Photos of The Niallist by Nickie McGowan

Awesome photos of me by Nickie McGowan, for a feature for a Finnish mag on Manchester:

'Purple Naked Ladies' review on Soundblab

I was blown away by 'Purple Naked Ladies', the debut album by The Internet (part of the OFWGKTA fam and featuring Syd Tha Kid, the openly gay female dj for Tyler The Creator). So much so that I wrote this review for Soundblab mag, mentioneing Stereolab, Martine Topley-Byrd, Organized Noize, Erykah Badu and more:

Don't you just hate it when your opinions are proved wrong? I mean you thought about them for like, an hour. Or maybe even less, say ten seconds. Even if you just read that shit somewhere else and thought "that'll do", it doesn't matter because those opinions are YOURS and define who YOU ARE and having them contradicted can be painful and confusing.

Well, I'll let you in on a little secret: I love that shit. I love feeling that confusion of "NOW what am I supposed to think?" Because you know what, when things are uncertain, unsure, when you feel like your mind is free-falling at great speed - that's when you feel most alive.

Being brutally honest: I had no great burning desire to hear The Internet, I just went into the Soundblab back room to grab a certain release for review and noticed that this album hadn't been claimed yet. The album I wanted as already gone (seconds after we were told it had come in!) so I grabbed PNL as it was just there and I thought "I can do a quick enough hack job on this, get some anti-OFWGKTA angst off my chest".

Holy shit.

Yep I gave the album a 9/10. I wasn't expecting to like this record, my reasons having a lot to do with my preconceptions of Tyler and OFWGKTA, and the process of mentalyl unpacking those presumptions is a big part of the review. Here's the video for band's "She DGAF":

TROUBLE AT T'MILL Friday April 27th

Which Mill? Islington Mill of course! This dj-fest has been organized by Trash-O-Rama and I am looking forward to sharing some decks time with the mighty Drunk At Vogue team!



Event page for Trash-O-Rama's Trouble At T'Mill.

Hmmmm...

Someone has uploaded my track with Brassica "Without You I'm Nothing" to YouTube.

While I appreciate that this person must like this tune a lot to do this, this song has never been released (so how did they get it?) and remains unfinished (so I'm going to ask them to take it down):



EDIT

So I had a little chat with the uploader who was very understanding and graciously took the clip down, as you can see. Thank you!

Dangerous Minds March 5th - March 11th 2012

Andrew WK on the power of dreams
Getting 'Bent' with SSION: an interview with Cody Critcheloe
The (Odd) Future of soul is ‘Purple Naked Ladies’
Remember the 90s? Kind of… Mike Doughty’s ‘The Book Of Drugs’
Three times a Lady: three versions of Ivor Cutler’s ‘Women Of The World’
‘Love Saves The Day’ by Tim Lawrence: The Disco Bible
‘Skool Of Rock’ mix: over 60 minutes of fist-pumping Disco-Rock anthems

Skool Of Rock Mix on DM

I posted the Skool Of Rock mix to Dangerous Minds, as a gesture of peace between the disco and rock camps (wtf?? this IS the 21st century, yeah?) and so far the reaction has been pretty good. And besides, any excuse to use this ADORABLE picture of kids dressed as Kiss is worth using!

Skool Of Rock Mix by Theniallist on Mixcloud

ELO “Don’t Bring Me Down (Trippy Disco Re-Edit)”
CREEDENCE CLEARWATER REVIVAL “Favourite Son”
ROCKETS “On The Road Again”
EDWIN STARR “The Rock”
CHILLY “For Your Love”
KISS “I Was Made For Lovin’ You”
TANTRA “Hills Of Katmandu (Patrick Cowley Megamix / Automan Edit)”
LED ZEPPELIN “Whole Lotta Love (Acapella)”
MATERIAL “Bustin’ Out”
ZZ TOP “Legs (Metal Mix)”
GIORGIO MORODER “Evolution”
MACHO “Not Tonight (Dimitri From Paris Re-Edit)”
SKATT BROS “Walk The Night (Album Version)”
QUEEN “Another One Bites The Dust”
DAVID BOWIE “Stay”
WINGS “Goodnight Tonight (Trippy Disco Re-Edit)”

Daniel Wang mix for Common Cause

Me and Danny hanging out in Glasgow.

So apparently my good disco bud Danny Wang put together a wee comp of disco obscurities for the Common Cause folks in Germany. I dunno how I missed that, but I did and if you've missed it too then you should know it has been removed from the Common Cause Soundcloud page now (to make room for more mixes). :( Bummer!

