Some fine record covers forthcoming from Robert Pollard:
The top one’s for a 45, the other two for LPs. My Mind Has Seen the White Trick is a particularly good album title.
Vicious implements
For Father’s Day, my daughter sent me an official set of Sid Vicious pencils. They were created for the current Punk: Chaos to Couture exhibition at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
For the record, I saw Sid perform, backed up by ex-New York Dolls Jerry Nolan and Killer Kane, at Max’s Kansas City in September of 1978. A couple of weeks later he went to jail after stabbing and killing (allegedly) his girlfriend Nancy Spungeon. A few months after that, while out on parole, he died of misadventure. I’m not sure he ever made it to the Met.
It is divine
If you’re unfamiliar with the Robert Pollard catalogue, I have composed this Spotify mixtape for your benefit (and my own amusement). It skews heavily toward the Pop in Pollard’s “Four Ps” (the other three Ps being Punk, Prog, and Psychedelic), but it is spring, after all. Play it loud.
Supersonic
My ears started hemorrhaging today, and only later did I discover that My Bloody Valentine had released a new album, their first in 21 years. Now that’s something.
It’s available at the band’s site.
Dinner in paradise
From a 1950s ad for Del Monte green beans:
Men at work
I’ve recently become very fond of Paul Newman’s 1970 film of Key Kesey’s epic novel Sometimes a Great Notion. The style of the film (curt and compressed) couldn’t be more different from the style of the book (garrulous and sprawling), but somehow both styles work for the story. The best parts of the film are the scenes of logging. They’re understated yet thrilling. It’s a shame Newman didn’t do more directing.
