By Sofia Ciechowska Illustration bi Basje Boer
Unruly Music Magazine June 2013
Food
What’s Cooking
The Stealing Issue
Sic Alps, Hantrax, No Age
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SOUNDTRACK BY
cliff martinez
The Stealing Issue
Top 5 06 New Music 09 We Saw You 10 SIC ALPS 12 Hantrax 18 NO AGE 22
SCENE REPORT: portland, me 24 ART 30 Agenda 35 subbacultcha! shows 36 other shows 43
Oh, the thrill of skipping the self-scan at your local supermarket or hiding a rip-off in your bag in the most nonchalant of ways! No matter how broke you are or how much you just want to stick it to the Man, stealing is not the coolest thing to do, right? The idea of stealing is forgotten by many when it comes to sharing music, and it’s definitely not cool towards the artists... or is it? How many musicians would have continued playing in their bedrooms if it wasn’t for today’s culture of sharing? Maybe we’re witnessing a justified step in the productionand-consumption circuit of today’s independent music industry. Page 3
Colophon
Who we are and what we do Subbacultcha! magazine is published by Subbacultcha! www.subbacultcha.be. magazine@subbacultcha.be Subbacultcha! Belgium Karperstraat 26, 9000 Ghent, Belgium Subbacultcha! Netherlands Da Costakade 150, 1053 XC Amsterdam, the Netherlands We are Editors: Herlinde Raeman and Kasper-Jan Raeman
Editorial assistants: Niels Jonckers, Eveliina Petäjäaho and Megan Roberts Design: Marina Henao Good girl: Nina Strebelle Good guy: Ewout Compernol Contributors: Gerlin Heestermans, Will Martin, Kasper-Jan Raeman, Herlinde Raeman, Jonas Nachtergaele, Julien Van de Casteele, Keko Jackson, Matt Lajoie, Dawn Aquarius, Nina Strebelle, Isolde Woudstra, Samuel Wolf Monkarsh and Juan Herrera Distribution Brussels: Gertjan Rasschaert, Arne Nouwen, Julien Van de Casteele, Pieter Serkeyn, Eveliina Petäjäaho Ghent: Stephanie De Keukeleire, Eno Swinnen, Linda Baumsteiger, Maarten Van Nieuwenhove, Ruud Van Moorleghem, Anouk Dusart, Bram Bonte Antwerp: Antonio Marques, Egon Parmentier, Thomas Konings, Anna Bagues Leuven: Vincent Baptist Kortrijk: Thomas Vanoosthuyse Luik: Collectief Jaune Orange Pick up Subbacultcha! at Brussels: Les Ateliers Claus, Botanique, Beursschouwburg. Ghent: Vooruit, DOK, S.M.A.K., Music Mania. Antwerp: Scheld’apen, Trix, Think Twice, American Apparel. Kortrijk: De Kreun. Leuven: STUK, Depot, M Museum. Luik: Jaune Orange Advertising To advertise in Subbacultcha! magazine send an email to magazine@subbacultcha.be. Memberships Become a member of Subbacultcha!. For only €7 a month you get free access to all Subbacultcha! shows and the monthly magazine sent to your house. Plus, you get a fresh Subbacultcha! bag. Check our website to sign up. Cover: photo shot by Samuel Wolf Monkarsh Page 4
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Top 5
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Selection of the month
Festival: Wastelands 2013
Finally we can proudly announce the second edition of Wastelands festival in Ghent on 10 August. Here are the first names we can reveal: U.S. Girls vs. Slim Twig and Dirty Beaches! Mark McGuire! Dracula Lewis! Keep an eye on the festival’s Facebook page for all updates.
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Film: Jackson Scott vs. Napoleon Dynamite
‘I’m not a fan of most indie sounds - I didn’t even know what indie was until Napoleon Dynamite came out.’ These are Jackson Scott’s words on the 2004 geek comedy by Jared Hess. Both the movie and the rising psych-pop songwriter are worth checking out!
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Label: Opal Tapes
Our favourite label at the moment is Opal Tapes, home of Huerco S, Holovr, Wanda Group and more. Led by Stephen Bishop in the UK, it flirts with house, techno and some of the most cutting-edge experimental music around.
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Food: The Adam C. Harper
Adam Harper gave away his secret hangover rescue tip the morning after his lecture at WIELS. He served us a waffle topped with bacon, banana and maple syrup – and we loved it! Bye gluten-free diet, hello the Adam C. Harper – a brekkie to save your day!
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Album: Dirty Beaches
Drifters/Love Is the Devil is one insanely good release. It has been getting some heavy rotation at our office and we cannot wait to see him collaborate with U.S. Girls at #wastelands13!
