Tickets- Hed Kandi Launch Party '09
- 2020rocks. Late Show Featuring Stanton Warriors
- 2020rocks. Early Show Featuring Sway Live
- 2020rocks. Launch Party '09 Featuring Laid Back Lu
- 2020 New Years Eve Masquerade Ball
- Gehenna Vii Vii Vii
- Metronomy - Shockwaves Nme Awards Tour 2009
- The Wombats - Shockwaves Nme Awards Tour 2009
- Tricky - Shockwaves Nme Awards Tour 2009
- Shockwaves Nme Awards Show 2009 Present Tricky
I have a band, a myspace page, now what?
Written by: David Harrison
So you have written some bitchin’ songs, made a MySpace page, and maybe even bought a domain name. You’ve had a few local gigs – but what now? Well, it’s going to cost you a bit of money, and a lot of time.
1. Organise your mailing – even if it is just one from your Outlook Express. Allow people to get on it. You can use a lot of third-party solutions such as Yahoo Groups / Wufoo / Icontact Zookoda - whatever service you feel is suitable for your costs or project.
2. Don’t over-plug your projects - people get very bored if just signed up to you out of politeness. Ask them to add you to their Safe List, as otherwise you’ll end up in the SPAM box.
3. Make your own webpage that isn’t MySpace – you don’t know how?
4. Use blogger.com and post news regularly. Link to friends’ websites, and ask nicely if they will link to you in return. If you feel the need, let a few free tracks to get out.
5. If Blogger does not ‘do’ enough for you – use Drupal and an automatic install of it on Machine Networks for £3.50 a month. Sony use Drupal for their artist websites, and The Onion use it for their very popular news site. Wordpress and Joomla are other alternative free content management systems to consider, this page is a Wordpress page.
6. Install Google Analytics on your page – this will let you find out why, when, and how people use your website. It sounds fancy is actually easy-peasy, and will help you in the long run.
7. Find some relevant music blogs, and/or aspiring writing people to review your work. To your face, usually everyone will tell you they like your work. If they have to put their opinion into words with their name in the byline, they may not be so inclined to be gracious.
8. Everybody still loves it? The record is still the best thing the world hasn’t heard? Excellent.
9. Are you sure? If you push your band before you are ready, you can garner black marks next to your name for years, as people remember “oh, that band from ages ago? They suck!”. Oh, still cool you are? Let’s go then.
Don’t hate the Media; become the Media
9. Channel 4 Slash music / Bebo / Trig / Moblog / Sellaband / Slice The Pie / YouTube / Yahoo 360 / Upcoming / Last.Fm / www.scoutr.co.uk / musicnation.com / Facebook….
There are a million social and music networks out there. None will make you famous, but they all can contribute to awareness about, and drive traffic to, your precious project.
Make sure they all link to each other (that’s how Search Engines work). Ideally, if you can use RSS feeds from your Blogger/Drupal page to do that it will save you updating them manually.
10. Post any cool articles about yourselves onto Digg / Shoutwire / Technorati / Del.icio.us or similar.
11. Register with the http://music.podshow.com/ Get any airplay? Blogs say nice things? Quote them on your website. Tell all the Podcasts where they can buy your stuff.
12. Get a mate to write a review on Playlouder.com / DazedDigital / Bizot.ch or similar contributed editorial websites.
13. Register your tracks on www.Last.Fm. Play them a few times. Make sure your friends that use Last FM have copies and play them a few times. If you have a budget you can force a 1000 plays on people for a £100.
14. If you have got this far, then you seem to be taking this whole thing seriously. Well done
15. Sign up for My MCPS/PRS / myPPL / www.catcouk.com / and go get yourself some ISRC numbers (congratulations, you just made yourself a record label). Make sure that these ISRC numbers are in all your records and the outlets that sell send them on, as that is how the charts are made.
16. Want more info about making a label? Check here: http://www.bemuso.com
17. Set up and Indiestore page – put a couple of tracks up for sale, and throw one in for free. Make sure your Myspace / Indiestore / Homepage all have relevant links to each other.
The Dark Arts of Distribution
18. Okay, this is all very well, but we want to see our releases on iTunes and on Amazon. These companies do aggregated distribution for independent artists, and it will cost you a bit more. If you were Radiohead, you could cut a deal…but you aren’t as famous as them, so you’ll have to do it the old-fashioned way:
www.dittomusic.com
http://www.emubands.com/
http://advantage.amazon.co.uk/
http://www.cdbaby.com/
19. Okay, you want your releases in local record shops. Ask them about stocking them on a sale and return basis. Keep an Excel spreadsheet of your distribution.
