Hell's Belles

Vintage sounds, dusty grooves, and 21st-century freaks.

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:

Thee Attacks – Love in Disguise by hells-belles

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:

Elvis Presley – Adam & Evil (MP3)

* SRB is normally strictly 50s and 60s, but I’m sure Suspicious Minds will make an appearance anyway.

Click the image for a larger map.

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:

Old Man (Neil Young Cover) by Saint Saviour

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.

Powersolo – Got No Fear by hells-belles

Photo: Chiara Meattelli/Dominic Lee

As promised a couple of weeks back in my post about Mark joining St. Vincent onstage to cover one of his classic early Pop Group tunes, I have here a free MP3 procured from his website, www.markstewartmusic.com.  Said tune is a raging disco funk diatribe, Nothing Is Sacred, which is the AA of that super-limited Children of the Revolution 7″ that came and went on Black Friday, and it beats the snot out of the current crop of bedwetters bleating about lacklustre sex.

It comes backed with a rapid-fire cut-n-spliced video that includes an arresting image of a tittyshaking Obama amidst scenes of rioting and destruction, giving the juxtaposed classic film and cartoon footage a demonic edge.  Somehow I don’t think this video will be garnering much praise from the major US websites.

“Nothing Is Sacred” is the spawn of sessions for Mark Stewart’s new album (title as yet TBA), which is due in spring 2012.  The Quietus reports that it contains collaborations with a canon of mercurial luminaries who generally don’t do collaborations, including Kenneth Anger (!), Richard Hell, Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry, Primal Scream, Gina Birch (The Raincoats), and young buck noiseniks Factory Floor.