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Will Martin By (Resident Advisor)
This month’s recommendation
New Music
HUERCO S
soundcloud.com/huerco_s
Kansas City-based Huerco S. first popped up on our radar back in 2012 with an untitled cassette for Stephen Bishop’s Opal Tapes, a stunning four track that for three-quarters of proceedings sat somewhere in between the sonic space occupied by Actress, Omar S and Hype Williams. Yet it was the EP’s closing track – a 20-minute piece of stunning synthesizer work in a similar vein to Oneohtrix Point Never – that really demonstrated his compositional ability: a pulsing, hypnagogic journey down the ambient rabbit hole. Arguably part of a new wave of US producers that includes the likes of Ron Morelli’s L.I.E.S, Anthony Naples, Beautiful Swimmers, Time Wharp, Howse and a large percentage of Amanda Brown’s 100% Silk, the music of Huerco S (whose name is slang for ‘kid’ in the Northern Mexican States) is as suited for the dancefloor as it is off, both intensely warm and atmospheric as it is groove driven and hard-hitting. With an impressive CV of releases now including Cleaning Tapes, Boomkat Editions, Wicked Bass, Proibito (as Royal Crown of Sweden) and Future Times, his upcoming European tour will undeniably thrust him to the forefront of a group of upcoming producers whose music is so emotionally charged that it simply cannot be ignored. Page 9
We Saw You
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Spotted at Subbacultcha!
Photo by Nina Strebelle
What’s your secret method pickpocket prevention? I never carry a wallet.
Luis Angel, spotted at the Dirty Beaches/Veronica Falls show at Ancienne Belgique in Brussels on 14 May 2013.
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Features
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The Stealing Issue
Features
Sic Alps
Started as a duo by Mike Donovan and Adam Stonehouse in the early 2000s, San Franciscan noise pop act Sic Alps has seen a lot of changes in its crew since those early days. Today, however, Sic Alps seems more stable than ever with Donovan, bassist Tim Hellman (Wet Illustrated), guitarist Barett Avner (Sun Araw) and drummer Douglas Armour. We were able to steal a moment from co-founder Mike for a chat about getting held up, calling the working class ‘scum’ and some honest confessions about living on the cheap! ‘I’ve always felt pitted against the ad world. However, no one is asking me to commercialise my music, so it’s an untested virtue’ Interview by Julien Van de Casteele Photos shot by Keko Jackson in San Francisco, USA
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Features
Sic Alps
The song ‘Sing Song Waitress’ from your 2008 album U.S. EZ, mentions the word ‘thieves’ at some point. Who are those thieves? They are the big thieves in our society. This is how the lyrics go: ‘Tell what I’ve never seen, anything worse than these thieves, standing upright like a beast molded in a human shape’... Those guys are dogs. ‘Their motives are as clear as the reeking oceans’... They pollute our world. ‘Their slogan doesn’t speak for the meat of the working scum’... They don’t speak for you and me! I am calling the working class ‘scum’ in the eyes of the jerks, of course. I was born upper middle class and descended to lower middle class, so I can say things like that. You descended to lower middle class? Is that something that happened because of your lifestyle? I was brought up by hard-working parents, in a very nice town outside Chicago. They wanted to give us kids the best, but I wasn’t really interested in that kind of life. I always Page 14
stayed very close to the ground financially. I have been a cab driver for the last 15 years, working as little as possible in order to leave time for making tunes. Any exciting stories about people trying to rob you in your taxi? I have actually gotten held up a couple of times. Once they got me, but the other time I ducked and hit the gas after a fellow opened my door holding a 9mm. That was pretty fun. You once mentioned you like living and recording music on the cheap, ‘the good life that doesn’t cost money’. Does having limited finances mean you are more creative with music? Well, I could do a lot with a giant budget creatively for sure, but driving a taxi really suits this level of rock band creation. I drive during nights – my days are free for recording and playing. I can also always leave for tour without a single problem. The good life without money fits in there. Getting commercial work has always been odious to
The Stealing Issue
Features
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Features
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The Stealing Issue
Sic Alps
Features
