acb

today, I once again went to the Echo 3 alldayer, an annual vaguely-indie music festival at Slakthusen in Stockholm, catching a few bands:

- Ulrika Spacek: a London-based band, fronted by the chap who moved to Stockholm and started Astrel K. I found their music more engaging than I expected. Capsule summary: imagine if Radiohead were an Upset The Rhythm band that plays at the Dalston Victoria or something.

- Hemi Hemingway: the kiwi crooner made it all the way over here, due to being signed to PNK SLM, along with his band. Their set sounded much more 80s-FM-radio than I was expecting: cavernous drums, glassy keyboards, and a guitar tone that sounds like a million dollars of 80s electronics. In places it wouldn’t have been amiss next to Client Liaison; elsewhere, imagine Springsteen working with Badalamenti.

- Sibille Attar. Only caught a bit of her set, but her cover of The Sisters of Mercy’s “Some Kind Of Stranger” was unexpected and lovely.

- Bo Ningen. The long-running Japan-via-London psych/hard-rock band tore the roof off with a blistering set. My ears are still ringing.

- Makthaverskan. The long-running Gothenburg band played their brand of mildly gothy indiepop, with tracks from their new album and some older favourites. They were pretty good.

- Cabaret Voltaire. The band, with a few substitutes, playing in front of some rather good video projections. I hadn’t seen them before, though had seen Severed Heads, who came from the same zeitgeist, and it was a similar sort of thing. It was more Kraftwerk than Skinny Puppy: mostly inoffensive electropop (at least by today’s standards), with not that much clanging metal, horror-movie samples or snarled lyrics about dystopian future hyperwar. One thing I noticed was that the video projections were full of blown-up scanlines, dithering, false-colour and such; I imagine Walter Benjamin would have had something to say about such fetishisation of the artefacts of mechanical reproduction.

- and finally, Cockhouse. Six guys who look in their late teens, attired in vaguely chicken-themed knitted headgear, and playing a manic blend of punk/live breakcore/math-rock. Absolutely mental, though stretching credibility somewhat, in that the musicians look too young to plausibly have honed such serious skill, and it doesn’t look like the sort of tastefully lagom fare that one usually finds in Sweden. Definitely a highlight. Get these guys a support slot for Angine de Poitrine.

I just finished reading this book, which I picked up on my recent visit to London. It was quite interesting.

It’s essentially an unauthorised biography of Stereolab (the band politely but firmly declined to be involved), that manages to be mostly chronological, and also connects each chapter in the band’s history with a theme associated with them, ranging from elements such as collage and repetition to political ideas such as autonomy, the influence of Dada and the band’s oft-vaunted if contestable relationship with Marxism. This interleaving mostly works.

It’s pretty well researched (the author interviewed some people, not including the band, and extensively cites other interviews from publications and zines spanning their career) and informative, though at times it does feel very obviously the work of a fan rather than a dispassionate observer.

Unfortunately there doesn’t appear to be an e-book.

This weekend, I went to the inaugural Melbourne Popfest, held at the Coburg RSL and organised by Mark Monnone (who put together the last music festival I went to Naarm for, 2023's Lost & Lonesome anniversary event). I hadn't been planning to visit, but the lineup forced my hand, and I'm glad I went.

It being a Lost & Lonesome-affiliated events, there were a lot of familiar faces. Both of the post-Lucksmiths bands—Last Leaves and Monnone Alone—played, early on on their respective days, with Louis Richter of Mid-State Orange (whose long-awaited new album I'm told is coming out soon) and Marky in both lineups. Fans of The Lucksmiths should possibly brace themselves, as both bands are somewhat rockier, in a sun-bleached psychedelic sort of way.

There were other bands making returns, in varying degrees. The Cat's Miaow were scheduled, but due to illness in the band, were down to a duo, with Kerrie Bolton singing and Bart Cummings on guitar; they played a lovely set of the sort of sad-girl pop that is their stock-in-trade. (If you like The Softies, you'll love The Cat's Miaow.)

Also returning were The Motifs, the band that grew out of a bedroom chamber-pop project in the mid-00s, won the devotion of indiepop fans and then disappeared. They played as a six-piece, with members of Milk Teddy (in which Alexis plays keyboards) helping out; Alexis had one arm in a sling due to recent surgery, and so mostly just sang. They played a number of songs including Backwards and Yours And Mine, and were lovely, in a slightly shambolic way. Unfortunately, there does not seem to be a prospect of any new music from them, but there were a few copies of a Japanese release of one of their albums at the merch stall, for much less than they go on Discogs these days. The audience loved it, and maybe we can hope for more in the future?

Milk Teddy themselves were another highlight. They played a rocking set, bringing their blend of fuzzed-out melodious pop with songs including New York Rhapsody, I Can Hear It When You Sing, and Too Young To Vote, Too Old To Cry. Apparently they're playing more gigs soon, which is good.

