Category Archives: Review

Review: Barcelona – City Of Crime by Larry Kovaks

Sunday - 14 March 2010

Barcelona - City Of Crime

Barcelona has something of a reputation when it comes to crime. Which is what you'd expect from any Mediterranean city packed to the rafters with tourists, sailors, hookers and grifters. It's not exactly a dangerous place (Barcelona has a very low homicide rate) but plenty of bags get stolen and plenty of people get gypped. And that's exactly why this city needs someone like Larry Kovaks whose latest (and first) book, City Of Crime, tells the story of one man's fight against the ne'er-do-wells and miscreants ('gypmeisters') of the Ciutat Vella.

Consisting of a series of stories set in Barcelona's old quarter, City Of Crime introduces the reader to the scams, tricks and mischief that take place right under any visitor's nose. From illicit Chinese brothels (one has recently opened here in Cerdanyola, so the flyposted adverts say) to villainous dwarves, Kovaks lays bare the criminal heart of the city as well as its sordid underbelly, all in the gravelly voice of an American b-movie detective.

Kovaks, both the author and the star of the book (though I suspect that editor Andrew Minh deserves some praise for his work on the text), is an impressive beast of a man. His girth is only outsized by his quick wit (for the most part) and possibly his disgust with the bad boys and girls of Barcelona's underworld. Fuelled by Ducado cigarettes, Voll Damm beer and Mascaró brandy, Kovaks fearlessly confronts the Tracksuit Mafia through the cold, piss-streaked streets of the Raval, like an 18-stone angel.

Much of the material in City Of Crime has been published on the web, both at Kovaks's own website and in the pages of The New Entertainer. However, that shouldn't deter readers from buying the printed edition which is attractively bound and features a brand new installment, The Danger Of The Perfect Brunette. My only criticism of the book would be that some of the earlier stories are somewhat short: this is a character who really comes into his own in the longer episodes.

A joy for residents of the Catalan capital and a forewarning for visitors, City Of Crime left me hungry for more. We can only hope that Kovaks, wherever he may be, gives us more of the goods in future editions.

Barcelona – City Of Crime by Larry Kovaks – 1/1
Buy the book online from Lulu here.

More movie reviews

Primavera Sound 2009 review

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Friday - 5 June 2009

This year's Primavera Sound was one of my favourites yet. Although our friends from impoverished Hackney couldn't make it, I know they were there in spirit. I also behaved myself and resolutely refused to kick any chaps in the balls, a major improvement on last year.

Partly as a result of better behaviour, and partly because Gemma and I found it easier to strike out on our own, we saw more bands this year and certainly enjoyed more of what we saw. The new system for drinks tickets, which involved buying them drink by drink at vending machines was disatrous at the beginning of the festival, but ended up being simpler and more efficient. In contrast with Summercase (which won't happen this year), the Rock Delux stage faced the stepped amphitheatre it occupies, so while sat we didn't have to crane our necks to see the bands.

Anyway, here's my breakdown of the bands we saw – graded according to my patented binary review system.

Thursday

Spectrum – 1

The Vaselines – 1

Joe Crepusculo y los Destructores – 1 (a surprisingly good Spanish band)

My Bloody Valentine – 1

Yo La Tengo – 1

The Bug – 1 (an early highlight)

Aphex Twin – 1

Friday

Tokyo Sex Destruction feat. Gregg Foreman – 1

Spiritualized – 1

Carsick Cars – 1

Art Brut – 1

Sun O))) – 1

Throwing Muses – 1

The Mae Shi – 0

Jarvis Cocker – 1

Saint Etienne – 0

Saturday

Kitty, Daisy & Lewis – 1

Plants & Animals – 0

Herman Dune – 1

Neil Young – 0

Oneida – 0

Deerhunter – 0

Ghostface Killah – 1

Sonic Youth – 1

Black Lips – 1

You'll notice very few 0s in this review. I can't say why that is, but my hunch is that I had fewer must-sees on my list than in previous years, meaning I was free to enjoy plenty of bands I'd never heard much from. My main disagreement with how the festival was organised was the way Neil Young was billed. When he started, there was a block of over an hour when no one else played on any stage, meaning that we were effectively forced to watch his show. By all that's sane, I should probably be a bigger fan of Neil Young than I am. But the truth is that he leaves me just a little cold, and this episode of dedicating the entire early part of Saturday night to him (I suspect it was a contractual obligation), pissed me off. Plus, there was a terrible artist on stage all through his set, 'creating' a two-dimensional representation of the concert as Young and his band played. Half the time, it looked like nothing more than a turd.

