After seven years, three albums and a bunch of singles, the punk disco outfit, signed to hardcore label Dischord (and Popfrenzy in Australia) since 98 say on their site that the band reached their shared goals and they’re ready to move on, thanks to everyone, then they rave about how happy they are. It sounds like a cover, who’s got some dirt?
Music

Noone buys them anymore, except on vinyl. But a lot of thought still goes into choosing them. They’re important for radio airplay, video shows and even TV ads. So the decisions get made with whoever’s most important – in Australia, indie bands will submit their album to Triple J, the national youth radio station, who then suggest which song should be the lead single. They’re brutal about it too, they’ll play hardball for shorter edits of the song if they think it’s too long. Here in Japan it’s even harder, a band simply won’t get into the charts without a TV ad tie-in, so it’s all about linking up with an ad agency (of course they make the decisions). Bands need the airplay to sell the album, promote tours, promote themselves.
But the thing is, most bands are fairly eclectic. Well many are. They have three dimensions, rather than the one or two they’re painted in press releases and the following articles. And the choice of single has a big impact on the shape of that painted picture in the press and in their listener’s minds.
So bands assume people will dig through the singles and find whatever gold is in the albums. Which they sometimes do. But mostly minds are made up by that time. That first flush defines the band.
I was watching the Cocktails last night at Shibuya O-Nest and it struck me that whatever song that band released on single would define virtually a different band. The Herd had a similar problem, their sound is pretty diverse, but their first single Scallops – chosen by Triple J – just about ruled them out for a lot of people. Despite the power of many of their other songs.
I guess some of this could change as niche radio and communities make it easier to have a whole picture of an artist. For some reason I think it’s unlikely these fundamentals will shift, especially with such numbers of acts competing for attention.
But maybe it’s no bad thing. Kinda like the difference between seeing a band live and hearing them on record can be totally different as they reconstruct songs outside of the studio, perhaps the single stream is just another slant on a band?
Music

His best known alias is Dark Comedy, but I never knew that Kenny Larkin was in the US Air Force?! From Detroit, he’s also one of techno’s more inspired producers, recording for a bunch of labels including Warp, KMS, Peacefrog and Transmat.
He’s touring Japan with a new best of – ‘The Chronicles 92 – 97′ – plus an instore at HMV in Shibuya on the 17th of July at 7pm.
MusicTechno

Check Gutterbreakz for interviews with Seb Chan (Cyclic Defrost/Sub Bass Snarl), Scott Brown (Southern Steppa/DJ Kodama) and Adam Moore (DJ Minikomi) on Cyclic’s Euro sampler (see my review here), grime and the state of electronic music in Australia. It’s a good read.
BTW, Kodama & Eli Murray are playing at the Bellingen Global Festival, both killer DJs worth checking. Kodama’s also doing his first set at Frigid in Sydney in late August, supporting Hermitude at their album launch.
MusicMediaGrime

Mix tape culture was basically a boot in the backside for the alternative counterculture in the ’80s. Despite the record industry’s comical Home Taping is Killing Music campaign, mix tapes were the heart of so much of the decade’s music. Their importance is only just being registered. Thurston Moore’s written a great coffee table book about them, even. But without them the international noise scenes would never have happened, people traded tapes and then sponsored each other for tours. Hip hop, house, jungle, all these were definitely built around the mixtape. It’s something that feels a bit lost in this new decade of CD mixes, iTunes playlists and MP3 downloads.
Anyway a cat called Richcolour is working on getting his mixtape collection online. Mastermix.org is a collection of hip hop, house and soul mixtapes on MP3 for download, mostly sourced from mid ’80s London pirate stations. And everything from Orlando Voorn to Troublefunk and Jazzy Jeff to Double Dee & Steinski’s classic Lessons.
Music

I mistakenly picked up last month’s Wire at Warzawa (Shibuya) last week – assuming that the indie/electronic store in town would have the latest issue. I was wrong. The one I saw at HMV the day before was newer. Still it had the free CD, Wire Tapper 13, attached, so it was definitely worth the cover money. I might look at getting a subscription, it’s expensive, but the CD is a fantastic guide to new music, and an invaluable addition to the magazine as so many of the artists are hard to access, expensive to buy and so on.
Anyway an afternoon at a Hiro-o cafe reading and I’ve read my way through it. The theme was humour and music, do they mix. Funny, because I asked Archer Prewitt some similar questions about his work with the Cocktails when I talked to him last week. Even funnier because the Wire is probably the biggest culprit when it comes to making cutting edge interesting music sound dull. They must be the worst of a bad bunch of music journos who think using big words (thesaurus at the ready while writing) makes them sound more intelligent. Actually it does. But it also makes it pretty damn opaque and virtually inscrutable to the novice music fan. Still, I guess they’d say, the novice fan doesn’t read the Wire.
Anyway, adding a bit of comedy to the blend did wonders for this edition. I think the choice of the Chap’s latest disc Ham as CD of the week must have been a reasonably cynical choice to fit with the theme. However, it was a great review and I think I like the album even more after reading the review.
The CD is fantastic too. Mandarin Movie, Rob Mazurek’s new outfit sounds like Maddslinky’s best most textural stuff with all the space filled up by Scorn and Godspeed. Pretty good. Ariel Pink sounds like John Waters era Divine covering ’50s rock’n'roll. Hanne Hukkelberg is sweet, I’m hoping to catch her in Norway in August.
MusicMedia

My ibook has white spots. So here I am at the medical centre, also known as the Apple Centre. With any luck they will fix it quick sharp. Fortune Grey has been a little quiet, like a ghost town recently, so I will forgive anyone who says why bother posting here. Still you really should not say that. Things have been busy.
I met up with Sam Prekop and Archer Prewitt on Friday afternoon to talk about solo albums, touring, painting, comics and the Sea and Cake. Both really cool guys. And Sams band was killer on Saturday night – with Chad Taylor (drums), Archer (guitar), Josh Abrams (bass) and Rob Mazurek (cornet), actually Rob and Chad played support as Chicago Underground Duo too. Both were amazing, with many similar elements, but very different results. Tonight I will see Sams band again at Shibuya O-East, supported this time by a Japanese post-rock crew whose name I still have not worked out. Archers solo outfit as well as the recently reformed Cocktails are on next weekend too.
Music