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gigsoupmusic · 4 years

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INTERVIEW - MICKO WESTMORELAND ON 'VELVET GOLDMINE' AND LIFE WITH THE MELLOTRONICS

Micko Westmoreland first came to the public's attention as the enigmatic Jack Fairey in the star-studded glam rock fake biopic 'Velvet Goldmine', and since then has done everything from making electronica as The Bowling Green to the sharp edged new wave of his current project Micko & The Mellotronics. With that band on the verge of releasing their second single, a double A-side with the timely 'Noisy Neighbours 'and 'You Killed My Father' (featuring the late Neil Innes), he spoke to Gigsoup to tell all... Starting at the beginning, you got your first break appearing in the film ‘Velvet Goldmine’… Quite a baptism of fire! Yep, I was fresh out of film school with little acting experience. So I did a ton of research, suspended all activities other than glam rock ones; late mornings, blurry eyeliner, became a kind of ‘Our Lady of the Flowers’, to quote Jean Genet. I did appear on set however with well prepared sleeve notes. Ziggy/Hunky and early Roxy had been teenage territory. Toni Colette really helped me during filming, showing me where and how to move and stand in frame etc. which I really wasn’t aware of and she was such a wonderful person to hang out with. Ewan McGregor was enormous in the 90s but treated you like a complete equal. I’ve acted the fiction of being a sensational rock star, my embalmed alter ego is now moth balled and hermetically sealed for posterity. What do you make of the film’s recent re-appraisal – it was panned at the time but now it’s considered a cult classic A lot of the film heavyweights liked it at the time and have consistently sung its praises over the last 20 years, which has contributed to its legacy, plus Todd Haynes is now seen as a 24-carat auteur. 1998 wasn’t ready for a kaleidoscopic pansexual odyssey. Velvet Goldmine truly tapped into a teenage hormonal feeling, so the audience is responsible for its longevity I think, people have grown old with it and new fans have discovered it. You had quite a lot of success making electronic music as The Bowling Green but then switched tack to making more song-based stuff. What’s the story there? The music I was making was becoming increasingly filmic, so I moved into movie sound tracks for a while and did two film scores and a few documentaries with my brother; acclaimed director Wash Westmoreland (Still Alice, Colette). One of them, Echo Park L.A., won best drama at Sundance in 2006! I was becoming more attuned to a literary narrative and was listening to Dylan’s Time out of Mind and Beck’s Sea Change at the time – couple that with improvements in technology that weren’t so reliant on sampler and keyboard. I started playing much more guitar again, my first love and now my primary instrument for writing. You made a couple of albums under your own name but then formed Micko & The Mellotronics – your first ‘band’ project. What was the thinking behind that move? I was very much used to working on my own. I made a couple of solo albums, one which Terry Edwards (P.J. Harvey/Holy Holy) released on his Sartorial label called ‘Wax & Wayne’, and ‘Yours Etc Abc’, on my own Landline records imprint, which I believe was the main unconscious projection into putting a live act together. The person doing PR for it asked, ‘Who’s in the band?’ When I realized I didn’t have one, it made sense to look for folk to start pushing sounds around. How would you sum up the band to someone you hadn’t heard you before? Can you name us a few bands that have influenced its sound? We get compared to the Buzzcocks quite a lot, I’ll take that. I’ve loved Magazine since teenage, Television too. I also dig Serge Gainsbourg majorly and bands like The Silver Apples. I’m really into Iso Tomita, the 70’s electronic musician and of course Mr. Eno too. People have commented that the double A side, soon to be released, is like early Genesis but I think it’s much closer to The Rutles. Patrick from R.O.C. said there was violence to the sound. I do pride the writing on an intricacy and eccentricity but without getting prog about it. Talk us through the Mellotronics members and their individual flavours... Nick Mackay a friend referred me to. He was playing in a two-piece called ‘Barricades’, and was clearly a very good drummer, real flare as a player/performer and had the magic ingredient for any band – he was a thoroughly decent chap you could spend a ton of time with. Jon Klein is our very own rock star hiding in plain sight. He has a CV better than the rest of us put together: Banshees, Sinead O’Connor to name a few and of course his own band Specimen. I lent Jon my amp when we were on the same bill. I gave him a copy of my previous album and he contacted me the next day, which I considered a big thumbs up. He’s very quick, obscenely talented and has revolutionized day-to-day working practice. In short a turbo charged V12 engine has been carefully placed inside a Hillman imp, with fresh brake pads added. Vicky Carroll the bassist also came through personal referral, Haydn Hades who does stand up. At the time she was playing in a band the ‘Owls of Now’, a very bright lady indeed. She really got what the band was about and had great style. The dynamic