Where Worlds Collide

J Michael Neal has a longish post on the psychology of capitalism.

The idea that the system is designed to reward greed is the reason I find the rabid adoption of free market capitalism by the religious right as so mind boggling. Logically, one would think that the promotion of sin would turn them away from such a system, as they are usually easy to rile up about anything that they think promotes sin. So, it’s strange.

…

I got into a debate with a religious conservative one time, asking the very question of how he reconciles the New Testament with Friedrich Hayek. I didn’t think that the answer I got was very coherent, but it revolved around the idea that people must be free to sin in order to make the choice to be saved. This is probably true, but then why promote a system that makes the sin more tempting and the redemption less likely. I still don’t get it.

My response would be to point out a recurring theme from Slacktivist, the idea that large sections of the American Religious Right have fallen into deep heresy, and preach a value system that has little or nothing to do with the teachings of Jesus Christ. Despite Margaret Thatcher’s complete misreading of the meaning behind parable of the Good Samaritan, there’s not much about supply side economics in the Gospels.

I’ve on record as describing American’s so-called ‘Conservative Movement’ as ‘the bastard offspring of Cyrus Scofield and Ayn Rand’. Two cults that ought to be completely incompatible.

Quite a few music forums have interminable threads where people list the CDs they’re recently been playing. They’re often illuminating about what makes fans of certain bands tick, and can provide useful pointers towards bands worth checking out.

But this weekend I’ve had my parents (known as ‘The Crumblies’) to stay, so I’ve been restricted to playing “Crumbly-friendly” music. So I started with Opeth’s “Still Life” It was a Xmas present from them, so they seemed to want to find out what it sounded like. I did warn them it went “Hrrrrrrrggghhh”, but…

It lasted about three minutes, two of which were the acoustic intro before the Mikael Åkerfeldt’s death vocals kicked in.

After that:
Apocalyptica plays Metallica on four cellos
John Lord: Before I Forget
Miles Davis: A Kind of Blue
Steve Hackett: Wild Orchids
Renaissance: Live at the Carnegie Hall

Transport Blog looks at some of the problems with London’s Oyster Card system, and comes up with something rather disturbing.

Talking of rail-related smart cards. What’s with the marine wildlife connection? In London it is called Oyster. In Hong Kong it is called Octopus. And in Tokyo it’s called Suica. OK, so I don’t know what Suica means. But they promote it with a penguin.

Hmm. Shellfish. Things with Tentacles. Penguins (Can you say “Tekeli Li!”). It’s starting to look rather Lovecraftian to me. So what forbidden blasphemous tomes did their software developers use to produce this system.

Iä! Iä! Cthulhu Fhtagn!

I’d been meaning to visit my brother in Swansea for months. When I read on The Storm that The Reasoning were playing their very first gig at Swansea’s Uplands Tavern on Friday, this looked like the ideal weekend to make the trip. So I braved the post-hurricane railway system and some very typical Welsh weather (i.e. wet), and set off for Dinas Abertawe

The Reasoning are one of three bands to emerge from the ashes of the original lineup of Karnataka when they imploded two years ago. While I’d heard very good things said about the original lineup of Karnataka, I never had the chance to see them live. The Reasoning feature Karnataka’s singer Rachel Jones along with former Magenta bassist Matthew Cohen. Since Rachel wrote all Karnataka’s lyrics and vocal arrangements, they’ve as much claim to the spirit of the old band as any of the other offshoots.

Uplands Tavern is a strange sort of venue. The bar is right in the middle of the room which means half the people there can’t actually see the stage. And it’s difficult to fit six people on the tiny stage, which meant that for much of the gig I couldn’t see lead guitarist Lee Wright.

If they were a little nervous at first, the energy rapidly picked up, and they soon got past the usual small venue problem of dodgy sound right at the start. As one might expect from a band with two guitars, the new material is a little rockier that Karnataka were, but nevertheless sounded impressive on first listen. Rachel Jones shared lead vocals with guitarist Dylan Thompson and keyboard player Gareth Jones, with some complex harmonies in places. We were even treated to a solo song from Gareth Jones, which sounded very Elton John to my ears, only without the oversized glasses and bad toupee. Much of the second half of the set was old Karnataka material on which Rachel was on fine form, including an excellent “Talk to Me”. Deep Purple’s “Stormbringer” seemed a very odd choice for the encore; with Dylan singing Coverdale’s vocals and Rachel singing Glenn Hughes’

I look forward to getting my hands on the new album, released next month, and seeing them again at Crewe in April

The Guardian’s Music Blog invites people to nominate their top gigs of all time. Predictably for the Guardian, most of those listed by their hand-picked pundits in the linked article are the predictable tiresomely overrated suspects like bloody Morrissey.

Like some other commenters, I can’t restrict it to just one gig. My gig going career seems to fit into two periods, in the early to mid 80s, and the last 2-3 years, with only a handful of shows in the years in between. Nowadays I tend to shun stadium extravaganzas for smaller club gigs where you can actually see the band’s faces.

I’ve chosen three from each era.

