Victor Billot » Music

From the Crypt: Age of Dog

admin — Tue, 16 Jun 2009 21:53:14 +0000

1992, Crown Hotel, Dunedin.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzZn1Z7S06k

Never mind the butter, here’s the ex-Pistols

admin — Wed, 27 May 2009 02:43:01 +0000

I am an agriculturalist, I am an anarchist . . . dairy me.

Music and Dancing

admin — Mon, 13 Apr 2009 09:50:16 +0000

Finally got around to uploading some obscure mp3s from the dim past – including tracks from Das Phaedrus, Age of Dog, Swarm, Body Bomb, Alpha Plan and a few of my own, spanning the last 20 years (just about!)

Presenting the Bad Clowns?

admin — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 08:33:03 +0000

As a general principle the idea of Mick Harvey leaving the Bad Seeds would be a negative, but when his replacement is Ed Kuepper the situation becomes more complex, especially when the Laughing Clowns are back in town.

(Barbed) Wire

admin — Tue, 17 Mar 2009 09:24:32 +0000

Just listened to one of the tracks from the new Wire album “One of us” – available as a free download.

Still brilliant. Contributing to my theory that post punk music groups can (not always) survive middle age better than pre punk music groups.

Alpha Plan video from the archives . . .

admin — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 05:31:36 +0000

www.youtube.com/watch?v=HbUZ48uYUqI

David Kilgour at Arc, 13/9/07

admin — Fri, 14 Sep 2007 08:37:51 +0000

I ventured out last night to the Arc, which is under “new” management (again.) It’s a good space but has struggled. I’m out of the loop with music at the moment as I have been engaged in different things in the last few years.

David Kilgour was playing a solo set along with the duo version of White Swan Black Swan . . . or is that Black Swan White Swan.

Anyway the Swans did a decent opening set, I liked the piano/guitar combination. It was actually surprisingly mainstream. Some of those retro sounds were very eighties indeed.

Mr Kilgour had a battle on his hands with guitars that detuned themselves and technology that wouldn’t play ball. His songs are completely suited to the electric-acoustic guitar and voice format. He decided to take things west with a laptop and backing tracks; definitely worth a try, but it just seemed to confuse the sound rather than adding much. That said, he pulled it all together with a last number where everything seemed to work and when it did work, it was good. Of course. First night of the tour and all that . . . I just wonder whether going back to the man and six strings format would be the best option for these analogue melodies.

The audience was sparse to say the least but made up for quantity by quality. After the Clean’s stonking set at the Regent for the Dunedin Sound thing a few months back, you would think the place would be packed. Glad I went anyway.

Bailterspace?

admin — Tue, 07 Aug 2007 08:21:38 +0000

The high ranking BailterSpace have some new mp3s on their MySpace page after many years of silence.

My pick is Place of R. Some people like music to drive to. This is music to drive space freighters to.

Games People Play

admin — Mon, 12 Jul 2004 11:22:00 +0000

Some interesting sounds have appeared on my desk lately.

I discovered a copy of Roy Budd’s fantastic soundtrack to Get Carter and have been enjoying it a lot. It’s a great movie, starring Michael Caine in a career highlight, and the book it was adapted from (Jacks Return Home, by Ted Lewis) is a cracking read.

The soundtrack is crossover soul-inflected jazz interspersed with early 70s electronic effects and some haunting atmospheric work. Well worth tracking down.

Received from John recently: a collection by country-soul crossover king Joe South, best known for the post-hippy anthem “Games People Play.”

Joe is a grower, if you can get past the sometimes overenthusiastic studio trickery from thirty-something years ago, and this old country boy definitely goes with the Joe South attitude.

Dating Godot

admin — Mon, 21 Jun 2004 08:12:00 +0000

I was alerted to a music show on National Radio last week featuring an interview with old friend and bandmate Andrew Spittle, now lost in the mists of the far north somewhere.

The half hour interview was great, and some long overdue coverage for the man who puts a new meaning to productivity. However the interviewer threw in a weird quote from an old Dead Weight article I wrote about Andrew, where I called him “one of life’s beautiful losers, a man screaming into deep space.”

If you read this Andy – you recovered well, man, after the first strangled choking noise you made. You’re right, the comment was made about your business acumen. The music stands. Or to quote from a certain movie “the dude abides.”