BUT fear not, as I grabbed the mix just before it was deleted and uploaded it to Sendspace for all to share!!! YAY :)

This comp is a goodyin, unmixed (surprisingly) and focusing on that smooth soul-disco sound we have come to know and love from the Wangster. You can download the mix here. It kicks off with this ACE Japanese disco-soul gem from 1983, and just gets better and better:

Tranarchy Live Revue @ Stroke Club

This gig was kinda sprung on us at short notice, but after the bare minimum of rehearsals it turned out to be one of the most fun I've done in Manchester! I performed two tracks as part of the Tranarchy Revue, along with two from Joyce, and 3 by our ring leader Kurt Dirt. Saltylips headlined and pulled out a really bangin' set that sounded the best we've ever heard 'em. Thanks loads to the lovely Steve, Nathan and Alex for the gig!

Me doing my best Ron Mael, backing up Kirt Dirt:


The Tranarchy Fam in effect:


An action shot of Kurt:


Me and Kurt go-go dancing for Saltylips during "If Yr A Bear":

THE 2 BEARS Bear Hug (Niallist AcidMixx) VID

I put together a wee vid for my remix of the 2 Bears:

Menergy March flyer

Am loving the new Menergy flyer! Great work by Mutate Design:

Niallist @ Tranarchy v Bollox, live review by Soundblab

A live review of my mixtape launch at Tranarchy v Bollox the other week courtesy of Soundblab magazine, featuring a very funny photo of one Louise Woodcock!

Dangerous Minds Feb 27th - March 4th 2012

A girl's best friend is her guitar: 'Horseheads' by Divorce
UK's Channel 5 screws up over Whitney's death
Simon Frith 'The Infinite Spaces Of Disco' 1978
Everything is perfect until the music stops: 'Disco Fever' 1978
Silverclub: the sound of Manchester 2012
‘My Love Grows In The Dark:’ SSION’s springtime pop perfection
Julian Cope’s ‘Krautrocksampler’ in PDF form
‘The Joy Of Disco’: the music that changed the world
Excellent documentary on the life of Sylvester

SSION 'My Love Grows In The Dark'

I am becoming obsessed with the new video by SSION. Their album 'Bent' was one of my very favourites form last year, but now with accompanying visuals it's taking on a life of its own. It's deceptively (un)simple and excellently produced, and it deserves to be huge. I hope one day to do something as good as this:

BANG THE BOX

So here it is, my new club thang! BANG THE BOX



Featuring the best in acid/bitch/hip-house, Italo disco & Hi-NRG, old & nu electro, and a smattering of freestyle, rave, and sissy bounce. All lovingly edited and mixed by resident DJ THE NIALLIST (Dissident Distribution / Radius Records), with additional live drum machine workouts and acid squiggles. BANG THE BOX is the first Friday of every month and our first guest is MISS ISSY (House of Tranarchy) bringin fierce vibes and filthy rhymes. So dress 2 sweat and get yr freak on!

Adonis // Egyptian Lover // Peaches // Bobby O // Tiga // Timbaland // Ali Renault // Afrika Bambaataa // Heaven 17 // Dam Funk // Arthur Baker // Hercules & Love Affair // Jamie Principle // Mr Fingers // A Guy Called Gerald // Funkineven // Radioactive Man // DJ Zinc // Bobby Konders // Masters At Work // Big Freedia // Rusty Lazer // Rustie // Sly & Robbie // Kraftwerk // Giorgio Moroder // Prince // Prince Jammy // Patrick Cowley // // Jellybean Benitez // Juan Atkins // Rick Rubin // Spank Rock // Azari & III // and lots more…

BANG THE BOX Friday April 6th, £5 11-3AM, Night & Day, Oldham St, Manchester

We're gonna bring down the walls...

Drunk at Vogue II pics

Some great pics of Drunk At Vogue by Lee Baxter - here's just a few (featuirng moi of course):

Dangerous Minds Feb 20th - 26th 2012

Happy birthday Nina Simone
Sex & Violence: the first ever ‘Muppet Show,’ 1974
Jennifer Connelly auditions for ‘Labyrinth’, 1986
Trolling is his business: the world according to Dave Mustaine

Drunk At Vogue TONIGHT!

W00t - it's Drunk at Vogue tonight at Kraak!! See you there beaches...

