Danish purveyors of garage rock goodness Crunchy Frog (they who brought us Jon Spencer‘s Heavy Trash and The Raveonettes) are bringing their fuzztastic trash palace to London for three wondrous Thursdays at The Wheelbarrow in Camden from February 23rd. Joing the mayhem will be PowerSolo, who have already graced this site’s pages, Snake and Jets Amazing Bullit Band, Thee Attacks, Lars and the Hands of Light, and more to be announced.
I’m also extremely honoured to have been asked to join the ranks of the Crunchy Frog DJs for the first show with Thee Attacks and Lars and the Hands of Light on February 23rd. Expect even more fuzz, filth and tittyshakers between the bands and beyond.
The shows look a little something like this:
23 Feb Thee Attacks + Lars and the Hands of Light (facebook event)
08 Mar Snake and Jets Amazing Bullit Band + support TBC
04 Apr Powersolo + support TBC
Thee Attacks’ debut album, That’s Mister Attack To You (produced by Liam Watson of Toe Rag studios, and the White Stripes’ Elephant) is a slice of Scandi fuzz par excellance. Sample one of its delights here:
UPDATE : Both PIPA and SOPA have been dropped by Congress! Over 13 million people flooded Congress with their protests.
The MPAA (the lobby for big movie studios which created these terrible bills) was shocked and seemingly humbled. “‘This was a whole new different game all of a sudden,’ MPAA Chairman and former Senator Chris Dodd told the New York Times. ‘[PIPA and SOPA were] considered by many to be a slam dunk.’”
“’This is altogether a new effect,’ Mr. Dodd said, comparing the online movement to the Arab Spring. He could not remember seeing ‘an effort that was moving with this degree of support change this dramatically’ in the last four decades, he added.”
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You know those stories of 12-year-olds being arrested for downloading mp3s? Or that family who were nearly sued because they uploaded a video of their baby dancing to a song on the radio in their kitchen? If this bill passes in the US, expect that sort of thing to increase. It is essentially proposing to give the entertainment industry the power to censor the internet. The entertainment industry already has the law on its side in fighting piracy. They don’t need carte blanche to put a gag order on – or more specifically, put into prison – regular people and small companies that they feel are infringing copyright. The courts are already set up to allow them to fight copyright infringement. This bill will effectively allow them to use a sledgehammer to crack a walnut.
Tomorrow night’s the first Shake Rattle and Bowl of 2012, and since it would’ve been The King’s 77th birthday at the stroke of midnight, we thought the perfect way to shake off the January blues would be a big ol’ Presley-a-Thon.
Betwixt our usual stellar (if I do say so myself) mix of rock ‘n roll, r’n'b, popcorn, soul, psych and garage, we’ll be dropping a whole lotta Elvis – from the early rockabilly days right through to the 68′ Comeback*. And we will TOTALLY play Do The Clam. It’s a floor filler. FOR REALS.
Tweet me @hells_belles with any special Elvis requests, or you can post them in the comments here if you’re not on twitter.
To top it all off, there’s drinks specials for SRB members (sign up here for a badge), including a special Rock-A-Hula cocktail that the lovely bar blokes at the Holborn All Star Lanes have made in honour of the King, we’ll be screening some classic Elvis videos on the monitors, and there’ll be a free raffle of Elvis DVDs, buckets ‘o beers, and bowling.
Entry to the party is free. Raffle kicks off at 11pm, so get there by 10pm to grab a free ticket, and make sure you’re in the DJ room by 11pm for the winner announcement.
68′ Comeback Special action for you right here, and some more obscure Elvis download love below:
It’s not the first time a young woman has covered Neil Young’s “Old Man” (hello, Wilson-Phillips??) but I’d definitely say it’s the most beautiful. Becky’s giving this track away on her Souncloud page now:
Her debut album is now completed, thanks in part to a record-breaking Pledge campaign (target reached in less than 24 hours), and she’s doing rather well in the MTV Brand New Unsigned competition, so if you like this, give her a vote here.
Two Scandi gems courtesy of Danish mentalists PowerSolo, signed to Copenhagen label Crunchy Frog. Lo-fi, shouty, with tons of strut and squirm-inducing videos. Of course I’m going to love this.
