The online home of Beard, brought to you by young shavers Stewart Smith and Neil Jacques. Until 2007 we published a print zine, not to be confused with Bearded magazine. Now we exist online. We have a radio show too!
BEARD #6 still available through paypal from beardmag@yahoo.co.uk or at Monorail and Missing and (Glasgow), Analogue Books and Avalanche(Edinburgh), Rough Trade East (London), Edgeworld, Rounder and Resident (Brighton), One Up (Aberdeen)
Our March edition bulges with beauties! Waulking songs from Barra, blissed out bearded dudes singing about honey, gorgeous Iranian ballads, sound poetry, blackened bass, Italian soundtracks, sepulchural organs, West African guitars, and cosmic freakout jazz.
Children in Djounhan - Bellula; Ishilan N-Tenere (Sahel Sounds / Missipssippi Records) Intriya Ag Babo - Taliat; Ishilan N-Tenere (Sahel Sounds / Missipssippi Records) Akron/Family - Silly Bears; S/T II The Cosmic Birth and Journey... (Dead Oceans) Miss Mary Morrison and her chorus - Lathat siubhold beinne dhomh; Waulking Songs From Barra (Tangent) Bob Cobbing - Interview; The Order of Things (Aeolus/pocketbooks) Raime - This Foundry; EP (Blackest Ever Black) Tim Hecker - In The Air II; Rave Death 1972 (Kranky) Iron Knowledge - Showstopper; Chains & Black Exhaust (Memphix) Larry Young - Khalid of Space Part Two; Lawrence of Newark (Sanctuary) The Haxan Cloak - Burning Torches of Despair; ST (Aurora Borealis) Nino Rota - Aria Di Roma Main Titles; LSD Roma (Cherry Red) Dariush - Cheshm-e Man; Pomegranetes (Finders Keepers)
That's all folks! I was only commissioned to do a handful. Best ATP I've ever been to. As bold and brilliant as the Thurston Moore one was in 2006, it was a little heavy on the dude-rock-noise axis. Godspeed brought beauty, harshness and weirdness, and they gave us something to dance to as well. Job's a good un.
Flower-Corsano Duo
Chris Corsano is one of this festival's heroes, manning the sticks for mighty power trio Rangda and sitting in on Oneida's epic 10-hour jam, but it's his improvised set with UK underground godhead Mick Flower that takes him closest to Satori. I'm always wary of epithets like 'greatest drummer in the world' but really, Corsano is on another plane, his hands a blur as they dart around the kit, summoning forth a sublime polyrhythmic storm. His style is an avant-punk take on free jazz drumming, all rapid-fire rolls and low-end rumbles, with every nuance of the kit explored. He rarely locks into a regular groove, but somehow he is able to create momentum while pushing the music in multiple directions. Flower is less hyperactive, allowing the shimmering tones of his japan banjo – a modified electric dulcimer - to float serenely over the percussive mellee. Before long, however, he's bent over his instrument, rocking back and forth as he conjures a swirling mass of ragas and drone. The combined effect is truly psychedelic: ecstatic music to liberate body and mind.
The Dead C
It's tempting to apply images of bodily decay and post-industrial waste to New Zealand's premier noise-rock trio– the twitching corpse of garage rock being dragged through a yard of burning tyres, guitars corroded with battery acid etc – but there's a graceless beauty to their sonic muck that resists notions of nihilism or violence. Without an ounce of self-conscious cleverness, the Dead C deconstruct rock. What begins as slow, hypnotic and murky becomes utterly compelling as Robbie Yeats's drums drive Michael Morley and Bruce Russell's gloriously fucked guitars to series of climaxes and collapses. Primitive half-riffs are formed out of the fuzz and junk, fragments of song stumble wearily amidst squalls of feedback and it sounds gorgeous.
Some belated reviews of the fantastic Godspeed curated All Tomorrow's Parties festival that took place in December 2010. I did these for a major music site, but unfortunately I was the only person who submitted in the end, so they couldn't publish them. Part two tomorrow, featuring Corsano-Flower Duo and the Dead C.
John Butcher
On one level John Butcher's pieces are demonstrations of his staggering technique, but so unusual are the sounds emanating from his saxophones that the process becomes fascinating. There is a scientific quality to the way Butcher approaches the instrument (he once was a theoretical physicist) but the thoroughness of his acoustic investigations is matched by a playful and intense musical spirit. Mind-boggling moments abound, from the flighty soprano reels achieved through athletic feats of circular breathing, to the metallic split-tones which sound like Daleks and Cybermen getting it on in the Radiophonic Workshop. Most remarkable, and beautiful, is his manipulation of a feedback tone through his tenor. Holding the bell up to a microphone, he traps the feedback in his horn, releasing it by opening valves and tapping keys so that the drone is transformed into a ripple of percussive pops and clicks. Every so often he'll let the sound escape, letting it resonate in the air for a few seconds before being snatched back into the belly of his horn. A true master.
