Compassion in World Farming

Right, im going to make this brief, because im going to sound like a right-on twat, but PLEASE have a quick look at this site. Its fucking horrific how these beautiful creatures are treated like shit so we can all blindly eat bacon butties. I actually stopped eating meat at the start of the year, as I couldn’t go on scoffing carcasses with a clear conscience. I don’t expect you to do that, but if your are going to eat meat, at least the poor bastards are treated with at least minimal kindness before they reach your plate. Go on-line, sign some petitions, lobby some lazy politicians and eat your pork bap with a clear heart.

http://www.ciwf.org.uk/about_us/default.aspx

Casiotone for the Painfully Alone

The brilliantly, brilliantly named Casiotone For the Painfully Alone is the project of Chicago’s Owen Ashworth, a sometime film maker whos hushed, craggy, regret filled vocals are supported by a drum machine and various keyboards that combine to make bedroom symphonies of strange beauty. Imagine a fax machine telling you about his divorce over an Erasure backing track being played at 22rpm. At 4am. In the dark. His instrumentals are where he really sound interesting. Take ‘Town Topic’ which is the perfect soundtrack to a wistful, nostalgic daydream abut the seaside in 1954 or ‘Young Shields’ which sounds like something a Legoman would have on his car stereo on a road trip. Be warned, his singles take some tracking down, but out his albums the brilliantly titled ‘symphonies for a lonely subway car’ and ‘Etiquette’ are well worth tracking down.

Caz Mechanic

‘The drummer out of Seafood’ sounds like an insult bandied about by the NME circa 1999. Caroline Banks (aka Caz Mechanic) is your actual drummer from Seafood. Describing her sound as ‘Moe Tucker-knickerless’, its more accurately described as a cross between Its Jo and Danny and Laura Marling. Its eccentric, dreamy, lo-fi folk, with all manner of beautiful and bizarre sounds floating in the back ground. Its perfect music to listen to whilst writing a letter, or staring out of the window with shades on, waiting for your lift to turn up on a nice summers day. ‘Go home’ in particular is a treat. It sounds like The Sundays in a K-hole. Her album, the revealingly titled ‘The Secret Life Of The Wife Of The Captain Of The Ship In a Bottle On The Mantle Piece’ is out now on Big Potato records, but I would recommend trying out her 7” EP ‘Go Home’ first. She’s quite an acquired taste. Bless her.

http://www.myspace.com/cazmechanic

http://www.cazmechanic.com/

14 tracks

i thought i'd share a website with y'all.

14 tracks

this online download store, bought to you from the lovely people at Boomkat, one of my favourite record stores, has a great idea behind it.

every couple of weeks the kids at 14tracks.com compile a group of 14 songs that all follow a common theme...for example 14 Tracks;

...deep into Surgeon
...unstrung; the cello
...that made you wish you played the piano
...of urban gamelan
...of drone pop

they group up the tunes and sell 'em for a lovely £6.86 {or 99p each}

i just think that it's a great way of discovering new music, and i love the friendrock/mixtape vibe about it. everyone likes to receive a compilation off their friends...it's just that usually they don't make you pay for it...

:)

The School

The school are a 7 pronged star of pretty, dancey, indie-pop from Cardiff. Fronted by former Love Liz White, The School are lazily(if, to be far, accurately) lumped into the B&S/Camera Obscura basket. But their sound offers a respite from the grey and drizzle of pre-spring. Imagine The Supremes dancing dizzily at a birthday party after eating too many cola cubes. With trumpets. Fun huh?

With an LP being promised for release this year, get yourself behind them before everyone else does. Debut single ‘All I wanna do’ (released on limited edition bubble gum pink vinyl. My kind of band.) is a gentle, dreamy shangra la through such ruminations as drunken chums, shit jobs, and being in love. it’s a sweet treat that wont ruin your appetite.

‘Let it slip’ is jump up and down/drunk too much tizer type of record, combining northern soul with caramel baking vocals and a chorus you will be humming in your sleep. Its impossible not to dance to this song. You may even find yourself doing handclaps. If you break your furniture by twirling dizzily too it, don’t come running to me.

