They’ve since played festivals in New York, fashion shows in Barcelona and car races in Los Angeles – but there’s no place like home and, having broken his collarbone at the The Lexington earlier this year following a mosh pit malfunction, the hairier one decided there was a no better home for a new Beef Warehouse monthly meet, which they’ve just baptised as ‘Daft Drunk’.

Arm yourself for an intoxicated Friday night mix of jumpy jumpy electro, inappropriate rock and some really bent showtunes.

Beef Warehouse presents Daft Drunk
at The Lexington (formerly Clockwork),?96 - 98 Pentonville Road?N1 9JB
Friday 26th June 11pm until 4am
Free

With this in mind, it was unreasonable for anyone except the most steadfast Dylanophile to expect to be familiar with every song performed at the Roundhouse on Sunday night. It’s fair to say some of the numbers he offered, such as ‘Po Boy’, ‘Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum’ and ‘Million Miles’, while decent songs, would not get the nod on many fans’ ultimate Dylan playlist.

As an artist who has performed thousands of shows over the years, it would also be easy to believe Dylan was simply going through the motions. This wasn’t the case though; he seemed to be enjoying himself, with the occasional harmonica flourish or impromptu organ wig-out matching the flair of his choice of headwear: a brilliant white boater. That familiar, thin-lipped semi-smile even snaked across his ripened features sporadically throughout the evening.

Unfortunately, that the Roundhouse’s intimate nature afforded me the opportunity to get close enough to one of music’s true legends to observe such minutiae was one of the highlights initially. Now firmly in his twilight years, David Bowie’s description of Dylan having “a voice like sand and glue” has never been more accurate. In fact, it’s more like cement laced with rocks. While this adds a certain gravitas to his latter-day positioning as an ultra-grizzled classic rock star, it also makes for a frustrating live experience.

This is nothing new for Dylan veterans; his style of delivery has veered closer to a throaty spoken word for a number of years now, yet it does make it difficult for the more casual Dylan fan to decipher lyrics, sometimes even songs. Indeed, it was not until he was almost halfway through ‘Leopard-Skin Pill-Box Hat’, one of my favourite tracks from Blonde on Blonde, that I realised what it was.

It was also apparent on a laboured and disappointing version of ‘Tangled Up In Blue’ and ‘Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right’, which had been twisted and turned in every possible direction, leaving it almost unrecognisable.

With ten of his 18-song set coming from his last three albums, it was something of a surprise that he didn’t venture a single track from his newest release, Together Through Life. His recent creative upturn has coincided with Dylan returning to the music of his own youth, namely blues and pre-pop, and this blueprint was followed admirably by his band, all dressed from head to toe in black.

The man himself made no concession to pleasantries, positioning himself behind a keyboard for practically the entire evening and providing not even the merest hint of between song chitchat for his nonetheless captivated audience to hang on.

With 90 minutes down, a selection of songs either too new to register genuine delight or too mangled by Dylan’s voice and arrangements had passed. Then it happened. The jaunty organ intro took flight and immediately the mood inside The Roundhouse transformed. Solemn faces melted into smiles and regimented foot tapping became, in some cases, arms swayed aloft. The magic of ‘Like A Rolling Stone’ engulfed us all and didn’t release us from its gorgeous, familiar embrace for almost five minutes.

It was one of the most inclusive concert experiences of my life. Genuine delight, almost tangible, swarmed this small pocket of Camden. That He followed it up in the encore with All Along The Watchtower only added to the glee, Dylan was God once again.

All of a sudden it all seemed worthwhile and the realisation that just one song could do this to an audience summed up the Bob Dylan live experience. We make this pilgrimage with the hope we will witness something spectacular, something unexpected, something classic. Experienced Dylan watchers know we are often disappointed and he certainly alienated the casual fan a number of years ago. It is also a great shame not to be able to decipher some of the greatest lyrics ever written but the aura is still there. Almost 400 songs and half a century later, witnessing Bob Dylan play live, particularly at such close quarters, remains one of music’s quintessential experiences.

When I first interviewed Alec Empire, over a sterile exchange of emails, I mentioned that I was glad of the arms’ length distance - no-one wants to find out that a musical hero, once off the pedestal we make for them, turns out to be a bit of a cock. So it was with some trepidation that I found myself sat next to my phone, awaiting a call from the man himself to discuss his new mini-album, Shivers, and the career-spanning ambitions of his forthcoming The Past-The Present-The Future tour.

I needn’t have worred though. As an interviewee, Empire isn’t what you’d expect. He is neither the ice-cold Teutonic electro-pioneer as his recent stage manner would suggest, not the perma-snarled noise warrior that carved Digital Hardcore out of the dripping wounds of the music industry during the 1990s. Over the phone, he chuckles as he dissects - at no short length - every question we can think to throw at him. After over 15 years of pushing the musical envelope in directions it was never meant to go, Empire can barely contain the enthusiasm in his voice as he describes his current projects, or the derision for corruption and - not once do we not think that he still means it.

So here, unabridged, is Music Towers’ most recent conversation with in Alec Empire.

“The idea was to release tracks that didn’t or wouldn’t really fit so much on the album. One of the themes for the tour is this past, present and future theme. We’re going to play a lot of stuff from older records, and also very new material that nobody’s heard yet. While in past years we’re always touring an album or something, maybe through two or three singles, so we really want to approach the show in a totally new way. That’s why we compiled Shivers a bit in that direction. I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but its very different kinds of material. ‘Control Drug’ is a bit like the direction of the Digital Hardcore sound, but it’s not really DHR like used to sound, but it’s a song that in a way taps into that area. The last track, which is the German word for “dead”, ‘Tot’, this goes back to way when I started, it has its roots in when I started making electronic music. I did a lot of acid house and electro records. I approached this track with that kind of mindset.

