The 7th annual C H I N C H I L L A F E S T
5/6/7 june 2009
Brudenell Social Club, Leeds
Advance 3-day weekend Ticket only £10

MONSTER KILLED BY LASER
PRINTED CIRCUIT
EAGLE EYE
TWO MINUTE NOODLES
EXECUTIVE LEGS

THAT FUCKING TANK
CLECKHUDDERSFAX
COWTOWN
HANDS ON HEADS
BALLOONS
BROKEN ARM
POLTERGROOM
THE JELAS
TIGERS!
CHICKENHAWK
HIRED MUSCLE

MAHJONGG
TALIBAM!
A MIDDLE SEX
CHOPS
THE LONG LONESOME GO
NOPE

Oh hell yeah!

We have booked The Brudenell Social Club (as usual!) for the 7th annual extravaganza of joyous stupidity, laughter, and fucked up super ace party time musics that is known globally as the wonderous, brilliant, fantasmical CHINCHILLAFEST!

You might just want to get your diary out (or whatever digital version you use) and scribble the dates in?

When we started up Chinchillafest back in 2003, there were considerably fewer small, independent festivals going on, and now there's probably fucking hundreds on your doorstep (though many of the so-called independent festivals are awash with advertising and sponsorship... none of that here, thank you very much). So, why do we continue?

Well, perhaps you could call us egotistical buckos, but we reckon we'll give you more bang for your buck, more smile per mile, over a ton of fun, and, most importantly, we think we manage to cram in the absolute cream of the UK's bestest, most musically adventurous bands from all sorts of ilks, normally with a few of our European and American friends to keep it nice and spicy!

Advance 3-day weekend tickets = £10
Weekend ticket on the door = £12

FRIDAY 5 JUNE, 7.30pm ... on the door - £4

SATURDAY 6 JUNE, 2.30pm ... on the door - £7

SUNDAY 7 JUNE, 5pm ... on the door - £7

in alphabetical order....... (promotional visual stimulations such as posters and photography arriving soon...)

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A MIDDLE SEX
Manchester |
Rayon / Casual Seizures / Carnivals / Blackest Rainbow / Slightly Off Kilter Records | myspace.com/amiddlesex |

Marathon syncopated drums, choral highs, static friend drones and waves of sunburnt sub bass. A Middle Sex are Karl Sveinsson, Philip Sykes And Matthew Ashworth. Since 2005 they have explored non-linear approaches to popular music. With influences ranging from minmial techno, black metal, power electronics and heavyweight dub, A Middle Sex have a huge resource of sound to draw on. One reviewer described their music as 'not dissimilar to listening to cut up film soundtracks whilst submerged in three feet of water with a dubstep DJ trapped somewhere inside your head'.

Two parts of A Middle Sex crouched with guitars in front of suitcases full of knobs. They produced monstrous Godzilla lurches, the third drummed. It was a fantastic double helix of decaying noise, guitars and vocals bleeding together like stomach contents, snatched distorted pieces of conversation and Tube announcements jangling in and out. Music made by cave-dwelling monks who spend long echoing nights staring at lichen and hearing paranoid music in stagnant drips - Sandman Magazine

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BALLOONS
Liverpool |
Buzz Buzz? Bang! Records |
myspace.com/wereballoons |

Balloons create erratic, infectious hysteria pop with nigh-on-unstoppable vocal twists and turns featuring the words "I'm wearing Benetton to hide in trees", "Pump your ventolin inside of me girl" and "I have the rabbit yawn" amongst fractures of synth, bass and guitar. Regular Chinchilla-attendees maybe recognise one of them from Indica Ritual.