of now the band get on and its chemistry is essential to longevity. Having a woman on board was important to us, so we really lucked out by finding such a smart cookie in Vicky. So far, you’ve shared ‘The Finger’, your first single, and now two new tracks, which will (eventually) be released as a 7” single. Talk us through ‘Noisy Neighbors’ and ’You Killed My Father’. Noisy Neighbours came about from my experience with dealing with serial complainers whilst living in a housing co-op. We shot the video with filmmaker Ashley Jones (www.thechaoesengineers.com) in the next door location the inhabitants of the song were occupying, so we had to be quiet. Of course some complaints are genuine but most were more telling of the complainant than complainee. There are control issues, which come about as a result of trying to micromanage your environment beyond your own four walls. I wanted to make a witty statement about that without being over critical or condemning. Raising a single eyebrow over that type of behavior. ‘You Killed My Father’, the double A side was inspired by Neil Innes R.I.P. (Monty Python, Bonzo Dog, The Rutles). So of course I was thrilled when he agreed to play on it. I was introduced to him through an artist friend Harry Pye. We inadvertly created a supergroup together called the Spammed and meet up once a year to record for the Teenage Cancer Trust. Last session Tony Visconti produced a cover of Bolan’s ‘Get it on’, for us. It comprises, Rat Scabies (The Damned), Horace Panter (The Specials), Neil when he was with us and actor/comedian Kevin Eldon on vocs, I play guitar. The song relates to my childhood, growing up in Leeds and has a Shakespearean quality. I checked the prose with an expert to make sure I hadn’t over egged the pudding. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_5iswf8GG6o You seem to be able to attract some interesting names to collaborate with - Horace Panter of The Specials and the late Neil Innes recently, but also members of The Blockheads, Madness, Stranglers and Goldfrapp in the past. Who would be top of your collaborative wish list? I’d love to do something with Eno again. We became friendly during the mid nineties. I was tutored by him, whilst working on an art show called ‘Self Storage’ with Laurie Anderson but never made it into the studio. A wild card like Wendy Carlos, famed for the soundtrack of ‘A Clockwork Orange’ would be great too. Likewise, your videos have featured some interesting names from British comedy… What do they bring to the party? Anyone else you’d like to get on board if you had free reign? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pDr7nkOQN9Q All the comedy connections came from Kevin Eldon initially, a super bright and truly wonderful guy. He introduced me to Paul Putner at a Specials gig. Paul’s a brilliant bloke and really likes the band. He found the remarkable Suzy Kane for us. All three have taken excellent roles. Suzy had a lot of input in Noisy Neighbours, suggesting wardrobe and even shots to Ashley as we were making it; we really have had tremendous fun with our contributors. Obviously, Chris Morris would be fantastic but I’m a little afraid to knock. We hear the debut M&TM album is close to completion – what have you got in store for us? A psychedelic mish mash of fable, sound collage and idea. With the new single, 3 of the songs are now out there. On a musical front Horace Panter out of The Specials has guested on a couple of tracks for us and of course we have one of Neil Innes’ last performances too. I’ve written a song about Imelda Marcos, she seemed like a person who was way ahead of her time, a modern template for a highly manipulative battle-axe. I have an author friend in his 60s who’s an eminent psychologist, (Georg Eifert - Anxiety Happens) so I wrote a song called ‘The Fear’, with a lot of his theories in mind. There’s also one too called ‘Sick and Tired’, it’s not about what I’m eed up about, but like Noisy Neighbours it’s a comment about complaint. When writing I try to look at what gets talked about by everyday people and base some of the songs around those themes. Earwig on phone conversations on buses, pick up discarded bits of paper, when you get into the habit you’ll be amazed what you find. So I get on the 38 and set my brain to record. There’s also a fair amount about growing up on the record too, which I hope all can relate to. I think you have to start with a good idea, that’s on any level otherwise you’re unlikely to get far. From my art college days I got into the habit of noting things down, if you don’t it often escapes you. It’s difficult to marry a multitude of ingredients and let’s face it the world is full of plenty, pair it down and make it resonate. Anyone who tells you otherwise is telling porkies. To make something that stands the test of time is more difficult still. But I’m not afraid of the work and I enjoy ‘the doing’, for me that’s what it’s all about. I believe that as individuals we have a natural tendency to evolve, if we choose to see it that way and trust, it’ll ‘self fulfill’. If you’ll allow yourself to tap into that expansion creatively, you’ll always find inspiration. Micko & The Mellotronics release 'Noisy Neighbours / You Killed My Father' on Landline Records on April 17 with the 7" single schedule to hit the shops on June 27. Read the full article

