Beach Hunks goes live from 9 - 5

After organising parties in New York, Chicago, Paris and London...next up is the unusual choice of...NOTTINGHAM! Yes, it's the home of Robin Hood but it also has a great music scene. Good local promoters such as Damn You!, Mantile, Rammell Club, Liars Club, Dollop, New Weird Nottingham and Three Cheers. Plus a great deal of excellent venues such as Rescue Rooms, The Bodega, Moog, Stealth and a new venue called Spanky Van Dykes which is the place we will be taking over for some events. Here's the flyer that my good friend Kevin made. No mp3s on this post, sorry, purely plugging this time ;-)

The cure for insomnia

I recently got turned on to the Chicago recluse JT IV (John Henry Timmis IV) after a conversation with Times New Viking. For those of you that are not aware of him, settle down and i'll give you the basics. His first release was in 1980, he barely left the house and never toured, made some of the most cosmic spaced out Hawkwind inspired garage punk and apparently made the longest movie in the world entitled 'The Cure For Insomnia'...a mere 85 hours!


Check out this bunch of bozos dancing to his Lou Reed response track 'Waiting For The CTA' on public access tv show 'Chic-A-Go-Go':




Liking it so far? Well, those good guys at Drag City unearthed and released the album 'Cosmic Lightning' which is bundled with a DVD, for which this is the trailer for:




JT IV - 'Death Trip'
JT IV - 'The Monitors'
JT IV - 'Destructo Rock'

Totally Wierd

Minimal synth, or 'cold wave', seems to be the order of the day right now as far as compilations go. Angular Records have just released the well put together 'Cold Waves and Minimal Electronics Vol.1', due for release a week from now. Personal highlights include Jeunesse D'Ivoire's 'A Gift Of Tears' which is available to download below and starts off with an almost Apollo 440 wavering guitar line, until a looped piano and ghostly female vocal come in, becoming reminiscent of Martha & The Muffins as the song goes on (not exactly, mind). Cold and distant from the listener plus of course some shredding keywork are key in this genre.

'Wierd' run events in Brooklyn, NY, that seem to specialise in this field. Their label have put out two excellent compilations, 'Wierd Compilation Vol. I and II'. You can find a sample track below by Tobias Bernstrup. Also here to download is a track by The Dead Goldfish Ensemble from the Neue Muster compilations. It's best you look these up if you like the sound of it as I know very little.

As much of the coldwave scene fizzled out in the mid '80s, there are not too many chances to see it done live. However, two current acts from Brooklyn, from the Wierd Records stable, are due to hit Europe in April 2010. Xeno & Oaklander will tour with Led Er Est. To say we are excited about this is an understatement. They play Nottingham on Monday April 19th, and other UK cities around that date. Look out for further information on their websites.

Xeno & Oaklander - 'Sentinelle' video:



Led Er Est - 'Laredo' video:



Tracks mentioned in this blog entry:

Jeunesse D'Ivoire - 'A Gift Of Tears'

Martha & The Muffins - 'Monotone'

Tobias Bernstrup - 'Enemies Of The Earth'

The Dead Goldfish Ensemble - 'Ace'

Xeno & Oaklander - 'Celeste'

Led Er Est - 'Woman In A Cafe / Communication'