Off Your Sonar

Albums I liked in 2011

2012-01-16T04:11:00.000-08:00

In approximate order of how highly I rated them and the amount I listened to them, the new studio albums I enjoyed most in 2011 were:

Magazine - No Thyself (Wire-Sound)
Arbouretum - The Gathering (Thrill Jockey)
Enablers - Blown Realms and Stalled Explosions (Exile on Mainstream / Lancashire and Somerset)
White Hills - H-p1 (Thrill Jockey)
Bardo Pond - Circuit VIII
Mogwai - Hardcore Will Never Die but You Will (Rock Action)
Sonic Youth - Simon Werner A Disparu (SYR)
Eleventh Dream Day - Riot Now! (Thrill Jockey)
PJ Harvey - Let England Shake (Island)
Glenn Jones - The Wanting (Thrill Jockey)
That Fucking Tank - TF (Obscene Baby Auction)
Obits - Moody, Standard and Poor (Sub Pop)
Mugstar - Lime (Important)
Skull Defekts - Peer Amid (Thrill Jockey)
Barn Owl - Lost in the Glare (Thrill Jockey)
Hey Colossus - RRR
L0w - C'mon (Sub Pop)
Meat Puppets - Lollipop
Kristin Hersh - Crooked (www.cashmusic.org)
Supersilent 10 (Rune Grammafon)
TV Smith - Coming in to Land
Phil Manley - Life Coach (Thrill Jockey)
The Fall - Erstaz GB (Cherry Red)
Mountains - Air Museum (Thrill Jockey)
Parts and Labor - Constant Future
Rocket From the Tombs - Barfly (Fire)
Larsen - Cool Cruel Mouth (Tin Angel)
Thurston Moore - Demolished Thoughts (Ecstatic Peace)

I also enjoyed listening to the albums by Josh T. Pearson, Stephen Malkmus, Tarwater, Wooden Shjips, Samson and Delilah, Thee Oh Sees, Acid Mothers Temple, J. Mascis, Cave and Factory Star, and probably a few others I've forgotten.

Live albums I liked were:

Wire - The Black Session
Leatherface - Viva La Arthouse
Hugh Cornwell - New Songs for King Kong

I bought only five seven inch singles and three were from gigs at Leeds Brudenell Social Club:

Hot Snakes - Do Not Recusitate
Part Chimp - You Decide
Kogumaza - Sevens / Mara
Kogumaza
PJ Harvey - Glorious Land

One CDEP: Fennesz - Seven Stars (Touch)

One 12" EP: Oxes - Bilestbud

One split LP: Mugstar / Oneida

One remix LP: Robert Hampson (Main) remixing Mugstar

Two compilations: Einsturzende Neubauten -Strategies Against Archtecture IV
That Sonic Youth thing with one crap new track and no Lee Ranaldo songs

As I type this I am enjoying listening to youtube soundtracks to A Winged Victory for the Sullen videos, which must be one of the worst band names ever

Oxes opened a Windle

2012-01-11T08:34:00.000-08:00

I struggled all the way across Toxteth on the windiest day of the year I'd been outside. The wind was so strong I couldn't even walk at times! Then I had to walk across Manchester and Leeds to see Oxes again! They had a special nineties dance party after kicking out the jams at eleven and for some reason all the bands played on the floor rather than the stage. After that I went to some more gigs.

8 December Oxes, Bilge Pump and beards at Leeds Brudenell
9 Leatherface, Great St Louis and Fractions at Manchester night and Day
10 Sun Ra Arkestra at Band on the Wall
12 Hot Snakes, Computers, That Fucking Tank and Matadors at Leeds Brudenell
14 PJ Bond, DBH and some other singers at a house in Chorlton
17 TV Smith playing mostly the music of the Adverts at Night and Day
31 Yossarians, Frazer King, Jim Adama and Dirty North at Night and Day

January 9 Purson, Gnod and Evil Blizzard at Gullivers.

Don't miss the Big Sexy Noise gigs in February! They're playing Manchester (15) and Preston (16).

End of Year Gig Mania

2012-01-09T03:43:00.000-08:00

So I went to some more gigs then got very tired...

November 25 Wire & Talk Normal at Liverpool O2 Academy
Nov 30 Thurston Moore & Tall Firs at Manchester Ritz
December 1 Wire & Talk Normal at Cardiff Club Ifor Bach
then went to a gig over the road where Tom Lewis played
Dec 2 Wire and Talk Normal at Oxford O2 Academy
Dec 3 Wire and Talk Normal at Sheffield Plug where I had to catch a falling drunk man when they played the fast Underwater Experiences.
Dec 5 Jim Noir and Plank! at Band on the Wall
Dec 6 Grant Hart at Band on the Wall
Dec 7 Oxes, Bilge Pump and the Left Hand at Liverpool Kazimier

11:11 No Thyself November

2011-11-24T07:26:00.000-08:00

I've been to lots of gigs this month, including three great gigs from Magazine, whose album "No Thyself" is the best disc I've heard this year. They played half of it along with tighter more focused renditions of many old favourites including Philadelphia, Motorcade, Rhythm of Cruelty and of course Shot By Both Sides

3 Warm Widow & Politburo at Gullivers
4 Magazine & In Fear of Olive at Manchester Academy
5 Tony Bevan and some other improvisers at St Margarets Church
6 Throwing Muses & Teitur at Manchester Club Academy
7 Acid Mothers Temple & Gnod at Ruby Lounge
8 Magazine & In Fear of Olive at Birmingham Institute
9 Magazine & In Fear of Olive at Sheffield Plug
10 Stephen Malkmus and three bland boring support bands at the Ritz for a rip off five pounds extra on the door over original ticket price

16 Wire & Talk Normal at Manchester Academy Hop and Grape
19 The Damned & Viv Albertine at Manchester Academy, The Damned played their first album and the Black Album all the way through and encred with Disco Man, Eloise, Love Song & Smash It Up and were by far the best I've heard them.
20 Wire & Talk Normal at Leeds Brudenell
21 Josh T. Pearson & Cold Specks at RNCM, with the same old jokes

So I've seen Magazine seven times now, but have lost count how many times I've seen Wire and Throwing Muses...

Gig Clash Time

2010-09-06T08:38:00.000-07:00

I haven't been updating this blog due to being unable to make the copy / paste controls work. I used to write most of it offline and then post it by copying, but presumably they've disabled that to stop people copying things from other websites?

Anyway Grinderman are soon playing Manchester Academy which will be a good gig, sadly the same night Nancy Elizabeth is playing Band on the Wall, and soon after on October 1st John Tchicai and Tony Marsh are playing the Carlton Club (113 Carlton Road, Whalley Range).

The new Swans album (out towards the end of the month) is awesome. They're also touring in October, as are Melt Banana, The Ex, Mudhoney, Killing Joke, Einsturzende Neubauten.
Neubauten and Killing Joke play London on the same night!

I'll just have to make like a Meat Puppet II and
"Split Myself in Two"

Looks like The Ex and Melt Banana are playing Islington Mill on October 20th which should be the best gig Manchester gets in 2010.

Pavement "Quarantine the Past"

2010-03-24T07:40:00.000-07:00

Music scene's crazy, bands reform. This May there's another one, a special old band.

It surely can't have escaped you that Pavement are on the reformation trail, playing a sold out tour of Brixton Academy and showing off their good taste in music curating the ever excellent All Tomorrow's Parties festival. They've also compiled a damn fine collection of some of their best songs. It hangs together really well and was obviously sequenced by someone who knows the songs very well, as the way some songs compliment each others' endings and beginnings makes it seem like an album proper rather than a compilation. The day my CDR promo arrived in the post was the same day drummer Steve West's other band Marble Valley played at Dulcimer in Chorlton, and he told me Stephen Malkmus was mostly responsible for quarantining the past, which explains the way it all seems so seamless. He also told me the 23 featured songs give a pretty good idea of the set they'll be playing in May. This old interview dates back to the time of their fourth album and I thought I’d resurrect it here as Scott and Stephen discussed A Date w/IKEA and Embassy Row, both of which appear on the compilation.
I first spoke to Pavement back in the Slanted And Enchanted days. Squatting outside the Boardwalk on a warm summer evening, Scott Kannberg aka Spiral Stairs told me how he preferred the Replacements to the Fall.
Next time they were supporting Sonic Youth on the Dirty tour and just before the Leeds show I recorded some of the wit and wisdom of Stephen Malkmus and errant ex-drummer Gary Young. With hindsight it’s now clear that Steve was beginning to tire of Gary’s incessant wackiness. When Gary ranted about how he’d survive a nuclear war by finding a way to cook dead animals that would eliminate the radioactivity from their bodies, Steve joked exasperatedly, “You’ve got to shoot them right between the eyes with a silver bullet.”
Apparently Gary was kicked out of the band after pulling a gun on Steve. There’s only so much alcoholic unhingedness you can take and that was the last straw. These days he’s making dog kennels and selling them to passersby on his lawn in California.
With the release of their second album Crooked Rain, Crooked Rain Pavement became the band that everyone wanted to talk to. At another show in Leeds interviewers shuffled backstage in a conveyer belt of continual questioning. I waited while a man from the radio pontificated at length to an increasingly bored looking Steve Malkmus, accompanied by ever affable drummer and latter day keyboard player Bob Nastanovitch, who later told me how happy he was to be living a range life in Kentucky.
With Pavement’s members increasingly spread out over a continent it must be a nightmare organising rehearsals. Any doubts about the viability of such a situation were allayed by the excellently divergent three sided Wowee Zowee album which had some of their best songs yet. However on the tour that followed they seemed relatively lacklustre and almost burnt out. So it was an especially joyous occasion when they packed out Liverpool’s tiny Lomax club sardine like and trotted out a bunch of new songs with the playful zest of their earliest shows. They even chucked in a cover of the Fall classic The Classical which was ironically almost unrecognisable in it’s sprightly mutation. “He hates us, he hates us,” moaned Steve after they finished it, but if anything this stunning reinvention was proof as if it were ever needed that Pavement are no mere plagiarists. However this was not the intention behind covering the song.
“It was fun to play and it’s an easy song. It’s four notes,” Scott told me backstage before their show at Manchester University, “The first time we played that was in front of fifty thousand people at the Tibet festival in San Francisco. We wanted to play a bunch of covers that day. In Liverpool we played it because we heard that Ian McCulloch was going to be in the audience. We knew he was a Fall roadie back in his day.”
Despite Mark E. Smith’s assertion that Pavement have never given the Fall credit as an influence it is well documented that they are fans. Scott’s enthusiastic enough to have not only a favourite Fall album but a top three: Grotesque, Bend Sinister and Extricate. He lost interest in them more recently but did buy and enjoy The Light User Syndrome.
“They’re the Guided By Voices of England!” proclaimed Scott, obviously referring to both bands’ longevity and lo-fi origins rather than any great musical similarities. MES would probably have a rant or two about that quote! Another thing he said was that Pavement would all bugger off to be accountants in a couple of years.
“I don’t understand that because there’s all these other bands,” complained Scott, “We just got offered to do this V97 festival and there are all these bands like Reef and Ash and Kula Shaker who sell way more records than us and I’ve never heard them before [lucky man]. We’d be way down the bill. They’ll be accountants, not us!”
Of course these days Pavement are a well established band with their own pack of imitators, the so-called “Pavement bands” such as the blatantly plagiaristic Sammy and the more tongue in cheek Urusei Yatsura. The one’s who really get Scott’s goat are Weezer.
“If it’s done in good humour it’s fine. I think Weezer on the other hand don’t do it that way. I think they’ve been created by some A&R person to be big. They’re terrible. It’s watered down and it’s got no soul. I could go off on them...”
Pavement have got soul. And style (miles and miles). They strive to make a bigger impression on the world than just entertaining their fans.
“We’ve always been more than entertainment. We’ve always wanted to make records that did something. I don’t know what we want them to do but we want to be part of rock history. That’s what we strive for: to make records that in twenty five years time someone will pick up or will know about them and say, “This is classic” like you can now with a Fall record.”
However Scott feels too much importance is placed on singers and the songs they sing. Like throwing things, kicking balls and dancing, singing and playing musical instruments can be viewed as an essentially childish activity, but one that human beings take very seriously.
“I think starting out it is (childish). But I think as time goes on it becomes, not more of a statement but kind of what you are. So you take things a little more seriously and you don’t treat everything as just a good old time because it gets to you. I would rather personally be at home hanging out with my wife and my friends. Nothing against you doing this interview, but going through Europe and touring was really fun the first few times but the eighth time you’ve seen it all before. The songs are fun to play live.”
And the songs are obviously what it’s all about. Scott sang two of the songs on Brighten The Corners, Passat Dream and A Date With IKEA, which has the enigmatic opening line “The actress is always breaking things.”
“That song is really about the West Coast of California where I live and people’s perception of the West Coast. That line was taken from this Everclear video I saw. They had this really slick video with this really beautiful model and in the video she’s breaking things. She’s supposed to be the girlfriend of the guy in the band. It’s really bad. That was my perception of what people probably think of California: models, actresses and LA. That’s totally LA. “The fitness coast” is what I call California. It’s about coming back to California from this other perception. It’s kind of based on this weird book called The Magic Lands, about all these things that brought people to the West Coast like Disneyland and Sun City. The title doesn’t have anything to do with the actual song, it’s just a good title I made up.”
Passat Dream is all about a car: “Passat is a type of Volkswagen. They have these agencies that make up names for brands of car. All the time they make up new names. That song’s about people’s perception of cars. Where I live I don’t want the type of car these people have. I want this other car that people think is ugly, Passat.”
We’d commandeered the Pastels dressing room for the interview because it was the quietest spot backstage, and when Steve Malkmus rushed through on his way to an important date with a scrabble board Scott grabbed him so he could explain some of his intriguing lyrics.
So I asked Steve what Embassy Row was all about, with its “men in dashikis with their leftist weeklies” A dashiki is a brightly coloured African shirt, by the way.
“It’s written from the perspective of a guy from America who’s been given an embassy post in an obscure country he’s never heard of because he gave a lot of money during an election. That’s how you get a post like that. He doesn’t really care about these people. He’s looking at them and he’s like, “Who are these common or weird little foreign people in their dashikis with their leftist weeklies?” It’s written from the point of view of someone who thinks of being an ambassador as a holiday. So he’s like, “Come visit me at my converted castle of Moorish design. Come stay the weekend and we’ll have some Martinis and relax.””
There’s a character called Conrad Hilton mentioned in the album’s closing track Infinite Spark who is in fact a Mormon who owns a lot of hotels. That song seemed to me to be about claustrophobia and overpopulation.
“Well, initially it is, yeah. It’s also about the expansion of the Mormon church. There are these people and they’re trying to proselytise and they also build these really strange churches, with strange architecture all over the city building out from the church, and they try to take over everything. But they’re a very hardworking group of people and they’re very successful. The Mormons are very successful but they have to give ten per cent of their wage to the church or even more.”
In fact there’s a good deal of religious imagery on Brighten The Corners, especially on that song and Transport Is Arranged.
“There is more than you would think for someone so apparently atheist as me. I had this interview with this Jewish paper and evidently they thought I was Jewish because I was in the band the Silver Jews. We went through the whole thing and then he said, “So tell me about your faith and what you believe.” So I lied and said my mother was half Jewish but she renounced (her faith). I made up this serpentine lie and felt really bad after it.”
That night Pavement surprised everyone by playing a cover of the Velvet Underground song What Goes On. The Velvet Underground are another band they’ve had a lot of comparisons with, and this time around Type Slowly is the song that has definitely been influenced by that band. What Goes On strikes a balance, being on the album that came between Scott’s favourite, White Light/White Heat, and Steve’s favourite, Loaded.
They’ve also covered The Killing Moon, perhaps the most famous song written by another band that’s been a big influence on Pavement, Echo And The Bunnymen. They recorded it for “The Evening Session” and it’ll eventually see the light of day on a Matador compilation. They were planning to release a compilation of Peel sessions, but these have now emerged as extra tracks in the expanded reissues double CDs of their albums. The first session included a full band version of Here and three other songs that have never been officially released, whilst the second was entirely improvised after Gary Young failed to turn up at the BBC studios.
Scott’s also a big REM fan and thinks it would be great to quit touring for a while like they did because, “Playing live takes its toll.” He’d like to be in their position but wouldn’t be happy with the kind of marketing ploy that had no less than six singles released to promote Automatic For The People.
“That’s fucked up because that band seem like a band that cares about what they put out. There’s no reason for that. They’re just trying to sell the record. I think if we ever got in that position I don’t think we’d lose that kind of control.”
They recorded Brighten The Corners with old REM producer Mitch Easter partly because they love Murmur and Reckoning but mostly because he’s got a great studio and is a nice guy. We spoke a while about the relative merits of REM records: Scott rates the first three and Automatic For The People as their best and Monster as their worst records. New Adventures In Hi-Fi was currently his favourite record to clean the house to.
Finishing with a cryptic question, I asked Scott just what you should keep under your best friend’s arm.
“Your hand. Your own arm is your best friend. If you didn’t have fingers or anything... to be even more cryptic!”

April Gigs in Manchester

2010-03-18T07:39:00.000-07:00

1 Ala Muerte / The Death of Her Money - Fuel
http://www.fatout.co.uk/

5 Mount Eerie / Irma Vep - Ruby Lounge
http://www.myspace.com/wotgodforgot

6 Last Harbour - Deaf Institute

11 Russian Circles / Earthless - Islington Mill
http://www.myspace.com/russiancircles

15 The Total Vermin Recording Company presents
MOON UNIT, IRMA VEP and TUBE OF MOULD
8:00pm
Islington Mill, James Street, Salford M3
£4 Entry on the door
Moon Unit is a soaring and pounding space rock group from Glasgow, Scotland, with forthcomingLPs on Blackest Rainbow and Krayon Recordings. Previously having swung through these parts asNackt Insecten Trio, the now more democratically-monikered group, consisting of Ruaraidh Sanachan(Nackt Insecten), Andreas Jonsson (Lanterns) and Peter Kelly (Sexy Entourage), are back to openyour third eye. Prepare for electronic meditation and heavy levitation.
If you’ve caught Irma Vep before, you’ll know the score. Edwin Stevens, a welsh Jim Morrison foryour generation, and his wee gang of reprobates twist blues and folk forms into perplexing futureshapes, extended song-trees of self-absorption/annihilation.
Barbarian siblings CK Dexter-Haven (Giant Tank, Hockyfrilla, Smegma(!)) and Smear Campaign(Ghost of an Octopus, Mid Leopard Violet Prism, The Gamecock) lock malformed horns as Tube ofMould, oozing psychedelic primitivism and sensory displacement. Lock up your livestock!

18 Master Musicians of Bukkake / Boann Quartet / Bill Horist - Islington Mill

22 Lone Lady - Opera House (with Chris Cunninghman and These New Puritans)
http://www.lonelady.co.uk

23 Boann Trio -Fuel
http://www.myspace.com/badunclemusic

25 Mark Lanegan - Academy

25 Gil Scott Heron - Opera House

If you are reading this and know of any other good Manchester gigs that I haven't listed feel free to let me know by email crackedmac@hotmail.com

Spring Things

2010-03-05T06:47:00.000-08:00

These are the new releases I've been enjoying listening to since last I made a list of new releases I'd been enjoying.

TRANS AM 'THING' (THRILL JOCKEY)
Since 'Red Line' every Trans Am album has had its moments but veered into corniness. No such problems with this album that supposedly started out as a soundtrack commission for a sci-fi film but ended up as the best Trans Am album in ages. I played this four times straight when it arrived it was that good. The closing title track from 'Liberation' had Trans Am flying apocalyptic helicopters out of a TV and into ambient dead air, sounding like the theme tune to a documentary about the end of the world as we know it. This exciting album finds them tracking back to futureworlds in terms of focus, vision and editing nous. If there had been a film to go with this rocking masterpiece would have upstaged it totally. No wonder the original mission was aborted! Out April.

MUGSTAR 'SUN, BROKEN' (IMPORTANT)
Most trips to Liverpool seem to involve a Mugstar gig, even if I wasn't suspecting it, they so often turn up supporting other bands. They get better all the time, and have increasingly untilised psychedelic projections in their live show. This second album will no doubt get them more comparisons to lots of obscure German bands from the seventies who they are probably much better than. Importantly Mugstar also exist right now and play good gigs. The word 'cosmic' may appear relevant, as these bass driven jams are the perfect soundtrack to rockets docking in space, except sound doesn't travel through a vacuum so check them out on this planet first. This sounds perfect to play before or after the Trans Am album. It would come as no surprise if Mugstar were to support Trans Am at Liverpool's Kazimier in May.

PONTIAK 'SEA VOIDS' (THRILL JOCKEY)
The fourth Pontiack longplayer is heavier than before, but more immediate and melodic. This sounds highly complimentary to the Retribution Gospel Choir II album, which is going to end up being my favourite album from the first quarter of the year. Its a shame they aren't touring together as it'd be a near perfect match. Pontiack are touring with labelmates White Hills however, and playing the Ruby Lounge on March 7th which promises to be a killer show.

SPARKLEHORSE AND FENNESZ 'IN THE FISHTANK 15' (KONKURRENT)

RUSSIAN CIRCLES 'GENEVA' (SUICIDE SQUEEZE)

DAVE FORMULA 'SATELLITE SWEETHEART' (WIRE SOUND)

ELEPHANT 9 'WALK THE NILE' (RUNE GRAMMOFON)

ELEH 'LOCATION MOMENTUM' (TOUCH)

HIGH PLACES 'HIGH PLACES VS. MANKIND' (THRILL JOCKEY)

FURSAXA 'MYCORRHIZAE REALM' (ATP RECORDINGS)

TO ROCOCO ROT 'FORWARDNESS FRIDAYS' EP (DOMINO)
One for hardcore fans as the two remixes are inferior to the originals from the album, but pleasant foot tappers nonetheless.

And some albums released in the past decade that I've enjoyed listening to for the first time in February 2010 are

Getatchew Mekuria and the Ex 'Moa Anbessa' (Terp)
The Ex 'Building a Broken Mousetrap' DVD (Ex)
Jon Langford and Kat Ex 'Katjonband' (Carrot Top)
Do Make Say Think 'Other Truths' (Constellation)
Condofucks 'Fuckbook' (Matador)
James Blackshaw 'Litany of Echoes' (Tompkins Square)
Sentridoh 'Songs from Loobiecore 2.5' (tour CD)
The Villagers 'Hollow Kind' (Domino)
Marble Valley 'Super Sober' (Indikator)
Dan Friel 'Sunburn' (Velocirecords)
Melvins 'Chicken Switch (remixes)' (Ipecac)
Asva 'What You Don't Know Is Frontier' (Southern Lord)
Sunn O))) 'White 2' (Southern Lord)
I.S.O. 'Gravity Clock' (Amoebic)
Rolo Tomassi 'Hysterics' (Hassle)
June of '44 'In the Fishtank' (Konkurrel)
Zomes (Holy Mountain)
Celibate Rifles 'A Mid-Stream of Consciousness' (Munster)
Carbon/Silicon 'The Last Post' (Carbon/Silicon)
Jack Medecine, Daniel Johnston and Ron English 'Hyperjinx Tricycle' (Important)
Black Dice 'Broken Ear Record' (EMI)
Mars 'Complete Studio Recordings 1977-78' (No More Records)

The Ex Tour and Interview

2010-03-05T06:46:00.000-08:00

At the start of February I went to see the Ex play five gigs around England. It was hard to believe that it had been six years since The Ex had toured this land. The first time I saw them was at the Manchester gig on their 2003 tour and I was so enamoured of their energetic performance that I decided I had to see as many gigs as possible on their winter tour. After all, I might be waiting another six years for more! For this tour they hooked up with a four piece brass section called Brass Unbound, comprising saxophonists Mats Gustafsson and Ken Vandermark alongside trumpeter Roy Paci and trombonist Wolter Wierbos, who were both part of Ex Orkest, an expanded orchestral project documented on the fantastic 2001 live album "Een Rondje Holland." This alone meant that it promised to be even better than the previous tour, but they'd also brought along the brilliant Bristol based Zun Zun Egui as support. Travelling to Birmingham, Brighton, London, Manchester and finally Liverpool where I interviewed the Ex before the gig, something that became apparent was that they attract a great friendly crowd to their gigs. More people were dancing at Manchester's Deaf Institute than any other gig I'd been to there, and in Liverpool it seemed the whole room was moving to the music. Their drummer Kat was so enthused by that crowd's reaction she thanked us all for dancing so much. Even the freezing temperature of the unheated venue and the drunken man loudly banging a beer bottle out of time couldn't spoil the atmosphere. It was nice to run into a fair few folk who I hadn't seen for a while as I travelled the land.

The interview will appear on the next update of Perfect Sound Forever
http://www.perfectsoundforever.com

February Retribution

2010-01-27T06:02:00.000-08:00

There aren't many gigs in January, and apart from Sheffield progcore quintet Rolo Tomassi I haven't been out to experience much live music. This means I've been able to almost catch up with listening to all the new releases and cheap charity shop promos I've accumulated. These are the spinning discs due to be released in February 2010 that I have been enjoying:

1. Retribution Gospel Choir II (Sub Pop)
The second album from Alan Sparhawke's other trio is harder rocking and more experimentally produced than their debut, and an early contender for album of 2010 status. This could even be the best thing he's done, so all the Low fans who missed the half full Retribution gig last time they came to Manchester should be advised that they are back on March 11th.

