Labels: bad news, political shit, The Mekons

If you’re reading this and you’re a UK citizen, I’m sure you know what you have to do tomorrow, and I’m sure you’ve already been bombarded with this ‘advice’ from a hundred different sources, but what the hell, y’know?

Tactical voting is clearly the only way a decent and humane agenda is going to get anywhere near the finishing line on this one. So, if you’re registered in a seat where one of the main opposition parties is in a position to challenge the Tories, please vote for that party. If you’re unlucky enough to reside in a Tory stronghold, please vote for whoever’s coming second. And if you live in a safe Labour / SNP seat, please vote for them anyway, because some wise-ass will doubtless be on TV crunching the nationwide voting totals within 48 hours of this message, and the bigger that total is, the better. Clear? Good. Many thanks.

If you live in the UK but you’re not a UK citizen meanwhile, please be assured that I share your frustration – granting suffrage to the people who actually live in the place being governed would be top of my own personal agenda, but whatcha gonna do, eh?

And, if you don’t live in the UK, have never been to the UK and don’t give a hoot about the UK – I’m sorry to have wasted your time. Normal service will be resumed imminently.

Labels: announcements, blather, political shit, politics

Update, 11/2/19: If some of my accusations in the post below seem a little obscure, I refer readers to this helpful article posted this morning on The Quietus, which is far from obscure. Please read it and draw your own conclusions. 

When I composed the post below, I was still reeling with disbelief to a certain extent. On reflection, I'd like to put things even more clearly: even in the extremely unlikely event that Matthew Bower were to offer an apology and disavowal of his actions and associations, I still have no place in my life for anyone who could even get within spitting distance of these hateful ideologies. 

Personal forgiveness - sure, why not, it's possible, but I don't know the guy personally and neither do I wish to at this point. Artistically speaking, this music is tainted - he's off the creative register so far as I'm concerned, and I'd encourage all readers to reflect this in their future listening & purchasing choices. It has long been my belief that the best way to deal with fascists, racists and the like is to let them know that their views place them outside of any civilised discourse or culture, and that they have no one to blame but themselves when they are excluded from it.

Following this public 'outing', I'm sure that Bower's assorted band names will continue to flourish in the nasty far right subculture he increasingly seems to have been moving toward in recent years. So be it, but it's up to the rest of us to stay strong and ensure that the numbers willing to support this subculture remain sufficiently small to prevent it's denizens from, say, making a living or gaining any wider recognition through their activities.

Of course, in respect to the Bower issue, I feel like a complete idiot for failing to put the necessary pieces together to get the full picture until now. They've all been there, hiding in plain sight. I'll have to try to be more careful in future. 

I'm sure there must be other fans, promoters, label owners and fellow musicians who feel the same. Now that everything is pretty much out in the open, I hope that they will have the strength to act appropriately and to let him and others like him know that their presence is no longer welcome in any self-respecting music scene or record collection.

Unlike some sick fantasists on the far right, I'm not keen on re-writing history, so, after some reflection, I've decided to leave the words I've written about Skullflower, Sunroof, Hototogisu etc in the past on this blog untouched. I've removed all links however, and have added a link to this post, just to clarify matters.

That's my final word on the subject for the moment - my original post from last week is below.

--- 


Ack. I’ve got a bad taste in my mouth this evening.

With typically horrid timing, less than two weeks after I christened Skullflower #1 in my 2018 records list, I’ve been appraised of some fairly regrettable evidence concerning Matthew Bower’s political associations – ironically via the man himself, who has chosen to reproduce images of an email containing said evidence on his band’s weblog.

Now – I don’t want to be the kind of person who permanently writes off an artist just based on their use of an ‘improper’ phrase or image or something. As any fool knows, there’s enough space in art for reinterpretation, reclamation, differing understandings and legitimate provocation concerning just about anything, and where possible I like to give ‘em enough rope. Aforementioned evidence however suggests that, in this case, Bower has been quietly fashioning a pretty swell noose for himself in recent years. (I’m not posting any links here, but I’m sure you can probably google up all the gory details, should you wish to.)

As the author of the reproduced email readily admits, any of the presented exhibits, could, if taken alone, amount simply to a mistake, a misunderstanding, a “we’re apolitical and don't judge other people’s beliefs, man” black metal-style cop-out, or a snarky attempt at humour, even allowing for the fairly vile character evident in several of them. But, as another hoary old racist once observed: once is a happenstance, twice is a coincidence…. and you know the rest (see post title, above).

I take no pleasure in writing this – it both upsets and angers me. Bower’s music is unique, and I have enjoyed his recordings for many years, under many different guises – moreso than ever recently. I don't like the idea of cutting it out of my life, but what else can I do; I don’t want to hear those sounds congealing like rotten fruit.

As to anger meanwhile, it pisses me off immensely that I’ve given the guy money, and have encouraged readers here to do likewise. I don’t like giving my money to people who are dicks (and, being a UK tax payer, I’m obliged to do so quite enough without bloody noise guitar players getting in the way).

