‘Fancy Footwork’
Monday 21st May
Hey there,
If you are reading this it’s because you are someone that matters. Well done.
Remember Chromeo? They did that Needy Girl record Thought you’d remember… Dicovered by Tiga and loved by everyone from Whitey to Philip Zdar to the DFA, ‘Fancy Footwork’ is a reminder of the pure joy at the center of a Chromeo record. They are still doing their thing: fusing 80’s Mineapolis funk, Rick James, Hall and Oates and Hip Hop but this time the mainstream has caught up with it being OK for indie and dance to make out. Back Yard Recordings, home of The Gossip, is putting out this limited 10” and their second album in July. With contrinutions from Tomas Barfod (Get Phsical/WhoMadeWho), Guns ‘N’ Bombs (Kitsune), Surkin (Institubes) and D.I.M. this is basically shaping up to be the record of the year already. If that line-up sounds heavy on the Parisian cross-over, remember that Dave 1 is finishing his PhD in French Literature in Paris right now and Chromeo are pushing buttons there. For those still wondering what their whole deal is and whether it was all just a clever-clever parody, relax and just enjoy Chromeo’s C Funk this time round. Trust us…
www.myspace.com/chromeo
www.back-yard.co.uk
National Press: Seb Burford : email seb@six07press.com or call 020 7428 0933
Saturday 21 April 2007
Black Lips Press Release
NEW SINGLE – ‘COLD HANDS’
RELEASED ON VICE RECORDS – MONDAY 4TH JUNE 2007
The Black Lips are back! Their new single released on Monday
4th June 2007 is their second for Vice Records and follows their sold-out debut ‘Not A Problem’ / ‘Dirty Hands’. It will feature: ‘Cold Hands’ and is released as two seven inch singles and a digital download backed with ‘My Struggle’ and live classic ‘Hippie Hippie Hoorah’ (recorded live in Tijuana).
Did you see them last time they were over? If you did you’ll know that their live show involves three front men singing lead, flying blood, group kissing, sudden nudity and sometimes fireworks explosions. If you didn’t then time to pull your finger out of your ass and get wise. They hit the UK running after playing a handful of packed dates in March and ten (yeah TEN shows) at SXSW where the New York Times called the the hardest working band in Texas. A new album is set for release on Vice Records in September.
The Black Lips are: Cole Alexander - Vocals & Guitar, Joe Bradley - Vocals & Drums, Jared Swilley - Vocals & Bass and Ian St. Pe – Guitar
RELEASED ON VICE RECORDS – MONDAY 4TH JUNE 2007
The Black Lips are back! Their new single released on Monday
4th June 2007 is their second for Vice Records and follows their sold-out debut ‘Not A Problem’ / ‘Dirty Hands’. It will feature: ‘Cold Hands’ and is released as two seven inch singles and a digital download backed with ‘My Struggle’ and live classic ‘Hippie Hippie Hoorah’ (recorded live in Tijuana).
Did you see them last time they were over? If you did you’ll know that their live show involves three front men singing lead, flying blood, group kissing, sudden nudity and sometimes fireworks explosions. If you didn’t then time to pull your finger out of your ass and get wise. They hit the UK running after playing a handful of packed dates in March and ten (yeah TEN shows) at SXSW where the New York Times called the the hardest working band in Texas. A new album is set for release on Vice Records in September.
The Black Lips are: Cole Alexander - Vocals & Guitar, Joe Bradley - Vocals & Drums, Jared Swilley - Vocals & Bass and Ian St. Pe – Guitar
Viceland.com April Blog Posts
Visa takes life?
Visas sure can be a pain in the ass eh? All that queueing and waiting and form filling and that’s just to go and sit on a beach somewhere and stare at sunburned boobs for a few days.
If you’re in a band a Visa becomes a whole different life or death deal. Without one you can’t legitimately perform and if you do choose to play without the correct Visa you risk deportation and future barring from the border of that country. Not so cool.
As if to rub salt in these gaping irritants, last week the Home Office decided to inexplicably raise Visa prices to literally unfeasible levels unless your band is on a major or are willing to go all Midnight Cowboy on the side or something. Each act no matter the number of members needs to purchase a straight Work Permit which now costs £190 as opposed to £155. That doesn’t seem so bad but the real kick in the balls is the Work Permit Visa which is up from £85 to £200 PER BAND MEMBER! So if you’re in a 4 piece you’re looking at £2,000 just to be able to plug in before you even start thinking about flights, transport, and accommodation. Broken Social Scene must be shitting themselves…
So it goes-R.I.P Kurt Vonnegut
And so another American hero passes. Vonnegut’s brave, time-skewed, masterpiece, Slaughterhouse Five, has been one of the defining texts of the last half century. His tale of the life of Billy Pilgrim was based on his own experiences being captured behind enemy lines in Dresden fighting for his country in WWII. While imprisoned in the abbatoir of the novel’s title he witnessed first hand the firebombing of Dresden and was forced to aid the Nazi’s in disposing of the dead in mass graves and watch while bodies were incinerated with flame-throwers. His work incorporated elements of his own experience with science fiction and post-modern techniques such as his appearance within his own fiction that dudes like Martin Amis steal to this day. He will be missed.
Record Collectors Are Pretentious Assholes.
So sang Poison Idea. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m into records as much as the next geeky dude who gets excited about a rainbow-splatter Bathtub Shitter lathe cut 5” that’s limited to 3 copies worldwide (I just made that record up but how cool would that be eh?). Sometimes however things get just a little crazy in the weird world of vinyl obsessives.
So, I got an e-mail earlier from a wonderful West-Coast mail order record shop letting me know that as a valued, regular customer I could put in an advanced order for one of the copies of the new version of Altar, the Sunn O))/Boris collaboration, that they may or may not be getting in soon.
Ok, pre-ordering something that’s going to be popular is not all that weird. What is pretty off the wall is that this is (at my most conservative estimate) the 5th version of this record to be released in under a year. I couldn’t help but cackle thinking that the kind of people that would buy this Japanese-only triple-vinyl pack with new O’Malley and Fangsatan (Atsuo from Boris to his ma) artwork and a new track featuring Drone’s comeback cover boy Dylan Carlson would most likely own ALL of those other versions.
Before you ask this re-re-re-re-re-release is limited to 1000 worldwide so it obviously sold out on pre-order. Duh, what did you expect? The words ‘limited’, ‘O’Malley’ and ‘Japan-only’ are like tantalising rocks just out of reach of a fiending crack-head for these guys.
Have I mentioned yet that these records are selling at $140 EACH? So these cats look to be bringing in $140,000 selling dudes something they already own. It’s like that bit in Lock Stock where they try and sell Rory Breaker’s own skunk back to him at twice it’s worth. Except this record won’t get you stoned. Maybe Poison Idea were right after all.
