I’m sure many of you will remember that intense clip of proper manny mania awkwardly set to Clint Mansell’s Requiem For A Dream score. Well, the pivoting warlock in that clip, Aaron Kyro, is back with some fresh footage.
This may not appeal to all of your tastes out there, but you can’t deny that some of the stuff in here is pretty unthinkable. And yes, whoever edited the clip still suffers from a strange delusion of grandeur.
See below for something different…
In celebration of their 30th year of making some of the world’s most influential punk rock, Bad Religion will be releasing their fifteenth studio album ‘The Dissent Of Man‘ on September 27th.
Brett Gurewitz has spoken of the tracks appearing on the album, stating:
‘These are some of my favourite songs I’ve ever written… A few of them took me way outside my comfort zone as a writer to a place I haven’t gone since Recipe or Stranger Than Fiction.’
A cut from the album ‘The Resist Stance‘ has been made available to stream from the band’s myspace. Listen to it here.
The tracklisting has been confirmed as follows:
Elwood Clothing have fired up a Flow Sessions feature that involves their flow riders getting footage, interviewed and photographed for a little get-to-know feature.
First up is Kevin Radley and you can see his Flow Session simply by clicking here…
And you can check is very, very rad VHS part below. Bring back VHS!
Max Tannone has uploaded a new mash-up album.
The man behind Jaydiohead and the brilliant Mos Dub has continued the trend with the latter and used Mos Def’s BlackStar partner-in-crime for his new download. Dub Kweli takes Talib’s raps and places them over old dub tunes, perfect to prolong the summer that’s on its way back around the other side of the world. To get involved visit www.dubkweli.com and you’ll be able to hear all 10 tracks. If you dig ‘em, you download ‘em. Simple innit.
Here’s a taster for you:
If that seven minute Gravis promo wasn’t enough to get you as hyped on Dylan Rieder as you should be then be sure to check out this sweet little park edit by Skateboarder Mag.
And if you’re as hyped as us, then this will just be another treat to feast your eyes on this week. Tell me that kickflip mini-powerslide up the stairs isn’t the raddest thing you’ve seen all morning, I dare you.
Flannel shirts are a trend that won’t ever die. And so they shouldn’t; because flannel shirts aren’t unique to one subculture as other trends tend to be, they are timeless, they are comfortable, they are warm and they are awesome looking. So thank god that pseudo-summer we just had in the UK is beginning to fade, for as the mornings feel a little crisper the layers are coming out and we can get a little colour to match those fallen leaves as a big ‘sod off’ to all the grey skies. Crossfire were given two of Matix’s latest designs in their fine fall 2010 to test out. It’s not so often a ‘product test’ requires little more than going out and looking fresh to death, but we’re very grateful when it does.
Mike Mo Memphis
This shirt came as a surprise for two reasons. One, is that it marks the first time I’ve strayed from a red based colour pattern on a flannel shirt because my mood is terribly impressionable and frequently dictated by the colours I wear. Red makes me feel like I’m on fire and so I’ve stayed clear of blue in the past in case I become a melancholic ball of abject glumness. Fortunately, this bad boy has ‘Memphis’ built into it so I was awash with bluesy rock and feeling as cool as The King must have felt prior to the 70s.
The label is complete with Mike Mo’s 8=D connection so if you’re sick of all the twits rolling around in American Apparel jeans and stinking up the skate scene with a that irritating undeserved sense of cool accomplishment then this is a shirt to be proud of. It’s a slim fit, has a rich and sleekly neck fabric that is most pleasant on the skin, has dual chest pockets (for the much sought after ‘serious business hipster’ look, why not try putting fountain pens in one and a 
pack of lucky strikes in the other) and has a penis on the label. There’s not much more you can ask for.
Apart from…
Smokehouse Cardinal
This, is what I’m talking about. Perfect red colourway, a lightweight sherpa underlining, sleeves lined with taffeta, very inconspicuous dual pockets and a real comfy slim fit. It’s an absolutely gorgeous and comfortable shirt that got baggsied the second the package got opened. And it’s real nice and warm, perfect for autumn and can even be rocked on a crisp winter morning. Maybe a little too soon to be wearing now but hasn’t stopped me; the people who sit next to me in the office will just have to deal with the sweat because this shirt is too dope. I can’t stop touching myself when wearing it because it’s that comfortable, and if you think I mean something inappropriate by that then take your minds out the gutter and wear this for a while and see how much you touch yourself.
