The Violets' debut album The Lost Pages is finally released today. The New Thing will have it reviewed for you as soon as is humanly possible.
Meanwhile, we leave you with news that The Horrors will be releasing their second album next March, with a new single (maybe a cover of 'Dance' by Suicide, or possibly new material) probably before the end of the year. Eight new songs have been written, and new material has been promised at their London concert next week. The New Thing will be on the spot and ready to bring you all the news that's fit to print as soon as we can.
Monday, November 26
Saturday, November 24
The Cave Club
The Cave Club takes place tonight at the Buffalo Bar in Islington. Live performances from Ipso Facto and The Guillotines and DJ sets from various Horrors make it an unmissable event for all London-based followers of The New Thing.
Doors are at 9pm. Be there. We will.
Tuesday, November 20
Band spotlight//THE PENNY DREADFULS
The Penny Dreadfuls are a mysterious group of experimentalists with a formidable list of influences and big ambitions. While their demo tracks (available on their MySpace, linked below) are mostly instrumental 'electronic pootlings' with a psychedelic edge, we're promised more variety and attitude as their sound develops. That isn't to say that their demos aren't good stuff which you should go and listen to right away, of course.
Monday, November 19
Band spotlight//SILHOUETTE
Band spotlight? Today we haven't got a band, but a solo project: one girl and her acoustic guitar, plus a few extra instruments. Silhouette makes a kind of dark psychedelic folk, sounding sometimes like a female Syd Barrett or Nick Drake, sometimes more like a one-person Jefferson Airplane (round about the recording of 'White Rabbit'). Her real name is Helena Gee, and she also spins vinyl for the Zoo club, as well as being former lead vocalist for The Ivories and The Holy Terror. An illustrious career indeed. Make sure you listen to her.
Sunday, November 18
CONFIRMATION //re;; Faris at 1-2-3-4
So, we were wrong about the Faris Badwan headline slot at the 1-2-3-4 Winter Offensive. We were misled by the promoters and got our hopes up, and now that Mr Badwan has confirmed his role in events, we're honour-bound to tell our readers that Faris's appearance is just a DJ set.
We're sure it'll still be great.
We're sure it'll still be great.
Saturday, November 17
1-2-3-4 Winter Offensive//Faris Badwan solo show
Saturday 8th December sees an indoor festival at Richmix on Bethnal Green Road, hosted by 1-2-3-4 Records. Their Shoreditch festival in August was fantastic, and the Winter Offensive looks likely to be even better for followers of The New Thing, with appearances by Ipso Facto and Electricity In Our Homes, as well as Whitey, featuring former bandmates of The Horrors' Joshua Third.
This event should also be special because it is, as far as we know, the very first live solo performance by the ever-talented Mr Faris Badwan, vocalist and frontman for The Horrors.
The New Thing is still trying to find out what kind of material he's planning to perform - Horrors songs solo? (Surely not.) Just a DJ set? (We say that wouldn't deserve a headline slot.) What we think (and hope) is that this could be the first outing for his rumoured solo electronic project.
Are we right? You'll get all the news as it comes in right here... watch this space.
This event should also be special because it is, as far as we know, the very first live solo performance by the ever-talented Mr Faris Badwan, vocalist and frontman for The Horrors.
The New Thing is still trying to find out what kind of material he's planning to perform - Horrors songs solo? (Surely not.) Just a DJ set? (We say that wouldn't deserve a headline slot.) What we think (and hope) is that this could be the first outing for his rumoured solo electronic project.
Are we right? You'll get all the news as it comes in right here... watch this space.
Wednesday, November 14
Band spotlight//EFFI BRIEST
We don't want to write this post. We've been meaning to spotlight Effi Briest for a few weeks now, and somehow we've never found the time. And now the NME has reviewed their concert last week with Ipso Facto, and the NME is one bandwagon we don't want to jump on, in terms of bringing you new music.
But we are forced to write. Why? Because the seven-piece, all-female, New York-based Effi Briest are fantastic. Their most recent 7" 'Mirror Rim' is, like its title might suggest, written entirely in palindromes (phrases which read the same whichever way you read them), and it's a stomp of a punk tune with aggressive percussion and subtly dangerous-sounding synth work. Its B-side, 'The Newlyweds' Song', is a cover of an old jazz tune and borrows equally from female-led 1960s psychedelic groups like Jefferson Airplane and The United States Of America and 1970s New York no-wave.
Listen to them.
But we are forced to write. Why? Because the seven-piece, all-female, New York-based Effi Briest are fantastic. Their most recent 7" 'Mirror Rim' is, like its title might suggest, written entirely in palindromes (phrases which read the same whichever way you read them), and it's a stomp of a punk tune with aggressive percussion and subtly dangerous-sounding synth work. Its B-side, 'The Newlyweds' Song', is a cover of an old jazz tune and borrows equally from female-led 1960s psychedelic groups like Jefferson Airplane and The United States Of America and 1970s New York no-wave.
