Roland X reviews the pile of stuff that has been growing by the door in no particular order.
Cup of tea… ready. Daytime television in the background… muted. Curtains closed. Ok *Deep Breath* and we begin…
Three Blind Wolves hail from Glasgow. I saw them perform a cracking show at The Hop in Wakefield a little while back. I have before me their ‘Echo on the Night Train’ single. It’s pretty classy songwriting via the route of acceptable Americana influenced folk pop, benefiting from a nicely polished production favouring a deep guttering guitar sound. The harmonised ‘whoa’s’ are where the song steps into slightly predictable territory perhaps, but the band tread a line between good time rockin’ and more cerebral elements well. B-Side Honey Fire is a little more reserved but looser too, a confidence of a band of much greater years. The reverb heavy guitars give way to an unusual and engaging structure of euphoria and melancholy that reveals a sharp set of brains behind it all. Basically these are some damn fine talented fella’s. With the right song they could go a long way; there’s enough here to make me want to hear more and keep my fingers crossed they find it.
Bearsuit – I keep seeing that name everywhere. But what the hell are they like? I have a bit of a problem with bands with an animal in their name. Seems an easy, unimaganitive cheap Indie trick. But a bear SUIT? …an intentional inversion of this? A Radiohead reference?
Wrong wrong wrong. It’s Techno Ladytron. ‘When will I be Queen?’ reminds me instantly of ‘Bad to have a Bad Uncle’ from Nathan Barley. Perhaps that’s just this song ‘I have bad thoughts, I have bad thoughts – no inner monologue’. Seems to be attempting the detatched ice cool of aforementioned Ladytron but… doesn’t. It’s caught between the two era’s of Ladytron too, albeit unintentionally. A mix of the early, retro future style and the wall of sound MBV synths they employ now. But it’s curiously empty, just rammed with annoying half hooks. Sorry, cant vibe off this. And the remix as a B-Side isn’t going to help, despite being far more interesting.
Counting Coins’ Take The Ride EP is an instant change of pace / style etc. The kind of Ska / Punk I haven’t listened to for a lot of years. Opener ‘Not Enough Heroes (Too Much Heroin)’ is designed to be catchy and anthemic, and does its job in a style typical of its influence. Second track ‘Loose Change’ is something a little different and characterful; laid back chanting (yes…) and an upbeat pop vibe, with some sweet Sublime style sing-rap. It’s the best Ska Punk I’ve heard in a very long time, and Counting Coins can have that for the poster, but the truth is, it’s a long time since I’ve actually listened to some. From this EP I would gather the scene is thriving and vibrant, yet very similar to the last time I was there. It’s good time stuff. And Counting Coins seem to do well with an upbeat, passionate take on it. And obviously they’ll be great live. I guess you don’t expect a band like Counting Coins to reinvent the wheel, and here they don’t, but they do what they do very well and the variation and invention on this EP is impressive.
Never Kill A Secret EP by The Primitives instantly lights up my marathon reviewing session. They have a quaint, super pop sound, somewhere around The Delgados performing obscure C86 covers. There’s a cool swagger that matches the artwork here too, the simple Blue / Red / White design and title suggesting some lost 60’s spy caper starring the band. They should do it. It’d be ace, if the music is owt to go by. Effortless and classic, it has the 1960’s and 1980’s references (Motown drums, sweet dreamy female vocals) but also a charm all of its own. A real pleasant surprise.
Moody Gowns give themselves a real fighting chance before the CD hits the deck by packaging it in a homemade sleeve with lots of nice pictures, doodles and words. I like that. All you in bands should do that. If you send a marker penned CD you are already fighting an uphill battle. Do SOMETHING. And if you can’t, get a friend to, Jesus.
Reviewing ‘Sincerely Yours’ is a little harder though. It’s hard to categorise certainly. Ambitious. Odd. Infectious. The opening seconds remind me of ‘Frontier Psychiatry’ with its ghost like groans. And then… breaks down into some smart deconstructed idiosyncratic pop… thing. It’s bouncy, energetic; melodies reverberating around your brain with little regard for the effect it’s having on your mental health. It gets less direct as it goes on, mutating into a more jazz influenced beast as it progresses over its 4 tracks. I like it. I don’t know how else to describe them. It’s pushing things. The band do a great job and creating a swirling backdrop to singer Nathan Moseley’s groaning plea’s in many a diverse manner. Just go have a listen will you.
