Organ 208 then, more music, more adventures, mostly rushed train rides and colourful coachrides to Birmingham and the Fierce festival. I don’t think anyone who was at Revisions Of Excess will ever forget that night. 

Everything is right, nothing is wrong, we’re evolving once more, moving on, this ever evolving musical landscape of ours, Wrong Pop? Is it so wrong? You have to move on, down the road to excess. This week’s Organ is powered by Mouse, by Herzoga, Vile Vile Creatures, by Lazlo, by Ms X and the headwrecking chaos of the last two weeks and Act Art and fire alarms and this is all about moving on, you’re either with us or you’re not, one thing is for sure we will never be your safe establishment. Who was that boy in the red dress anyway? And how good is Wrong Pop? And doing it yourself for real? Walking it? What do you want from your Organ anyway? We must stop all this deviant behaviour or ther rules will be broken - we can't have the rules broken now can we ... we can't have anything broken, bella the broken? Tarrrrrred and feathered hold us together. ... Why was the giant white rabbit tarred and feathered? 
 

The Organ radio hour and the Other Rock Show brought to you by Organ zine, on the airwaves via London’s legendary alternative radio station RESONANCE 104.4 FM on Sunday nights at 9.30pm Resonance 104.4FM goes out on the FM dial all over London and listened to worldwide via www.resonancefm.com or grab more details and recent playlists here
 

Last year over 1,000 riders took part in four rides across the UK. This year there will be rides in Brighton, London, Manchester, Southampton and York Last year, riders in Brighton were threatened with arrest under section 5 of the Public Order Act for any display of "rude bits", however police in oh-so-liberal Brighton have relented and will allow full frontal nudity on a bike - so it'll be bare bums on bikes instead of on the beach in Brighton.

For more see www.worldnakedbikeride.org/uk
  Meanwhile...

It's not all doom and gloom in Greenland, where the ice cap is busy melting faster than a choc ice in a microwave. OK, Greenland's ice alone adds up to 10% of the world's entire fresh water, and it's estimated that if the ice cap melts entirely, global sea levels would rise around 7m, flooding large parts of low-lying civilisation (and well before, seriously affecting the ocean currents that control the weather systems of Northern Europe)... Innuit fisherman are finding that with the mild winters - on average 5 degrees warmer than 15 years ago - they are able to fish much further upstream than previously, making their hunting season longer and more productive.

And enterprising local business types, eager to take their lead from how unflustered Western suits are attempting to 'manage' the emerging crisis, are rubbing their hands with greed instead of the need to keep warm.

With a more hospitable climate to offer, Air Greenland has just launched a new direct flight from Baltimore, hoping to attract rich Americans over for holidays to watch the icebergs collapsing and visit the new island (dubbed Warming Island) recently found freshly uncovered by the big melt. The irony of jetting in for what has been labelled "eco-suicide tourism" seems to have escaped them. We wonder how long it will be before we can read stuff about saving the planet printed on paper from pristine tropical rainforest, or buy t-shirts demanding an end to human exploitation made in repressive sweat shops... oh, er.. 
(SchNews)
 

John on the phone...

