COSMETICS

Cosmetics are great, one for fans of Glass Candy and Chromatics for sure.

COSMETICS - BLACK LEATHER GLOVES

SCARS

I haven't had much time to devote to this blog so I will try and update a little more from now on.

Scars were an awesome band from Scotland in the early 80's who often get overlooked when people talk about Orange Juice, Josef K, the Fire Engines and that Postcard scene. If you like the aforementioned bands and new stuff like Veronica Falls or Sea Lions then your bound to be into it. Click on the artwork to download one of their classic singles, the A-side of which 'Horrorshow' was sampled by Lemon Jelly recently so may be familiar-sounding.

Here's a pretty vitriolic but entertaining bio that they have up on their myspace;

Chances are that you won't remember post-punk band Scars. Their moment in the sun was both tragically and gloriously brief. They stormed out of Edinburgh in the early 1980s possessed of equal parts glam audacity, art-rock solemnity and futuristic zeal. They were roundly hailed as the next great white musical hope. Two Peel sessions and a handful of music-paper covers later, they vanished in a fog of egotism and frustrated desires. But not before they delivered their one and only album, 1981's maddeningly beautiful Author! Author!
In the intervening years, Scars have been effectively forgotten. Years ago, Mark E Smith namechecked them as his favourite band ("because they were the complete opposite of the Fall"), and more recently, Lemon Jelly briefly raised Scars' profile by sampling them on their '64-'95 album. But despite guitarist Paul Research's sterling efforts to keep the name alive on his Scars website, the band appeared to be permanently consigned to the dustbin of history. Even in Simon Reynolds' supposedly "encyclopaedic" post-punk history, Rip it Up & Start Again, Scars merit only the most fleeting of mentions. Tosser. Meanwhile, down the last 25 years, every other once-forgotten band of their era has been either endlessly repackaged and/or critically rehabilitated to enable them to enjoy an extension on their fifteen minutes by virtue of their appearance on a thousand and one dodgy service-station compilations. As for Scars, their fate has hardly been helped by the convoluted copyright situation that has held up the reissue of Author! Author! for all these years. Now that it's finally out and sounding as edgy and lovely as it always did, maybe the band can finally enjoy some of the critical and commercial acclaim that has long been denied them.

On a similar token anyone know if the Sound of Young Scotland documentary's ever going to come out? Trailer here

Joel

UPCOMING

Stuff in Nottingham

Oct 30th
DESOLATION WILDERNESS, (K Records)
SPECTRALS (Captured Tracks)
BLACK RAT (Pub Pop)
At The Central
£5

Oct 31st
Exalt Exalt Horror Disco with
BOTTIN (Italians Do It Better / Bearfunk)
ZARCORP (Late of the Pier)
Prufrock
William Anthony
Matt Exalt
At The Bodega
£5 adv

Nov 1st
THANK YOU (Thrill Jockey)
JO ROBERTSON AND MATTHEW ASHWORTH
THE EXPLOITS OF ELAINE
DRIED SINS
At The Chameleon
£4 adv

Nov 2nd
Liars Club with
COLD CAVE
FACTORY FLOOR
At the Bodega
£5


If anyone wants to send me any music that they would like considered for feature on here or the vice blog just email Jwawright@googlemail.com.


Joel

UPCOMING!

Loads of stuff coming up in Nottingham - Check it out....

September 23rd:

w/ New Weird Nottingham

NODZZZ

LOVVERS

TEEN SHEIKHS

£6 adv

The Chameleon Arts Cafe

8pm Doors

September 28th:

w/ Liars Club

NITE JEWEL

Plus guests

£5 adv

The Chameleon Arts Cafe

8pm doors

October 30th:

w/ out of the woods...

DESOLATION WILDERNESS (K Records)

SPECTRALS

£5 adv

Venue tbc

8pm doors

November 1st:

w/ New Weird Nottingham

THANK YOU (Thrill Jockey)

Plus guests

£5

The Chameleon Arts Cafe

8pm Doors

Tickets will be available from Anarchy Records and www.gigantic.com for all these shows eventually. 

If you are a local band wanting to get on one of these shows email Jwawright@googlemail.com 

WEIRDAPALOOZA

So I've been away for too long writing blogs for Vice, neglecting this blog. Well I'm back now. Rejoice! 

