New Joakim Album coming up

The TIgersushi owner Joakim is all ready to release his newest album. This will be done in September through his own label. The album will be called Nothing Gold and will home in on the topic of not being a youth anymore but instead entering the realm of middle aged people. The LP will count eleven tracks, one of which is called ‘Forever Young’, which was released as single not too long ago.

Even though indeed desirable, it is hard to be young once, let alone forever. For the unlikely event of this occurring, Dr. Leon Schartenbrauer has worked for months on a guide on the art of coping when you are young forever. Here, in condensed form, a few of Schartenbrauer’s tips.

First of all, one is normally more inclined to wait for the right woman or man, even if the woman in the cubicle next to you is a perfectly reasonable option even though she might not have all the desired qualities one could wish for, and a slight case of hair loss. Because you do not have a very long window of opportunity, and you don’t want to spend a lot of time on people who aren’t sure fire hits, you pass those opportunities up. If you are forever young though, you can easily just have a go and compromise on your standards a bit, as someone of better standards will come along some day, somewhere, anyway, with you being forever young and all.

One has to be aware of certain pitfalls though. One commonly made mistake is picking the age of 17 and 18 to be forever young. This leads to the problem that when you are forever that age you will forever need to keep up with the latest mobile phone developments to be cool, while you don’t have a job to actually pay for it. Also one has to take in consideration that your parents will eventually ask you to move out, since they do not want to spend their whole savings on a son so stubborn that he doesn’t even want do what they’ve been telling him to do since the age of four, namely to grow up. Another pitfall is to have a portrait painted of oneself, but history shows that this only leads to trouble, especially when named Dorian.

Tilburg festival Incubate adds Glen Hansard, night life

The Incubate festival has added Glen Hansard to the line-up. Hansard is probably best known for his work with The Frames. As always with Incubate the best known artists play an exclusive location. Hansard will appear just after sunset at the Natuurtheater, which is an amphitheatre in the woods of Oisterwijk.

If woods and trees and Oscar winners are not your taste, perhaps the lads of XLR8R will find something that better suits your needs. They will curate the weekend’s dance program. Friday will see acts like Untold, Holy Other, Boddika, Ghosts on Tapes, and Demdik Stare grace the stage. Saturday the night will belong to Theo Parrish, Ben UFO, Girl Unit, Contakt and more. The Sunday isn’t going to be a day to wind down either, with the person in charge of this year’s DJ Kicks Motor City Drum Ensemble (to whom we were happy to dance to earlier this year at SoulDrum) playing. He will be joined by Julio Bashmore and Jackmaster. So if you are free from the 12^th to the 18^th of September, you know where you can find something to do.

Crazy Zany Radio Sunday - 'We Don't Want Your Body' by Stars

Every week our contributors will voice their opinion concerning one song, it’s a simple as that! The more the merrier, so people are always welcome to join in, just leave a note, eh.

Track: ‘We Don’t Want Your Body’ by Stars (listen here)

Average Grade: 5.7

Linda: They mention Oxford Street (better known as the first circle of hell) in the first sentence, hence, the song is doomed. The fact that it's written in a sugary major key isn't helping much (everyone knows proper songs are written in minor keys).
2.3/10

Ilse: This song has so much fun going on, while at the same time the catchy counterplay and the poppy sound create an atmosphere of silliness, resulting into a somewhat ridiculous tune on the whole. I'd recommend watching the video for this one as well!
6.4

Anna: This is straight up synthy, summer goodness with a bit of fuzziness for added UVA protection. Apply on the beach as frequently as possible.

PS. Keep an eye out for the music video featuring bodybuilders in love - so good.

Grade: 7

Stef: He, I like this actually. Some nice pop, nice catchy chorus, and I like how some of the instruments interrupt or go in and out to not make it too samey.

7/10

Sorry for the lack of updates

Yeah, we do keep it up and running as smoothly as we can, but there is some end of the year stress going on, so if especially the news stories are somewhat stagnant, that’s to blame. Hopefully after next week Tuesday we can get into full throttle made again.

There’s some good stuff coming up in July though. Some live reports (Hercules and Love Affair & Azari & III, The National par example), we are at De Valkhof Affaire all week (so say hi!), and if all goes well we’ll be able to squeeze in an interview I’m pretty stoked about (fingers crossed) and we’ve got our Top 10 Favourite Albums of the first half of the year coming up (three lists from three different people, though if you want to chime in, be our guest).

