Happy new year/blwyddyn newydd dda i chi/to you! Hope everyone had a good holiday break (if you had one).
Mine gave me a bit more time than usual to watch and read things so I just wanted to make a couple of quick recommendations…
First is the Elliott Smith documentary - ‘Heaven Adores You’. It’s a really beautiful and informative portrait of a man and his music. I came to Smith really late (about 5 years ago), despite having been taken to a tribute night to him in a bar in New York, by Emily Wardill, back in 2004 to mark the first anniversary of his passing. As I recall, it was an enjoyable night of music, but the importance of it somehow passed me by completely. Anyway, if you’re in the same position of having not yet discovered this incredible musician, you could do worse than watch this documentary as an intro.
From the sublime to the ridiculous (no offence), I highly recommend the ‘Rammstein: In Amerika’ documentary. Much like Smith, this is a band that had passed me by until recently. I’ve known OF them, obviously - it’s impossible not to. I’ve just not listened to them or paid them much attention. But this documentary is ace. And now I REALLY want to see them live (I was talking to a mate about this who casually mentioned that he saw them at Hammerstein Ballroom in New York back in 1999!)
Then a third documentary I’ve just watched is ‘Moments Like This Never Last’ about Dash Snow. I’ve always been interested in Snow and liked what I’ve seen of his work, but I’ve also been guilty (I think) of falling in to being a bit dismissive - believing the ‘well, he was just another privileged kid playing at being gritty wasn’t he?’ rhetoric. This is another documentary that does a good job of unpacking something of the mystery around someone and just showing the vulnerable, messed-up, creative, individual with a drive to make stuff. I’m inherently drawn to anything DIY and, so far as we can see from this film, his career was genuinely built on a DIY approach to making, until such a time he got swept up by the machine. Inspiring and sad in equal measure.
The last two are books (Xmas presents, unsurprisingly).
The first is Bob Mortimer’s autobiography, ‘And Away…’ We all love Bob Mortimer, right? What a beautiful human being. It’s a funny, engaging, fascinating insight into the journey he’s been on. It even made me go and watch his fishing programme with Paul Whitehouse, a programme I’d avoided up until now for various reasons. I pretty much exclusively read autobiographies/biographies, and many turn out to not be that interesting, but this one is great.
Finally, DH Peligro’s, ‘Dreadnaught: King of Afropunk’. I feel like I need to preface this recommendation with a warning - it’s not an easy read. It’s a very honest description of a life that’s seen the lowest-lows of drug addiction, which can make for some pretty tough reading. But the fact he’s been so honest in it is to his credit. For those that don’t know, he was the drummer in the Dead Kennedy’s and the Red Hot Chili Peppers (amongst others), so has had a really interesting life musically-speaking. One of the things I found fascinating is how little those bands realistically feature in the book, as they were always something happening in the background to his addiction. Anyway, a fascinating read.
(…an aside. I had a chance to buy this book from the man himself in a cafe in L.A. The last time I was there, another friend was doing a reading from her book as part of a night of readings by punk musicians and he was on the bill. He was great. And honest. And engaging - just as the book is - but I was too star-struck to go and buy the book from him. So it’s taken me another three years to finally get it and read it).
There we are. If you’ve any recommendations, feel free to leave them in the comments.