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October 2014 - ISSUE 3
Adam Buxton* The Word Alive Papa Roach Yellowcard
HALLOWEEN SPECIAL Or The Beatles on sutin * The Big Screen
“file it under “Experimental,” “Electronic,” and “Face-Bashing All-Out Guitar Assault.” Because that’s what you’ll be getting on this deliciously and intriguingly diverse disc. …it just gets better the deeper I listen” - Hypnagogue Reviews “a unique and distinctive sound” - mfiles review “engrossing recordings; uncluttered and atmospheric” - Morpheus Music Reviews “Similar to dangerous narcotics, you’ll find yourself addicted before you know it” - Sonoloco
AVAILABLE 11/11/14 Available on iTunes and Amazon, and distributed through Naxos of America
Contents. 6
Guest Playlist: Yellowcard
8
Cover Star: Adam Buxton Interview
15
Southsea Fest Review
22
The Beatles on the Big Screen
26
Netflix: Is Bojack Horseman Any Good?
30
Papa Roach Interview
32
Skullbot Interviews Pissed Jeans (Comic)
36
Halloween Special
42
The Word Alive Interview
41 44
Post-Summer Festival Guide Reviews
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HELLO.
Editorial
David Garlick Editor / Design david.garlick@vulturehound.com
Kimberley Bayliss Live Editor kimberley.bayliss@vulturehound. co.uk
ARRRRGHHHHH!!!! URGH... Hello and welcome to the latest issue of VultureHound. Sorry about that, but we’ve just seen the shocking first episode of The Walking Dead (Season
visit our website for daily updates
Lee Hazell TV Editor lee@vulturehound.com
5). So it must mean that ‘Halloween Season’ is upon us! Our writers were eager to put together a Halloween Special to help everyone get into the “spirit”. So watch out for the Human
Michael Dickinson Film Editor
Meat Burger and well.. just watch out.
michael.dickinson@vulturehound. com
Someone less horrorifying is our cover star Adam Buxton; who answers
Writers
some of our strange questions at Leeds Festival as only he could. Want to know why BUG disappeared from Sky Atlantic? Check out the interview. We’ve also interviews with The Word Alive and Papa Roach, as well as an illustrated interview with Pissed Jeans who we’d like to thank for also drawing back their replies (Although, I think it might have got lost in translation...) If we make it through Halloween our next issue will be around Christmas time. Don’t forget to keep up to date by visiting the site at VultureHound.com.
Sarah Carter Samantha Hawkwell Lisa Fox Bradley Lengden Sara Zmertych Robert Stimpson Gemma Hirst Shane Bayliss Gemma Voakes-Pearson
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GUEST PLAYLIST: YELLOWCARD
Yellowcard man Ryan Key shares his Guest Playlist with VultureHound Foo Fighters - Everlong Green Day - Boulevard Of Broken Dreams Weezer- Butterfly Coldplay - Fix You Kelly Clarkson - Since You Been Gone Bruce Springsteen - Magic Ben Folds - Still Fighting It Sarah McLachlan - Angel Saves The Day - Freakish Third Eye Blind - Wounded Switchfoot- Always Ryan Adams - Come Pick Me Up Oasis - Wonderwall Radiohead - High and Dry Margot & The Nuclear So and So’s - Talking In Code Jimmy Eat World- Hear You Me Blink 182 - I Miss You Band Of Horses- Evening Kitchen Avril Lavigne - I’m With You Adele - Turning Tables
More Guest Playlists including Fred Durst, Scroobius Pip + Minnie Driver at vuho.tv/ guestplaylist
06 VultureHound OCToBER 2o14
Alex Turner headlining Reading Festival
What we’ve been listening to Artist: Catfish and the Bottlemen Song: Hourglass Album: The Balcony Chosen by Bradley Lengden (Music Writer) Artist: Flying Lotus Song: Dead Man’s Tetris Album: You’re Dead! Chosen by Murray Somerville (Music Writer) Artist: Marika Hackman Song: Bath is Black Album: Love in the Future Chosen by David Garlick (Editor) Artist: Tenacious D Song: Beezleboss (The Final Showdown) Album: The Pick of Destiny Chosen by Sarah Carter (Music Writer) Artist: Jose Gonzalez Song: Heartbeats Album: Veneer Chosen by Kathryn Fisher (Music Writer) Artist: Moose Blood Song: Swim Down Album: I’ll Keep You In Mind, From Time To Time Chosen by Michael Dickinson (Film Editor) Artist: Trent Reznor & Atticus Ross Song: Like Home Album: Gone Girl OST Chosen by Michael Dickinson (Film Editor) Artist: The Lemons Song: Chubby Checker Album: Hello, We’re the Lemons Chosen by Mareva Lindo (Music Writer)
Photo: Giles Smith
Interview: Adam Buxton
Adam Buxton Words & Photos: Kimberley Bayliss
We caught up with Adam Buxton just after his set at Leeds Festival. We felt for you when you had some technical issues. Yeah my “Fantastic Shine” bit, well it’s not too bad because it could have been a lot worse. I’ve had gigs that have just ground to a halt because something on the computer wont work. One time I had to say “is there an IT person in the audience” and the audience thought I was joking, but I said “no seriously is there an IT person” and someone came up, everyone cheered and the guy tried to fix the problem and he couldn’t. In the end three people came up and none of them could fix the situation, so I felt bad because it was my show and people had paid to be there. I’m not a stand-up in the way that I’ve got a big arsenal of jokes that I can just tell with a microphone, it’s all about the AV stuff for me at the moment, so I just said “listen I’m sorry, if anyone wants to come I’ll do a free show, just write your email address down leave it on the stage and I’ll email you the details” thinking that
maybe thirty people would do it, and every single fucking person in that audience did it. There was about three hundred people there, and they all did. So I spent the rest of the night trying to read peoples handwriting and emailing them, whilst trying to figure out how to put on a free show. It was hard, if things do go wrong I feel really bad. So it’s a risk, but now I’ve got it more or less where I could solider through I think if anything goes wrong.
We were big fans of BUG when it was on Sky Atlantic, any plans for it to return? No, unfortunately not! It was an annoying thing because Sky Atlantic, after our first series they had a complete re-think about what kind of stuff they were going to have on their channel and they stopped commissioning original UK programmes and it’s mainly
just imports now, they did a certain amount of narrative comedy like comedy drama stuff but our show and a few others that were more entertainment shows really, they decided they weren’t going to do any more of those. Even though BUG went down really well, and I ended up getting really nice reviews for that which I’ve never really got before so it was frustrating but at the same time I’m really pleased to have done it.
Well we really enjoyed it, and also your guest spot on Never Mind the Buzzcocks. There was actually a guy with an “or sutin” t-shirt in the front row tonight.
What would you like to be remembered for? I’d like to be remembered as one of the most brilliant and talented comedians of my generation, an incredible father, a wonderful
VultureHound 9
“ Oh my god it’s enormous, why
have I got such a giant face and it’s so weird and hairy and look how grey my beard is ”
husband, a brilliant innovator in the world of sexual intercourse; positions and new ideas for costumes that kind of thing. Unfortunately, that’s unlikely so if I’m remembered by anyone in anyway fondly that would be fine, I’m trying to think of the things I’m proudest of that I’ve done.. Things I’m proudest of to be serious are the podcast with Joe, I loved doing those and I’m really happy that those exist, I thought those were the most fun things me and Joe did together. And then I really am proud of some of the stupid videos on my YouTube channel and some of the Song Wars songs I’m quite pleased with- I wouldn’t tell anyone, well I’m telling you now. I’m really proud of the video that I made for Radiohead for a song of theirs called “Jigsaw Falling Into Place”, I did a music video for that. They’ve had some incredible music videos made for them, and obviously they
10 VultureHound OCToBER 2o14
are an amazing band so to be in that company was just brilliant.
Is that something that takes your fancy, going into directing music videos or further? I don’t know, I mean it’s difficult because real proper music video directors come up with ideas all the time and they can pitch on videos. People can ring them up and say “right Imagine Dragons need a new video in two weeks, come up with something” I’m not very good at that. All my stuff comes about very “organically” and it’s just things that occur to me whilst I’m going about my stupid life really, little silly ideas that grow into bigger things. So I don’t know, I love making videos and little films and I’d like to do more of that and I’d like to do longer stuff
and I’d like to write some things a bit better. I wrote a sitcom with a friend some years ago that was on Channel Four that very few people saw called the Last Chancers, but that was a fun, very enjoyable experience so yeah I’d like to get back to maybe doing that kind of thing. But you know I’m very happy just farting along, I’m very lucky I’ve got a lovely family, a nice place to live so I don’t want for anything but if I’m able to maintain my charmed life somehow and carry on doing shows every now and again then that would be good enough.
Dream dinner guest (dead or alive)? Dream dinner guest? (in a Bowieesq voice) Well I suppose it would be David Bowie. But it’s difficult on the one hand I would love to meet and pick the mind of David Bowie because
I adore him and have done since I was very little. But on the other hand the older I get the more I realise its not a good idea to meet your heroes and people always told me that. My friend Nigel Godrich who produces Radiohead, he knows fuck of a lot of famous people, but he said to me early on “don’t bother mate, it’s always a disappointment” and not because they are disappointing but because friendships need to grow. You can’t just thrust people together and suddenly shazam they get on and find each other fascinating, with the best will in the world it’s very difficult, and then when you’ve got so many barriers to a friendship growing fame is the worse kind of thing because people want to keep people at a distance because they are extra cautious. So someone like Bowie- a fucking living legend- it would be difficult. So I’m thinking in practical terms about this dinner, and thinking in reality the people I would like around my dinner table are my friends and people like that I know I can have a good conversation with. I would be worried I would just make a fool of myself with Bowie, and he’d go out of the room and I’d never get over it, and then I’d never be able to listen to his music again without cringing and that would be awful.
