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.

My stereo circa 2000

This is meant to be a look back, not at what I consider to be the best records/bands of each year, but of the contemporary bands that I was listening to most at the time. I've been a bit flexible, but mostly the bands were around at the time and had released records in the year being written about or a few months earlier. So, although I don't necessarily listen to these bands any more, it's what was on my stereo then. I'm sure I'm guilty of revisionism, that's inevitable, but I've tried to recall what was important to me back then.

2000 - Quickspace, Life Without buildings, Idlewild, Marine Research, Chicks On Speed

Quickspace: Pre-Steps, Pre-Blair, Pre-Who Wants To Be A Millionaire..
Although Quckspace had been around since the mid-90's (having formed from the ashes of Th' Faith Healers). I first heard them in a John Peel Session in late '99 (I think). I was completely hooked and there was little chance that,if you were within earshot of me for the next 12 months that I wouldn't have tried to play some quickspace to you (in those days I had a Walkman with me at all times). The Death of Quickspace and Precious Falling were never far from my stereo and songs such as Quickspace Happy Song #2 and Semtex made it on to every mix tape I made for a couple of years. sadly, Quickspace just seemed to melt and disappear in the early 00's.

Life Without Buildings: Do we need order?
Life Without Buildings were another band that I fell deeply in love with at this time. So much so that I was even the first person to start a site dedicated to the band (other than the official site). I first heard them in session for Steve Lamacq and found Sue Tompkins' voice irresistible. I loved the jittery-stumbling guitar sounds that everyone compared to Gang of Four - something I didn't understand at the time and still can't see today. 4 singles, 1 album and one posthumous live album is all they left behind.

iDLEWiLD - A flight of stairs falling down a flight of stairs
Half way through 2000 idlewild released 100 broken windows. At the time I wasn't that impressed by the album, though i think it's aged pretty well. At this point they'd lost the youthful exuberance that excited me so much about the band. This is why, even after this record came out you'd still have found me listening to the singles that preceded that album (the b-sides were consistently brilliant). The previous album, Hope is Important was short and patchy. Their first CD release, Captain, was to me a revelation. Urgent, chaotic, poems with beautiful pop sensibilities. It seems hard to imagine today that idlewild could have been young and exciting considering the awful dadrock folk shite they've become famous for over the last 23 albums they've put out. I still recommend anything from 100 broken windows and back though. Self-healer was my introduction to idlewild, and to say that it was down hill from there is an exaggeration, but not much of one.

Marine Research: Robert Llewelyn likes Marine Research!
Another band that I first heard in '99 (and again due to John Peel). It took me a while to track down a copy of the album (eventually in Reddington's, Birmingham when it was still on Cherry Street) because in these days I couldn't order stuff online and I didn't know anyone who'd heard of Marine Research. It seems almost unbelievable today that there was a time when I didn't know who Amelia Fletcher was. I think this was may have been my first contemporary indiepop purchase (now I think of it, that's not at all true, but I still consider this album to be a watershed for me).
The keyboard player, Cathy was a presenter of Channel 4's Scrapheap Challenge along with Robert Llewelyn (Kryten from Red Dwarf).

Chicks On Speed: She brushes her teeth 5 times per day
I heard For All The Boys In The World (again, John Peel) and had to buy the album. I had no idea what to make of it but played it again and again and AGAIN. Even in 2002 the guy next to me in halls threatened to throw my stereo out of the window if I didn't stop playing this record. According to the interwebs the record is considered to epitomise Electroclash. Or something.

Honourable Mentions: Peeps Into Fairyland, Supercute, Jesus Couldn't Drum, Montana Pete, Solanki, Soulwax, Add n to (x), Country Teasers

Coming soon: 2001..

PS
Does anyone actually use any of these links? They take me fucking ages to sort out.

Interview: Incredible Weapons

Mr Danny G took the time to answer some questions about his bloody briliant breezy, summer-scented powerpop band Increadible Weapons. They're not super-famous yet but they ARE great, Indiepages.com decided to class the demo submitted by Danny for a review as a "proper" release cos it was just so darn good. You should do yrself a favour and get his tunes in yr ears by going right down to http://www.incredibleweapons.com/. If you ask nicely, Danny will send you a disc too, bless.
(Again, all linkies added by me, so if they're all to cock that's my fauly, not Mr Danny G's)

Bite Yr Lip: How long have you been making music as incredible weapons (and please tell us about what came before)?

