The Toby Mearing Radio Show 27th March 2014

Parachute For Gordo - Ten Metres Per Second Per Second



Gordo was one of the first monkeys NASA fired into space (in a rocket of course!). Despite his nickname of  'Old Reliable', the Jupiter rocket he was in, was not. The capsule's parachute failed to open upon re-entry and poor Gordo was killed on impact, somewhere in the South Atlantic.

Parachute For Gordo have a tremendous live act - due in no small part to bassist John who is a lovely affable chap in real life but morphs into a demon-channelling maniac when he gets on a stage! Laura, guitar, is demure on the other side of the stage, whilst Johnny acts as some sort of a percussive referee on the trap set in the middle. It's a heck of an act so I was worried that their first album would just be a watered down version. Thankfully they have treated recording as an entirely different beast, and as a result this album is an absolute corker. It's a 'studio album' - no meandering and almost no shouting. So let me throw names of some other studio geniuses that sprang to mind as I listened - Slint, The Minutemen, live Soft Machine, Dif Juz, early PIL, Wire.

You can hear it below, so I won't blather on, but want you to note how the bass-led (and drum and bass-led now I think about it) passionate rampaging breaks down into areas of serenity where Laura is let off the leash with her beautiful arpeggiated webs. The second side of the vinyl is a spacerock epic which has this ascendant rush until, thankfully, the parachute DOES open for a gentle landing. The 2 digital bonus tracks are songs and reveal a sort of angular folk side that I wasn't previously aware of.

Quick mention for the stunning artwork by Karina Fraser - here she is hiding behind the gatefold FFS! 

Released as a limited edition of 250 on vinyl (I know they had a shitload of pre-orders so get your skates on if you want it on vinyl), and then all the usual digital doodads. Deets are on Bandcamp (below). Now have a listen because there are plenty of lovely surprises I haven't told you about...including track 1, don't miss track 1...

The Adventures of Alvin Sputnik - Aldershot - West End Centre 2nd April

It's a show about a tiny fella with a huge heart, who has to venture to the underworld at the bottom of the ocean to find his dead wife's lost soul, and try and save...everything. It's toured the world and been awarded every accolade.  Not suitable for under-10's but to children of all other ages it is magical.

Hiss Tracts - Halo Getters

Nice work by Godspeed You! Black Emperor projectionist Karl Lemieux.

Hiss Tracts have just signed to Constellation Records and this is a sample track from their forthcoming album.

TÝR - The Lay Of Our Love + tour dates

One of the great things about Heavy Metal is it is a place where the word 'excess' has no meaning, and I love them for that. Ok you can have someone with a lisp and a hoody barreling round the arse-end of urban decay, keeping it real. OR you can have a 5 mile high stone Angelina Jolie with large breasts; a jealous streak; and an ability to cause earthquakes. No competition! Folk Metal, operatic vocs and a killer gtr solo add to the magic

"makes me want to go out and mow the lawn, all angry and shit" as one of their fans put it!

Anyway, they are from the Faro Isles and have just swept the board at the Faroese Music Awards.

The album is called Valkyrja (Metal Blade records) and came out late last year

Their tour with Children of Bodom and Death Angel in the States still has a few dates left to go

3/21/2014 The Fillmore - Silver Spring, MC

3/22/2014 Theatre Of Living Arts - Philadelphia, PA

3/23/2014 House Of Blues - Cleveland, OH

3/24/2014 St. Andrews Hall - Detroit, MI

3/25/2014 House Of Blues - Chicago, IL

3/27/2014 Paradise Rock Club - Boston, MA

3/28/2014 Irving Plaza - New York, NY

3/29/2014 Irving Plaza - New York, NY

and this is what you can expect to see

Sasquatch - Smoke Signal + Euro Tour Dates

Stick with it, there're some nice twists a'comin

SASQUATCH Euro Tour 2014:

4/24/2014 Sala BeGood - Barcelona, ES

4/25/2014 Underworld (Desertfest) - London, UK

4/26/2014 Astra Kulturhaus (Desertfest) - Berlin, DE

4/27/2014 Arena - Vienna, AT

4/28/2014 Schlachthof - Wiesbaden, DE

4/29/2014 Feierwerk - Munich, DE

4/30/2014 E20 Underground -Montecchio, IT

5/01/2014 Milano, IT - Lo-Fi

5/02/2014 TBA - TBA

5/03/2014 15 Jahe Voice of Art - Hohenstein, DE

5/04/2014 Underground - Cologne, DE

5/05/2014 Markthalle - Hamburg, DE

5/06/2014 Goldmarcks - Stuttgart, DE

5/07/2014 Z 7 - Pratteln, CH

5/08/2014 Sojo's - Leuven, BE

5/09/2014 Glazart - Paris, FR

5/10/2014 Gaswerk - Winterthur, CH
Support is the Ultra Electric Mega Galactic (featuring Ed Mundell from Monster Magnet, Atomic Bitchwax).

You've heard these LA rockers on my shows but album IV is still available on Small Stone Records here (and this track 'The Message' is a doozy)

Collapse Under The Empire - Stairs To The Redemption

Eye-catching vid for this single from Hamburg postrockers

Nice work from director Dan Tassell.

The album 'Sacrifice and Isolation' will be out on May 23rd and pre-orders include 2 unreleased bonus tracks and are available on 21th March 2014 on the band’s website:

http://collapseundertheempire.com/shop/pre-order/

New Coke - Duct Tape Your Mouth EP

Loved their first single, and now we have the new one courtesy of the mighty Slovenly Records/Black Gladiator. I played 'I am drunk, I have a gun, I want names' in last weeks show but it turns out there is a promo vid so here it is

They're from the Garage R'n'B end of things BUT there's way more intricacy than normal. I'd swear there were two guitarists but there's only the one guy! The bass also careens all over the place. Gives them an 'expanded' sort of sound...punch & jangle...but also claustrophobic. Lyrics are very clever, but deeply disturbed, deviant, stressed and hateful!

I managed to find this footage of a fave of mine - so you can see that they can do this shit live

So go get

Update - found some gigs in Boston-

and York, PA

or just go say 'Hi' on FB

 https://www.facebook.com/pages/New-Coke/187258174646653

Bird People - King of the Grove

Yerevan Tapes do it again! Viennese Kosmische on a C40 cassette with the usual stunning artwork. Out 8 April on pale grey tape with photographic insert. A limited edition of 70 copies. The first side is very much the awakening, whereas the second side heads off into (head)space. There is mention of "Diana worship...sacred woods...fertility cult...The Golden Bough". It's beautiful stuff - check out the second side below
UPDATE - Release party for "King of the Grove" will be in Bologna on April 8 at Spazio Elastico

Right, the track-

Snarky Puppy 2014 Spring Euro Tour + killer vids

Hot off the press 

A further tour coming in the Summer as well.

If you don't know why this is big news, here's a vid from their new album/DVD. Every now and then one of them goes absolutely batshit crazy live and this is where Mr Larnell Lewis (drums) did it.



Incredible aren't they?

and here is Mr Shaun Martin playing one of the greatest Moog/Talk Box solos ever...

An unstoppable and brilliant band - good luck getting tickets, their US tour sold out fast.

The Mouth of Ghosts - Wrong

This EP came out at the weekend. Pitched at mainstream Portishead/Massive Attack fans but with a London, as opposed to Bristol, vibe. I didn't expect too much, but it's actually 4 hit singles! If I say that this is the weakest track on there, you'll have some idea of how good it really is...

