Let's Get Shellaced

Hole E Shit. As if I WASN'T going to be excited about Shellac's first Australian appearance since 1993 - I saw these guys only hours before this blog was conceived at the My Bloody Valentine ATP! But of course they (alongside another couple of greats, Lee Ranaldo and Billy Bragg) had been garnered for this year's Melbourne Festival, so assumptions were high that the only way to catch the rambunctious trio was to wing it south. Not so, as all three acts will alight in Brisbane in late October as part of an East Coast tour (not all together, separate tours - I would pay to see Bragg and Albini in some verbal confrontation. Actually, anyone with Albini will find it hard pressed to get on top, he is one opinionated mofo). So get your tix here for Shellac's Tuesday October 23 show at The Zoo, with Pikelet in support. They are 30-odd bucks, incredibly cheap really, so expect these to fly out the door.

Skewed Wooden Shjips? Well I Never...

San Francisco psych juggernauts Wooden Shjips has a remixes 12" out through Thrill Jockey, featuring remixes by Andrew Weatherall and Sonic Boom, and a collaborative track with kandodo (aka Simon Price of The Heads). The 12" was originally available on crystal clear vinyl with black streaks, yet those sexy pieces have been snavvled so you will have to be content with just plain ol black wax.

As for the remixes... Andrew Weatherall (Primal Scream, New Order, My Bloody Valentine, Bjork) remixed "Crossing". Pete Kember, also known as Sonic Boom of Spacemen 3/Spectrum fame mastered Wooden Shjip's most recent (and fucking excellent) West album, and contributed "Wiking Stew (aka Red Krayola-ing)".
Finally there's the track "Ursus Maritimus (Last Bear's Lament)", a long distance collaboration with Simon Price aka kanodo. Ripley Johnson, the wired lead of Wooden Shjips created the bed of the track in Colorado in between tours and sent if off to Simon, in London. Simon added all the additional instrumentation at his home studio.

These three tracks are incredibly special. Grab the 12" here.

Wooden Shjips - Crossing (Andrew Weatherall remix)

Finally, Wooden Shjips sails into Brisbane for a show at the Zoo Sunday March 25. Supported by Secret Birds and Nite Fields, this is going to be such a great show! Pity I have to teach kids in the morning...I guess it's never stopped me before though...

Blacken Those Princely Lips

Two great shows on tonight kids. Firstly there is the Bonnie Prince Billy show at GoMA for the Matisse Up Late program. Expect some exceptional music coupled with heaps of dicks talking and "being seen". Its a pity that there will be that kind of crowd, but what can you do?

Bonnie Prince Billy - I See A Darkness


Go see Black Lips, that's what you can do! The garage behemoths are bringing their incendiary show to The Zoo, with great support from Tiny Migrants and Cannon (go the Long Gone collective!) This will be the raucous drunkfest that you always dreamed of. And to tie the two shows together in a tenuous fashion...

Black Lips - Modern Art

Craig Finn Has Full Eyes, A Clear Heart...And Half A Dozen Stubbies

Craig Finn, frontman of The Hold Steady, has released his first solo album, Clear Heart Full Eyes. It certainly doesn't veer too far away from his tried and tested formula, but that is never a bad thing. The first taste off it, 'Apollo Bay', is a yarn about a trip in Australia that spirals halfway into a burning psych jam. With choral lines that include driving to the aforementioned bay, and the excitement that we are partaking in a geographical kinship with a worthy wordsmith, the affinity to Mr Finn is immediate (although surely you could partake in beers much better than Victoria Bitter?). The rest of the album follows suit, so whilst musically we end up straddling the rock of Lifter Puller and the stadium rollick of The Hold Steady, Finn remains as true as ever to his autobiographical sword, carving colourful vignettes with his usual esoteric verve. I've been a moderate fan of The Hold Steady for some time - one of my favourite tracks is 'Chips Ahoy' - and after seeing them destroy The Zoo back in March last year, even more so. This album shows another shade of Finn, whilst highlighting the fact that he is one of the best lyricists in business today, his literary rants as verbose and empathetic as ever. Well worth a listen, Full Eyes Clear Heart is out now through Vagrant Records.



Craig Finn - Apollo Bay
Craig Finn - No Future

Kitchen's Floor

The fact that I'm writing a post about Brisbane band Kitchens Floor says a hell of a lot for their latest LP, Look Forward To Nothing, out on local label Bedroom Suck and US juggernauts Siltbreeze. My first connection with the trio was last year at the Zoo when they supported Eddy Current Suppression Ring. Now, ECSR played probably the best show Ive seen them play, and one of the best shows Ive seen at the Zoo. But Kitchens Floor - Jesus Christ. What a fucking train wreck. Matt Kennedy may be the epitome of self-loathing, but shit is still shit, and boy, it sounded like the biggest nugget laid on mankind. It was amateur hour. It was lapped up by hipsters who actually did look like they would eat human poo because Pitchfork told them to.

