Featured post

Yesterdays news is still today's truth!

They only tell us what they want us to know.....An Anti Austerity Demo gathered outside the BBC headquarters in London the other weekend, ...


.

.

.

.
MAKE SENSE OF THE SENSELESS ! / QUESTION THE QUESTIONABLE ! / SHOUT ABOVE THE NOISE !

Saturday 26 February 2011

SINGLED OUT: Nikki Sudden / The Godfathers / The Derellas




No music with this post, just 3 short reviews of recent singles released by some NPW faves. I say singles, but they aint really singles, well not like I remember singles being, they’re single downloads, and it’s just not the same as buying vinyl or CD, there’s no real product to hold in yer hands, no cover or case, just the music. Quick and convenient maybe, but also sterile and clinical, which is something that can’t be said for the three tracks:
NIKKI SUDDEN - I Know You is a Rocking little foot taper taken from Playing With Fire; a carefully selected compilation of completely unreleased songs recorded for Nikki's last two studio albums "Treasure Island" & "The truth doesn't matter " which is available from Easy Action Records. THE DERELLAS - She Kissed The Gun is action-packed and inspired by the downfall of legendary producer Phil Spector, it spits out classic 77 guitars like The Clash meeting The Ramones.
THE GODFATHERS - Back Into The Future finds the band as rawkuss and angry as they ever were; “What’s the problem? I’ll tell you the problem / You’re slaves to money and it don’t mean nothing”

Sheikh Rattle and Roll!


Its all been about Libya this week. Calls for democracy by Libyans haven’t fallen silent despite the sound of gun fire from weapons bought from the West filling the air, and bullets ripping through flesh. The world watches and waits….just like the British citizens trapped in a situation their governments have created through years of shaking hands with and hugging despotic dictators like Gadaffi, the blood of PC Yvonne Fletcher and the victims of Lockerbie is on his hands, the failure of any justice for the families has been down to democratically elected governments whose only interest has been….oil. and the fear that he’d stop the pipelines flowing. That’s the only peace in the Middle East Tony Blair wants to see ….a piece of the profits! Which is also what the people of Libya want, difference being, it's theirs to have!

Sunday 20 February 2011

THE JIM JONES REVUE - Live @ The Big Day Out 23/1/2011



Singer Jim Jones used to be the front man for The Hypnotics, he’s taken their levels of in the red rock’n’roll to a new err… level of psychosis with The Jim Jones Revue and their Punk Rock Blues. For lovers of MC5, The Cramps, Birthday Party, New York Dolls, Little Richard, Jerry Lee Lewis or any other band that shakes the foundations with ball rattling breast bouncing volume up to eleven Rock’n’Roll. The Revues Burning Down Your House album was one of the highlights of last year; a howling vocal, screeching guitar and pounding piano blast of wild and feral Rock’n’Roll, pretty much like this recording of them at Australia’s musical Big Day Out in Jan 2011, it was recorded from the audience, the sounds OK, but far from perfect, but it is what it is…. you know what to do if you fancy a blast.

THEir BIGfuckedupSOCIETY. (Some Thoughts!)


Here’s a thought….The reason this Big Society that the politicians are pushing and both themselves and the public are having trouble to understand is because it is a concept that is alien to them; The Big Society is about altruism and not individualism, about people taking responsibility for their society, by doing things for the common good.
Saying that its also a nice bit of spin and a smoke screen to hide the cuts in public spending, and a way of getting people to do the work that their taxes once paid for before the politicians/bankers and business fucked it! Now they’re trying to create and sell us a solution/answer to the problems they created through years of rampant consumer market multi capitalism. Thatcher said “there’s no such thing as society, just individuals” now Cameron’s looking for a Big Society, something that doesn’t exist in a world of total capitalism, where values do not equal the same amount. The haves and have nots. Less equals more when only a small percentage hold the wealth.
A Big Society should be organic and evolve, not be forced upon people The only way their Big Society will work is if people and individuals want it to work. The people need to know that they have been part of the problem through their mass consumption of commodity goods and the credit culture that has supported them.
There needs to be some sort of Social/Political and economic change, but the people have got to want it and see that they need it for it truly be called a big society, until then it’s just another society controlled by the powers that be, and what about those who don’t see Cameron’s Big Vision, How are they gonna be made to conform, fit in and kept in line?
Some people have been volunteering doing community and charity work for years, but here’s something the people can’t get their heads round; Why then if Charity work is so important in The Big Society is money being cut from these organisations? Well it looks like the State doesn’t value this work, and they’d rather that the money came from other sources like the private sector, and wealthy philanthropists, plus there’s The Big Society Bank that has money for organisations to bid for. Where’s this money come from? And I bet it wont be the same amount as has been cut from Local Authority budgets. Here’s another thing….Local Government should be taking a stand against Westminster, not just blaming them for the cuts and the people need to take a stand against what services their councils are choosing to cut back on, because the councils have a choice on what to cut or close; The hours a Library opens or the amount a Social Inclusion Officer for one legged skateboarders is paid, some nice floral display in the town centre or a hot meal for a pensioner, that’s our elected officials choice, we just have to live with and in it. Well we don’t we could take a stand and have a sit in at our Council Offices and protest against their bloated overpaid bureaucracy, just like the people have done in branches of Barclays Bank when they found out Barclay’s had paid more out in bonuses to staff than they paid to the Government in corporation tax! Politicians both Local and Governmental, and bankers….THEY’RE ALL THE FUCKING SAME! Just out to protect their interests, their power and their wealth no matter what the cost to us….The People! Who aren’t the same. It’s our differences that make it easy for them to control us and buy us off. How can a divided society ever be a big society?

