PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER August - September 2009 Au Revoir Simone Eddie Argos Michael Jackson PYT’s Birthday Comic Strips
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WE ARE ONE Now we know we shouldn’t really be blowing our own trumpet, but Happy Birthday To Us! Yes, that’s right, PYT is a whole year old this month, and we can’t believe how that time has flown. We’ve been feeling in a celebratory mood for a while now, with recent shows from Amida, AXXONN, worriedaboutsatan and to top it all off, our Indietracks special! It’s all been great fun and we hope to bring you some more great gigs later in the year. For now though, there’s summer sunshine to be enjoyed! It’s been great to have some decent weather for the Manchester International Festival (after ‘07’s washout), and PYT have been lucky enough to catch a lot of rather special performances (it’s impossible to say whether anything will ever top the combo of Kraftwerk at the Veledrome then Elbow & The Halle at the Bridgewater Hall) as well as devour platters of Heathcotes’ goodies at the Festival Pavilion. So much of this city has worked hard to make MIF a success, and everybody involved deserves to feel incredibly proud. Bravo!
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The PYT Radio is Playing... Art Brut, Grizzly Bear, Let’s Wrestle, Echo and the Bunnymen, Axxonn & worriedaboutsatan.
myspace.com/pullyourselftogethermcr pullyourselftogethermcr.blogspot.com pullyourselftogethermanchester@gmail.com
P3 - Mike from WOXY is back, with a dispatch regarding the death of a certain pop singer.
You may find it interesting that of all my friends and colleagues I chose to discuss Michael Jackson’s untimely demise with, the two who were the most vehemently outraged at the gross amount of media coverage were full-time residents of London and Cardiff, England and Wales respectively. E-mail discussions and disagreements, mind you, but nonetheless spirited debates better suited for pints of ale at close quarters rather than keyboards at 4000 miles. Nonetheless, and far be it from me to defend a performer for whom I personally cared little for, I was caught between amused and surprised at the amount of venom spewed by my British friends less about Jacko’s passing but by the excessive coverage of his death and the reminder of his keen interest in young lads. Was this merely a cultural difference? I thought that surely, after all, Britain has seemed far more likely to elevate pop stars du jour to godlike statuses than we more measured Yanks. Certainly, there’ll be no tears from these shores once Cliff Richard spins off this mortal coil. As this is an opinion piece, here’s another. The collective outpouring of grief from across the Atlantic had precious little to do with the King of Pop’s passing. I’d wager that only a miniscule number of diehard fans truly believed his next, last, great comeback would hold any artistic greatness. The O2 concerts, to call them what they were, were a cash grab. With the possible exception of Madonna, Jackson may have
been the last pop star to enjoy recognition from every segment of the US population, old and young, fan and non-fan alike. With a endless supply of choices provided by cable and satellite television, online and satellite radio, Americans have collectively retreated into our own corners, seeking the precise niche of programming music we want to see or hear, and often never coming in contact with those who may see things a bit differently. There’s not a national Radio 1 or similar here. No TV or radio coverage of a Glastonbury. No, to a great degree, Jackson’s passing represents one of the last times America was on the same page culturally. One of the last pop stars that everyone knew, that everyone could recall. He was a generation’s Elvis, and to degrade his impact on the basis of pedophilia or, as some have, that he didn’t write all of his own songs misses the mark. People mourn Jackson’s death because it marks the passage of time In their own lives. The coverage, excessive? You bet. “If it bleeds, it leads” is an old axiom about news coverage here. It’s all about competing for eyeballs, to turn into ratings, to turn into ad rates, advertising dollars, income and profits. Duh! It’s no different than why there’s tits on page 3, is it? So, all of you hand-wringers, please do us a favor and dismount those high horses you’ve been riding. Mike broadcasts on the excellent woxy.com. Head to their website for details of shows, live sessions and much more.
