Sunday 27 June 2010

Lust For Laughs

Iggy Pop's concert rider funniest in rock history?

As if you need another reason to love Iggy Pop, the veteran rocker (and his band The Stooges) have the single most entertaining concert rider TSG has ever obtained. The document--all 18 pages of which you'll find below--describes Iggy's requirements in terms of amplifiers, security, lighting, stage set up, and dressing rooms. But unlike most similar documents, Iggy's rider is written in a rollicking, stream-of-consciousness fashion that delivers multiple laughs per page. Apparently written by roadie Jos Grain, the Iggy rider is peppered with witty gems, tasteless asides, and typos. For example, in describing how Iggy's dressing room should be made to "look less like a typical rock & roll dressing room," the rider suggests that promoters "just let someone loose with a little bit of artistic flair...Er, do you know any homosexuals?" Explaining the need for two heavy duty fans, Grain notes, "So that I can wear a scarf and pretend to be in a Bon Jovi video." Also, don't miss the backstage requirements of a Bob Hope impersonator and "a copy of USA Today that's got a story about morbidly obese people in it. Most amusing!" (18 pages)

HERE

The Secret Life Of Toys...

via Mister Honk

"Arrogant" English anger world's media

The world's media were left stunned on Saturday after England's news briefing for Sunday's World Cup clash with Germany lasted barely five minutes and featured only questions taken from British TV reporters.
More than 250 journalists from around the world plus around 30 TV crews packed into the media tent at the Free State Stadium for the briefing with England coach Fabio Capello and captain Steven Gerrard.
Reporters, many of whom had travelled long distances to be at the briefing, left in anger after the FA's Head of Media Adrian Bevington took only eight questions from hand-picked reporters.
Giancarlo Galavotti, soccer correspondent of Italy's Gazzetta dello Sport who has reported on English soccer from London for more than 25 years, told Reuters: "That was typical. They do not seem to appreciate this is the World Cup, with the emphasis on the word 'World'.
"The idea that the English set-up is not the friendliest among the top teams is reinforced by this sort of arrogance.
"And this, despite the coach being able to answer in three languages: Italian, English and Spanish. The FA do not seem to think the rest of the world is important."
Jorge Luiz Rodrigues of Brazil's O Globo newspaper was stunned by what he saw.
"That was bad. This is the World Cup. This guy doesn't know what the World Cup is. He only asks for questions from his friends. This is not professional.
"If you go to Brazil you will have questions in English, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian.
"All the journalists have the same opportunity. And Brazil is five times champions, not once."

Bevington told Reuters afterwards: "We complied fully with FIFA's regulations by bringing the coach and a player, our captain, to the conference.
"Furthermore, and as agreed with FIFA, we had a further five minutes with English newspapers and a further five minutes with FIFA.com."
In the five minutes access allowed to the wider world, journalists learnt that manager Fabio Capello knew his team -- which he did not reveal -- and that skipper Gerrard was confident of victory.
Platitudes delivered, Bevington declared after five minutes and 12 seconds: "OK, everybody, thank you very much. I would like to invite the English Sunday newspapers to join us in a separate room."
One reporter sarcastically clapped and with that the England delegation swept out of the room.
Although German coach Joachim Loew failed to appear before the media on Saturday, he did speak to them for 45 minutes on Friday and the German FA, at least, gave reporters the chance to quiz goalkeeping coach Andreas Koepke for 30 minutes on their preparations for the game.

(Mike Collett - Reuters
Additional reporting by Angus MacSwan; Editing by Ossian Shine)

via The Guardian

DJ Akalepse - Props Vol.1

Rich Medina and DJ Akalepse, staples of the New York DJ community known worldwide for consistently bringing you a full spectrum of soul music, are taking their legendary Little Ricky's Rib Shack party from APT and bringing it to Le Poisson Rouge in 2010. Expect a party that is as much what is this song?, as it is I love this song, a party that is simultaneously classic, and brand new. DJ Akalepse is also running things for the neo-classic Truth & Soul Records label. Come find out for yourself why these guys have had one of the most highly consistent and successful weeknight parties NYC has ever seen, with this funky and highly soulful introductory mix called Props Vol.1...

Download
HERE

Why music blogs are closing...

thans to hh for the pic!

