Monthly Archives: May 2011

Paul 12:33 PM on May 15, 2011  

Nuggets 160 – Uri

Nuggets 160 - Yuri

When young I was space mad. I followed all the space missions. I remember Apollo 11 and the moon landing vividly. I had a View-Master with disks of the Gemini and Apollo missions, the 3D effect was bewitching. I read Robert Heinlein and similar sci-fi, all upbeat, no dystopian futures here. The future was bright. There was no doubt that someday I would go into space. Lets face it, since then the world has turned to shit.

In 1961, at the age of 27, Gagarin was the first to leave the earth. It was April the 12th, 9.07 am Moscow time. 108 minutes later, having circled the earth, he parachuted to the ground south west of Engels, in the Saratov region of southern Russia. He reached a height of 327 000 meters and 28 260 kilometres per hour. That’s 10 times faster than the fastest jet of the time (2 445 kilometres per hour).

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Several of the dogs that had gone before had died, and no one was sure whether he would survive.

A number of photos of this historic event have been published, however film footage, traditionally associated with Gagarin’s liftoff, was actually recorded during the ill-fated launch of the unmanned Vostok prototype on July 28, 1960. (Just seconds after those dramatic images of the rocket’s shadow moving across the giant flame duct of the launch complex had been captured; the vehicle exploded killing two dogs onboard.)

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Anyhoo, when I heard that the 50th anniversary was coming up, I started this space themed mix. Hawkwind sprang to mind, specially Lemmy singing about his shiny rocket bike. It’s worth tracking down the recent BBC doco on Hawkwind, wild times. It sounds like Lemmy barely made it out alive. Here is Lemmy’s acount of what happened…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=’bcmqBqq0ZwI&feature=player_detailpage#t=310s

There’s lots of German Krautrock in this mix, which is ironic given the historic enmity between Russia and Germany. My problem is that I don’t really know Russian music very well.

If you have an hour & 40 minutes to kill, here is an interesting doco. The space station retraced Yuri’s path and they filmed what he would have seen.

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The musical score is a bit lame IMHO, so what I suggest you do is:

1. Click on the playlist above to get the tunes going.image

2. Click on the picture of the world above to get the doco running, then mute the sound on the doco

3. Crank the doco up full screen, and enjoy for the next hour or so…

NB – the doco has been uploaded in high resolution. If your internet connect is a fast one, try a higher resolution version like so…

I haven’t given any background to the bands. I leave it you to google them…

Kevin Spacey Almost Sued Cassettes Won’t Listen

Some celebrities appreciate a musical shout-out, but with Kevin Spacey, not so much. The Wrap reports that Spacey sent a cease-and-desist letter to musician Jason Drake — who typically records under the name Cassettes Won’t Listen — to warn him against naming his upcoming album Kevinspacey. He got his wish: The record, due June 21, will now be called Evinspacey, which brings that extra-special hint of pig Latin a musician really needs to stand out on today’s indie landscape.

Hawkwind

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O7up1MzwxhI&feature=player_detailpage

Com Truise

Kreidler

Cleaning Women

Moon Duo

Computer magic

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V8C698YtJz0&feature=player_embedded

El Ten Eleven

Paul 10:15 PM on May 10, 2011
Tags: , , Cycle Schmeichel, , , , Lumerians, , , Ringo Deathstarr, Sky Larkin, Soft Moon, , , Tamaryn, The Hold Steady, , , ,   

Nuggets 150 – Thrashy

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Still noodling around getting the mellower mixes ready. Meantime, here is a mix to play loud, or it will be once I get the tracks into the interweb. Some guitar shredding, some C86 girrl bands, and general loud mayhem.

1) Love Fade (Tamaryn) Kiwi living USA – excellent shoegazey stuff. 

2) Julie K (T54) CHCH band named after a tank. 3) Young Pros (Bass Drum of Death) 2 piece from from Mississippi 4) Year’s Not Long (Male Bonding) shop assistants make music. 5) Into The Depths (Soft Moon) Described in a review as “a San Francisco-based neo-post-punk band “

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZMp78s6YCw

6) The Green Goblin (Weekends) 2 young guys from Baltimore, Maryland, lots of feedback.

7) In Between Buses (Las Robertas) Costa Rican all-girl band. Audience is way too cool…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XKORseDezHY&feature=player_detailpage

8) With You Alone (Woven Bones) Garage band / surf rock if you like. From Austin, Texas. 9) Veil (Weekend) & 10) Coma Summer (Weekend) Excellent noise makers from San Fran. These tracks from the album Sports. You can hear a ‘live’ studio mix of Veil here.

11) Throw The Water (Flight) Noisy like the end of the world will be, which coincidentally is the theme of their next song – see track 22. Term their sound “2-step / Death Metal”. Buy tunes here. 12) Teacher (Surf City) Excellent, excellent. Looking fwd to seeing them after they finish touring the colonies, appear to be on their way to Calgary in Canada. 13) Burning Mirrors (Lumerians) Hypno-drone space rock – Can meets Cave meets Black Moth Super Rainbow 14) Marianne (Ceremony) More shoegaze from Fredericksburg, Virginia.

15) Young Throats (Parenthetical Girls) Take their music seriously ‘- “Limited to 500 physical copies per EP, the 12″s will each feature original art by renowned Swedish illustrator Jenny Mörtsell, and will be hand-numbered in the blood of their respective band members…”
Also do improv.

I crossed myself before I crossed your lips

16) Hard Drivin’ (Weed Hounds) There is something beguiling about harsh guitars set against sweet yet snotty female vocals. 17) Still Windmills (Sky Larkin) .. and again.. 18) realize really (Lab Coast) 19) Bitchin’ (Cycle Schmeichel) Bristol band making retro noise.  20) Weekend Dudes (Ringo Deathstarr) BBC thinks they are derivative, do I care…? Seems an odd comment since all rock and roll is mining the same ground. 21) Chips Ahoy! (The Hold Steady) Another track from Boys and Girls in America . Seedy in a good way.

i got a girl and she don’t have to work
she can tell which horse is gonna finish in first
some nights the painkillers make the pain even worse
came in six lengths ahead
we spent the whole next week getting high
i love this girl but i can’t tell when she’s having a good time
how am i supposed to know that you’re high if you won’t let me touch you?

22) Real Estate (Flight) The end of the world, but in a tuneful way.

#bass-drum-of-death, #ceremony, #cycle-schmeichel, #flight, #lab-coast, #las-robertas, #lumerians, #male-bonding, #parenthetical-girls, #ringo-deathstarr, #sky-larkin, #soft-moon, #surf-city, #t54, #tamaryn, #the-hold-steady, #weed-hounds, #weekend, #weekends, #woven-bones