Joanna Gruesome is among the best indie rock band. The Welsh group combines garage punk with indie pop in a very unique style. There will be released two split records soon. And in both case Joanna Gruesome is the much better. Maybe there are some tactics on one side. The first split is a 12″ EP with lo-fi indie pop band Trust Fund from Bristol

vinyl & digital on Reeks of Effort (UK) and vinyl on  HHBTM Records (US)

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I very like Total Punk Records, not just for their releases, but also for their name. Because it’s absolutely enough to write that Golden Pelicans‘ debut album by Total Punk, and everything is clear

Two London based bands
an all female post punk noise rock band with French singer and Turkish bassist:
Savages (Matador Records) &
an all Japanese psychedelic rock band, similar to another Japanese band, Boris:
Bo Ningen
are in a special collaboration

London 2012. Savages are recording the debut album. In the middle of an intense three weeks, they set out one evening to see the band Bo Ningen. A few days later producer Johnny Hostile begins to muse over the possibility of two bands playing in the same space at the same time.  Concurrently Gemma Thopson of Savages is reading about the performances at the Cabaret Voltaire.

“Zurich in 1916 and Hugo Ball is instrumental in creating the Cabaret Voltaire – a club which will become central to the performances of the Dada movement, during which the artists would experiment with forms of sound poetry and simultaneous poetry. A movement created through the horror of World War One, it attempts to understand how society has reached such an illogical decision. Through simultaneous poetry begins the attempt to delve into chaos and maelstrom, to find the voice of the individual struggling to be heard. We decide to approach Bo Ningen with the idea of collaborating on a Sonic Simultaneous Poem.”

The idea begins to take shape in early 2013, they prepare for both bands to rehearse together in a studio with a loose composition based around five chapters. As the musicians of both bands consider how to apply themselves with their instruments to each chapter – revolving, colliding and intertwining with words sang in Japanese, French and English. They also envisage the physical space in which to perform.

„We imagine a stage in a large u-shape to contain as much of the audience as possible in the centre. The two drummers next to each other at the ‘bottom’ of the u, then leading around symmetrically (facing each other): guitarists, bassists and singers at the tips of the u-shape. Bo Ningen have a guitar extra, so we hang one from the ceiling to hit as you would a gong. Eventually we fix a date and a space for what we believe is a one-off performance that we name „Words To The Blind.” It was performed at The Red Gallery, London on May 29th 2013. The 37-minutes long track will be released on November 17th by Stolen Recordings (UK) and Pop Noire Records (France).

Snippets from the performance

They will do it again together this on 19 November at the Oval Space, London.
Tickets have been sold out.

Abridged version of John Schooley’s legend

„Details of the early life of John Schooley are sketchy. Various sources place his birth either in Columbus, Ohio or Vancouver, British Columbia. We do know that his family moved to the rural enclave of Niangua, Missouri when he was still quite young. His parents were sharecroppers, barely scratching out a living from the rocky soil of the Ozark Mountains. The youngest of eight or possibly nine siblings, John Schooley did not take to farming, or, apparently, work of any kind. He could be found, often as not, shirking his chores to hunch over his guitar. He would stomp his foot on a board or on the front porch, frequently scaring the cows.  The family Victrola was stocked with any 78″s that could be found, mostly by Jimmie Rodgers, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Doctor Ross, and Don Van Vliet. Most evenings the family tuned to radio station KWTO out of Springfield, to hear the “Carter Sisters and Mother Maybelle with Chet Atkins and his Famous Guitar” perform as part of the syndicated “RadiOzark” network.

School was never to his liking and Schooley quit after graduating the fifth grade. Chafing at the dreary small town life of Niangua, Schooley left never to return. He rambled north to Columbia, Missouri. First trying to put together a hot-jazz combo along the lines of the then-popular Django Reinhart, but he was unable to find suitable musicians. Then, billing himself as “John Schooley and His One Man Band”, he rigged up a kick drum and hi-hat and began performing at “house frolics” and on the sidewalk in front of local record store Whizz Records. He met with minimal success. He was frequently chased away by the proprietor with a broom shortly after setting up. Being unwilling (or perhaps unable) to learn pop hits of the day, Schooley tried to force his listeners to dance to his own frequently atonal blend of blues and country, again with minimal success.

The musical scene in Columbia was so stagnant that when it was announced that bluegrass stars The Oblivians were coming to town, Schooley was able to secure the opening slot even though he had no band together at the time.” He founded the guitar, drum, and vocal trio The Revelators. Surprising success. „When the record, titled “We Told You Not To Cross Us” was released it caused a sensation in at least three Missouri counties and parts of Arkansas and Illinois. The Revelators were immediately rushed off to a whirlwind tour of Europe, which included performances for the as-yet not-dead Princess Diana and Archduke Ferdinand.”

After the break-up he went to Texas „and took whatever work he could find, from oil roughneck to hotel elevator operator. He eventually started another musical combo, the Hard Feelings” while he continued performing as one man band. He added harmonica, snare drum, and washboard to his kick and hi-hat apparatus and recorded some songs.  „Voodoo Rhythm recently uncovered the tapes of these songs, long presumed lost, in an oil drum outside of Lockhart, Texas.” Album preview

„The Man Who Rode The Mule Around The World” LP, CD
on Voodoo Rhythm Records (CH)

Euro tour with Urban Junior in Sept-Oct.

A missing moment of his legend: toured as an additional guitar player for the blues legend R.L. Burnside.

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The Family Fodder is among the funniest British bands ever. Since the mid-70s they have been playing really indie pop music, but literally! It’s independent from everything. So the best. Now here is a vinyl-only collection of 11 love songs, that have never before been released on vinyl. Alig Fodder says about it: „We collected all the love songs together without all the annoying instrumentals, dubs and solos.”

„Just Love Songs” LP on Staubgold Records (France)

You can find some music videos in reference to this album on their site.

Theo (Theodore? Theobald? Theophil? ) Verney lives in Brighton and making grunge taste psych garage rock in his room alone.

Moving Forever from T.V E.P Cassette by Italian Beach Babes

The Dead Man’s Tree. Bluesy countrish garage rock’n’roll from Binscombe, is a small village in the south-east of England. Digital EP

Free download!