AU Magazine Issue 64

Trapped in the Activists’ Moshpit AU reports from within the antiFascism movement JÓnsi Falsetto a-Go-Go The Redneck Manifesto Rekindling an old Friendship Chew Lips Flower power General Fiasco Taking nothing for granted

IRISH EXCLUSIVE

James Murphy on the third & final album SXSW / Red Bull Music Academy / Dan Le Sac Vs. Scroobius Pip / Liars / Richter Collective—1/ Andrew WK AU Magazine— Plan B / Two Door Cinema Club / The Cast Of Cheers / Gonjasufi / Sparklehorse / Douglas Coupland / Pavement

my inspiration Robbie Williams

And I need you more than want you and I want you for all time Glen Campbell Wichita Lineman

Photography by Julian Broad —2 issue 64—

WICHITA LINEMAN by Jimmy Webb

AU MAGAZINE

FEATURE CONTENTS

38/ TRAPPED IN THE ACTIVISTS’ MOSHPIT

“The BNP is a dagger aimed at the heart of the working class” Paul Davies, Communist League

42/ JÓNSI

“Making songs is the only thing I really, really love”

44/ LCD SOUNDSYSTEM

“I’d rather spend recording money on having a mansion to get drunk in than a really hot mixer”

50/ THE REDNECK MANIFESTO

“Have a listen to it. It sounds kind of exciting. It’s the best thing we have ever recorded”

52/ GENERAL FIASCO

“It would be great to get to the stage where you’re playing to 2,000 people every night and each and every one of them is going bananas. That’s our ambition.”

54/ CHEW LIPS

“We’re more into that terrifying-sounding synth than happy Eighties pop records”

IMAGE:

22/ INCOMING: DARWIN DEEZ

—3 AU Magazine—

EDITORIAL Northern Irish music has sold out. There, I said it. The cat is out of the bag. NI bands are a load of total sell-outs. All these acts that people hold in such high regard - Two Door Cinema Club, General Fiasco, LaFaro – sell outs, the lot of ‘em. We’re only a quarter of the way through 2010 and we’ve already witnessed more selling out than you could imagine. Right now, you might have some sort of noisy inner voice shouting out things like ‘You lie! NI bands are bastions of integrity!’, or ‘This is heresy! Those bands would never do such a thing, they are a great bunch of lads!’. If that sounds like you, it’s time to calm the eff down. In the context I’m talking about, selling out is a darn good thing.

Already this year we’ve had Two Door selling out their album launch party at the Stiff Kitten, LaFaro selling out two Menagerie dates for their album launch, and General Fiasco selling out the Mandela Hall for their album release party. That’s an excellent run in anyone’s book, and it’s great to see the hard work that each band has put in over the years paying off in spades. Selling out has never been so much fun.

Jonny

STUPID THINGS SAID THIS MONTH I need to go shopping here for big thick elastic bands.

He had chocolate sprinkles on his knob I like a bit of air bass, it’s a lot more robust than air guitar.

‘There were so many animals in the house - cats, dogs, enchiladas’ ‘I think you mean chinchillas’ I like the way they gave everyone back home a saunter tablet She doesn’t look like that in real life. She looks like Madonna. Like, Madonna now.

I don’t think music has reached Lurgan yet.

Do you think when Scroobius Pip dies he’ll just have Scroobius RIP on his headstone?

What do you call that girl out of Florence and the Machine?

These hands bring fun.

I’d quite like a drip.

ROLL CALL Publisher / Editor In Chief

Jonny Tiernan

Editor

Chris Jones

Contributing Editors

Francis Jones Edwin McFee Ross Thompson

Contributors

Kiran Acharya, Barry Cullen, Neill Dougan, John Freeman, Lee Gorman, James Gracey, Niall Harden, Matt Hazley, James Hendicott, Lisa Hughes, Andrew Johnston, Adam Lacey, Ailbhe Malone, Nay McArdle, Gerard McCann, Darragh McCausland, James McDonald, Louise McHenry, Paul McIver, Kenny Murdock, Lauren Murphy, Joe Nawaz, Steven Rainey, Kyle Robinson, Craig Sheridan, Jeremy Shields, Lyndon Stephens.

Design/Illustration

Stuart Bell, Tim Farrell, Mark Reihill.

Photography

Katy Chan Richard W Crothers - panicdots.com Carrie Davenport - carriedavenport.com Sarah Dorman Ken Haddock - kenshoot.com Suzie McCracken

Distribution Manager

Kim Barclay

If you’d like to stock AU in your business, or you live in an area where AU isn’t currently stocked, but you’d like to see it available, then drop kim@iheartau.com a line. She’ll sort you out.

—4 issue 64—

AU MAGAZINE | CONTENTS (CONTINUED) UPFRONT

8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 22

26

The AU Stereo SXSW 2010 Five To One: Rock ‘N’ Roll Nearly Men / Sequels Too Far Red Bull Music Academy Smirnoff Be There / We Must Hide Dan Le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip Liars / Heartwork The Richter Collective Plan B The Phone Box Experiment: Dublin On The Road: Two Door Cinema Club Incoming: The Butterfly Explosion / Darwin Deez / Glasser / The Cast Of Cheers / Gonjasufi / Disappears / Dag För Dag / Hurts Hey You! What’s On Your iPod?

REWIND

27 28 30 34 36

Flashback: Paul McCartney Leaves The Beatles History Lessons: Sparklehorse A To Z: Deities Respect Your Shelf: Douglas Coupland Classic Album: Pavement

REVIEWS

58 Album Reviews 64 Live Reviews 65 Unsigned Universe SUBBACULTCHA

67 70 72 74 76 78 80 81

Most Wanted Screen Games Arts Comics Back Of The Net In Pictures: Two Door Cinema Club / DJ Yoda The Last Word: Andrew WK

To advertise in AU Magazine contact the sales team Tel: 028 9032 4888 or via email: jonny@iheartau.com The opinions expressed in this magazine are not necessarily those of the editor or the publisher. Copyright remains with the author / photographer / designer.

IMAGE:

24/ INCOMING: GONJASUFI

Send demos / mail / material to: AU Magazine, The Marquis Building, 89-91 Adelaide Street, Belfast, BT2 8FE For more info contact: info@iheartau.com For all general and editorial enquiries call: 028 9032 4455 AU Magazine graciously acknowledges funding support from the Arts Council Of Northern Ireland —5 AU Magazine—

The AU Stereo

Upfront

THE AU STEREO

Rocking the office airwaves this month...

The Morning Benders Excuses (Rough Trade)

With their second album Big Echo The Morning Benders have made a springing leap from being a poor man’s Shins to purveyors of hugely brilliant, starry-eyed, dream pop. ‘Excuses’ is just one stunner from an album crammed with them, a gorgeously melodic sing-a-long that appears to have guzzled all of the spiked Kool-Aid. DMc

SWEET SWEET LIES OVERRATED GIRLFRIEND (DUMB ANGEL) Brighton’s Sweet Sweet Lies have seemingly cast half an eye up the Sussex coast to Hove – home of Nick Cave. ‘Overrated Girlfriend’ is full of the Wizard of Oz’s rambunctious charm and howling wit. “She’s beautiful and kinda rough,” sings Dominic VonTrapp over a dark skiffle beat. You sense the girl in question may desire the right to reply, but there’s no denying the acerbic swagger of Sweet Sweet Lies. JF FLYING LOTUS …AND THE WORLD LAUGHS WITH YOU (WARP) Given the mind-boggling ‘holy shit’ factor of FlyLo’s incoming Cosmogramma album, one could probably plump for any of the LP’s plethora of genius tracks to stick on repeat.

That said, this one featuring Thom Yorke, whose voice doesn’t even kick in until over half-way through, is staggering. Jittery, —6 issue 64—

paranoid, futuristic and packed with 101 bleeps, ‘…And The World Laughs With You’ is what music should sound like now… and forever. AL HJALTALÍN SUITCASE MAN (CARGO) The lead track from the Icelandic group’s gigantically adventurous second album Terminal is an absolute corker. After a subdued intro, ‘Suitcase Man’ bursts into joyous life, like a runaway train soundtracked by a crazed madman brandishing woodwind instruments – before evolving into a mini rock opera, with bassoons and clarinets pirouetting around Högni Egilsson’s velvet croon. Astonishing and eccentric stuff even

by Iceland’s high standards. JF AUTECHRE R ESS (WARP) The opening track on Autechre’s 10th

Shy Child

Liquid Love (Wall Of Sound) Shamelessly ripping Fleetwood Mac’s ‘Everywhere’ on the intro, Shy Child aren’t being coy about which decade they are taking their current cues from. This track positively drips with an Eighties pop sensibility, though it has been injected with enough modern electro panache to make it more of an authentic homage, rather than reeking of pungent fromage. People might call it the decade that taste forgot, but ‘Liquid Love’ proves that it’s still fertile ground for a great tune. JT

Terror Danjah Acid

(Hyperdub)

Bombscare! The spirit of ‘ardcore is pumping manically through a lot of dubstep these days. With all those krazy honking sirens, amen breaks and 808 keyboards wobbling around the place, you’d be forgiven for thinking it was 1993 all over again. Rough and ready and replete with sirens, Terror Danjah’s ‘Acid’ is a cracking example of dubstep’s current love of all things smiley-faced. DMc

album Oversteps is as stunning as anything in their canonical back catalogue. After taking its time to emerge from a galactic hush, the track opens into an arrhythmic symphony of tick-tocking percussion, alien keyboard stabs and vaporous trails of sound which seem miles long. DMc RUDI ZYGADLO RESEALABLE FRIENDSHIP (PLANET MU) This taster for May’s debut album from Rudi Zygadlo (his real name, believe it or not) comes on like fellow Glaswegian beat scientist Hudson Mohawke trying his hand at dubstep – over a classic halfstep beat, Zygadlo slathers on neon synths, dense funk and enormous, almost choral vocal harmonies. Glasgow just keeps on coming up with the goods. CJ ARCHIE BRONSON OUTFIT MAGNETIC WARRIOR (DOMINO)

Proof if it was needed that the guitar riff is alive and well, new album Coconut kicks off with this thumper – and it’s the best thing on the fuzzy, distorted gem. On production duties, DFA’s Tim Goldsworthy has slightly toned down ABO’s swamp-rock sensibilities and accentuated the shimmering psychedelics, meaning ‘Magnetic Warrior’ comes crawling out of the gutter boasting pockets full of dystopian dread and chugging, crackling attitude. AL THE LOVE SUPREME SUGAR (TIRK) How to make your own quality sugar: take the bassline from Talking Heads’ ‘Psycho Killer’, add in a few guitar stabs akin to Gang Of Four’s ‘To Hell With Poverty’, lace it with a bubbling disco froth, then mix it all together at 125 beats per minute for approximately six-and-a-half minutes. Perfect results, every time. JT

SXSW

News Feature

STRAIT LACES PHOTO: KEN HADDOCK

SXSW 2010 Through Irish Eyes The annual South by Southwest event in Austin, Texas is a glorious cacophony of music and hustle. Each year, thousands of delegates from every aspect of the music industry descend on the city, effectively doubling it in size. Over the course of four days and nights, countless bands from nearly every country in the world play in any nook and cranny available, with everyone networking, making connections, and generally pressing enough flesh to make a Roman orgy seem like a teddy bear’s picnic.

Each year you can be sure to find a number of Irish and Northern Irish bands battling in the whirlwind, staking their claim and making their mark. 2010 was no exception, with a healthy number of acts playing plenty of showcases all over Austin. AU was there too, soaking it up and being all eyes and ears. We caught up with eight of our favourite Irish acts to get a flavour of their highs, lows and oddities during SXSW 2010.

CONOR O’BRIEN, VILLAGERS Favourite gig that you played My favourite show at SXSW was the Irish showcase in Friends on 6th Street, simply because I felt like I did the songs justice and played to an incredibly varied and attentive audience. Indeed, I would go so far as to say that I was humbled by their graciousness.

Best gig you saw I hardly had any time to see any bands but the best gig I saw was definitely The Unthanks (at Momo’s I think?). They were spellbinding.

Weirdest moment The hotel shuttle driver impressed me by displaying a considerable knowledge of the history of Ireland, before adding, “Wait, Ireland is in England, isn’t it?” I thought that was kind of weird. Not annoying or anything; just weird.

Words by Jonny Tiernan

Low point On the last day, the temperature bizarrely dropped to near zero. It just so happened that I had three outdoor shows on

this day. Not a good time. I couldn’t feel my fingers and the shrunken audiences looked freezing and miserable.

RORY FRIERS, AND SO I WATCH YOU FROM AFAR Favourite gig that you played BD Riley’s on 6th Avenue. By the time we were going on, we noticed they’d stopped letting people in and a queue had formed at the door. We fired into our set and we were all really feeling it, I turned round to look at Chris [Wee, drums] and that’s when I noticed – outside the open shutters behind him, a crowd of 150-plus had gathered. It was incredible, our booking agent Beckie couldn’t even get in. It was a real moment for us, like some of the stories we’d heard about SXSW, so it was cool.

Best gig you saw Les Savy Fav. This show should have been the worst show I saw. I’d lost the lads, the sound was unbelievably terrible, most of the crowd seemed to be industry types there because it was cool to be, nothing on stage worked, and it was a complete shambles. But it was the complete disregard for any of those factors by the band that was so exciting. They played for the 50/100 die-hard fans at the front – Tim Harrington was out of his mind, on top of PA stacks, in the crowd, setting stuff on fire, drinking the liquid from glow sticks and generally

“Everyone else was checking out bands and drinking all day, but we ended up in canoes applying sunscreen to each other.”

Owen, General Fiasco —7 AU Magazine—

SXSW

News Feature emitting more charisma and genuine sincerity than anyone I saw the whole weekend. When he ended up crashing past us onto the floor and me and the surrounding crowd hoisted him back up above our heads, I couldn’t help but get a sense that we were all involved, all struggling to make it happen despite nothing working. You gotta see this band, they mean it.

Weirdest moment Probably when our Cajun host Tim, whose house we were staying at, came down in the morning and cooked us breakfast in a thong, then took pictures of us sleeping, gave us guns to hold and put some cuttings of Chris’s hair on eBay. All true. I should also point out that Tim is the coolest person we have ever met.

Low point Toothache... fuckin’ toothache!!! You travel 3,000 miles, spend months in organisation, make sure you’re completely prepared to make the most of four days at SXSW and you get fuckin’ toothache... Proper toothache, like 1920s, towel round the head, ice on the jaw, can’t say a word, crunching up aspirin, want to go home toothache. Bummer.

DARRAGH SHANAHAN, DARK ROOM NOTES Favourite gig that you played Our favourite show was in a bar called Friends on 6th street. It was cool ‘cos we actually got a sound check which is unheard of most of the time and our sound guy, Sean, was so calm and wanted to get everything just right. It was amazing to watch – even though people were drunk and heckling him, he was like Buddha. Then we kicked off and the crowd got their groove on. It was bliss – great sounds, great people, they were even hanging in the windows from the street shouting for more.

Best gig you saw The best buzz there would have to have been Bad Rabbits, they’re a bunch of guys from Boston. It was one of those SXSW moments where we were walking down the street, it got really cold and nothing was inspiring us on the map so we popped into this tiny bar that was covered in stickers and this guy was on stage slagging the audience. We ordered some drinks and then his band kicked in. They bounced the house down, moshing, grooving, the whole crowd got involved and it was electric and a total surprise.

Weirdest moment Being served drinks by Bill Murray – he makes a mean Greyhound – then being started on by the fattest person alive at a hotdog stand. I pushed him and my arms sank into his mass, uggghhh!

Low point Turning up for a sound check with a hungover band at 9am, gear being forgotten, and then being told to come back at 3pm, that was a drag.

CAHIR O’DOHERTY, FIGHTING WITH WIRE Favourite gig that you played Had to be our last show at the Creekside Lodge, because we started to feel comfortable playing our new songs, and it felt like we were back in action!

VILLAGERS

OWEN STRATHERN, GENERAL FIASCO Favourite gig that you played I think it was the show we played in the Wave Bar. Gigs outside in the sun is the way it should be – it was on a roof terrace and it was a cool, cramped gig. I think it was our third gig and by then we had got used to playing during the day and it just felt good. Didn’t have to think, just play.

Best gig you saw Frightened Rabbit in the Convention Center. I had heard loads and loads about them but never actually heard them.

It was a seated show and should have sucked, but they were class. The songs were so strong, and they delivered a perfect performance in a situation that I’m sure wasn’t the best craic.

Weirdest moment The General Fiasco honeymoon, canoeing down some river.

Everyone else was checking out bands and drinking all day, but we ended up in canoes applying sunscreen to each other.

Bromance.

Low point The low point happened before we even left. Our tech had been sick all night and when we got to the airport he had to run and be sick loads. He managed to get on the plane but as we were waiting for it to take off he had to run to the bathroom to be sick a few times. Cabin crew spotted him and got a doctor on and they decided he was too sick to travel – not even off the ground and we were one man down.

pretty much forever. The White Wires ruled at Trailer Space Records. Fungi Girls were immense as well.

Weirdest moment Being heckled as “crust punks”. I was wearing a check shirt at the time, I’d imagine that’s why.

Low point Day four, show 11. We played before Grass Widow. My amp crapped out, my pedal exploded and we limped toward the end of our SXSW experience with a 14 minute set during which I couldn’t stop giggling.

PANDO, STRAIT LACES Favourite gig that you played Probably the Belfast Rocks showcase. It was sweet to be playing with three of the best Irish bands at the minute. It was also a bit weird, with loads of people from Belfast just hanging around in Austin. There was a free bar as well so after we played we hit it pretty hard and got to check out the rest of the bands.

Best gig you saw Mariachi El Bronx was sweet. We Are Scientists played after them. Their With Love And Squalor album has a special place in each of our hearts and they played quite a lot from it. We boogied the night away… there was also a free bar.

Weirdest moment Watching Jamie King [bass], out of his mind, start a moshpit at a rave.

Favourite gig that you played Probably The Beauty Bar show with Tyvek and The Coathangers. Our Austin poet friend, Thax Douglas, opened our set with a new poem called ‘So Cow 2’, and then we played the best show of the 11 we did. I still reek from it.

"The hotel shuttle driver impressed me by displaying a considerable knowledge of the history of Ireland, before adding, “Wait, Ireland is in England, isn’t it?”

Low point Watching Minus The Bear in the freezing cold.

Best gig you saw Thee Oh Sees at the Mohawk. Best band I’ve seen live in

Conor, Villagers

Best gig you saw Rival Schools at Red Seven. Their album United By Fate is one of my favourite rock records so I’ve always wanted to see them live and they didn’t disappoint. Their new songs sounded good too, so I’m looking forward to the new album.

—8 issue 64—

BRIAN KELLY, SO COW

News

FIGHTING WITH WIRE

Weirdest moment We played a show in a vintage clothes shop and between bands there was all manner of dancers performing. Some Twentiesinspired, some mother/daughter belly dancers, more belly dancers and a fullygrown man in make-up belly dancing with swords. It was surreal. In the middle of this, some guy started rapping and said he used to be in [Memphis rap group] the Three 6 Mafia. He then proceeded to say how he found God, starting the well known, “I say Jesus, you say Christ!” chant. When we eventually played we went down a treat!

Low point We missed so many bands we wanted to see because we were just so tired. Playing two or three shows a day and not getting much sleep really drained us. One day we got the chance to be on an actual bed and all three of us went straight to it and passed out.

MARK A, THE MINUTES Favourite gig that you played We were due to play this outdoor festival/ party thing, but it was fucking freezing and the night before it absolutely pissed down, horror film shit, and soaked the stages. We arrive and the dudes say we’re on three hours later than scheduled, so we nip into the pub next door – proper honkytonk joint – to drink whiskeys and rums to warm up.

At 7pm our booker from Austin arrives, looks at the stage outside, says, ‘Fuck that, I’m gonna get y’all on in here’. She knows the owner and the engineer and somehow they manage to squeeze us on for a 40-minute slot. Great show. Second song in, we have the room full. Whooping, hollering, cowboy hats, the whole fucking lot. No matter what happens in our careers I think we’ll all remember that as one of the best shows we’ve ever played.

Best gig you saw We saw this band from Denmark called The Asteroids Galaxy Tour. Sorta funky Sixties Scandinavian pop. Real good stuff though – brass and all. At SXSW it’s easy to get band fatigue, but these lads kept our attention. It helped that the singer was pretty hot too but Jesus, she’s some set of lungs on her.

Weirdest moment Waking with my forehead burning up. I look at Shane and he’s the same. We both burnt the bollix outta our pasty Irish heads.

Low point Losing my voice. I was really pissed off with myself that I let it happen. I’d done what I vowed not to do. A little too much beer, smoke and shouting after gigs never helps.

Luckily, the bastard only needed one night’s rest and a few hot whiskeys to sort himself out.

SO COW

—9 AU Magazine—

Upfront

Words by Andrew Johnston

Five To One

5 to 1

5

TH

4

TH

3

RD

2

ND

1

ST

—10 issue 64—

Rock ‘N’ Roll Nearly-Men

Sequels Too Far

Al Sobrante (ex-Green Day) Drummer Al Sobrante quit Green Day in 1990, just before the punk superstars-tobe recorded their seminal second album Kerplunk. According to lore, Sobrante wanted to go back to college. If he’d stuck around a few more years, he could have bought the college. Today, as his former bandmates collect Grammys and hang out with U2, Sobrante – real name John Kiffmeyer – is teaching drums and producing local bands in San Francisco, no doubt cursing his luck between sessions. Still, the royalties for the one Green Day song he wrote – the prophetic ‘I Was There’, on debut album 39/Smooth – probably help numb the pain.

Texas Chainsaw Massacre: The Next Generation (1994) 2 and III were bad, but this bloody farce remains the Texas Chainsaw saga’s low point.

Initially shelved by the studio, the ‘fourquel’ – written and directed by original co-creator Kim Henkel, who had clearly lost his mojo – crawled into cinemas when stars Renée Zellweger and Matthew McConaughey hit the big time. The plot is a feeble retread of the ‘74 classic – until a mysterious, tuxedoed man with nipple chains shows up, kills everybody except Leatherface and takes Renée away in his limo. It’s as if the final pages of the script were lost and rewritten on the spot by a bipolar sex offender.

Jason Everman (ex-Nirvana/Soundgarden) Perennial nearly man Jason Everman went from blowing it in a pair of legendary grunge bands to blowing shit up in the US Army.

The guitarist – whose ginger hair and bumfluff moustache should have tipped us off about his hapless nature – left Nirvana to join Soundgarden, then left Soundgarden to join grindcore clowns OLD. Everman funded the recording – all $606 of it – of Nirvana debut Bleach, and has his photo on the cover – yet he doesn’t play a note on the album. Everman eventually found his calling in Iraq and Afghanistan, where he can take his frustrations out on unsuspecting insurgents.

Carry On Columbus (1992) The Carry On franchise gave us Sid James, Kenneth Williams, Barbara Windsor and lots of saucy Sixties laughs. Sadly, it also gave us this horrific Nineties effort. Carry On Columbus united surviving cast members – most of whom were well into old age – with the era’s top alternative comedians. The likes of Jim Dale, Rik Mayall and Julian Clary gurn and grimace through one of the least funny comedy flicks ever. Series producer Peter Rogers died last year aged 95, taking to the grave the wretched prospect of Carry On London – a proposed 21st century sequel, set to star Vinnie Jones and Shane Richie...

David Donato (ex-Black Sabbath) All metal bands have a frontman in the closet from their early days. AC/DC’s is Dave Evans, now punting a Bon Scott tribute show.

Judas Priest had Al Atkins, who left because they weren’t making any money (Priest have since sold over 40 million albums). But Black Sabbath are the leaders in musical mic stands.

After rock legends Ozzy, Dio and Gillan came unknown Italian-American pretty boy David Donato – nicknamed ‘Donut’ by the press. He lasted one photo shoot and a Kerrang! interview, in which he dissed his iconic predecessors. Who’s laughing demonically now, eh?

Saw III-VI (2006-2009) Saw was a fresh and frightening horror film for the 2000s. Saw II was a solid sequel gory and entertaining. Then it all went to hell. Main villain Jigsaw (Tobin Bell) died by a power saw to the neck in Saw III, but that didn’t stop them making Saw IV – in which Jigsaw appeared as a corpse – Saw V – where he featured in flashbacks – and Saw VI – with Jigsaw taunting victims by video from beyond the grave. There has been a Saw movie every Halloween since 2004 – and there’s more to come. Bell is signed up for Saw VII – in 3-D.

Dik Evans (ex-U2) Richard ‘Dik’ Evans – brother of Dave ‘The Edge’ Evans – was a founding member of U2, in the days when they were known as The Hype. The Evans siblings shared a homemade guitar in the fledgling group, before the other members decided there was no need for two guitarists. Cue 30 years of global fame and fortune for little bro Dave, and 30 years of not very much at all for big Dik – well, aside from a stint in Dublin scenesters The Virgin Prunes. The kicker is that it was the elder Evans’ playing that first inspired The Edge to pick up a guitar.

Police Academy: Mission To Moscow (1994) By 1994, the Police Academy series had outstayed its welcome by at least four movies. Yet, amazingly, this lumbering abortion of a sequel – number seven, if anyone was still counting – got a cinema release. The dregs of the original cast stagger from unfunny set-piece to unfunny set-piece, joined by Christopher Lee in a career-worst performance as a Russian Game Boy addict. The whole sorry affair made just $126,000 at the US box office, and put an end to the Academy’s antics until the currently mooted reboot, that is...

Pete Best (ex-Beatles) Pete Best is the original nearly man. The drummer was fired from The Beatles in 1962, and claims he has never been given a reason why. Best spent the next 20 years working as a civil servant in a job centre in Liverpool, while Lennon, McCartney, Harrison and replacement drummer Ringo Starr became multi-millionaire household names. If Best is bitter, he does a good job of hiding it, having always retained a sense of humour about his predicament. The musician most recently appeared in comedy flick The Rocker, partly inspired by his life.

Ironically – or perhaps typically – the luckless Liverpudlian had most of his scenes cut.

Star Wars: Episodes I-III (1999-2005) It seems like a long time ago and a galaxy far, far away now, but in 1999 people were genuinely excited about new Star Wars films.

Ultimately, writer-director George Lucas was accused of everything from racism to raping his fans’ childhoods. The ‘prequels’ – with their convoluted plots, inane scripts and dodgy CGI – were a disappointment to all but the most blinkered devotee. The Phantom Menace, Attack Of The Clones and Revenge Of The Sith were joyless, lifeless movies – devoid of the original trilogy’s magic. A few years later, Lucas was at it again with the Indiana Jones franchise. The sooner he’s swallowed whole by his own beard the better.

Red Bull Music Academy

SCHOOL DAZE

AU joins Hudson Mohawke and SDC at the Red Bull Music Academy A Taste Of Sonar show at the Roundhouse in Camden, where he and some of his fellow participants would man the second room while MF Doom and DJs Matthew Herbert and Roska looked after the huge main arena.

OOH! yone in your Are you or an so, head over 19? If band under lbedroomjam.com ul to www.redb w you could be in ho for details on of playing at one of ce with a chan stivals in the UK – fe t rk, the bigges T In The Pa Download, stival…

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Hamill admits to having been “really shocked” when he was accepted to the Academy, and he struggles to put into words what the experience is like. “It’s been amazing. It’s going to be hard to come down after it. It’s going to be an un-toppable two weeks, for probably the rest of my life,” he says.

Collaboration and the sharing of ideas are key to the ethos of the whole enterprise, and with the 30 participants in each term spending the vast majority of their time together and surrounded by experienced mentors, the atmosphere is one of creative possibility. “To get launched in like that became an aid to me,” says Ross Birchard. “I’m not the kind of person who would go up to people and say, ‘Do you want to work on this?’, ‘What do you think of this?’, ‘Can I give you a CD?’ – even basic networking stuff. You’re in this environment where you’ve not really got any choice but to do that, so it’s definitely a help.”

SPACE DIMENSION CONTROLLER

Even as an outsider, a day spent within the otherworldly cocoon of the Red Bull Music Academy is an overwhelming experience, so consider the mental welfare of the 60 participants, each plucked from more than 2,000 hopeful music-makers from around the world and thrust into a two-week barrage of information, creativity and opportunity.

Oh, and excellent free food and beer.

Don’t forget the free food and beer.

“It’s going to be an untoppable two weeks, for probably the rest of my life.”

Space Dimension Controller

Every year since 1998, RBMA has descended on one of the world’s most iconic cities (Sao Paulo, Barcelona, Cape Town – now London) for two two-week ‘terms’ affording the few applicants lucky and talented enough to make it with an experience quite unlike any other. This year’s venue, a specially renovated former pub, is a bespoke four-storey building near London Bridge where Red Bull will maintain an HQ after the Academy. While there, the participants are invited to sit in on in-depth interviews with some big names (this year including Modeselektor, Roots Manuva, Mark Ronson and the hugely charismatic Detroit techno/house veteran Moodymann) and given access to nine recording studios and whatever equipment they might dream of using, as well as being able to mingle and collaborate with illustrious former participants and generally getting treated like royalty. Did we mention the free food and beer? It’s plentiful.

Recent RBMA graduates include Mr Hudson, Flying Lotus and Glaswegian hip-hop funkateer Hudson Mohawke (aka Ross Birchard), who spent two weeks at the Academy in Seattle in 2007, before signing to Warp and making one of 2009’s best debut albums in Butter.

“It was quite a full-on experience, that’s the best way to describe it,” he says softly in the bowels of the London building, where he is back as a studio tech and mentor for this year’s crop. “A lot of people don’t have a lot of experience beyond making tracks in their bedrooms, and then suddenly to be in this environment where you have limitless pieces of equipment, and all these different people to work with, people taking pictures of you – you’re kind of thrown in at the deep end.”

In the past, Ireland has been represented by acts including DJs Timmy Stewart and Mark Bell and producers Mike Slott and Defcon. This year, it’s the turn of Space Dimension Controller, aka Belfast’s Jack Hamill. When we speak to him, Hamill is preparing a DJ set for that night’s

Jack Hamill, for his part, is a more cocksure individual than Birchard was during his time in Seattle, and although his eyes light up as he talks about rubbing shoulders with legendary drum & bass and jungle DJ Zinc, Italian electro/ techno producer Marco Passarani and James Pants, the founder of hip-hop label Stones Throw, he swats away the idea of being daunted in such company. “Not really, no, because everybody’s acting like themselves,” he says.

“I don’t feel uncomfortable going up to talk to a big, legendary producer because, you know, you’re at the Red Bull Music Academy so that already grants you ‘worth talking to’ status.”

The next couple of years will put that idea to the test, but the Academy’s history would suggest that Jack is right.

Chris Jones WWW.REDBULLMUSICACADEMY.COM

Global Reach

RBMA 2010 By Numbers Number of countries represented by applicants: 85 Number of countries represented by participants: 33

Participants by continent: Europe: 30 North and Central America: 11 Asia: 6 Oceania: 4 Africa: 3 South America: 2 Country providing most participants: England (6) —11 AU Magazine—

News

Upfront

PROMOTION

SMIRNOFF BE THERE CAMPAIGN STEPS UP A GEAR Fancy a trip to South Africa this summer?

Photo By Tim Cochrane

We Must Hide...

Dappy!

Prime time electro duo and AU favourites Simian Mobile Disco have been confirmed to play at the next Smirnoff Be There event on Friday April 23. It’s taking place in Berlin, which is a bit of a trek, tbf. Right now you might have a few questions, such as 1) Why are you telling us Irish and Northern Irish folk about an event in Berlin? and 2) What the hizzell is this Be There hullabaloo all about? We’re going to answer question 2) first, which will hopefully in itself provide an answer to question 1).

Quite simply, ‘Be There’ is the latest marketing brainchild of the Smirnoff vodka brand. The concept is based around the idea of people experiencing one-of-a-kind events and happenings. You know, the type of thing that is so good and awesome that you just had to ‘be there’ (don’t groan, or we’ll punch you). Through a series of their own events, and enabling others to plan events themselves, Smirnoff are aiming to let people across the globe have these same sorts of experiences. That’s question 2) answered.

Besides this upcoming Smirnoff Experience Berlin event, there have already been similar things in Ireland, such as the Wedding Night party in Dublin. That event encouraged people to come dressed in their finest wedding garb, either their own, or their parents’/auntie’s/uncle’s/ cousin’s/sibling’s/yougettheidea. It was a pretty good idea

for an event, and there are plans afoot for more Irish events throughout the year.

That goes some way towards answering question 1).

Though what makes it more relevant is that you could have won yourself and a bunch of mates a trip to this Berlin event, if had entered their competition in time. Assuming you didn’t enter and win, you’ll probably want to get on top of entering their new comp. The next Smirnoff Experience event is taking place in South Africa, on May 15. Tiësto (or Tiësticals, as we like to call him) is the star attraction, and if you win you’ll get access to the event (which is taking place in an air hangar), plus four nights in Johannesburg, an itinerary of other local cultural events, and all your flights and hotel bills covered.

You can enter the competition, plus access all the latest news on other Be There activity and events, through their Facebook page –www.facebook.com/smirnoffireland.

Oh, and there is also a video on there of the lovely Duke Special talking about his classic St. George’s Market gig in Belfast. It’s worth checking out to get a feel of what the Be There concept can mean to artists. There will be exclusive content from the events up there as well, along with opportunities to upload your own photos, videos and stuff. Get involved.

His nickname might make him sound like a rejected candidate for the seven dwarves, but in actual fact Dino ‘Dappy’ Constostavlos is a rapper and professional shellsuit wearer with N-Dubz. The London trio may be to hip-hop as global warming is to polar bears, but that hasn’t stopped the Dapster from trading on his minor celebrity status with some classic self-indulgent behaviour. Like a half-price 50 Cent, he famously threatened one of Chris Moyles’ listeners – who, frankly, deserve everything they get – for dissing him. He did so by sending a very naughty text message – just like all real rappers do. After all this big boy talk, El Dappo actually did pop a cap in a fan’s ass – well, it was a pellet from a toy paintball gun, but said fan was ill-amused, and contacted the police. Dappy should probably get used to hitting the bottom – of the charts, that is. Perhaps the kindest thing one can say about him is that he knows how to put on a hat. Well done, Dappy.

Top Ten Songs For Dappy 1. N-Dubz Ouch!

2. Notorious B.I.G. Who Shot Ya 3. Brand New At The Bottom 4. Eminem Ass Like That 5. The Smiths Bigmouth Strikes Again 6. Green Day Foot In Mouth 7. The Wannadies Idiot Boy 8. The Beastie Boys Check Your Head 9. The Lemonheads Paint 10. N-Dubz Manufactured Bands

NEWS SHORTS AU snapper extraordinaire Carrie Davenport is putting on her very first solo exhibition this month in Holywood, Co. Down. As well as shooting for AU, Carrie also contributed to Kerrang!, Hot Press and more, and her work is well worth checking out. The show, entitled Picture This, runs at the Alternative Ink tattoo studio in the town from Monday, April 19 to Saturday, May 22.

The said it would never happen….

Oh hang on, no they didn’t. Yes,

—12 issue 64—

Pete ‘n’ Carl – the Shoreditch Toxic Twins – have kissed and made up and reformed The Libertines for an enormous sack of cash the love of the music and each other. The original line-up of the band will play the Reading and Leeds Festivals at the end of August. It’ll probably be great, actually, won’t it?

Ex-The Immediate singer Conor O’Brien has returned as Villagers and signed to the esteemed Domino Records – this

much you know. His debut album is released on May 14 in Ireland (May 24 in the UK) and he’ll be playing Kilkenny, Cork, Galway and Dublin at the end of the month, with a date at Belfast’s Auntie Annie’s to follow on June 9.

Now that Oasis have finally called it a day (with “great relief”, according to Noel), it’s time for the best-of. Entitled Time Flies… 1994-2009, it will be released on June 14, containing 26 of the band’s singles (i.e. all of them

except ‘Sunday Morning Call’, poor soul). I can hear the collective ‘meh’ from here.

their visuals on tour). Someone should tell them the Super Furries had that idea in 2001…

doom-mongers are currently living it up in sunny LA, where they are working on their second album.

Still truckin’ after all these years, The Chemical Brothers have announced details of their seventh studio album.

Further comes out on April 7, nearly three years after the successful We Are The Night, and each of the eight tracks comes with a corresponding film by Adam Smith (not the Scottish economist – the guy who looks after

After James Allan’s little escapade last year, Glasvegas have lost another member. This time, though, it appears to be for good. The band recently announced that drummer Caroline McKay has done one, saying, “We are really sad that Caroline has decided to leave as she is one of the coolest drummers around.” The Glaswegian

Colenso Parade bassist and BBC Northern Ireland journo Phily Taggart has added another string to his bow – the new Party Fodder podcast. Billed as “just under an hour of pure local gold”, the podcast will feature music and interviews from a mix of local and occasionally international acts. More details at www.partyfodder.co.uk

Upfront

DO YOU REMEMBER WHAT THE MUSIC MEANT? With: Scroobius Pip

10

th

What is your earliest musical memory?

Hard to say! I remember being real proud that I fell asleep on some coach journey whilst listening to Iron Maiden on my Walkman. I felt it meant I was pretty rock ‘n’ roll to find it soothing.

What is the first record you ever owned, and do you still listen to it?

The first CD I ever bought was the Aerosmith greatest hits. Don’t listen to it much now to be honest. I think one of the first tapes I bought was the Last Action Hero soundtrack. I believe it was the first time I heard Cypress Hill.

What piece of music moves you to tears?

There’s loads! Gideon Conn has a track called ‘Londonderry’ that always gets me. It’s got a real innocence and simple beauty. I have some Motown acapellas too and some of the Jackson 5 stuff just sounds amazing and heartfelt. ‘Never Can Say Goodbye’ sounds amazingly poignant.

