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MONTREAL: It's Still Great! // Notion @ Osheaga Festival, 08/09
MONTREAL: It's Still Great! // Notion @ Osheaga Festival, 08/09
19/08/2009
Every six months, a new band comes along and reminds you that Montreal is cooler than you. Crystal Castles! The Stills! Broken Social Scene! Metric! Etc etc, so on and so forth. When our man with the passport, Chris Beanland, travelled out there to see the Osheaga festival, he discovered that they're also the festival capital of Canada. Somewhat inevitabe, considering. “There’s one festival down this street…another over there…and of course the one you’re going to later on an island in the middle of the river.” So explains Brendan Murphy, music blogger, travel writer, gentleman and Notion’s temporary guide to Montreal. We’re walking through the centre of the most cultured city in North America, at the start of August, and festival season in the city is in full swing. Notion is here primarily to check out the Osheaga Festival - an indie hoe-down which we’ll tell you about once we’ve given you a flavour of the Francophone city it’s held in. That’s because the festival is *one* of the people who paid for our plane tickets across the North Atlantic. But, dizzy with jetlag, we’re pleasantly surprised that Gay Pride, the Picnic Electronique, and the Francofolies French Music Festival are taking place within a block of our downtown concrete monstrosity of a hotel too. There are two things you learn very quickly about Canada. Firstly, it’s like Sesame Street - incredibly racially diverse and everyone is amazingly nice to you and to each other. Secondly, this country takes the arts seriously: the Government pays for festivals, for galleries, for music. Hell, they’re even picking up our tab so we can tell you lot just how damn cultured they are. So that’s a declaration of interest there - but of course if wasn’t actually any good in Montreal then we’d tell you that too, trust us. There are festivals year-round but during the gorgeously warm months of July and August, it really reaches its peak here. Of course you can still get your thrills when the temperatures plummet (and plummet they really do - the record January low is minus 38 degrees C). In January there is IglooFest, which Notion ran a glove-clad finger over earlier this year. Before we head to Osheaga for our main course, it’s time for a starter: a tour of “La ville Montreal”. Now anyone who’s ever been on a press trip, or even a guided tour, will realise that these things can be lightning affairs, cramming a weekend’s sightseeing into an hour. And such is our run round the city in an SUV driven by a manic woman who knows literally EVERY fact about Montreal. The Olympic Satdium? “Roof is made of Kevlar”. That statue of Nelson down at the docks? “Faces the wrong way”, But our speedy and educational visits to the spectacular peak of Mount Royal to overlook the city, and across the mighty St Laurence river through the evocative, crumbling dock yards and the historic old town show us that this is a city that would certainly reward daytime visitors, as well as us night owls. And don’t forget, too, the French influence here is as palpable as garlicky breath. The women are beautiful, the people civilised, the food delicious, the subway is called the Metro and the reminders of French rule lurk everywhere - everyone is bilingual too. In fact this mix of past of present is a defining characteristic of the city. They love their heritage but they’re not standing still either. The city spawned Vice Magazine, The Stills, a whole array of 60s Modernist building techniques (including the famous underground city), and most weirdly of all - chips, gravy and cheese curd, which we gobble down after a night on the sauce. Our final stop then is five Metro stations down the line to the Parc Drapeau, on a beautiful forested river island - home of Montreal’s 1967 World’s Fair, its F1 Grand Prix circuit, and since 2008 the Osheaga Festival too. Over two nights we watch the Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Arctic Monkeys, Miike Snow, La Roux, Cursive, Girl Talk, and local superstars The Stills and Crystal Castles. And in between Osheaga’s bands we sit by the edge of the St Laurence River drinking beers, befriending local hipsters, getting invited to parties, basking in the sun and staring over at the Montreal skyline from behind the shade of the trees. Tres bien. FUTURE FESTIVALS IN MONTREAL SEPT 30 - OCT 4 2009 POP MONTREAL Francophone, Canadian, and international bands. http://popmontreal.com/ JAN 2010 IGLOO FEST The mercury may be dropping but temperatures will be rising at the third edition of the Igloo Fest. A hot lineup of electronic music featuring sizzling beats of renowned Canadian’s DJ's, plus US and UK legends. Revelers can dance away those winter blues during four trance-tastic nights at the Jacques-Cartier Pier. JULY 2010 INTERNATIONAL MONTREAL JAZZ FESTIVAL Over 500 shows, including 370 outdoor concerts take place in the heart of Downtown Montreal - Stevie Wonder headlined the 2009 Festival. AUGUST 2010 OSHEAGA Some 50 indie bands will take over Osheaga’s five stages. www.tourisme-montreal.org http://www.tourisme-montreal.org/Blogs/Nightlife Chris flew to Montreal with Air Canada and stayed at the Hyatt Regency Montreal
tags: | osheaga | montreal | crystal castles | the stills | yeah yeah yeahs | arctic monkeys | more...