There are five of them and they call themselves Balloons, beyond that we know nothing except that on the evidence of these showcased cuts they sound like they’ve been overly tucking in to the kaleidoscopic sherbet over the festive season concocting and cobbling deliriously skewed sounds that sound for all the world like wired road kill resulting from a head on collision between early career Sparks, Cardiacs, Devo and ‘SF Sorrow’ era Pretty Things, totally mental on the edge of a breakdown schizoid electronics, caterwauling cabaret-esque vocals and wickedly wonky erratic time signatures all coalesce to make this something of a highly infectious spectacle. All very acutely deranged, hysterical or should that be hysteria laced panic stricken pop of which your first port of call should be the totally wired ’Rabbit Yawn’ though those of you preferring flashbacks of pure un-distilled English psychedelic prog pop should be minded to size up the momentous ‘CTK 120’ which at times had us here recalling some strangely warped fusion between B-Movie and Modern Eon. Ones to watch we are suspecting - Losing Today

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BROKEN ARM
Leeds |
Helium Tapes / Sea Records |
myspace.com/brokenarmyo |

Totally killer frantic bozo riff and vocal spit garage punk. Members recognisable from previous efforts such as Sailors, Woman, Like A Kind Of Matador (etc), artfully recreating influences (Stooges, Jesus Lizard, Circus Lupus, Pissed Jeans, Electric Eels, Flipper) with a refreshing lack of fucking about and enough personality and swagger to push the whole lot outside of the obvious sphere.

Brandishing a distinctly wired and fucked up ’n’ festering mindset, Broken Arm slouch, strut, stagger and stutter their way through a battered and fraught choking landscape of grizzled ‘n’ gnarled gridlocked garage grinds welded uncompromisingly upon bent out of shape and blistered slabs of retarded and reclaimed blistered blues signatures that have been jarred and jagged by a round or two... the resulting stew - aggressive in approach, acutely agitated in appearance and dishevelled and discordant in delivery, these scowling hardcore honeys reverberate with attrition based untamed glee. Essential in our book - Losing Today

Broken Arm have the biggest commitment to checked shirts I've ever witnessed, which should be more than enough. Maybe the fact that they tuck them in makes them 'not grunge' - Mary from Pifco

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CHICKENHAWK
Leeds |
Sound Devastation / Brew Records |
myspace.com/chickenhawk |

Chickenhawk's debut long-player is an ambitious and heroic montage of many different types of metal. Crunching riffs swing themselves between battering rhythms and off-kilter tempo changes, and are often interspersed with throat-destroying vocal theatrics and glitches of weird electronica. Although primarily metal, the release does demonstrate a certain amount of genre hopping and is a more interesting and involving listen for having done so. Amongst the riff odyssey, Chickenhawk manage to maintain their sense of humour and adventure: adventurous and imaginative, helped along by a high standard of musicianship - Leeds Music Scene

The CHICKENHAWK sound has been growing and developing for several years now. and the result is a unique set of very densely woven material that promises not to wear out, however many times you put it on. For me, it's very unusual to want to keep such aggressively loud stuff on repeat. But this avant-metal cauldron of invention, savagery and self-astonishing intelligence has converted me in one 43 minute splurge of creative excess to the possibility that metal riffage and post-adolescent frenzy can be utterly mad, very rewarding and and a whole lot of fun besides. In short: articulate flagellation of the non-post-metal idiom, recommended to sceptics and devotees in equal measure - Whisperin & Hollerin

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CHOPS
Leeds |
Upset The Rhythm Records |
myspace.com/mightychops |

CHOPS does its own work for whoever will listen. We dispense with the repertoire of knowledge and experience that is presumed to be required to appreciate art. We replace the elite, intellectual pleasure of "getting it" with the egalitarian fun-house pleasure of disorientation, of trying to understand something that you cannot. CHOPS makes you as one in anxious, enjoyable failure. You may become aware of the vast perceptual resources that await your command just beyond the threshold of your knowing. These, of course, can only be inferred on the rare occassions when they fail to serve your purposes. CHOPS provides picnics for these occassions.