Danny G: Well Incredible Weapons played one festival and made the EP last summer; since then we've played a couple more times with all new jams and I've done some acoustic shows too. Before wuz a pop group outta Winchester called the Go Waves followed by an excellent 'lost weekend' bringing us right back up to the Weaps.

BYL: Do you play live often? What’s Andover like for being pop performer?

DG: This year I've done two acoustic shows and two rock shows. Only this weekend my drummer was saying he wants to do at least a show a fortnight until our bass player moves to Austria in the summer. We've got literally nothing booked though... maybe I should get off my arse?

Andover's the new rock'n'roll

BYL: Do you record yrself at home? Do you play all of the instruments?

DG: Yes, recording and full-volume rehearsing happens at home. There's a lot of space out here.

I'm a hack on the traps and bass but I'll lay down guides if the band aren't about. Keys too. I love playing all of them but I'm kinda inconsistent... like I'll have a tidy little hip-hop groove going on the drums then have no idea where to put my hands for a fill so I just throw them at the drums and see what happens. This means playback with the band is often accompanied by a generous round of guffaws.

BYL: How did the EP come about and where’s it available, how do we get one?

DG: The EP is the first five songs I finished when I decided I could get back into finishing stuff off (see 'lost weekend') which is why it's a little all over the place. 'Asking For Trouble' is from the un-finished Appletown EP and 'Solipsister' is in it's second version . The first had completely different words & flow and the cutest BV's by my friend June from Tokyo. These are sadly missing from the EP versh. I want to record an orchestra on my four-track for a new 'Pure '82'.

BYL: The record as a whole could be described as power-pop, what stuff goes in yr ears to make that stuff come out?

DG: My alarm clock every day is an Abba mixtape.

BYL: Are you making more recordings/planning any other releases?

DG: I record all the time but that's cause I'm an ideas man. I always love the freshest brain-scrapings most. It's terrible really; I've so many half-baked recording that'll never see the light of day. BUT... there are plans - we're gonna try recording the live set at home and see if it's good enough for backing tracks for something. I'm also thinking super-limited tape and a 7" this year. I may also release a mixtape as I am deeply besotted with a number of tunes I've found this year.

BYL: What’s great pop music that we should check out sometime soon?

DG: Some pop songs (go on hypemachine then buy it when you love it!/have cash - delete as appropriate)

Wavves - So Bored
Sexy Kids - Sisters are Forever
Jane Woody - Tiny Ants (myspace only?)
Mazes - Bowie Knives
Anne Bacheley - Drive in the Dark (maybe email her?)
Jean on Jean - Tonight
The Oh Sees - Carol Ann
Young Governor - Virginia Creeper
Owen Tromans and the Elders - Crew of the Raven (from the forthcoming Fall of Acre LP)

Thanks Ray, peace out!

Paul Stapleton Interview

Do you like comics? I like comics. I still can't get into those super-hero ones that rule the roost and have hundreds of tons of crappy plastic models made in their honour, snapped up by goths, schoolkids and schoolkid-goths the world over. Anyway, Mr Paul Stapleton draws comics that are a reflection of the society we live in and the ingenious ways we devise to annoy and amuse one another. I suppose I like his stuff because I recognise what he writes/draws about from my own experience, and also cos he has a fun drawing style. He takes the piss out of everyone, including you, me, and him. Also, his band Anal Beard were responsible for “The worst record in the history of music" by Fracture zine. Aces!
(All links added by me.)

Bite Yr Lip: I first came across yr drawings on your band's (anal beard) record sleeves. Now you've got 6 books out, how did you get from there to here?

Paul Stapleton: I've been drawing comic strips in one form or another since 1992, although for years the only person that ever saw them was my friend Richard who I drew them with (often sitting on the roof of his parents' house on sunny evenings). Towards the end of the 90's I did a handful of zine comics, which I sold at gigs and a couple of comic shops. They were pretty rudimentary, and quite ugly in places, but it got the ball rolling.

By the time we were releasing Anal Beard records I felt confident enough to put something in a slightly more public place, and we all thought that photo sleeves were dull anyway, so there was that.

And a bit more recently, I was on a walk with my brother Matthew and we had for some reason decided to take pens and paper with us, so had a bit of a picnic and a drawing session. I did what became the first story in Divs and Defects and he suggested I did another full comic, so that baking hot July afternoon in Minehead turned out to be quite cataclysmic.

It's been loads of fun though, although I am sometimes aware of how much of a solitary exercise it all is! I went through a phase of going to a local cafe and drawing there while nursing one can of something grim, but felt like a bit of a blowhard. In Brighton, there's plenty of would-be artists sitting in a cafe with their pens and paper praying that someone will come and ask them what they're working on. So now I sit in the garden.

