I posted about this gig already, and I mentioned that it was recorded. So here it is! The release is available as a free download from Little Rock, linked below. We played as a four piece band (me, Aleks, Brad on guitar and Bundy on bass) and I thought it sounded pretty good. I LOVE the bit where the woman in the audience gets the lyrics right on Work It! Here's what's on the EP:
1. I Came 2. Work It 3. The New Wave 4. The Hots 5. Come & Get It 6. Remember 7. Walk The Night
It's been pretty awesome to play the very first AND the very last Optimo Espacios of 2009. It's made my year in fact. Thanks to Keith & Jonnie and all the Optimo crew! And see you at the Old Fruitmarket on December 31st...
Yep, after slaying Optimo in January this year (more on that later) I have been asked back to perform at the Optimo Hogmanay (New Year's Eve) "End of the Naughties" Party. Result! Me and Aleks have been rehearsing the set already, it's gonna be a very dancey synth-pop/techno set, and Aleks is thinking about dressing up as Vince Clarke. Here's the poster (the best quality image I could find!):
The bill is really impressive - all in all this party is gonna be a TOTAL BANGER! We will be playing in the bar area with the mighty Divorce, while all the other acts will be in the main auditorium bit that holds a couple of thousand, I reckon. If you're in Glasgow and thinking of going, I'd say get your tickets fast as they will sell out soon. If you wanna know more about the other acts here's some handy links:
Thrash dance! Straight after the Cry Parrot Xmas party we all went down to Optimo to see the best band in Glasgow tear the roof off the best club in Glasgow. They didn't disappoint! The mosh pit was mighty, and Twitch said Optimo and the Sub Club had never seen a pit like it before. It ended in a huge pile on, which I refrained from taking part in to save folk from injury. Here's a clip of the madness:
On the 6th of December I did a live set for the Cry Parrot Xmas party, at the intimate basement venue the Black Sparrow, a show which was headlined by this dude HAWNAY TROOF.
His show was excellent, he's a real firecracker with a lot of energy, a nice line in Prince knock-off attire, and some excellent shoes. I managed to get a few of his CDs too, which don't disappoint either. It's slightly Beastie Boys, but Beastie Boys if they had bothered to keep up with modern music and not get lost in some dusty crates somewhere. So there's bits of booty bass in there, as well as a sprinkling of disco dust, and some shouting on top. He's now on tour with Peaches I believe, man that will be some show. If he comes to your town, I recommend you check Hawnay Troof out! Oh yeah and I almost forgot to mention, that's not his real name - his real name is Vice Cooler. So there.
I have made a new mixtape for your aural delectation. Consider it an early Christmas present!
It's called "Dream On" and all the tracks have a very dreamy/psychedelic ambience. It's mostly modern and vintage electronica, with a splash of psyche-pop for good measure. And in case you are wondering, it's called a "mixtape" as opposed to a "mix" because no actual blending of two tunes happens, which to me is what defines a "mix". I hope you like it!
BEN BUTLER & MOUSE PAD - E-Ship TODD RUNDGREN - International Feel TODD RUNDGREN - Never Never Land FRANZ FERDINAND - Ulysses (FoxGut Reshuffle) BJORN TORSKE - Brus BRUCE HAACK - National Anthem To The Moon NITE JEWEL - Kamera Songs EYES - Clown Lady LOUTS - The Bubbles THE BEACH BOYS - Fall Breaks and Back To Winter SYNTHESIZERS UNLIMITED - Luxury Life Styles MIAOUX MIAOUX - Hrvatski CHROMATICS - In The City DAFT PUNK - Night Vision JOHN MAUS - Do Your Best DESIRE - Under Your Spell PHANTOM BAND - Island FLEET FOXES - He Doesn't Know Why
*EDIT* I wasn't going to post this today but then I realised it was Santa hat day so here it is:
Last Thursday I dressed up as Santa for the Che Camille Christmas party, which was fun if a bit tiring. They had a grotto and an elf all done up for me, and various people came over during the evening to sit on my knee and have their photo taken. I believe some of the ladies even found Santa oddly attractive! Those photos aren't online yet, but there's a review of the evening over at Style Scanner:
Here's a trailer for a new film from the Machine Girl/TGP team, called "ROBO-GEISHA". It marries the ultra-violence of TGP to the camp fun of Austin Powers. It's not out yet, but I can't wait to see it. The trailer is definitely NSFW, so click play at your own peril!