What three albums would you force a total stranger to listen to?

Rancid – And Out Come The Wolves Prince & The Revolution – Purple Rain P.O.S – Never Better Who is your all time favourite artist?

I think I would probably have to go with Prince. Kate Bush comes close though.

Both absolute geniuses!

Who was the last band or artist that you became obsessed about?

That would be P.O.S. I caught him live at SXSW last year and just couldn’t get enough of his album. It just has a perfect balance of beats, lyrics and delivery. It got me excited about hip-hop again. I recently got the Curtis Plum album though and that is my new obsession.

What record would you use to seduce someone?

R Kelly – ‘Bump n’ Grind’. No, that would be hideous. I don’t think I would really be using records to seduce people. I guess I’m just not into that kind of music.

What one song best captures your character?

I’m struggling here! I really don’t know!

Certain songs click and are amazing but then it would be hard to say they REALLY sum up my character. I think my favourite individual song is ‘Lush Life’ by Johnny Hartman and John Coltrane.

Who was the worst band you’ve seen live?

I’ve seen loads of awful live bands but, surprisingly, their names don’t then automatically stick in my mind! I always find that local bands with egos can be the best source of amusement. I can see how it can happen – all your friends are always at your shows, they all say how great you are, you start to believe it. It’s one of the reasons I went out and played all over England before playing any gigs locally.

It’s a better way to develop.

Who was the first band you saw live?

I saw The Offspring at Brixton Academy and The Rolling Stones at Wembley in the same week. I can’t remember which was first. I was 15 and it was amazing.

The difference between a HUGE stadium show and a grotty, punky, violent club show was fantastic. Both gigs were great.

What would be your desert island album?

Cyndi Lauper – Greatest Hits DAN LE SAC VS SCROOBIUS PIP’S SECOND ALBUM THE LOGIC OF CHANCE IS OUT NOW ON SUNDAY BEST RECORDS. WWW.LESACVSPIP.CO.UK

—13 AU Magazine—

Liars / Heartwork

Upfront

CITY OF DARK ANGELS

Liars’ Aaron Hemphill on Sisterworld – and the seedy side of L.A.

Liars are an outsiders’ band and a band of outsiders.

Although they made their name in New York at the height of the early 00s dance-punk boom (alongside The Rapture, LCD Soundsystem and, er, Radio 4), each subsequent album has seen them change their sound and, twice, their geographical location. Now back in their home town of Los Angeles after sojourns in New York and latterly Berlin, guitarist Aaron Hemphill says that that independent spirit is something that they are only now coming to accept.

“There’s always this little pang that we don’t necessarily fit in that well with other bands, and a lot of it is how we create songs, literally,” he explains. “It’s very solitary and very lonely and it’s hard to share your working method in that way with other bands. I think we just sort of accepted that and are trying to be proud of it and be happy that this is how we do things.”

The band’s first three records were wildly different from one another, as they veered from the kinetic dance-punk of their debut to the creepy, unsettling concept albums They Were Wrong So We Drowned (about the Salem Witch Trials) and Drum’s Not Dead, in which they explored the sonic possibilities of the drum to awesome effect. However, the last two albums – Liars and now Sisterworld – have seen them rein in those flights of fancy and turn towards more streamlined songwriting. They are still a weird and fascinating band, but as Hemphill explains, trying to write conventional songs is a challenge in itself.

mood and in that sense a departure from the diverse, and even scattershot Liars.

“We wanted Liars to be a record that was supersimple, and people could take out songs and put them on different mixes and what have you, whereas on Sisterworld we wanted to make a cohesive record,” says Hemphill. “We just wanted this to be a whole album, where the songs fit a theme and had the same audio fidelity, and hopefully we achieved that.”

No Liars album is lyrically transparent, so those themes require explanation from Hemphill and he is happy to oblige, albeit in a rather oblique way. In essence, Sisterworld seems to be about the side of Los Angeles that outsiders are blind to – away from the glitz and the glamour, there is a vibrant and seedy underbelly that fascinates the band – Hemphill and Julian Gross who have spent most of their lives there and the Australian Andrew who arrived later and thus has what Hemphill describes as a “journalistic” perspective.

—14 issue 64—

“But that’s one way of looking at it. The other way is simply that we like to make music that we don’t feel we’re hearing. I think that we’re not hearing many albums that are companions to contemplating the darker side of what’s going on in the world, whether it be America or the war or the economy, or your high school.”

With Sisterworld – with every Liars album – that darkness is never too far from the surface. Chris Jones SISTERWORLD IS OUT NOW ON MUTE

Andrew and Hemphill have looked upon LA’s dark side and decided that they rather approve of it – they relate to

WWW.LIARSLIARSLIARS.COM

Heartwork In praise of random LP art

“Angus [Andrew] and I both fell into this fascination with song structure and communicating through that, which can be very scary coming from making more abstract records.

I think that’s where we’re investing our, so to speak, experimental tendencies. It is a conscious effort to make something that can be understood by more people. I’m not saying something that would be liked by everyone – I don’t think we would know how to do that – but it’s trying to make an album that is definitely us but communicated with enough skill that everyone can understand it.”

Though the two most recent albums have much in common, where Sisterworld differs from its predecessor is in its cohesion. It’s a tight and focused set, consistent of

the freaks and geeks who operate outside of mainstream society, sustaining each other as they go. “I find it really one of the true acts of beauty from human beings when they recognise they don’t fit in and they create a system that nurtures their true needs, and therefore attract other people that feel that way,” says Hemphill. “It’s a true attraction of like minds. It’s not based on artifice. It provides a home for people who need it, and they don’t have to continue pretending.

Cattle Decapitation - Humanure What the hell is it with metal bands and their penchant for barely legible logos? It seems that the more extreme the outfit,

the more difficult to read their logo needs to be. And judging by this scrawly mess, Cattle Decapitation are heavier than those really fat people who can no longer leave their bed, and need to wash their bits with a rag on a stick. Of course, when you look at the rest of the cover, a pish-poor and tough to make out logo is the least worrying of the issues present. In case you can’t see it clearly, that is a cow, defecating humans. It’s a wee nod to the puntastic title, Humanure. Fair enough, the band are big into animal rights, and this is the way to get the point across, but why aren’t they concerned about this dangerous new breed of man-eating cow? They might think that being vegetarian means the cows won’t eat them, but we think that now they’ve got a taste for something other than grass, no one will be safe from the bovine killers. Just look at the expression on the cow’s face – it couldn’t be more pleased with itself. Be afraid.

Richter Collective

THE RICHTER COLLECTIVE ROLL ON

Independent label aims to issue seven new albums in 2010

Four For 2010

Upcoming Richter Collective records Photo By Sarah Dorman

The Continuous Battle of Order Fearless Belfast two-piece featuring guitarist Hornby and drummer Craig Kearney. Much-anticipated debut album PTTRN SKRS captures the ferocious spontaneity of their live show, and is released on April 16.

Key track: ‘006’ Find them: www.myspace.com/continuousbattle

Jogging Mixing wiry guitar riffs and driving bass, the Dublin trio are pitched somewhere to the side of intense post-hardcore.

Featured on the third Richter Collective Singles Club cassette with Not Squares, their debut album arrives in May. Key track: ‘Whistling at Night’ Find them: www.myspace.com/joggingband

Mick Roe

Since releasing The Vinny Club’s Rocky IV Reckyrd in May 2008, Dublin’s Richter Collective have grown to become one of the most active underground labels in Ireland. In 2009 they released five acclaimed albums including The Flood by Kidd Blunt, Red In Tooth And Claw by BATS, and Patrolling The Heights by Danish trio Marvins Revolt.

According to label manager and Adebisi Shank drummer Mick Roe, the productivity will increase in 2010. With a new member of staff on board, they plan seven new releases. These include the anticipated debut from Belfast’s Continuous Battle of Order, a new offering from The Redneck Manifesto (of which more elsewhere in this issue), Adebisi’s second album and full-lengths from Jogging, Enemies, Not Squares, and Worrier.

“We put everything into each release,” says Roe. “It mightn’t seem like much but each one takes it out of you.

That said, I can’t wait for the next batch. Of the planned albums, 99% of them will be out before September 2010.

We’re very excited about all the releases and the ones we’ve heard so far sound amazing.”

In 2009 the Richter Collective also released five limitededition singles as part of the Richter Collective Singles Club. Two releases – The Vinny Club/Herv and Messiah J & the Expert – were 7” records. While there are no present plans, Roe hopes to release more collectibles as well as finding interesting new ways to put on shows.

“The 7” records are quite difficult, simply because of the production costs. But we hope to do a few more this year. We have a few other surprises planned for 2010, but I don’t want to reveal too much. We have begun is our

city-specific gigs offering an introduction to bands from a particular city. In January we had Belfast, where Not Squares picked the lineup.”

At the business end, Richter have forged contacts with labels such as Smalltown America in Derry, Out On A Limb in Limerick, Parabolica and Stiff Slack in Japan, Big Scary Monsters in the UK, HipHipHip in France and Play/Rec in Denmark.

“Most of these labels operate on the same scale as the Richter Collective. The partnerships can help each label expand. We can share contacts and generally help each other by bouncing ideas off each other, sharing resources and offering split label releases. I love dealing with all the labels and we find new friends all the time. I think this is really the future of independent music.

“I believe you can run a business and still be a nice person.

In 10 years’ time I’d like to be smoking cigars and drinking fine wine in Mauritius, phoning release schedules in to Barry and Lewis back in Dublin. Failing that, I’d like to keep running a quality label that’s releasing good albums and working with the same basic principle: you don’t have to be a jerk to get your music out.” Kiran Acharya

“I believe you can run a business and still be a nice person"

Not Squares Drawing praise for their inventive mix of stomping dance with an alt-rock backbone, the colourful Belfast threepiece are currently recording their debut album with Adebisi Shank bassist Vinny McCreith.

Key track: New single ‘Release the Bees’ Find them: www.myspace.com/notsquares

Worrier Signed from Milwaukee, bearded trio Worrier create a potent and eclectic racket on debut album Source Errors Spells. Richter Collective take care of the European release this summer.

Key track: ‘Lost Ships’ Find them: www.myspace.com/worrierworrier —15 AU Magazine—

Plan B

Upfront

BEN DREW TURNS TO PLAN B Asbo rap prophet turns smooth soul boy on chameleonic second album

Ben Drew, aka notorious rapper Plan B, has been a busy boy. Since his debut album, 2006’s fabulously bleak Who Needs Actions When You’ve Got Words, he’s collaborated with almost everyone, and entered the world of acting and directing. This month sees the release of his second album, The Defamation Of Strickland Banks, which showcases his singing talents as a retro soul boy.

AU hears sweet Sixties soul wafting from a rehearsal room in a North London recording studio. The track ‘Hard Times’ sounds like an effortless rewrite of something by Smokey or Marvin. In fact, the song is from Plan B’s new album, and it is a million miles away from the dark, visceral violence of the rhymes associated with the rapper’s earlier work.

When the 26-year-old Drew wanders over to greet AU, he’s dressed to impress. With a sharp suit, skinny tie and winkle-pickers he’s in character as Strickland Banks. The new album is a concept: a soul singer (Banks, of course) is sent to prison for a crime he (guess what?) didn’t commit, and Drew is eager to defend the seemingly simplistic storyline. “People have made concept albums before, but I don’t think they’ve ever pulled it off, in the sense that you can listen to that album and get exactly what it’s about. I’ve tried to make this one pretty detailed.”

The Defamation Of Strickland Banks is a musical departure – a mix of the solid soul of ‘Writing’s On The Wall’, the mambo of ‘She Said’ and the fraught pop of ‘Stay Too Long’ – but the old Plan B still peaks through.

Several tracks incorporate his rough and ready rapping style, while his inner rage is still a huge inspiration. Drew tells AU that the album is about “injustice” before deepdiving into his past. “I met one of my childminders, who I hadn’t seen in about 15 years, and she said, ‘You always used to get really upset because of something that had happened to a friend of yours. It was never about you, it was a friend who had got into trouble for something they hadn’t done’.”

Drew is an intriguing character; behind the streettalking bravado is a deep thinker and a highly creative mind. Alongside his musical career, he’s developed a pretty impressive acting CV – in 2008 he starred in Noel Clarke’s Adulthood, while last year saw him in Harry Brown, the Michael Caine movie which portrayed a pretty grim picture of sink estate violence.

—16 issue 64—

Throughout our chat, the ritual of small talk is banished.

Drew barely makes eye contact; he’s personable yet detached. He’ll rightfully counter that his debut contained painfully honest moments, and the process was draining. “There was some stuff that was personal to me like ‘Mama Loves A Crackhead’. Once I’d done that, I thought I should really write about my Dad as well [on the reassuringly titled ‘I Don’t Hate You’].

“When you bare your soul as much as I did, it does create problems in your personal life. I’ve been there, and the only way I could move on is by not talking about it anymore. It was kind of like closure. I’ve addressed it.”

And with the slate wiped clean, Drew revisited his love of classic soul (“that’s real music, innit?”) and another character, Strickland Banks, was born. “This album was not premeditated. It wasn’t like I sat down and devised a plan to make music that was going to make me successful or make me money. It just kinda came straight from the heart. I want to get this album out of my system, so the next album I can start a fresh.”

And whatever incarnation he takes, be it Strickland Banks, Plan B or plain old Ben Drew, the man is disconcertingly self-aware. “When I made this music I sat in a bedroom writing it. No one knew about me or gave a fuck about me until I picked up the guitar and started shouting, “Listen up you fucking cunts / This is my time”. Now suddenly everyone cares.”

He’s right – we do. John Freeman THE DEFAMATION OF STRICKLAND BANKS IS OUT NOW ON 679 RECORDINGS. WWW.TIME4PLANB.CO.UK

The Phone Box Experiement

THE PHONE BOX EXPERIMENT: DUBLIN

Inspired by the last issue’s Phone Box Experiment feature, we thought we’d try an AU version on a chilly Saturday in north Dublin. James Hendicott was our man in the box...

“We’ve been watching you all day, and we were just wondering what you’re doing spending 10 hours outside a phone box?” To an outsider, my Saturday spent standing on a Dublin street corner clearly looked very much like a particularly dubious kind of business deal. So much so, in fact, that it took a flash of last month’s Phone Box Experiment article and a few awkward explanations to avoid a premature end brought on by Gardaí and the use of ‘loitering’ legislation. That one hairy moment aside, though, our 10 hours of phone-themed shenanigans went perfectly to plan.

The idea of camping out next to a phone box has its roots in one of the Internet’s earliest urban legends, the Mojave Phone Box. Our own chief influence was a Skype marketing campaign we wrote about last month, fronted by an actor called Rob Cavazos. Having set a our phone-focused day as a (thankfully sunny) Saturday, we started to promote it through a Facebook group, Twitter campaign and the AU forums a mere 72 hours before answering our first call. In no time I found myself chatting about the experiment on two radio stations and controlling a semi-viral Facebook group.

On the day, things started slowly. Only two hung-over calls from the UK and one drunken one from Perth, Western Australia arrived early in the morning, before the comic side of things really kicked off. First up was a Belfast lad with a slightly unhealthy fixation with my sexuality.

Several callers pretended to be snipers in the film Phone Booth, but floundered when they couldn’t tell me what I was wearing (a big thanks to the blog that compared me to Colin Farrell, by the way) and another challenged me to persuade passers-by to clamber into the box with me (one way to guarantee some very strange looks).

Funny fakes turned up around every corner. A tweet

mentioning a nearby dog prompted several calls asking for it to be returned. One ‘old woman’ called to ask after her friend, and seemed genuinely peeved when she couldn’t find her; I eventually told her that Doris had died (I really hope that it wasn’t real). A French lady from Tuam even came up with a challenge: think of 20 things that might have happened in the phone box in the past, a task that lead to some truly unnecessary thoughts and a handful of explanatory sketches.

Dave introduced me to the concept of ‘Sexy Crotch Dancing’ (it sounds genuinely repulsive) and played a quick melodica solo down the phone. A gay Californian hot air balloon pilot living in Paris (he wasn’t even joking; I checked his website) gave me a quick history of hot air balloon tourism and a sceptical take on Parisian life, before an adorable nine-yearold girl came on full of the joys of Cyprus. One young lady even offered to cook me lasagne and stir fry, and deliver it to my ‘home’. Creepy.

THE STATS Hours spent in the box: 10 Hours spent talking on the phone: 4 Number of calls: 36 Number of countries represented by the calls: 8 (UK, Ireland, Netherlands, Germany, Denmark, South Korea, Vietnam and Australia) Number of tasks set in the box: 4 Number of bands who phoned: 3 (The Ambience Affair, Chequerboard and We Need Surgery) Number of people who think a friend is dead as a result of the experiment: 1

There were a few ongoing challenges. One was to try and find me, which only the pharmaceutical folk and a few bikers actually managed (Blessington Street, north Dublin, in case anyone’s still curious!), while the early call from Perth pipped Ho Chi Minh City and Seoul for the long distance prize.

There was another Australian, too, but he was too drunk to give his location. Late on, I was christened a ‘phone slag’, and spent the final two hours talking so solidly that the phone rang the second I hung up. My main discovery? That given something really ridiculous to do, plenty of people get into the spirit of it and play along. Some are really original, some just want to know what on earth you’re doing, and most can find plenty to say to a total stranger. Unless they’re the other side of the world and calling at closing time, that is.

Every challenge needs its crowning moment, and mine came when Korean electro-pop band We Need Surgery popped up as my very last call. Since I lived in Seoul, the funky keyboard rockers have been an obsession of mine, and their call came at 4am Korean time, marking the final day recording their debut album. It’s been nearly three years in the making. The promise of an early copy secured, 7pm – the 10 hours mark – came round, and as I walked away I heard that phone ring just one last time. It’s been haunting my dreams ever since.

—17 AU Magazine—

Two Door Cinema Club tour diary

Upfront

On The Road With...

TWO DOOR CINEMA CLUB

for Phoenix as, after the show, we gather backstage and There are a few Northern Irish Day 1 Dijon watch them as they are presented with a gold record for their most recent album, Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix. And bands living the dream this year, When we arrive in Dijon after driving through the night so the party times begin. This is another surreal experience from Manchester, Phoenix come outside to meet and greet but none more so than Bangor for us. We drink the night away with Phoenix, MGMT, us. This tour is like a dream. To be supporting a band that Noah and the Whale and The Rapture. OK, it sounds like boys Two Door Cinema Club. we admire and respect; it is such an honour to be asked to I’m name-dropping but it is exciting for us! Got to meet along and such a privilege to work alongside them Sebastien Tellier, too! That guy is a genius.

They recently released their debut come and learn from them. album to excellent notices, and After being blown away by Phoenix’s sound check, it is Day 3 Grenoble they plan to spend the rest of 2010 our turn. It all runs smoothly apart from a battle with a not-very-good-at-speaking-English monitor engineer. The Fairly hungover, we make the drive to Grenoble. To hawking their wares far and wide. show is great. People in this town that we’ve never even be honest, this whole day is a bit of a blur due to the been to before are singing along to our songs and having a excessive drinking the night before. The venue is right Frontman Alex Trimble talks us dance. It’s a pretty amazing feeling. in a valley of the French Alps, surrounded by blue skies through their recent European and mountains… Not a bad hangover cure! More beer So, feeling good after a decent show, we grab a few more and showers and good food at the venue as we’ve become tour with the undisputed kings of beers and have our socks monumentally blown off by accustomed to on this tour!

Phoenix’s show. Perfect sound, perfect lights, perfect French pop, Phoenix. performance. And, on the last song of the encore, the band invites the entire audience to come up onto the stage and have a dance with them. And then the stage collapses. A good way to end the first day of tour!

Day 2 Paris This is the one we are most looking forward to. Playing Paris in France’s equivalent of the Albert Hall with a Parisian band. It’s bound to kick off, right? After arriving in Paris, we settle in, and have more showers and beers.

Then we head into town for an acoustic in-store in Fnac (their version of HMV), which I can only describe as extremely surreal. The show is good but short and after another photo and signing session we head back to the venue to sound check.

The show definitely lives up to our expectations. The atmosphere is insane. Kids dancing all over the shop to our and Phoenix’s music. This is an extra special night

—18 issue 64—

It is more of a kids’ show tonight and every single one of them goes mad for it! I don’t think we’ve played a more insanely energetic show. Kids are literally being thrown about in the crowd, just loving every second. That definitely puts us on a high. An early night for us tonight.

Catching up on some lost sleep from the last few nights is much needed!

Day 4 Nancy Nancy is a beautiful place. So many amazing buildings and places to go and see. We arrive at the venue to two kids sitting outside playing our song ‘Undercover Martyn’ on acoustic guitars. That is pretty fucking insane! The venue today has a laundry service (!) so we take to the stage feeling clean and fresh and manage another amazing show, this time with added moshpit!

Afterwards we have another photo/signing session in the foyer and we meet a lot of nice people. We have a few

Richter Collective

“We arrive at the venue to two kids sitting outside playing our song ‘Undercover Martyn’ on acoustic guitars. That is pretty fucking insane!”

beers at the bar and then, out of nowhere, there are six of us packed into the back of some poor girl’s tiny hatchback on our way to a bar. We meet up with Mench and Deck and Chris from Phoenix then a bit of bar-hopping follows and we end up in some hole beside a river which happens to serve the best cocktail I’ve ever tasted in my life. It’s called the triangle and I haven’t a clue what’s in it but its fucking amazing!

Back at the hotel we spend the best part of half an hour trying to get into our room on the second floor, banging on the door and nearly resorting to breaking it down. Why can’t we get in? Our room is on the fifth floor.

Day 5 Travel Day We travel to Amsterdam today. Van. Headphones in.

Pillow. Blanket. Sleep.

When we get to the hotel it’s about 10 in the evening. We catch a cab into the centre to get a bite to eat and a couple of drinks and before headed back we indulge in a certain kind of coffeeshop… wink.

Day 6 Amsterdam Today is Deck’s birthday so everyone is in a party mood.

The show isn’t as good as the French dates. I don’t know what it is but the vibe isn’t there tonight. After we play, though, we quickly regain our good moods and get back

to partying! We have a surprise gathering backstage for Deck in which he is serenaded by the rest of Phoenix on Spanish guitars while we all get stuck into the expensive champagne. We end up in some bar and drink heavily into the night up until the point that Sam can’t take any more and our tour manager, Matt, and I have to carry him back to the hotel!

people but this is so much smaller and it’s cool because we do end up missing the more intimate shows. Intimate is one word for it. This place is tiny but that doesn’t stop the promoter still cramming about 1,000 people inside what I can only assume is a 500/600 capacity venue! The crowd are like sardines but they seemed to love that. It’s hot and sweaty and full of atmosphere – just how it should be.

Day 7 Brussels

Day 9 London

Today we meet up with our new front of house engineer, Pete, and welcome him to our team. The show goes a lot better than the previous night despite our sore heads and lack of sleep. The crowd are really welcoming tonight and a good few people cheer when we play our singles!

Outside, I meet a lot of lovely people who have brought records with them that they want me to sign which is really cool. It’s so amazing to experience success in other countries. Instead of partying after the show, we sit on some sofas and drink a few bottles of red wine and have a good chat like a bunch of girls. It’s great. We’re really looking forward to having Pete with us on tour. It’s pretty amazing to have him working with us. He just finished working for Bloc Party after like six years!

It’s pretty awesome to have the opportunity to play the Roundhouse in London. We saw General Fiasco supporting Placebo here a few months back which was our first experience of this place. It is a pretty legendary venue. Saying that, London hasn’t always been a good place for us to play. People at the shows here are usually ‘too cool’ because they come from London and they’re above dancing… innit. Tonight really takes us by surprise though. The audience are so welcoming. Big rounds of applause and even a few singalongs! Now that our record is out, more people are singing our tunes at gigs. It makes us feel like a real band!

Day 8 Luxembourg The venue today is really nice and really small too. Most nights we’ve been playing venues of about 1,500 to 2,500

Phoenix put on an absolutely astounding show tonight.

The crowd lap it up and we all have a good dance! We have a few beers after the show, then I say my goodbyes and go home to my own bed. We all have a week to recover until we’re back on the road. This time we’re taking on Europe on our own and then we’re off to the States to meet up with Phoenix again and do it all over again!

—19 AU Magazine—

DON'T JUDGE A BOOK BY ITS COVER.

WORKING CLASS HERO.

YOU ARE WHAT YOU WEAR.

COME AND GET IT. WWW.TOMMYGUNNS.CO.UK 33A QUEEN STREET, BELFAST BT1 6EA PHONE::

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Incoming

The Butterfly Explosion, Darwin Deez, Glasser

THE BUTTERFLY EXPLOSION

DARWIN DEEZ

GLASSER

MEMBERS: Gazz Carr (guitar, vocals, keys), John Coman (drums), Conor Garry (bass), Laura Smyth (vocals, keys) Jason Carty (guitar).

FORMATION: Dublin, 2005.

FOR FANS OF: Slowdive, Chapterhouse, Ride.

CHECK OUT: Debut album Lost Trails.

out now on Revive Records WEBSITE: www.myspace.com/butterflyexplosion

BASED: FOR FANS OF: CHECK OUT:

WEBSITE:

Real Name: Cameron Mesirow.

Based: Los Angeles, California.

For Fans Of: Fever Ray, School Of Seven Bells.

Check Out: Single ‘Tremel’, out now on Young Turks.

WEBSITE: www.myspace.com/glasser

Shoegaze is going through something of a revival, with London band Yuck! being much touted as standard-bearers, but Dublin’s The Butterfly Explosion stake an impressive claim with their debut album Lost Trails. In an era where nothing seems to get by without a ridiculous disco beat, The Butterfly Explosion’s dogged adherence to what might seem an outdated formula sounds dubious at first, but in the end it’s actually pretty heroic. The band members probably all have nasty bumps on their heads from walking into things, so constantly must they stare at their footwear. The pace rarely goes beyond languid (this is good), their influences don’t seem to stretch beyond Slowdive (again, good) and even the album’s cover is a nice throwback to a time when album covers looked rubbish.

At least, I think that’s what happened. It really is a monstrosity. But the music is hugely impressive – Gazz Carr’s dreamy vocals are totally at one with the delayed guitars and soaring keyboards, while the rhythm section provide some deceptively tricksy moments. They’ve built up an unusual head of steam for such a relaxed sounding bunch, touring constantly (with, among others, God Is An Astronaut, whose guitarist Torsten Kinsella produced Lost Trails) and receiving all kinds of acclaim and radio play. The Nineties are back! Yes! Niall Harden —22 issue 64—

New York.

The Strokes, MGMT, Beck.

Debut album Darwin Deez out April 12 on Lucky Number. www.darwindeez.com

The more you discover about Darwin Deez, the more you wonder, ‘Is this guy for real?’. A child of Baba Lovers – followers of the Indian mystic Meher Baba – Deez resembles one of Harry Enfield’s Scousers, is liable to break into a choreographed dance routine to Beyoncé and sports the kind of spaced-out, mystic shtick that was last seen in the company of MGMT. Indeed, like the MGMT duo – Andrew VanWyngarden and Ben Goldwasser – our boy attended Wesleyan University. He eventually dropped out and found himself in the company of the anti-folk crowd at New York’s Sidewalk Café, while he would go on to wield guitar for Creaky Boards, the Brooklyn band who came to attention back in 2008 when they accused Coldplay of plagiarising their track ‘The Songs I Didn’t Write’ for ‘Viva La Vida’.

Fresh from the, erm, mean streets of LA comes Glasser.

Her moniker refers more to her Debbie Harry cut glass cool, rather than her immediate reaction when another girl tries to steal her drink, (dodgy pun alert!). Bad jokes aside, Glasser, aka Cameron Mesirow, is one seriously hot prospect. Signed to the achingly hip Young Turks label and backed by New York funksters Tanlines in the States, she’s set to release her debut UK 12”. Where any other artist would be astounded to work with Fever Ray’s producers Van Rivers and The Subliminal Kid, she relegates the duo to work as her backing group. The girl’s got guts. You would too, if Pitchfork fawned over your debut single (‘Apply’, 2009) with a level of admiration normally reserved for Jonny Greenwood’s current side project.

Flying solo, Deez released his first single ‘Constellations’ late last year. With its audacious re-appropriation of nursery rhyme ‘Twinkle Twinkle, Little Star’, enticing indie-pop melody and wonder-filled musings, it proved the perfect introduction to his peculiar world. Describing his music, the curly-haired one bandies about such incongruous reference points as Q And Not U, John Mayer, Thriller and The Dismemberment Plan. Listening to his self-titled debut album, we’re more inclined to suggest he’s The Strokes’ brother from a pop mother. However, comparisons aside, what’s indisputable is that Darwin Deez is an intriguingly out-there talent. Francis Jones

It’s difficult to pin down her sound. We’ll try though.

Drums that are so urgent that they verge on nauseous collide with panicked pianos, while Mesirow’s voice drifts eerily along the top. And that’s just the first minute of new single ‘Tremel’. Think of the kind of lullaby that Björk would sing to her children, remixed by Jamie xx. Naturally enough, the 12” release of ‘Tremel’ does indeed come with a Jamie xx remix, as well as two other equally bass-heavy, chill-step remixes. Disregard them.

The real charm lies not in toning down the unsettling rhythms of her music, but by turning them up to the max. Ailbhe Malone

The Cast Of Cheers

Incoming

THE CAST OF CHEERS MEMBERS:

FORMATION: FOR FANS OF:

CHECK OUT:

WEBSITE:

Conor Adams (guitar/vocals), John Higgins (bass), Kev Curran (drums), Neil Adams (guitar).

Dublin, 2009.

Death From Above 1979, Adebisi Shank, Jogging.

The album Chariot, available for free at thecastofcheers.bandcamp.com www.myspace.com/thecastofcheers

It feels quite ‘Oprah’ to type this but, ladies and gentlemen, this is The Cast of Cheers. Seeming to burst out of nowhere with a blazing debut album more fully-formed than Arnold Schwarzenegger’s pectoral muscles in the 1977 classic Pumping Iron, the quartet of fresh-faced lads have been overwhelmed by the response to a collection of tunes that was initially made available “mostly just for friends and family”.

As Conor says, “We only threw it up online around midFebruary and didn’t expect this reaction. It was more for friends and stuff. [Influential blogger] Nialler9 putting it up and getting it linked on Facebook – I think it was on Adebisi Shank’s page – was a really big thing for it.

We originally planned for a summer release but then just decided to get it out there.

“We’re not really sure when exactly it’s coming out physically. When it does, we might add a few extra tracks or something. Mick Roe [Richter Collective, Adebisi Shank] is managing us independently of Richter at the moment and there’s talk about different labels releasing it but as far as an Irish release goes, we don’t know yet.”

Given the quality of the production and the combination of intricate guitar-noodling with instantly catchy, pummelling songs, it seems fair to wonder if all this has come about through a pact with the Prince of Darkness.

The answer is a little less, well, evil.

“We’ve all been in different bands – and even the same bands – for the last 7 years,” says Neil. It’s been really incestuous, actually. Conor, Kev and I were in Abam. We broke up in May of last year and during the summer we weren’t doing anything.

Then Conor started jamming with Mick, doing these kind of 8-bit songs. The pair of them had this idea to do another band but Mick was just too busy with Adebisi Shank and all that.”

Conor nods, “Then I just started writing these songs.”

Neil continues, “In October we were all talking, on top of this building actually (AU has met them in the plush upstairs bar of the Lord Edward in Dublin) and we all got drunk and decided to start the band. After that night, Kev reminded us to really do it and we went and recorded the album.”

An experience that appears to have been swift and productive. “Yeah,” says Conor. “We went out to Trackmix in Blanchardstown to do it in October. The dude who recorded it, Mick Richards, is dead cool. His ma brings tea, coffee and biscuits every hour on the hour – it’s great. The coffee is weak too so you can drink loads of it.”

And why not go the route of a few EPs before a main release? They all agree that an album just felt right.

“An album is way more solid – EPs can be kind of throwaway,” says Neil. “They don’t seem as fully-formed.

That’s all we did with Abam but with this band the album was definitely the way to go.”

The Cast of Cheers MySpace and Bandcamp sites also display an unusual piece of artwork for the album. Conor laughs, “The artwork is pretty much the apocalypse... as it is in my brain. We played a lot of Left 4 Dead on the Xbox at the time and talked a lot about zombie apocalypse scenarios.”

While the band are playing Galway, Dublin, Belfast and Castlebar in the next while, they have their sights set on somewhere further afield. “We really want to do Japanese tour, Europe and Germany... Japan is the big one though. Mick knows so many people over there. Enemies went out there – twice, I think – so hopefully, yeah, it’ll happen.” Adam Lacey —23 AU Magazine—

Incoming

Gonjasufi

GONJASUFI

Listen to the album and you can understand why the man himself has trouble putting it into words. Unlike anything else you’ll hear, it veers from psychedelic soul (‘Sheep’) to parched, desolate blues (‘Ageing’), from outright punk clatter (‘SuzieQ’) to jumpy, fragmented hip-hop (the Flying Lotus-produced ‘Ancestors’) and even easterntinged mantras (the superb ‘Kowboyz&Indianz’). The tie that binds these disparate elements together is Sumach’s astonishing, compelling delivery – ranging from desperate, ravaged howl to delicate murmur and encompassing pretty much all points in between, and served up with a scuzzy, fuzzy lo-fi production that suggests recording sessions not in a high-tech studio, but some dusty cave.

REAL NAME: BASED: FOR FANS OF: CHECK OUT:

WEBSITE:

Sumach Ecks Las Vegas, Nevada.

Why?, Flying Lotus.

Debut album A Sufi And A Killer is out now on Warp. www.sufisays.com

Sumach Ecks – or Gonjasufi as you’ll likely come to know him – is struggling. AU has just asked him to describe in words the music contained on his debut for Warp records, A Sufi And A Killer, and the inscrutable singer, mystic and – apparently – yoga teacher from the Nevada desert flounders momentarily. Then he recovers, quite magnificently, to deliver the following off-the-hook summation: “Uhhhh...

I dunno man, maybe it’s like... a holy, horrific circus show, at a funeral... with a violent church in the middle.” Yep, it’s fair to say that Gonjasufi is not your average interviewee.

After releasing a series of self-produced hip-hop albums since the early-Nineties, mostly under the ‘Sumach’ moniker, at some point in the last few years (he’s not too specific with dates) Ecks hooked up with LA producers Mainframe, Flying Lotus and The Gaslamp Killer.

Following a high-profile guest slot on FlyLo’s superlative debut album Los Angeles (those are his bewitching vocals on highlight ‘Testament’), he and The Gaslamp Killer began exchanging musical ideas and A Sufi And A Killer was born.

—24 issue 64—

Mention this diversity of sound to him, though, and Ecks – part blissed-out desert shaman, part righteous preacherman full of ire – demurs: “Nah, it pretty much sounds the same to me, bro. I mean, I can see the difference between ‘Holidays’ and ‘Stardustin’ and all that shit, but I mean... Well, yeah, I guess it could be seen as black and white, or day and night, but it’s pretty much the same themes throughout the songs, just a lot of anger and pain, turning into love, y’know? I guess you can’t put in one genre; it’s not jazz, it’s not hip-hop... It’s probably better that way, man.”

Then there are the lyrics – ambiguous, mysterious couplets that veer from half-heard snatches of hard-earned wisdom (“Once a man, twice a child”) to the despairing and vaguely threatening (“I’m turning your John Wayne into another John Doe”), to the spiritual and uplifting.

Frankly, one gets the impression that the writer of these lines has spent time on the wrong side of the tracks. Asked where his words come from, Ecks sighs heftily, then offers: “Just everyday life, man. Sitting at a stop light with a cop behind me, man, y’know? Being worried that I’m going to get pulled over and shit, that’s what [album hidden track] ‘Doberman’ is about. Y’know, it’s just bullshit, everyday, man. Just the beauty and ugliness of everyday life, just like everybody else – just finding an outlet, y’know?”

If he sounds like a somewhat tortured soul, at least Ecks can console himself with the prospect of taking the album out on the road, with dates planned in Europe this September. There’s also the small matter of the uniformly glowing reviews his efforts have garnered, which must give him some gratification. Or, er, maybe not. “It puts a lot of pressure on me for the second fucking record, man. It’s like, ‘Now I gotta top that shit’. I love the reviews, but I try not to get too caught up in that shit, ‘cos there’s always one dude who’s like, ‘This band sucks’ or whatever, so I just try and stay honest with myself, in my heart, man.

It puts pressure on me because you build something up until there’s nowhere to go but down. So I gotta top this record, and the only way I can is by forgetting about it completely, just forget about the reviews and shit, just go back in and do something new.”

Gonjasufi might forget about the album, but nobody else who hears A Sufi And A Killer is likely to. Inspired by everyday struggles it might have been, but the result is something truly otherworldly. Neill Dougan

Incoming

Disappears, Dag For Dag, Hurts

DISAPPEARS

MEMBERS: Graeme Gibson (drums), Jonathan van Herik (guitar), Brian Case (guitar/vocals),

Damon Carruesco (bass).

FORMATION: Chicago, Illinois, 2007.

FOR FANS OF: Flying Nun Records, Crystal Stilts, reverb, Suicide.

CHECK OUT: Debut album Lux, out April 12 on Kranky.