CHOPS bring together what ought to clash, and clash what ought to fall in tune. Administering their own expectant bars with free beats and flying saucer notes, flung between their triangle of members they assign no strict roles, neither do they admit to particular influences, beyond what you yourself hear. The tracks from their UTR record sound something between the breakfast fry-up of a mundane weekend, and the off-the-map radars of an X-Files theme; that is - a noise to quake overcast mornings and provoke irreconcilable dreams. Like what was that I just dreamt / heard? Entertainment which, as it splices volumes on your vacuous dance-floors, "more propulsive" than ever before, will leave you shocked, rattled, laughing - or any combination of the three - Plan B Magazine, 2009

CHOPS is a riot of jerksome technicolour danceability, Devo-derived stop-start dynamics, and good-natured yowling - Wire Magazine, 2009

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CLECKHUDDERSFAX
London |
Chinchilla-Tone Records |
wwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww.cleckhuddersfax.co.uk | myspace.com/cleckhuddersfax |

Life-affirming progressive pop hooks and unassuming grandiose stadium rock anthems of 5 string bass, tasteful synth fanfares, and far-out sing-a-longs. According to some they sound like guitarless eighties prog (think Rush, Genesis & Queen), but with non-harmonious voice contortions. They got some radbad basslines and insane vocal sqawleage. A certain someone stole/eternally, ungratefully borrowed their fine rack of rota-toms from up top, but the new songs don't miss them. Anyone who saw them at the one-day Babi-Chin Fest II in January knows why they're invited back on board! Members can also be found spooking souls in Poltergroom, Please, Isambard Kingston Brudenl and Design A Wave. Debut album released recently on Chinchilla-Tone Records!

Cleckhuddersfax are something special. They are one of those things where you’re not sure why you like it but as soon as you come into contact with it you just want more all the time and nothing else will do. Unlike similar, immediately engrossing things like say erm… Ribena, or DMT Cleckhuddersfax will not leave you broke, destitute, sleeping on other people’s floors or toothless. The band are part of a group of vaguely London based outfits like Spin Spin The Dogs, Man Aubergine and Poltergroom who have all ended up sounding weird and intensely fun without that ever being the intention – Vice Magazine

What got people into Jazz in the first place was the melody and Cleckhuddersfax have remembered this, sure there's madness, electricity and noise but pinning it all down is some cracking melody coming mainly from the Grizzly Adams of a man filling up the middle of the stage, hulking over his keyboards reminding me of how a wired Kerouac banging his random thoughts into his typewriter must have looked… the melody makes that train of thought come alive and it takes the form of an orange leotarded lunatic bouncing round both stage and audience with an abandon that can only come from having Osama Bin Laden sewn into your crotch (I was told it was Osama, I wasn't going to stare at this crotch to find out!) - Tasty Fanzine

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COWTOWN
Leeds |
Chinchilla-Tone / On The Bone / Golden Lab Records |
myspace.com/cowtownsuperstars |

Home-grown and humble Chinchilla party trio with diamond sharp tunes of tight, hard hitting drums, sweet colourful guitar licks and powered up casio melody.

The plan (it's as plain as a pikestaff) is to have as much of a party as certified hedonologists could install. And as a result, for those who crave reckless abandon with (or without) stimulants, strobe lights, fireworks and dancing with independent limbs, Cowtown sounds the very sort of thing to play when things are starting to look like they might not get out of control. In such right hands as those possessed by Cowtown, a 1977 Korg Micro Preset, a 1986 Casio SK1, a drum kit and a guitar only need a tangential voice or two and it's all done. Chunky parts from guitar and Casio pummel the diaphragm and shake the dangly parts. Drumming is on the nicely heavy side. There are plenty of riffs, tunes, klangs and exclamations. More than enough to titillate even the most jaded of post-mathrock snorecore buffs. It's mostly instrumental, but when voice comes in the semantic balance still doesn't move any closer to the rational side. If anything it's the opposite, While an ancient Casio isn't normally called on to tell detailed stories of extreme dancing, the presence of a lyric does tend to raise expectations of meaningful words to pass on to the curious. Fortunately, I can offer very little. I suspect that some of what is sung or shouted would fall a little short of the good advice that might be offered by The Department for Children, Schools and Families. What I can report is that the tracks are inventive, a bit crazy, surprisingly melodic and really very chirpy - Whisperin & Hollerin

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EAGLE EYE
Leeds |
myspace.com/iwillcometosaveyou |

** EXCLUSIVE ** ORIGINAL LINE UP REFORMED & ON STAGE FOR A FINAL FAREWELL!

Keen to follow the current-trend, Chinchilla has invited Leeds' 2004 classic disbanded synth rock party trio to reform to ensure them a healthy retirement fund in these uncertain economic times. A seperate collection bowl for their private health care insurance will be passed around after the performance.

