Subbacultcha NL May 2013

By Sofia Ciechowska Illustration bi Basje Boer

Unruly Music Magazine May 2013

Food

What’s Cooking

The Boring Issue

HEALTH, Dirty Beaches, ERAAS

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THE CONVERSE ALL STAR WELL WORN COLLECTION

VIVA VIVA, TRASH BAR NYC

Small Gestures 19 mei ‒ 28 juli A new space for MU on Strijp S, Eindhoven

mu.nl

The Boring Issue

These four friends are forming a band called HEALTH. And while you are reading this – or at least within a maximum of 12 hours from now – HEALTH will be in the same situation as that which Nick Helderman portrayed them here. And tomorrow as well, and the day after tomorrow, and the day after the day after... That’s how they roll, and with them hundreds of thousands of bands. Day in day out.

Getting bored of getting bored in between short outbursts of absolute euphoria and expression. Romantic? Wow? Amazing? Or just a dirty job that someone’s gotta do?

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Content

The Boring Issue

HEALTH

ERAAS

Page 20

Page 25

Dirty Beaches

Agenda

Page 30

Page 53

TOP 5 NEW MUSIC WE SAW YOU HEALTH ERAAS A STORY BY DIRTY BEACHES CHELSEA WOLFE FEATURED ARTIST REVIEWS FILM

10 13 18 20 25 30 32 34 38 42

BOOKS FASHION FOOD HOROSCOPE AGENDA SUBBACULTCHA! SHOWS OTHER SHOWS FREE STUFF AFTER MIDNIGHT OVERVIEW

44 46 48 50 53 55 65 76 77 78

Haven’t we seen it all before? Didn’t we all at some point whisper, ‘I’m so bored,’ in a friend’s ear during the show of another new band from Williamsburg? And what’s it like for the bands themselves, almost constantly on tour from one place to the next to make a profit, sleeping in interchangeable hotel rooms? Does it get to be a bore after a while, doing the same thing over and over again? Charlie Watts perhaps said it best: ‘Five years playing and 20 years waiting around.’ It is said that the upside of boredom is that it can lead to creative spurs, but how do we keep it fresh in the day-to-day rituals of everyday life? Are you bored yet?

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© Michael Tedja, courtesy Galerie Nouvelles Images

Sandbergplein 1 Amstelveen www.cobra-museum.nl

COBRA MUSEUM

—

SNAKE

Michael Tedja

02.02.13 — 26.05.13

Colophon

Who we are and what we do

Subbacultcha! magazine is made at our office in Amsterdam Da Costakade 150, 1053 XC Amsterdam, the Netherlands www.subbacultcha.nl. magazine@subbacultcha.nl We are Guest editor: Brenda Bosma Editors: Leon Caren and Bas Morsch Editorial assistant: Megan Roberts Design: Bas Morsch and Marina Henao Interns: Denise Lopes, Floor Kortman, Milou Hautus, Bram Nigten and Rose Donohoe Online editor: Phil van der Krogt Good Girl: Loes Verputten Good Guys: Keimpe Koldijk, Michiel Klein Printing: Drukkerij Gewa, Arendonk, Belgium Contributors: Carly Blair, Basje Boer, Koen van Bommel, Brenda Bosma, Leon Caren, Zofia Ciechowska, David Brandon Geeting, Nick Helderman, Marc van der Holst, Kathrin Klingner, Bas Morsch, Lonneke van der Palen, Mandy Sharabani, Gert Verbeek, Isolde Woudstra and Alex Zhang Hungtai Distribution: Amsterdam: Tessel Dekker, Sandrine Mary, Fedor Oduber, Stefan Stasko, Patrick van der Klugt, Dineke Tuinhof, Agata Bar, Charlotte van Brakel, Katharina Olson, Denis Wouters Utrecht: Freyja van den Boom, Jitske de Vries Groningen: Hedwig Plomp, Marinke Kerkhoff Den Haag: Dineke Cornelissen Rotterdam: Nahry Dougarem, Lukas Dikker, Ilse van der Spoel Leeuwarden: Jan Pier Brands Leiden: Milou Laan Haarlem: Yannick Tinbergen, Bert Zaremba Nijmegen: Lubine Adema Tilburg: Luuk van Son Eindhoven: Mees Welmers Deventer: Marjolein de Vliegher Delft: Daniel Enciso Breda: Vera Siemons Alkmaar: Tom Verkerk Den Bosch: Bas Heijmans Pick up Subbacultcha! magazine here (among 500 other places): Amsterdam: Kriterion, EYE, Canvas, American Apparel, Episode, CREA, De Balie, Melkweg, OT301, De Nieuwe Anita, Restored, Zipper, Concerto, Roest, Trouw, Studio K, Atheneum, 16cc, Time Machine Utrecht: Ekko, ‘t Hoogt, Tivoli, The Village, Revenge, Plato, dB’s, Cafe het Hart Rotterdam: Worm, TENT, Rotown, Lantaren Venster, De Witte Aap, Willem de Kooning Academie. And: De Effenaar - Eindhoven, Het Paard - Den Haag, Patronaat - Haarlem, Extrapool - Nijmegen, Vera - Groningen Advertising To advertise in Subbacultcha! magazine send an email to magazine@subbacultcha.nl.

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Top 5

1

Last month at our office

Concert: Holly Herndon

The absolutely stunning performance by progressive electronic artist Holly Herndon at OT301 last month is one of the best shows we’ve seen in a loooong while.

2

Album: Dirty Beaches - Drifters/Love is the Devil

We’ve been listening to this nonstop at the office. Dark, groovy and hauntingly brilliant. Dirty Beaches are playing three shows in Holland this month. Do not miss.

3

Song: Merchandise - ‘Anxiety’s Door’

When one of our interns Floor, came down for her interview, we asked her what her favourite band was and she answered, ‘Merchandise.’ We thought she misunderstood the question and was very much into buying stuff. We thought it was odd, but we hired her anyway. Turns out, Merchandise is a great band! And this killer track off their new EP Totale Nite is the perfect spring soundtrack.

4

Travel: Biking in Paris

We went to Paris and extensively used the amazing bike service Vélib. There are around 1,000 spots throughout the city where you can pick up and drop off bikes, pretty much for free. Picture Paris after dark, cruising past La Bastille, then across the Seine on towards Notre Dame.

5

Food: La Bella Storia

This small, modest yet thoroughly amazing italian restaurant in Amsterdam-West is always packed. And for obvious reasons. Make sure you go for an (Italian-style) threecourse meal and incorporate a filetto in there. Best meat you ever ate.

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MUZIEKGEBOUW EINDHOVEN

* INFO & TICKETS: WWW.NAKEDSONG.NL

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By Zofia Ciechowska

This month’s recommendations

New Music

Empress Of

soundcloud.com/empressof

My most pressing issue with this young female artist is not her music because I already know that it is excellent (and now you do too) but what is Empress Of the empress of exactly?! I think she could be the Empress of Cool or the Empress of Love or the Empress of Totally Fucking Awesome Amazingness. Also known as Lorely Rodriguez, she is originally from LA but now lives in Brooklyn. She makes warm, colourful, exciting, keyboardy music that simply glows from her vibrant vocals. You will find that her YouTube channel is filled with what she has called ‘colorminutes’, or short little collages of colour and sound that act as musical ideas, so to speak. Her Soundcloud is where she has fleshed these thoughts out and made some pretty lovely stuff.

Lorely, hit us up so we can eat watermelon together this summer!

Me N Ma Girls

facebook.com/MeNMaGirls Me N Ma Girls are from Burma and they collectively have balls far bigger than any testicles you will ever see in your life. These five girls are the first female pop group to release self-authored albums in their own country despite strict censorship laws and limited women’s rights.

Think Aung San Suu Kyi, M.I.A., Spice Girls, Shakira, a bit of Sailor Moon and a whole lot of rebellious sisterhood. Support these ladies, make them go viral on YouTube and brace yourself for the night when you find yourself grinding drunkenly in a bar to their sweet, sweet homegrown pop.

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continued

New Music

Twin Empire

facebook.com/twinempire

Ollie Judge of Twin Empire is from Bristol and he is probably around 18 years old (not that that will tell you much about his music, but music journalism kind of demands I tell you his age so you can go, ‘wow!’ at his shitload of talent). His music is of the electronic sort – great rhythms, bits of dubstep, clever vocal cuts, snaps, claps, clangs that are both great for dancing but also good for some kind of nice, repetitive activity, like chopping stuff, running around, watering your garden, eating sweets: y’know, life in general. We’re hoping Ollie comes out of his bedroom to play for some international dance floors very soon.

