Hex Enduction Hour (n.b. link contains the sordid tale of that album and the record contract it killed)! Hey there, fuckface! Hey there, fuck-ah-face! Does the Fall get much better than that? I popped on This Nation's Saving Grace this morning because I've had "I Am Damo Suzuki" running through my head since I woke up. Mainly because I went to see Can: The Documentary last night (which had some bad-freakin-ass moments, but no, y'know, narrative, and the last half-hour was wasted on those cruddy Sacrilege re-mixes [and what moron thought that mixing the bassline off of "Halleluwah" could possibly be a good idea?] and the early-90s reformed Can with Michael Mooney), and I've just been in a Can-o-licious mood all day.
Some of the great scenes from the documentary include: a 12-minute live version of "Vernal Equinox" with its superfast pre-hip-hop drumbeat (which was the single most athletic music performance I've ever seen); obviously stoned bandmembers trying in vain to answer simple questions in roughly 1972; Michael Mooney meeting Damo Suzuki in the 90s (although the viewers were denied any narrative to explain the significance of this); live footage of the 1973 Koln Free Concert with an elderly juggler on stage with the band; Holger Czukay, after turning the bass over to Rosko Gee, doing his off-stage noise thing; Can playing to disco dancers on German and English TV in the late 70s; several performances in Inner Space Studios, Can's converted church-studio, with Damo Suzuki singing in an isolation booth in a nave above Jaki Liebezeit, the drummer. Like I said, if you know some of the story about Can already, it had some fascinating moments, but a real filmmaker could have done much more with it.
Seriously, though, why don't they hook up with Wayne Kramer and get one joint "reunion" band? The NY5? The MC Dolls?
They already did that in the 70s - Gangwar.
Some of the great scenes from the documentary include:
Coooooool.
Nobody does movies about the really fascinating scenes like Tropicalia or Krautrock. They should!
Seriously! Although I've missed each of the Serge Gainsbourg documentary and Jandek documentaries twice.
That man is great. These days, he looks like a German oompah guy, especially in the early 90s footage, where he's wearing goofy suspenders and carrying around a flugelhorn. And, oh yeah, he studied with Stockhausen and masterminded one of the most influential experimental-music rock bands ever.
Wasn't it Malcolm Mooney, not Michael?
Yeah, absolutely. Sorry, the movie ran late, and I've been half-awake all day.
John Perry of The Only Ones. I wonder if he's dead.
He wasn't in 1995 - he turned up at a Huggy Bear gig. I think there were reform rumours a while back
I've been avoiding my work (that's gotta be redundant by now), and I went into some threads I don't usually visit. Found this in Bureaucracy and wanted to share it with the rest of you who don't go in there.
Jon B: My point, which was stated very poorly, was that 27 being equal to three cubed is FUCKING AWESOME, and shouldn't be tossed aside like it's no big deal. Just like Carl Douglas shouldn't be marginalized because he only had one hit. Because that one hit was FUCKING AWESOME!
And so's that post, Jon. So awesome that you should work 3^3=27 into your show and play "Kung Fu Fightin'". Not that I'll be able to hear it since I can never get a connection, but still.... OTOH, I am enjoying the archived anniversary shows & it makes me sorry that I never get to hear the show.
In October they're releasing the album that Elliott Smith was working on at the time of his death.