“The road to excess leads to the place of wisdom for we never know what is enough until we know what is more than enough” William Blake  REVISIONS OF EXCESS – The Pink Flamingo, Birmingham, June 3rd 2007  Let me see, where do we start telling you about this one? Where indeed? How did we get here? And dressed liked this? In the East End of London just after Sunday lunchtime, hot, sunny and a whole load of drag queens, trannies, crusty looking cyber punks  (who transform impressively by the time we reach our destination!), geisha boys, girls of all shapes and sizes, red stripped dresses, shades of noir, ball gags around necks, swimwear, oh and a slightly confused yet remarkably calm coach driver. The beautiful people (and us Organs) are on a day trip, we’re off to Birmingham for the closing night of the tenth Fierce Festival. The night is called Revisions Of Excess and lovingly put together by Ron Athey, the “notorious” (to quote the event flyer) and rather influential American performance artist, and Lee Adams, he of the infamous London performance club Kaos. Yeap, destination Birmingham and an inspired choice of venue in the shape of cheesy looking garishly painted Lap Dancing club called The Pink Flamingo (two dancers for the price of one, just £30.00 says the supermarket style sign on the inside wall), no problems spotting the glowing pinkness of the building from afar! (really did clash with Miss Cunty’s dayglo yellow mile-high hair though, Miss Cunty has been entertaining us via the coach microphone en route). We’re here for a night of performances, installations and live art inspired by the nihilistic writings of Jean Genet, George Bataille and William Blake – so a nihilistic coach ride through England’s green and peasant land, is almost a performance in itself – well for the other occupiers of the motorway lanes anyway. Miss C is a star! So we’re in the Pink Flamingo in central Birmingham on a Sunday night, there’s a front room that could be any uninspiring brown and beige 70’s pub interior anywhere, there’s a pole-dancing stage around the side that’s put to rather good use by the drag queens, the real queen (Ms X), the divas, the go-go dancers and the Kaos/Torture Garden DJs.  The main action is in the back room where the private lap dancing booths are gainfully employed as sideshow boxes and “interactive installations” where you can indulge in personal lap dances - all included in the very reasonable ten pounds ticket price, where else are going to get a lap dance from a rubber clad nurse with a great big attachment for that kind of money on a Sunday night? Or indeed your organs gilded in gold leaf and a Polaroid of the result presented by a man in a pristine white doctor’s coat? Or for that matter see a Victorian looking sideshow performer with an impressive moustache, in a tight leather corset and tall top hat, make squeaky George Bush and Tony Blair rubber toys disappear (see if you can guess where he put them? They did take a lot of pushing, there was a lot of squeaking!). There’s a demanding queue for the Massage table that Ron Athey somehow finds time to man. Out through the back doors is a whitewashed courtyard with a kind of marquee covering a stage and viewing area. The main stage hosted by the hilariously funny high-camp cutting tongue of David Hoyle (the artist formally known as the Divine David – still looking divine with his trademark panda eyes, white face paint and slightly better than the rest of us Northern-voiced aristocrat style). David was as divine as ever, actually better than ever, bring back his television show “unt” now! Never miss him live, the audience are roaring with laughter as he questions the wisdom of dress and hair combinations and compares the taste of the venue beer unfavourably with the superior taste of the “golden wine” of seventeen year old working class Birmingham boys.  The performances - where to start?  Oh we already did on the coach. The flashbacks are starting to make some kind of sense now, what is this in my hair? Did that really happen? What about... no? Surely I imagined that bit?  The giant rabbit (Lee Adams) who forlornly popped all his party balloons as he slowly walked on stage and proceeded to pull his big white rabbit-head off and tar himself before splitting his white furry belly open with a very large and rather dangerous looking knife and then pull out a load of white feathers and yes, you guessed it right again – feathered himself, (hold him together, tarred and feathered, we came along waiting for the day....) “Very messy” warned the one page schedule in a rather brilliantly understated way! Slava Magutin didn’t make it through customs to deliver his spoken word piece – wonder why the authorities thought him too dangerous to talk to us?  Lazlo Pearlman was revealing in several ways with a delicious performance of a burlesque cabaret style Jacques Brel song – oh look, go explore Lazlo’s MySpace page, far too much going on with Lazlo to tell you about here. Valantina Violette of the Velvet Hammer Burlesque started proceedings on the main stage in an impressive way, kind of eased us in the coming excess with her Latino flavoured dance and giant spider-like costume, Empress Stah performed her beautifully erotic, deco-styled and slightly twisted cabaret, Ryan Styles did likewise with a giant balloon performance. Ashley Ryder and his partner Simon performed a rather stylish fisting show (very messy warned the schedule once again, didn’t seem that messy to me, seemed rather clean and precise). Dominic Johnson’s rather challenging and indeed beautiful solo piecing piece was also deemed “very messy” with the extra warning of “blood”. Actually almost as entertaining as the actual entertainment was the casual observing of the road crew, a team obviously more accustomed to dealing with the sound for lame indie rock bands – likewise the bar staff are clearly not that familiar with the lap dancers being as “equipped” as they were tonight - or maybe not in the case of Lazlo Pearlman where the sign above the booth read Trans LapDance Express – “I gave many tranny lapdances through the evening, my top half clad in iconographical outfits (Cowboy, Sailor, Leatherman) and my bottom half, nude, so dickless... I was dancing all night and I'm still sore! It was a great experience and very interesting on many levels... I have and gave a new appreciation of lap-dancers....”.  Last on to stage crept, on all fours, a small sweet and rather innocent looking pink-haired unforgettable (!!!) girl called Mouse – now the programme did mention that she to was “very messy”, maybe the warning needed to be just a little bit stronger, the distance she could project the results of those enemas was very impressive indeed (where’s my shampoo?), and that dog food got everywhere. Mouse managed to do the almost impossible and shock the seemingly unshockable audience – an admirable achievement!  Closing night of Fierce and the climax to a whole series of events was a massive success – a glowing beaming Ron Athey declared himself to be “so so proud” – and rightly, the night and indeed the whole of the Fierce festival has been a triumph. There’s been all kinds of artistic interactive live art, performance and stimulation courtesy of the festival in Birmingham for the last two weeks or so – ballet on buses, telephone performance art, children giving free haircuts, workshops, gallery art accessible to all, a Pam Am performance - positive challenges to the conventions of formal art. Something we particularly wanted to see was Michael Clark’s new interpretation of Stavinsky’s Rite Of Spring (the original daddy of post-punk of prog pronk!) And talking of post punk prog and complex heaviness, Fierce also including a night entitled “Heavy Slow and Brutal” that saw Isis headline a show that also featured people from Oxbow and Sunn O))) – see something for everyone, art and performance for all (and lots of it available on line via the excellent Fierce website)  One of the highlights that we did catch was a very intense performance from Ron Athey and Dominic Johnson over at the Custard Factory last Wednesday night. A performance that explored “violation, self obliteration, and mysticism” - a dark moving compelling experience involving “ritual, transubstansitiation and excess”. The performance took place in a dark, reverent, sparsely lit theatre within the central Birmingham arts complex - while heavy metal bands played elsewhere in the factory - nothing to do with Fierce but the audience from both events are interacting in the courtyard and bar along with some kind of mysterious performance involving lots of bananas that took place in a third area  – this is one of the very positive aspects of Fierce - high art, stimulating boundary pushing and live art that has been made accessible and open to all, and all in a very open non-elitist inviting kind of way. not throwaway though, no dumb-down going on here, there’s a refreshing spirit and inviting attitude to the tenth Fierce festival. “Death Valley, population 9. Endurance and at 56.7 degrees Celsius, making salt flats into variations on creeping Parched skins threaten to match the shattered surface: destituted, then away. The body’s drip system would melt a hole through the salt floor, out bodies peering into the grave, to listen. Once, less mindful of the realities of things, there was only sex, and love, and bright lights. not to be consoled, two bodies at other ends of the earth are moving in times for which there is no sun”.Ron Athey and Lawrence Steger began researching the collaborative Incorruptible Flesh in 1996. The morbidity of the piece was driven by the shared, long-term HIV+ status of Athey and Steger, healthy and sick, In 2006, Steger now dead, Athey and the young British artist Johnson continue the collaborative process, based around the myth of the wound”. There’s a very audible sobbing in the audience as the performance of Athey and Johnson comes to a hushed climax, as well as a feeling of shared elation. The two of them presented a performance that really did push emotion to the edges, to the boundaries (in far more than one sense) of incorruptible flesh, pushing in to darker times where once there was nothing but bright light, love and the pleasures of sex – the myth of Philoctetes transplanted in to the Californian desert apparently - the high summer heat and the art of spectatorship – sitting politely in a theatre seat wondering how and if and why to engage while Dominic Johnson hangs upside down head immersed in a tank of water, ankles shackled to some kind of scaffold – Athey to his left lying on a slab of glass that has been a barrier between the two...  shouldn’t he be out of that tank by now? Erotically uncomfortable, communicating ideas of the violence of the body, dark sexual torment, fragile strength. Relationships, audience relationships, barriers, shared guilt.. Was it guilt we felt or a feeling of privilege? Fierce has been a triumph, the closing party unforgettable...  www.fiercetv.co.uk Urban75 on Fierce Ron Athey @ My Space KAOS London