How long do you spend infront of the mirror? In general, I don’t know.. how long do you spend in-front of the mirror? I
“ After our first series [of
BUG] Sky Atlantic had a complete re-think about what kind of stuff they were going to have on their channel.” guess I’m sort of quite pre-occupied with my face, just because you get more self conscious if you’re ever being filmed or anything so you think about it more. Actually when BUG came out it was the first show I’d done in HD, so watching my face in HD was really shocking. I was like “Oh my god it’s enormous, why have I got such a giant face and it’s so weird and hairy and look how grey my beard is.” So it’s not very enjoyable, and the nice thing about a mirror is you’re more in control of it. You can take a little bit of time to think “Hey, look at you. Not looking too bad today.” You’ve got to find a good mirror, when you find a good mirror it’s great, you know sometimes you go to a club and there is a flattering mirror in the toilet or something and then you think “I love that club, I’m going to go back to that place because they have those great mirrors.” So I suppose I’m quite vain in that respect.
Favourite swear word?
“ One time I had to say “Is
there and IT person in the audience?” and the audience thought I was joking ”
Well I say Shitbiscuits a lot that’s the thing that natural pops out! (Great swear.)
What.. Shit Biscuits? Yeah, I mean they don’t pop out of me. I don’t excrete shit biscuits, I mean maybe I could I don’t know. You would require a level of buttock control to actually create a shit biscuit, that I don’t currently possess. It is a horrible image really but I guess you’re not really supposed to think about it too hard, maybe I’m going to stop saying it now because I have over thought it.
Best day of your life? Best day of my life, holy shit! I had a pretty good day the other day, it was sunny and we’ve got a hammock in the garden and I was- it’s difficult when you are self employed to relax because you feel like you could always be doing something productive, so it’s really hard especially what I do, everything comes out of such tiny little stupid things. You always feel as if you should be absorbing the world somehow, reading a book or watching a film or going to the shops or living your life, so that you might be inspired by something. But then the other day, and it’s difficult when you’ve got children because I suddenly had a flash of realisation that my children are growing up so fast and actually I’ve only got like ten years worth (if I’m
OCToBER 2o14 VultureHound 11
lucky) of them actually being around and liking me and after that they’ll move out, and I’ll do something bad and they’ll hate me. So it was a lovely sunny day and I lay in the hammock with my daughter and she makes up these songs and she was singing me these songs and then she read to me. She’s really good at reading, and she read me this book and I’m like “Fucking hell, you are excellent at reading” I mean girls are, they develop a lot faster when they’re younger in their brains. My other children are boys, so everything she does I’m like “Wow, you’re a genius fucking hell, you’re only five and you can say all that.” So that was pretty great, it was one of those moments where I was actually aware. You know, like sometimes you’re not aware, you only realise in retrospect that “Wow that was a really brilliant day, or wow that was an amazing part of my life.” But that day I was like “This is a good day.”
Religious, spiritualist, humanist or non? I’m a Bowiest! That’s my god.
Worst thing you’ve ever put in your mouth? Oh I had something the other day that was horrible, what was it? I actually said “This is the worse thing I’ve ever put in my mouth” but now I can’t remember what it is, shit. It was so disgusting I was like “What the fuck” and it was something fairly
benign it was like a chicken nugget or something. What was it? Oh my god, I wish I could remember. It looked so good, and it was so bad. Shit, this is not a good anecdote!
Was it a whats-it? No, I would never put a wotsit in my mouth I don’t like cheese.
Not an actual Wotsit! Like a “what do you call it?” Oh (chuckles)! No but I think Wostsit’s, I would never put in my mouth, anything cheesy I don’t like whether it’s actually cheese or some part of someone’s body that is cheesy, I wouldn’t like that.
Last band that you went to see live? Oh man, I mean obviously I don’t go to that many gigs now. I think maybe it was Wild Beasts, they were great, or maybe The National. Last gig that I really remember was Radiohead and that was fucking brilliant. My favourite gig ever was Spoon at the Garage in London, it was a small venue and I was really close to the stage, they’re quite a big band in the states but not so well known in the UK, so it was one of those things when you see a really good band and they’re right in front of you. That was one of my best days as well actually and after that gig I went and filmed a couple of little videos of the lead singer playing a couple of his songs. I’ve got two YouTube
“ When BUG came out it was my
first show in HD and seeing my face in HD was really shocking ”
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channels one for comedy videos and one for music related stuff, my music video related stuff is called Jimmy Big Nutz and that video is on there of him playing a song called “Black Like Me” and that was a pretty great day.
As a child what did you want to be when you grew up? I can remember very clearly wanting to be one of three things. Spaceman, always wanted to go to space and obviously it became clear I had neither the physical wherewithal or the intellectual wherewithal to get my head around the fucking maths and physics you need to go into space, so that wasn’t an option sadly. I also wanted to be a sweet shop owner, because
I thought “free sweets, that would be fucking brilliant” and I genuinely thought for a long time “that is the best gig ever,” running a sweet shop or corner shop those guys are so fucking lucky. Or a gynaecologist when I got a bit older, for the same sort of logic as the sweet shop.
What would you say if you met the Queen? I’d say “lorra lorra blind date” which is a reference to my Queen impression on the six music show.
Last time you were starstruck? I get quite easily starstruck, I was quite starstruck in LA recently when I was doing a gig at the club that the nerdist people have called Nerdmelt and there was a guy there called Kumail Nanjiani who is on the show Sillicone Valley. So him and J.T (Miller) who is also on the show came into the green room with this guy called Ron Funches who is going to be a massive star in the states, and it was one of those things were I saw him on stage and he was really funny so to see him in the green room afterwards- you know when someone is going to be massive and famous. Like I met Russell Brand years and years ago when he was a junkie and doing his MTV show, but he was so magnetic and had such a lot of charisma I thought “this guys is going to be huge” -so it was one of those moments, Kumail and J.T.
Weirdest moment of your life? Probably that fucking gig just then, that was pretty weird I was thinking “shit what am I going to do, I’ve just got to be here now” and it’s annoying
too because you are confronted by the reality of your limitations. Especially if you are a comedian I think you should be able to make comedy that will work in any room, anyone in the world should be able to find something funny in it.
But when you’ve got everything pre-planned like your set, that makes it difficult? Yeah it’s difficult, but that’s my problem because I’m not a proper comedian in that way, or at least a proper stand-up because a real stand-up is just a man or woman and their mic and they are able to just talk to and connect with an audience and that’s a skill that I really admire but don’t have, yet. So it’s always weird when you are out of control, because I’ve been doing live stuff for quite a while now and usually I feel quite comfortable and okay but then you go up there and go “oh, shit I’m totally nervous I’m just blathering” and you can’t tell how much they can hear, if you should shout or speak really slowly. Did I sound weird earlier?
No, it sounded great and the audience seemed to be responding really well from where we were. Especially coming on after the Midnight Beast which was slightly strange. They were going nuts! Impressive I thought, like the Beastie Boys meets Flight of the Concords. I was really impressed! But it’s weird for them though, because those songs are really funny but that audience wasn’t getting the subtlety of the lyrics.
WHERE TO FIND BUXTON
A quick history of Adam’s shows and where to get them from now Adam Buxton started his television career on Takeover TV dressed as a Klingon and ranting about The Next Generation being cancelled. It wasn’t long before he was hosting. Find on YouTube He would go on to make his own series with longtime partner Joe Cornish. They would imaginatively title it, The Adam and Joe Show. Available on 4OD In film he has had roles in Edgar Wright’s Hot Fuzz, Matthew Vaughn’s Stardust and Garth Jennings’s Son of Rambow. Available to buy digital and DVD BUG graduated from the stage to Sky Atlantic, but was criminally never renewed. Watch on Sky On-Demand But his career in Radio is his crowning achievement as his and Joe Cornish’s irreverent style has made their runs on BBC 6 Music and XFM legendary. Download from iTunes Catch Adam’s live BUG show around the UK - tickets and updates available from adam-buxton.co.uk
OCToBER 2o14 VultureHound 13
“
I’m a Bowiest. That’s my god.”
It
was almost like a rave or dance act.
Yeah, but they were so familiar with the tracks. I think that’s the thing with things that you do online, is you get very familiar with them and you sort of feel that nobody else knows about them because you’re not watching it on TV. So then when you see it live you just go fucking nuts. It’s like the podcasting thing, you do really feel like you have a relationship with the podcaster. The podcasts I listen to, they really get into your head. I occasionally meet people who listen to stuff I’ve done and they act like I’m their friend even though I’ve never met them, but I totally get where they are coming from because I’ve lived in their head a little bit.
Would you prefer to only ever whisper or shout? I don’t like whispering, I don’t like people who whisper, no whispering. The worst thing about whispering is when they put it in adverts, it makes me physically ill, I start gagging as soon as someone starts whispering in an advert. If I’m listening to an audio book and there is whispering, like I was listening to a Stephen King audio book the other day, the one about the guy who goes back in time to try and prevent JFK’s assassination, the title of the book is the date that the
14 VultureHound OCToBER 2o14
assassination happened and I am now struggling to recall what it was. It’s something like 22.11.63. And there is a bit where the narrator starts whispering and I had to take my earphones off.
Why? I don’t know, I don’t like it, there’s something about it. That’s why I don’t really like loud places, well I suppose in loud place people shout in your ear and I don’t like that either. I just don’t like someone being that close to my ear. Also, I like shouting.
Worst job pre-comedian? Well I was like a plunger, if you ever read Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell it details his time as a plunger aka a dish-washer or pot-washer in a Parisian restaurant, and I remember reading that at school and thinking “I’m never going to do that, that sounds shit.” Sure enough that was the first job I got when I left school, I was a pot wash guy in a pizza restaurant in London called The Chicago Pizza Pie Factory. I was the guy that had to scrub the fucking pizza pans, and you are down in the kitchen under the florescent lights in the bowls of the building for eight hours or longer if you’ve got a double shift and it was awful. It was just grim! And all the guys there took the piss out of me, they were all
Nigerian guys that work in the kitchen of that one. They were nice in the end but for a while it was torture, so that was bad.