Seriously, I hated that show.

However, I did listen to their first LP Loneliness Is A Dirty Mattress a couple weeks later. There was something in there amidst the grime and overt slacker ennui. Actual killer rock with pop aesthetics without the pretensions - it just was what it was. So when the newie Look Forward To Nothing hit, I listened with a little less apprehension.


This is a massive leap forward. Sure, Kennedy still fucking hates himself. He's got enough depression/self-loathing/displeasure to wrap five hundred Bieber tragics up and suffocate them in before dropping them into a shallow creek. But this really ups the ante in songwriting, ably abetted by the boisterous drumming of the ever-busy Joe Alexander (Bedroom Suck founder, playing in Per Purpose and a plethora of other ill-fitting garbs, almost all of which are infinitely better for his inclusion) and Liam Kenny's bass lines. Hell, rather than sounding like an affected art project, they sound like a goddamn band. With proper hooks. Let's hope Kennedy keeps the double chambers coming, the Valium at hand, and the guitar firmly gripped in his fist. We might have a grungey icon in the making here.

Kitchens Floor - 116

The Future Is Decidely Left - And In December

I interviewed the absolutley fucking amazing Andy "Falco" Falkous yesterday. Such an incredible guy - fifteen minutes was not enough! Future Of The Left have an EP coming out in November on Xtra Mile Records called Polymers Are Forever. Its, as expected, amazing. Im particularly loving the title track and the closing number, 'Destroywhitchurch.com'. Here's what Falco had to say, verbatim, about the EP plus some other exciting news (not from mentioned interview - more on that when I get around to typing it up...):

Zero Hour.
(drum roll) ...

An EP, titled 'polymers are forever' will be released on 11th November on Remote Control (Australia) and on 14th November on XtraMile (Britain and Europe) with an initial small amount of imports being shoveled the way of the USA, that land mass which is a little to the left of Wales. Pleased doesn't quite cover it. The possibilities, literally, are end-ful.

Running order is 'polymers are forever'(*1), 'with apologies to emily pankhurst'(*2), 'new adventures', 'my wife is unhappy', 'dry hate' and 'destroywhitchurch.com'. It has a running time somewhere in the region of twenty one minutes and is 'very nice' ((c) my mother, last week). The first three songs are taken from the album sessions (see below) whilst the final three are earlier demos we didn't have the time, money or inclination to re-record. At this stage I have no earthly idea if the EP will end up being pressed on vinyl but the chances, as ever, are dramatically increased the more people ask.

Just saying.

'polymers are forever' (the song not the entire EP) will appear on the album 'the plot against common sense', which will be released in early 2012. More about this later(*4). We are really VERY VERY HAPPY with this record, which is perhaps ONE DAY away from being finished, whenever we can fit that in; I would like to apologise in advance to my bandmates and the cat(*5) for how drunk I get upon its completion.

The following live dates are confirmed before the end of the year -

20th November Cardiff, Clwb Ifor Bach (No, really?) with Saturdays Kids and one more TBC tickets

26th November Leeds, Cockpit (supports unconfirmed at this stage) tickets

29th November London, Hoxton Bar and Kitchen with Saturdays Kids and Fever Fever tickets

Australian dates are as follows -

4th December Perth, Rosemount

6th December Brisbane, The Zoo

8th December Sydney, Annandale Hotel

9th-11th December Meredith Music Festival

16th December Melbourne, The Corner

Ticket information is available here. Really. Can't wait. For all of it.

I appreciate your patience. Rather than blogging (and yes, I still hate that word) throughout the year in a non-commital manner I thought it best to wait until there was something solid to tell you. 'Hey guys - big news coming IN SIX OR SEVEN MONTHS' doesn't really cut it around my face. Or, indeed, my balls.(*6)

More to fellow follow.

falco
x

(*1) I have read some pretty demented comments about this song after just one radio play (and subsequent streaming). Gary Numan? Obvious Cure references? LIMP BIZKIT? None of these are things. None. Of. These. Listen again. With ears. EARS. (*3)

(*2) this is the DELIBERATE title of the song. A reviewer for a magazine, who shall remain nameless changed 'emily' to 'emmeline' on a setlist she was given earlier this year. How cute.

(*3) laptop speakers do not count.

(*4) and I ask you to interpret the word 'later' generously.(*7)

(*5) the odd seizure and shitting-on-the-doorstep episode aside, Chicken is doing well.

(*6) one balls reference per blog - new policy.

(*7) this is code for 'be patient'.

I can now verify that the band, now a four piece, finished the recording for the new LP today, so it should be in our quivering palms in the opening throes of 2012. We wont have to wait that long to hear the tracks however, as mentioned by the man himself, the Welsh juggernauts hit Brisbane on December 6 at the suitably sweaty Zoo. You can get tickets for that hotly anticipated show here - it will be ball-tearingly good.

Future Of The Left - Polymers Are Forever