From martinwheatley@... Sun Feb 1 11:57:05 2004 From: martinwheatley@... (Martin Wheatley) Date: Sun, 01 Feb 2004 10:57:05 +0000 Subject: Mark E Smith Message-ID: <4.3.2.7.2.20040201105305.00c51cc0@...> Apologies to anyone subscribed to the Fall list as they will already know about this Anyone in the UK with Sky may be interested that next Thursday Mark E Smith (of Fall fame or infamy depending on which side of the war you are!) is appearing next Thursday on Channel 277 at 7.55PM in a discussion program about tv progs. Could be interesting From jmsmall@... Sun Feb 1 12:54:21 2004 From: jmsmall@... (Jon) Date: Sun, 01 Feb 2004 11:54:21 +0000 Subject: [peel] Mark E Smith References: <4.3.2.7.2.20040201105305.00c51cc0@...> Message-ID: <401CE8ED.1B991283@...> Martin Wheatley wrote: > Mark E Smith (of Fall fame or infamy depending on which side of the war > you are!) Or which side of the war you were born? From parkrow1@... Mon Feb 2 21:05:31 2004 From: parkrow1@... (Michael Gilham) Date: Mon, 2 Feb 2004 12:05:31 -0800 (PST) Subject: ME Smith In-Reply-To: <1075659772.322.57711.m12@yahoogroups.com> Message-ID: <20040202200531.18485.qmail@...> That's a bloody understatement!! ;-D __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! SiteBuilder - Free web site building tool. Try it! http://webhosting.yahoo.com/ps/sb/ From robstrong@... Thu Feb 5 22:04:00 2004 From: robstrong@... (Rob Strong) Date: Thu, 5 Feb 2004 21:04:00 -0000 Subject: franz & dudley Message-ID: <001b01c3ec2b$960896c0$585dbcc3@rob> If anyone is able to record the Franz Ferdinand set on Jo Whiley's show tomorrow lunchtime, or the Dudley Corporation set on xfm, I'd be very pleased to hear from you Rob From diamondgeeezer@... Sun Feb 8 13:54:56 2004 From: diamondgeeezer@... (diamondgeeezer) Date: Sun, 08 Feb 2004 12:54:56 -0000 Subject: Victor Lewis Smith Message-ID: What a fantasic article about Mr Peel (nee Ravenscroft) in the Evening Standard this week. "like Tony Blair his' pretty straight kinda guy' persona rings false because behind the interminably wry, self effacing exterior lies a cynical oppurtunist with a major pulic school education, whose "hipness" doesnt prevent him from presenting insincere, insipid hinterland-before-senility trash, nor voicing just about any and every TV ad and docu soap series hes offered" Umm, seems i'm not alone then ! From garry_latham@... Sun Feb 8 17:01:00 2004 From: garry_latham@... (garry_latham) Date: Sun, 08 Feb 2004 16:01:00 -0000 Subject: Victor Lewis Smith In-Reply-To: Message-ID: --- In peel@yahoogroups.com, "diamondgeeezer" wrote: > What a fantasic article about Mr Peel (nee Ravenscroft) in the > Evening Standard this week. > "like Tony Blair his' pretty straight kinda guy' persona rings false > because behind the interminably wry, self effacing exterior lies a > cynical oppurtunist with a major pulic school education, > whose "hipness" doesnt prevent him from presenting insincere, insipid > hinterland-before-senility trash, nor voicing just about any and > every TV ad and docu soap series hes offered" > Umm, seems i'm not alone then ! My god you hold a grunge. I'd hate to be someone who actually did some bad to you! From jmsmall@... Sun Feb 8 18:51:57 2004 From: jmsmall@... (Jon) Date: Sun, 08 Feb 2004 17:51:57 +0000 Subject: [peel] Victor Lewis Smith References: Message-ID: <4026773D.A5569D55@...> diamondgeeezer wrote: > > What a fantasic article about Mr Peel (nee Ravenscroft) in the > Evening Standard this week. > "like Tony Blair his' pretty straight kinda guy' persona rings false > because behind the interminably wry, self effacing exterior lies a > cynical oppurtunist with a major pulic school education, > whose "hipness" doesnt prevent him from presenting insincere, insipid > hinterland-before-senility trash, nor voicing just about any and > every TV ad and docu soap series hes offered" > Umm, seems i'm not alone then ! Does this text appear as green on anyone else's computer? From andy.irvine@... Sun Feb 8 19:13:34 2004 From: andy.irvine@... (Andy Irvine) Date: Sun, 8 Feb 2004 18:13:34 -0000 Subject: [peel] Victor Lewis Smith References: Message-ID: <003601c3ee6f$44271b60$acce0150@2b> Oh, for God's sake, why on earth do you subscribe to a mailing list in which you don't have any kind of interest whatsoever? p.s. Lewis-Smith is a SATIRIST. Look it up. ----- Original Message ----- From: "diamondgeeezer" To: Sent: Sunday, February 08, 2004 12:54 PM Subject: [peel] Victor Lewis Smith > What a fantasic article about Mr Peel (nee Ravenscroft) in the > Evening Standard this week. > "like Tony Blair his' pretty straight kinda guy' persona rings false > because behind the interminably wry, self effacing exterior lies a > cynical oppurtunist with a major pulic school education, > whose "hipness" doesnt prevent him from presenting insincere, insipid > hinterland-before-senility trash, nor voicing just about any and > every TV ad and docu soap series hes offered" > Umm, seems i'm not alone then ! > > > > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------ > Yahoo! Groups Links > > a.. To visit your group on the web, go to: > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/peel/ > > b.. