CucosBlog

Going to gigs is knackering. By the time I had met Antony outside the Scala in King’s Cross, I was already painfully tired. Why?

I went to quite a lot of trouble to attend this gig and witness with mine own eyes the greatness of Ariel Pink, probably the most exciting music phenomenon of this period. The fact that Cluster and Howlin Rain were on the bill too made it unmissable.

Here are most of the CDs I listened to while in the US. Yes that’s right I made a note of them as I went along. I thought I may as well. There’s a few that I’ve forgotten so you can blame the mota for that.

Another Neil Young gig… Expectations were kind of low after the last Greendale tour, when he seemed to have transformed into an overly quaint Garrison Keillor storyteller dude. But as you know, I only review gigs I like…

On the back of the ATP weekend, I wasn’t particularly excited to be going to yet another gig the very next day. But tickets get booked in that moment of desire/excitement/curiosity, and having already shelled out at £16 a pop I had to make the effort. It turned out to be an inspiring and moving experience.

The seven best records of all time - in order - are (drumroll please)

Another night out going to see a gig in a vain attempt to see something which is beautiful and dangerous and moving… Oh Jesus, it really seems like I am going to have to make this shit myself.

So anyway, that was the kind of mental baggage I brought along with me to the ATP festival. Being in that environment - the Butlins holiday camp in Minehead just south of Bristol - was not pleasant. I understood that it was supposed to be ironic, or could be understood to be tacky-cool.

Anyway here’s my main contention regarding rock music: rock music is at its best when it embraces both pop and experiment, both harmony and noise, both exciting rhythm and abstraction, both pop song and poetry. The best periods of the best bands have been when they have managed to embrace both the popular and the experimental impulse.

Something happened with Sonic Youth. Something that for many years made me feel very sad about Sonic Youth, that made me think that, contrary to what Glenn Branca states in the liner notes to last year’s reissue of their first EP, Sonic Youth did artistically sell out.