My thanks to the polyester magus who riddles in the cold north, about whom i haven't the foggiest, but whom the 'cap fits, i'm sure. X

Dont suppose someone could tell me where the nearest sam smiths pub is to kings cross by texting 07982198918?

This Lord Adonis snow tsar character amuses me.

& maybe these guys can help you some way 2 reach your goals i'll keep my eye on u p s send me info how to become member of your street team

ur so great!!!
God bless your music and talent you must replace that crap on mtv and i believe in you i have added some logo to this message

Henry Cow's "In Praise Of Learning" probably the pick of this morning's jamminess.

Looks like I'm playing this tomorrow: http://ping.fm/l8PhI

Oddly, I seem to have a cameo in a film about underground hip-hop legend Sensational. Dave appears as "Dave".

Some useful post-pub technology here, I feel. http://ping.fm/awIUt

Pleased in a two-gigs-in-Belgium-confirmed kinda way. Hoping to play in the UK also at some point.

"how can I recognize this forbiddingly foreign totality as my own doing?"

A blizzard of perfect no flakes.

Anyone got a DJ turntable, working or bust, for a frizzy-haired inventor pal of mine? Must have pitch change innit.

Or what kind of shop would fare better these days on Mill Road?

Co-oppers, Blavs struggling after 28 years. Support local shops! If you want for nowt get me mango juice & Grolsch.

The revolution will not be televised. It will be online. Possibly on bbciplayer I suppose.

Just experienced laughter (out, loud) in Co-op reading of the Van Morrison baby-spoof in newspaper.

Informed by Hamish that my odd-coloured socks represent a maritime accident waiting to happen.

Just played on a Nintendo Wii for the first time. Not really a games person but I note that it has the edge on the Spectrum in some regards.

Considering doing New Years tonight instead.

Day 5 of my conceptual piece "Festive Bender". No nausea, fatigue or aches and pains, just a total absence of hope. And shit hair.

Looked in the mirror feeling poisoned and blue to see unshaven and haggard face but with surprisingly cool hair.

Guitar by Kaptain Rock

  
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My Love Is Such A Waste Of Time.mp3 (8947 KB)

Posted via email from Pete Um

Rage Against The Machine

OK, my thoughts on the Rage Against The Machine thing in brief.

I realize that if RATM get to Number 1 for Xmas it will not mean the end of The Man, and that all the money will go to Sony either way, and yet I will be chuffed if it does. This is because:

There's something about the tone of the naysayers that is getting on my wick. The idea may be flawed, but they seem hellbent on ignoring the good points like a bunch of fucking killjoys. I'd like to see Merzbow as this year's Yuletide smash, but Killing In The Name Of will do just fine. Copenhagen is going on, it's a popular tune with a certain nostalgia factor, I'd be hard-pressed to think of another song that would embody the message quite as well ...blah blah blah.
I think the hegemonic grip of the corporate karaoke culture represented by Cowell's X Factor could do with a kick in the teeth, even if it is only a symbolic one. It's a kind of bread and circuses where the white bread is mixed with milk and the lions look like Sharon Osbourne.
Half Man Half Biscuit did advise us that it's cliched to be cynical at Christmas, but let's face it Christmas does breed a special kind of misery and part of that misery is the soundtrack. Hearing the same records year after year in a prescribed ritual of consumption and self-gratification adds to an overwhelming sense that one is taking part in a festival of conformity that it isn't easy to opt out of without a very expensive plane ticket. I would like to think that as a result of this campaign the normal maddening drip-feed diet of Slade, Wizzard, Band Aid, Mariah Carey, Wham and all the rest of them might be interrupted at any number of office parties, get-togethers, family gatherings or pointless nights down the pub by a band called Rage Against The Machine. As a sometime DJ, I'm tempted to talk about how certain songs can channel crowd mood and energy, but suffice to say I think this song would work a treat in the context.

Personally I don't buy MP3s, and I don't vote in stupid competitions where you have to pay for the privilege, but if you do buy one song this Christmas I would urge you to make it this one. If you don't want to, well you know what to say...

The organisers of the campaign are asking people to donate a pound to Shelter if they buy the track, and it's hard to see what's wrong with that.

"Brazil"

Just running some tests here. Please ignore. This was on the first Bumskipper wasn't it?

  
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Brazil.mp3 (4208 KB)

Posted via email from Pete Um

Anotherday

  
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Anotherday_3.mp3 (2013 KB)

Posted via email from Pete Um

Snow outside, puke inside.

Just passing thru...

20p Cat's Protection League on 7" http://ping.fm/HBJ7o

Just got some porn spam referring to "alluring bitches". What a great phrase!