Menace Beach

facebook.com/menacingbeaches The promise of summer always brings with it an unquestionable yearning for some fuzzy, bittersweet lo-fi guitar music that you can stumble drunkenly to on some seaside holiday as you wince thinking about that friend you accidentally snogged last night. Menace Beach will sound like the other lo-fi bands you’ve heard before but they’re pretty decent at what they do. They also have a bit of street cred already with all three members having played for either Pulled Apart by Horses, Sky Larkin or Hookworms. Consider this band’s repertoire your new summertime anthem with their raw, poppy chords straight from the capital of surfing, sun and sunburn – Leeds, UK. Page 15

New Music

continued

Bishop Nehru

soundcloud.com/bishopnehru

Combining the name of Tupac Shakur’s character in the movie Juice and India’s first-prime-minister, this 16-year-old NYC MC came up with the moniker Bishop Nehru and he’s running wild with it, supporting the likes of Ghostface Killah and MC Doom this year. A hearty dose of old-school Golden Age NYC rap revival in the internet age, it’s an outspoken fuck you to the nihilistic beats of the now widespread tsunami wave of Odd Future cloud rap types. Or, as Bishop puts it bluntly – he’s killing indie rap. Not often do you welcome the fact that a young new artist sounds oddly familiar but in this case I am so excited to hear some all-time fave beats (think J Dilla, MF Doom, Nas or Biggie) because they somehow sound new again. Does that make sense? Get hold of his Nehruvia mixtape now.

Throwing Shade

soundcloud.com/throwingshade All we know about Throwing Shade is that this artist is a woman originally from London but now floating between the UK, South Africa and the internet. Her music is a mix of dub, Middle Eastern beats and some real heart-wrenching R&B (BEYONCE!!!!) samples, all enveloped in a wonderfully intriguing synthy eeriness. Check out this lady’s newest single ‘DAYDREAM’ out on Cape Town-based naasMUSIC. Coming to a glamourously gloomy basement party near you.

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bruno beltrão

Brazilian choreographer – rising star in the international dance world – presents breaking, popping and locking in an abstract landscape.

17-18 June, Westergasfabriek Zuiveringshal West

HF YOUNG Enjoy great discounts for seven top performances including CRACKz (Dança Morta) on 17 June.

HF Young members only pay € 19 for each of the selected performance. Follow HF Young on Facebook or check hollandfestival.nl.

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INTERNATIONAL PERFORMING ARTS AMSTERDAM 1 – 26 JUNE 2013

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CRACKZ (DANÇA MORTA)

We Saw You

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Spotted at Subbacultcha!

Photo by Regina van der Kloet

What was the most boring job you ever had? Blowing up, like, 3,000 balloons! The fun part came after, when we started to burst them all.

Venessa de Jesus spotted at the Teen / Octo Octa show at Melkweg on 04 April 2013

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Features

The Boring Issue

HEALTH

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Features

LA-based quartet HEALTH hurtled across the globe several times, being pigeonholed as nomadic noise rock savages. They like surprises though.

Nobody expected them to come up with a subtle remix album – let alone two. And then just last year they did a soundtrack for the video game Max Payne. Currently they’re busy finishing off their new album and are about to embark on a European pre-album tour. They hardly seem to have a reason for being bored. Still, we called up bass player John Famiglietti to verify that.

Skype interview by Zofia Ciechowska Photos shot on tour by Nick Helderman

Is there a window near you? What can you see out of it?

‘Yes, I am looking out and I can see a hillside of houses and palm trees in Echo Park. It’s sunny and warm. I can see a dude.’

Do you ever get bored?

‘I guess nowadays it’s hard to get bored, there’s constant fucking entertainment. Even when you take a shit, you’re on your email or whatever. I don’t get bored that often. There

are a handful of times that I do get bored of... life? [Massive laugh] I feel like nowadays we have the smallest amount of boredom in history, you’re always occupied with some bullshit.’

Do you think that boredom is necessary for the creative process? Can excitement exist without boredom?

‘There’s probably some truth to that, I’m not sure. Maybe art has suffered, because people are just less bored? I’ve always believed that realPage 21

Features

HEALTH

‘But it always pays off – you’re bored a lot of the time and the end is just AWESOME when you release your pent-up boredom and shoot your wad that night, get drunk and do it all over again.’

ly good art or music comes from people who are kind of miserable or live someplace shitty and have some angst to express, so they make great art. But I guess you don’t look back at these creative periods of boredom or shitty living conditions as a really inspiring time either. You don’t remember stuff that way. No one remembers when they were bored, because that’s boring. But sometimes you remember moments when you were bored and then you put that thing up your ass, y’know?’

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What’s the most boring thing I could ask you right now?

‘You could read our Wikipedia page to me and rephrase what you read into questions. I fucking hate that.’

HEALTH has toured a lot. What things do you look forward to when you’re about to go on tour?

‘I’m just really looking forward to being on tour, it’s boring being at home! When we’d be touring for long periods of time and then we’d come

The Boring Issue

Features

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Features

HEALTH

back home, we’d get this anxious feeling where we wanted to be gone again and play, get the rush and live the lifestyle. I love being on tour.’

nology is so shitty, like World War II or something. I don’t know why it takes four hours to wash clothes in Europe. Especially in Germany, in Germany it just goes back and forth Does it ever feel like Groundhog Day? in a cupful of water in there for hours ‘Of course it’s also extremely re- and it’s wet and wet and still wet. And petitive and the majority of being on the dryer takes hours and hours too. I tour is actually really boring, especial- don’t know what the fuck’s going on. I ly the travel. But it always pays off ‒ can’t fucking stand European washing you’re bored a lot of the time and the machines. I love Europe, but there’s a end is just AWESOME when you handful of things where you’re just release your pent-up boredom and like, WHAT THE FUCK?!!!!’ shoot your wad that night, get drunk and do it all over again. When you’re Have you played any of your songs to at home, time can seem to go by re- death to the point where none of you ally fast and it is not very memorable, ever want to play them again? but when you’re on tour one week can ‘Bands complain about that a lot be very long. Your perception of life is and maybe that’s because their mumuch longer and you enjoy your life sic is boring. I find it very fun to permore because of that and because you form the same songs, we’ve played keep changing location. Also, when some songs for years. We have the we were on tour in China we went same set list for the entire tour, beout of our way to eat funny or crazy cause we’re just going to play it betshit, like 14 ox testicles.’ ter as we progress through our tour.

By the middle of the tour we play our But how do you deal with things like set so much better and we don’t have not having any clean underwear? to think about it any more. It does not ‘I guess that makes tour a little bit get fucking old to me.’ more exciting – guessing where you’ll get to do laundry next. European washing machines are the bane of my HEALTH play on 31 May at Trouw de fucking existence. I don’t know why Verdieping in Amsterdam. The show is free or how your washing machine tech- for Subbacultcha! members.

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The Boring Issue

Features

ERAAS

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Features

ERAAS

We’re talking to Robert Toher – one half of Brooklyn duo ERAAS – via Skype. Listening to Robert is kind of like listening to an auctioneer.

Yes, he really talks that fast. And while he’s talking, I can hear he’s nervously tapping his fingers on his desk. He does not sound like someone who gets bored at all

‘My expression for boredom would be just two parentheses with nothing in the middle. Or just an empty space’ Skype interview by Koen van Bommel Photos shot by David Brandon Geeting in Brooklyn, USA Page 26

The Boring Issue

Hi Robert, how is your day?

‘Fine! I just went for a walk. It’s finally starting to get better, you know, with the weather and all. I still think it’s gonna be a cold summer, but you know, whatever.’

This issue is about boredom. Is that something you experience often?

‘Not really, I’m pretty high strung.

I’m always working on music, basically. Except for now, because some of my gear is being repaired. Other than that, I’m never really bored. I hope that doesn’t mess up the interview or whatever.’

Features

stuff on the way. The best parts were around British Columbia, Canada.

It’s really beautiful and mountainous.

Also Oregon is really pretty. There’s a lot of weird colours and vegetation.’

What’s your favourite expression to indicate boredom? Mine is ‘ugh’, because it’s kind of contemporary and really captures the feeling of dread that goes with being bored, all with just three letters.

‘Yeah well, if we can be that creative with it, I think mine would be just two parentheses with nothing in the middle. Or just an empty space.’

Most of the time, when people are talking about art, they say it comes from pain and suffering and longing. Never from boredom. Can boredom be a source of inspiration?

‘I have this rule, that if I’m truly bored, I won’t force myself to work on music. Everyone I talk to who When I was preparing this interview, I makes music says this. You know, googled boredom. I came across an arti- when you’re making music it should cle about Aboriginals in Australia. They flow out naturally. When it’s right, apparently don’t have a word for bore- it all comes out at once. When I’m dom. When they’re in a car and it takes bored I can’t make music. I’ll just play for ever, they just relax and look at the with my synthesizer a bit, but nothing scenery. more than that.’

‘Yeah, well, Australia might be more scenic than where we went. I Kierkegaard said: ‘Boredom is the root don’t know. No, we saw some beautiful of all evil.’ Is he exaggerating?

