Saturday 31 July 2010

all mod cons

and now for a little bit of time travel, not too far, but lets set our dials for a year ago.  those heady days of a summer passed when stray sofas seemed to be around every corner. at first i thought the strays had been hibernating for the winter but perhaps enfield has managed to clear up its infestationof street furniture much the same way that trafalger square has been cleared of pigeons.

let us journey to July 2009.  and a stray sofa that had a reputation that found its way back to me, i checked it out and my, it was a thing of sheer beauty. who could ever ask for more?

but please, be careful not to tread on any butterflys.




Friday 30 July 2010

think of the children...

and during this long and baking walk that i took i happened to find myself winding down roads i don't think i have ever been down before and found myself wandering past the fairly recently established Oasis Academy: Enfield.

in the midst of a world cup there is always a sense of energy in the air, an energy that one pupil in particular had channeled into a little bit of critical graffiti slandering the Brazilian team.

it is not the overwhelming temptation to put his mark on the blank canvas of walls erected around a building site that i would like to see the child strung up for, no, it is his extremely poor and incorrect use of the English language in such a close proximity of the school.




seriously, what are they teaching them there?

Wednesday 28 July 2010

curtain twitches

instead of hiding away from the rare patches of glorious summer-like weather that England is prone to get i decided that i would free myself from staring at a computer screen a week or two ago, i thought i'd take a walk to my dad's house, but i'd take a long meandering walk with no real sense of direction or urgency, finding myself taking all manner of twists and turns before eventually walking along the river towards Waltham Abbey and then back to Waltham Cross.

and what a journey, i hadn't really had time to reflect on it as it was so tiring, not only did i manage to make a fifteen minute walk last a good two and a half hours, but i also found and photographed a stray sofa and wrote a poem on the journey.

all of this was acheived in flip flops too!

(while also staying safe and liberally applying sun tan lotion)

i think the poem is fairly self explanatory, just trying to imagine a different point of view, and i wrote it in my phone as a text message while i let my flip-flop clad feet carry me away from the strange old lady that had been staring at me from her window.




the curtain twitches and cold dead eyes peer out.
any sense of soul has long since departed.
the only thing left is a clammy distrust of everything.
 the sun turns up the temperature on the streets,
yet she traps herself in her mausoleum.
life has been moving on without her withered existence,
life moves on on the other side of her curtain,
her home now a crypt from which she keeps watch,
life has moved on,
and anything she sees moving she hates.




.

Tuesday 27 July 2010

bucket

death doesn't visit my blog very often, i could choose to spout off or make readers aware of everytime any sort of celebrity pops there clogs, but i don't.

death is in inevitable part of all of our lives that should be treated with a little reverence when writing about it, instead of just being a repeat of your slightly shocked gasps of, 'oh, oh no.'

this is my opinion anyway.


and so, on to the reason i mentioned this.

because this morning i found out that an elderly neighbour of mine that moved away last year had died.

i was a little disheartened by the news, but not really shocked. he had been old my whole life and wasn't going to last forever.

and then i didn't really know what to say or think. my life goes on.


i hope his family are all keeping ok, and if i feel anything i guess it is a kind of a sense of relief that, whatever happens to us after we slip this mortal coil, i am sure he has been reunited with his wife who passed away quite a few years ago now.

i only ever imagined them togther. they were always fred and alice. and when there was only fred it just didn't seem right.

R.I.P

Friday 23 July 2010

junk shop



it's friday night and i have been knocking back sailor jerrys in the cavernous Montagu Pyke on Charing Cross Road, named after one of England's earliest cinema entrepreneurs and most famously known as The Marquee club when the rock n roll venue served it's tenure on that very spot from the late eighties and through the nineties, now just another 'spoons', and probably one of the cheapest places to load up on drinks in the west end.

having exited the tube station on Charing Cross Road under the watchfull eye of a 26 foot tall Freddy Mercury, the most obvious, and upsetting, change to the skyline is the loss of the Astoria and it's smaller sister venue a few doors down, razed to the ground in order to make way for a Crossrail link.

surrounded by the ghosts of London's music history it is a blessing to find one of the captal's most intimate venues still going strong just a stones throw away.

nestled in Britain's own 'Tin Pan Alley', the 12 bar club on Denmark Street has been name checked by Jamie T on his debut album and the whole street is steeped in a long legacy that stretches back beyond the Sex Pistols residing there in the 70s and The Beatles, The Rolling Stones and Jimi Hendrix recording there in the 60s.

