Dan Deacon @ White Heat (Madame Jojo's), August 29. Having yawned through yet another lacklustre set of tired, annoyingly chirpy indie from the Video Nasties, and having progged-out to the large yet spiky sounds of Late Of the Pier, most of the crowd attending White Heat on Tuesday were outside, sitting on the kurb on Brewer Street, enjoying a cigarette. This was when Keith (manager of the aforementioned bands, hero to the suburban scene kids, an the much revered founder of the Wayoutwest night, which hosted, among others, Jamie T, The Mystery Jets, Fear of Flying, and the aforementioned Video Nasties and LOTP.) emerged from Madame Jojo's to announce, in his slightly paternal, soft-spoken yet powerful manner that 'You all have to come inside, Dan Deacon's on in a minute!' The sweaty basement room packs out, really packs out. Ambient noises come from all directions, but as far as this reviewer can remember, ambient sound doesn't generally consist of a bone-sawing electronic screech. A lurid green skull lights up in the centre of the stage, and we're off. Apocalypse rises. Chaos descends. Veering between screaming feedback and the most garbled synth sounds this side of the end of time, between the deathly plod of a singular beat and the most crowded, syncopated d n' b in existence, Dan Deacon somehow manages to control the raging jugernaut he himself has created. Leaving the crowd no rest from their wild flailing, he makes us, and himself, sweat. Alot. The skull turns to face us, our faces aflame with its lurid green strobing, and Deacon wades into the crowd. We are permitted a rest from the unrelenting march towards death, in the form of a dance off between audience members, initiated by the chant 'Harry Potter Book six smoked weed every day!', and a sing along, with the help of lyric sheets. When the full force of Deacon cracks back in, we thought we were spent. Oh no. Having brought us judgment day, Deacon now brings all-encompassing love. Chordant tones rise, there's a first and a fifth in pure sine wave, progression from cadence to cadence, somehow climbing ever upwards. He sings, we sing. Suddenly the audience jolts. They are sitting on the curb on Brewer Street again, lit cigarette in hand. Did any of that actually happen?
Reviewed by Patrick "PAT" Rolfe (As rule we at Random Access don't really hate the Video Nasties, we just accidentally insult various band members when drunk..sorry if you read this).
www.dandeacon.com
www.myspace.com/dandeacon

WHY I LOVE KATE NASH.

Cor blimey, it’s been a while since I’ve written anything. I best restore some kind of balance to Random Access. Call me lazy, but…well…Big Brother’s zapping every ounce of inspiration in my body. That and my Ipod’s broken. HOWEVER, there is one record that’s spinning on repeat, over and over, without ever becoming tiresome. Love her or hate her, that Kate Nash has gone and made a ruddy good album and brightened up my week. I’m not one to lie, the stubborn ‘Lily Allen-copyist’ thought has crossed my mind in the past; but as recent single Foundations and now album Made of Bricks has proved to me, Nash is the real deal. Combine cute piano tunefulness, with a sparkle of electro/R&B drum riffage, with a voice that could melt the stoniest of hearts and you’ve got Made of Bricks. An album as honest and endearing as any album I’ve heard in the past 10 years, it's possibly the brightest, most accomplished debut album I’ve heard post Monkeys. And as Mouthwash, We Get On, and Birds prove, there’s plenty of chart life left post-Foundations. Love her or hate her, this lady will be the inescapable face of British pop for the next few years.
But the best thing about 2007's greatest success story? Now our musical landscape finally boasts a handful of genuine heart-on-sleeve Popstars, we can finally embrace British pop music for what it is without worrying about Simon Cowell's latest shit stain. From the spiky/heartfelt pop of Jack Penate, to the rugged genre trip that is Jamie T, these unlikely pop superstars are real people, with real ideas, and real stories who have done it the really fucking hard way.

Lazy? Tell me you’ve never read anything of the sort anywhere else over the past week...

errr...

Summer Sundae Smile Part 2
The second part of the Random Access Club's list of things which we are listening to this summer, it's not the most up to date list of tracks but still full of quality. Click on the tracks to download them (you may have to wait 20 secs or so for the download to start but the tracks are definitely worth the wait), then if you like the tracks the buy stuff by the artists please :)

Girl Talk - Friday Night (website)
Best track off 'Night-Ripper', probably our favourite mash-up of the summer... yes, we know it was released last year but we're just slow...It just uses some great samples, particularly the use of the Waitresses track.

Lo-Fi Culture Scene - Catch 22 (myspace)
Great new song by one of the best new bands around (check out the interview we did with them a couple of posts back). This is a new track which is available to download off their myspace, a really promising set of lads from North London.

Deerhunter- Strange Lights (buy)
I don't really know much about this band (well I do but I'm tired and can't be bothered to type much more- ed), all we know is that is quality. Lovely melty guitars, perfect to walk into the sun to.