“Shivers is a collection of very different kinds of pieces, which kind of describes my history in a way, but I didn’t just want to repeat myself and just do something that I’d already done before [chuckles]. I think some people might get a little confused with that approach, but on an album I couldn’t have really done stuff like that. So this was really the idea to get something out and stuff that people can’t really predict. I think at the moment there seems to be some confusion - some people think I’m doing like goth-industrial rock or something, other people think I’m doing breakcore, and totally different people might think I’m doing…ambient stuff [laughs]. I don’t know. It’s very strange. I think people have to get used to the idea that you can’t really put me into just one category of something.”

You’ve mentioned the tracks on Shivers wouldn’t fit on the new record, and that the new material is going to be a progression from The Golden Foretaste Of Heaven. What can we expect from the new record?

“First of all I have to say, even though if I’ve said it was a progression from The Golden Foretaste Of Heaven record, for a lot of people they might find it’s a…huge step [laughs] forward, because basically what I did for this record, and because I’m already in the middle of making it, its kinda like almost an insane approach [laughs] - not insane for me, but for other people, that’s why I have to laugh a little bit.

Watch the video to ‘On Fire’ by Alec Empire

“I really went back to a lot of really German themes, Nibelung, and the Wagner-type of themes. I wanted to make a record which was completely disconnected from pop music or rock music as we maybe know it from the last century. I think of lot of music that’s been made today is so connected to that one recipe of song writing, and the way records sound, and I was just getting so bored with it. Some stuff is synthesiser pieces which maybe ended up fitting more into a film or something, as it’s very epic and very big sounding stuff, which I was just getting into. In Berlin there was a lot of that minimal techno sound around for years, and everybody was trying to simplify music more and more to make it maybe have a wider appeal, but I was just getting really bored with it.

“One thing that we tried - and we’re going to do it over the summer again - there’s outside of Berlin there’s an old bunker from the war, and we went in and recorded some stuff there. It had a really strange and weird vibe. I just want the next album to be more, not just a collection of a bunch tracks or something, but to be one piece that works…almost like, y’know, Intelligence & Sacrifice? It was always seen as one piece of work, rather than as a selection of tracks, and this is kind of like the mindset that I’m approaching the new record with. But that doesn’t describe the sound of it. At the moment I’m into very precise and more cleaner sounds, which also have a lot of punch of course, and energy. But I think most of the noisy stuff I’ve done…in my opinion, bands like Justice, even they even include digital distortion sounds now, so to me, I don’t really want to go too much into that field anymore.”

You mentioned disconnecting yourself from traditional song writing - how do you do that in a culture such as ours in which music is so ingrained?

“It really starts with the way in your mind…I think that’s why maybe the link to The Golden Foretaste of Heaven this record, as at that time I was really getting into these Russian synthesisers, and I was playing for the first time in St Petersburg and Moscow. That brought back a lot of memories from when as a child when I visited East Germany for example, where it was just such a difference in the way music was perceived. Maybe the most famous record would’ve been maybe a Beatles song collection, for a lot of people in the GDR. They were just looking at pop music or rock music in a completely different way.

“Because I grew up in Berlin, I was stuck in the middle of both of these two worlds, and over the past maybe 10 years or so the West has taken over so much of most of the Eastern Europe countries. With something like film scores, everything non-Western is very interesting for me. When somebody maybe does an electronic soundtrack in Los Angeles, for me is very predictable as I know almost what it’s going to sound like. While if someone from Japan or something scores a really weird film,even if they would use some of the same instruments, they would just have a different way of looking at music.

“The next very important step of course is to not even want to please anybody. At the moment I hate that atmosphere in the music industry where everyone is so scared of not selling records, or of not selling out shows, and things like that. People’s sense of themselves is almost being taken out of the music-making process, when it’s just about ‘how many people can I please with one thing’, or always looking to please the majority. For me, art and music, that’s not what they’re about. It’s almost at the peak of trying to make profits from music, while at the same time with the digital age and everyone just taking the music, it’s an important moment where we stand now.

“For myself, I’ve just made the decision, “okay, I can make music that does stuff for me”. Not just in the sense that I like the music, but that it challenges me too. And if that is commercial or if it’s not commercial, I can’t really make that decision”. The music scene is a reflection of stuff like Wall Street even, with the MySpace boards and everybody’s trying to fake their profiles, and make it appear on Last.fm like they have thousands of listeners. I just think, why even fake this appearance? For me, if I listen to music and only ten other people in the world understand it, that’s okay. Why do we have to always think about accepted by the majority? This plays a lot into writing music, how I approach music at the moment.”

Watch the video to ‘Too Dead For Me’ by Atari Teenage Riot

Do you not feel that an established experimental artist, you’ll always have a safety net of dedicated fans that will follow you regardless?

“Hopefully. The weird thing is that’s the feedback I keep getting. Even much later…sometimes we get emails, or people talk to me after shows, and they tell me that they now understand the record that I made ten years ago. They were angry -  “why doesn’t this sound like Atari Teenage Riot…it’s so weird…is he taking the piss?” - but then they’ve said they see the structure and precision and the skill, if you want to call it that, much later. It’s almost like a language. It’s the same with books - you read a book when you’re sixteen, and then maybe read it again ten years later and understand it a whole lot more, and interpret it in a different way. I think with music it works like this as well, at least with my music.

“But I also know fans who hate that, and want me to make the same stuff over and over. One reason why I put this track, ‘Shivers’, on the EP was really to piss these hardcore genre-fans off! There’s some journalists over here [in Germany] once said to me [sneering] “I think the day you write a piano ballad, that’s the day which you should stop making music”. Of course, the next thing I put out, I put a long piano track on it! Of course it didn’t sound like a normal piano ballad - it was mainly in the sort of approach how maybe Cluster would have done it - but I feel really challenged when people try to tell me what I should do. And for myself - can I do it? I work a lot with piano when I write scores for films.

“It was the same when people in techno were telling me you can’t use guitars. And right now, it’s almost as if electronic music cannot live without guitar sounds, with that whole indie-dance thing. I think it’s very stupid to judge music or musicians in that way. We always try to go against that. I think it’s fun to see if you can pull it off. Of course, you also get a lot of shit for that [laughs] from these people who just don’t want to question you again. Some fans they would rather prefer that you always do the same thing so they don’t have to think about it again. With my audience, people like that fact, that it’s not always the same. I think that’s very different to other musicians somehow.”

