Griff says; 'That's Entertainment!'

Hello all. Well, as promised in my last post, I'd like to talk a little bit more about aaahh-records wunderkind 'entertainmentforthebraindead'. This is the musical psuedonym of Julia Kotowski (pictured) currently a student at Cologne's Academy of Media Arts but, to those of us in the know, also a self-taught, lo-fi musician of breathtaking originality.

I first came across 'entertainmentforthebraindead' on myspace in 2007. At that time Julia had a collection of amazing, sparse, lullably-like yet melancholy songs which she'd recorded at home on a laptop with a USB microphone attached. Julia used guitar, ukulele, recorder and glockenspiel on her early work, all to great effect. The best feature of all though was the amazing, unconventional percussion. On these early songs Julia can be heard clapping, crumpling paper, opening and closing scissors and tapping on any household implement which comes to hand all to surprising yet artful creative effect. To my great joy, Julia released this collection of early songs as an album, called 'Hypersomnia', in Spring 2008.

Rather pleasingly, and a little smugly too perhaps, I can reveal that I am the proud possessor of a hand-made physical edition of this album complete with Julia's lovingly crafted lino-print cover. But you'll also be pleased to know that the album is still available as a free download which you can get from 'here'.
Such talent couldn't go unnoticed for long and the lovely people at aaahh-records soon picked up on Julia's work. Her next collection of songs was written, recorded and mixed and ready for public exposure in August 2008. Released as 'aaahh002', her second album was named 'Hydrophobia'

and is self-decribed as " 10 songs that mostly circle around the idea of drowning." It can be freely downloaded from the aaahh-records homepage. It has a similar gentle folk-pop sound to 'Hypersomnia' but better production values. Julia also introduces a xaphoon into the mix and, of course, the charming percussion is still evident; at one point a pepper-mill is even employed.

Julia's seemingly boundless creativity has also provided us with 'Seven (+1)' (also on aaahh-records) and 'Raw Timber'. Both were released in 2009. Today though I'd really like to talk about her latest work 'Roadkill'.

This is aaahh-records newest release and shows Julia at her creative, unconventional and frankly contrary best. You see, on this album, Julia accompanies herself almost exclusively with that most unloved of instruments....the banjo. Now, the world of lo-fi indie-folk is awash with ukulele, glockenspiel and melodica players, but banjo players are rather more thin on the ground. However, don't let that put you off, I'll let Julia explain herself:

"Sometimes a tiny, coincidental discovery can open completely new horizons. Like when you're on a crowded party and that one person you decide to talk to turns out to be the love of your life. Or when you're in a room full of instruments and for once you decide to not to pick the lute, not the weird, fascinating cello-like instrument on the wall... but the banjo.
The Roadkill EP was born from one of these discoveries. There are lots of instruments that I'd always really wished to own or be able to play, a piano, a cello, a harp, a clarinet... but I would never had expected that one day I could fall in love with a banjo.
Yet since this is exactly what happened, I decided to start exploring this instrument's versatility by recording a couple of songs equipped with nothing else but a banjo. (Well... I admit, there's a tambourine in one song..)
Over the last four months I collected those songs. They occasionally sprouted, sometimes several a day, sometimes none for weeks, and then grew and ripened. I harvested them at home, though a bit more carefully than usual. They tell little tales of friendship and failure, of discovering the world and of hiding at home, and the banjo helped tracing their contours and gave them a shape.
It brought me through a very cold winter. Now maybe it can brighten yours a bit, too?"

For those of you who still need convincing 'Streetlamp' have rather kindly provided two videos (below) of songs from 'Roadkill' for your listening pleasure. Enjoy!

Now get downloading!

Griff
xx

Griff says; 'Open your ears wide and say Aaahh!'

Today I'd like to talk about another of my favourite netlabels, namely aaahh-records. Purveyors of 'free and charming music', aaahh-records are champions of Creative Commons Licensed music. In their own words:

"We would like to introduce a quote from Richard Stallman who once said: “[…] To understand the concept, you should think of “free” as in “free speech”, not as in “free beer”". Although he was talking about free software, we would like to apply this attitude towards “free music”. So, all the songs realeased by our label are not only free in price. They carry the freedom to share, to remix and, of course, to listen to wherever, whenever and however you like.
Like many other netlabels, we would like to give you an interesting answer to the ongoing changes in the so-called music industry. But hold it .. in case you think we dislike good ol’ cd and vinyl, you should know that we will offer you real records, too - records you can touch, lick or nail to your wall. The difference is that the balance between free music and expensive records will be turned upside down. So again, “free”, in this sense, implies music the artist wants to share with the world, because he/she doesn’t like to see his/her music as an inflexible or colourless product."