But tonight in the 12 bar club The Television Personalities are already onstage, favourites of Kurt Cobain and MGMT, the weathered band are playing sans local legend Texas Bob who breezes in looking blustered during their set, Dan Treacy's men are here alongside welsh rapper Akira The Don who headlines the night with a bare bones set, stripped of his usual sample and beat driven backing, both playing as guests of antifolk heroes, Milk Kan.


Milk Kan having been bubbling under for a number of years, having worked hard on open mic circuits in london and new york, gaining a reputation by playing gigs aboard night buses late into the night and releasing their long awaited album last year after putting in a lot of time and a lot of hard graft.

playing host at the 12 Bar club, Milk Kan are curating a number of gigs that see them inviting along their heroes, collaboraters and contemporaries to perform alongside them as they also take to the stage to give fans a taste of material from the new album and also revel in the songs that have already seen them gain momentum on the underground and seen them make fans of BBC's Steve Lamacq and Huw Stephens.

And whether it is tracks from 2009's self titled album like the indie sleeper hits 'God with an i-pod' or new material from their forthcoming effort, it all goes down extremely well with the fans, obviously fond of the rough around the edges band, that have gathered closely in the poky but atmospheric back room.


The band come on like a cross between Scroobius Pip and Bob Dylan in terms of delivery, while the music is a tapestry of influences with several nods in the disparate directions of folk balladry, hip-hop and punk, all combining to create a rabble rousing sight to behold as Milk Kan turn up the amps and turn on the charm.

Thursday 22 July 2010

an eternal arc of never really knowing

there are so many more things that i want to be than i ever find the time to be, ever such terribles nuances such as normal life and abnormal life just keep getting in the way of my life.

frustrations both within and without me.

i need to learn more of the things that i don't know.

and maybe it would be nice to forget a few things too.

i need a new home

for thoughts and words and everything that lies beneath.

i already have my new name.

but my deviances and dallying with a patchwork portal sometimes seems to prove detrimental to my truths.

and i guess i'll find a way, even if i don't tell anyone.

even though i would like you all to listen.


please

keep your ear close to the ground and you might be able to hear where i have buried my heart.

Monday 19 July 2010

premiere

it has been an unbelievably busy and rather productive few days for me.

i've been working on new music for a new little project that is likely to take over my life and become the only thing i care about if i can ever ween myself off the addiction to reading comics that i seem to have picked up again (but i guess there are worse addictions to be afflicted with).

so, yes, making music, reading comics, finishing my first ever music video (which is why you're here, right) as well as writing (starting, middling and indeed finishing) the first short story that i have probably written since i was a kid, i've not quite decided what to do with it just yet, it feels far too momentous an occasion for me to just put it up as a blog post.

oh, and that's not including all the live music i have seen, i have witnessed The Television Personalities, Milk Kan, Akira The Don, Kele and Underworld all doing there respective things. So of course i'm already working on an article, even tho the Enfield Advertiser seems to be getting ridiculously behind again.

and all this obtuse over achieving and busy business has only been since about 12.20 pm thursday!! it's already looking to be another busy week this week too, tho possibly (almost defientley) not quite as productive.

but lets get round to that video i promised you, the video for my new new spoken word cover version of the xx's vcr, which supersedes the version that i actually attempted singing on!!

enough waffle.

video, now!



now, perhaps a little more waffle??

Hunchbakk - vcr (the xx spoken word cover version)

made on a budget of absolutely nothing at all

Directed, Edited, Filmed and Concept by Hunchbakk
Additional Filming by Ian Byford

filmed on location in my Dad's back room.

thank you

Friday 16 July 2010

exxplore



i just finished making my first full length music video, i probably should do afew more to increase my prescence on Youtube, but i don't want to videos just for the sake of it.

i've had ideas for a couple of my earlier remixes but they were ideas that i would like to see done right, instead of cobbled together using windows video editor thingy and a number of its dodgy video effects, but to be honext, you do need to work with what you've got.

so in the very not too far off distant future i shall be unveiling my video for my cover of The XX's VCR.

and not only is it a new video, it is also a new version of the song that i have done in a spoken word style since my girlfriend insisted it would sound better than my singing.

the original sung version i actually uploaded to my blog in february, but since i have been using soundcloud instead of fileden i am presuming that it has now disapeared into the ether.

i'm still unsure which version  the song i prefer, i don't think that my voice sounds quite as terrible as she says it does on VCR, i'm well aware that i don't have a great singing voice, but i didn't think i needed to.


but before i get round to uploading that vid, can i just take a minute to stake my claim as the first person to cover the XX, as far as i am aware nobody else had covered the band when i uploaded my version of VCR in february, as they grew in popularity i knew it would only be a matter of time so i'm glad i got in there quick.

i didn't quite expect Shakira to go charging in and claiming Islands for herself tho, she got in on the act back in may (3 months behind me, keep up Shakira) and brought her cover with her along with her hypnotic hip-wiggling set to glastonbury last month.

sadly no dry humping of the onstage monitors in this song tho.......

