They Shut Down the Dock, Thrown our Lives on the Rocks! Skull Orchard Revisited--Jon Langford's Welsh Multimedia Extravaganza!

When I heard some of the detail of Jon Langford's reissue of Skull Orchard, I knew I had to get on board with this. But what exactly is this product?

Is it a mini Coffee table book, the sort of thing you find reviewed in the NY Times book review a few weeks before Christmas?

Or is a CD reissue, with some of the most elaborate liner notes you could ever hope to find?

Though I'm usually not one to equivocate, it's pretty much "all the above" plus a whole lot more, my friends.



For my purposes, first and foremost, it is a reinvention of the original Skull Orchard album from 1997, with the inclusion of the Burlington Welsh Chorus, which I think is a very traditionally Welsh thing to do. Though the music has to do with Wales (Newport most specifically, his hometown), I feel that the songs touch on issues that affect us here in the US and around the world, while name checking Cymru icons like Tom Jones and Shirley Bassey John Cale, places  like Cardiff Bay, Newport's transporter bridge, soccer clubs, pubs, and abandoned coal mines.



"Tom Jones Levitation"


Secondly, its loaded with Art by JL, his sort of take on Folk Art, Populist Art, Insurgent Art. I used to see placards like these in gift shops when I went on vacation when I was a kid. But of course, he has used the form for his own ends--someone unfamiliar with his art might very well view the paintings as something else. And of course, if any of you art aficionados like his work, plenty of his paintings and prints are for sale at Yard Dog.

Thirdly, it is a family affair of sorts. I don't know if this qualifies as scrapbooking. His brother David provides an interesting compendium of Welsh culture and history, plus some choice family anecdotes.

His father Denis supplies photographs also. So, while the Langfords still are a long way from being deemed by media outlets as the Welsh version of our own celebrated, Jackson Family, all of this entertaining, intelligently done, and definitely made me laugh in spots.

Fourthly, it's literature! Jon has included a short story involving Herman Melville's Albino Whale, chopped up in pieces through the book, which I found interesting. And of course, there are the song lyrics, which qualify as poetry.

I know that some of you are thinking of all the elaborate limited edition reissues circulating these days. I think it may have started in rock with that gigantic Stooges reissue, which must have included every single outtake from Fun House. (I sometimes think everything the Stooges ever did must have been put to tape, with all those live releases out there.) But many of these new super deluxe reissues carry such a high price tag! And I doubt many of them are half as wildly idiosyncratic as Skull Orchard reissues. The price for this multi-media mini event is quite affordable in comparison. And what you get is well thought out, not merely fan fodder. This, I say, is a product for the discerning musicophile. I mean, who creates things like this? Certainly not to get rich....

I guess I'm reminded a little of the super elaborate children's album Harmelodia by the Rheostatics, where they made the artwork, wrote the songs, and put together a narrative designed to get children excited about music. I reviewed that one a while back if anybody is interested....

Techheads might be disappointed that there are no DVDs, holograms, iphone aps, Newport: Transporter Bridge the Video Game,etc., but understand that S.O.R. came out a few years ago. Maybe that will be a part of Skull Orchard 2.0 in 2020.

Of course Jon Langford has just come out with a new one, which has gotten great reviews, Here Be Monsters. He, and his Mekons (Waco Brothers, and of course the mighty 3 Johns) have pretty successfully continued to put out rewarding music over a long period of time, while staying true to their ideals and expressing their views on important issues, without the sort of pandering or self-aggrandizing posturing that many a lucrative career has been based upon.

Skull Orchard revisited, in a nutshell is a pretty amazing little item, somthing that any fan of the arts should appreciate. I don't believe there is anything quite like this, so grab one while you can.


Here's a taste of his latest recording, Here Be Monsters! Support our artists, please.

"We are Saucy to make People Free"---Blue Eyed Pop---The History of Pop Music In Iceland

Originally I was going to go with the phrase Eru ekki allir í stuði? (Are we having fun yet?) as the Title for this post, but I just found out that this is the title of another book by Dr Gunni from 2001, which Blue-Eyed Pop may well be an updated English language version of. So it no longer seemed like a clever thing to do.

Dr Dr, give me the news........

