AUGUST 14th ... through the decades!!!
Gigs, albums, Big Cats and flyers. All of life's necessities in a bundle.
The Ruts’ Malcolm Owen (R.I.P.) at the Music Machine, 1979
14th August 1979 finds your Mercer back at the Marquee for the second consecutive nights of gigs by THE RUTS, this time supported by the slightly rocky punks Private Vices.
14th August 1982 (possibly?) sees the awesome KAS PRODUCT debut at the The Embassy with Orchestro Rouge, and they would later play The Venue with Delta 5. They were promoting their awesome “Try Out” album and I was lucky enough to interview them for Melody Maker. I don’t recall them returning?
14th August 1987 saw Disneyland After Dark steal the show from Ghost Dance at the Riverside Studios in Hammersmith as they managed to get an old Bedknobs & Broomsticks style bed onstage and Stig was dressed as a US motorcycle cop and fired the firework off his helmet. I reviewed this for Melody Maker:
GHOST DANCE / DISNEYLANDAFTER DARK
Riverside Studios, Hammersmith
IF I was to tell you that four exceedingly hairy Vikings pillaged the senses of a predominantly post-Goth audience with a set of manically peculiar rock epithets that practically steamed the paint off the walls, with a bassist dressed as a fairy and a guitarist reclining in a hammock, you probably wouldn’t believe me. You’d be absolutely right. Disneyland After Dark’s bass player was dressed in the classic American Cycle Cop gear (complete with dark-visored helmet from which
fireworks erupted mid-encore), and their garrulous guitarist was to be found perched alongside the drummer, leaning against a sign stating, “Good clean family entertainment you can trust”. Everything else I said was true.
They could have been gargoyles on a day out, they could have been Metal. But no, these charismatic beauties were Danish dementoids who were plainly mental, juggling with the - seismic sensations contained on their “Draws A Circle” album, managing a toe snapping version of ‘Wild Train’ and their showstopping, heart stopping, epic ‘I Won’t Cut My Hair’! Hell, their singer’s got hair everywhere, “….up my nose,
on my back, between my toes. I’D DIE WITHOUT MY HAIR!” They look like they might have come from Leicester but they came from Heaven. They are certainly the weirdest band in the world and I’m certain they’re the best.
Ghost Dance, who bored me outrageously last time I encountered them, have sharpened up into a dour version of something close to The Primitives, in that there now exists in their careful songs a sombre vitality which reeks of excellence.
Not dazzling exactly, but dynamic enough to dent your eyeballs.
Spooky!
Straight on to Livejournal then … and remember, after all this time these urls are bound to be dead.
AUGST 14TH 2002
BUBBLEGUM SLUT Issue 7 - £1
While it’s been ages since I’ve received a fairly scrappy printed zine, it’s good to see they don’t change. BS has the right attitude and looks pretty crappy in places (but with a black and white fluffy heart stuck to the cover), but it juts bundles along and gets on with it, featuring quite a weird mix. It’s Rock, it’s Glammy and it’s Goth. Tyla from Dogs D’Amour is interviewed, as are Remote Control, The Venus Fly Trap and Bubble. It’s a shame Allison chose to put all the pics on a double page spread as that always ends up with darker results, so you can’t really see them, but it’s fun. There’s plenty of CD and Z\ine reviews, and live we meet T6yla/AntiProduct, AntiProduct/Quireboys, Bubble/Nutrajet/The Plastic, Lounge FM/No Direction/The Jellys, Backyard Babies/Danko Jones and Johnny Zhivago, Toilet Boys/Sonic Boom Boys/Suicide Milkshake, Faster Pussycat/Pretty Boy Floyd/Neon Bomb, Rachel Stamp/Halo/Tidal Mind, Rockbitch, and Dressed To Kill. I’m sure there are more of you reading this than just Mothburner who revere Tyla, and maybe a few like me who find the idea of the Quireboys still going rather frightening. Please tell me The Babysitterz aren’t coming back!!!!! If you have any worries over the price/postage go to hjttp://www.bubblegumslut.1hway.com which has selected reviews, pics of covers and info.
Last night on a forum someone was mentioning Elvis and the idea of impersonators came up. I delicately suggested that he his films and the majority of his records were shite, but when he was on top form he was phenomenal, which I believe is fair. What a load of people aren’t aware of is ELVIS - THE NOVEL in which he simply vanishes at the height of his fame. Then he turns up here and there, being a fan of Dylan, and occasionally seeing Velvet Underground gigs, he gets arrested in Czechslovakia at an anti-Tito demonstration trying to vandalise a poster, but goes off the rails at a pro-celebrity golf (!!!!!!!) tournament where it appears he believes he IS Dean Martin. The book gives a full account of his troubled life that we’ve never heard before and finally, at an American Clash gig, he announces to Joe Strummer that he is handing over the mantle of rock and roll to him because it is youth poetry and he has no place being involved anymore, and he goes off to happily supervise the running of the Elvis burger chain. An extract from this brilliant book can be read here:
http://www.thedonotpress.co.uk/elvisthe2.html
Other people aren’t even aware of Peter Singh - The Rockin’ Sikh, the man who sings “I don’t do drugs, I don’t do bourbon, All I wanna do is....shake me turban!” He does a good Elvis in his wild live show and released the classic single ‘Elvis, I’m On The Phone’. During the course of this single the phone rings and when Pete picks it up Elvis introduces himself as “a big man, in a big box” which is one of my favourite moments ever. Bizarrely, he was planning to do a follow up to Space Oddity, which was also going to involve Ruth Madoc from ‘Hi De Hi’, who would play Major Tom’s wife, and be taken into Houston Control to try and talk the errant astronaut into returning home, with the blissful entreaty, “Come home Tom, your dinner’s on”! Sadly it never got made.