20. Don’t understand Excel? Find a manager that does, and love him for it. Offer to pay him and hope he says ‘no’.
21. HMV: you want our releases in HMV round the country… erm I must confess I don’t know how to do that.
Some of the distributors that feed into them are: Vital:Pias / Pinnacle / Cargo.
Call them up, ask them questions, and prepare to be ignored.
I know from previous experience, when I have said we are expecting to sell 2000 copies of a release, they still don’t get back to me. It is tough for them. It’s only if you can guarantee you are going to flog 20k records, ask them for an advance.
22. By now your marvellous Record is stocked with main online retailers. Logged with MCPS / PRS / your performances are on PPL. Everything is in place.
23. Read this Radio Play guide: http://www.tomrobinson.com/writing/radioplay.htm and do what Tom Robinson says.
24. Make some printed CDRs in see-through sleeves, with very simple details of the tunes with the release date on it. These are good for promotions. If you want to sell to the public you will have to get some nice ones made (don’t use the Impact font or I will send assasins to kill you).
. Send it to radio stations, hand-picked and hand-written like that Tom Robinson said.
26. If you can’t come up with a suitably controversial publicity stunt, how about calling up the radio and requesting your own track, that you know they have as you sent it in? Just don’t tell them that you’re in the band.
27. Press: there’s a lot to be said about understated presentation. Club together with some like minded bands and pretend you have a press company. Copy the format of this Duffy Press Release (Congratulations you have a Press Company - charge for it!). Politely nudge and convince writers that they like they are onto a winner if they cover this band, and offer to do some interviews.
Find the review writers of magazines, email them and ask for a contact address to send them a promo. Then send on your CDs. Be subtle and charming.
28. Web Traffic: use digg / shoutwire / blogs / if you have a show make sure you are linked too. Get the blogs that cover you to link to you. Ask the indie music sites if they take advertising? Might only cost you £30 here and there.
They say that money is the live show
29. Can’t get gigs? Book your own shows you will make/lose more money if they work that way. Makes sure you can make them more of an experience and get known for good parties, rather then be on that 8:00pm 20-minute slot where you’ll be playing to the barstaff and that guy sweeping up.
Use wegottickets.com to sell tickets they are independent ticket agent.
There are always ailing pubs that want a few people in.
DON’T label things as showcases – it is very pretentious.
DO build a scene without exploiting your friends.
DON’T stick stickers in the toilet there is an ancient curse that it means your band is sh**t.
30. Approach some promoters of new band nights, and arrange to have a few gigs here and there. Send the listings to Gigs@PAentertainment.com and/or clubs@paentertainment.com . The promoter should be doing this, but they might not. This is the universal organisation that flogs gig listings to the newspaper websites.
31. If you have made a CD or T-shirts. TAKE THEM TO THE GIG AND SELL THEM. Chances are you will make more money from them then the show.
32. But you want to get some good support slots?
For that you need an agent, but they aren’t going to be convinced until they think there is a load of money and success behind it. Generally all agents will only take on a project if a label or significant press is behind it.
Find a band that you would suit a support, and find out who is their agent is, and approach someone in their company, asking if they have any slots to fill - local or otherwise. You will only get £50 though, even if it is at Wembley – but you will sell merch.
X-Ray | Coda | Helter Skelter | Itb | Primary | The Agency | CAA | William Morris will probably cover most bands between them.
33. Try and get on festival bills…it doesn’t have to be Glastonbury or Reading, these days there are a million and one smaller festivals around and they need bands to fill their stages. Approach promoters in advance (not just when it starts to get sunny and you fancy playing outside) – they often book 9 months in advance.
Publishing
34. Registering with the PRS and PPL is the grounding for this. All your monies from Radio Play, TV, Films, etc, around the world will be fed through these guys. If you are not registered, you won’t got anything. It’s that simple.
35. Take PRS forms with when you perform, and send them off yourself. If you know any DJs, get them to include some of your tracks in their PRS playlists.
36. Sync: Now is the time to exploit the family and friends. Use yourcontacts. Anyone work in advertising / TV / Films? Send them copies of CDs, with a concise biog of your press and radio play. Don’t harass them, but do find out if they listened to it.
Now this is possibly the most important one. If you can get your tune on a big advert, you could expect anywhere from £20-60 grand. That is bigger then most record deals you are likely to get.
37. Are you now saying something like “I can’t believe that we did all that and haven’t had any sort of break yet!”
Or maybe “No label is interested / No publishing company got in touch / No magazine ever covered us / No Agent ever replied / we never sold any downloads” or similar?