Saturday 26 June 2010

Radio ghost mystery at former RAF station

Chris Carter Mix

01. The Genetic Terrorists - Deactivated
02. Adrian Sherwood - Hari Up Hari
03. Amon Duul II - Archangel Thunderbird
04. The White Noise - Love Without Sound
05. Abba - Lay All Your Love On Me (HiLoSloMo Mix)
06. Delia Derbyshire - Ziwzih Ziwzih OO OO OO
07. Ambrose & His Orchestra - My Baby Said Yes
08. Delia Derbyshire - Restless Relays
09. Joy Electric - Monosynth
10. Basil Kirchin - Communication
11. April March - Flashback Part II
12. Delia Derbyshire - Untitled (1969)
13. Aleksi Virta - Whirlwind Pistols Dub
14. Delia Derbyshire - Psychedelian Waltz
15. Laurie Johnson - Happy Go Lively
16. Can - Spoon
17. Basil Kirchin - Heavy Machinery
18. Barry Gray - UFO Theme (Kraggs Mix)
19. Jah Wobble - Get Carter
20. Kraftwerk - Endlos Endlos

HERE

Patti Smith by Joseph O'Connor

Patti Smith. Photograph: © Lynn Goldsmith/Corbis

On my 14th birthday, I bought a record that changed my life. I had never heard of the artist. It was the album sleeve that captivated me. It showed a woman of mournfully beautiful gauntness, jacket draped over her shoulder. It was like a still from a French movie too cool to be made. The record was Horses by Patti Smith.

I had never seen anyone who looked quite like her. A lovesick Yeats wrote that Maude Gonne had "beauty like a tightened bow", and the old priest who taught us English (and who had once seen Gonne on a Dublin street) would spend eternities explaining the simile. But when I saw that photograph, I knew what it meant.

The first time I heard Smith singing is one of the defining moments of my life. It was East Village garage meets the sulphur of the blues. And that voice like a whip-crack: impish, transgressive, swooping from a mutter to a scream. She'd snarl like an angry Dylan or croon with tenderness, punctuating Lenny Kaye's guitar work with murmured incantations.

The rebels of culture haunted her work. Rimbaud, Jimi Hendrix, Virginia Woolf and The Who, Kerouac, Ginsberg, Baudelaire, John Lennon: they loomed behind her vision. Maddening, gorgeous, insolent, unique, she has been a poet, an acclaimed photographer, a memoirist, a mother, perhaps the last truly uncompromised artist in rock music. At 63, she's still making work of importance and beauty. She's been my hero for three decades. I don't know what I'd have done without her.

@'The Guardian'

Free LSD included....

via thisisnthappiness

Rasta Rock - 2009 roots & digital stylee

01) Courtney John - Lucky Man (Peckings - Lucky Man)
02) Lady Lex - Don't Know Why (Peckings - Lucky Man)
03) Jah Faith - No Bother Grumble (Jan-Disc)
04) Black Emeralds - Humble Dub (Jan-Disc)
05) Mykal Rose - Hypocrites Warning (Heartical - Tonight)
06) General Levy - Life Hard (Heartical - Tonight)
07) Basque Dub Foundation - Midnight Organ (Heartical - Tonight)
08) Don Carlos & Million Stylez - World Crisis (Ink A Link)
09) Prezident Brown - Rasta Rock (African Beat - Bubbler)
10) Perfect - Can't Touch Me (African Beat - Bubbler)
11) Burro Banton - Too Dutty (African Beat - Bubbler)
12) Bubbler Riddim Version (African Beat - Bubbler)
13) Lukie D - Send Dem Come (Maximum Sound - Praise Jahovia)
14) Fantan Mojah feat Zareb - Good Meditation (Maximum Sound - Praise Jahovia)
15) Mr Vegas & Konshens - Help Me Praise Jahovia (Maximum Sound - Praise Jahovia)
16) Busy Signal - Uniform Bad Bwoy (Maximum Sound - Praise Jahovia)
17) Million Stylez & Joey Fever - Young Gunz (Necessary Mayhem - Come Down)
18) Tippa Irie - Tippa On Da Mic (Necessary Mayhem - Come Down)
19) Papa Levi - Speed Rappin' (Necessary Mayhem - Come Down)
20) Pinchers - Bandelero (Necessary Mayhem - Come Down)
21) Mr Williamz - Real General (Necessary Mayhem - Come Down)
22) Joey Fever - Back With A Blast (Fast Forward - Love My)
23) Everton Chambers - Walk In Peace (Fast Forward - Love My)
24) Samuel Lancine - They Don't Know (Fast Forward - Love My)
25) Love My Riddim Version (Fast Forward - Love My)
26) General Levy - Jah Jah Bless (SouLove - Jah Jah Bless)
27) ASK - Burnin Babylon (SouLove - Jah Jah Bless)
28) Jah Melodie - Seek King Ras Tafari (Roots Tribe)
29) Slimmah Sound - Dub Version (Roots Tribe)
30) Luciano - Protect I Jah (Silly Walks Discotheque - Aspire)
31) Lutan Fyah - Wreckage (Silly Walks Discotheque - Aspire)
32) Million Stylez - Born In The System (Bassrunner - Prison Break)
33) Fantan Mojah - Hot (Bassrunner - Prison Break)
34) Mykal Rose - Fight I Down (Bassrunner - Prison Break)
35) Chezidek - Vampire (Massive B - Declaration Of Rights)
36) Burro Banton - What U Fightin For (Massive B - Declaration Of Rights)
37) Kyle Sicarius - Tribulation (Roots Tribe)
38) Slimmah Sound - Tribulation Dub (Roots Tribe)
39) Barry Issac - Swell Headed (Reggae On Top)
40) Reggae On Top All Stars - Swell Headed Dub (Reggae On Top)