The final night was topped off by Nicole Thibault and a band, playing a selection of songs from her old band, Minimum Chips (capsule summary: imagine a more garagey Stereolab), starting off with Bouncing Boy With A Bubble, getting in songs including Swish, Furniture and Friends, and finishing off with Oooo (their own Simple Headphone Mind, after a fashion). Her band were really good: Guy Blackman played bass, driving the groove forward, and the drummer, a chap who goes by the name of Snowy, was incredibly tight. Nicole lamented the absence of a trombone player in the lineup, but we can't have everything, I guess.

Other bands were also good. I caught The Zebras, whose records I am going to have to give a relisten, The Sprouts were pretty good garage rock, and Daisypicker, Pop Filter and Talk Show (of no relation to, and sounding nothing like, Talkshow Boy) were good too. Less good was the troop of boisterous children running around in front of the stage and, grabbing stage props and waving them in the air during the Sprouts set, apparently with their dad's proud encouragement. Perhaps their presence warmed the hearts of other parents in the audience, but my flinty black coal of a heart remained entirely unwarmed.

Anyway, the festival was great: it's good to see so many excellent bands from both the past and present of Naarm's indie heritage.
There's a handful of photos on Flickr at https://www.flickr.com/photos/acb/albums/72177720333068403/

Mixapps: an attempt to bring the cultural phenomenon of the mixtape/mix CD to the smartphone era through web apps:

https://github.com/hunterirving/mixapps

The mixtape builder runs as a web app you drag MP3s (or .oggs or FLACs or whatever) to. Then you run a script which builds a progressive web app. Put that online somewhere, send the URL to the recipient, and the whole thing installs as a static, offline app on their phone.

in a rail replacement coach heading up the Hume Highway, listening to Ninajirachi on headphones

Bandcamp Daily has a roundup of French underground music that emerged in the wake of the évenements of 1968; it includes Magma, Gong and more:

https://daily.bandcamp.com/lists/french-underground-album-guide

I really like the new cover of The Field Mice’s “Emma’s House” by Naarm sophistipop crooner Geoffrey O’Connor. It strips away the indiepop jangle, leaving behind a languid piano ballad that, somehow, tilts in the direction of Mazzy Star or similar:

https://geoffreyoconnor.bandcamp.com/track/emmas-house-the-field-mice-cover

currently listening to: this Japanese indiepop compilation from 1997. I found a copy on SoulSeek in the early 00s, listened to it extensively and resigned myself to knowing that the low-bit-rate MP3s would be the only version of this I would ever encounter. Then, some years later, I visited San Francisco and found a copy at Amoeba Records.

https://www.discogs.com/release/4733017-Various-Pop-Jingu-Volume-1-A-Japanese-Pop-Compilation

Introduce yourself with 10 bands you have seen live:

Too many to name, but here’s 10 I have seen on multiple occasions and/or travelled to see:

The Aislers Set
The Deirdres
Minami Deutsch
Ninetynine
The Paradise Motel
The Radio Dept.
Slowdive
The Softies
Stereolab
Tigercats

via:
@sfoskett@techfieldday.net

The Old Bar in Fitzroy has been having a week of gigs to commemorate its 25th anniversary. I went last night and saw some great music.

The opener was Screensaver, a newish local band. They do a sort of distorted-guitar/synthesiser-led post-punk, a bit like Vivian Girls (the Naarm one, not the NYC86 one you’re more likely to have heard of) only with more Ash Wednesday/Ollie Olsen, if that makes any sense. Anyway, they were great: tight, lots of energy, and the singer has a powerful voice. The legacy of the Little Band scene is in good hands.

Next up was Ninetynine. They’ve been one of my favourite bands for a few decades, and I’d never miss a chance to see them when possible. They played in a slightly reduced lineup (Ian was not able to make it, so there was no bass guitar), but tore the roof off the place. I’ve never seen them play a duff show, but this was one of the best I remember; the energy in the room was palpable. They had the vibraphone, a Casio keyboard (a larger more professional model than the MT-40 they used to play with) and some tightly skronky guitars. Cameron was, of course, in full majestic flight behind the drums, and if anything, Laura’s voice sounds more powerful than ever. They started with Mesopotamia, a cathartic slow-burner from 180°, played songs including The Process, Avalanche and their majestic late-era track Woods, and finished with Wöekenender, their Interrail anthem. It was worth coming to town for this in itself.

The other two bands were good too: Gold Coast Leathers seemed fun; their stage costumes suggesting smooth-sailing yacht rock but their show being irony-forward rock’n’roll. I didn’t see much of Cash Savage, as I was in another room catching up with people, though what I saw sounded good.

There are now some photos at https://flickr.com/photos/acb/sets/72177720333200874

Someone should really put together a Motifs* tribute compilation. There are so many incredibly good songs there.

* The Naarm/Melbourne bedroom pop project, not the Singapore shoegaze band