MUSIC NEWS EXTRA
Recently, as well as releasing the third
EP in a planned series of five on her
own Alligator Wine label, plus upsetting
and/or getting patronised by saddos
for citing a load of canonical American
indie stuff in her list of favourite albums,
Charlotte Church has become one-third
of See Monkey Songs, a new Welsh music
publishing company. The other two people
involved are Aimee-Jade Hayes, who
founded See Monkey Do Monkey Records
plus Miniature Music Press magazine,
and Rhiannon Morgan-Bell, a manager
whose clients include Charlotte and her
boyfriend, Jonathan Powell. The idea is to
promote Welsh talent “on a national and
international level,” as Charlotte puts it;
SMS’ current roster includes Metabeats
[pictured], Keys and Winter Villains
In other three-way collaborative news,
Cardiff independent promoters Rockpie,
Red Medicine and God Is In The TV have
converged, and created the Cardiff MIND
Fest. Taking place on Sat 23 and Sun 24
Nov, it seeks to raise awareness of mental
health issues on a local level, and funds
for charity Cardiff MIND (fellow mental
health orgs Journeys and Making Minds
are also involved). The lineup is of an indie
flavour, with some quality Local Acts and
out of town special guests. Gwenno, Totem
Terrors, R. Seiliog and Fist Of The First
Man are in Undertone on Sat 23, while
Sun 24 is split between Undertone and
The Full Moon’s two floors and features
Chris T-T, Patrick Duff out of Strangelove,
Joanna Gruesome and poetry from Patrick
Jones among others
Still more venerable, in the pantheon
of south Wales hard rock bluster, are
Tigertailz, who rode the late 80s poodlerawk wave for a few fruitful years before
coming apart like so many others in the
early 90s. Their 2005 reformation was well
received, albeit darkened by the death of
bassist Pepsi Tate and later lineup turmoil
– but 22 Oct sees the release of Knives, a
five-song EP and their first new offering
since 2007. With guitarist Jay Pepper the
sole original member, one Jules Millis
handles vocals, and fair throws himself
into the role. ‘Tailz take the bold step of
making track two (One Life) a ballad,
but Bite The Hand and Spit It Out have
sleaze and bombast that compares to the
band’s earlier work
If, back in the early 2000s, you enjoyed
the odd venture into alehouse rock
– especially in the Gwent area – you
might remember Ivor Beynon, Lord Of
Steel. He achieved a certain infamy for his
combination of rollicking Welsh patriotism
and three-hour karaoke metal sets in pub
function rooms; in 2006, his audition for X
Factor was aired during the “get a load of
this guy” segment. In recent years, he has
worked as a south Wales tour guide, but
has retired his Lord Of Steel status... until
this month! Oct 31 to be exact – Ivor has
organised a Heritage Of Steel Hallow’s Eve
Party at the Ebbw Vale Institute. “The event
will include Fancy Dress, Party Games,
Face Painting, Dragon’s Breath Curry and,
of course, Family Fun,” although it isn’t
confirmed if Ivor will perform live
The Riverfront in Newport has a festival,
Discover Dance, taking place in November.
One particular production, Stuck In The Mud
– an offsite event, in the city’s indoor market
on Mon 11 and Tue 12 – is worthy of mention
in this column because it comes with a score
composed by Jack White, an award-winning
Newport composer. It’s the latest accolade
given to this youthful musician, who won
his first award at the 2005 Eisteddfod,
and has picked up a gong each year since.
Working primarily in the electroacoustic vein,
November also sees Jack perform his latest
choral work in Southwark Cathedral
ONE TO WATCH...
BK & DAD
They dub their location as “Norwich via Wales,” do BK & Dad,
which is to say they live in Norwich, but the influence of their
earlier years on the west coast of this funny lil’ principality is
not to be discounted. With a discography tailing back to early
2009 (specifically, the curtly-titled Dead Sheep EP), the guitarand-drums duo, now with a shorter name than their original
Balaclava Kid & Dad, have a new single called Mundy – actually,
a T-shirt with some free music, because why not. It’s released this
month on Gravy Records, who are also from Norwich and have an
exquisitely banal über-indie name.