How about when you’re on tour?

‘Well, we just finished a five-week tour. We drove across the US and Canada in a hybrid. Austin, my bandmate, drove the entire time. I suppose I was bored then.’

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Features

ERAAS

‘I’ll never be one of those cool people.

I’m way too anxious’

‘I think that’s subjective. Big statements like that aren’t right or wrong. We have this saying: “Idle hands are the devil’s tools.” That’s true, but not across the board. Well, for teenagers, I think that evil comes from boredom.’

punk rock or anything. But it’s like, when you’re visiting friends or relatives, and you find them in exactly the same spot you left them in last time, in front of the TV, that’s depressing.

What do you think of people who feign boredom to look cool?

What’s your favourite song about be‘I hate that. I’ll never be one of ing bored? those cool people. I’m way too anx‘What? Who would even listen ious. I could never be so passive, I’m to that? Are there even songs about just too wound up. Being relaxed is being bored?’ cool and all, but if you put it on like a guise? Nah.’ I know Wavves has one.

‘Nah, I don’t listen to that. Some ERAAS play on 16 May at OT301 in Ampeople say ambient music is bor- sterdam. The show is free for Subbaculting, but you know, you just need to cha! members. Other Live dates: 18/05 - Le get into it. I mean, of course there’s Guess Who? May Day, Utrecht a lot of bad ambient music, and a lot of noise music is boring. There is a lot of bullshit.’

Do you have a TV? ‘No, I don’t want to watch TV. I mean, I don’t judge people that watch a little TV. I don’t wanna come across as some teen that just discovered Page 28

The Boring Issue

Features

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Features

The Boring Issue

A short and not-so-boring story by

Dirty Beaches

We were on tour in Belgrade and a few ladies took us out for latenight adventure. The car was an old beat-up Serbian make from the late ’80s. Everyone was swigging from this bottle of whiskey that came out of nowhere – including the driver. Long story short, we almost got T-boned twice; ran a few red lights; and the car ran out of fuel or almost died and went kaput. By some miracle, we survived it all. I remain amazed by Serbian women’s capacity to handle stressful situations. While drunk-driving. I was impressed.

Later on that night we met an opera composer named Alexander at a bar and he invited us to his house to listen to his new opera. On the way there, two transvestites in a taxi started to catcall me and Shub, shouting, ‘Holaaaaa chicos! ¿Habla espaňol? Oye, chicos! hooooooooo!’ Then one of them got out of the car and flashed his/ her ass at us, which was a beautiful, manly ass. The Serbians kind of freaked out and told us, ‘This never happens in Serbia!’

Later we discovered that Serbia is incredibly homophobic, which was why they all freaked out, worried that some neo-Nazi hooligans might pop out of nowhere and attack us for talking to transgender sweethearts. No one died. It was a fun night with many bizarre moments that strung together a magical evening on tour – moments that never happen in everyday life in your own city. Lesson: don’t drink and drive! It’s dangerous and you can fucking die.

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Dirty Beaches

Features

Photo by Jussi Puikkonen Dirty Beaches play on 16 May at OT301 in Amsterdam. The show is free for Subbacultcha! members. Other live dates: 17/05: Vera, Groningen; 18/05 - Le Guess Who? May Day, Utrecht Page 31

Features

The Boring Issue

Chelsea Wolfe

Chelsea Wolfe is known for her haunting and ritualistic music, deeply personal lyrics and astounding live performances, which leave her audiences spellbound. We were curious about the day-to-day life of the queen of darkness and wondered if she ever needs to fight boredom ‘Boredom is the root of all evil. I try not to let myself get bored. On tour I like to watch movies until my laptop dies and then I’ll read books until my eyes hurt’ You can read the interview that Brenda Bosma did with Chelsea online Photo shot by Isolde Woudstra in Utrecht, the Netherlands

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Features

Chelsea Wolfe plays on 13 May at Tivoli Spiegelbar in Utrecht. The show is free for Subbacultcha! members. Other live dates: 14/05 - Willemeen, Arnhem

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Art

Featured Artist

Mieke Fokkinga

Mieke Fokkinga (1985) lives and works in Groningen. With her drawings she focuses on ordinary objects like candy, envelopes and styrofoam and reduces them to their bare essence. Mieke elevates the ordinary to autonomous, almost-abstract works of colour, structure and shape. She plays with recognition and questions our perception of reality.

Her work has been extensively exhibited all over Europe.

In the context of our boring issue we felt printing three tumtummetjes (dutch candy) was more than appropriate. Goes to show the boring is not so boring after all. Go figure. www.miekefokkinga.nl

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Art

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Art

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Featured Artist

Mieke Fokkinga

Art

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Music Reviews

New releases worth your while

By Carly Blair

Dirty Beaches Drifters/Love is the Devil

The Baptist Generals Jackleg Devotional to the Heart

On Alex Zhang Hungtai’s debut as Dirty Beaches, 2011’s Badlands, Lynchian themes of being on the run and the myth of the ’50s suburban idyll were reflected in how Hungtai buried his Elvis-like crooning and often romantic melodies under layers of no-wavey distortion and reverb. Recently, though, Hungtai confessed that ‘...this travelling lone-wolf image with the leather jacket and cool hair – that’s a fucking character I made up. That’s not me.’ So who is he then? The impression given by his new double album, Drifters and its moody, mostly instrumental counterpart Love is the Devil, is of an alienated guy who’s self-reflective to an almost masochistic extent. All that loneliness and desire for catharsis manifests itself as his realest and most rewarding work yet.

I bought the The Baptist Generals’ 2003 debut, No Silver/ No Gold, on CD on a whim for about $4. Hell of a deal, since the ramshackle folk turned out to be some of the most beautifully flawed music I’ve ever heard. After a ten-year hiatus, they return with Jackleg Devotional to the Heart. Their debut was recorded on an 8 track, and the rough production greatly accentuated the emotional rawness of the material. This time around, the production is much cleaner and more controlled, and so are frontman Chris Flemmons’ emotions. While this detracts from the cathartic, confessional quality of their earlier work, not fixating on Flemmons’ volatility brings the subtly beautiful contributions of his reliable backing band into focus.

(Zoo Music)

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(Sub Pop)

Small Black Limits of Desire ( Jagjaguwar)

Music Reviews

Mount Kimbie Cold Spring Fault Less Youth (Warp)

Small Black’s early work was among chillwave’s most enjoyable, but it wasn’t always particularly emotionally engaging.

Their sophomore album’s cover depicts a nude couple embracing while precariously perched atop two ladders leaned against one another, as a congregation of crocodiles lurks menacingly below. Perhaps it means only love will save us, perhaps that it isn’t worth it; either way, to love is portrayed as taking a big risk.

With its cleaner production and vocals whispering directly into your ear instead of calling out from behind a veil of haze, Limits of Desire makes Small Black more confident and willing than ever to connect with listeners.

Since it’s also their most danceable and romantic sounding record yet, they’ll probably help listeners connect with each other as well, congregation of crocodiles be damned.

This London duo met in 2008 and started making music together in a home studio. Their warm, crackling brand of ambient post-dubstep drew comparisons to James Blake and Boards of Canada and quickly earned them a high profile. After releasing three EPs and their debut full-length, 2010’s Crooks & Lovers, on Hotflush, for their sophomore album they move to Warp and from the bedroom into a professional studio.

On Cold Spring Fault Less Youth their music also moves in a new direction, relying less on their signature production touches, adding new instruments to their repertoire and incorporating vocals from King Krule and the duo themselves. The result is lovely and oftentimes propulsive enough to fill up a dancefloor on a cold spring night with more than a few faultless youths.

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Music Reviews

continued

Thee Oh Sees Floating Coffin

Still Corners Strange Pleasures

John Dwyer and his brainchild, San Francisco’s Thee Oh Sees, have released dozens of albums, EPs, and 7-inches over their seven-year existence. All that restlessness has yielded a discography famous for shapeshifting. Their latest, 2012’s Putrifiers II, featured an eclectic mix of everything they’d done before, from garage rock to psychedelia, krautrock, drone, pop, and folk. On its more focused follow-up, Floating Coffin, they navigate a sonic Styx between heavenly melodies and blazing tempos, but the balance makes it clear this particular album is going to hell. It’s so good and goes by so damned fast, I feel like I just spun 360 degrees after being punched in the face. Is this strawberry juice or blood on my hands?! I think I’ll have to abuse drugs, this album, or both to find out.

On their 2011 debut, this movie-loving London band recast ’60s and shoegaze signifiers to produce a cinematic album seemingly soundtracked

by Broadcast and the Cocteau Twins. On their follow-up, ’80s synth pop gets a starring role.

I’m no Howard Hughes, but when I think of strange pleasures, there’s always an element of sublimated ugliness or of the unexpected. Waxing your legs.