Peter Singh
Bit of Pete info: http://www.ringsoft.demon.co.uk/man/video/sikh.htm
Now at http://yume99.free.fr/ you’ll find a mighty site, packed with pics and many areas covered, but in French. Click the camera icon top left and it brings up a lost of models, and there’s great photos of all of them. At the other end, and duller spectrum, http://www.angelfire.com/stars3/darkstar1/index1.html has plenty of poems but nothing else actually works.
MK ULTRA mag at http://www.mk-magazine.com/also has lots of Vixxxens listed among its mad columns, excellent reviews of big and small, and great band photos. Even Jen Chen who once did the brilliant Spectre zine.
GREAT band, average site, at http://www.odorofpears.com/
http://www.deadlycurves.com/ is in my book , I’m sure you’ve been there. And if you haven’t got my book just think of the sites I won’t be reviewing here! Ordering info is on my front page. Go to http://www.mickmercer.com
RACHEL GREEN has good pics at http://www.rgmodel.4t.com/ where normal shots are interspersed with beautiful Goth and Supernatural sessions.
SYNFULLY WICKED at http://www.geocities.com/Synavee/ had duff frames upfront but bright, brash thrusty photos within. Journal isn’t up to much. FALLEN ANGEL at http://syren666.faithweb.com/ got mentioned before as well, but these truly are fantastic portraits so don’t moan. Always recommended: http://www.ditchkitty.com/
THE VOLUPTUOUS EROTIC HORROR OF COUNTESS BATHORY: http://www.bathoria.com/ - is Horror-styled pics. Weird.
DARK DOLL - http://www.darkdoll.com/ is Agony’s biggest site yet (she of Ebon Bliss?) with pics galore, some music, and she’s into finding models to extend the ruder side of things. She also does http://www.fetishbliss.net/ with is fairly self-explanatory. EBON BLISS and PALE BLISS are done by the same person. The band’s site is at http://geocities.com/pale_bliss/
Full Starvox review up when the issue is up, as well as the WRECKAGE PRODUCTIONS compilation for Poe, and WRECKAGE’s own “Bad Vibes” which everyone should want. (Can’t review your Cryptology Best OF…Tony because the CD won’t play!!!) and I’m pretty bowled over by Audra.
Current mood: Moody, got a bit of travelling around to do today.
ABBERLAINE changes like the seasons, and for now her site isn’t the same. Find her ‘kinky fiction’ (Horror and Erotica) and journal at http://www.noboys.org/
There’s always http://dalynx.cjb.net for Italian reviews and art.
OPHELIA LOST is altogether less aggressive at http://www.ophelialost.com
JOHN ROBB is much more than a nutter-journalist with a healthy musical past including The Membranes. If you haven’t check GOLD BLADE now is your chance:
http://www.goldblade.com
Also his zine/archive at http://www.thrillcity.net
French skate stuff which is cool at http://site.voila.fr/SK8CORE
http://www.ovidie-pornslut.com/ is fairly rude, with many arty softcore poses and there’s a board plus news, and Lord knows what, in French. MASUIMI MAX at
http://www.masuimi.net/ is a fire-eating contortionist model. Stunning photos, plenty of news and diary. She also recommends ISABELLA COSTUMIERE at
http://www.corsetmaker.com/ for top quality corsets, and gowns.
Masuimi’s fanclub: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/masuimi/
DISCO BITCH at http://www.disco-bitch.net/ is great. Plenty of pics, and her modelling portfolio, poetry and essays. ROSEGARDENOFWHORES at
http://www.rosegardenofwhores.com/ lets you choose you sin, view the webcam and plenty of good pics, read the words and stare bemused at her Digitally Altered Goth Celebrities. Bauhaus gallery, tribute to Salvador Dali – and so it goes on. Satanic hilarity (oh, sorry, religion!) and Fetish items, plus big links. LONGHAIRED MEN at
http://www.longhairedmen.com/ is just that, “and the women who love them” as a bonus. Party Photo galleries.
MABELYN is wonderful at http://www.mabelyn.com/ has very interesting writing (and poetry for you weirdos), a magnificent journal, plus portfolio (webwork, games characters, film) and a Wolverine page. There is also the ambitious Temperature Of Flesh interactive project. Pretteeee gloooomy.
More later – as a right old mixture – but my current overview of the UK sites is being prepared. That’ll be up by the end of the month. Don’t forget - if you have CDs, tapes or zines for review send them in. If you want you site reviewed e-mail me, putting ‘site review’ in subject line.
RASHELLE has a spacious, airy site at http://glamgoddess.com/rdevillaus/ where there seems to be very little because of the clinical layout but its minimalist charms hide quite a few interesting things. Nice amateur snaps.
GOTHIC PLEASURES - http://gothicpleasures.com/ - is a pay site for Goth, tattooed and Pierced Rudery. Free example pics available. Strangely I recall a day when piercings and tattoos were a rebellious statement, a mystery. Now they’re a fashion item and virtually every gormless textmessagingteen has a decorated navel or a tatt in the small of their back they are, by and large, nothing. Only extreme piercings even merit a raised eyebrow. A great looking journal at http://lunasee.livejournal.com/
STEVI SECRET at http://www.stevisecret.com/home.htm who I thought was just a dancer has a vast porny site! Be warned, real hardcore here so it’s not the playfully kitsch stuff I’ve been highlighting. There’s a fine line between what has character and what follows the trail of so many others and I fear this is where the dividing line starts.