Who would you like to cover one of your songs, and which song? Oh wow! That’s a good question! Which one, fuck I’m trying to think of my songs, they’re not very good to sing though because most of my songs are shouting. It would be good if Radiohead covered the festival song. I met a girl called Lianne La Havas who is kind of a pop singer the other day who is amazing, and I thought it would be amazing if she ever covered one of my songs. She’s got an amazing voice, maybe “Party Pom Pom”. She’s been on tour with Prince doing all the female vocals so I thought I could do a duet with her doing “Party Pom Pom”, that would be pretty amazing. And of course Bowie, if he did anything of mine I would just die happy.
Southsea Fest 2014 Words & Photos: Sarah Carter
i
f
I’ve learned anything this week, it’s that Southsea Fest is truly a unique and memorable experience. As far as festivals go, the atmosphere on the day was thoroughly relaxed and friendly, despite the large presence of alcohol. The bands – both big and small – were incredible, and the variety of music on display was particularly impressive. As it was my first Southsea Fest experience, I went into the day with an action plan in mind. An itinerary of bands throughout the day ensured that for the most part my day was filled with bands – some I knew, some I didn’t. If I could do it all again, I probably wouldn’t have done it this way. To me, the greatest beauty of Southsea Fest is that because all of the venues are within a small 10 minute radius on the same street, if you have a spare half hour you can simply wander into a venue of your choice and witness an artist you may never have seen or heard otherwise. It’s a fantastic opportunity to discover great new bands whilst also getting the chance to see some of your
favourites, all for a fraction of the cost of any mainstream festival. I managed to catch a fairly reasonable amount of bands – more than you would normally see on a single day in any of the big weekend festivals, that’s for sure – and I began my journey at noon, at The One Eyed Dog; a fitting beginning with the venue standing at the very start of Albert Road. I settled in to watch the first band of the day, Exeter born The Fairweather Band. With a modest following and a less than favourable slot in the day’s line-up, The Fairweather Band still managed to bring in a decent crowd. Their sound was an amalgamation of all the biggest and most successful indie bands of the past 10 years and they performed it well, with cleverly constructed and largely enjoyable songs. They encapsulated a modern indie vibe with the addition of some very 70s rock sounding guitar work. A pleasing way to start the day, The Fairweather Band impressed and despite their slightly nervous and wooden on stage disposition, they certainly have potential. After a brief lunch break to Southsea’s best loved (and
OCToBER 2o14 VultureHound 15
acoustically and armed only with their instruments and a megaphone. It was beautifully executed and the entire theatre fell into an almost mournful silence. Continuing the set on stage, The B of the Bang filled The Kings with earthy folk rock, drenched in soul and passion that could be seen on the faces of each band member, along with their obvious sadness. Their sound was one that could fill stadiums and even in amongst the slip ups and imperfections (the occasional wrong chord and feedback from the mics) the set was emotional and beautiful, even for those of us who’d never heard the band before. After a comical compilation of
only) Record Café Pie & Vinyl, it was time to head to The Kings Theatre for the next two bands on my list. A truly stunning setting for any band, The Kings has a certain grandeur that would only suit a small minority of bands. Luckily, Kassassin Street stepped up to the challenge and excelled with blatant ease. The band pulled in an enthusiastic and loyal crowd, which was unsurprising considering they’re local boys. A number of fans were out of their theatre seats, dancing along and sporting their Kassassin Street merch. Their eccentric frontman coupled with a modern psychedelic sound – like a current, updated Pink Floyd – made for a truly spectacular performance and one that filled The Kings Theatre with good vibes and happy faces. The atmosphere changed as Kassassin Street exited the theatre and we awaited the next band. As many would have known beforehand (and would be aware of regardless by the end of their set) The B of the Bang was to perform their last ever show at this year’s Southsea Fest and it was difficult not to pick up on the air of sadness they brought with them. Beginning their set in the aisle of the stalls, surrounded by their crowd, they performed their opener
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The entire theatre fell into an almost mournful silence. ‘Bootylicious’ by Destiny’s Child and ‘Eye of The Tiger’ by Survivor and a requested encore, the band bowed on stage, shared embraces and walked away with the Spice Girls’ ‘Goodbye’ playing in the background. Tongue in cheek, but strangely appropriate. I’m certain they will be missed. Next up, we looked to Rickyfitts for a change in genre. From the folky edge of The B of the Bang we were thrown into louder and darker depths. Rickyfitts brought shed loads of hardcore to the tiny Wine Vaults venue with a large crowd in attendance. The twosome, signed to Pie & Vinyl Records much alike The B of the Bang, combined a sense of teen angst with genuine, stripped back punk, hardcore
bangers. With a few dedicated head bangers at the front, it was for sure an engaging show but it seemed a shame that a few lone head bangers was as far as the show went, as the Wine Vaults small space combined with Rickyfitts’ Rage Against the Machine/ Gallows sound had the potential to become a crowded, messy and sweaty punk moshpit. Regardless, they put on a hell of a show in their 30
For the first time, I saw absolute, pure unrelenting passion minutes.
I next caught the tail end of Eighteen Nightmares at the Lux who performed to a decent crowd, packed into the dark and unbearably warm Bar 56 like sardines. It resembled more of a mate’s garage turned rehearsal space, decorated with fairy lights and electric fans to try and ventilate the insanely humid room. The band soldiered on though, playing their gothic punk tunes with an air of confidence and enthusiasm that wasn’t wasted on the crowd. Even if unimpressed by their music (which I’m almost certain they weren’t) they could at least appreciate that they were giving it all they had in the discomfort and heat. Unfortunately, I wasn’t quite able to cope, so a brief trip home was in order, but not before I’d made my first visit to The Wedgewood Rooms. Before nipping home for a quick dinner (because what other festival allows such privileges?!) I visited one of Portsmouth’s best loved venues, The Wedgewood Rooms which would be the biggest venue of the festival and I first saw its stage graced by Southampton’s Laurel. Her dreamy and melancholy tones are sensational and
reminiscent of Lana Del Rey both in her vocal abilities and her songs, tinged with sadness. Her stage presence is oddly alluring and she manages to make every inch of it her own, despite her music not warranting a lot of movement. Laurel proved to everyone in The Wedgewood Rooms that she was incredibly talented, and that her classical sounding voice can be made to sound utterly current and accessible in today’s industry. She’s a bit of a niche artist (she introduced us to her happiest song at one point, which still managed to sound mildly miserable), but one can’t deny that she has a certain element of class about her.
My afternoon at Southsea Fest did not fail to impress, and considering previous to the festival I hadn’t heard music from that many of the bands on my itinerary, I was positively converted to most of the bands I’d managed to see. A shame it was that The B of the Bang were no more, as I’m sure I wasn’t the only one who had been given a wonderful taste of what they could offer, just to have it immediately snatched from our mouths. Regardless, I was excited for what the
an
evening’s performances had to offer me.
I bravely went back to Bar 56 and attempted to cope with the heat in order to see Nottingham’s Kagoule in action. They played to a crowd of perhaps 25 or 30, which steadily grew as the set went on. Despite this, Kagoule played as if they were playing to thousands and
Southsea Fest is truly a unique and memorable experience absolutely blew me away with not only their outstanding music, built on inventive riffs and killer bass lines, but also their fantastically mad stage presence that I could not take my eyes off. It’s
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impressive feat, having such wonderful charisma whilst still so young. The entire set was crowd pleasing to the point of near moshing from the crowd and everyone was moving along to the music, entirely absorbed by it. Their punk sound was flawless and even during the slower songs they showed huge amounts of promise. I headed back to the Wine Vaults for the next act, one I’d been looking forward to for the entire day. The band in question was Honeyblood, who released their debut self-titled album this year – one of my favourite albums of the year, in fact. Having steadily picked up exposure and praise over the last couple of years, Honeyblood drew in a formidable crowd to the Wine Vaults, punters even crowding around the window adjacent to the stage to get a look in, as they couldn’t fit in the venue. The twosome performed a hit filled show, cramming in the majority of their debut album into their 30 minute set which made for an energetic, flawless performance with the audience loving every second. The girls were unfazed by their crowd and the handfuls of feedback that threatened to blemish what was otherwise an incredibly impressive show, and I heard passers-by for the rest of the evening asking one other if they managed to catch Honeyblood as they were just amazing. Crossing the road to the cosy Little Johnny Russells, I waited for Prides to take the stage. After a delayed start, they jumped into life with their electro pop laced tunes. Prides have had more than their fair share of decent exposure this year, having played Reading & Leeds Festivals
and supported the mighty blink-182 at London’s O2 Academy Brixton. Despite this, their sound was suited to the close confinements of Little Johnny Russells and the crowd reacted excitably. During this set, I probably experienced the best atmosphere and crowd of the entire festival, with many a fan and newcomer swarmed around the band, jumping and dancing along in unison. Glaswegian Prides made a lasting impression on those they’d played to at Little Johnny Russells, with many people approaching them outside the venue after the show, looking for photos with the band. All in all, it was a great set by anyone’s standard. Before heading off back to The Wedgewood Rooms to see the headlining act, I stuck around at Little Johnny Russells for a while to catch some of Eliza and the Bear’s set. Having seen them once a few years back in a supporting slot, I was eager to at least give them another go. If you’ve never heard them before, you’ll certainly recognise their best known song ‘Friends’ from a recent Bulmers advert on TV and it seems that everyone else did too. They got a good crowd reaction, but despite their popular first song, I wasn’t entirely taken by their music. But then again, I must be in the minority as the whole of the venue seemed to be enjoying it. By the time the headlining act came along, I was absolutely exhausted from my day at Southsea Fest, but in spite of this, I loved every second. Almost every band I saw was a new adventure for me and the atmosphere was something I’ve never experienced. As I entered the packed out Wedgewood Rooms, while queues of people still remained outside, still hoping to be let in the venue which had hit full capacity, I was ready to call it a day but in the fondest way possible. Hitting the stage a little later than expected, we were finally give the privilege of seeing Pulled Apart By Horses tear the stage to bits with their hardcore rock. For the first time in the festival, I saw absolute, pure unrelenting passion from both band and crowd as a full blown mosh pit erupted and crowd surfers were thrown back and forth around the crowd. The band submerged themselves into the front row of the crowd several times and
threw equipment carelessly around the stage in pure punk rock fashion. Their performance was utterly impassioned and although the room was filled with both hardcore fans and the casual bystander, they set the entire room alight with furious rock and a confession of “shit happens” when technical difficulties arose. Pulled Apart By Horses was the perfect choice to end a festival of this ilk, showing that in amongst the multiple genres of indie, folk, acoustic and punk, any band is welcome at Southsea Fest and respectfully appreciated in any circumstances. Their electric performance left the whole of Southsea and Portsmouth alive with joy from both their performance the day they’d had. A few people walked away disappointed, having still not been able to enter The Wedgewood Rooms to see Pulled Apart By Horses but I’m sure that in the grand scheme of things, they can’t have been disappointed with the outcome of this festival, as each band I’d seen brought something unique and memorable to this day. Southsea Fest, I hope to see you again one day but if not, thanks for one hell of a day.
