#life's a riot with spy vs spy

[mioritic]

The Man in the Iron Mask // Billy Bragg

[musicandotherdelights]

Daily Listening, Day #1,072 - December 7th, 2022

Album: Life's A Riot With Spy Vs Spy (Utility, 1983)

Artist: Billy Bragg

Genre: Folk Punk

Track Listing: 

"The Milkman Of Human Kindness"

"To Have And To Have Not"

"Richard"

"A New England"

"The Man In The Iron Mask"

"The Busy Girl Buys Beauty"

"Lovers Town Revisited"

Note: Not released in the United States.

Favorite Song: "To Have And To Have Not"

[biglisbonnews]

"Life's a Riot with Spy vs Spy" was recorded 40 years ago this week Billy Bragg took to his Facebook page today to share the news that it's the 40th anniversary of the recording of his debut album "Life's a Riot with Spy vs Spy." He said: 40 years ago today I carried my trusty Arbiter guitar and Roland Cube 60 amp into the demo studio at the offices of Chappell Music near Marble Arch in London and over three intense days recorded my debut album Life's A Riot with Spy vs Spy. — Read the rest https://boingboing.net/2023/02/03/lifes-a-riot-with-spy-vs-spy-was-recorded-40-years-ago-this-week.html

[flowersforzoe11]

Alex Rider S1E7 Episode notes

Just had the most hideous combo of back2baack travel weekends, midterms, and canvassing for the upcoming election (reminder to any Americans of age to go vote--it's what Jack Starbright would want<3), so i have not had a single second to think about this show for the past like 3 weeks. HOWEVER my life is slightly less chaotic now and i'm ready for ep7. without further ado...

-WHAT DEATH SCENE FAKEOUT ALEX YOU GENIUS (i was gonna say, i didn't think his injuries were *that* serious in the book but goddamnit what a reveal. the past few episodes are such a love letter to this show)

-sorry i'm literally still in shock that was genius

-okay i haven't read this book in probably 5 or 6 years, but i feel like Alex returning to Point Blanc was way less consentual. i will say my major gripe with this show is that they're downplaying the evil that MI6 was, especially in the beginning (esp. the show's "no signal" vs book Blunt actively ignoring the signal)

-okay! fine! i like this Smithers (the tweak the chromosomes lines is such a funny cop-out line but i will ignore the science and accept it)

-alex yelling at Jones/K unit is the definition of AURA. god i love "defending those he loves" Alex

-and tulip can keep Kyra's name out of her mouth

-scream it for those in the back. MICHAEL ROSCOE WOULD NEVER QUOTE HITLER

-the motorbikes line was soooo Ella Cornell coded it's crazy (read I Spy i dare you)

-ahhHHHHHH CUB (this is such a good inclusion of K unit)

-Otto Farrant was so good during the k unit sniper scene. real loss of innocence moment for tv Alex and i could see it in his face. love love love (also that was just such a good scene in general. absolutely clincial. if i ever go to war, i'm taking all of k unit with me)

-the dr Greif x stellenbosch dynamic is so deliciously fucked up

-"we need greif alive" if i don't get my helicopter murder and shitty pun i RIOT

-CLONE KYRA IS CRAZY I AM GAGGED

-also for the record i'd be pissed if i was Wolf. just had to air the place out with very little back up and Alex just disappears despite having exactly one job (to not disappear)

-if there's one thing about Alex, it's that he gets his shit rocked often

-i love Alex's semi-working knowledge of science (especially because it only seems to exist when things are about to explode). also, as someone who graduated with a STEM degree, the lab fight scene was awesome. when will it be my turn to throw flasks at my enemies...

-well the project gemini information certianly was destroyed !