So I went with the quote made by Helgi Stingrimsson of the band Haukar back in 1972. It sounds weird yet the sentiment rings with a sort of obvious truth that I have trouble elaborating on.

I just finished reading through Blue Eyed Pop, the History of Popular Music in Iceland, by Dr Gunni, a musician/journalist/game show host guy/etc. from Iceland. It is basically what the title says, a history of Icelandic music from the early days to the present. I have to say its a very nice book, loaded with band photos, album and anecdotes. And of course, pithy observations by the good doctor.

The book is a fairly pricey purchase, but this is the sort of stuff I eat up, so I didn't hesitate picking this up directly from Gunni directly. It reminds me of John Dix's History of New Zealand music, Stranded in Paradise, which I picked up a few years ago after a lengthy search.

And as an outsider looking in, all my predispositions about Icelandic music turned out to be correct.
Their music scene is all due to the confluence of excessive Brennivin, eating Puffins, and co-existing with Elves. I'm just kidding......

The book starts early, and details the development of technology and media. I mean you couldn't have autos without gas stations, so for music you need instruments (moving from accordians to guitars), microphones, recording devices, venues where music could be played, radio stations, the development of television. There of course are outside influences like the influx of rock and roll music from the former US airbase at Keflavik in the 1950's.



Like a lot of places, there was a lot of emulation of the music being made in the US and England. And of course, plenty of that went on with succeeding generations of bands in those countries too. It seems like every country has had their own approximation of Þorsteinn Eggertsson, the Icelandic Elvis, or Hljomar, the Icelandic Fab Four. It's a part of how scenes develop, how cultural evolution operates.

Reading Blue Eyed Pop has also had me waxing nostalgic. I've been to Iceland a couple of times, but not in quite a while. When I saw the Sugarcubes for the first time on TV, I was very intrigued with Bjork--she seemed to me to be an amazing talent and I immediately tracked down the 1st Cubes album. Though I couldn't have know for sure, I had an impression that there was more going on there than just 1 band. So I decided to go check the place out for myself.

I remember seeing the Hljomalind shop downtown and just going in by accident. It was early afternoon and noone was in the store except for myself and the clerk, so we started chatting about music. I told him of my interest in what was going on musically in the country, and he played me a variety of things. I remember hearing the music of Kolrassa Krókríðandi, for the first time--I thought they were amazing, unique sounding. He played some noisy screamy Big-Black type singles by Dr Gunni, which were completely over the top, and interesting electronic stuff by Curver. A bit later a bunch of kids came in the shop and had a conversation with the clerk. They must have just got out of school. I found out that this was a band called Maus, who had just put out their first album and wanted to see how it was selling. It sold me--I wound up buying a copy after a few songs were played for me in the shop. It still has the little Hljomalind sticker on the back. I think that I did meet Kiddi briefly--at the time of course I had no idea how important he was to the music scene there. What a small scene, but my ears were not lying to me at all.

It struck me that some unique tendencies did exist in the music scene there. Probably part of it has to do with the small population. A small scene, where people collaborate and bands break up to form other bands. And unlike say the US where people want to form bands in a Beatle set up, or a classic power trio, etc., at least until recently, I had the impression that kids in Iceland would go out and form a band, and one friend would pick up a guitar, another drums, but somebody would say, oh my girlfriend plays accordian, or my best friend plays clarinet. And they would proceed from there, which is something you would not see happen often in the states. It seemed like someone in a punk band would start making country or disco albums without any problems. I guess what I'm trying to say is that there was a freedom there to try things and to experiment. Less rules about what to do and what not to do. Maybe the childhood dream I had of being part of the American version of the Who doesn't translate within a country with a population smaller than the County I live in in New York. At least not until a certain tangible amount of success occurred for any band on a local level.

Given some success, Icelandic bands have attempted to break out onto the International scene, with mixed success over the years. It has been an ongoing thing, probably since the Beatles. For the most part unsuccessfully. But these days there are a lot of interesting things happening. Since Sigur Ros came on the scene, hipsters are paying close attention to the little island that could. And since then, with Mugison, Mum,  Monsters & Men, Asgeir Trausti, Singapore Sling, Minus, Grisalappalisa, Olof Arnalds, Ghostigital Hafdis Huld, Hjaltalin, just to name a few artists, there is a lot of interesting music being made. There is a reason why so many music people and music fans attend the Icelandic Airwaves Festival each Fall. Maybe someday I'll get to go.