BAND OF SKULLS HIMALAYAN
LIVE
Band Of Skulls have released their third record ‘Himalayan’. It not only captures that trademark sound of the band, the massive stop and start explosions of guitar in ‘Asleep at the Wheel’, and the big distorted solo in the title track ‘Himalayan’. But there’s also this big soulful element to the album, tracks that focus predominately on Emma Richardson’s vocals like ‘Cold Sweat’, a piece of music that actually wouldn’t sound out of place in a Bond film, must be pretty good then right? On top of all this there’s even a couple of more anthemic, stadium filler type tracks, ‘You Are All That I Am Not’ in particular is a highlight of the album, an incredible bit of work that captures this whole different side that the band possess. Band Of Skulls in all fairness are a band who probably haven’t received the level of admiration they warrant, they’ve been doing rock and roll properly since their beginning, and Himalayan is further proof of that. Words: Bradley Lengden
Band of Skulls Photo: Danny Garside 20 VultureHound OCToBER 2o14
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The BeATLES ON THE BIG SCREEN Words: Robert Stimpson
The band that changed everything’ is a tag often applied to The Beatles. Musically, the story has been told and retold, re-mastered and re-released. But the world of music was not the only area that the band ventured into – far from it. The ill fated Apple Boutique and Apple Records are two rather less flattering recollections. One venture that yielded more success, however, was into the world of film. This summer marks the 50th anniversary of the cinematic release of A Hard Day’s Night , the group’s motion picture debut. Revisiting, reminiscing, re-evaluating – whatever you choose to call it, it is impossible to ignore just how far the reach of The Beatles extended beyond their music and into the world of film. The circumstances behind The Beatles first foray into cinema are not as glamorous as one might expect. Before the release of A Hard Day’s Night in July 1964, films starring musicians were invariably a cheap vehicle in which to cash in some easy money on the back of their
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popularity. Think Jailhouse Rock and Summer Holiday. While these movies have their fans, their impact outside of those circles is minimal, at best. Under these same circumstances, however, The Beatles were thrust into the cinematic world. Their success in Britain was assured at the time, but the long term future wasn’t considered to be anything of great certainty, so the money men decided to cash in on a movie in case their prized asset suddenly stopped laying golden eggs. Even the man at the helm, Richard Lester, was a relatively untried director. In fairness, though, the reality was a case of the truth being stranger than fiction. After the film was given the go ahead, but before filming itself commenced, the band made their first appearance on The Ed Sullivan Show,
The BeATLES ON THE BIG SCREEN
John Lennon is quoted saying that the band were “Smoking marijuana for Breakfast.” and promptly ushered in their world domination. This little movie, then, suddenly took on a significance that still resonates today; an inside look, an artefact into what it was like to be a part of the biggest musical group the world has ever seen just as the wheels leave the ground. It all starts with that chord. Perhaps the most recognisable opening chord in the annals of rock ‘n’ roll, it not only signifies the commencement of one of the most enduring pop songs
ever written but, more importantly, signifies the onset of The Beatles’ most potently creative period. A Hard Day’s Night was the first Beatles LP consisting solely of original material, making a huge leap forward, and a progression that would ultimately lead them to the limits of their own creativity, a journey that ultimately strained relations enough to bring about the break-up of the band. The title track, then, plays over the opening scene which shows John, Paul, George and Ringo running
towards and through a train station in a bid to evade a bloodthirsty mob of baying fans in hot pursuit. The song, and the footage, marry up perfectly to infuse the energy and freshness that blast the movie out of the blocks, an energy that at no point wanes or is extinguished before the film’s conclusion. With such a cynical genesis, it is somewhat surprising that the film itself is, even to this day, incredibly fresh. The musical interludes in which the band performs songs from the new LP are credited as the first step into the world of music videos. The ‘Can’t Buy Me Love’ sequence, in particular, is the perfect example. Take that scene out of the movie and play it without context, and it’s a standalone music video.
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The final live performance atop the Apple Building in Saville Row is an undoubted high point. Furthermore, a sense of spontaneity and genuine collaboration between all involved is palpable. Like a host of modern comedy movies, there seems to be a sense of trying anything that comes to mind and then seeing what will work best in a linear narrative. This is perhaps best evidenced in a scene where George is asked by a marketing executive “can you handle lines?” He replies, “well, I’ll have a bash.” The Beatles are musicians, not actors, and this is abundantly clear. It’s all youthful enthusiasm carried along on charisma, and the fast pace, hand held cameras and short cuts are a result of this, necessitated by the fact that he didn’t want the musicians-now-actors to be talking
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for too long. This not only gave it a new wave feel, but also allowed the band to fulfil their Fab Four characters. The wise-cracking, cocky and humorous young men taking on the establishment in the time honoured us-against-the-world manner was almost a guarantee for the movie to become a huge critical and box office success. The phenomenal soundtrack offered up for the movie did no harm, either. Owing to the huge success of A Hard Day’s Night, a follow up movie was inevitable. And so, in 1965, Help! was released. Beatlemania was still raging, but The Beatles themselves were exhausted and exploring other areas of interest,
primarily marijuana. John Lennon is quoted as saying the band were “smoking marijuana for breakfast” during filming, and in the Anthology interviews the shooting process was referred to as “a haze of marijuana.” This might explain why proceedings were not quite as sharp second time around. Things feel a little distant, and Lennon himself claims that the band felt like extras in their own movie. With the bigger budget, colour recording, a pursuit-adventurelark storyline and grand locations including the Austrian Alps and the Bahamas, there is a manic sense of trying to out-do A Hard Day’s Night. A lot of things feel the same, only with more Gonzo and in Technicolor. Even Ringo is in the mire again, having found himself in prison in A Hard Day’s Night, this time he is the target of an Eastern cult intent on sacrificing him because of the irremovable sacrificial ring on his finger.
Despite its flaws, however, Help! is still an entertaining watch; a celebration of youth, vitality and music. Richard Lester, returning as director, himself said that he was “enormously grateful for the opportunity to have been indulgent”, and that is an apt way to look at the film. For many, this was the first and only time to see their idols in colour, so the larks and the adventures were seemingly upped in number as the Goon Show influence took Help! into a more surreal environment than the semi-real world portrayed in A Hard Day’s Night. While the debut movie catches the band on the cusp of global superstardom, Help! is the moment before the mania turns sour. In the year that followed, John Lennon made a comment about Jesus, the band played their final ever commercial concert and both
Rubber Soul and Revolver were released. The shift was coming, and Help! feels like one final hurrah in the world of the Fab Four before they all took on their more hirsute, adult guises. Three years later came Yellow Submarine. While the tangible links
A journey that strained relations enough to ultimately bring about the break up of the band to this movie are tenuous, it must still qualify as a Beatles film as, well, it has their music and images littered all over it. The Beatles themselves were not keen to venture back into the world of cinema following the savaging handed out to their TV special (not cinematic) Magical Mystery Tour. Tensions were already becoming strained in the studio by this point, and that was when creating what they did best, so making movies was an unnecessary burden to bear. Conveniently,
though, it was deemed the perfect way to tie up the three movie deal with United Artists. As such, the band members only make a fleeting cameo in the final scene, with the animated Beatles voiced by actors. While the images of the characters are unmistakeably John, Paul,
George and Ringo, the voices are patently not. While this does create some distance from authenticity, it does nothing to dispel the quality of the film itself. If anything, it adds to the unreality of the Pepperland world which, in the spirit of the film, makes it all the more real. While the plot is rather thin, the animation is sumptuous, and has a Fantasia like quality in that the images have clearly been manipulated to fit the music, rather than the other way around. It is a beautiful finished article and a shameless product of the Love Generation, of the hippy period and it revels in all things psychedelic. These ingredients could well have taken Yellow Submarine out of the mainstream embrace, yet it only seemed to strengthen the affection felt for it. But it is no soft touch, either, as the darker elements elevate the movie to its higher standing, particularly the villainous characters. The Blue Meanie, the Apple Stompers and the Dreadful Flying Glove are all creations of real childhood nightmares and add a genuine element of fear to proceedings. Once again, the musical offering is of the highest calibre, but partly due to the fact that it’s more of a compilation album with only four original songs appearing in the film. Due to the fact that The Beatles appearance in Yellow Submarine was so marginal, United Artists insisted that it didn’t count as the final film in
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It’s impossible to ignore just how far the reach of the Beatles extended beyond their music and into the world of film. the band’s three movie deal. As such, Let It Be was spawned, and the world got to see what it would be like to witness the breakdown before a divorce of a cherished community couple. It is a truly heartbreaking, if at times fascinating, watch. Recorded primarily in January 1969, the documentary is an exercise in showing how passionate (and demanding) Paul McCartney was about keeping The Beatles alive, and how disinterested John and George were by it all now. Ringo, as always, played the middle man who just wanted everyone to be happy. Originally, McCartney wanted to film the process of writing and rehearsing an album of new material and to then play it live before an audience where it would be recorded. In reality, with conflicts now raging, it was a miracle everyone got out alive. John is on record as describing the recording as “the most miserable session on earth” and said it was “hell making the film.” George, who was driven to quitting the band for a period, and Paul were infamously caught up in a squabble in which McCartney picks at George’s guitar playing, causing the former to state “I’ll play, you know, whatever you want me to play, or I won’t play at all if you don’t want to me to play. Whatever it is that will please you, I’ll do it.” This is
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Let It Be in a nutshell. In the barn-like Twickenham studios, beset by the cold winter weather, the differences between all four Beatles rose to the fore. Not only were the majority of the band turning up for what they now considered to be a job, they were trying to create music in a soulless environment while being filmed every minute of the day. To paraphrase McCartney himself, instead of getting the recording process of the greatest band ever, we instead got the story of their break up. It’s no surprise that Let It Be is the only Beatles movie currently not available for public consumption. Cynics say it’s because those involved don’t want to tarnish the image and legacy of The Beatles with this final dark chapter. Yet, there are still beautiful moments of creation in here, a throwback to brighter days in happier studios when history was being made. The final live performance atop the Apple Building in Saville Row is an undoubted high point. It’s just the four men alone once more, sharing a stage and putting on a show. It hadn’t been seen in years, and it never would be again. Like us, they were happy when the music was playing. That is reason enough to be grateful for Let It Be’s existence, a final chapter in a four volume trip through the history of the band that changed everything.