-the kids seeing their clones scene was absolutely bone-chilling

-okay i'm gonna say it. i feel like tv Alex is a silghtly nerfed version of book Alex. i feel like his role was a lot more important than "tag along and almost get himself killed"

-WOLF BEING SO NICE TO ALEX??? I'LL CRY REAL TEARS I LOVE THEM

-NO HELICOPTER SCENE AND BAD PUN???????? GET YOUR PITCHFORKS BC WE RIDE AT DAWN

-alex you poor shell of a boy you deserve the world (HOWEVER tv point blanc was maybe only 1/2 as traumatic as book point blanc. someone def toned AHorz down)

-god scorpia has their greasy little hands in everything

-JULIUS

[doyourememberrocknrollradio]

To celebrate 40 years of vinyl (Life's a Riot with Spy vs Spy) to the release of The Roaring Forty - 1983-2023.

Friday October 27th 2023 we present a full day of Billy Bragg.

[trckstaer]

𝐓𝐑𝐂𝐊𝐒𝐓𝐀𝐄𝐑 𝐖𝐈𝐒𝐇𝐋𝐈𝐒𝐓 :

— genuinely one of the longest posts I have ever posted.

A brief note that every single one of my muses has a half-blood verse and a daemon verse that I am always excited to use !

˖ ࣪⭑ . . . Marvel

May Parker's home for injured vigilantes. Head emergency room nurse May who, after realising her nephew is a vigilante adopts a ' as long as you do it under my roof so I can make sure you're safe ' policy, starts having other heroes dropped on her fire escape to patch up. Also, her cancer storyline would be epic to write.

Uncle Ben who lives and loses his arm in the shooting but is around enough to help Peter when he needs it, keep him good and moral without having to die to make sure it happens, makes space so Peter can fix up his suit whilst he works late in the garage.

Peter realises he is very genuinely the lamest Spider-Man in every universe. He has no special talents, cannot do ballet, annoys the fuck out of Miguel and burned all bridges with the billionaire he knew post accords.

Make Matt use his senses, and explore the world around him with them. Very rarely does he get the chance to just sit with them ; during the day he has to act like a regular blind person, and as Daredevil it's all about adrenaline and moving fast. Also, I am a sucker for one-night stand threads with him, because he is a player until he gets his person.

Frank being forced to be soft and gentle with your muse and taking care of them when they're hurt is super important to me however, I also adore the threads where the Punisher just gets to be insane and talented with his weapons in a fight.

Dadpool taking care of his daughter and being responsible and careful and still insane. Wade breaking into the spiderverse and being the fucking worst. Deadpool meets deities when he's waiting for Lady Death to send him back post-mortem.

Someone being kind to Vanessa, treating her gently and asking to see her skin, not the disguise that Copycat and Xavier thought up together for her to wear.

Slice of life in the Hellhouse stuff ! People are confronted with the reality of what Weasel goes through in a day of getting mercenaries weapons and jobs. Weasel vs Spider-Man stuff where he finally gets to confront Peter Parker.

I'd be really into a thread where Hawkeye is forced to drop his dumb guy act and people are reminded that he is a highly competent spy and archer with abilities beyond what is publicly known.

College years Rhodey being the exhausted roommate of one Anthony Stark. Rhodey mourning his sister. Rhodey learning to be a good uncle and primary carer to his niece Lila.

Let Happy Hogan date one of his bosses, boy has never met an authority figure he didn't fall immediately and deeply in love with.

Despite raising his two sons, Vision finally finds people that help him understand and find respite from how alone he so often feels.

After the death of his momma, Harley Keener who is raising his baby sister and selling his inventions on the black market, all while running his family farm alone is suddenly confronted with being moved out to New York for college and someone stepping up to help him finally.

Johnny Storm makes a good, reliable friend who finally helps him shake that horrific loneliness he is constantly plagued with, helps him deal with the trauma and addiction and also is just good at making sure the trouble he gets into is lighthearted.

After being stranded on a planet ( very possibly earth ) Nebula very quickly grows a beautiful and extravagant nursery of plants and tries to ignore how she doesn't really fit in anywhere.

Very tired, very grumpy, teacher Wolverine who honestly doesn’t want to be there but also doesn’t want the grief he’d get from his coworkers if he tried to quit the academy.

