Set the controls for the heart of the stash! Here’s the keyboard guy of wig-out psych-rock space-cadets Pilgrim Fathers. He’s evidently not down with the whole “standing-up” thing:

T’was a good show on Wednesday night, with Pilgrim Fathers and the oh-so-controversial-no-really Gay For Johnny Depp* supporting the staggeringly good 65daysofstatic.

However, it seems that when I get sent to interview an act something bad happens to them - Pilgrim Fathers caught a flat tyre on the motorway that afternoon, and only arrived at the venue an hour before doors. Needless to say, the interview is being rescheduled …

Writing about music

The second week of full-time day-job mania has meant keeping up with The Dreaded Press has been a strain once again, but here we are at another Friday and I seem to have survived with deadlines and sanity (marginally) intact.

Album of the week was probably the audio insanity of iots by flu.ID - be warned, it’s not for the faint-hearted.

Writing about books

I have, somehow, managed to crowbar a first draft of the Severian Of The Guild review into my schedule this week**. The challenge will lie in making it plain that, while I personally found the crescendo of Biblical allegory to be incredibly wearisome and off-putting, I’m not the sort of person who thinks religious themes have no place in literature at all. Hoping to go over it a second time this weekend.

Finished reading Walter Jon Williams’ Implied Spaces last weekend; will be squeezing a VCTB review out as soon as schedule permits.

Freelance stuff

As some of you may have already noticed, the other aspect of my expanding freelance duties has been announced - I’m the new webgeek and online publicity personage for PS Publishing! Thanks to everyone who has already sent their congratulations, it’s very kind of you. I have an awful lot to live up to as I step into Darren’s shoes.

Of course, I’ll feel a lot more like I’m actually doing these jobs once I get back to having the time to get started on them*** … but still, yay me! More details on this when (a) I have them and (b) I can think straight.

Books and magazines seen

The Yen Press manga imprint continues to baffle with their polar-opposite themes; one book on raising an autistic child, the other a sniggering smutfest of obvious gags about a demon and a sexually-stereotyped Japanese schoolgirl who have accidentally swapped bodies. Go figure.

Also from Orbit comes a new Jeff Somers novel, The Digital Plague, as well as cookie-cutter vampire-shagger number fourteen from the high queen of vampire-shaggers … fourteen books? Empirical proof that quality and popularity are completely unrelated properties, if such were needed. Will nobody think of the trees?

I’ve been given an interesting non-fiction title for a long-deadline Vector review: Love And Sex With Robots by David Levy.

Promises to be an interesting read, that’s for certain. Robot-shaggers > vampire-shaggers.

Coda

Well, I’m exhausted. A fortnight of full-time work plus all my other commitments has worn me out thoroughly, and if it weren’t for the amazing ability of caffeine to prop up the otherwise unconscious, I’d not have made it through at all.

I was under the (sadly erroneous) impression that I had this coming Monday off work, but it turns out that isn’t the case - it will in fact be my final full day before my colleague returns from her holiday. Still, I can manage just one more day … though I feel I’ll be doing a whole lot of sleeping this weekend.

It’s either that or have some sort of breakdown; much like the ILLUMINATIONS episode, I’ve been gamely skating along the cliff-edge of my ability to cope under pressure, but I know that I need to rest properly or risk the consequences. I’m aware that learning (and testing) your limits is a good thing, but from where I’m sat right now I could do without it … at least for the next six months or so while I settle into the new regime of the freelance****.

But I’ll not complain - things seem to be going pretty well, and if hecticness is a symptom of positive change then I guess I can live with it. It’s just that I’ll live with it a bit better once I’ve had a long lay down in a dark room.

Anyway, enough of my jabber - I can’t think of anything entertaining or interesting to say. I’m going to take my aching shoulders and itchy eyes around the corner to fetch another Hard-earned And Much-anticipated Friday Curry Of Justice before steeling myself for a weekend of catching up with all the little things I’ve had to let slide this last fortnight.

I hope that you have a good weekend yourself … hopefully one blessed with weather somewhat less rotten than today’s, too.

Hasta luego, amigos.

