The Counterforce No. 11
François Avril, Freya Beer, Rancid, Peter Hook, Off Register Press, and more...
Thursday evening I went to the opening reception of the new François Avril exhibition at Philippe LaBaune Gallery in New York City. I recommend going to see it if you’re in NYC between now and May 27th. It was a pleasure to meet Avril, who has long been one of my favourite artists.
Images from the exhibit:
I first discovered Avril’s work one day in Brussels in 2010. I was shopping at Arlequin, the ace record shop just up the street from Manneken Pis (the fountain of the little boy peeing), and decided to go check out the Jacques Brel museum around the corner. Very cool. And walking out the door and down the road a little, I happened upon the Plaizier shop which had a lot of great art on display. I went in to look at some more and found a postcard of Avril’s Leica print. Which to this day remains one of my favourite illustrations.
I also picked up an Avril postcard of the very street I was on.
Since then I’ve bought Avril’s books wherever I can find them, often having to order them from Brussels. His Paris-Tokyo-New York-Bruxelles book is beautiful, and I was very happy to flip through his two new ones at the gallery, 324 Dessins and François Avril: Art Book. Will be picking them up soon. I’m also still looking for his S.A. Doppelganger comic from the 80s.
In 2011, I was overjoyed when Avril said he would draw the cover for my AUNTIE EP. I had an image in my head of a bed parked on a city street as if it were a car, with empty bottles, both alcoholic and pill, surrounding it, as if a night out had taken a very strange turn. I love what he came up with. The EP features two of my favourite songs of mine, sung by two of my favourite singers – Goolkasian from The Elevator Drops and Mikey Georgeson from David Devant & His Spirit Wife.
A good start to my birthday week (actual day is Monday). Things were then amped up several notches on Friday morning when I received a large envelope in the post marked ‘fan mail’. Opening it to reveal this poster signed by Peter Hook himself. SO. FREAKING. AWESOME. I had sent him a copy of The Ballad Of Buttery Cake Ass a few months ago as, in the book, Hans Floral Anderson and Becca perform an acoustic version of ‘Ceremony’ at their wedding, and a major plot point in the book is similar to something that happened with Joy Division and their An Ideal For Living EP. I actually didn’t know that story until I listened to the audiobook of Hooky’s Unknown Pleasures: Inside Joy Division book last year, which is excellent. With JD/NO being two of my favourite bands of all-time and having read so much about them as a teenager, I stupidly thought I knew the whole story. How wrong I was. And to hear Hooky tell the tales himself on the audiobook, with all the passion, struggles, and - it must be said - humor, is fantastic. Highly recommended.
The best song I heard this week was ‘Fantasy’ by Freya Beer. Glad to see she’s putting new stuff out. I dug her Beast album from 2021, which is on the goth side of rock. This new one, however, is strictly the latter. A very cool strut. B-side ‘Galore’ is worth a listen too. Freya gets away with using “tangerine dream” as a lyric where most wouldn’t.
Also enjoying the latest single by The Dollyrots. I’m still on my Rancid kick and came across it trying to find more songs by Tim Armstrong I haven’t heard. Saw that The Dollyrots did a very good version of ‘Ruby Soho’. And their latest reminds me of Fluffy (anyone remember them?) and a bit of Kenickie.
Found these two Rancid documentaries on YouTube. The first is from recording the Let The Dominoes Fall LP and ‘Give ‘Em The Boot’ takes in a bunch of other Hellcat bands, live footage plus behind-the-scenes including Rancid doing an acoustic version of ‘No Fun’ with Iggy Pop. So looking forward to the new album in June!
This week I also found myself with a rare spare couple of hours in the evening. I had been once again flipping through Shelly Bond’s excellent Filth & Grammar: The Comic Book Editor’s (Secret) Handbook – a must-read if you’re thinking of getting into the comics game. Which led me to checking out the rest of her Off Register Press site. Now, you know I’m a sucker for fake bands, and a fictitious Britpop hopeful only furthered my intrigue. So I snatched up Geezer, which in physical format is the size of a 7” sleeve, a nice touch.
The art is great and the story takes you in in a quite unexpected way. Except for the awesome drummer Jess, none of these characters are likeable. Main man Martin Bland is trying to ride the coattails of the new movement without any discernible talent other than the ability to perform a somewhat passable pastiche of the generic form. Egos and desperation play out in equal, very large, measures. But within all this, there’s something that rings really true, not only to this particular scene, but all scenes in general. The thousands of hopefuls who failed to achieve their dreams. The difficult personality traits that can just as easily lose you all your friends as propel you to stardom. The attempts to glamorize it all. Issue #1 is very much an introduction, but I’m on board to see where it goes next.
After that I quickly bought Heavy Rotation, featuring illustrated recollections of the heyday of college radio, the 80s. Recalling all the trials and tribulations of just getting yourself on air, those lonely first all-night shifts, and the strange rules (the dot system) stations had for playlists. The sense of it all being a mission to immerse yourself in completely, this need one had to share the soundtrack you felt deep in your soul. There’s a good history of the format at the beginning, and some interesting trivia along the way. I must’ve known who ‘Left Of The Dial’ was written about, but this time I went and actually listened to the band in question. Something I’d been meaning to do for years. And oh what a great era that was, and how wonderful for us as listeners too. That feeling of hearing a song you wouldn’t hear anywhere else and then having to wait - or call in - for the DJ to tell you who the artist. I know all radio worked like that but for college stations it took on monumental importance. Those were the days…
I’m still trying to get The Ballad Of Buttery Cake Ass into all the cool book and record shops across the globe. I kicked off the tour back in February in Cleveland and joked at the end of my talk that maybe one day Buttery Cake Ass will find themselves in the Rock N Roll Hall Of Fame. And kept that in the talk for the rest of the tour. Earlier this week I remembered that the Rock Hall does indeed have a fine book selection in their shop. So I emailed them. If anyone wants to try and order it from them to help the cause, much appreciated. Their email is info@rockhall.org
SEVEN SONGS
Joy Division - ‘Ceremony’. What I love about the Still version of ‘Ceremony’ is that it comes in with the band already playing, as if we have to catch up to them. And I can’t think of a better metaphor for Joy Division.
Chin Chin – ‘Never Surrender’. I keep wanting to write more about Chin Chin. Such a fantastic band. Early 80s Swiss punk, like a more raucous version of Dolly Mixture. Great melodies, great energy
Trading Queens - ‘Gone and Done It’. A project by Jordan Benik during early pandemic times before he started Trick Gum. Such a killer chorus. I wish there was an official release
Elvis Presley - ‘Bridge Over Troubled Water’. Do you know Elvis’ version? It’s fantastic. That piano…
Tim Armstrong - ‘Into Action’. This isn’t the type of tune I would normally become obsessed with but I’ve been listening to this non-stop the past coupla weeks. It’s a good motivator too, there’s so much that needs to be done these days. Great vocals from Skye Sweetnam
Fluffy - ‘I Wanna Be Your Lush’. As mentioned above. I always loved this song. Never saw the video before, don’t think it ever got played in the States. I remember going to see them at T.T. The Bear’s in Cambridge, MA, summer of 1997. There were rumours it was going to be a violent punk gig so I left my glasses at home so they wouldn’t got broken. Funny to think that now. The show wasn’t that rough, though I couldn’t see all that well
The Soft Close-Ups - ‘Losing My Place’. This was the first song David & I wrote for the City Air album. I’ve been playing it a lot lately on my acoustic and recorded a version last week. You can hear the original here.