Archive for the ‘Kathleen Hanna’ Category

Noiseweek: New Order, Kathleen Hanna, Chelsea Wolfe, KEN mode and more

Sunday, June 7th, 2015

The sights, sounds and words of the week in noise.

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Believe In A Land Of Love: New Order’s Low-Life 30 Years On | The Quietus

“Even as New Order were gearing up for a new phase in their career, the shadow cast by Joy Division still loomed large on the cultural landscape. Indeed, the bleakness of post-industrial Manchester that informed Joy Division’s music soon spread across the UK like a black, ominous cloud thanks to Margaret Thatcher’s administration. 1985 proved to be a watershed year. March 3rd saw the end of the year-long miners’ strike. The bitterest of British industrial disputes, the strike had seen communities torn apart and the increased levels of violence accompanying the dispute were broadcast with a sickening level of regularity on the TV news. Later in the year, both the Broadwater Farm estate in Tottenham and Toxteth in Liverpool were engulfed in terrifying riots. Sandwiched in between on May 29 was the Heysel Stadium disaster that saw 39 people crushed to death following crowd violence – an event that was broadcast live on national television and beamed into homes across the world. More than any other year, 1985 can be seen as the year that the lid was finally closed on the coffin of the optimism and liberalism that had been born in the 1960s. But not only that, the Conservative party jettisoned the idea of one-nation conservatism in favour of competition that led Thatcher to eventually declare that “…there is no such thing as society.””

I interviewed Mark Kozelek. He called me a ‘bitch’ on stage | The Guardian

“But in this life, Kozelek trades in sucker-punches. He impugns online “bitching and whining”, but hides behind one-way email exchanges, balks at the idea of his peers speaking about him and issues tirades (and sometimes, sexual advances) from the cowardly remove of the stage, with the get-out clause that it’s a performance. He can use sexually violent language to reduce female critics to the status of groupies, knowing that while male musicians’ misogynist acts are examined for nuance and defended as traits of “difficult” artists, women and those who call them out are treated as hysterics who don’t understand art. “The world don’t owe us shit, I learned that real fuckin’ young,” he sings on Universal Themes’ Little Rascals. If anything remains to separate Kozelek from his work, it’s that his music preaches that the least we owe one another is decency.”

Feeling Myself: Kathleen Hanna Get Back to Work | Pitchfork

“At the end of the Julie Ruin’s recent set at Barcelona’s Primavera Sound, frontwoman Kathleen Hanna makes for the wings, as if she’s about to let the rest of the band play out the final minutes. It seems like a strange end to her first performance on the continent in a decade, but it’s a feint: She suddenly turns, cartwheels back into the center of the stage, and lands in a perfect split. Within a few hours, a GIF of the moment is circulating online.
Not only is Hanna 46 years old (who among us can truly say they’ve ever been able to do that?), but this time last year, she was in bed, struck down again by a side-effect of Lyme disease. She’s been battling the chronic illness for years—her struggle can be seen up-close in the candid 2013 documentary The Punk Singer—and that latest relapse forced her to cancel what would have been the Julie Ruin’s debut European dates. “There was a period where I could barely do anything except paint watercolors in my journal,” she told me over the phone two weeks before the festival.”

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Chelsea Wolfe — Carrion Flowers

Our second taste of Chelsea Wolfe’s forthcoming record is perhaps her most ominous effort to date, replete with a menacing, digitized beat like something out of a disaster film’s trailer. Carrion Flowers is one of several tracks to feature Russian Circles’ Mike Sullivan on guitars, returning the favour from Wolfe’s guest vocal appearance on the closing track of Russian Circles’ Memorial. But here, Sullivan’s trademarks are all dialled back — instead, his guitar is barely distinguishable, woven seamlessly into the simple bit foreboding rhythms that dominate the track. Expect this to be a top contender for album of the year.

KEN mode — I Just Liked Fire

The final preview from Success is KEN mode’s most tributary. Between the rapid-fire industrial guitars, Jesse Matthewson’s rabid bile-spitting and the song’s relentless speed, the Canadian trio are more than comfortable exposing their Jesus Lizard influence, but they do it almost better than anyone else (because, let’s face it, about 90% of noise rock bands are trying to write Shot).

