London Popfest 2011

Superfast, supercheap Virgin train to Euston, with free Wi-Fi... Wander to Camden and discover cheap veggie burger place is no more... Amble across the city (and The City) for a few hours (via V-Cross, St John's Gate)... Begin to realise my brand new £4.99 shoes are already totally fucked up... Walk up and down Cable Street but am unable to find the red plaque (cos it's on Dock Street)... Meet up with Clare Pop, then head over to meet other pop types in Shepherds Bush... Bush Hall has upsides (sounds, chandeliers, balcony) £3.80/can booze is one of the downsides... Tender Trap are my highlight for the evening... Friday is for Thai Food at The Miller, followed by 'Darkened Doorways' (lovely to share with others), then 'Strange Powers' (totally watchable, even as an unfan of Magnetic Fields)... Bored of the cold I buy a 1/2 price cardigan in H&M, Brixton... Comedy confusion in The Music Bar where Ben is told his chicken burger has become a beef burger as chickenburgers aren't served so the menu must have a 'spelling mistake'... It's payday for me and The Windmill has lots of beer and a merch desk... Town Bike & Sourpatch are top banana... Dancing til WAY past bedtime... Saturday is chinese buffet followed by Blue Posts, had to force the first couple of pints down battling with hangover... Enter The 100 Club to the opening notes of La Revolucion Sexual played by Twee Grrrls Club, hangover symptoms disappear... Wait for Humousexual... knackered guitar amp doesn't prevent a good number of terriblyexcited kids dancing, fists in the air to the likes of Oh Camberwell and Batty Street... Spend much of the day trying to avoid the eyes of people I went TOTALLY FANBOY over the night before, same with randoms I HUG-ATTACKED... Drink til it matters less... Go all FANBOY over Rob Price... Eux Autres nail their set... Think I may have accidentally sort of pulled a dude... Dance til late... Get called a 'cunt' by a Met Copper... Head across to The Lexinton for All Fringe No Knickers for more dancing to Sultans of Ping... Head east with a chatty taxi driver and a spare Swede... Early rise for Pop Quiz, Tony Wilson's Cock slaughter the competition... Head over to Bhel Poori House for dangerous amounts of curry... Find the following grafitti:'I bet the chef wanks in the curry, I would. Imagine all those uptight indie girls (not women, for sure) necking the whack.'... Enjoy the nervous dancing of Youngfuck's singer... Enjoy onstage banter of Girls Names' singer... Make a girl cry... Don't manage to say goodbye to everyone... Realise at Euston that my train ticket is for Monday... New ticket for train leaving 30 mins after I thought, arriving 90 mins after I'd thought... Birmingham City FC win the Carling Cup, my train makes this common knowledge... Popfest 2011 ends.

Fever Fever

So I lied, Lucksmiths next week.

Last night I went to see The Lovely Eggs cos they are ace. Everyone knows The Lovely Eggs are ace. What I didn't know is that Fever Fever are also ace.

I nearly saw Fever Fever some time last year when they played at the Victoria with The Lovely Eggs and Hotpants Romance. I didn't actually manage to see Fever Fever, though. This is because living in Dudley is a fucking ballache and pretty much makes existence anti-fun. I checked out some video clip somewhere of Fever Fever and didn't get it.

Last night I actually got to see Fever Fever and it was hella mega! As soon as they started I couldn't help but think of three sounds: early-ish Mudhoney, the first Help She Cant Swim album, and the criminally underrated Montana Pete. I'm fairly sure no one else would say they can hear these bands in Fever Fever's sound, but I reckon I can, SO THERE.

I was pretty surprised by how big a sound they manage to produce with just two guitars and drums, even when they go down to one guitar they still have a really impressive, chunky sound. I tried for ages to think of a better word but I couldn't. I will be winning no prizes for this post.

I've been looking around online and I still can't find anything by Fever Fever that does justice to the live set I witnessed last night. I'd definitely go see them again, though. I've half a mind to go to the Flapper tonight to see them. In fact, if I weren't flat-piss broke, and if I hadn't rolled in at 5 this morning, I would be heading for the bus right now.

Okay, I'm Sorry. Next post is The Lucksmiths..

I wanted to post this week, but I knew I wouldn't be able to say the right things about the stuff I wanted to post about.

So I figure a drunken post about something simple will do. RETRO HONPO are fucking mega. Here is some PROOF.

I heard them cos The legendary Alan 'The Doc' Farmer was DJing at The Aumtun Store all-dayer a couple of weeks ago. He sent some links to Dunc, Dunc posted them on Anorak.