The Doozer "Hornbill" http://ping.fm/YjBjo

Great article about the song. http://ping.fm/hFast

A favourite track of mine http://ping.fm/Qsh1h

Some great hair ideas in this girls http://ping.fm/e5JmJ

Took call to arrange Nextstep careers advice interview on the loo. Next level multi-tasking shit.

If I'm interviewing glum ex-financial sector chaps speaking negatively of competition for the Co-op shortlist that says it all right?

Cassetteboy jokes. http://ping.fm/056Dq

It's beginning to look a lot like the philosophical muzak of 'progressive' corporate consumerism.

Voodoo

Bedevilled by the usual traction issues.

Ah, the old pre-gig ritual of swearing at a printer like a violent psychotic. Cottage-industry scenes from the unfilmed Um rockumentary.

Bad Timing gig in Cambridge TONIGHT. Volcano The Bear/Sculpture/Pete Um http://ping.fm/kLCC4

Anyone recognise this piece of music? http://ping.fm/M46yu

Pete Um/Sculpture/Volcano The Bear 30-11-09
http://ping.fm/j2wSm

African leaders advise Bono on reform of U2 http://ping.fm/eAASy

Thanks for following my work as an artist over the years.

http://www.audioatrocities.com/games/cookingmama2/clip1.mp3

Just discovered Adam Curtis has a blog. http://ping.fm/hAIWk

Shit man I think my Moogerfooger MuRF pedal is broken. Lights come on, sound OK when bypassed, but no filterin'. Bummed.

If I drink a Korean beer on Gwydir St before picking up my son from choir, am I a badman?

http://ping.fm/FnJce Whiskey Tango Foxtrot, as someone comments.

Nochexxx Ft. Sensational http://ping.fm/iwMzI

Aggrieved not to be catching Hair Police tonight...

Returning to work following an eschatological overdose?

What's up with Cambridge's fresh mint supply? Rank mint is a big deal for me.

Giraffe? Reviewed? http://bit.ly/2hI5tQ

Breaking news for politics junkies: ZaNu-Lab leaked Spellingate to spin sympathy from the Sun's bullying!

Same shit, same decade, just.

High noon interview seeks to separate me from my social security blanket via inept New Deal advisor. I vlogged about her 8 years ago.

Flaming lesbians kept me up again, tossing on my futon like Prometheus turning in Hell. Why, I ask, must they twirl the fire?

Records & CDs I'm selling.

Check this mongrel bunch out:

value="search my sales" size="15" />

Seller Profile -
Get This Widget

Whaddup whaddup. Sensational on the cover of The Wire!

Fire safety bods require transformation of door-closers into earthquake-producing devices. Also Simon injured.

Running low on glee...

Doing a lot of complicated, wearying & expensive stuff to see daniel johnston tonight. Reading about the heroic devo!

Fools. Ignorant fools.

Spend some time tonight considering the real reason behind that toffee apple...

When I cop it you lot are gonna get merked by nostalgia.

Looking for a couple of spare passport photos I had done recently = 45 mins of old photos. I am the archivist bar none.

If you took Goofy to a street caricaturist would they render him as a realistic-looking dog?

Bad Timing presents:

Music from Botswana: http://ping.fm/2PP99

Threads Of Life

Possibly as many as ten years ago I received an email from a stranger asking me curtly if I "...still had Threads Of Life, Alco." I wondered what the person meant for for a minute, but then worked out that they must have been referring to a record that I probably had mentioned on my website. I was in the habit of listing records I had bought as a sort of charity-shop hipster's version of conspicuous consumption, so the email flicked a switch that eventually turned the light bulb on that hovered above my head and shortly after that the dollar signs appeared in my eyes. At first Google told me nothing, which was kind of a good sign, and then deep in GEMM's listings I found some dude trying to flog this record for $1403 (funny figure, I know, but worth about half that in sterling at the time). At this point I started to wonder whether I really was in posession of the record myself, but after about ten minutes of sweaty fingering (a favourite hobby of mine) I was holding the 12" piece of treasure I never knew I had. I had bought it in Sally Ann's amongst a bunch of other records just on general cover-based instinct. I'm not a proper record collector by any means, although fuck knows I've got enough of them, but back then I was a real amateur, as this post plainly shows. Amazingly, the record was in really good nick too. I've actually just been in Twitter-correspondence with the always-worth-reading Kid Shirt, who sent me a link to someone selling another copy:

Alco -Threads Of Life - Rare Private Issue Progressive EURO 1350

Alco – Threads Of Life (UK Alco ALC530 – 1972) Ex /Ex+ Stunning condition copy of this incredibly rare private press progressive album. Recorded by the band Alco at University of Surrey Mobile Studio in 1972. A-Side contains a wonderful progressive suite, including sections augumented with the Itchen Orchestra conducted by Jonathan Palmer. B-side is just Alco themselves who are Tim Caesar – keyboards and lead vocals, Paul Fidlin – bass / lead / vocals, Ben Brooke – lead / bass / vocals and Julian Caesar, drums, / synthesizer / vocals. There are some tracks by the Itchen College Barbershop Shoppers at the end. Tracks are
Side A : Threads Of Life Suite (i) When I Was A Child (ii)Rain Upon My Mind (iii) In My Dreams. Side B : (1) Waiting To Be Born (2) Look At The Clouds (3) Hello Love (4) The Chordbuster (5) Carry Me Back To Old Virginny(6) De Animals(7) Humble (8) Bill Grogan’s Goat (9) Ashmolian

Funnily enough this listing contains several words that seem to allude to various Um themes and private mythologies. I used to clean the toilets at The University Of Surrey, for example, so it's nice to think that the karmic wheel had a done a full 360 with this one. Anyway, I was so freaked out at the thought of the record's value that I metaphorically hugged the thing close to my body and shooed the guy away who was enquiring about buying it off me, and for all I know he could have had very deep pockets. It seemed a cruel twist of fate that he should alert me to the value of the thing and in doing so place it further from his reach, if you know what I mean. The thing is I'm selling records at the moment, as I literally cannot move for the things both in the sense that my living space is severely restriced by them, and also they would represent such a collossal inconvenience if I ever wanted to get out of my current accommodation that it actually puts me off considering it. Plus I've got a lot of stuff that I have no interest in owning due to buying job lots or taking gambles on covers (innit!) or inheriting record collections just because people see you as some kind of record nut (a self-perpetuating myth rather like the harmoniums at Crabapple, where people donated harmoniums because of the harmoniums). And lastly because, although I have been laughably skint my entire adult life, I have never been as potlessly piss-poor as I am at the moment. I'm currently trying to sustain body and soul for myself and 50% of an 8-year old on about 50 quid a week and it ain't really possible, let me tell you. My JSA hasn't turned up this week and that's been just fucking calamitous.

So yeah,

Live rates at 2009.10.25 14:42:58 UTC
1,350.00 EUR = 1,236.99 GBP
Euro United Kingdom Pounds
1 EUR = 0.916288 GBP 1 GBP = 1.09136 EUR

would be extremely welcome, so if you're reading this let it be known that here at Um we say that IT'S ALL GRIST meaning art and life are one and the same if this post could function as an engine that alchemically transmogrifies my fated chance encounter with the certain Threads Of Life into actual Malcom McLaren-style CASH then I could actually go and buy myself the beer I could do with or pay my son's dinner money or something.

Where's my JSA at?

At the spooky disco. Who teaches little girls to dance?

Salt water gargles inna Nurse style.

Old dear in cat's protection league says of her purchases: 'it all helps.' 'yes,' says till lady. 'that could be a mouthful of catfood.' yum.

Slowly but surely Krishnan assumes the mantle of leadership...

Bad Timing presents Pete Um with Volcano The Bear 30-11-09 Portland Arms, Cambridge.

Fuck it, I'll watch the highlights.

I am a smear on the skirting board of the internet.

Fellow passenger says this is 2nd bus crash he's been in on kings rd in a week. I ask if catching another with him is wise. 'it only happens on kings rd' ...

Good Times

Pete Um supporting The Fiery Furnaces Brighton Audio 7th, London Cargo 8th, Leeds Cockpit 9th October.

Virgin's up the spout. No email.

Too poor to tour!

Anyone likely to be able to put me up in Glasgow 10th Oct after a gig w/ The Fiery Furnaces if that helps? Guestlist obv!

If you see a couple of idiots in Brighton that look like me and Bobby, it's probably me and Bobby...

Cigarettes, ice-cream, cadillacs, blue-jeans...

Dude on train discussing future of addenbrookes hospital. Hope my guitar amp dont fall off the rack cos he sounds hella important, if indiscrete.

Joy Orbison sounds totally like a hyph ting to these ears, sorry...

Pete Um One-Stop. (http://ping.fm/ojV2g)

Super Super Magazine on Channel 4's 3-Minute Wonder shows Nathan Barley died in vain.

Sat on my arse drinking mint tea, downloading a cycling movie and reading about beer.

Even if I leave out Bumskipper-era or other things lingering in the dark a first list produces 144 songs. Short songs, granted...

Been putting off doing a proper new (CD-R) album for too long, for many reasons, but foremost the agony of choice.

Ergo Phizmiz's The Faust Cycle

"The Faust Cycle" - 15 hours of new radio art, world... - Ergo Phizmiz's MySpace Blog |

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Cheer up.

Apropos Felix Kubin.

666 videos on YouTube.

Couple in front on train leaving their books on sartre & psychogeography unattended to argue about their bicycles instead.