Peanut Snake

A Nutcracking Night Out

2011-11-29T14:05:00.001-08:00

Better out than in.. especially with a line-up as heavy as that of Kid Canaveral's second all-day Christmas Baubles event, happening at Edinburgh's amazing-sounding Summerhall.

Alas, it has already sold out, but here's a poster I did for the night - a wry seasonal warning, with an unfortunate nutcracker blowing bogus snow chunks. Take it easy on the mince pies kids!

http://www.drinkaware.co.uk/

Kong-a-Long-a-Ding-Dong

2011-11-15T14:44:00.000-08:00

Back when Hardsparrow was still just an unfortunate Ebay account name, I went by the name of The Brass Warrior and played bass in a band called Brides Of Kong. An unashamedly sleazy combo with little respect for genre-barriers, social taboos, or sensible song titles.

I'd spend long tube journeys to practises in Acton writing daft lyrics to make the other band members laugh. Some of these are still in their repertoire, and mine. I Drew Skeletons being an obvious example.

I'd already been writing and recording songs, but writing without the pressure to achieve anything other than making some other grown men giggle around the crisp machine in Survival Studios was a big breakthrough for me, and I wasted little time in transposing this discovery to my acoustic stuff.. the dubious comedy world of Hardsparrow was, for better or worse, born.

After illness forced me to abandon London town, I was replaced on low notes by Silent Dave, and the Kong - Dave, Mungo, Ant, and Dr. Vodka Martini - are still forging their unique badger-like trail on the London gig scene. You can catch them at the 12 Bar later this month, and you can now also download their first album, The Simian Songbook, from their Bandcamp page, here.

Other than Skeletons, I wroted the lyrics for Wildman, and came up with a couple of the other song titles.. Mungo did the rest, word-wise, and everyone chipped in musically. One of the most interesting things for me, personally, is to hear how far some of these songs developed from the original sketchy tunes we used to jam (ah, happy memories!), to the well-oiled machine that constitutes current Kong.

I can only hope that the world will one day also get to hear the Kong version of Hacienda of the Snake-Legged Dead, or the mythical lost Dog Smell of Griffin sessions.. hey, we all need a dream. In the meantime, don't be a wrong 'un and get some Kong in your life.

I Drew Skeletons by Hardsparrow

Kong on Facebook
Kong on MySpace
Kong on Twitter

R. Stevie Moore / / Live in Bournemouth ! ! !

2011-11-15T12:41:00.000-08:00

David Shrigley represents for R. Stevie Moore

Some years back, I was briefly playing "inaudible banjo" and "keyboards played with my feet" in a band called Skitanja. At a rehearsal back in about 2006, the band's twisted mastermind, Steve Potatoes, had introduced me to the wonderful music of R. Stevie Moore. I can still vividly remember being stood by his computer, listening to I Like To Stay Home streaming through the interubes. Incredible stuff, I thought! Crucial work, really!

Fast forward to earlier this year, and I happened to find myself sharing a flat with Mr. Potatoes. So it was that I heard first-hand when the simply incredible happened - Potatoes (possibly whilst drunk) had booked R. Stevie to come and play in Bournemouth! It's little understatement to suggest that, for myself and many of my friends, this incredible booking coup represented the most exciting thing to happen in Bournemouth possibly ever! R. Stevie was touring outside the US for the first time in his forty year career, and was not only coming to the UK, but to Bournemouth!

Celebrate the news!

An overlarge supporting bill was arranged, posters and flyers were printed, and the mayor was informed.. and so it was that, on an uncharacteristically hot British summer's day, R. Stevie arrived in Bomo. (Now, don't ask complicated questions, but suffice it to say that he arrived from the continent, driven by one Steve Potatoes..)

Recently-opened superior record-purchasing emporium Rose Red hosted an afternoon acoustic session, with a relaxed R. Stevie playing a raft of lesser-heard (but genius) songs to an appreciative crowd, on the shop's wonderfully airy and light lower floor. As a fan, it was an unbelievable treat to experience R. Stevie playing so casually, in such an intimate environment. Really magical stuff.

In Rose Red Records

With hellos said to R. Stevie, and the instore cola supplies drunk dry, there was some aimless wandering in sunny Boscombe (something about a Sleeping Dog Lying test, the so-called woof response, on the counter in Richer Sounds?), before I headed to the venue for the evening show, Champions, with Martin and Ed.

Some of the area's best weirdo bands were also playing: Martin's ever-incredible Powdered Cows, plus a hastily reassembled but on-skronk Skitanja, featuring the afore-mentioned Ed, along with Martin, Potatoes and Inspector D. I. Signs. I played a Hardsparrow set too, but there you go. Nothing is perfect.

Powdered Cows
I Go Into Your Mind by PowderedCows

Pretty soon, it was nearing time for the R. Stevie main course. He seemed a bit distant and unsettled, compared to the earlier show. It's not hard to wonder what it must seem like to a seasoned musician like R. Stevie, to be in a foreign country and arrive in a venue like Champions, which is, quite frankly, a bit of a weird place at the best of times (part venue, part Overlook Hotel, despite great improvements and the best efforts of the owners to revamp it.) The stifling warmth of one of the hotter days of the year was probably not helping much either.

SkitanjaI Like To Stay Home (R. Stevie Moore) by Skitanja

Nonetheless, the gig was great. Following fantastic sets from Skitanja and the Powdered Cows, R. Stevie's touring backing band, Tropical Ooze, played a set which was worth the price of entry alone.

Then R. Stevie played. Despite his seemingly unsettled mood, and the oddness of seeing a legend like RSM in a local venue that I'm not hugely keen on, it was fantastic to get to jump around to the actual R. Stevie Moore, playing the actual hits, backed by a solid band, surrounded by friends. Two of these friends, Rich and Lucy, had travelled down from London for the evening, just to see R. Stevie. The band swung into the sublime Play Myself Some Music, and all was wonderful with the world. The whole day was really such a special event.

The man, the legend

The set began to draw to a close earlier than I had expected, with a bit of an awkward stand-off developing between RSM onstage, and a slightly confused audience. Eventually, temporarily placated with a bottle of wine, the set continued for a short while longer, before finally ending with his celebrated solo rendition of the Popeye theme.

After the gig, I got R. Stevie to re-sign the back of my i-Pod (he'd actually done it earlier in the day, but it had rubbed off in the sweat-pit of the gig), rechristening it an R-Pod, in acknowledgement of the huge amount of the prolific musician's material that has made it on there.

The R-pod

By and by, it would turn out that I'd lost my wallet (and train tickets) in the venue, presumably whilst pogoing to I Like To Stay Home, and so it was that I had to wake myself at 6am to return to the venue, to try to recover it before catching the train back to Scotland. Did I say train? Well, I ended up having to change to the overnight coach in London, travelling on for some ten hours to Dundee, arriving in the early hours of Monday morning having had precious little sleep - it was a somewhat hellish journey, much of which was spent with the guy next to me, Bobby from Bulgaria, either talking incessantly, or asleep, crushing me like a long-suffering wife. And then I had to go straight into work.

But, you know what? It was all worth it. So totally worth it. For the legend that is R. Stevie Moore.

Thank you R. Stevie!

And thank you, Steve Potatoes!

Poster Potato-style!

Interested parties might make first departure into the Outer Mooresphere here: THE R. STEVIE MOORE CASSETTE CLUB

And check out this essential documentary: TAPE TO DISC

R. STEVIE MOORE & TROPICAL OOZE are on tour NOW!

Hanging on for a Heron

2011-11-04T04:22:00.000-07:00

I did this last-minute poster for a James Yorkston/Pictish Trail gig at the Queens Hall in Edinburgh this month. The heron is collaged from pages of Yorkston's highly recommended collection of tour reminscences, It's Lovely To Be Here. The pages cut up real nice.

Originally there was a cowboy Jesus (?) as part of the heron's beak, but it looked better without it. There is a weird painting of a donkey in there somewhere though.

The background elements are all taken from a Facebook gallery chronicling the custom-build of James' new guitar. But it probably just looks like I got some photographs of some chipboard and some scrunched up Quality Street wrappers, I know.

Foredrawn

2011-10-18T13:34:00.000-07:00

Some pen&ink CD-insert doodles I found on my hard-drive.. I guess these might have gone in the Sweet Lion version of Sea Mountain Songs or something. Clearly, at least one of them is in an asian Stone Roses tribute band (?), so seemed like a good moment to upload..

"Horrific" Halloween Exhibition in London

2011-10-17T13:30:00.000-07:00

The inimitable Mr. Adrian Brown has reanimated the twitching corpse of his Just 1 Page project for a Halloween-themed selling exhibition, titled Horrific, at London's Orbital Comics this weekend, with all proceeds going to Macmillan Cancer Support.

Ade started the Just 1 Page project about six years ago (I think), with the idea that various people contributed one page each (whether a drawing, some words, or a comic strip) to a publication that would be sold to raise money for charity, with his contacts in the comics world (and beyond) well-exploited.

This year is a little different, as, taking advantage of the fantastic permanent gallery space in Orbital, he's mounting a selling exhibition of remaining past artwork contributions, as well as some new submissions, including my own.

Expect "original artwork by Mike Carey and Charlie Adlard, signed prints by Tim Bradstreet (Hellblazer, Punisher, Blade, Unknown Soldier), Shaun of the Dead sculptures designed by Jesse Farrell and lots more."

The exhibition runs from this Friday, the 21st, to Sunday the 23rd of October, at Orbital Comics, Great Newport Street, London WC2 (just a few seconds dash from Leicester Square tube).

There will be other related events happening over the weekend, including a reading from Mike Carey, bringing the show to a close at 3pm on Sunday. Check the Facebook page here for more current info..

If you can't make it along, but feel like supporting the cause, there is also a JustGiving page here.

The image at the top is my contribution, an A3 ink-brush drawing of an unfortunate dinosaur-faced lady whose hair is subject to a demonic possession. The bedevilled hair is vomiting out what appears to be the ghost of a dog.
So, if that's ringing your mind bells, and you fancy having it on your living room wall when you reach your dotage, best get down to Orbital this weekend.

Monochromatic Orbs

2011-10-03T08:42:00.000-07:00

Came across this collage I made for Ishihara 3 (or maybe 11? Either way, I don't think it ever made it to the exhibition..) pretty much ages ago. Perhaps it would work as an advertising image in some corporate zorbing literature.

Teabroken

2011-09-28T14:24:00.000-07:00

I got a job on the till in a supermarket. Fifteen years after my first ever job I'm back where I started - perhaps I'll just start my CV afresh? At least that way I won't have to go onto three sides of paper (which has been worrying me recently).

Anyway, today was my first full day on the job, and I drew this while on a break in the canteen, which is a bit like a featureless grey, metallic, underground bunker, except with at least two copies of the same day's issue of The Sun to read.

Pray for me..

Beef Scratchings

2011-09-28T13:13:00.000-07:00

Photo by hallav

I've contributed a Hardsparrow track to an album called Beef Scratchings, compiled from the home recording efforts of various denizens of the Fence Records forum, the Beef Board. It's an interesting mix of stuff, from folky acoustica to austere electronic beats, though all with a pretty chilled vibe.

My contribution is an early version of a tune called Handwalker, which should eventually turn up in more polished form on the Sea Tractor album.

