A bit of a blast from the past, this one. I saw the latest Batman film the other day and it was, after all the hype, a film about a man who dresses up as a bat, but nonetheless very good for all that. It also reminded me that I’d not listened to this gem from The Mae Shi in ages. Written, recorded, and released in the twenty-four hours after the audio from Christian Bale’s well-publicized wig-out was made available, R U Professional is half piss-take, half tribute. It certainly sounds like it was written in a rush, but maybe that’s half the fun of it – and ‘fun’ is the operative word here. This song’s not big, not clever, and in all honesty not particularly good, but it is fun. It could be argued that I spend too much time being very serious about the music I listen to, so it’s nice to throw caution to the wind from time to time and simply bask in the unadulterated joy of something really, really silly.
The band seem to have fizzled out since 2009, but this is a sample of what they did when they weren’t being meme-friendly satirists:
The Mae Shi – Lamb and the Lion
And, of course, for those of you who haven’t heard it (a.k.a. for those of you who didn’t have the internet in ’09) here’s Mr Bale’s little tantrum. Be warned, strong language ahead…
(and just in case you were inclined to sympathize with Mr Bale in a oh-he’s-in-the-creative-zone-making-art kind of way, remember that this was on the set of the most recent Terminator; the one with, you know, all the robots.)
Back in February I posted about the Withered Hand record Heart Heart, which was the first release in a three-single subscription series run by Fence Records, called Chart Ruse. Each of the 7″ EPs included in the deal come in a fantastically well designed sleeve, with each one subtly altered for each band, and each consists of four tracks, one of which is a remix (*shudder*) and one of which is a vinyl only cut. The subscription has now run its course, and having already written about the WH record, I figure it’s only fair to give the other two bands a place on these illustrious pages as well. The bands in question are Delifinger and Barbarossa, and I should confess that before signing up for this deal I’d never heard of either band before (well, I’d seen Delifinger open for WH and King Creosote at the start of the year, but was decidedly underwhelmed).
The Delifinger record, much like his live performance, was not quite as good as I’d hoped it would be. All the ingredients seemed to suggest an interesting sonic palette and more than a little creativity, but Matthew Lacey – who’s project this is – comes across as far too earnest, and the songs themselves are just too slow. That sounds like a dreadfully obtuse bit of criticism, but there just wasn’t enough going on to maintain my interest; if the songs had been faster it might have worked, or if they’d had more, well, hooks they might have been able to sustain the slow pace. As a result, this single might appeal to those of a more morose aspect than myself, but as it stands the Escapes EP is a sincere and laudable effort, but not really my cup of tea.
The Barbarossa contribution covers much the same ground in terms of texture and approach, but where Delifinger doesn’t quite deliver, Barbarossa (again, it’s all the work of one man; this time it’s James Mathé) injects enough variety to keep things interesting. In fact, I think the real difference lies in the confidence of the performers; Butterfly Plague feels much more assured, much more decisive, much more confident. The record is, overall, perhaps a little too delicate for me to find myself really loving it, but it’s still good enough for me to pop it on the turntable on a fairly regular basis.
All in all, despite my disparaging remarks, this has been a rewarding series, and while I may have been rather dismissive of some of the music, the fact that it’s a unified collection of 7″s that sit nicely together on my shelf – and because it came from Fence – means that I’ll most likely find myself returning to it before too long. In the meantime, the next Fence series – this time called Buff Tracks – kicks of imminently, so now I’m waiting eagerly for that to arrive.
Another great low-budget video for your delectation today. This one’s been sitting in my inbox for over a month now, which means I’m coming a little late to the Cosmo Jarvis party. People who got there before I did include Brian Eno and Jarvis Cocker, and while I’m never sure if celebrity endorsements actually help launch an artist, accolades from names like those can’t do any harm (although I seem to remember hearing something recently about the ‘curse’ of an endorsement from Morrissey…). Anyway, late or not, this video for Love This is fantastic and the song’s of equal quality. It came out at the start of July, and was quickly followed by a full-length release, Think Bigger.
If you ignore the nipples, this is actually rather good. Not being particularly familiar with Ms. Palmer, I assumed she was just, you know, yet another breathy, girly, away-with-the-fairies singer-songwriter. Having heard this, and having made the connection between her name and the fantastic Map Of Tasmania I heard a while back, I wish I’d jumped on the million-dollar-plus Kickstarter campaign bandwagon. The album from that massive influx of funds is called Theatre Is Evil, and will get it’s uk release through Cooking Vinyl.
Great typography in the video, and a great song to go with it. I guess people will call her brave and a feminist and other silly things, but inside I’m still about ten years old and find boobs scary and intimidating…
(If you haven’t guessed by now, the video is a little NSFW).
Eaten by Monsters 