It’s Alright Ma I’m Only Touring
This week Bob Dylan came to the UK. I’m a little obsessed with Bob so I went to 4 out of the 5 UK shows. Newcastle wasn’t too far, I just didn’t like the idea of going to Newcastle. Here’s a video of Bob in Sheffield playing Like A Rolling Stone and looking sort of like a dancing nat in a hat while he air humps his keyboard. I could go see him play every night forever, look at him dancing! In fact I actually could go see him every night forever. Since 1988 Bob has been on what he refuses to call The Never Ending Tour (geeks like me refer to it as the NET, I have over 1000 bootlegged live recordings of NET shows) in which he plays 100-150 shows a year, every year. Every night he wheels out a different set-list and refuses to play enormo-domes like the Stones or McCartney who are basically playing to pay for hip operations and alimony or whatever you do when people have just said ‘yes’ to you for so long that your brain’s turned into putty. While all these other faded caricatures wheel out the hits every four years Bob’s still on the road heading for another joint and re-interpreting his art instead of massacring it. Not bad for a dude hitting 67 next month.
Visas sure can be a pain in the ass eh? All that queueing and waiting and form filling and that’s just to go and sit on a beach somewhere and stare at sunburned boobs for a few days.
If you’re in a band a Visa becomes a whole different life or death deal. Without one you can’t legitimately perform and if you do choose to play without the correct Visa you risk deportation and future barring from the border of that country. Not so cool.
As if to rub salt in these gaping irritants, last week the Home Office decided to inexplicably raise Visa prices to literally unfeasible levels unless your band is on a major or are willing to go all Midnight Cowboy on the side or something. Each act no matter the number of members needs to purchase a straight Work Permit which now costs £190 as opposed to £155. That doesn’t seem so bad but the real kick in the balls is the Work Permit Visa which is up from £85 to £200 PER BAND MEMBER! So if you’re in a 4 piece you’re looking at £2,000 just to be able to plug in before you even start thinking about flights, transport, and accommodation. Broken Social Scene must be shitting themselves…
So it goes-R.I.P Kurt Vonnegut
And so another American hero passes. Vonnegut’s brave, time-skewed, masterpiece, Slaughterhouse Five, has been one of the defining texts of the last half century. His tale of the life of Billy Pilgrim was based on his own experiences being captured behind enemy lines in Dresden fighting for his country in WWII. While imprisoned in the abbatoir of the novel’s title he witnessed first hand the firebombing of Dresden and was forced to aid the Nazi’s in disposing of the dead in mass graves and watch while bodies were incinerated with flame-throwers. His work incorporated elements of his own experience with science fiction and post-modern techniques such as his appearance within his own fiction that dudes like Martin Amis steal to this day. He will be missed.
Record Collectors Are Pretentious Assholes.
So sang Poison Idea. Now don’t get me wrong, I’m into records as much as the next geeky dude who gets excited about a rainbow-splatter Bathtub Shitter lathe cut 5” that’s limited to 3 copies worldwide (I just made that record up but how cool would that be eh?). Sometimes however things get just a little crazy in the weird world of vinyl obsessives.
So, I got an e-mail earlier from a wonderful West-Coast mail order record shop letting me know that as a valued, regular customer I could put in an advanced order for one of the copies of the new version of Altar, the Sunn O))/Boris collaboration, that they may or may not be getting in soon.
Ok, pre-ordering something that’s going to be popular is not all that weird. What is pretty off the wall is that this is (at my most conservative estimate) the 5th version of this record to be released in under a year. I couldn’t help but cackle thinking that the kind of people that would buy this Japanese-only triple-vinyl pack with new O’Malley and Fangsatan (Atsuo from Boris to his ma) artwork and a new track featuring Drone’s comeback cover boy Dylan Carlson would most likely own ALL of those other versions.
Before you ask this re-re-re-re-re-release is limited to 1000 worldwide so it obviously sold out on pre-order. Duh, what did you expect? The words ‘limited’, ‘O’Malley’ and ‘Japan-only’ are like tantalising rocks just out of reach of a fiending crack-head for these guys.
Have I mentioned yet that these records are selling at $140 EACH? So these cats look to be bringing in $140,000 selling dudes something they already own. It’s like that bit in Lock Stock where they try and sell Rory Breaker’s own skunk back to him at twice it’s worth. Except this record won’t get you stoned. Maybe Poison Idea were right after all.
It’s Alright Ma I’m Only Touring
This week Bob Dylan came to the UK. I’m a little obsessed with Bob so I went to 4 out of the 5 UK shows. Newcastle wasn’t too far, I just didn’t like the idea of going to Newcastle. Here’s a video of Bob in Sheffield playing Like A Rolling Stone and looking sort of like a dancing nat in a hat while he air humps his keyboard. I could go see him play every night forever, look at him dancing! In fact I actually could go see him every night forever. Since 1988 Bob has been on what he refuses to call The Never Ending Tour (geeks like me refer to it as the NET, I have over 1000 bootlegged live recordings of NET shows) in which he plays 100-150 shows a year, every year. Every night he wheels out a different set-list and refuses to play enormo-domes like the Stones or McCartney who are basically playing to pay for hip operations and alimony or whatever you do when people have just said ‘yes’ to you for so long that your brain’s turned into putty. While all these other faded caricatures wheel out the hits every four years Bob’s still on the road heading for another joint and re-interpreting his art instead of massacring it. Not bad for a dude hitting 67 next month.
The Cribs Vice Interview
The Cribs are three brothers from Wakefield who have been playing their punky indie for a good while now and with each record they seem to get a little more popular but have never had the breakout success of bands like their mates the Kaiser Chiefs. This is a shame because their melodic hooks are a total joy and they have played our parties before and the shows always end in beer soaked, bloody carnage. Ryan impaled himself on a Pint Glass at the NME award last year but he’s over talking about that so we left it. They have a new record out next month that they did in America with Alex from Franz Ferdinand and just did a club tour where there were as many kids queuing outside the venues as there were inside.
So how was recording the new album with Alex Kapranos? Was it like being locked in the studio with your dad? Isn’t he like 56 or something?
Gary: Nah man, fuck that, he’s cool as fuck.
Ryan: Trust me, he gets crazy. He once ate a squid tentacle and puked on us.
That is pretty crazy. What was it like playing stadiums with Franz in America? Must have been pretty different to coming up in Wakey?
Gary: Wakefield was totally dire, dead boring, there was one bar and it was known that you could get in when you were 14. That was the only place to go. You just had to be a member; you could go in any time of day, in your school uniform, whatever, as long as you were a member that was that.