Hugo Montenegro and his Orchestra - Summer Samba
A lovely little bossa nova to listen to whilst watching the sun go down on some exotic beach.

Pavement - Gold Soundz
Perhaps my favouritest summer track ever in the history of the world, mainly because it has one of the best Malkmus lyrics ever: "so drunk in the august sun and your the kind of girl I like, because your empty, and I'm empty ,and you can never quarantine the past". It's also my favourite track off my favourite album by one of my favourite bands. (website)

Random Access Sunny Sundae Smile
It's August and I've got that writer's itch at the moment so I thought I'd do a little post about some tracks we at the Random Access Club have been listening to and digging this summer. Some of the links require you to wait a bit, but be patient for musical goodness (and if you like the songs go and buy album's buy the artist as the songs are posted for sampling use only!!!)

1. Chromeo - Tenderoni (Mstrkrft remix)
So let's start with perhaps the most listened to track this summer at RAC headquarters.(not the Royal Automobile Club obviously)....Chro-me-o-o-o-o-o! The new remix of Tenderoni by Mstrkrft is totally off the hook as someone more fashionable than us might say. If it doesn't get your motor running then it's time to buy a bigger car. Great track to party all night to.

2. Annuals - Brother (Buy Annuals tracks here)
Listening to Annuals just instantly puts our mind at ease and new-ish single 'Brother' builds nicely on the reputation they earned after releasing the Big Zeus ep. The Arcade Fire comparisons have been made too many times, it's just lazy journalism really, the music is ace and that's all that should be said. Good track to watch the sun go down to.

3. Beat Happening - Indian Summer (if you like Buy this track here please)
This song reminds us of being kids on one of those seemingly endless late august days, spending the afternoon in the park playing cowboys and indians and doing rolly-pollies on the grass. Okay, enough nostalgic ramblings, it's an ace track with a lo-fi Velvet Underground style drone and Calvin Johnson's seemingly all-knowing baritone over the top. Great track to sip ribena to on a summer's afternoon and think about being young

4. Black Lips - Not a Problem (buy Los Valientes del Mundo Nuevo here please)
Random Access was first turned onto this band by our old friend George (now in San Fran, good luck to him). now usually we're not too into garage rock revival things, however; the Black Lips just exude a sense of blood, sweat and scuzziness in every note they play. Hailing from Atlanta, Georgia the band become infamous amongst those with the more fashionable haircuts for their shambolic and often outrageous live show. This cut is taken from the quite exquisite live album 'Los Valientes del Mundo Nuevo' which was recorded in Tijuana, Mexico. This track is perfect for bare knuckle brawls in beer gardens.

Tales of the Jackalope - Kimberley Hall, Norfolk, August 4th- 5th

Will Holloway traveled into deepest, darkest Norfolk to seek new music and attempt to stay standing for the 24 hour music festival….