#MELLOTRONICS

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ramblesandmumblesofanerd · 7 years

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Occasional Mumble: Transformers: The Last Knight Review

Warning: Lengthy Post Which Includes Spoilers

Transformers certainly has come a long way since the mid-1980’s. Not only is the original cartoon series hailed as one of the many staples of the era, but several cartoons and comics have been created to keep the franchise fresh and alive ever since, for better or worse. I’ve gone into excruciating detail about one of the good pieces of the franchise, More Than Meets The Eye, in some of my earliest posts, but now it is time to talk about the ever present mediocre portion of the franchise; the live action films, or more specifically the most recent addition: Transformers: The Last Knight.

The “basic” plot of the film is as follows: Optimus Prime has left Earth to find his creator, who hired a bounty hunter to apprehend the Autobot leader and kill anyone else who stood in his way. He eventually meets the being known as Quintessa, the “Prime of Life”, who has turned the ravaged, war torn planet of Cybertron into a vessel currently on a collision course with Earth. Quintessa, enraged by Optimus’s participation in Cybertron’s destruction, brainwashes him into thinking that the only way to revive his home world is to drain Earth of it’s energy, which will subsequently kill the oldest enemy of Transformer kind: Unicron.

Meanwhile, Transformers have been declared public enemy number one by all but the Cuban governments, and are now being hunted down. Cade Yeager (the protagonist from the previous film played by Mark Walberg) is considered the highest on the list due to aiding and abetting the Autobots, and has now discovered a talisman from a dying Cybertronian that may be the key to stopping Quintessa from destroying the Earth.

Now that the basics have been addressed, let’s talk about pros versus cons. Believe it or not, in spite of most reviews, there are actually some points of merit in this film (at least from my perspective). Firstly, this film does attempt to have continuity with the previous films by showing locations and Easter Eggs from said films, though this is executed in an admittedly sub-par manner. Secondly, and more surprisingly, the film is written in a way that allows the Transformers, good and bad, to have more screen-time in comparison to their human allies/enemies. This has been an issue in previous films, as audiences were more interested in the title characters than the persistently lukewarm human characters. While it is necessary to have human characters for the audience to relate to, if they have more screen-time and speaking lines than the giant robots who are supposed to be the starring characters, there is a problem. Speaking of the robots, some of the characters were actually written in a way that made them tolerable. John Goodman’s Hound is as much in top form as he was in Age of Extinction, being both amusing and actually competent on the battlefield. Another robot I enjoyed was the “Headmaster” Cogman (you’ll see why I put quotations around that later). Played by Jim Carter, this four foot tall clockwork robot butler acts as a supporting, slightly comedic character with psychopathic tendencies. He had some genuinely funny moments and lines which made him probably the most enjoyable character out of the roster.

Now, no more beating around the bush. This is a Michael Bay Transformers film, so there are plenty of cons to talk about, and not the ones from Cybertron. First and foremost, there are plenty of aspects in this film that are not addressed or explained. As seen in the trailers, Bumblebee has this miraculous new ability to literally pull himself back together after being broken. I thought for sure this would be explained as Cade using his technological skills to make some sort of magnetic deus-ex-machina device, but no. Also, certain fangasm inducing aspects appear in the film, but are never utilized to the fullest extent, like Cogman’s Headmaster ability, which allows a small robot like him to become the head of a larger body. There were even some rumors spreading prior to the movie’s release about Cogman ripping the head off one of the Decepticons and taking the body as his own. But, unfortunately these rumors were either false, or the concept was scrapped. Another example is this submarine used to find a sunken Cybertronian vessel in the ocean. The submarine was declared a Transformer by the human characters, but not once did it transform into what could have been a massive robot, nor was it ever given a name. It might as well have been just a normal submarine. There are also other various unnamed/unmentioned Transformers scattered around the movie with no real purpose. If they had never been in the film at all, nothing would be different.

