Fortuna Pop Propaganda.Click For Infos.
It’s a been a great week so far, if a little crazy, so thanks to
everyone who came along to RoTa on Saturday and to the Metro on Monday,
and to all the bands for playing. It was a blast fellers. To round the
week off we’ve an indietastic line-up of Bearsuit, Speedmarket Avenue
and The Retro Spankees at the Buffalo Bar tomorrow, and I’ll be playing
some groovy numbers until 2am, so come along and get yr indie kicks.
There’s also news of a great rock’n’roll show coming up at The Pleasure
Unit in a couple of weeks which is going to set everyone’s spam filters
a-tingling if I’m not careful…
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*** INDIEPOP AIN’T NOISE POLLUTION… ***
Bearsuit + Speedmarket Avenue + The Retro Spankees + Fortuna POP! DJs
Friday, 7th October 8pm – 2am Buffalo Bar, 259 Upper Street, London N1
Nearest tube : Highbury & Islington Tel : 020 7359 6191 E-mail :
info@buffalobar.co.uk Advance: £4 from ticketweb
http://www.ticketweb.co.uk/user/?region=uk&query=detail&event=138301
Door: £5 before 11:30pm/£3 after
Bearsuit
Stop-start boy-girl rock-cutie-killer six-piece with
everything from cinematic waltzes to catchy electro disco and hard punk
screaming riot grrl noise. A mix of Belle and Sebastian, Huggy Bear,
and Sonic Youth with electronic twists and turns, and screamy art punk.
Since playing their first gig in 2001 the band have notched up four
Radio 1 sessions on the legendary John Peel show and three Festive 50
top five hits, including the number 2 slot in 2004 with their latest
single Chargr. With five singles, an EP, one album, and a variety of
outlandish stage gear – blood soaked prom dresses, ‘nurses of death’
outfits and silver bear-bot wear to name but a few – Bearsuit are
certainly a band to catch if you can. “Bearsuit don’t so much define
the line between genius and insanity as master both sides of it.
Amazing.” (Drowned In Sound) www.bearsuit.co.uk
Speedmarket Avenue
Let us all bow down before the great god of budget
air travel for once again delivering us the very best in Swedish pop
music in the shape of the fabulous Speedmarket Avenue. Sensitivity,
melodies and well-crafted pop songs, Speedmarket Avenue have it all in
abundance, along with an obvious joy at having the opportunity of
performing them. “Guitar and horn drive heaven in an anorak… Fuzzy,
frothy, fun and frenzy.” (Tangents) www.speedmarketavenue.com
The Retro Spankees
Already making a name for themselves in their
hometown of Northampton with their blend of eccentricity and melodic
alternative pop music, live they are accompanied by Old Mac Monkey The
White Sock Monkey, various cuddly toys, and a cardboard tractor. “For
fans of The Fall, Raincoats, Ballboy, Dr John, Julian Cope, Bearsuit,
The Liars, Coin-Op and Kaito” (music-dash.co.uk)
http://www.theretrospankees.iwarp.com/
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*** AND THEN WE SEND BEARSUIT TO COVENTRY… ***
saturday 8th october – offbeat at the graduate club, warwick
university. with dotstar and the empty set. tickets £3.50 (£3 for
members), doors open at 8 p.m.
thursday 13th october. the nelson, norwich. peel day tribute gig.
details t.b.a.
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*** PRETTY GIRLS, PRETTY BOYS… ***
The Ape Drape Escape + Black Time + The Motherfc*kers + The Cut-Outs +
Fortuna POP! and GoJonnyGoGoGoGo DJs until 2am
Saturday, 22nd October 7:30pm – 2am The Pleasure Unit, 359 Bethnal
Green Road, London. E2 6LG Tel: 020 7729 0167. Nearest Tube: Bethnal
Green £5 Advance/£6 Door
http://www.ticketweb.co.uk/user/?region=uk&query=detail&event=140936
The Ape Drape Escape
Sheer camped-up punk pop madness straight outta
Sheffield with a frontman created by a mad genetic scientist mixing the
DNA of Iggy Pop, Johnny Rotten, Mick Jagger and an American Evangelist
Preacher. Deranged, over the top and highly entertaining. “Fast-paced,
razor-sharp punk with quirky lyrics, rough and ready guitars and
infectious melodies” (Kerrang) www.theapedrapeescape.co.uk
Black Time
Featuring former members of The Action Time (Southern
Records) and The Hotwires (ArtRocker), Black Time indulge their love
for LA underground punk legends Crime and obscure, forgotten classic
punk 45s. Their DIY Debut album “Blackout” mixes punk sneer and J.
