Like A Virgin

Ok, so I woke up this morning at around 9.15 which meant the jet lag I had been experiencing for the past few days had all but left my system. Good start. By this time most of you in the U.K would have gone about your day and looking forward to your evening, but I had just woken up. After showering and getting dressed we; Martin, Colin and I made our way downstairs to the welcoming sound of Madonna singing about her childhood molestation. 'Like a virgin' has not left my head all day and still now (11.45pm) “I am making my way through the wilderness”.

Unfortunately I have been touched by little luck over the past 48 hours or so. I still have no accommodation from November 1st onwards which is getting getting increasingly worrying, and is only made worse by the fact I still have no job. Shit. But you all know me, somehow I will pull it off. No doubt about it, Penthouse flat, executive job, back rolling in twenties within a matter of weeks, and when the snow starts I will be at the top of the lift, strapped in and ready to blaze. But until then there's a lot that needs to be done.

So, while being touched for the very first time, I set out back into Vancouver to continue the search for the best deal on mobile phones for Whistler. Before we go any further, without trying to get a mobile in Canada you have no idea how difficult this can be. In no way can it be compared to phone shopping in the UK. There's no getting a cheap pay and go sim and topping it up and ringing your mum. Nah mate, none of that. I'm not even going to go into detail about this ridiculously hard task but for any Call of Dutiers reading this, think 'Mile High Club' on Veteran, and lets just say I didn't save the hostage.

Luckily in a number of the shops containing these pieces of shit mobiles there were 360's demoing both the new Rock Band and the new Guitar Hero. Thus calming the temper which ROGERS mobile had ensured. Both games are insanely good and will be one of my earliest purchases when established in whistler. I highly advise getting one if not both. My temper also dampened by the fact that I achieved top score on every song completed. Pretty surprising really due to the fact a ridiculous percentage of the population here in Vancouver are Asian.
There are also a lot of homeless people and prostitutes although they didn't put up much of a fight in the G.H rankings so it is hardly worth mentioning them.
Yeah so anyway this is my first post to the blog and is written on our last day in Vancouver. I will try to post more with actually interesting or humour stories but Martin insisted that I write one today, I will also edit the videos filmed before we left and upload all those worthy. Bring on whistler.

Have a sweet ass Halloween.

Stay Black.W X

Equality

“...People that Cuts a great dash at home when they come here [to America] the[y] tink it strange for the humble Class of poeple to get as much respect as themselves [but] when they come here it wont do to say I had such and was such and such at home [for] strangers here the[y] must gain respect by there conduct and not by there tongue... I know poeple here from [Ireland] that would not speak to me [there] if they met me on the public road [but] here I can laugh in there face when I see them...”

Extract of a letter from Patrick Dunny, Irish immigrant to Philadelphia during the Irish potato famine, dated 1847.

Vancouver Love

Well, on arrival in Vancouver, me and will saw at least 15 corner whores in the first 2 blocks, i still feel like i'm on the set of GTA 3 or something, looking around and seeing perfect locations for sniping or last stands. Today we saw 8 police cars, marked nd unmarked go nuts outside a 7:11 about something as well, heavy..

Anyway, leaving England ws pretty mental, Josh drove me and Will up, as well as Jack, George and Maddy being driven up by Andy as well, it was surprisingly emotional, in the nicest way possible, i'll miss these guys and some others more than anything, hopefully there'll be a visit on the cards!

We've been wondering around the last 2 nights, im in the bar below our hostel writing this at the moment, with a ridiculously hot barmaid waiting for us to tip her to hell and back.. We were also met by a livid New Zealand madwoman screaming from her bunkbed in our room as well. We've met a bunch of people as well which hs been sick, some weird hawaain called Decland who bought us some savage Canadian beer, and have been exploring all day with our hostel roomate Colin who has the most savage pimp suit i've ever seen and a girl Lori who we met at our arrival orientation who wears Vans chukkas, always a bonus! If the social element of our trip continues like this i'll be a very happy child..

Getting full time accomodation is still a total shit, hectic and annoying, phone calls met with voices i'd expect to hear off Fonejacker, scam city. All will be well once we're in Whistler village itself, this i am certain of. Productivity wise, we did manage to get a bank account sorted and a phone discount from some chinese women as well, as well s a couple of pitchers of beer. Alcohol in bars is annoyingly expensive here, still stoked on being given free everything on our plane journey though, almost makes up for it!

WILLS STUPID A KEY DOESN'T WORK PROPERLY, FUCK DIS.

