Woke up late this morning and felt terrible. Needed to spend the morning at the computer getting some stuff done really, but I HAD to get out and get a bit of exercise or I knew I’d feel shitty all day (diabetes, for those of you wondering what I’m going on about). So I’d like to thank the Minutemen’s ‘Double Nickels on the Dime’, and whatever strange force caused me to grab it and stick it in my walkman.
Totally transformed my mood and expectations for the day as I tramped to the post office and around the park, reacquainting myself with the breathtaking joy and ambition and power of this music... If ever there was a textbook definition of musical and lyrical genius, something that stands so above and outside it’s cultural context like an inspired beacon of crazy hope: this album is it. (I keep wanting to call it ‘the Trout Mask Replica of the post-punk era’, which is pretty banal I suppose, but worth it if it gets anyone listening.)

It’s not so much enjoyable as it is just plain inspiring – it makes me remember that sitting around feeling sorry for yourself is a crime, being defeatist and cynical in the face of every human’s inherent ability to create something like this is a crime, it reminds me that this isn’t just a whole lotta foolishness, this is self-definition, creation, cultural resistance, and there’s work to be done. It makes me want to pick up the guitar and the notepad and hammer them until something good comes out, whether it takes all day. Whether it takes all year.

Phew. And it does all this whilst making my tap my foot, and whilst making me laugh. Because if it can’t do that (pay attention at the back there Fugazi!), then what’s the point?


I regret to inform you though that there’s another CD I listened to yesterday which didn’t do any of this.


I spent last week painstakingly downloading A Silver Mount Zion’s ‘This is Our Punk Rock..’ and have finally got it all burned onto CD, finally got to listen to it, ready for the inevitable beauty and revelations contained therein and... My god, what a terrible, terrible fucking disappointment... It’s... I can’t even express it, it’s just... ... UGH. Beauty turned to shit, it’s a horrible feeling. I’m sorry everybody but I just can’t bring myself to put it on again to confirm or deny my initial impressions. Sound & Fury. It sounds like they’ve been eating their own hype for breakfast. It sounds like some whining bombastic Saddle-Creek shit. It sounds like they’ve sat down and made a product. Sound and Fury.

I’m really sorry.