My biggest achievement of summer 2007 has been moving back to Newcastle, my biggest achievement since, ooh since moving to Leeds in 1998. Newcastle’s great.

As well as playing lots of soccer and pub quizzes, me and Sophie off of Sailors are attempting to make it even better by putting on some great gigs. Well, at least one. On Fri October 26th we’re hosting Sincabeza, That Fucking Tank, Richard Dawson and Helios which will be an exciting evening of rock and non-rock. I used to go and see Richard play gigs when we were both about 16; he was great then and he’s great now! Sincabeza are great rocking French instrumentalists, Tank are great noisy duo, possibly augmented at this gig by Giles from Kill Yourself, just like the old days! Helios are new kids on the Geordie block and sound a bit like a heavy Faraquet, I think.

I haven’t played in my band Sailors much, but some recordings we did a while back have seen the light of day by way of the excellent Gringo Records of Nottingham. YOU SHOULD ALL BUY IT HERE NOW. Due to now being scattered all over the country gigs are few and far between, but we’re playing in Brighton on November 24th and Leeds on December 1st, with two whole hosts of excellent bands including Soeza, Line, Ack Ack Ack, Bilge Pump and Trencher. Get in!

And thats it I think.

Things that have been happening with me of late…

Saint Eskimo and George Thomas & The Owls played a gig in my dining room a few weeks ago, and it’s no exaggeration to say that it was marvellous. Saint Eskimo is the most insanely loved up duo of Viking Moses and Golden Ghost, and they played a number of lovely songs including On a Plain by Nirvana, and George Thomas is a lovely and very quiet chap from Manchester who began his set with I’m So Excited and I Just Can’t Hide It. There was also home made falafel, couscous, fairy lights and collage. I’m very keen for more afternoons like this one.

Spent a few days in Iceland a couple of months back which was really really amazing. Could have quite happily just stayed there, lovely people, great food, mind-blowing landscapes. Whilst there I was lucky enough to encounter Anton Newcombe from The Brian Jonestown Massacre, and SURPRISE, he was a total cock!

Attended Field Day in London, which would have been an unmitigated disaster were it not for the fact that a) the whole shebang had cost me nothing, and b) I was too tired to really give a shit about the queues for beer/toilets/food/everything. As sunny days out in the park go it was tip top, but for watching bands etc it was pretty rubbish.

Got to see Get Hustle, a band I’ve enjoyed for a number of years. They played at the very excellent and recently refurbished Portland Arms in Cambridge and were fucking smoking. My mum was equally into it, and took some pretty excellent footage.

Speaking of my mum, she very kindly took me to see Joanna Newsom at the Royal Albert Hall last Friday which was really quite outstanding. Never been to a venue like it before, epic stuff. The new arrangements with her band sounded fantastic, and if the one new song she played is anything to go by, the next record will be as amazing as the last two (if pretty different!)

Things what I’ve enjoyed watching lately include…

Lukas Moodysson’s Container
Richard Donner’s The Omen
Terence Malick’s The New World (thanks to Dave Stockwell for the nod!)
Todd Solondz’s Palindromes

…and playing…

Super Paper Mario
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Resident Evil 4

And I guess since this is SELF PROMOTION WEEK etc I can plug the following…

This is happening TOMORROW and despite the fact I’m currently wrapped in a dressing gown and a duvet, coughing like a twat and generally feeling sorry for myself, I’m very excited about putting Meneguar on.

Then next month myself, Pink Flag and one time diskanter Ian Scanlon are putting on Grouper, Gareth Hardwick and Felix in the basement of a delightful cafe in Cambridge.

If you live within a stones throw of us you should come and check these gigs out. Despite rumours to the contrary, Cambridge is well good.

