~Winter Wassailing~#17: 'Christmas Eve For Two' by Summer Fiction

Despite being the ~Streetlamp~'s most unshakable Atheist, it seem that, once again, within the merest few hours of December I find myself donning the tinsel and mistletoe, binging on port and mince pies and sitting down to eulogise yet again on that most lamentable of genres, Christmas music.
Even though I managed to cover most of my favourite Festive tunes last year, there's no shortage of songs to cover this year, especially as quite a few bands and artists have sent us some of their own to check out. Now, I have to confess, and I don't want to sound ungrateful, but we actually get sent a fair amount of material from bands, artists and record labels over the year, but unfortunately most of them appear to be sent by people who have simply NEVER read our Blog, or seem to have no general idea of the music we write about. Thankfully though, this year we got a couple of belters in the Festive section and it's one of these I've come to write about tonight.

The band I am covering tonight have the aptly seasonal name of Summer Fiction, and they are a project based around Philadelphia singer/songwriter Bill Ricchini. Now, I have to admit that until we received his Christmas song, I had never personally heard of him or any of his previous bands. However, he has been featured in such publications as New York Magazine, Vogue and Magnet, as well as having his music used on the soundtrack to 'Grey's Anatomy'.
So what propelled me to write about someone so seemingly mainstream? Well, the quality of the song for a start!
'Christmas Eve For Two' is simply an exquisitely fine piece of Festive Pop Music. The music is a mix of Spectorish cavernous echo and Sinatra-esque piano, creating a heady Brill Building soundscape. Throw into the mix some rather superb Four Freshmen style backing vocals and already you have an engaging and instantly warm and nostalgic feel. When Bill's vocals cut in they are world weary and knowingly melancholic, with just the right amount of acidic undertone to stop the whole confection being too sugary. The production is both retro and modernist at the same time, creating that wonderful air of arch aloofness that él Records used to specialise in. This is probably the hook that reeled me in.
'Christmas Eve For Two' manages to convey that rather wonderful feeling of being away from all the madness, the commerciality and the stress of family Christmasses by suggesting a scenario in which you can just spend time with your loved one. Whilst others crash and bang about, driving themselves to the point of insanity by TRYING to have a happy Christmas, you can just pour some Festive cheer, sit beside the Christmas tree and spend some quality time with your better half. Of course this is hardly anything new, but you'll probably find, if you look hard enough, that all the best Christmas songs seem to have this as their theme.

Summer Fiction have made the song available to download completely freely from their Bandcamp page, and you can listen to it below....


Unfortunately, there doesn't appear to be a video to accompany the song so I've chosen another of their songs, 'Chandeliers' to play out with. Purely because the video that has been created for it features the actor Lou Castel who appeared in two of the greatest Spaghetti Westerns of all time, 'Requiescant' and 'A Bullet For The General', the latter in which he plays a 'blonde Gringo' named Bill.
See how it all comes together?


~Gordon~

I Misplaced It At The Movies: The Decline Of Western Civilization(prt 1)

Perhaps the only true cinematic representation of the early (U.S.) Punk scene, Penelope 'Waynes World' Spheeris' 'The Decline Of Western Civilization' may not be anything like a definitive word on the subject but it remains a fascinating, funny, and sometimes horrifying, look at the earliest days of Punk music in America.


Shot in and around Los Angeles in 1979, and mostly on handheld cameras, the movie has a certain Cinema Verité quality that really takes you in amongst the audience, and the bands when at home or rehearsing. The film was heavily criticised when first released for appearing to be shooting at sitting ducks; many fans are interviewed as talking heads under a single lightbulb, often spouting nonsense or incomprehensible drivel. As we often don't hear the questions asked, this shows the interviewees in a bad light and could be deemed subjective editing. However, as we now know that Spheeris was a fan of the music and the scene, this seems unlikely and we should just accept that this is what those interviewed were generally like.


