Nietszche: only sick music makes money these days

For those that reside in the North West region of the UK, and in particular Manchester, this weekend offers 2 particularly exciting musical happenings which you'd do well to make the acquaintance of:

Firstly, I'm DJ'ing this Friday for the Stay Sick night at Big Hands. Expect nothing less than a riotous night soundtracked by No Wave, Nu-Beat, Punk, Psych, Electro and, if rumours are to be believed, Grime...

Secondly:

Saturday see's the ace Math Not Math band Instruments play at Saki Bar in Rusholme. See my review of their Silver Rocket show last year for a taste of what to expect, they've been tipped thus by no less an authority than Drowned in Sound: "Don’t be surprised if they’re as recommended by the critics as Johnny Foreigner and Los Campesinos! in 2008".
Cant say fairer than that can you really?

Video: Instruments - American Football or American Football

Banjo or Freakout?

For me 2007 will be remembered as a year where most the bands, albums etc were no way near as good as anyone said they were. Luckily, via These New Puritans, Foals, The Kills and now the emerging Banjo or Freakout 2008 seems to be staring on a more positive note.
Banjo or Freakout make music that sounds like how Animal Collectives 'Strawberry Jam' LP might have if it wasn't just a couple of ok singles padded out with snoozeworthy us-alt indie on autopilot.
As far as I can tell it's just a one man band thing at the moment, but I can see that expanding as the demand for live shows inevitably gathers momentum.
Alessio Natalizia, the man behind the moniker keeps a blog here where you can download loads of cool Banjo or Freak Out stuff for free; personally id recommend you start with the excellent Mr No track, which is below.

Banjo or Freakout - Mr No Mp3

Cool kids of today, please try harder.

Fuck The Sonics and The Kingsmen, The Badseeds (as in the original ones, not Nick Cave's lackeys) were the greatest garage band of the sixties, if only on the strength of their 'Taste of The Same' track below.



The Badseeds - Taste of The Same mp3

Cant get enough of James Chance and The Contortions at the moment, they sound a little like simultaneously playing Miles Davis, DNA and James Brown (no disrespect to the dead but this clip is hilarious) records out of time yet in a state of perfect synchronicity. Dischordant, avant jazz, no wave anti-funk is where it's at:

Benga and Coki 'Night'

Radio 1 is all over Benga and Coki's dubstep anthem 'Night' right now; it's pretty odd hearing that familiar synth line popping up between the latest straight to ringtone fodder from Scouting for Girls, Girls Aloud et al. Usually it's greeted with confused expressions and mutterings along the lines of 'I don't like this kind of music...' by the women who work in my office. Make of that what you will...

Heres the video, probably one of the worst examples of sub-stoner CGI I've laid eyes on in a while...



Accompanying comments like 'lol, blatant piss take, as if this would be an official video.' pretty much sum up how depressing this is. It looks like a screen saver.

I was kind of hoping that the full release would feature a vocal from Skepta since he's been so instrumental in raising the tunes profile outside of the dubstep scene. The footage below from his album launch in October gets across everything that a floating giant squid simply can't about why 'Night' was such a special tune in the first place (see 1 min 45).

XX Teens 'How To Reduce Your Chances Of becoming A Terror Victim' Video

BTW did I miss something or have XX Teens had a line up change without telling anyone?
They recorded a BBC 6 Session for Mark Riley last night, the fruits of which are on their myspace now...

But I still get high off material things

With a vocal delivery somewhere between Lady Sovereign and mid-nineties proto WAG's Vanilla (they of late 90's non-hit 'no way, no way' fame) it's safe to say GoldieLocks music is something of an acquired taste. Personally, I like her, but then maybe I'm biased; as a Croydon lass she's from 'my ends' innit. You don't seem to be able to move these days for female solo acts born in the mid eighties, but GoldieLocks is packing way more talent than your average Mini Allen; although best known for her distinctive vocal style she's actually a producer at heart and only picked up the mic in the first place to finish her tracks for a college assignment. So far she's blessed grime acts such as Frisco and Tinchy Stryder with her beats as well as more mainstream names like Kate Nash and Mutya Buena. She's been kind enough to put some of her older stuff up for download here, should you wish to investigate further, or if your on some long ting just download the excellent 'Social Suicide' below.

GoldieLocks - Social Suicide mp3

The Kills 'Cheap and Cheerful' video

Who'd have thought it? After two albums of retrogressive metronomic robot-blues the Kills have reinvented themselves as beat-savvy pop futurists. Their forthcoming 3rd album is looking like a very tasty proposition indeed (Kate Moss appearances pending)...