Ciao!

It’s been two years to the day since the beginning of Smelling Salts and Spoiled Milk in May 2006. What initially began as a something to do during a dull summer through posting brief comments about music and life (and increasingly movie trailer mash-ups) has recently become something that seems increasingly more difficult to carry on with. Although, I still enjoy sharing blog posts with the world, it has become increasingly apparent to me that the unstructured nature of this blog is not maintainable. The changes in my life (work, responsibility, and the general blur of everyday life) have made it difficult to post on regular basis. As such, I feel it is the appropriate time to cease writing Smelling Salts and Spoiled Milk. I would personally like to thank those that read what has been written here. It has been a continuing motivation for me. I would also like to add that I am not ruling out starting another blog in the future. However, if/when that blog is written, it will have a more structured and defined purpose. Stay tuned for that! I will certainly post that link here, if/when that happens.

Its taken me some time to think about what I would in my final post here. I considered a variety of topics, but, considering the nature of the blog, I wanted to go back where the blog started and talk about Lush.

Lush were a band formed on Halloween 1988 by Miki Berenyi, Emma Anderson, Chris Acland, Steve Rippon, and Meriel Barham. Miki and Emma had been friends during high school and Miki had met the other band members while studying English at London’s Polytechnic University. One of Anderson’s friends Kevin Pickering told her he thought Lush would be a perfect name for a band. Anderson agreed, and suggested the name to the band, and they started writing and rehearsing. After that conversation, it is said that Anderson never saw Pickering again.

Before Lush had played any shows, Barham had left to how her own band, The Pale Saints. The remaining members began performing gigs and by 1989, had released their debut EP, Scar. The EP was critically acclaimed and set the stage for the Mad Love and Sweetness & Light EPs. All of these EPs were combined on the album, Gala in 1990.

At this point Robin Guthrie (ex-Cocteau Twins) entered the picture. He had heard Gala and been impressed with the release. He decided to take it upon himself to become the band’s producer, and using his clout in the British music scene, helped them land a record deal with 4AD.

In April of 1991, Lush travelled to the United States to co-headline a tour with Ride. At the end of the year, bassist Steve Rippon left the band to concentrate on writing novels full time. To replace him, Lush approached Philip King, a former NME journalist, who had played bass for various UK bands.

By 1992, the band had released Spooky. While the album sold well, reaching the Top Ten and and topping the U.K. indie charts, it was criticized in the press for Guthrie’s heavy-handed production. While the album sold well, reaching the British Top Ten and topping the U.K. indie charts, it was criticized in the press for Guthrie’s heavy-handed production. However, Lush ignored the critics. They toured Great Britain, the USA, and continental Europe, and eventually Japan and Australia.

During 1993, Lush returned to the UK and began working on material for their third album, which ended up as Split, released in 1994. Berenyi wrote four of the album’s songs, and Anderson wrote the other eight. Chris Gill in Guitar Player noted, “Split shares moments of hypnotic, resplendent pleasure-punk and hard, lardy angst-pop” and further added that the album was “easily the British dream-pop band’s most varied, cocksure, and commercial effort.”

“Everything was great,” said Anderson about the build-up and reaction to Split. “We got everything we wanted. Our own tour? We got it. Europe? We got it. America? Yes. In fact, everything was going well until Split, when the momentum dropped. We were immensely pleased with it, even though it had taken so much out of us. We thought it was the best work we’d done. So we were disappointed with the reaction - it sold half as much as Spooky. But, having got through that bad time, when the carpet really felt like it was being pulled out from under us, we really did get stronger. Strangely, it really boosted our confidence.”

Despite the critical acclaim and lyrical honesty, Split was seen as a failure and was a harbinger of things to come.

Following their Split tour, Lush returned to the studio to record what would be their final album, Lovelife. The shoegazer sound had died a violent death at the hands of the British music press, so Lovelife found its sound more in the Britpop, as evidenced by singles “Ladykillers” and “500 (Shake Baby Shake).

“I remember the first track I wrote for the LP was “Ladykillers”,” said Berenyi “and it took me nearly three weeks to write it because I’d had such a bruising to my self-confidence as a songwriter with Split. I decided to fill the song full of every bloody corny gimmick I could think of - simpler harmonies, handclaps, sudden stops, etc, a kind of ‘give ‘em what they want’ thing. Of course, my idea of commercialism is still a long, long way from other people’s. “Ciao!” may be a lilting duet with Jarvis Cocker but it’s still basically two people telling each other to fuck off.”

As Lush was making tour preparations following the release of Lovelife in May 1996, the band’s drummer, Chris Acland, hanged himself at his parent’s house on October 17, 1996.

As the band’s 4AD biography notes:

It should have come as no surprise that Acland’s death finished Lush. Privately and professionally, in their joyful celebrations and their painful (and far more frequent) self-examinations, they were in the business of living life, really living it. Such a tragedy, the loss of their life and soul, could only serve to drain the fun from their adventures. The fun, of course, is vital to the Lush story. It was a raison d’etre and, incredibly, held them back as the UK was gripped first by grunge melancholia and then by po-faced, swaggering Britpop.

Lush officially announced their breakup on February 23, 1998.

Thanks to Light From A Dead Star for the Lush information.

Lush - Ciao! (mp3)

Bye!

L’instant

This month there will be some change on the blog and some very important news.

Stay Tuned.

Away From Here.

