.10AM when they finished up.
So, didn’t see a lot of bands, but the one that I did see genuinely exceeded all expectations. Honestly, when it got to Labyrinth of Light, I could barely contain my excitement. It’s the just about the perfect surf-rock tune. Check out this video from another performance of it.
Anyway, time to get up and head out, because from 12.00 – 4.00 I will be soldering and no doubt burning my fingers a couple times in the Mute Synth workshop. And then later on, I will be performing live with my fellow workshoppers at 10.00PM. I’ll see if I can capture some document of that moment because it will my first ever live performance, even if it is as part of a large group of people.
Turns out the giant TV in my room won’t respond to any input for some unknown reason, so I guess I’ll inform reception. I wasn’t planning to watch any TV or anything, it’s just strange, and I guess they’d want to know, if they don’t already.
So, I am just about to leave to go to the site, the Custard Factory obviously, where I am to be given my wristband and staff shirt, which I need to wear on the outside of my clothing, and then i shall be assigned duties. I am still assuming it’s going to be box office, so with that in mind, I am going to pop into a clothes shop on the way (the Bullring is open late…) and get me some fingerless gloves, so I can operate a) the e-ticket PDA b) my phone c) my wallet, without needing to remove said gloves. It is after all a bitterly cold October night.
Those familiar with the Supersonic Layout may notice the significant changes in layout this year. It appears the entrance is no longer Gibb Street, but Floodgate Street, presumably for security reasons (The site was looted during the Idiot Riots 2011), and also new venues (no more outdoor stage? Makes sense given the time of year).
This evening there is just one act I am really desperate to see, and that’s Secret Cheifs 3. Interestingly, the line-up for this tour includes Danny Heifetz, of the original Secret Chiefs Trio and Mr. Bungle. Also, interestingly, they are a band I have loved for about 6 years, but have never yet had the opportunity to see perform. I will also try and grab some merch if I have time, particularly if they’ve got their cool-ass hoodies, and the new 7″.
If I have the time I will check out some other stuff, but there’s no strict plan – unlike tomorrow.
Anyway, gates open at 9PM, so I should probably get to going.
Edit: Also, I will be posting happenings on Facebook and Google+.
So Supersonic Festival 2011 kicks off this evening in the fine post-industrial city of Birmingham. And that’s where I am travelling to as I write this, on the 10:00 Virgin Trains service to Birmingham New Street, delayed by about an hour due to vandalism on the line by what I think I would be well within my rights to generalise as a bunch of idiots.
Here's me writing this post that you are now reading, on the train.
It’s a train journey so there’s not much to report. Not sure why I would even write this, but I got bored, and can’t sleep, or focus on reading (annoying because there’s books I want to read).
Last night I went for a drink with some work colleagues, which is not something I normally do because I am bad at socialising, but it turned out to be totally pleasant because nobody was really there just to get drunk. We sat and chatted, and I tried to explain to people that I would be performing live on Saturday night with an instrument that I have never touched, and isn’t even built yet… More on that later.
On a completely unrelated note, while at work I was speaking to a girl who disputed my claim that I can remember with perfect accuracy strange singular details from certain moments in the past, such as the pair of trousers I was wearing when I last played badminton with my friends in the School badminton club (which I went to probably twice), or that exact piece of music I was listening in certain exact places at certain exact times. I recognise the point she was making, about memory most often being extremely inaccurate (which is something I read about last year in The Invisible Gorilla), but this isn’t my false realistic remembering of a subjective event, in most cases it’s a memory of a an actual object in an actual place. In many cases it feels like it’s imprinted on my brain, that I was walking somewhere, or sitting somewhere, listening to an album on my Discman or mp3 player. Now that I have last.fm on my phone which I now use as my mp3 player, I’ll pretty much have a record of all that going forward anyway, but still, I was thinking about it this morning.
