These are the things that have been in our ears this week, please explore and if it sounds interesting then just hit 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. 

This 15 track CD album features cutting edge left field post-punk, prog, alt.rock, avant hip-hop and things beyond – 15 tracks from the following fine artistes (many of whom have featured in recent weeks/months here at Organ) : CHROME HOOF, NORTHERN STATE, VIC CHESNUTT, TO KILL A PETTY BOURGEOISIE, ODD NOSDAM, JENNY HOYSTON, QUI, EPSILONS, A WHISPER IN THE NOISE, DEAD RAVEN CHOIR, SANDRO PERRI, TELEPHONE JIM JESUS, KARATE, WEEDEATER and PANTALIEMON... 

Want one? Well all you need to is answer this easy question: Who is the main man (alongside Greg Werckman) behind Ipecac Records?

E.mail your in answer along with your street address and we’ll stick one of these CDs in the post. This offer is only open to people within the UK. First come, first serve, grab them while they’re hot. Don’t you just love your ever-sharing ever-caring big throbbing Organ. 

Find out more about Southern Records via www.southern.net

MONDAY 11th FEB: STOP PRESS: TOO LATE, ALL GONE...

John on the phone...

ORGAN ON YOUR RADIO - WEEKLY on SUNDAYS AT 9.00pm via RESONANCE 104.4FM in London and worldwide via www.resonancefm.com   more details here

ORGAN TV?

This coming Sunday we have the following videos...

EL-P - Smithereens 
YIP YIP - Candy Dinner 
IMPERIAL LEISURE - In A Letter 
CHAUFFER DRIVEN AVIATOR - Leather Jacket 
SIKTH - How May I Help You
AKERCOCKE - Axiom 
GALLHAMMER - World To Be Ashes 

Next Wednesday and Sunday we have...

AARON MCMULLEN - Blue From Black
ASSDROIDS - Datf Crunk
HERZOGA - Nice Car 
EFTERKLANG - Mirador 
DAN DEACON - The Crystal Cat 
HELLO WEMBLEY - Up Great Britain
TIME.SPACE.REPEAT. - Joy 
BEYOND DAWN - Among The Sedatives 

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
Well nothing inspired us enough to make it demo of the week, we are very picky... here's the best thing we heard this week, there's bound to be something tasty waiting in that pile over there though.. see you next week..

ALSO CHECK OUT
ORCHARD TRIP – New four track demo from the Brighton band and sounding as rewardingly good as ever – little extra in the production department this time but then they did get Mr Albini in to do it.  And Steve Albini is the perfect person the capture the band - we’re talking classic Jesus Lizard, Mudhoney, Shellac, early Nirvana flavoured mix of edgy bite and moody grunge. Classic 90’s Mid West American alternative grunge and so what if this in Southern England 2008? Four strong impressive tracks that pretty much stick to the blueprint, they sound like they’re having one hell of a blast being in Orchard Trip, and if that’s enough for them then fine. I guess if they want to take it up to the next level they’re going to need a little more identity and a hint of personality in there, for now sounds like they’re having a blast being in a rather decent 90’s Mid West American grunge band from Brighton England – www.orchidtrip.com or www.myspace.com/orchidtrip

COBWEB – Ruins of a Broken Heart – One for you goth-edged big-rock Cult fans – they’re from Sheffield, here’s the link - www.myspace.com/cobwebsinmymind

Last week's demo of the week - MOLLOY

Previous demo's of the week - THE ATROCITY EXHIBIT / 2 OUT OF 3 RULE / THE JACKPOT GOLDEN BOYS / FANTAPLASTIC / YONATAN NIV / INNER RAGE / NAVEL / FILTHY HABITS / LITTLE TROPHY / THE ORIENTALISTS / HOUSEHOLD / THE JELAS/ COUNTRYSIDE / BASTARDS OF THE SKIES / MEHE / THE PRETTY YOUNG THINGS