2. Plank! - La Luna EP (Akhoustik Anarkhy)
http://www.myspace.com/plankuk
I have a CDR of this so I'm not sure if I've spelt the name of the label corrrectly, or if this EP is really called "La Luna" but that's the first instrumental, which will be familiar to anyone who has heard the numerous gigs Plank have played around Manchester in 2009. These tunes have both mutated and been surpassed by new ones, but this forms a fine document of their genesis; the final piece is a more keyboard led doodle that was birthed before bassist Ed got on board and has never been played at a gig. The other three songs have formed the backbone of their set. They had no reservations about me flinging comparisons to Mogwai, Battles and most obviously Neu at them after the first time I saw them at Islington Mill, and these have all certainly been influences on maybe Manchester's best band right now. No frills, just great tunes and fine musicianship make Plank worth walking. If you like this be sure to check out Ed's other band, the funkier FTSE 100. Guitarist Davey Rowe tells me release date is 19th April but you can buy a copy off the band at their gigs before that.

3. Lonelady - Nerve Up (Warp)
http://www.lonelady.co.uk/
Check next issue of Flux magazine for a very very short drastically edited interview.

4. Jack Rose - Luck in the Valley (Thrill Jockey) RIP
Guitar pickin' master two years my junior passed away due to heart attack.

5. White Hills (Thrill Jockey)
Heavy psychedelia

6. Cluster - Qua (Klangbad)
Two old Germans show younger technoids how it should be done.

7. BJ Nilsen - The Invisible City (Touch)
Ominous ambience with chairs scraping all over the world.

8. Anna Kashfi - Survival (Little Red Rabbit)

9. Charlie Alex March - Home / Hidden (Loaf)

10. Nedry - Condors (Monotreme)

11. Puerto Muerto - Drumming for Pistols (Fire)

12. The Album Leaf - A Chorus of Storytellers (Sub Pop)

March releases I'm enjoying:

BARDO POND - Bufo Alvarius (Fire reissue)
PAVEMENT - Quarantine the Past: the best of Pavement (Domino / Matador)
GALAXIE 500 - Today
GALAXIE 500 - On Fire
GALAXIE 500 - This is Our Music (Domino double CD reissues)
AUTECHRE - Oversteps (Warp)
TO ROCOCO ROT - Speculation (Domino)
ROBIN HITCHCOCK AND THE VENUS 3 - Propellor Time (Sartorial)

Radio Angels Mutate Turntables

2010-01-14T02:55:00.000-08:00

2009 was the first year since 1988 that I didn't set foot in Liverpool, so it seemed fateful that the first gig I attended in 2010 was there. On the way to Piccadilly station I stopped off at Vinyl Exchange where they were playing a tortuous CD by Sexton Ming that sounded like a senile git trying to sing very badly in the bath. Fortunately I was distracted by my old friend Bess Keloid who turned up and hit the fifty pence rack, and I directed him to one of the three excellent Pascal Comelade compilations still lurking there. I found four more 50p CDs that turned out to be mediocre, and better bets at two (Swell) and four (Slint Glenn Rhoda). I also purchased the last two Pascal Comelade promo CDs. Hermana PR seem to have sent a huge number of these to dolts who don't take off the shrinkwrap, let alone listen to them. So far I've given copies to Hugh Cornwell and the Flaming Lips, which might be more potentially helpful to Comelade than ignorant music journalists who don't like listening to music. Later that day I gave a copy to Philip Jeck who assured me he'd give it a listen. I gave the other copy to a guy called Ross who ran the vinyl hack workshop at the Bluecoat that I'd missed earlier in the day. I've still got a few more of these, so if anyone wants a Pascal Comelade CD send me an email and if you can meet me at a gig I'll give you a copy. Jean Herve Peron and PJ Harvey sing on one song each, and there are very idiosyncratic covers of the Gun Club and "Brand New Cadillac."

First call in Liverpool was Probe records, where I hoped to find a copy of Flipper's "Love" album which was supposedly released in May 2009. Plastichead have done such a pitiful job of distributing it however that no record shops in Manchester, London or Liverpool are stocking it. They all have the Domino reissues of the early Flipper albums that I already have two or three times over, and Vinyl Exchange even has double CDR promos of "Public Flipper Limited" for a mere quid. All I could find was a secondhand copy of the first Ed Hall album for quid and a free paper with a very positive review of Mission of Burma.

Janek Schaefer's retrospective exhibition at the Bluecoat was pretty good, but one room was way more interesting than all the others put together. Three trios of turntables had been set up to play singles of recordings of droning cello, violin and piano and as they stopped and started and recombined they sounded beautiful. I sat in the room for a long while, listening to the needles dance over the vinyl bumps reproducing the chop and hum of invisible instruments. There was another room with a post bag that played recordings of a package in postal transit that had been edited into a seven inch single and released on Matt Wand's Hot Air Label. Another room had a bunch of old TV's with no images playing recordings of audio from broadcasts from the last day of analog TV in Liverpool. There were also inactive snazzily customised turntables. The generous bowl of carrot and ginger soup I ate in the cafe was piping hot and delicious, and then it was time for the performances to begin. First noisician was Vasco Alvo, playing an AM / FM Keyboard 6. He mixed snatches of radio into a mutating soundscape. Next Philip Jeck, who I've heard many times in the past, was introduced by Janek Schaefer as "The Master." Fortunately he didn't kill anyone by shrinking them, but he did wield a damaged bass guitar which he plucked occasionally to add more deep throb to his looping constructions of cranky keyboard, skipping records and semi-funcional effects pedals. Jeck was the main reason I'd travelled over, as he always makes a fantastic noise, and the intermittent addition of bass guitar worked well. Whilst recognisably a unique Jeckscape, this wasn't that similar to anything I've heard form him previously. There was a bit of a gap whilst Janek Schaefer set up his radios, and the DJ played a song I mistook for AC Marias, before realising that it wa actually "In My Garden" by Swans.

Janek Schaefer's "Phoenix and Phaedra" utilised surround sound to project a mix of multiple radios and Indian drone box, building from almost total silence to crescendos that had some poor old codgers sticking their fingers in their ears. They'd probably drop dead at a Lightning Bolt gig if this was to much for their delicate balance organs! There was no visual focus as Janek mixed from the desk on the balcony and the front stage where Philip and Alvo had set up was almost deserted. Towards the end a swarm of angels fluttered down from on high to do not very much at all.

On the way home there was a pack of dopey drunken retards on the train, one of whom paraded up and down the aisle naked, showing off his hideous spotty arse and circumcsied penis to everyone. One of his friends knocked my hat, under some delusion that he was funny, then later this moron started on a meek and mild character in a hood calling him a towel head and a suicide bomber. Unfortunately we were stuck in the company of these pissed arseholes for an extra fifty minutes as another train had broken down on Warrington station, blocking the line. What was even worse was the heating was not working and it was impossible to communicate a request to the driver to switch it on. By the time I alighted at Oxford Road I couldn't feel my toes, despite wearing three pairs of thick socks, so I got a complaint form to fill in. The police unsurprisingly seemed totally uninterested in getting the CCTV footage looked at in much the same way that they wouldn't check it when some stupid kids tried and failed to mug me near a camera. It's good that the fire service isn't quite as lackadaisical, isn't it?

There was a silver lining however; as I walked home in the middle of the almost car free roads, Radio 3 broadcast an interview with Keith Rowe about his use of radios in an improvised composition which they then transmitted. This was highly synchronous with my experiences that evening, and made the freezing walk home tolerable. On returning I counted my toes and was pleased that I still had ten.

My Favourite Gigs of 2009

2010-01-07T07:24:00.000-08:00

The only reason to live in Manchester is the huge amount of gigs that happen in the city, so its funny that nearly all the most memorable ones I attended in 2009 happened in other places. These were my gigging highlights of 2009:

ALL TOMORROW'S NIGHTMARES

I've probably written more than enough about this already, but both All Tomorrow's Parties Nightmares plus the In Between Days added up to ten days solid gigging. I managed to extend that by going to see Josh Pearson and Six Organs of Admittance in Manchsester before departure and Sunn O))) on the way home. I witnessed eighty live performances in thirteen days, only counting bands I watched for twenty minutes or more. Could this be a record?

WIRE & MONKEY WEEK

Wire were playing three gigs in Spain so I headed south to Barcelona for the five days before they hit town and had a real cool time hanging out in the castle on the mountain by the sea. After following them to Europe's highest capitol city Madrid, the trail ended at El Puerto de Santa Maria, a small seaside town close to Cadiz, just south of Portugal. In early October the weather was so hot that it would make front page news in Britain in August. The sun roasted me lobster red, and I saw Wire play a unique unrepeatable gig under a clear starry sky in an old monastery. Despite playing a slightly truncated set, they played the most intense gig of the tour, and came pretty close to being as perfect as they were playing the "Send" album in a black old East German bunker in Berlin. I met lots of friendly Spaniards and had a great time by the sea. Walking in a fenced off forest I found a chameleon and a lynx! I also saw Howe Gelb, Silver Apple, Heavy Trash and some good Spanish bands I'd never heard before.

MAGAZINE

If someone had told me four years ago that I'd see four Magazine gigs in one year, I wouldn't have believed them. This was an unlikely reformation, as guitarist John McGeoch is dead. However as soon as Pete Shelley's unmistakable black hearted riff to "The Light Pours Out of Me" burned from the Academy PA on Valentine's day, it was obvious they'd found the right man to fill his shoes. Noko had played guitar in Luxuria with reluctant singer Howard Devoto, so made a much better choice than some celebrity guitarist with suspect baggage. The only thing I could possibly criticise in his playing was that I'd like to have heard more distortion on "Shot By Both Sides" but on the second Manchester gig, I'd wormed by way to the front of the crowd and was too lost in music to notice. The look of incredulous pleasure on Devoto's face at the phenomenal applause of the homecoming crowd hinted that more Magazine action could well follow. In the summer they charmingly elected to play a gig in Sheffield on my birthday and the best birthday present I've ever had was hearing an immaculate rendition of "Philadelphia," a song that hadn't featured in the February set. They did indeed make me feel healthier. Then they returned once more to play "The Correct Use of Soap" to a standing and shuffling ovation at the Bridgewater Hall, pulling the surprise stunt of not playing "Shot By Both Sides" but boosting the encore with "Give Me Everything." Rumour has it that they are now working on new songs. Maybe it's right to be nervous now?

KILLING JOKE

My first trip to Blackpool, and what better reason than a sixteen song blast of classic Killing Joke "Madness?" OK so there were a load of drastically inferior bands to watch before they blasted the ballroom with a short sixteen song set, but the original line up has a unique chemistry that surpasses all other bands in sheer intensity. See review earlier on blog. I'd dreamt this gig years before, except in my dream I was watching from the balcony and here I was near the front on the Geordie side to catch maximum six string shockwaves. They are touring Europe in April and have spent the winter recording a new album for release in 2010 on Spinefarm records.

THAT PETROL EMOTION

Another band back from the dead, re-igniting their not so final flame, and fiery as ever. They played no new songs, but didn't really need to as there were still so many great ones from their five albums and singles that didn't make it to the "Chemicrazy" heavy set. It's a good thing they're back. Check out the All Tomorrow's Parties review for more.

JELLO BIAFRA AND THE GUANTANAMO SCHOOL OF MEDECINE

It was great to finally witness Jello Biafra fronting a rock band. I'd seen him in spoken word mode before, but this Sheffield sojourn was way more fun. Typical of Jello, he didn't rely on oldies to prop him up and the band blasted out new songs that were so new they aren't even on the album that came out in October. There were three Dead Kennedys songs in the set, but the proof was in the songwriting. Who cares what some vendetta-minded judge says when Jello continues to write song after song and his old corporate whore band mate East Bay Ray writes none at all. Who really wrote the Dead Kennedys songs then? I don't hear that pathetic dweeb Ray coming up with any new material, but maybe he's just too busy making advertising jingles for Nike and Walmart.

DINOSAUR JR

Another Sheffield gig reviewed earlier on this blog, as is the Jello Biafra gig. You will never play guitar like J Mascis, but no need to give up just yet. Further down reformation road they've made two great albums that do nothing but boost their formidable reputation and live they are better than they ever were.

PJ HARVEY AND JOHN PARISH

Not even two dopey shazzas shouting at each other during the quiet bits could ruin a stunning set drawn from both the PJ Harvey and John Parish albums. I was quite ill at the time and this made me feel a whole lot better. I think it was the first gig I'd been to at the Ritz since The Fall played one of the last gigs of the second Brix era there. As they ended one song very quietly, an ignorant bartender tipped a load of bottles into a bin making a huge crash. John Parish's broad grin, as he gripped his comically tiny ukelele, was a picture.

MELT BANANA

I was too sick to follow them around the country to other gigs as I usually do, but Melt Banana remain one of the greatest live music experiences in the known universe, even in a stupid venue like Satan's Hollow. The stage is too low, and fat bouncers kept blocking the meagre view of the band. The last time they played Manchester they sold out Academy 3 so it seemed odd to play this inferior venue. The funniest thing I heard anyone say from on stage was when Yako introduced them as Melt Banana Lite and they cranked out a cacophanous deluge of noise in darkness with flashlights on their heads. It's a shame they don't play a bit longer!

HUGH CORNWELL

See earlier on blog. The whole of "Hoover Dam" and "Rattus Norvegicus" plus a five song encore from a sixty year old really put to shame all these younger bands who think a five or six song set is long enough. Short sets don't leave me wanting more so much as they leave me thinking the band doesn't respect the fact that I've spent an entire evening of my life going to listen to them. His second Manchester gig of the year was so much fun I went to Birmingham to repeat the experience the very next day.

THE DRONES / SNOWMAN / LAST HARBOUR

The Drones have a level of intensity that bands don't get without hitting the road and playing gig after gig in every town that they can get to. Snowman were nearly as enjoyable which was nice as I'd never heard of them before, and Manchester's Last Harbour played maybe the best gig I've seen them do. It's a shame the Roadhouse doesn't book a few more bands that are actually worth going to see, they seem to average two or three worthwhile gigs a year which is a bit pathetic.

Some other great bands I went to see that year: Retribution Gospel Choir, Arbouretum, Gang Gang Dance, Part Chimp, Soulsavers, Oneida, Therapy?, Flaming Lips, Obits, Night Marchers, Yo La Tengo, Daniel Johnston, Mark Eitzel, Oxbow, Sleeping Dog, Gnod, FTSE 100 and a whole lot of Plank!

New Year Noise in Dirty Ol' Manchester

2009-12-30T05:33:00.001-08:00

As usual January is thin on gigs, which is a blessing if all the venues don't turn the heating on during snowstorms like the misers at the Kings Arms. The last gig I went to in 2009 was upstairs in this Salford pub. I watched Serpentine Pad, Stray Light, Fat Elvis and a band with no name play very short sets. I was wearing two coats, a shirt, three T-shirts and a jumper and still I was so cold I had to go and warm up using the hand dryer in the toilet. The next day I almost coughed up my right lung with pneumonia. At least they serve nice real cider, not that corporate chemical bubbly crap Strongbow. Don't book a gig there in the winter though.

%%% January %%%

16 Stupids / Revenge of the Psychotronic Man - Retrobar £5 7.30pm-2am

16 Former Bullies / Irma Vep - Islington Mill FREE

17 Vivian Girls - Deaf Institute £8
http://www.pineapplefolk.com/

18 Rolo Tomassi - Deaf Institute
http://www.thedeafinstitute.co.uk/
Yes this venue has heating, and they use it!

20 Baroness - Islington Mill
http://www.myspace.com/lambandwolf

28 Marble Valley - Dulcimer
http://www.myspace.com/marblevalley
A great fun gig from Pavement drummer's other band. You missed it?

29 Danny Saul and some other musicians - Kings Arms, turn the heater on misers!!! £3 plus big some spare cash for the electric metre and hope the neighbours don't complain.

30 Plank! / Former Bullies / Gideon Conn / Pens - Jabez Clegg, starts 10pm, Plank on at 6.15, over a tenner on the door with lots of bands who might be quite boring? Friends of Mine festival http://www.myspace.com/plankuk

31 Lou Barlow - Deaf Institute £10

%%% February %%%

4 The Ex and Brass Unbound / Zun Zun Egui - Deaf Institute £8
http://www.theex.nl/
This could well be gig of the first bit of the year

6 She Keeps Bees - Dulcimer

8 Dan Friel / Plank! - The Corner

11 Beach House - Islington Mill (Pineapple Folk) £9
http://www.islingtonmill.com/

12 MV & EE / The Doozer / Irma Vep - Islington Mill (Golden Lab) £6
http://www.myspace.com/goldenlabrecords

14 Hot Pants Romance afternoon prom - Islington Mill

15 Crash of Rhinos / Wooderson / NASDAQ / Well Wisher - Satan's Hollow
NASDAQ is FTSE 100 playing different music

22 Serpentine Pad - Tiger Lounge (The Big Dig) FREE
http://www.myspace.com/serpentinepadmusic

23 Xiu Xiu - Islington Mill (Wot God Forgot)
http://www.myspace.com/wotgodforgot

24 Salford Concert Series w/ Toshimaru Nakamura - Islington Mill

25 Levenshulme Bicycle Orchestra / DBH - Green Rom £3

26 Moloch - ex-Army Of Flying Robots - raw, brutal, doom-rock, riffs, greatness - www.myspace.com/molochscum
Closure - Leeds grindcore plus heavy slow bits - good band
Stinky Wizzleteat - top-notch Brummy sludge-stoners
We Happened Next - local thrash duo - lightning fast, gr - Royal Oak, Chorlton

27 Plank / Klaus Kinski; unpredictable disco-noise-bash /NASDAQ - Fuel £3

28 Kong / Apes Fight Back - Ruby Lounge

***March***

1 Plank! support DD/MM/YY - Ruby Lounge

5 LoneLady - Ruby Lounge

7 White Hills / Pontiack - Ruby Lounge

11 Retribution Gospel Choir - Ruby Lounge (Wot God Forgot) £8
Low's Alan Sparhawke's harder rockin' trio

11 Autechre - Pure... OOPS Big Gig Clash!!!
Rock hellfire vs. mouse pushers, where is Pure anyway?

19 Former Bullies - Night and Day

20 Lightning Ensemble featuring Evan Parker

Evan Parker: Saxophones
Richard Scott: Buchla Lightning
Stephen Grew: Piano
Phillip Marks: Percussion

Cross Street Chapel

20 The Stranglers - Academy

21 A Silver Mount Zion - Academy

22 The Album Leaf - Deaf Institute

25 Picastro / Paddy Steer - Dulcimer

26 Bad Uncle - Fuel

27 Neil Young tribute /open mic - Fuel

28 The Noise Upstairs - Fuel

31 Former Bullies - Trof Northern Quarter

2009 Albums

2009-12-30T05:30:00.000-08:00

These are all the albums released in 2009 that I listened to and enjoyed, in approximate order of preference. I expect I'd like the new Pelican album too, but I haven't heard it yet! No doubt I'd also like Flipper's Love album if I could actually find a copy in a shop.

Fennesz - Black Sea (Touch)
Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medecine - The Audacity of Hype (Alternative Tentacles)
Melt Banana - Lite Live ver 0.0 (A-Zap)
Dinosaur Jr - Farm (Pias)
Mission of Burma - The Sound The Speed The Light (Matador)
Big Sexy Noise - Big Sexy Noise (Sartorial)
PJ Harvey and John Parish - A Woman A Man Walked By (Island)
Arbouretum - Song of the Pearl (Thrill Jockey)
Tortoise - Beacons of Ancestorship (Thrill Jockey)
Faust - C'est Com... Com... Complique (Bureau B)
Soulsavers - Broken (V2)
Califone - All My Friends Are Funeral Singers (Dead Oceans)
Tara Jane O'Neil - A Ways Away (K)
James Blackshaw - The Glass Bead Game (Young God)
Yo La Tengo - Popular Songs (Matador)

Obits - I Blame You (Sub Pop)
Nancy Elizabeth - Wrought Iron (Leaf)
Flaming Lips - Embryonic (WEA)
Meat Puppets - Sewn Together (Meat Puppets)
Dalek - Gutter Tactics (Ipecac)
Alice Donut - Ten Glorious Animals (Alternative Tentacles)
Oneida - Rated O (Jagjaguar)
Part Chimp - Thriller (Rock Action)
Evangelista - Prince of Truth (Constellation)
That Fucking Tank - Tanknology (Gringo)
Slumberwood - Yawling Night Songs (A Silent Place)
Lisa Germano - Magic Neighbor (Young God)
Lou Barlow - Goodnight Unknown (Domino)
Daniel Johnston - Is and Always Was (Feraltone)
Therapy? - Crooked Timber (DR2)

Yellow Swans - Mort Aux Vaches (Staalplaat)
We Be the Echo - Masks (Chuckbeat)
Action Beat - The Noise Band From Bletchley (Truth Cult)
The Present - The Way We Are (Loaf)
Sweat and Skin - Lovetune for Vacuum (Pias)
Tarwater - Donne-Moi La Main (Gusstaff)
Githead - Landing (Swim)
Lightning Bolt - Earthly Delights (Load)
Stranger Son of WB - Einstein's Getaway (White Box)
Mountains - Choral (Thrill Jockey)
Gilded Palace of Sin - You Break Our Hearts We'll Rip Yours Out (Central Control)
Sleeping Dog - Polar Life (Gizeh)
Mark Eitzel - Klamath (Decor)
Anni Rossi - Rockwell (4AD)
Joe Gideon and the Shark - Harum Scarum (Bronzerat)

OOIOO - Armonico Hewa (Thrill Jockey)
Jim O'Rourke - The Visitor (Drag City)
Samson and Delilah (Little Red Rabbit)
David Grubbs - An Optimist Notes the Dusk (Drag City)
Hanne Hukkelberg - Blood From A Stone (Leaf)
Sonic Youth - The Eternal (Matador)
Thee Oh Sees - Help (In the Red)
Six Organs of Admittance - Luminous Night (Drag City)
Ben Frost - By the Throat (Bedroom Community)
Chuck Prophet - Let Freedom Ring (Cooking Vinyl)
Magik Markers - Balf Quarry (Drag City)
A Hawk and a Hacksaw - Deliverence (Leaf)
Jackie O Motherfucker - Ballads of the Revolution (Fire)
Vowels - Pattern Prism (Loaf)
Kalbakken - Then I Saw Summer and Sun on the Earth (Little Red Rabbit)
Jack Rose and the Black Twig Pickers - Beautiful Happiness
Nurse With Wound - Paranoia in Hi Fi (United Dirter)
Shiggajon - Fire Sange I Gul Og Rod (Singing Knives)
Pissed Jeans - King of Jeans (Sub Pop)
Radian - Chimeric (Thrill Jockey)
Speck Mountain - Some Sweet Relief (Carrot Top)
Bowerbirds - Upper Air (Dead Oceans)
Starless and Bible Black - Shape of the Shape (Static Caravan)
Jeffrey Lewis and the Junkyard - 'Em Are I (Rough Trade)
Blk Jks - After Robots (Co Op)
Pere Ubu - Long Live Pere Ubu! (Cooking Vinyl)
Digital Leather - Warm Brother (Fat Possum)
The Courtesy Group - Tradesman's Entrance (Ma Doocey)
Debbie Leggo - Debbs Leggs (Fire)
Jim Jones Revue (Punk Rock Blues)
David Cronenberg's Wife - Hypnagogues

Reissues

Magazine - Play
Loop - A Gilded Etrenity
Loop - The World in Your Eyes
Daniel Johnston - Hi How Are You?
Daniel Johnston - Yip Jump Music
Subhumans - Death Was Too Kind
Flipper - Generic
Flipper - Gone Fishin'
Flipper - Public Flipper Limited
Flipper - Sex Bomb Baby

Six that got away!

I was bound to forget a few albums I enjoyed and these were those:

Mudhoney - Live at El Sol (Munster)
Pontiack - Maker (Thrill Jockey)
Foetus - Limb (Ectopic Ents)
Moebius - Kram (Klangbad)
Hayward / Coxon / Thomas / Taylor - About (Treader)
Mono - Hymn to the Immortal Wind (Human Highway / Conspiracy)

And how could I forget...

