8 band label sampler. S’alright. Lots of bands who seem really angry about something but I am none the wiser as to what it is that has narked them so. Escanna sound more metal than I recall. You’re Smiling Now But We’ll All Turn Into Demons remind me of Trail Of Dead (maybe it’s the name). I remember seeing them play and the bassist hammering living shit out of his bass within about 30 secs. Despite their track having a “nur-nur nur-nur nur-nur nur-nur NUH NUH” bit it’s rocking enough to do it for me. Menendez are the surprise package. A bit like Quickspace/Stereolab and all that jazz it makes a welcome relief from all the noise and it’s a proper tune too. For Trucks is a pretty, woosily tuned, Drag City styled deal with some really raging full on “I have had enough to drink thank you barman” vocals and the song lasts about 13 seconds.
The less testosterone the better I think.

Instrumental, guitar/keys/drums craziness from Japanese folks.
I have this theory about The Wire and all that shit. You can release any old guff and if you call songs ‘works’ or ‘pieces’ or ‘compositions’ (or anything apart from songs) people will think you’re really serious and the sound of your finger being wiggled around in your earhole could be released under the title “Fishing For Wax – a series of new compositions” and some tosser in a black roll neck will start comparing it to Keiji Haino or one of those other dudes that no one really listens to.
This album is hideous. I am really sorry. I wanted to like it, the first track cracks off with some guitar freakout action and the rest of it spans freedom and hard, rigid King Crimsonisms but the keyboards just make it sound either too jovial or too dated and it’s all from the head. Even when they really rear up and try and throw off their rider, these horses are just too polite and considered.

I always think it’s weird to read things like
“Kinesis have always been anti-image, anti-media-led”
on a press release. I’m not knocking anyone for getting press shit together for a record but it makes me initially suspicious. Call me a cynic.
I thought this would be a hideous nu-metal album from the cover art but it’s actually a more eclectic brew.
The press release describes them as “a sonic stew of Muse, The Pixies and Rage Against The Machine”. I dunno, that sells them a little short but when you listen to a track like Everything You Thought You Knew To Be it should have read “a sonic stew of Muse, Muse and Muse…with a bit of a Smashing Pumpkins chorus”. The vocals especially and the rank, processed, unhuman quality of the guitar reeks of Muse so much it’s hard to handle and if it’s not Muse it’s Billy Fucking Corgan.
That’s not to say it’s all bad. Sometimes you think it’s going to go a bit Sparks, or Queen but it’s always held back by the vocals and the sonic qualities.
Apparently the band have split, which is a shame as this album should be their way of leaving behind 5 years of work and feeling proud but the sound of this record and the way they have dressed up and presented their songs is going to make this sound so dated in 5 years time it’ll be near unlistenable. But there’s a good quirky songwriter in there somewhere, underneath all the pap.

I listened to this after around 20 other CDs Marceline dropped on me like the envelope of hot shit they were.
I will drift from the subject for a moment if I may… a few years ago myself and Matthew Ernest Newnham (head honcho of the Gringo Records Empire) each took a week off work on compassionate leave after we heard the devastating news that the Tight Bros From Way Back When had broken up. I was pretty down. Matt at least got to see them play.
Raising Sand sound a lot like the Tight Bros. I suspect this may not be deliberate. This EP is nearly awful, nearly. But it’s not. It fucking rips. It’s just the right side of cheesy but ultimately it’s immensely good fun to live with for the length of it’s 4 songs.
The press release says the guitarist is Graham Bartram. Graham, I salute you. You are a BAD ASS guitar player. This man knows how to drop a Billy Gibbons let me assure you. Raising Sand are more on the lines of AC/DC (albeit a little more Southern Rock) but the guitars are straight up ZZ Top at times. And they seem to have taste too. I admit when the closing track Witness To The Storm starts I feel a little bummed out, it’s a kind of rock ballad that all bands have on their albums or EPs because they feel they should do. Led Zeppish, nice solo but a bit dad rock. But, like The Chain by the mighty Mac, the start proves to be a stooge for the most bitching ending and any subsequent listen is influenced by this knowledge. Like trying to follow the plot in a film with a really rude shag scene in it. Impossible, because you know what’s coming up. And what’s coming up is yet more smoking riffery.
Vinny Foreman’s vocals too are pretty smoking. He doesn’t shy away from getting Bon Scott when it’s needed and thankfully his Bon never gets too Brian if you know what I mean.
Plus, these dudes are from Guildford.

