Saturday 27 December 2008

27.12.08

borrowed & blue 27.12.08

I suppose one thing that made 2008 different from other years for me is that this year I bought some instruments and started faffing about with sounds, for fun, out of boredom. It was mostly all crap. But fun to do. It'd be kind of great if everyone had a go at making stuff, because it's such fun to do, but there should kind of be a law that you're not allowed to play it to anyone else, or talk about it, ever.

Today I was bored and google image-searched pictures to put into the ID3 tags of the crap I've recorded; each picture thematically illustrates an individual 'song'. I wonder how obvious it is by reading the pictures what the music sounds like.


























ACTION
  • 1979
  • 2001
  • 1982
  • 1988
  • 2008
  • 1970
  • 1969
  • 1974
  • 1956
  • 2005
  • 1998

Friday 26 December 2008

26.12.08

borrowed & blue 26.12.08

Spent Christmas day being introduced to what will by now surely be the great xmas tradition of our times: Guitar Hero. It's somewhat depressing to think that I've spent infinitely more time trying to master the fake guitar-wrangling game's intricacies than I have the Boss DD-3 Digital Delay pedal I bought myself as an xmas present.

And it's embarrassing. How utterly crap I am on anything above beginner level. I can't even do Paramore. Fucking Paramore! They're, what, 12? Have they even learnt the F chord yet?

But it's so satisfying. Being able to belt out Raining Blood (Raining Blood is HARD. Hard in real life and hard in fake life. I've always resisted learning how to play it properly because I don't want to undo its skin-tearing magic) though, or the death-from-above whammy-divebombs and guitar-tire-screeches in White Zombie's Black Sunshine, while a cartoon character you poses and preens like a bastard in an exploding-with-colour dream-gig (the kind of gigs I'd always imagine would happen in the beginning years of this century - with loads of over-the-top stage action and hologram-like effects). Satisfying in a way that playing the real guitar in your living room isn't.

It sounds better for one thing. I sound shit when I play guitar. To the extent that the last few things I recorded weren't even music at all, but lazy noise-improvisations, exercises in trying to make as many stupid non-guitar noises as possible and collaging them into an ugly imploding mess. It also finally, smugly rams home the point that you can't even do Raining Blood in a computer game and, therefore YOU WILL NEVER ACTUALLY BE IN SLAYER THE TIME TO ACCEPT THIS IS NOW.

I began my xmastimeoff with two vague projects: learn riffs from the recent Decibel Top 50 Greatest Riffs In Extreme Metal and work on my book proposal. So far I've managed a couple of lame attempts at Am I Evil (Diamond Head) and Black Coffee (Black Flag).

Everything else is over-eating, held-down-past-your-stomach stress, a constant expenditure of reassurance and comfort to those around you and a sick, gnawing feeling growing around the hole in my middle that I'm fucked, I'm useless, another year gone and I've wasted myself.

ACTION
  • 1998
  • 2004
  • 2007
  • 2001
  • 1995
  • 1985
  • 1974
  • 2005
  • 1982
  • 1978
  • ?

Tuesday 23 December 2008

23.12.08

borrowed & blue 23.12.08

I should say that before I missed you I missed the skies from our home and I missed them instantly. Back home the skies were huge and blue and implacable, skies to drown in. Here the very air seemed to choke on itself and I almost feared to look up at the sky in case I angered it, and those heavy, straining omnipresent duvets of dark cloud and smog rush down at me to smother me. And then I missed you like I’ll miss a decent coat a month from now.


ACTION
  • 1977
  • 1975
  • 1973
  • 1980
  • 1978
  • 1971
  • 1970
  • 2007
  • ?
  • 1998
  • 2007

Saturday 20 December 2008

borrowed & blue get happy


Happy music is treated with some suspicion by music fans. Dark is easy. It's EASY to do pain and sad and suffering because not only do people relate to it, they crave it. People don't want to be elevated from their day-to-day conditions, or if they do, it's only because they revel smugly in knowing that someone, somewhere on the end of their iPod headphones, has got it worse than them. Whenever 'happy music' is mentioned, sneered words like 'Christian' eventually follow (as if Christianity wasn't the most blatant pain-and-suffering-fetishising model ever).

I use happy music in the same as I use angry music: as a source of energy. I use it deliberately as a drug. To bring me up, to take me out of myself, to shoot my soul hard-and-fast out of my ribcage until it becomes something bat-winged and beautiful and something not like me.