P4 - Pull Yourself Together is One! Join us in a celebration of all the people who have helped us reach this birthday! P6 - PYT meets David Lynch’s new favourite band - Au Revoir Simone. P8 - Local pen-smith David Bailey goes all comic book on us. P12 - The Mercury Music Prize nominations are out, but who did they manage to miss? -2-
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NOW WE ARE ONE. st PYT’S 1 BIRTHDAY! As Summer 2008 was approaching, PYT (then determinedly trying to be called Painting and Kissing) sat down, pint in one hand, zines in the other, and pitched the idea of an indiepop night at Common. Rather surprisingly, they were all for it and it feels almost overwhelming that we’ve been doing it for a year now! We know that it is very self indulgent, but we’d like to take a moment to tell you all about some of our inspirations for this whole thing, without which the last Wednesday of the month would be all but redundant...
This theme continued the next night when we visited The Flying Duck, a club which combined great pop music with rounds of toast. We returned energised and ready to bring indiepop back to Manchester.
First up we would like to pay tribute to the club nights which made us finally sit up and do something. Having been living in Manchester for years we have been surrounded by great nights, with most notable mentions going to Kissing Just For Practice, Smile, Underachievers Please Try Harder and Panda Panda. However, it took a trip to Glasgow to convince us that we should put together something of our own, with a slightly different feel to it. On our first night in the city we were lucky enough to take in a trip to Woodside Social Club for the legendary National Pop League. Here was a night which spoke directly to us, with handmade fanzines and button badges for everyone who arrived for a night of C86 and 60s Girl Group inspired revelry. The whole atmosphere was one of people there just to have a bloody good time whilst listening to some amazing pop music.
Nicola Chipman - one of our bestest friends and also amongst our favourite artists around. Nicola’s Robots poster for the first ever PYT still makes us smile from ear to ear every time we see it, as she completely caught the idea of what we wanted to achieve with the night and the zine from one garbled outpouring of ideas over a cup of hot chocolate.
What followed next is the stuff of indiepop legend, and we whiz through numerous DJ sets across Manchester, great gigs and of course wonderful art and writing in the precursors of this here fanzine. But rather than harp on about ourselves, we’d like to pat some very important people on the back.
Duncan Sime - In many ways Dunk is the guy who holds PYT together. When he isn’t busy running his own record label, DJing and putting great gigs on, Mr Red Deer Club is encouraging people to get out there and fulfill their entertainment based pipe dreams. We have had the pleasure of working with Dunk across two different venues, and we can’t say thank you enough for everything he has done to help establish PYT. myspace.com/reddeerclub
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Teacake Design - The men with the golden touch. If anyone has still got the first issue of the PYT zine then you’ll be aware that neither of us are design gurus. However, since then we have worked with Rob and Graham over at Teacake Design, who somehow manage to make the fanzine look exactly how we wanted it to, even if we didn’t know what we wanted it to look like yet! teacakedesign.com Tina Mole & Ceri Williams - These two have offered us some truly incredible artwork over the past year, despite living in that there London and finding it pretty tricky to get up here to PYT! They possess incredibly creative minds and constantly spur us on to dream more and do more. tina-mole.blogspot.com ceri-williams.blogspot.com Bands, Bands and More Bands - Where to start? From Sir Yes Sir opening our first live outing, right through to The Answering Machine for playing at our Birthday Party we have had some of the best bands around come and play at PYT nights. The great thing about doing all of this is that we have met some ace people, many of whom have ended up sleeping on the floor at PYT Towers. Personal highlights: Dan - worriedaboutsatan @ The Corner. Hannah - The Loves @ The Black Lion.
Dave Bassinder & David Meller - Same first name. Same indie ethos. Same encouraging words. Different wonderful club nights. Both of these guys are always on hand for some good advice, and together Underachievers, Asparagus and PYT feel like we’ve somehow made a difference to Manchester’s night time goings on - a pretty good feeling actually! myspace.com/underachieverstrying asparagusnextleft.co.uk All of the artists and wordsmiths who’ve lent a hand and pulled us out of many a tight spot. There are a lot of you!
