Name: Swivel Chair. Town: Edinburgh, Scotland. Years: 1999-2004

Influences: KLF, Pet Shop Boys, Joy Division. Career Highlight: Our third triumphantly drunken gig.. Lowpoint: Our fourth disastrously drunken gig. Line Up: Craig Low (bass, samples) Milo McLaughlin (vocals, guitar) David Robertson (99-2002): madness, Dave Burnett (2002-2004)- lead guitar, production

I met Craig working in a miserable till-monkey job at HMV on Edinburgh’s Princes St.  He had already started recording Swivel Chair as a joke, using the recording software Acid, and he handed me a CD on which he had used a recording of the store manager giving him a bollocksing over a Led Zeppelin sample.

I was impressed and when he suggested I come up with some lyrics/ideas for a Swivel Chair track, I jumped at the chance and our first collaboration, The Man Who Listened to Planes was recorded, wholly based on the A-Team theme.

A few more sample based comedy recordings (with original vocals) and a friend agreed to sell our CD in Fopp Records- to our surprise we sold quite a few. We were even more surprised when our second EP got us some brief record company interest. However we were stumped when they asked when we were playing live as neither of us could play an instrument.

Our egos inflated, we decided to stop using samples and learn instruments. Third member David Robertson, who lived in Dundee, was also cruelly ejected from the band as egos ran riot, and a new member, Burnett was reluctantly recruited. The only one who could play his instrument, there was a lot of pressure on Burnett as we started rehearsals.

Finally we played our first gig using a computer to provide backing tracks. It was an entertaining spectacle and a few drunken girls danced, but we were barely competent and doubt set in for Craig and Burnett. There was a significant break in which they both refused to play live and we half-heartedly agreed to split up before we were approached by a band called Quantum Ho Ho. Unbeknownst to us they had bought our CDs and it had inspired them to start their own band.

We reluctantly reformed and played three more gigs in support of them. One was mediocre, the second was a triumph, despite full drunken arrogance and a stand in guitarist who we’d only had one rehearsal with; the night before. We were high as kites as XFM Scotland (then Beat 106) DJ Jim Gellatly proclaimed our set “Fuckin’ Mental”. Unfortunately underlying tensions and alcohol led to a bust up after the gig in which punches were thrown but no-one except pride was hurt.

A week later and the final gig was an utter disaster due to lack of a soundcheck and this time being the wrong side of wasted. I threw a tantrum at the soundman. The others laughed at me. Our bonds were broken. Craig and I are still in contact now and again and have joked that we would reform if 1000 people demanded it. So far 8 people have expressed a vague interest.

Read the first 4 parts of the full tale below (originally published on the first Gaseous Brain blog in 2005 but extra video and mp3s have now been added)

• I Was a Swivel Chair – Part 1
• I Was a Swivel Chair (Part Two)
• I Was a Swivel Chair (Part 3)- Witness No.1
• I Was A Swivel Chair (part 4)

The blog, which is proving to be a great re-introduction to the world of comics for me, is run by my old Swivel Chair bandmate David Robertson, who is an excellent comic artist in his own right. In fact those of you with the fanzine will have already read my below review of his latest creation, Dump, which you can find more info on here.

(ps: see A Brief History of My Creative Efforts Part 1 for more evidence of my love for Uncle Pigg!)

David Robertson’s Dump: Comic Review

Dump is a small press comic by David Robertson which brings together a number of short pieces most of which were originally produced by the author for other outlets.

The title may lead one to think that the comic contains some scatological humour, and ‘Contemplating Suicide While Someone Else Craps’ is indeed a one page piece with some very black toilet humour.

However, “It’s Delhi Belly”, a piece drawn for an anthology unsubtly called “Crap Your Pants”, is actually a sober tale about someone who finds out they’ve contracted Crohn’s Disease. It’s a factual piece which made me think it was autobiographical, but according to the notes at the back of the comic it was thoroughly researched and written with the truth in mind.

It also contains a story which is itself called ‘Dump’ which is not in fact a bathroom related tale, but about the protagonist of Robertson’s former comic Berserkotron starting a new job at a scrap metal yard / council dump. I sense that this is a story that could follow through to further issues rather than being standalone.

Other tales in the comic include one which considers how positive discrimination would affect humans in a Star Wars style universe where we have a relatively short lifespan, and an undisguised autobiographical account of a single day for the Hourly Comics Day project. Robertson’s unique way of thinking makes each story interesting, and is also evident in the section where he imagines the thoughts of the models from his life drawing class.

There’s something of Harvey Pekar in the straightforward and commonplace nature of many of the events, and the art is simple yet effective which perfectly matches the tone. If Robertson were to weave some more emotional aspects into his stories he could develop to be a storyteller to watch.

You might also be interested to read Dave’s interview with the awesome artist Peter Bagge, written for Nude Magazine. Strangely, the very same issue featured a picture of Swivel Chair, as I had previously written a piece for their ‘beautiful losers’ section about the band. Spooky..

My girlfriend is into her craft stuff and found these cool Star Wars mini amigurumi created by Lucy Ravenscar who can be found at: http://lucyravenscar.blogspot.com/ Excellent work Lucy!

Yes, if you’re on the Ten Tracks mailing list you’ll already be aware of this, but for those that aren’t, you can now get the PDF version of the Products of a Gaseous Brain Spring 2010 Catalogue free to download when you buy the I Hear a New World bundle over at Ten Tracks.

Customer Service Announcement!

