The Official Blur mailing list announced today that Damon Albarn’s new project The Good, The Bad And The Queen, will perform their first gig at a BBC festival in October. TGTBTQ is a collaboration between Albarn (Blur & Gorillaz), bassist Paul Simonon of The Clash, and guitarist Simon Tong of The Verve.
Damon is already setting expectations high, according to the BBC:
It was “a story” rather than a band, said Albarn, adding he was “very, very proud” of the work, which will be performed on 26 October at the Roundhouse.
“It’s a very English record. It’s the first time I’ve really written about home since Parklife,” he said.
The sound of the composition was “very cosmopolitan” with “a lot of songs that have got historical stories to them”, Albarn added.
A single will be released this fall, but the album isn’t due until 2007, produced by Danger Mouse. Check out the official website for more info and a teaser video.
UPDATE: Scott at Stereogum posted with a YouTube link to the teaser video.
Windows is driving me insane at work — all of these little security fixes that get in the way of productivity.
Last Friday, I installed the latest Windows updates and rebooted at the end of the day. When I get to work and log in on Monday morning, I get this security warning every time I click on a zip file:
Internet Explorer
This page has an unspecified potential security risk. Would you like to continue?
Um, yes, permanently.
It only repros (so far) for ZIPs on network shares and mapped drives. I’ve got Win XP SP2 & IE7… any ideas?
I went to see Reverse play at Bill’s Bar Friday night, and got to catch The Beatings for the first time. They’re a four-piece indie-rock act from Boston that’s been around for a couple of years, and they reminded me a lot of Hüsker Dü and the last Pixies album, Trompe le Monde.
It’s a pretty raw sound, but always melodic and direct. And I liked that the two guitarists and bassist each took turns at the mic — (no doubt they also share in song writing).
I’m posting this from inside Windows Live Writer, a newly released “weblogging” application by Microsoft. It’s a slick little windows app, with support for publishing to Movable Type, Wordpress, as well as Live Spaces, by default.
Paul Stamatiou has an extended review, but here are some of the features:
- WYSIWYG Authoring
- Spell Check
- Photo Publishing
- Map Publishing, (via Live Local)
- Compatibility with Blogger, LiveJournal, TypePad, WordPress (and many others)
Also, like most good WYSIWYG editors, it allows you to toggle over to HTML code view - (taking a quick look at this post, I see that it writes pretty clean code).
Note: There is no support yet for Tags, a new feature in MT 3.3. (Categories & Keywords are supported.)
More Information & Download
UPDATE: Om has a nice review:
It is not often, I say good things about Microsoft products, but with this free-blogging tool, I have to say: write on! …the software actually lets you use your blog styles for editing, has ability to add plugins, and has an SDK to extend the functionality of the program. You can also swap out Microsoft Maps for say Google Maps.
Behind the Typeface: Cooper Black
Hilarious spoof of the VH1 staple, with lots of interesting facts about a very familiar typeface.
Helvetica: the Film
A feature-length independent film about typography, graphic design and global visual culture. Thank god for the Swiss.
Johnny Marr Joins Modest Mouse
Legendary Smiths’ guitarist had been writing and recording with the band, but is now “a full blown member”, according to front man Isaac Brock.
OK GO - Here It Goes Again video
Hilarious choreography, OK music. I will never look at a treadmill the same again. [via Airbag]
I decided to splurge a little on myself this weekend, and buy a new helmet for scootin’ — a Shoei RF-1000 in matte-black.
My original helmet was a Korean HJC CL Max, with a flip-up chin bar — but it never quite fit me right, and it looked mildly retarded, all shiny and bubbly.
Shoei’s designs are much more streamlined and fitted. I love the matte black — first my RAZR, next this helmet… the only thing left for me to buy is a Darth Book.
Read more »
It looks like the new ICA on the South Boston waterfront has to delay it’s September opening:
In interviews yesterday, ICA officials, architect Ricardo Scofidio, and construction company manager John Macomber said that the remaining work was not major. Among the pending tasks — termed “minutiae” by one ICA trustee — was the need to test the building’s ticket counter and climate control system.
[via]