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: > peel-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com > > c.. Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service. > > From npu65@... Sun Feb 8 20:06:32 2004 From: npu65@... (Nigel U) Date: Sun, 8 Feb 2004 19:06:32 -0000 Subject: [peel] Victor Lewis Smith References: <003601c3ee6f$44271b60$acce0150@2b> Message-ID: <03ec01c3ee76$ac82a2e0$c0822652@pbncomputer> Don't feed the troll! ----- Original Message ----- From: "diamondgeeezer" To: Sent: Sunday, February 08, 2004 12:54 PM Subject: [peel] Victor Lewis Smith > What a fantasic article about Mr Peel (nee Ravenscroft) in the > Evening Standard this week. > "like Tony Blair his' pretty straight kinda guy' persona rings false > because behind the interminably wry, self effacing exterior lies a > cynical oppurtunist with a major pulic school education, > whose "hipness" doesnt prevent him from presenting insincere, insipid > hinterland-before-senility trash, nor voicing just about any and > every TV ad and docu soap series hes offered" > Umm, seems i'm not alone then ! > > > > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------ > Yahoo! Groups Links > > a.. To visit your group on the web, go to: > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/peel/ > > b.. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: > peel-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com > > c.. Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service. > > Yahoo! Groups Sponsor ADVERTISEMENT ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Yahoo! Groups Links a.. To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/peel/ b.. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: peel-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com c.. Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service. From garry_latham@... Sun Feb 8 21:02:26 2004 From: garry_latham@... (garry_latham) Date: Sun, 08 Feb 2004 20:02:26 -0000 Subject: Victor Lewis Smith In-Reply-To: <03ec01c3ee76$ac82a2e0$c0822652@pbncomputer> Message-ID: You make it sound like a zoo. --- In peel@yahoogroups.com, "Nigel U" wrote: > Don't feed the troll! > ----- Original Message ----- > From: "diamondgeeezer" > To: > Sent: Sunday, February 08, 2004 12:54 PM > Subject: [peel] Victor Lewis Smith > > > > What a fantasic article about Mr Peel (nee Ravenscroft) in the > > Evening Standard this week. > > "like Tony Blair his' pretty straight kinda guy' persona rings false > > because behind the interminably wry, self effacing exterior lies a > > cynical oppurtunist with a major pulic school education, > > whose "hipness" doesnt prevent him from presenting insincere, insipid > > hinterland-before-senility trash, nor voicing just about any and > > every TV ad and docu soap series hes offered" > > Umm, seems i'm not alone then ! > > > > > > > > --------------------------------------------------------------- ----------- > ------ > > Yahoo! Groups Links > > > > a.. To visit your group on the web, go to: > > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/peel/ > > > > b.. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: > > peel-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com > > > > c.. Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service. > > > > > > > Yahoo! Groups Sponsor > ADVERTISEMENT > > > > > > ------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------- > Yahoo! Groups Links > > a.. To visit your group on the web, go to: > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/peel/ > > b.. To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: > peel-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com > > c.. Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service. From stuart@... Mon Feb 9 12:41:55 2004 From: stuart@... (Stuart McHugh) Date: Mon, 9 Feb 2004 11:41:55 +0000 Subject: Victor Lewis Smith In-Reply-To: <1076326137.291.87860.m12@yahoogroups.com> References: <1076326137.291.87860.m12@yahoogroups.com> Message-ID: >What a fantasic article about Mr Peel (nee Ravenscroft) in the >Evening Standard this week. I'm all for free speech and that, but anyone else think we should kick this 'geezer' fella off the list? His bitching is getting tiresome. Plus, he's an Evening Standard reader! (Plus, I've always had a gut hatted of VLS, so I feel kind of vindicated over this one). S -- From d.mckinnon@... Mon Feb 9 13:09:26 2004 From: d.mckinnon@... (McKINNON Dougal) Date: Mon, 9 Feb 2004 12:09:26 -0000 Subject: [peel] Re:Victor Lewis Smith Message-ID: > I'm all for free speech and that, but anyone else think we should > kick this 'geezer' fella off the list? Nah, I wouldn't go that far. I'm just a bit curious what he's still doing here, given that he's already had his little tantrum re. that voiceover describing ELP as slighly less than wonderful. Is the Victor Lewis Smith that writes for the Evening Standard any relation to the dismally unfunny Victor Lewis Smith that writes for The Mirror? Writing for one piss-poor newspaper you could perhaps explain away as a momentary lapse, writing for two and you could be forgiven for thinking that he's turning being a tosser into a career. dougal mckinnon Tel: 01782 294832 E-mail: d.mckinnon@... The information in this email is confidential and is intended solely for the addressee. Access to this email by anyone else is unauthorised. If you are not the intended recipient, any disclosure, copying, distribution or any action taken or omitted to be taken in reliance on it, except for the purpose of delivery to the addressee, is prohibited and may be unlawful. Kindly notify the sender and delete the message and any attachment from your computer. From martinwheatley@... Mon Feb 9 20:15:13 2004 From: martinwheatley@... (Martin Wheatley) Date: Mon, 09 Feb 2004 19:15:13 +0000 Subject: [peel] franz & dudley Message-ID: <4.3.2.7.2.20040209191202.00c521a8@...