[ ** I honestly can't remember writing any of it, which is quite scary ... but there it is in my Google Docs account. Home espresso makers are dangerous things, kids. ]

[ *** SRSLY. Sixteen hour days have been killing me. ]

[ **** So why do I still crank out a few pages of blather for FPB every week? Because routine is an anchor for sanity, basically. This actually relaxes me, and I can do it piecemeal. ]

Those of you who like my live music photography are in luck; those of you not so keen have probably been longing for periods with steady sunny weather wherein I have more time on my hands. Sorry!

This is the bizarrely-named Grog, singer and bass-player of a three-piece band called Die So Fluid:

Don’t be put off by the pseudo-goth fetish outfit; their music is straight-up chunky alt-rock, close to the metallic end as far as heaviness is concerned, and wow - she can really sing. Proper gutsy vocals, none of your Gwen Stefani schlock.

Go check ‘em out on MySpazz if you don’t believe me - great band, live and on record.

Writing about music

The results of my night out in Southampton last week can be seen above, at least in part; Die So Fluid [live review] were supporting My Ruin [live review], who I also interviewed.

The pictures of the My Ruin set were unfortunately awful, thanks to a combination of poor lighting, low-end dSLR, a push-and-shove mosh pit … and my lack of ability to compensate for all three of them. Life’s a learning curve, eh?

Another busy week for CD reviews, but there’s a sort of pang about it - by Sunday, I will have finished my last weekly batch of reviews for sites other than my own.

I’ll still be writing for Subba-Cultcha and Pennyblack on an occasional basis, but I’ve reached a point where I need to devote all my music writing time to The Dreaded Press. The work is coming in steadily, and I need to stay on top of it.

But in the spirit of assessing ones achievements, it’s pretty impressive to me that in less than twelve full months writing for those two sites I’ve managed to rack up over 250 pieces of work (if you include the ones yet to be published).

You’d be forgiven for not believing me - I find it quite astonishing myself - but you can see the proof as a list of items tagged with my name at del.icio.us.

Crikey.

Writing about books

Minimal once again; see above. Will hopefully pick up steam again; see above. I did manage to get the latest Interzone review offers list out of the electronic door, though.

I sent a re-polished edit of my review of McDonald’s Brasyl to Andy Sawyer at Foundation; he seems pretty pleased with it, and reckons it will only need further trimming if the other pending material is equally excessive in length.

I don’t know if you remember me whining on about how immensely frustrated I was at being unable to hammer that particular leviathan of a review into shape at the time*?

Well, here’s a lesson for my self-critical facilities - with some relatively minor edits, it actually read fairly well. Amazing what a distance of a few months can make - I now understand the fiction writer’s advice about leaving stories fallow before editing them.

Currently reading Gene Wolfe’s Severian Of The Guild, and enjoying it immensely - although I can see a lot of reasons it might infuriate others. It reminds me of Mervyn Peake, though, and it’ll take a lot of frustration to dull that particular shine as far as I’m concerned.

As for analysing it from a reviewer’s perspective, however, I have no idea where I’ll even start. That said, I’ve not even finished the first book of four yet.

Other stuff

Much to the great frustration of a vocal minority of readers who have actually made a point of asking me about it**, the Great Pending Announcement will not be made today - it will be made on Monday 11th, for reasons that should become clear when the announcement is made.

But the way forward is clear and unobstructed - or at least as unobstructed as it’s going to get. Keep watching the skies.

Books and magazines seen

Zero on the fresh literature front this week, with the arguable exception of some very smutty manga from Yen Press that has no real literary merit that I can discern.

Let me be plain - I’m in no way opposed to the sale of smut (I’d be a hypocrite if I were), but sheesh - either give it a decent plot or stop pretending, y’know? An absolute endorsement of the adage that something labelled “not suitable for minors” might as well be labelled “will only be of interest to minors, mostly male”.

The end of an era twice over, too - picked up the final instalments of Doug Rushkoff’s Testament and Brian K Vaughn’s Y: The Last Man.

Y:TLM is a great piece of science fiction, though I’m sure the film they’re threatening to make will strip all the good bits out.

To fill the small but poignant gap that my only two running comic subscriptions have created by ending, I’ve put a couple of Warren Ellis titles on order. Yay!