If you've been paying attention at all to this blog you'll recognise that the above philosophy is music to my ears. However, a philosophy itself doesn't make a great netlabel. To win that description the label must also give us wonderful music. In this respect aaahh-records does not disappoint. Those of you who share my love of indie-folk pop will be delighted to make the acquaintance of acts such as 'The Wind Whistles'

and Emilie Lund

Sad blue mountain, by Emilie Lund from ictioscopio on Vimeo.

aaahh-records are also responsible for the release of work by one of my favourite artists of recent years; the incomparable Julia Kotowski who goes by the rather unwieldy moniker of 'entertainmentforthebraindead' but makes music of unsurpassed originality. Readers of 'Streetlamp' can expect a feature on Julia to follow very soon. In the meantime, as a present to you from aaahh-records in honour of their second birthday they have decided to compile some of their favourite remixes as a free download album. This can be downloaded from their homepage and, as if that's not good enough, there's more! They are giving away 10 unique handmade physical copies for free and will even ship them to you. If you would like a chance to win this wonderful remix compilation as a CD, you can send them an email, their address is: info@aaahh-records.net. They will pick 10 of you by a magic wonder randomizing algorithm and contact the winners via email. What are you waiting for?

Griff
xx

~Kitten Wine~ #6: Creation Records

Celebrating The Best Indiepop #6: 'Creation Records; Three Early Singles'

Remember when Creation Records ruled the school? I mean, like, REALLY ruled the school!!! Long before they got bogged down with all the beige sludge that is 'the O word'. I could write page upon page about how much I hate 'the O word' but this Blog is here to celebrate music, not to pick at the scabs of those who stifle music with their bland ordinariness.
So, yeah, let's look back at when Creation were pretty much the cat's nadgers and look at three singles in particular which sum up that exciting and revolutionary time.

It all began, for us, with The Jesus & Mary Chain....we had just left school, in fact if I recall, some of us were still at school, when my friend Gary turned up at my house one day clutching some records. "You have got to hear this" he gushed, handing me the plastic bag in which The JAMC's 'Upside Down' resided. "Why is it in a wraparound paper sleeve and shoved into a polly bag" I asked. "It just is. It's just a wee Indie label they're on" he answered.


I put the record on the Dansette and waited....next thing, I felt like had been thrown across the room. 'Upside Down' propelled itself from the speakers in an explosion of honey and razorblades.....the pounding echo heavy drums, the feedback, the impassioned vocals, the killer riff....I wish I could say that I immediately proclaimed it to be a heady mix of The Velvet Underground and The Beach Boys, but back then I had yet to hear The Velvet Underground, and The Beach Boys were merely some 60s pop band my parents played when the sun shone, so I wasn't that sussed yet.
'Upside Down' rattled around in my skull for months....it was like the greatest record we had ever heard. The b-side was called 'Vegetable Man' and was equally good. We wondered who Syd Barrett was who had written it. When we found out he had been the original lead singer of Pink Floyd we were crestfallen...why were they recording something by those hoary old dinosaurs? Again, our naivety regarding music back then is almost embarrassingly quaint.


The Mary Chain became a galvanizing force amongst my friends, even more so than The Smiths whose archness alienated some. We read every interview like it was a manifesto for our lives, every new release was welcomed with street parties. 'Never Understand' was an immaculate follow up, and with 'You Trip Me Up' it almost became like they were taking the piss. With every utterance we danced in the streets; when they claimed their ambition was to be Number One in the UK and US simultaneously with a song called 'Jesus Fuck' we truly believed every word the Reid brothers spoke.
Then they released their debut album: 'Psychocandy'.
Everyone I know owns 'Psychocandy', it's the record that glues all the people I knew, post-school, together. It's release was timely....immediately after the horror that was the Live Aid concert. 'Psychocandy' took a flamethrower to the faces of those smug bastards who'd spewed their bleeding liberal hearts all over their Armani sleeves....all those old whores that Punk had wiped out were being given a second chance....how did this happen? 'Psychocandy' was something that was genuinely thrilling, genuinely sexy, genuinely dangerous in a time when Punk was, for the first time, being forgotten.
We had to wait a whole year for the next release, the wonderful 'Some Candy Talking' EP, but it was well worth it. Then came 'April Skies'....and sadly that's where the love affair ends. At the time I thought 'April Skies' was fantastic, but annoyingly The Mary Chain never seemed to progress beyond this point. The subsequent album 'Darklands' saw them adopt some kind of dark(Goth?) Rock which they would never seem to shake off. Each following release just sounded like an empty retread of the previous and all the magic, all the danger just seemed to vanish. I still went to see them every time they played Glasgow and they were always pretty wild live, but it just wasn't the same.

Back around the time between 'Upside Down' and 'Psychocandy' came another important Creation release; 'Don't Slip Up' by Meat Whiplash. Even though 'Upside Down' is a clattering, raucous punch-in-the-throat, it's still James Taylor compared to 'Don't Slip Up'.