In my teens and early twenties I had something approaching similar to what people blanket-term 'agoraphobia'. I found it hard to leave the house, integrate or hold conversations with people, partly what scared me was what I didn't know who I was when I was doing these things, and for a long time I could only get through it by a) pretending, being someone different and b) (and crucially) being drunk. Around that time I invented a mix CD which I used for a bit as a crutch to enable me to work through these things. When I walked down the street I'd blast it out very loud through my crappy CD player (much louder than iPods let you crank stuff these days). The opening track was the almighty 'Where Eagles Dare' by The Misfits, and the CD featured similarly sonically-invulnerable moments like Nine Inch Nails' 'Wish' or Dead Boys' 'Sonic Reducer', but the most effective tracks were actually tunes like 'I'm Alright (Theme from Caddyshack)' by Kenny Loggins. You can't walk down the street and listen to the theme from Caddyshack and not feel a thousand times better than you did when you left the house.

Despite being someone who - I'm told - doesn't look very happy most of the time, I have a natural bias towards happiness - which people are often quick equate with inanity or banality - in pop songs, and a bit of a distate for angst, which normally seems a bit crass, obvious or insincere in musical expression. Happy music makes me feel better about the world in the same way that bright colours and moulded plastic do. The only thing that worries me about my affinity for it, is the way that I pursue the most aggressive, bizarre extremes of the genre, and overdose on it in a way that makes the effect giddying and intoxicating. It can make you feel drunk and deranged. It'll make your head spin and you'll see stars.

For Christmas, I thought it would be fun to do a compilation of the most aggressively-happy songs borrowed & blue has put out so far. You probably won't like it.


Sunday 14 December 2008

14.12.08

borrowed & blue 14.12.08

We met once in Leeds, and once in Derby.

I’ve seen you twice on the streets here, in four years.

The last time we locked eyes and threat-dared each other to acknowledge. Our composure was magnificent. In the way that in London you’re statistically never more than four feet away from a rat, I wonder as we shuttle through the city how far away I am from you.

We’re like rats, miles and metres apart, entwined by our trails. Rooting each other out, sensing danger like stink.

When this whole ship finally sinks into the slime, I hope it will comfort you to know that we went down together; always scurrying, always hiding.


ACTION

  • 1999
  • 2004
  • 2002
  • 1972
  • 2006
  • 2007
  • 2007
  • 1987
  • 1977
  • 1977
  • 1985
  • 1990

Saturday 13 December 2008

13.12.08

borrowed & blue 13.12.08

Haven't done one in ages but thought I'd play with some ACTION mixes. Whereas the RE:ACTION series is an experiment in scouring the underbelly of unpopularity - to see if you drill right down to the most insignificant, unloved music, what sort of odd, unexpected and utterly singular places you end up sonically, the ACTION series is designed to present our own, slightly Satanic, view of what pop music is. The ACTION mixes comprise songs whose function is to reach as many people as possible, by whatever means possible.

ACTION mix:
  • 1992
  • 1992
  • 2008
  • 1972
  • 1985
  • 1981
  • 2006
  • 1984
  • 1988
  • 2003
  • 2006

Friday 12 December 2008

12.12.08

borrowed & blue 12.12.08

Sometimes when I don't remember that I'm 28-years-old and I have a job and a flat and a nice girlfriend and a free time-decimating commute, I like to think about bands. Until probably relatively recently, I'd always wanted to be in a band, and saw that goal in terms of personal progression as bigger than the other milestones that tell you you're not fucked up anymore, like getting a girlfriend or a job or a nice place to live. Being in a band, I thought, must be like being in a gang - you'd feel amazing all the time. Those kind of feelings soured over time, I think from just hanging around bands too much.

But sometimes, I still have ideas for things that would be a good band, and it gives me sympathy for the kinds of people - like Stuart Murdoch - who before they were in bands would make up fake bands and send in details of their imaginary gigs to the NME listings pages.

Currently my favourite idea for a band is two guitars, alternating between flange and distortion, detuned (but nothing too heavy and obvious, maybe like E flat), flanking a singer who would render all of the basslines as rapid bleeps on a distorted Casio. Vocals would be the high-register girl-barks I loved in Xerox Girls, Disco, Help She Can't Swim or The Brownies.

The music would sound like:
  • Got The Time by Anthrax
  • Breaking The Law by Judas Priest
  • Last Caress by The Misfits
  • Fuel For Hatred by Satyricon
  • The Pentagram Burns by Satyricon
  • 18 And Life by Skid Row
I can't decide if there'd be a drummer or not.

RE:ACTION

  • 2008
  • 2008
  • 2006
  • 2006
  • 1987
  • 1987
  • 1980
  • 1981
  • 1982
  • 1978
  • 1982
  • 1981

Monday 8 December 2008

08.12.08

borrowed & blue 08.12.08

Turquoise hexagon sun. You are invisible. A boy I knew once told me about a talisman he had. The talisman was for restoring his head to a better place, an instant hit of lucidity and preternatural calm. To conjure his sacred place he had to create a symbol in his mind. Once the symbol was complete, then it would white-out his mind like a flash going off or a lightbulb exploding and he would be there. The tools to create the talisman were three words.