Mr Gary C presents his single ‘A Little Bit Easier’ and brings with it another bugbear of mine – the ‘collage’ front cover which features the singer / band in a room AND LOOK! There’s stuff all over that ‘subtley’ hints at the influences. It’s so fucking lazy and unimaginative. Can’t think of an art concept? Just stick loads of your crap around and it’ll make the music seem thought out and deeper. Gary C does takes this limited context somewhere by sitting outside in a park. But look over there, an old record player, a Sinatra magazine, a Victoria sponge. Worst of all is the back cover, Mr Gary C looking serious, sat on a Scooter. Credits: ‘Lambretta Supplied by Evolution Scooters’ – it’s not even his!
Oh wait, there’s a CD in here too. 3 tracks of lightweight inoffensive pop. It a professional production certainly, well mixed with varied instrumentation. The backing band is solid. It’s just the songwriting that isn’t. I wish I hadn’t lost the press release because it had a whole list of things Mr Gary C has done in the past, including, if I recall correctly, having one of his songs ‘heard by the man who decides the music for James Bond films’. Which means what exactly…? Not exactly Moonraker is it? More like Barrelscraper. Sorry to divulge again, but there’s really not much to say here. It’s easy listening, and listening to it in the background is certainly the easiest, and possibly the best way to go about things.
Howard James Kenny – Insects. 1 track promo here for the single and from an album to be released in April. I like that. No messing. All or nothing on the one track. An understated, gently sweeping choir swirls over a meandering, picked guitar, with Mr Kenny coming over like Guy Garvey’s slightly more awake younger brother. It really should get going about the 2 and a half minute mark… but doesn’t. Maybe that would be too obvious. There’s not quite enough here for me to know what Howard James Kenny is about really. But I did play it round a few times in a row. Damn it, all the bands who overfill their demos and promos and all I get here is one track. I want more! Keep an eye out for this one.
The Stripper Project – terrible name – give us ‘Beautiful Life’ – a standard title. On a marker penned CD. Oh well, here we go then…
This is probably the kind of thing I would usually object to, but you know what, I must be in a good mood after Howard James Kenny, because it’s not half bad. First track ‘The Back of the Cemetry’ has a Killers feel, with that U2 ripped riff and OTT synths. The lyrics also have that ‘influenced by Morrisey’ feel – they aren’t LIKE Morriseys lyrics, just influenced (i.e. similar, worn to death themes tackled in an aloof, occasionally touching way, yet all too calculated). But it’s all done pretty well. The 80’s electro influences come to the fore on ‘Wondergirl’. It’s pretty cool in a lo-fi Kraftwerk kinda way and shows they aren’t afraid to try different things. There’s a battle between taking things very commercial and adding in awkward, challenging sections. Which is fine and admirable, in a way.
I’ve got a whole album of this here, and my interest is pretty much kept throughout due to their skill with the hooks, the POP. There’s variation and imagination in the songwriting to suggest great things ARE possible. Its not often I will say it, but this band really need to be MORE produced. You can hear all the ideas they, or the producer, have had, but it doesn’t have the epic, widescreen feel that it needs to work. But the foundations are there and you can’t ask more than that for a bands first release. It’s inconsistent, but with a charm to it, and I think this album will be more important to the band than anyone who buys it. They’ve created a set of songs, but what now? Go for Commercial Success or be interesting? Age old question, with only one answer, really.
Right-on. Buffalo Bones release the Hell To Skeleton EP, citing influences of QOTSA, Beck and The Dead Weather. I also hear a hint of Supergrass in the whine of lead track ‘Exploder’s chorus. Cool. It is a heavy rocking thing; they smartly keep things moving at a pace, not afraid to throw in some scream-a-long choruses. Pleasingly upfront, like a MUCH better Vines. Track 2 ‘Silence is Golden’ brings things down all too quick, slower, plodding. It’s a sharp song though, accomplished with more of the classic rock influences shifting into view. Should have popped up later in the EP though. The Dead Weather comes through on the third track in fairly inventive style. By the closer ‘Left Before I Arrived’ my interest has wained a little, the kind of thing I can imagine a classic rock covers band playing. Not enough of Buffalo Bones in it, but overall, as my first impression of this band, this EP is does its job damn well. Can imagine I’ll be seeing their names on a lot of posters this next year.