It’s Self Promotion Week according to Marceline so here’s some stuff I’ve been up/am up to…(with some visuals to go with it)

Last week I finally made it to 100 gigs with one band as Lords crossed the finishing line. We did the 100th one in the same place exactly as the first one (it even involved hiring a stage) at Susumi in Derby. It looked like this:

It gave me the nice chance to make us 3 into ZZ Top for the poster which looked like this:

Talking of which, I am still self employed though in a world of hurt with various assisting government agencies. Still, I am very busy. Local culture magazine Left Lion have pretty much ignored every musical venture I have ever been involved in but seem to like the artwork. First of all they did a really nice interview here:

Then I had the opportunity to do the cover for the current issue and opted to do a portrait of Frank Robinson, aka Xylophone Man, Nottingham’s much missed busking heavyweight:

Summer’s drawing to a close which is a shame as I finally got into the great outdoors and took advantage of working on my own time to go and see some local sights in the last few weeks. The most amazing of which is the very haunted (so they say) Sutton Scarsdale Hall nr Chesterfield. Daytime:

Night-time, DRC and Gareth surrounded by glowing orbs. It was pretty hairy:

Also visited Cresswell Crags, Ice-Age Gorge nr Worksop:

As well as plenty of day trips to Derbyshire and Norfolk. Nice.

Loads of people are getting married. Congratulations to Barn from Soeza and his wife Sanna; my cousin Matt and his wife Joanne and future weddings: this weekend is former Reynolds yelper Matt and Kerry and in a fortnight’s time it’s Ian Scanlon’s turn as he marries Jane. That’s not all, Phil from Lords is going to be a Dad in December; a month that also sees my 29th birthday for the 2nd year running.

Here’s me and DRC enjoying Barn & Sanna’s wedding party deep in Sherwood Forest:

Lastly, plenty of music going on.
Listening to: new High On Fire, Pearls & Brass, Ike & Tina Turner, Nuggets, Silver Jews, Sir Richard Bishop, Get Hustle Tour CD, Mulatu Astatke, Moondog, Karate and the new Bilge Pump album “Rupert The Sky”.

Doing lots of music stuff too. 2nd Lords LP called “Everyone Is People” is so close to being finished it hurts but probably won’t see light of day until 2008. Read about it here: http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.ListAll&friendID=13689829
Not much gigging going down though with baby action on the horizon so lots of time to do other things…
Myself and Neil from Wolves Of Greece are still sporadically making up 2/3 of The Resurrection Men with Andy from Clambake when time permits. We’re also involved in a new band called The Evil Hawk which sees it’s gigging debut in Nottingham on oct 27th with Chrome Hoof. It’s the new project by Michael from Hellset Orchestra and is kind of like Queen.
I’m also kick starting a new band with Katy from Not In This Town called Horsey.
Not to mention Felix which has been on hold while Lucinda took part in a Channel 4 documentary about photographers. See her get stitched up by editing in January 2008.
Last but not least, Edwin Pouncey wrote these nice words in The Wire:

Me and Neil, together with Chris from Hirameka Hi-Fi are also part of Glenn Branca’s orchestra for the performance of Symphony#13 for 100 Guitars at the Frieze Festival at London’s Roundhouse on October 12th. Totally shitting it.

Hope everyone is well!

Well, there’s nothing like a self promotion opportunity to bring a slacker like me out of hibernation.

Here’s the most important thing I’ve been doing: Crania Draft Massif

We’ve just released an online charity compilation album, motivated by the fact that charity singles are, without fail, utter crap on account of having to appeal to the greatest possible number of people, leaving kind-hearted alternative music fans the world over in a rather unpleasant position. So a bunch of weirdos with samplers have been persuaded to remix their (least) favourite charity records, and we’ve compiled the results into 3 CDs worth of disgusting and excellent music. The mp3s, all available from the link above, are all free, but we ask that if you download them you donate some money to Cardiff & District Samaritans, who do great work, are staffed and managed entirely by volunteers and are funded pretty much entirely by donations.

If anyone fancies actually reviewing the album, let me know and I’ll post you some CDs rather than downloading the whole lot.

Erm, what else – oh yeah, you can also buy my new album, which I produced specifically to get rid of a bunch of silly red plastic boxes that I found in my shed:
myspace.com/nationalsubnormal. Mention Diskant when ordering and get some free detritus in the envelope!

• Finished off uni application forms… today.
• Voice aches from singing in small local opera (Mikhail the Russian novelist!) & Karl Jenkin’s ‘The Armed Man’ at local choir. Baritone range can’t cope with top e’s.
• Playing semi-frequently with guitar&drums duo Fee Fi Fo Fum http://myspace.com/feefifofumisaband
• Listening to… Miles Davis – Porgy and Bess, Hella – Total Bugs Bunny on Wild Bass, Sunn O))) – Black One, The Essential Dave Brubeck, Joe Pass – Virtuoso #2, Leadbelly – Midnight Special, Don Caballero 2, Captain Beefheart – Trout Mask Replica.
• Teaching guitar lessons to slow youngsters.
• Working on vocal & Free Compositions with the great yet terrible Sibelius program.
• Trying to keep hair on.