38. Maybe you are just not good enough. If you did all that, then you should have a press company and a small record label by now and have learnt how to make search-friendly websites from scratch. Maybe your skills weren’t meant for the stage?
39. Maybe your sound isn’t in fashion (it happens)? It took Pulp ten years to get a record deal. Work out how much you are prepared to put into this project, in both time and money, before calling it day.
This list isn’t complete
40. “You left out a lot information about Merchandise / Publishing / Tour supports / Branding / Compilations / Video Promotions / Web Animation….” Yes, Yes, Yes, Yes I get the idea - this list is a work-in-progress, and I have tried to write about things I have done.
LIVE: Airbourne & Stone Gods @ London Astoria - 28 November
Written by: David Harrison
London’s Astoria is on it’s last legs. It’s almost time to switch off the lights and call in the wrecking ball. I was just passing the place and found myself thinking: “Airbourne are on tonight…might be the last chance to go there…” The venue is full of proper old skool characters, the smell of denim and leather and overpriced canned lager. I even saw ‘a’ girl!
First on is Sounds and Fury, looking like every axeman Guitar Hero ever shat out. They really throw their hearts into it, but sadly nobody in the audience can bring themselves to bang their head, or even sway a little bit. They just stand there, wondering when some good music might come over the PA.
Next up on support are Stone Gods, currently sitting astride the rung of their own personal ‘can we headline yet?’ ladder. Coming across one-part Def Leppard and one-part really-chugging-and-hard-dirty-riffage, guitarist Dan Hawkins is the only person all night that doesn’t seem to pretending. He stands, slender in the corner, delivering storming string twizzling while the singer, Richie Edwards, acts like he has ‘arrived’. Hawkins is the star of the evening by miles, and he never said a word, barely looking up from behind his hair.
It’s their second night on the trot here at the Astoria, and Airbourne have almost sold out both. Are we really that deprived of AC/DC here in the UK that these jokers can get away with this? Everybody seems quite excited by the whole thing, while I look on baffled. I swear their last london gig was the Borderline, and it was just an ‘okay‘ show, with their then-support act Skirtbox seeming a more exciting prospect. A more enthusiastic hack enthuses to me that “this everything that I’m about”, while I’m just confused. Has a little brain bug taken over these people’s minds?
Airbourne’s frontman, Joel O’Keefe, screams at us for bleeding hours. No smiles, no sense of Irony, no thanks that he has upscaled from the Borderline - nope, Joel O’Keefe and his headbanging buddies seem to act like they are actually are AC/DC.
The crowd is happy, outside in the smoking corner. People accept Airbourne are a ‘AC/DC but cheaper’ ticket. Fair point, but I just can’t get any sense of fun out of it. It’s just wholesale rip-off, fronted by a long-haired James Blunt lookalike. Some say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, but to me this band feel like a leech, taking every stylistic nuance, and distilling it into a cynical money-making project, aimed squarely at AC/DC fans’ wallets. It’s no surprise that the best track of the night is a cover of ‘Whole Lot Of Rosie’, to which Hawkins returns to the stage to join in.
Go on - watch it if you don’t believe me:
Airbourne might have 8 Marshall stacks on stage, but you can see only 2 of them are mic’d up. The guy screeches a fake, ear-busting banshee noise all evening, even when he talks, not once dropping the horrid stolen veneer. Airbourne are the trade description of pretentious.
pre.ten.tious
/ Show Spelled Pronunciation [pri-ten-shuhs] Show IPA Pronunciation–adjective
1. full of pretense or pretension.
2. characterized by assumption of dignity or importance.
3. making an exaggerated outward show; ostentatious
4. This ruddy Airbourne band that do my head in, I still have a headache.
Another Short Call Show: BISHI
Written by: David Harrison
So you can’t afford Manu Chao, but still want some continent-crossing modern masterpieces in the next week? Well, Bishi is playing the Camden Monarch on December 10, and it’s only £4 with a flyer.
The Monarch used to be the Moon Under Water or somesuch, but it will be home to Bishi next month as she celebrates a year that has seen her wangle her way onto Jonathon Ross, The Culture Show and Des O’Conner Tonight. Yes, DES O’CONNOR TONIGHT.
She is trying out her new material on the sssh, so pop along and have a look.
Manu Chao announces surprise London show
Written by: David Harrison
Apologies to anyone reading this that doesn’t live round the corner to the Kentish Town Forum in north London, but Manu Chao has just announced a surprise show there for December 16. The last time Manu Chao played London, he sold enough tickets to pack out Wembley Arena, and for my money they were the was the only band putting in the effort at Glastonbury 2008.