Failure — Mulholland Drive

Failure have a tremendous task ahead of them with The Heart is a Monster, their first album in almost two decades. 1996’s Fantastic Planet was almost perfect, and I’d argue that its final five tracks make up possibly the best 25 minutes of music released in the 1990s. Tracks like Mullholland Drive and the previously released Hot Traveler are interesting, but leave me unconvinced — is it worth diluting a tremendous albeit obscure legacy with a comeback record that’s just OK? Then again, Failure have always been an album band, best enjoyed in large doses; Frogs and Macaque and Blank work so much better when placed in the ebb and flow of a 40-minute collection. Mulholland Drive retreads that familiar Failure territory of low-key balladry that’s steadily transforms with powerful guitars, staccato piano chords, unexpected melodic turns and distant atmospheres. And it’s good, but is it good enough?

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Chill out with a 20-minute studio set from dream-pop trio Dianas on the latest installment of RTRFM’s The View From Here.

Noiseweek: GWAR, Minsk, holograms, Pallbearer, Nirvana tributes and more

Friday, April 10th, 2015

The sights, sounds and words of the week in noise.

NEWS

CNN is reporting that the surviving members of GWAR are being sued by the father of late frontman Oderus Urungus — AKA Dave Brockie — William Brockie, for allegedly holding onto Brockie junior’s remains, music equipment and artwork. Brockie senior is seeking $1 million in damages as well as the return of his son’s ashes and belongings, which are reportedly kept locked at the band’s Slave Pit headquarters in Richmond, Virginia. Both parties remain uncertain on the status of the Cuttlefish of Cthulu, but sources say it remains in the possession of authorities in Charlotte, North Carolina.

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Boston Mayor Marty Walsh earned himself some serious punk cred this week with the proclamation that April 9 is now Riot Grrrl day in honour of Kathleen Hanna’s performance in the city on that night. Walsh’s Chief of Policy, Joyce Lineham, has known Hanna for the better part of two decades and used to host her when Hanna’s bands would come through town. The proclamation is adapted from Hanna’s Riot Grrrl Manifesto and includes the following passage: “The riot grrrl philosophy has never felt more relevant, with misogyny still rampant in many cultural spaces;” and “Riot grrrls redefine the language used against them and continue to fight the newest incarnations of patriarchy. In doing so, they ironically confirm one ex-congressman’s accidental wisdom: ‘the female body has ways to try to shut that down.’ It sure does: women’s voices telling their stories can shut that down.”

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In news straight out of a Phllip K. Dick dystopia, late Tejano popstar Selena Quintanilla will be next to receive the hologram treatment already bestowed to the likes of Tupac and Elvis. With the blessing of her family, tech company Achrovirt LLC will begin working on a of Quintanilla pending the success of a soon-to-be-launched $500,000 crowdfunding campaign on IndieGoGo. Jesus.

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How London’s NTS is helping redefine live radio | The Guardian

“If video killed the radio star, then digital streaming is dancing on its grave. Spotify and the like have redefined listening habits but they’ve also driven (mainly young) listeners away from the human interaction the FM dial offers, towards endless playlists interrupted by infuriatingly upbeat adverts about clearing hotlines. An Ofcom report last year found that Brits under 25 dedicate a measly 24% of “listening time” to traditional radio. But you can’t call up Mixcloud for a shout-out when you’re bombing up the M6 for a night out at the Warehouse Project, and that’s where east London’s NTS Radio offers a middle ground.

The station, which turns four this week, positions itself somewhere between BBC 6 Music’s diversity and pirate radio’s DIY spirit; and, like Rinse FM before it, it’s a combination that’s helping to lure music fans back to radio. It’s part of a global network of new, hyperlocal internet stations, including Soho Radio in London, Berlin Community Radio, and Know Wave in NYC, who offer idiosyncratic music selections throughout the day, and not just limited to twilight slots. Some sets come from established DJs such as Andrew Weatherall and Caribou; others, if you happen to live in Hackney where NTS’s shopfront studio is based, quite literally from the girls next door.”

