I have truly been fucking shocked at hearing this record on daytime Radio One. I could literally not believe my ears as the old school emo hardcore flew out the FM and I was transported back to the future.

It is nearly ten years now since I was buying seven inches by bands that don’t just sound a little like this band, they sounded EXACTLY like this band (well, this single at least). Actually the reality is that Gallows sound exactly like such DIY heroes from back in the day as Bob Tilton, Tribute, Beacon etc etc. At one point, if you went up to Leeds it seemed like bands sounding like this were growing on trees and Subjugation Records were selling their records through their distro.

So what on earth has happened? I feel it is a truly strange climate these days that sees bands in the (near) mainstream sounding like bands from “my roots” and I truly cannot decide if this is a good thing or a bad thing. And at the end of the day, who is it that can claim to have won the war? Did the majors get wise to the innovation of the DIY indies (ho ho) and cash in on it? Have the underground labels been ultimately proved right in their ideas as to where music (especially rock) was going? Regardless, I know which demographic will be sleeping on a big pile of money tonight as opposed to sleeping on the floor.

I suspect I am the last person at the party to hear this record as I understand the album was originally released on such an indie (in Nottingham?) is now being majorly overhauled by Warners (all for a price). At the end of the day however it is just still really distracting to hear my record collection from ten years ago being played on daytime FM when I thought that was the most cutting edge sounding shit that would forever remain marginalised. Truly, where is the (music) world heading? Kids today!

Thesaurus moment: disconcerting.

Gallows
Warner Music

With a pleasantly fuzzed up dirty Soundgarden-esqe guitar sound, this Myspace approaching band sustain my attention for exactly 22 seconds until the Ian Astbury style vocals kick in and spoil the show, reducing proceedings to little more than dated hair band cock rock middle class white man blues grunge rock of the most hormonal kind. That surely can’t be a good thing.

With a name that I keep confusing with Deidre (Barlow?), The Police lifted “S.O.S.” insertion into the first song only serves to extend the painfully commercial aimed intention and unoriginality of this CD. And then track two sounds like the Manic Street Preachers in the most AOR of modes.

Deride are a managed band destined to play pubs and rock clubs for eternity. I could go to the rock bush outside right now and pull two or three of them of the vine in a moment. Actually I am currently shitting a band like this out of my arse right now!

Sent by their management company (they’re managed!), unfortunately I was not supplied with a bio sheet to go with this CD so I have to make my own up with my imagination. And my limited imagination only serves me to believe that in their part time these guys are bricklayers after being the kings of the school in their formative years. Their record collections contains every CD Kerrang has given five Ks to in the past ten years. And with a demo cover that features a strewn bottle of Jack Daniels, packets of fags, unused Durex, some bird’s bikini top (or undies, I just can’t tell the difference these days), a rolled up twenty pound note and a circle of powder that may or may not (probably not) be blow – I don’t think you could mistake these guys for being emo. I wish I had never been sent this.

Thesaurus moment: obsolete.

Deride
MepWeb Management

Indietracks is a festival where the worlds of indie-pop and trains collide. Not literally of course; that’d be horrendous. But it’s certainly a unique concept, mixing up a two-day festival of some excellent indie-pop with train-related fun. Organiser Stuart Mackay kindly answered some questions below, and even more kindly has offered a pair of free tickets to one of the lucky people that can answer the question at the end of the interview…

Tell us about Indietracks.
Indietracks predominately showcases indiepop music, which actually encompasses a surprisingly wide range of styles. We had our first night in April, a much smaller event with three bands playing on the station platform (Pocketbooks, Slow Down Tallahassee & Tottie), and in-between bands everyone went for a steam train ride with DJs (Spiral Scratch, Offbeat & Tastyzine) and dancing (and a bar!) on-board. It was an amazing success, hailed by many as the best indiepop event ever. But the formula meant it was also restrictive in numbers, and so our ideas for a second event grew and grew until they became this two day festival.

