the devil and daniel johnston

there's a film coming out pretty soon called "the devil and daniel johnston" ( i think it's at the cornerhouse in manchester from may 8th). it's about a guy called daniel johnston who is a strange and wonderful singer/songwriter. a friend of mine at college gave me a copy of his album Hi how are you. even the original looked like it had been made in someones bedroom. The music had in fact been recorded in daniel's room. you could hear him coughing and starting the song again when he or his friend got it wrong.

the music was definately raw and lo-fi but had something to it. honesty, symplicity and clever lyrics.

This tape is all i had for years, never heard anything about him or met anyone who had heard of him. then a few years back he released a new album. a proper one and suddenly people started writing about him. see the thing about daniel is that he has suffered with mental illnesses all his life and has to be cared for fulltime by his parents. this means that he wasn't really able to leave his hometown of austin, texas much so his stuff kind of just passed from person to person by word of mouth. There's a picture of Kurt Cobain weasring a daniel johston tshirt that got quite a few people interested and other bands like Sonic Youth and Yo Lo Tengo covered his songs.

So the other day when Viking Moses asked if anyone knew Daniel Johnston a let out a happy 'yes'. Actually myself, lisa and mark p? (was it you mark who came with us-been trying to remember) managed to see him on one of his rare live gigs at night and day cafe- i even got to speak to him...if only briefly). There was also a big review in the metro that day of the film.

so there you are, just felt like sharing daniel johnston with a few more people. and to say you should go see the film The devil and daniel johnston , there is also an exhibition of his art down at the london aquarium if you are down that way.

2 days, 2 gigs, 5 bands

i managed to get to see quite a few bands while i was in manchester this week. something that is quite hard to do in swansea. it's a bit of the normal gig trail. the two gigs i went to on monday and tuesday couldn't have been more different. for a start there was probably only 30 people at the richard james one while there was about 4000 at the flaming lips on tueday.

the bands couldn't be more of a contrast either. i'll give you a quick rundown.

Monday, King's Arms, Salford

Voice of the Seven Woods: one guy and his guitar, he could just have easily been playing in his bedroom but man was he good. kind of reminded me of nick drake with a bit more spanish guitar in it. he also did a cool recording/layering thing with a foot pedal. kind of like KT Tunstall does. he leaves before his last song finishes with the layered recording.

Viking Moses: this guy was strange. high on acid for a start. hard to know whether he was making words up as he went along( 'pushing my hair through a phone book' was a memorable line. he squirmed and wriggled and rolled up trousers/sleeves throughout. he did play a daniel johnston song though, and he is a legend. but yeah very strange. ask jonny about it.

Richard James: ah what can i say. any member of Gorky's is a winner from the start. he's doing a solo project at the moment as is the lead singer euros childs but the Gorky's sound comes through. no gimics just good songs. billed as psych folk pop (whatever that is) but sounded just folky. really good intimate gig.

Tuesday, Apollo, Stockport road

The Go! Team: wow what energy and can that girl move. only heard 1 of their songs before but they immediately got everyone going. i think if a support band gets people not to talk through their set and actually sing and clap along they have done well.

The Flaming Lips: Once again they were amazing. Flaming Lips gigs are less music concerts and more all out theatre or maybe one big birthday party. there are about 30 massive ballons flying about, lots of streamers and one lead singer Wayne Coyne, rolling about the audience in a big inflatable ball (you have to see it to believe it). Oh also there are lots of people in suits. in the crowd there was an alligator, a rabbit and a superman. some of these get to go on stage and dance along with the 10 santa's (representing christianity) and the 10 martians (representing scientology). i know it's hard to get a picture of it all but its a great night. the video below might give you a little glimps at the marvel that is a flaming lips gig........

gritty northern dramas

my visit to manchester took a brush with fame yesterday when a film crew turned up outside the door. finally fame had found me, i thought. alas it was not to be, seems they were filming an episode of the griity crime drama (is there any other kind in britain) called Vincent. So i didn't feel i could really turn on the tv when there was a tv programme going on live outside the house so i sat and watched for a good while. quite impressed by Ray Winstone being there (of King Arthur, sexy beast and even teh voice of Mr beaver in narnia!). Kt reckoned we might be able to get a bit of cash if we sent some 'spotted' pictures to Heat magazine so we did a bit of papazarri from the windows.

and yes i finally got a ticket to the flaming lips gig. well bought it oin ebay so i'll have o hope it arrives in time.

easter in manchester

so back up in the republic of mancunia for easter, i was welcomed by a bout of tonsillitus. lisa and i went to susanna's walk in clinic ( well the nhs' walk-in clinic) to get lisa's sore throat checked out so i thought i would get in on the act. we were both quickly diagnosed with said virus and sent away with boxes and boxes of penicillin. apparently they don't even really know what tonsils do. they think that maybe they help fight infections which seem s a bit ironic as the only ting they are known for doing is getting infected.


in other news...went to the manchester passion thing on easter friday and sang along to such great songs as love will tear us apart and blue monday while the last hours of jesus' life were played out around manchester. i was actually quite impressed by it all. especially seeing so many people in the city centre taking part. dont think that would have happened if it was a traditional passion play. tim booth also tried to do an impromptu rendition of sit down at the end but the sound cut out which was a bit of a shame and of course another highlight of the night was watching wes nike's star performance as one of the disciples. shame he was stood behind the pole on the stage though (as in the pillar not a polish person).

so that the week so far. the highlight of my easter could be going to see the flaming lips on 25th at the apollo except i don't have any money till the 24th so it might be cutting it close for getting a ticket. thats my mission anyway.

eif getting ready for the big journey

 

so it was a helm after all

we visited mark's old man pub at the weekend -the angel or "world of brass" as it is also known...by me. we had a very irritating conversation about what the name was for a wheel on a ship. everyone was sure it had a common name they we all knew but none of us could put our finger on it. i asked my seafaring work collegue today and even he thought there was a name for it. we settled on helm or ships wheel. as we had on the day ( but if anyone has any ideas- answers on the back of a postcard or in the comments box).

so mark's pub....apart from being brassy they had strange little snacks around the bar. a plate of cubed cheese and a plate of brownies. ok strange but not unappetising. i ask around- anyone want some cheese? brownies. lisas took soem cheese, mark and i went for the brownie. it was the real moist kind with little bits of walnut in. i tucked in while mark went to the little boy's room.

except it wasn't brownie.

apparently my face was a sight. even when i was eating it i really wanted it to be brownie.

but it wasn't only then did i realise it really had a deep dark reddish colour and tasted more like black pudding......cold black pudding.

so my question is what pub.. even a brassy northern pub serves plates of cold, cubed black pudding on the bar. i wasn't happy. but of course i didnt say anything when mark came back from the lav. even with lisa a i cracking up mark still had no reason to suspect that his tasty choc brownie held a deeper secret. disappointing. very disappointing.