Phoning It In
A slightly half-baked newsletter from OneTrackMinds HQ
Hello friends,
Another busy week here at OneTrackMinds HQ. Shaky and I spent some time over the weekend recording the first new batch of episodes for series two of our podcast, which is coming later in the month. If you can’t wait until then, you can always go back and listen to all 20 episodes of Season One! Not very helpful advice, I know… but in the absence of anything else, that’s all I’ve got.
If you are one of the tens of people who have been listening to the podcast, we’d love to know what you think. What’s your favourite episode? What do you want to hear more of? Let us know!
We’re still pulling together our lineup for March 3rd… not much movement since last week, which I’m going to blame entirely on it being January. I’m still getting up to speed with everything for my day job, and, judging from the lack of responses from all the fabulous people we’re trying to book onto the show, they’re all doing the same. Either that, or they’re off enjoying an extended winter-sun holiday somewhere fancy. OneTrackMinds guests are, on the whole, a pretty classy bunch after all…
All to say, there’s not much news to share with you this week. And rather than risk losing a whole bunch of you to the Unsubscribe button, I’m going to stop dragging this out, and just get to the fun stuff - some brilliant things we’ve seen, read, heard or observed this week:
After banging on about how great I think Brian Eno is in last week’s newsletter, I enjoyed this interview with him in Saturday’s Guardian. “I don’t like being revered”, he told his interviewer, a point I’ve duly noted. In case we ever get him as a guest on the show, I’ll be sure to tell him he’s rubbish… (He’ll know I’m lying because I’m not that good an actor).
When’s a good time to judge an album by its cover? When it’s the Best Art Vinyl Awards of course! Forgiving their very clumsy name, the Best Art Vinyl Awards is a showcase of the best album covers of the year as voted for by the public. The overall winner was Hiatus Kaiyote’s album Love Heart Cheat Code, but I was pleased to see my absolute favourite - Future Islands’ People Who Aren’t There Any More - very much in the mix. If you happen to be in Knightsbridge, you can swing by the Hari Hotel to take a look at all fifty of the shortlisted nominees in person.
Ugh, Squid Game 2. What a waste of seven hours! If you’ve also been disappointed by Netflix’s latest televisual offerings, this spectacular piece in n+1 is worth a read. Evidence of enshittification in full swing, it seems Netflix’s goal these days is to create television that you can ‘watch’ while doing something else. That’s an exciting development for the future of our culture, isn’t it?
I’ll admit something controversial - I’ve never fully got Björk. That said, this piece in yesterday’s Observer helped me to understand her appeal just that little bit more.
Taking a leaf out Japanese culture’s book, it seems that more and more of us in the UK are frequenting Listening Cafes - public spaces where you go with the express goal of listening to music on extremely high-end stereo equipment. One of the pioneers of listening cafes in the UK is Spiritland in Kings Cross (right around the corner from Kings Place, and a great place to go for pre- or post-OneTrackMinds drinks next time you’re in the neighbourhood). This piece in yesterday’s Observer has more on the phenomenon.
…Which reminds me - Pitchblack Playback has a brilliant new programme launching this week. Tomorrow night, they’re playing Bob Dylan’s Blood On The Tracks at Phoenix Arts Club in Soho. I’d so be there if I didn’t have a six year-old who is three chapters away from the end of The Prisoner of Azkaban, and who’d kill me if I wasn’t back in time for bedtime…
I wrote last week about how Dylan is having yet another career boost, following the release of James Mangold’s biopic A Complete Unknown. In light of this news, The New York Times sought out one of Dylan’s biggest critics, counter-culture commentator A J Weberman, who waged a war of slander against him in the 1970s for apparently selling out. This is a fascinating and humorous read.
Weberman turns up in One To One, a brilliant documentary about John Lennon and Yoko Ono by Scottish film director Kevin MacDonald. It premiered at the Venice Film Festival last autumn to much critical acclaim, and I caught a screening of it at work last week. UK release date is still to be set, but when it comes out, it’s well worth your time.
It’s about time for an Album Recommendation! I’m a big fan of The National, as you’ll no doubt know, so it’s no surprise that I’ve been giving their recent release Rome a lot of time in my ear canals. It’s a live recording from a concert they played in *checks notes* Rome last year, and it’s something of a greatest hits show. It’s certainly bloody excellent.
Right, that’ll do! A sorry and slightly half-arsed newsletter for you this week. I promise there’ll be more actual news very soon. Until then, much love as always…
KB.
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Please, stop putting yourself down, you’re halfarsedness is for some way more than they can even begin to manage on a good day. these are very good recommendations! i will, as always, check out most of them and am sure to gain from it, even if at the least for a conversation, which is all that counts, isn’t it? You’re doing important work, especially for the folks who wouldn’t for the life of them dare speak up and offer their gratitude, so i will: thank you for showing up every week and sharing! Your work IS important!!