Gunni has an interesting, pithy way with words in the book. I enjoy his sense of humor throughout the book, whether it be discussing country balls, hair metal festivals, pop icon Bubbi Morthens, roadies with odd habits, or Iceland's attempts to win awards at the Eurovision song contest. What is nice about the book is that while you can find out who was making some of the best music of the different eras, he also discusses what was popular, what everyone was listening to at the time, and what popular styles were like, and about music stores, venues and even pizzarias that once existed in Reykjavik.





Gunni also mentions a fair number of children's albums, which is not surprising given that his album Abba Babb is a terrific album for kids. Unfortunately, that album is barely given a mention here, which is too bad. Hopefully, on the 2nd pressing of Blue Eyed Pop he will overcome his humility and expand on Abba Babb, because it deserves some more attention.



Overall, I enjoyed the book immensely, but it probably isn't for just anybody. Sure there are chapters on Bjork & Sigur Ros, but I liked reading about less known artists like Megas, Curver, Purrkur Pillnikk, Siggi Armann, Bogomil Font, Maus. And I learned about groups that I want to listen to that I hadn't heard of before, like Retro Stefson, 200.000 Naglbitar, or Grisalappalisa, or FM Belfast.
And about cultural things like Stuð music, the Rokk i Reykjavik movie, hair-do pop, Krutt music, and Pludo Sweaters. I was glad that I got this book. I wish there were more books out there like this.

If you want to hear more interesting music from Iceland check out Gunni's playlists at 8tracks.com/dr-gunni. A good way to learn some music history, and also find out what's happening in Iceland today.‎

Music What Happened? Scott Miller, Modern Musical History & the Art of the Annotated Mix-Tape!

I found out about Scott Miller's brilliant music book Music What Happened? shortly after he passed away. Just a short description of the book and I knew that this book would be something worth reading. It was so beautifully written that about a month ago, I read through it once again.

Like Bands through the hourglass....

Miller is best known for his work in the pop group Game Theory. I always liked what he did. Anybody who has even heard a few of his songs knows that he knew how to concoct a infectiously catchy pop song, while not falling into a formulaic rut. But what I find most interesting is his singing, the way he phrased lyrics, always striving to find a new and interesting way to express himself, in some ways reminding me of a great jazz soloist. I mean, you can recreate a jazz or pop song, but you can't really recreate unique performers--and if you try, it's really no longer unique.

Unfortunately, as far as I know all Game Theory recordings are long out of print and pricey--if you see something by the band at a reasonable price, don't wait around. He also made a number of discs as the Loud Family, which seem to be readily available, if not in print.

But I have to say that I enjoyed Music What Happened? immensely. For me, the book is not a like a conventional book about music at all, but more resembling an interactive conversation with a knowledgeable, quite enthusiastic music fan, who also happens to be in the music biz. I know that this sounds creepy, but due to the vibe of the book (I mean his candor, and his generous sharing of his musical worldview with the public), I have to keep pinching myself to remind me that he isn't some long-lost buddy of mine. I won't say that I am in alignment 100% with his musical tastes, but I have to say that for the most part we are in agreement, even at times to the degree that I feel the thing when you and your friend, or girlfriend say the same thought at the same time. And if Scott Miller is raving about an album I don't know about, I want to hear it. And if he spends a fair enough time evaluating artist or band I am lukewarm about, maybe I respect his opinions enough so that I should listen again with fresh ears.

Basically, this book is a chronological collection of mix-tapes, with pithy, revelatory, thoughtful, sometimes hilarious annotations. The chapters begin with 1957 and end in 2011. Most of the songs are Pop songs, Rock songs, RnB, Soul, and some Rap. In the preface of the book he basically explains what he is doing. If someone did a book like this and just made mixtapes based on very narrow personal interests, the book would not be worth looking at. But in a very clever way he blends in songs that he likes (sometimes songs that have fallen through the cracks or are under appreciated) with big classic songs or songs that were emblematic of what was going on in music each year. Songs that made 1985 different from 1987, whether it be a new breakout talent, or the introduction of some new form of recording technology. And it probably was a bit of a challenge to limit the songs to the length of a mixtape. But I think that if he merely made up mixtapes in the 80's loaded with dBs and Let's Active he would have felt he was going the whole process a disservice.