The late morning Renaissance continues with a free download single from Buen Chico called ‘Happiness is Important’. It’s a definite progression from their earlier stuff, more dynamics, more going on, getting to that point all great 3 pieces need to, when it sounds way beyond the work of just three people. There’s more ambition, but still tied in a lovely, joyous pop package. It starts with an uncharacteristically heavy plod before developing into a lovely mid paced yearning for happiness… and better times. Buen Chico seem to be a band that have been around for a long time but have remained criminally underrated. It’s great to see a) they are still developing and getting better and b) they haven’t become bitter with it. As ever with a free download, just give it a go. So much is free these days, so it’s odd to say that this is ‘worth it’, but it really is. I’m pleased to see Buen Chico’s upcoming EP proper in my afternoon pile, but right now I need a break or a sandwich, so that’s it for now.
Roland X
Wednesday, 9 March 2011
Sunday, 27 February 2011
How To Do Long Division
Long Division is now well on its way. If you've not already, head over to www.longdivisionfestival.co.uk to find out more about our festival. We've been making a series of Vlogs covering its progress. Here are the first 3 parts:
Saturday, 12 February 2011
Rhubarb Bomb is proud to announce 'Long Division' a brand new festival taking place in the city of Wakefield in the summer.
Created in partnership with Wakefield Venue 'The Hop', it will run over the weekend of June 10th -12th. The main event will be on the saturday, which will be a multi venue all dayer where you can switch your ticket for a wristband and wander between the venues at your leisure.
Check out the official website : www.longdivisionfestival.co.uk
There you can find links to the Facebook / Twitter / YouTube etc that will keep you updated on what's going on.
Many Thanks x
Wednesday, 9 February 2011
Zoey Van Goey VLOG
We were lucky enough to be able to make our way up to Glasgow (one of favourite cities) to see Zoey Van Goey launch their brand new (obviously...) record - 'Propeller Versus Wings'. They were supported by Malcolm Middleton - as Human Don't Be Angry and a choir called The Sirens of Titan. But why am i bothering typing all this? Just watch it!
Thursday, 27 January 2011
Podcast Special
The new Rhubarb Bomb Podcast is now available to download
http://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/rhubarb-bomb/id381555466
It could be described as a 'special' as opposed to the regular episodes as we have based it around the almost obsolete idea of the B-Side, instead of the usual collection of newer records we've come across. I was joined in the studio by Tim Metcalfe of St Gregory Orange and together we searched through our record collections, picking out and playing our favourite B-Sides and talking inanely in the gaps inbetween. Its a pretty eclectic mix, but we hope you will enjoy it.
We were also lucky enough to have Tim perform a live acoustic version of a new song from the forthcoming St Greg album which can be found amongst all the mutterings. It's rather good. And maybe, one day, it'll be worth something...
Sunday, 2 January 2011
Farewell 2010
2010 is finished. How does a year look in your mind? I see it as a circle, a clockface. It’s past midnight now, and the whole sorry state begins again – round and round we go, just a little bit faster than before.
Looking back at the physical issues we have created this year brings home how much RB has progressed. Issue zero – our ‘year zero’ - was released at the tail end of 2009 (and for completions sake will be included in this ‘end of year’ roundup) with our latest, Issue 1.4 being released at the start of Dec 2010. A huge amount of credit must go to Adam Hayward, our little design genius, for helping to give RB its own style and much more impact. From my perspective I have enjoyed the free reign of running a free fanzine; with no one to answer to and no profits to desperately raise, I am able to cover anything I want – the interesting stories, not the ones that will sell advertising space. And of course, I must thank our rotating stock of contributors who all add their own distinctive voice to the magazine. My special thanks to Melissa Greaves, David Cooper and Andrew Whittaker who have contributed to every single issue. Respect.
