Big Static Podcast 1

Given how much I've enjoyed such audio blogger podcasts as An Aquarium Drunkard, Can You Hear The Podcast From The Southside and of course The Contrast Podcast which me and Kieran have both contributed to, I decided to give this mixing business a go and create my own. There's a few problems with my brief talk segments, mainly due to the voice recording equipment I was working with, but still good tunes to be heard by all. Check it out and enjoy some tracks from Suicide, The Microphones, The Starvations and a whole load more.

Big Static - Podcast 1

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Shiina Ringo - Utaite Myoli

Sadly, I do not speak or read Japanese, but if I did then I think there would be a lot of fascinating things to discover about Shiina Ringo. From what I can gather from badly translated websites is that she is a famous musician in Japan, where her mole (sorry, "beauty spot") is famous because it appeared suddenly after years of her drawing it on by herself as some sort of fashion statement. Those Japanese girls, eh? The mole was removed in 2003, incidentally.

I found this album in a charity shop of all places, where I bought it because it was in a bargain bin and had a pretty cover and all the writing was in Japanese. In the end I had to ask a Japanese girl at school to read the cover to me before I could even work out who the artist was. It does have to be said that I do skip through half of the tracks on this CD because they have been destroyed by over-production and expensive studio equipment. However, when Shiina and her band really let rip then they really do make an equisite racket - their cover of Yer Blues is the best I have ever heard, swinging from bubbly Air moments to deliciously noisy John Spencer Blues Explosion choruses. This entire album is actually made up of cover versions; according to internet reports, Shiina Ringo is well-known for drawing her inspirations from all over the globe and there is no shortage of unexpected sources here - French, Portugese, German, but whoever decided she should cover Oota Mari (who?) should be put out of their misery right now.

Until this charity shop discovery I had never heard of Shiina Ringo, but when this album apparently reached number 1 in Japan and charted for 9 weeks, selling 397,000 units... well, it just goes to confirm my faith in the Japanese public's eccentric but aplaudable taste.

I Wanna Be Loved By You
Yer Blues

You can buy this album here.

Mcluskyism or how Andy Falkous made me grow up to be a complete cunt

"The last musician that came to my house brought a Belle & Sebastian record, so I haven't invited any back since"
-Andy Falkous

Go back four years, an awkward, spotty thirteen year old kid had just purchased a record entitled "Mclusky Do Dallas" on a whim. He'd go home, take it out of it's wrapper and throw it in his stereo with no expectations for what he was about to hear. He sat at his desk, lit up a cigarette and listened to the drum opening to "Lightsabre Cocksucking Blues". Suddenly the whole thing took off. It was a mutant of a noise and something so different to the bad diet of third rate hip-hop and generic metal that he'd become used to. The singer was dishing out such fantastically nonsensical lines as "I'm fearful/I'm fearful/I'm fearful of flying/and flying is fearful of me" over music so heavy and vicious it made his Pantera records look completely pussified. Of course it carried on, "What We've learned" sounded so spiteful yet melodic to his young mind and "Dethink To Survive" was so raw and untamed. The opening lyrics to "Gareth Brown Says" made him laugh so hard. Even the slow and semi slow tracks, "Fuck This Band" the former and "Alan Is A Cowboy Killer" the latter, had an overwhelming sense of pure snide mockery dripping out of every off-key note. It would be quite easy to call Mclusky an interesting mix between Pixies and Big Black, but at the time that barely pubescent kid's mind was well and truly blown.

Unless you're a complete fucking dingbat, you should have figured out that the above paragraph was me talking about my own experiences. It's been four years since I discovered Mclusky and nearly one and a half since they split up. As I've said countless times before, it broke my heart and just when I'd finally gotten over it they release a three disc best of collection and remind me exactly why I used to be such a dirty little fanboy for this band. The live recording on the C sides disc has to have one of the best insult I've heard from a band:

Heckler: Why does your drummer play like a fucking pussy?
Falkous: We all know when you were at home putting on your gel you felt important.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized that the above quote was Mclusky's one statement and one message. They were a set of snide, ugly bastards who were articulate, witty and cruel enough to cause all the other snide, ugly bastards to rally around them and to allow Mclusky to act as the musical voice for everyone who enjoys picking on people not because said people are weak or dumb but because they're so full of hot air that making fun of them becomes an absolute joy.

Mclusky - Undress For Success
Mclusky - Rope!
Mclusky - Cradling

Buy Mcluskyism from Amazon

Minor Threat - Complete Discography

The risky thing with writing about bands that everybody knows about is that you run a much higher chance of people getting stroppy about it if you say anything critical, or people questioning your facts. So I will avoid saying anything particularly controversial about this band, because most of you probably know everything there is to know about Minor Threat as it is.

Going through your Minor Threat stage is sort of obligatory, just as every teenage girl has to go through a stage of learning Hole songs on the acoustic guitar. Nobody can explain it, it just happens. And for anybody with any interest in punk, there's almost always the Minor Threat stage. Most famously labeled as the band at the root of that whole "straight edge" thing, Minor Threat and Bad Brains set the standard for 80s hardcore punk. I feel quite patronising telling you all this because most of you know this anyway, and these words are batted around so often whenever Minor Threat are mentioned that they might as well be known as "that straight edge 80s hardcore punk band". Type those words into Google and I'm sure Minor Threat will be the name that pops up the most.

Anyway. Like I was saying, whether you think Minor Threat deserve their iconic pedestal status or not, everybody should go through a Minor Threat stage, however brief, because if you like your punk hard and fast then this record is (I quote) "the original gospel according to Ian MacKaye". So for those few of you who haven't had a Minor Threat moment, here's a couple of their classics, just so we're all on the same level here.

Minor Threat - Straight Edge
Minor Threat - Screaming At A Wall

You can buy this record from Amazon

Islands - Return To The Sea

The Unicorns splitting up meant very little to me. My perception of them was that of a half decent pop band with an over powering undeserved sense of their own importance. That sense causing the music to seem like an empty, dull experience when if the pomposity had been played down, "Who Will Cut Our Hair When We're Gone?" could have been a fantastic little slice of happy-go-lucky indy-pop. But when such sweet and well intentioned lyrics (drove myself in to emergency/urgently) were sung with all the self importance of a man who's just found a cure for cancer, I no longer wanted anything to do with it. Upon listening to this Islands debut I felt vaguely inclined to give The Unicorns' cult success in disc form another go. Perhaps thinking there was something I'd missed before. I was wrong, it was still the over glorified piece of ego frenzied pop that it ever was. A fucking headache that I turned off after a few tracks.