ORGAN TV  is on your screens in the UK right now. Every Wednesday evening, 10.30pm  on the OPEN ACCESS 2 Channel on SKY173. And now due to the fine response, repeated every Sunday on SKY883 at 11.15pm.

This coming Sunday  we have the following videos...

NOVA ROBOTICS - Two Seven One
OURLIVES - Sandra
THE ICARUS LINE - Get Paid
YOUR CODE NAME IS: MILO - Understand
FLIPRON - Dogboy vs Monster
DRESDEN DOLLS - Backstabber 
THE SCHLA LA LAS  - 1,2,3,4 
TANGAROA - Vietnamese Killing Queens 

Next Wednesday and Sunday we have...

TIME.SPACE.REPEAT.- Joy 
THE ICARUS LINE - Get Paid 
YIP YIP - Candy Dinner 
FLIPRON - Dogboy vs Monster 
THE SCHLA LA LAS  - 1,2,3,4 
MY VITRIOL - This Time 
HELMET - Monochrome 
ASSDROIDS - Daft Crunk 
65DAYSOFSTATIC - Drove Through Ghosts To Get There 

What's it all about? Simple, just good music, and the art of good video making...  Same musical policy as we've always had with Organ - the labels are just handy signposts, as long as the music and video making has that X factor - expect a healthy eye/earboiling mix of metal, punk, prog, beats, post rock, post punk, post man pat, hardcore, indie, alternative, pronk, whatever..... music and creativity for the open minded 
 

DEMO OF THE WEEK

ALEX TAYLOR AND THE EVIL EYE – Full album length release that really does deserve to get out there in some kind of formal release way – mellow electronic ambient dance vibes led in a warm soothing way by a warm classical violin. Alex Taylor is from Melbourne, Australia – impressive, classical, soothing, challenging where it needs to be – www.myspace.com/alextaylorandtheevileye

Last week's demo of the week - MONTY CASINO / TO THE BONES / 4 OR 5 MAGICIANS

Previous demo's of the week - JACK SHIRT / HERZOGA / LAST DAYS OF LORCA / THE DEFILED / BOMB THE SUN / OXYGEN THIEF / THE DAWN CHORUS / THE SCARLET LETTER UNION / KOE / DEATH LIST FIVE / BITCH SLAP BARBIE / STRAY BORDERS / FOUR LETTER FRIEND / ALSATIAN / THE VIPERS / LILY GREEN / THE VELCROS / MAYORS OF MIYAZAKI / FANTAPLASTIC / CLUB LE SHARK / THEY DIED TOO YOUNG / INVASION / OPHELIA TORAH / THE MERLIN BIRD / LEAVE THE CAPITAL / GRAVANZIA / CHET / LADY PROMISE / FTSE100 / STEAL GANDHI / ALL DARK MORNINGS / SHADY BARD / SHILOE / THE RAMPTON RELEASE DATE / BATTLEWITCH / THE FLESH HAPPENING / VESSELS / BLACK JACKSON / INNER RAGE / ALLERGO / BROOKE / CARTRIDGE / PERHAPS CONTRAPTION / THE PROCESS VOID