The fact that Scott Miller was a musician and produced and engineered other peoples albums and therefore a person knowledgeable about the music business in general adds other dimensions to this project. It is very interesting to read the annotations when he breaks down a songs structure, or talks about the hit on the snare on the third beat in another song. Or musical trends, like DX7 synth and drum machine sounds, big studio recording excess, or the return to prominence of the guitar in the 90's.

One of the touchstones behind his musical evaluations, is How does this song make you feel?, an aspect of music that is surprisingly absent from a lot of music criticism. What does the music do to you at a most personal level? And I think that he is successful at communicating the emotional/intellectual power that music can convey. Some songs are included in the book because they were important to him when he was 10 years old, not because there is anything inherently more interesting about them than any dozen or two other songs that were released the same year. So often you see people responding to critics best-of music lists with crazed rage and personal attacks. "How could you possibly ignore this record!!!", as though there was a real and final answer to this question, which is really all conjecture. As though someone could also actually listen to all the new releases that come out each year! I would advise you to go with the flow, check out Van Duren, or Julian Cope, Kanye, Arthur Alexander or Shearwater. "You never know until you try", a great philosopher once said.

Part of the fun of course, was the corroboration of songs with my tastes, sometimes surprisingly. I don't want to give away to much, but I didn't expect to see Squirrel Bait here. Of course you know the Beatles are heavily represented, but it was great to see him come up with great music that really needs to be better appreciated, while giving a reasonable representation of different eras.

But there were some moments when he really struck a nerve for me, like when he made reference (I can't recall exactly where) to the la-la-la's in the verse section of The Beatles classic "You Won't See Me".

Or this quote about the Chills from 1985.

Heavenly Pop Hit is simply magical in its freshness and luminosity. "I stand and the sound goes straight through my body/I'm so bloated up happy I could throw thing around me", is so peculiar a choice of words that it could only be the truth.

And that my friends, could be a manifesto for what this wonderful book represents. I'm very grateful that Scott Miller was willing to share his thoughts with us. If you are a fan of pop music, you really need to pick up a copy of this!

How to make a Sonic Kiwi Salad--Soundtrack: 118 New Zealand Albums by Grant Smithies

I was lucky enough to grab a copy of Grant Smithies' engaging book on New Zealand music. Turns out, the Flying Nun Records website had some for sale.

Basically its a list of 118 interesting and sometimes great albums by New Zealand musicians, covering a variety of genres, and covering the 1960's up to the late 2000's. Overall, most of the albums are from the 1980's forward. No doubt anyone who reads the book and follows the Kiwi music scene will have disagreements as to inclusions and omissions in the book. I would have preferred a book listing 218 albums. Overall, I think that he did a pretty fine job. If nothing else the book is gorgeous, with plenty of photos and album covers.

A labor of love.

I consider myself a bit of a enthusiast of music from New Zealand, but this book brought to light a lot of music I've never heard of, never listened to. So in one way, I got my ego deflated a bit (not the worst thing), but in another way the book got me excited about new artists and even new musical worlds I haven't ventured into yet.! I do the best I can considering I live on the complete opposite ends of the earth from New Zealand. I don't gush over every release that comes out from there. But I also find it pretty pretentious that artists doing terrific things don't get their due, and to a large extent because of their provenance. The reason for inclusion of artists, beyond being from New Zealand, is that they created something terrific, or at the very least very interesting or creative.

Smithies is a critic so the book is not a puff piece. And the author wisely includes contributions from numerous sources. There are pieces in the book by actors, musicians, jouralists, designers, poets, music industry executives, musicologists, describing albums that mean a lot to them. There are numerous anecdotes about bands, about seeing the groups perform in clubs.

There are some great pieces here on The Gordons, one of the loudest bands to ever walk the earth.
There are pieces on groups I am anxious to get albums of, like Fat Freddy's Drop, and Feelstyle. I just picked up a record by SJD who apparently is one of the most talented electronic artists in New Zealand. There is a lot on Shane Carter, Chris Knox, The 3D's, and other Flying Nun groups. There is a even a small section on Maori show bands and 60's garage groups, which was terribly interesting to me.




