|
| ORGAN
#230> Nov 15th 07 - new issue on line every Thursday afternoon |
|
|
| A
FUNERAL FOR A TREND AND THE THANKFUL PLACE IN THE POND |
 How
many days of static now? Cut down pretty and your bridges burn oh so very
bright. You really would not believe all the half-baked low flying horsepoop
that comes our way - it really would destroy everything if it wasn’t for
all the fine and thrilling new life enhancing music that also comes flying
in our direction (almost) every single beautiful day. London really can
be a sniveling cesspit of lowlife ego-jockey music industry reptiles, time-wasters
and small-minded shitpimps with no real clue - and that really is only
the more pleasant ones - kind of people who shoot at hot-air balloons just
in case the occupants are enjoying themselves a little too much - drags
everyone down in the end. Balloon shooting ego-inflated reptiles snapping
at ankles with their evil creativity-squashing rule-enforcing jaws where
every step appears to be the unavoidable consequence of the proceeding
one and the end all that threatens is some kind of total annihilation with
blackest fish at the bottom of the blackest sea on the blackest day of
the blackest month. Thankfully that constant feeling, that constant soul-being-sucked-out
feeling, can’t quite destroy the beautiful buzz of excitement from a fine
new band or an exciting demo or a gig that confirms all your suspicions,
or the pond pit endless splendour where hungry mouths are more than fed.
This week we’ve been stung
by bees on the edge Islington, went to the seaside for the start of that
Cardiacs tour, fought off the negative Scream man once more, got excited
by more demos from Bristol and Glasgow and Oakland and Ohio, got annoyed
with people who only communicate in dumb text speak and brb lol watsup
dude and aaargghhhhhhhhhh there’s a new NoFX live album in mountain of
things waiting for attention, all is well with the world...
oh and Imperial Leisure took
off.....
– these are the things that
have been in our ears this week, please explore and if it sounds interesting
then justhit the links and make your own minds up, our reviews and thoughts
are mere signposts designed to guide you to the things you might like to
feast on yourselves... don’t you just love the instant hit of the www. |
IS THIS WHY YOU BOOKMARKED ME? |
| Why wait a week for your
news when you can now have it daily over there? |
|
THINGS TO GET SHOUTING ABOUT? |
Shout? Why? No
time this week, Cardiacs on tour, Imperial Leisure on the launch pad and
on your radios,To The Bones and Herzoga, many hungry mouths to feet...
|
John on the phone... |
 John
Peel's legendary Festive 50 continues again this year on Dandelion Radio
- play your part in by voting for your three favourite tracks of 2007,
here.
CRAP
ARREST OF THE WEEK
For
being upfront...
One
over-literal German school pupil has found the authorities (unsurprisingly)
lacking a sense of humour. Known, for legal reasons, as “Sirin F”, the
fare-dodging fraulein has been riding buses free after finding that a local
law bans only fare-dodgers who “do so surreptitiously”. So, spotting the
obvious legal loophole, Sirin does it very publicly in a T-shirt that says:
“Legal note: I have not paid the fare and am thus a fare dodger.” Sadly
for her, cops thought this wasn’t the ticket and nicked her. - www.schnews.org.uk
|
|
ORGAN TV? |
ORGAN
TV is
on your screens in the UK right now. Every Wednesday evening, 10.30pm
on the OPEN ACCESS 2 Channel on SKY160. And now due to the fine response,
repeated every Sunday on SKY883 at 11.15pm.
This
coming Sunday we have the following videos...
65DAYSOFSTATIC
- A.O.D
WENDYKURK
- Freckles
SCARAMANGA
SIX - We Rode The Storm
ZERO
CIPHER - Stupid People Make Me Angry
MC
LARS - Ahab
TO
THE BONES - Tycho
BEECHER
- Function Function
MUNICIPAL
WASTE - Headbanger Face Rip
Next
Wednesday and Sunday we have...
