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The video for the brilliant Casual Sex's Nothing on Earth has just been unveiled. The track finds them channeling late-70s New York Mutant Disco to the backdrop of a nocturnal Glasgow. The song is taken from their forthcoming The Bastard Beat EP , to be released on We Can Still Picnic and launched on 22 November at Nice'N'Sleazy. Check. It. Out.
Tomorrow (21 March), not one but three of Scotland's finest artists will grace the stage at The Caves. FOUND and "Falkirk's answer to Barry White" (not our words - FOUND's Ziggy Campbell there, although he does have a point), Mr Aidan John Moffat, have previously collaborated on the experimental #UNRAVEL project (video below) and the latter has just released a new album in his L. Pierre guise, so who knows what could happen. King Creosote is of course the fine purveyor of his own brand of pop-infused folk (or should that be folk-infused pop?) and head honcho of Anstruther's Fence Records. Not only that but it's free, with entry on a first-come-first-served basis, so there are no excuses really. Check it out.
#UNRAVEL is a new collaboration by FOUND + Aidan Moffat on the reliability of memory. This is a 3 minute documentary featuring the artists explaining the project. www.unravelproject.com
Everyone's favourite reprobate (well, almost everyone...) Mark Edward Smith turns 56 years of age today, and he doesn't look a day over... Um... Errr... Actually, scrap that.
Anyway, Mr Smith is one of the finest lyricists this country has ever produced and his ever-changing band The Fall continue to exert considerable influence on many artists, young and old. So, why not take a moment to reflect on how much we still need the man by reading an interview where he manages to actually quite charming, or by remembering his attack on execrable Cameronite dung-mongerers Mumford & Sons? Or, why not let the music speak (decry, declaim, slur and spout) for itself (see below)?
Whatever you do, please join us in wishing a very happy birthday to the one and only Mark E. Smith.
From their debut album "Live At The Witch Trials" 1979
The Fall "Kicker Conspiracy" from the dvd "PERVERTED BY LANGUAGE BIS/LIVE AT LEEDS"
Everyone knows that Savages are the most exciting band in Britain, and with little more than a 7", a live EP and a string of coruscating live performances (including an appearance on Later...with Jools Holland) to their name. They've just announced a short UK tour for May here. SAVAGES' superlative label, Pop Noire, has also announced the debut release from HTB:
"HTB is an improvisation trio by Johnny Hostile, Gemma Thompson and Jehnny Beth. Each piece of music is recorded with the members performing simultaneously in three separate rooms – Hostile and Thompson creating the natural soundtrack to Beth’s spoken words. In this context, the musicians only rely on what they hear and react to one another spontaneously. Each track was left exactly as it was performed. Gemma Thompson and Jehnny Beth are also members of the London quartet ‘SAVAGES‘. Johnny Hostile is a musician and producer who previously worked on LESCOP, SAVAGES and John & Jehn albums. Jehnny Beth and Johnny Hostile are co-founders of Pop Noire records."
To promote the forthcoming release a video of SAVAGES first trip to New York City, shot by Nathan Corbin, has been posted on YouTube. HTB's disorientating and atonal Brid contrasts with imagery from the shows with haunting results. All of Pop Noire's output thus far has been impeccable - HTB certainly look likely to follow suit. They play their debut gig on 27 March at Corsica Studios. As for SAVAGES... Well, we'll see you down the front at the Glasgow gig on 2 May.
Watch in 720p. 'Here is one director's take on the London band Savages - Nathan Corbin filmed the quartet on their first time in New York City, NY, 2012. Soundtrack : 'Brid' by Savages' side-project HTB (HostileThompsonBeth) - HTB is an improvisation trio by Johnny Hostile, Gemma Thompson and Jehnny Beth.'