The CD packaging is really very beautifully designed, and also contains the odd (=very odd) sticker, as well as a random selection of doodles by the likes of myself and Heinz Junkins.

The album is available by donation, with £5 a suggested figure, though anything is acceptable. The proceeds are going to the fund to fix the roof of the Hew Scott Hall in Anstruther, the epicentre of Fence's reknowned Homegame events, and a venue very close to my heart.

Simply send a self-addressed size 0 (or larger) jiffy bag, with well-concealed cash money $$$, to Mr. Crivvens, 13 Emsdorf Road, Lundin Links, Fife, KY8 6HQ.

FULL TRACK LISTING

What’s Your Beef - Dr Love
Northern Light – Cheesecats
Hold me down – Coalface feat. Baerson
Joy – David Neilson
Mutual Irritations – Filthyswan
Shells - Tishytash
Carry The Stones – Cauld Yin
On a Beach – Speill Berg
The Rising Sun - Crivvens
Ushinata Uta – Bhoywonder
Warning: This Is A Demo – Black Dandy And The New Farming Community
Get You Back – Scott Young
Wake Up – Andrew Cleary
Handwalker - Hardsparrow
Never Go Home – Coalface
Constant – Jah
Baerson’s Nature - Baerson Feat. Coalface

Save the Hew Scott Hall video
Save the Hew Scott Hall online petition
http://www.fencerecords.com/beefboard/

Love Is.. A Warm Record

2011-09-15T07:37:00.000-07:00

I recently designed a poster for Fence, paying cheeky homage to Kim Grove's Love Is..
These are being sent to independent record stores which order Fence stock, with each one personalised to the shop in question. Spreading the love!

The photo above is swiped from the Facebook page of Glasgow's Love Music, and the one below is from Fence's Facebook page, showing a magnificent display in Music's Not Dead, a new shop in Bexhill-on-Sea.

If you'd like a closer look at the poster, then please make your way to your nearest quality record shop! Avalanche, Monorail, Norman*, Unknown Pleasures, and One Up should also have them.. and if you're lucky you might manage to pick up one of the Fence Autumn catalogues, featuring a highly desirable nerd-ready checklist of every Fence release to date (which is a lot of releases!).

* Don't really try to visit Norman, it's only in the internet!

A Marrow, To Scale

2011-09-14T13:46:00.000-07:00

Hats off to HaarFest

2011-09-14T08:30:00.000-07:00

It's now been a month since Fence Records' second HaarFest event, and I think I'm just about ready to regather my senses, think up a local-news-style headline, and cast a teary backwards glance over the week's events.

HaarFest is Fence's more relaxed sister-event to the now well-established Homegame. Where that festival now has about forty-five acts, crammed into several venues over one weekend of concentrated chip suppers, pear cider and hedonism, Haarfest harks back to the event's earlier days, with the music only running in one venue at a time, and with quaintly diverting activities like sack races and geological walks to fill lazy days. And pear cider.

I was running a felt hat making workshop this year, which ran across two days, to meet demand. Yes, people were mad for making felt hats, it turned out.

The premise was similar to that behind last year's successful googley-eye workshop; to start with a simple idea that then provided a jumping-off point for participants to go bat-poo-crazy with: in this respect, the results could not have been more satisfying!
HMS Ginafore had dubbed the workshop "Hardsparrow's Madhatters Hat Party", and so I felt duty bound to provide party rings and pink wafers, but a majority of these actually ended up as integral elements of people's headgear. We first made simple felt hoods, but these really began to come alive when the workshoppers started adding their own embellishments and design-twists!

You can see pictures of some of the hats on the Fence forum here.

Madhatters in Cellardyke Town Hall.

The hats were subsequently worn as part of a pageant on the Sunday, with King Creosote and HMS Ginafore leading a colourful musical procession, winding its way from the Fisheries Museum to the Cellardyke Town Hall, where a ceilidh dinner-dance brought the week's events to a climax. Later that evening, the last of the bands played, before King Creosote treated those still wobbling to carefully selected gems from his extensive collection of Eighties vinyl.

Confiscate KC's early Eighties vinyl at your peril

Sadly, I missed the church tea, the sports day, the playwriting workshops, and the Pictish Trail's musical pub-crawl, but the fascinating geological tour of the Cellardyke shoreline, and the usual sterling line-up of musical wonders (see video, top) more than made up for that. I'm sure there were other things too, moonlit swims in the Cellardyke pool, Seamus Fogarty on stage in a biscuit and feather-covered felt hat, rescuing toads, wandering around beaches in Pittenweem unable to find Jo Foster's art installation (had it washed away?).. but not much of it comes back to me with any clarity now, lost amidst the usual jumble of laughter, music, good times and drinking that constitute a Fence event! So, a big thanks for all the hard work of the organisers, and to all the inspirational hat-makers, and godspeed next year, when Haarfest will hopefully once again roll to shore.

Seamus Fogarty wears silly hat (photo by Ade Brown)

The "Cellardyke Rose"

Lower Underdogs

2011-09-08T13:23:00.001-07:00

I wrote this guitar thingy in Bournemouth, just before moving to Scotland, and recorded it on my camera. I found it the other day and thought it was quite nice, so I worked it out again. I tried to record it properly on my computer, but my left index finger is still a bit tender from my nearly cutting it off with some scissors a few weeks ago, so it came out a bit rubbish. Anyway, as part of my ongoing plan to guff up the internet, and in light of the current absence of any finished (nearly!), properly recorded Hardsparrow music, I took the worst of three takes and made this lazy video this afternoon. You should really hear this track backwards, it's much better.

Oh, you can download the track off the Hardsparrow Soundcloud too: http://soundcloud.com/hardsparrow

Sketch Boggin'

2011-08-29T05:29:00.000-07:00

I ran off a second issue of my Sketch Bog doodle zine for Haarfest. More ambitious than issue 1, with 28 pages, and enough negative images that the Co-op will subsequently have had to order a new toner cartridge (oops!).

All twenty-odd copies are now gone (I think).. but thinking of putting together another issue soon, so drop me a line, or keep an eye here if you'd like to grab one next time. I might even just re-do the first two issues with different pictures, to appease any completists!

Dan from Withered Hand's wife has since been quoted as saying of Sketch Bog issue 2, "that little book you left in the loo is one of the weirdest zines i have ever seen."

20 (000) Gigs Under The Sea

2011-08-02T09:17:00.000-07:00

After four (or is it nearly five?) years of ramshackle lo-fi, folk, leftfield pop and backwards raffles, this Friday sees the final voyage for Club Anemone. I moved to Scotland last month, and will be travelling back down briefly to do 'the honours' at the last show. In the time that the night has existed, I have personally had some wonderful nights which will stay long in my memory.. and I hope that others feel the same.

I can't give one single reason why I started the night, but it was certainly not to make money, or to become anything other than a bloke that sometimes arranged for some bands to come and play. It did in part stem from a desire to fill what I perceived to be a hole in the local scene, to put on bands that I would like to see, that would often play Southampton or Brighton, but would give Bournemouth a miss, and to bill those bands alongside some of the many amazing local acts. It's been great to see so many superb left-field acts in Bournemouth.. whether it was Sam Amidon, perched on the stage-edge at the Central (he would return to support Beth Orton at the 02 this year), or Andre Herman Dune, singing sweet calypso songs in the belly of the ibar. It's also been an uphill struggle at times - and the fact is that the hole is very much still there. But people are still digging, and Bournemouth seems only to be on the rise, culturally-speaking, and in terms of the increasing amount of interesting gigs.

The night could not have survived without the existence of free-hire venues. Unfortunately, it has often only just been financially viable for me to host these gigs in Bournemouth, even with free venue hire. Often, acts have taken considerably lower fees than they are accustomed to, in order to play a new town. The painful truth is that an act of the size I would host might sell out a small venue in Brighton or London, but would find less of an immediately responsive audience in Bournemouth. So I would like to salute those local establishments that are forward-thinking enough to allow promoters to use their venues for free, in return for bar-takings, allowing promoters like myself to book more "risky" acts. Ibar has grown to be the spiritual home of the night, and, despite its arguable aesthetic failings, is the place that has done most for Club Anemone, as well as providing a home for other similarly independent promoters. Thank you Leigh and Andy!

I'd also like to tip my hat to those who have supported the night as paying customers, many right from the start, and often willing to take on trust that they would have an enjoyable night, based on previous experiences rather than any prior knowledge of the bands - I was taking a gamble with this night, that that sort of adventurous gig-going attitude might exist in the area; so thanks to those that have proven me not entirely wrong!

The Blue Boar has recently provided a change of scenery, and has also been very accommodating. I'd like to say that I miss the early days in the Central in Ashley Cross, but, in spite of all the drinkers we brought into their otherwise near-empty pub, they didn't seem to like us, for reasons unknown.. hmmm..

.. perhaps it was something to do with the over-athletic sound guy there, who, having quit the role following a barney with the venue, nonetheless arranged, at great personal financial risk, to sneak his PA back in, so as not to leave us in the lurch? Biggest thanks in the early days would without a doubt go to that living wonder of a man, Mr. Alf Lee, who also served as a ridiculously cheap (if not occasionally free!) soundman in those early days. Genuine legend!

Many other individuals have also given invaluable assistance, whether through manning the door, lending equipment, or any number of other jobs necessary to help a one-man-maniac hold a night together! Thanks for various things go especially to Lee Jones, Tony Foster at BHOne, Ed Mitchell, Marcus Edgar, Chris Catlin, Rob Langdon, Conrad Barr, Dan Barrow, and Nick Churchill, and more latterly Patrick Gough, at the Daily Echo .. and apologies to any others I have surely forgotten!

More recently, the gigs at the Blue Boar have been entirely dependent on the involvement of Mr. Michael Tanner, who has essentially put on the last couple of nights, while I have simply stood at the door and done bad Jools Holland impressions. Michael and Nick Palmer, of Directorsound, have also been responsible for bringing many of the nights most interesting visitors to my attention, and many of the gigs would simply not have happened without their invaluable input.

With Friday's gig set to be the last for the forseeable future, a bit of a party would seem to be in order. And no-one could be more perfect to help celebrate this final gig than our good friends, and most regular return visitors, Rachael Dadd, Rozi Plain, and, of course, the incredible Ichi! In the cosy nautical environs of the Blue Boar cellar, with party atmosphere compulsory, this should be another unforgettable night! Full details here and here!

Those who have seen these acts before will know what to expect: evocative and subtle world-folk invocations, reminiscent of Seven Swans-era Sufjan Stevens, from Rachael Dadd (The Hand, Whalebone Polly); fuzzy, wavelike indie-pop from the Fence Collective's Rozi Plain (ahead of a slot at the Apple Cart Festival in London on Sunday); and Ichi, from Nagoya, Japan, bringing a host of homemade instruments and party tricks, the most jaw-dropping, entertaining and hilarious one-man-band you are ever likely to see!

There will be free party bags for early arrivals, naturally, and then Club Anemone will slip its moorings and move quietly into the night one last time.. satisfied in the knowledge that there will always be other, similarly naive and single-minded people out there, also mad enough to put on gigs.. and some of them will probably be the most interesting nights that Bournemouth has to offer, whether it be Alan Krayon's irregular nights of improv-grind insanity, or Houschka's bold new ventures. And who knows, perhaps Conrad will start booking crazy Japanese laptop-electronica singers again one day? We can but hope..

