Happy Hollow

This week saw the release of the first new Cursive album in a few years. As many of you will know, they're one of my favourite bands of all time (top 3, along with Mineral and At the Drive-In, I'd say). I also went to watch them this Monday as well, on the release date. It was a good show overall, they played quite a few old classics as well as stuff off the new album, and encored with The Martyr. During the encore set, I waited for a that lull of silence that you sometimes get, then shouted at the top of my lungs "Tides Rush In". They didn't play it, but it embarrassed the rest of Action and Action who were with me, and caused Cursive to give one another wry smiles. Find me a band that likes to play its own early songs if you can. I don't know any.

Back to the new album. I like it, musically - it has quite a lot of the jauntiness of the Ugly Organ about it. However, I'm not confortable with some of the approaches that Tim Kasher takes, lyrically. There has long been an element of his writing that's used religious imagery in a fairly agnostic way, sometimes quite cleverly. What's changed with this album is that he's taken a turn to be so anti-religious and specifically anti-clerical that I find it a bit wearing to listen to. It's almost too much of an easy target. Young people who listen to bands like this already have a pretty negative view of religion, so cranking up your critique of Christianity really isn't all that constructive (and though there are exceptions within this album, it's largely against Christianity because noone likes to take on a religion like Islam where its adherents might actually have something to say or do to you for attacking their beliefs). It's not even really because I'm a Catholic that it bothers me, but there's something so overwhelmingly negative about the portrayal of priests (among the rest of the cast of ever more sordid characters) that feels draining. Isn't it about time rock bands found someone else to attack?

Notwithstanding that there are lots of men and women throughout history, and out there right now, who have dedicated themselves selflessly to the religious life - which has led to a huge amount of humanitarian work, incidentally - doesn't it feel as if we played out these arguments long ago during the so-called-Enlightenment? The anti-Creationist rhetoric gets boring, and literalist, and starts to detract from the music. Maybe this is how Nebraskans see their religion, but it's not an accurate reflection of modern Christianity as experienced by most of us.

I hope I can get past this lyrical straightjacket, because I don't want it to ruin my future enjoyment of one of my favourite bands.

Tin Robot

Last night I met up for a drink with Freddy (drummer from Second Monday) who promotes gigs under the guise of Tin Robot Promotions. He's been looking for someone to help out with the shows, and the fact that I found out that Chris Simpson from Mineral/The Gloria Record was looking for a tour date down this way (and put Freddy onto it) has sort of led me into being involved in helping out with the promotions side of things on a trial basis. It's something I've often thought I'd like to do, but it really isn't something you can do on your own, so having an existing vehicle for promoting makes this all the more appealing.

I'm sure it's going to be hard work. Unforunately it transpires that I'll be in Mexico on the date on which we're booking Chris Simpson (who now plays solo under the name of The Zookeeper), which means that I'll both miss the gig and won't be able to play at it myself. Nevertheless, the opportunity to be involved in doing what I can to ensure that more people are exposed to really good music is impossible to pass up. I suspect I may get a taste for this. I've already compiled a list of UK bands that I'd want to book at some point, and that's not even considering the wealth of amazing underground talent that seems to be coming over from the US at the moment (like the Florida band, Tubers, who we played with a month or two back). I'm quite excited by the prospect of bringing slightly more unusual bands to Winchester, as well. I'll write more here as things unfold.

Comedy, welcome home!

Time Trumpet
Originally uploaded by ambroseneville.

Last night was the occasion of the triumphant first episode of Armando Ianucci's new series, Time Trumpet. Funnily enough it was Naomi's idea to watch it (now, bear in mind that she can't stand anything remotely associated with Steve Coogan, and AI was one of the Alan Partridge writers), after we watched some episodes of the Armando Ianucci Show together that I'd found on UKNova a few months back.

It was tremendous. Time Trumpet is the best comedy I've watched in ages. Highlight's of last night's episode were pundits from the future (including a grey-haired Stuart Lee!) discussing the Top of the Pops 2 intro credits as a major event in British history, laughing at the very idea of petrol, and referring back to Camilla Parker-Bowles actually having been a TV prank artist who'd been playing a joke on Prince Charles for 60 years. Truly inspired stuff. I suggest you head over to the site and enjoy some of the clips, as I don't think I can do it justice in words yet. Dale Winton suicide bomb, anyone?

An honorable mention must also go to Annually Retentive, the recent Rob Brydon vehicle. I've been enjoying Brydon's comedy since the much-underrated Steve Coogan collaboration in Cruise of the Gods, then through his wonderful solo turn in Marion and Geoff. Now, don't get me wrong, I think that Alan Partridge was actually a work of genius, and right up there with the very finest recent sit-comedy (it preceded The Office, after all), but it seems that where Coogan is now re-using comedic ideas, and Saxondale isn't quite as good as I'd hoped for, Brydon is going from strength to strength bringing forward interesting comedy concepts. Annually retentive is brilliant in the same way that Ricky Gervais' Extras is brilliant, by taking public perception of celebrities (albeit of lesser fame) and messing with it, in this case in a show that parodies Have I Got News For You. The funny parts of the show are not the actual panel faux-game-show, but the production team meetings, where Brydon voices bluntly critical views of all the guests he doesn't want to have on his show, but inevitably have to be booked to appear.

Oyster Paranoia

Long-term readers may remember my concern about Oyster cards expressed in previous posts.

Well, in a development that seems more than a little Orwellian, a letter was sent from the police to my friends Richard and Philippa last weekend, informing Richard that usage of his Oyster showed he had been in the vicinity of a recent murder. The libertarian in me finds this concerning, even if it's going to be used for crime-fighting purposes.