‘I ducked and hit the gas after a fellow opened my door holding a 9mm. That was pretty fun’ me and though I would never slight someone for it, I’ve always felt pitted against the ad world. However, no one is asking me to commercialise my music, so it’s an untested virtue. Your last album had a larger budget than any of your previous ones. Has that impacted the sound? We went from no budget to $3,000 and we got the strings, an arranger and a very good deal on studio time from my friend Eric Bauer. We really did want to change the sound for the newest one. So you’re going to try to stay with that? Well... The EP that is coming out May 21st is also a studio recording, but we recorded it live after taking the songs on the road with us for a month. It’s different from the more layered approach we worked with up till now, but the EP represents the band as it is now and I am proud of that and the boys who made it happen. The past members of Sic Alps seem to have been of a variety of musical projects. Have you ever stolen songs or guitar riffs from any of them? Before Sic Alps there was a band
called Mesh, that consisted of me and Luke from Child Abuse. It was the prototype of today’s Sic Alps. We would have noise going through a mixer and we would pull that in for the chorus. So yeah, I ended up using maybe four or five songs from that band in Sic Alps over the years. Where do you think Sic Alps is pickpocketing its style from? The big guys like The Kinks, The Beatles and sometimes lesser-known acts like The Dead C or Pip Proud. Do you think stealing can be used to describe the act of copying another band’s style? That’s the name of the game: trying to redo it again, in your own way. Sometimes you will come across something that is ‘your style’, but in the end it is just a reworking of something else. The first backbeat was probably worked out on a log so it’s that old log sound everybody is trying to reach. Sic Alps play at Madame Moustache, Brussels on 28 June. The show is free for Subbacultcha! members. Page 17
Features
Hantrax
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The Stealing Issue
Features
Antwerp-based record label Jack Playmobil is well-known for its blissed-out techno sounds. Founder and local cult DJ Jan Techniks surrounds himself with inventive producers who push house, acid and techno to their boundaries. One of these lords of the dance is Han Swolfs, aka Hantrax, a former gang leader who loves to quote ‘I have a very dark side. But I’ve learnt to make it a constructive dark side’ Interview by Will Martin Photos shot by Nina Strebelle in Antwerp
On the back of your EP Haldol Dancer you have a statement claiming that the music on the EP is ‘music for Friday nights in stolen cars’. How many Friday nights have you spent in stolen cars? I’ve spent my whole life in stolen cars: I’m always around them. We once went for a joy ride after a club night. Living on the edge of things lets you explore life’s various possibilities. You may lose a lot, but you gain wisdom. Have you ever stolen anything? I did when I was in the sixth
grade of elementary school, and I got kicked out. We had a gang. I was the leader. But stealing isn’t a good thing, it fuels materialism. We all live on love, food and understanding. I love people, not things. I stole a lot that year, which I regret. Then again, wisdom was gained. And I started making music. Would you consider sampling theft? Are music makers nothing but intellectual pickpockets? What is a thief ? If he defines himself to be, maybe he’s a thief. But Page 19
Features
Hantrax
‘I’m a victim of my own mind. The kind of victim that would shake hands with his predator’
then again, maybe we all are. A sample is a quote, it’s something positive. Rights are sometimes attached, but it’s always a nice story of rebellion. On your website you talk about taking inspiration from deconstruction and Western Buddhism that you then apply to your work across various forms of media. I try to read a lot of philosophy. I think everything comes two ways, but in the end you’re never happy with the result. You always want new things, believing they could be better until the moment that they are. Everything is constantly moving, everything dissolves and keeps dissolving, deconstructing itself into something new. Stealing something produces a new owner, and then it gets stolen again, and the cycle continues. Music functions in the same way: reconstructing things only to break them down and replace them with another space. We’ve spoken about theft being something that can be regarded as positive, almost as a kind of transfer/reappropriation of energy. But surely the arguPage 20
ment can be made that thievery creates a victim on some level? That’s true. Literally speaking, it’s not a good thing. But I like to explore different perspectives and understand things rather than judge. Most of the time, I identify myself with the outlaw. Everybody is a victim, but also a predator at some point in life. I’m a victim of my own mind. The kind of victim that would shake hands with his predator and then realise that this isn’t always the best thing to do. Is the gang leader from the sixth grade still hidden in there somewhere? He is. I have a very dark side. But I’ve learnt to make it a constructive dark side. I had to grow older to learn how to do so. It’s a question of being an outlaw, but a friendly outlaw. Taking perspective and giving something back for what you did wrong. Hantrax, Ruby Rage, Hungry Soul, Jan Techniks and D.J. Baute play on the Jack Playmobil showcase at Troya, Ghent on 21 June. The show is free for Subbacultcha! members.
