He was just 71. His latest HBO special, It’s Bad for Ya!, shot in March this year, is on youtube. It’s proof that at the age of 71 he was so sharp and alive that not only was this too soon for him to die, but in fact he’s not dead at all and will live forever.

First of all, I’ve updated the Sound of Souls post, so go there if you missed this forgotten gem

Achewood, by Chris Onstad, is a webcomic that’s been going for almost 7 years, although I heard of it only recently - better late than never, I guess. It’s clearly the best comic in the world next to PBF… which has apparently stopped, so that leaves Achewood on top.

You can check out the wiki page to find out stuff about the characters and their world, but I think the best way to get started with Achewood is just start reading from somewhere near the start… That’s what I did

The comic follows the day to day life of a bunch of pets and toys living in and around Onstad’s house - the stories are usually unconnected, but every once in a while a story arc ties a bunch of them together. You can easily navigate to the start of any story arc, the one with the outdoor fight is supposed to be the best but I haven’t reached it yet.

Alrite, why are you still here, just start reading from a specific place I arbitrarily picked for you goddamnit. And don’t forget to let your cursor float above the comics for a couple of seconds to see the alternate text put there by the author

I’ve been dwelling on the past lately

First, I revisited one of my 2006 favourites, Circulus‘ Clocks Are Like People. Such a brilliant album, it always reminds me of the lost music of some magical foresty people, like the Children of the Forest in ASOIAF. Nerdy

Anyway, this is the song that still sent shivers down my spine when I heard it. Play it LOUD.

Song of our Despair

Second, I torrented the new Genesis 3DVD set, When in Rome. Twas awesome to finally see that unique concert again. I caught two shots of me - one rocking out during the ‘Cinema Show’ part, and one while singing along to ‘Ripples’. Wonderful show that was… except ‘Invisible Touch’

There’s also a documentary - I would’ve liked more rehearsal footage instead of boring stage production details, but still there’s some great moments in the doco: when the guys first meet and listen to ‘Cinema Show’ together, or the footage of ‘Carpet Crawlers’ in rainy Katowice, with people in the crowd singing along… quite emotional.

And third, I got my grubby hands on some Cardiacs rarities, including a couple of BBC sessions from 95-96. Really cool to hear, especially the Sing to God songs in the second session - their awesome energy is even more effective in a live setting, and minus the squashed production of STG. C’mon, get’em. If you need extra incentive, here’s ‘Fiery Gun Hand’:

UPDATE: fuck sharebee, this link should work.

…and dumps them into the endless void of eternity. The new Esoteric album, The Maniacal Vale, has leaked in full, and it’s quite impressive

Here’s a taster, ‘Caucus of Mind’ - at 7 minutes, it’s the shortest song off the album. It’s also different in that it first speeds up into a couple of minutes of ass-kicking death metal before plummeting back into cosmic doom.

Clearly one of the top albums of the year.

…in a nerdy kind of way. I sometimes amuse myself by reading journals of opinionated last.fm users and the comments that follow. Here’s an example:

What’s most ironic is that people with lower Eclectic Scores and OMIs than myself are calling me a ’stereotypical closed-minded metalhead’.

Haha, I know I’m a hypocrite, as I too sometimes fall in the trap of posting pretentious nonsense on the internet, but that quote struck me as really funny. The more or less free distribution of music on the internet has given birth to a generation of self-proclaimed music experts, and the best place to see them in their natural environment is last.fm

Are people who flaunt their Eclectic Scores, Open Mind Indexes, and immense collections of downloaded albums, really alienating themselves from the actual music? Who cares.

What I was really getting at, is that the new Cult of Luna album just leaked, and it fuckin CRUSHES. So get it now, it’ll kick your ass and who knows, even boost your OMI.

I don’t think I’ve heard a “regular” Japanese band yet, and Mudy on the Sakuban are no exception. They play an extremely infectious type of instrumental (what some would call math- ) rock. They remind me a bit of Deep Turtle or Ruins, except with a cleaner sound, employing less sudden time changes and their rhythms being more straightforward, but still wacky enough to make your brain dance.

There’s three guitars in the band, at least two of them are doing something interesting at any given moment. I found myself involuntarily twitching and tapping my foot while listening to the album, had to restrain myself as it’s really gay to do that sort of thing in public. Here’s a song that’ll rock your socks off:

I got the album off the invaluable soundweave blog. Give it a listen if you want to have fun for 30 minutes.

An owl wakes up at sea in a pea green boat. It is accompanied by a cat, its natural predator. There is some honey. What chain of events led to this dangerous situation?

Pea Green Boat is a 21-minute spoken word adaptation of the poem The Owl and the Pussycat - Stewart Lee turns it into a very perceptive, dark and funny story.

As with any of Lee’s work (but probably this even more), you’ll either think it’s brilliant or just pretentious British bullshit. I’m reluctant to share it here, because I’d rather you all buy it There’s lots of worse things you could spend £5 on, and you’d be supporting a tr00 underground artist. Listen to a sample and buy it here.