Tickets are here
Tickets are here. I’d get a move on if I were you.
I Set My Friends On Fire: the band you never heard of, are coming to sellout a festival near you soon
Written by: David Harrison
So: the design is perfect, the name and logo are excellent. It seems they have fourteen billion MySpace listens already and 100 date tour. Already no doubt sold more records then Guns N Roses and The Killers combined. And nobody has ever heard of them. I can already see them on main stage at Download or Bloodstock or somesuch, book them up now.
Music Towers can only assume thar this summer, I Set My Friends On Fire will come over here to blow our tiny little minds, with their accomplished mix of hardcore electro, High School Musical pop, and their comedic yet postive outlook.
Here is them putting all of that into practice, in a YouTube video masterclass:
VIDEO: The Count & Sinden ft. Rye Rye - Hardcore Girls
Written by: David Harrison
This should make me feel old - it wasn’t like this in my day. I should talk at full volume in a grumpy old white man voice, saying “This isn’t real music. Real music is Soundgarden or Slayer’s ‘Angel of Death’, or Led Zeppelin‘.
I should be dismissing this as “Yes, very good, but not my sort of thing”. <aybe I should dislike it for simply being on the same label as Emmy The Really-Not-Very-Good-Let-Alone-Great.
I would say all those things…but i am too busy grooving. Someone put me in the club, this move is too fresh to waste!
Seems they are doing a London residency, down Old Street way -
The Count & Sinden present:
MEGA MEGA MEGA
With guests:
Nov 27th – Skream, Emynd & Bo Bliz (Philly), Frankmusic
Dec 4th - Chase & Status, Example, Mystery Jets DJs
Dec 11th – Sunship, Mistajam (BBC 1Xtra)
But don’t go to the one on the 11th - come to our Beef Warehouse party instead.
Live: The Sea @ The Dublin Castle - 21 November
Written by: David Harrison
In the 20 years I have known him, my mate Tom has never once said:
“So-and-so are playing the Dublin Castle - want to come along?”
“Yep, I will meet you there,” I reply, somewhat stunned.
The band in question is The Sea, playing at the Dublin Castle in Camden - and Tom loves them. Their search engine-proof moniker means I walk blind into the venue, and was pleased to see nothing but a guitar amp and drumkit on stage. The Sea are just one man bashing pigskins, and his brother twisting strings on a Rickenbacker plugged into a scuzzy vox.
We later discover that not five minutes before they are due on stage, a fellow cornered the guitarist, Peter Chisolm in the toilet. “Give me coke, skinny indie kid,” he ordered. Upon finding that this skinny indie kid had none he proceed to punch him a few times in the face.
Which is why a dazed Peter Chisholm joins his brother, Alex, on stage. “This song goes out to the man who just gave me a black eye’” he syas, and lunges into a guitar frenzy. A hard-hitting bluesathon of riff rings out, and the room fills up. A lot of miserable old blokes shuffle around at the back, and optimistic teenage girls bounce around up front - always a sign of record company interest (or a paedophile ring).
It’s only 8:30pm, and The Sea are shamelessly riffing and drum filling away. If I’m being lazy, it is quite like early White Stripes, before Meg had that breakdown, and Jack turned into a humourless git that wrote wishy washy Bond themes. They have calls of Dan Sartain, Robert Johnson, and Led Zeppelin’s ‘Moby Dick’. The set creates a warm feeling like sausage & mash might, but instead it is made up of guitar riff porn and killer drum fillers.
However, listening to their MySpace page the next day, I’m not feeling the same raw fuzzed-out feel I got from the live show. It feels all a bit indie-twee, and seems to be missing its critical edge. Someone put Albini to work on it, and the world shall see peace in our time.
For more noises from The Sea, go check out their MySpace page.
Mime That Tune
Written by: David Harrison
Since when did today become a music quiz day? When we found absolutely nothing of interest to rant about, that’s when. Over at our friends site, The Quietus, they have made, erm, they made…
Well, quite frankly, the most difficult game since Expert Level on Guitar Hero 2. If you’re interested in proving your album cover knowledge, or just like skinny men in Lyrca, give it a go.
Courtesy of the Quietus
Venn That Tune
Written by: David Harrison
If you like Venn Diagrams, you will like this. Some clever man called Andrew Viner worked out that everyone likes music, everyone likes Venn Diagrams, hence his just-released book, Venn That Tune.
Venn diagrams, or set diagrams, show all hypothetically possible logical relations between a finite collection of sets. Apply that theory to pop hits, and you’ve got yourself chunk after chunk of 30 second amusement.
