advanced theory blog

Pixies to Play What You Tweet on Jimmy Fallon Show

2009-11-23T12:46:00.002-05:00

The Pixies are currently in the throes of the North American leg of their Doolittle tour, a wormhole of a trek we’ve been quick to spill much digi-ink over in these parts recently. Via an e-mail from the band’s publicist, we’ve just learned that the band will sandwich in an appearance on Late Night with Jimmy Fallon next week when they come to New York for four sold-out nights at Hammerstein Ballroom.

I like this. (Too much facebook!) The picture for the article is not quite up to date, though.

Nick Cave Up for Bad Sex Writing Award

2009-11-20T11:08:00.002-05:00

From Jacket Copy:

British magazine the Literary Review has announced the shortlist of finalists for its Bad Sex Award. The contenders list could be plucked from any highbrow literary award competition: John Banville has won a Booker, Amos Oz has been awarded the French Legion of Honor and Philip Roth has one Pulitzer and two National Book Awards. But maybe they'd prefer not to add the Bad Sex Award to their achievements.
"Nobody wants to win that award," Margaret Atwood -- who is not in the running -- told Jacket Copy in October.

Not all the finalists feel that way. Nick Cave's "The Death of Bunny Munro" follows the sexual misadventures of traveling salesman Bunny. "Frankly, we would have been offended if he wasn't shortlisted," his British publisher Canongate told the Guardian. Maybe that's because Cave deliberately rendered a crude, sexually obsessed character. "I think it’s a hard look at a particular aspect of masculinity," Cave told Jacket Copy in September. "It’s fronting up to that and railing against the kind of misogynistic and predatory element of the male psyche."

The longer list:

John Banville for "The Infinities

Nick Cave for "The Death of Bunny Munro"

Jonathan Littell for "The Kindly Ones"

Richard Milward for "Ten Storey Love Song"

Sanjida O'Connell for "The Naked Name of Love"

Amos Oz for "Rhyming Life and Death"

Anthony Quinn for "The Rescue Man"

Philip Roth for "The Humbling"

Paul Theroux for "A Dead Hand"

Simon Van Booy for "Love Begins in Winter"

Serge Gainsbourg - animation des graffitis sur 5 ans du mur rue de Verneuil

2009-11-20T10:29:00.001-05:00

Serge Gainsbourg - animation des graffitis sur 5 ans du mur rue de Verneuil from Arnaud Jourdain on Vimeo.

You'll like this.

Velvet Underground Reunite at Live from the NYPL

2009-11-19T13:36:00.004-05:00

Here's the story:

Former Velvet Underground members Lou Reed, Maureen Tucker and Doug Yule will make an extremely rare joint public appearance on December 8 at the New York Public Library.

The three will discuss the Velvet Underground's music and legacy with rock journalist David Fricke as part of the "LIVE from the NYPL" series.

The reunion of the legendary New York band comes on the heels of the publication of "The Velvet Underground: New York Art," a compendium of previously unseen photographs, poster and cover designs by Andy Warhol, Lou Reed's handwritten music and lyrics, underground press clippings and other reviews, flyers, handbills and posters.

Feel free to get that for me this Christmas.

Meet Mississippi Gary

2009-11-18T12:58:00.001-05:00

Was thinking about this the other day. I just love YouTube sometimes.

Andy Warhol's Children's Illustrations for Sale

2009-11-17T12:45:00.006-05:00

Kind of interesting (the Guardian):

They are a long way from the iconic pop art for which he is best known but a set of illustrations for a children's book series by Andy Warhol are set to go up for auction in New York next month.

Warhol's pictures illustrate the story of the little red hen, a folk tale about the value of team work, and show a perky little red hen happily sowing her grains of wheat, as a lazy cat, mouse and dog – who is reading the paper – look on. They were drawn by Warhol early in his career, between 1957 and 1959, for the Doubleday Book Club's popular series Best in Children's Books.

The Warhol illustrations will be auctioned on 9 December as part of Bloomsbury Auctions's sale of 365 original illustrations and books....

I love his early stuff, maybe better than I like the art that made him famous. Wait, I'm being Overt!