> Rob asked : : : >If anyone is able to record the Franz Ferdinand set on Jo Whiley's show >tomorrow lunchtime, or the Dudley Corporation set on xfm, I'd be very >pleased to hear from you Dudley Corporation XFM session is going to be for the John Kennedy show next week. It goes out 11PM to 1AM Mon - Thurs and it will be one track a night. Usually the session track is about 11.20 - 11.40 There will also be an Alec Empire live set on that show sometime next week (most probably Monday) martinw From robstrong@... Mon Feb 9 20:39:33 2004 From: robstrong@... (Rob Strong) Date: Mon, 9 Feb 2004 19:39:33 -0000 Subject: [peel] franz & dudley References: <4.3.2.7.2.20040209191202.00c521a8@...> Message-ID: <002501c3ef44$73da3240$982730d5@rob> From: "Martin Wheatley" > the Dudley Corporation set on xfm > Dudley Corporation XFM session is going to be for the John Kennedy > show next week. It goes out 11PM to 1AM Mon - Thurs and it will > be one track a night. Usually the session track is about 11.20 - 11.40 thanks, Martin. by 'next week' I presume you mean w/c 16th Feb? Rob From simon@... Mon Feb 9 22:27:55 2004 From: simon@... (simon b) Date: Mon, 9 Feb 2004 21:27:55 +0000 Subject: VLS In-Reply-To: <1076326137.291.87860.m12@yahoogroups.com> Message-ID: On Monday, February 9, 2004, at 11:28 am, peel@yahoogroups.com wrote: > What a fantasic article about Mr Peel (nee Ravenscroft) in the > Evening Standard this week. > "like Tony Blair his' pretty straight kinda guy' persona rings false > because behind the interminably wry, self effacing exterior lies a > cynical oppurtunist with a major pulic school education, > whose "hipness" doesnt prevent him from presenting insincere, insipid > hinterland-before-senility trash, nor voicing just about any and > every TV ad and docu soap series hes offered" This is Victor Lewis-Smith criticising someone for working on popular television in an article he's writing in *the* *evening* *standard*? Oh, and Peel turns down adverts all the time - there's a lucrative trade in 'sounds a bit like peel voiceovers' (see: pepparami, for example) picking up the work he refuses on ethical grounds > From martinwheatley@... Tue Feb 10 00:05:27 2004 From: martinwheatley@... (Martin Wheatley) Date: Mon, 09 Feb 2004 23:05:27 +0000 Subject: [peel] franz & dudley In-Reply-To: <002501c3ef44$73da3240$982730d5@rob> References: <4.3.2.7.2.20040209191202.00c521a8@...> Message-ID: <4.3.2.7.2.20040209230444.029d9c78@...> At 19:39 09/02/2004 +0000, you wrote: >From: "Martin Wheatley" > > > the Dudley Corporation set on xfm > > > Dudley Corporation XFM session is going to be for the John Kennedy > > show next week. It goes out 11PM to 1AM Mon - Thurs and it will > > be one track a night. Usually the session track is about 11.20 - 11.40 > >thanks, Martin. by 'next week' I presume you mean w/c 16th Feb? > >Rob > Yes martinw From garry_latham@... Tue Feb 10 23:15:06 2004 From: garry_latham@... (garry_latham) Date: Tue, 10 Feb 2004 22:15:06 -0000 Subject: VLS In-Reply-To: Message-ID: --- In peel@yahoogroups.com, simon b wrote: > > On Monday, February 9, 2004, at 11:28 am, peel@yahoogroups.com wrote: > > > What a fantasic article about Mr Peel (nee Ravenscroft) in the > > Evening Standard this week. > > "like Tony Blair his' pretty straight kinda guy' persona rings false > > because behind the interminably wry, self effacing exterior lies a > > cynical oppurtunist with a major pulic school education, > > whose "hipness" doesnt prevent him from presenting insincere, insipid > > hinterland-before-senility trash, nor voicing just about any and > > every TV ad and docu soap series hes offered" > > > This is Victor Lewis-Smith criticising someone for working on popular > television in an article he's writing in *the* *evening* *standard*? > > Oh, and Peel turns down adverts all the time - there's a lucrative > trade in 'sounds a bit like peel voiceovers' (see: pepparami, for > example) picking up the work he refuses on ethical grounds > > > It is also on record that John only does voiceovers on ads for products that he uses. From fatgattjunior@... Thu Feb 12 18:04:45 2004 From: fatgattjunior@... (=?iso-8859-1?q?Simon=20Melville?=) Date: Thu, 12 Feb 2004 17:04:45 +0000 (GMT) Subject: [peel] Re: VLS In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <20040212170445.91418.qmail@...> You have TWO national newspaper columns and you decide to attack John Peel of all people?! Let us also hold the following against VLS: 1) Very poor televison programmes, sporadically shown on Channel 4 and/or BBC2 (can't quite remember which). 