Billy Ocean - ‘When the Going Gets Tough, the Tough Get Going’
The Hollies - ‘He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother’
Brian Adams - ‘(Everything I Do) I Do It For You’
The Beatles - ‘All You Need is Love’
Elvis - ‘A Little Less Conversation’
Cat Stevens - ‘The First Cut is the Deepest’
Why is it sold out already? The Ticket Con
Written by: David Harrison
The scenario: a show goes on sale. Even though you are all over your phones and the relevant website, all the tickets are sold out. Is it just a lottery? They can’t possibly have sold those 50,000 tickets that quick. How did it become ”sold out”, the very second tickets went on sale? I don’t understand.
And if they’ve “sold out”, how come there are loads of tickets though on those Secondary Ticketing sites such as Viagogo and Seatwave already?
Are there really that many people just buying to sell? And how come they can make everything work so fast? It is almost as if the promoters of the shows are giving large allocations directly to the Secondary Ticket sites.
Almost? Unsurprisingly a lot of them are!
Bit depressing isn’t it? In the search for new revenue streams, agents (who are acting on behalf of the artist) and promoters are giving allocations of the big live shows straight to the secondary ticketing market. If you didn’t know already, the “secondary ticketing market” is pretty much a tout market, where you auction off your tickets to the highest bidder.
Bah! What the **** is that about
The live industry has been in a boom-time for the last ten years, and this is exactly the sort of behaviour that will kill the goose that lays this particular golden egg. Remember £16 CDs? Remember the record companies burying Napster? Live shows aren’t an invincible source of cash - we might just stop buying tickets.
But seeing as the Government has bigger fish to fry, ticketing will carry on developing its own code of conduct, rather than having one imposed upon it. and it will probably be increasingly exploitative, as this looming reccession kicks in.
Whta do we think? It should be made public knoweldge exactly what allocations are going where, as at the moment there is a big silent con going on; a con that is rotting away at the core of the live scene.
Single: Selfish C**t - ‘England Made Me II’
Written by: David Harrison
Selfish C**t never had a name for radio. It was always such an abrasive name that I found it was difficult to them seriously, dismissing them as a bunch of attention-seeking skinny-jeans types.
But ‘England Made Me II’, their latest single, is just too bloody good. First up (thank God), it isn’t a cover of the Black Box Recorder song. Instead it kicks off with a US-style preacher vocal that doesn’t reconcile with the title at all, but then the car-crash smash of guitars kick in and send you flying into the nearest ditch.
Calling on the ghost of McClusky, 80’s Matchbox, The Cramps, Sex Pistols and all things that are fucking great in low-fi rock n roll, Selfish C**t have made a bastard brilliant record. It might just be one riff all the way through, but who gives a toss? It’s better then that 700 billion dollar Chinese Democracy record, and probably only took about ten minutes to record as to boot.
Splendid - carry on.
Songs In The Key Of Hanukkah
Written by: David Harrison
Why are all those dudes in Golders Green in such sharp suits? Because they are all in carnival-ska, qausi-religious, Gnarls Barclay-type acts of course!
This track, ‘Dreidel’ is really nice, a big latin dance behind the floaty feel, and a big call-to-arms vocals to boot. Featuring Jules Brooks and MC Y-Love - whoever they are - it’s been put together by Erran Baron Cohen, brother of Sacha Baron Cohen. Yes, Börat. If there is any sibling rivalry, Erran - you have way more class.
It seems to be off an album, Songs in the key of Hanukkah, where bunch of hipsters making Hanukkah songs. Do you have to buy presents at Hanukkah? Maybe I will convert.
Interview: Naughty Jack is tempted out of his castle of solitude.
Written by: David Harrison
Naughty Jack, aka Adam Morley, is reclusive character. Earlier this year, he popped his head out of his shell for a spot of promotion of his album, Good Times, and to do a few appearances on the festival circuit. In turn, this generated a maelstrom of interest and gig offers that were met with polite declines. Why? Because Naughty Jack chose instead to rewire his house and consider the next album. Music Towers caught up with him and quizzed him a bit.
So it if it isn’t too obvious, what is Good Times about?
“It’s about nostalgia, which is a feeling I really enjoy; when you get a connection to all the good things that have happened to you, or even not so good things. All those things are part of you, and it’s important to feel them. Music does that for me and helps me get clear my head of any cloudy, stressy, numbness that might be in my head from everyday life.
“The track ‘Good Times’ is about me and my friends sitting in the sunshine in our old age, after all the business of life has ceased to matter, looking back at our youth when we didn’t give a shit.”
There are numerous references to alcohol on the record - do you have something that you want to tell us?