DEMO REVIEW ARCHIVES

ALBUM OF THE WEEK
CHRIS SCHLARB – Twilight And Ghost Stories (Asthmatic Kitty) – This is a remarkably beautiful album, wonderfully detailed restraint. Raindrops, dust, vinyl crackle (on a CD), background sound, field art. Twilight And Ghost Stories is a delicate restrained quiet set of atmospheric whispers, an album alive with atmosphere, warmth and delicious detail – spoken word, background colour, hints of of free-jazz, electronica, folk, post-rock - and all put together as one whole body of deliciously detailed slowly unwinding unobtrusive beauty. Dense yet very very light and with so much space and time to breath and soak in all the smells and tastes. Twilight And... is a forty minute piece, a composition featuring “a disparate cross-section of musicians from the avant-garde, independent folk, jazz and electronic communities”  - the work includes contributions from Dirty Projectors, Sufjan Stevens, Walter Kitindu, Catanets, Parker Paul, Bhob Rainey, Mick Rossi and more... This is a wonderfully resonant piece of work, a beautiful modern challenging composition and a piece of wonderfully creative art – most of all though this is just simply a very beautiful, highly original and very easy to listen to album that you’ll want to get lost in again and again – www.asthmatickitty.com
 

ALBUM OF THE WEEK 2 DANAVA – Unonon (Kemodo) – They’re from a time-hole somewhere near Portland, Oregon, and we’re talking some kind of retro blend of dense stoner sludge and Deep Purple flavoured blues guitar lead heavy rock. Actually the sound is rather crisp in terms of stoner sludge, early Blue Oyster Cult, oh yes, extremely close to that classic Blue Oyster Cult sound in a healthy kind of way. Polyrhymic synth leads and flavoured with new exciting things like Moog! New technology opening a whole new world of possibilities for the modern forward-looking progressive heavy rock band. Expansive ambitious bold heavy progressive hard rock. Oh yes, they got it down and they’ve got it down in their very own way – this rules. www.kemado.com or www.myspace.com/danava

ALSO CHECK OUT

BAUHAUS – Go Away White (Cooking Vinyl) – New Bauhaus album and they’re sounding pretty much like you want and need Bauhaus to sound without ever being just a pastiche of their former selves. Their first album for some twenty years or so and they’ve managed to make a Bauhaus album that sounds like it should while still being something challenging and forward looking and relevant right here in 2008. Some wag said it was the best Bowie album for an absolute age and I guess it is. Bauhaus sounding good, sounding challenging, sounding impressive – what more do you need us to tell you. Out on March 17th – www.bauhausmusik.com or www.cookingvinyl.com

THE DEAL WAS FOR THE DIAMOND – It’s Not Enough To Reproduce (self release) - Instrumental band of an ambitious post-rock nature, eight tracks from the Brighton four piece and an impressive first release, they’re saying the release is an EP – eight tracks and album length though. Warm live feel to their uncluttered raw-edged musical adventure. A pleasant, simple, strident sound that builds in terms of forceful drama and volume when needed. Nowhere near as subtle or detailed as say 65days or as expansive as say Godspeed – progressive ambition along those musical lines though. A raw edgy driving yet blissful intent and they’re not afraid to get some dirt in there either. Impressive, accomplished, ambitious, dangerous, meaty, bold and well worth checking out. www.myspace.com/thedealwasforthedamond

FIGHTING WITH WIRE – Man vs Monster (Smalltown America) – debut album at last, seems to have been on the cards for ages. Radio friendly indie grunge pop surface-breaking easiness from the Northern Irish trio. A kind of less disappointing far more committed and ultimately far more satisfying Foo Fighters thing with a Pixies moment here and a Therapy moment there – for fans of Jimmy Eats World, Biffy Clyro and such, intelligent indie guitar rock with something to hang on to ... www.myspace.com/fightingwithwire or www.smalltownamerica.co.uk

THE DICKIES – Go Bananas (Secret) – In which the US punk legends speed-blast, power pop and Tra La La their way through twenty-one live tracks recorded somewhere in Portland Oregon aka the Big Apple and not in the Windy City aka New York – well actually recorded live in Portsmouth in 2002 - have a listen, all will make some kind of non-sense. Catch The Dickies on high-octane helium bursting top form and all with the help of Toy Doll Michael ‘Olga’ Algar and Nellie The Elephant. Hear them blast through all your favourites, including Paranoid, White Satin and a great version of The Who’s See Me Feel Me... Damn fine live album from a damn fine band and rather good history lesson courtesy of the CD booklet notes as well   (what’s that apostrophe doing on the front cover though? Go Banana’s?) – A rather recommended live album from a punk band so old that when they originally wrote some of these songs Rancid were still called The Clash (well that’s what they said anyway) -  www.secretrecordslimited.comor www.thedickies.com