Bubbly, over-excited teacher, Kid Omega, who’s on strict probation because of the whole trying to start riots thing, but still won't stop talking to the kids about why policing minorities is a problem. 

˖ ࣪⭑ . . . Mythology

Biblical Mythology

Famously irresponsible Gabriel being the last eligible angel left to take on the role of leader of Heaven, them being forced to go back despite the last time they were there being the day they fled after losing their wife and children in the war. Them having to take care of something even when it's hard.

Imprisoned Uriel having visitors in any form, maybe souls who escaped their Heavens or other angels sneaking in or ! Her escaping and being taken in by the people who find her on earth, being confused and gullible.

Tired of endlessly partying and fighting, Balthazaar finds offers up his services as an archivist for the hunters instead, documenting everything he can remember about Heaven no matter how painful.

Greek Mythology

Ares takes care of something on earth and falls completely in love with a mortal, finding them so beautiful and hiding them away so Aphrodite has no chance of finding them and becoming jealous, living as much of their life with them as he possibly could — going so far as to abandon all of his duties to stay by their side.

Any and all interactions with the other Gods. Persephone who is seen as a child far too often for her liking, instead of the incredibly powerful and dramatic Goddess that she is, proving everyone wrong and being part of the solution.

The other strategic and intelligent Gods taught Phobos about wisdom and war when he was young and him looking up to them and crushing on them for the whole of his life.

After being cursed by the fates for spreading dread to the entire human population instead of just soldiers as he was meant to, I think it would be really cool to do a thread where Deimos first starts losing his mind and gaining his incredibly difficult-to-deal-with amounts of empathy and is found doing not-so-great by another muse.

˖ ࣪⭑ . . . Literature

The Shadowhunter Chronicles

No longer a vampire and only newly a shadowhunter, Simon struggles to find places where he fits in because neither group is warm to him ; the downworlders not trusting him anymore, and the shadowhunters not trusting him yet.

University professor Ragnor Fell being manic and obsessed with how intelligent his students are and unable to stop talking about it to his friends, whether he's working at a mundane school or at the shadowhunter academy.

Your muse opens the door to Catarina who is exhausted, with her little girl ( Madzie ) in tow, who starts her introduction with the sentence ' it has been a week and a half since I have had a conversation with someone who was not a patient in the emergency room or four, please can I come have a coffee ? '

The Riordanverse

A verse to explore what would have happened if Thalia had claimed the prophecy to spare both Percy and Nico a miserable fate once she saw how much it meant to the camp.

Dark Percy. I am desperate to explore a verse in which maybe Percy can’t save his mom and so turns his back on the gods in order to join Luke, especially once he's told about the prophecy and realises Chiron's plan had been to raise him like a lamb to slaughter.

Resurrected as a God in order to be punished for eternity, Luke is sent to Camp Half-Blood to serve his time there as a carer of the half-bloods he would have fought in the war had they been older at the time he brought Kronos back.

The Hunger Games

In a lot of the discussions I have about Cato post the end of the rebellion, I talk about the boy who is barely an adult who sits on his porch and watches the woods all day almost paralysed in fear but I want a thread where someone gets through to him and proves to him that it is worth making amends where he needs to and healing and learning to be a person with the aid of your muse.

More than anything, I want threads where someone is kind to Katniss, and in return, Katniss is kind back. After losing everything, and trying to heal over all of her grief, there is a forceful part of Katniss that wants to learn to be nice and gentle because she doesn't have to be a defence between herself and her people anymore.

˖ ࣪⭑ . . . Television

Stranger Things

Someone notices how Heather is living, how her parents don't talk about her or how she does everything for herself, way sooner. I want a thread where Heather offers support to someone and in return there is another voice ( an actual friend unlike all the people that call her a friend but really just use her for status, sex, or parties ) to fill up the silence she's usually surrounded by.