In the 6 years since Divs and Defects came out, there's been another five books. The most popular has been Chav, which is still selling like hotcakes but the most recent (Facebook - the Comicbook) is coming close. That was exciting in itself, as it was the first book to be printed in full colour.

And most recently of all (I think I'm answering far more than you asked here, but never mind!), I'm working on a set that doesn't have a name yet, but is aimed at being a newspaper strip. It's odd having to fit stories and gags into three panels instead of having an infinite amount of space at your disposal, but probably a good discipline to learn.

BYL: And am I right in thinking you are/are in Pog? What other musicy things do you do then?

PS: I am. Pog ran alongside Anal Beard for a couple of years, and was the kind of music that I tend to write when left to my own devices. For quite a while it was just me and an acoustic guitar sliming out punk folk, but now it’s grown to a very agreeable four piece. It takes up most of the evenings I'm not drawing, and I love it, although it also gives me plenty to moan and worry about.

BYL: Can you tell me about how you draw your comics? Am I right in thinking you hand draw and colour with some sort of alien robot technology?

PS: Spot on! As far as the drawing goes, it's as low-tech as you can possibly get - just a couple of art pens and a stack of whatever paper I can borrow (I always forget to stock up). Everything is drawn by hand, and recently I've been using watercolour, but colouring is nearly always done in Photoshop. That said, most of the comic strips are in black and white anyway.

BYL: Often people in the background or incidental characters are wearing shirts/badges by bands such as The Pastels and Talulah Gosh. Are you much of a pop fan then?

Oh god yes! When I'm stuck for a T Shirt, I just look at the CD shelf and take whatever I see first. And seeing as I'm a sucker for hairslide and lollipop indie pop, it tends to be something that was released on either Sarah, 53rd and 3rd or Rough Trade Records. Although another method which I really should start doing more is giving someone a T shirt sporting the name of a local band. Oily Rag bought five copies of Mr Bethnal and Mr Ongar between them when I did that! I'd like to think I was less cynically enterprising than that, but experience has proved otherwise.

BYL: Where's the best place to get your comics from then?

PS: Pog gigs, but they tend to be very closely guarded secrets. The website (http://www.worldofbeardandpog.co.uk/Scribbles/index.html) is a good place too, and you can read some pages from each book before you take the plunge. Otherwise, if you ever happen to be in Brighton, David's Comics or the Punker Bunker won't give you a blank look should you mention my name, but they might choke on their morning bagels and point you towards Bill Watterson instead.

BYL: Who do you recommend we check out comics by then?

There are three comics that I would say were an influence, and they were all newspaper strips. The Perishers, a long-standing strip in the Daily Mirror, was still running when I was growing up, and Maurice Dodd's beautifully rendered London backdrops and the novel use of polyptychs (where a single background is split across panels which the characters walk across) always kept the strip a source of visual wonder. It’s not published anymore, but you can pick up the collections in charity shops and so on, and there are a few online to look at. The second was Dilbert, which by contrast was really primitive looking, but just so purely funny, insane and spot-on - I think it’s fallen into a bit of a white-collar rut now, but the first few collections are marvellous.

Out of all the daily strips though, nothing touches Calvin and Hobbes for sheer warmth, compassion and big-hearted laughs. Even more admirable is that Bill Watterson never allowed his creation to be merchandised, in the end killing off the strip, rather than taking the Garfield route and making a lot of money in the process.

I guess as I was growing up the only place to really find comics were in the daily papers. As I discovered the weird and expansive world of graphic novels though, I realised how boundless the format was. So if you're ever in a comic store, I'd recommend the Preacher books, Hell Blazer, the Walking Dead, anything by Peter Bagge or Max Cannon, and most of all A Complete Lowlife, which was by Ed Brubaker who is best known for his Batman strips.

Most of what I like are about alienated geeks who work in book shops, but more recently I came across The Tale of One Bad Rat, which is achingly good. And last weekend I finally got round to reading the Watchmen, which is every bit as epic as I was told it would be.

BYL: According to yr website, although you're willing to consider commissions for non-profit organisations etc you'll not deal with organisations that use animal experiments. I like this! So only to take this on a slight tangent, what's good in our sandwiches?