TTAcon

It is my intent to head up to the Big Smoke by train tomorrow for TTAcon 9, a gathering of folk connected to TTA Press, be they staff or readers.

It’s being held at a pub called Filthy MacNastys near King’s Cross on Saturday 9th February - full details at the TTA website.

If you end up going along and you see me there, please make a point of saying hello - it’s nice to meet people from the intarwebs.

However, my attendance or otherwise is dependent on me clearing a bunch of writing this evening and tomorrow morning … I’m pretty sure I’m going to make it, though.

Coda

Those interested in the results of my frugality experiments will be fascinated to hear that I haven’t spent any unnecessary money since this time last week (with the obvious exception, which was declared in advance anyway).

Still not smoking, no alcohol for seven days, minor but daily exercise, early rising. It’s uncanny; I feel like I’m living someone else’s life. Part of me hopes they’ll ask for it back real soon; the other part is trying to decide how it should arrange the furniture.

But as for now I’m busy busy busy, so I’m going to wrap this up and get on with my proper work. Well, right after The Friday Curry, that is.

Hasta luego, amigos.

[ * You'd be forgiven for forgetting, because I was beginning to sound like a scratched record or a particularly uninspired televangelist. ]

[ ** This actually happened. It was very flattering - and it made me realise that I'm not the only person in the world who needs to get out more. ]

These chaps are from a band called Minus The Bear who I went to review on Monday - and who have now been added to my “how the hell did I avoid discovering them before?” list.

They do a kind of super-technical post-hardcore progressive thing, but with very minimal distortion … and a lot of delay and effects, as should be obvious.

Really great stuff - go take a listen. “Knights” is a winner.

I know that’s technically a very flawed photo, but I really liked the way the one guy is motion blurred when everything else is sharp. Kinda captures the atmosphere a bit.

I still can’t get good results in colour; I think I need a faster lens or something. Still, black and white is classy.

More photos here - advice and criticism welcome.

Writing about music

Yeah, so I reviewed a show on Monday, and it was very good indeed. This week has been mostly killing off pending deadlines before [holiday which shall remain nameless], with little in the way of published stuff - I think it’s being held back for the next few weeks.

Editors are sensible people*.

Writing about books

No concrete work in the LitCrit department, I’m afraid.

I’m currently reading M. John Harrison’s Light and applying post-it notes to pages in my usual fashion, but I don’t think I stand a chance of even scratching the surface of it in a review.

Reading Light is like being a rainforest dweller dumped into the middle of New York - you know it’s an awesome work of genius, but it’s completely beyond you describe the individual functional parts and explain how it all fits together.

Also in the process of compiling the inevitable “best books of 2007″ pieces for various outlets, which is why I probably won’t bother posting one on VCTB - there’ll be one in Vector, one on Strange Horizons and one in Interzone (plus a simple list at SF Site), if you’re really curious about my opinions.

Speaking of SF Site, my review of Adam Roberts’ Headless went live over there. Doctor Roberts seems to be quite happy with it (but then you can never be sure - it’s the clever way he writes, you see).

Writing about other stuff

Zip. Still faffing about learning web-dev stuff like PHP, trying to dredge up my memories of object-orientated programming from my teens.

Programming is just like riding a bike - you never entirely forget how it’s done, but if you leave it in the shed for years it gets horribly rusty and looks very dated and clunky compared to everyone else’s**.

Books and magazines seen

No magazines this week. But in magazine-related news, you may well be aware that you can now get Interzone electronically from Fictionwise - I may well give that a try once my paper sub runs out.

Last week’s red-card parcel delivery was (as I suspected) an Orbit item, and one that looks rather interesting:

So that’s going on holiday with me in the coming week; I think it deserves a crack of the whip.

It certainly looks more promising than the plentiful vampire-boffing stuff (another of which arrived this week, in the company of a brace of fantasies).

Coda

Blimey, the year is almost over. I’ll refrain from musing and sentiment - partly because I’m not good at sentiment, and partly because there’s stuff I need to get done this evening so I can trundle off up north for a few days.

I will say this, though - I’m not a fan of [unnamed holiday] myself, but nor am I a humbug. So I hope that all of you have whatever sort of winter-centric festival and celebration it is you like best, in the company of people you care about and doing things you like doing.