ELECTROSEXUAL Discolition (Niallist RoboVogue Edit) VIDEO

Thanks to Romain Frequency for putting together this ace Paris Is Burning tribute video for my remix of Electrosexual's "Discolition". WERK!!



You can buy this EP here.

Tranarchy pics

Woah, there's LOADS of great pictures from last Friday's Tranarchy v Bollox party - here's just a smattering, you can see a lot more over at Tranarchy.co.uk...



Door Queen Paddy B!



The Niallist & Pam Grier do "I Came"



King of Downstairs DAVE TESTER!



Queen of Downstairs BECCA crowned by Joyce D'Vision



Sheela & Pam channeling Sigue Sigue Sputnik!



I love this photo of me and Lou Woodcock!

'AKA' LP out now FREE DOWNLOAD!!

IT"S HERE BITCHES - COME AND GET IT!!!

Dangerous Minds Feb 6th- 19th 2012

MIA's 'Bad Girls' - music video of 2012 (so far)
AMERICA - MIA HATES YOU!!! (according to Pitchfork)
Nile Rodgers in talks to work with Daft Punk
Purple Minds: Dam Funk's bad ass PRince tribute mix
No, Homo: 'Unintentional Gay Rap Lyrics'

TRANARCHY v BOLLOX is TONIGHT!!!!!

All week I have been giving away free tracks from my album AKA on the Facebook Event Page - still available if you want to grab them...

Tranarchy on the Anything Goes Breakfast Show on ALL FM

The House of Tranarchy was kindly invited to guest on Fiona Ledgard's ANYTHING GOES Breakfast Show for ALL FM in Manchester. There's interviews with myself, Joyce, Paddy B and Miss Issy, and music by Prince, Missy Elliot, Sylvester, Amanda LePore and more. Check it out:

16/02/12 The Anything Goes Breakfast Show with TRANARCHY! by Anythinggoes on Mixcloud

''Be yourself but times it by a THOUSAND...'' The Niallist

Tranarchy is a clubnight in Manchester in the queer hub of tunnels, big dark rooms, bondage gear and carpeted living rooms that is Legends. Tranarchy is inspired by the 8Os New York drag dance-offs and the film Paris Is Burning.

I interviewed 4 members of Tranarchy about what to expect at Legends tomorrow night; their influences; favourite outfits and I let them choose the music. I loved it!

I played 2 tracks from The Niallist's new album 'AKA' http://www.niallism.com

Bollox is kicking off upstairs in Legends and Tranarchy is downstairs.

Find out more: http://www.facebook.com/tranarchy

FIERCE quotations throughout this interview:
''We've all been called freaks in us lives...''
''Let's through down everything we are forced to be.''
''You know, the standard black lip..''
''Sheela Blige will be happy to be there.''
''The door to the house of Tranarchy is always open.''

Countdown to Tranarchy v Bollox!

This Friday (including my new album launch!)!!!

AMERICA - MIA HATES YOU!!! (according to Pitchfork)

I got a wee bit riled by the sexist coverage of MIA's "finger incident" (during Madonna's Super Bowl performance) by the supposedly forward-thinking music criticism site Pitchfork, so I wrote this little piece for Dangerous Minds:

It’s been brought to my attention by Collapse Board’s Wallace Wylie that Pitchfork have dedicated an entire page to calling MIA an asshole because she apparently told the American public to fuck off during Madonna’s Super Bowl performance last night. In case you hadn’t heard, MIA did indeed raise her middle finger during Madonna’s overblown performance of “Give Me All Your Luvin’,” on which the rapper makes a guest appearance. To see the incident, scroll down to the bottom of this post.

Here’s an extract from the offending Pitchfork article:

What’s extra annoying about last night’s event is that M.I.A. doesn’t need these cheap ploys to up her visibility, even when the stage design and costuming is best described as “GoldenPalace.com.” After all, she released her first great single in years just last Thursday, and its music video had already racked up more than 3 million YouTube views even before the Super Bowl send-up. Following the rep-shattering press surrounding 2010’s /\/\/\Y/\, it wouldn’t be the worst idea to draw as much focus as possible back to her music. [So why run this story?]

Instead, in the few bars Madonna was kind enough to grant her during the biggest television event of the year, M.I.A.‘s message to America was simply, “Fuck you.” Well, in M.I.A.‘s own words, the little people will never win, but they can fuck shit up. Success might be the best revenge, but apparently, being an asshole is forever.