Bardo Pond - Peri (Three Lobed)
...and the other five Bardo Pond related albums from the Nightmare that might have been released in 2008 or 2009
Bardo Pond - Volume VII CDR
Sunn O))) - Monoliths and Dimensions (Southern Lord)
The Drones - Havilah (All Tomorrow's Parties)

7" SINGLES

Melt Banana - Initial T (Init)
Melt Banana / Young Widows (Temporary Residence)
Nightmarchers - Scene Report
Nightmarchers - Mystery Machine
Soulsavers - Sunrise (V2)

Ten Years of All Tomorrow's Parties: Sunday

2009-12-30T05:28:00.000-08:00

Shellac played first every day at Camber Sands when they curated ATP so that they could kick back and watch all the other bands they'd chosen. They revisited that time by opening the Sunday afternoon noise feast, and a better way to start Sunday afternoon you'd be hard pushed to find. That is of course unless you were dumb enough to drink way too much on Saturday and felt like shit. Since I only had a couple of glasses of wine, I was in there early right down the front in the trajectory of the guitar amp. Steve Albini has a great vicious ripshit guitar sound and its good to get as much of it as possible while you can before he forms his body in the shpe of a plane and flies off over the city looking for a poker game. Luckily Todd Trainer's hairdresser hadn't broken down, so he flailed inimitably at the drums at the front of the stage, making hilarious moves only occasionally upstaged by Steve. Maybe someoen should buy him a studded TT leather jacket? There were a few songs repeated from their previous day's performance, and the song lots of people had been wanting to hear, "Prayer to God" was upended over our ears in a slower more restrained holy day fashion. "The End of Radio" had some very ad libbed vocals, still open ended and mutating apocalyptically to fit any occasion. Bob took some question while Steve tuned his guitar, as is customary at Shellac gigs, so I asked why they had played at the same time as the Dirty Three on Saturday. He replied, "So that you couldn't see us twice." Hell, I've seen both bands so many times I've lost count so missing half a gig here and half a gig there isn't the end of the world, not just yet anyway. The man who once made "Songs About Fucking" had complaints about fucking. It seemed two of Steve's neighbours had been at it all night yelping and groaning loud enough to keep him up, so he kindly requested they stay chaste between the hours of 2am and 7am so that he could catch some sleep. There was an excellent new song played near the end that seemed to tell the story of the same war bloodied character they'd lamented the previous day. They also played "Killers" which I don't recall hearing them play live before, and that old Festive Fifty favourite "Crow." Last came "Spoke" with Bob and Steve dismantling the drum kit as Todd played on until there was just one drum left. Steve carried Todd off the stage to a jolly good round of well deserved applause.

The Magic Band kicked into "Click Clack" just as I got a coffee and I headed on up to the front of the Pavillion stage. They'd been the highlight of the Autechre ATP, a blessed relief from an overdose of laptop mouse shufflers. Apparently they'd been dormant and might have remained so had Barry Hogan not requested their presence at Butlins. At first I thought Gary Lucas had revealed himself to be a renegade Timelord, and regenerated to a younger incarnation. He hadn't made it over and had been replaced by a younger but no less able guitarist dressed in a suit and tie. The drummer was also a youngblood, keeping those complex beats for portly Rockette Morton and Denny Whalley to weave magic within. Armed with hat and harmonica Drumbo headed up the retro party, taking in songs mostly from "Troutmask Replica," "The Spotlight Kid," "Clear Spot" and "Shiny Beast." as he'd said at Camber Sands back in 2003, he wasn't trying to fill Beefheart's shoes, but as his biggest fan, pay homage to his songs. When he asked if anyone had any questions I asked who the guitarist and drummer were, but he misheard and thought I'd asked if he wasn't playing the drums. So that was two bands in a row who I'd directed a question to.

Deerhoof were cute and angular in their funny little way, playing a cover of "All Tomorrow's Parties." Someone had to do it! The small singing bassist apologised for nauseating someone or other and between songs I walked about shouting, "We wanna be free to do what we wanna do, we wanna ride our machines without being hassled by the man! And we wanna get loaded!" Yes, I was waiting for Mudhoney. They took their time setting up, and then really weren't loud enough, but made up for that with probably the most energetic performance of the weekend. I was down the front until they played "Touch Me I'm Sick" and the crowd went wild. I'd seen them too many times to count, and they have never failed to play a great, fun gig and make it seem like there is nothing better to do than play in a rock'n'roll band.

Explosions in the Sky should be called Sanity Clause and His Bobbing Elves due to the way they sound like Christmas and the way they move about on stage. When they play the quiet bits they have to sit down rest after tossing their guitars up and down in the noisy bits. I liked them more when I didn't look at the stage. I liked them a lot more when they were playing gigs to fifty to a hundred people, and didn't ham it up so much, but they still make nice music.

Sunn O))) were even better than the day before, playing a choirless rendition of "Monoliths and Dimensions." Carbon dioxide billowed, bass drones ruptured realities and a new world formed from clouds. The singer screamed like hellfire and intoned magickal incantations, as smoke poured from his cowled body, purging our environment of Fuck Buttons' crap drum machine which could occasionally be heard rattling away downstairs during the quieter moments. Towards the end he appeared in a sun shaped head dress with red lazer implants, transformed into a creature from a new world where brain frying drones trump tinny retrocrud monotonous drum machines. In the aftermath it slowly dawned that the rest of the evening's music was for the most part going to seem like a damp squib.

Mars Travolta sounded thoroughly repulsive, like the kind of music punk rock was supposed to destroy. They'd been given a two hour set, and no other bands were billed in opposition to the second half. I ran into Bardo Pond, a band truly deserving a two hour set, in the chippy and they agreed that the Mars Travolta sounded fucking abysmal. I discovered that I couldn't eat the special vegetable curry as some fool had made it with wheat noodles. This was the first and I hope the last time that I have ever seen curry made with noodles. I guess they must have been cheaper than using proper vegetables, lentils or beans? The only thing I could find that I could eat in Butlins take away wheat/meat hell were the repulsive greasy chips. I knew I'd only eat about ten and end up throwing the rest away, so I went to the supermarket in the arcade and bought a tin of wheat free baked beans which I ate cold from the can. Sleepy Sun played their hippy dippy dopey music to a decidedly underfilled Central Stage whilst I scoffed beans. I was diggin' their woovy groovy retro soft rock even less than earlier in the week. After Sunn O))) they seemd so weak and pathetic that they were hardly even there.

Apse were amusing in Reds as I was getting tired and the lighting kept making me think they were fronted by a singing pig. This kept me entertained for a while but then I fucked up by getting curious enough to check out Tall Firs, who turned out to be rather bland but not wholly unpleasant in a watered down Pavement fashion. It was nice to run into my old friend Greg Neale the photographer who'd solved my temporary homelessness problem at the Slint ATP, but when I headed back downstairs to Reds I found the queue to get in to hear and probably not see Lightning Bolt so long I gave up on it. The Bolt could be heard rumbling away from outside and drunken smokers in the covered area outside started playing along with cup on table percussion until humourless security ordered them to desist. Don't be 'avin' too much fun at Butlins! I ran into Mick Turner, who'd bailed out on Lightning Bolt to smoke, on my way back up to Centre stage to see Polvo. Then half of Bardo Pond materialised with a bold plan to jump the queue to Reds with their band passes. I'd already decided I'd rather see Polvo fir the third time in my life, and headed up to hear them play a set that was comically interrupted by Lightning Bolt kicking up a storm downstairs. Polvo were the only band to actually make any lasting impression after the Sunday Sunn O))) headcleaner but if they'd been billed to clash with the second half of the Mars Travolta's hideous jamfest and Lightning Bolt had played last on Central stage so that everyone could get in to see them, it would have made a much better end to the weekend. It was nice to run into my old friend Karren Ablaze! after the "Enemy Insects" had flown away, but I lost her and found the guitar slinging half of Bardo Pond. They were looking to party some more but I bailed out back to my hotel where some moron had put the front door on the latch so I couldn't get in again. This time I climbed up onto the roof, and opened the unlocked window to my room and climbed in. The next day at just past 9am a woman opened the door of my room and let herself in, making a quick apology and a hasty exit when she saw I was sitting up in bed looking at her. It seemed as though she might well have been expecting to find the room empty. I got a refund and caught the bus to London for more Om and Sunn O))) before heading home to hibernate.

Check out Greg's photos here

http://www.neatephotos.com/new-ten-years-of-atp-200/

Ten Years of All Tomorrow's Parties: Saturday

2009-12-30T05:27:00.000-08:00

Papa M was billed as playing "From A Shark Cage," but so entrancing was his rendition that it seemed to me that he'd boiled down a fifty minute album to a twenty minute live set. I watched from the stage dive barrier as he picked magic from six strings, aided for the most part by a bassist and second guitarist. It was an immaculate performance, even if some of the album had gone AWOL. Maybe the song with the phone messages got a call up to go fight an illegal war in Afghanistan? When David mentioned Abe Lincoln for some reason that has now slid into lost memory because it won't help me survive to remember why, I got a chance to do a heavy heckle which raised a few laughs; "Thomas Jefferson: if god is truly just I tremble for the fate of my nation!"

The Pavillion became the playground of two very silly scantily clad Japanese women. The anarchic Afrirampo larked about playing nonsense rock, both yelping and dancing about as much as playing guitar and drums. I guess if you're wearing a bikini covered in fluffy bits in Winter, you need to keep moving. There was no doubting their momentum could take them to parts most other bands wouldn't even think of travelling to, but it wasn't too hard to tear myself away to catch the latter part of Om's much darker set upstairs. Om were diggin' up Lazarus again and the big stage suited their low heavy sound, but this didn't have the atmosphere of their Crazy Horse gig.

Shellac played some of their songs. These included: My Black Ass, a slowed down Canada, Copper, A Minute and a sombre new requiem where they sang, "Oh what a friend was Gary." When they kicked into The Squirrel Song intro I decided it was time to head downstairs to hear the Dirty Three. I was going to have my gluten free coffee and walnut cake and eat it and made the best of the most irritating clash at All Tomorrow's Parties ever by watching the first half of Shellac's set and the second half of the Dirty Three's more swinging party. The Dirty Three were in full swing and released a set of balloons near the end of their set, again different from the previous three. They proved themselves the heroes of the fortnight and were one of the few bands who took total command of the huge Pavillion.

Porn started out with just one big fat bearded man making a noise. It slowly grew as more folk joined in and in the end there were four noise-smiths wooping it up, including the ubiquitous J Mascis. It was an awesome sound and one hopes fucking Fuck Buttons were listening.

Downstairs Battles had started to destroy any appreciation I used to have of them. Strangely the drummer who used to play in Helmet and the guitarist who used to play in Don Caballero sounded pretty neat, but it was impossible to block out the other two musicians' irksome contributions. Tyondai Braxton had good reason to use a vocoder; without mutation his voice was totally annoying. He was warbling and crap rapping to new jams that didn't grab me at all, ruining whatever small spark might have been there with a stream of gabbling geek speak. Before hearing this, I'd rated Battles above Melvins as band to watch, but as soon as Melvintime hit, I was glad to head back upstairs to avoid this descent into dreck and prove my judgement very wrong indeed.

I've seen Melvins a few times before, but this was by far the best gig I've heard them play. Buzz introduced the band, refering to the bassist dressed as an arab as the man in the suburban turban. Towards the end he left the stage, drawing aside a backdrop to reveal a couple of extra drummers pounding away. The four drummers made an exceptional racket as the man in the suburban turban leapt into the crowd, screaming over and over, "Death waits for no one!"

The Breeders were a hell of a lot better than the last time I saw them, when they played the sloppiest gig I've seen them do. I guess the new rhythm section hadn't worn in so well back then. Today they had an extra guitarist to help out and Kim Deal sat behind the drum kit to sing "Hovering." They played more "Last Splash" and "Pod" songs than ones from their two more recent albums, including my favourite "New Year." They played their infinitely improved take on the song Mark Chapman took too seriously, "Happiness is a Warm Gun." Luckily no one shot Kim Deal. At the end they wheeled out a decaversary birthday cake and asked Barry and Deborah on stage to help them eat it.

The Drones cranked out their intense garage rock so loud I had to move back from the front of the stage. Someone shouted for a song early in the set, to which frontman Gareth Liddiard spat, "We already played it Einstein!" More of their set seemed to be from their earlier albums than from the excellent "Havilah" but I could be wrong as I was lost in the rush of hysterical histrorical blood, piss and puke their blustering emotionally flayed music runs on. They were the first band of the day who made me feel I needed a drink, and the left hand bar was deserted so I quickly got some red wine to guzzle as Gareth ripped his throat ragged. It was a shame more people didn't make the effort to see them as they are one of the most ferocious live acts on the planet these days. Bands don't get to such venomous heights without being road hogs.

Despite being very near the front for the first half of The For Carnation's hushed atmospheric set, it was very difficult to actually hear them. The room was rapidly filling up with drunken arseholes who were more interested in shouting at each other things like, "Oh Wesley isn't this amazing, so very now. It's so amazing I don't even want to listen to it but I think I should hold up my crappy little camera phone and block someone's view of the band so that Ponsonby and Jasper can watch a really bad sounding version with a wobbly picture on Youtube and we can laugh at them while we snort coke grown by starving farmers who were ripped off by a drug cartel that smuggled it across borders up the ass of a mule. Wouldn't that be splendid?" It would have been futile to ask all these loudmouth buffoons to be quiet as there were just too many of them. It would not surprise me to learn that most of them were Londoners, as talking very loudly and spoiling gigs in the quiet parts of songs is an ancient tradition in that city. The For Carnation were mostly quiet parts. It was the most annoying part of the weekend and a case of bad billing. The For Carnation should have played early in the day to avoid the sound of the crowd, who wouldn't have had time to get drunk enough to be so rude. If they had swapped places with Shellac and played after Papa M it would have been perfect, as David Pajo seemed to have the full attention of a much more sober gathering. Pajo was lurking by the sound desk, talking to a lady. I noticed this as I made a futile trip back there hoping the music would be louder, but instead the level of inane chatter increased. A tall man with a camera who knew Pajo and the lady began to shout drunkenly at them about five times louder than they'd been talking and when Pajo left continued to shout drunkenly at the lady, paying no attention to the band at all. "Shut the fuck up!" I shouted at him as I stormed off back down the front where some fuckwad was shouting about her septic clit ring. Meanwhile The For Carnation played some songs, one of which was "Empowered Man's Blues" and I was surprised by the number of new ones as this weekend was in general a bit of a golden oldies feast. Sadly the new ones didn't sound as timelessly brilliant as the older ones, but to be fair I was really having to strain to hear them over the gobshites. Brian McMahon was positioned at the back of the stage and had a box with a mike set up on it. When he wasn't singing he'd duck down and hide behind the box. What was he doing down there? Probably holding his head in his hands sobbing, I came all the way from the USA to play one gig for these drunken jabberjaws and I can't even hear myself sing because everyone is talking so damn loud. The drummer was at the front but the band collectively had as much stage presence as Brian's old band Slint; almost none at all.

Sunn O))) did not suffer from similar problems, as their rendition of the "Grimmrobe Sessions" was a total headcleaner vortex. Even if you'd wanted to have a conversation, you'd probably not have been able to work out what you wanted to say. Two dark robed men, heads cowled, loomed out of the billowing fog of dry ice raising guitars skyward as if in worship of a drone demon and let loose a skullfuck mega-hum that was probably setting off earthquakes and tsunamis on the other side of the world. Time slowed and stopped, Sunn O))) had completely taken over the room and created their own small universe where all had to bury their identities in the cleansing drone. Afterwards I felt like I'd never felt before, something had happened to my sense of balance that was quite pleasantly bizarre. I ran into Bardo Pond again as Sunn O))) stopped burning and they were all similarly enthused. It was cold outside. The creation of a new universe hadn't yet begun, but the old one had been obliterated. The starship heading towards our solar system had to delay to repair extensive damage to its hyper-music drive.

Ten Years of All Tomorrow's Parties: Friday

2009-12-30T05:26:00.001-08:00

Alexander Tucker was accompanied by his friends Decomposed Orchestra who backed up his looped cello and guitar based songs with grace and subtlety. He played a song called "Atomised" whihc was synchronous with me having my Big Black "Atomizer" cassette in my pocket, which I'd show people, remarking that I'd bught it in 1987 and it still plays just fine, yet CDRs I burned five years ago no longer play at all. People gathering respected the relative quietness of his perfromance and didn't shout at each other like a pack of durnken cockney baboons, so I guess he was fortunate in getting an early pre-pisshead assholism slot. A lot of people missed him and Bardo Pond though, and I kept hearing people complain that Bardo Pond had played so early in the day. Maybe they could have played two sets like Shellac? They certainly have enough songs to play a completely different set every day they were in the country. Bardo Pond were fucking awesome. They dedicated the entire set to Jack Rose. What better epitaph could a man desire? Somewhere in outer space the immense gravitational pull of their slow heavy music was picked up by an alien spacecraft on a mission to boldly search out the most beautiful music in the universe. They promptly set a course for planet Earth. "Tommy Gun Angel" might have been the song most suited to epitaph status, as its about the feeling singer Isobel Sollenberger got when her dog Tommy Gun died, as if his soul moved through her on its way out. When a roadie indicated to guitarist John Gibbons that there was time for just one more song, they launched into a stellar new one that went on a hell of a long time, for which I felt thankful.

I was once sent a scratched promotional CDR of a Growing album that skipped and glitched. I thought it was quite likely it sounded better that way. I think I saw them at a Camber Sands ATP, but they aren't all that memorable. Their music is OK as an ambient backdrop to wishing you had a Mogwai album on instead, but amplified loud doesn't register much enthusiasm in my megamusicmind (TM). One of them played a bass guitar, and I think this must be the way forward for music in the twenty-first century.

Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks were loose and fun on the Pavillion, jamming out a fair old number of new numbers after starting with that song about Yule Brinner from his first solo album. He amused me by passing judgement on the monitors at Manchester's Deaf Institute where he played earlier in the week. Apparently he couldn't hear himself strum. I thought I spotted my old friend Karren Ablaze groovin' near the front, lost in music. She once asked Stephen to marry her, and he replied, "karren, you're too young to get married." Despite enjoying the Jickery well enough, it wasn't hard to tear myself away to listen to J.
J Mascis and the Fog could be in some kind of eternal indie rock yin yang conflagration with S Malkmus and the Jicks. I have every album by both bands, and their superior old/reactivated bands Pavement and Dinosaur Jr. Both bands played in Manchester on the same night in different venues and then repeated the clash at Butlins, so I missed the first song or two of the Fog set. Maybe they should hit the road together and swap bands. Would J Mascis and the Jicks sound better than S Malkmus and the Fog? Those who'd seen the full Fog set both weekends told me he'd played the same songs each time, with three Dinosaur Jr tunes (Thumb, The Wagon and So What Else is New). I reckon they should have just kept on jammin' for hours as there were no other bands booked to play upstairs for an hour and a half after them. It'd certainly have been more fun than the damp squib about to blubberpuppy downstairs.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs arrived late because Karen O's hairdresser broke down. They called the audience bitches for booing their absence and then played their first and best album from start to finish, ruining it entirely and making me not want to listen to them ever again, although this has unfortunately proved impossible. Wherever I go in Manchester now it seems someone has the third retro electro Yeah Yeah Yeahs album "Ain't No Blondie" playing. Nick Zinner spoiled short rock'n'roll songs by playing the riffs way too long before the actual song kicked in so that the riffs got boring. Karen O danced across the stage like a woman with a hot poker up her arse, wearing a studding leather jacket that read KO. They were far from a knockout but got a four song encore anyway when they wheeled on a bassist and a keyboard and played some of their crap newer songs. They were so inept they had to abort the first one and KO pathetically begged the crowd to tell her band they loved them. If Tortoise or Shellac had been playing upstairs whilst this sad spectacle unfolded, maybe they'd have had found out how much the indieground realy likes them? I guess no other bands were playing at the same time as the promoters might not wanted to have dented KO's ego by giving punters a choice of better music (unless of course fucking Fuck Buttons had been playing upstairs). You don't catch bands like Tortoise and Shellac begging the crowd to love them do you?

Six Organs of Admittance were a sweet relief after the sordid spectacle of overblown egos jacking off in public. They seemed to have lost the woman from Magik Markers, but then again it could be that she was hidden behind the PA as I was watching from the farside of the room. They seemed much more focused than their earlier gig in Salford, where they'd blown one of Gnod's amps.

There was a great big queue to get in to see the mediocre Fuck Buttons but I suspect, like me, many were getting in early to guarantee a full Tortoise experience. On Centre stage the nodding dog roundabout boys were louder and all the worse for it. Their first album is OK as an ambient background. Live their shitty drum machine sounds repulsive cranked up and monotonous. Why people rave about them is beyond me, but they are not without merit; the occasional nice melody surfaced and the anyone-could-do-that noise was passable, but they perpetually banged on the same beat way too long, in desperate need of an editor.

Tortoise were a different beacon of musical prowess entirely. It was getting late and tiredness was catching up, sending me into a hypnotic trance as I listened to the first half of their set seated. They made me realise I had to get on my feet and head closer to the action. They switched instruments, multiplied rhythms and played most of their excellent recent album. They saved the best 'til last when they got a much shorter encore than Primma Donna and Her Yeah Combo. Making the most of it, the furious free guitar storm "Seneca" erupted and calmed and they sent everyone clapping along to the rhythms of freedom and musical brilliance that ended the night on such a high not that not even Karen O's trendy tye dyed pet chihuahua could hear it. Somewhere out there it reached a distant starship and spoke well of the human race.

I got locked out of my hotel and ended up sleeping on the couch in Mum's chalet, so a big thank you to them and Siggi!

In Between Days

2009-12-30T05:21:00.000-08:00

For the four days between the two Parties, punters could pay a hundred quid to stick around at Butlins and see a gig every night. Since two of my favourite bands, Bardo Pond and the Dirty Three were playing, I was up for it. I absconded on the first day so missed Alex Tucker and Lightning Bolt. Missing Lightning Bolt seemed to be a recurring theme for my week. The Dirty Three were playing the Queen Elizabeth Hall on the Thames so I sped east to London. I stayed at a nice hostel in Shepherd's Bush which, unknown to me before arrival, was run by Australians. Before heading up the Northern line to Embankment, I stopped off at Notting Hill and strolled over to Rough Trade, on a mission to find the new Melt Banana single, Initial T on Init records. They were selling it at a pound an inch, but I also found some great bargains; Tabata and Tarwater singles for a pound each, and five CDs for a tenner (Shannon Wright, Lungfish, Paul Westerberg, DJ Olive and Alistair Galbraith).

On the Southbank, Josh Pearson unveiled an entirely new set of intense but subtle country songs. Playing solo to a fully seated gathering, this was the first time he'd sung them in public. It's a shame he keeps moving on without making albums, as he's leaving some great songs behind in the dirt! The most memorable new one found him beseeching a ladyfriend not to think of him as her Jesus Christ. The stage illumination cast shadows across his face that made him look like the Turin Shroud Jesus at times. Jesus may have walked on the water and swam on the land, but he never wrote songs as good as Josh Pearson even if he was later recast as the lord of the dance.During the interval I heard a very familar song that I just couldn't place, so asked the soundman what it was. It turned out to be Thinking Fellers Union Local 282, a band who I hadn't listened to in years. They'd be a good call for an All Tomorrow's Parties reformation, like Slint and Polvo; all we need now is a curator to ask them. They seem the kind of band who may very well appeal to Matt Groening so who knows? During the interval I ran into a couple of the guys from Last Harbour, down from Manchester for a Dirty Monday!

The Dirty Three were on fiery form, with better sound and a longer set than on the Butlins Pavillion stage, but none of the audience participation. The set list was different and included some songs not played at Butlins including "Authentic Celestial Music" and the grand finale "Sue's Last Ride," always a good one to finish the show. Some guy kept asking Warren where he got his pointy shoes but he couldn't remember.

