Relentless Energy Drink decided to launch a new magazine ‘This Is The Order‘ on the hottest night of the year in Whoreditch. The free drinks poured until midnight leaving most bods wired and sweating for fresh air.
Gallows had the bouncers thrown out after their heavy handed pit security lasted all but 30 seconds into their set but despite the chaos, they played some brand new songs never heard before whilst the Crossfire Sound System mixed Devo and Let’s Go To War with Queens of the Stoneage and The Prodigy until we all swam home…pics thanks to Knox.
Nothing ever stays the same. Times moves on. You can’t expect things to stay frozen in time.
So, it’s an in-control, mature Mudhoney that greets us today as they slam straight into a lurching cover of Fang’s ‘The Money Will Roll Right In‘ getting the set off to a great start before they hit the crowd with a selection of new songs from their more recent records including the title track from their latest album ‘The Lucky Ones‘. It’s not that these songs are bad, in fact they’re really rather good, but laid next to some of the prime-time Mudhoney classics that follow, it can be hard for them get the chance they might deserve. And it shows in the crowd reaction.
When the 
“You are gonna make me cry so shut up!” …was Gibby’s reply to the wall of noise that hit them as they cranked out the throbbing baseline to ‘22 Going on 23‘ followed by the spastic tongue muck of ‘Fast Song‘ and then the speedy classic, ‘Suicide’. The band then flew to ‘Florida‘ for their annual space vacation and at this part of the show I realised the sound was shit but this venue has NEVER been famous for its PA’s even with its previous owners. Gibby’s vocal was far to laid back in the mix for me and it wasn’t earsplitting as i had hoped but as Haynes warped his voice through the vocoder and merged it into the rock riffs of ‘Some Dispute Over T-Shirt Sales‘ and the John Paul Jones produced ‘Goofy’s Concern‘ I started to not give a hoof about what it sounded like and headed for more beer. 
‘These kids are bad ass..’ says Gibby ….’and now for something completely the same!’ What an intro for the musically wonderful ‘Rocky‘. I love these tracks, the light side of the Buttholes, the meaningful Cherokee Indian moments, the love, the beauty ….this setting sets a scene before they are are eaten alive by the sheer noise and Satanic prowess of the infamous ‘Sweat Loaf‘ and the weirdly wonderful ‘I Saw an X-ray of a Girl Passing Gas’. These are definite highlights alongside one of the best Surfer tracks of all time – ‘Jimi’. Very rarely does a sound scape leave me so floored but this tune is a rare treat and goes down like an atomic bomb with the audience, they are lapping it up.
Melee sound like Ben Folds. There’s no denying this but there’s also something different about their certain brand of catchy-as-hell poppiness and the addition of rocking guitar lines tweaks Folds’ regular drum / bass / piano formula in a way that’s most inviting. The piano is less crucial to the sound and more an embellishment of insanely good pop songs that, if they were played on the radio all day, everyone would be super happy. Except maybe metallers. ‘Frequently Baby‘ is sort of retro in its sound and its driving, ridiculously camp chorus is so smile-inducing that you may need muscle relaxants to wipe the smile away again. You’ll be singing along from the outset. There’s just no stopping the singalong with tunes like this. A vital summertime discovery, if slightly of the cheese variety. 
Supergroups are common through guitar based music. Grab a heap of musicians from seminal bands, knock out a few tunes and Bob’s your money-making uncle. But now we’ve got arguably the first ever electro-ghettotech-baile-dancehall super group in Machines Don’t Care with a line up consisting of Sinden, Hervé, Toddla T, Drop The Lime, Fake Blood, Trevor Loveys, Affie Yusuf and Detboi with Serocee giving it some vocal welly on one track.
The Roger Skateboards website has just dropped into the interwebs and is making an outrageous looking groove in the online sofa, arms wrapped around Enjoi and dipping their greedy hands into Skate Mental’s bowl of crisps.
Billy Corgan of Chicago’s Smashing Pumpkins is suing a fellow Illinois filmmaker.
Lykke Li will be releasing her brand new single ‘Breaking It Up’ on 25th August. 
Black Lips have announced that they will be playing a one off UK show next month.
If the sound isn’t up to your standards then things can, and often will get dirty. Butthole Surfers‘ frontman, Gibby Hayes was led offstage by security at their New York gig on 29th July.