EFTERKLANG
- Mirador
AARON
MCMULLEN - Blue From Black
BEE
STINGS - Pressure (Running Away)
ODD
SHAPED HEAD - Egomatic Annie
DRESDEN
DOLLS - Backstabber
TITS
OF DEATH - Iron Nipples
SLIPKNOT
- The Heretic
MUNICIPAL
WASTE - Headbanger Face Rip
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
|
Want
to get your video on? Well all you need to do is make us aware of what
you have, send us a link to your video on MySpace or You Tube or wherever,
or a VHS or a DVD and if you have something that we want to broadcast then
we'll chase you for a master broadcast format and wallop, sorted |
|
DEMO TIME |
 Like
we already said - we shall no longer be reviewing a million demos, we're
just going to tell you about the very very best once a week, no more time
for the average, only the most exciting - we're very very selective, when
we tell you it's goood then it really is goooooooood
DEMO
OF THE WEEK
THE ORIENTALISTS – Raucously
slick in a ragged demanding messed up in your face wired and raw as hell
sonic assault kind of way. They’re from New York (unless I’ve mislead,
are they based in the UK now?) and they’re powered by a filthy steaming
overdriven Farfisa organ and a stream of even more demanding attention
seeking consciousness. They do sound like they’re flat broke and working
two jobs and not getting any sleep unless they sleep in cars or with heads
in kick drums. Wired and wonderful and way out on some kind of edge. This
is good! They sound like no one, well nothing obvious that anyone around
here ca n pin on them. They big and huge and they drone and drench it in
fuzz and somehow hold it together and make it all about the songs. If I
were to try and pin them down then I’d mention Liars and Dearhunter
(and maybe Acid Mother Temple) – only in spirit though, that and
the way they defy convention and still make it about the songs. Heavy psychedelic
rock’n roll that will whip you in to a fury and then seduce with their
almost-dub and Underworld meet Richard Hell vibes – see, impossible to
pin down! The sound is dense, six tracks that never stop with their way
with words – “culinarists might call it a bouillabaisse or gumbo” (or a
call to some kind of arms), a mesh of twisted sense and maybe a hint of
Bowie and twenty-first century schizoidness and live wires cause fires
huge and distorted and blistering and then the silky silent raw bit and
the curse - see... cement friendship with and their frenzy of fuzzed garage
attack www.orientalists.co.uk
Last
week's demo of the week - HOUSEHOLD
Previous
demo's of the week - THE JELAS
/ COUNTRYSIDE
/ BASTARDS OF THE SKIES / MEHE
/ THE PRETTY YOUNG THINGS / HAPPY
PENGUIN HUNGRY BEAR / SOMEBODY’S MIND
/ INSTRUMENTS / DEATH
QUNT / OAKWOOD / EPSTEIN
SUPERFLU / THE FURIOUS SLEEP /
FUNERAL
CRASHERS
DEMO
REVIEW ARCHIVES |
|
|
NEW ALBUMS WE’RE LISTENING TO THIS WEEK |
| This
week we’ve been listening to...
ALBUM
OF THE WEEK
LAZARUS - Hawk Machine (Temporary
Residence) - Now this is a remarkably fine album, a beautiful emotional
intense spine-tingling album - this time around Trevor Montgomery has a
band, a refined sturdy slowly uncoiling smoldering mesmerizing band and
an album so wonderfully good that it feels like Roger McGuinn’s classic
1976 album Cardiff Rose – that is a massive complement. A quiet smoldering
detailed band who have the harnessed power of quiet worked out in such
a big big way. Maybe the voice is the thing that’s making me feel McGuinn?