I'm sure those of you that have already heard this album are now completely at a loss as to why I'm posting this and thus in my own very little way, helping to promote it. Islands still has that hugely pretentious edge that it's farther band shared and this time they've been given the opportunity to experiment with anything and everything that pops in to their little minds. An immediate fan base will do that for you. Why they actually thought a section of rapping was a good idea and would aid people's enjoyment of their music is beyond me. But if truth be told, Islands have actually managed to create a record with a far less disposable base than their members previous efforts and thus over shadowed the awkward posturing with some dreamy and interesting progression. The post-rock flirting, build up of an album opener "Swans (Life After Death)" is in every way more enjoyable than anything The Unicorns ever spit out and when the song writing loses it's desire to gratify itself, what's produced is thoroughly enjoyable.

Islands - Swans (Life After Death)
Islands - Humans

Buy Return To The Sea from Amazon

FBC Fabric & Reindeer - Passenger

"Passenger" is a sample track from FBC Fabric & Reindeer's full-length release entitled "It's Not Who You Know, It's Whom You Know". To be completely honest, it's rare that I find myself splashing out for an entire album based on the strength of a single sample track. It's a great way to get a record collection packed with records that have one track worth listening to. But if the limited reviews I've read are anything to go by, this single track is just the tip of a fantastic UK hip-hop iceberg. Your interest in this track will of course be based upon how open minded you are towards hip-hop. If you're all about the grit, the grime and the glamour then go and buy the new Ghostface Killah (it's really fucking good) and leave us pasty little geeks to our experimental, inoffensive backpacking. However if you're into the idea of a damn fine, relaxed, fantastically produced and lyrically musing little hip-hop number, then chances are you'll adore FBC Fabric and Raindeer.

The first major point of note would be how well the string sample is handled, really letting the bleak image painting of the lyrics hit the spot. "Passenger" is an awkward tale of every day life, vaguely listening in on other people's conversations whilst you stare out the window of a train and note every little detail that you spot. A sense of grim reality that dull, once moderately interesting rappers (coughatmospherecough) haven't been able to recreate since they realized that making the same album over and over was a sure way to generate album sales. "Passenger" then lives out the duration of it's play time as an instrumental, allowing a soundtrack and mental image of the recent gloomy descriptions to be formed.

FBC Fabric & Reindeer - Passenger

Check out FBC Fabric's site where there are links to his releases and a few more mp3s.

Maria Taylor - 11:11

Much as I like Azure Ray, I've only ever really heard of Maria Taylor referred to as "that girl from Azure Ray" and I hardly think that's fair when it's so obvious that this album stands on it's own so strongly. Thanks to my geeky street team status, I was sent this album in the post for free one day by Saddle Creek records, and I'm glad too because otherwise I would probably never have sought it out myself. Maria Taylor floats somewhere around the core of Saddle Creek, featuring on dozens of their most famous releases, such as Bright Eyes and The Faint, and dusting everything with her special little magic touch. You can't blame people for wanting her to feature on their albums - almost every track on this album could make a great single, although 'Song Beneath The Song' stands out like Robert Wadlow at a midget convention. Mr Conor Oberst pays her back for all the times she has featured on his records in this track, and it does have a touch of what Bright Eyes can do when they're on top form, while 'One For The Shareholder' has that electronic dream pop sound that makes you realise why The Faint want a bit of this girl too.

If you fancy a bit of first-class quality Saddle Creek, you need look no further than Maria Taylor.

Maria Taylor - Song Beneath The Song
Maria Taylor - One For The Shareholder

Buy this album from Amazon

El-P - Fantastic Damage

Fantastic Damage was the record to really catch the young rebellious rapper El-P at the top of his game. It's a common perception that indie hip-hop is just a watered down version of the raw primal realities that are painted in hip-hop, not at all the case with El-P. He always hated authority, he was always full of angst and anger and vitriol. Fortunately he was smart enough to take up music production and allow all that hate to be put in to an audio format. From there he could broadcast every ounce of hatred and every dark thought in to a surprisingly receptive world of hip-hop junkies.

Whilst it's easy to chastise the man for making a hip-hop song about his fears of technology, a track as claustrophobic and creepy as "Stepfather Factory" hits the young man's strong fear of a technological onslaught dead on and has probably caused a fair few people to become scared of their toasters over the years since it's release. With the exception of the just mentioned track, the music on "Fantastic Damage" generally stays away from such thought out and paranoid topics and use the always vicious samples and drum loops as a backing track for ranting in the form of rapping. He was a very opinionated man and hip-hop seemed to be the perfect medium to let him express. All in all, a hip-hop classic from a frustrated yet very talented white kid.

El-P - Tuned Mass Damper
El-P - Delorean
El-P - Stepfather Factory

Buy Fantastic Damage from Amazon

Felix Laband - Dark Days Exit

Laband is an electronic/trip-hop artist from Africa. On "Dark Days Exit" he ventures in to a world of semi-ambient string samples with a severely toned down electro feel. The album is a constant flirtation with this desire to create soundscapes of his homeland and give across the rich, textured images in his mind through the medium of electronically created music. In this he is completely successful as tracks such as "Dirty Nightgown" summon up mental images of a hot and humid yet rather laid back landscape with a slight hint of darkness and fear which is how he's been quoted as describing the land in which he grew up.

Felix Laband - Dirty Nightgown
Felix Laband - Red Handed

Buy Dark Days Exit from Amazon

Drive-by Truckers - A Blessing And A Curse

This month saw the new album from Drive-by truckers released and after spending a day with it, I must say it's a real jem. As per usual they've taken that strong southern rock 'n' roll influence and created a decent heart-on-sleeve and honest record that doesn't allow it's country or emotive elements to cause any of the music to feel tacky. The perfect slice of southern grit for the indoor scarves and frappacino crowd.

Whilst duff tracks are few and far between, I generally find the more enjoyable songs to be ones in which the country influence is far more subtle and thus blends with the straight up rock influences rather well. Album opener "Feb 14" is a fantastic example of this. The lyrics have that touchingly honest quality with just a pinch of down south gentlemen added to give proceedings a real sense of charm.

Drive-by Truckers - Feb 14
Drive-by Truckers - Easy On Yourself

Buy A Blessing And A Curse from Amazon

Guided By Voices - Bee Thousand

Whilst I'm giving the new Drive-by Truckers album a decent amount of listening time before I try to write it up, I'm going to take the opportunity to ramble on about a record that's easily in my all time favorites. I'm sure many of you have at least heard of Guided By Voices and probably heard them described with such seemingly over the top phrases as "the best band of the 90s" and "the closest thing we've had to The Beatles in the last few decades". I could understand why such bold statements might make any person not familiar with the band somewhat weary of checking them out. After all, everyone with a sod of sense is very cautious around absurd amounts of hype. As this record was released when my age was still in single figures, I'm in no position to tell you how ground breaking this record was or how it was received upon it's release, all I'd be able to give you would be the obvious churnings of a kid who's studied musical moments way before his time and is therefore basically reciting what people have told him. It doesn't really live up to being there at that time and blah blah blah.

