Skambankt
Kaiser Chiefs, The Streets, Art Brut, Ash, Soulfly, Foals, The Wombats, Roots Manuva, 65daysofstatic, Turbonegro, Apoptygma Berzerk, Håkan Hellström, Gojira, bob hund, Mark Kozelek, Motorpsycho, Femi Kuti, BigBang, VETO, Marit Larsen, The Chap, Yo Majesty, Thunderheist, Peachcake, Lay Low, First Aid Kit, Bare Egil Band, An Horse, Hjaltalin, FM Belfast, Ungdomskulen, Thom Hell, Katzenjammer, Frontier Ruckus, Real Ones, The September When, Dokkemand, Next Life, She Said Destroy, the Little Hands of Asphalt, Pony the Pirate, The Captain & Me, Fjorden Baby!, john olav nilsen & gjengen, Manatee Racket, Valentourettes, Accidents Never Happen, Captain Credible, and Mathias Eick Quartet
Data via last.fm
- Artists:
- Mathias Eick Quartet »
- Real Ones »
- Frontier Ruckus »
- Katzenjammer »
- Thom Hell »
- Ungdomskulen »
- FM Belfast »
- Hjaltalin »
- An Horse »
- Bare Egil Band »
- First Aid Kit »
- The September When »
- Dokkemand »
- Next Life »
- Captain Credible »
- Accidents Never Happen »
- Valentourettes »
- Manatee Racket »
- john olav nilsen & gjengen »
- Fjorden Baby! »
- The Captain & Me »
- Pony the Pirate »
- the Little Hands of Asphalt »
- She Said Destroy »
- Lay Low »
- Peachcake »
- Turbonegro »
- 65daysofstatic »
- Roots Manuva »
- The Wombats »
- Foals »
- Soulfly »
- Ash »
- Art Brut »
- The Streets »
- Kaiser Chiefs »
- Apoptygma Berzerk »
- Håkan Hellström »
- Gojira »
- Thunderheist »
- Yo Majesty »
- The Chap »
- Marit Larsen »
- VETO »
- BigBang »
- Femi Kuti »
- Motorpsycho »
- Mark Kozelek »
- bob hund »
- Skambankt »
About the venue
About the artists
Kaiser Chiefs
Formed:
Early 2003 in Leeds
Influences:
Beach Boys, Super Furry Animals, The Kinks, XTC, Beta Band, Blur, Supergrass, 10CC, Small Faces, Dexys Midnight Runners, Madness (but only the good stuff)
Interesting Facts:
Andrew is an ex-BMX Champion.
Nick and Ricky run an exciting club night in Leeds called Pigs.
Simon, Nick and Nick were all in the same class at school.
The 3 track demo was recorded, mixed and mastered by the band in Nick's
flat.
Also we're fed up of the American/ Swedish/ Australian bands that have dominatated for the last two years so we decided to be totally different, basically by listening to loads of the stuff listed above and copying it!»
The Streets
The Streets are one man, Brummie Mike Skinner. The Streets combine smooth garage grooves with devastatingly real and vivid lyrics. Talent.»
Art Brut
They’re an eccentric, motley bunch who have more in common with Half Man Half Biscuit and Pulp than they do with their oft-compared ‘influences’ The Fall.
Vocalist Eddie Argos (an ex-goth obsessed with Jonathan Richman and Vincent Van Gogh) had previously been in a band, The Art Goblins, in his hometown of Bournemouth. Their stage show would see him “playing a vacuum cleaner” and escaping from a sack. They sounded not unlike cult Glaswegians The Yummy Fur and had songs such as I Wanna Be Johnny Dean and Disco. Another ‘project’ was The Welsh Elephant, who penned the should-be-classic Fuck The MSP (which contains the catchy refrain “Nicky Wire can suck my cock!”).