So I can’t be bothered with what is in the following sites which I have lined up, having found the links elsewhere. Porn can be funny, cool, stylish or just plain rotten, but the seedier sites totally tarnish the charm of the individual and intelligent erotica ones. So the following may have something to them or may be grotty drivel:
http://www.onemodelplace.com/model_list.cfm?ID=9953
http://www.jmurray69.freeserve.co.uk/
http://www.valenciadiaz.com/
AUTUMN – Glamour/Fetish model:
http://www.autumn-gothic.com - unfortunately, mentions Gothic but regards Manson as special. Oops! Tatty nude shots with dildos poised, and average graveyard and Gothic galleies.
Here’s hoping we find real character tomorrow. Now off you go and play the Cat Game at http://www.b3ta.com/catgame/ That should keep you quiet.
Thursday, August 14th, 2003
CAT-SITTING (DAY 4)
They’ve all kept a low profile today. AND I’M NOT SURPRISED! I said Lucy had fleas. They’ve all got them! I can’t do their flea treatment again, as Lynda only did them before jetting off on Monday, so I have to wait. It’s this wretched heat. With no breeze around it’s causing them to spend so much time in the garden where fleas will be breeding faster. (That’s why some villages have been plagued by flies.) I woke up this morning and my legs looked like a Pollock painting. Lucy’s star turn involved somehow falling asleep on top of a small bag Lynda left on a chest, with her head bizarrely struck between the legs of an old giant teddy bear. I would have spent the day clinging to the ceiling, but who wants to hear the massed, mocking laughter of fleas below, in the carpet, as they begin taunting chants of “we’re gonna jump, we’re gonna JUMP”?
Life’s an itch.
XANDRIA
KILL THE SUN
DRAKKAR
There’s tons of Gothic Metal bands out there and I sometimes wonder when they gave up grubby old ways and moved into new, topical areas, or whether they once were fey and have got increasingly tougher, but here we pretty much know. An old rocker has put together something charming and inspiring, where only the riffs betray a past infatuation with late 80’s Metal (not Heavy Metal)
Similarly there are tons of bands we can best describe with a simple comparison to Inkubus Sukkubus, and then onto the biggest comparison of all, in All About Eve, and both ring true with Xandria, but coming so solidly from a Metal axis they have a power, dignity and blankness all their own. They don’t go for any hoary old tricks, and keep everything brisk, light and tight but still we see the riffs peeking through, itching to unravel into decadence.
The songs are often beautiful even though they have far more self-discipline than is good for them,. These songs deserve to ignite and burst, not burn slowly but there’s the hippyish vocal nuances and the charismatic delivery to admire, beginning from the title track, with snappy drums and a flowing chorus, which is something they’re good at, and it’s no shock this commercial enterprise has seen them access Germany’s main charts.
They’re wonderfully sharp, dragging you into their emotional parades. “Mermaids” has swift bursts of guitar emphasis, ad even when they have a very Metally opening, as with “Ginger” it’s Eves all over with guitars more elegiac and grittier than anything Tim opted for. When they shapeshift for variety you get low down riffing and tavern violin for “She’s Nirvana”, plus a naff solo, and the curiously sonorous synth of a drowsy “Forever yours”, but restraint is the key so non-Metal fans don’t choke in horror, and the breathy dramatic vocals in “Casablanca” are followed by big burly guitar come to rescue the maiden.
One of the best songs for musical variety away from soft rock intrigues is the mistier drama of a shimmering, echoing “So You Disappear” but it does demonstrate that we don’t often see much vocal variety. Lisa can slow down or maintain a steady pace but that’s pretty much it. A consistently orthodox presence she is their linchpin around which the musical has vivacious surges. I want more extremes to see them tested.
They get closest with “Wisdom” where she crawls in a spoken style, vaguely rolling around amid sharp old school Metal guitar splinters, and then they coast out of the album, with a classy sparkling “Isis/Osiris” with some majestic singing, and the closer is what precisely? It happens so slowly, ambling and aimless so you just know a massive riff will bludgeon in, only it never does, as the airy exercise slows and curls into flamenco then judders gently to an end. Utterly bizarre, which makes for a nice lingering mystery.
They’re a fantastic band, although the metal feel may put some off. Neither ferocious, mind-pounding or wispy ethereal, they’ve opted for the middle-ground, and they dominate it impressively.
KILL THE SUN
MERMAIDS
GINGER
SHE’S NIRVANA
FOREVER YOURS
CASABLANCA
SO YOU DISAPPEAR
WISDOM
ISIS/OSIRIS
CALYX VIRAGO
http://www.xandria.de
http://www.drakkar.de
http://www.focusion.de - press
STYKFAKTOR
SPARKLE FADE
Stykfaktor
When two people tackle the warped arena that is Electro Goth Synth Pop (etc) if they haven’t got oodles of equipment it doesn’t usually spare their DIY blushes, yet the suitably deprived Stykfactor carry most of this off with confidence, even though there aren’t memorable moments.
Doop doop, tssh, tssh goes the opener and you patiently watch it travel a straight line and end, which is what most of the bands do. There isn’t the inventive peaks and troughs of Industrial which is why it’s a fairly tame experience. The maintain a steady rhythm, with jerky decoration but the first time I listened I’d already reach the end of ‘Twitch:Embrace’ before I cottoned on it was two separate songs, because I was easily distracted.