Ryan: We used to play in peoples houses, squats, there were sort of diy-promoters that would put on non-profit gigs and bring bands into the area but until The Cribs and Ladyfest and a night called Strangeways in 2002 it was total ghost town man.
What about Leeds? That was just down the way…
Ryan: Leeds was down the road but it was dominated by horrible promoters and shit indeed bands who were only worried about being technically good and having expensive amps and getting signed. We just did our own thing like playing in living rooms and kitchens, we aren’t trying to sound indier than thou or nowt but that’s how we came up and with the way things are now bands just don’t have that.
Anyone in particular you talking abut here?
Gary: Look man, we aren’t gonna name names and start slagging other bands off but it all just seems so fucking disposable. Bands are getting signed to majors before they’ve even put a single out and it’s just like some production-line, quick-fix culture. None of these bands that are out at the moment have any scope for longevity.
Ross (while Gary and Ryan have been happily riling against the world over their beers Ross has been quietly sipping Coke and avoiding eye-contact and generally seeming like a lovely fellow but suddenly pipes up with this): All those bands just seem fucking pointless to me mate.
Ryan: People now are starting bands as vanity projects just to get signed to a major. If you go from Myspace to a major you are basically signing up to get money shoved up your arse, get exploited for all your worth and then get dropped. That’s what they seem to want though, get exploited to get famous rather wanting to build something creative that will last. The whole culture of indie celebrity makes me sick, being a punk should mean you hate celebrity. We were approached pre-first record by majors but we knew we wanted to just build it in a grass-roots way. We are about to release our third record and all that time we’ve just been growing a fanbase organically. We are a punk-rock band at heart and that spirit just doesn’t seem to be around at the moment.
But you just did stadiums in the US and licensed a song to an advert in Canada. That doesn’t seem so punk…
Gary: First up we knew fuck all about that ad and whatever money our US label made on that sure aint in my back pocket. It was for some company called Telus. Maybe ‘Telus’ should of ‘told us’ about it. Ha ha.
That was a really bad joke.
Gary: Sorry. But anyway, that company used Belle & Sebastian and Daft Punk in their other ads so we are selling our souls in good company!
Ryan: I think Bill Hicks said if you do an ad you are off the artistic roll call so that’s a shame but in terms of the whole venue thing we’ve actually just come off a tour doing 200 capacity clubs. Getting back to how we started.
How was that?
Gray: We were a bit naïve. There were too many kids. Tonnes outside. Venues too full. The Water Rats show in London was insane (footage below).
Have Cribs ever been asked to do Cribs?
Ryan: Nah mate, who wants to see my place in Wakefield?
So how was recording the new album with Alex Kapranos? Was it like being locked in the studio with your dad? Isn’t he like 56 or something?
Gary: Nah man, fuck that, he’s cool as fuck.
Ryan: Trust me, he gets crazy. He once ate a squid tentacle and puked on us.
That is pretty crazy. What was it like playing stadiums with Franz in America? Must have been pretty different to coming up in Wakey?
Gary: Wakefield was totally dire, dead boring, there was one bar and it was known that you could get in when you were 14. That was the only place to go. You just had to be a member; you could go in any time of day, in your school uniform, whatever, as long as you were a member that was that.
Ryan: We used to play in peoples houses, squats, there were sort of diy-promoters that would put on non-profit gigs and bring bands into the area but until The Cribs and Ladyfest and a night called Strangeways in 2002 it was total ghost town man.
What about Leeds? That was just down the way…
Ryan: Leeds was down the road but it was dominated by horrible promoters and shit indeed bands who were only worried about being technically good and having expensive amps and getting signed. We just did our own thing like playing in living rooms and kitchens, we aren’t trying to sound indier than thou or nowt but that’s how we came up and with the way things are now bands just don’t have that.
Anyone in particular you talking abut here?
Gary: Look man, we aren’t gonna name names and start slagging other bands off but it all just seems so fucking disposable. Bands are getting signed to majors before they’ve even put a single out and it’s just like some production-line, quick-fix culture. None of these bands that are out at the moment have any scope for longevity.
Ross (while Gary and Ryan have been happily riling against the world over their beers Ross has been quietly sipping Coke and avoiding eye-contact and generally seeming like a lovely fellow but suddenly pipes up with this): All those bands just seem fucking pointless to me mate.
Ryan: People now are starting bands as vanity projects just to get signed to a major. If you go from Myspace to a major you are basically signing up to get money shoved up your arse, get exploited for all your worth and then get dropped. That’s what they seem to want though, get exploited to get famous rather wanting to build something creative that will last. The whole culture of indie celebrity makes me sick, being a punk should mean you hate celebrity. We were approached pre-first record by majors but we knew we wanted to just build it in a grass-roots way. We are about to release our third record and all that time we’ve just been growing a fanbase organically. We are a punk-rock band at heart and that spirit just doesn’t seem to be around at the moment.
But you just did stadiums in the US and licensed a song to an advert in Canada. That doesn’t seem so punk…
Gary: First up we knew fuck all about that ad and whatever money our US label made on that sure aint in my back pocket. It was for some company called Telus. Maybe ‘Telus’ should of ‘told us’ about it. Ha ha.
That was a really bad joke.
Gary: Sorry. But anyway, that company used Belle & Sebastian and Daft Punk in their other ads so we are selling our souls in good company!
Ryan: I think Bill Hicks said if you do an ad you are off the artistic roll call so that’s a shame but in terms of the whole venue thing we’ve actually just come off a tour doing 200 capacity clubs. Getting back to how we started.
How was that?
Gray: We were a bit naïve. There were too many kids. Tonnes outside. Venues too full. The Water Rats show in London was insane (footage below).
Have Cribs ever been asked to do Cribs?
Ryan: Nah mate, who wants to see my place in Wakefield?
Jah Wobble Vice Interview
Jah Wobble played bass with Jonny ‘Rotten’ Lydon in P.I.L. but decided to skip out on that after they made one of the best records of the post-punk era. Jah went on to have a varied solo career in which he worked with all sorts of important people like Brian Eno and Bjork but I suppose having an amazing and in demand bass style must have its downsides as he also had to work with that scary android guy with all the hats from U2 one time and ended up working on the underground in the 80’s. As in the trains underneath London as opposed to some rebel alliance dedicated to fighting the Empire. Although if there was one of those going on he’d probably make a pretty good leader. We caught up with the self styled “cockney mystic” while he was drinking a cup of tea at house in Bethnal Green.
So the new record is out on Trojan, that must be nice, from your name I guess Reggae must be a pretty big deal for you?
