A very insightful re-appraisal of Absolute Beginners, the film that helped to sink Goldcrest, in the Quietus. Recommended.
Friday, August 31, 2012
Beginners' Bad Luck
A very insightful re-appraisal of Absolute Beginners, the film that helped to sink Goldcrest, in the Quietus. Recommended.
Smokin' Kills
Kindness's single That's Alright (above) is out on Monday. And yes, 90% of it is basically Trouble Funk's Still Smokin' from 1986, but the song was so good in the first place that I'm prepared to let it go. Trouble Funk remain among the best (and hardest-working) live acts I've ever seen. In fact, they were so hard-working that we threw in the towel before they did; after two and a half hours of non-stop, segued funk we had to hit the road, leaving Big Tony, T-Bone and the rest to continue playing without us. God only knows what time they finished. The chance of them touring the UK again, though, is close to zero, given that go-go went very quickly from being the next international big thing (in 1986/87) to a strictly local, Washington DC-based phenomenon once more. Unless this single is a big hit, of course. Here's hoping.
The official video is below, and you can get an idea of their live show from it.
Single sell analysis
Noodling around the far reaches of the Internet, I was very excited to come across these little films by Amoeba, the record store in Los Angeles and San Francisco.
They're called "What's in My Bag?"' and in them (each usually lasts about 5 to 10 minutes, perfect for a coffee break), personalities from the entertainment field (and I use the term 'personalities' advisedly) choose a number of CDs, LPs and DVDs from the well-appointed racks of the store and share them with viewers. This is exactly what a beleaguered record retail industry should be doing to promote its wares. In particular, I've recently enjoyed the ones by Neil Hamburger, Wendy & Lisa, Jim Thirlwell, Grimes, Chromeo and Schol of Seven Bells, all of whom pulled out some surprises (who knew that Wendy was a big fan of Clinic, for example?), as well as confirming what we already guessed about their tastes. See all 250+ episodes at http://www.amoeba.com/whats-in-my-bag/index.html
They're called "What's in My Bag?"' and in them (each usually lasts about 5 to 10 minutes, perfect for a coffee break), personalities from the entertainment field (and I use the term 'personalities' advisedly) choose a number of CDs, LPs and DVDs from the well-appointed racks of the store and share them with viewers. This is exactly what a beleaguered record retail industry should be doing to promote its wares. In particular, I've recently enjoyed the ones by Neil Hamburger, Wendy & Lisa, Jim Thirlwell, Grimes, Chromeo and Schol of Seven Bells, all of whom pulled out some surprises (who knew that Wendy was a big fan of Clinic, for example?), as well as confirming what we already guessed about their tastes. See all 250+ episodes at http://www.amoeba.com/whats-in-my-bag/index.html
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