Showing posts with label The Pogues. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Pogues. Show all posts

Sunday, December 3, 2023

Seven Days of Shane: Day 2 - Sally MacLennane

 

While considering what MacGowan song to post for day two of Seven Days Commemorating Shane MacGowan's passing, I was reminded of this track via this week's edition of Warren Ellis' Orbital Operations newsletter.

Rum, Sodomy and the Lash is easily my favorite album by The Pogues - almost to a fault, as my preoccupation with this and Red Roses For Me have caused my knowledge of the band to atrophy long ago. Sometimes I become hung up on one or two albums by an artist or band, and it just stops there. Not necessarily a bad thing, as I always eventually get around to adding another album to the fire. In the case of The Pogues, however, I've always felt a declining interest after the second album, with really only about half of If I Should Fall From Grace With God holding me in its sway. But the death of an artist tends to inspire reassessment, so what happens as we go deeper into the band's discography over the course of the next five days (but not before running around MacGowan's work outside The Pogues for a while).
 


Watch:

Saturday afternoon, we took a break from unloading my parents' first round of possessions into their new house (Mayflower moving picks up the bulk of it today) and went to the theatre to catch Godzilla Minus One. My parents accompanied us, and I have to say, all four of us were pretty blown away. 

If you can believe it, this was the first Godzilla movie I've ever seen. Verdict? Godzilla Minus One blew me away.


The thing I'd complained about after trying to watch Legendary Studios' Godzilla: King of Monsters (I fell asleep before Godzilla ever hit the screen, hence why I'm counting G-1 as my first) was that film's obstinate preoccupation with the human story. It is interesting, then, that the thing that moved me about Minus One - indeed, the major component of the film's story - is the human element. I'd imagine that says something about the comparative character development and overall writing between the two: Toho's Minus One is simply a better-written film that is less concerned with box office spectacle, favoring instead a genuinely moving story that takes place inside this retelling of the mighty lizard's first interaction with humanity.




Playlist:

Tangerine Dream - Hyperborea
S U R V I V E - RR7349
Turquoise Moon - The Sunset City
Van Halen - 1984
The Flesh Eaters - I Used to Be Pretty
Opeth - Blackwater Park
Anthrax - Attack of the Killer B's
The Pogues - If I Should Fall From 
The Nips 'N' Nipple Erectors - Bops, Babes, Booze & Bovver
Yawning Balch - Volume Two
Rein - God Is a Woman




Card:

From Aleister Crowley and Lady Freida Harris' Thoth Deck.


• I: The Magus
• XVIII: The Moon
• Ten of Disks - Wealth

Often an indication of the potency of Will or the spark of creative essence, seeing it here with the Ten of Disks, and the Eighteenth Trump, this becomes a pretty clear-cut message that the application of perseverance will reveal nearly overlooked information that, in turn, leads to some form of renumeration. Pretty sure this has to do with my folks' move, although the specifics elude me at the moment (and that's 18 right there for you).

Thursday, March 17, 2022

Happy St. Paddy's Day

 

I'm not going to be able to really celebrate until Saturday, but in the meantime, there's Pogues and Guinness.


Watch:

You can really tell I've drank all the Marvel kool-aid now, eh?

 

A friend at work showed me this trailer for the upcoming Event Book Judgment Day, and I will say, I'm curious. I'm not very hip to the Eternals, however, the idea that in their fervor to rid the Earth of "Deviants" they've determined that mutants are one and the same, well, it's a good idea for a story.

Judgment Day lands in July - I think - and although I'm not certain I'll be reading it, I will probably be at the very least staying peripherally abreast of the beats and outcome.




Playlist:

Tones on Tail - Everything!
Plague Bringer - As the Ghosts Collect, the Corpses Rest
Spizm - B4uDIE
Bryce Miller - City Depths
Def Leppard - Pyromania
Rammstein - Rosenrot
Mark Lanegan - Blues Funeral
New Radicals - Maybe You've Been Brainwashed Too
The Pogues - Rum, Sodomy and the Lash
The Pogues - Red Roses for Me
Svarte Greiner - Devolving Trust




Card:


Dogmatic regimes - outdated thought that threatens to lock your mind in a box of its own making - the worst kind. Hmmm... No context for this at the moment, unless A) the pull is the cards being playful, as I just had a conversation yesterday about The Hierophant with the person who colored and gave me these cards, or B) it's commentary on how far up Marvel's arse I am at the moment that I'm posting a trailer for an event book. Either way, always good to have a playful reading.