2) Very poor hair. 3) Piss-poor "Way of the World" bit in Private Eye which he actually re-writes odd newspaper stories from around the world allegedly sent in to him and gives them funny endings and turns-of-phrase. Come to think of it, apart from point 3 you could hold that all against Peel if you so wished. garry_latham wrote: --- In peel@yahoogroups.com, simon b wrote: > > On Monday, February 9, 2004, at 11:28 am, peel@yahoogroups.com wrote: > > > What a fantasic article about Mr Peel (nee Ravenscroft) in the > > Evening Standard this week. > > "like Tony Blair his' pretty straight kinda guy' persona rings false > > because behind the interminably wry, self effacing exterior lies a > > cynical oppurtunist with a major pulic school education, > > whose "hipness" doesnt prevent him from presenting insincere, insipid > > hinterland-before-senility trash, nor voicing just about any and > > every TV ad and docu soap series hes offered" > > > This is Victor Lewis-Smith criticising someone for working on popular > television in an article he's writing in *the* *evening* *standard*? > > Oh, and Peel turns down adverts all the time - there's a lucrative > trade in 'sounds a bit like peel voiceovers' (see: pepparami, for > example) picking up the work he refuses on ethical grounds > > > It is also on record that John only does voiceovers on ads for products that he uses. --------------------------------- Yahoo! Groups Links To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/peel/ To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: peel-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the Yahoo! Terms of Service. --------------------------------- BT Yahoo! Broadband - Free modem offer, sign up online today and save �80 From janb@... Thu Feb 12 19:26:58 2004 From: janb@... (Jan Buxton) Date: Thu, 12 Feb 2004 18:26:58 -0000 Subject: [peel] Re: VLS References: <20040212170445.91418.qmail@...> Message-ID: <01d801c3f196$f085e100$e74dfea9@...> On Thursday, February 12, 2004 5:04 PM [GMT+1=CET], Simon Melville wrote: > 3) Piss-poor "Way of the World" bit in Private Eye which he actually "Funny Old World", which I find rather enjoyable really, one of the first things I read in said organ. -- Jan From troche@... Sun Feb 15 01:55:24 2004 From: troche@... (Tom Roche) Date: Sat, 14 Feb 2004 19:55:24 -0500 Subject: this showed up the other day in the Guardian Message-ID: Subject: Guardian | The cult of Cutler X-URL: http://www.guardian.co.uk/print/0,3858,4836783-111426,00.html The cult of Cutler The legend of poet and performer Ivor Cutler is intact, 50 years after he started songwriting. Will Hodgkinson meets him Friday January 16, 2004 The Guardian "That's my chair," says Ivor Cutler, when I make the mistake of sitting down in the dark and cluttered living room of his little flat in north London. "You can go over there." Ivor Cutler - or Mr Cutler, as he likes to be addressed - lives on his own at the flat, which redefines conventional concepts of untidiness and enters into the realm of the bomb-shattered. Amid the debris of photographs, books, cuttings, ephemera and loose pieces of paper that fill the living room are three chairs, a bar heater and a harmonium: a miniature piano that wheezes into life when its foot pedals are pressed. The few records and CDs in the flat have remained unplayed since Cutler's record player gave up work some years ago. As a member of the Noise Abatement Society, the poet and performer is on an eternal if ultimately fruitless quest for silence. "I'm an extremely sensitive man and I'm very sensitive to noise," says Cutler. "There was some noise on the house opposite earlier today, and it was hell. So I went round there to complain and actually the man was very nice. There are a lot of nice people around. Have you noticed?" Cutler has been enchanting audiences of nice people for over 40 years now. Dismissed from the RAF in 1941 for dreaminess, he became a teacher, and in the 1950s started to write songs in the hope of making enough money to give up teaching and become a painter. It didn't happen, but he did manage to broadcast his stories on the BBC's Home Service. Since then successive generations have formed their own Cutler cult: he hung out with a hip crowd at Peter Cook's Establishment Club, was lauded by the Beatles, and has kept his legend intact - with the help of John Peel's patronage - ever since. "John Peel has a show on Number One [Radio 1] on which he plays the latest gramophone records," Cutler tells us. "He put one of my records on, and a few days later there was a cloud of envelopes coming in. But some people like Cutler, and some people don't. When I did Monday Night at Home one man called in and said 'Hey! Get rid of that guy! He's driving me nuts and his voice is making my wife's hair stand on end!'" The flat is something of a shrine to its inhabitant. Cutler wrote a good percentage of the books on the shelves and the floor; there are large black and white prints of his younger self leaning against the windows; and some of his finest poetry moments are taped to various