MUSINGS OF A WANDERING OAF

BLOGGER: fren attic
WEBSITE: wanderingoaf.blogspot.com

OBSERVATIONS ON 21ST CENTURY LIFE FROM THE RELATIVE SAFETY OF A GARDEN SHED.
OAF(N): CHANGELING, USUALLY DEFORMED, LEFT BY THE FAIRIES; A DOLT; A LOUT; AN AWKWARD FELLOW



Thus far I have avoided infection from the beasts of the air and the beasts of the field and I feel a minor celebration is in order. I rest my worn quill (my prodigious digits) and crack open a bottle of Pinot Grigio, pouring it down my gullet like a starved cormorant - no Sideways reference intended.

Having no wish to carnify my apportionment of wit and wisdom, however slight that may be, I have begun to exercise not my sickly corpus but something all together more important - my judgement. It is my intention to regale the weary surfer with delectable titbits on myriad subjects, including politics, culture, sex, drugs and sofas. I hope no one gets injured in the process.

I shall do my best to be succinct for, as my granny was fond of saying, non multa, sed multum – not quantity but quality. She was a Latin scholar who occasionally lapsed into drunkenness. I, on the other hand, am a scholar of drink who occasionally lapses into Latin. Nota bene.

PAUL VICKERS COMEDY, SARAHJANE'S "GHOST", KONO MICHI in THE STRAD

BLOGGER: shark batter records
LOCATION: scottish borders & brooklyn, new york
WEBSITE: sharkbatter.com
MYSPACE: myspace.com/sharkbatterrecords

Paul Vickers performs live in Edinburgh with help from Twinkie, Bruntsfield Lottie and Joyce Bananas. Includes the famous story of the elephant chimney sweep. Dancing Jim, and Barbara Bananas's death-trip train ride.





Sarahjane Swan singing a rendition of her next single, Ghost, with rogerSIMIAN (The Stark Palace) playing fairly bad piano.



Kono Michi 9 Death Haiku review in The Strad, June 2009:



Kono Michi is a New York-based concert violinist and erstwhile Silk Road Ensemble collaborator, and has come up with this intriguing and exquisitely beautiful setting of Japanese deathbed haikus. 

If you listen to this wanting to hear violin music, you might be disappointed. True, Michi's pedigree on the instrument is manifest, with a dexterity and refined expression, whether in the crystalline melody and pulsing accompaniment of Vanish or the gossamer-light pizzicato of Cherry Blossoms. But these songs are about the whole package. The spare, open-ended lyrics, peaceful and occasionally darkly tinged, demand subtlety, and Michi delivers.

Her voice is gently honeyed, with a Bjork-like quirkiness that tempers the languid, summertime ambience of the sound. And around the succinct text, she crafts precise, imaginative textures, with layered violin lines and delicate percussion, expanded by touches of reverb that do not tarnish the solo violin on top. Michi draws on Gershwin, Weill, impressionism and Japanese traditional music within a popular format - a bold venture that occasionally jars as so many styles rub up against each other, threatening to overpower the words. Then again, the variety of moods and range of musical allusions explore the acres of unspoken meaning that each haiku offers from a number of angles. And overall, the album coheres into a distinctive sound that reflects Michi's personal blend of cultural influences (she was born to Japanese and Polish-American parents). This is a great advert for music that breaks through the pop-classical barrier.

SHARK BATTER feature in SUNDAY HERALD

BLOGGER: shark batter records
LOCATION: scottish borders & brooklyn, new york
WEBSITE: sharkbatter.com
MYSPACE: myspace.com/sharkbatterrecords



Sound of the underground
The big-time music industry may be suffering as the internet and economy bite, but in Scotland the grassroots scene is thriving. A new generation of web-savvy talent is emerging from unlikely places, ignoring all the rules … and taking on the world. Edd McCracken meets the bands, venues and labels creating a vibrant community of new music...