Do you still feel like an underground artist?

“It’s very strange - I feel very connected to that way of thinking. I don’t see music in this sort of hierarchy, like this “person is more famous, that person is less famous” - to me it really only matters what it does at that point. I know musicians who are amazing but nobody knows their music almost. To me, that’s equal to something which is really successful at the moment. I really don’t think that matters for me.

“Of course if somebody says to me, ‘hey, what do you think about that project?’ or “do you want to get involved in that?”, very often I would say ‘yes’ to things where other people wouldn’t expect me to jump on to. I produced one track with Patrick Wolf that is not out yet, which is called ‘Together’, that is very melodic and very pop almost. Some people will think “why would he do that stuff?” Maybe that’s the underground mentality I grew up with all the time, when I started making records and playing shows. For me, to network with other musicians in very important. It’s not just a thing about thinking about combining forces to sell more records, or something like that, for me it’s really personal almost. When I meet younger DJs, they don’t have that mindset at all, but from the 90, you couldn’t survive without that way of thinking, of a connected world of other sound systems in other cities. You just had to be connected in that way, whereas at the moment a lot of people think “I’m gonna make money, I’m gonna get it from music industry. Make my money, take it out, then leave”. Which is very strange for me to witness that, but then I don’t really have to deal with that.”

You mentioned Patrick Wolf - it’s a strange collaboration, and a lot of people were shocked when it was announced you’d be working with him. How did that come about?

“Somehow he had come to an Atari Teenage Riot show years ago, which I then of course forgot. Years later, when we talked about it, about certain things that happened at the hsow, I remembered: “that was you?”. He had given me some music already back then.

“He played a show in Berlin, I think about two or three years ago, when The Magic Position came out. I got this  message from Universal Records, which put out the record over here, and they were like “we have this artist who really likes you, and you music, do you want to come down to the show?” It was a bit strange, because as at the same time and in the same place, on another stage, Jon Spencer and Suicide were playing, so I was in the place anyway. I thought it was really boring that show there. It wasn’t the musicians fault - it was some kind of weird theatre kind of place, where the music just sounded kind of flat in my opinion. So I was going to see this other thing, and I was really blown away by the performance that he did. In this packed place, It was so alive. For me, the contrast couldn’t have been bigger, wider, compared to this other stuff which for me was the obvious show to go to.”

Watch the video to ‘Vulture’ by Patrick Wolf

“I saw Patrick without even knowing the music. I knew some of the early EP stuff that he had done, kind of programmed beats, almost like Warp or something, intellectual fucked-up programming. He would play strings on top of it and stuff like that. But the show that I’d seen was completely different, full of energy.  And we talked about it, ‘yeah we should really do stuff’, and then it took quite some time - a year or something - for anything to happen. I sent him a track, and I didn’t hear back…. Then he came over to Berlin and we spent quite some time in The Hellish Vortex Studios over here. I think it was a really good collaboration as I think he wanted to push his sound into a new direction, and I think the whole Berlin thing was good. The way we approached a lot of the other material he was working on is that….there’s this kind of myth about Berlin, with Eno, Bowie, old synths and big reverbs and stuff…in a way it feels out of that tradition somehow. I don’t know why that is, but it’s maybe because that’s the Berlin I grew up in at the end of the 80s, middle of the 80s, where that kind of sound was really still around and important for people. The Patrick Wolf tracks, all the stuff that we’ve done are like very different from each other. ‘Vultures’ is more like a harder electro track that he really loved, but there’s also a track called ‘Battle’ which sounds maybe like what most people would expect from it, very hard guitars and very hard beats. It could’ve been an Alec Empire track, just with different vocals and I think that’s great.”

Talking about Past-Present-Future Tour - what made you decide to re-incorporate ATR material into the set?

“I really wanted to avoid that all the time. To me, it would’ve been…I just couldn’t. I felt with the Atari Teenage Riot songs, when Carl Crack died, and the way the whole thing ended, I didn’t really feel that I wanted to go back to that at that time. I think now, one reason, to be honest, the political situation made the decision for me. The past maybe six months, or even longer, I feel so angry about just about the banks and all that stuff. For me, I haven’t looked closely enough at the British situation, but the way people react in Germany it’s like…are they walking zombies? It seems like so many people don’t want to see where their problem is. A lot of these songs that we’ve written with Atari Teenage Riot describe it so well, what has been going on with the Iraq war, and they way the financial world is tied in with all that. To me it was “why don’t we play some of these songs?” I don’t even need to re-write new stuff, because we’ve had it.

“Also, what I quite liked about the idea was we have to re-work that stuff to see if it works now. The songs won’t sound so different that you can’t recognise them anymore, but it certain stuff had to be updated. I felt also distanced enough, it was the tenth anniversary of the May Riots, when we played the streets of Berlin, and it really made me think back about what has changed, how do people react to the political situation, and somehow I thought I can’t ignore this.”

Watch Atari Teenage Riot perform at the Berlin May Day Riots in 1999

“For example, a record like The Golden Foretaste of Heaven I would not have done this year, because it just not felt like it. I think the weird thing is that a lot of people at my shows now don’t really know Atari Teenage Riot so well. That’s the feedback I’m getting most of the time. People go ‘you played in this another band?” as they were just too young when it happened. Most people maybe when I started years ago, they started with Intelligence & Sacrifice. It’s kind of strange. We’ll see what the reaction will be, but we’re looking forward to doing stuff like that again.”

On the last tour, the vast majority of the set was the lighter, Golden Foretaste material. How do you marry the harder stuff up with your newer electro sound when playing live?

