Miscellaneous - October 2009

  by Admin

published: 9 / 10 / 2009

intro

Hello and welcome to the October edition of the Pennyblackmusic magazine. We tend to do themed editions at Pennyblackmusic just occasionally. This month’s edition, however, examines the ‘All Tomorrow’s Parties’ festival, which takes

Hello and welcome to the October edition of the Pennyblackmusic magazine. We tend to do themed editions at Pennyblackmusic just occasionally. This month’s edition, however, examines the ‘All Tomorrow’s Parties’ festival, which takes place at Butlin’s holiday camp in Minehead, Somerset over usually three weekends a year. Named after the Velvet Underground song ‘All Tomorrow’s Parties’, it was founded by promoter Barry Hogan as a alternative to larger, more corporate festivals such as Glastonbury and Reading in 1999. All Tomorrow’s Parties has a tendency towards post-rock and experimental music as well as more traditional rock fare. Where the sponsorship-free ATP festival stands out from other festivals is that its organisers and artists stay in the same accommodation of holiday chalets as the fans, and each festival has a different curator, who then asks their favourite performers to play. Described by ATP regular and one-time curator Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore as the “ultimate mix-tape”, other previous curators have included such alternative rock figureheads as Portishead, Slint, Shellac, Mogwai , Explosions in the Sky and the Breeders. Two of the next ATP weekends, the first in December, and then the next in May, will be curated by My Bloody Valentine and then Pavement. ATP has more recently become an international concern as well with successful events taking place at events in California, New York and Australia. A documentary film about the event, ‘All Tomorrow’s Parties’, has recently come out, which is currently touring Britain in a series of one night only cinema screenings also featuring live music, with the main act performing being Les Savy Fav, who feature in the film and have long been mainstays of ATP line-ups. The film will then be released on DVD in November. To commemorate the release of the film and the festival’s 10th anniversary, our lead interview this month is with Chris Geddes, the keyboardist with Belle and Sebastian, whose one-off 1999 festival, the Bowlie Weekender, provided the origins and the catalyst for All Tomorrow’s Parties. He speaks to Ben Howarth about his memories of that weekend, and also, after a long absence, his band’s plans for the future. We are also running interviews as well with Barry Hogan and the film’s producer, Luke Morris. Our other headline interviews this month are with David Thomas from Pere Ubu, whose latest album ‘Long Live Pere Ubu’ is a musical adaption of Alfred Jarry’s absurdist drama, ‘Bring Me the Head of Ubu Roi’, and Robert Fisher from the Willard Grant Conspiracy who talks about his group’s eighth album 'Paper Covers Stone', which features both reworked old songs and also new material. There are interviews as well with Detroit-based country group, the Deadstring Brothers, and rising industrial metal act OAK. We are also running a two part interview, both parts to be run consecutively, with bestselling Chicago-based musician and songwriter Jim Peterik. Peterik was a member of both classic rock band the Ides of May and also Survivor, who had a worldwide hit with 'Eye of the Tiger', the theme tune to Sylvester Stallone's 'Rocky III', in 1983. In our ‘Profiles’ section there is a review of the ‘All Tomorrow’s Parties’ documentary. We also have a two part article on the German electronic pioneers Kraftwerk, the first part of which looks at their new box set, ‘The Catalogue’, and the second which examines the group’s wide ranging influences. With their albums having recently been the subject of a major re-mastering album campaign, there is also in this section the first part in a several part series on the career of the Beatles. The first part examines their early years in Hamburg, and their first two albums, 'Please Please Me' and 'With the Beatles'. There is also an article on early emo group, Sunny Day Real Estate, whose two first albums, ‘Diary’ and ‘CD2’ have recently been re-released. We have new reviews in our ‘Live Reviews’ section of gigs from the Willard Grant Conspiracy, I Am Kloot, Son Volt, James Blackshaw, Wild Beasts, Howe Gelb, Wooden Shjips, Fanfarlo, Roky Erickson and the Flashguns. In our ‘Regular Features’ section Jon Rogers starts a new column, ‘Hitting the Right Note’. In a double instalment, he looks at the record industry's increasing reliance on reissuing and remarketing classic albums and other albums from the past, and then at the issue of free, legal download sites such as Spotify and We7. Elsewhere in this section, Jeff Thiessen in his ‘This Metal Sky’ column Jeff Thiessen reflects upon the career of Tricky, and his three albums, 'Maxinquaye', 'Pre-Millenium Tension' and 'Angels with Dirty Faces'. In 'Rock Salt Row', in which Lisa Torem debates each month with another writer about a different issue in rock, she chats with me about the effect of dreams as an inspiration on songwriters and musicians. There is also a competition which offers the chance for visitors to this site to win tickets for the forthcoming UK tour from the New York Dolls, whom we recently interviewed at Pennyblackmusic. We have ‘Photoscapes’ as well of recent shows by the King Blues and Wildhearts. In our Re:View’ section, in which we look back at albums from the past, there are articles on Hefner’s 2000 album, ‘We Love the City’ and AGF/Delay’s second record, ‘Symptoms’, which came out earlier this year. Our Website of the Month is Chicago-based cultural site PopMatters. We also have 32 new album and single reviews . In our previous up-date for album and single reviews at the end of September we ran another 29 album and single reviews. We have a new writer this month. Spencer Robertshaw is a Leeds-based published poet and music fan. Spencer contributed the reviews for the Tru Thoughts Anniversary album and the Japanese Voyeurs and William Orbit singles. Thank you to Spencer. Thank you to Peter Allison, Carl Bookstein, Malcolm Carter, Andrew Carver, Dixie Ernill, Ben Howarth, Adrian Huggins, Fiona Hutchings, Jon Rogers, Sarah Maybank, Anthony Middleton, Sarah Mwangi, Chris O'Toole, Jon Rogers, Jamie Rowland, Mark Rowland, Maarten Schiethart, Dominic Simpson, 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 Katie Anderson for the King Blues and Wildhearts photos. Special thanks to our webmaster Richard Banks at Pennyblackmusic HQ. Best wishes to Pennyblackmusic writer Jonjo McNeill and his forthcoming wife Carla Hopkin, who will get married in their home city of Newcastle on Saturday October 24th. Please remember our Bands Night on Saturday 14th November at the Brixton Windmill in London with Le Volume Courbe, the Left Outsides, Mathew Sawyer and the Ghosts and the European. If you can come, we would love to see you there. We will be back towards the end of the month with another reviews up-date and then in early November 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 Yo La Tengo, Jimmy Webb, Sophia, the Raveonettes, Trespassers William, Malcolm Ross and the Low Miffs, Ten City Nation, Robert Vandeven, the Left Outsides, and El Dog, 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