Wednesday, March 17, 2021

Happy St. Paddy's


I won't be able to celebrate appropriately until Saturday. Even then, this is the second year in a row I can't gather my movie night squad and feed them Corned Beef, Whiskey, and Phil Joanou's Irish Mafia epic State of Grace, which I watch every year. Still, they're in me heart, eh?




NCBD:

Well, this week is a pretty small haul, but it's an issue I've been looking forward to:


Also, this one came out last week, and I've had it on-hold with Atomic Basement:


I'm not entirely certain why I'm buying this one, so let's hope I'm not severely disappointed. I've always said I can't tolerate a monthly dose of the Caped Crusader, and in the past I have been pleasantly surprised by one-off buys like this over-sized anthology of short stories, so I guess we'll see.




Playlist:

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Let Love IN
The Neverly Boys - Dark Side of Everything
Electric Youth - Come True OST
The Birthday Party - Junkyard
Genghis Tron - Pyrocene (pre-release single)
Genghis Tron - Dream Weapon (pre-release single) 
Tomahawk - Business Casual (pre-release single)
Tomahawk - Dog Eat Dog (pre-release single)
 



Card:

 


Mixing disparate ingredients to bring something new to the table. Committing to follow it through. I'm not quite sure how to interpret that at the moment, however, it may have to do with podcasting and my continued inertia/anxiety about attempting to bring DwC back to life. Plenty of ideas, and maybe the ones that I should be looking at stretch the pre-existing format as far afield as possible.

Tuesday, March 17, 2020

Happy St. Paddy's Day - Have Some Pogues!



It doesn't feel much like St. Paddy's, and I'm on call, so my usual gathering with friends to watch State of Grace is postponed. Still, what's March 17th without some fucking Pogues?

Enjoy!

Sunday, March 17, 2019

2019: March 17th


Friday March 15th was the three-year anniversary of Tom's death. This year it blind-sided me, and I'm ashamed to admit I didn't even realize it until the morning of the 16th, when K reminded me. Tom - wow. When I stop to consider it, I can still feel his loss like it's a wound that's only scabbed over. You know, the kind you bump against the inside of your dresser drawer that sticks, and it opens and gushes blood and pain for a few hours. That's exactly what contemplating my 'former life' is like, in regards to Tom (and Tom alone). You'd think with the number of friends I've lost in my life - an inordinate amount by most people's standards - death would come a bit easier. And I guess it kind of does. But when the loss is someone you see everyday, that you live with, it's different. And Tom stuck with me through the worst time of my life, and what's more, made it clear he understood and wanted to help me persevere. That's pretty insane, if you ask me. The bond we had was unlike any I've had with a cat before or after, and I am definitely a cat lover. Anyway, Tom, I miss you. I'll be raising a pint in your honor later tonight. In the meantime, this one's for you, my friend:



**
If you want to see the best goddamn coverage of SXSW, click over to Heaven is an Incubator's page and feast your eyes on the meat and potatoes of the yearly fest. You can find coverage on a ton of sites, but not like this. Tommy goes out of his way every year to burrow in deep and really find the stuff that matters, not just the stuff everyone already wants to read about. In years past he usually posts about bands that seep up throughout the subsequent years into taking the spotlight, and I'd wager this year is no different. Also, he's started a 'daily jam' posting schedule that I absolutely adore. Link to Heaven Is An Incubator HERE.

**
Friday night, K and I saw Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats at the Wiltern. WOW! Seriously these guys blew me right the hell away. I mean, I knew they'd be good, but this was another level. All business, no nonsense, Uncle Acid easily goes into the category of 'Best bands I've seen live.' Tight performance, heavy as hell, and awash in Occult/psychedelic imagery, I still can't stop thinking about how great their set was. And as much as I dig their albums, none of them do the band's sound full justice. Neither does this video, from youtube Chicanochrist, but it gives you a sense of their visual presence:



Uncle Acid's Wasteland album might not have made it into my top ten of 2018, but I love it and couldn't wait to see it live. Especially because I had no idea what to expect. I'd never seen what the members of the band look like, and especially with Kevin Starrs' unique voice, I harbored a strange, almost B-movie idea of the face attached to the voice. This ambiguity is a rarity these days, and as much as it is partially of my own design, I feel like it's also part of the band's mythos. So when faced with having the curtain pulled back by seeing them live, I had to embrace the idea of giving that ambiguity up.

But you know what? It didn't happen.

Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats took the stage under darkness, with a video image and an elongated version of the loud speaker announcement that begins Wasteland playing over the speakers. From there they ripped directly into album opener I See Through You, then proceeded to plow through song after song, hoping from Wasteland to Bloodlust to The Night Creeper, no acknowledgement of the crowd until after six or seven songs, when the man I'm assuming was Kevin Starrs simply asked how we were doing. Of course, he didn't wait for a reply before kicking into Crystal Spiders from the band's recently re-released demo, Vol. 1.

The reason I can only assume our addresser was Kevin Starrs is because A) he was standing in the middle, and B) he was playing guitar and singing into a microphone. However - and maybe this is simply my self-imposed ignorance of the members of the band, which, as you can no doubt tell from above I prefer - but stage left was another man playing a guitar and singing into a microphone. The music was played so flawless, executed in such a concise manner, that you couldn't tell who was singing or playing what. And other than one subsequent brevity to the crowd, there was no speaking in-between songs. The performance was all about the music and the aesthetic, that's it. So in my mind, the band fully retained their enigmatic presence. Which is awesome, because I love the mythos I perceive around these guys; the evocation of that strange era of the 60s/70s when hippy dippy free love turned into hard drugs, black magick and satanism. This is the first band I've encountered since My Life with the Thrill Kill Kult back in the early 90s that feels dangerous in some capacity.

Opening was local band Twin Temple. My good friend Chris from The Thirsty Crows and The Horror Vision turned me onto these guys a couple weeks ago, and they did not disappoint live. Self-described as "Satanic Doo-Wop," I'd say a more accurate description is a Satanic Amy Winehouse. Either way, check out this video:



Finally, it's St. Paddy's day! Since our new place is considerably smaller than my former residence, I'm unable to hold my annual party, and as such my 'St Paddy's Spirit' is considerably diminished. I've got a corned beef in the slow cooker, and some Guinness to quaff, but I'm not even really in the mood to watch State of Grace - which I'll probably watch and be consumed by anyway.

Playlist from 3/14:

Le Butcherettes - bi/MENTAL
Thin Lizzy - Fighting
Soundgarden - Superunknown
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Vol. 1
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Wasteland

Playlist from 3/15:

Talking Heads - Remain in Light
Le Butcherettes - bi/MENTAL
Ozzy Osbourne - No More Tears
Nick Lowe - The Jesus of Cool
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Wasteland

Playlist from 3/16:

Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Night Creeper
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Blood Lust

Card of the day:


Hod, the area of Prudence, defined by Merriam-Webster as the ability to govern and discipline oneself with the use of reason. This applies directly to the self-destructive feelings I have toward a certain project I have right now, one that the carelessness of of one of those involved has led to a flurry of thoughts on my part to end the project. Anger and frustration are a natural reaction when the carelessness of others directly affects our plans, lives, etc. But instead of lashing out, it's always better to just take it on the chin and continue. If, that is, it's something and someone you care about.

Saturday, March 17, 2018

2018: March 17th 9:12 AM

Happy St. Paddy's Day!



Two corned beef in the croc pots at home, a boat load of Guinness, Smithwicks, Bushmills, Jameson, and State of Grace on tap for a late viewing this evening. Life is good.

Playlist from yesterday:

Talking Heads - Sand in the Vaseline (disc 1)
Urge Overkill - Saturation
The Pogues - Red Roses for Me
Wrekmeister Harmonies - Light Falls
The Bronx - Eponymous
Sex Pistols - Never Mind the Bollocks...
White Zombie - Astro Creep 2000
Blut Aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta II (Dialogue with the Stars)
Blut Aus Nord - Memoria Vetusta III (Saturnian Poetry)
Uncle Acid and the Deadbeats - Vol. 1 (Vinyl)

Card of the day:


Fitting, eh? As usual, totally in tune because, of course, this isn't "Magick" in so far as special powers from outside, but deeply connected Jungian hoo-ha from the gobbledygook far down inside our minds, the shit that comprises us but we don't understand or aren't even aware of. It colors every action, thought and day. And these cards help reflect a bit of it out into where we can try and draw juxtapositions with it. And here, Completion, because, of course, tonight is the end of my 11 years and 11 months at this place. I don't move until next Friday, but this is the pinnacle. Also, there's harmony here with the fact that, in 2006 when the girl I used to live with and I first got an inkling on moving out to CA, we flew out over St. Paddy's weekend to look at apartments and have her interviewed by her perspective employer. So total Completion. Yes.

Monday, March 17, 2014

Happy Fookin' Irish Day Ye Basterds!



Want a good St. Patty's Day? Drink some Guinness, some Bushmills and listen to this album. It'll make you feel like a little, drunken, Irish GOD!