I've been featured on Stage Fright Publicity's 'Best of 2011' list, in the singles category. Twice. Beat that, everybody else. Oh wait, Factory Floor are also featured twice. Never mind, then.
Read the list (which includes John Maus, S.C.U.M and my friends from TOY) in full, click here.
A late Christmas present in the form of a new demo video; this is a song called "Hate".
Apologies for the lack of posts recently, I wish I'd been busy over the Christmas period but I've actually just been incredibly lazy. Much more to come over the next few weeks, I'll keep you updated. More footage, more demos, more live appearances. All good things.
Noisy girl trio Zoetrope are giving away their first release for free. It's called "Demons" and it's cool, it reminds me of Effi Briest when they were actually releasing good records. Listen below.
The girls play tomorrow at a "secret" location in Stoke Newington (it's on Belfast Road) and will be selling, uh, Zoetrope knickers as well as records and confectionery from 2PM. Don't miss out.
Those of you who have been reading my blog since the beginning of this year or before will know that, earlier on this year, I started to take a keen interest in the writings of certain thinkers, philosophers and polemicists. Christopher Hitchens, who today died of oesophageal cancer, was one such man.
He was the anti-theist attack dog of the 'Four Horseman of New Atheism', a group that also consisted of eminent scientists Richard Dawkins, Sam Harris and Daniel Dennett. Hitchens pulled no punches with the 2007 polemic God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything. His most controversial and sought-after book demonstrated that religion and faith-based beliefs are in no way a force for good and posited that we should instead turn to reason and science to better understand the world in which we live. Other notable works (amongst a wide range of books on various subjects) include The Portable Atheist, a book of quotations from free-thinkers; The Missionary Position, an excoriating attack on Mother Teresa and Letters to a Young Contrarian.
Hitchens was also a prolific debater. In a high profile public event in 2009, he and Stephen Fry debated with politician Anne Widdecombe and Archbishop John Onaiyekan on the motion, "Is the Catholic Church a force for good in the world?" Later remarking that he and Fry "left [their opponents] for dead", Hitchens went in, all guns blazing, to defend reason and scientific enquiry in the face of mass ignorance and the church's totalitarian oppression.
At a time when my reason and intellect were in a bitter struggle with my faith (since dispensed with), Hitchens' writing offered me hope; he was not peddling easy answers to unanswerable questions, but his words helped me to understand the nature of evidence and the value of scepticism, for which I will always be in his debt. In October of this year, to a crowd of unbelievers, Hitchens said:
"We have the same job we have always had: to say that there are no final solutions; there is no absolute truth; there is no supreme leader; there is no totalitarian solution that says if you would just give up your freedom of inquiry, if you would just give up, if you would simply abandon your critical faculties, the world of idiotic bliss can be yours."
Christopher Hitchens was, and will remain, an inspiration to those of us who read and immensely enjoyed his works. He will be remembered and missed for years to come.
More about me and the new single at Music Pickings this week. I read that it's a European blog by two anonymous Germans: one from Hamburg, one from Berlin.
Read, leave comments, repost.
If you run a blog of your own, send me an email and tell me about it, especially if it's about music. I always want to see who's writing what, about who.
I've been written about in Spanish, which is a first, on a blog called Ultra Brit, an Argentinian-based blog concerning British artists only.
The full article is here, below is a rough translation courtesy of the slightly iffy Google Translate:
"Ultra Britintroduces youto a youngtalent thatis thebig betofGenesisRecordings.
JosephCowardis a young19 year oldLondonerwho alreadyhas twosinglesinthe music industry.Witha clear voice anda darkbut personal,is the first artistreleasedon thenew labelby TimBurgess, lead singer ofTheCharlatans.
The firstsingle,"JesusChrist/WorryWart" produced byBurgess, consists of Joseph's voice, his guitarand drums.According tothe presentationpagemakes himthe label,"His singingcaptures theelements ofArthurRussell,withlyricaleloquenceofMorrissey.His lyricsare full ofbiblical images thattry to explorethe self ina hostile world.The routine, boredom, difficult relationshipsand the confusionof youth arecommonthemesin their composition."
The second singleis comprised ofthe songs "If YouWant ToGet Going, GetTalking (ToMe)/ TheEndOf TheWorld IsComing"and left, likethe first, ina limited editionvinyl7 "anddigitalformatfor download from thewebitselfor O Genesis.In the wordsofJoseph, expressed inhis blog,"I'm excited to have another record out. The idea of people buying my music is kind of a kick."
TimBurgess's supportthis newtalent,producer andeditor,seems to betotal.Last Friday,presentedtogetherin an event atCentral StationWrexham."
The blog is run by Giselle Hidalgo, say hello to her on Twitter.
I have recently been rendered in cartoon form - at least, my name has (I remain hidden in my private helicopter) - by Aiden Smith of Proof Spirit, an online gallery and host to comic strip Tim Peaks, a fictionalised version of the life of my friend Tim Burgess and his "metaphorical, metaphysical" café. Perhaps we should lobby Mr Smith for a comic exclusively about yours truly...
A bunch of screaming lunatics, better known to their audience as the punk group Flats, are preparing to unleash their debut album. The LP, entitled Better Living is due for release in April 2012, just pipped to the post by the lead single, "Foxtrot/Tango". It will blow your brains off.