Listen to them.
Saturday, November 10
THE NEW THING FANZINE 1//OTHER VOICES
The first issue of the print fanzine is now visible through the ether at The New Thing MySpace. It features;;
//Electricity In Our Homes Shareholders Meeting EP
//The Junkettes
//Faris Badwan exhibition and signing
//Neils Children in concert
//Experimental Circle Club
//Guide to Brick Lane
//Recommended songs
//The Junkettes
//Faris Badwan exhibition and signing
//Neils Children in concert
//Experimental Circle Club
//Guide to Brick Lane
//Recommended songs
All text//design by The New Thing.
NEiLS CHiLDREN single//further news
Neils Children have announced that their new single, 'Reflective/Surface'/'Exposure', will be recorded at the end of their current Klaxons tour and will be available at the end of February only to people in Europe (not including the UK) who buy clothes from April '77.
Hopefully we'll be able to get hold of one to review for you. Fingers crossed.
Hopefully we'll be able to get hold of one to review for you. Fingers crossed.
Wednesday, November 7
Project:KOMAKINO // REVIEW
It might sound a bit strange to review what is actually a demo disc, but the release which arrived at our door the other day is the first official release from Project:KOMAKINO, the one-man (soon to be three-man) musical project of Kris Kane.
The release is another fantastic little DIY job, hand-stamped with angular artwork in biro, a pinhole photograph inside, and a copy number on the reverse (no. 9/25 in our case). It looks very stylish - minimalist and professional, whilst still maintaining an air of the old 'it was easy, it was cheap, go and do it'.
So does the music match up? Happily, yes. 'Penumbra 1' (the release's key track) is a morose, atmospheric wall of synth noise, uncanny effects, and robotic drumming, not unlike a lost track from Bowie's Low, while the lyrics - 'I only think in black and white' - and vocals are pure Joy Division. 'Walking On Glass' also begs the Unknown Pleasures connection with its prominent bassline, and features a fantastic Essex-accented spoken-word part which brings to mind Boys of Brazil (or even The Horrors' 'Excellent Choice').
'Exodus' is another moody up-tempo soundscape, and although the three tracks are rather similar (it's something about the percussion, a problem which can be solved easily once a drummer has been recruited), they're all truly magnificent. Can we have some more please, Mr. Komakino?
The release is another fantastic little DIY job, hand-stamped with angular artwork in biro, a pinhole photograph inside, and a copy number on the reverse (no. 9/25 in our case). It looks very stylish - minimalist and professional, whilst still maintaining an air of the old 'it was easy, it was cheap, go and do it'.
So does the music match up? Happily, yes. 'Penumbra 1' (the release's key track) is a morose, atmospheric wall of synth noise, uncanny effects, and robotic drumming, not unlike a lost track from Bowie's Low, while the lyrics - 'I only think in black and white' - and vocals are pure Joy Division. 'Walking On Glass' also begs the Unknown Pleasures connection with its prominent bassline, and features a fantastic Essex-accented spoken-word part which brings to mind Boys of Brazil (or even The Horrors' 'Excellent Choice').
'Exodus' is another moody up-tempo soundscape, and although the three tracks are rather similar (it's something about the percussion, a problem which can be solved easily once a drummer has been recruited), they're all truly magnificent. Can we have some more please, Mr. Komakino?
Tuesday, November 6
Siouxsie at the Roundhouse//A REVIEW
It was always going to be a gamble buying tickets to see Siouxsie Sioux. She's been making music for thirty-one years, some of it has been far better than others, and with her first solo album, MantaRay, recently released she can't be expected just to play the classics.
But from the look of the crowd queuing outside the Roundhouse on November 5th for Siouxsie's third London show on her 'MantaRay And More' tour, it was obviously the 'More' that people had come for. It's no exaggaration to say that your New Thing correspondent was among the hundred youngest people in the 2,000-capacity venue, if not the fifty youngest.
So, what would Siouxsie play? That was the question on the middle-aged lips of the crowd, impatient after two slightly unsuitable support acts: crazed metal-punk from the two-piece Comanechi, and drum-backed hip-hop (of all things) from Akala, yet another one of the Intelligent British Rappers who seem to be popular at the moment, whose requests for the assembled ex-goths to 'bounce' had been recieved... badly. To say the least. I was jealous of those lucky people at Siouxsie's Astoria show who had got The Violets in support a few weeks before.