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IN WHICH PULL YOURSELF TOGETHER INTERROGATE AU REVOIR SIMONE
A few years ago a good friend of PYT suggested a new band to me, who she was sure that I’d fall in love with. Turns out she was right. That band was the delightful Au Revoir Simone, who make music that could be termed indiesynthpop. Their most recent LP Still Night, Still Light showcases the trio’s fantastic mix of almost whimsical lofi electronic arrangements and touchingly beautiful split vocal harmonies. We were delighted that Erika took some time out ahead of their recent stint of shows in Europe to chat to us… For anyone who hasn’t heard of you before, who are you? We are 3 Brooklyn girls who rejoice in the sweet sounds of synths. How would you describe the music that you make as a band? I’ve hatched together indiesynthpop, but am not entirely happy that it tells the full story. Heather says our songs are love letters to our keyboards. Where does your love for vintage electronics stem from? At a time when it is so easy for bands to knock up an album without closing Garageband it is always encouraging as a listener to be able to think of folks rummaging around trying to find lovely bits of kit to perfect their sound. We first started collecting little vintage casios and lots of “cute” instruments that had been left behind and forgotten about... Finding them on ebay or junk shops. It’s fun to rescue something like that I think. And our producer for Still Night, Still Light had an amazing ear for keyboards and he turned us on to so many new synths that we had never heard before. It was amazing finding the perfect sound for each part on the record and having such a massive sound bank to choose from. Has it always been a conscious decision to counterbalance the fairly stark, obviously machine based sounds of the keyboards and drums with the almost luscious vocal harmonies? At times it feels almost as if the warmth of the vocals is being juxtaposed by the coldness of the drum beats to bring them even more to the fore. Oh why thank you! I think that we just really like the sound of those old drum machines and we think of them as so much “warmer” than super new, clean beats coming out of the computer. And we also gravitate towards the older synth sounds so... I would say we never thought, yes, lets counterbalance our voices with machines, but we gravitated towards keyboard sounds and drum beats that fit with our voices maybe. What is the songwriting process for Au Revoir Simone? Has it changed in anyway over the years to reflect new ideas you’ve picked up along the way? We spend a lot of time in our practice space together experimenting. We all come in with ideas for songs, melodies, lyrics, keyboard parts or beats or whatever and put them together and edit until we have things that we like. We have definitely picked up ideas from bands we tour with like We Are Scientists, Peter Bjorn & John, AIR. These days we use more distortion pedals and get a bit more experimental with dynamics and vocal parts. Who would you say are the major musical influences on the band? On the vocal side we can pick out similarities with 60s Girl Groups, alongside France Gall and other Gainsbourg-muses. Is this at all accurate? Thanks! I love 60s girl groups and France Gall. Again, I think we just have really made this band not from an intellectual place but from a natural us wanting to be us and just singing the way we sing. In terms of harmonies, I know I have been really influence by The Beatles and 60s
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music in general in terms of the kinds of harmonies I like to sing. The new record, Still Night, Still Light, seems to have seen your sound fill out since The Bird of Music. In particular the slide into a minor key in Shadows grabs the ear very early on and makes you realise that you are listening to an act who have definitely moved on over the past couple of years. How do you feel about having a fresh LP out in public view now? We worked hard on that record and got to a place that we were really happy with! It really represents us as a band and we are so proud to have it “out there.” It’s so sweet to see people singing along to the new songs at shows. How important do you think being based in New York is to you as a band? Are you part of a particularly creative community in Brooklyn? Have you ever seen Will Oldham on the L Train in the morning? (PS - This is the bit where I show my real ignorance about what NYC is like!) Williamsburg Brooklyn is a neighborhood full of artists and musicians. It’s an extremely supportive community. So fun to go to people’s shows and get inspired by other bands and share ideas. How much do you think knowledge of Au Revoir Simone in the UK is down to you being on Moshi Moshi over here? How did you end up working with them? Stephen Bass of Moshi contacted us in 2004 when we had some of our demos online. He liked our songs and asked to put our record out for the UK and Europe. We feel really honored to be part of the Moshi family! On a personal level we are really excited about seeing you at Indietracks, which was definitely one