Download it
HERE

England v Germany: Time for a new chapter to be written

Argie will 'take it up the arse' for WC win

Carlos Bilardo, the 71-year-old general manager of Argentina (pictured left), has made an unusual promise to whoever brings World Cup glory to his country.
Guardian reporter Sid Lowe has quoted the former international as saying, "If Argentina win the World Cup I'll let whoever scores the winning goal do me up the arse."
Bilardo was manager of Argentina when they won the trophy in 1986 thanks in part to a sparkling performance from current manager Diego Maradona.
It is not clear if Maradona was rewarded in any way by Bilardo for his display.
Meanwhile, Argentina star Lionel Messi has said he is ‘sure’ his county can go all the way at the 2010 World Cup in South Africa.
The Fifa World Player of the Year told Fifa’s official website, “My dream is to win it, come what may.”
He continued, “I imagine myself reaching the final, winning it and lifting the cup. How we will reach there, I have not even thought about it, but I am sure we will win it.”
Argentina struggled in the qualifiers and have not been heavily backed to win the tournament. However, Messi believes it would be a mistake to write-off his national side.
The forward added, “The qualifiers are behind us, for one reason or another we had to make a big effort, but this is totally distinct.
“I think it is normal that Argentina are a title contender, we have great players and we are a big national team that are always fighting for titles."
Messi was quick to praise manager Diego Maradona saying his experience of World Cups would prove invaluable.
The Barca player continued, “We have a lot of faith and hope, and obviously Diego's experience will be essential.”

from joe.ie

Like Father like son!

Statue honoring 'Carlos "el pibe" Valderrama' in Santa Marta, Colombia

Carlos Valderama!!!

a hairdresser's delight!

Where Are The Hooligans In South Africa?

Once upon a time, not so long ago, it would be hard to imagine a World Cup including England that did not include reports of actual incidents of hooliganism, blown up hysteria about hooligans running wild, and a general frenzy surrounding England fans.

In 1990, ahead of the World Cup in Italy, the Guardian wrote that “Britain is the only country which sends a government minister around telling other countries how dreadful his fellow citizens are.”

England fans — even if always a minority — were trouble, and reports of hooliganism sold newspapers in England. Lots of them. That’s why British tabloid newspaper journalists went around trying to foment trouble, as Pete Davies tells it in his brilliant account of Italia ‘90, All Played Out: “There was a story going round in Monterrey, there was a man from The Sun going round with a brick tied up in a note that said the brick was from England. And he’d go into bars offering fans a couple of hundred quids’ worth of pesos to put it through a shop window.”

True or not, I doubt Sun journalists are bothering to try anything like that in South Africa. Hooliganism is off the front pages. South Africa has so far not had a single reported incident involving an English football hooligan as far as I can tell. As the Guardian reported yesterday:

Kevin Miles, head of international relations at the Football Supporters’ Federation and organiser of the fan embassies in every city hosting England, said there had been no reports of any problems at any of England’s games so far.

read on @ Pitch Invasion

Vuvuzela FAIL!

