The sights, sounds and words of the week in noise.
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How John Peel created our musical world | The Guardian
“Eleven years after his death, Peel still hovers above our record collections, silently guiding the opinions and judgments of the generations who grew up listening to him. When Brian Eno gives the BBC Music John Peel lecture at the British Library on 27 September, he’ll doubtless begin by citing the importance of Peel in his own life. It would be good to hear him talk about The Perfumed Garden, Peel’s psychedelic fantasia on the late-night airwaves of the pirate station Radio London, where teenagers in 1967 were introduced to the avant-garde sounds of the Velvet Underground and the Mothers of Invention. Eno will surely mention Roxy Music’s session for the strangely named Friday Night Is Boogie Night in January 1972 – it was their radio debut – which Peel offered them before they had a manager, a record deal or more than a handful of fans. And if Eno’s speech flags a little and he needs a laugh from the audience, all he has to do is recall the night in December 1973 when Peel played a reel-to-reel tape of the new Fripp & Eno album (No Pussyfooting), backwards without noticing. All 39 minutes of it.”
Ed Rodriguez (Deerhoof) Talks the Whole Illegal Downloading Thing | The Talkhouse
“If you’re like me, you feel powerless sometimes. The world seems out of control. But we have more control than we know. A sad truth is that you wield a lot of power with your bank account, no matter how modest it is. Spending money on what actually means something to you not only helps those who are making it, it lets the whole system know your vote. There have been times when, for brief moments, record companies stopped trying to tell people what they should like and instead began scrambling to give the public what it actually wanted. For instance, no one thought the world would freak out and embrace Nirvana like we did, so for a time, record executives were unsure of what was happening, and they were signing everyone who was “alternative,” hoping to find the next big thing.”
LISTEN
Space Bong — Slow Spring
Adelaide’s drabbest take things very, very slow on the first cut from the forthcoming Deadwood To Worms. And why wouldn’t they — Space Bong are the kind of band whose music unfurls itself like a snake shedding its skin — by the end, a fresh beast has emerged. That reptilian theme carries through to this song’s frankly evil vocal deliveries, which, for those heavily reverbed segments, sound as if they’re being screamed from an isolation cell. Yes, this is doom at its most dark and dreadful, just the way we like it. Deadwood To Worms is out October 13 through Art As Catharsis.
Erasers — Stem Together
There’s a ritualistic quality to Erasers’ new record, the way each element of percussion and melody emerges, surges and returns. It sounds almost generative, this strange mix of the synthetic and the organic, and it’s lifted up by Rebecca Orchard’s ghostly, heavily-reverbed incantations which seem to exist simultaneously apart from and woven into the fabric of songs like“Leaves” and “By Your Side”. Stem Together is available now through Pouring Dream.
WATCH
KEN mode — These Tight Jeans
Jesse Matthewson steps into the ring for the first video from KEN mode’s killer Success. These Tight Jeans is probably the most unusual cut from the trio’s noise rock reinvention. Matthewson’s done some legitimate MMA sparring, and this clip cuts between throwing fists and shouting the song’s rally cries with the song’s guest vocalist Jill Clapham. It’s a welcome way of injecting one of the year’s best sleeper records back into the limelight. If METZ can be a huge deal, there’s no reason these Canadian neighbours can’t achieve the same dizzying heights.
Brian Eno explores John Peel’s record collection
That previous John Peel article was published in the leadup to the BBC Music John Peel lecture, to be delivered by Brian Eno at the British Library later today. Below is another short piece from the BBC, where Eno explores Peel’s record collection, reflecting on how revolutionary Peel’s championing of The Velvet Underground was, as well as the time Peel played Eno & Fripp’s record No Pussyfooting, backwards, without noticing.