“Good alcohol helps me to get in touch with what’s important in life. It’s not the alcohol that I’m referring to, it’s the urge to suck up life and make the most of it while you can.”
Good Times, are you sure you are qualified to be a blues singer?
“No. I’ve never claimed to be a bluesman. I’m coming from a different place in a lot of ways. If I was to go around trying to be a bluesman, it would be really embarrassing for all involved. I haven’t really got the blues, I’m really pretty happy. If something bad happens, I don’t tend to dwell on it. But I’ve loved blues since I was a boy, so the influence is bound to be there.”
Your album cover proudly displays your influences, citing Professor Longhair, Townes Van Zandt, Tom Waits and Howlin’ Wolf among others. But the album maintains a pretty unique style throughout, despite the range of influences.
“I was really exciting about all these artists at the time I recorded the album and I wanted to bring it all together. On the other hand I didn’t want it to sound like a Sol Hoopii cover followed by something by The Band, for example.
“I knew that the dobro and double bass were pretty distinctive. So as long as stuck to this format and didn’t mess around with backing vocals, percussion or other instruments, I could allow the influences to flow strongly and still create a valuable, clearly defined sound of my own.”
Good Times is very laid back album, are you that laid back day to day?
“The album sounds like how I felt when I was recording it; by myself, snowed in, no-one to talk to, but with all the time in the world to write, play and record. I was emotional, nostalgic, excited, inspired; I had a supply of whiskey and I was relaxed.
“But at the same time I was very focussed on what I was doing. It felt good and right to be putting down these recordings.”
There’s an effortless quality to it despire the complexity of the playing. Did the parts come easy?
“Definitely, songs that had been bothering me for months came together easily. I recorded all the vocals in one three-hour drunken session, most are first takes. They came out croaky and a bit sloppy, but the recordings captured a feeling that I’d like to remember. I knew that if I went back to it afterwards, I’d risk losing that.”
Who would you like to work with?
“A lot of the people I’d really love to work with seem to have died recently, like some of the original calysonians and blues players. But a great piano player would be good - Pinetop Perkins is still playing, I hear.”
Where can we see you next?
“Well, I’m currently re-wiring and plumbing my house and deciding if the bassment is going to be a flat or a recording studio, and musing on the next album. So first I need to work out how this boiler is going to fit under the stairs.”
For more info on Naughty Jack, go and check out his official website.
Just remembered not everyone knows who the Fuck Buttons are
Written by: David Harrison
I was watching Top Gear last week, and was stunned to hear a Fuck Buttons track, ‘Sweet Love for Planet Earth’, creep in as they tore some supercar round their airbase. This band have blown my mind this year, and I mean literally - ever since catching them at ATP last Christmas, I’ve had a headache. I think I actually went blind while standing in the front row; I know I woke in the middle of the night shouting obscenities. All these I can only attribute to the mighty Fuck Buttons. I think the band didn’t take it as a compliment when I told them so later - in fact they just walked away from me. Maybe I was just talking in white noise.
Anyway, fans of avant garde electro rackett listen up. Actually, non-fans of bristol based electo racketts listen the hell up and get experimenting. They don’t seem to have a real video, but if they did I would expect it to have massive space ships colliding.
Forget your troubles to the Bloody Beetroots.
Written by: David Harrison
I love this shit, banging classic thrash covers. One-part Metallica, one-part two geeks, to two-parts sugarcoated idiots. How can you possibly complain? Recently after posting some Bloody Beetroots on a message board we received some po-faced replies, along the lines of “Yes, they are obviously very talented but I would never listen to it”. Even as on the wrong side of 30, this makes me feel the urge to shout ‘Baldie’ at random strangers, throw Eggs and Flour at passing dogwalkers before chasing footballs in front of a buses. Yes, it’s got me that excited.
How can we save the Music Industry? WE CAN’T - SEEK AND DESTROY. This is the Bloody Beetroots, playing London next on the far away date of February 27. Don’t miss it.
A splendid cover of Radiohead’s ‘Creep’
Written by: David Harrison
Look (or rather Listen): a really rather splendid cover of ‘Creep ‘by Radiohead. If this doesn’t make you cry, then you can’t be human, or at the very least definitely not be in the same financial doom mood that I’m in. Scala are a youth choir of 60 Belgium ladies, this is Scala and the Kolancy Brothers. And it is genuinely beautiful.