The next day I had enough time to check out the Notting Hill Exchange and found a bag full of ultra cheap vinyl, including albums by Elvis Costello and Das Damen for 30p and the only Gang of Four album I didn't already have for a quid! I also dug out some cool CDs by PJ Harvey, Jim O'Rourke, That Fucking Tank, Pelt, Anni Rossi, Dinosaur Jr, 23 Skidoo and Ghostigital, Einar Orn's daft rap group who I saw play Butlins Reds at the previous Melvins curated Nightmare. I also saw Jim O'Rourke play the Autechre ATP, and Lungfish on the Tortoise day of the five-year-versary two weekend celebration. Shannon Wright played the very first ATP I attended, curated by Shellac. Back on the bus on a surprise stop as we headed west on to Taunton I found myself next to a pub called "The Admiral." This is the third song on the first Shellac album, with a bassline purloined from PJ Harvey's "Victory." I made it back to Butlins much earlier than expected and arrived at the production office at the same time as Mick Turner yet again. No one knew what chalet I had been allocated so I decided to head along Warren Street past the beach to Minehead for a great curry at the Taj Mahal restaurant while they waited for Deborah or one of her minions to sort it out. On returning I was glad to be given a key at last, but was not so happy to find that after walking halfway across the ghost town site the chalet I'd been directed to had a normal metal key and not a self demagnetising electronic credit card style thing like the one I'd been given. So I trudged back to production and this time they sent me to the right chalet. When I got there I found the key wouldn't open the door, so I left my heavy bags in the connecting corridor and walked back again. The key needed remagnetising, but at the gatehouse the magnetising machine had broken down. By this time I was starting to get a little bit pissed off. I really should have had access to the chalet hours ago! As it was getting close to gig time, I headed to the Crazy Horse and left Tomorrow Party man to wait for narky Butlins woman to make a key capable of opening one door. As luck would have it I got there just before Josh started and after the first couple of songs my key finally arrived. This time it worked, for a short while anyway. Josh played his new drummerless country set, but sadly a shorter version. He seemed kind of nervous. I recalled only four songs, but someone else reckoned he played five. The Dirty Three had a nice surprise for us as we gathered close to the stage. Warren Ellis announced that unknown to Mick Turner and Jim White, they were going to attempt to play the album "Horse Stories." This was the first Dirty Three album I heard, so it felt like another loop of my reality closing. Speaking to the small crowd of around a hundred, some guy engaged Warren in a conversation before they'd even played a note. "We'll continue the therapy session later because we have a gig to play," Warren reprimanded him graciously. Jim White thwacked his floor tom so hard as they started "1000 Miles" that it fell over but he kept the flow. Warren had to ask if anyone could remember which song came next. "Sue's Last Ride" is usually a set closer, so it might have seemed odd to them to play it second, and "Hope" is a regular staple of their set. "I Remember A Time When Once You Used To Love Me" doesn't get played half as much as the first three songs, so it was nice to hear it after Warren's little tale about the Greek guys who wrote it. By this time I'd drained my first cup of wine so headed to the bar as Mick Turner realised he couldn't remember how to play "At the Bar." By the time I was back at the front, it was time for "Red," a song they'd been heckled for the night before in London and the colour of the wine I'd bought at the bar. I was right next to the violin monitor so got a very different raw powered dirty sound than the other three Dirty Three performances of the fortnight and "Red" was pretty wild. Warren located an intelligent man with an i-Pod with "Horse Stories" on it to remind them of the running order, and dubbed me a man who knows the truth when I remarked that the E-chord was an easy one. This was the real treat of the gig as I've never heard them play the last three "Horse Stories" songs before. "Warren's Lament" was beautiful and "Horse" was not as penultimate as it should have been. Mick couldn't remember the chords to the last song, amusingly called "I Knew It Would Come To This" and gave up the ghost. Warren borrowed the i-Pod from the intelligent man and played the song into his mike, commenting, "Doesn't that sound wonderful?" It was a funny way to end it all and hats off to them for making the day one to remember. Later I asked Mick if it really was a surprise to him and Jim. He said that it certainly was and if they'd rehearsed the songs he'd have remembered them all, which proved it as if it needed proving. Would Mick Turner lie to you? Not many bands are worthy of following the Dirty Three, and you can count Fuck Buttons on that score. They played over-long noise disco that sounded like the magic roundabout theme fed through a distortion pedal with a crap old drum machine playing the most unimaginitive basic beat possible. The two men prodded at their buttons nodding their heads like those dopey toy bulldogs that cockney racists used to put in the back of their minis and cortinas in the seventies. In between them they had a disco ball, which I guess was there to make up for their lack of charisma. I retreated to the back of the room and tiredness caught up with me. It was quite pleasant to doze off to half awake dreams of Dylan the rabbit and Dougal the dog, Brian the snail and a blue cat but as a child I always prefered the Wombles. I slipped back to wakefulness and glanced across the room to see my old friends Bardo Pond, so went over to say hello. With Alex Tucker, we headed back to their chalet and drank tequila late into the night. The sky was clear outside and we appreciated the constellations shining up above. Alex mentioned that the Alistair Galbraith "Orb" CD I'd bought the day before was one of his favourite albums of recent times but Bardo Pond had some sad news. Their friend Jack Rose the amazing guitarist, had died of a heart attack on Saturday. Earlier that day I'd bought "Pearls from the River" by Pelt, his old drone band. They had a DVD of the last "Twin Peaks" episode; "When you see me again, it will not be me." I had no idea how late it was when I got back to my chalet but I found a key belonging to the guy I was sharing it with in the lock and neither that nor my key would open to the door. So I trudged out to the gatehouse and asked yet again to have the keys remagnetised. At last I got inside and fell asleep as soon as my head hit the pillow.

My former chalet sharer, a hippy with a set of bongos, returned next morning to eat some biscuits he'd left behind. He'd been given another chalet by festival promoter Barry Hogan himself after Butlins had been completely unable to get his magnetic key to work. Maybe his vibes were freaking it out? I later heard he'd lost it with Barry and Deborah and snapped a chalet key in half. As I tried to find out what had happened last night, he suddenly came out with, "Terrible what they did to Ghandi isn't it?" What shot him or sent him to British 'public' school? He then tried to convince me that noise isn't sound. I realised that I was dealing with someone who was out to lunch and was pleased that I wouldn't have to waste anymore time on pointless conversations like this. I managed to convince him to take all his things to his new chalet as I was planning on walking to Minehead and wouldn't be around if he came back to collect them later in the day. The night before, sat on the floor in a sleeping bag in the Crazy Horse he'd informed me that he'd been in a psychiatric hospital, but it was much nicer here. "Well I hope so," I replied. The Cramps played a psychiatric hospital in the States, but I don't recall the Dirty Three ever gracing one with their presence. That afternoon a steam train ride had been organised which was pleasant and led to more people getting to know each other a bit better over the mulled wine that was served at the last stop. On returning the All Tomorrow's Parties documentary was shown on Butlins TV. The best part was the all too short clip of the Dirty Three kicking out the jams. Growing and Mum played first on Wednesday evening but both suffered from Bardo Pond anticipation. Mum played a similar but shorter set than they had on the Pavillion stage and were much better than Growing, another band with horrible sounding synthetic beats but no corny disco ball. Bardo Pond played a lamentably short set. Whoever decided that a band with so much music could only have a forty-five minute set, yet give tedious one trick pony Fuck Buttons an hour should be ashamed. In fact as there were only four bands each evening and an hour and a half between doors opening and the first band, it seemed strange not to let everyone play for over an hour if they so desired. Bardo Pond were heavy and made me happy. "Isle" was dedicated to Jack Rose. They played "Flux" and "Endurance" and finished with a monstrously spaced out "Night of Frogs." They didn't repeat any of the songs in their Friday afternoon set, which was cool. Om were a revelation, as I don't really care for them on record. Live, however they were spellbinding. The drummer was amazing to watch as he struck slow precise double cymbal splashes. Their third man, a multi-instrumentalist with a wild afro and cool pointy goatee added much texture to their sound and it was all loud enough for Al Cisneros' over the top spiritualised lyrics not to jar.

On Thursday the Crazy Horse flooded so the action was shifted over to a freezing cold Reds. Maybe it was a Bardo Pond? Apse sounded like the bastard offspring of Mogwai and the Chameleons. Their drums were way too loud due to the small number of people in the room which made their set quite punishing. Sleepy Sun were lightweight hippy dippy retro twaddle and bored me. Polvo were the band I'd been waiting for and seemed to be on fine form. They'd actually reformed when Explosions in the Sky asked them to play ATP and now have a new album recently released on Merge, although guitarist Ash Bowie mentioned that people were having trouble finding it in this country. I'd seen them once before, supporting Babes in Toyland at Nottingham Rock City, but if anything they were better than ever, uniquely forceful and angular. Time means nothing to a timeless band. Deerhoof did their cutesy thing, including an inferior cover of the Ramones classic "Pinhead." Towards the end the drummer got up to make an incoherent speech, the gist of which seemed to be that he was very nervous to be playing after Polvo, a band he clearly had a lot of respect for. Bob Weston and Todd Trainer of Shellac were hanging around. It's a shame Shellac didn't play today. It would have probably brought in a whole lot of punters a day early.

My Bloody Sunday Nightmare

2009-12-30T05:19:00.000-08:00

Today was a day of waiting for the Dirty Three. I didn't have to wait long for one of the Three as I ran into Mick Turner at the production office on my first visit to procure a wristband for the In Between Days gigs that were running during the week between the two three day Nightmares. After a walk on the beach and a trip to Toucan healthfoods where I stocked up on gluten free food which I could eat without being sick, unlike the greasy bilge Butlins serve, I arrived at Centre Stage just in time to catch the end of Irish singer-songwriter Gemma Hayes' set. The last folky song was said to have been her best by all I spoke to, elegant and pretty and an easy way into Sunday music. With no hint of Lou Reed cynicism, "Sunday Morning" by the Velvet Underground came over the PA. It was already afternoon, but at least they tried. A loop of songs including Johnny Cash's inferior cover of Nick Cave's "Mercy Seat," The Stooges' "Gimme Danger" and the Ramones' "Blitzkreig Bop" played too quietly over the big PA. It was enjoyable but someone should tell Barry Hogan that these three artists have many more songs as the same loop repeated over and over between bands throughout each weekend. What was really irritating was the way the volume suddenly dropped to barely audible for the best song "Blitzkreig Bop." As the loop reoccurred ever more frequently during the second weekend, I took to singing along to "Gimme Danger" changing the words to, "Gimme Danger Mr Hogan, we got no more Stooges songs, ain't got No Fun, ain't got Not Right, we ain't even got Sick of You." I hope someone bought Barry some more Stooges and Ramones albums for Christmas.

The Che label that originally reissued and extended Bardo Pond's first album "Bufo Alvarius Amen" sent me some unmemorable releases by the Lilys to review years ago. The singer proved to be very annoying between songs making stupid comments. Maybe he was nervous. Their popularity was hard to gauge as there were no other bands playing on the other stages so by default they got the entire early audience. Their set of uninspired Velvet Underground garage rock-lite dragged on and seemed the longest of the day by far. They were better than the dismal Horrors however, and gave me a chance to sit down and write some notes on the weekend whilst passing loud sarcastic comments at the singer's inane stage banter between their mundane indie pop songs. I was killing time until Th' Faith Healers hit the Pavillion.

First I had to return to the production office where they'd finally sorted out the logistics of selling me a wristband. Chalet allocation would prove more challenging it would later transpire. Ian Svenonius walked in behind me. It was nice to see him again, as I'd interviewed him a couple of times when he was fronting the Make Up. He told me he liked my Russian army hat, which I bought on a trip to Berlin to see the reformed original Killing Joke. Ian was at Butlins to publicly interview musicians for his TV show "Soft Focus." During the weekend he conversed with J Mascis, Sonic Boom and the married half of Sonic Youth.

I was still waiting for Th'Faith Healers, and really didn't expect much from over-hyped feedback rockers A Place to Bury Strangers, with their black hair dye emo name. I was pleasantly surprised to find them a high octane dynamic and noisy trio who have obviously grown up listening to My Bloody Valentine and The Jesus and Mary Chain. This was the first new band I'd heard this weekend that made me think I'd like to hear an album of theirs, but before they reached the end of the set it was time for one of the All Tomorrow's Parties reformation specials (second edition) Th'Faith Healers who were setting up downstairs. There was no problem getting right down the front, and like The Membranes, guitarist Tom Cullinan said he was wondering if anyone at all would bother to turn up to see them. They were charmingly sloppy at times, with drummer Joe Dilworth wandering out of time from the rest of the band later in the set. Singer Roxanne Stephen forgot her tambourine and asked the crowd if anyone had one after she spent the first song walking off to the side of the stage and walking back as an inferior substitute. "Someone go find Steve Mack!" I shouted. A short way through the set someone threw a small blue tambourine to her, appropriate since one of their singles which they played early in the set is "Gorgeous Blue Flower in My Garden." The cover of that single is a photo of a boy in underpants clutching a sign reading "Butlins BOGNOR 1st," another funny synchronicity. I bet they never thought they'd reform to play at Butlins when they released that single on Too Pure in 1991. The woozy riff of "Reptile Smile" was still a doozy, and on returning home I found their first album "Lido" to sound much more My Bloody Valentine influnced than I'd previously noticed. When Tom announced that they had time for only one more song, my friend Rico looked a bit upset so I told him they hadn't played their longest song "Spin Half" which sure enough sent us off to wait around with twenty minutes of no-band time before we climbed the steps up to Centre stage, now occupied by Swervedriver. I saw them a few times supporting Therapy? back in the nineties, but they never really grabbed me. They're still competant yet unmemorable. Singer Adam Franklin has cut off his long dreads now so they even looked ordinary. I bailed out before the end of their set to go eat back at the chalet, as there was even more dead time before Mum played the Pavillion. On returning I found all Th'Faith Healers selling their Peel Sessions CD at one of the merchandise tables at the back, and chatted with Tom about Wire and the likelihood of more Healers gigs in the future. He told me it was pretty unlikely unless they were invited to All Tomorrow's Parties again. I guess a future curator might request a Quickspace reformation?

Mum are very nice people and I will find this out next weekend, as if their music didn't tell you that already. They have charm and grace a plenty. Fronted by two women, one playing a cello most of the time, the Icelandic ensemble were more forward looking than most bands playing this weekend in that their entire set consisted of songs I'd never heard before, as I haven't heard their most recent album yet. In one song they told the gathering they wanted to keep them all in their hearts, a very different sentiment to the way Karen O will demand next weekend that everyone tells the Yeah Yeah Yeahs they love them. This shows up just how out of synch with the general aesthetic of All Tomorrow's Parties bands the Yeah Yeah Yeahs are. Most bands are humble enough to be pleased that people come and listen to them and thank them for doing so. Karen O is so shamelessly egotistical that she demands everyone tell her they love her band, a rather pathetic spectacle. Mum aren't quite the polar opposite of Yeah Yeah Yeahs style over substance though; Tortoise perhaps are.

The Dirty Three came, played and conquered. Jim White had grown his hair and looked like a fuzzy headed mad professor, flailing away like his drum kit was a raging sea, as Warren Ellis reached for the sky and Mick Turner filled in many different colours of their expansive landscape. Their elemental music evokes impressive vistas of unspoilt country, breathtaking views and their emotional impact. No one sounds anything like them, so it mattered not a bit that they had no new songs to play. They could keep playing their timeless oeuvre for all eternity and it wouldn't pall. The newest song in the set was "The Zither Player" from "Cinder." Warren Ellis got the enchanted throng humming along to "Sea Above Sky Below," sat on his amp and leading us all in a serene sea-like sing along, with a look of wonder at the noise he was hearing. Warren revealed the Dirty Three to be three naked angels who appear in your dreams to let you know bagpipes are better than trumpets, unless Miles Davis is playing the trumpets. "Hope" and "Everything's Fucked" were killer as usual. Last they played the oldest song in the set, "Kim's Dirt" with Warren perched on his amp howling at the moon.

Lightning Bolt clattered away in Reds but it was hard to see them. This didn't matter much, but I found their bass heavy attack much more punishing on the ears than anything My Bloody Valentine could dish out, and finally found a use for the earplugs that had been given out each night just before the Bloody set. After a bit of their tumbling rumble they made me realise that I'd much rather be upstairs listening to My Bloody Valentine again, a nicer way to go deaf.

The second half of My Bloody Valentine's set was the best part, with Slow Soon Feed Me With Your Realise rushing towards the noise onslaught, and unless they'd sneaked in one of their rumoured new songs near the start it was yet again exactly the same set as the previous two nights. Bilinda Jayne Butcher had worn a white dress on Friday and black on Saturday. Tonight she was dressed in red and black, the colours of anarchy. The rush of white noise, adding a new dimension to the semi-obliterated guitar storm with drums reduced to barely audible cymbals surfing the periphery, seemed to last longer tonight. When they kicked back in after the white line moved inexorably over the stage, they sounded distant and tiny, as if lost to the universal hum.

The Robert Coyne Outfit played downstairs in Reds to about thirty or forty people which was a shame as their precise three guitar garage rock was most enjoyable, recalling Television, the Dream Syndicate and sixties punk rock. They seemed the perfect aside to the best thing I'd seen on ATP TV that weekend, a showcase of Nuggets bands with the Seeds, Love and Elevators. Anyway one of the guitarists was Tony Thewlis of the Scientists, probably the greatest and most under-rated garage rock band on the planet, so I wasn't going to miss this. If anyone had wanted to meet the curators this was the perfect opportunity as two of the people watching latterly were Bilinda Jayne Butcher and Kevin Shields.

School of Seven Bells sounded a bit better live than they did on the bland song of theirs I'd heard on the radio. They reminded me of later inferior Cocteau Twins, but I was mostly chatting and eating some moderately horrible Butlins chips which were impossible to finish.

Brightblack Morning Light were much better, and made a pleasant late night comedown for the weekend. Playing one long quasi-ambient groove before a backdrop of shifting images of scenic landscapes, they sent me drifting off into a hypnagogic state. Kevin Shields once explained it was his intention to evoke the hypnagogic state with My Bloody Valentine's later music and he must have heard a kindred spirit in Brightblack Morning Light. When I woke I was still in a dream.

My Bloody Saturday Nightmare

2009-12-23T06:18:00.000-08:00

After my first sleep for forty-two hours, I decided to head into Minehead to buy some of the Spanish wine I'd sampled on Friday. I'd sampled enough to get a little tipsy before even setting foot in Butlins and the red was pretty good. My mission was delayed when I heard the sound of music. It seemed as though Yo La Tengo were playing somewhere. As I neared the Pavillion I realised that it was actually Sonic Youth soundchecking. People could go inside and watch from a distance. They ran through five songs from "The Eternal" and Lee asked the small gathering to, "Look lively out there! Too much of the sheep dip!" a comment psychically synchronous with the black sheep I'd seen as his recorded voice was reproduced on magnetic tape the day before.

On returning from Minehead I passed Thurston Moore on the pavement. The skies were grey but we are both wearing shades, two guys who live to rock. Back at Butlins I watched about twenty minutes of the Sex Pistols "Filth and the Fury" film in the cinema then made a futile bid to watchIan Svenonius interview Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon. The queue was long enough to fill the venue at least three times, so I returned to the Pavillion where I was rewarded with a better bit of entertainment. The Sun Ra Arkestra were soundchecking. They concentrated more on getting individual instruments sounding good than playing whole songs like Sonic Youth did, but hearing any of these fantastic musicians soloing is a rare treat.

Upstairs The Membranes had been reborn with Gold Blade's rhythm section. John Robb lives about a twenty minute walk from my home and I sometimes run into him in Hulme. He was charging about with more energy than most frontmen half his age and predictably proclaimed Minehead to be a "Tatty Seaside Town." When he fucked up the song he explained it was only the second time he'd played it in twenty years. "The Pastels haven't rehearsed at all, and they'll still be better than us!" They played "Wounded Bull in Victorian England," their song I've heard more than all other Membranes songs put together as it was on Homestead's "Human Music" compilation which I bought mostly for the Live Skull, Yo La Tengo, Salem 66 and Volcano Suns songs. I think I only saw them once back in the late eighties, supporting That Petrol Emotion in London. "We didn't think anyone would come to see us," joked John, "No one did twenty years ago!" As the jarring chords of "Shine on Pumpkin Moon" clattered to a close, I ambled downstairs and got an impromptu festival audio moment as the Membranes merged with the freeform sound of the Sun Ra Arkestra's opening space jam. These eleven super cool dudes keep the flame burning after their leader had to return to Saturn. One of them utilised the space on stage to jive and do handstands when he wasn't playing a part in launching a musical rocket to Venus. I made my way right to the front of the stage and tears of joy welled up behind my shades. They played "Nuclear War" the song Yo La Tengo covered, with the handstand man sticking out his butt as he sang, "When they push that button kiss your ass goodbye!" Their cosmic jazz was well suited to the Pavillion stage as it required no extreme volume to bring transcendence, and the star spangled black night side banners were perfect to glimpse from the corner of the eye as light reflected off the Arkestra's shining robes. Space really was the place! A lot of people remarked that they just didn't get the Arkestra when I told them how much I enjoyed their gig.

In a perfect bit of sequencing, Harmony Rockets blasted off another stellar trip to find the skullfucking core of the "Paralyzed Mind Of The Archangel Void," one of the best albums in the known universe to fuck to. Amplified to blast off levels at the peaks, this flew so far above and beyond the album itself that it left me wondering why Jonathan Donahue and Grasshopper bother to continue with Mercury Rev. This stuff is so much better and was really the only time another band mined the hallucinogenic hypnotic noise / melody interface that put them on a level with My Bloody Valentine themselves. A follow up album is well overdue. I'd love to hear these guys jam with the Sun Ra Arkestra, I think that would be out of this world.

I entered Reds at the exact time (6pm) That Petrol Emotion were due to play and thought for a second they were going to play to a nearly empty room as the "Blue to Black" emergency rhythm sample kicked in. It was but a soundcheck with another ten minutes until lift off. I had enough time to buy a glass of red wine to drink and spill on red carpet and easily found a spot right on the Mack barrier. In Reds if the room fills up the only way you can see the band is to be very near the stage or at the front of the raised area behind the mixing desk, but the sound is excellent and hard hitting. It really came as no surprise when they started the set with a fiery "Blue to Black" and the set was pretty much a truncated version of the one I saw them play back in July. Only Killing Joke make me want to move and groove more than the petrols, such is their rhythmic itch. "It's a Good Thing" scratched it and by "Abandon" they'd rubbed it raw. Such was their energy they made me feel fifteen years younger. I was never crazy about "Hey Venus" but they've made it way heavier now, and Reamann bursts out some wild six string freak out near the end that lifts it high. Singer Steve Mack announced that they were going to play an old song, and I shouted "Lifeblood!" to which he replied, "Now you've spoiled the surprise." Requests were shouted, I'm sure someone was after "Can't Stop" just like in Manchester and I shouted "Circusville" at which Reamann burst out laughing, shaking his head and replying, "No way! No fucking way!"The last song was the ever more relevant pollution evacuation anthem "Scumsurfin'" maybe my favourite song of theirs. Maybe it was time to move to higher ground before Reds flooded.

Upstairs J Mascis and the Fog were half way through a set of guitar solo drenched songs. They were looser than Dinosaur Jr but played "The Wagon" and finished with an epic "So What Else is New." The big fat mountainous bassist certainly wouldn't be able to bounce about like Lou Barlow. I'd really have liked to have seen the whole set, but I'd have had to split myself in two! Nevermind, they were due back next weekend.

Walking through the main hall en route to rice and beans at the chalet, I chanced upon a band who sounded like a poor rip off of My Bloody Valentine with all the joy and experimental originality excised. That was the horribly over-rated Horrors. On returning for Sonic Youth's set, the Pavillion was predictably the most full it had been all day. They'd have certainly sounded better upstairs, but maybe then not everyone who wanted to see them could have got in. Most of the set came from their disappointing recent album "The Eternal" and some idiotic nearby Eastern Europeans chose to show their appreciation by clapping out of time and shouting at each other until I asked them to stop. Everything shifted up a gear when they played the time tripping "Hey Joni" and "The Sprawl." They were allowed an encore, and blessed the Pavillion with a corruscating "Death Valley '69" that was better than the whole of the prior set combined, ending with a freeform percussion fade out jam.

Robin Guthrie's pleasant music made a nice backdrop for a rest and a chat with some friends from Manchester, who all decided to wait in Reds for Lightning Bolt. I decided I'd rather see My Bloody Valentine again.My Bloody Valentine were the first band I ever saw play a gig in Manchester, so in a way this weekend seemed like a loop of reality closing. They played the same set precisely and not surprisingly were slightly better than the first night. Bilinda wore a black dress and I ended up much closer to the stage. Nearby a hilarious dyke kept hollering to the bassist between songs, "Goodgey we love you!"

No Age jammed their two man drum and guitar schtick which was obviously highly influenced by My Bloody Valentine as I struggled to stay awake. Hypnotic punk rock and lack of sleep were conspiring against me. Suddenly I was jolted wide awake by a much more memorable tune - "Something I Learned Today" by Husker Du. Hang on, who was that balding guy who'd joined them on guitar? None other than Bob Mould and as if I hadn't got enough of a nice surprise I was up on my feet and shouting along to the next song, a killer rendition of the second Husker Du single "In a Free Land." Torpor descended again as they left the stage and I occasionally managed to half take in a very fat man fronting Fucked Up who despite being loud and noisy couldn't keep me awake so I crashed.

Bands not heard: The Tyde, Le Volume Courbe, The Pastels, Spectrum, Lightning Bolt, Ariel Pink.

My Bloody Nightmare: Friday

2009-12-17T06:40:00.000-08:00

I ran into a band before I even got to Butlins. Ira and Georgia of Yo La Tengo were walking on the seafront. We talked about Dead C by the sea and they headed towards the town whilst I went to get my wristband. I ran into Josh Pearson on the way into the Pavillion and he asked me to tell him how the sound compared to Manchester. It seems he is of the opinion that the Ruby Lounge has a shitty PA!

The Wounded Knees were the first band on. They fortunately have nothing at all to do with the annoying Wounded Knee on Benbecula whose CD I bought for a quid in Vinyl Exchange. I call such things quidiscs. The Wounded Knees play hippy folk jam shtick with Harmony Rocket Suzanne Thorpe on flute. When the venerable bespectacled J Mascis sauntered out to guitar the last and longest number they revved up a notch from low key pleasantry to low key psychedelic frazzle rock. They were an easy way into the music day.

Josh Pearson and his drumming partner sounded much harder and clearer than they did in Manchester. Then again I wasn't standing directly in front of his amp. They hammered out Kashmir battery and My Bloody Valentine homage amongst the originals and moved the festival up a gear with angels and devils on their shoulders. Unfortunately I missed the start of his set due to getting lost looking for my chalet.