ALBUM OF THE WEEK
TURBONEGRO – Retox (Cooking Vinyl) – Retox, intox, Turbonegro sounding all shockingly slick and polished and dropping some seriously smoking hard rock (atom) bombs – they sound like one of those cool as F late 70’s punk-edged hard rock bands now – Starz, Hellcatz, Dictators, Black Flag. Alpha-male two legged alsatian (pipe sucking, sailor-boy lusting) rock. Do you do destruction? Classic rock’n roll – Stooges, early Motorhead, AC/DC, Hanoi Rocks, Ramones, brass knuckles and a two by four – do you do destruction? Naturally there’s all the expected sleaze and the face down in the swimming pool bits, the bleeding all night and you know about those Turbonegro boys by now don’t you? Hell yeah! This is front line not knowing what you’re gonna get until your hand is down those pants punk rawk. Turbonegro on top form, up a notch - the polish and the slickness kind of takes you a little by surprise, they’re still the boys from nowhere though, still putting fireworks up ever orifice you have to offer. A righteous album, an album that demands you feed it and love it and swim in those gleefully nihilistic thought-provoking dumb-ass contradictions. It sounds like stomping on the Stones New York 1975 – pick up a stone, start a life of crime, and with a latitude of it’s own construction. What is rock? Rock is that dark area between the anus and the balls, dirtyass Satanists in the gutters of Birmingham? What is rock? Meeting the grim reaper in a sports arena at the age of nine? Backwards messages to boys and girls to bring machine guns to their school, Kill City is where is at – Six cats from Oslo saving rock n’ roll all by themselves and doing it better than ever. What is Rock is a seven and half minute epic that says everything  - now five them your cash, Turbonegro dropped their bomb, the Leather Demon will be happy, we all got erection, polished up slick Turbo is still as dirty as you need it  – www.myspace.com/turbonegro or www.turbonegro.com
 

ALSO CHECK OUT
ASTEROID – Asteroid (Fuzzorama) - Now this is cool, totally retro, some kind of fuzzed fuelled slightly jazzy garage prog that sounds like it was recorded and then lost to legend back in 1974 or something like that. Heavy progressive 70’s groove from deepest Sweden, power trio apparently, got themselves some neat mellow blues rock passages and Hendrix flavours that lead in to all kinds of old school blues/prog things that kind of have us thinking of Welsh legends Man or maybe Humble Pie or a less guitar dominated Mahogany Rush – if you like it all retro and flared, then here you go, these Swedes do it well. Go google, they’re too retro to have web addresses cluttering up their sleeve.. Hang on, we've found one - www.fuzzoramarecords.com

CHRIS CONNELLY – The Episodes (Durtro Jhana) - If you only know Chris Connelly from the bands he’s been (and continues to be) involved in then you need to put most of what you know to the back of your mind, there again this is his solo album number 8 so... For the record Connelly has been part of Ministry, Revolting Cocks, Fini Tribe as well as collaborating with Caberet Voltaire, Killing Joke, Robert Frip and Jah Wobble - put most of that out of your mind though and focus on the fact that this time he has brought in members of  Joan Of Arc, Town And Country, Califone along with the always excellent US Maple as well as other “Chicago alt.jazz and imrov luminaries”. The Episode is an album that eases you in to those creases and warm folds with some mellow jazzy alt.rock that tastes at times of Scott Walker, Bowie, Nick Cave and even Jarvis Cocker (guess the Jarvis feel is a Scott Walker thing though). Some of it sounds like The Doors playing mellow left field jazz for post-rock fans who spend their time hunting down videos of Hella when there was just two of them – lot more mellow and experimental and easy on the ear and comfortable than any of that suggests though. A kind of Bowie style singer meets easy on the ear rewarding alt.jazz all paced at mellow post-rock pace and just good songs that go out there in a little different kind of Scott Walkerish way...  recommended.   www.chrisconnelly.com

PRIESTESS – Hello Master (Lime) - Classic seventies sounding hard rock, nailed-on and done just right, melodic hard rock that sounds authentically right and not some mere retro trip – think Purple, Uriah Heep, Nazareth, The Sweet, think classic harmonised hard rock twin guitar chugg and Hammond bite (that overdriven Hammond isn’t on every song though, there should be laws about having a Hammond and nor using it at all times – use your organ!). Priestess are the real deal, not some Wolfmother style retro fashion trip. Some of it comes edges wth that multi guitar Skynyrd/Hatchet boogie thing, some of it tastea little of AC/DC and lots of Thin Lizzy, more blues than Lizzy though, far more Uriah Heep or Deep Purple rocking out, maybe early Whitesnake – a very authentic, very real, classic British sounding 70’s hard rock band from Canada.  www.priestessband.com
 
 

Last week's album of the week - TOMAHAWK / CHARGER Previous album's of the week - SHADY BARD / LOUIS LINGG AND THE BOMBS / SLEEPYTIME GORILLA MUSEUM / ANTIGAMA / END OF LEVEL BOSS / RICHARD PINHAS / MICHAEL J SHEEHY / 65DAYSOFSTATIC / FIELDS / HEY COLOSSUS / THEE MORE SHALLOWS / SHINING / LEFTOVER CRACK / CITIZEN FISH / THIS ET AL / FRANK TURNER  / CAR BOMB / MONOGONO / BILLY NO MATES / APSE / HOLLY THROSBY / MINSK / BLACK ELK / NUM 9 / SHORT SHARP SHOCK / DEATHSKULLS / FUCKED UP / INTRONAUT/ MICROWAVES/ RONDELLUS / DUSTIN’S BAR MIZVAH / CRIME IN CHOIR / THE RUBY SUNS / THE SIEGFRIED SASSOON / DON CABALLERO / REIGNS / STREET DOGS / ME FIRST AND AND THE GIMME GIMMES / ALEUCHATISTAS / BLUT AUS NORD / CATS AND CATS AND CATS / I LOVE POLAND / HOLY SMOKES  / GALLOWS / SICBAY / THE LOST PATROL BAND / SQUAREPUSHER

65daysofstatic have always seemed to be associated with progress. On hearing The Fall of Math, their first album, a friend of mine said that it was like they’d sat in the pub musing on how to update dance music and decided the best thing to do was pour the beer over their equipment and see what it all sounded like. From the opening electronic spluttering of ‘Another Code Against the Gone’, 65daysofstatic declared themselves to be political pushers of boundaries – or at least that’s how we interpreted them.