Also, the Decepticons are barely given any presence in the film, in spite of my previous statement about the robots getting more screentime. True, there was a moment when Megatron (yes, Megatron, not Galvatron) introduced his “crew” of the day, and his minions were given more character and actual voices rather than standard growls and snarls, but most of them are killed off in mere moments. Some of their names are absolutely silly as well, such as Mohawk, Nitro Zeus and Dreadbot. Not to mention one of them, poorly named Berserker, is not even allowed to join his Decepticon brethren on the battlefield, resulting in him being completely pointless in spite of having a toy out in stores before the film was even released. But none of this even matters anyway, as most of the Decepticons are killed mere moments after being introduced.

Speaking of villains with minimal explanation or presence, Quintessa was the most underwhelming antagonist right next to The Fallen from Revenge of The Fallen. She did absolutely nothing but provide exposition, act like a Tesla coil when she tries to drain the Earth, get shot by Bumblebee of all bots, and have a “surprise” appearance in a mid-credit scene to build up another sequel. If she had been replaced with a cinematic version of the Quintessons, the five-faced creators of the classic Transformers, I think the character would have had at least some impact on an Easter Egg level at least.

Even some aspects of the plot itself are absolutely ridiculous if not plain stupid. The magical MacGuffin in this film is a staff that was passed down from ancient Transformers to one human. That human was…(wait for it)...Merlin. Yes, Merlin the Wizard. The very same wizard who helped King Arthur claim the throne. Merlin is an actual character in this film, or at least in the beginning. And it gets worse from there, as Merlin has a family tree that has continued into the modern era, resulting in the second protagonist of the film (played by Laura Haddock) being a direct descendant of Merlin. If you just heard a small popping sound in your head, that was the sound of a few brain cells suddenly exploding from the absurdity of this set-up.

Finally, the Bay-isms. Good lord, the Bay-isms. These films persist in having poorly written characters, immature humor which never makes me laugh, nonsensical plot points and character motivations, and yet somehow gets away with it. Yes, the blame rests upon the shoulders of the audience and myself for watching these films in the first place, but the blame also rests upon the numerous writers for never providing audience members with something beyond this monotonous cycle. Many critics, both professional and amateur, have complained about the repetition of these elements, and yet neither the director, nor the writers have ever done anything to change or improve the formula since the first ever film back in 2007. While I am known to enjoy these films as what is classified as a guilty pleasure, even I have grown tired of the Bay-isms. However, maybe there is light at the end of the tunnel, as numerous sources say that Michael Bay may be leaving the studio, allowing future films in the franchise to hopefully be made under a more competent director.

In the end, Transformers The Last Knight is not a good film. I know, “shocker”. The story is both ludicrous and silly, and not even in the fun way, most of the characters are underdeveloped, poorly written or absolutely pointless and the “humor” is horrendously dull, never once receiving a laugh from me. There were points that intrigued me, but they were not enough to distract me from the glaringly terrible elements which loomed over the film like the planet Cybertron over Earth, except there was no hero to save this film from its collision with it’s own mediocrity. Hopefully the rumors of Michael Bay’s departure from the franchise are true in spite of Mark Wahlberg's insistence to the contrary, because there may be hope for future films if that is the case.

But in the meantime, never stop rambling, TM

#transformers: the last knight #review

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janelss · 6 years

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The Thing TM

Which you would get if you read the tags in the last post. Otherwise, scram, this is just a young adult finding somewhere to confide in. None of your business.

You’re still here? Of course you are. Curiosity killed the cat, but at least the cat died satisfied. Maybe. Idk. I’m just rambling. Having said that, strap in, because this is gonna be an interesting ride.

I think I started developing crushes at the age of 13. Crushes, infatuation, obsession, friend crush (look it up on Urban Dictionary), what have you. And honestly, as a growing, hormone-fueled teenager, I don’t think I ever found out the difference between all that. Hell, even now I’m still stumbling and bumbling, and I’m technically not a teenager anymore (time and tide can’t convince me to grow up on the inside if I don’t wanna).

The thing about my......infatuations -- to use the most accurate term -- was that I move on fast. You know the kids who liked the same guy all throughout high school or whatnot? Yeah, so not me. Some were fleeting, lasted maybe a month or two. The longest was probably half a year or so. Not the most loyal there, but hey, I had no obligations to be. I ain’t committed to anything.

Second thing you should know about me though, and this may be a little different in tone from the rest of this text, is that I personally believe my “loving mechanism”, as I called it for laziness to find a better word, is, at best, defective. It’s a funny notion, really, seeing as I have no problem feeling compassion, no problem sympathising and/or empathising, no problem acting and almost feeling human. But yeah, I think I really only started healing and learning to love, to start putting my heart into emotions, around the age of, maybe 16? And I assure you, it was not a steep incline. It was a leisurely stroll up a vaguely ascending slope, so to reach the end I still have some ways to go.