“I always remember when we once did a 3CD compilation called The Geist of Alec Empire, which was almost like a ‘Best Of’ from all Mille Plateaux albums I did in the 90s. I remember when we compiled it we were like ‘can we even do this? This might not even fit’. The weird thing is, when we compiled it, it made perfect sense. I find that very often with my music that even if one record feels to be so different from another one -  maybe if you were to play them next to each other and you don’t know the context, it would be weird - but in a live situation, these things are much more linked together than most people would think.

“To give you an example, we played a show in Spain last month, and tracks like ‘New Man’ and ‘The Ride’ and harder stuff, completely was working very well next to each other. I think sometimes it’s much easier than some people think. And it wouldn’t like “now they’re going in one direction, then they’re going off like this”, it’s because there’s this signature on all of these tracks. I haven’t found this to be a problem so far to be honest.”

Watch the video to ‘The Ride’ by Alec Empire

On the subject of film scores, do you ever have difficulty in writing to someone else’s specifications, as opposed to following your own creative path?

How do you translate that into the performance of playing the instruments and stuff, it’s very complex. But I don’t find that a problem at all. I think its fun most of the time. I really like doing it. You can actually do stuff in films that you could never do in tracks that are supposed to be set to the radio or something. You can score a scene in a film which is very dramatic and very intense, something that even a more mainstream kind of crowd would think that it’s an exciting scene, while if [the score] would be played on daytime radio, they would all turn off the station. Maybe, that’s a theory. Sometimes the people run these things think maybe people are too stupid to be challenged, but I think films, even mainstream cinema, you can do stuff like this.

People thought with The Fast And The Furious when this Atari Teenage Riot song appears in this one scene…when we put [‘Speed’] out, most people were going ‘oh this is so crazy!’, ten years later it appears in a Hollywood film [chuckles]. Maybe it’s also got something to do with the way the images go with the music…but I really love doing stuff like that.”

So when is the full-length album out?

“We’re trying to really wrap it up as soon as possible. If we didn’t do the tour [laughs] then I’d say I’d finish it at the end of May (which is still the plan…), but the idea is to put it out the end of August, maybe early September. At the moment there’s no delay or anything, as most of the stuff is done.”

Apart from the upcoming shows, the album, subsequent tour…what’s on the agenda?

“There’s a lot of stuff! At some point Big Pink wants to come over to record more stuff here in Berlin. There is such a hype right now over them, they are always so busy that we’re always trying to figure out a date where we can all make it. [laughs]

“One project I really have to start working on, which might happen in Spring 2010 - but we really have to do all the work for it this year - is a theatre piece about Mozart. It’s going to be showing in Berlin. I don’t know if you know of the French performance artist, Costas, he’s slightly older than me, and performs very outrageous kinds of performances. There’s a very interesting screenplay that an author gave to us, which is basically a very confrontational story…you can’t really prove it, but there are certain signs that Mozart was abused as a child…so I don’t want to give too much of the story away, but a lot of people look at Mozart as a composer in that neurotic way, and you can’t really mention any negative sides, and it’s almost as if the bourgeoisie has completely absorbed that composer and that theatre piece is going to be insane. I’m doing the music for it and it’s going to be a really exciting project.

“Over here at the moment all the tabloids are so angry….there’s this film coming out, Chaostage - Days of Chaos - it this German punk film, and it’s starting this month I over 40 cinemas over here. There’s a very controversial scene where a cop gets shot. Now the government want to index the film already. Bild-Zeitung, it’s kind of the equivalent of The Sun in England, ran this really large article about how this kind of film should be shut down and stuff like that. I think at the moment it’s an exciting time as with certain statements people feel so provoked, they react in such an extreme way, it really feels almost like something is changing. People are so busy keeping things down, and to be active against so many ideas even, stuff like that. I’m working all the time.”

Alec Empire May 2009 tourdates
01 London Camden Underworld
02 Manchester Satan’s Hollow
03 Glasgow Ivory Blacks
05 Norwich The Waterfront

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The first man of France has just launched his 2009 Worldwide Festival and revealing his first artists that have been confirmed. This year’s Worldwide Festival down in Sete taking place between 2nd and 5th July. Laurent Garnier live feat ScanX + live band, Gilles Peterson, Diplo, Soil & Pimp Sessions Live, Todd Terje, Mocky live, Stereotyp’s Ku Bo Project, Sebastien Schuller live, LeFtO, The BPM. Many more are expected to join the party in the next few weeks. The full line-up will be announced towards the end of March.
www.worldwidefestival.com

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Sonisphere Festival has just announced a balls to the gravel lineup of heavy metal: Metallica, NIN, Mastodon, The Sword, Anthrax. Taking place throughout July and August in Belgium, Germany, Sweden, Finland, Spain and putting the Knebworth’s first proper camping festival into the UK. What has this got to do with the price of fish? They have me doing the print artwork and words click here to have a look.
www.sonispherefestival.com

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The better half has got involved with a Norwegian festival which is continuing the theme of lets-not-fuck-around by just adding Slipknot to the lineup. What ‘trend’ predictor said that 2009 was about poppy sassy electro acts??? I ask you.
www.hovefestival.com

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Music Towers mate Gwen has launched the Europavox Festival, we got involved with these cats a few years back. They are bringing music and people from every country in Europe to explore each others contemporary sounds and possibly sexual preferences. It takes place in a lovely little town called Claremont Ferrand at the End of May with Bloc Party, I’m From Barcelona, Vitalic.
www.europavox.com

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Another buddie Marie is currently running the London Word Festival its second year of embracing the beauty of the word. With live performances from Phil Jupitus, Robin Ince, Bishi and yours truly - I will be doing doing a live version of my I Should Draw More blog this coming Sunday at the Vibe bar. Come and tell me what to draw!
www.londonwordfestival.com

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Also Beef Warehouse are currently scouring the slums of India for the countries finest tent maker as we are working on a new tent for festivals. Think of a festival within in a festival 2 parts fun, 1 part market. The working title is Beefy Melons Vintage Temple of Love and Gratitude. The idea to spread well being and love through festivals and encourage you to do good things, like dance with your dick out.
www.beefwarehouse.net

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Last but by no means least. Leon and his robin-hood-like merry gang have just put the finishing touches to their webmagazine all about festivals. They have gone for the all encompassing online fancy mag thing. I was asked to write an article about working for festivals and how to blag… Now that would be giving away secrets wouldn’t it? Read it here.
My Festival Feeling

It seems like that isn’t enough for our Singer of Todd who is actively attacking the audience. I don’t know what happens next but I wake up in the dressing room with him apologising to me profusely. According to the Drowned in Sound message boards It seems in the melee he had clothes-lined me and then in turned jumped down like the missing scene from the Wrestler, this either knocked me out or concussed me so I can’t remember it.