Bellend Sebastian
Canadian rockers Mother Mother will be releasing their latest single ‘Body Of Years‘ on September 20th.
Body Of Years, described by vocalist Ryan Guldermond as a ‘Gouge Away meets Billie Jean inspired rock anthem‘ is backed with the accompanying music video which you can view below.
Rocking Leeds grunge riffers Dinosaur Pile Up have unleashed their new video for Mona Lisa.
The song reportedly is inspired by living in a cheap apartment, with no money, no time, nothing but instant noodles for dinner and other struggles I’m sure all of us can relate to.
You can see the video below.
August Bank Holiday 2010
www.readingfestival.com
And so Reading Festival was finally upon us. From the moment the first acts are announced early on in the year, you can’t help but be excited about it. You’ve just never heard of anyone having a shit time at Reading, have you? We certainly never have. Despite almost blowing it by getting rather out of control on the Friday night, we managed to last the distance and ended up having one of the best Reading experiences ever, helped along by a multitude of excellent bands, an endless stream of good people, power ballads, mainstream hip-hop, vodka in Capri-sun containers, a fair few pints of cider and a gallon or two of Relentless energy drink. Relentless eyes ahoy!
FRIDAY
Unfortunately, we missed Young Guns open up the main stage but by all accounts, they had a monstrous crowd and did their job of kicking off the festival very well indeed. A Day To Remember followed on in style with their enthusiastic combination of pop-punk and hardcore getting the crowd in a tizzy despite it only being 1pm. Judging by the intense reaction they got, there will be no stopping their rise in popularity any time soon. Everyone present seemed to be relishing in the great melodies mixed up with great chugs.
Two Door Cinema Club continued the theme of humungous crowds for their poptastic set over at the Radio 1 / NME tent. Despite never having consciously listened to their music, they’re one of those bands whose songs I apparently know anyway through some sort of mainstream osmosis process. The band’s set was rapturously received by the mass assembled and it’s safe to say they were the perfect choice for that stage. They probably could’ve even been billed higher. One of those cases of a band blowing up so quickly that, by the time Reading and Leeds come around, they’ve kind of outgrown their slot. Due to the Festival Republic stage running behind schedule, we managed to catch a bit of indie-pop duo Summer Camp who rattled off some dreamy ditties to a moderately enthused crowd. Pulled Apart By Horses were the next to provide the rock as they proceeded to lay waste to the tent in spectacular fashion, bounding all over the place, banging out riffs and generall just being awesome. NOFX sounded good as we traversed the main arena back to the guest area where we heard tales of Strike Anywhere’s Lock-Up stage set being sadly empty.
Biffy Clyro kicked the festival up a notch into another league with their polished yet somehow still raucous epic rock. A fair few classics from back in the day mingled in with the standard modern hits like ‘Mountains’ meant their set was enjoyed by all. Not least all the ladies present who were no doubt swooning at the three shirtless men, despite frontman Simon Neil looking kind of like Father Christmas now he’s bleached both his hair and beard. Plus pink jeans – wow. Phoenix continued the wow-factor of the weekend over on the Radio 1 / NME stage. The French act had the most amazing pulsating lights, flashing all the colours of the rainbow and hypnotizing the crowd in the process. Luckily, they also have the tunes to back up the lightshow and everyone present was dancing along to their effervescent pop hits.
SATURDAY
We failed a bit on Saturday in terms of watching bands. What can we say – got a bit too enthusiastic at the power ballads DJ set the night before and it somewhat dampened our enthusiasm for Saturday.
