Kurt Cobain - Seasons in the sun

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kO4BF67pvsc&feature=related

I found a neat little gem here - Nirvana playing 'seasons in the sun'. The song is a wreck, of course. Kurt, Krist and Dave switch roles, and Kurt sings horribly off key while careening wildly around the beat on the drums. Krist's mastery of the guitar displays all the prowess and subtlety of a student who's been learning for a week.

But yes, I'm going to say it like the doe-eyed punk fan I am, and you all can just bloody well suck it up - there's a kind of noble grace that they play it with, technical noobery and all. It's more than a novelty, it's a genuine interpretation, and maybe yeah it'll never make it onto any album as long as a sane record executive exists, but in some way it's wonderful.

adam

My Adventures with Sarah the Land Flame Mine

We made a land flame mine for our demolition live firing - 18 litres of kerosine and petrol wrapped around with a few metres of detcord and boosters. I named it Sarah, in a burst of clarity perceiving the pointed similarities between our sad but highly entertaining fates. We all signed our names on the tank, and a few interesting messages - 'ROMEO MUST DIE' and 'DEAR CMPB, THIS IS FOR YOU', then set her off. The shock wave was satisfying, as was the fireball. Sarah, I hope you're watching us from wherever it is land flame mines go when they die, and smiling.

adam

High school literature teaches you that when happy music is paired with gloomy lyrics, the effect is irony. A slightly more perceptive reading of London Calling acknowledges the irony that is characteristic of 20th century popular music but realises that reducing the effect of the album to irony does it a great disservice. When Mick Jones sings 'everything I need / He gives it but not for free' on 'Hateful', the joy is sincere. When he urges the audience to smash up their seats and 'mash up the nation', the joy is sincere. One could only say there is a kind of cathartic joy in watching the world burn, especially when it burns as colourfully as through the lenses of Clash lyrics.

Initially I dismissed the Clash as the band responsible for all the cretinous britpop bands around nowadays with their faux swing and poofy posturing. It's true, they were. But London Calling is incontrovertibly a work of genius - made with an elemental joy that most modern bands can only aspire to. Certainly they have much more range, musically, than the Ramones - displaying (bizarrely) a very competent grasp of reggae and ska, but they still rock on the one-two-three-four numbers, if not as angrily as Joey Ramone. However, in the end, in my limited perception, despite the forays into reggae and horn-band-music, this is a rock album and must be treated as such. And it succeeds, wildly.

adam

5 second stun

The whole... of Live Through This... is about blowjobs. In any other field except maybe post modern abstract mixed-media sculpture, that would be intolerable. In Rock and Roll, it's an achievement.

adam

Band Names

I've come to the hasty conclusion (one i'll probably rescind in days, but hey. I only get my weekends off) that the band with the best name in the history of rock n roll is Hole. Put down the parangs - it makes sense in context.

Courtney Love's loud, angry, mostly female band deserved a name as uncouth and blatantly sexual as Hole, and it fits right in with her preoccupations. It's fucked up no matter which way you look at it. Hole - mouth, vagina, asshole. And for someone who hates her own sexuality while making out with fans on stage, it's perfection.

adam

Finally, a decently long weekend - I've been holding on by the tips of my fingers for the past week. Urban ops fieldcamp, getting eaten alive by sandflies, double SOC when we got back - all in a day's work, really but I'm slowly but surely getting tired of everything. I'm a little sick of the cloistered small-mindedness of everyone in the army, not the least the commanders. I want to be back with people who think like me, or at least recognise that they don't.

Kept going by listening to U2 (who as master critic Robert Christgau notes, were an arena rock band that was Actually Good) who are turning out to be surprisingly intelligent. I guess I was too put off by Bono to give them any real credit? I dunno. As far as I'm concerned, musicians should stick to making music. Beauty is our responsibility, not politics. Been humming that Husker Du Beatles cover, Ticket To Ride as well. Man that's catchy, but I'd expect no less from the Mccartney man himself.

I also returned a little to old staples Nirvana and I even tried a bit of jazz again. I never lost any love for the masters : Ellington, Armstrong - and the singers - Sinatra, Bobby Darin, Ella. But bebop needs a certain state of mind, I think, which I've been somehow unable to produce for the last couple of months. Miles and Coltrane still ring true very often, but some of the lesser improvisors strike me as somewhat staid.

adam