afogofideas

The Lovely Eggs and Jad Fair

2012-01-29T11:15:00.006Z

JAD FAIR!

I can only put this down to tardiness, naval gazing (I see ships!) or just not looking in the right direction but I managed to miss this entirely for well over a year

Not being that bothered that my blog is not bang up to the minute but rather more about stuff that really matters to me I'm posting this here because I'd like to think my six readers will enjoy it (if they've not seen it already, or were there... I wouldn't know, they never write, they never phone)

I think I knew The Lovely Eggs and Jad Fair had performed together but I presumed this was just one of them brilliant things that I'd missed because life's unfair and so on

I still missed it and I'm presuming it'll never happen again but here's some evidence and a link that may prove useful

http://www.groupee.com/displaycontent/content/the-lovely-eggs-session-2010

The BMX Bandits 'What A Wonderful World' (53rd and 3rd, 1986, AGARR6)

2012-01-28T18:43:00.003Z

I referred to this in my previous post and thought I'd post it here, just because

Withered Hand 'Heart Heart' (Fence Records EP, 2012)

2012-01-28T14:27:00.005Z

'And I think to myself, what a wonderful world'

- Louis Armstrong (and The BMX Bandits, of course)

It's been touch and go as to whether I'd ever get round to 'doing a blog' again, I've loads of things I've been meaning to write about but life, events and whatnot have rather got in the way, made all this seem trivial, perhaps even pointless

And perhaps it still is pointless (keep reading though, I'm going somewhere with all this) but doing this blog anyway rather than not doing this blog at all seems like the best way forward, for now

Minding my own business, clicking around on the internet after work yesterday afternoon I was delighted to chance upon a link to the video of Withered Hand's new single 'Heart Heart' (Thanks, Lynsey)

It's a corker... perhaps I don't need to tell you that, perhaps rather than wade through all this guff you've watched the video, cut to the quick because you felt like I did, all excited, all a-quiver... something along the lines of that old Pickled Egg records 'it's fun as well as food' ad with the three pictures of the chap holding a pickled egg, biting a pickled egg, enjoying a pickled egg with the words 'anticipation, acclamation, realisation' accompanying each of the images... perhaps it was like that in those three stages?

'Heart Heart' is a mighty immense POP! hit (HIT!) with a charming giddy video

I first heard this song at Indietracks last year and I said this about it:

 "an instant floorfilling footstomping punch your fist in the air POP! hit"

So, it's definitely a POP! hit (HIT!) because I'm now on record as having said so twice

The single is released as part of Fence Records’ Chart Ruse E.P. Series. Fence Records say: Sign up to Chart Ruse today!

Dan Withered Hand is currently on tour with King Creosote and I'm very much looking forward to seeing them both in Nottingham on Tuesday, a complete list of the tour dates are here

If you're in or near Warwick (tonight) or Cambridge (Monday) do get along, further dates are in Norwich, The Shepherds Bush Empire in that London, Brighton, Bristol, Manchester, Liverpool, Lancaster and Leeds

And there's a launch do for this Chart Ruse E.P. series in Dalston (also in that London) next Friday, the 3rd February (the day after the Shepherds Bush Empire gig)

Withered Hand are salve for the soul and right now, at the arse end of a miserable January, with this Government and all the other shite in the world 'Heart Heart' seems something of an anthem for the likes of us... us rag tag and bobtail mob of misshapes and ne'erdowells who don't have a hard on for Public Sector cuts or doffing our caps to the boss class or smarmy 'we're all in this together' backslap

But aside from all this easy fiery 'underdog' prosetylising I love this song even more now than I did when I first heard it last summer -and feel emboldened and animated by it- for very personal reasons... my Dad died before Christmas and music has given me a great deal of solace and comfort since... this song, for example, so vividly and so perfectly encapsulates and makes crystal clear so many unnameable feelings I've been feeling and gives me a profound sense of hope and of life and of living

Apologies if that makes you embarassed or if you think that's cheap for me to mention something so personal... you don't have to have experienced a major life event to appreciate this song nor will it make things all better if you have but for me, where my head and heart are now, 'Heart Heart' is a pure shot in the arm- incadescent, iridescent, pure succour for the soul

Sometimes music means more than just background, more than just a soundtrack to your wannabe hip life, it compels you to do things (beyond just typing, what I'm doing now), to join in, participate, to keep on keeping on, music can be close to magic, it's transformative, it gives you strength, hope (and if not hope than at least a sense that you're less alone, less at odds with the universe), music can make you feel a sense of belonging

"Hardcore, hardcore! Listen to the crowd roar!

I can feel the dancefloor fill with expectation
... I can never meet"

Sorry, I can be a bit overemotional/uncool... you know, when I'm moved sufficiently

Colour Me Wednesday

2011-11-09T08:58:00.004Z

Here's a quote from F Scott Fitzgerald's 'This Side of Paradise' from the character, Amory Blaine:

"Youth is like having a big plate of candy. Sentimentalists think they want to be in the pure simple state they were in when they were eating candy. They don't. They just want the fun of eating it again, The matron doesn't want to repeat her girlhood - she wants to repeat her honeymoon. I don't want to repeat my innocence. I want the pleasure of losing it again".

Don't for a minute think I'm well read with a photographic recall of lines from Scott Fitzgerald, I'm at best 'partially read' and I read this quoted in another book (Jon Savage's 'Teenage: The Creation of Youth 1875-1945' book) and I thought I'd squirrel it away until it was useful, because it seems so apt to so many things but particularly this thing we call 'indiepop'.

Whatever that may be.

The whole world (my whole world, the Anorak forum... yeh. I know. Don't pity me) is going "tits mental" (it's an expression young people use) for Uxbridge POP! cabañeros COLOUR ME WEDNESDAY.

The band's songs seem super fresh to these jaded ears while ringing some pleasingly familiar bells, they'd make a splendid popshow pairing with Standard Fare or Evans The Death. Colour Me Wednesday sound very au courrant (yeh, I speak a little Spanish).

Over at A Layer of Chips blog you can see their charming and poised 'Purge Your Inner Tory' video... he's a good boy, that Mr. Chips... here, I'm posting their 'Unicorn (In Uniform)' one.

I like the video, I like the painting the man's doing of a snowscene using a palette of white paint... writing down a gag kills it, starves it but I want to draw your attention to that man and his painting even if I slightly spoiled it for you (it's what bloggers do)

What I especially like is the song, be warned... it fades in a bit

And, for good measure, here's the song 'Untitled (What Happened?)' (I'm not sure if this is the title... it's confusing), it's really rather good.

Colour Me Wednesday can be found here

At their site you can find their lyrics and hopefully they won't mind me posting the first verse from 'What Happened?' (that's what it's called):

What happened?
You had it right when you were just
a kid, a little kid, watching kid’s TV

So good to be free
and happy but you put those toys away

Resigned yourself to your fate

Which either takes you back to the quote at the top there or it doesn't, please yourself, but definitely do do go see Colour Me Wednesday and if they're not playing near you anytime soon, invite them up/down to play near you soon.

Colour Me Colour Me Wednesday (and it is a Wednesday as I write this... a dovetail fit).

Sometimes Always 'Be True'

2011-08-25T14:04:00.001+01:00

I'm sure I've tested everybody's patience with my epic appreciation of ODD BOX RECORDS so here's a much more pithier post

Here's a video by Eardrums Knut from Eardrums Pop for the Sometimes Always single 'Be True' which is free to download from the Eardrums Pop website (the single has artwork by me on it)

The video is possibly the ginchiest thing I've ever seen... enjoy and PLAY IT LOUD!

Sometimes Always - Be True from EardrumsPop, the label on Vimeo.

ODD BOX RECORDS

2011-08-25T12:15:00.024+01:00

Let's all stand up, preferably on a chair, ideally on a desk or table (in a good state of repair, check the legs, yours and the chair/desk/table's... let's avoid accidents) and say a YAY! for ODD BOX RECORDS... let's not just say it, let's yell it, loud and proud, let's shout about it, TESTIFY!

The one man powerhouse behind ODD BOX RECORDS, the blog and the gig nights and whatnot is one Trev ODD BOX formerly Trev LOST MUSIC 

A Fog of Ideas: Is ODD BOX just you, Trev?

     Trev:  Well in so much that I choose what bands I put on at shows and what      I release yes. But I'd pretty much nowhere without the support of      Char (my other half). 

Let's Get Personal 

I've known Trev for a couple of years now via the internet, initially aware that he put on gigs in London, was involved in the indie-MP3 blog, is a Marychain fan (to put it mildly)... occassionally as often happens on internet fora we would make seemingly endless deathly afternoons at work pass by a little quicker by engaging in some mild sparring, winding each other up over something or other, something lost to time but definitely the sort of stuff that matters, the big topics- probably something about 'twee' or 'what is indiepop?'- essentially two bald men fighting over a comb-type exchanges (for the record Trev has a magnificent fecund head of hair) which would usually end with neither of us conceding an inch but agreeing on something else entirely and sticking two fingers up at anyone that didn't implicitly agree (with whatever that something else might have been) and then it would be five minutes before hometime and off we'd jolly well go back to reality, time having passed

Perhaps I'm remembering all this with a rosey glow?

Anyway, eventually meeting up with Trev these little online spats seemed to become less frequent (presumably my inate charming affability disarming Welsh firebrand Trev)- plus, it must be said, prior to that mutual friends and acquaintances were all very quick to tell me what a stand up guy Trev was/is to which I would reply in my head, "What am I? Chopped mist? Scotch liver?" in that way o' mine

Over a period of time I did some artwork for Trev (he asked for it, I wasn't swamping him with potato prints thru' the mail) which were used for fliers and a Lost Music single (a Pete Green EP, whatever happened to him? Why doesn't he take my calls anymore?) and latterly for an ODD BOX sampler, which was nice

As a thank you for my daubings Trev has twice been kind enough to gift me a pile of ODD BOX releases but more recently in a surprise turn of events I've been buying them...

*I've left a gap here so you can all gasp in amazement/consider the gravity of that statement* 

Pony/Macaroni/Baloney 

I write a blog (occasionally) that's mostly about music, more than 2 people read it- why, you may ask, am I not getting boxes of free stuff in the post on a daily basis, tweaking the press releases by way of a review and calling it macaroni? Well, perhaps Mike from Slumberland and Sean from Fortuna Pop are just shy but, you know, I keep slugging away...

But enough about me, ostensibly you didn't come here to read my thinly veiled attempts at begging for free stuff, so... ODD BOX... the matter in hand... what do you say we saddle up and ride that pony? 

ODD BOX RECORDS... the story so far 

Since 2009 ODD BOX RECORDS has released glorious hot poop by, amongst others, The Millipedes; The Kick Inside; The Wednesday Club; One Happy Island; The Humms; The Monorals; Proto-Idiot; The Manhattan Love Suicides; Ace Bushy Striptease; The Understudies... at the time of writing there are releases in the offing from Pocketbooks (review to follow); The Rosie Taylor Project and Chapter 24

The bands/artists on ODD BOX are from all over the world. Whatever takes Trev's fancy. As it should be really 

As the ODD BOX name suggests, collect the set and you'll have a record box that's agreeably odd- a pleasingly diverse rag tag and bobtail assortment of mostly guitar based independent music taking in elements of pop, rock, punk, funk, junk, spunk and/or roll released on a variety of formats from vinyl to CD to MP3 to cassette tape

From the ODD BOX website: 

ODD BOX is a record label dedicated to releasing the best independent music.

ODD BOX is DIY to the core.

ODD BOX loves music and we don’t care for pigeon holes.  If ODD BOX likes it, we will release it.

ODD BOX is based in London, England. 

INTENT? 

Here's a statement from me that's also a question aimed at Trev:

A Fog of Ideas: ODD BOX, for me, is a return to independent labels       of old that didn't  fixate on one style of independent music- I       appreciate that's  deliberate and, I'm guessing, born out of a love       of music and not a  love for scenes- are people 'getting that'? Is       the hope that  people might be more inclined to take a punt on       bands that perhaps  they might overlook?

     Trev: I'm  not sure everyone is 'getting it' and I am glad you have     noticed.  But yes I have a small but loyal band of regulars that snap     up  everything that ODD BOX releases and maybe over time ODD BOX will      come to be trusted as a label that puts out good music but I don't      think it's got to that point yet. It was for me about not wanting to      be seen as a label that did just 'garage rock' or 'indiepop' or      'Bulgarian Hiphop' or 'whatever' because my tastes are wider than      one 'scene'. I hope the label and all the releases can stand on      their own as things that are worthy of being released and getting a      wider audience. I've had a few releases that have sold really well      and some not so. Not everything I love strikes a chord with people      and that's fine with me these days.

DO IT YOURSELF 

A Fog Of Ideas: The ODD BOX blog as well as selling your wares and       documenting stuff you dig also seems a very handy resource for       anyone who might feel like having a go at putting out recordings       too- is that important to you? demistifying the process? making it       accessible?

     Trev: The blog came first, long before ODD BOX there was Lostmusic which     started back in 2004.  Over time Lostmusic grew and with some     friends it became a gig promotion thing and a my first real attempt     at running a record label (we chalked up four 7" singles and CDr     releases) . And without it there would be no ODD BOX today, I learnt     a lot of what it takes to start a label and how to put on shows.      Towards the end of lostmusic we were losing a fair chunk of change     on the shows and it was becoming harder and crucially less fun.  So     I decided to step back and have a think about what made it fun and     what was missing and I am not sure I ever figured out exactly what     was what but I did realise I missed it. So ODD BOX started as a     record label first and foremost and the shows just kinda started to     happen again and having learnt a little doing lostmusic I decided to     share what I could with people wanting to try the same thing. I've     done thatb informally by answering emails from folks wanting help     with putting out music and I even wrote a small guide to doing it     yourself for the Sounds XP webzine. The guide was basically just me     spouting of on some of the obvious (to me) things you need to do if     you're going to make a decent fist of doing this DIY label thing -     because the bands I end up releasing are bands I love and I want     them to be heard. You'd only be letting the bands down if you didn't     try and do a just job of making their CDs, records and promoting     them. I'm no expert mind and I am constantly learning!  So yes     making it accessible to others is important, albeit not the reason     for running a label. You do that because you have a passion for the     bands that end up being released.

Are ODD BOX RECORDS any good?

Let's consider some of the evidence...

Proto-Idiot 'Is You Is My Is?' CD-EP (ODD010)

Andrew from Sheffield's Hipshakes/Creep Outs' solo 'project' in which he makes pop records like Frankenstein made monsters- whether Andrew likes it or not, this is a pop record, albeit a delinquent, scuzzed up, fucked up, gum chewing, won't sit up straight, can't stand up straight pop record... although I think v'kids call it 'rubbish rock'... it's some grate subterranean high goofery... I have it on good authority you can lose your shit to this... as with any purgative, euphoria may follow

Prone to make your body start to perspire
As I turn the volume up higher and higher
Grab my JVC, pop in a cassette
Have the people stompin to my beat, you bet
Play it for my friends cause it sounds so neat
And they ask (What do you call it?)
It's Hot Booth*

Hot Booth 'The Whole Thing' CS-EP (ODD016) 

*(With apologies to Sweet Tee)
  

Dan Fathom Down, the dirty Pocketbook, unleashes his secret (well, not that secret obviously) Hot Booth identity on the world by the medium of a bright blue tape cassette packaged in a very mucky sleeve (by one James Unsworth, here). There were 50 copies of this, I managed (I'm never usually this lucky) to snaffle one. This cassingle kind of epitomises to me something utterly super right on and necessary. There are four songs, one of which is a Ramones cover ('Swallow My Pride' which can also be heard on the 'No more of your fairy stories: an indiepop tribute to RAMONES' compilation that came out last year). 'Moe Tucker' is a number one record on the hit parade in some perfect parallel dimension world we can only dream of. 

Will there be anything from Hot Booth ever again? Probably not, which is maybe the point.

The Sock Puppets 'EP' CD-EP (ODD027)

Denmark's three girl/one boy army of effervescent incendiary punk rocking bobby socksing none more POP! proponents... four songs: short, sharp, no faffing, all killer, no filler, all phyllis, no diller POP! songs that'll stay a lifetime in your head and forever in your heart... enough typing already, abandon pretence, let's dance!

*proceeds to dance*

Baaneex 'Weird Dance' CD-EP (ODD026) 

There's something splendidly right about Baaneex, they are a confounded mystery to me and rightly/wrongly the less I know the more I like it... so I've not even bothered doing internet searches or asking Trev who they might be or where they're from or what on earth they're playing at... instead, here's this EP with four songs 'Weird Dance'; 'Weird Dance II', 'Weird Dance 3' and 'Weird Dance Seven' that are less songs and more sort of mood music (I have some funny moods), the whole EP could be from the soundtrack to a film I really need to see but might be slightly afraid to 

If Baaneex gigs consisted of them playing in robes while stood in a pentangle in an eldritch wood I wouldn't be surprised 

 Musically I'm getting bits of earlyish-Gorkys, Clinic, a strong whiff of sixties proto-punk avant gardeists The Godz and when I try to picture the band I see a cross between seventies Hawkwind and The Silver Apples (another band whose music Baaneex suggests, at least to these ears... they also throw in some heavy punk rock riffage too... definitely a band you can nod and then bang your head along to)

Jolly bloody good

Sarandon 'Sarandon's Age of Reason' CD/LP (BOX006)
A joint release with Slumberland records, 'Sarandon's Age of Reason' is- lumme lumme- a right corker! Like some of the very best hip hop LPs ever 'SAOR' has what is essentially a 'skit' running through it... a narrative thread... that a) makes sense of the album as a whole... yes, it's a concept album... and b) is an annoying stop start to the sequence of frankly astonishing songs collected here... and c) that necessitates you listen to the album from start to finish

The first of these things is just helpful, the second is something you just learn to overcome (yeh, I am itching to get to the next song- these songs rush along, possess a kinetic energy and pummel you- but perhaps it's a mercy that the listener gets a little respite between songs) and the third doesn't really work (what with bloody freewill, etc) but does form a sort of pact between listener and band that if you're willing to invest the time and actually, y'know, play a record from start to finish without skipping the pay off/the reward is greater... Sarandon, it seems, want you to listen to their music, not to have it as a passive presence in your life or for you to be a passive presence in theirs

Isn't that the fucking point? That music should matter, not just be an accessory? I think I rumbled on about this in my Tunabunny review...

Sarandon are perceived by some as awkward, not just the stuttering stop start sharp angles of their music but the band themselves, that they're provocative, difficult, that they chuck a messy cheesewire guitar/heavy artillery rhythm section racket onto the calm, comforting, consensus indie funfest... if Crayola (Sarandon major domo) ever comes across as a bit of a hard taskmaster to gig promoters, audiences, defenders of twee then it's probably a lot more to do with the gossip, preconceptions and complacency amongst them than the lad himself... should he ever read this I hope this doesn't come as a surprise to him... I mean he can be very exacting but, y'know, that sort of rigour it's laudable... providing the results justify the means

Plus, Sarandon would never be unreasonable

So, yes, it's a really smashing record this, I like it

Secretly I do worry that Crayola's taken a tin opener to my skull and somehow scooped out all the inner dialogue from my brain for Big Trev's between song blether (Big Trev being no relation to Trev ODD BOX as far as I'm aware), it's a bit familiar...

Ultimately here is an LP about one man's journey to leave the house (and himself) and have a good time as far as I can tell

We can all relate to that

Sarandon it also has be documented are one of the few bands me and Hayley can agree on, they seem to have nods to a lot of things she loves (prog and more esoteric brutalist rock fayre) and to a lot of things I love (Bogshed, bIG fLAME, Ron Johnson Records, McTells, etc)

I suggest the first dance at our wedding is to 'Mustn't Grumble' but I suppose more wryly it should be 'Do the Dance' ('Do the dance, do the dance, they dance at death')

ODD BOX SINGLES CLUB
'Oh, Mr Trevor, with these ODD BOX SINGLES CLUB SINGLES you really are spoiling us'

From the ODD BOX website: 

After hearing so many wonderful bands during the past 12 months we  decided we wanted to release as many of them as possible on beautiful 7”  vinyl.   So the idea for the singles club was born.

There will be six singles released in the singles club, twelve bands in all, the first three singles have been released, the next three featuring The Hairs, The Medusa Snare, Gold-Bears, Bracelettes, The Ketamines and The Vignettes will follow

Here's a summary of those first three:

ODD020 - Singles Club #1 - The Blanche Hudson Weekend/Horowitz  
The Blanche Hudson Weekend side is the gorgeous, sumptuous 'If You're Still Together', a sweeping yearning lush widescreen Douglas Sirk melodrama in just over four minutes- play it loud, PLAY IT REALLY FUCKING LOUD!

The Horowitz side doesn't seem loud enough, but that's what the volume control is for... both the Blanche Hudson Weekend and Horowitz are advocates of the 'can this go any louder?' approach and we salute them. The Horowitz song like all their songs fizzes and explodes, a rollicking Play for Today drama that ends with doomed lovers on the run in a stolen Cortina crashing in slow mo- cream egg hearts splattering onto a windscreen about to shatter... there's a note in the glove compartment... 'Get Cleansed!'

ODD021 - Singles Club #2 - The Give it Ups/Santa Monica Swim and Dive Club
The Give It Ups released a CD-EP on ODD BOX early doors (ODD005) and jolly marvelous it was too, but that seems like ages ago so it's a blessed relief to find them here... two songs, the first 'Why Won't You Go Out With Me?' is a delight, like Skinned Teen having a go on 'Something Going On'-era Pastels, a winning combination. 'Knives Chau' I deduct to be something to do with this Scott Pilgrim fellow that's very popular with the young people nowadays, I don't know anything about that but I do know this is a fingerpopper and Ben's cracked croon of a vocal (I'm presuming it's Ben that sings, I don't do research, or check facts, I'm a purist) is the bee's knees

Espousing research and facts I know very little about The Santa Monica Swim and Dive Club other than they have something to do with Saturday Looks Good to Me and this song here ('False Start, My Heart') is a peach... a rumbledethump dreamy eyed showstopper of a song... I think it's about the travails the singer faces in a diving and swimming competition but it's also a metaphor for, y'know, love and relationships

ODD022 - Singles Club #3 - One Fathom Down/The Humms
The shriek of the wave of the mutilated... run for your shorts here comes One Fathom Down on surfboards made of bone riding a darker wave of blood and gravel up the Kingsland Road

'Like a dirty three way between Dick Dale, Poison Ivy and Link  Wray' One Fathom Down mix metal, surf, garage and leather upholstery polish to rather splendid effect 

'Supercritical Ocean' and 'Breaking The Law' suggest, to these ears, The Fucking Champs playing Man or Astroman covers, which makes them essential

The Humms from Athens, Georgia have an album (BOX004) and a CD-EP (ODD004) on ODD BOX and play raucous fuzzy garage rock n' roll that'll make you want to get up and frug, Franny, frug... there's also some sweetness and some darkness too

'Jupiter' their side of ODD022 is bittersweet buttermilk and cinnamon infused... a wider more expansive song than most of their previous stuff, the space in 'Jupiter' is compelling and oddly moving... it's a cracking song and unexpected...

A Fog of Ideas: Any plans for the ODD BOX singles club to have a       part two beyond the initial batch of releases so far and to       follow soon)?

     Trev: I am toying with the idea of doing another Singles Club in 2012. I     might tweak the idea slightly but I don't think I've come up with     the magic formal for the singles club just yet. I think I was a     little ambitious with the first one and pressed more copies than I     could possibly sell - that's why the club ended up being split in     half, with 200 coming with the added extras and another 200 just     being 'regular' singles that can be bought in shops. My initial idea     was to sell them all through subscription but maybe launching this     grand plan in the middle of a big nasty recession wasn't my wisest     ever move.  So yes there will be a singles club in 2012 - but it     might be done slightly differently! 

A Fog of Ideas: What's next? Up to the end of year and then beyond?

Trev: The rest of the year is chock full of releases.  The Understudies 7"     has just come out and the delayed Ace Bushy Striptease album 'The Words That           You Said Are Still Wet In My Head' will     finally be ready this week.  And I'm just getting back the masters     for the next 3 singles club 7's they should be out by the end of     September if all goes according to plan (it often doesn't).

The end of August sees the first digital only single (as opposed to     free download releases on Odd Net) of 'Piglet' by Sarandon.  It's a     three tracker and the 'b' sides are their covers of 'Expecting Joe'     (McTells) and 'Crafty Fag' (The Nightingales) - and I hope the     release might spark some more interest in the a little neglected     Sarandon album.

