Pointed Threats

Miasma Interview

2007-05-07T11:45:00.000-07:00

Here is an interview I did with the band Miasma & The Carousel Of Headless Horses for Vice Magazine. They feature members of bands like Guapo and the Alabama 3 and they are really good.

Miasma & The Carousel Of Headless Horses

Miasma are genuinely scary. Scary in a goosebumps as soon as you hear them kind of way. They sound like a lost piece from Susperia that Dario Argento thought too terrifying for release being played backwards by King Crimson on repeat forever. Somehow they occasionally get lumped in with the ‘freak-folk’ movement. Probably by people who have never actually listened to them before. They are about as close to Banhart as Comus were to Donovan. I.e.: basically not in the same in the universe. Although they are sort of a supergroup made up of members bands like Guapo and Chrome Hoof the music they make together is pretty much like none of those things. They have an EP available now on Southern’s Latitudes label and a forthcoming full length on Rise Above.

Your music is pretty frightening. What scares you?

Sara: Walking around at night in a dark garden and being alone with your superstitions. That is what I think of when I play.

Daniel: Playing with this band live can be frightening due to the complexity of the material. It is rehearsal-intensive music with a high level of technical rigour. Sometimes though after two or three songs you forget the fear and just play.

Orlando: Positivity and space docking.

You like pretty weird onstage. Do you always dress like that?

Leo: Well…yeah. (it should probably be pointed out here that we are sitting in Negril on Brixton Hill and the Miasma guys are all sitting there eating plantain in their Witchfinder general hats).

Daniel: We aren’t trying to be Slipknot.

Orlando: I just don’t really get the whole corpse-paint thing though. We don’t do that. Those Black Metal guys just look like they are in the Rocky Horror Picture show. We thought about dressing up as white minstrels once and capturing the horror of those old Al Jolson clips but that puts you on slightly dodgy ground I suppose.

You are all pretty strange guys. How did you meet each other and decide that this was the music you wanted to make?

Orlando: I met Daniel at the Horse Hospital in Bloomsbury where all these old queers and failed artists and junkies hang out and drink and we had a similar outlook on life.

Daniel: We don’t all agree on influences either. Apart from maybe Sabbath. We’ve had long and virulent arguments about certain Kate Bush albums. I’m more into the Sensual World era but they don’t really get it.

Rattatat Interview

2007-05-07T11:44:00.000-07:00

Here is an interview I did with the band Rattatat for the Vice Web Blog.

Rattatat Interview

Rattatat are these two guys from New York called Evan and Mike who play laptop programmed music with millions of layers of guitars and synths. It sounds like sleazy, robotic, oompah chamber music that’s equal parts Queen and Edwin Collins and makes all the girls go weak at the knees. Especially Kelly Osbourne apparently. If you took it all apart and got real human beings to play their music it would be like one of those Glenn Branca or Rhys Chatham shows with 87 people playing guitars. They used to hang out with people like Paul Banks in New York who got them a support slot on an Interpol tour before they’d even released a record and their new album is modestly entitled ‘Classics’. They also have a bootleg album just out of Hip Hop remixes of tracks by guys like Young Jeezy and Devin Tha Dude. But don’t tell anyone.

You guys look a little the worse for wear if you don’t mind me saying?

Evan: Sorry. We played a show at The Astoria last night. It got a little crazy.

Mike: Yeah we played with CSS and then they took us to this place The End. Durr or something? I don’t know.

Evan: Can you tell these UK promoters to stop giving us Jack Daniels on our rider, that stuff isn’t even whiskey. Its just headache in a bottle. Ugh.

So you’ve gone from playing guitar with Ben Kweller and Dashboard Confessional to making sexy studmuffin albums of your own and remixing Biggie and Young Jeezy. How did that happen?

Mike: The job with Dashboard was just me and it was just that: a job. I was playing in a band on tour with them and they needed a piano player so I took the gig. I did one studio session then Ben poached me. That was more fun but this is what I wanted to do. As soon as we had the opportunity we did this. We met at college and we have been making music together since then.

Evan: The hip hop thing was just something we wanted to do. As well as Queen and this band White Light I really love Timbaland, His production is a real inspiration. The remix thing is just a logical progression of what we do I think. Labels have begun to come to us. We did a remix for the Television Personalities, that was interesting cos I wasn’t too familiar with them apart from like ‘Part Time Punks’. We also did a remix of a track by The Knife. That was weird.

Mike: Yeah the girl sent us this super specific e-mail where she was like: “I want it to sound like this one specific Prince track” and spelled out in the e-mail duh duh duh duh duh duh duh. You know? Like how she wanted it to sound. Weird.

Evan: We heard back from Beanie Siegel and Devin saying that they’d heard the remixes and were into it. That’s nice.

Your music seems highly programmed. Is it not just a case of standing onstage and pressing buttons?

Mike: No not at all. It would be unfeasible to play it all live though. We have a guy called Jacob who plays live keys with us now. And we do live guitars. Lead guitar and lead bass. Haha. Live is always exciting, we’re not jamming out or anything but the live stuff can influences the studio stuff subsequently.

Evan: Yeah, I wanna make more aggressive stuff now. We could maybe do it live as a special one off show in New York or something that would be cool. We have video projections we use too.

Would you cry if your laptop got stolen?

Evan: That would be the worst. We’d probably have to give up music.

Is there anyone out there ripping on the Rattatat sound, any fellow travellers?

Mike: Not really, some people have ripped off our logo font though.

Why call the record ‘Classics’?

Evan: It just sounds funny.

Who is the average Rattatat fan?

Evan: Her (points at elderly lady sipping tea in the ICA café).

Mike: Seems to be a lot of stoner kids in the US.

You seem to always be on the road, do you hate each others guts by this point?

Mike: Nah, we have fun on tour.

Evan: I did get shot in the eye with a pellet gun in Amsterdam. Maybe that was the culmination of tension.

Who would you play with if you could play with anyone?

Evan: A total Hollywood band: Stevan Segal, Russel Crow, Kaenu Reeves.

Mike: And Brian May.

No Age Interview

2007-05-07T11:42:00.000-07:00

Here is an interview I did with No Age for Vice Magazine.

No Age Interview.

No Age are these two guys who were in this band Wives that used to have fights on stage the whole time and do backflips into drum kits and stuff like that. You know. Now they play this cool twist on post-hardcore with all these mad build up’s and break downs that is pretty amazing live. Dean the drummer guy is so good at yelling into microphones that Wrangler Brutes got him in to sing for their final US show. For those of you that don’t know what I’m talking about this is like a kid who is really into football being asked to fill in for Ronaldo up front. Or something. I know fuck all about football.

So were you snotty little LA punk kids when were you were younger?

Randy: I wasn’t a punk kid at all, I played basketball and had more of a mid 90’s Philadelphia hip-hop thing going on. I was into Boyz II Men.

Dean: I went through that phase also, I had a ridiculous haircut, this fake high top fade that made my head look like a giant penis cos it had this centre parting. I was also inspired by Kriss Kross to wear my pants back to front. I went to the drive-in theatre with my folks with these backwards ankle length shorts on and really needed to go. It wasn’t easy.

Randy: He was the one that introduced me to punk rock though. We just used to jam in high school, do Living Colour covers and shit. I used to have to get the tablature to play the parts. It was pretty embarrassing.

So what’s with the name? Do you have aspirations of musical timelessness or is it just lifted from the SST compilation?

Dean: Yeah we took it from the comp. It’s this late 80’s compilation of SST guys doing instrumental stuff like The Process Of Weeding Out era Black Flag stuff but a lot if it is actually pretty crap. The name sounds good though and it seemed almost like the most punk thing to do releasing all this instrumental shit, like a big fuck you to any sense of expectation.

Randy: What we are trying to do with No Age is totally different to Wives where the mission was just to destroy stuff. With this we are trying to build something.

Dean: Yeah, with Wives it was the bull in a china shop thing, just get in the room and fuck everything up. This has an equal energy but it’s focused differently. It is more calculated, I can’t get all wasted and do backflips and shit.

You never played drums before this, how come you feel ready to play drums and sing now?

Dean: I just felt that I knew how I wanted the drums to sound in this band. Plus I’m actually pretty good you know! Also I always had this weird Husker Du fantasy where I wanted to be like Grant Hart and sing and play drums at once.

Sure it wasn’t a Phil Collins thing?

Positive.

Chromeo Press Release

2007-04-21T08:07:00.002-07:00

‘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

Black Lips Press Release

2007-04-21T08:07:00.001-07:00

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

Viceland.com April Blog Posts

2007-04-21T07:58:00.001-07:00

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.

The Cribs Vice Interview

2007-04-21T07:57:00.000-07:00

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?

Jah Wobble Vice Interview

2007-04-21T07:55:00.000-07:00

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.

April Playlouder Reviews

2007-04-21T07:48:00.000-07:00

‘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.

April Vice Reviews

2007-04-21T07:42:00.000-07:00

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.

Battles Live Review

2007-03-22T09:54:00.001-07:00

Battles
The Purcell Rooms
12/03/07

It is not every day that a progressive math-core band sign to a gold-standard UK dance stable or headline a night at the furrow-browed, chin-stroking Ether Festival on London’s South Bank but hey, Battles aint just any prog/math/loop-core act. ‘Mirrored’ their latest record for Warp builds on last year’s collection of their early EP’s and finds a unique band comfortable in their singular skin and able to distort and fracture their sound in new and unexpected directions.

While the album can initially perplex and confuse with it’s excursions into looped soundscapes, to see Battles in the live arena is to truly witness the coherent sum of their vision. While John Stanier’s almost unbelievably tight precession remains both an anchoring counterpoint and driving rhythmic force it allows Tyondai Braxton, Ian Williams and David Konopka to spin webs and loops of sound almost at will from the mammoth bank of instruments and equipment that surround the spartan drum kit centre stage.

Having practically invented math-rock’s syncopated repetition in Don Caballero Williams builds riffs and keyboard patterns simultaneously that Konopka builds on with guitar or bass as Braxton plays out refined versions of the ‘orchestrated loops’ that feature prominently in his solo work either on guitar or organ and occasionally utilising the modified vocals that characterise the new albums lead off single Atlas that is rendered in terrifying fashion tonight at the heart of an extremely impressive set.

Jumping straight into new recording Tijj it is apparent from the outset how much these four guys from New York are enjoying playing this new material. The infectious energy that spills off stage is channelled into both the new songs and into interesting re-interpretations of earlier work such as their debut single Tras and while the core of the set is comprised of selections from the new record (no B+T from EP C alas) such as the aforementioned Atlas as well as Tonto and the frantic Race:In the addition of the warped and frankly smurf-like vocals adds another layer of unifying to sound the heady brew throughout and by the time closing number Dance draws to its conclusion a theatre that is usually reserved for considered performance art is on it’s feet applauding a great live spectacle. For a band that spend so long precisely crafting sound in the studio the stage seems to give Battles the energy to re-interpret their work into it’s most potent form. They are back in May; in this form miss them at your peril.

March Reviews

2007-03-19T11:03:00.000-07:00

The Lodger
Kicking Sand/Centuries
Angular Recordings Single

4 Ugh. Proof that the supposedly ‘spot-on’ London micro-indie A&R’s get it seriously wrong sometimes. These two sound like some forgotten Ocean Colour Scene B Sides: boring, banal jangle indie about drinking pints and other shit I can’t believe that I just spent 5 minutes listening to. They can carry on kicking sand with The Basement downstairs in the Buffalo Bar forever for all I care.

Tiger Force
A Wasp In A Jar
Marquis Cha Cha

7 Who’d of thought a year ago that ‘post-Testicicles’ would be a term you could legitimately bandy round? These guys check all the boxes: funny coloured guitars, falling apart bits, screamy multi-tracked vocals, and hell they’ve even worked with Lethal B. I would bet a hefty wedge that their live show is ‘chaotic’. I wonder what all these bands would do if we made them sit in a room and listen to the Three One G and Skingraft back catalogues? Might be a bit cruel to make ‘em realise that a bunch of spoilt yanks did all this almost a decade ago.

Chinese Stars
Listen To Your Left Brain
Three One G

6 And almost on queue this pops up! I actually preferred listening to the Tiger Force thing as these dudes have basically been plying the same vein from Six Finger Satellite through Arab on Radar and onwards. You know the deal by now: funky Make Up style bass-lines, guitars that seemingly bear no relation to each other and anguished lyrics about things that make no sense at all unless you live in a warehouse in Providence and dedicate your life to like ‘art man’. The first EP that was shaped like a shuroken star is still the best thing they’ve done.

Kit
Broken Voyage
Upset The Rhythm

8 This sounds like the good bits of Deerhoof condensed down into 60 seconds then sped up from 33 to 45 rpm. Off the wall spazz attacks that somehow retain a demented sense of melody and structure. This is what I imagine the soundtrack to that new Magic Roundabout film should be. It probably won’t but you know, dare to dream.

