Today Real Estate gave us a sneaky peek at what they’ve been up to over the summer in the form of this 24 second teaser. Hidden away in the studio, it looks like they’ve invested summer ’13 into crafting another dreamy album for us to soak up.
A highly anticipated follow up to ‘Days’ is on its way, click play to watch the teaser video for ‘LP3’ and ponder over the 24 seconds of music they’ve laid out to whet your appetite.
Fire Records will be reissuing Lemonheads’ first three albums in October.
Hate Your Friends (1987), Creator (1988) and Lick (1989) showcase the band’s early roots in punk rock and how this paved the way to them becoming such an influential band in indie rock. Each album reissue will come with added extra tracks from a variety of sessions, radio appearances and rare EPs.
Below is a sampler put together in spirit of this re-issue, capturing the song writing partnership between Evan Dando and Ben Deily who formed the band when they were both still in school. Crafting their songwriting skills as brothers in arms, these three albums demonstrate how Lemonheads evolved from punk to pop.
Lemonheads reissues will be available from October 7th.
Cheatahs
‘Cut The Grass’ / ‘Kenworth’
Blog
Following their alliance with Wichita back in 2012, Cheatahs have just announced a brand new AA side single, ‘Cut The Grass’ / ‘Kenworth’. Having blown us away earlier this year with their anthemic track ‘The Swan’ practically on repeat in the office, we had to have the four piece on our Buzz Chart this week.
Both ‘Cut The Grass’ and ‘Kenworth’ are business as usual for Cheatahs; washed out, over-driven guitars and a shit load of whammy bar wielding action. Atop these familiar, warped chords features an effect drenched lead, with some ethereal hooks fading in and out of both these tracks. A little different to the previous raw riffs of the Sans EP et-al but oozing just as much slacker attitude.
Cheatahs have been a busy bunch this year, cramming in festival appearances up and down the UK, a stint in the states touring with Wavves and Fidlar, appearances at SXSW and Primavera, and a flurry of support slots opening for grunge icons Dinosaur Jr. Little did we know, in between their hectic schedule, they managed to write and record their debut album. Rumored to be released in early 2014, both tracks on this AA are taken from the upcoming LP.
‘Cut The Grass’ / ‘Kenworth’ is due for release October 13th via Witchita.
With barely two years under their belts Joanna Gruesome are set to release their raucous debut album this month. ‘Weird Sister’ is packed full of frictional feedback and fuzzy jangle, driven by fast hardcore drum beats this five-piece make an agreeable din. The Cardiff teenage noise-mongers agreed to let us ask them a bunch of questions about their new record and the obligatory ‘what ifs’. Click play to get acquainted.
Hats off to you guys on your debut, how long did you spend on this batch of tunes? Is there a primary song smith amongst you or do you write as a collective?
Owen: Thanks! Spent half a year on them I guess. Some of the songs are older though so maybe like a whole year? I write most of the songs but there is some collective shit going on. The song “Secret Surprise” was written by me, Alanna and Nicholls for instance.
And you’ve been going for around two years now, right? How did you all come together as Joanna Gruesome?
Owen: Yeah, about two years! We met in an anger management class.
Over that time you’ve coined your own breed of lo-fi scuzz, but what/who are your influences outside of indie music?
Owen: I’m kinda peripherally influenced by a lot of trad folk- stuff like Anne Briggs, Dick Gaughan, Lal Waterson, Shirley Collins and more contemporary folk stuff like Alisdair Roberts and The Trembling Bells. Mainly because I listen to it a lot and grew up with it. Then stuff like Arthur Russell and a lot of disco and Detroit techno. I also listen to a lot of really commercial pop music like Taylor Swift et al and then more dissonant stuff like Jandek and The Shadow Ring to balance it all out. A lot of black metal too and a lot of Converge. Obviously growing up with the internet we all listen to a load of different shit but I guess that’s the stuff that comes to mind as a direct influence to the band outside of d.i.y indie pop/indie rock music.