THE LABELS

News of the demise of major music labels is nothing new. They reacted to the internet as swiftly as an oil tanker doing a three-point turn in a shipping lane. And so, where once talks of international record deals were the preserve of musical ivory towers in London, LA and New York, today the scene shifts to a day-glo cafe in an Asda in Galashiels.

Two brothers sit at their usual table by the window, enjoying cheap coffee, discussing what to do with their signing from New York. Roger Simian and Mike Small played in a mildly successful Britpop band, Dawn Of The Replicants, but have swapped sweaty live venues for running their own record label, Shark Batter. Begun in 2006 and named after a defence technique for dealing with Jaws (rather than a Borders delicacy), it is part of a resurgence in Scottish indie labels, a musical sub-genre that gave the world Postcard Records in the 1980s and the booming Fence Collective. They are rising in bedrooms, kitchens and supermarket coffee shops, nimbly filling in the gaps left behind by crumbling majors.

"Indies are coming back, although it's different to what it was before" says Roger. "It is easier to set a label up now, thanks to the internet, but there are new difficulties, too."

The withering of the independent label's trusted distribution method is one such difficulty. The number of small, dedicated record shops has dwindled. As has the music press: only the NME remains as a weekly diet, while monthly magazines are in thrall to stadium acts or slavishly cater to the baby boomers' record collections.

While Shark Batter still burn promotional CDs, packed in home-made cases, they will be sent as readily to mp3 bloggers and online fanzines as to Q magazine. In an age when such a DIY ethos reigns, their tagline has an agreeable Del Boy chutzpah to it: "DIY Indie Label from Scottish Borders & Brooklyn, New York".

"It's somewhere between tongue in cheek and our ambition," says Roger. "One of the things now is that instead of indie labels being identified with one label and one country, thanks to the internet you can reach out and find an audience in America, Europe or Mexico, as well as your own country. There is a fascination with other cultures. Connections will be made, like twinning cities." He stops, as if contemplating whether to put his tongue back in his cheek for the next remark. "We'd like Galashiels to be twinned with Brooklyn."

The link with New York's hippest borough is not speculative. It comes from Shark Batter signing Kono Michi, right, a classically trained concert violinist and singer who manages to embody the sound of both John Cale and Nico in her slight frame. Mike bonded with Michi via MySpace over a love of The Cocteau Twins. She recorded violin for his band, The Stone Ghost Collective, before agreeing to be signed to their label.

Reflecting the "Think Global, Act Local" approach to running a label, Shark Batter's signings are highly personalised: Sarahjane Swan lives in their old house and Mike was her guitar teacher; the lead singer in the wonderfully titled Vacuum Spasm Babies worked on the same music fanzine as Roger; and The Stark Palace is Roger's own band.

As a career, they "get by" running Shark Batter. "We're not making any major profit out of it," says Mike. "We're always looking for new angles. We're full of ideas. One of us keeps the other on the ground. But we'll always be based in Galashiels. You don't always have to be based in big cities and follow the traditional routes. Besides, we get free coffee refills in Asda."

Kono Michi's 9 Death Haiku and Vacuum Spasm Babies' Whipping Clowns are out now on Shark Batter Records; www.sharkbatter.com

KONO MICHI "9 Death Haiku" World Premiere & Album Launch

BLOGGER: shark batter records
LOCATION: scottish borders & brooklyn, new york
WEBSITE: sharkbatter.com
MYSPACE: myspace.com/sharkbatterrecords



The world premiere of Kono Michi's 9 Death Haiku album is at the Thalia Theatre at Symphony Space, New York, on Thursday May 21st. $20 discount tickets on sale at concertartists.org.