Despite that, Primavera Sound 2009 was, for me, a great festival. We caught up with loads of old friends, made some new ones, and enjoyed some excellent concerts. Roll on Primavera 2010!

Summercase 2008: final review

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Wednesday - 23 July 2008

Yes, as Grey said in his comment on my brief binary review, I was warned. I seriously doubt that I'll go back to Summercase. Here's my Last.fm review (links point to last.fm pages).

In over 11 years of regularly attending pop festivals, Summercase 2008 was by far and away the worst organised and most blatantly commercial event I've ever attended.

The lineup was poor and got worse with the loss of mia and Santogold, among others. A group of low-quality English pop groups (Maximo Park, Kaiser Chiefs, Sex Pistols, The Verve…) dominated the lineup and left little room for decent local or international break-through acts.

Also, the organisers' addiction to Disneyfied 1970s acts (Sex Pistols, Blondie, The Stranglers…) made for further dull concerts as large groups of 20-somethings mumbled through the lyrics to Atomic, a song which was fist performed before any of them were conceived. Incidentally, Blondie's guitarist also managed to mess-up the guitar-part for Atomic, despite it being one of the most celebrated riffs in pop history. Give you a clue: it's not good enough to just play the notes in the right order… you need to get the rhythm right too.

The thing is that, of what I saw, the only truly great concert was by Cornelius (easily the most experimental artist playing at this MOR event). Pretty much everything else was just rubbish.

As to the general organisation of the event, we were shocked and dismayed at the rudeness and generally low level of service offered by the Summercase team. Part of this was to do with the alleged policy of festival organisers to employ staff not from Barcelona, in order to prevent the normal issue of 'free drinks for friends' happening. What this resulted in was a service team of rude and aggressive non-locals who spoke neither Catalan nor English, and who were quite clearly unhappy with their work. Added to this, the females were forced to wear very tight pink t-shirts (men were in brown), and the festival succeeded in making itself not only a gross display of consumerism but also perfectly happy with breaking Barcelona's modern conventions on language, culture and gender equality.

This year, I decided not to attend FIB because I thought the lineup didn't justify a trip down to Castelló… especially when I had a festival on my doorstep. I won't make that mistake again. And it looks like, with a huge drop in attendance, Summercase needs to sort out its act or clear off altogether.

Summercase 2008: 0

Summercase Day Two: yeah, yeah

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Sunday - 20 July 2008

We managed to drag ourselves out to the second day of Summercase yesterday. We didn't see anything that beat Cornelius. Review:

Kings Of Leon – 1 – but only just

The Stranglers – 1 – too Disnified but Golden Brown's a great song

Mogwai – 0 – scheduling fuck-up

CSS – 1 – I still love Lovefoxxx

The Raveonettes – 1

Neon Neon – 1 – the only performer to utter a word in Catalan. He's Welsh, after all.

Musical Torture

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Thursday - 19 June 2008

No, this isn't a review of the new Coldplay album. There's a great article in today's Guardian talking about the use of music in torture at Guantanamo Bay.

I can say this for sure: it would only take about two repeats of Barney the Dinosaur's I Love You before I confessed to everything.

Updated: GTA IV: I may be some time – now on sale

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Monday - 28 April 2008

Those of you not au fait with the world of interactive computer entertainment (games), probably don't have the date Tuesday April 29th 2008 burned into your brains like I do. Tomorrow sees the release of Grand Theft Auto IV, arguably the most eagerly-anticipated videogame release of all time.

The game, which is already receiving 10/10 (that's 1/1 on thebadrash.com's binary review scale) ratings everywhere, is set to be more than just another jaunt in the GTA world. It's set in Liberty City, a through-the-looking-glass version of New York City, rendered to an incredible level of 'living and breathing' detail.

As I said, the game is released tomorrow so assuming the PlayStation 3 version on sale in Spain includes the 'versión original' English, I intend to be enveloped in its pillowy embrace for the next few weeks. Baby, it's cold outside.

Grand Theft Auto IV – reviewed in the New York Times.

UPDATE: The game is now on sale in GAME shops in Spain. I've just picked my copy up. If you get one and want to play before midnight, it's probably a good idea to make sure you're disconnected from PSN or xbox Live. I've heard that some online accounts have been suspended for playing the game early.