So how can I declare a record that was way before my time as one of my favorites? Well like I said, I wasn't there, I can't tell you if this record is as important now as it was upon it's inception. What I can say though is that in this day and age, Bee Thousand is one of the best demonstrations of lo-fi song writing around. Every song is a master class in perfect, simple musicianship and a great demonstration of lyricism. As little as I have the right to make the statement, from what I know, Guided By Voices have been the best example of a band getting by on the sheer brilliance of their pop understanding, even to the point that I would put "Bee Thousand" up there with some of The Beatles better moments.

Guided By Voices - Tractor Rape Chain
Guided By Voices - The Goldheart Mountaintop Queen Directory
Guided By Voices - Mincer Ray
Guided By Voices - I Am A Scientist

Buy Bee Thousand from Amazon

The Eighties Matchbox B-line Disaster

So the other day I was walking to a friends house and therefore had to make the trip through South Ashford. Anyone who's ever been to that armpit of an area would understand why I had my huge headphones on full blast. All you can hear otherwise is the local youths (as they're described on police radio reports) screaming at each other, cars violating the speed limit in places where children tend to play on the street and fat American tourists loudly expressing their amazement at the fact we have KFC over here. And people wonder why someone wouldn't want to go outside if they didn't have to. Anyway, I had my ipod on random and for the first time I'd listened to them in months, an EMBLD song came on, "Morning Has Broken" as it happens. About thirty seconds in I was completely reminded as to what made me fall in love with this band years back. Guy Mcknight might not be the best singer you'll ever hear but damn that guy has passion. He just always had this sense of urgency and sulfur to his vocals, much like Iggy used to do, that's been lacking in many new bands of late. Then there's the rest of the band that sound like The Cramps on cheap British cider. How can they not be a decent mutant of a rock 'n' roll act? So I made a note on my arm (no paper on me) to listen to my EMBLD records when I got home the following night and it was just as I suspected, they still slay like no man's business. For those of you who haven't checked this band out before, there's tracks from their two full lengths below. Buy their albums, they're pretty poor and it'll benefit both you and them.

Taken from Horse Of The Dog:
The Eighties Matchbox B-line Disaster - Whack Of Shit
The Eighties Matchbox B-line Disaster - Morning Has Broken

Taken from The Royal Society:
The Eighties Matchbox B-line Disaster - I Could Be An Angle
The Eighties Matchbox B-line Disaster - Migrate Migraine

Pick up The Eighties Matchbox B-line Disaster's back catalogue from Amazon

Sailboats

Trying to find information about Sailboats is like trying to find a very small needle in a very very large hay-stack. I thought I should try and find out something about this band before I posted them on here, but all I could find was one old interview, an ex-members (blank) MySpace profile and a site with news updates from 2005, although it seems they played one show back in February.

Sailboats are a fantastic hardcore band, even though I only own two songs and even a thorough dig through the archives of Soulseek (normally more than up to date on such things) only came up with the same. As far as I can tell, Sailboats are one of those bands that formed one day, recorded a couple of incredible songs, blew everybody away onstage and then suddenly decided to disband. To give them their dues, they stuck by their morals. Their parting words go as follows:

"We had become a total mockery of punk/hardcore. Here we are rocking out in front of kids at shows, sweating, bleeding just for the sheer spectacle of it, for the thrill of "playing a show," and never engaging with people in any critical way.... we want to take our own unique experiences musically and culturally and turn that into something that truly inspires us to express ourselves... not this fake screaming that has become a stylistic mechanism. So to conclude, we feel we owe an apology, as we have been lying through our teeth both to you and to ourselves. This is where the lie stops."

A mockery of punk/hardcore or not, they still sound great.

The members of Sailboats are now involved in other projects, namely Life In Tokyo (music that I deeply recommend) and Loma Prieta who aren't too bad at all either. I am only posting one track because I think it's a bit sneaky to post everything that I can find in one go.

Behind Trees

Killing Joke - Hosannas From The Basement Of Hell

Killing Joke's 2003 self titled release was a real slap in the face to every two bit metal band the world over. There were four dudes that had the reunion not happened, time would probably have forgot. Their back catalogue whilst extensive and at times impressive had become worryingly out dated as time had gone on. Then they dropped the bomb and showed everyone why they were such an impressive proposition all those years back and impressed us all with their incredible ability to adapt. It must have royally pissed off everyone in a band with heavy tendencies the world over. Knowing no matter how hard they tried, these forty year old dudes had just completely handed their arses to them.

So now it's time for the follow up, have they managed to better themselves again? Not really. There aren't nearly as many impressive songs present here as their last record. Generally they seem to have abandoned the lack of continuity between songs for a more operatic, all consuming epic feel and thus generally making the whole album seem as one. The guitar is still so amazingly produced that it's the stand out point in nearly every song but due to a more instrumental vibe, old made eyes' vocals which were such a driving force before seem to have taken a backseat. However, better than the last one or not, this is still likely to be the metal record of the year, unless Slayer, Isis or Converge can really pull something special out, Killing Joke have proved that they're basically the best metal band going.

Killing Joke - This Tribal Antidote
Killing Joke - Majestic

Buy Hosannas From The Basement Of Hell from Amazon

I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness - Fear Is On Our Side

I'm starting to think that our old friends Mogwai might be in a spot of trouble. For years now they've pretty much defined the face to feet, wandering, progressive noise that we all love so well. However they're facing a new problem, a whole wave of clones not only making their sound which was once a complete blast of fresh air seem ordinary, but some of said clones have bettered their hero's last album. It's your fault Mogwai, you give these guys an idea and before you know it someone's taught them a chord, and another, and another and before you know it they've progressed past everything you could teach them. It's like a really generic kung-fu movie.

So are I Love You just Mogwai with singing? I'd really like to say yes but they've figured out what Mogwai were always missing. One notable point about Mogwai's music is the obvious sense of melancholy that whilst present in basically everything they created, wasn't the driving factor. I Love You have taken that undertone of light unhappiness and turned it in to a combination of sorrow and light despair. What were you expecting? Look at the band's name! Look at the record's name! Fear Is On Our Side is an undeniably strong debut album and has made I Love You a real potential force in the ever raging contest for "most depressing post-rock band". But then none of those bastards ever smile, do they.

I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness - The Ghost
I Love You But I've Chosen Darkness - Last Ride Together

Buy Fear Is On Our Side from Amazon

The Beauty Shop - Yr Money Or Yr Life

Last night I wandered into Borders and found myself flicking through their (generally) dismal selection of albums when a familiar name caught my eye. It was The Beauty Shop's new album which, upon closer inspection, appears to be all the best songs off of the Yr Money Or Yr Life debut, with a couple of newbies and better album artwork. Unfortunately I didn't have the spare cash to fork out on this new buy, so I can't comment on their new material, but it did remind me to tell all our Big Static readers that they have to listen to this band. It's not a suggestion, it's an order.