Pulling a huge clump of hair out of a now-unclogged drain.

Listening to each bottle break as it slides down the chute into the recycling bin. When I think of Strange Pleasures, there’s no ugliness to sublimate and little that’s unexpected either. Still Corners’ music is always pretty, and this album is a logical progression from and an improvement over their debut, but getting stranger would make their music even more pleasurable.

(Castle Face)

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(Sub Pop)

tue04jun13

Glen Hansard Nico Muhly Bedroom Community & BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

MuziekgebouwEindhoven.nl

Film

New films and DVDs

By Gert Verbeek and Basje Boer

In theatres

Also playing

The Grandmaster

Ginger & Rosa (Sally Potter, 2012)

(Wong Kar-Wai, 2013)

Now, Wong Kar-Wai has always been famous for his stunning aesthetics, but when the master turns to the genre of the martial arts epic, you just know the bar has been raised. The Chinese director of raw and stylish cult classics (and Subbacultcha! favourites) such as Chunking Express and Fallen Angels and epic love stories such as In The Mood For Love takes a succesfull shot at an ancient and iconic genre. Expect lots of slow-motion shots of either falling snow or breaking glass, some excellent action choreography and a terrific score. (BB) In theatres 09 May. Page 42

Director Sally Potter shows us what the Sixties in London were like before they started to swing. Young Ginger fears The Bomb, while the only thing on the verge of exploding is her friendship with Rosa. (GV) In theatres 21 May.

And for couch potatoes...

Room 237

(Rodney Ascher, 2012)

Everything you always wanted to know about The Shining, but were afraid to watch. To unravel the maze that is The Overlook Hotel, the genius of Stanley Kubrick is laid bare underneath a microscope. (GV) You’ll probably have your ways of getting your hands on this movie.

By Basje Boer

Film

Spitting image Same shot, different movie

What’s that lurking behind the curtain? In one case it’s the archetypical James Bond bad guy, in Thunderball (top); in the other it’s ’70s babe Margot Kidder and legendary funnyman Gene Wilder with a bottle of champagne in the obscure offbeat dramedy Quackser Fortune Has a Cousin in the Bronx.

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Books

Photo by Lonneke van der Palen

Rock ’N’ Roll Library No1: Stoner, by John Williams | No2: Hogg, by Samuel R Delany Page 44

By Marc van der Holst

Books

Rock ’N’ Roll Library No 2

Hogg

by Samuel R Delany

For the second installment of our Rock ‘N’ Roll Library I’ve picked a book that, save for some excerpts, I haven’t read myself, have no intention of reading and which I strongly suggest you put unread on your R’N’R bookshelf and leave there for the rest of your life I came across it via literary critic Larry McCaffery’s 20th Century’s Greatest Hits: 100 EnglishLanguage Books of Fiction, which, besides having all the usual suspects (Lolita, Ulysses, Green Eggs and Ham, etc, etc) in it, as well as some more obscure and/or interesting choices, mentioned one book I had never heard of, #100: ‘Hogg, Samuel R Delany, 1996.

The most shocking novel published in the 20th century.’

So I had to check it out.

Written in 1969 but due to its extreme pornographic contents never officially published until 1995, this is one sick fuck of a book. Imagine the literary equivalent of GOATSE and 2 Girls 1 Cup rolled into one, only way more violent. I mean, American Psycho seems like a fucking

fairy-tale compared to this shit.

Another way to describe it might be as it being the bookish bastard child of Salò and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. You can’t unsee – or in this case, unread – things like that. That’s how it feels to me, anyway. Like, it corrupts the soul. (De Sade’s work has had this effect on me too.)

Still, interesting and powerful stuff. Important, maybe. And pretty rock ’n’ roll. Just don’t read it... Or do. Some people listen to Trout Mask Replica. I kinda like Metal Machine Music myself. But as for me, I don’t ever wanna read about – to give you a supposedly mild example, and if you’re as faint-hearted as I am, stop reading HERE – the gang-raping of stab wounds ever again. Thank you, and good nightmares.

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Fashion

€15 outfit

By Mandy Sharabani

Every month we give €15 to someone to compose a complete outfit for a good night out. Yes, quite a challenge.

Goth-tinged LA singer-songwriter Chelsea Wolfe inspired 20-year-old history student and multi-instrumentalist Aimee Plukker to shop for her wild €15 outfit.

Wow, you are by far the most colourful wolf I’ve ever seen! Tell me your story!

‘It started in a thrift store in Alkmaar where I found the shoes and the chain-print blouse. That fit my idea of a wolf wanting to break free; feral and barbaric is what I had in mind.’

Great idea. How did it evolve into this all-over print, ripped, torn and basically untamed outfit?

‘During my visit to Brussels, I happened to run into “The Fox Square”, which I thought was a funny coincidence. As they were cleaning up, I noticed a garbage dump with some great pieces, including this dress; isn’t that barbaric?’

For sure! And accessories?

‘I found most of them at a store called Zeeman: two stockings for the price of one and a small grass mat which I customised into earrings. I ripped the stockings myself in an untamed manner.’

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Do you think your wolf style could be a new trend?

‘Ha-ha, my way of wearing scarfs inside stockings and grass in your ears might be too much for some people, but it would be great if it happened.’

Dress - free Found in a garbage dump, Brussels Blouse - €4 Thrift store Rataplan, Alkmaar Ripped stockings - €1 Zeeman Scarfs - free Episode & Mum’s wardrobe Shoes - €3.50 Thrift store Rataplan, Alkmaar

Wanna go shopping for a €15 outfit? Please send an email to fashion@subbacultcha.nl.

Photos by Isolde Woudstra

Fashion

€15 Outfit

Aimee Plukker dressing up to go see Chelsea Wolfe on 13 May at Spiegelbar, Utrecht.

Budget spent: €9.50 Page 47

Food

Cooking with...

Blue Hawaii

How does today feel and look like?

Agor: I’m drinking a Corona next to a bunch of palm trees by the pool. I’ve been swimming in my underwear and I’m feeling really comfortable. I’ve had a bowl of granola, but if I’d thought about it more in-depth I probably wouldn’t have had the granola. But I also wasn’t really planning on having a Corona until I realised how chilled today would be. I’m also reading a really geeky book, A Farewell to Arms by Hemingway.

Describe your music to a fiveyear-old child.

Agor: It sounds like the feeling when your parents are taking you home from a dinner party. It’s late, you’re in the back of the car and you’re really tired and maybe it’s raining a little outside.

You fall asleep as your parents drive you home.

If your music had a flavour and a texture, what would it taste, feel and look like?

Agor: It’s like the process of sublimation, when a solid turns into a gas without going through a liquid state.

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By Zofia Ciechowska

Raphaelle: It’s a hot bowl of pho soup that you accidentally added too much hot sauce too. It becomes a bit uncomfortable but it’s good because it’s cleansing.

Is there a relationship between the way you consume and make music and the way you consume and make food?

Raphaelle: I try to consume food that is made up of a few simple ingredients. I dislike misleading labels that say ‘fresh fruit juice’ but are actually full of sugar. The parallel with my music is that I try to express what is going on inside me while not worrying whether or not it’s going to be popular or sell better. I can usually tell right away if someone’s music is the way it is because that’s what’s popular, it’s like a misleading fruit smoothie label.

You know how there are songs on our iPods that we’ve played three billion times? What food do you think is your ‘most played song’?

Raphaelle: On the road we eat loads of Clif bars, they are really intense granola bars, that can make you go for five hours, but if you eat loads you’ll fart a lot!

Food

Photo by Lonneke van der Palen

Blue Hawaii Banana Bread & Yams

BANANA BREAD

YAMS

bananas • raisins • nuts • flour cinnamon • sugar • baking powder • Mix together some mashed-up bananas, sugar, a bit of baking powder, salt, spelt flour, cinnamon, nuts, raisins and vanilla.

• I don’t know the proportions, just mix all the stuff together until you have a semi-liquid, viscous batter.

• Oil a baking tin, pour the mixture in it, bake at 175C for ±45 mins.

• The banana bread will probably never fully cook. It will be a sticky delicious loaf that’s gonna impress all your friends, because it’s vegan and all that.

orange yams • garlic • olive oil salt • pepper • Steam some peeled yams with some garlic until soft.

• Mash them up, add some olive oil, salt and pepper and that’s it!

• You can also add some fried tofu to it if you like, but it’s delicious on its own.

Blue Hawaii play on 23 May at Tivoli Spiegelbar in Utrecht. The show is free for Subbacultcha! members.

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Horoscope GEMINI

22 May–21 June

You get hypnotised by the constant monologue inside your head. ‘Need to floss, must not forget to look more decisive when talking to colleagues.’ A butterfly lands on your head and moves its wings a few times before flying off. You don’t notice you were part of all this life happening on top of your head.