Odd then to see what they’ve done with their third album, ‘The Destruction of Small Ideas’. Now the emphasis seems to be on inverting the present to recreate the past, to turn their backs on the recording technology that they seemed so heavily to rely on, and instead to simply place a microphone in front of a drumskin and record the sound unmediated. Vinyl is the future.

And ‘The Destruction of Small Ideas’ certainly takes some EQ-ing and sounds different to any other 65daysofstatic release, so I found the need to go back and listen again to the first two albums to see if there’s a context to find or whether the intention really is to draw a line under everything and start afresh. Footnote – if you didn’t give ‘One Time for all Time’ much attention first time out, its worth repaying it a visit. But it is on this cover that you find the words: “Here is nostalgia. Here is sentimentality. Kill them before they get you.” Fine sentiment and perfectly in tune with what we thought 65daysofstatic were all about, but now we find them waxing lyrical about the distant-future power of Prodigy beats. Maybe it’s just about a group of intelligent kids getting to grips with the discovery that youth is far more fleeting than you presume it to be at the time – and being brave enough to admit the mistakes.

So I thought, maybe, that the live show would offer some clues, and it did. 65daysofstatic were majestic in all the ways that I remembered, only much more so. There was no looking back. For once, this gaudy relic of a venue offered a crisp and beefy sound, and the gig was given further narrative with a continuous film, played on a (way too small) screen. It was an indication of the progression of 65daysofstatic, for this was no collection of camcorder twilight landscapes, but a professionally filmed and edited series of clips that grappled with serious and thought-provoking issues. One particularly effective sequence calculated the amount of carbon dioxide that their tour had generated, and I wondered how many of the young crowd had already bought into the grotesque parody of this summer’s Live Earth events, and whether any of them would reconsider as a result.

Incidentally, the crowd is strikingly large and enthusiastic. Having seen 65daysofstatic in a number of small venues playing to less-than-capacity audiences, there was no escaping the perception that their hard work has paid off, that they’re ready for the next step up, for although the band professed a charming bemusement that so many had turned out for them, the music spoke for itself. It didn’t struggle to fill the vast spaces of Koko, that melody-rich fusion of electronica, beats and rock sounded huge, majestic, and destined to fill stadiums in the future.

Those quieter moments from the new album – such as the opening of ‘Don’t Go Down To Sorrow’ – fluttered beautifully around our ears, as did ‘Radio Protector’ and the mesmeric middle section of ‘Rescue Awaits’. Regardless of recording techniques, the new and the old melded together perfectly, though perhaps some of the stringed subtlety of ‘Music is Music as Devices are Kisses is Everything’ would have been lost in the volume. Even so, ‘A Failsafe’ built into a memorable, swirling finalé, while ‘I Swallowed Hard, Like I Understood’ generated the first signs of widespread dancing. But it was upon the opening strains of ‘Retreat! Retreat!’ that a veritable electric charge swept through the place, with the “This band is unstoppable!” line being thrown back at the band before the gleeful eruption of a proper mosh pit. They finally left the stage to raucous and genuinely affectionate acclaim.

There is clearly a contradiction between touring records worldwide and raising issues of globalisation and climate change, and if they carry on like this, 65daysofstatic will soon find themselves on the wrong side of the Laffer curve. They looked and sounded like a massive-band-in-waiting. At least they have the honesty to acknowledge these tensions. How can you fly to Texas to play SXSW and then bemoan carbon emissions? Perhaps it is this awareness that in part has led to the strong, ideological message that the new album embodies. Meanwhile, 65daysofstatic resolutely maintain their subscription to the grass roots of the music movement, and it is this grounding that may help them, when the last diode has died, to a resolution that sees them meet their musical aims without compromising their values, even if the precise road ahead seems strewn with dilemma.

www.65daysofstatic.com

(Phil Whalley)
 

Some other bands seen and liked recently:

Sonic Cathedral seems to be enjoying an evangelical upswing, the gig we caught the other week had headliners Engineers in fine form with their ultra-lush, epic pop songs. Support came from The Lionheart Brothers, an intriguing hybrid of a band that begin by sounding like Peter Hook on bass leading a quartet trying to better the swirling psychedelia of early Verve, underpinned with a hint of throbbing Krautrock. As the keyboards find their way into the mix the most obvious reference point becomes late-80s New Order, the bass is the driving force. Openers Kyte are more familiar, they sound very much like a band influenced by Sigur Ros and Explosions in the Sky. At times the music soars beautifully, and though it never escapes the obviousness of the influences, they are accomplished and very easy on the ear. The brilliant Optimist Club are to split up soon, catch them while you can as they play their final gigs. They absolutely ripped the other week at the Horse & Groom, such thought and invention in every song, each careering track reeling wildly between bass and guitar, held together by a manic drummer. Supporting was Abi Makes Music, tales exploring petulance, bitchiness and other dark areas of the female psyche, set to deliberately shambolic keyboards. Sassy, knowing and no doubt ironic, Abi sounded like Mogul for sixth-formers. Saw a bit of Das Wanderlust at the Old Blue Last – they weren’t on for long and they were rather restrained, not quite as raucous as that excellent new single, but still clever, inventive indie with nods to emo and prog. Finally, a long night at the Water Rats was worth the wait for the Nova Saints, who finally made it on stage some time past 11pm but proceeded to blow us away with a glorious set of epic, psychedelic, shoegazy sounds replete with 3-way harmonies and rounded off with a white-noise out. Before them, Kalev commanded attention with their stark, mechanistic but also enigmatic blend of synth-led music that’s designed not so much to dance to but to stamp your feet to. Music that gives off icy blasts, but expertly done all the same, even if the likes of Webcore and Killing Joke have been there already. Starting the night off were Ourlives, with their Scandinavian take on atmospheric rock, that familiar sense of epicness and weightiness was there, but Ourlives have no appetite for the lengthy workout or the noodly diversion. Their set is direct, emo-tinged and with a definite commercial edge that puts them in with the likes of Sweden’s KVLR.

(Phil Whalley)
 

SINGLE OF THE WEEK
VILE VILE CREATURES – Wilderness (Anchor Age) - Just what are Vile Vile Creatures made of? Sugar and spice and all things nice? Slits and Gossip and agit pop and nerve jangling Erase Errata and racing through the city lights and  I can change, I can change, I can change and you can change and Bikini Kill and Birthday Party and The Fall and noise and dancing and riot grrrl riot riot riot. Vile Vile Creatures are from Manchester and this is a brilliant self-released seven inch (200 of them so move fast now), four urgent energetic tracks (dare we say Wrong Pop again, is something happening here?). Nerve jangling and biting hard and I can see, you can see - they won’t judge but they might bite – four tracks, four wired up new wave punk rock pointy spiky staccato bites, let’s go! Every evolving, racing, wrong pop energy, biting pretty hearts in two – www.myspace.com/vilevilecreatures

SINGLE OF THE WEEK
CHRONICLES OF ADAM WEST – We Walk Unbalanced (Holy Roar) - Noise, screaming bloody avant noise and extreme metal that has no regard for the rules of extreme metal or post rock or post extreme metal or Postman Pat or relentless technical noisecore or anything else. Five tracks then - nothing here for the faint hearted or those who run from extreme prog and beautiful noise, this is screaming yelling relentless genre-bending goodness – we love it! Think Meshuggah, think the raw early days of Sikth, think Locust... Hang on, here comes to slow jazzy bit where we grab a breath, and here comes the bendy pronky kitchen sink - flying right at your head and cutting every colour with all kinds of knives. Five accomplished tracks from the evolving Southern English band, five very fine slices of extreme music and despite all the noise and the constant onslaught and violent intent, all very refined – well, as refined as this delicious complex screaming noisefest of a band like this can be, love it like a reptile, this is excellent – www.holyroarrecords.com

ALSO CHECK OUT
PLASTIC TOYS – Let Me Feel The Love (Hill Valley) - One of those edgy electro-glam-pop-rock things, lot of it about - big riffs, Camden market pop sleaze, Marilyn Manson metal edge, Rachel Stamp, Remote Control, you know the score - they sound like they’re all black eyeliner/nail polish and smudged lipstick (no idea what they look like, I’m just guessing here), they certainly have a sense of dynamic energy. Well produced and all that, nothing that ground breaking but then who said throwaway pop music had to be groundbreaking – good quality modern glam-pop. www.plastictoys.co.uk

STUFFY/THE FUSES – Ahhhh Song (Sour Puss) - Ah, the Ahhhhhh Song, such a simple idea, listen to it three times and you’ll be ahhhhing away all week. Stuffy’s Song Two, you can’t help but sing along to those ahhhhs I tell you! English pop music that tastes a little of good-for-you goodness and scratchy Blur and anthemic Cardiacs and Young Knives and  Kinks and XTC and all in a slightly lo-fi and rather infectious way that ultimately sounds like a Stuff/The Fuses song – www.myspace.com/stuffythefuses

Last week's single of the week - OIB SPLIT VOL 1: 7” GAY AGAINST YOU / LONELY GHOSTS / MUNCH MUNCH / THE TUMBLEDOWN ESTATE

Previously WE START FIRES / THE THERMALS / DAS WANDERLUST / 65DAYSOFSTATIC / SILICON VULTURES / THE OOHLAS / STRIPLIGHT / ALMOS / THE LOW LOWS / I LIKE TRAINS / DINOSAUR Jr / RADIO LUXEMBOURG / HONEY RIDE ME A GOAT / MOTHGUTS / KILLA KELA / CHARLES CAMPBELL JONES / TOBIAS FROBERG / THE FLESH HAPPENING / GIRL SCOUT HAND GRENADE / ZERO / BEATNIK FILMSTARS / DAN LA SAC vs SCROOBUIS PIP / FEAR OF MUSIC / THE RUBY SUNS / THE SCHLA LA LAS / THOMAS TANTRUM / DUSTIN’S BAR MITZVAH / SUPERSUCKERS /GIANT PAW / CHROME HOOF/ FRANK TURNER / ESKIMO DISCO / THE RACE / OCTOBER FILE / MOISTBOYZ / THE LOVES / THE EDUCATION / JESUS LICKS / EINSTELLUNG / SPIDERBABY / 