De La Soul were pure party fun on the pavillion. I've never been too bothered about listening to their records, leaning more towards a Public Enemy / Dalek rap attack than their lovey-dovey grooves. They got one side of the crowd set up in jocular opposition to the other, trying to get the left to out-party, sing along and wave more than the right. I left before the end to catch a bit of Sabbath metal from Witch, who I'd never heard before. J Mascis was on drums, slowly becoming the most ubiquitous musician on stage. I prefer Dinosaur Jr but Witch were a good contrast to De La Soul. J's friend Lee Ranaldo had been watching and as we walked downstairs to the Pavillion, I told him I'd listened to "Daydream Nation" on the bus into Minehead and it had made a great soundtrack. He shook my hand and then obliged three young Sonic Youth fans who asked him to be in a photo with them. On the bus I'd had a great Walkman synchronicity as I looked out the window to "Eric's Trip." From the old tape Lee sang, "There's something moving over there," and a flock of black sheep were running away from the vehicle.

Primal Scream were already cranking out some stadium soft rock on the Pavillion as I climbed the stairs to hear the vastly superior Yo La Tengo, a band I've seen many times. The first time they supported Screaming Trees in Camden with Seam opening. Tonight the set finished with that long song about sliding down a waterslide and the next day I'll try out a real waterslide for the first time. I can't say I enjoyed it really, certainly their song is a much more interesting experience, a relentless repetitive bassline over which Ira unleashes that gung-ho guitar fire that is my favourite component of the Yo La Tengo rock'n'roll funtime. As I left some girl opined that the bassist must get bored of the "Pass Me the Hatchet, I'm Goodkind" bass line, but I reckon James McNew enjoys getting into a no-mind repetition state with that one. They played a shorter set than their recent Manchester gig, and despite numerous heckles for an encore there was none since these guys don't have the massive ego of the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. They did however grant my friend Rico's wish to hear "Tom Courtenay" which was probably in the set anyway!

My Bloody Valentine started out with Kevin Shields ordering repeatedly that the PA be switched off so that he can work out what technical nightmare was bothering him. Eventually he apologised after a couple of songs for the vocals being inaudible, which is odd because I'm sure I could hear them! Maybe by this point I was hallucinating through sleep deprivation? Certainly as their set progressed building to the double whammy of "Feed Me With Your Kiss" and the lengthy noise onslaught they unleash in "You Made Me Realise" my brain slipped in and out of a hypnagogic state. My body felt on the point of collapse, yet the melodic noise kept me bouyant and upright, brain levitating ten feet up in the air. "Soon" and "Slow" were the most hypnotic songs of the weekend, with strobe lines pushing "Soon" way beyond the coy indie-dance incarnation that closes "Loveless" into a heavy headfuck that was infinitely better than crappy cash crop drugs farmed by slaves.

Ol' Bloody punk inspirations Buzzcocks played mostly greatest hits as usual and were a fun end to the first night. They still hate "Fast Cars" and hope they "Breakdown," but sped through almost every song from the first side of "Singles Going Steady" and a fair few off the flipside. "Noise Annoys" never seemed such an appropriate or inappropriate song for them to play, depending on your perspective, if you have any. Steve Diggle still dedicates "Autonomy" to the late inspirational Clash frontman Joe Strummer, which is a deserving epitaph for a freedom rocker. I was singing along way too loud and they made me realise that shouting 'woawoaw' is a good way to stay awake with a Harmony in Your Head.

Bands not heard: Television Personalities, Serena Manesh.

Nightmare Begins...

2009-12-15T08:15:00.000-08:00

In Manchester, Minehead and London during the first fifteen days of December I heard live music from more than sixty bands:

Pablo's Finest Hour
Anna Kashfi
The Gilded Palace of Sin
Josh T. Pearson (4 times)
Irma Vep
Gnod
A band whose name I forgot
Six Organs of Admittance (twice)
The Wounded Knees
De La Soul
Witch
Yo La Tengo
My Bloody Valentine (3 times)
Buzzcocks
Sonic Youth soundchecking
The Membranes
Sun Ra Arkestra
Harmony Rockets
That Petrol Emotion
J Mascis and the Fog (twice)
Sonic Youth
Robin Guthrie
No Age
No Age with Bob Mould
Fucked Up
Gemma Hayes
Lilys
A Place to Bury Strangers
Th'Faith Healers
Swervedriver
mum (twice)
The Dirty Three (4 times)
Lightning Bolt
The Robert Coyne Outfit
School of Seven Bells
Brightblack Morning Light
Fuck Buttons (twice)
Growing (twice)
Bardo Pond (twice)
Om (3 times)
Apse (twice)
Sleepy Sun (twice)
Polvo (twice)
Deerhoof (twice)
Alexander Tucker and Decomposed Orchestra
Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks
Yeah Yeah Yeahs
Tortoise
Papa M
Afrirampo
Shellac (twice)
Porn
Battles
Melvins
The Breeders
The Drones
The For Carnation
Sunn O))) (3 times)
The Magic Band
Mudhoney
Explosions in the Sky
Tall Firs

I enjoyed most of them.
I'll write about it later so that my old friend No One can read about it from his mercy seat.

27 Damn Ugly Rats Grip Ridiculous Nightmare

2009-12-01T05:59:00.000-08:00

When I was fifteen if you'd asked me who was my favourite band I'd have said the Stranglers. Back in the mid-eighties, home taping was killing music, but some people even bought cassettes full of half dead music. When I had about two dozen pre-recorded cassettes, ten of them were by the Stranglers and the first one I bought was "The Raven." I was also listening to Buzzcocks, Sex Pistols, The Clash, The Damned ("Phantasmagoria" was released on my fifteenth birthday), Killing Joke, Ultravox and baggy trousered schoolboy essentials Madness. "The Raven" threw me a bit as I'd only heard the brilliant pop hit "Duchess" back in 1979 on Noel Edmonds' Jukebox Jury TV show and no other songs on this experimental rock album were anywhere near as straightforward. Bizarrely the BBC banned the "Duchess" video for being blasphemous as the Stranglers dressed as choirboys in black shades and sang the song in a church, yet it was alright to show a still photo of the Stranglers dressed as choirboys singing in a church whilst the song played. The album intrigued me and grew, with songs about Vikings, dying cities, nuclear devestation, middle eastern dictators, malevolant alien farmers and gene manipulation - not the average lyrical subject matter. Next time I had enough special metal to buy some tapes I got their first two albums "Rattus Norvegicus" and "No More Heroes" on the same day, two albums full of lyrics my mother did not care for.

Hugh Cornwell left the Stranglers quite some time ago but he's kept on playing lots of Stranglers' songs. On this tour his trio were playing his latest album, the excellent "Hoover Dam" followed by every song from "Rattus Norvegicus." "Hoover Dam" is a full tilt power trio affair and the songs hit just as hard and catchy as his older ones. Album opener "Slow Boat to Trowbridge" switched places with penultimate cut "Wrong Side of the Tracks" so the gig opened with some Hendrix inspired guitar slinging. "Slow Boat" is the big rocker and feels better later in a live set when the crowd are well warmed up. Hugh does not like flashers at his gigs and there were notices up in a futile bid to stop all those annoying people who stick their cameras up in front of your face while you're trying to watch a band so they can post a crappy little film with diabolical tinny sound on You Tube. Best to keep the guitar flashy and not distract the guitarist with flashing - he might miss a fret and that makes him fret! He snatched a camera off one naughty man near the start of a song and kept on playing, banging on almost the same beat.

After a short break the three 'ells (Cornwell, bouncing bassist Caroline Campbell and rolling drummer Chris Bell) came back to their station to smack the shit out of "Sometimes." The first three songs were delivered faithfully, then Caroline sang "Princess of the Streets," giving JJ Burnel's lyrics an amusing lesbian twist. Back in '77 JJ shouted "Change it Hugh!" to usher in the guitar solo on the "Something Better Change" top ten smash hit and Hugh had got the urge to change "Rattus" arrangements. His delivery of the lyrics to "Hanging Around" was sped up, which didn't work as well, but the psychedelic arrangement of "Peaches" improved the ol' beach plodder no end. I was amused by the German tourists who'd started lurking on the beaches. "Grip" really got everyone going like strangers from another planet finding rock'n'roll to be the best thing the human race has to offer the universe and "Down in the Sewer" was epic and awesomely twisted. Most bands don't even bother to play as many as nineteen songs but Hugh had five more encore treats in store for the survivors! The almost chart topper "Golden Brown," a homage to Bob Dylan and a hint of what might be his next tour plan perhaps? The last couple of songs were the apocalyptic "Straighten Out" and "No More Heroes." I wouldn't be surprised if he played the whole of the second Stranglers album on the next tour, but you never know. The gig was so good that I spent thirty three quid on a divine invasion of Birmingham to repeat the experience the next day and had a ridiculous blast.

After Hugh's Manchester gig I jumped on a bus to Fuel and managed to catch a set by Leeds technoid duo Worried About Satan, soundtracking a French film "13" about an illegal Russian roulette ring. I missed Plank, but I've seen them more than any other band this year so it wasn't exactly the end of the world. Not yet, anyway...

Realizing a Lovely Sort of Death

2009-11-17T07:18:00.000-08:00

I am a guy who goes to shows. When I'm at home and I blow my nose I don't use magazines, I use the sink as it saves paper. I did give some magazines and CDs (Pascal Comelade, Slumberwood, AU and Illuminati) to Flaming Lips drummer Kliph at around 4pm and I hope they read them and listen to them before despoiling them with bodily fluids!
I was a man on a mission. Mine was to win if it killed them. I was going to get into the flaming Lips gig come HELL or high water. High water will drown Manchester in the near future as predicted by the late Ian Curtis; "Maybe drowning soon, this is the start of it all."

Contact had been made! A man in the theatre behind the Academy was enjoying an early evening drink with his two friends. I'd been around The Oxford and Big Hands asking everyone if they had a spare ticket for the gig. Back at temporary home base where I'd earlier dined on very spicy sweet potato soup, my mission was accomplished. I'd found a man with a spare ticket who was happy to sell it to me for twenty slowly deflating British pounds (what it had cost him).

The touts liked my skull mask and tried to take a photo of me, but they couldn't work their camera. They told me they were asking £40 for a ticket, more reasonable than internet ebay.con rip off merchants.

Inside a support band who might as well have been called Flaming Lips Jr had just come onstage. Roadies cleared up the slippery semen so Wayne's ball didn't slip in it. Is there much point in reviewing the gig when there is probably a cameraphone bootleg up the line already? I guess my favourite songs were "Convinced of the Hex" and "Yoshimi" where I hollered way too many hoo hoos. It has to be mentioned that "The Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Yeah Song" is a badrillion times more powerful live than the lacklustre album rendition, and Drozd's opus "Pompeii am Gotterdamerung" was a monstrous smoky apocalyptic epic. Last came "Do You Realise?" swollen way beyond embryonic gestation. There was lots of confetti and big balloons and Wayne did one song sat upon a gorilla, which doesn't happen at that many gigs I go to, although I'd go see the Fall again if Mark E Smith rode about on an elephant like Hannibal.

The most moving part of the gig was when they played "Evil" against a looped backdrop of a trapped monkey about to be tortured, endlessly repeating the moment in time that the racing scientist, working for the god of corporate financial gain, had to decide whether to perpetrate a foul deed or not. How many obese gluttons could be saved from diabetes by feeding mice less sugar? How many pigs should be shot to find out if lead bullets really are harmful to mammals? How many times would the torturer relive the moment when he could have decided not to squirt chemicals in a primate's eye so that some dumb bimbo can safely keep her hair blonde? Just like the guards on the trains to Aushwitz, maybe he was only doing his job?

Its a shame SJM cashbuckgigs used a venue that was smaller than the one the Lips played on their two previous visits to Interzone II. This meant people who wanted to go maybe couldn't. How many names were on the guestlist but didn't turn up? How many people bought tickets but didn't make it to the gig because their kitten had a seizure or their car exploded due to the terrorist threat? How many tickets were sold on the day they went on sale to moneygrubbing net nerds whose sole intention was to swell their coughers via ebay.con?

In the aftermath I found a posh computer phone and a packet of fags. As I don't smoke I gave the fags to my friends Helen and Kev (whose fine band Last Harbour you should check out if you like Nick Cave and Tom Waits). Outside the phone began to vibrate and we soon returned it to its owner and got a fiver for our HELLp. So I guess I can effectively knock the price of my ticket down to fifteen devalued quids.

November Noise

2009-11-17T07:16:00.000-08:00

Here are the new album releases from 2009 that I listened to and enjoyed for the first time in the month of November. Time is money, and with many CDs now selling for less than the cost of postage, there is no time.

MELT BANANA LITE Live Ver 0.0 (A-Zap) £12.99
This was advertised as being released on the ninth at a special low price of £9.99 by Piccadilly Records. I bought it there about a week earlier. This must be the only time I can remember an album coming out early. Maybe MxBx lite experiments are causing time anomalies? Time is money and it was still at a special low price, but now the special low price was £11.99. Martin short changed me by a quid, but I didn't care as Vinyl Exchange usually knock a couple of quid off my purchases so it all balances out. Maybe Piccadilly are charging a 'booking fee' on compact discs now? The only criticism that could be thrown at this brilliant band is that this live mutation is less than half an hour of sheer noisy bliss. This album therefore confirms the general theory of capitalist boredom that less time equals more money. Much better than that mediocre Sonic Youth album that everyone at Piccadilly Records was wanking themselves silly to.

CALIFONE All My Friends Are Funeral Singers (Dead Oceans) £10
I doubt they'll ever surpass the sheer majesty of "Roots and Crowns" but this is still superb and I've played it a hell of a lot. Vinyl Exchange had promos without the very nice cover for a mere four quid! Any journalist who sold this deserves a burning fag in the eyeball.

FLAMING LIPS Embryonic £7 plus £3 exchange on an Ivor Cutler CD
The twits at Pomona PR who inundate my inbox with information about boring bands I'm not interested in couldn't be bothered to spare me a paltry CDR despite sending an unrequested oversized scan of the cover, so I went to a shop and bought a long slowburner that could turn out to be the best Flaming Lips album since their "Zaireeka" zenith.

MUDHONEY Live at El Sol £6
Promo copy some asshole journalist who probably prefers dweeb Doherty or gay disco flogged for drug money. I got it so keep it outta your face. Bird flu? What's new?

EVANGELISTA Prince of Truth (Constellation) £6
Unopened promo, yet more proof that many music journalists should be shot when the revolution comes. Still, the poor dears need to fuel their addictions to smelly cash crops.

THE COURTESY GROUP Tradesman's Entrance FREE from Cargo
Promo sent to me by Cargo with Githead and my second copy of Mission of Burma's brilliant album. Sounds exactly like The Ex, only not as good. I've played it just once as of 13/11. One of these days I hope to play it again, but preferably not in Birmingham.

BLK JKS After Robots CDR 50p
I thought I'd check this South African quartet out as the blurb Ciaran sent before he put them on at the Mill was intriguing and a CDR promo was handily flogged to Vinyl Exchange for fuck all. They are quite original and good fun live.

DAVID CRONENBERG'S WIFE Hypnagogues CDR 50p
Yet another CDR promo that an idiot at the eNMEy didn't listen to. I have given it one spin as of 13/11 and rather enjoyed it.

ROBIN HITCHCOCK AND THE VENUS THREE Goodnight Oslo 20p
Robin and I have helped a landmine victim a little. Might be more use if we just blew up the factories that make the mines. This is pleasant, in a late night Radio Two kind of way. Peter Buck plays guitar, if you care about shit like that.

LOU BARLOW Goodnight Unknwn 20p
Way better than later Sebadoh or Folk Implosion, but not as great as the awesome Dinosaur Jr reformation, this promo remains the property of Domino Recording co, so I live in fear that Laurence Bell will break into my home to steal it back any day now. Lou has also helped a cripple buy a bowl of rice for a day. Thanks Mr Barlow!

FOOT VILLAGE Friendship Nation £10 vinyl!
Bought this from this manic four drum assault group from LA when they blasted the dust out of The Corner. If Laurence Bell tries to take it they'll kick his ass!

DIGITAL LEATHER Warm Brother FREE from Gold Star
CDR promo that I miraculously found enough time to listen to and didn't sell for 15p. I thought it sounded a bit like Pavement but not as good. Is that too many words for a review, editor?

ALLEN TOUSSAINT The Bright Mississippi 20p
More paltry help for landmine victims and a woogie boogie rest for my ears after a hard days Therapy? nostalgia.

JOKER'S DAUGHTER The Last Laugh 50p
Domino Recording Co. has the last laugh but gave it away. I paid half a quid for it and they think they still own it. What's up with that Mr Bell? You can have this one back if you must, but can I keep that nice Lou Barlow CD please? Bell is the law!

I have also been enjoying listening to older albums by Hot Snakes, Yo La Tengo, Oxbow, Bellini, Hugh Cornwell, Kinski, Frank Black, Beach House, Speck Mountain, Screaming Trees, Elvis Costello and the Imposters, The Fall, Jawbox, Jeffrey Lewis Crass covers, Dead C, Shipping News, Will Oldham, Philip Jeck, No Man, Kristin Hersh, Tanya Donelly, White Magic, Stiff Little Fingers, Therapy? and the Jesus Lizard, each costing between 20p and £15.

Winter Gigs in Manchester

2009-11-14T06:40:00.000-08:00

Do You Realise?
It is time for stormy weather!
Pickin' up a lot of empty coca cola cans and there sure are a lot of 'em round here!

15 Night Marchers - Night and Day
15 Tickly Feather - Smelly Retrobar
16 Flaming Lips SOLD OUT venue too small idiot promoter! Tickets going for £65 on ebay.con
17 Joe Lally / Serpentine Pad - Roadhouse
17 Ingo Vauk - Cross Street Chapel
19 Naomi Kashiwagi - Central Library FREE 8pm
19 Furthur (out there disco) - Star and Garter (Golden Lab)
19 Blood Moon - Roadhouse
20 Plank - Krobar
20 The Last Hedge w/Starless and Bible Black - Carlton Club
20 Day for Airstrikes - Roadhouse
21 Plank / Easter / The Marder - Roadhouse (Chairs Missing)
22 Gnod / Teeth of the Sea / Thoughtforms / Factory Star / Sandells - Islington Mill, Salford; 6pm
25 MayMing - Islington Mill
26 Factory Star - Kings Arms
27 Plank / Worried About Satan - Fuel (Bad Uncle); 9pm
27 Hugh Cornwell - Academy 3 (playing Rattus Norvegicus)
27 Volcano the Bear - Islington Mill
27 The Gilded Palace of Sin - Ruby Lounge FREE
28 Orange Goblin / Charger - Roadhouse
28 Cop Out / OK Pilot - Retrobar
28 Quartet from:Phil Marks (percussion)Stephen Grew (synth/keys)Maxwell Sterling (bass)Matthew Robinson (clarinent)
Trio from:Joshua Koperçek (piano)Rodrigo Constanzo (percusssion)David Birchall (guitar)
8pm @ Cross St. Chapel, Cross St, Manchester £4/£5
more info http://www.davidmbirchall.wordpress.com/
29 Drunk in Hell - The Corner
30 Campaign for Real Action on Climate Change social - Nexus
30 Nursing Home - Tiger Lounge (The Big Dig)

***December***
2 Josh Pearson / The Gilded Palace of Sin / Anna Kashfi - Ruby Lounge
2 Early Day miners / FTSE 100 - smelly Retrobar
3 Six Organs of Admittance / Gnod / Cyril Snear / Irma Vep - Islington Mill (Wotgodforgot)
6 Drunk in Hell / Sump / Klaus Kinski / Ergon Carousel - the Corner, Fallowfield, £5
7 J Mascis and the Fog - Moho
7 Battles £5 more than last time due to credit lunch promoter army inflation!
8 Sunn O))) / BJ Nilsen - Islington Mill (Lamb and Wolf) ...sold out!
8 Sleepy Sun / Serpentine Pad - Retrobar
9 Lightning Bolt / Tweak Bird - Islington Mill
10 Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks - Dead Institute; venue too small!?! Smaller venue means £5 extra on ticket price! Probably sold out unless promoter is useless!
10 Vuk / Denis Jones / Caro Snatch - Kings Arms
12 Nancy Elizabeth / Hannah Peel - St Margaret's Church, Whalley Range
12 Manchester Zap (lots of bands all dayer) - Islington Mill (Golden Lab)
15 Omar Puente & Martin Smith / Jazz & the Civil Rights Movement - Music Box
19 Stray Light / Serpentine Pad - Kings Arms, Salford
19 Plank - Deaf Institute (Chips with Everything)
20 Oi Polloi - Star and Garter
21 Hot Club de Paris / The Gateway District - Retrobar
22 Gideon Conn - Moho
26 Nursing Home / Easter - ?

£$£January$£$

16 The Stupids / Revenge of the Psychotronic Man - Retrobar, beach party;
bring your own sand.
20 Baroness - Islington Mill

Some Useful Websites:

http://www.islingtonmill.com/

http://www.myspace.com/badunclemusic

http://www.myspace.com/lambandwolf

http://www.myspace.com/wotgodforgot

http://www.myspace.com/goldenlabrecords

http://www.comfortableonatightrope.blogspot.com/

http://www.myspace.com/fat_out

http://www.myspace.com/realcollective

http://www.starandgarter.co.uk/

http://www.myspace.com/fuelcafebar

http://www.pineapplefolk.com/

http://www.roadhouse.co.uk/

"If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear."George Orwell, 1945

Daniel Johnston's Revolution; Thank You!

2009-11-11T07:43:00.000-08:00

Taking an uncomfortable seat on the end of a closely packed row in a spacious grandiose room in the ostentatious town hall, I tried to listen to Laura Marling. I was quite near the front and I could see her just fine; a blonde lady dressed in blue and grey, playing an acoustic guitar which I could hear. The words were more difficult to make out as a siren somewhere kept wailing. After about half her set of quiet folky songs, it finally aborted to lyrically reveal a man who didn't speak until judgement day. "I'll freak out and cut my hair, didn't grow back for a good few years," went another song.

It's funny that Manchester City Council can harrass people for listening to music in their own homes, legalising theft in order to fail to create 'respect,' yet when there is a gig in the town hall it isn't loud enough to obliterate ambient noise attack. Even more ironic is the fact that the City Council has attempted to shut down various venues due to noise complaints, but is powerless to stop real noise pollution from sirens and alarms that pollute the city with their vile US cop show howling. Some halfwit from the council told me there was nothing worse than hearing other people's music. I asked her if she would prefer to contract AIDS or have a nuclear bomb explode in Manchester, which flustered her greatly. I'd argue that stupid sirens interrupting music are worse too, especially in the hall of the body that tries to stop the music whilst hyping the city for its music scene, of which it is thankfully mostly ignorant. It turned out that the siren had been accidentally set off by Daniel Johnston's backing band the Wave Pictures who had arrived late in a hire van whose pointless alarm system was unfamilar to them.

Daniel Johnston came in alone and sang three songs of heartbreak, strumming a very small guitar in an idiosyncratic tuning. He put down the guitar and was joined by a friend who backed him on acoustic guitar. Without an instrument, Daniel's arms hung at his side, shaking as if they wanted to strum strings or hit keys. "Everybody's wearin' a frown, waitin' for Santa to come to town," was a funny line to hear in the bureaucratic building whose annual guilding was a silly inflatable Santa. Hell, they can't keep the streets clean, but they can put a fake fat old man on the roof! Daniel is also quite fat, and dressed in red but he didn't sport a fake beard as it might have obscured his heartfelt singing, and for twenty pounds on the door that wouldn't have done. Fortunately no sirens went off outside the inadequately soundproofed room, so Daniel could pay repeated homage to his heroes the Beatles: "Hey Jack! Get back!" Just before they split for a short break, they went the whole hog and played a John Lennon song, "Hide Your Love Away."

On returning, Daniel was joined by the Wave Pictures as backing band. He told us he'd had a dream about a guy sentenced to death for attempting to commit suicide, which seemed to me like the kind of idiotic law that council bureaucrats would be willing to enforce, as they are only doing their jobs after all, just like the guards on trains to death camps. He was not too bothered about promoting the new album as I think he only played one song from it. After stumbling over a "Bloody Rainbow" to find only more heartbreak he announced the song he assumed we all wanted to hear, a revved up and rockin' "Speeding Motorcycle." The Wave Pictures made a good backing band for him, with low key backing vocals, Jonathan Richman rock'n'roll restraint, and drums hit with brushes. The acoustic guitarist rejoined them towards the end, and they played another Beatles song, "Revolution." The best and loudest was almost last, a rock'roll redemption song where the Beatles don't just inspire the man, but save his very soul.

Everyone was clapping, not exactly going rock'n'roll wild as the venue bylaws probably wouldn't permit too much joyful abandon. Daniel graced us with his presence one more time, but seemed a little confused, thinking he was in a church and asking if it was a Catholic one. Someome set him straight, fortunately before the council could slap a Catholic Abatement Order on him and confiscate his Holy Water, and he announced a Christmas song. Alone again the way he came into our world, he left us with the wish that, "True Love Will Find You in the End."

