TOTD: NoFX - Don't call me white

I'm in a punk kind of mood today. Even back when I wasn't a massive fan of Punk in Drublic, I loved this track. Now I've seen the error of my ways and realised that this is NoFX's best album, but this is still the best track on it. Word.

Peanut Butter Wolf's 45 Live

I own a ridiculous amount of cd's. True, there are many people who own more than me - my brother for example - but seriously, there's a shitload of them. Basically what I'm trying to say is that it's pointless for me to try and switch to collecting vinyl. I have way too much music on CD, and if I was going to collect vinyl it would only be so that I could play it out. It's not going to happen.

So when things like Peanut Butter Wolf's 45 Live are released, it makes me sad.

TOTD: Menahan Street Band - Make the road by walking

Announced today; the Menahan Street Band are touring in September! In tribute, here is their "Make the road by walking":



From their Myspace:

The Menahan Street Band is a collaboration of musicians from Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings (Dave Guy, Homer Steinweiss, Fernando Velez, Bosco Mann), El Michels Affair (Leon Michels, Toby Pazner), Antibalas (Nick Movshon, Aaron Johnson) and The Budos Band (Mike Deller, Daniel Fodder), brought together by musician/producer Thomas Brenneck (Sharon Jones & the Dap-Kings, Budos Band, Amy Winehouse) to record hits in the bedroom of his Menahan St. apartment in Bushwick, Brooklyn. With influences reaching beyond the funk/soul/afrobeat architecture of their other projects into the more ethereal realms of Curtis Mayfield and Mulatu Astatke, the Menahan Street Band creates a unique new instrumental soul sound that is as raw as it is lush. Their debut album, Make the Road by Walking will be released on Dunham Records, Brenneck’s new imprint of Daptone Records, a joint venture devoted to bringing the Menahan Street sound from Brenneck’s bedroom out into the world. The album is marked by eerily quirky arrangements, featuring vibes, horns, piano, organ, percussion and even a strange bling sound that Brenneck creates by tuning and plucking the strings of his guitar on the wrong side of the bridge. However, it is not the textures themselves that make the new sound of Menahan Street so exciting, but rather the way the sounds are incorporated into the heavy rhythms and bold melodies of the compositions.

Support by Dojo Cuts. I'm excited.

Camera toss

Too Much Beer, Not Enough Talent
Originally uploaded by Eric A James

This is an excellent flickr group I stumbled across some time ago. The premise is simple - chuck your camera in the air with a long exposure, but some of the images produced are just beautiful. I don't think I'll be chucking my dslr any time soon though.

Tune of the day

I've decided to start adding a few tunes of the day. Today's tune is Amon Tobin's "Lighthouse", from the Splinter Cell soundtrack:



Have a read about the soundtrack in Cyclic Defrost here.

More football

Well. Mere hours after I voiced my concerns about the strength of Arsenal's title challenge this year, they put Everton to the sword 6-1. Not a bad way to start the season, it has to be said, with a brace to Fabregas and one for debutant Vermaelen. I'm hoping for a similar scoreline when Sydney play Adelaide this afternoon.

Highlights:

Football.

Just in case you missed this:



and on the eve of the mighty Sydney FC's first home game, wonder kid Kofi Danning's goal against the Fury from last week:



The EPL kicks off this weekend too. Arsenal play Everton. I'm not feeling particularly optimistic about the Gunner's chances this season, what with Wenger selling Adebayor and Toure, and only buying Vermaelen. Add to that injuries to Rosicky and Nasri, and the lack of depth of the Arsenal squad becomes all too apparent. Celtic are first up in the Champions League too...

Dump Bachman

You may have been worried that after Sarah Palin quit that Anne Coulter would have to carry the flag for hateful, conservative nutjob females in America. It's ok though, because crazy Republicans are thick on the ground over there, and some of them don't have penises! My favourite is Michelle Bachman of Minnesota. Check out the Dump Bachman blog for more insanity than you could fire an automatic weapon at.

It warms my heart to see the Republicans with a leadership void that makes the NSW Liberal Party's choice of Peter Debnam at the last state election look like an inspired decision.

Car and a job.

I picked up 14 cd's for NZ$50 from Real Groovy when I was in Auckland a few weeks back for a conference. One of them was Surreal and DJ Balance's Future Classics, which cost me the princely sum of NZ$1. "Car and a job" is my favourite track, which is ironic given that I have neither a car nor a proper job - but "Motorbike and some casual teaching" just doesn't have the same ring to it. Anyway, check it out:



Dope? Why yes, I think you're right.

Peats Ridge

The first release of artists for this years Peats Ridge Festival has me excited. Here's some thoughts/links what have you about some of the artists:

Astronomy Class: Ozi Batla's (of The Herd) side-project. While I haven't heard much of the new album, their album Exit Strategy is a breezy blend of reggae and hip hop. Ozi Batla's stage presence is always amazing, and he'll no doubt be joined on stage by fellow Elefant Traks artist The Tongue. Good times assured.

Blue King Brown: at times I find their political message a touch over-bearing, but Blue King Brown certainly make good music. Equal parts reggae, afro-beat and funk, with just a hint of hip hop, they've always got me dancing in the past.

Circle of Rhythm: when it comes to whacking stuff, these guys are without peers. Bobby Singh and Ben Walsh also play together in The Bird.

Declan Kelly and The Rising Sun: reggae with a little bit of afro-beat. Last years festival saw Kelly joined onstage by Afro Moses - a highlight of the festival for mine.

Deep Street Soul: last years discovery of the festival. Signed to Freestyle Records, they play deep funk in the New Mastersounds/Meters vein. Seriously, unbelievably, utterly dope.