(wrote this at work and then forgot I wrote it so it’s a bit late)

HOT SNAKES – Nottingham Cabaret

My friend Joey Chickenskin has, on numerous occasions, expressed hardcore homosexual desires about John Reis, guitarist for San Diego’s Hot Snakes and a life in maximum prison lockdown as cell mates. Tonight, this very straight Henry Rollins lookalike is practically wetting his big girly knickers every time Reis lands another massive mountainous power chord.
There was a time when Hot Snakes were regarded in the shadow of Drive Like Jehu, the band Reis and vocalist Rick Froberg teamed up in previously. Which, in turn, was always in the shadow of Reis’ day job as Speedo in Rocket From The Crypt.
Maybe it’s the fact Hot Snakes have now made more records than Jehu. Or that Rocket seems to be in self-imposed limbo. Or that Reis has assumed the role of genuine bona-fide punk rock legend giving a stamp of quality to everything he does. But Hot Snakes seem to be less of a ‘project’ and more of a band these days. A fucking righteous one too.
Last time they came over some people expressed a preference for Jehu. In light of bands like At The Drive In – who definitely borrowed some of the forceful clang n scrape of Jehu – it’s unsurprising that the more direct approach of Hot Snakes wasn’t seen as much of a progression in certain camps. Fuck em. If you want to listen to Jehu, go listen to them. That’s the early 90s and this is now and what was once a triumphant display of confusing, technical ferocity would now come across as math rock grandstanding thanks to the watering down process administered by the band’s direct, lamer descendants while the Jehu went quiet.
What could possibly be better than marrying thumping guitars with impossible downstroke-per-second figures to the hamburger-throated vocals of Froberg? NUTTIN. That’s what.
So here we are at Cabaret for the biggest show Damn You! has ever attempted (guarantee-wise anyway). Hot Snakes 05 is a different beast to the one that made the early records – the keyboard bass of the first record remains (more of that later) but it’s doubled up with Gar Wood on electric bass. And with original drummer Jason Koulkarnis committed to Burning Brides and Scout Niblett, Mario (Clikatat Ikatowi, RFTC, Sea Of Tombs etc etc) takes his place.
They are loud, fierce, punk rock mecca.
They barely pause between songs and anyone who thinks getting older blunts a person’s commitment to live performance should watch Reis attack his Les Paul sometime. Let’s get this straight, Chickenskin is so right. I am GAY for John Reis. He is without doubt in the Top 10 guitar players I can think of. The man is a machine. LOUD LOUD LOUD. Thick globs of chunky wholesome KLANG straight into my eager eardrums.
But not as loud as the sub bass that rips my arsehole apart every time it cuts in. I think it’s being done on the desk from a synth but I couldn’t take my eyes of Reis long enough to check.
They plough through several little medleys of tunes from the records, in order as they are on the record. People fall on the stage. The band seem to be loving it. It gets quite warm. Froberg attempts a Nottingham accent.
They encore with Bullet Train To Vegas and Luau by Jehu. In this context the songs rip. BTTV is probably the most Hot Snakesish of the Jehu tunes but the complexity of Luau is morphed and extended and jammed with Reis’ guitar cranked right up and all 4 of them looking like there’s nothing on earth they’d rather be doing.

I have had a really nasty hangover all day as a result of putting on ONEIDA last night in Nottingham. Our proposed support band pulled out (the mighty DIE MUNCH MACHINE – we forgive you) so we ended up hastily assembling an Arkestra for the night consisting of Dave Stockwell, Dave Moult, Gareth Hardwick, Lucky Chua and myself. 4 guitars and a cello. The relief of finishing was so great and Oneida so trance like and mighty I set about celebrating.
What the fuck has this got to do with the price of bread you might think?
Well, I found a hangover cure! HAMBONE by ARCHIE SHEPP on his Impulse album FIRE MUSIC.
It goes like this.

Bom-Bom (bu bu bu bup) Bom-Bom (bu bu bu bup)

Dur dur dur dee dah dah dee dee dur dahhh dahh dahhhhh
durdupdup dahdupdupduh dur dur dur dubbub du dah der didda da DAH!