I wake in the dressing room I can’t see shit, did he brain me properly? My arm hurts like hell, everyone is fussing. A short guy in glasses is having a go at me for making a fuss and I demand he make me a roll up. Looking over at my arm I realise that.

A) My nice new expensive glasses have had a lens knocked out
b) My arm is hanging horribly wrong.

Assuming it wrongly it must be dislocated I call up the infamous Dr Tom. ‘Dr Tom, I think my arm is dislocated what should I do’. I enrol the whining short guy to my home-made surgery

‘You ready this is going to hurt’ Dr Tom says through the phone.

‘Get your helper to pull the arm down as far as it will go, then out and in theory it should pop back in’

Yank, scream, ouch, it flops back down in the same place, with only an increased pain.

‘Any other tips’ I ask Dr Tom on the end of the phone

‘Call an ambulance’

In the background Todd are still playing albeit without the Lead Singer who is getting increasingly agitated by the damage he has created. I tell him to go out on stage and don’t worry about me… ‘Finish the Set’ I demand, he refuses.

‘ I feel sick’ Todd’s singer says, whether it is because he is drunk or upset by the big hairy sasquatch screaming in pain that he caused. I am finding looking through one clean lens terribly difficult I shut my right eye.

‘Give me a roll up’ I demand somewhat unfairly from the short guy through my one eye.

Short guy gives me a roll up and Todd’s singer pukes over the side of the chair. The band carry on playing to an Audience that is slightly relieved that the speaker stack didn’t fall on their head.

At this point the manager of the venue and some security pile in the door. Put out those cigarettes… Oh yeah this 2009 smoking is forbid in venues. We put them out and I ask them to send somebody to look for my glasses lens and they ask whether I will need an ambulance, which they kindly order. They comment on the glass covered floor, It seems Todd’s Singer caused an awful lot of smashed pints as well, and almost knocked over a speaker stack.

Todd’s singer stops puking.

The big burly security guard sits me outside, and the preppy Todd character sits down and starts talking to me. I say this would be a perfect time for an interview, so start asking him questions about how why what and when, none of which the answers I can remember but took my mind off my limp and painful arm, he talks about himself a bit. I remember why I am rubbish interviewer, I couldn’t ever care less about what an artist has to say about their outlook on life. I just often like their guitar licks.

A hero barman turns up with my glasses lens and I enrol some random blonde lady that is passing by to pop them back in. Sitting in the back of the Ambulance alone, I realised it was Friday 13^th. The ambulance driver continues to go along the idea of that my arm is dislocated, so queue another 20 minutes of trying to pop back in the unpoppable. Lordy this hurts, but what can you do but laugh, it helps to be on laughing gas at the time.

A month on and it is Friday 13th again. I am about to leave the house, enrolled into a boys night out to to go see The Watchman. It is weeks on and I am anything but laughing, Todd’s lead Singer has caused a lot of pain for his little show and I haven’t heard site nor hair of him or the band. People tell me I should pay attention to those TV ads that say ‘Had an Accident that wasn’t your fault’.

That same week a friend got hit by a HGV and I was in too much pain to make the trip to her funeral, I have since had a pretty invasive operation, been tanked up on morphine codine for weeks. Sometimes I wake feeling the skin around my 15 skin staples tightening in, feels like 15 little blades slicing me up. It is bloody weeks of torture, now afraid of infection I am on antibiotics combined with the painkillers. Suppose I have lost weight, I know there are a lot worse injuries and death out there and I count myself lucky, I really do. But can’t help wonder why I have been given this daily burden for a bands live performance.

]]> http://www.musictowers.co.uk/2009/03/review-what-happened-last-friday-13th/feed/ http://www.musictowers.co.uk/2009/03/bangkok-rock-jumpin-jack-flash/ http://www.musictowers.co.uk/2009/03/bangkok-rock-jumpin-jack-flash/#comments Wed, 11 Mar 2009 10:23:19 +0000 Dene Mullen http://www.musictowers.co.uk/?p=314 The condensation runs down my bottle of beer, soaking the mat below. Despite the tricks that my eyes and ears are playing on me, my mind is still lucid enough to reassure me that I am not in the late 80s, watching a proponent of perhaps the most ridiculed musical ‘movement’ of all time.

No, it’s 2009 and I’m sat in the upstairs room of a huge pub in balmy Bangkok, along with about 10 other people, witnessing one of the most unbelievable performances of my life.

Anyone who has been to Thailand’s capital will tell you that, no matter how noble your intentions upon arrival – sticking solely to cultural wonders such as the Royal Palace and the magnificent reclining Buddha – eventually it will get you. And we’re not talking about an attack of Bangkok Belly after sampling the delights of the innumerable street vendors here either. No, what will lure you in, against your better judgement, is the infamous Khao San Road.

At times it resembles a particularly gratuitous street scene from one of those god-awful ‘documentaries’ that were so popular in the late 90s, sporting titles like ‘Mad Reps Get Fucked in Faliraki’. Yet at the same time, it has an unabashed sleaze and slight sense of danger, making it strangely thrilling to behold. While the natural warmth and exuberance of the locals only adds to the allure of the place.

