More news as this progresses.
More interesting things that have cropped up in the last few weeks;
Obama... woo.
In a rare fit of all things London, On the day I had tickets to see the formidable Les Savy Fav and Shellac crush my skull with their frankly electric sets at All Tomorrows Parties' Release The Bats on Thurs 30th Oct, I also attended the new Rothko Exhibition at the Tate Modern. The girl at the box office let me in for student price without me even asking for it! I haven't lost my youthful charm just yet it seems! Just as well, as I thought £12.50 was a tad on the pricey side, but i think the amount the work has made me consider since experiencing it has been surprising. I had been a fan in the laymen sense of the word for a couple of years, so the chance to see the later 'series era' of his work was a thrill.
I went in with a reasonably bad headache, and all i can say is, the gravity of the pieces, especially viewed in some slightly more wide context than the small room already at the Tate, didn't help my head one bit. My perception of Rothko's work went from that of a sense of overwhelming darkness to something a little bit darker.... i felt that work wouldn't let me interpret it, its too big, too.... monolithic for me to even comprehend. He was relentless, almost arrogant in his delivery. How can I even begin to enjoy such satire? As he got more playful, the message seems more bleak.... he seemed to give up on his ideals, adding accurate white frames in his later work; almost giving in to his view of human kind putting everything in little boxes to collect, label and own.
This wasn't helped by the fact, when we arrived the other side, available for purchase, were mugs, bags, cups and even T Shirts blazoned with out of scale, out of context 'pictures' of his work. It was a dark story that seeme dot get more tragic as we moved forward, his defiance and strength, gradually weened out of him, until all thats left is a shop.
I've been swooning over the new record from Helms Alee, the new band from Ben Verellen(guitarist/vocals Harkonen), one of my heroes of the last few years. Sine the release of records such as No Age's Nouns and the resurgence of the genius of My Bloody Valentine, its great to see such an underrated performer back, and on the cutting edge of modern music. The record veers between Massive AmRep style rock a la Harkonen, but with quite beautiful passages that have almost captured the blurry, unfocussed dream state of bands such like MBV or Jesus and Mary Chain.... and it works! don't sleep on this band, I await their arrival on these shores with baited breath.
Helms Alee MyspaceAlso, In celebration of progression and weary reminder of the dark days just passed in US Politics, Thom York has posted a DARRRRRK remix of the amazing Harrowdown Hill on the Radiohead blog DeadAirSpace.. go check it out immediately, its fantastic.
Thats all for now i think....
