Grist to the Mill

23 March, 2007

GREAT MUSIC

Great music isn't thin on the ground, but everything is so fragmented now that there’s no clearly defined ‘scene’, it can be difficult to know where to look. British bands seem to have been consistently rubbish for about ten years - all posturing 22-year-olds tunelessly thrashing guitars in the hope that attitude and posturing will make up for lack of melody and talent. Guitar–driven mediocrity - Razorlight / Kasbian / The Killers has passed me by. I'm aware of the names only.

Here's some of the best from further afield. All North American (natch) with the exception of Sleepy Jackson, and they’re Australian. John Vanderslice’s ‘Trance Manual’ my favourite song for a couple of years.

THE SLEEPY JACKSON


BROKEN SOCIAL SCENE


JOHN VANDERSLICE


SUFJAN STEVENS

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08 March, 2007






SMART ALECRY

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03 March, 2007

A deeply unfunny subject, written about in a surprising way...

From the local newspaper (The Chronicle), this could be straight out of Private Eye.

AN OBESE paedophile who fled the country before facing trial in 1988 has admitted indecently assaulting a young girl.

Balding Matthew Stevens, who used to live in Mylum Close, Kirklees, pleaded guilty to two counts of indecent assault on a girl under 11 at L Crown Court yesterday.

The bespectacled 56-year-old, who has a grey moustache, was arrested in November last year when he resurfaced after more than eight years on the run and living in Wales, the court heard.

What's the point of the litany of unflattering characteristics? Can't help supposing the journalist is helping people to recognise him, to ensure he's given a tough time.

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01 March, 2007

VICTIM STATEMENTS

On the radio this morning, there was a piece about “victim statements” being read in court. A pilot scheme has apparently been taking place over the last ten months, with statements read after the verdict but before sentencing. It’s clearly about recognising “the victim” and giving them a voice. Only trouble is, the legal system is supposed to be clear-eyed, systematic and dispassionate. Worse still, these statements are often crass, if the programme I heard is anything to go by. The woman who was interviewed said, “My friends were buying their boyfriends DVDs and aftershave, but I was ordering mine a wreath”. (((!CRINGE!))). So, if these statements do have a tenuous impact on sentencing, which of course isn’t supposed to happen, presumably it’s the eloquent who have the most impact, which penalises those who debase sudden death and bereavement, for which there are no words, by discussing these intensely painful and personal mysteries in the same breath as DVDs.

I'm aware that this may be (and in fact, probably is) a deeply snobbish attitude. You could argue that the statements closest to ordinary life, which don't deal with abstrations in high-flung language, contain the most pathos and sentiment, and that these are therefore the most moving. Either way, this has to be a bad move.

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