About Nicolas Cage

2009-11-15T15:17:00.003-05:00

The NY Times has a nice article about Nicolas Cage. Basically the writer is groping for an explanation for his career. Of course we know you can explain everything with one word: Advancement. Here's a snip:

THERE are any number of characteristic Nicolas Cage scenes in Werner Herzog’s “Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans,” interludes you watch with a now-familiar mixture of genuine appreciation and more than a touch of bewilderment. In one Mr. Cage, as the drug-addled cop of the film’s title, enters a room to join a stakeout. The cops are watching a house. And, crammed in the foreground of the shot, two iguanas are watching Mr. Herzog’s low-lying camera, their bodies stretched across the image. “What,” demands the looming Mr. Cage, waving an arm toward the creatures, are these “iguanas doing on my coffee table?” He looks affronted. There aren’t any iguanas, another cop replies, too busy to wonder at the question. Mr. Cage gives the iguanas a small, appreciative smile, eyeballing the animals who continue to eyeball the camera as the image begins to jump and shake. It’s the look of a man who sees something no one else does: he’s in on his own joke. But it’s also the smile of self-recognition.

Read the whole thing.

Bono Editorial in the New York Times

2009-11-15T15:01:00.002-05:00

Bono has a pretty sweet gig all the way around. Here's part of the story of "One":

We scan inside the cool cathedral of Hansa, a recording studio made famous by David Bowie, Iggy Pop and Nick Cave. In earlier times, it was a ballroom popular with the Nazis. The members of the Irish band hold a prayer meeting to exorcise the demons. (Seriously.) But it is their own personal demons that are present this day.
About to leave their 20s, the bandmates are bumping into one another’s adult-sized egos. Men, they discover, when they become lords of their own domain, can lose the supple nature that a band requires. For these Irish musicians, the love it takes to sublimate one’s ego for the meta-ego of the band is more and more being reserved for families.
BRIAN ENO, a producer, is only half-joking when he tells the band that “possessions are a way of turning money into problems.” The band has had a taste of success and, even worse, a taste of taste, poison to the pursuit of rock ’n’ roll.
The dreamspace in which songs emerge has been filled by nice houses needing not-nice art. ADAM CLAYTON dreams of Jean-Michel Basquiat; Bono of Louis le Brocquy; EDGE of designing furniture; LARRY MULLEN of not being in Berlin.
Edge, the Zen Presbyterian, no longer a study in restraint, is heartbroken, in the middle of splitting up with his wife; he now sees the same fate for his band. He is trying to write an eight-bar lift section for a song called “The Fly.” He writes two, but when he and The Singer put them together a different song emerges ... and fresh words and a new melody come out of The Singer’s mouth .... the words fall out.
BONO (sort of singing) We’re one, but we’re not the same ... we get to carry each other...
LARRY (charming but hard-nosed, sitting behind his drum kit) Sounds sentimental.
BONO It doesn’t have to be. I can give the verses enough bile to balance the hook. It’s no big kiss, it’s a shrug of resigned optimism. Really, it’s the polar opposite of the kind of hippie nonsense you would expect with a title like “One.”
LARRY So why do you call it “One,” then? You think that’ll help get it to No. 1?
ADAM (one eyebrow permanently raised, thinking they should get on with it as it’s the first good thing the band has done all month) Isn’t “One” a Bob Marley song?
EDGE (deadpan) That’s “One Love.” Completely different.
ADAM I don’t care — as long as I believe you when you sing it.
DANIEL LANOIS (also a producer) I don’t care, as long as there are lyrics. What’s it about?
BONO I don’t know yet .... Er, having to live together rather than wanting to. It could mean a lot of things to a lot of people.
BRIAN ENO For God’s sake, don’t make it a love song, or I’ll retch.
BONO It’s a song about love, not a love song.

This is a good example of Bono's Overtness. He's afraid of writing a love song, has to balance the hook with bile, and it is the opposite of something (hippie nonsense). Bono needs to just Advanced already.

The Who at the Super Bowl

2009-11-14T15:48:00.002-05:00

I figured this would happen soon:

The Who will perform at Superbowl XLIV, marking the British band's first performance in North America since 2008.
...
The NFL has yet to officially confirm the report, saying, "When we have something to announce, we'll announce it."

During a recent stop on his "Use It or Lose It" solo tour, frontman Roger Daltrey told Billboard.com that he and bandmate/composer Pete Townshend were working on new material for the Who's followup to 2006's "Endless Wire."

