Up until now, I haven't used this blog for scene reports, figuring Toonwaves.co.uk does that pretty well anyhow, but I'm going to look to pitch in now and again with some reccomendations.
Anyone that was at the Okkervil River gig in November of 2007 will have seen South Shields' Minotaurs providing the opening support slot.
To the best of my know how, (and I've been a scene exile for a year), the band haven't played all the much in the interem period. Here's why: they've been working on putting together Eat Yr Hate, their long anticipated debut record.
The band are shipping 500 copies of the LP, and you can order it at: http://minotaurs.bandcamp.com/
Here's some words:
"Originally birthing in 2006, South Shields sextet Minotaurs have been all too quiet for the past year or so. Luckily the bulk of that time has been spent writing, honing and recording their long-awaited debut album 'Eat yr Hate' in deepest Northumberland with Woodpigeon producer, Arran Fisher. Giving weight to their choice of name, as performances by the band became less frequent their mythology seemed to grow. A live performance being treat with a similar reverence as the sniffing out of a truffle. In 2007 The Guardian writer, Laura Barton, dedicated an entire column to the band after stumbling upon them on a whim and its only recently they've thankfully started gigging again. Supporting Twilight Sad in October.
Despite being preoccupied by the darker side of human nature, Minotaurs are far from cynical gloom peddlers. Their music is loaded with two things rare in contemporary British guitar music; sincerity and substance. They find the lust behind sentiment, the worm in the apple, shards of glass in the glitter and make lifes ugly truths both beautiful and haunting. Old Hollywood images of red-dress clad women being carried into the sun are contrasted with the uncomfortable reality of relationships red in tooth and claw. Intricate arrangements and striking melodies take the edge away from lyrics dealing with loss, co-dependence, the stifling and occasionally recuperative nature of home.
Each song on 'Eat Yr Hate' is like a contemporary ghost story loaded with snapshots of regret, stagnation and missed opportunity but amongst there lies one important quality, hope. That hope is achieved through escapism and tenderness. While Sarah's pitch-perfect vocals soar, Andrew's crack and falter striking a heartbreaking dichotomy. While Belle and Sebastian, Fairport Convention and even Prefrab Sprout have been used as reference points Minotaurs are that rare thing; a band that sound more like themselves than anyone else. In an age dominated by cynicism, careerism, imitation and artifice they're something to cling to."
Andrew Richardson, January 2010
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
THE SLITS: Trapped Animal Biog
Please credit the below to Vivien Goldman.
This truly her-storical album marks the return to the studio of the Slits, London's original wild girls of punk. Yes, call it a major comeback, because on "Trapped Animal" the core Slits possee of dynamo singer Arri-Up and bassie Tessa Pollitt, now grown women, join forces with a new generation of junior Slits, Hollie Cook, singer/keyboard player, drummer Anna Schultz, guitarist Adele Wilson and part-time Slit, Ana Ozawa to form what Arri describes on 'Reggae Gypsy' as "a tribal warrior princess, gathering a tribe of tribal woman warriors, breaking down the barriers..."
Three decades after their raucous birth, the Slits are the undisputed godmothers of every feisty female from Madonna to the riot grrrrls, Pink and Lily Allen. Witty and provocative, the glory of Trapped Animal proves what the faithful always believed -- the Slits are the real deal and the "Trapped Animal" is all of us.
Steered by dubmaster Adrian Sherwood, the Slits' sound voyages into a free zone of extravagant texture and timing. In this sonically splendiferous, cinematic soundscape, the Slits' dub-based beat both defines punk and transcends it. Mind-bending dub sections illuminate tracks like 'Babylon,' a deep roots steppers track, the album's only cover, which puts our cynical system in its place. Most of the tracks are composed by the legendary dreadlock'd Arri-Up, who famously co-founded the band in 1976 when she was fourteen years old.
"All my life I have felt trapped, fighting for my freedom," says Arri. After the Slits went their separate ways in the early 1980s, she went to live among the tribes in the jungle in Borneo -- just as their ancestral hunting grounds were being seized. "They were amazing free spirit people," she recalls. Her next incarnation was as a dancehall queen in the Kingston, Jamaica ghetto, re-named Madusa. Arri's urge for liberation courses throughout 'Trapped Animal,' blasting an uncut view of human relationships so frank it's startling. Lyrically, 'Trapped Animal' is a savagely realistic, fiercely funny testament to everything these women have learned since their stormy saga began. Compulsive and insanely catchy, the group's wicked grooves march head on into serious topics like 'Issues,' about how people deal with abuse, and healing anti-love songs like 'Ask Ma' and 'Partner From Hell.' Though Arri might seem to sing to a man, as she says, the ideas can apply to either gender: "If abuse is going on, let's not say it's just down to either man or woman." For happier gender delight, Arri also supplies the tongue-in-cheeky eroticism of 'Lazy Slam,' one of the best ever evocations of how females really feel about sex.
