...and the long awaited fOlk-rap has finally been realised fully. Recording pending.

Are those cicadas or car alarms wending through the night?
Country and the city is a topic one could write about
but meaning must be seeming to be gleaming from the verse
& this subject has a budget which will tax the lyric purse,
& it's not that there aren't things here that it ain't worthwhile to sing
it's more that you're unsure exactly what it is you'd bring
cos this theme's been in the stream of social consciousness for ever
Dickens, Gaskell, Forster, Larkin, others just as clever
have reflected all perspectives, so why inflict your own?
Your attitudes and platitudes concern just you alone.
Come to that, it seems that these days it's not so much what you say, those
self-expectations & vexations futile in a way, because

If you've got the rhyme & the crowd has got the time
they might join you when you chime in "Ooo, la la la"
If some happenstance or other robbed them of a lover
and you go there they might join in "Ooo, la la la"
Sprinkle tunes with contradictions, meaning being no restriction,
slot in lots of dodgy diction "Ooo, la la la"
Ram in the clichés, & when even they run stray
fill the space with another little "Ooo, la la la"

Ooo, la la la
Ooo, la la la

This all sounds defeatist, and although it may be true,
it's also a pretty elitist point of view.
Music's not an art form that's with mere words enamoured,
tunes we swoon to, spoon to, croon to ain't about the grammar.
& language is a filter for our stilted roaming minds, it never
quite possesses thought processes for others to find
and so sometimes it might be better not to sweat a lyric song,
cos art can be escape as well, there Chandler wasn't wrong.
Relaxation, presentation, use them both in moderation,
write for yourself first but there are others in this place and
when you can't express in herds of words the stuff you just concieved,
insert some mental instrumental, have a dance, then leave.

(people don't leave like they used to, yo)

I come home to a different prime minister, a controversial smoking ban and most importantly a very dodgy home internet connection. Updates therefore have an excuse to remain sporadic, but! Please note that if you want to come and see FaceOmeter at the Jug of Ale, Moseley on July 18th, you can save an ENTIRE POUND by buying tickets from faceometer.tk instead of on the door! Should you wish to take advantage of this cheeky deal, reply in this thread or send an email declaring your intentions to my address. Tickets are £4, or £5 on the night! And the Jones will be there, so it should be worth coming ladies...

Well just when I was getting back into the habit of updating the blog semi-regularly, fate has called me to Italy. I greet you from there and will return to shower your eyes with speech words in a week or so! All the best you feeble fools...

A belated happy bloomsday to everyone! It's been a bit of a crazy one for me, with two festivals played and another few hundred miles between them and home racked up on the old odometer. Thanks to everyone who came to both of today's gigs, which were riotously fun! Tomorrow I actually don't have to drive or get the train anywhere! It's going to be good... you may even get a proper blog entry. And I have some new song ideas too... oh my... we've heard this before

/bedtime

Okay this is the funniest one in ages!

Thanks to Parkes for the heads up

My good friend Emily never stops bringing goodness to the FaceOmeter project. First, she brought the sensation artwork for Campfire Songs, but this time she's really topped that by sending me this link to a knitting pattern for reusable pantyliners. Because, you know, you never know...

Meanwhile, Tony Blair has accused the media of being a dirty pack of braying wolves. Nice one. I'll politely refrain from comment on that issue, but I love how channel 4 news saw fit to illustrate the point by getting some footage of Tony Blair, some footage of a press room, and some footage of some braying wolves (I'm serious) and putting it all together on a three-way split screen with a big question mark in front of it. It was the Day Today skit about 'click ting stamps', only they weren't joking.

Who can blame channel 4, erstwhile saviours of intellectual television - they've had a bad week. And I have to give them credit - when they lobbed David Blunkett in with a Daily Mail hack and made them fight about Labour's use of spin, it was really difficult to know who my sympathies were against more. Challenging television there.

Last night saw a triumphant return to Birmingham by the sadly-emptied FaceOmetermobile. I managed to go on tour without my house keys, mobile phone charger and shoes, so the journey home took an ad hoc diversion via Oxford where I witnessed not only the Fluggerbulgars perform some classic nonsense, but also Sylvester and Wesley performing some CLASSIC nonsense. How can two such hardcore people have two such nerd-ridden names? Anyway now I'm back in Birmingham facing the grim realities of money and housing and thoroughly disappointed with the fact that the last four days didn't last forever.

I left facebook. It feels good. You should try it.

Well, it's back to Birmingham with the RAPIDO conclusion of the jaunt tucked discretely into the fabric of the trousers of time. Bristol was an excellent ending, with bemusing character Ian bringing his bewilderingly tech PA to bear on the HEKTIK SOUNDZ. Naughty fried chicken and incredibly stylish moustaches followed on the front of my car, leading to the following exchange:

Person at gig: Is this your bonnet?
Me: Yup... you're on it.

I wanted that one recorded for posterity. And though I said this at the gig, I also want it recorded that I could have kept touring for weeks and months later, and if I have my way we'll all be back on the road very soon indeed. I have a feeling most of the eclectic feel the same. Big love.

Gig Highlight: The warm, sleepy, post-sun silly vibe
Gig lowlight: Bristol's Escher-inspired one-way system

Well I'm backstage in Bristol (which is also the front of house), so this is the first update of the jaunt FROM THE ROAD, as it were. Skipper is beside me ready to take money from the worthless saps who come to see us. Permit us to salute you. I hope tonight's set goes well; last night at Exeter was a really fun one which featured some members of FaceOmeter and Friends as well as a crowd who were not only responsive but also incredibly generous with their hat donations. If you were party to that, we'd like to thank you very much for keeping us on the road! Also thanks to Eddie "The Legend" Landlord "Bridge Lord" Eddie, who is an all-round gentleman of the old school, and Jon "Hatwin" "Hatewynee" Chatwin, who inadvertantly did the sound all evening (and made a brilliant job of it too)! Really fun times, people, let's keep it fresh

Gig Highlight: "Can you play Wonderwall? Let's play wonderwall!" - Git at subsequent house party
Gig Lowlight: Cardinally messing up Lauren in an otherwise vibecentric set

And now, the Jones speaks: hello hello. lets do it all again plus 30 more dates. shit off a shovel mateys, i tells yer.

The Hectic Eclectic has done birmingham, BIG STYLE. A small but beautifully select crowd gathered in Ceol Castle for fun times, and fun times were had! The jaunt really hots up now as we hit the road for tonight's Exeter performance, but it was great to be back in the mother city and give the residents of Balsall Heath something to scream about. And scream they did!

Gig Highlight: The Drill
Gig Lowlight: I hate pubs that don't sell crisps

This person just added me on myspace. Lucky me...!