Then in September 'Carousel' by Pocketbooks gets its 'official' in     shops release although its been forsale through the website and at     gigs since the end of July.  After that there are releases by     Chapter 24 (a 7") and The Rosie Taylor Project (CD album) before the     year ends.  And I nearly forgot there will be the first 'free' Odd     Net releases in over a year coming soon - one by Space Age Thrills     (Ben from The Give It Ups solo thing) and a 2 tracker from The Give     It Ups themselves.

     There are a couple more things bobbling under but they're probably     going to have to wait until 2012 (stuff by Radians, Boundary Jim and     Crayola). 

In conclusion 

ODD BOX RECORDS are a bit special, essential, vital

And finally:

A Fog of Ideas: If you could pick 5 records you wish you could've put out on ODD BOX  what would those five records be?

Trev: I wanna keep to 7" records when choosing these 5 records.     It's the perfect format really and most LPs are flawed in some way.     A perfect 7" is probably my ideal format.

     I think I'm gonna be a tad obvious with a few of these choices.      First up would be 'Upside Down' by The Jesus and Mary Chain.     Probably a record that I came to a year or two after it was actually     released so I missed it's immediate impact. But catching up with it     in 1986 it was just the perfect blend of noise and hooks. And it was     through The Mary Chain that I got into Creation Records. Time has     faded some of my good memories of that record label - but they still     put out a fuck load of records in the mid 80s. A shame it all went     to shit in the late 80s and beyond. But yeah, that DIY approach on     that 7" was great.  And they sold truck loads of them (35000?). I     can't imagine selling that many copies of anything. I guess those     were different times. But it doesn't hurt to dream?

     Another record from the same era (released during my teenage years     and records from this time do tend to stay with me. I think that's     the same for most people, isn't it?).  It's 'Really Stupid' by       The Primitives. I always say this is my favourite 7" that     wasn't released by The Jesus and Mary Chain.  Perfect buzz saw pop.     What's not to love?

     The first two were easy choices. The next three not so much. I think     I am going to choose something more recent next. 

     Hmmmm. I think it would be  by Box Elders - they are a     superb band and they released one of the best albums of the last few     years called 'Alice and Friends'.  But as I am sticking to 7"     singles I'm going to plump a 7" they released back in 2008. It's     dead hard to track down these days and I never got a copy at the     time (I've got it digitally!) the EP has the lead song 'Hole In       My Head' and it's one of my favourite records of recent     times.  Lo-fi noisy garage pop and I think it would fit perfectly on ODD BOX. 

     I think the next 7" I'd love to have released came out on Atomic     Beat Records and it's the split 7" with The Pains of Being Pure       At Heart and The         Parallelograms.  I love this record. Everyone     goes for The Pains side as the reason to own it and as much as I     love 'Kurt Cobain's Cardigan' it's the flip side that gives me goose     bumps.  The double pop salvo of '1, 2, 3, Go!' and 'Pop the Bubbles'     optimises everything I love about indiepop. It sounds timeless. And     singles on Atomic Beat Records are always so well turned out. This a     record to cherish.  And that is all you can hope for as a record     label, really.

     How to get it to be time to pick the last 7" already. This is too     tough. 

I think I am gonna head back to my youth (pre-teens even) for the     final 7" and pick Motorhead's St Valentines Massacre 7" EP      from 1981. This record blew my mind when I was 11. I still own the     same 7" faithfully coloured in by myself with a blue biro. For those     that don't know Motorhead (where the fuck have you been hiding the     past 34 years?) this record was a bona-fide hit record that smashed     to number 5 in the charts when you had to sell A LOT of records to     get in the charts. It's a collaboration with Girlschool and the lead     song 'Please Don't Touch' is amphetamine fuelled (not that I knew of     this, back then, I was still in long shorts for chrissakes) take on     a Johnny Kidd and The Pirates song. A duet between Lemmy and Kelly     Johnson and it's wonderful. The fact I love this little slab of     plastic 30 years on is the reason it must be included in a list of 5     records I wish I could have released.

So yeah, there you have it. Five 7" singles that I wish ODD BOX     could have released. 

Now CLICK HERE: http://oddboxrecords.com/ 

Indietracks 2011

2011-08-07T15:48:00.034+01:00

Apologies in advance, I do ramble on rather...

I wrote this bit on the Monday after the Indietracks weekend:

It's the day after Indietracks I've removed my wristband reluctantly, accepting through gritted cliches that it's over, but the sensation that it's 'ghost' is still haunting my wrist abides. Does anyone else get this? Perhaps it's just me, it happens every year, perhaps every year it's on too tight

What is Indietracks?

Indietracks is an indiepop festival... that's 'indiepop', not 'indie-pop' or 'indie pop'... that's significant

And there are trains, steam trains

Interruption

Edit: There was an overly long bit here about 'an advert on telly right now for an online dating company that features a man with a face standing on a railway platform strumming on his ukuele improvising a song for a whey faced 'girl' on the opposite platform and it's really horrible... ' in which I worried that 'this mix of trains and creepy twee mawkishness (cloaking barely concealed lust and ugly violent desire) is what 'some' might equate indiepop and perhaps even Indietracks with'

But I ditched it because it was too long and felt clunky here

Candid

I'll be candid, I wasn't exactly feeling in an 'Indietracks' state of mind in the week leading up to the weekend... overly busy at work, short on money, tired, feeling weird, feeling shitty, all full of sturm and drang and dislocation, I'd missed the two Comet Gain nights down in that London ealier in the week and that advert that I mentioned above was on in every ad break or so it seemed, taunting me, mocking me, me and mine... in previous years in the run up to Indietracks I've been bouncing up and down on my arse like Tigger, all giddy kipper excitement, fired up on the NOW and wishing the days away... but this year I wasn't feeling it, too much real life and bogus negative vibrations creeping in and down on me

But, stuff abides, good stuff... stuff to make you forget all that grey guff, make you forget just long enough to pick you up and shake you up and keep you keep on keeping on

Thursday 28th July, Nottingham

My Indietracks weekend began on the Thursday (Indietracks Eve) at the Chameleon in Nottingham with a 'A Layer of Chips' organised warm up show with a four band bill of Pocketbooks, The Sweet Nothings, Very Truly Yours and Math and Physics Club... I nearly didn't go... I was tired and irritable, there was packing to do, money sums to be figured out, my legs hurt and I'd got changed in a hurry and regretted what I was wearing but not until we were on the way there and then really regretted what I was wearing and all this prevarication, self doubt and self loathing were rapidly excised by- for the first time in too long a time- being amongst friends and watching two bands I've had the privilege of watching build and grow in awesomeness (from already awesome beginnings) over the last few years and two bands that- I have to fess up- I was mostly unfamiliar with except by reputation- who all managed to cheer me the heck up

It also seemed fitting and a good omen that The Sweet Nothings were on the bill, the Nottingham warm up show (that featured Cats on Fire and Mascot Fight) for the first Indietracks weekender had lead 'Nothing (that will never do) Pete Green on the bill- back then it was the first time I'd seen Pete play, his music and, yes Pete himself, seemed fragile, sparkly, sincere, from the heart- The Sweet Nothings (Pete and Dan and Vinnie and Tim) are essentially all that with bells and whistles (literally) and bits that go swoosh and bits that get loud and bits that go gentle... it's a trip, man... the band makes Pete sound altogether less fragile but theres an unabashed tenderness at the heart of Pete and the Sweets' (that won't do either) music... all that and an Abba cover too that even won an Abbaphobic like me ‘round

All four bands were magnificent... it was an ACE popshow, made me forget my ill-chosen wardrobe and I went home with a skip in my step and big fat stupid grin on my face, a feeling that the weekend was here, finally, and I was 'feeling it'

Friday 29th July

We took a Rainbow Rapide bus from Nottingham Victoria bus station into the Amber Valley to Ripley, through former mining towns like Codnor and Heanor... we were staying at the Premier Inn this weekend like we did last year... it's not quite the full, legit Indietracks experience, I suppose, it's not quite as 'hardcore' as staying at the Golden Valley campsite but I'm glad of a good mattress, a power shower and a toilet I can call my own... I can't help myself, I'm a tart

Having checked in and deposited our bags and done our hair and lippy, we walked down to the lovely Butterley Railway Station (a ten to fifteen minute walk and very direct) and took the train to the festival site at Swanwick Junction... I'm not quite sure why I'm giving you this level of detail... this is turning into a travel piece... let's cut to the quick... I'm missing Corrie...

What follows is what I wrote a few days later once I'd come to terms with the fact the festival was over, that I was now back home, back at work and that I perhaps needed to stop digressing and cut to the quick and talk about the bands and try to convey why Indietracks means so much to me and quite a few other people too

However, I may very well digress and even at times- be warned- get 'florid':

'A smile in these ungrateful times'- that line kept going off in my head over the weekend

It's from the song 'You should always keep in touch with your friends' by the Wedding Present, the next line is 'Makes all that you left me seem more worthwhile'

Indeed

Returning to Swanwick Junction, pulling into the platform makes me fizz up inside like I have sherbert running through my veins (this potentially nausea inducing imagery is used to convey my excitement and is not a reference to my type 2 diabetes)

It's ace to see everything set up and all the people and the prospect of the weekend ahead, the late afternoon sky blue... the world of possibilities ahead (Gopal's Curry Shack, etc)

Pocketbooks

Pocketbooks never fail to move me whether that be by getting my toes tapping, knees bending, hips wiggling, heart skipping, bottom lip wobbling... Pocketbooks are a perfect opener to the weekend, they are the Indietracks band, whether they're comfortable with that or not, would we be here this year if it wasn't for them?

The previous night at The Chameleon seeing Pocketbooks for the first time in a long time was both a delight and a revelation... a delight because I was getting to see them again and all was as most definitely as it should be- a poised POP! band playing perfect POP! songs- and also a revelation because there was none of that thing when a beloved band plays their new material and you as a fan find yourself working to process all that new stuff... but there was none of that, Pocketbooks have managed to produce a brace of new songs that best and, indeed, improve upon everything we liked about them before... the only work I find myself doing is attempting to bop about without knocking any small people over/treading on toes and not breaking into big soppy tears at the sheer beauty and wonder of their set... yeh, I wrote that... I wrote those words there... and I mean every one... because it was beautiful and when they were joined by what I presume is the string section of A Little Orchestra it was beautiful and then some... Pocketbooks were great the night before but here at Indietracks they are magnificent... a week later and writing this I've got a fat grin on my silly fat face thinking about it, thinking about the people round and about me, some people I know, most I don't and we're all giving each other looks and smiles between songs, looks and smiles that say, 'this is a bit special, this'

Jonny follow and I am a fan, this is a band that boasts Euros Childs from Gorkys Zygotic Mynci and Norman Blake from Teenage Fanclub after all, but unfortunately Pocketbooks have set me off in reverie and I take in some of the set from a distance while quaffing and giddily catching up with folk... I feel a bit rude writing that... they were very good, likewise Surburban Kids with Biblical Names but I'd sort of had my headliner already and, y'know, you dip in and out at festivals, don't you? You can't experience everything and likewise not everything will resonate as vividly (by which I mean you won't like everything)... I'm not a professional or even dedicated blogger trying to convince you I managed to see everything and can provide you with a definitive review (sorry, should I have mentioned that already?)

Back to Indietracks and there is more drinking and chatting and hipshaking and laughing and mooching about, the real world is far away and here I am lost in joy (or something)

Saturday 30th July

Blinking into the Summer sun we emerge... I'd feel worse but thankfully I've had an immense breakfast and an invigorating shower having slept blissfully on a well sprung mattress... there are advantages to not camping and paying a wee bit extra

A blue drink and on with the day... I'm on the look out for something with a bit of drama, something a bit impolite, some bands that give it a bit of welly... I'm in luck...

The Fireworks

Matthew from Big Pink Cake and Carys and Russell from The Give It Ups... they reminded me of Razorcuts/TVPs circa-The Painted Word and I thought they were bloody marvellous... indiepop torch songs, all Shelagh Delaney bedsit kitchen sink drama under a wash of stainless steel guitar... they include a cover of The Pretenders 'I Go To Sleep' complete with lyrical quotes from The Smiths 'That Joke Isn't Funny Anymore' and New Order's 'Temptation'... it's plaintive stirring stuff...

Sock Puppets

I'm not sure how and I'm not complaining but I make it into the Church for Denmark's Sock Puppets and I'm so glad I did- it's often a tricky blighter getting in the Church but I'm near the front of the queue and get a pew...

Sock Puppets are fantastic, they have a super special guest join them for a couple of songs- it's Mat Patalano from the Specific Heats... T'Puppets go at it and make a delightful sugar sharp POP! racket, somebody recommends them to somebody else in the queue as sounding like 'a female Ramones' which is half the story really, there's a snapping bubblegum twang to Sock Puppets rocking thang... it's a heck of an experience this Sock Puppet theatre... the Church is hot hot hot, practically airless, the pews are rocking, sweat is running, heads are banging... I never want it to end...

Teenage Gang Debs on a thrill rampage!

Recovering from the sweat box that was the Church I catch a little of Guatafan and a little of The Garlands but not really enough to say anything very useful (so I'm glad I mentioned that as I'm sure are you)

The Wendy Darlings

I do make a point of being front and centre for France's The Wendy Darlings on the outdoor stage, an EP they released a time ago on Lost Music was splendid containing the excellent anthemic totemic 'Enormous Pop'... now a five piece with an additional very cool, nonchalant guitarist (his guitar didn't work so he just carried on playing until a working guitar showed up... I liked that) and a highly exuberant tambourinest/backing singer who was part giddy kipper twee'er/part gogo dancer (as befits the band's garage/indiepop sound)... they were magnificent... I'm using the word 'magnificent' a lot but seriously The Wendy Darlings were exactly what I needed after the Sock Puppets keeping me on that same specific high... there were polite and midtempo bands aplenty at Indietracks this year and they clearly serve a purpose and command a following but I need some bounce and some clatter, some effervescence and despite the heat a quicker less pedestrian pace... something to make me shake my head about and get my glasses steaming up...

So bravo to The Wendy Darlings for providing just that... and they ended on a Pastels cover ('I Wonder Why') and when the additonal guitarist had a working guitar they did indeed sound like enormous POP!

Referring back to the timetable for Saturday I realise I then missed a succession of (smashing, I'm sure) bands... I suspect I'd done myself a mischief with all the head bobbing and seem to recall spending much of this time tactically refuelling, I know I saw some of Help Stamp Out Loneliness's set on the outdoor stage, I know I saw the balloon and flying man go over the site and the moment when the power cut out... I was definitely there for that... I may have been eating a delicious halloumi wrap

Not really cut out for HSOL... I've tried, they seem like nice folks and I know lots of people love them and clearly loved them here but, I don't know, is it a Britpop thing? A lot of people who (it seems) loved Britpop like them, whereas that's not really me, I don't feel quite 'together' enough to dig HSOL, they seem like a band for people who have things worked out... an odd thing to say but I do feel like I'm lacking whatever quality it is that makes for a HSOL fan... I assume it's a deficiency of mine, I'd like to like them, as I quipped feebly on the day on account of not getting them I feel rather alienated by Help Stamp Out Loneliness

*tumbling tumbleweeds*

I go and check out Math and Physics Club in the Shed and it's a lovely turn they do, I was taken with them on Thursday night but here it all sounds rather more muscular and the affection/esteem/regard the audience holds them in seems to add an additional dimension to their performance... also I've not seen so many spectacle-wearers in a band since John Hegley's Popticians, this is definitely a plus

Heading outside to see The Hidden Cameras it transpires the power has gone off again- the generator's blown, possibly terminally- as has been commented everywhere from the Derbyshire Echo to Simon Hairslide's That's Indie-credible blog that sort of thing would result in mass riots, beheadings and small bin fires at other lesser festivals but here the organiser's adopt a sensible make do and mend fix with the assistance of the final three bands on the shed/outdoor stages... the performances will continue in the shed... the festival goers seem to see this as a plus... the bar is in the shed...

I head there and, as a consequence, miss what has been described as one of the highlights of the weekend on the by now powerless outdoor stage: an impromptu Hidden Cameras acoustic set... rather typical of me

Jolly good stephens that the Hidden Cameras are they've agreed to go on after headliner Edwyn Collins who has to be off early- this short acoustic set is just a little extra... and I miss it

Instead, entirely ignorant to the magic occurring outside, I have a blue drink in the shed and wait for the next band, wondering where everyone is and why the next band aren't on yet (everyone is watching the Hidden Cameras and Milky Wimpshake have very kindly agreed to shorten their set by a couple of songs to allow for the stage/line-up changes to take place following the power cut)

Milky Wimpshake

I'm ready for some short sharp pop played at a thrilling pace and with some well-aimed welly, thank goodness for Milky Wimpshake... some things in life can be relied upon but most things carn't, most things are unreliable and disappointing and leave you feeling let down and what's the point of anything anyway when nothing does what it's supposed to? Why bother?

However, Milky Wimpshake are very much one of those things in life that can be relied upon

Write that down and once you've written it down, keep it somewhere safe but close at hand

I believe it's rather voguish amongst young people (I'm referring to the young people I know who are mostly in their late-twenties) for saying 'I lost my shit' when they get a bit messy and over-excited/emotional... well, I lost mine, dear reader, during Milky Wimpshake's superb Saturday night set at Indietracks this year... it was fucking brilliant- look, see! I'm swearing... that's how brilliant it was- I danced in that way o'mine where I carn't quite take my feet completely off the floor way but I move about a lot where I'm stood all rapid jerky upper body movements and head shaking like a speeding Rutle...

*Sigh!*

It was one of those sets, like the Pocketbooks one on Friday night, where you turn and just grin at folk (and they grin back) because... just because... because it's so ACE... I sing my heart out (apologies to all of those who were in the immediate surroundings) to two (or more accurately three) covers which are now standards of a Wimpshake set- 'True Love/Youth' and 'Fuck The Rules'- and it goes a bit moshpit mental during 'Blow Out at 80 Miles An Hour' (well, there was never a pit and it was all too good-natured to be actual moshing but there was certainly some spirited jumping about)

Can Milky Wimpshake play every year? Every weekend?

Edwyn Collins
The Shed is packed out for Edwyn so much so that stood at the back we're actually outside, I sing along (to the Orange Juice songs), there's a reverential feel to all this, rightly so... rumour has it that Edwyn will later try to get into the campsite to go to the disco but as he doesn't have a campsite issued wristband is refused entry

Hidden Cameras

I've never seen Hidden Cameras before... blimey, they don't half put on a show- people 'lose their shit' and I watch on knackered and weary but very very impressed... this isn't much of a review, admittedly

Sunday 31st July

Wake up with what I'd describe as a dry nagging hangover, nothing bilious or queasy just feeling rather spikey and irritable- this is a poor turn of events and first thing I am a bit of a tosser to Hayley who fortunately knows me all too well so 1) ignores me being a tosser and 2) gets me to Sainsburys and fills me with breakfast

I could if I was clever contrive a joke about being full of breakfast but still having room for a sandwich but I won't

Anguish Sandwich

I managed to spectacularly miss 'Arnie Sarnie' (thanks Jaynie) when they played Nottingham a while back but make a point of getting in the Church early and picking a prime spot... I've no idea what they sound like, who they are, why they're here but I like the lead Sandwich on sight, he has a look of D Boon about him and something of the manner of a more likeable less full of himself Ricky Gervais... that has got to be the shittest description of anyone ever... sorry... he may look like D Boon but sadly he has the personality of a nicer Ricky Gervais... yeh, cheers for that... I'm not doing the band any favours, am I? Let me say this, though, they were fucking excellent (see, swearing, must be good and the word 'excellent' which is better than good) and here's why:

LOUD! primitive POP! songs about getting pregnant by your boss, mice, interminable televised games of tennis (a funk number), 'you are disgusting, you are disgusting, you are disgusting, but I still love you', plus genuinely funny deadpan between song asides

It was all over too soon, but they were brilliant, a sort of surf band (if the surf was essentially a threshing machine) who recalled some of the more awkward bands from the eighties/nineties (take your pick)

I want more of this, please

If there was a way of deleting the Ricky Gervais comparison I would but I don't think you can

Following Anguish Sandwich I sat out on the grass and watched friends' wee kids frolic about, dancing... Lisa and Sam's Ted coloured in Emelie's Moomin tattoo with his pens (he's not even 2 yet) and then I drew him another 'moo moo' for him to colour in (this time on paper not human skin)

Missed yet more bands

Wandering about I discovered Mat Pat of the Specific Heats was about to play a short set on the train... or so we all thought

Mat Patalano

Held hostage by Mat Pat from the Specific Heats for nearly 40 minutes on a hot train and nobody's complaining, Mat treats us to a selection of Heats hits and some well chose covers including a dreamy cover of Mickey and Sylvia's 'Love is Strange' with Marie Sock Puppet (who helpfully mimes keyboards) and Belle and Sebastian's 'String Bean Jean' which even to a BelleandSebastianaphobe like myself sounds winning... Mat plays 'Ice Cream Shoppe' twice and we all sing along... Mat and Marie also provide us with donuts and Mat having run out of songs to sing gives us a mini-lecture on Doctor Who (he's in favour of it)

Free from Mat's evil but very personable clutches I catch the tail end of The Sweet Nothings set in the Shed, the band are joined by various members of Math and Physics Club and Very Truly Yours for a rousing 'Dr Beeching' (the guests are on train whistles) and they do that Abba song too

More blue drinks

Zipper

Madrid's Zipper played the festival a few years back and were great then and are even better this time around... instant happy, that's what Zipper are about, a buzzsaw POP! racket- perfect for this glorious Summer Sunday afternoon... cue more frenzied head nodding and rump shaking from me and more rhythmic and expert contributions from everyone else in attendance

Zipper are a top turn, they perform 'Badge' ('this is a song for Stephen Pastel') and I go all weak at the knees

So weak there's no way I can get to the Church on time for Horowitz... they've packed the place out, I don't know what to do, I see the opening of Very Truly Yours and am then conflicted, I'd like to stay but I promised myself and my dear mother that I would go see Jeffrey Lewis, I've never seen him before and I wanted to see if the hoopla was true

Jeffrey Lewis

Yeh, it's true, the Jeff Lewis rolling roadshow was great, joined by Herman Dune on a couple of songs, the first Sonic Youth cover of the evening ('100%', I believe), that mosquito rap, lots of stuff I don't know (a song about a bus) because I'm not a Jeffrey Lewis nut... on this evidence I felt kind of silly about that, kind of careless/thoughtless- a top turn

Withered Hand

Back outside for Withered Hand... the sun beginning to set... Withered Hand are a band I love, I want them to do well, I know they will but perhaps more than any band on the bill they are an odd fit (perhaps)... for me they are one of those bands I have most wanted to see on an Indietracks bill, I want them to get a good crowd and for that crowd to feel what I feel... because I'm a fan

I shouldn't have worried (but I suppose you do, don't you? about that stuff you love...), Withered Hand have plenty of people on side here today... more so once they're done... there's fierce sometimes bruising emotion at the heart of Dan Withered Hand's songs, real soul, wracked and cracked, bloody and honest... and, yet, between songs- and, indeed, during with Dan's sharp witty sometimes mordant lyrics- Dan is a warm engaging funny presence... he can have you laughing one minute, sobbing the next, that lad... I spy Gordon Ballboy front and centre for this, Ballboy and Withered Hand are bands of a similar stripe it occurs to me- struck by the bleeding obvious... well, I can see certain similarities, but it wasn't obvious until I saw Gordon stood there vigorously singing Dan's songs back at him

Amongst all the songs we love there's a huge immense brilliant fantastic new (to me, at least) song called 'Heart Heart'- an instant floorfilling footstomping punch your fist in the air POP! hit

In an ecstasic burst of sweaty abandon I manage to lift my feet up off the floor for this, kicking dust, having a proper dance

It's all rather spectacular (the song, not my dancing, which is perfunctory at best)

Dan has a knack of articulating that feeling of being on the other side of youthful giddy abandon... that moment where you find yourself all too acutely self aware, that moment when... 'in the greater scheme of things... I am nothing'

Which is either highly depressing or deeply liberating, depending on your point of view

He's a poet... yeh, I wrote that, I stand by that, a poet and a soul singer... I was awestruck after seeing Withered Hand, I'm not sure anything could really follow it, anything would seem lacking

I've never seen Herman Dune before and, truth be told, barely heard 'em, a lot of people talk them up before they play... I'm not quite feeling it, if I'm honest, probably because Withered Hand wrenched every last bit of emotion out of me but others do 'feel it', Jeff and Jack Lewis join 'em for a cover of Sonic Youth's 'Dirty Boots' that gets our attention but mostly Herman Dune play while we eat food, try to get our legs back, chat... I am struck by how beautiful the site looks, the sun down, the weekend moving to it's close... I don't want it to end but if it must then under this beautiful evening sky, all these people together, it seems a nice way to bring it to a close

Then I quit being soppy and decide I need to dance it up some

Lynsey and Colin from Glasgow's 'Half My Heart Beats' are DJ'ing in the Shed and I get in for the final seconds of Airport Girl's 'The Foolishness That We Create Through Love Is The Closest We Come To Greatness'... I do have a dance to The Crabapples, Betty and the Werewolves and Beat Happening but I have to confess, by this point, my knees have gone... I flail my arms about and wiggle my hips, it's quite the display... reconvening after and Hayley's feet are tired, we're both done for... some final conversations follow, Hayley compliments Neil from Withered Hand (and Meurseult) on his Wolves in the Throne Room t-shirt, Neil bigs up Zipper, I attempt to get Dan Withered Hand (and band) back to Nottingham... time will tell

We get the last but one train to Butterley, I'm hoarse with a heavy heart, covered in dust, sunburned forehead, my legs hurt, we decide on getting a cab (lazy) and, as we wait on the concourse, sit for a moment and I take in the night's sky and the peace and quiet... I really don't want any of this to end and in a sense it doesn't... people go off to wherever they came from, they go to gigs, put gigs on, play gigs, buy records, make records, hang out, start up club nights, go to club nights, write fanzines, drone on at length testing people's goodwill on blogs like this one (or actually this one) and then they reconvene here at Indietracks and the various Popfests that have sprung up around the world and it abides and it sustains itself... on a wing and a prayer most of the time, I'm sure... 'the music will save you again and again'... it doesn't begin and end at Indietracks but it does sort of pull things and people together in a far more satisfying way than say the internet can, so in summary, it ain't half brilliant that Indietracks exists... cor!