And what of the music?
Well some of the music featured isn't very good at all to be honest, although it's energy and anticonformism makes it really refreshing. The bands featured include The Germs, Fear, X, Circle Jerks and a pre-Henry Rollins Black Flag.
Black Flag are shown living in a grimy squat where they rehearse, as well as live and sleep. The music hasn't quite reached the levels of quickfire intensity that would burst out when Henry joined them, but there's still a scratchy, nervous energy about them that must have really stood out in the blissed-out, coke-heavy, LA music scene.


The Germs provide the most interesting section of the film, all for the wrong reasons. The band onstage are AWFUL, mostly due to vocalist Darby Crash being completely out of it. Virtually unable to stand upright, Crash continually falls on his backside, slurring gibberish into the mic and allowing people in the crowd to scrawl all over him in black marker.

We later cut to him at home as he prepares breakfast, and he comes across as a nice-but-dim goofball, all softly spoken and wide-eyed innocent but with occasional flickers that lead you to suppose he may be a little damaged.

Tragically, Darby died before the movie was even released. What is known is that, shortly after the live footage of him was shot, he went to London, following in the footsteps of his idol Sid Vicious. While in London, Darby allegedly saw the pre-fame Adam & The Ants with whom he became quite smitten. Back in LA, Darby changed his look and image and came out as gay, something he had always tried to hide, always leaving clubs with girls etc. It's believed by those who knew him that he was never able to accept fully that he was gay and that this led to his suicide. When the movie was released, the poster featured Crash lying on his back, eyes shut, and with the mic cable in his mouth. This was seen as absolute bad taste by some, but it was pointed out that the poster had been designed before Darby had died, and that his family and friends had okayed the decision.



Next, we drop in on the creators of Slash fanzine, one of the first Punkzines in the U.S. Edited by Frenchman Claude Bessy, we see how a fanzine was put together in the days before mobile phones, the internet or even word processors. There seems to be a real vibrant energy about the staff collating the info, but you get the impression that Claude may well be just a little long in the tooth and is merely a 60s burnout trying for a second youth.
Claude also sings in the band Catholic Discipline who are actually very good (if already drifting into what we would call New Wave), and feature on guitar Phranc, who would later become a major voice in Lesbian music and who was much beloved of Morrissey, even opening for The Smiths on one of their American tours.


Aside from Black Flag, X are probably the most well known of all the bands who appear in the movie. Led by Exene Cervenka and John Doe, who have both had long careers in music as well as films, they are almost without doubt the best of the bands featured in the movie. And while being interviewed they also come across as more sussed and savvy than any of the others featured, although you do get the feeling that maybe they are underplaying their music slightly for the Punk audiences and that they can't wait for Post-Punk to happen so that they can make the music they truly want to make.



And then Fear come to town!
I don't really know much about Fear, and I don't think they really caught on much beyond the Californian Punk scene, but it's obvious that the audience have been waiting for them; not to cheer and support them, but to indulge in bad tempered badinage. I have never seen audience/band interaction so nihilistically aggressive as when Fear take to the stage. Spitting, insults, fistfights (including girls being punched and kicked) all breakout before the band have even played a note. But it appears the band's reputation goes before them, or certainly before their music, for once they eventually start playing, the end result is quite disappointing. Straight (almost Pub-)Rock played by ill tempered men who are clearly older than they are pretending to be, you can't help feeling that Fear are mere fakes.


And this is the overall problem with the whole movie. Obviously, nobody at the time knew that Punk would have such a lasting influence over music or culture, that there is a dismissive attitude by almost evetyone involved, on either side of the camera, or even on or off stage. Punk is seen as a cipher for bored teens to let out all their rage and bitterness, but not against society or authority, but upon each other. It's obvious, to me at least, that Americans saw Punk in an entirely different light to that which we in Britain did. That's why the energy of the early (American) Punks led not to such things as Post-Punk, Two-Tone, Industrial Music, the New Romantics or BIG Pop, but instead became bogged down in self indulgent Art-rock, or humourless one-dimensional hardcore. Instead of using Punk's energy to propel itself forward, it imploded into self-loathing and vitriol.