Members of That Fucking Tank, Rabbit Rabbit Rabbit, Buzzkill, etc.

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EXECUTIVE LEGS
Leeds |

New band from familiar, friendly Leeds faces, and members of bands such as Polaris, Pifco, D'Astro, etc.

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HANDS ON HEADS
London |
Upset The Rhythm Records |
myspace.com/handsonheads |

Hands On Heads are fun, fast, dizzy and abrupt, with chaotic spider web guitar frets, synth flowing like a stylophone from funfair to seasick echo, and a ferverent narrative arc clambers across tumbling drums and savage bass. Hands On Heads are the people behind the awsome Upset The Rhythm - responsible for loads of DIY gigs in London for all sorts of weird and wonderful touring bands, as well as for releasing records by the likes of No Age, High Places, KIT, Death Sentence: Panda!, John Maus, TITS, Barr, Numbers, Trencher, etc! UTR also released the Hands On Heads / The Sticks split 10" as part of an ongoing series of UK splits - the second being CHOPS / Helhesten, and future splits inlcuding a.P.A.t.T. / Drum Eyes.

Hands on Heads deliver ten intense bursts of ADD hyperactivity that might remind listeners of the various works of prolific and bonkers Coachwhips mainman John Dwyer, himself a regular entertainer at Upset The Rhythm events. The longest Hands on Heads track here is a whopping two and a half minutes, yet even within these fragmentary vignettes are contained both excellent pop songs and definite and defined structure and ideas, conveyed through chattering instruments and manic organ. Hands on Heads are yet another band who'd have a way bigger profile in times more amenable to experimentation than these - Playlouder

Hands on Heads are the whitest band alive. Their nervous, trebly, dizzy racket is the sound of a balding middle manager regressing to playschool state, wrapping his jaws round a tin fence and then pissing himself. In a way, it’s probably the most annoying thing I’ve ever, ever heard. In another, it edges furtively towards a kind of knife-point brilliance. For when the carousel of whirring guitars and crashing cymbals lets its wooden horses rest, doses of ‘pop’ are injected into the space left behind and the whole thing seems worthwhile... the illness Hands on Heads manage to transmit to me through ten minutes of sonic contagion gives me so much itch that I want to take that dose and rub it all over my skin like a sweet, soothing lotion - Drowned In Sound

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HIRED MUSCLE
Leeds/Bletchley |
myspace.com/hiredmuscle |

Dirt infused abacus blocks of flexing fun funk skronk rock. New band from the fertile crescent of Leeds/Bletchley, with faces known from previous adventures such as Dawn Chorus.

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MAHJONGG
Chicago, USA |
K / Cold Crush Records |
myspace.com/machinegong |

Prime number polyrhythm Warning Orbs of boundless and indefineable spectacle! Dabbling with beatbox punk, world harmony, intermittent dance beats, and playful pop sensibilities on Calvin Johnson's K Records (also home to Chicks On Speed, Dub Narcotic Sound System, Microphones / Mt Eerie, Modest Mouse, Old Time Relijun, etc).

