Dome w/ Angela Conway - "Cruel When Complete"
(Dome Records, 1980 / The Grey Area / Mute / Elektra Records, 1991 / The Grey Area / Mute, 1992)
I'm not much of a Wire fan at all, but this minimalistic side project of theirs was pretty intriguing, based on the few songs I've heard by it. For a song that's barely even there, it makes a pretty big impression. Too bad Wire couldn't capture this chilly, cinematic vibe in more of their own stuff.
I got this song 2 years ago on an interesting Mute Records compilation from 1991 called Tyranny Of The Beat. The CD booklet aptly describes this song as "elegant blocks of sweet noise free-floating through space." I have to wonder if this album was a big influence on A.R. Kane, Hugo Largo, Bark Psychosis, and other quiet, abstract groups that came along later in the decade.
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| Side A of Dome's 1980 self-titled debut LP. Note: The stripey block design is a grayscale version of the album cover itself. |
Angela Conway also recorded under the alias A.C. Marias, and released an album under that name on Mute in 1989 titled One Of Our Girls (Has Gone Missing). She is now "a successful music video director."
In 1991, Mute released a VHS home video concurrently with the Tyranny Of The Beat CD. It featured this Dome video, which could be described as the most hilariously botched soundcheck in recorded history, or as brilliant deconstructionist pop art:
Yikes... Hopefully Conway didn't "direct" that one...
Sunday, May 6: Made a last-minute decision to go to Jazz Fest, with Em & Damion. Had my dad watch the video for "Best Of You" right before he dropped us off. Delivered some cigars from him to Jeff in his patrol car outside the front gate of the fest right before going in. Saw the Foo Fighters' whole 2-hour set, which started off great, then sucked for a while, then ruled at the end with "Best Of You" & "Everlong." Moshing like crazy to the latter in the mud at End Fest '97 was one of the top highlights of my concertgoing life, so this time couldn't really hold a candle to that, but it was still good. I spent about an hour staring at this girl in the crowd who looked exactly like this sex blogger named Pocket, trying to determine if it was her. Speaking of candles, the Foos presented their guitarist with a birthday cake near the end, which marks the second time I've seen that happen in the last two weeks. Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings then stole the show in the Blues Tent. Also saw a bit of Maze, the Preservation Hall 50th anniv. celebration (with vox on a song called "Freight Train" by Ani Difranco), and the Neville Brothers (with a guest appearance by Trombone Shorty).
Went to the Mushroom that night on a hunch that Sam might be there, and she was. I had only seen her once in the prev. 6 months, and was worried that she no longer worked there. I brought some satsumas that I swiped from my parents' kitchen. She immediately strode up grilled me on why I was not at the free Roky Erickson / Thurston Moore show the previous night at One Eyed Jacks, and excitedly told me all about it. She got one of Thurston's lyrics sheets from the stage. I saw The Orb's first album (the abridged 1-CD version, unfortunately) in the used CD racks and recommended it, so she put it on, and all of its weird samples sounded amazing on their incredible surround-sound stereo system, with speakers in all the various nooks and crannies of the store. Got Hüsker Dü's Zen Arcade (double LP), a stunning Joy Division poster, and Pet Shop Boys' "It's A Sin" (7"). I rec'd Drive Like Jehu's Yank Crime to her, so hopefully she dug it. I think she and I must've been brother and sister in a past life.
They also had an amazing "Love Will Tear Us Apart" poster, which I was going to buy until I found the "Atmosphere' one.
Yesterday, May 8: My neighbor helped me take out this ugly 8x10 foot concrete slab in the backyard with just a 10-lb. sledgehammer, with a trick he taught me a trick in which you slightly raise part of the slab with a pry bar and then jam a rock under the slab. This forms an air layer underneath the slab, so it makes spiderweb cracks very readily when struck. So in a few minutes I singlehandedly turned that bitch into rubble with a few dozen hits, after procrastinating over it for a multitude of years. Sure wish I had video of that. A few hours prior to that yesterday, I took this snapshot in my car door's window before heading to a dollar store:
Today: He, my neighbor, gave(!) me a ~300-400 gallon pond liner that he had laying around. He had been using it as a satellite pond next to one of his other ones for about a year before removing it for some reason. I think May 2012 has probably been the best month of my life so far in terms of people doing considerate things for me and having illuminating conversations with me. I should mention this neighbor is often referred to as "the bird man" due to his extensive collection of birds in aviaries in his backyard. He's as big of a plant nut as I am, if not bigger, so we always talk about plants and landscaping philosophies, e.g. tree trimming, shade creation, propagation. Some of his big Live Oaks, which he planted 30 years ago, can be seen in the pic above. I'm not sure if I could ever move back to New Orleans after being spoiled by living out in the country since Katrina. But if I did, I would need a big fucking yard. The ones out here are about 5-20 times bigger than ones of houses of equivalent value in NOLA, which can be either a blessing or a curse, depending on one's enthusiasm for yard work and tree upkeep.
Jermaine Paul just won season 2 of a show called The Voice, which I don't watch. I had seen him singing backup vocals (& occasional lead vox during the numerous time when she was offstage changing outfits) at an Alicia Keys concert on St. Patrick's Day '04. You could practically hear the panties dropping around the New Orleans Arena every time the dude took the mic. (The crowd was probably 80%+ female.) My only qualm is that I'm not sure why a seasoned pro was allowed to be on an amateur singing competition. Check him out stealing the show in AK's song "Diary".
Millions Against Monsanto: The food fight of our lives - "Finally, public opinion around the biotech industry's contamination of our food supply and destruction of our environment has reached the tipping point. We're fighting back."
Love him or hate him, Bryce is here - "And let’s face it, his name is Bryce. BRYCE. That could only be more irritating if his parents had gone with EdHardyNickelbackCrocs." ... "Harper is self-aware enough to know he’s antagonizing you. He’s baseball’s version of the guy who sits at a stoplight blasting 'Sexy & I Know It' at unholy decibel levels, staring directly at you through the window of your involuntarily rattling Subaru."
Meet the former right-wing blogger who realized conservatives are crazy
Related:
Planets with similar climates: A.R. Kane - "The Madonna Is With Child" (1988), The Comsat Angels - "Restless" (1981), Mazzy Star - "Mary Of Silence" (1993), Low - "Shame" (1995), Slowdive - "Albatross" (1991), Sonic Youth - "Satan Is Boring" (~1984), Plexi - "Ordinary Things" (1996), Insides - "Yes" (1993), Chairlift - "Cool As A Fire" (2011), Bark Psychosis - "All Different Things" (1989).
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