Of course, that was the label we all used to check for back in the punk days, one of the first records I ever bought was a Trojan compilation. To be releasing my own work on that label is very much the fulfilment of a lifelong ambition for me. They actually approached me as well which I suppose makes it even better! I have my own label 30hz that I also put stuff out on but yeah to release on Trojan is a pretty big deal.
There are some pretty crazy stories about your P.I.L. days. I once heard that you set Karl Burns from The Fall on fire during the Metal Box sessions.
That isn’t exactly true. Basically there was a lot of craziness involved in that band as you say. During those sessions we’d pretty much all moved into this big old house and someone from the management had got this Space Invaders arcade machine in. This was the 70’s you know and everyone was still crazy over them, especially Karl he loved them. There was a lot of drugs around and I think Karl was on quite a bit of Acid and he been keeping himself up for days with all this speed and well, basically he actually though that he was in the game.
Inside the game?
Yeah, he thought he was a Space Invader. Or whatever the other things are. A spaceship. Yeah, a spaceship, cos the only way we could get near him was by moving side-to-side pretending to be Space Invaders. If we just walked up to him he’d freak out. We just couldn’t get him to snap out of this reality he’d created for himself so we set off a fire in the room. We didn’t set him on fire but there was a fire.
What happened with P.I.L. why did you sack it all off?
Well I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: it was a case of four emotional cripples on four different drugs. When we went out to tour in America it got particularly bad. Everyone was always on the booze and speed but when heroin and cocaine began to creep in it all became seedy and horrible. If I was to be honest the only time I enjoyed that band was when I was in the studio creating and it was just like mates making some music. None of them creeps around. Even on stage sometimes it wasn’t too enjoyable. The other major issue was the way the money was dealt with. I’m a musician; making music is how I earn my living and wasn’t seeing a penny for what I was doing. There was always a lot of drugs around but never any money. There was this sort of kitty though we had in shoebox. A whole bunch of cash, tenners the lot all stuffed in there. The day I decided to pack it in I walked straight in the room picked up the shoebox and fucked off out of there.
Wow.
Yeah, I remember thinking it was a pretty funny idea at the time.
So how did you end up working the Northern Line in the 80’s, I read somewhere you used to get a little drunk and tell people stories over the PA?
That is definite bollocks. I’ll tell you straight: when I got that job on the underground I was so happy. I had been sober six months before I even started so I certainly wasn’t on the sauce and shouting at people. I was just sick to death of the whole music industry, it felt really good holding down a job and becoming a part of society again. I would still be there you know but they gave the wrong depot to work out of. They sent me to Hainault and I wanted Leytonstone. It was great though feeling like you were in the veins of the city.
You’ve always had an affinity with London do you have romantic notions about the power of the city?
Too right, it’s a magical mystical place, it makes me feel alive walking through it, down by the river, its wonderful. That was something I felt I shared with Blake, an ability to celebrate that around me. I didn’t really get Blake to begin with but a friend gave me a book of his and kept getting at me to read it and one day I was just sitting there and it was staring me in the face so I did. I couldn’t believe how great this guy was, a fellow mystic. So I did a record with his lyrics.
What does the future hold for Jah Wobble?
I just want to carry on making music with people I love working with. The music industry is a horrible poisonous place. I remember after I’d finished on the trains and want to get back in I was shopping my albums around to the labels and sitting in this record execs office with him basically telling me to fuck off. The record came out, did really well and this same horrible prick exec is sitting there back stage after a show telling me “oh John, I knew you’d do it”. That pretty much sums it up. I’m happy with where I’m going and the people I’m working with now.
Thanks Jah!
Take care.
So the new record is out on Trojan, that must be nice, from your name I guess Reggae must be a pretty big deal for you?
Of course, that was the label we all used to check for back in the punk days, one of the first records I ever bought was a Trojan compilation. To be releasing my own work on that label is very much the fulfilment of a lifelong ambition for me. They actually approached me as well which I suppose makes it even better! I have my own label 30hz that I also put stuff out on but yeah to release on Trojan is a pretty big deal.
There are some pretty crazy stories about your P.I.L. days. I once heard that you set Karl Burns from The Fall on fire during the Metal Box sessions.
That isn’t exactly true. Basically there was a lot of craziness involved in that band as you say. During those sessions we’d pretty much all moved into this big old house and someone from the management had got this Space Invaders arcade machine in. This was the 70’s you know and everyone was still crazy over them, especially Karl he loved them. There was a lot of drugs around and I think Karl was on quite a bit of Acid and he been keeping himself up for days with all this speed and well, basically he actually though that he was in the game.
Inside the game?
Yeah, he thought he was a Space Invader. Or whatever the other things are. A spaceship. Yeah, a spaceship, cos the only way we could get near him was by moving side-to-side pretending to be Space Invaders. If we just walked up to him he’d freak out. We just couldn’t get him to snap out of this reality he’d created for himself so we set off a fire in the room. We didn’t set him on fire but there was a fire.
What happened with P.I.L. why did you sack it all off?
Well I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: it was a case of four emotional cripples on four different drugs. When we went out to tour in America it got particularly bad. Everyone was always on the booze and speed but when heroin and cocaine began to creep in it all became seedy and horrible. If I was to be honest the only time I enjoyed that band was when I was in the studio creating and it was just like mates making some music. None of them creeps around. Even on stage sometimes it wasn’t too enjoyable. The other major issue was the way the money was dealt with. I’m a musician; making music is how I earn my living and wasn’t seeing a penny for what I was doing. There was always a lot of drugs around but never any money. There was this sort of kitty though we had in shoebox. A whole bunch of cash, tenners the lot all stuffed in there. The day I decided to pack it in I walked straight in the room picked up the shoebox and fucked off out of there.
Wow.
Yeah, I remember thinking it was a pretty funny idea at the time.
So how did you end up working the Northern Line in the 80’s, I read somewhere you used to get a little drunk and tell people stories over the PA?
That is definite bollocks. I’ll tell you straight: when I got that job on the underground I was so happy. I had been sober six months before I even started so I certainly wasn’t on the sauce and shouting at people. I was just sick to death of the whole music industry, it felt really good holding down a job and becoming a part of society again. I would still be there you know but they gave the wrong depot to work out of. They sent me to Hainault and I wanted Leytonstone. It was great though feeling like you were in the veins of the city.
You’ve always had an affinity with London do you have romantic notions about the power of the city?
Too right, it’s a magical mystical place, it makes me feel alive walking through it, down by the river, its wonderful. That was something I felt I shared with Blake, an ability to celebrate that around me. I didn’t really get Blake to begin with but a friend gave me a book of his and kept getting at me to read it and one day I was just sitting there and it was staring me in the face so I did. I couldn’t believe how great this guy was, a fellow mystic. So I did a record with his lyrics.
