Jarret slags off Litmus - Yamato rams Thames Barrier

[trev]

European Space Ritual...European Space Ritual
I'll blow that Helios wotsit off anyday

is/was Paul Fox in Farflung????

.and stop taking Xanax - take cold baths instead


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "DOG ROT ANIMAL" <insect.brain at GMAIL.COM>
To: <BOC-L at LISTSERV.ISPNETINC.NET>
Sent: Wednesday, October 31, 2007 1:29 AM
Subject: Re: Jarret slags off Litmus - Yamato rams Thames Barrier


> Dear star of word composition and beloved forum-resident god-like
> one.....put the other T and you never know what good could come of
> that.......
> I won't even question "original" since it's true I didn't catch you in the
> states
> bare with me on your personal request, I've got a kidney stone being
> carefully attenuated in prayer I can keep it from sending the kidney into
> the shock that feels like.......you don't wanna know
> I need you to hire me on a couple USA mail-out jobs, my Xanax costs
> I deserved it
>
>
> On 10/30/07, trev <judge48 at hotmail.com> wrote:
>>
>> Yesssssssssssss.
>>
>> I'd just like to say that there is a new Space Ritual album in the 
>> editing
>> stage.
>> The original Space Ritual, I mean.  It was recorded live in Freiburg in
>> 1994, part of the first European Space Ritual tour
>> line up:
>> Nik Turner, Judge Trev, Commander Jim Hawkman(ICU), Paul Fox, Tommy
>> Grenias
>> (Farflung),Jo Blake, Rik Welsh
>> It is a desk mix album, but I think you'll find the contrast with the
>> present Space Ritual rather interesting.
>>
>> trev
>> ----- Original Message -----
>> From: "Colin Allen" <colinjallen at YAHOO.CO.UK>
>> To: <BOC-L at LISTSERV.ISPNETINC.NET>
>> Sent: Tuesday, October 30, 2007 11:38 AM
>> Subject: Re: HW: Litmus Dates
>>
>>
>> > See my comments below:
>> >
>> > Jonathan Jarrett <jjarrett at CHIARK.GREENEND.ORG.UK> wrote:    On Tue, 
>> > Oct
>> > 09, 2007 at 09:18:38AM +0100, Colin Allen typed out:
>> >> Uber-Space Rockers Litmus have the following dates scheduled:
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> >> 28th October 2007
>> >> The Underworld
>> >> 174 Camden High Street
>> >> London
>> >> NW1 0NE
>> >> (2nd night of the All Hallows Festival with Leafhound, Gentlemans
>> >> Pistols and Earthling Society)
>> >
>> >
>> >
>> > Well, I was there, and with a reasonable head of beer on too and
>> > so prepared to enjoy many things. All the bands decently represented,
>> > which was nice; also good to see that Rise Above have belaboured Litmus
>> > into producing new t-shirt designs.
>> >
>> >  No, they had not; the t-shirts were the band's idea.
>> >
>> > Earthling Society were first up and opened with a slow jam,
>> > which may not have been the best way to go about it; Sherman lost
>> > interest quite rapidly and disappeared to the loo for the rest of their
>> > set, of which this was about a third. This meant that she missed the
>> > bits where they actually did something, including the culmination of 
>> > the
>> > jam where they'd piled so much in that just shunting that noise about
>> > began to have an intensity of its own. The second track they did was an
>> > actual song, and not a bad one even, but the singer can't really hit 
>> > his
>> > notes, and their playing is nothing remarkable, and by and large I saw
>> > nothing in this set that did more than catch my interest.
>> >
>> >  I do feel that this is rather unfair on Earthling Society, who are a
>> very
>> > good band; this was not an ideal environment for them but their set was
>> > both enjoyable and musically of very high quality.  For me, they were
>> > probably played the best set on the night.
>> >
>> > Of an entirely different stamp were Gentleman's Pistols. As they
>> > were setting up I took stock of the general amount of facial hair, 
>> > other
>> > hair, vintage instrumentation and swagger, and was reminded of an
>> > interview I read once with Mick Farren about the Deviants gig at Hyde
>> > Park. I can't remember who exactly it was that the Deviants had been
>> > sandwiched between for that gig, but one of them was the Edgar 
>> > Broughton
>> > band, and Mick told of how he'd been unable to convince himself they
>> > could catch the audience, what with being stuck between one band far
>> > heavier and another far cleverer. And Paul Rudolph found the point for
>> > them to stand on by coming to the mic and saying, "Now we're going to
>> > have some fun". This was what I found myself expecting as the Pistols
>> > took the stage. I wasn't wrong either. I think a third of the songs 
>> > were
>> > about masturbation or other unsavoury sexual practices, the singer
>> > (whose hair and beard were most outrageous of all) needed to be 
>> > credited
>> > for camp as well as guitar, posing and vocals, and they were all
>> > enjoying themselves hugely playing loud fuzzy rock and roll of a 
>> > happily