I found this on Ain't It Cool News, where Harry was taking pelters for slating Transformers 2 and advocating people watch this instead. Lol - go Harry!!
Not a music post today, but my other passion, les flicks. Here's the movie I've seen this year that has had the biggest impression on me: Tokyo Gore Police! DEFINITELY not safe for work...
When was the last time you watched a film and honestly, genuinely thought "I've never seen anything like this before!". Quickly followed by the thought "Holy shit!! Wtf did she just do to his head?!" Well, friends and fellow thrill-seekers, TGP is the film for you. It features pretty Japanese ladies chopping seven shades of shit out of each other, disgusting bodily mutations that transform into deadly weapons, turbo powered fountains of gore, extremely deviant sex, drug abuse, amputee warriors and a penis-cannon. Yes, a PENIS-CANNON. And if you think turning a penis into a cannon is bad enough here's what happens to a woman's lady bits:
It's made by some of the same people behind the Machine Girl film, and even though I haven't seen all of Machine Girl, I'd hazard a guess that TGP is waaay more out there. Interspersed among the action scenes are fake commercials for near future entertainments, á la Robocop, but even more extreme. Here's one, for the hip new self-harm implement "Wrist Cutter G":
If you watched that you can see what I'm talking about. And here's the trailer for the film itself, which in no way prepares you for the actual content.
This is the site where we found Tokyo Gore Police being streamed, after being tipped off to the wiggyness by Kepa:
There's an excellent selection, and you can donate on the sidebar to keep the site going. Also, I would recommend watching the films in Japanese with English subtitles, as some of the English dubs I have seen of Tokyo Gore Police miss out all the jokes (it is a pretty damn funny film, in a pitch black way).
The second volume of my Erotic City mix series is now ready for mass consumption - this one is called "Slow and Low" and the tempo varies from 80bpm to 105bpm. Even though it's slow, it's still grinding and groovy and sleazy and all the other things that make Erotic City special. I am particularly pleased with the mix from Naum Gabo into Ali Renault, two of the biggest tunes for me of the last 18 months.
More news from Camp Little Rock - we've started up a new blog covering things we find interesting within the world of music, and more generally film and art. A lot of the posts are about the radio show too, but there's some random funny / interesting stuff in there too. Why don't you check it out and show us some love?
Another awesome thing to happen this year is the Little Rock Radio show which has started (and goes out weekly) on Radio Magnetic. It hosted by our man The Boag, with additional support from Liam Arnold, and even more irregular appearances by myself. In fitting with the ethos of LR the music goes from techno to metal to hip-hop to ambient to anything-we-bloody-like, and there are some storming past guest shows from the likes of Voltergiest, Jackmaster (Numbers), Teamy (Wrong Island), Frog Pocket, Killer Kitsch, Animal Farm and more. Here's the link to the index of all the shows, so jump on over and get a-lissnin':
Here's another vid featuring a soundtrack of my music. This one I made though - I filmed myself shaving my beard off for Halloween, and added "Viva Les Imaginaires" from my The Next Big Thing EP (Little Rock Records 2008) - I have a feeling there's a few people on my friends list who will get some kind of kick out of this! ;-)
BTW this video is hosted on facebook - if you have trouble viewing it let me know.
Here's a little advert I supplied the music for - I just got sent it this week, and it's not finished (the tune is though). It's for Wasted comic, which is published out of the same office I work in, so obviously it is amazing. The comic is editted by Alan Grant of 200AD/Batman repute, and features art from Frank Quitely and Simon Bisley, and some great local talent too. The tune is inspired by Devo and Polysics. Here it is:
Rock and Shock was a blast this year - even though it had the most full line up of any of the R'n'S parties it ran very smoothly and there were no scheduling or performance disasters. Result! We held it in Stereo and managed to make the place actually look great considering the size of the venue and the limited ammount of decor we had. Thank Satan for fake cobwebbing. And big up to Kepa for his excellent work with said webs, and to Andrew McLoughlin for work in general. Here's some choice photos:
The Evil Eye in action
Guess who?
Fangs!
The REAL Evil Eye
Fancy Dress winner - he hobbled around all evening!
More beautiful art for you from a good friend of ours - comic book neo-legend Frank Quitely (All-Star Superman, Batman & Robin, We3) who was kind enough to design this seriously bad ass poster for our annual Halloween fest this year. There'll be a longer post about that gig soon, but for now marvel at the glory - oh and I did the lettering mind!