"Hopefully if this tour has done it's job, I'll be in really good form as a vocalist," said Daltrey. "And who knows, we might make our best work."

Townshend has acknowledged working on two projects -- a new musical called "Floss" and the Who's next album, which he has said will include some pieces from the "Floss" project.

All of these things are fantastic, but the Who's status in the Advanced world is still unresolved.

Jay-Z and U2 in Berlin

2009-11-06T14:40:00.002-05:00

From Stereogum:

In conjunction with yesterday's 16th annual European Music Awards, MTV set up a special, free U2 concert at the Brandenburg Gate to celebrate the 20th anniversary of tearing down the Berlin Wall.
...

[T]hose that were lucky enough to be on the right side of the wall were treated to a six-song set of U2's classics, kicking off with Bono yelling "Berlin, Du bist wunderbar!" (Berlin, you are wonderful!)(better than calling yourself a jelly donut) and highlighting with Jay-Z joining the band on "Sunday Bloody Sunday."

They certainly dressed correctly for the occasion.

Echo and the Bunnymen Cancel Tour Due to Taxes

2009-11-06T14:25:00.003-05:00

Cancel your plans, Atlanta, Echo and the Bunnymen aren't coming:

[The group has] cancelled their US tour 10 days before it was due to begin over a tax dispute. Due to an Internal Revenue Service (IRS) rule, foreign bands have to pay a fee if they tour in the US more than once in 30 days. The band played a one-off gig in New York last month.
A statement on the group's website said the cancellation was due to the IRS's "unreasonable demands" and they would return to tour the US in April 2010.

Please don't tell Glenn Beck. (He loves "Lips Like Sugar.")

Willem Dafoe Gets Pesonal

2009-10-25T15:07:00.005-04:00

Most of us don't understand the reasons that Advanced Artists choose the projects they do. For instance, if an actor like the possibly Advanced John Cusack does a movie like 2012 Overt people who prefer to think of him as Lloyd Dobler will assume that he is doing it solely for the money, likely to fund what Cusack is "really" interested in. That happens sometimes, but I think more often serious actors make action films (and other blockbuster- type movies) because they actually want to do it for reasons other than paychecks.

If you don't believe me, maybe you'll believe the I'm-starting-to-think-he's-Advanced Willem Dafoe:

“The fact that even close friends can wink at me and say, ‘Well, he does it for’ ” — he paused to fan a wad of imaginary cash in his hand — “it’s like: ‘You idiot. No, I like doing this.’ They can’t recognize the personal filmmaking in a movie like ‘Spider-Man.’ But the truth is it was a very personal film.”

Then he said, "I thought you was a bunny! Bunnies jump fast. You jump slow."

Brian Eno and Daneil Lanois Remembering "The Unforgettable Fire"

2009-10-24T14:42:00.005-04:00

From Pitchfork (you may have heard of it):

Pitchfork: Daniel, the story goes that Brian Eno recommended you produce U2 after they first came to him.

Daniel Lanois: Brian and I had been working in Canada in a town called Hamilton. We'd been making ambient records [including On Land and Apollo] for a few years, some very cool records. But I'll be real straight with you. During that ambient music-making chapter, I was pretty isolated. Nothing had really come my way that was illustrious, in terms of invites. I had poured my soul into these ambient works with Eno, and a lot of phone calls were coming in-- David Bowie was calling, Iggy Pop the next day. None of them to me, all to Brian. Brian was pretty much in the fast lane of record making at that point. He was pretty much on the pulse of things in New York City, and then he said that he wasn't producing records anymore. He was finished with it, and was therefore not interested in working with U2.

Brian Eno: I had never worked with that kind of music before, and I was not completely convinced that I would be the right person for it. I thought, well, I can handle the ideas side of it all right, but can I handle the actual traditional production side alright? I knew Dan was very good at that side of things, and very good at working with bands, getting the best out of the players and so on, so I said, "Why not have both of us? We'll sort of overlap in some parts, but we actually sort of serve different functions as well." That was how that working relationship started.

I would read the whole thing if I were you. By the way, I wonder if the Pitchfork folks were intentionally making a joke about Eno/Lanois remembering the unforgettable fire. I hope so.

One other thing: it's giving me chills thinking about how good that record is.