WEBSITE: www.myspace.com/disappearsmusic

There is some music that simply bullies its way into your ears, sporting a fitted leather jacket, dark shades, strong cigarettes and slugging whiskey from a chipped tumbler. Disappears make that kind of music. As that rarest of things – a rock band on the Kranky label – there is no inkling that this Chicago four-piece have anything at all to prove to their more electronically-inclined labelmates. There is, however, more than one hint that they are big fans of scuzzy, dirty sounds from the Seventies and Eighties, Flying Nun Records, Lou Reed and cranking out garage punk-rock with meandering basslines, shimmering New York-esque guitars, threatening-sounding vocals and a CBGB’s basement full of don’t-give-a-fuck-whatyou-think-but-really-I-do attitude.

Debut release, Lux, arrives this month and has the kind of filthy Stooges-muddled-with-Spacemen 3 vibe that should see them popping up in all the right places during the year. A quick glance at some online clips would suggest that they pack a little more energy into their set than others of their ilk (Crocodiles and Crystal Stilts to name a couple), and so it is with bated breath that we await the arrival of their subterranean guitar-squall to the stages of these shores. For now, grab a copy of Lux when it comes out, don your Wayfarers and shake your arse. Adam Lacey

DAG FÖR DAG

HURTS

MEMBERS: Sarah Parthemore Snavely (vocals/guitar),

Jacob Donald Snavely (vocals/bass).

FORMATION: Stockholm, Sweden, 2007.

FOR FANS OF: Sonic Youth, Arcade Fire, Throwing Muses.

CHECK OUT: The album Boo is out now via Cargo.

WEBLINK: www.dagfordag.com

MEMBERS: Theo Hutchcraft (vocals), Adam Anderson (electronics/guitar) FORMATION: Manchester, 2008.

FOR FANS OF: Ultravox, The Lotus Eaters, Tears For Fears.

CHECK OUT: The single ‘Better Than Love’ is out on May 17 via Sony.

WEBLINK: www.informationhurts.com

Glitter, sequins and jolting feedback. The sound of Arcade Fire scrapping with Sonic Youth – and the ‘Yoof’ winning on points. A re-united brother and sister, and an album called Boo – Dag För Dag have a story to tell.

And they are Sarah and Jacob Snavely, whose nomadic existence finally brought them back together in London after their parents’ divorce separated them in childhood – between them they’ve lived in Greece, Sweden, London, Hawaii, San Francisco and even Steve Albini’s hometown of Missoula, Montana.

Dag För Dag was finally, formally, created in Stockholm, at a time when the Snavelys were living a hand-to-mouth existence. “We stole almost everything around that time,” a heavily pregnant Sarah recalls. “We were pretty much at our wit’s end – $10 between us and at the mercy of friends.” Their situation inspired the band name (the Swedish for ‘day by day’) as Jacob explains, “We were at a point in our lives where everything was six hours in front of us.” The resultant debut, Boo, is a challenging beast – “You just don’t stick it on and do the dusting. It demands a lot. It’s not nice and easy,” Sarah tells us.

The constant upheaval during their lives has inevitably shaped their sound. They describe a Dag för Dag live show as a combination of “gold and sweat” – we’d call it a baroque post-punk explosion – and their worldview is imprinted within. “When you leave different places, you feel like something’s not resolved,” Jacob says. “Our songs are like landscapes; for both of us they are quite visual. They describe places we’ve been and moments.” Sarah nods, “The echo and the reverb we like so much is a feeling of hanging onto things.”

And are there any songs inspired by their time in the UK? “Yeah,” says Jacob, “the ones that involve knives.” John Freeman

Manchester duo Hurts are playing the enigmatic card. They came fourth on the BBC Sound Of 2010 list (just behind fellow Mancs Delphic) before releasing a record; when they finally did unleash ‘Wonderful Life’ it briefly teased as a limited edition single. “It was a very conscious decision to only allow that one out in the open; a challenge to try and say as much as we could with as little as possible,” singer Theo Hutchcraft tells AU. After meeting keyboardist Adam Anderson while mutual friends fought outside a nightclub, the pair bonded over a love of Prince and Italian disco-lento – it was love at first fight. “Lento helped us realise that what we were doing made sense,” says Theo.

“It was an antidote to the plastic desperation of our previous bands” – a pointed reference to their former incarnation, Daggers.

While ‘Wonderful Life’ possesses a gorgeous chorus, Hurts’ fuzzy Eighties synth-pop, coupled with their ‘accountants-styled-by-Anton Corbijn’ image and major label backing, may grate with some. “Black and white is simple, but powerful. The way we dress comes from a sense of pride, and making the most of what you have. When we were desperate and on the dole, the only way we felt we could be somebody and take on the world was to wear suits and dress smart.”

A debut album will follow soon – and details surrounding it, of course, are scant.

What AU does know is that it was recorded in Sweden and produced by Jonas Quant.

“We wanted to go somewhere we would feel isolated, empty and alone. Gothenburg in January is all three. Hopefully it has helped bring a darkness and an element of despair to the hopeful songs we wrote in Manchester. Also, Sweden is the home of simplicity, and the purpose of Hurts is simplicity.” John Freeman

—25 AU Magazine—

Upfront

Words and Pics by Suzie McCracken

The AU Stereo

Niall Drayne Fairport Convention – Reynardine Andy Irvine & Paul Brady – Mary and the Soldier Cartland Jackson – History

WHAT’S ON YOUR MIND?

Interesting Fact – Niall went drinking with Jamie Maguire off Shameless recently. Er, you know he’s not a real person, Niall?

What's on your iPod?

Insight & Insanity From The AU Forum

AU finds out

RE: GIRLS NAMES, MENAGERIE beakbeak: Yer girls names on yer pitchforks - http:// pitchfork.com/forkcast/14021-graveyard/

Kerrie Hanna

Shauna McGowan

Kelhan Martin

Toots and the Maytals – 54-46 Easy Star All Stars – When I’m 64 The Stranglers – Peaches

Deerhunter – Kids Atlas Sound – Quarantine Beach House – Norway

The Album Leaf – Seal Beach Boards of Canada – 1969 Minus The Bear – Into The Mirror

Interesting Fact – Kerrie apparently fancies this photographer. Aw, shucks.

Interesting Fact – Shauna claims to be a spaniel in disguise. We think this is the talk of a mentalist in plain sight.

Interesting Fact – Kelhan has terracotta nipples. That’s quite possibly the best fact we’ve ever had.

iamjackscoolusername: What a coup!

For my money they are Belfast’s only art-rock band.

These guys have AESTHETIC. Beat poets via Black Kids via The Smell bands with some Roy Orbison. Milkshake punk. beakbeak: You’re kinda on the money there, bossman!

RE: WEE BIT OF HAIR FOR SALE kimbo: I don’t know how Chris [from ASIWYFA] feels about this yet, but even I’m just a little creeped out by it. http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll? ... 500wt_1182 muckymuckygirl: That is so bizarre... I was most scared about checking the price.

Luke McCaffrey

Iyesha Bennett

Emma Marlow

Stevie Ray Vaughan – Empty Arms Passion Pit –Sleepyhead Simian Mobile Disco – Cruel Intentions

Brand New – Guernica Bob Marley – Buffalo Soldier City And Colour – Off By Heart

Ellie Goulding – Under The Sheets Jose Gonzalez – Heartbeats Busted – 3am

Interesting Fact – Luke claims to have the biggest hands of anyone he’s ever met. To be fair, they are pretty enormous.

Interesting Fact – Iyesha’s dad was the drummer in Watercress, who she assures me used to be pretty big...

Interesting Fact – Emma once used the fact she can touch her nose with her tongue as a chat-up line and succeeded!

ShowYourBones: Maybe eBay need to rename the ‘Buy Now’ option.

‘Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow.’

RE: ALBUMS OF THE YEAR SO FAR Steven Dedalus: A quick look into the distant past reveals my favourite albums of 2008 as being: Blarto Jackson - Unclasp The Buckle Twisty Claw Claw - Ball Bag Boogaloo Zingy Harrison and the Mik Mak Mok Creepy Glass Skull Jenga - S/T Splarto 1200 - Bald Tire Spork-Jabber - Bringing The Mower Dig Your Own Grave - Exploding Shell Curdled Milk - Off-White But what have we heard from any of them since?!?! Nothing!

Parisa Shirazi

Stephen Millar

Michael Bell

Wallis Bird – Just Can’t Get Enough Mika – We Are Golden Paolo Nutini – Pencil Full of Lead

Huey Lewis and the News – Hip to be Square Public Enemy – Rebel Without A Pause The Pogues – Bottle of Smoke

Ravel – Jeux D’eau David Bowie – Sunday Benjamin Britten – Les Illuminations

Interesting Fact – Think of Parisa as some kind of female, real-life Dr Dolittle – she can do a pretty accurate bark. It’s so good, dogs growl back at her.

Interesting Fact – Stephen reckons he burned an American flag in front of Bill Clinton when ol’ rosy cheeks was last in Belfast. He even ended up on Newsnight as a result, but never saw the footage.

Interesting Fact – Apparently, he plays the French horn naked in the morning. No-one needs to know that Michael, thanks all the same.

—26 issue 64—

(I remember a bemused Chris Jones trying to track some of these down… Although I’d still like to hear Creepy Glass Skull by Zingy Harrison and the Mik Mak Mok) iamjackscoolusername: No, that was me. got to the fourth one and it occurred to me you were having a bubble.

JOIN THE FUN AT WWW.IHEARTAU. COM/FORUM

Flashback

Rewind

Flashback

40 Years Ago

Paul McCartney leaves The Beatles

Words by: Steven Rainey

(April 10, 1970)

They’d changed the cultural landscape time and time again, and we’d assumed they’d be in it for the long run. But when Paul McCartney announced his departure from The Beatles on April 10, 1970, we got our first taste of what the Seventies would bring.

In a sense, it’s still easy to take The Beatles for granted.

They still loom imposingly large over popular music, and even though they aren’t directly referenced quite as much as they used to be, even that can be taken as a sign of how present they still are – these days people are actively trying to stay away from them, 40 years after they broke up. In putting the rubber stamp on the concept of what a ‘band’ could be, The Beatles provided a template through which we could all understand how to make music.

So when Paul McCartney announced his departure from the band, the shockwaves were instantly felt. As if to rub salt in the wound, he released his first solo album a week later, riding a wave of publicity which guaranteed maximum attention. By leaving the Fab Four, McCartney had done the unthinkable and set the wheels in motion for the end of The Beatles, and many fans were not in a forgiving mood.

Perhaps least forgiving was former bandmate John Lennon, although secretly he had a lot to be thankful for. Whilst McCartney was taking the flak for breaking up the band, the reality was that it was Lennon who had left the band first, bowing out in September 1969. For contractual reasons, his departure was kept secret, and he was free to continue working on his debut solo album, John Lennon/ Plastic Ono Band, as well as undergoing primal scream therapy with Yoko Ono and kicking his heroin habit.

Arguably, Lennon was in a strong position, free to sit back and watch as McCartney took the critical slings and arrows.

However, in traditional Lennon manner, he was outraged that McCartney had stolen his thunder, claiming, “I started

the band. I finished it.” In a later interview with Rolling Stone, he remarked, “I was a fool not to do what Paul did, which was use it to sell a record.” Clearly, Lennon’s ego was bruised at his perception that he’d been left behind in McCartney’s wake.

Over the remainder of the Seventies, relations between the two would continue to deteriorate, with the two making very public attacks on each other. McCartney’s second solo album Ram featured the songs ‘Dear Boy’ and ‘Too Many People’, which Lennon considered to be written about him.

The back cover of the album featured two beetles engaged in the… ahem… physical act of love, which Lennon also felt to be a dig at him. He responded with the song ‘How Do You Sleep’, which opened his second solo album Imagine, and a picture of himself posing holding a pig by its ears, clearly parodying the cover of Ram, which featured McCartney in a similar pose with a ram.

Over the next few years, the two would continue to take pot-shots at each other in the press, whilst their relations with the other two Beatles, George Harrison and Ringo Starr, would also suffer from time to time. It was a sorry end to the Fab Four, and a twisted mockery of the brotherhood they had once shown.

As the Seventies progressed, all four of The Beatles began to lose their way, drifting further and further away from the personas that we had initially fallen in love with. Lennon started out strongly, with Imagine probably being the work he is now most closely associated with. But after this peak, the fall was swift, with sporadic releases, marital strife,

battles with the bottle, and the pressures of fatherhood all being hurdles the superstar would have to deal with over the decade. George Harrison would also begin the decade in a strong position, releasing All Things Must Pass in 1970, widely considered to be his finest work. But he too found himself losing his way as the Seventies progressed, having his wife Patti stolen from him by close friend Eric Clapton, and struggling to recapture the success of his earlier records, becoming an increasingly peripheral figure. Ringo had a few hit singles but, as had been the case within The Beatles, he was marginalised in favour of his more famous bandmates.

And McCartney? Well, the initial hostility didn’t do him any harm in the long run, with the former Beatle becoming the most successful musician in the history of popular music. After forming a new band, Wings, McCartney maintained a steady commercial progress, never quite recapturing the glory days of The Beatles, but never going so wildly astray as his former bandmates, either.

But whilst he may have been successful, he largely did so peddling what Lennon caustically described as “Granny music” – twee, cuddly, safe pop music, lacking all the bite and inventiveness with which The Beatles had made their name.

Not that you’d imagine he is that bothered. As he sits surveying the world he helped create when he was just a young man, fresh from Liverpool, one is tempted to enquire, “How do you sleep?”

But then, we already know the answer to that.

—27 AU Magazine—

History Lessons

Sparklehorse

—28 issue 64—

Rewind

Last month, independent music suffered yet another blow with the tragic passing of Mark Linkous, the reclusive genius behind Sparklehorse. For many, the band’s name will trigger nothing but a vague rattle in the back of the mind, a twinge that you probably have heard their music but can’t recall exactly where or what it sounded like. The limited inches of copy devoted to the singer’s death signify just how well kept a secret the Virginia-born writer truly was.

The understated and deeply pitiful nature of his exit stage right is at odds with the immense beauty and bountiful vitality of the work he left behind him. It’s a sad end to a life which, by all accounts, was a long slog out of the mire up towards the light. Linkous might never quite have reached it, but every sour bubble in his back catalogue is burst by a spark of pure joy.

For some, making music is as easy as breathing. Or at its most difficult, walking in a straight line without pulling a stitch. Those who are blessed with spontaneous inspiration can pluck songs or albums entire out of thin air like fruit.

They arrive fully formed, chorus, middle eight and all, and the musician simply receives the music as effortlessly if they are tuning a radio to the right channel. They hear the song waltzing through the frequencies, write it down, and then take the rest of the day off. For the less fortunate, making music is a painful, messy business where every note is an uphill struggle, every bar a marathon, every verse a session of stretched limbs and splintered shins on the torture rack.

For those for whom composing is an addictive blend of catharsis and masochism, writing a song is akin to pulling a wire strung with razor blades out of their throat – and not the rubber props which ersatz magicians use, but the stainless steel kind which rip your heart and lungs apart on the way out.

Mark Linkous very much fell into the latter camp.

Releasing just four proper albums during his 15-year run in the guise of Sparklehorse, he was hardly what one might call prolific, but that’s because the yawns of time between each release were blotted by darkness and crippling selfdoubt. One wouldn’t like to imagine what inky-eyed, rusty-toothed demons haunted Linkous, but you can’t listen to his work without knowing that they’re there, scratching around between the notes like a tarantula in a margarine tub. Equally influenced by Tom Waits, William Blake and Daniel Johnston, the songs sound as if they are forged in Freddy Krueger’s workshop, glued together from bits of other songs, and wound onto a waterlogged reel to reel tape recorder. By turns melodic, hypnotic and frequently teetering on the cusp of chaos, they are little symphonies of broken biscuits, where one bite is so sweet it will sting your teeth, and another lemon squirt sour.

Sparklehorse first came to prominence supporting Radiohead way back in 1995, around the time the latter released The Bends and were perched on the brink of universal acclaim. To shirk critical distance for a moment and sidestep into my own history lesson, I caught the tour when it hit a tiny venue in Glasgow. Skinny, dressed entirely in black and standing like a crooked shotgun barrel, Linkous cowered at the front of the stage and sang about spirit ditches, gasoline horseys and rainmakers.

The songs – pretty, fractured things – alternated between cat sneeze quiet and gamma bomb loud. Looking back, it probably wasn’t the ideal performance for a roomful of Scotsmen tweaking on Buckfast who just wanted to hear ‘Creep’. Linkous, as would soon become the norm, seemed embarrassed to be there. As awkward as a teenage boy holding a chess set at a bus stop, his vocals, brittle and

History Lessons - Sparklehorse

reedy, were largely cloaked by a distorted microphone.

The effect, however, was mesmerising.

Sparklehorse were promoting their debut Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot (1995). You can imagine how much of a pain in the posterior it was writing that on the spine of a cassette tape. Some critics labelled the music therein psychedelic trip-hop, others Appalachian folk slop – not that a pigeonhole really matters. The record inhabited a dark papier-mâché fairytale world where few artists have trod. Dense and mystical, the lyrics, which could well have been written in gasoline on tree bark, were filled with references to snakes, rooks, blooded hands, rusted motorcycles, acetylene torches and great keyboards made from horse’s teeth. The resultant clatter was like nothing else around at the time. In fact, Radiohead’s Phil Selway has often said that without the Sparklehorse song ‘Saturday’, a lament so fragile it disappears in the mouth like rice paper, there would have been no ‘No Surprises’.

Such is the regard with which Linkous was viewed.

As it turned out, that tour was to be fairly disastrous. The incident has been well documented: in a London hotel room, Linkous overdosed on Valium and anti-depressants.

The singer keeled backwards, trapping his legs beneath his crumpled body for 14 hours. When he was finally discovered and the paramedics started to work their magic, the shock to his system was so great that his heart stopped beating. Linkous was as good as dead until he was sucked back out of the plughole again, but he emerged a battered man. The incident ravaged his body, particularly his legs, which were thereafter supported with callipers. One can understand why Linkous grew bored of continually being asked about it – who wants to be perpetually reminded of their most colossal screw-ups? But it was clear to see just how great the crater it made on his heart.

Whatever black dog was hunting Linkous grew closer with Good Morning Spider (1999), named for an actual arachnid which terrorised the smoke-shack in which he had set up his home studio. The album opens with ‘Pig’, surely the most low down dirty thing Linkous ever recorded, but the aggression was counterbalanced by gentler tracks like ‘Sunshine’ and ‘Junebug’. On ‘Saint Mary’, he gave thanks to the nurses who coaxed him back to health in the hospital of the same name, and in ‘Painbirds’ he spoke of the depression which continually pecked at his nerve endings. The one thing that tied the songs together with old, withered twine was a yearning for something that this physical world can not offer. It

Words by Ross Thompson

would be too tempting to scrutinise the back catalogue for signs that Linkous’s internal compass was pointed towards the grave or, to paraphrase Emily Dickinson, that the horse’s head was aimed towards eternity. There is no doubt that his words, as with those penned by Elliott Smith, Johnny Cash or whichever troubled artist you might choose, swelled with a profound and tangible sadness, the quivering and chill of this temporary life.

However, to do this is to miss the other side of Linkous’s work: just because the visible side of a planet is blanketed in night does not mean that the other side is too. Many critics observed erroneously that the title of It’s A Wonderful Life (2001) was meant to be ironic. If anything, Linkous was at his most content and creative.

By collaborating with Dave Fridmann, Polly Harvey, Nina Persson and Tom Waits, he unlocked parts of himself which previously remained untapped. The dissonant chime of guitars was largely usurped by the flickering thrum of a selection of keyboards, mellotrons and optigans. The jumbling, tumbling metaphors to fat babies, ocean-bound bees and, yes, horses were still present, but the prevailing mood was fitter, happier, more productive.

Sadly, the following years were not kind to Linkous. After a glacial wait, during which he paid the rent by producing albums for Daniel Johnston and A Camp, Dreamt For Light Years In The Belly Of A Mountain was finally released in 2006, and co-produced by – of all people – Danger Mouse.

Perhaps it was the weight of expectation, and perhaps it was the fact that several of the tracks had been released in one form or another before, but there was no denying that this reel around the fountain was disappointing and less coherent than anything Linkous had done before. It seemed that the static in his head was taking over, that the fire in his belly was dying out.

Linkous’s real swansong, however, is Dark Night Of The Soul (2009), a further joint effort with Danger Mouse and anyone who is anyone from the indie-rock community.

It’s a startling, richly textured piece of work, which makes it all the more tragic that Linkous never saw it released. Originally caught up in a treacly web of legal wrangling, it is due for a proper outing this summer, and serves as a testament to the man’s talent and overflowing heart.

Linkous once sang plaintively, “All I want is to be a happy man.” One can only hope that he has found his peace.

—29 AU Magazine—

A-Z

DEITIES It has to be said that human beings believe in some crazy stuff. Famously, for example, we once all thought the earth was flat. To give a more modern case in point, historians will one day surely look back, aghast, at the early 21st century and speculate on what traumatic events caused huge sections of the populace to swallow the lie that The Da Vinci Code was a good book. Of course belief systems change over time, but one constant throughout human history has been a faith in the existence of some kind of supreme ruler/creator-type being or beings. Some of these might seem a bit wacky in this day and age, but since AU doesn’t want to offend anyone’s sensibilities, incur a Fatwa or be prosecuted under blasphemy legislation, we’re just going to sit on the fence and say that every single one of these gods and goddesses actually exists. Yep, even the fictional ones.

Words by Neill Dougan Illustration by Mark Reihill

—30 issue 64—

Words by Neill Dougan Illustration by Elissa Parente

Rewind

A to Z - Deities

A is for:

F is for:

Greek goddess of love and sexuality. Bit of a naughty little minx, this one, frequently unfaithful to her husband with numerous lovers, and said to be ill-tempered and easilyoffended. Lucky for her she didn’t live in modern times – the tabloids would have a field day.

Norse pagan goddess who had the power of prophecy but, annoyingly, refused to reveal what she had foreseen.

Thus, asking her for racing tips was an utterly pointless and frustrating exercise, and indeed may have spawned the popular exclamation, “Oh, frigging hell”.

APHRODITE

FRIGG

B is for:

G is for:

Chinese deity known to Westerners as ‘the laughing Buddha’ or ‘the fat Buddha’ due to, well, his mirthful demeanour and decidedly ample proportions. Not to be confused with Siddhartha Gautama, the original Buddha, who – unlike his jovial, roly-poly counterpart – was fairly serious in disposition and a bit of a looker to boot.

Villainous goddess from classic movie Ghostbusters, the shapeshifting Gozer – aka ‘The Destructor’ – initially appears as a foxy lady but then takes on the giant form of the StayPuft Marshmallow Man in order to wreak destruction upon 1980s New York. Ah, you can’t beat a bit of destructionwreaking... it’s what being a god is all about, you know.

BUDAI

GOZER THE GOZERIAN H is for:

K is for:

Busy Greek god who invented the lyre, fire, racing, boxing and wrestling, as well as being a messenger between mortals and the gods and a guide to the underworld. Phew! Also a phallic god of boundaries, with the borders between villages being marked by pillars erected in his name, which more often than not bore a huge erect phallus. Disgusting, utterly disgusting.

Popular, dashing, blue-skinned Hindu deity, the youthful Krishna went around rescuing damsels in distress (being obliged to then marry them, he ended up with 16,000 wives) before growing up to fight wars, battle demons and generally be a bit of a hero. More super-deity than mere god, Krishna has everything going for him. It’s enough to make you sick.

HERMES

CELTIC GODS

The ancient Celts – who could be found not only across Ireland and Britain but also as far east as the Rhineland – worshipped multifarious deities, including various goddesses based around rivers, horses and other natural phenomena.

And before you ask, no, Bono is not a Celtic god. Although Henrik Larsson just might be.

D is for:

DISCWORLD GODS

Popular novelist Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series features gods by the truckload, amongst them the comically-named Flatulus (God of Winds), Bilious (so-called ‘Oh God’ of Hangovers) and Pedestriana (God of Football). Funnily enough there’s a God of Football in real life, too – his name’s Wayne Rooney, (tut, tut - Ed).

E is for:

EPONA

Roman goddess said to be a protector of horses, donkeys and mules. Also, confusingly, a goddess of fertility. There’s a bestiality joke in there somewhere, but AU refuses to sink that low.

KRISHNA

I is for:

L is for:

Ancient Egyptian god of milk. Said to have been outraged when Mrs Thatcher cancelled free milk for British schoolchildren in the 1970s. Sadly, as an entirely fictitious deity, she was absolutely powerless to stop the Iron Lady’s dastardly scheme.

Mischievous, loud-mouthed trickster god of Norse mythology, Loki first comes to prominence when he gatecrashes a feast of gods, loudly mocking the likes of Thor and Odin. Sort of the godly equivalent of your mate who’s a total liability when he gets a few drinks in him. Annoying little bugger, in other words.

IAT C is for:

Krishna

J is for:

JAH RASTAFARI

In the Rastafarian religion, god – or ‘Jah’ – is manifested in the form of Ethiopian Emperor Haile Selassie I (whose original title was Ras Tafari), who they believe was the reincarnation of Jesus Christ himself. Mind you, Rastas do smoke a lot of weed, so, y’know... pinch of salt, maybe… ? Just sayin’, like.

LOKI

M is for:

MUMM-RA THE EVER-LIVING

Immortal, pseudo-Egyptian villain from Thundercats, the bit in every episode where he would declaim, “Ancient spirits of evil, transform this decayed form to Mumm-Ra... the EVER-LIVING!” – before changing from a dessicated mummy to a huge, muscle-bound demon – was enough to scare the bejaysus out of your correspondent as a small boy.

In fact, we’ve just watched it again on YouTube and it still gives us the heebie-jeebies.

N is for:

NANOOK

Inuit bear god, Nanook decides if a hunter is granted success or is doomed to return home empty-handed.

Recently has looked kindly upon Sarah Palin, elevating the renowned Alaskan bear-killer to the lofty heights of failed US presidential running mate. They do move in mysterious ways, these gods.

—31 AU Magazine—

O is for:

ODIN

The Big Daddy of the Norse gods, Odin is the father of the gods and ruler of Asgard (where they all live). Full of knowledge and wisdom, he’s also an accomplished warrior and master of disguise. As if that wasn’t enough, he has a magic spear and ring, two ravens who fly around the world each night to gather information for him, and – oh yeah – an eight-legged horse. So don’t mess, ok?

P is for:

POSEIDON

Luxuriously bearded god of the sea, trident-waving Poseidon is something of a bad-ass, putting the fear of god (quite literally) up sailors with his bad temper, which caused storms at sea. Also responsible for earthquakes, as well as being a rapist and multiple adulterer. Something of a bastard, in other words, even by the dubious standards of the pantheon of Greek gods.

Q is for:

QUETZALCOATL

Mesoamerican deity who had the appearance of a feathered serpent. Some believe he was Spanish Conquistador Hernán Cortés, while Mormons believe Quetzalcoatl was Jesus Christ himself. Meanwhile, legions of his followers met an untimely end simply trying to pronounce his name.

R is for:

RA

The most important of the Egyptian idols, Ra was the SunGod, and as his cult grew in influence he was eventually believed to be widely responsible for creating all life. Also said to travel through the skies on a ‘solar boat’ called the Mandjet. Quite a psychedelic lot, those ancient Egyptians.

S is for:

SHIVA

Dancing Hindu god who can either destroy or create universes with his frantic gyrations. Go to any of yer ‘niteclubs’ of a weekend and you will see hordes of enthusiastic clubbers doing their own impressions of this particular celestial being.

T is for:

X is for:

Famous Norse god of thunder, riding through the sky on his chariot (pulled by goats, of course) who would throw his hammer into the clouds to create lightning. Later transformed into a popular Marvel comics character – truly a fate fit for the mightiest of gods.

According to Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, Xenu was the ruler of a Galactic Confederacy 75 million years ago.

To combat an over-population problem, the villainous cretin kidnapped billions of his citizens, froze them and brought them to Earth, where their bodies were destroyed, leaving their disembodied souls, or ‘thetans’, floating around, which then inhabited the bodies of humans. And to think people call Scientology a load of nonsense!

THOR

T is for:

ULL

Nordic god of frost and skiing and, indeed, yodelling. Not snowboarding, though, which clearly must be the winter sport of the devil.

V is for:

VENUS

Goddess of love – the ancient Roman equivalent of Aphrodite. Celebrated in Shocking Blue’s popular 1970 chart hit of the same name (covered successfully by Bananarama in 1986), in which she is correctly said to have “got it” and is further accurately described as “your fire, your desire”. Yep, she’s that hot.

W is for:

WU-GUAN-WANG

Poseidon

—32 issue 64—

Mythological ruler of Feng-Du, the Chinese version of hell.

End up there and you’re likely to be smote with hammers or mashed to a bloody pulp. Not to be confused with the Wu-Tang Clan, who are similarly-named, but even more hardcore.

XENU

Y is for:

THE YOUNG GODS

Swiss industrial band who have influenced Mike Patton, Nine Inch Nails and more. Not, strictly-speaking, all that young, and nor indeed are they real gods, but hey, at least they can be proven to be real, unlike most of the entries on this list.

Z is for:

ZEUS

And so we come to the God of Gods, the Big One. Ruler of Mount Olympus, father of many of the notable Greek heroes, Zeus could turn enemies to stone, smite them with thunderbolts or dish out any number of other gruesome punishments. Respected and feared in equal measure, he was – in short – kind of like an ancient Greek version of Sir Alex Ferguson. Except not quite as intimidating.

Big shout out to WWW.GODCHECKER.COM

www.laverysbelfast.com

12-16 Bradbury Place, Belfast, BT7 1RS, 02890871106 On The Top Floor: Every Thursday and Friday night: A request friendly poolroom soundtrack featuring classic tracks and up to the minute future hits. The combination of high class pool hall & a razor sharp playlist leads to an experience unique to Belfast and guaranteed good times. Make no mistake this is the best place in town to shoot some frames, hang out with your best friends & boogie on down when the lights go out.

Request-friendly DJ set by Dave F While you play pool

On The First Floor: Every Monday:

Every Thursday:

Classic Disco Pop and Rock: Dj Gregz McCann Doors 10pm. Adm £3 Fun filled music of yesteryear combines the pop classics from the like of Whigfield, Bucks Fizz and Tiffany with Disco Divas such as Gloria Gaynor, Diana Ross and the Nolan Sisters, along with MOR Rock by Bon Jovi, Boston and Journey.

EMO / PUNK / HARDCORE: Dj Darren Craig Doors 10pm. £3 Playlist includes….+44, 30 seconds to mars, afi, against me!, alkaline trio, angels and airwaves, ash, bad religion, bearvsshark, biffy clyro, billy talent, black eyes, blink 182 ….

KITSCH

RADIATION

Every Tuesday:

TA'PP

Every Friday:

Eclectic Student Club: Dj Panda Hearts Pineapple Doors 9pm. Adm £3 TA'PP is a new weekly club brought to you by Panda//Hearts//Pineapple. Guest DJs, drinks promotions and give aways every week.

Every Wednesday:

OMGWTFDISCO

Indie & Electro: DJs Jonny Tiernan Doors 9pm. Adm £3 Brought to you by the man behind AU Magazine - Jonny Tiernan. You will hear modern classics, cutting edge underground tracks and unheard remixes, straight from the artists.

Cut n Paste Disco: FAUX DJs Doors 10pm. Adm £3 FAUX play a wide variety of genres whilst pushing the Ableton boundaries with quick mixing and loop based trickery in this dance floor focused set.

RESIDENT DJs:

EVERY SATURDAY AT LAVERY’S Resident DJs:

GREGZ McCANN JONNY TIERNAN DARREN CRAIG

TWO FLOORS OF ALTERNATIVE SOUNDS

IN THE BUNKER AND THE BALLROOM!

DOORS:8PM/ADM:£5

On The Ground Floor: Every Monday & Tuesday

Live Traditional & Folk Sessions

Hosted by Buana, all musicians are welcome.

This is an open session and all musicians of all standards are invited to play. Bring along your fiddle, flute, tin whistle, accordion, bodhrán, guitar or uilleann pipes and play along and Laverys will fill your cup.

Mondays: UPRISING Reggae, Ska and Dub with residents Leon D & Cozzie Tuesdays: CIRCUS OF SOUND Classic Rock and Soul from deep in the vaults of time

Fridays:

VINTAGE

Alternative sounds from the last century with Gregz McCann Saturdays:

ECLECTIC ELECTRIC

Every Wednesday - Saturday

Wednesdays: PERFORMANCE Singer-songwriter sessions with featured artists and open mic.

Genre-jumping mix of underground hits

Classic Chart Hits The Retro Disco every Friday and Saturday night with its playlist of the hits of yesteryear for those who love to party to the sounds of the 50s, 60s, 70s & 80s.

Thursdays: COUP D’ETAT Upbeat music mix with Rory McConnell

Classic Funk, Soul and Rhythm & Blues with Paul Mod Revival

Sundays: The RETRO DISCO TWO FLOORS OF ALTERNATIVE SOUNDSSOUL SOCIAL

—33 AU Magazine—

A Respect Your Shelf - Douglas Coupland

Rewind

Respect Your ShelfThe AU Buyers’ Guide

Dou glas

d plan Cou

Douglas Coupland

For nearly two decades the Canadian writer Douglas Coupland has been documenting the interminable tedium of this contemporary life, the spiritual decay of an era where technological ingenuity outweighs personal interaction by countless hugs and handshakes. Each of Coupland’s novels – some 12 of them – pulses in time with concurrent scientific advancements and regressions: several generations of Microsoft, the spread of the Internet and

most recently, the death of the common bee. Despite the inexorable march of ‘progress’, though, Coupland remains fascinated by the old-fashioned art of storytelling, and the question of whether the medium has been outmoded by a universe where all art forms are readily available at the click of a button. More specifically, whether there is a place for romance, affection and nostalgia in a future which is closer than it has ever been.

Words by Ross Thompson

—34 issue 64—

GENERATION X (1991)

SHAMPOO PLANET (1992)

LIFE AFTER GOD (1994)

Originally, Coupland, then a budding artist and jobbing journalist, was contracted to write a text on the leagues of sprogs which resulted from the so-called ‘baby boom’ of the 1960s. As Coupland observed, the progeny of that jubilant post-war period had the misfortune of hitting their twenties in the 1980s, a decade of cliff-sized shoulderpads, atrocious music, parakeet haircuts and almost universal discontent. Instead, he turned in his debut novel, a paean to what he later dubbed “that protective, naïve coating called youth”. For a first crack at literature the novel was impressively fully formed, vacuum-packed with the ingredients which would become Coupland’s trademarks: a collection of overlapping narratives told by disaffected twentysomethings, who are preoccupied with the daily grind of their “McJobs” and a latent fear of the end of the world.

Coupland has spent years trying to distance himself from being associated with words such as ‘zeitgeist’ and ‘spokesman’. He was determined to, as he put it, “drive a silver nail into the thorax of the zombie that will never die.” However, in his early career he flirted outrageously with the sloganeering that had marked his (ahem) X on the literary map. On first inspection Coupland’s second novel can be dismissed as more of the same, in which another band of disillusioned wastrels are perpetually bummed out by falling off the college conveyor belt into crappy, underpaid jobs. Once again we have fairly pathetic individuals, but when you cringe you do so out of recognition: we were all this ill-prepared as youngsters.

Arguably Coupland’s most personal book, this collection of loosely connected short stories put paid to the notion that he was an aging hipster whose sole interest was to portray a youth culture entirely populated by cynical Holden Caulfield types who can’t tie their own shoelaces let alone hold down a minimum wage job or conduct a functional relationship.

Life After God is one of those books where every page feels important and worth reading. Inspired in part by the ongoing notion that God is dead, Coupland depicts characters who are cast adrift on an earth where science is favoured over romance, one where for many religion has become little more than a barely perceptible buzzing at the back of the cranium.

The disparate tales here are oddly moving yet never overwrought. Most special is ‘The Wrong Sun’, in which a selection of disembodied voices recount their final moments before nuclear explosion. The spectre of death hovers over the entire book, but it is never so maudlin that you will want to curl into a foetal ball and weep. Coupland once commented that great writing ennobles your life, and Life After God definitely falls into that camp. After reading it you might feel as if something has dislodged within you, but you’ll enjoy the rattle that it makes.

La Triviata: The story ‘Patty Hearst’ refers to the real life guerrilla, kidnap victim and bank robber of the same name.

That may sound about as interesting as a pebble on an Ikea plate, but at the time stumbling upon Generation X was like finding a diamond in a box of cornflakes. Peppered with soundbites, pop art illustrations and nonsense definitions (“Mid-twenties Breakdown”, “Celebrity Schadenfreude”, “Personality Tithe”), the book deftly distilled the feelings of ennui and boredom which characterised that period - and did so with more warmth than the same year’s American Psycho. So perceptive was Generation X that it not only became a milestone for Coupland, but also a millstone around his neck. It was a pixel perfect photograph, but one of a bullet that soon was to zip into the middle distance. The author was plagued with the ‘voice of a generation’ tag, and became the go-to guy for any subsequent interview on slackers and college dropouts.

What most people missed is that the novel is in actual fact a fairly optimistic account of friendship and love.

La Triviata: All the characters’ surnames (Baxter, Palmer, Bellingshausen) are taken from locations in Antarctica.

Sample Excerpt: “At meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous, fellow drinksters will get angry with you if you won’t puke for the audience. By that, I mean spill your guts – really dredge up those rotted baskets of fermented kittens and murder implements that lie at the bottoms of all our personal lakes.”

This time around the ice rink, Coupland’s target is the impact of consumerism and global branding – and this was eight years before Naomi Klein thumped a tub with No Logo. Every page of Shampoo Planet is cluttered with brand names, most of which Coupland made up – shake the book and you will hear hair product tubs and fizzy drink cans rattling. America had become the land of the tax free, populated by billboards for Benetton and Diet Coke and vast, sprawling malls.