Or Tom Petty or Bob Dylan with a darker inward/outward looking edge or
maybe if Springsteen got a dark moody minimal post-rock edge that constantly
threatens an Explosions In The Sky epicness. Mesmerizing, hopeful, beautiful
and something rather special – and that is before you start exploring the
depth of the lyrics and all the intensity and the water to your lips that’s
going on in there. Everything here is just spot-on right, an album to spend
hours and hours and days and days inside. www.temporaryresidence.com
or find it in the UK via www.cargorecords.co.uk
x
| ALSO
CHECK OUT
DYSE – Dyse (Exile On Mainstream)
– Straight out of Amsterdam and clearly cheesecake truck pilots! Bending
notes and sounding rather off-hinge in a Mr Bungle/Primus manner. Not just
another one though, hang on, maybe they formed in Amsterdam and now live
in Germany, they sound kind of German – Dyse are from mainline Europe and
they sound positively deranged - they are not what they are, they are not
what they are, they are not what they are. Extremely in your face
with their screaming groove and jazz-metal point bendy terror and provocation
and yes, very Cheesecake Truck. Extreme noise terror that gives way to
dark moody hypnotic bass heavy passages of locked-on math metal Battles
and killing jokes we care a lot and yes yes yes! www.mainstreamrecords.de
or www.myspace.com/dysexxx
or www.dyse.info
|
RIFF RANDELLS – Doublecross
(Dirtnip) – North American bubble-gum girl flavoured cute ‘n fluffy saccharine
drenched poppppppier than pop infectiously catchy punk pop. Chugger chugger
Ramones-lite guitars and sugar sweet all-girl harmonised vocals for punk
rocking Cheap Trick/Chixdiggit/Ronettes/Sha La La’s/Charlie’s Angels fans
everywhere – sounds like they’re not to be messed with, sound like there’s
probably a trail of crushes and broken hearts left in their pink guitar
slipstream - www.dirtnaprecs.com
or www.myspace.com/riffrandells
ALBUM
REVIEW ARCHIVES |
|
LIVE |
 CARDIACS
- Brighton Old Market/Oxford Zodiac, November 12/13th 2007 - Bands aren't
supposed to do this. I was all geared up for a natural withering,
psychologically braced for the natural process of decay. Cardiacs
define unconventional from the atoms up, so why expect anything but the
unexpected? Brighton was good. The venue nice, plush and revamped
in a support-local-arts way, but in desperate need of acoustic doctoring,
booming like a wooden barrel. Support act the God Damn Whores have a tough
time getting their big, dense rock through that. Cardiacs hit the ground
running with Big Ship, that irresistible anthem. No band ever, ever hit
their heights on the first night of a tour, but Cardiacs are sounding tight,
powerful, despite the wall of echo barely soaked up by a few hundred bodies.
They look good in a faintly David Lynch way: two female singers with their
drums and nice formal dresses, bassist Jim and new boy (after an eight
year apprenticeship) Kavus resplendent in suit and sashes, flanking your
big main man Tim Smith who these days never, ever takes off his winter
coat on stage. Time to describe Cardiacs: many of you reading this have
zoomed straight here, many many have stumbled across this review in shock
that the band they loved ten, twenty, thirty years ago are still creating,
and manymanymany haven't a clue, never heard of them. Best kept secret
in music blahblahblah... aww, just go to www.cardiacs.com/downloads
and www.myspace.com/cardiacs
and feeeeel the revelation.
Yep, there's a long story to go with why they're not more well known: the
crux of it being that they were way, way ahead of their time. Only
now is there a generation with open minds and ears infiltrating the press
and the radio and passing on them message... This is music with a mass
of contradictions - complex but hummable, emotional but crafted, at once
fierce and aggressive, gentle and innocent. Each song sweeps great
armfuls of the popular music of decades into astonishing shapes full of
forgotten familiarity and dazzling newness. Oh, and they rock.
Brighton was good, but there's more to Cardiacs than the sounds. This is
not a band who mumble and shuffle about between songs. It takes a while
for that connection with the audience to warm up, and we don't get so much
of Tim's words yet - but what can you expect after a year's break from
gigging? New (yes, new!) songs in the set, Gen sounding a call to
arms, absolutely Cardiacs yet bringing in new flavours, the massed voices
of the girls so important and by the end if I'm not mistaken there's a
new confidence up there, a sense of... crikey, it's still alive. They start
to play with us, Tim reminding everyone how much he loves them, later messing
around with a Gong riff without any explanation or excuse... The moshpit
grows and by the end they've excelled that previous November 06 gig at
the Astoria. Two encores and the venue has to put the house lights
on to get rid of them.