The Ex
A set of new material? In front of a festival crowd? Sheer madness! Not a bit of it. They may have been around for 30 years, but these Dutch post-punks surge ever forward, revitalised by new singer Arnold DeBoer. The lack of old favourites is never an issue, because ultimately it all comes down to the rhythm. Eschewing conventional punk attack for afro-motorik grooves and spiky, scratchy guitars, The Ex are rock's greatest dance band. Flanked by greying riff machines Terrie Hessels and Andy Moor, the boyish DeBoer is a commanding frontman, delivering breathless satirical rants and making his guitar sound like Konono No.1's electric thumb pianos. The moments where they lose themselves in the groove and run at each other like duelling stags are thrilling. But it is Katherina Blomefeld who is the true star. She's an inspired drummer, combining loose-limbed African polyrhythms with inexorable Krautrock momentum. It's fitting, then, that she should step up to the mic for the encore of 'Hidegen Fujnak A Szelek', a Hungarian folk song and longtime fan favourite. 'Theme from Konono' completes a peerless set, the band's righteous energy spreading througout the crowd.
Maher Shalal Hash Baz/Keiji Haino
On first impression Maher and Haino seem to represent two extremes of the Japanese underground: the former sweetly naive, the latter uncompromisingly dark and abrasive. But in fact, the two acts share a commitment to their individual visions, and have collaborated in the past. Maher's set is surprisingly loud, with the band joyfully stretching their charming pop tunes into lengthy Modern Lovers/Velvets workouts, all relentless rhythm guitar and parping trumpet. Throughout, Tori Kudo's skewed Syd Barrett via Beefheart guitar solos cut through the sweetness, consigning any whiff of tweeness to oblivion. Tame stuff, nonetheless, in comparison to Haino's set, which begins by subjecting a desolate blues lament to a harrowing onslaught of noise and bloodcurdling screams. Fed through four Fender amps, his guitar creates a ferocious wall of sound, vicious trebles and piercing feedback cutting through a blaze of distortion. A terrible beauty is born. The second half presents Haino as the dark prince of noise, manipulating tone generators and pedals into a raging invocation of sublime forces. Monstrous bass frequencies and thunderous drum loops rattle the rib cage, while Haino waves his hands and flails his long grey locks over some kind of Kaos Pad/theremin hybrid that brings down the Apocalypse in a tempest of swooping tones and howling white noise. A punishing set, but utterly thrilling and cleansing with it.
This week we're previewing Scotland's leading experimental music festival, Instal, which takes place at the Tramway, Glasgow, from 12-14 November.
We interview curator Barry Esson about how the festival has evolved over the years and what to expect next week. There are tracks from festival performers, including Catherine Christer Hennix, Florian Hecker, Ian Campbell and Christopher De Laurents.
Unrelated to Instal, we bring you new tracks from Sun City Girls, Ensemble Economiques and James Blake and classics from Bongwater, Sister Mary Nelson and David Sylvian, featuring Derek Bailey.
Sun City Girls - Ben's Radio; Funeral Mariachi (Abduction) Florian Hecker - Acid in the Style of David Tudor 3 (Editions Mego) Ensemble Economique - Real Thing; Psychics (Notnotfun) Jean Luc Gionnet & Eric La Casa - Maison Glasgow Lisa (Arika) Ian Campbell - The Golden Boy Eats James Blake - Only Know What I Know Now; Klavierwerke (r & s) Bongwater - Psychedelic Sewing Room; Too Much Sleep (Shimmy Disc) Sister Mary Nelson - Judgement; Harry Smith Anthology of American Folk Music Vol 2 (Folkways) David Sylvian - The Good Son; Blemish (Samhadi Sound) Christopher De Laurent - Our Streets Catherine Christine Hennix - The Electric Harpsichord (excerpt) (Die Schachtel)
Featuring Anton La Vey, St Vitus, Inflatable Boy Clams, Rick Wakeman, a very odd David Bowie number, and much, much more. Can you handle the evil?
With special, blood-spattered thanks to my fiendish co-conspirator in evil Satanic Sean Welsh, and our henchmen in diabolis Murderous Matt Evans, Neil "Necromancer" Jacques, Reuben "The Ripper" Kay and Ghoulish Gary Thoms. May your souls rot in hell!