CANCER

22 June–22 July

You seem a little bit distracted, Cancer. You just lighted the wrong end of your cigarette.

Are the stars trying to tell you something? By the end of this month you will not have listened to them and cough up funny black stuff that clearly spells out your future.

LEO

23 July–22 Aug

You want your life to be with lots of thunder, lightning and bats out of hell. Do you really want your life to be like the cover of a Meat Loaf record?

VIRGO

23 Aug–22 Sept

It takes a lot of courage to speak softly in a room that is full with blabbermouths and people with short attention spans. That’s what you’ll do this month: talk in a Page 50

By Brenda Bosma

whisper, because you just don’t give a fuck.

LIBRA

23 Sept–22 Oct

Once you thought you were the greatest. Then you remember, it’s menstruation time. The firm beliefs you have melt away like snails in the garden of a sadistic little boy.

Thank you, Cat Power.

SCORPIO

23 Oct–21 Nov

Will this be another night where you stand at your kitchen sink eating a slice of pizza like an angry rat? This month you decide to eat HEALTHy. You sprinkle the pizza with vitamin C pills.

SAGITTARIUS

22 Nov–21 Dec

You think it’s fun to make popcorn together. You both laugh at the popping of the corn against the roof of the pot. A moment later you are both buried in popcorn, your kitchen the scene of a party pandemonium. Pop!

CAPRICORN

22 Dec–20 Jan

How can you ever be the lord of your skull-sized kingdom if your head is the size of a dried-out pea? Don’t forget to drink enough water this month!

Illustrations by Kathrin Klingner

Horoscope

AQUARIUS

21 Jan-19 Feb

You keep waiting for The One. It’s like waiting for Godot though. You know what happened there, right? He never showed up.

Then again, you’re probably not waiting for this Godot guy. Fuck him.

TAURUS

21 April–21 May

PISCES

20 Feb–20 March

You have lost the magic by talking too much about it, instead of just giving in to it. It only made you feel self-conscious. It got worse and worse and ultimately it killed the spark. When it goes, it goes, it does come back. Maybe this month the magic will give you another chance.

It could be a funfest for our Taurus, but frankly this month you are just so bored and uninspired.

You start to binge eat. You place the organic nuts in a bowl, you ARIES take a pecan nut between your 21 March­–20 April fingers, sniff it, lick it, put one If you could, you’d forin your nose, put one in your get about the colour of your eyes.

You don’t like to think about your- ass, fart the thing out so that it self, nor your actions; you only trust shoots through the room. You reyour instincts. This month you fol- trieve it, smell it and put it on the low the trembling urgency of your table, crush it with your fist, hovgenitalia. er your lips over it and suck the pieces up like a vacuum cleaner.

You just ate the pecan that a moment before was nestled in your bumhole. You taste yourself. It tastes like shit.

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Agenda

Shows in May

do it 17 May – 21 July curated by Hans Ulrich Obrist

MU.NL Page 52

Agenda On the following pages:

Subbacultcha! concerts and films totally free for members Page 55

Other shows Page 65 Free tickets Page 76

This portrait of Dan Deacon was taken by Andrew Laumann in Baltimore, USA. Dan Deacon plays on 30 May at Trouw de Verdieping in Amsterdam. This show is free for Subbacultcha! members.

See all these shows for free. Sign up at www.subbacultcha.nl.

Music See all these concerts for free with your Subbacultcha! pass

WOLVON album release party

02 May - OT301, Amsterdam 20.30 | €7 | Free for Subbacultcha! members Members of Groningen post-rock trio WOLVON host the city’s beloved Lepel Concerts, all three are involved with various other bands, PLUS they have magnificent beards, so there’d probably be plenty of goodwill for this band even if they weren’t churning out some of the best music being made in the Netherlands right now. Which they are. Tonight they’ll celebrate the release of their debut full-length, folds. Fellow Subroutine signees Vox Von Braun and Space Siren kick off the night with some moody but catchy rock ’n’ roll.

Fawn Spots + Frankenberries

09 May - World Skate Center, Den Bosch 20.30 | €5 | Free for Subbacultcha! members

There’s nothing Bambi-ish about this Yorkshire DIY crew. Ripping a page from the SST Records, Hüsker Dü and Black Flag history books, the trio walk a tight line between atonal post-punk and harmonious ’80s indie – albeit indie that’s detached from reality by a thick layer of distortion. On stage it’s all about a punk ethos and lo-fi aesthetics, whipping crowds into a frenzy with their angsty, razor-edged noise rock.

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See all these shows for free. Sign up at www.subbacultcha.nl.

Spilt Milk 10" Release (with Mike Koldin + Anton Dautzenberg) 10 May - De Nieuwe Anita, Amsterdam 20.00 | €7 | Free Spilt Milk Vinyl for Subbacultcha! members

Much like the liquid that’s transformed so many spindly children into grownup hunks and babes, Amsterdam’s Spilt Milk also does a body good. This drone-folk quintet takes one part Mountain Goats, one part Velvet Underground, sprinkles in some highly literate lyrics, drizzles female lead vocals as soothing and sweet as honey over the top, then hits blend, whipping up a Spilt Milkshake that brings all the boys and girls to the yard. A free copy of their new 10", Funeral Blues, is the cherry on top of tonight’s show.

Chelsea Wolfe + Spilt Milk

13 May - Tivoli Spiegelbar, Utrecht 19.30 | €7 | Free for Subbacultcha! members

A hyperbolic YouTube commenter put it best: ‘It’s as if Satan presided over an unholy mass with members of Black Sabbath and Sonic Youth. Zola Jesus served as the naked altar and in the writhing orgy that consecrated the infernal ceremony, Chelsea Wolfe was conceived.’ If there’s a frontman I can imagine writhing around on a desecrated stage, it’s Spilt Milk’s Marc van der Holst, and his diminutive and deceptively sweet sidekick Brenda has all the makings of a perfect sacrificial lamb.

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As a member you will also receive this magazine every month plus a stylish tote bag

ERAAS + Dirty Beaches

16 May - OT301, Amsterdam 20.30 | €10 | Free for Subbacultcha! members

ERAAS’s 2012 debut is like a post-rock rocketship which transports listeners to a dark, lonely world nearly devoid of human emotion but filled with ominous atmosphere, propelled forward by the occasional motorik groove.

With his David Lynch-inspired work as Dirty Beaches, Alex Zhang Hungtai buries his Elvis-like croons and occasionally very romantic melodies under layers of no-wavey distortion and reverb.

Le Mini Who: Subbacultcha! ft. Wolvon + Spilt Milk + Crowds 18 May - Moira, Utrecht 14.00 - 18.00 | Free for all

For its fourth edition, this mini festival boasts performances by several Dutch and international underground bands and artists in several kickass locations around the thriving Voorstraat. Furthermore, it’s free for all, so you’ll finally have a socially acceptable way of rubbing elbows with that handsome hobo you’ve been making eyes at all weekend.

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See all these shows for free. Sign up at www.subbacultcha.nl.

White Fence + Naive Set

20 May - OT301, Amsterdam 20.30 | €8 | Free for Subbacultcha! members LA’s Tim Presley is a busy little bee. In 2012 alone he released two albums as White Fence, plus his remarkable collaboration with Ty Segall, Hair, and he’s already back with his new album, Cyclops Reap. While his lo-fi home recordings are weird and warped in a stoned and lonely sort of way, playing live brings out his inner hornet, with notched-up tempos and blistering guitar solos forming a sonic attack more akin to his work with Segall.

Blue Hawaii

23 May - Tivoli Spiegelbar, Utrecht 19.30 | €7 | Free for Subbacultcha! members

In 2010, this duo released their debut EP as Blue Hawaii, Blooming Summer, a tropical pop pineapple slice perched on the brim of the fruitful scene in Montreal. Raph went on to tour heavily as the frontwoman of Braids, while Alexander spent some time in Europe, and their follow-up, Untogether, was recorded in separation during this period. Much like a glass filled with the remnants of their namesake cocktail, it’s all vast space and melting ice cubes and kinda blue, but sweetly addictive enough to keep you asking these sonic mixologists for round after round.

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Shows in September

Agenda

As a member you will also receive this magazine every month plus a stylish tote bag

Purling Hiss + Richie Dagger

23 May - Area51, Eindhoven 20.30 | €7.50 | Free for Subbacultcha! members

Mike Polizze played with Philly jam-punks Birds of Maya before setting off on a solo mission to Planet Purling Hiss, a world where all traces of the existence of guitars were so corroded by exposure to harsh elements, they only vaguely resembled their earthly equivalents. He then recruited a team of rock ’n’ roll rovers to help him explore a new garage rock galaxy, and Purling Hiss’ fourth album, Water on Mars, documents what they found.

The great tunes that always seemed to be lurking under the scuzzy surface are now polished of their previous grime, revealing themselves to be teeming with life.