Hey Colossus
Project: Death
Johnson Family

9 The problem with so much ‘heavy’ shit now is that really it is a load of bed-wetting hipster fags pretending to be something that they’re not. Witness the rise of bands like The Sword. These guys are from London and are balding and wear glasses and they wouldn’t really know what a hipster looked like so they’ve been able to craft behemoth sized riffs in a merry, maniacal vortex for a good few years now that consistently destroy audiences indiscriminately. Shit, if it didn’t sound like Thor shitting thunderbolts the title wouldn’t really fit and this sounds like Fudge Tunnel raping Kyuss so all good anyhow. One of the most overlooked UK acts out there, ‘I am the Chiswick Strangler’ is worth admission alone. Great artwork too dudes.

The Fucking Champs
VI
Drag City

9 The Champs have basically made one record several times. The thing is that it is one of the most amazing, fist in the air, shit-eating-grin inducing records ever cut. Mathy, precise, riffing metal that gets away with being ‘arty’ cos it kicks so much ass. It’s like a whole record of that bit in the solo of Reign in Blood where the guitar goes ‘whoooop, duh, duh, duh, duh’. Never mind. If it aint broke don’t fix it.

Less Self Is More:
A Benefit Compilation For Tarantula Hill
Ecstatic Peace!

10 OK so if you don’t know what Tarantula Hill was and you pretend you are into Noise you are a liar. For all you liars out there and people that plain don’t give a shit here’s the breakdown: TA was pretty much the original East Coast freaky hang out spot for all the various art collectives and noise units that passed through Baltimore and was lived in by the guys from Nautical Almanac, Nate Young’s pre-Wolf Eyes outfit. While they were out playing No Fun last year the space burnt down destroying their studio, archives and a space integral in the creation of the scene, as it is known today. Buy this comprehensive doubled CD to help some dudes out or simply to have a compendium of every important noise artist in your i-pod at once. Either way you win.

No Neck Blues Band
Nine For Victor
Victo

9 The whole freak-folk thing is dead. Get over it. Banhart and Vashti Bunyan are licensing properties to advertisers quicker than Moby can bend over and beg for it. However there are some guys out there like the NNK cats that are so weird that if their music was put out on TV it would probably cause mass epilepsy. In fact they’d probably like that. Fuck knows what’s going on in these nine songs recorded live a couple of years back but there is a bit ‘Brain Soaked Hide’ that rages harder than Comets at their best and rather than sing about ‘mocking birds’ they are all more likely to get naked on stage and bleed on each other while wearing buckets on their heads like the Knights who say: Ni.

Ben Frost
Theory Of Machines
Bedroom Community

9 I would have given this top marks if it weren’t for the totally unnecessary ‘interpretive’ liner notes. The music contained on this disc is a stone cold 10. It marries ambient-Aphex swathes of warmth and static with the compositional complexity of Arvo Part and the sonic nothingness of the New Blockaders or their heirs apparent Wolf Eyes and somehow manages to make all of these disparate elements work perfectly, complementing rather than distracting from each other. Yes, it is that good. I have listened to it almost every day since I got it and any album with a track entitled ‘I Love You Michael Gira’ should probably be owned by everyone, everywhere immediately. This is music even the grumpy old Swans dude himself might enjoy. Brilliant.

Dubstep Allstars Vol 5
Mixed by DJ N-Type
Tempa

8 Ok, so if you are the sort person who goes to FWD every week and listens to Rinse all the time you will know the vast majority of these but for everyone else these compilations from Tempa remain the Gold Standard in terms of marking points in the evolution of Dubstep. Compared to Youngstas Vol 2 which defined the halfstep era in 2005 in a mere 13 tracks this mix brims with the myriad directions the genre has taken since then. From b-line wobblers to vocal anthems to clipped minimalism somehow everyone’s favourite excitable baldy has managed to fit in 38 tracks mixed swiftly in the manner of one of his show stopping party sets that made him last years DJ of the year. If you still don’t know about dubstep buy this now and start pretending.

Rush In Rio
Anthem DVD

10 There are some bands that are so good you just can’t deny it. Fleetwood Mac, Gabriel era Genesis, it doesn’t matter that your dad likes them, you see these are examples of artists who stumbled past good and bad and into genius whether you like it or not so quit worrying whether people notice that you have Tusk or The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway in your CD collection and just accept that they rule. Rush are very much one of these bands and this DVD is like a living breathing testament to the fact. Watch in awe as Geddy, Neil and Alex play to approximately 60 billion people in one of those megadomes that only the South Americans can fill and play communist allegories about trees and mutant space operas abut Viking Vallhalas and thank whatever weird Canadian God of rock decided to allow this band to exist. Thirty masterly missives that take you Closer To The Heart,

Jandek On Corwood
Unicorn Stencil DVD

7 When Jandek appeared unannounced at the 2004 Instal festival it was sort of like the second coming of Christ for the sort of people that read the Wire and think Stockhausen is a little too accessible. Although this isn’t exactly Newlyweds in terms of access it does give a valuable insight into one of the few true enigmas of the last thirty years of popular music. With over 35 self-released albums on his own Corwood label Jandek has maintained a Fahey-esque elusiveness that has cemented his legend far beyond his output in outsider circles. This recent DVD and a handful of live shows maybe indicate he’s become a little worried that he’ll be left a pedants footnote but even a cursory listen to the soundtrack of this weird old dudes days should convince you he’s worth a little effort.

Battles Interview

2007-03-11T20:00:00.000-07:00

Here's an interview I did with Battles, John Stanier used to play in Jehovahs Sickness and Helmet and Ian Williams used to play in Don Caballero and Storm & Stress so it was a pretty big deal for me.

You’ve all played in pretty influential bands prior to playing in Battles, has that affected your approach to Battles or have you come to it with a completely fresh approach?

John: With me, the only way that it has come to play in Battles is that I played for a really long time in Helmet, for ten years. But that’s it, playing in that band for ten years obviously caused me to develop a style but from day one of Battles the whole purpose was to do something that none of us had done before. I’d say for the most part our previous bands have little effect apart from maybe a technique.

Ian: Totally. Also, different ideas turn you on 10 years ago. Don Cab and Storm & Stress were fun at those points in time but it’s good to set yourself up in new situations musically. It keeps it fresh and it keeps it honest.

Tyondai: For me there was a real desire to get beyond my past, to create a new sound with new ideas. In a way reacting against what I’ve done before. In Battles, I’m way more interested with ideas of solidified, cohesive song structures. You can never escape yourself completely but you always want to evolve and all of us have come into it with that exploratory philosophy both as individuals and as a collective. My Dad [legendry avant-garde composer Anthony Braxton] obviously had an influence on me but mainly in terms of inspiring me just to be fearless in my approach and work like hell.

How did you guys all meet up?

Tyondai: I’m originally from Connecticut but I met Ian when we were both living in New York and we played around loosely at first for about a year getting used to each other then we met Dave and the idea of it formally becoming a band appeared on the horizon but it was really when John came along that it became clear that we really had something and that was at the end of 2003.

Was there any reason why your initial releases were singles and EP’s only?

John: The honest answer is that the band was beginning to gel and sound like a band so we wanted to tour but we had to have something to tour with so we did Tras the single and two EP’s but they were all actually recorded at the same session. They were released really early on and we had a period of two years of touring and playing together working stuff out as we went along.

Tyondai: All those early releases though were really documents of us struggling to find our sound. There has never been an end goal as in: at the end of the road we want to sound like this or that. The question mark has always been the journey and the EP’s kinda charted that, the new record is us playing around with the sounds established on the EP’s; a more refined version of that early sound.

Is there any reason why you went for Warp Records over here in the UK which is more commonly associated with dance music?

John: Weirdly I think they parallel our growth, that attempt to diversify there sound is sort of the same path we’re on, it just made sense from the get go.

Dave: It was cool, they were looking not to be pigeonholed and that was exactly the same thing we were looking for, we’re both evolving in tandem.

How did you hook up with DJ Koze for the remix on the new single?

John: My girlfriend lives in Cologne so I just bumped into him over there, we were mixing the album and it was actually all just done over the phone but it worked out really well I think.

There seem to be a lot more vocals on the new record, what’s up with that?

Tyondai: I know from the outset that this band has been viewed as an ‘instrumental’ outfit but internally we never saw it that way, it made sense on the EP’s to be more reserved in a way as we were still trying to sculpt our sound, there are vocals on there but on the new record I thought it would be cool to introduce that element more heavily and play with the stereotypical vocal structure. Take it on in a Battles mode.

Do you think you’d ever write a pop song?

Dave: I thought we already had!

John: I don’t think that this band will ever on purpose be that direct in terms of a focus prior to writing something. If that happens it would happen naturally, we don’t write in such a pre-meditated fashion.

Ian: We are only really shooting for the same thing anyone is shooting for from the Flaming Lips to whoever, just to write a good song. Something like Stockhausen can be like pop to me, just the catchiest thing ever.

Tyondai: The immediate association with any of the labels like avant-garde or even something as simple as just being instrumental is alienation. Anything can be catchy or infectious but if it is presented in that way of being beyond you then obviously it can alienate, we hope that our music can have the characteristics of that experimental stuff we like but remain inviting.

Does it piss you off being branded indulgent muso’s?

John: I can understand the average kinda dude thinking that but you can’t get mad at them at them for it. That said there will always be a part of being an ‘artist’ that will be very selfish, to dedicate my whole life to pleasing myself and showing people what my self-indulgence creates is kind of weird. But that isn’t the goal of our music.

Tyondai: It’s not like we sit there when we record saying: I can’t wait to write this song just to make people feel weird and alienate them.

Can I just say that listening to the new record made me feel terrified, I felt like I’m a goblin inside a green castle living in the middle of a lake of psycho’s.

Dave: That’s pretty much what we were going for.

Tyondai: That’s cool you get that, some other people have said it sounds really happy so I guess for it provoke such different reactions is cool.

John: Some guy even said that the vocals sound like sped up Kanye West samples.

Would you say it’s more accessible than your early EP’s?

John: Well it has vocals, which immediately give people something to latch on to.

Do you think maybe some people came to the new single and album because you guys don’t subscribe to any generic band type or conform to any genre and seem to shy away from any sense of image?

John: People always kinda want something familiar like that AC/DC beat or whatever and we don’t really give them that. In general our stuff needs a few listens and the overall reaction we get from a lot of the ‘average’ people that we play our music to is: I like it but I don’t know why. We aren’t making instant music, the kind of bands that make that sort of music you gobble the record up like candy but you aren’t gone be listening to that shit in a years time, it’ll be your favourite record for a week then you’ll throw it on the pile and never listen to it again. The records that last demand your effort and they will last over time.

Ian: For sure, I still listen to Sister and love it.

Tyondai: The flip side of that is like a House record or something that you want to smack you round the face immediately, you listen to that with a different head on though, it’s not really for us to say that one record is more valid than the other or that every band has to be hyper-creative all the time.

Dave: Maybe it has something to do with that weird questing impulse to find the new thing that is interesting. The internet has changed the way it used to work, when I was younger it was either what my brother listened to or maybe if you were lucky a cool record shop in the town you were in maybe buying up records on a certain label like SST or whatever and from there maybe finding a magazine like MRR. Now you can just Google it and almost instantaneously find out what we’re all about. The kid that is bored of Nickleback in the Midwest now just has this whole network of connectivity that he can explore.

The video is cool what’s the deal with that?

Tyondai: It’s weird to me how much people are freaking out over it, it’s a great video but the single hasn’t even been released yet and people are going crazy over it on Youtube.

John: It’s weird for me 'cos I’m so fucking old I’ve seen the whole video thing come full circle from it being a thing of no importance to MTV making it more important than the actual record then it kind of died down when MTV became a network and videos were hardly shown but with things like Youtube the video is out there again.

David: If it was solely an MTV culture then there would be little point a band like us making a video cos it would never get fucking shown but the internet has made it a valid medium again. It almost increases the incentive for people to listen to the actual song; they can sit at their computer and watch this cool little thing that has been created to go along with it.

Ian: It’s the same with the single, releasing mp3’s and stuff.

Where did the name come from?

Ian: It looks good on paper.

Tyondai: It can just be interpreted in a bunch of different ways.

What do you hate at the moment?

Tyondai: Err…Turbulence?

Dave: I hate that I’ve hardly answered a fucking question.

Ian: I hate coming over here and being served Czech beer, what the deal with that?

John: And I hate coming to London and never getting fish and chips in newspaper. I want that shit wrapped in newspaper.

They don’t really do that anymore. Have you been attacked by instrumental-prog-mathcore groupies since you got here?

John: Shit yeah… Not really.

How about guys?

Tyondai: I guy did try and kiss me at ATP.

