Tuesday 18 May 2010

American Diners

American roadside diners, along with the Statue of Liberty, Route 66 and the Golden Gate Bridge, stand for America of the 50s/60s. Open all day and night they were places where one could anonymously pop in, grab a coffee, a slice of homemade pie to take a break from the tiresome road. They stand for the American post-war middle class family trying to live the American Dream whatever that may have been.

The American diner was for the newly motorized family, the lonesome adventurous traveller, the stressed business man. It was where Kerouac's character Sal Paradise in On the Road grabbed his apple pie and ice cream while he was chasing his hopes and dream from coast to coast.

My friend is writing a script on Malcolm X at the moment which got me to look into him and I found a great quote of his on diners (the person not the restaurant...but nonetheless)









Images are from an exhibition at the Fox Talbot Museum

Saturday 1 May 2010

Buffalo album of the week....Dan Auerbach "keep it hid"


The Black Keys' singer-guitarist Dan Auerbach releases his self-produced solo debut, mixing, he says, "psychedelia, soul music, loud and soft guitars." Backed by a full band, he prowls the dark end of the street, with gritty, impassioned vocals lending drama to tales of romantic betrayal and suspicious minds. Guests include singer Jessica Lea Mayfield.


Keep It Hid proves both Auerbach's extravagant musical abilities and his encyclopaedic knowledge of the blues beyond any doubt, but it also proves that he still has no intention of letting anything new seep into his musical world. A shame, because unless he does he will remain more curator than true creator, for all his gifts. The black keys have always been one of my favourite bands and will always continue to be as I an an old man trapped in a young mans body and they keep providing me with that sound that sound like it has come straight out the early seventies and challenges the likes of cream and led zeppelin. Now Dan Auerbach has ventured on a solo album it increases my love for them as his sound is haunting and very unique!