The book received a decidedly meh response from critics, most of whom noted that Coupland was trying to be too clever by half – Shampoo Planet is spoken by the brother of one of the characters from Generation X – and that there was little in the way of incident. The latter is true, but Coupland fills the freewheeling narrative with one-liners and spot-on observations which encapsulate the fakery of the period. The satire lacks the scabrous humour of Chuck Palahniuk’s work, but it still has a serrated edge.

La Triviata: The book’s fly jacket conceals a rewritten periodic table where all the elements have been replaced by emotions and consumer products.

Sample Excerpt: “If you ever have a free moment, you might consider checking out the travel brochures for the town in which you live. You might be amazed. You might not want to live there any more.”

Sample Excerpt: “According to the TV, Superman was supposed to die in an air battle over the city with a supremely evil force, and while I knew this was just a cheesy publicity ploy to sell more comics, the thought still made me feel bad.”

GIRLFRIEND IN A COMA (1998) HEY NOSTRADAMUS! (2003) GUIDED BY CHOICES: THE AU DEFENCE The product of the lowest point in Coupland’s personal life, this magic realist novel opens with a teenage girl slipping into the titular coma and closes with the end of the world. On this occasion, Armageddon does not arrive in a plague of atomic fire and toxic ice, but with a mass slumber party. Wherever they are, whatever they are doing, the population falls asleep.

It’s like the Rapture, but the bodies remain on earth, slumped behind steering wheels, spread eagled in the frozen food aisle. And how do the group of friends who remain awake spend their time? Do you rebuild society or repopulate the empty cities? Nope, of course not.

They play videogames and drink slush puppies and bicker about the same things they bicker about before everybody went zed counting.

If Life After God bowed under the weight of the death of Kurt Cobain, the cornerstone of Hey Nostradamus! was the Columbine shootings of 1999. A similar high school rampage connects the dots between the characters here, some of whom are dead and some who are forced to live on after the tragedy. Both are given a chance to speak about how the experience changed their lives – or ended it.

In part a warning against the collective apathy of the mid-Nineties, in part an update of The Big Chill, the book’s emotional core comes from a circle close friends coping with grief. Coupland has since said that his writing is a way of shirking off his former years, as the American pioneers once tossed unwanted baggage out of their carts, getting rid of “his crazy twenties and screwed-up thirties”. In this light, Girlfriend In A Coma does feel like a transition of sorts: a shrinking away from the “postmodern” label he was lumbered with, whatever that term means.

La Triviata: The novel has dozens of Smiths lyrics and album titles woven into the prose. Coupland interviewed Morrissey in 2006.

It would be tempting for a writer half as savvy to turn this into a middle American rant against the moral downfall of society, but Coupland handles the sensitive material with real care. Angered at how much media attention the killers at Columbine received, he chose instead to focus on the victims of such an event. In doing so, he lends Hey Nostradamus! a fractured yet still beating heart. It is without a doubt his most emotionally charged work. Anyone who argues that Doug hasn’t got any soul should read it.

La Triviata: Coincidentally, the book was released in the same week as Gus Van Sant’s film Elephant, also based on the infamous massacre. Bet Nostradamus didn’t predict that one.

Sample Excerpt: “It was my fear of a world that would expand suddenly, violently, and without rules or laws: bubbles and seaweed and storms and frightening volumes of dark blue that never end.”

Sample Excerpt: “The sun may burn brightly, and the faces of children may be plump and achingly sweet, but in the air we breathe, in the water we drink and in the food we share, there will always be darkness in the world.”

It’s fair to say that Coupland’s recent output has been patchy. His books still glow with the same luminescence as his early work, but less consistently. Most jarring is jPod (2006) a self-indulgent pastiche of his own, much better, Microserfs (1995), in which Coupland appears as himself. And if Coupland isn’t convincing in his own role, then something is sorely skew-whiff. The stylistic quirks that were once charming become irksome in All Families Are Psychotic (2001), which leaves the reader neither overwhelmed nor underwhelmed, but merely whelmed.

One thing Coupland should not inspire is apathy. A more rewarding book from his latter period is Generation A (2009).

Spawned from a quote from Kurt Vonnegeut, this eerie, dystopian chiller speaks of a near future where bees are extinct. The idea is more troubling than you might initially think.

GENERATION A IS OUT NOW, PUBLISHED BY RANDOM HOUSE.

—35 AU Magazine—

Classic Album - Pavement - Wowee Zowee

Rewind

Classic Album

Pavement

Wowee Zowee (1995) According to Freud, the deepest rooted psychological anxiety of the male species is that of the difference between the male and female genitals. The infant male becomes aware of the female’s lack of a penis, and assumes that it has been removed. This then develops into a fear that if contact between the male and female genitals occurs, the male’s penis will also be removed. It’s not the stuff of classic love songs, but then again, Pavement were no ordinary band.

Kicking off their 1995 album, Wowee Zowee, ‘We Dance’ sets out its stall with the opening lyric, “There is no castration fear / In a chair you will be with me” – the protagonist negating psychology itself in pursuit of pure love. The offhanded manner in which this line is offloaded, as well as the casual awkwardness of the lyric itself, is Pavement in microcosm. Subverting the conventional, absorbing the surreal, and casually re-inventing the wheel, Pavement were the definitive American indie-rock band, and Wowee Zowee might just be their masterpiece.

Not that you’d have known it when it first descended upon an unsuspecting public, 15 years ago. Over the course of five years, Pavement had evolved from a scrappy, angular art-punk recording project, to a charming, wistfully off-kilter group of collegiate intellectuals, laidback and whimsical, proudly displaying their cleverness on their checked shirts.

However, analogous to this, a lot of angst-ridden men with furrowed brows had proved that attractive, if somewhat dishevelled, boys with guitars were a big commercial prospect, and in the tried and tested tradition of the music industry, A&R men were sent in search of the next big guitar band after Nirvana.

And in this climate, Pavement found the spotlight shining in their direction, caught between underground infamy and big-time superstardom.

In retrospect – without wanting to give the ending away – it’s curious to imagine what major record labels —36 issue 64—

expected Pavement to do. After all, this was the band whose breakthrough song, ‘Summer Babe’ featured a breakdown of, “Minerals, ice deposits / Daily drop off the first shiny robe”, whilst they had recently achieved indie-rock notoriety with ‘Range Life’, a song which took flippant pot-shots at the hip grunge bands of the day, such as the Stone Temple Pilots (“They’re elegant bachelors / They’re foxy to me, are they foxy to you?”) and The Smashing Pumpkins (“Nature kids, they don’t have no function / I don’t understand what they mean, and I could really give a fuck”). Clearly, the mainstream was not going to be the ideal breeding ground for the mercurial talents of Stephen Malkmus and co.

With their commercial stock at an all-time high, in essence all Pavement had to do was release an album of countrified indie-rock with a few noisy bits, and a few more ‘quirky’ lyrics about getting your hair cut. Instead, they unleashed a sprawling, indulgent double album, capturing both the best and worst of the band in one messy portion. Alternating between twisted art-rock (‘Grave Architecture’) and lilting alt. country (‘Father To A Sister Of Thought’), stopping off for a brief detour into noise rock (‘Serpentine Pad’), calling in at anthemic, skyscraping atmospherics (‘Grounded’), before settling on a bruised brand of the blues (‘Half A Canyon’) – if this was Pavement’s chance to infiltrate the mainstream, they’d chosen a blunderbuss as their instrument of destruction.

The singles from the album went nowhere (“I was

Words by Steven Rainey

smoking a lot of grass back then,” quipped Malkmus, “but to me they sounded like hits.”) and the album confounded all critical expectations, delivering precious little of what people seemingly wanted. At the time, the general perception was that Pavement had dropped the ball, a theory borne out by subsequent albums Brighten The Corners and Terror Twilight edging closer to the mainstream that they’d seemingly left behind. By the time of their demise in 1999, they were unrecognisable from the spluttering, shambolic noise fest they’d been at the beginning, resembling some kind of elder statesmen, with all the rough edges smoothed out.

But time has been kind to Pavement’s legacy, and Wowee Zowee in particular, with the album garnering a reputation as ‘the Pavement fan’s favourite Pavement album’. Melodies and attention-grabbing lyrics are tossed out with reckless abandon, with every song – even the scrappy ones – having something within it that leaves a lasting impression. For a band often perceived as the definitive ‘slacker’ band, Wowee Zowee reveals Pavement to have had some serious instrumental chops, foreshadowing Malkmus’ later evolution into a kind of indie-rock Grateful Dead.

Wowee Zowee harks back to a time when although a band could appear to fail, the bravery with which they failed could be as impressive as any success they might dare to chase. As Malkmus sang on ‘AT&T’, “I’ve got all the glory in the world / And I hope it doesn’t floor you before you go.”

—37 AU Magazine—

Trapped in the Activists’, Moshpit

TRAPPED IN THE ACTIVISTS’ MOSHPIT DISPATCHES FROM THE ANTI-FASCIST FRONT LINE Since BNP leader Nick Griffin’s appearance on Question Time, demonstrations by antifascists and right-wing organisations have become more frequent. Now, as Griffin stands for election to the UK Parliament, the clashes are becoming more violent.

Words by Kiran Acharya Photography by Katy Chan

Like eight million other viewers, I watched British National Party leader Nick Griffin on Question Time. Next to The Turn of the Screw it was the best thing on the BBC last year. But I can’t decide which was scarier.

Griffin’s appearance prompted a Youth Against Racism demonstration outside BBC Broadcasting House in Belfast.

More than 800 demonstrators rallied against his entry to BBC headquarters in London. Before being ushered through a back door, he had written an open letter to party members saying that Question Time could propel them “into the big time”.

It all made for good TV. On October 20, web numbers service Alexa ranked the BNP website #11,468 in the world. In June 2009 Nick Griffin and Andrew Brons were elected to the European Parliament. Griffin now stands as parliamentary candidate in the London borough of Barking, with the UK’s General Election expected on May 6.

On Friday March 5 I stood in the bone-numbing cold outside the Palace of Westminster watching as law graduate Michael Goold was hoisted up between the angled arms of two police officers. As he lifted his feet, a third officer stated his rights. Detained with more than a dozen Unite Against Fascism demonstrators behind the black railings of Victoria Square Gardens, he had been temporarily arrested for obstructing the public highway.

He had arrived only 10 minutes earlier.

Unite Against Fascism, led by the Socialist Workers Party and Socialist Action, brings together organisations like Love Music Hate Racism and the Jewish Council for Racial Equality. Assembling by the limestone statue of George V, they opposed a march by the English Defence League, due to pass Parliament in support of Dutch politician Geert Wilders.

While the BNP and EDL have shared members, BNP members have previously been banned from participating

—38 issue 64—

in EDL events. The EDL support Wilders’ anti-Islamic programme. As leader of the Party For Freedom, Wilders had been invited to the Houses of Parliament in February 2009 by Baroness Cox and United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP) leader Lord Pearson.

The idea was to show Fitna, a 20-minute film Wilders wrote and commissioned. The montage mixes excerpts from the Koran with news footage of violence allegedly committed in the name of Islam. Available online, Fitna began a debate on free speech but was banned from Dutch television, deemed to incite racial hatred. Wilders’ first UK visit was banned under EU law, but today’s had been approved.

The UAF call-and-response cries could be heard from the base of Big Ben: “The BNP is a fascist party! Smash the BNP!” Black taxis and red buses passed on their way to Parliament Square, turning by Brian Haw’s colourful pacifist tent.

The cheerleader’s voice grew hoarse. “Steven Lawrence, never again!” The crowd became louder. “EDL! Go to hell!” Car horns parped as police officers gathered, the three-bar chevrons of the sergeants’ epaulettes catching the sunlight. UAF organiser Weyman Bennett stood by the statue of Oliver Cromwell that rises outside Westminster Hall’s west-facing windows.

Three weeks before, to learn about the links between the BNP and EDL, I attended UAF’s national conference at the TUC Congress Centre on Great Russell Street. Even for somebody from Northern Ireland, the organisations and acronyms were piling up.

Subtitled ‘Stopping the Nazis in 2010’, the event welcomed more than 600 people. The next day the BNP would hold an extraordinary general meeting, voting to revise their constitution to allow non-whites into the party. Outside I spoke with Paul Davies, a meat factory worker and Communist League election candidate for Bethnal Green.

“The vote won’t fundamentally change the character of the BNP,” he said. “Like the English Defence League, [the BNP] is a dagger aimed at the heart of the working class.”

The revision passed. But on March 5, following a legal challenge from the Equality and Human Rights Commission, the constitution was deemed indirectly racially discriminatory and unlawful.

excused himself before repeating the chants: “A Paki is a Paki, a nigger is a nigger.” “You can stick your curries up your arse.”

In Birmingham, he had met a policeman who said the EDL weren’t racist. His response: “They say that they want to decide where you worship, and who you worship. Since when did football hooligans discover the rights of man; suddenly discover philosophy?”

Inside, many delegates wore T-shirts printed with quotes including one commonly attributed to Edmund Burke: “For evil to triumph, all that is necessary is for good people to do nothing.”

My mind drifted to the Facebook groups abusing rosesellers in Belfast. I consoled myself with the David Foster Wallace quote that says: “You get to consciously decide what has meaning and what doesn’t. You get to decide what to worship.”

When I see that quote I bristle, partly because I had used it in 2007. Comfort Adefowoju and her four children had been arrested in their East Belfast home. They spent Christmas in Yarl’s Wood detention centre facing deportation to Nigeria. Citizens rallied at Stormont to allow the family to remain in the UK. Though it secured cross-party support, the effort was unsuccessful.

On the way out, a smoker with a 1950s quiff gave me pause, warning that 27 or 30 EDL guys were lurking around. I asked if there was danger. “Oh yeah,” he said.

He saw the purple posters and UAF bumph poking out of my bag. “You don’t want to flash that about. I mean, they’re not wearing stormtrooper helmets, but they’re out there.”

Growing distracted, I remembered Comfort’s story as well as scenes from dystopic movies. Clive Owen in City of Men. Thomas Turgoose in This is England. Weyman Bennett spoke. “You’ve been congratulated by Nick Griffin,” he said. “[Griffin] made a speech in the European Parliament saying, ‘I can’t go anywhere without a load of UAF people with bric-a-brac attempting to attack me’.”

I fastened the bag and walked on, passing Japanese tourists photographing the classic Batman logo of a comic shop.

What would become of the Japanese, I wondered, if the EDL ran the streets? Would bigoted gangs attack people in the name of England? Punch me for my dual nationality, bruise me and maybe bake me in a kiln?

Bennett stated that the BNP were behind the January EDL riot in Stoke, which saw 1,400 EDL affiliates stomp through a majority Asian area. The EDL website maintains that they are engaged in peaceful protest against Islam. Stoke saw vandalism, an upturned police van and at least 17 arrests.

Bennett saw mixed-race workplaces having their windows smashed, and Mosques daubed with racist slogans. He

The Monday after, buying doughnuts in Tesco, I was laughing at the silliness of unsubstantiated fear when I saw The Times. A reporter named Dominic Kennedy had been invited to the press conference following the BNP vote. But Kennedy, approached by BNP politician Richard Barnbrook, who objected to a previous article, was forcibly ejected. The front page shows him being tackled through a doorway, his notebook flying as another hand with a silver ring reaches from behind to squeeze his features.

TWEETS FROM THE FRONT LINE On Saturday March 20, UAF and EDL demonstrators clashed in Bolton, Lancashire. According to The Independent, police blamed the antifascists for the violence and arrested 74 people including UAF organiser Weyman Bennet, who was charged with conspiracy to organise violent disorder. pierre790 Went to Bolton this weekend where thousands of us stood down the Nazis of the EDL who were scheduled to march but could not. Good job! wearethebrits Well done Bolton and Manchester Police for arresting the ringleaders of the violent extremist #uaf - off OUR streets marxist scum #EDL Ultra_Fox RT @exposethebnp: Victory in Bolton. The EDL ran away with a bit of help from the cops. Police/BBC figures are a lie. We outnumbered them heavily.

C_field_EDL @Raxscallion or dancing to 10 German bombers. EDL win UAF BIG BIG FAIL in Bolton Annabel410 RT @vapidmoaner: #uaf won the battle of Bolton. #edl went crying to their mums. UAF held the square, 1st against police, then against Nazis Russ_ell Shame on Me, or You - who was right/wrong at the #EDL #UAF demonstration in Bolton? http://bit.ly/ cN3aJw

Trapped in the activists moshpit

“THEY’RE NOT WEARING STORMTROOPER HELMETS, BUT THEY’RE OUT THERE.” UAF SUPPORTER

The story was filed from Burger King, with Kennedy inspecting the blood round his nostrils. The opening line: “One man grabbed my nose and tried to remove it from my face.”

Any journalist dealing with the BNP will have seen the April 2002 video of Griffin and American Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke. Griffin tells the American Friends of the BNP of the plan to sell the party’s ideas in the UK. “It means, basically, to use the saleable words. Freedom. Security. Identity. Democracy,” he says. “So, instead of talking about racial purity, we talk about ‘identity’.”

I wanted to see how media professionals were dealing with the trickery. The Amnesty International Human Rights Centre hosted the ‘Expose the BNP’ campaign launch.

Speakers included Mehdi Hasan of the New Statesman, Sunny Hundal of the blog Liberal Conspiracy, Michelle Stanistreet of the National Union of Journalists, Weyman Bennett, and Peter Hain.

Stanistreet highlighted the Redwatch website, used by the fascist right to target so-called reds. People’s pictures and contact details are posted, arranged in lists: Manchester Reds, London Reds, Ulster Reds.

You see pictures from the Belfast BBC demo and, in a long list, an image of music journalist Stuart Bailie holding a —40 issue 64—

copy of The Clash’s debut album. Behind him is a sign saying ‘Equality for All’. But it’s sinister to explore the site: Reds on the Net. Assorted Red details. Noncewatch.

Peter Hain had refused to appear on Question Time. “We have to submit the BNP to maximum scrutiny,” he said.

“It is outrageous that Newsbeat – Radio 1, the BBC – allow two BNP officers to preach their gospel, their hatred, without exposing who they are.”

For much of the Westminster demo I was hemmed in by the police, presumed to be of the UAF. The EDL were held at the Tate all morning, where Daniel Trilling of the New Statesman reports hearing the chant: “God bless the Muslims: they’ll need it when they burn in fucking hell.”

“We are black! We are white! Together we are dynamite!”

The UAF demo moved to the traffic lights on Abingdon Street, blocking the road. “Whose streets? Our streets!

Whose streets? Our streets!” The shouts seemed proprietorial, exclusive, even. “What do you think of Nick? Scum! What do you think of scum? Nick!”

On the corner of Great College Street, two builders watched from the first floor of a half-built apartment.

I longed to join them but was trapped in the activist’s moshpit. Lacking the altitude, the surveillor’s overview, I could only watch.

Two builders became five. Over an hour, the police gradually advanced. The front line moved demonstrators back while officers at the rear dragged people off.

Demonstrators were later forced into two empty buses and driven to Lewisham, almost six miles away. All were eventually ‘de-arrested’ and released without charge.

Helicopters juddered overhead. David Campbell Bannerman, UKIP MEP, offered an account to a phonecam held by an assistant. I asked his opinion. “It’s a hijacking,” he said. “Unite Against Fascism believe in violence against the BNP and the English Defence League. You’re getting this collision – they’re as extreme as each other.”

Bannerman had also been involved in the Northern Ireland Peace Process, as special advisor to former Secretary of State Sir Patrick Mayhew between 1996 and 1997. “It was my idea to destroy terrorist weapons using neutral observers. I’ve been involved in peaceful methods. But what we’re getting here is a return to street extremism. It’s actually quite dangerous.”

Fitna had raised critical questions inside Parliament, but the EDL arrived carrying placards saying ‘England Needs a Wilders’ and ‘Geert Wilders, England salutes you’. Neither exclusively male nor exclusively white, the

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EDL were as vocal as the UAF. Most wore sportswear though few looked athletic. Contained by the police by the statue of George V, they also chanted slogans like “Nazi scum, off our streets”.

Marshalled behind barriers directly outside the Houses of Parliament, UAF demonstrators sang to the tune of a football chant: “You’re all relay-ted!” It looked like the schoolyard game British Bulldogs, with media in the middle. Eventually police led by horse-mounted teams escorted EDL demonstrators past Big Ben, funnelling them into Westminster Tube Station to be held in a stationary train. Both sides claimed the demos as victories.

Even after Question Time, words like thug or fascist or Nazi seemed to me like the words of dusty textbooks. Now, they seem the only labels that fit. I’m forced to imagine Nazis committed to the idea of racial purity controlling the digital NHS database. I ponder consoling a child returning from school, beaten for not being British enough or white enough or whatever enough.

But after both sides dispersed, Westminster quickly refilled. Traffic resumed, zipping past black suits, brown leather satchels, people with phones. A tall Dane turned to his girlfriend. “What’s going on?” He used a Nikon to snap the Union Jack flying above Parliament, then took her hand and dandered off.

—41 AU Magazine—

Jonsi Let’s be frank for just a moment. When you think of Sigur Rós, arguably one of the most cerebral bands of the 21st century – a band for whom the word ‘ethereal’ was seemingly devised solely to describe – you don’t necessarily expect them to be captivating conversationalists. Harsh? Well, try sticking ‘Sigur Rós Radio Interview Disaster’ into Google, witness the stultifyingly awkward ‘discussion’ that followed on NPR in 2007, bear in mind that this is a band who regularly sing in a made-up language, and then tell us that you’d like to be stuck in an elevator with them for an hour.

Icelandic falsetto king Jónsi Birgisson is making the most of Sigur Rós’s hiatus – following last year’s collaborative Riceboy Sleeps project, he has just released his debut solo album, Go. And as he tells AU, he’s currently spending some time in his happy place.

Words by Lauren Murphy Photographer Lilja Birgisdottir Illustrator Inga Birgisdottir

It comes as a pleasant surprise, then, that Jónsi Birgisson – frontman and possessor of that insanely chaste falsetto – is a thoroughly nice chap. Heck, we’d even go as far as to call him enthusiastic. “I think I’m quite a positive person, actually,” he says, virtually radiating sunshine down the phone line from his label’s London offices. “I think sometimes music can reflect your mood, whatever place you’re at in your life, how you’re feeling. And I feel quite good, I think.”

There’s a good reason for his cheerfulness, mind; Go, the 34year-old Icelander’s official debut solo album, is done, dusted, and ready to be unleashed on the music-buying public. It’s a bit of a departure from Sigur Rós, the band he’s been part of since he was 18; these nine tunes are bombastic, immediate and largely beat-driven, rather than tunes that require patience and percolation. ‘Animal Arithmetic’? ‘Boy Lilikoi’?

Practically experimental, if you ask us.

Yet it’s not Birgisson’s first endeavour without his bandmates.

Last year’s beautiful Riceboy Sleeps album was crafted with his partner Alex Somers, while he also released material under the Frakkur banner in the past. Still, actually releasing material under his own name has been a long-term ambition for the amiable musician.

“Yeah, for a few years, I’ve wanted to do a solo album,” he confirms. “How Sigur Rós work, we work together like one machine, we write together as one – so I never bring songs to Sigur Rós. I had a series of songs at home that I’d been collecting through the years, and I just wanted to do this album by myself now. And also because the other guys are all having babies,” he chuckles, “so it was the perfect time for me to do my solo album. This is my music baby.”

So, what is it that made the biggest creative difference to Go? Was writing on his own a daunting task, after years of bouncing ideas off other people?

“I think it’s mainly because of the people I chose to work with on this album, like Samuli [Kosminen, Finnish drummer with Múm and others]. He’s a very different drummer from [Sigur Rós drummer] Orri. But it was a different experience, definitely. Coming from such a safe environment – I’ve been in Sigur Rós for 16 years – it was different to come out and be totally on your own, make all your own decisions. You kind of have to fake your way a little bit, have to pretend what the best thing is to do, even though you’re not always sure what’s right or wrong. But at the same time, it’s very liberating and fun.”

The ubiquitous bob-a-job composer Nico Muhly also weaves his magic into Go’s tapestry – the pianist spends a lot of time in Reykjavik, says Birgisson, so it was just a matter of asking him. Yet although Iceland was the setting for the recording of the album’s vocals and overdubs, it most mostly recorded in the Connecticut studio of its producer Peter Katis (The National, Interpol). His sound may be intrinsically linked to his home country, but Birgisson claims that the location of a studio matters little to him in terms of inspiration.

“Did it make a difference? Ummm, no, I don’t think so, actually,” he says. “I mean, probably it does, but I don’t notice it, because when you’re locked inside some room somewhere in the world, it doesn’t matter where you are.

It’s just a studio. I think of course, places always have different moods and atmospheres, but yeah… I was just in a studio, and was in a working mood, and we worked really hard, and we didn’t go outside, because outside… wasn’t really nice! I think it’s just personal, more than anything.

How you are wired, and what instruments you have at that time, the place you’re in… There’s a lot of influences.

Friends, family, experiences… just life in general, I think.

Everything just tips into your personality.

“Peter was super, super fun to work with, and a really talented, good-hearted guy. I wanted it to be a little bit more crazy than he wanted, I think, so there were some clashes – I think I wanted to push it a little bit further than he wanted it to be but it’s all good. We never fought or anything. For example, ‘Grow Till Tall’, the end part – I really wanted to

—42 issue 64—

distort that to hell, but he didn’t want to. But it’s good to have other people’s opinions. I’m pretty happy with it.”

For the first time, too, Birgisson sings primarily in English rather than Icelandic or his invented ‘Hopelandic’. He admits that it was “a challenge”, and took longer than expected – but considers it just another stage in his musical evolution. He’s certainly come a long way since his teenage years; the young Jónsi spent much of his adolescence obsessing about AC/DC and Metallica. How, then, did he arrive at a sound that most reviewers clumsily place somewhere in-between ‘otherworldly’ and ‘post-rock’?

“I dunno,” he says with a shy chuckle. “I started playing guitar in my bedroom with my cousin when I was 13, y’know, playing Iron Maiden. Then I slowly got better and better, and I started writing my own songs because I got sick of playing other people’s songs. From really early on, I started to make my own songs. I think that’s really important, it’s kind of what has kept me going all these years – just making songs. It’s the only thing I really, really love. Creating. Whatever you create, it just feels so good, or something. It just gives your life meaning. I started playing heavy metal, then got into grunge, then got into ambient, and then started Sigur Rós. I picked up the violin bow and started singing in falsetto, and obviously a lot of things changed.

“It’s just kind of gradual explorations, just exploring things, getting introduced to a lot of different genres of music, and styles. I think it’s the best thing for a musician, just being open-minded and listening to other stuff. Although I think over the last 10 years, I haven’t been listening to music that much at all, really. I usually just keep, like, old jazz in the background.”

Strangely enough, those memories of jamming in garages with your friends are now having an impact on the new Sigur Rós sound. Oh yes, don’t worry; no matter how successful his solo career may be, Jónsi won’t be forsaking his bandmates for a full-time solo career. Although sessions for the follow-up to Með suð í eyrum við spilum endalaust got underway last summer, Birgisson reveals that the preliminary sessions were scrapped, meaning that the next Sigur Rós album will be recorded later this year, and released in 2011.

“I really, really love Sigur Rós and we’ve been together for such a long time that I definitely wanna do more stuff with them,” he says. “A few months ago, we started work on a new album, but we didn’t like it, so we decided to start all over again. We got rid of our swimming pool and our rehearsal space and studio, and started again in our drummer’s garage.

We’re going back to basics, like 15-year-olds rocking out in your parents’ garage,” he chortles. “We’ll see where we go from there.”

Their success in recent years has made Sigur Rós one of their country’s most famous exports – musical or otherwise – but he claims that fame isn’t an issue when he’s walking down the streets of Reykjavik.

“I think Icelandic people are kind of respectful in that way, they give you your privacy or whatever,” he says. “I live a totally normal life in Reykjavik. I go to the grocery shop, and stuff like that.”

That probably wouldn’t be the case in Ireland, I tell him, where his band are treated with a reverence afforded few others, save maybe U2 or The Pope. Indeed, their Electric Picnic set in 2008 was one of the few times this hack has seen people publicly cry for no reason other than sheer force of music-stimulated emotion. Does that sense of expectation and high standards – along with the knowledge that several of their albums made it on to numerous ‘Best of Decade’ lists at the tail end of 2009 weigh heavy on the shoulders of the man with one of the most unique voices in modern music?

“I don’t pay attention to any of that stuff, actually, and I don’t know about that ‘decade’ thing at all,” he says with a smile and a nonchalant shrug. “I think it’s kind of important not to know about that kind of stuff. You should just do what you love, and do what you do, and keep on making music and just do that well, I think. I’m just super-happy about it in general.

That I did the album at all. That it’s actually a reality.”

GO IS OUT NOW ON PARLOPHONE WWW.JONSI.COM

—43 AU Magazine—

As he returns to Ireland to preview tracks from his third album This Is Happening, LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy chats to AU about the new record, his many neuroses and why this Words by Chris Jones time, it really could be the end.

—44 issue 64—

—45 AU Magazine—

LCD Soundsystem Anyone following the progress of the third LCD Soundsystem album via those modern windows into the musician’s mind – Facebook and Twitter – will be fairly cognisant of the fact that for Murphy, it has been an absolute bitch to make. “This has been the most brutal record,” he confirms on the phone from London, and we’re sure he can hear him wince. “They’ve just been increasingly difficult to do.”

It’s a wonder that there’s a new LCD Soundsystem album at all. In late 2008, the band’s live guitarist Al Doyle (also of Hot Chip) spoke to BBC 6Music and seemed to corroborate acres of speculation when he said, “I don’t think James is going to do anything more under that name.” However, Murphy and Doyle were quick to backtrack (Doyle in rather contrite fashion, vowing with tongue in cheek to stop giving interviews), and here we are with album number three in the can. It was a close call, though.

“Well, it didn’t help that I lost my voice and got completely ill when I had two songs to sing,” says Murphy.

“I got pumped full of steroids to get through the rest of it I sang and mixed the last song on the day that I needed to turn it in.”

Rest assured that the album sounds anything but rushed.

Rest assured also that it sounds quintessentially LCD. This may come as a disappointment to anyone hoping for a sharp left turn, but it’s tempting to think of the third album as a companion piece to the monumental Sound Of Silver, for many the album of 2007. Over three albums, his remixing career and the DFA label that he co-founded, Murphy has pitched his tent securely on a neat little patch of the musical landscape, combining his well-documented love for disco and house with punk energy, Anglophile irony and pop nous to create and release intelligent but playful records that have brought critical adoration and a sizeable fanbase.

enough, the first record was so much better, everyone’s going to see through the fact that I do these five different things and that’s about it’. And then I wound up really liking that record. And this record, it’s the same thing.”

It’s debatable whether This Is Happening will go down as well as its illustrious predecessor, but it’s anything but disappointing and Murphy is entitled to be proud of it.

As with everything he turns his hand to, the production is as crisp as autumn leaves – a sensation amplified by the little trick he plays on the listener during the opening track ‘Dance Yrself Clean’, which starts off slow and muffled, like hearing it through a plasterboard wall, before crashing into life at the three minute mark with a monster of a filthy synth line and Pat Mahoney’s belting drumming. It’s a diverse record that contains plenty to keep the die-hards happy while throwing in the odd curveball (such as the Kraftwerk-tinged soul of ‘Change’), but what stage of the process is Murphy at? Is he ready to love it yet?

“I go back and forth, I really do,” he admits. “I really like it and I’ve been excited about it, sonically. The only thing that’s weird is that the last record to me felt like I was doing a couple of things differently that I was scared of. There were more melodies. And this record it’s the same thing; it’s just… different. I mean, it’s not a great deal different – I’m sure there are people who will go, ‘Well, fuck, it sounds like LCD’ – but some of the instrumentation is different.

There’s a little more guitar than I usually have; there’s more synth… I kind of forced myself to do things that I would otherwise refuse to do, because I feel like I don’t want to chicken out or be cowardly about my choices.”

The last time we spoke to him, in late 2007, Murphy was at pains to explain how he only got his life and career together after he hit 30 (he recently turned 40), and that he credits that maturation and his delayed success with his ability to truly capitalise on it when it arrived at the relatively advanced age of 32. He’s happy to revisit the theme, explaining that even something as simple as trusting his

“I wanted one of those really bad idea environments, where you’re living in a bubble and nobody tells you that you suck” That continuity hasn’t made things any easier for him, however. If anything, operating within such a welldefined space of his own making has made Murphy’s task harder with each album. “The first record was really easy, because it’s where you set out your ideas of what your band is,” he says. “Then the second record, I was over-confident because the first record was so easy. The first song, [seminal debut single] ‘Losing My Edge’, took a couple of days. All the lyrics were written playing the drums live on the recording, so I’m playing the drums live and I’m singing and making up the words, and I was like, ‘Oh, this making a record stuff is easy!’. And then of course the song after that is more difficult and the album is more difficult, and Sound Of Silver was brutal! It was terrifying, because it was the first time where I learned it was going to be incredibly hard.”

The making of that album was eventually helped along

by Murphy taking a break to work on 45:33 – a track of slightly longer than that length that was commissioned by athletics firm Nike as part of their Original Run series (De La Soul, Aesop Rock, A-Trak and The Crystal Method also took part), and which spawned arguably Sound Of Silver’s key track, the atypically tender ‘Someone Great’.

Last year, Murphy again took on a side project while working on the new album – his first film soundtrack, for Greenberg, a comedy starring Ben Stiller.

“This record started off incredibly brutal again,” recalls Murphy. “But then in the middle of it I did a soundtrack rather than the 45:33 thing, because I thought that 45:33 saved me in the middle of Sound Of Silver – it gave me a new breath and way in. But the soundtrack was so different from the record that it didn’t give me a new way in. I had to reset everything in my brain in order to be able to get back into the record.

“I’d love to be the kind of guy who doesn’t give a shit what other people think, and I have to operate as if I don’t care because otherwise you lose your marbles and you make bad music, but in truth it means a lot to me that people like things I make. When I made Sound Of Silver I listened to it and I was like, ‘This record’s terrible! It’s not good —46 issue 64—

taste and his instincts was impossible during his twenties, and that it still doesn’t come naturally. So was it age and life experience that helped him get it together, or was it the ecstatic critical reception to his early singles.

“No, in reality it was years and years of going to therapy before forming LCD!” he counters. “I was a typical egotistical but neurotic and insecure kid, and I expected a lot of myself but also secretly hoped no-one would find out I was a real hack. And then when my life wasn’t what I wanted it to be I got to work on it as mechanically as I could.

“When I met [DFA co-founder Tim] Goldsworthy, he was such a success [as a producer], and we were so similar that I was just like, ‘Fuck this, man – why don’t we just do whatever our bad taste indicates – what have we got to lose?’. That was the road to at least trusting yourself to do it. And just having a 12” out – ‘Losing My Edge’ changed my life. About 4,000 people knew what it was – it wasn’t a big deal – but that changed my life more than anything that’s come since.”

So much so that he is now able to spend three months recording in a sprawling mansion in LA, as well as another three months in his New York studio. There’s only one that we really wanted to ask about though, especially having seen clips of the sessions on the LCD website… “I had this idea that it would be amazing to be in this screwed-up mansion in Los Angeles,” he says. “And when I did the research it was actually cheaper to rent this crazy place than to rent a studio and a place to stay. I wanted one of those really bad idea environments, where you’re living in a bubble and nobody tells you that you suck. You know, the bubbles where really weird records get made. And it worked like that – it felt really good. It seemed like an anachronistic way to make a rock record – it doesn’t really happen anymore.”

Not the way that it did with the likes of Fleetwood Mac in their late Seventies heyday, which is the kind of atmosphere that seems to be invoked by such a place – though hopefully without the coke addictions and multiple in-band break-ups…

THIS IS HAPPENING: TRACK BY TRACK An at-a-glance guide to the new album

1 Dance Yrself Clean

A bold opener that begins soft and subtle before exploding into life with the meatiest of synth riffs. Once it gets going, it’s classic dancefloor LCD.

2 Drunk Girls

Or ‘North American Scum’ redux, as you may well know it. For all the club-ready dance jams, Murphy is also a master at cool-as-shit, bubblegum punk-pop. This fits the bill nicely.

3 One Touch

The first LCD classic on the album – The Juan Maclean’s Nancy Whang makes an appearance on this disco-punk juggernaut, chock-full of filthy synths and unstoppable momentum.

4 All I Want

Arguably the album’s weakest moment, this one channels Bowie’s ‘Heroes’ to an almost uncomfortable degree without ever reaching the same heights. Bittersweet and lovelorn.

5 Change

One of the most startling moments on the record, as Murphy smacks us in the face with some decidedly retro synths and Teutonic drum programming. One of the strongest songs too – sweet and soulful.

6 Hit At 9:12, the longest track on the record – over three minutes have passed before the twinkling synth intro unfurls into a chugging Krautrock groove and from then on Murphy cruises towards the horizon with a vocal dripping in New York attitude.

7 Pow Pow

A definite highlight and a close cousin of ‘Losing My Edge’, this sparse dancefloor killer is made up of little more than drums, bass, congas and a classic Murphy rant about British attitudes to America. Impossible not to shake your ass to.

8 Somebody’s Calling Me

Built around a slowly plodding piano riff and featuring some squelchy synths and even a parping trumpet, this is an exceedingly odd, slightly unsettling grind about amorous ladies.

9 What You Need

If ‘All I Want’ saw Murphy channelling Bowie, this is him having (another) bash at David Byrne, to quite magnificent effect. There’s a comforting, redemptive feel to the harmonies and melody here, and rather than settling for a soft closer a la ‘New York I Love You, You’re Bringing Me Down’, he’s welded it seamlessly to a quite lovely disco jam, all pistoning hi-hats and gurgling synths. Bring us home, James.

