Paperjam

Every year we pop along to the festival in Coventry's Memorial Park, and even if we don't get to see much in the way of bands because of tents stuffed full of people and ah, we're a bit lazy, it's always enjoyable.

This years line-up has been announced, finally, along with the sponsor: PSA Peugeot Citroën.

Not entirely sure if this is out of guilt, or just taking the piss.

Anyway, Jim has already mentioned that Super Furry Animals are playing the main stage on Saturday night, along with inevitable appearances from The Ripps and The Enemy.

I'm looking forward to the daft local "your mum smells of Nuneaton" hiphop battles and KRS-One making like the sound of the poh-leeece in the Spotlight Tent on Saturday, plus the Human League strapping on their zimmer frames for a dash through their 80s electro-pop hits (although please god, not "Lebanon" or bloody "Human") and maybe a bit of their 70s pre-fame weirdness (go on, play "Circus of death", and "Path of least resistance... please?).

While we're talking about bands beginning with "The", there's been ever such a fuss about the new stuff from Cornish techno type Brian Tregaskin, recording as The Tuss.

A EP called "Confederation Trough" appeared on Rephlex a while back, and everyone (no, really - everyone) who listened to it went, hmmm, that sounds quite a lot like Aphex Twin in general, and the recent acid-splattered Analord series to be specific. And you say this chap is Cornish? And it's out on Rephlex, where all those lovely AFX tracks have come from the in past? Could it be that The Tuss is Richard D James?

Wait there, Sherlock. The battle has opened up on the Myspace front, with a load of sites springing up: Karen Tregaskin, Patrick Tregaskin, and the apparent ringleader Brian Tregaskin, who in one short but bitter blog post had a go at the Guardian's Louis Pattison, who wrote a lovey-dovey article about the whole affair ("Dancing in the dark"), calling him a "twat" and demanding a retraction.

So now I'm writing about it, and the two of you reading about this now know about it, and there's been oh-so-very-much discussion on the internet in various forums, as you might expect, and it's all cleverly building up to the release of the 6-track LP, coming out later this month. Ah, they got me, the clever marketing bastards.

It's a bit childish, but it's got lots of people talking, and it's a bit mysterious and pop-starr-y. RDJ seems like an enigma, he doesn't do much in the way of interviews, and when he does, he doesn't really give much away, unlike all the identikit indie-pop types.

So what about the music? Oh, that old thing.

Well "Confederation Trough" is ok - "GX1 Solo", named after the amazingly rare and massive Yamaha synthesiser that Abba used on "Lay all your love on me", is a bunch of wanky bollocks, if you can ear-visualise that, but "Alspacka" and "Fredugolon 6" are rather better bits of spannered analogue electronic fun, packed full of ideas, like a entire series of "Why don't you?". Having said that, they doesn't reach the emotional heights of the "Analord" series ("Home made polysynth", "Pissed up in SE1", "Crying in your face", "I'm self employed").

Back in Myspace-land Brian Tregaskin has denounced the recent leak of the upcoming "Rushup Edge" as a fake, claiming that the track on the Myspace player, "Teddy Oggle" is really from the album. I hope so - it's great, really warm and wonky - as if your little sister has been misusing the belt from your dad's record player to bind together her collection of scary dolls, like some sort of glamorous plastic miniature death camp. To me, it sounds like A**** T*** at his best, conjuring up a dense atmosphere and emotion from the control voltages.

Whatever - even if The Tuss doesn't turn out to be that same bloke that made "Didgeridoo" it's another chapter added to the myth.

Super Furry Animals/Notting Hill offshoot The Peth have been teasing us all with the marvellous Lets Go Fucking Mental for a while. I have to admit that I thought it was cheekily entitled Lets Go Fucking Men... for a while due to MySpace's love of brevity. Oh well.

The new track is called Sunset Veranda and it has a soul diva singing Ice Hockey Hair atmosphere (with a bit of an orgasm in the middle) going on. They have an album sorted, but when/where it will appear I have no idea at all.

Check out The Peth at their MySpace page, Skin Up For Jesus is worth a go for comedy value.

Albums being leaked early; mixed feelings. On the one hand it’d be nice to wait for the proper thing to come out. On the other hand no-one would have known any of LCD Soundsystem’s new stuff at the recent gig if the odd dodgy copy hadn’t changed hands previously. Steve held forth on the matter at the time.

So I morally debated with myself for all of twenty seconds before downloading the five leaked tracks from Art Brut’s forthcoming second album, It’s A Bit Complicated, and although I might have over-listened to it by the time it comes out (in June I think), I’m glad I did.