Here’s a quote from the Owl’s diary that may convince you:

Did I tell you the Cat speaks to me? It speaks to me, the Owl. It says it wants to marry me. But it has anxieties as to how we will sanctify our union, as we have no ring. Which is predictable. And, as we are of different species, we could never mate - thus, the symbolism of the ring, binding us together, becomes all-important. It’s all we have.

Also I should mention the background music is great and works perfectly in setting the mood for the story. Alright then, just get the damn thing.

Welp I just came back from seeing The Ocean, and they destroyed. By the way, this is my 100th post on this blog, yay!

Just 4 of these guys bothered to come to Romania

I didn’t give their album a fair chance cos of the gay vocals, but live they weren’t as noticeable (for the record, just half of the vox are gay, the other 50% are skullcrushingly manly) and the band obliteraped.

Kickass show, the first of many yet to come this summer

Pink metal! \m/

I haven’t been keeping you up to date on the great new music I’ve been listening and I know you’re reaaaallllly anxious to hear about it. First thing you should do is check out my 2008 list that I update every once in a while. The rankings aren’t meant to be exact, but the top stuff is generally better than the bottom stuff.

We have, of course, the new Opeth album. If for some reason you haven’t downloaded it yet, one of the more silly ways to get it would be going here first.

You probably know that I’m a big sucker for Opeth, so it was pretty obvious that I’d love Watershed. For me, it’s definitely a step forward from 2005’s highly acclaimed Ghost Reveries: Per has really found his niche in the band and the keys play an essential role in the songs. Bass is great as always, although his parts aren’t as prominent as on GR. Mike is sexier than ever. And the new kids are up to par.

Every Opeth album requires dozens of listens before you can start worshipping it, and Watershed was no exception. After playing it non-stop for a few days (something everyone should do) I can say it’s brilliant but not flawless. Here are some observations, good and bad:

• Heir Apparent is possibly the best song on the album, and one of Opeth’s crushingliest ever.
• Burden feels like the prog song Mikael always wished he could make. And the outro is just perfect, fuck da hataz.
• Most of the songs (HA, B, Lotus Eater, Hessian Peel at least) tend to destroy more towards the end.
• Porcelain Heart starts promisingly after Burden, but is pretty disappointing overall - feels like a bunch of stock Opeth bits stuck together.
• I kinda agree with the review I linked to earlier, in that I wish they’d explored more some of the new influences they’ve incorporated. Like for instance, the kickass electronic droney part in Hessian Peel, I wish they’d kept it going a bit longer, spicing it up to keep it interesting. Also the Scott Walker ‘Cossacks Are’ guitar riff in Lotus Eater doesn’t have a ~disturbing~ effect similar to its counterpart on The Drift, cos they only play it like twice and then do a solo over it - still kicks ass, but the weirdness effect is pretty much gone.
• From what I’d read in Mike interviews, I was hoping his vocals would go more into the Walker direction instead of the Coverdale one - but I’m really nitpicking here, his clean vox are spectacular for the most part.

As far as I’m concerned, Opeth have yet to release something that isn’t great. Although as an Opeth album it doesn’t quite reach the top 3, it’s pretty unlikely I’ll rate anything higher than it Watershed this year.

Other than that, these days I’ve been playing Treny by Jacaszek, a Polish electronic experimental artist - really sweet album. Also one half of the new Esoteric leaked today, gave it a listen and it seems good. Now that the Opeth effect has started to wear off, my interest for new albums has returned: can’t wait for the new Cult of Luna, Enslaved, Black Bonzo and Amplifier’s double treat.

Well, I finally finished the first 4 books of Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy about a month ago, and I went on to another book I bought in England last year, namely:

It’s a great read for any Python fan (oh and if you aren’t a Monty Python fanatic, what’re you doing reading this blog?), reaching out from the first day of shooting for Monty Python’s Flying Circus, up until the Life of Brian days. The book shows the golden years of Python through Michael Palin’s eyes, and reading his notes on the first TV series, or about the reactions to the stage show, and observing Palin’s relations to the other Pythons is just awesome.

But that’s only one side of it - the book also gives an insight into Palin’s personal life, his relationship with his aging parents and his own new family and his view of the world surrounding him. He’s affected by the unjust acts and rough times in England and by the uninspired changes occurring around London*, yet tries to make the best of the life he’s been blessed with.

Palin seems to be among the most level-headed and talkative of the six Pythons, so it may come as no surprise that he was the one keeping a diary. He and Terry Jones had a strong relationship, both as friends and writers, and played a large part in keeping the group together and standing up for its interests. Thus, he’s present at most key events in the evolution of Monty Python, and we get to see what they were like.

I’m about one third into the book, and I wish it’d never end Palin concludes the introduction saying:

In the course of these diaries I grow up, my family grows up and Monty Python grows up. It was a great time to be alive.

- this feeling comes shining through, all throughout his diaries.

I just have to leave you with a Python bit, here’s a live version of the Dead Parrot sketch from ‘76, in which John Cleese manages to make Michael Palin crack up This is pure gold:

*I’m no expert on the subject, but this reminded me of Genesis‘ Selling England by the Pound, which in a way views the same troubles from a different perspective… and happens to be an all-time favourite album of mine, of course