—47 AU Magazine—

LCD Soundsystem

“I like the non-professional aspect of early rock,” says Murphy. “Even things that seemed really polished at the time, like Led Zeppelin or David Bowie who seemed like these legendary juggernauts, the way they did things was really amateurish in a way by today’s standards. Today, some band that’s tiny already has more apparatus around them than the biggest bands back then. I always felt like that professionalism has not made music better. So getting to that weird set of bad ideas and non-professionalism seemed like the way to go. I’d rather spend the money on having a mansion to get drunk in than, I dunno, a really hot mixer.”

Murphy’s choice of recording environment is rooted in more than some nostalgia for an era he only vaguely remembers, however – it’s ingrained in the singularly immersive way in which he works. He’s well known as something of a workaholic control freak, which is presumably why LCD has always been a solo project that has made use of hired hands like Al Doyle (Hot Chip), Nancy Whang (The Juan Maclean), Tyler Pope (ex-!!! and Out Hud), Gavin Russom (Delia & Gavin) and his frequent DJing buddy and drummer Pat Mahoney rather than ever becoming a band in the true sense; why Murphy produces all his records himself; why he puts them out on the label he founded with Goldsworthy and Jonathan Galkin; and why he never seems to take any serious time off. When he’s making a record, it consumes his life and he makes his studio his home.

“Oh, I have to, yeah,” he says. “It’s a non-starter [otherwise], because I have a lot of responsibilities with the label and everything like that. I tend to be very workmanlike, and I take pride in having a good work —48 issue 64—

ethic and being disciplined and very calm and not very artistic. I’m much more into being technical. It’s easier to take a little bit of pride in [that] – it doesn’t seem quite so egotistical, but when I’m making a record, I have to get into a headspace or character of ‘you’re the artist’, which is very alien to me.”

Are there ever moments where Murphy wakes up in the middle of the night with an idea that he can’t wait to act on? “Totally, that was the whole point. I had a little recording rig right at the foot of my bed. I had a piano, a guitar and a drum machine and a little speaker, and I wrote a couple of songs in the middle of the night. One of them, I didn’t really remember doing and I got up and listened to it and I was like, ‘Ah, I like that!’.”

This rather informal, homely approach to making an album also extended to the people he worked with, from the 20year-old intern who got whisked from DFA’s New York office as a replacement for an assistant who had left at short notice (“He was learning how to make coffee, and I was like, ‘Hey, guess what? You’re going to LA!’”) to the aforementioned session players, who dropped by informally to help out.

“People who I’ve played with or who are artists on the label would come with no specific job. Like, ‘Just come visit for a week and if something happens, something happens and if it doesn’t, it doesn’t’. It was really great.” Despite all the talk of a “brutal” recording process, we venture that it actually sounds like quite a relaxed way of doing things. “I’m not very good at relaxing, but it’s my approximation of a relaxed way of doing things,” Murphy chuckles.

Maybe not relaxed enough though. Those ‘end of LCD’ rumours have resurfaced again recently, and this time Al

Doyle is not implicated – giving interviews during the making of This Is Happening, Murphy himself alluded to the possibility of that name being retired so he could move on to pastures new. The Greenberg soundtrack is a pointer in that direction, so we come straight out with it: is this the last LCD Soundsystem album? Murphy’s answer is allbut-unequivocal.

“I’d like it to be, I think. I think ‘three and out’ is good.

Not to be weird about it, but I never wanted to be a professional musician, and I think of that professionalism as not being good for music. I thrive on being a form of underdog and doing things in my own weird way. I like my life and I like making music, and I’ll keep making music in some form or another, but being a ‘rock band’ that’s on a major label and tours and makes albums on some sort of a cycle and makes videos? At a certain point I think it’ll be self-parody. So it just feels like a good time. Plus, how many people’s fourth records are good?!”

None immediately spring to mind (though the Pixies’ Trompe Le Monde is a contender that comes to us later).

But is it safe to assume that we haven’t heard the last of James Murphy? “Who knows?” he replies. “As long as I’m DJing and stuff like that I’m going to want to make 12”s and 7”s. But it does feel like this should be the end of something.”

THIS IS HAPPENING IS OUT MAY 17 ON DFA RECORDS WWW.LCDSOUNDSYSTEM.COM



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Sly & Robbie Reginald D Hunter Divine Comedy Josh Ritter Eliza Carthy Hypnotic Brass Ensemble Ardal O'Hanlon Paul Durcan Howard Marks Hope Sandoval and the Warm Inventions Toumani Diabate Joan Bakewell Mark Kermode John Connolly Sharon Shannon Echo & the Bunnymen Baskery The Dodge Brothers Andrew Maxwell Pama International Kevin Bridges DJ Food Terrafolk for booking and information go to www.cqaf.com or call 028 9024 6609

Fresh Garbage

present

GOOD VIBES FROM BELFAST

+ Pocket Billiards Acoustic Dan

Mandela Hall

Saturday 15 May 2010

Tickets £16 from

www.ticketmaster.ie • www.gotobelfast.com (or inside Easons or Belfast Welcome Centre, Donegall Place)

Celebrating a Light in the Darkness —49 AU Magazine—

The Redneck Manifesto

Words by Nay McArdle

“I had one of those when I was at school!” If I’d known Neil O’Connor would be so taken with my Irish Public Service notepad I would have brought one extra. We debate bringing the green book back as guitarist Matthew Bolger’s ready chuckles completely disarm my interview nerves. There’s so much to discuss: six years on from I Am Brazil, The Redneck Manifesto are back in town with a new album. It’s a beautiful thing: it’s called Friendship.

Four years in the making and spanning a continental divide, the new album is the strongest yet. “It’s great to play together; we’re really excited again after such a long pause because we’ve been so separated,” says an animated Matthew Bolger. “You see, I live in Sweden now and Neil [keys] lives in San Francisco. The others are in Dublin.”

The Redneck Manifesto are often described as posthardcore and post-rock. What does it sound like to them?

“I don’t think it has a label – it really doesn’t sound the same as any other band,” says Neil. “It’s actually something different.”

Reunited last August, the Rednecks returned to the Black Box Studios in France with Dave Odlum. “The studio’s so beautiful. It’s a cottage outside Paris, filled with old analogue gear, beautiful stuff with a history of Curtis Mayfield and Tina Turner. Everything was shipped over from Chicago by a guy called Cian Moore who just died recently – he was inspired by the beautiful surroundings.

“I think it’s lost its label,” says Matthew. “It’s not hardcore anymore, it’s completely different. Instrumental is the only comparison you can make. We’ve definitely got our own sound – our solo projects and the music we listen to is completely different so it really is like five individuals coming together to make good music. It’s danceable. It’s not post-rock, which is for sitting in your room looking out the window rather than going to a gig. Our live gigs will totally wear you out.”

“We recorded over 10 days, moved into the cottage and made food together; we drank together and the only thing to do was record. We’d jammed for two weeks beforehand

How do they feel about being described as a major influence on newer Irish bands, the likes of And So I Watch You From Afar and Enemies? “There are some

Richter Collective have strong connections in Japan.

Does an eastern tour beckon? “We’re 80% sure that we’ll be going to Japan this year or early next year” says Neil.

“Because we’ve already done Europe and America, Japan will be the last missing piece of our puzzle,” Matthew replies. “We’re going to be in tour heaven being in Japan.

It would be a mad experience for any band at all, amazing.

I love touring so much; I could do it every day.”

“The tours we did were really fun, you really feel how good it is to be in a band and not everyone has that experience,” Neil agrees. “Walking into new places and going back to houses is really nice.”

The independent route brings its own rewards, but it’s hardly a New York Hilton lifestyle, we venture… “No, it’s not,” says Matthew instantly. “The music that gets you on a corporate level is just a rush from one place to another. It’s horrible, you don’t experience where you go. We went to all

“We live in different places and come together to do gigs. That’s why we called the album Friendship.” and were completely focused compared to the last time when we recorded I Am Brazil. Back then, we used to play table tennis so it would improve our concentration, and I was writing my masters thesis and doing college work while recording. This time it was just bang, bang, knock it out – you can really hear it in the record. Have a listen to it. It sounds kind of exciting. It’s probably the best thing we have ever recorded.

bands who sound like they’ve got the same influences as we had,” says Matthew. “We take our music very seriously, we play it, record and replay it, sell it. For people to be influenced by that in the form of their own band is amazing. I hope they are; it would be nice to pass something on. You know, in 20, 30, 40, 50 years, maybe someone’s going to pick it up when we’re gone. There’s loads of music left.”

“Neil has definitely brought in more electronics since I Am Brazil,” continues Matthew. “It used to be mostly drums, guitars and bass, but now it’s more layered to equal out the sound of guitars. We used to listen to a lot of dance music and we’re trying to bring that into the world, more so than it is already.”

“Once the entity is there, it will exist forever,” agrees Neil, and it feels like only the band themselves are truly aware of the beast that they have created. And it is formidable – after 12 years together, the fanbase is loyal and strong.

Signing to Dublin label the Richter Collective means a fresh connection to the local independent scene the Rednecks know so well. How much has changed?

The furthest from home geographically, Neil O’Connor’s solo work as Somadrone has bled into the Rednecks’ sound, delivering an expansive, pliant use of synths.

“We’ve all got synthesisers and drum machines so it’s really easy to record set-ups.” he says. ”We’ll have a guitar idea and communicate to each other on its demo. I know the sounds the other guys go for, even the tones and program settings, but we’re not a technical band. We can talk openly and get a point across but we don’t sit down and talk about what kind of songs we’re going to play. It’s not geeky and that’s what makes us different from other instrumental bands. ” —50 issue 64—

“We’re really interested in what Richter are doing and we’re so excited about joining the label,” says Matthew, who played guitar in Dublin hardcore band The Waltons during the Nineties. “There were a lot more record labels back in the day with more passion about helping new bands. It was hard work. There were pirate radio stations and a lot more gigs. Now obviously the Internet has made it a lot easier than walking around in the freezing cold slapping up posters everywhere – for less work you can reach more people. The whole point is to get people hearing our music.”

these crazy places in America, then we went to European places like Italy and we’d usually go to a little café rather than being pushed in a hotel to watch television.”

The Redneck Manifesto have just returned from South By Southwest in Austin, Texas, where you imagine their name went down well. Where did it come from – the sociology book with the same title? “Ah, I got a taxi once and the driver was really excited about what he thought were real rednecks playing in Dublin!” remembers Matthew. “The name means absolutely nothing. If we could just exist with no name, we definitely would. The name doesn’t affect the music but it does kind of give a history of what we used to be into; hardcore candy for your ears. We don’t have a manifesto.”

“I think as you get older, you really appreciate music more,” Neil muses. “The Redneck Manifesto is all about the music now. Our viewpoints are completely different but we don’t discuss non-music stuff and there’s no agenda, no goals other than to put out more music. I don’t think the band will ever break up as it doesn’t even seem like a band.

We just come together to do gigs. I think that’s one of the reasons why we called the record Friendship.”

FRIENDSHIP IS OUT NOW ON THE RICHTER COLLECTIVE. WWW.MYSPACE.COM/REDNECKMANIFESTO

L A R E N E G SCO FIA

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Takin

—52 issue 64—

Jones enport rancis av s by: F : Carrie D d r o y W graph Photo

General Fiasco - Taking Nothing For Granted

From the outset, General Fiasco have been considered Northern Irish music’s ‘boys most likely to’.

To the outsider, their existence seems to have been a blessed one, with the trio gathering management, a label, high-profile tour supports and fans as other young bands accumulate only disappointments. The reality, however, is somewhat different…

“I’d get in from school and just crash in front of the television and watch music videos – Weezer, or Jimmy Eat World.

Those were the first acts that I really got into. Everything about them seemed cool, the things they wrote about, their attitude, the way they looked.” Owen Strathern, frontman with General Fiasco, is casting his mind back – not too far mind – and recalling what first piqued his interest to the possibility of becoming a musician. He, and his band mates – brother Enda (guitar) and Stephen ‘Leaky’ Leacock (drums) have come an exceptionally long way from those idle evenings plonked in front of MTV2.

In fact, you’re now as likely to see the video for General Fiasco’s latest single ‘Ever So Shy’ on a music channel as you are to catch a promo for Weezer.

“It’s definitely a bit strange,” muses Owen, when he considers that he is now, effectively, following the trail of his heroes. The path to this point began with Owen’s previous band, The Tides.

They were the inaugural winners of BBC NI Across The Line’s Rock School back in 2006.

Bassist Owen greeted their victory with blithe nonchalance. His attitude, when informed of their prize, could have come straight from the Liam Gallagher handbook. Soon, however, the fizz would go out of the band and Owen would be looking for a new musical project.

about the band’s achievements. Be it playing the Reading and Leeds festivals, supporting Snow Patrol at the Odyssey Arena, or headlining their own show at the Ulster Hall – as they did Halloween past – General Fiasco appreciate the value of everything they’ve experienced.

“Being a musician is like every other occupation – you start at the bottom and through a lot of hard graft you eventually move up in people’s estimation and consciousness. You have to try and work things up, make sure that everything leads onto something better. It’s a slow process, we’re by no means living in the lap of luxury, but certainly it’s getting easier. The shows get bigger and every single seems to be greeted by a better response and reach more people. It’s those little things that please you, the first time you hear your song on the radio and a DJ backs it. We just played SXSW and it’s great that simply by being in this band and by playing music we can be transported all about the world.”

The band will be getting plenty more use out of their passports in the coming months as they fervently push debut album Buildings. Recorded with Neal Calderwood at Manor Park Studios, the album has been some time in the creating, with the band slowly gathering material over the past two years.

It was a process Owen describes as organic and unforced. In part, the title alludes to their ‘softly, softly, catchy monkey’ approach.

“All the songs document the way in which things develop and build, how you can let a little problem, or something that was worrying you, mushroom into something much greater. You

“It doesn’t bother us. After all, it’s only an individual’s opinion. It’s an easy comparison to make and we do both write guitar-based, punk-pop type of songs. If people get into us because of the Ash comparison, well, that’s great. I hope, though, that people will listen to the album and make their own minds up.”

The music press have certainly been making their own minds up about Buildings and the responses have been mixed, to say the least. There has been effusive praise from some quarters, savage kickings from others – namely, the NME and BBC online. However, rather than sitting quietly and licking their wounds, General Fiasco are savvy enough to know that the slings and arrows of outrageous reviews are to be expected in their position and that you just have to build that bridge and get over it.

“You come to realise that not everyone is going to like you.

You learn to deal with it. It’s easy for someone to write what they do and then they think you’re just going to have to sit back and take it. But, that’s all fine, it’s part of what we do.

You’ve got to keep level-headed about it all, no matter what press you get. We do that by giving each other a hard time.

That usually helps keep our feet on the ground.”

Indeed, so focused are they that already attention is turning to album number two. “It’s the next thing on the agenda once we finish touring this album,” confirms Owen. “We definitely don’t want to make the same album again, but, at the same time we don’t want to alienate the people who’ve followed us this far and do a total about-face. All I can say for sure, though, is that we’ll try and stay true to ourselves.”

“You’ve got to keep level-headed about it all, no matter what press you get. We do that by giving each other a hard time.”

That something new was General Fiasco. The band formed back in late 2007 and by the first half of 2008 they had broken practice room cover and pitched themselves into live performance. Almost instantly they had garnered a rabid fan base and industry folk were crowding in close and licking their lips at the prospect of this succulent young meat. However, the band played it serene. Owen, perhaps chastened by his previous experience with The Tides, was determined not to push it; to take things increment by careful increment.

“Initially, General Fiasco was something we did for fun,” he says. “Gradually, though, one thing led to another, one break to the next. At that point you begin to think about things more seriously. Every time that something good happens, it gets that bit more exciting and we just kept pushing it on.

Certainly there was no reason to stop doing it.”

Certainly not. As Owen relates, each success only spurred the band on, gave them added impetus and tightened the screw on their sense of determination. It is this work ethic, as much as their talent, which has facilitated the Magherafelt three-piece’s success. Like the proverbial swan, their smooth surface glide is only possible because of the unseen effort that gives momentum and pushes them forward. It’s encouraging to hear Owen speak in such modest and unassuming terms

All work and no play would make General Fiasco dull boys. Thankfully, reading through their MySpace blog, you discover they have had plenty of opportunity to enjoy themselves whilst on tour. Before Owen goes I thought I’d ask him about some of their more colourful exploits.

For a start, would he care to explain why there’s a photo of him posing outside an establishment called Sexy Heaven in

can’t just let things go. It’s better to confront things at the very outset. The title is also a comment on the way in which we’d decided we would try and grow the band, building it slowly, releasing a single, then another, just trying to break it slow.

That’s what we’re still trying to do at the minute.”

Hamburg?

Surely, we ask, there was the temptation in those early days to try and capitalise on the initial momentum and rush an album out?

Yes, variety, like getting kicked out of a casino in Holland?

“It was difficult to keep things back,” concedes Owen. “Even putting out the singles, you wonder, ‘Will one, or two, songs be enough to entice people in and keep them interested? And there was a gap between the releases too, maybe six months between one single and the next. You question if the fans will stick around and certainly it seemed that interest waxed and waned around the releases. It was a bit inconsistent. That prompted us to consider putting the album out ourselves, but the opportunity to do it with Infectious made a lot more sense and has proven to be the right decision.”

Being from Northern Ireland and being signed to Infectious Records has been cause enough for some critics to draw comparisons between General Fiasco and Ash – the Downpatrick trio were also once signed to the label’s roster.

You’d think that the constant drawing of parallels would be an irritant, but Owen seems unflustered by it all.

“I think that you crash into those sorts of incidents every now and again,” splutters Owen. “It’s part of it all. It’s nice to have a bit of variety, I guess!”

“Hmmm… I’m not sure about this; I wasn’t there, it wasn’t me,” pleads Owen. We sense that Owen’s not keen to elaborate on the band’s more dubious on-tour hi-jinks, but he does talk of how important their experiences on tour and supporting other acts have been in feeding the band’s ambitions.

“With some of the support slots, we’ve been in a position to observe how other bands live, how they travel and tour. You think, ‘That’s what I want’. It would be great to get to the stage where you’re playing to, say, 2000 people every night and each and every one of them is going bananas. That’s our ambition, to keep working to make something bigger and better for General Fiasco.”

BUILDINGS IS OUT NOW ON INFECTIOUS RECORDS WWW.GENERALFIASCO.CO.UK

—53 AU Magazine—

Chew Lips

Kiss with a fist

KISS WITH A FIST Words by John Freeman

A year ago, the Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ stunning It’s Blitz! reset the dial for synthdrenched, cutting-edge pop. 12 months later and the release of Unicorn – the dark, edgy debut album from London trio Chew Lips – has sent further shockwaves through the electro-pop world. AU heads to the Big Smoke to sample some of the fuss; and takes a first tentative step into ‘Tigsworld’.

AU is sat in a café in the East End of London with twothirds of Chew Lips – singer Alicia Huertas-Tigs (known simply as Tigs) and multi-instrumentalist James Watkins.

The establishment describes itself as a ‘caff’, but any resemblance to Ian Beale’s Albert Square greasy spoon has long been washed away by a tide of gentrification. This is a place that sells mushrooms on toast for £8.50. Admittedly they are ‘wild’ mushrooms, and that makes all the difference. Tigs had pre-warned us about the vast costs and poor service, but she herself turns out to be a cheap date.

She orders only a cup of tea (with soya milk), and permits herself only the merest sniff of James’ Welsh rarebit.

When the interview starts, AU asks a seemingly benign question – something about how the band members (Will Sanderson makes up the trio) finally decided to form Chew Lips. As is to become the norm over our 90-minute chat, Tigs dives in to answer. “James would come round the house, and I’d say, ‘Do you want to do something musical together?’ and he’d say no. And then he came to see me do an acoustic performance and he suddenly said, ‘Do you wanna be in a band?’.” She pauses for dramatic effect, and eyes James. “You wanted it,” she giggles.

James seems to have a slightly different memory of the momentous occasion. “You were just like some little witch in the corner, telling everyone to shut up.”

“I fucking wasn’t.”

“Pretty much like now,” James concludes.

“I had the voice of a fucking angel,” protests Tigs, before turning to AU. “I haven’t sworn in this interview yet, have I?” Two minutes in; so much for asking a simple question.

The half-Spanish Tigs is a whirlwind. She arrives a few minutes after James, even though she lives closest to the ‘caff’, blaming only a basic grasp of the geography of her ‘patch’. She’s stunning in the flesh, and has a magnetic narcissism that is hard to resist. A self-confessed show-off,

—54 issue 64—

she’s every inch the iconic pop star – even on a freezing Tuesday lunchtime.

She and Watkins playfully bicker throughout the interview; they act like a brother and sister who annoy and adore each other in equal measure. Tigs fields most of the questions, leaving James plotting how to get a word in. Mostly, he’s left to roll his eyes behind his curly fringe, seemingly reluctant to accept his passive interviewee role.

Prior to Chew Lips, all three were in “shit indie bands”.

Tigs had a recording contract with Polydor as a solo artist, and released an album produced by Flood. She’s not particularly forthcoming about that period of her life, preferring to indulge in some more James-baiting. “James’ first band was an acid-jazz band called Astrocat! With an exclamation mark,” she teases.

“Shut up!” hisses James. “I was a child – there were lots of bands, but the reason no one heard them is that they weren’t very good.”

Having formed in 2008, the trio apparently wrote 10 songs in their first practice session. “We could write them quicker than we could name them. [Album opener] ‘Eight’ was the eighth one,” says James. Last year, they released two excellent singles (‘Solo’ and ‘Salt Air’) on the tastemaker label extraordinaire, Kitsuné.

Interestingly, neither single appears on the album, which could be construed as a decision borne out of great confidence. Tigs explains that the reason is more straightforward: the band have moved on. “We don’t want to be negative about those songs, as they got us where we are, but they do feel like quite a long time ago. Something like ‘Solo’ is really yearning, adolescent stuff. Then you grow up a bit, and find a producer and make a proper record.”

Produced by Bat For Lashes collaborator David Kosten, Unicorn is a wonderful debut – 10 perfectly honed

—55 AU Magazine—

Chew Lips

Kiss with a fist

“I WAS GOING TO STAB A JOURNALIST WITH A FROZEN TURD THROUGH THE EYE.”

electronic pop songs. It owes more to the essence of Joy Division than the sheen of Little Boots, as James explains.

“Maybe we are influenced by Eighties aspects, but it’s darker. That dark industrial thing that was going on, we’re more into that terrifying-sounding synth, rather than happy Eighties pop records.”

Having spent the last year having to explain the genesis of the Chew Lips sound, Tigs seems fed up by the constant journalistic search for the band’s influences. “I may be being totally blind here, but I don’t see a specific influence from other bands. But when we get asked to describe our sound, I say it’s ‘future classic pop’, because we’ve endeavoured to make a record that sonically is of its time, but also quite classic and that will be sampled in 20 years’ time. That’s how we feel about the artists we like and we’d like to continue that.”

Inevitably, we talk about the densely populated electropop field. Chew Lips display frustration with lazy comparisons, which seem to hinge on Tigs’ current choice of hair-dye. “Most people say, ‘So, you’re influenced by Blondie’ when I’m blonde, and when I’m dark they say we’re Karen O-influenced.” Sinead O’Connor rarely had such problems.

The Chew Lips songwriting process involves Tigs providing the lyrics and melody, while James and Will do the “weird sounds”. “Sometimes it comes from all of us being in a room. Less so recently,” says James. “We like each other less than we used to,” Tigs adds, and AU is not sure how much she is joking.

After Tigs gets distracted by the remaining crusts from AU’s sandwich (“You are not going to be able to see in the dark. Or is it curly hair? What’s the crust thing?”), we’re quickly back on conversational track, as James and Tigs describe their increasing excitement about Chew Lips, particularly now that the album is out. “It feels like we are a real band in people’s eyes now, instead of an idea,” remarks James. Tigs, meanwhile, is extremely proud of Unicorn, “I think it’s got a depth, and it can be a properly engaging, meaningful record.”

Although 2010 has started brightly for Chew Lips, their career so far has seen them endure the kind of turbulent ride typical for a band on the brink of success. Tigs, in particular, has struggled with the lack of stability. “It’s like a rollercoaster,” she says. “We opened for The Killers in —56 issue 64—

Hyde Park which was shooting way above our station. It was an amazing gig for us to get – us, Passion Pit, Howling Bells, The Kooks and The Killers. It was insane. We did that, in front of lots of people. Next day, we played Glastonbury in front of two people. That was the single most depressing gig of the whole summer. I cried before it, I cried afterwards – I was broken.”

review – which is a shame, as virtually all (including ours) have been gushing with praise. “I know I couldn’t take a bad one, so I can’t read the good ones,” Tigs explains.

“There has been one, not for the album, that wasn’t even a bad review. It was a guy who said. ‘Yeah, they’re alright’ when we hadn’t even put a single out. I just lay awake all night thinking of ways to hurt him – I couldn’t take it.”

AU witnesses their rollercoaster existence a couple of weeks after our café rendez-vous. We catch up with the band on their final date of a short UK tour; they’re headlining a mini-festival in a vast student bar in Manchester. Pre-gig the band are buoyant; they’ve played a number of sold out shows and, with Unicorn becoming available mid-tour, have witnessed fans singing along to the album tracks. “It’s been a massive shock and really exciting for us,” Tigs admits, sipping her vodka and orange. “When you’re in Cardiff on a really wet Monday night, and people come to see you, it touches your heart.”

“Didn’t you decide how you were gonna kill him?” James asks, with a chilling calmness.

That’s lovely stuff, but after schlepping down the motorways from Glasgow to Southampton, James has come to an important sociological conclusion. “The general thing we’ve noticed is the further north you go, the less clothes people wear – whereas in London people just spend their time trying to find posh vegetarian cafés.” AU resolves to check out more gigs in John O’Groats.

Unfortunately, the Manchester show is a letdown. After an eight-hour line-up, delays begin to appear in set times and changeovers, and Chew Lips finally come on stage at 1.10 am in front of a severely diminished crowd. They are consummate professionals, though, and proceed to put on a live spectacle that blows the previous queue of indie ladrock bands into oblivion.

Shadowboxing and strutting the stage, Tigs is captivating, while James and Will hammer their keyboards as if their lives depend on it. Both ‘Karen’ and a wonderfully dramatic ‘Gold Key’ allow Tigs to fully flex her vocal chords. It’s a performance that demands attention.

Post-gig, as they meet and greet a few fans, the band are visibly disappointed at how the tour has ended. AU gives Tigs a hug (hey, we’re all heart) when she admits to finding the night “pretty traumatic”. Life at the pop coalface can be hard.

Reviews are another other source of angst for Tigs. She’s previously claimed she would never read a Chew Lips

“I did, but it’s really a bit weird. I was going to stab him with a frozen turd through the eye. It would have to be sharp; like, tapered. That’s how I decided I was going to do it. Anyway, that was the moment I knew I couldn’t read reviews.” AU is never usually lost for words, but during our ensuing silence we resolve to only ever refer to the band as ‘the brilliantly awesome Chew Lips’. Pointy poo scares us.

At the time of the Manchester gig, Unicorn is in its first week of release, and talk turns to potential chart placings.

Obviously, Chew Lips are way too cool to be bothered about how high the album enters the Top 40, but Tigs does seem particularly eager to beat one furry ‘band’; step forward Alvin and the Chipmunks. “Who is buying it?” she demands to know, fire in her eyes. “What really gets me is it’s not ‘Alvin and the Chipmunks’ – it doesn’t work.

Alvin IS a fucking chipmunk, so it should be ‘Alvin and the Other Chipmunks’.”

We all agree that she’s very right, before James really pushes his luck with the singer. “It’s like the relationship in our band. You’re Alvin and we’re the Chipmunks.”

“I don’t get that,” Tigs reflects, momentarily flummoxed.

The subsequent chart confirms AU’s worst fear – toddlerpower has won the day, with the Alvin and the Chipmunks album crashing into the Top Ten. We hope the news doesn’t cause Tigs to lose too much sleep, or Alvin might need to watch out for some icy shite.

UNICORN IS OUT NOW ON KITSUNÉ WWW.CHEWLIPS.CO.UK

NEW ‘N’ IMPROVED WEBSITE If you go down to iheartau. com today, you’re in for a big surprise. Yep, our little old website has had a sexy new revamp, making it nicer to look at, easier to use and more in keeping with the fine magazine you’re currently reading.

As well as providing you with top-notch eye candy, you can expect all this: NEWS// The latest local, regional and international music news BLOG// Free downloads, brand new videos and anything else that tickles our (and your) fancy REVIEWS// Loads of web-exclusive album and gig reviews, plus the best of the mag ARTICLES// Fresh interviews with your favourite acts, and plenty of archive goodness GIG GUIDE// Stay up-to-date with the best upcoming gigs in your area SHOP// Get yer subscription here!

—57 AU Magazine—

Reviews

Caribou – Swim

pg 58 Record Reviews | pg 64 Live Reviews |pg 65 Unsigned Universe

Illustration by Mark Reihill WWW.MARKREIHILL.COM

Caribou Swim CITY SLANG

one, for Swim is an album that ebbs and flows majestically.

In places it has the character of a gentle mountain stream, immersing us in tender ripples of electronica. Often, however, it assumes crushing, tsunami-like power as the beats crash in, wave after decimating wave.

Caribou is an act in perpetual motion, sloughing off dead ideas as it continues to tumble through an ever-expanding cosmos of sounds. Dan Snaith is the, ahem, master of this particular universe and a music geek in the very best sense of the word. You suspect that his recording den is stacked with more ‘wonderful toys’ than the Batcave.

Latest opus Swim finds our man navigating away from the pop psychedelia of immediate predecessor Andorra and the more schizophrenic delights of the earlier The Milk Of Human Kindness towards an isle of rave-kissed glories.

It is essentially a work of momentum, no surprise given Snaith’s affection for percussion – Caribou use two drummers in the live environment – and pushes off with powerful intent. Barely-there vocals trail like ghostly ectoplasm behind the shudder and twist throb of ‘Odessa’, cowbell clanging maniacally. Rather incongruously, the song seems to detail a woman preparing to leave a dysfunctional relationship. ‘Sun’ pulses hypnotically, a runaway train whose boiler room is stoked by shovelfuls of impetuous beats. Jazz lunatic parps of brass – or is that a kettle whistling? – gatecrash ‘Kaila’, whilst ‘Found Out’ summons a sense of dread through deadened voice, sweltering licks of guitar, spiralling keys and killer-on-thestair thump.

The feel of the record was inspired, at least in part, by Snaith taking up swimming – his wife bought him lessons for Christmas. He reportedly “got excited by the idea of making dance music that’s liquid in the way it flows back and forth, the sounds slosh… Dance music that sounds like it’s made out of water.” The liquid metaphor is an apposite

Centrepiece ‘Bowls’ brings house keys and hailstoneson-sheet-iron pitter-patter to surprisingly pleasing ends, whilst ‘Leave House’ makes the most convincing case since Ron Burgundy for the sexiness of the flute and closer ‘Jamelia’ – sadly not an ode to the Brit R&B songstress – benefits from the helium-tinged yelps of

—58 issue 64—

Born Ruffians’ Luke Lalonde. However, it is ‘Hannibal’ that really butters our scone. It thrusts ever skywards, propelled by a phalanx of horns – courtesy of a free-jazz quartet Snaith met when he was performing at 2009’s Flaming Lips-curated All Tomorrow’s Parties in New York. It is a musical Tower of Babel, a work of man-made majesty that pierces the heavens.

In 2009, Animal Collective began to be initiated into the mainstream and receive the widespread recognition that they were long overdue with Merriweather Post Pavilion.

Perhaps 2010 can be the year that Snaith receives the due credit his continual years of invention deserve. For whilst maintaining the inherently psychedelic mindset that has been evident since his days trading as Manitoba, Snaith has here delivered a bold and awing album, one chock-full of wide-eyed cosmic epiphanies, but which has a physical power to it, wresting us out of our seats and towards the dancefloor. In short, Swim is the real, right thing. Francis Jones

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 DOWNLOAD: ‘ODESSA’, ‘FOUND OUT’, ‘HANNIBAL’.

FOR FANS OF: FOUR TET, ANIMAL COLLECTIVE, HOLY FUCK.

Albums

General Fiasco Buildings INFECTIOUS

On first inspection, General Fiasco looked too clean-cut, blemish free and without sin to be worth even that initial glance. We wanted to see a little dirt under the fingernails, not manicured indie-pop. Suspicions were first roused by early single ‘Rebel Get By’. Its play-it-by-numbers plod suggested the trio had little different to offer than the countless forgotten bands currently occupying a plot in the indie graveyard. Somehow, though, if they haven’t quite come up smelling of roses, their debut album does enough to stave off the whiff of decomposition.

Their melodic points, though straightforward, are sharply made – they have a punk-pop exuberance that begs comparison to the fledgling Ash. Owen Strathern has a gorgeous lilt to his rousing vocals, brother Enda makes sure the guitar swaggers in all the right places and Stephen Leacock’s drumming is best described as hellacious.

Curiously, to these ears, the singles prove the least inspired offerings. ‘We Are The Foolish’ and ‘Ever So Shy’ sound dumbly anthemic, with big, obvious sentiments for hormonecrazed teens – from whom the band draw a sizeable proportion of their support – to cling onto. That may sound condescending, but it’s also more than a little true. However, Buildings is not an album constructed solely on songs of innocence. There are songs of experience too and evidence that General Fiasco are growing with steroidal haste.

Spread over a luxurious six minutes, the title track – replete with svelte strings – tilts at the epic, ‘I’m Not Made Of Eyes’ casts aside bravado to revel in vulnerability, whilst ‘Talk To My Friends’ and ‘Dancing With Girls’ make for a supercharged late combination. Whilst you suspect that Buildings will earn little by way of critical accolades, there is an all-inclusivity to it that could see General Fiasco reap the commercial whirlwind. At least in the short term. Whether there is enough by way of imagination and character to see them become key players and reach a third act remains to be seen. Francis Jones

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 DOWNLOAD: ‘BUILDINGS’, ‘I’M NOT MADE OF EYES’, ‘DANCING WITH GIRLS’.

FOR FANS OF: ASH, BIFFY CLYRO, THE ENEMY.

Ted Leo And The Pharmacists The Brutalist Bricks MATADOR

Back in the day, they used to call this punk rock. Now, admittedly, it’s not very angsty, the guitars aren’t really that heavy (and they don’t do any of that complicated stuff), and there are no lyrics sung in a snotty, over-done voice about hating your parents or something.

Instead, we have 13 tracks which tackle life, love and politics with wit and charm. Yes, Ted Leo is pissed off, but he also knows how to do something about it. Much like Ian MacKaye did in Fugazi, Ted Leo has a knack for acting like some kind of moral conscience, without lapsing into preaching. This is fun, and it’s important.

Prins Thomas Prins Thomas FULL PUPP

Believe it or not, this is Prins Thomas’s debut album.

Though he has become almost ubiquitous as a producer (he claims to remix 40 or 50 tracks for each one he produces), and renowned for his space-disco collaborations with his cosmic chum and fellow Norwegian beardo Lindstrøm, he has only now gotten around to his first long-player, a gloriously wigged-out slab of maximalist Kraut-inspired disco (yes, you read that correctly - Kraut-inspired disco) on Full Pupp.

There are ample warning signs of the record being an exercise in self-indulgence or pastiche. With its bearded Norwegian bloke cover-image, extended track lengths, tongue-in-cheek German song titles like ‘Sauerkraut’ and the fact that, yeah you guessed it, Lindstrøm plays solo clarinet on at least one track, it’s practically begging for a wedgie. Yet, after an hour in its company, you realise that that the Krautrock influence is just one facet of what’s going on, that Thomas has soaked up influences like a sponge during his remixing day-job and redeployed them brilliantly, and that the whole album is monstrously fantastic from start to finish. Darragh McCausland

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 DOWNLOAD: ‘UGGEBUGG’, ‘WENDY NOT WALTER’.

FOR FANS OF: MANUEL GOTTSCHING, NEU!, GIORGIO MORODER.

Dan Le Sac Vs Scroobius Pip The Logic Of Chance SUNDAY BEST

“I write more quotes than a fuckin’ big book of quotes,” declares beardy verbose rapper type Scroobius Pip on album opener ‘Sick Tonight’ He’s right too, as the The Logic of Chance is bursting at the seams with pithy oneliners and powerful rhymes, especially on ‘Get Better’ and ‘Great Britain’. Yeah, there’s nothing on the record that rivals ‘Thou Shalt Not Kill’, but the inclusion of US singer KiD on ‘Cauliflower’ and a healthy dollop of dry humour throughout makes it a fun and informative listen. In short, if you’re into books and hooks, Le Sac Vs Pip is your bag.

Edwin McFee

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 DOWNLOAD: ‘SICK TONIGHT, ‘GET BETTER,’ ‘FIVE MINUTES’.

FOR FANS OF: MOS DEF, BLAKROC, ABDOMINAL.

Allroh Hag Dec BIG PRINT

Sure, it might not be as good an album as Hearts Of Oak but hey, that album was damn near a masterpiece, and you can’t blame the guy for trying. As he sings himself, “I still want to be guided by your expert hands, I want to lay your expert hands on me.” Steven Rainey

When an album comes dripping with the praise of Steve Albini, you know you’re in for a challenging listen. So it proves with Hag Dec, which consists entirely of fractured, obtuse riffing on a single guitar, accompanied by the unintelligible mumbles and wails of Anne Rolfs. It’s not the directionless mess it first appears: once the listener becomes acclimatised to Rolfs’ angular style, her guitar playing emerges as fiercely intelligent and – a rarity – genuinely innovative. Despite this, the dearth of recognisable rhythm or melody to draw the listener past its awkward façade renders this record rather unappealing. Lee Gorman

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

DOWNLOAD: ‘MOURNING IN AMERICA’, ‘ONE POLAROID A DAY’.