The Stealing Issue
Features
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Features
The Stealing Issue
No Age
photos shot by Samuel Wolf Monkarsh in LA Page 22
No Age
Features
No Age play on19 June at Trix in Antwerp. The show is free for Subbacultcha! members. Other live dates: 23/06 - Best Kept Secret Festival, Hilvarenbeek, The Netherlands. Page 23
Scene Report
The Stealing Issue
Scene Report
Portland Maine U A Page 24
Portland, ME
Scene Report
Once the isolationist bedroom-psych project of Matt Lajoie, Herbcraft has in recent years sprawled out in many different full band incarnations – duo, trio, quartet, sextet – for tours and heady super-sessions at their HQ in Maine. We asked Matt to give us an insight into the daily surroundings of his hometown. Text by Matt Lajoie Photos shot by Dawn Aquarius and Matt Lajoie in Portland, Maine, USA
For any head on the fringe, the story of Portland, Maine’s underground and experimental art scene revolves around Strange Maine’s axis. This way-out record/book/video/curio shop has been the most essential hub of culture for me since I moved to Portland in 2005, a time when local label Time-Lag Records regularly presented shows there featuring Wooden Wand, Feathers, Fursaxa and Charalambides, playing in front of a floor-to-ceiling wall of VHS tapes. Thanks to places like Strange Maine and Moody Lords (another record shop just a few brick-laid steps down
Congress Street), tiny local labels have been quietly thriving in Portland for some time. You can peek across the counter at Strange Maine’s personnel for some good examples. Owner BR Garm has recently shifted his focus to the killer darkwave duo Video Nasties, and runs his own cassette imprint Creature King. Strange Maineager id M theft Able is a deep-noise wizard, while simultaneously running the Mang-Disc label. And occasionally Caleb Mulkerin fills in at Strange Maine, finding time between his psych-folk-rock duo Big Blood with Page 25
Scene Report
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The Stealing Issue
Portland, ME
Scene Report
‘The freedom offered by these DIY spots is crucial to Portland’s ever-evolving underground scene, encouraging the strange sounds produced throughout the city.’
wife Colleen Kinsella and in-house label Dontrustheruin. My own immersion in the Portland scene is similarly two-pronged, as a musician (as Cursillistas up to 2009; as Herbcraft since) and labelhead of my L’animaux Tryst Field Recordings imprint. I started the label in 2006 from a tiny studio apartment to document and promote the local underground scene. A collective mentality took grip amongst L’animaux artists, and many of us soon moved in together at kosmische-voyagers Tempera’s homebase, New Wyrd 33. That house was a social scene in itself, providing cheap rent and a buzzing hive of creativity for numerous musicians and artists over the years, as well as a reliable crash palace for travelling bands. However, impermanence and transience were always part of the house philosophy, so it’s no surprise that over the past couple of years ev-
eryone from the L’animaux Tryst crew has moved out. For myself and Dawn Aquarius (of Oracle Offering and Herbcraft) this has meant a retreat to deep-woods isolation on Highland Lake (just outside of Portland), where we are currently recording new Herbcraft material, assembling new L’animaux releases, and constantly flipping deep-psych and free-jazz LPs on the hi-fi. When we do hang out in the city, it’s usually in the Arts District, where you can find three excellent record shops, our favourite bookstore (The Green Hand, specialising in esoteric occult books and cheap sci-fi paperbacks) and a lot of Portland’s best restaurants, cafes, bars and music venues. Right in the middle of the Arts District, Space Gallery books most of the bigger touring bands we’re into (Os Mutantes and Woods are both coming soon), while The Oak and The Ax, located in nearby Biddeford, books Page 27
Features
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The Stealing Issue
Portland, ME
Features
‘Local promoters are exceedingly inventive in finding venues for off-the-radar shows’
acts a bit more on the fringe and also regularly screens classic art films. But these particular venues notwithstanding, the vitality of the Portland scene comes from a more underground DIY community. House venues named after the street they’re located on (Darkmouth Castle, 131 Washington, Poland Street) have been providing figurative and literal homes to a whole new crop of musicians with ears tuned to exciting (and weird) frequencies. Acts as diverse as the grimy, strictly-analogue synth-funk duo Altered Gee and noise-fuzz-punk kingpin Sterling Black are quickly becoming stars of the basement DIY circuit. The freaks claw for space, and beyond house shows, they’ve also managed to salvage the most notorious dive bar in town – Mathew’s – and turn it into a hotbed of underground sounds. Local promoters are exceedingly inventive in finding venues for off-the-radar shows: The Dirigimus Cooperative effectively squatted in a large warehouse space for nearly a
year, hosting wild shows in the shadow of looming demolition, and two of the most buzzed-about annual indie/experimental music events happen on a rented cruise ship and on Peaks Island (accessible only by ferry). The freedom offered by these DIY spots is crucial to Portland’s ever-evolving underground scene, feeding back into and encouraging the strange sounds produced throughout the city. Essential Portland bands: Herbcraft, Video Nasties, Big Blood, Altered Gee, Sterling Black. Essential Portland spots: Strange Maine, Moody Lords, The Green Hand, Space Gallery, The Oak and The Ax, Mathew’s. Herbcraft’s latest album The Astral Body Electric was released on Woodsist in March.