TUSK – The Resisting Dreamer (Tortuga) – Three quarters of Pelican and co-vocalists Evan Patterson (Young Widows) and Toby Driver (Kayo Dot) with some kind of Corrupted Jesus Lizard go all avant-ass grindcore and dirge and churn their way through some treacle-bound big guitar wall of epic artrock – ends up with a slightly harrowing instrumental epic of some sixteen minutes. All very Neurosis and cathartic neurosis and www.myspace.com/tuskgrind or www.tortugarecordings.com

THE LOVED ONES – Build & Burn (Fat Wreck) – America punk rock ‘n roll, a healthy blend of melodic blue collar punk rock and solid expansive road-wise Americana. Fine songs, righteous sound and everything you want and need from a classic Fat Wreck band – www.thelovedonesband.com or www.fatwreck.com

AVERSE SEFIRA – Advent Parallax (Candlelight) – A relentlessly intense extreme black metal insect storm from Texas. High speed buzzing and swarming and relentlessly  relentless swirling. A tornado of sound, they really do feel like they’re swirling around your head – question is, how long do want to put up with them doing so before you feel the need to swat them away? I’ve stuck it for about fifteen minutes now and they haven’t changed gear or hinted at anything near some kind of light and shade yet – if you like it relentless then here you go – www.aversesefira.com

ATLANTIS – Carpe Omnium (Field) – Expansive instrumental post-rock scapes. Dense pieces of multi-layered atmosphere - heavy guitars (buzzing, resonating, not riffing), synths, Swans, Massive Attack textures, Neurosis intensity, passages of delicate restraint - kind of lacking in terms of any real character though, feels like a lot of things we’re hearing right now and not really demanding enough. Pleasant and interesting rather than anything vital or challenging. www.field-records.com or www.myspace.com/atlantissound

THE HUGUENOTS – Discography (Hydrahead) - Some gang of late 16th century members of the Protestant Reform Church all in matching Calvinist Klien underwear, lead by guitarist/creamer John Calvin himself – god fearing Calvinist Hugoenot mofos and all fuelled up by a violent reaction to the leanings of the Roman Catholic take on things via Converge and Piebald and The Explosion and alright then - some noisy cult hardcore band from Boston who were probably way ahead of their musical time back before all this awkwardly violent avant punk noise this that and the other took off and millions of bands threw out stuff like this and everyone found an Escape Plan and Victim’s Family still sounded unique and.... Something like that anyway. 16 slices of resurrected Boston hardcore abrasive avant punk violence all pulled together and some sort of CD statement – that’s right, all their tracks pulled together on one user friendly noise-fest of a beautiful CD. www.myspace.com/thehuguenots

FACEBREAKER – Dead, Rotten And Hungry (Pulverised) - Brutal uncompromising stripped right down to the bone intense grunting death metal cannibalistic blastcore with a bit of a cutting edge and whole laod of eternail internal suffering and ripping of the skin and devouring by decay to it – www.facebreaker.com

ASCENSION OF THE WATCHERS – Numinosum (13th Planet) – Some kind of semi ambient mellow goth mood from Burton C Bell and some other people, maybe a very mellow Killing Joke, song tittles like Evading or Falling Snow or Ascendant or....  – www.thewatchers.org
 

Last week's album of the week - NADA SURF / HARLOTS Previous album's of the week - TIME OF ORCHIDS / DIEBOLD / HOLLER, WILD ROSE! / BLACK MOUNTAIN / YESAN DAMEN / CLUB 8 / OUR OWN DEVICES / DIMENSION X / THAO With THE GET DOWN STAY DOWN / AHLEUCHATISTAS / AIRBOURNE /  x

ALBUM REVIEW ARCHIVES

LIVE REVIEW ARCHIVES

SINGLE OF THE WEEK
THE DEATH SET – MFDS (Counter) – Or The Motherf*cking Death Set to give them their real name and a four tracker that’ll earworm in to your pretty head and have you carelessly singing it aloud on the number 18 bus in to town. No time for negative thinking, Negative Thinking is the lead track and an infectious mindfugg it is – The Death Set deal in riotous micro-blasts of catchy tunes and screaming bratty lyrics and they’re hectic and frantic and infectious and hyper and from Baltimore. Be your own pet and eat all your crusts or your hair will go curly and then where will you be. I heard it all before and lo-fi high-speed hyper-fuzz. And the cream on the top is the third track here and their signature tune -the infectiously infectious chaos and electro garage punk pop synth driven inhibition crushing goodness that is MFDS. – glorious gap between club and punk  - please mind the gap – www.myspace.com/thedeathset or www.counterrecords.com