Having moved to London and determined to be in another band, Argos found himself at a party in Mornington Crescent and set about hassling everyone there to join him. A webzine-editor and guitarist called Chris Chinchilla (a ska fanatic) thought this sounded like a good idea – after all, it was a good way to impress girls. Argos was more concerned about getting on ‘Top Of The Pops’. Chinchilla talked his German flatmate Frederica (grunge fan) into playing bass, and thus they got a bass guitar for her off eBay. Argos had a friend from Bournemouth who’d also just moved to London. Ian Catskilkin (thinks he’s in Led Zeppelin, but with better hair) used to be in a heavy rock band called Orco and he agreed to join the new band. Another friend then overheard a German man (who NME would later say looks like “he should be in Interpol”) on a bus telling someone how he played drums and worked in Merc, the shop on Carnaby Street selling cut-price mod clothing. Determined to hunt him down, Argos and Chinchilla went to the shop. He wasn’t working that day, so they left him a note. Mike (listens to nothing but Weezer) would then join the band, and that was it – May 2003, Art Brut was born.
Much like Bloc Party, Art Brut’s first gig was an independently promoted show at the Kentish Town Verge. Chinchilla had booked it before the band was ready, at which there was much complaining by his fellow bandmates. Mike’s drumkit had yet to be imported, so he played sitting down (he usually stands up to play). After a number of other gigs round London they recorded a demo named Brutlegs, containing early versions of Formed A Band, Modern Art and Moving To LA, and made it available on their website. Formed A Band first saw the light of day on the debut Angular Records compilation album. After a journalist came across this recording, he sent an MP3 to the label Rough Trade. Within an hour of getting it, the label’s A&R man was in touch offering to release Formed A Band as a single.
Suddenly the band were all over the music press, picking up fans and haters with ease. Many people expected it to be nothing more than a one-off novelty single. They played a triumphant Swedish festival where a guy interviewed them and got confused, thought they were from Manchester (and had all his questions based around the city), and compared them to The Sultans Of Ping. They were also offered the main tour support for Razorlight but had to turn it down due to lack of funds.
Formed A Band was released as a single at the end of March 2004. A gleeful call to arms of sorts, Argos shouts “formed a band! We formed a band! Look at us, we formed a band!” before going on to proclaim how he’s going to “write a song as universal as Happy Birthday” and “play it eight weeks in a row on ‘Top Of The Pops’”. It reached No. 52, selling 5,000 copies, and cropped up in many end-of-year polls as the one of the best singles of the year, including ‘Blender’ – the USA’s second biggest music mag after ‘Rolling Stone’ - who proclaimed them the best unsigned band in the UK.
The rest of 2004 saw them playing numerous gigs from Brighton to Manchester, as well as a first anniversary show at the Tate Modern where they were joined by a couple of a Argos’ heroes – The Vessel (David Devant and His Spirit Wife) and Les ‘Fruitbat’ Carter (Carter USM). As a stop-gap between singles, they offered the new, shaky Brutlegs 2004, this time containing versions of Good Weekend (the one that goes “got myself a brand new girlfriend/… I’ve seen her naked TWICE!”), Bang Bang Rock And Roll and an acoustic version of Moving To LA. The frenzied Top Of The Pops (not a Rezillos cover) was recorded with a number of bands guesting on vocals (including Ciccone, The Boyfriends, The Long Blondes, Abdoujaparov, Prozak, Rhesus and Luxembourg) for inclusion on the Angular Records compilation Rip Off Your Labels, while Moving To LA saw yet another recorded appearance, this time in live form from the Bath Moles on the compilation Bring Your Own Poison: The Rhythm Factory Sessions.
In December ’04, their second single finally saw the light. A double A-side of Modern Art and My Little Brother (with B-side These Animal Menswe@r), it was released on the Fierce Panda label and reached No. 49 – scoring the band a bigger hit than before and, perhaps surprisingly, the highest chart position Fierce Panda has ever had. All the sleeves of the 7” were hand-designed by the band and fans, including one messy session at a Queens Of Noize night at Camden Barfly which ended with the stage (and crowd) being covered in fluorescent pink paint.
The start of 2005 sees them having completed their debut album, pencilled in for release in March, and having picked up even more fans including Graham Coxon, British Sea Power, The Libertines, Hope Of The States and genius boy wizard Daniel Radcliffe. Even the Happy Mondays’ Bez has tried to get onstage at one point with them at the Barfly but was so wasted at the time he didn’t manage it, despite Catskilkin’s attempts at pulling him by his arm.