Just a glance over this site will give you some idea of the sort of reviews The Beauty Shop get. I originally bought this album when I was about 15 from a sale stall at a festival because it had a sticker on the front that said "like Nick Cave jamming with the Violent Femmes", and decided that description alone was worthy of my five pounds. It was probably one of the best random purchases I have ever made, because this album is officially one of my favourite albums I own. It can be depressing, yes, but depressing in that Leonard Cohen/Tom Waits way that just puts you somewhere between being depressed and being really really inspired.

I think Drowned In Sound put it best when they said: "This album is perfect. Beautiful. Essential. 5/5"

Death March
Science Lights

The Beauty Shop have a MySpace and you can buy their music here.

Boris - Soundtrack From The Movie Mabuta No Ura

As it stands, despite heavy competition from Oh No! Oh My!, Ghostface Killah and Jesu, my favorite record of this year is currently the Japanese eccentrics Boris' "Pink" (this going by it's international release). Prior to hearing said album I'd only heard their two songs in an hour sludge album "Absolutego" and didn't care for it at all. However after I was basically forced to listen to a friends import copy of "Pink" at the beginning of this year, my perception of the band has changed completely. "Pink" is a fantastic fusion of their sludgy roots with new elements of shoegaze, uplifting and epic post-rock and completely clear and shimmering vocals. Perhaps this phrase has been used to death but "Pink" really is a masterpiece and worth you all checking out.

With my recently found love for Boris I was inspired to take a look through their back catalogue and see if anything they'd produced previously was on a par with the new record. Whilst they do seemed to have hit their peak with "Pink", there are a fair few records in their past release section worth checking out. Most notably the album I'm letting you sample today. The soundtrack to the movie which Boris completely wrote and performed. I can't claim to have seen the movie so I have no idea how well their compositions worked for it but as a stand alone record, Boris have created what seems like their strongest effort at a primarily instrumental post-rock record. Whilst their are moments that really can't stand alone due to them being composed for a certain part of the movie, proceedings are weighed out when the band hit the moments of pure sprawling epic delight.

Boris - A Bao A Qu
Boris - It Touches

Buy the soundtrack from the movie Mebuta No Ura from Amazon

Unexpected bonus:
Here's a track from my album of the year so far, "Pink"
Boris - Parting

Preorder Pink at Amazon

We Will Build

Have you ever felt the intense desire to listen to something friendly? Not perky or hyper or courteous but just friendly? It might sound like a dull concept but We Will Build are anything but. With a nice blend of influences such as Air and Ratatat, These two Canadians are the musical equivalent of a nice tender hug and frankly, as much as it makes me sound like a wuss, I like little else in the world more than hugs, musical or physical. In fact, We Will Build are so friendly that they've put up an entire album's worth of songs in a blog on their myspace page. That's like a friend giving you some money to buy an album 'cause you're broke. To add to this, one of their songs is called Eugene. That's my name. If I didn't know better I'd think We Will Build is an elaborate hoax to make me feel good.

We Will Build - Rain And Sun
We Will Build - 1214 Fast
We Will Build - Eugene

Download all of We Will Build's songs from their myspace page

New Buffalo - Last Beautiful Day

New Buffalo are somewhat of an oddity to me. They play a style of music that I can only think to call lounge-jazz but despite the obvious tedium that I'd attach to such a label, Last Beautiful Day has been completely blowing me away of late. They're easily comparable to Feist as the vocals carry that certain sexy lady of leisure quality and the general diverse use of brass helps the comparison along as well, however at other points the vocals cause New Buffalo to sound like Broadcast if the synth was replaced with an acoustic guitar, in other words, the singing sounds like that of Broadcast. Comparisons aside, Last Beautiful Day is some powerful stuff. The overly honest and powerful lyrics supply the record with many decent tear jerker moments and the jazz and acoustic compositions only add to the general emotional feel. "Come Back" is the stand out track with one of the most heart melting choruses I've heard in some time. A record to listen to whilst crying in to your ice cream, basically.

New Buffalo - I've Got You and You've Got Me (Song Of Contentment)
New Buffalo - Come Back

Buy Last Beautiful Day from Amazon

Edit: Turns out New Buffalo is just Sally Seltmann who created all the arrangements on this record. That's pretty fucking amazing and now I feel like a dick for not doing my research better.

The Waifs - A Brief History...

The Waifs certainly restore my faith in folk music every single time I hear them, and also in independent music. They are often hailed as "Australia's most successful independent band", and I suppose they are, having been personally chosen by Bob Dylan to open for him on tours and having gained undying fans the world over. All this without a record label to back them up is quite an achievement, but arguably the biggest achievement here is the connection they make with the audience. I always say (probably too often) that folk music is one genre that really does work best live, and it certainly comes across on this record. At last after some fantastic studio albums and one of the best live folk acts you can find, The Waifs put together a collection of live recordings of all their "hits" (if you can call them that), alongside a couple of top-notch covers. The result is the nearest thing to a Waifs show in your living room as you can get without them actually being there - althouh I'm sure they could probably be persuaded with some petrol money for their van and a few beers. Or, according to folklore, sambuka shots if you fancy Vikki Simpson crawling across your bar with Kiefer Sutherland. Just listen to the song, okay? It makes sense!

I just love this band. They put me straight back at Cambridge Folk Festival every single time. Or at least late-night at Cambridge Folk Festival, when everybody has had a few too many ciders and the instruments start appearing in the audience as well as onstage... I can't play any instruments but if you strain your ears then I'm sure you can hear my sort stamping their feet and singing very loudly.

Not all of The Waifs songs have the word 'crazy' in the title, I just really like these two tracks. 'Crazy Train' is, as they say themselves, pretty much The Waifs theme tune. 'Crazy/Circles' is a the last track on the album - a little combination of snippets and out-takes they couldn't fit in anywhere else, but somehow I think it sort of sums up what this band is about. Like I said about New England Roses, they're just friends having fun (or family having fun, in The Waifs' case) - only The Waifs do 'fun' in a slightly more musically adept way. Try not stamping your foot along to this! Live folk music at it's best, hands down.

The Waifs - Crazy Train
The Waifs - Crazy/Circles

Buy this album now from Amazon

Massive Attack vs Mad Professor - No Protection

No Protection is an album of dub remixes with the majority of the samples coming from Massive Attack's mid 90s album "Protection". The masters were handed over to the much respected dub musician Mad Professor and he completely took apart the album and put it back together so that "Protection" was now a bass-loop filled piece of dub ambiance. With Massive Attack being widely described as trip-hop or hip-hop or whatever, this reconstruction showed just how much of the band's sound came from reggae as Mad Professor's transformation made all the subtleties that went in to "Protection" a fair bit more clear.

So besides the short course in musical technicality written above, is their any reason to listen to "No Protection"? Yes, absolutely. I'd hate for you to think that I'm pointing this out simply because it's a cold, hard interesting piece of musical innovation. Mad Professor has also created one of the finest chill out albums I've heard. Something to sit back on the beach to, close your eyes and just let this bass driven reverb soaked dub, completely relax you.