The problem is they’re too stately. They need to pick the pace up and have fun rather than coming over rather frowny. ‘All That Is Man’ is a good example, because the beat takes ages to come in when it should smasck us within seconds, then keep up the impact throughput. Synthesised energy often causes problems, and they run into a wall here, as the interesting lyrics should have lifted the song but the vocals hold back, and in their deepest song, ‘Beautiful One’ which is far fuller musically, and their most complete song, the vocals are almost expressionless which I would say seems pointless, were it not for the fact their try a capricious cover of ‘Ring Of Fire’ which is truly hideous.
I’m not saying there aren’t good ideas here, because there was a time (before they fell asleep) when the Human League would gladly have nicked the ideas from ‘Beautiful One’ but until they speed it up, which will provide natural urgency, it’s jolly, but far too undemanding.
SPARKLE FADE
TWITCH:EMBRACE
ALL THAT IS MAN
BEAUTIFUL ONE
RING OF FIRE
http://www.stykfaktor.com
August 14th, 2004
CAROL BLAZE
CAROL BLAZE
Own Label
A T Vish is the drummer with Lowsunday, who is proud to reveal in the press release that he’s been with a stage production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch, and upon learning this was a soundtrack album, segments of which have already been used in two independent films (and he is hoping to contribute to more, if anyone’s interested?), I expected something fairly stretched and veiny, crackling with atmosphere.
Instead, this is a wily amalgam of styles, put forth as songs! Okay, ‘Beyond’ is dirgey sound, but with the crisp beat, plump percussive sounds and tuneful groaning vocals ‘Blur’ is grim pop. As indie music it also works well, with dutiful guitar standing sentry before snappy vocals, flecked by keyboards in the sneaky ‘Curled Beside Love’. With a loping rhythm, where the beats are emphatic ‘Slow Shake’ is very cool, as the vocals assume a subtle identity, and there is a solemn elegance to a more Gothesque ‘The Charging Winter’, with its downbeat percussion and shadowy lyrics. The scuzzy guitar and fuzzy 60’s rock of ‘Where The Night Is Calling’ conjured up Jim Morrison, pre-truss, and then shuffle beats and shoegazey guitar help ‘Heavy Rollers’ distract us from some quite hideous sub-Springsteen lyrics. ‘This Never Ends’ is a sparse husk, ‘Creeping’ was the only tune I find too dull, ‘Computer Androids Don’t Compare’ had reedy vocals and weedy guitar creating something strangely pretty and it all ends with dehydrated rock.
What to make of it? No idea, other than it’s fascinating.
http://www.soundclick.com/carolblaze
Count Flatula?
http://www.bobandtom.com/gen3/track_listing/camel_toe.htm
http://www.rathergood.com
And
(((ring-g-g-g-g)))
(((ring-g-g-g-g)))
***pick up***
“Hello?”
“Hi, honey, this is Daddy……Is Mommy near the phone?”
“No, Daddy. She’s upstairs in the bedroom with Uncle Frank.”
“But you haven’t got an Uncle Frank, honey!”
“Oh Yes, I do, and he’s upstairs in the room with Mommy, right now!”
“Uh, Okay, then ... here’s what I want you do. Put down the phone, run
upstairs and knock on the bedroom door and shout to Mommy and Uncle Frank
that Daddy’s car’s just pulled up outside the house & then come back to the
phone.”
“Okay, Daddy!”
A few minutes later, the little girl comes back to the phone.
“I did what you said, Daddy.”
“And what happened?”
“Well, Mommy got all scared, jumped out of bed with no clothes on and ran
around screaming, then she tripped over the rug and went flying out the
front window and now she’s all dead.”
“Oh my God!!!!! And what about your Uncle Frank?”
“He jumped out of bed with no clothes on too and he was all scared and he
jumped out the back window into the swimming pool but he must have forgot
that last week you took out all the water to clean it, so he hit the bottom
of the swimming pool and now he’s all real dead too.”
***long pause***
***more pause****
“Swimming pool???? - Is this 764-2357?”
* Sadly I can’t find an url for Bob And Tom’s ‘Atta Girl Knee Pads.’
Because I’m not even home properly until next week I have come to the realistic conclusion that THE MICK 7, which is fast approaching 150 pages, won’t be up until nearer the end, not the middle, of August, as it is by far the biggest issue yet. I’m still waiting on one interview, plus a few visuals, so this delay has been inevitable really, but it will make it even better, because I know when I get home there will also be a few extra CDs to review which will really make the issue bulge with relevance.
What I am going to be asking, when I announce it is up on my site, is that everyone who can do helps publicise its existence in whatever way they can, but one easy way to do so is in your Friends section of your journals, so if you haven’t already entered me as a friend - and there’s no reason why you should considering my shoddy nature – perhaps you could do so? (I will, of course, return the compliment.) And you could always drop me like a stone several weeks later. Just so long as we get this issue publicised.
So, please, all those reading who have their own, journals, add me as a friend, so people may see the mentions of THE MICK popping up in the Friends section. I thank you.