Black Sabbath - Supertzar; Sabotage (Sanctuary) Rick Wakeman - Hell; Lisztomania OST (A&M) King Horror - Loch Ness Monster (Trojan) Inflatable Boy Clams - Skeletons (Subterranean Records) Meco - Werewolf (Loose in London); Phonograph Sebastian Peabody - Grave In The Desert; Wavy Gravy for Adult Enthusiasts (Beware) Beherit - Goat Worship; The Oath of Black Blood (Emetic) Anton La Vey - Satan Takes A Holiday (Amarillo) David Bowie - Please Mr Gravedigger; S/T (Deram) Caldera - Christ, When I Leave This Life; Capitol Jack Lucifer - I Am Living Death (Kotzaak) Riz Ortolani - Cannibal Holocaust (Main Theme); Cannibal Holocaust OST (Lucertola Media) Ruth White - Spleen; Flowers of Evil (Limelight) Louvin Brothers - Satan Is Real (Capitol) St John Green - Goddess of Death (Flick Disc) St Vitus - Zombie Hunger; St Vitus (SSt) The Vampires of Dartmoor - Tanz Der Vampire; Dracula's Music Cabinet (Finders Keepers)
Transmitting not-quite-live from Mile End, we welcome our very special guests Frances Morgan and Mark Dicker of glorious psych-folk-doom duo TIME, who will be playing us some of their favourite records. Frances also plays with Morgen Und Nite, is one of the finest music writers around and was editor and publisher of the lamented Plan B magazine. You may know Mark as guitarist in the mighty grindlords Trencher. Tune in for Turkish folk, Finnish electronica, French prog, Kosmische, harsh noise and an EXCLUSIVE new Trencher jam. Essential listening!
Fabio Frizzi - Falling For Emily/Beyond Emily; The Beyond (Dagored) Pan Sonic - Corona; Gravitoni (Blast First Petite) Omar Souleyman - Li Raja Behawakom; Jazeera Nights (Sublime Frequencies) Secret Chiefs Three - Vajra; Book M (Web of Mimicry) Erkan Ogur & Ismail H Demircioglu - Pencereden Kar Geliyor; Gulun Kokusu Vardi (Golden Horn Records) Popol Vuh - Engel Der Gegenwart; Heart of Glass (Brain) Trencher - Vlad Tapas; All suffering... soon to end (White Label) Archaia - Soleil Noir; Archaia (Private Press) Spacecraft - Surface; Paradoxe (Spalax Music) Zen feat Murat Ertel - Mazhar Neyzen ve Kopegi; Bakirkoy Akil Hastanensinde (Ada Yayincilik) Whitehouse - Wriggle Like A Fucking Eel; Bird Seed (Susan Lawley)
We return with some beautiful new tunes from Afrirampo, Swans and Antoni Maiovvi and pay tribute to free jazz legend Noah Howard and poet and all round hero Edwin Morgan. There's some Bollywood proto-acid, sound poetry, cosmic disco, Moroccan electric banjo jams and a very, very odd unreleased Beach Boys tune. Shout outs to Chris Storey for the Jemaa El Fna recommendation, Katie Pope for the Edwin Morgan ASLS CD, and Frances Morgan for the Beach Boys bootleg. The Aeolus Morgan recordings come from a CD that comes with Ken Cockburn and Alec Finlay's wonderful anthology of Scottish sound, pattern and concrete poems, 'The Order of Things': well worth tracking down, as are most of the titles in Finlay's brilliant Pocketbooks series.
Afrirampo - Miracle Lucky Girls; We Are Ucho No Ko (Rock Action) Edwin Morgan - Canedolia: an off concrete Scotch Fantasia (Aeolus) Antoni Maiovvi - This is the beast; Thorns of Love (Caravan Recordings) Mancingelani - Vana Vasesi; Shangaan Electro: New Wave Dance Music From South Africa (Honest Jons) Swans - No Words/No Thoughts; My Father Will Guide a Rope From The Sky (Young God) Edwin Morgan - The Day The Sea Spoke (Aeolus) Chanjirit Singh - Raga Lalit Bombay; 12 Ragas to a Disco Beat (Bombay Connection) Beach Boys - My Solution; Landlocked (Bootleg) Noah Howard - Space Dimension; Space Dimension (America) Edwin Morgan - At 80; 23 Poems of Edwin Morgan Vol 2 (ASLS) Amal Saha - Lahmami; Ecstatic Music of the Jamaa El Fna (Sublime Frequencies)
After a well-earned summer break, Beard Radio returns to the air on Thursday 16th September at 6pm on Subcity.
Brace yourselves for another year of fluffed cues, eclectic tuneage and illustrious guests. In a turn up for the books, we're actually quite organised, and can reveal our September schedule!
Sep 16: Back to School We welcome freshers, returning students and listeners old and new with some records that are exciting us right now. We also pay tribute to one of our heroes, the great poet, translator and scholar Edwin Morgan.