Deepchild: while he's moved away from the beepy-bleepy dub styles that originally attracted me to his music, the deephouse/minimal/techno that he makes now is equally good. One of Australia's least recognised producers. My review of his latest album "Departure" is here.

Harmonic 313: Mark Pritchard has about a million different aliases that span just about all genres of EDM. Harmonic 313 is his dubstep persona, and it's proper heavy business. Steve Spacek lends his voice to the project too - what's not to like?

The Bird: electronic music propelled by the outstanding percussive talents of Ben Walsh. Pure and utter radness hovering somewhere between d'n'b, dub and indian bhangra. Re-Inventions review.

The Nomad: downbeat electronica heavily informed by dub styles. Originally from NZ, now based in Melbourne (I believe). Choice eh, bro? Selected Works review.

Tiajuana Cartel: another band discovered at last years festival. Bits and pieces of world music and good times.

No doubt there'll be more artists to come, but the line-up is already looking pretty damn tasty. Here's hoping the organisers can improve the sound on the main-stage this year...

Deadline

I received an email from my higher education institution informing me that if I didn't hand in my thesis by December 31st, I will be un-enrolled. This means I have a deadline imposed by someone other than me! Hurrah!

So, I'll do you a deal: don't ask me about my thesis, and I won't hit you with a mace. Deal?

Socceroos!

Stu's insightful piece on the countdown to the World Cup in South Africa next year got me thinking. And then I found this, and didn't need to think anymore, because someone else did the thinking for me:

When I sit at the brekkie table, in the post-shiraz fog which has characterized my (happy) life, I thank Divine Providence for three things. I am grateful for Vegemite which restores the delicate balance of an athlete’s physiology; I marvel at the effect of black Aspirin (Coca-Cola from the can); and I am just so pleased that God didn’t confer on me the gift of yelling, “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie: Oi, Oi, Oi.”

Now I feel a deep relationship with the land on which I walk, and its people, and its culture. I know that because I feel it. At home, and away. In my travels around the globe, even when the excitement of new places and people has me on a high, I have a strong sense that Australia remains home.

But I don’t feel any need to express that by wearing a big sombrero and a yellow T-shirt and chanting, “Aussie Aussie Aussie, Oi Oi Oi.”

However I will admit this: although I find jingoism mindless, and the national chest-thumping which accompanies the Commonwealth Games and other folk festivals ridiculous, there are occasions when the jumper leads of an international sporting fixture will jolt me into Frankensteinian life.

And it sometimes surprises me when it happens. (And when it doesn’t.)

My Offsiders' (Barrie Cassidy’s sports show which follows the must-see Inside Business) colleague, Gerard Whateley and I have been musing over the question onto which Australian sporting side are Australians most projecting their nationalist feelings.

It’s not an insignificant question culturally, and certainly not insignificant commercially. This is about national identity and there are rivers of gold for the sporting administration which can garner support by presenting itself as the embodiment of national aspirations.

For a long time it was the cricket team. From the late nineteenth century until that moment – and we can try to pinpoint the time – when cricket became another product in the sports market. A survey of the national news services will show that cricket is buried three-deep in the sports reports behind the football codes and the barney outside the local night club. And we’re mid-Ashes. (If we’re talking about the trend of the graph, S.C.G. MacGill is not doing much to send it north.)

In Queensland and New South Wales it has been the rugby side (if you drink pinot) and the rugby league side (if you drink Jim Beam). I’d argue that people south of the Barassi Line feel a greater connection to the rugby side, and will watch a test match when it is conveniently scheduled for TV viewing, although given the choice between an early-Saturday-afternoon Bledisloe Cup match from Christchurch, and walking the dog to the TAB to put on a Flemington quaddie, the quaddie would start favourite.

This year the industrial dispute that is Australian rugby (not quite as bad as the industrial dispute that is Caribbean cricket – yet) and the fact that Australia is the outsider in Tri-nations betting ($3.55 on Betfair) haven’t served the cause.

Forget about the national rugby league side.

It’s not only teams. Sometimes individuals carry with them a groundswell of nationalist support. There will be some enthusiasm for Adam Scott in the British Open (but that’s not so much nationalist sentiment as it is the best wishes to a bloke who’s found a decent spot for his slippers) as there was for Sam Stosur and Lleyton Hewitt at Wimbledon.

Not to forget motor-racing and its appeal to our inner (national) bogan (as Catherine Deveny would say). I was surprised the tabloids didn’t print a lift-out when Mark Weber won pole-position on the weekend. I’d love to know what went on in the editor’s office when he crossed the line first at Nurburgring.

Then there is the slightly different form of attachment precipitated by the national game. Indigenous in nature, it captures something of what it means to live on this continent – for those who find it meaningful. And many at the MCG and sitting in front of TVs from Yelarbon to Yallourn to Yuendumu felt whatever that connection might be during Liam Jurrah’s first half yesterday.

But I think over the next 12 months it will be the Socceroos (as Gerard Whateley suggests) who find themselves the principal national team. Partly because of the respect for the depth of world football. Partly because it is fresh and growing. Partly because the team is on the rise.

But also because the mainstream commercial media have turned: they can no longer ignore the advertising dollars that their coverage of soccer will bring.

While this love of soccer has always existed in sections of the Australian community the mainstream media have worked to protect the minor empires that have been the local skippy codes. That has changed.

Which brings me to the other reason. Enough of us now imagine ourselves to be citizens of a genuinely multicultural nation, and soccer is profoundly symbolic of that.

Sorry Ricky Ponting and Cricket Australia, as important as you are in the national culture, your spot is being challenged.

While it does ignore the fact that our national squad is aging, and their don't appear to be any new Harry Kewell's on the horizon, there's no doubt that The World Game has more support in Australia than ever. Let's hope FFA have the future of Australian football in hand...