But I bet you all envy me - I get to celebrate tomorrow’s solstice by spending ten hours on a coach! Yeah, beeyotches; you see me rollin’ - you hatin’.

But like I say, there are things to be done - not least of which being the observation of my own personal religious ritual, namely the procurement and consumption of The (Festive) Friday Curry. But first, I’d better go collect my laundry …

Have a good holiday, ladies and gents.

[** In case you're interested, I offer services in metaphor mangling and analogy overextension at extremely reasonable rates.]

What a rotten week for weather, eh? It’s turned quite clear today, but there’s been little opportunity for taking pictures outdoors in the last seven days.

So, it’s lucky I got some half-way decent shots at the Electric Eel Shock show last weekend, isn’t it?

Yes, they’re as endearingly crazy as they look. If you like your rock and metal music - but don’t take it so seriously that you can’t stand to see it spoofed - you really must see Electric Eel Shock play live.

A friend who I took with me described it as “the most hilariously enjoyable gig I’ve seen this year”. It’s a fair description. More shots available if you’re interested.

Writing about music

As the above should make plain, I have a review of the last show of Electric Eel Shock’s European tour for you to read over at The Dreaded Press … but of course, as you’ve all subscribed already, you’ll already know about that, and the handful of other stuff that’s appeared over there in the last week or so.

The really good news is that there’s much more to come. I’m very pleased to have gotten myself onto the mailing lists of five PR outfits already. That’s small beer for the big players, but not bad going for a one-man-band site that’s two months into operations, as far as I’m concerned.

So, I’ve got a stack of material with forthcoming release dates that I need to get reviewed, which means I’ll have to start incrementally pulling back on the writing I do for other sites. Which is kind of a shame, as I’ve become rather fond of the discipline of doing it .. but onwards and upwards is the way.

I’m off out again this Sunday to a local show by a young band called Not Advised, and I’ll be interviewing them also. That’ll be my first face-to-face interview off my own back for my own site! Yay!

In the pipeline (sometime after the New Year passes) will be a chin-wag with Justin Broadrick, formerly of Napalm Death and Godflesh, currently of depleted-uranium-shoegaze-metal band Jesu - I’m looking forward to that one, I can tell you.

Other interview news - I’ve sent off a batch of questions to Sir Hank of Rollins, and am eagerly awaiting the responses. The PR sent the first draft back, because I included about three times as many questions as he’d have the time spare to answer …

Writing about books

I’ve been shown the preliminary typeset PDFs of my Iain Banks article, and I have to say I’m fairly pleased with it. You lot will have to wait for the next issue of Interzone before you can give me any feedback, of course …

Otherwise, no reviewing to report this week, as I’ve been busy wrangling with music deadlines. But for the first time in ages I have no outstanding or pressing deadlines of a literary nature, which has given me the chance to (gasp!) read a book just because I wanted to.

I’m not complaining, because I love my reviewing work, but it’s strangely liberating to walk up to your shelf and think “hmm, what do I fancy?” The [holiday which shall remain unnamed] break (which I will be spending in the tranquillity of the Yorkshire countryside) promises to be a catch-up reading binge of truly satisfying proportions. wh00t!

Of course, in the meantime I need to figure out how to deal with the Interzone reviews section in light of the seasonal postal delays …

Books and magazines received

No hay libros o revistas esta semana. Apesadumbrado, amigos.

Coda

Well, if (comparative) brevity is a virtue, this is one of the more virtuous FPBs of recent times. It always feels odd to have little to report, and somehow a little disappointing … what that says about my personal psychology, I have no wish to know in detail.

I’m working on this “content to be myself” thing right now, and at the times it fully clicks into gear I can see why people who are good at it make a point of recommending it. Practice will (hopefully) make perfect - or as near to perfect as is possible in an imperfect universe, eh?

Enough blather - I have things to do, and I expect those of you who are still reading this far down the page probably have things to do as well (no matter how well you may have convinced yourself otherwise).

So, before setting off on the traditional jaunt to collect The Friday Curry Of Intestinal Righteousness And Olfactory Justice, I will bid you all a good weekend - have fun, ladies and gents.