What should a visitor to the festival expect?
This event’s at a different station from the first, so visitors will need to catch a steam train to get to the festival site where there’ll be an outdoor stage and a smaller stage in a church. The festival arena, out in the Derbyshire countryside, is surrounded by museums – featuring railways, static power engines, buses and even a fork lift museum! There’s a railway shop, model railways and a miniature railway offering rides. There’s things like a signal box you can go in and see how they work, and even a petting farm and a country park. And of course there’s steam and heritage diesel trains running all day, you can go for a ride whenever you like! There may be some acoustic sets on board these trains. Everything is included in the ticket price other than the miniature railway, and family friendly. We’re not offering camping on the railway, but there is a caravan / campsite a few minutes walk away.

What is the steam train/railways connection all about?
Nothing really inspirational behind it, unfortunately. I’ve worked at the railway for a number of years, restoring old trains back to running order. We regularly hire out the train with the disco carriage for birthday parties, weddings etc. and I eventually got round to thinking it might be a place where gigs could be held. I nearly didn’t go ahead with it because of the out of the way location, and there’s no normal train service to Ripley, but I needed have worried, the April event sold out three months in advance! There’s good bus services here from Derby and Nottingham, so it isn’t that hard to get here.

Will there be more Indietracks events in the future
Fingers crossed the festival will become an annual fixture! We’re well advanced with the concept for the Christmas event. They won’t be held all that regular, to help keep them novel.

What parts of the lineup are you most excited about?
Without a doubt Rose McDowell! One of the first bands I ever saw live was Strawberry Switchblade, more than twenty years ago. I’ve listened to them regularly ever since, and so I was absolutely delighted when Rose accepted the invitation to come and play, and to include some Strawberry Switchblade songs in her set. Cats On Fire I’m also excited about seeing again, they deserve to be huge. But there are many others I won’t miss, in a way it’s quite a personal festival as I got to ask along all my favourite bands!

Visit the festival website for more information and a full line-up.

Interested in those free tickets? Just e-mail simonminter@diskant.net, along with your full name and address.

The winner will be drawn and contacted on Sunday 15 July. They’ll get free tickets, but will need to organise transport to the festival and accommodation themselves.

Another fantastic release from the Fat Cat label! No Age are an L.A. noise-rock two-piece, steeped in the city’s art/skate/punk scene. Having had their names teased at from all (including Wire Magazine), the double team of Dean Spunt and Randy Randall were picked up by Fat Cat after the label’s ears came to rightly acknowledge their delectable noise. The result is ‘Weirdo Rippers’, a collection of lovely messy tunes previously heard on various underground vinyl releases.

The album could not have a more fitting title: for me it perfectly encapsulates the album’s jumbled assortment of wonderfully messy pieces. You can revel in the breakneck punk sprawl of ‘Boy Void’ or get a spacey vibe in the warped distortion of ‘I Wanna Sleep’. ‘Everybody’s Down’ is a contradictory message – it is remarkably upbeat for its title. It contains a triumphant vocal strain, resounding more pleasingly than if actually hitting the correct notes.

A good duo album defies the issue of a minimal line-up. ‘Weirdo Rippers’ achieves this by full use of peculiar effects and massive head-rattling fuzz. The album’s power is in its apparent free-form abundance of beautiful noise, much like Black Dice’s ‘Beaches and Canyons’ LP. It is cunningly well-structured without being contrived: after x bars of flowing feedback, in comes a terrific rock-out sequence. The album offers a distinctive feel-good scattiness, displayed in the Animal Collective drum snaps and floor tom thumps in ‘Neck Escaper’ or the Joey Ramone hollering on ‘Dead Plane’.

The album’s coda, ‘Escarpment’ takes off where ‘Weirdo Rippers’ began: waves of mushy static ebb and flow whilst the ear is grounded by pleasant chimes. Yet another testament to Fat Cat’s excellent discrimination and the power of the duo.