Monday 14 February 2011

THE GODFATHERS - Love Is Dead (7" vinyl rip)


Right then, as it’s Valentines Day; the day when a human emotion becomes a commodity as people show their love for each other through buying Cards, Chocolates and Flowers, here are the mighty Godfathers with Love Is Dead and B-Side, Angela. This is the original 7” from 1987 released on their own Corporate Image Records. When the band signed to Epic Records it was re-released a year later. Enjoy!

Sunday 13 February 2011

Easy Target #?


JUSTIN BIEBER, Don’t you just wanna slap him across the face…...with a spiked running shoe!
He’s a young singer, a popular pin up with teenage girls, or so my daughter tells me, apparently he’s peng?! More like pong if you ask me; a squeaky clean image of perfection, he’s one of the ugly faces of capitalism; someone for kids to aspire to be like, or to desire someone like him, something the majority will fail to achieve despite spending a fortune on trying to. Justin Bleeder the little shit! I blame the parents and the profiteers!


Friday 11 February 2011

KNOX and THE TRAILER TRASH ORCHESTRA



























Once again it’s time for something a little bit different. In the anticipation of when Knox from The Vibrators and Charlie Harper from the UK Subs, Urban Dogs acoustic album was coming out, I’d forgotten that this release was in the pipeline. Its KNOX AND THE TRAILER TRASH ORCHESTRA with The Knoxville Boy, an album of Country/Hillbilly Blues grooves, like Lou Reed meeting Johnny Cash? The Vibrators, Country and Western? An odd mix, well….not really when you listen to Knox’s lyrics; the murder ballad Juice On, or the love lorn Baby, Baby for example, then listen to their 1990 Unpunked album, and yer half the way to what The Knoxville Boy sounds like. Add the trademark Trailer Trash Orchestra sound of pedal-steel, fiddle, mandolin, harmonica, double bass, double guitar and drums., and you’ve got it 11Tracks of Cowboy boot taping stuff (12 if you get it from Itunes)
The fact that Country aint cool makes this album cooler than folk and as punk as fuck! Check out their rendition of The’brators classic the afore mentioned Baby, Baby. (79p on Itunes) and you’ll hear what I mean.
I haven’t got so excited about the country sound since Lash Lariat And The Long Riders in the 80’s or The Rockingbirds and The Walkabouts in the 90’s. So here’s a sneaky preview of a couple of tracks from The Knoxville Boy. Enjoy….then buy. £7.99 on Itunes, as is The Trailer Trash Orchestra’s album Shakin The Dead which is also well worth a listen, if yer partial to a bit of Country Twang. It features their take on The Ramones I Wanna Be Sedated, and an inspired version of Magazine’s Song From Under The Floor Boards (79p on Itunes) and The Vibrators Baby, Baby (minus Knox) If you wanna forget the product placement, there are other download sites, or they’re both available on CD from Trashville.

Thursday 10 February 2011

PRIMAL SCREAM - Live in 1991


It’s 20 years since Primal Scream released their Screamadelica album, so here’s a couple of live shows from 1991. I first heard Primal Scream in 1989 when they released their sexy sleazy leather clad second album. Forget their debut album, a load of substandard second hand Byrds shite. Their third album Screamadelica on the other hand is a totally different beast to either of these. It’s a visionary piece of work that took the past and turned it into the future. It’s Ecstasy loaded grooves embraced the new rave sounds of the 90‘s, but never once forgot its soulful Rock’n’Roll roots. A sound greater than the sum of its influences. Anyway I couldn’t chose between either of these Scream live recordings, so here’s two for the price of none. Take a trip back to 1991 in either Nottingham or Leicester. Enjoy! Screamadelica has been re-mastered and re-packaged and is about to be re-released. The revolutionary becomes part of the retrolutionary.