Massive Attack vs Mad Professor - Radiation Ruling The Nation (Protection)
Massive Attack vs Mad Professor - Eternal Feedback (Sly)

Buy No Protection from Amazon

New England Roses - Face Time With Son

It does have to be said that I am a self-confessed Le Tigre geek (I know, I know... I am SUCH a teenage girl, it's disgusting) and I am also one of those creepy people that hunt down weird offshoots of their favourite bands. New England Roses is a side-project of Le Tigre's infamous JD Samson, with Brendan Fowler (aka. BARR, who incidentally sometimes plays alongside Matt and Kim who were reviewed on Big Static a short while back), and Sarah Shapiro who does solo folky stuff. How many lesbians does it take to change a lightbulb? Two. One to change it, and one to write a folk song about it. Ho ho.

So basically this album is what happens when some slightly eccentric but very fun friends get together and decide to make up some whacky songs and cover some unexpected classics, purely for the hell of it. Then somewhere along the line, they recorded them and now they're playing some shows, but I think it's fair to say that these shows probably won't be the most organised or polished of performances. But then, that's why this music is so great - there's nothing false or planned about New England Roses. They're just some friends making a racket and if you don't like it then just don't listen.

'Kids In The City' is my current theme tune for a variety of reasons, and anybody who doesn't smile when they hear this song deserves a good slap. 'Faith' is here because... it's a George Michael cover! A George Michael cover!! I never thought I'd say this but: "WTF?!"

New England Roses - Kids In The City
New England Roses - Faith

You can buy this album, a 7" and t-shirts from their label, Dogg and Pony, and they have a MySpace page.

T-Model Ford - Pee-Wee Get My Gun

I'm always going to be a sucker for this kind of set up. One seventy-five year old Mississippi resident who's spent large portions of his life in jail plays guitar and sings whilst a man who's perfectly happy to let his wife drag around an oxygen canister in one hand and hold a cigarette in the other plays a snare and bass drum. It's the simple stripped to the bones blues and T-Model himself is an unintentional mockery of the blues clique. Picture a blues player, I'll bet anything you just got the mental image of a man sitting on a stool with his acoustic guitar and gently strumming out his troubles. T-Model himself however is aggressive and with the exception of his one band mate, no one can stand to work with him. This record comes from Fat Possum's desire to dig through every shit hole in America and bring to the record buying public real slabs of gritty, soulful, honest, blues from people who really have lived the hard life. Nothing that the majority of people reading or writing for this page can really relate to but sure as hell can appreciate and enjoy.

T-Model Ford - Cut You Loose
T-Model Ford - Turkey And The Rabbit

Buy Pee-Wee Get My Gun from Amazon

Aspects - Correct English

If the name Aspects strikes you as familiar but you can't figure out where you've heard the name before, they are a set of the many rappers that have done guest vocals on previous DJ Format records. Format being a man that recruits musicians based purely on their skill and not any superficial reason, you can understand what to expect. A set of incredibly plain in appearance (one of them looks like my old Physics teacher) but incredibly proficient rappers. The more I think about it them more I consider Format records to be more of a showcase for his collection of rappers than an exercise in his own Disk jockeying. His loops and beats pride themselves on being simple and not overly imposing and therefore giving the rappers present a chance to really shine. You could consider the whole thing an act in hip-hop proficiency if the music wasn't so damn catchy.

So this is Aspects debut and probably finest record and it once again shows them as an incredibly skilled set of MCs. The one main problem I've seen many hip-hop obsessives complain about with Aspects and with the whole Format crew is the lyrical content. Not that it's possibly offensive, the exact opposite in fact. There's always going to be the issue of the toning down of a genre that was intended to be hard hitting and powerfully messaged to begin with. Whilst Aspects are happy to just wise crack, play with words and be lightly mocking, the argument could be made that they're toning down a genre to make it more palatable for people who might find the more aggressive hip-hop acts hard to swallow. But then there's that old phrase "would you rather be inside the tent pissing out or outside the tent pissing in" and with Aspects constantly mocking rappers who've chosen cash over artistic creativity, pimping a popular cartoon series at the expense of your records quality for example, it's easy to see the route that Aspects have taken.

Aspects - Top Choice
Aspects - Intrigue

Buy Correct English from Amazon UK

Unexpected bonus:
This is one of the DJ Format tracks featuring Aspects from his record "Music For The Mature B-Boy and to be honest, it's easily the best track. I've posted it before but that's long since expired and this hasn't become any less enjoyable since.

DJ Format feat Aspects - Charity Shop Soundclash

Buy Music For The Mature B-Boy from Amazon

Emmanuel Jal - Ceasefire

People who know me well know about my involvement with Amnesty International, and some will know that last weekend I went to their annual AGM Conference in Coventry. This was a pretty massive honour since only 30 youth members are invited from across the country, and it was easily one of the most life-changing weekends of my entire life.

One of the biggest privelages of the weekend was sitting in on a talk by Emmanuel Jal (and later hearing him perform), an ex-child soldier from Sudan, now turned rapper and voice for Africa's thousands of child-soldiers. I realise this sounds far-fetched but hear me out. Emmanuel was separated from his family when he was around 7 years old and found himself caught up in Sudan's civil war, and eventually found himself in the hands of an SPLA (Sudan People's Liberation Army - a rebel group) training camp in Ethiopia, where he was armed with a weapon taller than himself and taught how to fight. After the collapse of the SPLA, and having witnessed the killings of many of his fellow soldiers, Emmanuel walked home with hundreds of other young fighters. Over the 4000km journey they faced multiple mine-fields, attacks from aircrafts and other rebel groups, drought and starvation (in his talk, Jal admitted to having reached a point where he considered eating the dead bodies of his friends) and attacks from wild animals in the bush.

Worldwide, more than half a million children have been recruited into government armies, paramilitaries, civil militia and a various armed groups in over 85 countries. At any one time, more than 300,000 of these children are actively fighting in conflicts. Most of these children have witnessed or taken part in acts of unbelievable violence, often against their own families or communities, and female child soldiers are normally expected to provide sexual services as well as fight. Child soldiers are regularly used as "walls" to shelter the adult fighters who recruited them, or to clear land-mines. Most child soldiers find themselves recruited by accident, or are abducted from their homes, and there are countless stories of children being drugged so that they become dependent and therefore more willing to fight, or being forced to murder their families and friends so as to destroy any alliances with outsiders.