Pascal Ansell

http://www.myspace.com/nonoage
http://fat-cat.co.uk/fatcat/artistInfo.php?id=118

This is the most exciting new band I have discovered so far in 2007, an act so refreshing whilst also being so crisp and concise in the wearing of its influences on its sleeves. In a time where the past few years indie music has threatened to give into pant swinging neo-hippy folk types, pointless and aimless noise acts and a full on thrust of grunge nostalgia……basically here is a band THAT FUCKING ROCKS!

Well, “rocks” in an experimental and angular Sonic Youth inspired manner but still it should just what the indie rock doctor is ordering. The music of the Muggabears is immediate through a familiarity of its genre and sheer frenetic dynamism of its playing. It evades me as to just how many times I have heard music like this but bands are still discovering methods with which they are able to make it still sound fresh and inventive.

With obvious nods to Sonic Youth (the band having transplanted from Oklahoma up to New York) it often also resembles Unwound at their most positively dank and dense whilst sporting/rocking a lineup dynamic akin to Blonde Redhead, which at the close of proceedings is a very exciting proposition (in theory).

The choicest track on offer is the elevated “The Goth Tarts”, a towering delivery of menace that builds with the most sinister of intros into a song that literally feels young coupled with a severe sense of guilt and (un)healthy dose of darkness in its mood being fairly nihilistic in its message (“you shouldn’t have children, you shouldn’t read books”).

Night Choreography runs in at seven songs over 24 minutes and there is something of an inconsistency in the offerings as “Automatic Others” appears to fall apart as the singer experiences something of a breakdown (probably of intention) and “Dead Kid Kicks” cheekily lifts heavily from “Purr” by Sonic Youth, something they will be given the benefit of the doubt for for only so long.

When the heavy bass of “Now I’ve Got A Sword” swoops in, the basic eruption and destruction coupled with distorted insane vocals and bloody hooks happily provides proof/evidence that time spent on this band is time well spent. Perhaps not the finished item, there is a mass of exciting indications to be taken from this record that time will hopefully be fulfilled in its promise.

Thesaurus moment: capable.

Muggabears

This was a random LP/twelve inch that was just sent to my flat addressed to No Pictures last summer, something which I have to admit freaked me out because I have no idea as to just where they got my current address from. Hmmm……..

Big Nurse are something of a terrifying proposition, a pulsing and repetitive excretion of sheet metal white noise all in the name of ferocity. Upon first listen a person could be forgiven for dismissing this as just noise and they would be right but it is also so much more.

The sounds coming from stereo (people please send me vinyl and more of it!) reminds me of recent acts I have seen such as Chris Corsano and Rocket No 9, improv infused monsters looking to push boundaries further and further with each onslaught and performance. This music comes straight out of the heart of Sun Ra whilst being conceived and performed by/from standards set out by punk. As the first side of the record comes to an end sound akin to the din made by a cutlery drawer falling down several flights of stairs of a council building, I make myself a cup of tea and ask God “just what else can I expect from this act now?”

I think American Waste is the perfect title for this record; the heady din is very industrial, like a factory in the middle of nowhere producing the middle of nothing, a pointless industry that can seemingly only be found in downsized America and the broken working classes. The pain I feel from this record is akin to the latest worker to miss a meal through failing to have employment. The whistles on the record say it all.

Side two begins with more drilling and a relentless patter exhibiting much more energy than the previous slab – imagine Lightning Bolt covering “Revolution” by Spaceman 3 and suddenly we are live from Planet Load Records. Out the blocks however, the “tune” does not sustain and again the assault becomes overwhelming and difficult to live with, which is exactly the kind of response you suspect Big Nurse wish to treat you with on a big scale. As a Dick Dale sound-alike subtly invades the “song” towards the close it all ends with a painful crash and I am able to go back to my life (and watching “How To Look Good Naked”). If you need a party cleared soon, this is the record to do it with.

I will never play this record ever again.

Thesaurus moment: throbbing.