A load of new bands are instantly deemed by critics as sound-a-likes because of their influences, but this seems irrelevant considering your eclectic taste. Still, are these armchair warriors something the band pays attention to or does it not matter to you?
Owen: Haven’t met any yet! I think there was a certain amount of 90’s homage going on when we formed the band but I think on this record we just sound a lot more like ourselves if that makes sense?
Nicholls: Bluebirds!
It does! Weird Sister strikes me as an expressive record where nothing seems off-limits. Could you elaborate on what this album is all about?
Owen: There’s not really an overall concept but themes include aliens, death cannons, graveyards, comic books, fighting misogyny + homophobia/bad journalism, stealing scooters and mental illness.
Have you always kept a DIY approach in the past when it comes to recording? How was it jumping into a larger studio this time around and working with MJ from Hookworms?
Owen: Yeah before this record we just recorded in a living room with our friend/former drummer Matt (now in the awesome band Plaids). We were kinda tentative to record in an actual studio but we totally trusted MJ and it worked out really well. He’s produced loads of good shit, we share the same taste/ethos and the studio’s right by this takeaway where you can get a falafel wrap and chips and a drink for £4!
When you’re not eating falafel you guys gig loads. It seems you’re building an impressive reputation for raucous live shows. What is your favourite track to play live and why?
Owen: I like playing ‘Secret Surprise’ cause it’s the easiest and you can hear Lan’s vocals over all the feedback.
Aside from the usual collective you share the stage with who would you love to go on tour with?
Owen: Nu Sensae or Lemuria or Los Cripis or Taylor Swift.
So what’s going on over summertime for Joanna Gruesome, any festival appearances you guys are particularly looking forward to?
Owen: We’ve already done most of our summer stuff! But we’re on tour in September to support the album release. Other than that, me and Lan are touring together in our other bands, ‘King of Cats’ and ‘Ides’, through August.
Finally, if you weren’t all playing in Joanna Gruesome, what would you be doing?
Owen: We’d still be putting on shows, releasing records, releasing comics, generally trying to contribute positively to UK d.i.y and our friend’s bands as much as possible. But I think we’d use the time that is now allocated to being in Joanna Gruesome and the money saved to fully concentrate on pursuing our enemies.
Weird Sister is due for release September 16th on Fortuna POP!
Dave Palmer
Festivals are all fun and games to most, but sadly some don’t always go as planned. With festival disasters making the headlines almost on a yearly basis, we are here to share with you some of the most horrific events (and a couple funny) in festival history.
#10 – Bloc Festival 2012
It all went tits up at Bloc in East London last year, with the whole gig being shut down halfway through the opening night. Firstly, crowds of thousands attempted to board the hired party boat, the MS Stubnitz sailed in all the way from Germany to act as one of the stages only to meet masses of kids that swarmed the boat resulting in immense overcrowding.
Overload of fans was not the only cause of this festival failure though; allegedly the sound systems were low budget and well under par for an event of this scale, and, one of the bars had ran out of booze by half past ten!
Snoop Dogg and Orbital were set to headline the event, and as Snoop’s midnight slot neared the organisers announced across the shoddy P.A that the Dogg would not be performing this evening. Shortly after, the thousands of fans were ushered to the exits and disappeared into the night. For Bloc 2012 was to be no more. Surprisingly, crowds were cooperative and no rioting or violence occurred despite the huge amount of frustrated drunk people.
#9 – 1979 Cincinnati Tragedy
This is a night that many would like to forget, The Who’s Riverfront Coliseum headline show in December of ’79. The 18,000 strong crowd that bought out the box office in less than 90 minutes gathered at the entrance to the venue. When Pete Townshend began his sound check later than planned, fans reportedly lost it, storming into the venue like a herd of angry cattle, 11 unfortunate souls got caught up in the rush and were trampled to death. How The Who dealt with this, I don’t know. Dealing with the fact that people put their lives at risk to see your band play must be a total head fuck.