So stay tuned and don’t go anywhere. But for the upcoming week it might be a little less than you’re used to, and for that we apologize.

Cheers!

Crazy Zany Radio Sunday - 'Same Mistake' by Clap Your Hands Say Yeah

Every week our contributors will voice their opinion concerning one song, it’s a simple as that! The more the merrier, so people are always welcome to join in, just leave a note, eh.

Track: ‘Same Mistake’ by Clap Your Hands Say Yeah (listen here)

Average grade: 4.3

Ilse: Brandon Flowers called; he wants the Killers back.
6.3

Anna: Sounds like Coldplay but with vocals so whiny that make Chris Martin sound like a brilliant vocalist.

2/10

Craig: I'll be honest here--this music does not jive with the Andalucian sun I am currently absorbing. The chord progression is driving and enjoyable, but is nowhere near as interesting as the contemporary composers, dancers, and visual artists with whom I am fortunate enough to perform and share my poetry.
cuatro/10

Linda: Catchy, but it's got a weird end, like they didn't really know what the rest of the song ought to sound like and so just stopped playing altogether, simultaneously. Still, it's damn catchy.

7.2/10

Stef: I’m in the Anna camp, I’m just not sure I could listen to these vocals for an extended period of time, and because of that (and on top of that) it are only the vocals I’m hearing.

2/10

Review of It’s All True by Junior Boys

Album review - It's All True by Junior Boys

The lads of Junior Boys are back with their forth album. The album, called It’s All True, is the successor to their 2009 release Begone Dull Care, and — lets get this cat out of the bag in a hurry – I did not like that one. It was heralded as perhaps one of the better albums of that year, but certainly not on my list. This is important to note because A) this means that if I do like this one, something might have changed (in my tastes or the band’s) or B) if I don’t like this new album and you did like the previous one, then you might want to take a listen anyway. However, we can scratch B, because It’s All True has a lot going for it: it is catchy, easy on the ear, nicely layered, and the more you near the end the better it seems to get. (read full review here)

James Franco and Kalup Linzy to release EP

 

In a sense it is no wonder that Hollywood’s James Franco is vastly becoming one of the more popular actors, also amongst the more Arts inclined movie goers. Franco recently starred as Allan Ginsberg (though I am not a fan of Beats movement literature) in the movie Howl, will be present at the Venice Biennale to exhibit his James Dean inspired art, kissed himself for a NY Times Magazine short, and he starred in the highly acclaimed Boyle film 127 Hours. Also, he majored in English, which are the most versatile people ever and are people that should be getting jobs. Anyway, to add to that versatility, Franco is going to release an EP with Kalup Linzy under the name of Kalup and Franco. It will be released by Dutty Artz on the 12^th of July. Linzy is a video/performance artist apparently known to drag it up, so at least it won’t be boring (contrary to the linguistic connotation). It will feature two songs, including one called ‘Rising (Both Sides Now)’.

Many, many moons ago there was a man called Elia Dieberwitzen. This man was the leader of a people enslaved for a very long time, and he would be the one to lead them to freedom. That, at least, was the prophecy, the burden put upon him. And thus he tried to not disappoint, and he would try to  lead his people to a free land, a promised land. But while leading his people he came upon a sea. How are we going to get through this?, one of them asked. I shall part the see in twain, Elia answered, Then we can go through it. And so he raised his hands to part the sea, and indeed one side went up and froze as if being held back by a glass wall. Hurrah! Unfortunately, the other side just kept on flowing, and it would close the gap in a hurry. Is anyone so quick that he can cross the sea in these few seconds?, Elia pathetically asked, but the response was mute. He tried to hold back the other side, and he did, but that only caused the previous side to fall down and close the gap again. He started trying it with vocal commands. Rise! I command you!, or Rise, Both sides now!, or Please, rise, I’m begging you, can’t you see all these people behind me, they think I’m a failure, a nobody, for I cannot even get the sea to split, so please, please rise!

After many a day and many a nigh of trying and failing, Elia at one point turned around for some moral support, just to only find one person still there. Where are the others?, he asked, upon which the one remaining person responded, They have left. They don’t mind being oppressed so much as that the waiting for something meaningful to happen without preoccupation was killing them. Luckily I brought got a couple of dice with me, which I put in a cup in order to try and get different combinations in three goes. And there ended the legacy of Elia, which wouldn’t have been so bad if not for someone else succeeding in doing this very thing only a few decades later. At that point, though, Elia had already come to terms with his failure, aided by his expertise in a dice game that he had coined Yohtza!