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Art
Featured artist
Juan Rutina
Juan was born in Caracas, Venezuela in 1987. Structural engineer by day, artist by night, he spends most of his spare time crafting his Rutina zine, of which he has published eight volumes so far as well as some special editions. His work consists of collages, cuts and pieces taken from everyday life, and analogue photography, both depicting the daily routines of life in a city like Caracas. Juan has exhibited his works in various galleries and museums in his hometown. Artist selected, liked and approved by Ladda & Topo Copy rutinazine.tumblr.com
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Juan Rutina
Art
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Art
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Juan Rutina
Featured artist
Art
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Agenda
Shows in May
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THE EUROREGIONAL MUSIC MEETING TERMM 3: IC MUSIC SHOWCASE 06.06 DAMERELS, SCRAPPY TAPES, LIESA VAN DER AA, THE NAME
>> FREE ENTRANCE!
THE BABIES + NISSENENMONDAI 17.06 WHITE HILLS 16.10 SOPHIA 31.10 THE VAN JETS 15.11 WIN WIN WIN WIN WIN SUBSCRIBE TO OUR WEEKLY NEWSLETTER ON WWW.DEKREUN.BE BETWEEN 01/06/13 AND 20/06/13 AND WIN 5 FREE KREUN TICKETS FOR OUR NEXT SEASON! VOLG ONS OP FACEBOOK.COM/DEKREUNMUSIC EN TWITTER (@DEKREUN, #DEKREUN).
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Agenda On the following pages:
Subbacultcha! concerts and films totally free for members Page 36
Other shows Page 43 Overview Page 46
This image of Katie Stelmanis of Austra was taken by Isolde Woudstra at the Lloyd Hotel in Amsterdam. Austra play on 11 June at DOK in Ghent.
See all these shows for free. Sign up at www.subbacultcha.be.
Night Beats
02 June - AreafiftyOne, Eindhoven 19.30 | €7 | Free for Subbacultcha! members
Shortly after these Seattle-based psych rockers self-released their debut EP back in 2010, they were picked up by the Trouble in Mind label, home to Ty Segall and The Fresh & Onlys. Since then, they have shared stages with the likes of Black Lips and The Black Angels, with whom they’re also involved in various side projects. With two of their three members hailing from Texas, it should come as little surprise that their brand of 21st-century psych tips its cowboy hat to Lone Star State legends such as 13th Floor Elevators, Lost and Found and Golden Dawn, with guitar work blazing harder than the desert sun and a rhythm section that’s not to be messed with.
The Fresh & Onlys
05 June - Madame Moustache, Brussels 20.00 | €5 | Free for Subbacultcha! members 08 June - AreafiftyOne, Eindhoven 20.30 | €8 | Free for Subbacultcha! members
This prolific San Francisco lo-fi outfit channels influences ranging from jangly psychedelia, Western soundtrack twang, punk revivalism, ‘60s pop and garage rock. Their old-school tunes are effortlessly melodic and catchy enough to get your parents’ toes tapping and modern-day kids’ hips shakPage 36
As a member you will also receive this magazine every month plus a stylish tote bag
ing. 2012’s Long Slow Dance frequently calls to mind The Cure in the best way possible, and is among the most effectively poppy and romantic releases to emerge from the New Garage Rock movement.
John Webster Johns + Alpha Whale + Urpf Lanze 16 June - DOK, Ghent 20.00 | €7 | Free for members
John Webster Johns is Jack Adams, a songwriter described by White Fence’s Tim Presley as a ‘stubborn genius’ who has collaborated with acts such as Ariel Pink, Cass McCombs and Women to name but a few. Under his zillion monikers, he makes compelling lo-fi pop tunes. Support by Ghent-based Alpha Whale and Urpf Lanze.
The Babies
17 June - De Kreun, Kortrijk 20.00 | €13 | Free for Subbacultcha! members
Originally conceived by Woods bassist Kevin Morby and Vivian Girls’ Cassie Ramone as an outlet for exchanging ideas and playing shows at house parties, several tours have helped The Babies mature into a nearly full-time project. Late last year they delivered their second album, Our House on the Hill, a bundle of joyous garage pop swaddled in country vibes, lovably unpretentious lyricism and melodies catchy enough to take root in even the most sterile of hearts. Page 37
See all these shows for free. Sign up at www.subbacultcha.be.
