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

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.

]]> http://www.hells-belles.org/2012/01/saturday-tomorrow-elvis-bday-special-at-shake-rattle-bowl/feed/ 0 http://www.hells-belles.org/2012/01/saint-saviour-old-man-neil-young-cover/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=saint-saviour-old-man-neil-young-cover http://www.hells-belles.org/2012/01/saint-saviour-old-man-neil-young-cover/#comments Wed, 04 Jan 2012 16:11:39 +0000 TT http://www.hells-belles.org/?p=911

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.

Ivan – Real Wild Child by hells-belles

*That dork thing was semi-intentional.

Although the track covered here is 30 years and a bit old, Mark Stewart is one of those rare artists that has not only remained steadily prolific over the course of three decades, he continues to inspire and with apocalyptic results.  The next one in line is a limited 7″ AA release later this month for the Black Friday Record Store Day, which works on so many levels, I don’t know where to start.  The A is a cover of T.Rex’s “Children Of The Revolution”, recorded over many miles and years with The Bug (Techno Animal, King Midas Sound).  The AA is “Nothing Is Sacred”, a collabo with Eve Libertine from Crass.   The record is limited to 500 copies, which in Record Store Day terms means it might as well have “rarer than rump steak still on the cow’s ass” stamped on it, and each record sleeve is an individual piece of Mark’s bombart.  The queue starts, like, yesterday.

In the meantime, here’s both St. Vincent’s and The Pop Group’s versions of “She’s Beyond Good and Evil”.  I’ll post the new Mark Stewart stuff sometime after black Friday.  Check his YouTube channel for more.

The Pop Group – She’s Beyond Good and Evil

UPDATE: They’ve only gone and done it as a DUET. I tend to think of “duets” as more like Lee & Nancy, Dolly ‘n Kenny an’ that, so this is on another plane altogether, even if it’s just on a phone:

Fireworks Night release their third album proper, One Winter, One Spring today, November 5th.   Not entirely coincidentally, this day is also known in folklore and Proper British History as the night Guy Fawkes failed to blow up The Houses of Parliament, and Britain has been celebrating this failure by gleefully blowing things up ever since.  So strike that match as you strike the play button on “Amongst The Disappeared”, and surround yourself in a glorious explosion of seductive strings and exhilarating melody.

You can buy the album from all the usual good independent record shops, and some of the larger chains, or direct from the band at the Organ Grinder Records website.

Stream from the Mixcloud player below, or download it as an MP3 from soundcloud. Plus, as a bonus, a little scary surf instrumental MP3.

Happy Halloween!

TRACKLISTING:

DIALOGUE: Plague of the Zombies – Hammer Films
Voodoo Walk – Sonny Richard’s Panics with Cindy and Misty
Fungus Among Us – Hugh Barret And The Victors
Voodoo Voodoo – LaVern Baker
Ghost Train – The Swanks
DIALOGUE: Whose Brain Is It – Gene Hackman and Marty Feldman in Young Frankenstein
Midnight Monsters Hop – Jack and Jim
Monster Surfing Time – Deadly Ones
Si Vous Conaissez Quelque Chose De Pire Qu’un Vampire Parlez M’en Tourjours Ça Pourra Peut-etre Me Faire Sourire – Stella
The Lions and the Cucumber – Manfred Hübler/Siegfried Schwab
I Put a Spell on You – Screamin’ Jay Hawkins
The Mummy – Bob McFadden
Goo Goo Muck – Ronnie Cook and the Gaylads
The Purple People Eater – Sheb Wooley
Watusi Zombie – Jan Davis
Werewolf (Don’t Eat Stuff Off the Sidewalk) – The Frantics
I’m the Wolfman – Round Robin
I Was A Teenage Werewolf – The Cramps
Dance of the Vampires – The Vampires of Dartmoor