Line-up:
Kono Michi: vocals & violin
Annaliesa Place: violin
Jessica Troy: viola
Eric Stephenson: cello
Peter Seymour: upright bass
Satoshi Takeishi: percussion

The album is on sale now at the major online stores. The CD will be fully released later in the year but a limited number of copies will be available at the concert.



rogerSIMIAN's Review of the Album
Now, I'm a somewhat scruffy and gruff-voiced Scotsman of a certain age but I'm not ashamed to admit that I cried when I first listened to Kono Michi's 9 Death Haiku LP. I don't think it was much to do with the fact this is an album about mortality. It was more related to that range of almost unbearable emotion which you can never quite utter in words, but which certain composers occasionally capture in their music. Throughout this record Michi's voice and instrumentation produce wonderful tones, melodies, harmonies, discordances which are frequently allowed to soar up into the ozone like flapping, dragon-red kites, but always remain tethered to the earth by the inventive noises and rhythms of percussionist Satoshi Takeishi.

I think my shameless shedding of tears also had something to do with the fact I couldn't imagine anybody else but Kono Michi being able to both write and perform anything quite like these nine songs. This is not so much to do with her family history. Yes, she is the daughter of a Polish-American documentary maker and a Japanese amateur musician. And of course her parents' influence is explicitly there in the music - from the use of the traditional Japanese melody, Sakura , to the field-recording style mash-up of European folk and other popular styles, including fragments of Gershwin and Kurt Weill-like decadent waltzes. But it is Michi's own diversity of musical background which has resulted in this work being so finely balanced between full-on classical excellence of playing and an uncompromising alternative pop /indie sensibility.

Kono Michi began learning to play the violin as a three year old growing up in Orange County, California, and later went on to study in Cleveland and at New York's Juilliard conservatory. She has since travelled the World as a concert violinist, playing with the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonics, The Silk Road Ensemble, Los Angeles Piano Quartet and ECCO (East Coast Chamber Orchestra), as well as recording with David Sylvian and on various Hollywood film soundtracks.

But all the while Michi was discovering for herself the raw excitement of rock and popular musics. Dancing around to Joan Jett's I Love Rock 'n' Roll as a toddler seemed as vital and important as her more formal studies. And so it was easy to appreciate the punk or goth her older sister introduced her to in her teens, or to happily freak out to mixed tapes jammed full of Captain Beefheart, Cocteau Twins, Dolly Parton, Screamin' Jay Hawkins and Camper Van Beethoven. I don't think I'm wrong in imagining that all of these influences are gumboed up together in the 9 Death Haiku LP.

But the only real, steady reference point I can think of for this album is that it mines similar terrain to the Velvet Underground or, more specifically, Nico's Frozen Warnings . I don't mean that there's any great sonic similarity as such. But there was a particular electricity produced when John Cale's experimental classical training was bumping and grinding up against his new friends' more earthy, down at heel, love of Western popular forms. And I can feel that same electricity crackling through Kono Michi's debut album.

By the time of the trippy final track, with its John Adams influenced minimalist orchestral layers and Zen refrain "My one wish is to live in the Capital of Non-Action" I can't help feeling, as a listener, that I've tasted a most delicious vintage of Death Song, and I want to experience it all again immediately.

rS

VACUUM SPASM BABIES LP released today

BLOGGER: shark batter records
LOCATION: scottish borders & brooklyn, new york
WEBSITE: sharkbatter.com
MYSPACE: myspace.com/sharkbatterrecords



The debut album, "Whipping Clowns", by Scottish oddballs, Vacuum Spasm Babies is released today on Shark Batter Records, and a gloriously wonky and inventive album it is too. You can buy it as a download through iTunes, Amazon etc and it's also available to buy in various music stores in Edinburgh and the Scottish Borders, including Avalanche.

Charles S. Bravo and Malcolm Spasm have put together a live incarnation of The VSB, featuring Cameron Jack and rogerSIMIAN from The Stark Palace on guitar and bass, and original Dawn Of The Replicants drummer, Grant Pringle. If you're in Edinburgh this month you can catch 'em at Bannerman's this wednesday (11th May) and The Ark on wednesday 27th May.



We've also just uploaded the High Definition version of Vacuum Spasm Babies's "MHz" video - an experiment in mixing Machinima (Second Life created characters) with old public domain footage from the Edison company. To see the full quality version click on the "HD" button above.

