Managed to rouse self from pregnancy-induced writing slumber to scribe two pieces for the latest issue of Plan B magazine. One's a column about, like, MUSIC and PREGNANCY. And one's an interview with my future husband EugeneRobinson about, like, CHOKING and FIGHTING and ROUGH SEX and no music. Hurrah!
I suppose a good thing about living in Stockholm is that you can pop to the indie disco on a whim and see top pop pixie Robyn performing her NUMBER ONE IN BRITAIN (as they kept reminding us) single 'Every Heartbeat' completely unexpectedly. That was kind of cool. She really likes touching her tits! And she looked like a little pixie builder carpenter lesbian, which was cute. I should have videod more than the last 30 seconds, but I was too busy protecting my pregnant stomach from the pointy elbows of the whirling Swedo-dervish girl before me. They're broom-up-bum, these Swedes, but when they dance, they really DANCE.
I don't know if I want to molest her, be her or just get involved in an overly intense girl-friendship with her that ends in us having a huge fight and stopping talking and then thinking / making songs / writing stories about each other for the rest of our lives. Probably all of them.
Yes yes I am. I just can't get enough. I have to spread it around. Et cetera. I am doing a brand spanktastically new blog for Venuszine. It's an mp3 blog so it's ALL ABOUT MUSIC and NOT ABOUT ME. (What can I say - I like a challenge.) It's called Audio Files and it's published on the first Monday of every month. Check it out! [Audio Files on new British Pop]
O you LUCKY LONDON BASTARDS, you're about to get a visit from HEARTSCHALLENGER this April. Do you think you like Crystal Castles? Well, they sound a bit like that, except, instead of having a heartless black-eyed hipster hellhound as a front person, they have an ICE CREAM TRUCK, look!
They are playing the obvious London hipster spots like The Old Blue and Club NME but if I were you or if I were me and not confined to this broom-up-bum city of BORINGNESS where NO ONE EVER DANCES, I would take myself south of the river on the 12 April to the Amersham Arms, a tiny pub in New Cross (near Goldsmiths) to dance myself silly instead. Anyway, you can hear them on their Myspace, or watch them here. Enjoy it if you go. I am not jealous at all.
When you are procrastinating on shit there is nothing better to do than cruise YouTube for gems, and lo! I found one! It is the glorious, the masterful, the inspirational Planningtorock talking about her live performances and the customised hats she wears when she is doing them. Check it out:
If you ever get the chance to go and see her, I fully recommend it. She is so strange and awesome. She swishes around onstage in voluminous white satin clothes, twitching her hands, her voice with a whine like a Hoover, inhabiting persona after persona, from The Bolton Wanderer to a crazy voodootype who wants to eat her lover's body. She transcends gender - there is no prettiness here - just power and magic. Go to Emusic.com and use up those 25 free downloads you get to snap up her album, Have It All. You won't be disappointed. I mean, unless you are a cunt with terrible music taste. But then you are none of my concern.
If you've ever partied at all hard (obviously our Stockholm readers can tune out at this point) you might enjoy this piece from Vice magazine, reminiscing about a New York Bar called Kokies. The only time I ever heard about this place was when I (lame music journalist moment coming up, pls excuse) was interviewing Cat Power and she started going on about a New York coke bar called Kokie's. I remember thinking 'shyeah right Cat Power, because there's really going to be a coke bar called Kokie's, you crazy kook you". But there was!
Repost from Ladyfest London's Myspace. If I wasn't going to be enormously pregnant between 9-11th May, and thus stuck in Stockholm, I would totally go help, because I have decided that, for all its tweeness, Ladyfest is a Good Thing. Frances has been having all these cool interns at Plan B whose lives have been hugely changed by Ladyfest and by retrospectively discovering Riot Grrrl - girls who were into emo or whatever as consumers and then discovered riot grrrl and are now running nights, putting on gigs and being in bands - exactly what we envisaged way back when. So. Ladyfest London. 9-11th May. Get in!
Ladyfest London is on its way!!!
We are a non-profit, volunteer-run feminist music, arts and activism festival that will be held in North London 9th- 11th of May 2008, at The Camden Underworld, the Resource Centre on Holloway Road and the Islington Arts Factory.
Ladyfest celebrates the wealth and diversity of women's talents within the London independent art scenes and beyond, as well as to promote the do-it-yourself ethic and participation in feminist discussion and activism. We aim to provide creative, accessible and friendly spaces where people of all ages and backgrounds feel welcome to take part. It is a predominantly woman-organised festival, but all are welcome to participate.
Ladyfest have been happening in urban centres all over the world since it was first held in Olympia in 2000. The first Ladyfest London was held in London in 2002 at the Garage in North London.