PS: Yeah - the way I put that it makes it sound as if I'm fighting off commissions like they were being gatling cannoned into my inbox. The truth is though that such offers are few and far between. However, I think it’s important to distinguish between different types of charity, although I suppose it’s all down to personal polemic and experience. I find it distasteful that the British Heart Foundation have a roughly 10% stake in vivisection, but then I've never relied on heart surgery or associated technology to save my life. It seems churlish to complain about Cancer Research to someone who's just lost a family member to cancer, but suffice to say, I wouldn't feel comfortable doing anything for those organisations.

BYL: And what's the best thing to do with tofu?

PS: The best thing for me to do with tofu is leave it in the hands of someone who might know a collander from a wok.

BYL: And finally, did your cat really manage to delete the layout for "I must rise above these divs and defects" by trampling over your keyboard? That's terrible luck!

PS: Not quite! But there were times it seemed dangerously close. I'm sure the keys CTRL ALT and DELETE have magnetic qualities. She once managed to rip the power plug out the wall while I was mid-save, which did something very nasty to the file, amounting to about fifteen hours work going down the shitter, and a much-maligned cat coming very close to being donated to the British Heart Foundation.

I think I'm now about 4 months away from forgiving her.

BYL: Thankyou mr paul!

PS: You're very welcome! Thankyou too - it’s always nice to be asked to bang on about oneself after all.


BYL Addendum: This interview was done AGES back. Since then it seems that Paul has started (and abandoned?) an online daily comic strip called Latchkey.

Claire's Cake Recipe

Okay. So Claire from ATTA girl was kind enough to donate a recipe to go in the zine. This is not a real zine, boo hoo etc. The recipe is still here though. Enjoy, people.
(click on the pic to enlarge, init.)

The Carrots

[Okay, so this is obviously OLD.. and the photo is properly thieved from here.]

The Carrots are a super-ace band from Austin, Texas in the U!S!of!A! They are made up of girls and boys and they play brilliant 60's-style motown-y type stuff. Perhaps unsurprisingly they put out records on the ultra-cool label and sponsors of this year's Indietracks festival, Elefant Records.

The questions preceded by "PAG" were donated by Peter who co-hosts the Atta Girl all female-vocals clubnight (http://www.attagrrl.co.uk/)

These questions were kindly answered via the profoundly passé yet ultimately usefull medium of MySpace by The Carrots' Bass player, one Christopher Lyons, thanks Chris!

Bite Yr Lip: I NEED to know, how many of you are really really in the band? and is it the same number of people that are usually on stage?

Chris: Oh, brother! Currently there are only four people who are really, really in the band: Veronica, Shelley, Chef and Chris. We have a “band friend” who has been playing guitar with us on all of our latest recordings but probably wouldn’t consider himself to be really in the band. His name is Jason and he wrote “I Tried to Call You” which we have covered for a long time. The original line-up was Veronica, Chef, Chris, Stephanie, Erin and Jennifer. Erin left last summer to concentrate on her other bands. Stephanie moved to Los Angeles but still went on tour with us last year. Jennifer just quit because she is moving to New York and is also going to concentrate on her other band. We picked up Shelley to replace Erin and we also temporarily had a girl named Lace replacing Stephanie, but she has also moved on. It is so confusing. On stage there has been almost every combination of the above people.

BYL: From seeing the tour documentary on myspace/vimeo it looks like you got to play some unusual places with different styled bands. Are gigs on the US DIY scene usually eclectic? How were you received by crowds when playing after noisy punk bands?

C: Yeah, since we are pretty much unknown our shows turned out to be pretty strange at times. We played with all kinds of bands. Surprisingly, the more punk or hardcore the show the more people liked us. The crusty punks are skeptical of us at first but by the third song they are dancing. I think it’s just the novelty of it that is appealing. When we play with bands that are more similar to us the reaction is usually less positive. That can happen in bigger U.S. cities. People are less jaded at weird shows in small towns.

BYL: How is it being based in Austin? I mean, it's famous for music but does that make it harder to do stuff with all the other try-hards and industry people clambering about the place, or is it actually quite nice?

C: Austin is a great town, overall. There are aspects to it like you described but the alternative is to not have a thriving music scene and not have any opportunities whatsoever. I lived here when this town was like that. It was impossible to get a show at a club and there were no labels or places to record or anything at all for a young band. Now that stuff exists, which is great. Of course, there are also thousands of shitty bands now. Maybe there were always this many bad bands but I feel like when it was harder to be a band in town only the better quality bands persevered. Austin used to be completely isolated. Bands hardly toured here because it was so out of the way. That and the lack of internet back in the day produced a unique mutant strain of music with a lot of regional character. Now bands here sound just like bands everywhere else. Including us! Ack.

