DOUR

Me and sonny jim just bought our tickets to this bad boy

It's in Belgium :I land of chocolate, waffles and history trips, should be a corker, only 20% of the lineup have been revealed thus far but the names i do recognise don't look half bad:

Aphex Twin, Five Elements of Hip Hop (wooooah), Deerhoof, Diplo, Killing Joke and about 180 others to be announced.

judging by their past lineups Dour looks like one of the best festivals in the world and for 100 of your continental euros- it's a bargain if i ever did see one.

Don't be sour, come to Dour. Sorry that was poor.

Artrockahhh

Yeah that's right, the Spider and The Flies article can be found in April 09 issue of Artrocker feast yo' eyes on my second piece of published material PLUS they got my name right, well done this particular musical and cultural rag, well done.

Mole Fm

This will probably be one of my last posts for some time to come...i wonder what will happen to this here blog in the next few months, i aints gots a clue!

Tracklisting as follows:

Bo Diddley - Hey Bo Diddley
Telepathe- So Fine
Roy Orbison- In Dreams
The Ikettes- I'm Blue
Don Henley- Boys Of Summer
The Knife- Forest Families
Nina Simone- I Put A Spell On You
Whyte Boots- Nightmare
Gang Gang Dance- House Jam (Hot Chip Remix)
Billy Holiday- Strange Fruit

Big Bad Mole

'Dyin' aint much of a livin' boi'


I have been incredibly neglectful these past few weeks, i have intense spurts (urgh hate that word) of writing, then it all goes to pot and i lack the motivation and decency to bother! i made a conscious decision to stop doing CD reviews as i have become incredibly disillusioned with the idea of rating something and telling someone about music...I'm happy to do interviews, write constructive gig reviews as i feel like these are moments and experiences that are easier to define and invest in more, basically they are funnerer, also easier to sieve through the bullshit and the hype really than listening to a CD, it became a chore and that's not why i write about music it's not a job (i don't get paid obviously).
anyway boring rant over, the main reason for this random realisation was whilst i was watching a documentary on BBC4 'Festival!' directed by Murray Lerner, it was damn inspirational. i was never big on folk or blues for that matter but that documentary had a big impact on me.
after that I couldn't stop listening to Blind Lemon Jefferson and Bo Diddley. i jut remember why i like music, personally i am not too great at getting up to date with every album as they come out, i prefer to just go with whatever i want to listen to or whatever phase i'm going through. at the moment all i have on my mp3 and CD player is Telepathe, Scratch Acid, Bo Diddley, Red Bird compilation and Brazilian Tropicalia. Literally. that's at least 50 years of music.
this isn't the most entertaining of posts i admit but it sort of explains the abundance of tumbleweeds that have been blowing through this here blog.
on another note i have got an interview with Spider And The Flies out tomorrow in the latest edition of Artrocker and also i'm just finishing an article on a Norwich band called the Brownies hopefully to be featured in Artrocker so look out for that...


Over Und Auf

Knife Fever

I just downloaded the new single to be released by Karin Dreijer Anderrson under the guise of Fever Ray. Karin is of course one half of one of the most amazing electronic pop groups in the world ever, The Knife. listening to the Fever Ray track 'If I Had a Heart' sounds distintively knifeish but even darker, like 'forest families' from the album 'Silent Shout' but with Grinderman in the background, it's brooding art at it's best. I love her androgynous warped man vocals too which she brings back.
Me and a few friendlings managed to catch the Knife play at The Forum in 2006 Planning To Rock supported them and it was a triumph to say the least. They went to great lengths to hide their identity probably because it was one of their rare live performances. I vaguely remember there being a massive sort of translucent/ net curtain between band and audience and loads of weird and wonderful videos projected in the background, the duo both wore balaclavas and looked amazing.
Here's a little link to 'Pass This On' from The Knife's first album 'Deep Cuts' (the crazy hoodlum looking guy that starts dancing at the beautiful man lady is Olof Dreijer Karin's brother and partner in crime.)

To a Sky Lark

Leeds triumvirate, Sky Larkin, have had quite a year, with some impressive support slots (Conor Oberst) and mentors there to guide them (producer John Goodmanson and Death Cab for Cutie have mucked in).
Now signed to Witchita (home to the likes of Bloc Party, Les Savy Fav and Bessie mates Los Campesinos’) the band look like they’re in safe hands.
Those Sky Larkin birds are however a difficult breed to try and track down. GIITTV were hoping for a lil bit of chat time before christmas loomed, unfortunately it wouldn’t be until January when I was finally able to nab a conversation about the new album ‘Golden Spike’ and what the future holds for the band.
I knew I was cursed from the moment my train was delayed by an hour. After having finally scheduled a phoner interview with the band, my car then broke down preventing me from getting to the necessary tools in order to record the interview!
Eventually I managed to transcribe the interview and write up a piece only for it to be lost in the expansive cyber universe! The Gods just did not want the message of Sky Larkin to be spread.
Excuses, excuses, excuses, you say…ne’er fear after many obstacles and torturous hours I bring you a brief but insightful interview with front women Katie Harkin who was ever so gracious and lovely in spite of the misfortunes that plagued the interview, the women is a true professional. Enjoy it, I walked slowly over hot coals and ash to bring you this…sort of.