We've got a very exciting event coming up in Nottingham...

New Weird Nottingham/Care In The Community/Three Cheers
Present

WEIRDAPALOOZA

STRANGE BOYS
The Strange Boys come on like a mid-'60s Rolling Stones messed over by the Black Lips; all major keys and jangling guitars, but with a filthy agenda.
NME: 8/10
THIS BAND ARE SO AWESOME!
Releases on In The Red...
http://www.myspace.com/thestrangeboys

LOVVERS
Hometown heroes return after 2nd US tour to celebrate the release of their debut LP OCD GO GO GO GIRLS. Expect a lot of jiving.
http://www.myspace.com/letscommunicate

MALE BONDING
to quote the vivians ‘they’re like if three dudes from pre were obsessed with nirvana.’ yup. or like sonic youth with tunes. which is what i want from sonic youth these days as they’re getting really goddam boring. write a two and a half minute nugget of shiny pop squall please kim and thurston. in fact you don’t need to since male bonding beat you to it. chumps. anyway this is ace. (Cowsarejustfood)
http://www.myspace.com/malebonding

TEEN SHEIKHS

THEY FUCKIN' RULE STRAIGHT GOOD TIME ROCK'N'ROLL, OK, I'LL DROP THE REFERENCES I CAME UP WITH AGAIN, IE: BIG STAR, REPLACEMENTS, MAYBE EVEN SOME HÜSKER DÜ.
(Black Mamba Beat)
http://www.myspace.com/proteensheikhs

THE HIPSHAKES
Blistering UK teenpunk angst, straight from the garage -- blares so loud that we applied a warning label for your speakers. Fans of GG ALLIN, GUITAR WOLF, OBLIVIANS, REATARDS, KBD, take note! (Slovenly Goner Records Releases)
http://www.myspace.com/thehipshakes

THE DISSOLUTES
Drunkest, sloppiest, tightest, craziest garage band ever to come from Worcesters fair streets. 
http://www.myspace.com/thedissolutesuk

GUILTY PARENTS
Nottingham three piece punk slime. Featuring best facial hair since ZZ top.
http://www.myspace.com/guiltyparents

Plus Djing from Sex is Disgusting, Three Cheers, William Withers, NWN & lots more.

And a BBQ

And Distro Stalls

And other stalls - message us if you want to do something!

"Wow isn't that less than a pound a band?"

"Yes, wow that's so cheap."

"Yes, yes it is."

The Bodega Social
16th August
5pm
£6 advance tickets

http://gigantic.com/gigantic/home_the_strange_boys.html

LITTLE KIDS LOOKING FOR SOMETHING TO DO

AUDACITY

Four Californians with short attention spans...

A fittingly succinct interview below plus you can download slop pop anthem "Teenage Town" off their first record "Power Drowning." (Available from Burger Records.)

How did Audacity Come together?

the band started in sixth grade (2001) w/ kyle matt and two other guys. during high school cameron and thomas joined and were much better fits. the other two quit due to religious and girlfriend issues, as we are an anti-god and anti-girl band. this all took place in fullerton california (north orange county)

What were your primary reasons/influences for starting the band?

when we began we didn't have much as far as influences, we just made what we thought music should sound like. the only emphasis we had was on making original and creative music. these first few years we only practiced and played our own birthday parties and school carnivals/talent shows. everyone made fun of us, but these were our awkward years, and in high school we lost our innocence thanks to Thee makeout party! . some early influences were

"a wizard, a true star",



Mission of Burma,



The Modern Lovers,



"pink flag".



but when we started it was just cause we were little kids looking for something to do.

Along with Thee Makeout Party, what modern bands are you currently into?

modern bands like

The Rantouls,



Danger Strangers,



White Night,



Nobunny,



Bad Antics,



The Tuberculosis Boys,



ANYTHING ON BURGER RECORDS




Have you got any plans to release / tour in Europe and the UK?

we're tryin to get to europe, hopefully next year.

See you then.

AUDACITY - TEENAGE TOWN

INCOMING

Last weekend was great - Mika Miko's show at the chameleon is perhaps best illustrated by this picture.