Back to our hotel room exhausted and we flop onto the bed and I insist on watching the film 'Under Siege' on the telly (because of the pivotal integral to the plot cake scene), lying in bed with this preposterous nonsense playing I drift in and out of sleep... Steven Segal is at next year's Indietracks, I imagine breathless conversations by the merch tent about his expert killings... it's all a bit peculiar (the inside of my head), I miss him doing in Tommy Lee Jones at the finale because in my dreams I'm in the church watching some bunch of herberts getting up to allsorts singing about something or other... I wake up with a chuckle

Monday 1st August

Home.

It's a bit shit going home after Indietracks, despite some of the consolations of being at home

The day after Indietracks and it's back to work tomorrow, I take off the wristband...

The Maxines

2011-07-26T20:21:00.002+01:00

the maxines, originally uploaded by sarahcass.

Love this clip and pretty certain I love this band... forever and always

EP out on K Records later in the year... listen to/fall in love with them here

A Fog of Ideas #2: Pocketbooks Interview

2011-07-18T10:45:00.004+01:00

The second and probably final issue of my print fanzine A Fog of Ideas #2 came out last year (2010) and included this interview with Pocketbooks (from 2008, with a postscript from 2010), I thought I'd post it here, just because:

Pocketbooks are Andy, Johnny, Emma, Daniel and Ian.

Pocketbooks make POP music.

Pocketbooks make smart, incisive POP music.

Pocketbooks lyrics are playful and knowing, they can make me feel wistful, sad even, sometimes hopeful, more often than not less alone.

Pocketbooks lyrics are oftentimes really on the money, capturing those moments between moments, naming the unnamable emotions that fizz and blister in the everyday. They make me think of London. And of living just outside London. And of being skint and making an attempt at a life living in and around London despite all that. They remind me of being in my twenties, that period when youthful exuberance can turn to bitter experience. They make me think of feeling carefree and are something of a salve for when I'm feeling careworn. They make me think of my friends, who are younger than me, the bright young adults I patronise but who seem to put up with me being around anyway.

Life isn't perfect but Pocketbooks seem to smooth off the sharp corners and illuminate the darker ones, which makes them sound like oddjob men (and a lady).

I can't convince anyone with just words that Pocketbooks are all that. Go and have a listen.

I don't think they know how good they are and probably that's all for the better. I'm not just blowing smoke up their collective fundaments either, lovely people as they may be I heart Pocketbooks because they are without fanfare and bluster an utterly brilliant vital catchy POP band, the sort of band I feel compelled to pin my heart to.

The following interview took place at the end of 2008:

Fog: Who are you and how/when/why did you end up in Pocketbooks?

Andy: I started recording songs on a four-track cassette player and putting them on the internet as 'Pocketbooks' in 2005. Somehow Ian (How Does It Feel To Be Loved?) and Marianthi (Spiral Scratch) stumbled across them and wrote to offer gigs, so I tried to put a band together. The first to reply were our former guitarists Ben and Mark, plus a drummer called Gary. We had what I thought was a really fun rehearsal in my flat, but Gary called the next day to say he was leaving as he was looking for something a bit more 'together'. He was very nice about it though! Fortunately Ben and Mark were happy to keep going, otherwise it could have been a very short-lived thing.

Jonny: If my rather poor memory serves me right I think Ian (How Does It Feel) brought the 'Books and I together. So I met up with the band for an afternoon drink/'interview' and ended up partying with them at Spiral Scratch 'til the early hours. They hadn't heard me drum at all, but that night Dan said something along the lines of "You've put up with us til midnight - as far as I'm concerned you're in the band". And thus it was written. Basically now, anyone who is still hanging round with us after midnight automatically becomes a member of the band.

Emma: Dan, Mark and I were in another (ROCK) band together, but we were bored with it all. We kept trying to introduce melodies and they weren’t having any of it. Mark was first to leave after responding to Andy’s advert. Shortly after he’d played us some of Andy’s songs, Dan and I followed. I don’t think the remaining members were too thrilled about that! It was unclear what everyone’s role was in Pocketbooks back then – we kind of made it up as we went, just happy to be playing some melodic songs!

Daniel: I was in a band with Emma and Mark (ex guitarist) and Mark invited us along to a Pocketbooks rehearsal. I rather disingenuously claimed to be a drummer. My stint on the throne (no, not that one) lasted about a year. I'm still here though.

Ian: Hello. I'm Ian and I play guitar in Pocketbooks. I've been in the band for around 18 months and before that I was just a fan of the band. I booked them a couple of times for the Spiral Scratch nights that I co-run and got to know the band through that and seeing them out and about. When I heard they needed a new guitar player I jumped at the chance, impressed them by playing the theme tune from Friends and I was in.

Fog: What does 2009 hold for Pocketbooks? When is the LP due out? What label's it coming out on?

Emma: The album is due out in Spring, but that's all I can tell you for the time being or certain people will have my guts for garters! I can say that we're pretty chuffed with how it's turned out, though. We had a lot of fun making it and have worked with some lovely people.

Fog: Do you have grand ambitions for the band?

Jonny: To make a 'Head'-style Pocketbooks feature film. The Chuckle Brothers will play our managers. It will be tops.

Emma: I want to play lots more gigs abroad – we love abroad! I’ve never had any desire to ‘go travelling’, but being in a band could be the perfect way to visit some other countries without having to live out of a backpack and wash your hair with talc.

Fog: Do you see yourselves as 'defiantly independent' or is it a matter of circumstance?

Andy: I think we’re pretty independent, but it depends what you mean really. All the best things that happen to us always involve the support of other people, whether it’s labels releasing our songs, promoters putting us on at gigs or people writing about us, etc. So we’re not independent in that sense and we really appreciate people helping us out. The only thing we can really do by ourselves is write and play songs, and we’re probably defiantly independent about that. For everything else, we’re happy to be helped by anyone as long as they have good intentions.

Jonny: I think we all come from a similar DIY / independent-music mindset, which eases decision-making somewhat. It's really part of the fun of this scene that we find ourselves in.

Fog: What does 'indiepop' mean to you?

Andy: For me, ‘indiepop’ describes a friendly community where everyone feels encouraged to try things out and make things happen. That could mean starting a label, promoting gigs, starting a band, writing a blog, making t-shirts or anything else. It’s a community that always seems to encourage new ideas and new people. Musically, I’m not sure you can really pin it down, but that’s fine, you don’t really need to.

Jonny: Passion, melody & community. Or Argos percussion.

Emma: It’s having the freedom to be as creative as you like with the music, and supporting others doing the same.

Daniel: Pop done right.

Ian: Well, in the lowest terms indiepop means a convenient tag that I can use to describe the music I mostly listen to in hope some people know what I'm talking about. The indiepop community is important to me for its like-mindedness, enthusiastic approach and its ability to not see anything as failure.

Fog: What's been your personal highlight of being a Pocketbook so far?

Andy: I think it’ll be a brilliant feeling when we finally send our finished album to the printers. However, the best thing for me has been being able to travel around to places and meet loads of fun people. Playing the festivals in Sweden and Indietracks was brilliant, but I’ve also loved getting the train to places like Brighton and Nottingham, or even just walking up the road from my house to the Luminaire, to play a gig and chat to loads of people that I might never have met otherwise.

Jonny: 'Rip It Up' festival in Sweden. Absolutely wonderful, sometimes I think I just dreamt it all. I worry one day I'll wake up and find Bobby Ewing in my shower, and realise I never was a Pocketbook at all.

Emma: That whole week of Rip It Up, Indietracks warm-ups, then Indietracks itself, was both hectic and hilarious, and I think it was when everything clicked for us as a group. I’ll never forget it!

Daniel: I think the opportunity to travel around, skiving off from work and meeting ace people. Sweden in particular was somewhere I wanted to go but probably wouldn't have found the time without Pocketbooks.

Ian: Indietracks 2008 has been my highlight so far, the best gig I've ever played on one of the best weekends I ever had.

Fog: Who'd play Pocketbooks in a film of Pocketbooks life if the actual Pocketbooks weren't able to appear in it (for contractual reasons)?

Daniel: Only if it was contractual? What if one of us were ill or had a sprained ankle? I'd have:

Maggie Jones (Blanche in Corro) as Emma
John Altman as Ian
Roddy Piper as Jonny
Brendan Fraser as Andy
also starring Kevin Bacon as Me (Dan)

We could have Peter Lorre as our sinister manager and maybe Ray Winstone or someone as our roadie.

Jonny: Do you know something we don't? Anyway, I think this lot would do a sterling job, if they're available:

Andy - Richard Ayoyade (obvious physical resemblance)
Emma - Clare Grogan (aww, she's just cool)
Ian - Nick Cave (attempting Ian's accent)
Dan - Vic & Bob (might be confusing for some viewers)
Me - Ringo Starr's character from 'Candy'. "Viva Zapata!"

Otherwise if they're not available, it would be quite freaky if we were all played by one of our siblings.

Ian: An Indiepop Carry On special starring ...
Barbara Windsor - Emma
Kenneth Williams - Andy
Sid James - Ian
Charles Hawtrey - Dan
Bernard Bresslaw – Jonny

Fog: What song do you wish you'd written (not by Pocketbooks)?

Daniel: I'd have written the ultimate pop tune of all time... 'Telstar' by The Tornados. I can't get enough of that tune! I swear that Joe Meek travelled forward in time, stole my idea for that one, went back and recorded it. So, anyway, defamation over.

Jonny: Probably something incredibly simple but poignant like "Bachelor Kisses", but really to be able to write any pop song that connects with people is pretty amazing to me.

Ian: I wish I could write something simple and timeless like 'Spanish Harlem' by Phil Spector and Ben E. King.

Emma: Probably something by Kitchens of Distinction – most likely ‘Quick As Rainbows’. It’s my favourite song ever and I never tire of it! Either that or one of those horribly catchy Christmas songs that’s on every TV advert, so I could live off the royalties and have more time to write good songs!

Andy: I'd love us to write a song like 'Babies' by Pulp. It's a complete pop classic. I love the way the lyrics tell a story from beginning to end and the way the music rises and falls perfectly with the words. Obviously, we could never carry off that song anywhere near as well as Jarvis, so it's probably best that they wrote it!

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Fast forward to May this year and…

Fog: What's 2010 bringing for Pocketbooks? A new LP? Single/s?

Daniel: We have been learning some new songs which were supposed to get their premiere at the Copenhagen Popfest, which we couldn't make because of all the Iceland volcanic ash. In terms of actual releases I guess that is all determined by things like how many new songs we learn/how well we play them and so on. I'm sure I speak for all of the others in saying that we'd love to do another LP.

Fog: You won't be appearing at Indietracks this year, you're very closely affiliated with the festival, what was behind that decision?

Emma: Three of us are on the team that runs the festival, and so far we have played every year in some capacity, although I'm not sure the train sing-along in 2007 counts! We thought us playing again this year might be overkill, especially when there's so many other brilliant bands around that we wanted to play. Dan, Jonny and Ian will be popping up in other bands over the weekend (The Loves and The Sunny Street) so Pocketbooks won't be completely absent!

Fog: Do all the band have 'other stuff' on? The mighty tendrils of Pocketbooks seem to extend quite far, in other words please plug your non-Pocketbooks endeavours here

Daniel: I think we do actually all have other stuff on! Ian is part of London Popfest as well as Spiral Scratch, who have started putting on nights in London again after a 100 year break, along with playing in two other bands called The Sunny Street and Electrophonvintage. Emma and Andy do quite a lot of the behind-the-scenes stuff for Indietracks and Jonny and myself are playing in The Loves (members 36454 and 36455) and One Fathom Down which is an instrumental band with a surf edge to it.

(Dan's omitted to mention his own solo project, Hot Booth, who've just released a 4 song cassette single on Odd Box records, limited to 50 copies… actually, it's probably sold out now)

Fog: And finally, what advice would you give an erstwhile fanzine writer who interviews a band and then doesn't get around to publishing that interview until nearly 18 months later?

Daniel: Pull your finger out.

http://www.pocketbooks.org.uk/
http://www.myspace.com/thesunnystreet
http://www.myspace.com/lovetheloves
http://www.myspace.com/electrophonvintage
http://www.myspace.com/onefathomdown
http://www.indietracks.co.uk/
http://londonpopfest.com/

Fog: The rather sub-par drawings accompanying this article were by me, apologies to whoever originally took the photographs I stole/traced

Pocketbooks 'Promises, Promises'

2011-07-18T10:08:00.002+01:00

Somewhere in the deep tumult of my brain lives a world of make believe assumptions I take as true fact... for example, that if I switch on Radio 2 I will be greeted by somebody like Ken Bruce or Brian Matthew speaking in warming, friendly, velvetty tones who will cue up a POP record that will be lovely and lilting and soothing and turn a shitty shitey shoddy day into something full of wonder and promise and I will be lifted and made all better and will do something like pat the radio with my hand and tell it 'thank you'

In reality whenever I do turn on Radio 2 I get some prannet off the telly guffing nonsense out of their unwiped dirty front mouth as they play songs that grate and hurt and make me feel tired and neurotic and ready to end it all... I kick the radio and go out into the world angry and frothing insensibly at the mouth

This isn't any good for anyone, it might explain why the world is the way it is...

Fortunately, for me- and perhaps for you, perhaps even the world, if the world would listen- there is/are Pocketbooks

I'm listening to 'Promises, Promises' off the new LP

This is the song that would come on whenever I tune the radio to Radio 2, the song that would make me believe the world is a welcome and lovely place, warm and wonderful, irresistible and happening, the sort of world you open the curtains to and let the sunshine in for

All because of Pocketbooks

There's a free download of 'Promises, Promises' here

Which will be available on the new LP 'Carousel' released in September 2011 (just in time for my birthday... just saying) on the essential bordering on valiant, heroic Odd Box records

http://www.pocketbooks.org.uk/

The Tunabunny Post (Finally)

2011-07-10T11:57:00.010+01:00

'Pop/rock music in the 21st century is a played-out corpse picked over by  overprivileged boys and girls hoping to manufacture a personality for  themselves out of something that other people think is cool. That is why  Tunabunny thinks of pop/rock as something that should be destroyed, or  at the very least subverted, but would probably be better for everyone  involved if it simply ceased to exist. The members of Tunabunny are  interested in revolution, which, contrary to popular thought, ceased to  exist in the pop/rock world a long time ago, even as a latent impulse.  As such, Tunabunny wonders just what it is doing here, and what exactly  it hopes to accomplish.'

-Tunabunny calling card  

"So you seek to destroy - this has all been planned
Can you help us? Can you understand?
So you are yourself; so that is something
Everything I see  - I wouldn't change a thing"

- 'Real Shocks' Swell Maps 

Tunabunny is four people from Athens, Ga., 22-feet high and weighing just over 500 pounds.

Tunabunny is also the name of a breakdancer from Waco, Texas.

- the first two entries from 'an introduction to Tunabunny', here

Tunabunny hopes that when you lie down your toes are a firing squad.

- the final entry from 'an introduction to Tunabunny', see link above

In the fall, we will finally get our passports and fly to England to play a few shows along with our good friends Hug Abuse. We will have all of our contact info. We will have suitcases full of clothes. We will not lie to customs guards. We will not be smeared with cake.

- Tunabunny prediction from January this year

The Tunabunny LP, if you don't know, is a fucking piece of work, best played from start to finish LOUD, really fucking LOUD and ideally when you're alone and making plans, scheming, getting things done... that can be top secret underground bunker style or cleaning the oven or cycling up a hill in torrential unGodly rain

By all means listen with friends and dinner guests in your quaint suburban homes but BE AWARE that once this LP gets under your skin like some alien disease having a loved one cock a snook and curl a lip or raise a sarcastic eyebrow to what yr getting down to/what you've given yr heart to will mean that you will have no choice but to remove that person from your life forever... spouses, childhood sweethearts, parents, children... you may never want them in your life again if they don't absolutely GET Tunabunny

It's that kind ov a record, dig?

Tunabunny, once, at the behest of their label boss and Bond villain, Mike Turner (Happy Happy Birthday To Me records), played a complete set consisting solely of them playing one song, Andy Kaufman's 'I Trusted YOU', the drummer wore a cape

A smartarse joke? A wiseacre stunt? The inspired act of a band who care enough to care?

YOU DECIDE> freedom ride!

It's kind of impossible to fathom but for most bands that really would be taking an impossible RISK- in the sense that doing that you don't get to play any of your precious songs, but you do get to play this goofy 'joke' song instead and if you're Tunabunny you really get to go at it, like your life depended on it for nearly twenty minutes

As a spectator you either come out at the end of it untouched or absolutely touched (whether baffled/delighted/concerned/amused/angry/totally into it and not wanting it to ever end... or all of those things). It was that that turned me on to Tunabunny, the LP and the split 12" with Hulaboy have that same thing (the split 12" giving up one side to Tunabunny's epic 'Outerspace is the Center of the Earth' that takes the listener off on a 19 minute plus journey into 'the beyondness'... as dear Everett True notes, 'it really gets going around the 13-minute mark'), it's POP music but it's not afraid to test yr mettle, even turn you off, repel, irritate, annoy

Tunabunny remind me a little of The Fall and Sonic Youth (around 'EVOL' and 'Sister') or the likes of The Raincoats and the Swell Maps who I quoted all the way up at the top of the page- but they're not slavish copyists- it's just a similar mindset/approach/attack/sense of mischief/sense that these things matter

Tunabunny have filled the greyer moments of my waking hours with lots of vivid incandescent colour and welcome inspirational drama as I've waded through the daily what-have-you's of my being

Interlude

Exactly how many bands do we need that sound a bit like the Shop Assistants/'Marychain? That namecheck the hitmakers at the Brill Building and Spector's Wall of Sound and that can be quite diverting, I don't hate them, I don't begrudge them, there just seems so many of them, one comes along it's exciting, two is fun, three is nice, twelve seems too many, more than twelve you wonder if it's a Government plot, like putting mind controlling substances in the water supply... there just seems so bloody many of them... or so it seems, perhaps it's those bloggers who make it seem like every other band is copping that particular pose of late, those bloggers with their press releases and cellular phones and need to post daily, post anything, this'll do...

I'm not pitting Tunabunny against what seems vogueish right now... but what I absolutely do like/love about Tunabunny is that they are coming at this alternative popular song lark from a more obtuse angle and it's the better for it... it's more playful, less rehearsed and less posed... it seems more honest, it's probably deeply affected and contrived but it doesn't smell that way, it's smells fresh and appealing

The really great bands, for me, create a dialogue, a two-way conversation between them and you that remaps your brain and your relationship with the world... does that sound pretentious? Pseudish? Well, fuck it, what do you want? Isn't that what art does? To me, it seems counter-intuitive to the very notion of creating music to be thinking so carefully of how you sound to your audience in the sense that you end up being afraid you might lose them and end up playing safe, working within clearly defined parameters, never daring to surprise or confound or confuse... surely you can only honestly make music if it sits well with yourself, in terms of if it's sincere and genuine, if that's what matters most, isn't that how you touch people?- I admit, I am rather naive and romantic about these things- but I'd hope if I was in a band I'd want more than to just have a passive role in somebody's life, to act as background music as they drive to places or have dinner parties or spray themselves with Lynx bodyspray and tease their hair with Shockwaves define and shine wax... I wouldn't want to be in a band that was just background, an accessory in somebody's life after the fact, I'd want to be pretty fucking central to how that person lives their life and sees the world and listens to the world... I wouldn't want to be in the band that are 'quite good' because they remind someone of that other band that they liked from that time before... 

So, if you're considering forming a band maybe don't just be a copy of a copy of a copy... because it all starts to get a little indistinct 

Um, therefore, be distinctive!

Interlude over, here's the sales pitch

Tunabunny... it's July and I've been sent a press release, as one of those bloggers I must post it verbatim:

'Tunabunny is, for now, less of a criminal  element that it used to be.  On last year’s debut album, you had to  listen closely to hear the Blondie, to hear the Abba, to hear the pop.  Some people just heard noise. Some people thought it was glorious. The  album received rave reviews in some unexpected places, including Everett  True in Australia (‘this music makes me deliriously happy’) and a top-5  end of year placing on the BBC’s website. This spring saw a successful  tour of the eastern half of the USA.  Now comes ‘(Song For My) Solar  Sister,’ the advance single for Minima Moralia, due out in August. The album marks an unprecedented leap, like the one that took Nirvana from Bleach to Nevermind, like Pavement from those early ep’s to Slanted & Enchanted. This year’s Tunabunny marks a shift from noise towards melody, from chaos towards structure, from indifference towards rapture, It signals a Tunabunny  more pop, yet more intense; more accessible, yet more desperate; more  comforting, and yet more uncomfortable. Taken with its B-side, the  single tells a story; it is in conversation with itself. One side says  hello to the future as the other one closes a door on the past: optimism  vs. defeat, victory vs. mourning, warm guitars vs. icy synths, one lead  singer vs. the other. You could conceivably keep listening, keep  flipping it over and over, and still hear more details emerge, continue  to still be enthralled, still attempting to decipher the mystery, to  figure it out, to get the bottom of things. Not unlike life itself.'

And, dear reader, the new Tunabunny single '(Song For My) Solar Sister' is fucking amazing (swearing for emphasis), it's like an arm around your shoulder from a big sister, an arm around the shoulder when you most need one, that sort of a moment, it's got hooks (in that it has a bit in it that gets repeated that you listen out for and that makes your heart leap when it comes back- is that a hook? I'm not musical, I just jabber on about music in a breathless gushing overly earnest way, see) and it sounds like woozy summer, hot pavements and mooching purposefully with no particular place to go... doesn't that sound enticing? It clatters and crashes and the singer sings and there's backing vocals and it's a POP record, anthemic, consoling and, to these ears, irresistible

So, yeh, that new LP is going to blow up, be sure you're all aboard the Tunabunny express train into yr skull (whatever that might mean), you'll look a prize chump if you're not

P.S. Dear Tunabunny, please come to the UK in 'the fall', bring Sourpatch and Hug Abuse with you, thank you

http://hhbtm.com/category.php?manufacturer_id=58

http://www.myspace.com/tunabunnybunny

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Tunabunny/46713719033

http://tunabunny.tumblr.com/

The Groove Farm 'I Know It's Only Indiepop But I Like It' (Big Pink Cake)

2011-07-03T12:19:00.005+01:00

'We may be through with the past, but the past ain't through with us.'