Sadly, they’ve yet to appear on ‘Top Of The Pops’. Perhaps ‘CD:UK’ will be more accommodating. It’s better, anyway.
by adie nunn, january 2005»
Ash
- Tim Wheeler - vocals, guitar
- Mark Hamilton - bass
- Rick McMurray - drums
Things began when Tim Wheeler and Mark Hamilton, who’d met at their school in Northern Ireland and bonded over a shared love of punk-pop and grunge, hooked up with drummer Rick McMurray and formed Ash. Their 1994 mini-album Trailer garnered press attention and spurred anticipation for their album proper; and nine months later ‘Girl From Mars’ hit the top twenty.
The addition of former Nightnurse guitarist Charlotte Hatherley added further depth to their sound, and album Nu-clear Sounds showcased a more mature band. However, the album failed to match their previous successes and the band went silent for two years while they struggled with near-bankruptcy.
However, all was not lost: comeback single ‘Shining Light’ was Ivor Novello nominated, and their 2001 album Free All Angels entered #1 in the charts on the back of the single, gathering rave reviews in the process. Several singles later (including ‘Burn Baby Burn' which topped the end of year people's poles in both Q and NME magazines), the band ended a year of touring on a high with a two-night sell out run at the Brixton Academy and a live DVD, entitled Tokyo Blitz. Singles and b-sides collection Intergalatic Sonic 7"s followed in 2002, with new track 'Envy', and fourth album Meltdown arrived soon after.
And if your first comeback was such a success, why not do it again? Ash, now slimmed down to their original trio status following the departure of guitarist Charlotte Hatherley, return with news of a brand new single on April 16th 2007. Entitled 'You Can't Have It All' it's their first recorded output since 2004 and follows their sold-out Higher Education tour: their first live shows since Glastonbury 2005.
While on tour, the band showcased new material that will appear on their as-yet-untitled forthcoming album. As of late 2005, Tim and Mark relocated to New York and immediately began searching out a suitable recording space. Once found, the band embarked on fitting out the space and decided that, rather than using a producer, Tim would wield the stick with the assistance of an engineer and basically self produce the album. The band are hopeful that the results of their new, slimmed-down line-up will be the “most complete” album they’ve made in their fourteen year career.
»Soulfly
Soulfly are...
- Max Cavalera - vocals, guitar
- Jackson Bandiera - guitar
- Marcello D Rapp - bass
- Roy Mayorga - drums
Foals
Combining poly-rhythmic Casio guitars, pulsing analogue synth, aching vocal melodies and chopping drum-lines, Foals create organic agitated dance-pop with a tangible air of achieving the impossible. This is accessible techno for kids who hate techno but love guitars.
The band is:
Yannis Philippakis
Jack Bevan
Jimmy Smith
Edwin Congreave
Walter Gervers
The Wombats
- Matthew Murphy - vocals, guitar, keyboards
- Tord Overland-Knudsen - bass
- Dan Higgis - drums
Roots Manuva
In 2001 Roots Manuva could have been standing at a crossroads in his career. A successful 'underground' album behind him, the traditional choice between mainstream acceptability and artistic credibility lay in front of him. Roots Manuva chose to dynamite the crossroads. In the words of the man himself, this is "the return of the Rootical one - French kissing the chaos."
Bravery or foolhardy? Depends on where you're standing. Depends on where you’re coming from.
You may already know the basics of the Roots Manuva story. Rodney Hylton Smith was born and grew up around Stockwell in South London. His parents came from a small village in Jamaica called Banana Hole, his father a preacher. His family weren't exactly loaded (hence his mother's use of the term "brand new second hand" to characterise the occasional pre-used present), but they were strict, as befits members of the Pentecostal Church.
When Smith found himself drawn to the reggae of the UK's sound system culture and hip-hop (through the lyrical expressiveness of Rakim), his parents hardly approved. In fact, he had to listen in secret.
But it was worth the effort. In 1999, four years after the release of his first single, Roots Manuva dropped the instant classic "Brand New Second Hand" to critical acclaim and commercial success. At a stroke, the market for hip-hop from the UK was thrown wide open by a record that found Manuva described as “the most significant and original new voice in hip hop” (The Independent). It is hard to underestimate the impact of the record on a genre of music, which seemed to have gone into hibernation in the UK of the early nineties. (As a result of this success, Roots also became something of a cameo king, destroying microphones for the likes of Leftfield, Skitz, Mr Scruff, Mica Paris, 23 Skidoo and Pharoahe Monch, amongst others).