I bought a piece of art this year, the first in a long time, it was framed and everything! Like REAL ART!
It's by a local artist called Lola Dupré. All the art is handmade collage, made out of very small pieces of paper, and sometimes with multiple copies of the source image. Mine is a combination of 16th century portraits and details from Grey's Anatomy. I think she has a very bright future - seriously, check out her blog (wastedlola.blogspot.com) it's SO good! Here's another just to tempt you, I think you'll agree its pretty amazing...
By far the best gig I saw last year was the legendary Nile Rodgers and the current touring line-up of THE greatest Disco group of all time CHIC. They played the headline set on the Saturday night at last years Electric Picnic festival in Ireland, and I never thought disco would go down THIS well in my home country!
It was the first time I've ever seen them, even though they've been touring for the past year, and it was definitely one of the best shows I've ever seen. Hair-raisingly good (I still get tingles watching the clips). And not just because the tunes are so great (surely everyone knows that by now) but also because the crowd reaction was just so enthusiastic. Here's a taster of how good the crowd response was:
I was surprised at how much genuine love the Irish audience showed the band. I get the feeling a lot of people went along not knowing what to expect and were blown away by the non-stop excellent music and musicianship. I heard people talking about it as their festival hichlight for the rest of the weekend. This was my highlight - I wasn't expecting them to play it but am I glad they did!
My good mate Kepa Rasmussen took some promo shots of me a few months ago capturing really nice late summer light coming in the back door at Che Camille. There's about two hundred of these, but here's my three faves:
"The Classic"
"Big Pimpin'"
"Brendan Grace"
Kepa was also responsible for the group shot at Che Camille used below. You should check out his site (kepa.co.uk - how cool is that?!) and prepare to be amazed!
Hmm, forgot about this one, which is why it is out of chronological order! At the start of May I compéred three fashion shows over three days for my good friends at Che Camille. At the shows, backed by dancing models wearing specially designed Little Rock t-shirts, I premiered a new track called "Rock The Shop". This tune tells the story of Che Camille from the beginning til now - from day one when they moved into the floor under us in the Chateau, to their current position on the top floor of the Glasgow shopping landmark Argyle Arcade.
Photo by Chris Anderson
We've even managed to film a series of adverts for the shop, the final one of which is an actual pop video for the track "Rock The Shop" itself! My first video - woohoo! It's gonna look great, I know as I have seen the rushes. For now though, here's a VERY low quality download of the track to listen to:
I got an email from Andy Blake this week, the head of Dissident Distribution label (who have released two 12" by me this year), stating that he has decided to shut it down. Apart from the worrying fact that every label that I put out a record with goes bust, I think it's a bold and great move, and in fitting with the ethos of the label. Dissident release on vinyl only (barring 3 compilation CDs) in limited edition runs of 150-200, and each 12" is one sided. Those 12" then sell for 8-9 pounds, and in the past two and a bit years they have released about 60 singles. Dissident refuse to have a myspace/facebook/online presence, and so have maintained a tight air of mystery. This is both good and bad - for someone like me who is trying to build a bigger profile it is frustrating, but I am hoping that it will pay off in the long term, possibly by moving on to a bigger label. If you want to find out more about Dissident, read this piece on Resident Advisor, and if you wanna see all the singles released by them, check out their Discogs page.
In early October my second 12" on Dissident Distribution was released - a cover of "Remember" by Gino Soccio, produced by Julius Seizure. It's a one-sided, one track 12 this time, limited to 200 copies. There's still some on sale, if you want to get a copy I recommend either Juno or Flexx, who will ship it out to you. If you wwanna listen to it first:
Near the end of the summer I was contacted by a producer from London called BRASSICA who wanted me to sing on one of his tunes. After checking his stuff out and deciding that it is in fact very good, I agreed! It came together relatively quickly too, in terms of writing, because there was a lot to draw on in the music. It's rich synth-and-guitar disco that reminds me a bit of Daniel Wang. The tune has ended up being called Without Your Loving, and its about not knowing when to let go of a relationship, even if it's doomed. I prefer the title Without You I'm Nothing, which I guess is ok as it's Brassica's tune, though out of interest I might run a little poll here to see which one readers prefer ;-)
I got this through a DJ called Matt Walsh who charted the Hots at no. 2 in his DJ charts (wow!!). When I contacted him to say hello he asked if I would be up for remixing his music project called Clouded Vision, which is Matt and the producer Steve Cook. I said sure, and after receiving the track decided to take it in a Lindstrom-y / Brennan Green-y electronic disco direction. So far the response has been good.