Sep 23: TIME Transmitting not-so-live from Mile End, we welcome our very special guests Frances Morgan and Mark Dicker of glorious psych-folk-doom duo TIME, who will be playing us some of their favourite records. Frances also plays with Morgen Und Nite, is one of the finest music writers around and was editor and publisher of the lamented Plan B magazine. You may know Mark as guitarist in the mighty grindlords Trencher. This show promises to be a belter.
Sep 30: New Zealand Special Beard buddy and Glasgow music scene legend-of-sorts Lo-Fi Bri spreads the gospel of the New Zealand underground. From The Chills to Alastair Galbraith, Pumice to the Dead C, this show will turn your world upside down in the best possible way.
A true hero as an artist and a person, Edwin Morgan will be much missed. I've been reading his poetry since I was a wee boy and his humanity and spirit of enquiry have been an inspiration. Living in Glasgow, in Scotland, he's helped me think about my surroundings in new ways, while his internationalism and experimentation have opened my mind to concrete poetry, the Russian futurists, art, music. He's the guiding spirit of my academic work in many ways: from Glasgow to Saturn indeed. A great life. I'll share some of my Morgan finds from the National Library of Scotland later.
When You Go
When you go, if you go, And I should want to die, there's nothing I'd be saved by more than the time you fell asleep in my arms in a trust so gentle I let the darkening room drink up the evening, till rest, or the new rain lightly roused you awake. I asked if you heard the rain in your dream and half dreaming still you only said, I love you.
Very chuffed to have been asked by the lovely folk at The Quietus to pen a piece on the world of Howe Gelb and Giant Sand. My argument is that epithets such as 'godfather of alt. country' damn Howe with faint praise. He's got nothing to do with snoozesome Whispering Bob approved MOR Americana, and much more in common with cats like Neil Young, Meat Puppets, Gun Club, X, Thelonious Monk, Tom Waits, PJ Harvey, Cormac McCarthy, Captain Beefheart, William Faulkner, Doug Sahm, Lee Hazelwood, Harry Dean Stanton, Richard Linklater and Los Bros Hernandez.
I've been a fan of Howe for years, but so vast is his discography that I only discovered certain albums for the first time, at least in full, while researching this piece. Many of these are long out of print, but happily, Fire Records have managed to license the entire Howe/Giant Sand/Band of Black Ranchette/Arizona Amp & Alternator discography - some 30 odd records - and are commencing a reissue program, starting with 1983's Valley of Rain, so you need pay ridiculous collector's prices for such classics as Center of the Universe or Long Stem Ramp no longer.
The Howe quotes in the Quietus piece are from an interview I conducted with the great man in 2006. This first appeared in Beard 6 from 2007, which is still available. My jejune attempts at scene-setting are cringeworthy, but the interview is a good read, thanks to Howe's wonderful way with words and quality anecdotes. Email us if you fancy a copy. They're cheap!
I'm very excited to say that I will be interviewing Howe again next week, the results of which will also appear on The Quietus. In the meantime, catch him with Kristin Hersh at the Barbican in London tonight and at the Sage, Gateshead on Saturday 24 July. A European tour is lined up for November, so fingers crossed for a Scottish date.
I'll leave you with a couple of videos that aren't in my Quietus piece - hell there's just too much good Howe stuff on Youtube. Gorgeous live version of Spiral, from 2008's Provisions and the video for Happenstance (such a lovely word, very Howe) from 1994's Glum.
Apologies for the lack of blog action lately. I've been a busy boy, working on my PhD, writing papers and the like. Beard Radio is off air for the summer, but we should be back in the Autumn. In the meantime, you can enjoy the last three shows of the semester, which we didn't list properly here. Suffice to say they're bangin'.
The real reason for this post is to plug Cry Parrot's latest warehouse party at SWG3. Live music and visuals, some great DJs and, well, us! Think I'm going to go for something of a cosmic vibe - a bit proggy, a bit synthy, a bit jazzy...
On that note, how great is this? Geeta Dayal has some interesting thoughts on this mindblowing proto-techno record by Bollywood musician and composer Charanjit Singh.
Ass blasting Scandinavian free jazz, Sun Ra saluting comets with some astonishing electronic sorcery, blue-eyed soul old and new, kinky EBM, gorgeous jazz meditations from the Windy City, atmospheric dubstep, and motorik pop thrills... it can only be another episode of Beard Radio!
The Thing - Drop The Gun; Bag It! (Smalltown Superjazz) Gayngs - Gaudy Side of Town; Relayted (Jagjaguwar) Hall & Oates - Is It A Star?; War Babies (A&M) Breakage - Vial (feat Burial); Foundation (Digital Soundboy) Fad Gadget - Ladyshave; The Singles (Mute) Sun Ra - Discipline; Concert For The Comet Kohoutek (ESP Disk) Fred Anderson & Hamid Drake - For Brother Thompson; From The River To The Ocean (Thrill Jockey) Subway - Simplex (Gatto Fritto Mix); Soul Jazz Singles 08-09 (Soul Jazz)
The transcript of my interview with Jean-Herve Peron of mighty kosmische freaks Faust. This was the basis of my article for The List magazine. Of course there was plenty of material that I didn't have room for, so here's the whole thing. This was one of the most enjoyable interviews I've ever done. Thanks to Jean Herve Peron for being such an engaging chap.