I already have fantastic interviews with A Spectre Is Haunting Europe, Astro Vamps, The Brides, Ego Likeness, Frank The Baptist, Myssouri, Radio Berlin, a special Russia Goth interview, The Sixth Chamber, The Mirror Reveals, The Tunnel Of Love and Unto Ashes: fantastic artists all – and even while you’re reading this poor Justin Foulkes is piecing together answers on a trip to Alaska where he is detached from technology and will be reading his answers to a friend over the phone, who will then transcribe them and relay them to me! Against all odds the interviews will get through!!! There are also CD reviews galore, books by Ian Glasper (Punk) and Cameron Rogers (Horror), articles concerning some Dancing Did, Action Pact and Adam & The Ants re-issues and bootlegs, plus interesting pieces on Mary Seacole and Ruth Ellis. It’s going to be beautiful, and will take you ages to get through.
The countdown has begun.
QUIDAM are a wonderfully spirited, and slightly demented, band from Barcelona so
http://www.quidamcave.com
should keep you well entertained on the musical and photographic fronts. Nice links, and decent promo stuff.
SLEEPING CHILDREN
AUTOMATIC MASS AMNESIA
Own Label
It happens all the time, sadly. When members Crepescule and Murmur left the band the day after their first show, which was to promote their debut ‘In Vivo Test’ EP, things weren’t exactly rosy for a band who take the old Goth style of imagination and verve, and reinvest it with modern nonchalance. Founding member Sap~hire, plus ThomS, then recruited Nico, Julien and Mr Zorch but within no time at all everyone but Sap~hire had quit! Luckily, Murmur then returned with Lois John Slut and they recorded this, although I thought I recognised a couple (reviewing this from mp3 files) from that debut?
It’s a good job they have kept going. No restful, fluffy Goths these. ‘Poppies Screen The Light’ has tight, purposeful bass and cute synth, little touches of gleaming guitar and a hungry voice. The synth and drums hold the shifting power balance, with the vocals made angular and extended like an archly scripted Goth style. They babble secretively and excitedly like a mischievous rabble, and you have to like that.
‘No Love For The Dead’ is harder hitting and frostier, with a tight, pounding rhythm, and where the guitar escalates and adds further power while the vocals have a fit and burst apart. ‘Couve Bien Les Cris Pris Du Coeur’ is fizzing, stamping post-Punkish caper with lurching keyboards and a woozy pause before a quick end, and ‘Dusty Shades Of Red’ has some majestic keyboards and a pacey rhythm, but still, steady vocals, hinting at the potential for a bigger, grander mood if they’re going to build the variety, with an unravelling spoken end, which is interesting. True, the production tends to lead the vocals astray and leave them underfed but they’ll have to work on that.
The key to it all is keeping going. A name acquires power through constantly, interesting behaviour, and with a tendency to roam abroad to play, including several UK gigs this year, it shouldn’t take too long to be seen as the most exciting new French band in years.
http://www.sleepingchildren.com
Other French sites of interest:
http://gothrockfr.free.fr/
http://funeralcry.free.fr/
http://www.gutsofdarkness.com/god/
http://nombstrakt.free.fr/galerie2/cpg1.3.0beta4/index.php?cat=10001 (good selection of galleries)
August 14th, 2005
YOU know how sometimes you see something in a shop which you simply cannot leave behind? I found two small wooden cats sitting obediently on a shelf last night, and now they’re mine. (Pictures in the next issue of THE MICK.) This was only fitting as last night we went to what we have called The Cat Restaurant, because loads of strays can always been seen outside, as the waitress there feeds six of them every night, so that’s their territory. Lynda saved some of her meal, and as we were leaving a wobbly cat, thin but strong, wandered up, with a dribbly eye and mouth - apparently he’d been hit by a car when young - and he feasted on what she gave him.
Unfortunately you can’t smuggle them all back home.
August 14th, 2006
Today was a dentist-related cliché, where the ultra-loose tooth came away in a second, but I knew that was going to happen. The other one requiring attention was a basic shell mainly close to the jawline that I figured would have to broken up in sections causing endless delays and possibilities of torture. “Bite on that,” the dentist advised, tucking some wadding into my mouth, and I thought, here we go. And he’d gone! When he came back he asked how it felt. What?
Dull brass echoed massively through my mind as that famous penny dropped. He’d taken that out too!
Oh blessed relief.
Now the worse experience of my entire life is behind me I can get back to writing. Instead of the usual approach to THE MICK I have now have so much stuff to investigate I will be putting issues up as and when I finish them, so we should be having three up between now and the end of next month so I can catch up. I’m like a hex machine.
Not excited? Work out what records have been praised here since the last issue and those artists will all be interviewed, and look at what’s coming up over the next couple of weeks. (Lynda’s off to Paris for a week next week so I’ll be doing nothing but writing.)
Soon - The new Crash Frequency compilation of unruly artistic Australian bands. Strange indie in Honest John Plain And The Amigos. I’ve got three BFG albums and the McKinney albums prior to an intriguing chat. Dufus’ ‘Last Classed Blast’, Nightingales’ ‘Out Of True’ and then, finally, something new from The Clauberg Opera.
New albums by Zeraphine, the new Alien Sex Fiend compilation, Dr Arthur Krause, Funhouse, Unto Ashes, Zombina & The Skeletones (the latter pair both September releases, so expect them nearer the end of the month), and Kindred Spirits.
The almighty Ego Likeness and Flipron!!!!!
And if that wasn’t great enough I got three records from the superb Shadowplay label in Russia yesterday. The new Necro Stellar album, Colours Of Black Volume 2 and Requiem FM
Golden times, where even our departed teeth are happy.
