A little dedication....

I'm so happy to announce we will be supporting The Raveonettes in London on Monday Sep 7th! It will be their first UK show of the year and not only am I excited to be playing for them, I am also excited about hearing their new material, 'In And Out Of Control' which is released on October 6th.

I've mentioned how much I love the band in various interviews/blog posts in the past but I don't think they know just how much they mean to me. I've been a fan of Sune's work for half of my life. I heard his first project, Psyched Up Janis whilst barely in my teens when their song 'I Died In My Teens' was played on the radio. I bought their album and was totally obsessed with them. I followed Sune's other pursuit, an amazing surf band called The Tremolo Beer Gut and the first Raveonettes song I heard was 'Beat City' which was the only amazing song on a Q Magazine compilation I acquired. I bought Whip It On and Chain Gang and I had found my most perfect band since Nirvana.

When I met Sune and Sharin over 4 years ago, life was very very different for me. I was a very shy and awkward fan of theirs and interviewed them for my fanzine, Soma Soma Scene. I emailed their lovely manager Scott telling him about my amazing new web fanzine only thing was that at the time, it was yet to be put into practice. I'd got a small team of people together but we hadn't even got a single web page up. I didn't have a clue how to do it. However Scott immediately replied and agreed to an interview and asked if I wanted to do it by email or face to face. I jumped at the latter and had to wait a good 3 months before they were going to be in the UK. I was so excited in those 3 months and plotted every single question I had ever wanted to ask them.

I interviewed the band in March 2005 and meeting them and seeing them live was a pretty seminal moment in my life. At the time I was studying for a career I later detested and I was torn between following my brain and following my heart. Thank god I am now doing the latter. But at the time, I was totally new and naive to the music industry and bands...The Raveonettes were the first band who supported my fanzine. This initiated the confidence I later developed for writing, which had been a passion of mine from a young age however I had neglected it somewhat at university. They were such great sports that I felt confident to carry on writing and carry on with my fanzine. Through my fanzine I met other like-minded creatives for the first time in my life and started doing showcases of upcoming artists we had interviewed..this has now developed into Decasia and Sick Club. I was completely touched and inspired by Sune's own personal blogs on his Myspace that I felt it was important to do the same for our fans - hence I began this blog.

Since that initial meeting on a cold spring day in March 2005, I've kept in touch with Sune, Sharin and Scott and cherish them dearly. They are one of the few genuine bands out there that I know. They are constantly writing and releasing amazing music, constantly touring, constantly keeping in touch with all their fans...they have a real passion for what they do and do it for all the right reasons. They are just so so inspiring.

You can read my original interview with them here:
http://www.somasomascene.com/raveonettes.html

And buy tickets for the London show with us in support here:
https://crowdsurge.com/theraveonettes

Love love
D-Bird

Too Cool For School

Today I was DJing and saw a god awful girl-fronted band play called Japanese Voyeurs. Oh my god, they were so terrible. The singer was a cross between Avril Lavigne and Paris Hilton and screamed out lyrics like 'I'm so cool, cool, cool, cool!' and 'I want to be a naughty little girrrrrrl!!' Basically those lyrics could work if you were the right girl in the right band (see The Kelley Deal 6000's 'Stripper' song for reference) but take it from me, there was nothing right about this girl nor the band.

It's frustrating but the age old problem is that 90% of girls in bands are just, well plain annoying. They can't play that well or sing that well and care more about flicking their hair and reapplying their lipstick. Oh come on!!! Our female ancestors didn't burn their bras for this!!!! Or did they? I surely hope not.

I'd really like to see more 'real' girls pick up instruments and obsess about music for all the right reasons (i.e. not because they're trying to get with a cute boy in a band). It's so frustrating. This really pisses me off.

Women - grow some damn balls!!!!!!!
In the meantime, here are some women who genuinely rock in rock and have certainly inspired me over the years.
D-Bird

Ilona Prism (The Vyllies)


PJ Harvey


Kim and Kelley Deal


Patty Schemel (Hole)


Hope Sandoval (Mazzy Star)


Sharin Foo (The Raveonettes)


Bjork


Gudrun Gut (Malaria!)


Tanya Donnelly (Belly)


Peaches


Lori Barbero (Babes In Toyland)

TOP RECORDS OF 2008 - SELFISH CUNT AND THE RAVEONETTES

Happy New Year folks!