SPEX FEST was even better:

LOVVERS



SHITTY LIMITS



TIMES NEW VIKING



TELEPATHE



All the bands were good, but my personal favourites were Times New Viking and Lovvers, both of these played lots of new material and it ruled!

Dot to Dot is on Saturday and I will mostly be watching Abe Vigoda, Vivian Girls, Titus Andronicus & Crystal Stilts.

Forthcoming Three Cheers Shows:

JEREMY JAY / GHOSTS / POPPY SEED

I will be going to London for 2 months after this so this is something of a going-away party!



FINALLY PUNK / THE STICKS / PRIZE PETS



1st July
The Chameleon
£5 O.T.D.
8pm Doors


Could be some more exciting stuff to announce soon!

x

NODZZZ

The Nodzzz LP is one of my personal favourite records of the past few months, packing in 10 perfect pop songs in under 15 minutes. It's also well worth checking out the should-have-been summer smash "I Don't Wanna (Smoke Marijuana) which you can listen to on their myspace. While trying to sort out which Nodzzz mp3 it was cool to put up for download over at the Vice Blog, I ended up chatting to singer/guitarist Anthony Atlas on gmail chat which turned into this interview which I've edited to get rid of the inevitable gmail foibles.

So I guess we should start with How did Nodzzz come about?

I grew up in new jersey with the first drummer pete. we were in bands together from 6th grade, onward into high school. i met Sean Paul at college in Olympia. he coached the student club baseball team, which I played on. we did a band too. later me, sean paul, and pete (the first drummer), all lived in San Francisco so it was a natural, easy thing to start.

Were you listening to a lot of same bands / going to the same shows as well?

I probably met pete on the playground in middle school, and sean paul at the college sporting field. but we all had similar taste in music, yeah. Sean Paul introduced me to a wider, non-college community in Olympia, that involved more house shows and stuff. He had lived there a little longer than i had.

Did those house shows directly influence the sound of Nodzzz?

There's an ideal environment we envision our music operating in, which probably resembles the music scene we were part of in Olympia closer than anything else we know of.

So were you in other bands then?

I was in a band called Study Buddies, which oddly and beautifully became Gun Outfit when I moved to Oakland.
Sean and I did a weird band called Vacation, too.
And I was in two other sporadic bands called Kamp Willies, and Breech Boys

Kamp Willies?

yeah, you get the willies when you go to camp
kamp willies is what my grandparents got during WW2

What are your top Five Records that relate to the music you make with Nodzzz?

Cool question
lets see
A Date With the Everly Brothers

harmonies
amazing

Bob Dylan "Basement Tapes"

It's a big big big record for Sean Paul. He knows every word.
I love it too, but his heart pumps that record.

my dad's a dylan obsessive, I'm a big fan too

Yeah, like one of the heavy ones
weird i noticed the other bands put dylan too
i guess that's not too weird because he's the best

Gun Club "fire of love"

i'm answering that one for sean and Eric
who seem to love it so much and jam the songs at practice
i dig it okay. but it resonates with their southern california upbringing

becoming obsessed with Felt lately, so
Felt - "forever breathes the lonely word"

pop mind candy

The Kinks - Something Else

kinks

fuck fuck
The Feelies - Crazy Rhythms

that's huge!

did you ever hear Denim? guy from Felts other band?

haha denim is nuts right
i have their music on my computer but havent listened to it yet



Denim's not so good compared to felt

it's still amazing though!
lawrence pretending he's not some hopelessly OCD fuck-up
total pop posturing it seems

yeah have you read much about him?

i just now he had a deep emotional aversion to other people's excrement
is that true?

yeah, I've read that too.

a sad legacy for such a prolific and sensitive artist!
there's a felt lyric i read the other day, which reminded me of it.
let me see if i can find it

I thought I had read it in the Rip it up and start again book

oh wow, is there a felt chapter

I think so, I can't find it though, its a good read anyway

i just sent you a cool unreleased felt tune

Felt - When The Dawn Start's Creeping In

What are the Top 5 recent bands you’ve got into?

Grass Widow

We share a practice space with them, and our drummer helped put out the record on his label. It's the best. Dynamic, and moving post-punk.