Das Kraftfuttermischwerk & Rudi Stöher @ VisualberlinFestival, 12.06.2010, Tresor Berlin

Tracklist:
Quantec – Greenfield Mill
Cornell Cambpell – King in my Empire
Dubjack – Trebol 4
Dubjack – Trebol 2
Havantepe – Soft and Tender
Basic Channel – Phylyps Track II/II
Radio Slave – Neverending
Seidemann – End of Truth
Rhauder Feat. Paul St. Hilaire – No News – (Rauders Dub Mix)
Rhythm & Sound – Mango Drive
Jark Prongo – Spadet
Pleasurekraft – Tarantula (Original Mix)
Silicone Soul – Dogs of les ilhes (Kollektiv Turmstrasse Remix)
Vitalis Popoff – Peri Tes Narkolepseo
Laura Palmer – Evolve (Marko Fürstenberg Remix)
Petar Dundov – Rain (Echospace Reduction)
Round Four – Find à Way
Infiniti – Game One (Quantec Remix)
Daniel Stefanik – Silent Whisper ( Marko Fürstenberg Remix)
Wax – 3003B
Kollektiv Turmstrasse – Enviromental Influences
Jeff Bennett – Day Dreamer
Daniel Stefanik – Just One Moment
Wighnomy Brothers & Robag Wruhme – Draw Halycon Days
Timewriter – Going Back
Marko Fürstenberg – Gegenstrom
Quantec – Obstacles
Marko Fürstenberg – Espenhain
Jeff Bennett – Creatings
Luke Hess – Self Control

@ Kraftfuttermischwerk

direct download link
(left click to play, right click to download)

♪♫ Junior Kimbrough - All Night Long

Cowboy Jack Clement & Johnny Cash

"Yeah, I know all about this country actually. Here we go. There's a tree—your own personal guided tour—there's another tree, flowers—wildflowers—corn, marijuana..."

We miss ya' Johnny...

Global Trade Unions Demand Sustainability From G8 Leaders

Gathering ahead of today's G8 summit in Canada, labor leaders sent a message to leaders of the world's leading economies: It's about sustainablity, stupid!

The health of the world's economy depends on the health of the world's workers, and the time is long overdue for the world's policymakers to listen to them.

This is the message trade unionists and environmentalists from around the globe wanted to send to world leaders when the former two groups met in Toronto this past weekend to demand environmental, social, and economic sustainability in advance of the G8/G20 summit. The World Conference on Sustainability was organized by two Geneva-based global trade union federations, ICEM, and IMF, and was well attended by Canadian labor activists and leaders.........

Michelle Langlois @'Alternet'

As the article goes on to firmly state, the rest of the world has been savagely exploited by Big Corporations and their Overpaid Henchmen. Workers wages have fallen over the past 20years, dramatically reducing their capacity to meet everyday costs, the Fatcats at the top have been falling over themselves for ever more obscene bonus payouts to their Chosen Few. The environmental costs are an ongoing nightmare in many communities' lives as proper enforcement of regulations falls by the wayside and into the freshly created toxic quagmires. Attacks on the social mainstays of society in health, education, fresh water, sanitation, public transport, libraries and other vital social issues remain unabated through the parasitic funding of corporations, with sweetheart government deals and insignificant accountability. Sustainable, humane, and environmentally responsible action is needed by governments at all levels, if this insidious quicksand of pollution and exploitation that is extrapolating across the globe is to be ended. For the future of all generations to be anything other than some toxic wasteland from polluted sea to polluted sea, and barren rock to barren rock, politicians must hold corporations responsible and financially accountable for any and all of their deadly mistakes, human and environmental. - beeden

Don't mention the War!

Hitler on World Cup

Friday 25 June 2010

While you're down there...

Leon Levinstein's 'Hipster's, Hustlers and Handball Players'

@ NY 'Metropolitan Museum of Art'

Nina Nastasia - You Can Take Your Time

♪♫ Nina Nastasia - Cry, Cry, Baby

♪♫ Townes Van Zandt - At My Window & Snowin' on Raton

(Thanx BillT!)

WTF???

They called it the "Death Star" because according to one source who worked inside it, "you could just reach out with a finger and eliminate" somebody. On the walls were banks of television screens, known by the special forces boys as "Kill TV", where footage from image-intensifier cameras of the enemy being blown up by air strikes, or being gunned down by undercover hit teams was shown.

