If only I had a post I didn't want any FMFs to see.

[alexsarll]

For all that their last album was a bit of a debacle, I can't help but be excited by the news that the new Divine Comedy album has the working title 11 Modern Antiquities and some songs have been co-written with XTC's Andy Partridge.

Wole Soyinka "says that all "hidden atrocities" are revealed eventually, even if many years later. "It all comes to light in the end. So why don't these would-be Stalins and Hitlers take a leaf from history instead of burdening us with exposing their crimes? Why does it have to happen again and again?"" Well, Wole, maybe it's because they see that for the most part, it works. Yes, we all remember Hitler dying in the bunker as the tanks advanced, but he was arguably the anomaly. Stalin died in bed aged 74, and Mao 82, after full and contented lives of genocide and brutality. Even the dictators who are deposed as often as not end up in genteel exile rather than Death Row. You may have been "chief judge at a mock trial last November when Sudan's President Omar al-Bashir was found guilty in absentia of crimes against humanity in Darfur" - but he's still running the show, and with the West's interventionist will broken since Iraq, he's likely to continue running the show. Just like Mugabe, just like the junta in Burma, just like whichever faceless old bastard's running China these days. The triumph of virtue and the monsters vanquished is a plot one sees often - in fiction.

New Labour's Oofy Wegg-Prosser is apparently now working for a company which "has the Cyrillic rights to LiveJournal.com, the networking and blog site which has exploded in the country. Its content is, according to Wegg-Prosser, far more "sophisticated" than its English-language equivalent, with intellectuals, poets and novelists posting blogs." Interesting. For obvious reasons I haven't read many Cyrillic LJs, but one of the few I did see (clicking on people who shared one of my rarer interests) led with a picture of someone proudly showing off the vodka bottle rammed up their backside.

Saw some Twang matches earlier; if only I'd expected to see the Twang around the place, while having some accelerant to hand, I would have grabbed them for reasons of poetic justice. Hell, even NME is tiring of them already - they generally reserve 6/10 for the *second* album by bands they hyped ahead of the debut. I could almost feel sorry for the poor imbeciles, seeing their shot at the big time crumbling already - except of course that they're worthless oafs upon whom I wish every possible sorrow and degradation.

Comments

[beingjdc.livejournal.com]

one of the few I did see (clicking on people who shared one of my rarer interests) led with a picture of someone proudly showing off the vodka bottle rammed up their backside.

Was that, in fact, the rarer interest?

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

No, but I was almost certain that this would be the first comment. It was the interest we don't mention in public anymore, even though it describes a meaningless concept and was being used satirically.

[oneofthose.livejournal.com]

But the new Twang single is brilliant! And I'm speaking as someone who really hates the first one. I went to Birmingham to interview them at the weekend and liked them. They were sincere and well mannered and, off-camera, confessed to me that they'd never do 'sniff' because they'd heard it ruins your voice, which I found utterly charming.
I take the NME giving anyone a bad review these days as a recommendation, just as how in The Radio Times pre-Andrew Collins days one could always tell a film would be good because they'd only give it two stars!

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

I do broadly take your point, but they've not even achieved the limited usefulness that would come with being consistently wrong. Besides, the album's reviewer agrees with you about the current single!

And since when is deceitfully playing to a cliche with which you feel uncomfortable charming, anyway?

[oneofthose.livejournal.com]

I don't understand your last sentence.

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

All the previous interviews they've done have gone on about how much they love drugs and general 'lairiness'. Now you're saying they're sweet boys who are well-mannered and don't really do drugs. So why did they lie in the first place? Obviously I wouldn't have minded if they'd come up with a story that was even remotely novel or interesting, but they just did a bad nth generation photocopy of generic rock posturing.

[oneofthose.livejournal.com]

Oh I see, I didn't explain properly. They take lots of drugs as most boys of their background and age do, but we were talking about the NME awards, which was the first time I'd met them, and discussing the state of Sarah Harding there - which led to one of the singers admitting he wouldn't ever take cocaine. I liked how earnestly he said it to me. I found it charmingly naive.
And you know as well as anyone that an interview is not the truth and most rock journalists are no better than tabloid hacks at making something out of very little. Hence we actually had a discussion about all the ridiculous things that have been said about them in interviews. I don't doubt for a second that they get very lairy, I witnessed it at the NME awards. But the lairiest band I ever encountered were 60ft Dolls, but they also turned out to be the most genuine, loyal and friendly people once I got to know them. I guess that's no different from non-pop stars: having an intoxicated alter-ego. I've learnt not to judge anyone on it.
Don't get me wrong, I don't believe The Twang are anything other than the sum of very limited and unoriginal parts. But there are many many far worse people currently in musical vogue. I'd rather spend two days with The Twang than two minutes with Beth Ditto, for example!

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

Again, though I do broadly take your point there, I see signs of hope in the aforementioned indie rag's new interview with her, where she does manage to get a little outside the Standard Beth Ditto Interview Template which was getting so tiresome so rapidly.

And while her music's not startlingly original or anything either, it does make me want to dance and/or bellow along, which is certainly more than I could say for the Twang.

[puzzled-anwen.livejournal.com]

http://blogcentral.jpost.com/index.php?cat_id=7&blog_id=64&blog_post_id=1162

[barrysarll.livejournal.com]

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGH!

[puzzled-anwen.livejournal.com]

Quite.