Brilliant Colors.

They have two 7"s. Also share a practice space with us, and, with Grass Widow, are the other best band in San Francisco.

Broken Strings

A bizarre limited edition LP on True Panther of a recording from 2006 by Adam Croce, who now plays in Rainbow Bridge. Entirely felt and genuine bedroom-pop, whatever that is.

Gun Outfit

From Olympia, Washington. They have a 7" and a 12" on PPM, and each is a unique world and a great record. Brilliant, moving lyrics, interlocked guitars, and a powerful sound.

Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti.

He's found a wonderful group of musicians to back his songs lately, and their recent version of his song "phantashtma” is proof of it." i'm excessively enthusiastic about bands right now. Things are good in music here

Do you feel that there's been a lot more great bands coming out of America recently or have people just finally started taking more notice?

I think it's a synchronistic emergence of great bands, but it's developed alongside a "horribly incorrect music market", as my friend put it. any recognition of quality bands comes out of the unbelievable mountain of shit in mainstream music culture. and the quality is probably due to people feeling that they had to sustain and develop a legit music community on a small level and devote themselves to it.

If there was one thing you could change about the music industry what would it be? you can have more than one thing

hmm. i was just laid off from a record store job, so i can answer this in a personal way, or in a more detached way. Ideally, a music culture i would like to be part of would be slower. bands would feel little pressure to pump new product out to meet demands, at the cost of quality.
the transmission of ideas and songs is whats important between people, there's so much that distracts from that, that it gets disheartening.

Like hype / marketing?

Yeah, marketing its unavoidable and necessary but i want pop music to be equivalent with a village bon-fire or afternoon tea with friends. I get stressed when i see the opposite happening.

When bands get bigger I guess it becomes harder for that community feel

That's true, an obvious toss up, I suppose.

What are your ambitions beside making music:

I also do visual art, and graphic design. A fusion of those two fields is likely where I'll find myself making a living, if I can get it together. I love looking at old poetry books, and art-related graphics. Book and record design, I'm after things like that. Early work by Joe Brainard, Jim Dine, and George Scheeman convinces me that there must be a playful, low-stakes way of living the artist's life.

Who or what inspired you to start making music when you were young?

Not entirely sure. There was a grand-piano in my living room, but I could never figure out how to play it in any way that satisfied me. I'm not a "natural" when it comes to music, and my approach to it is more verbal, if anything. I got into punk music at age 10, and went to hundreds of shows before I graduated high school. Music was an easy and excited upbringing which happened before I was even really conscious of it.

Finally have you any plans to tour over in Europe and the UK?

Yes, yes. We're going to Europe in September. I've never been there. The majority of the dates will be in the UK.

Nodzzz - Is She There?

The Nodzzz LP is available here at the What's Your Rupture website.

Thanks Anthony!

UNEMPLOYMENT FOREVER

Another Band from Portland.....

(part of this originally posted on the Vice website)

Meth Teeth are;

Mattey-guitar,vocals.

Kyle-drums,vocals.

Fischmann-Guitar

How did Meth Teeth come together?

Meth Teeth came about when I quit one really frustrating band.Then another band I had worked really hard on fell apart. I was sick of bands and especially band mates. I become really interested in folk music and just wanted to write songs on my own and play them just for my friends. Exactly two years ago today I had my first show in a friends basement and invited some people to come play with me. That line up included a violin and a piano and was all acoustic. Then Kyle from Leper Print (our drummer) moved to Portland to go to art school on a Sub Pop Records scholarship. He had my really early demos and suggested that just me and him re-record the songs really blown out like an old Pussy Galore record or something. The folk vibe mixed with the lo-fi of our favorite noise and punk records seemed to work really well for the songs. We practiced once and then recorded the songs the next day on a cassette 8 track run through a karaoke machine. There was a layer of tape hiss on it so loud over it that when we would show it to people and they would listen and just look kinda confused. We really dug it though. That recording would later become our first 7''.

There's quite a few great bands coming out of portland at the moment, Eat Skull, The Whines, Rapid Youth were you inspired by them / are they friends of yours?

