Saturday 31 October 2009

From Inside Out - Day 1

Filming commenced last night at Reeperbahn....
Here are some stills:

Dee Fodor




Yasmina Dexter




Stuart McNab




Alex DeLarge aka Richard Clouston


Thursday 29 October 2009

From The Inside Out

I remember talking about doing this on leap year day 2008 and it will all commence tomorrow.

I feel that no matter what people say and where their allegiances lie, something very exciting has been happening on the London music scene in the last couple of years. I feel that being a musician in a few bands right now is exciting even though the main crippling fact about it is the lack of dough on offer...However every interview/article that I read on the London music scene doesn't satisfy me and people still get it wrong despite you spelling things out in black and white. Hence I've decided to do a film documentary on it - From The Inside Out.

I haven't scripted or planned anything. I don't think that's the way I want to do it. I just want to be an observer but probe those who I feel can shed more light on everything. It's just going to be me, my camera and London's music. That's all there needs to be really. No flashy sets or staged antics. Just life, the way I have seen and lived it over the past year.

Filming commences tomorrow on my return to London.
x

Sunday 25 October 2009

Uncle BoB's Podcast #2 - Cover versions



This week Uncle BoB takes you on a journey of some people doing other people's songs.

Yes. Otherwise known as laziness.....

UNCLE BoB's Podcast #2:
Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Diamond Sea
An Experiment On A Bird In The Air Pump - 100%
Nirvana - Seasons In The Sun
Sisters Of Mercy - Jolene
Ciccone Youth - Addicted to Love
Hole - Hungry Like A Wolf
Dinosaur Jnr - Just Like Heaven
The Pixies - In Heaven
Sonic Youth - Superstar

Listen to all the music - no words - right here:
Uncle BoB's Podcast #2

x

Friday 23 October 2009

The Truth Behind Beauty


I often contemplate what my life would be like if I woke up every morning and looked like this...A hell of a lot easier and happier I think....

Living where I do and doing what I do puts me and others I know glaringly into the focus of style, fashion, beauty. I hate it. I hate every minute of it. Would we have graced the cover of a magazine by now if we looked more 'conventional'? I believe so. Would we be the IT girls to hang around with if we were slender and blonder? I believe so.

Perhaps this is just a manifestation of my inner insecurities but I believe that how easy your life is and how far you go in it depends a little on intellect and chance and a whole damn way on how you look. It hurts but that's the truth.

I'm going to get the skinny model girl who dates guys in bands to DJ at my night because she is hot. FACT. She knows nothing about music and hasn't the slightest passion for it but she is fit. FACT.

Genetics, intuition, nature...you just can't fight this.

Lydia Lunch recently said this about us:

'I'm a fan of any women making noise who refuse to comply with an outdated beauty ethic and instead flaunt the power of their female charms with sass, spit and vinegar.'

Of course I was flattered as I've been a massive fan of hers for years. However I sat back and thought about it and it hurt that we're not considered beautiful, just people who don't comply with what girls in bands should look like. That's not quite the same thing.

At the end of the day, the last couple months have made me realise so much about this industry and myself. I've taken a huge leap away from it all. It's just the way things go and nothing's going to change. No sir. You just have to express your creativity for yourself and the rest can go to hell......

Thursday 22 October 2009

My ears just popped


Thank God. I was really worried during the walk home that my tinnitus had come back again. I lost 80% of the hearing in my right ear in 2006 and could just hear the worst feedback in my ear non-stop, 24/7 for 8 solid months. I prayed and prayed and prayed and prayed and one day I woke up and I heard silence. I have never been so happy in my life. So yeah. I constantly worry about my ears and I'm usually good with wearing my ear plugs but took them out a bit tonight.

I enjoyed the Offset party tonight. I've been a bit of a recluse lately and was dreading facing the real world today but I really enjoyed it - great venue, mix of people and eclectic music.

I split my set with Christina so didn't get to play the whole 5 songs. I'd actually planned on playing a pretty predictable set of:
Selfish Cunt - England Made Me
Sonic Youth - Schizophrenia
PJ Harvey - Missed
Pavement - Grounded
Chemical Bros with Hope Sandoval - Asleep From Day

I really enjoyed Anthony Chalmers set as he just played stuff from new bands - Male Bonding, Graffiti Island, Rayographs etc.