I watched 'Magnolia' again last night, I mention that as an aside, it's surprising to realise the film is 12 years old, I must have seen it more than a dozen times, thirty six hours of my life at least as Hayley pointed out, one viewing for every year that's ticked by at least... it may not be everybody's cup of tea, admittedly, but it appeals to me... and it gets richer, possibly more profound the older I get. That's not to imply that I am too, that it's some symbiotic thing... that I'm wiser so I can appreciate the wisdom in the film as I get older... I seem, in life and in general, to understand less and less, I seem to achieve less, do less, manage less, cope less...

'I used to be smart. But now I'm just stupid.'

I was born at the tail end of the 1960's, I was late for the moon landing (starting a lifetime of never quite being there for the bumper book of history's most significant moments), I was a child in the seventies, a teenager in the eighties, a young adult in the nineties and I crashed spectacularly into the 21st century and find myself here, forty fucking one years old, burdened by debt, regret and thinking if I'm graced another 20 years what can I achieve in that time and what can I be allowed to achieve in that time given all the debt and the regret and circumstance and Government and what I'm like and the ever decreasing circles (not the sitcom, or, yes, perhaps the sitcom) that I find myself mired in... yeh, I know which end of the stick I'm holding... it's the one marked self-pitying no hoper and it's covered in shit

You came here from an indiepop review, I'm guessing, you want mention of anoraks and wowwypops and all that?

Well, I'm getting to all that...

'Our future's terminal and anything good will do' (Comet Gain 'The Ballad Of A Mix Tape')

We find our consolations where we can...

This week: Music (specifically POP!)

So, consolations... sometimes that involves going forward by going backwards... this can take the form of gleeful nostalgia, wallowing in long forgotten feelings/sensations/vibrations and remembering yer former thinner spottier self who had a full head of hair and seemed like they might achieve sunnink, anyfink, didn't know what, didn't have a clue, just did- SKILLFUL! (*two thumbs aloft*)

Or else it's going back and discovering something you either a) never knew existed or b) had an inkling of but never really listened to properly before and that music or whatever meets you, ideally, fresh and new, perhaps even brilliant and vivid and shiny- yeh, you can identify it to a particular place and time but it's meeting your ears for the first time and when it clicks, when you 'get it', it's the start of something, a beginning

And it's a beautiful thing, maaan, if it's any good

The moment

What is indiepop?

It doesn't really matter (although, by crikey, it does!), you may have an idea, you might not, the very word may make you sigh inwardly and roll your eyes, it may make you feel terribly emboldened and like you're part of something (something terribly important), you may just flick your fringe in your eyes and do a big dopey grin with your head slightly to one side as a chorus of 'ba ba ba's' go off in your head... you might feel punky, you might feel dreamy, you might go all shy, you might get all shouty, you might go off and start a fanzine and flexi revolution (again) in your head...

The Groove Farm existed between 1986 and 1990. They were from Bristol (well, in the sense that that's where the band got together and were based) and, I'll be honest, they were a band I didn't properly get into back then ... which in hindsight is annoying, because like the moon landing, I missed out, but this time I didn't have the excuse of not being born yet... in my defence, there were a lot of records to buy, I got what records I could with the money I had and I got what I could in provincial Essex and Hertfordshire where I lived... that I managed to get very much of anything at all was something of a victory... thank you, Parrot Records in Harlow and Tracks in Ware & Hertford (don't look for them they're not there anymore)

But in 1990 I did pick up the 'Present' EP, I was working in Harlow Our Price by this point, the lovely Russell, the SRD rep recommended it to me and I got a copy off the back of his van... by this point the Groove Farm were nearly at an end... I was late to the party again... so I had the party on my own, because sometimes you have to, the world wouldn't listen (the world being the small patch of Hertfordshire/Essex I lived in at the time) but, then again, if the world doesn't understand, then the world has got to learn!

It's therefore a delight to find Big Pink Cake have released a Groove Farm compilation and a thing of beauty it is too... I've been gifted a copy and it's fucking ACE (swearing for emphasis)!

21 years after the Groove Farm locked its gate, I'm pleased to say the world has been invited back in (warning! 'amusing' farming references/mutilated metaphors follow) so hop on a tractor and let the boys plough your field... the field in your heart... your field of POP!, um, corn... or something... sorry

We'll never be that young again

Any band that began with a love for The June Brides and The Milkshakes is clearly doing things properly... the amusing/heartbreaking story of The Groove Farm is here in the 'Absolute Beginners' sleevenotes... it's a very English tale of intent and expectation being blighted by often grim reality (or the late eighties), sometimes- they admit, refreshingly, they didn't always get it right ('Shockingly bad record!' is how the first LP is described) but the Groove Farm kept at it, having a go, often at odds with the prevailing tastes and fashions... 'not for the first time, we felt like outsiders, we didn't seem to fit in anywhere', writes Groove Farmer, Andrew Arthur Jarrett, in the sleeves before adding, 'time to get back in the garage...'

The Groove Farm were a garage indiepop band, the played with gusto, damn you bet.

'No Friend Of Mine', track 18 on the compilation is a sort of cover of The Sparkles song of the same name that appears on the Nuggets box ('we couldn't make out the words, so we just made up our own version'), the songs that most appeal to me (in that I fucking love 'em and could and will and have played them over and over) are the most frenzied and animated ones, of which there are many...

'Nancy Sinatra' is a stormer, an instant pop classic, all fizz, spark and fire, the two songs from the 'Present' EP ('Stop!' and 'Just A Silly Phase I'm Going Through') equally so... they have that thing where the music and the words pound, crash, chime, spin you giddy and pull at your heartstrings/knicker elastic... dragging up all those pit of the stomach feelings that could be glee but might just spell disaster... those sort of feelings you think you grow out of but never do... all that lovey dovey yearning lusting heartsies stuff but played like it feels, which is exhausting, blissfully so... it's why people skateboard, isn't it? so they can fall off, scrape their knees but get back on again (love, I'm referring to... and listening to pop music)

'Captain Fantastic' manages to sound, to these ears at least, like The Fall's 'Industrial Estate' wrestling The Claim in a skip... which is a recommendation

The rest of the compilation is splendid, there's one or two tracks that don't quite register as vividly as others but that's how these things work, isn't it? 'I Know It's Only Indiepop...'really does deserve to be heard and to be played loud, it's a shot in the arm this collection, a pick me up, a kick up the arse and a pat on the back

Most importantly the compilation, for me, manages to pluck The Groove Farm from the misconceived 'also ran' bin and makes me wonder what else needs investigating in there... as compilations of that era (let's call it 'eighties indie') and that ilk go we've been blessed with very many in the last few years, the Dolly Mixture none more complete one, the excellent Sub Pop Vaselines collection, the June Brides anthology, Cherry Red, LTM and Damaged Goods have some first class (plus plus) collections too, plus many more... it's gratifying to see Big Pink Cake doing equally fine work

This isn't all flies in amber stuff though, it's not butterfly collecting, sticking specimens under glass... well, I hope it's not... I'm looking for something, something to keep my head sparking and my feet moving and hips wiggling, I can find it in the here and now and I can find it rooting back through mine and other people's record collections and with compilations like this one... forward in all directions and all that

'The music will save you again and again' (Comet Gain 'Thee Ecstatic Library')

The Groove Farm, they were rather more than 'The Wedding Present with toy instruments' (which I'd like to hear and I make no apologies for that)

I know it's only indiepop but I like it

'And... no, it is not dangerous to confuse children with angels!'

http://www.bigpinkcake.co.uk/news/the-groove-farm-bpc004/

http://groovefarm.webs.com/

P.S. The quotes in italics are from the film 'Magnolia'... pretentious, moi?

'You're Gonna Screw My Head Off'

2011-04-06T22:06:00.000+01:00

Here's Comet Gain and Crystal Stilts performing a splendid cover of the Len Bright Combo's 'You're Gonna Screw My Head Off' at last week's London show at Cargo

This song was covered on the Cinema Red and Blue album that featured David from Comet Gain plus various other jolly good stephens from Crystal Stilts, The Clean, Ladybug Transistor and The Aislers Set

Lovely

'He's rubbing his eyes, there's no exit signs': Comet Gain 'Howl of the Lonely Crowd' LP

2011-04-03T13:45:00.011+01:00

‘the letters we read that were written in red

luminous language and what was said

our future’s terminal and anything good will do

we will do it today and then throw it away

these are the records, these are the friends

these are the monuments, dreams never end

phantom scrapheap cassette sounds

pagan ampex spectral clouds 

and something is missing’

‘the ballad of a mix tape’ (‘city fallen leaves’)

Life is impermanence; I suppose that's something it took me nearly a lifetime to figure out and longer to accept, if I even have

Things end

Life is full of unwanted surprises and endings

For example, sat at a bedside in A&E at two in the morning, the car ride there, following the ambulance, feeling very alone, a stomach pumped, black vomit, one long night hangs over the rest of our lives, everything else, relationships that falter (my own, other people's), implode, expire, through cruelty/neglect, other people's broken lives, the grinding realisation that you can't fix things/lives/people, that you can't fix yourself, that sometimes life is hopeless and relentless and cruel...

...........

‘oh poor snowflake are you lost?

are you lost?

oh you brittle concrete swans

we should have let them have their fun

oh be young, be someone

be someone rebel, vicious, dumb’

‘clang of the concrete swans’ (‘howl of the lonely crowd’) 

I was planning to paint myself as one of life's perennial losers here but I've had the good fortune to sneak a preview copy of the new Comet Gain LP so that's the arse fallen clean out of that over rehearsed pose...

Small things, big things, you fill them with whatever significance you feel they deserve

Comet Gain have been one of those bands I've felt most keenly these last few years... they matter an awful lot to me, this life of quiet desperation I lead it needs some soul and poetry  and fire and something to pull my heart skyward... beyond the consolations of the every day

So, when life seems to serve up row upon row of lemons and I find myself having to suck those lemons and those lemons are rather tart and acidic and I pull a big face that says I'm not enjoying sucking these lemons please don’t think that I am but it’s my lot in life, that’s why I’m sucking lemons, Comet Gain records seem to come along and dish up a spoonful of sugar, an arm around the shoulder, a spare ciggy, a light and a reassuring nudge on the arm that says, 'yeh, life can be a bit shit, but keep on keeping on, etc- come on, let’s have a dance', before making my heart beat faster by doing some of their magnificent songs

In that sense the band feel like a friend - which makes them a pop band, in my estimation, it’s that sort of a relationship and that makes me a fan, a fan of a pop group, but not just any pop group, not just another band

Comet Gain are a proselytising poetic force in the universe, red wine spills and battered typewritten manifestos pinned to church doors, tilting at windmills perhaps, making life more interesting/understood

'dedicated intensity-outsiders feel, sneer n' fear, effeminate mods, going against comfort, so strut n'belong to all-nite dancing dressin up n' changing.'

That's not to suggest that Comet Gain are like the Samaritans or anything but they just have a serious knack for articulating the things I struggle to articulate: life's inevitable sadnesses, hard won victories and so on- they possess a fierce intelligence I lack... all served up with raw impassioned soul and rabble rousing/heart rending chipped bruised POPpunk! pUNK pOp! (songs! tunes! footstomping anthems for v'kids! something to believe in and pin yr heart to!)

Some Comet Gain songs sound stately and heart-stoppingly romantic, some sound like clattering rambunctious clarion calls to the restless mob

Whoever it was that described them as ‘defiantly optimistic’ summed Comet Gain up perfectly for me...

‘Let their howling hearts be heard’

‘clang of the concrete swans’ ('howl of the lonely crowd’)

In a Giant Robot review for 'Realistes' it was observed that here was an LP you dress up to listen to... not meaning that there was something ceremonial or reverential about the act of listening to Comet Gain but that, look here, they've made an effort so why the fuck don't you?

Every time I sit and type about a favourite record or band on this blog I think rather than me chuntering on as I am now wouldn't it be better to just go out and play the music at people (preferably locked in a room somewhere) really LOUD! until they admit, 'actually, yes, this is Fab Gear and I'm sorry I didn't believe you when you first ordered us into this underground car park against our will- but now I understand, this is the music that can be your life... like the title of a book which was a line from a song', to which I'll punch the air and mutter 'job done... finally' to myself and the world will be a better place

So forgive me my self-indulgences but here goes nuttin'...

I first saw/heard Comet Gain, if memory serves, at the Powerhaus in Islington supporting Huggy Bear and The Pastels- this was what I assume was the first line-up... that night was rather wonderful, heady, positively fecund... you got a sense everything was about to change and I felt a sense of accomplishment that I'd been there as it seemed like it was all about to kick off- that was long time ago now, there are people who will buy the new Comet Gain LP who were babies then, we were all babies in a way back then but some of us were in our twenties 

'We thought that our world wouldn't change, well we must have been out of our brains'

‘Brave Words’ The Chills

So, I think, if my memory is working properly, that the 'Holloway Sweethearts' EP followed that and I remember going to the Rough Trade shop in Neal's Yard in Covent Garden to pick that up, I think Darrell who worked there and ran Soul Static Sound (the record label the EP came out on) was busy assembling the sleeves when I pestered him excitedly for a copy

I loved Comet Gain because they nodded back to the Eighties, to the likes of Dan Treacy and The Pastels to Edwyn and to Dexys... it wasn't like they were paying their dues either, it was more they were taking certain approaches/attitudes as a blueprint... they didn't seem overly reverential

The song 'Kids at the Club' made/makes me want to stomp and shout... to the top!  

It’s the sort of song that gives you belief/faith

..........

17 years later from that first single (what a nice way to turn seventeen) Comet Gain’s sixth LP ‘Howl of the Lonely Crowd’ is released in May

It’s a highly impressive piece of work - potent, sometimes abrasive/acerbic, other times heartstoppingly beautiful, achingly poignant, vital

‘all I wants the impossible

the invisible

the sweet mythical’

‘some of us don’t want to saved’ (‘howl of the lonely crowd’)

It’s a natural follow on from 2005’s ‘City Fallen Leaves’, the sense of melancholy and bitter impassioned hope abides... and David Feck's unwavering determined belief that ‘the jukebox jive that keeps us alive’ and ‘the music will save you again and again’remains

And I have to believe David Feck when he sings those lines on ‘Thee Ecstatic Library’, taken out of context perhaps the words seem trite or to some of you laughable, god bless you for living such gilded lives that sentiments like that don’t register

I can hear elements of the Go Betweens and the Tyde on this LP, the Velvets and The Clean... Comet Gain are pop classicists but there’s an irreverence, waywardness and a restlessness to the band and their songs that I find hugely appealing... 

It’s immensely satisfying that, in particular, from ‘Realistes’ on to ‘Howl of the Lonely Crowd’(including the singles/extras compilation ‘Broken Record Prayers’) Comet Gain, for me, have consistently delivered records that hearten and embolden and make me thank fuck they exist.

At the heart of ‘Howl of the Lonely Crowd’ is one almighty fuck you of a song, imagine ‘Sister Ray’ played by some obscure but brilliant pacific northwest garage band with a ‘dedicated intensity outsider’ front and centre singing a song from the perspective of beat poet, Herbert Huncke

‘you keep singing my name wrong

and there’s no beauty to the song

you know my name is Herbert Huncke

a poet, bum, a majestic junky

you motherfucker, where is my bread?

you get it off my eyes when I’m dead

I’m stuck and out of luck

so just forget me, just let me rot

I never got my wasted years back

I never cried no wasted tears, jack’

‘herbert huncke pt. 2’ (‘howl of the lonely crowd’)

And then there’s an ecstatic chorus of ‘ba-ba-ba’s’ and one is transcended above the everyday, above the tedium, the song swaggers and spits, bruising, bruised and beatific

‘Yoona Baines’ (crunchy! belligerent! magnificent!) precedes this and these two songs together have been for me the antidote to the relentlessness of the working day, songs/anthems you reach for as you make your way home, wanting to feel that this isn’t all there is or all there has to be, songs to kick off the routine daily shit of ‘work makes you free’ (no, freedom makes you free, work just gets in the way of being free)

'you can't hide your hate forever'

'clang of the concrete swans' ('howl of the lonely crowd')

I don’t have some fancy dan job in new media where I get to sit on a bean bag, I work and have worked in offices and call centres on often very uncomfortable swivel chairs, feeling anonymous, trying to figure out a sense of self in amongst the timesheets and spreadsheets, the withering looks from co-workers, the shit coffee from the machine, the greasy grazing from the snack machine, the anti-depressants, the fag breaks, the migraines, the feeling that this is it... this could very well be all there is

But, despite all that, I can find plenty of solace in life if I look for it and if you're not pointing and laughing at me already then maybe when I say that Comet Gain, for me, are one of those consolations then please jeer now

The opening song on the album, the remarkable, soaring 'Clang of the Concrete Swans' is a very prescient paean to this nation's youth, at least to these ears... or perhaps it's about some Crowleyesque figure or David Feck himself?

'hexed at birth

of delinquent desires

defeated by the nation

and it's funeral pyres

psychic warfare

weakens the weird

these waywards swans can't get out of here'

'clang of the concrete swans' ('howl of the lonely crowd')

Comet Gain, whether it’s on this new LP or ‘City Fallen Leaves’ or ‘Realistes’ or indeed any of their output seem to sing songs about revolutions come and gone, about the weight of expectation we put on ourselves thru’ our dreams and schemes, and the resulting ‘daydream scars’ and ‘memory aches’...

‘don’t forsake the memory ache, don’t you break it’s just the memory ache’

‘a memorial for nobody I know’ (‘howl of the lonely crowd’)

You take your moments in time and you cherish them, revel in them, hold on tight and never let go... whether those moments are songs on a record or days/nights out or the people you meet, the people you love, the bands that mean so much... whatever they may be

and then you fill them with whatever significance you feel they deserve

'Howl of the Lonely Crowd' is out on 16 May on Fortuna POP!

It's a bit fucking special

(apologies if I misheard any of the lyrics and also that I'm reproducing them without permission... um, sorry) 

The Twerps

2011-03-27T15:23:00.002+01:00

The Twerps are from Melbourne, Aus

They're about to go on a tour of the US

photo: ben butcher (from the band's myspace page)

They sound very Australian, to me, but then again they also recall the hallowed likes of The Clean (NZ) and I get an early-ish Pastels (Glasgow) type thing going on in there too...and if I said their sound vaguely recalls a sort of crunchy Gentle Despite (Leeds) I hope you'd understand where I was coming from and what I was on about

There's something sleepy-eyed and just got out of bed about their sound, like the guitars are turned up loud purposefully to stop them dropping off into a sweet slumber. On 'Bullies' the vocals remind me a little of Tae Won Yu from my beloved Kicking Giant, that sort of cracked croon he has on the more swoonsome KG songs

There's something quietly magnificent about these Twerps, give them a chance and the songs sort of wheedle their way into your head and make a happy home

They have a myspace page where you can hear their songs here

Here's a live clip off of the youtube:

Sea Pinks 'Peripheral Vision'

2011-03-19T23:45:00.007Z

In under two minutes Sea Pinks managed to shake all the rottenness out of my world with their song 'Peripheral Vision'... it's the warm mellifluous insistent guitar, the rumbledethump drums and Neel's plaintive yearny vocal... you can stare through the condensation on a bus window to this, or lie on your back in long grass feeling the dew soak through your t-shirt and watch clouds move in slo mo up above, equally you can skid about on the kitchen floor in your socks and make loose-limbed dance moves or approximations of dance moves to it

I think it's a fantastic sun-bleached, sleepy-eyed POP! song- understated in it's apparent simplicity and lack of trying too hard- it just worms it's way into your head and stays there in an eminently pleasing way

Sea Pinks are currently touring the UK with Nodzzz and The Mantles, I believe

Sea Pinks are from Belfast

I heard the song on  this FREE TO DOWNLOAD compilation here (it includes Sea Lions too, what are you waiting for? download it now!):

http://grrrizzly.tumblr.com/post/3959862280/compilation-grrrimixxx02

There's more on Sea Pinks here:

http://seapinks.tumblr.com/

and here:

http://seapinks.bandcamp.com/

and here:

http://seapinks.muxtape.com/

and this is the song (and the video that accompanies it) that made go off on this goofy spree:

He's wrong in the head that boy

2011-02-17T22:01:00.003Z

I'm listening to the Wedding Present for the first time in what seems like a long time, I'm listening to the stuff I listened to as a youth, the first brace of singles, the 'George Best' LP and even 'Bizarro' where the band seemed to go from being mine to everybody's (I lived in a small town, nobody liked the music I liked, two other people listening to the same stuff as me was 'everybody')

You should always keep in touch with your Wedding Present records

I sort of went off the band when they became a bloke's band, which they never started off as and judging by the lyrics and the interviews they gave back then they never intended to be

A bloke's band differs from a lads band (and a boy band) by being a band whose following is primarily blokes. These blokes may very well be decent lovely blokes who just so happen to love to climb over each other in a sweaty mess by way of 'dancing' but they're blokes all the same... I saw the Wedding Present relatively early on and the audience was a dead even split male/female and people actually danced as in made shapes and wigged out a bit, it was my first gig up that London, my first proper gig with bands what get played on the radio (if only ever after 8 o'clock in the evening) and it was super good time fun

And we went to see the Weddoes a lot until it all got a bit too blokey, a bit like a rugby scrum

I don't know why that blokeyness troubled me then, probably because I couldn't help but be suspicious about any music that girls weren't that into... and because I didn't want to spoil the creases in my Walter Softy trousers

But any road up, I still loved that first salvo of records by the Wedding Present

I love the chiming guitars, chopping, slicing, overlapping, clattering and ringing RINGING like bells and the lovelorn lyrics and that bass guitar that bounces and bobbles and rumbledethumps away... and I liked that the songs were faster than was necessary but it was necessary! it was VITAL!

That urgency that I found in those songs stuck with me long after I put my Wedding Present records away, the urgency was there before I had any Wedding Present records

I've heard it in all sorts of different places since

The Crabapples 'Crabapples for Change' EP... that just yelps URGENT!

That insistent feeling... it's still here

I'm dead keen to form a band right now!

This is partly ridiculous as I have no musical ability whatsoever (so what!) but I figure if I can just make those chiming ringing sounds with a guitar (that I don't possess) PLAYED FAST! and give the vocals enough welly then it might just be a FUN thing to do

I'd only want to do it for a year, play a few gigs and then kill it

Play this thing called 'indiepop' but in the manner of The Mummies or Armitage Shanks

Play some gigs, make people's jaws drop or draws jop, break a few hearts with our plaintive songs, liven things up a touch and then fuck off

Or alternatively just be a massive knock-kneed ham-fisted embarrassment for 12 months (what's new?)

Who's in?

We need a trumpeter

And, yes, I am serious... and don't call me Shirley

I think this blog may have expired

2011-01-28T21:25:00.000Z

Do I delete it or leave it up for prosperity? 

A Fog of Ideas is no more

The Andersen Tapes "As I Write 'Today' Ten Times" LP

2011-01-06T23:09:00.012Z

(Photo: Kajsa Tretow)

I'm afraid I'm not really up to the job of reviewing this LP... to really do it justice... lacking as I am in any basic understanding of musical technique and all that caper... what I can do though is assess it in how it makes me feel, the funny/sad pictures it paints inside my head, the sensations and colours it conjures up, I can have a go at that... at summing up the very magic of it

Because this is a very magical collection of songs

I hope that's enough, I sort of want to convince the 5 readers of this blog of the merits of this record and all I've got is mere words

The Andersen Tapes is Amanda, I interviewed her here at the beginning of 2009 and back then the single that came out on Cloudberry had very agreeably wormed and wriggled it's way into my head and onto my stereo and was proving hard to shift, not that I wanted to shift it, I rather liked it's stubborness, it's persistence, it was pretty and tough but unassuming, it didn't need to try too hard, it was effortless, like all your best (cool) friends prove to be

And like a lot of your best (cool) friends it seemed to wander into your life, make it all the better, and then... some time later... before you had a chance to really tell it how you felt, to really appreciate it, it/you had moved on and you (or rather I) were left with a memory, a sweet one, and a big hole in your (my) life and a secret wish that it might come round again... um, I'm getting a little lost in this analogy... where am I?

