2012 objectives:
1) Get a studio apartment with a balcony, buy a medium priced suit and some wing-tips. Stand on the edge of the balcony in suit and scream ‘what day is this!?’ and then spit frantically at passers by.
2) Be able to quote at least half of Under Milkwood just to fill the silence in conversations. (sub-objective: Learn to steer conversations towards quoting Under Milkwood)
3) Write regularly on subjects on which I have no authority to write about.
4) Finish Moby Dick. Twice.
5) Get at least 4 more tattoos that will disappoint people.
6) See a live bear.
7) Buy a 1991 Volvo estate and drive to Prague.
8) Spend an hour of my life earning more than minimum wage.
9) Prove everybody wrong. Then fuck it up and prove them all right.
10) Walk more.
11) Drink less, smoke less, dance better, be kind, sleep less, talk more, be braver. This can all be accomplished by watching CHALLENGE TV.
12) Learn to cook something that doesn’t look like vomit. Or smell like it.
13) Resist cynicism. It’s reality cancer.
14) Hope nobody dies
15) Stay in touch more.
16) Stay alone more.
17) Buy a good pen/ watch, get them engraved and then realise I left them in the Volvo when I torched it west of Rheims.
18) Look at people’s faces more than computer screens.
19) Don’t buy as much.
20) Focus up, power through.
Successful shopping trip in Greenwich.
Top 10 Album’s of 2011:
1. Richmond Fontaine- The High Country-
What else would be top? The High Country is a sparse yet sprawling masterpiece filled with atmosphere and the occasional bit of rocking. The album’s written as a kind of musical novel with a smattering of spoken word fragments set against creeping acoustic guitars. I’d describe the whole experience as misty. I’m a huge fan of Willy Vlautin’s books and Richmond Fontaine so to have the two merge so successfully was a real treat.
2. Defeater- Empty Days and Sleepless Nights -
Another concept record! Defeater are my favourite hardcore band, in fact one of the only hardcore bands that I even listen to. This record went back to tell the story of the other brother from their debut album Travels. Some of the songs are complete face melters like Empty Glass but it’s the last track that just bubbles away for over five minutes then suddenly cuts out at a key moment in the story that gets me every time.
3. The Descemberists- The King Is Dead -
Something of a departure for the Descemberists here to a more Americana type sound and by god does it work. Having Peter Buck popping up on 12-string guitar along the way doesn’t hurt either. Down By The Water is probably my favourite song of the year.
4. Red City Radio- The Dangers of Standing Still -
Pop punk record of the year hands down. More harmonies than a buddhist retreat. More hits than a fuzzy cat being racist on a tram. More shredding than Conrad Black’s secretary. Basically it’s everything an ideal melodic punk record should be.
5. PJ Harvey- Let England Shake-
One of two notable albums this year with overtly anglophilic titles, the other of course being by a young man from Hampshire. I think PJ Harvey’s effort though is better of the two in their (I’ll admit completely converging) approaches to ‘Englishness’ (urgh horrible word.) She manages to make dark haunting songs about war and loss and twisted patriotism sound so fucking cool. She’s scratching into England’s soil and spitting out the dirt.
6. Great Cynics- Don’t Need Much -
The jokes over, I’m breaking rank, Giles is incredible and this is an incredible record. Boy done good.
7. The Mountain Goats- All Eternals Deck-
Not the strongest Mountain Goats record in history but still good enough to blow most other things away. John Darnielle is fast cementing his reputation as one of the greatest living songwriters. Damn These Vampires, High Hawk Season and Outer Scorpion Squadron are all testament to that. This though is something of a quirky record, I get the feeling there was a lot of playing around which leads to the whole thing feeling a little unfocused. It’s still been on a regular listening cycle since it came out though.
8. The Frontbottoms- The Front Bottoms -
I first heard this fairly recently as we were driving to the airport after Fest. My initial thought was ‘what the fuck is this nasally irritating shit’ then I noticed I was tapping both legs and humming the melody. The Front Bottoms got me and have not let go since. They’re insanely catchy and lyrically interesting while at the same time being almost a dance band and that’s just fantastic.
9. Crazy Arm- Union City Breath -
Hi we’re Crazy Arm, oh I see your entire face has already melted, sorry about that.
10. Bangers- Small Pleasures -
My favourite thing of the many things to enjoy about this record is the very first bar of the very first song sounds like you’ve stumbled middway through another song. It’s kind of a lethargic breakdown which does not sound like the start of an album then suddenly it kicks in a Roo starts picking everything apart from hermogeneous high streets to the questions we all ask about growing up and our place in the world. Great record.
You know that video of vile woman on the tram? That happens a lot. That happened to me at a tube station once. A drunk man was shouting at two Muslim men. He was shouting that they shouldn’t be allowed on the tube because they would probably blow it up. I was so angry I was shaking, I wanted to run down and confront the man but my girlfriend was grabbing me around the waist really tightly and begging me to calm down, out of worry for her I didn’t go and confront the man to his face. Instead I shouted at him that he was an ignorant despicable hateful piece of shit and he started shouting back at me then I got on the train. It disturbed me a lot to see what kind of deep rooted paranoia and racism resides so deep within scared people. However I’m a great believer in freedom of speech and democracy and I don’t think that people such as the tram lady or the man on the platform should be arrested for speaking their minds. No matter how wrong and despicable their minds are. The good thing is that the overwhelming majority of people don’t agree with them and will instantly oppose them. We should have enough confidence within ourselves as a society to be able to recognise when somebody is wrong because once you start locking people up for their views you’re going down a very dark path.
Within a structured free democratic environment there will be dark extremes, from the BNP to the picketing of soldiers funerals by Islamic extremists, that’s the consequence of giving everybody a voice. The unfortunate thing is that these extremes are blown out of proportion because they make better news stories than a rational debate. If we want to live in a country that has freedom of speech then it’s kind of an all in deal and if we ignore things like the tram incident and just try to shut it down by locking it up in prisons then we’re just trying to brush things under the rug. Discrimination and racism and hate is prevalent within our society and hiding from it does not help.
Finally if we started arresting people for causing offence then that’s an awful lot of important, powerful and articulate things out of the window. Could you imagine a world where we ban everything that the Daily Mail or The Church was offended by? I’m actually surprised that the Daily Mail hasn’t set up a ‘support the tram woman’ campaign while conveniently forgetting all about Sachsgate and it’s focused campaign on the moral sanitation of television. That’s a little off topic anyhow. My point is that in a grotesque and vile way this is an assertion of free speech and sometimes free speech is ugly, scary and abhorrent, in fact most of the time freedom of speech is ugly, scary and abhorrent, but it’s also a vitally important corner stone of society. So before everyone tries to lynch this woman for her views just be thankful that you can say publicly openly and freely how disgusting and hateful you find her.
Happy 25th to me. “Folk Singers Heart” By Two Cow Garage.
(Source: clareface)