The Pictish Trail and Rozi Plain, shortly before boarding The Simulator.

Golden Ghost and Viking Moses upsetting the neighbours, after the first gig, many many moons ago.

Confused but happy punters.

Hardsparrow - Sea Tractor EP

2011-06-15T14:08:00.001-07:00

After selling out of the first run at the Homegame Festival, I've finally got a second batch of Sea Tractor EP's pretty much ready to roll into envelopes and out to the post office.

The EP comes as a hand-vandalised 7", each one featuring a unique brush-rendered ink dawdle, downloaded straight from my braindrive to vinyl.

On the reverse, a unique Bandcamp download code will allow you to access the musical content from the comfort of your home or office computer.

This is as follows:

1. Sea Tractor
2. Swaps
3. Sea Tractor (Becky Becky Parentheses Remix)
4. Backdraft Heart
5. Sea Tractor (Moonlight Mix)
6. Slops

Have a listen to the two remixes on the Hardsparrow Bandcamp page.

A piggy.

There will only ever be about 30 of these "bad boys", with about 13 already gone, and a fair few more already spoken for.

Cost is £6, postage included. Like, anywhere. Look, I've even got a Paypal button here. And I managed to make it go in the middle. Although now there seems to be a big gap for some reason.. er..

I'm going away this weekend, but might upload some pics early next week so people can choose.. any orders before then will get a random selection!

☠ ☠ ☠ ☠ SOME USEFUL TIPS ☠ ☠ ☠ ☠

- DO NOT try to play on your phonograph machine. You will have to buy a new stylus shortly thereafter.

- DO feel free to hang the record up on a nail, or to make it into a wall-clock, or to throw it as a frisbee for your dog.

- DON'T be upset if you're a bit disappointed with tracks 2 and 4. I had to finish them quite quickly. And track 6; track 6 is something that my computer did, quite without my permission or blessing. I'm not responsible for that. Sorry.

- DON'T worry though. The Becky Becky Parentheses remix is flippin' great.

Hardsparrow - Sea Tractor (Moonlight Mix) by Peanut Snake

Lost Clusters

2011-06-15T13:16:00.000-07:00

I've been an admirer of Akin Fernandez's Irdial Discs since 1995, when I took a chance on their compilation album There Are Too Many Fools Following Too Many Rules. A track on a New Electronica compilation - A.M.D. by Clip Talk - had caught my ear shortly before and, with its dissection of the bridge between melody and noise had, quite frankly, blown my frail young mind.

Loving parts of Too Many Fools, I then bought the Mario Paint EP, recorded entirely in the SNES program of that name, and found music that tallied with the experiments I'd made using the simple software (Music Maker) that had come bundled with my parent's Atari 1040 family pack. A music where composition and texture held more significance than style. This burgeoning revelation would lead to a continuing love of single-instrument composition, and a still unfulfilled desire to own a harpsichord. My copy of Mario Paint came with a black and white Irdial catalogue inside. The titles and art inside this magical pamphlet filled my mind with curiosity and wonder.. I was particularly keen to hear Ms. Mimi Majick's Lost Clusters in D Drive. Just the title held such fascinating promise!

Later, living in London, I'd find their records in second hand shops, often radically reduced in price due to the fact that the label's house sleeve was intentionally printed to look worn and damaged. These sometimes felt more like avant-garde art objects than records. Which is not to overlook the sheer aesthetic beauty of some of the music itself..

I made a cup of tea, put on Anthony Manning's Islets in Pink Polyprophlene, and fell instantly in love. And his Chromium Nebulae album would quickly become my go-to record in those lazy moments in life where time seems to briefly stop, those odd hours lost somewhere in between the accepted ones, at least until you open the curtains.

Neuropolitique and Thee J. Johanz made my head feel funny. The definition/grain of the music itself was, like Akin's label artwork, fundamentally lysergic. It tasted funny, and I wondered why no-one had fed me it before. Ray Tracing (another pseudonym of Akin), on the other hand, made me want to jump around the room with a big grin on my face - King of the Bleeps!

Fast forward to the internet age (a bit late coming for me), and I found much of the label's catalogue available for free online.. leading me to some of my favourite finds - including Mimi Majick's incredible, timeless EP, and many of Akin's earlier works, as Aqua Regia and Beautyon. Fernandez must be one of the single most under-rated producers of the tail-end of the 20th century.

More recently, I've revisited Neuropolitique's album, and downloading his Irdial back catalogue, found many absolute gems. The depth of their catalogue is incredible.

Globally, they are probably best known for The Conet Project - a collection of recordings of so-called Numbers Stations. In a reflection of the label's thoughtful and provocative approach to copyright law, the label took these anonymously broadcast, presumably government-level transmissions and exploited the secrecy of their authors by releasing them on a compilation album.
To nicely complete the situationist prank/lesson in copyright law, Fernandez subsequently sued the band Wilco for using parts of this album without Irdial's permission.

Another choice piece of wax I plucked to safety from the racks of the Music & Video exchange was the excellent Monster Music mini-album. Monster Music was a series of pirate radio broadcasts made by Irdial in the early 90's, a series of ten, with each intended to be curated by a different artist. For a long time, these recordings represented a large gap for me, when looking down the Irdial catalogue list. They do all exist, however, on MP3 at least, and, at the time I wrote this, back in November 2010, the first few were easily findable online via a blog (in fact inspiring this piece).

They've since been taken down. But, according to the Irdial site, "all ten shows are floating around on Gnutella, OpenNap, Morpheus and the other free music sharing services". Not sure if those services even exist still, but if you can find them, they're well worth a listen. What I've heard is all essential stuff, with the Perfect Game Music Fan episode providing the perfect interim soundtrack for the Blue Moon Festival (a night of music made with the Sound Club tracker) I hosted last year.

Check out the Irdial musical philosophy, and then take a jump into a bottomless political wormcan here!

☠ ☠ ☠ ☠ Hardsparrow News Blast ☠ ☠ ☠ ☠

2011-04-18T11:49:00.000-07:00

A sea tractor, yesterday.

The (almost) full line-up for this year's Homegame Festival has just been announced by The List, here, and it includes me. Me! As well as a lot of other amazing acts. But mainly me. This is very exciting stuff! If you were me, you'd understand.

Fence Record's amazing Homegame festival has been going for about twenty-nine years now, and this will be the nineteenth time I've played, making me the youngest surviving musician playing who still somehow hasn't gotten any better at performing than the first time around.

Anyway, The List put a link to the Hardsparrow Soundcloud, which had next to nothing on it.. so I thought that might be a good excuse to update it.

If you go there now, you can download an mp3 of the song "Lighthearted", from my 2005 album "Oj! What A Sorry Life".. the CD-R that got me that first Homegame slot (my second ever gig) back in.. ooh, 2006? Wowsers..

This track should soon be available as part of a free download retrospective complication called "Glimmer of Hopelessness"*. Just as soon as the Hardsparrow homepage on the new improved Peanut Snake website is ready to roll.
(*The previously mentioned "Magic of Hardsparrow" best-of has now been abandoned, due to the devastatingly low levels of magic actually found in the archives.)

In other news.. Peanut Snake will have an ahtwork for sale in a special exhibition, staged by Lovely Pigeon, taking place over Homegame. Fancy!

And things are currently on track (just) for the long-time-coming Sea Tractor hand-painted 7" to be available at Homegame too (digital cover pictured above). Hurrah! You can hear the Becky Becky Parentheses Remix of the EP title track at the fancy pants new Hardsparrow Bandcamp here.

Good times, good times.

Lighthearted by Hardsparrow

P.S. I have had some of the best times of my little life at Homegame, many of them in the Hew Scott Hall and adjoining AIA Hall.. this community building is now in dire need of funds to repair a collapsed roof - please sign this petition to put your name to this worthy cause: http://www.petitiononline.com/AIA999/petition.html

Celebrate The Mooz!

2011-04-07T08:05:00.000-07:00

Lovely artwork by Tim Smart.

My friend Martin, aka PowderedCows, has put together an amazing album, entitled Moozikk, that will be available to download from this Saturday, April 9th, from here, with limited CD copies available from the launch gig at Champions in Bournemouth (and possibly directly from the man himself?).

All proceeds are going to help The Tree Foundation and their work to help the critically endangered three-toed sloth.

Musicians were invited to contribute basic tracks (a vocal plus one instrument) which were then put through the Powdered Cow's magical mystical blender.
I've contributed the Hardsparrow song Ghost Castle, a much better re-recorded version of a tune from my Half-Bakes album. He has made it sound well spooky.

Martin has also managed to field contributions from Jason Lytle (of Grandaddy and Admiral Radley fame), Jorge Tapia (of Illinois' Eyes and Humanos), and the incredible Chica X!!! (See her on Chic-A-Go-Go here!)

There's also a ton of stuff by loads of great Dorset musicians, including Expedition Guide (Lee Jones of Dutch Husband/Head of a Cuban Trojan), and the ladies' fave, Michael Wookey.

Please check out and join the Facebook group here.
And check out the Tree Foundation's homepage here.

Here's Expedition Guide's tune, click the link to hear more on the PowderedCows Soundcloud.

Pioneer pioneer - lee jones and powderedcows by PowderedCows

Here's the full track listing..

1 powderedcows - to paint a padlock
2 hardsparrow - ghost castle
3 the blackwater caravan - nothing left to break
4 yufei chowder - surface run off
5 thomas wykes - song for three toed sloths
6 language timothy - height of the sunflower
7 tim smart - holiday
8 michael wookey - empty ward
9 dan rumsey - watch you suffer
10 si crockett - i can't give up
11 jorge tapia - late
12 chica x - chica x
13 casini division - andromeda
14 sugar ray buzzard III - clean up your own mess
15 sval bards - brutaliser
16 luap rekcut - the world
17 jason lytle - credits will roll
18 disco's out (murder's in) - Kids
19 lee jones - pioneer pioneer
20 mischa - on my own
21 max longman - don't make me lie to myself
22 chuter - hopeless

Go and buy it!

Hardsparrow - Reverse Charge

2011-04-05T12:23:00.000-07:00

One-man-maniac and vibrational video genius Rich Sanz has kindly made a video for "Reverse Charge", a reeeeversion of the recent Hardsparrow stage-punch hit smash chartguffer House Phone.

I asked him to make it like being lost inside a bush, in Jamaica. Instead, he seems to have gone straight for the sausage, with a video that features more schlange-slapping than a pack of Wall's best bangers dropped in a nest of greasy rattlers. All sausage, no mash.

If this isn't guffing up the charts something awful this time next week then I give up, all of it! Honest!

Check it out below. More optical goodness, natürlich, at Mr. Sanz's Vimeo account, here. Thank you, Mr. Sanz, thank you.

Dusty Doodles

2011-04-04T12:26:00.000-07:00

Some vinyl doodles I did back in February, for wall decoration at a Club Anemone night. These were sort of dry-runs for the soon-come Hardsparrow "Sea Tractor" single, which will come as similarly painted 7 inches, and in fancy pants card sleeves.

Images l → r, up → down = "Wave Staircase"; "Smoke O's"; "Weird Owl Anchovy"; "Howard Got Dem Boogy Eyes"; "Onion Cloud".

Eyeballs for size reference only.

Sandy Friday Sandwich

2011-03-27T16:14:00.000-07:00

"Time Does Not Exist"

2011-03-27T09:59:00.001-07:00

Here are pages 2 to 5 of the Peanut Snake Summer Catalogue zine from last autumn, a little piece about Goodiepal.