Ray Davies to Do Kinks Klassics With Full Khorus

2009-10-23T15:38:00.003-04:00

This is going to be sweet:

Last week, Ray Davies told [Paste] of his forthcoming choral collection: a new album Kinks classics featuring a full choir. And this November, you can hear it for yourself, live and in 65-voice surround sound: Davies just announced a seven-city, eight-date tour through the U.S. Although some of the dates will find Davies playing solo, the New York dates will feature The Vox Society Choir and the New York shows will feature The Dessoff Chamber Choir.
“I didn’t want the Chorus to just do ‘oohs’ and ‘aahs,’” Davies said of the project. “There had to be something within the song that’d allow them to express themselves.” And so there are; the re-imagination of some of The Kinks finest songs will make for a concert equal parts rock ‘n’ roll and gospel soul.

But don’t fret if you live somewhere in the vastness of America; Davies will hit David Letterman’s show on Nov. 18.

I might have to get up to New York for this one. Ray Davies barely made it into the book, but he is one of the most Advanced Artists of all time. And this project is proof of that.

Slate: Why Bob Dylan's Christmas Album Isn't a Joke

2009-10-16T09:37:00.003-04:00

As is often the case, Slate gets it:

...to dismiss Christmas in the Heart as mere mischief is to misunderstand Dylan—and Christmas songs. In recent years, Dylan has been less folk singer than folklorist. On albums like Love and Theft (2001), Modern Times (2006), and Together Through Life (2009)—and on his fabulous satellite radio show—Dylan has been dipping further into America's musical back pages with an expansive vision of roots music that takes in not just blues and gospel and country but 19th-century parlor songs, vaudeville ragtime tunes, Tin Pan Alley's Hawaiian ballads, and other products of the ye olde pop industrial complex. Dylan's love for crooners like Bing Crosby is evident in Modern Times' "Beyond the Horizon," a note-for-note homage to the 1930s hit "Red Sails in the Sunset."

and

Dylan...knows that holiday schlock is a profound tradition in its own right. Most yuletide standards are of relatively recent provenance, cooked up by pop tune-smiths during and just after World War II. But it was the special genius of those (mostly Jewish) composers to create songs that feel as if they have always existed, that can sit comfortably beside the ancient "O Come All Ye Faithful (Adeste Fideles)" and "God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen" as icons of that bizarre civic-religious rite, the American Christmas—the one time each year when the country's consumerist and spiritual excesses merge in a mass celebration of the enchanted and uncanny. Even the silliest Christmas tunes are surreal—cheerily, unblinkingly narrating tales of flying reindeer and talking snowmen. Then there are songs like Berlin's titanic "White Christmas," which fuses Stephen Foster's antebellum nostalgia, Jewish schmaltz, and Broadway melodicism into a secular hymn that is as dark and blue as it is "merry and bright."

Dylan gets this, and that's why Christmas in the Heart is less a joke or a provocation than a polemic.

Exactly!

Mick Jagger's Letter to Andy Warhol

2009-10-15T13:43:00.002-04:00

What a client! Click to make bigger. (Letters of Note)

Wyclef Jean's Concept Album: From the Hut to the Projects to the Mansion

2009-10-13T17:41:00.003-04:00

This is pretty interesting (from a press release):

On November 10, 2009 Wyclef returns to hip-hop with the gritty release of From The Hut To The Projects To The Mansion on Carnival House via Megaforce/Sony Music....

Wyclef now returns with this brilliant hip-hop EP with all new material collaborating with DJ Drama. It’s the concept mixtape he has wanted to make and features a gritty, yet melodic effort with some amazing guests such as Eve, Timbaland, Maino, Cyndi Lauper, and others.

“I wanted to do this release with Megaforce/Red as I want to hi my hip hop can college fanbase and who better to do that than an indie label/distributor,” says Wyclef.

Toussaint St. Jean, the title character of Wyclef’s new EP, is a persona suggested to Wyclef by his friend and collaborator T.I. The character Toussaint is loosely based on the 18th-century Haitian revolutionary hero, Toussaint L’Ouverture, a figure who brought Haiti to significance on the international stage.
Inhabiting the role of Toussaint on these songs, Wyclef recreates himself in the spirit of a noble fighter, a man who says exactly what is on his mind. Toussaint’s rhymes hit hard, in a “militant style,” and make his words felt – and remembered...