The moral of the story? Retro Honpo are immesurably fucking mega.

Standard Fare/One Happy Island

Remember that Standard Fare,/One Happy Island record I mentioned the other day? Well that lovely, lovely slab of orange vinyl from Thee SPC has remained on my turntable since. The difference between this time and last is that I’ve been flipping it over, and over, and over.

I didn’t know until I received the record that each band have recorded one of the other band’s songs and one original. I was dead excited when I got this record, which is why it superceded the Defiance, Ohio album, and I was right to be excited. Each band’s cover is brilliant, they’ve both managed to make a cover sound as though it could be one of their own songs. Neither band try to ape the style or sound of the other band, so what we’ve got here is basically a great original-sounding song by each band, just that they didn’t happen to write them.

Standard Fare bash out another couple of their perfectly-crafted, slightly jerky power pop, and I’m always surprised that they manage to have such a big, full sound as a three-piece, how do they do that? The lyrics are the new one are great (as always) and the delivery is in Emma’s easily recognised, irresistible style.

The One Happy Island side gives us more of their chaotic, yet tuneful indiepop. I’ve always like how their songs sound almost as though they were recorded in the kitchen while there was a party going on in the living room (and I’m not just saying that because of ‘Secret Part That The Other Party Doesn’t Know About’), and that they sound like they might just fall apart at any second.

If you’ve any sympathy for indiepop in 2011, your life will certainly be enriched by this bloody great record.

One question, what the hell is a ‘dixie cup’?

Defiance, Ohio

I just got some new records* which meant I had to remove the record that's been king of the deck for two or three weeks now.

That record is the most recent album by Defiance, Ohio, 2010's Midwestern Minutes. If you're at all familiar with Defiance, Ohio you will know that they inhabit that much-maligned land that is the genre known as folk punk. The punks whine that it isn't punk enough, others moan that 'they can't sing properly', and as ever, these miseries are missing the point entirely.


I don't remember how I first came to hear Defiance, Ohio, but it was in around 2005/06. The first song I heard was 'I don't want solidarity if it means holding hands with you' which nailed me with it's raucous pop-punk chorus and brilliant lyrics. Maybe I downloaded some more stuff (it's all free on their website), maybe I didn't. In the 2nd half of 2006 I did a runner from Nottingham, and in the brief period I was knocking about the West Midlands before going abroad Defiance, Ohio happened to be playing in Birmingham. What's more, is that my friend Winston Echo had been asked to support them. So not only did I get to see Defiance, Ohio, but I got to go not on my own. That night I bought the 2nd Defiance, Ohio album The Great Depression (which doesn't feature I Don't want Solidarity...

A couple of years later, I ordered a bunch of stuff from No Idea Records, amongst it was the first Defiance, Ohio album, Share What Ya Got. More great folk punk made living in the absolute middle of nowhere - surrounded by a peculiar combination of rich-ass holiday-makers, hoteliers, and dull-as-fuck fellow minimum wagers - slightly more sufferable. I dreamt of running away to the bright lights of Northampton to strong-arm Winston Echo into staring a folk punk band with me.

Later still, I'm visiting a friend in London and we decide to go to the punk rock record shop as part of a weekend of whim-based adventures (newly-discovered comic book shop, chinese buffet, bag of coffee from swanky coffee shop, Euston Tap, falafel fail, falafel win, pub club, Boris Karloff's house), and I see that there's a brand-spanking new Defiance, Ohio album. I was vaguely aware that they'd released another album since The Great Depression, and I also knew this wasn't it. So I skipped their third album (I'll get it one day) and went straight to Midwestern Minutes.

In my cold little room at the back of a decrepit terraced house - only metres from the home of a young J.R.R. Tolkien - in a hinterland between work and work, marked by Xmas and New Year, I put on my new Defiance, Ohio record. I knew what to expect, and I basically got it.

The new album was and is very much in the same vein as the other two records I have of theirs. However, there was something about this album that really did something for me. Keys to locks, striking chords, brain kissing, heart warming, smile-wrenching. All that shit.

I didn't even turn the record over for at least the first half-dozen plays. There's a song on there about a rosy picture of the end times, which just gives me some kind of hope. Perhaps not true hope, I don't think I'm really capable of that kind of belief, but hope in the knowledge that other people are at least dissatisfied with everything as it stands and yearn for something else (and perhaps are relying on forces bigger than ourselves, or any groups or societies).