For 24 hours the grounds of Kimberley Hall became the centre of new music in Britain, playing host to a line-up of bands who will define generations with their music. Set in the grounds of a picturesque country manner overlooking a lake and surrounded by lush forest, Tales of the Jackalope, in its short history has developed a reputation for bringing together the bands who are on the tip of wider commercial success or at the least, acknowledgement from the mainstream press. Last year featured headliners such as the Horrors and the Klaxons who didn’t do too badly this year, anyway, the question on everybody’s lips was who was going to be the band to break in 2008. The atmosphere at the festival was perhaps as good as it could be, and as the sun shone, 3000 curious locals and Shoreditch haircuts mingled happily in a field which boasted 4 tents of live music and DJs. Initially the idea was to see as many bands as possible, however, due to scorching weather (and a rather large intake of cider) the need for a siesta under a shady oak took priority over seeing many of the bands who played in the early afternoon. A knock to my attempts at professional reporting. Refreshed from a wonderful slumber however, I decided to set off to investigate what the various stages of music had to offer. The first band I stumbled upon was Conan and the Mockasins who really suffered from having such an early slot in the day. Barely 30 people watched them play , although I’m sure Conan’s cartoon-like vocals over the top of dusty 60s sounding backing endeared a few people to their cause, especially during the wonderfully titled track ‘Sneaky Sneaky Dog Friend‘. I traveled to the other stage to catch a bit of Lightspeed Champion’s set and found Dev’s folk-lite songs rather samey and drab, new single ‘Galaxy of the Lost’ wasn’t so bad though but was not enough to distract me from a rumbling stomach, so I joined the seemingly endless cue for the one food outlet on site, which sold an array of disappointing foods with exotic names, I purchased what was billed to be a sausages and tomato pickle bomb, what I got was in reality a scotch egg with ketchup in the middle, this would have left me on a downer had it not been for the presence of member of These New Puritans in the queue a bit in front of me, seeing a group of young men as fashionable as them queuing up with us regular people for a pasty seemed pleasantly surreal. Next up were Ox. Eagle. Lion. Man who played a spirited set given the circumstances, singer Frederick lost his voice towards the beginning of their set, it’s his dulcet and characteristic baritone which gives their music a bit of ‘je ne c’est quoi’ or as the French say ‘that certain something’. When Fred gets his voice back the band are sure to do well for themselves in the near future. Nottingham’s Neon Plastix were quite fun, their ravey keyboards and lashings of cowbell got the late afternoon jumping about happily, the band’s appearance was quite confusing though, the rhythm section looked like members of a hardcore band who had stumbled onto the wrong stage, the rest of the band being dressed in a multi-colored patterned t-shirts. Then came time for the main course: Late of the Pier , they have talent in abundance, dance-steps aplenty and tunes which even the most po-faced, skinny jean wearing ,bowl cut boy has to grin and dance to. Their set included the synth-laden sounds of ‘Broken‘, ‘Space and the Woods‘ and new single ‘Bathroom Gurgle‘ all of which could become future club smash hits. Their set left me with a huge smile plastered across my face, the evening was only topped by actually meeting the band who were all rather lovely fellows. After another drinks break on a conveniently placed log sipping on a beer we stumbled across These New Puritans, and what a sight they were; stood on stage like contorted statues, bold, unwavering and eerie. Singer Jack Barnett seemed in a trance as he spewed his hyper literate lyrics, and preaching to an invisible flock, whilst the backing section played uncompromising accompaniment of industrial grade noise behind him. I was certainly converted to whatever musical religion they were espousing. Then the sun went down and everyone seemed to become a lot more happy and understanding, I couldn’t say why of course, perhaps it was because the moon was up, stars adorned the sky and the grounds were cloaked in a spectacular sheet of fog. This proved a perfect backdrop to Errors atmospheric electro, tracks like ‘Mr Milk’ and ‘Hans Herman’ seemed to click in perfectly around midnight. Chromeo really knew how to get the crowd in the mood for dancing, P Thugg and Dave 1’s blend of 80s influenced electro funk got everyone partying, ‘Needy Girl‘ got the best reception but ‘Tenderoni‘ was almost as well received. As amazing as it was to see the Queen of the Ed Banger crew in the flesh, Uffie seemed shattered on stage and her performance lacked her usual cocksure attitude and spiky stage presence. DJ Feadz’s electro backing was too quiet to really enable effective booty shaking. Still hearing tracks like ‘Hot Chick’ and ‘Brand New Car’ in the flesh was still a great experience. As we left the giant inflatable dome where Uffie was playing we heard the familiar math-rocking sounds of Foals in the distance and headed over to watch the second half of their set which included versions of ‘Hummer’ and ‘Matheletics’ which made us dance like clockwork toys. After their set my contingent and I made a beeline to the dance tents to try and dance to the various superstar DJs the festival had to offer including remix king Kissy Sellout and DJ Mehdi, however; by 5:30am finding somewhere warm to pass out was the main priority so we trudged back along the stately home’s seemingly endless driveway in search of a warm bed. Driving back in a taxi heading in Norwich’s direction and watching the blood orange sun rise over the East of England, thoughts turned to who the bands destined for bigger thing were. Even in the frazzled semi-conscious state I found myself in, the answer was simple, hands down the best band of the day was Late of the Pier, the sheer inventiveness of their music and the tenderness of their years means that the world is their variety of sea food for the foreseeable future, other bands who deserve honorable mentions are These New Puritans, whose music is as powerful as it is unnerving, Foals and Errors also both gave good showing of themselves. I headed to bed happy in the knowledge that new music in Britain was in a healthier state than ever before.

Bright Young Things- They’re supporting Bloc Party and can’t even get into their own school’s battle of the bands , they’ve played in front of thousands and still don’t get recognized at school, Oh yeah and these guys are still only 13.