If I were to write this now, it would be pretty different, as I've said some quite inaccurate things. But I'll take comfort in the words of Charles Fort, who supposedly once said, "I believe nothing of my own that I have ever written."

☠ CHEQUE MATE ☠

Anyway, Mr. Goodiepal has just announced the release of three new LP's, which are add-ons to the Route 66 Experimentet album that came with a free 500 Danish Kroner note, thus making it possible to make a profit from buying the record.

These new records have amazing artwork by Ulrik Borberg, and possibly feature favourites such as Ryst Jeres Klon Komputer, as well as Anders Jørgen Mogensen's "legendary hit Dream Horse".

Goodiepal has also recorded over an hour and a half of FAQ audio-responses, downloadable here, apparently designed to be played back along with these records. Full instructions here.

However, perhaps the most interesting aspect of these releases is a continuation of the "free bank note" idea. The three new LP's cost approximately €2.60, €11 and €100 each. The first (€2.60) supposedly comes with the Goodiepal's bank card details, allowing the purchaser to draw renumeration from his funds. The second (€11) comes with a 1000 Roma bill, exchangable once the Romani people establish a homeland. The third (€100) comes with a signed blank cheque, drawable on Goodiepal's English bank account. This creates an interesting scenario, wherein any purchaser can feasibly buy the record and then get their money back (all proceeds from sales will go into the account), but only so long as another purchaser has not been greedy and gone for the whole lot!

Buy here.

More info here.

Return of the Africa Jet Band

2011-03-24T14:40:00.000-07:00

Monkeys by Kathryn Renowden

Danny Wolfers (aka Legowelt) releases a lot of music, but I was particularly excited to see that a new Africa Jet Band EP and album (released under the Nacho Patrol moniker) are set to drop.

From the previews I've heard online, it sounds like one of the funkiest, most organic things he's released, and a more than ample follow up to last year's impressive eponymous EP.

But what actually has me most buzzed is the incredible artwork, by Kathryn Renowden. The centre labels to the last Africa Jet Band 12" were a thing of beauty, but the artwork for the new 12" is even better! Renowden's watercolours seem a perfect fit for Nacho Patrol's raw, fiery musical flavours.

Check out the dribble-worthy Godspill-exclusive orange-vinyl edition here.. and see more of Kathryn Renowden's artwork at her blog, here.

A whole world of goodness is waiting to be explored at Legowelt's homepage here.

UK Top 5 Goodiepal Countdown

2011-03-23T12:57:00.000-07:00

Everyone loves the Goodiepal, but with so much material out there it can be hard to keep track of what is what. So, here to help you is a Top 5 rundown of my current favourite Goodiepal videos on YouTube, as of today.

5. Goodiepal feat. Dane TS Hawk PÅ SAXO - Nobel Saxofon Krystal Diamant'en (MAVEE OBJECT)

This tune never fails to move me. Goodie gives funk a good name, whilst also unerringly pre-empting the sax-pop revival.

4. Goodiepal - Ryst Jeres KLON KOMPUTER (MAVEE)

Despite not understanding Danish, this track, a response (remix???) to Syg Nok's KOMMUNAL KLON KOMPUTER HACK has really grown on me recently, with its trademark Goodiepal hooks and delightfully cheesy preset-type sounds never failing to cut like hot sunlight through the dirt of the day. Don't be surprised to see it moving up the chart in the weeks to come!

3. Goodiepal - deborahcurtis

There are lots of bad recordings of Goodiepal performances on YouTube (I've omitted the "classic Malmö" video due to its already significant cultural notoriety), but this is my current favourite. We get a fake French rap, plus an epic monster howl . Great stuff!

2. Goodiepal WE CALL IT ADVENTURE TRANCE... (MAVEE OBJECT)

Some things just never get old. It might seem odd to have a track from Narc Beacon at number 2, but with the album currently celebrating its 20th Anniversary, it's good to be reminded of this early smash hit folk-trancer. And, yes, I could just as easily have chosen Summer Of The Cat or another killer epic number from the Mort Aux Vaches album, but.. )

1. Goodiepal - Under Byen In the Flip Flop Mix (MAVEE)

Even for someone like me, who would pay just to click on a video of Goodiepal farting into an SK1, let alone into an Eventide H8000, seeing this video for the first time came as a shock. Goodie raises the bar to dangerous bar-level heights, presenting a video edited together from various performances that took place over a week-long residency in a Thai restaurant in Copenhagen. The resulting tune somehow ends up far outstripping the promise of the original Under Byen In The Flip Flop Mix; with the Goodiepal, early 90's Italo House never sounded so good! Add to that some hilarious sock edits and we have a stone cold classic.

Probably best viewed on YouTube this one - nuff said.

USEFUL LINKS:

Goodiepal's blog
Radical Computer Music
Sygnok documentary

Hardsparrow - House Phone (live @ Champions)

2011-03-22T08:48:00.000-07:00

Advertisement Feacher

2011-03-22T06:16:00.000-07:00

Animal Magic Tricks has a new website - you should check that out then.

Digging In Your Draws

2011-03-21T05:46:00.000-07:00

Four months since my last post - ouch! In that time period there's been a necessary reality adjustment to the post-student world, and also a change of premises for Peanut Snake (yep, I moved house), but now things are starting to get rolling once more. Hardsparrow projects have been reactivated, and the Peanut Snake website should (finally) be properly finished soon, including pages for all the music and artwork that falls under the Peanut Snake umbrella, plus all sorts of other nonsense - exciting times.

So, this post.. yesterday, I spent two hours drawing a bearded mermaid, only for a terminal eraser event to render the work unusable in the space of three seconds. Can I get an "AAAARRRGHHH!!"? So, I popped the cap on the £3.49 Merlot and did some lazy, no pressure doodling to wind down. Here, then, I give you Crispy Seaweed Duck and DI Dog (Wassee lookin' for?? Now there's a nice comic idea..).

Kewpie Evolution: The Tarako Megapost

2010-11-13T06:14:00.000-08:00

Rose O'Neill, creator of the Kewpie. (Image from Westport History)

Rare "Kewpie Kutouts" (Stuart Ng Books)

I recently did a little online research into Kewpie dolls. Up until then, I'd thought that a kewpie was probably a fruit, but it turned out that it was in fact a character created by Rose O'Neill in the early 1900's, the drawings of which soon became popular enough for the creations, big-faced cherubic babies with pointed quiffs, to be corporealised in celluloid doll-form, a cutely-abstracted homunculus which quickly conquered the world, even receiving a mention in Anne Frank's famous diary, and being placed in a time capsule at the 1939 New York World's Fair.

One of O'Neill's charming illustrations, reproduced on a postcard from the mid-20th century.

Vintage porcelain blue-winged O'Neill Kewpie Doodle Dog

As early as 1923, the Kewpie's image had been enlisted for its powerful services as a company mascot, representing the Kewpie Hamburger chain in the US. But fast forward a century and the Kewpie image-virus has mutated in ways that would surely have been unimaginable for O'Neill.

An image search for "kewpie" today summons forth a startling array of disturbing and unsettling pictures. Now, even the earliest dolls sometimes looked a bit creepy, as with this googly-eyed jointed doll from c. 1913:

And the dolls being made today are, quite frankly, vegetable-headed cabbage patch horrors.

Nothing, though, quite compares to the indignities forced upon the poor Kewpies when they made the mistake of travelling to the Far East unaccompanied. Like any cog in the Japanese character mascot machine, Kewpie has suffered almost every pop-cultural per(v)mutation possible, with the nadir (zenith?) being reached with these dangling phone charms, rendering Kewpie as a sperm, an old man, and even a poo!

More info about these here.

I have no idea who owns the character rights to Kewpie internationally, but a Japanese food company, apparently best known for their mayonnaise, trades under the Kewpie name and uses the character as their mascot. Lovely. Right? Splendid. Yes.

Lovely. Right?

However, at some point, a diversion into the pasta sauce sector, and the Japanese penchant for having a character's face poking out from inside a cute costume (see Kewpie Godzilla, below), somehow collided to create the Unearthly Beast of the End Times that is Tarako.

Tarako is fish roe, seemingly a sort of womb sack full of fish eggs. This is used in a pasta sauce made by the Kewpie company. Tarako is also the name that has inadvertently been given to the mascot created to advertise the sauce - a bizarre mutation with the Kewpie doll's cute face attached to a fish womb body.

Sad sacks.

What follows are some of the many Tarako pasta sauce adverts, presented here in a megapost for your greatest satisfaction.

There are at least two more Tarako adverts to be found on YouTube, if you're feeling addicted..

In 2006, the Kewpie company hired two young girls to perform the Tarako song for an advert. This new band, named Kigurumi, went on to record a Christmas version of the theme, and to further success..

.. culminating in almost indescribable public performances such as this one:

You can read an English translation of the lyrics to Kigurumi's "Tarako Tarako Tarako" here.

Thank you for reading. If you feel a bit funny now, just be thankful that you can turn off your computer. For some of the afflicted, it is not so easy..

Blue Moon Festival

2010-11-08T15:12:00.001-08:00

http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=114485698597575

DJ Trilobite: Drop It Like It's Evil

2010-11-03T15:58:00.000-07:00

Trilobite mix put together for last Friday's Terror Discotheque at ibar. This is an edited version of an hour-plus set, reduced and concentrated for least fun and maximum evil.

Contains sounds of bloody violence and mild psychological terror.

Best listened to on headphones, alone, in the dark. Because it was mixed on headphones. In the dark. In my tights.

Alec Empire - We All Die! (Intro)

English Bore - Charlie Don't Shave

Itavayla - Black Diamond Express

Neuro Project - Shawnee

Kookie - A Memorable Fancy

Locust - Xenophobe [Ichi the Killer]

Abraxas - Hannibal Kantori : Swine Asphixiator

Larsen Hawkins - Bodies In The Mist [Ring 0]

Mika Vainio - It's A Muthang [Ring 0]

Orgue Electronique - Between Don & Volga [The Omen]

DJ Trilobite - Devil Dog [The Omen]

Download.

Fence Hallowe'en Party!

2010-10-19T08:14:00.000-07:00

Peanut Snake/Hardsparrow will be bringing the Pine Cone Kick book-&-tape to Glasgow on October 31st, for a live reading as part of Fence Record's Hallowe'en party (awesome poster above by David Galletly)! Here's the full line-up and info, straight from the horse's face - should be an amazing day!

"As you'll have seen on the Fence home-page, we've already announced the following ...

King Creosote // James Yorkston // Silver Columns // James Yuill // Lord Cut Glass // Alasdair Roberts // John MacLean (DJ) // Jo Mango // Vladimir Lad // Randolph’s Leap // John B McKenna // Jonnie Common // Gummi Bako // Pictish Trail

in addition to the line-up on the website, we will have the following ...

* Debut screening of the Fence Home Game Film - put together by The Forest Of Black
* Special screening of Separado! - a film by Super Furry Animal's front man Gruff Rhys.
* A very special performance of King Creosote's 'My Nth Bit Of Strange In Umpteen Years'
* New electronic solo project from Kev Sim, of FOUND fame, entitled River Of Slime
* FOUND will also be DJ'ing, and there will be a solo performance from Ziggy Campbell too
* Solo performances from Seamus Fogarty and Emily Scott
* A talking picture book performance from Hardsparrow
* Stand-up comedy from James Acaster, and more TBC

We've also invited our friends at Glasgow's Words Per Minute to devise a programme of spoken-word / film / music for one of our more intimate venues, including ...