Who do you think will succeed Bush?

John: I have a feeling that Gore is gonna pop up out of leftfield.

Do you think that music and politics can be done at once?

Ian: Not really, even when I listen to all those old English bands it just sounds funny to me, like: ah…they’re singing about the dole. It just doesn’t really sit so well music and politics.

Dave: Try telling that to Bono and Eddie Vedder.

Fall Out Boy Interview

2007-02-28T05:03:00.000-08:00

This caused a bit of fuss.

Fall Out Boy Love Anal Sex

So I was feeling really sick and was laid up in bed with a fever and stuff and I got a call asking if I could go interview Fall Out Boy at their swanky Kensington Hotel. It seemed like too much fun too pass up. I got there at 9pm as appointed and was met by a really nice press officer in the reception where there were loads of tour lackey’s and hangers on loafing round and told we had the last interview slot of the day. It also became apparent that it would be singer/bassist Pete Wentz on his own as doing interviews with the whole band was “unwieldy”. OK. It was also made clear that Pete had had a long day. To this end I decided to go for a quick fire 20 questions approach to try and get some stuff the dude from MTV2 with the six strong entourage and video camera that had the slot before me probably wouldn’t. I had a Polaroid camera and a temperature.

Vice: Hey Pete, ready?
Pete: Sure.

Vice: On a scale of one to ten how much do you enjoy anal sex?
Pete: (without hesitating) Ten.

Vice: Staying with that what is your worst ever sexual experience?
Pete: When I was about 16 I had this girlfriend who wouldn’t let me get past like first base so I used to just dry hump her to try and get her into it but she wasn’t having it. I went at it so hard that I rubbed all the skin off my dick and balls. It was raw man…

Vice: Wow. What is your favourite Vice? Other than anal bashing and dry humping.
Pete: Sloth. Just lying around. Doing nothing.

Vice: Have you ever had a fight with your Mum?
Pete: A physical fight! Nah man! Well, she once ground me for all of Spring Break. That one almost came to blows I suppose.

Vice: Ever been in a fistfight?
Pete: Sure. I usually loose but the other night over in Europe somewhere this bouncer guy smacked one of our stage crew and I had at him man. I dropped him, it was cool.

Vice: Any other good tour stories?
Pete: Err; you know the usual, nakedness, beer.

Vice: Cam on you’ve sold like 36 million records. Specifics. Like you wanted your Coke died black or something.
Pete: Err, well the other night we got back to the hotel and I had a lady friend back with me.

Vice: Anal?
Pete: No no! I was a little drunk and had taken a few downers to get me to sleep and we’d ordered a load of room service that just didn’t turn up so I went down to the kitchen to try and see whet the deal was and got really lost. I made my way back to the room somehow and was knocking on the door but no one answered. I got kinda mad and started kicking the door down cos I thought the chick was like robbing me or something and all of a sudden her head pops out of the door opposite and she’s like freaking out going: ‘ah, you’ve just kicked down 602, we’re 603’.

Vice: I was gonna ask when you last disgraced yourself but that should cover it. Right, Frankenband?
Pete: Cool, err. Bonham on Drums, maybe me on bass and then Robert Smith and Morrisey on guitar and vocals, can you imagine that combo! It would totally implode!

Vice: Who is the most successful person you know.
Pete: Jay Z

Vice: You know Jay Z?
Pete: Sure, I mean we don’t go to sleepovers together but if we’re both in town we’ll catch dinner or something.

Vice: Cool, finally, over here Emo as a genre has come to be typified by yourselves and bands like My Chemical Romance. How do you feel about the tag. To me Emo is bands like Moss Icon, Heroin and Christie Front Drive.
Pete: Sure, exactly. I mean I grew up on Rites Of Spring, Cap N Jazz, all that. My first band just used to rip off Fugazi but now we do what we do and whatever the music press feels like calling it that’s up to them.

Vice: Thank you very much Pete, it’s been cool to hang out.

Michael Runion Biog

2007-02-27T18:52:00.000-08:00

Does writing this make me an evil person? Probably.

Michael Runion’s career has been dedicated to making the music he believes in: heartfelt songs filled with truth and melody. As a constant figure in the bands that surround the Rilo Kiley collective including Jenny Lewis’s solo projects and Sub Pop signed indie power pop four-piece The Elected he has helped mine a vein of authentic American songwriting playing bass, steel guitar, guitar and supplying vocals.

His solo work seeks to display his own unique voice while remaining informed by the music and musicians that Michael has continued to surround himself with. The familiar Saddle Creek sound that lends an air of modernist melody and pop sensibility to classic song structure is present but in Runion’s delivery, turn of phrase and day to day observation there is more Willy Vaultin or Howe Gelb than Connor Oberest or Willy Mason while the echoes of Townes Van Zandt and The Band’s Levon Helm that he brazenly displays as influences on his Myspace page are clear.

While he continues to share stages with like-minded outfits such as friends Whispertown2000 across the USA this trip to the UK represents an opportunity to experience Runion at his intimate and most potent alone with his guitar.

Tracks from the self released ‘Early Grave’ EP as well as the video for the single ‘Drunk As I’ve Ever Been’ can be accessed on Michael’s Myspace page [www.myspace.com/michaelrunion] and he will be appearing at the following dates in London and the South East including a top secret House Show on March the second and a gig at legendry London folk venue the Troubadour:

23/02/07 Tapestry, London

24/02/07, The Strongrooms, London

25/02/07, The Old Blue Last, London

27/02/07, Bardens Boudoir, London

28/02/07, Cobra Club at The Sun Rooms, Southend

02/03/07, House Show, Secret Location, London

03/03/07, The Troubadour, London

04/03/07, The Social, London

PW Long Interview

2007-02-27T18:49:00.000-08:00

Wow, an interview with someone I actually really genuinely respect and love!

P.W. Long has been defining his unique vision of bluesy, powerful rock and roll in bands like Wig and Reelfoot for longer than he'd care to remember. With his seminal early 90s trio Mule, Long pretty much wrote the book that people like Jack White and PJ Harvey have been studiously ripping off for the last few years...

He's just released a beautiful solo album called The Drunkard's Dog and he came over to London last week to promote it. We talked to him just before he ripped up the Old Blue Last with his balls-to-the-wall power-trio Young James Long.

Hey, Preston. So how’s the tour going?

OK I guess, touring is a process, it takes time. You get used to filling the time in ways appropriate to you. The amount of time that you spend on tour is completely reliant on your individual drug or alcohol consumption and the way you regulate it.

Any interesting tales from your time on tour then?

Hell no, it’s all just one thing you know. I mean there’s been times, like one time in Atlanta where we were sharing the changing rooms with some strippers but that was in a strip club so it was no surprise really. Oh, I suppose the band I was in before (Wig), the other guys got kind of jealous that all of a sudden I was playing guitar and wanting sing and write and stuff so they staged a fight. That was their way of kicking me out. We see each other around now, it’s all OK.

Why did you decided to take a few years off?

That was because the whole process bored me and I couldn’t focus on the thing anymore, you know, the thing that was making it worth it.

Didn’t you try some other work during that period? I heard you directed a video for Hank Williams III?

That didn’t come out the way I hoped. It was just this little thing I did. I moved around, tried out some different places, New Orleans for a minute there. I was doing some writing, I write some sports bits. I was always pitching ideas to the Editors but they were in a habit of taking some of my ideas a little too serious you know? Like a wrote some columns from weird viewpoints as a kind of satirical thing, they didn’t really get it. Like from the view of a blonde kind of white-trash woman.

Are you happy with the music you are playing now and being on the road again?

I guess. I like the LP, that came out good, But I had those songs down for about two years you know. It only just came out now. In the time off I was listening to just a bunch of old stuff, Miles Davis live records, Archie Shepp. Now I’m ready to put a few more down. The stuff I do in Young James Long is more of a live thing, powerful guitars. Kirkland James the other guitarist he writes a lot and we just get on going together up there and have a few drinks and see what happens.

Do you feel you are part of a legacy of Detroit artists?

What does that even mean? That is a question I don’t really get. I mean a lot of those bands you think of as Detroit bands aren’t even from Detroit. We played with Negative Approach in Chicago recently; maybe they are a Detroit band but a legacy of Detroit artists? No, nothing like that.

Theoretical Girl (part 2)

2007-02-21T17:18:00.000-08:00

So I caught up with Amy Frolic again, this time for the Vice web blog. She is really cool and I hope some more people start listening to her. She also listened while I chatted codhsit about music to her for about two hours over Stella in the Good Mixer so she's a winner in my book.

Theoretical Girl Probably Hasn’t Heard Of Your Band

So we were down at The Old Blue at the last People Are Germs night and there was this really cute girl on stage all alone making a load of noise and singing songs that sounded like the ghost of Gram Parsons fronting DNA but coming out of a hot girls body. Added bonus eh? We caught up with Amy Frolic in Camden after she had finished work and she matched us pint for pint.

So what’s with the name? Are you big into Glenn Branca or something?

Not at all, so many people ask me that. I am not into the band Theoretical Girls. It was just a name that my friend gave me to play my first gig with and I’ve just never bothered coming up with anything else. I suppose it sort of refers to how I analyse everything. Also maybe my approach to how I make my music.

How does your live show work? It’s just you up on stage but there are loads of sounds.

I come up with bass lines and drum parts and any other noises and program them into an old 8-Track then burn them down onto CD and Polly my CD player plays them out for me. I sing and play guitar over them. I’m not really into technology, keeping it simple helps me focus on the song. Sometimes now I play with other people but it’s hard finding people that are happy to just do what I tell them. My CD player can’t argue with me.

You’ve appeared on hipster compilations like Alt Deletes Digital Penetration and Angular’s Future Love Songs but you don’t sound anything like any of the other dudes on them. How come?

Well I live alone, in a draughty loft apartment in Muswell Hill, It’s pretty desolate and I just write. I also haven’t really listened to any modern music in about a year and a half. Just my Mum’s old records, stark classical stuff like Bartok and Purcell with a bit of Joni and Neil Young thrown in to stop myself getting utterly depressed.

You’re no Beth Ditto, you look hot on stage. How do you think that figures in the way people react to your songs?

Err; I think I look like a twat. I just have a few glasses of wine and hopefully not get too nervous and just play. Some girls really milk the image thing but I’m totally not into that, it’s just no concern. They can do what they want but you know, whatever. It’s an interesting time for female solo artists though, look at the Brits, only one out and out pop act in Jamelia and a load of girls on their own doing interesting things like Winehouse and Lilly Allen. I’m not really into their music but I’d far prefer to tour with them than any fucking Shoreditch bands.

We got in trouble the other week for asking Fall Out Boy on a scale of 1 to 10 how into anal sex they were. Where do you stand on that issue?

I’m not going to answer that. My mum might be reading this.

Allah Doesn't Smile On Street Walking

2007-02-20T18:11:00.000-08:00

Here is a piece I wrote based on research and a primary interview with a genuine Iraqi prostitute. It is written from her perspective. It may or may not be published in Vice's March Iraq Issue.

Allah doesn’t smile on street walking. Under the Baathist regime being a prostitute was a seriously risky business. If caught soliciting or even being suspected of plying your trade a hooker would face jail at best with death commonly used as a demonstrative tool. In 2000 Saddam ordered the public beheading of 200 women just in case anyone was getting mixed signals on the whole paying for sex thing.

A combination of the general chaos and lawlessness Iraq has been thrown into combined with what has essentialy become a US judicial system espousing Western values the worst a prostitute can expect in 2007 is a slap on the wrist and maximum of 48 hours detention. With a high percentage of the Iraqi male population decimated by continuing conflict in many families the onus to provide has fallen upon women. If you can earn $5 a day sweeping up in a hairdressers that might be blown up at any minute or you can earn that in minutes on the job the decision is easily made for many of these girls.

The influx of American contractors and Military officials has bought the cash to allow scenes like the above in Karada Street to become a regular fixture of the visiting Westerners Baghdad experience. The Lebanese businessmen who run the compound started out as small time hustlers selling Viagra in Beirut but their entrepreneurial streak has led them east through Afgahnistan into Iraq. They have created a secure escape from the reality they continue to exploit filled with fine wines, Cohibas, swimming pools and whores. Shit you half expect Hugh to pop up at any minute.

The girls lure the western money in and it is swiftly relieved from uniformed pockets by obliging, nubile Iraqi girls as young as 14 who are more than happy to shut up, bend over and occasionally laugh sweetly. Repeat business is common and girls can earn anything up to $2,500 a month. While the growing practice is condemned by resurgent Islamic clerical elements it shows no sign of abating and is sure keeping these Lebanese fellas in funny smelling aftershave for the foreseeable future.

Dissident Rock

2007-02-20T18:10:00.001-08:00

Here is something I wrote about the Czech band the Plastic People of the Universe for the Vice Blog.