Is Netflix’s BoJ
B
oJack Horseman isn’t Netflix’s first foray into the realm of animation, but it is the first that is aimed at adults (Note: Knights of Sidonia was a localisation project. It isn’t actually made by Netflix, but they did dub it). An obvious attempt at getting into the edgy, controversial cartoon crowd, BoJack actually brings a few refreshing changes to a scene dominated by the machine gun gags of Seth MacFarlane. BoJack Horseman is a washed up TV actor, still living off the fortune that he made while starring in the biggest sitcom of the 90’s. You know, like Matthew Perry must be. BoJack’s world is a Lynchian nightmare where anthropomorphic animals are part of everyday society, yet all seem
Words: Lee Hazell BoJack’s world is a Lynchian nightmare where anthropomorphic animals are part of everyday society
Jack Horseman any good? to be marginalised into demeaning stereotypes. It’s almost as if this is how the makers of the show get away with off colour jokes about ethnic minorities. Even BoJack’s old show was just one long gag about him being a horse.
with big, hard to swallow mouthfuls of exposition. The pilot also runs BoJack’s affection for his old TV show into the ground, and it becomes a worry that they might take this paper thin character trait and stretch it across the whole season.
The pilot starts off with a bum note. It opens with an interview as BoJack tries to plug the memoirs he’s been writing. It contains some lumpy characterisation. It clumsily uses the scene to sum up BoJack’s character in a matter of three or four lines. Later we are supposed to buy him as both a dim witted egotist and the only sane man in Hollywood. An awkward combination to pull off as one would rule him out as the other. It sets a president for the rest of the program as all the other characters are set up
Fortunately, the following episodes fare much better. If the first episode sets up the series characters, the second and third episodes set up what kind of show BoJack is. Instead of the program using the format of animation to get away with a lack of continuity and well-drawn (no that was not a pun) characters, it subtly puts the idea in our heads that there might be more going on here than drunk jokes and bestiality. BoJack is a series. Not a series of
unconnected episodes, but one with an on-going story and a surprising amount of character development. A proper series. It’s a gradual realisation, so that the makers of the show can accommodate those who believe that animation shouldn’t try to do plot. It’s only when the show starts hitting mid-season that the events of the previous episodes have direct effects on their successors. It’s a great realisation too. Almost all the adult animation shows on TV right now are training us to laugh in the face of continuity and reject the idea that sentimentality has a place in comedy. In fact, so many of them are following this exact same archetype that they are becoming just as cookie cutter as the sitcoms they are satirising. Plus, you don’t expect a cartoon show about a washed up soap opera horse to try and tug at your heart strings. But, it does, and the way it’s been leading you to that revelation for the first half of the season is devious in its stealth. BoJack has a ghostwriter who will be the real author of his memoirs. To her, he opens up with tales of neglectful parents and selfloathing narcissism. She points him in the right direction when the memories of these times send his celebrity warped mind to spiral out of control.
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It can be deep as a shotgun wound or as shallow as shot of whiskey.
You start to think that this will be the formula for the show. Repeated episode after episode, as disposable as it is repetitive. But actually, it’s leading somewhere. They begin to reveal that they have remembered the things that the other person has told them. It changes their opinions and characters. It forces you to raise your own opinion of the show and think of it as more than surreal, zany satire. Not that it isn’t great zany satire. Will Arnett is perfectly cast as BoJack. He can pull off both the arrogant drunk and the pitiful loner. His timing and vocal inflections are spot on. Aaron Paul, who plays his roommate Todd, begins his role as a typical Hollywood house
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guest, which is to say lazy, job shy and constantly stoned. Not very exciting. But the places the character goes, especially when he finds himself freed of the main plot, are often hilarious and some of the most ridiculous in the series. BoJacks agent/ex-girlfriend is so funny she could be in Archer. Her venom for BoJack and her manipulative scheming offers some of the shows best satire. Alison Brie plays the main love interest, BoJack’s ghostwriter, Diane. A third wave feminist that the show has fun with, without putting her beliefs down. Finding out she is just as messed up as BoJack is the crux of the shows emotional heart. The jokes can be as quick paced as anything in Family Guy or South Park.
They can also be just as gleefully stupid and absurdly dark, the two styles mingling together like Bert and Ernie at a singles night. It can be crass and it can hit the obvious too many times an episode, but the numerous animal jokes are a delight. The best of which by the way is a tie between Keith Olbermann (a former MSNBC liberal anchor) as a sperm whale Fox News lampoon and Patton Oswalt as anything. Seriously he’s like the Hank Azaria of the show, he does like a dozen characters. BoJack is a breath of fresh air in a staling genre. It changes things in a way I hope will make it influential, or at least a herald of things to come. It’s smart, its funny, it can be deep as a shotgun wound or as shallow as shot of whiskey. But the thing is, it knows how to pull both of them off.
Interview
PAPA ROACH’s Jerry Horton Papa Roach are a guilty pleasure for some, a passion for others. Whatever they are to you at Leeds they smashed it and drew in a huge crowd to the main stage mid afternoon. We managed to catch a few minutes with Jerry Horton, Guitarist of Papa Roach (and a cheeky cuddle with Jacobi!)
Pretty much just got off the stage here at Leeds, how did you feel the set went?
Set went great, I hit a couple of sour notes but the crowd was amazing. Once we got into the second song, got them jumping up and down it was great.
How does it feel to be asked to play Leeds? It is legendary, we’ve done it once before but it has been a long time. I think it was 2001, you know we’ve done a lot of the harder edged festivals and we just wanted to come back and do more of the alternative. Be with bands we haven’t been with in a long time and just do more of the rock stuff. It was great today, and I’m sure Reading is going to be the same. We wanna make sure it isn’t that long before we come back again.
You’ve been working on
berley m i K : s d r Wo
B a y l i ss
Words: Kimberley Bayliss/ Photo: Jen O’Neill
‘F.E.A.R’ the new record, happy with it? All done and ready for release?
We are happy with it, it is done. We are just about mixed, and yeah… We did it in Vegas with Kevin, we kind of had the intent of making a heavy record but we don’t have a very good attention span so we kind of just explored some more. So again it is a pretty diverse record but we are very happy with the sound, and the sounds that we got. Jacobi is as honest as always, and I think it is going to be great.
What would you like to be remembered for? As a band, I would like us to be remembered for our live show and the experiences that people have at our shows because
that’s what we love. The memory of the energy exchange is sort of a drug to us, and a lot of our European and UK fans are very loyal and love that about us as well.
Dream dinner guest (dead or alive)?
Anybody? Man! (-Thinks for a very long time-) I would say Henry the VIII, what about that?
Why?
I just wanna know little things, and I really want to know how he was.
How long do you spend infront of the mirror?
I would say everyday probably a total of four minutes.
Favourite swear word?
It’s going to have to be ‘Fuck’ right?
Papa Roach
Engineer because my Dad was in the air-force. Then I wanted to be an Automotive Engineer, but I sucked at Math. Then I wanted to Rock!
What would you say if you met the Queen?
Best excuse you’ve used to break up with somebody?
Wow! I would say,.. There are too many things I would want to say that wouldn’t go over too well! I would say “How does it feel to have people say, God Save You?”
Best day of your life?
Weirdest moment of your life?
I guess maybe “you smoke too much pot.”
Best day? I would have to say probably the day I got married.
Worst
thing you’ve ever put in your mouth?
Okay so we had in the dressing room what I thought were mints, Tobin actually told me they were mints. Turned out it was a freeze dried Wasabi pea, so I was expecting sweet and refreshing and I got spicy and powdery. It was disgusting!
Last band you went to see live?
I’m going to say Refused, that was at home like- I wasn’t on tour. No wait, Queens of the Stone Age we were in Vegas doing the record and they played in Vegas.
As a child what did you want to be when you grew up? A bunch of different things. First I wanted to be an Aeronautical
Okay here it is, so I grew up listening to Ministry. Really big fan! And Al Jourgensen came to one of our shows because a couple of people on our crew used to work for them. So he’s one of my heroes, and he had just reportedly just got sober. Well apparently drinking wine is still being sober, for him! So he was on my side of the stage at one of our shows and he was just rocking out like it was his show, and it was between songs and everyone is cheering because he‘s side of shouting “You are a fucking god right now.” And I’m going “This is fucking weird.”
Who would you like to hear cover one of your songs and which song?
I would like to hear…. (on hearing Jacobi singing Arctic Monkeys) I would like to hear Arctic Monkeys cover Last Resort. Jerry was such a pleasure and a really great guy, he really thought about those speed round answers! Big thanks to Papa Roach.
