Click here to listen. Jim Boots’ summary of events follows…
Recorded on Sunday 8th May, 2005, Insatiable Banalities, podcast #8 features Andy Kaye (formerly Captain Pants), Jim Boots, Gertrude and special guests, Randall Blair and Deb. Only four musical tracks this time (including Randall Blair recorded live) due to a lot of interesting chatter and, possibly, the lack of any real plan or effective leadership.
Track list
Vic Chesnut, Virginia. 3:12
Randall Blair and the Wedded Bliss, Leaving You. 13:47
Konrad Lenz, Chicken Bone. 34:53
Randall Blair, Triple Truth. 55:01
Banalities
We introduce our guests. Randall Blair is a well known local singer-songwriter, erstwhile leader of Crumpet and currently with Randall Blair and the Wedded Bliss. There is some confusion about his name, which he has changed a few times over the years. We confuse things further later.
Deb describes herself as a crazy woman. She is not ‘crazy’ at all, though she does have a mental illness and she is a mad alt.country fan. She brought in a Vic Chesnut album ‘Ghetto Bells’, so we played a track, Virginia. She likens the song, lyrically, to a Nick Cave song, Jack the Ripper (lyrics here, 30 second mp3 snippet here). Deb refers to Vic as ‘a cripple’ and Jim Boots makes note of his small hands (he was looking at this album cover).
We discuss Randall’s name. Is there a negative association with Tony Blair. He considers using his middle name, Merton, as his first name, but is Merton Randall too country? A tip for the future: If you hear of a guy with Blair, Randall, or Merton in his name, in any combination, it’s probably Randall Blair.
Leaving You, off the Wedded Bliss’ recent album, Tattoos and Taillights, is a slow, country lament, like Tom Waits if he could sing.
As the last notes play out, we fade in discussing Deb’s psychiatric condition and current medication regime. This moves into a long discussion about mental illness generally. Jim Boots is mildly bi-polar apparently, self-medicated and reasonably functional. Randall’s partner is bi-polar and crashes and burns occasionally. Gertrude had a brush with post-natal depression. Andy is still in denial.
We finally get around to back-announcing Randall Blair’s song, then play a Konrad Lenz song, Chicken Bone. There is some awful annoying crackling on the track, perhaps a legacy of the fact Konrad burns his own CDs. Please endure the crackle because the auto harp/banjo combination is great and Konrad is in fine lyrical and warbling form.
We discuss once again the exodus of Canberra musicians to Melbourne, the apparently irresistible attractions of Melbourne being brought into stark contrast with Canberra’s modest ones, which we next vainly attempt to extol. In amongst this, we critique gentrification, Jim Boots reveals that he once had a tick on his dick (and had his mother and wife remove it because he couldn’t stand to touch it) (Randall’s questions regarding the penie beanie caused much hilarity) and then we are treated to a live rendition by Randall of Triple Truth before saying goodbye.
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