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Sun 10th March No idea why my favourite Neil Young album aint on Spotify. Destroying you (change your mind) Embracing you (change your mind) Protecting you (change your mind) Confining you (change your mind) Distracting you (change your mind) Supporting you (change your mind) Distorting you (change your mind) Controlling you (change your mind) Change your mind, change your mind |
Sun 10th March The first rehearsal with Sas, the new bassist for JEEPS, was extraordinary & so it's all go for the moment on the four-piece punk rock thing. And yes, I do know that it would be far easier to achieve success with the folky acoustic harmony maneuvers right now, but my heart is in the crazy heavy sound we're toying with at the moment & the world can wait.. so long as, god willing, we're all kept safe in the meantime. I really will start a new week tomorrow so that will be a nice change of scenery! There's this wine bar just over there --> which never seems to close, and a few too many quick drinks have turned into heaving regrets, so better watch that one. But they have a piano down there & always ask us to play some songs, which can be pleasant when the place isn't replete with reprobates. |
Sat 9th March |
Thu 7th March That's more like it, Laura! |
Thu 7th March Another cover from the babes innit: |
Thu 7th March Here's a nice little review we got for the Spice show the other day, from University of East London: Finally, Jeeps brought a unique European flare to an eerie, ethereal, folk-infused sound creating dreamily evocative harmonies at first reminiscent of Simon and Garfunkel, but which soon evoked psychedelic pop punk. My favourite moment was a spine-tingling performance of an old Swedish folktale (which I have forgotten the name of) using only a guitar and recorder to accompany their chanting, remarkably silencing the bustling crowd into a focused awe. |
Tue 5th March Riley is back in town, and we're working on JEEPS tunes, but there's always time to bring you a cover from the babes. If you're listening through anything other than laptop speakers you might possibly hear my post-Jet Tea's birthday harmony rumbling along in the lower mid-range. This video also serves as a preview of my new Boat Harbour Blue walls, live from the institution: |
Wed 27th Feb I'm getting somewhere with this Discography, each album has it's own page now. |
Tue 26th Feb Man, today was one of those days that makes a week-full of troubles seem worthwhile. A lot of things just fell in to place, finally, and the icing on the cake was that Joe Gardner sent me his brand new book: The Life & Loves of Jet Tea, which fictionalises some of the Uxbridge years we three spent together & will be available to buy in print very soon indeed. I read the entire thing over the course of today, blessed with the time to myself & a to-do list which almost accomplished itself as the blissful hours went by. I've located the lost printer ink, and in addition to that, the company are sending a replacement package, so those CDs will be in the post very soon & we can print demos to start booking local warm up shows. The Leicester date at the Shed has been confirmed for Wed 10th April, and while helping Joe find an image of Jet Tea for the cover, I hit the view all images button on my computer & spent no small time in wonder at all that has happened in recent years, returning to the book in awe & reminded, by lines such as these, of a lifestyle we three shared that I too have only recently begun to see from the outside: Having Jet Tea and Hayden tell him what he'd been up to on a night out had become his personal equivalent to reading the morning paper. |
Tue 26th Feb Sorry for the slightly negative start to the week, let's fix that right now with a Yay! and a Badda Badda BOOM! (And I don't mean bombs, bellends!) Ok now we're back on track, let's look at the agenda. We're meeting up with a potential bass player for Jeeps on Friday, to try some ideas & get the ball rolling, and then drummerboots Riley is back on the Saturday (Jet Tea's birthday - Joe Gardner's book about him is now completed & will be available to buy via Amazon soon enough) and then the month of rehearsals begins with no shows booked until the small UK tour starting 5th April.. meanwhile my solo album Bleach The Chameleon is completed & just needs to be mastered, and 7 Love Rivals will have to be recorded sometime soon while the songs are fresh and ARGH I just don't have the time to be injured so no more silly business from me for the time-being. Also wanna form a Choir of Outsiders for a live video thing. Ink for my printer has got lost in the post so I still can't send out any CDs, really sorry for delay, I think I know what happened (it got re-directed to the NHS who own this building) so I should be able to get my hands on it tomorrow & print off those sleeves. |
Mon 25th Feb Telefon Tel Aviv had a few things to say about Stone Roses too: The world is coming to an end because, sorry - the generation that is coming after mine is replete with mostly the worst kind of bandwagon jumpers gifted with poor taste in just about everything that taste can apply to, and who are also completely bereft of historical perspective. We give you the Stone Roses, you give us Brostep? It's equally funny that so many people can't step outside the timeline of creativity to see that it's a passing fad with dollar values attached to it, and a group like the Stone Roses has stood the test of the better part of three decades. We knew who they were without the internet. You have the internet. Use it to learn things, and maybe expand your mind along with your grammar. |
Mon 25th Feb Fell up the stairs for longer than expected, it turned out to be an escalator going down, but eventually hit the top & it's all downhill from here! I'd intended to be in New York today, but I'm very happy to have stayed in England instead. Aside from the wonderful friends I've made in the States, who do make it all worthwhile, the place weighs on me. The general ignorance & dirty subways, subconscious power struggles & selfishness masquerading as liberty, unquestioned corruption, false pillbox health & plaster-smiles.. I can do without all that for another few months. The exceptions are diamonds, crushed into crystallized worth by the surrounding dross, but the way a lot of Americans responded to Stone Roses headlining Coachella, purely because they'd never heard of them before, was so symptomatic of the underlying arrogance I've seen far too much of there. I've got some things to say to New York when I get back. It wont be so eloquent as my dancing penis was last Summer, but this time I'll say it in a language they can understand.. and I don't mean with bombs! Fuckin' bellends. For shopping, for balling, for working or anything else, give me London. To me, it's the greatest. You just take for granted sometimes that if things are mixed up and crazy in America they got to be that way everywhere. But not in Britain." - Billie Holiday Sadly, I'm not sure that's true anymore Billie, the whole world appears to have darkened in spirit & London's, too, has dimmed. But I've things to say here also, and it's home for now. Few more walls to paint first. |