Tell me about the early days of Faust.
We've been together since 1970 and there were six of us. One disappeared, another died (producer/mentor Uwe Nettlebeck), one lost interest, so it's gone through all kinds of changes. What happened recently, well, by recently I mean ten years ago, there's been two different currents within the Faust philosophy. (The other Faust features original keyboardist Hans Joachim Irmler and the members who joined in the early '90s) It was better to make a clean split, rather than argue for ever. One Faust is with Zappi and myself, two original members from the '70s and we are joined by Geraldine Swaine, who you might know, she was in Bad Servant and is a London painter lady, and James Johnson who is from Gallon Drunk and the Bad Seeds. And most of the time we invite people. I don't know who will come in Glasgow, but we might have a guy called Mick, he's one of yours I think. He plays guitar and uses his lyrics, he makes quite good lyrics. But my head is a bit confused, I'm not quite sure who will be guests in Glasgow. Maybe I'll keep that sort of a surprise, because I don't want to say who and then they say, oh shit, I'm playing somewhere else!
The BBC Krautrock film showed you and Zappi performing together. Was this in the Bad Durmentingen base?
No, no, no, not at all. You are confusing both Fausts, that's quite alright, I don't mind. It's all cool. We wanted it that way anyway. No, what you saw on BBC4 was a documentary at my house in Schiphorst in Northern Germany. Yeah, BBC4 came, they stayed for a few days, we answered their questions and it was very pleasant. Zappi and I, we started to improvise. I used a bit of the concrete mixer and Zappi went on with his percussion thing. We enjoyed it. I think the BBC people enjoyed it.
Were you playing a Mongolian horn? I've seen a few jazz musicians use those.
No. I'd love to have one of those. It was like a straight trumpet, you play only with the lips, you only play basics and harmonics. All horns function under the same principal, it's all with the lips and you play basics and harmonics.
Is this a good example of what you do live in that its improvised?
Ah, my ears are a bit fucked with old age and noise! On stage we do a mixture. We respect and love our audience so we realise there a few things to consider. First of all is what we are, that means improvisation, whatever comes up in our minds. But also what the audience is sort of expecting. They buy a ticket for Faust and they know they shouldn't expect anything precisely, so we do a few old tunes, and a few much more recent tunes, so everybody's happy. It's one third old tunes, one third recent tunes, and one third improvisation.
Are you bringing the cement mixer?
Probably, probably. It all depends how much gear we have. We are touring now. It didn't fit in my van, but I will try again to make it fit. It's a good instrument, we miss it when it's not there. It creates a very droney atmosphere and it seems to reach ladies, it seems to move the heart of ladies in some way. In Glasgow when we last played, I remember a lady – she didn't have much interest in our music, she just came because her man liked it and she said, ok I'll go along and see what they do. At the end she came up to me in tears and said, and I'm not kidding, 'Oh god, The Fish,' - which is the song we play with the concrete mixer - 'That really moved my heart.' So that was very motivating, not flattering, very inspiring.
Are you bringing along other power tools?
We are going a little bit back to basics, having less things all around, making more straight music. That doesn't mean a thing really. James plays guitar and keyboard and vacuum cleaner, Geraldine plays the accordian, guitar, keyboard, she paints on stage, and Zappi plays metals and percussion. I blow different horns, I try to play some acoustic guitar, play some bass, and I love to have a talk with my concrete mixer, with a chain saw, things like that. And I also like to paint on stage.
Some of your shows in the 90s were pretty crazy, with fireworks going off. Are you going to have any of that, or are you not allowed to say?
(Laughs) Unfortunately we can't do that anymore. In the 90s nobody knew what we were up to, so when we arrived at a venue and they asked 'are we going to do the usual thing?' we'd say 'yeah yeah yeah.' Then we'd start putting things on fire, starting fireworks. And now the promoters are aware of this and they have us sign this thing saying 'no open fire, no bombs, no fireworks'. So we cannot be as carefree as we used to be.
But instead you've got the painting and all other kinds of visual elements.
(enthusiastically) Yeah yeah. I don't feel like doing always the same things. There was a period where I enjoyed that. We change.
I guess it becomes a drag, like Jimi Hendrix having to set fire to his guitar at every show...
Right, yeah.
How do you feel about the influence Faust have had? When you returned in the '90s new artists lined up to work with you like Jim O'Rourke, Keiji Haino, Dalek, Nurse With Wound and Michael Morley of the Dead C. Do you feel an affinity with them?