After ignoring the advances of yet another helpful tuk-tuk driver who enquires whether I’d be interested in seeing a ‘ping-pong show, boss?’ (complete with finger-flicking-out-of-inner-cheek ‘pop’ sound) I continue my march toward a pub called ‘The Place’ which promises ‘Rock Show Tonight!’ on a billboard outside. Perching on a ludicrously high stool, I order a couple of Chang beers and try my best to get comfortable in time for the show. What greets me is beyond my wildest imagination.

There are four male members of the band I later find out are called Roadkill, and a female vocalist who totters onto the stage occasionally to provide harmonies. They are all Thai and the lead singer is perhaps the most outrageous human being I’ve ever seen.

Lunchtime on the Khao San Road:

His hair akin to the infamous Colombian footballer, Carlos Valderrama, and a personal stylist who seemingly has Bon Jovi’s Slippery When Wet DVD on a constant loop. I would also estimate he weighs roughly nine stone. When he addresses the audience, his English is pretty much perfect but has a strange pseudo-American twang to it. He says his name is ‘Johnny Flash’ and I barely stifle a laugh as the opening chords crash out of the sound system. Immediately, he is off; bouncing around like an ADHD-sufferer on the pop for the very first time.

In sharp contrast to the madman with the mic, Roadkill’s bassist is the kind of man who makes you feel relaxed just by looking at him. Baring an uncanny resemblance to Chief Bromden, the huge native-American in One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, his hunched frame hardly moves with the music but his nimble fretwork is what drives the music here.

Similar to Red Hot Chili Peppers in that respect, there is also something of the Kiedis in Flash’s rockstar moves. They are all clichéd beyond belief: the attempted aerial splits, the mic stand pushdown, even something resembling a Jagger strut but when he actually sings, his shoulders become scrunched up around his neck and he holds the mic with both hands.

They perform songs with names and lyrics so outrageous they almost transcend into genius, their self-titled paean to a lover who “wore me out, like roadkill” being a particular highlight. In amongst the senseless rock there are one or two softer moments, although they are as contrived as Aerosmith’s Armageddon theme tune, with lines like “I’ll run through the night, to hold you tight”.

It is clear this is Flash’s band and he is, obviously, meant to be the main event. Songcraft thrown unashamedly out of the window - along with taste - it is nevertheless hard not to feel something approaching admiration for a man who performs like he is headlining Glastonbury when he is, in fact, commanding the attention of five northern lads with ‘comedy’ nicknames on the back of their t-shirts, a couple more interested in getting to know the insides of each other’s mouths than watching the band, and two twentysomething blokes who had tans months before they even arrived in Thailand and are both the proud cultivators of those half-spiky, half-swipy haircuts so popular in the nightclubs of Essex.

Our man takes on Khao San Road after dark:

Aside from this beguiling cross-section of humanity there’s just me, and four bar staff. Not exactly Wembley Stadium. Yet this doesn’t stop Johnny Flash from expending roughly enough energy to power a small country for a week or so.

With ten songs down, Flash’s knife-on-glass screeches are punctuating a chorus which consists solely of the words “come and get me”. He begins swirling like a particularly lightweight helicopter before falling theatrically to the ground just as his drummer pulls up one stroke shy of demolishing one of his toms.

As someone who has spent far too much of his time watching jumped-up little pricks strut around tiny stages in London, dripping with cocksure attitude despite playing to a similarly small audience, Johnny Flash is somewhat refreshing. Unlike the school-night rock-flops of London town, this is clearly a guy who acts like he does because it comes naturally, not because he thinks it is what’s expected of him. His appeal is certainly kitsch in its most lavishly affected form, but Flash is intensely likable. I’m not advocating a return to the dark days of hair metal, but as I drain the last drops of beer from the bottle and leap to the floor from my stool, I can’t help but wonder whether the London scenesters would benefit from toning down the swagger and turning up the ‘flash’.

Local radio station Indie 103.1FM announced that the former Smiths icon was holding a rare TV conference ahead of his residency at the Hollywood Palladium.

A chance for Music Towers to infiltrate?

So, I sped down Sunset Boulevard; charmed the doorman, courtesy of my finest Leicester accent, and next thing I knew it was my turn to quiz Morrissey.

Morrissey had returned to Los Angeles for an unprecedented 10-day residency at the Hollywood Palladium. He would be the last artist to play there before the venue closes for much-needed renovations.

Dressed in a crisp, navy suit and Morrissey t-shirt, the man himself, backed by his band, showcased five songs – Let Me Kiss You, Stop Me If You Think You’ve Heard This One Before, and new compositions All You Need is Me, That’s How People Grow Old and One Day Goodbye Will be Farewell.

The trademark poise, exaggerated swishes and arched eyebrows were all in place, so was he still enjoying touring? Because, um, sometimes Mr Morrissey it’s hard to tell with you.

“Deliriously happy,” Morrissey dead-pans back.

“I don’t ever call this, being on stage, performing. To me it’s quite natural.

“Performance is fake and it’s difficult for me to think of this as a show. Off stage, maybe that’s when I’m performing.”

Hmmmm. Not an easy one this.

Morrissey, now in the midst of a 177-leg tour, left LA to relocate to Rome last year, but the city still holds him in its thrall and vice versa.

At his opening show that evening, the audience scream at the intro of every song – maybe even before the first bar of The Smiths’ Death of A Disco Dancer.

They chant his name and there are gifts too, a handmade manga comic, and flowers, of course.

What is it about Los Angeles that raises a smile from the Pope of Mope?

“I still love it here,” says Morrissey. “It’s crazy, it’s insane but other aspects are more (pause) gratifying.

“I find it visually beautiful, I like the brightness and it’s glamorous. That’s what I needed.

“I thought I would last a year here but then the years flipped by.

“I’ve stayed in Italy for a long time but everything I possess is still in this city.”

In a world away from the dark Manchester streets of the 1980s that spawned The Smiths, Morrissey and his music are idolised by LA’s huge Latino community.

At his show, they out-numbered us aging indie kids by 10-1 – at least. Just so as you know, a film on the subject, Is It Really So Strange, explores the bridge that Mozzer has unwittingly provided across two cultures, brilliantly.