VACUUM SPASM BLOG May 2009

BLOGGER: charles s bravo
LOCATION: scottish borders
BAND WEBSITE: vacuum spasm babies
BAND MYSPACE: vsb myspace
BLOG: vsb blog
LABEL: shark batter records




Free Records

As we hurtle toward the release date of the vacuum spasm babies' record, I'm going to break with tradition and for the most part talk about records released by other people. Whilst my brother in rock has his mind set on reaching a time when he's not troubled by actually owning music he can touch (CD or vinyl) and the only songs he has are stored on a computer chip and played back in alphabetical order, I continue to collect LPs as vigorously as budget and space will allow. I am not hugely rich in either area, so have strict criteria when mooching around charity shops and car boot sales. Number one, how much do I really want this record, and how often will it get played. If it's something I've been after, or I'm too curious to pass on, and know that I'll not neglect it after one spin, I'll take it, give it shelf space, and appreciate it. Number two, cost. I'm a charitable man, but who the hell is going to pay £2.99 for a 2nd hand LP that you could probably get in a supermarket on CD for about the same price, I've got a £1.50 limit for any charity shop purchase, unless it's a record clearly worth more, I walk away.

The building I work in hosts a reasonable sized record library, stacked high with CD's and vinyl covering a huge list of genres from the last 40 or 50 years. Like my brother, the owners of this library have spent a lot of time and money putting songs into a big computer, that then plays them back to people who listen in what it considers to be a pleasing order. In fact, the songs are tested in some fashion on members of the public to make sure that no one song will cause offense, or provoke a stroke from any of the older listeners.

Cut to the chase Charlie, I'm dozing off here.

They decided they wanted to make some space, and do away with the vinyl part of the library. You have to understand, that 90% of the records carefully catalogued and labled and sitting on the selves are sitting on the shelf gathering dust for a reason, and usually not worth a second look. Although in the same way that on a rare and special day flicking through records in a charity shop you'll find a Lee and Nancy album in amongst the Clannad, Engelbert Humperdinck, Tartan Party, and Holst - The Planets, I guessed that there might be a few gems hiding away in this library.

Word got out that you could take your pick of the vinyl, before it was sent elsewhere, although it was unlikely that most other folk in the office would be after the same kind of stuff as me, I decided to get in there quickly. Along from the section dedicated to 'songs from the countries', 'military', 'local humour' (Geordies from clubland) and 'Folk' sits the 'soundtrack' section. And again you need to dig deep and beyond 'Who Framed Roger Rabbit', 'Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles' and 'Mermaid' before you found the stuff worth keeping.

I've listed the records that came home with me from this section for a permanent record.

Music from the Movie

A Man and a woman
Midnight Cowboy
The Shining
Trail of the Pink Panther
Sorcerer (Tangerine Dream)
Rollerball
Shaft
The Persuaders (basically a load of John Barry)
One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest
The Exorcist
The Empire Strikes Back
Easy Rider
Manhattan

Along from that, sat compilations, and when you got past 'Now 4', far too many 'Greatest Love' type things all featuring Bonny Tyler, 'Chart Attack' and a load of music that made the 80's so bad, a few more gems for the collection.

The British Psychedelic Trip Vol 4 (1965-1970)
The Decca Originals Vol 2 (1965 - 1969)
In the Beginning (early recordings of the superstars - i.e. Slade when they were The Inbetweeners, Bowie as Davie Jones etc.)
Dream Babies - Girls and Girl Groups of the Sixties (The Girls, The Crystals, The Honeys)
Death, Glory and Retribution - Rock Rarities including death disks, protest songs and answer songs (an odd mix of stuff from late 50's to late 60's)
Buddah in Mind (Buddah Records compilation, just brilliant)

And filed under misc.....

Astrid Gilberto - Once Upon Summertime
Fairport Convention - Heyday (BBC Sessions 1968-69)
The Tornados - greatest hits
The Lovin' Spoonful - greatest hits
Harmony Grass - This is Us.