Of course, this sort of thing is a not uncommon theme for Defiance, Ohio. For instance:

fuck this city, and fuck this filthy air/ let’s build a-frames in the woods and just live there/ we’ll all eat berries and build fires every night and forget this mistake we call modern life.

Or how about:

are you angry? are you searching for a better way to live? are you waiting? have you been waiting too long? what holds us back and how to burn the bridges of a culture that taught us to hate and fear and live like cogs in a machine and not like lovers friends and kin.). I think I lost my train of thought..

Anyway, this album is the same, but different. I think that's exactly what we (or at least, I) want from a band we already love, isn't it? Something that isn't just a repetition of their previous output, but also, doesn't become something new entirely and thought it may still be a great record, not what you wanted from the band, and loses the reason you loved them in the first place? Go on, call me reactionary.

I'm not really sure why I started writing, but I'm just about done, now.



* The Standard Fare/One Happy Island split on Thee SPC, and The first Hang Over Lounge EP.

The Art Form Unknown

Okay, well, I've abandoned that stupid 00's round-up idea cos my brain won;t work like that, and really, well, who cares?

So, I was wondering around the internet and I thought that it makes more sense to put people on to things that I'm consuming nowdays. In a weird way though, I can tie it in with an appreciation of yesteryear. What am I on about>

Asaurus Records is BACK on the scene. People out there may not be familiar with Asaurus, and I can honestly say that I don't know how/when/where I came across them but it must've been around 2004-5 I suppose.

Asaurus was (and, I suppose is again) a CDr label that put out some amazing stuff, and stuff that you may well be familiar with, even if yr not familiar with the label. Capstan Shafts, Colin Clary, Mathletes, The Diskettes, Pants Yell!, and Red Pony Clock all did stuff on Asaurus before they label when on hiatus a couple of years back.

I'm not sure what Asaurus has lined up for the future, but you can bet it'll be good stuff. It's a good idea to keep an eye on their new Facebook Group, as that seems to be where the updates are at for the moment, rather than the website.

So, it's because of the announcement of Asaurus's hiatus that I was lead to the MySpace of a band that up until now I thought had only ever done 2 songs (both on Asaurus compilations), but it turns out that The Art Form Unknown (AKA The Artist Formerly Unknown) have LOADS of stuff recorded, if not available to the public. I'd love to get my grubby mits on those tapes and put them in my ears.

Neither of the 2 songs that got me all hot & bothered about The Art Form Unknown are available on their Myspace, the details of the compilation they were on is listed below.

Okay, so, what was I talking about? Basically, remember these two things: The Art Form Unknown, and Asaurus Records. Woo!

V/A / CLOUDS AND BALLOONS
DETAILS: ASA035 / CDR / $3
RELEASED: July 13th, 2004
DESCRIPTION: Pop compilation of enormous proportions. Originally released by Me No Know Records.
TRACKLISTING: The Artist Formerly Unknown (feat. Emilliene) – How Are You? / The Broken Hearts Club – Abbotsford and Flemington / The Arcade Fire – No Cars Go / Elliott the Letter Ostrich – Jethro’s Stolen Wheels / The Galactic Heroes – Tweedles / Melamine – A Dock Rat Now / Professor Pez – Never Got It / Paper Tiger – Mars in May / The Measles – Rebekah Elmaloglou / The French Horns – 45 / Bad Flirt – Boxing Astoria / Awesome Animal Ambulance – Operation Kitty / Seasick Crocodile – Treetop Love / This Bank Holiday – He Prefers the Movie Novelization / Sinkcharmer – Nothing To Me / Teradactyl – 110% / The 32-bit Handhelds – Woodchuck to Grey Squirrel / The Escargo-go’s – The Life of a Total Square / The Fresas – The Dance / The Solvents – Dancing on my Debts / Big Game Hunting – Ready or Not / The Operators – What the Mailman doesn’t Bring / Sarah Plain and Tall – Winter Song / The Protean Self – Tag, I’m it