KATY BETH OF PEGGY SUE ON PIRATES AND GRUMPY MUSIC
KATY BETH OF PEGGY SUE ON PIRATES AND GRUMPY MUSIC
17/08/2009
KATY BETH OF PEGGY SUE: On Pirates, Grumpy Music and the New Album They used to play gigs without actually knowing how to play any instruments at all. But recently they’ve played with big names like Laura Marling and Kate Nash, and they’re working on their debut with well-known producers John Askew and Alex Newport. Katy Klaw found time to chat about all things Peg-shaped… Weren’t you called Peggy Sue and the Pirates? Where have your pirates gone?? We did used to be called Peggy Sue and the Pirates. Basically it was Rosa [Rex, the other female vocalist] and I – we were a band for a couple of years, and we were called Peggy Sue and the Pirates. This time last year changed what we were doing a little bit, and we got a drummer. We started doing things a little bit more professionally, and probably what we should have done was change our name completely to avoid confusion, but we tend to do the less obvious thing by accident whenever possible. So what we actually did was to change it to Peggy Sue, become a three piece, and confuse lots of people. Ah. Thanks for that. I thought it might have been because Pete has pirates too, now. Anyway, how did Peggy Sue start? [Rosa and I] both from London, but we both moved to Brighton to study five years ago or something. We went to school together in London so we knew each other a little bit, and then while we were in Brighton we started a band together. How did it end up growing into what it is now? Definitely quite naturally to begin with but just, we saw it as we started being a band when we didn’t – we weren’t really ready to be a band at that point. The first gig we ever played, we only played 3 songs, and I think we’d written one that afternoon. We always threw ourselves in at the deep end and did stuff before we were ready! Neither of us could really play guitars – literally, we just used to play bass lines on the E-string and not do anything else. I don’t think it particularly held us back at that point. For those not in the know… How would you characterise your music? Errrr… I’m not very good at that! I dunno, it’s got… it’s definitely got a bit more grumpy, I think! I think the songs are a lot more interesting – mainly because we can play chords now! And Olly, our drummer, since he joined in the percussion element has become really really important to it. He writes really interesting drum parts, he doesn’t write the most obvious thing that you could write, and so the drums become a really important part. How does your creative process work? Pretty much how it works is that Rosa or I will write a song at home or wherever – or the seeds of a song, but usually three quarters of a song will be written and we’ll bring it to practice, and we’ll work through the song together and write the arrangements. It’s really fun, because when it was just Rosa and I it used to be just one of us would write a song and bring it to the other one, and we’d write harmonies on it, and maybe some finger clicks, but now we just have such an opportunity for the song to grow. How would you respond to claims that you were part of a folk revival, and in some ways similar to a band like Noah and the Whale? There’s always a tendency to group people into groups, and I’m more happy to be grouped into this group than I have been to be grouped into other groups in the past… but at the same time there isn’t that much similarity. I think hw it always tends to happen is that people make music that comes from a similar place but take it other places. That’s what – all those musicians, I have so much respect for, and I think they’re amazing, all of the young folk scene as it’s called – I really love a lot of that music, and I think that they’re doing something really interesting but they’re doing different things really