I've also been getting into remixing a lot lately, thanks to a friend referring me to a remix agency and also using Ableton Live, which makes sampling, quantising and arranging easy peasy.
The first remix I got offered from the agency was for a band from Liverpool called Wave Machines. To improve my chances of getting a remix accepeted (no payment otherwise) I did two - one upbeat mix for clubs, and one vocal mix for radio play. Unfortunatley both of them got knocked back, but there have been some mutterings from some dance labels about them, so you never know, they might see the light of day at some point. But just for you, my buddies, here they are. Grab em quick before the links expire...
I almost forgot to post about these! We started recording some direct-to-camera live covers of songs for Youtube this year too - this is the first, it's the Prince track:
I spent a large chunk of the summer working for the BBC, as a "background artiste" in a period courtroom drama called "Garrow's Law". The work wasn't too hard, just very long days (6.30am to 8.30pm) and a hot stuff studio that was hard to stay awake in. Garrow's Law is the story of William Garrow who apparenlt was hot shit in the Old Bailey of the 18th Century. I think he was the first person to start defending the prosecuted. I can't remember much as I fell asleep a lot. But I did get to wear some bad ass threads (though the wig was annoying):
This live recording of me performing at the Chateau Miami party from all the way back in 2006 dropped in August, it's available as a free download from the Little Rock website. It features early versions of I Came and Out Of My Mind, and some skits - it's not as good as the next live EP, but hey. It was an amazing party, which also featured live sets from Remember Remember and the Microsluts and DJ action from Lovebug Soundsystem and Emergency - I am pretty sure I would have posted about it after it just happened as I was well into my blogginz at the time, innit.
I also did a mix for the birthday 7inch download giveaway bonanza, I'm very happy with this as I got well into Ableton, and keeping certain beats going for the whole thing so I can weave lots of stuff in and out on top. The whole promotion ended up being labeled "Too Much Music!" so that's the name of the mix too. It's pretty uptempo this mix - rave on!
NEGATIVLAND - Michael Jackson SOULSCAN - Techno 3 Beats (used throughout) TOO MUCH MUSIC! Bandless Beats / Acapella (used throughout) LCD SOUNDSYSTEM - Us v Them SIMIAN MOBILE DISCO - Simple MU - Let's Get Sick JACK CONTÉ - Yeah Yeah Yeah (4K Remix) BLACK DICE - Endless Happiness (EYE Remix) TESTICICLES - What's Your Damage? (Digitalism Mix) FABIO FRIZZI - Cannibal Ferox Theme HEARTBREAK - Deadly Pong Of Love CHUCK HAMPTON - I Feel For Dave Clark SOULSCAN - Techno 3 TOO MUCH MUSIC! JASON FORREST - War Photographer SCENE CREAMERS - Session Man NENEH CHERRY - Buffalo Stance (Sukka Mix)
Here's some of the best sleeve art we had in the bunch of 14 seven-inches.
This is by Fox Gut Daata (I am assuming, seeing as he is artistcly inclined). If it's not by him then it must be by Callum Cuneen aka Louts.
This one is by local design bod Paul Smith, he did the logos too, it's really nice!
And this one is a combination of me (letters) and the amazing Frank Quitely. He's done another design for us that is the best poster/flyer we've ever had. That will be in a later post!