What does the future hold for Jah Wobble?
I just want to carry on making music with people I love working with. The music industry is a horrible poisonous place. I remember after I’d finished on the trains and want to get back in I was shopping my albums around to the labels and sitting in this record execs office with him basically telling me to fuck off. The record came out, did really well and this same horrible prick exec is sitting there back stage after a show telling me “oh John, I knew you’d do it”. That pretty much sums it up. I’m happy with where I’m going and the people I’m working with now.
Thanks Jah!
Take care.
April Playlouder Reviews
‘Life Embarrasses Me On Planet Earth’
Seventeen Evergreen
Lucky Number
3/5
Seventeen Evergreen comprises the San Francisco based duo of Caleb Pate and Nephi Evans. The record appears over here on London boutique label Lucky Number that bought us Sebastian Tellier’s stunningly glacial La Ritournelle last year and announces itself with an album title that would place it comfortably in the company of the current batch of skewed US college-indie popsters such as Modest Mouse and the bands of the early 90’s such as Pavement that in turn inspired them.
Although Seventeen Evergreen share a sense of woozy melody and trebly warmth with those outfits the comparison falls short due to the pairs use of ‘cognitive computers’ and multi-instrumentalism to create organic, electronic backdrops to their wistful pop that is reminiscent of early Air or even the percussive soundscape work of The Album Leaf.
Despite tales of the band being inspired by recording wedged in-between a home for the deaf and an Alcoholic’s Anonymous centre, opening track ‘Music Is The Wine’ represents the albums most immediate track, an upbeat, open paean to the redemptive power of song that is an obvious choice for single filled with catchy, harmonised backing vocals.
‘Grays’ however forsakes straightforward verse-chorus structure and the acoustic guitar/organ led sound in favour of blissed out instrumentals while closer ‘Andromedean Dream Of An Octagon’ is a beat-less exercise in minimal tones closer to Steve Reich than The Shins.
The albums standout tracks, ‘Sufferbus’ and ‘Ensoniq’, marry these two contrasting counterpoints to great effect uniting rhythmic drumming patterns with echoed ambience and controlled but frenetic guitar solos. While vocally the Malkmus comparisons being bandied around occasionally ring true, particularly during ‘Haven’t Been Yourself’, the phrasing and delivery are at times more akin to the melody infused hooks of a John Mayer.
While this record fails to shine as either a warm Califone-esque sepia-toned pop record or as an electro-pop crossover album, such as The Field recently produced to great effect, ‘Life Embarrasses Me On Planet Earth’ beguiles in it’s own quiet way and in an environment where Modest Mouse are riding the US charts roughshod and The Shins can sell The Forum out back to back don’t be surprised if it beguiles a fair few.
CocoRosie
The Adventures of Ghosthorse & Stillborn
Touch & Go
2/5
I must be getting old. It seems like only yesterday that this slightly quirky pair of sisters tumbled into view with 2004’s ‘La Maison De Mon Reve’ and a fittingly strange back-story of separation, reunion and the rekindling of their relationship through art and music. I think Devandra Banhart might have been in there somewhere as well. This was 2004 though remember and in that balmy summer of free/wierde/whatevereyouwannacallit-folk if you didn’t have quirky back-story and a bit of Banhart you were nobody. Its now 2007 and after a fair but hardly beguiling follow up in the shape of their patchy sophomore ‘Noah’s Ark’ album Bianca and Sierra Cassidy return with their third effort.
As if sensing we were all a little bored of the whole freaky-siblings factor Bianca has grown a moustache to keep us going ‘eh?’ a little longer. However, this album can only be judged on it’s merits and frankly in the company of wonderful albums by Joanna Newsom and Marissa Nadler already released this year it has hard to find many in ‘The Adventures Of Ghosthorse & Stillborn’s 40 minutes.
The elements established on the duo’s previous two albums are all present and correct: the contrasting of Sierra’s operatically trained vocal with Bianca’s more intuitive and occasionally rapped delivery, the use of hip hop elements such as a beat boxed beat, some laptopy ambience, strange animal and baby noises and the clink and chime of timpani bells all laid over harp or piano arrangements.
While opener Rainbowarriors offers a rollicking introduction the album yields little to engage on repeat listens, and while moments of beauty exist in both Werewolves and Bloody Twins the album lacks the wide-eyed of charm of their debut and it is telling that the records standout track ‘Japan’ sounds like a straight impression of Newsom. Perhaps Sierra’s been saving all her good ideas for Metallic Falcons but either way there is little to recommend here.
They needn’t worry too much about nobody buying the album though as like Vashti Bunyan and Banhart they seem happy enough to licence property to perfume adverts without too many qualms. Maybe Bianca realised that moustache wasn’t such a hot idea after all…
The Fucking Champs
VI
Drag City
4/5
The Champs have always seemed a little out of step, impossible to pigeonhole in any other category than perhaps their own definition of their sound as ‘total music’. For the uninitiated, The Fucking Champs play intense, loud, melodic, riff-led music that is so close to pastiche that it exists in some singular state of perfection. They have, for well over a decade, effortlessly distilled the essence of everything that makes the bombast of Judas Priest and Maiden a joy to listen to. It is no coincidence that a track on their 2000 album IV was cheekily entitled ‘NWOBHM part 2’.
The bands unique nature is perhaps best explained by its member’s pasts. Original guitarist Josh Smith played with legendry San Francisco cult Black Metal act Weakling whose only album ‘Dead To Dreams’ stands shoulder to shoulder with anything Norway has ever produced. While he went on to play with supreme blues-metalers Drunken Horse fellow founding guitarist Tim Green cut his teeth with the infamous Dischord agit-Hardcore outfit the Nation of Ulysses. The combination of these two duelling, bass-less guitar sounds anchored by Tim Soete’s rhythmic drumming would form the template that The Champs follow to this day: riffs build upon riffs, changing time and direction in complex patterns furiously with a constant sense of melody.
Theirs is a wonderful and immediately recognisable sound that despite Smiths departure has continued to flourish. While a lack of development could be seen as a source of criticism in other bands The Champs’ music is so exhilaratingly, grin-inducingly, fist-shakingly wonderful you cannot help but want more. VI delivers in spades. While their collaborations with fellow riff-obsessive’s Trans Am (as both The Fucking AM and Trans Champs) and even stints programming music for computer games have seen slight deviances into electronic elements it is in these periodic numerical albums, trimmed of any fat and bearing their fangs that The Champs shine brightest.
