Ask Not For Whom The Bellbird Tolls

I feel slightly bad about bumping Paddy's most exciting post down a rung after he apologised for doing it to Silky but the blog must roll. If you have stumbled across this I heartily recommend that you read the two previous posts. Together they achieve one of the late-career peaks of this blog. Silky draws on connections posts past but plays with the form by not completing the ellipse but allowing Mr Big a free hand to take us where they must. Paddy, on the other hand, initially eschews broader pop-culture tools often used in this blog and takes us into a personal space not inhabited since the last time he purchased an iron horse. Paddy and complacency are focused enemies and to this end the rug of pop-culture is slid back under our feet by mid-way through the post when the KLF are employed as his whipping boys in a 360 degree mockery of the music industry, with Paddy and the boys from the Ink not spared.

A former bandmate of half of Squid Ink (in fact another member jammed with the Ink in our very early days) has just released a CD with a new band called Bellbird (happily both the band and the album have the same name which gets me out of some murky grammar back there). It is an excellent effort with more than a gentle nod in the direction of the Kinks and a knowing glance at Magic Christian Music. You can buy Bellbird here and you can watch a video for one of their songs here. Lovely harmonies and neat guitar. Obviously feel free to do neither as these pricks have never showed up to our gigs but that doesn't place them in an overly lonely group. My favourite song is Old Friends/Deadends which contains one of the greatest vocal performances since Robin Z on He's A Whore and some clever lyrics.