* An exclusive screening of The Shutdown, Alan Bissett and Adam Stafford's documentary short about the Grangemouth petrochemical plant, which has won Best Documentary Short at the San Francisco Golden Gate and Palm Springs Film Festivals.
* Live music performances from Adam Stafford (Y'all Is Fantasy Island) and Seafield Road (solo project of Swimmer One's Andrew Eaton).
* Performance from theatre-makers Gary McNair, Kieran Hurley and Eilidh McAskill of Eilidh's Daily Ukulele Ceilidh.
* New writing from Katy Macaulay

NOT ONLY THAT ... we can now reveal that all advance ticketholders for Hallowe'en will will have the opportunity to reserve their tickets for Home Game 2011 before anyone else! There will be a sign-up sheet at the Hallowe'en Party for those that wish to put aside some tickets for our big bash in Anstruther next year - the dates will also be revealed at this time

The whole thing is taking place on Hallowe’en itself – Sunday, 31st October 2010 … across three adjacent venues in Glasgow:

* Stereo, on Renfield Lane.
* The (newly refurbished) Old Hairdresser, and
* The (still currently under refurbishment) upstairs bit of The Old Hairdresser.

The music starts at 2pm and goes on until 2am.

TICKETS – are £25, and that gets you in all day from 2pm until 2am! Only available from www.fencerecords.com"

This post seems like as good an excuse as any to wheel out this fabulous video of last year's Fence Hallowe'en party, as filmed by Forest Of Black, whose Homegame film will be screening this year. The music is, of course, by the wonderful Withered Hand - "No Cigarettes".

Terror Discotheque

2010-10-13T11:43:00.000-07:00

Here's a poster I just did for Terror Discotheque, a Hallowe'en-themed event being put on at Bournemouth's ibar by the Supermixkids, the nice folk behind the TearsB4Bedtime and Disco As A Weapon nights, and local Italo-disco evangelists.

A real Vulcan Princess, yesterday.

Now, I was recently reminded of just how amazing the track Vulcan Princess (the Sensurreal New Funk Mix) by Gerd is, thanks to a scarily on-point random itunes selection on a hungover morning (the last Sunday of Haarfest in fact) when I was particularly in need of a sonic cuddle. So.. it didn't take me too long to start thinking about drawing a zombie Vulcan princess for this!

Quite pleased with the results, although my posters always look a bit clumsy to me. Bit too busy. Ah well. It's a busy time of year. Speaking of busy..

Stan knows what's going on.

Peanut Snake's own resident tune-slinger, DJ Trilobite, will also be spinning some ominous slabs at this exciting event, joining a killer line-up featuring Chris Moss Acid, Yaaard and the Supermixkids themselves.. so slap some white make-up and blood blobs on your face and get on down to this great evening of spooky disco, electronic blobnod, and maniacal acid!

Gerd's Vulcan Princess isn't online to listen to, but it's not scary anyway. So here's a blood-curdler from Gatekeeper to better get you in the mood:

Pine Cone Hiccups

2010-10-05T07:49:00.000-07:00

Just to mention that the Pine Cone Kick audio book will soon be available - sometime in the next month or so, hopefully!

There have been some hiccups. During the debut reading, it emerged that not only had I not coloured in the yorkshire puddings in one picture, but also that there were six words missing from the narration.

Now, this might not sound like a lot, but take note, for when tragedy strikes, it often takes careful aim; for the missing words result in a major bone-based continuity error - and tragedy's foot is last seen planted firmly in the more tender regions of your unsuspecting narrator's plot.

What we suddenly have, in complex technical language, is a "ghost-bone" - and even the most elementary creative writing courses will advise you against the sudden introduction of a ghost-bone in all but the most whimsical and unrewarding of horror stories.

Anyone that records audio will also be able to tell you that something recorded in Hankinson Road with Alan's microphone, while tired and slightly intoxicated, will probably sound quite different when recorded in the Triangle with your own microphone, whilst sober and unemployed and distracted by pigeons.

But.. these challenges will be overcome (possibly via the application of some inappropriate sound effects) and I'll hope to be able to present the finished object very soon!

Wooopty!

The Rock Charmer

2010-09-17T09:02:00.001-07:00

On Wednesday I was privileged - along with locals, families and friends, and the odd bat conservationist - to attend the preview night of The Rock Charmer, a collaboration between The Paper Cinema and accordionist Kimmo Pohjonen, commissioned for the Inside Out festival.
Set in the impressive surrounds of the Winspit quarry, with the constant whisper of the waves behind us, and a clear star-filled sky above, we watched as The Paper Cinema's hand-manipulated paper puppets and scenery acted out a mysterious narrative, projected some 40 feet high on the bare cliff face.

This was accompanied by Kimmo Pohjonen's animated and often theatrical performance, with industrial sounds and looped and echoing primal wails and tongue clicks taking their place alongside the more familiar sounds of his accordion. And, to be fair, the less familiar sounds of his accordion too, when he either struck it to create rhythms, or amplified the clicks and wheezes of its bare mechanical processes.

The Paper Cinema's projections fitted the music neatly, with images of robot arms carrying squared blocks of stone, suggesting they were building on (or quarrying from) the cliff face itself. This gave way to more familiar Paper Cinema territory, with grizzled sailors, fierce oceans, and mysterious cities upon ships all taking their place (and sea beasties, hot-air balloons, and giant heads too, quite naturally).

Including the pleasant, cow-filled walk to the site from the nearby pub, and an installation in part of the local caves of The Paper Cinema's shadow-casting sculptures of atavistic beasties, it was a tremendous evening, truly making the most of a remarkable location, and a wholly memorable experience. Grand stuff indeed!

Behind any wizard's curtain, there is almost always a man with a beard.*

Walking back to the Square & Compass by lamplight.

*With an unbearded female assistant holding everything together (not pictured).

Garden In The Stars

2010-09-14T13:02:00.001-07:00

My mum was going through some of my sister's stuff and found this weird A4 3-page "zine"/leaflet thing, called "World Of Spag", I made many years ago. It would have been done on the photocopier in the Hamleys staff canteen, probably as a matter of urgency.

There's a collage of the original line-up of Brides Of Kong (née Crypt Kicker Five) inside (which dates it to about 2003 or 4), which must be why I made the zine, as an outlet for my being-in-a-new-band-and-having-made-a-collage-of-them excitement.

Anyway, it's from a dodgy photocopy but thought I'd scan in a pic from it and quickly colour it, for the scrutiny of the new age digital cognoscenti.

These characters were from a story called "Garden In The Stars" about the happenings in a garden centre in space, and, as you'll notice, are from my "sparse geometrical lines" phase (also known as the "gas wasp period").

Moleskin Mountain Boots Pt. 2

2010-09-08T13:32:00.000-07:00

Well, actually, it's not started yet, due to some minor technical issues. But in the meantime, here's my non-commissioned drawing for this episode. Catch Part 2 of the OLO Worms crazy venture into internet broadcasting shortly, here: http://www.ustream.tv/channel/hooop-mix

Moleskin Mountain Boots Pt. 1

2010-09-06T15:02:00.000-07:00

..is the title of a live webcast mix of demos of material from the new OLO Worms album.
It's happening now, so I drew this picture in the spirit of interactivity.

Hoooops!

http://www.ustream.tv/channel/hooop-mix

Peanut Snake Patches!

2010-09-06T09:24:00.001-07:00

Pictured is a fabric patch of the Peanut Snake pine cone logo, manufactured by the lovely Susie Maroon. These were made especially for Haarfest, where they were available in the Haarshop, alongside great Pictish Trail, Fence logo and Haarfest patches. But I have some left! Maybe ~~eight~~ four. The cost, dear reader, is £5.00 (plus 50p for postage). Just send a request/incredulous abuse to info@peanutsnake.com!

Here's Susie Maroon's website, well worth a look too!

Haarfest Memories

2010-09-06T06:40:00.000-07:00

So.. it's been a couple of weeks since I took part in Fence Record's inaugural Haarfest, an arts and music festival based in Anstruther in Fife, and I'm finally about able to bring myself to write a small blog summary of what was an absolutely wonderful fortnight.

I arrived the week before, to help set up the arty whatnots. In between seeing King Creosote perform the whole of Sinead O'Connor's I Do Not Want What I Haven't Got album (apparently with no prior warning to the audience) and Gummi Bako performing at the nearby Pittenweem Arts Festival, I was helping a team of ne'er-do-wells paint locally-sourced boulders to look like fruits and cheeses, sew sports day bunting from pieces of parachute material, and occasionally applying the odd coat of paint to the odd oversized chair. This was all under the guidance of Clare McAllister and Nicolas Party (of Blakam).

A stoney lemon on Anstruther beach, care of Nicolas.

Come the second week, the festival proper got underway, as a local disused library (which also served as our workshop) reopened as the Haarshop, selling local artist's wares, with the National Theatre Of Scotland taking over the back room with a fully functional hairdresser's salon and a purpose-built living room (both part of the 99...100 Project - to which a slightly hungover rendition of Hardsparrow's Orange Dog Blues was contributed!).

RM Hubbert playing inside Caiplie Caves.

I didn't get the chance to have my hair cut (they were fully booked) but I did get my photo taken by Sean Dooley, and as well as seeing lots of amazing music, had the opportunity to play a Hardsparrow set outside nearby Caiplie Caves (alongside RM Hubbert and Dominic Waxing Lyrical), and to exhibit artwork in "The Washing Line Show", an exhibition which made use of the communal washing lines by Cellardyke Harbour.

"Sea Sides", acrylic and marker on vinyl + fishing line, a triptych (?) based on the tarot card of the Moon, by Pual N, Peanut Snake's contribution to the Washing Line Show.

I also staged my first ever workshop, a great experience - some of the, erm, rather interesting googley-eyed walnut creations will haunt me to my grave.

Just a selection of the many googley creations made during the workshop.

Googley mania!

Throw in plenty of drinking and merriment, an unforgettably hilarious "Potted Sports Day" at Kilrenny Common, a trip around the harbour with the local rowing club, and the odd bit of late-night swimming, and it was a wonderful, wonderful week.

Congratulations to all involved in staging such a fantastic event, and thanks to Fence for letting me get involved - here's to Haarfest 2011!

RM Hubbert playing outside Caiplie Caves.

Haarfest!

2010-08-08T04:44:00.000-07:00

On Tuesday, Peanut Snake will be getting on the Harry Potter train and travelling to that magical kingdom that is the East Neuk. There, we'll be helping with painting, building things and moving stuff around until it looks cool, all in preparation for the inaugural Haarfest, a one-week festival of arts and music, running from the 16th to the 21st of August, and put together by that Fence Records lot. There are very likely to be good times, and Fence are just about ready to roll them - hurrah!

You can see the full line-up and so forth here.

There's music every evening (including WITHERED HAND!!!!) and workshops, walks and weirdness in the daytimes.

Peanut Snake should have been all over this like a badly-pitched tent in a thunderstorm, but moving premises has sadly interfered with production-line efficiency - however, there's still a tiiiiiny chance that you might be able to pick up a Peanut Snake patch, or a hand-painted Hardsparrow Sea Tractor 7".

