skinnywhiteboy

Just climbed Monte Perdido - the lost mountain - the 3rd highest peak in the Pyrenees. Great trip, enhanced by stumbling, tired, at 2am, on 'Le Mirage' hotel/casino (was it real?); only just making it to the refuge before nightfall thanks to a closed mountain tunnel; taking a wrong turn up the mountain and getting the fear on the edge of a long and very sheer drop...and seeing a load of new wildlife including snow finches, arctic choughs, ermine, red squirrels, marmots and isards.

Isards are Pyrenean chamois, graceful goat antelopes with rust red coats and black masks. They danced across the paths in front of us, and glided up rocky scree slopes like they were on wheels. It's their elastic deer hoofs that do it, apparently. Anyway, turns out some wankers aren't content with nearly hunting them to extinction in the 1940s - you can pay up to £4800 to shoot your own isard and take the skull home to show the neighbours.

Review of Brian Wilson, Royal Festival Hall, 11 September 2007

There’s a certain car crash factor that draws people to Brian Wilson. The man that created a musical legacy with ‘Good Vibrations’ and ‘God Only Knows’ has also been a mentally ill recluse and drug casualty. When the damaged genius returned to live public life in the 80s, the ‘Brian’s back’ campaign heralded hope in a revival of his obvious talents. Instead, the reward was sappy Americana and a distinct feeling that something had been forever lost.

Tonight, at the premiere of Wilson’s new work ‘That Lucky Old Sun (a Narrative)’, there was fresh hope. Lately the signs have been good. In recent years, performances of Pet Sounds, and the successful reconstruction of the long-lost Smile tapes, have both captured something of the good old Brian.

Performed in the second half of the show, TLOS marks Wilson’s first serious effort since 1973’s Holland album to write a concept piece. Based on Frankie Laine’s much covered 1947 hit of the same name, Wilson unfortunately located this ‘concept’ in 1950s Californ-i-a, underlined by heavy handed projections of surfers, happy hobos and nostalgic black and white photos of the Wilson brothers. The music overall was a schmaltzy and unmemorable pastiche of previously successful Wilson formulas. Take the Wrecking Crew’s percussive rhythms and some Beach Boys chromatic close harmony, add some boogie-woogie piano thumping, a smattering of flute and strings, and you’ve got it. Cars, girls and surfing seem like sad themes for him to be dwelling on in his 6th decade.

The first half was a different story, consisting almost entirely of 60s Beach Boys gems. ‘Girl don’t tell me’, ‘Dance Dance Dance’ and ‘Catch a Wave’ shook out the first night nerves, at first hindered by a sound system set to ‘cavernous’. With a frankly beautiful version of Spector’s ‘Then I kissed her’, the band relaxed and things started to gel. There was a stirring ‘In my room’ – with seven wonderful voices behind it – ‘She knows me too well’ and ‘Please let me wonder’. All great tunes that rarely get a live outing. They even threw in an oddity from 1967 album Wild Honey: ‘I’d love just once to see you’ (in the nude). The highlight was an admirably restrained ‘God only knows’, with that perfect coda that you never want to end. Spine-tingling stuff.

With TLOS out of the way, Wilson and band returned for a long encore of Beach Boys dross. The 50-something crowd seemed to like it, and tried to remember how to do the twist through ‘I get around’, ‘Help me Rhonda’, ‘Barbara Ann’, ‘Surfing USA’ and ‘Fun fun fun’ – sandwiched between Chuck Berry’s ‘Johnny B Goode’ and the Beatles’ 40 year old ‘She’s leaving home’.

There were empty seats tonight. The car crash factor has evaporated. Brian isn’t just back – he’s here to stay. But on tonight’s evidence it would be better if Brian went.

Set list:

1. Girl don't tell me, Dance dance dance, Salt Lake City, Catch a wave, Then I kissed her, In my room, taster for That Lucky Old Sun, Do you wanna dance, When I grow up (to be a man), She knows me too well, I'd love just once to see you, Do it again, Please let me wonder, California girls, Sloop John B, Wouldn't it be nice, God only knows, Heroes and Villians (cantina version), Good vibrations

2. That Lucky Old Sun (A Narrative): 'Morning Beat'/'Good Kind Of Love'/'Forever You'll Be My Surfer Girl'/'Mexican Girl'/'California Role'/'Oxygen To The Brain'/'Midnight's Another Day'/'Going Home'/'Southern California'

Encore 1. Johnny B Goode, I get around, Help me Rhonda, Barbara Ann, Surfin' USA, Fun fun fun

Encore 2. She's leaving home.

I was looking for new music, and found this: Music-Map. Pretty cool. Stick in an artist, and it maps against related others based on a user populated database called gnod.

Its fun and fairly predictable - Chilly Gonzales matches to Peaches, Yo La Tengo, Ladytron etc. Kid 606 matches Alec Empire, Ceephax Acid Krew. Clouddead leads you to Art Blakey, Buck 65, and someone called King Geedorah (who turns out to be an MF Doom alter ego). Follow the leads if you've got a bit of time and you're bound to find new stuff - an alternative to lastfm.