Star Nation (was: Re: HW:(was) Hawk Fest in Amsterdam)

[mike coleman]

Beautiful Jon
where the wild things are: need a copy (so I can replace just one memory of
a life that maybe wasn't real at all??)
Star Nation MK2: I'm aleardy headed for a brick wall, so somebody get me a
copy and I'll buy it...(please) (Andy G, did they listen??? testing testing
123).....I wanna be a kollektur
mike, who is slowly geekasizing, trying to get EJ over to England on the
festie circuit
ps-Trev responded to you, *WHAT A SUPREME HONOR*


On 9/12/07, Jonathan Jarrett <jjarrett at chiark.greenend.org.uk> wrote:
>
> On Thu, Aug 16, 2007 at 05:05:52PM -0500, mike coleman typed out:
> > 777 On 8/16/07, StevePXR5 at aol.com StevePXR5 at aol.com
> > 777 PS... for those that don't know what I'm on about... Star Nation:
> "The
> > 777 Silver Age
>
>        <snip>
>
> > I only have the first one minus it's hand-made original cover (tear
> fall),
> > and I've been stubborn about playing it because that cover will run
> through
> > my mind during the course...(I'm getting there)
> > the question:
> > which one do I have? and how many are there?
>
>        There are two. The EP you have, five-track with the Long Man of
> Wilmington or whichever one it is on the cover, is the initial outing,
> and has a couple of nice frantic bits on it (especially `Coup Sticks')
> but only goes so far and suffers from a problem with the lyrics IMO in
> that it sounds like a militant Steve Hillage wrote them, angry hippies
> which doesn't really ring true.
>
>        The second one kind of recognises the conceptual problem there
> because its artwork includes, on the first page of the booklet, a
> drawing of an unnamed stoner lying flat on the floor in a hoodie
> that looks like the costume Max had in _Where The Wild Things Are_
> (possibly not an international reference) with gaming console controls
> still in hand, stub-filled ashtray over the TV still, eyes shut and well
> gone, captioned, "Mashed". And this is why the hippies have not yet
> achieved the Revolution, friends. Anyway.
>
>        The second one is entitled _The Silver Age_ and it is really
> pretty good. The songs are less political and more interesting, but also
> far more powerful musically, and better blended into each other. There
> seem to be reviews all over the web for this one, so you can gather the
> general idea, but I would say that the Kollector in you *needs* this one
> for the following reasons: (1) Ron is on it for one track, albeit not at
> his best IMO, but he makes a much more convincing angry hippy than
> Richard or Jerry; (2) there is a song called `Star Rats' which appears
> at first, second and indeed every subsequent sight I've so far had at
> the lyrics to be Richard's take on why the Great Ship Hawkwind has had
> such trouble flying at times lately; and (3), the booklet has a pop-up
> drawing of the band standing in front of various world-pagan monoliths
> and it's fabulous.
>
>        When it came out a couple of people said `ah this is where the
> spirit of Hawkwind's gone'--not sure I agree with that but certainly, if
> you accept that there *is* a furrow to plough in where spacerock not
> just borrows from techno but picks it up, sends sparks through its hair
> and runs off with it at high speed cackling, this is probably the best
> attempt to do so there will ever be. Not 100% success, and not all of
> that description (there's a very sweet song called `Invisible Girl'
> which is just perfect psych-pop instead, for example), but definitely a
> brave attempt to forge new things in the genre. I would get hold of it
> if you still can.
>
>        You can Google for reviews of the second album, there are loads,
> most obviously on Starfarer's pages for example, but *both* discs seem
> to be reviewed, and pictured, here:
>
> http://www.musicstreetjournal.com/starnationlist.htm
>
>        Yours,
>                Jon (still here, until Trev convinces me)
>
> ObCD: Bevis Frond - _Vavona Burr_
> --
> "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
>