I went to see Kiska last night. Kiska are a Bristol band that have been around since 1998/99, have always been brilliant and have never recorded anything and have averaged two gigs a year. Setbacks aside (having all their equipment stolen, careers interfering), it's unclear why. They make soaring instrumental Kraut/space rock. They are distinguished from their peers by a remarkable ear for melody and melancholy, a dimension often lacking in instrumental music. Now our Dave Collingwood of Gravenhurst drums for them. Next time they play i'm going to record it off the desk whether they like it or not. It's possible they may make an album soon. It's possible.
I have been writing a silly and obscene comic. Once it's finished i'll distribute it.
Recently I have read:
Garth Ennis - Punisher 1,2,3,4, Born
Volume three is particularly noteworthy as Frank Castle runs over Wolverine in a steamroller. Good. Volume four sinks to new depths of depravity, featuring a sick freak who lives under a mile-high corpse-mountain of homeless people. Well done Mr. Ennis. 'Born' is serious and harder edged. Published in the adult Max imprint, it features the word 'cunt'. Ennis said in an interview that the harsh language in his Hitman series was not an attempt to shock; rather it was necessary for realism, being set in London. In the US, 'cunt' is a powerful word, whereas in England it's practically punctuation, he said.
Garth Ennis - John Constantine: Hell Blazer
John Wagner - Judge Dredd: The Complete America
This is very good. If you thought a Mega City One love story was incongruous, think again.
Alan Moore - Promethea
Headache-inducing high concept mythology. Funny too. Our heroine Sophie researches a mythological figure called Promothea for her term paper and then becomes her. Features a reinterpretation of the Tarot consistent with the Big Bang and evolution. Predicts that in 2017 humankind's understanding will hit saturation point and the world as we know it will end. The Apocalypse is interpreted as an epistemological and metaphysical step forward for human understanding. There's also a twelve-page tantric sex scene. Mr. Moore, you've done it again.
Alan Moore - Tom Strong
Alan Moore - The Courtyard and the Courtyard Companion
Violent, Lovecraftian Cthulhu mythos tale. Dope.
Alan Moore - Batman: A Killing Joke
Classic reinvention of the Joker's beginnings.
Matt Wagner - Batman: Faces
Frank Miller - Batman: Year One
Cool Gotham noir. I prefer David Mazucchelli's artwork to Miller's own in The Dark Knight Returns.
Warren Ellis - Transmetropolitan
Fantastic. Spider Jerusalem is a gonzo journalist in a demented future-shock metropolis.
I've just picked up a copy of Herman Hesse's The Glass Bead Game which i've been meaning to read for a long time.
Blogging often veers towards the overfamiliar. In a subconscious attempt to make the internet a smaller place, people refer to friends as though everyone knows them personally. Shall I tell you what I had on my toast this morning?
As of monday we'll be in Toybox Studios recording the next album.
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4 comments:
If you do record their next gig, can I have a copy? Only 1 song released in five years really is poor. It's only 1 more than I've managed, & I can't even get a full line-up together for long enough to book a rehearsal room.
Ooooh comics!
If you liked "America" you may also enjoy "Chopper, song of the surfer" which is Wagner and McNeils previous collaboration.
I've just finished Promethea book 3 and Tom Strong book 2. Tom Strong is fast becoming my favourite title in the ABC lineup, not sure whether it'll keep that place now that Alan Moore has given up primary writing duties on the character though. I have a comic which is a transcription of a talk Alan Moore gave about his ideas of creation and magic and so on which forms the basis for the plot of Promethea book 2, Eddie 'from hell' Cambell is on illustration duties and it's a nice companion piece to the Promethea story, kind of like an apendix.
Not such a fan of Warren Ellis myself, can't really explain why, there's something to selfconciously cutting edge/counter culture about it for me but that's not the whole of it.
Ooooh comics!
If you liked "America" you may also enjoy "Chopper, song of the surfer" which is Wagner and McNeils previous collaboration.
I've just finished Promethea book 3 and Tom Strong book 2. Tom Strong is fast becoming my favourite title in the ABC lineup, not sure whether it'll keep that place now that Alan Moore has given up primary writing duties on the character though. I have a comic which is a transcription of a talk Alan Moore gave about his ideas of creation and magic and so on which forms the basis for the plot of Promethea book 2, Eddie 'from hell' Cambell is on illustration duties and it's a nice companion piece to the Promethea story, kind of like an apendix.
Not such a fan of Warren Ellis myself, can't really explain why, there's something to selfconciously cutting edge/counter culture about it for me but that's not the whole of it.
Tom
TOM - Mastodon Infantry
I'm totally with you on Ellis. I found Spider Jerusalem to be completely obnoxious and unsympathetic to start with. It got better though. It's not something i'll make a special effort to seek out though.
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