likely?

amazing. thank you pitchfork.

Fluxing Creative Juices

i thought it was about time to put december in the lime-light and fulfill my first ever move to the consecutive month in a blog. well done me. the end of term at uni went by quite quickly, what with last minute socialising and cramming in artistic outings to exhibitions i wouldn't see after the new year. at the hatton gallery i saw george henry longly's 'mass damper'. i won't pretend to know my stuff about the nuances of this exhibition, but i will say that i liked the minimal style of his sculptures which brought attention to the pretty shadowy reflections the every-day type objects cast on their surroundings. i also managed to fit in a relatively epic walk to see the last of the alt.gallery's exhibits: hayley newman's 'mini-fluxus' (see picture). this was quirky and interesting, and made me extremely disappointed that the gallery space in this amazing record shop; alt.vinyl, cannot continue any longer. in any case, it is a unique place in newcastle, and i'm sure its new venture to create an alt.cafe will suit me just nicely (see previous post)!


in terms of music, i lacked any initiatives for gig-going in newcastle by the last few weeks, which probably made my venturing to the capital and seeing electro-trip-tastic duo chromeo ever more enjoyable. last weekend shepherd's bush empire held host to the chromeo xmas special party with djing late into the night with their good pal and beautiful parisian dj mehdi. it was an incredible set which involved them going all-out for their last gig before the holidays, including a real life xmas tree on stage with them. it was after their set where it got even better for me, as the early-birds headed out of the venue and it was just left with an enthusiastic crowd willing to dance the night away with electro beats, soon turning into a medly of hip-hop classics (an inevitability, i now realise, as dj mehdi is a fine spinner of hip hop beats and chromeo can't get enough of them).

also contained within my insight to london via a good friend was a trip to prince charles' cinema in leicester square- a very reasonably priced and perfectly placed cinema screening general new releases. that week was blindness, a post-apocalytical film directed by fernando meirelles (of city of god) in which the population is overcome with white blindness and are instituted within a prison. it explores the brutal happenings of what happens within the confinement when everyone is reduced to the same weak state apart from one woman, who hides to nearly everyone that she has maintained her vision. it was partly done well but the ending was a disappointment. i did, however, very much enjoy the small nasty role played by gael garcia bernal, the only celebrity love of my life.

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A Natter With Kid Carpet

i realised recently that it would probably help my blogging credibility to include on here some extra treats, such as this recently i carried out in november with the lovely kid carpet which was put on the nsrlive website (just for a reminder, that is here: NSR).

Being an artist that hails from the South-West, Newcastle haven’t been much exposed to the toy-instrument playing, sleeve-tattoo wearing Ed Patrick- or as better known as disguised in his acronym- Kid Carpet. I caught up with him post-US Election Day to talk Dan le Sac, Daniel Johnston and the European Song Contest.

E: How would you describe your sound, in a sentence?

KC: Disco-punk-standup-fall down-music. Casino keyboards, small battery operated lightweight devices...

E: Why did you get started with playing these instruments?

KC: Simple enough reason really; so I don’t get a bad back! I can walk to a show, and there is no need to hire a van.

E: What about the sound they produce?

KC: They work well yeah. I’m no maestro guitar player so it made it easier for me.

E: So with this sort of unique sound and bizarre use of instruments, it surely would be hard to pin-point what your influences are…

KC: Well, not wanting a job and not wanting to be on the dole.

E: What about music wise?

KC: Ah music- The Kinks, Daniel Johnston… [An inspiring solo artist from Texas who has severe mental health problems]… I like the solo organ and singing, but I’m obviously not a manic depressive

E: Ever seen the elusive player himself?

KC: Yeah I saw him in London once, it was amazing! Me and my friends kept shouting out for him to play “Speeding Motorcycle” and he ignored us for a while, then shouted back [at this point he re-enacts Daniel’s emotion-ridden voice] “I don’t play speeding motorcycle anymore!”

E: On another note, you recently toured with Dan le Sac, how was that?

KC: Amazing, they were lovely people to hang out with and had perfect audiences for my style of performance- primed for spoken word and partying. I’m prone to telling stories and babbling between songs and because they were used to the spoken style of Dan le Sac it didn’t faze them in the slightest.

E: I heard a rumour that you applied to the Eurovision song contest last year, is this correct?

KC: Well I had a song I thought would win so I applied to Slovenia, Andorra, a couple of other places- they didn’t go for it.

E: Aw shame, did they even get back to you?

KC: Er, no!

E: That’s unfortunate! Just one final question- I hope you are considering coming to Newcastle again soon?

KC: Yeah, I hope so too! I will be touring again in late February/March [2009]

There you go. E x