V/A / FOR WHOM THE CASIO TOLLS
DETAILS: ASA034 / CDR / $4
RELEASED: September 16th, 2004
DESCRIPTION: The challenge: Record a song using only battery-powered kiddie keyboards and your voice. Millions tried, but only seventeen survived. This is their story.
TRACKLISTING: Patterns in Paris - I Spy / The Art Form Unknown - Values Monetary / The I Love Ryans - Witch Dr / The New Sound of My Bossa Nova - A Story / Colin Clary - Remember in November / Megamoog - Goodbye / New Grenada - Lightning Parade / Elliott the Letter Ostrich - Kennedy Wears a Colostomy Bag... / Seiss - If We Are Holding Hands How Can I Touch Myself? / The Original Beekeepers - Nina / Dentist Dispense - All Girls are Lesbians / The Bad Spellers - White Day / The Goslings - Panopticon / Super Famicom - Wishes Dangling on Dead Desires / This Bank Holiday - She's Spiritual, But Not Religious / Andrew Octopus - Soapbubble Revolution / Young Model - Battle for C64 (Atari Sucks)

2001

Okay, so I've been super-lame at this. I will blog maybe once or twice about records of the past decade, then on to exciting interviews. Okay?







2001



Murry the Hump, Mj Hibbett, Gag Airport Girl, Max Tundra Schaumgummi



MJ Hibbett: Oi, Hibbett!



2001 has a lot to answer for. Yea, yea I remember where I was when I heard about [i]The Attacks[/i] (I had just baked a vegan chocolate cake, one of my very first attempts, and not one of my more successful), but I also remember the first time I saw MJ Hibbett live. It was in August at The Jug of Ale, Moseley. I went along because I had the Work is A Four Letter Word ep and maybe someone local I liked was playing (Could it have been The Regulars?). So I went a long and was AGOG and Hibbett's solo set. I don't think I had ever before seen anyone play that way. And rarely since have I seen a singer-songwriter who is not completely caught up in themself and all muso-ish. I joined in singing songs I didn't know ('Oi, Hibbett!' Etc.) and bought The Validators first album and three 7" singles for the pincely sum of 8 quid - Mark said it was because he was moving house, though even if he hadn't been he'd've probably done some sort of deal just because I showed interest.



All those records were played A LOT for the rest of the year, and of course they aer still played regularly today.





Arab Strap: I'll tell you a story about that later
Murry The Hump: My Dealer drive a three-wheeler



I know I went to see Arab Strap as well as Murry The Hump at Ronnie Scott's on Broad Street (it was the only excuse to go to Broad Street, it is now a lap-dancing place called The Rocket Club). I spent a lot of time listening to 'Mad for Sadness'. I'll let you in to a secret; when I was a teenager, I thought you had to choose which band you liked Arab Strap or Belle & Sebastian. I was - and some would argue, still am - a cock.



The Murry The Hump album, 'Songs of Ignorance' was a bit of a disappointment to me, but it still had some great songs: Booze & Cigarettes, The House That Used to be a Ship, Vodka & Wine.



Gag: Girls are dancing, they are good at it. Boys are dancing.. with their mates.



I had never heard anything like Gag's album 'When People Start Slapping Meat on Marble', nor had I ever heard of a record label giving away all of their releases for free, as Flitwick Records did. I wrote a review for the zine I dd back then and seem to recall likening one song to Jack Frost sneaking into your garden to piss down the drain. I think maybe Gag were reasonably well known 10 years earlier, but I didn't know anyone who knew 'em, still don't. That album doesn't seem to be available anymore, but you can download other stuff by them from the Flitwick Records website.



ballboy: Licensing laws mean nothing to us



I'd been introduced to ballboy through John Peel's show and instantly became smitten. The three EPs as collected on Club Anthems 2001 were played repeatedly on my stereo. One of my favourite ever moments in pop is still from their Brum gig of 2001. The soundman had called time on ballboy's set (as it was a Sunday, this was at only 10:30), and Gordon couldn't convince the soundguy to let them do one more song, so he started playing 'They hang flags from cranes upon my wedding day' anyway. The mic went off, the lights went out, Gordon carried on playing (he was using an acoustic guitar), stood forward, right at the edge of the stage, with the only lights coming from the drinks fridges behind the bar. I swear the Flapper & Firkin held it's collective breath the the duration of the song.



Max Tundra: 'I'm not sure if this is meant to be experimental or something'



I had never heard of Max Tundra when I saw him supporting Brassy in at the (original) Little Civic in Wolverhampton. I remember being confused and impressed by his set and later in the evening asked him if he had any records I could buy. It was quite a short but confusing conversation from what I recall. It took me a while to get round to picking up the album, and I think I bit off a bit more then I could chew, but listened to it repeatedly looking for something. I still do that, and I've never been sure what it is I'm looking for.



Schaumgummi: Tina Turner Marshmallow



I don't remember when it came out or when I bought the records, but I spent a lot of 2001 being obsessed by Schaumgummi. Seriously people, Schaumgummi.