We need you! Currently there are around 20 core members involved in organising the festival and and we really need your help! We come from a variety of different backgrounds and all have different skills and interests. Ladyfests, like other activism, is very much about learning new skills and trying things you wouldn't normally get to do in everyday life.
There is lots to do in the run up to the festival and lots of different ways you can get involved. No experience is necessary!
We currently need creative and organising types to join our publicity, fundrasing, merchandising groups, as well as people to get involved in organising performances, comedy and music.
If you are interested in helping out in any capacity please get in touch.
During the festival Even if you don't have time to get involved in the run-up to the festival, we are also going to need lots of people to help out during the actual weekend. If you can commit to at least one 4-hour shift between 9-11 May (plus ideally one afternoon or evening a couple weeks before the festival for a welcome/rota meeting) to staff information desks, steward, help with equipment etc, we can offer you a free day-pass to the festival for the rest of that day, plus a free lunch and travel expenses costs if required (within London only). If you can commit to helping out 4 hours a day for each of the three days you will have free entry to the whole festival.
Email info@ladyfestlondon.co.uk or send us a message on Myspace to get in touch. Or just show up at our next general meeting on Wed 13 Feb at LARC (London Action Resource Centre), 62 Fieldgate Street, E1 at 7pm.
It's snowing here so I have created a snow playlist for your (and my) listening pleasure. I've tried to avoid too many obvious tracks (so no 'Soft as snow but warm inside' by My Bloody Valentine: no 'How to bring a blush to the snow' by Cocteau Twins). Then again, I couldn't resist Frosti / Aurora by Bjork so I guess I wasn't trying *that* hard to be unconventional. You'll also find sparkly classics by The Halo Benders, I am Robot and Proud and They Came From The Stars I Saw Them. Enjoy!
DOWNLOAD IT! The mix is tagged as a compilation, album title 'AMP's SNOW PLAYLIST'.
also, look - plan b are doing a fanzine workshop at rough trade. and a music writing one! so you can learn how to be a music journalist. i can teach you too. just be a 30something male, balding, bitter, boring, paunchy, pale-skinned, slightly sweating, scared of girls. works every time. OOH, AREN'T STEREOTYPES FUN? :D
Well, this is pretty sweet. It's like a trip to the now-iconic Dalston Supersavers but without having to actually go anywhere. It's a blog called Dalston Oxfam Shop and it's great. The guy buys awesome cassette tapes from the 80s (stuff like Frank Chickens or 1993 New York house music compilations), then digitises the best tracks and hosts them for download. He also posts about cool upcoming East End art shows and the African music night he runs in Soho. It makes me miss London loads, but I also know I'm missing an illusion because I'm kind of over chazzing for cassette tapes or going to African music nightclubs and even if I was home I wouldn't be going, I'd be sitting in my Goldfinger apartment reading novels and eating bon-bons. But that is so not the point.
Girly indie site www.thelipster.com launched last week. Edited by Jude Rogers of Smoke and Laura Barton of The Guardian, it has a similar look and feel to Drowned in Sound (it's produced by the same company). There's an interesting thread on it on DiS here, which presents the usual gamut of responses to girl-only stuff ('I feel patronised' / 'Why not just hire the same writers to work for DiS' / 'why are they only writing about women? it seems a bit full-on feminist i.e. anti-male' etc). I'm all for anything that foregrounds women and makes men feel left out, just so that male readers can see what it feels like to be sidelined as a result of a gender bias, so good luck to 'em (though the name grates a bit - what's a lipster? A lipstick wearing hipster?) I do wish such projects would be a bit more subtle with the marketing tactics though. Why describe yourself as 'the world’s best new female editorial-led pop culture website' when it's far more subversive to simply present a website full of editorial pop culture that just happens to be by and about females? After all, DiS doesn't broadly proclaim 'TOTAL BOYS' CLUB - MESSAGE BOARD FULL OF MILDLY SEXIST INANITY - EDITORIAL STAFF ALL MALE - COVERAGE OF MALE TO FEMALE ARTISTS APPROX 70/30'. It just does it, thereby promoting the status quo without advertising itself as doing such. Why can't female-focused projects do the same thing but in reverse? I'd love to see that - to see Reading or ATP with a 99% female line-up, or the NME with all the features by and about women, but nary a word advertising this fact. Now that's subversive. Maybe one day. When the world turns on its axis. Until then: The Lipster.
"With big love for her mama and her signature punk approach to dance music, is she the modern girl next door or the most exciting thing since riot grrrl? We're convinced she's both." The MIA interview I did for Venus magazine is now online at their site - take a peek!
I miss London. Catch The Wave Pictures for one last night on 11th Dec - they're doing a free residency at The George Tavern, Commercial Road. Download 'Now You Are Pregnant', visit their Myspace, or steal a whole bunch more stuff including a great track with John Darnielle from their website.