I'll leave a better post with more humour and information when i have time, but here are some photos from our last meal with friends, drunken night of guitar hero and films at Wills and the trip to the airport. Mad love UK, thinking of you!
x

Cassis

So last night was a lot, a load of us went to Wills to play guitar hero drinking games and watch Josh Bryant throw up. Ended up being ridiculously good, i didn't even expect to inebriate myself the day before departure but there you have it, so much Bells whisky is in my body right now, i feel fucking wafty. It's savage to drink straight incidentally, don't try this at home.. Josh is driving me and Will up in a bit, as well as Jack, Andy, George and Maddy coming up in another car to say sweaty emotional goodbyes, i don't really know what to say, i am revolving on my axis. This is also probably the last post i'm going to write in this country, so that's pretty mental, me and Will have packed our lives into suitcases, printed our booking passes and it's suddenly all becoming far too real. I feel like such an excited little boy, but to be honest i reckon this is mainly me still being drunk. There were a lot of photos and videos from last night, expect these uploaded some time soon as well as from a few other events of late, to be honest for a last post this is pretty weak, i should probably write something emo about new beginnings etc, but i'll save that for pen, paper and the plane.

FAREWELL UK, MARTIN RUFFIN

ps.


hehehehehe

Mixtape No.1

Tracklist:

1. Jeniferever - Atlantis Arise!
2. Pennines - Demo 3
3. American Football - The One With The Wurlitzer
4. The Murder Of Rosa Luxemburg - Welcome, Lost Souls
5. Ghosts And Vodka - Andrea Loves Horses
6. Secondmonday - Create, Destroy, Rebuild
7. Bjork - Hyperballad
8. Atlas Sound - Quarantined
9. A Sunny Day In Glasgow - 5:15 Train
10. Blackalicious ft. Saul Williams - Release Pt. 2
11. Ólafur Arnalds - 3055
12. Godspeed You! Black Emperor - BBF3

http://www.mediafire.com/?zzwmxtj2g3o

I have to put my hard drive in my suitcase in a minute, so i thought i'd upload a couple of songs, this selection generally taking a kind of obvious instrumental/post rock/ambient angle, it's more a compilation for the insomniacs among us, i can imagine the perfect situation for listening to most of these being coming home alone, being too tired to function and too intoxicated to sleep.

The first song is off Jeniferevers older "Iris" EP, which along with their self titled EP i think is their best work, really driving rhythmically whilst retaining their eloquent, relaxed style, before Martins whispering vocals started to become in my opinion slightly annoying. Appropriately enough considering their Swedish location, this song makes me want to stride through snow under the Northern Lights or something, epic. Scandinavia really seems to have it dialled when it comes to coherent ambient delivery, Sigur Ros obviously being the best known example of this, but to have bands like Jeniferever, Mimas, Logh, Last Days of April amongst others all from the same stable is quite ridiculous, must be something in the water.

Pennines i've talked about a few posts back, but the track on here is one i have a feeling they don't play much anymore, it was on their myspace when they first set up, i just really like the first little guitar riff.

Considering Pennines' apparent influences, i felt it suitable to include a classic American Football song next, i suppose some would consider this a strange choice for a compilation compared to some of their better known, and probably better songs, but it still shows the Kinsellas ear for simple melody as being second to none, as far as an album closer goes it remains one of my favourites.

Welcome, Lost Souls was a track off of TMORL's last release(i think), a 3 track called Secret Bark Language, which represented a ridiculously sharp departure from their previous angular jazz influenced musical assault Everyones In Love And The Flowers Pick Themselves, if you're wondering how that sounds think The Plot To Blow Up The Eiffel Tower meets Converge or something. Anyway, this 3 track was a far more melodic record, with sparse, monotone nonsensical vocals replacing the rasping shouts of before. If anything it sounded like a totally different band, and the progression from this sound to Andrews solo project House of Brothers is really evident in the change in songwriting approach.

The next song is one of my favourite pieces of guitar playing of all time, just a short acoustic track on an obscure Kinsella side project, Victor Villareals alternate tuning, finger picking and just uniquely creative approach to the guitar remains unparalleled, there's more to life than shredding. I think Victor took a load of heroin and "retreated from the public eye", but check www.myspace.com/noyess to hear his most recent work.