You’ve already heard the crashing Nag Nag Nag Nag, but there are four other tracks, which show that Eddie Argos is still the best lyricist around at the moment and that Art Brut are sticking to noisy punk-ish pop music. The edges are a bit more smoothed away than previously, but Pump Up The Volume and Direct Hit are still crunchy and catchy as anything. Post Soothing Out is sad and funny all at once, while also containing a quick critique of the work of Ike and Tina Turner. Honestly.

The great thing about Art Brut is that they make you feel about 18, probably because they have songs about pausing while snogging to say “Listen to this song it’s great” and they make you want to jump about like a fool, it all appeals to my juvenile side. Anyhow, I reckon the best thing available on this sampler is Late Sunday, which is so bouncy that it would get Stephen Hawkings pogoing. It goes really Britpop by the end, which doesn’t bother me at all, but I realise that I could well be in a minority there.

On this showing It’s A Bit Complicated could be the album of the summer, Art Brut are touring in June, get your tickets early.

In deepest darkest August 2005, The Psychotic Reaction were kind enough to send us a copy of their album Rumble. I was most taken by it’s tuneful, DIY, lo-fi charms, you can read more here - The Medway Crab Fishermen is a totally ace song.

Which makes it all the more painful to have to report that on their new double A side A Moment Of Clarity/Overdraft Blues TPR have eschewed their homely charms for a grander design.

From the opening orchestral refrain I was unsure, then when the children’s choir kicked in I was reaching for a bucket. It’s a mid tempo plodding effort with lyrics that would be at home on the next Snow Patrol album. The big grand-standing chorus is purely designed for middle-aged couples to hug each other to at weddings and the mid-song dual-harp solo is just repugnant.

Only joking. It’s business as usual, first track makes me think of The Pixies at the start and is an organ driven stomper par-excellence. “A Moment Of Clarity” is still one of my favourite phrases of all time, along with “The Philosophy Of Futility” and “Ok, go on, I can skive off work tomorrow”.

Fellow A-side , the instrumental Overdraft Blues is blessed with a cool title and sounds like it should be the soundtrack to the greatest two and a half minute long silent film ever made.

These tracks are released on 17th April, you can download them for free at the following location or have a listen on TPR’s MySpace page. In exciting audio-visual news there should be some videos appearing on You Tube as well.

My relationship with the NME is a bit like the one you have with a scab, you know you should leave it alone to heal and fall away naturally, but you end up picking at it out of some kind of morbid curiosity. It gets ripped off too early; you are left with a bleeding knee and end up with another scab.

We’ve pointed out on several occasions previously just what an unpleasant sixth form fanzine the NME has become and mocked the level of journalism/musical eclecticism on display, but I have to take at least a bit of the vitriol back as they did a fine job of recommending the album Turn The Lights Out by The Ponys.

Admittedly the sub editor had slapped the pun-tatstic “Hot To Trot” across the top of the review in a final attempt to put me off, but I was quickly able to discern the words “lethargic”, “Sonic Youth”, “Malkmus” and “Pixies-esque” in what seemed to be an overtly favourable write up.

I decided to give it a go and I’m glad that I did. Turn The Lights Out has got some fucking great songs on it that distill art/drone/slacker/alt rock into a compact and tuneful form.

Special mention should go to the twangy 1209 Seminary, belting opener Double Vision and the pounding Harakiri. Best thing on it though is Kingdom Of Hearts which effectively summarises the shoe-gazing movement inside two minutes and three seconds of plodding magnificence. Reminds me of Six By Seven and that’s a good thing.

Check some tracks at The Ponys Myspace page.

You know that bit near the start of Taxi Driver, where Travis bemoans having to sometimes wipe the blood and cum off the seats of his cab? That is a bit like the daily experience of deleting all the spam comments that get left on this web site. Now and again someone leaves something interesting, angry or at least not mentioning cock size, free prescription drugs or crazy hardcore milf action.

The other day the best comment ever appeared and made my day, if not my week. Hank Starrs, of the legendary Animals That Swim (easily the most underrated band of all time) left a message that provided probably the only exclusive bit of music news that we will ever get our hands on. At the invitation of Eddie Argos he has done a bit of singing on the new Art Brut album, not only that but the experience just might be the catlyst for an ATS gig of some sort. This is big news in my world and if you've got an ounce of humanity, style or taste it should be big news in your world too.

More on the completely ace Animals That Swim on this very site: Firstly, why they are so great and secondly the greatest hits album that came out a few years back.

Plus there is an interview with Eddie Argos about the forthcoming Art Brut album It's A Bit Complicated on Pitchfork. They are touring supporting Maximo Park fairly shortly, but we here are already looking to get tickets for when they return to the Birmingham Academy on their own in June.

"Cousin D’Alsace"

"The Lazy Turkish Bathers"

"Our Franc"

"Polish Friend On The Payroll"

"Irish Blood, English Heart, Italian Boyfriend"

"The French National Front Discotheque"