Paint It Black, Trash Talk and Gallows were the main casualties of our laziness though by all accounts they were every bit as rad as we knew they would be. The Gaslight Anthem kicked off our band-watching activities for the day in style though. An intense main stage experience, though it could’ve been improved upon tenfold if the soundman had turned up the volume a bit! In spite of this annoyance, the set was enjoyed by a massive crowd as the band reeled off hits like ‘Old White Lincoln’ and ‘American Slang’ and the crowd sung their hearts out to make up for the lack of volume from the stage.
Cancer Bats rocked the Lock-Up stage to its core in a set that put them up against Dizzee Rascal’s Main Stage appearance. Still, their scuzzy riffs were clearly a draw for the rock kids at the festival. We went on to catch a bit of Dizzee, including his now-legendary Nirvana-mashing with ‘Stand Up Tall’ versus ‘Teen Spirit’. An excellent performance as ever, enjoyed by all. The Get Up Kids played to a half-full Lock-Up tent but that didn’t matter. Everyone there was a complete superfan and it was a great set of newbies and classics and also included their cover of The Cure’s ‘Close To Me’. Lovely. Passing by Arcade Fire for a song or two, it sounded pretty incredible, although it kind of looked like everyone was watching Pendulum on the NME / Radio 1 stage instead…
SUNDAY
What a day! This has to be one of the best main stage line-ups of all time. So we’ll get to that. But our day started with a bit of Lights on the Dance stage which was all very pleasant girl-fronted electro-pop. Kvelertak were slightly louder on the BBC Introducing stage and definitely did more to wake us up with their Nordic metal inclinations, fused by good old-fashioned rock’n’roll. Foxy Shazam wow those who make it to the Festival Republic tent for their set. Pure genius showmanship. And acrobatics to boot. Debut UK single ‘Oh Lord’ sounds tremendous. We nip out to catch a snippet of Thrice on the mainstage including the massively brilliant ‘Silhouette’. Next up we’re excited to see local youngsters done good You Me At Six on the Main Stage. The band do an immense job of getting the crowd involved even though the big screens have been taken down due to a freaky bit of stormy weather during All Time Low’s set. Hayley from Paramore even comes on to sing ‘Stay With Me’ with YMAS. The screens come up again during Limp Bizkit’s procession of stone cold hits. In fact, their choice of setlist is suspiciously similar to that of their set at Reading 10 years ago. Not complaining though. It was ace. And Fred Durst is definitely a legend, even when not wearing the obligatory red cap (a white cap?!) As a friend quite rightly points out, Wes Borland is dressed as a cross between a witch and a Guylian chocolate. Entertainment at its best. Well, not quite.
Weezer are up next and what they do is phenomenal. Simply put, this is probably the best Reading festival set I’ve ever seen. The sun is shining and Rivers is in the best mood ever. He also has props. A Lady Gaga wig (they cover ‘Poker Face’ mixed in with MGMT’s ‘Kids’), a cat hat, a fucking trampoline. This is the exact opposite of every other performance I’ve ever seen Weezer do. AND they play the good shit. Nothing off ‘Pinkerton’ which is definitely a shame. But we don’t even care, it’s THAT good. ‘Surf Wax America’, ‘Say It Ain’t So’, ‘The Sweater Song’ are definite highlights but even the more frivolous ‘Beverly Hills’ and ‘Troublemaker’ sound awesome. Everyone has a permanent smile on their face for the rest of the night and I’m pretty sure it’s all because of WEEZER.
We caught a little bit of Paramore. Enough to be able to tell that they’re still great at what they do and we’re going to be excited when they return to the UK for TWO o2 arena shows. Blink 182 got everyone more excited than I ever thought they would… They pulled an entertaining set out of the bag, as was to be expected, and they also proved that they’ve got better at playing their instruments in the years since they last played the festival. Not that Travis ever had anything to prove. Obviously. Hits that provided a constant stream of crowd singalongs included ‘First Date’, ‘Rock Show’ and, of course, ‘All The Small Things’. It was also great to hear the songs from further down the line in the band’s career like ‘Feeling This’. I think it’s safe to say that a good time was had by all, not least the main stage bands on this final day, all of whom clearly reveled in their participation in such a well-placed rock line-up. One that will not be forgotten in a hurry.
