[kj] Youth's Myspace blogpost re:NYC

[Steve Hackett]

another "more tribal" album - woohoo!
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Alexander Smith 
  To: A list about all things Killing Joke (the band!) 
  Sent: Sunday, December 05, 2010 7:53 PM
  Subject: [kj] Youth's Myspace blogpost re:NYC


  spontanous combustion NYCKJ 4/12/10


KJNYC Spontaneous Combustion Irving Plaza 41210


New York, I'm back in New York. Where i've had some of the best and worst times of my life. The smell, like old Bombay, hits you first.
Here its sweet toffee, hot bagels, sizzling burgers,  burnt cinnamon,  diesel steam and a host of other idiosyncratic flavours of Manhattan.The city is a good metaphor of the Buddhist maxim "everything changes". Almost unrecognisable from only two years ago when i was last here.Not only the Neon glare has changed with super huge LCD billboards hypnotising you with vast blocks of colour, quiet arresting and super Sci-Fi .But also the language on the street has changed.Like London there is a predominates east european / Russian twang in the air. 
Still the bustle of street vendors cooking up hotdogs and kebabs and the lonely sax player busking on the corner of Times Sq, his haunting melody cascading into the noise of traffic and excited pedestrians. 
I was shocked when New brought in her No Smoking laws and still it shocks me as more people crowd and puff away outside a solitary heater, then hang out inside. I like the familiar buff and no nonsense New York Vernacular, i like the honesty and compassion, where people still take the time to talk to strangers and aren't buckled by their fear or paranoia. Fearlessness is a trait of this tough city. Manhattan ,She is like a huge concrete and steel ocean liner, Strong, majestic and proud.
All the crime and corruption She has seen and even 9/11 has only made her stronger and even more resilient. She is the genitalia of America, seething 
with ambition and lust. She is the engine that drives America.
Here is where the music of Coltrain, Bob Dylan to the Dolls ,The Velvet Underground, Springsteen, Hip Hop, Talking Heads . All has seeped into the very fabric of the streets and walls.This is where the music was first born and first heard and had to compete here first before becoming the international vocabulary of modern music that it has become.Like Scottish new born babies being flung on the mountain side so that only the strongest survive this is where this musical genius was forged and hammered into beauty by the harsh tough New York streets.
 Walking these streets i cannot forget the great Art that she has produced , De Kooning , Warhol, Basquait, Keith Haring, the beat goes on and on.The titans of Poetry,  Ginsburg, Burroughs  and Bukowski.These cruel streets where John Lennon's blood ran into the gutter along with the all the piss and booze and the come of a hundred thousand orgasms. This strange alchemy that manifests such jaw dropping beauty and awe. It's a heady mix and i stagger around immersed in colour and sound. Disco ! where would we be without  the beat.I first came here in 1979, just at the tail end of the studio 54 era and the very beginning of post punk and Proto Hip Hop scene. It was exciting, a whole new planet compared to grey England and encouraged the band to go further into our eclectic fusion of Disco beats, Morroder synths , Dub bass lines and savage primitive rock influences. Ruth Polski was our promoter and champion here.She brought Killing Joke, New Order and Gang of four over regularly. Ruth correctly predicted the early eighties New York aesthetic and was a great champion for us.She also introduced us to Hurrah's, Danceteria and the Paradise Garage. 
Tragically she was mown down and killed by a rogue, out of control cab, which ploughed into the crowd outside the Limelight, a former church converted into a labyrinth of club rooms. Years Later we played there on the Pandemonium tour, a surreal gig, lots of Californian micro dots flying around, I remember in the afternoon i was wandering around upstairs and i stumbled into a ballet class with the most beautiful young ballet dancers.The class was being conducted by this huge, totally bald and obese man. Yet he held their attention rigidly and moved with grace and beauty. I have had many concrete pre conceptions shattered here and i'm a better man for it .Thank you New York !
Meanwhile in London i have been busy. A few Vertical Smile gigs and the album in the bag ready for january release, it's the album i should have made at 16 but didn't, only now have i found the front and confidence to lead a band. Learning how to play bass and sing lead vocals at the same time being one of the hardest things iv'e ever learnt to do. Also halfway through a Zodiac Youth album and my Dub project "DubTrees" second album, this time a double!
still trying to finish off the remaining tracks of the absolute dissent sessions, particularly a track called "This is War", difficult pinning Jaz and Geordie down and were discussing plans for a new KJ album starting early Feb,possibly with a more Tribal orientation( I recently saw Femi Kuti in concert and the combination of Magic, politics and sex was intoxicating and reminded me, in a weird way of KJ)
We are  More than Halfway through the post production of the John Sinclair (MC5) album which features Keith Richards, The View, Bill Drummond and Zodiac, Mark Stewart (The Pop group) and sounds like Free jazz meets Detroit punk Awesome!
Ok really psyched for the gig soundcheck done  , Geordie clocked me painting, naked in my room using the ironing board as a table, from his room opposite, was in hysterics all day ! Yes there are some poetry books available, almost gone also some "Nabob de Bombasta"  nominated for erotic book of the year and  illustrated by myself and some site specific original paintings .....press play.....GO !


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