Tearz...

I took my Canuck cousin to my favouritest pub in England last night, proud of its ability to stay true to its roots, an unassuming tavern in the throbbing heart of Brixton, retain its identity and always be where everybody knows your name. We were headed there before a gig to discuss band names as we are doing some tracks together and need a name for the project as it’ll affect the output in ways. You choose a name to suit your sound surely? And once you got the name, the songs develop. A name’s important. There’s a lot in a name dear rhetoric-spitters.

We walked in.

It had changed.

My cousin was disappointed. He said it was no different than a normal boozer really. Gentrification had won the battle against the poor beautiful pub that always had Red Stripe on tap, a live band playing soul/funk/jazz/reggae, a free buffer on Saturdays and curmudgeonly old men playing serious games of dominos in the corner. It was perfect. It was a haven. You only went there if you knew it. It got no passing trade. It was resistant to the gentrification and the poshification of Brixton. Now they had taken away the panels that divided the pub in two, opening it out taking away the claustrophobic den feel. The old men and their domino pieces had been moved on. Two huge plasma screens played sports channels. It was, and I know this sounds weird, clean. Things will never be what they once were. People moved on. Places moved on. The past slowly burns embers away, sprinkling a fairy dust of nostalgia over our memories as objects become associated with emotions and times and places, becoming an unattainable once-was.

The message is, as last year’s trip down memory lane with my father showed me, that I’m too sentimental. I need to move forward, instead of recalling histories in my head.

Despite this, we decided to resurrect Yam Boy as a moniker for the future project. I won’t unveil what we’re think in its full glory yet but job’s a good’un.

After discussing band names, we started singing Wu lyrics and listing our 5 favourite Wu-albums. Well, I did. We got so into it that we were late for the soundcheck and my cousin never got his chance.

Here are mine:
1) Enter the Wu (36 Chambers)
2) Brooklyn Zoo
3) Ironman
4) Tical
5) Cuban Linkz

Much as I love Liquid Swords it never sticks in my brain. Does Gravediggaz count as a Wu project? BANG YOUR HEAD.

It’s the weekend and I need to finishing reading Jimmy Corrigan so I can start on the stack of books I have to read.