Sadly, the movie doesn't exist on DVD at the moment, but bootleg copies are fairly easy to track down, the home-made quality often adding to it's scuzzy appeal.
Not exactly a movie for music lovers then, but a fascinating document of a movement in it's genesis.

~Gordon~

I Misplaced It At The Movies: Of Pasta & Politics - Face To Face

As I mentioned in my Blog regarding the Spaghetti Western 'Little Rita Of The West' (see here), Italian Westerns tend to fall into three categories; The Stylish, The Political and The Weird (some even manage to be all three). So, I'd like to share some Blogs on the more Political of these movies, as these tend to be the more interesting, and the more involving.
Let's start with a look at Sergio Sollima's 'Face To Face' from 1967.



If there is one thing that Sergio Sollima is fond of, it is the Political allegory, and 'Face To Face' is no exception, being seen by critics as an analogy on the rise of European Fascism. More importantly, how Fascism seemed to flourish, in Europe especially, amongst those who had actively taken part in Socialist Politics but had become unenamoured with it's apparently motiveless priorative actions. The point being, when one ceases to believe in Socialism, one doesn't gradually adopt Right Wing practices, but in fact swings violently to the Far Right.
'Face To Face' is a movie of silly haircuts and even sillier character names; Professor Brad Fletcher, Solomon Beauregard Bennet, Zachary Shot, Maximillion De Winton, Charlie Sirringo to name but a few. The film stars Italian method actor Gian Maria Volonté, famous for his roles as the bad guy in both 'A Fistful Of Dollars' and 'For A Few Dollars More'; and Cuban actor Tomás Milian who appeared in many Spaghetti Westerns and who is still acting today, sometimes in big productions like 'JFK' and 'Traffic'.
Volonté was a blacklisted Communist and Left Wing activist, and it was Sergio Leone who defied the blacklist and gave him the roles he is most famous for. He would later appear in the Italian movie 'Sacco é Vanzetti', a film about the unfair Political trial of two anarchists which led to their much contested execution. The different acting styles of the two leads gives the movie it's dynamism; Volonté's slow-burning intensity colliding with Milian's twitchy, deliberately hammy over-enthusing.


In 'Face To Face', Volonté plays Brad Fletcher, a consumptive professor who quits his job and heads West for the cleaner air and warmer climate. Upon his travels he is attacked by bandit Beauregard Bennet (played by Tomás Milian), a long haired thug who travels with an (equally long haired) commune of rogues. The long hair and communal living, coupled with the Robin Hood-esque nature of their banditry, is clearly both a depiction of the long haired youth of the time, and a way of engaging with the hippy audience.
Fletcher is a Professor of social history, and while recovering from his attack within the very group who mugged him, he begins teaching Bennet about social upheaval, the injustices of the class system, and how force can sometimes be used for good. Bennet somehow falls under Fletcher's spell, reading Fletcher's books on history and politics and deciding to use his gang for proto-revolutionary purposes. Fletcher on the other hand begins to enjoy the the rush of the violence and becomes more and more maniacally aggressive, even taking over the gang, much to Bennet's now passive indifference.
As I'm sure you can imagine this leads to flashpoint where both men have gone from enemies to comrades and now back to enemies again, but this time on different sides of the (moral) law.
And as the two men come face to face (there's your title) for the final showdown, it is obvious that both men have become both sides of the same coin. They now also so resemble each other that director Sollima blurs some of the final shots to deliberately cause confusion and drum home the point that both men have become as one. This echoes the previous year's film 'The Shooting', Monte Hellman's existential Western starring a young Jack Nicholson in his first manic role, and Warren Oates as a gunman who appears to be stalking himself, until a last minute reveal leaves the audience quizzing "Who, exactly, shot whom?". And this being 1967, Sollima throws in some trippy acid spangle effects to the final showdown which add further confusion but probably found favour with the hip audiences of the time.


