Category Archives: General

Album review: Neil Hamburger Sings Country Winners

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:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oo_gCkVmBQo[/youtube]

George MacDonald Fraser: 1925-2008

I was sad to hear about the death yesterday of George Macdonald Fraser, author of the Flashman series of historical comic novels. His books were politically incorrect, naughty, adventurous, educational and above all seriously funny. They charted the story of the British Empire through arch-cad, Harry Flashman’s eyes, placing this coward and poltroon at many of the key events and battles of the mid to late 19th century. He wasn’t, as some will claim, an apologist for empire or colonialism… far from it. In fact, MacDonald Fraser occasionally used his writing to warn of the dangers present in the waging of imperialist campaigns far from home.

Flashman remains, in my opinion, one of the great comic characters of the English novel and now his creator has died without giving any answer as to how Flashy managed to fight on both sides during the American Civil War.

I nearly shed a manly tear.

What’s in a name?

One of the silliest changes which occurred during the ignominious years of the dictatorship was the re-hispanicisation of Catalan place names. Lleida became ‘Lerida’, Girona ‘Gerona’ and my town, Cerdanyola del Vallès became ‘Sardañola del Vallés’. While many of these names had existed previously (see 1929’s Plaza de España in Seville), these towns changed their names officially during a time when Catalan was officially discouraged.

Now, they’re not used at all. While some older people from a more ‘Castilian’ background may still use the Spanish versions, the Generalitat and the Spanish government now exclusively use Catalan toponyms, probably for a mixture of reasons. I figure that the main reason behind using Catalan toponyms is that having two names for a place would be silly. Especially when the Castilian toponym is rarely if ever used.

Or so I thought. I happened to take a look at the Spanish wikipedia entry for Cerdanyola del Vallès and was surprised to see that it redirects to a page called ‘Sardañola del Vallés’. Weird, I thought: that’s not the name I recognise for this town. Those of you who are regular Wikipedia users will be aware that there are a lot of rules in place which govern the naming of articles, ‘point of view’, sources and so on. Before clicking on the ‘discussion’ page, I was fairly confident that this naming convention would have caused some dissent – and I wasn’t disappointed.

The crux of the argument that is laid out in defence of the Castilian spelling is that the Spanish Wikipedia does not use foreign language toponyms. For example, Bangkok is not referred to as “Krungthepmahanakhon Amonrattanakosin Mahintharayutthaya Mahadilokphop Noppharatratchathaniburirom Udomratchaniwetmahasathan Amonphimanawatansathit Sakkathattiyawitsanukamprasit”, it’s called Bangkok. Girona redirects to ‘Gerona’, but as with Cerdanyola, notes that the Catalan naming convention is also the official one. As supporting source for the Castilian toponym, one or two books are offered, but other editors note that these books simply repeat the spellings used during the Franco years rather than establish a modern precedent for a Castilian toponym.

I’d argue (though I haven’t ventured to do so in the pages of Wikipedia) that while in the cases of Gerona and Lerida, there is some historical precedent for the use of a Castilian toponym (both are provincial capitals and as such were considered important enough to have Spanish names; Sardañola del Vallés is nothing more than a translation, invented for political reasons and within living memory. I’d also argue that given that the Castilian toponym is never used, and that the Spanish government and the National Institute of Statistics  both use the standard ‘Cerdanyola del Vallès’, the Castilian toponym is nothing more than a relic of days gone by. Finally, in Spain, it is up to towns and Autonomous Regions to decide official names. According to both the Town Hall and the Generalitat, the official name of this place is Cerdanyola del Vallès. It seems to me that there is little linguistic or toponymic justification for the Wikipedia entry.

But what’s in a name, anyway?