It would be super exciting to write literally any thread with Jason post-season 4 : his recovery where someone finally forces him to get out of bed and start doing his physical therapy, something during his manic period when he finally tasted freedom in college and goes a little mad with it and then comes back to Hawkins in the holidays covered in tattoos and piercings with hickeys on his neck, kind Jason who is good and worked to make amends in the town before going off to medical school and then starts working at a hospital's pediatric unit where he bumps into a familiar face from his past and their kid.

Vampire Eddie coming back to Hawkins to check on his Uncle after his reputation was saved and he was proven innocent. The government provides him money and coolers of something to make up for the abandonment he faced by them in the Upside Down. Him making it big time with Corroded Coffin. Eddie goes to the gay bar an hour and a half out of town with the handkerchief in his back pocket and runs into a familiar face.

Raised in Hawkins but having fled as soon as she could, Susan moved back with just her daughter Max as soon as she realised the type of man Neil was. She finally claims her dad’s house with the promise to herself that she would get rid of any trace of him in there. It gives her the ability to pay attention to Max the way a mom should.

The way that Benny keeps his diner open late for the truckers that bring him a lot of business, but also because Benji's diner was the only place that was open late enough for Benny to get some rest when his abusive piece of shit dad kicked him out at night, and he wants to be able to offer that respite wherever he can to whoever needs it.

Similarly, the open door policy that Wayne Munson enforces consistently for the sake of other kids like his boy Eddie and his old partner Robbie. Steve needs to escape from that big empty house ? Maxine finding it hard to sleep with her mom on the night shift ? Literally any kid who needs a safe space ? He just wants them to know they can knock on his door and sleep on the pullout sofa bed if they need a place.

Supernatural

Any and all Benny Lafitte being the lord of purgatory threads.

Bobby’s junkyard being operational and a known hunter-safe camp where he ends up being a surrogate dad for most of the time, but also finally having help with the stuff that’s a little more difficult from his chair.

The Last of Us

Maybe a verse where Joel managed to save Sarah but the two grew apart because in a world where she lives, Joel never has to angelify her. They talk and Joel helps with his grandbaby whenever he can but at the end of the day, they are both traumatised and Joel made mistakes as a dad. I want a thread where Joel still goes out to deliver Ellie, but has a reason to go home again after.

Very slowly, Bill relaxes around your muse and starts trusting that things are going to be okay at least for a while and as long as he keeps up his defences around the village. He even goes as far as to let the occasional desperate survivor stay as long as they didn't touch his supplies or arsenal and didn't pose a risk.

The Walking Dead

It would be cool to do a thread where Negan is locked under house arrest and raising Dylan as best he can, taking care of her and only occasionally seeing any other living people. Your muse drops off one of his deliveries of formula or whatever for his baby girl and Negan convinces them to stay for a while.

Any and all threads where Lori proves she is worthwhile : threads where something the kids have learned from her saves the day, threads where she is willing to risk herself to help the babies, threads where her experience as a mother helps the new mothers. Threads where she paints and helps people relax just a little by teaching them to as well.

Doctor Who

The Doctor saving everyone for once and is furious after and having to explain that the reason why is because he couldn't even do that for his own people, not even for his own husband, his own children.

Hannibal

Really really into the idea of Hannibal teaching someone to cook. No matter at what part of the verse — pre-fall, post-fall, in a beach house in another country and your muse knows him by another name — I think the idea is super fun. Whether or not your muse knows he's a cannibal, I think there's room for Hannibal to be charming and seductive and snarky.

FBI agent Jack Crawford getting to show off that he is damned good at his job, no matter what's happening with Riley or Bella, him proving that he was given his role for a reason. Also I have been obsessed with the idea since I read about it but Jack figuring out Will's confliction before it becomes obvious because he was a profiler once and a good enough one to be head of his department.

Sherlock

Any and all explorations of John's past and how it affects his present. His time as a Captain in the army makes up so much of who he is now and how he is even with his daughter Rosie, that it seems strange how little it came up in canon.