Cut from the same cloth as The JAMC's debut, 'Don't Slip Up' is a thrilling, ragged, messy, dangerous SKKKKRRRREEEEEEEE of uproarious cacophony. It sounds like a record made by genuinely psychotic nutjobs who shouldn't be let within a hundred miles of a recording studio. The vocals; "No you mustn't slip up....AH HAAH HAAH!!" sound more like a threat than a chorus. And the B-side, 'Here It Comes' sounds even worse/better!! Equally jarring and genuinely scary, with a rogue drumbeat that knocks the song of it's axis every time it slips through the mix. I played it to death and even included both sides on my favourite ever mix-tape(which will from the basis of a future Blog) which I still cherish.

It was all housed in yet another wraparound sleeve 'designed'(in the loosest sense of the word) by then Mary Chain drummer Bobby Gillespie, and they never released another record, although I seem to recall a live cassette did the rounds for a while.
Almost preposterously the musicians from Meat Whiplash resurfaced as The Motorcycle Boy whose incredibly tight sound betrayed their MW past. The Motorcycle Boy released a fantastic single called 'Big Rock Candy Mountain' which the band I was in in the late 80s used to use as an intro song.




And speaking of Bobby Gillespie, we come to Creation's third Very Important Single. Now....you have to remember that around this time i.e. early 1985, POP was a dirty word. I had loved POP at school; Adam And The Ants, Japan(stop laughing!!), Blancmange and of course the BIGPOP of Dexys, Madness etc. But now, none of us would ever admit liking ::shudder:: Pop Music. Little did we realise that New Order, Julian Cope, The Specials, The Smiths, Echo & The Bunnymen and the whole 'Pillows & Prayers' roster were making some of the greatest Pop Music on Earth.
So when Bobby Gillespie's new outfit Primal Scream released their debut 7" on Creation; 'All Fall Down"/ "It Happens", we almost felt embarrassed to be listening to it, so joyous, sparkling and deliriously effervescent was it's pure sugar-rush. We couldn't compare it to The Byrds or The Loving Spoonful as again we hadn't discovered the pleasure of those bands yet. But we loved the way it went zzziiiiiiiiiiiinnnnnggggg, the way it went kkittttcccchhhaaaannggggg, and the way it swayed like a drunk at a wedding. One of my happiest memories of this single is my ~Sighrens~ cohort Griff serenading the entire upper floor of a doubledecker bus with 'It Happens' as we made our way to the local under-age drinking hostelry one Friday night back in the rain-drenched Summer of 1985. As the 'sha-la-la-la-la-la-lahs' swirled around the bus, I was convulsed with laughter as everyone else tried to avoid making eye-contact with 'the loony'.




Of course Primal Scream practically invented Indiepop and the whole C86 scene with such delights as 'Velocity Girl', 'Gentle Tuesday' and 'Crystal Crescent', and their psychedelic phase, 'Imperial', 'Sonic Flower Groove' etc really needs to be rediscovered properly.
In some people's eyes Bobby Gillespie is a bit of a bandwagon-jumping Indie chancer but he always seems to have been just one step ahead of his critics, and I guess he still is.



All of these singles are so life-affirmingly important to me that this Blog entry was so nearly called ' East Kilbride - So Much To Answer For' but that would just have been silly. So here's to a more innocent time when the only heady rushes that came in paper wraps inside polythene bags were the fantastic 7" Singles of Creation Records.

All Hail!!

~Gordon~

~This Elegant Chaos~#1: Las Robertas

The Best In New Indiepop Music: #1 Las Robertas

Imagine The Pudding Pops soundtracking 'Beach Blanket Bingo'.....or The Faded Blue fronted by Ronnie Spector....or a Shangri Las/Fizzbombs jamfest overseen by Poison Ivy Rorshcach.....


Then you might get some kind of idea of Las Robertas, and why we here at 'The Streetlamp....' absolutely adore them. If Los Bros Hernandez had created an all-girl band they would probably sound a little(or a lot) like Las Robertas.
Las Robertas hail from San José, Costa Rica and they have been going for just around a year. The band consists of Lola Miche, Mercedes Oller, Monserrat Vargas and Ana M. Valenciano; Monserrat and Mercedes had been friends through Myspace for a long time before, but it wasn't until they met up with Lola that the band began to take shape. Ana arrived a few months later and the line-up was complete.



The band's main inspirations are Punk and the C86 movement of the mid-80s, but what made them want to form a band was a desire to create a Punk/Soul hybrid with a soupcon of 60s Surf Movie thrown into the mix.




Reference points on the band's music include The Beat Happening, The Raveonettes, Pussy Galore, The Cuties, All Girl Summer Fun Band as well as contemporaries Vivian Girls, Myelin Sheaths, Dum Dum Girls etc.





The girls have just released their first album 'Cry Out Loud' and the absolutely WONDERFUL news is that it's a available FREE to download from Bandcamp.
We urge you to do so now!!


Aaaaahh....Las Robertas.....consider us truly smitten!!




~Gordon~

Griff would like to add that he too is truly smitten. At last, no arguments as to what goes on 'The Streetlamp' HQ dansette this week!


More info on Las Robertas can be found at Myspace and Last.fm

And be sure to check out their own Blogsite