Highlight of the year for myself has to be interviewing Mark E Smith on the back steps of Balne Lane Working Mens club. Nervous doesn’t come close; I get nervous interviewing anyone I haven’t met before, let alone someone with a reputation of being a bit of a bastard to most people, especially journalists. Apprehensive – absolutely. People often quote to me the old one about meeting your heroes. I’m really not one for hero worship, but some have come pretty damn close this year. With Mark though, I wouldn’t quite go that far. It’s only this year that I’ve started buying Fall albums, so it was more of a developing interest. In fact I owned more Fall books than records. But I was aware of his ‘legend’ so to speak and I think my actual lack of wonder, but incredible curiosity and respect helped that interview work. He was high spirited, though also very forgetful. Essentially he had been drinking for a few hours and – brilliantly for me – was at the chatty, ‘matey’ stage and happy to talk about allsorts whilst being very prone to go off on a tangent. He was funny, and had an infectious, ‘evil’ cackle employed often whilst telling his stories. What struck me most was a comparison with a story Peter Hook had told in his live show about meeting Johnny Rotten. It was just the two of them in a room together and John was still ‘being’ Johnny, despite there being no audience to witness it; angry, twitchy, spitting everywhere. Hooky realised that’s who he was 24/7 – he lived it. And I had wondered that with Mark. I was sure the whole thing wasn’t an ‘act’ but I wondered if the live shows and the albums, the ‘Fall’ side of life was something he had to work himself up to, but I’m so happy to report that’s just the way he is. Confusing, contradictory, yes, but genuine to the end and very entertaining – it was a pleasure to meet him and that the interview felt more like an informal slightly drunken conversation in a pub, with plenty of laughs, made it even better.
Elsewhere, I’ve been really pleased with the sheer variety of people we have spoken to. Yes, they all fall somewhere around the word ‘Indie’, but as we’ve tried to push this year, it’s a tag that ties to many different people, not just a genre. The Cribs (my first ever interview) were passionate and forward looking, excited to be on the brink of releasing their first album with Johnny Marr. Malcolm Middleton was quiet but surprisingly open when talking about Arab Strap, also showing a dark, self-depreciating humour that was so dark I’m still not sure if it was humour or not. Richard Herring was inspirational in his dissection of his career, the heartening realisation that he was glad he’d not had a massive career in the spotlight because it had given him much greater freedom. The Pains of Being Pure At Heart name dropped a million bands that I’d never heard of but ended up broadening my musical horizons greatly. They also showed that though they are from New York, we’re all really not that different. Luke Haines was smart, talkative, insightful and surprisingly, after reading his book ‘Bad Vibes’, humble, though it was pleasing that he still refers to Damon Albarn as a ‘cunt’. Philophobia Music leader Rob Dee spoke to us way back at the end of 2009 and its particularly pleasing that not only have his plans actually come to fruition, but that Philophobia has continued to develop into a genuinely brilliant record label releasing consistently great records. Elizabeth of Allo Darlin’ was charming and a lovely mix of down to earth and rawly ambitious. In particular I found her descriptions of a international network of Indie folk exciting, giving hope to us all (especially in Wakefield). Slow Club were sweet and accommodating, especially since I cornered them back stage at Indietracks after a day on the booze. I’ve been so pleased that Rhubarb Bomb’s year of wider exposure has tied in with Standard Fare’s; they released one of our favourite albums of the year, whilst bookending 2010 with gigs in Wakefield – a small one for our launch night in Feb and a fantastic night supporting Allo Darlin at the end of the year, plus our favourite fest of the year – Indietracks – also hosting them. And they are genuinely lovely people, their quiet but defined ambition being especially infectious. It was great to speak to The Lodger, one of favourite bands from back in the day and I loved the desire there to try things new and different. Runaround Kids seemed to pop up in almost every issue, so it’s a good job they’ve warranted our support by turning out a brilliant year, with a great single backing up loads of fantastic gigs, including Leeds Festival. Piskie Sits, another Wakefield band turning up all over this year’s issues have also been flying the flag high for local music and equally have an exciting time ahead. Our interview with Greenmount Studios (i.e. Jamie Lockhart of Mi Mye and Lee Smith of Middleman) was a particular pleasure for me, those guys giving me a great insight into production with a mind bending mix of over the head technical know how and childlike excitement and wonder. Tim Metcalfe of St Gregory Orange inadvertently provided me with a whole interview when I asked him, during a podcast, ‘how’s the new album going’. The resulting answer was eventually cut down to two pages of text and we continue to wait for its arrival. We caught Tiny Planets incredibly early in their life. Since then they have built on their astounding live shows and we can’t wait for their EP next year. Pulled Apart By Horses rounded of a brilliant year with their first Wakefield gig; the humility, humour and passion they displayed showed how strongly they stuck to their routes, support slots with Muse not effecting them too much. Being 747 bounded in at the last minute to talk about their bonkers approach to music / filling peoples minds with facts which, as cross medium approached go, was pretty damn cool. Finally Shrag, a genius band, were happy, opinionated and passionate – just how it should be.
