Miscellaneous - September 2009

  by Admin

published: 13 / 9 / 2009

intro

Hello and welcome to the September edition of the Pennyblackmusic Magazine. We were never sure if there would be another one. On a cold March Saturday afternoon

Hello and welcome to the September edition of the Pennyblackmusic Magazine. We were never sure if there would be another one. On a cold March Saturday afternoon, as new concert promoter Dominic Simpson and I trudged up Brixton Road in hail after an unsuccessful afternoon of battling faltering tube lines and seeing venues that just weren’t right,it definitely seemed that it would never happen at all. I am pleased to announce, however, that, after a two year absence which has seen our regular venue of the Spitz in East London close, we are moving across the River Thames and our next Pennyblackmusic Bands Night will take place at the Brixton Windmill in Blenheim Gardens, South London, S2. 5BZ on 14th November. Doors open at 8 p.m. with tickets which will go on sale at www.wegottickets.com by the end of September costing £5 in advance and £6 on the night. There will be four acts, the Left Outsides, Le Volume Courbe, Mathew Sawyer and the Ghosts and The European, involved, with the whole evening wrapping up in plenty of time for last tubes at about 11.30 p.m. In our Features section this month, there is a profile of the evening with more details about it and biographies of the bands involved. We are also running interviews with two of the acts that will be playing. The first of these, Le Volume Courbe, is the project of French-born and now London-based singer -song writer Charlotte Marionneau and has involved both Alan McGee and My Bloody Valentine’s Kevin Shields. The latter, electro pop act The European, is that of Simon Break, one half of the allegedly NATO sponsored duo Icebreaker, who has created both his own computer software and instrumentation for it. We have already interviewed ex-Television Personalities drummer Mathew Sawyer and his group the Ghosts previously , and that interview can be found by simply typing ‘Mathew Sawyer’ into our search engine. We will also be interviewing psychedelic/folk outfit, the Left Outsides,which features former members of both the Eighteenth Day of May and Saloon, next month. Back to this month and our lead interview is with Cornershop, who have returned after a hiatus of seven years with a new album, ‘Judy Sucks a Lemon for Breakfast'. Always perhaps known for their number one hit, ‘Brimful of Asha’, Cornershop have become famous for their music which is a melange of Indian and raga music, satirical humour and a more traditional indie guitar sound. Front man Tjinder Singh speaks to Sarah Maybank about the new album, his band’s continued capacity for making trouble, and why there has been such a long gap between albums. Our other main interviews for this month are with Mars Williams, the saxophonist with both the Psychedelic Furs and free jazz outfit Liquid Soul; damaged singer-songwriter genius Daniel Johnston, and indie guitar outfit the Trashcan Sinatras who have recently released just their fifth album in their twenty year history, ‘In the Music’. As well as the interviews with Le Volume Courbe and The European, we are also running interviews with Chameleons offshoot the Reegs; Scottish singer-songwriter Dot Allison; San Diego-based noise duo the Crocodiles ; post rock seven-piece Her Name is Calla and New York-born, Texan-raised and now London-based jazz musician Trombone Jones. In our Profiles section, there are features on both Black Sabbath and Lucinda Williams, who both have reissues of their early albums out and articles on two new DVDs, spoof documentary ‘White Lightnin’ and also the 8th Annual Music Video Festival. Jon Rogers also asks what we might expect after John Lydon recently announced his decision to reform Public Image Ltd after an absence of seventeen years for five UK shows in December. There are live reviews of gigs by the Gang of Four, She Keeps Bees, Bill Callahan, underground metal heavyweights Zoroaster, Gates of Slumber and Serpentcult, and also Morrissey. In our Regular Features section, in our ‘Soundtrack of Our Lives’ column, in which our writers write about music that has had a personal impact on them, Jon Rogers examines David Bowie and Iggy Pop’s ‘Berlin’ albumS of the 1970s. In our ‘Rock Salt Row’ column Lisa Torem debates with Jeff Thiessen about the self-sabotaging nature of rock musicians and whether men and women see heartbreak differently. Ben Howarth meanwhile in his ‘Condemned to Rock ‘n’ Roll’ feature explains the targets he sets out for himself when reviewing new music and his pleasure at discovering new Bath-based blues-influenced act Kill It Kid. In our Re: View section, in which writers look back at albums from the past, Anthony Strutt reflects upon post-punk band Sad Lovers and Giants’ second album, ‘Feeding the Flame’, while Aaron Brown argues the case for heavy metal giants Motley Crue’s 1989 album, ‘Dr Feelgood’. Our Website of the Month is Discogs, a community-based database of music information. We are also running 32 new album and single reviews. As always this magazine has been put together as a result of the hard work of many talented people. Thank you to Peter Allison, Carl Bookstein, Aaron Brown, Malcolm Carter, Andrew Carver, Dixie Ernill, Ben Howarth, Adrian Huggins, Fiona Hutchings, Jon Rogers, Jonjo McNeill, Sarah Maybank, Anthony Middleton, Sarah Mwangi, Chris O'Toole, Jamie Rowland, Mark Rowland, Maarten Schiethart, Dominic Simpson, Kelly Smith, Anthony Strutt, Jeff Thiessen, Helen Tipping and Lisa Torem. all of whom contributed articles to this edition or the reviews up-date. Thank you to too to Neil Bailey for his photos which accompany the She Keeps Bees article. Special thanks to our webmaster Richard Banks at Pennyblackmusic HQ. Best wishes and congratulations to regular writer Denzil Watson and his wife Dora upon the birth of their son, Leonardo Chan Waton, on Thursday 27th August. We will be back towards the end of the month with another reviews up-date and then in early October with another extensive edition of the magazine with interviews, features, live reviews and more album and single reviews. We hope to be running then interviews with Belle and Sebastian, Jimmy Webb, Pere Ubu, the Willard Grant Conspiracy, the Ides of March and Survivor’s Jim Peterik, Mark Mulcahy, the Deadstring Brothers, Ten City Nation, OAK, the Left Outsides and also Barry Hogan and Luke Morris, the director and producer of the new ‘All Tomorrow’s Parties’ film as well as the usual range of profiles, features and live, album and single reviews. Thank you as always for reading John Clarkson Magazine Editor www.pennyblackmusic.co.uk