Over time I managed to develop my own talisman. You are invisible. I realised that I didn’t need geometry, colour and shape to draw something in my mind; I could just wish my body away.

I believe I am being punished.

I have wished my body away many times.

RE:ACTION
  • 1995
  • 2007
  • 2008
  • 2005
  • 1980
  • 2007
  • 2007
  • 2006
  • 2005
  • 2008
  • 2006

Sunday 7 December 2008

07.12.08

borrowed & blue 07.12.08

Nothing to do with this mix, but today toying with an idea for a Pavement mixxtape.

Name Artist Composer Album Grouping Genre Size Time Disc Number Disc Count Track Number Track Count Year Date Modified Date Added Bit Rate Sample Rate Volume Adjustment Kind Equalizer Comments Play Count Last Played My Rating Location
Major Leagues Pavement Terror Twilight Indie 4966052 204 5 1998 27/10/2008 14:02 27/10/2008 14:05 192 44100 MPEG audio file 7 30/11/2008 13:55 G:\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music\terror twilight\05 major leagues.mp3
Stereo Pavement Brighten The Corners Indie 4499462 187 1 1997 27/10/2008 13:24 27/10/2008 14:05 192 44100 MPEG audio file 6 30/11/2008 14:14 G:\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music\pavement - brighten the corners\01 - stereo.mp3
Gold Soundz Pavement Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain Alternative 4268293 159 1 1 7 12 1994 10/06/2008 05:46 02/10/2008 22:55 211 44100 MPEG audio file 6 30/11/2008 13:58 G:\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music\pavement - crooked rain, crooked rain\07 gold soundz.mp3
Here Pavement Slanted & Enchanted 5661778 235 9 27/07/2007 13:46 02/10/2008 22:43 192 44100 MPEG audio file 6 26/11/2008 16:08 G:\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music\Pavement\Slanted & Enchanted\09 Here.mp3
The Hexx Pavement Terror Twilight Indie 8189144 339 10 1998 27/10/2008 14:18 27/10/2008 14:57 192 44100 MPEG audio file 6 28/11/2008 13:25 G:\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music\terror twilight\10 the hexx.mp3
From Now On Pavement Westing (by Musket And Sextant) Indie Rock 3014915 123 10/06/2008 05:14 04/10/2008 11:54 192 44100 MPEG audio file 6 30/11/2008 16:28 G:\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music\01-westing by musket and sextant(early recordings)\13-from now on .mp3
Two States Pavement Slanted & Enchanted Indie Rock 3100267 107 10 1992 27/10/2008 16:20 31/10/2008 09:17 226 44100 MPEG audio file 5 30/11/2008 14:15 G:\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music\1992 - slanted and enchanted\10 - two states.mp3
Debris Slide Pavement Westing (by Musket And Sextant) Indie Rock 2834385 116 10/06/2008 05:21 02/10/2008 22:55 192 44100 MPEG audio file 5 30/11/2008 13:47 G:\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music\01-westing by musket and sextant(early recordings)\16-debris slide.mp3
01 - we dance Pavement Wowee Zowee: Sordid Sentinels Edition 4376327 182 27/10/2008 13:34 27/10/2008 14:05 192 44100 MPEG audio file 5 26/11/2008 11:30 G:\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music\wowee zowee sordid sentinals cd1\01 - we dance.mp3
grounded PAVEMENT Wowee Zowee: Sordid Sentinels Edition Unbekannt 6161389 256 5 27/10/2008 13:41 27/10/2008 14:05 192 44100 MPEG audio file 5 28/11/2008 13:12 G:\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music\wowee zowee sordid sentinals cd1\05 - grounded.mp3
Fillmore Jive Pavement Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain Alternative 10512757 400 1 1 12 1994 10/06/2008 06:03 16/06/2008 00:47 209 44100 MPEG audio file 00000812 00000617 00001D8D 00001ABE 00052E94 00052E94 00006522 00007098 00052E94 00052E94 4 28/11/2008 16:53 G:\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music\pavement - crooked rain, crooked rain\12 fillmore jive.mp3
Raft Pavement Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain: L.A.'s Desert Origins (Disc 1) Rock/Pop 5630309 214 15 2004 31/10/2008 13:00 31/10/2008 15:02 208 44100 MPEG audio file 4 30/11/2008 13:51 G:\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music\15 - raft.mp3
Shady Lane (Krossfader) Pavement Shady Lane Alternative: Indie Indie Rock 3929631 157 1 1997 13/07/2007 08:17 10/06/2008 00:26 200 44100 MPEG audio file 4 30/11/2008 13:45 G:\My Music\iTunes\iTunes Music\Pavement\Shady Lane\01 Shady Lane (Krossfader).mp3

RE:ACTION and momentum forever&ever
  • 1971
  • 1970
  • 1989
  • 1992
  • 1988
  • 1978