August 27th-28th
Victoria Park, London
Though the cultural diversity of those attending the London Electronic Festival over the weekend was considerably wider than the polar-opposite crowds that flocked to the other two festivals taking place this busy bank holiday weekend past, it was evident that those present at the inaugural LED Festival could be split into two spheres like some sort of pretty neon-lit venn diagram. Those that came to have a great time with no intention of acknowledging any festival politics, and those who had come to stand-still and complain with a face that suggested they had more substances up their arse than the early 90s throwbacks who were busy tripping balls to Aphex Twin.
The negative reviews that have surfaced so far seem to be written by those who appeared bemused that they weren’t at London Stand-Still Festival whilst the overwhelming bass insisted otherwise. So rest assured, you can forget about the discussions of the rainy inception and foggy future of annual electronic dance festivals in rainy Hackney, because this review won’t cover any of that. No politics, no eyebrow raises at the line-up. This review was written by someone who turned up to this festival expecting one thing, to dance like a mad twatter and embrace the sounds that bring humans closer together than any other thing in the world can, electronic dance music.
It should also be noted that certain acts were missed due to re-scheduling and other acts were missed because they’re obviously poops (I’m looking at you, David Guetta…) Here were the weekend’s best acts, interspliced with some wholesome home-made videos uploaded to the internet by fans. ‘Ave it democratic media.
Zombie Nation (Friday)
2010 is THE year to see Zombie Nation, better known as the guy who did that one techno song non-techno fans bought, sadly lesser known as the MPC wizard Florian Senfter, a live phenomenon backed by bizarre visuals and a genuine sense of surprise. This live act sees the already improvised basslines in his free-thinking german electro soundscapes become totally reimagined into whatever context he feels like on the day. And as they waver in and out of meticulously controlled disco beats the crowd are treated to bizarre visuals and a constant supply of pure, bastardized groove. Forza sounded heavier than ever while his Tiga-assisted Lower State Of Consciousness gently flowed in and out when the crowd deemed it necessary. A reconstructed Worth It took Hackney on a lengthy trip through intense oscillation and an early peak before the drinks had a chance to kick in. 2010 is the year for Zombie Nation because not only are his live performances better than ever but just enough time has passed for Kernkraft 4000 to sound not just fucking great, but completely at home in a set of underrated anthems that push electronica further than whatever else is trending on the hype machine right now.
Soulwax (Friday)
A strange rescheduling left Soulwax playing at a slightly more appropriate time than 5:45PM (which was not only too early for the sharply dressed Belgian techno punks but clashed with Zombie Nation, an unacceptable move). As the sky grew darker, and presumably as subtances legal or otherwise began to rise up inside, more people felt urges to dance and so they should for the Daewale brothers and co were on form as ever. Their set pulled in Nite Version classics along with newer remixes that you may not have heard on that CD with the longest name ever, including a stonking live cover of a weekend favourite and undisputable screw-facer from 2008, Raven by Proxy. It came from no where and became a hot topic on message boards before it even finished. Leaping from strength to strength, these guys embody modern techno.
Tiga (Friday)
Canadian DJ/vocalist/producer and the best friend of everyone in Europe, Tiga has been demanding attention lately with his notably more outspoken persona that shined on last year’s Ciao! and is currently adding a post-modern ego-centric irony to Chilly Gonzales’ a-ma-zing ‘Ivory Tower‘. For the increasingly rammed dance tent this bank holiday however he resumes the quiet hat-wearing, heavily concentrated house DJ persona that got him where he is, and this paid off. As the lights got brighter and the bodies got sweatier, Tiga’s exceptional grasp on electro-house and your own mind dimeshaaaan resulted in a glowing, neon-heavy set. Mind Dimension 2 kicked things off early with that shit-the-bed bassline still taking dancers that one step further, but it was the end of the set that saw the most peaks. As You Gonna Want Me saw London sing more loudly than they would to the essentially redundant Goldfrapp main stage flop later that weekend, the crowd were fired for a pulsating finish courtesy of an extended disco blitz in the form of Mr Oizo’s remix of Shoes. It’s not often that Hackney is filled with people screaming ‘SHOES SHOES SHOES SHOES SHOEEEESS SHOEEESSSS’ but it’s a rather pleasant place when it is.