Questions drawn by Murray Somerville & replied drawn by Sean McGuinness (Pissed Jeans)
Zombie Survival Guide Words: Lisa Fox
Vulturehound
HALLOWEEN SPECIAL
You’ve seen The Walking Dead, studied Zombieland and laughed through Shaun of the Dead.…but have you decided what to do in the event of a Zombie Apocalypse? Hopefully this guide will help you to prepare for the end of life as we know it… Ok, so you’ve seen on the news that the dead are walking again. What is the first thing you do? Find a safe place, turn out the lights, pull the curtains and lock yourself in! It may sound simple, but if the zombies don’t know you’re there then they won’t come looking for you. Simples.
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Halloween is almost here and we at Vulture Hound aren’t afraid of things that go bump in the night. We know how to kick zombie ass, we watch movies in the dark and we’ve even survived the first episode of The Walking Dead season 5. And if you read this Halloween guide, by the end of it you will be able to do the same.
Fill the bath. The average human can survive for weeks without food, but we can only live for days without water. When the zombie apocalypse causes the clean water to run out, you’ll have a supply to do you for weeks.
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illustratration: David Garlick 42 VultureHound September 2014
Assemble your crew- and chose them wisely. For a decent group you want to have some stereotypes. A badass, a tough guy, a brainiac, a kid (they can fit in small spaces), a hot girl (to get eaten first, obviously), a hot guy (to be eaten second) and a hero, hopefully thats you ;)
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Know your enemy. We know there has been some sort of outbreak, but the reports are vague on details. If you are planning to survive, you need to know what kind of zombie you’re dealing with. There are several different types of zombies; are they fast zombies and slow zombies? Do they want to eat you or merely dismember you? Oh, and how do they infect you- biting, sneezing or is it airbound? Avoiding infection is vital.
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Get a weapon. If you’re not in America, odds are that you won’t just have guns lying around the house so improvise. Head to your kitchen, most of us have at least one sharp knife. Look in your living room, do you have a poker by the fire place? Look in the hall cupboard, maybe you have a tennis racket or a baseball bat? Lamps, chair legs, ornaments…you’ll be surprised what everyday objects can be used for defence once you start looking.
Horror Films: How to Solve Them Words: Sam Hawkwell Are you ever stuck watching a horror film and shouting at the actors like you’re watching a football match? Some films can just be easily solved, Sixth Sense? All that woman needed to do was get a new camera and take her kid to see a councillor – one that wasn’t dead, and so forth. I’ve compiled a list of films that could have easily been solved, happy realistic Halloween.
Insidious
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Gather a survival kit. Most homes have a basic first aid kit, and sure plasters aren’t going to have much impact on a zombie bite but antiseptic may prove handy. Air purifiers, iodine tablets, cans of food, a hand powered generator, rechargeable batteries, a wind up radio, torches, tools (which can double up as weapons by the way), flares, fire extinguishers and earplugs are all useful. Why earplugs I hear you say? You’ll need those to get some sleep while you’re surrounded by moaning zombies.
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Dress appropriately. A zombie invasion is not the time to look your best- in spite of what you might see on the television. Flat shoes and flexible, preferably warm, waterproof clothing is the most suitable for zombie survival.
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illustratration: Oliver Catherall
Solved! What kind of mother or father would just leave their attic unlocked so their young children could go up and fall off a ladder? If they locked that door, all would be well.
Nightmare on Elm Street
Solved! Once you find a murdering paedophile why not shop him? Take him to the police, he’d have probably been executed and I think he would have been less angry at the town, he wouldn’t have cursed them for all eternity or come back to kill them all.
HALLOWEEN SPECIAL: What's on
Picked by: David Garlick
Try a Human Meat Burger Right. This will be a quick one. Not sure I have the stomach for this. I wonder if any of you do. London based food art creators Messhead – formed by London Mess Chef James Thomlinson and creative Miss Cakehead, renowned for their macabre flair in the world of food, have come up with a unique burger concept that will push normal levels of taste to it’s very limits. Their ‘human’ meat burgers are set to delight and horrify in equal measure as they reveal a burger designed to replicate the taste of human flesh. The cannibalistic concept was inspired by the Season 4 finale of Fox’s zombie thriller The Walking Dead in which Rick and the group found piles of bloodied bones on the floor at Terminus which looked like human remains – and gives a taster of what ‘Walkers’ from the series enjoy feasting on. The burgers will be given away from a custom built stand that recreates the apocalyptic feeling of Terminus where Series 4 ended. Those brave punters who want to know more about how to create the particular piquancy of person will be able to see the cannibal research in the form of an info graphic which the burgers will come wrapped in. A unique The Walking Dead condiment will also be on sale at Terminus Tavern, though best not to ask the source of that sauce!
Festival We recommend you check out Nightmare Festival, a gloriously rock n’roll one day festival set to honour the horror of Halloween like it has never been celebrated before! Put on by the guys that brought us Camden Rocks, it will feature a host of cutting edge rock, indie, metal and punk bands taking over various venues in London’s most rock n’roll Camden Town. Fancy dress is VERY much encouraged so be as horrific as you possibly can be!
Backyard Cinema's Zombie Apocalypse A 4 hour, theatrical, Zombie Apocalypse themed cinema experience with live actors, a fully licensed bar, street food and an End of the World party. Join the Zombies this Halloween for a thrilling theatrical indoor cinema experience, Zombie Apocalypse. As part of the next instalment from Backyard Cinema, for 8 nights, from 31st October – 7th November 2014, horror fans can choose their film and embark on a 4-hour journey of survival in the only safe place on the planet, a top-secret East London location! Tickets available at backyardcinema.co.uk
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WIN a pair of Backyard Cinema Zombie Apocalypse tickets on our Twitter @VultureHound
Horror Films: How to Solve Them
Upcoming Shows
The Ring
Walking Dead
American Horror
Read on for potential spoilers Season 4 ended with the survivors walking towards a place where “those who arrive, survive.” Unfortunately its heavily hinted at that those survivors may end up as a pile of bones next to the ones revealed at the end of the last series. Also the series will be more action heavy, so you can imagine that might mean the pile of dead cast member’s only gets bigger. Will they make it to Washington and get the cure to the masses?
On the 21st of October the Freak Show comes to town. See such bizarre and gruesome attractions as the bearded lady and Jyoti Amge, the world’s smallest woman! This year’s series sees Jessica Lange in her final performance as a member of the main cast for the show. She plays the owner of one of America’s last exhibitions of the exotic and macabre. Her and her loyal band of “attractions” are running into financial difficulty and will do anything to keep the show going on.
Solved! Don’t keep a killer tape in your house where you have kids, in fact just don’t keep a killer tape at all. And get that ungrateful kid to call your mum or mother, does he have no respect?!
Carrie
Horror Music?.. Solved! Come on, don’t be a bitch and laugh at a girl if she comes on in the shower – she wasn’t expecting that to happen.
Ryan Adams - Vampires EP ‘Vampires’, ‘Magic Flag’, ‘Clown Asylum’, ‘Suburbia’. Sounds like the contents of a Stephen King short story collection. Well it isn’t. It’s the track listing from Ryan Adam’s new Halloween themed EP Vampires. Now, you might think that the only truly scary thing about Adam’s is his slightly gothy/hipster appearance, but he did make a video with an Elvira lookalike, so you know he must have spent some of his misspent youth watching old classics like I Eat Your Skin and Santa Claus Conquers the Martians.
Anymore films you could have easily solved? Then tweet your idea and #horrorfilmssolved to @vulturehound !
OCToBER 2o14 VultureHound 37
HALLOWEEN SPECIAL: Scariest TV Moments
Words: Lee Hazell
CSI: Grave Danger Are You Afraid of the Dark: The Tale of Laughing in the Dark Something’s wrong with Canadians. Making programmes this scary and marketing them towards kids is fucked up. While other civilisations wrap their children in blankets and keep them away from the cruelty of the world, Canada put it on TV and traumatised their children with it. They must have snapped after years of grace and civility. Are You Afraid of the Dark is home to The Midnight Society, a group of morbid teenagers all tasked once a week to scare the pants off their piers with the scariest story imaginable. AYAOTD was a masterwork of atmosphere. The creepy set design, the ambient soundtracks; but what they really excelled at was keeping the monsters just out of shot so your imagination could fill that space with your worst nightmares. There are so many episodes to choose from here, Dead Man’s Float, Ghastly Grinner, Midnight Madness; but the one that really got me was Laughing in the Dark. The tale of a clown who died in a funhouse after his cigars set it on fire. You never see the clown but he’s always just feet away. You can hear his laugh, you can see his cigar smoke, but the characters, and you, can’t bear to just open that door and have a little peak. I challenge you to watch this and not be messed up after.
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Quentin Tarantino has never done out and out horror, but this comes as close as he’s ever gotten so far. While he must be a big fan of CSI, one man he can’t be a fan of is Nick Stokes. Nick is a Crime Scene Investigator, who comes across the wrong bag of evidence and is kidnapped. After that he’s buried alive in a see through coffin, half eaten by fire ants, and hallucinates his own autopsy. The thought of being buried alive is a phobia that almost seems to be universal, and the image of Nick, lying in a see through coffin, with nothing to see with but eerie, acid green glow sticks is one that demands your immediate empathy. The knowledge that the coffin is rigged and that the killer doesn’t care if he’s caught only adds to the feeling of impending doom.
X-Files: Tooms I was reluctant to put this in here. It’s in every list ever made about how scary TV can get. But it makes all the lists for a very good reason. Tooms is one of the most chilling and creepy characters ever created. Introduced into the third episode of the series, establishing the Monster-of-the-Week format that would take a break from the main series story arc, Tooms quickly set the standard for how scary the series would get. Tooms was a serial killer whom no lock could keep prisoner, or, more importantly, keep him out. He was able to stretch is body into all manner of tiny gaps to get to his prey. Once he gets in, he removes their livers which provide him the sustenance to keep himself alive in hibernation for up to thirty years at a time. In the episode that bears his name, you realise how futile it is for Mulder and Scully to simply prosecute these anomalies of nature. Tooms desperately tries to keep his cool and not kill, but it’s all in vain and a desperate chase occurs.