For an example, in 2003 and 2004, Murray and I saw the band Yes performing live. I remember very clearly several details from the trip to Edinburgh, including that I purchased a Frank Zappa box-set named Threesome No.2 containing Hot Rats, Waka/Jawaka, and The Grand Wazoo, and also Forever Changes by Love. I think there may have been another, but if there was, I do not remember what. I also remember Murray purchased The Flaming Lips’ Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots, which we listened to in his Dad’s car on the way home. I also remember that my parents were on holiday that week with my sister, and when I got home to the house sometime after midnight, I put some of this music on the stereo, and felt really weird and lonely, because it was one of the first times I was basically staying all on my own in a house for a whole week. Also because Forever Changes is an album that’s mostly about loneliness and despair and confusion.
Is this memory false? I don’t remember everything in clear detail, just several specific moments out of context, plus some albums that I bought and own. Those details I remember are clear as day in my mind… But then again, as she pointed out, that’s kind of how this illusion works. Maybe she’s right, maybe it didn’t happen like that at all…
Oh, but right now I am listening to Stained Glass by Kayo Dot (which happens to feature Trey Spruance of Secret Chiefs 3 who will be performing this morning at 12.50AM – words cannot describe how excited I am about that fact) and I am very vividly recall a time, earlier this year, when I was walking into town, listening to Stained Glass on my now obsolete Creative Zen, and I was walking alongside the Clyde while the twenty minute piece’s controversial synth solo happens, and it made me feel profoundly emotional, sadness and loss and bitter regret all at once.
I don’t know how that memory could be false, because to this moment, that music makes me feel this way. Though some of the details may be incorrect, I firmly believe I was listening to this song walking beside the river Clyde. I’m pretty sure I went home and told somebody about it too, because I felt real weird about it at the time, and I tend to tell people about stuff like that.
Anyway… just some thoughts about the fallibility of memory, which of course has nothing to do with anything. Train has now just passed Penrith, and Stained Glass is nearly over – 20 minutes is way too short for this song. Next up, Bjork’s Biophilia, which is friggin’ awesome (possibly the second best kind of awesome there is).
At Supersonic this evening, I am due to start working at 8.00, though I do not yet know in what capacity. Presumably box office like last year, but we shall see. The box office has moved location this year to across the canal. I’ll post this when I get to the hotel, and later on, before I leave, I’ll probably write something actually about Supersonic instead of a delayed response to a conversation from 15 hours ago that nobody cares about.
Left you on a bit of a cliffhanger yesterday didn’t I? No? Either way, don’t worry, we’ll get straight down to business. I’m not going to beat around the bush for comic effect. No siree. That’s just not my style. You know how sometimes when your favourite TV show comes back on the air after a cliffhanger, and they find some way of not resolving that cliffhanger the first week and instead do an episode about something else? Isn’t that annoying? I would never stoop to such tactics. What was I talking about again? Oh yeah…
We were looking for the missing element, the spark, the zing, the punch that would give our podcast that unique flavour. What would it be? Also, we didn’t even have a title for it.
Well, after literally minutes of discussion we found out what it was missing.
Hello sir.
Beef.
Not just any beef though, on no! We got in touch with our old friends at the Islay Beef Consortium, who represent the bovine interests of the fair island of Islay (aisle-ay), Queen of the Hebrides (he-brides) where men wearing wedding dresses walk out to the craggy cliffs and sing shanties to the ocean, before remove their clothing, throwing it up into the piercing winds, and then dancing home in the misty dawn air, before getting dressed for work at the massive Islay Abattoir, where the world’s most Islay-related beef product is produced.
Here then is episode two of what will hereafter be known as, The Islay Beefcast.
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In this episode, we somehow take two whole hours to ramble on about everything under the sun. We talk about our boring jobs, our boring lives, our reaction to the death of Steve Jobs and all the things I hate about Apple. Also films, other podcasts, television, music, books, and of course, beef. Sorry it’s so long, next time we’ll try and cut it down.
