Check my French

Yeah my shirt got a fuckin’ wolf on, what you know about that, hipster muthafukka?

Following the nod from Benny, The Fader and now Wire magazine, it looks like Odd Future Wolf Gang Kill Them All are going places real fast – that said, the places they go will likely involve hard drugs, sex crimes, homophobia, murder and skateboarding.

Welcome to the world of a bunch of teenagers with 8 free albums available on their homepage who combine the depravity of Gravediggaz with the swagger of N*E*R*D’s skate-rap aesthetic and Cadence Weapon’s distinctive enunciation with a bit of ’98 Eminem chucked in for jokes yo.

The quality of the work, all released in the last few years, is staggering, with huge bass, incredible lyrical dexterity and jaw-droppingly horrendous subject matter followed by pantaloon-crappingly horrendous subject matter.

This is not for the faint-hearted. Conversely, if you enjoy hearing about nun-rape, this is for you.

And to be fair, if you’re easily offended, you probably don’t have a lot of hip-hop in your collection though, eh?

Seemingly made up of a collective of angry character-playing California kids (Hodgy Beats, Earl Sweatshirt, Domo Genesis, Mike G, Casey Veggies, Taco, Jasper and producers Left Brain, Tyler the Creator and Super 3 along with a few others) they have produced some astonishingly accomplished hip-hop with the usual interlude bits, messy youtube channel and a refreshing DIY attitude.

Get over to their site, download the albums (Domo Genesis has a new one out now called Rolling Papers) and get stuck in.

I’d recommend Earl himself as a starting point. He’s 16. Prepare to vomit.

Fuck Steve Harvey.

http://oddfuture.com/

Return of the Redeye? Jed-eye? I’m back?

Thanks to events in the real world, I have been seriously lacking in effort with regard to these pages. Interviews, busy days, weddings, funerals. It’s all been going down. I suppose all bloggers are constantly looking at life as ‘content’ for their little online diary and for those who blog specifically on music or film, this stuff can spew forth at regular intervals.

The problems begin when one is not exactly a blogger of anything specific but rather someone who blogs on random odds and ends. And then when it becomes clear that one cannot blog on certain things (i.e. ALOT of things) without ‘giving the game away’, people reading who probably shouldn’t know certain things, that kind of piffle….forgive my cryptic ramble please. And apologies for the self-referential claptrap and for apologising for not blogging in the first place which I know can grate…erk….

So enough. I am in love with Chickatees again. Ah yes, Chickatees. How many do you think you actually swallow when you pop open a bag? Fuck all, I’d wager. They’re all in your teeth. For the diet-crazy amongst you, perhaps this heralds a new form of food non-ingestion therapy. I mean, you don’t ingest Chickatees really.You’ll eat a bag in a minute or two and then pick them all out of your teeth. The key could be to resist the urge to swallow this congealed ball of mulchy Chickatee and plop it in the bin. However, this is more difficult than you think; it tastes bloody great.

AND you can buy them in monstrous bags of 30 or 40 for a few squid too. That, combined with Spar meatballs (amazing) and some Pot Noodles – sure you’re essentially a thrifty Gordon Ramsay producing instant classics upon demand. True your salt intake would probably rival that of a large, floating whale gulping down huge waves by the hour but anyhoo.

I’m also currently sporting a rather fetching ‘tache as you may or may not know. Tis for Movember (donate here) but I can’t see myself getting rid of this badboy too quickly. The amount of action I am getting down darkened alleyways on Camden Street is outrageous. I’m raking it in. The binmen are mad for a bit of ‘tache loving. And I love the feel of their cold black jackets, the smell of Carrolls on their breath…ahhh yes…binmen….

Been busy enough beavering away for a few online publications you are probably familiar with and incoming is State mag’s top 20 albums of the decade…or is it top 100…or is it best albums of the decade in no particular order but with a non-specified number cap…jesus. Anyway, I know I’ve left Smog/Bill Callahan off one of these reeeeally difficult lists and I am going to make it up to him by doing my next post about him and most likely about A River Ain’t Too Much To Love, I think.

Also, Christmas is coming and I fucking love Christmas so, to quote a great man, BABY I’M BACK. I think I’m feeling motivated by R’n’B super-lech, R.Kelly’s banging new single

Actually banging. And without the use of contraception it would seem. Shuddering yet?