This is fun. http://community.livejournal.com/celeb_encounter/26101.html#cutid1
MOLDIG
Demo
My Space
All three reviews put together here (along with covers) are things I have downloaded and burned myself and come highly recommended. None other than lakini_malich recommended these, as they’d reminded him of Xmal Deutschland. Reason enough to check them down, and to continue listening even when wondering what he must have been on at the time of making this comparison. Like a boiling, angry indie take on the Cure, with hissyfit guitar and dust-free surfaces, they exude class, from the simple diamond-faceted vocal intrusions, and the memorable nature of their music when the suddenly cut back to the guitar still patrolling mindfully.
‘30 Seconds’ shows them positively tickling those guitars into golden trickles over hissing, extended synth, and this duo of Enrico Bricco and Giuditta Corgnati certainly know what they’re about. ‘A Game’ has more of a grip on post-punk sensibilities as the sterner gradient arises, and the guitar gets thinner to accentuate the tougher mood
‘Strangers’ has a brilliant line of synth moving over the battened-down rhythm and the vocals move across the flat sound surface like tourist spiders, casually taking their time. A sly melody, naggingly familiar vocals purr to an exciting sonar finale. Closing, ‘The Treachery’ is a more straightforward frisky number with lots of light guitar sizzle, willowy bass making itself felt and enigmatic soluble vocals sinking into the zest.
http://www.myspace.com/moldig
http://www.noiseofsound.com
THE MYRIAD FORM
Demos
My Space
Interesting Gothesque music with strong rhythmic axis and rockier guitar knuckle scraping, featuring Severina X Sol of Cylab (formerly Diva Destruction), Richard ‘Lurch’ Pilawski (Sex With Lurch/Mantle) and Ian Mayer (Near Death Experience/Idol Worship/Without Tears), introducing you to silkier strands of clubland Goth.
‘Ashes To Earth’ has gauzy vocals strolling the attractive corridor of sound with gentle synth accompaniment, creating a musky blend of swirling vocals and underfed instruments, and it’s curiously pretty or something so lightweight. It’s down to them underplaying what could so easily have been traditional ploys like so many in the Industrial offshoots of the scene. Instead of lumbering in with a riff, or sending the synth skyward they have gone the other way and remained grounded and calm without going into austere mode either.
‘180 Days’ is a slower song where the vocals more forward confidently with a quite beautiful serene flow, more dreampop than ethereal and hugely effective. ‘The Ocean Deep’ is less interesting, like a bland Curve, but the melody remains strong as the character slips graciously away.
http://www.myspace.com/themyriadform
http://www.themyriadform.com
DIN GLORIOUS
Demons
My Space
‘War Dance’ is all frantically controlled rhythmical clatter with snarling vocals and a manic nature evident, whereby they seem to introduce energy as it suits them, and it actually is brilliant; a scathing morass not half as messy as they probably fear. The frantic vocals recall the finest post-punk phase of the very early 80’s and vocalist Lakini turns out, much to my shock, to be English like mutant spawn of Max Ausgang. They’re halfway between the Dids and Ritual, with a touch of early Test Dept!
‘The Rhythm Section Sticks Together’ is a brilliant mess, because having the song without a prominent bass is one thing, but to nail the vocal approach well is absurdly effective, but they’re gonna have to remember the guitar can be played for more than three second bursts.
http://www.myspace.com/dinglorious
http://www.punchaceleb.com/hit/nikki/
EVERYTHING ON BLACK
STAIN
Cargo
I know I’ve moaned before about it but you can’t escape Channel 4 for adverts for albums coming out of the indie rock stable every fucking week and destined for the charts, aided by the kind of glowing sentiments from the music press that would never have appeared when they were written by people with ability and taste. There are bands throughout Britain in these post-Oasis/Cast/Travis/Coldplay days who think it perfectly acceptable to bleat blandly. ‘Mesmerising classics!’ – NME, ‘Utterly astonishing!’ – MOJO, ‘The best album since Definitely Cobblers’ – Q: and what is it? Razolight, The Kooks, Paolo Nutini, some of them making Keane seem radioactive by comparison. It’s blokes who look like geography teachers strumming on beige telecasters, or similarly wimpoid instruments, idly knocking out a song between wine-tastings. ‘Like a rat inside your intestines’ – Me.
Lying, useless, gutless BASTARDS!
Then you get an album like this.
Who are they? Anti, Henrik, Filippo and Nick. What is it? Sheer glory of lush emotional guitar finery, with fully shaped melodies, and richly involved songs that slap you senseless with their audacious quality. Musically they’re between the pointed pain of Pins & Needles and the coolly glowing shadows of Ultranoir. And that’s obviously a fertile place to be.
‘Trust’ lubricates its limpid guitar beauty for openers, then a sinuous beat circling warmly and optimistically ringing guitar tones, sees sharp vocals snaking through, catchy and hazy like a sensible Only Ones. They have slender bass keeping it fluid, and a real drummer, which always make the difference. The song cheekily scampers along full of commercial knickknacks and had deft layers so you move up and down with them. ‘Going Down’ is simpler, flat and jolly and strangely rousing, the vocals wriggling happily across the scritchy guitar and it’s so good, based on classic liens, you’ll be singing along third time round. Scary! ‘Impossible You’ continues this toppy, restless verve but lobs in a lopsided gait, and lyrics which wedge themselves between your ears as the guitar somehow starts to move outwards through the drum-blatted sorrowful ether.