The Andersen Tapes are back in 2011 with an LP and an appearance at London Popfest next month

Heck! The LP is a winner... it swings and freewheels along, resolutely playfully POP!, deceptively simple in it's approach, never less than utterly compelling, it recalls many of my obsessional 'for life' favourites (everything from the Marine Girls to Beat Happening to Lois to Pam and Rose and more) while having more than enough personality and poise of it's own... this LP is no shy ineffectual wallflower, you'd make that assumption at your peril (I know what some of you are like with this indiepop lark, turning your noses up, etc)

The songs mix from the reflective and worldwise to the more carefree and sprightly shoes off let's dance in our socks right here type numbers

'Cross Country' rocks out a little, ideal for smacking away at your minty fresh gum, bobbing your head with abandon and taking to the centre of the dancefloor at the local hop to cut a fearsome rug

'Clap Clap Clap' makes me think of a particularly nimble junior brass band in the snow (a good thing!) but on the beach and everyone's a little tipsy from the rum punch and just having the best time

'And They Were Saxons' is 'The Problem is the Solution' from the Cloudberry EP curiously retitled, whatever the title this song has the knack of stopping me in my tracks everytime, it's just perfect, the guitar line or whatever you want to call it weaves it's way along while the drums rumbledethump away, it comes to a stop and then starts again and everytime I hear this song I get lost in it, time stops, everytime, it's simple yet elegant, seemingly throwaway but- for me- mysteriously and deeply affecting

You can listen to it and a couple of other songs over at the Fraction discs website, the album comes out on Fraction on January 14th, The Andersen Tapes appear at the London Popfest on Friday 25th February at The Windmill Brixton supporting the magnificent Sourpatch (also on the bill are X-ing School, one of whom- if I've got my facts straight- is Kajsa who took the picture at the top of the page...)

Sadly, I carn't be there

I am bereft (and also skint, the over-riding reason I can't be there)

The LP is a much appreciated consolation, I sort of wondered if we'd hear anything from Amanda again... I'm extremely made up we have

There's not one duff song here, not one- I sneaked a 'digital' review copy, my house is not a home until I have my very own physical copy to cherish

And I'll even pay for it

High recommendation indeed in these austere times

Don't look back with Andrew

2011-01-01T15:03:00.009Z

We are in amongst a raging blight of year end lists, such is the time of year (the end of an old one, the beginning of a new) and my heart sinks- as any sensible person's should- at the prospect of wading thru' the sheer deluge of 'top ten best ofs' (or the like) that fill newspapers, magazines, blogs, messageboards, friends facebook updates, toilet walls and so on

Who are these people who have the time, energy and inclination to sit down in a high backed chair probably in an oak-lined study, velvet smoking jacket rudely agape as they cast an academic eye over spreadsheets and bar charts and think 'now, what did I enjoy last January?' before jaw set proudly forward, eyes beady, they put pen to paper or bony finger to expectant keyboard and begin to share with us their great and unasked for wisdom (yes, quite)?

And who reads these lists with anything more than a resigned, 'well, reading this just about beats talking to the family or struggling to take a bowel movement, I'll see if this person's top pop picks resemble anything like mine' and then not proceed to think anything other than 'oh do fuck off, you hateful hateful listmaker' before feeling the weight of human misery and loneliness fall upon them like a heavy velvet curtain of highly ornamental suffocating and cobwebby doom

The best you can hope for is that somebody will do more than just offer up a list but perhaps instead add some inspiring entertaining words/justification for why Levm Blemvlhole's experimental album of electronically altered puffin squeezings was one better an album than Telefonik Susan's 'synthetic bellphorium of sci-fi themed squarial-funk workouts'

What I rarely get from lists is what I presume the listmakers think their listmaking is an indicator of and that's enthusiasm... instead what I get is a sense of a love for administration, of archiving and ordering and attempting to put something that is all (for me) colour, light, confusion, joy, excitement and noise into some sense of order, to put a pattern to it and make it static, black and white, academic... music (because that's sort of what I'm referring to most explicitly here) is for me something that lives and breathes when it's unbidden, unfettered, loose and messy

It's a bowel thing, I guess

On that note, let's draw an analogy with farts and farting, which year end list making most obviously resembles- this is why most listmakers are boys- the listmaker/farter takes great delight in issuing their fragrant decree and a horde of, let's face it, less than agreeable sweaty-faced list/fart approvers lean forward to waft some of that brown air theirways and then take in great gulps of that highly seasoned expert knowledge/blow off

It's not a dignified process... or a sexy one

And think about the time of year in all this, these lads are all full up from Christmas and can't move, what else to do but sit and expel (again, yes, quite)

To that end I'm doing my best not to be in amongst the throng sniffing it all up but also sad that nobody wants to have a sniff of my list

At least I assume nobody does, because I'm polite... especially now I've phrased it in those terms

Some folks are emitting some delightful year end nosegays, mind, Stereo Sanctity blog is taking a leisurely stroll through their personal best 40 records of the last year and is throwing up (in the nicest possible way) plenty I missed and that I'm glad to be pointed toward and Anders aka discogiraffe over on the Anorak forum has posted two great mixes of his favourite songs from 2010 which again is a nice mix of the familiar and the not at all but I'm sure glad I found you

I'm sure there are plenty of others but you kind of have to put your head above the fug to find 'em

Yeh, lists, not all bad, sometimes necessary, but- sheesh!- enough already!

Yours confused, as ever

Andy

Coronation Street and Christmas

2010-12-12T01:33:00.016Z

I'm writing this on the Friday night of the Coronation Street 50th anniversary week having been thru' the emotional tumult of that tram crash... here I am at the end of that week, bruised, battered, my face streaked with bitter tears and my arse numb from advanced sofa sitting... I felt like I was under that tram but thankfully without the fire, dust, rubble, smoke and nee naw nee naw

I did have to endure Fiz's screaming though (which went right thru' me)

It's been quite the ordeal, what I believe is oft referred to as 'a journey'... a journey that saw me go from Monday to Friday in a state of profound gawping, sometimes having to put my biscuit and cup of tea down to stare open mouthed at the screen attempting to take it all in

Ashley is dead, choking up kensington gore he bravely rested a collapsed pillar on his butcher's back in the rubble of the Joinery just long enough for Nick and Peter to make good their escape... he also sent one last message to Claire's mobile...which naturally she received after she found out he was dead

Molly's also dead, crushed under the ruins of the Corner Shop, she managed to stay alive long enough to confess her and Kevin's affair (and that Kevin is Jack's actual baby daddy) to Kevin's wife, Sally, as the Firemen attempted to cut her free and Sally crouched nearby not quite taking in what Molly was telling her

Charlotte the rapidly unravelling ball of convoluted yarn is about to have her life support machine switched off (a nation cheers)... the John Stape/Colin Fishwick plot has tested even the most forgiving Corrie fan but in the last few weeks the black farce of John's plight came to the fore resulting in him giving Charlotte such a wack to the skull with a handy hammer that she knocked the Christmas wreath off the Stape's front door from the inside of the house (perhaps I should draw a diagram, it was with some considerable force is what I'm inferring)...

John used the carnage of the tram crash to dispose of what he thought was Charlotte's corpse only for a passing paramedic to announce the good news that there was a pulse

I've grown to appreciate Graeme Hawley, the actor who plays John Stape, in recent weeks- there's a bit of a twinkle in his eye- he's a rotter, but a rather hapless one- none of the pantomime moustache twirling and arched eyebrow for John that you got with Tony or Richard Hillman... John Stape is an all too human monster: pathetic, desperate, never quite clever enough, he's only getting away with it down to sheer luck rather than dastardly criminal intent

Peter Barlow has long been a favourite Corrie character of mine and in the hour long live episode he nearly died in the hospital, so convinced of his own impending mortality he married Leanne, as one half of the gimlet eyed sex raven pairing Peter should really get it together with Carla but for now Leanne is Mrs Barlow even though she's being doing some joinery herself with bar owner and ex-husband, Nick Tilsley

Are you following all this? There will be questions later

Such is the joy of Corrie

Rita was rescued from the Kabin (thank God and the scriptwriters) where she'd been pinned to the floor under the shop's merchandising racks, we thought she was a goner, nobody knew she was there, they all thought she was on a night out, but Doreen had cancelled and Rita had gone back to the Kabin to help herself to an expensive box of chocs when the tram careered off the viaduct

Little Norris' face as his dear Rita was found got me all choked up...I'm still concerned she might yet pass away, I couldn't bear it if she did, not like this

Ah, Coronation Street

One of the most impressive things about Thursday's hour long live episode was that it didn't look any different to a regular Corrie episode, tightly paced but never skimping on character and incidental detail, you couldn't tell this was 'live' (there's some debate over whether it really was live perhaps testament to how well crafted it was or perhaps not... perhaps a wrinkle of doubt that 'telly magic' is all a conjuring trick, a sleight of hand- they'll be telling us Santa doesn't exist next)

Corrie has always been there or thereabouts in my life and existed a good nine years before I was born ('do the math'). It's television's longest running soap... in the world.

It has a place in my heart and not just for it's longevity and ubiquity. There are times when the only effective comedy there is in a week's telly schedules is on Corrie, likewise the only affecting drama you can actually watch (some weeks) without throwing up/having to witness (for example) Robson Green's 'acting'... not everyone will agree with this assessment and the programme will be dismissed by many (who don't watch it) as 'mindless drivel', for 'viewers with sad and shallow lives' and a 'killer of inspiration, ambition, hope and dreams' (all these with no hint of irony from contributors to the BBC's Have Your Say website this week)

There have been times when Corrie has almost been sunk by it's own unwieldy plotting, sensationalist storylines and contrivances but more often than not it's been saved by the big beating heart at the centre of the show and that's the characters who are more than mere ciphers for the scriptwriter's own perverted desires and hang ups (see Eastenders) but rather more impressively some of British popular culture's most vivid, loveable, fallible, infuriating and funny folk... Corrie allows these people a chance to gab and to interact in a way that isn't always 'business', business in the sense of moving the plot on or providing exposition... instead between all the sturm and drang it gives the characters (and the viewer) a chance to breathe and, if you like, enjoy each other's company

So, this week, in it's 50th year, Corrie did what it always does, it entertained

That's not very hip or challenging but it's more than enough when so much else fails to do even that

And talking of 'entertainment' and things that make me feel fuzzy and warm I was going to waffle on about Christmas because it's not far away now and because the Christmas Radio Times is out, I never read it any other time of year but for some reason buying the Christmas Radio Times is an annual tradition that I observe despite attracting curious, suspicious looks from my friends and family

As a child I'd do that thing of going thru' the Christmas Radio Times and preparing a schedule for my Christmas viewing... I don't do that now, I should make that clear, mostly because the Christmas telly schedules are pretty abject these days but I still have to buy the Christmas Radio Times and study it in detail (but never the holiday ad supplement in the middle, that goes in the bin)...

Christmas telly of the past- which I remember fondly- would include everything from ghost stories to Christmas specials that were actually special (do I sound like some cantankerous old git bemoaning 'progress'? good) to films you'd not really see any other time of year (and not the obvious ones) or were being shown for the very first time and one year Channel 4 had a season of Chinese Ghost Stories featuring films like, ahem, 'Chinese Ghost Story', 'Mr Vampire' and 'The Bride With White Hair' (how brilliant was that? you don't remember? well, let me confirm it was very brilliant)

So, yeh, Christmas... Christmas present seems so profoundly informed by Christmas past, for me, probably because they were generally happy, convivial times for me (fortunately)... we've already got the Phil Spector Christmas Album out because we do that every year and I've got 'Bohemian Rhapsody' by Queen and some ELO on the go because they remind me of Christmas, which is a bit anomalous perhaps but both the Queen song and the ELO album 'Out of the Blue' seem inextricably linked to my childhood and Christmastime... more specifically Christmassy musical fayre guaranteed to have me filling up with festive reverie include that Greg Lake one, Chris De Burgh's absurd 'A Spaceman Came A-Travelling' and 'Ring Out The Solstice Bells' by Jethro Tull... I am a chylde of the Seventies, I can't help myself

Having said that my childhood Christmas Days were likely to be soundtracked by Perry Como and Nat King Cole as they were my Mum's favourites and she has dibs on the stereo at Christmastime

When my Mum insisted on playing the horror that is the Elaine Paige Christmas Album instead one year I realised I was getting older, more sophistimicated, it may have been the same year I spent Christmas Day sat in retreat in my bedroom listening to 'Psychocandy' by The Jesus and Marychain (that I'd got for Christmas) drinking vodka (probably) and imagining strange bohemian Christmasses in my bound to be avant garde and feedback drenched abstract expressionist pop art future

I don't think I spent Christmas Day wearing sunglasses indoors that year but I may have imagined I was (and I probably 'smoked' a biro in lieu of an actual real and lit cigarette... for practice)

Anyway, Corrie and Christmas, both might instil dread in the faintest of hearts but I'm very partial to both and will continue to revel in each

I'd liked to have ended this ramble with a youtube clip of Hilda Ogden singing 'Silent Night' in the Rovers which I can't find anywhere but I wish I could find it to share it with you, it's a cracking scene if memory serves because Hilda was a notoriously bad singer but this time she sang it wasn't for laughs and was all rather heartbreaking and lovely (although now I'm beginning to think it's a false memory and it never happened)

*Sigh!*

Being Happy Doesn't Make You Stupid: On Mark Hibbett

2010-11-14T10:13:00.014Z

Jamie Tugwell's Lissys record label put out some splendid stuff in the mid-90's, there were records (excellent ones) by The Sea and Cake, New Bad Things, Further, Billy Childish, Philistines Jr, Prolapse and a rather splendid Godz covers LP (feat. Comet Gain, Royal Trux, Stereolab, Teenagers in Trouble and yet more)

It was one of those labels that burned brightly briefly and with a clear vivid purpose

I'd occasionally see Jamie working behind the counter of the Rough Trade shop in Neal's Yard, the one that was in the basement below Slam City Skates, I'd make frequent visits there, getting the train up on my day off ... sometimes just to get a glimpse of Mr Tugwell himself- he was living the life I wanted... I was working in a branch of WH Smith in Welwyn Garden City and living with my Mum and Dad... I was also in my late 20's and feeling a bit of a prannet... he was working in Rough Trade and running this record label that constantly surprised and delighted, I didn't know what his living arrangements were, I chose not to pry... his life seemed ace, mine didn't

But the joy of music is that- if it's any good- it can transport you off to other, better, stranger and therefore more appealing places (yes, there are better, stranger and more appealing places than Welwyn Garden City)... worlds of opportunity can open up even if your here and now suggests nothing but limitation and compromise... even though you remain exactly where you are, a glimpse of somewhere 'other' can be enough to put a spring in your step and keep you keeping on

So, anyway, Lissys... one of my favourite releases was a 10" single by Cha Cha 2000, an offshoot/side project of Mick and Pat from Prolapse... it was a cover of 'Autobahn' by Kraftwerk played on stylophone, bodhran, mandolin, spoons and accordian as well as guitar, bass and drums, that sort of defies description, really... so as a cheat here's a Cha Cha 2000 myspace page complete with a stream of 'Autobahn'

To me it was and still is rather fantastic, it jollied me up at a time I didn't feel I had a lot to be jolly about and I could get it 'lost' in it (maaaan), and like a lot of the releases on Lissys I loved it all the more because without the label it may never have existed, may never have found it's way out into the world (perhaps I'm over-romanticising these things)

Fast forward almost 10 years and I'm in Nottingham staying with friends and I'm being asked if I've heard the latest Mark Hibbett single and it's put on and I think I lie and say I have... I've sort of heard of Mark Hibbett, I seem to recall Everett True mentioning Yeah Yeah Noh while reviewing an earlier single in a copy of Careless Talk Costs Lives... a Yeah Yeah Noh comparison, that's the sort of detail I fixate on...

And my first impressions of Mark Hibbett... well, I'm polite, I know he's got a devoted local following but I'll be honest, I don't get it... at first... and I'm a little resistant...

You see Mark Hibbett isn't cool... not that cool means much to me now or even then but I suppose I found him, initially, a bit parochial, a bit- how can I put this?- studenty... the music's appeal and the subject matter, the concerns of the songs being sung on first listen (and to perhaps jaded ears like mine) seemed to be a bit humdrum, concerned as it was with the everyday, the ordinary, and, dare I say it, the blokey... worse, it seemed to be comedy music, that most dreaded of musical forms, Mark Hibbett- to me then- came on a bit like an indie Richard Digance...

That's very unfair, I suppose in a sense it reminded me of Half Man Half Biscuit, a bit, that clever clever drollery that for me was something I got the joke with and appreciated on the first listen but play it again and I'm all 'yeh, I get it, thanks' and 'can we listen to something else now?'

Not that I ever said that, I was too polite, too aware of the high esteem Mark was held in amongst my peers

And then some kind of musical alchemy occurred, home again and far from friends and longing to be back I decided- of an evening- to give Hibbett another go... if only to remind me of where I'd been and who I'd seen... and I stopped taking myself so seriously and felt a kind of big hearted openness with the 'world out there' and I don't remember which song it was but I started to feel a little warmer toward Mr Hibbett, I started to feel I'd misjudged him

Because these aren't comedy songs... some of them will make you laugh, but equally the same songs might contain an observation, a truth, an insight that makes you well up a bit (even a lot, if I'm honest and you'll need to comment to nobody in particular that you've got something in your eye as your voice goes funny and you bottom lip wobbles) or feel less alone in an unforgiving universe because they act as affirmations: a comforting arm 'round the shoulder to say 'it's alright, I feel the same way as you do', because these are human songs, conversational pop from a thoroughly affable chap who seems to have a great ability to tap into a rich seam of cosmic everyday wisdom

Mark Hibbett songs are warm and engaging, but for me, I had to let my guard down a bit, schooled in music digging principles that were all a bit leftfield and chin strokey, having somebody get up on stage with no 'front' and no 'sonic agenda' was more challenging to me than any amount of noise bending sound wave warping strange time signature confrontational anti-music smart arsery

I struggled to find sort of helpful connections that could make me rationalise that this was somebody singing catchy entertaining songs and all I had to do, dummy (not you dummy, me dummy), was like it and relax up a bit

And then I discovered a few things that made me unwind myself, ditch all my preconceptions and hangups and become an outright fan... prepare yourself... they're not huge revelations but ephemeral pop details that are incredibly significant to me but probably baffling to anyone else

The drummer in The Validators, Mark's splendid band, was the drummer in Prolapse- his name's Tim- if you want to know more about Prolapse scour, my chum, Sam's blog A Layer of Chips... as he's quite the fan... but, rest assured, I found this significant and important and it helped me stumble forward into the light a little further, the light that says 'you have let Mark Hibbett into your life'

But that paled next to the sudden galloping realisation that Mark Hibbett had in a past life been one Mark Council, of Leicester band The Council, and had played bass on that very same Cha Cha 2000 single that I mentioned earlier at the top of the page (which is why I mentioned it, do you see what I did there?)

Then there are the songs he sings themselves, consider a song like 'Tell Me Something You Do Like' in which Mark makes the case for actually enjoying things and taking pleasure in stuff, simple or otherwise, because it's there for the taking and because heaping dripping sneering disdain on everything you alight upon is an act of 'a life long coward, who'll never stand up for anything'... admittedly, cynicism must have been so ingrained in the fibre of my being that I actually found the sentiment of this song liberating (life-alteringly so) and it's a great song too, Tim's violin careering and soaring the heart upwards and onwards throughout, Mark and Emma's dual vocals seizing the likes of me by the scruff of the neck and giving the likes of me a thorough and lasting lesson in militant defiant optimism (something needed now more than ever)

He also played at Sam (and Lisa)'s wedding and played 'Boom Boom Shake The Room'. You can't take away a memory like that. These things are important. Like the time Phil Wilson was up and played 'In The Rain' with The Validators as an encore with Mark and Emma on back up vocals... Mark supping from a big mug of tea throughout. Or maybe it is the songs again: 'We Only Ever Meet In Church', 'Billy Jones Is Dead', 'The Lesson of The Smiths', 'Payday is the Best Day', 'Leave My Brother Alone' and on and on

Sealing the deal, the thing that made me convinced Mark is a communicator, wit and chap of the highest order was the time following a 'Dinosaur Planet' warm-up when a sweat drenched (steady, girls) thoroughly warmed-up Mark sat in the pub and talked us through the final ever 'Torchwood' episode that hadn't long been on, prompted by us Mark extolled the emotional leaps and bounds the programme had galloped over and why- rather than being the ill-conceived Doctor Who spin-off I suspected it was- it was actually incredibly impressive telly... I believed him, as did my fellows, I believed him because Mark made a deeply convincing case, I suspect though that his version was vastly more entertaining than the actual programme itself, so- with apologies to Mark- I never did watch the final ever 'Torchwood' despite his eagerness that I must and without delay, his spoken account was so much better, it included every facet of why Mark's GRATE there was humour, passion, enthusiasm, erudition, surprise, compassion and probably some beer was spilled (but nobody cared)

And, so, why all of this? Well, it's the internet, it's what the likes of me do, but don't judge me too harshly, if you scan read this far you must care a bit... a new 'rest of' compilation of Mark Hibbett and The Validators material called 'The Forest Moon of Enderby' came out in October when I originally started penning this missive... it's very good (I could've just posted that assessment then and saved us all a lot of time) and it serves to reinforce the view that Mark and band are a quality turn bordering on national treasures

Don't take my (massive dribble of) word(s) for it Mark and the Validators entire back catalogue is available here: http://mjhibbett.bandcamp.com/ for you to listen to

Unlike me you'll probably get it straight away

Here's 'Tell Me Something You Do Like' (from the album 'Validate!') to whet your whistle:

For live action Mark, see here: http://www.mjhibbett.co.uk/gigs/gigs.php

All things Mark and Validators related, here: http://www.mjhibbett.co.uk/

Christmas wouldn't be Christmas without at least one Mark Hibbett album being opened on Christmas morning, better yet... buy the lot

Rampant Self-Promotion

2010-11-11T23:05:00.003Z

It's been a long time since I've posted anything... I've never been one to post daily or even weekly, there's the occasional flurry and then I go quiet again... I don't think I've got a following that hang on my every word so it's no biggy, I'm not sure I have a following at all, just some people who've clicked 'follow' out of politeness

I'm currently one of Britain's hated unemployed, a dreadful waster sucking coin from the pockets of every right-thinking forward-facing upstanding taxpayer... or so our current Government would seemingly have it.

Every day I get up as if for work and plough through agency websites, job vacancies and so on, filling out application forms, check in via 'phone to the agencies I'm registered with, make the same plaintive requests for them to 'keep me in mind', I'm in a constant state of alertness waiting for the 'phone to ring (forever making certain the 'phone isn't on silent or divert), checking my email inbox every five to ten minutes (just in case) and I do this between nine and five and I get a bit despondent and I see Iain Duncan Smith being all 'tough' on the likes of me, his upper lip too stiff to become a complete sneer and I think about how the Government attempts to woo all the right-thinking forward-facing upstanding taxpayers by seeking to put some of the blame for the deficit and the spending cuts on the unemployed and yet all the while employing all these tax-avoiding business billionaires and millionaires and I try not to be cynical and over-simplistic about things but that's how they go about things, that's their world view, so if it's alright for them it's alright for me... I suppose

I just want a decent enough job and a fair wage and some hope for a future

*World's smallest violin sounds*

I rue every missed opportunity or squandered chance in my past, that I didn't act on creating a better present by planning for the future then... you can tie yourself in knots with 'what ifs?', can't you?

I feel like I'm an even more moany git than usual, so... let's be positive, sort of:

My ideal is to be a working illustrator- earning just enough (ideally more, but I'm fairly modest, not flash, I know my place) to effectively 'settle down' to domestic bliss and a contented working life and I'd like to work long after the official retirement age until my faculties (sight, spark, deftness of touch, etc) fail me, ideally all at once at some ripe old age five seconds before I die- peacefully- having just done a nice bit of drawing, drained the last of a cup of tea and taken my specs off knowing that's all right with the world... or my world, at the very least

Ooh 'eck, I'm maudlin

So, what's this all in aid of?

Well, this week sees the release of a couple of singles via the Eardrums Pop 'site... they are the very opposite of maudlin and a long way from death... two vivacious pop singles, one all shimmery and majestic (and including a Big Star cover) and the other all rumbledethump and squally and fit to burst

Very kindly Knut at Eardrums Pop asked me to do a cover for that second single, perhaps recklessly he also sent me a list of questions to answer for an 'illustrator interview' now available online

The singles can be got here...