In the preface to the book, Smithies states that didn't really feel the need to include better known, popular artists, like Dave Dobbyn, Bic Runga, Crowded House, Mutton Birds. And I can understand this because this book was no doubt intended for home consumption (and a few musical freaks like myself). The reality is that there probably is no great international market for a book like this, which is too bad. But another reality is that while bands like the Mutton Birds might be a little better known today, surprisingly, they have never had any of their studio albums, much less a greatest hits compilation released in the U.S. As he says in his preface, he made some difficult choices when he was creating this book. But when you think about it, even taking the New Zealand market having some of these popular groups included in the book might have been a trojan horse of sorts. Somebody might pick the book up for Dave Dobbyn and wind up being turned on to Tama Waipara, Edmund Cake, Upper Hutt Posse, Humphreys and Keene, HDU or Coco Solid. Its no wonder why magazines like Mojo seem to have The Beatles and the Stones on their covers seemingly every other month--it's not usually because the bands are extra busy.




But for my own selfish purposes, I'm glad that he didn't do the complete kitchen sink approach when he put this collection together. There is a certain coherent musical integrity here rather playing musical politics. It really is a collection of people who love music sharing their favorite albums and memories with the world. Warm, funny, intelligent, enlightening. I really enjoyed this book a lot--I think Smithies has made a great musical contribution here. So if you love music I strongly recommend that you pick this book up. It was being sold at an affordable price on the Flying Nun Label. Shipping a book across so many time zones is usually a pretty expensive proposition. There is such a variety of music here that I can almost guarantee you will soon discover a few great new bands you might never have heard of otherwise.

What are ya Wearin'?--Kevin Barry's Dirty Old Town of Bohane

Just finished reading Kevin Barry's first novel, City of Bohane. Not the easiest read at first. The novel is a lot of things at once, fairly audacious in the least. Not an easy project to complete, I would wager.
The novel is speculative fiction, set in the near future, the year 2053, in a city on the west coast of Ireland, namely Bohane.

Not a lot of explaining in the novel as to the Bohane world of the future. In some ways, its very much like what we know, but things are obviously altered. There doesn't seem to be much use of the energy sources we rely on these days, hence a lot of walking and public transport. It seems a darker place, without ready electricity, garbage pickups, proper sewage. No computers or cellular communications. No Facebook "friendships".Bohane reminds me a bit of places like Somalia, where central authority and order as we know it have ceased to exist. It is clan vs clan, neighborhood vs neighborhood. The language at first was difficult for me to fathom, which complicated my attempts to fathom Barry's shambling Malthusian society. Think of James Joyce, Anthony Burgess, Irvine Welsh and the new Scottish School, as to the language. In some ways I think of the great J.G. Ballard's novels like Concrete Island, and High Rise. In his novel, the evolution of language and accompanying slang continues as one would logically expect. Even people who remember the near past, before things change have a fuzzy memory, and people often misremember things as much as they recall. Much like that old childhood exercise where you have children whisper a message to each other--when the message reaches the final child it is quite different, often unrecognizable from the original.

I also think a lot about the E-network, and of course Adam Ant, Bow Wow & the New Romantics, and all that punk-rock pirate foppery. There are constant detailed descriptions of the clothing that everyone wears in the book, making you wonder at times whether this was set in Italy instead of Eire.

K Beez wit the Remedy...

And just the outrageous ostentatiously colorful garb described, particularly the Fancy Boys who are for the most part running Bohane at the start of the novel, reminds me of the whole Adam Ant deal. I could see a film adaptation of this with Joan Rivers asking the characters "who are you wearing".And even though for a lot of people Adam Ant signifies some of the more ridiculous aspects of the 80's, some of his music is quite interesting and pretty clever. Mostly the early stuff--I like the drums. And as this novel, suggests, as much as the world changes, as long as there are people, there will still be celebrity and celebrity worship, pomp and pageantry, propaganda as produced by newspapermen like Dom Gleeson, and sociopathic politicians like Logan and fixers like Ol' Boy Mannion. And of course the cruelty and viciousness, the profane vitality, the human on human violence seen in the brutality and machinations of the main characters in the novel. A cautionary tale yet also a celebratory of life at the same time. There is no shortage of nostalgia and warmth, even in the tough, uncertain world the characters of the novel inhabit.