Oxford, then. We like Oxford, this venue (still the Zodiac, whatever the
marketing loons at Carling want to call it... isn't it a teensy bit confusing
giving venues up and down the country the same name?) ...we being the scattered
hordes of Cardiacs campfollowers who remember the last time they played
here. To cut to the chase - Cardiacs are absolutely bleating brilliant
from end to end. They sound good, they play their hearts out, the
crowd sweat out their neuroses in the mosh pit and come out with smiles
plastered on their faces. We get the full package: awesome,
life-affirming rock music, the theatre, the most stupendous version of
Dirty Boy, Tim standing like a captain at the wheel of a ship with all
the sails up. All right there in front of our noses in a weeny venue...
lucky lucky us.
You might be advised to attend the rest of this tour...
BEE STINGS – Diablesse
@ Lark In The Park, London, 11th Nov – Once a month, on a Sunday night
the Lark In The Park over there on the edge of Islington is transformed
– completely transformed and turned in to the red sparkly palace of the
dark that is Diablesse. One end of the venue you’ll find music, the other
you’ll fine torture crosses and webs and Ms Rebecca’s den of whatever she
want that den to be. Somewhere in the middle it all meets and this month
we all got stung. Bee Stings are a London four piece led by the powerful
voice of an enticing girl called Valkyrie, they bring multi-hued tales
of their lives of misadventure. Now explaining Bee Stings and what they
do is delightfully difficult – not that their sound is difficult or awkward
you understand – more that they’re just too damn unique for their own good.
They can show you happy, they can show sad, they can show you messed up
psychopathic borderline beautiful – Lily Allen jumping on Shirley Manson
via David Lynch and no, scratch that, that’s totally wrong. They’re going
down a storm with an audience who and the whole knew nothing what so ever
about them ten minutes ago. They’ve got heat to burn and she keeps her
engine clean, infectious pop with an edge, well with quite a few edges,
almost schizophrenic. They’ve got an electro itch for you to scratch, a
noir-lounge taste of funk, a hint of hip-hop, some seductive pop that can
turn to a scream and rock right at you but that’s nowhere near right either
– stick that rocket in your fire. Sisters Are Doing It is covered, they
can get aggressively punky now and again, they can turn to a hint of Bowie,
they can be silky and seductive in their own left field way, they seduce
and corrupt and caress and provoke and tonight they pretty much win over
and entire room who we’re really hear to see them or who had music and
a live band as the first thing on their minds. Screams for more and people
at their feet - www.beestings.co.uk
CARDIACS – Bristol
Thekla Social, 14th November 2007 - WOW! What a gig on a boat! I hadn’t
seen Cardiacs for.... oh... about a 1000yrs I reckon and..... they [of
course] were frightenly brilliant just as they should of been!... Mr Shouty
man swore and everything! That mop headed shiny new guitarist got mistaken
for ALL of THE STROKES!.The two stern ladies made me scared [who were they?]
they looked at all the little Bristolians and didn’t smile.. which I thought
was rude... but they were very clever. I was up in the stalls and was looking
down on Mr Bass man’s head and all of Bristol’s starry skys were reflected
on his head*.... Anyways say a big huge thank you to them all if you see
them. Best night I've had for 44yrs!.THANKS and LOVE (Ponypunk Paul - aged
44).
|
 Live
previously - HAPPY PENGUIN HUNGRY BEAR
/ OURLIVES / DRUGDEALER
CHEERLEADER / EMILY
BREEZE / IMPERIAL
LEISURE / HERZOGA
/ JOHN ADAMS / BBC SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
/ VILE VILE CREATURES
/ TIME.SPACE.REPEAT / SISTER
/ JOHN & JHEN / BEARSUIT
/ TANGAROA / GUTWORM
/ MALEFICE / ACT
ART 5 – TILL DEATH US DO ART / TO THE BONES
/ RON ATHEY / PURESSENCE
/ VEENUS
LIVE
REVIEW ARCHIVES |
|
SINGLES |
| Single
time...