Majestic and shimmery (cover art by Daniella Hasse): http://www.eardrumspop.com/2010/11/10/epop007-insect-guide/

Rumbledethump, squally and fit to burst (cover art by me): http://www.eardrumspop.com/2010/11/10/epop008-sometimes-always/

The interview is here: http://www.eardrumspop.com/about-2/our-illustrators/andy-hart/

And in an attempt to 'show off' I've gathered all the artwork, drawings, doodles, fliers, etc I've scanned and stuck on Flickr into one handy set here

A proper website should follow in the New Year, I'm hoping, and I can sell myself a bit more

I'm available for commissions, collaborations and so on

Some paid work would lift me out of these current doldrums, hint hint

P.S. The worst thing about being out of work (for me)- and this might sound a bit self indulgent and 'woe is me'- is that I feel really guilty if I attempt to do any drawing when I should be 'looking for work' so I've not really been doing any... despite the fact that, ideally, I'd rather be doing illustrating as a career than any of the jobs I'm applying for (possibly a daft thing to admit to on the public internets)

'The Pleasure Girls' (1965, Dir. Gerry O'Hara) - BFI Flipside 010

2010-09-12T10:47:00.003+01:00

I've greedily but very happily (and luckily) amassed a complete collection (so far) of the BFI's splendid Flipside DVDs and I'm going to attempt to do a review here of each one over the next month or so

Flipside describes it's objective/purpose as 'rescuing weird and wonderful British films from obscurity' and it's doing a first rate job of that... some of the films are familiar but perhaps a bit unloved of late ('The Bed Sitting Room', 'Privilege') while many others are films you only see mentioned in books, probably loved by a fervent, eager few but without the likes of the BFI and now Flipside lost to the many...

I grew up with Psychotronic Video magazine and the Re/Search Incredibly Strange Films book feeding my odd squidgy brain so, as a consequence, I have a pretty good, rather too extensive knowledge of US exploitation cinema, B movies and so on... I'd say my knowledge of British cinema was pretty handy too or at least I would've done until Flipside came along

I like the fact this label is educating me but in a thoroughly entertaining and wigged out way, every release is put together with such care (extras include short films, interviews contemporary with the main film and some beautiful booklets featuring some instructive essays, etc) and the films offer up scenes of 50's/60's/70's England and London (especially London) that give evocative glimpses of the past

Growing up in the seventies I spent a lot of my childhood in and around London, my Dad worked there and school holidays were often spent being taken round the Museums, the parks and the shops by my Mum or older brother or sister before we'd meet my Dad either for lunch (salt beef sandwiches in a cafe round the corner from his office being one particular memory, ravioli in an italian restaurant- with Tony Blackburn at the next table- another) or after work for tea (I recall being sat in the back of his car somewhere in North London and being handed Kentucky Fried Chicken from the bucket- the first time I'd had it- with my brother and sister instructing me how to eat it, such was it exoticness)

I seem to recall that bomb sites or their remnants still pockmarked London in the early seventies, it didn't look quite as it does now certainly, it's past seemed to leak out of the City's stone and tarmacadam... perhaps it was simply because I was small it all seemed much grander but being closer to the ground I'd notice more the cigarette butts and pigeon shit and dirt, London had a dour almost spent majesty about it and some of the scenes you see in the Flipside releases bear this out

But, by the by, the other thing with some of these films ('Primitive London' and 'London in the Raw', especially) is that they reveal something of the milieu that my parents must have experienced or at least rubbed shoulders with as they arrived as young adults in London. The image of the Sixties as all Austin Powers 'groovy, baby' Carnaby Street ginchy fabiosity is of course a media construct (or bollocks), it's like suggesting the whole of London resembled the Blitz Club in the Eighties or everyone and his Mum was a cheesey quaver in the Nineties, all Vicks lined face masks and boiler suits... we (or perhaps 'they') seem to think of history in these short hand terms but most people's experience of the counter culture was I'm sure once removed, it would've permeated their lives in some respects but for the most part life was fairly meat and potatoes and pedestrian... unless you were David Bailey or Twiggy or somebody...

The two 'Mondo' London movies present us with a view of the Sixties that seems rather more enticing and, well, raw than the received ideal... both are from pre-'66 and are almost a tabloid view of the capital city, I'll come back to them at a later date but some aspects of the films (considered if not scandalous at the time then possibly racy) seem rather charming now- almost idyllic, there's no hippie nonsense going on, post-war austerity (a good twenty years after the war ended) seems to permeate everything even the supposedly classy establishments but there's a hope and a fervour in the scenes of Mods wigging out and the like

These films become fascinating historical documents despite the filmmaker's perhaps more baser original motives- you get a window on a past often airbrushed from history, the devil's in the detail, the detail often exposing truths we'd be careless to forget

So, 'The Pleasure Girls'...

A particularly cyncial movie distributor may have decided to retitle this 'Flat Sharing Shaggers'... I can remember comedy shows and comedians of the Seventies often by means of innuendo suggesting girls sharing a flat together were obviously girls of easy virtue, right little ravers who get up to all sorts... actually I think that view may still persist in certain quarters even now

That may very well have been the initial motivation behind 'The Pleasure Girls' telling as it does the tale of four girls sharing a house. Sally is one of the girls (played by Francesca Annis), she arrives in London on the Friday... the film rather smartly is set over that first weekend... and we then see the stories of the girls, their lovers and friends unfold over that time period

Exploitation movies are all about prurience, showing all the goods (or making the audience anticipate that they will see all the goods) and then slamming the characters in the tale with a moral comeuppance at the end

You want to see a movie about a girl who sleeps around? Ok, she'll bedhop a plenty and even have a shower scene (maybe two) but she'll get an STD and end up in the bug hutch at the end and you the viewer have learned from this and know that it's better to watch a movie about a lil' miss roundheels than to go looking for one in bars, etc, so come and see next week's feature, it's about a woman who has affairs and that ends badly too

You get the idea

Without giving anything away 'The Pleasure Girls' turns all that on the head and it's great, it zips along at a pace and really entertains... what's surprising about the movie is what it isn't and what it manages to avoid being... you get a sense that what you're seeing (although a little soapy and melodramatic in places) is probably fairly close to many young people's experiences living away from home as young adults in London (and elsewhere) at that time. Ok, so Sally is enrolling at a modelling school on the Monday and the girls all speak with porcelain accents but you kind of look around them and see what's going on in the background and with the supporting cast. I've no idea if contains any truth at all, but there's a conviction to it, a feeling of authenticity

Klaus Kinski turns up as a flamboyant, rich and strange slum landlord character and a very young Ian McShane steals all his scenes (he looks not unlike a young Damon Albarn, so if you want to know what Damo will look like in his 50's he'll look like Lovejoy) and is quite a mover. Also very good is Mark Eden as the rather useless boyfriend of one of Sally's friends, he's a gambler forever in debt, a right waster- fittingly Eden went on to play Alan Bradley in Coronation Street, the one who got knocked down by a tram (he's married to Sue Nicholls/Audrey Roberts in real life)

In one pub scene Brian Cant from Play School/Play Away has a few lines (it's definitely him but he's not listed on the credits). One couple go for a splendid mince and potatoes supper in a cafe and a token beatnik shows up for good measure

The theme tune is one of them boom-a-bang-bang efforts and I dug it, it's by the Three Quarters

More on other Flipside releases soon

The next two releases are 'Bronco Bullfrog' and 'Here We Go Round The Mulberry Bush'

http://www.bfi.org.uk/flipside.html

Betty and the Werewolves

2010-09-11T19:22:00.116+01:00

The howling magnificence of Betty and the Werewolves should be plain to see to anyone other than sour-faced poltroons and knuckle-dragging dolts... 'Teatime Favourites', their first LP, was released by the exemplary Damaged Goods label this Summer following an opening salvo of rather brilliant singles... it's jam-packed (as in the jam that might be scooped straight out of a jar and smeared all upside your face) with pop treats played just how I like it with a raucous boundless energy and purpose, a party record, a collection of songs that in an ideal world would be top of the hit parade week in, week out... songs that are all the sweeter because we live in anything but an ideal world, but at least pop music played like this gives us a grin-inducing glimpse of what a world like that might sound like (type stuff)... the techniques and workings of music remain a mystery to me but I can say with some authority that this is full of syncopated rhythms that make you wiggle and melodic hooks that flip you over and tickle your belly/emotions like gangbusters... I can say this with some authority because, dear reader, this is exactly what Betty and the Werewolves music does to me

It's perfect/imperfect pop, the sort of music you love that makes you see through the enervating bullshit the music industry and media twunts try to force down your throat (you know the type of stuff, the sort of bands...)

'You ask me about The Libertines, well, who the fuck are they?'

Quite

The Betties are on the bill of the Nottingham Indiepop Alldayer Weekender at the end of the month, with that in mind and just generally thinking 'THIS BAND IS ACE!!' I decided to hunt them down and ask them things

Read on...

Fog of Ideas: Who are you? Where are you from? When did you meet? (This is three questions in one, I'm sneaky like that)

Betties: Hello! We're Emily (vocals/guitar), Helen (guitar/keyboards), Laura (vocals/bass) and Doug (drums). Three of us werewolves live in London, one of us lives in Cambridge. We got together in 2007 - Emily and Laura met randomly on a tube train in London; Emily and Helen met through a friend (Emily then taught Helen guitar); Emily and Doug met at work. We are all still trying to get used to the fact that Doug is not a girl.

Fog of Ideas: What was the impetus to form the band (you may have answered this in question one, but I do like to use the word 'impetus')?

Betties: Laura used to play guitar and howl quietly to herself in pubs, accompanied by imaginary werewolves, but then realised that it would be good if the werewolves actually existed... Luckily, three werewolves magically appeared, and suddenly playing the guitar was much more fun and howling loudly became a possibility.

Fog of Ideas: Can you please lie about how you arrived at the name Betty and the Werewolves?

Betties: 'Betty' is in homage to Betty Wiggin of The Shaggs. 'Werewolves' is in homage to Hermann Hesse's 'Steppenwolf'. Though this is a bit of a fairytale, both Betty and Hermann have had quite an influence on us.

Fog of Ideas: How did you 'hook up' (yeh, *rock n' roll*) with Damaged Goods? It seems a marriage made in heaven to me...

Bettie: We were playing at the 100 Club in London, with The Actionettes and Holly Golightly (who is on Damaged Goods). After a bit of an embarrassing gig, which involved lots of broken guitar strings and other mishaps, Ian Damaged came up to us and asked if we'd like to do a 7" with Damaged Goods. We jumped up and down, got very, very drunk and have been married ever since.

Fog of Ideas: Just how great are Damaged Goods as a label? Um, are they great?

Betties: Super lovely. And very good at David Cassidy puzzles.

Fog of Ideas: I'm always intrigued how a band's sound comes about (well, I say 'always'... it depends on the band)... how did that all happen? How much is accidental? How much is planned? How much is having the right combination of people and personalities together to do that (is this like an exam question?)?

Betties: A mixture of intention and happy accidents. We don't seem to share the same taste in music - it's a strange mix of influences like Delta 5, Dolly Mixture, Chopin, death metal and AC/DC.

Fog of Ideas: Who's directing the Betty and the Werewolves film? If you were playing film maths (x plus y multiplied by z = Betty and the Werewolves: The Movie) what would x, y and z be? (Sorry, these questions are awful)

Betties: x= cake, y= gin and z= Tilda Swinton.

Fog of Ideas: What's next? Other than the film?

Betties: Nottingham Indiepop Weekender and Glasgow Popfest! Writing some new songs. And going back to the library.

The Specific Heats “Cursed!” LP

2010-08-07T00:34:00.010+01:00

Coming on like the most perfect house band for your local punk rock junior high's psychedelic sock hop The Specific Heats are back with their latest long player, "Cursed!", and- colour me wigged out and gone- it's a beauty

The Specific Heats- from Brooklyn, NY by way of Boston, Massachusetts- play an infectious brand of Sixties-influenced reverb laden garage pop which driven by Mat's superior song-writing chops and the band's riotous delivery gives them an absurdly fresh, vital and thoroughly RIGHT ON sound

The Specific Heats are Mat (Gtr/Vox), Keira (Drums) and brother and sister, Erik (Bass) and Meagan (Keyboards)

Through July they toured Sweden and the UK culminating in a wild crowd-pleasing performance at this year's Indietracks festival (second year on the trot they've wowed the crowd but this year they were in the shed rather than the church, playing to a considerably larger audience and they didn't blow anything up)

In issue two of 'A Fog of Ideas' I talked to Mat, prior to that tour, about The Mummies, Carl Sagan and Dr Who, amongst other things. Here Mat, now back in NY, talks about the new LP "Cursed!", providing a little explanation about each of the songs in turn. First off, I asked him about the new line-up of the band (on "Cursed!" the keyboard duties are provided by Marissa ex-of the Besties- there's been a number of line-up changes in the band's lifetime, there's more about that in the 'zine):

Mat: The current line-up is great! Erik and Meagan are pretty pro in a lot of ways - like they can tell me what chord I'm playing when I don't know and then each play it themselves. So instead of saying "It's some jazzy weird A", they can say, "Actually it's a D-minor-diminished-flat-5", or something. They're also very enthusiastic. There's been times in other line-ups when the group's lacked a mutual enthusiasm and that's the worst

Fog: How was your Summer tour of Sweden and the UK? Did you have fun at Indietracks?

Mat: The tour was great - we played a few weird, smaller venues and events and it was really nice to go places we hadn't before. We got to use an actual electric organ in Jonkoping, Sweden and the crowd was super nice, so that felt good. The crowds pretty much everywhere were super nice though, by the way ;)

We LOVE Indie Tracks! It seriously is phenomenal and unlike any other festival I've ever heard of. I want to go back every year in one capacity or another!

Fog: So, "Cursed!", I love it and can't get enough of it but how do you feel about it? How close is it to how you wanted it to turn out?

Mat: Back in 2008 when we started, we intended to make a darker, more psychedelic album. But the songs with longer, more complicated arrangements never got finished because I just wasn't in a place to write as epic, surreal and poetic lyrics as I had in the past, no matter how much epic and psychedelic music just kept flowing out of me

In the meantime, more immediate pop songs kept emerging fully-realized

So I stopped fighting and decided to make the record we couldn't help but make

To me, it shows our different sides (which I know reviewers may interpret as some type of lack of focus or consistency, but I don't care). Most of my favorite albums (mostly from the 60s but also ones like Sloan's "One Chord To Another") are by bands with several different songwriters switching off and some variation in style and mood. I don't see that as a negative, I see that as a positive. I've always said that if I can eventually make an album that feels as good to me as "One Chord To Another" I will be satisfied

I had a lot of different roles in creating it. Writing, recording, performing, mixing, art/design, etc... So it's tough sometimes to step back and assess it fairly as a whole, but I'm very proud of it!

Technically, I'm so happy that Alex caught some of our live sound on the ones he recorded. I loved every minute of recording it at Mystic Valley studios - Alex is great to work with and I love the smells and sounds of all that vintage analog recording gear!

And the ones I recorded, well, hey, I'm still an amateur and think I did pretty good with what I had to work with (and I pat myself on the back)!

Art wise, I'm very proud of myself because I think it looks as crazy as we probably seem on stage (I love bright colors and clashing patterns).

Now, if we can get distribution, I will be happy with every aspect of it. ;)

Fog: So, tell me about the LP

Mat: OK, This is going to put a big storm cloud over what some would have considered a fun record, but here it goes ;) :

1. Hockey Fight Song (aka Punky Surfy)
Mat: When I moved to Brooklyn, I fell in which a bunch of kids and we just had fun all the time. I was working part-time, sometimes only 6pm to midnight and sometimes we'd just stay out all night walking or driving around or watching a bunch of movies in a row, but whatever we did, I just automatically enjoyed being with these friends. In this song, I'm imploring my girlfriend at the time, who came to pursue a very serious career and worked regular hours so she didn't stay out much, to come out with us and get to know these kids and have some fun

2. End of An Error
Mat: I had a crush on a girl for a really long time, we started hanging out, going out & to the movies. This song is about the aftermath of the night where I finally told her how i felt and she was totally freaked out, & literally closed her door on me while I was spilling my guts. I spent the entire day listening to Belle and Sebastian laying in bed. In nearly immediate hindsight, I didn't know what I was thinking - she was pretty wrong for me anyway, but it still hurt

3. Sit and Cry
Mat: Unrequited love (the most common kind, no?)

4. I Just Go To Sleep
Mat: Before going out I used to sometimes do silly things like tidy my room and make my bed in case I happened to meet someone amazing and they wanted to come over, but I never would meet anyone. Sometimes I'd drag myself out when I didn't feel like it because I knew nothing was going to come along for me if I just stayed home, but every night would end the same and eventually, I'd just go to sleep. This was me sort of making fun of myself and my behaviour and deciding to make an effort to stop making an effort

5. And How!
Mat: There are things that come about towards the end of a relationship that foreshadow it's fate. This song is based on my experiences on both sides of the fence, but told from an outside observer

6. Afternoon Sun
Mat: Optimism - A reminder that things always get better and not to give up. It was as much for myself as for anyone else

7. Old News
Mat: I couldn't just write a song about all the babes in Brooklyn (even though they would really bum me out), that felt like a terrible song and totally not in line with my personality, so I romanticized about meeting that one special lady who would make all the other pretty girls disappear and put the ideas together. My dedication at Indietracks went out to one such lady, who, to my surprise, actually exists

8. Weed
Mat: Sometimes you just want to break free of someone, but they smother you and flatter you so much and they surround you with their affection for you so quickly that you get trapped (so, no, it has nothing to do with drugs, but if there can be any drug reference drawn, it is an anti-drug message, in classic 'Heats fashion)

9. All I Want
Mat: Frustration. Pretty self-explanatory, but I often end up meeting people who WANT to understand me and be right for me but who don't and aren't

10. Baby, I'm an Existentialist
Mat: Time to write a song that's not about being bummed out or girls! I love the way beatniks are portrayed in movies more than actual beatniks. And I do love existentialist fiction

There's a really great scene in a movie called "The Fat Black Pussy Cat" where an under-cover cop is totally seen as a narc to this group of beatniks until he says something like, "hey man, I'm an existentialist, baby!" at which point he is accepted into the fold. Hilarious. The title is also a pun of the Against Me song "Baby, I'm an Anarchist"

11. Standards
Mat: Working at an unfulfilling job while you're life is on hold. A teenage girl once wrote to us and said she loved this song, but it seemed so sad. She asked if it was actually about someone we knew and I replied that it was about just about EVERYONE we knew

12. What Can I Say?
Mat: About both when you meet someone you really like and just want to kiss them but it's not appropriate (you will be expected to have some conversation) and also about being around someone you used to be allowed to kiss when you are no longer allowed to but are still having those impulses

13. Beach 86
Mat: This song came about after the scariest thing that ever happened to me. We were taking a break from practicing for a Daniel Johnston tribute show, driving to get food. Myself, Keira, Kevin (Knight School, Lil' Hospital) and my friend Abe (of The Surprisers) when I said a friend's name instead of some other word I meant to say that began with the same letter. We laughed about it and I said "What? Ha, that was weird". This soon de-evolved into not being able to form any of the correct sounds I was trying to - I couldn't form words - and became very confused - not remembering other friends' names, not being able to read/understand written words

I started giving my friends a verbal will as I thought I was dying or going brain dead. I had a minor stroke which the Doctors think was brought on by stress (I was living in a very rough neighborhood working very hard for minimum wage, recently lost both of my grandparents and had been pretty depressed, but suppressing it). I was only 26. When I got out of the hospital, Kevin and I went to the beach perhaps the next day and I was so grateful to be there and to still have my friends and to be okay

The event was a good catalyst to get me to straighten stuff out and get myself back up on my feet and to take better care of myself

Fog: And finally- from the sublime to the ridiculous (not that I find them ridiculous)- let's talk about those capes (and, asks Hayley, about the paisley), please elucidate

Mat: When the Specific Heats began recording "Aboard A Spaceship Of The Imagination", I put forth this theory about all my favorite bands: that there were 3 basic stages:

1. Shirts and Ties: beginners; sweet songs, etc.
2. Turtleneck: more introspective songwriting
3. Paisley: more psychedelic and experimental

And quite by accident, I realized that we were following the same progression, as was my taste. I always wanted to be in a crazy band that wore capes or something, but surely it wouldn't make sense in The Specific Heats - we were too introspective and timid or something. Finally, I think as a band, we just went kind of senile. The UK met us at the point where we had just decided, "Whatever, why not!? Let's just do whatever we want, who cares!?"

I also, just happen to genuinely love paisley as a pattern

I had designed the capes in a notebook and when my fashion designer friend Mehgan (O'Neill, as in the song, 'Are you for real, Mehgan O'Neill?') got laid off, I commissioned her to make them for us and we went fabric shopping (at all the same places they hit on Project Runway ;) ). She had already made me a paisley amp cover back in 2005 which I still use

I thought we'd just wear them perhaps for the 'Back Through Thyme' record release, and by the "Cursed!" release wear them and some psychedelic face paint. But, in the spirit of, "Who cares? I'm going to do whatever I feel like", we just kept wearing them. (Had to get our money's worth ;) )

Fog: I now feel compelled to write 'Get cape! Wear cape! Fly!' but I'll reign myself in. "Cursed!" is officially released on vinyl in September by Fun With Asbestos (Boston) /SAGANISM records... but you can order it now through TheSpecificHeats.com and it's available in digital format through iTunes, emusic, amazon mp3, etc.

Be blessed, get "Cursed!"

http://www.thespecificheats.com/merch.html

The Nottingham Indiepop Alldayer/day after 2010

2010-08-06T18:00:00.000+01:00

The third (is it the third, Sam assures me it is) Nottingham Indiepop Alldayer takes place at the end of September and we've packed so much into one day it's spilled over to the next

So on the Sunday you can see Allo Darlin', Milky Wimpshake, Betty and the Werewolves, Horowitz, Red Shoe Diaries, The Sweet Nothings, a solo set from Stefan from Northern Portrait, The Sunny Street and The Peterboroughs at Bunkers Hill

And on Sunday afternoon you can see Emma and Ian from Pocketbooks, Japanese Sleepers, Evans the Death, Scumbag Philosopher and The Middle Ones at the Chameleon

It's all being organised by Sam 'a layer of chips', Ian from Horowitz and myself

Tickets are £12 for the Saturday (which gives you free entry on the Sunday) or £5 for the Sunday only

It should be, we hope, rather splendid... see you there!

A rather subjective review of 'No more of your fairy stories: an indiepop tribute to RAMONES'

2010-08-01T01:41:00.008+01:00

I'll admit to having a vested interest in this

Firstly, the artwork on the cover and inner sleeve is by me, but... I'm sure it never looked this good when it was drawn, scanned and submitted- it's always a kick to see your work 'in print' especially when it's wrapped round something as downright splendid as this, I feel dead privileged and proud to be involved, and they've done a first rate job with the printing and that...

Secondly, the cd has been lovingly compiled and released by two absolute darlings, Marianthi (of Atomic Beat records, Spiral Scratch and Hey Hey Honeypop! blog) and Pete (Green)... these two impassioned youth have for the last few years been talking up a top secret (well, not that secret) plan to release a compilation of indiepop covers of Ramones songs

Was it necessary? Had anyone asked? Aren't covers albums by indie bands generally a bit knock-kneed and inconsequential?

I don't know, Grandad, I suppose I'd answer those questions as: so what? who cares? and *flicks vees* thrrrrppppttt! up yours, hippie!

If you don't get the Ramones, perhaps this will help, if you get the Ramones and you dig 'em the most and you're not a ridiculous hard-on this may very well melt your heart to syrup. All the bands here are onto a good 'un because these are Ramones songs (yup, I'm a fan) and you'd be hard pressed to really go wrong, also the bands here, well, they're none too shabby themselves

In time for this years Indietracks festival and on their brand new Precordial Catch Records label M and P have released OW001, 'No more of your fairy stories: an indiepop loveletter to RAMONES', and (cliche alert!) it boasts a rather impressive line-up of contributors:

Helen Love (naturally) opens up proceedings with a sprightly 'let's have the party right here' take on 'Rockaway Beach'- it's a bubblegum killer, for sure, and about midway thru' Helen tells it like it is: 'London, Paris, New York and Munich; Joey Ramone- wow!- he was the coolest'

Sheffield's glorious Parallelograms follow and their 'I wanna be your boyfriend' is enough to make the coolest, affected popkid go all cross-eyed, swoony and unnecessary. Meriel sings 'hey, little girl, I want to be your boyfriend' and the gender confusion makes one blush and giggle

Liechtenstein, from Sweden, play 'Danny Says' and it rings and chimes along, bringing to mind Talulah Gosh!; Dolly Mixture and a bright and breezy Shop Assistants. Comparing it to other stuff sounds like I'm damning it with faint praise, but I'm not because it's rather brilliant

Summer Cats' 'Pinhead' follows. Summer Cats remain one of my favourite pop bands of the last year or more and this is just one more reason to never stop loving them (they also 'follow' my blog, so nuff respeck to them for that). They turn 'Pinhead' into some kind of lullaby, getting to the very teenage symphony to God heart of the Ramones. It's over way too soon.