surfaces, such as this line on the top of a bookcase: "The earth meets the sky over the hill, I was told by a sparrow with a lump on his head." Poetry neophytes come to the flat to learn from the old master, and his advice is always the same: learn to bypass the intellect and use your imagination. "The intellect is the thing you get from your teachers, and - what are those big places that people go to for education?" Universities? "That's it. But the intellect doesn't come from the person. It comes from people telling you how to do things. As a teacher in Paisley I had to teach drawing. So I said: 'OK kids, here is a wee bit of paper and a crayon, draw an animal.' One boy drew an ass that didn't have four legs, but 14. I asked him why and he said: 'It looked better that way.' I wanted to lift him out of his cage and put my arms around him, but my intellect told me not to which was lucky, because I probably would have been sent to prison." There isn't much music that interests Cutler now, although he can point to musicians that have made an impact on him over the decades: his favourite composer is Arvo Part, his "second best song" is Didn't It Rain by the American blues singer Mahalia Jackson, and he feels an affinity with the folk music of eastern Europe, especially when it is performed by the Hungarian singer Marta Sebestyen. "Because I'm 80 there are not many people who I can look up to anymore, and my capacity for listening to music has become very sluggish. But I used to like going to see Marta Sebestyen when she came over. Then at the last concert I went to, she went for a heavy sound and completely killed the thing that I was once desperate for. I've stopped getting my kicks from Arvo Part, too. "Who was that miserable German guy, the one who died? His book is up there somewhere," says Cutler, when asked about writers that he likes. It turns out that he means the Czech writer Franz Kafka. "The Castle was the one I loved because it was me he was writing about. The empathy was there - I was empathising with him, but really I was thinking about myself. But I don't read anymore. Shall I show you something interesting?" Cutler gets up to lead us to the toilet, but he collapses over the photographer's camera bag on the way. For a moment, as he lies groaning on the floor, it looks like this might be the first Home Entertainment that has actually killed off its subject. This would be awful, as not only is Cutler a unique talent, but also he has a gig to do at the Queen Elizabeth Hall in London on February 1. He survives the fall, though, and gets up to show us two proud additions to his toilet: a sign on the faucet that states, "Once this has been opened, it cannot be returned", and a large group photograph of teenage girls at a finishing school. "I do what I do here, and I've got all these people to watch me. After relieving myself I turn and look at the girls at a finishing school. There's 18 of them, and I've never been able to decide which one I'd really like to know." Guardian Unlimited (c) Guardian Newspapers Limited 2004 From troche@... Thu Feb 19 05:01:59 2004 From: troche@... (Tom Roche) Date: Wed, 18 Feb 2004 23:01:59 -0500 Subject: The Japan Times / Feb 18th / Unpeeling Melt-Banana Message-ID: Unpeeling Melt-Banana The Japan Times: Feb. 18, 2004 (C) All rights reserved By SIMON BARTZ Staff writer Melt-Banana are one of the most popular Japanese bands in Europe and the United States, and there's two reasons for this: 1) They play more shows abroad than any other Japan-based band; and 2) They are one of Japan's most original-sounding bands, who, although highly experimental, make quality music you can actually listen to. Since they formed 10 years back their legion of admirers has mushroomed worldwide and now they're more famous than ever. American indie-music gurus Steve Albini and Jim O'Rourke have engineered or mixed Melt-Banana albums, legendary BBC DJ John Peel is a massive fan, and they've opened shows for Slipknot, The Melvins, Neurosis and a host of other foreign bands touring Japan. On the eve of a Japan tour opening for the acclaimed but aging art-punkers Wire, vocalist Yako O and guitarist Agata (bassist Rika mm' doesn't do interviews; and they currently use hired drummers) unveil some secrets of the alternative musical universe that is Melt-Banana. How (not) to peg the Melt-Banana sound Often described as a postpunk band or "noise terrorists," Melt-Banana also skirt the edge of metal and techno. In other words, it's impossible to genre-lize them. The unique factors in the sound are Yako's vocal, which is so fast it sounds like a series of whiplashes, and Agata's furious guitar playing, in which he rustles so many sounds out of his guitar through a mass of effects pedals that you imagine he's got two turntables and a computer stuffed down his underpants. One particular Web site (www.gnoosic.com) tries to help music lovers by surveying fans and compiling associative lists. It imagines Melt-Banana as the star of a musical solar system with other bands orbiting around like planets; the idea being that the closer the band to the star the more it sounds like Melt-Banana. I show it to them. "According