Stephen King's It: Hi Georgie! Buffy - Hush The series has always had its moments, but has always fallen on the more fun side of horror; the side with elaborate monsters and screeching teenagers. This episode turns up the scares. It introduces The Gentlemen. A ghastly group of ghouls who take the voices of the town so that no one will hear their screams. Why would they scream? Because The Gentlemen like to perform open heart surgery on you while you’re awake. An experience I imagine to be somewhat distressing. Making them even creepier are their skeletal appearances, like too little flesh stretched across too much bone. They have metallic grins and are all dressed in the same black suit. When one suddenly appears in a window, it’s the first time I think I ever screamed aloud at the TV.
Twin Peaks: Killer BOB Not being your normal cop show, the bad guy, BOB, isn’t a serial killer, or a crime lord, he’s a demon that feasts upon pleasure and pain. He possesses his victims and uses their bodies to do all manner of terrible things to the inhabitants of the town. How scary is BOB’s appearance? The man playing him, Frank Silva, isn’t even an actor, he was a set dresser who looked so frightening that David Lynch just had to cast him. Possibly the harshest piece of casting that has ever taken place in Hollywood. And that, as you can imagine, is a title that is up against some strong competition.
I can’t mention horror without mentioning Stephen King, and I can’t mention Stephen King without mentioning his most sinister moment, in film or television. The grotesque clown Pennywise, in reality a shape shifting demon who takes the form of the children’s worst nightmares, appears in a drain tricking poor young Georgie to reach in and retrieve his lost paper boat. Tim Curry is one of England’s greatest character actors and never afraid to spend a little time in makeup. Here he’s even more threatening than his incredible makeup job in Ridley Scott’s Legend where he played the Devil himself. Pennywise is terrifying, even when he’s trying not to be, especially when he’s trying not to be. You can tell that it is a work of mimicry, of deception, and he can never hide the hideous intentions lurking beneath the false smiles. The scene with the storm drain is a horror classic, iconic and deeply traumatic for anyone who ever saw it before hitting puberty.
American Horror Story: Leigh Emerson If you add something that is supposed to bring you joy to a horror show, it makes it ten times scarier. The usual suspects are clowns, dolls and Christmas. And wow, does America Horror Story make its Christmas grim. Veteran Brit actor Ian McShane plays Leigh Emerson, a man who went to jail for the crime of stealing a loaf of bread. Oh boy. If these writers have any wish to illustrate their left leaning opinions on the justice system, then you know something awfully bad is going to happen to this guy. Oh, he gets raped by five men on Christmas eve. That’s pretty bad. He expresses his feelings on the subject by killing a Santa Claus collecting charity money and killing 18 people dressed in the costume he stole from the jolly, dead fat man. And don’t think that he doesn’t take the religious aspect of Christmas seriously. As well as killing a whole bunch of Nuns, he murders his Pastor after his own baptism, and nails him to a cross. It’s nice to see someone with some Christmas spirit, it can get so cynical that time of year.
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HALLOWEEN SPECIAL: A History of Horror in Film
Words: Sara Zmertych
People have always enjoyed the thrill of feeling afraid as a form of entertainment. You only have to think of the monsters and ghouls passed down from the Ancient Greek mythology and medieval fables to know that this is the case. The first horror films of the silent era were inspired by gothic literature which had started in the 1700s with its own brand of ghosts, bats, murderers and demons and was later heavily popularised by writers Mary Shelly, author of Frankenstein, Bram Stoker author of Dracula and Edgar Allen Poe with his stories: The Fall of the House of Usher and Pit and the Pendulum, to name but a few. The name for this style of literature derived from the gothic style buildings castles and dungeons in which their stories played out. It wasn’t until after WW1 that horror took off and it did so amidst the Forbidden Planet
ashes of a war ravaged Germany. Under crippling sanctions from the allies – the war reparations - Germany lived in an imposed cultural vacuum and it was from this no-man’s land in which the country was cut off from the influence of Hollywood that a cottage industry with a unique style known as German Expressionism emerged. Its key feature was an emphasis of expression over depictions of reality and was visually defined by bizarre camera
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The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (1920)
angles, distorted shapes and heavy shadowing. The most famous example is The Cabinet of Dr Caligari. The adage ‘desperation is the mother of invention’ couldn’t be more apt. The studio was so strapped for cash that most of the stage sets were hand painted lending it its bizarre and over stylised setting. Despite steady streams of German cinema goers escaping from the grimness of life, the industry struggled to make an income. But once sanctions were lifted and Hollywood took a keen interest, the studio gradually dispersed as much of the German talent flocked to US instead and German Expressionism as an art movement ended in 1933 the same year that Hitler came to power. The arrival of sound marked a major step change for horror films as audiences could be startled by the sound of piercing screams, howls and racing heartbeats. Universal studios were quick to exploit this and launched a gothic horror cycle in the 1930s with films such as Dracula, Frankenstein, The Mummy and the
Invisible Man. The 1940s, on the other hand, saw a dearth in the production of horror films. The war effort had kicked off and the genre was unfortunately starting to lose its way. Films parodied earlier successes such as The Invisible Man Returns and Frankenstein meets the Wolf Man. Exceptions included Cat People, which although still in the B-movie category, was a precursor to the psychological thrillers which were to become so popular with later audiences. It was in the 1950s that the horror genre took a different and rather interesting twist. In the post WW2 era of the Soviet-American arms race the industry tapped into people’s most prevalent fears and thrilled them with nuclear, mutant and bogey man invasion. Think Godzilla, It came from Beneath the Sea, Forbidden Planet and the Invasion of the Body Snatchers – a season of pulp science fiction in fact which appealed heavily to the teenagers of the time.
The first “slasher movie’’ is said to be British director Michael Powell’s Peeping Tom made in 1962 but sadly it cost him dearly. Hammer Film Productions on the other hand which had started in 1957 were a success - happily hamming their way through reboots of Universal’s gothic monsters but with the addition of blood, sweat and gore. Films included The Curse of Frankenstein and Dracula with actors Peter Cushing and Christopher Lee. It was at this time that across the pond, director Alfred Hitchcock started to emerge entertaining cinema audiences with a more considered and sophisticated brand of horror known as the ‘thriller’ – heavy on psychological torment such as in Psycho and The Birds. Hitchcock’s choice of cinematography still owed a debt to German expressionism. The style was also an inspiration to Tim Burton. The Texas Chain Saw Massacre
The beginning of the 1990s saw critical acclaim for The Silence of the Lambs and the decade closed with two popular 28 Days Later...
Party Playlist hits The Sixth Sense and The Blair Witch Project. Sandwiched in between were Scream which gained huge commercial success. However some critics have said that horror of the 90s had to a greater extent been sidelined by the computer generated special effects afforded to the science fiction and fantasy films of the time. The 2000s has been a mix of remakes of old classics like Friday the 13th, Halloween and Dawn of the Dead and the emergence in the US of “torture porn”- low on plotline and high on gratuitous dismemberment of random body parts alongside innovative films such as Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later and JA Bayona’s The Orphanage.
Horror films of the 1970s and 1980s were big on the supernatural and the occult. The Exorcist and the Omen may have taken inspiration from the success of Roman Polanski’s Rosemary’s Baby. Another contributor to the genre was Stephen King with the film adaptations of his novels: Carrie and The Shining. Besides the spirit world, horror films also covered real life societal concerns such as in The Texas Chain Saw Massacre which was based on serial killer Ed Gein and referenced the Vietnam war and there was also a poke at consumerism with director George A Romero’s “splatter” horror film, The Dawn of the Dead. A steady cycle of slasher films ensued with Halloween and Nightmare on Elm street - a running theme ever since.
The Curse of Frankenstein
Halloween is one of those times of the month when you can dress up, look silly and get paid for it in sweets. Yes October is the month when it is acceptable to wear your grandmother’s onezie without being laughed at. Of course I am sure you have your trick or treat route planned and your outfit sorted. But what about the music? Here’s our Hallowen Playlist for you..
1- Thriller - Michael Jackson 2- Zombie - Matthew Floyd Jones 3- Total Eclipse Of The Heart Frisky and Mannish 4- Ghost Busters Theme Song 5- Monster Mash - Groovie Goolies 6- She Wolf - Shakira 7- Time Warp - Rocky Horror Show 8- Disturbia - Rihanna
An interesting and perhaps even unsettling thought to leave you with is that horror in recent years has become more popular amongst female audiences then male. Does this surprise you?
9- Better The Devil You Know Steps 10- Witch Doctor - Cartoons
Spotify playlist available at VultureHound.com
September 2014 VultureHound 43
Telle Interview
The Word Alive
Words: Lisa Fox Hey Telle! How’s it going? It’s going great, thank you!
Thanks for taking time out to chat with us. What have you got going on at the moment? We have been enjoying the longest break of the year for us, but also planning out the end of our year with the GET REAL TOUR coming up in both the UK and the US. We’re also about to shoot another music video that I’m really stoked about, hopefully it turns out to be the best TWA video to date!
You released REAL. this year, tell us about it?
REAL. is easily the best TWA album we have ever put out. I think whether you listen to it as a whole, or break it down by individual instruments, we really progressed and honed our skills to combine for something special. I think it’s the 1st album where no matter which release you became a fan of our band, you’d enjoy this album. We put a ton of time into it and really tried to think about a mixture of what we want to see from our band, and what our fans have come to expect from us. It got me so excited I already can’t wait for whatever we do next because I feel like we’re just hitting our stride.
How has the album been received? Have the new songs gone down well live? It was received great, char ting higher on the billboard top 200 than any record prior, and a ton
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of positive critical feedback as well as from the online world. The biggest change was the live show, and how much our fans already were singing along to the new songs right after the record had come out. We’ve only done 1 tour since REAL. came out, and 3 headlining shows this past month. From the star t of Warped Tour to these most recent shows, it is apparent that our new material has not only gone over well, but exceeded our expectations. I am personally really stoked because people are singing louder than ever, which is the best feeling for me.