SINGLE
OF THE WEEK
CANDY
PANIC ATTACK – Fruit Is Nature’s Candy (Cherryade) – Two minute hit and
run lo-fi scratchy shouty raw-and-sore candy stealing panic attack punk
rock lo-fi I didn’t do it, it wasn’t me guv punker-than-punk songs that
will steal your heart and yer cockney car while you’re still driving in
the bleedin’ thing. Don’t you dare disagree, they can live without yer!
Eastender hair pulling riot grrls with more sherbet dib-dabs than you so
shut it right! Two girls, one boy, six songs, and a debut single proper
(before it was demo tapes and such). A do-not-mess take it or leave it
attitude and all even better than last time – more vital love-heart crunching
DIY lo-fi riot girl punk fizz and sugar rush chaos and here’s the link
– www.myspace.com/candypanicattack
or www.cherryademusic.co.uk
SINGLE
OF THE WEEK 2
SUNS
OF THUNDER – Gimme Some More (What The Deuce) – They’re not the most productive
of bands are they? Just when you’ve given up on them out flies another
record. This time they sound like they clearly intend to seriously nail
it all down, this time they’re seriously rocking in a most righteous way.
This is serious groove-drenched giant Hammond organ driven proper heavy
rock. The curse of the mother trucker is lifted, no time for stonering
around now, foot to the floor, time to rock like a Highway Star. Last time
I checked they were Welsh (they sound more like they’re from New Orleans
or somewhere), they’re threatening a second album for 2008. OK so they
do have time for stonering around a little bit but not in that obvious
we got a Sabbath record now watch us grow a beard kind of way. They’ve
always been good, they’re sound better than ever with this new vibrant
rocking line-up. Righteous progressive flavoured heavy rock that’ll make
you as happy as a hound dog on the good ship lollypop. And any band from
South Wales with a song called A Funeral For A Trend are worth a bag of
peanuts in our book. Bits of Sabbath, Purple and Floyd (and Stone Cold!)
messing with Alabama Thunder Pussy or ZZ Top – oh yes, roll on that second
album, gimme some more – groove baby, they rock! www.sunsofthunder.com
ALSO
CHECK OUT
PORCUPINE TREE - Way Out
Of Here (Roadrunner) - This is very good, and it's all in the delivery.
It manages to be restrained and epic all at once, carrying a dark emotional
kick. This is not cutting-edge prog/avant innovation, but a strangely
affecting variation on Pink Floyd structures and lyrical angst - familiar
big rock that's simple on the surface but deep with finely balanced layers
of warm sound. Porcupine Tree are usually far more conventional than their
prog fanbase would suggest, they do regularly throw up standout tracks
that leave an impression long after listening. 'Way Out Of Here'
has real and hard to pin down depth to it - triggers memories of (heresy!)
what made Marillion good: no, not the moog solos but the passages of genuine
personal angst as dark as any from Joy Division. Unlike most of their genre
peers Porcupine Tree don't blow it with a cliche or a dollop of cheese
- walking a line between easy on the ear and edgy, here they manage to
do kind of traditional epic rock that has a real chill just beneath the
surface; very Radiohead but also very much their own voice. There's suggestions
of loss and breakdown in the lyrics. The full length version takes
a brief diversion to straightforward metal heavyness, returns to that ominous/anthemic
main theme... subtle, subtle stuff, under the surface, beautifully underpinned
by an understated, almost dubby bass and one of Porcupine Tree’s finer
recent moments – www.porcupinetree.com
MACHINE HEAD – Now I Lay
Thee Down (Roadrunner) – Another slice off of Machine Head’s highly
acclaimed by just everyone from the Pope to the that bloke who plays in
goal for the Boston Red Socks recent album – and rightly so, acclaim it,
acclaim it! Pretty much metal album of this year and while this maybe one
of the weaker tracks, Machine head are pretty much writing the rules in
terms of mainstream (as opposed to extreme) metal right now. www.roadrunnerrecords.co.uk
SHADOWS
FALL – Burning The Lives (Roadrunner) – Slick powerful pounding modern
tuneful heavy metal – aggressive melody, riffs a plenty, those screeching
guitar bits they insist on having, impressively crushing drums. Modern
superslick heavy metal in some kind of full-on glory, or some kind of unglorious
Download Kerrangoid nightmare hell – all depends on where your head is
at and how you want. If you think the Download festival is where life is
at then Shadows Fall are probably your ultimate band. Is this is a positive
or negative thing? Up to you really... www.roadrunnerrecords.co.uk
ATREYU
– Doomsday (Roadrunner) - Slick powerful pounding modern tuneful heavy
metal – aggressive melody, riffs a plenty, those soaring vocal bits they
insist on having, impressively crushing drums. Modern superslick heavy
metal in some kind of full-on glory, or some kind of unglorious Download
Kerrangoid nightmare hell – all depends on where your head is at and how
you want. If you think the Download festival is where life is at then Atreyu
are probably your ultimate band. Is this is a positive or negative thing?
