Quotes of the Week.

Actually quotes of last week, but current affairs got in the way.

“We were playing a festival in Dublin the other week. There was this other group like, warming up in the next sort of chalet, and they were terrible. I said 'shut them cunts up' and they were still warming up, so I threw a bottle at them. The bands said 'that's the Sons of Mumford' or something, 'they're number five in charts!' I just thought they were a load of retarded Irish folk singers.”

- Mark E. Smith, shining a light in these days of darkness (any offense caused to actual retarded Irish folk singers notwithstanding).



“Pure Joy! I can’t be unhappy while listening to this. Here’s every crazy smile, or hilarious dance -- the whole thing bucks and twitches with delight and energy! And as for the SOUNDS, the concept of modern high-fidelity has to be called into question when you hear these old 78s on a cheap, old, valve mono amp -- through a 4-inch speaker. Wooden instruments sound wooden and varnished, the vibration in the trombone brays like brass hammered by air, and there’s a UNITY OF EAR I find hard to describe. If a microphone is an ear-analogue, perhaps it’s a relief to only have a couple.”

- Alastair Galbraith on “Tiger Rag” by Kid Ory & His Creole Jazz Band.

I’ve always liked Galbraith’s approach to sound and recording (there’s a great bit in an interview with him in the Tape Op book, where they ask him what kind of reverb he was using on a particular track, and he’s like “huh, what? I was just singing down a drainpipe..”), but anyone who does a top ten for Dusted and picks a Major Bloodnok skit from The Goon Show has my eternal admiration.

Labels: Alastair Galbraith, Jeffrey Lewis, Kid Ory and his Creole Jazz Band, Mark E Smith, quotes, The Fall