The Next Big Thing

Anybody read or seen the Mickey Leigh/Legs McNeil Joey book yet?

I figured I’d spring for buying myself a pressie and ordered one via an Amazon “seller". The actual A-site is talking about 4 weeks delivery. Plus the post must be set to get even worse. Hard to believe but entirely feasible and how come the mail between here and Scandinavia got to be so crap? It used to be superfast – 3 days tops. WTF is going on ?? Stuff gets there or there eventually but really, the cost escalates and the service deteriorates. This is what passes for life and so many things at the minute.

What does December and the seasonal daftness mean to me? 11 consecutive days off. I look forward to walking to the car on December 23rd because that’s the furthest I’ll be away from 2010.

So without any further ado, I have some bits and bobs to run by you...

If you’re within travelling distance of Hoboken, NJ then the very Rev. Jon Hammer sez...

Friends, Romans, Art Mavens,

Forgive this mass e-mail, and in the interest of not cutting into your holiday gift-giving time, I will keep this short.

You, as any right-thinking groovy person should be, are a huge fan of Maxwell's located at 1039 Washington Street, in beautiful Hoboken. Naturally, you pine for a chance to visit, and particularly this month when there seems to be a yawning void in your usually packed social calendar — more specifically Monday the 21st of December.

Here's the good part: you do have a reason to be at Maxwell's on Monday the 21st, because that will be the opening reception for a showing of my paintings. You read that correctly, a chance to see paintings of your favorite saloons, in one of your favorite saloons, as you hobnob with simply the cream of society. I trust I'll see you there.

Yours in spam, Jon Hammer

The new list from Bootleg Booze came in and there’s a ton of groovy stuff on there you could treat YOURself to.

And to close out this particular missive, Mr Duff took himself to Brighton to look at some Pink Monkey Birds...

Saw Kid Congo and the Pink Monkey Birds for the second time in a week at a grotty (in a good way) wee venue called The Engine Rooms on the seafront. I arrived maybe 10-15 minutes before he came on and the place was fairly packed - certainly more bodies than Glasgow. This one was put on by the Brighton based Stay Sick club, in partnership with another club called Born Bad so they already had some kind of fan base down there.

Set list was the same as Glasgow with the exception of an instrumental version of “Mother Of Earth” from Miami (which Kid isn't on, of course) that segued into La Historia De Un Amour that seemed to kick off some kind of serious psychobilly slam down the front. Very odd. This stuff never had anything to do with that bonehead scene but at least the kids were having fun. Hysterically, while the thugs were busy outmachoing each other, Kid was treating us all to that loose-hipped, camp and cool, crazy toreador dance he does. The fact that the whole band is dressed in polyester (looking) Mariachi band suits is just the icing on the cake. I don't know how anyone could mistake this for any kind male-bonding rock thing.

That said, the band played harder than in Glasgow and if anything, it was a better, more exciting show. When I caught the band before they'd always been a bit sloppy and that's part of their charm. Not on this showing, they played with more aggression and while I’m not sure how this would be all the time but it was good this once.

Kid mentioned that the new album recorded for In The Red was going to come out as five 7" singles. Now, THAT, is going to be something good for 2010.

And on that note...