PREVIOUSLY - OMD

PREVIOUSLY - DVD - NAZARETH – FROM THE BEGINNING

As always, thanks to SchNEWS for their alternative news bulletins - www.schnews.org.uk

MORE NEXT WEEK, SAME TIME, SAME PLACE FOR NUMBER 208? 
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That's it for this week -  IF YOU'VE GOT ANYTHING TO SAY then say it - response
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PAST ISSUES -

ORGAN 207 - TOMAHAWK, CHARGER, NEUROSIS. PSYCHIC TV, WEATHERBOX, MAD CADDIES, IRON SAVIOR, RENTOKILL, ABANDONED, MONTY CASINO, TO THE BONES, 4 OR 5 MAGICIANS, OIB SPLIT VOL 1: 7”, THE TRUDY, THEIR HEARTS WERE FULL OF SPRING, STEVEN LINDSAY, GALLOWS, ART OF DYING, BRENDA, BILL PISARRI, GONG, NAZARETH, CHRONICLES OF ADAM WEST, CRITICAL MASS...

ORGAN 206 -

ORGAN 205 -

ORGAN 204 -

ORGAN 203 - 

ORGAN 202 - 

ORGAN 201 - FIELDS, I-DEF, KTP, PROFESSOR FATE, BLACK SABBATH, RIVETHEAD, ANNIHILATOR, SILICON VULTURES, THE SMEARS, THE SCARE, THE TIGERPICKS, THE SWORD, BOMB THE SUN, KUTOSIS, TEN TO NEVER, CRYSTAL ENTITY, GUNNING FOR GOLIATH, THEE MORE SHALLOWS,THE DONNAS, TOMAHAWK, BLOODSTOCK, THE SMEARS,  MICHAEL J SHEEHY, SUNS OF THE TUNDRA, OXYGEN THIEF, SLEEPYTIME GORILLA MUSEUM

ORGAN 200 - 

ORGAN 199 - 

ORGAN 198 - SHINING, LEFTOVER CRACK, CITIZEN FISH, THE SCARLET LETTER UNION, ALMOS, TORQUE ARMADA, PORNOHEFT, ANDENSUM, DAATH, THE PONY COLLABORATION, THE MIGHTY ROARS, BLACK STONE CHERRY, THE DISAPPOINTMENTS, PORCUPINE TREE, LOST PROPHETS, THE CONWAY STORY, TRADEMARK, A SECRET SOCIETY, MY VITRIOL, AKERCOCKE, THE SMEARS, LADYFEST – LEEDS, LADYFEST – LONDON, WILL HAVEN, ME FIRST & THE GIMMIE GIMMES, EVERYTHING MUST GO, MICHAEL J SHEEHY, LESS THAN JAKE, MIXING IT on RESONANCE FM, ORGAN TV..

ORGAN 197 - 

ORGAN 196 - EATEN BY TIGERS, DEATH LIST FIVE, BITCH SLAP BARBIE, FRANK TURNER, CAR BOMB, THRONE OF KATARSIS, PHINIUS GAGE, APARTMENT, MARYSLIM, DAPHNE LOVES DERBY, THE LOW LOWS, SONIC YOUTH, TERROR... 

ORGAN 195 - 

ORGAN 194 - BILLY NO MATES, ONSLAUGHT, SMOKE OR FIRE, VANILLA, ERRANDER, XisLOADED, DROP DEAD GORGEOUS, THE DEVIL WEARS PRADA, LOVEHATEHERO, TOBIAS FROBERG, THE ADVENTURES OF LOKI, RAY, CSS, THE BLACK VELVETS, LEAVE THE CAPITAL, FARRAH, WILLIAM D.DRAKE, NORTH SEA RADIO ORCHESTRA, DINOSAUR JR, ROLO TOMASSI, THE LOCUST, WILL HAVEN, INDYMEDIA, ClearerChannel, SchNEWS

ORGAN 193 - APSE, BLOC  PARTY, NIGHTRAGE, THE PAYBACKS, THE FLESH HAPPENING oh and loads more, go look...

ORGAN 192 -

ORGAN 191

ORGAN 190 - 

ORGAN 189 - SHORT SHARP SHOCK, DEATHSKULLS, THE RUBY SUNS, THE VELCROS, FUTURE OF THE LEFT, TRIPPED & FALLING, OZRIC TENTACLES, FROM THE SKY, RADIO MOSCOW, THE BLOODY HOLLIES, BELOW THE SEA, MONTANA, GALLOWS, THE RESIDENTS...

ORGAN 188 - MAYORS OF MIYAZAKI, FUCKED UP, THE SCHA LA LAS, THE PRISCILLAS, LEISUR HIVE, ENNIO MORRICONE, ANTHRAX, KUTOSIS, FADE TO SEPIA, IRVING, COAXIAL, BRUTAL TRUTH, WINTERS

ORGAN 187 - 

ORGAN 186 - MICROWAVES, RONDELLUS, DUSTIN’S BAR MITZVAH, SUPERSUCKERS, THEY DIED TOO YOUNG, LITTLE TROPHY, FANTAPLASTIC, HAMMERS OF MISFORTUNE, SLEEPYTIME GORILLA MUSEUM, PICASTRO, RED COTTON, THE BAZOOKAS, SOLEY MOURNING, PETER HAMMILL, VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR, RADIOHEAD, BIS, UNTITLED MUSICAL PROJECT, TIGER FORCE, NOTORIOUS HI-FI KILLERS

ORGAN 185 - DUSTIN'S BAR MITZVAH  CRIME IN CHOIR, GIANT PAW, GOBSAUSAGE, GENE SERENE, EARTH, IQ, FLIPPER, THEATER DES VAMPIRES, THE KNIVES OF NEPTUNE, PETER HAMMILL, SWAD, MIKROKOSMOS, THE FLESH HAPPENING, THE OXFAM GLAMOUR MODELS...