Beirut to release the Rip Tide

 

The Zach Condon led formation Beirut will release a new album on the 30^th of August. This album will be called The Rip Tide and it will be unleashed through Condon’s own Pompeii Records. The album will have nine tracks on it, including the recently released ‘East Harlem’ single, and a song called ‘The Peacock’.

The peacock as we now know it is actually an amalgamation of two creatures, the Peastone and the Marcock (it is a rooster! A rooster I say). In later times it would also often be referred to as the brown cock, not in the least because of its shape, which is long with often a slight bend. Also it didn’t have a beak, but more like two lips with a little dividing line in the middle. Plus it was a highly sensitive creature, especially when wet, and it had the rather peculiar tendency to become erect at the strangest of times, usually when he has to come to the blackboard in front of the class to write something on there.

Now, the Peastone was of a different sort all together. It was a feathery creature, it had a beak, and it also was delicious with a bit of thyme and rosemary. Everyone has forgotten whether or not the Marcock is a tasty dish, for at one point in time eating it suddenly got a bad connotation, and thus to be on the safe side everyone left it off their plate except if one wanted to signify something. Now, how it was the peacock that rose out of the getting together of these two creatures is still a mystery to even the most learned biologists, for the peacock is not anything like those two animals, and the idea with the feathers fanning out was indeed quite a novelty in the animal kingdom at the time of its introduction, scaring the Marcock mother and the Peastone father so as to calling their child vain, spoilt, and a spoilt sport for the peacock wouldn’t even let his parents throw darts when his tail had fanned out.

News Items - June

The news stories (with a duo meaning for the word "stories" I guess) that are published in the month of June neatly gathered here for everyone's convenience.


15 June:
James Franco & Kalup Linzy to release EP
Beirut to come with The Rip Tide

09 June:
St. Vincent to release album in September
Spank Rock gearing up album release

06 June:
Blood Orange announces debut
Mr. Heavenly to release first LP in August

Crazy Zany Radio Sunday - 'East Harlem' by Beirut

Every week our contributors will voice their opinion concerning one song, it’s a simple as that! The more the merrier, so people are always welcome to join in, just leave a note, eh.

Track: ‘East Harlem’ by Beirut (listen here)

Average grade: 6.3

Ilse: Upon seeing what this week's track was, I thought: 'Ah it's been a while!'. Last time I saw Beirut was in 2009 and that was also the year their last record came out, and as I've enjoyed Zach Condon's exotic, folksy indie pop for a long time, it's good to see he's getting back in the game. This new melancholic track is typical Beirut, it definitely sounds like something that could've been on 'Gulag Orkestar'. Nope, a bit of Beirut never fails to brighten up my day.
7.5/10

Anna: Pretty much the same ol' Beirut, really. The horns, the arrangements, the voice. It's a perfectly enjoyable piece of Balkan folk (albeit one made in the USA), but it does absolutely nothing to push their/his music to another level and the songwriting doesn't seem to have evolved even by a slight fraction. Meh (and I really mean that).

5/10

Linda: Hmm, I've only had a sneak peek at Harlem while I was in New York but my impression of it and this track just don't add up. But maybe I saw another bit of Harlem and is East Harlem as nice and mellow as Beirut's vocals. Nice and mellow, but a bit boring as well.
6.6/10

Craig: Zach Condon somehow manages to consistently charm even through his brooding rich-boy pose. This song shows an increased embrace of pop, but keeps the interesting instrumentation and eastern European//'world' influence. A nostalgic song about New York? I'm all for it.
8/10

Stef: You know, the thing is, I just cannot get excited about this. I can understand it being well made, well orchestrated, well put together, but in the end – and always the deciding factor as far as I’m concerned – it just doesn’t excite me.