Emmanuel Jal was lucky. He was one of the very small group of survivors from the horrific journey back from his ordeal in the SPLA, and found himself being picked up by Emma McCune who smuggled him into Nairobi and provided him with education and a safe home before her tragic death. And all this before he was even taller than his gun (he admitted to not really having any clear idea of his actual age or date of birth). As he grew up, Emmanuel found his voice in music and has gone on to become one of Africa's most important musicians. I'm not even a particularly great fan of rap music, but I can honestly say that seeing him freestyling live with a samba band and 200 crazy Amnesty International reps shaking hand-made shakers and rattles, was probably one of the most surreal but amazing performances I've ever witnessed.

I know this post was a long one but I felt it was important. Everybody should buy his album and also check out the Amnesty International website to see how you can get involved in the various campaign actions. If anybody gets the chance, they should also try and make sure to see him live.

Emmanuel Jal - Gua

Thanks for reading,
Alice

Sonic Youth - EP Reissue

Sonic Youth's first ever EP has cunningly been ignored by the label and band, and even fans, almost for the bands entire existence. I had no idea this record ever existed (not that I would consider myself a die-hard fan at all, but I have a pretty clear overview of their discography to the best of my knowledge) until it was reissued very recently and a friend of mine lent me his brand spanking new copy.

I suppose it was ignored because it barely does justice to the band at all. However, in it's reissued state they have salvaged it with lots of remastering and more live bonus tracks than you could shake a stick at. It also comes with every added inlay and booklet extra you could think of, and if you're a fan of Sonic Youth then it's probably worth buying it just to have this insight into the bands first baby steps. It doesn't really matter that the recording quality and technique doesn't do justice to arguably one of America's most important bands of the last 20 years - everybody knows that this band has made some amazing albums, and everybody knows that every band has to start somewhere. Not for Sonic Youth newcomers, but an interesting addition to any fans collection, and a nice warm-up for their new album this Summer.

Sonic Youth - The Burning Spear
Sonic Youth - Destroyer (Live)

PS. Listen out for the electric drill on Burning Spear.
PPS. Some interesting trivia: the drummer on this record is Richard Edson, who plays the garage attendant in Ferris Buellers Day Off.
PPPS. You can buy this record on Amazon!

Morrissey - Ringleader Of The Tormentors

I'm not going to lie to you, I fucking hate Morrissey. Just look at the album artwork to the left. Is there anyone here who doesn't find his melodramatic pose to be, well, ridiculous? Then there's his inability to talk to the press without making statements on political subjects that he clearly knows precious little about and thus coming off as a pompous wanker and then such statements actually making it on to his records. Oh and let's not forget the Morrissey live show in which he plays in front of a huge brightly lit "Morrissey" sign (because I thought he was Jay-Z and was very confused when the Jigga man started playing "Irish Blood"). There's also the fact that I've enjoyed very little of his output since he went solo and I'd started really questioning his relevance after sitting through his last album.

So if I hate the man so much, why am I posting about his new record? Well, it's really undeniably solid. Yeah, it has elements of everything I hate about him as I'd expect but bar the occasional shut-up-you-morbid-bastard moment, most of my problems with the man are easy to overlook just because this record really is packed with good tunes. "You Have Killed Me" which I can't post as it's the new single, could easily have fit on to one of The Smiths better records with it's catchy as hell chorus and occasional moments of surprisingly powerful lyrics (I entered nothing/and nothing entered me). It's also good to see that he's called in the children's chorus to sing fairly disturbed lines just like "Hang The DJ" and the diverse use of instruments to fit the lyrical content on album opener "I Will See You In Far Off Places".

I guess this all coming from me is a pretty good sign of the album's quality. A guy who finds the man absolutely repellent still managed to really dig this record and even consider it as nearly on a par with his glorious earlier work. If he can keep making records this good he can make stupid statements about England not having enough room for immigrants all he wants.

Morrissey - I Will See You In Far Off Places
Morrissey - In The Future When All's Well

Buy Ringleader Of The Tormentors from Amazon

The Organ - Grab That Gun

So I should start with explaining why I haven't posted in a few days, but The Organ are my excuse why I haven't posted in a few days, so I suppose I don't need to. Basically, I've been being a total groupie and following them around on the leg of their European tour that took them around the south of England. I would have posted before it happened, as a "YOU MUST GO TO THIS" sort of thing, but I forgot. Sorry. If you missed out, then you really really really did miss out.

Before I saw them live, this band didn't really make sense to me. The obvious likenesses are The Smiths and Joy Division, but with girls, and as much as there will always be a space in my heart for both these bands, there's still something about hearing people attempting to recreate it years later that leaves me sort of cold. But I was invited to see them play a few shows and was put on the guest list, so I figured I'd give them a chance.

And I'm glad I did, because now The Organ have twice as much space in my heart as The Smiths and Joy Division put together. In fact, I've seen literally hundreds of bands live but I've rarely seen a band that creates such an intense atmosphere in a tiny venue. This music might not make sense to you straight away, so I strongly suggest that you prioritise seeing them live when they play in England next, and I promise you that you will absolutely adore it. If it does make sense straight away... well, you'll love it even more once you've seen it played out onstage.

The Organ - Brother
The Organ - No One Has Ever Looked So Dead

Buy merch/music and keep an eye on their tour dates on their official site and add them on MySpace

Eddie Izzard - Unrepeatable

Unrepeatable was recorded long before Izzard would reach his prime. On the recording we hear a slightly awkward but clearly very promising young standup working his "talking bollocks" shtick that would eventually become his trademark. His colored clothing forms an army, birds gather on people's lawns to freak out people who've just see The Birds and the absurdity of advertising is pointed out: "those two people use our product and they're shagging". He also shows an ability to easily shoot down the closed minded moronic attitudes of people who have a problem with his dress sense (that of a woman). The two tracks below are him lightly mocking the absurdity of his transvestite ways and how others perceive him because of it.

Eddie Izzard - Bloke In A Dress
Eddie Izzard - Does He Eat Crisps?

Buy Unrepeatable from Amazon

Fantomas - The Director's Cut

Towards the end of May, the first album from Peeping Tom will be released. It's said to be Patton's most commercially friendly album since his arena rock days in Faith No More. Patton claims it to be his take on pop music, which is a fairly decent justification for his re-entry of more easily palatable music. To add to this already great news, the list of people he'll be collaborating with is something else. Whilst tracks with favorites of mine such as Massive Attack and Kool Keith are bound to be amazing, there's also a song featuring the ever bland "jazz" musician, Norah Jones. I'll be posting some tracks up here as soon as my pre-order arrives (yes, I'm that much of a nerd).

Whilst I'm waiting for this exciting prospect to arrive in my mailbox, I figured now might be a good time to revisit one of my favorite of Patton's other projects. Fantomas features members of The Melvins, Mr Bungle and Slayer and they are dedicated to the skill of interpretation. Each record is generally the band playing with a concept or already existing piece of music. Last year's "Suspended Animation" saw them playing with cartoon like music whilst creating complex nonsense around the days of the calendar. The one track long "Delirium Cordia" saw them making a soundtrack of their own in a the-music-tells-a-story like way. However the most enjoyable release from the band so far has been their reworking of film soundtrack scores gathered on "The Director's Cut". Most of the tracks switch between a level of ambiance and completely unexpected but cleverly timed outbursts of violence that causes you to stay on your seat through the duration of the album. There's also some humor in the realization that under all this chaos that you're in fact listening to the theme from The Godfather.