I dunno man….. sometimes I wonder. I’ve always taken comfort from the fact that the vast majority of people involved in underground music are basically Good Johnsons, in the parlance of a hoary old (alleged) misogynist, but it increasingly seems that, the further we venture Beyond The Fields We Know, the more likely we are to encounter people like this, with affiliations of the most pathetic, hateful, puerile, lunatic variety hidden away in their back pocket – kept ambiguous and out of sight lest they hurt the knob-twiddling careers of these brave ary*n mystic warriors. (Seems as if that ‘Hidden Reverse’ David Keenan wrote about way back when has been developing some really nasty warts.)

But, I’m getting rhetorical here, so I should reel it in. I could go on, but let’s just say that it’s a stone fucking drag, and leave it at that.

Labels: bad news, political shit, racism, Skullflower

Poster Art.

I didn’t take a camera with me on yesterday’s jaunt around town (I don’t own a working camera at the time of writing), but I can at least report on my favourite placards;

1. STOP THESE CUNTS
(a universally applicable slogan, hopefully stored under the bed and dusted off every couple of years)

2. CLEGG IS A CUNT
(the last word here was overwritten in biro on a professionally printed placard reading “Clegg is a Chopper”, a message the carrier obviously found a bit too subtle)

3. (via www.thisisnotagoodsign.com)

4. Every Child Counts? NOT IN HULL!
(This was a simple, printed one in black on white Times New Roman – it’s the underlining that does it I think. Makes me wants to reply to every rhetorical question henceforth with “NOT IN HULL!”)

5. FUCK OFF TORY CUNTS
(If it ain’t broke..)

6. Fuck the Tories! Fuck the Tories! Fuck the Tories! Fuck the Tories! Fuck the Tories!
(Increasingly desperate biro scrawl on box cardboard, natch.)

I guess I just like my expressions of proletariat fury simple, obnoxious and preferably rendered in red poster paint, biro or permanent marker. ‘Clever’ slogans are inevitably a smug waste of time. Contrived contemporary pop culture references can fuck off too. So crushingly unfunny. Swearing is fun. Insanely incoherent ones are good, but I didn’t see many of those, sadly. Go for the visceral, always.

Labels: impotent rage, political shit, posters

JUST A QUICK ONE...

No, I just couldn't keep the cynicism at bay.

As a brief devil's advocate appendum to yesterday's slightly misty-eyed post, just thought I'd quickly draw people's attention to this open letter to the new president from everybody's favourite fly in the ointment, Ralph Nader. Worth a read.

As a reponse, I'm going to say that sincerity is pretty much a moot point in modern politics, and that whatever Obama actually believes has been near irrelevant up to this point; the shortcomings of his campaign in the eyes of leftists and humanitarians were likely a matter of cruel necessity. He had his work cut out for him as it was staying one step ahead of potentially state-losing bigotry and slander from the right wing peanut gallery; clearly a candidate who'd also NOT delcared his support for Isreal, and had hung out for photo opportunities in mosques and publicly associated himself with Jimmy Carter, would not be preparing to move into the Whitehouse right now.

Of perhaps deeper concern is his sadly inevitable reliance on corporate finance to get where he's going. The ability of corporate interests to effectively buy themselves a president is perhaps THE biggest problem in Western democracy as it currently stands, and, as the happy beneficiary of that process, it would be foolish to expect B.O. to do anything to rectify matters, however much he may (or may not) push other aspects of policy in the right direction.

Those of a more overtly paranoid persuasion may also wish to remember Bill Hicks' routine about the optimistic new president being ushered in the room with the cigar-smoking bigshots. "Roll the film.... any questions?"

Meet the new boss.... etc?

Labels: political shit, rambling

WORLD SAYS: ALRIGHT.

So I should get a post down on the U.S. election, for sure. I know I’ve managed to put pop music aside for a few minutes each time there's been a US or UK election over the past five years to chip in with a bunch of hand-wringing, cursing and venomous cynicism. So to ignore the one where, suddenly, against all the odds, something unexpectedly good happens, would make me out to be an inveterate humbugger of the highest order.

But you see, given the ceaseless nightmare of corruption, greed, vote-theft, lies and horrifying stupidity that we’ve all got used to politics in America (and elsewhere) being over the past decade or so (not that it was any great shakes before that), it’s almost EERIE to have something good to say the day after an election; it’s not something my young mind is used to. My standard litany of Reagan-era punk bands and Hunter S. Thompson quotes will not help me to find anything well-balanced and original to say here, in this stunningly uncynical circumstance.

Such is my political pessimism, I spent the first few days of November just *waiting* for some contrived "turning of the tables", for some colossal unforeseen (OR WAS IT?) fuckup or unexpected shift in the voting, for The Ugly American to raise his head and say "what, you didn't REALLY think we were gonna let the black guy win did you?"

But no; I checked once, I checked twice – and whilst I fear the ‘rat-bastards’ of HST’s comic book worldview are still out there planning something nasty, for the moment it looks like he actually made it.