4.5/10

Primavera Report

Report of the Primavera Festival by Linda Wijlaars

The Prologue

Every decent festival has a prologue: at Lowlands you can spend a whole extra day sleeping on a half-inflated air mattress whilst fighting boredom by inventing stupid games that don’t really work but hey, you’ve got  to entertain yourself one way or another. At Pinkpop you spend that extra time queuing in varies places to get your wristband and secure that one place that isn’t at the bottom of a hill for when the inevitable rain will fall, and at Glastonbury you get drunk. At Primavera you spend it watching a couple of bands in a fake ancient looking square just around the corner from where the ’92 Olympics were held (que Freddie Mercury and Montserrat Cabbalet). And no, Las Robertas and Comet Gain might not be the most entertaining bands in the world, but when you know Echo & the Bunnymen and Caribou are also on the bill it is certainly worth that cheap metro ticket and the 30 second wait to get your wristband. Yes, the food and drinks might be slightly overpriced, and the queue for the toilets is a tad bit intimidating, but other than that even the Dutch and English audience combined can find very little to nag about.

Chapter 1: of Montreal, Suicide & Girl Talk

Imagine: a festival terrain right next to the beach and a shopping mall with wonderful clean toilets, and metro and tram stations right in front of it. Sounds rather perfect, doesn’t it? It gets even better when you realise that there are actual seats at some of the stages, though this also means that there are a lot of stairs. And I really mean a lot of stairs. But hey, as long as you can also use them to sit comfortably whilst enjoying a bit of Glenn Branca I’m not one to complain.

The day starts of with thirst. Yes, thirst (and no not for knowledge, we’re not from Greece). There’s around 40.000 people roaming the festival, but there’s only bar that’s actually open leading to queues that only move when people give up on getting a drink there and make their way to the mall. The reason for this is a new way of paying for your drinks with a futuristic plastic card linked to an account you have to set up at the festival’s website, a system that requires a working computer system and wi-fi connection and which fails miserably on the first day.

After missing the whole of Of Montreal as we were waiting to get a bottle of water (it looked great on screen though, but no new tracks), it’s on to P.I.L. who are playing the Llevant stage, which is condemned to solitary confinement in the outer corner of the festival. Surprisingly though, the stage is about twice as big as the main stage and hordes of Johnny Rotten fans managed to find it. After having seen a rather miserable reincarnation of the Sex Pistols a couple of years ago, P.I.L. seems to suit Johnny Rotten a whole lot better: he can actually sing. Glenn Branca and his ensemble are the next surprise and probably an act that wouldn’t fit on any other festival (well, North Sea Jazz probably, but Oneohtrix Point Never and Salem wouldn’t be listed on the same stage).

From one old man to an even older one: it’s Suicide. And at the age of 72, Alan Vega is showing that somewhere between 62 (Glen Branca’s age) and his age is the right time to quit music altogether. The horrifying scream in ‘Frankie Teardrop’ is reduced to a feeble ‘Oh no!’ which is enough to convince us to go back to the present day with a bit of Ty Segall. The band from California feel right at home in the warmth of the Spanish night and manage to get the whole crowd on their feet and dancing (except for me as I seem to have finally reached that age where I really need to sit down every now and then because my back is killing me – in my defence, it was around 2am at this time and I had been up on my feet since 7am the day before and am generally a whiny person). (and I do welcome you to that club –ed)

After a sneak peek at Salem (avoid at all cost) it’s on to a bit of the Flaming Lips extravaganza. It’s predictable, but it’s fun. At 5am in the morning it’s finally time for the best act of the day: Girl Talk. The guy is a bloody genius. Nothing’s more fun than a whole crowd of pretentious hipsters singing along to Bon Jovi and Kelly Clarkson like their life depended on it.

Chapter 2: PULP!!!!

It is finally there: the day most of the people present at Primavera have been waiting half a lifetime (or at least half a year) for: Pulp. After scaring away most of the other hostel guests by doing an overenthusiastic Pulp-karaoke on the ‘house and R&B’-evening on our first night there, we know we are prepared. As we made it back pretty late on the first day (“we saw the sun rise” wouldn’t do justice to the time we finally made it back), the day starts of pretty comfortably in the auditorium of the museum of natural sciences which, for this festival, houses DM Stith and Sufjan Stevens. DM Stith is amazing, and it’s a shame he’s only allowed to do four songs. Sufjan’s performance is perhaps even better than the one a week earlier at the Royal Festival Hall in London. It’s crazy, absolutely ridiculous, genius and just plain indescribable. There are angel wings, various alien costumes, the whole of Age of Adz, talk of star people and Royal Robertson (the artist who inspired the album) and a half hour finale consisting of one song only. And of course there is an encore with ‘Chicago’, which is still one of the best songs ever written. And this only the opener to the real headliner of the day!

