Hamburger-throated vocaliser Rick Froberg (Pitchfork, Drive Like Jehu, Hot Snakes) has a new rock & roll band call OBITS. If you ever wondered what Creedence Clearwater Revival would sound like doing ‘Commotion‘ with an absolute bloody-raw yelper on the mic (I have; often) then this band is for you. Not only that but Rick has a website set up of all his glorious artwork designed to make so-called ‘illustrators’ like me hang our heads in shame. Excellent!

Invisible Garfield

Dark.

HI

March 2008 sees a minor price hike for The Speeding Train. Increased print and postage costs means my profit margins are dwindling and it’s about time, after 3 years, that I went with inflation.

So from March 1st 2008 it’s going to be £5 per poster and my deal is now £12.50 for any 3 (plus postage).

BUT!

I am re-stocking in March so take the opportunity to buy a shitload of my old stock off me at the old price of £4 per poster and any 3 for £10 (plus postage) and I will throw in a minimum of 2 randomly selected used posters of my choice too. More likely I will throw in about 4 or 5 as I have tons. I’ll try and pick something you might like too.

Basically, all these are genuine gig posters, they’re printed up and used to promote gigs. I print the ones for use on lighter glossier paper and the ones for sale on heavyweight matte finish A3. I have piles of the glossy promo ones in my house and I can’t move. So if you order any of the posher ones from me I will chuck in some of the glossy ones too for you. They might be a bit creased or have some staple holes or whatever but they’re free, what’s your problem?!

So have a look here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/sumlin/sets/72157594212951999/

and email me to check what I have in stock. This offer only applies to what I have in at present and it ends on Sunday 2 March.

Contact me on honeyisfunnyATfastmail.fm

I accept Paypal, cheque or lovely smelly cash.

There are over 100 to choose from…go see go see…

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NlY_6DTzWm4[/youtube]

Supremely rare footage of a 4-piece Nation Of Ulysses tearing it up without the suits and without Steve Kroner, opening for Fugazi somewhere by the look of it and right before they broke up too at a guess. An ex-Ulysses member told me Kroner went to a medical facility to do some tests for cash around this time. They also said they had no idea what happened to him afterwards or where he is now. The phenomenon of internet blogging really is just a widespread spewing of misinformation so I’m pleased to play my part in the rumour mill.

1 minute 56 by the way…

All this recent talk about album covers (plus related Creative Review sidebar activity) reminded me to introduce to you Alex Steinweiss, who, in 1938, invented the album cover (see the ‘covers’ link on that page for some awesome early designs). Not content with doing this, in 1948 he invented the LP sleeve. Three cheers for Alex Steinweiss!

dipsetmuthafucka has a mission:

“I will post a dance video every day until May 4th 2008. That’s the goal. 365 days of body rockin’.”

Some highlights thus far:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b4emo38h3_4[/youtube]

Oneida “Business In Japan” (live at Used Cars in Hamilton, Ontario)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0Qv208zIjg[/youtube] 

Marvin Gaye “Can I Get A Witness?” (live at the Church Of Latter Day Saints, Hamilton, Ontario)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_qzc3krlDrY[/youtube]

 Can “Vitamin C” (live at Fortinos in Hamilton, Ontario)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLBmniQbGX0[/youtube]

The Maytals “Pressure Drop” (live at the Farmers’ Market, Hamilton, Ontario)

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNAD0gUurTg[/youtube] 

David Bowie “Suffragette City” (Live at Dakota Mae’s, Hamilton, Ontario)

Ooh, we have a new blog! We have upgraded and combined and now all the diskant blog content is available in one place. I hope you like it. Over on the right menu you will find a list of categories which should help you find anything from the past you wish to read. There are still some older posts to be categorised but I am working on it! You’ll also find some cool stuff in the sidebars – Flickr pics of what the diskant writers are up to and links to websites and music we think you might like. More things will be coming soon too.

The rest of diskant will slowly be joining us in the new design but there is a lot of stuff in the archives and it may take a while. I apologise in advance for any oddness. I expect also there will be a few broken links and suchlike for a short period until Google has a proper look round our new setup. If you spot any major issues do let me know though.

RSS folks – you’ll be wanting to ditch all the previous diskant rss feeds and just use the new combined one which will keep you right up to date: http://feeds.feedburner.com/diskant

Liking the new diskant!

Listening: Lots and lots of Lungfish. A little Lungfish here and there also. I try and mix it up a bit with some Lungfish too.