On the subject of his fervent LA fanbase Morrissey coyly says: “Well I’ve heard they love me, but I don’t jump to conclusions.

“But I can’t answer why I have such a big Latino following here. They like singers who are impassioned, they like crooners.

“I’m outside the mainstream, and the mainstream never let me in. When you write and create it’s important to be yourself and that’s what I always try to do.”

Time is up, and with that, he gives me another scrutinizing stare with his blue eyes, turns on the heels of his Italian shoes and whisks away into the sunshine of Sunset Boulevard.

http://www.myspace.com/morrissey

… And going to see bands that break us into little bits when we dance.

Normal service will resume.

Thanks
MT

This brings us to Chris(t) Martin and his merry gang. Who are usually above such things as getting down and dirty with a live session are doing one tomorrow. For some reason I didn’t realise Absolute Radio was the new name for Virgin, I thought it was some independent thing like Resonance FM.

Anyway tune in tomorrow to decide for sure that you do fancy Richard Hammond watch Big Brother and like Coldplay.

Or you could just listen to Death Magnetic again, just putting it out there.

But in this case, I would love to site a moment of delusional hyperbole. So back into the room with Warner Brothers: Daffy Duck and chums wheeled out a recent case study to prove to these youngsters that they were so on the ball. They told a case study on how they ‘broke’ Seasick Steve…

Christ on a bike with a bad tummy! Man alive… I wish I was there at that moment.

Was this the same Seasick that had worked his arse off playing every festival to rapturous audiences before they signed him? Was this the same Steve that already been booked for TWO Jules Holland News Eve Specials before pen was put to paper? Was this the same Steve of a Seasick nature that had already sold over 60,000 records in the UK on the independent label Bronzerat? Finally was this the same Warner hit squad that broke a guy that had already won Best Newcomer at the Mojo Awards the previous year before they had ever met him?

You do have to worry for a Major Label that uses somebody else’s work as their flagship case study to new artists.

Our good friend, Session, is going to be manning the decks on this one, so you’ve got no excuse not to have a good time. Also: a credit-crunch busting £2 entry fee. If we weren’t going to be lost on a boat adrift outside Helsinki this weekend (no, really), then we’d be there like a shot.

Check out their official website for more details.

Recently me and the other half (pictured) were in an antique store and found an old classy looking radiogram for £40, we took it home and fixed it up. Suddenly we had this classic sounding turntable and stereo for the price of round of drinks in a poncy bar.

In the run up to Christmas: skint like the rest of the country looking for something that would mean a bit more for presents. Thought I would check out Alan’s Records in East Finchley. An ‘Alanadins’ cave of vinyl if you will. If you want ANYTHING, it is likely he can find it, get it, or has it in some garage somewhere.

And not a computer or search box in sight.

Now each weekend is become punctuated with a trip into the record shop. Playing music has become more valuable. Found afternoons to ourselves sitting around with our little seven inchs examining them, looking to see who produced it, looking what year and when. Best of all they are cheaper then Itunes.

It gets more fun with one of those Numark portable turntables. Ok so I can’t fit my whole f**king record collection in my pocket. But I don’t want to! I want some morsels to be savoured one tasty morsel at a time, not spray painted all over every where I walk or at the back of a bus. Somebody spent a lot of time recording this song, we should pay time and respect listening to it.

So new years eve we are outside a pub with the Numark, a collection of cheese and classics on 7inch. We only had 45’s so we had to listen to a few more then once. Serving some illicit mount gay rum. I have another look in the Birdcage, ok the DJ is playing some non-descript 12 inch dance remixes. Oooh this might be hard.

I ask to play a half hour of cheese? He says maybe, I whip out the 7inch, 7inch vs a 12inch. 7inch in this case is showing dedication to the cheese. Straight Cheesy Flush beats 12“ Full House we are in.

You should of seen the people on tables singing Jennifer Rushes Power of Love. This would not of happened if I turned up with a poxy Ipod an adapter.

The most beautiful moment was requests,

‘Do you have ? Soandso by whatever’

‘No I have 45 songs, that is it, you will hear them all’

‘Well how about?’

NO, I have nothing but 45 songs, there is no search option, there is no interactive universal lets all be DJs about this. There are fourty five 45’s and that is it. When they are done I will go, get up then and play something if you want?

The ipod or mp3 collection is something that sits in the background when you are working. But the enjoyment of music is a pastime in itself, not something you have in the background to pass time.

Bill Drummond at a performance of the 17 tells us, the first time he went home with Strawberry Fields and listened to it again and again. Looking at the light in the vinyl, wondering how each sound was made and how this tune came to be. It was a day before he even realised it had a B-side. How he has been searching for that elusive moment ever since.

Now not saying you will have the same epiphany of putting a 7inch bit of vinyl on a funny oversized disc. Not saying it is practical or efficient. But if an ipod has all the convenience of a city Smartcar. Indulging in 7 inches is like driving a nice classic Morgan at the weekend…

…but without the need for garage, or any mechnical skills, or a driving licence, or Jeremy Clarkson telling you about it.

So here is a selection of what PRs tells me is cool today.

This is a cool animation on turntables
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=to99C-0cLGE

Secretly Canadian just signed these Psych rock guys from Johannesburg
http://www.myspace.com/blkjks

Adam Freeland has done an Obama mix
http://www.myspace.com/adamfreelandmusic

This is terrible, Indie / Rock / something
http://www.myspace.com/thexcerts

Prodigy are back – This time it is ..erm… like the first time.
http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=xMVTKOoy1uk

Groove amarda’s new album sound better after a bottle of bacardi
http://www.groovearmada.com/

This is a bit naff
http://www.myspace.com/butcherboymusic
Get Physical relase Music to Die too… great playlist.