On Saturday we went to see The Lyceum’s production of Shelagh Delaney’s play A Taste of Honey. There were some fine performances (particularly from Lucy Black, who plays Jo’s witty yet neglectful mother), but we left the theatre unconvinced: this was a fairly entertaining piece of work, but it didn’t have the freshness and resonance we had been hoping for. If anything, it reminded us how convincing Tony Richardson’s film version (from 1961) really was:
Jo feeling depressed. Geoff tries to help. Great scene from 'A Taste Of Honey' (1961). From the film by Tony Richardson. Based on the play by Shelagh Delaney. One of the best dramas to come out of the British New Wave/kitchen sink movement of the 1950's and 1960's.
Far from being the gritty, ‘kitchen sink’ drama it is often (and lazily) described as, the film manages to be a sharp and at times extremely funny portrait of how fragile relationships can really be. A talented and underrated writer (check out her other play The Lion in Love and her collection of short stories Sweetly Sings The Donkey), Shelagh Delaney was clearly a massive influence on the young Morrissey:
Música.
A Taste of Honey runs at The Lyceum until Saturday 9th February.
Influential (arguably, post-)punk band Wire announced late last year that they have a new album coming out on 25 March, entitled Change Becomes Us, on their own Pink Flag label. Their semi-namesake The Wire also reports that a ‘huge’ book - Wilson Neate's Read & Burn: A Book About Wire - is to be released the same month. Special bundles of the new album and book can be pre-ordered in a variety of combinations on Pink Flag’s webshop. There’s a preview of the new record, and a reminder of an old classic, below.
Track One from the forthcoming Wire album "Change Becomes Us"
In an act of contrition I lay down by your side It's not your place to comment On my state of distress For this is for real I've tears in my eyes Am I laughing or crying?
We’re sure you’ve all heard about the trouble that HMV has found itself in recently, and while it looks like it may yet survive, there’s been little mention of the fate of a shop beloved of many music and cinema fans – Fopp. A chain of music shops that began as a market stall in Glasgow in 1981, Fopp was bought by HMV in 2007 after rapid expansion led to them closing down. There’s a campaign on Facebook calling for the survival of Fopp, and its reinstatement as an independent chain (if that isn’t an oxymoron).
We might be suffering from intermittent reader’s block, but we are determined to carry on with our Ulysses challenge. We’ve put up with the unbearable Buck Mulligan, listened to Stephen Dedalus’ philosophical and political meanderings, and we are now getting to know ‘Ulysses’ himself, Leopold Bloom. We’ll keep you posted about our thoughts. In the meantime we’ll leave you with Paulo Coelho’s scathing attack, and this rather amusing (and in some ways reassuring) blog from The Spectator. Feel free to drop us a line to discuss the above article, the book or to join our challenge.
Find out more & pre-order now from http://www.NickCave.com The new album coming February 18, 2013 Filmed and directed by Iain Forsyth & Jane Pollard Editor: Matt Nee | Colourist: Vic Parker
Exciting news today as Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds have announced the release of their 15th studio album, Push The Sky Away. The follow up to the playful Dig, Lazarus, Dig!!!, and their first since the departure of founding member Mick Harvey, will be released on 18 February 2013 on the usual formats, as well as the de rigueur 'super deluxe' box set.
Welcome to our inaugural Freitag. Every Friday we'll be posting links to news, articles, media, events and other assorted sources of distraction that we've unearthed through the week. Topics this week include: Jonathan Meades (via The Quietus), Francis Bacon (via The Guardian), Ealing Studios (via the BFI), Alfred Hitchcock (via the FIlmhouse), Avalanche Records and Veronica Falls.
Read MoreThis is the trailer for the great Scott Walker’s new album Bish Bosch, out on 4AD on 3 December. We are VERY excited about this album, to say this least. Both an essay on the enduring appeal of the enigmatic Mr Engel and an in-depth review of Bish Bosch will be on the site soon.
Trailer for Bish Bosch, the forthcoming album from Scott Walker, released 4th December 2012.
Another tantalising taster:
a trailer for scott walker's new album Bish Bosch
