Esme in the Hizzy

Had to post a couple of these: pix of Esme talking to Champaign Urbana, right before she had her meltdown over the fact that I wouldn't play the whole Charlie and Lola album, and had to be escorted from the premises by security (i.e. my wife). Anyway, here she is...

Playlist for June 20th, 2007

The Smiths -- Panic (Singles)
Brian Eno -- Needle in the Camel's Eye (Here Come the Warm Jets)
Placebo -- Teenage Angst (Placebo)
Suede -- Trash (Coming Up)
Mclusky -- To Hell With Good Intentions (Do Dallas)
The The -- Dogs of Lust (Dusk)
Carter USM -- The Only Living Boy in New Cross (1992)
Charlie and Lola -- Theme Music (Favourite and Best Music Record)
Charlie and Lola -- Bestest in the Barn (Favourite and Best Music Record)
Charlie and Lola -- I Am Not Sleepy (Favourite and Best Music Record)
Camera Obscura -- Number One Son (Underachievers Please Try Harder)
The Chrysler -- What I Must Keep With Mine (Failures and Sparks)
Belle & Sebastian -- Jonathan David (Single)
Jens Lekman -- Rocky Dennis Farewell Song (Oh, You're So Silent Jens)
Art Brut -- Direct Hit (It's a Bit Complicated)
The Pipettes -- Your Kisses Are Wasted on Me (We Are the Pipettes)
The View -- Skag Trendy (Hats off to the Buskers)
Arctic Monkeys -- Brianstorm (Favourite Worst Nightmare)
Aliens -- Setting Sun (Astronomy for Dogs)
Macabees -- Precious Time (Colour It In)
Architecture in Helsinki -- Wishbone (In Case We Die)
Get Cape Wear Cape Fly -- Glasshouses (Chronicles of a Bohemian Teenager)
James Morrison -- Wonderful World (Undiscovered)
Nouvelle Vague -- The Killing Moon (bande a Part)
Editors -- Blood (The Back Room)
Clinic -- Children of Kellogg (Visitations)
Jakob Dylan & Dhani Harrison -- Gimme Some Truth (Instant Karma)
Sinead O'Connor -- Mandinka (The Lion and the Serpent)
The La's -- There She Goes (The La's)

"Gordon is a moron!"

No, not a reference to the about-to-be-PM of Britain, but rather to the fantastic song 'Jilted John.' A perennial favourite on the show, and a one-hit wonder from 1978 in which actor Graham Fellows adopted an embittered alter-ego for this punk ditty about a feeble young lad whose girlfriend chucks him for a good looking bloke called Gordon. An outstanding work.



And whatever happened to Fellows? Well, he resurfaced years later, unrecognizeable in a completely different persona: that of mild-mannered Yamaha keyboard troubadour John Shuttleworth. Shuttleworth's scratchy Sheffield accent and earnest easy-listening compositions are utterly unmistakeable. Here's a fine example -- the tragic story of a man who starts his dessert only to find that, had he waited, he could have finished off the rest of his daughter's unwanted dinner. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you "I Can't Go Back to Savoury Now."

June 6th, 2007

Elvis Costello – Accidents Will Happen (Girls Girls Girls)
Kingmaker – Ten Years Asleep (Sleepwalking)
Art Brut – Emily Kane (Bang Bang Rock & Roll)
Aztec Camera – Good Morning Britain (Retrospect)
Doves – Black & White Town (Some Cities)
Shed 7 – Where Have You Been Tonight (A Maximum High)
Forward Russia – Nine (Give Me a Wall)
Sondre Lerche – Airport Taxi Reunion (Phantom Punch)
Divine Comedy – Becoming More Like Alfie (Casanova)
Travis – Under the Moonlight (The Boy With No Name)
Get Cape Wear Cape Fly – Call Me Ishmael (Chronicles of a Bohemian Teenager)
Klaxons – Totem on the Timeline (Myths of the Near Future)
The Horrors – Sheena is a Parasite (Stolen Transmission)
Paul McCartney – Ever Present Past (Memory Almost Full)
Lightning Seeds – Joy (Cloudcuckooland)
Suede – Shipbuilding (HELP Warchild)
Love Spit Love – Am I Wrong? (Love Spit Love)
Playwrights – Why We’ve Become Invisible (English Self Storage)
Stars – Ageless Beauty (Set Yourself on Fire)
Pipettes – Your Kisses Are Wasted On Me (We Are The Pipettes)
Miracle Fortress – This Thing About You (Five Roses)
Pooh Sticks – World Is Turning On (Million Seller)
Portishead – All Mine (Live at Roseland NYC)
Moloko – Day For Night (Do You Like My Tight Sweater?)
Tricky – Makes Me Wanna Die (Pre-Millennial Tension)
Radiohead – True Love Waits (I Might Be Wrong)
Blur – You’re So Great (Blur)

Blue Jam

Follow this link for complete archives of a dark, surreal slice of British Radio history.

The show in question is entitled Blue Jam, and a description is going to be a hard thing to pull off. It was the mastermind of a man named Chris Morris, and went out late late at night (3 a.m., in fact, so as to be as far as possible away from daylight) on BBC Radio1, a national station which plays, during the day, chart pop music aimed at the 14-24 age bracket.

So along comes Morris with this show that is so utterly sui generis, not to mention surreal and nightmarish. Each episode is an hour long, and consists of monologues and sketches interspersed with music. If that makes it sound even remotely like a radio version of Saturday Night Live, banish that thought from your mind. Essentially it's a 60-minute aural fever dream, the kind of thing you might find floating through your head as you lie, shivering yet bathed in sweat, with a fever of 103, waiting for the antibiotics to kick in.

But in a good way.

Seriously, give it a listen.

Whenever I Think of Sporting Excellence, I Think of Jagged Pink Blobs

So after months of anticipation and the expenditure of four hundred thousand pounds, the logo for the 2012 London Olympics has been unveiled. And it's shockingly bad. And the great British public, not being inclined to take these things lying down, has risen up and, with one voice, condemned it for the committee-derived piece of brand-building bollocks that it is.

First, here's the description from the Olympic Committee's website:

New brand launches


London 2012's new brand and vision were launched today by Sebastian Coe and London 2012 ambassadors.

The new Olympic emblem is based on the number 2012 - the year the Games take place and includes the Olympic Rings and the word London.

For the first time the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games emblems have been based on the same core shape.

Available in four colours – pink, blue, green and orange - the new emblem is modern and will be dynamic, evolving in the years between now and 2012.

It symbolises the Olympic spirit and the ability of the Games to inspire people to take part - not just as spectators, but as volunteers, in the Cultural Olympiad and more.

Launching the brand at the Roundhouse in North London, London 2012 Chair Seb Coe said: "London 2012 will be 'Everyone's Games', everyone's 2012. This is the vision at the very heart of our brand.

"It will define the venues we build and the Games we hold and act as a reminder of our promise to use the Olympic spirit to inspire everyone and reach out to young people around the world.

"It is an invitation to take part and be involved."

And here, by contrast, are a selection of reactions to it:

"a broken swastika"
"a toileting monkey"
"Lisa Simpson doing something unspeakable and pornographic"
etc.
etc.