If it ain’t broke, then BREAK it and record a 7″ single, bitch

If the whole no-fi/lo-fi thing is a bit too ‘P4k‘ for you then look away now. I’m a big fan. All the bad recording, tinny sound, hard-to-decipher vocals and homemade t-shirts/album covers/everything makes me feel like I’m back in school listening to Bleach again.
There seems to be very few bands from the Captured Tracks/ Slumberland/ Fat Possum stables that are shit these days. Every second week, there’s some lo-fi gem on tour in Europe and, more often than not, Foggy Notions or Skinny Wolves get them upstairs in Whelan’s where they put on brief, wonderful shows and then sell their own t-shirts.We get this with our local bands so it’s great to get it from bands you may only have ever read about on myspace.

As contrived/trendy/uninteresting as some may decry this lo-fi scene as, I love being in a small venue with the band close enough to touch and having them stand beside you in the crowd to check out the support. I love the noisy melodies. I love the brevity. I love the ramshackle performances and the fact that many of them have never been to Europe before. I love the drums.

There’s a rawness to bands like Vivian Girls/Wavves/Times New Viking/Real Estate et al that remains undiluted by hype and combines the nostalgic chill of twee with the pelvic snarl of teenage.

It’s fast, fun and plentiful.

What’s to snipe at? Nowt, that’s what.

Curmudgeons begone.

So now, say hello to Grass Widow, made up of Lillian, Raven and Hannah. They bring you harmonies and fuzz.
Born from the remnants of Shitstorm (the band indie-chick du jour Frankie Rose left to join Vivian Girls, whom she subsequently left to join Crystal Stilts, whom she has now ditched to form Frankie and the Outs…), Grass Widow have a self-titled 12″ LP and a 12″ EP knocking around at the moment.
Have a peep at Captured Tracks for the EP and Make A Mess for the LP.
Here they are covering Black Hole by The Urinals, a major influence in the lo-fi scene.

Grass Widow – Black Hole

And here’s one from their self-titled album.

Grass Widow – To Where

A gentle reintroduction through the medium of summat new…

If there’s a blogeur equivalent of ‘doing a Pink at the VMAs’ and metaphorically dangling myself upside down from a buff acrobat, banging away on the keys of a keyboard thing to impress you, the agog reader, then this is it.

Shiny and new like the Ceann Comhairle’s expensed, and expensive,  Pringle jocks (no little holeage in the front to pee out of for FULL support and maximum expense…haven’t you ever had a pair?) this is There Will Be Blog 2.0…for the moment anyway.

I’m not sure what the advantages to the switch might be but I fancy a change and if it does go tits up I’ll scurry back over to Blogger like a crab seeking a latrine after a hot curry. I am reliably informed that ‘WordPress is better’ and ‘Blogger is balls’ by ‘culturally relevant internets people’ (I’ll stop doing that now).

I guess if I ever wanted to bag a heap of nominations for blog posts and consistency, well, I’ve blown it now.

If you are going/gone to the Jesus Lizard in the Button Factory then you are a lucky motherfucker – I just can’t stretch to it. At least they melted my face at Primavera this year and will most likely melt, or completely kick off, your face tonight. A tasty night of tunes awaits this Friday though when Nodzzz arrive in Whelans (with the wonderful So Cow in support), fuzzing up the night, and over at Twisted Pepper there’s a Richter Collective Singles night with Not Squares, Jogging and a DJ set from Jape himself. Bi-location will be a necessity.

Me? I’m trying to settle into a working week that now consists of four days and a smaller paypacket so the recession has landed home at last. The dog even bit me the other day. He must have felt I wasn’t quite bummed-out enough. It felt like the equivalent of your girlfriend inadvertently insulting you in front of your mates. It just wasn’t expected. Luckily he’s a Shih Tzu so my lengthy recovery took about 5 minutes of looking at my ‘wound’  and looking at him and looking at it and looking around the room. Thanks Chirpa. Thanks for hurting our friendship with your gnashers.

Anyway, the laptop’s back so it’s time to catch up on all things music, film, TV, blog and otherwise.