As for the rest of the day: Male Bonding were okay, as were M. Ward, Pere Ubu and the vegan cakes (vegan cakes! At a festival! If anything indicates the quality and variety of food availability at a festival, it's the presence of vegan cakes!). Belle & Sebastian were in a league of their own, that is, if they weren’t playing at the same festival as Pulp and I wasn’t just standing at the front during their performance to get an even better spot during the next gig. After a nigh endless period of waiting during which someone discovered you can display silly messages on the screen behind the stage using Pulp’s laser show, the 4 letters that were already faintly visible light up (just after someone had the clarity of mind by texting their position as ‘near to the ‘P’’) and the festival explodes. It takes ‘Do you remember the first time’ to get the most annoying people out of the way, but the rest of the set is pure bliss, being surrounded by hundreds of people who can sing along to every single line of every song (a feat which does unfortunately drain out Jarvis himself at times). But Jarvis – and the person in charge of the sound – soon recover and the rest of the set is just perfect.

There’s a marriage proposal at the end of ‘I spy’ – which causes an emotional overload for a lot of people – and a lot of grinning at the loud shouting of inappropriate lyrics in unison or marvel at Jarvis's manual to sex during 'This is hardcore' (which is a lot more informative with the visual representation). Jarvis is still in top form and he moves across the stage in ways the twenty something hipsters on the Pitchfork stage can’t even contrive. It all culminates in ‘Common People’ which Jarvis dedicates to the Spanish Revolution -- or #spanishrevolution -- a lot of whose demonstrators are present at the festival. After admitting he’s only a foreigner and doesn’t know much about what’s going on, he claims it can’t be right if police beat over a hundred protesters into the hospital. His words are greeted more enthusiastically then Barca’s Champion League win will be greeted the next day and a glorious mess ensues (and what else would you expect with 45% of the ‘common people’ being unemployed). The rest of the night sees people spontaneously bursting out in reiterations of ‘Common People’ in line for food or the toilets. It was awesome.

Oh, and Battles played later. The drunk people dancing to their music was more entertaining than the band.

Chapter 3: the afterbirth

So two days have already gone by and the real headliner of the festival has already played – what’s left? Although the last day of the festival has a pretty decent line-up, it still feels a bit like an afterbirth (© Ilse van de Spoel). But showing up does pay of: in the line for John Cale (which is in the auditorium again) we get treated to the sight of Jarvis himself who gets priority treatment whilst entering the building. That alone makes it worth it – that and the seats that are perfect for sleeping (I can vouch for that).

Tune-Yards (imagine wonky spelling) is pretty amazing as well, as are Einstürzende Neubauten, Gang Gang Dance – garbage bag boy apparently is part of the band – and Swans. Matthew Dear is where things get a bit more interesting: you might have already read about his charismatic stage presence earlier on this blog but I can now reveal where he gets it from. For he is Freddy Ruppert’s (of Former Ghosts) long lost twin brother. Damn, I even had to check whether any of their live dates had clashed to be certain they weren’t the same exact person. Both have the same looks, the same charm, same manner of moving around on stage and both make dark electronic music that I really like.

Matthew Dear finishes just in time for me to catch the best bit of PJ Harvey’s show, which is very long but very good. And her white outfit makes it easy to spot her even if you’re sitting on a staircase at the other end of the field, a necessity because your feet are finally starting to really give out. To end the night in style, we catch three bands that are playing at the same time. We start of with Odd Future who jump into the audience feet-first. Nice one guys. Then it’s on to Animal Collective who are as incomprehensible as usual (they mainly play as yet unreleased tracks) and finally Pissed Jeans who sound like being born and vomiting at the same time (again © Ilse van de Spoel). Holy Ghost! loses out to the prospect of a nice warm shower and a comfortable bed (What? WHAT?- ed).

Epilogue

The festival finishes the same way as that it started: with just a couple of bands in a square. We prefer a day at the beach and some tapas over Mercury Rev at this time though.

Bands I would have liked to see but missed (but don't really care about as I've seen so much else): Caribou, Interpol (I know, but I’ve never seen them), Islet, Glasser, Baths, The National (they played on the same day as Sufjan Stevens and Pulp, had I gone to see them as well it would have the most perfect festival day ever rendering all other attempts to entertain myself with live music futile), Deerhunter, Julian Lynch, Twin Shadow, Jamie XX, Lindstrom, Warpaint, Perfume Genius (honestly though, those bands in itself would make for a successful festival as far as I’m concerned –ed).