I'm really exhausted now. I wish I could just sleep for 100 years. I need to disappear - get the hell out of London. Hitch a ride out of thie damn city and head to some next town. I really want to get a car, some books, some tapes and just drive across America. Meeting weird folk, spinning yarns and having time to think. Pure, deep thoughts that aren't tainted by pointless meetings about this band, getting the tube, going to crap gigs and clubs, worrying about scraping money together for bills, my rent and I'm not even going to start on my student loan...i just want to be rid of all these thoughts and plant new, raw, pure, otherworldly thoughts in their place. Whilst driving across a desert listening to The Pixies.

I want life. I don't feel my life is here, doing this, now.

2mins 6 seconds in is what I'm talking about....

Tuesday 20 October 2009

Little Victories Part 2

Ugggh I can hear strange knockings from outside or next door..it's almost 4am and it's freaking me out. There was also some weirdo man whose been appearing in the early hours of the last few nights pretending to be a dog and barking outside my window. Yeah it's pretty hilarious but it pissed me off as I was trying to record some drums and had to compete with him. And also now everything has been recorded and put away and as I sit in the dark typing away, my mind suddenly decides it's time to freak out about it. Bloody typical.

Anyway the reason I'm writing is because I feel I have accomplished a minor personal milestone today. I wrote, recorded, sang and played all the instruments - bass, drums and guitar - on a new track called Three AM for Blue On Blue. I wrote somewhere recently (perhaps on the Bird blog) that this was an ambition of mine. Yep, Dave Grohl first Foo Fighters album style. It all went downhill musically for Foo Fighters first album onwards but I totally respect what he did - it still stands as a pretty outstanding achievment for any artist even nowadays. My man Dave rocks!

Ok so this is only 1 song, not an album and all the demos up I have mostly recorded myself but till now it's been just me singing with either a bass or guitar.

I'm going to put the song on the Myspace shortly. http://www.myspace.com/blueonbluepop

I'm going to stop posting out stuff on Facebook about it as it's a little embarassing. It's weird as you have great friends on there you want to share things with and then there's people you don't know as well and I think it could all come across as just inane self-promotion and big-headed. The thing is, the dawn of the internet is a life-saver for people like me. I was the most socially awkward, insecure and troubled youth I have ever known. Sometimes it's hard to surpress these innate sides of me but mostly people don't realise I'm like that. The internet for me is such a great form of communication and way of combating my demons...I started promoting and doing clubs and bands via the net which keeps what I do alive but without too much interaction with people. It actually gives off the impression I have some kind of life. Weird that.

Anyway this was meant to be a short post so it ends.
HERE.

Can't work out

if this is a fan video or the real thing. Either way, I love it and think it fits this song perfectly.



It kind of marks how I feel at the moment. There was a wide tunnel of light and as each day passes it gets narrower, more obscured and there are less people in it. I opened Pandora's Box recently and the light burst through. But only for a day. Just for a small, pathetic few hours. But it was so beautiful and I think that in years to come I will always remember it.

It's better to have loved than to never have loved at all?

It hurts me to say it, but I think I agree....

Top 5

Been asked to play my top 5 songs at the ECC/Offset party on Thursday.

Here's what I'm thinking:
1. Roy Orbison - In Dreams
2. The Velvet Undergound - What's Going On?
3. Sonic Youth - Schizophrenia
4. Nirvana - Scentless Apprentice
5. Selfish Cunt - England Made Me

Saturday 17 October 2009

Vera Hall

I felt Vera Hall deserved her own separate post here. I think her voice and her songs are absolutely mind-blowing.

Most people would probably recognise this as it was used in Moby's 'Natural Blues' track.


Moby's version:


Death Have Mercy:


I'm pretty well-known for not being the biggest fan of soul music. I don't know what it is exactly but soul and garage music are genres I just can't identify with. There is nothing there that I feel akin to...the voices, the music (ok so this sounds REALLY generic but you know, I'm being lazy), the subject matter is something alien and unrelatable to me.

However I am a big fan of folk music and I know that this is intrinsic in influencing so much music out there. I love Vera Hall's version of 'Another Man Done Gone', which is an old Alabama chain song.

Here are some other versions of it:


This version starts off quite good, I like the fact that it's got both male and female vocals however from around 1 minute onwards I find it quite hilarious. I love Johnny Cash, he's amazing. However I find some of his pronounciations and tone of his voice sound like Elvis singing this song and it just seems...well funny and wrong. I feel it doesn't have any of the passion and meaning of the original.