SINGLE OF THE WEEK 2
KUNK – We’re Not Who You Think We Are (Plastic Sun) – They’re from Norwich, I maybe wrong but I think this is their debut. Impressive release, three edgy alternative slightly angular and rather infectious indie guitar tracks that bite. Lead track is the most impressive of three fine tracks, stands out with that stop-start edgy thrust and clever word-play and the way they deal with this as they travel at the speed of surround star. It is their debut, rhythmical aggression and Pixie bite. Fine first shot... www.plasticsunrecords.co.uk or www.kunk.co.uk

ALSO CHECK OUT
YOUNG HOLLYWOOD – Shotdown (Glasstone) – A dreadfully named band from Burnham-On-Sea (where ever the hell that is?) with some raw Gallow-esque Glassjaw style screaming and thrashing and and and and all violently raw and combustive and angry and I am the captain of this ship, abandon ship, abandon ship – relentless anger and abrasive goodness and why the hell not? Everything besides their dreadful name is rather good - www.myspace.com/younghollywoofuk or www.glasstonerecords.com

THE BLAKES – Two Times (Light In The Attic) - Dirty nasty blues-edged alt.indie shake and scream and great big white stripes running all the way through it – this week’s next big thing apparently – it was all sounding good until we hit the b-side, last thing that I remember as I closed my eyes...  Are these two tracks by the same band? They’re from sleazy hotel room in LA or something like that, really  does sound like two completely different bands, kind of like the first track, we'll sit here on the fence and see what happens – www.myspace.com/theblakes or www.lightintheattic.net

Last week's single of the week - DR SLAGGLEBERRY / HERZOGA

Previously - THE DROPKICK MURPHYS / ONE MORE GRAIN / PLAAYDOH / HELLO WEMBLEY / UNDERWORLD / WAX AUDIO vs GEORGE BUSH / HAZEL MILLS / DEERHOOF / F*CK BUTTONS / IMPERIAL LEISURE / CLUB 8

SINGLE REVIEW ARCHIVES

PREVIOUSLY - TYPE O NEGATIVE / N.W.A  / STRIBORG / THE WEIRDOS / THE MOB / ARSONISTS GET ALL THE GIRLS / THE VERVE / KHAYA / GREASY TRUCKERS PARTY / HERE AND NOW / WALLS OF JERICHO / CARTER USM / THE HOUSE OF LOVE / MONO / 

PREVIOUSLY - GIANT PAW / AURAL INNOVATIONS  / PARALLEL WORLDS, PARALLEL LIVES TV documentary / NEVER MIND THE SEX PISTOLS: AN ALTERNATIVE HISTORY – DVD / THE ZINE DIRECTORY / BATH BOMB / NEMESIS TO GO #4 / DVD: MIGHTY ROBOT: SLEEP WHEN YOU ARE DEAD / DVD: GLASTONBURY - THE MOVIE

PAST ISSUES....

ORGAN 241 - Out in print right now, FEB 2008 edition 

ORGAN 240 - NADA SURF, HARLOTS, THIS IS HELL, DYNAMITE 8, TO THE BONES, HERZOGA, LOS, DR SLAGGLEBERRY, THE $HIT, MOLLOY, CHALOU SAINT JUDE, FABONACCI, AGES OF STONES, THE SOUND OF THE CATACOMBS, TYPE O NEGATIVE...

ORGAN 239 - TIME OF ORCHIDS, ATLAS SOUND, PLASTIC TOYS, EVANGELICALS, DRIVE BY TRUCKERS, ROTTEN SOUND, LOS SALVADORES, THE ATROCITY EXHIBIT, THE HYENAS, ENDORPHINS, BEYOND THE VOID, DäLEK, DESTRUCTO STORMBOTS, GUAPO, THE DROPKICK MURPHYS, INTERVURT....