‘Following My Dreams’ is down a smaller alley, with a moodier base and gently juddering delivery. It’s cutely imploring, because they don’t go for full-on deeply dark, ever, but so what? This gives us an album for all occasions, although the one black spot is the utterly non-bleak ‘Girl’, such a soppy burst of adoration I didn’t like its gushing syrupy nonsense. Luckily, ‘Liars’ sees them nip back into wiry busy-busy status, dashing about engagingly, with guitar ringlets obscuring the knotted, determined vocal face ‘Isabelle’ is smoother, but interwoven ideas create a seething tapestry of undulating sensation and ‘Stain’ offers a narrower, chopping guitar stride with highlights, a superb and subtle oscillating energy and charmingly coy feel. ‘Seven Faces’ is a bit slack, but sentimentality can create that, with ‘How Was I Supposed To Know’ shoving out more light melodic wrangles that secretively do their work until it strangles you with its insidious melodic malevolence.
‘Runaway’ rolls out darker, ‘she was living inside my mind, then she ran away’ and lifts up with more tousled guitar and gently shaped, encouraging vocals and musically very sleek again. ‘No More Idols’ moves in slowly, with brilliant words and chuntering emphasis all moving in a linear, with a secret song to end, a whispering angsty secretion, and the whole thing needs to played again, and again, and again.
Thank you Everything On Black. Sanity and faith restored.
http://www.everythingonblack.com
http://www.myspace.com/everythingonblack
August 14th, 2007
OH DEAR!
http://www.myspace.com/ziggybigbrother
(P.S. Jonty to win!)
August 14th, 2008
SAINTS OF RUIN
FAIRYTALE
Dark Ruin
There’s Gothic Rock, and Gawf Rawk, but Saints Of Ruin are a tad closer to rawky gawf, given their preference for orthodox rock traditions with commercial structures. This EP is there to advertise what they can do to interested parties as much as it is for listeners generally, and as they have that major label feel to them it could work.
‘Inside My Head’ brings you no-nonsense, purposeful guitar, fleeting synth colour and rocktastic vocalising peaking in a simple chorus, divided by a guitar break, dawdling to an emphatic close with some strange flourishes. That same feel then seeps through ‘Labyrinth’ in which they demonstrate acute awareness of how to have a vocal dominate a slow song with the music coagulating around Ruby’s voice. ‘Forever’ didn’t do it for me, like a flossy Aerosmith, but the twistier drums of ‘Next World’, softened keys and hushed mood works well in a song that still manages to bustle along due to a punkier energy rather than any rock bombast. Then they slip away with the sweetly doleful ‘All For You’, an utterly conventional tale of longing basted in a cosy ballad format.
It’s a record too concerned with creating an impact to allow any great character to come through, but what it does it achieve is five disciplined, catchy songs, so the balance of creativity vs a result means we’ll have to wait for the next one what they really feel and what evocative atmosphere they can develop. What we do know is they’re operating on the next level up from most new bands in understanding what make songs work.
http://www.myspace.com/saintsofruin
Flyers?
1987 Bull & Gate info.
1991
Join me now Facebook memories!
14th August 2012
CAT OLYMPICS 2012 Photo book - 368 pages, 682 photos, £12.99
http://www.lulu.com/…/cat-o…/paperback/product-20331137.html
All the events, cathlete profiles and results! The ultimate souvenir.
THE CAT OLYMPICS gather together cats of all ages, sizes and breeds to show what is superior to humanity. In 2012 five great cathletes were brought together from all four corners of our house to dazzle, delight and inspire. This is their story.
In any Olympics we see the best of individual character as new goals and opportunities present themselves, thrilling rewards gained. The cathletes taking part would be able to jump anywhere, run faster, sleep deeper, eat more and laugh in the face of scepticism. Or not, the choice was theirs. The world would be watching, whatever happened.
Britain has held these events before, but long, long ago, back before records began, but our history as a country with more animal charities than anywhere else in the world makes this the perfect home for such a seismic event. For us, as with every Briton, and anybody interested enough pay attention, this was our time. One day you can tell your children and grandchildren than on such a grand occasion we did it right.
The names of these cathletes will never be forgotten, nor will their deeds. They were determined that the world would see the very best of them. Even Mack. These were a games for and by everyone, the Facebook volunteers deserving of a special mention, for their dedication and friendliness.
You can continue to follow the lives of these cathletes on my Facebook page, and I look forward to having your company again in 2016.
14 August 2014
Mick Mercer added 57 new photos to the album CATS!!! (Yesterday).
BIG CATS – BIG ALBUM
This is the sight that greets you when you stay overnight at the Wildlife Heritage place in Kent. You start with an afternoon drink in the dining room which looks out into the Lions enclosure. They don’t do much, as a rule.
When they look like this they don’t really HAVE to do much.
This is a Fishing Cat.
This is an Amur tiger.
Amur Leopard.
·
Little heart shaped markings on his face!
White tiger.
Old tiger. He’s 17, rescued from a circus.
A jaguar with amazing eyes.
Pallas Cat!
He just wants everyone to sod off.
When he thinks they have he comes down.
“Bollocks!”
Black jaguar? He’s pretty rough this one.
A Rusty Spotted Cat, the smallest cat there, just like one of our domestic cats. He’s from Sri Lanka.
Cheeky face.
Blimey.
Two old-ish tigers.
Serval! We were allowed in amongst this pair while they were being fed.
One for the ladies.
I suspect he knows he looks magnificent.
Synchronised roaring.
14 August 2014
Mick Mercer added a new photo to the album CATS!!! (Yesterday).