Secondmonday released Imagery back when they were about 18 or younger i think, and i remember listening and thinking they were basically making music as a band that i thought i would've ended up writing had i been able to form a band were it not for the scarcity of like minded musicians in the area. How they all came together in one place and formed something so creative and mature at that age still induces small town resentment in me. This is the only instrumental track on their album, therefore doesn't really represent their overrall style too well, but to be capable of writing this within an album of energetic progressive indie esque stuff at that age is ridiculous. They've been quiet over the past couple of years, probably smoking a lot of weed and playing a bunch of shows in Germany, but hopefully they'll be back soon. Small fact as well, i once put them on in Tenterden Town Hall of all places.

Hyperballad is infinitely good if you wake up to semi naked strangers dancing around your house at 6 am to it after a party, that is all i have to say.

I've been getting well into Atlas Sound lately, which is Bradford from Deerhunters side project, he seems to have a knack for inducing you into an almost hypnotic state with his music, the amount of times i've had it on my headphones whilst in an alternate mental dimension lately has been a lot. This song is off his first album Let The Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel, which is in my opinion far better than anything Deerhunter has or will release. Annoyingly(for me) he is a devout religious douchebag, can't fault his composition skills though.

A Sunny Day In Glasgow are in the same vein as Atlas Sounds trippy atmospheric sound, yet are actually not a home bedroom solo project, but a 5 piece from Philadelphia. I don't know how or when their album came into my possession, but it did, and whilst being a little less accomplished in style than some other purveyors of the art, it's striking in its own way, they're still relatively small so should be worth a little check out.

With Release Pt. 2, off Blazing Arrow by Blackalicious I don't know why i'm still writing as so few people will read this far if at all, but i felt i should explain putting this song on my compilation, considering in a generally post rock/indie line up it's by a hip hop act, off a hip hop album. This is just a part of one song which i cut up in Wavelab, and features the spoken word skills of Saul Williams. I find this sort of music fascinating, just interesting speech in tracks, or commentaries, something like this i remember coming back to far more often than other far more catchy tracks on the album. Lyrical eloquence of an almost poetic realm is rare to see on a lot of modern commercial hip hop, but the imagery Saul paints in this is incredible, i don't know, maybe i'm alone in this but it just does something for me.
My hands hurt.

Olafur Arnalds plays piano and writes other stuff. He played with Yndi Halda a while back, tickets sold out and i stayed at home crying into my post rock pillow. DYNAMIC

Godspeed are unquestionably at the forefront of this genre, and this song includes a field recording of an interview with a guy called Blaise Bailey Finnegan the Third, there's something so powerful about the way it's utilised so melodically and dynamically that gives me shivers. For some reason i recognise this song from when i was younger and i still have no idea why. It stuck out then and it still does now.


DO NOT EXPECT INFORMATION ON EACH SONG ON THE NEXT MIX I DO, THIS WAS A MISTAKE.
x

Dinner With Friends

Earlier this evening our friend Ellie kindly organised me and Will a leaving dinner with a bunch of friends in our hometown. Getting to see the most important people from our past in this place, most of them i'd known since first moving to Tenterden made quite a difference to this leaving process, and it was genuinely the best kind of closure, reminiscing on times gone by at school, sixth form and various private girls school parties we'd crashed over the years. All i can say is, eating Mexican food to the sound of Phoenix in Flight was not how i expected the last time i saw a lot of my friends to be, Ellie even provided a sick chocolate cake as well, some might consider this sort of exit twee or quaint but it was really what i think we wanted, just a chance for one last hangout, with no pressure or tension between anyone, in an environment we probably wouldn't get a chance to experience again in a long time, if ever.

Also, it's come to organisation that our friends are going to drive us to the airport now which should be sick, and i'm going to really struggle to resist a drunken emotional sendoff, immigrations officers ain't shit.. Pictures of the meal and this will be coming soon, i'll load them up as soon as they're in my possession. Big thanks to Ellie for hosting tonight, and Josh, Jack, Jake, Andy, George, Hannah, Maddy, Catherine and Paul for coming down, you'll be missed.


In other news, any Bjork fans might be interested in this album dedicated to her album Post, an absolute classic and one of the best showcases of her beautifully ethereal voice, it features covers of every track off the album from the likes of Xiu Xiu, No Age, Atlas Sound and High Places amongst others.

http://stereogum.s3.amazonaws.com/enjoyed/enjoyed.zip

Biography

A swathe of cutlasses in an empty room are the only comfort, these barbed words on hooks that never slip, unfaltering in this inescapable future.

Or an anachronism?

How highly we hold this past that we sip at, moist lips let what’s golden part their ineffectual filter, we know the glass contains a bitter aftertaste, taste buds conditioned to only our presumptuous affections,
Insistent, repellent, benevolent or malevolent? An element
of surprise as the mouth parts until we swallow pride as well as contrived justice. Stop.

Break away to applause, bow clouded by delusion, a rush as we raise our heads too quickly to take in the surroundings, at an outdoor conference of great minds all I see is
Sun in my eyes
and my own reflection in the heat haze

Take stock in this, last chance as we reel through the ages, too quickly advancing through used camera negatives and sheets of dirty glass.



And the room is empty again, characters in a glorified autobiography take their rightful place amongst the dotted cobwebs and unwashed sheets,

Past beckons futures,
Pictures become words,
Both become warm air between our lips, ventilation extends to the pores of concrete, inches yet miles apart, these histories are to be rewritten again and again,

I say i forget what happened

I will never know.

Mutual Friends

Today i got a new pair of skate shoes to replace my beaten to shit Lakais, off a very nice guy called Simon Peplow, who i only realised they were from after i received the box this morning. I've never met Simon but had been a fan of his art and skateboarding over the years from seeing him and his installations/projects in Sidewalk amongst other places. The reason this stood out to me is because i messaged him before buying(Ebay) mentioning that i was leaving the country Tuesday and he said he'd make sure they got to me on time, what i didn't expect was him paying £8 to send them special delivery, really good to see such genuine goodwill directed to someone he'd never met to fulfil a duty that wasn't really his responsibility in the first place. Just goes to show there's noone better than skateboarders! Incidentally, you can view his work here on his blog, quirky character based illustrations, buy some of his art or something!  

The shoes were a replacement in actual fact, i had a pair of Quiet Life edition Lakai Belmonts which have been the best skate shoes i've ever been blessed enough to do bonelesses in, if you see a pair anywhere i'd very much recommend them. 

I also stumbled upon a pretty cool website today which could yield good things for anyone out there interested in various mainly UK undergroundish indie acts, BSM esque stuff generally amongst other gems. Its called Beatcast TV and can be found here, there's currently live set videos of Dartz, Tubelord, Johnny Foreigner and Pennines amongst others, with ones from Blakfish, Cats X 3 and others soon. Pennines are currently one of my favourite UK bands, being in my opinion some of the catchiest melodic mathy indie available to loll your head about to along with Colour. Another reason why they're worth your time is they're all really sound guys, short anecdote but i remember putting Cinemechanica from America on and it going to shit, them being good enough to take me on tour with them for a few nights to make up for it, sessioning smart price beer and Tekken in their van(so so good) and making it to Norwich where Tristan from Pennines was putting them on. He ended up being really out of pocket at the show but remained genuinely stoked on getting a chance to see the guys play and let me crash at his flat with no warning or hesitation, and was a welcoming enough host to make me and another guest food, stay up and play Super Mariokart until the earlier hours and never get bummed out about the lack of turnout, something i always found impossibly infuriating to deal with. I have a feeling he was also the person who first introduced me to Mates Of State which deserves added kudos. You can check Pennines out on myspace here and watch this video of them from Beatcast below, for some reason it's recorded with barely any bass at all, but i'm sure you get the gist. Goodnight x

Reminiscing

Last time me and Will went on a snowboard holiday we were about 15 and ended up faking a death, covering a douchebags bed in crushed up pringles, shaving foam and hair gel, taking out James Brooks bunk bed rungs to maximum effect, sessioning schnapps and ending up on the roof of some hotel, trapping our teacher in his room with a bunch of beer kegs, and for the icing on the cake lifting out a passed out guy in our room on his mattress, carrying him through so many hallways and lifts and leaving him asleep outside a familys room where the husband wore a jockstrap, see photos below.. Expect equal and far improved mischief on this trip, we are older and far more creative these days. 

 

Introduction

Until tuesday, everything will have been the same, easy, monotonous, and dull, small town mentalities and more insanity. Me and my friend Will Duke Oddy are about to leave England for a new life away from everything we've known, our comfort zone is about to be blown into a million pieces, the wreckage under which i hope to learn something new about myself, everyone else and become a bit more cultured in the process. This is a huge step into the unknown for both of us and we intend to catalogue it all here when we have time, via the new sights, sounds, and senses that we are undoubtedly going to experience. I'm still totally clueless as to how much of this place i'm going to miss, and what it is that lingers at the back of my mind that still motivates me to leave behind everything i've worked towards, given up on then swallowed my pride and crawled back into bed with over the years. This is going to be a collection of our journeys and amongst them our thoughts, with as little censorship or romanticism as possible, i hope some of you will enjoy it.

Martin Ruffin