Critics have always been very sniffy about Spaghetti Westerns, complaining about them being formulaic, violent and incomprehensible, but 'Face To Face' is a prime example of how good the genre can be when it's in the hands of good actors and even better directors. Even if it is only a smokescreen for a politically motivated director to hide his message behind!

~Gordon~

Playing catch-up with The Streetlamp - No. 2

Regular readers of this blog will not be surprised to learn that I will be involved in strike action at work next Wednesday, along with several million other UK public sector workers. You will also not be surprised to learn further that I am, right now, up to my ears in producing leaflets, painting banners and making placards in preparation for our showdown with the government. As a result, I have had to cancel a good few blogs which I've not had time to sit down and write. To make up for this, I'm making tonight's blog one of my 'Playing catch-up with The Streetlamp' pieces in a vain attempt to shoe-horn several bands, songs and pieces of information into one manageable, easily-digested form. Apologies to the artists involved for not giving you my usual fulsome coverage, but I'm sure you understand that the political struggle must always come first.



So, first up is a piece of news that I promised you back in October at the release of Stanley Odd's 'The Day I Went Deaf' EP (see 'here'). In that piece I hinted that a major show was in the offing for Stanley Odd in January but could not yet be confirmed. I can now confirm that they are playing in the O2 ABC in Glasgow on January 29th with the Peatbog Faeries as part of the Celtic Connections festival. If you're surprised at that bill and the union of what seems rather a strange mix of styles, then you're not alone. When I asked Stanley Odd frontman Solareye about it, he told me:

"Yup , we're playing O2 ABC with Peatbog Faeries. I agree it's quite an unorthodox lineup but we're really looking forward to it.

We actually played Solas Festival last year just before the Peatbog Faeries and it was a brilliant gig, so hopefully peeps will be kind to us as ABC."

I, for one, am certainly looking forward to it and I'm thankful to the eclectic nature of Celtic Connections that it can throw this sort of night up. See you there!



And staying with Scottish hip-hop for a bit, the next item I want to bring to your attention is the release of '.​.​.​Escape The Network' by Vizual Pupil & Th!nK. You will, hopefully, remember me writing previously about the smart and righteous taster track 'Madness' (see 'here'). Well, now the complete 7-track album is available as a free download on their bandcamp page, and is well worth checking out. Have a listen to the excellent 'Blade Running':

Blade Running by uncon




At the beginning of November, Gordon gave us a frank and honest article about his own, long-time struggle with depression (see 'here'), which like many sufferers he characterises as 'the black dog'. Coincidentally, at about the same time, Kevin P. Gilday , the knowing and witty, Glaswegian poet and musician (previously on The Streetlamp 'here'), released a fine, spoken-word track called 'Black Dog Days' . As usual, this is available as a free download from his soundcloud site. Have a listen:

Black Dog Days by Kevin P. Gilday






And speaking of poetic, introspective, spoken-word songs, there is a new album available from New Orleans Swim Team; the solo project of Alberta based, self-taught, multi-instrumentalist Jacob Ulickij ('here' previously on The Streetlamp). This latest work is called 'To be Something, to be Anything' and is available as a free download from the bandcamp page. Here's a track to get you in the mood:







Last, but not least, I'm delighted to say that the fine, young, Edinburgh-based indie-pop band The Spook School (see 'here' previously on The Streetlamp) have, at last, released some new material. A two-track, home-demo single 'Are You Who You Think You Are?' is now available as a free download from their bandcamp page. I think it's really rather good and find myself drawn to the rough-hewn nature of the songs in their demo form. Have a listen:





Well, I'm afraid that'll have to do for the time being, some of us have a class war to win, you know. Apologies to the artists involved in this roundup for my enforced brevity. I'll make it up to you in the future.


Griff
xx