And so what is the difference between Wyclef and Toussaint? “Toussaint is more direct,” Wyclef says. “He ain’t going to sugarcoat nothing. Whatever he’s thinking, he’s going to tell you. It’s like, I’ve still got this machete – my tongue is sharper than it’s ever been.” To help create suitable musical settings for the grisly tales Toussaint has to tell, Wyclef turned to DJ Drama, who has worked extensively with T.I. “I asked myself, ‘Who’s the toughest guy out there?’” Wyclef says. “Then I said, well, DJ Drama is pretty badass. So I called him and asked if he’d be interested in doing a mixtape. He heard what I was up to and he said, ‘We gotta do a book – this is a novel!’ He got excited, and it became more like an EP than a mixtape...

Tracks like “Warriorz,” “Letter From the Penn” and “Toussaint vs. Bishop” paint riveting pictures, “hood stories,” as Wyclef describes them, of street life and its consequences. The gripping storytelling in those songs recalls the raw environments in Haiti and Brooklyn from which Wyclef emerged – “from the hut to the projects to the mansion,” as he memorably puts it in “Slumdog Millionaire.” It’s a story arc that these songs make compelling.

That, and Cyndi Lauper.

Dr. Dre Teams Up With HP

2009-10-12T09:13:00.003-04:00

From Hothardware:

With HP's dedicated Voodoo PC line pretty much in the tank (or just phased out), it looks like Dr. Dre will be stepping in to fill the superstar void. Both Dr. Dre and Jimmy Iovine have jointly worked with HP in order to issue the HP Beats Limited Edition notebook, which is little more than a highly styled ENVY 15 with a thing for multimedia.

The HP ENVY 15 Beats limited edition notebook features a sleek, piano black, high-gloss finish and signature Beats design as found in the "Beats by Dr. Dre" line of headphones, and while specifics are scant, we're told that the audio capabilities on this notebook far exceeds those found on rivals. As expected, the machine comes with something a little extra that only music-heads will love: Native Instruments’ Traktor LE software and Audio 2 DJ.

Plus free membership to the World Class Computin' Cru.

George Lucas Likes Star Wars

2009-10-12T09:07:00.002-04:00

From CNN:

Holding fast to his vision -- and his marketing rights -- for the "Star Wars" empire has made it the biggest franchise in history, and made Lucas one of the most powerful people in entertainment.

But while he's enthusiastic about the new touring show "Star Wars In Concert," it wasn't his idea, and when I talked with him before the first Los Angeles performance this week, he kept giving the credit to others.

"Star Wars In Concert" is built around John Williams' well-known scores from the films, performed by a symphony orchestra and choir, and accompanied by specially edited clips from all six movies, displayed on a mammoth LED screen.

Anthony Daniels, who has played and voiced the golden protocol droid "C3PO" in every film and most of the spinoffs, provides live narration -- and another reason for the "Star Wars" fans in the audience, especially those waving lightsabers and dressed as everything from sand people to Imperial stormtroopers, to cheer mightily, as they did the night I interviewed Lucas. iReporter praises the 'Force' of the show

George Lucas: I've seen some presentations of, you know, live orchestras with "Star Wars" clips, and that sort of thing. But this is so much more than that -- it's so much more emotional, because what they've done is taken the emotional content of the score ... one is obviously the Imperial March, one is obviously romantic ... and then they've cut all the pictures around that from all the movies, so that you get this really wide range of visuals going with the music, and it really is quite powerful when you see the depictions of all of the various Imperial shenanigans that were going on over the Imperial March.

Ah yes, the Imperial shenanigans. So powerful. Seriously, though, I'll bet this really would be awesome.

Invest in Public Enemy

2009-10-08T09:00:00.003-04:00

A little Bowie-esque (or perhaps Green Bay Packers-esque) Advancement from Public Enemy:

Public Enemy are asking fans to help fund the recording of their next album. The rap collective have signed a deal with fan funding engine SellaBand, and are aiming to raise $250,000 in increments of $25 in order to record and release the as-yet-untitled album. In return, fans who invest in the album will receive a share in the revenue of the album, as well as a numbered copy of it.

Speaking about the deal in a statement, Public Enemy's Chuck D hailed SellaBand's business model. SellaBand's financial engine model goes about restructuring the music business in reverse, he explained. "It starts with fans first, then the artists create from there. The music business is built on searching for fans and this is a brand new way for acts to create a new album with fans first, already on board."