Joanna Newsome in US Elle: "I wear a lot of high-waisted pants when I'm not performing. I like the studs on this Givenchy pair. When I'm onstage, since I play the harp, I go for mobility, mostly knee-length dresses. Right now, I have been wearing this incredible vintage piece that's silk jersey with tea-stained lace and a medallion belt. I wear it with my resin Chloe necklace."
I just had to share. If I was a boy I'd have such a crush on her.
O miracle of miracles, some updates have happened! The main site now boasts three new featurettes: an interview with author Gwendoline Riley, a Q&A with Adaadat's Gay Against You, and your guide to the top traits required to survive as a freelance writer, The 7 Slightly Less Publicised Habits of Highly Effective Freelancers. Includes naivity, gullibility, stupidity and wanking for coins down by the docks. Enjoy!
Wow check this video made by Horton and co. It's really excellently Boney M-ish. Good to see he's still doing that Jarvis thing with his hair, too. I also like how it's about eleven thousand million minutes long.
Aw, it's so good to be blogging back here on AMPnet that I think we need a little Gravy Train to celebrate, don't you? This is the sad story of a girl who went on a diet and lost her boobs: hence, 'Ghost Boobs'. It's true! It happened to my sister, folks. (My other sister.) Don't do it!
Look at this early 80s gem, by NYC all girl band Pulsallama, that I unearthed while searching for Ann Magnuson / Bongwater clips. (Ann Magnuson was a former member of this band.) I am *so* crushing on the fashion styles of the lady who lives next door but just because she has 17 cats doesn't mean she's a witch.
Today's missive is brought to you by one Lisa Margreet aka My Sister.
Here is a picture of her doing the LOL face:
And here is her missive:
While AMP has "Manmarie" as her alter-ego, here at chez Payne in our east London apartment, lives Granny Payne. (Of course Manmarie lives with his Granny, what self-respecting slob doesn't?!) Granny Payne loves to moan, and complain, and knit, and make jam. Lots of jam. Anyway, Granny Payne has found something to temporarily distract her from whether she should lodge a complaint about the floodlit sports ground in the sports college opposite her bedroom.
It comes in the form of this website called "The Nag" which is part of the Anti-Apathy um, movement? social experiments? Let me let them explain:
Anti-Apathy* (AA) promotes awareness and action for positive social change and offers refreshing ways to connect you to the politics and economics behind your every day life, from fashion to free trade and everything in between. AA starts with awareness, but equally, it's about experience and action. Through our events and unique social experiments we aim to raise debate and inspire new perspectives.
It's the closest I've come to joining AA yet.
Yeah, so that's about it really. I thought they were rather cute websites with very good aims and I thought you might like to know about them. Here's an invite from me to the Nag: www.thenag.net/invited_by/lisamargreet and here's a link to the anti-apathy site: http://www.antiapathy.org/
Don't tell me you can't be bothered to check them out *rollseyesatadvanceapatheticjoke*
Hope you're all good, take care, and stop laughing at my organic jeans please.
xxxx
PS: Oh yes, and I meant to say that The Nag's tagline is "changing the world one lazy assed mouse-click at a time" so its perfect for internet junkies and lazy asses alike as it won't interfere too much with your usual internet daily "rounds". Mentioning no names of course. xxx
this is a test. i mean, vox has all the functionality, the tag cloud, the lovely 2.0 look and feel.. but... it's hosted not on ampnet. only voxers can post comments. it has that facebook 'walled garden' feel. and a couple of other reasons. basically. i think i want to come home.
What do you call a musician without a girlfriend? Homeless. AHAHAHAH! Right, sorry, now that's out of the way, let me tell you about my fave new band of right now, Tap Tap. (There are sometimes more of them than this, but this is the only picture on their Myspace that features a man with his top off, so what are you gonna do?) Tap Tap produce this wonderfully insistent guitary music that has all the emotional pull of the Arcade Fire, the twiddly menace of Agaskodo Teliverik or Marnie Stern, and the dancability factor of early Franz Ferdinand. You can't lose! You can download their album Lanzafame from Emusic, or see their Myspace. Tap it!