If ever there was a band who embodied the current musical climate it would be Lo-Fi Culture Scene. They’ve only been properly playing for 7 months, they’ve played only 4 gigs but they’ve being touted as the next big thing and are being trailed by a host of major labels. Even more extraordinary given the band have a combined age of 65 (that‘s between 5 of them). Still we ought to be used to this sort of thing by now. After all, the Kooks, one of the most successful bands of recent years, were signed after only 10 gigs. Despite their young age, the band are keen not to be viewed as merely a novelty band, as some sections of the media have come to view them. Time Out recently referred to them as ‘midget imposters‘ which the band are slightly embarrassed about, “It’s annoying, we’d rather people talk about our music rather than our height”. Still they shouldn’t worry about being over hyped as it’s their music that differentiates them from their elder peers. It contains the youthful energy of the Arctic Monkeys, the longing of the Libertines mixed with the emotional clarity of Bloc Party. When asked about influences it is hardly surprising that the three above bands were mentioned, but their influences don’t stop there “every time we see a band that we like live we suddenly start writing stuff like theirs. We’re seeing Cajun Dance Party tomorrow night so we’ll probably go and write songs influenced by them“. This is certainly one of the defining features of a new generation of bands, the likes of Cajun Dance Party, Bombay Bicycle Club and Kets who are as influenced by each as they are by anyone else, spurring each other onwards. These bands all played at the massively influential All Ages Clubnight, events where young people of any age could go and watch bands without fear of being asked for Id. In fact at the All Ages summer festival you have to be under 18 to get in. Lo-Fi attribute much of the band’s rise to the advent of the club, particularly when they played alongside Foals and Shy Child at Kings College, but they admit that the club is now a victim of its own success, and is now more of a “social thing“. Still despite having played in front of thousands, they are still relatively unknown in their own school, “we’re not very big in our own school, we just got rejected from our school’s battle of the bands contest”, even more extraordinary considering the fact that they are supporting Bloc Party soon and are due to play higher on the bill at the Truck Festival than more established bands such as Blood Red Shoes and Pull Tiger Tail. Despite the hype surrounding the band they are in no rush to get signed and join the to crazy carousel that is the music business. Who can blame them given the fact that the average shelf life of a band these days is measured in months. “We don’t want to sign to a label for another 5 years, and only then for one billion Dollars!” says singer Jacob mischievously. This figure may not be as ludicrous as it seems given the fact that schoolmates of theirs, Cajun Dance Party recently signed a deal reputed to be over a million with XL records. “We’re just going to keep writing, practicing and gigging, we don’t want to peak too early“. And perhaps most importantly, “we’ve got GCSEs in two years time“.

So what does the future hold for these bright young things? The band are going into the studio next month with acclaimed producer John Fortis to record some new material but they aren‘t anxious to release anything in the near future, “We might release an ep on our own label or something”. They would like to tour with other teen sensations Poppy and the Jezebels. When pressed about potential inter-band romancing the band became quite coy, “Maybe…, they’re really nice and cool, we’d like to do a gig with them”.

www.myspace.com/theloficulturescene


Will Holloway

ps Big Hello to Greg, the newest member of the Random Access Team

The best band in the world you’ll never hear.

Glastonbury is all about the hidden treasures. Spontaneous DIY gigs, supergroups, naked hippies with huge cocks, rabbit holes with Alice in wonderland esque characters popping out to scare you, silent cinema tents you can fall asleep in, pirate ships…I could ramble on for hours like a naked hippie on pills. While NME and every other publication raved about hidden gems, The Hold Steady, The Gossip, Cajun Dance Party, Remi Nicole, Los Campesinos!, there was only one band for me that made me want to leap for joy in a “I was there and you weren’t” kind of way (because that’s what everyone does these days). The band I’m referring to is the grossly underrated New Pornographers, a band that sells fuck all records but will revitalise your faith in pop in one listen, the best band in the world you will probably never hear. The New Pornographers play the kind of intelligent pop music you didn’t think exist anymore; each song a giddy rush, full to the brim with Shins esque soaring vocal harmonies and musicianship that both explores, innovates and pushes the boundaries of pop and remains inside them. Their last album, Twin Cinema, was met with the type of critical acclaim only reserved for The White Stripes; an album that stands tall from beginning to end, it transformed the band from a band you liked to a band you could not live without. And I thought they were just good on CD. The tightest, rawkest half an hour I witnessed that weekend, it was criminal they didn’t get more press coverage, during and after. Why not? Maybe the BBC was too busy with the Magic Numbers, or NME too caught up with Cajun Dance Party, whatever the reason, they missed out. And for that…The New Pornographers were the best band of Glasto that no one heard. Balls.

LES SAVY FAVOURITES

Hello again, it's raining outside and i'm bored, so i surfed the internet a bit and looky what i found...new LES SAVY FAV!!!!!!!! Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeey! For those of you who have no idea who they are, I suggest you go outside and bash your head with some shrubbery then go inside and purchase their whole back catalogue. They are perhaps the best live band in the world, no fuck it, they are the best live band in the world! Tim Harrington is a human embodiment of le sex and bassist Syd Butler is a lovely man who once replied to one of my emails. Anyway if you want some idea of what they're the watch this:



Now I've whetted your appetite, i have good news for all you LS Favvers out there, the band have a new album out on the 1st October called 'Let's Stay Friends' on Wichita Records. W00t! W00t!
Even better then that, they've released their first 'single' for download on the Frenchkiss Records Website (thank you). It's called The Equestrian and you can download it: here