This place was "the Machine", a state-of-the-art military command centre hidden away in an airbase in Balad, a desolate stretch of land north of Baghdad. It was created by Major General Stanley McChrystal, the chief of US Special Forces, the most secretive force in the American military. Here, in the permanently darkened communications cockpit, dozens of US and British (SAS) personnel would gather around as nightly raids took place against al-Qa'ida and their insurgent allies.

Sometimes McChrystal would lead the raids himself, his squad of elite undercover combat troops, known as Delta Force, being told at the last minute that the commander was coming along for the ride. No one was quite sure what the Pentagon policy was on two star generals going on such dangerous missions, but then very few people in the US Department of Defence, and even fewer outside it in Washington, were even aware of these shadowy operations going on in Iraq.

This was the secret and violent world which shaped Stanley McChrystal, who on Wednesday was sacked from his job as commander of Nato forces in Afghanistan. The irony, as his colleagues were pointing out yesterday, was that his spectacular downfall was not due to some illicit military action, but because of a magazine article his aides had arranged in order to publicise his most recent high-profile public career.

Nevertheless, the seeds of what was to bring him down may have been planted at his time running "black ops" [operations], the head of a close- knit team answerable to very few, where decisions were made about life and death on a daily basis. The autonomy was not just military. McChrystal and his men would go into the badlands – at that time most of Iraq – to make deals with local tribal leaders, pay out money, organise allies and informants. There was no question of practical civilian oversight as no diplomat, American or British, would venture into these areas.

Thus McChrystal and the group around him, many of whom would follow him to Kabul, would have little to do with US or British civilian leaders. Their mistrust of what one of them described to Rolling Stone magazine as, "the wimps in the White House" was almost inevitable because of the shadowy nature of their work. When they did meet the civilians, the men did not have much to say to them, because so much of what they knew was classified, and thus could not be imparted.

One American officer recalled for example how much McChrystal disliked entering the Green Zone, the heavily fortified conurbation in Baghdad where Western administrative officials were based. "Stan always looked uncomfortable, he hated all the red tape. I guess, if anything, he was happier talking to the Iraqis than to most of our own people from State [the State department]; he wasn't a networker." The General's preference for cultivating local leaders rather than Western officials continued in Afghanistan, where the President, Hamid Karzai, and others would speak of their regret at his departure.

But friends of McChrystal's say his time in Iraq should be put in context. It was the most ferocious period in the conflict following the US-led invasion, with Sunni and Shia militias killing each other and Iraqi and foreign troops. Armed criminal gangs were on the rampage, kidnapping and extorting money from an unprotected population.

McChrystal had been told, goes the lore: "The gates of hell had been opened and you have got to help to shut them". The US forces, stuck behind their heavily guarded bases, only able to move around in heavy armoured convoys, were not the answer: the war would have to be taken to the insurgents in the streets and fields.

Over cups of coffee at the main US base, Camp Victory, McChrystal described to fellow officers, like the British Lieutenant Colonel Richard Williams, then leading an SAS unit in Baghdad, his plans to carry out relentless rounds of night raids, killing or capturing insurgents, especially their commanders, and break the cycle of the militant groups "organically" reproducing themselves.

There were many figures among the coalition forces who questioned the approach. One senior British officer dismissed the notion that such "industrial counter-insurgency" could work. But the targeted attacks began, and along with prisoners came intelligence vital in the programme of "decapitation" against al-Qa'ida.

General McChrystal was in his element, eating just one meal a day, sleeping no more than four hours a night, constantly demanding more information on the militant networks. Among the few "artefacts" in his spartan accommodation was a prosthetic limb, belonging to a Sunni sheikh his men had gone to hunt but failed to find. The false arm had been abandoned during the man's hurried getaway.

However, questions were being asked about how information was being obtained. There was an unofficial inquiry into the treatment of detainees at Balad. McChrystal was absolved because he was not there when the alleged abuses had taken place.

But then came information from a captured suspect which vindicated the commander's approach in the eyes of the US military. Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al-Qa'ida in Iraq, had been blamed for hundreds of bombings. It is highly unlikely that all of them were his group's handiwork, but the publicity helped create a myth of a master terrorist and Washington was demanding he must be stopped.