a record i like! the royal we. they're from magical glasgow. i don't believe in magic any more. magic is a boy with glasses pressing his knee against yours. he's wearing a paisley shirt. his hand trembles a bit. he talks about the field mice, the pastels album he's bidding on on ebay. he's reading an old puffin book, orange and cream cover, joyce carey or laurence durrell or something. the pages smell of old paper, they're faded to that tobacco colour of old pubs. he's wearing brogues, you want to stick pins into all the tiny holes. he could be your cowboy. magic is a girl, o a girl just seen out of the corner of your eye, tipping onto her back holding the camera at arm's length in her myspace shot. or with tilted head, gazing into the distance, the nothingness, the big black hole that is the webcam on the computer she's staring at, the person who's making her laugh, the person who isn't you. the girl she has wrinkles in her white stockings, her knees are all angles, her dress is elastic waisted, you want to ping it to make her giggle, you want your hands your fingers burrowing under the elastic, seeing the big spots on the fabric swish around her thighs while you burrow, camera obscura on the stereo, the girl kind of reminds you of traceyann or even clare groghan in gregory's girl, the girl isn't even real, she lives in america, you spoke on skype one time it was magic. she could be your cowgirl. HEY LISTEN, magic doesn't exist okay? glasgow isn't magic. that boy isn't magic. that girl isn't magic. magic is a bell jar. it flies around. it settles on you for a while, that boy, that girl, you move around inside the bell jar for a while, gently kissing, then the bell jar lifts up and what do you know, there isn't any cowboy. THAT SAID. this record opens with... nope, can't be bothered to do any describing. oh, quickly: fiddles. oohooh-ahh. drums. girls in hats and specs. some guitars in a kind of poppy chalets-ish way but better than that sounds. LISTEN UP FOR YOURSELF! especially 'all the rage', it has drums that make me gasp.
ps - they have a song called 'back and forth forever' so how could you not love them if you know what i mean and i think you do. ))<>((
I'll be singing in Shimura Curves for one last bonus night on Thursday 14th June. We're playing at Bardens along with No Bra, Bishi and Ebony Bones. It's put on by the UndGretel collective and with that line-up it promises to be very very good, so I think you should come along. See www.myspace.com/undgretel for more details.
Here's a review I wrote of a book called 'You Don't Love Me Yet', by Jonathan Lethem. The cover illustration was done by a lady called Eline Van Dam, who is a brilliant illustrator who can be found online here at a site called Zeloot. She illustrated the cover of the Club Kids issue of AMP that we did a while back. I love her work. Anyway. I guess you can't judge a book by its cover....
If you're stuck for something to do this Bank Holiday weekend, you might want to go see the wonderful EATS TAPES playing at the Buffalo Bar tonight. Barr is also playing, and Lucky Dragons, and something I've not heard of called Car Clutch. It's put on by the brilliant collective Upset the Rhythm and it's gonna be bleeptastic brilliance.
So the piece I wrote about cute fat chicks has been published in the Sunday Times. I wasn't prepared for all the feedback you get when you go mainstream. *buries head in comforting wing of underground*
More Liam Sullivan - here he's explaining how the process of 'becoming' Kelly - shopping for clothes, applying make-up, etc - helped him understand a lot more about women. Aw.
Get thee to the Nog Gallery on Brick Lane on Thursday night. Upset the Rhythm are putting on an event which will feature a performance from Barr and a reading from Amy Prior. Frances will be dj-ing. Sounds super fun and is only £3. Be there!
I'm finally starting to understand Youtube. It's like a tiny telly. Which is ace because I don't have a telly. But I do have a pulsing 15 inch Macbook. Here is Youtube discovery brilliance number ten million and one; it's called "Text Message Break-Up":
... in which Kelly gets dumped by text message and goes mental. "I'll be like MACE in your FACE on MYSPACE.... Just you wait till you read the shit on you I'm gonna blog about. I'm gonna PODCAST yr BASTARD ASS from COAST TO COAST!"
There's also Shoes:
The videos are the creation of Liam Sullivan, a comedian. There are more. You can download them from his site in Quicktime, Windows Media and iPod versions. One of my favourite things about them - apart from the way they keep turning from soap-opera esque kitchen sink dramas into booty-shakin' hip-hop videos - is the fact that, even though Kelly is a dude dressed as a chick, there's none of the harsh edge that drag can often have; that worrying sense that the female is being laughed at. You don't really feel that Liam is taking the piss out of Kelly. You empathise with her. She feels a bit like one of your friends. <3
Interesting interview on Venuszine.com with the estimable A.M. Holmes. She's talking about the difference between men's and women's writing; about how there are writers, and women writers; about her refusal to be pigeonholed as a 'woman writer' (a scribe of domestic, family topics); about her admiration for Didion and Sontag and Phillip Roth. It sounds kind of essentialist put like that, but you can see where she's coming from.
Tonight sees my erstwhile band Shimura Curves play a gig at How Does It Feel at the Luminaire. They're on at 8.20 so get there early to catch the new line-up (featuring Kate St Claire on guitar, my sister Lisa on vocals, ex-member Frances on synths and the mandolin-strumming Ed) take Shimura Curves in a whole new spacerock direction.
Archie Bell = swedish electropoppers with four tracks of downloadable bleepy goodness to help yr weekend get started with a wiggle. Check them out on Myspace.
And look, you can play old Nintendo games on the internet, in your browser, with no downloads required. Bless.