Big Nurse
High Density Headache Records

This is a vindictive little record aiming true at the current crop of “indie” acts buzzing around London A&R circles. And equally I feel quite the victim myself as I hand over my hard earned fiver at Rough Trade’s Talbot Road shop for a copy on “limited” pink vinyl which keeps skipping, over and over and over (piece of shit).

Having created something of a buzz in itself on Myspace, the targets in question are perhaps the first wave/generation of Myspace acts to transfer from the computer screen onto the big screen (whatever that is).

Of the acts assaulted some deserve it and some don’t (well, no one is really innocent) but it is hard to fault anyone to who refers to Miss LDN herself as “Lily Keith Allen”. It’s snotty and cynical but you can’t help but laugh at the cattiness of it all because in actuality it is generally pretty spot on in its statements.

I think I have had a taster of the “scene” addressed here first hand as I have sat and watched at work for a year a young lad that looks like Alex Zane act as A&R in the publishing department where I toil, displaying neither any real musical taste/knowledge or with any hope in hell of actually getting anything signed. He may be mates with The Kooks but in reality the fact he just spent all day staring at one particular website earned him the name “Myspace Boy.” I say “spent” as in the past tense because he has fucked off now as the publishing function has now been downsized to next to nothing. “Bye bye A&R you’re not needed here any more.”

Musically the track, complete with Nathan Barley sample at the close (point made), consists of pretty standard beats relying on witty snipes by it’s inventors and whilst it is hardly likely to change the course of music history I certainly feel it gives a good lesson.

For what it’s worth it sounds like the work of Peckham’s DJ Rubbish to me.

Thesaurus moment: cocky.

LDN Is A Victim

Packaging wise this is an interesting CD as it has a barcode but doesn’t actually have any kind of record label attached to it, it would seem. Is this where the industry is apparently heading – where bands/acts are now self released brands and record labels have been made unnecessary and redundant. Regardless though the cover artwork looks fantastic, like some kind of explosion taken from a Golden Age Marvel or DC comic.

Initially the record reminds me a lot of a long lost band called Letters To Cleo although the occasional vocal quirk does suggest a penchant towards Alanis Morissette combined with a chorus that could be straight out of The Corrs back catalogue.

For a girl (soft) rocker there feels a distinct lack of a rebellious edge, this is all so horribly well adjusted, agonised but in that soft victim way. Comparisons aside, judged on its own merits the songs are very clean and competently created but not really pushing any boundaries.

By the close of the record ultimately I just cannot judge nor decide as to whether the true leanings sway towards alternative rock or full on pop. Certainly at times I am reminded of The Cranberries and very much an Irish Alanis Morissette (with a dab of Avril Lavigne) but having made such trite comparisons I would really hate to come to release that I am acting listening to (dealing with) some haggard old punk trying to play it straight.

There is a lot in this record for people to take and enjoy, those people just happen to be either elderly and/or very dull.

Thesaurus moment: duplicity.

Lori Steele

For the next few months the Beatnik Filmstars are offering a free EP (a real, physical EP, none of your daft digital download nonsense) to anyone who answers a few BF-related questions. See here. All you pay for is the postage. Free noisy indie-pop music! FREE!

Hello people. I haven’t reviewed anything in a while but I have been taking a break from reality and hiding from the real world. In other words I have been watching far too much TV and trying my hardest not to think too much, if at all.

In one of my more lucid moments I agreed to help Marceline by sorting through the CDs that come through the diskant door. In doing so I am exposed to some appalling artwork and press releases but I also get to pick out stuff that looks interesting. Dan Deacon’s Spiderman of the Rings was one such find and I am hugely glad it caught my eye.

It is brilliant. I put it on expecting mildly pretentious, but potentially entertaining, sample heavy electro-noodling only to be entirely blown away. This is great fun mutant cartoon electric funk rock with fantastic tunes. If I realised reality could sound this good I would not have stayed away so long.

Dan Deacon’s website
Carpark Records’ website