www.betika.co.uk
Here is a movie Carolyn shot of local heroes Steve and Thom of the Fantastic A+E line dancing on stage with The Flaming Lips last Sunday (they're the two Santas at the front on the left). The volume was way too much for Carolyn's camera to cope with, so it sounds like they're frugging away to Merzbow, but you get an idea of what a full-on full-spectrum sensory overload the Lip's shows have developed into. And Deerhoof were fantastic too, of course, though they'd sadly been shunted into the opening slot by the addition to the bill of Get Cape, Wear Cape, Fly, whose album I've tried really hard to like but after repeated listens they're still not pushing any of my special buttons.
Out here in the country I've been writing songs and making plans. We've had our nasty old piano tuned and have been struggling to remember how to play it. Lexi has met with considerably more success, she has far better technique than I so has been filling the house with Chopin, I on the other hand still haven't recalibrated my hands from the years spent playing various Casio and Yamaha mini-keyboards and find myself playing unintended jazz chords where none should be. I've written a couple of songs over the last week; one which doesn't have a title yet but has an awful lot of words, it's another peice of musical reportage in a similar vein to "By Default" but with a better tune; also one called "The Sickening", which sounds a bit like something Clint Eastwood could have sung in "Paint Your Wagon", and was inspired by a shirt/quiff combo I was sporting the other day that gave my reflection ever such a slight resemblance to Johnny Cash when viewed from the corner of my eye in low lightinh conditions. If the rest of the band like it, it may well find it's way onto our next recording, which will be an ep of songs that didn't make it onto "Halflove" because either there wasn't space or they just didn't fit in. We did a cracking version of "I killed a fly" early last year that will definitely be included, as will "Let these things forget themselves" and "The New Shrew", both of which were pencilled in to close the album at various times but were ousted by "The best thing ever" at the last minute. I'm hoping that we'll find a nice sounding and suitably vibey space to record in, and start work as soon as Gary and Imogen are finished with making the Dutch Husband album, something that I'm as eager to hear as True Swamp Neglect's recently completed second long-player. I've also started work on songs for the next Betika album (due 2008 if it takes as long as the last one!), the general feel of the things I've written so far is noticebly darker than our previous work and they're most definitely designed for dancing to. Speaking of which, an idea has just popped into my head, so I'm going to sign off now and pursue it.
Go and see the Swamp at The Gander on Saturday!