No Age
19 June - Trix, Antwerp 19.30 | €16 | Free for Subbacultcha! members Cali’s finest, Randy Randall and Dean Spunt – better known as No Age – took a long time before spreading the news about their yet untitled new album. Like many of their mates of ‘The Smell’ scene in LA in the early 2000s, No Age started off as a terrifying act that burned your ears with rambling lo-fi punk. Along the way this furious duo cleaned up their sound, released the critically acclaimed Everything In Between on Sub Pop, and left The Smell for what it was. For their new record Spunt and Randall let go of old habits and created new compositional methods, circumventing all notions of pop music and breaking it down into something else entirely.
uSSSy
20 June - Scheld’apen, Antwerp 20.00 | TBA | Free for Subbacultcha! members
Russia is the talk of the town here at the Subbacultcha! office. We’ve been extremely fascinated by the Moscow scene of Midnite Cobras and the charming drone sounds of Saint Petersburg-based Love Cult. Now there’s another red threat coming our way, and they ain’t here to cuddle. uSSSy is an instrumental duo that brings merciless noise alternated with heavy psych and Eastern rhythms.
Jack Playmobil Night ft. Hantrax, Hungry Soul, Jan Techniks 21 June - Troya, Ghent 22.30 | €5-7 | Free for Subbacultcha! members
Antwerp-based record label Jack Playmobil is well-known for its blissedout techno sounds. Founder and local cult hero DJ Jan Techniks surrounds himself with inventive producers who push house, acid and techno to their boundaries. At this label night we’ll be tripping away on spacey live sets Page 38
As a member you will also receive this magazine every month plus a stylish tote bag
from Hantrax and Hungry Soul as well as on the pumping DJ sets of pumping DJ sets of Techniks himself, Ruby Rage and all time favorite D.J. Baute.
Idiot Glee
23 June - Madame Moustache, Brussels 20.00 | â‚Ź7 | Free for Subbacultcha! members
James Friley is a productive figure in his hometown music scene in Lexington, Kentucky. Besides making idiosyncratic and soulful synth pop as Idiot Glee, he also co-owns a record label, books shows, participates in the Resonant Hole audio-visual collective, is a radio DJ, plays bass in Street Gnar, and composes soundtracks for films. Clearly not a man to slow down, his new EP Life Without Jazz is his most adventurous release yet.
Sic Alps
28 June - Madame Moustache, Brussels 20.00 | â‚Ź8 | Free for Subbacultcha! members
Originally a duo featuring only Mike Donovan and Matt Hartman, the San Franciscan noise pop act Sic Alps has seen a lot of members come and go since the early 2000s. Among past members, for instance, garage rock figure Ty Segall, with his occasional appearances in live performances and recordings. Today, with a fifth studio album just out, the band seems more stable than ever. Notorious for their energetic live performances, Sic Alps are finally touring Europe again. Page 39
02 JUN
NIGHT BEATS
08 JUN
FRESH & ONLYS
05 SEP
DINOSAUR JR.
31 OKT
MY BLOODY VALENTINE
kijk voor ons volledige programma + locaties op www.effenaar.nl
Focus
Agenda
Out Loud! Festival Beursschouwburg in Brussels celebrates the end of its season with the smashing - and completely free - mini-festival, Out Loud!. Spend your lunch break chilling on the rooftop and head back at night to enjoy a great selection of music-related movies and live shows by up-and-coming artists. 05-29 June, Beursschouwburg, Brussels. Free entrance. Film
Music
Don’t Look Back We’ll always remember the opening scene of Don’t Look Back: a young Bob Dylan holding cue cards in an alley to the sound of ‘Subterranean Homesick Blues’. The documentary that portrays Dylan’s 1965 UK Tour is one not to miss!
PINS Manchester’s PINS embody everything that makes a good girl group. Their sound is as badass and dark as it is beautiful and they are reminiscent of all the good girl groups of the past - at once.
A Hard Day’s Night Considered by many as one of the most influential music films of all time, the 1964 comedy A Hard Day’s Night documents a few days in the life of the Fab Four at the height of the Beatlemania. The Rolling Stones: Charlie Is My Darling - Ireland 1965 Premiered in 1966 but not officially released until last year, this first ever documentary about The Stones follows them from London to Ireland and back for a four-gig tour of Dublin and Belfast in 1965. Message To Love: The Isle Of Wight Festival Despite its fantastic line-up - The Who, Jimi Hendrix, Dylan, The Doors, Miles Davis! - The 1970 Isle Of Wight Festival was a grim and chaotic event. This documentary sheds light on both the performances and the violence that tainted the festival.
