I’m curious about the Massive’s favourite artists - in particular any artists that I have yet to discover . I have a top 5 and I’m going to throw in another fifteen (see first comment for full list)
Also - if you had to pick just one artist as your absolute favourite, who would it be?

The Jam
The Clash (today, the answer is The Clash)
The Beatles
David Bowie
The Smiths

Seinfeld Series 4, Episode 3; George & Jerry are in the coffee shop having just left a commissioning-conference with NBC TV executives. George stormed out of the meeting in a huff when the assembled execs told him that they were less-than-impressed with his pitch on a ‘show about nothing’, so Jerry is giving him what-for:

Jerry (extremely peeved, but somewhat resigned): “What was going on in your mind...?!! Artistic Integrity? Where did you come up with that? You’re not ARTISTIC! And you HAVE NO INTEGRITY.... You really need help. But a regular psychiatrist couldn’t help you – you need to go to like... Vienna or something! Y’know what I mean?! You need to get involved at the university level - like where Freud studied - where there’s people looking at you, and checking up on you - that’s kinda help you need! Not the ‘once-a-week-for-80-bucks’ – no - you need a TEAM! A team of psychiatrists working round-the-clock... thinking about you... having conferences... observing you - like they did with the Elephant Man! That’s what I’m talkin’ about. That’s the only way you’re gonna get better!”

Pause.

George (sheepishly): “I thought the woman was kinda cute...”

I am George Costanza. Read the full entry...

The Dame is back - well sort of. This week see's the release of 'A Reality tour' a double live cd. I've had the dvd of this tour from 2004 and watched it many times over the years. The band are fantastic and the show from Dublin is superb. In case you might think you've heard Bowie live and this is a moneyspinner form the record company may I suggest you have a listen. As well as some great old songs it also illustrates how good his recent realeases have been - 'Heathen(the rays' is certainly worth a listen. This is one of my favourite from the show -

Rock is often best when it gets a little funky:

Following recent celebrations of the Dame and a related blog entry stating that 'Working Class Hero' by Tin Machine was the best cover of a Lennon song, I decided to listen without prejudice:

http://open.spotify.com/album/0juQn8RD24F8sPnSWMZdls

I was always led to understand Tin Machine was unlistenable, however I'm quite enjoying it - am I wrong?

There's a David Bowie tribute album coming out in may. All proceeds are going to Warchild UK charity. There have been some good releases for Warchild but of the twenty eight tracks listed I could only recognise about six artists. I haven't heard any tracks yet but it seems an interesting choice of artists. I'd have thought there would be a very long que of people who would have liked to have contributed. I can't help wondering why? Did the Dame have an influence ? Possibly promoting lesser known artists? Might be worth The word investigating this one. It's due for release in May.
http://strangeglue.com/news/david-bowie-tribute-album-tracklisting-revea...
Any thoughts?

...The Bewlay Brothers, by Bowie, where he (aided and abetted by a sinister laughing gnome) sings

"Lay me place and bake me pie, I'm starving for me gravy. Leave my mind and doors unlocked, and I might just slip away,hey!"

...And it sounds so *right*. What other moments in rock are as barking, yet make complete sense?

Sheev...is this the answer?

Diamond Dogs was the soundtrack to mine.
You?

I would not normally spam on here; I present this purely because I think it might be of interest to the Massive, containing as it does stories about Peel, Paxman, Lydon and the like among much else of interest...

http://www.theartsdesk.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=item&id=526:qa-m...

N.B. it is long, so make a cup of tea and maybe even a sandwich before you start.

Insomnia gripped me last night, as it does each Sunday. The dread work is looming and I need to sleep, so of course, I can't.

On went the headphones and I had three moments of insight, which I can only attribute to the amount of plaster dust I inhaled during a day's worth of home "reworking"

1) I love David Bowie, but for some reason, the joys of "TRAFO Ziggy Stardust ATSFM" had eluded me for about 20 years. I always thought it was OK, but not great. Last night, I realized that it was, in fact, great.