Dissident Rock & Roll

Some people make a big deal about the fact that The Plastic People Of The Universe ‘are the history of the dissident Czech liberal struggle embodied in musical opposition’. In fact that is the entire premise and backdrop of Tom Stoppard’s latest play ‘Rock & Roll’. The thing is that unlike bands like the recently reformed Rage Against The Machine who exist to highlight issues and politicise society the Plastics simply wanted to play some tunes.

The band nicked their name from a Zappa song and formed in late 1968 soon after the Russians quashed Dubcek and the liberating elements of the Czech government that had allowed the Prague Spring. The Plastics were lead by their own Andy Warhol; an excitable dude named Ivan Jirous, and made a hodgepodge psychedelic sound that mixed the Velvets with the Fuggs and Pink Floyd. They soon had their professional licence revoked so they started throwing crazy happenings out in the countryside filled with freaky kids that looked like they’d just walked out of Haight Ashbury circa ‘68.

This didn’t sit to well with the Kremlin’s ‘normalisation’ process of Czech culture and shows were routinely shut down and fans jailed most notably in 1976 when 27 musicians were jailed and over 100 fans held for interrogation due to the ‘subversive’ nature of the Plastics music. Jirous was sentenced to 18 months and he hadn’t even played a note!

The diverse group of supporters that rallied round the imprisoned band included the future Czech president Alexander Havel but on their release the authorities continued to dog the band. Their recordings were only ever widely available in the West produced from tapes of the bands live shows illegally smuggled out of the country. Lou Reed was allegedly moved to tears on hearing Havel recount the Plastics tale during his visit to Prague in early 1990 soon after the wall had fallen and the band were finally free to play after over twenty years of doing nothing apart from refusing not to play.

Read their whole story here: http://www.furious.com/PERFECT/pulnoc.html

and have a look at them whigging out in New York last year here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KtPzO_pq_9g

Student Records

2007-02-20T18:08:00.000-08:00

1. Bad
Jack Johnson
Brushfire Fairytales

This reeks of the three months that you just spent on the Koh San Road maxing out mummy and daddies credit card in order to ‘broaden your horizons’. Burn it now.

1. Good
Gary Higgins
Red Hash

This is an insane forgotten gem of a tripped out next level folk record that only got recovered because Ben Chasny put out a ‘Where Are You Now’ notice in the liner notes of a 6 Organs of Admittance album. Thankfully for us when the old hippy himself turned up at the Drag City offices they swiftly re-release this Incredible String Band on mescaline piece of genius.

2. Bad
The Pulp Fiction Soundtrack

How many times can a human being be forced to listen to the same series of songs in the same order? You weren’t even old enough to go and see the film in the cinema when it came out.

2. Good
The Wickerman Soundtrack

This has nothing to do with that constipated foetus joke of a re-make. The original Wickerman soundtrack was written by Paul Giovanni in which he infused traditional British song structures with Burns poetry and his own arrangements to create a haunting, timeless template without which people like Devandra Banhart wouldn’t have careers.

3. Good
Pink Floyd
Dark Side Of The Moon

Just because Q tells you an album is great, doesn’t mean it is. No matter how much weed you smoke or how many times you play it simultaneously with The Wizard of Oz this record will still be flaccid boring piece of crap your Dad listens to on the way to the South of France for your summer holiday.

3. Good
Popol Vuh
Herz Aus Glass

Not to be confused with the bible of the post-classical period Mayans, Popol Vuh is the collective name for the transcendent all-encompassing cosmic sound work of Florian Fricke. This recording is intended as an aural interpretation of the Werner Herzog film of the same name. Your Dad probably wouldn’t get it.

4. Bad
Mika
Grace Kelly

And so to the next in a long line of Tesco-friendly, sub-standard, hook heavy crap Chris Martin caused the majors to snap up and relentlessly push on the feeble minded record buying public since 2003. People are idiots.

4.Good
Skrewdriver
Hail The New Dawn

Ian Stuart would have eaten all these Morrisson/Blunt’s for breakfast then shat the out as little swastika shaped turds. Shame he’s rotting in Hell…

5. Bad
Air
Moon Safari

So when you head back to your digs after doing your first pill at some sweaty drum&bass rave (you need to stop going to those by the way, its all about Dubstep now) and you’re getting stoned someone is bound to put this on and say something like ‘yeah its just so chilled’. Ugh.

5. Good
Autechre
Amber

This is like a beautiful clean natural mountain spring bathing your naked body in some mountain in heaven while God goes ‘hmm, some of this electronic stuff aint half bad’.

Student Films

2007-02-20T18:07:00.000-08:00

1.Bad
Garden State

By the time you get to University this will be ‘seminal’. It is a weak, plotless meander through various insecurities about life and growing up that thinks it is dealing with way more than it does. Oh, and it has The Shins in the soundtrack. So minus the Shins it is essentially my thought process as I’m taking a crap in the morning.

1. Good
Kes

Now here’s a film about life and growing up you can get behind. A boy and his bird. Admit it, you choked up when Jud killed the kestrel. This is a harrowing, bleak depiction of the inevitability and drudgery of the northern working classes. It is also brilliantly acted and shot which sort of makes it the opposite of the guy from Scrubs moaning about being on too many anti-depressants.

2. Bad
Buffalo 66

Right, here’s how it is: if you are guy you have to hate Gallo. He makes his own films, releases records on Warp, has curated his own fucking ATP (wtf?!) and your girlfriend loves him. One day she will bring this innocent looking but shockingly bad drudge through more insecurities around to your room and spend the whole hour and a half going on about how ‘convincing’ and ‘intense’ Vincent is. He just shouts a lot and does crazy eyes. Least convincing badass ex-con on the run with his girl ever.

2. Good
Bonnie & Clyde

Much more like it. These two just don’t give a shit. It’s the depression but damned if they aint gonna have some fun. Watch as Beatty’s funny face breaks into a maniacal laugh as he shoots people. The ending is awesome and Faye Dunaway is like Eve on a spring day but permanently.

3. Bad
Kill Bill

Students love to bang on about Tarantino the auteur. Sorry but am I the only one who thinks he lost it after Reservoir Dogs? I get the whole pastiche/self referntialism thing but the problem is that it works in True Romance perfectly because the dialogue and acting are incredible. This bloated parody however is what happens when you let a total movie-buff geek go wild like a paedo at break time and he makes an awful version of something he loves simply by trying too damn hard. Like those adults dedicated to making perfect replica railways. They look sort of cool going round and round but the whole thing just ends up looking fake and a bit creepy on closer inspection.

3. Good
Oldboy

Now here’s the flick Quentin should have made. Park Chan Wook is the master of the revenge film. This is part of a trilogy whose uniting factor is that someone has been wronged and they will crack skulls till they feel better about the whole thing. You will never look at a hammer in the same way. Paranoia followed by unrelenting brutality, perfect.

4. Bad
Human Traffic

At University lots of people start taking pills for the first time. For someone who has just taken their first E and lived on a farm in Hertfordshire until they left boarding school this film probably seems really edgy and ready to confront real life issues. To everyone else it is about as interesting as crabs.

4. Good
Adam & Paul

Although you are far less likely to develop a skag addiction in Halls this is one of the only films about drugs that is actually worth watching. No glamour, no girls, no Stooges. Just pissing, shitting, puking and trying to survive. All in the course of a day. The only problem with watching it with students is that they will probably try and compare it to Beckett. Just tell them to die.

5. Bad
Withnail and I

This is probably the most watched student film of all time. Generations of loan-fed twats have justified their terrible standards of living and alcoholism with misquotes about bohemianism and Camberwell Carrots thanks to this George Harrison funded oddity. What is their deal anyway? They clearly finished University years ago. Richard E Grant is already going bald.

5. Good
Withnail and I

The only problem is that it also happens to be one of the funniest, most re-watchable and insane British films ever. It’s far more like a Hunter S Thompson novel than the any of the actual films of his novels and watching a guy rub Deep Heat all over himself just to stay warm while gargling lighter fluid to stay pepped up never gets old. Maybe I should go back to being a student?

Student Books

2007-02-20T18:05:00.000-08:00

These '5 Good' vs '5 Bad' lists were published in the Vice 2007 Student Guide. Obviously I don't really hate all of the novels/records/films that I slate. It's just to make a point: you don't have to digest the same shit as everyone else. Look around you.

1. Bad
Ulysses
James Joyce

Have any of you ever actually tried reading this? Nope, sorry, you’re lying. Dubliners is great, there’s like a dude who’s pants fall down and stuff and A Portrait Of The Artist… is cool in a kind of car crash way but the only reason this novel has made the cannon is because all of your professor’s don’t understand it. This piece of work single-handedly created ‘critical analysis’ and ‘meta-textuality’ because the only way you could write a paper about it was by referring to how different it is to other novels. Of course its different, it makes no fucking sense…

1. Good
Gravity’s Rainbow
Thomas Pynchon

Yes that’s right, this is where the Klaxons came up with the name for the song. Say what you will about them as a band but Simon Taylor has read more books than all of you put together. I used to work in a call centre with him and it was like he used to ingest them through his eyeballs. This novel is like your first acid trip where everything makes perfect sense and all the strands of life are sewn seamlessly together. Then the fear kicks in….

2. Bad
Crime & Punishment
Fyodor Dostoyevsky

‘Wow, yeah it’s like a total examination of the insecurities of the human psyche’. No its not. He kill’s someone and then frets his ass off. It’s like an 18 rated Laurel & Hardy. The only reason you name drop it is because it is written by a Russian whose name is hard to spell.

2. Good
The Big Sleep
Raymond Chandler

Now this is what you’re really after. An edge of you’re seat, white knuckle, wisecracking noir thriller that not only defined a literary genre but a cinematic movement. Without this you don’t Chinatown and some guy called Tarantino is still working at Blockbuster and masturbating to foreign Kung Fu imports instead of making good shit like True Romance and Pulp Fiction.

3. Bad
On The Road
Jack Kerouac

This should probably have been number one actually. Every twat under the age of 23 who has picked up a book is suddenly an acolyte at the altar of Saint Jack the emancipator of intellectual thought. ‘His prose style like totally represents freedom dude’. No it doesn’t, he only had one roll of typewriter paper so he couldn’t go back and correct the cock-ups. He’s a drunk jock who only got in on the beat scene cos Burroughs and Ginsberg probably fancied a bit of rough. He spent his latter days at the bottom of a bottle in fag denial.

3. Good
Blood Meridian
Cormac McCarthy

Now this is the prose that beats the tick of time, the strange heartbeat of an American West long forgotten that somehow reflects today. Brutality, sweat, death and truth drip off of every page. It is subtitled ‘An Evening Of Redness In The West’ and inspired Earth’s recent return to form record Hex. Go read it now.

4. Bad
The Outsider
Albert Camus

This one is pretty much the like a combination of Crime & Punishment and On The Road. Every fucker has read this and suddenly starts wondering round smoking clove cigarettes and reading ridiculous Sartre plays that make no sense while trying to woo girls in the Library coffee bar with their new found appreciation of the self and existentialism. Inside they really want to head back to their hall room, build a zoot and watch Takeshi’s Castle.

4. Good
The Man Who Was Thursday
G.K. Chesterton

I almost didn’t want to mention this because it is my all time favourite book ever and I like to hold onto it like a beautiful un-spoilt little nest egg. Just thinking about it made makes me smile and want to laugh out loud. It is an insane crazed work of genius by the dude who wrote the Father Brown mysteries and involves anarchists and hot air balloons. Thursday… is so off the hook that explanation is rendered redundant. Go.

5. Bad
Blankets
Craig Thompson

This is a the sort of wet Wednesday graphic novel that kids that know nothing about comics buy from Waterstone’s cos it’s been highlighted in the recommended zone. They read it and it’s all this heart on sleeve indie shit that probably appeals to people who know all of the Beat Happening’s lyrics by heart and then they realise it’s hidden power and give it to susceptible girls to demonstrate their ‘sensitive’ side. How does ‘sensitive’ and ‘I want to fuck you’ ever equate by the way?

5. Good
Cerebus
David Simm

Hahahahaha! This is it! An incredible odyssey through every possible facet of human interaction as experienced by a Viking aardvark based on Conan. In about 100 years time there will be modules taught on this piece of work. Simm is a genius and we should all do the ‘we’re not worthy’ thing from Wayne’s World whenever he is mentioned.

Late Of The Pier

2007-02-20T18:03:00.000-08:00

Here is an interview I did with Late Of The Peir a young band from north of Nottingham. This was published in the Vice 2007 Student Guide.