What is for sure is that:

(i) there will be a very real risk of a painful and ill-advised Hardsparrow set at some point in the week;
(ii) there will be some vinyl paintings/doodlings by Pual N on display (see example below);
(iii) Peanut Snake will be hosting a workshop on Saturday 21st!

The workshop has been titled GOOGLEY-EYE DIY. The idea is that there will be a brief beachcomb at the start of the workshop, then we will retreat and, with the generous application of googley-eyes, create the sort of tourist-souvenir monstrosities you'll wish you had forgotten ever existed. In fact, if I can get hold of some whole walnut shells, then the title of the workshop will instantly be updated to "Googley Eye For the Walnut Guy".

Materials will be provided. Upwards of £4 GBP has been spent on googley eyes for this. I'm not messing about.

The original idea was to do a t-shirt modification workshop, however, this seemed a bit potentially complex given time constraints. BUT, I'm still bringing the gubbins for that, fabric paints, stencilling stuff and so on, so if folk have t-shirts, ties or tea towels that could do with jazzing up, then they should bring them along too - and we'll get them eyes googling!

247 Magazine

2010-08-08T04:34:00.000-07:00

Peanut Snake is featured in the latest issue of 247 magazine for the West & Wales. You can pick up a copy at your local hairdressers or have a lookee online here.

Unfortunately, the pics are a bit fuzzy in the online version, but until someone tells me where the magical stop-things-fuzzing-when-they-get-resized button is, that's probably just how things are gonna be. Sorry about that. Anyway, here's the Sausage Fest pic. Big thanks to Laura!

Roam London Video

2010-08-05T09:16:00.001-07:00

Just a wee update on the story below. The Guardian were there filming the Fence Picnic on the day, and the resultant film is now up on their site.

You get organiser Robin Turner explaining the ethos behind the Roam bus, plus music from Adem and Player Piano. No mention of Adam's pork pie, sadly, but some great footage of Peanut Snake's debut public reading of the Pine Cone Kick audio-book, followed by some highly complimentary words regarding it. Wow! What can I say? Go and buy The Guardian people, what a fantastic paper.

Out-of-control ego-stoking aside, the film is simply a splendid reminder of what was a very wonderful afternoon. Ooooooh yeah. Big thanks to Roam, Fence and The Guardian!

Watch the video here!

Fence Picnic, 9/7/10

2010-07-26T09:36:00.000-07:00

While I was in London for Free Range, I popped out from the Truman Brewery early one afternoon and trekked up the road to Haggerston Park in Hackney. There, the Fence Collective were hosting an acoustic picnic, as part of Roam London. Roam is the brainsprog of a chap called Robin Turner, who has been taking a converted mobile library around various locations in London, providing a rolling venue for all manner of artists, musicians and speakers; a true roaming festival. Fence's day featured performances from The Pictish Trail, Adem, Player Piano, Love.Stop.Repeat, Vio/Mire and others, and talks from Ian Vince and Dan Kieran (The Idler).

The scene was about as idyllic as could be feasible.. a sizeable crowd lounged on the grass in blazing sunshine, plucked notes wafting like stray dandelion seeds over their heads, punctuated only by an occasional "ping!", or perhaps a "pong!", from the outdoor ping-pong table in the park.

Adam, of Fence Beefboard legend and myth, had prepared a special Fence pork pie, which was declared by many present to be the best they had ever tasted. Cripes!

I'd also been asked to somehow perform the Pine Cone Kick audio-book, and so it was that, in the cosy confines of the mobile reading room, with pine cones adorning the front of the small raised stage, a life-preserver marked "Titanic" behind me, and the Pictish Trail helpfully holding up the pictures and making concerned faces to my right, the book received its début public reading.
I had been uncertain about how well the reading would go, but the reception was very encouraging, and good times were seemingly had by all (although Dave from Love.Stop.Repeat did point out that the Yorkshire Puddings hadn't been coloured in in one picture.). Now very much looking forward to presenting the audio-book live again, albeit in a more developed form!

The whole afternoon was absolutely delicious and lovely, huge thanks to Roam (for apparently sending unspecified images from the Hardsparrow Myspace to Time Out, eek!), and to Fence for having the twisted (impaired?) vision to put me on. ;)

The Pictish Trail, being ignored by a sun-dappled and unbothered populace (not really).

Dave from Love.Stop.Repeat brings the noise

Summer Catalogue 2010

2010-07-21T11:00:00.000-07:00

I made a micro-zine to give out at the Free Range exhibition. I have a few copies left, and also plan to expand it a little in the next two weeks (it should have had a comic strip in which I didn't have time to get finished for Free Range). If you'd like one then just send your address to info@peanutsnake.com, and I'll post them out when they're done.

Businessy Cards

2010-07-21T10:38:00.000-07:00

Moans aside, it was nice to be in London for Free Range, to see family and friends, eat good curries, do a reading in a park (see next post), and even bump into Josie Long in the street and be recorded for a podcast (whilst, unfortunately, in a state of advanced, sweary, self-mummification).

I was at the exhibition for most of the duration, turning the volume up on my slide show when people turned it down, contributing to the live zine publication, and cutting out my own zines and drawing business cards. Here's a lump of scans of those!

Free Range

2010-07-21T09:40:00.001-07:00

A visitor is entranced by the Pine Cone Kick slide-show at Free Range.

Last week I took part in Free Range at the Old Truman Brewery, for my graduation exhibition. It was a slightly weird experience - a great space, and the exhibition looked fantastic (we had illustration, fine art and photography all in one hall) but the thing seemed to barely hold together organisationally, and no-one seemed to know what should be happening!

I only found out the day before opening whether my painting would be considered sufficiently good to exhibit (fortunately it was), I also prepared a slide show of my audio-book, almost as an afterthought (I'd just been focused on exhibiting the painting), and I slightly regret that as it ended up looking a little half-baked, and with my uni having decided we should have no information labels, I don't think it would have made any sense to anyone!

Nonetheless, I'm glad I took part, and it seems that pretty much everyone except me has had something positive comeback from the show. I don't know - perhaps my promotional googly-eyed fluffball with sticker feet was too much for the London design world??

Below is the painting I did for the show, Sinusoidal Clap. The City & Ghosts film by Nozo Milkyway that I did the soundtrack for was also on show, which was very cool! Good times - just wouldn't want to live through them again!

The Hurdle Hop

2010-07-21T08:34:00.000-07:00

Saturday 31st July sees the inaugural Hurdle Hop one-day festival, happening at the West Hill Hall in Brighton, and organised by the good people at Shhh! Promotions, the delightful Simple Folk, and our friend Peter.

Peanut Snake had hoped to be attending this, possibly performing Pine Cone Kick, but unfortunately, the promoters have simply booked too many other great acts (and also Peanut Snake will probably be moving premises on the day in question, blast it!).

Nonetheless, anyone in the locality should get on down there and check it out, really quite an astonishing line-up for just a tenner!

The Hurdle Hoppers kindly asked Peanut Snake to do the poster duties. Above you'll see a poster that I mocked up with my own text (the official one is a bit different, check it oot here.) and below you'll see a 'bumper sticker'/banner (never too early to think about bumper stickers!) and the 'non-cyclops' logo variant we designed for them. Ooh ya!

Hurdle Hop on Facebook

Goodiepal Car Record!

2010-07-21T08:01:00.000-07:00

Finally got my mitts on this. Wowsers!

A musical object from Goodiepal's Mort Aux Vaches Extra Ekstra compositional game scenario.

Taxi!!!

The Eventide Saga: 1 2 3

The Official Mort Aux Vaches Extra Ekstra Walkthrough

City & Ghosts

2010-06-27T11:50:00.001-07:00

The Peanut Snake audio dept. was kept busy earlier this year remixing a remix of the Hardsparrow tune "I Drew Skeletons" for use as a soundtrack to Nozomi Milkyway's fantastic animation City & Ghosts.

Firstly, we thought the original remix was too fast, so we pitched it down and re-edited it. We played it to her. "I like it," she said. "But actually.. it's bit boring".

Oh?

Now, one hears about these sort of eccentric creative types, their insensitivity, their cruel and fantastical demands, but one is still taken aback when actually meeting one! Nonetheless, our audio dept, not wishing to anger the great master further, somehow retained its composure and went back to reshape the tune to something that would be less boring. The speed was changed again, and mournful chanter, magic keyboard, magnet noises and percussion were added.

This time, luckily, it all fitted and this unpredictable enfant terrible of stop-frame animation was satisfied too (although it did seem at one point like she might throw a table across the room).

It was really great to be asked to help with this exciting project, and I could hardly wait for it to be uploaded so that I could show all of my family, my friend, my street-friends, shop-friends, bus-driver-friends and cash-point-queue-friends.

Thanks Nozomi! ;)

Music Of The Turnips

2010-06-18T14:38:00.001-07:00

Oh. Hi. Yeah. The Peanut Snake website is up, but still very much under construction.

And there's now also a Facebook page here. And you can follow Peanut Snake on Twitter here, if that's your bag.

Oh, didn't I ask to see your bags? I'm going need to see in your bags sir...

It's a 24/7 Non-Stop Indoor Beach Party!

2010-06-15T04:02:00.000-07:00

Well, not quite. More like 8-1, for one night only. But an indoor beach party nonetheless! This is a fundraiser for my illustration course's London graduation show at Free Range.

Here's the poster:

It was a bit of an experiment that didn't totally get there, heavily influenced by stuff like this. But definitely something I'll be pursuing further.

We're also going to have an affordable art-sale at the beach party, to help raise funds, with original hand-drawn postcards at silly prices.
They'll all have one of these stamps on the address side, think it'll look pretty nice.

The lovely artwork on them is by Nozomi Milkyway, I just nicked a stamp template from online and added the text.

I also bought this squid-shaped lilo that I'm quite excited about inflating tomorrow, yeeargh!

Sounds of Summer

2010-05-24T06:36:00.000-07:00

Done did the sleeve for a new CD that's out today on Delay 68/Cherry Red - Magic Transistor Radio: 20 Good Vibrations recorded by Brian Wilson and The Beach Boys.

I tried to capture some of the mystical nightfall vibe of Brian's Mount Vernon & Fairway (A Fairy Tale), or the moogy shooting star atmospherics of Funky Pretty, as opposed to the more obvious California sun n' surf schtick.

It's a cute little compilation.. the material is quite eclectic (for its era), so it runs a bit like a mixtape, as if you had a friend who was trapped in the 1950's and could only communicate with you in the present via carefully compiled cassettes. Some Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers for ya here!

Unflinchingly honest and amusing sleevenotes from compiler Richard Anderson too.

Great stuff. Available now at Cherry Red, along with their usual mind-bendingly diverse selection of re-releases.

Could be worth grabbing Love, From Finland - The Love Records Anthology 1968-1976 while you're there too - featuring artists like Tasavallan Presidentti, and (not on the comp, but one for the sunshine nonetheless) Pekka Streng. The Jazzpuu reissues of that label were all top-notch. Roll the cinematic jazz prog fusion!

Cranings

2010-05-20T08:52:00.001-07:00

Sketch book painting from 2008.

.. I remember when all this was just cranes ..

"Pinecone Kick" Premiere on IFM Stream Fest!