Up to you really... www.roadrunnerrecords.co.uk
Last
week's single of the week - DEPARTMENT S
/ TERRY EDWARDS & THE SCAPEGOATS
Previously
- THAT F*CKING TANK / ODD
SHAPED HEAD / VESSELS / 4
OR 5 MAGICIANS / TIME.SPACE.REPEAT /
WE
START FIRES / LOVE AND A .45 / BLUE
STATES / EFTERKLANG /
NATO
/ TINY MASTERS OF TODAY / AND
THEIR EYES WERE BLOODSHOT / BRENDA /
CHAUFFEUR
DRIVEN AVIATOR / FIGHT LIKE APES
SINGLE
REVIEW ARCHIVES |
|
| 'RE-ISSUE
OF THE WEEK |
|
No time this week, Cardiacs on tour, Imperial Leisure on the launch pad
and on your radios,To The Bones and Herzoga, many hungry mouths to feet...
PREVIOUSLY
- GREASY TRUCKERS PARTY / HERE
AND NOW /
WALLS OF JERICHO / CARTER
USM / THE HOUSE OF LOVE / MONO
/ DEEP PURPLE / NUB
/ ANTHRAX / OMD |
|
MEDIA, VIDEO, PRINT AND.... |
 No
time this week, Cardiacs on tour, Imperial Leisure on the launch pad and
on your radios,To The Bones and Herzoga, many hungry mouths to feet...
PREVIOUSLY
- THE ZINE DIRECTORY
/ BATH BOMB
/ NEMESIS TO GO #4
/ DVD: MIGHTY ROBOT: SLEEP WHEN YOU ARE
DEAD / DVD:
GLASTONBURY - THE MOVIE / BOOK:
THE LANGUAGE OF THE BLUES – Debra De Salvo /
BOOK:
BERNARD SUMNER – CONFUSION / ZINE:
NOISY No5 / DVD: SAMMY AND THE WABOS – LIVING
IT UP IN ST.LOUIS / DVD - NAZARETH – FROM
THE BEGINNING |
|
|
THE END BIT... |
| ...and
finally... Proof that the bloated American dream is finally collapsing
under its own weight. Icon of the oil age, Disneyland is being forced to
close a number of rides for a major overhaul this winter. Seats need widening
and rides reinforcing to stop them breaking under the groaning weight of
yer average grotesquely obese punter.
Designers
in the rose-tinted 1960s, imagining a ‘nuclear family’ era of supamen and
women, completely failed to predict the four decades of gorging since and
the long queues of wide-arsed lardbuckets waiting patiently (grazing on
fatty-snacks while they wait) for their chance of a brief corporately-sanitised
rush of adrenalin in their otherwise carbohydrate-rich, spiritually empty
lives.
What's
On? Check out the Party and Protest guide at SchNEWS, an excellent place
for alternative news bulletins and a different slice on things - www.schnews.org.uk |
| MORE
NEXT WEEK, SAME TIME, SAME PLACE FOR NUMBER 231?
That's
it for this week - IF YOU'VE GOT ANYTHING TO SAY then say it - response
THE
ORGAN MAILING LIST - If you want to be on the ORGAN/ORG Records e.mail
list then you need to get in touch E.MAIL HERE.
PAST
ISSUES -
ORGAN
229 -
ORGAN
228 -
ORGAN
227 -
ORGAN
226 |
|
|