Originally formed in the great bounteous Midwest region of the U.S., "Mahjongg" began as a simple experiment between The Grid & The Sphere. To attract the brood orientation of the young mind, Mahjongg knew the only way to spread Kontpab's message was by forming a musiK band. This ever-expanding Sect uses "irratainment" to teach the warnings and Revelations of the almighty god Kontpab. Kontpab warns the human race of the mass "funneling" of the populace minds into The Grid. Once trapped in The Grid themselves, Kontpab instructed Mahjongg to make a pilgrimage to Chicago, IL.. to form their first "warning orbs" and in turn be shown the light that is The Sphere. Kontpab showed Mahjongg that The Grid's seemingly well-defined rules and laws could be used against The Grid itself. Using The Grid's vast amalgam of mathematical tools against itself, The Sect were able to demonstrate to the brood, for instance with prime numbered polyrhythms, that not only was the path to The Sphere full of spectacle and self awakening, but pharmaceuticals, beer, and dancing as well. It was here that Mahjongg became not only teacher, but student, and this is where The Chicago Sects association with the Water Babies began. From the septic rivers of the Magikal Forest, the Water Babies used Kontpabs undivided and all seeing power to unlock The Sphere's greatest secret, and with these new teachings, Mahjongg created a new church for the Chicago Sect. The tapestries of aural chaos were tempered and perfected, Software upgraded and drums tuned. With nervous but relevant hair follicles and motley threads, Mahjongg hit the scene. Many eons of "Warning Orbs" have since commenced, but the human race still chooses to "funnel" into The Grid and Mahjongg is left with no choice but to invoke the name, and it is with this name we proudly present to you our new album, Kontpab. For we are all Kontpab.

Mahjongg's music is undeniably difficult, but for every challenging passage, there's a populist sigh of relief around the corner. Mahjongg embrace sound in all its forms, and invite easy name drops (Can, M.I.A., 'Remain In Light' era Talking Heads, Gang Of Four, Prince, etc) without ever really sounding like any of them for more than a moment - Paste Magazine

For as long as indie drummers have been riding hi-hats, Mahjongg have taken up the noble mission of keeping their home city weird. No one knows exactly what to expect from any given performance of theirs. It must be chafing to be lumped in with the masses of one-trick ponies when Mahjongg were one of the only bands toying with beats from around the globe, not just early-eighties England. With the distance of a few years' time, we can hear how far apart Mahjongg are from the trend - queasier, druggier, far more adventurous. There's moments of polyrhythms like Konono No 1 before arriving on a thick early eighties syncopated boom-bap... seasick wobble keyboard tones and downtemp chimes like a cousin to LCD Soundsystem, the early morning hangover to a bittersweet euphoria. But there's plenty of moments where they stalk their own trail. Layered and omnivorous, there's not much to complain about, but if they'd used all the time they spent on writing quasi-mystical press releases, on songs as sophisticated as Kontpab's closer 'Rise Rise', they might have more bands being compared to them - Pitchfork; 7.9 / 10

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MONSTER KILLED BY LASER
Leeds |
Run Of The Mill Records |
myspace.com/monsterkilledbylaser |

This hard (Prog)rocking 4 piece have been tearing shit up since 2001 with roots born in Wakefield but now based in Leeds. Garnished with official approval by the 70s Italian Horror/Progmeisters GOBLIN, some members been known to emit a certain presence and sex appeal in the live situation, with an underlying aroma of mystique. Currently working on new full length album set for release in 2009.

You can see the buzz on the faces of the guys from Monster Killed By Laser as they get to support some of their heroes. Their avant guard noises and wacky sound breaks go well with the guitarists pelvic thrusts which accompany his chord playing. Add to that some grand bass sounds, hectic drumming, other worldly sampling and the odd hoot on the clarinet and you have an absorbing band that would easily consume the crowd had they a longer set. In fact they must be a band highly regarded by the Melvins, as the other times I have seen the big haired Buzz and co they play alone or with acts like grunge lords Flipper. The three other bands on the bill are in fact a mash up of Melvins and Big Business, and these guys always play together, so to muscle in on the line up they’ve gotta dig your sound - EGigs

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NOPE
Leeds/Saltaire |

Repeato drone rock trio of hard hit drums, baritone guitar and synth, played from the shade of an umbrella on a baleric beach in a parallell universe. New band from members of That Fucking Tank and Mucky Sailor.