And then there were the near misses. We so nearly got to speak to Peter Hook when he came to Wakefield. And likewise with Howard Marks – literally until a few hours before his show. You wonder why they agree in the first place, but I always give them the benefit of the doubt and it makes me all the more thankful and excited when people do manage to speak to us. Perhaps most crushing of all however was the interview we had lined up with Russell Senior of Pulp. For a long time I’d dreamt of ‘tracking’ down all the members of Pulp who played on my favourite record, ‘The Sisters EP’ and interviewing each of them about it, issue by issue. No mention of ‘Common People’ of the Brit Awards, just that record, because it represented the Pulp I loved, and no one seemed to be bothered about Pulp anymore. Late summer I got myself into gear, getting contacts for all the band members and decided to approach Russell first. He replied swiftly and seemed interested in the idea. He said he was busy for a few weeks, but we could meet in Sheffield after that, and that it’d be ‘worth the wait’ for a face to face interview. A few weeks later I returned from my holiday to discover Pulp had reformed, unbelievably the very Pulp line up that recorded The Sisters EP. I was worried the interview wouldn’t happen any more, but equally excited I might have a massive scoop, especially given Russell’s slightly cryptic comment. Sadly, Russell got in touch to let me know it couldn’t go ahead. He had wanted to do a few interviews with purely fanzine size press, ignoring the mainstream, but as a band they had taken the decision to do no press whatsoever. I was gutted. I was so sure it would happen I had already spent a good deal of time daydreaming of meeting Jarvis in a small Parisian café, one year down the line, as I finished by epic 5 part journey, but it sadly wasn’t to be.
But those were just the interviews. Our semi regular ‘Indie Legends’ feature has covered Jimbob, Ange Doolittle, Captain Beefheart and Arab Strap, whilst our other regular feature ‘Lost bands’ looked at FMB, McCarthy, Sixto Rodriguez, Nosferatu D2 and Pylon. Roland X has provided some interesting vitriol in his Follow The Drum column. He’s ‘faced up’ to: ‘The Vacuum of Employment’, ‘Apocolypse II: The Return of Noel Rock’, ‘Rupert Murdoch Future’, ‘The Cost of Ideology’ and ‘Celebrity Prattle / Michael McIntyre’, whilst other one off features looking at things as diverse as Our most well received, or at least commented upon, article was ‘Escobar: An Obituary’ which documented the rise and fall of the most important and divisive music venue in Wakefield over the past decade. It certainly cause a stir and resulted in us being threatened with legal action by it’s well known former owner. We didn’t bow to the threat to remove it however, and though I resist the need to publish said email here, I can only presume I didn’t hear from the lawyers due to everything in the article being completely true.
It wasn’t all about Wakefield; we went to some fantastic festivals this year too, including Rough Beats, Indietracks, Truck Festival, Live @ Leeds, Fell Foot Sound and Constellations. We got involved ourselves too, joining up with some Wakefield Record labels to take a coach full of Wakey folk to Brixton for a fantastic gig in February. We also put on an art / music hybrid crossover mashup at The Art House in Wakefield, and held a fair few launch nights too as well as curating the opening night of Leeds Fringe Festival, appearing on Phoenix FM and starting to create our own Podcasts and VLOGs.