Miaux Belgian Mia Prce is a contemporary pianist who makes heartwarming instrumental ballads under the moniker Miaux. During this festival she’ll be spreading her exotic sounds from the rooftop of the Beursschouwburg. Cloud Boat London electro duo Sam Ricketts and Tom Clarke - better known as Cloud Boat - are cut from the same jib (and record label) as fellow Brit James Blake. Their debut album Book of Hours is a brilliant, fragile and dreamy piece for your ears. Planningtorock Planningtorock is the vehicle for Janine Rostron’s dark and beatdriven pop fantasies. Signed by James Murphy’s DFA records, Rostron is well known for her impressive, striking live performances. A must-see. www.beursschouwburg.be. Page 41
Agenda
©Bart Vander Sanden
Shows in May
CONCERTS
IRON AND WINE (03.06) • SCOUT NIBLETT (06.06) • WAVVES (27.06) • STRAND OF OAKS (06.09) • THE BOXER REBELLION (12.09) • FUZZ (25.09) • TUNNG + PINKUNOIZU (06.10) • ANE BRUN + Very special guest TONBRUKET (13.10) • TINDERSTICKS «Across Six Leap Years Anniversary Tour 2013»
(22.10)
02 218 37 32 MORE @ BOTANIQUE.BE Page 42
Agenda
Shows in June
Venus X
Venus X 01 June - Noorderterras, Antwerp The people of the Antwerp-based streetwear label A Cut Above are celebrating their fifth anniversary in style with a smashing party featuring NY’s future urban role model Venus X.
Planet Caravan Festival ft. OM, Wolf People, Master Musicians Of Bukkake 01-02 June - Trix, Antwerp Planet Caravan is a two-day psychedelic festival aiming at satisfying your need for heavy guitar riffs and hypnotic Mali desert rock. On this occasion, British psych rockers Wolf People, and Seattle’s seven-piece avant-garde world-music collective Master Musicians Of Bukkake will be fuelling your ears with legal LSD. (That’s music we’re talking about.)
Night Beats 02 June - AreaFiftyOne, Eindhoven These 21st-century psych rockers tip their
hats to Texas legends such as 13th Floor Elevators, Lost and Found, and Golden Dawn, with guitar work that blazes harder than the desert sun and a rhythm section that’s not to be messed with. Read more on page 36.
Iron and Wine 03 June - Botanique, Brussels American folk rock singer-songwriter Samuel Beam, aka Iron & Wine, is back on a promotional tour for his latest effort, Ghost on Ghost. In his sixth production Beam wants to try new sounds and ideas, which marks a new step for the ever-developing Iron & Wine project.
The Fresh & Onlys 05 June - Madame Moustache, Brussels 08 June - AreaFiftyOne, Eindhoven This prolific San Francisco lo-fi outfit channels influences ranging from jangly psychedelia, Western soundtrack twang, punk revivalism, ‘60s pop, garage rock, and even The Cure. Read more on page 36. Page 43
Agenda
Shows in June
Dustin Wong plays on 25 June at Kinkystar in Ghent.
Marnie Stern + Javelin 06 June - Charlatan, Ghent The latest album from fidgety finger-tapping guitar goddess Marnie Stern, The Chronicles of Marnia, finds her working with a new drummer after losing long-time collaborator Zach Hill to Death Grips, as well as working with a producer for the first time. The end result sounds sparser and is more sharply focused on Stern’s vocals than her previous work. Support by Brooklyn-based avant-pop duo Javelin.
Austra 11 June - DOK, Ghent This dark synth pop group hailing from Toronto makes ‘classical music with really fucked-up, distorted, crazy shit on there,’ merging the theatricality of Kate Bush with the dark atmosphere of The Knife in a way that’s operatic without being melodramatic, irresistibly danceable and totally spellbinding.
Chelsea Light Movement 13 June - Trix, Antwerp Rather than hooking up with a hot young floozy after his breakup with fellow Sonic Youth bandmate Kim Gordon, Thurston Moore decided to come up with a heavy Page 44
and dissonant musical project. Chelsea Light Moving’s self-titled 2013 debut takes notes from heavy metal and hardcore punk, genres that Moore shied away from in his earlier work.
Naked Song Festival 15 June - Muziekgebouw Frits Philips, Eindhoven Hold your horses, randy listener: rather than an XXX showcase of premier singer-songwriters, the Naked Song Festival offers up a programme of Americana, blues and folk so raw and stripped-down that you’ll feel liberated in a different way. Just stay away from hot chicks trying to offer you an apple.
The Babies 17 June - De Kreun, Kortrijk On their latest album The Babies deliver a bundle of joyous garage pop swaddled in country vibes, lovably unpretentious lyricism, and melodies catchy enough to take root in even the most sterile of hearts. Read more on Page 37.