One of the most exciting aspects of the record is the stubborn continuity, the way these women were compelled to continue their artistic explorations -- and how their tribe of "musical prophets" has grown. Bassie Tessa Pollitt traveled the deserts of Sudan and became a judo instructor in her time out from the Slits. She says of their re-formation, "I couldn't think of the Slits without Arri. And Hollie (whose parents are Paul Cook, Sex Pistols' drummer and Jennie, singer of Two Tone band, the Belle Stars,) is like the baby of the Slits and the Pistols. Reggae is in her blood." Pollitt's own eerie, film noir songs 'Can't Relate' and 'Had A Day' with their jazzy echoes of Kurt Weill's Berlin cabaret operettas, add a dark neo-emo gothic feel perfect for our disjointed times.
The positive energy generated by the Slits changed everything for the band's youngest new member, Hollie Cook. After experiencing disillusion in her previous flirtations with the music business, Hollie says, "I had no confidence to write songs. Really, the Slits liberated me." The sweet lover's rock of 'Cry Baby' is Hollie's first song and it makes you want more. And Anna Ozama, a part-time Slit, contributes a plaintive track in Japanese, 'Be It,' ensuring that the Slits live up to their "outernational" promise.
When the band began, radio DJ's refused to say their name on the air. When the Slits performed on the White Riot tour in 1977 with their cohorts, the Sex Pistols and the Clash, the bus driver had to be bribed to carry these crazy chicks. "Outcasts of the outcasts, with horizons so vast" is how Arri describes their relationship to society, let alone the pop world, on 'Reggae Gypsy' a dancehall flamenco statement of identity and intent that is in many ways the soul of this record. The bouncy ska of 'Peer Pressure' details Arri's alienation even when she was at school.
The Slits released three albums, the seminal CUT (produced by Dennis Bovell, it's one of just fifty albums from their vast catalog to be re-issued by Island/Universal as part of the Island 50th Anniversary tribute,) as well as the 'Return of the Giant Slits', with its jazzier post-punk feel, the much-loved live sessions from Britain's progressive John Peel radio show. Some tracks were also released on the indie label, Rough Trade. For all their originality and large cultural influence and contribution, the Slits have always remained proud outsiders, underground rebels with an attitude that now looks to be eternal. But there had never been anything like the Slits before, and their energy was an eruption of fresh invention, fuelled by the sort of struggle they sing about with such assurance in 'Pay Rent.' The Slits' youthful flourish attains full fruition on Trapped Animal's astounding cycle of songs. On the powerful surge of 'Can't Relate,' Arri's keening vocal says it right: "It's a Slits virus... infectious, infectious, infectious..."
This truly her-storical album marks the return to the studio of the Slits, London's original wild girls of punk. Yes, call it a major comeback, because on "Trapped Animal" the core Slits possee of dynamo singer Arri-Up and bassie Tessa Pollitt, now grown women, join forces with a new generation of junior Slits, Hollie Cook, singer/keyboard player, drummer Anna Schultz, guitarist Adele Wilson and part-time Slit, Ana Ozawa to form what Arri describes on 'Reggae Gypsy' as "a tribal warrior princess, gathering a tribe of tribal woman warriors, breaking down the barriers..."
Three decades after their raucous birth, the Slits are the undisputed godmothers of every feisty female from Madonna to the riot grrrrls, Pink and Lily Allen. Witty and provocative, the glory of Trapped Animal proves what the faithful always believed -- the Slits are the real deal and the "Trapped Animal" is all of us.
Steered by dubmaster Adrian Sherwood, the Slits' sound voyages into a free zone of extravagant texture and timing. In this sonically splendiferous, cinematic soundscape, the Slits' dub-based beat both defines punk and transcends it. Mind-bending dub sections illuminate tracks like 'Babylon,' a deep roots steppers track, the album's only cover, which puts our cynical system in its place. Most of the tracks are composed by the legendary dreadlock'd Arri-Up, who famously co-founded the band in 1976 when she was fourteen years old.
