Paperjam

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.

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.

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.

Modern communications technology is growing at an astounding, almost exponential rate and the effect it is having on society is both profound and exciting:

• The incredible take-up of digital TV means extra choice for viewers. It is estimated that every 28 seconds a new channel is launched featuring people who failed to get on Big Brother fronting for premium rate phone competition lines.
• High speed broadband advancements means that a broader and better defined amount of hard-core pornography is instantly available to anyone who wants it. The state of the nations hedgerows has improved immeasurably.
• Social networking web sites are bringing people of all ages, racial and religious backgrounds together in unity to trash house parties on a scale that was previously thought unworkable.
• The abstract and depersonalised nature of E-mail, SMS and IM mean that people who have historically found it hard to develop relationships (such as animal fiddlers, nonces and sexual harassers) are now able to express themselves freely and without fear of society's ridicule.
• Multimedia phone messaging allows the immediate expression of ideas and news, such as me finding out that my constant procrastination regarding going on the big cool slides at the Tate modern has finally meant that they have taken the fucking things down before I got to have a go. Shit.

It's a bit off our manor but there is a fair chance a paper-jam delegation could be heading down to Cardiff for the inaugural outing of this urban festival being staged at two venues in the Welsh capital.

There is a dance-centric Tantrum Arena staging the likes of 808 State and Dreadzone Soundsystem while the more guitarred-up Sub Arena is headlined by Ozric Tentacles and features amongst others the magnificently named Captain Paranoid & The Delusions. The flyer also promises "Real Live Russian Roullette" which makes the £12 charge for a ticket seem all the more reasonable. More at the Blowout festival web site and at their MySpace page.