The venue closest to the town hall is Tiger Lounge and Thank You, a trio on Thrill Jockey records, were playing there. I thought I could probably catch at least half their set but I was in luck, they hadn't even started when I descended into Manchester's most kitsch venue. FTSE 100 had supported but a body can't be in two places at once. Nate from Oxes was doing sound for Thank You and DJing by playing eighties chart hits at slow speed. I asked him if Oxes were still going and he told me that they were intending to make a new record but it was slow moving as he no longer lives in Baltimore. Thank You instantly revealed themselves as American by having manic rhythms nailed by a drummer wearing dungarees. The other guys played double guitars or double keyboards, to make a joyful racket. Sometimes they'd sing nonsense to raise the roof a bit higher. After all sense can't be made, it can only be sensed, as former Johnston Shimmy Disc labelmate John S. Hall once pronounced.

Halloween at The Mill

2009-11-11T07:42:00.000-08:00

Up on the fifth floor candles illuminated the pathway in, past an accelerated dark cloudy sky. Two men with hands for heads and big hard ons did battle before two portals into an illuminated cardboard universe where a couple of genetic mutations labelled 'mankind' stumbled clumsily onto a new world outside their primitive moonlander. A top secret saucer shaped 'UFO' had landed in a desert looking just like nothing on earth, lights flashing, get frequent now and then. An invasion of cardboard wings bursting from trash led by an insectoid being made of rope and light bulbs was defeated by the invocation of a flaming skull demon summoned by the tarot card death. No need to burn books when you can burn your family! Who makes the nazis?

Down the winding stairwell in the white room, Rachael Goodyear, face painted white and clothed in black, drew on the wall. Lee Patterson fed the sounds of pencil scrawl and sharpening from her wired wrist into an experimental ambient soundscape for two repressive time divisions humans call 'hours.' Rachael drew a disintegratiing skull with teeth wired in red thread; some black hooded clones of herself tethered to a fling seagull; another seagull perched upon a post to which her drawing wrist was also tethered, and a nude self portrait entangled in flowers. Lee made wine glasses hum, coaxed low key dissonance from numerous gadgets and reacted occasionally to peripheral clanks and shuffles in the room from the attentive observers. Occasionally he let silence fail to fall.

Rachael's wall drawings seemed highly narcissistic, which to unenlightened rationalists might be a negative trait. I'd argue that the narcissistic character asserts its own self-esteem and autonomy over repressive time dominated authority and its repressive control mechanisms, including mythical tales. The Greek youth Narcissus mutated into a beautiful flower, which reproduced its image repeatedly beyond one truncated lifetime. The last image on the white wall was a pink rose, still there days after the event was over.

Back up the stairs a five piece rock band known as Headless Check In blasted out a set of Misfits covers. They dressed as the undead and brought a small posse of dancing fans who were to follow them howling into the night as they journeyed through the Mancunian underworld on a quest to play five gigs in five different locations on one night.

In the big gig room DJs got the gathering throng dancing. Zombies, skeletons, a lady with a knife in her head who'd gouged away her Bad Uncle's eyeball, pervy bishops and The Lord of Darkness himself pranced and cavorted to Gang Gang Dance and other dance.

Beyond the smoking yard in the room that was once home to the Ting Tings, a cafe served tapas and warm grog. Gnod body Paddy, in full Arab Sheikh regalia, and Fliss of Golden Lab had a dansette to spin some tunes and Gnod themselves played a severely Butthole Surfer damaged psyche barrage in quartet formation. Despite his guitar amp dying in a bid to lie in the graveyard, Paddy jabbered some garbled gibberish over a two bass pileup and stand up drums battered by a mummy in shades. It was a just a shame they didn't play a bit longer, but nevermind, London beat combo The Oscillation soon cranked out more loud psyche rock in the big gig room, as the place filled up with booze guzzling children of the night. The sun came up and still the music played, in eternal denial of the tyranny of the clock, which had broken because some trickster had poured lager slops over it.

25-26 Magik Therapy 369

2009-10-30T07:33:00.000-07:00

Improvisers who play with themselves run the risk of disappearing up their own arses. Infinite Light was infinitely better improvising with a couple of other musicians at a Rowf Rowf Rowf night than he is alone. Barry plays guitar and yelps. It's a hell of a lot less abrasive than his old band Stuckometer but has similar lack of mass appeal, which is a good thing. He turns sideways from the sparse audience most of the time, and makes noodly runs of a more melodic and spacious bent than his former quartet who operated sporadically in his absence. His singing is cosmically comical, like a castrato choirboy sobbing wordless disgust at the butchery perpetrated upon his gonads.

There are no words in A Wake, just two lovers in a guitar fuck. They walk off stage early and turn their backs on the still sparse audience, presumably to check everything is sounding alright. Nick and Fliss run Golden Lab Recordings, perhaps the longest running underground gig promoters in Manchester? Now they're burning up time with feedback and fret worry. They start out noisy but it gels latterly when Fliss hits repetition and Nick starts blasting out a scorching Neil Young style solo. But who died this time?

A few more people have turned up during their set, including a friend who tells me he only heard the gig was happening when he looked at the Drag City website to check Six Organs of Admittance tour dates. I knew about it because Nita who does PR for Magik Markers sends me gig list emails. Perhaps there would have been a few more bodies in The Mill if promoters Lamb and Wolf had made a few flyers and posters and bothered to run an email list as opposed to just relying on Rupert Murdoch to give them free advertising? The first time Magik Markers played in Manchester, at a house in Levenshulme, there were so many people crammed in it seemed like the floor would collapse. I think only half a dozen people who attended that gig also turned up at this one. This time I could drag an armchair to the middle of the Mill and get an unobstructed view.

The Magik trio start out with a long dirgey song that I've never heard before. Their music lurks in the shadow of Sonic Youth, who love them. Elisa sings off key, but not as annoyingly as Kim Gordon sometimes does; a bit cutesy and a bit whiny, but not excessively so. She plays some satisfyingly scarifying guitar scrunch, throwing skinny shapes. I didn't recognise much of the music, so I guess they've already left their recent "Balf Quarry" album behind in favour of new noise. They're too cool to encore, like a lot of other smaller bands who don't seem to play for long enough after travelling half way around the world. I know if I went to another continent I'd want to play at least an hour of music. Why not just play all day?

The next day I went to see Therapy? at Club Academy. Ticket price was twice that of Magik Markers, but set was about twice as long and they were a hell of a lot more fun. This was the first time I'd seen them since their "Troublegum" album tours, so it was a nice surprise that they played a lot of old favourites. Opening with "Punishment Kiss" and "Meat Abstract" from their first and best record "Babyteeth" was a fine blast of sonic freedom. Andy Cairns and Michael McKeegan still bounce about with the energy of screamagers, and the songs from the new album "Crooked Timber" held up well against the likes of "Fantasy Bag," "Nausea," "Turn," "Opal Mantra" and "Innocent X." After their merry metal cover of Joy Division's "Isolation" I got in a heckle when Michael asked how everyone was feeling. It brought a smile to his face when I shouted, "I feel it closing in!" (a lyric to "Digital" by Joy Division, understand?). Now that they'd made us happy, Therapy? were themselves happy to play an encore and I wasn't too surprised to hear "Potato Junkie" again, with everyone shouting "James Joyce is fuckin' my sister!" like the nineties revival happened yesterday. Inevitably "Teethgrinder" came out to play, and I was wearing the Teethgrinder T-shirt Andy gave me years ago. A fan told me these shirts go for quite a bit on ebay, so hats off to the insane! Ticket number 369 in the raffle won nothing but a good night out.

Killing Joke Ignite Rebellion!

2009-10-29T07:17:00.001-07:00

Blackpool is only an hour away by train, and I've been all the way to Berlin to see Killing Joke, so you can bet your primitive blood I'd be at the last day of the Rebellion punk rock festival. Credit to the organisers, it seemed the most well organised rock festival I've ever been to. There were six stages in five rooms at Wintergardens, which synchronously is the best song from Killing Joke's 1986 album "Brighter Than A Thousand Suns." They didn't play that song but to the best of my recollection they did play sixteen better ones:

Requiem, Wardance, Change, Primitive, Turn to Red, Madness (deadicated to our beloved hyper-hypocrite Mr Blair the peaceful warmonger), Love Like Blood, Eighties, Unspeakable, Fresh Fever From the Skies, The Wait, pSSyche, Pandemonium and then an unrehearsed encore...

It was one of the shortest sets I've seen Killing Joke play, but their selection of songs was brilliant, compact and immensely intense. This is one of those rare bands where my rational mind switches off and the whole event becomes pure experience. That happened when they kicked into Change. Wire can also get me there, but I suspect they'd be wary of playing Rebellion, maybe dismissive of a retro element? I was applauding by clapping out the drum part of The Fall of Because and what did they start the encore with? The Fall of Because! Tension & Complications ended the long day.

The next morning the sky turned grey over Blackpool. The backfiring Empire took its heaviest casualty toll since June in the illegal Iraqi oil war and a Taliban leader killed by remote control rose from the dead just like the baby Jesus. The other Rebellion bands I heard couldn't help but seem like supports. UK Decay had a great guitar sound, and would actually make a good opener for Killing Joke should they deign to grace us with a proper UK tour like back in the Raven days (RIP). I could have done without the singer's overblown bombast, but he seemed like a good bloke. The Dickies played the same stage before the Joke and as a warm up were a bit of mindless fun, until they threw in a surprise cover of Neil Young's "Rockin' in the Free World." I could just imagine Jaz Coleman taking issue with the concept of our world being free, but instead he chose to rant about UFO conspiracies before new song Fresh Fever, triggering some get-on-with-it glares off Geordie. "I have it on good authority," he announced before Wardance, "That Israel will bomb Tehran before Christmas, so lets celebrate!" The Stupids were slammin' fun, the King Blues engaged in energetic anti-BNP folk rock, Aggrolites played laid back reggae grooves, and Chron Gen sounded way less hardcore than I remembered. It was nice to meet up with some old friends and have a chat to a backdrop of the Casual Terrorist playing an acoustic "Banned from the Roxy." No one bothered to tell him that the Roxy closed down years ago, before talibash beat combo O'Summer Bin Liner and the Headless Group Four Skins could drop some hits.

Best songs heard loud over PA between bands:
Ramones - Teenage Lobotomy
Buzzcocks - Moving Away From The Pulsebeat
The Ruts - Jah War

The chilli, rice and chips was way nicer than I expected it to be! Why the hell can't they get just one edible vegan gluten free meal on the menu at All Tomorrow's Parties?

First Law of Joke gigs:
Always stand on the Geordie side to get the full on guitar blast!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vgSUwqDnmFM

Funny Money

2009-10-29T06:46:00.000-07:00

Suggested soundtrack to read this to:
"Money is Not Our God"
"Age of Greed"
"Dark Forces" by KILLING JOKE
"Silk Skin Paws" by WIRE
"Party 'til the World Obeys" by MEAT PUPPETS

MONEY does not exist. It is just convenient to pretend it does living in Europe as human beings approach a greater evolutionary leap than the invention of the wheel. However money can buy food and fun if you have any, unlike the boring British economy which is running on empty at the point of collapse. I thought I might as well make the Euro work for me last year. It was obvious the pound was going to fall relative to the Euro, so I changed a lot of my British money to the European version. I was right and made about twenty pence on every pound I swapped, which is a hell of a lot better than the pathetic interest rates the bank misers are paying to the savers who maintain these corrupt corporations. By removing money from the British banks it was also a tiny little protest against the illegal Middle East wars started by that moral hypocrite Tory Bliar, who should really be on trial for war crimes and not eligible to run for president of Europe.

TESCO are like a cancer on the face of the Earth, epitomising the all consuming problem of capitalism; expansion at any cost until the point of collapse. Their link cash machines currently donate an unspecified amount of money to a muscular dystrophy charity, so each time you withdraw cash its a good idea to make several withdrawals of ten pounds so the charity gets more from the wheat infested supermarket bulldozers. Reason to hate Tesco: the way they get away with building more and more boring standardised shops and pushing smaller more interesting food sellers out of the areas they've served well for longer, despite massive opposition from local people.

http://www.tescopoly.org/

http://www.keepchorltoninteresting.org/

Another funny thing to do with a credit card is go to some big supermarket and buy a single piece of fruit or vegetable that costs less than the 17p they have to pay to Visa every time a customer uses a card. If everyone who hates the business practises of Asda, Tesco and Sainsburys did this it would be much funnier. Supermarkets pass money to unnecessary credit card middlemen who get more of it than the farmers who grow the vegetables.

VISA are parasites worse than politicians. Whilst the inept banks have caused massive problems by playing markets like casinos, and the government pours money into them so that they can keep on paying themselves obscene wages of death, they have slashed interest rates for savers to nothing but not reduced the interest on credit cards. They are also a minor annoyance in shops as credit cards nearly always take longer then cash transactions. Since the tired joke of capitalism is probably going to implode in the next few years, everyone might as well borrow as much as possible. After all that's how the Scotsman Alistair Eyebrows has been running the British economy. Might as well go out in debt when we revert to a primitive society or a cyber utopia free of the vile cancer of monetary CONtrol.

How much longer?

Rocktober Records

2009-10-29T06:44:00.000-07:00

In approximate order of number of plays / preference, here are the new releases I've been listening to in October and recommend as worthwhile:

Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medecine - The Audacity of Hype
Mission of Burma - The Sound The Speed The Light
Big Sexy Noise - Big Sexy Noise
Tortoise and Colin Newman - Radio 3 Late Junction Session
Dalek - Gutter Tactics
Therapy? - Crooked Timber
Yo La Tengo - Popular Songs
Alice Donut - Ten Glorious Animals
Charles Hayward - About
Githead - Landing
TV Smith - Live in Germany
Daniel Johnston - Is and Always Was
Lisa Germano - Magic Neighbor
OOIOO - Armonica Hewa
Lightning Bolt - Earthly Delights
Akimbo - Jersey Shores
Vowels - The Pattern Prism
Chuck Prophet - Let Freedom Ring
Mark Eitzel - Klamath
Ben Frost - By the Throat

Two Reissues and Two Oldies:

Magazine - Play + (adds two songs to original album and a superior Manchester gig with the late John McGeoch on guitar)

Subhumans - Death Was Too Kind (Canadian Subhumans, not Dick's merry Melksham men)

Giant Sand - Goods and Services (50p in Sierra Leone landmine victim aid charity shop - not much consolation after your arms and legs have been blown off. We should change the law so that the immoral British corporate CEOs who make parts for these mines are obliged to personally test them before export and show it live on reality TV)

The Book of Life - Hal Hartley film soundtrack with two songs each by PJ Harvey and Yo La Tengo, and most of the rest is alright. So that's a quid to feed bureaucracy that might seep into the wounds of landmine cripples, victims of greedy capitalist scum.

Eleventh Commandment: Do unto CEOs of landmine manufacturers as they have done to countless foreign farmers.

Wire en Espagna

2009-10-29T06:42:00.000-07:00

Joy Madrid Setlist (October the Eighth)

Our Time
Mr Marx's Table
Comet
Being Sucked in Again
Perspex Icon
Mekon Headman
Advantage in Height
The Agfers of Kodack
Silk Skin Paws
All Fours
One of Us
Boiling Boy
The Fifteenth
106 Beats That I Don't Understand

Here they are again: He Knows Pink Flag

And again! Lowdown Underwater Experiences
12XU

There was no time for the second encore in El Puerto de Santa Maria (The Ninth), but they segued He Knows skyward into a spectacular Pink Flag with Venus and Orion overhead. Lowdown was not there in Apolo, Barcelona (The Seventh).

The players:
Colin Newman: singing, "moronic" guitar, silly dances, loops
Graham Lewis: bass, metaphor, emotion, flag sirens
Robert Grey: heartbeat, will live
Margaret Fiedler: fast guitar

*Dislocated Memories of Three Wirecidents*

1. Graham Lewis' bass strap breaking during the first song in Barcelona as he stood up to the mic to sing. He battled on to the end of "Our Time" and then called for gaffer tape. It was described by Colin: "This is what we in Wire call a 'strapcident.' I can't believe I just said that!" As Lewis repaired his instrument Colin informed the Catalonian audience in English that they were witnessing a very private moment. "This is proof that god does not exist!"

2. A short conversation with Graham Lewis before the Barcelona performance, in which he informed me that this was the third time they'd played in the city and that Brian Eno had turned up to see them last time. He also opined that the sound upstairs in Apolo was not very good. I had no problem with Apolo sound, but the other two gigs sounded better.

3. The way "Advantage in Height" always gets the young Europeans moving and grooving and looking a hell of a lot nicer than the ubiquitous overweight middle aged men who come to Wire gigs in Uncool Britannia.

4. Before encore in Barcelona, Graham said, "Life is a STRANGE THING, TWENTY YEARS AGO I almost came to live in this city." I was standing nearby and informed him that he'd just used Buzzcocks and Magazine song titles in the same sentence. He replied, "I'll tell Howard when I see him."

5. "One of Us" finally coming together after some relatively ropey renditions in Belgium, Tilburg and Strasbourg on the last Euro tour. The song sounds so much better played live now, with loops that aren't on the studio version, that they should just rerecord a full band version. In fact all of the more recent songs were much stronger than on the last tour.

6. An incredibly fast and violent "Underwater Experiences" near the end of the Madrid onslaught. The backdrop in Joy had a mock Catholic pseudo religious look to it, and I pointed it out to Graham after the gig as he'd been introducing the song as an attack on Catholic guilt, to bemused looks from Colin. This is Wire's one weakness; on angry songs Colin is just acting, unsure what he's supposed to be angry about! He usually pulls off a good act.

7. Listening to "Send" on tape during train ride into El Puerto de Santa Maria. As I stepped off the train, "99.9" ground to a slowed halt as the batteries died.

8. Colin Newman's hilarious dancing to Kraftwerk as Wire set up on stage in a grand monastery open to the clear night sky, after Silver Apples set had been cut short by technical difficulties. I doubt I'll ever see Wire in a nicer venue than this illuminated monastery close to Africa, where the people are more free from the shackles of the repressive illusion of time.

9. Lewis berating the monastery lighting man twice for putting on a stunning display at odds with the aesthetic Wire wish to make a noise with. Newman then requesting that they stop the smelly meat barbecue until Wire finish their set.

10. Lewis deadicating streamlined "Silk Skin Paws" to bankers with no morals, to which I heckled, "Hang 'em high!"

11. Extended renditions of "The Agfers of Kodack" and "I Don't Understand Spanish, People" in Joy, becoming more monstrous the next day under the stars, where I shouted some backing IDUs from the floor; avert your gaze. A beady Lewis eye on me in Madrid during "I Don't Understand" in Madrid. Ha!

12. Graham Lewis howling, "Hypnotised!" to the vivid constellations during the most emotive "He Knows" I've witnessed in El Puerto de Santa Maria.

13. This number is considered unlucky by superstitious British so I'll deadicate it to the hideous retards of the BNP. If that's what the master racelooks like then Colin is right: no way does god exist!

14. Madrid and Santa Maria blessed with the best "Pink Flag" onslaughts I have heard and they've played that number at every gig I've heard them do. How many aren't?

15. 66.6 Pulsating Venus on my sonar, visible above Wire in El Puerto de Santa Maria as the witching hour approached. 66.6

Are you hot?
There's More to Come...

2008

2009-10-23T05:46:00.000-07:00

I might well have forgotten something, but these are the albums I liked a lot in 2008. These are in very approximate order of how much I listened to them.The first five got played a hell of a lot!

Thalia Zedek Band - Liars and Prayers
Wire - Object 47
The New Year - The New Year
Mudhoney - The Lucky Ones
Philip Jeck - Sand
Retribution Gospel Choir - Retribution Gospel Choir
The Human Bell - The Human Bell
Audrey - The Fierce and the Longing
Black Francis - Svn Fngrs
Mogwai - The Hawk is Howling
Chris Brokaw - Canaris
Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds - Dig, Lazarus, Dig!
Nisennenmondai - Neji / Tori
Yaneka - Roots
Bilge Pump - Rupert the Sky
Einsturzende Neubauten - The Jewels
Hugh Cornwell - Hooverdam
Giant Sand - Provisions
Calexico - Carried to Dust
Last Harbour - Dead Fires and the Lonely Spark
The Sontaran Experiment - The Sontaran Experiment
Moha! - One-Way Ticket to Candyland
Emily Jane White - Dark Undercoat
Polysics - We Ate the Machine
Radar Brothers - Auditorium
Nemeth - Film
The Fall - Imperial Wax Solvent
Gang Gang Dance - Saint Dymphna
Ocean - Pantheon of the Lesser
Mark Stewart - Edit
Dan Friel - Ghost Town
Volition - Volition
Laymar - In Strange Lines and Obstacles
Dimension X - Dimension X
Wildbirds and Peacedrums - Heartcore
Kasai Allstars - In the 7th Moon...
Stephen Malkmus - Real Emotional Trash
Alexander Tucker - Portal

Split Albums
Arbouretum / Pontiack - Kale
The Network / Throats - Notes from the Turncoat Campaign

Reissues / Compilations
Killing Joke - Peel Sessions
Mudhoney - Superfuzz Bigmuff
Loop - Fade Out
Loop - Heaven's End
Pavement - Brighten the Corners
Robert Wyatt - lots of albums!
Pascal Comelade - The No Dancing
Hanne Hukkelberg - Little Things
Jack Rose - Dr Ragtime and Pals
Liquid Liquid - Slip in and Out of Phenomenon

Live Recordings
Killing Joke - Duende
Killing Joke - Live at the Forum Part 1
Killing Joke - Live at the Forum Part 2
Butthole Surfers - Live at the Forum
Tara Jane O'Neil - Tour CDR
Acid Mothers Temple and the Cosmic Inferno - Hotter than Inferno Live in Sapporo 2008

Autumn Gigs in Manchester and Salford

2009-10-21T07:01:00.000-07:00

This is a list of gigs that I consider to be worth listening to, happening in the city of Manchester where the council does it's best to harrass venues for making a noise and then hypes it as Britain's most vibrant music metropolis. They'd be better off clearing up all the discarded aluminium that corporations wasted on packaging toxic sugar drinks as aluminium will soon run out unless an asteroid made of the metal hits the planet!

*Last Days of October*

22 Samson and Delilah - Sacred Trinity Church, Salford
23 Serpentine Pad / Boanthrope - Fuel (Bad Uncle)
23 Mico / Worried About Satan - Kings Arms, Salford
23 Tinariwen - Academy
23 Plank - Blowout
24 James Yorkston / Mary Hampton - Night and Day
25 Magik Markers / A Wake / Infinite Light - Islington Mill, Salford (Lamb and Wolf)
26 Therapy? - Academy 3
27 Isis / Mothlite - Academy 3 (Lamb and Wolf)
27 Eli Keszler / Usurper / A Wake - Islington Mill
29 Lemur - St Philips Church, Salford
29 Levenshulme Bicycle Orchestra - Green Room (Vaudeville)
31 HALLOWEEN If you need me to tell you what to do you probably need a
SECOND LIFE even more than a chilled American bore in exile! 66.6

**November**

2 BLK JkS - Islington Mill (Wotgodforgot)
3 Daniel Johnston - The Town Hall
3 Thank You - Tiger Lounge (Lamb and Wolf)
5 Freezing Fog / Boanthrope / Shield Your Eyes - Retrobar (Fat Out)
5 Mark Eitzel - St Margarets Church on The Range
6 Danny Saul - Nexus
7 Yo La Tengo - Academy SOLD OUT
8 Electro Zombies / Lazarus Blackstar / Gruel / Light Trap / Lies…all Lies / Pine Barrens
Doors 4pm - The Star & Garter, Fairfield Street, Manchester
(should be around £5/6)
9 Plank - Dead Institute
9 Foot Village / Silk Flowers / Klaus Kinski - The Corner
10 Oxbow / Ox Scapula - Star and Garter (Lamb and Wolf)
11 The Fall - Moho
12 The Drones / Easter - Night and Day - CANCELLED due to pneumonia
12 Speck Mountain - Dulcimer
15 Night Marchers - Night and Day
15 Tickly Feather - Smelly Retrobar
16 Flaming Lips SOLD OUT venue too small idiot promoter!
17 Joe Lally - Roadhouse
19 Furthur (out there disco) - Star and Garter (Golden Lab)
20 Plank - Krobar
20 The Last Hedge w/Starless and Bible Black - Carlton Club
21 Plank / Easter / Day for Airstrikes - Roadhouse (Chairs Missing)
22 Gnod / Teeth of the Sea / Sandells - Islington Mill, Salford
25 MayMing - Islington Mill
27 Plank / Worried About Satan - Fuel (Bad Uncle)
27 Hugh Cornwell - Academy 3 (playing Rattus Norvegicus)
27 Volcano the Bear - Islington Mill
28 Cop Out / OK Pilot - smelly Retrobar
28 Quartet from:Phil Marks (percussion)Stephen Grew (synth/keys)Maxwell Sterling (bass)Matthew Robinson (clarinent)
Trio from:Joshua Koperçek (piano)Rodrigo Constanzo (percusssion)David Birchall (guitar)
8pm @ Cross St. Chapel, Cross St, Manchester £4/£5more info http://www.davidmbirchall.wordpress.com/

30 Nursing Home - Tiger Lounge (The Big Dig)

***December***

2 Josh Pearson / The Gilded Palace of Sin / Anna Kashfi - Ruby Lounge
2 Early Day miners / FTSE 100 - smelly Retrobar
3 Six Organs of Admittance / Irma Vep - Islington Mill (Wotgodforgot)
6 Drunk in Hell / Sump / Klaus Kinski / the ergon carousel - the corner fallowfield, £5
7 J Mascis and the Fog - Moho
7 Battles £5 more than last time due to credit lunch promoter army inflation!
8 Sunn O))) / BJ Nilsen - Islington Mill (Lamb and Wolf)
9 Lightning Bolt - Islington Mill
10 Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks - Dead Institute; venue too small!?! Smaller venue means £5 extra on ticket price!
10 Vuk / Denis Jones / Caro Snatch - Kings Arms
12 Nancy Elizabeth / Hannah Peel - St Margaret's Church
12 Manchester Zap (lots of bands) - Islington Mill (Golden Lab)
20 Oi Polloi - Star and Garter
21 Hot Club de Paris / The Gateway District - Retrobar

Some Useful Websites:

http://www.islingtonmill.com/

http://www.myspace.com/badunclemusic

http://www.myspace.com/lambandwolf

http://www.myspace.com/wotgodforgot

http://www.myspace.com/goldenlabrecords

http://www.comfortableonatightrope.blogspot.com/

"If liberty means anything at all, it means the right to tell people what they do not want to hear."
George Orwell, 1945

Album Reviews

2009-10-21T06:45:00.000-07:00

NANCY ELIZABETH 'WROUGHT IRON' (LEAF)
Isolated in Spain to hammer her new songs into shape, Nancy Elizabeth chanced upon an old piano in an abandoned schoolhouse, and that instrument forms the backbone of many of the songs on her second album. There are also guitar based songs, but these are more spartan than before, and some are so personal that it'd be embarrassing to ask about the lyrics. One of the most striking live is "Feet of Courage" with little more than a chair and hand shaker as percussion to back the sweet hopeful vocal. Future folk or timeless songwriting? Doesn't matter as long as she keeps making albums this fine.