And 2011? Well, a bigger and better magazine with an even greater variation of features and opinion pieces, a fully functioning website featuring LOADS of things, including all our reviews, meaning you don’t have to wait 3 months to see what we’ve been listening to. Also, we’re going to be putting on our own festival in Wakefield in the summer. It’s going be MASSIVE, man.
So thank you for you support, we hope you will continue to stick with us. Here’s to an exciting and productive new year.
Thanks to all the contributors: Andy Whittaker, Melissa Greaves, David Cooper, Stacey Loren, Roger Green, Chris Cooper, Matt Singleton, Harry Rhodes, Jack Winn, Dan Hayes, Stephen Vigors, Paul Bateson, Jay Lawrence, Matt Hill, Jack Falcon, Jen Singleton and uber designer, Mr Adam Hayward.
Thanks to all the advertisers: The Hop, Trad Music, Mr Mickey Thompson esqe, On The Ride Promotions, Sticky Shoes, Pebble Records, Raise The Roof, Irene Studios, Truck Festival, Geek Pie Records, Rock N Roll Circus Rehearsal Rooms, Escobar and Horsforth Modern Art
Thanks to bands who played our launch nights / gigs: Standard Fare, Tiny Planets, The Fur Blend, St Gregory Orange, Candid Squash, Jeremiah, Piskie Sits, This Many Boyfriends, The Spills, Runaround Kids, Mi Mye, Salvage My Dream, Carrie Scott Huby and Bruce Rimell.
And the lovely people at Delta Design, Morley.
Dean Freeman
Editor, Rhubarb Bomb
Looking back at the physical issues we have created this year brings home how much RB has progressed. Issue zero – our ‘year zero’ - was released at the tail end of 2009 (and for completions sake will be included in this ‘end of year’ roundup) with our latest, Issue 1.4 being released at the start of Dec 2010. A huge amount of credit must go to Adam Hayward, our little design genius, for helping to give RB its own style and much more impact. From my perspective I have enjoyed the free reign of running a free fanzine; with no one to answer to and no profits to desperately raise, I am able to cover anything I want – the interesting stories, not the ones that will sell advertising space. And of course, I must thank our rotating stock of contributors who all add their own distinctive voice to the magazine. My special thanks to Melissa Greaves, David Cooper and Andrew Whittaker who have contributed to every single issue. Respect.
Highlight of the year for myself has to be interviewing Mark E Smith on the back steps of Balne Lane Working Mens club. Nervous doesn’t come close; I get nervous interviewing anyone I haven’t met before, let alone someone with a reputation of being a bit of a bastard to most people, especially journalists. Apprehensive – absolutely. People often quote to me the old one about meeting your heroes. I’m really not one for hero worship, but some have come pretty damn close this year. With Mark though, I wouldn’t quite go that far. It’s only this year that I’ve started buying Fall albums, so it was more of a developing interest. In fact I owned more Fall books than records. But I was aware of his ‘legend’ so to speak and I think my actual lack of wonder, but incredible curiosity and respect helped that interview work. He was high spirited, though also very forgetful. Essentially he had been drinking for a few hours and – brilliantly for me – was at the chatty, ‘matey’ stage and happy to talk about allsorts whilst being very prone to go off on a tangent. He was funny, and had an infectious, ‘evil’ cackle employed often whilst telling his stories. What struck me most was a comparison with a story Peter Hook had told in his live show about meeting Johnny Rotten. It was just the two of them in a room together and John was still ‘being’ Johnny, despite there being no audience to witness it; angry, twitchy, spitting everywhere. Hooky realised that’s who he was 24/7 – he lived it. And I had wondered that with Mark. I was sure the whole thing wasn’t an ‘act’ but I wondered if the live shows and the albums, the ‘Fall’ side of life was something he had to work himself up to, but I’m so happy to report that’s just the way he is. Confusing, contradictory, yes, but genuine to the end and very entertaining – it was a pleasure to meet him and that the interview felt more like an informal slightly drunken conversation in a pub, with plenty of laughs, made it even better.