Back in the 80s:

Iron Maiden at the Reading Festival in 1980. Back when they were raw and hungry, still with their original singer Paul Di’anno. They combined the pure energy of punk with the precision and complexity of rock in a way nobody else was doing at the time. They would soon go on to conquer the world; this was one of the very last gigs they ever played when they weren’t top of the bill.

Pink Floyd doing The Wall at Earls Court in 1981. Nothing I’ve seen since has rivalled it for sheer spectacle, although Rammstein have come close.

Gillan and Budgie at the Top Rank, Reading, 1982. Gillan were one of those bands that shouldn’t be judged by their cheesy singles and patchy albums; you really had to seem them live to appreciate them. All the band were both great musicians and real characters, and they played with a tremendous amount of energy. Great as Gillan were, the Welsh power trio Budgie (one of the most underrated British bands of the era) gave them a close run for their money.

And more recently:

The reformed Van Der Graaf Generator at Manchester Bridgewater Hall, 2005. Amazing to hear such a massive sound from just four guys. Were they this good in their 70s heyday?

IQ at the Mean Fiddler, London, 2006. IQ don’t play live very much in their home country, because their brand of full-blown symphonic prog-rock remains deeply unfashionable. It’s our loss. Damn the fashion police!

Mostly Autumn, Crewe Limelight, 2006. While some of their shows in the earlier part of the year were a bit hit and miss, by the end of the year they were firing on all cylinders. Their Xmas shows at Crewe are always good, this one was an absolute blinder.

So much for the theory that your experiences from the ages 15-25 form the most vivid memories of your life. Those last two gigs are both within the last six weeks.

Comes from Captain Electra

Jade Goodie and her loathsome clan are just another product of our moronic popular media and Chav-culture.

The hypocrites in government are constantly hand-wringing over “yoof” behaviour and trying to instill a “Respect” agenda whilst our youngsters are being fed role-models like this shuddersome creature that resembles something from HP Lovecraft’s most fevered dreamings.

And I thought she was just pond life; you’re telling me she’s really a prawn from outer space?

Iä! Iä! Jade Goodie Fh’tagn!

Surprise announcement from the Mostly Autumn website from Bryan Josh

It is my duty to inform you that due to unfortunate conflicting commitments that both Liam and Andy Jennings have departed Mostly Autumn. We can only wish them all the best for the future in whatever they pursue. Andy will be focussing his time with “Snowfight” who are at a very exciting position at present. Liam has issued the following statement…

“Although it has been one of the hardest decisions I’ve had to make, I feel I must sadly depart from Mostly Autumn. Working with Mostly Autumn has been a great experience and a truly inspirational journey, I sincerely wish them every success in the future, not only will I miss performing with such fine musicians, I will also miss everyone connected behind the scenes.

I will concentrate 2007 on working on my solo album which will hopefully see it’s release in the not too distant future.

I would like to thank each and every one of the fans that have given the band tremendous support throughout the years and all the years to come.
See you on the other side…”

Liam Davison.

I would like you to give a warm welcome to Gavin Griffiths, ex-Karnataka and Fish, who will be joining the band on drums. We have admired Gavin’s playing from afar for many years now and are very much looking forward to working with him. We will not be replacing Liam in the immediate future.

All dates will go ahead as normal and more will be added.

Andrew’s departure doesn’t totally take me by surprise, especially as he’s in two other bands (I gather he’s also leaving Breathing Space). But Liam’s is a bit more of a shock. He was a founder member of the band, the last survivor from the first album other than Bryan and Heather. He’s a good guitarist, although he was seriously under-used both on record and live. He’ll still leave a hole, though.

No, not that Big Brother. I’m referring to Tony Blair’s galactic database which will merge all the data that exists on every one of us. Ian P tells a horror story about the likely result.

Tony Blair thinks that creating a super database for everyone in Britain is a good idea, then ponder that combined with all his new laws lets look at the story of Average Joe Soap, clean, honest living man.

When Joe Soap arrived at his local Jobcentre to look for work, he had little idea of the nightmare that was about to unfold.

What’s scary is that the story seems disturbingly plausible. The best-case outcome of this project is it ends up wasting billions of pounds of taxpayer’s money without ever actually working. The worst case scenario is, well, just read the thing.

Link from Charlie Stross, who adds

But remember: it could always be worse! We could have a BNP government instead of caring, sharing, New Labour. But of course, if you’re innocent you’ve got nothing to fear, as John Reid never tires of telling us. Sleep tight.

Yes, before anyone says it, I do know Ian P seems to believe 7/7 was a false-flag operation. I think Ian P is wrong on that count. But it doesn’t mean his story of Joe Soap should be dismissed as paranoid fantasy.

How many Classic Rock Album Covers can you identify? I got 32 out of 54. And there are one or two I’m kicking myself for not guessing…

(Link via the Mostly Autumn forum)

Meme from HippyDave - seven songs I have been enjoying a lot of late….

Fading Colours - Mostly Autumn
Interior Lulu - Marillion
Silver Glass - Mostly Autumn
The Moor - Opeth
O Come All Ye Faithful - Traditional
Further Away - IQ
Find the Sun - Mostly Autumn

Over to you!