Posse out. Px

Dear oh dear. What has happened to diskant this past month, you must be wondering? Well, I have to say I am wondering that myself. There really has been no action through September so I haven’t bothered with a newsletter. I assume, like me, the rest of the diskant team have been caught up with other things. I am famously against our writers promoting their outside interests on the blog but for one week only it is being actively encouraged. Come on diskanteers, tell us about your upcoming gig, your new record, your new band, your annual charity all dayer (ahem). That is, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING?

I will begin.

The main reason I have been neglecting diskant shamefully is in order to become An Artist. As you may or may not know, I make purses, brooches, stationery etc. under the name Asking For Trouble and I have been asked to be part of the Gifted exhibition at no less than The National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh! I was rather gobsmacked and have spent the last month feverishly sewing in my spare time (yes, I still work full time as well) to get my twenty purses all handstitched and delivered for this weekend. Anyway, if you are in the area please do come along and see the exhibition. It takes place from November 16th-January 6th and is free entry. More info on my website as I know it.

I also run an online shop for my crafts and, since I have neglected you, you can all have 10% off for the month of October. Just enter DISKANT at the checkout and you’ll get 10% off your order. I ship internationally and thanks to the wonder of internet postage I can get your order posted super fast. Why not get your Christmas shopping started early?

Lastly I am GOING TO JAPAN in two weeks, as everyone who knows me is sick of hearing. We have an itinerary as long as the distance from here to Tokyo and I really really cannnot wait.

So, how about you?

My CD player died last weekend. I say ‘died’ but I actually mean ‘ate a CD and lost it inside somewhere’ so more like committing suicide. It was a crappy £100 all in one stereo from my student days and the record button fell off one of the cassette decks about 6 years ago but still. I can still listen to vinyl and cassettes but the diskant review box isn’t exactly overflowing with those formats. At the same time, my iPod has started playing up and last night I had to do a restore on it which took a good half hour re-copying over my iTunes library.

So I figured I’d go for the whole shebang and deleted all the listening data from my Last.fm profile. I’ve been using Last.fm for years now and it lost all its shiny excitement a good six months ago as my overall listening charts were so unchanging, needing me to become totally obsessed with something for it even to make a dent. Not their fault, of course, but a fresh start might jumpstart my listening.

It’s all really made me so aware of how little I actually listen to music these days. I’m so absorbed in my neverending list of tasks that if I put music on, I don’t really hear it, or notice when it ends.

When I get back from Japan (four weeks til I go!) I am going to buy a real stereo, piece by piece, and set myself some musical challenges. After all, I still have 32 reviews to write for diskant by next March so something needs to happen.

Sorry diskant is so inactive at the moment. Looks like we all need a jumpstart. If you want to review some records, get in touch.

Currently…

Listening:

Loads of stuff. Getting back into music at the moment as well as rediscovering lots of old things.
Mulatu Astatke is the big one for me at the moment. The Ethiopean King Of The Fender Rhodes. The Ethiopiques Instrumentals and Ethio-Jazz compilation LPs are phenomenal. The Ethiopean scale of music means nothing ever sounds resolved so you end up with this beautiful haunting music that teeters between heartbreaking sadness and true ecstacy.
Qui are awesome. Got chance to see them in Texas in March and then again at Supersonic at the weekend. Search You Tube for their Supersonic set to see how much of this awesomeness comes from the powerhouse drums and guitar action meaning comparing them to The Jesus Lizard is nothing short of missing the point.
I never much liked Soundgarden back when I had long hair and a checked shirt. Whereas Nirvana spat out their music and it all felt natural, Soundgarden sounded too composed and thought out. I must have been mental. Superunknown is a masterpiece. There, I said it. I’m even going to see Chris Cornell in a few weeks.
The new Earthless album Rhythms From A Cosmic Sky is 2 extremely long and heavy jams where the guitar solos become so long and deep that they go through the barrier of being ‘long’ or ‘wanky’ and out the other side into some weird reality where time is all strrrretched.
And finally and most importantly the new Moondog compilation on Honest Jon’s is one of the strangest and most affecting records I have ever heard. Get on to Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moondog
Not to mention The MC5, Bo Diddley, The Monks and the new Bilge Pump album.
And the gentle purr of my new car.