If you’ve already downloaded the bundle then I believe the ten tracks system will allow you to download it again for free to get the pdf – but do email me at gaseous dot brain at google mail dot com if you have any problems with this. Also if you’ve already bought the pdf and now want the ten tracks bundle as well, email me and I’ll be happy to give you a refund.

My pal Nick has written a great post about the first issue of the Products of a Gaseous Brain zine which has provoked some interesting comments.

As well as writing for his own rather nifty looking blog, Nick is also joint editor of the Scotman’s popular Under the Radar blog and contributes to a bunch of other web and print publications.

Cheers Nick!

(pic via This Isn’t Happiness)

An iPhone ponce, yesterday

Obviously if you are one of the strange breed who turns into a growling, foaming-mouthed tornado of rage at even the mention of Apple products, then this post isn’t for you, and I suggest getting back to your latest 3-hour virus scan (joke!)

The apps I include are some of the ones you might not have heard of, as opposed to the more obvious ones I use every day like Tweetie, Facebook, Tumblr, and the stuff that comes with the phone itself like email, the native notes app and google maps/GPS (which has so far been utterly invaluable as a sat nav stand-in).

Also below I’ve included a wee list of other resources for finding out about more apps if you are so inclined. Let me know what apps you use if you have one of the shiny time-wasting futurephones, and if you have any sources for finding out about the good uns, please leave a comment.

Watch the whole 12 minute video via Vimeo:

Or if you’re on an iPhone or have a short-attention span, watch it in two exciting installments via YouTube:

Part one 

Part deux

Other useful iPhone App links:

Daring Fireball No one outside of Apple’s Cupertino HQ knows more about what they’re up to than John Gruber. He frequently has the inside scoop on what will be announced at the likes of WWDC and often highlights interesting new apps.

Just Another iPhone Blog I’ve had some good recommendations from this blog, which is well worth subscribing to – it’s got more of the feel of a personal blog than something that’s just there to get lots of traffic.

App Advice’s App Awards Found this on the above blog, not saying I agree with the results but it’s a good place to start for an overview of the popular apps out there.

“Geek Rock Stars favourite Apps” ReadWriteWeb have this summary of what some of the top tech geeks use.

Planet of the Apps The Guardian had a decent piece in today’s G2 section about the “app economy”

TechCrunch on the Spotify app Spotify are waiting to see if Apple will approve their game-changing submission to the app store, and thus make their premium account worth paying for. But because it competes directly with iTunes, they may not.

And of course there are hundreds of other sites pumping out an endless barrage of iPhone related trivia – with augmented reality the new exciting trend for those fuckers with 3GS and its built in compass.  And on that note, I can only quote my better half from the video above when she says “enough about the iPhone already!”

They Live – John Carpenter

As a self-styled “creative person”, how can I get a balance between the amount of media I consume on a daily basis, and actually producing something creative myself?

I’m an avid reader, whether it be ye olde fashioned tree-books or ye new fangled blog posts via google reader, or various magazines and newspapers. Working as a media monitor I go through all the daily papers most days and then there’s the other media I consume – TV news all day at work and then all the people I follow on tumblr when I get home, plus the odd TV programme that I enjoy.

But I consider myself a creative person – so how can I find time to actually be creative rather than just a giant media sponge? We are living in the information age, where it is quite literally EXPLODING in our faces everyday as we log onto the infinitenet. We now have the knowledge that it took Doctor Who (albeit a fictional character) lifetimes to acquire, at our slightly calloused fingertips. We can be sucked in by images, videos, music – all an incredibly strong draw to our unconscious minds which like nothing better than feeding on visual and audio stimulus for it’s own, often unclarified ends. And as we forge connections online, we also become involved in a competitiveness to find the next best amusing link, the killer photograph on flickr on weheartit, the blog post that explains the meaning of life itself in ten perfectly crafted bullet points or the mac application that’s going to change our lives – and to find it before everyone else.

There is no doubt in my mind that internet addiction is a serious, and growing problem – it’s something I think I may be suffering from myself as I struggle to achieve other goals such as keeping fit or learning the guitar because I’ve spent so much time keeping up with ‘the netbours’. And very often, it’s the most creative people who are drawn to it. Blogging or tumbling that reacts or recycles already produced images/music etc has a creativity to it of course, but it’s lower on the scale than actually producing original content yourself, just as there can be an art to journalistic criticism of music, films or books when done well – but it’s hard to hold it up there with the art of crafting a song or a film or a novel. Even when those things aren’t done particularly well, there’s still a stronger flame of creativity at work in producinig something original, in my opinion.

The problem is that consumption is EASY.

There are few barriers, apart from abject poverty, to getting hold of information in our culture. You don’t have to set aside time to read a blog, you just do it at some point throughout the day at work. You can pick up a book anytime. Most of us have an ipod or mp3 player crammed full of music which we can use anytime. And the TV, well that’s always on in the corner of the room, right?

To produce something creative, whether it be writing, music, film, or photography, you have to set aside the time for it. You have to do this in advance, and you have to make sure you stick to that plan.

The same goes for achieving anything worthwhile, whether it be learning a new skill, getting fit, or even maintaining friendships or contact with your extended family. Unfortunately this is a discipline I find extremely difficult – it’s so much easier to distract myself with endless information/entertainment. But.. I’m trying.. and that’s why sometimes my online output is erratic – because I’m not sure how beneficial it all really is. I love making connections with people, and that’s what keeps me doing it, but Im wondering if there isn’t a less time consuming way of doing that than what I’m doing now..