#8 – Woodstock 1999
The 30th anniversary of this legendary gathering was a cacophony of carnage. With something like 60 punters hospitalised, Woodstock ’99 was one of the biggest disasters in festival history. There was certainly more than one catalyst for the change in Woodstock’s peace and love credential to destruction and damage, but the most obvious party to point the finger at here is the bands themselves. The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Kid Rock, Insane Clown Posse and Limp Biscuit were all shunned for encouraging the rioting, fire starting, despoiling and general mayhem that unfolded over the July weekend.
Renowned nutters Insane Clown Posse got everyone fired up by throwing $100 bills into the audience, watching gaily as a ruckus unfolded. Kid Rock went on to encourage crowds to pelt the stage with bottles, while the Chili’s covered Jimi Henrix’s ‘Fire’ as the audience in their thousands lit several bonfires. Allegedly, Kiedis compared the blazes to a scene from the 1979 flick Apocalypse Now. But at the forefront of all this madness was none other than prize fool, Fred Durst. When he burst into his timeless classic ‘Break Stuff’ his fans lost it, proceeding to attack MTV’s camera tower with debris, tear down walls and literally break each other. Peace man.
#7 – Reading Riots, Mind That Child
The Sunday night of the annual Reading Festival was notoriously known for its ‘riots’. Stories of flaming poles being thrown through tents, to a horde of drunk blokes setting alight to portaloos, when Sunday night at Reading roles around it’s either join the troops or run for your lives.
As time progressed and Reading’s programme began to cater for a predominantly GCSE audience, riot police were summoned. In 2010, festival organisers instigated strict fire safety rules and any campfires deemed unsafe were to be extinguished immediately by the new fire safety team. Clad in Ghostbuster style suits, wielding extinguishers and water cannons left right and centre, the brigade insured all the teens were left uncooked.
These efforts paid off and the atmosphere amongst festival goers improved, probably as there were less burning tent fumes to inhale. There was even a ban of no more alcohol to be brought on to the campsites after 6pm Sunday evening. Not to worry, you can still empty your wallet at the bar, or if you’re not old enough, drink the warm cider that you’ve had in your tent for 4 days.
#6 – Glastonbury Floods 2005
The weather always seems to screw us at festivals, and Glastonbury 2005 was no exeption. This soggy event was host to one of the most freak storms Michael Eavis has ever seen. The Friday morning of the event saw the festival take a hit from a thunderstorm so powerful that people literally had nowhere to sleep. Tents were unable to handle the immense downpour that was unleashed upon them, and as shown by the picture, you could literally sail your canoe through the campsites.
Despite the wide-spread flooding at Worthy Farm, only 19 people were injured. The BBC met one lad who had to go swimming in neck deep water in search for his car keys – he’d left his wellies in the boot.
#5 – Roskilde Festival Fatal Crush
One of the most saddening stories now, as Pearl Jam plugged in to play Denmark’s Rokslide 2000, a rush of fans were crushed at the barrier resulting in eight tragic casualties. Witnesses reported that a wave of people fell at the front of the crowd, causing a surge of more people behind falling upon them and so on, literally like a line of dominoes. Pearl Jam cut their set and urged people to push backwards but by the time the crowds cooperated it was too late.
As a sign of respect to the families of those lost, Oasis and The Pet Shop Boys pulled out of the festival and the donated their fee to charities and funding for improved crowd control.
#4 – Pukklepop 2011 Five Fatalities
Five people were killed and around one-hundred injured at Pukklepop 2011. The Belgian rock festival was overwhelmed by disaster when two stages were destroyed due to freak storms. Trees were uprooted by insane winds, sent cascading into The Chateau stage causing the whole stage to collapse and giant viewing screens to fall on the audience. Videos of the horror started to emerge after the festival, which you can see below. The likes of Foo Fighters and Eminem were set to headline the festival, but the event was cancelled for obvious reasons. R.I.P to those that got caught up in this utter tragedy.
#3 – ‘Poo girl’ at Leeds Festival 2009
You always hear the horror stories of people falling in the ‘long drops’ of the campsites of Reading and Leeds. If you’re unaware of the term, picture a line of shitters, back to back, each connected to a communal cess pit full of 500 other peoples shit and piss.