2010-04-27T12:05:00.001-07:00

It's Saturday. 7.00pm. You're getting ready to go out, but first you reach for the radio dial, to catch up with all the crazy goings-on on The Archers. The same tired old routine.

BUT WAIT. What if there was an alternative?

This Saturday I'll be streaming my book-and-tape "Pinecone Kick" as part of Intergalactic FM's Live-Stream Festival. Tune in between 7 and 7.30pm GMT (8pm CET) to hear me talking in the voice of a squirrel with a beak, narrating his quest to find a lost pinecone, accompanied by all-new (& all-a-bit-weird-and-half-finished?) musical compositions.

Hopefully, if I get it all done in time, you'll be able to see the accompanying images online somewhere too (when you hear this noise - ~***~***~ - turn the page/click the mouse). I'll update this page with full info about that in the next few days, but the images will most likely be at http://www.peanutsnake.com (which currently redirects back to here).

I asked a woman in the new 99p shop in Winton what she thought of this. She said, "It could be a special moment for all of us."

How very true.

Also, it could all go sideways, horrifically.. so another strong argument for tuning in!

Exciting!

For anyone that doesn't catch the live stream, the physical version of the cassette-tape-and-book will be dubbed into existence sometime in the next few weeks. Ooh yeah.

AUCB Auction Today!

2010-04-21T04:50:00.000-07:00

There's an auction today to raise funds for our Free Range exhibition in London in July. Come along to the Illustration studio (it's in the centre of the campus diagonally across from the library, but sure there will be people there to point you in the right direction!), between 4 and 7pm. Haven't seen all the work yet, but at the last auction at the Winchester, there was some amazing work that went for silly, silly prices, so come down, have a glass of wine and grab yourself a bargain - noice one!

Here are my pieces that are in the auction. A doubtful dog, and what can only be described as an icon of a Sea Jesus (?).

Here's the official poster.. it's by Amy Harris.

The Link

2010-04-20T11:09:00.000-07:00

A speechless gallery visitor.

Okay, so I should have posted this about.. ooh, three months ago? But times have been tough, and things have had to be forgotten along the way. But browsing through some pics on my hard-drive reminded me that this was still well worth writing about.

So - I travelled up to Edinburgh in January, for the final night of The Link Exhibition, organised by Chloe Milne. It was a blind auction, held in the Music Library, with work from some great artists on show. My piece went for more than I'd expected - others naturally went for far more, but I was pretty chuffed, and I'm glad to say it also left a satisfyingly large trail of mentally-shattered and broken-hearted lower bidders (I didn't win anything either, alas).

The buyer came and spoke to me too, which was really nice. Actually, she came and spoke to me again at the bar in Legends at Homegame. I wonder if she thought I would buy her a pint, seeing as she had paid for my painting? But of course, that money went to charity (and I'm only joking).

It was altogether a lovely experience - saw some nice folks, drank some wine, observed the fine artworks, and then enjoyed tunes from Player Piano and Found, all in a library, very rum! Later, I was given a thorough tour of the city centre's potential parking spaces by Gummi Bako, before eventually arriving to witness another Player Piano set in a local drinking establishment (I'll leave it at witness since I somehow couldn't really hear it despite only being about 8 metres from where he was playing).

The next day I enjoyed a top brunch of vegetable lasagne and bread with my wondrous host Big Fez (could have sworn David Lynch was in the cafe too..), before cockily braving the Scott Monument. I didn't need to call the fire brigade, but I'll admit I cried like a baby at the top.

Throw in a very inspiring image-gathering trip to the British Museum (went to see the Revolution On Paper: Mexican Prints exhibit - amazing - and then got a little sidetracked somewhere in the vicinity of Mesopotamia..), and a gig by Brides Of Kong on the way up, and it was a wholly awesome weekend!

Good times - thank you Chloe!

Half Bakes

2010-03-17T14:58:00.000-07:00

Some CD covers that I drew while in Scotland last weekend, for my album Half Bakes. Carpet care of the Waterfront hotel, Anstruther.

Shell Tone

2010-02-19T06:09:00.001-08:00

Moth In The Motor

2010-02-17T07:45:00.000-08:00

I've painted a cover for one of the artist editions of Rachael Dadd's new mini-album, Moth In The Motor. This one-off item is available to buy for 20 quidules from the Broken Sounds Records site, along with some other rather smashing artist editions (as well as a limited run of 300 copies with covers hand-printed by Rachael).

The pic above is a scan from before I did the text (which I must admit came out a little wonky!), as the scan on their site is very bright.. I'll upload a scan of the finished piece tomorrow.

Check out this nice video for the song Table, from the LP, painted by Betsy Dadd.

Scout 10

2010-02-05T14:08:00.000-08:00

Don't jog the hypnagogic woggle..

A Summoning Of Chestnuts

2010-01-04T16:13:00.001-08:00

Reverting to my legally-given name, Hardsparrow, I've submitted this painting for The Link exhibition, taking place at the Music Library in Edinburgh, from today until the 16th.

The exhibition presents art by musicians alongside the work of artists who find inspiration in music, and also includes King Creosote, James Yorkston, Christian Ward, Gordon Anderson, Jenny Soep, Duglas T Stewart, Ziggy Campbell, Tommy Perman, Little Pebble, Sean Dooley, Francois, and Nuala Kennedy.

All of the submitted work is for sale, by auction, with the proceeds going to the Nordoff-Robbins charity for music therapy.

So if you think that this pic would fit nicely behind your garage door (it looks much more "zappy" in real life, pesky scanner!), or fancy the chance to pick up original artwork by one of the aforementioned (I'll be spoilt for choice I fear!) then go along and have a butcher's, and then make sure you're there on January 16th, when there will be a grand auction finale, with live tuneage from arty types (and creators of Cybraphon) Found. Smashing!

The Link on Myspace
The Link on Facebook

Honeytrap

2010-01-04T04:33:00.001-08:00

Chain Letter

2009-11-26T04:31:00.000-08:00

Image created for Holly Matilda Jones' Midnight Millionaires Club zine.. think it'll be in the December/January issue.

Insufficience Seer

2009-11-25T12:07:00.000-08:00

I did this drawing for the Midnight Millionaire's Club launch in Bournemouth.. an exhibition=club in a club=pub. All together=clublicbitionhaus.

Bergman: Scenes From A Life

2009-10-26T14:22:00.001-07:00

Inca Berry Beret

2009-10-13T11:58:00.000-07:00

Watch out for the purple rain.

Party Dogs

2009-10-08T09:33:00.000-07:00

Back in March, I entered a competition to design a set of stamps for the Finnish Posti, based around a celebratory springtime theme. Well, if there was one thing that I noticed about the Finns, it was that they liked dogs. And drinking. And thus these juhlivat koirat - party dogs - were born.

For reasons that evade enquiry by good sense, logic and decency, it would seem that I didn't win. Unless I did win and the letter just got lost by Royal Mail. But anyway, I'm posting them here now.

It should be admitted that I got the KL (Swedish) and LK (Finnish) slightly the wrong way around, which, were I a Finn, would probably have seen my fragile life carried without ceremony into a darkling wood and there at once extinguished under a firestorm of fast-falling Nordic-walking sticks.

Sit Down For Your Love Rights

2009-09-06T08:26:00.001-07:00

Take a load off your feet, Peter.
Yus.

Be Brave Rave

2009-09-06T07:43:00.001-07:00

Me Toooooo!

2009-08-15T11:04:00.000-07:00

Today I took delivery of the new R. Stevie Moore compilation on Cherry Red, "Me Too". Some few years ago now, Steve Potatoes played me R. Stevie's I Like To Stay Home and I unwittingly took my first dip into the deceptively calm shallows of RSM's bottomless swimming pool.

Somewhere along the line since then, the magnetic tape of fate somehow got tangled, and, while God was looking for a biro to wind it back in, I found myself drawing the cover for this new CD. I took inspiration, as always, from Lady & The Tramp (but also R. Stevie).

The CD is (typically) very, very good.. uncategorizable.. veering unpredictably between perfect garage pop, weird spoken word and acoustic bliss.. great stuff. I feel really honoured to have my silly drawing on this fantastic album. Check it out people!! You can buy it here, along with the ESSENTIAL Meet The.. compilation!

"Let's Rest Together", a heavy-headed jam that features (in fuller form) on the new comp.

Hey Kids!!

2009-08-11T12:17:00.000-07:00

My good friend Mungo, of deranged simian rockers Brides Of Kong, recently held his annual bouncy castle party. Now, we all like a bit of "outsider art", don't we, but I wonder if having a children's play inflatable designed by a serial-killer mightn't be taking things a bit too far.

Disturbing. Bounce. Disturbing. Bounce. Disturbing..

Don't look at the hairy balloon men, and maybe they'll go away.

AAAAAAAAARGH THEY'RE COMING THROUGH THE WAAAAAAAAALLS

Outbidding Candy From A Baby

2009-07-31T13:58:00.001-07:00

Following a complaint, here is an actual post! This piece can be read on multiple levels, being, for instance, a visual representation of mankind's unachieved potential, as well as a damning critique of competitive auction sites such as Ebay. The image itself was inspired by a Lee 'Scratch' Perry performance at London's Forum, of which the only thing I can remember is Perry crawling across the stage on all fours, wearing a crown, singing, "Treat me like a baby queen."

NB. If, somewhat inevitably, you are reading this and you work for the Coca-Cola Company, please contact me immediately regarding the unavoidable global syndication of this unique and compelling character property.

Faces Of Cosmod

2009-06-30T10:22:00.001-07:00

The Mabinogion

2009-06-29T03:50:00.001-07:00

Some Uni work from the end of last year.. we were asked to create double-page spreads for an adaptation of the Mabinogion, aimed at children. My pieces weren't that successful but I kinda like 'em. The Mabinogion itself was a pretty shocking read. Very violent, ethically-dubious stories, perhaps a manual for hooligans of ages past. The lion is a friendly one, that collects firewood for an aggressive, meat-head knight with a brain the size of a pea. The pig is a boar called Truith. In his story, a knight decides that he fancies this maiden, who happens to be the daughter of some bad-ass ogre (forgive me if I forget details, names). The dad, taking one look at this hopeless moron, declares that he must complete many, many impossible tasks before he will be granted the maiden's hand. Sadly, if predictably, the knight, not getting the message, attempts and successfully manages to accomplish these tasks. One of which is to steal some "precious things" - a comb, scissors and such vanity products - from the boar. Now, ordinarily, this boar just hangs out in the woods, living a peaceful life, relaxing with his lady-friends. But the knight forces him to fight, to protect his belongings, and his friends, and a lot of people, and boars, end up dead. The knight, the "hero", triumphs. It's pretty messed up. A really sad story, and (unintentional) warning of the dangers of unchecked egomania. Knights were actually total twerps, who would have guessed?

Kissan Ruoka

2009-06-25T04:40:00.001-07:00

This is a rough mock-up of a design that I doodled in Finland and might redo properly at some point, perhaps as a t-shirt design. Yep. What are those rocks that cats eat? My mum calls them crackalots, but I don't think that's the official terminology at all!