of our highlights of summer 2008. What do you know about the festival? Oh, and can we buy you a drink there so you can tell us all about Dour, which is top of my ‘festivals which I really want to go to in Europe but haven’t managed to yet’ list! Yes, we really can’t wait to go to Indietracks. It seems like a lot of people are excited about it. And we would love to have a drink with you and yes, Dour was awesome. It was huge! So many people from all over Europe and they served pink beer Hoegaarden Rosée! Finally, who are you listening to at the moment? Are there any new bands who you are singing the praises of right now? I am loving the new albums by Yeah Yeah Yeahs and Phoenix! So good!!! Still Night, Still Light is available now from all good record shops. Also worth checking out is the band’s recent session with Vincent Moon from La Blogotheque which is online at blogotheque.net. aurevoirsimone.com & myspace.com/aurevoirsimone
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THE LISTINGS Final Fantasy | 3rd August, RNCM Owen Pallet’s music has been termed as Baroque Pop before, which is actually a very accurate description of Final Fantasy. Not only does Pallet produce wonderful string based music for his own band, he also takes time out to write arrangements for Arcade Fire, Beirut and The Mountain Goats. Last time he was in Manchester the live show was accompanied by visuals based on an overhead projector, so fingers crossed on something just as fun for this trip! End of the Road Festival | 11th – 13th September The festival season of 2009 comes to a close with possibly the best line-up at End of the Road in Dorset. Last time we were at EOTR we were lucky enough to see some great sets in the Enchanted Forest, and with any luck there will be a bit more of the same to come this year! PYT’s top picks for the weekend are Explosions In The Sky, Herman Dune, Spokes, Efterklang, The Leisure Society and of course Darren Hayman. Young British Artists | 1st August, Islington Mill 2009 has been rather a memorable one for Young British Artists, and this EP launch for Small Waves should definitely have a celebratory feel. You shouldn’t really have got this far through the year without seeing the YBAs - they’ve supported almost everyone worth supporting - but if you have then don’t miss out again! The band have got radio play from all the usual sources, most recently popping up on Steve Lamacq’s 6Music show. They’ve got an urgency sadly lacking in much music, the relentless drums and feedbacklayered vocals make for a mesmerising listen. WOTGODFORGOT + Now Wave presents… Wooden Shjips | 20th August, Islington Mill Wooden Shjips are a very difficult band to pin down in terms of descriptions. Think of your typical loud guitar rock band from the west coast of the USA. Now, imagine that they are trying to play ferocious psychedelia in the style of classic minimalism. Still with me? Well they sound a bit like that, but louder and weirder. Their live show is reportedly even more brutal than on record, and will fit the surroundings of the Islington Mill perfectly.
The Dodos | 5th September, Ruby Lounge Following massive, and well deserved, critical acclaim for 2008’s Visiter, The Dodos set about crafting a follow up LP of similar proportions. The result is Time To Die, which sees the band move slightly away from the off kilter feel of Visiter, but retains the emblematic drum rhythms and upbeat folky feel. However, due to crafty internet thieves the band have been forced to change their entire release schedule for the album as a low quality version was doing the rounds months in advance. Head to the Ruby Lounge to see what all the fuss was about. Flyaway Promotions present Port O’Brien | 17th August, Night + Day & Copy Haho | 24th August, The Corner August is a busy month for Flyaway Promotions, who firstly bring folk popsters Port O’Brien to town. The band are obviously influenced by Will Oldham, Neil Young, Jason Moline and even the upbeat tendencies of Broken Social Scene, and are well worth checking out. Skip on a week for something completely different as Copy Haho play their Errors-esque indie dance in the great surroundings of The Corner. Okkervil River | 4th September, Club Academy Will Sheff brings his ‘mid-level band’ to Manchester to play a show full of the band’s self doubting folkyroots-rock, with tracks from most recent LP The Stage Names hopefully on offer. On record the band manage to capture a subtle blend of utter loneliness and raucous rock, not an easy mix to achieve.Combined with the poetic masterpieces which make up Sheff’s lyrics, Okkervil River are not a band to be ignored lightly. Dave Gorman | 13th September, The Lowry Dave Gorman stops off in Salford as he rides through the North West on his Sit Down, Pedal, Pedal, Stop And Stand Up tour. Literally as he rides through too, as this tour is basically an excuse for Dave to go on a massive bike ride from southernmost part of the mainland up to the very top of Scotland. He’ll be playing a mixture of village halls and established venues on the way, and he’ll be at The Lowry before continuing on to Preston, Lancaster and Kendal on this stint.
