I guess we just pick up like we nearly did last time and where we left off and who needs who? Still no time for editorials, repeat, replete, reheat, let the actual music do the actual walking and the actual talking. Exact same thing as last time once again, another five (or so) slices of music that have passed our way recently, five slices of music cherry picked for your delight and however you like to slice it and of course it was the price of bird seed and yes we did say all this last time (surely no one reads the intro when the music is waiting down there)
Five? There’s something rather compelling about five. Cross-pollination? Five more? Is there another way? A better way? A cure for pulling flying swordfish out of the clouds? Is there a rhyme? Is there a reason? What do reasons make? Five more? Cake oil? Snake oil? Bake the oil, everything must go somewhere and no, we never do and the proof of the pudding is in that proof reading and who reads editorials?
When we started this thing, oh never mind, it doesn’t matter why we started this damn thing, we never should have done and like we asked last time, who are the cake? We do really try to listen to everything that comes in, we are very (very) very very picky about what we actually post on these fractured pages or about what gets played on the radio or indeed what we hang in a gallery.
Cut to the chase, never mind the editorial, skip this bit, there’s music further down the page, five or so pieces of music that have come our way in the last few days and what’s Wordsworth? On these Five Pieces of Music pages you just the basic facts and links and those sounds (and visuals), that’s surely all you need from us on these Five pages we reguarly post?
Here we go, five more slices of music that have recently come our way, this time we start somewhere in Detroit…
1: Protomartyr – Now that’s an epic start to an album! We can and can’t hear loads of different colours in that first taste of the new album, we like the shape of things. Protomartyr with something called Sounds We Cannot Hear taken from the album Hotel Usona out on September 25th via Domino.
Here’s a two year old session from the second best radio station in the world, while we work up a little more to the new album..
2: Panixphere and oh, there’s lots of history here, no time for that though, this is something new off the new album that’s out any moment now: Background Ploys is taken from the forthcoming album Gods & Zeros out. It does rather sound like Ring, that is a good thing, that is a compliment, Ring were rather good, Ring were and still are one of our favourites, Ring were Bic’s band, they were part of that Cardiacs family back in the early/mid 80s, well no, Ring were their own thing. From the same fertile fields as Cardiacs and Bic (sometimes we call him Christian Hayes) did eventually become a Cardiac, in fact all three current members of Panixphere (Bic, Jon Poole, Bob Leith on drums) have been at one time or another part of Cardiacs, Bob still is (no one really leaves Cardiacs). Oh there’s so much history, before they were in Cardiacs, Bob and Jon, no, let’s not start telling the complicated story today. there aren’t enough hours left in the day and we could write a book but right now, here’s the first taste of a new Panixphere album that is out very very soon on Bic’s label ATE. They’ve broken the silence (and don’t you want to sing about marine boys or some fish having teeth or whatever it was as you take this in?). Panixphere were around in the 80s, they came back for a short sharp bout of glorious chaos in the 90s with Tim Smith on a Rickenbacker bass he had borrowed from someone or other without telling him (they mostly playing gigs on Organ bills, if you were there that night at the Astoria then you know, there’s probably some bits about here). Anyway, Ring were brilliant, Panixphere were the punkier letting off of steam side of things although they were in reality a lot (lot) more than just letting off steam, and here, fast forward to wherever we are now and Bic, Bob and Jon have a new album (and some dates coming up with Spratleys) and here they are in their dark black studio where the sun shines and sounding lean, precise, focused, clever in all the right ways, sounding like they’re ready to go off and things once more, we await the rest of it, we’ve only heard this piece so far…
3: Dynamite Shakers – Here’s some links, there’s the new single; “Les Dynamite Shakers c’est une énergie rock mêlant électricité sans entrave et mélodie tatouage, celle qui s’accroche au cerveau et au coeur pour ne plus ..” and tattoo-like melody, the kind that clings to the brain and heart and never leaves, I like that…
4: The Barbarians of California and something really really rad (as we’d say back in the days of those Skate Muties From The Fifth Dimension). Hey, it crossed our path, it stood out a little from the crowd of shouty bands fronted by shouty men, it might even have been something we’d have wanted to release back in the days of Suzie The Swimmer and that Organ Radio compilations that of shouty bands fronted by shouty men…
I want more, I want more, I want more (yelled the shouty man, actually he didn’t shout that bit, he wasn’t that obvious, maybe that’s why we like it?), Here, some more, put a hat on for this one, meanwhile here’s some links
5: Joy Buzzer – Says here that “New York power pop outfit Joy Buzzer have released their new single, She Said, She Said, via Wicked Cool Records, taking on The Beatles’ psychedelic classic with the bright guitars, fuzzed-out energy, and melodic firepower that have quickly become the band’s calling card….” and well, the press release is just about right. it is a Beatles classic, it is hard to mess up a Beatles song (although many have), Joy Buzzer have made a bright and breezy version, not sure what the point of doing so is but who cares, good pop art is good pop art and this Joy Buzzer version is damn good pop art. They’ve taken the spirit of the 1966 original, a piece of music from the Revolver album when times really were changing and added their own bit of power pop/indie rock identity…
“‘She Said, She Said’ feels like a natural fit for us because so much of what we love about power pop is already there in the song,” the band says. “The hooks, the guitars, the momentum—we just wanted to push it louder and bring our own energy to it. It’s incredible how easily a song from 1966 can still feel immediate when you turn everything up.”
Here’s the Joy Buzzer website…
And while we’re here, another taste of the ever evolving Peter Hammill after last week’s Prom, this time from 1981 and his K-Group performing a song From the Van Der Graaf Album The Quiet Zone/The Pleasure Dome – What pron thing you say? So, last night’s Prog Rock Prom at London’s Royal Albert Hall with Peter Hammill, Carl Palmer and bits of Van Der Graaf, Gentle Giant, Genesis, King Crimson and more then. Was it any good? Well…
THE ORGAN 