The Good, the Bad and the Music review

The world of music reviews is pretty well covered by about a million other guys with sites like this. But since "London" specifically and "England" in general is the underlying theme of my lil' page here I think it is worth bringing up one group and one album. The name of both is The Good, The Bad and The Queen.

These guys qualify as a supergroup thanks to an astounding roster led by a man who continues to impress me more and more as the years go by, Damon Albarn. Most folk will recognize him from his front lining Blur and, later, the Gorillaz (under the cartoon alias of 2D). He's also been involved in a host of side projects. In the case of this group he has spearheaded it organizationally but it is hard to imagine him dominating the recording studio given the weight of musical input and talent from the other members of the band.

The next most recognizable member of the line-up is Paul Simonon who played bass for The Clash. Even if you don't think you're familiar with their work, odds are that if there is blood in your veins and a working pair of ears on your head that you've heard their classic tune "London's Calling" either on the radio or in one of any number of film soundtracks such as the one for The Royal Tenenbaums. Aside from his raw skill and years of experience, what makes Paul stand out as an interesting band member is his great interest in reggae and how that merges with Albarn's britpop roots. Not to mention the drummer...

Now I know it's sort of a running gag in the music world that the bass player is the least important or least recognized member of your average band, but for me it's always been the drummer. Though I appreciate what drums do for a song, I find that I'll generally pay the least attention to them and as a result give the least of a shit (this is a real phrase, honest!) about who the drummer is.

Tony Allen is seventy years old and has been drumming for basically his entire adult life, having first picked up a drum kit at eighteen. I was completely unaware of this man until I picked up this album but I'm glad it made me aware of him because now, for the first time in my life, I am wanting to dig into the back catalogue of a drummer. I've got my work cut out for me as this man has been frequently dubbed one of the fathers of Afrobeat and what he himself dubbed Afrofunk. The lion's share of his work would be the thirty albums he cut in the sixties and seventies as a part of the group Africa '70. Point is, this man comes from a very different musical background than the either Simonon or Albarn and is not only incredibly skilled but highly inventive. He steals the show on at least a couple of tracks on the album and I'm sure he had plenty to add during the recording session.

Simon Tong is probably the least remarkable member, having played lead guitar with The Verve during the last few years of the band's existence. That being said, when the least impressive member of a band was part of a seminal album like Urban Hymns - which featured the incredibly popular single, Bittersweet Symphony - then I think that is itself a powerful statement. His connection to this group came through Albarn who recruited him for a brief replacement stint in Blur as well as The Gorillaz.

So alright, this group has an epic lineup of mostly British talent. That's nice. But what makes it all worth mentioning here is that their first and only album so far (another is apparently due in September, these guys move quick given that the first came out earlier this same year) is a concept album about living in England in general and London specifically. It's more than just neighborhood name dropping (and what there is of that tends to be lesser known areas which I myself only recognized thanks to my time at Network Rail) and the subject matter manages to be more substantial than The Streets tunes about late night kebab runs and paying off your weed dealer, while remaining just as accessible - more so, really.

Obviously you don't have to have ever set within a hundred kilometers of London or England in order to enjoy the music. Their website is pretty generous with free video and song clips for all the sample. My personal favorite from the selection offered is "Herculean". May I suggest you check it out?

By and by, I wasn't going to include any band member pictures but Paul Simonon just looked too damn awesome not to include. I hope I can look not only that great but that interesting at fifty-five!

---------
Meanwhile the one child policy in China is having an interesting effect and science gains more valuable ground from the fairy kingdom of mysticism/religion.

Ta-da.....shucks

What can I say, we all get distracted. No comic tonight, I am afraid.

Some of us get distracted by The Great Happiness Space Documentary which chronicles the people who run and go to a Japanese Host Club.

It's a very interesting watch with far, far more to it than the "look at how those Japanese people do things which may not happen in your daily life!" angle. Mostly I found myself enthralled by listening to the way the people describe their interactions, social and financial, then seeing how the film editor contrasted them with what happens and what those on the other end of the transactions had to say.

Warning: It's also a good way to get very cynical about both genders! Just sayin'!

Ten Thousand People...

...live in Manila's one and only garbage dump. This five part series really helped me get in the post-apocalyptic "mood" for my script I just finished. As with the best documentaries, this one weaves a narrative through it's information and if only for that I highly suggest viewing all five parts (part one below).

Am I the only one...

...that finds this statement incredibly foreboding? "According to the latest estimates from the US Geological Survey, the North Pole region holds about a quarter of the world's oil reserves. As global warming continues to melt polar ice, access to the oil reserves should get easier."

St. Paul's Cathedral, also a cheery garbage eating device

As promised, I did a camera strafing run on St. Paul's Cathedral today. Odds are I'll come back to it as I certainly didn't cover everything in my limited lunch hour.

This is the front of the church......and here is the main front door. To give a sense of scale I swiveled left and grabbed a picture of this fella.Here we have the monument to Queen Anne which lay out front, along Cannon St.
Eventually I walked over to the Thames and sat down to eat. There I saw one of these things again...something about the exclamation mark in it's claim makes me want it to grow Thomas the Tank Engine style eyes and start nattering.Across from me was (and still is, I imagine) the Tate Modern. It's a great, free gallery - currently featuring a wealth of Salvador Dali - and arguably the first gallery which comes to most people's minds if asked. That's all for today, but when we get another sunny day this week (as you can see, today was pretty grey) I'll bust out the camera and grab some more shots.

"Twice" by Little Dragon is especially melodious.

Hey hey, it's a new comic at a reasonable time of the day! Fancy that.

After carefully consulting with MENSA, Al Gore, Stephan Hawking and several men in labcoats...I came to the conlusion that a smaller comic might result in a smaller file size.

I am a University educated man!

Between finishing this comic, getting a good start on the next and finishing my short post-apocalyptic script, I cannot help but feel productive! But do I feel like going on to write some corporate sponsored erotica? A little!

Meanwhile, Giles Peterson is in week two of his "Best of the year so far" series and the songs are just magnificent. If you want to try out some new music, I can't recommend this enough*.

*I probably could.