Tuesday 13 July 2010

purple haze?


Two very different artists have been expressing two very different attitudes towards the current trends in the music industry today.

The same weekend that music fans were grabbing themselves the Saturday edition of The Mirror in order to own Prince's new album, a niche market of internet forum dwellers and bloggers frantically downloading and re-upping 11 zip files of music by Wiley.

Prince has been recording since the 1970s and is renowned for stoically sticking to his guns, whether it has been ludicrous name changes and daubing the word 'slave', across his cheek, or his embracing of internet culture in order to cultivate and reach out to die-hard fans.

But the diminutive musician changed tack recently, declaring that "the internet is completely over" and proclaiming that his latest album would not be available through online sites such as i-tunes, instead choosing to strike a deal that saw the physical release of '20ten' accompany a 65p copy of The Mirror

"The internet's like MTV. At one time MTV was hip and suddenly it became outdated.", Prince told their interviewer, "All these computers and digital gadgets just fill your head with numbers, and that can't be good for you."

But the UK's Godfather of Grime, Wiley, obviously sees things very differently and very publicly sacked his manager via twitter before proceeding to upload 11 zip files, including music that was due to be included on his upcoming major label album release, 'The Elusive'.



Already well respected on the underground, Wiley's star has been ascending since 2008's crossover hit 'Wearing My Rolex', collaborating with Mark Ronson along the way and achieving his first number one earlier this year with his Roll Deep crew hitting the top spot with 'Good Times'.

But he is now vowing to lock himself away and not let anyone hear his new music until a new album is complete.

And although Prince has been afforded TV and radio advertising and front page splashes it seems Wiley's wealth of material may be trumping the veteran performer's ten new tracks.

Hardly surprisingly, The Mirror hailed '20ten' as Prince's best since the highly praised 'Sign o' the Times' but in truth it does little to live up to or reinforce Prince's legendary status.

Where as those delving into Wiley's output have found tracks of a wildly varying quality, discovering enough gems ranging from in vogue house rap to his trademark distinctive eski-beat grime and everything inbetween to make it worth the time and effort needed to sort the the many megabytes of music made available to download.

links to all the zips can be found on grime forum

Saturday 10 July 2010

room with a view

the blog has been quite fast moving this past week, with me fulfilling my promise of posting up some poetry that i hadn't had the chance to publish yet, as well as a little bit of photography and a short piece on Doctor Who.

which has left me no time to post up some more of my music, since today i'm giving you a glimpse of a forthcoming Enfield Advertiser article.  last saturday i saw Room 9 tear the roof of off the Kentish Town Forum and it hardly seemed fair to wait while the paper tries to work through the backlog of reviews that have once again built up.

of course i'll be giving a heads up once the article is in print, but for those that can't wait that long, here it is...


Room 9 @ The Emerganza Final, Kentish Town Forum 03.07.10


Room 9 breifly graced my music column in the Enfield Advertiser when they played an acoustic led set at Bar Form in march.


The Edmonton/Wood Green based band played a powerful set that commanded everyone's attention and had everyone in attendance in complete thrall.


so i was only too happy to check out the full blown live experience when they invited me along to check them out performing at Kentish Town Forum.


and was i in for a shock.


lead singer Lee Tarrier is a friend of a friend, a fairly quiet guy who is never anything less than affable, approachable and sincere but to see him in action as the full band rock out i was surprised by the transformation i was seeing.


my jaw remained on the beer-sticky floor for the entire first song as the the unnassuming guy with a day job as a special needs teacher stalks onstage silohetted against the backdrop of bright lights of white and red strobing through the atmospheric smoke screen and then proceeds to raise the roof and the spirits of the gathered throng with an unbelievable and unboundless energy.


heavy guitars, heavy bass, heavier drums and heavily devoted fans truly rocked the Forum as Room 9 tear through an incendiary four song set, tooled with big Metallica riffs and Rage Against The Machine styled rallying lyrics that iniate many call and responses and fists pumping in the air.


