Ramble On…

May 31, 2003

So I got this new Led Zeppelin three CD thing, How The West Was Won… it’s loud. I mean… Bonham plays fargle-bargle LOUD. It’s a great live set, although 25 minute versions of “Whole Lotta Love” and “Dazed and Confused” are a bit much. There’s supposedly a DVD out too, but I didn’t see it at the sto’.

I can’t really talk about Led Zeppelin without a brief nod to the weird Tolkien lyrics and Crowley mysticism, so I will segue to local zine Arthur, which has a big feature on comic writer Alan Moore and his musings on magic and art. There’s also a great little tour journal about the Black Keys and their west coast touring stint for Sleater-Kinney. Fun anecdotes about both bands abound, and it is a must read for Janet Weiss fans (did ya know she’s related to Harry Houdini?) The entire issue is downloadable in PDF format.

It’s hard to talk about zines, Houdini and Arthur without a teeny plug for Platform, Elizabeth Genco’s quarterly zine about busking on NYC subway platforms. She’s got a breezy, conversational writing style covering her adventures playing fiddle for spare change as well as longer articles about Irish folk music (I learned the difference between a reel, a jig and a slip jig!). Her site has lots of sample articles and if you dig it you should drop a few bucks and get the full issues. While her web presence is pretty solid, I like the fact that Platform is still a paper product. I can carry it in my messenger bag and read it or whack people on the head with it. Can’t do that with a webpage.

It’s hard to talk about folk music and jigs and reels for me without briefly mentioning Richard Thompson, my single favorite folk artist. He just put out a pretty interesting record called “1000 Years of Popular Music,” where he covers… well, a 1000 years of popular music. Here’s his liner notes to this bizarre mixtape, which includes the oldest known English round and Britney Spears. I have it on order, I’ll get a full review once I get my dirty paws on it.

Posted in Eratta