You lucky people - more live music photography! Which would probably be a more exciting prospect were I getting any better at it … still, here’s singer Colin from post-hardcore stalwarts Hundred Reasons doing his thing on stage at Southampton Guildhall last night:

In my defence, a much more experienced photographer friend who was at the same show was bemoaning the photography-unfriendly lighting set-up, so the small number of even vaguely usable shots I managed to get may not entirely be down to my lack of skill and low-end camera. Selah.

Writing about music

Last night’s show was one of two I attended to review this week, the other being the first night of The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster’s latest national jaunt.

That is the first live review to go up on The Dreaded Press (which, naturally, you’ve all bookmarked and subscribed to by now); last night’s review and interview were commissioned for another site, so they won’t appear for a little while yet.

However, you can read my review of Oceansize’s show at the Wedgewood Rooms … which was a lot of fun to write, as they’re one of my favourite bands, which means I get to wax lyrical about them. Go read it. Then go buy their latest album, Frames - because it’s quite simply awesome.

The after-effects of the postal strike continue to make themselves felt - I’m still waiting on a batch of promos posted last Monday. Given the fact that I’ve received a number of items posted long after that date, it’s now being considered effectively lost. Because of the short lead times on review publication, they’ll be of little use if they turn up now.

And it’s not as if I don’t have plenty of other things to be getting on with. I’m slowly convincing PR companies to add The Dreaded Press to their mailing lists, which means there’ll be no shortage of things for me to review, albeit on a schedule more under my own control.

Writing about books

To my shame, no progress in this respect - the Brasyl piece is still in note form at the moment. I meant to get to work on it yesterday, but circumstances conspired against me, despite having booked the day off work …

Futurismic haxxor crisis OMFG!!1

The circumstances in question being what initially appeared to be a serious hacking of the Futurismic servers. An email from one of my blogging team alerted me to the fact that Futurismic’s front page had been replaced by the site of a mortgage broker from Connecticut, which was my cue to launch a series of panicked emails and customer support tickets in a number of directions.

Fortunately, it was actually the result of a file-structure collapse on the hosting service machine where Futurismic resides, meaning that all was not lost, and everything is back to normal again. The moral of the story being: TAKE BACKUPS.

No one had done a Futurismic backup in a looong time, and if it had been a hack rather than a server fault, we’d be flat out of luck right now. I backup my own sites quite regularly, so now I just need to add Futurismic to the list. Fifteen minutes a week for peace of mind? Small price to pay, I’m thinking.

So, all that fluster chewed up a good four hours of my day - the four hours that were going to be devoted to working on the Brasyl review and cobbling together a piece of Friday Flash. Hence the continuing absence of either … I’m most annoyed with missing two Triple-Fs in a row, but I’m not going to beat myself up about it because that would be remarkably unproductive. There’s always next week.

Books and magazines seen

A sudden flurry of material from the gang at Orbit has appeared over the last week. Regrettably (from my point of view, at least) it’s all schlock horror vampire sex novels or fat fantasy doorstops, and so falls beyond my remit.

It does serve as a reminder for that statistic that gets mentioned so frequently - for every sf novel published, five to ten fantasy and horror titles roll out of the door. I console myself with the fact that this means I belong to a small and elite consumer demographic. Or something.

So this week’s only notable arrival is the latest F&SF (December 2k7) - which came as somewhat of a shock, because I thought my subscription had expired already.

I lose track of these things too easily, which is another reason I’ll be buying magazines electronically where possible from now on. If it’s in my Gmail archives, it can be considered a traceable fact. Anything else is pure conjecture on my part.

Coda

The ridiculous accelerating pace of my life seems to show no sign of abating. - though most of the minutia are not worth reporting here (unlike the stuff I do report - which is, you know, fascinating stuff that you couldn’t live without hearing about).

It is my sincere hope that less impediments to progress will manifest over the next few weeks, and I can get back on top of my task mountain and start posting about science fiction a little more often. Place your bets.

Still, now is not the time for worrying - for the weekend has arrived, bringing with it the appointed time for The Friday Curry Of Legend, Justice And Great Righteousness, and the opportunity for getting out of the house without having to take a pen, notepad, voice recorder and camera with me. An opportunity which I may just have to take, in fact.

So, enjoy your weekend, ladies and gents. Hasta luego, amigos.