All I wanna do
http://http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=zdarcOe5L2k

Let is slip
http://http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=xrBF2nsjeaE&feature=related

http://www.myspace.com/theschoolband

B-sides about suicide-The Indie single PART 1

Limited edition,gatefold sleeeve,diecast,handpanited,numbered sleeve,promo only,exclusive b-side,live b-side,white vinyl,clear vinyl,pink,blue,green,brown,splattered glittered vinyl. Free postcard, free badge, etched disc,pictured disk. The indie single. don’t you just love it?

Like a fondness for bitter and daydreamy women, the indie single came into my life aged 15 and refused to leave. As much as I appreciate books, cinema, art etc., nothing makes time stand still like the two seconds of the needle hitting the 7” and the blast of the genius awaits. From the call to arms of a Sex Pistols 45 to the warm cuddle of a Morrissey b-side, no art form delivers its message as effectively as the short-sharp-shock of a well made 7” single. Nothing. Im still taken with the idea behind Start! By the jam. The fact that a whole manifesto can be delivered to a whole country -the whole world-by sitting in your room and putting a record on.

Indie singles took off in 1986,after the release of the NME’s legendary C86 cassette tape. Young music fans, bored with the faux glamour say-nothing stylised fuckwits typified by bores like Duran Duran and Wham! Et al, decided to form their own bands and write their own songs. With a Tory assisted 3 million people unemployed, there was plenty of time to practise. But what to do about a chart filled with synthesised poseurs and the unsympathetic ears of Stock, Aitken and Waterman? Easy. Beg, steal, borrow the cash to release the record yourselves. Labels like Glasgows Postcard records and Bristols Sarah records, released limited runs(usually between 50-100) of brilliantly catchy, cheaply recorded 7” singles. Full of wit, heart, and humour, with a knowing eye towards socialism and a die hard, amost punk, DIY ethic, where records not just to play,but to pull to your chest like badge of honour. At last, here were records you could actually LOVE. Take, for example, Velocity Girl by Primal Scream. Long before their, strutty, stones-y riffing incarnation, they released a single of such pure, sugar rushing perfection, it was almost instantly stolen by Stone Roses for Made of Stone. Almost no-one bought it, but those who did were smitten. Thus, the indie cult of cult over cash, heart of chart ethos was born.

I knew I was an indie boy when a single I bought, aged 15, called Leave them all behind by an Oxford band called Ride made it in to the top 40. In the pre-Oasis days of indie,the was heady stuff. I felt,by just making a self conscious purchase from Rainbow records, I had somehow helped a mini reveloution. I wasn’t far wrong. The celebratory appearance on Top Of The Pops followed. I sat watching those skinny lads with fringes of pure perfection belt out that intoxicating, daydreamy, lemon and honey soaked racket in awe. It sounded like a dream carved from mercury.
“whats this shit?” my dad said
“he needs to get his hair cut. Lout”. it was a perfect, perfect, perfect pop moment. The next day I bought Animal Nitrate by Suede in my school uniform. There was no turning back now.

B-Ware The Death Of The B-Side

From last Sunday (January 9th), Hit40UK - the chart used by Britain's commercial radio stations - will base the chart on airplay and downloads only. So it would seem that the CD single will become obsolete. Whilst there is nothing surprising about this it does bring to the fore once more the question of the b-side and what implications this will this have for it. Whilst it is true that amongst indie bands the 7" has had a resurgence, the demise of the cd single format and tendency for people to download only single tracks means that that there is now no pressure on artists to record / release any more than the single itself. Whilst I have no intention of sounding like a technophobe I do believe that we may now lose many songs that would have made it on to a b-side, with bands choosing to put out only what they consider their very best recordings. But a look at the list of great b-sides suggests that this could result in many lost gems.

Hound Dog by Elvis, Revolution by The Beatles, How Soon Is Now by The Smiths, Unchained Melody by The Righteous Brothers, No Fun by Sex Pistols - all of these were originally b-sides thought not good enough to be released as a single or put on an album. But it is the b-sides of lesser-known bands that have a special place in my heart and are most at risk of not being replicated by modern bands (even if 7" sales are healthy you can only fit one or two songs on each side and the propensity of remixes these days means even less original output). When you consider that over the past decade (on average) weekly sales of 20,000 will get you a top ten hit then a minor hit obviously is not shifting thousands of units and a single in the lower reaches of / outside the chart not a great number at all. For me this has meant that discovering a gem of a b-side has always felt special as, whilst most people will buy an album they like, they are unlikely to buy all / any of the singles - therefore leaving great tracks to be unearthed and treasured.

