So indulge me for a second - this makes a lot of sense courtesy of the "Dream Moods" website. (Have you noticed that I bloody love this kind of crap?):

To see a puppy in your dream, symbolizes your playfulness and carefree nature. It also represents a blossoming friendship or that your friendships will grow stronger.  To dream that you are taking care of some puppies, indicates that you are a trustworthy and loyal friend especially in difficult times.

Sure, but in my dream the puppy, though quite sweet, is also kind of aggressive towards the caterpillar. This would make sense so far as recently I've been having to be very forthright about certain values that I keep and to defend these usually positive, lighter aspects of myself as they threaten to overtake issues that might require me to apply a more intuitive and mature attitude. Though friendship always plays an integral part in my life, there is one particular friendship that I hope I can keep and will blossom in time.

To see a caterpillar in your dream, signifies a stage in your own personal growth and development where you are on your way, but have not yet reached your goal. 

This could mean absolutely anything really, but of late I have been concentrating a lot on certain areas of my life concerning careers and general maturity that in a way are threatened to be quashed by my generally easy nature. At the moment I feel uncomfortable with responsibility and am trying to shut a lot of it out by sticking my hands over my ears/being childish about it/pretending it doesn't exist. This makes quite a lot of sense.

Depending on the context of your dream, the color blue may also be a metaphor of "being blue" and feeling sad. 

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To dream that you are in a cage, denotes that you are experiencing some inhibitions and powerlessness in some areas of your life. You may feel restricted, confined and restrained in a current relationship or business deal. Somebody may be keeping a short leash on you where you are lacking the freedom to act independently. To dream that you are putting a wild animal into a cage, signifies that you will succeed in overcoming your rivals and fears.

The caterpillar gets out of control and manages to leave its cage and the puppy goes ments and starts growling at it. But all in all, the cage is superficial and the bars are too wide, and its tormentor/guard is just a little dog. I'm uncomfortable with touching handling the caterpillar because I find it grotesque and am worried it is poisonous. 

This seems like an ambiguous dream - it is cathartic in the way that it represents a conflict between my carefree side and the side of me that's telling me "ok, you've gotta start taking a bit more responsibility over your life". It's an admission that I need to start taking a bit more control over things, but it is also a warning that this must not be detrimental to my ego and my personal nature. 

This follows some recent conversations with a recently-made and now very close friend who despite the fact I get along with them well and wish to maintain their friendship, does not necessarily share the same value structure as I do and therefore there is a healthy amount of conflict in our attitudes.

Or maybe it's just a dream about a dog and a caterpillar, who knows??

Just a quick one as I'm at work. I'm listening to the album by Home Video for the first time and isn't it just the best thing I've heard all year. Yeah the singer's voice is a Xerox of Thom Yorke's, but that strangely seems to help them achieve some kind of "Oh my, this is what Kid A SHOULD have sounded like". This is really well realised electronic rock music - much more consistent and easier to listen to than say Hot Chip or the Postal Service. Really good - go check it out.

A few more tracks I've been listening to...

Echo & the Bunnymen - The Killing Moon (12" Mix)

This is a classic song in its own right and was used to spectacular effect on the Donnie Darko soundtrack, the lyrics and even the name of the band spookily evoking the film's plot. I've recently been buying up endless compilations of 80s music, particularly the inspired 12" 80s series which strives to collect the best extended mixes of classic songs from the era. The 12" version of The Killing Moon is a complete affront to the senses. It conatins an absolutely overwhelming string section that was cut out of the original. I never thought you could improve on this song but I was wrong.

Timbaland feat. Nelly Furtado and Justin Timberlake - Give it to me

Loads of people say they like "all sorts of music" and I like to include myself among that group, but there are some genres and acts that I'll avoid by default. Despite my best efforts to be a bit of a boffin at most genres of music, I've never really got the hang of R'n'B, commercial rap and teen pop. 

R'n'B doesn't move me. I can't understand the appeal of slow jams and people wailing empty utterances of love, no matter how grand their vocal cords. I simply don't have the rhythm or posture to be able to grind the night away to this stuff. And if it's a matter of chilling out with a Camberwell Carrot to some chilled out vibes, I'd take Dr. Alimantado over Nelly Furtado any day of the week.