18-year-old Charlotte Taylor was incredibly unlucky and got herself stuck facing head down in the shit filled long drops after trying to retrieve her handbag that she misplaced down there. After a grueling 20 minutes, Charlotte was released by the fire service and given a good hose down in front of other festival-goers. Hats off to the poor girl though, Charlotte stuck it out for the rest of the festival, despite being instantly dubbed ‘poo girl’.
#2 – Violence in Altamont at The Rolling Stones Free Concert
December 1969 was a little while ago now, but to those who were at the Altamont Free Concert, it may not feel like it. The event is sadly known for basically marking the end of the 1960’s and the whole peace/love/swinging mentality. Rather than a celebration of such an influential and important decade, this gig is most associated with the murder of Meredith Hunter.
The 18 year old fan was stabbed twice by a Hells Angels motorcyclist Alan Passaro. The Hells Angels mob had been hired as security; although there is confusion around whom they were employed by, and how loose an agreement was struck. But as one could assume, the tactics employed by the Angels to control crowds were pretty brutal. The murder was captured on camera and can be seen in the documentary Gimme Shelter, Passaro was charged with murder but later acquitted on grounds of self-defence because Meredith Hunter was carrying a gun!
Sadly, three others also died at the event. Two people were killed in a hit-and-run and another drowned in an irrigation canal.
The free concert, which was thought to be attended by up to 300,000 people, was put on because of criticisms from journalists saying that gig tickets were too expensive so The Stones reacted with this free event.
#1 – V Festival, Piss Poor
This is probably the best thing we could find. One of the grimmest and disgusting substances to find upon your person is piss, worse, someone else’s piss. Worse still, when you’re already covered in mud at V festival and the next shower you’re going to get is far from soon. But this guy’s game for all of the above, this lover of urine dives right in there, mouth open, ready for a rinse. Great.
PHOTO CREDITS: Andrew Kendall, US Department of energy, Acrobat83
Dave Palmer
Cerebral Ballzy / Lower / Chain of Flowers
Old Blue Last
Tuesday 20th August 2013
I have never listened to Chain of Flowers before in my life and that is a sad thing. If you favour the darker side of indie music then you must check this lot out at once. Their set is a half hour of tight, wall of sound energy, fronted by vocalist Joshua Smith whirling about the stage freaking out like Ian Curtis as he snarls his dark sincere lyrics. Chain of Flowers match punk with indie and it sounds great.
All the way from Copenhagen, Lower keep the bar high with their bass riff driven, post-punk noise. But what I really like about this four piece is that they create something believable. Like Chain of Flowers before them, the way in which their set is delivered and performed feels honest and true, no one’s posing here this evening, just passionate people doing what they’re passionate about. It’s evident the rest of the audience feel the same about this bunch as appreciation is shown in volumes, and Lower feed off of that.
Cerebral Ballzy bring the noise for their headline slot, bashing through short thrash stints one after the other, doing what they do best. Although not my band of choice for a playlist, they are tremendously fun live. The crowd show their approval, regularly tossing each other through the air and across the room. It’s not all just business as usual though, new track ‘Another Day’, produced by Dave Sitek of TV on the Radio, sees Ballzy stepping in a slightly different direction. Adopting more of a ‘song writer’ approach to this B side, Ballzy use conventional structure as opposed to the pure, face melting outbursts exhibited on their 2011 self-titled debut. Not that this new angle is a bad one, they stay true to the punk cred they’ve earned and this track goes down a storm tonight with the rest of their high speed thrash. This is only the first of a two night residency at the Old Blue, and I’m very tempted to go down again tonight.
Dave Palmer
The Polaris Music Prize is a non-profit organisation that annually celebrates and honors Canadian music by marketing the albums deemed to have the highest artistic integrity, regardless of musical genre or sales figures, as judged by a panel of select music critics.
Today they have announced a collaboration with Rough Trade East for their first UK event. On Friday August 30th Rough Trade will host a ‘Polaris Day’ with the 10 shortlisted albums for the award played back to back in store all day. Following this, a discussion panel made up of journalists from Rock Sound, iD, Q and Drowned In Sound will assemble in the evening for debate.