Elg + G Moissonnier

29 May - Koffie5euro, Rotterdam 20.00 | €tba | Free for Subbacultcha! members

In creating his four dimensional musical collages, Elg draws inspiration from the terrifying yet intriguing mix of sound poetry, stand-up comedy and ‘mescalin mix diary’. He will be joined by fellow Frenchman G Moissonnier, who enlists an A-100 Modular Analogue Synthesizer for his experimental creations. This show is organised in collaboration with MIMA. Page 59

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Agenda

Shows in May

See all these shows for free. Sign up at www.subbacultcha.nl.

Dan Deacon + Chester Gwazda 30 May - Trouw de Verdieping, Amsterdam 20.30 | €12 | Free for Subbacultcha! members

Baltimore’s Dan Deacon is as adept at composing Steve Reich-channelling contemporary classical music as multi-coloured, spastic 8-bit symphonies to God, and his latest album, America, represents the most seamless fusion of his classical and electronic work yet. His highly interactive live shows are the stuff of legend, and finally find an Amsterdam venue worthy of them in Trouw. This one’s a must-see!

HEALTH

31 May - Trouw de Verdieping, Amsterdam 20.30 | €12 | Free for Subbacultcha! members

Like a time-release capsule dissolving in the toxic waters of LA, HEALTH has slowly and steadily put out two full-lengths and two remix albums filled with numbingly heavy noise rock since they formed in 2007. Last year they took a detour by composing the score for the uber-violent video game Max Payne 3, but now they’re back on track to psychosomatically soothe listeners with their third full-length later this year.

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Shows Shows in September in May

Agenda

As a member you will also receive this magazine every month plus a stylish tote bag

Film See these films for free with your Subbacultcha! pass

The Grandmaster

01 May - Kriterion, Amsterdam 21.30 | €9 | Free for members 14 May - LantarenVenster, Rotterdam tba | €9 | Free for members

Wong Kar Wai’s new kung-fu epic chronicles the rise of legendary fighter Ip Man (who went on to train Bruce Lee), combining a historical narrative which considers the cultural implications of martial arts with the dizzying combat sequences of a kung-fu hit.

John Maus Lecture + Film: Robocop

04 May - Melkweg Cinema, Amsterdam 20.30 | €7 | Free for members

Music theorist and critic Adam Harper will give a lecture about avant-pop savant John Maus based on his book Heaven Is Real: John

Maus And The Truth Of Pop, which links Maus to key movements in contemporary underground music. To keep the dystopic ball rolling, the lecture will be followed by a screening of cult classic Robocop, purportedly Maus’s all-time favourite film.

Cinema of Cruelty & Mara Mattuschka Part I 18 May - EYE, Amsterdam 19.15 | €9.50 | Free for members

Mara Mattuschka, a Bulgarian/ Austria-based film director, performance artist, painter, actor and singer, will present two film programmes which use a mix of new and old works of her own to forge a link between Austrian contemporaries and the Viennese Aktionist movement of the ’60s.

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Agenda

Shows in May

See all these shows for free. Sign up at www.subbacultcha.nl.

Art Visit these museums and galleries for free with your Subbacultcha! pass

Mediamatic Fabriek

the isolated Indonesian village of Ti is also on display through June.

Open daily 12.00-18.00 Free for Subbacultcha! members

This month Mediamatic will stage several cool events, including a performance in collaboration with European Opera Days; a party where you help paint a gigantic T-shirt; the always-inspirational Ignite; and all kinds of wonderful little things taking place within their ongoing Freezing Favela initiative.

Foam Photography Museum

TENT

Open Tue-Sun 11.00-18.00 €4 | Free for Subbacultcha! members

Through May this Rotterdam platform for contemporary art will feature a solo show by Rotterdam- and Berlin-based artists Libia Castro & Ólafur Ólafsson, whose work examines the influence of socio-economic and political factors on the surrounding world via installations, video works and neon sculptures.

Nederlands Fotomuseum in Rotterdam

Open Tue-Sun 10.00-17.00, Sat and Sun from 11.00 €9 | Free for Subbacultcha! members Open daily 10.00-18.00, Thur and Fri until 21.00 €8.50 | Free for Subbacultcha! members

Through mid-May you can check out the work by Sara Cwynar, Maryam Sahinyan, and Canary, a surreal and unsettling series by Lieko Shiga. Koos Breukel and Roy Villevoye’s series on the inhabitants of Page 62

Through 20 May this museum will host From Holland With Love, an exhibition that uses the work of Ed van der Elsken as a starting point for exploring the theme of love through the eyes of ten contemporary Dutch photographers, including Koos Breukel, Heddy Honigmann and Paul Kooiker.

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DO 2 MEI NEWTON FAULKNER VR 3 MEI JAMIE N COMMONS DI 7 MEI JUNIP WO 8 MEI NOMEANSNO ZA 11 MEI DEATH GRIPS ZO 12 MEI SUUNS MA 13 MEI MOTORPSYCHO WO 15 MEI SAVAGES VR 17 MEI TOMORROW’S WORLD

JEAN-BENOÎT DUNCKEL (AIR) AND LOU HAYTER (NEW YOUNG PONY CLUB)

WO 22 MEI MUDHONEY VR 24 MEI DRIVE LIKE MARIA / GREEN LIZARD ZA 25 MEI QEAUX QEAUX JOANS MA 27 MEI ANIMAL COLLECTIVE WO 29 MEI A$AP ROCKY CINEMA ZA 11 & GARY LUCAS PLAYS LIVE: ZO 12 MEI THIS NIGHT I WILL POSSESS YOUR CORPSE LET OP: DIT IS SLECHTS EEN SELECTIE VAN HET PROGRAMMA. HET VOLLEDIGE PROGRAMMA IS TE VINDEN OP WWW.MELKWEG.NL MELKWEG AMSTERDAM - LIJNBAANSGRACHT 234A

Agenda

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Shows in May

Agenda

Shows in May

Deerhunter play on 18 May at Le Guess Who? May Day in Utrecht, and 20 May at Vera in Groningen.

Voorjaarsontwaken 2013 01-04 May - Korzo Theatre, Den Haag This annual dance festival provides a platform for promising dancers. Having combed through workshops and production houses all over the country, Korzo will showcase a selection of the best short choreography pieces. The programme promises to be ‘kersvers’ and chock-full of budding dance talent, fitting for the festival’s theme, Spring Awakening.

WOLVON 02 May - OT301, Amsterdam 18 May - Le Mini Who?, Utrecht Tonight the dark expanse of OT301 will be studded with the stars of Subroutine’s roster, and local favourites WOLVON will celebrate the release of their long-awaited debut full length, folds. Read more on page 55.

XXYYXX + Slow Magic and more 06 May - Patronaat, Haarlem A night filled with young producers who are all exploring the blurry territory between dream pop, post-dubstep, bass music, chillwave, hip hop, and R&B. Some of them

have already collaborated or toured together, and their mellow, blissed-out styles are perfectly complementary, the kind of stoned and sexy stuff dreams are made of.

Jacco Gardner 08 May - Vera, Groningen 10 May - Effenaar, Eindhoven 11 May - Tivoli, Utrecht 22 May - Paradiso, Amsterdam Jacco Gardner weaves harpsichord, strings, flutes and other classical instruments with raw psychedelic effects to produce classicsounding and highly palatable paisley pop.

His debut album is called Cabinet of Curiosities, and he’s been known to don a Mad Hatter hat, so you’d probably be wise to bring along your Alice in Wonderland blotter paper in preparation for a trip down the rabbit hole.

Fawn Spots 09 May - World Skate Center, Den Bosch 10 May - SOTU Festival, Amsterdam 11 May - Vera, Groningen This Yorkshire DIY trio walk a tight line between atonal post-punk and harmonious ’80s indie. Read more on page 55.

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Agenda

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Shows in May

Agenda

Shows in May

Low + Mire Kay 09 May - De Duif, Amsterdam Alan Sparhawk and Mimi Parker have been putting the ‘low’ in ‘slowcore’ since they formed in Minnesota back in 1993. Their minimalist indie rock is deliberately paced, devastating and consistently gorgeous; tonight they’ll kill you softly with material from their new album, The Invisible Way. Swedish duo Mire Kay’s delicate but dynamic indie folk should get the evening off to an appropriately angelic start.

Spilt Milk 10 May - De Nieuwe Anita, Amsterdam 11 May - Vera, Groningen 13 May - Tivoli Spiegelbar, Utrecht 16 May - Concerto, Amsterdam 18 May - Le Mini Who?, Utrecht Not unlike the essential elixir from which they borrow their name, this drone-folk quintet also does a body good. Read more on page 56.