Despite the tremendous sound that issues forth from opener ‘The Lodge’ right through to closer ‘Column Of Heads’ the band greet us on the cover looking like college rock slackers as opposed to spandex clad shredders. The record is even released by Drag City, usual home to Will Oldham and other whispery folks like Ali Roberts! The Champs subvert any sense expectation with their immensely consistent and unfaltering sound. A triumph and that rarest of things: a perfect metal record that will be enjoyed by many that do not even realise that they are listening to metal at all.
Malajube
Trompe-L’oeil
City Slang
3/5
Presenting us with an album purporting to be a trick of the eye it seems unclear on listening to this fairly derivative debut exactly who these Quebecoise kids are going to fool. People over in Canada must be pretty easy to trick though as the band have had great success in their homeland peddling their melodic-pop towards 3 Juno’s (sort of the Canadian Brits) and thus triumphing where many French language acts have failed and crossing over into the English-speaking Canadian consciousness. This success in their homeland has been followed by some riotous and rapturous reports from SXSW of life-changingly wonderful live shows.
It is always hard not to listen with a sense of expectation when these early warning beacons are flashing all over the place but first impressions upon a cursory listen are of indifference that slowly grows into affection. The general sound is one of fairly grand, melody based pop. The bands use of dynamics seems limited to the quiet build that bursts into either urgent call and reply choruses in the style of Aussie outfit Architecture In Helsinki, particularly on the hectic Fille A Plumes, or, more often than not, grand Arcade Fire moments of an epic chamber-pop nature.
The Arcade Fire comparison is an obvious point of reference both geographically and in terms of sound. Win Butler personally requested their support on international dates this year and Malajube’s Gallic delivery lends itself well to the almost choral elements of big melodic choruses.
A sense of individuality or originality seems to be the main fault in a fairly adequate overall package. It would be unfair to dismiss their fare as Arcade Fire-lite as songs such Le Crabe and St Fortunat echo glorious E6 records of years past in their melodic proximity to the Apples In Stereo and most specifically Of Montreal while La Ruse brings to mind early Modest Mouse.
With a supposedly great live show and these early missives in well-rounded pop it really only remains to be seen where Malajube can go from here. Their potential is unquestionable but transcending their influences remains a stumbling block in any attempt to carve a lasting legacy worthy of their initial hype.
Seventeen Evergreen
Lucky Number
3/5
Seventeen Evergreen comprises the San Francisco based duo of Caleb Pate and Nephi Evans. The record appears over here on London boutique label Lucky Number that bought us Sebastian Tellier’s stunningly glacial La Ritournelle last year and announces itself with an album title that would place it comfortably in the company of the current batch of skewed US college-indie popsters such as Modest Mouse and the bands of the early 90’s such as Pavement that in turn inspired them.
Although Seventeen Evergreen share a sense of woozy melody and trebly warmth with those outfits the comparison falls short due to the pairs use of ‘cognitive computers’ and multi-instrumentalism to create organic, electronic backdrops to their wistful pop that is reminiscent of early Air or even the percussive soundscape work of The Album Leaf.
Despite tales of the band being inspired by recording wedged in-between a home for the deaf and an Alcoholic’s Anonymous centre, opening track ‘Music Is The Wine’ represents the albums most immediate track, an upbeat, open paean to the redemptive power of song that is an obvious choice for single filled with catchy, harmonised backing vocals.
‘Grays’ however forsakes straightforward verse-chorus structure and the acoustic guitar/organ led sound in favour of blissed out instrumentals while closer ‘Andromedean Dream Of An Octagon’ is a beat-less exercise in minimal tones closer to Steve Reich than The Shins.
The albums standout tracks, ‘Sufferbus’ and ‘Ensoniq’, marry these two contrasting counterpoints to great effect uniting rhythmic drumming patterns with echoed ambience and controlled but frenetic guitar solos. While vocally the Malkmus comparisons being bandied around occasionally ring true, particularly during ‘Haven’t Been Yourself’, the phrasing and delivery are at times more akin to the melody infused hooks of a John Mayer.
While this record fails to shine as either a warm Califone-esque sepia-toned pop record or as an electro-pop crossover album, such as The Field recently produced to great effect, ‘Life Embarrasses Me On Planet Earth’ beguiles in it’s own quiet way and in an environment where Modest Mouse are riding the US charts roughshod and The Shins can sell The Forum out back to back don’t be surprised if it beguiles a fair few.
CocoRosie
The Adventures of Ghosthorse & Stillborn
Touch & Go
2/5
I must be getting old. It seems like only yesterday that this slightly quirky pair of sisters tumbled into view with 2004’s ‘La Maison De Mon Reve’ and a fittingly strange back-story of separation, reunion and the rekindling of their relationship through art and music. I think Devandra Banhart might have been in there somewhere as well. This was 2004 though remember and in that balmy summer of free/wierde/whatevereyouwannacallit-folk if you didn’t have quirky back-story and a bit of Banhart you were nobody. Its now 2007 and after a fair but hardly beguiling follow up in the shape of their patchy sophomore ‘Noah’s Ark’ album Bianca and Sierra Cassidy return with their third effort.
As if sensing we were all a little bored of the whole freaky-siblings factor Bianca has grown a moustache to keep us going ‘eh?’ a little longer. However, this album can only be judged on it’s merits and frankly in the company of wonderful albums by Joanna Newsom and Marissa Nadler already released this year it has hard to find many in ‘The Adventures Of Ghosthorse & Stillborn’s 40 minutes.
The elements established on the duo’s previous two albums are all present and correct: the contrasting of Sierra’s operatically trained vocal with Bianca’s more intuitive and occasionally rapped delivery, the use of hip hop elements such as a beat boxed beat, some laptopy ambience, strange animal and baby noises and the clink and chime of timpani bells all laid over harp or piano arrangements.
While opener Rainbowarriors offers a rollicking introduction the album yields little to engage on repeat listens, and while moments of beauty exist in both Werewolves and Bloody Twins the album lacks the wide-eyed of charm of their debut and it is telling that the records standout track ‘Japan’ sounds like a straight impression of Newsom. Perhaps Sierra’s been saving all her good ideas for Metallic Falcons but either way there is little to recommend here.
They needn’t worry too much about nobody buying the album though as like Vashti Bunyan and Banhart they seem happy enough to licence property to perfume adverts without too many qualms. Maybe Bianca realised that moustache wasn’t such a hot idea after all…
The Fucking Champs
VI
Drag City
4/5
The Champs have always seemed a little out of step, impossible to pigeonhole in any other category than perhaps their own definition of their sound as ‘total music’. For the uninitiated, The Fucking Champs play intense, loud, melodic, riff-led music that is so close to pastiche that it exists in some singular state of perfection. They have, for well over a decade, effortlessly distilled the essence of everything that makes the bombast of Judas Priest and Maiden a joy to listen to. It is no coincidence that a track on their 2000 album IV was cheekily entitled ‘NWOBHM part 2’.
