For someone who works in a record store, it's been a surprisingly long time since I've sat and just listened to a record on my headphones.


Astral Weeks by Van Morrison is the kind of record that demands close attention like this.  The playing and imagery on the album capture the feeling of that pinnacle moment we've all experienced at times in life -- of love, of hope, of desire.  There's a tinge of loss to the record as well. 

The album sounds miraculous to me, and when the circumstances surrounding its recording are revealed, it becomes only more so. It was recorded over a mere 3 days in 1968, when Morrison was, incredibly, only 23 years old.   He used jazz musicians he had never met before to record, and a great deal of each song was improvised.  It's one of the only records I find almost impossible to sing along to-- the phrasing is incredible!  As for the musicianship on the album, the bassline in "The Way Young Lovers Do" alone is like nothing else on any rock record I've ever heard.  It's insane.  Each musician's work elevates the sound to a place of complexity and also cohesion.  Together they create a sense of otherworldliness, and that is what makes the album so special.

I can easily bring myself back to a very particular time in my life when I hear this record, and it's funny but even now, the more I listen to it, the more I hear, and the more I can sink my teeth into.  I guess what I am trying to say is that the album brings more pleasure with each listen, even over a period of many years!   When I hear the first few bars of the starting track, "Astral Weeks," I can't help but grin and sink down into the couch or wherever I happen to be sitting.  It's like revisiting an old friend.  The tracks gracefully amble along and I recapture things old and discover things new as I listen.  This record has the ability to gut you on first as well as each subsequent listening experience.

One of the central figures in The Beatles' lives and career died yesterday. 



Neil Aspinall went to school with Paul McCartney and George Harrison and he remained a trusted confidante until the end.  Neil worked as a personal assistant and road manager to the Beatles throughout their rise to fame and became an indispensable member of their inner circle.  When the boys formed Apple in 1968, they made Neil Chief Executive.  I remember reading somewhere that Neil had no idea what that meant or what precisely he was supposed to do, but in the halcyon days of the late 60s, it was anything goes and he managed to make it work as best he could, though Apple Corps is known to have leeched money from the get-go.

Nonetheless, Neil remained at Apple until last year.  He must have figured out the way to run the company successfully because he saw Apple through the breakup of the Beatles all the way to the lawsuits against Apple Computers and Steve Jobs.  He was behind the fantastic Beatles Anthology series, and contributed his own set of interviews to the documentaries, which was one of the few times he allowed himself to be seen on camera talking about his career.

Tonight's a special night for many of my nearest and dearest.

It's the farewell show for long-standing local band barbarasteele.

The band has had many different incarnations throughout its many years of existence, and tonight at Cafe Du Nord, all former and current members will perform in a climactic send-off for Nero Nava's barbarasteele. 

Nero has lovingly created The Barbarasteele Mixtape, including demos, premixes, live cuts and rare stuff, which will be offered to all attendees of tonight's show free with admission. 

It has been a year since key 'steele member Mike Jilali died, forcing a sudden but, due to the circumstances, inevitable end of the road for barbarasteele.  In addition to being the final night to hear barbarasteele songs performed, the show will function as a celebration of Mike's life.


Here's the official line up for tonight -- show starts at 9pm and costs $8:

Nero Nava and the Invitation to Love
Sexx
Ultraset
and performances by Jacqui Elliott & Marc Perry, Goliath and Relise

After tonight, Nero will continue with his new project The Invitation to Love, so keep your eyes peeled for future gigs.  Hope to see you there tonight. 

I must be in an overly cynical mood today.  Regardless, I just finished watching Wes Anderson's The Darjeeling Limited, which has recently come out on DVD.


This movie is yet another suitably quirky Anderson film.  I'm all for directors who put their stamp on their pictures, especially when it's to the degree where you can tell who made it just by looking at a brief clip.  I'm also all for characters that are idiosyncratic and different.  What I'm trying to say is, I really do like Wes Anderson, perhaps mostly because he doesn't make Julia Roberts movies.  Ever.  He has his own voice, and I applaud that.

That said, this movie was all style, no substance, which is what his movies sometimes can be, at their worst.

The Darjeeling Limited is built around a wonderful, interesting concept:  Three adult American brothers unite in India to reconnect.  The brothers are, of course, suitably quirky to the nth degree.  They are played by Owen Wilson (Francis), Adrian Brody (Peter) and Jason Schwartzman (Jack).  These oddball brothers are wealthy enough to stay endlessly at gorgeous Parisian hotels, tear up their return tickets from India and carry an Ipod with a speaker dock all through their Indian trip by train/bus/bike/etc, but they are duly pained by their father's death and their mother's negligence.  It was difficult for me to invest myself in their story-- they come off as exceedingly self absorbed, and while that may have worked for Margot Tenenbaum (in Anderson's highly enjoyable The Royal Tenenbaums), she was not filmed interacting with locals throughout third world India-- rather, she appeared in her natural environment of upper class New York City.  The characters here seemed to have permanently down turned, achingly sad eyes, overly glorified by many closeups and slow pans.  Oh, the pain of great wealth and great luggage!