I mean, politically-speaking Obama's obviously no utopian anticorporate revolutionary or anything, but having a vaguely left-leaning Democrat in charge after near a decade of neocon chuckleheads still feels like a huge relief from at least some of the madness and chaos hanging over the world, and it'll be great just to be able to hear things like 'Secretary Of State' and 'Whitehouse Spokesperson' and not have to hate yourself slightly for immediately wanting to launch a psychic axe at the face of whoever appears on the TV screen. But, as has already been repeated a million times over, in purely symbolic terms, Obama's election is MASSIVE.

Just to think that a man who looks like - as my Dad might put it - "the guy who'd always die first in all the war movies" is now in charge, insofar as anyone can be, of the system that made those movies (and the wars for that matter)…? As a dude I’m going to get onto in a minute once put it: ain’t that good news!

And, whilst Obama's words thus far have stuck closely to the accepted 'I want to win an election' school of vague, optimistic rhetoric, that acceptance speech was sounding pretty good. Yeah, the ‘equality for all’ style of blather may be well played out in American political vocab, but an incoming president explicitly pledging his support for Americans “male and female, black and white, gay and straight”? – THAT’S not something I remember hearing before. And I don’t recall any previous president-elect paraphrasing Sam Cooke either. If he’d just taken the trouble to get photographed in a Ramones shirt too, I’d be 100% sure me and Barack were gonna get along.

Stupid I know, but it’s the Sam Cooke thing that really blows my mind.

I mean, even if you find the overly sentimental approach to politics a little cringeworthy, just check this out from a music fan’s point of view:

“I was born by the river, in a little tent
and just like the river, I’ve been running ever since
It’s been a long time coming, but I know
A change is gonna come”
- Sam Cooke, 1964

“It's been a long time coming, but tonight, because of what we did on this day, in this election, at this defining moment, a change has come to America.”
- Barack Obama, 2008

....

So you've got this great, unspeakably beautiful, noble yet desperate song of hope for the future that everybody loves. And everybody listens to it, and they think “ah yeah, one day....”. And yesterday morning, this dude got on stage in front of millions and effectively said “HEY – IT’S TODAY”.

Obviously I know that at heart the whole thing's as cynical as any other political 'victory', and he's only there thanks to the fact he raised shitloads of money, had a few good lines, deliberately avoided raising any divisive issues and was lucky enough to face an opposing team who were an even bigger bunch of clowns than usual, and I know that the grim economic/social reality of race relations in America probably isn't going to change very much, but still..... how often in a lifetime do you get the chance to take the message of a famous, rhetorical hope-for-the-future song and, for a moment at least, declare it DONE?

It’s like if an international panel of experts announced that a man only has to walk down one road to be called a man, or if somebody started issuing certificates of land ownership signed by God and Woody Guthrie’s grandson, or if the silver spaceships started flying in the yellow haze of the sun.

Crazy, and wonderful.

Now of course, I’m duty bound to post the song. I guess I should have had some smart-alec obscure cover version lined up really, and well, I hear Baby Huey’s version is a blast, and The Wave Pictures recent rendition is beautifully executed and reassuringly heartfelt, but…. if you’re up against Sam Cooke, Sam Cooke wins, y’know?

I don't know if I've mentioned it as often as I should have done on Stereo Sanctity in the past, but man, I love Sam Cooke SO MUCH. If you've ever had a party where this guy's recorded works weren't close at hand: well, you could have had a better party. Enjoy.

Sam Cooke – A Change Is Gonna Come
Sam Cooke – Ain’t That Good News

Oh, and hey, let’s remember:

Sam Cooke – Rome (Wasn’t Built In A Day)

Labels: political shit, rambling, Sam Cooke, soul

Death of the Mixtape?

So, like seemingly every other weblogger on the planet, I've swallowed my pride and signed up to Muxtape.

I have mixed feelings about the whole thing. On the one hand, it is clearly an absurd bastardisation of the mixtaper's art. You're only allowed to upload 12 tracks, none of which may exceed 10MB (eg, about 6/7 minutes in length), meaning that a 'Muxtape' more realistically represents one SIDE of a mixtape, even once you accept the fact that there's no artwork, no artistry and no way for you to put in any effort to personalise things even if you wanted to.

Also, those subtle "buy" links to Amazon are kind of unsettling.... I guess they mark the point at which a pleasantly DIY-looking, ad-free web utility starts to become a nice little earner for it's creators.

But on the other hand: it's easy, and fun, and a good way to share some tunes currently infesting your head with other people, and will possibly become extremely addictive.

So here's my effort for you all to enjoy.

Some of my current selections are possibly influenced by the grim aftermath of the UK and London's recent electoral proceedings. I'll try to throw some new playlists up there on a regular basis, so keep an eye on it if you're at all interested.

(By the way, the illustration above is scanned from the sleeve of Comet Gain's superb "City Fallen Leaves". Click for the full-size image to enjoy some fine words, and should they strike a chord with you, do yourself a favour and buy the damn record.)

Labels: Comet Gain, mixtapes, Muxtape, political shit