Someone beat me to the soundtrack to 'Enter the Dragon' and my buddy Steve got into the 7" section for his jukebox before I had a chance to check it out, and I'm pretty sure he made off with the 'Top of the Pops' albums he's missing, but enjoyable and quite surprising set of circumstances means I've enough to keep my busy for a couple of weeks.

Mrs Bravo will be getting a compilation tape in the next 48 hours, let me know if you want a copy.

Meanwhile vacuum spasm babies continue to smile at the good reviews for the album that have been popping up, and laugh at the bad ones. We're designing posters for the record shops who will be stocking it, and working out how to play the live set quiet for the instore the label have sorted out for us.

SUN ZOOM SPARK ZINE Online Archive: issue 1

BLOGGER: rogerSIMIAN
LOCATION: scottish borders
BAND: the stark palace
LABEL: shark batter records



In the mid-1990s, many of the good folks now associated with Shark Batter Records ran a glorified local fanzine, Sun Zoom Spark, that dun good and ended up becoming a full colour monthly distributed throughout the U.K. Sun Zoom Spark, named after a Captain Beefheart song, was based in the Scottish Borders town of Galashiels.

Distinctive design and band caricatures came from the 6 ft 5 bearded behemoth Grant Pringle, original drummer with Dawn Of The Replicants, who is now collaborating with myself and Cameron Jack in The Stark Palace.

My brother Mike Small and school friend Brendan McAndrew - the song-writing partnership behind The Stone Ghost Collective - were the publisher and editor, respectively.

Charles S. Bravo - currently frontman of Vacuum Spasm Babies - was the music editor and it was generally him who set up interviews for us: everyone from punk rock old-timers (eg The Ramones, Jonathan Richman) to the up 'n' coming Brit Pop whippersnappers (Blur, Radiohead, Pulp, Elastica, Supergrass, Manics, Echobelly, Oasis, Sleeper etc), various noisier American acts, who I usually much preferred to the Brits (Beck, Sonic Youth, Pavement, Mercury Rev), pop stars (Coolio, Erasure, Rolf Harris) and a gaggle of riot grrrl influenced female-fronted bands.

In the early '90s, my brother met Tom Baker lookalike and natural born Dadaist, Paul Vickers, at college in Carlisle. A few years later, he persuaded Paul to ditch the experimental music degree he was studying in Nottingham and move into our parents' converted church house so he could draw his Flag Woman cartoons and pen articles about the bands he liked. Which is basically how he ended up writing songs with Crunchy Joseph (a Borders three-piece featuring me, Mike and Grant Pringle: Sonic Youth guitar tunings and three-part vocal harmonies if you can imagine such a thing), and later fronting Dawn Of The Replicants, Pluto Monkey and Paul Vickers and the Leg, pretty much becoming an honorary Scotsman in the process.

The early team also included: Hector Prole and Dermot hACK ( long-time inhabitants of Amsterdam since SZS folded), Grant Kirk and Andy Foggin (now both teachers) and Hawick lass Vicky Davidson, who's had a healthy career in Scottish journalism and is now deputy editor of The Big Issue (in Scotland).

Well, after many years, we've finally built a website where we can archive some of the old material.

Here's a sampler of the first national issue (from Jan '94):

* SUN ZOOM SPARK issue 1 *

And a taster of the two early local zine versions of SZS (92 & 93):

* SUN ZOOM SPARK local zine *


"Pop Up Jesus" by Paul Vickers


Courtney Love by Charles S. Bravo

I've also uploaded two new galleries of photography to the Sparks From The Mothership by Paul Vickers ("Church of the Curious" in which he explores his unhealthy obsession with religious iconography and trashy culture) and Charles S. Bravo (rock & pop snaps including:: Courtney Love, Jon Spencer Blues Explosion, Kylie Minogue, Nick Cave, Beck, Thom Yorke, Joey Ramone, Bjork and Richie Manic):

* GALLERIES *

Hope you enjoy. I'll try and upload an issue's worth every month or two...

rS
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