FOR YOU?
>DANIEL
SHACK - SPECIAL NEEDS
Top
Singles:
1. Hey Ya - Outkast
2. Hurt - Johnny Cash
3. Great Love Sound - The Raveonettes
Top
Albums:
1. Outkast - Speakerboxx/The Love Below
2. The Rapture - Echoes
3. British Sea Power - Decline of British Sea Power
Top Gigs:
1. Funfairs and Heartbreak - Hammersmith Working Mens Club, July
2. Rough Trade 25th Anniversary Party - Neighbourhood, October
3. Jonathan Richman - Shephards Bush Empire - March
Check out Joy's Special Needs page
>TWISTED
CHARM
We
were not too impressed with last year's music releases. We like what Franz
Ferdinand are doing. They are reminiscent of an early 80s scottish post-punk
band that we love called Josef K. Josek Kis actually the name of the main
protagonist in Franz Kafkas novel 'The Trial'. I
wonder if the corrolation between the two names Franz
is intentional?
We also like The Rapture album although it is completely derivative. I forget which songs but there is a direct percussion rip off of Bowie's '5 years', a bass line is stolen from A Certain Ratio track and a vocal melody parallels one from a PIL song. We eagerly await Blonde Redhead's new album because they are unequivocally the most innovative band of the last 10 years.
Tthe best shows we witnessed last year were Moving Units at the Buffalo Bar, the Liars at the Monarch and the
Country Teasers at the Bull and Gate. The Ingmar Bergman season at the NFT was pretty damn good too. As for our best shows, well, they are all equally deranged. I feel the one we played with Whirlwind Heat at the Metro deserves a mention because we were so on form that night despite the fact our bodies were possessed with flu. Our last show of the year at the Verge in Camden was memorable too. Our sax player had been thrown out of his house so he was unable to dress himself let alone perform. However, our friend John from the fantastic Neils Children decided to join us on stage for what became a novelty experience.
Read Joy's review of Twisted Charm at Alternative Rock Idol
>ART
BRUT
Well It's been quite a year for Art Brut, indeed it's been our first year.
We formed in February through a series of coincidences, and played our
first gig in May.
I
guess gig highlights so far would have been :
• The White Horse, High Wycombe when we played with (Ex-Carter)
Fruitbat's Abdoujaparov, it was a great gig and
everyone got a rider :-), Fruitbat is now a friend of ours and is remixing
our demo...
•
Troubadour, London, This was a spontaneous gig, we turned up to see The
Baby Shambles (Pete Libertines new band), eventually they came on stage,
he snapped a string, smashed his guitar and stormed off stage. So after
half an hour of the promoter wondering what to do Eddie and Chris played
a set with Eddie's brother, Micky from Ciccone and the sound-man on drums,
it was great and we got our first groupies. :-)
•
The Hope & Anchor, this had to be our best gig ever, it went incredibly
well, we even got people from the bar upstairs to come down and see us
when they heard us through the floor...
Best Bands
played with:
• Abdoujaparov, Bernard, Bloc Party, Electric Shocks
Releases:
• Brutlegs September 2003, recorded with Micky from Ciccone and
Keith @ Supernova studios. Keith has now become a great friend and comes
to most of our gigs, he used to produce early Oasis B-Sides and owns Racehorses,
apparently...
Other Highlights:
• Having the Up All Night promoter sing our demo to me in their
office.
• Everett True's band covering 'Formed a band'.
• Having Gut Records' A&R sniffing about us very briefly...
Plans:
• Next year we're releasing a proper single, going on tour, and
basically continuing to work towards World Peace.
Read Joy's review of Art Brut's gig at the Buffalo Bar
Best Singles:
Hey Ya - Outkast
Dirrty - Christina Aguilera
Out Of Time - Blur
Seven Nation Army - White Stripes
Crawl Home - Desert Sessions
Best Albums
The Love Below - Andre 3000/Outkast
Think Tank - Blur
Love Is Hell Vol 1 & 2/Rock n Roll - Ryan Adams
Elephant - White Stripes
Sumday - Grandaddy
Best Gigs
Ryan Adams at The Forum
Blur at The Astoria (Saturday night)
Suede's final gig at The Astoria (Saturday night)
***Remember 2003 for Elliott Smith...true genius...will miss him like mad***
>BEATRIMES
After
reforming with the band’s the third line up, this year has been
eventful for Beatrimes. Sonic Treble Maestro “Sammy C” and
Low end funkateer “Tommy L” give us the low-down.
