Brighton

Err, feeling supremely ropey this morning and have only had a couple if hours sleep. I think yesterday's planning has gone awry already, and all I will be doing tonight is sleep.

I'm feeling pretty crappy too so gonna skip this one. A shame, as they are really great, but I need to be on reasonable form for Weds. Blargh.

Ya, you take it steady and hope yr feeling perkier come Wednesday.

Supreme Dicks are perhaps deservedly obscure, but they were originally around in the first part of the nineties and got lumped in with people like the Sun City Girls and Tower Recordings in that they shared that same loose and often rambling approach to making improvised rock music and with fairly nonsensical stream-of-consciousness lyrics to match. Unlike either of those two though, they never really incorporated exotic sounds at all, but just focused on dismantling psychedelic rock in a way that makes me think of them as direct descendents of the Red Crayola. Very slack sounding and somewhat folksy, not really big on tunes but they do okay anyway. Guess it's probably Dylan putting them on?

Anyhow... SWANS

FAP

Grr, woke up with a head cold today. Let me know where you’re going to be before and I will try and make it for one at least.

have any of you lot been involved in the Sussex protests? Seems like things are getting a bit hairy...

SWANS FAP: Can't remember what's good down that end of town so I'm going to aim for the Barley Mow at 7-ish if anyone fancies that...

Sussex protests: I'm a member of staff there and have been along to a couple of the protests. Last one I was at looked like it could have turned a bit iffy, but the police seemed mostly happy to observe. That was a week ago though, not sure what's going on now and I'm not on campus today. Has something else happened?

Ah okay, have just seen that the police and bailiffs have closed down the occupation. Did think they might have timed that for today while campus was pretty much shut down for Easter with only a minimal staff presence and no students around.

xp "riot vans on campus earlier and various bits of electricity/lighting shut down around the building" from my source.

Was doomed to end that way unfortunately. Thought the national protest at Sussex last week was a good way to go to put pressure on the management, but that ended with a bit property getting trashed and some doors getting broken. Since that the university's basically trying to totally close down any on-campus activity and is using the damage to justify it.

Meanwhile I just popped inside to fetch something and a bird has shat on the rim of my coffee mug. Not sure if any went in, it will be alright won't it?

Hmmm, looks too good to waste

Holy shit, some of these twitter photos are grim :(

Can anyone point me to a good writeup of the policies that led to the protests in the first place?

We had a similar occupation when I was a student at Sussex 25 years ago. Now I feel old :(

Slight;y drunken guy typing on internet here, but emily: your lot were really good tonight! Songs were great, performance was really fun too, and I truly fucking love love love the sound of the fiddle in that context. Reminded me of just the best things i.e. King Of the Slums and also the June Brides. Unreal that that was just your first gig, cos you lot smashed it imo.

Wasn't too nuts about that Lou Barlow gone mewling man-baby thing that came on afterwards mind you, kind of brought out my inner Herod, but otoh the headliners were pretty good, so yeah, that was a fun evening.

Matt, dunno what happened to you but are you still alive?

Hey, alive, but hitting it hard with Charlie after Swans last night didn’t do a great deal for my cold, so decided I had to stay in and recover. Sent my apologies in advance to Emily.

One look through that front door and I just knew there was no hope in coming out alive, think I probably did a good thing bailing. Hope yr feeling a bit brighter tomorrow anyhow.

Aw, thanks so much Nick. Sorry that I ended up buzzing around so much and not really getting a chance to chat. Max is very divisive, I fucking love him and think he's an absolute genius, but he's not for everyone, it is true.

hey no worries! gosh i was a bit strident on the cats guy last night eh? aiieee

Good to see you guys - always have a good time in Brighton. And how good were SWANS?!

33% transcendent 33% great 33% meh

glad lap steel dude didn't collapse on stage, got a bit worried at one point

Yeah, good to see you dog latin! Thought the gig was more involving the longer it went on, but maybe I just needed time to adjust to it. Don't think I managed to recognise any songs, but I swear to god that Gira was singing Garbageman by the Cramps at one point.

Started at the back daydreaming, ended up at the front: eyes closed, lurching from side to side. I’m a catch, ladies.

Thinking of going down to the Green Door for the free Club Zygotic noise alldayer for a couple later on if anyone fancies joining me.

Bit knacked so staying in, but those things are usually good.

Yeah, that thing looked fun. Sightings playing tomorrow night, should be another noisy one.

Was quite fun, only caught the last three but a nice range. A guy from Henry Cow improvising, I assumed, to a Richard Attinborough doc; my friend Lorah who does the West Hill music night, and someone else then did a set using self-built light sensitive instruments controlled with hand-held lights; finally the West Hill free jazz cats (not sure of their name) were on. Nicely programmed I thought.

A guy from Henry Cow improvising

Oooh, I wonder who that was! Tim Hodgkinson probably. Scrawny guy in specs y?

It was the sock.

darn it!

Club Sockpuppet.

I think the guy was Geoff Leigh?

Oh okay, that guy was only in Henry Cow for a short while, but it looks like he's played with a whole ton of people over the years. Great that lots of their ex-members are still making kranky music.

err cranky, nothing at all to do with the krankies

Infinite Gaaah tour! https://www.facebook.com/events/360600620712061/

I don't know Infinite Gaaah! I do know Pengo though

I know neither, but up for giving it a whirl.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cMHOyD0RCP8

Tonight I will be enjoying the sludgy psychedelic sounds of White Hills. Anyone else going?

Another time probably, got a mad crazy week of work this week.

Quiz next Tuesday is THATCHER DEATH SPECIAL. Come!

topical!

anyone going to protest against the edl on sunday? i do feel the urge to stand up and let them know they're not wanted, but on the other hand, they do seem to revel in the controversy. also last year's scenes were not good at all, don't really want to get caught up in that.

I always have the same mixed feelings, really. Usually decided by whether I'm actually awake (nb: I'm rarely awake).

Away in Glasgow, but wouldn’t want to acknowledge them anyway. Hopefully I will make the quiz though, but it depends how much buckfast, amyl and battered confectionery is shoved in my direction over the weekend.

BUCKY BUCKY BUCKY.

my only experiences of Brighton are:

Playing a DJ set on either the first or second night the Green Door Store had opened - I was on after Dylan Nyoukis and saw him look absolutely disgusted when I played Hot in Herre by Nelly

Going to a dancehall night at some club on the seafront and buying the literal worst fried chicken in the world after. It looked like an alien carcass.

How were White Hills? Saw em in London on Wednesday and they were noisy - not as loud as Swans but somehow managed to destroy my hearing

To be honest I didn't enjoy them as much as I'd hoped, partly cos I was really tired but also I think the sound wasn't that great - the drummer seemed to be way too loud compared to the guitar. I don't think he's that subtle anyway, so a lot of the time it sounded like he was just bashing away and pummeling the space out of the songs. Maybe that why your ears hurt? They definitely had their moments though.

OTOH Sightings the previous week were flat-out incredible.

I've always had a bit of trouble parsing White Hills for these reasons - they sound a bit busy for space-rock. And yeah, it was like a wall of distortion which, while not that loud seemed to hit quite a vicious and constant frequency that probably played havoc with my eardrums. They're still ringing and numb two days later.

Quiz tonight, chums.

Also, you guys seen that ASMUS FRICKIN' TIETCHENS is coming to Brighton?