The Motifs' 'Sheena is a Punk Rocker' sounds like some artefact from Archie comics dim and distant past- which is a GOOD thing! This an after school special. Can I carry your books? Yeh, sure, but don't talk to me and don't look at me, I'm listening to The Motifs doing 'Sheena is a Punk Rocker'. Breathy vocals, bontempi organ beats, the sun in your eyes, oh yeah!

Cardiff's Little My's take on 'The KKK took my baby away' sounds like- and this is meant in the best possible way- fisher price punk... something like genius, roll back the rug and have a frug

Hot Booth's 'Swallow My Pride' is- if I understand this correctly- practically a one man (Dan) band,we're still hanging outside the Rock n' Roll High School waiting for Riff Randell to get out of detention. Hot Booth play it rockin' poppin', freewheelin' and eminently groovy

Pocketbooks (for whom Dan Hot Booth plays bass) play it (like they always do) equally fragile and muscular, delicate and tough. Emma takes lead vocal duties on 'Don't Come Close', it's pop perfection to these ears, a toe-tapping finger-clicking boney fidey hit

The Just Joans make 'Questioningly' sound so much like one of their own songs I had to go and listen to the Ramones original to make sure they weren't channelling some glorious beautifully sad Scottish miserablism themselves back in the day... they weren't, but, like the Just Joans, the Ramones could write some heartbreakers

*sigh!*

Let's have a dance!

The Pains of Being Pure at Heart are all squeal and frenzy on a rollicking high-on-the-treble 'Don't Go'

Just as you've given yourself a stitch bouncing around the living room to that, Horowitz follow with 'Judy Is A Punk' and out-squeal and out-frenzy their NY counterparts, the Horowitz song careers about like a stolen car driven by delinquent chipmunks hepped up on goofballs

Rather perfectly this is followed by Allo Darlin' playing 'I Wanna Be Sedated' and it's sublime, I'll confess to an indiepop sin of appreciating Allo Darlin' rather than outright loving them (like everybody else seems to and with a bug-eyed intensity), with this though I get it, I understand why people love them so, I love them too, this is gorgeous

The Cut-Outs arch their backs and clatter their way thru' 'Chainsaw' in a rather winning garage pop fashion

Next up MJ Hibbett takes us on an eccentric extended musical solvent abuse odyssey thru' 'Now I Wanna Sniff Some Glue', Hibbett's cover takes in many a musical byroad including a cod-reggae excursion, possibly a Goth Elvis (Nick Cave?) turn, something rather German sounding and then some folk pastoralism (perhaps)... it's not really indiepop, as such, but it nods back to an era of independent music where performers took a wander, explored and indulged themselves. It's agreeably daft.

Vom Vorton is Tom Morton, ex- of Lardpony and currently in amongst it with ex- Deirdres in the bravura Of Mice and Mental Arithmetic... here Vom/Tom sings a plaintive 'Pet Semetary' and when he sings that he doesn't want to be buried in a pet semetary you sort of feel that he believes he might be... it's compelling stuff

Bringing the compilation to a close is Pete Green himself performing 'Blitzkrieg Bop' as a thing of grace and beauty, a sweet soulful lament, a song that when it plays I then have to listen to several times over because it's that good, it's achingly beautiful, achingly right, it resonates, the perfect realisation of intent (from where I'm listening and presuming I know what Pete's intent was)

I think this compilation is pretty vital, not that I'm best placed to be objective about this... this is indiepop, innit? It's about friends (people who are friends and people you feel well disposed toward even if you haven't met), it's about goodwill and mutual support, you want people to do well, you will them on to succeed (on their own terms, whatever that might mean to them), if people are sincere that's enough, isn't it?

It makes indiepop an easy thing to sneer at, I guess

Nevermind any of that though...if this is Precordial Catch's calling card then keep an eye on them, they can turn out a quality item (a next quality item might be a follow up to this)

Should this be the only thing they do- and why not?- then it's a sweetheart deal, a loveletter to the Ramones but for the listener a most gratefully received and cherished gift too

'a fog of ideas' issue two supplemental: Phil Wilson interviews 'self

2010-07-31T19:28:00.006+01:00

Well, it saved me a job

In issue two of 'a fog of ideas' I interview Phil about young Mark Hibbett and then interview Mark about young Phil Wilson... I also contacted Phil about an idea I had for a fanzine that was about folks over 40 in this thing some people refer to as 'indiepop' (whatever that means)... if you read the Hibbett piece you'll discover that that idea sort of died on it's arse but did produce lovely interviews with Dick from the mighty Armitage Shanks and Pete from the magnificent Horowitz- which you'll also find in issue two of 'a fog of ideas'- and some wisdom from Mark that makes up that Hibbett piece here on this blog (are you still following, dear?)...

Any road up, Phil elected to interview himself to save me the bother, because that's the sort of 'can do' chap he is

Following that is a clip of Phil backed by Mark and his whizzo Validators (yes, I used the word 'whizzo', I have no shame) at the 2008 Nottingham Indiepop alldayer, performing the June Brides smash hit 'In The Rain'

Phil has a single and an album coming out in late autumn, a split release by Slumberland and Yesboyicecream

The Phil Wilson interview

It may be hard to believe, but Phil Wilson was once as young, and nearly as sexy, as you are. From 1983 to 1986 he led The June Brides, a band that helped define what has since become known as the C86 movement (in spite of their having declined to be on the NME’s C86 tape, and in spite of there being no such “movement”!). The Junies split in 1986, but Phil went on to record two solo singles for Creation and one for Caff Records before “retiring” from music in 1987. But now he’s back, seemingly unrepentant about playing jangly pop songs at his advanced age. What the hell’s going on? Interview by Phil Wilson [PW].

[PW] You said in 1987 that one of your reasons for retiring was that you “didn’t want to be a desperate 30 year old still trying to make it in music”. Yet here you are, two years away from 50, and you’re back playing and recording again. Can you explain that?

Phil: Did I really say that?! Bugger. Well, I guess my excuse would be that I am not actually trying to make any sort of career in music now. I just felt the urge to play music again, and to see if I could possibly write another bunch of songs that could compete with my younger self. I’m certainly not doing it with any sort of hope of ever becoming hip or popular again! And I certainly can’t imagine being taken seriously by the ageist music press.

[PW] What on Earth do you mean by that?!

Phil: Well, it seems to be fine to be an ageing folk, blues, reggae, rock or R&B singer, for example - or an aging classical musician. Not just fine, in fact, but something laudable. You’ve become “legendary” and are thus permitted to continue. But you’re not allowed to sing loud 3 minute pop songs at my age.

[PW] But that’s exactly what you’re doing?!

Phil: Well, yeah! Sod it, it’s what I do and I can’t see anything wrong in banging out loud, danceable songs on stage – as long as I can do it with a tiny shred of dignity intact.

[PW] What would your 20 year old self make of you now?

Phil: Firstly, he’d probably be very pleased that I’m still alive! Like all 20 year olds, I took myself desperately seriously at that age - to the extent that I was actually quite suicidal because I felt insecure about my place in the world. At that time, I was desperately trying to create “ART”! I was making tape loops and sound collages in the style of Throbbing Gristle. So that pretentious 20 year old twerp would probably be a bit appalled at me making pop music now. He was an idiot, mind.

[PW] He’d probably also say that everyone knows that Rock/Pop musicians become rubbish after they are 30. Anybody half-decent makes their best work at an early age. So why are you trying to do it at your age when you know it’s not going to be any good?!

Phil: Well, I’d have to disagree, obviously! I think it’s a fair point that artists get burnt out and stop producing work that can compare to their early stuff. But I’ve had the benefit of 20 odd years without having to produce music, so I still have fresh ideas that excite me. And there’s also the point that I think it’s completely valid for somebody older to be producing music which can reflect their maturity (I nearly said “wisdom” there, but that would be pushing it!). You don’t suddenly stop being an interesting human being just because you pass the age of 25/30/40.

[PW] Are there any actual consolations or benefits about getting older?

Phil: Yeah! If you’re lucky, you lose that feeling of self-importance that you had when you were younger. That sounds daft, but once you take yourself less seriously, you can begin to enjoy life for what it is and become less concerned about what’s fashionable and what people think of you. And that’s very liberating.

[PW] And any regrets?

Phil: Of course there are. But thinking about them is pointless. There’s only the here and now and the time we have left. It’s important to enjoy those and not wear yourself down with what might-have-been.

There's more on Phil here

'a fog of ideas' issue two supplemental: Mark Hibbett faces up to turning 40

2010-07-31T16:19:00.006+01:00

I was planning a fanzine for the over 40's... or something like that... lots of folks involved in ostensibly indiepop (whatever that term might mean) who are 40+, don't care and are still keeping keeping on

For some reason this seemed like a good idea and one, I assumed, other people (especially those over 40) would relish the prospect of acknowledging in print, stating publicly quite how old they actually are and how age ain't nuthin' but a number and we'll show these whipper-snappers a thing or two

I remember when all this was fields

I sent out a string of emails... and then it went very quiet

Four people did reply though- and what jolly good stephens they are- and one of those stout fellows was Mr Mark Hibbett.  The other three were Mr Dick Scum from the magnificent Armitage Shanks, Mr Pete Bee from the mighty Horowitz and Mr Phil Wilson from, um, himself (and ex- of the legendary June Brides).  The interviews with Dick and Pete can be found in 'a fog of ideas' issue two.  Phil's interview will follow on this blog shortly.

And Mark? If you don't know Mark, he's essentially Brendan off 'Coach Trip' to indiepop's busload of everybody else.  

Mark is currently up to his ears in dinosaurs and giant robots, shortly before his 40th birthday he kindly provided answers to a few trite questions off me on the subject of getting older and, following that, there's a jolly video of Mark and his splendid Validators performing 'Being Happy Doesn't Make You Stupid' at this year's FUCKING AMAZING Indietracks festival (that was last weekend... this weekend is well pants in comparison):

Fog: 'what would your 20 year old self make of you now?'

Mark: I think he'd be confused - also relieved, disappointed and pleased all mixed up, but mostly confused. When I was 20 I was absolutely convinced I was going to be a Great Man Of The Theatre, running my own
theatre company, writing plays, possibly dabbling in television writing and looking back at an early career in stand-up comedy. A number of things happened to stop that pretty early on (e.g. stand-up comedy being NO FUN AT ALL and me being no good at it!) and it was a couple of years into my twenties before I decided to start enjoying whatever came along and stop fighting against Good Times. So yes, he'd be disappointed that none of that really happened, pleased that all sorts of other things happened, relieved that I actually did Eventually Get A Girlfriend (that would be the first thing he'd ask about!) and confused about how it all worked out this way. Being confused about how it all got this way is one of the few things we'd still have in common!

Fog: 'any regrets?'

Mark: No big ones. All the things I've done that have gone horribly and/or ludicrously wrong have always ended up leading to something GRATE, and meandering along as I have done without any proper plan has led to me meeting all sorts of delightful people. The only things I regret are the things I didn't do when I could have, rather than anything I actually DID do. For instance, this weekend just gone I had the opportunity to ask Gaz Top to be an Iguanadon for me, but didn't. That's not an opportunity I'm likely to have again.

Fog: 'what are the consolations of getting older?'

Mark: Not giving a flying fuck what idiots think of you is, I think, the one towering achievement of being alive longer. My thirties (coming to a close as I type this) have been the best decade of my life because at the start of it I realised that there's no point worrying about the good opinion of twats. Realising that freed me to spend more time with the people I DO like and whose opinions I DO respect, and also freed my MENTAL BRANE from thoughts of what's "cool" or not, so I could go off and have all manner of fun and good times.

Other good bits include being a bit more confident with strangers, knowing that, actually, there IS a point to going first class on the train, and being able to call people "young man" whether they want you to or not. And also, of course, there's nothing as much fun as getting to go to the toilet in the middle of the night, every night. That's brilliant.

'A Fog of Ideas, Number Two'

2010-07-20T22:12:00.002+01:00

This is my second fanzine and, jeepers, did it ever take me a time to get it put together

It's chock full of interviews and includes valuable contributions from Everett True and Crayola Sarandon for the piece on The McTells

I'll be attempting to hawk this at the Indietracks festival this weekend and then following that I'll be selling it mail order (I guess) for anyone that's interested

It's 40 pages long and printed in glorious black ink on white copier paper

It's a luxury item for sure

An interview with Tae Won Yu

2010-06-05T10:03:00.021+01:00

This interview is from about 18 months or so ago and was due to appear in issue 2 of my print 'zine a fog of ideas... that has still yet to appear all this time later... I'm a little worried that it ever will (print costs, even photocopying costs seem way out of what I can afford right now and, truth be told, the last 'zine benefited from me being able to print and assemble the thing- on work's equipment, using work's paper- on a couple of slow summer days in the particular job I was in back then, I don't have that 'luxury' now)

I wanted to interview Tae because his band Kicking Giant meant a great deal to me and still do and I also love the design work he did for K Records and I think more people should be aware of him and kind of fan worship him like I do

Kicking Giant were not always easy listening but there was an incendiary pop sensibility at the heart of what they did. They could be alternately and sometimes all at once: abrasive, breathtaking, heartbreaking, defiant and staggeringly beautiful

Apologies to Tae that it's taken so long for this interview to find it's way out into the world and that's not in a print 'zine like I wanted it to be... so here's the interview:

I wanted to write about Tae Won Yu… the band KICKING GIANT that Tae formed with RACHEL CARNS were a big deal to me and still are and I love the design work he did for K Records, Tae is somebody I think people should know about, so I got in contact with him and very graciously he took time to respond to my gushing questions and this is the interview from that…

fogofideas: The first question is how KICKING GIANT got together? Had you been in bands beforehand and may I ask for some 'flavour' of what New York was like at that time?

Tae: I was a late starter, I was already in college, attending the Cooper Union in New York, 1988, I had friends at NYU who were more musically astute than I. They turned me on to lots of bands, in particular the K RECORDS roster, I remember the GO TEAM singles club was a big hit among us and SOME VELVET SIDEWALK and MECCA NORMAL, DANIEL JOHNSTON and PUSSY GALORE, UNREST, HALF JAPANESE, also I was living in the East Village and going out to shows almost every night, so it was a natural progression from audience to performer.

There was a great scene of music nerds, bands, fanzines and shows and I responded to all this by trying to figure out a way to make my own. I bought a Tascam-1: 4-track cassette machine from a heavy metal kid in the Chelsea projects and I started trying to making my own recordings. I remember that seeing SONIC YOUTH at the old Knitting Factory playing an early Daydream Nation show was a huge influence, especially the no holds barred way of playing guitar and sculpting noise I found completely exhilarating.

At this point I had made a cassette album called "January" and I would give them away to bands and friends, through that I met CALVIN from K and MARK ROBINSON from TEENBEAT, by then I had met RACHEL CARNS who was a freshman at Cooper Union and somehow we invented ourselves as our own band and I think the wonderful part of this is that we embraced our own limitations and never thought that we couldn't just get together and be a real band—instantly. I think both Rachel and I had a deep spiritual side to us that gave us incentive to be moved by something other than chops or professionalism and perhaps because both of us grew up in somewhat repressive family atmospheres (her as a daughter of a Baptist minister and I as a son of Korean immigrants) we were ready to be released and fully appreciate this opportunity to express parts of us that had been kept dormant.

I remember also that we were true believers in the idea that anyone can make art and to cultivate an individual style is far more worthwhile than ever trying to sound like someone else so that gave us a lot of freedom to be this ramshackle two piece punk band with a cobbled together stand up drum kit and cheap guitars, also we were able to practice in my apartment on 10th st and 2nd avenue, it was still a iffy neighbourhood then and no one ever complained.

fogofideas: You began releasing cassettes starting with 'January' and then 'Boyfriend Girlfriend' and 'Secret Teenage Summer' followed- there was a split cd thing too, I recall, with SLEEPYHEAD and WALLDRUG (I used to have it and somebody borrowed it... inevitable loss of cd), how did that come about?

Tae: The CD was a compilation called "Chinny Chin Chin: 4 NY Bands" organized by Mike McGonigal the creator of the fanzine, CHEMICAL IMBALANCE. McGonigal now edits a journal/zine called YETI in Portland—which is also excellent. He was in our circle of friends, very well connected and incredibly knowledgeable about such a wide range of obscure bands and artists, plus he was a master mix-tape maker so it was a natural progression to put out an official release and to help out his friends. Even though the CD was barely distributed outside of our immediate acquaintances we felt fortunate to be given the opportunity to record in a studio and be on a real CD...this was way before you could even dream about burning your own CDs, (I think it came out in 1991) and in that spirit I extended a hand to my friend LIZ PHAIR who was depressed and killing time at her parent's house writing songs that would become "Exile in Guyville"—so we arranged to have her call me and sing "White Babies" into my answering machine so she became a sound verite track amidst our section of the comp, not that this had any impact on her eventual rise to fame.
I remember this period of our band as being really rickety but joyous—running on fumes, borrowed gear, mostly bright eyed and innocent, we did not have very good songs but we played anywhere to anybody or nobody, people who got it were few but we were mostly psyched just to be in a band.

fogofideas: … and then the 'Halo' cd... you were still based in New York at this point? Kicking Giant had been this band I'd heard a lot about, I remember finding the split compilation first (but it wasn't enough) and then going into Rough Trade over here and finding the 'Halo' cd and being utterly elated... what led Kicking Giant to Olympia? It's almost this mythic place to somebody like me in the UK, it seemed a natural fit for Kicking Giant to be there... I wonder if you can give a 'flavour' of Olympia as it was when you moved there- was this running parallel with the emerging 'riot grrrl' movement?

Tae: "Halo" came about after we had moved to Olympia, but it was a compilation of tracks recorded pre-Olympia (in NY) as well as new material we made up after our move. My first real contact with Olympia was when I attended a party/show at a basement yoga studio in the East Village (organized by Mike McGonigal) in 1989 (?), Calvin was touring with the GO TEAM along with MECCA NORMAL and SOME VELVET SIDEWALK, also on the bill was GALAXIE 500 (!) and I felt a resonance with all these bands and their approach to music. I remember that they didn't have a mic stand so there was a mic taped to a lamp, which I found hilarious and charming and the music was wonderful, crashing pop—utterly open and to see such sincere art in the middle of a jaded NY scene—literally underground, opened my eyes and I wanted to keep this feeling forever. I gave Calvin a copy of "January" that night and we stayed in touch. Meanwhile, my friends SLEEPYHEAD had played a show with NATION OF ULYSSES and we became aware of all the bands doing their thing in D.C. at the same time—another connector at this time was a teen magazine called "SASSY" —they wrote about zines including "GIRL GERMS" which was Allison and Molly's project that summer as well as presenting IAN SVENONIOUS the dubious distinction of being the "Sassiest Boy In America"—I think I wrote to Allison because of the zine article and soon after, BRATMOBILE came up to NY to play, we made a poster that read "Riot Girl (sic) Scene"—probably the first appearance of said moniker, in NY at least.

All this to say that we found ourselves amongst like minded friends, which lead to Kicking Giant being invited out to Olympia to play at the INTERNATIONAL POP UNDERGROUND CONVENTION in August 1991.

Being in Olympia that summer was magical, if you've ever been in the American Northwest during the summer—it is Eden, perfect weather, there's blackberries growing everywhere and that summer, the streets of the small town was swarming with kids, our hosts who had apartments downtown kept their doors open and we would visit, drink coffee get our minds blown, seeing bands like THE MUMMIES, MELVINS, HEAVENS TO BETSY, UNWOUND, BEAT HAPPENING and see JAD FAIR and STEPHEN PASTEL walking down the street.

But more than any of this, what got to me most was the kids at the shows. Before this trip, we had played mostly in NY and college towns in the East Coast and the crowds were lame, no one danced or mustered the courage to show much emotion or any action, they were petrified of breaking rank and enjoying themselves in the crowd, but out there, the kids went bananas and they were for real. So between being seduced by the weather and inspired by the kids, I moved to Olympia the following year, and Rachel came soon after that.

Olympia during those heady years was great for me, I had never experienced much outside of NY where anonymity reigned, and then to become part of a small community of artists making work, taking pride in its regional identity, connecting to others working in similar veins all over the world, it was what I had only imagined in my dreams. My favorite aspect of my time there was the way events could spontaneously occur so organically, bands could play shows after a few practises, shows could happen in living rooms, alleys, basements, abandoned banks, fanzines created over a quiet weekend, all we needed to do was spread the word. In NY, it's nearly impossible to arrange things without monumental effort in scheduling, but here all we had was time and willingness to participate. As a transplant, I'm sure I saw the town much more romantically than it's native inhabitants but still, I often found myself sincerely having the best time of my life, completely amazed by what I was seeing in front of me, some lovely memories like MECCA NORMAL playing a show in NIKKI MCCLURE's living room the morning after their late night show in town, A New Year's Eve party with GENE DEFCON—dancing till the cops broke it up, many a hootenannies at LOIS's with revolving coterie of guests, pancake party for CODEINE at the Martin Apt. Kicking Giant Christmas Party in the Martin Apt. laundry room, karaoke with ELLIOT SMITH singing "Leaving On A Jet Plane" at the ABC House, and not to mention all the thrift store trips, dance parties and dinners with friends because there was nothing else to do.

fogofideas: It strikes me that there was a real intensity of purpose about Kicking Giant, about what you and Rachel were trying to achieve- is that a correct assessment?

Tae: Well, it's not as if ever had an agenda or goal, I think that we found our performance style naturally and we were comfortable with that. I can say that I've always felt natural taking chances on stage, improvising and playing with structure of our songs. Both Rachel and I were pretty free and chance oriented and we weren't linear thinkers, we rarely played our songs straight the same way twice—our method was more conversational and open ended and oriented towards discovering another path, allowing whatever it is beneath our conscious layer to flow and crash or harmonize. If we had a philosophy, it might be described as embracing the freedom to fail, and playing with Rachel was lot of fun, she is a genius and we fed off of each other's energy. Rachel was more daring and willing to go to weirder places, I probably had a larger repertoire of pop conventions and was more controlling so I think the resulting tension was what made it musically interesting.

When I first started going to shows I was most affected by bands like THE BOREDOMS, BUTTHOLE SURFERS and SONIC YOUTH, who really brought the intensity on stage. The shows functioned less as a programmed recital and more as a liberation demonstration, freeing the noise and not worrying about where it will go—I don't think they knew, or cared, I certainly felt like I was seeing a once in a lifetime experience at every show.

I want to ask about the graphic design and illustration work you did for K, how that came about and so on- you seemed to be the in-house designer for a number of years- that may be something that people don't appreciate: that K is a working creative art space and not just a recording studio or rehearsal space... am I right in saying you came up with the 'dub narcotic' typeface? However you want to answer this, I love that work you did, I love those sleeves as much as I love the music- which is lots

Tae: I can't quite remember how it started but I found myself working on graphics at K almost immediately after moving there. The original K offices then were a suite of rooms above "The Chinatown" (a Chinese restaurant, obviously). The rooms were pretty small and crowded, but we did have a so called graphics room with a home made light table, a silkscreen table (too tall for me—I had to use a stool) and a small corner where Calvin had set up a tape dubbing station, the source tapes were usually 1/4" reels inputting into 6 tape decks and you just spent the days turning them over every 15 minutes, that's how all our early Kicking Giant cassettes were made. I can't imagine how many accumulated years I spent doing this.

The first graphics I made for K were for TIGER TRAP’s "Sour Grass" EP and LOIS' "Strumpet" LP. Prior to this I didn't know anything about putting together make-readies for printers so I made a lot of mistakes and learned as I went along, and this was before computers, in fact we were putting together graphics with xeroxes, rubylith and glue sticks up until the "SELECTOR DUB NARCOTIC" compilation in 1997! I had no training in the graphic arts, except for being a fan of the old Neville Brody era Face magazines, Fabien Baron designed Interview and Harper's Bazaar magazines which I collected, but I was always into collage and cut and paste, so I just kept doing that and figured out a way to get it printed. One thing I would do is just take type from magazines and xerox them, cut and arrange them, keep xeroxing and I would accumulate boxes of paper which became my tools of trade. All my work was first made by hand and xeroxed, later, scanned and arranged into a layout, nothing's changed except now I make illustrations that "look" as if they were printed, copied and distressed.