Thus it is that Brutality by Black Box Recorder, Won by The Beta Band and Calimero by SFA (from which I take my dj pseudonym) form part of a collection of songs that always stir that little something else when listened to. I hope that vinyl sales keep up this fine tradition as I fear that the next generation of music-buyers may be missing out on something if not. For as good as it is to have so much music so widely available on the Internet, discovering a great b-side has always meant investing that little bit more (emotionally as well as monetarily) in a band.

My favourite b-side of all time is Birds Of Paradise Farm by Divine Comedy, off the Something For The Weekend single (closely followed by Songs Of Love off the same single, but that also appeared on the album - Cassanova - so it doesn't count!) . It features Neil Hannon crooning and swooning his way through three minutes and fifty seconds of pop-perfection. This was the time of three b-sides on a single and it still offers great value for money as all three, as well as the single, are first-rate songs that have been lovingly crafted. And for that I will always love it, and them. Which is another thing about b-sides, they are a good pointer as to the respect a band have for their fans. If a band puts in the effort to produce great b-sides then it is a show of appreciation to the fans who buy them, like doing a couple of hours work after everyone else has gone to the pub. A lot of bands will stick a demo and a remix on the b-side, this suggests they either can't be arsed or they haven't got enough material - neither a satisfactory outcome. The latter can be argued of The Charlatans, although they have produced many good singles their b-sides have always fallen short of matching the a-side.

I'm sure there will be some bands who continue to put the effort in and release singles on 12" with two or three b-sides but they will probably be few and far between...I hope I'm wrong.

Give Me My Life Back

I have spent the last couple of weeks trying to think of a way of summing up the bumper crop of albums and songs that burrowed their way into my head over the last 12 months. And my conclusion is I can’t. Everything just came out as trite garbage and if I’m going to write trite garbage it might as well be trite garbage that hasn’t been in every magazine or paper this side of the moon. So I have knocked up a CD available to anyone interested, un-mixed as I don’t yet have the technology and I will leave the end of review subject well alone as of now.

So instead I am going to have a quick(ish) videogame rant. I find myself more often than not becoming a wee bit obsessed by a game. I try to keep myself busy and social etc and usually stay on top of lending my life to a series of moving pixels of polygons. But every now and then something comes along that will insist on making me late for appointments, stay up ‘til stupid o’clock in the morning and contemplate whether it’s better to finish the next level than go out and actually talk to people. I am not proud of this and do try to avoid slipping into this state as much as I can. I do have an incredibly short attention span and as a result the length of most new games kills off my interest before the hooks take hold. The current glut of big budget, bombastic productions coming out of most of the major developers has given me back my life and for that I am happy.

Geometry Wars & Crayon Physics Deluxe

Then I discovered the wonderful array of low cost, short but unfeasibly addictive games that have become available on various places on the web and on both Xbox and Sony’s online networks. Games like Braid, Geometry Wars, Puzzle Quest and The Last Man are ruining all the hard work I have done of pulling myself out terminal geekdom. They hark back to when games were immediate and instinctive grabbing by the throat after the opening few seconds and refusing to release their grip until you have either finished them or gone blind and arthritic trying. They are sadistic and evil and I love them for that.

The latest one to hook me in is far more tranquil than the usual fare but has started stealing hours of my life from under my nose without me even noticing. The game is about getting a ball across the screen to a star avoiding obstacles and all you have to achieve this is a wax crayon. Said wax crayon will make whatever you draw on screen materialise in the gameworld as physical object. Very simple. For example if you need to move the ball over a large gap you could draw a hammer on pivot and knock it over, draw a bridge and then a car and drive it over or any other means your brain will allow you conjure up. It is an amazing game and I hate it for that very same reason.

