The Cramps at Napa State Mental Hospital (1978)

Third outing for this video on Burning Aquarium...

http://d01.megashares.com/dl/tO0su6C/THE CRAMPS-live at Napa State Mental Hospital.rar

The Amps- Pacer (1995)

Kim Deal -vocals, guitars
Jim Macpherson -drums
Luis Lerma - bass guitar
Nathan Farley- guitars

 Kim Deal's post- Pixies band The Breeders were doing pretty well in 1994, but Kelley Deal's ongoing problems with heroin addiction, originating in her teens, reached a head when she was arrested for possession in 1994 and entered rehab in 1995. This caused a haitus in The Breeders' career. Kim Deal's next move was to  form Tammy Ampersand and the Amps. Kim Deal had originally planned to record this material as a purely solo venture but she recruited The Breeders' drummer Jim Macpherson and two of her long standing friends,  Luis Lerma and Nate Farley, to play on the album and tour. The album was well recieved but didn't sell as well as The Breeders' LPs had done.
Classic /v23 design by Vaughan Oliver for 4AD- always the smartest looking records.

 http://d01.megashares.com/dl/IpvKmnW/The Amps- Pacer.rar

Herbert Marcuse - Reason and Revolution (1941)

 Reason and Revolution: An Introduction to the Dialectical Thinking of Hegel and Marx (1941)  was Marcuse's first major work in English. It focuses on critical reason and dialectical thinking. You can read it here:
 http://archive.org/stream/reasonandrevolut029499mbp#page/n5/mode/2up

Black Grape- Stupid Stupid Stupid (1997)

Everybody should have a copy of Black Grape's debut album It's Great When You're Straight... Yeah , though I didn't play mine for some time due to strong assosciations with mania and alcoholism. This, their second and last album was somewhat overlooked. There's a couple of belters on here.

 http://d01.megashares.com/dl/wp0fKoX/Black Grape.part1.rar
http://d01.megashares.com/dl/o8UZcuN/Black Grape.part2.rar

Third day now...

The Miners' Next Step (1912)

http://www.llgc.org.uk/ymgyrchu/Llafur/1926/MNS.htm
http://libcom.org/history/syndicalism-south-wales-origins-miners%E2%80%99-next-step

The future social organisation must be made solely from the bottom up, by the free association or federation of workers, firstly in their unions, then in the communes, regions, nations and finally in a great federation, international and universal.
 Mikhail Bakunin

The idea that Bakunin outlined above laid the foundations of Syndicalism, an alternative to authoritarian or state socialism. 
One of the key documents relating to syndicalism was published in Tonypandy 100 years ago.
Its main author was Noah Ablett (1883 – 1935).  Born in  Porth and educated at Ruskin College, Oxford, Ablett was employed as a checkweightman  at  Mardy Colliery, (Maerdy, Rhondda Cynon Taf). The position of checkweightman was one of great responsibilty- elected by the colliers themselves to ensure that they were fairly paid (they were paid by weight of coal cut) and to represent their cause in disputes with the managers. 
Mardy was a pit that maintained it's strong millitant traditions right up until its closure in 1990, and which was noteworthy during the 1984/85 Miners' Strike as the workers maintained 100% adherence to the strike and loyalty to the cause.

The area's proud radical tradition is also reflected in the fact that it was referred to as Little Moscow, and, in the very year that Thatcher came to power, The Rhondda elected a Communist mayor-Annie Powell (1906-1986).

Snub TV- The KLF (c1990) PressPausePlay - Bill Drummond Interview (2011)

I know this is lazy blogging. I've got a few good records lined up but my computer is coming to the end of its 'life' and I'm having problems uploading. In the meantime enjoy these two interviews with Bill Drummond, a man I admire greatly.

Homage to M. Gainsbourg: Black Grape- A Big Day in the North (1995), Serge Gainsbourg- Initials B.B (1968)

День Победы!

Red Army soldier I.T Yelimov writes his name on the entrance to the Reichstag, May 1945

Jean Meslier

How I suffered when I had to preach to you those pious lies that I detest in my heart. Meslier

                                                                                              

Every honest man should have Meslier's Testament in his pocket. Voltaire

                              

 Jean Meslier (1664-1729) was a Catholic priest from the Ardennes. Upon his death it was discovered that he had written a book promoting atheism and denouncing religion, which he described  as his Testament to his parishioners. Organized religion, stated Meslier, was but a castle in the air.
Meslier also advocated a rural proto-communism, based on common ownership and mutual cooperation between autonomous communities.
Most prominent among the writers who produced their own (illicit) adaptations of Meslier's lengthy and literally cumbersome work was Voltaire, whose Extraits des sentiments de Jean Meslier (1762), whilst bringing Meslier into the public eye, also did him something of a disservice: Voltaire's book presented Meslier as a deist (like Voltaire himself) rather than an atheist.