Late Of The Pier
make musical Ventolin

Okay okay, this whole New Rave thing has been played out already. Wait a minute though…For all its faults as a catch-all term New Rave captured something that was happening simultaneously all round the country last year: an unbridled enthusiasm to create and make music fun again. This energy and inventiveness is embodied by Late Of The Pier, They make the music they want to make and have a great time doing it thanks. Alongside bands like The Video Nasties and Fear of Flying these four kids from Castle Donnington have become staples of the pioneering underage Way Out West night in London and despite looking about the same age as their audiences have a single out next month on WOW Recordings entitled Space And The Woods. It sounds a bit like Dat Politics buggering Whirlwind Heat.

Vice: Hi, coming from Castle Donnington were you often bullied by Iron Maiden fans at school?

Faley: No, no one does anything up there. It’s so boring, just painful. There was no one to bully us; we had to resort to bullying each other and just generally free falling.
Sam: We never learned anything of any use at school. Maybe how to roll a good spliff. That was why we started sneaking down to Liars Club in Nottingham when we were like 15.

Vice: Did you learn more from Liars Club than you did at School?

Sam: Definitely. We were pretty young and Ricky, the guy that runs it, used to smuggle us in and feed us things.
Faley: It was amazing to be exposed to this weird mix of people and music. It would be Gravy Train naked on stage one minute then DJ Hell and Errol Alkan playing these insane electro records for hours the next but it all worked really well together.

Vice: Have you ever got naked on stage at a Way Out West night? That might get you into trouble…

Potter: Ha, no not really. Those shows are wicked to play though. All the kids just fully don’t give a shit and go mental and that makes you really give it on stage, make music to have asthma to. I have so much more fun doing a Way Out West show than say at The Barfly where we played last week.
Sam: Yeah that was excruciating, like sleeping on a bed of nails.
Faley: The kids at the underage shows are really easy to push over as well.

Vice: OK. You are all too young to even go to University yet but what would you like to study if you end up going there?

Potter: I’d like to do glass blowing so that I could build a glass casing for a synthesizer.
Sam: I suppose maybe something visual. What we do with the band, I don’t see it ending with the music you know? The visual side is just an extension of it all. I really like Dali, maybe something like that.

www.myspace.com/lateofthepier

Powermetal!

2007-02-20T18:01:00.000-08:00

Here is a piece I wrote on Powermetal for the blog on www.viceland.com I was mortified when Dom cut my top 10 from the blog post as I had spent ages thinking about it. Here is the original piece in all of its pagan glory.

Through the Fire & The Flames We Shall Survive!
Dragonforce are here to slay false metal.

Imagine going to a show where the crowd are dressed like Viking warriors replete with horned helmets and broadswords. A crowd that chant as one, fist in air, sword waving, to the smoke filled stage. The band emerge to blinding lights and riffs quicker than you’ve ever heard. Hold on, there are three guitarists. No, two guitarists and a keyboard player who looks like he’s playing a spaceship. And they’ve each got their own podium. And they have beer bongs strapped to their mike stands so they can chug while they tap solos that would make Van Halen pass an enema. Welcome to a Dragonforce show.

Dragonforce represent everything that is great about Power metal. A total escape from reality. Driven by blastbeats and riffs like lightning you’re off into a world of warriors, dragons, elves, valour, battle and heroism. It’s over the top showmanship to the power of googolplex. It’s totally fucking ridiculous, like playing Grand Theft Auto but inside of a Dungeons and Dragons game. And it rules.

Dragonforce are something of an anomaly. Britain just doesn’t really churn out riff slaying Power metal like the Europeans or the Yanks. It must be something in the water; we just aren’t cut out for the spandex showboating required in Power metal stagecraft 101. Sure Britain produced the bands that formed the nucleus of the NWOBHM but Maiden were always sort of like some dudes down the pub that went a bit crazy on stage for an hour and even the high camp of Priest still had that city of steel working class edge to it.

This country has never churned out Stratovarius’s, Manowar’s or Helloween’s. Hands up who remembers Blitzkrieg, Holosade or Tyrant? Didn’t think so… With the exception of maybe Marshall Law the US and the Europeans owned Power metal throughout the 80’s and 90’s. Even today, and despite Herman Li probably being the best metal guitarist in the world, Dragonforce can pop over to Germany and play a bunch of open air festivals to like 100,000 leather clad nutbags and get back to London and be lucky to fill the Astoria. Weird. The only place all the Brit Powermetalers get to hang out together and wear their Viking hats is at the annual Bloodstock festival in Derby. Hardly Wacken….

Funny really because it was a British band that probably lit the touch paper on the whole thing. Remember when Ozzy lost his marbles a bit more than before in ’78 and Geezer and Iommi finally gave him the shove? OK, remember that mad little hopping midget guy with the pipes called Ronnie James Dio who came in and helped make Heaven & Hell the best thing they did since Vol.4 (Ozzy apologists can suck my dick, Heaven and Hell rules, what you gonna do? Spring Never Say Die! on me?). Well Dio was in this mad visionary band called Rainbow with Ritchie Blackmore who wrote all those Deep Purple riffs middle-aged guys hum in the shower. Rainbow record sleeves look like fragments of a shining, future Avalon thanks to Ken Kelly (nephew of the legendry Frank Frazetta, look it up) and they pretty much started the whole thing.

Here are 10 great Power metal records to shake your fist too:

1) Rainbow, Rainbow Rising (1976)
2) Manowar, Battle Hymns (1982)
3) Cirith Ungol, King Of The Dead (1984)
4) Omen, Battle Cry (1984)
5) Helloween, Keeper Of The Seven Keys I (1987) and II (1988)
6) Blind Gaurdian, Tales From The Twilight World (1990)
7) Gamma Ray, Land Of The Free (1995)
8) Stratovarius, Visions (1997)
9) Primal Fear, Jaws Of Death (1999)
10) Dragonforce, Valley Of The Damned (2003)

www.dragonforce.com
www.bloodstock.uk.com

Natloz Zenitherion

Anti-Social Entertainment

2007-02-20T17:57:00.000-08:00

Here is an interview I did with Heny G, one of the main players in West London's Anti Social Entertainment Crew who make Grime and Dubstep music. This was one of the most interesting interviews I have done so far and I wish I could have transcribed the whole tape but he talked at me for about an hour! All fascinating stuff though...This was originally intended for the Vice 2007 Student Guide but Heny never got me a photo in time. We are hollerin at him to set us a photo so we can run it in the main magazine.

Anti Social Entertainment

While Grime was busy putting out impossible amounts of mixtapes and calling people out on Rinse, Dubstep crept through the back door last year. While much of the media attention has made it seem like this all exploded in South London overnight like a some mushrooms in the dark it’s been building for over five years. Anti Social know this. Silkie, Harry Craze and Heny G have been at it in West London since day. Silkie remixed Gemma Fox back in 2002 as well as crafting the ‘04 killer ‘No Help No Handouts’ while Heny has been on pirates such as Lush since he was 10. It was at Henys’ own React FM that Jay 5ive , Quest and Razor Rector came into the picture and big tracks like ‘Strawberries’ began to get the gang noticed. Last year tunes like Quest’s ‘Hardfood’ and Silkie’s ‘Drugs’ were all over dances and radio with their uniquely musical take on Dubsteps halfstep wobble while Heny’s been DJing out at FWD and DMZ as well as holding down his own show on Rinse. We caught up with Heny in his Hammersmith studio.

Vice: A lot of the Anti Social stuff sounds really interesting and musical. Did you learn any musical instruments at school?

Heny G: Me personally, no. Silkie and Quest both went college and did music tech. That helps them with the production side you know? The musical side just comes natural, Quest’s dad used to DJ on Choice FM way back when and my dad was a singer and guitarist. Every Saturday my old man would wake up, have a full English and put on records: Barrington Levy, Teddy Pendergrass, lots of stuff, dub, reggae, soul. That is all with me now, I can play guitar, sing, do the piano. All that helps bring something to the sound. To be honest I wasn’t really at school after the age of 15.

Vice: What were you up to?

Heny: In and out of record shops all day, hunting down Dubs. That’s how I first met Skream and Benga: hollerin’ at Hatcha down Big Apple for plates. They couldn’t believe anyone outside South was building beats on Fruity Loops like they were but we were all at it. We been friends since, Skream plays Anti Social beats on his Rinse show, it all helps. Same with Mala, I met him when I was working in Uptown and no one else would stock his dubs. I’ve worked in all the Soho shops man: Uptown, Release The Pressure, Black Market. That’s my education right there.

Vice: You all come from a fairly Grime steeped background how come you are pushing the Dubstep sound?

Heny: To me it’s all one you know, look at how tunes like Request Line can cross over. On my Rinse show I’ll play a Grime beat or a Dubstep beat, same with Jay on his Rinse show. Anti Social is all about every side of the music. You can hear it in Quest and Silkie’s production, they are very specific as producers, they won’t just put out any old beat, it has to be up to standard, have that variety. Just bringing something different all the time, I’ve got my Gansta Boogie imprint, Silkie does stuff under Pharmacology and Quest runs under Conquest but it’s all part of the Anti Social family. We bringin it together and people are finally taking notice, I’m getting Myspace messages from people in the US and Japan askin about it tunes. It’s crazy. This year gonna be big for Anti Social, truss.

www.myspace .com/antisocialentertainment

Febuary Reviews

2007-02-20T17:49:00.000-08:00

Here are some reviews that I wrote for music and DVD's and stuff in the month of Febuary. As with most stuff so far they were written for submission to Vice. Some will be published some won't.

RECORDS:

Comanechi
My Pussy/2 T Bags 7”
White Heat Records

8 You can’t not like Akiko, she turned up at our office this morning bouncing around like a 7 year old who’d just been told that Jim was gonna fix it for her and yelling: Listen! My Pussy! Ok Akiko but we don’t have a record player. Not a problem, she produces a crazy Japanese mini portable battery powered 7” player and insists we have a ‘listening’ party. So we did. This one is a bit dirgier than the previous singles and even has a chanted chorus, it’s about Akiko’s “one true love” a Pussy (as in cat) she had when she was two but ran away. Ah… It has a cool little book inside the sleeve so that you can read along to the lyrics while you listen. Neat.

Cut City
Exit Decades
GSL

5 Interpol sure do take ages to get a record together eh? If you are really bored of waiting and want to listen to some of that glacial, detached post-punk stuff with chiming guitar bits and a singer who sounds like he really isn’t that bothered I suppose you could do worse than check this out. Did you know that Interpol’s original drummer used to play in Saetia? True story.

Blonde Redhead
23
4AD

5 These guys are like the ultimate confidence tricksters. Young impressionable kids will be fooled into thinking the twin guitars/drums thing is really out there and old Uncut readers will buy it because its on 4AD and they can pretend they still know what’s up. Have any of you actually listened to the record? It’s like something half of Sonic Youth would make if they were really bored one afternoon. If you go seem 'em live it’s really freaky because the two guys are identical twins and they both just stare like the Children Of The Corn at the cute Japanese girl singing up front.

Tall Firs
s/t
Ecstatic Peace!

9 Wow, this is really nice. Like waking up with someone whispering in your ear. Not in a stalkery Elliot Smith way but in a kind of subtle major-key, good morning aint it great to be alive way. It’s a record that’s like one of those guys you meet for the first time one night and it feels like you’ve known him your whole life and you stay up all night drinking and then think shit, who did I hang out with before I knew this guy?

Kieran Hebden & Steve Reid
Tongues
Domino

8 Yay, that guy with the Afro that used to be in Fridge has made another record with that old guy guy that plays the drums. OK, aside from the fact that Steve Reid has played with more gifted musicians than just about any other living human being the two Exchange Sessions volumes so far had an air of muso indulgence. You could just feel em getting moist over at The Wire. The great news is that this is like the good bits of those two recordings slimmed down and pumped full of wonderous melody, great!

Death Sentence: PANDA!
Festival Of Ghosts/R’out 4,002
Upset The Rhythm

8 This sounds like a woman who has just drunkenly sprayed herself in the eyes with her own mase and and keeps running round the bar screaming in fits of agony and then calming herself down and methodically trying to sort the problem out. But then going back to the mental fit bit. Either that or the spazzy bits of Magick Markers with added clarinet.

No Age
Get Hurt
Upset The Rhythm

8 Wives were awesome. They played arty noise-rock without any pretension and absolutely slayed live, anyone that saw them on their final UK tour where they were basically fighting at all points they weren’t on stage will attest to that. Here are two thirds of Wives stripping it back to guitar and drums and doing a quiet loud thing that’s filled with atmospheric melodic build ups and crashing noisy as fuck break downs. Equally awesome.

Khan
Who Never Rests
Tomlab

8 Tomlab tend to deal in pleasant, quiet laptopy affairs that probably get played at architecture student’s after-parties. Although this Khan guy uses a laptop he would eat them all for breakfast. He appears to be the Mr Lover Lover dude from those old Levi’s adverts with the voice of Dave Wyndorf, Funkadelic’s bass lines and Beefheart’s guitar licks. It makes you feel a bit filthy just listening to it and is almost totally rubbish but somehow great.