The EP is called  'You Will Go Again From Me'. I've just realised that I liked and played their first single in the show as well. Expect to hear more...or buy here

http://mouthofghosts.bandcamp.com/

Husk - Indigo Mountain EP + Tour Dates

You heard them in this weeks show, and as luck would have it, all the details arrived today ha ha...sods law! Anyway here's the new EP...

and here is the rather spiffing Tour Poster

and here they are all the way from New Zealand 

 



The Toby Mearing Radio Show 17th March 2014

The Toby Mearing Radio Show 10th March 2014

Full Lotus - 4 hour DJ set - 11th April 2014 - Camden London

a fellow member of the prog/psych group of which I am a humble dust mite - these people were there, and know all of the good, bad and mentallo stuff. Unmissable therefore. I dust might go {sorry couldn't resist that one}

Brainsqueeze II - 18-20 April 2014

genius

 

Black Crack - Muff - I've said enough

"Mark Tilton's new outfit proved to be a weapons-grade garage rock outfit. Tremendous set ... special mentions for a) great lyrics (and you know how rare it is for me to say that) although, frankly, any former Membrane guarantees this, and b) a killer lead guitarist who played some spectacular and original breaks (put me in mind of Robert Quine but without sounding like him...yes THAT good)"

Chairman Gums

On Now-

"I don't want brilliant artists to be recognised after they are dead. I want them to know that they are correctly valued, while they are alive. I don't want people like tony blair to be judged by history. I want them to be judged now, and if found guilty, to face the appropriate disgrace and punishment. I want ordinary people to be ok now. I don't want their lives ruined and history to say 'well actually that shouldn't have happened'. That is simply not good enough."

On ATOS being awarded the contract for NHS records -

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha 'beleagured' ha ha ha ha they've milked the dwp joke-contract for all it was worth. Then they walk away with the millions, without any accountability for the murderous, negligent, persecution of our most fragile peop...le...because our civil service hand these bastards the money without...well actually they just give them the money. The next thing is 'getting the dirty on you'...blackmail, economic terrorism...so guess where the flaw is in this NHS policy? They can sell your personal problems, worries, secrets, illnesses, that your doctor has tried to help you with personally...to businesses! Ha ha ha ha. You probably work in a company? Would you trust them with your personal private life? NO, of course you wouldn't. Atos have fucked up the disabled, and now they've been handed the same lucrative opportunity to do the same to everyone else."

On bees-

"tiny dust bumbleships in pollen leggings. Have you ever sat by a watersource they've identified for honey-assisting? in my case it was a piss-ridden drain, for years. They fly in every year. They don't bother you. They operate outside of the food chain. They operate outside of science. They are just humming around here helping, and trusting we will all be here next time."

On cheating-

"for real cheats and real savings have a look at the top - politicians expenses, banking crisis, LIBOR scandal, newspaper scandals, bbc scandals, corp tax avoidance etc. Nail just one rich cheat and you've paid for ALL the poor ones. We're being misdirected...and persecuting the disabled is a policy straight out of the nazi handbook."

Hannah Arendt (October 14, 1906–December 4, 1975)

"The greater the bureaucratization of public life, the greater will be the attraction of violence. In a fully developed bureaucracy there is nobody left with whom one could argue, to whom one could present grievances, on whom the pressures of power could be exerted. Bureaucracy is the form of government in which everybody is deprived of political freedom, of the power to act; for the rule by Nobody is not no-rule, and where all are equally powerless we have a tyranny without a tyrant."

Damn she was good. On the types of power (from "On Violence" 1970) - "These definitions coincide with the terms which, since Greek antiquity, have been used to define the forms of government as the rule of man over man—of one or the few in monarchy and oligarchy, of the best or the many in aristocracy and democracy, to which today we ought to add the latest and perhaps most formidable form of such dominion, bureaucracy, or the rule by an intricate system of bureaux in which no men, neither one nor the best, neither the few nor the many, can be held responsible, and which could be properly called the rule by Nobody. Indeed, if we identify tyranny as the government that is not held to give account of itself, rule by Nobody is clearly the most tyrannical of all, since there is no one left who could even be asked to answer for what is being done. It is this state of affairs which is among the most potent causes for the current world-wide rebellious unrest."

The Toby Mearing Radio Show 3rd March 2014