Good morning..er…afternoon

I ill-advisedly clicked on a youtube link to watch a Marianne Nowottny clip earlier, got The Fear immediately and so had to watch this to regain some semblance of mental balance.
This is one of my favourite songs by one of my favourite artists.
As Jools Holland might say, by way of introduction, “Hapablap habahappahap habbaplapppppp Joanna Newsom blap”

There was blood

Having spooked the bejesus out of myself by watching Let The Right One In recently, it has taken me a few days to get back to a normal, uneventful, solid night’s sleep. Even Amityville II: The Spookening (or something) seemed scary, having subjected my human eyes to a Swedish vampire film with one of the most intense and ominously quiet atmospheres I’ve ever experienced in a film.
I think it deserves a post of its own to be honest, which I will do soon, but for the moment I will bang up a couple of tracks that helped bring me back down from Planet Creepington.
Both are Damien Shingleton remixes of Jonathan Fisher tracks from his 2006 (I think) album Desiderata. Great chilled out remixes of atmospheric electronica. Head over to Hippocamp to find the rest of this album and a heap of electronica stuff all free and legal.

Hebden Bridge in November(Damien Shingleton remix) – Jonathan Fisher

Everything (Damien Shingleton Remix) – Jonathan Fisher

Come have a smell

Magik Markers release their new album, Balf Quarry, in May on the esteemed Drag City label.
Now, I won’t pretend to know a shit load about this duo of Pete Nolan and Elisa Ambrogio but their album and homemade CD-R releases are well into the double figures at this stage, they’ve played with Sonic Youth and, as Tim Westwood might say on Twitter (follow him, it’s worth it), this shit is box fresh (ahem).
The album plays beautifully into that woozy, bad trip vibe that has gotten under my skin the last while, also breaking into thumping rock-outs every so often.
It sounds, at times, a little like Jefferson Airplane and Sonic Youth fed through a cheap amp with the band having just been subjected to some serious Timothy Leary psychedelic tomfoolery under the guise of ‘science’.
The guitars and percussion are interchangeably menacing, chugging, farting, feedbacking and idiosyncratically wahwahing all over the place while singer/guitarist Elisa Ambrogio is well able to keep up with the PJ Harveys and Nick Caves of this seedy, murky world, sporadically chucking in some gloopy electronica effects and piano to complement her vocals.
In spite of the raggedy all-over-the-placeness of Balf Quarry, there is an immediacy to this album which will most likely alienate their fanbase, who are probably now screaming out for a less ‘clean’ sound than this and an effort more akin to the band’s earlier stuff whilst preparing to berate me for only jumping on the Magik Markers train now. Well fuck it, this is great AND they’re playing Primavera on the ATP stage. Should be just dandy.

Here’s two tracks from the album to have a listen to.

Magik Markers – 7/23

Magik Markers – Jerks

Wow

Animal Collective – My Girls from Rob Chesnutt on Vimeo.

Not much point me posting this here as you probably already saw it on Nialler‘s blog but it’s just too good to not re-post. So many ideas overflowing in this video for Animal Collective’s My Girls by Rob Chestnutt – it has a cracking hodge podge of imagery that, off the top of my head, reminds me of Apocalypse Now and Mike Figgis’s Timecode. Excellent stuff.

Series of fuzz #13: Mazes and PENS

Listening to the ‘friends’ of bands you like on myspace can be a tough swamp to navigate but when you are the cap’n of an airboat as canny as I am, it can turn up some mighty fine results with a real tang.
First up are Mazes, UK fuzz-pop with an unknown amount of members. Check the myspace for a quick idea of what they’re about and see the track below along with another. Kinda Weezer-ish and thoroughly wonderful.
Second up are PENS, again a UK act, a trio of girls and some really badly recorded songs on their myspace hence I’m really liking them.
I’d venture that the third track on their page was recorded inside a wet mattress with one of the Vivian Girls having sex with a broken amp on top of it. In a vat of honey. Underwater.

Mazes – Bowie Knife

PENS – Networking

Both mp3s gotten from catbirdseat

Telepathe: The drug of the nation

Wavves gig was great last night, although it made me wish I was 10 years younger and had a fringe/mullet.
Will have a review up on The ‘D soon but, for the moment, those beautiful Brooklynite synth sirens, Telepathe, have kindly returned my Q & A so go check that out

EDIT: Wavves live review from Whelans