Issues on the table include specifically the 10 shortlisted artists for the Polaris Prize, and the long list, music journalism in general, taking a look at the differences between the Mercury Prize and their own Canadian accolade, and why a great deal of Canadian acts manage to grab a foothold here in the UK before their homelands.
Polaris Music Prize Shortlist:
Godspeed You! Black Emperor – ‘Allelujah! Don’t Bend! Ascend!
Zaki Ibrahim – Every Opposite
Metric – Synthetica
METZ – METZ
Purity Ring – Shrines
Colin Stetson – New History Warfare Vol. 3: To See More Light
Tegan and Sara – Heartthrob
A Tribe Called Red – Nation II Nation
Whitehorse – The Fate of the World Depends on This Kiss
Young Galaxy – Ultramarine
Click here for event details!
Canada’s output of musical talent has always been class A, with a thriving underground scene and a tight live circuit it’s one of the best places to be right now for a new band.
A perfect consequence of this ever developing scene comes in the form of Babysitter, who caught out attention back in May when Lindsay from Fist City tipped us off about their garage filled punk tones. We caught up with singer/guitarist Kristian North to find out where the trio’s headed next, and how they make their psychedelic concoction sound so damn good.
Please run us through how Babysitter all started.
Me and Andy started jamming in summer of 2010, Babysitter was just a name suggested by a friend that stuck, some different people were in the band, we made some tapes and played a bunch of shows and now it’s 2013!
By the looks of it, you guys have produced quite a few releases since you got together, how do you manage to put that much input into the band, are you all doing it full time?
We’ve been doing it as often as possible, we all like playing music so it’s easy because we all make an effort, we make no money though, we’ve been on tour, unemployed a good chunk of the year and I’m sure we’ll have to go get jobs somewhere soon. Just getting together as much as possible and recording on some of the earlier tapes got gears turning and new songs coming out and we just work with that momentum. In 2013 though we’ve really focused on just touring the album.
There’s a real gritty punk aspect to your sound but you can also grunge that shit deep. How has your sound changed over the time you have been together as this band?
We’re all interested in different types of music and we don’t think of the band as having a sound or style necessarily. We use improvisation in our shows and on our albums as well so the creative process is more organic i think, we’re just sorta playing what we can and what sounds good and it changes on it’s own.
Babysitter – Whole Hole from morgan rhys tams on Vimeo.
You sound like the kind of band that likes to either put on a riot of a show, or cook up some acoustic smoke around an open fire under the stars. Do you spend any time outdoors crafting your wares acoustically before the rehearsal space jams take place?
We all camp on tour when we have days with no shows or whatever. Usually we just make noise wherever we are jamming, songs are introduced and just slowly learned over time. I guess we’ve had some acoustic guitar jams on the tapes and record but i don’t remember ever showing the dudes a song on acoustic guitar, i do like some acoustic though. Usually the song writing process is pretty collaborative, if i write a song it’s pretty skeletal and it gets fleshed out a lot in the jam space or on stage.
What did you all grow up listening to? I kind of guess you have a record collection that has a bunch of different stuff in it from Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young to Devo to Mudhoney, Minor Threat and The Men, would I be close?
That’s such a broad, unanswerable question man but we definitely all love Neil Young, can’t say as much for Crosby, Stills and Nash. These days we just listen to the tapes we come across at thrift stores on our vans’ shitty sound system. In Kingston, Ontario we picked up a reggae greatest hits album that’s getting pretty heavy rotation right now.
It’s rare these days to see bands going down the analogue route to record, how did you end up choosing this route over home based pro-tools and computer programs?
We are just interested in it, particularly Andy – he records a lot of our stuff. It just sounds better to our ears and the simplicity puts focus back into the playing of our instruments and writing of our songs. We have digital recordings released as well.
The fact that you have captured such a raw, live sound from this process should be a lesson for most bands that struggle with releasing records that feel static, how important is that live to you guys, I hear you change your sets on a dime?
