tartrocker

Hi Guys,

We are emailing to advise you that unfortunately Future of the Left at Amersham Arms, on 27th November 2008 has been CANCELLED and will not be rescheduled. You are entitled to a face value refund.

If you have received your tickets you need to return them to us before we can issue the refund. Please post them to-

Gigantic

49 Stoney Street

Lace Market

Nottingham

NG1 1LX

If you have requested box office collection or have not received your tickets because they have not been despatched yet then we will process your face value refund straight away. The refund will go back onto the card you paid on and should take about 3-5 working days to clear.

Thanks for booking with Gigantic and we hope to see you back online again soon

In situations where its a genuine suprise to see DiS knocking a record.

And comes with a code to download the album.

to download, I think I will wait for the signed vinyl I have already pre-ordered and will aquire in sixteen overly long and tortuous days.

I think anyone who'd seen them live would have known there was a lot more to them than the singles.

tremendous stuff

this song was the highlight when i saw him supporting love is all. likeable man, enjoyable tunes, etc

I don't like reviews that cop out of making a judgement.
I think it's brilliant and can't wait for someone in the Uk to rip it off really badly.

why but that artwork makes it seem really promising...

with someone called Juno!
I've got it in my hand, it's on orange vinyl. It's ace. This in mind, I hope the album is also excellent.

I paid £20 for the vinyl! Can't wait to hear it.

my NPIP split should finally arrive in the post this week? I was convinced the postie had stuck it outside the door and it had been nabbed.

The High Places one is also excellent and strangely danceable.

for their writers to 'hang out' with the zep, this fulfilling their pathetic fantasies.

oh, I've tried. Mine is a Pink Floyd Dad. I've made him compilations that I thought would be suitable - he didn't listen to them.

So I got him a book about cycle paths in Yorkshire. Much better.

in some shops for, umm, over a month, or something like that.
I highly recommend it too.

I contributed regularly to artrocker for two years. Not once was I asked to get photos of scenesters or told what I was supposed to like as you've suggested above.

to argue on behalf of my former employers. DiS AND Artrocker are both < Stoolpigeon which is the only thing I actually like.

Your pessimism is completely over the top. Print media has certainly fallen from favour, but the assertation that 'nobody reads newspapers of any kind any more' is simply ridiculous. Maybe you and your immediate circle of friends don't, but that doesn't mean the world doesn't. I actually work in the cash office in WH Smiths and we shift thousands of the bloody things every day. Besides, things may fall from favour, but that doesn't mean that they then cease to exist, this is simply not the way the world works. Some allegiances shift, but some people like things the way they were, so print media just gets scaled back. Sadly this is not nearly as exciting as writing that everyone's got to join the internet revolution or die, so you won't be reading any opinion articles about it soon.

a response to an article you guys did about the 'end' of print media? He probably perceived it as you betting on his rag's untimely demise and didn't like it very much - hence this response.

I can't believe to what extent some of the alternatives to the NME that existed in a smaller way a few years ago have really blown up. You, Artrocker, Plan B, and I'm sure others. This is what I used to want, and yet I'm totally disappointed by all of it, including Artrocker, which I contributed to for years. There's been all this success but so little writing that's actually good. That's why I feel like sniping, sometimes. You have to criticise things when they deserve it.

xerox teens

By "nutrition-free", you mean insubstantial, right? To me it's something I can actually get very wound up in, and frequently do. It definitely gives substantial thrills. And it's much faster and dirtier than the demo version everyone's got.

Sorry to quibble but I find your XXT review pretty useless - define 'standard xx teens fare'? Because it's a pretty wide spectrum from 'Darlin to 'How to reduce...' no?

sylvia patterson, caitlin moran?

a tried and tested classic.

i'm ashamed to say I mainly brought reissues this week, although I believe I also have a new King Khan and BBQ single winging its way to me it the post, so I'm certainly looking forward to that.

Steven Wells and his ilk aren't in a very powerful position in terms of writing about pop culture anymore. DiS and Pitchfork are twenty times more powerful than the old men. People with influence read your writing, and not his. Feel better now?

You are right that new music shouldn't be measured against the old in the way you describe. It seems silly to throw in pointless jibes at the Slits, though - your point gets a bit lost.

I've been looking for evidence to back up what I wrote above and I've discovered that there is also a lot of very very boring writing in the world, and this annoys me quite a lot too.

this is coming from someone who reads russian literature for kicks - but I find all of Plan B and some DiS reviews harder to understand. Perhaps the problem is that people are so hung up on using complicated language to make themselves look like good writers that they don't think about what the best way to express their point really is - and clear expression of your ideas is essential to journalism as far as I'm concerned.