Turn off the cellphone, and do us all a favor.

Don't want to spoil the book for those of you who are interested, so let me just say that I recommend it pretty highly. I've read a few good books the past few months, but this is up at the top of the list, along with Swamplandia! by Karen Russell and The Tiger's Wife by Tea Obreht. Not as excited about A Visit from The Goon Squad, though I wanted to be. Though not a bad read, definitely worth reading. Maybe if I read it again I will enjoy it more. But take City of Bohane out for a spin. It's a cool blend of science fiction, linguistics, popular culture, sociology, history, political science all thrown together in a big sweaty, smelly heap. I can't wait to read his next short story collection, Dark Lies the Island. His earlier collection, There are Little Kingdoms was pretty brilliant. Barry is definitely well on his way.

Mukiwa: A White Boy in Africa--Peter Godwin's Memoir

Just completed Peter Godwin's engrossing Mukiwa: A White Boy in Africa, which begins in White ruled nation of Rhodesia and then ends in the newly liberated nation of Zimbabwe.

It is a fine book, a warts and all memoir that takes Godwin from his early childhood into early manhood, from a small child assisting his mother, who was a doctor, to his time in the Rhodesian Police force, fighting a fight he was not in favor of. It is an unflinching look at life in this period, where racism is examined from different perspectives, scenes of horrible brutalities are narrated, appalling violence, including a violent death in his own family. And there is a lot of sadness; despite the untenable future of white minority rule in the country, for someone like Godwin this was also his homeland. The life that he knew as a child turned out be so very transient. That so many people died in this civil war and in its aftermath just seems like something that ought to have been resolved in some other fashion. Still, the book is not a jingoistic paean to the good old days of Imperialism. And the book is no indictment of one specific group--there is blood on every one's hands in this case. And sadly, once white rule was gone, the cooperation among tribes fell apart, and even greater atrocities occurred, which Godwin later related to the world as a journalist regarding the notorious North Korean trained 5th Division of the Army in Matobeleland.

Godwin masterfully describes people and the terrain of Zimbabwe. When he talks about a Boer neighbor or a tribal chieftain, you can almost see the person through his eyes. And he intersperses throughout the book in almost a rhythm the sights, sounds and smells of his homeland. The flowers, the animals, the dust, the heat rising from the earth.There is not a lot of sabre-rattling and braggadocio in this book. Godwin is a thoughtful person who was sympathetic to the lot of the Africans and he treats them as human beings, not as the enemy and not with the racist derision that other whites felt toward Blacks. But he also understood that different groups see the world in diverse ways, that the different peoples of Zimbabwe had difficulty understanding one another's cultures. Though he considered himself someone who knew more about African life than the average White Rhodesian, there was so much he just didn't know. He was a liberal who optimistically believed that somehow all the peoples of Zimbabwe could work together as a group, and you can feel his sadness and frustration as this vision did not become a reality. Of course, you would not characterize him as a saint either, and he very ably details how the intense police training could turn a liberal minded person as himself into a paranoid, dangerous, finger-on-trigger, enforcer.

I definitely enjoyed reading this book. Once I got into it I had trouble putting it down. I think I learned some things in this book, but overall it speaks of a time that is all but erased but in the mind of expatriates, though the narration is straight forward without rose colored glasses. Certainly things could not stay as they were with the small White population controlling most of the land and the tremendous social and economic inequities in the colony. Zimbabwe at one point was a fairly affluent state in comparison to many African nations, but it appears that things have gone horribly wrong in the aftermath of the civil war (famine and repression, declining average lifespans), due to bad leadership and corruption. The economy basically imploded. It is not only whites who have had to flee the country. But despite the sad events that occur throughout the book, there is also communicated the resiliency of the people and their desire to be able to live their lives peacefully and with some form of prosperity. Which is natural, because that is what most people wish to have. It raises the hope that even in the most downtrodden places, a better future is possible, and in the longer term may in fact be inevitable.