Phosphorescent 10 May - Bitterzoet, Amsterdam After years of making gorgeous, contemplative Americana alone under the name Phosphorescent, Matthew Houck recruited a backing band and Phosphorescent started sounding uncharacteristically traditional and loose almost to a fault. Thankfully, the band’s latest album, Muchacho, is their most sophisticated yet, while Houck’s fragile voice and heartfelt, heartbreaking lyrics are as comforting as ever.

Urban Explorers Festival ft. Mmoths + Darkstar + Fenster + Sun Kil Moon 10-12 May - various locations, Dordrecht Something like swapping your binoculars for a kaleidoscope, this multidisciplinary fes-

tival invites visitors to examine and explore an urban landscape in a whole new way, by taking unconventional routes through its heart, by paying attention to things one normally ignores and by witnessing art, film, music, theatre and dance performances by unconventional acts in unconventional locations.

SOTU Festival ft. Fawn Spots + Traumahelikopter + Nouveau Vélo and more 10-12 May - various locations, Amsterdam Sound Of The Underground is a festival which, perhaps not surprisingly, toots the horn of alternative and independent music culture, staging acts ranging from noise to improv jazz to experimental electronica in some of Amsterdam’s most beloved underground venues. This year promises to be even more action-packed than 2012’s debut edition.

Woods 10 May - Vera, Groningen 20 May - Paradiso, Amsterdam On Woods’ latest album, 2012’s Bend Beyond, they’ve groomed their sweet but occasionally sloppy folk/rock, trimming away the outlying fuzz and brushing up their songwriting just enough to reveal their most refined and appealing album yet.

Dag in de Branding 11 May - various locations, Den Haag Four times per year, the Dag in de Branding festival stages performances of contemporary classical music, jazz, pop, opera, dance and electronica around Den Haag, with free public transportation between locations.

This 28th edition has a distinctly Russian flavour, in honour of the Russian/Netherlands cultural exchange year; hopefully the taste will be more vodka, less borscht.

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Agenda

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Shows in May

Agenda

Shows in May

Nouveau Vélo plays SOTU Festival

Death Grips 11 May - Melkweg, Amsterdam This Sacramento trio has built up a pretty huge following with their explosive mix of hardcore and avant-hip hop. After curiously signing with mega label Epic, they repeatedly gave them the finger, leaking both of their 2012 albums before finally being dropped late last year. Regardless of whether the fiasco was a matter of principle or just a brilliant publicity stunt, the music itself is some of the most ruthless and rewarding being made today.

Mac DeMarco + Sean Nicholas Savage 11 May - Bitterzoet, Amsterdam Mac DeMarco’s goofy nonchalance would come off as obnoxious if this 22-year-old kid wasn’t extremely adept at writing warm lo-fi rock ’n’ roll songs suave enough to belie his young age, with a stage presence that’s rumoured to be preternaturally poised.

AlunaGeorge 11 May - Paradiso, Amsterdam If you saw them on the street, you might reasonably mistake Aluna Francis and George Reid for a couple from Beauty and the Geek, but if you see them onstage, there’s no mistaking that AlunaGeorge have made a couple of the sexiest and smartest electro-pop songs of the past year.

SUUNS

Their debut album, Body Music, drops this summer.

SUUNS 12 May - Melkweg, Amsterdam On their sophomore album, Images du Futur, SUUNS contemplate the future and seem to conclude that they anticipate it with neither anxiety nor hope. If the soundtrack to getting there consists of this kind of patient, groovy and evocative (albeit emotionally inert) prog rock, I’d be pretty content.

Chelsea Wolfe 13 May - Tivoli Spiegelbar, Amsterdam 14 May - Willemeen, Arnhem Gothic doom-folk songstress Chelsea Wolfe casts her shadowy stripped-down spells on Holland once again. Read more on page 56.

Mikal Cronin 14 May - Paradiso, Amsterdam 18 May - Le Guess Who? May Day, Utrecht If you were to hear San Francisco’s Mikal Cronin for the first time, you’d probably think to yourself, ‘Gosh, this guy’s so young and precocious and psychedelic, I bet he’s totally BFFs with Ty Segall!’ And you know what?

You’d be right. Except that Cronin’s take on neo-psych is a bit more wistful and poppy, the sweet jam to Segall’s crunchy and perpetually top-billed peanut butter.

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Agenda

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Shows in May

Agenda

Shows in May

Veronica Falls 15 May - Paradiso, Amsterdam This Scotland-born, London-based quartet’s simple melodies, boy-girl sing-alongs and sweetly earnest lyrics undeniably take cues from Scottish twee legends like The Shop Assistants and The Pastels (lead singer Roxanne even worked in a coffeeshop coowned by The Pastels), but their songs are so catchy, good natured and well-executed, it’s easy to ignore the fact that you’ve kind of heard it all before.

Savages 15 May - Melkweg, Amsterdam I guess it’s no surprise that the British press would get all whipped up about an all-female four-piece from London whose postpunk calls to mind the Pop Group, Joy Division and the Slits, but after seeing a few videos of Savages’ simple but intense performances – especially singer Jehnny Beth’s Ian Curtis-channeing, glassy-eyed stare – the anticipation seems justified and seeing them live seems like an imperative.

ERAAS 16 May - OT301, Amsterdam 18 May - Le Guess Who? May Day, Utrecht Brooklyn band ERAAS’ 2012 album transports you to a dark and ominous atmosphere, visited by the occasional motorik groove. Read more on page 57.

Dirty Beaches 16 May - OT301, Amsterdam 17 May - Vera, Groningen 18 May - Le Guess Who? May Day, Utrecht Alex Zhang Hungtai of Dirty Beaches expertly buries Elvis-like yelps and croons and occasionally very romantic melodies under layers of no-wavey distortion and reverb.

Read more on page 57.

Klub 470 ft. A Forest 17 May - Goethe-Institut, Amsterdam Klub 470 is a platform for exciting upcoming German bands, and on 17 May they bring you A Forest at one of our favourite venues, the Goethe-Institut, Amsterdam.

Made up of two men, one woman and a MacBook, A Forest will give you your German pop fill for the evening.

Cinema of Cruelty & Mara Mattuschka Part I 18 May - EYE, Amsterdam Bulgarian Mara Mattuschka will present two film programmes in an attempt to link Austrian contemporaries with the Viennese Aktionist movement of the ’60s. Not for the faint hearted. Read more on page 61.

Deerhunter 18 May - Le Guess Who? May Day, Utrecht 20 May - Vera, Groningen This Atlanta outfit took some time off after 2010’s excellent Halcyon Digest to focus on other projects: frontman Bradford Cox on Atlas Sound’s 2011 album, Parallax; guitarist Lockett Pundt on Lotus Plaza’s 2012 album, Spooky Action at a Distance. They redeveloped their singular obsession with Deerhunter long enough to record a new full-length, Monomania, and if history’s any indication its release should ignite a mass hysteria of the indie rock variety.

Le Mini Who: Subbacultcha! ft. Wolvon + Spilt Milk + Crowds 18 May - Moira, Utrecht The free Le Mini Who? mini festival gets your May Day started off right with performances by several Dutch and international underground bands at kickass locations.

Read more on page 57.

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Agenda

Shows in May

BINNENKORT O.A. ZA04MEI

GIRLS AGAINST BOYS + NEW BLEEDERS

VR10MEI

PISSING IN THE WIND

O.A. MAZES + TOURIST (LIVE) + SUIT AND TIE JOHNS + ST. PAUL + DET

VR17MEI

JOY DIVISION UNDERCOVER

ZA18MEI

LE GUESS WHO? MAY DAY O.A. THE HAXAN CLOAK + ITAL + MOUNT EERIE + MERCHANDISE

VR24MEI ZO12MEI

I LIKE TRAINS

+ POST WAR GLAMOUR GIRLS

SLOW MAGIC + GIRAFFAGE + MISTER LIES

VR24MEI DO16MEI

RANGLEKLODS + THE BENELUX

OPKIKKER

JOHANNES BRECHT (LIVE) + LYDMOR (LIVE) + PITTO + NUNO DOS SANTOS + JORN LIEFDESHUIS

VOLLEDIG PROGRAMMA & TIJDEN:

POPPODIUM EKKO | BEMUURDE WEERD WZ 3 | 3513 BH UTRECHT | WWW.EKKO.NL

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Agenda

Shows in May

Le Guess Who? May Day ft. Deerhunter + Dirty Beaches + Unknown Mortal Orchestra + Bleached + ERAAS and more 18 May - Tivoli, Utrecht If you’ve ever been to Le Guess Who?, there’s no doubt you agree that taking in so much good music in such a special place once a year just ain’t enough. Someone upstairs was listening: consider LGW? May Day the answer to your pre-summer festival prayers.