ORGAN 184 - THE RUBY SUNS, CHROME HOOF, FRANK TURNER, CLUB LE SHARK, ENABLERS, THE DODGEMS, GRINDERMAN, RONNIE DAY, THE DISTANCE, YOUR CREATION, LIPID, MOTORHEAD, WEASEL WALTER...

ORGAN 183 - O

ORGAN 182 - Oh, that one was live on the radio, all 11 sleepless hours of it.

ORGAN 181 - O

ORGAN 180 - OPHELIA TORAH, OCTOBER FILE, MOISTBOYZ, BAUER, WINTERKIDS, GREENWICH RESIDENT, WE ARE TREES, VOICST, ME FIRST AND AND THE GIMME GIMMES, ALEUCHATISTAS, BEATNIK FILMSTARS, FUME, OUT FOR BLOOD, CRADLE OF FILTH, NEBRASKA, RATTLESNAKE REMEDY, THE DEGENERATE ART ENSEMBLE, THE STOLEN BABIES, ZAG AND THE COLOURED BEADS, PEEPING TOM, TERROR, SPACE WEATHER, THE ANARCHIST BOOK FAIR

ORGAN 179

ORGAN 178

ORGAN 177 - CATS AND CATS AND CATS, I LOVE POLAND, AGE OF CHAOS, SANCTORUM, LOVEMAT, WOVEN HAND, LEAVE THE CAPITAL, THE APPARATUS, JESUS LICKS, RED SPARROWES, MASTODON... 

ORGAN 176 - ELLIOT SMITH, JENNIFER TERRAN, CRADLE OF FILTH, HEAVEN 17, LOVE, SUGARCUBES CHET, GRAVANZIA, VANCOUVER DELUXE, HOLY SMOKES, GALLOWS, YO LA TANGO, SKID ROW, UFO, ECHO AND THE BUNNYMEN, EINSTELLUNG, THE LATE GREATS, ROYAL TREATMENT PLANT, WHEN GRAVITY FAILS, DARTZ, THE TRUDY 

ORGAN 175 -

ORGAN 174 - 

ORGAN 173 - In print, on paper, got go grab get it.

ORGAN 172 - FTSE100, EMPYREAL DESTROYER, SMILEX, SQUAREPUSHER, HATEBREED, ARDENCY, TOURETTES SYNDROME, GOD IS AN ASTRONAUT, THE VITAMINS, THE RESIDENTS, WEDNESDAY 13, JOHN PEEL DAY PLANNED, RIOT COPS GATECRASH FREE PARTY, The INTREPID FOX

ORGAN 171

ORGAN 170 - STEAL GANDHI, ALL DARK MORNINGS, THE AUTHENTICS, OPTIMIST CLUB, ESTRADASPHERE, WOLFGANG BANG, ELECTRONIC, CURSIVE, AGAINST ME, TRANSIT KINGS, TRANSMISSION, DUN 2 DEF, THE RUSSIAN FUTURISTS, PHOENIX BODIES, THE DRESDEN DOLLS, THE ANSWER, THOM YORKE....

ORGAN 169

ORGAN 168

ORGAN 167

ORGAN 166 - 

ORGAN 165 - THE FLESH HAPPENING, MOTORHEAD, RUSSIAN CIRCLES ,TERROR, THE HUCKSTERS, TANGAROA, SHARP END FIRST, TOUCHSTONE, And just who is MOIST PAULA?

ORGAN 164 -

ORGAN 163 -

ORGAN 162 -

ORGAN 161 -

ORGAN 160 - 

ORGAN 159 - INNER RAGE, THE GHOSTS, ALPHA DISTRICT, INTEROGATE. ABOUT. DODDODO, DEADSTAR ASSEMBLY, AD AAD AT, ROBIN GUTHRIE, BANG! BANG!, FEU THERESE, CERBERUS SHOAL, HERESY, SERENA-MANEESH, PUNISH THE ATOM, The RampArt Community, GO SPIDERMUM - A gang of anarchist Robin Hood-style thieves, ORGAN TV will be back for more, ORGAN on your radio 

ORGAN 158 -

ORGAN 157 -

ORGAN 156 -

ORGAN 155 - 

ORGAN 154 - 

ORGAN 153 - 

ORGAN 152 - 

ORGAN 151 - Out in print now, 40 pages 

ORGAN 150 - NEXT LIFE, CRETIN, HAWNAY TROOF, SYMMETRY, GREENSPACE, DRUGDEALER CHEERLEADER, LAST PARTY, ALEX WARD, BURNT, INTENTION, TRACTOR SEX FATALITY, THE DRESDEN DOLLS, PROUDFLESH, THE GHOSTS, SPEED THEORY,EL TOPO, THE CULT WITH NO NAME, THE PROCESS VOID.

all the past has been deleted (for now)