Trash Money
Trash Money
Tragic Records

4 Is there something going here that I don’t understand? This is like some horrible Scissor Sisters/Har Mar orgy inside a hermetically sealed 80’s glam disco club from hell where everyone took so much coke they were convinced that singing a four minute song about some speakers was a good idea. And that’s just the first song. If this came on when you were in the car with your parents they would probably be fairly sure they used to ‘step out’ to tunes like this when they were ‘courting’.

Andy Stott
Handle With Care/See In Me
Modern Love 10”

10 Villalobos has been dropping Dubstep in his Minimal sets since the tail end of ’95 so I suppose the crossover that looks to be coming over the hill was an inevitability. Skream’s remix of Leeds techno bod Mark Ashken’s ‘Roots Died Dark’ is an awesome study in the two beasts meeting well while Shackleton’s forthcoming reworking of Villalobos’s own ‘Blood On My Hands’ sure looks a sexy prospect. Here’s an example of what all that stuff will sound like that is so perfect that it’s almost like cyborg version of the best Rhythm & Sound tune you’ve never heard that’s come back from the future to make sure these young whippersnappers get the right idea.

[Also is it me or are 10”s easily the best format ever? Apart from a 13” my friend Luke once found Berlin. But that record was kind of showing off a bit too much. A bit like the guy with the massive cock who always gets it out at parties. Yeah yeah we get it, you’re hung like whaleman which is awesome but you know, put it away.]

Bass Clef
A Smile Is A Curve That Straightens Most Things
Blank Tapes

8 Check this chief out. He’s spent a while chilling in Bristol soaking up all that dub and soundsystem culture and now he’s come to London to have a bash at Dubstep. He’s obviously been paying attention down in the basement of Plastic People but he also seems to be into stuff like early Aphex and Reinforced era Jungle. And the Trombone. Interesting. File next Boxcutter and Burial in the Dubstep that isn’t all that bothered about being Dubstep and is all the better for it corner.

∅ (Mika Vainio)
Olento
Sahko Recordings

10 Is there anybody out there that still actually buys records? I do. I’m not exactly proud of it. Especially when the sheer act of having to give up hard earned salary in return for music should come with some kind of intrinsic discretion and all I end up with are all these ambient clicks and glitches CD’s from Boomkat. Sure they are lovely to own and everything but nine out of ten of them sound pretty similar and I’ll only ever end up listening to most of them twice at best. Every once in while though one like this comes along and transforms you into a slack-jawed believer in the point of it all again. This is half of Panasonic making sounds that I imagine they play to people in those pods in the Matrix to keep them in a sedate state of sheer, perfect bliss.

Autokat
Late Night Shopping
Akoustic Anarchy

6 Ok, I initially wrote a three-word review of this but decided to give it another go. Still coming up blank. Apparently the ‘London Indie Media’ are busting a nut over these guys and it’s OK in a middle of the road ‘hey we listen to My Bloody Valentine but are also into angular post punk and our music really reflects our diverse and experimental taste’ kind of way but if these guys were on stage I would definitely sit it out for the bar. Remember how much hype the NME gave Nine Black Alps? What happened to them eh? Or The Longcut…

INFEST DISCOGRAPHY CDR

10 If you hop on e-bay and type in ‘Infest discography’ you will be presented by this peach. Yup, every song by the greatest band ever on one CD for just £5.99. Shit like this is what Tidbits exists for. Okay, okay so it’s not the same as owning the records (I’m still after the split 8” with Pissed Happy Children on Slap A Ham by the way) but then again what did Poison Idea tell us about record collectors?

DVDS:

The Wire
Season 3 DVD

10 This is the best drama on television right now. It may be the best drama that’s ever been on television. That’s because it is nothing like television is supposed to be. For a start who are the bad guys? The kids out on the Baltimore corners hustling 24/7 for coke and dope who’ll just as happily cap you as say hello or the cops policing this impossible situation who seem to rack up just as many bodies? Or why doesn’t it have an answer by the end of each episode like CS fucking I? Shit, this is the third season now and stuff from episode one could pop up at any minute. Everything about this show is so perfect that I wish it could go on forever and in ten years time I guarantee people will start talking about it like they are beginning to talk about Oz.

Desperate Man Blues: Discovering The Roots Of American Music
Dust To Digital
DVD

8 You remember when you were younger and you swore that you’d only ever want to listen to pop punk and rock out and all of that Jazz and Blues stuff seemed like algerbra? Well now you’re a bit older and sure The Descendents still rule but all those wizened old blind guys should be beginning to make sense. There is a reason people still listen to them. While some great music will forever be lost this DVD shows how important it is to hang on to music that actually deserves to be heard by everyone forever. It focuses on a weird guy called Joe Bussard, who’s a sort of modern day Alan Lomax or Harry Smith, and his constant quest to add to his collection of over 25,000 78’s which takes him into all sorts of weird shacks and Southern backwaters. The timeless tunes and tales of men like Blind Willie McTell, Charley Patton and Robert Johnson end up telling the story as much as Joe who frankly is a bit weird.

BOOKS:

Babylon’s Burning: From Punk To Grunge
Clinton Heylin
Penguin

5 Right, let’s clear this up straight off the bat: this book is quite interesting and if you are into egotistical authors with God-complexes it’s pretty well written. But, and this is a big fucking but, correct me if I’m wrong but that subtitle up there promises “from Punk to Grunge”. We get 537 pages on punk and post-punk through to ’83 then about a hundred sides to bring us up to the miserable guys in Seattle. Huh? Thurston Moore once said in an interview something along the lines of: there was the pre-punk Velvets and Stooges stuff, then the Ramones, the Pistols and ‘punk’ and then ‘post-punk’ and then it all went quiet until Nirvana came along. Uncle Thurston was of course being just a little sarcastic: a whole shitload went down in the ‘lost decade’ but Heylin obviously didn’t feel it necessary to spend his fat Penguin advance writing about it. Instead we get a re-hash of a book he’s done already (From the Velvets to the Voidoids) followed by three of Clinton’s homespun musical maxims: 1) I’m from Manchester: Manchester is amazing and bands from Manchester like the Buzzcock’s are better than bands from London like the Pistols. 2) I’m working class: posh bands are shit so the Clash are shit. 3) Bootlegs are more important than released records: if you don’t own obscure studio sessions of early X Ray Spex you don’t know what you are talking about. Although the chapter on Radio Birdman was great you may as well swap this doorstop of dead rainforest in for Michael Azzerad’s Our Band Could Be Your Life if you are really a person who digs reading about music more than listening to music and you really want to know what happened in the mid 80’s.

Down For Life

2007-01-23T04:09:00.000-08:00

This is an interview I did with a guy called Danny who runs Frith Street Tattoos in Soho and obsessively collects vintage Levis.

Danny McKelly first became conscious of the lure of denim from staring at the cover of a record sleeve depicting four kids leaning against a brick wall in the Bowery in the late 70’s. The leather jackets and Levi’s that the Ramones adopted became synonymous with Punk, Skinhead and Oi and have proved an enduring legacy within fashion. Having collected both Levi’s and tattoo’s for a considerable part of his life we decided to visit Danny at his Frith Street studio in Soho to ask what it was that continued to fascinate him about denim.

So what initially got you interested in denim and Levis?

I was a young kid, growing up in Clapham who was a bit lost you know? I saw that first Ramones record and that photo of Lou Reed on the front of Transformer and thought, well that’s it right there. Me and my brother went over to Lavender Hill to a place called the J-Stores where they did all the American workwear, Big Ben and Sears and that and it was in there we got our first Levi’s.

So the music heavily influenced the way you dressed?

Yes and no. Initially I suppose yes, but I soon found my own thing and that was a workwear look. DM’s, Donkey Jackets and over-sized Levi’s. When I was young I was into a lot of aggressive music, but you get older and that changes, I listen to anything from the Grails to Sunn O)) now. The way I dress has remained a constant though. I’ve been wearing and collecting Levi’s now for over eighteen years. You see things come and go but they’ll always be there, I know what I like and I’ll always dress like this, it’s part of who I am. Over the years I have built up a pretty big collection of both vintage and re-production denim while always maintaining that similar style, it’ll always be the workwear thing for me.

Have Levi’s always been the brand?

For me yes. I like how they wear, I like how they are cut and I like how they look, they also have a sense of heritage which I like. I’ve always worn ‘em oversized a 38”-40” waist and usually with a turn-up which shows the salvage. I am a collector by nature and I like feeling that I am collecting something that isn’t disposable. In this age of throwaway culture you hold what is personal to you close ‘cos it means something. I’ve stuck with Levi’s for the same reason I collect tattoos: it’s a statement, you know? This is who I am, this is what I do, it’s the industry I’ve chosen to work in, it will always be here forever and I aint going nowhere, it’s the decision I’ve made.

FLY53 Interviews

2007-01-23T03:51:00.000-08:00

Here are some interviews I did for a FLY53 promotional booklet.

THE BLEEPS

There’s only two guys in this band. But a bit like when you listen to the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s and try and work out how one dude is making so many noises come out of one guitar The Bleep’s make your head go funny. Although their names sound a bit like a 16th Century French Duke and a Marvel superhero Remy LaMont and Paul Parker play music to make you dance. Over Paul’s frenetic drums Remy simultaneously lays down Hooky bass lines and peeling angular riffs while singing about how he is a Discotek. Like I said it makes your head go funny.

VICE: You make lots of sounds all at once. How do you do that, there’s only two of you?

Paul: It’s all in his guitar mate. It’s top secret. It can go from one to the power of a million just like that.
Remy: Well we used to play in a pretty straight up rock band together called Father of Boon. While we were doing that we had this wicked practice space in a squat on Cable Street. When we weren’t doing Boon stuff I’d just mess around with a drum machine and loads of delays. Just a solo thing, layering sounds.

VICE: How did that develop into a two piece?

Paul: I used to hear him playing all this stuff on his own in the space and naturally as a drummer thought that I’d sound better than a drum machine. Also a drum machine can’t talk and offer feedback. I can give Remy ideas on how to develop tracks. It’s really fun writing together just bouncing ideas off each other.

VICE: How about live? You guys have got a bit of a rep.

Remy: Well we started out developing a lot of the songs just by playing out. We’ve had at least a gig a week since I can remember, at least a year. We get to play with other bands we like too, Tigerforce, Underground Railroad. I think we were sat in a boozer the other day and worked out the only place we’ve not played in Hoxton is Cargo and we’re booked there next month.
Paul: I just love playing live man. A lot of my major influences are people that were special live, Prince man, I’ll stand by that any day, Funkadelic too, put that down, I love them!

VICE: You’ve got a single coming out in January.

Paul: Yeah, Dull Thud, we’re putting it out ourselves. It’ll be on CD with some live performance material on there as well.
Remy: We’ve been working a lot of tracks out live as well and we’ve got enough material for an album now easy, songs that hang together nicely. We’re just after a distributer!

www.myspace.com/thebleeps

THEORETICAL GIRL

Theoretical Girl is not a band. It is Amy Frolic. She writes, records, performs and tours her stark, spiralling, no wave electro-punk poetry music with a singular vision that sounds refreshingly a step apart. Despite featuring on the Digital-Penetration compilation, that the NME claimed ‘defined a genre’, and having a song on the upcoming ‘Future Love Songs’ compilation put out by the equally influential Angular Records Amy remains determined to maintain her vision.

VICE: So, your stuff doesn’t sound like that much else at the moment.

Theoretical Girl: Well, I’ve been doing this now for about a year and a half but I’ve always been tinkering away, making some kind of music. Before Theoretical Girl though the only major other thing I’d done was an all-Girl three piece called Weare6. It was fun at the time but when I stood back it just sounded so derivative. You could hear Erase Erata and The Fire Engines in the songs. I love those bands but I just wanted to do something different, that sounded more unique.

VICE: So, how did you go about chasing something unique?

Theoretical Girl: Well, the first thing I did was stop listening to other peoples music. I haven’t really listened to anything else for about a year and a half.

VICE: Seriously?

Theoretical Girl: Yep. I live alone, in a draughty loft apartment in Muswell Hill, it’s pretty desolate and helps me focus on writing. Just me and Polly, she’s my partner in crime [pulls CD player that is falling apart out of bag].

VICE: What does Polly do?

Theoretical Girl: Well I come up with bass lines and drum parts and any other noises and programme them into an old 8-Track then burn them down onto CD and Polly plays them out for me. I sing and play guitar over them. I’m not really into technology, keeping it simple helps me focus on the song.

VICE: It all works really well live, do you enjoying playing out?

Theoretical Girl: Thank you, err… I used to get really nervous but lately I’ve played some shows I’ve really enjoyed. To be honest I’m far more into writing, just being alone creating. I find it really exciting that I don’t know where the song will go. I’ve got complete control so I can take things apart, change them, put them back together, it’s the biggest thrill, more than playing out I think.