Eventually, Siouxsie's five-piece backing band assembled on the stage and began to pump out a bass-heavy, synth-laden backing which the lady herself pounced on as soon as she bounded on stage. Despite being 50 years old now, the chief Banshee moved as slinkily as she ever has, with heel kicks and dance moves (and a silver catsuit) straight from 1985. The set started with a couple of slow, synth-based tunes with Siouxsie crooning over the top, but mounted when a familiar guitar chord signalled the start of 'Arabian Knights'. This and two more songs from Juju in quick succession got the crowd moving, but soon the band had lapsed back into slower numbers, interspersed with new songs like the single 'Into A Swan', which is a stomper of a song but has worse lyrics than that infamous 'enjoy/the real McCoy' rhyme. The musicians were competent enough, but they weren't the Banshees, and what was missing for most of the central section was sheer energy.
The end of the concert saw a sudden return of the energy as 'Israel' and 'Hong Kong Garden' (probably the best song about a Chinese restaurant ever recorded) were followed by a final cover of The Doors' 'Hello, I Love You', but the flare was too sudden and too quick. In other words, I was surprised that the gig had finished just as the encores seemed to be getting going.
Looking back on the highlights ('Spellbound' in particular), it's easy to fool oneself that the concert was amazing throughout. But a little less crooner sway and a bit more punk pogo, as far as the music went, would have been good. And the gaps in the setlist ('Happy House'? 'Dear Prudence'?) were obvious. Still, it was worth seeing a punk legend in the flesh, and the high points were higher than the low points were low. Which is all you can ask for from a room full of midlife crises.
But from the look of the crowd queuing outside the Roundhouse on November 5th for Siouxsie's third London show on her 'MantaRay And More' tour, it was obviously the 'More' that people had come for. It's no exaggaration to say that your New Thing correspondent was among the hundred youngest people in the 2,000-capacity venue, if not the fifty youngest.
So, what would Siouxsie play? That was the question on the middle-aged lips of the crowd, impatient after two slightly unsuitable support acts: crazed metal-punk from the two-piece Comanechi, and drum-backed hip-hop (of all things) from Akala, yet another one of the Intelligent British Rappers who seem to be popular at the moment, whose requests for the assembled ex-goths to 'bounce' had been recieved... badly. To say the least. I was jealous of those lucky people at Siouxsie's Astoria show who had got The Violets in support a few weeks before.
Eventually, Siouxsie's five-piece backing band assembled on the stage and began to pump out a bass-heavy, synth-laden backing which the lady herself pounced on as soon as she bounded on stage. Despite being 50 years old now, the chief Banshee moved as slinkily as she ever has, with heel kicks and dance moves (and a silver catsuit) straight from 1985. The set started with a couple of slow, synth-based tunes with Siouxsie crooning over the top, but mounted when a familiar guitar chord signalled the start of 'Arabian Knights'. This and two more songs from Juju in quick succession got the crowd moving, but soon the band had lapsed back into slower numbers, interspersed with new songs like the single 'Into A Swan', which is a stomper of a song but has worse lyrics than that infamous 'enjoy/the real McCoy' rhyme. The musicians were competent enough, but they weren't the Banshees, and what was missing for most of the central section was sheer energy.
The end of the concert saw a sudden return of the energy as 'Israel' and 'Hong Kong Garden' (probably the best song about a Chinese restaurant ever recorded) were followed by a final cover of The Doors' 'Hello, I Love You', but the flare was too sudden and too quick. In other words, I was surprised that the gig had finished just as the encores seemed to be getting going.
Looking back on the highlights ('Spellbound' in particular), it's easy to fool oneself that the concert was amazing throughout. But a little less crooner sway and a bit more punk pogo, as far as the music went, would have been good. And the gaps in the setlist ('Happy House'? 'Dear Prudence'?) were obvious. Still, it was worth seeing a punk legend in the flesh, and the high points were higher than the low points were low. Which is all you can ask for from a room full of midlife crises.
Thursday, November 1
EIOH new single//P:K demos;;expansion
Hot on the heels of Neils Children (see below), Electricity In Our Homes have revealed a new single to be released soon. In EIOH's case, we don't know the name of the song. What we do know is that it'll be out in December on Waks Records, as a limited 7" single.
There's also movement in Project:KOMAKINO. Kris Komakino has made a three-track CD of demo tracks, with hand-drawn artwork. As well as being his first release, what makes them special is that there are only 25 of them. P:K is also in the process of recruiting a bassist and a drummer to form a post-punk power trio for live performances (and the studio, maybe?), so maybe there'll be a shift in their sound, probably for the better.
Anyway, hopefully we'll be able to review both of the new releases for you. Watch this space.
There's also movement in Project:KOMAKINO. Kris Komakino has made a three-track CD of demo tracks, with hand-drawn artwork. As well as being his first release, what makes them special is that there are only 25 of them. P:K is also in the process of recruiting a bassist and a drummer to form a post-punk power trio for live performances (and the studio, maybe?), so maybe there'll be a shift in their sound, probably for the better.
Anyway, hopefully we'll be able to review both of the new releases for you. Watch this space.
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