Also: the Mick Turner/Tren Brothers compilation on Drag City showcasing one of the finest guitar players ever; Birds Of Maya on Holy Mountain which sounds like it was recorded from a record player with the stylus covered in pubic hair and wire wool; Nathan Bell’s solo banjo pieces sound like a spectral memory-trigger if ever I heard one; new Earth LP is a juicy monster (though I suspect if it were any other band this would be labelled ‘post-rock’ in reviews before you could blink); Sir Richard Bishop’s furiously-picked solo guitar records; the new Bilge Pump album ‘Rupert The Sky’ (click the link to be magically transported to Gringo Records’ Myspace page for a sneak preview).

Reading: I just finished Please Kill Me, the anecdotal history of Punk as told by some Americans. It’s fascinating stuff, especially when dealing with Detroit and the MC5 and Stooges. Less so when Patti Smith crops up at any given point. Patti Smith is bullshit, am I missing something with her or something?

Watching: Broke my “no trips to the cinema” policy to see No Country For Old Men, a film so detailed and so reliant on the audience’s total undivided attention that it only served to place my policy firmly back in action. I am never going to the cinema again. A guy sitting along from me screamed at the kids in the back to stop rattling their keys and then said kids moaned loudly when the ending didn’t deliver what they wanted/expected. It was excellent of course.

Been watching lots of randomised You Tube stuff as well which I will endeavour to share with you through diskant as often as possible.

Working on: an absolute pile of design work. Record sleeves for Crevecoeur from France, Bilge Pump, Beyond This Point Are Monsters and gig posters galore of course. Some shown below…

Team Damn You! has also been hard at work in 08 so far with some amazing shows by the likes of Enon and Fuck Buttons and more to come.

Music-wise, I only got round to doing my first gig of 08 last week when Felix opened for the Cave Singers in Nottingham. We’ve been hard at work on a Felix record with Mr Ian Scanlon at the helm. It should hopefully come out later this year when we ever finish it and we’re dead excited.

2nd Lords album hit a hiccup at the end of last year due to some crazy bad luck occurrences. It is done, dusted and being artworked at the moment with a view to coming out in May. It is called “Everyone Is People”. We tour with Bilge Pump in March in the UK. This summer will see a serious slowing down of Lords gig activity for good so come out and see us now.

Antipating: Lords LP/tour; Chris Leo playing in Nottingham; Human Bell playing in Nottingham; going to Australia later this year for a holiday; getting a new band together at some point (do YOU play drums or sing? Then email me!)…

Self-promoting: I think I’ve done enough of that already.

Exciting!

Listening: Lots of pop, the Klaxons have (surprisingly) found a special place in my heart. Also Madonna‘s Immaculate Collection has, much to the annoyance of my housemates, had some heavy rotation recently too. Hope for Men by Pissed Jeans has been filling me with grunge nostalgia, and Fuck Buttons‘ Street Horsssing has been keeping it technicolour.

Reading: Got into a really bad habit of starting books and not finishing them, which frustrates me more than possibly anything else in the world. Currently halfway through Iain Banks’ The Wasp Factory which is going fairly well. Was given a copy of the 33 1/3 book on Neutral Milk Hotel’s In the Aeroplane Over the Sea, which I look forward to tearing through with much glee. Still my favourite album ever.

Watching: Loads of Shameless, which I’ve really got into over the last month or so, after hating it for years. Constant Red Dwarf, despite the fact that I’ve seen every episode like a hundred times. Black Books, Nathan Barley and Jam too for good measure.

Working on: Loads of gigs, as part of the Crushing Death & Grief party collective, getting ready to start a new job with Apple, so I’ll actually be getting paid to be a smug bastard full time, and trying to figure out a way to get my art zine made. After an initial flurry of activity and interest last summer it’s become a real grind, but given the quality of submissions (art-wise, and music for the accompanying CDR!) I’ve already received, I’m determined to get this finished. If you know anyone would might like to contribute something, drop me a line!

Anticipating: Starting the aforementioned new job on March 8th, loads and loads of gigs including Trencher, Spiritualized, James Blackshaw, Family Underground, Björk, My Bloody Valentine, and of course the annual jaunt to Barcelona for Primavera Sound in May.

Self-promoting: I’ll skip the gigs since I already mentioned that. Er….. that’s basically it though. A much neglected personal (read: art/music/general crap, low on words, high on… er… crap!) blog called A Box Labelled Catastrophes that needs some work, but has photos of strippers on the first page!

Watching: John Sayles’ new film Honeydripper at the Glasgow Film Festival. Good stuff. Full post later, I hope.

Listening: No scope for lying to make myself looking cooler, since it’s all on my Last.fm profile but Honeydripper sent me off to lots of old blues and rockabilly stuff like Hank Williams’ Move it on over. Either public domain recordings rule, or I’m getting old.

Reading: Not enough books, too many webpages. Damn RSS aggregators.