to this we sound most like Techno Animal, Dead Milkmen and Bad Brains," says Agata. "I've never heard of the first two, but I like Bad Brains. But I think we're only like them because we try something different. With them it was mixing reggae and punk." Other bands floating a little further way from the core include Captain Beefheart (Agata: "We don't sound like them, but John Peel said we reminded him of 'Trout Mask Replica,' for some reason."), Minor Threat (Agata: "At least we like them."), and Fugazi (Agata: "We admire their D.I.Y. ethic."). A recent update showed Zeni Geva, Foetus and Merzbow close to the star. But despite the Web site's best efforts it's a lost cause. Melt-Banana's music is from a different universe. How skateboarders and dolphins help write songs The current musical trend seems to be about getting back to basics, from the sparseness of Radiohead to the garage-rock phenomenon, but Melt-Banana, as usual, are being contrary, moving in the opposite direction. Their latest album, "cell-scape," is still noisy and raw, but it's much smoother and more melodic than their previous stuff. "We know how to make lo-fi records and we wanted to try something different," says Agata. "When we made the lo-fi sound before, that was fine, but on the radio our songs sounded muddy compared to the more mainstream bands, who have a richer, fuller sound, and I wanted to do something about that." Have any of your older fans accused you of selling out? "We don't think about selling records or trying to be mainstream," says Agata. "We never have a vision of the finished work. We write our songs while we're recording them. We don't even rehearse them beforehand." But when you're lying on your futon unable to sleep at night and you get an idea in your head . . . "That happens, but I take that idea into the studio, we have fun with it and the original idea gets completely mangled. We write songs in a more abstract way than most. Like, I don't use chords. I don't go to the studio and say, 'Right, this is C and D and A.' " Give us a specific example of your abstract songwriting. "Video games have a big influence on me. 'Tony Hawks Pro Skater 3' or 'Ecco the Dolphin,' for example. I might be playing the game and things start connecting in my brain. If I get excited about a clever move I've made in the game then I might try to interpret that move musically. It's hard to explain. But if I'm killing a lot of people in a game and there's a quiet soundtrack to it I might then go to the studio and think of that game and make a noisy blast-beat song and add some quiet pretty sounds to it." How George W. Bush influenced the latest album and how the French don't get it You told me a few years ago that your lyrics, which are all in English, have no meaning and that you used words based on the intonation only. "Well, the new album's lyrics have more meaning. When we were recording the songs I was kind of upset and angry," says Yako. "I don't want to talk about politics but I did not like the idea of invading Iraq. It made me angry and that manifested itself in me questioning a lot of personal things around me." Was it a cathartic experience? Yako laughs. "Hardly, because now when I have to sing those songs at shows all those feelings come flooding back. But it's not too bad. When I sing those words now it's like opening up an old photo album and remembering things that are now not so much part of your life." How about the older songs? For instance, "Mouse is a Biscuit." "Hahaha! Well, mice are cute and you eat biscuits, so it's a kind of kawaii and evil image at the same time, and I find that juxtaposition interesting." "You know the song 'Zoo, No Vacancy?' " asks Agata. I pull out their second album, "Scratch & Stitch," and read out the 11-second-long song's entire lyrics: "Maybe yes, maybe no/Moody monkeys wearing laced shoes/Shoes squeak 'Greed.' (Take off your shoes, they lead you to the wrong way, you know.)" "When I first heard these lyrics I thought the monkey meant human," explains Agata as Yako rolls around in laughter on the sofa. "A human might just be a monkey but by putting on the shoes he becomes human and becomes materialistic, so he takes the shoes off. That's what I thought, but Yako always tells interviewers the lyrics don't mean much. But I felt I knew the meaning of it, so I particularly liked those lyrics." So it seems Melt-Banana's lyrics can encourage philosophical debate. "In France we played this festival and they wanted members of each band to join this debate and discuss what they were trying to express," says Agata. "We told them we didn't want to do it, but they said in France people expect artists to explain and if we didn't do it then they might think we're fake. I thought that was strange. It's like a teacher telling you in school how to enjoy this music and how to feel when you hear it and at this point in the song you should start jumping up and down. That's stupid. People should make their own mind up." How to get popular in England After 10 years together Melt-Banana seem to be more successful than ever. "In England maybe," says Yako. Is that down to John Peel's support? "Maybe, because