And oh yeah, just to answer the question burning on everyone’s lips: Yes, I will be back next year.

See the Light - Jessica 6 album review

This is an excerpt from my review of the album See the Light by Jessica 6. For the full review click the link at the end of the excerpt.

I think that Hercules and Love Affair is a better, more fun band now than when it featured all these Jessica 6 members in its line-up. There, I said it. So now you can imagine my surprise when the red hot single ‘White Horse’ came into the blogosphere. This song was both sultry and sexy, two words that perhaps best fit See The Light, the debut album of Jessica 6. Singer Nomi Ruiz is the voice of a lovelorn night creature, in perpetual state of longing and desire – perhaps even more the latter than the former. She has a quality in her voice that epitomizes that image, and the album plays to her strengths, for the most part, at least. (for full review click here)

St. Vincent to release album in September

 

On the 12^th of September St. Vincent will release her new album. It will be called Strange Mercy, and it will be released through 4 AD. It will be the follow-up to Actor, which was released in 2009 and produced by John Congleton, much like this album.

The title of the album stems from the story of the headless woman. In a revealing documentary the headless woman looked back on the mercy bestowed upon her. Naturally, by absence of a head, she typed in the answers, which have been narrated for your convenience by Susan B. Lester. So, I had been sitting at home – stressed out, high blood pressure, you know the drill – and at the door two men in dark suits. In a loud, booming voice he wants me to explain this defiant behaviour. And I say to him, I tell him, the pressure was too much. I’m the sort of person that you’d expect be working, to have it together, to be the one doing everything just right. And that’s pressure, and I couldn’t cope with it. With everyone expecting so much of me, and I don’t want to let people down, and I don’t want them to have to alter their image of me. And the main man in the dark suit nodded, and said, I understand. Upon you I will bestow a benevolent mercy. And he chopped off my head. And I said, Well, what a strange mercy this is, chopping off someone’s head. But now, five months later, now I understand. I really do.

Spank Rock gearing up album release

 

Spank Rock is readying his new album. It will be called Everything is Boring and Everyone is a Liar, and it will be released on the 27^th of September (which is true actually, no matter how tempting it was to write down a fake one). Earlier this year the man behind Spank Rock released an album under the guise of Mobroder, which is obviously a nod to Moroder, as was the music.

Well, the University of Michigan thought, that is quite a bold statement, that Everything is Boring and Everyone is a Liar. So they put some researchers on it to look whether or not, indeed, Everything is Boring, and indeed, Everyone is a Liar. And turns out, it is true! That’s all.

Mr. Heavenly to release debut in August

The band Mr. Heavenly, comprising of Nick Thorburn, Honus Honus, and Modest Mouse’s Joe Plummer, will release their debut on the 16^th of August. This will be done via Sub Pop. The album will be called Out of Love. To work up to that the band has released footage of the band playing SXSW, this under the name of Mister Heavenly is Coming To Get You. Michael Cera, the young actor of Arrested Development, Juno, and Scott Pilgrim fame, is also a touring member, playing the bass (much like in Scott Pilgrim, for which he allegedly had to tone down his bass playing not to outperform the rest of the cast).

One of the tracks is called ‘Pineapple Girl’. The Pineapple Girl became infamous when only a handful people were able to unlock her in the fighting game Street Kombat 2, which first appeared in the arcades but soon crossed over to the SNES. It required a precise point total in combination with a fatal combo to achieve this bonus round against this girl who, as weapon, threw pineapples at you, with the spiky top first and she would be aiming for those spikes to penetrate the eyes of the opponent. In recent Gaming Studies she has resurfaced as many analysts turn to Freud and see this character as symbolic for penis envy in women, with spiky things trying to penetrate parts of the male body. Some studies claim that the Pineapple Girl aiming for the eyes indicates the rage and frustration, while other explanations range from it symbolizing the inability of the man to see the qualities of women to the decline of masculinity in males in today’s society by implanting them with fruitiness.

Blood Orange announces debut

Dev Hynes, who is perhaps best known for his work under the Lightspeed Champion guise, is set to release an album under the Blood Orange moniker. The album will be released in Europe on the 8^th of August and will be entitled Coastal Grooves. Blood Orange released a clip for the song ‘Dinner’ not too long ago, as well as releasing the track ‘Sutphin Boulevard’ per stream.

