First there was Veronica Falls – who, if you remember, had absolutely nothing to do with Kirstie Alley – and now there’s Golden Grrrls, who, as far as we can tell, have nothing to do with Bea Arthur. What is it about hazy indie-pop bands who bury their glory under a mountain of fuzz and split their time between worshiping C86 and worshiping second-rate American sitcoms? You could at least call your band Friends or M.A.S.H. Read more »
Watch those Sharp Ends
Calgary, Alberta is a generally pretty cold city I know little about apart from that it hosted the Winter Olympics when Jamaica entered; and I only know that because Cool Runnings was my favourite film when i was a kid (I still think it’s great. And, interestingly, pint-sized gambling football substitute Michael Owen claims it’s the only film he’s ever seen). There’s something in this cold, bleak environment that must inspire dark, post-punk bands. I guess having to wear big coats and seeing steam come out of your mouth must make everyone feel a little more like Ian Curtis. Read more »
Weed Diamond sees the sun where there’s none
When I think of Denver, Colorado, I think of lumberjack shirts, the Rocky Mountains and John Denver (though he was born in Roswell). One thing I certainly didn’t expect was that it would inspire the kind of sunstroke sounds that have come from Denver resident Tim Perry under his fucking awful moniker Weed Diamond. It’s great that you smoke loads of dope and everything, but unless you’re Afro Man, you look like a dick telling everyone. Fortunately the music’s fucking great.
GERMAN MEASLES ARE SICK (OR ILL – WHATEVER LAME PUN YOU PREFER)
The bad thing about the endless versatility of viruses and diseases is all the unstoppable death that they spread. The good thing is that we’ve been given plenty of good band names by this microscopic death squad: the Germs, Anthrax, Aids Wolf, Cancer Bats, the Cramps, Pestilence, Agoraphobic Nosebleed, Tuberculosis Boy. It’s inevitable that there’s a thousand bands called Swine Flu already (and equally inevitably that 500 of them are noise bands). That must make Avian Flu feel a little old-hat. Anyway, here is the next entry into this dubious pantheon: the German Measles. Read more »
EAT SKULL, NOT SHIT
Eat Skull are an absolutely awesome band from Portland. This year’s record, Wild and Inside, is a highly recommended purchase. It will be available from the Siltbreeze website, I presume. Open another window and listen to them on their MySpace while you read this interview. Read more »
A plug for Plug
Plug are two girls, one who plays drums and one who plays bass and keyboard. They both sing. Make sure you don’t get them confused with Plugs, the distinctly average synth band formed by one member of meathead electro bores Does it Offend You, Yeah?. (I guess he decided that singing in possibly the worst band to emerge during the recent electro revival (apart from Hadouken!) wasn’t worth the meagre wage he probably received.) Read more »
The Widow Babies have been born
Danny, Tabor, Elise and Neal are the Widow Babies, magnificent eccentrics whose first release was a concept record about Minutemen and fIREHOSE bassist Mike Watt’s battle with a vampiric Abe Lincoln. Track titles include “Mike Watt Created the Universe With a Bass Solo” and “In Which Watt Wins His Hands Back and Basses a River Into Existence”. As concept records go, it’s not quite up there with The Point! by Nilsson (which he even made into a cartoon), but it’s certainly not half-arsed. Read more »
We all need a Super Vacation
I’m not sure what constitutes a super vacation, but my guess is it’s vacation squared – the essence of a holiday concentrated into one week of pool parties, sandcastles, romance, donkey rides, foam parties, finally reading The Corrections, finding yourself, not drinking, drinking a lot, beach sex, boating, paella, not watching any telly, and actually feeling like you’ve had a holiday at the end. An impossible dream you might think, but maybe you haven’t heard the Super Vacations yet. Read more »
Fall in love with Lovvers
We love Lovvers. They’re the original unnecessarily-repeated-consonant act, before Wavves got hyped as the new Kurt Cobain/Craig Nicholls, Nodzzz charmed us all with their uber-geek pop, and Mayyors, er… well they aren’t that well known for anything yet, but they’re very good.
Anyway, now that they’ve finally released an excellent full-length LP, to some rave and some not so rave reviews, they’re doing they’re first proper UK tour in ages. And to celebrate that fact they’ve sent us an exclusive new track, which they recorded with Jarvis from Woods when they were out in the US earlier this year. It’s awesome! Read more »
Let’s hit the City Center
City centres are generally places to avoid – shopping by day and boozing by night. Okay, okay, we all do both, but you know, some people do it in really obnoxious ways. Okay, okay, we all do it in different obnoxious ways, but, well, some of us are pussies, and others are alpha fucks who fight us.