we're not on a major label and don't have that many people promoting us there, but he constantly plays our records on the radio," says Yako. "We were actually shocked at how many people came to our shows in Britain last year. When we toured Europe three years ago we would get a few hundred at shows and we thought maybe that was our peak, but last year we got even more people so who knows what's going to happen next time. When we played in London a thousand people packed out this one venue!" Did you meet John Peel last time? "He hosted the show we played in Brighton," says Yako. "When I see him I feel like I'm standing in front of my grandpa and he is very sweet. He bought three T-shirts off us -- for himself, his grandson and his friend or something. We tried to give them to him for free but he insisted on paying." How to become the hardest-touring band in show business Next April, Melt-Banana tour the States with Fantomas, playing a 26-date tour. But that's nothing. Last year they played 38 shows in the States and 42 in Europe. In 2002 they played 46 shows in 54 days in the States. But in 1999 they were constantly in motion: 115 shows in the States and Europe in just 18 weeks! And none of that includes their many Japan shows. "In the States we rent a van for a few months and order enough merchandise to sell," says Agata. "We used to buy most of our equipment -- apart from our guitars and amps -- when we got there because it's too expensive to fly over. But now we've got equipment stored at friends' places in Europe and the U.S. so it's much cheaper to do the tours." How a deer almost wrecked last year's U.S. tour "We'd finished a show at Rochester and were heading toward Cleveland when we hit this deer and it wrecked the van's engine," says Agata. "The deer was running fast across the road so I slowed down to let it pass and it suddenly stopped because of the headlights," says Yako. "I slammed on the brakes and I just remember the deer looking me in the eye and then I hit it. I drove on and then there was this smell like burned steak or something. I stopped the van and went to check the engine and it was smoking and covered in bits of fried deer." How Agata's dangerous blood disorder leads to a free gift for one lucky Japan Times reader Why do you always wear a surgical mask during shows? "I've had this bone disease since I was about 5 or 6," explains Agata. "My nose can suddenly start bleeding and go on for 24 hours. I started wearing the masks on stage because I had to push tissue up my nostrils to stop the flow of blood so I hid this fact by wearing the mask. Now I'm kind of OK, but it's like having a bomb inside my body and I'm not sure when that bomb's going to explode again." The masks seem to have become a fashion accessory. "If you want to put it like that. Now I have a friend working at a hospital so I get this free supply of real surgical masks. Sometimes fans come up to me after shows and ask for my mask. So I sell them off. No, that's a joke." How about this? The first fan to present you with a copy of this article after the next show gets an autographed mask from you. "Yeah, OK. It's a deal." Melt-Banana plays Shimokitazawa Shelter, Feb. 21 ([03] 3466-7430); Shinsaibashi Quattro, with Wire, Feb. 28, and Shibuya Club Quattro, with Wire, Feb. 29 (Smash: [03] 3444-6751). For more info check www.parkcity.ne.jp/~mltbanan/ Simon Bartz' Web site on Japanese music is at www.badbee.net The desert island M-B "Speak, Squeak, Creak" The first and rawest of their five studio albums. Engineered by Steve Albini its 25 tracks speed in at 32.22 minutes. Yako: "It's where we started so it's the core of our music." Agata: "When we made this our ideas were good, but not so many people understood it, so we wanted to evolve." "Charlie" The track number is trimmed down to a mere 14 on the third album. Agata: "People used to call Sonic Youth a noise band, but it's just the same melodic stuff distorted. Other bands were too extreme with no rhythym. With "Charlie" we bridged this gap. By adding melody we made music we love, and which others can love." "cell-scape" Their fifth and latest album is their most accessible yet with 10 tracks coming in at 37.10 minutes. It even has a track that rips off The Chemical Brothers. Agata: "We've never made long songs so we thought we'd just try it. And, yeh, the drumming is like The Chemicals on one track. But only the drumming." The Japan Times: Feb. 18, 2004 (C) All rights reserved ------------------------------------------------------------------------ From gyford@... Fri Feb 20 20:23:49 2004 From: gyford@... (Phil Gyford) Date: Fri, 20 Feb 2004 19:23:49 -0000 Subject: Laura Cantrell at Peel Acres last Christmas Message-ID: Does anyone have the track listing for Laura Cantrell's session at Peel Acres on 23rd December 2003? I missed a couple of song titles and they're not in the Radio 1 Tracklistings. Thanks, Phil From moomin@... Fri Feb 20 22:42:57 2004 From: moomin@... (simon smith) Date: Fri, 20 Feb 2004 21:42:57 +0000 Subject: [peel] The Japan Times / Feb 18th / Unpeeling Melt-Banana In-Reply-To: References: Message-ID: In message , Tom Roche writes >Unpeeling Melt-Banana Ah, thank