It Doesn't Suck

Pete Doherty has been a favorite of judakris. He’s like a trainwreck, you can’t look away. So I was at the library the other day and noticed that for £1 I could rent Babyshambles’ new CD, Shotters Nation. While I didn’t want to make the investment to own it, I was curious to hear what all the fuss was about. As I look through the CD booklet I take note that Kate Moss has some writing credits on this thing. The first song, “Carry On Up The Morning”, was definitely my favorite. I listened to Shotters Nation from start to finish on my commute into London and it did get tedious in the middle, but then got better towards the end. Curious no more, it can go back to the library.

P.S. Let’s talk about band names for a moment (we probably need a whole separate post about this) but The Libertines was an awfully cool band name. Babyshambles? Give me a break.

The Libertines: Bound Together

When J came back to the states for a week in September, she brought me a book called The Libertines:Bound Together, a book written by former NME editor Anthony Thornton and photographer Roger Sargent. This collaboration results in the band's incredibly well written biography teeming with many gorgeous photographs that help bring to life the rise and fall of Pete and Carl's Arcadian dream. I sat and read this nearly 300-page book cover to cover in one night.

Using the internet as a medium to introduce new music or invite fans to impromptu intimate performances on Libertines.org, Pete apparently often carried around his laptop posting his thoughts and sometimes his whereabouts on the website's forum (which has as of this post over 32,000 registered members). Is this not a fascinating invitation into an artist's world? Ok, so perhaps it's just the virtual world, but for someone who has lurked on many a message board administered by no one near the band I find this kind of intimacy fascinating.

This is all well and good, but what I couldn't get out of my mind was the revelation that Pete's motivation for doing interview after interview was to make money for drugs. A writer he very well may be, but an addict certainly.

I would definitely recommend this book for anyone who enjoys a good band biography. -K

OD-ing on UK Music Mags

One of the things that I promised K when I told her I was moving to England was that I would send her fave magazine, Kerrang! in the mail. As you can see I picked it up and a few others today. I couldn't resist buying NME since our favorite trainwreck and judakris poster boy, Pete Doherty was on the cover. --J