Intelligence agents working with McChrystal spent weeks winning the confidence of a suspect captured in the "Sunni Triangle" south of Baghdad. They eventually got a location where Zarqawi was staying, enabling the Americans to carry out an attack mortally wounding the al-Qa'ida leader. The body was brought to Balad. As it was being taken off the flight, McChrystal appeared, to stand and look at his enemy "as if trying some kind of silent communion", according to one of the crew members.

There were other successful operations, with the British SAS taking part in some of them, like the freeing of the missionary Norman Kember and Shia sheikhs supplying arms to be used against UK forces in Basra. Like their American boss, the SAS reported the bare minimum back to London.

In Afghanistan, McChrystal initiated policies which may have been an attempt to curb the lethal violence of his past. He brought in the doctrine of "courageous restraint" to minimise civilian casualties. He ordered air strikes, which had killed hundreds, to be significantly reduced in scale.

But he demanded control of the special forces operations, which had been run by a separate command under his predecessor, General David McKiernan. Iraq-style night raids dramatically increased, causing outcry from human rights groups, which complained that innocent civilians were often being killed by masked assailants.

It was only in recent days that General McChrystal ordered them to halt, saying the killings of insurgents could not justify the local alienation. It was one of his last actions as commander before he was ordered back to face the wrath of his Commander in Chief.

Kim Sengupta @'The Independent'

???

Australia's Gillard assures US over Afghan war backing

For Bodhi Cat!

YouTube Gets a Vuvuzela Button

Christopher "Dudus" Coke arrived at Westchester County Airport near New York

Jamaican alleged drug lord 'Dudus' extradited to US

Scandinavian Jazz Special January 2010 DJ Offbeat Chris Galvan OdDio

1. Fertile Ground - Another Day (Povo Jazz Rework)
2. Povo - We Are Povo
3. Five Corners Quintent feat. Mark Murphy - Jamming (with Mr. Hoagland)(Nicola Conte "For Friends and Relatives" Version)
4. Soular Sound - Things We Do (Nils Krough Alternative Take)
5. Hi-Fly Orchestra - Violet (Povo Rework)
6. Jukka Eskola - Kulo (Studio Live, Take 4)
7. Dalindeo - Solifer-Lento
8. Nostalgia 77 - Wildflower (Povo Remix)
9. Shaun Escoffery - Breaking Away (Koop Remix)
10. Jukka Eskola - 1974
11. Dalindeo - Poseidon
12. Five Corners Quintet - Blueprint
13. High Five Quintet - Conversation (Nicola Conte New Jazz Club Mix)
14. Timo Lassy - African Rumble
15. Auteur Jazz - Two Jaguars In Warsaw
16. Koop-Never Gonna Let You Go
17. Jimi Tenor & Kabu Kabu - Black January
19. A Bossa Eletrica - Consolocao
20. Timo Lassy ft Jose James - The More I Look At You
21. Bobby Hughes Combination - Magnificent Mr. Morgan
22. Povo - Bennie's Groove
23. Five Corners Quintet - Rich In Time
24. Timo Lassy - Early Move
25. Oddjob - Bloodstream
26. Jukka Eskola - Chip 'n' Charge

download link

via Blogrebellen

World Cup 2010: One-sided rivalry remains football's grand illusion

Germany have been in 11 major tournament finals since 1966 – England have made it to two semi-finals

Alan Shearer celebrates his winner at Euro 2000, the only time England have beaten Germany in competition since 1966. Photograph: Tom Jenkins for the Guardian

One of the many splendours of modern technology is that it is able to transmit round-robin witticisms to those who might otherwise find themselves short of an aperçu at the most opportune of moments. Consider the embarrassment averted this morning at Port Elizabeth airport, when the BlackBerry of an England supporter beeped obligingly into life. The screen was consulted.

"This is great," he bellowed to assembled travellers, sweetly extending the bounty to those who were not in his touring party – and indeed those not fortunate enough to have won first prize in the lottery of life and been born an Englishman. "This World Cup is exactly like the second world war," he guffawed. "The French surrender early, the US turn up late, and we're left to deal with the bloody Germans."

It brought the house down. Unfortunately, he wasn't buried in the rubble.