Bom-Bom (bu bu bu bup) Bom-Bom (bu bu bu bup)

NA NA NA NA NAAA; NUR NUR NUH
NA NA NA NA NAAA; NUR NUR NUH
NA NA NA NA NAAA; NUR NUR NUH
NA NA NA NA NAAA; NUR NUR NUH
NA NA NA NA NAAA; NUR NUR NUH
NA NA NA NA NAAA; NUR NUR NUH
NA NA NA NA NAAA; NUR NUR NUH

Then it stops and goes all the way around again and thenittakesoffandgoestotallymenetalovertheNA NA NA NA NAAA; NUR NUR NUHriffbutwithArchiejustgoingwildoveritandsummoning upthepowersofthegods
andheavenandhellinhishornandspeakingthetruthaaaaahhhhhhh!!

My head is free!

The best FUCKING PUNK ROCK BAND ON THE PLANET are touring.

HOT SNAKES! fool….

But surely you will have to suffer fools, double figure ticket prices and shitty venues to see them?

Unless they play a ssssh hush hush show on Bank Holiday Monday that is….

www.damnyou.co.uk

sweeeeeet!

There is a message thread on the Drowned In Sound site where people are posting their favourite guitar solos of all time.
I sat and I thought about it. I can think of a few off the top of my head: Clap Hands by Tom Waits (Marc Ribot on guitar), Stereo Sanctity by Sonic Youth, Hell Is Chrome by Wilco, every note ever played by Sonny Sharrock, Precious & Grace by ZZ Top, Howl! By Wolves Of Greece and of course Hot by Golden.
Like the Top 10 albums of all time and ‘if you could kill 5 people and get away with it who would they be’, it’s one of those eternal questions (to most people) where it will continue to change as your tastes change and you discover more music.
Not for me though.
I can tell you my definitive Best Guitar Solo Of All Time. It will never change.
It is by Dean Carter on his cover of Jailhouse Rock by Elvis Presley. Mere words cannot do justice to this slab of genuine cuckoo bed wetting lunacy. Lunacy not only because of what Dean plays but mainly because the engineer must have been off his fucking tits to allow it to stay on the record. Let us give thanks that he did.
Up to the guitar solo, the record is pretty whacked out anyway. A motoring, pulverising version of the original recorded in the red and with Dean sounding like he’s in the middle of a nasty trip and is on the verge of a crying mental breakdown. Then out of nowhere comes his legacy.
I guarantee this will stop any conversation immediately. It makes Sonic Youth sound tame. Essentially, Dean strums his guitar as hard as he can, with no thought to the timing of the song, and runs a metal slide up and down the strings. It is part hilarious and part terrifying. It is mixed so high in the song that the backing track just disappears and when Dean bails out after a few bars you have no idea where the hell you are rhythmically (or emotionally). You feel battle scarred but deliriously happy.
I am trying to track down Dean’s back catalogue (which is reissued on Big Beat) as I am reliably informed this kind of totally unschooled, rabid outburst was pretty much his trademark.
He left the industry to preach the gospel so I am told. On his version of Jailhouse Rock, he already did it.
PRAISE THE LORD.

See, this is just as quirky on the surface as the Mistys Big Adventure record but the difference is PAA can actually write a song and their oddness is not a means to an end, they are an odd band but first and foremost they’re a band that works. They’ve always been a shambolic but fun live proposition but there’s no evidence of that on this EP and it surprises me. The production is hi tech and it suits them. I will defend any band where the vocals are delivered in the speaking accent of the person singing them so they’re up already. Their home of Derby has this history of producing bands who are so self effacing and modest that, ultimately, they write themselves out of contention. I’m not saying PAA need to be cocky or arrogant but they’ve got nothing to think small about, this is no lo-fi indie release, it’s a well crafted pop winner and they should be proud.

I agreed to take some CDs to review to clear the backlog a bit. It’s hard, you know. I mean, I always just review things that I love and then it’s easy to write about them because I am enthusiastic. And especially if it’s music I like too. Or a musical form I like. I hate bad reviews, I’d rather people didn’t write anything at all but the diskant bosses say that presents a one-sided webzine and that we need to review everything. So here goes.
I haven’t been a student now for about 6 or 7 years and even when I was one I hated them, me included. I imagine some of them will like this band and maybe buy a T shirt from them at a local gig night with the band’s name written on the front and an amusing drawing. In 10 years time, on a Sunday, they’ll paint the gables on their house wearing said band t shirt and they will comment to their partner (who they will have met in their final year at uni and will still be with) “Ho ho, remember the gig where I bought this?” and he or she will say “Yeah! Wasn’t being a student great!” and they will hug each other. They will be happier than me and you know what, good fucking luck to them.