Merlin

Being captured and returned to Camelot whilst pregnant with her son, Morgana being held captive because at this point in the story, she is still seen as an easily manipulated girl who fell down the wrong path. Merlin tells her about his magic and the two of them commiserating with each other. Morgana trying to make amends.

Good dad verse where Uther loves his son more than he hates magic, he realises this when he catches Merlin saving Arthur for the first time and captures Merlin secretly. Alongside his paycheck, he gives the sorcerer books on magic that had been long since banned and in return, Merlin is to continue keeping his boy alive — as long as the magic stays a secret.

Just the general adventures of first knight Leon, him trying to decide whether magic is good or evil based on his own experiences with it rather than the fact that Uther helped raise him after his sister died.

Lord Gwaine who has to go home and claim his land and titles once his sister becomes gravely ill or else risks losing his knighthood. I so desperately want to write Gwaine as his intended, bratty self.

˖ ࣪⭑ . . . Original Characters

I think it would be cool to have Elaerea meet someone who, in a better reality, would have been a bigger part of her life such as Sansa when she spent time at the vale or Jon or Ned. Also, maybe threads between her and other Targaryens or even Bran since they both have the power of sight ( even if Elaerea's is so much less broad ).

Any threads where MJ gets to spend time with the rest of the Watson family. Any threads where he gets to interact with the spider-verse. Any future threads where we see MJ in soft domestic situations with their Spider-Man ( maybe even with their own Mayday ).

I want Edie to have friends who can help her be a normal woman who gets to do ordinary young adult things like going to bars and painting her room. Edie needs to be able to make her own choices and prove to herself that she is worth more than who her father or brother was.

Workaholic Melanoë being very gently coaxed into having fun and being reckless. Cautious Noë letting loose and fighting a jerk who tries to push her around. Counselor Noë helping your muse cope a little better after a battle.

I would be really invested in threads where people witness Mercury reading aloud and manifesting things into reality, and them surprising him by not asking anything of him once they know.

Any and all interactions where Mapone gets to talk to other legacy kids, because whilst I love and obsess over the idea of her being a brat to the older trying to help train her, I also like the idea of her making friends and getting into trouble with the others.

Candace Nelson being a general nuisance to herself and others: ditching school and ending up in trouble and needing rescuing, teaching your middle aged blorbo slang, and generally being a teenager.

[onenakedfarmer]

Playing

Billy Bragg BACK TO BASICS Together At Last The First 21 Songs From The Roots Of Urbane Folk Music

Life's a Riot with Spy Vs. Spy (1983)

Brewing Up with Billy Bragg (1984)

Between the Wars (1985)

[droppedoxides]

Summer is here and we are perhaps a week or two from being mosquito central in our corner of DC; in the meantime, everything is lovely, and I can stand on the back porch and sigh a bit while drinking multiple cups of morning coffee.

Things we haven't talked about: Steve Albini died. Albini was one of the only voices I've ever had in my head about how to record music—he treated the problems of capturing sound in a room seriously, and occasionally demystified questions that I've relied on received wisdom to address for decades.

He was a friend to drummers. The Electrical Audio YouTube posted a video awhile back in which Albini explained an approach to tuning toms that was incredibly basic yet had me running to the basement, drum key in hand. He was right!

In my very crude basement studio, though, I do many un-Albini-esque things. I dial in a ton of compression. I close-mic everything and use fake reverb (it's a dead, dead room down there, kids). I overdub guitars, and then overdub my overdubs—partly because I grew up mesmerized by the five massed guitar tracks on Never Mind the Bollocks, and have just always wanted a multi-channel guitar texture map in every song. These are my bad ideas, and I continue to rely on them.

Which brings me to the current unfinished track.

I have a sabbatical coming up—I know I'm fortunate to have it—and one of my goals is to record a new album...with vocals.

I walked away from the singer-songwriter idea in, oh, 1998 or thereabouts, but lately I've reflected on the fact that the only reason I ever learned to play any instrument was to be able to write my own songs, and here in the back half of my life, maybe I should just go ahead, stop dithering, and acknowledge that.