Reading:
Louis Theroux – The Call Of The Weird. I always find the documentaries excruciating but the book is great.
I have also been reading about having my cruciate ligament replaced with part of my hamstring as it all sounds a bit fucking heavy.

Watching:
TV? Oh no, I don’t do that. I have been immersed in Family Guy boxsets for a while now though. And will no doubt go see The Simpsons Movie.
Lots of You Tube action as well. There’s some incredible footage of The MC5 from Detroit Tubeworks that is possibly the finest rock n roll footage I have ever seen.
I’ve been watching my weight also. This knee thing has lessened my already small exercise regime and I am entering my Vegas period.

Anticipating:
New Lords album. We’ve been working hard on this since April and now I can start to see the light at the end of the tunnel and that light is the light of rock’s majesty, in light form. It’s been surprisingly good fun. I like being in a band sometimes.
First proper release by Felix is out now as well on www.low-point.com – somewhere between Regina Spektor and Earth. I do the Regina Spektor part obviously.
I’m also hopefully playing guitar in October for a very reknowned New York composer, I’m not jinxing it by saying when and where and who but I’m very much anticipating it.
Lots of weddings coming up too, and births.

Working on:
Work. This self-employed thing isn’t quite the piece-of-piss I thought it might be. Been doing lots of ‘proper’ illustration jobs and really enjoying it too. I’m going for a big fat steak tonight and when I’m stuffing my face I can think “drawing pictures paid for this”. It’s a nice thought.
I’m also learning to read music fast.

I will be getting “the gang” together for a proper round-up article shortly but I think it’s fairly safe to say everyone had an awesome time. What a great place The Custard Factory is. Anyway, in the meantime you can look at our photos which should start turning up in the diskanteers Flickr group shortly. I’ve added a few of mine but typically all my photos are of Birmingham Botanic Gardens and the sky and not of bands or anything. Others will have that covered though, I’m sure.

I’d also like to thank Fate for sticking to just having a laugh with the weather and ignoring the more tempting possibilities offered by a) me flying on Friday 13th in what appeared to be a toy plane and b) me and Mogwai being on the same flight back to Glasgow. If there’s one way I don’t want to die, it’s in a plane crash with Mogwai. My obituary would pretty much write itself. Although if there’s any LOST-style shenanigans involved then having Mogwai around would probably be quite amusing.

Listening:

The soundtrack to the summer (of sorts) has been ‘?’ by French electro-ponces Justice. I’ve finally become one of these people I used to despise, who like ‘dancing’ and anything at all to do with Vice magazine. So it goes. Also amazing is Panda Bear‘s third solo outing, ‘Person Pitch’. Sweet liquid magic to make you feel good about everything, much in the same way the last few Animal Collective albums have. Lastly, 2004’s ‘I Was Born at Night’ by Brooklyn’s Meneguar is the best indie rock record you’ve never heard. All instant-classic good time singalong tunes, the likes of which were once abundant before things like being-a-grown-up got in the way. UK tour in the autumn!

Reading:

Currently halfway through ‘Lords of Chaos: The Rise of the Satanic Metal Underground‘, which so far is absolutely fascinating. Learning far more about Nazi occultism than I could have ever imagined I would; the depth of this study into what can sometimes to the outsider be a slightly comical subject (you’ve all seen that Immortal video, right?) is pretty astounding. Switched to this for some light relief after starting Jerzy Kosinski’s ‘The Painted Bird‘ which I swiped from an apartment in Barcelona, along with some mega-trashy 50s sci-fi.

Watching:

Die Hard 4.0, which was perfect for a slightly hungover Saturday afternoon. EXPLOSIONS!! etc. Lots of on-demand comedy that we suddenly seem to have been given for free (presumably Virgin’s effort to appease those unhappy about the loss of The Simpsons).

Anticipating:

Visiting Reykjavik the week after next. Seeing Prince two days after I return. Field Day the week after that. The third annual Palimpsest Festival a couple of weeks later. Joanna Newsom at the Royal Albert Hall in September with me mum.

Working on:

The odd gig. Just keepin’ on keepin’ on.