Long forgotten is the old Hollywood studio BFR, which was a combination of disgruntled MGM employees and some people from Universal who thought they could do better than their old employers. BFR had locked up a lot of money in a project called Sutphin Boulevard, which would be about a male actor famous during the silent age but who since the introduction of sound been long out of the Hollywood picture. An unsuccessful female screenwriter then writes a picture with the actor in mind and together they team up for a glorious comeback! That was the stuff Hollywood is made off, boasted the BFR employees. But test screenings showed that the audience was less taken with it, and so the downfall of the BFR studio set in.

A cheeky chap from MGM was in the test screening, heard the project was about to cancel, and asked off the cuff if he perhaps could have it. The man said, Here, take it, we aren’t going to do anything with it anymore anyway. But where the BFR people lacked the vision and the patience, this young man did have it. He changed the old actor into an old actress (who wants to see men in the Arts? We want to see women who can diva it up!) he changed the female screenwriter into a male one (who doesn’t want to see young men on screen?), and instead of Sutphin Boulevard (Where? In Kentucky?) to a Boulevard in L.A. (glamour baby! Plus we can shoot it close to home). Sometimes you need the vision to just tweak, instead of just throw it all out.

Crazy Zany Radio Sunday - 'Still Life' by The Horrors

Every week our contributors will voice their opinion concerning one song, it’s a simple as that! The more the merrier, so people are always welcome to join in, just leave a note, eh.

Track: ‘Still Life’ by The Horrors (listen here)

Average Grade: 5

Ilse: Seems like the Horrors continue on the trail of their last album 'Primary Colours', for which they exchanged their haunting organs and horror punk for dark, 80s influenced synth wave. However, this track seems to have a sense of lightness to it: it's not as, relatively speaking, harsh as some of the tracks on that last album. Perhaps this is nudging a bit more towards 80s pop than towards post-punk/new wave, especially in comparison to a track like 'Sea Within A Sea', which also features a clearer distinction between individual instruments opposed to this new one, where the instruments are more 'blended together' into a more shallow sound. I think I slightly prefer the style of the darker before-mentioned song, but I'm also quite digging this more mellow side to the post-Strange House Horrors. Curious to see what else the new album might bring!
7.8

Craig: This over-saturation of 80s resurgence is beginning to get redundant. I welcome the inevitable backlash.
2/10

Linda: If I would listen to this song I would have to pause Pulp, whom I've have been playing constantly this week since I've seen them Friday last week. Yes, you've read that correctly: I'VE SEEN PULP! I can answer 'Do you remember the last time' affirmative. As I really can't stop listening to them (or their Spotified Primavera set list), I'll have to give the Horrors my favourite (virtual) number:

√-1 (try and enter that one on your calculator :D)

Anna: So The Horrors started out with the so-called horror punk, moved on to shoegaze and now they are apparently doing 80s new wave. As it usually happens with inconsistent jack of all trades, you get OK music, but nothing that will leave a mark. The frontman's Cat's Eyes side-project is quite good though, if that helps with anything.

Grade: 5 (I'll make it a 4 if the next album is stoner rock)

Stef: I think it is an okay song, the thing is, I have no idea why this song is so long. Because it doesn’t really go anywhere and instead starts to repeat itself. And if you aren’t going to go anywhere then it doesn’t need to be that long.

5/10

WhoMadeWho at the Sugar Factory

Live Report- WhoMadeWho at the Sugar Factory (2011)

So yeah, I'm not in the habit of linking to my own stuff as usually I just put it on here in another language, but with so little time and me basically having gone full English, I just thought I would give a teaser here and the link to the site it is on. Not much trouble anyway, is it, clicking a link to get there?

The band arrives on stage – a good hour after the time printed on the tickets – and the first sounds are absolutely horrendous. Terrible noise, very muddy, and the band seems far from satisfied, gesticulating heavily to the people in charge of the sound. To make matters worse, an armada of people suddenly fills the free space in front of us, which wouldn’t be so bad if it wasn’t for the fact that they start to chat and don’t stop until the song ends. At that point I can’t help but think, “Blimey, this is going to be the worst gig ever”. So imagine my surprise when I notice, much later in the gig, that since that point I have been grinning and dancing non-stop, and that actually this WhoMadeWho gig turns out to be pretty amazing.


Read all here.