At some point I became good friends with PAT CASTALDO (he runs BuyOlympia.com now), who is another unsung hero of Olympia, he was one of the few technologically advanced people in Olympia at that time.

You have to realize that some of us were pretty late in embracing technology, sometimes to the point of being a luddite and holding on to the olden-days ways a bit too long. I remember talking to Calvin in 1999 about getting a computer and he was incredulous (or sarcastic—it's hard to tell) "what for?" was his response. But Pat was instrumental in bringing a number of us into "the future", as he likes to say and I am thankful. He worked at the Evergreen College full time and after work I'd take up his remaining waking hours working with him on a 1996 Power Mac, which amounted to watching him scan all my hand made graphic elements, then telling him to "move it there...no, too far!!" in Pagemaker, all night long, a lot beer was consumed during this period. And Pat did not have to do any of this, and he even bought the beer! He was paid little or nothing, but there was a generosity of spirit in Olympia and he embodied it, and I guess he sensed that we would be pretty lost without a helping hand, more than we realized at the time, so "DESIGNED BY TAE WON YU/BUILT BY PAT CASTALDO" describes our partnership and my own computer training I received.

I loved and appreciated the opportunity to work at K, and I feel like I added a facet to the aesthetics there but the real visionary was always Calvin. I don't think people realize but his tastes and sense of style extends well beyond music and he has a natural way of making things that seem so confident and fully formed. For example, the iconic K in a shield logo can be scrawled by just about anyone but the original that Calvin made just looks perfect, and to me—so beautiful and also his use of local printers and resources to make his projects was also an eye opener.

The original K newsletters were printed on yellow newsprint by a printer in a small town that printed the local paper, and we just extended that relationship to make posters for our bands because they use a web press for printing newspapers, we could get posters that were cost effective and huge! Our Kicking Giant poster for Alien i.D. is one of my favorites using that process.

Another factor that contributed to the style at K was the local presence of Boeing, the airplane manufacturer. Boeing is based in Seattle and they had a warehouse full of antiquated office supplies that were on sale cheap, so nearly all the warehouse and studio shelves, desks and chairs at K came from there. At some point, Calvin came back with a trove of tools, among them a giant rubber letter stamp thing. I will try to explain what this is: imagine one of those old date stamps with a row of 7 or so bands of rubber numbers and months that you'd turn to stamp out "Dec-09-08", now imagine a giant one with an entire rubber alphabet on each band in a row of 20! So, Calvin would diligently spell out DUB NARCOTIC and everything else on this thing and xerox it and we'd keep a jumble of these sheets in our flat files, and that's where the Dub Narcotic typeface came from. The downside to this was that for a time, everything had to be stamped and xeroxed, so I ended up spelling out all the titles and credits to a number of projects.

At some point, I can't remember when but it was after the BECK album, that K moved to a much larger space with a huge warehouse and a giant loft upstairs nearly a block long that became DUB NARCOTIC STUDIO but most often referred to as the Big Room. Calvin was always very generous and bands were able to practice and record there, I made large paintings there and it felt so wonderful to have such an epic space available to us, I think psychologically it made you feel as if you could see further out to your own possibilities. Calvin always made sure that K was integrated to function as part of the Olympia community and there were plenty of non K projects that got done with the use of all this workspace.

fogofideas: What are you doing now?

Tae: You can just say that I live in Brooklyn and I'm an artist and illustrator/designer, and that you found me on Flickr and point to my Flickr page. I'm working on my website, I'll send it to you if it gets done before you print the zine.

http://taewonyu.tumblr.com/
http://www.taewonyu.com/

Postscript: Since posting this interview Jean Smith from Mecca Normal has contacted me and been very kind (about this interview) and supplied me with a couple of links that I'd like to share:

The first is from Magnet where every Saturday an illo/text piece is run where Jean provides the words and David Lester (guitar in Mecca Normal) provides the artwork- this Saturday's piece is an invitation to Tae to be included in the The Black Dot Museum of Political Art (managed by Kill Rock Stars founder, Slim Moon), here

A Facebook page for The Black Dot Museum of Political Art is here

Thanks to Jean and thanks again to Tae

Golly Gosh! WOW! Isn't 'Music' Flipping Fantastic Right Now ???

2010-03-07T15:00:00.015Z

It's MAGIC!! It's ACE!! It's blooming GREAT!!

Last year was full of so many great bands and labels and records that it was almost impossible to keep up, in fact it was a sprint to keep up with even a small per cent of what was HAPPENING...

It's probably always been this way but fired up by all this I've gone from sadsack 'everything is bleak and horrible' to furiously and vividly heartily convinced and ENTHUSIASTIC and sincere and DELIGHTED... it's a magnificent shot in the arm- an adrenaline boost right to the heart- suddenly (and perhaps it's because the sun is out and that Spring has almost sprung) everything seems fresh and new and it's all about bright-eyed OPTIMISM... there's that feeling of despite everything else in the world (or because of it) I am in love with these times in spite of these times, never truer, never more accurate... it's not all down to POP but if it helps, significantly so

And what MUSIC has filled me full of this HOLY GOOF bug-eyed BELIEF?

There's a ton of stuff really- vicariously revelling in the success of LONDON POPFEST that I wasn't at but that I know meant so much to those that were; all them other POPFESTS (Athens, GA; Copenhagen, New England; NYC; Rome; SF) bursting into life through the year that I won't get to (sadly) but that kind of fortify one knowing they exist, that they're happening; the INDIETRACKS festival that I will be at and that looks already likely to be the GREATEST EVER; NEW! LPs coming soon from STANDARD FARE!; SHRAG!; ALLO DARLIN'!; THE SCHOOL!; the HARLEM 'HIPPIES' LP; Happy Happy Birthday To Me Records (SOURPATCH! BUNNYGRUNT! SWEATER GIRLS!); SLUMBERLAND RECS (20 years old and never looked so fresh-faced); HOROWITZ!; The GARLANDS/SUGARPLUMS 7" on ATOMIC BEAT!; news of a new POCKETBOOKS LP one day some day soon (fingers crossed)... plus the Jonathan Richman bootlegs I've been finding online, the new STRANGE BOYS LP; JACUZZI BOYS; MYELIN SHEATHS, CHRISTMAS ISLAND, THE ART MUSEUMS...

It's just all FRICKING AWESOME and that barely skims the surface- you should all have your own picks to add too (and I know I've missed some stuff that'll have some of you shrieking in appalled 'how could he not mention such and such?' disbelief... assuming anyone is actually reading this)

The catalyst for this post is listening to the STANDARD FARE LP and being floored over and over by this band and their songs- this is soul music! URGENT! INSISTENT! INCANDESCENT! SHOT THRU' WITH URGENCY! BELIEF! EXCLAMATION MARKS!

My interest in music isn't just in what's new and what's now- it manifests itself from all over, feeds in from all abouts back and forth through time (just like it does most people, obviously)... one can never, it would seem, have it all figured out, it cannot be contained, one is forever chasing and excavating and being gifted by all this LIFE-AFFIRMING stuff... if that's what you want out of life... and I do

It's ACE! I love it! I hope you're feeling it too...

x

'Orrors, Part Three

2010-02-16T20:10:00.003Z

November 29th, 2009

we watched 'tormented' last night, it's a spirited avenging bullied fat schoolboy comes back from the grave to kill off the bullying buggers who drove him to suicide brit flick that manages to not take itself too seriously and seems to be a delightful satire on emo sensibilities, namely that said fat kid comes back to kill his bullies but really reserves his hatred for the posh head girl who fails to notice that he loved her (how unfair!)... parents are absent (I don't think this is so much a cultural criticism as an indication of the low budget involved), the teachers are either chris tate from emmerdale (the ineffectual posturing head), sandra dickinson (the 'isn't she a bit old to be playing ditzy these days?' art teacher) or sammy brooks from- the danny dyer tracksuits and toot thriller- the business (aka the actor geoff bell, who plays a really horrible PE teacher who punishes the victims of bullying rather than the bulliers because it's character building)

the young cast are all rather good, there's alex pettyfer from stormbreaker who plays the lead bully: a preening, conceited, over-privileged, swaggering, floppy haired utter utter dick of a twat of an arse while the rest of the cast (almost as objectionable) have appeared in grange hill, skins, little dorrit and lark rise to candleford- the overall feel is like seeing the hollyoaks omnibus (but with a higher quality of acting chops) rent asunder by a zombie chubster

one of the most offensive characters (too offensive even for the main twunts) is killed too soon, there's three comedy emo goth kids (one of whom gets maimed rather unconvincingly- but wait until you see the other two's handmade get well soon cards); there's two scenes of frankly tedious hollyoaks after dark 'sex' (her bra on, his bum out, fast editing so it's all very tasteful... why tasteful? in a film where some poor sod who doesn't deserve to get offed gets a pencil up each nostril and his face slammed into a desk why so coy over showing some nudey bits?); boy's bums figure quite highly and somebody gets drowned by having a fat zombie lad sit on them at the bottom of the school pool

you feel really sympathetic toward the avenging zombie until close to the end when you begin to think enough already (pencils up nose kid)

it manages to be somehow unsatisfactory but somehow quite entertaining despite all that

snorks had to hide her face twice behind a cushion because of stuff kicking off on the screen, once for a popped out eyeball, then for the pencils up the nose bit

there's a great not-really-a-twist ending that comes in mid post-credits

the heroine is played by somebody called tuppence

3.5 stars out of 5, I'll probably buy it for a fiver in fopp (in about a months time, probably)

February 13th, 2010

I watched 'the burning' (1981) this afternoon and thought it was ace... having watched the original 'friday the 13th' last week, and found it wanting, I anticipated watching this- which is essentially a 'friday the 13th' copy- with little enthusiasm... but it entertained me A LOT!

for one this is an eighties slasher that casts (seemingly) actual teenagers as teenagers rather than thirty year olds pretending and failing to pass themselves off as teenagers (the fenn st syndrome) and that's pretty rare... the young cast includes jason 'george costanza' alexander- who's none too shabby in his role as dave- and (in the background) holly hunter amongst some eighties teen movie regulars like brian backer (from 'fast times at ridgemont high') and the always strangely compelling (and very young here) fisher stevens (who's career since has taken in everything from 'short circuit' to 'friends' to 'lost')

anyway, the spam in the wilderness gets sliced by a garden shears wielding killer called cropsy who's taking revenge on freewheelin' youth because as a caretaker at a summer camp five years earlier he was the victim of a prank when he ended up on fire

the film has a kind of gleeful sleazy undercurrent which I kind of liked mostly because this is an exploitation movie and not an improving work of cinema or something... it won me over because it brought to mind movies like 'meatballs' and horny eighties summer camp comedies like that but this film flips all of that upside down by having everyone get hacked up

even better, I kind of cared about some of these assholes and did not want them to die (now that is weird when watching a slasher movie)

fisher stevens character, woodstock, wears a pair of sick adidas trainers, possibly gazelles or sambas that are green and yellow (brazil colours)

I won't tell you what happens to those but I swear I nearly cried

the music is by rick wakeman

tom savini provided the gore

I'm going to give this 4 stars out of 5

February 15th, 2010

yesterday afternoon we watched the rather overlooked and (if it has been looked at) sometimes rather maligned 70's british ghost story, um, 'ghost story'

it's a rather jolly/spooky tale of three chaps taking a weekend away at one of their number's country pile for some shooting at the height of summer

the huge creaky old mansion has rather gone to wrack and almost ruin and holds, rather agreeably, a dark secret

the three chums are played by murray melvin ('a taste of honey'/'the devils'), vivian mackerrel (the real life inspiration for withnail) and larry dann (who later played the custody sergeant in 'the bill' for a number of years)

also in the cast are marianne faithful and leigh lawson, twiggy's husband and a dead ringer for bret from 'flight of the conchords'

of the three chaps, melvin is all aristocratic porcelain feline camp- clearly the last in the family line- who charlestons giddily like a flapper behind closed doors... mackerrel is the dapper playboy, an expert shot with an interest in spriritualism and a withering detached air... while dann is the garishly dressed schoolboy-like buffer, clearly a class below his two companions and viewed with either disdain or amusement by his fellows

what follows is a sort of wry comedy of manners gradually giving way to a ghost story as the house gives up it's secrets to the most sensitive of the group

a china doll plays a part in all of this, appearing and disappearing throughout (this may at times strain some viewers credulity) and there are strange almost surreal moments when the past and present converge with no explanation or reasoning

that seemed to happen a lot in tv/film in the seventies, we've been watching a box set of 'sapphire and steel' of late and what I like is that there's no real determined need (on behalf of the programme makers) to explain... the explaination, the reasoning is not the thing... it's the ride that matters

I love this film, there's lots of familiar faces from the telly of my youth (including penelope keith) and there's much to appreciate here... not least the indian shooting location doubling for england in the 30's at the height of summer

5 stars

'Orrors, Part Two

2010-02-16T20:03:00.004Z

As threatened...

March 14th, 2008

I watched 'Planet Terror' tonight, the Robert Rodriguez half of 'Grindhouse' (I haven't seen 'Death Proof')... man, I really, really enjoyed it... first up Rose McGowan is my God, not since 'Doom Generation' has she looked quite so... quintesentially... um, godlike and magnificent

So, I'm onto a winner with the opening credits where she does some, um, go go dancing... and it just keeps getting better, it's a great movie: splatter, gore, pus, abscesses, open wounds, guts, wounding to the eyeball, exploding heads, more splatter, popping blisters, demented doctors, testicles, explosions, bbq sauce and melting genitalia

I mean that's a night out/in right there

I totally got the scratches and saturated colour look, it reminded me of genuine grindhouse classics like 'Switchblade Sisters' and 'The Exterminator' and stuff like that

And the missing reel just helped the action zip along, it was total delirium madness and I liked the way the girl to guy ratio in our gang of battling heroes/heroines upped as the movie went on (for no explained reason) and how the police woman ended up with a cut off police shirt to show off her tummy while blasting gits heads off

I liked the hospital where a lot of the opening part of the film is set, it's like Dr Benway's Memorial Medical Centre for Creative Elective Surgery

and I liked how Freddy Rodriguez was kind of a short arse, or seemed to be, it explained a lot about the motivation of his character

Like Wrong Turn 2: Henry Rollins Vs Hillbilly Cannibals I'm giving this a maximum 5

and another 5 for Rose McGowan

and it had Bruce Willis in it and I didn't even care

August 5th, 2008

I watched Zombie Lake last night, it wasn't at all gory, but as a film about Dead Nazis Living Underwater And Killing Skinnydippers it was hard to beat

Something of a European Seventies Bushfest it was (poorly) dubbed and had a strange woozy charm

Whoever had dubbed it didn't appear to have access to the original script- or at least I hope they didn't- as relatively mundane bits of dialogue were stretched out with lots of gratuitous swearing

Such as:

Local Yokel 1: The fucking girl is missing
Local Yokel 2: She'll turn up
Local Yokel 1: Quite the fucking slut
Local Yokel 2: If she's not back by fucking morning I'll speak to the fucking mayor
Beermadchen: Two fucking beers for you?

The Nazis have gone green, they're really green onland but as they rise up out of the waterlilly strewn lake most of the green has run onto their uniforms

A milkmadchen is attacked and bitten on the neck and gets some green on her face

It's all to do with the locals of the town nearest the lake who killed some Nazis in the war and hid their bodies in the lake but those same Dead Nazi's have now risen from their watery graves to attack the locals and a passing all-nude women's basketball team

All in all it's a lot of rubbish but it has a certain mental charm and looks strangely effective in places, it passed the time

2.5 out of 5

August 20th, 2008

the hills have eyes 2 (the recent one)

the remake of the hills have eyes that came out wasn't half bad, it stuck pretty closely to the original throwing in more budget, more gore, more effects, more explosions, more CGI and a few twisted surprises...

this follow-up sees a crap squad of national guard rookies assigned to drop supplies off with scientists working in the top secret 'sector 16' (where the first film took place) before they arrive the scientists are lopped in half, bludgeoned in the head, chucked down mountains having sustained serious pickaxe wounds and administered with a thousand cuts before being shoved down a toilet

yep, it's those bloody 'ills 'ave eyes lot again, those great big radioactive mutant sods with the oversized jaws and cobbly skin complaints who 1) eat men and 2) get jiggy with the ladies

our rookies- a rag, tag and bobtail assortment of races and obnoxiousness- don't stand a flupping chance

limbs are broken or clean chopped off, one chap gets friendly fired to death, another falls down a mountain and splats his head on a rock, one lad ends up as so much dinner and one poor lady soldier (missy) gets frenchied by a sod with a enormous tongue before his dad does a 'gentlemen's excuse me' and does something shocking to her over a table

one by one the rubbish soldiers are done away with until mr sensitive and a pretty soldier lady are left to fight back with extreme and vicious prejudice

mutants get well murdered, one has his head ground into bone chip-flecked raspberry jam as sensitive (who'd been revealed earlier in the movie to have a bumper sticker that reads 'conference not confrontation') bashes the twat's big head in with a rock... then pretty soldier lady shoves her pokey fingers into dad mutants head wound and stirs up his brains before sledgehammering his groin over and over and over again until sensitive intervenes and shoves a rifle down the poor unfortunate's throat... missy then gets to kick the corpse's head in

I think the message of this film is 'look what you've done, mr bush, are you happy now?' said in a sarcastic way while pointing at the 'this is much worse than abu ghraib and it's happening in a fictional top secret old atomic testing site somewhere in the desert in your own country, how does that make you feel?'-type atrocities dealt out by american on american

it's a message movie

I think this deserves 3.25 stars

the two crap 'heavy' songs over the end credits are by celldwellar and loudlion

loudlion may be my favourite new band name

September 20th, 2008

I mean't to mention this yesterday but 'Horror Hospital' was on BBC2 last night in the wee small hours, released the year after Psychomania, the two films would make a delightfully delirious double bill

Horror Hospital is great for a number of reasons:

1. heads roll before the opening credits
2. randy Robin Askwith is our hero, Jason Jones
3. the marvelous Michael Gough is the boggle-eyed mad doctor, a Nazi who hates young people and who has a deadpan comic dwarf assistant called Frederick and some leatherclad biker bodyguards
4. The Horror Hospital is a sort of Health Spa where burned out youth can get out to the country and enjoy a 'Hairy Holiday'- except they don't they get their brains experimentated on and deaded!!!
5. the splendid Dennis Price is in it as a predatory homosexual travel agent who admires Jason's crotch (as do we- there's a zoom in close up)
6. there's a terrible band at the beginning called Mystic who are a sort of sub-par Black Sabbath with a tall transvestite fella lying on a coffin as their front man (possibly singer, while their performing and their song- that Jason wrote- is being performed nobody appears to be mouthing the words)
7. the tall transvestite punches Jason on the nose
8. as a result Jason goes on a 'Hairy Holiday' to recuperate
9. having met a young lovely on a train who has a bizarre back story involving an aunt who ran a brothel in Germany during the war
10. and then things go really bobbins

'Horror Hospital' was directed by Anthony Balch who was responsible for getting Tod Browning's 'Freaks' a cinema release in the UK 30-something years after it was first banned... Balch was also a collaborator of William Burroughs and had made a somewhat bonkers but highly regarded psychedelic Brit Porn Flick called 'The Secrets of Sex'

he died following the making of 'Horror Hospital'

which was a shame as he'd probably have made a whole slew of dead fruity and odd movies throughout the seventies, eighties and nineties

I taped it

January 26th, 2009

we watched 'eden lake' last night and I was disappointed, the premise of the film: lovely city-type couple take a weekend away and cross paths with feral underclass teens could've played as dead-eyed satire or indeed neatly twisted the roles of hunter and prey and said something rather more pointed about society, violence, class or whatever than what it actually does which is serve up an unsatisfying uninvolving unjumpy rather turgid bit of daily mail nightmare wish fulfillment

it's a blunt stanley knife of a film, neither effective horror or wryly subversive black comedy- the adult working class are codified here by thick necks, shaved heads, domestic abuse, lager and a liking for stock, aitken and waterman

sudden plot twists had us groaning with annoyance- character's motivations seemed to be governed more by moving the plot along than the actions of anybody rational or even irrational- and the ending is telegraphed rather hamfistedly at the start

the cast were pretty good, I'll give them that- thomas turgoose is in it (from 'this is england' and 'somers town') but he's wasted here, kelly reilly makes an impressive looking heroine (if not a convincing or particularly involving one) and the little shits are all effectively little shits- although the gangleader is just some smarmy twonk who deserves a kicking but somehow has the rest of his gang quivering in their hoodies

loads of other films flickered thru' my head while watching this from the recent 'wilderness' to 'I spit on your grave' and the very similar 'them' and at a push 'funny games'

the most disturbing thing, for me, is that the writer for this is writing 'the descent 2'- a sequel to a film that has no need for a sequel and, which on the strengths of this, is going to be a massive and unnecessary disappointment

1.5 stars out of 5

March 30th, 2009

'Motel Hell' (1980)

this is a film what's vhs video cover used to repel and attract me in equal measure as a barely pubescent boy child in the early-80's. I figured it for a 'nasty', telling as it does the tale of a brother and sister running a motel and chopping passersby into hickory smoked meats. However, since then I discovered it's a horror-comedy (of which there were many in the eighties) pitched, apparently, just short of a John Waters movie with a small but feverish internet cult following.

it's certainly head-scratchingly odd and there are laffs (some circumnavigating Waters territory such as those directed toward the swinger couple who show up complete with whips and rubberwear hoping their hosts are 'into animals') but it's kind of a nutty character/mood piece more than a horror or a comedy. The cast is full of recognisable faces- there's a young Cliff Clavin from Cheers playing some feral handbanger in a band called 'Ivan and the Terribles' driving round in a van, there's Miss Balbricker from the Porkys films and good grief! it's Wolfman Jack... and so on

for some reason before being chopped into sausage the victims have their vocal cords cut, are buried up to their necks in the ground and force fed... which I guess is no weirder than foie de gras but it seems kind of a long winded way to harvest humans

the brother and sister have an idiot kid brother who's a cop and perpetually horny and who ends up the hero

the best scene is at the end when there's a chainsaw fight between the dickhead cop and the elder brother who's wearing a pig's head over his actual head

there are some breasts for those that find that thing integral to the plot but very little gore

it was ok, but I wanted it to be great

3 out of 5

May 27th, 2009

we watched 'turkey shoot' aka 'blood camp thatcher' at the weekend

a film I've been desperate to see since I was 11

naturally it didn't really live up to almost 30 years of intense longing but it was charming in it's own way

in a dystopian future (1981, perhaps?) 'deviants' are rounded up and sent to special camps to be retrained- deviants are essentially anyone who the fascist police don't like the look of- in this case: olivia hussey from the original 'black christmas' and also juliet in franco zefferelli's 'romeo and juliet', here running a glass vase shop; the appalling steve railsback and a blond with no detectable means of support (i.e, bra)

the camp is run by thatcher played by michael craig 'you will remember our motto: 'freedom is obedience, obedience is work, work is life'. well, now understand once and for all that the reverse is also true, 'disobedience is treason, treason is a crime, crime will be punished!' - who's far too amiable for the role and who went from this to the bbc's 'triangle' soap where he played the captain of the glamorous cross channel ferry, poor sod- him and a big fat politician, a haughty crossbow wielding horsey lady and a camp little beardy bloke are to go 'hunting humans'

little beardy brings along a 'circus freak' for the ride, a werewolf in a shirt and waistcoat, who bounds around like a monkey butler and is probably a pro-wrestler in real life because he gets to do some moves later in the movie (he was, I've just discovered- his wrestling name was 'crusher' and he would later appear as 'donk' in the 'crocodile dundee' films- if that means anything to anyone?)

5 deviants, including the three mentioned earlier, are given a head start and then pursued

also helping out are a couple of guards, including the rather smashing roger ward as top prison officer bastard, ritter, who earlier in the film beats up a small woman

terrible things happen- a small toe is eating, someone gets spiked right in the goolies, somebody else also suffers some genital injury before being burned to death, another person gets their spine snapped in two by a monkey butler, dude gets chopped and then there are explosions and more explosions and bombs and a man bursts bloodily after being shot by a machine gun

it's a preposterous film

I liked it

3.5 stars