Elsewhere, I’ve been really pleased with the sheer variety of people we have spoken to. Yes, they all fall somewhere around the word ‘Indie’, but as we’ve tried to push this year, it’s a tag that ties to many different people, not just a genre. The Cribs (my first ever interview) were passionate and forward looking, excited to be on the brink of releasing their first album with Johnny Marr. Malcolm Middleton was quiet but surprisingly open when talking about Arab Strap, also showing a dark, self-depreciating humour that was so dark I’m still not sure if it was humour or not. Richard Herring was inspirational in his dissection of his career, the heartening realisation that he was glad he’d not had a massive career in the spotlight because it had given him much greater freedom. The Pains of Being Pure At Heart name dropped a million bands that I’d never heard of but ended up broadening my musical horizons greatly. They also showed that though they are from New York, we’re all really not that different. Luke Haines was smart, talkative, insightful and surprisingly, after reading his book ‘Bad Vibes’, humble, though it was pleasing that he still refers to Damon Albarn as a ‘cunt’. Philophobia Music leader Rob Dee spoke to us way back at the end of 2009 and its particularly pleasing that not only have his plans actually come to fruition, but that Philophobia has continued to develop into a genuinely brilliant record label releasing consistently great records. Elizabeth of Allo Darlin’ was charming and a lovely mix of down to earth and rawly ambitious. In particular I found her descriptions of a international network of Indie folk exciting, giving hope to us all (especially in Wakefield). Slow Club were sweet and accommodating, especially since I cornered them back stage at Indietracks after a day on the booze. I’ve been so pleased that Rhubarb Bomb’s year of wider exposure has tied in with Standard Fare’s; they released one of our favourite albums of the year, whilst bookending 2010 with gigs in Wakefield – a small one for our launch night in Feb and a fantastic night supporting Allo Darlin at the end of the year, plus our favourite fest of the year – Indietracks – also hosting them. And they are genuinely lovely people, their quiet but defined ambition being especially infectious. It was great to speak to The Lodger, one of favourite bands from back in the day and I loved the desire there to try things new and different. Runaround Kids seemed to pop up in almost every issue, so it’s a good job they’ve warranted our support by turning out a brilliant year, with a great single backing up loads of fantastic gigs, including Leeds Festival. Piskie Sits, another Wakefield band turning up all over this year’s issues have also been flying the flag high for local music and equally have an exciting time ahead. Our interview with Greenmount Studios (i.e. Jamie Lockhart of Mi Mye and Lee Smith of Middleman) was a particular pleasure for me, those guys giving me a great insight into production with a mind bending mix of over the head technical know how and childlike excitement and wonder. Tim Metcalfe of St Gregory Orange inadvertently provided me with a whole interview when I asked him, during a podcast, ‘how’s the new album going’. The resulting answer was eventually cut down to two pages of text and we continue to wait for its arrival. We caught Tiny Planets incredibly early in their life. Since then they have built on their astounding live shows and we can’t wait for their EP next year. Pulled Apart By Horses rounded of a brilliant year with their first Wakefield gig; the humility, humour and passion they displayed showed how strongly they stuck to their routes, support slots with Muse not effecting them too much. Being 747 bounded in at the last minute to talk about their bonkers approach to music / filling peoples minds with facts which, as cross medium approached go, was pretty damn cool. Finally Shrag, a genius band, were happy, opinionated and passionate – just how it should be.
And then there were the near misses. We so nearly got to speak to Peter Hook when he came to Wakefield. And likewise with Howard Marks – literally until a few hours before his show. You wonder why they agree in the first place, but I always give them the benefit of the doubt and it makes me all the more thankful and excited when people do manage to speak to us. Perhaps most crushing of all however was the interview we had lined up with Russell Senior of Pulp. For a long time I’d dreamt of ‘tracking’ down all the members of Pulp who played on my favourite record, ‘The Sisters EP’ and interviewing each of them about it, issue by issue. No mention of ‘Common People’ of the Brit Awards, just that record, because it represented the Pulp I loved, and no one seemed to be bothered about Pulp anymore. Late summer I got myself into gear, getting contacts for all the band members and decided to approach Russell first. He replied swiftly and seemed interested in the idea. He said he was busy for a few weeks, but we could meet in Sheffield after that, and that it’d be ‘worth the wait’ for a face to face interview. A few weeks later I returned from my holiday to discover Pulp had reformed, unbelievably the very Pulp line up that recorded The Sisters EP. I was worried the interview wouldn’t happen any more, but equally excited I might have a massive scoop, especially given Russell’s slightly cryptic comment. Sadly, Russell got in touch to let me know it couldn’t go ahead. He had wanted to do a few interviews with purely fanzine size press, ignoring the mainstream, but as a band they had taken the decision to do no press whatsoever. I was gutted. I was so sure it would happen I had already spent a good deal of time daydreaming of meeting Jarvis in a small Parisian café, one year down the line, as I finished by epic 5 part journey, but it sadly wasn’t to be.