I am not a jazz guy! I write accompaniments, presumably for some words, delivered via some melody or other.

Prior to the inevitable To All Trains marathon of recent days, I had been listening to some very direct, slightly silly music—of late, I've been listening to a lot of Warthog—a hardcore band from New York, but not a New York hardcore band, if you follow me—and a lot of Billy Bragg's Life's a Riot with Spy vs. Spy, much to my wife's bafflement. Both are straightforward to the point of ridiculousness—Warthog pushing bar chords around and hollering as if it were 1985; Billy Bragg playing solo out-of-tune guitar and singing like everything's a first-take guide vocal. I don't know if either is helpful, but that's where my head has been, so we'll see.

What about "Chain Wallet"? Does it represent this new stripped-down straightforwardness? What a silly question! No, and it may not even become a song.

It is, however, me getting back on the horse, trying to write a few chord changes that sound like chord changes—not riffs—and piecing them together.

The parts don't quite go together; the back third is naked placeholder drumming, but it is the beginning of something. I offer it here, pour another cup of coffee, and wait for the bugs to arrive.

[kraftwerk113]

Life´s too short, for weird music - Tagesempfehlung 17.12.2023

Billy Bragg / A new England

Das gesamte Jahr über habe ich Ihnen ausgewählte Veröffentlichungen des Jahres 1983 in der Serie Life´s too short for weird music 40 x 1983 vorgestellt. Kurz vor Jahresfrist – und bevor es dann in 2024 mit 40 x 1984 weitergeht – noch die letzten Tipps für eine musikalische Zeitreise ins Jahr 1983, welches die Aufbruchstimmung der frühen Eighties – New Romantik, Synth-Pop, Elektronik und NDW in Deutschland so ein bisschen beschließt. 

In !983 debütiert Billy Bragg mit den EPs Life´s a riot und Spy vs Spy. Nur mit Gitarre „bewaffnet“ wird der ehemalige Busker das wichtigste musikalische Sprachrohr der politischen Linken in UK. Die 7 Tracks umfassenden EP Life´s a riot beinhaltet auch A new England, der Song mit welchem Bragg im November 1983 in der britischen Musiksendung The Tube debütierte. Und exakt 40 Jahre später lud der damalige The Tube Moderator Jooles Holland – heute renommierter TV Show- und Talkmaster Billy Bragg erneut ein zu Later with Jooles Holland um eben nochmals A new England zu spielen. Zum 40. Jubiläum ist auch die 40 Songs umfassende Compilation The roaring Top 40 (1983-2023) erschienen, die neben A new England noch viele Klassiker aus der langen musikalischen Karriere des bewundernswerten Billy Bragg beinhaltet. 

[subject-six]

the album Life’s a Riot with Spy vs. Spy is Grey coded and no I will not elaborate

[love-and-socialism]

Rays of sunshine, plants, and life's a riot with spy vs spy. Seven tracks on Bragg's debut album, sixteen minutes of politics, love, and life. And he sums up more in this time than most say in an entire catalogue of work.

[secondsofpleasure]

Billy Bragg – The Milkman of Human Kindness

The Milkman of Human Kindness

[azlyricsdotcom]

The Milkman Of Human Kindness // Billy Bragg // Life’s A Riot With Spy Vs. Spy (1983)

if you are poorly, i will send poetry

[gregtom]

tumblr user @latemodernity tagged me to post some fav albums in rainbow order (red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple, pink, white, black) hehe

the kinks are the village green preservation society by the kinks / life’s a riot with spy vs spy by billy bragg / i ain’t marching anymore by phil ochs / sounds of silence by simon and garfunkel / the muppet’s movie original motion picture soundtrack / the smiths by the smiths / a night at the opera by queen / the specials by the specials / with the beatles by the beatles

i tag @arunimaelectricboogaloo @bbcsherlock @bowiepop if you wanna :)

[doyourememberrocknrollradio]

Billy Bragg - Life's A Riot With Spy Vs Spy (30th Anniversary Edition)