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POLTERGROOM
London |
Nuts & Seeds Records |
myspace.com/poltergroom |

Chinchilla has long shared a fascination with Poltergroom, and they have made several appearances at our previous gigs and festivals - they have also toured the UK and continental Europe several times, with tour partners such as the esteemed Bilge Pump and Mucky Sailor. As a collection of humans, members of Poltergroom also play in Please, Man Aubergine, Cleckhuddersfax, Isambard Kingston Brunel, Rob Collins & The Retails, Kids Le France, and many of the famous Denesh Shan's realised and mostly unrealised projects. Having split the crowd with a Lenny Kravitz cover at a Chinchillafest a few years ago, Poltergroom's new set is more straightforward than before, though still scratchy and shrouded with mist and mysticism with moulding twangs of Beefheartian-country and prangs of frazzled rock. Get down and dirty with your uninhibited desires!

MR. S. Williams, plays fire and brimstone. MR. Shakeeb Aba Shanti, plays battery. MR. Lawrence Apple Hampton plays waynes world limited edition stratocastor.

Influences: Magic The Gathering. Sounds Like: Fowl, fledgling, nestling, feathered friend, budgie

In the Emporer's Casket not the Emporer's remains, but the wait of rice and sack is roughly the same...

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PRINTED CIRCUIT
Leeds |
Catmobile / Chinchilla-Tone Records |
myspace.com/printedcircuit |

Although the 1980s references come thick and fast in Printed Circuit reviews, thats only one aspect of the music she makes. Her attention to detail - and her determination to make each song better than the last - ensures innovative programming that gives her music life and provides a unique twist on the traditional synthpop sound. Where electronic music is often soulless, repetitive and cold, Printed Circuit is bright, melodic and carefully-crafted electronic pop. Claire Broadley began making music as a solo artist in June 1999, aged 19. During the next five years, she released records on labels like Tigerbeat6, Elefant, 555 and her own label, Catmobile. Influences are continually taken from diverse sources, most obviously from the Acorn Electron computer games of her youth, but the only real constant is her own ability to tessellate simple melodies into far more complex compositions. In more recent years, Andrew Raine (of Leeds 6 DIY infamy; Cops&Robbers, Brown Owl, etc) has become an integral part of Printed Circuit's live shows, cemented by a 2 month world tour in 2005 to Japan, Australia, New Zealand and the USA. 2009 brings the arrival of a third member, Chinchilla/Cowtown/Tigers' very own Jon Nash, and a new album entitled 'Control, Escape' coming soon on Chinchilla-Tone and Catmobile!

You could think of Printed Circuit as a kind of safari park, a safe place for an endangered species to roam and play, shielded from the evolutionary progress raging unstoppably outside. Clare [sic] Broadley’s amiable, wide-eyed electro-pop project has reached its second album, she remains as besotted by 1980s home computing and first generation video games as ever. In Printed Circuit’s brightly coloured, hermetically sealed world, the Commodore 64 still reigns supreme and The Human League will never be toppled from Top Of The Pops. Broadley’s chunky, child friendly basslines are like Giorgio Moroder rebuilt in Lego. It’s such a comfortable, immediately convincing sound world that it’s all too easy to spend Wonderful Technique’s dinky 30 minute running time smiling at the retro flourishes rather than concentrating on the considerable subtlety with which these seemingly artless songs are put together... littered with unexpected chord changes and surprising little twists and turns. Printed Circuit’s mannered naivety is only skin deep - The Wire, August 2007

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TALIBAM!
New York, USA |
Azul Discografica / Evolving Ear / Pendu Sounds / Wallace / Holiday / Thors Rubber Hammer / Ecstatic Peace / Gaffer / Blackest Rainbow Records |
myspace.com/talibam |

Talibam! has been making their presence felt since 2003, and they've toured Europe seven times since 2006 (including a week or two with Chinchilla honcho's CHOPS) and released no less than 15 records during this period (plus a bunch more to arrive in 2009)! One of the most potent and fascinating bands in contemporary music... at a time when most culture sticks to conservative niche opportunities, Talibam! expand and explore; they part the sea by not sticking to genre, aesthetic predisposition or the usual norms of what being a 'band' is. More inclined to put on a show and not be stymied by 'avant' type casting, they have won over both unsuspecting and in the 'know' audiences worldwide. The energy of Kevin Shea's full steam drumming is not to be missed, nor is the primal tone of Mottel's synth run through a Marshall Half Stack. Totally freakin' fun bro's!