Next time we plan to have music, AND a logo! Until then, please enjoy.
Meself and me old mucker Murray have decided to try our hands at Podcasting. Why? Well, because sometimes we just get it in our heads to do dumb things for no good reason. We made a couple of attempts this year to produce some more creative content for the internet, but that didn’t go exactly to plan, due primarily to scheduling issues and that age old curse of laziness. So instead we decided to just sit down with a couple microphones and chit-chat about whatever came to mind. I’m surprised nobody else has thought of this before.
Here are the results of our initial session, as posted on Murray’s blog recently (only with some additional post-production.)
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In this episode we discuss some books, some music, some films, some television, some games, it’s FUN/NO FUN for ALL/SOME/NONE of the FAMILY/FRIENDS/BUSINESS COLLEAGES. There is no intro music, or snazzy logo yet. Also, it’s a rambling mess. Consider this a pilot episode.
If you would like to subscribe to this awful endeavour, please use this feed, free of charge to do so! We don’t have a schedule yet, so we will put out episodes when we’re good and ready.
Making this podcast was fun, but we realised afterwards that something was missing. It seemed to us that there was a magical ingredient absent from this otherwise tasty podcast. “Tune in” tomorrow for the second part of this story, and episode two of our brand new podcast, which possibly has a better name than this one… For now, stay strong out there in Internetopolis.
Due to some circumstances that I shan’t go into here, I’ve felt slightly melancholic and emotional lately. Just because of who and what I am, I tend to get caught up on little things that mostly only exist in my head and am unable to adequately express these things to others.
At my work, I’ve recently been forced by circumstances beyond my control to take on different responsibilities. Specifically, until further notice and for reasons outside my control, I am unable to do my real job. Instead I am now acting as a floorwalker to help my colleagues do their jobs. I wander around, people shout my name or put their hands up, I walk over and say “I don’t really know, sorry…” One of the positive things about this is that I’ve overcome my natural shyness and actually getting to know people, in a work environment kind of way at least. This is new and exciting for me.
Oh I’m still clumsy and foolish, and slow to pick up on certain social cues, but the point is that doing this has kind of brought me out of my shell a bit. On the other hand, the shock of this change has also exposed some of my vulnerabilities that I don’t know how to deal with. I muddle through, though.
On top of this, there are some big changes looming in my life, and for the first time I actually feel kind of sad about what happens next. Canada is more of an option for next year than ever, but I suddenly feel as though the place I’m in now is about to get ripped out from under me just as I was beginning to settle in, and I’m going to end up back at square one.
Anyway, all that life stuff aside, I have listened to music a lot lately, but I’ve jumped from artist to artist, unable to really stay on any one thing. It feels as though I’m searching for some emotional fix that I can’t quite pinpoint without music. Sometimes that mood is one of loneliness and isolation, sometimes of love and community, sometimes misplaced feelings or unrequited love, sometimes a vague sense of spirituality, and sometimes pure visceral energy.
Today I thought I would use this as an excuse for a blog post. So, after altogether too much ado about nothing, here are five songs that elicit in me a strong emotional response. In no particular order, let’s begin.
Tom Waits – Hold On
To my ears one of Waits’ sweetest songs. It’s a simple lyrical sentiment that I think speaks for itself. What really sells this though is its musical setting, firmly within Waits’ unique old-timey ramshackle sound, or at least a muted version of it. A quiet shuffling shaker rhythm sets the pace while guitars are gently picked and strummed.
Hans Zimmer – Time
I re-watched Inception a couple of weeks ago, which reminded me just how intense my love for that film is. It is pretty near to being a perfect film for me. It expresses ideas which are impossible and strange, but it frames them on such a story built of simple human emotion.
Having listened to the soundtrack a whole bunch for the past year, some of the moments in the film resonated even more strongly than they had before. None more so than scene accompanying this piece, Time, which I think is one of the best melodic themes from any film score of the past decade. It does not feature the trademark BWOM! noise that’s become so famous, but it does build to a fairly bombastic climax as the film draws to an end.