Timbaland is the king of commercial rap production. Since last decade he has been recognised as one of the world's most sophisticated and intelligent producers in any genre and arguably played a big hand in turning so-called Urban music into one of the biggest styles in the Western world. I remember back in my days of being a huge Warp Records fanboy when quite regularly messageboard posters would argue that Timbaland's style was even more advanced than such boundary pushers as Autechre and Aphex Twin.

So I was kind of surprised to find I rather liked this song, even with the added triumvirate of teenpop idol Justin Tiberlake making an appearance. It's got a dreamy, mellow vibe to it, the vocals spread out sparsely over the minimalist beats like Marmite on toast. Even Timberlake is tolerable to my ears on this one. But really it is Timbaland's production that wins this battle.

So here are a few more noises I've been putting close to my ear recently.

The Specials - Friday Night, Saturday Morning

The Specials were the coolest band in history, I mean just look at them:

Absolutely no mucking around with this lot. Of course the bonus is they wrote some great tunes in their time, which is all the better. I'm a hardcore fan of their first self-titled album from the 70s which was one of the first to fuse the pent-up fury of Punk with the lackadaisical good time fun of Jamaican Ska. 'Friday Night, Saturday Morning' is a b-side from a slightly later period in their career (it's available on the 'A's B's and C's' compilation) where the angry feelings of living in a messed up Thatcherite town subsided into an oppressivley languid state from whence classics like 'Ghost Town' were born. The song's dreary content matter is accompanied by an understated fairground shuffle and a bleak end-of-the-pier organ line that creeps in and out of the verse.

Feedle - Go Home Revolving

Don't want to write too much about this track as I'm going to be interviewing this genius of Lap-Gaze in a future post. But can I just say that the new Feedle album 'Leave Now For Adventure' is a wonderful bit of Electronica recalling elements of Minotaur Shock, 65DaysOfStatic and M83.

Belle Epoque - Miss Broadway

This is some kind of monster French Disco-Rock track from the 70s that somehow manages to fuse tough Heavy Metal vocals with a determinedly funky "Name Of The Game"-style bass line. I guess it is Funk really, but don't tell anyone. Oh and the Ian Carey mix is also well worth checking out and is at the top of my playlist for the next Rogue night.

Aztec Camera - Walk Out To Winter

A generic bit of 80s fluff that somehow still manages to do its stuff. Notable because I share the same surname as the singer and also because the 12" mix boasts the longest intro in any pop song (I suspect).

Roxy Music - More Than This

Someone once told me they played this one the clock struck on the Millennium while hundreds of balloons were released. Couldn't think of a better song for the occasion (other than the Imperial March of course). Roxy Music were a complete anomaly when they first came out in the early 70s. A Prog-Rock band with no discernible influences who specialised in a refined, yuppyish style that wouldn't actually catch on for another 10 years. Of course by the time 'More Than This' and its album 'Avalon' came out in the mid-80s, the Roxys were old hands at crafting sophisticated pop songs, their images evoking endless cocktail parties and yacht-borne romances.

Gerling - The Hi-Jackers Manual

I don't understand how this band slipped under my radar. This is what all this Nu-Rave bollocks OUGHT to sound like. Energetic, punky, dancey fun for everyone!

My Chemical Romance - Teenagers

Guh... I can't believe I'm actually posting this but having heard it a couple of times, and considering it's MCR, once one of the most obnoxious instigators of kiddy Emo shite, this is actually quite passable - perhaps even good. The whole album sounds like a cross between Queen and 'American Idiot'-era Green Day.

Haven't sold it to you, have I? What if I were to say that MCR are well ahead of their game in understanding that Emo is soon to be as dead as a 14-year old with a slit wrist? I think we're pretty much agreed on that one. At the same time, a multi-million dollar band doesn't want to alienate its slowly maturing fanbase. The answer? Firstly, do it all over again, except this time with a billion times more pomp. Pomp in place, next carefully place your tongue into your cheek, not too much now, but just enough for us to know that you're actually smiling and winking away - both championing and killing off the Emo scene with each line.