Probably the most famous version is by Odetta. For some reason I can't post the youtube version up here but here is Odetta singing 'Water Boy':


My favourite version still remains to be Vera's. Odetta's voice is more experimental and stronger however Vera's subdued and gentle voice really overwhelms me.

For a long time I wanted An Experiment to cover this song but for whatever reasons, we never did it. I've done a version here for Blue On Blue. You can download it for free if you wish. I have so many songs for Blue On Blue and I'm not weird about making tracks exclusive and paid for. It would be great to have people pay for your music so you could live off it but I think all of us new bands will never really be in that position due to the current climate.

Anyway, here you go:
Blue On Blue Another Man Done Gone

Harking back...


I used to run a label called Decasian Records which was set up at the end of 2006. I had 4 acts on my roster and I was so damn passionate about everything. Unfortunately quitting my job meant the funds dried up and then An Experiment started and I didn't even have time to phone my mum let alone run the label. I don't feel like the label is dead although I understand that a fundamental part of a label is releasing music and I haven't done that lately. For me, in my head, it is on indefinite hiatus but it definitely isn't dead...

Anyway, I used to do weekly podcasts (that no one used to listen to). I really enjoyed doing it...I think I may do it again....

I've done one here...of a couple of songs, old and new, that I really like and want to share. There's no speaking on here, just music. I need one of those things that make the end of a mic big to plug into my laptop. Or a big to small...I need to check. But until then, it'll just be music, music, music....

I'm calling it 'BoB's podcast'. I don't know anyone called Bob, it's meant to be the abbreviation of 'Blue On Blue'.

BoB's podcast #1:
UNKLE featuring Autolux: Persons and Machinery
Hanged Men Dance - Riot At The X-Ray Bar
Jon Jones and the Beatniks Movement - Rope
New Order - Ceremony
Blue On Blue - Bad Place To Be
Silver Abuse - Cuban Homo Farm
The Breeders featuring J Mascis - Do You Love Me Now Jnr
Vera Hall - Another Man Done Gone
Shocking Blue - Love Buzz
Chromatics - Running Up That Hill

I'm hoping the above may introduce some people to some great new bands like Jon Jones from Leeds and Hanged Men Dance from Florida who are now existing under a new guise called Eulogy Inn.

There are also a couple of artists from yesteryear that are really underrated - the amazing, inspiring folk singer Vera Hall and the great Silver Abuse who were an amazing punk/no wave band from Chicago, pictured below. I think the rest people may have already heard.

Anyway, hope someone somewhere enjoys this.....
x

BoB's Podcast #1



PS MAJOR SH*TS!!! I just listened back and for some reason The Breeders track is all sped up and they sound like chipmunks and it's over in like 35 seconds. Oops!!

Thursday 15 October 2009

Little Victories

Ivan Smagghe's from Kill The DJ records playlist on Diesel:U:Music

Tracklisting:
Alain Kan – “Nadine, Jimmy et Moi”
the XX – “VCR Demo”
The XX – “VCR (It’s A Fine Line RX)”
Zinthesizer – “Green Onions”
Robert Hood – “Minus (Combo RX)”
Zeus -“Drive My car”
Adolphson/Falk – “Blinkar Blah”
A Place to Bury Strangers – “Ego Death”
Jeff and Jane Hudson – “Los Alamos”
Battant – “Highway Hopeful (kill the dj) (live track)”
Schneider With the Kick – “The Shout”
Battant – “Socket (live session)”
Battant – The Butcher (live session)
Blue on Blue – “Skull”
Shake – “Indagoo”
Krikor – “Crackboy (Plein Soleil RX)”
Tim Fairplay – “A Different land”
Battant – “Bruise (Live session)”
Marc Houle – “Lick Your Skin (A Fine Line RX)”
Drinking Electricity – “Shaking All Over”
Jarvis Cocker – “Angela (Pilooski RX)”
Peggy Lee – “Johnny Guitar”

It's quite daunting doing something by myself for the first time...It means a lot!

Sexy People



Mildly obsessed with this...

http://www.sexypeople-blog.com

Wednesday 14 October 2009

Battant

The people below, in particular Joel, have made my year...




Seriously.....

THANK YOU

I am pretty terrified about everything right now...I feel it is more fate than free will that is causing these dramatic, massive shifts...

