Frank Blank

Is it Hamer Time..? *fetches coat*

This simple phrase could replaced my entire blather.

I love Steely Dan. I love the grooves they get into, I love the sarcastic, throwaway lyrics. I know there’s a hell of a lot of brilliant writing and astonishing musicianship going on but I just like the finished songs, the product. I don’t relate to SD emotionally, they don’t ‘speak’ to me, so to speak, their experiences in no way correlate with mine but there’s something escapist and very dark that’s (for me) highly attractive about them. They occupy a unique corner of my musical taste, listening to The Fez or Babylon Sisters is like listening to no other band, I suppose I can’t explain why I like them so much, perhaps that’s one of the reasons I do like them so much. When someone else writes and performs a song as great but insane as My Old School... well it isn’t going to happen. Stuart Lee is, by a country mile, my favourite ‘comedian’ but then I find that a peculiar epithet to describe him with, his work is more like stream of consciousness monologues, although more interactive with the audience responses than the word monologue would usually suggest. There is a similar snobbery surrounding Stewart Lee as surrounds Steely Dan, the tired old ‘you just don’t get it/them’, of course it’s bôllöcks, and band/comic/anything else is simply about each individual’s interaction with said band/comic/anything else and no one persons interaction is any more valid than anyone else’s but there will always be the I’m right you’re not crowd blathering on, it’s why I don’t get involved in the fretless discussions on here anymore.

I, for one, would pay for that.

Play basses and reintroduce yourself to the roast 🥔. Can’t think of a better combo.

As ridiculous as this sounds, it’s actually bang on! At one point I found myself just eating a bowl of roast spuds. Basses? Who cares? *stomach groan flashbacks*

These are what I use, excellent.

Just received my Gerlitz No.1 from Posh Guitars, as someone commented (possibly here, possibly elsewhere) it arrived along with a free plectrum, rather chuffed...

I no like Helter Skelter.

Oddly it was those two that put me off, I’ve never listened to anything else of theirs, recordings that is, I’ve been unfortunate enough to have been working at several festivals where they’ve played too, live they leave me cold too.

Couldn’t agree more, another band that just leaves my gonads firmly un-tickled.

It took me a a long time to get into The Nightfly, I mean decades, I was always put off by that cheesy opening to I.G.Y. Eventually I listened to the lyrics, which are brilliant as usual, from then on it grew on me. New Frontier was my in.

I not like Yellow Submarine.

Are there any covers bands specialising in cheese... Wensleydickdale Cheshire Bluetones Ilchisters of Mercy Lincolnshire Poa-Cher Suffolk Goldie Terence Trent Sage Derby

There isn’t one Beatles track I like, they just leave me cold

I love Steely Dan but Aja is far from their best album imho.

Just ordered some from Posh Guitars at this price before I went bonkers with the Gilboys! 🙄

Are there any covers bands specialising in cheese... Camemburt Bacharach Danish Deacon Blue Edam and the Ants Manfred Manchego Simple Rinds Simply Red Leicester

Stop Making Sense is a weekly event here, it’s sublime. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Tina Weymouth is my idea of the perfect bass player, completely song serving and just riding the groove.

Crass - The Clash, never the twain shall meet. You are a disgrace to your avatar 😁

Crass - hugely influential and formative band for me. Organised and enshrined my fundamental political stance, made me realise that music could be entirely about conveying practical messages and expressing alienation and also that I was capable of creating music myself. Hearing Crass was the first (and probably only) time I felt like I’d found a home. Killing Joke - while Crass dealt with the politics Killing Joke set out to define the exquisite beauty of the atomic age in terms of style, sound and form, and, frankly, that’s right up my rue. Killing Joke, along with Adam and the Ants, The Glitter Band gave me my love of tom-tom driven rhythms but the defining album for me is what’s THIS for? by Killing Joke, they sound like they’ve tapped into something primal but aren’t quite controlling (perhaps manipulating) it yet. KJ led me off on several directions, geomancy, the occult, folk horror, divination, vandalism, many of which (not vandalism unfortunately) endure to this day. I’m still in touch with them but very much miss my old friend Paul Raven but I do not miss moving his rig abou! Sleaford Mods - an erudite yob set to beats. As the ideals of punk and the utter irredeemable hopelessness of existence sinks in as a fact, my peculiar mix of existential ennui and detachment feels brilliantly summed up by messrs Williamson and Fearn, the dichotomy between wanting a better world yet feeling like you want to piśš all over it too. A mess of contradictions is what we are, just like the world we live in. Sleaford Mods reflect that perfectly. I realise this should be a list of three and yes I can count but I have to give special mention to Public Image Ltd simply because they made Metal Box / Second Edition, which is the best album ever made by a country mile, if the choice was between that album and the entire musical output of all the rest it would be Metal Box, Wobble innit.

Other cows?

This is absolute fückïng gold!

Do you have somewhere where your rig is set up so you can just add the speaker?