Erik Satie - 1. Gymnopédie – selected by DJ T.
Rob Gallagher – Little One – selected by Gilles Peterson.
Photek – Modus Operandi – selected by Storm.
The Stranglers – Golden Brown – selected by DJ Hell.
Cerrone – Supernature – selected by Kevin Saunderson.
Radiohead – Sit Down Stand Up – selected by Laurent Garnier.
Chloé – Paradise – selected by Chloé.
The Beach Boys – ‘Til I Die – selected by David Holmes.
Peggy Lee – Is That All There Is? – selected by Ewan Pearson.
Inti Illimani - Caramba, Yo Soy Dueno del Baron – selected by Ricardo Villalobos.
Link – Amenity – selected by Richie Hawtin.
Pharoah Sanders – Astral Travelling – selected by Francois K.
Brian Eno – An Ending (Ascent) – selected by Coldcut.

http://www.physical-music.com

The departure six months ago of their original singer left the band somewhat cut adrift, and forced them into a seemingly fruitless search for a new frontman. Yet after a series of false starts, the band finally found their voice; his name is Ed Quick, and he just might be UK indie’s next superstar frontman.

“Without wanting to sound clichéd, I do feel at home on stage, do you know what I mean?” says the shy but engaging 21 year-old. “And every time I sing, I want to sing to the best of my abilities, and get as much emotion across as I can.”

Ed Quick’s voice is immensely powerful and utterly dynamic, with the kind of chasm-spanning range which might have Muse’s Matt Bellamy looking over his shoulder. Ed was described by a fan as “Ian Curtis and Morrissey’s bastard lovechild”, which is as close to the mark as we think we’re gonna get.

It wasn’t easy for Rev78 finding their man, however. “It was a tricky few months trying to find someone who could replace the old singer, and put a new slant on it” says guitarist Dave Gritzman. A string of nearly-men raised and dashed the band’s hopes in quick succession. “We were putting ads in giving influences like Steve Marriott, Jack White, Interpol… you know, really distinct, powerful voices” says Jimi Laffoley – bassist, founder member and, together with Dave, Rev78’s creative core. “And some of the guys who came in… “ … here Jimi trails off, and shudders. “We had one guy come in who sounded like the guy from Maroon 5.”

Then there was the guy who’d won the Israeli version of The X-Factor. “He was a fabulous singer, but he was very Pop Idol, that kinda thing” says Jimi. “And one guy who looked like Meatloaf” adds sticksman Dan, Dave’s brother. It’s fair to say that at that point, things were looking increasingly bleak for Rev78. Yet at the same time Ed, unbeknown to them, had just arrived in London from Norwich, looking for a band. So what did he think when he first heard Rev78’s music? “I just thought it was something so raw, and there was something so beautiful about it, and I thought I could at least try and really put some good lyrics to this, you know. The band I was in before, there was always this kind of punk ethic, and it was all very… it wasn’t really so much about the vocal performance. So with Rev78 I thought I can sing again, you know.”

The first gig with the new line-up was at Camden’s Purple Turtle – “That was a bit nervy” says Ed. “It’s like giving birth, isn’t it – it’s good to get your first one out of the way!”. The new band now have a handful of shows under their belt, including a gig in front of two thousand fans at the VW Van Fest, and an incendiary performance at the soon-to-be doomed Metro on Oxford Street. Things are going well; recent recording sessions with Russ Keffert, whose past collaborations include Clinic and The Rakes, have pushed the band to the next level. Of the fruit of those sessions, ‘Every Bone’ is a sky-scraping, towering ballad which literally begs for airplay, while ‘Us Against Them All’ is an acerbic, energised shot of pure rock ‘n roll adrenalin. Both songs are among the contenders for a single download release slated in for early spring.

Chris Watkeys

www.myspace.com/revolution78music

It’s been a terrible year for most of the Music Industry. Well, the ‘industry’ half of things at any rate. Distributors have closed down, there’s virtually nowhere on the high street to buy records from anymore, and everyone is wringing their hands and being depressed. But this is supposed to be us looking back on the GOOD stuff - the ‘Music’ half of that Music Industry equation. Let’s get to it.

By far the best discovery of 2008 has been Turbowolf. It’s to my eternal shame that I haven’t written more about them - since stumbling onto them quite by accident at Stag & Dagger, I’ve seen them a half-dozen times (each time = AMAZING) and even got them to sit still long enough for us to film a long-lost video interview with them, but for a variety of stupid reasons this has never made it into print. The Bristol four-piece make the kind of electronic punk-rock party music that makes your head swim and your balls drop.

Anyway, fuck the self-recrimination, all you need to know is that Turbowolf are the best goddamn band you never saw in 2008. They’re hitting SxSW and Canadian Music Week later in the year, so even you guys on the other side of the Atlantic will get a chance to catch these Bristol mentalists. Get involved!

There’s been plenty of other rock’n'roll highlights - anyone who came to any of the Beef Warehouse parties knows what I’m talking about. The year ended with a highlight with our Christmas shindig, but Leeds Festival, once again, was the Party Of The Year. Not only did we get to spend the day watching Cancer Bats, Rage Against The Machine and getting our heads sewn up from the time some C**T gashed our head open during Queens Of The Stone Age (check our review of the weekend here) but we then got to party all night on a giant £40K soundsystem. It didn’t matter than the rain had reduced the site to one giant mud-bath, we had ‘em dancing till dawn every bloody night/day. Check out our review here: Part 1. Part 2. Part 3.

There were some great albums too - I’m sure you’ve had your fill of Top 10’s by this stage, and don’t need to be told AGAIN how good certain records are. You might’ve missed them but ‘American Demo’ by The Indelicates and ‘This Gift’ by Sons And Daughters. The record that was on the stereo the most though was ‘Hail Destroyer’ by Cancer Bats, and I never even got round to reviewing that one. Ho hum.

Gig-wise, those cheeky Cancer Bats made our year with a sweatbox performance at the Kingston Peel. Close rivals were The Bronx at KCLSU, KISS at Download Festival, and, again, the mighty Turbowolf at pretty much every show we saw them at.

See? I managed to get through this without mentioning Guns ‘N Roses once. Oh. Go and listen to Turbowolf and I guaran-damn-tee you’ll start to feel better again.