Updated: Primavera Sound 2007 review

Mark E Smith and The Fall

We had a great weekend, particularly Friday night. In no real order, here’s my binary review of the bands we saw this year:

Thursday

The Melvins – 0

The Smashing Pumpkins – 0

Dirty Three – 1

The White Stripes – 1

Elvis Perkins – 1

Comets On Fire – 1

Friday

The Fall – 1 – truly brilliant

Maximo Park – 0 – truly awful

Blonde Redhead – 0 – pretty forgettable

Beirut – 1

Hot Chip – 0 – abysmal

Modest Mouse – 1

Billy Bragg – 1 – great fun

How Dare You! – 1

Ginferno – 1 – also they have the best name in the world

Dj Yoda – 1 – but leave the records on for more than 15 seconds next time

Bonde Do Role – 1 – utterly mental

Kid Koala – 1

Saturday

Patti Smith – 1

Sonic Youth – 1 – fantastic

Wilco – 1

Architecture in Helsinki – 1

The Good, The Bad And The Queen – 0 – really disappointing

Buzzcocks – 1 – awesome

Jonathan Richman – 1 – more fun in the Auditorí

Ovni – 1

Roll on Benicassim!

__
* for those of you as yet unfamiliar with the binary review system, allow me to explain it: it’s a brilliant system which I invented which allows you to rate something on a sort of ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ basis. You could use the words ‘Hot’, ‘De Puta madre’ or ‘Funkalicious’ instead of ‘Yes’ (or the number ‘1’, which is the most classical form of the binary review).

The spooky life of a senior editor on a software website

I have been saddened to read that James Kim, a senior editor at CNET.com, is still missing with his family after several days. As a senior editor on another, more Spanish, shareware and technology site, this case has put into perspective just what sort of a risky business we’re involved in. I’m not saying that anything bad has definitely happened to the Kims but let’s face it: it doesn’t look good.

Review: Great Moments at Di Presa’s Pizza House

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.

Spain Herald is dead! Long live thebadrash.com!

…or so it seems, for the time being. Until the single most unpleasant, right-wing-mentalist and all-round nasty website in the world opens up again, we’re declaring victory! Street party at el font de Canaletes!

Meanwhile, thebadrash.com has been at Primavera Sound 2006, where we managed to boost Catalonia’s (and Spain’s) economies by buying huge quantities of beer. I’ll post some more organised thoughts on the whole thing shortly. In a nutshell: Lou Reed was either great or rubbish, depending on whether you’re me or anyone else who saw the gig.
Also, having tried to upgrade my Kubuntu operating system, Linux will not boot. Hence, I’m stuck using a live CD for the next few days, until I can fix the problem.

I should add that I’ve removed what was perceived as a very rude joke from this post. The point of thebadrash.com is not to cause offence, so I’m sorry if I upset anyone. Good luck to Spain Herald on their re-design. Doubtless, though, the content of their website will remain as putrid as ever – despite the fresh coat of paint.

73 Years of Royal Trux

[Reprinted in full as it seems to have disappeared.]
“Theirs is a rock that doesn’t merely cross-breed or bend genre: it obliterates it.”

Gregory S. Moss on 73 years of Royal Trux

by gregory moss

INTRODUCTION
1998 marks the seventy-third year of tireless operation for the rock and roll entity known as ROYAL TRUX. A virtual Zelig of Rock Music, Royal Trux has successfully insinuated themselves through previously unsuspected time rifts, moving up and down through voices and bodies, pulling a field holler moan into RATT style arrangements, channeling Janis Joplin and Marc Bolan into Bow Wow Wow contexts, stabbing needles of white noise transmission from Sun Ra’s ghost into the aesthetic dimension occupied by Prince. Anyone who has followed their career with any persistence (and I don’t know anyone who likes ALL of their albums – a tribute to their ability to completely change their mode and means of expression) knows that Royal Trux EMBODIES rock and roll: spirit made flesh. They are an anomaly and their nonesuchness increases with each passing year. They are rock pantheists – denominations of indie, aor, underground, top forty pop, alternative, classic – all these terms revert to the meaningless dust they are in the hands of Trux. So vast is their accomplishment is that it can only be appreciated from an aerial view: to fully get Royal Trux (and you can’t) you’d have to listen to their entire discography SIMULTANEOUSLY. Theirs is a rock that doesn’t merely cross-breed or bend genre: it obliterates it.

Continue reading 73 Years of Royal Trux