Fantomas - The Godfather (Theme)
Fantomas - One Step Beyond
Fantomas - Henry: Portrait Of A Serial Killer

Buy The Director's Cut from Amazon

Dead Meadow - Shivering King And Others

It's my belief that there's a positive correlation between how much a band is clearly influenced by The Jesus & Mary Chain and Spacemen 3 and how good the quality of their music is. Dead Meadow understand this concept and with "Shivering King And Others", my favorite of their albums to date, they put the theory in to action. For Dead Meadow it's all about the distortion and walls of feedback that do their best to hide the decent melody underneath, much like the influences that they so clearly wear on their sleeves. How they set themselves apart however is their lack of desire to stop when any producer would tell them the song is long enough. Take "I Love You Too" for example. That song could easily be trimmed down to about three minutes but they know that practice would make them come off as any other run of the mill drone band. So they keep going, falling further in to distortion and chaos as they go. It's great music to relax to and just wash in the sound and it's great to pay heavy attention to and notice every little chord they hit.

Dead Meadow - I Love You Too
Dead Meadow - The Whirlings
Dead Meadow - Me And The Devil Blues

Buy Shivering King And Others from Amazon

Jesu - Silver

For those of you who don't read this page with anything that resembles regularity, Jesu's self titled debut LP was in my top ten records of last year and even as I discover records of 2005 that I was oblivious to when creating the list, that master class in warm guitar lead ambiance still maintains it's place.

So here we have Jesu's new EP and with it they've managed to give us a taste of what's in store on the next full-length as well as treating us to four tracks of warm, epic noise. As this blogs own writer, Kieran has said to me repeatedly, it's all in the production. I can't imagine Jesu working so well in studio work if it weren't for the masterful, crisp production that makes each track a labor of love and in that sense, Silver doesn't differ from the debut in the slightest. What has changed however is a new found sense of urgency. They're still happy to let tracks go on for over seven minutes but in each track we can now get a strong sense of drive that wasn't so present before. This is mainly created through the more obvious guitar elements as well as the songs having a faster tempo.

Silver is four tracks of semi-ambient majesty and so far the best soundscape inclusive record I've heard, this year.

Jesu - Silver

Buy Silver from Amazon

Roots Manuva

So grime is becoming a bit of an underground success in the US, right? I'm sure you're all having great fun having such fantastic hip-hop innovation like Lady Sovereign forced down your throat with all her fantastic lyrical structure, not to mention that lovely little voice she raps with that has all the charm of those girls that ask me to buy them cigarettes every time I walk past an offlicense or supermarket. Not to mock your choice in the artists you import from these parts, but if you want her, you can fucking have her. We do however, have some hip-hop musicians worth your time, and here's a fine example. I'm not really sure if he's getting much attention across the ocean but the UK rapper I'd get behind is the ever enjoyable Roots Manuva. Keeping an interesting blend of grimey urban realities as well as self consideration as the main focus in this lyrics and the use of spot on production to give proceedings a nice flow, Roots Manuva possesses the unusual talent of keeping both elitist vicious little hip-hop jerks happy whilst finding an audience in the middle-class kids who would generally find such a gritty slab of reality to be threatening. He's also got that too-cool-for-you London arrogance going that causes his music to give off that of a charming semi-intellectual instead of a moaning dweeb when the lyrics take the more philosophical turn. He's also a decent live act and a humorous read when he decides to do an interview.

Roots Manuva - Witness The Fitness
Roots Manuva - Colossal Insight
Roots Manuva - Awfully Deep

Pick up Roots Manuva's back catalogue from Amazon

Sunn O))) - Flight Of The Behemoth

Sunn O))) have only started appealing to me recently which is strange because I've owned Flight Of The Behemoth for years now. Upon first listen it just gave me a huge headache, mainly because I was listening to it whilst trying to do homework or whatever I did whilst listening to new music when I was fifteen. So on my CD shelf it lay for years. Gathering dust and looked past for other Southern Lord endorsed bands such as The Obsessed and Thrones. A few weeks ago I was urged by a friend to give it another try and take a different approach this time. I was told to lay on my bed with my eyes closed and my headphones on with this in my player and I was told it'd take me to a whole new place. It did. The land of Flight Of The Behemoth isn't a fun or relaxing place to visit. Mainly it's pretty disturbed and you keep expecting something horrible to happen to you. Getting attacked by a troll for example. However nothing bad does happen to you and you just seem to wander through a bleak plane of ill existence and nightmares. I'd advise you to take the above method of listening after downloading the track below. It's just a segment but it lets you know what you're in for. Oh, and check out their live show if you're in to dudes in robes making all glass within two hundred feet shatter.

Sunn O))) - Mocking Solemnity

Buy Flight Of The Behemoth from Amazon

p.s we got new hosting, no more of that yousendit crap for us.

Beehive & The Barracudas

No awesome new music has come my way over the last few days so here's some tracks from the two Beehive & The Barracudas records I own. For those of you who haven't been down with the 'Cudas for years now, they are the hard rockin' side project from members of Rocket From The Crypt and Hot Snakes. I suppose given that this band are the more light hearted offshoot of a much more poker faced pair of bands, they're therefore easily comparable to Eagles Of Death Metal. However, at no point would I call them "ironic". People seem to have trouble telling the difference between ironic and light hearted. I doubt either of Beehive or EODM do what they do as some kind of ironic joke that only the mentally superior are supposed to get. They do it because they enjoy it and more power to 'em. It's party music. Try playing a Clap Your Hands Say Yeah record at a party and see what kind of response you get.

Anyhoo, both records are fairly different. "In Dark Love" is more of a slow paced ditty whilst "Plastic Soul" is far more guitar driven and a slight bit more over the top. If "Real Blue Flame" doesn't get everyone around you moving then a new crowd might be an idea.

Taken from "In Dark Love"
Beehive & The Barracudas - Black Dove
Beehive & The Barracudas - Action

Taken from "Plastic Soul with The White Apes"
Beehive & The Barracudas - The Real Blue Flame
Beehive & The Barracudas - Cooped Up Like A Slave

(still yousendit I'm afraid and thus now expired)

Buy Beehive & The Barracudas back catalogue from Amazon.

