Genius: Flying Matchsticks, Divine Comedy

Ah, the inevitable 'break' from blogging. As suggested before the magazine - now in shops (well, some shops) is done and dusted, though the constant CD burning process goes on. (http://www.isthismusic.com if you've somehow stumbled across this post).
Anyway, some time for play, here and there - last weekend the Flying Matchstick Men were in town (ok, Glasgow IS their town really). Surprising and slightly annoying to find a gig at Sleazys kicking off around 9pm, meaning I miss the Poppadums with their apparently brass-tastic set. The Matchsticks are already on when I arrive and their set of Roxy Music-play-electropunk is, as ever, the best thng in town. It's all fun, and very good-natured stuff, so New Black get an easier ride than you might have expected given that the Chigago band seem to be basically doing much the same thing as their 'support' act. But they come around and make a decent yelping, yes, electropunk sound. (is that a new genre?)
You couldn't get much farther removed from Sleazys than the Usher Hall, and the Divine Comedy ain't no electropunks either. Neil Hannon's Absent Friends are not in evidence if you see what I mean, since he's backed by a 16-piece band - well, mini-orchestra. His sets - 2 of them - certainly give value for the £15 payers in the crowd and use the Usher Hall to its potential. Among the hits there's a singing competition (first prixe,a half-eaten Twix); there's a Bavarian-stylee cover of a QotSA single, and a Hobbit reading the Hobbit (yes, Billy Boyd backed by Hannon and his merry band).
All this gig-going couldn't last into triptych weekend, so the plan to go to the Mute Records night in Edinburgh are suddenly abandoned. The 10pm start/3am finish looks more and more unattractive given that I'm typing this at 7am, but the least appealing part is that they plan to get their dozen or so acts all crammed into the timeslots by running simultaneous gigs. Thus, Liars (whose new album is rubbish anyway) would battle with Irmin Schmidt, Wire with Chris and Cosey, while these would have been much better (for me) placed up against the label's recent signing abberations like Pink Grease and Komputer.

a day out (in) at Core Studios

A short break from laying out the new magazine (hard to accomplish when you have no content - cover still uncertain, will see how the Beta Band interviews go on Monday). Anyway, I shall wibble on about yesterday's afternoon at Core Studios, an open day I suppose where they let people come in for free and hopefully they'll tell their friends what a good place iti s to record. I'm no musician, but have heard nothing but good from people who've recorded/rehearsed there following its previous incarnation as the Brill Building.
Anyway, among the inducements for bands to pop down were guitar workshop kinda things (actually 'workshops' in the proper sense as they were discussing care and repairs), a karaoke of some sort (happily I managed to miss this), and some 'industry panels', which were really busy - there was one about distribution which apart from Dave from Electric Honey and Colin Simbiotic/Lost Dog, featured a guy from Weed, which is the latest online distribution channel. Sounds good, in that you're encouraged to pass round the files to your pals, and you get 3 free listens before you have to buy. And the bands get 50% of the pprofit when you do. Beats the likes of mycokemusic, though not iTunes in the sense that it's not Mac-compatible (yet).
There was a demo review panel too which I'll not bore anyone with, and one on what to do if you get signed. Rico - remember him? - was on there, and seemed like a nice ordinary bloke (which is maybe why he never made it as big as his label hoped). He advised the watching throng to take as much money as you could get from a record label, which isn't the usual advice. Music lawyer Murray Buchanan was there too and I think disagreed with this somewhat cavalier approach... the panel also talked about a few deals he'd heard of in the past including one where someone - can't imagine who, and they weren't telling - who'd signed away the rights to a song for (a mere) £30K, which was shortly afterwwards used in a Ford Focus ad.
Which takes me onto the other attraction of the day - live music. Odeon Beat Club (managed by Murray B, you see) did a live set, and they started with The Fall's 'Touch Sensitive', which as you all know I'm sure was the soundtrack to a Vauxhall ad. How much Mark E Smith would have collected for this public performance is unclear.
There were a few bands playing who I didn't get to see, but I did catch The Needles, who were pretty darn good. I've always liked them, and shall maintain this stance in case they make it big, which looks like a possibility with their new single 'Under the City'. They've taken some flak over the years for having a rock'n'roll bent - not yer Led Zep hedonistic sense of the phrase, more the perceived Buddy Holly influences in some of their songs. However, they've been performing 'Teenage Bomb' since their formation in, I dunno, 1953, and now they've simply dumped some of the 'Heartbeat' tunes and written some new ones in the vein of that song. At 'worst' there's a bit of psychobillly in there, but it's pretty much punk rock in the main. Which means that they are, after all these years, actually 'happening' again.
There was even free beer - not a bad afternoon out!

a good face for radio

Well, just back from a wee spot on Radio Scotland talking about fanzines (or, more precisely, plugging is this music?) I'll probably sound all self-important, but as the other zine writer on the show was a fella from the Faslane Peace Camp who's been doing the Faslane Focus for 21 years, it does kind of put things into perspective. And makes it impossible to dismiss (all) fanzines as scabbly self-promoting rags.
Anyway, at the other end of the spectrum (well, at the station) I bought a copy of the NME, my first in god knows how many years. "Why?", I hear you holler. Well, because I was taken in by the cynical marketing ploy of the free CD consisting of some of Kurt Cobain's favourites including Iggy, Butthole Surfers, the Slits, Vaselines etc. Er, I find that I have most of the tracks already. "Why?", I shout at my purchase.
Well, it's interesting to keep up with the opposition as itm? continues its march into sales territories the country over (available in Borders across the UK, next issue).
One of the things discussed at BBC central was the difference between zines and bona-fide mags. Apart from getting paid for writing, the print quality, and distribution, often they're indistinguishable. I picked upa few freebies in Fopp, which included one called FACT, which is 7" single-sized, and though it appears to be dedicated to dance at first glance, it covers the whole spectrum that, well, itm? covers. (so why am I telling you this?)
It's well-written too, some good lines in there. Dogs Die in Hot Cars are described as being the kind of thing that would only exist if Mansun had won the Britpop wars (they can take that as a compliment if they like as I note on the Jockrock board there are a few Mansun devotees arguing their way with a love song).
There's also a feature on early proto-riot-grrrl act the AuPairs, which is quite interesting. They don't have much success trying to even track down the band (as opposed to 'Bands Reunited' on MTV who managed to find all of Kajagoogoo... but I digress). Anyway, they point out than in 1982, on the cover of the NME, were the AuPairs. That'd be the equivalent of, I dunno, the Hector Collectors or someone these days.
Back to the NME - Rites of Spring are playing on the CD as I type and they're not bad at all. Plus, the paper's new shiny cover (since last time I bought it) keeps the Edinburgh drizzle off your head better than newsprint.