KevinEGPerry

Top work all round.

'Assume Crash Position' is one of the albums of the year.

Incidentally, Dorian Lynskey wrote a great piece recently about whether Jello Biafra really believed that stuff about Jerry Brown: http://33revolutionsperminute.wordpress.com/2010/11/03/i-am-governor-jerry-brown/

I really enjoyed reading this. Good work everyone.

With the Dirty Three he spouts some of the funniest lines I've ever heard between songs.

Sclavunos and Casey also come across brilliantly here, though. Great interview, really enjoyed reading it.

He was on his way to that very interview with DiS (ie. me) when he was accused of being a terrorist.

'Authority and American Usage' is available as a PDF on the Harper's site, if Mr Kulash's endorsement has piqued your interest: http://www.harpers.org/archive/2001/04/0070913

I've had this record on a lot recently, it's probably one of the year's best. Roky was on mind-blowing form at Green Man last year as well. Beautiful work.

but then I do adore that opening lyric.

...if one of them was called Kevin.

That does indeed sound like a dream. Completely agree about them not being fey or twee. I remember only really starting to 'get' them when I realised that, despite what one is repeatedly told, they aren't.

Any band that is named after an Onion article about Donald Rumsfeld's secret island lair is okay by me.

Even if Spotify, and the internet generally, hadn't already rendered plodding track-by-track descriptions entirely pointless, I'd still much rather read an intelligent piece of criticism that places the music within a cultural context. If music writing isn't doing what this review does so eloquently, then it really might as well be dancing about architecture.

What I'm interested in is the artist's perspective: Can they justify taking corporate dollar to develop their music, if record labels are no longer willing to financially support people while they experiment?

For those taking part, the branding was "subtle and understated". That was how the artists experienced it. Now that's almost certainly because Red Bull want them to forget that they're part of a branding exercise - but it also means the music they're producing isn't 'branded' as such. No one links Flying Lotus's mixes with Red Bull, but he benefitted from their support at an early stage in his career, when perhaps record labels wouldn't have given him that backing.

I don't think you can blame artists for wanting to feed from the corporate cashcow. What is more insidious is that if this sort of backing becomes more normal, corporates get to limit the musical discourse - but then big labels always did anyway.

I'm going to use that half-baked rumour about him leaving as a reason to retell a great story:

October 1984 and Mick and Keith have been getting intoxicated in Amsterdam. They go back to their hotel and Mick decides to call Charlie's room, shouting into the phone. "Izzat my drummer, then? Where's my fucking drummer?"

Charlie climbs out of bed, shaves, puts on a crisp white shirt and impeccably tailored suit, knots his tie and slips on some shoes. He walks downstairs, grabs Mick and, in the words of Keith Richards: "punched him into a plateful of smoked salmon,"

"Don't ever call me your drummer again," Charlie sneered, "You're my fucking singer."

It was an utterly entrancing show. Pretty sure time and space warped.

This is a Good Thing.

If I'm honest though I prefer Daniel Johnston with a smaller band rather than a jazz orchestra.

The other band are called Tommygun, by the way.

Looking forward to the show on Friday.

When I saw them on their tour I remember saying they'd be perfect for Jazzworld (or whatever we're calling it now).

Dr John just before will be incredible as well.

And listen to the whole album, naturally.

Children by the million sing for Alex Chilton when he comes 'round
They sing "I'm in love. What's that song?
I'm in love with that song."

I never travel far, without a little Big Star

Years ago, my heart was set to live, oh
But I've been trying hard against unbelievable odds
It gets so hard at times like now to hold on
My guns they're waiting to be stuck by
At my side is God
And there ain't no one gonna turn me 'round

TTT are amazing, and Talons blew my ears off supporting Johnny Foreigner the other night.

Good review, too. Interesting that he's sampling Kanye, too. I remember hearing 'My Way Home' on 'Late Registration' and thinking how brazen Kanye was being - or, on the other hand, how little he'd had to do to 'Home is where the hatred is' to make it sound modern.

'Me and the Devil' reminds me of 'The Wire' (a Good Thing, naturally) but I think my favourite track (poem?) might be 'Running'. Maybe I'll just have one more listen through to check... Great album.

Elvis Costello on Football Italia: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HQZnLqmqjM

...about no one deserving Noah & The Whale. She sounds worth checking out, though, could be a nice accompaniment to this bleak January. Incidentally, Jackson Browne wrote 'These Days' when he was 16, and it's one of the most devastatingly beautiful and honest songs ever written.

Superb review. I'm looking forward to the film, despite my concerns about the Hollywood-isation of the best book of the last decade. Hillcoat and Cave's involvement is reassuring given how good 'The Proposition' was, but who knows what the Studio machinery will do to it... We shall see...

2. Jeffrey Lewis & The Jitters - 'Em Are I
3. Staff Benda Bilili - Tres Tres Fort
4. Animal Collective - Merriweather Post Pavillion
5. Megafaun - Gather, Form & Fly

I done a DiS List!: http://drownedinsound.com/releases/charts/49

although I did spend much of the video wondering if his hair was actually attached to his various hats. have decided not, and thus my love for him grows ever stronger

incidentally, all UK proceeds go to Crisis, who are still recruiting Christmas volunteers if Bob has made you feel all charitable: http://www.crisis.org.uk/

Greatest opening line to a song ever?

I fucking love Carl Sagan and his beautiful brain.

Cheers for the positive press, sir!

A shameless plug for a project I'm involved in, but if you're a Lightspeed Champion fan you really should check out: www.ctrlaltshift.co.uk/unmaskscorruption

It's an anti-corruption comic book and exhibition that Dev has contributed a story to.

The Basketball Diaries is a very special book, and was a big influence on me when I was a teenager.

He leaves a lot of beautiful poetry behind as well. This is from "8 Fragments For Kurt Cobain", and I rather like it as an epitaph:
"That is always the cost / As Frank said, / Of a young artist's remorseless passion
Which starts out as a kiss / And follows like a curse"

and despite having never heard a single Richmond Fontaine track makes me want to go and listen to everything they've ever recorded post haste.

Who said music criticism was dead?

...about Final Fantasy. The mainstage was too quiet all day for my liking, but Mr Pallett built a veritable mountain of sound all by himself.

Mumford & Sons were also excellent, as was Santigold, who was a surprise highlight for me (despite the lack of bass... blast that sound system).

That quibble aside, it was all rather excellent. Well, except for that one downpour that sent us scurrying into the bandstand for shelter, but as Tom Waits sang, "A little rain never hurt no one."

And it's gonna be really sunny too, right?

Right?

They are incredible: http://congolese.blogspot.com/2009/02/staff-benda-bilili.html

Wouldn't have singled out that particular Jeffrey Lewis track myself, but its still a pretty great list.

posts lots of his photos, including an amazing one of a post-motorbike-crash Shatner

@BenjaminFolds

When I was in my teens (five or six years ago), Reading Festival was 'our' festival. You'd turn up to the campsite and see everyone from the common room at sixth form. The lineup would be made up of everyone that was in the music press at the time. Consequently, and inevitably, you'd grow out of Reading rather quickly as your musical horizons broadened/you left school...

Glastonbury, on the other hand, I've never thought of as belonging to a certain age or genre... To me its always been more of a vast, sprawling, shapeless blob which you can press and mould into whatever shape you choose... I rather like the fact that my parents can go and have a completely different experience to me in roughly the same field