Slow Songs For Fast Hearts

Liking, lately.

I’ve been seeing a lot of bands lately, ace. Though, I’m pretty sure I’m starting to go a bit deaf. Price you pay I guess…And no, I don’t think I’ll start wearing ear plugs, and yes, I know I should.

Here are a few that I’ve heard recently that are totally worth looking out for:

The Ethical Debating Society. These guys played at our Younger Lovers show at the Dew Drop in July. I’d been hearing about them for a while, but this was the first time I’d seen them, and they did not disappoint! I think probably someone like Everett True has already compared them to Huggy Bear, but suffice to say, they did British Riot Grrrl more than enough justice, and got everyone well in the mood.

Fever Fever is a band I just saw last Friday at Ste McCabe’s Queer Riot night at the Royal Vauxhall Tavern. They’re a 3 piece from Norwich, with call and response lovely shouty vocals from the two girls, plus wicked, pretty heavy guitar playing from both of them, and perfect punk drumming from their bandmate. I was blown away. Loved the way they interacted with the audience too, I’m so sick of performers pretending to be awkward, and it was ace to see some funny girls on stage. (thanks to Kris Ethical Debating Society for the photo from last week’s RVT show).

Bitches I saw on the Sunday of last weekend’s Upset the Rhythm festival, Yes Way. They were in fact the first band I saw, so were always probably gonna stick in my mind, but I loved the hardcore way they both played their instruments, chaotic, loud, and kind of mean, actually.

No Womb – the jury is still out as to what I think about this band at the moment, beyond the fact that they were one of the most interesting that I saw at Upset the Rhythm, and that they were also largely responsible for making me just that little bit deafer. Free noise? No wave? Experimental punk? Great cover of the Smiths “What Difference Does it Make”.

Finally, Meddicine. Who I have never seen, but am avidly keen to…I love both her sound and her aesthetic, it reminds me of this amazing exhibition I saw at Tate St Ives last winter, “The Dark Monarch: Magic & Modernity in British Art”. Kind of arcane and disturbing.

Posted 15 days ago | By Melissa |
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The Younger Lovers...postscript

I discovered that Upset the Rhythm made a video at the Younger Lovers show I put on with my friend Len last month.

I just wanted to point out that contrary to what the blurb at the bottom of the video says, it wasn’t at a “London House Party”, rather, we were very generously given use of the Dewdrop Squat in Battersea by the people who live there & run the space.

Generally the Dewdrop hosts punk benefit shows and the like, and they’ve been running the space for a couple of years now. I wanted to give credit where credit’s due, cos squatting a space like this isn’t easy (especially nowadays) and Len and me wanna say THANKS to the punx at the Dewdrop for letting us do this gig. Also thanks heaps to all our friends who helped us by cooking food, running the bar, DJing til the wee hours, and dancing and generally made the show amazing. DIY or DIE.

And obvs, thanks so much to Michal Local Kid for giving us the chance to put them on, so much fun!!!

Upset The Rhythm TV Episode #2: The Younger Lovers from Charles Chintzer Lai on Vimeo.

Posted 31 days ago | By Melissa |
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Brontez Purnell

Saturday 10th July @ the Dew Drop, London, 8pm £5
The Younger Lovers with support from The Bumblebees and The Ethical Debating Society, with DJs including a set by Woolf + Zines + vegan food & cakes. Queer punk DIY fun!
The Dew Drop, 58 Stewarts Road, London SW8 4DE
Buses: P5 and N87, nearest overland Wandsworth

The Younger Lovers is fronted by Brontez Purnell, formerly of Gravy Train!!!!, and creator of Fag School zine, as well as current columnist for Maximum RocknRoll.

As well as being a musician and a dancer and probably many other things, Brontez is a writer. I love reading his pieces in zines like Shotgun Seamstress and Maximum RocknRoll, partly because he’s just so damn uncompromising in terms of his personality, his politics and his opinions. Plus he’s smart and passionate. I’m totally into passionately written pieces. I hate reading things which, while sound in their politics, are just so wrapped up in “how” they’re written, or what words they’re choosing that it’s just kind of dead on the page, and barely creates a spark in me. Brontez probably wants this issue to be done and dusted now, but I just have to post this link which I found one time while looking stuff up about him. His response to a situation in which a member of the band Black Lips was racist, is amazing. It’s interesting to read the comments that come after it too, the first one implying that the grammer and spelling is wrong. Oh god. Typical come back whenever someone of colour or a queer or feminist or whatever has a completely justified, passionate rant. That kind of “your grammer was wrong” argument is just like a bloodless fish to me, where’s your goddamn pulse, mate?

Anyway, The Younger Lovers is a garage punk band, with a kind of retro sound, like, I want to say 60s girl group, but don’t really know why. The Newest Romantic LP was recently released, which features great songs such as:

The Younger Lovers – Kiss me on the Bus

which just make you feel happy to be queer, and you can hold hands with your friends, sauntering down the summer street listening to it.

The Younger Lovers is gonna be amazing, I can’t wait.
QueerPunxOfColour 4everxxx

Posted 66 days ago | By Melissa |
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Woolf

Sounding like the meeting point between Young Marble Giants and DIY hardcore, Woolf are more uncategorisable than other new London bands playing the queer/indie/punk circuit at the moment, but nevertheless this is a band comprised of members of other bands from these scenes: Roseanne Barrr, Corey Orbison, Gender Fascist & NZ girl punk band Toxic Shock Syndrome, among others.

The name “Woolf” kind of makes me think of serious, book reading, woods-walking girls with a penchant for fierce animals and whiskey drinking. Which kind of describes the music pretty well, actually.

Woolf have a sort of “offness” and an awkwardness about them, which at first I put down to the idea that maybe the band members (Colette on vocals, Sophie on drums, Georgina on guitar & Irene on bass) were all perhaps bringing their own idea of what sort of music Woolf should be playing; this was a new band after all, and I wondered if there was a bit of a schism between the “punk” and the “experimental”. After seeing a few of their shows, however, I realised this was the point of Woolf, they exude a no-wave, dark punk sound which resists categorisation and provides a challenging listen. When they’re on, their “off” is amazing.

The last show I saw them at (Brighton Queer Mutiny at the Cowley Club), their timing was spot on and the menace & often anti-climactic bad-mood, ellipticism was perfectly evoked. (You probably don’t know me, but let me tell you, “anti-climactic, bad-mood, ellipticism” is a very good thing). Most of their songs leave you unsettled. A few, like “December” are out-and-out girlpunk, and easier to get your head around.

Colette’s vocals are outstanding. “Witch” is my favourite – “I met you…in Dulwich woods”...What is this song about? Dunno, but south London never sounded so creepy.

Woolf are playing next at Club Milk, along with Bellies, Covergirl, Drunk Granny & Peepholes. So go see what I mean. They have a tape you can buy too.

Posted 92 days ago | By Melissa |
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Trash Kit's new video

London 3 piece Trash Kit released their self-titled album last month, and here is the first video from that album.

Cadets – Trash Kit

Trash Kit – Cadets from Upset The Rhythm on Vimeo.

Trash Kit could recently be seen playing at the Matt Groening-curated ATP, and will be opening for the Raincoats tonight, who will be playing their first album in its entirety at Scala. Seems they are the go-to band of the moment, and watching them play, it’s easy to see why. Not having listened to their new album yet, I have to be lazy and provide you with Upset the Rhythm’s review

Posted 107 days ago | By Melissa |
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