We never, ever realised that we were influential. We never realised that we would have any impact on anybody. We were and we still are unaware of all this. When people come up to us and say 'ah, your music and this and that' of course it is a nice massage for our ego but we were never aware of that, so I guess it's a good thing. I feel happy that I can tell my children and my grandchildren that I have done something that doesn't seem to have been that bad, because people seem to think that I gave them inspiration. I will say one example like Stereolab. I seldom feel that they like our music, but one nice thing about it is that they've taken it one step further, or one step in their own direction. They've take an inspiration, an impulse and they've used it their way. Or NWW. Maybe they just took the energy, or the general attitude of our music, they didn't take any chords or plagiarise, they just took the energy.
It's maybe harder to copy Faust than Can or Neu, say, as there isn't a particular signature sound, like the 'motorik beat'.
You are quite right, but I would disagree when you say we don't have motorik. Zappi from time to time, he loves to go into one of his mighty beats, but other times we like to be without any rhythm. Have you been working on new material?
Yes. We are going to go into the studio in July. We don't really work. We meet once, twice, three times a year at my place in Schiphoff, we spend maybe five, six days together and then we jam, we record it very roughly. Then we pick up the themes and try to remember them. We've been doing this to prepare the UK tour, because we are here quite regularly, so we don't want to repeat ourselves, so we have to get a new set all the time for the UK. So we did this in March and we came up with some new things.
It seems you're still working in a similar way to the Wumme years, albeit over shorter periods of time?
Yes, we work in a very similar way. In the back of heads is the feeling of being free, not being under pressure to produce anything. If something happens it's fine, if not it's also fine. We are happy to be together and we happen to have people around us who are excellent cooks, we have good wine, so everything is art in life, not only music, not only getting into the rehearsal studio and producing sounds, but everything is art. It's like Wumme all the time. Maybe we're just stupid, maybe we're just naïve! (Laughs)
Anything you'd like to add?
If you could mention the Avant-Garde Fest in Schiphorst that would be a great help. (Happy to oblige. See below)
Also tell your people that we enjoy very much to play the northern part of England (sic), we went all the way to Edinburgh... You are fucking loud! We too are sometimes! We have to have a good sense of humour because your are loud. But it comes from the heart and this is what I really like. It's not because you are disrespectful of our music, it's just that you are very vital, very passionate.
Faust play The Arches, Glasgow, tonight, then tour the UK. Peron's Avant-Garde Fest takes place in Schiphorst, Germany from 2 – 4 July 2010. Confirmed acts include Lydia Lunch's Big Sexy Noise, Blood Stereo, Gallon Drunk and, of course, Faust!
We raise our thumbs aloft to the Fab Four. Rest assured this is no predictable Mojo-style snooze fest featuring the same old stuff. We kick off with a classic blast of Yoko, with John freaking out, Sonny Sharrock style, on noisy slide guitar. Take that Yoko haters! There's Beatles sampling hip-hop, bizarre easy listening proto-mash-ups, and some great - and memorably awful - Beatles covers, including one from the infamous Sgt Peppers film starring the Bee Gees, Pete Frampton and Frankie Howerd! There's a tune from Macca's secret lounge project, Thrillington, featuring an all star cast of session musos including Clem Clattini, and, fresh from recording Serge Gainsbourg, Herbie Flowers and Vic Flick. You can tell: Flower's bass playing is awesomely fluid and funky. We even manage to fit in a couple from the Fab Four themselves, as well as some weird solo cuts. Of course, we had far more stuff lined up than we had time for, so keep an eye on the blog over the next few days for some bonus beats.
Yoko Ono Plastic Ono Band - Why; Plastic Ono Band (Apple) The Rutles - Cheese & Onions; Anthology (Warner Bros.) The Beatles - I'll Follow The Sun; Beatles For Sale (Parlophone) Ernest Ranglin - You Won't See Me; Trojan Beatles Box (Trojan) Alan Copeland - Mission Impossible/Norwegian Wood; Golden Throats (Rhino) Wu Tang Vs The Beatles - Got Your Money; Enter the Magical Mystery Chambers (Teasearecords) Beastie Boys - Sounds of Science; Paul's Boutique (Capitol) Dangermouse - 99 Problems; Grey Album (Self-Released) The Beatles - Dear Prudence; The Beatles (Apple) Ringo Starr - Blindman; Goodnight Vienna OST (Apple) Paul McCartney - Temporary Secretary; McCartney II (Parlophone) Percy 'Thrills' Thrillington - Too Many People; Thrillington (Regal Zonophone) Stevie Wonder - We Can Work It Out (Motown) George Burns - With A Little Help From My Friends; Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band OST (RSO)
It's the last Beard Radio before the election, but hopefully not the last under a Labour government. Not that we're Labour cheerleaders by any means, but better them than the Tories... As a fuck you to bigots everywhere, this show is full of Eastern Europeans: Poles, Hungarians and Bulgarians. Plus some amazing music from the middle-east, anti-Tory tunes and some sage like commentary on the media circus. It's not all political, but tonight's show is all about celebrating the power of music to bring people together and counter ignorance and hate.