PART CHIMP 'THRILLER' (ROCK ACTION)
Despite throwing a curveball with the opener "Trad" which sounds like seventies classic rock in a blender, Part Chimp still guarantee a rampaging onslaught akin to a lumbering behemoth levelling every skyscraper in its path. Maybe the chaos has been reigned in a little but this is still rock heavy enough to destabilize orbital axes of smaller heavenly bodies. If you like heaviness minus those wailing metal singers that tend to spoil it all, Part Chimp are just the ticket. Michael Jackson's ghost is rumoured to be in litigation.

SOULSAVERS 'BROKEN' (V2)
Mark Lanegan croons like he's lived seven lives of hopeless heartbreak and smoked himself to oblivion each time. Soulsavers soundtrack a widescreen diamond desert roadtrip, the perfect path for him to escape ringing death bells. Yet more remarkable, Australian singer Rosa Agostino almost upstages Lanegan towards the end of the trip, after bombarding Soulsavers lynchpin Rich Machin with demos. Gibby Haynes, Jason Pierce, Richard Hawley, Mike Patton are less noticable audible visitors. Will Oldham leaves a heavier footprint with a desperate lyric, delivered with suitable intensity by Lanegan. Could this turn out to be the best album of the latter half of the year? BH

SAMSON AND DELILAH 'SAMSON AND DELILAH' (LITTLE RED RABBIT)
Samson and Delilah are a duo familiar to me as part of the larger Last Harbour ensemble. Set free, they play timeless folk influenced by John Martyn, Sigur Ros and Leonard Cohen. Sometimes, as on opening song "Crystallised Sand," there's a hypnotic atmosphere courtesy of subtle drones, and they're even bold enough to sing unaccompanied. Guitars, bells and woodwind were recorded in the church where this Australian / Somerset born couple were wed, which doubtless adds to the devotional air. "Dreams of Yesterday" is the most hopeful song I've heard in a long while. Now expanded to a quintet with flute, double bass and drums, they'll be touring England through the latter half of October.

THE GILDED PALACE OF SIN 'YOU BREAK OUR HEARTS, WE'LL TEAR YOURS OUT' (CENTRAL CONTROL)
I first entered the Palace of Sin on my birthday when they supported Magazine in Sheffield. It's easy to see why Magazine bassist Barry Adamson released their album on his label. He used to be one of Nick Cave's Bad Seeds and the Gilded Palace is drenched in a similar southern gothic downpour of burden. This is an eclectic yet cohesive set, swinging from the moody opener setting a scene of escape, to the tale of a free moving immigrant "Rosa Salvaje," to the highlight of their live set, the lumbering story of a wife murdering psycho "Mean Old Jack," that recalls The Fall. Best of all is the menacing "There is No Evil, There is No Good," a song that builds a momentum suggestive of impending disaster, yet seems liberated by it.

DIETER MOEBIUS 'KRAM' (KLANGBAD)
At sundown drunken clowns hijacked a merry-go-round in the possibly misguided belief that it could be converted into an interstellar rocket ship. Earlier that day an old German geezer made another record that every trendy bod who digs Kraftwerk really should check out. Former Cluster classics echo through this motorik pulsebeat, yet it sounds timeless in its technoid deviance. A master of rhythm and melody, Moebius creates an atmosphere of jovial oddity that is at once familiar yet alien.

DANIEL JOHNSTON 'WELCOME TO MY WORLD' (FERALTONE)
One man with the chord organ blues, who sings of heartbreak and hope, lovelorn losers and friendly ghosts, Daniel Johnston is a rare performer who deserves to be described as genius. Quite simply he is the only songwriter I've ever heard who can make me laugh and cry in the space of one verse of the same song. He's also written the third funniest song about masturbation ever to spurt into these ears. If you've never checked out his music this is a good starting place, and if you want more of his lo-fi light you'll want to know that three early albums have also been remastered and reissued on two more CDs in nice digipacks with posters and sleevenotes. BH

SLUMBERWOOD 'YAWLING NIGHT SONGS' (A SILENT PLACE)
This North Italian collective know experimentation doesn't preclude melody. Whilst Coil and This Heat are influences, their gabbling jams sound more like seventies Faust. Upbeat harmonica hoedown sits snugly alongside pastoral acoustic passages. Gurgling out of Padova with enough atmosphere for a new world free from politicians and bankers, they don't quite send the weirdometer off the scale, but come closer than anything else I've reviewed here! BH

PISSED JEANS 'KING OF JEANS' (SUB POP)
Did you spill their pints? This is the kind of grunge that Sub Pop was initially famed for unleashing upon the world. Unlikely they'll upstage the likes of Mudhoney and Nirvana, but these Australians unleash an unholy racket that probably makes a lot more sense in a stinking sweatpit with all the amps past eleven. This sounds way more grimy than the music they call grime these days. Dopey neighbours hate it, they want gay disco!

NISENNENMONDAI 'NEJI / TORI' (SMALLTOWN SUPERJAZZZ)
This female trio from Tokyo have conveniently titled three of their essential motorik jams 'Pop Group,' 'This Heat' and 'Sonic Youth.' Add Neu, Boredoms and touch of no wave noise attitude and you have a good set of reference points. They scream a little but mostly kick and clatter, jagged and relentlessly propulsive. When they played Trof in late July I was astonished at the original way they attacked their instruments. This is probably the best new band I've heard in 2008.

YANEKA 'ROOTS' (YANEKA)
It's always a treat to hear musicians you've never heard before and be blown away by their majestic originality. Yaneka are a brother and sister from Japan. Koji plays acoustic guitar and sets up rhythmic delay loops by tapping its wooden body. Yoko dresses to kill Nipponese style, dances beautifully and sings beguiling melodies. This is emotive music unlike anything else I've ever heard, but maybe I am just ignorant of its roots?

CALEXICO 'CARRIED TO DUST' (CITY SLANG)
You're always guaranteed sun-scorched wonder from Calexico. The politicised 'Garden Ruin' might've been their best album, so it's a surprise that they've stripped down to the core duo here, bringing in collaborators one at a time as required. I wouldn't have guessed without reading the press release, but this is a dreamlike impression of a writer on a roadtrip east from LA who eventually ends up in Russia via abandoned New Orleans streets and a toxic lake of mobile phones. But is the dust he carries radioactive?

GIANT SAND 'PROVISIONS' (YEP ROC)
Howe Gelb has brewed up more albums than I can count on my fingers, but this is the first time in four years he's returned to the yippity happenstance of Giant Sand. No gospel choir this time 'round, but he's found three able Danish musicians who know the twang's the thang. Good buddies Neko Case, Isobell Campbell and M. Ward drop by to join in the Arizona hoedown, salute the can do girl and pay homage to PJ Harvey's 'Desperate Kingdom of Love' at the end of this burning world.

EMILY JANE WHITE 'DARK UNDERCOAT' (TALITRES)
The great thing about getting sent free CDs to review is the rare occasion when something I never heard before sounds truly awesome. San Francisco based Emily Jane does nothing radical or original, but with little else other than guitar or piano to back her husky croon she pulls off the singer songwriter trick so well that comparisons to Catpower, however accurate, seem almost a slight. This jazzy folk melancholia lady is going to be huge or I'm a fascist agent of the CIA who kills cats in Satanic rituals.

ORIGINAL SILENCE 'THE SECOND ORIGINAL SILENCE' (SMALLTOWN SUPERJAZZZ)
Thurston Moore can always be relied on to release tons of improv jams between Sonic Youth albums. Some are much more worthwhile than others and this is one of the best I've heard. It's good to have a full on free noise-jazz-spazz onslaught to recommend highly after all the nice singer songwriter types. Saxophonist Mats Gustafsson, who assembled the six strong ensemble, reckons free jazz and pre-punk are all the same. QED this kick ass shit is way punker than weak retro shite like the Libertines and all their crummy spawn.

MERCURY REV 'SNOWFLAKE MIDNIGHT' (V2)
"Snowflake in a hot world, you're changing," sings Jonathan Donahue as an opening and it could well be a metaphorical manifesto for Mercury Rev. They had to move on and challenge themselves by working with unfamiliar instruments and arrangements. Whilst still recognisably the Rev, it’s mostly Jonathan's voice that provides familiarity as their music has shifted into much more experimental territory without sacrificing dreamy melody, picking up the chaotic challenge of the flap of a butterfly's wing. It might not be their best album, but it does seem like their most otherworldly.

ROSY PARLANE 'JESSAMINE' (TOUCH)
Down under the drones there is much beauty to be heard. New Zealand soundscaper Rosy parlane conjures three exquisitely structured meditations. Guitar based but taking in everything from the sounds of household objects to a miked up Samurai sword, 'Jessamine' eventually rallies a gang of guitarists to clang to a transcendent crescendo. Parlane's everything is an instrument mentality has birthed a supernova of universal harmony that ups the ante for experimental music from the Antipodes to way beyond Uranus.

KRISTIN HERSH 'LEARN TO SING LIKE A STAR' (4AD)
Kristin Hersh doesn't so much write songs as act as their medium. Songs don't care about time. Kristin might've played everything except drums and strings, but this has a colourful band sound. This is as fine as ever, these songs demanded sumptuous treatment. Meticulous attention to trying out studio effects has made this Kristin's most psychedelic album, as warm as a Winter fire. Little green apples falling on lizards in the ozone snow - this place makes me feel like I'm dead haunting it.

ARBOURETUM 'RITES OF UNCOVERING' (THRILL JOCKEY)
Arbouretum's songwriter Dave Heumann has played in bands with Will Oldham and David Pajo, and his own music finds similar hope rising out of melancholy. Heavily influenced by the writer Paul Bowles, Arbouretum gallops along dark Americana canyons of sheer emotional impact. Arbouretum is not averse to chasing a guitar solo all the way to the kill, skinning it and hanging its head upside down as a trophy. BH

DEATH UNIT 'INFINITE DEATH' (IMPORTANT)
Chris Corsano is one of the most impressive and original improvising drummers around. In Death Unit he gangs up with Trevor Tremaine for a double drum onslaught that clatters and smashes a tunnel through Carlos Giffoni's harsh electronics and Mouthus' Brian Sullivan's destroyer guitar. Their intention is to leave nothing alive behind. If you're looking for an extreme freenoise assault, then this is a graveyard you should be haunting.

EXPLODING STAR ORCHESTRA 'WE ARE ALL FROM SOMEWHERE ELSE' (THRILL
JOCKEY)
How do you get two Tortoises to play with electric eels?Cornet player Rob Mazurek assembled an ensemble of Chicago improvisers to soundtrack the adventures of a shapeshifting sting ray. Despite assertions that this has nothing to do with genre, jaunty big band jazz, Eric Satie, Tortoise and Sun Ra are obvious references. Playful and cinematic, this is the most melodic Mazurek music I've heard, despite the more abstract improvisations with recordings of the pulses from electric eels.

GEIR JENSSEN 'CHO OYU 8201M' (ASH INTERNATIONAL)
This is what Biosphere's Geir Jenssen did on his holidays. He took a minidisc on his trek up the sixth highest mountain in the world and recorded the noises he found there. With a written diary and photo booklet this conjures up the atmosphere of a Himalayan peak for those who don't want to freeze their ass off. Birds feasting on crumbs, Indian airline pilots, traditional music on the radio, the calls of Tibetan Yak drivers and summit breeze combine to tell the story.

RTX 'WESTERN XTERMINATOR' (DRAG CITY)The addition of tough metal guitar gives RTX extra fire to kick out the jams, but Jennifer Herrema plays a surprise hand by whipping out a flute to charm rats away from the garbage collector. Sifting through the detritus of rock's past, RTX are making the dirtiest, coolest rock moves in the USA today.

THE SCIENTISTS 'SEDITION' (ALL TOMORROW'S PARTIES)Kim Salmon's legendary Australian swamp rockers reformed to play the Mudhoney curated day at All Tomorrow's Parties and this recording of a recent Mudhoney support results in their most wired performances of classics like 'Nitro' and 'Solid Gold Hell,' but its 'Backwards Man' that reverses into tomorrow with barely contained venom. This makes the White Stripes sound like Shakin' Stevens, and you can hear why Jon Spencer copped so many of their moves.

GITHEAD 'ART POP' (SWIM)These days its about control. Oblique Joy Division references are probably unintentional but you never know with a canny mover in pop futures like Wire's Colin Newman. Githead take a brighter path than Wire on their second album of breezy computer rock. Using a vocodered vocal recital of reviews for their first album must be the ultimate in post-everything lyricism. Opener 'On Your Own' is as uplifting an anthem as Newman has ever
written. "You understand nothing in your inbox today."

LOW 'DRUMS AND GUNS' (SUB POP)"Do you need a murderer?" is not the kind of question most bands would ask as a harmonised lyric. Low's ruminations on the fallout of wartorn times get inside desperate personal situations with subtlety and tearjerking poignancy. The introduction of programmed beats might turn a few heads but they serve the songs seamlessly and their tenth album is this year's most emotionally heavy album so far.

HANNE HUKKELBERG 'RYKESTRASSE 68' (NETWERK)This Norwegian songstress takes a perky experimental trip through a warped mirror on showtunes. She sings sensuously about her pet cat 'Obelix' and his tongue, and with a spin of a percussive bicycle wheel her slowed down mellow attempt to 'Break My Body' results in the only Pixies cover I've ever heard that works.

ALESSANDRO STEFANA 'POSTE E TELEGRAFI (IMPORTANT)An Italian guitarist finds the beauty in the eye of the twang. His spare soundscapes are bold yet fluid, sweet and beguiling. International collaborators include New York guitarist Marc Ribot, but Alessandro employs banjo, omnichord, organ, kalimba and a strings machine to work his gorgeous magic.

EXPLOSIONS IN THE SKY 'ALL OF A SUDDEN I MISS EVERYONE' (BELLA UNION)
The immensely climactic opening is deceptive as this is perhaps the Texan quartet's most gorgeous album yet, recorded with acute attention to detail. Pianos ripple prettily through the chiming guitars, drums blow holes in the floor as they compose an immaculate soundtrack for being cast adrift. Don't let the drippy song titles put you off, this is music as well suited to describing dazzling sunsets over oceans as it is emotional loneliness. They're probably tired of the comparisons by now, but its still worth pointing Mogwai and godspeed fans in their direction.

NINA NASTASIA AND JIM WHITE 'YOU FOLLOW ME' (FAT CAT)
This is just Nina, her guitar and the genius instinctively impressionistic drumming of Dirty Three maestro Jim White, and could well be her best album yet. 'I've Been Out Walking' has a drum pattern so brilliantly original my jaw hit the floor. 'The Day I Would Bury You' is a song of devastated emotional maturity. Jim reckons this is the best album he's ever played on. The only drawback is that there is only half an hour of this inspired collaboration. And why do no shops in Manchester stock Dirty Three albums?

ALAN VEGA 'STATION' (BLAST FIRST)
If like me you thought the most recent Fall album was their worst and would like it if Smith did a whole disc full of killer drum'n'bass destruction like 'Doctor Buck's Letter' then check this out. The Suicide frontman rants and raves as if apocalypse hit yesterday and you all forgot to notice. Sounding like a deranged dirty old man, Vega is obviously angry about the state of the world. Since he's smart enough to realise that he'd be punished by family friends Al Qaeda for shooting George Bush between his 'Swaztika Eyes,' he has composed this psychopathic maelstrom of electrobash to vent his spleen instead.

FENNESZ & SAKAMOTO 'CENDRE' (TOUCH)
What remains inside a black hole? Is there beauty in mutation? International laptop instrumentalists Christian Fennesz and Riuchi Sakamoto might not be able to shed any light on my first inquiry, but they make the latter abundantly clear. Crossing generational timelines, Sakamoto's piano nebula proves to be the perfect partner to Fennesz' shimmering guitar-shift. Beyond word and image, music is the pursuit of beauty and here it is captured and enraptured, brought to light in a new evolving incandesant universe.

SEBADOH 'THE FREED MAN' (DOMINO)
Two friendly guys waving? Say, "Hi," to Eric and Lou, Sebadoh. After the high volume mindfuck of Dinosaur Jr, Lou Barlow needed to give vent to his more experimental absurdist lo-fi songwriting side. In Eric Gaffney he found a crazed shamanic collaborator to swap instruments and ideas. Their tapes spewed forth visions of little ones raised on mouldy bread, walking in the Land of the Lords with a soulmate who is "a special girl, a girl who's just like me, she'll share trmendous oral sex and try everything she sees." Expanded to 52 songs, including a cover of "Yellow Submarine" which could be the most hilariously radical reinvention of a Beatles song to exist in this plane of reality, 'The Freed Man' flows with no hint of filler. Whether the magic is black or white, there's enough rapid twist'n'shout to rock the forest bigtime.

JESSICA RYLAN 'INTERIOR DESIGNS' (IMPORTANT)
Jessica Rylan is a strangely birdlike woman who applies chaos theory to music composition. When I saw her play she she morphed vocals into a ghostly warble via a belt mounted gadget, so it came as a surprise that this album is entirely vox free. Inspired by Pauline Oliveros, Iannis Xenakis and Thomas Lehn, Jessica has made four abstract noisescapes with Serge Modular and self-built analog synthesisers. The essay relating chaos to music on the insert is also one of the most interesting, useful and timely things I have ever read.

DANIEL HIGGS 'ATOMIC YGGDRASIL TAROT' (THRILL JOCKEY)
Part instrumental exploration of a musical landscape painted in with banjo, jew's harp, piano and guitar, part mystical infusion of cosmic Norse mythology, 'Atomic Yggdrasil Tarot' is a divining agent, spellbook and shining example of art at its most majestically transformative. Accompanied by a luscious blue bound hardback book of poetry and abstract images on which to meditate, Higgs' Tarot breathes new life into the shamanic element inherent in all great music.

PISSED JEANS 'HOPE FOR MEN' (SUB POP)
If you like your hard rock kicks plug ugly brutal then this four hoarseman beat combo from down under could be just the ticket. Whilst not as swampy as the Scientists nor as wildly inventive as the Birthday Party, fans of those bands might appreciate the bluster, however this is more in the vein of Killdozer and Feedtime. Damn, they've probably got their jeans well pissed at the number of comparisons I just threw at them!

Channels and Dischord

2009-10-21T06:41:00.000-07:00

CHANNELS

The following is a full length version of an interview with Channels and short article on Dischord Records. Channels can be heard here

http://www.myspace.com/channelstheband

Part of this appeared in the Nov/Dec 2006 issue of Flux.

For nearly twenty years Dischord Records has been a bastion of independence and quality in the US hardcore scene. Founded by Ian Mackaye of Fugazi with money left over after the break up of his first band Teen Idles, the label has always remained as intelligent and arty as can be expected from a man who spiked a cover of Wire's seminal "12XU" with the battle cry, "Flex your head!" Dischord has always staying true to their mission to document the Washington DC music scene. With Fugazi on hiatus, Ian Mackaye formed the duo Evens with Amy Farina, and Fugazi bassist Joe Lally has stripped things down even further with a skeletal rhythmic solo album "From There to Here" on which he asks searching questions that his government wouldn't want to try to answer. Soccer Team is another duo, formed by a couple who've both worked for the label. Post-punk futurists French Toast have expanded to a trio for "Ingleside Terrace" but best of all is the hard hitting, politically lyrically erudite and eminently hummable album "Waiting for the Next End of the World" from Channels, a trio fronted by former Jawbox and Burning Airlines guitarist J. Robbins. I asked him why the band is called Channels.

J: I saw the phrase "Meet the Channels" on a satellite TV brochure, and I thought of "Meet the Beatles," but I also thought it was kind of creepy, like the Channels are your new friends. Like the TV "family" in Fahrenheit 451. Seemed like a good name with a number of possible meanings.
Were you thinking of channels of communication?
J: Yes, and as in channelling your aggression, channelling an influence or a spirit, and channels as in "going through the proper channels," i.e. beaurocracy.
Is that a new World Trade Centre growing from a sunflower on the cover of the album?
J: According to Peter (the artist), it's an industrial park.
The first line of the first song, "To the New Mandarins" - "It's tricky to relax when bracing for impact" - summons up the image of a plane crashing into the Pentagon. Was this what inspired it?
J: It's more a response to the "threat index" overload of the past couple of years, where the government keeps saying there's imminent danger, so be vigilant - but at the same time relax, go on about your normal business and "get back at the terrorists" with continued leisure and happy consumption.
"I don't know where the truth begins."Have you read the book "9.11 Revealed - Challenging the facts behind the War on Terror" by Ian Henshall and Rowland Morgan? It throws up some interesting questions. Your lyrics seem to tie in with the general theme of various deceptions that are bound to arise when the stooge son of a former director of the CIA cheats his way into the presidency.
J: I haven't read it but let's say nothing would surprise me where Bush, Cheney & Co. are concerned.
Do you think that it is a little odd that the plane crashed into the newly heavily reinforced section of the Pentagon?Would you agree that its also strange that the terrorists who claim they want to do maximum damage to the USA didn't notice that they could've caused much more destruction by crashing a nearby nuclear reactor?Isn't it also a little odd that Donald Rumsfeld claimed that the black box recorder on the plane that crashed into the Pentagon had nothing of interest on it?
J: Don't you think all that stuff is a little hinky? Once you are exposed to a little bit of history - things like Operation Northwoods or the Tuskeegee Experiments, or the pilgrims' gift of smallpox infected blankets to the Native Americans for example - how can you not be at least sceptical? Meanwhile Bush can barely complete a coherent sentence; only an idiot is prepared to swallow his rhetoric whole.
By coincidence the last record I listened to before playing your album was the recent remastered reissue of Siouxsie and the Banshees "Kaleidoscope" which is a band you all claim to have been a big influence. Which Banshees album is your favourite?
J: Tinderbox.
Do you have a favourite Banshees song?
J: One song? No way! Top 5: Stargazer, Peek-a-boo, Mirage, Landsend, honorary mention to the Creatures' Mad-Eyed Screamer.
Another band you were all influenced by is XTC and you seem to have referenced this in some of the song lyrics. On "Chivaree" you sing, "Drum on the clocks and strum on the wires," and the third XTC album is "Drums and Wires." On "Hug the Floor" you sing, "For an hour you were standing ten feet over me" and there is an XTC song called "Ten Feet Tall." Were you aware of these connections?
J: Probably subliminal, but not intentional. Well, maybe the drums and wires one is straight-up homage.
What is your favourite XTC album?
J: Black Sea, Drums and Wires, English Settlement, Apple Venus vol. 1
What is your favourite XTC song?
J: River of Orchids, Green Man, Paper and Iron, Blue Overall, Fly on the Wall, Respectable Street, Senses Working Overtime, There is No Language in Our Lungs... I mean, it might be easier to name the few XTC songs we don't like. If I had to name a favorite band, they might well be it.
Who or what is "Chivaree"?
J: It's a Southern US corruption of "charivari" - a drunken serenade to newlyweds.
Why is the song "Helen Mirren" titled thus?
J: It's our classiest, strangest, sexiest song. We LOVE Helen Mirren.
This song has the lyric, "At Camber Sands I watched the sea retreating."Have you been to Camber Sands? When?
J: All Tomorrow's Parties in 99.
"Mercury," the last song on the album, has a much calmer atmosphere than the rest of the album and was written by Peter Grey Mansinne. Who is he?
J: He's an old friend who wrote an (unreleased) album's worth of songs I produced in the '90s. I played guitar in his band Seraphim, which never played a show. He's a great songwriter, and a he's good friend, who never really got his stuff out in front of people.
Has Peter Quinn, who designed the album cover, done any other art for album sleeves?
J: He was the singer in Candy Machine, and Ink, and he did all their art work. He has a band now called Low Moda who are great. He does a lot of different art and music stuff here in Baltimore. Web design, print design, he teaches at Maryland Institute College of Art ... a very inspiring guy. He also published a compilation art book called "Friends and Friends of Friends." His website is proj7.com.
You thank Mission of Burma. Have you played gigs with them?
J: One show, in 2005. They are another candidate for "favorite band ever."
Were they a big influence?
J: Huge.
Have you heard their latest album "The Obliterati"?Its as good as anything they've done before, if not better!
The theme of apocalypse also looms large in the music of Killing Joke. The drumming on "To the New Mandarins" also reminds me of the drumming on their song "Adorations." Were they an influence?
J: Undeniable, especially the guitar playing of Geordie Walker is a huge influence on my playing in Channels.
The other band mentioned as being an influence on all three of you is the Jesus Lizard. Do you have a favourite Jesus Lizard album?
J: Goat.
Did you play any gigs with them?
J: No, but David Yow had a cameo as a drooling mental patient in a Jawbox video.
What are the other former members of Jawbox up to these days?
J: Bill Barbot runs a design company, Kim Coletta is a primary school librarian, they are married and have a kid. Zach Barocas lives in Minneapolis, makes poetry and video, and plays drums in three bands.
Obviously there is good reason for Channels not to tour at present, with having a baby to care for, but do you think you might be into touring at a later date?
J: It would be nice to think we could eventually, but it's not a high priority unless we had a chance to go somewhere really compelling or we could tour with a band we really liked.
Do you have any advice for bands thinking of signing to a major label?
J: If you really want to be a rock star, it's the only way to do it. But you should really really be driven, really aimed at that goal. Otherwise, be prepared for a brief, occasionally very enjoyable time, with lots of headaches and some serious disappointments. High highs and low lows, and probably not a triumphant feeling at the end. I wouldn't do it again if I had the chance, particularly if I was already supporting myself with my band on an indie. But then again I never wanted to be a rock star.

