LTW news letter 13
Hello warriors!
Welcome to another week on the frontline of culture.
It’s been another wild seven days here - I’ve been busy writing a surreal novel, setting up a computer and gaming agency (https://bordersblurred.com (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre)) and also the Green Britain Academy (https://www.greenbritainacademy.org (S'ouvre dans une nouvelle fenêtre)) which is set up to help create thousands of new green and Eco jobs as well as running this site!
Every minute is crammed with Action Time Vision as someone once sang!
We somehow found time to mail out the books from last week’s free book run so hopefully they should be with the lucky winners any minute now! There will be a new book run coming soon - stay tuned…!
This week saw the gig circuit open up again and I guess many of the warriors on this mailing list were out there lurking in venues and trying to avoid getting Covid but getting their live music fix. Of course LTW were out and about sniffing the night air and bunging our ears up with bog paper as we couldn't find our ear plugs after 18 months…
Somehow we managed to choose two amazing shows to dip our toes back into the pool. Bob Vylan played Manchester's fab YES venue with Witch Fever. Both bands are front runners in the post pandemic new look rock scene. Bob Vylan has combined the poetic skree of Crass with the dark grind of grime into a thrilling whole. Bob himself is a charismatic performer and he hits the stage with a cranked laptop and a drummer and it sounds magnificent and huge and in an instant the mosh pit explodes with a righteous frenzy.
His post BLM presence is a powerful and political but he also owns his space by his own brilliance. Support comes from Witch Fever who are from Manchester and crush a Birthday Party and Bauhaus proto goth rhythmic dark energy with the sheer size and scale of metal. They are a killer group and another nail in the coffin of the tired old world of four blokes with guitars model of R’n’R. The post pandemic world will see rock music come in all shapes and sizes and rhythms played by all combinations of people - bands like these are the future festival headliners and prove that we are in good hands!
https://louderthanwar.com/bob-vylan-witch-fever-manchester-live-review/
Now that you mention Bauhaus and on a slight tangent we announced a new book on the site about the early days of the pre Bauhaus band members before the hit Gothic paydirt back in Northampton.
https://louderthanwar.com/new-book-about-the-origins-of-bauhaus/
Another key tour this week was headlined by LTW faves The Lovely Eggs - the band are still touring right now - go and see! Their obvious charm is one thing but their kick ass tripped out punk rock on acid live show is a joyous celebration of the dayglo form. Go. See.
https://louderthanwar.com/the-lovely-eggs-brudenell-social-club-leeds-live-review/
Theres even been festivals! Our writer Keith Goldhanger seemed to catch every band at Standon Calling - unfortunately he also managed to catch Covid in the line of duty but before he succumbed to its it shitty symptoms he write this in-depth review of the festival
https://louderthanwar.com/standon-calling-2021-festival-review/
The next night LTW turned up at Gorilla in Manchester to get immersed in a touching evening dedicated to the much loved local singer Denise Johnson who sadly died last year. Denise’s gospel tinged voice is what turned Primal Scream into a hit machine and she was also key part of A Certain Ratio whose headline show tonight is a reminder of the sheer loss of the wonderful singer and also their own innate brilliance. For him much longer will they be trapped into cult status ? They should be worshipped worldwide like the Talking Heads.
https://louderthanwar.com/remembering-denise-a-tribute-night-for-denise-johnson-with-a-certain-ratio-and-others/
The most read article on the site this week was this great piece from Alex Maiao about the 40th anniversary of Duran Duran’s Girls On Film. The song, argues Alex, was also one of the groundbreaking tracks on the then just arrived MTV as it broke a new way of accessing music in the USA. The two seemed to go hand in hand spearheading the second British invasion of the USA of the early eighties. It was an interesting piece to run - Duran Duran are the sort of band that many readers have mixed views about but they also have a cultural weight especially withy bass player John Taylor being a part of the early Birmingham punk scene and almost a member of the early Nightingales band when they were the Prefects.
https://louderthanwar.com/40-years-ago-this-month-duran-duran-released-girls-on-film-the-song-and-its-appearance-on-mtv-was-a-pop-culture-game-changer/
Also a great retro read here is an in depth interview with Duran Duran art designer and also Manchester music scene legend Malcolm Garrett who made his name pre Duran designing Buzzcocks record sleeves.
https://louderthanwar.com/interview-malcolm-garrett-speaks-about-his-ground-breaking-artwork-for-duran-duran/
Another great retro read was a piece from a few years ago that celebrated the quirky baggy band Flowered Up who took the Happy Mondays template and turned it into their own wonk-fest especially on the classic Weekender track before the band fell apart and singer Liam sadly died a few years later.
https://louderthanwar.com/flowered-weekenders-tale/
Speaking of golden era punk we announced the first part of the bill for 2022’s Rebellion Festival in Blackpool. The festival with its core punk bill is held annually in the wonderful Winter Gardens in Blackpool. It is the perfect punk fest and over the years has stretched what punk can be without losing its own flavour. The 2022 bill is a great spread of the form with all facets of punk covered.
https://louderthanwar.com/rebellion-punk-festival-announce-first-raft-of-bands-for-2022/
At the other end the scale the young band of the week are Inhaler who defy the fact that singer Eli’s dad is none other than Bono from U2. Usually offspring bands never make the grade but the young Dublin band have scored a number one album with their dark and thrilling anthemic indie rock and they somehow swerved the silver spoon to stand out on their own and make for a charming interview here.
https://louderthanwar.com/inhaler-the-john-robb-interview/
This week also saw the 63 rd birthday of the genius Kate Bush - the idiosyncratic and ground breaking artist with her own untainted vision has seen her music has never dated That series of gigs she payed a few years ago came out of the blue and still resonate and thrill a few years later. Her sometime producer and Killing Joke bass playing legend, Youth was at the shows and even found time to write a review for us.
https://louderthanwar.com/kate-bush-live-review-by-youth-from-killing-joke/
We were sad to lose the great Slipknot drummer Joey Jordinson this week - one of the band’s founders back in Des Monies his brilliant rhythmic power was sometimes lost in the group’s macabre comic strip image. We saw them live a few times and were stunned at the textural sophistication and deep intelligence that they threaded together in their music that to this day fills stadiums worldwide.
https://louderthanwar.com/joey-jordison-slipknot-founder-and-drummer-dies-at-46/
In the interview for Louder Than War, we speak with founding member of Darkthrone – Fenriz. About the nature of Eternal Hails… and natural tempo of his writing, about recording process and post-production part, about aesthetics and doom.2q
https://louderthanwar.com/in-conversation-with-fenriz-were-alive-while-a-lot-of-others-are-rock-and-roll-over/