Seriously Pitchfork, GET A FUCKING GRIP.

As I stated in my last post about her, I am an MIA skeptic. I have found her performances and music to be underwhelming in the past, though I have really warmed to her latest video “Bad Girls.” The same goes for last night’s performance at the Super Bowl - it ain’t no great shakes, though she does look great. But if you take this much offense at last night’s throw-away hand gesture—which I honestly might not have noticed if it hadn’t been pointed out to me—then you seriously need your head examined. Yes, seriously. Just look at the clip below, and then tell us how offended you are on a scale of one to ten.

MORE...

Been ripped off (again)

So, somebody called Michael Trombley has started a new night in Detroit called Menergy. Hmm, "Menergy"... that name is familiar. OK, it's a Patrick Cowley song - we don't claim ownership of the name.

So, what is this new night's music policy? Italo disco and Hi-NRG, you say? Well, everyone loves disco! Right? Sure, can't take credit for that, especially when we admit to being influenced by well established club nights like Melting Pot and Horse Meat Disco. Only, we were one of the first clubs to focus strictly on Hi-NRG, a sound that is a huge and under-acknowledged part of Scotland's clubbing history (if you're in doubt about that, ask Optimo's Twitch about Fire Island or Bennets, or check out this Menergy guest mix from Stuart MacLean aka Frenchbloke)

But anyway, this must all be just a simple co-incidence. Oh, wait a minute...

Menergy Detroit poster (FEB 2012):



Menergy Glasgow Poster (JAN 2011):



Hmmm, ok. But that's a popular song lyric.

Sure.

So check this...

Menergy Detroit flyer (FEB 2012):



Menegy Glasgow flyer (NOV 2010):



Yeah, it's pretty obvious there's some direct "inspiration" going on here.

But I'm gonna let you in on a little something - my jaded tone of indifference to all of this (as opposed to fuming anger) has got less to do with a hipsterite archness and more to do with having experienced it before.

Since January of 2011 I have been promoting drag-and-disco parties in Manchester with my partner Joe Spencer. We go by the name of TRANARCHY. You can find out more about us at www.tranarchy.co.uk.

Imagine our surprise when, in December we found out about Sink The Pink presents TRANARCHY.

Here's one of our promo images from last year:



And here is theirs (low quality as it's the only one available):



Any similarities?

Oh well, just another co-incidence, I'm sure.

Just like how this article I wrote for the website Dangerous Minds (in April 2011)

So that makes you a square: In Defense of the Hipster

was absolutely no inspiration whatsoever on this article for Disinformation (from August, 2011)

In Defense of the Hipster

despite DM and Disinfo sharing staff members in the past who left very acrimoniously (including myself).
Yep. No "inspiration" going on there - just pure, blind co-incidence.

So. do you think I should be angry about all of this?
Because, surprisingly, I am not.

Maybe I'm just too jaded by the repeat experience, but I DO take being copied as a compliment. I take what I do very seriously, even if that is not apparent to everyone all of the time. I pride myself on being a writer and musician of intelligence and integrity who is often ahead of the curve (or on a totally different tangent to most other folks). This can work to my detriment sometimes, but I still put a huge amount of effort into all my endevours, because I believe a half-arsed job is not worth doing.

There's nothing I can do to stop people copying me, and conversely there's nothing copyists can do to stop me doing my thing. If someone else comes along and likes what I do enough to want to do it too, or even if they think they can do it better, that's their call. Because at the end of the day, when you bite me, it's a sign that I'm doing something right.

Tranarchy group shot

Featuring 5 of the House - more pics from this sesh coming soon!

TRANARCHY Make Up Tutorials

by the House of Tranarchy's Paddy Baston, who works for Illamasqua and is excellent at this:

BOLLOX February flyer

Featuring the House of Tranarchy's very own Scott Gillespie! This is the night at which we'll be hijacking the downstairs, and at which I will be launching "AKA":



Facebook event page is here.

Dangerous Minds Jan 23rd - Feb 5th

Indie rock versus mainstream pop: who do you love?
The Muppets karate chop Fox News
RIP Don Cornelius of Soul Train
Neil Kulkarni’s ‘90s Hip-Hop Vol 1’: nuggets from rap’s golden age
Everything must glow: ‘Bad Rave Flyers’

TRANARCHY FRIDAY FEB 17th flyer

YES! It's my album launch! :-)

TRANARCHY.CO.UK

Come on over and check us out!

tranarchy.co.uk