Spain MA? No Comprendo!

2009-10-20T06:25:00.000-07:00

1. MAdrid Nice Streets Above at Templo de Debod. The most beautiful real sunset I've seen happened as I walked the palatial promenade. On Returning, in the lovely Parque del Oeste, I saw the most vivid rainbow I'd ever seen in a nice big fountain.

2. Mr MArx's TableThe second SEND song and the second song in Wire's recent live set, now revvved up to MAximum velocity. The lyric, "You have come a long way for such a short stay" seemed particularly appropriate for MAdrid, a city in which I never seem to spend more than one day.

3. Colin NewMAnA MAn not afflicted by Catholic guilt Paral-lel to the foot of Mont Juic. In Barcelona a 'strapcident' gave him proof that god does not exist. He objected to the stench of death under his nose on stage in Monasterio de Victoria and requested a temporary barbecue termination.

4. Mekon HeadMAnIntroduced as a song about a guy with a big head by Colin NewMAn in Puerto de Santa MAria, this is one of the best Wire songs that Lewis has sung and tends to be arguably the strongest performance of any of the newer songs. The number 4 is said to be unlucky by superstitious Japanese.

5. MArgaret Fiedler Wire guitarist who plays faster than Bruce Gilbert Used To. If MArgaret is 5 then Monkey is 6!

6. El Puerto de Santa MAriaA beautiful seaside town just east of Cadiz and south of Portugal. In October the temperature was at the level that would make front page news in Britain, as unprepared people drop dead from heat stroke. There is a great little castle in the centre, where some free gigs were happening throughout Monkey Week. The people were very friendly and scenery stunning. In a coastal forest north of the town I found a chameleon and on a mountain south of the town I think I saw a lynx. There was a loud rustle in the scrub and a big cat bolted away from me as fast as it could go. There aren't supposed to be any of these rare animals in that part of Spain, but they can walk about if they want to and it looked like a lynx to me. Half the dwindling Spanish Lynx population does reside mainly in another region of Andalucia.

7. MAnta RaySiouxsie album that seemed absolutely perfect as a soundtrack for walking the Nice Streets Above MAdrid. On the end of my tape is the last song from Soulsavers "Broken" which provided the best walkman moment of the trip: guitars chiming slowly in synchronicity with the appearance of the looming pillars of the transplanted Egyptian temple on the hill where myth has it that Isis gave birth to Horus. MAnta Ray is also a Pixies B-side, and Pixies were playing Brixton Academy at the same time Wire were playing Spain. According to Pixies, god is seven.

8. MAria Nice lady from Seville who was Monkeying in Puerto de Santa MAria.

9. Under the MAn in SpainChorus of The Stranglers song "Spain" which I played a hell of lot on the road trip. The MAn is the bastard Franco who executed the legally elected president of Catalonia exactly 69 years before the day I arrived in Barcelona. The whole of their "Aural Sculpture" cassette made an excellent musical accompaniment to the mountains, plains and castles rolling by, especially the Spain-Laughing-Souls sequence.

10. MAd HatterThe last song from "Aural Sculpture."

11. MAchineYeah Yeah Yeahs song on my tape with "Send" and DJ Fuckoff "Drill," perhaps the best song for railway travel yet made by anyone? This unreleased penultimate "Drill" with drum MAchine and Robert playing guitar I think opened just two gigs, at All Tomorrow's Parties and in Bristol. It seems to me that elements of it probably fed into "Nice Streets Above" and "Mr MArx's Table."

12. MAya GoldOrganic fair trade chocolate, one bar of which MAde it all the way around sunny France and Spain and back to grey old England.

13. MAnchesterPost-industrial dump in the north west of England which it's always a joy to escape from. The corrupt airport loving city council consumes tons of glossy paper promoting their recycling schemes to a populace too stupid to use the right bins, yet can't keep the streets clean from all the discarded aluminium, plastic and paper.

14. MAnuel RiveraSpanish artist with imposing image in the MAdrid museum of Modern Art. If you ever find yourself in Europe's highest capital city check it out as it is free.

15. Korega MAyaku DaAfri Rampo CD on Tzadik that I bought in Notting Hill just before setting off for Lyons on the first leg of the trip. These manic Japanese ladies will be playing All Tomorrow's Parties Nightmare Before Christmas at Minehead in December.

These reflections on a trip to Spain have been brought to you by the letter M, the letter A and the number 15.

Thanks to WIRE, MAria, Ruben,
Hostal Costa Luz, Juicy Jones,
everyone in El Puerto de Santa MAria,
Salvador Dali and Joan Miro.

Madrid Egyptian Temple Dreamtime Apocalypse

2009-10-20T06:20:00.000-07:00

In the early hours of The Fifteenth:

I approached Templo de Debod and walked on the Water, continuing on across stone between the looming obelisks and through the sacred gate. Inside seemed much bigger than outside. One eyed Egyptian gods went about their business of genetic manipulation combining crocodiles with humans as I made my way through a maze of stone corridors. Eventually I came to a room where Earl Edvard Graham Lewis was conversing with Sun Ra. "Man," said the space jazz instigator from Saturn, "If they won't give you the papers to play the music on this street, you gotta take the music into space where there ain't no law!"

I continued beyond that room and PJ Harvey dressed as the goddess Sekhmet took my hand and led me out of the temple and through the streets of Madrid. Jaz Coleman dressed in full war paint appeared atop the Faro screaming, "And the third angel sounded and a star fell from heaven burning as it were a lamp!"

The Sky Lit Up as an Asteroid hit close to the city which burst into flames, at which point I woke up with a bladder full of the remnants of peppermint and ginkgo tea.

"Pissing passes time" (Wire - Our Time)

Footnotes:

1. This dream references several brilliant songs, specifically '99.9' by Wire, 'Rocket No 9' by the Sun Ra Arkestra, 'Asteroid!' by Killing Joke, 'Water' and 'The Sky Lit Up' by PJ Harvey. Less obviously the opening soundtrack should be 'Into a Swan' by Siouxsie.

2. I had just returned to grey old England, the land that bullies the "Middle East" whilst its former lying moral hypocrite of a leader pretends he can bring peace there, after a trip to sunny Spain to see Wire three times. The only time I'd been to Madrid before was to see PJ Harvey at Summer Case, but Killing Joke played there too on their last glorious European tour.

3. The last time I hit Europe Killing Joke, Wire and the Sun Ra Arkestra were all on tour concurrently. Wire and the Arkestra played Tilburg on the same day at the same festival and Wire and Killing Joke both played their own gigs in overpriced Paris on the same night. The day Wire played El Puerto de Santa MAria was PJ Harvey's fortieth birthday and the venue they played in MAdrid was moved to JOY (a PJ Harvey song) at the last moment due to licensing complications.

4. Templo de Debod is an Egyptian temple gifted to Spain and moved to the heights of Madrid brick by brick to preserve it when Nasser flooded its old location with a dam on the boundary, over and over.

5. In the Temple of Melkart, Hannibal swore his undying hatred of Rome. Isis gave birth to Horus in this very temple, although obviously not in Madrid. Napolean SPENT the night here in December 1808. The dismembered Alfonso turned in his several graves. Something snapped: another empire backfired.

6. If man is five then the devil is six. Celebrate the rebellious spirit!

7. God does not exist. Was god summoned by propaganda merchants with a a penchant for social control or alien visitations?

One man and his helmet

2009-10-20T06:18:00.000-07:00

BOB LOG III at Ruby Lounge, Manchester 17th September 2009

Louis Barrabas and the Bedlam Six, (another the) Euchrid Eucrow and Bob Log III played some of that undead rock'n'roll at Ruby Lounge. Louis Barrabas' band brews r'n'r up with a cabaret element and frontman is a consumate showman, kicking high whilst strumming acoustic guitar and singing songs he says are all about love. One is about being cheated on by a girl called Mary. "Any girls called Mary here?" he asked, "No? Good!" His band was actually seven strong with a second singer, trombonist and a keyboard player who also straps on an accordian occasionally. It's probably a safe bet that they like Tom Waits and Nick Cave. I doubt they'll be bottom of the bill for much longer. As the evening went on rock'n'roll got more stripped down and rougher. Euchrid Eucrow are the second band I've seen who've lifted their name from Nick Cave's first book. This Eucrow are more Janglin' Jack, the ones who've released an album on Lancashire and Somerset Records are more Good Son. The drum guitar duo switched instruments after two songs and improved with the one in the AC/DC shirt on drums. Half as many people play in Bob Log III but he still managed to have band meetings where he quaffed beverages bought for him by men he mistook for pretty ladies. This was probably due to the fact that his vision was impaired by the motorcycle daredevil helmet he wears. "I can't see shit, but I can hear you and smell you," he let on between a couple of one man slide guitar garage blues rock rumbles. He made a memorable entrance and exit, walking on and off stage through the crowd playing guitar. His silliest song is about someone shitting on his leg, for which, against doctors orders, he invited two ladies up on stage to bounce on his knee whilst he kicked hell out of his foot drum. He gave a quick lesson in songwriting, playing a riff that he likes and telling us all you have to do is repeat it 42 times. After he made his getaway, still strumming backstage, "Repetition" by The Fall came ranting over the PA.

After that I went to Furthur at the Star and Garter.
http://www.myspace.com/furthurandfurthur

I walked in to a soundtrack of "Cinnamon Girl" by Neil Young who was hogging the decks as we also got "Fuckin' Up" and "Lets Go Downtown." Amongst the records Nick of Golden Lab played were
My Bloody Valentine - You Made Me Realise
Velvet Underground - Lady Godiva's Operation
Come - Dead Molly (my request as they had Come on the flyer)
Sonic Youth - Inhuman
Mercury Rev - Song For Joey
Dinosaur Jr - Out There

Jello Biafra won't give up!

2009-10-20T06:17:00.000-07:00

THE GUANTANAMO SCHOOL OF MEDECINE Sheffield Academy 9/9/9

THE LIES THAT WON'T DIE

I took a seat on the Sheffield train. I thought it pleasant to travel again. Mindful of the journey's end, I read again the free newspaper some litterbug had left to flap about in the expensive eyesore Piccadilly Plaza, where the pathetic fountains are put to shame by the much more impressive display outside Sheffield railway station. These dead trees are given away to control machine cogs (humans as you call them) with the intention of keeping the drones pacified. Excess free newspapers are also an excuse to keep the modern day slave trade alive. After all British paper has been getting sent for recycling to China where too many trees have been killed by pollution already. Still, must keep the trouble making economy working until the fuel runs out! The article that amused me concerned conspiracies around the destruction of the World Trade Centre, written by some uninvestigative hack expecting his dopey readers to agree with a bunch of experts who know that there was no complicity between the Saudi 'terrorists' and the CIA or factions within the vote rigger Rebublican government. These experts present absolutely no evidence to debunk any of the conspiracies, not even jolly old David Icke's lizard invasion paranoia, which they'd given more space to than many other more plausible scenarios. The hack had such contempt for his readers' intelligence, that he appeared to think it was enough for a bunch of supposed experts to make a claim and then not prove it. The fact that they are 'experts' should be enough for news junkies to believe them, so that they can carry on mindlessly consuming cheap crap made by Chinese slaves and destroying the planet. Nevermind, they've printed a photo of a turtle called Lucky with sofa coasters for front flippers to cheer up commuters.

TURTLE IS SNATCHED BY SEAGULL

The other window had a nicer view than this tame drivel, so I only read it when the train sped through dark tunnels under the hills. What could I do? As I listened to "The Lord is a Monkey" by the Butthole Surfers I looked out the window to see a young boy drop his trousers and pee gleefully onto the railway line. Behind him stood a man I assumed was his father, with a face full of pride, "Look everyone, me son's learnt to pee and he's only three!" Don't tell the ministry of programming, they'll probably award him an 'A' level.

PENNILESS TRAMP ARTIST LEAVES £6.5 MILLION PAINTINGS

Sheffield was sunny and warm and I headed for the University area after a quick look at Daniel Von Sturmer's video art (very Tony Hart) at the Site Gallery (www.sitegallery.org). Up the hill I was reminded of my last visit with a Dinosaur Jr tape in my earphones. "Where You been?" Steel City! In an Oxfam bookshop I found two quid copies of the first Starless and Bible Black CD and 'The Bells' by Lou Reed. In Age Concern I found four old copies of Punk Planet zine, one of which has an interview with Jello Biafra. I guess that made up for the fact that he wasn't doing interviews on this tour, understandably keen to save his voice for the gigs. I can sleep well knowing that I've fed starving African OAPs for a day even though the militia will execute them for wearing trousers the very next day. I asked if there were any other good record shops and the guy in Age Concern told me about a very fine place. We were talking about post-punk music, and inevitably Wire came up. His friend who was also visiting the shop had played his first gig supporting Wire in Doncaster in 1978, in the band Vice Versa who later mutated into ABC. Apparently he makes enough royalties to live on.

GIRLS FULL OF JOY ON DAY OF SLAUGHTER

The best shop in Sheffield has to be Rare and Racy books and records, packed with jazz, classical and experimental music. Any shop that plays Noxagt and Yellow Swans so loud you have to shout to be heard is doing something right! The Yellow Swans 'Mort Aux Vaches' CD was such a damn good guitar drone rumble that I bought it there and then. Since only 500 were made I'll probably never see it for sale again. I was also pleased to find two CDs I'd never seen before: 'Rien' by Faust (which I'd taped off a record to help kill music) and the first Big Joan EP 'Other People's Fights' which I recall the band saying they wish they hadn't made. It's much more polite than the way they rock now, but still pretty good. They were playing Ornette Coleman as I left, and the jazz continued with a pleasant Charlie Parker album at my next destination.

SERIAL KILLER IS CAUGHT BY A TOOTHBRUSH

I ate a plate of courgette, red pepper, lentil and coconut bake with rice and salad and a bottle of organic Black Fox cider at the excellent Blue Moon Cafe next to the cathedral. The black fox is a fox as black as night so that it might live in a man's shadow and never be seen. Refueled vegan organic style, I was ready for a bit of punk rock. In the street I spied some likely Biafra fans and got talking on the way to the venue. Up the steps inside a duo strumming acoustic guitars played fast raw throated protest songs energetically. More impressive were the heavily political hardcore trio Moral Dilemma, with mohawked blast beat drummer, who got me in the mood for my first dose of Jello with bandnoise. The Guantanamo School of Medecine set up and burst into life. Then Jello jogged on like Arnie limbering up for a spot of arab termination, dressed in a blood splattered labcoat and bloody taliban torture (TM) surgical gloves. I assume it was fake blood, and Jello hadn't been out killing yuppies instead of soundchecking. He looked unhinged, like a mirror image joker nemesis of some right wing republican liberty destroyer. The gloves got peeled off one by one and flung to the throng. Maybe someone could be trying to earn a few pennies selling them to dumb punk rock kids on ebay? The School sounded more like Tumor Circus and Jello's two albums backed by the Melvins than other collaborations. There were some songs from the No WTO Combo, three old Dead Kennedys songs, unsurprisingly delivered with more attitude and fire than that resurrected headless retrovirus crew. Before Guantanamo kicked the shit out of the Kennedys by blasting out a superior assault on property scrooges with "Lets Lynch the Landlord" they had tuning problems so Jello introduced the Medecine School. Bassist Andrew Weiss played for the Rollins Band back when they were a force to be reckoned with. They were the first band I saw in Leeds at the now gentrified Duchess of York pub. I think you can buy clothes that fall apart in three months made by Chinese slaves in that place now, if that's the kind of progress you desire. His brother Jon was bashing drums and guitars were wielded by Kimo Ball and Ralph Spight, formerly of Victims Family. Unlike the Dead Nostalgia Kennedys, Jello is still railing against the same problems satirised in this punk rock classic in newer, arguably better, songs. The yuppie cancer blight upon his home city San francisco is given a lyrical lambasting, and the 'gentrification' of cities worldwide so that they can all look like bland American malls is something he's very angry about. Jello's hilarious clowning made the rest of the band fade into the background visually. His miming of IT slaves going blind typing out garbage on their machines hammered home "Electronic Plantation," a song debuted by the No WTO Combo. Having taken stock of all the signs threatening ejection for stage diving posted around the venue, he lept into the crowd as if to prove that the rules do not apply to those in a more powerful position. Here the singer of a band was exempt from the rules, but his songs deal with the law breakers at the top of the political pile whose mass murder and complicity in torture and environmental destruction go unpunished whilst jails run for profit are filled with people forced to resort to smalltime theft just to eat. This was a punk rock gig so there had to be at least one guy who'd drunk so much he couldn't stand up, and he fell over most during the updated "California Uber Alles" which cast Arnold Schwarznegger as the wannabe dictator of this dying planet. The encore opened with a storming new song about accelerating scientific hell, concerning cells that never die. The big surprise was "Holiday in Cambodia!" The lyric, "You'll work harder with a gun in your back for a bowl of rice a day" never seemed so relevant, only soon you'll probably be lucky to get a couple of grains the way things are going. Maybe we should execute all politicans who commit mass murder by proxy (they call it war) and feed them to the hungry prisoners? Bad idea! Where's the prophet?

The damn fine album "The Audacity of Hype" by Jello Biafra and the Guantanamo School of Medecine is out now on

http://www.alternativetentacles.com

Dinosaur Jr rocked the Leadmill

2009-10-20T06:14:00.000-07:00

DINOSAUR JR Sheffield Leadmill, 3rd September 2009

On the way I ate a fine plate of Turkish vegan tomato stew at the Blue Moon Cafe, picked up a copy of Bob Dylan's "No Direction Home" double disc and found a retractable Sanctuary Housing biro.

Waiting in the queue to get inside, I got talking to a couple of older guys who were finishing off a roll up that smelt a bit more pleasant than mere carcinogenic tobacco. One of them is the father of the guitarist of support band Airburst, and described their drummer as the bastard son of Keith Moon. Airburst are total rock with professional chops, metal but not as heavy as can be. Apparently Dinosaur Jr are into them and asked them to play, which is as these things should be. Their backdrop was an advert for their myspace site. After they finished with their most headbangin' number I check out the T-shirt stall, even though the last thing I need is another band T-shirt. Dinosaur Jr shirts are a bit too cutesy for my liking, but I was tempted by the light blue one mostly because I can't recall seeing another band selling shirts the same colour. Unfortunately I've got so thin because wheat has damaged my gut, that even the small size looked like it'd be too big!

Dinosaur Jr have good taste if the tunes playing between the two bands are anything to go by. I enjoyed hearing Unwound, Babes in Toyland and the first Minor Threat song I ever heard, played by John Peel on the radio, "Bottled Violence." The Leadmill is renowned as one of the best venues in the land but it was a long time since I'd been there. I tried to recall other gigs I'd seen there; Pavement and Belly on the same bill, Come's first stop on the tour where I went to every show, the Girls Against Boys show where I broke a bone in my foot but didn't realise until the next day and the Shellac performance where they were told to play just one more song so opted hilariously for a very long rendition of "Didn't We Deserve A Look at You The Way You Really Are?"

Conveniently the trio walked on the moment I was served my second pint of cider and kicked into "Raisans." Last time I saw them I'd been driven to Birmingham by a friend who is obsessed with Lou Barlow, so I'd been on his side of the stage. This time I was damn sure I was going to get a good ear hammering from J. Mascis' wall of six Marshall amps, and it was easy enough to get near the front on his side. Mascis was wearing a Wipers T-shirt which led me to heckle, "Is This Real?" which I thought was quite a pertinent question as he's such a fluid guitarist his ability is almost beyond comprehension. Mascis stood rooted to the spot much of the time, looking as if the music was transporting him way beyond mundane rational 'reality.' The noise was a universal vibration that made all one. Dinosaur Jr are great because they pull off the old hippy trip without resorting to its gross excesses or past mistakes, and have the venomous energy of punk rock to propel them. Barlow bounced around like a kid in a castle hammering out chords on the bass that give their music such a heady undertow. Murph has lost his hair but found the beat to keep Mascis from floating off on some cloud. The climax was "Forget the Swan," the surprise was "Get Me" but it all blurred into a frenzied celebration. That these guys could bury the hatchet and return as good as ever is something to cherish, which makes it damn funny that after I heckled, "Messenger always brings bad news!" Lou announced, "This is a song from our new album." No worries on that score, their new songs were just as fine as the old ones and "Farm" will most certainly end up being one of the five most played albums of 2009 on my stereo. I found 52p on the floor before goin' home by train.

On Returning

2009-10-19T06:59:00.000-07:00

Hats off to Hugh Cornwell, a damn fine songwriter
I just returned from
"A fine place in the southern reaches"
A day or two in a motor ride.

The sun roasted me lobster red,
but I was not sorry. Meanwhile nert nerds back home got down to 'Bitching.'

"Why don't they all go get screwed?"

On Returning I had three hours to kill in London and during that period it was possible to ride the tube to Camden where Obits rocked the Underworld. Obits is the great new band fronted by Rick Froberg of Hot Snakes and Drive Like Jehu. Support was Tropics and I ran into my old friend Steve from Ricky Spontane who I hadn't seen since Wire played three gigs at the Garage prior to instigating the "Read and Burn" EP series. Carla Bozulich's band Evangelista were also playing in E8 but I had no idea where the venue was. I'd missed their gig at Islington Mill (http://www.islingtonmill.com/) as it was the same day I left El Puerto de Santa Maria, but it turns out she does a desperate vocal on the bargain Barry Adamson CD I acquired at Notting Hill exchange.

The Fifteenth:Rambled across Plattfields Park to the Corner in Fallowfield to hear three damn fine post-rock ensembles roll out the jams. FTSE 100 supported tour partners Souvaris and Sincabeza (from France) who both played the best sets I've heard them do.

I helped hand out leaflets against the ID cards the British government is trying to con the populace into buying...

http://www.no2id.com/

http://www.idcardcon.org/

We burned a large fake ID card of our beloved unelected Scottish leader outside Manchester Town Hall and got filmed by a local news TV crew.

That evening I went to see TV Smith and Gold Blade and gave most of the people at the gig an anti-ID card leaflet. I only had one person tell me that he seriously thought ID cards were a good idea and he was a bus conductor on Oldham Street. Hopefully some of the Gold Blade fans might do a bit more to stop this crazy evil intrusion on our civil liberties. It's things like this that make me want to leave Britain!

Still at least we have the excellent Charles Hayward who was on stunning form at Tiger Lounge on the Eighteenth. Dalek were not happy with the PA that didn't deliver the noise levels they needed, but Action Beat proved themselves awesome and Boanthrope were the best I've heard them.

Keep on rockin!