According to the label’s press release, Mundy is inspired by their Welsh roots, and the hiraeth that takes hold of those who
move away. This is hard to verify, as the only lyric you can make is a repetitive yelling of the title, once the initial garagey sludge/
doom riff makes way for a steel-plated postpunk canter. The stripped-down instrumentation calls to mind (for this listener)
That Fucking Tank, as well as obtuse 90s post-hardcore bands like June Of ‘44. As a live act, it would seem that BK & Dad favour
excess amplification, and aim for an arty and memorable spectacle. On Thurs 3 Oct, they’ll be taking over the Studio space in
Aberystwyth Arts Centre – back home, more or less – to make an audiovisual racket the like of which rarely enters that venue.
Hopefully, it’ll be the first of more Welsh dates. www.balaclavanoise.co.uk
BUZZ 48
one louder
“A strip of contraceptive pills / A box of Anadin Extra
/ Half a dozen of those tiny Ladbrokes pens.” Not my
words, but those of Richard Dawson, who is a folk singer
from the north-east of England with one of the most
idiosyncratic, least immediately comparable styles of
anyone currently performing. I helped to put a gig on
for him in Cardiff earlier this year, and have seen him
play twice since then, including in the Netherlands,
last weekend as I write. Performing in a synagogue, the
setting wasn’t reflected in his material (or his religious
beliefs, as far as I know), but the acoustics lent extra
power to his remarkable singing voice.
The song in which those lyrics appear is called Wooden
Bag; it’s a reflection on the sentimental grip inanimate
objects can exert on people. The bag itself, we learn,
is a triumph of 1960s craftsmanship, but the tat that
someone stashed in it, years or decades back, takes
on its own story, and meaning. “I can’t throw this bag
away,” Richard sings, repeatedly. I think it’s a brilliant
song: the bathos of its trivial namechecks, contrasted
with the familiar mixed emotions that come with
hoarding stuff for too long.
Well, they’re familiar to me anyway. It might be considered
remiss to call oneself a “terrible hoarder”, if one isn’t an
actual terrible hoarder – those people who feature on
Channel 4 documentaries and/or perish in their cold flats
buried under three tons of newspaper – but I keep way
too much stuff hanging around. In the last few weeks,
I have been selling job lots of old magazines on eBay in
an attempt to finally get them out of the house, having
not been read for several years in most cases. Although
they nearly all sold, making my endeavour technically
successful, they mainly sold for bugger all.
Then I had to weigh them – a few at a time with kitchen
scales, as there isn’t anything more appropriate in
this house – find a suitable box, arrange and pay for a
courier, cart them to work and sit in all day waiting for
them to be taken away. If you have a ton of old magazines
for sale, and they aren’t specific collectors’ items, it’s
almost certainly not worth the effort of selling them –
that is what I learned in the month of September.
Yet while the backstory may be different, like Dawson
there’s stuff I find myself greatly reluctant to get rid of.
Stuff in the realm of the printed word, this is – fanzines,
mainly. Now a truly niche concern, their 80s and 90s
heyday eroded by the internet, it should be obvious to
see why a zine, usually much more personal than a
newsstand mag, might attract greater sentimentality. On
the other hand, a lot of zines were really pretty shite when
it came down to it. They shouldn’t generally be held to the
same standards as Mojo or whatever, sure, but over the
years, a lot of bad writing, bad photos, boring interviews
and smudgy printing has been overlooked, probably out
of kindness. (Before you say it: yes, we’d know. And no, I
didn’t attempt to eBay old issues of Buzz, for the record
and if anyone cared enough to wonder.)
Most of these lower-rent zines have been forgotten,
probably chucked out years ago. A lot of them will
have attempted to capture a point in the writer’s life,
or a bubble of activity in music or whatever. In a way, it
feels correct that ephemera like this vanishes, but the
archivist in me wants to potentially play a part, however
tiny, in preserving the scraps of this nearly-extinct
culture. There again, I kinda want to preserve all the old
Angelfire websites and Friendster pages too.
AUN, THE COSMIC NOD, SVNTREADER and TO
THE LOVERS, FAREWELL play Cardiff’s Moon Club
on Tue 1 Oct. MERCILESS PRECISION, SETE STAR
SEPT and other grindcore monsters are in Newport Le
Pub the next day. ISLET launch their album, with expat ex-member H HAWKLINE supporting, at Clwb Ifor
Bach on Sat 5. HACRIDE and TEN CENT TOY are in
Bogiez, and deffo not part of Swn, on Thurs 17. THE
GENTLE GOOD launches his new album at Chapter
Arts Centre on Fri 25 and former Hüsker Dü member
GRANT HART plays in Cardiff for (I think) the first
time on Wed 30, at the Moon Club. NOEL GARDNER