Portland's always been rich with amazing and original music. The Wipers, Dead Moon, Poison Idea etc. Bobby from the Whines and Rob from Eat Skulls house isn't too far from me. I wake up on their couch every once and a while and we've all played lots of shows together in town. I hadn't heard either of their bands when I started this project so I wasn't really inspired by them specifically but Rob and Rod (sp?) from Eat skull were in a band called The Hospitals earlier that I was listening to a lot when me and Kyle got started on stuff.

Rapid Youth is actually from Southern California though they have links to Portland. Those kids are funny as hell. One time I watched the vegan kid eat a pepperoni pizza that we pulled out of a dumpster when he was drunk. So awesome.

The tambourine's refreshingly loud on your recordings, similar to some sixties bands, notably the Beatles! Was this a conscious decision?

All we have is a set of really old, beat to shit drums that may or may not have been stolen by the dude i bought um off. We don't know anything about tuning them and have no money for new heads so we strapped a tambourine to the snare drum with a necktie to make it more audible.

All-time Top Five records?

Beck - One foot in the Grave
I bought this record when I was 12 and I still love it. Really laid back, weird-o folk stuff. Don't really care for any of his other records so much. This one is amazing though.



Bob Dylan - Another Side of Bob Dylan
I had to sell all my records once to pay rent and they wouldn't buy this one off of me. It was all I had left so I listened to it over and over on repeat. I heard he didn't want this record to be released but was bound by contract or something. Also, I heard he was sick of playing the role protest tune songwriter at the time so there are no 'the times are a changin" crap. For some reason this record of his really got me.



The Jesus and Mary Chain - Psychocandy
Very sweet, wall of sound-ish and almost 60's girl group songwriting mixed with brutal feedback. Pretty much perfect.



Pussy Galore- last show LP released as Live:In the red.
Part noise, part garage rock. Led by Jon Spencer of Blues Explosion. A cool twist on the 80's,NY scene- No Wave ideas they were surrounded by in their day. Drummer plays a trash can instead of a snare drum!



Neil Young - After The Goldrush
...He writes writes the best bummer songs ever. Listening to it right now



Any plans for a UK tour or record being released over here?

Fly us over and we will play! haha. No UK releases planned at the moment. Oh wait, there is a re-release of our 4 song tour tape that we put out last summer. But this time it's being released as a spilt with two other bands. They are Male Bonding and Mazes and that coming out on Split Tapes London any day now.

Who or what inspired you to start making music?

Portland's annual eight months of darkness and rain take their toll. Boredom and insanity as a result of that have a lot to do with this towns music. Kind of a generic "Portland" answer to your question but move here and you'll see it's no joke.

When's the LP out
Late June/early July. Stoked!

Meth Teeth - Never Been To Church

This mp3 is called "Never Been to Church". It's off our debut LP which is coming out on Woodsist in late June/early July.It's not even mastered yet haha.




Thanks Mattey!

MAYDAY NEO_PAGAN PARTY THIS FRIDAY - MI AMI / EDIE SEDGEWICK / GRAFFITI ISLAND / HIRED MUSCLE

This Friday night and only a fiver on the door!



Thanks to Seb for the descriptions.

MI AMI
Myspace
Touch and Go Bio

(Quarterstick Records) San Francisco trio formerly of Black Eyes (Dischord) taking cues from afro-disco rhythms, free-jazz perplexity and post-punk abandon to craft acid-drenched dubby percussive fever dreams. A melting pot of Awesome Tapes from Africa, the mega-treble post punk of The Pop Group and Minutemen, pan-world Cosmology Dubs and Terry Riley psych-tremors.

Mi Ami - "Echononecho" from Touch and Go/Quarterstick on Vimeo.

EDIE SEDGEWICK
Myspace
Website

(Dischord Records) Justin Moyer (El Guapo, Supersystem, Antelope) is the transgendered reincarnation of a Warhol superstar singing songs about Arnie, Martin Sheen and Sissy Spacek to shake your tail-feather to. Like a glammed-up Suicide or a more heavily made-up Make Up.




GRAFFITI ISLAND
Myspace

(House Anxiety/Sex Is Disgusting) Glue-sniffing mummified surf-punks kickin’ it lo-fi, weaving a mythos of feral beasts and cannibal feasts and summoning the ghost of Lux Interior and your childhood pets.



