Guerrilla Welfare (and other student pastimes)

The Subterranean Scene

im back with a review post for you all.

so what have i been listening to, reading and watching, i hear you ask...well i'll tell you.

as with any cognitive being, my tastes are ever evolving. so rather than boring you with a tirade of my journey through art, music and everything arragont. i will simple out line what going on right now. also, most of you know my ussual taste...and i feel these are alittle different.

firstly, music. i dont care what anyone says, the english music scene is not as good as everyone thinks, in fact, its pretty painful most of the time. for me the best scenes right now are canada (montreal in particular) and australia. anyway, with that in mind, i found myself the other day with out any new music to listen to, and then i remember the aria award nominations had come out...whats that you ask. well it the australian verison of the grammys. anyway, i hit the site up and basically work my way through each nominee in each catagory. Australian music puts emphasis on root music, something with soul. the corprate side of music hasnt yet started to dictate musical trends, so they awards openly encourage works from indpendent lables. anyway, besides the ussual big hitters...who are some of my favourite bands (Silverchair, Powderfinger, JBT), i stumbled upon some amazing music, the stand band for me was Gotye. a drummer-song writer who combines jazz, big band, with electro and ambient music....spanning a large range of styles, he maintains a depth in his music which i feel is best illustrated in the song "Hearts a Mess"

Two other bands that have found their way firmly into my playlist are The Beautiful Girls and Rocco Deluca and the Burden.
I can't exactly remember how i found out about the beautiful girls, but all i knew is that these aussie surfers were not just another jack johnson rip off. an almagimation of reggae, roots and hard rock give a hard edge to a soft genre...and its toe tappling good fun.

Now the story behind my discover of Rocco Deluca is kind odd. i was flying from San Fran to Boston over the summer on Jetblue, who have cable tv on the flight...anyway, it was the red flight, so i was dozing in and out of consiousness, and at one point of coming too i saw kiefer sutherland, and thought it was a documentary on 24 or something......then i heard the most piercing voice behind a rocking dobra riff..i was intrigued. later did i found i was watching "I Trust You To Kill Me", a rockumentary about the band who had been discoverd by kiefer sutherland, and who was acting as rodey come manager for the band on their european tour, which entailed bars and pubs in Tokyo, Los Angeles, London, Dublin, Reykjavík and Berlin....with Sutherland constantly being ignored and not recognised, which he loved. anyway, the music is intoxicating. in the vein of Jeff Buckley but obviously not the man himself, Rocco Deluca and The Burden seek to play riff driven melodic music, behind a excellent vocal, if a bit nasal in times.

Ok thats enough music for now, shall we move on to literature? let talk Douglas Coupland....this guy revolutionised an entire way of looking at the world for me. Probably most famous for his book Generation X, which charts the lives of 3 young people in palm springs, who live on the outskirts of society, both mentally and comercial...it destructes all the so called "benefits" of modern corporate society, and posses the stark question....are you happy becuase you happy, or are you just believing that you are happy, because its how everyone else is acting. Coupland creates seperate world, seemingly so far away from anything youve ever known, but so tangable that you expect to see the protagonist in your living room when you put the book down. However, my favourite work of his has to be "girlfriend in a coma" which was pushed at me for years by Dan, and only a a year ago did i pick it up. no book has ever come close to describing at the same time, the tiniest minuate of adolences and the end of the world so beautifully. it is my most suggest book for anyone think about what to read next.

For visual stimulation, well your never far away from quality film work with the boys at Clingfilms (http://youtube.com/user/wonderbarnes). but for things im not directly involved in, we must turn our attention to tv and movies. so everyone loves their Lost, House, Hereos etc etc....but i have to say the most underated tv show thats accessable to all you out there is Psych...half way through its second season. the basic outline is about a Guy whos father was a police office, and drilled him constantly when he was a child to the point where he is hyper attentive, which he now uses to convience the local Santa Barbra police dept that he is a Psyhic and thus starts a private investiagation business with black best friend who plays the extremely intellegent but alittle nerdy straight man. Full of famous cameo's and little homages to indie culture, as well as classic movies, it is one of my favourite shows on tv.
But if your feeling for something involving men with large knives battling each other, look no further than Iron Chef America.....im not going to go into a long rant about this, because i could not even come close to how genuis this show is...just youtube it.

anyway, i hope this has filled you with some sort of understanding of what you must go out and listen to, read and watch. cus if your not, you boring.

but till next time campers....remember suspend your bags and food 8ft up and 6ft out when turning in for the night, as well as pouring 2 buckets of water over your camp fire........now you know....AND KNOWING IS HALF THE BATTLE. GI JOOOOOOOOOE

Posted by will at October 31, 2007 01:10 AM