After the first of the year, I would visit other blogs around the interweb & read their suggested lists of the Best of 2008. & I'd be scratching my head, wondering what the fuck? Granted, I don't listen to all that much neu musick since the plethora of great musick from the past fills my time, ears, shelves & hard-drive. That being said, tho, I do listen to neu musick when I get suggestions from those whose opinions I give more than a grain o' salts worth of import. I try to be open to the possibility that not all neu musick & bands are shit. I hear others playing musick & if it catches my ear, I try to check it out enough to find out if it has any staying power or originality. But the Best Of... lists had bands like Vampire Weekend, Fleet Foxes, etc. ad infinitum (my friend Jon called them ' Tivo on the Radio, MiGGT, the Feet Floxes, & Vampire Wackness '). I've seen these bands myself & they are
across the board CRAP!
I was thinking about what bands I would put on a Best of 2008 list, thinking of more inspired picks from more trusted sources, but
Microcastle seemed to have gone limp, the
Walkmen needed new batteries,
Receivers'
Parts & Labor was 50/50, &
Duke Spirit's
Neptune was all right, but hardly god-like. They wouldn't even make the Top Ten cut.
Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds'
Dig Lazarus Dig was excellent,
The Mars Volta's
Bedlam in Goliath was obviously in the running, even
Alejandro Escovedo's
Real Animal beat out those other losers, but Best???
I thought about what neu releases I listened to most, affected me the greatest, pleased me the best. I got down to two that were also by two of my favorite hard-working, long-striving musickians & bands.
Steven Stapleton has been entertaining me with
Nurse With Wound since 1978, & thirty years later he's still in the top two.
Huffin' Rag Blues was a strange listen at first, but all
NWW releases are a strange listen. The more I listened to
Huffin', though, the deeper into it I sank, until finally I realized it is right up there with the best
NWW stuff. At this sorry state of neu musick, I'll huff that rag anyday.
The musick that moved me the most was also from a band that started just two years after
Nurse With Wound, whose frontman is also a genius madman. Edward - Ka-Spel & The
Legendary Pink Dots have always been entertaining, thought-provoking, & unparalleled in excellence. I have more of their releases than any other single band (they are nothin' if not prolific...with
LPD material, Edward's solo work, projects such as
Silverman [keyboardist original member Phil Knight aka the Silver Man's solo releases], the
Tear Garden with cEvin Key of
Skinny Puppy).
Hotel Blanc - Edward Ka-Spel Down in the City of Heartbreak & Needles 1995
Serpent Time - Silverman Dream Cell 1995
Sheila Liked the Rodeo - The Tear Garden Sheila Liked the Rodeo 1993
15th Shade - cEvin Key w/Edward Ka-Spel & Genesis P'Orridge The Ghost of Each Room 2001
2008s
Plutonium Blonde is the album I listen to most often, with the most enjoyment, yet I didn't see them on any Best Of... lists. I wonder to myself just what's wrong with musick aficionados today?
LPD played two shows at the Cafe Du Nord in San Francisco on November 14 & 15,2008 in support of
Plutonium Blonde. I went to the Saturday show (11/15 - their last US date of the tour). It was a phenomenal show, the CDN being a great place to see shows. Before the show the band was hanging out front with everyone, very kool. The set was excellent, the band as whimsical as their musick, & there were two encores.
Syd Barrett,
T-Rex, David Bowie,
Throbbing Gristle,
the Residents, Kurt Weill among others are name-checked when referencing Ka-Spel &
LPD, but any of these comparisons are just for descriptive clarification. There is no imitation with
LPD, they are one-of-a-kind originals.
Plutonium Blonde sounds fresh & fertile, each song manifesting & evolving into an archetypical musickal experience.
This is where my musick mania kicked in full force. I gathered up all my
LPD & related material & that's all I've been listening to since the beginning of February. We jokingly refer to it as KLPD radio (
ALL PINK DOTS---ALL THE TIME!!!) around the Casa Nada. I have a ten cd changer in my Pathfinder & it's constantly filled with an ever changing selection of
Dots. My family & friends are beyond the point of utter despair, but I can't stop.
I haven't been able to take this blogging thing serious because all I'm listening to is
LPD. All I want to post is
LPD. So now my disease is spreading to you. & I don't really care. I'm waiting for a friend who was at the Cafe Du Nord show to send me a boot of the show, but until then, heres a show from almost ten years to the day earlier...
The Legendary Pink Dots - Live at the Metro, Chicago, SPV (Poland) 150122, Nov.11,1998.
Spike
Aarzhklahh Olgevezh
Gang Green 98
Zoo
Saucers over Chicago
Fates Faithful Punchline
Pain Bubbles
Grain Kings 98
Andromeda
line-up: Edward Ka-Spel - voice, keyboards; The silver Man - keyboards;
Edwin Van Trippenhof - guitar, occasional bass; Ryan Moore - drums, occasional bass;
Niels van Hoornblower - horns, flutes; Frank Verschuuren - live sound;
Bert van Nijmeijer - lights; special guest Paul Newman - drums on Aarzhklahh.
Enjoy,
NØ