HIRED MUSCLE
Myspace

Filtering big manly riffs through the James Brown ass-shake machine. Beefheart/Minutemen/Don Cab-tinged math-funk from three Leeds bruisers.



plus NOISE* DJs playing radiophonic oddities, dub oddysies, no wave nihilism, kosmische musik, and shimmering disco diamonds.

PLUS MIXTAPE/CD SWAP. Bring some!

myspace.com/nottmorenoise
myspace.com/threecheersforourside

£5 On the door
8-late
Friday 1st May

EAT SKULL

Absolutely awesome band from Portland who's new Record 'Wild and Inside' is a highly recommended purchase. It will be available from the Siltbreeze website I presume

Listen to them on their myspace and
here is Stick to the Formula by Eat Skull to listen to while you read

Stick to the Formula - Eat Sku...

They answered the usual questions below.....

What are your top Five records that relate to the music you make with Eat Skull? And in particular to your great new record "Wild and Inside."

Glad you like the new record! I don't know how to answer this question so I will instead list 5 records that I can think of off the top of my head today that I love.

Bob Dylan "Bringing It All Back Home"

duh



Neil Young "American Stars and Bars"

especially side 2, although i like the coked out LA honky tonk shit on side 1 too.



Grateful Dead "American Beauty"

duh



David Bowie "Hunky Dory"

insidious and evil. "Don't Believe in Yourself...." Love it.



Hall and Oates "Abandoned Luncheonette"

Relaxing Sunday morning music. Stupid and smooth.



Top Five recent bands you've got into?

Kurt Vile is my favorite thing to drive to with a beer in my hand wearing sunglasses lately. The Violators kill live.



The Hunches are not exactly recent but their new album 'Exit Dreams' is not a meaningless genre exercise or empty ironic gesture at all which is refreshing to hear these days from a punk type band and very rare. Actually none of these bands are like that but The Hunches are a truly great band and have been for years and they will be missed.



The Whines - a young band from Portland who are honest, hypnotic and beautiful.



Mayyors - Best party band I've seen probably ever. Inspiring for how masterfully they play their music, and how they refuse to whore themselves out to others. Tightly contained and controlled. LOUD



Black Dice - Not exactly recent either, but they are still extremely gnarly and fucked up. Sounds like hell aka our world. Bad ass.



Some of you have been in bands together before - How did those projects end and Eat Skull come about?

Rod and I played in the Hospitals seperately and together, and did 'Hairdryer Peace' with Adam and Chris. After the last Hospitals European tour I moved to Portland to play music with him.



You are based in Portland, is it a good place for a band like yours and do you like living there?

There are lots of bars and houses to play shows at and it's easy to jam and record in your basement or house here. It's easy to avoid the more negative aspects of the music scene here and just focus on doing your own thing at home.

What do you miss most when you go on tour?

Tour can be a blast and sometimes you meet the greatest people and are treated so well by the nicest hosts, but it's easy to get sick of sleeping on hard cold floors and waking up next to dog shit and stuff and then eating at taco bell. After years of those kind of hijinks it stops being such an adventure. Usually I end up missing my sanity.

If there was one thing you could change about the music industry what would it be?

There should be less bands, less records, less music and more quality. Then maybe bands and records would be able to be heard by a wider audience without having to be dumbed down into a sugar pill. More meat, less candy. Where's the beef?

What are your ambitions beside making music?

Living in the country somewhere the weather is nice. Having a meaningful life.

Who or what inspired you to start making music when you were young?

Working backwards from crummy industrial music to Psychic TV, Throbbing Gristle and the Residents gave me and my friends growing up the impetus to make crazy music and not worry about things too much, just press record on a boombox and go nuts on a casio, pans, broken guitar, recorder flute and whatever else was around. The shitty local punk scene was probably responsible for brainwashing me into an idiot servant for life. Now I will probably never stop.

What are your top five bands from the UK? Of all-time and recent times...

David Bowie
The Kinks
Throbbing Gristle
Television Personalities
Mark Perry

Finally have you any plans to release a record and tour over in Europe and the UK?

We have a 7" coming out on Upset The Rhythm in a little bit. I guess we'll play it by ear from there!


-Rob