I'm all in favour of pretentiousness and, as you put it, 'crazed imagination', in terms of content and the actual ideas being expressed. I do not want simplicity at all on that score. But I think that there are certain writers who would find that if they just took time to have original opinions in place before they starting writing, they'd find that all of a sudden they didn't have to insert twenty mixed metaphors to come up with an interesting piece.

and I think there's a place for serious pieces with evidence for and against, and a place for rants.

no offense to Mike Diver but I think swells has done a better version of this piece... http://www.thequietus.com/2008/04/death-to-corduroy/#comments

I have a problem with the way a lot of current music journalists write - and this is something that goes right across the spectrum, from the NME, through Pitchfork and DiS to Plan B. Put simply, I find it's often very pretentious. The language is too dense and I find myself having to read each sentence about three or four times before I can really extract any meaning from it. Too often, once I do make sense of it, I find it's a cover up for non opinions and trite sentiments. Journalism doesn't have to read like literature and I'd be happy to have the stylings turned down in favour of some genuine insights and big ideas.

I know my lack of interested in reviews is partly down to that, and partly down to often having heard the band already, like you mentioned. I'm more interested in opinion articles like this one - I can always get excited about those - and really well done interviews.

As for print dying out, my opinion is going to be biased because I have a long term, very unfashionable obsession with buying magazines. I buy a new one almost every day and hoard them. So I can see print becoming more of a niche market for people like me to rave on about Stool Pigeon and make our own amazing fanzines.

I've just reviewed both on my blog for anyone who cares...

http://bloga45.blogspot.com/2008/04/no-age-eraser-miracle-fortress-maybe.html

I kept wishing they would put something good on there so I could go to a gig and not have to travel all the way across town. But everything on the listings sounded so awful I never went.

there were limited ed 7"s by no age and miracle fortress in the rough trade racks when I went today. I would have had the miracle fortress one as my single of the week personally.

Also, I think you are totally justified in giving BRS a good kicking in this case.

Is there anything more irritating than someone telling you that the problem you have with a band isn't the problem you thought you had - usually that you don't like the music - but actually because you have a big big problem with them signing to a major label? I don't think you can presume to know why someone dislikes a band if it's not something they've stated outright.

I am thankful to the reviewer for pointing out what I'd been thinking about them for yonks - that their music is totally and utterly joyless.

My favourite words in this review are 'lumpen' and 'soulless'. They have no imagination, no lightness of touch, they just think up one obnoxious hook and use it like a stick to repeatedly hit you on the head with. No joy in that.

far too fucking expensive. Pardon my french.
I do like nicely packaged singles but you have to remember that at the end of the day it's a vehicle for a bands music, not an object d'art. You need to strike a balance between creating something people will value, and making sure everyone who wants to hear something can. Up to £5 per disc is acceptable for an import, any more is pretty elitist because a lot of listeners can't afford it.

wasn't exactly chipper through and through. See the title track; my favourite. I don't think their audience is quite as ill-prepared as you suggest. Otherwise, nice stuff.

I spend about £10 a week on new 7" singles, (thats before I hit the second hand shops). Yes, seriously- if not more!! There's a lot of good stuff that comes out.

I seem to remember they were rubbish at stocking singles anyway, HMV has always been better. So, not many sleepless nights.

I don't know if the 'luddites and those of low attention span' comment is supposed to be sarcastic. If it isn't I'm annoyed. Format preferences can't make you any less a music lover. I'd argue that a lot of bands work best on a good 7" single.

I almost cried when I didn't have enough time to hit the record shops after work today. i have been waiting to own this (sado centric)

The Fanfarlo one I already own because they sold it at the Lumi. I have not stopped listening to it, though I for one think the sleeping states side is pretty boring. It's all about Fanfarlo for me.

... but I don't think they percieve that as being one of their strengths. They seem to be a lot more interested in getting a really avante garde production. I hope they remember to write songs as good as Draw Japan too.

Saying that his music is bad implies that his fans are idiots. Therefore, no one is allowed to say bad things about his band because it's an insult to the taste of the people who like them?

This would mean that you could never give a bad review to a record that was liked by as much as one person!

i just looked at the bulk of the text and though - read this before...

Very very good!

Anyway, Slow Club is the one to be at I'd say. Even more excited about Fanfarlo and Munch Munch the following week.

You copied this straight from Matty's group facebook message!

i was overwhelmed by their mediocrity

I brought the Wave Pictures, Tiny Masters of Today and Late of the Pier today. Think some of those might have actually been out last week, though...

But still - sensible boys.

also: album art:
http://photos-h.ak.facebook.com/photos-ak-sf2p/v193/8/5/286602169/n286602169_1831095_6271.jpg

please

seriously.

one of them told me once that he considered it a short lived art project and wanted to move onto something new. And thats one of the ones who's still IN the band.

I mean, I love them, but it's one of those things where you never expect them to release multiple albums and have a huge career. and why should they? if they'd rather move on, stop it getting staid, thats probably the right thing to do.

I guess one good song is better than most people manage.

Otherwise agreed and I have the urge to listen to something a bit crass and ill considered.

woo woo woo!
i'll be going to that

trying to find where I can buy tickets for london with no success! I know its a little baby venue and tickets will sell out fast... but no where even says sold out, i just can't find any!