Half a percent

Right. Anyone care to guess which relevant point the following records have in common? There may be a small prize.

Alice Donut - The Untidy Suicides of your Degenerate Children
Alice Donut - Pure Acid Park
Blondie - Eat to the Beat
Johnny Cash - A Hundred Highways (American V)
CNN - Copyright (3-track 12" - first release, I think)
Codeine - Barely Real
Creaming Jesus - Bark (EP)
The Cult - Love
Dead Kennedys - Fresh Fruit for Rotting Vegetables
Dead Kennedys - In God We Trust, Inc (Long EP or short album)
Dif Juz - Extractions
Idlewild - 100 Broken Windows
James - Seven
The March Violets - Natural History
Mogwai - Young Team
Mudhoney - Superfuzzbigmuff
Ruts - Grin & Bear It
Throwing Muses - Hunkpapa
Neil Young - Harvest
Warren Zevon - Bad Luck Streak in Dancing School

My first Neon set tonight stiffed, to the extent that some random punter came up and tried to tell me how to do my job. Do I tell them how to dance? Well, do I? Even when they clearly need told?

Pah.

It was a crap variation on "play something good", even, which would have earned vast contempt if I'd had the energy. Anyway, by the end, people had livelied up and bopped shamelessly to any old treasure, which was nice. The right CD deck was taking ages to read the TOC, and froze a few seconds into the second-last song, which was replaced by the Only Ones and went on last (for me) instead. I'd been unsure if they'd go for the Dresden Dolls, but we had some fans in and theyw ere first disappointed that it wasn't happening, and then pleased when it did. They didn't say thank you for my struggling with the kit, but there you go. They left with smiles on their faces. That'll do.

I mentioned the slightly feckered deck to Nora the engineer while she was packing up the turntables. I also mentioned how old the Technics 1200 actually is - look it up if you want a surprise - and tried to specify which Mark had introduced us. It ended up with her saying "Oh, Mark from that club at Ego that played all the good tunes", which is exactly the testimonial you want, really. Then I left, and it was snowing again. Small flakes, this time, so I got to watch them hurtling down through the streetlight. I don't imagine it'll be lying in the morning, so I can regard it as a special show for those who stay up late. Life is good sometimes.

( setlist )

Mine from nine days ago, and most of the sets from the most recent. In the latter case, I haven't bothered working out anything I didn't recognise, because I found it more amusing to type in what I thought they looked like. I'll pay for it in a future life, I'm sure.

Contains profanity and some pretty dubious music choices.

( Read more... )

( Linkage and odds and ends )

Last week I . . . did such exciting things that I can't remember them. Thursday was the Saunderseses' place and then the pub. Friday was the Holyrood with Lara, Seth and RedLex. Prime8 was not made afterwards due to tiredness. I think I stayed in on Tuesday and Wednesday, with a sleeping cat and some houseplants for company.

Saturday was more gaming in Bruntsfield, and then Gigantor, which was quite fun although I wasn't really feeling very inspired or keen until about midnight. We had a fourth hand, Vicky, for parts of it. She seemed to do a good job - see setlist (pending) for further details. Apparently the next one is (as of today) basically confirmed for the 11th of February (for which read "we're pretty sure it doesn't clash with Bitch"). We're making moves towards a mailing list too, so let me (or Lara, or Seth) know if you want to be on it and didn't put your name down on Saturday. There'll only be a mailing when we have an event to announce, and we promise really really sincerely, honest (with two commas and a fullstop in the normal way) not to sell your addresses to spammers in return for cheap and nasty pharmaceuticals.

Yesterday I hung around the house, went to see my folks for tea and biscuits, dropped in on Ed (seemed slightly better, I thought. Said he felt fairly well) and then went to Neon, where I played the usual nonsense. There was a point fairly early on with Venus in Furs, some Blondie, the Only Ones, and a few others, where I started to wonder whether I was really downstairs and whether I should go up to check if it was really me up there putting them on. I think it was some combination of Finn, Anna, Kiera and Lisa that turned out to be behind it.

Today the PC attached to the confocal has decided it has had enough. It's died, and done so in a big way. The LED on the power button works, but that's the only sign of life. Somewhere down near Welwyn Garden City, passers-by are looking upward with shocked expressions after being stunned by the whooshing sound of Carl Zeiss enthusiastically passing the buck on to Dell, who are believed to have the machine still under extended warranty. More news as it (and everything else) breaks.

On the other hand, I now know how overengineered recent Dell cases are. It's "Very".

( Gigantor setlist )

Well, I got up at sparrowfart on Saturday and dragged my sorry arse across the Meadows for our promised 6:30 start. ( Read more... )