FOR FANS OF: FUGAZI, ELVIS COSTELLO, JOE JACKSON.

DOWNLOAD: ‘MET ALL’.

FOR FANS OF: U.S. MAPLE, BARKMARKET, FLY PAN AM.

The Black Swan Effect Admission REAL WORLD

Featuring half of Nineties retro goons Reef alongside Ronnie Wood’s bass playing son, listening to The Black Swan Effect seemed like an unwelcome and potentially irritating prospect. Fortunately this vehicle is driven by the compelling Gareth Hale, a man who could have been a big deal in 1995. You see, Admission takes its cue from angst rock classics Grace and The Bends, and although nowhere near that standard, its aspirations are admirable. ‘Rat In A Cage’ and ‘In The City’ are both pounding and wickedly insistent slabs of the moody falsetto and choppy guitar variety. Only the final track ‘Please’ really disappoints, its bongos and acoustic campfire schtick unfortunately reminiscent of The Kooks. Don’t let that put you off, though, as for the most part this is an album with plenty of heart and energy. Gerard McCann

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 DOWNLOAD: ‘FALLING DOWN’, ‘IN THE CITY’, ‘WINTER SUN’.

FOR FANS OF: JEFF BUCKLEY, EARLY RADIOHEAD, DOVES.

New Young Pony Club The Optimist THE NUMBERS

Anyone who comes to The Optimist expecting the NYPC of 2006 will be sorely disappointed. This is the NEW New Young Pony Club. Gone are the pouty double entendre’d vocals, gone is the four-to-the-floor beat and gratuitous cowbell. In their place, though, is something far more interesting. Self-funded and self-released, The Optimist shows a darker side of NYPC. Lead singer Ty’s vocals have left the realm of vox-pop pillow talk, and instead showcase her almost baritone range, not least on tracks such as the eponymous ‘The Optimist’. Elsewhere, the group isn’t afraid to take risks, as the atonal opening to ‘Rapture’ shows. Less optimistic, more realistic, it’s a grown-up record, and proud to be so. Ailbhe Malone

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 DOWNLOAD: ‘LOST A GIRL’, ‘RAPTURE’.

FOR FANS OF: NEW ORDER, THE BRAVERY.

Peggy Sue Fossils And Other Phantoms WICHITA

After releasing a number of high-quality EPs over the last 18 months, Brighton’s Peggy Sue now unleash their debut album of 11 brand new tracks. And it is glorious. Singersongwriters Rosa Slade and Katy Young have enlisted Olly Joyce on drums to further beef up their acerbic folk-rock.

Tales of failed relationships, doomed love and betrayal are played out through Slade and Young’s riveting harmonies and Joyce’s garrulous percussion. ‘Yo Mama’ has Slade threatening to “go downtown and find myself someone else” amid a crash of guitars and distant accordion, while lead single ‘Watchman’ is a brooding put-down evoking Polly Jean Harvey on bilious form. Raw, painfully honest and brimming with self-conscious talent, Fossils And Other Phantoms is a bittersweet folk classic. John Freeman

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 DOWNLOAD: ‘WATCHMAN’, ‘THE REMAINDER’, ‘YO MAMA’.

FOR FANS OF: PJ HARVEY, THE JESSIE ROSE TRIP, KRISTIN HERSH. —59 AU Magazine—

Reviews

The Redneck Manifesto Friendship RICHTER COLLECTIVE

Four years in the making, elaborating on the questions raised on their past three albums, in Friendship we hear what the Rednecks can do with time on their side. Leading on from the reassuringly savage build of opening track ‘Black Apple’, ‘Smile More’ leaps into Matthew Bolger and Niall Byrne’s customary, unsurpassable guitar leads. Though cushioned with delicate bass and a ready, tribal beat, the endearinglytitled fourth track ‘Little Nose’ kicks into a fast, invigorating number calling on the band’s reserves of hardcore rock, while ‘Tomb Of The Dudes’ is a slower track, the chirping guitars interjected with rising synthesisers, leading into the more expansive patterns of ‘Hex’. Later, ‘Rubber Up’ and ‘Weird Waters’ expand the symbiosis of electronic and analogue, before leading to the sublime refrain of ‘Click’ with its immaculate timing, once again uniting the rhythm and melody sections with synthetic polish. After the long years’ wait, ‘Cloud Beard’s goodbye is slightly downbeat, levelling off the massive generation of sonic energy.

There is a hint of Krautrock in the Rednecks’ steady show of expertise, whereby they fill the passing seconds with intricacy in order to stretch the minutes to the limit. Meanwhile, the electronic touches mark the evolution of the band like new, green shoots. Familiar and yet freshly exciting, Friendship is TRM’s finest work to date. Nay McArdle

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 DOWNLOAD: ‘LITTLE NOSE’, ‘WEIRD WATERS’, ‘CLICK’.

FOR FANS OF: THE JIMMY CAKE, MAPS AND ATLASES.

Bonobo Black Sands NINJA TUNE

Simon Green’s fourth album under the Bonobo moniker sees him further refine his particular style of lush, trippedout electronica. It’s by and large a complete treat, thanks in no small part to the sultry vocals of Andreya Triana on three tracks, the best of which is the dubstep-inflected ‘Eyesdown’. Even better is ‘Animals’, which weaves a mellow clarinet motif over breakbeat and guitar, before shifting gears midway through to finish as a soothing downtempo number. Perhaps best of all is the closing title track, wherein a mournful acoustic guitar motif is slowly augmented with more clarinet and a stirring brass section, the cumulative effect of which is downright moving.

Adventurous and accomplished stuff. Neill Dougan

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 DOWNLOAD: ‘EYESDOWN’, ‘BLACK SANDS’, ‘ANIMALS’.

FOR FANS OF: CINEMATIC ORCHESTRA, FUNKI PORCINI.

John, Shelly & The Creatures Dinosaur SELF-RELEASED

You may already have happened across ‘Long May You Reign’ - “As heard on the Discover Northern Ireland adverts” – and believe you have the measure of John, Shelly & The Creatures. You’d be mistaken. That song serves as fine advert fodder, but fails to advertise what this quartet are all about. They’re an altogether pricklier, more complicated and moody beast than that track lets on.

If ‘Long May You Reign’ reads like a summer’s day smile, Dinosaur is a whole actor’s handbook of facial expressions.

Across a dozen tracks they reveal their true nature, they scowl (‘Fools’), they grimace (‘Heavyweight’) and bittersweet remembrance creases their forehead (‘Marley Street’). In short, we get the whole enchilada. It’s a —60 issue 64—

multilayered record from a band with more instruments in their toolbox than Handy Andy – viola, piano, xylophone, glockenspiel, mandolin and more. If they once stepped out in crisply-ironed, folk-pop finery, now they’re prepared to come on a little bit looser; the songs are more ragged round the edges, the guitars frayed, the melodies more reflective.

‘Frost’ is deeply enchanting, building from a quiet whimper to guitar scream. With timely slivers of pedal steel, ‘Sight Of Your Chest’ sounds like a cowboy’s sad lament and ‘Fools’ is a rock ‘n’ roll gospel for the lovesick.

The Americana-tinged vocals might seem slightly incongruous from an Irish act, but they fit the broader musical temperament of the album. In this they seem to be influenced by those wayward sons of America, men with four letter names – Ryan (Adams), Mark (Everett), Jeff (Tweedy) and Evan (Dando). What’s astounding is that Dinosaur does not shrink in the shadow of such company.

Francis Jones

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 DOWNLOAD: ‘COLD WAR’, ‘SIGHT OF YOUR CHEST’, ‘MARLEY STREET’.

FOR FANS OF: BUFFALO TOM, WHISKEYTOWN, EELS.

The Chameleons What Does Anything Mean?

Basically BLUE APPLE MUSIC

There’s untold amounts of ‘Coulda been huge!’ bands out there, but how unlucky are The Chameleons? Not content with missing out on U2-sized superstardom back in the Eighties, this reissue of their 1986 classic comes at a time when it’s safe to assume that almost everyone is a bit sick of hearing music like this, almost guaranteeing a second round of being overlooked.

The Chameleons were huge in their native Manchester, specialising in BIG music, full of epic guitars and pronouncements on life, death, and the nature of the soul.

They couldn’t get arrested anywhere else, though, and had to sit back and watch whilst U2 and Echo and the Bunnymen ate all the pie, leaving none for them. And whilst the last decade saw a renaissance for this kind of music, surely that’s been and gone? If this re-issue had come out in 2004 or something, perhaps a whole new generation of people could have picked up on it, giving them a new lease of life.

As it is, it’s likely that it will reach the (small) audience that it found first time around, who probably have everything on it already. Steven Rainey

Woodpigeon Die Stadt Muzikanten

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 END OF THE ROAD

If Woodpigeon’s music was half as imaginative as their song titles, they’d be onto a great thing. Sadly, it’s not. The opening few tracks of Die Stadt Muzikanten have a strangely muffled texture, like they’ve been recorded through a very thick box, and they sound much like your grandma’s music hall record collection with an experimental edge to it. Fortunately, things get a lot better. From the fifth track onwards there’s a lively edge to the sound but, for all their experimental leanings, Woodpigeon still come across a little too much like a quirky but dull singer-songwriter collective than anything else. Odd, for an eight-member band. The beautiful, delicate harmonies of ‘Spirehouse’ nearly save the album, but not quite. James Hendicott

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 DOWNLOAD: ‘MY DENIAL IN ARGYLE’, ‘SPIREHOUSE’.

FOR FANS OF: GRIZZLY BEAR, BELLE & SEBASTIAN.

DOWNLOAD: ‘IN SHREDS’, ‘INTRIGUE IN TANGIERS’.

FOR FANS OF: U2, ECHO & THE BUNNYMEN, THE CURE.

Cancer Bats Bears, Mayors, Scraps And Bones HASSLE

If you thought that Canadian hardcore metal punks Cancer Bats couldn’t get any heavier than their second effort Hail Destroyer, then whip out your dunce’s hats now readers as Bears, Mayors, Scraps And Bones sees the shouty ones, well, shout a wee bit louder than before. Featuring a tighter sound, a vocal style that’s as intense as a parent/ teacher meeting with Henry Rollins and a ‘did they really just do that?’ cover of the Beastie Boys’ ‘Sabotage’, the record offers plenty of sonic scraps to sate the thirst of even the most rabid Cancer Bats fan. Edwin McFee

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Walls Walls KOMPAKT

Kompakt is well known as a stable of big-name techno and house DJs with a slightly poppy aesthetic. What it is slightly less well known for, however, is its consistent championing of adventurous ambient music, particularly on Wolfgang Voigt’s Pop Ambient anthologies. Their latest signing, the debut release by the experimental London duo Walls, serves as a timely reminder of the label’s continued relevance in its occasional leaps over the 4/4 fence.

HADES - GREG BROWN PERSEPHONE - ANI DIFRANCO ORPHEUS - JUSTIN VERNON (OF BON IVER) EURYDICE - ANAÏS MITCHELL HERMES - BEN KNOX MILLER (OF THE LOW ANTHEM) FATES - THE HADEN TRIPLETS (PETRA, RACHEL & TANYA) CHORUS - THE ORIGINAL HADESTOWN CAST MICHAEL CHORNEY - ACOUSTIC GUITAR, PREPARED GUITAR ANAÏS MITCHELL - ACOUSTIC GUITAR BEN MATCHSTICK - HARMONICA, VOICE JIM BLACK - DRUMS, PERCUSSION TODD SICKAFOOSE - BASS, PIANO, PUMP ORGAN TANYA KALMANOVITCH - VIOLA MARIKA HUGHES - CELLO JOSH ROSEMAN - TROMBONE NATE WOOLEY - TRUMPET ROB BURGER - ACCORDION, PIANO MIGUEL FRASCONI - GLASS ORCHESTRA RICH HINMAN - PEDAL STEEL BRANDON SEABROOK - 4-STRING BANJO, NOISE TAPES, ELECTRIC GUITAR JONATHAN GOLDBERGER - ELECTRIC GUITAR MIKE DILLON - VIBRAPHONE

Exploring murky waters somewhere between Fuck Button’s Street Horrrsing and Boards of Canada’s Geogaddi, Walls announces its presence with a spine-tingler of an opener called ‘Burnt Sienna’. The track does not so much begin as drift over the listener like some sad bank of ocean fog carrying forth ghostly moans, obfuscated guitar lines and a massive melancholy groove. If a better drone track comes out in 2010, hats will be slathered in HP Sauce and eaten.

The rest of the album does not scale the same heights, but it has a proper shot, engaging in weird kraut guitar-jams, shattered disco and other far-out tricks over its satisfying and adventurous course. Darragh McCausland

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 DOWNLOAD: ‘BURNT SIENNA’, ‘CYCLOPEAN REMAINS’.

FOR FANS OF: FUCK BUTTONS, BOARDS OF CANADA.

DOWNLOAD: ‘SCARED TO DEATH,’ ‘TRUST NO ONE,’ ‘SNAKE MOUNTAIN’.

FOR FANS OF: GALLOWS, ALEXISONFIRE, THE SMOKING HEARTS.

Anais Mitchell Hadestown RIGHTEOUS BABE

When a musician tries his or her hand at something genuinely different it is met with bated breath, and Anaïs Mitchell has attempted just that with Hadestown, a ‘folk opera’ retelling the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. Circled by a medley of voices including Justin Vernon (aka Bon Iver) and Ani DiFranco, the album is often beautifully ethereal, with the lullabic ‘Epic Part 1’ and ‘Wait For Me’ making Mitchell’s big ambition a fully realised one.

Although it edges too close to a bad musical in places and yes, it is pretentious, Mitchell channels something ancient here. However, she injects it with enough contemporary edge to make it stop a few steps short of epic. Lisa Hughes

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 DOWNLOAD: ‘FLOWERS (EURYDICE’S SONG), ‘WAIT FOR ME’, ‘LOVER’S DESIRE’.

FOR FANS OF: DANNY ELFMAN, JOANNA NEWSOM.

Albums

Scuba Triangulation HOTFLUSH

On his second full-length, Hotflush label boss Paul Rose steps out from behind his young charges Joy Orbison and Mount Kimbie to remind everyone who is the king of his empire. Over a debut album and a series of EPs under the Scuba name, he has positioned himself squarely at the nexus of dubstep and techno, but Triangulation is a grand leap forward, as Rose incorporates the full spectrum of bass music – and more – into an hour-long exposition of his production talents. His role in curating the hugely successful Sub:stance night at the legendary Berghain club in Berlin (where he now lives) may have something to do with this willingness to experiment with different styles, but it’s also true that as dubstep has bled into house, techno, d&b and electronica and the word itself has lost much of its meaning, so too have its leading producers have broadened their own horizons.

Scuba is surely among them.

As well as several typically deep dub-techno rollers (‘Latch’, ‘Minerals’ among them), Rose experiments with haunting, slo-mo d&b on ‘Before’ and the spine-tingling ‘So You Think You’re Special’, both of which echo Burial’s fractured soul.

At the other end of the spectrum, ‘Tracers’ and ‘On Deck’ are successful forays into brightly lit ‘funky’ à la Cooly G and latter-day Kode9 – a world away from the echoic gloom he has been associated with. No matter where on the bass landscape Rose lands, however, his pristine sound design and production genius shine through, placing Triangulation alongside Martyn’s Great Lengths, Shackleton’s Three EPs and Burial’s Untrue as one of bass music’s true triumphs. Chris Jones

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 DOWNLOAD: ‘SO YOU THINK YOU’RE SPECIAL’, ‘ON DECK’, ‘LATCH’.

FOR FANS OF: MARTYN, SHACKLETON, BURIAL.

Duke Special The Stage, A Book And The Silver Screen SELF-RELEASED

Duke Special has now assumed a vantage point where he can do whatever the buff he likes. It’s both a blessing and a curse. Most musicians would give their last pair of girls’ skinny jeans to be able to make intellectually and aurally challenging concept albums without the interference of a meddlesome record company. However, the ugly truth is that these records generally don’t sell, hence the general disdain they receive from the bigwigs. A double vinyl about the lives and loves of a French-speaking mongoose might be your muse, but it isn’t likely to pay your rent or feed your children.

One would imagine that Duke Special knows the risks.

Throughout his career he has shirked convention and sucker punched the regular way of doing things. In typically oblique style, his latest wheeze is to release a triptych of literary-minded recordings. Either sold individually or collected in a box-set, this magician’s top hat trick finds Duke indulging himself in the genres and styles towards which he previously hinted. The first and most cohesive of these is The Silent World Of Hector Mann, an elegy to Paul Auster’s silent movie actor, a tragic and elusive figure who made a dozen slapstick classics before vanishing with a wiggle of his trademark moustache.

Ably accompanied by the likes of Neil Hannon and Ed Harcourt, the Duke follows Hector’s trail, knocking out tangos, waltzes and jives. It veers a little too close to period pastiche, but it carries a melancholic mood.

Admittedly, the remaining pair will be more divisive. A grandiose performance of Brecht’s play Mother Courage, for which Duke wrote the score, won’t be to everyone’s tastes, but it is charging to see hear him being galvanised by subject matter he loves. The songs themselves are skilfully crafted, but would undoubtedly benefit from

being heard in the venue for which they were designed.

Lastly, the short but perfectly formed EP Huckleberry Finn revisits Kurt Weill’s unfinished musical based on Mark Twain’s iconic character. If fortune does favour the brave, then Duke Special deserves to be fortunate indeed. Ross Thompson

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 DOWNLOAD: ‘WANDA, DARLING OF THE JOCKEY CLUB’, ‘MISTER NOBODY’, ‘SONG OF THE HOURS’, ‘THIS TIME NEXT YEAR’, ‘SONG OF THE CATFISH’.

FOR FANS OF: NOËL COWARD, NICK CAVE, VAN DYKE PARKS.

Sounds Of System Breakdown Sounds Of System Breakdown SELF-RELEASED

Never let it be said that Dublin electro-dance-punks Sounds Of System Breakdown lack a sense of humour: the opening lines of ‘Vinegar Joe’ rhyme “the heavens are pissing” with “your widescreen TV is missing”. Add a killer riff and Rob Costello’s confident, vaguely Albarn-esque vocals and you’ve got the recipe for an irresistible opener, which sets the tone for the rest of the album – insidious guitar-and-synth hooks allied to witty lines like “You look like Yul Brynner / In the future, pills for dinner” (‘Electrolysis And Mood Enhancers’). Particularly noteworthy is skint-student-bum anthem ‘Check The Balance’ (“Bought some Tesco lager tins for 9.99/How do you all feel about drinking in the daytime?”). Catchy, clever and great fun – time to get down with the ‘Breakdown. Neill Dougan

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 DOWNLOAD: ‘VINEGAR JOE’, ‘CHECK THE BALANCE’, ‘ELECTROLYSIS AND MOOD ENHANCERS’.

FOR FANS OF: LCD SOUNDSYSTEM, JAPE.

Various Artists Boogy Bytes Vol.05 (Mixed

By Seth Troxler) BPITCH CONTROL

The fifth instalment of BPitch Control’s Boogy Bytes mixtapes sees label head Ellen Allien hand the reins over the stable gates for the first time, inviting DJ du jour Seth Troxler to take the series somewhere new. In spite of a small hiccup, Troxler emerges as an inspired choice, taking the listener on a spiralling liquid journey through the night that exists in his head, confidently progressing from the oceanic house depths of Craig Smith & The Revenge’s ‘The Soul Part II’ into increasingly remote realms of techy strangeness via Alexi Delano’s ‘Molar One’ and Troxler’s own remix of Fever Ray’s ‘Seven’.

The underlying moods of the mix are deliciously discombobulating, slightly spooked and even a bit melancholic. Ably demonstrating the skills behind his current vaunted reputation as a DJ, Troxler creates his hall of mirrors out of materials cribbed from a variety of scenes – deep house, minimal, and tinges of dubstep – proving a gifted understanding of the shifting contexts modern DJs work within.

As for the hiccup mentioned earlier? It’s the pesky intro, a juddering, irony-free monologue about the life of the Berlin clubber that embodies the more, ahem, self-important side of that great city’s scene. Minus this gratuitous lapse into explication, the music on Boogy Bytes Vol.05 is advertisement enough for the Berlin clubbing experience. Indeed, the mix could be the best in the series. It’s hard to listen to the skyscrapingly huge ‘Birds And Souls’ break over Troxler’s remix of Heartthrob’s ‘Signs’ and think otherwise. Almost perfect. Darragh McCausland

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 DOWNLOAD: EVER RAY – SEVEN (SETH TROXLER REMIX).

FOR FANS OF: ELLEN ALLIEN, DJ KOZE. —61 AU Magazine—

Reviews

Gil Scott-Heron I’m New Here XL

In an age of cynical comebacks, here’s one no-one saw coming. This is Gil Scott-Heron’s first album since 1994 (and only his second since 1982), and it’s essentially a collaboration between Scott-Heron and XL founder Richard Russell (who wrote to Scott-Heron in prison suggesting that they work together).

Out, for the most part, goes his soul croon, and in come dark, almost ghostly spoken word sketches and dubby, delicately crafted trip-hop. The 15 tracks are done in less than half an hour. Trip-hop is going through something of a resurgence itself, of course, and a lot of this record could have been on Massive Attack’s Heligoland – it’s all dusty basslines and hidden beats, with Scott-Heron’s voice sometimes barely rising above a whisper. He sounds worldweary but never beaten, handing down advice like the world’s hard-livingest kindly uncle.

The title track, bizarrely, is an acoustic cover of a Smog song, and one of the standouts is an astounding version of Robert Johnson’s ‘Me And The Devil’, whose arrangement sounds like something by Prefuse 73. The two sit side-byside near the start of the album, and set the tone brilliantly: Scott-Heron saying “I can do what I damn well please.”

And he can. Niall Harden

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 DOWNLOAD: ‘RUNNING’, ‘I’LL TAKE CARE OF YOU’.

FOR FANS OF: PORTISHEAD, JOHNNY CASH.

Mixtapes & Cellmates Rox TANGLED UP!

Mixtapes & Cellmates are an oddly named Swedish combo that have binned their collective dalliances with techno and electronica to return to a 1980s British pop-rock based sound.

Teen angst is layered over chiming guitars on ‘Soon’, a song of love stolen earnestly by the factory wall, the way it always seemed to be in the Eighties. The Sundays spring to mind on ‘Lesser Half Of Cynical Boys’ and, amazingly, even Van Morrison is quoted verbatim on ‘Any Eye’ – worth a listen for this alone! Taken as a whole, it’s nothing overly inspiring, but if you like stadium rock stylings from John Hughes movie soundtracks, this could be the one for you. Jeremy Shields

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 DOWNLOAD: ‘NEVER’, ‘RAIN LETTERS’.

FOR FANS OF: EDITORS, BLOC PARTY.

Pursuit Grooves Foxtrot Mannerisms TECTONIC

Opening with chopped piano that brings to mind the delicious rhythmic play of Scott Herren (aka Prefuse 73/ Savath y Savalas), Vanese ‘Pursuit Grooves’ Smith gives us a playful digital/acoustic oddity that gains weight as drums and rhymes step into the mix. This is hip-hop, but in better health than many others trying to make it in the business – the beats are swinging like a loon on purple drank, but without slurring into a mess. Edits are tight but there’s a human element in how they’re dropped that suggests that Smith knows the value of feel as opposed to quantise in making it sound right. These beats are correct and you need them in your diet. Barry Cullen

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 DOWNLOAD: ‘‘START SOMETHIN’, ‘MISTER SOFTEE’.

FOR FANS OF: PREFUSE 73, J DILLA. —62 issue 64—

Daedelus Righteous Fists Of Harmony EP BRAINFEEDER

In 1899, the British described the members of ‘The Righteous Fists of Harmony’ as passionate fighters who possessed mysterious, otherworldly abilities that were regrettably crushed by the impending machine of war.

It’s not overly surprising, then, that the artist dropping an EP touting the same name carries such a reputation for individuality himself.

Daedelus has finally cemented his relationship with his kindred spirits at Brainfeeder, and the first fruit is a composition that comes over like a subtle requiem for human life. The sheer level of musicianship presented here also makes the EP pleasantly hard to pin down; drippings of folk spliced with blissed-out psychedelic tones, juxtaposed with soft electronics and dreamy vocals. The perfect EP for anyone who appreciates nostalgia. Matt Hazley

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 DOWNLOAD: ‘STAMPEDE’, ‘ORDER OF THE GOLDEN DAWN’.

FOR FANS OF: PREFUSE 73, DR STRANGELOOP.

Ash A-Z Vol. 1 ATOMIC HEART

13 songs in and we’re halfway through the A-Z Singles Series. Given the furious promotion surrounding the series, perhaps it is not taking off in the way expected. Yet it’s not a question of quality but rather that the public are still adapting to the unique and demanding release schedule.

There are some great songs here, from the unexpected electronic leanings of ‘True Love 1980’, ‘Neon’ and ‘Space Shot’, a bouncy piece of auto-harp/synth-pop, to the spine-tingingly good ‘Arcadia’, a punchy and infectious

track, all sweet melodies and killer chorus – certainly one of Ash’s best songs to date. It’s not just a new synthy-poprock style – there are classic sounding tracks including ‘Command’ and the catchy-chorused ‘Ichiban’ – but Tim Wheeler has certainly gone all out on the woah-ohs and oohs in this collection.

The single format should mean all killer, no filler and thankfully there are more hits than misses here. And it’s pleasing to report that the songwriting skill of the Downpatrick threesome remains refreshingly creative and inspiring. Louise McHenry

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 DOWNLOAD: ‘ARCADIA’, ‘TRUE LOVE 1980’, ‘THE DEAD DISCIPLES’.

FOR FANS OF: NEW ORDER, EARLY THE KILLERS.

Noisia Split The Atom DIVISION

Given Noisia’s reputation, you would be forgiven for expecting some balls-out drum & bass from this, the kind of filthy, bass heavy growls that would give your granny air-raid flash backs. Not so, however. It’s a 19-track deep collection of edge-of-your-seat production techniques, layered with guest appearances, and punctuated with delicate moments of calm. Displaying a blatant disregard for genre conventions, Split The Atom presents as a promiscuous, genre-hopping gang bang of musical aggression. Its title track, for example, is an electro-house stormer, and album opener ‘Machine Gun’ has more in common with Justice than jungle. Noisia provide a lesson in delivering a contemporary underground sound with undeniable crossover potential. Craig Sheridan

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 DOWNLOAD: ‘MACHINE GUN’, ‘STIGMA’, ‘SPLIT THE ATOM’.

FOR FANS OF: CHASE AND STATUS, BASSLINE SMITH, MATRIX.

Albums

Wooden Shjips Vol. 2

the national consciousness, commercial success to match Go’s artistic achievement seems inevitable. Lee Gorman

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 SICK THIRST

Vol. 2 collects more early and hard-to-find singles from San Francisco drone specialists Wooden Shjips. Opener ‘Loose Lips’ is a beautifully restrained slice of garage rock, built on a deep, throbbing bass line and an insistent Hammond groove that recalls the great Roky Erickson. ‘Start To Dreaming’ continues in the same vein, its repetitive, rolling bass driving the song to its ear-shredding conclusion. Their cover of Neil Young’s ‘Vampire Blues’ could be a longlost Cramps demo – it’s that good – but the gem from this collection is the live recording of ‘Death’s Not Your Friend’.

Imagine The Velvet Underground and The Stooges covering Neu’s ‘Hallogallo’. Wonderful! Kenny Murdock

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 DOWNLOAD: ‘OUTTA MY HEAD’, ‘DEATH’S NOT YOUR FRIEND’.

FOR FANS OF: CRYSTAL ANTLERS, 13TH FLOOR ELEVATORS.

Gonjasufi A Sufi And A Killer WARP

Import the debut from Nevada shaman Gonjasufi into iTunes and read what it says under ‘Genre’. Where most albums will read ‘folk’, ‘rock’, ‘hip-hop’ or whatever it might be, with A Sufi And A Killer it simply states: ‘unclassifiable’.

Whether that’s by accident or design, this description couldn’t be more apt: A Sufi And A Killer is an unhinged, wild ride through the mind of the enigmatic vocalist (Sumach Ecks to his mum), a dark, fascinating album that completely defies categorisation.

It’s testament to Ecks that, despite the presence of three shithot studio-boffins-of-the-moment on production duties (The Gaslamp Killer, Mainframe and Flying Lotus), the record is almost totally defined by his glowering presence. The music leaps all over the shop – from murky psychedelic soul (‘Sheep’) and jumpy glitch-hop (‘Holidays’), to fractured electronica (‘Ancestors’) and hints of the Middle East (‘Klowds’ and ‘Kowboyz&Indians’) – but it’s moored throughout by Ecks’s ragged, lived-in vocals and gnomic, mysterious utterings.

A Sufi And A Killer has that rarest of attributes – true originality – but more importantly it is a totally compelling listen from beginning to end. Superb. Neill Dougan

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 DOWNLOAD: ‘ANCESTORS’, ‘SHEEP’, ‘HOLIDAYS’.

FOR FANS OF: WHY?, FLYING LOTUS.

Jonsi Go

DOWNLOAD: ‘AROUND US’, ‘BOY LILKOI’, ‘ANIMAL ARITHMETIC’.

FOR FANS OF: SIGUR ROS, THE POSTAL SERVICE.

Disappears Lux KRANKY

Yes, it’s nice to have bands like Grizzly Bear but sometimes you just need something a little, well, seedier, no? Enter this quartet of rough ‘n’ ready garage-punks from a basement somewhere in... Chicago, Illinois. Just because you didn’t do heroin with Lou Reed or smoke cigarettes with the Jesus and Mary Chain, it doesn’t mean you have to miss out thanks to this Flying Nun-esque whirlwind of an album.

Tracks like ‘Gone Completely’ and ‘Magics’ sound like the NYC reverb-drenched classics of yesteryear, ‘Pearly Gates’ is a cracking three-minute guitar wigout while the title track stinks of bristling attitude and boasts a lip-smackingly snaking bass line. This is the musical equivalent of an erection in vintage skinny jeans. Get it. Adam Lacey

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 DOWNLOAD: ‘LUX’, ‘PEARLY GATES’, GONE COMPLETELY’.

FOR FANS OF: VELVET UNDERGROUND, CRYSTAL STILTS.

Medications Completely Removed DISCHORD

Medications have form, with the members having previously been in the short-lived Faraquet. Traces of that band’s nervy post-hardcore remain but the clean, fluid guitar lines and shuffling beats of Completely Removed recall a less preppy Vampire Weekend more than anything.

However, they do find time to throw the odd curveball, such as acid rock blow-out ‘Kilometers And Smiles’ and the jazzy ‘Brasil 07’. Medications are an indication of Dischord’s ongoing dedication to quietly releasing high quality music from within the DC scene – quality that has rarely dipped in the 30 years that they have been in business. James McDonald

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 DOWNLOAD: ‘KILOMETERS AND SMILES’.

FOR FANS OF: FUGAZI, BURNING AIRLINES.

Wive PVLL EXILE ON MAINSTREAM

PARLOPHONE

Not content with captivating us with the gorgeous Riceboy Sleeps album last year, Sigur Rós frontman Jon Þór Birgisson has somehow found the time to conjure up this mercurial solo debut proper. Opener ‘Go Do’ takes the experimental approach of the first half of the last SR record and runs with it, layering its thumping, semi-acoustic base with pretty strings, flitting vocal samples and hypnotic synth pulses.

This adventurous spirit continues to shine through ‘Boy Lilikoi’s joyous horn-filled romp and the delirious electropop fireworks of ‘Animal Arithmetic’ and ‘Around Us’. The celebratory mood of Go contrasts markedly with Sigur’s hymnal intensity, and the more downbeat moments here are never allowed to fall into funereal dirge. Warm string swells lift ‘Hengilas’ to ecstasy; thick shoegaze guitar fuzz cuts through ‘Grow Till Tall’ and twinkling chimes join walls of cut-up vocals and beats on ‘Sinking Friendships’, to glorious effect. Fittingly for such accessible material, much of it is sung in English, and with the Rós now firmly embedded in

PVLL is a collection of spirituals from the post-industrial world – constructed out of scattered, programmed beats, WIVE at their best are deft and economical with sound, sincere without ever falling into self-regard and, at its best, it can be jaw-dropping. Opener ‘Toast To Famines’ would be at home on Kid A or Amnesiac, and ‘Lazarvs and Dives’ is heart-rending but uplifting in a cathartic way, the soundtrack to an overdose montage in a movie not yet made. A distant violin keens through most of the album, providing a certain unity, though sometimes you feel that just the piano and hyper-earnest voice would communicate the point better. It rarely slips up, and when it reaches its occasional climaxes, it’s almost revelatory. Karl McDonald

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 DOWNLOAD: ‘TOAST TO FAMINES’, ‘LAZARVS AND DIVES’, ‘COME, JOIN THE SEA’.

FOR FANS OF: PRAM, RADIOHEAD, EFTERKLANG.

The Radio Dept.

Clinging To A Scheme LABRADOR

As non-Anglophone nations go, Sweden has a relatively strong reputation for churning out music of a listenable standard or better. In fact, Swedish nationality has almost come to stand for a particular type of slightly effete, melodic indie-pop music. The ever-so-slightly limp-wristed aspect holds true for The Radio Dept, but the masterful command of melody, presumably absorbed via standing in places Abba have been in, is absent. The album lollops along, with some nods towards cut-and-paste electronics, but it never really gets started, and its lack of bite is crippling. With the entire album’s vocal tracks sounding like they might have been recorded on a Sunday afternoon in an armchair, Clinging To A Scheme oversteps the very defined line between being atmospheric and boring. Karl McDonald

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

DOWNLOAD: YOU STOPPED MAKING SENSE’, ‘DAVID’, ‘HEAVEN’S ON FIRE’.

FOR FANS OF: ACID HOUSE KINGS, M83, ATLAS SOUND.

Dosh Tommy ANTICON

A solo album by long-time Andrew Bird collaborator Martin Dosh (and, sadly, not a remake of The Who’s rock opera), Tommy is very obviously an album by a drummer.

Wait, come back! It’s true that nearly every song here has rhythm as its focal point, but guitar, piano and vocals fall off the beats in gloriously novel ways – it sounds like some inverse of a normal rock band with the drums centre stage and everything else tucked in behind, keeping things moving. Dosh’s polyrhythmic playing style sounds at times like Tortoise’s John McEntire.

The beats here are amazingly complex things; often made up of samples, live drums and found sounds, they shift and dive unexpectedly. ‘Loud’, for example, sounds like the basics of Radiohead’s ‘Pyramid Song’ – all jazzy, pounding chords and little delayed squeals drawn out to a sad end. Niall Harden

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 DOWNLOAD: ‘GARE DE LYON’, ‘COUNTRY ROAD X’.

FOR FANS OF: TORTOISE, FRIDGE.

This Morning Call All Quiet At 4am SUBSTREAM

Remember Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the bands you’d hear play at the Bronze Café? Well, many of the songs on this album could easily have graced the Bronze’s stage with their staid, late-nineties Dido-esque electronica. Trip without the hop. It begins pleasantly enough with ‘Tides’, a bouncy pop number in which Ben Heyworth’s fragile vocal adds a touch of personality to the proceedings. However, despite welljudged dynamics the majority of songs lack spark and stay rooted to the ground. The fractured bass of ‘The Observatory’ and the scratchy, lo-fi riff central to ‘Orange Glow’ impress but ultimately the album showcases a musician who, unlike the aforementioned TV show, seems unable to strike the balance between mass appeal and cult status; erring instead on the side of faux-emotional caution. A talented producer, perhaps, but a more adventurous and reckless approach is required to avoid the dreaded ‘music for non-music lovers’ tag and free the potential from death by ‘meh’. Paul McIver

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 DOWNLOAD: ‘TIDES’, ‘ORANGE GLOW’.

FOR FANS OF: MOBY, KEANE, GOLDFRAPP. —63 AU Magazine—

The Lost Cavalry, Heliopause / Suede / Ablespacer, Silhouette, Before Machines / Owen Pallett

Live Reviews

hat they can ditch their standard saccharine verse and embrace more aggressive influences like At The DriveIn, whipping up intoxicating, stabbing riffs and rhythms.

If they can manage to introduce more of these dynamic post-rock guitar attacks, make better use of the Moog (it pummels their penultimate track with huge pounding synth fists), and drop the awkward onstage banter, they’ll attract even the most downtrodden football fan.

&

HELIOPAUSE PHOTO: SARAH DORMAN

The Lost Cavalry, Heliopause The Windmill, Brixton

Suede The Ritz, Manchester

It’s a good night for the Northern Irish in London.

Bangor’s Two Door Cinema Club perform across town at the Hoxton Grill, while Belfast/Brighton trio Heliopause set up at the Brixton Windmill. Two Door might have the more fashionable venue, but you get the feeling that Heliopause draw a crowd that cares.

Back in February, Brett Anderson played a solo gig in the very compact Manchester Academy 3. He was on fiery form, but his setlist was gagging for a Suede classic or two.

None was forthcoming – Anderson teased and tormented that night. He undoubtedly knew that a matter of weeks later, Suede would reunite for the Teenage Cancer Trust and return to the city.