Matt Mottel has been dropping electric mind bombs with his synthesizer with folks like Awesome Color, Akron/Family, Jeffrey Lewis, Chris Taylor (Grizzly Bear), Kenny Wollesen, Chris Corsano, Ras Moshe, Cooper-Moore, Sean Meehan, and his new band Shadow Maps. Kevin Shea's drumming and stage gymnastics have been gazed at with wide wonder through his membership in bands like Storm & Stress (Touch & Go), Coptic Light (No Quarter), People (I and Ear), Peter Evans Quartet (Firehouse 12), Kyp Malone (TV on the Radio), Tyondai Braxton (Battles), Sexy Thoughts (rcarchives.com), Mostly Other People Do The Killing (Hot Cup), etc. Talibam! have collaborated and performed with The Sun Ra Arkestra, legendary NY free jazz saxaphonist Daniel Carter, iconoclasts PEESSSEYE, Rhys Chatham, Jean Francois Pauvros, and performed in a major retrospective of modern dance choreographer Karole Armitage's work from the 1980's at the Kitchen in New York. A new studio album full of songs and pop glory wonder titled 'BOOGIE IN THE BREEZE BLOCKS' will be out soon on ESP (the vanguard of independent labels from the 1960s who put out the first Albert Ayler and FUGS albums).

Talibam take that moment in 'Sister Ray' when John Cale decides to kick the shit out of Lou Reed as their starting point. They rock the shit out in every way imaginable: fury and fun, performance and presence. Talibam are a punk Coltrane, noise as affect - everybody in the audience is left smiling - Drownedinsound.com

Talibam! have created an eclectic, muscular rock/noise-inflected Improv all their own... things fall apart wonderfully... out of sheer exuberance and pure adrenalin pushing the musicians and the music up to and over the edge. The energy level is worthy of Borbetomagus, but it spills out in all directions, from demented free noise polka to post-Prog funk chorale... The cumulative effect of it all is pretty mindblowing... Talibam! could well be the most exciting improv outfit you'll hear all year... this is more a point of no return than a point of departure... the view from the cliff top is magnificent - Wire Magazine

Lately I've been hearing the terms "skronk," "kronk," "krank," "crunk" and "krump." What do they mean? I don't know. I think this Talibam track is half crunk and half krank. Maybe half spunk and half skronk. It's my favorite song right now. I've been listening to it a lot while playing Word Whomp on my computer and paying my taxes online. For people like me who don't do drugs, I also recommend listening to this while watching QVC - Marnie Stern (Kill Rock Stars) guest reviewer for Paper Thin Walls

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THAT FUCKING TANK
Leeds/Saltaire |
Gringo / Obscene Baby Auction / On The Bone Records |
myspace.com/landsandbody |

Brick-hard hypnotic party band duo of anthemic drive time progressive riff lurching. One of their new songs bears uncanny resemblance to 90's surf-rock band Reef, but don't let that put you off. Originally side-lined from the proceedings because we've put them on a hundred times before... but it soon felt wrong not having them play. Leeds DIY stalwarts who continually break and bend the mould, such as entertaining the crowd at Leeds Festival or tramps in Derby. Members of Eagle Eye, Massive Heron, Nope (etc), Andy is also part of the inventive and ever-busy Black Dogs arts collective based in Leeds.

That Fucking Tank are a two piece powerhouse of a band from Leeds. Taking everything that’s right about rock music and scrapping all the unnecessary excess they create a primal rock where thunderous baritone guitar and tight pounding rhythms provide the backbone to songs you can shake your lazy, office working bones to. The repetitive groove of ‘Making a Meal for Beethoven’ is an awesome jutting master class in riffing, ‘Lands and Body Cool Off’ has a stench of slow grinding sex written all over its filthy little mind while ‘Pumping Iron’ struts around like Mick Jagger injecting testosterone into his eye balls. Add to that some classic rock (The Freedom of Music), a sea-faring lament of sorts (Land Speak Record) and a hypnotic recipe for cranberry relish and you have one of the most refreshing, bizarre and downright entertaining records you’ll have heard in a long time. This is an accolade I don’t bandy about willy-nilly but That Fucking Tank are simply one of the greatest bands in the UK, probably even the whole fucking world - Tasty Fanzine

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THE JELAS
Bristol |
Ingue Records |
myspace.com/thejelas |

Infectious hard-boiled lo-fi conundrum puzzle-crush pop and vocal harmony.