interesting, and that’s why it isn’t a problem, and it’s quite nice. Also, we definitely have folk influences, it’s just we definitely have other influences as well. Your EP Lover Gone came out in May: how’s it gone? It’s good, we’re selling quite a lot on the road. But we’re finding it quite difficult to play Lover Gone in our set, because it’s really short and quite quiet, so we… We tend to play our set and then sell everyone a CD that has none of the songs that we played on it! We get in trouble, so we’ve been trying to work out how to expand it and make it longer and change it, but it just works well how it is. We did that EP ourselves, so there’s not that much pressure on it, we’ve just got a couple of hundred copies that are sitting in boxes in my house, and I post them out a couple every day. And we sell them at gigs and stuff. Big plans? What’s next? We’re finishing our album. At the moment, the plan is that it will come out at the beginning of next year, like the end of January or something. We went and recorded it in America, in New York, with two different producers who wanted to work with us. One of them is called John Askew, and we knew about him because he produced the first Dodos album that we listened to like all summer last year, so we approached him and said, ‘do you want to do some recording with us,’ and he was like, ‘yes please!’ The other guy is a guy called Alex Newport, he produced some of the Two Gallants... They’re both really good. And then we’re gonna finish it with – hopefully, if everything goes to plan, we’ve been waiting for our friend Steve who’s in Blood Red Shoes to finish their second album, and then he’s gonna come back and help us finish off the album in London. And future gigs…? We’re doing some touring in the autumn, we’re doing a couple of support shows with people and then we’re playing the ICA in November. That’s our big gig, I’m absolutely petrified of it, it’s really big! See Peggy Sue at the ICA on the 6 th November. Visit www.peggywho.com for more info. --Ellie Rose
tags: | peggy sue | katy beth | no more pirates anymore
G8HAUSMUSIK: A Dirty MP3 Blog
G8HAUSMUSIK: A Dirty MP3 Blog
06/08/2009
This is Ben Gatehouse. He has the best music taste. Here, he presents a selection of recent, fine, free-to-download music. What more do you want? He writes: Hey hey. So this is the first of what I hope will be a regular feature,where I try to find interesting music, that I hope you haven’t heard before! As this is the first one, I have a few tracks that I wanted to get off my chest from a few months back, so please forgive me if this cutting edge feels at all blunt - I like to leave room for improvement. Saaafe. Zs - Bump (Zebrablood remix) http://rcrdlbl.com/artists/Zs/track/Bump_Zebrablood_Remix Some people are doing some really terrible things with synths at the moment, which is why it's so refreshing to come across some straight up, repetitive percussion boom. Minimal instrumentation to the extreme, this would be boring as fuck if it wasn't for its intense muffled aesthetic. Put simply: the soundtrack to your favorite torture scene. [via RCRDLBL ] Zomby - One Foot Ahead of the Other EP http://expendableyouth.wordpress.com/2009/07/21/you-wouldnt-bring-sand-to-the-beach/ Despite Fact screaming Zomby's name loud and clear at the end of last year, it is only in the last couple of months that I've really begun to appreciate his off kilter dub step/acid house production. The single The Lie on Ramp records being my introduction. Here is his new EP on the same label and despite, in my opinion, not being as great as The Lie , I feel the it's worth a mention if only to bring your attention to the expendable youth blog, which consistently impresses with it's views, writing and taste. Oh, and the EP’s sleeve is designed by the annoyingly impressive Kate Moross . Damn her. [via Expendable Youth ] Candi Staton - Do Your Duty (Pepe Bradock Mix) http://fluokids.blogspot.com/2009/07/chippie.html This is kind of how I hoped Telepathe would have sounded; broken, brooding techno, with a distinguishable point. [via Fluo Kids ] Guy J - Lamur http://fluokids.blogspot.com/search?q=guy+j I originally thought I found this on the Binary Blog and wrote a pretty stupid comment branding them all perverts. Unfortunately, research showed it was actually from Fluo Kids. Turns out they're also perverts though. Result. Lamur is a track I could listen to on loop: subtle electronic instrumentation done so expertly it's almost impossible to dissect, so uplifting it could replace prozac. [via Fluo Kids ] Lil Silva & Maxwell D - Blackberry Hype (different) http://www.theheatwave.co.uk/blog/item/maxwell-d-vs-uk-funky/ Lil Silva – along with producers such as Roska and R1 Ryders – is pioneering the tougher, stripped-back UK funky sound and Lil's ‘Different’ is currently the track de jour, rinsed at Rinse FMs 15th Birthday at Matter last week. Here, on ‘Blackberry Hype’, Maxwell D adds some typically socially aware lyrics, and to pretty good effect too. [via The Heatwave ] If you make music or have anything worth listening to, please send me stuff via bengatehouse@hotmail.com . BEN G8HAUS
tags: | g8hausmusik | zs | zomby | candi staton | guy j | lil silva | maxwell d | free tings | more...
INTERVIEW: AUTOKRATZ
INTERVIEW: AUTOKRATZ
29/07/2009
As expected, the 1-2-3-4-Now Music Shoreditch Festival was just a fashion show for fucking retards with a few bands thrown in for good measure. Most bands were lucky not to get shot by renegade urban vets after pulling off pitch perfect impressions of having foot and mouth. Luckily autoKratz were there, and I got to talk to them for a bit, instead of being forced to try and comprehend the slurs of someone staggering around begging for more ketamine. Not to be confused with autoglass , they prefer to neither repair or replace (if you don’t get it don’t worry, neither did they), nor, apparently, remix. They told me this during what must have been the worst interview they have ever had. But I blame that on the rain and the fact that I had to write everything down in my Filofax like some frumpy yuppy in a field of trendy kids with iPhones as the droning CJD inspired music meant it was impossible to hear anything. So, first up, what’s up with the name and all the French referenced songs, like (the immense) Pardon Garcon and French Girls Play Guitar? Are they references to their label, the uber-cool Kitsune Maison? Russell Crank, who successfully dared to pull off a double denim look explained: “Not so much, it’s more a reference to the rich history of music from there that really gets us excited.” For those of you who aren’t aware of autoKratz, they are quite simply, one of the best acts around right now. They manage to be produce music which is both thoughtful yet banging at the same time, and in essence are reminiscent of a modern day Pet Shop Boys. Or Erasure. Who’s their favourite pairing? “Cannon and Ball! Cook and Moore!” grinned singer David Cox. Why not make a podcast, I asked. The answer – it was attempted but scrapped due to causing extreme offence. Sounds to me like Pete and Dudders would have approved. Those who actually got in to the techno tent on Sunday to see them were lucky, and as one of the major pulls of the event, they thrilled as such, even throwing in a cover of Primal Scream’s Swastika Eyes, their favourite band for when they’re on the road. One can only imagine that they’ll be listening to a lot of Primal Scream over the next few months as before the end of this year they will visit Australia for 5 dates with Busy P and Tiga, Japan with the Prodigy, as well as Mexico, LA and NYC. This weekend was a rare weekend off for them, “weekend off meaning not being on a plane”, smiled Russell.
DOOM: Behind the mask...
DOOM: Behind the mask...