The passion and proffesionalism the band play with belied their short slot in the UK final of the Emerganza Festival for unsigned bands, you could almost believe that this was the homecoming gig of their world tour, with the big production values that the Kentish Town Forum affords them it is truly a sight to behold and hopefully a harbinger of bigger venues and good fortune in the not too distant future.


and although Room 9 narrowly missed out on reaching the international stages of the competetion tonight was an absolute triumph for the band and their fans and will see them blaze a trail with a number of late summer gigs and the release of their eagerly awaited debut album in November.

credit where it's due:
photograph by Floyd

Friday 9 July 2010

geronimo watch 3

getting a little behind, but i'm sure this is little surprise to anybody.




and so the 11th Doctor's first series is over, and overall i must admit that i'm quite pleased with the way things have been going so far.

having been away at Glastonbury and missing the finale episode i decided that i would be in need of a good geek out and would gorge myself on a big fat double bill so that i could also refresh my memory of the previous episode.

so, with all this build up, what did we get??

there was no sign of a bloody mammoth battle with all the Doctor's best baddies that i think everyone was hoping for, just one malicious dusty dalek

oh, of course we had the return of bloody Geronimo, tho i am thankfull that it didn't stick around for the entire run since it got very old very quickly. hopefully this was to be a send off for the unloved catchphrase.

and watching the last two episodes back to back i was made aware of a couple of things.

the first is that the Doctor's catchphrase was not Geronimo at all, it was in fact 'SHUT UP!'

seriously, take a look back at the two parter and witness people continuously being told to shut up, mostly by The Doctor, mostly aimed at Rory, but even Amy gets in on the act and tells her own father to shut up at her wedding.

why hasn't anybody realised and knocked up a crafty little video of all the 'shut up's very hastily chopped together just to prove my point, i don't have the time or inclination to do such a thing, surely somebody else must enjoy doing this type of thing!

we had been fooled with an audacious catchphrase, while all the while we have had people running around telling everyone else to shut up and we even had James Corden on the recieving end of two headbutts, i'm rather baffled by how this all happened but it worked for me.



and onto the second thing i noticed, i wouldn't wish to spoil surprises for anybody (or look like a fool if i was wrong) but it does seem that the hints of a rather large development (one of two possibilities, i guess) are being laid down whilst we have been fretting about cracks in walls and the pandoricum... we'll see if this really does pan out in the way i think it could be heading...

so, Steven Moffat, Matt Smith, Karen Gillan, and even you Rory, i tip my fez to you all.  well done.

Wednesday 7 July 2010

confusing times

as promised, a little more poetry. and before the week is out i shall try and have a little more writing up on here, including a new review and i should probably be thinking about sharing some new(ish) music on this blog since sonically it has become a little bit barren.

but for now, just a short one.





these are confusing times
when yesterday was fine
and today is uncertain






.

Tuesday 6 July 2010

(willy and possibly nilly)

.



i am most likely
to be sat here

waiting





for anything
or for everything


or for nothing


the rambling mind
does not echo
the stillness of my body

attention darts
back and forth
to and fro
(willy and possibly nilly)
lacking direction
and without result




.

Sunday 4 July 2010

british summer time

if this was a boring boring blog i would regale you with tales of how my girlfriend helped me have a glorious and relaxed bornday, chilling in her garden while she prepared a selection of cheese and crackers, cocktail sausages, olives, a jug of pimms punch, homemade scones with clotted cream and jam and strawberrys dipped in chocolate.


but it isn't that type of blog, so the only reason i bothered to mention all that was to put this photo in the right context.







.

Saturday 3 July 2010

a lack of blogging in general





inspiration either approachs me at the most inapropriate times or it evades me when i am looking for it.

i'm sure i have had afew ideas for oddities to blog about, and yet, i haven't blogged.

they didn't feel right.

and i didn't want to leave the blog empty and gathering dust either.


i have a photo that i want to upload that i keep forgetting to, and when i do get round to it i may very well decide that it would be the wrong time to post it.

i have a handfull of poems that fell out of my head before i went to glastonbury, and again they felt very of the moment, in my mind at least, and i have not posted those either.

i should make sure i post the lot of them, maybe dig around a little bit for other things that i was intending to include at one time or another.

it is probably important to keep this blog slanted to my own creativity instead of just my ramblings and bleatings.

i feel a blog should invite people into your lives, but not let them look too close, as if it is just the hint of a person, so that a sense of voyeurism can be felt without falling headlong into strange web-based confessional weirdness, let's try and retain some mystery people...


'and how is my life?' i hear you voyeurs call.

right now my main concerns are load-bearing walls and gallows brackets, ploughing through The Beach like a man possesed, thoroughly enjoying the first book i have read since last october after being far too distracted by a multitude of comics, and trying to ensure that my blog doesn't become just another boring boring blog about normal normal life, like one of the many many banal sites i am rewarded with whenever i hit that 'next blog' button hoping for a voyeuristic experience of my own but only finding another american family with their two or three young children beaming at me from a site that tells of first teeth and tantrums in supermarkets.