you for that. Agata should listen to Trout Mask Replica again. Melt Banana have a very similar thing of doing everything that should be wrong and yet it's *right*, as if it comes from another planet where the rules are different. Plus they do 5" and 6" and 8" singles, which look very nice on the turntable. -- simon smith From mostync@... Sat Feb 21 00:57:14 2004 From: mostync@... (Mostyn) Date: Fri, 20 Feb 2004 23:57:14 -0000 Subject: [peel] Laura Cantrell at Peel Acres last Christmas References: Message-ID: <001301c3f80d$64b913e0$585587d9@oemcomputer> >----- Original Message ----- >From: Phil Gyford >To: peel@...m >Sent: Friday, February 20, 2004 7:23 PM >Subject: [peel] Laura Cantrell at Peel Acres last Christmas > > >Does anyone have the track listing for Laura Cantrell's session at >Peel Acres on 23rd December 2003? I missed a couple of song titles and >they're not in the Radio 1 Tracklistings. > >Thanks, >Phil 1. Pretty Paper 2. The New Year's Resolution =================================== 3. Oh So Many Years 4. I Still Miss Someone (with Gordon McIntyre of Ballboy) Laura doesn't seem to have a lot of confidence in her own songwriting ability, but I thought her own composition "The New Year's Resolution" was the best of this set. "Pretty Paper" is the well known song by Willie Nelson (popularised by Roy Orbison); "Oh So Many Years" appears on the "Roses" album and is credited to Frankie Bailes; "I Still Miss Someone" is a Johnny Cash song. Mostyn From martinwheatley@... Sat Feb 21 01:13:33 2004 From: martinwheatley@... (Martin Wheatley) Date: Sat, 21 Feb 2004 00:13:33 +0000 Subject: [peel] Laura Cantrell at Peel Acres last Christmas In-Reply-To: <001301c3f80d$64b913e0$585587d9@oemcomputer> References: Message-ID: <4.3.2.7.2.20040221000851.00c513e8@...> >Laura doesn't seem to have a lot of confidence in her own songwriting >ability, but I thought her own composition "The New Year's Resolution" >was the best of this set. > I suspect her Peel set lists are influenced by what she knows Peel wants which is her singing country standards. martinw From danbutt@... Sat Feb 21 12:36:09 2004 From: danbutt@... (Dan Butt) Date: Sat, 21 Feb 2004 11:36:09 +0000 Subject: [peel] Laura Cantrell at Peel Acres last Christmas Message-ID: >From: Martin Wheatley >I suspect her Peel set lists are influenced by what she knows Peel >wants which is her singing country standards. > >martinw Oh, I don't know. He's very keen on "Queen of the Coast", and that's a Cantrell composition. Dan _________________________________________________________________ Take off on a romantic weekend or a family adventure to these great U.S. locations. http://special.msn.com/local/hotdestinations.armx From martinwheatley@... Sat Feb 21 12:57:14 2004 From: martinwheatley@... (Martin Wheatley) Date: Sat, 21 Feb 2004 11:57:14 +0000 Subject: [peel] Laura Cantrell at Peel Acres last Christmas In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <4.3.2.7.2.20040221115711.02a05088@...> At 11:36 21/02/2004 +0000, you wrote: > >From: Martin Wheatley > >I suspect her Peel set lists are influenced by what she knows Peel > >wants which is her singing country standards. > > > >martinw > > >Oh, I don't know. He's very keen on "Queen of the Coast", and that's a >Cantrell composition. > >Dan > >_________________________________________________________________ >Take off on a romantic weekend or a family adventure to these great U.S. >locations. >http://special.msn.com/local/hotdestinations.armx > > >Yahoo! Groups Sponsor >ADVERTISEMENT >Click >Here > > >---------- >Yahoo! Groups Links > * To visit your group on the web, go to: > * > http://groups.yahoo.com/group/peel/ > * > * To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: > * > peel-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com > > * > * Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to the > Yahoo! Terms of Service. From martinwheatley@... Sat Feb 21 13:03:21 2004 From: martinwheatley@... (Martin Wheatley) Date: Sat, 21 Feb 2004 12:03:21 +0000 Subject: [peel] Laura Cantrell at Peel Acres last Christmas In-Reply-To: Message-ID: <4.3.2.7.2.20040221115740.02a25268@...> At 11:36 21/02/2004 +0000, you wrote: >>From: Martin Wheatley >>I suspect her Peel set lists are influenced by what she knows Peel >>wants which is her singing country standards. >> >>martinw > > >Oh, I don't know. He's very keen on "Queen of the Coast", and that's a >Cantrell composition. > >Dan She did 'Legend In My Own Time' which was a specific Peel request and since Peel is the Orbison fanatic I would suggest 'Pretty Paper' was either also a request or because she knew of his liking for Orbison Laura's radio show is full of old country records martinw From booz_of_rachab@... Sat Feb 28 19:09:07 2004 From: booz_of_rachab@... (booz_of_rachab) Date: Sat, 28 Feb 2004 18:09:07 -0000 Subject: Important news for anyone with tickets to see The Fall..... Message-ID: Mark E Smith has had an accident and broke his leg so all remaining gigs on the UK tour have been cancelled. The dates will be re-scheduled, but when for is anyones guess. Best to keep checking their official website for more details. http://www.visi.com/fall/ Mark