25/06/2009
squirts posin' as thuggers an hustlers (el edo's??) closer than y'all ball huggers and jugglers For DOOM, hip hop’s masked supervillain, this is the pivotal point in his latest album BORN LIKE THIS . It’s the last line of CELLZ, which tells the story of a vividly violent apocalyptic world. It’s typical DOOM – dense imagery and wordplay that tells a fictional three-dimensional story that has symbolic bearing on the real world in which we live. ‘That line is my favourite. To me it translates to a representation of hip hop and how this whole gangsta thing that’s somehow infiltrated has watered it down and is reflected back to the children so you got young men growing up thinking that they can portray that image, which is impossible to do. It only leads you to incarceration and Death Row. Then there are the women who feel pressured to be a certain way and look a certain way and act a certain way,’ he says. ‘It kinda points the finger at them and says look – do what you feel you think you should be doing but the truth is the truth and the creator knows what you’re doing. You have to answer to Him eventually anyway.’ DOOM’s eloquence is exhilarating. He’s a self-professed stickler for grammar and his delivery – both in rap and conversation – is insightful and challenging. BORN LIKE THIS. has been hotly anticipated, his first full-length solo record for nearly five years. But he hasn’t always rapped in a metal mask under the guise of a get-rich-quick villain called DOOM. Underneath all that, and aside from his other alteregos of DOOM spin-off Viktor Vaughan, and a three-headed monster from outer space called King Geedorah, he’s a regular guy called Daniel Dumile. His hip hop career began as a rapper called Zev Love X who, with his brother Subroc, formed KMD in the late 80s. But tragedy struck when Subroc was killed in a car accident and KMD lost its contract with Elektra. Dumile disappeared for five years and emerged in 1998 as a masked supercriminal. Why did you decided to rap under fabricated personas? I stick to those old-school rules of rhyming where it’s all really creative. The things that people haven’t done are the things that are way out there, so I just go for the unbeaten path. What is the ‘unbeaten path’ moment on your album that you’re particularly proud of? GAZILLION EAR – the first song on the album. I always like to experiment with changing the beat and picking the rhymes so that particular song – that was a challenge for me. I wanted to do a song like back with Spoonie Gee and those guys who had records that were like seven minutes long and their rhyming took the whole record. I was aiming at that kinda feel but at the same time I keep a good description of what kinda guy the villain is. He’s a real go-getter – he’s got a get rich quick scheme going on so, I want to paint the picture at the beginning of the record of the type of character that this guy is, for those who are not familiar for him.’ It’s a pretty convincing picture. Do people ever confuse you with your supervillain alterego? It happens here and there. I think people typecast emcees in a way that if you’re a writer and you write rhymes that you gotta be the character that you’re talking about. You can’t write for another character even though in every other genre, from screenplays to feature films, writers write for other characters. But in hip hop, if you’re writing then you have to be that guy. I try to expand people’s minds a little bit more, especially in these times. That’s my contribution back, I guess – some creative thinking. I’m just showing these cats, look - it doesn’t have to be the way everyone says it has to be. New things come out every day and this is just a new side of hip hop. I have faith in the youth. I think most can wrap their minds around it. How do you stay in character? Some days it comes naturally. I make sure I keep a pen and a pad wherever I am so that when I do get an idea that’s geared towards any particular character I can write it down cos the flow’s in and out, know what I mean? Certain times when I’m on deadline and I really need to focus on one, I meditate up on it, get into a creative mode and it comes gradually. Creativity moves like a wave or a spiral. I compare it to surfing, so you try to ride that creative wave until you fall off and then you jump back on it again. Does the mask help? Are you wearing it now? Yeah I put it on here and there, know what I’m sayin’? But I think it’s more that the mask wears me. Does it all go a bit Jim Carrey sometimes? Yeah no doubt. You gotta be careful with that thing. It must be mad to have people so convinced by your character that it’s hard for them to see you as a real person underneath it all. I don’t wanna say I overdid it cos I guess it’s a good thing people are convinced. You didn’t mess about! Yeah I put everything into it – I’ll put all my heart in it and make it as convincing as possible. But I guess here and there I’ll put out a disclaimer so people don’t bug out too much. Why are you now just DOOM and have dropped