Explosions In The Sky's guide to ATP
This weekend, May 16-18, Explosions In The Sky curate the second ATP of the year. The band tell DiS about the background to their festival stewardship»
Articles
ben_patashnik has written the following articles:
Bilge Pump - Rupert The Sky
Ah, shouting. Leeds’ Bilge Pump certainly enjoy letting rip more often than not, as Rupert The Sky is characterised by discord, and their noisy post-punk has much in common with the late Mclusky»
USSA - The Spoils
Take one of the guys from Ministry and one of the guys from The Jesus Lizard, and what do you get? Industrial shoegaze indie? No, you get Ussa, a one-trick pony already on its way to the knacker’s yard»
Smoosh - Free To Stay
While it’s undeniable the accusations they’re a gimmick will follow them beyond this album, the moments of inspiration here mean Smoosh aren’t exactly the kiddy-pop muppets they may appear to be»
Puerto Muerto - I Was A Swallow
The problem with Puerto Muerto is that each one of their songs sounds exactly the same and so it becomes alarmingly easy to zone in and out of it over the course of 35 minutes without actually feeling like you’ve missed anything»
Sonic Cathedral at London Heavenly Social, Mon 07 Apr
What’s most pleasing about Kyte’s performance – and tonight as a whole – is how perfectly formed they, and Sweden's Surrounded, are without trying to fit into anything else around at the moment»
The Dirtbombs - We Have You Surrounded
With The Dirtbombs obviously trying so hard to prove how outré they are and essentially daring you to give a f*ck about We Have You Surrounded, it seems the Detroit garage-rockers forgot to try and be lovable»
Data.Select.Party, Tubelord at London The Social, Mon 17 Mar
Tubelord are becoming old hands at this ‘bring the fucking noise’, lark. For a trio they certainly surprise with the veracity of their performance, with a depth of sound that is surprising to say the least»
¡Forward Russia! - Life Processes
So it’s a second album, and it’s certainly a difficult one. But ¡Forward Russia!'s Life Processes is also an album peppered by moments of dazzling brilliance and not held back by its few brave failures»
Various, Groove Armada - Late Night Tales
Cato and Findlay must have vaults upon vaults of vinyl – why did they play so safe when they had the chance to really show off? The joy of mixtapes is entirely negated by the startlingly unadventurous choices on offer here»
Bob Mould - District Line
Bob Mould used to be in Husker Dü and Brendan Canty used to be in a bunch of chancers that went by the name of Fugazi. District Line sounds undeniably like a man taking his foot off the gas, but it's a solid collection nonetheless»
and so i watch you from afar - This Is Our Machine And Nothing Can Stop It
Defiance, ambition: the twin barrels of endeavour that can turn bands into more than a bunch of guys playing some instruments. And it’s not hard to imagine And So I Watch… doing something rather special with themselves in a year or so»
The Huguenots - Discography
As a historical document Discography rates as more than interesting but not quite essential, but as a raw collection of songs it’s definitely work a look if you like your music unpretentious, ambitious and noisy»
Discography reassessed: the Manics in perspective
With the band recognised by NME as ‘Godlike Geniuses’ at their forthcoming annual awards, and a massive gig at the O2 in London looming, DiS takes another look at the catalogue of Welsh would-be legends Manic Street Preachers»
Fucked Up at London Old Blue Last, Wed 20 Feb
When exactly did it become cool to like hardcore? Because that’s what Fucked Up are – simply an old-school hardcore punk band, with a monster of a man on vocals, whose mission it is to get anyone who thinks they're safe»
Black Francis - Svn Fngrs
While Black Francis' Svn Fngrs isn’t a lost masterpiece it pulls its coherence directly from its inspired madness, which immediately makes it worth investigating»
The Dropkick Murphys at London Brixton Academy, Sat 16 Feb
Let’s get this out of the way first. Boston’s Dropkick Murphys are by no means a cool band. They’re one of those bands that you heard the name of maybe seven years ago, and not because you liked them. Yet here they are, with some 5,000 fans in attendance»
Bloodsimple - Red Harvest
It takes a special type of band to make an album quite so spectacularly bad as this, because this isn’t simply a collection of bad music – it’s fundamentally rotten to its core. And theoretically, Bloodsimple shouldn’t even be a bad band»
Various - Juno: The Movie Soundtrack
Superb music, presented in such a way as to make it appear intensely personal, but it’s been farmed out to every pseudo-indie publication quite cynically. In the context of the film I’m sure it all works gorgeously, but as a standalone item it’s just a little suspicious»
I Was A Cub Scout - I Want You To Know That There Is Always Hope
If they gave marks for effort I Was A Cub Scout’s I Want You To Know That There Is Always Hope wouldn’t just be Album Of The Year or even Decade, but Album Of The Entire Human Race, Ever»
Les Savy Fav - Inches (Reissue)
About 44 months ago DiS gave this exact album 9/10 and called it “genius”. What’s changed? Well, as far as Les Savy Fav go, very little. You can trace their development from this ragged bunch of singles up to the lean, focussed Let’s Stay Friends, as practically absent from Inches are the short, concise bursts of razor-wire guitar and larynx-flexing yelps that characterises their recent material»
Yellotone - Executive Timber
Somewhere beneath the “programmed indie” of Executive Timber beats a heart of positive, interesting experimentation. If only (if only!) it was let out to play more, as too much of this falls into the trap of being too rigid and formulaic»
A Wilhelm Scream, Failsafe at London Camden Underworld, Tue 22 Jan
There's a moment of calm about 40 seconds into A Wilhelm Scream's final song, 'The King Is Dead', where only the five band members are onstage and the entire venue simultaneously takes a breath. Then, kick-off: utter chaos takes hold and bodies crawl above heads, light rigs kicked in»
Mlle Caro & Franck Garcia - Pain Disappears
As unfair as it is to immediately caricature any French artist as being some kind of sexually charged, Gauloise-sucking imitator of Serge Gainsbourg, it’s impossible to discuss Mlle Caro & Franck Garcia’s debut without slipping slightly into cliché»
Krafty Kuts - Back To Mine
The Back To Mine series has always proved to be a bit of a mixed bag; after all, seeing as it’s subtitled “Personal collections for after hours grooving” there’s always going to be something of the laid-back about it and, indeed, however hectic Krafty Kuts aka Martin Reeves’ personal collection gets it never quite lets itself go in one particular direction»
Pet Genius - Chromatic Blues / Pet Genius
It’s not strictly fair to entirely dismiss Stephen Brodsky's Pet Genius project out of hand immediately, even though from the most cursory glance at the make-up of the band they appear to not be taking themselves seriously at all»
Kites - Hallucination Guillotine / Final Worship
Commonly, it’s not beyond the realm of reviewers to talk about the images that the music they’re listening to can evoke. Kites? Boring, meaningless violence»
Sonic Boom Six - Arcade Perfect
If you’d heard Sonic Boom Six in 2004 you could have written them off. But today they represent something the industry has been seeking out for years»
Terra Diablo - Deluge Songs
Frustratingly enough, because this style of music isn’t typically ‘appreciated’ by DiS this review’ll be written off as a wanker journalist trying to kick an uncool band because they’re not Battles»