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Archive for April, 2002

ATP NYC

Posted: April 13th, 2002, by Marceline Smith

Okay, so official ATP over-excitement may not start til Monday [according to us] when we will start with the shrieking and the jumping up and down. But anyway, get yourself in gear for that by reading the coverage of the New York ATP on Fake Jazz. This article is the better one and they make no effort to try and cover the thing properly, they just go to exactly what they want and ponder all kinds of things around it. Sounds like the weekend was ace with possibly a little too much avant garde instrument hitting. I want to see Merzbow! Wow.

I also want to go to the Sonar festival in Spain. Look at at that line-up!! Shall have to make do with Blectum From Blechdom here on Wednesday instead. Especially since the head of department took all my remaining holiday allowance away meaning I have to struggle back to work the day after Trail of Dead. Gar!

And finally, I’m having a very odd time with the Electro Group album. I remember listening to this the day they all left for Leeds and thinking it was a vaguely nice jangly indie guitar record but I put it on yesterday and damn me if it hasn’t transmogrified into a super fantastic effects laden My Bloody Valentine swirlfest. What happened there? I’d think I ‘d been listening to the wrong CD before but a) I wasn’t that drunk and b) I remember the spooky hidden song ten minutes into the last track. Hmm, I need help.

I’ve finally fallen out with Source Tags & Codes

Posted: April 12th, 2002, by Marceline Smith

It’s been banished from my 3 cd changer. We need a break. I need to see other people. I haven’t sickened myself of an album through overplay in ages but I was really starting to get sick of the more poptastic tunes on ST&C – Baudelaire and Relative Ways in particular.

I do find myself more and more concentrating on three cds at a time plus one record as befits my stereo. The vinyl is usually something I can stick on to get overexcited about before I leave the house – Le Tigre‘s first album at present – while the cds tend to be one rock, one downbeat and one electronic. I’m getting very predictable. Unwound are my rock cd at the moment and also my new heroes. I’ve liked Unwound kind of absent-mindedly for the last few years but they’re gradually edging into my top bands evah! list. It’s the guitars – they fill my heart with joy and my eyes with tears, if you want to be cheesy about it. That Death Cab for Cutie album is providing some quiet moments although I can see it being swapped back to the Papa M album very soon. The DCfC just seems so flimsy and mimsy and lacking in anything solid and still too much about mittens! But I can’t stop playing the thing either. Damn them. The electronic one arrived this morning and is the new thing by EU. It’s in a perfectly circular plastic cd case which is a design marvel but I’m not sure if it’s good or if I like it. The music however I do like – it’s all twitchy and fluid and mmm.

I really recommend you go read some of the new articles on The Morning News as they are all really good, particularly this one. And let’s not forget Tangents [which I did, now added to our links on the side as it should be] which is always excellent, particularly Alistair’s blog and this article about Friends Reunited. I should register there while I can brag about my super-popular web empire and my work for crazy Texans. And also while I am actually still in employment…

Six By Seven

Posted: April 11th, 2002, by Ollie

i’m sure this won’t come as news to any of you, but six by seven are shite. four years ago they were one of my favourite bands in the whole world, but after seeing them tonight i have finally given up all hope. basically, i have put it down to the loss of their two critical elements: the saxophone, and the drumstick/guitar action. since the departure of guitarist sam hempton a couple of years ago, things have been getting progressively worse, but i was determined to reserve judgement at first in case they were just going through a “bad patch” or some crap, but alas, as tonight showed me, it just ain’t happenin’. i struggled through the barrage of mediocre, lack-lustre new songs, ever optimistic that any minute they would tear into brilliantly cute, and my faith would be restored, but i was left dissapointed, wondering what went wrong. they played the same venue last november with the same line up, and while i knew then that they weren’t the same band they once were, there were still moments that captured my imagination, and kept that flicker of hope burning in my heart (sniff) but tonight there was not one single moment that really made me stop and think “wow”, which essentially is what they were all about. their gigs in 98, just before the release of their first album were something to cherish. they seemed so incredible, so…vital to my 16 year old ears, and the “wow” factor was quite considerably higher. they were crucially ever on the brink, and the thrill was watching them avoid it, holding onto every last chord like their lives depended on it. and now it seems they have gone over the brink, and are spiralling into the chasm of indie oblivion.

so, i’m just confirming to myself what i’ve known for some time, but maybe some of you will know what i’m talking about, if not with this band, then someone else that seemed so perfect when you were younger, who now have just become in your mind, the same as every other dull shmindie outfit dragging themselves round this nation’s less glamourous venues.

support came from british sea power, who should never be allowed to play to people again, ever. thankfully, local band the visit opened, who were quite charming with their brand of wonky pub rock (and at least three songs about cocks). they were the perfect band to play first at a gig like this, it’s just a shame six by seven didn’t feel like finishing the job.

still, atp next week, so it’s not all bad.