Anyway.......

THANK YOU..........

Don't be sad, I know you will....

My favourite couple of all-time

Tuesday 13 October 2009

Gluttony and Excess

The divine Felicity Hayward has asked me to be a part of her upcoming December exhibition at the Digitaria Gallery in Soho. At first, I politely declined as I despise having my photo taken and hate looking at the results even more. However Felicity, god bless her, asked me to sit for a shoot and see how it goes.

The premise behind her exhibition is documenting people eating in their natural surroundings. For me besides my bed, the only place I sit and eat in my room sometimes is on my drum stool. I'm just worried because my room is gross and looks nothing as spectacular as this:



I may have to hire in a monkey in a butler suit to make it a bit more glamorous....

Felicity's website: http://www.felicityhayward.com

E.Gold

Going into the studio on Monday to do some vocals for the song 'Golden Design' for E Gold.

Never thought I would do something for a dance project! Jesus!

However this lady is quite an inspiration:

Hi, how are you?

I dunno....I think I need to buy a new life please.....

Sunday 11 October 2009

I guess that you believe you are a woman and that I am someone else's man.......

I shall be seeing you on my birthday in Berlin.

How exciting.....

Near Wild Heaven

This week has actually been really good. Apart from the massive freak out I had on Tuesday. That wasn't cool at all. I called some people I know 'monkeys' and 'fuck-ups'. I didn't mean it though. Well, I kind of meant it at the time but I don't think it all the time. I'm just sick of placing ourselves in people's hands who promise us the world and deliver nothing. And they have a hold over me because they have money and I don't. It gets me down....

Anyway, Nail the Cross last night was great fun. Probably down to the fact I had a bottle of Jim Beam to myself. Now then, my drink of choice is usually Jack and coke hence I think I lost it on the old JB. My mind ain't used to it. I think I played ok though. I forgot the words to a couple of songs notably 100%! What a monkey! That was pretty stupid and I think everyone in the room noticed. Oh well. Another thing to blame on Jim Beam.

Just been given a ticket to Mudhoney tonight. I really want to go and be excited but all I can think about is shit loads of coffee and maybe a mini roll and then my duvet. I'm such a bloody whinger. Free ticket to Mudhoney - YES PLEASE!

I don't know about the week ahead. I'm going to stop worrying about my life and just let things happen or not happen. I saw some old school friends last night and now we're back in touch and hanging out this week. That's good perhaps I'm finally overcoming my fear of people and my past. I can always hope anyway.

I like these. A lot:

Thursday 1 October 2009

RANT

I hate this world

I hate this industry

I hate the people that stay in this industry because they are all rich bastards.

You will never come across a poor, starving band from the suburbs anymore...No sir. The down-trodden, dole benefitting, odd jobs, penniless musician doesn't exist anymore. In their place, we have kids with the most expensive instruments in town who a) don't know how to play them, b) COPY music they like instead of creating anything new and original and c) have never had to nor never will have to worry a day in their lives about money as the bank of mummy and daddy pays for their hi-tech instruments, uber fashionable clothes, sweet flat in London and all the cool records they think they should own.

I worked my arse off for 2 and a half years and with my savings gave up my job to follow my dream. 18 months and a few odd jobs later, I'm faced with job interviews and freaking out about having to go back to my old life. My entire life savings are dust - gone - totally dried up. Yes they helped me fund my dream for a short time but what now? WHAT THE HELL NOW?

I don't have rich, healthy parents that can throw money at me for a new bass, new kit and everything else I need. The entire Bird back catalogue was written on my red bass which I acquired 3rd hand from a friend who moved to New Zealand. I have shit pedals that cost £20. I may seem like a shit musician because of this but I sure know how to play my shit instruments.

It's not fair that a lot of the people I know can prance about and can just be in a band 24/7. They don't have jobs or don't care that their parents are breaking their backs in order to support them. It makes me sick.

I don't listen to these people's music or what they have to say because there is nothing of substance to them. A spolit kid with a 2 grand Fender is never going to be my hero. Someone whose life is too easy and has never lost sleep over getting evicted or the debt collectors coming round means nothing to me.

I hate you all

Whilst I most probably go back to a shitty job with shitty people with a constant fake smile on my face and battling thoughts of smashing my head repeatedly against my computer, I will think of you

AND LAUGH