The bands unique nature is perhaps best explained by its member’s pasts. Original guitarist Josh Smith played with legendry San Francisco cult Black Metal act Weakling whose only album ‘Dead To Dreams’ stands shoulder to shoulder with anything Norway has ever produced. While he went on to play with supreme blues-metalers Drunken Horse fellow founding guitarist Tim Green cut his teeth with the infamous Dischord agit-Hardcore outfit the Nation of Ulysses. The combination of these two duelling, bass-less guitar sounds anchored by Tim Soete’s rhythmic drumming would form the template that The Champs follow to this day: riffs build upon riffs, changing time and direction in complex patterns furiously with a constant sense of melody.
Theirs is a wonderful and immediately recognisable sound that despite Smiths departure has continued to flourish. While a lack of development could be seen as a source of criticism in other bands The Champs’ music is so exhilaratingly, grin-inducingly, fist-shakingly wonderful you cannot help but want more. VI delivers in spades. While their collaborations with fellow riff-obsessive’s Trans Am (as both The Fucking AM and Trans Champs) and even stints programming music for computer games have seen slight deviances into electronic elements it is in these periodic numerical albums, trimmed of any fat and bearing their fangs that The Champs shine brightest.
Despite the tremendous sound that issues forth from opener ‘The Lodge’ right through to closer ‘Column Of Heads’ the band greet us on the cover looking like college rock slackers as opposed to spandex clad shredders. The record is even released by Drag City, usual home to Will Oldham and other whispery folks like Ali Roberts! The Champs subvert any sense expectation with their immensely consistent and unfaltering sound. A triumph and that rarest of things: a perfect metal record that will be enjoyed by many that do not even realise that they are listening to metal at all.
Malajube
Trompe-L’oeil
City Slang
3/5
Presenting us with an album purporting to be a trick of the eye it seems unclear on listening to this fairly derivative debut exactly who these Quebecoise kids are going to fool. People over in Canada must be pretty easy to trick though as the band have had great success in their homeland peddling their melodic-pop towards 3 Juno’s (sort of the Canadian Brits) and thus triumphing where many French language acts have failed and crossing over into the English-speaking Canadian consciousness. This success in their homeland has been followed by some riotous and rapturous reports from SXSW of life-changingly wonderful live shows.
It is always hard not to listen with a sense of expectation when these early warning beacons are flashing all over the place but first impressions upon a cursory listen are of indifference that slowly grows into affection. The general sound is one of fairly grand, melody based pop. The bands use of dynamics seems limited to the quiet build that bursts into either urgent call and reply choruses in the style of Aussie outfit Architecture In Helsinki, particularly on the hectic Fille A Plumes, or, more often than not, grand Arcade Fire moments of an epic chamber-pop nature.
The Arcade Fire comparison is an obvious point of reference both geographically and in terms of sound. Win Butler personally requested their support on international dates this year and Malajube’s Gallic delivery lends itself well to the almost choral elements of big melodic choruses.
A sense of individuality or originality seems to be the main fault in a fairly adequate overall package. It would be unfair to dismiss their fare as Arcade Fire-lite as songs such Le Crabe and St Fortunat echo glorious E6 records of years past in their melodic proximity to the Apples In Stereo and most specifically Of Montreal while La Ruse brings to mind early Modest Mouse.
With a supposedly great live show and these early missives in well-rounded pop it really only remains to be seen where Malajube can go from here. Their potential is unquestionable but transcending their influences remains a stumbling block in any attempt to carve a lasting legacy worthy of their initial hype.
April Vice Reviews
Battletorn
Terminal Dawn
Mad At The World Records
9 We featured Omid from Battletorn waaaay back in the Obsessions Issue as he owns the largest collection of Runaways memorabilia in the world. He also plays in the best Thrash-Punk band in the world. 16 songs in 12 minutes that sound like Hellhammer, Dropdead and DRI raping each other. Essential.
Lovvers
A Good Book EP
Johnson Family Records
8 The Murder Of Rosa Luxemburg should have been like an English version of the Blood Bothers but a million and one time better. Shame they split. Here is Shaun who used to scream with the Murder Of playing puerile spazzed out punk that hits all the right notes. Like Antioch Arrow on bad drugs. The sleeve has a nice painting of horses on it.
Dungen
Tio Bitar
Subliminal Sounds
5 Like Les Claypool guesting with Phish but with annoying whispered vocals that you won't understand. Unless you are Swedish. It's pretty much like the last one except they've gone all Joanna Newsom on the breakdowns.
Kicks Like A Mule
Gravity’s Rainbow
Me & My Brother Records
7 In some weird zeitgeist inverting twist of fate the debut release from this chic new London micro-venture is rave-pensioners in hiding Kicks Like A Mule covering the Klaxons only real out and out dance number. KLAM haven’t touched a studio in about half a century and it shows but its still good fun and will no doubt get battered to death everywhere as of right now.
Simian Mobile Disco
Attack Decay Sustain Release
Wichita
6 This is OK in a middle of the road electro-house kind of way and everything but I thought these guys were meant to be like Paul Epworth version 2.007? All the kids are going be mighty bummed when they buy this CD and discover an attempt to make a ‘serious’ dance record without a ‘We Are Your Friends’ in sight. Where are the hits? Way to lie to us all guys…
V/A (Mixed by G-Ha and Olanski)
Sunkissed
Smalltown Supersound
9 Coming on the label that bought us last years pretty much perfect Lindstrom solo collection is this exquisite mix by two Scando jocks who are probably old enough to know better. It showcases the spectrum of Norwegian dance from Rune Lindeback through to his cosmic heirs via remixes of spaced out rocker guys like Sareena Maneesh. Imagine Optimo but in Norway. There you go.
Malajube
Trompe-L’Oeil
City Slang
6 Why do people wet themselves about bands like this just ‘cos they are from Canada? These guys even sing in French so they are really playing the race card for all it’s worth. Good thing really because their self-conscious bash at quirky, melodic pop falls far short of Of Montreal or pretty much any E6 band ever.
Coley Park
Rhinoceros
Big Potato Records
7 Sometimes when you are having a bad day and you hear something a little nice it will pick you right up even if it isn’t really all that great in the same way that if you do shitty ecstasy all night a pretty average pill will have you fisting the roof. This is a pretty average album but compared to some of the shite it’s swimming with at the moment it’s like a nugget of gold amongst the Monday morning diahorrea.