Have a listen.
http://www.kolacny.com
Review: Guns N’ Roses - ‘Chinese Democracy’
Written by: David Harrison
The hundred years and 700 billion dollars it took to bring this single out, unfortunately means that unless The Axl Rose Project (I can’t bring myself to call them GnR) instigates a Bill & Teds Bogus Journey type epiphany for the human race, it’s going to fall flat. So I suppose I better attempt a pithy review?
Chinese Democracy has a one minute intro that sounds like Axl has taken some cues from Tool. Well, that is until a two chord wonder kicks in and the track becomes an X-Factor segway. A heavily fx’d Axl starts complaining about things, says the word ‘masturbation’, and then it’s over with an explosion at the end. Then my iTunes starts playing Guttermouth, and suddenly modern American punk sounds more fun then it did five minutes ago.
P.S: Rumour update has the Axl Rose Project touring in 2009 and Slash getting back on board and making up Guns N Roses in 2010. Yeah, right.
Review: Mongrel, debut show at Boston arms
Written by: David Harrison
What is all this about then, I see a bunch of names under the banner Mongrel: Reverend And The Makers‘ Jon McClure and Joe Moskow, Babyshambles‘ Drew McConnell, former Arctic Monkeys bassist Andy Nicholson and MC Lowkey.
A plethora of Indie minor celeb in one band, a bunch more in the audience.The PR looks second to none with a healthy mix of industry faces and random members from The Enemy and Glasvegas making up the crowd tonight.
The excellently monikored Death Ray Trebuchet open up the show, 3 Horns, a scuzzy bass and a shouty man at the back sound fresh until it dawns they another Mr Bungle (first album only) tribute band with a dollop of late night Lost Vagueness field thrown in for good measure. Although anyone that convincingly can rip-off Mr Bungle has to be pretty compelling by association and technical ability, even if stylistically they may be throwing darts in the dark at Mike Patton pinata.
Mongrel themselves are jumping about in the audience building up the vibe and then clamber on stage with a casual accord. We are going to be in for a randomly exciting Wednesday night out. Mongrel are a meeting of minds of black and white, rock and rap a nice human solidarity.
Mongrel’s heart is in totally the right place and in a lot of ways echo that of Crosby, Still, Nash & Young a political supergroup that come together at times of international crisis to talk about, to remind people not to get let their fears and war get the better of them. but that is where the comparison stop with a rather murderous crash.
They start hurling some piss poor lyrics at us. ‘This country is a lie, yer gonna die yer gonna die’ Thanks for that Mongrel. Not quite Ghost Town is it, I hope the album is called ‘GCSE rebellion’.
This is doing fuck all for me, look about and look for the escape route. Try to engage some people about the sheer awfulness of this act. Nobody is wanting to express an opinion seems a lot of people here work on this act looking at their next client, Emperors new clothes it would seem.
They order us to “Put your hands up if you hate racism ?” going on “If you keep your hands down it means you love racism” the MC tells us attempting to guilt trip support for his dreadful band. I feel short of options: I mean what if we hate this music, but also hate racism? Or what about Love music, hate Australians? It would seem we need a whole semophore for the range of realistic prejudices among the crowd. I point to the east with my left leg while holding a blue biro in the air indicating a dislike for budget rap and schoolyard politics.
This playtime rebellion continues and the band were very impressed with their own performance. Fortunately we didn’t realise Mongrel were doing two sets and left the building chose find something more enjoyable to do like having our fingers sliced off at one millimetre at a time like Pauly does with garlic in Goodfella’s.
So Death Ray Trebuchet good Mongrel bad.
O2 presents a Royal Flush - and still isn’t cool
Written by: David Harrison
In 2003 at a conference with the great and the good of mobile industries meeting the music industry the man at the mobile phone network O2 got up and was complaining about how much money artists ask for when you approach them to do some sort of promotion. My reply reasoned was that the telcoms are seen as big uncool cash cows and it doesn’t matter how you throw money at the O2 brand nothing could make it sexy enough for a band to want to align with it without huge amounts of cash. He sat down in humph seemingly cursing my words.
Since then O2’s desire for cool music drive has almost seemed like a personal vendetta against my words 5 years ago. And blimey haven’t they thrown money at it.
The last 5 years have seen O2 have successfully rebranded The Dome and backed the most prosperous new music venue in years, turning around national embaressment. O2 have the sole rights for the glorious Iphone, the most desirable gadget in years bundling in real internet, Ipods, video players, and all your telephone needs in a sexy sleek pocket rocket. Gene Rodenberry didn’t even go that far. O2 have been sponsoring the Wireless festival in Hyde Park for the last few years, and by all accounts making up the shortfall that the ticket sales don’t achieve.