How would you describe the sound of the album?

Katie: Well when we went to Seattle to go and record it we met (producer) John (producer John Goodmanson) just as we were straight off the flight and we were incredibly jet lagged and we were trying to have a constructive conversation and I think the only words that I could get out of my mouth in my jetlagged state were ‘RAW’ and ‘FULL’. ‘I want it to sound really full but also really raw at the same time’. I think that’s was about as far as I could get, and I think that’s how it sounds.
The fun of being a three piece is that, ‘cos they’res only sort of a limited number of things going on at one time, you have to make each of your parts as full as possible without overplaying.

How did you find the recording process did it all go pretty smoothly, were there any amusing anecdotes you can share?

Katie: Well we went to two different studios we went to Death Cab For Cuties studio, they lent us us drums and amps and stuff like that for recording the basic tracks ‘cos we only came over with the standard baggage allowance. Nesta managed to break five snare drums in one day. He broke nothing until the last day that we were there then he managed to break five in one day.
We went to johns to do vocals and sort of extra bits and pieces and John had just moved into this studio that he was halfway through building and the vocal booth that he had was in an old broom cupboard it was so hot in there that if I had the light turned on, it was too hot, so I had the light turned off and had to sing in the dark.

Did you find that had any impact on you’re vocals at all?

Katie: It’s always a bit schizophrenic like singing and then lifting back to yourself and then being like, yeah I’d like to keep that or whatever, it’s always a bit maddening. So yeah I did go a bit loco.

Who would you say were your kindred spirits within the industry?

Katie: There’s bands that we’ve toured with and played with a lot. We’ve toured with Los Campesinos a couple of times and we’re just about to go on tour with Johnny foreigner. We’re all kind of around the same age and we all play gigs together before any of us had albums out.

You’ve kind of grown and developed together?

Katie: Yeah definitely. Johnny Foreigner are coming along with us touring Europe.

What about the name Sky Larkin? I was trying to find some sort of reference and wondered if it was inspired by a love for Percy Shelley (in reference to Shelley’s poem ‘To a Sky Lark’)?

Katie: It’s funny ‘cos I started the idea for the band when I was living in London and I went to meet my friend Simon, I said to him I wanted a band name that sounded positive and hopeful and kind of ambiguous, like it could be a person or a band at the same time. He just suggested it, you can’t think of anything more expansive and universal than the sky. Plus my last name is Harkin so it’s a pun, which is always good.

Good wordplay. Where do you see Sky Larkin going in the next year?

Katie: I don’t know exactly what we’re doing in the next three months, but I know that we’re gonna get to go back to a lot of the places where we were lucky enough to do support tours last autumn like Conor Oberst. We went to places we never expected we could go and now we can go back to those places, it’s gonna be nice to go back to Switzerland and places I never really imagined we would play and I guess every musicians aim is to have a record out. When we first started out our goal was to have a 7’’ single out and maybe to play a gig in another country and beyond that everything is just a bonus.

No Pussy Blues

After reading a quote in some rag or t'other this week, in which a particular artist claimed that boys do 'it' better (im assuming this particular quote 'it' refers to creating music), got me thuhunking.
At first i agreed with this sweeping statement. 'yar...' i thought 'boys do do it better'. however after a liddle bid of reflection AND on closer inspection, i've come to the conclusion that the aforementioned statement was, to put it bluntly, the quotation equivalent of a steaming pile of turd that sits crusting in the suns rays.
to make matters worse i think the quote can be attributed to a female band member, she was basically admitting to her own inferiority, to be fair her band are not particularly special.
Plankish though her statment was, it sort of proves how initially it's difficult to list great female artists and singers without going through the same old people.
I started thinking about no wave, the likes of lydia lunch, Jarboe and Diamanda galas, three women who i have ALWAYS meant to get into their work but have neglected to do so. their influences have stretched far and wide, they're all loud mouth bizznitches and a little bit weird...that's why i like them.
i also found a cool book which is home to an archive of interviews from 'punk planet' (punk rock zine i assume...i have little knowledge on the subject) in Oxfam a few months ago, there is a cool interview with kathleen hanna, she of Bikini Kill and Le Tigre fame. she's basically a stark raving feminist...but not in the way i have always assumed feminism to be, man hating. she puts up a good fight, she's eloquent, knowledgable, witty and doesn't contradict herself which is a surprising feat considering the conviction she has in her views. Hers was definately an inspirational point of view.
My new found gender awareness is thanks in part to listening to a lot of Ellie Greenwich stuff and The Slits this week. I've never really been a feminist or really taken the time to study in depth womens roles in society, however i still get supremely pissed off when i do take the time to think about the gender injustices that plague our world. i'm considering going on a tirade about this, perhaps in article form or something and link it in music, we'll see what happens with that one.
On the lady note i'm just getting into a novelist called Harry Crews, and coincidently Kim Gordon (Sonic Youth) and Lydia Lunch (Teenage Jesus and the Jerks, bummed around with Nick Cave back in the day) were in a short lived 'supergroup' in the late 80's which was based around him and his books...check him out he seems interesting. he's probably a misogynist like most of the people that appeal to me.