Unknown Mortal Orchestra 18 May - Le Guess Who? May Day, Utrecht 22 May - Merleyn, Nijmegen 23 May - Rotown, Rotterdam 24 May - London Calling, Amsterdam Since dropping ‘Ffunny Ffriends’, a nifty little psych-pop ditty with an indelible hook that was embraced by the world at large, Unknown Mortal Orchestra has been anything but unknown. The outfit’s self-titled debut was beloved by the blogosphere and beyond, and recent follow-up II’s genrebending smoky and soulful gems have caught the ears of hip hop, pop and soul luminaries alike.

White Fence + Naive Set 20 May - OT301, Amsterdam White Fence’s Tim Presley’s extremely lofi home recordings are weird and warped and noodly in a stoned and lonely sort of way, but his lively live show is more akin to his ballsier work with Ty Segall. Read more on page 58.

Parquet Courts 21 May - Bitterzoet, Amsterdam On their latest album, 2012’s Light Up Gold, these New York punks invited doppelgangers of the Modern Lovers, the Velvet Under-

ground, Television and Pavement over for a party at their place, got everybody drunk and stoned, then let the spirits possess them for a jam sesh that ends up sounding sloppy, loose and fun, but above all smart in the way that only drug-addled genius can.

Palma Violets 21 May - Doornroosje, Nijmegen 22 May - Rotown, Rotterdam 24 May - London Calling, Amsterdam In their live performances, British garage outfit Palma Violets play off the obvious chemistry of Samuel Thomas Fryer and ‘Chilli’ Jesson’s musical partnership – running around stage together and barely moving five feet apart during a set. The duo were first launched by their loyal social media following, and now they’re being hailed as Britain’s next big thing.

Blue Hawaii 23 May - Tivoli Spiegelbar, Utrecht Addictive sounds from sonic mixologists.

Read more on page 58.

Purling Hiss 23 May - Area51, Eindhoven 24 May - Vera, Groningen After years of making music in an otherwise uninhabited world, guitarist Mike Polizze recruited a team of rock ’n’ roll rovers to help him explore a new garage rock galaxy. Read more on page 59.

Grace Ellen Barkey & Needcompany + MUSH-ROOM 24 May - De Brakke Grond Take a theatrical trip to a psychedelic world where music, dance and art collide. Cult legends The Residents have released over 60 albums since 1971, but famously prefer to hide their individual identities, appearPage 73

Agenda

Shows in May

Out now on Subbacultcha!

Release Party: 10 May - De Nieuwe Anita, Amsterdam

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Agenda

Shows in May

ing onstage in disguises ranging from giant eyeball helmets to bunny suits. Barkley is a choreographer who has previously worked with Sonic Youth and now collaborates with the iconic band to produce a show which promises to be an eruption of strange images, absurd characters and undoubtedly bizarre costumery.

Slow Magic 24 May - EKKO, Utrecht Mysterious producer Slow Magic compares his music to ‘the sound made by an unknown imaginary friend’. Apparently that friend likes squeaky-cleanly produced, dreamy chillwave. He/she/it wears a colourful zebra mask while playing live, so guessing which wildly famous celebrity might be hidden underneath should add to the fun.

London Calling 2013 24-25 May - Paradiso, Amsterdam Paradiso’s semi-annual pop showcase may not be my favourite Dutch festival to abandon its original geography-based concept but not its name (I’m looking at you, LGW?), but when the lineup is this good (Mount Kimbie, Beach Fossils, Unknown Mortal Orchestra, Vondelpark, Metz, Echo Lake and more) it’s worth getting shoved by hordes of drunk teenagers and corporate lame-os as you dig a tunnel to the front row.

Chris Cohen 26 May - Paradiso, Amsterdam Drummer Chris Cohen was highly active in his hometown scene in LA, subtly contributing to a long list of excellent bands like Deerhoof, Cass McCombs and Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti, but by relocating to the farmlands of Vermont, he apparently gave himself enough space to focus on his own ideas. The result was the delicately dreamy

and sympathetically idiosyncratic pop on his 2012 solo debut, Overgrown Path.

Animal Collective + Laurel Halo 27 May - Melkweg, Amsterdam The latest album from experimental psychrockers Animal Collective, Centipede Hz, was based on the idea of an alien band being inspired by bits of sound coming from the Earth. Avey Tare and Panda Bear take on the role of alien vocalists, their joyous harmonies and childlike words imposing some extraterrestrial sense of order to scrambled and smashed sounds lovingly collected from the ether. Opener Laurel Halo, aka Ina Cube, specialises in electronic music filled with stark, otherworldly atmosphere and fleeting hints at melody.

Kurt Vile & The Violators 27 May - Paradiso, Amsterdam On his new material, Vile has stripped away most of the effects and production grime that muddied his earlier work, revealing songs that are more spacious and cogent than ever, yet still capable of transporting you back to listening to music with your dad as a kid.

Dan Deacon + Chester Gwazda 30 May - Trouw de Verdieping, Amsterdam Dan Deacon is as adept at composing Steve Reich-channelling contemporary classical music as multi-coloured, spastic 8-bit symphonies to God, and his highly interactive live shows are the stuff of legend. Read more on page 60.

HEALTH 31 May - Trouw de Verdieping, Amsterdam HEALTH has been mastering numbingly heavy noise rock since 2007. Don’t miss.

Read more on page 60.

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Free Stuff

Free tickets and goodies

To win, sign up to our mailing list on www.subbacultcha.nl.

2X2 DAYTICKETS SOTU FESTIVAL

3X2 PASSE PARTOUTS URBAN EXPLORERS FESTIVAL

2X2 TICKETS THEE OH SEES + BLEACHED

09-12 May various locations, Amsterdam

10-12 May various locations, Dordrecht

17 May Area51, Eindhoven

2X2 TICKETS LE GUESS WHO? MAY DAY

2X2 TICKETS UNKNOWN MORTAL ORCHESTRA

2X2 TICKETS ANIMAL COLLECTIVE

18 May various loacations, Utrecht

23 May Rotown, Rotterdam

27 May Melkweg, Amsterdam

We’re also giving away free tickets to Dag in de Branding, SUUNS, Death Grips, White Fence, Menomena, SPECTRUM + Lumerians, Right about now Festival, Savages, Klub 470, Woods, Palma Violets, Deerhunter, Slow Magic + Giraffage and CocoRosie.

Page 76

Submitted photos

AFTER MIDNIGHT

Send photos that were taken after midnight to aftermidnight@subbacultcha.nl If your photo gets published, you win a good goodie This month’s photo was submitted by Sandder Lanen

Page 77

Overview of all Subbacultcha! shows in May

01 May

The Grandmaster

Kriterion, Amsterdam 21.30 | €8 | Free for members

02 May

WOLVON

16 May

ERAAS + Dirty Beaches

OT301, Amsterdam 20.30 | €10 | Free for members

18 May

04 May

Cinema of Cruelty & Mara Mattuschka Part I

Melkweg Cinema, Amsterdam 20.30 | €7 | Free for members

18 May

OT301, Amsterdam 20.30 | €7 | Free for members

John Maus Lecture + Film: Robocop 09 May

Fawn Spots + Frankenberries

World Skate Center, Den Bosch 20.30 | €5 | Free for members

10 May

Spilt Milk EP Release

De Nieuwe Anita, Amsterdam 20.00 | €7 | Free Spilt Milk vinyl for members

EYE, Amsterdam 19.15 | €9.50 | Free for members

Le Mini Who: Subbacultcha!

ft. Wolvon, Spilt Milk, Crowds Moira, Utrecht 14.00 - 18.00 | Free for all

20 May

White Fence + Naive Set

OT301, Amsterdam 20.30 | €8 | Free for members

23 May

Blue Hawaii

13 May

Tivoli Spiegelbar, Utrecht 19.30 | €7 | Free for members

Tivoli Spiegelbar, Utrecht 19.30 | €7 | Free for members

Purling Hiss + Richie Dagger

Chelsea Wolfe + Spilt Milk 14 May

The Grandmaster

LantarenVenster, Rotterdam tba | €9 | Free for members

23 May

Area51, Eindhoven 20.30 | €7.50 | Free for members

29 May

Elg + G Moissonnier Koffie5euro, Rotterdam 20.00 | € | Free for members

30 May

Dan Deacon

Trouw de Verdieping, Amsterdam 20.30 | €12 | Free for members

31 May

HEALTH

Trouw de Verdieping, Amsterdam 20.30 | €12 | Free for members

All Month

Mediamatic Fabriek Open daily 12.00-18.00 Free for members

Foam

Open daily 10.00-18.00, Thur and Fri until 21.00 €8.50 | Free for members

TENT

Open Tue-Sun 11.00-18.00 €4 | Free for Subbacultcha! members

Nederlands Fotomuseum

Open Tue-Sun 10.00-17.00, Sat and Sun from 11.00 €9 | Free for members

Se these es all h for freeows .

Join subbac at ultcha.n l

5 & 6 JULI 2013 CULTUURPARK WESTERGASFABRIEK AMSTERDAM

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