Arcadia’s Neighborhood

First thing I’d like to say is, if you really love a band and you get the chance to see them play in Adelaide, take that chance. I am now a firm believer the people in Sydney are at least seven times more rude than anywhere else.

So, Jarvis Cocker is about to wrap up his second solo Australian tour this weekend and I managed to see him at both the Metro in Sydney and the Gov in Adelaide. Now… both shows were equally as excellent musically, the sound was much better in Sydney, but the atmosphere in Adelaide was just so much more amenable to such an apparently accommodating chap such as Jarvis Cocker. 

What do I mean by accommodating? Well he’s very generous with the chocolates (can’t say the same for the girl in Sydney who would only stretch as far as giving me half a square of a chocolate – I didn’t care that it was Jarvis’, I didn’t want to ruin your chances of selling it for $15 on ebay, I just wanted chocolate) and drinks (but hopefully not a nasty strain of Jarvicoccus Aureus – oh microbiology jokes, so hilarious) and quite amenable to having a good old chat with the audience. 

One thing I was especially impressed with was that between the two shows, I can’t recall one thing he repeated saying. (Might have had something to do with the cheat sheet he had attached to his set list). Although, I am well known for being easily impressed. 

All the tunes were there: Angela, Black Magic, Further Complications, Fuckingsong, Homewrecker and even You’re In My Eyes, the disco song, which I have professed to dislike intensely, but actually got me dancing. I must say, there’s something about the really loud parts of Jarvis’ songs, most notably in Black Magic, that just sends a shiver down ones spine. The man, again, lived up to all expectations (after two sneaky pretending-the-show-was-over-and-walking-off-stage moments), wrapping up the set with a lovely rendition of Running the World.

Aside from his witty banter about such profound topics as koalas and why they don’t just eat something else (because what they actually eat doesn’t give them enough energy to do anything other than sleep when they aren’t eating), being attacked by an emu and whoever’s birthday it happened to be on that day (someone had been doing their research), by far the greatest thing of all was Jarvis’ trademark dance moves. He must really have an excellent sense of balance, a lesser man would have been a pile on the floor if they tried to pull off some of the leg-flailing movements that Jarvis can do.

Adelaide 1 comment Britpop Christmas Party - December 23rd

Special mention also goes out to Martin Craft (you may remember him from the Australian band, Sidewinder); support act and guitarist within Jarvis’ crew. Talented guy; quite a musical contrast to Jarvis both within the song subject and the feel of the tunes. Slow, and wispy, a single acoustic guitar, a synth and a saxophone. Nice.

Brilliant.

(Thanks to Miss Kristen who followed the man around the country and took these pictures)

On a side note, I just wanted to thank everyone who came to the Abercrombie hotel for britpop last week and want to draw your attention to the Britpop Christmas party happening on the 23rd. Could very well be the last one! Get there!

Sally

sally@weheartmusic.com

As you can tell, we still don't have a metal reviewer. Anyway, for the metal fans in your family....

GOBLIN COCK
myspace.com/goblincock 

First of all, I love the name and theme. All the band members have RPG elements to their name, like singer Lord Phallus (Rob Crow) and guitarist Larben the Druid. You can tell that this San Diego doom metal band are fans of comics (due to their self-titled Bagged and Boarded) and the Terminator movie (that's a famous line, "come with me if you want to live"). From the cover artwork, to ancient runes, it's safe to assume these guys are also into Warhammer and D&D stuff, pretty geeky - and proud of it!

I don't have their debut album, but based on listening to Come With Me If You Want To Live, I can see why they were nominated for the PLUG metal album award (they lost out to Fantômas). Come was designed as a whole album, from the instrumental introduction music "Hissless" through all these film/movie references. You can hear movie samples in some of their songs, like "Trying to get Along with Humans" and "Ode to Billy Jack" (which is really about those 70s movies).

Some of the songs on this album sounds too clear and sounds too slow to be classify as metal. On those songs, they seem more like early 90s grunge music (think Soundgarden, not Nirvana).

Not really sure where Goblin Cock will exists in Rob Crow's ever-growing band involvement. He's still in Pinback, Heavy Vegetable, Physics, Optiganally Yours and Thingy. Plus earlier this year, his other band, Aspects of Physics, just released their third (in a trilogy of album) called Marginalized Information Forms 3: Other.

Come With Me If You Want To Live is available now from Absolute Kosher Records. Recommended if you don't take your metal too seriously, and enjoy the adolescent geekiness of the band.

Trivia: "Beneath the Valley of the Island of Misfit Toys", another instrumental, seems to be derived from Beneath the Planet of the Apes, Valley of the Dolls, and Rudoph the Red Nosed Reindeer (he ends up on Island of Misfit Toys).

METAL RETARDATION
metalretardation.com

When I first read Bill Zebub's name, I chuckled a little at his nod to the lord of the flies (Satan). So the guy has a sense of humor, and you can hear a lot of that humor in his interviews for his magazine, The Grimoire of Exalted Deeds, on this DVD collection.