But those were just the interviews. Our semi regular ‘Indie Legends’ feature has covered Jimbob, Ange Doolittle, Captain Beefheart and Arab Strap, whilst our other regular feature ‘Lost bands’ looked at FMB, McCarthy, Sixto Rodriguez, Nosferatu D2 and Pylon. Roland X has provided some interesting vitriol in his Follow The Drum column. He’s ‘faced up’ to: ‘The Vacuum of Employment’, ‘Apocolypse II: The Return of Noel Rock’, ‘Rupert Murdoch Future’, ‘The Cost of Ideology’ and ‘Celebrity Prattle / Michael McIntyre’, whilst other one off features looking at things as diverse as Our most well received, or at least commented upon, article was ‘Escobar: An Obituary’ which documented the rise and fall of the most important and divisive music venue in Wakefield over the past decade. It certainly cause a stir and resulted in us being threatened with legal action by it’s well known former owner. We didn’t bow to the threat to remove it however, and though I resist the need to publish said email here, I can only presume I didn’t hear from the lawyers due to everything in the article being completely true.
It wasn’t all about Wakefield; we went to some fantastic festivals this year too, including Rough Beats, Indietracks, Truck Festival, Live @ Leeds, Fell Foot Sound and Constellations. We got involved ourselves too, joining up with some Wakefield Record labels to take a coach full of Wakey folk to Brixton for a fantastic gig in February. We also put on an art / music hybrid crossover mashup at The Art House in Wakefield, and held a fair few launch nights too as well as curating the opening night of Leeds Fringe Festival, appearing on Phoenix FM and starting to create our own Podcasts and VLOGs.
And 2011? Well, a bigger and better magazine with an even greater variation of features and opinion pieces, a fully functioning website featuring LOADS of things, including all our reviews, meaning you don’t have to wait 3 months to see what we’ve been listening to. Also, we’re going to be putting on our own festival in Wakefield in the summer. It’s going be MASSIVE, man.
So thank you for you support, we hope you will continue to stick with us. Here’s to an exciting and productive new year.
Thanks to all the contributors: Andy Whittaker, Melissa Greaves, David Cooper, Stacey Loren, Roger Green, Chris Cooper, Matt Singleton, Harry Rhodes, Jack Winn, Dan Hayes, Stephen Vigors, Paul Bateson, Jay Lawrence, Matt Hill, Jack Falcon, Jen Singleton and uber designer, Mr Adam Hayward.
Thanks to all the advertisers: The Hop, Trad Music, Mr Mickey Thompson esqe, On The Ride Promotions, Sticky Shoes, Pebble Records, Raise The Roof, Irene Studios, Truck Festival, Geek Pie Records, Rock N Roll Circus Rehearsal Rooms, Escobar and Horsforth Modern Art
Thanks to bands who played our launch nights / gigs: Standard Fare, Tiny Planets, The Fur Blend, St Gregory Orange, Candid Squash, Jeremiah, Piskie Sits, This Many Boyfriends, The Spills, Runaround Kids, Mi Mye, Salvage My Dream, Carrie Scott Huby and Bruce Rimell.
And the lovely people at Delta Design, Morley.
Dean Freeman
Editor, Rhubarb Bomb
Piskie Sits / Godspeed VLOG
Here's our latest VLOG, a video review of the Piskie Sits EP launch at The Hop, some clips from our Cafe Rhubarb launch night at Henry Boons in Wakefield and some (lousy) footage from Godspeed you! Black Emperor at Manchester Academy. The sound is ok though and the projections look pretty cool. Enjoy!
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