But by now, a welter of Don't Mention The Score headlines should have convinced you that you're in for a beguiling few days until England meet Germany in Bloemfontein on Sunday. With his last minute, group-winning goal against Algeria yesterday, the USA's Landon Donovan effectively assassinated Archduke Franz Ferdinand and invaded Poland. England now face the old enemy – the old enemy being the one within, namely some people's pathological inability to view football games with Germany through any other prism than war. Yet if this enemy has an ally – an Axis buddy, if you will – it is the idea that our nation enjoys a serious football rivalry with Germany.

From the minute England's round of 16 destiny was clear, you will have heard much about this sainted antagonism with Germany. Yet the so-called rivalry is quite obviously an illusion, existing only in the minds of those wishful to the point of insanity – which is to say, the English. We are rivals with Germany in the same way Christine Bleakley is rivals with Oprah.

How to put it even more starkly? Since 1966, Germany have been in 11 major tournament finals, of which they have won five. We've been in two semi-finals, and it hardly needs pointing out how that ended. The only time we beat them in tournament football is when it didn't matter, during Euro 2000 when both England and Germany went out in the first round anyway.

As for that 5-1 victory in Munich, there may be some who think that venerating a qualifying game in this way makes them look a force to reckoned with. But on one of the news channels the other day, a German living in England was asked about that night in 2001. If the question was meant as the most hamfisted of provocations – and I think it was Sky News, so it would have been – the reply was a study in understated fly-squashing. "Yes," said the German, gently. "I see the DVD is still selling in shops."

Wise heads have long since outsourced the settling of this ancient and hilariously one-sided blood feud. A friend swears that for him the greatest moment in English football in the last couple of decades came in 1994, at the World Cup in the US, when the Bulgarian Yordan Letchkov scored a brilliant header in the 78th minute that put Germany out in the quarter-finals. Letchkov, he reasons, was English footballer of that year, and if he was only named so on the honours boards of ironist publicans, then that is to our self-deceiving nation's discredit.

Harold Wilson blaming his 1970 election defeat on England's exit at the hands of West Germany in the World Cup in Mexico, Kevin Keegan resigning in the Wembley bogs – these are the sorts of things that happen after inevitable German wins, and there is a reassuringly traditional quality to them. In a world that has changed bewilderingly in recent decades, England losing to Germany in major tournaments is one of the few certainties.

The consequences of an upset of this natural order can only be immense. Watching that relatively insignificant 5-1 victory in 2001, the father of the then German coach Rudi Völler suffered a heart attack inside the stadium – and it is difficult not to think that a comparatively enormous upset in Bloemfontein could unleash such a dangerous collective euphoria in England that it could tear the very fabric of space and time itself. It would be like blasting gigawatts of power into the nation's flux capacitor – indeed, it might quite literally blast us back to 1966. Do let's be careful what we wish for.

Marina Hyde @'The Guardian'

Public Enemy - Shut 'Em Down (CSR Mix)

"Colin Spencer Reid sends over to us this impressive mix he created, blending in the sounds of Arthur Verocai, Bob Marley and the infamous vocals of Public Enemy. "

direct download link

via hypetrak

The Dub Chamber 14.05.2008 Full Session

"So heres an old set from 2008 to chill out & spark one up to, it’s from a wednesday nite Blunt Beats radio session, theme for the nite was “The Dub Chamber” & thats exactly what it turned out to be. Download & listen now links after the tracklisting, theres the whole 4 hour set aswell as just my hour & 20 min set. 1st up was the Erbalist followed by myself & last but by no means least Agent M waded in with some heavy tunes. A spankinly fat dub excursion covering 4 decades of reverbed bass heaven." (DJ Herb)

Part 1 – Erbalist

1. Nation Of Dub – Joe Gibbs & The Professionals (Crazy Joe Records)
2. Round 7 – Scientist (Greensleeves)
3. Weep Not Dub – Reggae On Top All Stars (Reggae On Top)
4. Raw Dub – Vibronics (Scoops Records)
5. Undertaker Dub – Vibes Master (Reggae On Top)
6. Funky Dub – Lee Perry (Jamaican Recordings)
7. Burn Pipe Dub – Sly & The Revolutionaries (Original Music)
8. Set Dub Free – Niney The Observer (Jamaican Recordings)
9. Way Out Rockers – Augustus Pablo (Jamaican Recordings)
10. Want Peace Dub – Bush Chemists (Conscious Sounds)
11. Stop The War Dub – Iration Steppas (Tandoori Dub Plate)
12. Star Dub – The Bush Chemists (Jah Tubbys)
13. Buck Up (Sci Fi Dub) – High Tone (Jarring Effects)
14. Us & Them – Easy Star All Stars (Easy Star Records)
15. Pop Goes The Dread Dub – Lee Perry (Walboomers)
16. Hail Up The Selector – Zion Train (Dubhead)
17. Natty Dread Kung Fu – Dub Funk Association (Tanty Records)
18. Sufferers Dub – Dub Funk Association (Tanty Records)