Highlights
so far?
·
Having a whale of a time picking fun at a certain Chaz John Ross ;-)
· Being called “the outstanding band” in battle of
the bands
· Gigging and meeting some fantastic peeps – And No….I’m not made of cheese.
Best Bands
played with:
· F*ck knows, I can never remember. I can’t
even remember the titles to half our own songs, I’ll take Tom’s
advice here.
· The Dynamics: Actually, I remember these guys. Fair play they
were only 12!
· Echobase: I was told to join this band by our ex-manageress.
Pissed off Tom quite, perhaps that’s why she’s no longer our
manager!
Sam’s
Other Highlights:
· The copious and constant flow of women through
our tour bus and dressing rooms. (This only happened once and it was in
the Wedge’s crappy little dressing room!)
· Being with my best mates, even though we fight like cats sometimes…
Meow!!!
· Every gig we do
Downers:
· Listening to Chaz’s copies of f*cking
Aerosmith and BON CRAPPY JOVI
· Getting bollocked by my neighbour for mixing the demo too late
at night
Plans:
· To become a comedian
· To marry and have 17 children
· To become bigger and louder than bloody Aerosmith and my other
non-favourite band!
· Go to London to do some more gigs
· Promote our own night in Portsmouth to help other bands (we’re
so nice to them…)
· Make people smile… we love you guys! ;-)
Read Joy's live review of The Beatrimes
The Favours started their year by playing London as much as possible. A notable gig was one at the Camden Barfly in May: a great venue and a great nightclub to follow! We also took a busload of people down from Hull, which made the gig even better. We also made our first demo ‘Kill’ early on in the year. It was recorded at bark studios and is quite a hit with a local club in Hull called spiders! In September we played at Manchester’s ‘In the City Festival’, which was our first chance to play
in front of a number of record industry. The gig went really well and what followed was that we got a manager. It was good to finally have someone who was well contacted and experienced looking out for us. In October we supported Six by Seven on a few of their dates. This gave us our first experience of playing all over the country and was made better by Six By Seven being great lads!
In November we played the Club Fandango night at Camden’s Dublin Castle. Again this was a good gig to get the record industry down to and you can always guaranty a good atmosphere at the Dublin Castle and it’s probably our most favourite venue to play in London. The last major thing we did this year was to make another recording. Our manager managed to get us some demo time in Whitfield Street Studios in central London. This was a great studio and we were all really pleased with the results.
We’ve played with loads of bands this year but our pick of the bunch would probably be M*A*S*S: a great female fronted, dirty rock band, Six By Seven and the Karma Cops: another band who played at the club fandango night. Our plans for the new year are to gig as much as possible and try and get as many people as possible interested in us. We are also hoping to have our CD released as a single.
Read Joy's interview with The Favours
2003 was full throttle for Go Rimbaud. February was a good month, because that’s when we formed a band. Dom and I had played together before, but the full line-up was only settled in early February. We played our first gig in April at the illustrious Bull and Gate in Kentish Town, and never looked back. We did a DIY single (The Ground Zero Tourist Song) in June and played a wild series of gigs around London over the summer. These included support slots for Katastrophy Wife and Abdoujaparov at
the Underworld, and for Beauty School Dropouts at The Scala. We recorded an EP called ‘Songs In Bad Taste’, that is doing the rounds at the moment, and did a tour of Britain in November. We’ve developed a following now and have got some loyal fans who are really great. We’ve had help along the way from the small, but legendary (see this months Mojo), Fence Records label in Scotland. We’ve done a lot of work this year, and it looks like it’s going to start paying off. It’s been fun.