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AUG / SEPT 09 Antichrist | Until 6th August, Cornerhouse A new Lars Von Trier film is always a good excuse to head to the cinema, especially when it has been dubbed as a ‘psycho-sexual horror’ which had critics at Cannes walking out and applauding in equal measures. We’re expecting this not to be for the faint of heart, early viewers have suggested that Antichrist combines the most intense parts of the slasher genre with Don’t Look Now style tensions. Sounds amazing. They Only Come At Night – Resurrection | 2nd – 12th September, The Lowry Slung Low Theatre’s latest production is based around the VIP launch of a new graphic novel about a night when monsters took over a multi story car park. The twist is that rumour has it that the comic book isn’t quite a work of fiction. This production warns of violent images and scenes of a violent nature, in a piece which is not based around the standard sit down and watch line of theatre. Given that we missed It Felt Like A Kiss at MIF this sounds like it could fill the pure terror and walking about brief! Mum | 16th August, Deaf Institute Procession: An Exhibition | Until 23rd August, Cornerhouse Jeremy Deller’s Procession was one of the highlights of the International Festival, attracting thousands of onlookers and a fair few raised eyebrows. Whether you made it down or not it’s well worth heading over to Procession: An Exhibition at the Cornerhouse to see how Deller went about creating his parade spectacle. City As Gymnasium | Until 3rd October, CUBE You’ve probably noticed over the past 12 months that PYT are rather enamored with cities and the varied opportunities they offer. Now a team of performance artists are working with CUBE to take you on analternative city tour, exercising ways of subverting the city’s uses and re-learning the importance of play.
Naïve Melody + Haxan presents… Quiet Village | 5th September, Common Common regulars Haxan bring Quiet Village’s Joel Martin to town for a special set which will no doubt hold the same influences as the band’s most recent long player Silent Movie. Expect Italian film soundtracks, BBC library music, vintage soul, acid rock and blues guitar. Hi How Are You? featuring… Monsters Build Mean Robots, The Woe Betides and Oh Stockholm! | 6th August, Fuel Brighton’s Monsters Build Mean Robots make Mogwai-esque soundscapes featuring pounding guitars and glitchy electronica. They have been compared to Explosions In The Sky and Sigur Ros by Artrocker, which in our eyes is one hell of a compliment! As ever Hi How Are You? have pulled together a wonderful line-up, and this will be an excellent show. Freitags | Every Friday, Common Connecting the dots between Electro, Indie, Disco, Outsider Pop, Cosmic Nonsense and forgotten gems. Frietags has established one hell of a reputation in a short space of time, which is mainly down to the excellent guest DJs they draft in to help out every week. A great way to start or end a night out. Richard Whitby | 11th August – 20th September, Cornerhouse Richard Whitby takes over the bar and café space at Cornerhouse with a collection of large scale posters which at first glance appear to be straight up advertisements. However, on closer inspection the recognisable graphic design motifs are actually being used to comment on modernist abstract painting and other techniques to undermine the intended meaning of marketing.
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Planet Sound? The Mercury Prize As ever the Mercury Music Prize nominations have left many people in the world of music scratching their heads. Rather than argue about the supposed value of the prize and the nomination process here at PYT we want to honour a handful of British records which we feel have made a real difference this year. (For the record, The Horrors are our pick of the nominees) Emmy The Great – First Love Another LP which was years in the making, and worth waiting for. Emmy’s debut album delivered on pretty much all of the promise she had been showing. The vocal harmonies on Absentee remain up there as one of the best arrangements of the year, and that is just the first track. An album of folky indiepop mixed with lyrics which draw you in more with each listen, which can also leave you feel more than a little uneasy as an observer, this has personality stamped all over it more than any other record of 09. Doves – Kingdom Of Rust Doves returned after four years with an album which has easily become one of our slow burning favourites of this year. On first listen I was a little non-plussed, with the majority of tracks seeming to just drift away. However, the more I listen to Kingdom Of Rust, the more I see that it is full of gems like the title track, Jetstream and Lifelines, which are up there with the best tracks this band have recorded.
Sky Larkin – The Golden Spike Sky Larkin are a band who I have been in love with for a number of years now, and to see them not only release this record, but to release it on a label as important as Wichita made me massively happy. Then of course there is the fact that it is a brilliant LP, full of the pop songs which are always in danger of boiling over a little bit that charmed me in the first place. This record feels like what Sugarcubes may have sounded like if they had been informed by Pavement when growing up.