Part 2 – DJ Herb

1. 555 Dub Street – Augustus Pablo (Rockers Int)
2. 132 Version – Augustus Pablo (Hot Stuff)
3. Skanking Easy – Augustus Pablo (Rockers)
4. Each Version – Jacob Miller (Rockers)
5. Satan Side – Keith Hudson and Chuckles (Satanic)
6. The Last of Jestering – Augustus Pablo and Santic Allstars (Santic)
7. Black Gunn – Augustus Pablo (Rockers)
8. Our Man Flint – Augustus Pablo and Lloyd Young (Black Art)
9. Hot and Cold Version – Augustus Pablo (Black Art)
10. Episode 11 – Niney and The Observers (Observers)
11. Bearded Man Feast – Observer (Observers)
12. Woodpecker – Observer (Observers)
13. Rasta Bandwagon – Max Romeo (?)
14. Mercy Dub – King Tubby (Lees Gold)
15. Zig Zag – Bob Marley and The Wailers (Upsetter)
16. Ammunition – Bob Marley and The Wailers (Tuff Gong)
17. Cloak and Dagger (Dubplate 10? mix) – Tommy McCook and The Upsetters (?)
18. King Tubby Inna Jamdung – King Tubby (Black Art)
19. Kingdom Of Dub – Upsetters (Upsetter)
20. Black Panta 10? dubplate mix – The Upsetters (?)
21. Bucky Skank – Lee Perry and The Upsetters (Justice League)
22. Doctor Demand – Lee Perry and The Upsetters (Upsetter)
23. Bad Lamp – Lee Perry and The Upsetters (Upsetter)
24. Come Along – Blue Bells (Upsetter)
25. Necotine – Upsetters (Upstter)
26. Militant Rock – The Upsetters (Black Art)
27. Every Dub Is A Star – Harry J (Jamaican Recordings)
28. 2 Bad Bull Inna Dub – The Revolutionaries at Channel 1 (Dubplate)

Part 3 – Agent M

1. Sleeping In The Park (version) – Winston Jarrett (?)
2. Good Thing Going (version) – Sugar Minott (Black Roots)
3. Jah Love Dub – Dr, Alimantado (Vital Foods)
4. Step Forward Youth (version) – Prince Jazzbo (Mr Funny)
5. Herb – Sly and The Revolutionaries (Trojan)
6. Simeon Tradition – Augustus Pablo/King Tubbys (Wallboomers)
7. Undying Dub – The Aggravators (Jamaican Recordings)
8. Rebel Dance – King Tubby (Trojan)
9. Only Lover (version) – Gregory Isaacs (African Museum)
10. Wolf and Leopard/No Conscience – Dennis Brown/Niney the Observer (Trojan)
11. Bathroom Skank – Lee Perry (Black Art)
12. The Gorgon Of Drums And Horns – Tommy McCook and The Aggravators (Trojan)
13. Natty Dread In Greenwich Farm (extended dub) – Cornell Campbell/King Tubby (Attack Gold)
14. Tappa Rhythm – Sly and Robbie (Tappa)
15. Drifting Ting (version) – Junior Delgano (Star Trail)
16. Perilous Dub – Max Romeo (Jah Creator)
17. Wilmot Meets Lord Scruffage – Sabres Of Paradise (Warp)
18. Officer – DMZ (DMZ)
19. Rise Up – Sub Version feat. Paul St. Hilare (Soul Jazz)
20. Surround Me – Midas Sound System (Soul Jazz)
21. One Blood, One Source – Pinch feat. Rudey Lee (Tetonic)
22. That Feeling (dub) – Mushtaq (Ariwa)
23. King Tubbys Special – King Tubby, the Observer Allstars and The Aggravators (Trojan)

Download it HERE (220 MB; 4 hours)