It’s been a busy few months for Fun Lovin’ Criminal Huey Morgan. His long-running hip-hop outfit are still banging away, with a new album now on the shelves, and he’s just started his own radio show on the esteemed BBC digital station 6Music. Here are Huey’s recent cultural recommendations.
Film
“If you try and jam a square peg through a round hole long enough it works. Just watch Avatar. On the surface it’s a fairy tale with a moral splashed across a half a billion dollar canvas. It shouldn’t work, it doesn’t work while you watch it, but in the end you are converted. Jimmy Cameron knows his shit and that’s why Avatar is the shit on so many levels.”
Book
“Everything Is Illuminated by a guy Jonathan Safran Foer. It’s a story about a guy looking for his roots in the Ukraine, he meets some shady folks that make the eastern European drug dealer you get your head candy from look like a Diet Pepsi. It delves into the universal quest for self-knowledge and switches back and forth from past to present. I liked that book and find myself picking it up and reading it at least twice a year.”
Album
“Bands come and go like the tide and most stink like the Thames. One group who gets my motor in the red is Florence And The Machine. It’s all because some A&R guy at their record label told the ginger bird she has a voice that would suit a classic soul tune like ‘You Got The Love’. The band – The Machine – are as relevant as Andrew Ridgeley was to the phenomenon that was Wham! The girl can sing, don’t get me wrong. I love the album.”
Live Act
“ZZ Top have been around since the dawn of your father’s memory. There’s a full house, rapt with the ease of the groove, hoping to see the magic. It was there, if you stopped looking and started feeling.”
TV
“Family Guy gives the audience of millions the choice that most television shows do not. Your subversive side loves little Stewie, with his murderous tendencies. Your rational side, well, you don’t have a rational side. It’s the inside joke, the feeling of inclusion, the Jerry Springer syndrome rears its ugly head: who would want to be in a family like that?”
Holiday
“It’s an esoteric feeling we all chase, a place in the sun. A place where everything seems unimportant and the days are filled with sunshine and no Internet connection, the ancient place where the Roman Caesar Augustus sought refuge, the place where Cary Grant snuggled his cravat in complete privacy. The island of Capri is waiting.”
Restaurant
“The sun sets, the hotel gladly books you a table at Villa Verde and all is right in your world. The caprese salad is sublime with the handmade mozzarella, and pretty much anything in the menu is the bomb-diggy. Don’t forget to get yourselves a bottle of Gavi di Gavi black label. White wine isn’t my usual, but on Capri everything is possible.”
The album ‘Classic Fantastic’ is out now, with a UK tour to follow. All info at www.funlovincriminals.tv.