Jackie Leven - For Peace Comes Dropping Slow

Jackie Leven used to share a house with my parents back when they all had long hair and were hippies, which is why his music has been as big a part of my growing up as... I don't know... growth. So I suppose I am pretty biased when I say that he is, without a doubt, absolutely incredible - but to be honest, it's true. Jackie is a heavy-drinking bad-mouthed ex-junkie Scotsman who was in a very successfull rock and roll band called Doll By Doll. Yet despite his colourful history, and possibly aided by his colourful history, he creates very delicate and intense folk music, with beautiful lyrics to match. He was hit in the throat during a pub brawl some years ago, and for a long time he could barely talk, let alone sing, and spiralled into depression and drug-use. But out of this he has recovered into easily one of the most talented and impressive musicians on the UK folk scene. You get the feeling that, if he wanted, he could probably be very famous - but he prefers to play little pubs where he can sit in the corner drinking pints of vodka and telling dirty stories between songs.

I've chosen to use the opening song from one his live albums because, as I feel with most folk music, however good the studio albums are - the live ones are always that bit more powerful.

I should mention that there would be more mp3s in this blog if the hosting service was working properly. As it is, I am posting just one song - but then it is quite long and technically is comprised of three songs... so enjoy.

Jesus Bodybuilder Blues / Cocaine Blues / Cannot Keep From Crying

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Irving - Death In The Garden Blood On The Flowers

After a few casual listens to "Death In The Garden.." I've decided that the album is mainly made up of two types of songs. The first type involves them sounding no different to every generic "indy" rock band and in this half of the album there's little to hold your attention. However the second set of songs pretty much sound like Bonnie "Prince" Billy meets Bauhaus with a touch of semi fruity Pet Shop Boys synth thrown in for good measure. In other words, music to sit in a dark room, chain smoking and feeling ever so bleak to whilst still having a slight element of groove left in you. As these songs haven't been set apart from each other, it almost feels like you're being given a break in between each little piece of emoting, heart broken rambling and thus giveing those slabs of mediocre boredom some point to the continuity of the album. I'm not sure that's how Irving intended it, but that's how it worked out.

Irving - She's Not Shy
Irving - I'll Write the Song, You Sing For Me
(yousendit links)

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Buy Death In The Garden Blood On The Flowers from Amazon

Nation Of Ulysses - 13 Point Program To Destroy America

Despite it's near removal from the ten minute lecture on punk in the 80s, there was an explosion of bands from D.C as the original importance of hardcore was coming to a close. These bands took the fundamental elements of 80s hardcore and turned the lyrical meaning to that of an inward thinking and political vibe. This new explosion was dubbed "emo" (emotive-hardcore) as a mocking way of describing these bands transition from straight out fast as hell projecting to this new way of looking at the genre. The term is completely hated by most members of said bands and when questioned about said term to this day, they are derisive and hateful towards the term.

Now, with the brief lecture out of the way, I'd like to put this scene in to a modern perspective. How many of said bands still hold any relevance or enjoyment for the casual listener? The most widely recognized of the scene, Rites Of Spring have not stood up well at all. Whilst they have generally received much credit as being the pioneers of said scene, this is mainly pointed out by people my age and thus are far from reliable sources of knowledge as, like me, they can only give you a textbook explanation. Rites Of Spring's music is actually quite a chore to listen to and with the exception of the undenaibly decent "For Want Of", have few memorable qualities. Ian Mackaye's Embrace completely pail in comparison to his later works with Fugazi and earlier works with Minor Threat. Dag Nasty, whilst in their time completely relevant nowadays just give off a horrible "stop moaning" quality. Moss Icon and Mohinder still stand up well enough but the band from the 80s D.C "emo" time that still manage to give off an enjoyable and powerful feel are Nation Of Ulysses. Whilst many of their contemporaries tended to give off a sluggish and overly wordy vibe, NOL managed to stay fast and to the point with a much more cleverly thought out song structure and the odd decent melody. They are probably the most enjoyable band from said and to break out that fantastic clique, still pretty relevant.

Nation Of Ulysses - Spectra Sonic Sound
Nation Of Ulysses - Aspirin Kid
Nation Of Ulysses - Target: USA

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Buy 13 Point Program To Destroy America from Amazon

P.S. We're currently in the process of changing our mp3 hosting and thus all files are yousendit links. This will stay the case for the next week or so.

Brad Hamers - The Cut-Ups Of A Paper Woman

Brad Hamers is one half of the hip-hop duo Phlegm, who are great themselves - but that's a different story entirely. His first solo record is fantastic - it comes with a 16 page booklet of artwork and lyrics, but then the lyrics are artwork in themselves. Brad Hamers doesn't rap about the first things that are so stereotypically associated with rappers; there's no Bloods or Crips or hookers in this record, which unsurprisingly makes it easier to relate to it (if you're a white suburban brit, that is). Actually... maybe that could be held against it... but whatever, this record is incredible. Definitely a must for fans of Phlegm, DJ Shadow, Busdriver, Ninja Tunes Records, cLOUDDEAD and all those other amazing alternative hip-hop artists floating around out there at the moment.

You can get hold of this record here. Make sure you do!

Half World
a. Sinking Summer Boat / b. Water Drops And Record Pops

Heavenly - The Decline And Fall Of Heavenly

"The Decline And Fall Of Heavenly" was Heavenly's second and probably best record. Released in the mid 90s, the band were considered somewhat of an oddity as they mixed a basic pop sensibility with the use of dark lyricism which clashes with happy, bouncy element to the music throughout the entire record. Almost as if the music was there as some kind of sarcastic mockery to make the lyrical subject matter that little bit more awkward to listen to. Generally songs were concerned with subjects such as heart break, abusive relationships and generally plowed through romance as if having any attraction towards the opposite sex was a fundamental mistake. Due to some clever crisp production and the ever increasing demand for good indy pop, this album hasn't lost it's charm of relevance or ability to confuse over a decade since it's release.

Heavenly - Me And My Madness
Heavenly - Modestic
(mp3s are yousendit links until our hosting stops playing up)

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Buy The Decline And Fall Of Heavenly from Amazon.

Witch - S/T

If I've said it once, I've said it a thousand times, stoner rock is a school of music that's easy to play but pretty freakin' hard to make interesting. Witch's self titled debut manages to pull off that awkward agenda and have thus produced a rather gripping seven track sludge fest. But then, when you've got J Mascis on drums, you know it must be good to have held that damn slacker's attention throughout the creation of an entire album. Although it would be too easy to spend this whole write up talking about the inclusion of said infamous genius/wanker, the drumming can only really be described as decent. It does the job, keeps the other instruments together and gives the whole thing a nice rhythm, what drummers are supposed to do basically. What really stands out here is the blend between the almost shoegaze like vocals and the predictable yet not redundant, Iommi infused guitar work. Imagine Sabbath with Jim Reid singing and a generally more together nature (although they are prone to the odd few minutes of wandering) and you've got this band figured. You could argue that this is a stoner album for people who don't really like stoner. This album has the ever enjoyable rock out qualities with the touch of hipster cool being supplied in the vocals.

Witch - Seer
Witch - Hand Of Glory

Buy Witch's self titled new album from Amazon