We’ve been playing some different types of sets on the road, we had our friend JLK join us on stage in Montreal and Toronto for a few psychedelic sets together which were all improv and turned out awesome. We’ve been touring a lot and not introducing many new songs into the sets this year so we do some more jamming in between songs to keep it fresh. Spontaneity is important to us.
What’s the most random situation you have been in whilst in the middle of a live show?
Nothing’s really coming to mind, it’s all a blur really. Back in may in Decatur, which is sort of on the outskirts of Atlanta, we played a show in a house where the power had been cut that day and they had gotten a generator so the show could go on, when it got dark everyone was walking around with their cellphones as flashlights and the house was all lit by candles. We got on maybe around 11 and by about our second or third song the cops arrived so we stopped playing assuming our set was done. We’ve had our fair share of sets cut short by pigs now, strangely though they just told them they were having a show or whatever and the cops just said to close the door and carry on. Sorta reasonable, but I thought that was pretty weird.
What other labels other than Psychic Handshake are doing the business?
We’ve done releases with Dub Ditch Picnic, Planet of the Tapes, Electric Voice, Totally Disconnected, Student Loan, and Onec.
Likening your process to black and white photographs is a pretty good way of processing the thought behind the making of your music, if you were to cast a flash on one of the most insane times throughout the history of the band to date, what would be printed?
Again everything sort of melts together in my memory, right now we are really doing it out on the highway and everything so I’m going to say that the present and the future are looking pretty good. What we’ve done is cool and i have fond memories and everything but what we are going to do soon is what I’m excited about.
The Canadian music scene has always delivered amazing bands from D.O.A to Fist City, Black Mountain and Fucked Up. How is the underground scene moving forwards out there, how tight knit is the live circuit, and what bands should we look out for who are new and on the up?
Canada is doing great these days, but Weird Canada has really helped strengthen the music community across the country. There’s consistently good music on there, all Canadian content, they have been getting grants and putting on shows and they are starting a Canadian distribution system and all this cool stuff.
There’s lots of rad bands, some favorites include JLK, Mormon Crosses, Shearing Pinx, Pink Noise, Cleopatra and the Nile, Cindy Lee, Iceberg Ferg, Krang, The Slabs, Mourning Coup, White Poppy, and Bash Bros…. but I’m probably forgetting some. There’s lots of strange and good new bands popping up all over the place.
So finally, when will Babysitter be working their magic on UK crowds?
We’re ready now or anytime! Someone help us!!
EYE is out now and available for download now, go here for the LP.
Control Group
‘Shoes of the People’
Bandcamp
Control Group are a new DIY grunge outfit from Brooklyn comprised of three guys with a whirlpool of influences and past musical ventures. Drawing inspiration from method as well as music, they hit record without a blue print, freely tracking their instruments until something good sticks, and it has. Upcoming single, ‘Shoes of the People’, self released and available from September 13th is a raw representation of what to expect from this trio. It’s heavy, dark and rough around the edges.
‘B’ side ‘Leave it Alone’ is also a stonker, carrying more of a Pixies, indie twang that keeps in time with the side ‘A’ swagger. Control Group also retain an authenticity hard to find these days that is the organic scratchy sound of needle on vinyl, with the digital release you’re streaming now mastered straight from the first pressing. Bonus track ‘My Alien’ reveals the final point in this triangle with a Dinosaur Jr style groove and some thrashy breaks thrown in for good measure.
Control Group make energetic guitar rock with a nod to some grunge greats and this three track is a perfect introduction, pre order the limited edition 7″ here.
Dave Palmer
Splashh have put out a brand new as yet unheard tune. ‘Somethings Here’ is business as usual, sun soaked jingle jangle fuzzy pop, and at just under three minutes this catchy little ditty is well worth a spin. Don’t hesitate as this one’s not on their upcoming album.
Splashh will release their long awaited debut album Comfort on September 2nd through Luv Luv Luv Records, coming with bonus tracks unheard on the previous US and Aus/NZ releasees. Catch them on tour in the UK in October!