"All my life I have felt trapped, fighting for my freedom," says Arri. After the Slits went their separate ways in the early 1980s, she went to live among the tribes in the jungle in Borneo -- just as their ancestral hunting grounds were being seized. "They were amazing free spirit people," she recalls. Her next incarnation was as a dancehall queen in the Kingston, Jamaica ghetto, re-named Madusa. Arri's urge for liberation courses throughout 'Trapped Animal,' blasting an uncut view of human relationships so frank it's startling. Lyrically, 'Trapped Animal' is a savagely realistic, fiercely funny testament to everything these women have learned since their stormy saga began. Compulsive and insanely catchy, the group's wicked grooves march head on into serious topics like 'Issues,' about how people deal with abuse, and healing anti-love songs like 'Ask Ma' and 'Partner From Hell.' Though Arri might seem to sing to a man, as she says, the ideas can apply to either gender: "If abuse is going on, let's not say it's just down to either man or woman." For happier gender delight, Arri also supplies the tongue-in-cheeky eroticism of 'Lazy Slam,' one of the best ever evocations of how females really feel about sex.
One of the most exciting aspects of the record is the stubborn continuity, the way these women were compelled to continue their artistic explorations -- and how their tribe of "musical prophets" has grown. Bassie Tessa Pollitt traveled the deserts of Sudan and became a judo instructor in her time out from the Slits. She says of their re-formation, "I couldn't think of the Slits without Arri. And Hollie (whose parents are Paul Cook, Sex Pistols' drummer and Jennie, singer of Two Tone band, the Belle Stars,) is like the baby of the Slits and the Pistols. Reggae is in her blood." Pollitt's own eerie, film noir songs 'Can't Relate' and 'Had A Day' with their jazzy echoes of Kurt Weill's Berlin cabaret operettas, add a dark neo-emo gothic feel perfect for our disjointed times.
The positive energy generated by the Slits changed everything for the band's youngest new member, Hollie Cook. After experiencing disillusion in her previous flirtations with the music business, Hollie says, "I had no confidence to write songs. Really, the Slits liberated me." The sweet lover's rock of 'Cry Baby' is Hollie's first song and it makes you want more. And Anna Ozama, a part-time Slit, contributes a plaintive track in Japanese, 'Be It,' ensuring that the Slits live up to their "outernational" promise.
When the band began, radio DJ's refused to say their name on the air. When the Slits performed on the White Riot tour in 1977 with their cohorts, the Sex Pistols and the Clash, the bus driver had to be bribed to carry these crazy chicks. "Outcasts of the outcasts, with horizons so vast" is how Arri describes their relationship to society, let alone the pop world, on 'Reggae Gypsy' a dancehall flamenco statement of identity and intent that is in many ways the soul of this record. The bouncy ska of 'Peer Pressure' details Arri's alienation even when she was at school.
The Slits released three albums, the seminal CUT (produced by Dennis Bovell, it's one of just fifty albums from their vast catalog to be re-issued by Island/Universal as part of the Island 50th Anniversary tribute,) as well as the 'Return of the Giant Slits', with its jazzier post-punk feel, the much-loved live sessions from Britain's progressive John Peel radio show. Some tracks were also released on the indie label, Rough Trade. For all their originality and large cultural influence and contribution, the Slits have always remained proud outsiders, underground rebels with an attitude that now looks to be eternal. But there had never been anything like the Slits before, and their energy was an eruption of fresh invention, fuelled by the sort of struggle they sing about with such assurance in 'Pay Rent.' The Slits' youthful flourish attains full fruition on Trapped Animal's astounding cycle of songs. On the powerful surge of 'Can't Relate,' Arri's keening vocal says it right: "It's a Slits virus... infectious, infectious, infectious..."
THE SLITS @ Star And Shadow Cinema, Saturday May 8th.
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The Slits bring their unique brand of punk/ethno/reggae boundary teasing, pigeonhole evading, rawk to the star and shadow, saturday 8th May.
Hear snippets of Cut, the band's massively influential, seminal, landmark etc. album wherein they wed grrl pnk attitude, razor blade wit, slash-punk chords and wonderfully counter intuitive, off-kilter vocal harmony to dub, dance reggae and drum beats pilfered from south of the equator. Also hear Trapped Animal, the band's first record in 25 years, which revamped and reinstated their approach to rock music on its release october 2009.
hear them on myspace:
www.myspace.com/theslits
PHOTOGRAPHS
CLICK HERE FOR HI-RES PHOTOS OF THE SLITS
TICKETS
Tickets are £13.50 advance,available at RPM
or CLICK HERE FOR TICKETS TO SEE THE SLITS IN NEWCASTLE:
SUPPORTS:
Retriever
www.myspace.com/retrieverretriever
and One Night Stand In North Dakota
www.myspace.com/onenightstandinnorthdakota
plus permanent vibes djs.
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