Amusing news of the day

Posted: April 9th, 2002, by Marceline Smith

BBC postpone tonight’s Trail of Dead Peel session for not having the right note of respect on the Queen Mum’s funeral day. Rock on. I wish the BBC had done a real news report on this instead of just mentioning it like a slight schedule change. Excuse me while I get my Breakstuff hat…

The Redneck Manifesto

Posted: April 9th, 2002, by Adrian Errol

I saw The Redneck Manifesto last night for the second time in a fortnight and they were fucking ace again. They had been on tour round Europe for two weeks and well to be honest they were a bit smelly. But the tour was pretty eventful. They wrote off a car and had to buy a lovely sporty 10 year old VW estate in a dubious shade of brown to finish the tour in. The was in between playing to 4 people in hamburg (3 of whom were tramps) and 200 people at a festival in belgium. Still must have made for an intesting time. The gig last night though had 4 bands playing in a dark, gloomy rehearsal room in a part of Manchester you’d not end up in out of choice. Dunno who the fist band was so we’ll skip past them but the second band were ace. Called Green Acre and from Grimsby or somewhere they managed to be more math rock and disjointed than Geiger Counter while throwing in some shouty vocals. They were great. Then it was Bilge Pump of Gringo fame who did their slightly odd mumbled word thing while fighting against a variety of technical hitches. Richie Redneck actually managed to sleep through part of the set which considering the noise emanating from the stage was some considerable achievement. Then came the Rednecks. No soundcheck they just ambled onstage and launched into it. As I said even dead tired they still managed to pull off a great show.

Things I like at the moment:
Shouty shellac type rock stuff. Especially a 7″ by Candian band Blake.
Bowyers pork and beef sausages – they’re like the holy grail, can’t find em anywhere no more, which is a shame ‘cos I got a hankering
Natalie Imbruglia (she’s sooooooooooo lovely)

Things I don’t like at the moment:
Arrogant people.
my bank balance
choc chip cookies

Ollie why were Cursive cack? I love their recorded stuff…

Mixtape

Posted: April 6th, 2002, by Ollie

i’m stealing chris summerlin’s thing of making a mixtape tracklisting. this seems like a good plan since the tape ring ground to a halt, and it will hopefully quench my desire for stupid pointless lists of bands.

side a
mike patton & melt banana: area 877
antioch arrow: chaos vs cosmos
behead the prophet n.l.sl.: in the garden
men’s recovery project: get the fuck out of my office
love lost but not forgotten: means to no end
my lai: twenty/twenty

side b
the eyesores: nausea
neutral milk hotel: oh comely
low: weight of water
johnny cash: i see a darkness
royal trux: money for nothing

there it is. short/sweet/shit. should you want a copy for yourself, please send me no less than £20 cash and 5 blank tapes in case i screw it up. thanks.

Hirameka Hi-Fi, Electro Group, Fighting Red Adair

Posted: April 5th, 2002, by Marceline Smith

I saw Hirameka Hi-Fi, Electro Group and Fighting Red Adair last night. I don’t remember much about it though. I remember driving back to my house with eleven people in an eight seat van and with a traffic cone still on the roof. I remember it being loud. I remember the sound being rubbish. I remember Fighting Red Adair being mental and ill. I remember being impressed with Electro Group and buying their album. I remember missing Ben FM from the Hirameka live experience. I remember people giving me free records. I remember standing on my balcony this morning in the spring sunshine.

Things I Like:
Unwound: discordant guitars, mmmm
The Ragged Trousered Philanthropists: still one of my favourite books. Bunch of painters at the turn of the century paint houses and discuss socialism in their lunch break. Much ‘throw im out the bloody winder’, drinking of petrifying liquid and the sort of socialist idealism that makes you want to cry.
All Tomorrows Parties countdown: Two weeks today!
Sitting in the 13th Note on a sunny afternoon drinking Irn Bru: What could possibly be better?

Things I don’t like at all:
Flat hunting: blah
Job hunting: double blah

Stuff

Posted: April 5th, 2002, by Ollie

ok, so appleseed cast were pretty good, but not exactly sensational. one of them looked like jason lee, which was rather amusing. cursive, on the other hand, were cack. pavement meets dexys midnight runners? not today thankyou.

avid followers of this blog (you know who you are) will remember some time ago that i won a competition with three lobed recordings and i got the first part of my prize today. it was a subscription to the purposeful availment cdep series, and today i got cds by bardo pond and six organs of admittance. woohoo, free stuff!

also, has anyone else noticed that the new issue of fracture has a full colour glossy cover? they’ll be asking people what ringtones they have quicker than you can say “newmusicalexpress”.

I am a geek

Posted: April 5th, 2002, by Chris H

I like New Scientist:

Copy protection on Celine Dion’s new CD makes it harder to play. (A good news story).

And TV makes you violent. The best thing about this story is that no matter how conclusive the evidence (25 years worth, economics controlled for) folk are still trying to wriggle out of it by blaming the content. Uhuh. Don’t try and say that over 25 years these people only watched the violent stuff and that’s why they went bad. It’s the medium, it makes you a callous moron. And it’s brainwashing you. Seek help!

i saw Belle & Sebastian last night

Posted: April 4th, 2002, by Greg Kitten

it was pretty fun. not tremendously exciting or anything, but entertaining enough. today i’m very, very ill. food poisoning or something. i attempted to watch Akira on dvd but ended up falling asleep for about the 7th time today.

things i like:
ice cream: doesn’t everyone? i want some. but i’d never keep it down.
stephen king: why did i never read anything of his before? great stuff.
signed system of a down stuff: fanboy!

things i don’t like:
vomiting: five times in a day. right on.
days off work when you’re actually ill: i’m so bored it hurts. ouch.