The Jelas are a puzzle. Blood Smash is the trio’s new EP conundrum to be unravelled by the hardy listener - the EP literally is a puzzle. Each song has multiple ‘shapes’ according to the inner sleeve that matches whatever combination the listener feels fit. In fact the songs themselves sound jumbled, with each player carving out their own line regardless of what ever noise that attempts to overwhelm them. The male/female singing is blended and pushed further out, triggering a nicely jarring tune. Different keys clash, drums slow to super snail-pace - it’s a compliment that The Jelas sound like they’d be great to see live - Diskant Zine

The Jelas are the kind of band I would normally take against: muso-ey, fractured and furious, with yelping vocals millions of abrupt stops and starts, and god knows what they were singing about, or if it could even be called singing. So it was rather amazing that I thought they were wonderful. They are a trio, Nat (Je La Soul) playing bass and, er… singing; BonJela, a tall, handsome lad playing guitar and, er… singing, and somewhere back there Al Jelazeera on drum explosions. The best reference point would be Deerhoof. So what is it about The Jelas? It’s the same with any band, it’s that ineffable factor that separates the good from the not-quite-so-good. Even though the music is all herky jerky, it flows out of them like like piss out of a man with absolutely no prostate problems. And, unlike many muso bands, they do not communicate their superiority because they are playing music you might not be hip enough to like. Noise for the Proletariat! - Charley Space

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THE LONG LONESOME GO
Newcastle |

Sparse migrations of blissed out minimalist synth haze, flitting percussion and subtle beats with a fluid, gooey centre of low end throbbing. New band featuring Jason and Christian of The Unit Ama, Month of Birthdays (etc).

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TIGERS!
Leeds |
Chinchilla-Tone Records |
myspace.com/tigers3000 |

Having shed a bass player and fooling the world into thinking they'd split up, Tigers! lost all credibility - along with all their fans - several years ago. Tigers! played one of their first gigs at the first ever Chinchillafest, and with the release of their final album approaching, Chinchillafest 7 marks Leeds' finest fruity foursome embracing their final year of exotic, inverted & wildly effected guitar, tech-chep beats and synth smatterings with ferocious low growl and aggrevated yelps. Tigers! are members and ex-members of Humanfly, Cowtown, Beards, Cissy, Brown Owl, The Dragon Rapide, xCANVASx, etc.

Wild guitar heroics like a cross between Fugazi, 80's British underground bands like Bogshed, and the experimental hardcore of Gay For Johnny Depp or Mukilteo Fairies. Uncompromising underground punk rock! Skewed! - Jumbo Records

I got TIGERS! Superblack 12". TIGERS! will castrate a gnat and impregnate your mother - some dude on a message board

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TWO MINUTE NOODLES
Leeds |
myspace.com/twominutenoodlemen |

Casually swinging drums duo with a large organ, joyfully crafting memorable disco lounge pop. Members of Quack Quack, CHOPS, Casino Volante, Propulsion Family Picnic, etc.

New bands spring up in Leeds like weeds, spreading their seed and incestuously sharing members. Two Minute Noodles create a merrymaking mix that revolves around drums and organ. The resulting sound is something akin to a party full of French people from the Sixties. In a Hitchcock movie. In a pub. With ridiculous analogies being bandied about - Plan B, March 2008

For a band that just consist of drums and an organ, Leeds' Two Minute Noodles make a pretty hefty sound, coming across like Satan's own lift music. They've certainly got one of the most unique sounds I've heard in ages: like a church organist who only plays covers of the themes to Commadore 64 games. Their hardcore-lounge stylings are surprisingly catchy... very satisfying - Tasty Fanzine