People my age have spent many hours wondering about Emo. What is it? Why is it so popular? What's the fucking point? And after many lengthy debates, I've come to this... Every generation since Punk broke has had to have some form of angsty rock music to listen to in its teens, be it Grunge or the Smiths or Limp Bizkit or Black Flag or whatever. Emo is just the successor to these forms of music and manages to work because firstly it pisses people off, secondly it confuses people, thirdly it pisses people off even more.

"Teenagers scare the living shit out of me/They could(n't) care less as long as someone'll bleed/So darken your clothes/And wear a violent pose/Maybe they'll leave you alone/But not me"

Think you know better? MCR've got news for you - even they are passed it now. You see those hordes of stripey-sock wearing kids with tubes through their ears - they're cooler than you and they don't give a shit. That's Punk Rock.

Lis from Antivirus Review invited me down to check out a night in Kilburn last Monday. Here's the lowdown:

BoxBot, The Good Ship, Kilburn, London

Monday 23rd April 2007

Dead Dog In Black Bag / Cruiser Chimps / My Oh My

Last Monday saw the Good Ship of Kilburn being launched into the cosmos to become a futuristic star cruiser straight out of the pages of an Isaac Asimov novel or, if you prefer, straight off of a second-hand Button Moon video. Yes, it was biscuit boxes and Gloy Gum time as audience members were invited to don homemade robot costumes and pop their cardboard bodies to three of the more spaced-out bands on the planet Earth.

The main stage of the Good Ship is located neatly in a kind of viewing pit, enabling the audience to either go down and get wild near the stage or get a more reflective bird's eye view of the bands. This was perfect for those intrigued enough to check out My Oh My, an avant-noise trio whose members play bowed guitar, tape recorder, stand-up drums and what appeared to be a toy robot that had been mic'd up to about a thousand delay pedals. The instrumental set lilted and shifted, eventually rising into a frenzy of feedback and scrunched up zapping noises. Not to everyone's taste of course, but fans of bands like Wolf Eyes and the Black Dice could do little worse than check them out.

Perhaps a little more structured, but no less compromising were the Cruiser Chimps, a punky three-piece from Norwich whose Indiecore squall contrasts against the twee pop leanings of their regular incarnation, Bearsuit. A torrent of sound, attributed mostly to incredibly loud singer/drummer Lisa, was enough to pierce the eardrums of anyone within a three-mile radius. And while the two lads backing her up on guitar and bass also took vocal duties, nothing quite made me spit up my drink that night than her initial scream.

More dancing, more drinking, more robots - and by this time if you hadn't accidentally leant against someone thinking they were a pillar or part of the bar then you'd obviously not done enough of the first two. After the filthy noise attack of the first two acts, the Cardboardbots seemed all too glad to rock their cumbersome bodies to the likes of the Knife and Jackson's Computer Band courtesy of DJs Robot For Brains.

The jacking Electro styles thankfully helped as a suitable prep for the next band and the night's finale, Dead Dog In Black Bag. The Brighton-based girl group combine homegrown trashpop with a wickedly scatological sense of humour to create a sound akin to what would happen if Shampoo got dirty with the Macc Lads down a back alley only to stab them in the nutsacks and run off with their change. If you thought Lily Allen was supposed to be a bit of a rogue then nothing will prepare you for this onslaught of big hair, glitter makeup and songs about dog shit.

Dead Dog In Black Bag

 Despite having only known each other for a year, and as a band for six months, it's easy to tell that bandmates Ami Chihuahua and Holly-Jane the Pain have a special chemistry going on. Posing, pouting and back chatting each other, the comedy edge plays out like some kind of X-rated stand-up routine sponsored by Smash Hits mag. "Get away from my face/Before I kick you into space" is the friendly message broadcast to sleazy club pervs on the stylish Electro slice 'Tony Caesar'; while 'Love Meat' is the sound of Girls Aloud splaying out their legs and popping ping-pong balls into the air. Performing only a handful of songs, the Dogs still excelled at winning over the slightly confounded but happy crowd.