Bloody Beetroots (Friday)
Italy’s Bloody Beetroots are very much a love or hate group, but they deserved that headline slot (in the dance tent, because the main stage really wasn’t proving to be worth anyone’s time) more than anyone else playing today. As a full band (performing as the Death Crew 77) their harsh regenerated rave punk sound is taken to higher dimensions that a few filters on a mixer cannot necessarily obtain. Firstly, they have a live presence and whether you think it is necessary or not, does not stop it from being exciting. As they fluidly Soulwax their way (who else mixes live electronic songs so well) through instantly classic blog and student dorm hits like Dimmakmmunication and Warp, the night reached a peak as a slow keyboard rendition of John Murphy’s In A House In A Heartbeat (the theme to 28 Days Later, and the backbone to a certain incredible BB song) built up a sweaty crowd into the last screw face moment of the day, when Cornelius got dropped. Amazing. Sure, they’re not as cool as people would give them credit, but they’re headline material, and barrels of fun.
Shy FX (Saturday)
Saturday’s line-up was notably more UK-sound oriented, particularly London centric, with some European influence courtesy of Annie Mac’s whateverispopular playlist. The second day highlighted the pioneers of drum and bass, breakbeat, UK techno, acid house, grime and dubstep and to give the organisers credit, was a tremendous line-up, so long as you looked at it from the right angles. Beginning the day with Shy FX was a good start, as the producer who broke from the jungle he created into a more popular take on the amen breaks with T-Power chose today to relive the sounds that were prominent almost two decades ago. Who wants their fingers on the pulse anyway when the sounds of 94’s Original Nuttah are still booming with life? 138 Trek got dropped, The Lighter got dropped, everything a kid growing up with a clubbing family in the 90s wanted to hear got dropped. Sadly there have been no videos uploaded online yet but that’s likely due to everyone vibesing and not playing around with their stupid bloody phones.
Aphex Twin (Saturday)
Forget every other act playing this festival, the entire price of the weekend ticket was worth to see Aphex Twin play for 90 minutes. Having listened to and loved his music since I can remember, seeing him perform a set of acid house everything was exactly what I hoped for. It also marked the first time in my life I unintentionally tried to fuck a dance tent. As you can imagine, dance tents are huge and there are a lot of humans in the way so I was unsuccessful, but, following on from Annie Mac’s dubwub he proved that he could mess around with the LFO settings in the same way everyone in London is trying to do, but simultaneously flip open the heads of everyone around and fill it with inexplicable drum hits and proper, proper acidic euphoria, melting away your head. Even Die Antwoord’s fluffy animal wearing stage-bombs weren’t a problem when the music was this hard. I can’t even write about it further because stuff like this should be left as it is. Aphex Twin is simply someone you have to see at least once in your life if you like dance music. He has otherworldly powers.
Leftfield (Saturday)
As one of Leftfield’s return shows, their headline slot gave many people a reason (and for some, the only reason) to hit up the main stage during LED, with enough hype behind it to result in Aphex Twin closing down the tent early enough for people to see it. While I’m sure everyone would have been happy to hear another 90 minutes of AFX’s light-and-sound drum rush, the promise of a live performance from the earliest musicians to fuse dub into their techno was acceptable enough. And they were, legit stadium techno heads with early forward-thinking riddims like Release The Pressure and Afro-Left going down a storm with a crowd who obviously came to re-live the 90s this bank holiday. But it was the Rhythm and Stealth numbers that really brought the night to a climax; Afrika Shox is a song that should only be played through stadium sized speakers and the two-note bassline that makes up the equestrian watersport come nostalgic breakbeat anthem Phat Planet was enough to grant at least a couple of stars from the sneering critics. Extremely satisfying and fitting with the 1990s revival, a roster that blended the acts mentioned in this review would be enough to make a near-perfect festival line-up. As with searching for beats online, if you don’t like the blog then you can close the tab, but there is gold to be found if you seek it out. I am eager to see what they can pull next year after learning from this. What I learnt is that everyone should go out and dance more. That’s basically all that matters.