VICE: What about the future? Any plans to get any real humans to keep Polly company?

Theoretical Girl: Well, there’s a girl called Sam who’s a friend who may play some bass and another girl called Anna who used to play in The Ivories who may play some live drums, we’ll see. I’ve also got a single out on Half Machine Records and I’m in the studio soon to put down the next one. I’m also going to Germany in the New Year to tour which is exciting.

www.myspace.com/iamtheoreticalgirl

HEADLESS

Headless are four girls who used to hang out in London and liked the idea of being a band. So they started one. Their Myspace references bands like the Banshee’s and Kyuss but listening to latest single Sway their unhinged, intuitive riff driven rock goes beyond pinching from bands they like to create something actually exciting. We met up with the girls in a Morrocan café in Covent Garden where they were nursing post ATP hangovers with mint tea.

VICE: Hello, did you enjoy ATP?
Nell: It was wicked, I watched a Black Witchery live show on the TV channel thing and went on the water slides.
Clare: I got in a fight with Buzz Osbourne but I don’t want to talk about it.

VICE: If you could curate your own festival who would you book?
Chrissie: Us, my side project, Mudhoney, maybe Dino Jr, resurrect Tad and have Electric Wizard headline.

VICE: I think I would go to that. Do you guys adhere to the Electric Wizard school of songwriting?
Chrissie: Well, I like to take mushrooms and read about things that are challenging like Manson and the Family and serial killers but in terms of the actual songs I’m usually pretty straight. I’ll come up with an idea, hear a riff or some space in a song that’ll inspire me and then go to Nell and Clare for bass and drum parts.
Clare: We work on the songs together but you’ve got to remember though that we played our first gig with practically no songs.

VICE: Really, how did that work out for you?
Clare: Well, me and Chrissie had decided we liked the idea of being in a band so we had sort of been mentioning to people that we were in a band despite not really having done anything productive.
Chrissie: We knew the people who ran Club Motherfucker though and they liked the idea so gave us a show. Our first practice was our first show! After about two and a half songs we just screamed and jumped off stage. The crowd loved it though.
Nell: After that we began to practice like crazy as we’d all loved it. We just practiced and played out all the time. There’s so many venues and promoters in London that you can play like every night of the year and just from going out all the time before we were ever a band a lot of the promoters were friends who were willing to put us on.

VICE: How’s things outside of London?
Chrissie: We did the whole Test-Icicles tour which was really cool and we’ve played with loads of bands we love: Trencher, Comanechi, ugh…too many to mention!
Nell: We’d love to go to U.S. though….
Clare: We’ve got another single due out on White Heat in the New Year then a big UK tour around then so a load more shows outside of London, then maybe an album, we’ve got the songs we just need someone who can do it right.
Chrissie: Yeah, we don’t want anyone to fuck it up.

VICE: Then maybe that festival?

COMANECHI

Comanechi play straight up party music. Their live show is sweaty, raw and confrontational and The Gossip love ‘em so much they took them on their recent UK tour. We met up with Akiko who plays drums and sings in the band who is also really excited and happy all the time.

So, how was the tour with The Gossip then?
It was amazing! We were playing sold out venues all over the place, outside of London! We got on really with them, I was promoted to tour fun manager, so I had to make sure there was always a party to go to after the show!

Your live shows tend to have a real party atmosphere, is the live element what you enjoy most about playing in the band?
Well, I love playing live and we always want to challenge the crowd. We don’t want them to forget a show of ours after they leave! But I enjoy everything about being in a band, playing live, recording, collaborating, doing artwork.

You like keeping busy?
Yes, as well as doing Comanechi I play in Pre and we’re talking about doing a band with the guys from Trencher, I think I’ll play keyboard in that. All the records we’ve had out on White Heat I’ve created artwork for and we have a forthcoming split with Crystal Castles on Blood Of The Drash which I’m doing a cover for. I also freelance for graphic design companies and have done a limited line of t-shirts for 679.

Would you say your art background has had an influence on the sound and image of the band?
Yes, yes! Definitely. I see an affinity with current bands like Les Georges Leningrad or Aids Wolf but we are far more influenced in our approach and creative processes by artists than other musicians or bands. People like John Waters, Richard Kern or Kayoi Kusama, I love him, you should check out his dots, they are amazing!

What does the future hold for Comanechi?
Getting out of Dalston! Touring Europe and maybe the U.S.A. The Gossip said they’d love to play with us over there, That would be cool. Just playing and recording and creating, it’s all exciting for me!

www.myspace.com/comanechi

RAT:ATT:AGG

RAT:ATT:AGG sound a bit like the muppets house band playing post-hardcore. Spinning, weird sounds are underpinned with urgent rhythm while Arab On Radar screams jump out all over the place. I saw them play a while ago at the Barfly and the show ended with a load of kids onstage helping break their drums. Considering half the band are on the dole they might have regretted this in the morning. It was the first show I’d enjoyed in ages, total chaos. In other words: really fun. They all have silly names too like Connan.

Hi Connan. How did you end up in such a silly band?
We’ve been together about 6 months. Rory had written a bunch of songs and The Semifinalists asked him to go on a week UK tour before he’d sorted a band, so we met up and practiced for 3hrs on Wednesday night and went on tour Thursday morning. I’d never met anyone else in the band before that day. Luckily we all get on. We’re thinking of all moving in together so we can be like The Monkeys.

You’ve got a record out now but you seem to enjoy the stage…
We fully admit we are in no way the tightest live band out there and that’s not really our aim. Personally I don’t wanna see a band that just replicates what they do on record I wanna see some energy and chaos and unique things happening and that’s what we try to do. We always make songs up on stage, people probably hate it but whatever… I think they are the best bits of the shows. Stuff always gets broken and people fall over break strings knock drums over, I think a lot of the crowd generally don’t get it but the ones that do seem to have a great time.

You maintain a pretty DIY approach to you’re output, are you all punks or something? I know you were in Abandon Ship…

Most of us grew up listening to loads of Punk Rock and Hardcore as well as indie rock stuff so from Swing Kids to Blur really. Everyone is a pretty big Destinys Child fan as well. Rory used to be in some band, Balls or something, Robin was in Bullet Union and Matt still does a punk band called Navajo Code. We sort of take our approach in those bands and try and do something new.

Anything else?
Ummm… We’re gonna write loads more songs, quit our jobs, actually have a proper band practice, go on loads of tours, buy some stuff to keep our equipment in, stop losing really really expensive guitar pedals and get more free stuff.

Thanks

www.myspace.com/rataattagg

LOST PENGUIN

Considering none of Lost Penguin ever wanted to be in a band and they only got together in March to write one good song that people would remember them for (“like Aqua”), they make a thrilling noise. Jarring synth blasts and confrontational boy/girl screams bounce around a chaotic stage show that always seems on the point of collapse but is somehow sustained by a pounding rhythm section. They sound a bit like a load of 5RC bands having fight with a load of Skin Graft bands inside of an Ice Cream Van that’s about to break down. In a good way. We had a chat with Kev and Matt from the band after the soundcheck at the launch party for new single Pleasurewood Kills at The Old Blue Last. Charleigh who shares vocal and ‘machines’ duties with Kev was nowhere to be seen though….

VICE: Hello, where’s Charleigh?

KEV: Err…We’re not sure. She’ll be here for the show though.

VICE: Ok. You’re live sound is pretty chaotic, what instruments do you use?

KEV: Well, Matt’s the only one who can play anything so he writes bass lines and plays them out. Me and Charleigh play keyboards and sing at each other and we used to have a clapped out Yamaha keyboard that we’d just play the demo track’s out of...

VICE: Have you started using something else now?

MATT: Well, we’ve sort of got a bit more professional since we went out to Barcelona to play some shows and we’ve started programming our own beats. We’ve even got Andrew from the Violets playing drums on the b-side to the single.
KEV: My girlfriend always said she’d dump me if I was in a band and she gave me ‘til Christmas to finish all this so I never thought about it as a band past tomorrow y’know? We’ve split up now though so I’ve thought about the songs more. They’re more complex, darker. Not just about my dad being an Ice Cream man like the first record.

VICE: How did you guys end up playing together?

MATT: Well, Charleigh’s from Glasgow I think. She was just always around in New Cross and we decided we wanted to start a band but that it was probably better to have a girl singer. We asked some other people who told us to fuck off but Charleigh was up for it. She leads a pretty mad bohemian life that sort of adds to the general chaos. Which is good.
KEV: Me and Matt knew each other from going to University in Greenwich. It’s a shit Uni for people that didn’t get any grades. ‘Cos of that though it spurred us on to do other things like put on nights and be in bands.

VICE: What else have you been up to outside of the band?

KEV: I love playing live and being in a band but yeah I’ve been doing a lot of other stuff: putting out Toy Pirate which is a fanzine, writing for some magazines, looking after X-Ray Eyes, putting on nights and I’ve just set up a label called Me and My Brother Records. The first release is going to be compilation I’m doing with Mathew !WOWOW! called Bedroom Heroes. It’s going to be bands like us, the Rotters, Look Dancing Boys and these crazy New York people called Dreamburger. Just show people the alternative to what everyone thinks is going on you know?

Busy Boys.

www.myspace.com/wheresmypenguin

January Reviews

2007-01-18T16:14:00.000-08:00

Here are some reviews I've written in January. Again, some may be published in Vice. Some may not.

Dub Stories CD/DVD
Discograph/Uncivilized World

7 From Radiohead trooping off stage to One-Drop to a bunch of kids from Croydon revitalising UK urban dance music, something’s up. Dub is in the air again. This documentary argues that from the day King Tubby killed the vocal on the mixing desk at Treasure Isle and created the first version track it never went away. It’s hard to argue, imagine a world without Rhythm & Sound or Basic Channel. Scary eh?

Ballads Of The Book
Chemikal Underground

8 Hello everything that’s great about Scotland encapsulated in an 18 song collaborative collection! Knowing and arch lyrical ballads of heartbreak and booze spoken and sang by everyone from those folky Fence Collective dudes to Ian Rankin and Idlewild. Who wants a guided tour of the 52 states? I’d far rather hear about waifs from Fife, love that destroys and Calvinist preachers.

Grinderman
Grinderman
Mute

6 If you’d asked me what a record involving Warren Ellis, Nick Cave and a couple of Bad Seeds would spit out I’d never of guessed it would sound like an abrasive No-Wave racket that can morph from agitated Beefheart spoken word dirges to bluesified whig outs to moments of stark beauty. Hold on, that’s exactly what I would have thought it would sound like. Yep, it’s another Cave/Bad Seeds record but with another name.

Harmful
7
Koolarrow

1 There is a reason why this band is only big in Germany. If I wanted to listen to middle of the road riff-driven noisy rock that’s done the same thing for a decade I’d put Lungfish on. If I wanted to hear it done well I’d listen to the first couple of Helmet records. No one cares that Billy Gould used to be in Faith No More, Butch Vig once produced Nirvana, he still went on to play in Garbage. They’re so bored of their own music that they’ve even given up naming the albums, “here you go world: your seventh sack of shit”.

Wolf
The Black Flame
Century Media

10 Not sure if I’m meant to enjoy this as much as I do but listening to Wolf makes you feel like you’re at Castle Donnington watching prime-Maiden jamming with Rush and making wank fantasy NWOBHM. Fuck Dragonforce, this album has a song called ‘Steelwinged Savage Reaper’. Incredible.

Conqueror
Jesu
Hydra Head

9 If you don’t know who Justin K Broadrick is you are probably in the wrong place. Bye. Ok, the recent Final stuff was alright and everything if you were in the right mood but this is something else. While Sunn O))) slowly drone themselves into a dead end this towering slab of perfection sounds like the celestial host rising through the clouds and then shitting on Isis and Pelican’s heads from above. Incredible and essential.

DISTANCE
MY DEMONS
PLANET MU

8 Distances debut at FWD in December was like a breath of fresh air amidst the halfsteps and wobbles of a scene that could easily fall into formula. The reason this works where other Dubstep artists have failed in the leap to long player is that it’s not just a collection of 12”s, it sounds like an album. Put it like this: who remembers Molten Beats? Bet you remember Timeless though.

Kill Rock Stars Video Fanzine 3
DVD

10 KRS is one of those ‘major’ indies that just doesn’t seem to put a foot wrong. It’s been about five years since they last did one of these but wow, worth the wait! For your ten quid you get a mix of promos from quirky bands like Hella which you’d never see unless they were here, some awesome live archive footage of bands like Born Against, Men’s Recovery Project and Unwound all of whom are better than pretty much everything else going on now put together as well as some shorts by people like Sadie Shaw and Sarah Reed. There’s even some bits on here by Quix*o*tic and the Decemberists so you can watch it with your girlfriend.

