Night Gallery was the follow-up show to the Twilight Zone and featured Rod Serling in an art gallery unveiling paintings that depicted the story ahead. I only know about it because it is parodied in a Halloween episode of The Simpsons. I don’t think it was as popular in the UK; over here we are all about Michael Aspel. 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 »
TOTALLY HEAVY HAWAII
So, if you weren’t really bored of hearing about Wavves, you’d probably be wondering what Nathan Williams was doing before all the hype, backlash, stage breakdowns and fights with Black Lips that followed. Well, he was playing in a pretty good “tropical psych-folk trio” called Fantastic Magic and he dressed like like he played in Devendra Banhart’s backing band. They played a bunch of shows, released a CD-R, a tape and a 7″, and then split up. So what happened to the other members of the group? Well, two of them, specifically Matthew and Sundar, became Heavy Hawaii. Read more »
Sea lions inspire the Sea Lions
Sea lions are awesome and not just for the fact that they are really good at dancing, have tusks and are killer surfers. These tusked Pinnipeds are also righteous music warriors who once tried to fuck up the Jonas Brothes and have inspired the kids of sea lion hotspot Oxnard, California to put down the guns and pick up the C86. Read more »
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 »
The dawn of Dominant Legs
Dominant Legs is the project of Ryan William Lynch, with a little help from the alliterated Hannah Hunt. They make fragile pop songs that sound like Arthur Russell covering Aztec Camera’s back catalogue. Perhaps this is how Roddy Frame’s early recordings would have sounded if he’d grown up in San Francisco instead of East Kilbride. The music also shares a little of Ariel Pink’s misty eighties nostalgic spirit. See if you like it (you will, you fucking cynic) by listening to the track below. Read more »
Devon-o-rama
Anyone remember Osker? When I was googling the name of Devon Williams, whose music I am thinking about today, I discovered his past. It seems he was in one of the most controversial pop-punk bands of their time, who pissed off the mohawked masses with their criticisms of punk conformity, their sincere stage presence, and by not being idiots. They were also known for once supporting NOFX and taunting the crowd by telling them the headliners hadn’t released a good album in years. Yep, they were the most ‘punk’ pop-punk band out there. Read more »
Vice Singles Club, 7 September 2009
When you’re a kid it’s pretty standard for a gang to demand a picture of a naked woman to get into their club. If you have an older sister, odds are it’ll be one of her. It’s pretty similar for the Vice Singles Club, only we want naked pictures of anyone with a single out this week. So, for example, if you applied today, we’d be demanding a Bananarama lesbo sandpit adventure snap and a picture of Mika’s cock in a burger bun. 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.
Vice Singles Club, 1 September 2009
We had our bi-annual Vice Singles Club meet at the weekend. It was awesome, someone baked this cake out of seven-inches and then we did a quiz. Can you name the members of Roxy Music who aren’t called Bryan? No? Then you wouldn’t have won the quiz and it’s probably lucky you didn’t come along. Read more »