Today see’s O2 take over the ‘Carling’ Branding of the Academy Music group venues in the UK. That is a fair few: O2 Academy Brixton; O2 Academy Islington; O2 Academy Birmingham; O2 Academy Bristol; O2 Academy Glasgow; O2 Academy Liverpool; O2 Academy Newcastle; O2 Academy Oxford; O2 Academy Sheffield; O2 Academy Leeds; O2 Shepherd’s Bush Empire.
Blimey that is a lot of branded venues that is a good budget. And with it are targeting the still blooming live industry. O2 customers benefit from booking priority tickets this allows their customers to book priority shows all over the country. It is a marketing idea that has been effectively administered and actually works and is now being rolled out across the country. Orange 2 for 1 cinema tickets, pah? Is that all you offer.
So back to the question? It doesn’t matter how much money you throw at it the O2 brand still won’t be cool. The Iphone is cool, the contract you have to buy isn’t, the sound at the Dome is cool the entrance (branded O2 galore) isn’t. Wireless has some storming lineups but the branding and sheer corporate money of it doesn’t create any loyality to the events, so much so the O2 Wireless name has been dropped back. The Academy music group was never that cool but the bands that play amongst their venues day to day are as cool you can get, dare I say O2 isn’t.
O2 has made a magnificent clean sweep of some of the best music properties in the UK and managed to brand venues and events from rival companies and somehow push their way onto some very loved brands. I wonder what their music marketing budget is compared to record sales in this country. It would not surprise me if it is more. I imagine marketing managers wet themselves in excitement when O2’s marketing get in touch, just think of the christmas bonus.
O2 seems more vulgar then ever to be honest, it doesn’t get to be cool by association to cool stuff. It remains that cold blue brand it always was, this time more monolithic then ever before.
But what does O2 care about what I think is cool anyway? They are in this to sell phone contracts and with a clean and aggressive sweep of music properties and seem to be doing nicely, what I get an Iphone with priority ticketing throughout the country for the same price as my crackberry ?
I want one (ssh)
Gear: Review of the CDJ Mk 3’s and it is love
Written by: David Harrison
I have spent the last few years looking at traditional CD players, 4 ipods and a few computer crashes have left me feeling very shortchanged by MP3 or Itunes collections. With Music Towers establishing as a brand we get sent an awful lot of CD’s (sorry if we didn’t review you) and it is so much more convenient and sounds so much clearer with sliding someone in a CD. Arriving on stage at various festivals, I suddenly realised everyone was using these Pioneer CDJ’s they have all these buttons I don’t understand. Queue some free credit from turnkey just before it went bust.
First impressions out of the box, oh they are bit noisy. Not quite the tool for wooing as they can have a slightly computer server whir in the background if you have the PA on quiet. OK so that is the bad out of the way.
Now the Good, they have standard features for any CD player play, cue, single, time elapsed, fast forward track skip. They have features for any more modern CD player, Mp3 playing from CD. They have the same big control wheel that most other CD tools for Djs have.
The Control wheel has some nice tools with it, it responds to be pressed down. It has two modes Vinyl and CD which the Disc will respond to as though (yup you guessed it) more like vinyl or squibbly like a CD. There are two control to measure the speed at which the release and attack of the tune will happen.
Now past those tools is where the CDjs and in particular the Mark 3 come into their own. For a start the Mk3 will play any CD no matter if it is black, white covered in wine, scratched to buggery. It will play it (probably not wise to test the extremes of this). When it reads the CD it starts plotting the music straight away, takes a few seconds to pick up the Wav forms and BPM of the track. Suddenly you know how well produced this track was and most of important of all is going to match right in with the last one you played without before you even had time to put on the headphones.
Like the Mk2’s or the 500’s they have some In and Out loop buttons, but unlike the Mk2’s these are actually useful. The difference between the this function on the two versions is so wide it is almost to earn a new name. The Mk2’s have the ability to set a single loop, release and recall the last loop you did. The Mk2 also has three buttons where you can set que points to start the track from somewhere. However those ques are often a second out from where you actually set the que.
The Mk3’s have dispensed with any sense of guesswork. When you set a loop you can set that to a recall number (and in turn is stored on your memory card). With a few loop recalls you can mix endlessly, you can hit them on the beginning of a beat again and again to ensure perfect dumbed down mixing everytime. It is soo easy and so much fun, so much so it is quite managable using 4 of them, triggering noises, loops, tunes anything you want really. They allow you to throw the track about almost literally, you can see why they went on to base the DVD version on them.
The Pioneer Mark3’s are the best of the best of CD players, they are the SAS, The A-Team and Chuck Norris rolled into one, they are just fabulous and I love them.