Album review: Neil Hamburger Sings Country Winners

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Saturday - 26 April 2008

Neil Hamburger Sings Country Winners

I'm a big fan of country music. Not the real, commercial 1990s shit, but the fake and made-up 60s and 70s country produced by Gram Parsons and the Rolling Stones. So I wasn't disappointed to see that Neil Hamburger's new album, Neil Hamburger Sings Country Winners (SCW from now on) is just what the title suggests: a collection of country songs, sung by one of America's greatest comedians.

The songs range from The Recycle Bin, an expletive-ridden piece about recycling and failure (more on this later), to a new interpretation of Hamburger's popular classic, Zipper Lips. But pervading the entire album is a sense of sadness, depression and bizarrely, jubilation.

Naturally, the lyrics are very funny. In Please Ask That Clown To Stop Crying, Hamburger recounts an episode where he witnessed a children's party in a local park, ruined by a clown who, instead of entertaining the kids, slumps at the table with 'a cigarette and a shot of gin' and cries. The clown, of course, is Neil Hamburger. Meanwhile, in Jug Town, we hear of the solace a man can find in 'a jug of wine' down in Jug Town. At Least I Was Paid is a tribute to Hamburger himself, who has chosen to work as a hugely unpopular comedian sometimes paid in casino chips – but at least that's payment.

For me. the big hit on the album is Recylce Bin, a song that combines a forceful rebuke to those who put unrecyclable items in recycling bins ('You pricks, you fucking pricks') with a heartbreaking ode to the things that just can't be recylced ('Not everything goes into a recycle in: a shattered dream, a divorce? Those are just waste').

Neil Hamburger Sings Country Winners probably started its life as a joke. But the final product will immediately be rated as some of Neil Hamburder's best work. I'm obviously a fan and I think it's fair to say that his material will mainly appeal to drink-soaked, single, depressed, male fans of sick humour (which obviously excludes me: I'm married). That said, I really believe that with a bit of effort, anyone who enjoys really good comedy could learn to love Neil Hamburger. The 'Great Moments At Di Presa's Pizza House' as well as the numerous 'live' albums, along with the original 'Great Phone Calls' are all indicative of a great talent which will probably only spoil if it gets too much recognition.

Neil Hamburger Sings Country Winners – 1/1

Out now on Drag City Inc.

And here's a video of Jug Town:

2007 in review

Review: Great Moments at Di Presa's Pizza House

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Wednesday - 2 August 2006

Combining heart-breaking tragedy and side-splitting comedy is a hallmark of great writing. Neil Hamburger's album from last year, Great Moments At Di Presa's Pizza House has enough of both to make it a classic barely a year after it was released upon an unsuspecting world.

Charting Hamburger's early days as he starts gigging in a pizza parlour, this album manages also to tell the tale of an America which was; pizza houses with pipe organs, pizza houses with AA meetings-cum-poetry recitals, pizza houses with wet t-shirt competitions that got out of hand. And there, in the midst of it all, our only remaining link with those great old days: Neil Hamburger himself.

Hamburger's material in this album is often directed at celebrity and is often far more up-to-date than in much of his other work. Launching into his set with three quick jabs against Mick Jagger, Madonna and Robin Williams, Hamburger stakes his claim as the last of the great comics: the man who, despite compromising massively with his style and material, never sold out. Of course, he was never given the opportunity to sell out but that doesn't really mean anything.

Along the way, we meet a host of other characters, new and old, who played a role in the life of both Di Presa's Pizza House and Neil Hamburger. Such as Leroy Brothers, another comic hired by the pizza house – this time just when controversial 'afro-American' stand-up was becoming mainstream. His muddled racial stereotypes and clumsy, awkward style – all in hock 'black man' accent is rudely interrupted by a customer denouncing him as the white son of a lawyer for Kraft Foods.

Hamburger, though, is on ebullient form. At points, he refers to the proprietors of Di Presa's Pizza House as 'pricks', and asks a critic of his last two albums to 'go fuck yourself'. He insists that the last few albums were poor because of the messy divorce he was going through at the time. For more information on this, check out 'Left For Dead In Malaysia' where Neil, realising that no one in the Kuala Lumpur karaoke bar can understand him, spends several minutes in morose discussion of his wife, divorce and suicide.

Great Moments At Di Presa's Pizza House is a tour-de-force, and is highly recommended either as an introduction to Hamburger or to complete your collection. 1 out of 1

To find out more about America's Funnyman, Neil Hamburger try this unofficial homepage.