Black Helicopter
Invisible Jet
Ecstatic Peace
8 When the first chords of this rang out I almost came in my pants cos it sounded just like the beginning of Green Machine by Kyuss. This record is not as good as that warped, fuzzed-out behemoth of desert perfection but it isn’t a million miles away either.
Asobi Seksu
Walk On The Moon
One Little Indian (single)
5 Like a crap Cure song but with a girl singing instead of a creepy overweight old guy in badly applied make up. They are probably going for some sort of emotive MBV thing but this will probably end up as muzak in a credit card ad as opposed to changing anyone’s life.
Plastic Operator
Different Places
Fine Day Records
7 Some Belgium guy and a kid from Canada form like Voltron to produce one of those insanely catchy laptop-pop affairs that is already selling Coke and replacing the Postal Service in your girlfiends I-Pod.
Viva Voce
Viva Voce Loves You
Full Time Hobby
5 What’s with all this love and happiness and sunshine coming out of bunnies asses pop at the moment? I just don’t buy it that all these earnest American indie types are happy all the time. Maybe they are happy because they are selling so many records. In a world where Modest Mouse are shitting all over the Billboard chart and Jonny fucking Marr has started playing guitar for them shit like this is a pretty safe bet I suppose.
Holy Hail
Born Of A Star/I Owe
ACTH Records
6 Competent, bleepy, synth-led indie-electro sort of thing. You know. The original is sort of amusing cos the singer chick sounds a bit like a female Scatman John. Seriously, give it a listen. The Shir Khan and Bonde Do Rlole remixes are both a lot more fun than the original and will make people dance. Probably.
Battles
Mirrored
Warp
8 Not as clever as it thinks it is but a pretty amazing rock record nonetheless. John Stanier still drums like Desperate Dan on heat while, skinny, speccy dudes make confusing loops and delayed, syncopated rhythmic patterns pop up all over the place around him. Warp weren’t wrong signing these guys up.
Terminal Dawn
Mad At The World Records
9 We featured Omid from Battletorn waaaay back in the Obsessions Issue as he owns the largest collection of Runaways memorabilia in the world. He also plays in the best Thrash-Punk band in the world. 16 songs in 12 minutes that sound like Hellhammer, Dropdead and DRI raping each other. Essential.
Lovvers
A Good Book EP
Johnson Family Records
8 The Murder Of Rosa Luxemburg should have been like an English version of the Blood Bothers but a million and one time better. Shame they split. Here is Shaun who used to scream with the Murder Of playing puerile spazzed out punk that hits all the right notes. Like Antioch Arrow on bad drugs. The sleeve has a nice painting of horses on it.
Dungen
Tio Bitar
Subliminal Sounds
5 Like Les Claypool guesting with Phish but with annoying whispered vocals that you won't understand. Unless you are Swedish. It's pretty much like the last one except they've gone all Joanna Newsom on the breakdowns.
Kicks Like A Mule
Gravity’s Rainbow
Me & My Brother Records
7 In some weird zeitgeist inverting twist of fate the debut release from this chic new London micro-venture is rave-pensioners in hiding Kicks Like A Mule covering the Klaxons only real out and out dance number. KLAM haven’t touched a studio in about half a century and it shows but its still good fun and will no doubt get battered to death everywhere as of right now.
Simian Mobile Disco
Attack Decay Sustain Release
Wichita
6 This is OK in a middle of the road electro-house kind of way and everything but I thought these guys were meant to be like Paul Epworth version 2.007? All the kids are going be mighty bummed when they buy this CD and discover an attempt to make a ‘serious’ dance record without a ‘We Are Your Friends’ in sight. Where are the hits? Way to lie to us all guys…
V/A (Mixed by G-Ha and Olanski)
Sunkissed
Smalltown Supersound
9 Coming on the label that bought us last years pretty much perfect Lindstrom solo collection is this exquisite mix by two Scando jocks who are probably old enough to know better. It showcases the spectrum of Norwegian dance from Rune Lindeback through to his cosmic heirs via remixes of spaced out rocker guys like Sareena Maneesh. Imagine Optimo but in Norway. There you go.
Malajube
Trompe-L’Oeil
City Slang
6 Why do people wet themselves about bands like this just ‘cos they are from Canada? These guys even sing in French so they are really playing the race card for all it’s worth. Good thing really because their self-conscious bash at quirky, melodic pop falls far short of Of Montreal or pretty much any E6 band ever.
Coley Park
Rhinoceros
Big Potato Records
7 Sometimes when you are having a bad day and you hear something a little nice it will pick you right up even if it isn’t really all that great in the same way that if you do shitty ecstasy all night a pretty average pill will have you fisting the roof. This is a pretty average album but compared to some of the shite it’s swimming with at the moment it’s like a nugget of gold amongst the Monday morning diahorrea.
Black Helicopter
Invisible Jet
Ecstatic Peace
8 When the first chords of this rang out I almost came in my pants cos it sounded just like the beginning of Green Machine by Kyuss. This record is not as good as that warped, fuzzed-out behemoth of desert perfection but it isn’t a million miles away either.
Asobi Seksu
Walk On The Moon
One Little Indian (single)
5 Like a crap Cure song but with a girl singing instead of a creepy overweight old guy in badly applied make up. They are probably going for some sort of emotive MBV thing but this will probably end up as muzak in a credit card ad as opposed to changing anyone’s life.
Plastic Operator
Different Places
Fine Day Records
7 Some Belgium guy and a kid from Canada form like Voltron to produce one of those insanely catchy laptop-pop affairs that is already selling Coke and replacing the Postal Service in your girlfiends I-Pod.
Viva Voce
Viva Voce Loves You
Full Time Hobby
5 What’s with all this love and happiness and sunshine coming out of bunnies asses pop at the moment? I just don’t buy it that all these earnest American indie types are happy all the time. Maybe they are happy because they are selling so many records. In a world where Modest Mouse are shitting all over the Billboard chart and Jonny fucking Marr has started playing guitar for them shit like this is a pretty safe bet I suppose.
Holy Hail
Born Of A Star/I Owe
ACTH Records
6 Competent, bleepy, synth-led indie-electro sort of thing. You know. The original is sort of amusing cos the singer chick sounds a bit like a female Scatman John. Seriously, give it a listen. The Shir Khan and Bonde Do Rlole remixes are both a lot more fun than the original and will make people dance. Probably.
Battles
Mirrored
Warp
8 Not as clever as it thinks it is but a pretty amazing rock record nonetheless. John Stanier still drums like Desperate Dan on heat while, skinny, speccy dudes make confusing loops and delayed, syncopated rhythmic patterns pop up all over the place around him. Warp weren’t wrong signing these guys up.
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