Sometimes, it gets tiring to feel and to love, y’know? And you know how a lot of love songs and whatnot like to sing about preferring to love than feel nothing at all (looking at you, Need You Now by Lady Antebellum)? Yeah, again, not me. I very much rather move on.

If there’s one thing I’m good at, though, it’s hurting. I’ve gotten very good at feeling it, dealing with it and moving on, in the two decades of my existence. Scarily good.

(Sometimes, I think I don’t move on not because I can’t, but because I don’t want to stop basking in the familiarity of hurt. For that brief masochistic moment, I feel.)

Great, now that we’ve gotten the dark bit out of the way, let’s get to the gossipy bit! So I’ve just broken off a relationship last month, and while I’ve moved on, I’m still a little hung up over it, and it is precisely because of how fked up my emotions and shit work.

Long story short, I was dating this guy who......while an okay guy, really is not my type, and definitely does not share similar ideologies with me. (Oh god, it feels so good to be able to be so blatantly honest here. There is literally zero person I can be completely, unbiasedly honest to about this at the moment, and it’s just sad. But I digress.) I was foolish (at the age of 19, hah! This is precisely why age shouldn’t be an indicator of maturity) and maybe a little too desperate in wanting a relationship at that time, more than I’d like to admit.

(My best friend saw right through it, y’know. She’s always been wise, in her own, sweet, naive and 100% not innocent way.)

I’m not proud of it. But in many ways, it is part of the reason why I still feel so hooked up over the relationship, even though at the moment we are in that awkward breakup stage of awkward avoidance, the one I’d dreaded, and I’d rather just forget any of this happened. I don’t want to think about it, but it is a constant feather sitting on my conscience. Not heavy enough to weigh it down, but with just enough substance to constantly remind me it exists and thus, annoy me to no end.

But now I have a different -- though admittedly a lot more lighthearted and happier -- problem to deal with. So there’s this guy (again, why does it always start with this sentence lmao). I’ve spent a good chunk of summer with him, bonding over kitchen times, Brooklyn 99, Last Week Tonight and mutual paper-thin tolerance for our then-flatmates’ less than satisfactory cleanliness with regards to the communal areas. (Also an almost unbelievable amount of cuddling and meme sharing (on my part), but eh that was much much later so it probably contributed less.) He is adorable (sometimes almost unbearably so) and just the right combination of all the things that always left me excited for him to come back from work every evening (my moron of a subconscious does not relinquish the opportunity to tease me about it, especially whenever I take it upon myself to prepare him dinner before he gets back). Suffice to say, like clockwork, I’ve developed a crush......again.

The only difference is, this time, it is a crush that happens after an actual, honest-to-god relationship. It may not have been one that worked out (well), but it was one nonetheless, and I did enjoy it while it lasted. Which meant I have essentially gotten the longing of a relationship out of my system, and can finally look at this through a slightly more objective lens.

So I also know for a fact that I am in no way ready for, and neither do I want, a relationship. Not at the moment, and not for the foreseeable future.

Don’t get it wrong; this is not me shutting off the whole relationship thing. This is me finally recognising when I am not actually ready to commit to something this big. I don’t want it to end in hurt again. I can deal with it. But him......I don’t want to hurt someone else again.

There is another question, one that bugs me a little less than it should. I have had, in the past, one occasion where I have developed a crush that, to this day, leaves me very confused as to the nature behind it. While I do not deny the possibility that I may be bi, I think the more likely scenario is that I am straight (not as much as a rod, but still within the line, at least), but developed a kind of friend crush/crush combo on this one friend of mine (this was as I was getting to know her). Which then leads me to question what I feel for this current friend crush/crush of mine.

So where does that leave me? Very Confused And Also Very Don’t Give A Damn, that’s where. I’ve been developing a laxer and laxer attitude to this over the years, an attitude of just go with the flow, because in a way, I’ve come to recognise that my crushing tendencies are like the tide; it comes and it goes, and I have literally zero control over it. In fact, to try to control it only makes things worse.

So yeah, guess that just leaves me with venting on Tumblr, because what better place to howl my heart out and finally achieve inner peace? ;)

Till the next time, I guess.

#the wolf howls #the wolf muses #bittersweet twenty

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