CODEINE – Live at ATP, London 26/5/12

 I had the pleasure in attending the ATP festival, London this past weekend. Saw some killer bands that I never thought I’d ever see live. Personal highlights would’ve been SLEEP, FLOOR, HARVEY MILK & this excellent set by CODEINE. The recording turned out well but if you want to fiddle with it then that’s cool. Picture is from the CODEINE facebook page. Click the image for link, the setlist is here.

2012

 

 So, first post of the year and it’s nearly halfway done already. I’ve been thinking about music and it’s place in my life  lately. I’ve been selling lots of records this year and it’s at the point where I barely remember what I’ve packaged up and sent off into the aether. Much of it doesn’t sound as good or important as maybe it once did. I never intended for the music I posted up here to been seen in an overly nostalgic sense. There are a few blogs out there that seem to cater to that notion of a ‘golden era’ when music was so much better. All I wanted to do was make sure some great stuff didn’t get buried because it still had something to offer (in my opinion anyway). 

 It seems that looking backwards towards one’s younger days it’s easy to be under the impression things seemed cooler. I don’t necessarily believe this to be a healthy way to live your life. I remember as a teenager seeing older punks with their UK82 getup and laughing at how they were stuck in the past, well, I don’t see how being fixated on the 90′s is any different? The past, its reanimated corpses and capacity for sellout is at an all time high. I pride myself on never having seen any reformed groups live out past victories to the consuming masses. That’s a slight fabrication because even I’ve inadvertently seen two reformed groups.

 Where this may be some peoples idea of fun, it is not mine that’s all I’m saying. If everywhere is constantly clogged with the old refusing to die how can we make any headway with the new? You need some heavy duty filters out but to be honest it is an exciting time because if you dig around you will find some fantastic releases this year alone (albeit from some bands that feature mainly dudes in their 30′s). Here’s a list of new releases from the past 6 months which I’ve been happy to spin numerous times in 2012:

Albums:

PIGS – You Ruin Everything LP (Solar Flare records)

SKELETON KEY – Gravity is the Enemy LP (Arctic Rodeo)

RETISONIC – Robots Fucking LP (Arctic Rodeo)

TORCHE – Harmonicraft LP (Volcom ent)

ALARIC / ATRIARCH – Split LP (20 Buck Spin)

Seven Inches:

OTRO / THE MARSUPIALS – split 7″ (La Escalera records)

PORCUPINE – Witness to a chase scene 7″ (Self)

TIDE OF IRON / GRACE split 7″ (Superfi)

THROAT – Pee 7″ (Kaos Kontrol)

Only 100 years left til 2112. Just think in that time every band that’s ever played a note can reform.

11 RECORDS for 2011

ALARIC - s/t (20 Buck Spin) 

YOUNG WIDOWS – ‘In and Out of Youth and Lightness’ (Temporary Residence)

HELMS ALEE - ‘Weatherhead’ (Hydra head)

NASA SPACE UNIVERSE - ‘Across Wounded Galaxies’ (Shogun Recordings)

BIG’N – ‘Spare the Horses’ 10″ (African Tapes)

RED FANG - ‘Murder the Mountains’ (Relapse)

AMERICAN HERITAGE – ‘Sedentary’ (Translation Loss)

CITY OF SHIPS - ‘Minor World’ (Sound Study records)

PART CHIMP/TORCHE – split (Chunklet)

VOIVOD – ‘Warriors of Ice’ (Sonic Unyon Metal)

SCREAM – ‘Complete Control’ 10″ (Side One Dummy)

A solid year for some interesting releases from both new and old alike. Extra mentions: The Bitch Magnet reissues, Office of Future Plans album on Dischord & the Atriarch CD came out this year but I haven’t heard either yet. Also the first BIG’N LP ‘Cutthroat’ was repressed in an edition of 200 by X-MIST. Oh and the Shiny Beast discography CD finally saw release on Little Mafia.

.end now

 I had some reservations as to posting this or not… I’ve avoided anything relating to ‘pimping your shit’ but I’m guessing some people may be interested in hearing the band I play guitar in called .end now. Since I’m writing the riffs the music is in many ways relates to the bands I have posted here. These tracks were recorded back in September 2010 by our friend Guy in his makeshift studio. After some persuasion he finally mixed them in May 2011, we weren’t allowed to assist. All the same he did a good job and they sound pretty sturdy for the hundred quid we paid him for recording four tracks. At some point in the future we will make physical copies which will sound/look much better and include the other two tracks from that session (one is a Failure cover). Until then see what you think…

Agnes

Iris

 

CRAW – Map, Monitor, Surge

 Massively overlooked band that grew through the same period of 90′s ’noise rock’ that was popularised by Helmet, Jesus Lizard, Shellac et al. In fact Craw share few similarities beyond the surface references, the nearest band I can think to categorise them alongside would be Season To Risk. Both bands favour strange time signatures, odd spoken/sung vocals & dissonant guitar lines.

 ’Map, Monitor, Surge’ is their third album recorded by Steve Albini and Bill Korecky at Mars studio (Integrity/Ringworm) in 1996. This is the first appearance of Will Scharf (Keelhaul) on drums and he maybe accentuates their abuse of meter change and twisting song patterns. It is rare that any song part is repeated twice and any verse/chorus format is abandonned. It can be a disconcerting and difficult listen which is why they didn’t get much noteriety, their last album however was released by Hydra head in 2002 which was a profile boost. I detect some definite later Black Flag influence in the guitar lines on ‘Killer microbes devour Cleveland’ and the general ’avant garde’ vibe. The Craw website had basically everything they ever recorded on it available for free download, unfortunately it seems to have gone kaput… so seek out their albums instead!