Unfortunately, sometime his questions goes on too long (note: the bands are the star, not the interviewer), and sometime the questions have nothing to do with anything. I'll give you an example, during the George "Corpsegrinder" Fisher from Cannibal Corpse, Zebub had a long question about Almond Joy and Mounds. I won't give away the punchline, but when it was delivered, neither myself or Fisher cared much for it. The same feeling of "I don't get it" or "I don't care" came up again when Mathias Nygård, from Turisas, had to endure the shark jokes.

I'll have to admit, there are some some gems like the Cannibal Corpses and Nevermore interview, however the footage is unwatchable due to poor lighting. The filming is very gorilla-style, often with just Zebub and his camera. Some footage looks like it was taken from old VHS tapes, while some of the more recent footage looked incredible. The uneven quality, the lack of transition (these are quick clips going back and forth), uneven audio levels... these things made the program really hard to enjoy.

It doesn't feel like there's a purpose or direction - just random questions and answers. Personally, I feel this whole disc should be a "bonus" disc of some other feature. I can't recommend this unless you're a fan of The Grimoire of Exalted Deeds or the bands on the disc (Finntroll, King Diamond, Type O Negative, Gwar, etc).

Extras includes Band Introductions & Skits, Darkthrone Phone Interview and Venom Phone Interview. The phone interview also includes topless women. The "area" are censored, so it's not entirely pornographic.

PAGAN METAL: A DOCUMENTARY
billzebub.com ♥ thegrimoire.com

Like Metal Retardation, the Pagan Metal DVD begins with a disclaimer that if you don't appreciate this film, then you are "too gay". What are you twelve? I feel like I have to defend myself and any reviewers out that that doesn't like this documentary - I do own and watch a lot of movies and documentaries.

What makes a good documentary for me is to keep me interested in the subject. Like for instance, if the band is talking about, say Norse gods, the editor should insert an image referencing said god. I will say that to keep us entertained, between sessions of interviews, you're shown some live footage of various Pagan Metal bands. My favorite is Turisas, only because of that crazy looking violin player.

Usually really good documentaries tries to do answer three questions: 1. Where did (subject) came from and its origin? 2. What exactly is it and why do people like it? and 3. Where does it go from here? Unfortunately, this documentary doesn't really address any of these questions. I'll grant you that Zebub did try and ask the Pagan past, but the interviewees, such as Korpiklaani, were unprepared to answer.

The one shining light out of this is Primordial's Alan Averill (note: the DVD does not credit the interviewee, I am guessing it is the singer). Everything he had to say was intelligent and smart, and even if it had nothing to do with Folk or Pagan Metal, it sure made a whole lot of sense to me. There's a section where he talked about in the "old" days when he was doing his fanzines, he would swap a lot of tapes. Compared that to today's file-traders, he feels like it's too easy and unfulfilling. Maybe it's a generational thing, but for old fanzine editors like myself and Sally, we still want to own the vinyl or CD if we like what we've heard on cassettes, or later minidiscs and cd-rs. What does this this have to do with Pagan Metal? Well, I think it's relevant because how else are people going to hear Pagan Metal - the radio stations aren't going to play it.

So, if you are wondering why Pagan Metal is have taken over the Black Metal scene in Europe and interested in hearing some of these bands (Korpiklaani, Finntroll, Leaves Eyes, Tyr), then I'd recommend this DVD to you. Although, I wouldn't call it a documentary, this is more like a series of interviews with these bands. Between Metal Retardation and Pagan Metal, I would, without a doubt, recommend Pagan, because it has a theme and a purpose.

The extras ? There are none, unless you count the Rated R trailer for Assmonster prior to the feature.

White Flower and Leaves - Lotus - IMGP7691-B, originally uploaded by Bahman Farzad.

Athlete: Four piece out of London, England. You’re probably familiar with their 2005 single Wires, which saw them being becoming household names in the UK and even saw them make it to Australia. Unsurprisingly, this wasn’t their first release (Vehicles and Animals was their first full-length album) and hasn’t been their last.

Following the release of Tourist (the album that contained Wires) was the release of the 2007 album Beyond the Neighbourhood. I must admit, this release didn’t make a big impact in Australia and as it seems, didn’t make it into the collection of many, claimed to be considered “a disappointment” by some.

Much like Coldplay, Athlete has been critically acclaimed for their songwriting efforts picking up a Mercury Music Prize nomination and winning an Ivor Novello award for Wires. The band has additional similarities to Coldplay, in that their music it quite mellow and mature; appealing to a slightly older audience than your general indie-pop/rock. If you hate Coldplay though, never fear their music is not quite in that same realm of “ya mum probably likes it”. That is, I don’t think mums would dig Athlete. They still retain that slight edge which will appeal to the kids, but maybe not the ones that think dressing like they stepped out of the 80’s is cool.

To celebrate the upcoming February 2010 US release of the bands fourth full-length album Black Swan (the album was released in the UK in August), the band have recently released an EP entitled, The Getaway.