 

photo courtesy: bpitchcontrol

Firstly, I must apologize for the lack of activity on this blog lately. I’ve been busy with work and life, and this blog is one thing that has suffered.

In honour of a (temporary) rebirth, I’ve decided to post 5 songs that I’ve been enjoying lately.

1) Dandy Warhols - Hells Bells

2) The Enemy - This Song Is About You

3) Ellen Allien & Apparat - Way Out (Club Edit)

4) Wir Sind Helden - The Geek

5) m83 - Couleurs

I hope that tides you over for now. I will be back with further musings when time permits.

I Was to Go To Morocco And I Don’t See You

Just a video by the Twang to make up for the lack of posts.

Stay Alive in ‘95

From Chris’ Invincible Super-Blog:

Archie’s life as one of the Common People.

See the rest here.

Der japanische Mann kommt heraus.

With a dire lack of original thoughts lately, I thought I would share one of the more interesting blogs that I’ve read recently.

The blog, Dreaming 5GW, is a multi-person blog written about the evolution of fifth generation warfare. (See here for a seminal article by William Lind on the generations of warfare.) The post I would like to share is one written about what 5GW warriors would like to effect in battle. The example used in the post is the assassination of a Yakuza boss.

Crossing the Rubicon

When the yakuza boss is dead, he’s dead. Anything that happens after Plain Jane’s action will not change the fact that he’s dead. His closest associates will likely know that he’s been assassinated, unless his death is made to look natural in all respects. In fact, Plain Jane might not care if his associates know he’s been assassinated, because the world after his death will no longer be what it was before his death, and that would have been her objective after all.

His associates may scramble to fill the vacuum, possibly warring with one another and laying blame for his death on one another. A rival gang may see the power struggles and attack, entirely destroying or subsuming the now-leaderless gang. If the dead yakuza boss already had an appointed heir, that heir may be of inferior quality or have plans for the gang which vary greatly from the dead yakuza boss’s method of running the outfit. Alternatively, the heir may follow entirely in his predecessor’s footsteps and refuse any suggestions for improvements or variations on the pre-existing scheme.

What exactly follows the yakuza boss’s death isn’t particularly important, because Plain Jane already knew what would happen following the death: that is why she killed the man.

The SecretWarrior will not care if the effects of 5GW activity are apparent if the effects leave her adversaries on the other side of the rubicon. This would be a case of “knowing too late,” in that the sudden revelation that a SecretWar had been underway in no way mitigates whatever position in which the target now finds itself: The target would have a new set of circumstances requiring immediate attention which could not be ignored, and from which the target is unlikely to emerge unscathed. A successful 5GW will leave the target on a downward spiral into insignificance. The target’s knowing it has been a victim won’t save the target from the spiral.

At the same time, some effects of 5GW pre-conclusion may be apparent to the target, thus influencing the target to cross the rubicon, although the target will not know that he’s about to cross such a rubicon. Motivating the target to move down to the river, and to cross it, would require observable effects, problems to solve, the solving of which can only be effected by going to and then across the river. If the target at any time senses it is being manipulated down a path, the target will resist and the SecretWarrior risks being discovered.

You can find the rest here. It is a fascinating read.

How burning out feels.

Sorry for the lack of posts.  Work is really heavy at the moment.

Und Die Welt Steht Still.

The Atlantic Monthly recently removed it’s subscription wall; allowing the public to read its prescient and informed articles for free. See the following for a excerpt about remapping the Middle East:

Omar was a Sunni Arab from a village outside Mosul; he was a short and weedy man, roughly 30 years old, who radiated a pure animal anger. He was also a relentless jabberer; he did not shut up from the moment we were introduced. I met him in an unventilated interrogation room that smelled of bleach and paint. He was handcuffed, and he cursed steadily, making appalling accusations about the sexual practices of the interrogator’s mother. He cursed the Kurds, in general, as pig-eaters, blasphemers, and American lackeys. As Omar ranted, the interrogator smiled. “I told you the Arabs don’t like the Kurds,” he said. I’ve known the interrogator for a while, and this is his perpetual theme: close proximity to Arabs has sabotaged Kurdish happiness.

Omar, the Kurds claim, was once an inconsequential deputy to the now-deceased terrorist chieftain Abu Musab al-Zarqawi. Omar disputed this characterization. By his own telling, he accomplished prodigies of terror against the pro-American Kurdish forces in the northern provinces of Iraq. “You are worse than the Americans,” he told his Kurdish interrogator. “You are the enemy of the Muslim nation. You are enemies of God.” The interrogator—I will not name him here, for reasons that will become apparent in a moment—sat sturdily opposite Omar, absorbing his invective for several minutes, absentmindedly paging through a copy of the Koran.

More can be found here.

You Are A Sailor.

Last night was the first proper night out I’ve had in a while. I went with some friends to see my friend Chris Chambers and his band play at Slainte in downtown Hamilton. All in all, it was a good night out and was a good opportunity to have a couple beers and listen to his blues/rock/funk music. It was a well-needed escape from the current monotony of my busy work schedule.

On another note, I haven’t posted much music lately, so I thought I should oblige with something I’ve been listening to today. “These Are Birds” by Ruby Suns is a spacey indie rock song that shares some similarities with the Fiery Furnaces. It’s a good song for a miserably cold February day.

Ruby Suns - These Are Birds

Safe Inside The Day

Another work related delay is responsible for the lack of posting.  The blog shall resume when I have some semblance of free time.