Le Mystre Des Voix Bulgares - Pilentze Pee; Vol 1 (4AD) Anna Adamis & Gabor Presser - Ringsad El Magad No 2; Well Hung (Finders Keepers) Vex'd - Nails; Cloud Seed (Planet Mu) Omar Khorshid - Sabirine; Guitar El Chark (Sublime Frequencies) Krzysztof Komeda - Astigmatic (excerpt); Astigmatic (Polskie Nagrania Muza) Robert Wyatt - Mass Medium; Old Rottenhat (Domino) Specials - Maggie's Farm; Stereo-Typical (Two Tone) Lord Beginner - Mix Up Matrimony; London Is The Place For Me (Honest Jons) Kenny Graham & His Satellites - Lullaby; Moondog and Suncat Suites (Trunk) John Coltrane - Peace On Earth; Infinity (Impulse)
Posting this on behalf of the good folk at Cry Parrot. These guys have been putting on DIY gigs in Glasgow for three years now so they're celebrating with a party at the Flying Duck on Thursday 22 April. They've kindly asked me to play some records, but don't let that put you off, as there are some great bands and DJs playing. I'll be on between 8.30 and 9.30 in the kitchen. Expect missed cues, records being played at the wrong speed and a delirious mix of synths, saxophones, brutal bass and wayward beats.
Cry Parrot's DIY principles, eclectic booking policy and love of a good party has helped breathe new life into the Glasgow underground. Their shows are colourful, noisy, messy and fun. When they put on Pocahaunted's dubbed out psych-funk show in a sweaty rehearsal space I danced like a loon. When they put on The Ex & Brass Unbound I danced like a loon. Hell, whatever they put on I'll probably end up dancing like a loon. They've a nice line in unusual venues as well, Gary War's flat gig being a delightfully odd experience. And while they've brought some great touring acts to town, they deserve special kudos for supporting local acts, a number of whom will be performing at Thursday's party. Ultimate Thrush are always a blast of gonzoid noise rock, Teenage Ricky pull of the unlikely trick of making math rock silly, weird and fun, while Nackt Insecten's improvising space-rock trio Moon Unit always bring it. The latter were fantastic at Mono for Record Store Day on Saturday.
It should be a blast. I hope to see you all there.
Here's what Cry Parrot have to say about the event:
In the main room, we’ll have 7 of our favourite bands playing, while in the kitchen we’ll have some ace DJs (including a disco takeover by Side-Show + Brian D'Souza!). There will also be a selection of independent record and zine stalls to rummage through til' 11.30pm.
We are very excited. We hope you are too.
Entry is just £5. Join us!!
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IN THE MAIN ROOM:
ULTIMATE THRUSH – By far one of the most exciting bands in UK, never-mind Scotland. Fast, freeform, complex, unpredictable, but - of course, fun – Ultimate Thrush deliver an aural and physical assault with their mindbending spazz-core. Its always an absolutely pleasure having these guys along.
TWO MINUTE NOODLES – The last time we saw this band, it was in the middle of the woods in Cumbria. Everyone –even the local woodmen and farmers – got up the front during their set and danced the night away. Featuring Moz from Quack Quack and Chops, Two Minute Noodles are a two-man micro-party. Think Goblin composing the soundtrack to Ace Ventura.
GUMMY STUMPS – Another one of our favourite Glasgow-based bands. Choppy, gruff no-wave, lead by the Scottish equivalent of Mark E Smith. Features members of Park Attack and Vars of Litchi.
ETERNAL FAGS – Ex members of Plaaydoh and Dirty Summer making a fresh new racket. Tight, playful punk, with the melodic soul of Wipers and The Replacements.
TEENAGE RICKY – Skittles-induced hyper-pop. Teenage Ricky deny all logic: Girly falsettos, triple guitar freakouts and one minute long songs shouldn’t work, but for them, it just seems perfect. Features members of Gay Against You, Danananaykroyd, Sexy Entourage and Tangles.
MOON UNIT – Transcending psychedelic explorations in the style of Neu! and Acid Mothers Temple. Every set they do is different, and every time they’ve never failed to blow our mind. Unmissable stuff.
CHEER – A beautiful tapestry of tape loops, subtle guitar picking and field recordings. Everyone who caught his gig with Grouper will be sure to agree he is something special.
