so most of wednesday was spent thinking of ways to break into a sold out gig in a castle which would undoubtedly be immense. why? because it was headlined by the glaswegian rockers frightened rabbit. this is a band who aren't afraid to sing with passion and experiment with the simplest of melodies for the most wonderful of results. after frustratingly listening to their myspace whilst fantasising about secret underground passageways, i stopped myself mid-track. i had to go to this gig. 30 seconds later i was metro-bound for the castle keep and practising my persuasive voice. it didn't take long to blag myself entry and breathe a sigh of relief.
the getinvolved team, normally based at the end bar in newcastle, had done a great job. to host a gig in a castle with a limitation on numbers and at high expense was an ambitious move, but they have proved that transgression often ends with success. in the depths of the dungeons, poised on a candlelit stairwell, the event commenced with richard dawson- a local genius of solo acoustic pop with a killer voice that could rip your insides out in one sharp note.
a few songs later we headed back upstairs, grabbed a getinvolved local bitter made for occasion, and waited for FR in tantalising anticipation- due the intoxicating affect the beer and location had on us. they opened their set in a fashion that complimented their surrounding magnificently, with the favourite 'keep yourself warm' blowing us away and making me miraculously forget i was very ill-dressed for an obviously freezing venue. the atmosphere they evoked throughout their short set was one that only be described by fact- this is, without a doubt, the best place on earth for a band like FR to play. facing an intensely dedicated audience, they directed at us their eloquent scottish-tinged harmonies and passionate rhythms, producing a sound which was nothing short of epic.
post-gig, we were all dizzy with the experience of witnessing something very special and getinvolved, with their music business heads firmly in place, had set up an after-party to cater for the inevitable winding down a gig like this demands. the horrible fight with cold weather was soothed by a great party at the end bar, hosted by ross clark and the scarfs go missing and we were promised jet packs. not the easiest names to remember but both will stick in my memory as good entertainment, and both making me aware that scottish voices are just a lot nicer in singing.
as a treat, FR played yet again at the end, making for another dizzy with delight ride home!
and no, this time i don't mean spotify. i carried out this interview before the release of mongrel's debut album with groundbreaking results!
John McClure of Reverend and The Makers is renowned for being anything but tame, and catching up with him to talk about his new ambitious collaboration, Mongrel, is an exhausting experience in itself. The passion and intensity he holds for the new projects he has been a part of is testament to the inevitability of the success of Saturday 7th March in which their debut album, Better Than Heavy, will be distributed free with The Independent newspaper. The day is a product of the culminating revolution which started shaking long a go and which now, the strong-minded McClure believes, is about to explode in an epiphany of musical gritty reality.
“Music as you know it is dying”, he announces. “There is no way you can justify charging thirteen quid for summit that’s 50p”. Ever the voice of reason, his Yorkshire roots have proved to be swelled with antagonisms for the current apathy in the music scene, which in turn has made him ever the more enthusiastic to shake people up and beat the crowds. He talks a lot about the “former voices of rebellion”: - such as NME, punk bands and old Rock and Roll; all of which have merged into the docile establishment which, despite the masses of cultures, have insisted on ignoring most of them.
“Where is everyone?!” he asks with disbelief lacing every syllable. He waves a Palestine flag and gets ridiculed, he takes a risk and speaks his mind and gets chastised for being loud. In a sentence reminiscent of Marx, he states that “the moment you put making capital above the well-being of human beings and the integrity of journalistic investigation, is the moment you have to be removed”. Well if they say actions speak louder than words then McClure is screaming his way to changing the world.
“What’s rock music?” he probes me, in his idiosyncratic way which I soon see is embalmed in the depths of his soul. He wants to show the world that new music - passionate music - deserves a chance in the everyday world, instead of being confined to certain late hours on the radio. This is why at first glance, the collaborations with some of the best hip hop artists around perhaps seen incongruous for someone hailing from the Sheffield indie scene, but the results are too amazing to ignore. As the Independent on Saturday is thrust in our faces with the Debut of Mongrel, the diverse talent of Britain is thrown along with it and the impact is intense, exciting new music.
The new album is not only about producing fresh music, it is also embedded in the greater atmosphere of rebellion. The Independent newspaper is thus the perfect form of distribution, as McClure makes clear that Mongrel are “not afraid of telling the truth”- just as The Independent voices rebellious opinions and won’t stand short of contention. Is this new teaming of media the beginning of the end of music as we know it? With the credit crunch now in full steam ahead, collaborations such as this don’t seem too daft an idea at all.