the MF? It’s like dropping a title. You might be calling a guy Mr Henry but after a while he’s like, just call me John. This record’s more intimate to me. It’s a solo record and it’s being put out through major distribution so it’s like, yo, this is for people who wanna know the character or already know him. It has an up close and personal feel to it. So that’s why I said, just call me DOOM. You rap in BALLSKIN – ‘get beat in the head with lead-pipe languages’. Are you deliberately complex with your wordplay? Yeah – I try to make it as visual as possible just to carry the story well. Since we’re dealing with an audio format, you have to use your imagination, so I try and give it enough different analogies and perspectives so they can visualise what’s going on. That’s why your style is so exciting. What’s your take on the hip hop industry these days? I look at it like this; hip hop as a movement is constantly evolving. It stays pure in its form but when the industry gets involved, that’s when it gets watered down. You start dealing with offshoots that are called hip hop but are not really hip hop – the industry bunches it all into one thing and then a lot gets lost in translation. And when the industry gets involved, people are making money off it so you no longer have the focus of the art being the art. But that happens with everything and I always have faith that there’s a core audience and core group that’s still the pure, raw of it. There’s always people who want the correct translation. The track RAP AMBUSH and its images of ‘rhyme-propelled grenades’ is a scathing indictment on how things are, but is positive at the same time. No doubt. War’s an ugly thing and I superimpose what’s going on with the war with what’s going on in hip hop. It’s an invasion of an alien enemy into our land. That’s how I see it. People are putting out music that’s all about the money so the whole analogy is if this artform is like the oil and we’re trying to get control over it by invading it, then no one’s giving you that grassroots frontline team that’s gonna fight for it. We’ll get down and dirty and make it happen. I think it came out cool. Do you see your music as strictly art? How aware are you of the commercial aspect? It’s strictly art. I don’t pay attention to the commercial part as far as that being the determining factor in any of the creative process. I figure by now I know what I’m doing enough for the fans to hear it – I do it for me and I do it for the cats who know where I’m coming from and have like minds. If it can make me laugh and it’s speaking to me, then I know it’s speaking to someone else and it’s making someone else laugh. After that, the industry can look at it and they can figure out how to market it. But it’s already in its form. I don’t break the pattern. A real stand-out cut on the record is STILL DOPE with Empress Starhh. Where did you find her? She’s my homegirl from Atlanta. John Robinson [emcee from Scienz Of Life] introduced me to her. She’s a really lyrical girl and just as lyrical as I am, and I won’t say that about a lot of people. She’s very crafty with wordplay and she’s got a very fast vocabulary. I’m working on a record with her now, which should be out by the end of the year, so people can hear more of her. Are you coming to the UK anytime soon? I should be there. It’s gonna happen eventually. There’s a little bit of red tape but nothing too tough. It’s a matter of time, that’s all. What do you think about people saying there have been imposters behind the mask doing your gigs for you? I’m just a writer. I’ll put whoever I need to put as the main character. But sometimes people still think it’s not me and I’m like, it’s never me really. I’m me. He’s just the character. Whoever has the mask on is the character at the time. That’s a neat sidestep right there… I think we can do more with hip hop. People say it’s an imposter – it’s not. I know a guy – I hired him to do it. That ain’t an imposter! People need to expand their minds and they just have to get it. They get it when it comes to films. You can get anybody to play a part. When I’m on stage, it’s a show. Expect anything and everything but don’t expect to see me. Not that anybody knows what I look like anyway so even if it was me, people would still be saying it’s not me. Once people stop expecting to see the guy and get into the music and understanding it’s about the character. The person playing the character can always change. To have me jumping about on stage is just played out. Here’s hoping that you sort out that red tape business. Yeah I’ll definitely make my way out there. I might be in the crowd, I might be backstage… You never know. Words and Interview: Helene Dancer Extracted from Notion Magazine 39. To subscribe to Notion Magazine visit our subscriptions page . Notion Magazine is a bi-monthly (6-yearly) magazine, with an annual subscription priced at £18.99.
tags: | doom | doom interview | doom born like this | doom news | doom music | more...
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