Spencer/Pussy Galore trash in a maelstrom to white noise rock’n’roll
that makes those early Fall and Cramps albums sound over-produced (AND
tame). “Genius… the band on everyone’s lips, whispering comparisons to
Crime, Pussy Galore, The Fall, The Real Losers, and more.” (Terminal
Boredom) http://www.syarecords.it/blacktime.htm
The Motherfc*kers
The time tested formula of guitar, drums, organ, bass
& screaming wildman, risen from the dead, put it in smart suits and
filled full of booze. Unsophisticated and LOUD 3 chord GARAGE PUNK.
“Joining the dots between two legendary screamers Jaw Hawkins and Lord
Sutch, some quite horrifically bad horror movies and Garage rock.”
(Sandman Magazine) uk.geocities.com/themofosuk/home.htm
The Cut-Outs
The Cut-Outs feature members of Airport Girl and The Fat
Tulips and play garage rock for pop kids with short, daft guitar solos
and an unerring ear for a tune (often their own!). And with a member of
London’s all-girl 60s dance troupe The Actionettes on drums, there’s
always at least one band member on the beat. “You make the Real Losers
sound twee” (Unidentified Crowd Member – Leeds)
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*** INDIE LABEL RADIO ***
Some of you may be interested in this…
Check out Indie Label Radio: http://www.microindie.com/ilradio
Indie Label Radio is an internet streaming radio station programmed by
a group of like-minded independent pop labels, Microindie, Happy Happy
Birthday To Me, Magic Marker, Matinee, Shelflife, Slumberland and
Drive-In. We have also added some tracks on our friends’ labels,
Clairecords, Chocolate Hearts, Candle and Secret Crush.
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*** LOVELY NEW-ISH RECORDS ***
The following new records are now available to order:
* Warmer Corners – The Lucksmiths (CD Album) £10
“Over the past 10 years The Lucksmiths have earned a place in the
hearts and music collection of any serious indiepopper. Quietly but
skilfully blending guitars with a multitude of instruments they are
famed for delivering a healthy mix of songs about failed romance, the
weather and addiction backed by music that actually makes you smile
ensuring that their reputation is well deserved.
Their new album “Warmer Corners” will not disappoint. Like all that has
come before it won’t announce its presence with brash confidence.
Instead it will creep up upon you and slowly but insistently and nestle
deep into your heart. Think, spring time, think sharing a quiet moment
with a best friend, think the tenderness of a first kiss or the
bittersweet sadness of saying goodbye all wrapped within a rainbow
coloured CD and you are half way there.
The album begins with the beautiful and reassuring concept that a
broken heart is only “A Hiccup in Your Happiness”. And then progresses
through a collection of cleverly crafted lyrically perfect songs sung
by the familiar Australian twang of Tali White.
Swaying from the immediate blasts of unadulterated optimism produced by
jingly jangly guitars as heard in “The Chapter Your Life Entitled San
Francisco” through to the introspective “Fiction”.
But the thing that impresses me the most is the fact that you could
imagine dancing to the songs, smiling and laughing with friends, and at
the same time you can imagine sitting alone in a room thinking and
listening to the words and the music. You can imagine driving down a
dark and deserted room road in the middle of a rain swept night or
sitting out in the garden on a warm summers day. Put simply, it is
music for always.” (Friends of the Heroes)
* More Soul Than Wigan Casino EP feat. Kicker, The Butterflies of Love,
Comet Gain and Airport Girl (4 song 7″ or CD) £4
Been way too long since we had anything to shake our asses off to
courtesy of those gem pop dudes at Fortuna Pop until this dinky little
treat arrived on the door step, and hey we have to admit that this
another of those priceless four track / four band must have releases.
‘More soul than Wigan Casino’ gathers together the assembled talents of
Kicker, Butterflies of Love, Comet Gain and Airport Girl, each going
head to head with a lost classic from 60’s soul heaven. Kicker, what
can I say, let’s be honest here there just aren’t enough Kicker records
in the world for my liking, here seen getting to grips in splendid
style with the Inciters 1965 hit ‘Since you left’ and when I tell you
this is pure pop gold you better believe it. So sunny in demeanour I
swear you can get tan from just playing it, so authentic it sounds like
its stepped through a rip in time and the vocals well – damn just buy
it and prove me wrong. Debut album (about time to) out shortly via
Track and Field. Butterflies of Love will always hold as special place
in the heart just for mere fact of being responsible for putting out
the sublime ‘Rob a Bank’. This time they set about taking the Smokey
Robinson penned Mary Wells hit ‘Two Lovers’ as their own. Recorded at
the legendary Toerag studios (White Stripes and just about anyone else
looking for that crisp decayed 60’s sound) this wired rereading sounds
like its stepped off one of those great lost and found Pebbles
compilations, of course you know that means its top drawer stuff. With
hand forced up my back I’d have to say the Comet Gain’s delicious stab
at Dena Barnes’ ‘If you ever walk out of my life’ edges the set as the
best thing here, swirling organs, chiming sunburnt kaleidoscopic chime
happy chords very much moulded in that classic Byrds-esque vibe and
latterly Clock Strikes 13 – kinda makes you feel fuzzy in the places
where you want to feel fuzzy and so gorgeous you’ll weep in joy.