That crowd amounts to about 30, mixing and listening comfortably. The ease is amplified by Heliopause’s expansive sound, made all the more remarkable when you see that they’re a bassless trio matching acoustic and electric guitars with light, restrained drums. “We’re a little bit fragile,” says frontman Rich Davis, after opening song ‘Little Ashes’. He’s explaining the St Patrick’s Day hangover but says little more, kicking into the tick of ‘City of Glass’. His semi-spoken melodic vocals lead the song — “making sense of haunting truths” — as Chris McCorry’s electric chords reverberate and ring out. Unaccompanied by drums, ‘Save For Me’ is the centrepiece of a subtle set, gossamer guitar textures underpinning a breathy vocal and acoustic strings.

Heliopause offer an elegiac kind of indie that grows, only as much as necessary, into distorted peaks. During ‘The Let Go’ McCorry, with aquamarine Fender held by sparkly strap, disappears into the constrained Zen of two distorted chords. With two EPs and an album available as a bespoke collectible, Heliopause are assembling a cherishable selection of songs. Davis is right; they’re a little bit fragile, but substantial and maybe even magical. They close with the elegant ‘Epilog’ from the Let the Silence Go EP, a free download from heliopause. bandcamp.com If Heliopause remain in the mind, London five-piece The Lost Cavalry strike the eye. The stage fills with instruments; drums, xylophone, glockenspiel, a concertina sitting to the side. Frontman Mark West appears as a strip of a man, stretched and made tall by his ukulele. Opener ‘Secret Steps’ has something piratical about it, a playful lament with added chimes. West’s voice is unwavering, as it is on ‘Oh Sally’, beginning with the glockenspiel and squeezebox. “Step away from the edge,” he sings, as bloopy electronics skitter about.

In the last lot of songs his voice edges closer to Thom Yorke’s, though it’s a dud comparison. West and The Lost Cavalry have enough character to hold their own.

They might not yet be playing at the fashionable venues across town, but it makes tonight’s show seem all the more special. Kiran Acharya —64 issue 64—

The 1,000-capacity Ritz is a pretty intimate venue to see one of the defining bands of the Britpop era and, as you’d expect, it’s rammed and charged with expectation and nostalgia. The Suede line-up is their ‘final’ five-piece, and therefore lacks Bernard Butler’s magical guitar. They open with a strangely subdued ‘Europe Is Our Playground’ with Anderson bathed in purple light. Although he still looks like an androgynous sex god, he’s clearly struggling with his voice. However, the Ritz’s legendary bouncing dancefloor is put through its paces as the hits begin to roll, which sends Anderson into his trademark hip-swings and handclaps. ‘Filmstar’ and ‘Animal Nitrate’ are awesome; both delivered with freshness and dynamism. ‘Metal Mickey’ is full of bite, while they end their main set with an air-punching version of ‘The Beautiful Ones’.

The band have clearly enjoyed themselves, and when Anderson’s tells the crowd, “It’s been a celebratory and emotional evening,” there is a sense that this reunion may have legs. The final encore is a lovely version of ‘The Two Of Us’, which a beaming Anderson describes as “a strange one to end on - but then we’re a strange band.” Strange but beguiling. John Freeman

Ablespacer, Silhouette, Before Machines Auntie Annie’s, Belfast Taking to the stage just five minutes after Tuesday’s Champions League football, one is forced to make the assumption that a great percentage of Before Machines’ fan base are Chelsea supporters; with their fans having despondently trudged home after their heartbreaking defeat, the Belfast foursome are left to entertain a meagre smattering of listeners. Despite this poor turnout they carefully roll out their emotive brand of alternative rock, with honest pop melody and sensibility being interspersed with galloping instrumental sections. And the latter is really when they are at their best: at the drop of a trucker

From the off this is destined to be a tough gig for the three ladies and little drummer boy of Silhouette: shoved in between two rocking guitar bands by some tactless sandwich artist, their odd piano-heavy ‘rock’ suffers a major microphone malfunction during the first song. Unfazed by this technical setback, and flanked by double bass and cello, frontwoman Shauna Tohill effortlessly lets her majestic voice crawl over the other instruments, suffocating their haunting melodies and overpowering the room; talented and confident without a pinch of aloofness, she knows she’s the star of the show. In saying that, though, they are a wholly inappropriate choice of support for this blokey rock gig. In an attempt to rouse the crowd from their bored stupor and encourage interaction, they pledge to play a “singalong”, the result of which sums up their set: only the two walking erections drooling near the stage – boyfriends, I assume – know the lyrics. Crestfallen, the rest of us return to our pints, realising our ‘Empire State of Mind’ wishes were absurd. I’d have provided the jigga man rhymes free of charge.

Although the name may carry suggestions of Dream Theater-esque spaghetti prog, Ablespacer quickly dispel this negative association by blasting out their honed brand of swaggering, scuzzy rock. Promoting new single ‘Draw A Line’, the three-piece, though never particularly ‘heavy’ or viscerally attacking, produce a relentless steamroller of rollicking riffs, aided by Robin Regan’s vocals that flicker between slack, lackadaisical grunge and the sweeping dramatics of early Muse. Free flowing, intricate rhythm segments complement the caustic Jaguar guitar lines, and towards the end Robin throws himself to the floor like a young Thurston Moore, implementing niggling effects and noises. Although their fans seem captivated by the riffs, only by further exploring their experimental tendencies and the eerie nuances of influences like Slint will they carve themselves a niche and draw the crowds they deserve. Fantastic promise. Kyle Robinson

Owen Pallett Whelan’s, Dublin If there is anyone on the live circuit that can inspire the same jovially-effervescent crowd that Owen Pallett seems to draw, then AU has yet to witness it. Following a soldout Thursday night gig in the same venue, the incredibly charming Canadian is in his usual chatty, witty form, waxing lyrical about the pressures of playing two nights in the same venue – especially when the second night is a Friday with the possibility of less ‘hardcores’ – and laughing aloud at his own perversely affectionate feelings towards Ryanair’s big cheese, Michael O’Leary.

The Artist Formerly Known As Final Fantasy has now added a guitarist/second voice/percussionist to his live set-up, Thomas Gill, who tonight even performs a song of his own, much to the bemusement, and amusement, of the bubbly crowd. Adding an extra bit of manpower has done nothing to diminish the beguiling effect of Pallett and his mesmerising violin/looping schtick but it does give him a chance to bounce off someone else onstage for a change.

Not that he’s ever floundered in front of an audience; at one stage, he even pipes up in defence of those poor sods who are being ‘ssshhhhed’ by the usual gaggle of too-serious-fortheir-own-good types peppered throughout the venue.

Tonight is a mix of material from his oeuvre, with highlights coming thick and fast in the shape of tracks like ‘Keep The Dog Quiet’, ‘Lewis Takes Off His Shirt’ and ‘This Lamb Sells Condos’, with an awesome version of ‘Many Lives -> 49mp’ standing out. He even knocks out his classic, and astounding, cover version of Mariah Carey’s ‘Fantasy’ towards the end. An amazing show by a huge talent; one who makes it all look so easy. Adam Lacey

Unsigned Universe

Fox Jaw Bounty Hunters / Demo Reviews

Key Of Atlas Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained Here we have an act that hasn’t found its voice just yet, as all three tracks on this well-produced EP sound like entirely different bands. We begin with the best of them, ‘Someone Help Me’, a genuine anthem whose chorus (just the title, basically) proves that less is often more. Energy a-go-go. Unfortunately, ‘Cigarettes Light The Sun’ puts us back to square one – a cringeworthy, hand-wringing power ballad, it suggests the Belfast lads should keep their lyric-writing to a minimum and their stadium ambitions in check. Happily, we’re pretty much back on track with ‘Pure Black Spectrum’, which this time sees KoA try their hand at electro-tinged dancerock, with decent results. Hints of Friendly Fires in the Balearic percussion and bouncy bassline, and more evidence of the band’s predilection for ENORMOUS choruses and, sadly, bad lyrics. There’s serious potential here though. CJ WWW.MYSPACE.COM/THEKEYOFATLAS

Take The Money And Run Loud.Pretty.Sad This youthful quintet from Dundalk have created a measure of buzz already, and it’s not hard to see why.

These four songs are whipsmart exercises in post-punktinged alternapop, and as such there’s nothing particularly new going on, but what they do have in their favour are the crystalline vocals of lead singer Sarah Edwards, and a wonderful way with melody. Edwards’ high-register voice is reminiscent of Asobi Seksu’s Yuki Chikudate, but rather than battling with a cacophony of guitars, she really drives the songs with confidence and verve. Lead track ‘Waves’ is a raging torrent of anthemic melancholy, a trick they repeat on ‘Venom’ (moody verses/yearning chorus), while ‘Let The Ground Break Through My Head’ proves they can do stately slow-builds as well. A promising start. CJ WWW.MYSPACE.COM/TTMR

Fox Jaw Bounty Hunters Congress Of Oddities This Limerick trio walk tall in the role of musical outlaws, scalping all manner of genres – from the delta blues through alt. country and onto grunge, with a music hall detour along the way – to create this six-track collection of limb-trembling, blood-boiling brilliance. There’s an element of Seasick Steve’s rickety blues in ‘Homeward Bound & Gagged, whilst ‘Cornelius T. Ampersand’ sounds like that old rascal Tom Waits rattling about a creepy funfair. Elsewhere, ‘Care To Play?’ conjures up Mark Lanegan at his foreboding best and ‘Darker Shade Of Blue’ summons the troubled ghost of Jeff Buckley. The percussion is supple, changing from quicksand sludge to lightning quick as the song demands, whilst the guitar riffs morph from heavy-lidded to high-octane. Majestic. FJ WWW.MYSPACE.COM/FOXJAWBOUNTYHUNTERS

FOX JAW BOUNTY HUNTERS

InProfile

Words by Francis Jones

ACT: FOX JAW BOUNTY HUNTERS LOCATION: LIMERICK MEMBERS: MORGAN NOLAN (VOCALS, GUITAR, BASS), RONAN MITCHELL (VOCALS, GUITAR BASS, PIANO, BANJO), SHANE SERRANO (DRUMS, VOCALS, CLARINET, FLUTE, MEGAPHONE) FOR FANS OF: NICK CAVE & THE BAD SEEDS, SCREAMING TREES, KYUSS WEBSITE: WWW.MYSPACE.COM/ FOXJAWBOUNTYHUNTERS Having honed their muscles in previous acts – in which they played everything from punk rock to traditional Irish folk – three individuals came together in late 2006 in an act of unholy musical union that would spawn Fox Jaw Bounty Hunters. Letting their inner stoner-rock and grunge demons off the leash, the group’s self-titled debut EP found favour with the Irish music press and contemporaries including Giveamanakick, Director and Ham Sandwich. The recent follow-up, the Congress Of Oddities EP cranks proceedings up by several exhilarating notches.

Here, the band’s Shane Serrano talks of American influences, aspirations and high-profile supporters.

The new EP is like a musical travelogue of sounds American. Musically, is this the band’s spiritual home?

Musically, I definitely think so. Growing up we used to listen to a lot American bands, and we still do, but we’ve broadened our tastes significantly since. Also, we all come from very different musical backgrounds, so our music has resulted in a big fat melting pot of different styles! We’re not following trends, just having fun making music we want to.

There is also a Victoriana and vaudeville aspect coming through on the likes of ‘Cornelius T. Ampersand’ and in the artwork. You seem to be a band who revels in the quirky.

We don’t aspire to be weird with everything we write.

I think that this EP certainly came across as being a bit quirky, but I wouldn’t say that sums us up as a band.

That’s why we called it Congress Of Oddities. We really mixed it up musically and it’s definitely contains the darkest pieces we’ve put out. It’s nice to try something different, but we wouldn’t want people coming to our gigs expecting a Vaudeville show. We’re just a rock band that likes to get a bit weird sometimes.

You clearly have serious ambitions for the band – how far do those aspirations stretch?

We’d like to take this as far as we can go. We don’t necessarily aspire for world domination, but years from now if we have a strong enough fanbase to tour and make a comfortable living from doing what we love to do, we would be quite happy.

Besides the adulation of the music press, I believe that you’ve also picked up a celebrity fan or two along the way?

Plenty of DJs picked up on our single ‘Homeward Bound & Gagged’, with Alan Jacques of Live 95FM calling it ‘one of the best Irish singles of 2009’. We also received a message from Fergal Lawlor of The Cranberries. It’s really nice to be appreciated by a guy who’s been in one of the most successful ever Irish bands.

You’ve stated that you’ll be working on the debut album this year. At this early stage, what can you reveal about the record?

There are some songs that we recorded on the last two EPs that didn’t really find their feet until we started touring with them and have since evolved and become really popular at our shows. So we want to re-record them as they are now, as they should sound. But there’ll be a lot of new material that will really expand our sound too.

You released the new EP on your own label – would you be looking to do the same for the album, or hoping to hitch your wagon to a label?

I think every band wants to sign to a label, and we’re definitely not any different. However a DIY ethic is very important and when no else will help you, do it yourself.

That’s what we’ve done for years. With the album, we want it to get to as many people as possible, so we would love for a label to help us out… if a bigwig record guy is reading this, please feel free to get in touch!

—65 AU Magazine—

Annual Subscription to AU Only £13 (€27) Yeah, that’s right, £13.

Right now you are thinking one of two things.

Either a) Hey, I picked this copy of AU up for free, and can do every month from now on, why would I pay, douchebag? Or b) Sweet! I can still get AU delivered straight to my door, and it’s even cheaper than before.

Personally, we prefer people who respond with b). They know where the smart money is. They know that time = money, and by saving the time you’d spend going to pick up your copy of AU, you’ll actually be better off financially. Plus, they’ll get the download link to an exclusive subscribers’ compilation of new music.

If you want to join the clever people in what we are now calling Column B, all you have to do is pop a cheque for £13 (or €27) made payable to Alternative Ulster Ltd in the post to AU Magazine, The Marquis Building, 89-91 Adelaide Street, Belfast, BT2 8FE. Alternatively, you can send the payment via PayPal to info@iheartau.com.

All prices include postage and packing. In fact, the price pretty much just covers P&P, that’s how dead on we are.

AU Subscription Form Name: Address:

Postcode: Email: Preferred Starting Issue: —66 issue 64—

Sc Subbacultcha

Most Wanted

MOST WANTED THE MONTH’S HOTTEST TICKETS REGINALD D. HUNTER

SUNG, DRAWN AND QUARTERED: 11 Days Of Fun In Belfast

The line-up for the last Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival was so top-notch that one would be forgiven for thinking that the curators had no mission of beating it this year.

But beat it they have with yet another varied programme that is by turns intriguing, challenging and worthy of several red ink circles on your calendar. Stand-up is always a firm favourite at events like this, and with Irish comedians Ardal O’Hanlon and Andrew Maxwell bringing the funny to the festival marquee, you can expect tickets to evaporate faster than Joe McElderry’s career.

However, our money is on Kevin Bridges and Reginald D. Hunter, both of whom have been carving mainstream television into their very own Mount Rushmore. Having appeared on countless panel shows, they are sure to be a major draw in Belfast. While Hunter’s set is charged by a fearless, politically savvy polemic and Bridges’ approach is gentle and whimsical, both men are hilarious in their own right. And sure to be both poignant and soul-stirring is a screening of Bill Hicks’ very last recorded live performance. Staring death straight in the eye, Hicks went out blasting with both barrels, bringing down the temple before his own light was extinguished.

Elsewhere we’re looking forward to hearing Mark Kermode reading from It’s Only A Movie, a wryly amusing autobiographical trawl through his experience as a film critic. Kermode’s reviews are always bang on the money: both academic and entertaining, insightful without the slightest whiff of pretension. In person he is engaging and self-deprecating – striking qualities for a man who carries an IMDB of movie trivia around inside his own brainbox. Elsewhere, the hugely successful crime writer John Connolly appears at the Oh Yeah Centre to introduce and discuss the film Of Blood And Lost Things, an appreciation of his life and work.

When it comes to music, picking out must-see gigs from the bill is like shooting candy-coloured fish in a barrel. Ireland’s adopted son Josh Ritter will be playing tracks from his much anticipated new album So Runs The World Away, while the fabulous Ted Leo and the Pharmacists cut it up with their soulful East Coast rock. For those of a more eclectic bent, make sure you check out bona fide reggae legends Sly & Robbie, or riotous horn ‘n’ drums crew Hypnotic Brass Ensemble. Particularly enticing are showings of Silver Jew, a documentary charting the elusive and eccentric David Berman’s visit to Jerusalem, and Under Great White Northern Lights, or what happened The White Stripes took Icky Thump to Canada.

We could go on. We could mention the art installations, theatrical performances (such as cult phenomenon Hedwig And The Angry Itch), the return of Echo And The Bunnymen, the launch of the Time To Be Proud compilation, appearances by Eliza Carthy and Hope Sandoval, the tribute to Miles Davis…

Sadly, neither time nor word count are permitting. In short, the festival looks even more top-notch than last year. Topping it next year, however, will be a tall order.

Ross Thompson.

The Cathedral Quarter Arts Festival runs from April 29 until May 9.

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—67 AU Magazine—

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Most Wanted

Most Wanted Twin Peaks

Groundbreaking electronic duo Dominic Maker and Kai Campos (aka Mount Kimbie) make their Irish debut in Dublin this month.

The pair met at university and began making music together in a home studio in Peckham.

They quickly developed a truly unique sound whose experimental rhythms skirt around the fringes of dubstep, electronica and hip-hop but ooze with emotion, creating evocative ambient soundscapes that create a whole new space of their own. The night is hosted by the Bodytonic crew, and it’s a must for fans of deep new electronic music. LS Mount Kimbie play the Twisted Pepper, Dublin on April 16 Words By - Lyndon Stephens, Ross Thompson and Chris Jones

MOUNT KIMBIE

A RIGHT ROYAL LINE-UP It used to be that the must-see gigs on the Belfast bands scene took place in some of its smallest venues. Not any longer. Recent months have seen And So I Watch You Frok Afar sell out the Ulster Hall and General Fiasco do the same at the Mandela Hall, and now Panama Kings – shorn to a three-piece after the departure of bassist Luke Carson – are back for their second crack at headlining at the same venue. The PKs have been a little quiet since finishing their mammoth tour with Ash before Christmas, so this is a long-awaited chance to reacquaint yourself with their skewed indie-rock, never mind ogling the new line-up and savouring a mouthwatering support bill. A hot ticket indeed. CJ

LAFARO

—68 issue 64—

want to experience the noise and fury at close quarters. It may be your last chance. CJ LaFaro’s album launch shows are at the Menagerie, Belfast on April 26 and 27.

YOU SAY YOU WANT A REVOLUTION…

Panama Kings play the Mandela Hall, Belfast on April 24 with support from Cashier No.9, Ed Zealous and Before Machines.

Best known for the classic anti-establishment howl (and proto-rap song) ‘The Revolution Will Not Be Televised’, Gil Scott-Heron recently released his first album of new material in 16 years, I’m New Here. The record came about due to the persistence of XL Recordings’ Richard Russell, who persuaded Scott-Heron to sign to his label while the veteran poet, performer and activist languished in prison on drugs charges. Now, he sees himself reborn as an vital musical voice as he enjoys the beginnings of an Indian summer. The tour calls at the Tripod at the start of May. Who knows if he’ll ever be back? CJ

BRAIN TRAINING

Gil Scott-Heron plays the Tripod in Dublin on May 2.

MindField is a major new international celebration of the spoken word in conversation, poetry and theatre. An offshoot of the annual arena at the Electric Picnic festival, the MindField goes indoors for three days at the Pod complex in Dublin for a weekend of discussion, poetry, rap, spoken word and debate. With talking points such as ‘Does Music Matter Anymore?’ and ‘The Joy Of Being A Maverick’, topics will cover new media, sport, ethics and many others. Participants will include the esteemed likes of punk poet John Cooper Clarke, writer DBC Pierre, music industry stalwart Simon Napier-Bell and legendary journalists Jon Snow and Robert Fisk. LS

CREAM OF THE IRISH CROP The IMRO Showcase Tour, that annual jamboree of Irish talent continues throughout April, as key venues in each of the island’s major towns and cities play host to some cracking line-ups, culminating in the ‘Best Of The Showcase Tour’ show at the Dublin Academy on May 1.

Highlights include Not Squares joined by ex-Chalets girls Talula Does The Hula and more at Dublin’s Crawdaddy on April 10 and a hometown headline show from Derry’s teenage popstrels The Wonder Villains on April 15. CJ

Full listings can be found at www.mindfield.ie

The IMRO Showcase Tour continues throughout April – check iheartau.com/gig-guide for details.

WE HAVE LIFT-OFF

GO BACK TO THOSE GOLD SOUNDZ

Exciting times in the LaFaro camp – after more than five years’ hard slog, the band are finally getting their dues with a clutch of UK tours, the patronage of Zane Lowe and that long-awaited debut album. Your first chance to grab a copy before its May release comes with a double bill of ludicrously intimate launch shows at Belfast’s favourite little dive, the Menagerie. The first sold out in just two hours so it may be a case of beg, borrow or steal if you

Once considered to be the epitome of college slacker rock, Pavement are now all grown up and have to pay for their own children to slack off college. Theirs was the most anticipated of the recent slew of reunions, but one that was never likely to happen, given the mutual animosity which cracked the band apart the first time around. But it really is happening: Steve Maulkmus and Spiral Stairs have made nice (sort of), have collated the best-of Quarantine

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Dot Dot Dot...

The best of the rest in live music

Saturday, April 10 Anti-Pop Consortium Whelan’s, Dublin (April 11, Cyprus Avenue, Cork) Tuesday, April 13 Hypnotic Brass Ensemble Dolan’s, Limerick (April 14, Whelan’s, Dublin; April 15, Roisin Dubh, Galway; April 16, Paqvilion, Cork)

PAVEMENT

The Past, and are presently carting the rest of the fivepiece around every hole in the hedge in Europe.

Advance word is that the live shows are fantastic, with setlists comprising both ‘hits’ and more obscure jams. It’s good to have them back. RT Pavement play the Tripod, Dublin on May 4.

AN ICON, UNPLUGGED An imposing presence, Mark Lanegan might look as if he would pummel you to a pulp with a tattooed thumb for invading his personal space, but he is gifted with a voice of sinkhole depth and woody texture. It’s a voice that has acted as a perfect foil to the likes of Greg Dulli, Isobel Campbell and Queens Of The Stone Age, but is more than worthy of its own place in the spotlight.

Lanegan’s upcoming solo tour should help boost his renown, for which he will revisit his back catalogue. No

map, no compass, just an acoustic guitar. And, of course, that voice. RT Mark Lanegan plays Belfast Empire, Dublin Academy and Galway Roisin Dubh on April 28, 29 and 30.

THESE GUYS WHALE This promises to be one of the more memorable concert experiences of this or any other month. Bedroom Community is an Icelandic experimental label, and the amusingly named Whale Watching Tour puts four of their five artists on stage together – contemporary composer Nico Muhly, experimental folk artist Sam Amidon and electronic adventurers Valgeir Sigurðsson and Ben Frost, whose awe-inspiring By The Throat was one of the most visceral records of 2009. The four men will perform their own music as well as collaborating with each other and, we are sure, coming up with some sort of musical alchemy. CJ The Whale Watching Tour reaches the National Concert Hall, Dublin on April 21

Wednesday, April 14 Rain Machine Speakeasy, Belfast (April 15, Academy, Dublin) The Jim Jones Revue Cyprus Avenue, Cork (April 15, Crawdaddy, Dublin; April 16; Speakeasy, Belfast) Wooden Shjips Crane Lane, Cork (April 15, Whelan’s, Dublin; April 16, Menagerie, Belfast) Stornoway Black Box, Belfast (April 16, Crawdaddy, Dublin; April 17, Roisin Dubh, Galway; April 18, Savoy, Cork) Thursday, April 15 Two Step: Cashier No.9, Kowalski, John D’Arcy Limelight, Belfast Friday, April 16 Habitat For Humanity: The Lowly Knights, More Than Conquerors, Maguire & I, Captain Cameron, Not Squares DJs Spring & Airbrake, Belfast Patrick Kelleher, Thread Pulls, Hunter-Gatherer Whelan’s (Upstairs), Dublin Green Velvet, Japanese Popstars (live), LRB Tripod, Dublin Saturday, April 17 Motor City Drum Ensemble, Sascha Dive Spring & Airbrake, Belfast The Continuous Battle of Order (album launch), Patrick Kelleher, Hands Up Who Wants To Die, The Cast of Cheers Twisted Pepper, Dublin Sunday, April 18 David Turpin, Hunter-Gatherer, Sarsparilla Whelan’s, Dublin Tuesday, April 20 LCD Soundsystem, YACHT, Shit Robot Tripod, Dublin (also April 21) Wednesday, April 21 Blood Red Shoes Cyprus Avenue, Cork (April 22, Academy 2, Dublin; April 23, Nerve Centre, Derry; April 24, Auntie Annie’s, Belfast) Dan Le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip Pavilion, Cork (then touring)

BEN FROST

Friday, April 23 The Big Gig: The Beat Poets,

Swanee River, Last Known Addiction Spring & Airbrake, Belfast Autechre Button Factory, Dublin Yngve & The Innocent, John, Shelly & The Creatures The Village, Dublin Saturday, April 24 Efterklang Black Box, Belfast (April 25, Whelan’s, Dublin) Seth Troxler Stiff Kitten, Belfast Richard Hawley The Pavilion, Cork Tuesday, April 27 Josh Ritter Grand Canal Dock, Dublin Wednesday, April 28 Crystal Antlers, The Cast Of Cheers Whelan’s, Dublin (April 29, Cyprus Avenue, Cork) Thursday, April 29 The JD Set (final) The Village, Dublin Friday, April 30 The Funeral Suits, Disconnect 4 Whelan’s, Dublin Saturday, May 1 Best of IMRO Showcase Tour 2010 Academy, Dublin Willard Grant Conspiracy Whelan’s, Dublin Sunday, May 2 Aeroplane Stiff Kitten, Belfast Jogging (album launch), Not Squares, Logikparty Whelan’s, Dublin Wednesday, May 5 Axis Of (EP launch), Pocket Billiards, Robyn G Shiels, Visceral Attack Spring & Airbrake, Belfast High Places Whelan’s (Upstairs), Dublin Thursday, May 6 O Emperor Whelan’s, Dublin Friday, May 7 Hope Sandoval and the Warm Inventions Whelan’s, Dublin Talulah Does The Hula Whelan’s (Upstairs), Dublin Saturday, May 8 Ted Leo & The Pharmacists Whelan’s, Dublin Sunday, May 9 Cathy Davey Auntie Annie’s, Belfast

—69 AU Magazine—

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and then i see a darkness 20 Years Of Twin Peaks

Words by Ross Thompson

SCREEN

It begins, as all good stories begin, with the discovery of a dead body.

But from there spirals a bizarre, evil-eyed conundrum that Quincy, Ironside and even Columbo could never unravel. The man for the job is Agent Dale Cooper, a boy scout with a Dictaphone and an eye for detail. Little does he know what kind of bloody, tarry suckhole he is getting himself into. The tall, twisted redwood which grew out of this poisoned acorn was a watermark of weird which the medium never reached again. Now that the second season of Twin Peaks has finally been liberated on DVD, it seems fitting to pay another visit.

Point your compasses to the American Northwest via the Land of Oz. It has become one of the most iconic images in television history: a dead girl’s body, wrapped in opaque plastic like a department store gift, carefully placed on lakeside shingle, her face flecked with wet hair and sea glitter. The image is at once disturbing and oddly beautiful – corpses don’t normally appear so alluring, so artfully arranged. Her face, only slightly blue-tinged, seems at peace, liberated from whichever terrible night led up to her current state. The adroitly paced sequence of scenes which follows makes for phenomenal filmmaking. The news spreads around the eponymous town slowly, painfully, lapping from one inhabitant to another in black, oily waves.

LITTLE SCREEN

Not only is this an economical way of introducing the cast and familiarising us with the location’s geography; it’s also a humdinger of a cold open. The emotional wallop is palpable: as the event is reported with the gravitas that accompanies a dead president, we see people weeping, breaking, biting their fists, dropping the receiver. Laura Palmer – daughter, friend, girl next door – is dead. Twin Peaks, population around 50,000 if you also count the demons and ghosts, is about to be torn apart.

When Twin Peaks debuted on American screens in 1990, Time magazine proudly proclaimed that television

—70 issue 64—

would never be the same again – big words for a medium which makes a nice accompaniment to a sit-down and a jammy biscuit. But they were right: audiences were hooked by a premise which recalled the ‘Who Shot JR?’ frenzy from the previous decade. The answer, revealed through diary entries, dreams and incantations, was probably not what they were expecting.

It was disturbing enough that Laura Palmer, a sweetheart homecoming queen with a face and figure that could make Solomon forfeit his wisdom, was tangled up with pimps, truck drivers and drug dealers. How could they have imagined that she was being abused on a nightly basis by an evil spirit called ‘Bob’? Or that her soul was trapped in an alternate dimension with maroon curtains, zigzag carpets and a backwards dancing dwarf?

Darkness is never too far away in Twin Peaks. From the lumber mills and roadside diners pictured in the show’s titles to the Fifties throwbacks who populate them, on the surface this appears to be a place caught out of time, a genial postcard envisioned by Walt Disney. But beneath every porch, behind every Norman Rockwell painting, inside every coffee cup, evil is lurking. There’s something not quite right about the way a ceiling fan whirrs, the way the trees bend in the ghostly breeze that comes with the gloaming. Like Silent Hill or Eerie, Indiana, this town teeters on the crumbling edge of a fantasy of an America that never was and never could be.

Ben Horne, the department store magnate and richest man for miles around, also runs and frequents the brothel One-Eyed Jack’s. Dr. Lawrence Jacoby might seem like a bumbling psychiatrist, but his obsession with Laura Palmer drives him to break all manner of medical codes of practice. Everyone in Twin Peaks has their nasty little secrets. Everyone has a skeleton or two in the closet – except the skeletons are real.

It isn’t surprising that this cracked pot tumbled out of the bongo brain of David Lynch, the Jimmy Cagney from Mars who previously made Blue Velvet, an equally

Screen

BIG SCREEN

perfect ten

The Belfast Film Festival reaches its first decade AUDREY HORNE

disquieting whodunit which opened with shots of white picket fence America before panning down to fill the screen with beetles scuttling in the grass. Teaming up with Mark Frost, famous for his work on the much more straightforward Hill Street Blues, Lynch indulged himself with the ABC network’s budget.

Even by his most avant-garde standards, it took extraordinary chutzpah to push the narrative boat out as far as he did – into the middle of the lake, before setting it on fire. In the second season, Twin Peaks grew even odder, involving time wormholes, Laura’s doppelganger cousin Maddy (hello, Hitchcock), and the long-awaited revelation of Bob’s true identity. The twist is a doozy which not even the psychic Log Lady could foresee, one which pulled both the audience and television to a place it had never dared venture before. The episode ranks among the most upsetting and resonant spectacles ever to have been transmitted.

It’s a shame that it was around this point that Twin Peaks began haemorrhaging viewers. Most sane people don’t like ice cream cones laced with salt, so bailed out when the show started to get too freaky when goodnatured Dale Cooper – in effect a carbon copy of Lynch

– lost himself in the Black and White Lodges. If it was kooky, undemanding fun they were after, they could always tune in for Northern Exposure over on CBS. The show limped to its season finale, avoiding cancellation thanks to a barrage of heavy petitioning from ‘Peaks Freaks’. Some questions were answered in the big screen outing Fire, Walk With Me (1992), but for many the film was much too violent and unpleasant to suffer the entire way through. In comparison with Twin Peaks on television, which took bubblegum clichés and dirtied up their bobby socks, the movie was all sour and no sweet.

For the fans, it was the bold and brave cliffhanger conclusion to the telly version which acted as both a typically leftfield sign-off and a two-fingered salute to the mainstream. The good guys don’t win the day, and part of Dale Cooper gets stuck within the Black Lodge. If you make it all the way to the end of season two, part of you will be stuck there with him. We may never see the like of Twin Peaks again.

Twin Peaks Season Two and Twin Peaks: Definitive Gold Box Edition are now available on DVD.

Anything Cannes can do, we can do better. Sure, Belfast might not have a golden Riviera, playboy yachts and umpteen celebrities milling about in the baking sunshine, but we do have an equally impressive film festival, fastidiously curated year after year by a hardworking team of movie buffs. To mark their 10th anniversary, the organisers have laid on yet another jamboree of documentaries, world cinema, premieres, short films and special events. Detailed at a recent press junket in the Black Box, the two week carnival features – to abuse a cliché – something for everybody. Okay, almost everybody – Shia LaBeouf fans will have to go elsewhere.

It would be reductive to list all of the films that will be showing all over the city, but choice highlights include Greenberg, the first directorial effort from the writer behind The Life Aquatic and The Fantastic Mr. Fox (and scored by our cover star, LCD Soundsystem’s James Murphy). It’s your classic middle age crisis piece in which Ben Stiller reveals more serious acting chops and in doing so maybe atones for the travesty that was Tropic Thunder. Alongside the many and various panel sessions, quizzes, talks and workshops, there’s also Tetro, the latest film from grandmaster Francis Ford Coppola; American, a documentary about Bill Hicks we’re pretty excited about; and several films shot in this small island by our very own filmmakers.

Once again, the organisers have been inventive with their special events, hosting screenings in odd locations which connect in some way to the theme of the film in question.

Top marks too for picking movies that most will have missed first time around, if they ever knew they existed.

Tootle down to the River Lagan for a showing of Deep Rising, a tongue-in-cheek B-movie homage in which a sea creature terrorises a cruise ship. It’s like Speed 2 but better, though that’s a backhanded compliment if ever there was one. At the same watery location you can catch Lake Placid, another ridiculous and equally funny spoof with Bill Pullman battling a man-eating crocodile. It doesn’t take itself seriously, so why should you? Frankly, where else can you watch mad-as-a-hatter television serial The Prisoner inside a huge church, or dress up in your most hideous legwarmers and Frankie T-shirt for Pretty In Pink and an Eighties-themed disco?

The 10th Belfast Film Festival runs from April 15 – 30.

10

th

BELFAST FILM FESTIVAL

15th-30th April 2010 . www.belfa

stfilmfestival.org

DR. LAURENCE JACOBY

—71 AU Magazine—

Sc Subbacultcha

Games

JUST CAUSE 2

Console Yourself!

Our regular round-up of the new releases: how to tell which game kicks ass and which is absolute pony…

JUST CAUSE 2 (Eidos, PC / PS3 / Xbox 360) Young, dumb and full of guns…

At night Michael Bay sleeps upside down in a velvetlined coffin of gold and dreams of games this pumped with testosterone and silly ideas. The plot may be slimmer than a supermodel’s butterfly-tattooed ankle – a mercenary goes to an exotic island to blow stuff up – but it’s just as pretty. The fictional Panau is an astounding visual spectacle: a vast open world of dense jungles, sun-bleached beaches and snowy mountains, each rendered to pinhead accuracy.

Every point of the sprawling map is accessible, and it would take the entire school holiday to explore every nook and cranny, never mind completing the umpteen missions and challenges which are thrown your way. As Rico Rodriguez (yes, really), a rudly budly mercenary with scant interest in diplomacy, you earn cash by blowing up power plants, communication towers, missile silos… anything and anyone who gets in your way.

Doing so fills up the ‘Chaos Meter’, a fairly arbitrary gauge which indicates how much you are ticking off local factions, and they will send more dudes, tanks and helicopters in your direction.

Words by Ross Thompson —72 issue 64—

There is a central, fairly trivial storyline, but it’s secondary to a sandbox set-up which encourages the player to joyride off the beaten track. You’re given free rein thanks to a Bionic Commando-style grappling hook. The latter can be employed to pull snipers off observation towers or to zip from a moving fire engine to a speeding motorcycle, but it bears truly juicy fruit when combined with the stunt parachute. Within half an hour you’ll be hijacking a Boeing 737, hoofing up to the bottom of the clouds before base-jumping to a secret military base whilst dual wielding pistols. You will feel

as if you are in some deranged action movie: there’s no need to slow down, for the laws of physics and good sense do not apply to you.

There are a few niggles. The enemies, who have an annoying habit of either respawning endlessly or appearing out of nowhere, are adept at shooting bullets around corners. Whereas you will start to bleed out within seconds of a firefight kicking off, your foes will suck up entire chambers before keeling over. The voice acting, meanwhile, is shocking. Clearly, the cast have attended the Fawlty Towers school of foreign accents – further evidence that this is not a game to be taken seriously. Quibbles aside, Just Cause 2 has style to burn – which it frequently does – even if the substance is occasionally a few yards back tying its shoelaces. It’s difficult not to be sucked in by a title which builds you your very own playground and doesn’t rap you over the knuckles for being a bully.

Games

FINAL FANTASY XIII (Square Enix, PS3 / Xbox 360) Lightning strikes…

Perched at the other end of the gaming spectrum is Final Fantasy, a franchise which has always been about telling an involving story, a tapestry where the player gets caught up in the weave. Coupling good old-fashioned swords and sorcery with ultra-futuristic science-fiction, the series has been going for over 20 years and shows no signs of flagging.

The storyline might be your usual creaky chronicle of a gang of mismatched underlings banding together to fight an unspeakable evil, but it is told with such depth and visual panache that it’s impossible not to be engrossed in this rich make-believe world.

Set in the world of Pulse, split between lush forests and towering metropolitan cities straight out of Akira or Ghost In The Shell, the 13th instalment is put together with Square Enix’s usual meticulous attention to detail. From the multiple cut-scenes through the soaring soundtrack to the intuitive menus, this is as complete a game any gamer could wish for. For the uninitiated, your average Japanese RPG can be an intimidating prospect, with a bewildering array of stats to decipher and techniques to learn. That said, FFXIII is more Western-friendly than most, and is built around regular tutorials for noobs.

Sure, it takes a while to get to grips with the complex combat system, but the results are hugely satisfying: protagonist Lightning is a dab hand with a master sword, and she is ably supported by a varied and likeable cast.