Hope you are excited about the year ahead and its potential musical talents. 2008 has been a great year for bands no doubt. However the two most outstanding acts for me have been The Raveonettes and Selfish Cunt.

The Raveonettes released Lust Lust Lust at the end of 2007 to much critical acclaim. After the explosions caused by Whip It On, Chain Gang Of Love and Pretty In Black, I had extremely high hopes for the release but was also very confident that the band would carry on delivering their beautiful treats to their fans, which of course they did. However being true, constant, creative musicians and despite a hectic tour schedule and somehow making time for an exciting new solo project (Sune Wagner), the band still continue to treat their fans with utmost respect - something that keeps this band so humble and rare compared to most contemporary bands - and released 4 downloadable EPs in 2008: Sometimes They Drop By, The Beauty Dies, The Raveonettes Remixed and Wishing You A Rave Christmas. Being a devoted fan of the band's, this was a dream come true.


The Raveonettes

For those that haven't yet downloaded it, please visit http://www.myspace.com/theraveonettes and listen to the best music of 2008. You really won't be disappointed. Here's the video for Black/White which is on the Beauty Dies EP:



Now back to UK soil and the most outstanding live act of our generation released their greatly anticipated English Chamber Music album this year. Yes, that band being the one and only Selfish Cunt. Despite a tragic year, this band did what only true, genuine artists can find the faith to do - turn negative, life-changing experiences into explosive, raw, beautiful art. Catch the boys in London on January 22nd at Hoxton Bar & Kitchen with Ulterior, Electricity In Our Homes and us in support. Do buy this album, sit back and dwell on why we must remember that Britain is shit. It's because the politicians don't care and we don't care about politics. At least one small collective of musicians do, and are not afraid to remind us of it. And for that reason my dear friends, this album needs to be sitting in your record collection. http://www.myspace.com/ixnewyork

Here's the amazing video for England Made Me directed by our close friend and Lights Out video director, 241-24-7:


D-Bird

Duets

I love male and female vocals - from the beautiful harmonies of The Raveonettes to the harsher raw quality of The Pixies, I have a list of bands that do this and do this so well.

Starting off with Lee Hazlewood and Nancy Sinatra - Hazlewood embodied everything masculine and Sinatra embodied femininity at its highest form. Hazlewood's grainy, husky voice in contrast to Sinatra's dulcet tones set up a musical partnership that has never really been matched.

'Summer Wine' is a personal favourite alongside the heavily covered, 'Some Velvet Morning'.



Jumping forwards to the 1980s, my love for The Vaselines emerged after hearing Nirvana's 'Incesticide' EP in which songs like 'Son Of A Gun' and 'Molly's Lips' were covered. Here's a clip of Nirvana doing 'Molly's Lips' with The Vaselines' Eugene Kelly on guest vocals.



I also love the collaboration between Jesus and Mary Chain and Mazzy Star - two of my all-time favourite bands:


My good friends The Raveonettes remain a close source of inspiration and Sune and Sharin's voices are perhaps the most musically entwined I've ever heard. At times it's hard to differentiate who is actually singing and I think that makes them all the more fascinating. Their harmonies are tremendous and I love what they do so much.



Mark Lanegan and Isobel Campbell's project has also been really inspiring. I've always wanted to do a male/female vocal semi-acoustic project and this is something I'll certainly give more time to in the future or perhaps we may even recruit a guest male vocalist for The Birds at some point....
D-Bird

Currently listening to...

No Kisses - a great new Cold and Flu Wave band (as they like to call themselves) who will be supporting us on Sunday Nov 16th at 93 Feet East alongside some other great new bands.

Slowdive - good for staying in when you've got a bad cold and only your blanket for company. I really want to do another set of Shoegaze club nights again. The ones I did last year at the Strongrooms were so much fun - resident DJs were myself, Ulterior and Shot By Both Sides and guest DJs included The Raveonettes. Hmmm..I may consider reprising this so if anyone's interested in getting involved, give me a shout. I also want to do a Grunge night early 2009.

The Velvet Underground - some may say an obvious choice but being one of the first bands to have a female drummer and probably the first rock band to ever have a standing up drummer - they deserve to be mentioned a million times over. Moe is a legend.

Tommi Stumpff - I came across him when I was listening to a German iPod in Berlin. Very dark electronica with tortured vocals. I really like it and I'm trying to track down more of his stuff.

D-Bird