BYL: Are you excited about coming to the uk? It usually rains but that’s not allowed at indietracks so dress appropriately! have any of you been? are you planning to be proper tourists and get yr photo taken with a bobby?

C: We are excited about coming to the UK but we aren’t coming this summer! As I mentioned before, our keyboard player Jennifer has just left the band and we are not going to be able to tour without her just yet. We are instead just trying to finish up a record instead. Veronica will be in the UK this summer along with former members Erin and Stephanie in their other band, Finally Punk. Look out for them and go to their shows. Give them small paintings and poems of your own creation to bring back to us.

BYL: Are you planning to play anywhere else in the UK?

C: We would like to play Nottingham Forest, Buckingham Palace, Stonehenge, The White Cliffs of Dover, London Bridge (if it hasn’t fallen down) and a Moor.

BYL: What’s on yr little root veg stereos right about now?

C: I like the Strange Boys (also from Austin) and the Vivian Girls.

PAG: Where did the name come from?

C: We had a vote. Originally we just informally called ourselves “girl-group.” As in, hey do you want to be in a girl-group band with me? What time are we having girl-group practice? This went on for a long time until we realized that was an impractical name and we had to actually think of one. I think we all wrote potential band names on a sheet of paper until we had like 50 or so and then just started passing it around crossing names off. When it got down to around ten we voted. I remember one candidate that just lost was “Snow Girls.” I’ve forgotten the rest. The Carrots just seemed like a cute word when written and it fit in with other girl-group type names like “The Cookies” or “The Chiffons.” C’s are big.

PAG: You're obviously influenced by many a 60s girl group. me and my friend are always arguing about who the greatest 60s girl group were, what do you think?

C: I’d say the big three for us are the Shangri-La’s, the Ronettes and the Crystals. We started out covering all of those bands. Who’s your favorite?

PAG: It's a bit obvious, but I would say the Shangri-Las, I've always loved a bit of melodrama.

PAG: how did the deal with elefant come about? as far as i know there are currently no other american acts on the label.

C: Just like this interview, actually, from a Myspace message. They just wrote us out of the blue and we had nothing else going on so we took them up on their offer. They have been pretty great to us in terms of just letting us do our thing but it is also difficult due to the language barrier and the distance. It can take a long time to communicate.

PAG: Do you know of any other 60s girl group influenced bands about at the moment? i just discovered the pepper pots, a spanish girl group playing 60s inspired ska, they're a bit special.

C: I’d like to hear them because I love old ska. That sounds great. Unfortunately, I think there is a girl-group revival of sorts happening . I only say unfortunately because they are probably all better than us! I don’t even think we sound like a girl-group anymore. More like some dreadful indie-pop nightmare. I don’t think anyone in the band even likes how we sound but that is just the sound that comes out when we all get together. I would much rather sound like “Skinhead Moonstomp” or something. Oh, well.


If you find yrself on the interwebs, lost at a crossroads, i can highly recomend heading towards the Carrots' tour diary on Vimeo.com.

Ask a stupid question

I think that maybe I included this in a perzine I did a little while ago -Optical Devices #1- but as I don't have have a copy myself, I see no harm in reproducing it here....

I do these stupid surveys online. They’re generally based around consumer products, but sometimes they’re about party politics. I generally just wade through zombie-like to pick up my 50p at the end. I’ve got over a tenner in the account now. Anyway, the majority of the questions are multiple choice, but the other day one asking about how often and how I buy music ended with..

“finally, what does music mean to you?”

I answered quickly and copied and pasted it onto my desktop. It’s a bit daft and unfocussed and contradictory. But I think I sort of got a bit of my point across, if only in a way I understand.

“Enjoyment of anything is essentially radical in and of itself. To know that the world is being destroyed by power-crazed politicians, cancerous corporations, and the militantly ignorant majority of the populace; to know that people will gladly kick away a ladder once they’ve reached the top and then shit on those struggling behind. To be aware of these things and be happy in SPITE of the facts is revolutionary.

Independent music strives to break chinks into walls of mundanity and the cynical world of corporately engineered (or influenced) entertainment.

A world filled with people who create, share, and enjoy. A world without rules, a world that exists purely for love and fun. A beautiful escape from skin creams and shiny cars, real-estate, foreign policy, hierarchy and competition for the sake of it.

This is for fun, and that’s really all anything should be for.”
Pop music strikes chinks into the wall and I bask in the light.