How can we change the face of power in the music industry? | The Fader

“Perhaps part of the problem is the static nature of the business, but that’s not to say there aren’t also unique challenges that face women on the corporate ladder. In an innocuous quote in the Billboard Power 100 issue that hints at a deeper problem, executive VP of Capitol Music Group Michelle Jubelirer describes the moment a male employee introduced her to Mick Jagger as his boss. “I don’t think Mick believed him,” she said. Sexist attitudes in business are deeply ingrained, and will likely take a long time to change. This was famously illustrated when a Harvard business professor changed the name of Silicon Valley exec and SkinnySongs CEO Heidi Roizen to “Howard Roizen” in half of the case studies about her that he gave to his students. The professor measured his students’ responses to the study, and found that the majority would rather work for “Howard” than for Heidi, despite their two profiles being totally identical. Students described having an impression of Heidi as being more power-hungry and harsh than “Howard”; the more she asserted herself, the less they liked her.”

Immaculate Self-Conception | Pitchfork

“When it comes to portraying women, music media buys into the ideas of glamour just as much as the fashion industry, and Instagram feels like an opportunity to supercede the romantic manipulation of photo-doctoring. Airbrushing remains one of the few lies in the commercial economy that’s allowed to remain unchecked even after the public is made aware of their own deception. By that I mean this: When a product doesn’t perform as advertised, it is taken off the market; when an academic misrepresents his research, he is stripped of his title; when a media icon lies about a simple detail of his personal experience, he is suspended without pay. In music, the misrepresentation inherent to altering the female image is an accepted cultural norm despite the fact that in most other instances when people, commodities, or ideas have been publicly misrepresented, there are penalties. We are sold the myth of what women in entertainment are supposed to look like every day, and the fact remains that no one has ever revoked an advertisement or magazine cover because it physically misrepresented a (perfected) female icon. Airbrushing is designed to flatter and romanticize reality—but it’s also an act of deception, however benign.

As a contrast, the impulsive, documentary-quality of Instagram makes it feel like the only corner of the Internet where women can choose how they are portrayed; they can flatter the male gaze or subvert it. An interesting dimension of fame is that female musicians are in the unique position of having access to photos that other people of take of them; as such, their choosing to include photos from the press alongside, say, selfies with their dogs represents a new, highly-tailored way to curate their image. It says something about what women want to add to their own narrative every time a distinction is made between what does and does not get shared.”

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Minsk — The Crash and the Draw

This might be the heaviest record of the quarter-year. After six years dormant, the fourth LP from the post-metal outfit (who share a hometown with the late, great Richard Pryor) is quite possibly the best marriage of atmospherics and brutality I’ve heard since the disbandment of ISIS. The first side of this record is ugly, but Minsk are not a group of one-trick ponies; the nine-minute The Way is Through recalls the transcendent moments of Panopticon as the masculine veneer of vocalist Tim Meed recedes, revealing a beautiful vulnerability beneath the bravado, before the rage comes again in the climax. Utterly entrancing.

Solkyri — Sad Boys Club

Solkyri imbue their music with the kind of energy post-rock bands need: a vitality that breathes life and kinetic momentum into the often stale and static aesthetic. This is uplifting stuff, recalling sleepmakeswaves and And So I Watch You From Afar while remaining firmly grounded in a dynamic riffing and compelling songwriting. Expect nothing but big things from this Sydney quartet.

Nothing — Something in the Way

This second cut from the forthcoming tribute to Nirvana’s Nevermind shows Nothing at their most subtle and subdued, substituting their usual reverb pedals and tremolo picking for distant synthetic whines, whispered words and an utterly depressing piano track. The tribute’s out on April 18 through Robotic Empire — who also released an In Utero tribute this time last year — and features covers from Boris, Young Widows, Pygmy Lush and Thou.

Golden Bats — 7?

Cvlt Nation premiered this harrowing offering from our Brisbane friends Golden Bats. It’s an ugly pair of tracks, but Golden Bats aren’t looking for a prom date, so revel in the filthy Iommic dirge and unbridled dread before the 7? drops on April 18 for Record Store Day.

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Pallbearer — Watcher in the Dark

Some eight months after the release of their sophomore epic Foundations of Burden, Little Rock quartet Pallbearer have unveiled their first ever music video, the 10-minute “Watcher in the Dark.” There are some stunning landscape shots here of what I am guessing are the Ozark Mountains in their homestate of Arkansas, alongside a slew of tripped-out galactic and alien visuals that recall Duke Nukem 3D. Killer.

Lightning Bolt — The Metal East

Speaking of tripped-out, Lightning Bolt’s first clip for their new album might just be the most messed up music video of the year. Part mid-90s side-scroller, part Ren and Stimpy, part space cartoon bad trip and perfect for the frenetic madness that is Lightning Bolt.