Eclectic crime fiction & informed, irreverent non-fiction from Asia & beyond
The new Rolling Stones album, Hackney Diamonds, is almost perfect. Reviews have been glowing. The band’s best long-player since Some Girls, some hacks write (Variety claims it’s ‘Their Liveliest Work in 40 Years’). Macca’s on it. The irreplaceable Charlie, bless him, plays on a couple of tracks and long retired Bill (who?) does something on […]
Continue ReadingMy first encounter with Scott Nicholson was as formidable and extraordinary as our 19 year friendship. I found him sitting in the surf on a remote beach in the Andaman Islands, in 2000. I was about to go swimming and we said hello to each other, the way two westerners do three thousand miles from […]
Continue ReadingSrey Thy aka Kak Channthy , the singer of seminal Cambodian band The Cambodian Space Project, was killed last night when a Lexus smashed into the back of a Tuk-Tuk she was traveling in, in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. I had the good fortune to meet Srey Thy many times. My brother Marc took me to […]
Continue ReadingI’ve been on tour with The London Dirthole Company, legendary London based noise creatives. The music made by The London Dirthole Company is a joyful ride into the world of the modern Outsider artist as a musical phenomena. As out of time and place and unreservedly important as The Fall, The Monks and The Velvet […]
Continue ReadingI was in Phnom Penh, Cambodia this week and had the opportunity to do some recording with The Mincers. Singer Zoe Zac and her merry punksters recently rolled in from Hobart, Tasmania to play a string of dates in Southeast Asia. Zoe organized two days studio time with producer Professor Kinski and we recorded two […]
Continue ReadingBangkok based photographer Michael LaPalme witnessed many of the 2011 shows of Pussy & The Learjets, Bangkok’s loudest RocknRoll band. The Learjets have been defunct for more than a year with Pussy absconding to China and the rest of the band involved in other projects. Michael also shot The Learjets in the studio. Now he’s […]
Continue ReadingFrom the vaults…a new track by Pussy & The Learjets, who played Bangkok punk rock for twelve months and then crashed and burned, as any great band should. This is a cover on The Thirteenth Floor Elevators You’re Gonna Miss Me, a huge song. And yes, I played guitar for The Learjets. With Manis on […]
Continue ReadingBangkok’s loudest RocknRoll band, Pussy & The Learjets, featuring my alter ego, Tom Learjet, on guitar, may not be rumbling through the Thai capital’s music venues right now, but the band led by the amazing, incredible Om aka Pussy still has a pulse. Bassist Manis On Fire has been digging through our extensive back catalogue […]
Continue ReadingPussy & The Learjets, Bangkok’s noisiest Rock’n’Roll band, recently released their first single on Metal Postcard, Hong Kong’s best loved independent label. It’s a colored vinyl picture disc release and the songs are also available at iTunes. But now, the single’s B Side, called Itchy Skin, has been made available totally free on You Tube! […]
Continue Reading‘_ In case any of my readers have been wondering what I do when I am not writing, especially when it gets dark in Bangkok…. ….I moonlight with Pussy & The Learjets, the loudest and wildest Rock’n’Roll band, who perform in club toilets, wine bars and riverboats in Bangkok. The band, fronted by the incredible […]
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