You’ve just done the Warped Tour. How was that for you? Did you get much time to hang out with other bands on the tour? Warped Tour as you always hear is truly like a giant summer camp for your friends who also tour the world. It was great for us, the exposure is unparalleled really. We definitely hung out with a ton of our friends, and it’s always great to see friends outside of your genre that you wouldn’t normally get to tour with, like The Maine, Mayday Parade and more.
I read an article recently that said a lot of guys on the warped tour were using tinder to “make female friends” as they travelled. How do you feel about that? Well most of us have long-term serious girlfriends, so we’re not about that, Luke is actually the only single one and he doesn’t need an app for that haha.
The metalcore genre has changed a lot in the last ten years, you’ve embraced the changes and incorporated some elements of djent/dub sounds. Was that intentional or natural? I think everything we do feels natural to me, looking back even if we did something I’m not stoked on currently, it had to happen to get to where we ultimately want to be. I think trying things is great.
Where do you think music will go next?
It’s hard to say, I think people are accepting that we’re a band that isn’t just going to shred all the time and play breakdowns every song. We have that heavy element but I think we can hone it in even more and get something truly creative out of our influences. I foresee a delicate balance of heavy and melodic, that’s what we have always gone for really.
Years on, how are relations between yourselves and Craig? What do you make of Escape The Fate?
We have been friends with Craig from the beginning really, there’s no bad blood at all. We’re actually taking out his side-project band Dead Rabbitts in the states later this year.
Whats next for The Word Alive?
Aside from headlining the rest of the year we have a couple festivals booked for 2015 and as always, we’ll be slowly star ting
to write and think of new ways in which we can express ourselves both musically and in a digital/ social format. We are always looking for new ways to connect to our fans.
As its nearly Halloween I thought I’d ask a couple of Halloween questions... What will you be doing this Halloween? We will be somewhere in Europe I believe, so we might not be dressing up but we’ll definitely find loads of candy!
Favourite Halloween story?
Growing up I loved the movie Halloween, I still do, it’s actually my favorite horror movie franchise. Well one year they sold out of knives so my Dad bought a real one and sanded it down so the edges were all rounded. But it looked real, and intimidated a lot of kids. Needless to say I got a lot of candy that year.
If the band had to a human centipede, which order would you go in? Damn it hahaha, I guess 1st is the “best” spot but really, that’s just the most lose-lose question ever, kudos!
20,000 Days on Earth (Review) Words: Michael Dickinson Opening with one of the most fastpaced montages in recent memory. Before the title has even emerged on screen fans will are treated to a treasure trove of little seen live footage and memorabilia in tantalizingly small fits and starts. Those fans will be Nick Cave fans. I will stand up and admit from the start that I am a Nick Cave fan. So for the purposes of this review I will be writing as a fan of all things Caverelated. It will be my intention to ask my non-fan girlfriend to watch and I’ll write up her thoughts on the film (I should probably mention this idea to her). When word of this project popped up last year – a “fictionalized documentary” about a day in the life of Nick Cave, featuring scenes of him driving around Brighton with Ray Winstone and Kylie Minogue in toe, discussing life in depth, all
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these things seemed like a wondrous prospect. Relatively guarded in interview, though quite prolific with when it comes to speaking to journalists, it might be best to say that he opens up most through his lyrics about his philosophies and
things I am genuinely excited to see. The first thing that becomes evident as the film begins is that this will not be your by-the-numbers “rockumentary”. The look of the visuals and the flow of the camera
“A change of delightful shirts highlights another day” past life. A song-writer and performer for over 30 years now, along with his ever-changing but consistently brilliant outfit The Bad Seeds, Cave has amassed a popularity that verges on God-like in some circles. This was a film I very much wanted to enjoy. Unfortunately I have a track record of being disappointed by
showcase the talents of visual artists and here directors Iain Forsyth and Jane Pollard. Cave’s opening voice over as he wakes (in a room familiar to those familiar with the Push the Sky Away album cover), we see the intricacies of his surface life. The silk bedding, the bespoke bathroom, the old fashioned alarm clock. His narration begins an internal poetry
that those familiar with his work may think of as classic Cave musings on the macabre notion of simply getting up every day. Non-fans may also find this monologue a little laboured or worst pretentious, well you may not enjoy the rest of the film then. The film acts as a collection of scenes, scraps on a note-pad made whole due to the benefit of sound and vision. There is no plot as such but the whole piece feels like it’s a work leading to a crescendo. Whether it’s the climax of the day or the end of Cave’s own life. His ever-present voice over discusses everything from his own writing process – where we see him sat his type writer or making countless notes in his diary – his philosophies, his memories. Delivered by Cave everything has a level of import no matter how trivial. One story which gets a couple of mentions in the film is a memory of Nina Simone playing at his curated Meltdown Festival where she took out her chewing gum and stared the audience down before breaking into one of the finest performances he’d ever witnessed. The story is recounted twice. Firstly to an interviewer in a set-up that acts more of a confessional to a psychiatrist and shows the writer and his most candid than he has ever been in real interviews. Secondly he remembers it to bandmate and longtime collaborator Warren Ellis over an idyllic looking lunch of cooked eels and buttered bread. A wonderful bit of trivia, slightly unnerving to know what a tyrant she was back stage, but also a fantastic little touch that shows that days are filled with repeats. The same stories being told again. It is a lovely moment of real-life creeping into a world that through the virtue of its own polished look can sometimes appear overly
staged. The three stand out scenes of oddness are, of course, the highly feted scenes of Cave driving about with Ray Winstone, Kylie Minogue
against the wall delivering vocals that are almost slam poetry. Some songs that didn’t even make it on to the album are glimpsed at as are
“Delivered by Cave everything has a level of import, no matter how trivial” and (perhaps most importantly but under mentioned) Blixa Bargeld. Whilst the conversations with Winstone and Minogue are undoubtedly interesting and gets their considerable names on the poster. It’s the talk with Bargeld that is the really intriguing scene. Bargeld had been one of The Bad Seeds original members for 20 years before leaving the band after 2003’s ‘Nocturama’. Not much has ever been said as to why and the two artists have rarely been seen together since. So with that in mind the scene between them both captures a real moment of pathos and some regret as Cave explains he was at a creative cross-roads as was Bargeld who also had personal reason. Aside from these moments there’s also a wealth of behind-the-scenes recording sessions of the Push the Sky Away album. A constant change of delightful shirts highlights another day in the studio as Cave and his Bad Seeds cohorts (particular Warren Ellis) slowly tease music out of his notepad. One moment Ellis is conducting a French children’s choir as the disembodied voice Cave can be heard at his piano, the next they are crouched, bag
other Bad Seeds members Conway Savage, Thomas Wydler and Jim Sclavunous (who really should have popped up more). Rehearsal footage and smaller club shows built to a mighty climax as the band perform a spectacular rendition of ‘Jubilee Street’ at the Sydney Opera House. If it hasn’t been a favourite up until now you may find it on repeat on your shuffle soon. The real treasure is to be found in “the archive” where a team of archivists show Cave photos from his past as he explains their significance. It’s a grand idea to think that there should be a Nick Cave archive, I kind of hope there is one. As he self-effacingly narrates each items meaning you may also wander what kind of ego would have a private museum for himself? Nick Cave that’s whom, the non-nonsense, ethereal, introverted poet come snarl and spit rock star. Not just a joy for the die-hards but a genuinely fascinating piece of cinema for anyone who is the least bit interested in the creative process of any art form.
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More new music and reviews available daily at VultureHound.com
Beans on toast Lizzy’s Cooking (Single)
Not many people around the music industry have such an individuality as Beans on Toast, and as ever that’s the case with his new track ‘Lizzy’s Cooking’
jamie t
Carry the Grudge (Album) 5 years is a long time eh? That’s how long it’s been since we last got a Jamie T album with the critically acclaimed “Kings & Queens”. The album signals a change of pace for Jamie, let’s not forget he was 24 when we last got material from him, he’s closer to 30 now, it wouldn’t be fair to expect the same angsty fast paced style all the way through. Things change with age, song writing isn’t immune from the changes that are part of growing up, something which is clearly evident in “Carry on the Grudge”. What we do get, is more of a variation. On one part there are these beautiful slowed down, melody driven tracks that are unlike anything heard from Jamie before. Tunes like “Limits lie”, “Don’t you find” and “The Prophet” make full use of his unmistakable, almost lazy style vocals for these somber, goose bump inducing pieces. There are definitely still elements of that robust charm that has found Jamie so much success in his past work. The single “Zombie” probably being the most bouncy,
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radio friendly snippet of the album. However “Peter” is the one that recaptures the ruggedness of old, it has the edginess that Jamie T has always been about, it’s more an intense pissed off narrative of his alter ego rather than a song. There’s more of a clever subtlety to the whole thing than his first 2 records, the generally downbeat ultra stripped back tone of the record mixed with a worn coarseness in Treay’s voice perfectly captures the struggles of addiction and love, which is brought to a fitting end in the haunting “They told me it rained”, almost a desperate plea for affection, as the chorus of “just show me love, just show me love” rings throughout until it slowly peters away and fades to this melancholy ending. The record is a clear signal Jamie T has more tools in his arsenal than any of us could have expected, it displays a gathered maturity that he has acquired in his 5 years out of the game, it’s been a long time, but it was definitely worth the wait.
A good old serenade sort of track, an appreciation for the other half, for something as simple as their cooking. It actually captures what Beans On Toast is about so well, such a simple sentiment goes with his style of songwriting. It’s not groundbreaking and deep, it’s a sweet, fun love song, sometimes music doesn’t need to be any more than that. It’s just hard to listen to the record and not be happy, like a lot of his music, there’s always an honest and relatable charm that makes it so addictive and easy to listen to, ‘Lizzy’s Cooking’ is no different. Words: Bradley Lengden
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