2) The Decemberists are quite marvellous, and I shall play "Yankee Bayonet" whenever I need cheering up. I shall also endeavour not to sing along, as it annoys the hamster. They are also the only band to have been influenced by Jethro Tull, as you could drop "The Landlord's Daughter" into "Thick as a Brick" - perhaps at the end of side 1 - and no-one would notice.

3) Bonham and Jones. Boy, they were good, weren't they. Especially that Jones. Tighter than a a Chough's chuff. I've always kind of glossed over "How the West Was Won" but, last night it seemed tremendously exciting.

I have no idea why I feel this is worthy of a post, I guess it was one of those all too rare occasions where I was actually *listening*.

Obligatory You-Tube clip. It's not as good as the album version, but you get the idea.

Recently I saw Low Anthem and heard their amazing Charlie Darwin number, and that got me thinking, what would the great man actually have on his ipod if he was around today?

Looking around the net it's not an original thought as even the Rough Guide To Evolution has a play list for old CD!

But here's a few I came up with - all a bit obvious really!

Apart Low Anthem...

Bowie Changes
REM Loosing my religion (always sends shivers down my back - perhaps because I was at the time!)
Chemical Brothers It Began In Africa (perhaps you could have Toto's Africa too - but thats pushing it and would depend what degree of cool Darwin was)
Part Man, Part Monkey, Bruce Springsteen
Natural's Not In It: Gang of Four
She Blinded Me With Science: Thomas Dolby

Slightly left field
Poison Oak by Bright Eyes with all that talk of cells.

I even came across a play list for Dick Cheney....

"The Clampdown" - The Clash
"The Winner Takes All" - Abba
"Psycho Killer" - Talking Heads
"Boom Boom Pow" - Black Eyed Peas
"The Bitch Is Back" - Elton John
"Little Man" - Tom Waits
"Know Your Enemy" - Green Day
"Heartless" - Kanye West
"Hoedown Throwdown" - Miley Cyrus
"Frail Grasp On The Big Picture" - The Eagles
"So Small" - Carrie Underwood
"Bastard" - Ben Folds

The new series of Chain Reaction, which started tonight on Radio 4, reminded me of a previous series where Alan Moore interviewed Brian Eno. If you haven't heard it, get it somehow.

Anyway, and apologies if this has been raised before somewhere in the massive archive of trivial nonsense, the end of the programme had Eno confessing that, whenever he and David Bowie meet, "90%" of their conversation is performed in Pete and Dud voices.

Blimey! Why has no sketch show leapt on this? Big Train should have done the 'Brian and Dave Dialogues' when it was on. If Little Britain is fed up with 'Lou and Andy', this is the next thing to do. Harry and Paul could probably do a mean approximation.

It seems like ages since he brought anything new out, and he seems to have bypassed the recent 'play-some-old' money-spinning tours everyone else has gone on, or even 'hear diamond dogs in sequence at the Royal Albert Hall for a grand or whatever.
Maybe he's the only dignified pop star there's been?

Has any band or musician hit their creative peak over the age of 40? I can't think of any. When Macca releases a new album it will often be described as "his best work since Band On The Run", same with a new Bowie album and Scary Monsters. But no one would dare say they were anything close to equalling the creative heights of their youth.

But has anyone ever bucked that trend? And held off their creative high point until middle life. And I don't mean "well I think the Travelling Willbury's is a nice listen", I mean actually outdoing the works of their younger selves. Or is the decline in talent inevitable from aged 25 onwards. Any suggestions to refute this welcome. In fact Pulp's 'Different Class' is the only career peak from over thirties that springs to mind.

The 1984 film of " Absolute Beginners " is showing , on a revival double-bill , here in S. F. this coming week , and I hope to go .
I remember the publicity about the film in the British press at the time of its making and release , it was going to " show the connection between the vibrant style culture of 80s London and its swinging , jazz-oriented , roots " . Then it flopped . Big-time .
If I'm not mistaken .
Nice title song , however:-) .