See wearemongrel for tour dates and download info.
yeah so the video at the bottom of the last post has been lauded music vid of the year by the popular eastern european blog ostblog- which is a pretty clear comment on the diar quality of eastern europe's music promotion industry, if that quite horrendous video came out on top. (i kind of want to let him off though- i just found out shantel was THE pioneering dj to introduce balkan into an electronic set... pretty influential guy really!)
i'm not normally a drafter, but i admit for this blog there are odd remnants of posts which lack the ability to grow into anything substantial. so this very late post is a blossoming to accumulate the dregs of my blogging, and also pay homage to my FIRST FOLLOWER, wow, it feels good (who cares if i know her, and well at that?!)
music wise, i'll highlight some things which have been drifting my way recently.
resonance 104.4 FM - the London based, community run art radio station is yet to really filter up north, but i got involved just before christmas and wish to spread the news. when i realised its massive scope for interesting shows, the huge array of music it offers, and the positive ethics behind the running of it, i knew i was on it something- not to mention the shows by great independent mags such as the wire, artrocker and art monthly. so i picked a few podcasts at random and found many very impressive; they worked as a reminder of my deep-seated love for radio with a purpose- and that excludes commercial purpose.
particular good shows/podcasts are 'rhythm incursions' - they vaguely define themselves as covering hiphop, dubstep and electronica likes, but i would say it's far more encompassing, as one of my favourites so far under them has been carlo's mix; a canadian dj with influences roaming from boards of canada to flea-markets to graphic violence; oddly enough which come through in the music he puts together (by 'feel' rather than beat or rhythm). slightly annoying is the fact that he purposefully doesn't provide track-listing, as some are just amazing and impossible to find. another is- 'turntable: radio' - a show dedicated to scratching and turntablism (if those squeaky notes aren't for you, don't click the link), normally it has some great mash-ups, especially the famous xmas mix which i had on for my xmas party at one point; it was insanely apt!
i'm still only part way through my journey into resonance, but it's impossible not to find great things from a radio station with the ambitions it holds and the support it gets.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ travel part 1.
on the slightly different note of music venues, i've spent time in a couple of UK cities recently which i haven't been to before. edinburgh- i visited once but not properly- i went to a while ago to support my friends who were opening a set at cabaret voltaire, which was such a good venue almost mimicking edinburgh caves but in a club atmosphere. and brighton- of which i attended the amazing balkanesca night at komedia. i'll talk more about UK cities after this weekend where i'm returning to the southern realms of bristol, but to briefly mention- the balkan night managed to live up to the berlin set expectations, somehow. i was more than impressed.
so a while a go i was battling with insomnia, giving me about 5 hours total kip when i should have had at least 25, but as ever, this leads me on to endless exploration into the wonderweb, and an effort to try and narrow my focus on a life plan. probably not the best state to be writing cover letters, but it seems to be conducive to good internety finds.
when when my meandering began and i found a world of creative genius' contained in record labels. my favourite so far has had to be fatcat records, the masters representing amongst others...
hauschka (or the less hip - volker bertelmann): a german experimental, ambient composer who uses delicate piano sounds to create yann tierson style masterpieces.
mum: icelandic group taking electronic tinkling to a whole new level
animal collective: 'nuff said
no age: kings of cool the smell LA club rockers
and basically, many more great artists. please hire me in easter yes?
the real reason fatcat records hit me however, is the way their website is overwhelmed by an independent ethic buzz which is alive only in these types of record labels where faceless corporate music is about as far away in ideals as iran is to the USA (owch, poor metaphor). its just so different and wonderful. the browsing resulted in many political blogs and indie zines recommended whole-heartedly by the team, and i really felt in that website, caught up in a community phenomenon of creative backlashers (talking of which, i went to starbucks at the weekend oh gosh, but ate a pack-up in their faces, ker-chung!)
another musicy thing: SPOTIFY, the new medium for playing music, a itunes-esque streamer with no buffering, completely legal, and so much available! get invited here:CLICK! you won't be disappointed.
From sparse to brimming- that has what my life has been, in cultural terms, defined as from today. i began by the baltic (via the currywurst stand- oh berlin!), and was exposed to even more fluxus, containing yoko ono the great pacifist. the fluxus lark confused me a lot, but after talking it through more with my brother i got a better idea of what it's about. there were a lot of objects in glass cages, looking pretty anti-commercialistic- and that's apparently fluxus' initative as from 1966 when it started up in dick higgins' manifesto. it's associated with the composer john cage (hence alt music gallery) who i have been listening to today- the great genius of chance. it basically felt like another world had been created, parallel yet inspired by ours, with these objects that looked so ordinary yet were not like anything we would ever use. great. next was yoko- i loved her exhibition mainly because it suited the baltic profusely. collaborative, aesthetic, fun; everything an exhibition in the n.east should be.
after this jaunt came the slumdog millionaire, a well-worthy hyped film by the trainspotter himself danny boyle. this was just fantastic, the screenplay was so well-rounded and not cliched. it was enlightening to a place which should definetely be brought to attention in a mainstream type way, and of course, it was highly enjoyable. oh yeah and the music collaboration with m.i.a and rahman is incredible!
ok so since christmas i have been going slightly crazy, metaphorically, for the balkans. so since having a lot of time since finishing exams, i have been researching loads for my new radio show; balkan's better! .. and have since come up with 2 amazing blogs:
the balkan hour- a comprehensive blog of all things balkan- from mixes, dances and film previews. i especially enjoyed the following video, curtesy of this blog:
the new worck- am i the last person to find this genius blog or what? since i am mixes mad, this blog is like, everything i could ever look for in a music blog, and it has loads of mixes from my favourites typsy gypsy (including an electro mix, i didn't even know they were that capable) and balkan hotsteppers. here's a link to an especially good 'un:
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.
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]