But the sucker punch that these games give me is in their completion. When, or if, I ever complete one of these games there is an extraordinarily hollow feeling of satisfaction. Yes, I may have bested the designer’s best curve ball but soon there is a wash of, “What did I actually achieve out of that?” Have I bettered my life? No. Could I have used those 20 odd hours more constructively? Definitely. Will I ever receive any kudos for it outside of the flashing ‘Well Done’ on the centre of the screen? Unlikely. Will I do it all again when the next interesting set of pixels bob their way onto one of my systems? Almost certainly.

So in an attempt to make myself feel better by virtue of bringing more people down to my level, here is the link to Crayon Physics Deluxe and some other life destroying games.

http://www.crayonphysics.com/

http://braid-game.com/

http://www.bizarrecreations.com/games/geometry_wars_retro_evolved/

http://www.puzzle-quest.com/

http://www.jeffwu.net/games/ngame.swf

Of course I’m sure almost everyone else has a much stronger constitution than me and wonder what the hell I’ve been banging on about.

I'm Still Here!!

Hello and happy new year to you all, unfortunately my computer is currently poorly (it went down almost exactly the same time as me, maybe we have a symbiotic relationship that I was unaware of until now) and so I've been unable to post for a while. I have a few things to say but I only have a couple of minutes right now so they shall have to wait. But whilst I'm here I must bring up the situation in Gaza. I wouldn't dream of trying to precis my thoughts on such a complex issue so I shall have to leave it for now. However if you are in opposition to the actions of Israel then please make an effort to attend the following...

Stop the Massacre : Israel Out of Gaza National demonstration Saturday 10 January

Assemble 12.30pm Speakers Corner, Hyde Park

March to Israeli Embassy, High St Kensington, London

Sub Zero Fun

Hello all,

i made a mix today; it's a bit wintery.
please grab your hot chocolate, don your woolens...and jig to keep warm :)

teutonic kaboom - subzero070109
[right-click and 'save as']

or just stream with this little bugger directly below...



kid sister - pro nails (smd remix)
blackdown & dusk - focus
boxcutter - brood
elemental - deep under
rustie - jagz the smack
cloaks - too on top
sol_dat - solace of the shadows (loop)
monolake - alaska (substance rmx 1)
audion - snap into it
the martin brothers - rocket surgery
claro intelecto - only yesterday
martyn - vancouver (loop)
elemental - blob
2562 - channel two
female - cally
elemental - raw material
seth troxler - love spray
radial - moeilijik
ion driver - elemental
gaiser - apology
bitstream - open sesame
brothomstates - jak got stuck in canada...
2 dollar egg - turnout
radial - camouflage

New Year, New Pants, New Attitude!

Here's hoping your New Year's celebrations were swell and gay.

I went down to London to see my very best matey, and she took me to a place called 42 Fieldgate Street.

This place is pretty much someone's studio flat in London. He's moved the sofas to the back, installed a bar/a stage/some speakers and turned the ol' place into a club...
It's an intimate affair...there's no door tax, you can smoke!, we were offered absinthe jelly on arrival, and there's quite a random music policy. I heard that the last party had a dub band on, there are definitely pictures of brass instruments on their Facebook page, and Oliver Ho pops down on occasion whenever he's in London, like.
The DJs on NYE were playing a crazy mix of styles...from reggae to Bon Jovi, GnR to Garage...it was fitting for the evening and the atmosphere...random... [At one point in the evening my friend Joe asked us all "Can anyone smell toast?"]
Another big plus was that I got to chat to friendly strangers and dispelled the opinion that London is full of heartless knob'eds that don't smile and are rather rude. And that's always good.

The highlight for me was a girlcore 4-piece called The Berettas
Who RAWKED the first set of the night in the most amazing leggings i have ever seen in my life. Loads of energy - think Juliette & the Licksy/Gossipy/Peachesy-ness...



(forgive the dodgy camerawork)

Their myspace page has only one track on the player, which is a bit of a shame because i WANT MORE and they haven't released anything yet :(

My heart fills with glee to think that all this talk of Credit Crunk is going to bring about a new attitude to music. It's going to get interesting, and free parties are sure to start thriving. Let's hope there will be more places like 42 Fieldgate Street...VIVA LA (free) RAVE!