December Reviews

2007-01-18T16:11:00.000-08:00

Here are a few reviews I did in December. Some were published in Vice. Some weren't. Who cares?

Wolves In The Throne Room
Diadem Of 12 Stars
Vendelus

9 So all the founders of the Norwegian Black Metal scene who made their music famous by burning down churches and killing gays as well as each other are now out of jail. Instead of making terrifying music they’ve chosen to be in At The Drive In covers bands with Casey Chaos or Motorhead covers bands called ‘I’ while the one that’s still in jail pretends to be the son of a little known Eastern European despot and makes tunes with plastic spoons. Way to go guys. Meanwhile, across the Atlantic some twisted Yanks are feeding off the sheer terror meeted out to them on a daily basis by producing true, grim, black, putrid metal that outsrips even its inspiration. Best Black Metal since Dead To Dreams. And it’s from Washington.

Coki
Tortured/Shattered
Tempa 12”

8 Dubstep is in danger of becoming formulaic. Benga builds wobbles, Skream does arpeggios, Loefah makes slabs of sub-bass and Mala brings the dub. For my money the only producer still switching it up every release is Coki. Whether it’s the vocal anthem of the year (‘Burnin’) or simply the tune of the year (‘Thieves In Da Night’), when Cokestar’s on button you know you’re on for a winner. Man’s sitting on so many sick dubs it’s ridiculous. If you don’t know these two riddems you clearly know nothing about Dubstep and the last fifty words will be as useful to you as Schott’s Misscelany.

Wire
Live At The Roxy London: April 1st & 2nd 1977
Pink Flag

9 The other day I saw Don Letts’ ‘Punk Attitude’. Apart from laughing at how much like a paedophile James Chance now looks it was a bunch of complete shit that Jimmy Carr will have already presented to you on Channel 4. It did however remind me how good Wire are. How many other faggy art school, new-wave bands tore it so hard that Minor Threat covered them? Flex your head.

Brain Dead/Crash The Pose
Split 7”
Force Fed Records

8 Don’t you wish that someone was making band t-shirts as good as Pettiboon right now so you could wear ‘em and rep something that was going on now instead of spending a fortune on e-bay to wander round with that weird puppet dude from My War on your chest? Fear not! Crash The Pose’s t-shirts are kinda Pushead inspired and look so cool I sometimes wear them to bed and Brain Dead have one of Charles Manson but with their logo branded on his forehead. Go by this split from Distro’s. It’s sold out at source.

Townes Van Zandt
Be Here To Love Me
Snapper DVD

10 A long time ago when I went ‘travelling’ I made sure that my first stop was L.A. I’d never been to America nor had I ever really been that bothered going. Seven years ago though Tomato hadn’t re-issued Townes Van Zandt’s back catalogue. When I picked up three of his albums in a record store in Venice Beach the dude behind the counter did one of those whistle’s and said “Jeez, never expected to shift them”. Townes wrote in his High School year book that all he was after was “another tube of glue” and threw himself out of six storey buildings just to see what it felt like. He lived in a trailer and drank whiskey till his body gave out while all the while singing that to live was to fly. If you thought you were big and clever for ‘discovering’ Nick Drake, Townes is gonna rip your soul in two

Big Star Are Big

2007-01-18T16:09:00.000-08:00

This is another bit I wrote for the Greenwich Pirate.

Big Star

I was going through my head thinking of bands with the word ‘big’ in their name and I came up with a load: Big Business, Big Black, Big L, Big Bill Broozny…. Then Big Star popped into my head and I immediately knew what I was gonna write about.

Sorry if you found that New Blockaders thing boring, I had to write that like that cos to me those dudes are incredible and ‘big’ in terms of ‘influential’, ‘seminal’ or ‘important’ and I figured not many of you would have heard of them so I got all the facts down and now you can go explore and shit. Maybe you all have first pressings of Changez Les Blockeurs and I’m just a boring, anal, preachy cock.

Whatever.

I want to write about Big Star cos I have a confession. I love Americana. Big choruses, big melodies, big verses, big themes, life, death, your hometown, your family, your gun, your liquor. This is the music that makes my heart soar. I’ve got to admit it: if I had to choose one record to stay with me forever on a desert Island it wouldn’t be Napalm or Burzum as much as I love those dudes to go mental too. It wouldn’t be Lindstrom or Aphex Twin cos if you’re on your own forever you need something that can speak to you and that’s exactly what Americana/Alt-Country/Whatever you wanna call it does. I’m not from the American South but when the Willard Grant Conspiracy or William Elliot Whitmore sing about it I feel some intangible connection with the words and sounds. I bet if you looked at my I-Pod‘s most played tracks it would be Americana.

Hold on, I just did. It’s Jacksonville Skyline by Ryan Adams. Yup.

Americana is a music that critics latched onto in the early 90’s and grew in media-driven popularity until Adams bust the door down and nowadays your Mum probably listens to her Josh Rouse CD she bought at Tesco with the shopping.

Really though this music has been around far longer than that. It marries that timeless American sensibility and concept of folk with a constantly contemporaneous sound. To me Americana is the Byrds’ Sweetheart Of The Rodeo, the Allman Brothers Band Live At The Fillmore East, every damn record Gram Parsons ever cut, it’s The Replacements singing about beer for breakfast, Uncle Tupelo singing about doing the Graveyard shift, Green On Red singing about gas, food and lodging, it’s punk as fuck and it is embodied most purely in Big Star.

Go listen to them.

True Rave?

2007-01-18T16:07:00.000-08:00

This is something I wrote for www.viceland.com Vice magazine's website.

True-Rave?

So 2006 was the year of the ‘third summer of love’. The mainstream press was flooded with reports of illegal outdoor raves and the NME induced thousands of 16 year olds to turn up to Koko dressed in their parents hi-vis running tops on a Friday night.

Along with the usual references to Trance and its ket-fuelled sibling Psy-Trance there has been considerable coverage of the supposed rebirth of Hardcore. This is of course bollocks. As a single insightful recent feature in a prominent fashion mag pointed out Hardcore has never gone away. Its committed fanbase has filled raves like Moondance and Hardcore Heaven every month since the music’s inception. Slipmatt may have played the Old Blue Last on New Years Eve this year but he’s been bringing in the bells at venues like the Sanctuary for over 15. Despite a dark period in the late nineties, the renaissance, if it is to be accepted that there ever was one, came about at the turn of the Millenium as opposed to midnight on December 31st 2005.

What has passed below the radar is that the influence of this strong but wilfully rigid underground scene has birthed potentially one of the most exciting sub-genres in the ever-evolving flux of UK dancefloor music. Hardcore Breaks would make uncle John Peel throw his copy of Bonkers 14 in the bin if he was still around to hear it.

The first dedicated Hardcore Breaks night, Dance Energy at The Electrowerkz in Islington (http://www.danceenergy.co.uk), regularly showcases music from a raft of new producers such as Enzyme and Malice, Distortionz and Dekoy that can shift from traditional Old Skool euphoria to dark 4/4 bassline stomp to amen tearouts in seconds. Trust me, it makes Bang Face, which occurs upstairs on the same night, seem staid.

The success of tunes like Bad Habits by Portal and Crazy Club by Austin as well as a thriving community at www.hardcorebreaks.co.uk combined with a support network of labels such as Hardcore Projektz, Mert Wax and a revitalised Kniteforce Records has led to the sound reaching far past the confines of London. Producers like Whizzkick in Germany and Screwball in Poland as well as large Hardcore Breaks raves in Spain and Tenerife have led to the UK big boys waking up and taking notice. Both Raindance and Moondance now regularly book the new breed alongside the Dougal’s and Sy’s at the big London raves.

There is currently some discussion within the scene as to whether the sound should be re-named ‘Nu-Rave’ in an attempt to win back the tag from the revisionists. The name is irrelevant but if you attend Dance Energy you will understand that this is a fearless, innovative sound that rightfully deserves it.

Check out Dekoy’s blog for regularly updated mixes www.myspace.com/dekoybreaks

The New Blockaders

2007-01-18T16:05:00.000-08:00

This is something I wrote for the Greenwich Pirate fanzine.

The New Blockaders Are Big

“We are The New Blockaders. Blockade is resistance. It is our duty to blockade and induce others to Blockade. Anti-books, anti-art, anti-music, anti-clubs, anti-communication. We will make anti-statements about anything and everything. We will make a point of being pointless.”

So read the 1982 manifesto of the New Blockaders. A group who, more than any other, define the essence of true noise music both in art and in act. They have existed for over two decades in complete anonymity but their influence on the current crop of popular crossover noise artists such as Prurient and Wolf Eyes is immeasurable.

Emerging at the beginning of the 1980’s alongside the industrial grind of Throbbing Gristle and the harsh, abrasive power-electronics of Whitehouse the New Blockaders stood out through a purity of vision. Their first record, 1982’s Changez Les Blockeurs, is noise in it’s most rudimentary form: metallic grating sounds and analogue feedback redefined what could be classified as music. Its abstract form and Dadaist construction challenged all that had appeared before. It’s anti-music approach presented a recording closer to the theory-driven work of Einsturzende Neubauten than their supposed contemporaries.

They would appear rarely and when they did it would be in balaclavas. The records would emerge even more infrequently with little information and in tiny runs. No one knows who is, was or has been a New Blockader. The only fact that is clear is that the singular constant in their evolution has been a man named Richard Rupenus who selects artists to work with and anything that is created is released under the banner of the Blockaders with all sense of individuality sacrificed for the end product. Collaborations in recent years with artists such as Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore and the enigmatic Japanese musician Merzbow have bough their anti-sound to a younger and diverse audience.

The Blockaders made a rare, recent live appearance at the All Tomorrow’s Parties festival in December. They performed alongside The Haters, an American collective of a similar vintage who once released a blank CD that the listener had to “scratch in order hear”. The screed wall of sound created had apparently been in accordance with Rupenus’ simple order to: “go for half an hour as low and loud as you can”. It was one of the most incredible half hours of my life.

Birds Of Delay

2007-01-18T16:03:00.000-08:00

This is an interview I did for Vice magazine.

Birds Of Delay

Luke Younger and Steve Warwick met six years ago at a Trans Am show in London where a shared a love of hardcore and harsh power electronics led to them moving around the country performing together in various outfits but settling as the Birds Of Delay. With a slew of CDR, vinyl and tape releases on labels from John Olson’s American Tapes to Steve’s own Alcoholic Narcolepsy they have played throughout Europe and the US and only had the plug pulled on them once by some irate Dancehall MC’s at a street festival in Copenhagen where they had decided to play an impromptu show on someone’s balcony. Thurston Moore personally apologised in the programme for being unable to book them at last Decembers ATP and their current 7” is an untitled live recording on Nate Young’s Aryan Asshole records.

Seeing as this is the Fashion Issue can I ask why so many noise dudes wear those weird shoes?

What, the boots? Err... I don’t think they all do. Maybe some guys think it’s cool in a perverse way to invert people’s perception of what they should look like. You know, turn up on stage dressed really smart and then create something that is the antithesis of that on stage. Or maybe they just like dressing like that.

Do you think that’s why Whitehouse ditched the trench coats for the D&G belts and stuff?

Well with them, they’ve been doing it all since before anyone really. They completely changed my perception of music and it’s possibilities and the whole way I thought about a lot of things. The whole sense of confrontation is an integral part of their live performance. Changing the way they dress is just another means of fucking with the audiences expectations, taking any sense of a comfort zone away from the people that turn up to see them. They got bottled off at SEOne when they played with Aphex Twin last year so it must still be working. Then on the other end of the scale you have the New Blockaders who basically exist to be anti-everything. No image, no identity just some guys on stage whose faces you can’t even see.

Is your music at all reflected in the way you dress?

No. I don’t really think about how I dress too much. Maybe Steve does. He has a beard and lives in Berlin now though so probably not. I mean some guys, like all the Providence bands, their clothes are kind of an extension of the visual art they produce and I suppose Olson goes in for pretty crazy clothes, he goes for a new look every season. We’re never really sure how our music is going to come out or how we’re going to produce it in the studio or on stage. I’m not bothered what I wear and I suppose the only link is that we’ll make sound with whatever is there, we used to use guitars all the time but I lost mine so I just use cheap keyboards now, pedals, anything. We’d use a guitar if we had one. Do you have one?

www.myspace.com/birdsofdelay

Welcome

2007-01-18T15:53:00.000-08:00

Well, after months of deliberation I have finally taken the plunge.

I figured that this would be a good way of archiving any/all of the music writing that I do.

It will principally be record and live reviews with the occasional more general musing.

Sometimes I might write something about something that isn't music.

This is unlikely though.

Some things will hopefully be good, some will inevitably be crap. For better or worse it will all be here though.

Thanks for watching.