I’m not sure how to describe it exactly, but it plays on the themes of the film, of reality and of dreams, of inception and the power of ideas, and of course, of love, loss and regret.
The National – Conversation 16
Fun fact, I am not lucky in love. However, I am familiar with depression. This song is performed by my musical discovery of the year The National, and expresses a dark melodrama of a failing relationship. It’s about that place people sometimes get to where they still love the person they are with, but their own neuroses that they had tried to hide and ignore have started to eat away at everything.
Distant shuddering tremolo guitar and starkly pristine drums, surrounding a mixture of woodwinds, synth pads, and ghostly backing vocals forming the perfect accompaniment to Matt Berninger’s weary baritone, in which he somehow manages to make the line “I was afraid I’d eat your brains” a truly haunting metaphorical refrain.
There is a place in my heart for songs like this which are about love, but do not glorify banal teenage fantasies or empty materialistic lust, and instead examine the darker personal side of it all. I like it when songs deal with the strange feelings people don’t normally talk about.
The video is pretty stupid though, despite starring John Slattery and Kristen Schaal. Its silliness slightly undermines the emotion I’m talking about.
R.E.M. – Belong
“Oh god, not another R.E.M. song! WHY WON’T HE JUST SHUT THE UP ABOUT R.E.M.?!”
Yes, I talk about R.E.M. a lot. Sorry.
Anyway, this song is not Everybody Hurts. Nor is it Losing My Religion, though it is from the same album as that. This song is Belong. It is notable for a number of reasons, primarily that it consists of spoken word verse interspersed with wordless group choruses, that are really beautifully arranged and performed. There’s also a prominent little bass fill that’s very catchy, among the usual piano chords and guitar jangling you may have come to expect. Also, a catchy beat mostly consisting of alternating finger-clicks and claps over the regular drumming.
Oh, and the words are beautiful and abstract the way the best R.E.M. songs are. There’s a mother, and a child, and a sense of passing on, of some revolution or event that opens a child up to a bold new world of possibilities. I don’t know what it’s about really, but I get a lot out of it. What about you, huh?
The Silver Mt. Zion Memorial Orchestra & Tra-La-La Band – Triumph of Our Tired Eyes
Although this list was in no particular order, I think I did unconsciously save the most important one for last.
I probably don’t come across as a particularly emotional guy, but there are a lot of Silver Mt. Zion songs that hit me right where it hurts. For me, they specialise in the kind of songs that you feel like a strange ache in your heart. This band has more of them than any other band I know of. I think it’s because of some combination of their wavering tremolo guitar, soaring violins and broken untrained vocals singing beautiful words so damn beautifully I can literally barely stand it.
I think, if anyone wants to know how I truly feel about life, about love, about everything in the whole damn world, this song is a fairly close approximation. It is hopelessness and fear given way to redemption and love, but in a quietly mundane kind of way. It’s about the smallness and the strength of individual action. The words celebrate humanity in all its flaws, while still maintaining that hope of something strong inside us all.
***
Sorry for trying to put some genuine emotion into words, I’m not sure I’m very good at it. Now, if only I could express my emotions out of my mouth, to other people. Or know what to say at all to certain people for who my brain decides it’s vitally important to temporarily reduce the power of speech to incomprehensible babble.
Hello Internet. I am Paul F. Ferguson. This is my blog. I include the F. because I want to distinguish myself slightly from all the other Paul Fergusons on the internet, of which there are many. It also deservedly puts me in the company of other such presidential fellows such as Chester A. Arthur and John Q. Adams.
I currently live in Glasgow, Scotland. It's okay. I wouldn't mind living somewhere else though.
I use this blog to post things of various interest including thoughts, interests, music reviews, game reviews, photos, whatever I feel like. Sometimes I talk about my life, but it's not that interesting, so mostly other stuff.