Black Swan, is not, as you may have thought, a tribute to the state emblem of Western Australia, but apparently, encompasses the events and emotions that the boys from Athlete have gone through. Based around the tale that saw the Black Swan being seen as a mythical animal for hundreds of years, until someone went to Western Australia (obviously) and the metaphor that life is made of up significant events, some of which can be shocking, both good and bad.

Don’t worry, it’s not all sadness and gloom. The first single from Black Swan, Superhuman Touch (which is also on the EP), is quite upbeat and lyrically uplifting. Whereas the EP title track, The Getaway, is less uplifting, but just as heartwarming and emotive lyrically.

To mark the EP's release, Athlete is offering a free download, which is a deal well worth jumping on. So, to get your grubby hands on this freebie you just need to pop along and join the mailing list at http://www.originalsignalrecordings.com/Athlete/us/

You can also download the EP from iTunes at http://bit.ly/10Dcg3

http://www.athlete.mu/

Sally

sally@weheartmusic.com

JUST LIKE CHRISTMAS
We've been receiving a ton of Christmas/Holiday recordings lately. It's really hard to pick and choose what I'll be writing about in the upcoming week. I might as well get on top of some of these recording. Today we have Kill It Kid (killitkid.com / myspace.com) If they sound familiar to you, that's because we've previously mentioned them before.

Their song, "Just Like Christmas" is a cover of Minnesota's own Low. Since we're from Minnesota, this is worth checking out. You can download your own copy in a variety of formats (including flac) over at www.killitkidchristmas.com.

Low's ‘Just Like Christmas’ is a great tune, with an understated lyric and tender sentiment that we felt - with all our festive strength - we could break into a duet and still compliment the narrative. So we put it in front of the fire, filled it with cinnamon, brandy, and cranberry sauce and put some spurs on it!

-- singer Chris Turpin

The band is finishing up their 2009 tour:

12 Dec Play It By Ear @ The Monarch London
15 Dec The Glee Club* Cardiff
16 Dec The Duchess* York
17 Dec Jericho Tavern* Oxford

* with Foy Vance

Speaking killing...

MYSPACE MUST DIE!!
As you know, it's the nature of the business, but I have to use myspace because of its deep roots in music. Anyway, by choice, I am using Firefox 2.0. I tried 3.5, I don't like the way it handles scripts ... and there are some themes and extensions that does not work in the latest version, so yes, I'm still clinging on 2.0.

About a few weeks ago, myspace made this boneheaded decision that it wouldn't let you in if you're using old browsers. It's okay, it's not like I actively use myspace, but as the weeks went on, I realized I had to stop ignoring this problem.

So here is the solution for those of you suffering from the same problem (such as all Mac firefox users, apparently): get User Agent Switcher 0.7.2.

This little extension tells myspace, "I'm Internet Explorer 8, let me in!!". If you want to fool it into thinking you're running Firefox 3.0, add the following in "new":

Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; ; rv:1.9.0.14) Gecko/2009082707 Firefox/3.0.14

That should do the trick.

PS, User Agent Switch is also useful when you stumble upon a "members only" forum. You simply change your agent to "Googlebot 2.1".

Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin at The Bell House, Brooklyn (12/7/09)

In terms of favorite bands with excessively long names, Someone Still Loves You Boris Yelstin is right up there with The Pains of Being Pure at Heart and Suburban Kids with Biblical Names. (Fun Fact: There’s a band called Meanwhile Back in Communist Russia that won BBC Radio’s title for worst band name ever. When you think about it, the Soviet Union is a rich source for potentially awful band names, IE: Lenin’s Mausoleum, Khrushchev’s Thaw, The Gulag, etc. etc. etc.)

Anyway.

SSLYBY at The Bell House, Brooklyn (12/7/09) ♥ photo by Dave

SSLYBY provided a refreshing lack of plaid and/or flannel to the Bell House on Monday night. It was nice to see a band so sincere and enthusiastic, whose only incidental brush with pretense stemmed from the fact that their bassist/drummer bore an uncanny resemblance to Michael Cera. They seemed so affable that one wayward audience member felt compelled to describe them as “the Jimmy Buffet of the indie world.”

They opened with “Pangea,” the jangly first track from their debut album, Broom. However, the jangle did not seem as prevalent live as it does on the album. To borrow a word from Chuck Klosterman’s phrasebook, the songs sounded considerably more “trenchant” compared to their recorded counterparts. This wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, as it gave pop-centric tracks like “Oregon Girl” and “Gwyneth” a slight edge. It also allowed them to turn the bittersweet confection that is “Dead Right” into a slow-burning, thumping number.

Singing duties switched between guitarists, John Cardwell and Philip Dickey, and they invited friends on stage to sing and play the occasional tambourine. The audience was peppered with their fellow musicians/friends, such as Jason Anderson and Paul DeGeorge from Harry & the Potters. With such support, it was only natural that an impromptu audience rendition of Aladdin’s “A Whole New World” should happen. (It did. It was short-lived but sweet.)

They ended the show with “Modern Mystery” before returning for a much-welcomed encore. Say what you will about their clunky name or the curse of USSR-related monikers, but overall, it was a perfectly lovely show. Besides, how many Putin-inspired bands have you heard of lately?

Photos by Dave: