Human Race

Afro-beat-down

Halloweenies

teenage affections

(i think this picture looks like the upstairs to the worlds end pub in camdem?)

What a burger!

Turning Old

Pre - Nodzzz stand up, strange times?

Watching Nodzzz

When Bob met Betty!

We have a new kitten called Betty Summers, she is rad and amazing
addition to the family!

Fist

Girl Gang

Tony says yes to Rocky Erickson

Jodie joined The Horrors

GG Forever

new blog

http://nowthatswhaticalldudeculture.blogspot.com/

with posts from your favourite London/Brighton party dudes!

Enjoy xo

1/2 year best of list....

It always comes to December and i have great chance to write a good End-Of-Year list but i forget what came out during the year and what i bought? So I'm starting early with a first half of the year run down of the stuff thats been spinning on my stereo and making London's public transport bearable on my ipod.

LP's

The Beets - Spit In The Face (captured tracks)
Billy Childish - Archive From '59 (damaged goods)
Charlie & The Moonhearts - Thunderbeast (red handed)
DOOM - Born Lik eThis (lex)
Eat Skull - Wild & Inside (siltbreeze)
Eddy Current Suppresion Ring - Primary Colours (goner)
Finally Punk - Casual Goths (germs of youth)
Fresh & Onlys - S/T (castleface)
Ganglians - Monster Head Room (weird forest)
Grass Widow - s/t (makes a mess)
The Hospitals - Hairdryer Peace (self)
The Intelligence - Fake Surfers (in the red)
The Intelliegnce - Crepuscle With Pacman (born bad)
Jeff Mangum - Live @ Jittery Joe's (twin orange)
Marked Men - Ghosts (dirtnap)
Mi Ami -Watersports (touch & go)
Narrows - New Distances (deathwish)
Nodzzz - s/t (whats your rupture)
Obits - I Blame You (sub pop)
Pissed Jeans - King of Jeans (subpop)
Sex/Vid - Communal Living (dom america)
Strange Boys - And Girls Club (in the red)
Thee Oh Sees - Help (in the red)
Thee Oh Sees - Dog Poison (captured tracks)
Triumph of Lethargy Skinned Alive to Death - Bird Songs (teardrops)
Ty Segall - Lemons (goner)
Vaselines - Enter The Vaselines (sub pop)
The Very Best - Warm Heart of Africa (moshi moshi)
Women - s/t (jagjaguwar)
Woods - Songs of Shame (woodsist)
V/A - Worlds Lousy With Ideas Vol 8 (almost ready)
V/A - Legends of Benin (Analog Africa)

E.P's, 7"s and Splits

The Bitters - East 7" (captured tracks)
The Bitters - Wooden Glove 12" E.P (captured tracks)
Brilliant Colours - 2 song 7" (captured tracks) & 4 song 7" (makes a mess)
Christmas Island - 19 / 29 7" (captured tracks)
Cold Pumas / Male Bonding split 7" (faux discx)
Cold Pumas - Jela 12"(hungry for power)
Cult Ritual - all 3 eps (youth attack/drugged conscience)
Dum Dum Girls - 12" ep (captured tracks)
Fucked Up - year of the Rat 12"(whats yr rupture)
Ganglians - 2 song 7" (captured tracks)
German Measles - Wild 12" E.P (captured tracks)
Graffiti Island - s/t 7" (house anxiety)
Grass Widow - 12" E.P(captured tracks)
Jacuzzi Boys - Ghost Ghost 7"
Male Bonding / Eat Skull split 7" (toughlove)
Not Cool - Wonderful Beasts 7"(sleep all day)
Real Estate - Fake Blues 7"(half machine)
Spectrals - 2 song 7" (captured tracks)
Ty Segall / Thee Oh Sees split 7" (castleface)
V/A GG Allin Tribute 7" w/ Fair Ohs, Graffiti Island, Male Bonding & Pens (IBB)
V/A Artfag Split 7" w/ Graffiti Island / Dum Dum Girls / Pens / Crocodiles split (artfag)
V/A PV! #04 7"w/ Graffiti Island / Male Bonding / Old Blood / Rapid youth (paradise vendors)
V/A Worlds Lousy With Ideas Vol #7 w/ Eddy Current Supression Ring / UV Races / Super Wild Horses / Straight Arrows 7"(almost ready)

Tapes

An Emergency - Wrecked Angles (suplex)
Black Time - Greatest Hits (self)
Black Time - Eine Kleine Trashmusik (self)
Black Time - East Bay Rays (self)
Cheaters - Magic Weapons e.p (paradise vendors)
Explode Into Colour - The Sean Rocky Zach and Dekum Tape (self/krs)
German Measles - Demos (captured tracks)
Light Sleepers - 4 track e.p(suplex)
Male Bonding / Fair Ohs - Live in London (IBB)
Nodzzz - Live New Years Eve 12.31.08 (whats yr rupture / self)
Spectrals - 4 track e.p(suplex)
Teen Sheikhs - First 4 Months (suplex)
Traditional Fools - s/t (burger)
Watt Makes a Man Start a Band - v/a (shabeen scene)

The following Mississippi Records Tape Comps (all downloaded as out of print)

House of Broken Hearts 1 & 2 - MRC 1 + 2
We're Gonna Make It - MRC 03
Everybody Wants To Go To Heaven, But Nobody Wants To Die - MRC 04
Death Just Might Be Your Santa - MRC 06
Trust Your Child - MRC 07
Wrong Time To Be Right - MRC 08
Chaabi Music From Al-Maghrib - MRC 09
Way Up The Hill - MRC 10
Black Plastic Singing Flats - MRC 11
A Little Bit Of Hurt - MRC 12
Samba Trist - MRC 14
Afraid Of The Dark - MRC 16
Fables Of Fabulous - MRC 19
It Happened - MRC 33

Old Stuff & Reissues


Abner Jay - The True Story of Abner Jay (mississippi)
Daniel Owino Misiani& Shirati Band - Benga Blast (earthworks)
Dolly Mixture - Demonstration Tapes
Lizzy Mercier Descloux - Press Color
Lizzy Mercier Descloux - Mambo Nasua
Orchestre Poly Rythmo De Contonou - The Vodoun Effect (analog africa)
Paul Simon - Graceland (warner)
Shangri La's - Best Of
Spiritual Singers - Ntsamina (mississippi)
V/A - Tropicalia: A Revolution In Sound (soul jazz)
V/A - Back from The Graves Comps Vol 2-5 (crypt)
V/A - Love is Love (mississippi)
V/A - Thai Shadow Music (sublime frequencies)

Day #6 - Bangkok Baby

So we arrived in Bangkok and found ourselves a place to stay on Rhambuttri, just off the Koh San Road, which is pretty much where you head to if you're white, european, like getting corn rows on the street and drinking cheap beer. So its pretty much the Camden market of Bangkok on a saturday night minus the goths (too hot for crushed velvet and trenchcoats)



Even Ronald is polite over here!


This place does some amazing breakfasts, with pancakes, eggs, waffles and frothy coffee for Liane who was suffering on crappy coffee with no real milk. This is where i discovered the joy of lemon iced tea which became a staple diet for the rest of the trip, thank you Ricky's for making each morning awesome.





Walking to the royal palaces through the crazy scooter infested streets, where no one stops and you just walk into the street and people will avoid you. It seems to work, i didn't see too many victims on our walks.


The royal palaces where pretty amazing, apart from having to take clothes to cover up, even though it was scorching and i was dripping with sweat. We put jeans and jumpers on just to go in, then stripped them off to shorts & tees after we got out. I thought it was worth it to see the crazy demons and buildings inside, much more insane than boring Buckingham Palace!












There is a massive mix of Hindu into the majority Buddhist following, with lots of their gods used in the stories, co-opted for amazing visual value. I suppose there is only so many positions you can put Buddha in, which they have stretched to its max, reclining is my favourite, looks like me on the sofa after a good feed.







Above is the Thai Alfred, on his way back to his Batcave, not before he rips of some gullible tourist.


We took a short ferry ride to the amazing Forensic Science museum which is in the middle of the Bangkok public Hospital. This was a highlight of the trip but we couldnt take any pictures, maybe if you look online you'll find some but here are the best things we saw
- recently mummified remains of murderers and rapist in glass cases, with the doors on held together by sellotape
- two headed babies in a jar
- pictures of dead bodies and explanations
- a massive elephantitus infected testicle about 3 x the size of my head!
- multiple jars of brains, livers, lungs etc
This ruled even more because though it was gross out, we were surrounded by visiting school kids and monks!

mmmmmm, pop! mmmmmmm, burp!

Day # 5 - Adios Amigos

Time to leave the Island, my family and my sister (now mrs lewendon-strutt)





Time to leave the most amazing variety of crisps, this is double cheese pork burger, a favourite of liane's as a pre-bedtime snack attack!



Back to Koh Samui Airport, which is pretty lush as airports come, tropical.





Look out, Bangkok here we come!

Day # 4 - Elephant Ride

What better way to cure a wedding hangover than to ride in the back of a van around the island and go have an elephant ride, pretty sweet!





The driver only had me and Liane in the back of the truck, so he stopped to let us see the views from the highpoint on the south coast of Koh Samui, pretty spesh.



When we got dropped off at the elephant sanctuary, we were sheparded up a 3 tier wooden structure whilst the 'driver' brought round our elephant for the day, Una. It was like a jungle version of a valet service. The seat had no bar so we were kinda free to fall off if we wanted, but Una was a good host and keep us from eating dirt.





We made our way around the jungle paths with the elephant guy chatting to the elephant the whole time, she didn't talk back to him but she new what he was on about, she even stopped and posed for pictures when he asked her to. Some of the hills going up and down were freakily steep, and i had to hold tight to liane to make sure we both didnt fall off.





We got to hang out and feed her some bananas after, which was rad, she can swallow 3 at once, pretty impressive! Thanks Una for the ride and for spraying us with water in the waterfall, i was getting pretty hot up there!

Holiday - Day #3 'Nice Day For A White Wedding'

The day of the wedding, which was constantly threatened by rainstorms, but only rained for an hour, letting the wedding go ahead without a hitch! My brother was happy with the result ( and the breakfast).



There is always the chance a beach wedding could look cheesy like the ones you sometimes see on bad late night uncovered programmes, but this was the most amazing set up i have ever seen, far away from the usual wedding, literally raising the bar for all future weddings, so fucking amazing.



Rolf, my new brother in law, maintained a full suit and jacket through the brutality of the heat, and looked awesome walking down to the garden, with a procession of traditional dancing thai girls, and chanting thai warrior type dudes.



I had to sit with my mother, Rolf and his best man in front of the wedding party whilst we watched the traditional thai dancing girls do their stuff. Thankfully it did not include any bangkok shenanigans but kinda went on forever. At least i got a seat, result.



During the ceremony on the beach, it was pretty much perfection, with the two of them giggling at each other and it was miles away from the stiff english trad ceremony, well done mr and mrs strut-lewendon. My sister looked amazing, and i was lucky enough to walk her down the aisle, scary times!


the happy couple, with champers galore!!



And then to complete the day, we had 5 courses of the best food i've had in years, and we all lit these amazing lamps that fly off into the night sky, but the camera died before that point, or the free bar was taken advantage of! I fell in love with the screwdrivers that had grenadine in them. A few of them, some champagne and a load of tequilla sunrise's will always make for a good reception. And yes, ol' softy did well up more than once. I also cried once during home and away, but i'm not proud of that.



My sister calls me matty moo, i call her stinky puff, you decide who comes off worse in a crowded environment.

Holiday - Day # 2 'Summer's Here Kids'

It was amazing to awake and see the island in its daylight splendour, all tropical beaches, palm trees and fruity cocktails served on the beach! It was mainly a pre-wedding catch up day with lots of sunbathing, swimming and eating good ol' thai curry! It has been years since i had a holiday that didn't include being in a van with stinky boys or sampling the delights of venue car parks and service stations around the world, so this was a much needed respite.



I couldn't get enough of swimming in the water, but occasionally you would get tiny little stings as you swam. We discovered later that the crazy tropical storms a few days before we arrived had obliterated alot of the jellyfish population and their microscopic body parts were the stings. That one nasty bastard creature that will still give you a good pain even after its dead and in a million pieces!







This guy later shouted 'Hey Black Flag (i was wearing, surprise surprise a black flag tee), you wanna buy some weed, real good!' He also loved posing for photos, happy dude was probably high on his own supply. Weed, machetes and motorbikes, good times.



Our breakfast was free every morning and it was real nice, eggs / pancakes / toast / fruit / coffee / juice / tea. I discovered this amazing thai chilli sauce that goes perfectly with scrambled eggs, overnight weekend visitors will be able to sample as i bought back a nice bottle of this red liquid heaven!