 Colin Brewer's 2007 article in The New Humanist is well worth a read:

Historians argue about who was the first overt, post-Classical atheist but Meslier was arguably the first to put his name to an incontrovertibly atheist document. That this important event is largely unrecognised  is due partly to Voltaire who published a grossly distorted “Extract” that portrayed Meslier as a fellow-deist and entirely suppressed Meslier’s anti-monarchist, proto-communist opinions.

Diderot's  famous And [with] the guts of the last priest let's strangle the neck of the last king (from Dithrambe sur Féte des Rois- c1780) is drawn directly from Meslier's man who ...wished that all the great men in the world and all the nobility could be hanged, and strangled with the guts of the priests.
This sentiment, Meslier held, was motivated by the  love of justice and truth.

 Voltaire's take on Meslier can be found here.

An English translation of  Testament is available. 

Datblygu- The Peel Sessions 1987-1993

 If you know anything at all about Datblygu you'll know about the late John Peel's passion for them, and the exalted position that they hold in Welsh language music. For a group who performed solely in Welsh to record five sessions for JP was a truly remarkable achievement. David R Edwards is still (rightly) regarded as an icon of popular culture and consciousness in Wales.
Dave once told me that he had never seen a penny from the BBC releases. I had the good fortune to see him again not long back, and it's always refreshing to meet such a talented and culturally significant bloke and to realise what a sound and down to earth person he is.
It's somehow in  keeping with Datblygu's rather anarchic background
that a retrospective exhibition, Datblygu Trideg, celebrating thirty years since their formation, has been held in a waffle cafe.


There's a Datblygu website (in Welsh)  here...
And you can read about the waffle cafe exhibition here (in English) and here (in Welsh).


http://d01.megashares.com/dl/d9aAS4r/Datblygu- Peel Sessions 1987-1993.part1.rar
http://d01.megashares.com/dl/fnAaHAo/Datblygu- Peel Sessions 1987-1993.part2.rar

I've included a scan of the inner sleeve. It includes details of the personnel , producers, dates etc, but more interestingly Dave's notes on each song featured. (In English):   http://d01.megashares.com/dl/K2hT9gx/datblygu notes.rar

And while we're at it, isn't it about time that somebody translated Dave's autobiography,  Atgofion Hen Wanc into English?

Homage to M. Gainsbourg: Mick Harvey- Intoxicated Man (featuring Anita Lane 1995), Pink Elephants (1997)

69 Erotic Year (69 Année Érotique), Harley Davidson,Intoxicated Man, The Sun Directly Overhead (Sous Le Soleil Exactement), Sex Shop, The Barrel of My 45 (Quand Mon 6,35 Me Fait les Yeux Doux), Ford Mustang, Overseas Telegram, New York, U.S.A, Bonnie and Clyde, Chatterton, Song of Slurs (Chanson de Slogan), Jazz in the Ravine (Du Jazz Dans le Ravin), I Have Come to Tell You I'm Going (Je Suis Venu Te Dire Que Je M'en Vais), Lemon Incest, Initials B.B.

Anita Lane - vocals on 69 Erotic Year, Harley Davidson, Ford Mustang, Overseas Telegram, Bonnie and Clyde and Song of Slurs

http://d01.megashares.com/dl/H8EBmgL/Mick Harvey- Intoxicated Man.rar

 Pink Elephants, Requiem. . . (Requiem Pour Un Con), The Javanaise (La Javanaise), Black Seaweed (Les Goémons), Comic Strip, The Ticket Puncher (Le Poinçonneur Des Lilas), Non Affair (L'Anamour), Scenic Railway, To All the Lucky Kids (Aux Enfants De La Chance), Anthracite (L'Anthracite), Manon, I Love You...Nor Do I (Je t'aime... moi non plus), The Ballad of Melody Nelson (La Ballade de Melody Nelson), Torrey Canyon, Who is 'in' Who is 'Out' (Qui Est 'In' Qui Est 'Out' ), Hotel Specific (L'Hôtel Particulier)

Nick Cave and Anita Lane sing I Love You...Nor Do I (Je t'aime... moi non plus)

 Pink Elephants is not a Gainsbourg cover.

Serge Gainsbourg employed a succession of awesome bass players. On these two records the bass is provided by David McClymont, once of Orange Juice...

http://d01.megashares.com/dl/RMDiAPq/Mick Harvey Pink Elephants.rar

May 1st

Весь мир насилья мы разрушим
До основанья, а затем
Мы наш, мы новый мир построим,
Кто был ничем, тот станет всем.

 On a more contemporary note see http://exiledonmoanstreet.blogspot.com.au/