June 30, 2016
Yes, you squashed cabbage leaf. You disgrace to the noble architecture of these columns! You incarnate insult to the English language! I could pass you off as, er, the Queen of Sheba.
From Freddie deBoer:
...Meanwhile, the grubby masses, lacking access to the kind of private liberal arts colleges where one learns these Byzantine codes, now can add political and moral poverty to their economic and social poverty. This is the next great project of the American elite: building a political system that ensures the winners in winner-take-all enjoy not just the fruits of material gain, but the certainty that their elevated station is deserved thanks to their elevated moral standing.I think you can probably learn a version of it from reading Gawker and Slate, taking buzzfeed quizzes, and watching MTV, but it won't be quite good enough to pass as a duchess at an embassy ball.
June 27, 2016
Nice Shirt, William S. Preston, Esq.
Artist Evan Dorkin managed to slip quite a few "shout outs" to unlikely bands into this and other comics. (This was found on Instagram but I remember it well because it made me feel like a big shot at the time.) Thanks, Evan.
June 26, 2016
It won't stop
From Thoughts on the Sociology of Brexit by Will Davies:
What was so clever about the language of the Leave campaign was that it spoke directly to this feeling of inadequacy and embarrassment, then promised to eradicate it. The promise had nothing to do with economics or policy, but everything to do with the psychological allure of autonomy and self-respect. Farrage’s political strategy was to take seriously communities who’d otherwise been taken for granted for much of the past 50 years.This doesn’t necessarily have to translate into nationalistic pride or racism (although might well do), but does at the very least mean no longer being laughed at. Those that have ever laughed at ‘chavs’ (such as the millionaire stars of Little Britain) have something to answer for right now, as Rhian E. Jones’ Clampdown argued. The willingness of Nigel Farrage to weather the scornful laughter of metropolitan liberals (for instance through his periodic appearances on Have I Got News For You) could equally have made him look brave in the eyes of many potential Leave voters. I can’t help feeling that every smug, liberal, snobbish barb that Ian Hislop threw his way on that increasingly hateful programme was ensuring that revenge would be all the greater, once it arrived. The giggling, from which Boris Johnson also benefited handsomely, needs to stop.
June 24, 2016
Q, A
From facebook:
Q: Hey Frank I was just listening to revenge is sweet (my personal favorite from your catalog) and I've always noticed the guitar on that album is a bit crunchier and distinctly different from any of your other work. Were you going for something specific? Was that a certain pedal or what did you do to achieve that sound?
A: As I recall the main guitars used on that record were the Epiphone Coronet and a 50s era Les Paul (borrowed) with soap bar pickups. The amp was a Marshall 800 in a big room but heavily baffled and blanketed.; what your'e hearing is a result of the single coil pickups and old wood, Kevin Army's vintage pre-amps (can't remember their name atm), quadruple tracked and then really severely compressed with the whole mix. As for what I was going for I wanted it to sound "big" but because we ran out of budget and time and had to scramble to complete the vox II wasn't able to do much more than the basic tracks so it wound up a lot more "minimal" than planned, which is why I consider it "unfinished" but that probably adds to the fact that the rhythm guitar is so central to the sound.
June 22, 2016
Guitar News News
As I've mentioned before, my old, ailing Les Paul Jr. has been in the rehabilitation process for some time now, but it seems that now the end is in sight. The latest is that we're leaving it strung for a stretch to make sure the bridge/anchor reinforcement and repair is going to hold. After that she should be good to go. I think the last time I played it on stage was in Europe 2001 (and it was pretty much a mess then, in every way.) It's been a long time. I'm ready.
June 06, 2016
Soundie Thingie
So, I only ever meant to keep this "up" temporarily, and I figure pretty much everyone who would want it already has it, but just in case here's a heads up that this will be going away soon so now is your chance if you're in the category of people who don't have it who may want it:
You can get a digital version of this here if you want one.
I put it together as a CDR to sell on a solo acoustic tour of Europe that I did with Kepi in the Fall of 2012. We had a bunch of printed "covers" and would make ten to fifteen discs on Stefan's laptop in the car on the way to each gig. We probably unloaded around a hundred of them in all. Its purpose was to be a souvenir item for people who went to those particular shows, a purpose which was served, and then pretty much to disappear and fade away thereafter, which it pretty much did. However, I do get regular requests to make it available, which is what I'm doing now.
They're all live solo acoustic songs from a variety of sources, basically whatever I could lay my hands on in the few days before flying to Italy. The quality varies (so this is fair warning of that) but that's life, and they are what they are, and it is to be honest pretty much what I sound like live solo acoustic, mostly.
Doing this only via bandcamp, and I'm not sure how long I'll keep it up before I take it down, so get it while it lasts.
Songs: I Just Wanna Do It with You / She Turned Out to Be Crazy / I Don't Need You Now / Danny Partridge / Sorry for Freaking Out on the Phone Last Night / King Dork / How'd the Date End? / I Wanna Ramone You / Jill / Goody Goody Gumdrops / Knock Knock (Please Let Me In) / Even Hitler Had a Girlfriend / I Wrote a Book about Rock and Roll / You Today / Cingular Wireless (Worse than Hitler)
