Miscellaneous - September 2010

  by Admin

published: 6 / 9 / 2010

intro

Hello and welcome to the September edition of the Pennyblackmusic magazine. Of all the acts that we have written about during the last twelve years, one of the ones that has meant the most to us has been the Willard Grant Conspiracy. Formed in Boston, now based in California, and centred around its

Hello and welcome to the September edition of the Pennyblackmusic magazine. Of all the acts that we have written about during the last twelve years, one of the ones that has meant the most to us has been the Willard Grant Conspiracy. Formed in Boston, now based in California, and centred around its one permanent member, Robert Fisher, we have both written about this ever revolving collective in several of its many permutations and also photographed them as well. There have been many live reviews and reviews as well of pretty much all of their albums since we discovered them at the time of their second CD, ‘Flying Low’, in the early days of the site in 1998. There have also been a remarkable seven interviews with the always articulate Fisher, more so than with any other act or band who we have featured. It is, therefore, with enormous pride, great excitement and a certain amount of nerves that we are proud to announce that the Willard Grant Conspiracy will be opening a forthcoming month long tour by headlining our next Pennyblackmusic Bands Night at the Half Moon in Herne Hill, London, South London on October 29th. The group, whose 2003 fifth album, ‘Regard the End’, was included in the top 150 Albums of the Decade (as well as made an Album of the Month) by ‘Uncut’, will be appearing as a duo of Fisher on guitar and vocals and long time cohort David Michael Curry on viola/saw. Fisher has said about the tour that he and Curry will be devolving deep into the band’s eight studio album catalogue and that, while there will only two of them on stage, they will be making a lot of noise. The other bands that will be appearing on the bill are seven member post rock outfit the Monroe Transfer; former Alexandria Quartet front man and chamber pop artist Adam Donen who will be appearing with a mini-choir and string section, and Altai Rocks, the new band of Sophia and Madam bassist Nick Bergin and Swervedriver’s Adam Franklin, who will be playing what will be only their second ever gig. Tickets can be bought in advance from We Got Tickets at http://wegottickets.com/event/92212 for £7 and will be available on the door on the night for £8. If you are based in London, we do hope that you will be able to come. It should be an exciting night. The magazine this month is a few days later on-line that we had originally planned because of technical issues at our server company. It is another extensive edition. Our lead interview this month is with the Seattle-formed power pop act, the Posies. The group’s singer and guitarist, Jon Auer, talks about the group’s first album in four years, the sour-sweet ‘Blood/Candy’; his and his band mate and co-songwriter Ken Stringfellow’s successful long musical partnership, and their seventeen years also playing in Big Star, which was brought to an untimely end this year by the death of front man Alex Chilton. Our other main interviews this month are with defunct Canadian indie act Plumtree, who have found themselves the wave of renewed interest after their song, ‘Scott Pilgrim’, provided the inspiration for the comic book series, ‘Scott Pilgrim Vs the World’; former Katydids singer Susie Hug, who talks about her long career and new solo album,‘Tucson Moonshine'; ex-Marillion front man Fish who speaks about his recent throat problems, current three-piece acoustic tour and forthcoming album, ‘Feast of Consequences’, and influential shoegazing/dance group, Seefeel, who are about to release their first new music in fourteen years, an EP entitled ‘Faults’. There are other new interviews this month with English singer-songwriter Thea Gilmore; former Mercury Rev and Hopewell members Jason and Justin Russo, who now front the bands Common Prayer and the Silent League; solo artist and the Duke and the King front man Simone Felice and Altai Rockets. We are also running interviews with eight-piece Canadian beer-and-party band the Tom Fun Orchestra; Newfoundland-born singer-songwriter Amelia Curran, and young Leicester-based indie rock group, the Screening. There is also the second part of Anthony Strutt’s three part interview with 80’s new wave act, the Lotus Eaters. In our ‘Profiles’ section, there are articles on the music in the new ‘Scott Pilgrim Vs the World’ film; the back-to-basics ethos of “perfect” festival the Limetree Festival in Yorkshire; a recent Beatles conference in Chicago and a new double DVD, ‘Avant-Garde in the Meadows’ about the Klangbad Festival in Germany and which also includes a full-length film of Faust in concert. Our new live reviews this month are of shows by the Mountain Goats, the Wedding Present, Eels, the New Pornographers, Branford Marsalis, the Paul Collins Beat, the Dum Dum Girls, Tom Fun Orchestra and the Pains of Being Pure at heart. In our ‘Features’ section we have an article which has more details about the forthcoming Pennyblackmusic Bands Night. Also in that section ‘Our Soundtrack of Our Lives’ column, in which our writers describe the personal impact of music on their lives, has returned after a few months absence. Its founder Mark Rowland describes how an unhappy adolescence led to him discovering both the Velvet Underground and soul music. In ‘Rock Salt Row’, in which Lisa Torem debates with a different writer each month about an issue in rock, she discusses with Sarah Johnson the commercial nature of music and whether spiritual matters and in particular Buddhist principles have ever really had a bearing on it. In ‘Gimme Indie Rock’ Jamie Rowland looks back on the short history of forgotten Isle of Man-based indie band, Safetyword, while Ben Howarth in ‘Condemned to Rock ‘n’ Roll’, in light of Fergeal Sharkey’s recent decision to host a pop quiz at the Conservative Party conference, examines what the Undertones front man has been doing since his solo career came to an end in the 80’s. Jon Rogers in 'Hitting the Right Note' describes his love/hate relationship with heavy metal and in his monthly poetry column, ‘Evidently Spencertown’, Spencer Robertshaw writes about parenthood in ‘Kids’. In our ‘Re:View’ section, in which our writers look back at albums from the past, Lisa Torem examines ‘Round Midnight’, a compilation by jazz artist Thelonious Monk. For our 'Website of the Month' Fiona Hutchings has chosen the website of rock outfit the Phil Brodie Band, which is an Aladdin’s Cave of trivia and miscellaneous facts. There are also twenty album and single reviews. We put up another thirty two reviews in our reviews up-date at the beginning of September. Thank you to Carl Bookstein, Malcolm Carter, Andrew Carver, Dan Cressey, Dixie Ernill, Tony Gaughan, Tommy Gunnarson, Ben Howarth, Adrian Huggins, Fiona Hutchings, Sarah Johnson, Tara McEvoy, Chris O’ Toole, Spencer Robertshaw, Jon Rogers, Jamie Rowland, Mark Rowland, Maarten Schiethart, Dominic Simpson, Anthony Strutt, Jeff Thiessen. Helen Tipping, Lisa Torem and Paul Waller, all of whom contributed articles to this edition or to the reviews up-date in July. Special thanks to our webmaster Richard Banks at Pennyblackmusic HQ without whom none of this really would not be possible. We will be back with a reviews up-date in late September and then at the beginning of October with a full edition. We hope then to be running interviews with the Primitives, Swans, Darren Hayman, Jon Windle, the Monroe Transfer, Darren Poyser, A Band Called Quinn, the Pondhawks, Adam Donen, Spectorbullets and Blue Oyster Cult and Ozzy Osbourne bassist Rudy Sarzo. There will also be the third part of the Lotus Eaters interview and our usual range of features, live reviews, profiles and more album and single reviews. Thank you as always for reading John Clarkson Magazine Editor www.pennyblackmusic.co.uk