yet another spin-off

This weekend has been a hectic one; full of haircuts - always a terrifying constantly on-edge experience: will it be alright? will it be what I wanted? will I get laughed out of town? - delving into the depths of 75% off sales rushes and a manic attempt at two club nights in one evening.

One such club night was run by the ever-aspiring members of imperial college. They've had a small group of indie kids there for a while, naming themselves the alternative music society, and while I'm really not the biggest fan of social gatherings forming around academia, they're really trying (bless 'em) to make South Kensington a happening place (someone bloody should). Kids Will Be Skeletons has been going for about two years now and is finally gaining the recognition it has so long deserved. This Saturday was definitely a highlight for the gang that run the night with a packed out venue, fantasticly friendly atmosphere and even - shock horror - celebrity spotting opportunities (I see you, Mr. Mystery Jet you).



I rocked up to KWBS just in time to catch the headliners, Restlesslist. Yet another offshoot of Brighton-based Electric Soft Parade, they put on a surprisingly good show, especially considering only two thirds of their line-up bothered to show up. They mixed Blur-esque circus pop tunes with some block rocking beat samples, interspersed with some appalling but endearingly try-hard stand-up. Didn't persuade me to go check them at the Water Rats next week but did make me wonder where in fact their third member was and why he couldn't be arsed to show his pudgy little face. Tom White of ESP fame couldn't make it as he - reportedly - had two Brakes gig to perform at during the same week.



Poor Tom, isn't his life just so hard and stressful? I don't dispute the fact that he may wish to recuperate, save his energy to put on some fantastic Brakes nights in the forthcoming week, but why - oh why - do people insist on taking part in a multitude (and I mean multitude - I can name three off the top of my head) of semi-decent side projects that they never really ever bother with, and were probably half-arsed/baked when they agreed to it in the first place? Maybe this doesn't bother anyone else but if I've paid to see a band I do expect said band to be there. Is that really too much to ask?

Made me laugh anyway.

But I digress. Restlesslist are actually worth checking out and I look forward to following them closely, with or without token ESP member.

You can hear two of their tracks streaming away on the MySpace page.
The official page should hopefully be up and running soon.

KWBS often work with the trouble twosome of A Badge Of Friendship and it would seem that next month's events combine these two upstarts with the launch party of a new DVD magazine, Constant Replica (and yes I too have never heard of this but am mightily intrigued). Maybe see you down there!



Wow, what a lot of pictures for one post.

why is life unfair

It's not really. Life, unfair I mean. It's actually really good. Dream job, great flat in north london, not alone as I trundle on and for god's sake I'm even off to SXSW this year (oh yes). So what could it be then you ask? What could possibly make me sulk, bottom lip stuck out, evil eyes staring at my computer screen, toes clenched up at the unfairness of it all.

The answer would be this:


(c/o Muzzle Of Bees, and I'm guessing the official Coachella site if I could ever get it to work)

Now I've never really been attracted to Coachella, not even as one who has friends that go every year and tirelessly preach about just how bloody great it really is and just what I miss out on each and every year. But this time... well let's just say that this year I'd better not get the same lecture or I may have to punch said friends in their respective cakeholes. Grr. Arcade Fire? Sparklehorse? Jarvis? Gogol Bordello? Bjork...?

Stupid Atlantic Ocean.

And yes, the more observant of you will have noticed that none other than Rage Against The Machine are playing - now apparently reformed, but surely not for once festival alone? Who knows.

Well I'm going to SXSW so na na ne na na.

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If you now need a soothing, calming environment, then perhaphs visit MySpace and pick up some soft Scandinavian pop shoegaze in the form of Mixtapes And Cellmates. The Swedish collective are soon to release their first album - due any time now so we're informed! If their debut EP, If There Is Silence, Fill It With Longing, is anything to go by, it should be a warm pop fuzz delight immediately conjuring up images of snow coated mountains, ice melting by the sun up in the blue, blue sky. Aw.



Listen to 'C: You D: The Road Home' on MySpace here.
For news on the upcoming release, visit their offical page here.
Buy your very own copy of the M&C EP at DotShop here.

giant hamster balls

Today has been a mixture of good and bad events. Firstly I woke up to hear 'Stay Golden' by the lovely Au Revoir Simone girls on 6music's breakfast show (Phil Jupitus is the perfect voice for early morning). Secondly I saw a dead rat on my way to the local tube station, slap bang in the middle of the pavement, which brightened up the darling grey sky of London town. And thirdly I heard the new Go-Betweens people solo albums (re-released in the recent future) which I'm still undecided about.

The one thing that did make me laugh was this comic by the talented Randall Monroe, in which Flaming Lips' Wayne Coyne is kidnapped and whipped away in a van. Hahahaha.



For more fun delights see the full xkcd website here.

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Music-wise not that much new springs to mind although I did come across a little indie label a few months back that I do believe deserves some attention. Afternoon Records from Minneapolis has a selection of bands from across the indie genres, and decent ones at that. Be bop bluegrass? Sure. Indie college rock? Of course. Biffy-mclusky-esque rock? You bet. Plus they're giving away free mp3 from each and everyone of them. Here's a selection of my favourites.


mp3: One For The Team - 'Take Cover'
mp3: The God Damn Doo Wop Band - 'The Rooftops Of Bangor'
mp3: Hello Blue - 'Celebrate'


God I'd love my own giant hamster ball.

free music for kiddies! truth.

Someone once said something to me that made me despair; despair of the someone, despair of the music industry, despair of humanity and ultimately, my life. The fact that this someone was from a (some would call) "cutting edge" record label made the event perhaps a little sadder. The something said started with, "Wow, so-and-so have 15000 friends, they must be amazing," and ended with the possibly even more depressing, "You know it really is important to have lots of friends on MySpace if you're going to be popular, it's something we should do with all our acts."