I like the idea, of course, but: If you invest $25 of $250K, and the artist is likely to get a fair portion of the royalties (which is why they would be doing this instead of working with a label), how many records would have to be sold to get even your initial investment back? You're probably better off just buying the record for $15. But then again you wouldn't have the same pride of ownership.

Blind Boys of Alabama Duet With Lou Reed

2009-10-03T15:34:00.003-04:00

This sounds good:

Blind Boys Of Alabama will release a duets album next with appearances from Timothy B. Schmit, Lou Reed, Ben Harper and Bonnie Raitt. ‘Duets’ features the previous unreleased ‘Jesus’ with Lou Reed.

I'm re-reading "Sweet Soul Music" by Peter Guralnick, which talks a bit about the Blind Boys (Alabama and Mississippi). It occurs to me at this moment how great it would be for Lou Reed to cut a record with Steve Cropper and his gang, sort of like that Frank Black record from a few years back, only a straight-soul record. It actually makes perfect sense to me, filled with coffee as I am.

What Comes After Metal Machine Trio?

2009-09-30T10:50:00.005-04:00

I love the name Metal Machine Trio, of course. Here's part of an old review that I missed:

It was good to have this Lou Reed back: not an American Master nor a Legend of Rock, but a barking, brooding, beneficial irritant. On Thursday night at the Blender Theater at Gramercy, onstage between Sarth Calhoun and Ulrich Krieger, two much younger musicians, he was making noise — improvised, loud, heavily processed, and some of it ugly enough to make people leave.

And

Contrary to expectations — and the original record [Metal Machine Music]— the show did include some singing, in Mr. Reed’s wayward croak, barely distinct through the din. Some of these interjections were just stray phrases, trailing off into nothing. “I can’t get you back,” was one. “Sorry if I made you mad.” “Free fly ... oh, baby, like a bird.” “I went to Avenue C. ...” And then, somewhere in there a recognizable lyric: “Standing on the corner, suitcase in my hand.”

I'm surprised that he didn't quote from Walk on the Wild Side. Anyway, I bring this up because I'm wondering if Reed is ready for his Time Out of Mind. It would seem that he isn't interested in that, but I can just imagine his following up Metal Machine Trio stuff with a record that everyone loves next year. Then again, if I can imagine it, then it probably isn't Advanced.

Brian Eno iPhone App: Music for Air Tropes

2009-09-26T15:48:00.003-04:00

Brian Eno just keeps on being interesting, the bastard:

Brian Eno has two new applications for the iPhone and iPod Touch, based on his ambient music. One is called Air. The other is called Trope. Air is basically an endless version of Eno's 1979 album Music for Airports. Here's the official description:

Air is a generative audio-visual work created by musician / software designer Peter Chilvers and Irish vocalist Sandra O'Neill. Based on concepts developed by Brian Eno, with whom Chilvers created Bloom, Air assembles vocal and piano samples into a beautiful, still and ever changing composition, which is always familiar, but never the same.

Air is beautiful, but not as astonishingly beautiful as Trope. Like last year's Bloom program (which I still play with on a weekly basis), Trope let's you draw beautiful and colorful patterns while producing gorgeous drones and plaintiff piano motifs.

And all for just $3.99.

David Byrne: Allow Myself to Interview Myself

2009-09-25T17:58:00.002-04:00

Just for fun, like "60 Minutes" on acid.

Okay, Then, I'll Change It. Hello Cliff Richard.

2009-09-18T09:17:00.003-04:00

From tipster Judas Constant:

I just found this in the Guardian, attempting to explain the peculiar career of Cliff Richard. It reads like Advanced Theory 101:

"Cliff, though, is a little more problematic. At heart, he is clearly rather odd, an eccentric even. At every turn, Cliff will say or do something to spoil my argument that his catalogue is worthy of deeper analysis and investigation. He'll say something about wine or Jesus or how "rock'n'roll" he is; or offer his holiday home to Tony Blair at the height of the Iraq crisis, or force Chris Evans to take a stand and say he'll never, ever play a Cliff Richard record on the radio."

I don't know enough about Cliff Richard, other than his name is better on a hamster than special patrol group, but this sound very promising!