>> > filthy kind. No-one could accuse them of taking themselves too
>> > seriously, but you certainly couldn't have accused them of being
>> > under-rehearsed either; this band is worth seeing. I shall definitely
>> > hope to catch them again, and I only held off on buying the album
>> > because it was clear that Sherman was going to and I wanted to save the
>> > money for a new Litmus t-shirt.
>> >
>> > So Litmus had a lot to follow, although I was confident that
>> > they could manage it. However, I'm not sure they made any converts this
>> > night in the event. A four-track set, half of which was new and
>> > unfinished material, and much of which was jamming, would have taken
>> > over and stolen Earthling Society's thunder with no problem but
>> > following people who'd been playing short, furious and complete songs,
>> > Litmus unfortunately looked rather amateur. The known songs were
>> > `Infinity Drive', which was ugly and brutal but in a good way, and
>> > has a new break now, and `Under the Sign', which probably jammed for 
>> > too
>> > long; I think it's possible that Litmus might benefit from a 
>> > performance
>> > rule that says once they drop the ball once in a jam it's time to wrap
>> > it up and remind the audience who's boss by getting back to the riff. 
>> > As
>> > it was it was a long time to wait for the bit where one could dance
>> > again.
>> >
>> > The new stuff had its parts but they were spaced out too far at
>> > the moment. The worst of it was that during the last track, which was a
>> > monster in terms of time but only came to a focus for about two 
>> > minutes,
>> > I found myself thinking, "Marek [the drummer] is wasted on this", and 
>> > at
>> > any other time I wouldn't usually notice him because I'd be
>> > concentrating on the stringsmen. From this I conclude that Simon,
>> > especially, but also Martin to a lesser extent, need to come up with
>> > some new tricks, or perhaps focus on song structure a bit more, or
>> > mainly, I suspect, finally get a new keyboardist and be prepared to
>> > endure him or her saying, "guys, guys, this is flaccid spacewasting, we
>> > can do better than this". It may not always be true but it's a point
>> > they perhaps need to be readier to hear. So I don't quite know what 
>> > goes
>> > on in Litmus camp at this time, but I think it needs some work and
>> > possibly some help.
>> >
>> >  Unfortunately, you did not hear the new material as it is supposed to
>> be
>> > heard due to the untimely death of Simon's pedal board, which left him
>> > playing solely through his amp without any effects whatever.  This was
>> the
>> > cause of the somewhat stilted jamming as, to an extent, the songs were
>> no
>> > longer really playable.  Due to this, it was a poor set, especially 
>> > when
>> > compared with the recent performance in Brighton supporting Space
>> Ritual.
>> > I suspect that the band are even more disappointed with what happened
>> than
>> > you were.
>> >
>> > Headliners were Leafhound, of whom I probably should have known.
>> > They have done a Nektar- or Blue-Cheer-like rejuvenation by recruiting
>> > one new younger member, but I don't know how much difference this has
>> > made. The guitarist is the new boy, and definitely had the shred and 
>> > the
>> > widdle, a Vai fan I suspect, whilst also being quite ready to hold down
>> > the riff where necessary, and apart from the fact that he looked too
>> > damn clean compared to the rest of the band I had no problem with
>> > considering him part of the deal. And the bassist was fine, the drummer
>> > and singer both clearly still had what they'd had, or if they didn't, I
>> > didn't know, not knowing the original. Let me put it this way: if you'd
>> > only been able to hear them, you wouldn't have known they were an old
>> > band. What you might have thought, however, is "why is this pub blues
>> > band headlining in the Underworld?" There was nothing wrong with them
>> > but they were some way off being special. I guess there were big fans 
>> > in
>> > the audience who were pleased to see their favourite tracks actually
>> > being done right, and I can certainly relate to that from experiences
>> > with other bands, but I couldn't join them there and there wasn't
>> > really much for anyone else.
>> >
>> > So yes. Earthling Society and Leafhound come in some way behind,
>> > Litmus suffering creative injuries and scrape a second place; outright
>> > victory by a long way to Gentleman's Pistols. If we could get them on a
>> > bill with Gorilla and Drunk Horse the resultant testosterone guitar
>> > explosion would probably level the venue. Yours,
>> > Jon
>> >
>> > --
>> > "When fortune wanes, of what assistance are quantities of elephants?"
>> > (Juvaini, Afghan Muslim chronicler, c. 1206)
>> > Jon Jarrett, Fitzwilliam Museum, jjarrett at chiark.greenend.org.uk
>> >
>>
>