Hmm. Cue despair.

Luckily there is hope. And I have proof. The incredible and how-has-noone-heard-of-him? question-inducing Blackball False! Truth when I signed on less than two months ago had four friends. Ha beat that. At the time of press this has increased to a grand title of twenty-one, twenty-one I tell you.



To weather away at the usual route to becoming "popular," said artist has also gone against the tide and given his entire album away for FREE, I kid you not. Upon his website you can download the entirety of Auks, a whole seven tracks waiting for music lovers to just come along and discover. Nice.

Auks could be described as a concept album, every track centered around the repeating theme of penguins. I hear that BFT aka malmo is now looking for inspiration for a second album - a walrus perhaps? Or perhaps a manatee?

Here are two of my favourite tracks from the album but oh my lord it was difficult to choose.


mp3: Blackball False! Truth - 'Auks'
mp3: Blackball False! Truth - 'Girl Penguin, Come Back Goddamnit!'


For the entire album visit his website.
To offer a friendly (hand) shake, check him out on MySpace.

summit to enjoy the whole year thru

The Annuals are yet another group of individuals being name dropped right, left and centre across the cyber world and it's not hard to see why. The lazy reference of Arcade Fire, while not being totally inappropriate, is perhaps a little off the mark. While the same energy and screaming vocals are observed in the latest offerings from the band (and yes I realise this is stretching at similarities), they definitely hold their own with use of electro oddities, louder loud bits and much quieter quiet bits.



Not to take anything anyway from the aforementioned Canadians, but this ensemble is somehow much sweeter, more hearts on sleeves with giant arrows pointing at their giant love muscles. But with noise. You'll see.

While their official page still has far to go with photos and such like, you are able to promptly find three tracks from their new album Be He Me available for streaming with another two up on MySpace. It would seem the band are busy touring round the states at the moment but fingers crossed for european dates.

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hasta luego simona

One (of many) band(s) I keep stumbling over just about everywhere online is that of the name Au Revoir Simone. Three girls from Brooklyn, New York, they put together fuzzy electro-indie-pop, like a female Postal Service (apologies for the obvious reference) with just that extra kick of twee - in my book, never a bad thing. They appear to be releasing a new album quite soon through the lovely people at Moshi Moshi in the UK. I must confess that much joy was felt when I discovered that the beautiful ladies will be visiting our shores in just a few weeks hurrah! They play London Hoxton Bar & Grill on the 26th Feb as part of a huge European tour, one not to miss I presume.



The fantastic blog that is Off The Record announced the release of their forthcoming album The Bird Of Music (out Feb 14th aw) and posted some heart-warming mp3s here including an Au Revoir Simone remix by The Teenagers. For more streamed material (my current favourite being 'Stay Golden'), check out their MySpace page.

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Meanwhile tonight I saw one of the best 1950s B-movies I have endured in my relatively short life. The Killer Shrews is the tale of a research group trapped on a remote island in the middle of a hurricane. When a science project to solve overpopulation - and involving the shrinking of us human beings - goes hideously wrong and produces wolf sized shrews instead, the group can do nothing but try to avoid the monstrous beasts as they tear each other limb from limb. But what will happen when the killer shrews start realising that meat can be found on people? DUM DUM DAH...



I particularly love the blatant use of dogs in afghan rugs to cleverly give the impression of giant killer shrews oh yes.

Check it.

back to business

If I were ever to actually follow this godforsaken practice of making new year's resolutions I guess that 2007 should really include paying some actual attention to this damned blog. It's not that I don't want to blog. It's just that... cue excuses excuses, I don't bloody know. I guess I will write small things and hopefully it will grow and grow from there, becoming ever more pretentious and yet in touch with "the kids." Ha.

Not that anyone even reads this anyway so it doesn't really matter when I actually think about it. Down to business...

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Christmas treats 2007:

What did I receive over the winter break? Exactly what I asked for actually. A big thumbs up to Sir Nicholas up in Legoland, sorry Lapland (former is surely much more interesting).

1. The Gossip - Standing In The Way Of Control
2. Starless & Bible Black - Locust
3. The Beatles - Love
4. Tunng - Comments Of The Inner Chorus
5. Sparklehorse - Dreamt For Light Years In The Belly Of A Mountain

Comments on all of those should follow but I'm not promising owt. Let's just say 1, 4 and 5 all lived up to expectation, 2 was a tad disappointing to be honest (I've just heard it all before) and 3, well 3 I never really asked for and was, quite frankly, The Beatles. Take that as you will.

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I managed to sneak into the somewhat secretive Kristin Hersh gig in London town last night. It was in a considerably tiny theatre slap bang in the middle of Soho and golly darn gosh it was good to go to a sit-down gig again. Having never seen her live and only hearing the bare minimum of her material (mostly the up-coming album if I'm honest) she blew me away. She has a awesome voice, be it even terrifying at times, eminating from her minute china doll figure. The crowd scared me half to death, being completely comprised of hard-core 4ad fans, who spent the after-show discussing extremely rare setlists from 1987 and that time when they could have almost sworn that she glanced their way. I kid you not. Was somewhat unnerving when Kristin thanked the audience for coming along and not one - the usual overenthusiastic, slightly debriated oddball - but the entire forum all answered in unison, "No, thank you." Hmm.

But what can I say, I was impressed and I really would genuinely urge anyone with a love for female rock-like singers (think PJ Harvey for one) to check her out for FREE at Tottenham Court Road's Fopp on Tuesday!

Stereogum reported the soon to be released new album, Learn To Sing Like A Star (out next month), from Hersh back in December. A lovely little report and mp3 of 'In Shock' can be found here.

Said EP In Shock can be purchased from the usual outlets.