DAM MANTLE (DJ SET)
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IN THE KITCHEN:
SIDE-SHOW w/ BICEP + BRIAN D'SOUZA (11.30 – 3AM TAKE OVER!!! YASS!!!)
HALLEWULAH HITS DJS
ADAM STAFFORD DJ (Y’all is Fantasy Island)
BEARD DJs
RECORD/ZINES BY: AT WAR WITH FALSE NOISE, CRASIER FRANE, ELECTROPAPKNIT, HANSEI DIY AND MORE
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Preceding the party, there will be an open-air performance by the lovely RM HUBBERT and WOUNDED KNEE.
Flying Duck Thursday, 22 April 2010, 19.30-03.00 £5
This week's show focusses on (relatively) new releases. Sassy hip-hop, dark pop melodrama, hypnagogic desert-blues, dreamy glo-fi, future dubstep and garage, warped AM gold and more.
Dominique Young Unique - Show My Ass (Art Jam) Envy - Chips In My Dip; Set Yourself On Fire (Stop/Start) Ariel Pink's Haunted Graffiti - Round and Round; 4AD J Dilla - Safety Dance; Donut Shop (Stones Throw) Q-Tip - Barely In Love; Kamaal The Abstract (Jive) James Blake - The Bells Sketch (Hessle Audio) Zola Jesus - Night; Stridulum EP (Sacred Bones) Dam Mantle - Rebong; Grey EP (Halleluwah Hits) Toro Y Moi - Talamak; Causers of This (Carpark) Bok Bok - Citizen's Dub (feat Bubbz) (Blunted Robots) James Ferraro - Last American Hero (extract); Last American Hero (Olde English Spelling Bee) Mosca - Square One (Night Slugs)
Next week, it's our Beatles special with a difference. Fab! Thumbs Aloft! etc
Tonight's Beard Radio with special guest John Cavanagh. Featuring exclusive new tracks from Family Elan, Nalle, Ben Reynolds and Trembling Bells, plus John's reminiscences about Alex Chilton, Delia Derbyshire and reading the football results on Saturday Sportscene.
Family Elan - Trees of Ishfahar (Alt. Vinyl) Del Shannon - My Love Has Gone (Bear Family) Ben Reynolds - Pull Back The Covers (White Label) Lesley Duncan - Love Song (Sanctuary) Delia Derbyshire - Liquid Energy (Glo-Spot) Geoff Goddard - Telstar (demo) (Unreleased) Geoff Goddard - Girl Bride (HMV) Phosphene & Friends - See Sign Defined (Pickled Egg) Trembling Bells - Did We Sing Together (Honest Jons) K-Space - Kuzungu (Ad Hoc) Big Star - When My Baby's Beside Me (Big Beat) Yummy Fur - Department (Vesuvius) Nalle - Sunne's Return (Alt. Vinyl)
Beard Radio is delighted to announce our special guest, the legendary John Cavanagh! Radio presenter, musician, producer, writer and raconteur, John will be playing some of his favourite records, as well as some exclusive new tracks.
In addition to working for BBC Scotland and presenting his own weekly Soundwave show on Radio Six International, John has recently been producer for weird-folk luminaries Trembling Bells and Family Elan, while working on his own Phosphene Project.
Past projects include a one-man show about electronic music goddess and BBC Radiophonic Workshop legend Delia Derbyshire, and a book in the 33 & 1/3 series on Pink Floyd's Piper At The Gates of Dawn. He has also been involved in the release of records by Derbyshire and Ron Geesin.
Stew and Reuben bring you an hour of awesomeness. Glorious new releases from Joanna Newsom, Hyperdub and Ghost Box, some freaky Joe Meek classics, some visionary British jazz, German cabaret tango-pop, Glasgwegian prog obscurities and an absolutely incredible Japanese underground classic. We dedicate this show to Guru of Gang Starr. Get well soon sir!
Joanna Newsom - Good Intentions Paving Co; Have One On Me (Drag City) Slapp Happy - Casablanca Moon; Acnalbasac Moon (Virgin) Orchestra Poly-Rythmo de Cotonou - Minsato Le, Mi Dayihome; World Psychedelic Classics Vol 3 (Luaka Bop) Kan Mikami - Bang!; Bang! (URC) Geoff Goddard - Sky Men; Joe Meek Alchemist of Pop (Castle) Advisory Circle - Nuclear Substation; Mind How You Go (Ghost Box) Joe Harriot & John Mayer Double Quintet - Raga Gauld-Saranga; Indo-Jazz Suite (Columbia/Atlantic) Gang Starr - Beyond Comprehension; Step In The Arena (Chrysalis) Captain Marryat - Dance of Thor; S/T (Shadoks) The Buzz - You're Holding Me Down; Joe Meek Alchemist of Pop (Castle) Terror Danjah - Acid; 12" (Hyperdub)
