9 & 10 March 2013 (Days 68 & 69) – 21st Century Boy

I don’t expect that anyone would want to watch a television series about my life.  (Question to self: then why are you writing a daily blog? Self: I’m doing so anonymously. Second question to self: why would anyone want to read your blog? Self: I’ve told you/me many times, I’m doing this for my/your self.  Therapist looking unmistakably like Sigmund Freud: So Mister .Youth, how long have you been talking to yourself?)  But if one was made, the subtitle on screen would read – 2013: Otis embraces the internet. 

And so that has been the case.  So far this year, I’ve set up my first internet account at home, started and maintained this blog and engaged in all almost of the tasks one does when one joins the internet age.  Well actually, there have been two things I haven’t yet tried.  One is viewing porn and the other is purchasing music online.  And as of now, there is only one task left. 

I went into this weekend (actually long weekend as Monday is a public holiday) with no fixed plans other than to beat the unseasonably hot weather that has hit Melbourne as a final reminder of the summer we’re about to lose.  “M” and I hit a local shopping centre early on Saturday, did grocery shopping, had lunch, split up for individual shopping during which I managed to by nothing and went to the movies, all in air conditioned comfort.  (For the record the movie was Steven Soderbergh’s Side Effects, a more than competent whydidit.) By the time we returned home, all we wanted to do was vegetate which we did quite effectively.

Sunday posed a problem.  A long gap loomed before we were due at a birthday shindig at 4pm.  We shuffled around the house and did our chores.  With the house clean and air temperature still cool, “M” decided on a spot of online shopping (actually browsing is a more appropriate word).  When she finished I took over and idly tried to search for some cheap and legal downloads.

I was in luck, sort of. I was alerted to a site run by one of the record labels here and went scrolling through their inventory.  In doing so I found a couple of albums that I had wanted to replace my cassette versions for a long time but had never been released on CD.  I then wrestled with the less than clear instructions that these sites invariably have and eventually became the proud possessor of two digital albums.  Next task was to burn these to CD, place them in the rear pocket of an archival sleeve, hunt out the re-recorded cassettes, remove their covers, flatten them so that each cover and track list component is visible simultaneously and place them in the front pocket of the sleeve, ready for tomorrow’s listening.

The weekend’s listening was as follows:

(182) MUSE – The Resistance

This starts off as though it was going to be the MUSE album for the ages.  The first few tracks are great examples of MUSE’s patented symphonic space rock. United States Of Eurasia (+ Collateral Damage) then follows, a track that can only be described as an out and out homage to Queen complete with Freddie Mercury vocal flamboyance. Later on comes the spectacular Unnatural Selection and Mk Ultra, each of them a bombastic (in the best sense of the term) showcase of the band at their best and obviously designed with huge stadiums in mind.  And then the last 4 tracks things provide an anti-climax of the most gigantic order.  Chief culprit is the Exogenesis: Symphony that accounts for the last three cuts and sounds like suspiciously like incidental soundtrack music.

(183) Radio Soulwax – Part Of The Weekend Never Dies (cd only)

This is gonna get confusing.  Once upon a time, brothers Stephen and David Dewaele formed a band in Belgium called Soulwax, an alternative rock band.  They then created a DJ alter ego for themselves as 2ManyDJ’s which released the Sgt Pepper’s of mash up albums, As Heard On Radio Soulwax Pt 2.  They would frequently tour as one act or the other and occasionally (as when I saw them at a Big Day Out) as both.  On some tours they appeared as Soulwax Nite Sessions in which I think they play remixed versions of Soulwax tunes.  This relase is part of a DVD package which shows a Nite Sessions/2ManyDJ’s tour.  Naturally, it’s credited to Radio Soulwax.  The CD, which might be called Live At Fabric, seems to be a recording of the 2ManyDJ’s live.  If so, it demonstrates that as DJ’s the  Dewaeles know exactly how to keep a dance party moving.  The key is by baseing everything on a rock beat.

(184) Battles – Mirrored

Battles is a rock band which plays an intriguing form of mostly instrumental tracks.  There isn’t much of a reference point I can provide although some of the tracks on this, their debut, have a Frank Zappa feel to them.  Too loud to be considered ambient, too rhythmic to be considered as a truly experimental act, Battles are best described as a music category in their own right.   I suspect that this album might be the sound of a band finding its feet but I’ll need to listen to subsequent releases to get a stronger handle.

And now I’m off to surf for porn.