Closing the collection the near perfect Airport Girl tangle themselves
up with ‘Lipstick traces (on a cigarette)’ originally recorded by Barry
Spellman / O’Jays. Airport Girl are the masters at teasing out just
about every emotion known to nature with each passing release, one
minute ecstatic the next low at the point of breakdown and this
shimmering soft psyche re-spray is no exception. Like being punched and
tickled at the same time, this bitter sweet winkle boot wearing honey
has classic the laid back sheen of Jesus and Mary Chain arcing in the
same stratospheric environs more commonly occupied by the Velvets.
Perfect stuff. (Losing Today)
* The Melancholy Death of – The Chemistry Experiment (CD Album) £10
“Strange, gargantuan rhythms, weird instrumentation and a singer who
sounds like Kurt Wagner trapped beneath two feet of snow. Hurrah then,
for The Chemistry Experiment, who are as beautiful and crazy as The
Arcade Fire bopping hopelessly out of step at an intermediary salsa
class” 8/10 (NME)
* Popshaped – Milky Wimpshake (CD Album) £10
*** We’ve also taken delivery of 50 copies of the Milky Wimpshake
‘Popshaped’ album on vinyl, as released the awesome Bitter Like The
Bean label in the states. Each sleeve is hand printed and, boy, do they
look amazing. More amazingly, they’re the same price as the cd. ***
Aahh..the mighty ‘Shake. For nearly ten years now this wonderful flop
‘n roll band have lightened up my life with their tales of love, loss
and dirty politics. ‘Popshaped’ is no different, thanks goodness. Pete
Dale still sings about girls he’s never gonna get, the welfare state,
and the little man fighting back. And all above the greatest indie pop
music. This album is a collection of new songs and older stuff that
never made it to record, or is dead difficult to get hold of these
days. And how lovely of them is that? On with the show! ‘Pearshaped’ is
the first classic you’ll come across here. A cover of a Nev Clay song
and featuring fantastically sardonic vocals from Cath Tyler, it’s
jangletastic in the extreme, AND manages to slag off Patsy Kensit, and
that’s just about everything a great pop song should, don’t you think?
Elsewhere, there’s the psych-pop of ‘Don’t Get Down (Get Even)’ – a
great big swirly, deftly threatening song about the masses taking the
power back – YEAH! – and remind me a lot of songs of The Housemartins’
‘London 0 Hull 4’ album. And that’s high praise in my book, so there.
Meanwhile, back at pop central, ‘Needed: Heart Handbook’ is the song
that the Shangri-Las never quite managed to record. But perhaps the
greatest song here isn’t a Milky Wimpshake song at all. The medley –
for want of a better phrase – of Daniel Johnston’s ‘True Love Will Find
You In The End, and Jonathan Richman’s ‘Don’t Let Our Youth Go Waste’
is truly spine-tingling, and possibly embellishes even the brilliant
original versions of both songs. For once, Milky Wimpshake play it
totally straight – and with wonderful results. And it’s followed up by
the desolate ‘Cheque Card’, in which Dale sound both angry and
desperate at the same time. Utterly beautiful. For me, this is easily
the best album of the month, and is up there with the Pipas album as
the best this year has given us. And as long as Milky Wimpshake are
still making records, then the world will be a more just place. Amen.
(Tasty)
TO ORDER THESE MINOR GEMS IN A SEA OF MEDIOCRITY…
BY POST: Send a cheque, postal order or IMO made payable to ‘Fortuna
POP!’ to 4 Mayfield House, Rushcroft Road, Brixton, London. SW2 1LD.
UK. BY PAYPAL: Use our PayPal address ministryoffinance@fortunapop.com
For orders in Europe but outside the UK, please add 50p per item
ordered. Outside of Europe, please add £1.00 per item ordered.
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