No Age 19 June - Trix, Antwerp For their new record Dean Spunt and Randy Randall let go of old habits and created new compositional methods, circumvent-
Agenda
Shows in June
Black Lips play the Best Kept Secret Festival on 21-23 June in Hilvarenbeek.
ing all notions of pop music and breaking it down into something else. Read more on page 38.
uSSSy 19 June - Magasin4, Brussels 20 June - Scheld’apen, Antwerp uSSSy bring merciless noise alternated with heavy psych and eastern rhythms. Read more on page 38.
Jack Playmobil night 21 June - Troya, Ghent The Antwerp-based label is putting on a night full of Hantrax, Hungry Soul, DJ sets of Jan Techniks and all-time favourite D.J. Baute. Read more on page 38.
Best Kept Secret Festival ft. Doldrums, Autre Ne Veut, Allah-Las, Black Lips, Kurt Vile 21-23 June - Beekse Bergen, Hilvarenbeek This new indie festival boasts a ridiculously strong line-up in which not-so-secret bands like Sigur Ros and Arctic Monkeys draw you in, only to find some of the best new names in indie, folk, hip hop, rock and electronica. The festival’s gorgeous site, with its forest, beach and swimming area, should make an idyllic setting for learning musical secrets you can’t bear to keep to yourself.
Idiot Glee 23 June - Madame Moustache, Brussels Besides juggling a label he’s co-running, playing bass in Street Gnar, and a million other things, James Friley also makes idiosyncratic and soulful synth pop as Idiot Glee. Read more on page 39.
Dustin Wong 25 June - Kinkystar, Ghent Compared to his main gig, Ponytail, guitarist Dustin Wong’s solo work is considerably more meditative. Wong weaves together altered, looped and layered guitar sounds into an intricate and hypnotic sonic tapestry.
Sic Alps 28 June - Madame Moustache, Brussels These garage psych rockers, notorious for their energetic live performances, are touring Europe again and will be back in Belgium. Read more on page 39.
DRVG CVLTVRE 28 June - Les Ateliers Claus, Brussels Jack of all trades Vincent Koreman makes challenging dance music under the DRVG CVLTVRE moniker. Highly recommended if you’re into the dark rhythms of Andy Stott and PAN’s NHK’Koyxeиn. Page 45
Overview of all Subbacultcha! shows in June
02 June
19 June
Night Beats
No Age
AreafiftyOne, Eindhoven 19.30 | €7 | Free for Subbacultcha! members
Trix, Antwerp 19.30 | €16 | Free for Subbacultcha! members
05 June
20 June
The Fresh & Onlys
uSSSy
Madame Moustache, Brussels 20.00 | €5 | Free for Subbacultcha! members
Scheld’apen, Antwerp 20.00 | tba | Free for Subbacultcha! members
08 June
21 June
The Fresh & Onlys
Jack Playmobil Night
AreafiftyOne, Eindhoven 20.30 | €8 | Free for Subbacultcha! members
Troya, Ghent 22.30 | €5-7 | Free for Subbacultcha! members
17 June
23 June
The Babies
Idiot Glee
De Kreun, Kortrijk 20.00 | €13 | Free for Subbacultcha! members
Madame Moustache, Brussels 20.00 | €7 | Free for Subbacultcha! members
16 June:
28 June
John Webster Johns
Sic Alps
DOK, Ghent 20.00 | €7 | Free for Subbacultcha! members
Madame Moustache, Brussels 20.00 | €8 | Free for Subbacultcha! members
Coming Up: R&S showcase, Wastelands Festival
See all these shows, plus the Subbacultha! shows in NL for free. Join at www.subbacultcha.be. Page 46
presented by
JUNE 21-22-23 2013
FESTIVAL BEEKSE BERGEN HILVARENBEEK
june 2013
Concerts, music films, picnics and apéroconcerts, high up on Beursschouwburg’s rooftop terrace.
gratis beursschouwburg concerts: Fr 7/06 Billie Kawende (apéroconcert) STIJN (BE) & Fol Chen (US) Sa 8/06 Emika (UK) & Pins (UK) Fr 14/06 Miaux (BE) (apéroconcert) Cloud Boat (DE) & Pormad (BE)
be
Sa 15/06 Mr Polska (NL/PL) & Geile Gleuf Madderfakkers (BE)
Fr 28/06 Tommigun Duo (BE) (apéro-
Fr 21/06 Karen Willems (BE) Edwin Vanvinckenroye (BE) (apéroconcert) Thomas Azier (NL) & Delvaux. (BE)
Sa 29/06 Örfaz (FR)
Sa 22/06 Planningtorock (DE) & Filastine (US)
concert)
Ghost Capsule (AT) & Manngold de Cobre (BE)