Faces Of Cosmod

2009-06-24T13:50:00.000-07:00

Shogun Kunitoki in Helsinki

2009-06-23T13:30:00.000-07:00

3/4/09: After the Chip Tune workshop, I headed back to the centre of Helsinki to meet some friends, to go to the Get Busy club event that spanned the Tavastia and Semifinal venues. We saw a great set by Vuk, who had the coolest stoner-metal dude drummer any of us had ever seen. Caught a few other bands too, before Ed Banger's Busy P played a theatrical, crowd-pleasing DJ set, and the weaker few amongst us fled into the night to catch the 03:00 bus back to Lahti (the dozing Irish next to me sleep-cursing the whole way). But earlier in the evening, I slipped away to the Pixelache clubnight at nearby Dubrovnik, to catch an amazing set by Fonal Record's Shogun Kunitoki. They play determinedly analogue music, hypnotic, propulsive, dreamy psych-kraut. And I may not have seen the aurora borealis whilst in Finland, but I'm pretty sure I heard some slow-falling whistlers during their set. The percussionist was also responsible for a Super-8 projector, which created a small intense square of scratchy, blurry focus on the rear wall, the projector's beam carving an elegant arc through the darkness. It was actually incredible just to watch the looped film spinning on the projector, apparently hovering, only just held there by its speed and buffeted by the hot air from the machine. As the music reached its climax, the loop was jammed, causing a brilliant burn-hole to bubble and grow from the centre of the image, a beautiful end to an unforgettable set.

Faces Of Cosmod

2009-06-23T04:24:00.001-07:00

Chip Tune Marching Band

2009-05-20T05:05:00.000-07:00

Blogging! Reality -as it happens! So.. six weeks ago, on Friday 3rd April, I caught an early (9AM!) train to Helsinki to take part in the Chip Tune Marching Band workshop that was happening as part of the Pixelache Festival. This workshop is run by a friendly bunch from Newcastle University's Culture Lab. The idea is for a group of people, of whatever background, to build a simple electronic instrument and then march with it through the city (Berlin is next).

Arriving ahead of time at the designated meeting point, in the foyer of Kiasma, I was immediately met by no-one. Like the mountaineer who realises, half-way up, that they have left the bath running, my anxiety was beginning to rise; my brain was plugged in, and both taps were on full. I hurried to the bus station, recalling a bus number but finding no such bus. At the last moment, it occurred to me that I had the number upside-down, and it was with great relief that I climbed aboard. It was with even greater relief that I soon heard the familiar accents of Englishmen abroad, and so was introduced to the Chip Tune team!

The workshop took place at the University of Art & Design (a wander through which was an experience in itself!). After an informal introduction session (open to anyone, the workshop was in fact mostly attended by alarmingly interesting people working in such spheres as performance art and experience design), we were put in pairs and given the components with which to build our Chip Tune instrument. The workshop stems from a project to investigate taking electronic art out of traditional contexts, often using adapted consumer technology.. so it was that my partner created a device that used a hand-cranked mobile phone charger to generate the sound. I was left with a light-sensor, but was happy to be able to build something that I might be able to use less dextrously, whilst playing guitar or whatnot. You know, by covering it with my foot or something.

Once we had created our new sound weapons (and many of them really did look like weapons!) we were issued with green logo-emblazoned vests, and toured the halls of the university before heading out onto the mean streets of Helsinki. Attempts to orchestrate a dynamic call and response, between the high and low pitched instruments, generally gave way to a chip-skronk free-for-all, as we wound through the local streets like a particularly noxious cloud of hornets.

This was a really fascinating day, a chance to meet and talk with some very interesting people, and a doorway, for me, into the previously socially-intimidating world of circuit boards and Maplins components. Maybe now I can go back and build that "non-operative theremin" from Grand Royal magazine! My instrument, pictured here, has since been disassembled and rehoused in a Milk Seafood Noodle pot, and was played, with successful results, in a song in my set at the Homegame Festival in Scotland (hopefully an MP3 to follow!). Thank you CTMB!

No Input

2009-05-19T04:27:00.000-07:00

Another piece from the Ishihara exhibition last December; the No Input manifesto!

No Ghosts

2009-05-18T16:37:00.000-07:00

Back In December I exhibited this piece of something or other at the regular Ishihara event in fair Bournemouth town.

Basically, I made negative photocopies of loads of pages from my sketchbooks, and then collaged them together.

It was actually really interesting (for me at least) to explore these images, many of which are at the very least half-

cooked psychic automatism straight on the plate. I found that I was taking these "meaningless" images, scraped

from the muddy bathypelagic basin of my mind, and building a new narrative from them, working through some

stuff that I didn't know was there, a heavy scene! But seriously, I know it looks like a big mess, but it was the most

satisfying work I have produced in ages. More mess to come then.

Time Blip

2009-05-18T16:11:00.000-07:00

So.. it's been a long time since my last post. Returning home from Finland marked the start of a very strange two or three weeks for me. So the blog will be jumping backwards quite a bit now, but then coming forwards again, a bit like the film where Mick Jagger was a racing car driver that could go through time (Time Blip?).
Blop.

The Snow Is Melting

2009-04-02T01:10:00.001-07:00

So, at last, springtime has arrived in Lahti. What this mostly means is that the snow has retreated from the pavements to hide in carparks and verges, and that walking on the lake is suddenly not so much fun, what with all the holes appearing all over the shop, and all the cracking and the terror.

Faces Of Cosmod

2009-04-02T00:06:00.001-07:00

Fever Ray in Helsinki

2009-03-28T15:08:00.000-07:00

A few days ago I was lucky enough to catch Fever Ray playing at Tavastia in Helsinki. The album is incredible, and the four-piece band actually managed to make it sound as good, if not better, live.
Towards the end of the set there was a heart-stopping moment when Karin sang a cover of Vashti Bunyan's Here Before, and I suddenly felt deliriously happy to be stood in that spot, surrounded by strangers, so far from my home, with the words falling towards my face like cool rain in a heatwave.

Faces Of Cosmod

2009-03-28T15:00:00.001-07:00

Faces Of Cosmod

2009-03-28T14:55:00.001-07:00

Faces Of Cosmod

2009-03-28T14:38:00.000-07:00

"The Eye of Cosmod"; "You seek the Eye?"; "Cosmod - What Is it?" - These were the sort of quesions that were haunting my waking moments back in November, December time.. now, like mould on the bathroom wall which you paint over, but which doesn't go away, suddenly, mysteriously, the Faces of Cosmod have reappeared, like Jesus in a potato.

Portrait Of The Artist As A Drunkard

2009-03-04T03:40:00.000-08:00

Luisteleva-koira

2009-02-17T12:26:00.000-08:00

In Finland, it's all about the dog. No cats on the backs of bicycles or ferrets on leads here. It's dogs all the way. No messing size-wise either. They are either small or huge, which just makes the pavement 10-yard-bark-offs all the more amusing. Anyway, I'm not an expert on dogs but the ones here are definitely a bit strange looking, especially the small ones. Either their heads are too big for their bodies, or they have tails as long as all of their legs combined. Very odd!

It is my artistic vision that I will eventually produce an upmarket photographic document of the dogs of Lahti, a lavishly appointed publication, equally at home on the coffee table or in the master-library of the koira connoisseur. But for now, here is a picture of a dog on roller skates.

Pig & Pigeon

2009-02-15T11:20:00.000-08:00

I just finished a lil' comic strip to submit to Kuti magazine, a really nice broadsheet-format comics paper that's distributed free here in Finland, in a Paper Rodeo stylee. It features many of Finland's best cartoonists, and I haven't done many comics in recent years, so it's very unlikely they'll use it, but.. sometimes it just feels good to wave your oar around, even if everyone knows there is an outboard motor. My strip is about a pig and a pigeon. The pigeon character is terrible, but I wanted to call it Pig & Pigeon.

Their City, His War

2009-02-05T12:39:00.000-08:00

In between watching videos by Chad VanGaalen and weird Russian animations on YouTube, I've been doing some research into this cat Black Peider. So.. is he a wrestler or a musician? Is he for real? Well, it seems he might have won Silver in the 1999 World Air Guitar Championships. But that's all I can tell you for today. And tomorrow.. well, I have some shopping to do..
What I can tell you is that he also draws cute comics in a very nice bold graphic style, under the pseudoname Petteri Tikkanen. And he's just released a new comic book, which is very rude, and which confuses his two names totally. Better do your own digging..

www.myspace.com/blackpeider
http://peider.vuodatus.net/

Our Lives Are In Our Hands (But Could You Hold Mine While I Take Off My Mittens?)

2009-02-05T11:18:00.000-08:00

It's been hard getting used to the different direction of traffic flow in Finland. However, no-one is any hurry to cross any roads here so I have plenty of time to try and kick the tiny area of my brain dedicated to actual-dimensional-orientation into gear. The rule here is that you would never even think about crossing the road before the lights have changed. So you just stand there for some time, feeling extremely safe, cloaked in a glimmering shade of dangling bicycle reflectors. You contemplate things, stuff, you stare at the empty road, and you listen to the ghostly mewing of the saddest traffic lights in the world.
However, from your safe pavement perch, you then have to make the treacherous passage to the other side, brain-sick with the knowledge that the Finnish traffic system makes absolutely no sense. What makes this (significant) part of crossing the road so nerve-tighteningly worrying is the fact that traffic is apparently allowed to go through red lights here, as long as it's around a corner. To optimise the danger of this situation, (and perhaps thus keeping the population in a state of constant terror, and the shops well-stocked with high-visibility clothing), they seem to have done everything they can to ensure that, wherever possible, the traffic lights are situated directly on corners.
And so another bus slides hard around a 90 degree ice-blackened bend, lifting my coat bottom as it goes, and I'm reminded again how lucky we all are to be alive and able to run home like children and cry, our complex psychic defenses torn down like curtains of dust, and our Muumi reflectors clutched hard to our chests like rosaries.

Don't Spend Disturbance Life

2009-01-18T02:03:00.001-08:00

DON'T SPEND DISTURBANCE LIFE

In our flats the silence starts at 22.00 pm and end 7.00 am. We presume that all our tenants follow the regulations and respect other neighbours peace days and nights.

This information should be taken seriosly, because if disturbances appear, we follow the Law of Housing which give us the right to evict the tenant who spend disturbance life.

If you know tenant who spend disturbance life, please contact to the housing office.

Hot Belgian YouTube Tip

2009-01-15T13:29:00.000-08:00

I'm doing a workshop on the NodeBox software at the moment.. http://www.nodebox.net. The NodeBox people are deranged Belgians, their minds cracked by Too Much Coding and Too Much Bad Music. Each day they inflict various internet clips/eurotechno tunes/dance crazes on us.. this is one of their best finds, some clips from a Norwegian comedy show called Uti Var Hage. Enjoy!

Pardon My Over-Pants

2009-01-15T11:56:00.000-08:00

Sometimes, your trousers are a bit too large for your hips, and they fall down partways, perhaps displaying a little fashionable underwear. This is deemed acceptable, amongst the younger generations at least. In Finland, however, all you're going to get from me is an unwanted flash of long-johns. Thermal underwear=the heat death of cool.

Don't Stand Mischief

2009-01-15T11:51:00.000-08:00

Mischief is something, which nobody has to stand. Reporting mischief is everybody's responsibility. The person who has committed the mischief is always responsible for it, unsolved cases mount up to the rents. Maintaining public order and security belongs to the police. Everyone has the right to contact the police if needed.

In Finland

2009-01-13T11:11:00.000-08:00

Here, then, is my blog of my time in Finland. I will update here with the stories of the crazy times, and the coming of the normalitys. Thank you for waiting, you may leave now, the door is happening on the left.