The summer was relatively slow here but we managed to get some pretty big projects all wrapped up. The main thing was a July promotion where we put up a download 7inch a day for the last two weeks of the month, (which took up up to Lil050 - that's a lot of music!)by a whole bunch of different artists. We did it to celebrate the second birthday of Little Rock, and to put out more on the download 7inch format we have been plugigng since the start. All these singles are still available as downloads, here's the list of 14 releases:
Lil050 NYLO Too Much Music! d7" Lil049 FOX GUT DAATA / LOUTS Split EP d7" Lil048 GATR / BLACKHEAD Gutterbitch / Pulling Faces d7" Lil047 SYCAMORE DRIVE Lifelines EP d7" Lil046 GREEN SHROUD Tequila Sunset / Dark & Stormy d7" Lil045 JAZZ VIGILANTE The Takedown / The Glue Factory d7" Lil044 REL$ / CHICA X Save Tha Day / Why Should I? (KlubEdit) d7" Lil043 EYES / TAYSIDE MENTAL HEALTH La Boum (Acoustic) / I See Hygeine Issues (KlubMixx) d7" Lil042 THE IDM Consonant Please Carol / Tank Tracks Shatter Footpaths d7" Lil041 THE EVIL EYE Carnival of Souls / They're Coming... d7" Lil040 TRIPPY DISCO Le Strut / Remix d7" Lil039 NUCLEAR FAMILY Jane Fonda (Faggots on Acid/Niallist Remixes) d7" LIl038 MONG Moondog Chant d7" LIl037 THE NIALLIST Discopia/Version Atomique d7"
I started a new mix series this year, primarily to get back into mixing and also to make use of all the flashy new things I can do with Ableton Live! Like cutting up part of tunes over other tunes on the fly, in essence creating new tunes that only exist in the mix. Some of these I will have to extract and make into actual tunes too, like "Sexy Noize" on volume 1. The music goes from disco to house to electro to r'n'b though its all got the common thread of being sexy, pretty much the whole other extreme from Norave. Aw yeeeah - sexah musac baybah!
Download Erotic City 1 from this here web link: http://www.littlerockrecords.com/releases/EroticCityMix1.mp3
In April, 1 year to the day it was released (well, roughly!) we decided to delete the Norave compilation from the Little Rock archives. So if you haven't got it by now it's waaay too late. Though there might yet be a miraculous rebirth via the medium of Last FM. To celebrate we had a birthday party / wake at Stereo, with the mighty Ultimate Thrush, special guests Blood Moon from Manchester and a techno set from Line Idle that was the highlight of the night. Norave is not over though - keep your eyes and ears peeled for volume two.
Again with the Norave! Sometime around March or April we managed to get a bunch of Norave acts to remix the first single from Franz Ferdinand's current album "Tonight" for the unofficial "Ulysses NORAVE Rmx EP". This has been sent to Domino, but I think it is unlikely to see the light of day in an official form soon. Though that would be nice of course, even though the music is wonky beyond belief! Here's what is on it:
FRANZ FERDINAND "Ulysses" Gatr Remix FRANZ FERDINAND "Ulysses" Fox Gut Daata Reshuffle FRANZ FERDINAND "Ulysses" Remix by EYES FRANZ FERDINAND "Ulysses" Niallist DiscoDubb
We did a monthly residency in the city center venue STEREO this year too, but owing to the Credit Crunch and the dwindling numbers of people going out to clubs at the moment we have decided to cut it back to every 2 to 3 months. Perhaps selling an event as being an "anti-party" and having a non-smiling smiley face as our logo doesn't help - but hey since when has doing something easy been equal to doing something good? It did lead to this rather nice write up in the List:
Shout out to Kris and everyone at Wasabi Disco - this is the first ever gig I played outside of Glasgow! Of course, it's only in Edinburgh, which is just down the road, but still it means I get to travel. For all of 45 minutes. WD is a great night, in the wicked little venue Sneaky Pete's, which is free to enter and hard to leave. It was pretty busy on the night I played, which was a surprise, and most of the punters stayed on the dancefloor for most of my set. Result!
I debuted a new live project at a couple of gigs earlier this year (for Countach at the Halt Bar, Glasgow and for the Radio Magnetic birthday party) - it's basically me dicking about with two Grooveboxes. The sound is stripped back classic old school house, with nods to jackin Chicago old school, acid house and Strictly Rhythm/New York house. It's meant to be more of a heads down club-grooves type of thing, but because I write so much of my music on the Gbox, I can ocassionally drop I Came or the Hots and do a live vocal over it. There's a recording of a set over at my Souncloud page, it's pretty jackin and it features no vocals at all. J-j-j-j-jack!
Oh yeah - I also got a mention in DJ Mag, which was nice! (two in fact - a later article about Dissident mentioned the Hots 12") oh yeah and I was mentioned in a Vice article about recording pressings.
Another good gig I played in February was a full band set for local promoters/collective Croc Madame v Croc Monsieur (aka Croc v Croc). This was a full on mini-festival co-promoted by Croc with Nuts & Seeds and Winning Sperm Party, in the unusual and very charming Flying Duck. Check out the poster for all the acts (Ultimate Thrush played but we missed them as they clashed with us).
There is a circular dip in the middle of the floor where the bands play - I found it a bit weird as it made direct interaction with the punters pretty hard, but it was still fun. I also got to round off the night by playing some records, which was a lot of fun too!