Sunday 6 February 2011

The Pyramids Turned Upside Down

So in the wake of the recent uprising in Tunisia it’s all kicked off in Egypt, one of the birth places of civilisation.. The Egyptian people fuelled on recent events in Tunisia have also found their power against uncivilised authoritarian rule. POWER TO THE PEOPLES! This new found fire will spread across other regimes.
The West in the guise of the USA and Britain are worried and I’m sure would have rather not seen the scenes of people taking to the streets on mass in protest. Egypt’s geo-political location is vital to the supply of oil through the Suez Canal, and their support for Israel is vital for the ‘keeping of the peace in the Middle East.
They also fear that in the power vacuum after the uprising that a super islamist state will be formed, like in Iran after the Shah was overthrown in 1979, and replaced by the Ayatollah Khomeini, and we know how much the West loves Iran..
Stability in the Middle East has seen the West not only turn it’s head away from Human Rights atrocities, but also seen it pump millions of dollars into Egypt’s economy and military.
At least the Army, once loyal to President Mubarak have refused to fire on their own people, just like they were bought by Mubarak I wonder how much the West have had to promise to keep the guns silent. Mubaraks bullies ride in on camels as government backed pro Mubarak supporters clash with pro democracy group. The people are firing at the people. The terror of Revolutions after the initial united front the factions appear and the real fight for power starts.
Mubarak has said he will stand down in September, which is not soon enough for some. The US have said they want to see an orderly transition toward free and fair elections, not that any elections are free and fair, look at the troubles there were on the streets of Athens’s in Greece the birthplace of democracy a while ago, when the people weren’t happy with their government. So how are things gonna pan out in Egypt? How involved are the West going to be? In order to maintain stability probably quite a lot, unlike in Tunisia which is far less important in their scheme of things.

Tuesday 1 February 2011

SERVICE ANOUNCMENT

The following posts may have dated a bit….The network’s gone down, well my broadband connection did. So here’s some old news. A visit to Egypt and some music over the next couple of days.


Sky's The Limit

So the News Of The World phone hacking/taping story refuses to go away. I don’t care about the celebrities that court the press then condemn it in the same breath; they’re happy for the public to know what they want them to know, but not when it’s not what they want. It would also appear that some politicians have had their phones hacked into. I dunno what these people think, after all we are living in a Surveillance society where the cops go undercover in protest groups, our movements are tracked by CCTV, is it any wonder that spying on people has started to become so normalised that journalists have used it as a means to get stories to sell papers? Another story broke this week;
The SkySports sexist debacle, off screen comments showed a couple of over paid football pundits; Andy Gray and Richard Keys engaging in sexist banter, At first I thought hang on a minute they weren’t being sexist, just misguided and misogynistic, then I thought…. what if it had been about the colour of a persons skin, or their sexual orientation? It’s an unacceptable view and prehistoric attitude towards women, mind you isn’t that what Rupert Murdoch’s Empire does best; providing a distorted world view, that uses sex to sell. The fact that the comments weren’t actually broadcast live has led to some people thinking it was an invasion of the presenters privacy, well as we’ve seen there is no privacy in Murdoch’s glorious tabloid high definition world.
I’m hoping that both these stories will have some baring over Murdoch’s attempt to gain total control over BSkyB, (his News Corporation already owns The News Of The World and Sky Sports) and therefore have an unprecedented media monopoly, but I’m not sure they will, the politicians are keeping very quite over it all, there’s probably a load more dirt on them stored on a journalists hard drive somewhere, and let’s face it they also know who has the real power to influence the mass’s minds, it aint them and their manifestos, it’s the media and how it interprets and portrays the political parties, lest we forget Murdoch’s claim that it was The Sun That Won it! And lest we forget the changing alliances, between the papers and politicians.
People like Murdoch usually get their own way no matter what the cost, I mean the first Police investigation into the News Of The World phone hacking ’scandal’ was pretty poor. Everything is up for sale! Murdoch has enough power, he’s just being greedy Andy Gray and Richard Keys, just a couple of pawns in a bigger game, and in the same week, the BBC announces its gonna be cutting back on its World Service, mind you only to be expected with Murdoch’s Satellite empire beaming live and direct to the four corners of the world.