Since then, Manuva has been "living in a dream". What makes him special, perhaps, is his willingness to gamble with this dream. He could, after all, have taken the obvious big-money route and hired in a heap of famous guests to make safe, production-line hip-hop. Instead he chose to spread the love a little. That's why he describes the album as "a patchwork reflection of the bittersweet-tainted joys and pains of progress. It's so easy to get cynical in these big, bad corporate times - so this be a declaration of good hearted ghetto hoorah joyous intent." In the process this future-blues man has created a record that re-writes the hip hop map in a way no album has done since Outkast's "Aquemeni".
Musically, the record represents a leap forward from "Brand New Second Hand”. Manuva has produced three quarters of the new material himself and his refusal to conform shows at every turn. Hip hop is re-imagined as a loose Scratch Perry skank, as electronic barrages of noise, as guitar feedback over minimal beats, as “that tropical shit,” as Specials-style lope. The range of the sound is a reflection of the Manuva mindset – seemingly disparate but all pushing in the same direction.
"It's more focussed than Brand New Second Hand,” Smith explains, “Because I had specific ideas of what I wanted to pull out melodically from that record. I really wanted to just move a stage up to the sickest melodic structures that I could think of. The whole recording process involved more attention to detail and a lot more time to freak out and be totally creative. I was left to mess about. I felt like Quincey Jones! Just there giving Jamie [the engineer] orders - 'I need this sound, I need that sound, set up these effects'. A total kid in the sweet shop."
Lyrically, too, "Run Come Save Me" shows Roots stretching himself, expressing emotion in sometimes cryptic but nevertheless heartfelt ways. Few big name MCs are really honest - it's more effort than it's worth. But Smith seems to love language too much to lie. "I like words. Just writing as a whole, not specifically songs. I try not to think about it too much. If I really sat down and looked into how much I'm giving away about myself I probably wouldn't write anything..."
If you expect Smith to tell you what the record is about you’ve got another thing coming: "The definitions of the songs grow all the time and I don't really see them straight away. I don't always see them even a year after things are made. I listen to things that I made five years ago and go, 'Oh, I understand where I was coming from.'” On the other hand, listen carefully and it’s all there - while Manuva may switch from seeming nonsense to narrative/anecdote to politics in eight bars and then back again, the fractured pieces still form a picture.
And the picture is of an entire life and personality with all its contradictions and complexities. From church boy to teen tearaway, conscious poet to lady’s man, blunted mystic to rum guzzler, creator of jump-up carnival anthems to crazed introspective and on and on. Put quite simply, "Run Come Save Me" is masterpiece, or as close as we get in this day and age. As the man himself puts it, the album is "audio smoke signals, my message in a bottle”.»
65daysofstatic
65daysofstatic is currently Joe Fro, Paul Wolinski, Rob Jones and Simon Wright; Feedle, Iain Armstrong and Gareth Hughes are former members.
The band are primarily instrumental, using beats and glitches alongside crunched guitars and hardcore drums.
65days originally formed, allegedly, to try and write music to fit the unreleased and little known John Carpenter flick Stealth Bomber starring Kurt Russell. Set over "65 Days of Static", a period of time after some unknown global infrastructre and communications breakdown, it also gave 65 their name.
Apparently.
For more information visit www.65daysofstatic.com.
MySpace
Turbonegro
Tubronegro are:
Hank Von Helvete - Vocals
Euroboy - Lead Guitar
Pål Pot Pamparius - Rhythm Guitar
Rune Rebellion - Rhythm Guitar
Happy-Tom - Bass
Chris Summers - Drums
Gojira
Gojira are:
- Joe Duplantier - guitar/lead vocals
- Christian Andreu - guitar
- Mario Duplantier - drums
- Jean-Michel Labadie - bass
Mark Kozelek
Gloomy frontman of Red House Painters and Sun Kil Moon, and solo artist.»
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