What the hell is going on? #13: “Big-ass vicious noise” week!
By: Thomas Hannan
“I don't give two splats of an old negro junkie's vomit for your politico-philosophical treatises, kiddies. I like noise. I like big-ass vicious noise that makes my head spin. I wanna feel it whipping through me like a f**king jolt. We're so dilapidated and crushed by our pathetic existence we need it like a fix.” – Steve Albini, Forced Exposure, 1986
And with that, I bid you good morning, and welcome you to Rockfeedback’s “big-ass viscious noise” week (thanks for the quote, Steve) – seven days dedicated to some of the most thrillingly unpleasant rock music we’ve had the privilege to be assaulted by over the past year.
We start the week on Rockfeedback TV today with the inimitably terrifying stylings of Trencher, playing a rough and ready show at the Hokaben! Festival in London last year. Wednesday comes shortly after, and along with it brings a band who stake a claim to being amongst the country’s loudest, and indeed best, purveyors of worryingly heavy guitar jams, none other than Camberwell’s Part Chimp, who also claim our Artist of the Week slot after the recent release of their, er, thrilling new album. We end on a gig that’s taken on a certain infamy since its occurrence earlier in February, Todd’s frankly brilliant collapse on stage at London’s Lexington at which everyone either had their mind blown by the music or their shoulder dislocated by their frontman. One of those shows that more people claim they were at than could have possibly fitted in to the venue, our cameras at least prove we were indeed in attendance. Scared for our lives, sure. But there.
Another band who know how to make a racket is Pulled Apart By Horses, and so fittingly given the week’s theme they’ll be headlining our co-promotion with the guys and girls at Xbox Reverb in Leeds on Thursday night. Entry to that one is free to anyone who signs up here. Elsewhere on the live side of things, we’ve got Cymbals Eat Guitars, North Atlantic Oscillation and Two Door Cinema Club playing for us at the Lexington on November 12th, before a special one off gig from Rockfeedback TV stars Hot Club De Paris and our old friends Flashguns on November 23rd. Tickets for those could make pretty good early Christmas presents, I reckon.
And... Um... we’re going to Brazil on Thursday. Only found out last week. We’re out there filming the Planeta Terra Festival, where we caught the likes of Bloc Party and Kaiser Chiefs last year. This time, Iggy and the Stooges, Primal Scream, Maximo Park and Metronomy are amongst the performers. We’ll be putting a camera in the faces of as many of them as possible during our three day stay. That’s right, we’re in Sao Paulo for three days. Then coming home. Then dying. Possibly. If so, it’ll probably be of happiness, though.
Enjoy the noise.
Tom.x