Research Rock

*Research Rock I guess is the new Record Collection Rock. A continuation if you like. This time time though it's not based so much on music weeklies, magazines, fanzines, fusty second hand shops, eighth generation tapes, word of mouth, cool record collections and knowing taste makers but on your ability to connect threads from blogs, Web magazines, music history books/magazines (these aren't totally necessary as all research can be done online) and knowing the coolest virtual places to go for your info. Then collecting the correct files through your expertise of cool web navigation. Later you pick and choose from your downloads/files in your virtual record collection. Now you can do it overnight instead of years of gathering tid bits of esoterica to build the perfect record collection which your band can cut & paste into an amalgam of seemingly new soundz etc. (er...still thinking this through. I'll expand this another day when my brain is functioning in a less tired manner)

**This is a work/thought in progress.

Beaches - She Beats

When I write about an artist I usually try to evoke the sounds, ideas and feelings through words and not list influences. This is getting harder by the second particularly as we are now very late in the (rock) epoch.  I'm only a couple of listens in but I'm really diggin' She Beats. It's a guitar record. It's not really breaking any new ground but who is? My ears just love hearing those guitars and the melodies. They've definitely done stellar research*. Beaches belong the lineage of The Velvets/Stooges/Kraut/Hawkwind axis, the Paisley Underground, 80s Sydney Rock (The Church, Died Pretty) 80s into early 90s Flying Nun, Proto-Shoegaze (ie. Loop et al.) Shoegaze, 90s Kranky and  instrumental groups from the USA like Pell Mell & Cul-De-Sac and the more recent Yawning Man/Ten East. I have to say though with Beaches It feels more organic than that. This musical melting pot  has been brewing in their DNA for some time and can't help but ooze out of them when they plug in and play. As opposed to a group like Savages who seem to be mixing and matching influences like trying on clothes. IE. 'Does my Wire match my Siouxsie? Does my Banshee look big in this?'

Beaches still haven't captured the immensity of their live sound on tape and one wonders if they ever will. Someone should give them hundreds of thousands of dollars so they can create their very own Tusk or Starfish. They must be special if I'm willing to let a track like Granite Snake get past me as I swore a couple of years ago that if I heard another band being influenced by Neu (Neu are one of my all time favourite bands but does that mean every 2nd band should rip em off) I would smash the radio in. But Granite Snake blows my fucking mind, it's incredible  Who'd have thought we'd be listening to a band in 2013 that reminded us of Opal, The Pale Saints or the 3Ds? Possibly the best record of its ilk since Yawning Man's excellent Vista Point from 2007 (yeah yeah I know Vista Point is a compilation of records made in 2005, whatever).

Now I don't think this is real.

These guys seem to have taken the blogosphere by storm. Everywhere I look people are pointing me in their direction. More art man.

The Dadacomputer

Loving this cover.

I thought this was some kind of made up/prank reissue type of deal but no this is an obscure tape from Britain in 1981. The track I heard was not bad either sub-Cabaret Voltaire electronics. That cover is art man. That should be in a gallery and going for 3.4 million pounds at a Southerby's auction.

eMMplekz

I'm in 2012 now

Whilst waiting for the new Boards Of Canada & The focus Group LPs I find my self still engaged in 2012. It's nearly bloody May. What's going on? I missed the eMMplekz LP IZOD Days when it came out, not getting it till after Xmas. This could possibly have been my record of the year had I heard it before the festive season. I don't recall it in any end of year lists at all. IZOD Days is my most played record of 2013 by far. This album has given me a renewed interest in Mordant Music. I loved Dead Air which I see as the key wake for rave album. Dead Air is an endlessly listenable record. When Symptoms (the follow up to Dead Air) came out though I was Perplexed and thought they'd gone all rock, you know, with vocals and shit. On Dead Air there was a track Fallen Faces which was quite incongruous as it had vocals and rock like sounds. I thought why did they put that track on? When Symptoms was released I saw that that's where Mordant was heading. Symptoms was quickly turfed but now I want to hear it again along with any other Mordant Music releases that followed.

Ekoplekz, who can keep up with this guy? It's similar to James Ferraro 3 or 4 years ago when every time you'd turn around he would release a new tape or cdr. All the Ekoplekz material I've managed to track down is quality. Nick Edwards aka Ekoplekz is definitely an artist going through an unstoppable purple patch.

This collaboration between Baron Mordant & Nick Edwards is totally inspired! A musical match made (I was about to say heaven, but that's not quite right) in late capitalist dystopia. It's the perfect blend of both artists. They both shine equally. Usually in these projects one artist has more influence over the other or both collaborators sleepwalk through the recording. There's a track that I think might be a love song to an Automatic Teller Machine. Some of the language I don't quite understand. Is some of it made up? What the fuck is an IZOD Day? I hope this is not a one off performance but a continuing entity.

Beaches, Ooga Boogas...

Nothing much has been happening in 2013 and then all of a sudden there's an avalanche of releases. The new record She Beats from Beaches, the best live band in Melbourne, has been released today on Chapter Music. 3 guitarists no less. Hope they've captured their onstage magic in the studio on this their 2nd platter.

Then there's Ooga Boogas who I believe are a bunch of old Melbourne creeps. Don't let that cover fool you. Their Scuzzy debut Romance & Adventure from 2008 would be my favourite Australian rock record of The 21st century.

Both of these bands have not released new LPs since 2008 and both of those records were in my top 5 of that year. So here's hoping these are the shit! Is 2013 gonna happen after all? We'll see.

Paul Morley

We Can Only Aspire!

Reynolds at Blissblog hipped me to this article on The Stones at Glastonbury. Morley talks festivals, rebellion, baby boomers and the future. I loved this quote: 'Festivals are the rock generation's equivalent of cruises.' Read the best article written this year here at The Guardian website. Actually I've heard that there are real rock n roll cruises, you know for senior citizens with too much money, where they do their jiving or twists or whatever these foggies do. There has even been an indy one somewhere around Melbourne or Sydney I do believe.

'Mayday! a hipster has messed up his hair! Oh hang on
"is it meant to look like that? Oh."
False alarm crisis averted!'

Tommy Ugh!!!!

Tommy's gotta be the worst fucking shite I've ever seen (I'd never watched it till tonight)! Academy Award nominations?? Ken fuckin Russell! I know with his name attached I should have seen it coming. It makes me hate The Who. It makes me hate the 70s. It makes me wish Video/DVD had never been invented. Leonard Maltin's Movie Guide gives it 3 stars out of a possible 4, That's 7.5 out of ten, 75 %! More like minus 75% and that's being generous. It's so bad it's just fucking bad. More fuel for my argument that film is ultimately a failed art form. Ugh!!!

Boards Of Canada

This is comin out in June so maybe there will be two good records from 2013. Then again the big guns this year haven't really inspired ie. MBV, Broadcast, Jimmy Ferraro etc.

Loving that cover already. I could go on about BOC forever but so can most people and most people have and it is all on the interweb. A bit like the Triffids in the 80s people just love to bang on about them. So much so that it becomes cliche. Both groups are very evocative I guess. If I were Boards of Canada I'd almost be tempted to make the cover with the most digital and crass image I could find. Perhaps they're lulling us into a false sense of security with the art work and inside is the most angry hateful impenetrable shite you've ever heard. I'm tying to think, what is the opposite of Boards of Canada?

This could be their vaguest music to date.

The Focus Group New LP

Looking forward to this being released tomorrow. 2013 has got to have at least one good record!