Some may criticise the game for being too linear, but it’s a fairly pathetic pebble to chuck at a game which will suck up more than 50 hours of your time. Absolutely tremendous.

underworld. In the aftermath of a nuclear attack, the bedraggled cigarette butts of humanity have retreated from the poisoned winter into the metro. Here, they have set up some sort of civilisation, but live in permanent fear of the mutated demons which now roam the surface.

Playing as Artyom, you must leave your home and make your way through subterranean barter towns and noxious sewers. Along the way you meet friends and foes, and become entangled in sidequests and escort missions, each of which progress the story in intriguing increments. Metro 2033 is heavy on atmosphere: the claustrophobia is palpable, particularly when it veers into supernatural territory à la F.E.A.R., and it is made more intense by the limited supply of bullets and gas mask filters. However, the mood is severely dampened by a megaton of unforgivable glitches. One can forgive the odd graphical gremlin – a disappearing coffee cup here, a juddering wall texture there – but it’s difficult to be gracious when your character catches on scenery or falls into a room from which he cannot escape.

There’s also the small yet irksome fact that shooting baddies in the head doesn’t kill them. The reverse isn’t the case: receive two or three bullets in your person and you’re toast. Such small grumbles would have been easily ironed out with more rigorous play-testing. In short, Metro 2033 is a promising title with some clever touches and ambitious ideas, but it is sold slightly short. Lots of spit, but less polish.

RED STEEL 2 (Ubisoft, Wii)

Not to be confused with Blue Steel…

Going underground…

One of the initial criticisms of Nintendo’s magic white box was that its release was not accompanied by a range of stellar games to play upon it. The original Red Steel was a lacklustre affair which promised the ability to slice and dice enemies with a katana, but the slow, undemanding action felt more like shaking a dead halibut at pensioners.

How pleasantly surprising it is to discover that this sequel is in a completely different league. So much so that it is connected to its predecessor in name alone.

Slipping in beneath the radar, this curious blend of firstperson shooter and survival horror is likely to enthral and frustrate in equal measure. It does not quite live up to the tingly spine feeling established with its introductory cinematic, an elongated tracking shot which takes us down into the cancerous throat of Moscow’s grimy, rusted

The cracking opening sequence, a high-speed concrete surf behind a speeding motorcycle, sets the scene perfectly. Red Steel 2 might not be as batzooka crazy as MadWorld, but the deranged way in which it splices the Wild West and the Far East is mightily impressive.

Playing as a no-name warrior, Clint Eastwood with a

METRO 2033 (THQ, PC / Xbox 360)

MOTO GP 09/10

samurai sword, you’re hired to plug your way through a series of increasingly challenging missions. Pulling the shotgun trigger is easy enough, but sword slashes are trickier - pulling off a combo of effective lunges and parleys gives your arm a real workout. It gives your weapons a real sense of weight. The graphics, frankly, are gorgeous. Red Steel 2 is presented in an eccentric celshaded style reminiscent of XIII, which places it several notches above your average Wii release. Nintendo’s oblong of wonders might still be suffering a dearth of high quality titles, but Red Steel 2 goes some way to solving that problem. Fantastic fun.

MOTO GP 09/10 (Capcom, PS3 / Xbox 360) Get your motor running…

Where most racing games confine the player to the auto shop and confuse them with menu after sub-menu about the finer points of calibration and acceleration, Capcom have made the wise decision of plonking you right in the saddle. This hugely enjoyable racing simulator recalls those classic arcade cabinets which had you begging your parents for 20p pieces. MotoGP has a steep learning curve, but you’re guided through the first couple of races by an easily comprehensible system which indicates the ideal speed and direction to take corners and the like.

It’s a simple yet addictive approach, and one which pays dividends when you progress to racing against the big boys. With a plethora of modes, both online and offline, MotoGP should satiate the most devoted of petrolheads.

PERFECT DARK (Rare, XBLA)

Super spy…

FINAL FANTASY XIII

Ten years after it was first released on the beloved N64, the so-called spiritual successor to Goldeneye sneaks onto Xbox Live Arcade. The conversion works much, much better than one might expect. The graphics may have aged as well as Terry Wogan’s toupee, even though they have been given a relatively gentle overhaul, but what really stands out is the level design, which is smart and intricate and cleverly balanced for multiplayer shenanigans. The whole escapade is a pastiche of Bond movie clichés, so it’s your choice whether you take the head on, all-guns-blazing approach, or sneak through the ventilation ducts to hack a computer mainframe. With its helicopter gunfights and Blade Runner vision of a neofuture, Perfect Dark has one eye on Hollywood, but its sense of humour is distinctly British. It’s unlikely that we will see another game in which you help a trash-talking alien called Elvis escape from Area 51. Brilliant stuff.

—73 AU Magazine—

SCIENCE, FICTION & God With 18 books between them, husband and wife team Steven Pinker and Rebecca Goldstein are on a mission to eradicate religion and replace it with reason.

Words by Kiran Acharya

—74 issue 64—

Arts

"We just have to accept the fact that we are not at the centre of the universe"

the anterior cingulated cortex. “In public, cognitive neuroscientists call this response the Error-Related Negativity; in private they call it the Oh-Shit Wave.”

To see Harvard professor of psychology Steven Pinker sitting in silence is to see a calm man. A closer look at the eyes, beneath the wiry mop of hair, reveals an easy sparkle. He sits with the ease granted by confidence.

You might call it monastic, but that would be to mistake him for a religious man.

36 Arguments for the Existence of God follows a psychologist named Cass Seltzer, who wins celebrity in intellectual circles with his book The Varieties of Religious Illusion. He runs with the big names in the atheism boom, meeting Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens. He comes to be called ‘the atheist with a soul’.

Pinker and his wife, Rebecca Goldstein, are addressing an audience at the London School of Economics. With 18 titles between them, tonight’s publicity push is for Goldstein’s newest novel, 36 Arguments for the Existence of God. When we speak she’s not long off the phone with William Crawley in Belfast, to plug the book on BBC Radio Ulster. Neither Pinker nor Goldstein has been to the city though both would like to visit. She compliments the warm reception that everyone in the UK has offered, in contrast to some commentators in America.

When dealing with the mainstream media at home, she explains, atheist or anti-theist arguments, like those from Sam Harris or Daniel Dennett, are the ones to be justified. Lacking the moral instruction and strictures of the Church, of any Church, the atheist’s position is one of defence.

“On live radio, an interviewer asked if we were atheists,” says Goldstein. “We took a gulp and said yes, yes we were.” Pinker grows wide-eyed and smiles. “It was like confessing to a murder!”

Pinker, author and Johnstone Family Professor at Harvard’s Psychology department, remains one of the world’s most popular science writers. Drawing on neurology and cognitive science to explain the mechanics of language and the mind, he has most recently published The Blank Slate, The Language Instinct and The Stuff of Thought. Of the latter, a reviewer in Arena magazine said that the section on swearing is worth the price of the book alone.

An extensive and entertaining investigation into language, The Stuff of Thought explains that sometimes, there’s nothing for it but to swear. “The remaining use of taboo language is cathartic,” he writes. “The blurting out of damn, hell, shit, fuck or bugger in Arts Shorts moments of sudden pain, frustration, or regret.” An electrophysiological response kicks in, emanating from

Goldstein, a philosopher by trade and research associate in the department, writes novels to show how philosophy can aid real life. Historically, Pinker likes Darwin while she likes Spinoza. Each had long been smitten with the other’s work. They were married in a humanist ceremony. “It was like the ultimate literary romance,” says Pinker. “Between two nerds.”

But in a single week, Seltzer’s fame attracts a selection of nutty characters from his past, including a six-yearold maths whizz, a lover on a quest for immortality, and a messianic mentor named Professor Clapper.

“Clapper is a purveyor of claptrap on an industrial scale,” says Goldstein. “He’s a mountain of pomposity and self-mythologising grandiosity. Though he was born on the Lower East Side of New York, he has somehow acquired a British accent.”

The character puts you in mind of crapspout hucksters from Joel Osteen to Jerry Falwell to more familiar demagogues like Glenn Beck or Ian Paisley. But for Goldstein, these kinds of truth-tellers can be found outside the worlds of religion or the media.

religion. If God exists, he/she/it exists in the way that witches exist. Seltzer’s book explains how irrelevant religion is. But Goldstein then says she doesn’t feel the need to eradicate religion. “It serves too many needs,” she says. “I have a great deal of sympathy for those who need it.”

But if all the writers and philosophers and adherents to reason are widening the maligned ‘God-shaped hole in modern life’, what is the alternative? What is offered to fill the gap left when an absence of the divine robs people of their feeling of purpose?

“Well,” says Goldstein, “This is one of the arguments that I think is fallacious. It’s number 17. I think, yes, the sense of purpose is a strong need that we have. We all matter so very much to ourselves. For each of us, the world revolves around us. We’re always playing the central role. Everybody else is playing a bit-part.

“There’s the tendency to try and construct a view of the world that will do justice to that. That’s another need that’s met in religion – that we are as cosmically important as we feel ourselves to be. And we’re just not.

These mythologies can do justice to our sense of selfimportance, but it’s a lie. And nothing’s quite going to take that place. That’s what it is, I think, to grow up.

We just have to accept that fact: we are not the centre of the universe.”

36 Arguments for the Existence of God (Pantheon) and The Stuff of Thought (Penguin) are out now. www.pinker.wjh.harvard.edu www.rebeccagoldstein.com

“Certain figures can become charismatic and seem to be channelling truth from on high,” she says. “You can find them in universities. They have disciples, also known as graduate students. It has something of the religious hanging around it. I satirise it, viciously.”

In the novel, Seltzer’s Varieties of Religious Illusion is an obvious take on William James’ 1902 book The Varieties of Religious Experience – a Study in Human Nature.

James, himself a Harvard psychologist, criticised the scientific world for neglecting the world of religion.

James, brother of novelist Henry, set out to show how scientific enquiry into individual religious experiences – as opposed to the edicts of religious institutions – could explain concepts like conversion and repentance. But today’s strident atheists and anti-theists, Pinker and Goldstein, Dawkins and Hitchens, are unlikely to agree with James’ assertion that a psychological account of religious experience doesn’t exclude the presence of a deity.

Both Pinker and Goldstein happily state that they’re deeply committed to science and reason, and to carrying out “an elegant, comprehensive demolition job” on

A SIGNED COPY OF THE STUFF OF THOUGHT Steven Pinker’s The Stuff of Thought examines our words: our conversations, disputes, curses and jokes, revealing how what we say reveals just who we are.

In the chapter ‘The Seven Words You Can’t Say On Television’ he looks at famous banned works, from James Joyce to George Carlin.

It’s full of naughty words, and it’s funny as heck.

To win a copy signed by the author, answer the following question: Which university does Steven Pinker teach at?

Then just send your answer, name and address to info@iheartau.com The first correct one bags the book.

arts SHORTS The ever-intriguing Alfred Jensen (1903-1981) was heavily influenced by the colour theories of Goethe, the writings of Leonardo da Vinci, Pythagorean geometry and Mayan and ancient Chinese calendars. This exhibited work reflects this, showing a real commitment to the exploration of deep metaphysical questions, as well as an extraordinary use of pattern and paint. AL The Alfred Jensen Exhibition runs in the Douglas Hyde Gallery in Dublin until May 19

Readers, 2010, alongside related works in collaboration with architect Dominic Stevens and artist John Seth. Tallentire explores how the ordering and disordering of things can signify cultural and social factors in daily life, through works that use a range of media such as text, video performance, photography and film. AL Anne Tallentire: This, and other things 1999-2010 will run in the Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin until May 3

For this exhibition, Irish artist Anne Tallentire presents her most recent projects Nowhere Else, 2010, and The

Almost 98 years after it sank on an April night in 1912, Titanic: The Artefact Exhibition, continues at

Citywest in Dublin. The speciallydesigned exhibition focuses on the human stories behind the ship, while featuring more than 300 authentic artefacts recovered from the wreck site, alongside 19 artifacts which have never been seen before. AL Titanic: The Artefact Exhibition is running in Citywest, Saggart until June 19 Congratulations are due to AU contributor and arch film buff James Gracey, who has just had his debut book published. Simply entitled Dario Argento, it’s an in-depth study of the legendary Italian horror auteur, of whom James has written

authoritatively for AU in the past. CJ Dario Argento is out now, published by Kamera Books

at 3pm on April 17 in the Edmund Burke Theatre, Trinity College, Dublin

want it will run in The Source Arts Centre in Thurles until April 24

Prior to this year’s festival, Dublin Writers’ Festival will be copresenting an event with His Dark Materials author Philip Pullman. An outspoken atheist and humanist, Pullman is noted for his criticism of growing state authority and government encroachment into everyday life. He will be reading and discussing his latest work The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ. AL Philip Pullman in conversation with Fintan O’Toole takes place

A solo show by Rowena Keaveny, an Offaly-based artist, who will create a piece live and straight onto the wall of the gallery itself. Inspired by her belief that the ‘personal is political’ this new work has developed from an exploration of protest and examines how, in the current global, national and local context, citizens are being forced to verbalise their objections to the threats eroding the autonomy of their daily lives. AL What do we want....when do we

Printmaker Dr Josephine McCormick of the Belfast Print Workshop teams up with artists working in various media – including experimental sound – for the prinTwins exhibition, which runs throughout April. “I have worked on collaboration projects before,” she enthused, “and this recent body of work is one of the most exciting ever!” CJ prinTwins runs at the Belfast Print Workshop throughout the month until April 26.

—75 AU Magazine—

Sc Subbacultcha

Comics

thunderstruck Matt Fraction And Pasqual Ferry

Give Us The Inside Track On Thor

With a Kenneth Branagh-helmed film slated for 2011 and an allstar creative team of writer Matt Fraction and artist Pasqual Ferry charged with the task of taking the Thunder God to new heights, it looks like it’s a good time to be a Thor fan. This issue we meet up with Goldilocks’ new minders (so to speak) and hear about their plans for the Norse God over the years to come.

Words by Edwin McFee

From what we’ve already read about your upcoming run, it looks like your story will examine Asgard and its place among the nine worlds of Norse mythology. For those who didn’t spend too long in school, could you guys tell us a little bit about the World Tree, and how it might impact Thor’s homes in Asgard and Broxton?

Matt Fraction: “Well, the Asgardian cosmology – their map, their conception of the universe – is that there’s this World Tree. It’s a great ash that connects nine realms, or worlds. From Asgard to Hel and the seven points in between, they’re all like fruit hanging off of the limbs of this mighty tree. So, to Asgardians, that’s the shape of the universe, basically. And what impact Asgard being on Earth has…? Well that is exactly what our first arc is about.”

Of course Matt, this isn’t your first run-in with Thor. Can you tell us what the appeal of a character like Thor is as opposed to Iron Fist or Iron Man? And what do you feel is the potential for a book like this?

Fraction: “Thor is... well, he’s a god trapped inside of a man, and a man trapped inside of a god. The potential for Thor, to me, is a cosmic, colossal bigness.

It’s the corner of the Marvel U that takes place in the only place bigger than Manhattan, y’know? The gods are as fallible and real and flawed as us mortals are, but the scale is much more amplified. The breadth and depth of stories Thor allows for are just opened up to the extreme. The potential is limited only by the insane stuff I can think up.”

—76 issue 64—

her feelings for Blake [Donald Blake is the mortal that Thor shares a body with]. I’m going to highlight Blake’s feelings for Thor, Thor’s feelings for Sif, and all that noise. I love that romantic melodrama stuff in Thor so I want to bring that back some. I like how the Asgardians and the folks of Broxton interact, so there’ll be more of that. I like the way each side find these little moments of humanity and divinity in their dayto-day lives. Of course we’ll also be seeing an Asgard that has to rebuild after Siege...”

What kinds of books and music etc have you been checking out in terms of influences to get your head into writing about Thor’s universe?

Fraction: “I don’t really go out looking for things to influence me. I live on top of a mountain that spits clouds out of the ground. If I need to be inspired I turn on some metal and watch the mist crawl through the treetops. I think about giant things stalking through it. I think about Jack Kirby and outer space... then usually the screaming starts. I’ve been reading up on a lot of cosmological sciences, quantum physics, the old Norse myth cycle, and old Thor books that I love.”

What’s it been like working with Pasqual Ferry?

Fraction: “Pasqual is a giant hiding in the skin of a man. I’m writing the Pasqual Ferry book I’ve always wanted to read. The back and forth has been apocalyptic. He’s from outer space. He’s not making anything up. He’s seen it all and is recalling it with his pen... and the women! Oh god, the women...”

Let’s talk supporting cast. Who can we expect to see?

Pasqual, you’re a Thor virgin so to speak. Are there any particular qualities that you’ve felt you really need to get on every page to make this book work?

Fraction: “Well, Jane Foster is back and sticking around, and I’m bringing in a new guy to complicate

Pasqual Ferry: “Well obviously every character has his own concept that every artist needs to reinterpret

Comics

My Favourite Comic Andy Hurley

in order to give his own personal visual. Thor is a character that I really wanted to do, because he’s a mixture of very weird concepts. To me Jack Kirby did an incredible design job doing Nordic/pop/ABBA stuff that I really love, so I’m not changing too much of it.

I’ve made a few tweaks that I think the fans will love and I’m looking forward to working on the book for a long time to come.”

Are there any moments from Thor history that you’d love to equal or better?

Fraction: “Definitely. For me it’s Thor issue 168169 where Thor and Galactus are sitting on a moon somewhere and talking about how hard it is to be Galactus. That just so perfectly encapsulates the Kirby era for me. I don’t think it’s vault-able, but it’s a highwater mark to keep an eye on just to see how high the wave can crest.”

Ferry: “My all time favourite Thor stories are the ‘Tales of Asgard.’ I really love the stories about a young Thor and Loki. Simonson’s Thor is incredible too. It’s solid and fun stuff. What Matt is doing now is high-level, fun, cosmic, mythological stuff. I think

that it will be a classic for sure. I’m really flattered and honoured to be there doing the art.”

Finally, can you give our readers who haven’t picked up the title yet and don’t know what to expect a full sales pitch for the new Thor?

Fraction: “Yeah, sure. It’s epic space metal – now in comic form. Think of the biggest thing you’ve ever thought of. Now imagine Thor hitting it with a hammer while torrents of cosmic blood erupt from the membrane of space-time. That sound like your thing?

Sweet. Us too.”

Ferry: “Thor will be comic book fun with very, very well-worked plots and I will be putting all my energy into doing something spectacular on the art side.”

If I had to pick my favourite character I’d probably go for either Daredevil or The Punisher. I like Daredevil because he’s been written by so many good people (such as Frank Miller, Bendis, Kevin Smith etc) and he’s just such an awesome, flawed character and he’s really badass. I also love The Punisher too, just because he’s the ultimate dude.

He’s kind of Batman to the Nth degree, where he’s just this regular dude who is trained to perfection, but he goes the extra step and gets rid of evil for all time.

My favourite writer, for me, is definitely Brian Michael Bendis. I mean, I love the Miller run on Daredevil, but Bendis’ run is one of the best runs in comics history.

Daredevil is a series that I’ve been reading for a long time in my life and since the restart I’ve been reading since issue one. I read every issue when it comes out and I never miss it no matter where I am in the world.

ANDY HURLEY PLAYS DRUMS FOR FALL OUT BOY.

MATT FRACTION AND PASQUAL FERRY START THEIR THOR RUN WITH ISSUE 611, WHICH SHIPS IN JUNE. THOR IS PUBLISHED BY MARVEL COMICS. FOR MORE INFORMATION VISIT WWW.MARVEL.COM.

SUPER SHORTS After spending most of the last decade floundering around while Marvel dominated the box office, DC/Warner Brothers have announced that as of next year (when they release Green Lantern starring digger mouthed, ‘Mr Scarlett Johansson’ Ryan Reynolds in the lead role) they plan

to make a superhero movie every 12 months. So, from the looks of things it seems like fanboys can expect silver screen outings for Wonder Woman, The Flash, JLA and more and with The Dark Knight director Christopher Nolan recently confirming he’s signed up for the new Superman flick, it looks like

Marvel big wigs will need to get their game faces on to make sure they stay ahead of the pack.

Hack/Slash creator Tim Seeley has revealed that his title will now be published

by Image Comics for the foreseeable future. The wonderfully cheesy monthly

fright-fest was in danger of biting the dust under the management of former publisher Devil’s Due, so this comes as good news for fans of Cassie, Vlad and Co.

Robin. Irving will provide the art for the muchanticipated return of Bruce Wayne this summer (Yes, he died. No, we didn’t care either).

Congrats to artist Frazer Irving for bagging the pencilling job on Grant Morrison’s Batman and

Fans of saucy vampires in skimpy clothes have reason to rejoice this month as Dynamite Entertainment

have bought the rights for Vampirella from Harris Comics. While it sucks (think about it…) that Vampi has had to move home, at least the long-running Harris Comics name gets to live on as an imprint, so this writer views these events in a glass (of blood) half full kinda way.

—77 AU Magazine—

Sc Subbacultcha

Here's Looking At You(Tube) / Weird Wide Web

Here's Looking At You(Tube)

Unknown Legends Lest there be any lingering doubt on the matter, allow us to make it very clear: life is hideously unfair and there is no justice.

Thus, Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse can die an untimely death as an under-appreciated musical genius, yet inexplicably Robbie Williams continues to live and breathe. And it’s the same with fame and recognition. Whilst, say, Jedward can achieve massive success through little more than a bit of badlychoreographed prancing about on prime time television, thousands of genuinely talented people – y’know, folks with actual skills – toil in obscurity. Here are a few of them.

BEATBOXING CLEVER This clip features a young man, Spanish we think, called Carlos. No second name is forthcoming – it’s just Carlos.

We know nothing about the geezer whatsoever...except that he is amazing at beatboxing. We mean amazing. And not just beats, either. Stare in awe as he perfectly replicates the sound of a trumpet with just his gob. Then watch in wonder as he essays an effortless saxophone, while simultaneously providing top-notch mouth percussion. A bizarre skill to possess, but impressive nonetheless.

TINYURL.COM/CARLOSBEATBOX STREETS AHEAD

Words by Neill Dougan

WEIRD WIDE WEB

Here’s a Japanese fella named Toshinobu Komatsu doing his thing on the streets of Osaka. Technically it’s ‘busking’, but that word doesn’t come close to doing justice to this bravura performance.

Komatsu starts out playing

'Net-ty Dread WATER WAY TO HAVE FUN

WWW.SEARCHENGINESUGGESTIONS.COM

ARC’ AT HIM

WWW.SELLECKWATERFALLSANDWICH. TUMBLR.COM —78 issue 64—

TINYURL.COM/ PIANOTRUMPET GIVE THE DRUMMER SOME Who needs drums when you can have upturned plastic cans? Here’s street drummer Larry Wright giving it loads in a New York subway station. If his frankly amazing biceps are anything to go by, Larry’s been at this a while and here he showcases some pretty phenomenal levels of co-ordination and rhythm. He even gives the ground a bit of a pounding when he gets tired of beating his homemade kit. The man clearly likes to drum, a lot. His friend is rubbish though.

TINYURL.COM/STREETDRUMS

SEARCH ME You know how, when you do a Google search, it uses your first few words to start throwing up some predictions about what phrase you might be searching for? Some of the suggestions are pretty wacky, eh? And, as if to prove the point, here’s Searchenginesuggestions.com with a collection of the more bizarre Google prompts. Among AU’s favourite phrases thrown up by the power of Google are “A girlfriend is a sister you choose” and the plaintive “Why can’t I just eat my waffle?” Childish and puerile, indubitably, but highly entertaining nonetheless.

You know how this column is called ‘Weird Wide Web’, yeah? Well AU must confess that occasionally we fret that some of the monthly entries aren’t quite ‘weird’ enough.

No fear of that with this website, the functionally-named Selleckwaterfallsandwich.com. Basically, it’s loads of pictures of waterfalls, with photos and animations of a) random sandwiches, and b) magnificently-moustachioed Three Men & A Baby star Tom Selleck photoshopped into the foreground. People have actually spent their free time knocking these up. Utterly, utterly baffling.

a nifty little tune on his keyboard. Fairly standard street performance at this stage. But what’s that just to his right? Is it a trumpet? Surely he’s not going to try and play trumpet and piano simultaneously? Well, watch and learn folks. Gives a whole new meaning to the term ‘multi-tasking’, certainly.

Talk about selfless. Here’s a fella (modestly remaining anonymous) with a large collection of old copies of Melody Maker and the NME from 1987 to 1996 – the golden age of the British music press, in other words, encompassing the tail end of Eighties indie, the house music explosion, Madchester and the rise of Britpop, right up to the point it turned a bit crap. Finding these old back issues in his attic, does this guy simply bin them as most of us would?

Not a bit of it: instead, he scans the best articles, features, reviews and cover shots onto this website for your nostalgic delectation. What a bloody good bloke.

WWW.ARCHIVEDMUSICPRESS.WORDPRESS.COM

Words by Neill Dougan

Story Of The Video / Get Your Clicks

Get Your Clicks Our guide to the best online places for the things you need THIS MONTH: HEADPHONES (SLIGHT RETURN) HIFI HEADPHONES

Story Of The Video Seabear TITLE: ‘I’LL BUILD YOU A FIRE’ DIRECTOR: MANI SIGFUSSON

This month’s video comes from Iceland’s baroque popsters Seabear. ‘I’ll Build You A Fire’ is taken from their fine album We Built A Fire, and its video is a feast for the eyes, eschewing traditional storytelling in favour of a riot of visuals and forest imagery. Bassist Halldór Ragnarsson tells us about its making.

How did the band come up with the concept for this video?

Well it is made by [frontman] Sindri´s brother named Máni Sigfusson and he and us just got a storyboard going on and then we did the shootings. It is kind of abstract and I am not really sure whether the story is in there any more.

The video is more based on visuals than a storyline, is this influence from anyone in the band? Are you all into moving visual arts?

Well me, Inga & Sindri are all visual artists and we all have exhibitions in between tours and so on. So yes we are into moving visual arts. Well, just art in general.

Were there any other videos or movies that inspired this video?

Probably; this was made really spontaneous and it is Máni´s video in the end. We are moving more in this direction about our videos to trust people [with] what they are doing and let them have their say and interpret the songs on their own. We made our previous videos. Is there anyone good out there who wants to do a Seabear video?

Do you think you will continue this feel of this video onto other videos or will you go in a different direction?

We’re open for everything in our idea about our Seabear world.

Yeah, we know, we did headphones in this column a couple of years ago (well done if you remembered that), but since then the iPhone has taken over the world. With the exception of a few rogue mavericks who claim to prefer the Creative Zen (and they’re probably just doing that to be different), everyone has an iPhone or iPod of some description these days. The main problem with that is that the little white Apple headphones that come with iPods are, in a word, rubbish. Replace them with a far superior set from Hifi Headphones, where you can pick up a wide variety of ‘phones, from in-ear buds to high-end audiophile sets (700 quid anyone?). The site also does a nice line in stylish, ‘retro’ headphones for the poseur in us all. ‘Phone-tastic! (sorry) WWW.HIFIHEADPHONES.CO.UK HEADROOM Over at Headroom you’ll find top-brand headphones of every description, from yer basic buds to super-fancy topof-the-range headsets suitable for DJs and producers (you know, the borderline-daft sets that pretty much obscure your whole head). As well as offering as wide a range as you could possibly want, there’s also a few handy extra features, such as a list of discounted B-stock goods and a ‘Learning Centre’ where you can get tips on protecting your hearing and other such important matters. Safety first, kids.

WWW.HEADPHONE.COM SKULLCANDY Skullcandy are, of course, well renowned as top headphone manufacturers. And, as you might expect, their website is a treat. A wide selection of Skullcandy products is just the start – you can also browse for ‘phones using a baffling array of categories, such as colour. speaker diameter and frequencies. Also up for grabs is a handy array of headphone accessories like gel and foam tips for in-ear buds and, if you really want to nail your colours to the Skullcandy mast, branded t-shirts and necklaces too. All in all, pretty nifty.

WWW.SKULLCANDY.COM

Are there ever any issues with videos within the band or is everyone pretty easy going about what gets put out?

Well we all have ideas about where we are going and we have similar minds about that. We are all friends – even more like a family so we don’t argue about stuff like this.

We are easy-going between each other but we are maybe not easy going [about] what gets put out. We want our videos to have the same feeling as the songs.

WATCH THE VIDEO ONLINE AT BIT.LY/ ILLBUILDYOUAFIRE Interview by Richard W. Crothers

WWW.MYSPACE.COM/SEABEAR

Words by Neill Dougan —79 AU Magazine—

Sc Two Door Cinema Club @ The Stiff Kitten, Belfast

In Pictures

Danielle & Jessie

Mark & Suzanne

Daniel, Lynn & Jacqui

Fiachra, Grainne, Reta, Rach, Jess, Steve & Rachel

Jenna & Jamie

Clare, Chrissy & Connor

Megan & Julie

Natalie & Caroline

Mark & Sarah

Samantha, Catherine, Mike & Steve

Two Door Cinema Club The Stiff Kitten, Belfast AU’s recent cover stars have been making the NI music scene very proud over the past few months and couldn’t have timed their album launch any better. It felt a bit like a celebration of their immense success. A sold out Stiff Kitten didn’t give Two Door too much of a response, but that can be typical of a Belfast crowd. The band bust through their set flawlessly and showed everyone why they are soaking up all the perks of the music industry.

The finest pop outfit to ever come out of Northern Ireland?

Words and Photos by Richard W. Crothers 63— —80 issue 64—

Joanne & Amy

Ronan & Rita

Terri & Ashleigh

DJ Yoda @ Spring & Airbrake

DJ Yoda Spring & Airbrake, Belfast Easter Monday is always a big night in Belfast, with plenty of quality events taking place across the city.

If you chose to make your way to see DJ Yoda, it was a good decision. The London-based DJ put on a full audio/visual set, splicing together all kinds of cult movies, cartoons, internet memes, and other random video clips. Running alongside this he cut up and scratched his way through a selection of tunes that ran the gauntlet through party hip-hop, dubstep, drum ‘n’ bass, and everything in between. Definitely one of the best DJ performances Belfast has witnessed in a while.

Feisty one, he is.

Photos by Suzie McCracken Penny

Martin & Minnie Mouse

Rebecca, Mark & Bianca

DJ Yoda Brian & Michelle

Michael & Viola

Michael

Ashleigh & Gayle

Chris & Michael

Jemma, Rowan & Alyson

Michael, Rachel & John

Daniel & Pete

—81 AU Magazine—

Sc Subbacultcha The Last Word

The LastWK Andrew Word

The Last Word With Tigs of:

Chew Lips "I love Googling serial killers. Chances are, any venue in any city, in the endless hours waiting to sound check I’ll be there on Wikipedia, perusing.

When was the last time you offended someone?

Not for a good long while, unless I’ve done it unknowingly.

I’ve always been plain speaking but you learn how to be less of an idiot as you grow up.

When was the last time you doubted yourself?

No memorable conscious moment of doubt, existence is more of a tightrope; you sort of wobble and lean towards these feelings from time to time, without acknowledging them. I contain doubt and self-belief simultaneously.

The Last Word

When was the last tine you did something you regret?

I don’t believe in regret.

With: Andrew WK (at SXSW!) When was the last time you felt guilty?

Summer. Summer is for naughtiness.

What was the last thing that annoyed you?

I got this strange spider bite or a bug bite on my arm today. There is a trail of red going all the way up my arm on the vein. I found it annoying that it showed up on the day when I want to put all my energy and focus into our shows, being here and making the most of it. When something strange happens to your body it can throw you off.

When was the last time you doubted yourself?

I experience moments of doubt all the time. It’s important when you have those moments of doubt to still go through with whatever you may be doubting. The only times you can really challenge yourself is when you doubt whether you’re going to be able to do it. That’s what a challenge is – pushing yourself beyond what you have been and what you have proven to yourself in Philipcapable Larkin,ofpoet the past. 9, I like that–feeling of doubt in the challenge, you (August 1922 December 2, 1985) just don’t want into it. That’s the key.

“I am going to to thegive inevitable.”

Famous Last Words

What was Medic the lastinpiece of Duty good advice you were Unnamed Call of given?

“I'm sorry! I'm sorry! It's just...so many My mekilled great advice yesterday – ‘Don’t let your guysdad aregave gettin' out there...it's life run you, youthey're want toshootin' run your life’. He said that in the just...oh, God, medics entertainment business it’s very easy to let it run you into too! Oh, God...” the ground, and you really have to be aggressive about not letting that happen. He said you live your life, not the other way round.

This Issue Was When was the last time you threw up?

Powered By...

This morning. I had some really bad nausea that just

wasn’t going away. I figured I’d gotten food poisoning or Office moves, Jack Frost, Mini Eggs, new something so I just wanted to cut to the chase. I used to threads, multi-jobbing, passing driving have a big fear of throwing up, I hated it, but I’ve tried to tests (and failing them), charidee, mass get over that. Now if I’m feeling nauseous, I make myself recycling, the cut and run. puke and that normally makes me feel better. Today that didn’t really work so well.

—82 issue 64—

What was the last injury you sustained?

What was the last piece of good advice you were given?

The last time I was in Austin, I threw my knee out. It “Have a word with yourself” – from James [Watkins, didn’t break, but it was pretty serious and I couldn’t walk bandmate], regularly. on it. It happened in the most pathetic way. I was giving a lecture and I started doing this dance, and it just twisted When was the last time you cried? my leg. I thought it would be cool, doing this real acute Properly, solidly? When my nephew and niece were born funny movement, and it was just a little too unusual for my last year. Just so overwhelmed. own body to withstand and my knee just went [makes a noise] and I collapsed. It happened at the very start of this When was the last time you were embarrassed? lecture, I and I could barely breathe. The audience thought New Year’s Eve... it’s a long story. it was all part of the show, and I was trying to talk but I could barely get a word out. I think there might be a video What was your last argument about? on YouTube [ha, we found it - bit.ly/2M0Zi].

Something stupid and small about the details of the single cover. These intricacies are seemingly endless.

When was the last time you were scared?

The most scared I’ve ever been in my life was September When was the last time you time you had a fistfight?

11th in New York. Since then, nothing has come close.

It’s never happened.

Probably the most scared I’ve been recently was when my wife had appendicitis, and she had to get her appendix When was the last time you threw up? taken out. It’s quite common, but if it doesn’t go well or if My birthday in December. Sambucca. I was it bursts it can be very, very serious. That was scary.

ALLEGEDLY found sleeping on the bathroom floor under fur coats. Allegedly.

What was the last good album you listened to?

Switched-On Bach by Wendy Carlos. Recorded in 1968, What was the last good record you bought? it was the first successful synthesiser album, and the first I’m not much of a record buyer. I know that sucks, but you time that someone had proven that synthesisers could be as just get given so much... Anyway, last record I acquired musical as any other instrument. was The Big Pink, and I like it a lot.

If the world was about to end, what would your last What was the last thing you downloaded? words be?

Colin Farrell sex tape. No joke. It’s pukey.

Party Hard.

What was the last thing you Googled?

ANDREW WK’S CLOSE CALLS AND BRICK WALLS Serial killers. I love Googling serial killers. Chances are, & MOTHER OF MANKIND TWO CD SET IS OUT any venue in any city, in the endless hours waiting to sound NOW ON STEEV MIKE RECORDS. check I’ll be there on Wikipedia, perusing.

WWW.ANDREWWK.COM

What was the last meal you had?

Earlier this evening I had vegetable chilli and broccoli, followed by homemade flapjacks.

What was the last good book you bought?

Choke by Chuck Palahniuk, but it was a gift.

What was the last good movie you watched?

Pretty In Pink on a gals’ night. For fashion warm fuzzies.

What does the last text you received say?

“Just to check you remembered its Dad’s birthday today” (I hadn’t) “Does this make up for me missing yours?!” from my brother. We’re not so hot with birthdays in our family.

What was the last bad job you had?

I used to temp. Good money, extreme boredom, but it ain’t factory packing meat so I can’t complain.

When was the last time you set something on fire?

I accidentally set myself on fire when I was 18 or so. I had problems sleeping and one morning, just before dawn, was lying in bed trying to sleep, smoking a joint. I obviously fell asleep smoking it, as when I woke up the entire bed was on fire. It was a very close call. I burnt the eyelashes off one eye. I’ve been pretty wary of fire – candles etc. – ever since.

FAMOUS LAST WORDS

When was the last time you were in hospital?

Warren G. Harding, the 29th President I had meningitis in my late teens.

That was an absolute riot. of the USA (November 2, 1865 – August 2, 1923) When was the last time you broke the law?

I never, ever break the law.

“That’s good. Go on, read some more.” (to his wife, who him flattering When was thewas lastreading time one of your heroes newspaper accounts) disappointed you?

Have you seen the Iggy Pop commercial? He’s not selling Romeo in Romeo Juliet car insurance, he’s and selling time, apparently. Also Patrick Swayze, for dying.

“Here’s to my love!

OWhen true apothecary! was the last time you bought a band shirt at a Thy drugs are quick. show?

Thus with a kiss die.”given a few, from doing gigs with I haven’t. But I’veIbeen other bands. The Veils one is particularly good.

This Issue Was Powered By...

If the world was about to end what would your last words be?

“TIGGO!!!!!!!!!” In an Australian accent.

CHEW LIPS’ DEBUT ALBUM UNICORN IS OUT NOW ON KITSUNÉ Paint, South by Southwest, yet more snow, getting settled, under-desk heating, clean WWW.CHEWLIPS.CO.UK windows, erratic Wi-Fi, Poppo Goblin, canned soup, chocolate, sleety football…

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::: 5('%8//%('5220-$0 &20 —84 issue 64—