Lynda’s happy. When he then turned and peed all over the window she almost died laughing.
This is a Jungle Cat.
Never seen one of these before. Very pretty.
Don’t play cards with her.
After breakfast at the world wildlife big cat place Lynda had, literally, some egg on her face. I was too busy losing the lens cap to notice. When Lynda did she was horrified. “It’s a bright sunny day,” I observed. “No-one will have noticed.” “No,” she admitted, gratefully. “Only everybody except you.”
14 August 2016
True heroics from Fred in the Olympic Rings event in the CAT Olympics 2016.
Cometh the hour, cometh the Fred. Looking like this.
The studious approach.
...and there goes the first!
...he’s on a roll. Two gone.
It was a four gone conclusion.
This is very cool:
Reincarnation, by Cliff and Ivy: Alaska’s only goth band
Reincarnation by Cliff and Ivy: Alaska’s only goth band, released 04 August 2016 Underground your physical existence take the plunge for you are newly godless lethargy, hierarchy the hunger takes effect sons of hours weeping flowers a ritual in red worm in the wood the virtuous stood in station left...
Mick Mercer updated the event cover photo in MICK Mercer RADIO Broadcast #134.
High drama but superlative speed blesses the 100 Centimetres on Super Saturday in the Cat Olympics 2016. https://www.facebook.com/Catolympics2016/videos/591943874345725/
14 August 2017
Mick Mercer updated his cover photo.
This is brilliant!
14 August 2017 at 04 07 ·
Just been out in the garden hoping to see more shooting stars. Nothing! Now I’m all cold....
14 August 2019
BARRY ANDREWS’ RESTAURANT FOR DOGS at the Fulham Greyhound quite early in 1981. Anyone know the date? Someone in the audience has great hair!
14 August · 2020
Words fail me ...
14 August 2021
VOLUME 1 of my GOTHIC INTERVIEWS series is now available. Taken from the Golden Age of Goth, this book gathers together interviews and articles done by myself covering bands during that first period of Goth glory, from 1977 to the end of the 1980’s, either done for my own fanzine Panache, or a multitude of music papers and magazines. You will encounter Abbo of UK Decay, Adam & The Ants, Alien Sex Fiend, All About Eve, Anno Lucis, Ausgang, Bauhaus, Chat Show, Christian Death, Dali’s Car, The Dancing Did, The Danse Society, Diskord Datkord, The Fifteenth, Finish The Story, Hysteria, Julianne Regan, Junior Manson lags, Kabuki, KaS Product, Look Back In Anger, March Violets, New Model Army, Pink & Black, Real Macabre, Say You, Sex Gang, The Cult, The Society, Theatre Of Hate, Toyah, Ultravox!, Under 2 Flags, Venus Fly Trap, Venus In Furs, Virgin Prunes and Zooey.
The live radio show returns tomorrow at 9pm (UK time) and if around you will hear UK DECAY - DEAD ANYWAY - THE GALLEY SLAVES - DOUBLE ECHO - MORBID POETRY - PROJECT - YEARS OF DENIAL - THE LAST CRY - STRANGE BOUTIQUE - RAVENS MORELAND - OLD PROVIDENCE - ATTIC FROST – IDESTROY – THE REEGS – OPPOSITE SEX – GROUND NERO – CEMENTO – OKVLTA – JOHNATHAN CHRISTIAN – MARK E MOON – SKUBOOT – DEAN GARCIA – HARRY STAFFORD AND MARCO BUTCHER – WHISPERS IN THE SHADOW - REJOYSIN - RUBBER NURSE – MOLITVA, although not in that order. Go to the stream at http://server3.luschaudio.com:10126/index.html a few minutes before kick-off and click on Listen or the black play triangle.
There is also our event page : https://www.facebook.com/events/936986223530196
Oh shit!
14 August 2022
A free trial? With jurors, and everything?
Last night Lynda was sitting in the conservatory, having nearly beaten me at chess. I sauntered victoriously into the living room and watched something on CNN which seemingly triggered our Google home device. She started reading out Little Red Riding Hood. Lynda called me in to share in the experience, but I was having none of it. “Hey Google,” I demanded, “what are you doing?”
“I was just practising my beatboxing.”
I think it’s the heat.
14 August 2023
If you EVER meet a man who tells you how to lick pimples ... notify The Authorities!!!!
Back in the 70’s there was a series called BUDGIE which always struck me a forerunner to Minder. Different type of main character but identical scurrilous ethos and strong supporting cast. I obviously didn’t see it all as I don’t recall John Rhys-Davies’ recurring character who rejoiced in the name of ... Laughing Spam Fritter.
14 August 2024
You make your own luck in this world. My email junk folder has just informed me I’ve now won a Ninja Air Fryer. Are these made by ninjas or ‘previously owned by’? Asking for an invisible friend.
Facebook won’t display a visual link now I want it to, but yesterday I pointed out our Cat Olympic 2024 Boxing video had reached 4.4 thousand views. I just checked and it’s now hit ten thousand. Obviously it must have started reaching boxing fans - God knows what they think of it - and it’s probably the most uneventful (well okay, not as duff as the Olympic Rings one) video we did.
Watson says “CAT Olympics 2024 finished ages ago! People need to move on with their lives ... give us some peace!”
This never gets old. Best mascot EVER!!!
ON THIS DAY ... in 1981, the lovely CHARGE are posing for photos after I interviewed them for Zigzag. 24 photos just uploaded to my Substack. Free to subscribe:
See you tomorrow!