Listening #2

Dirty Projectors Swing Lo Magellan (2012)

Domino Records www.dirtyprojectors.net

Pretentious is a word that is thrown about alot around bands whose music doesn’t conform to easy to pin down preconceived ideas of genre. I approached this record not knowing much about Dirty Projectors, and I found plenty to like, it’s not all easy to listen to, but that can make the moments of sweet harmonies or guitar wigouts stand out all the more. There is a willingness to try things out, whether they work or not is up to the listener, pretty alt-country harmonies are underpinned by awkward back words sounding drums, and almost chaotic plucked guitar.

Highlights: ‘Offspring Are Blank’, ‘Swing Lo Magellan’, ‘Impregnable Question’.

The Flaming Lips ...And Heady Fwends (2012)

Bella Union www.flaminglips.com

The Flaming Lips have been experimenting with psychedelic alt-rock for almost 30 years now, and this collaboration record is no different with guests as diverse as Ke$ha, Bon Iver, Yoko Ono and Nick Cave. ‘2012 (You Must be Upgraded)’ kicks the album off with psychotic shrill dial-up tone white noise before the more sombre & beautiful ‘Helping The Retarded To Know God’. In places this is one of the Lips hardest rocking albums such as the Jim James collab ‘That Ain’t My Trip’, which is followed by the similarly gnarled ‘You, Man? Human???’ with Nick Cave. ‘I’m Working At NASA On Acid’ is a fairly anonymous Lips by numbers track until Lightning Bolt explodes all over it before it floating back off into space again, the band’s cover of ‘The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face’ is something to behold, turning it into a strangely beautiful 10 minute space-dub epic. The Flaming Lips are still vital.

Highlights: ‘Helping The Retarded To Know God’, ‘That Ain’t My Trip’, ‘The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face’, ‘Tasered And Maced’

International Alternative Press Festival 2012

The IAPFestival was held at Conway Hall, for the second year, on the weekend of 4-5th August, and I went along with my friends Mark & Tilly on the Sunday. I had heard of the event on twitter a couple of months ago and wanted to go as soon as I heard of it as I have been interested in independant publishing for a long time. At university I wrote my dissertation on fanzines & underground culture and later wrote a music fanzine with a group of friends.

We arrived at the Conway Hall, just as the doors were opening and the stall holders were finishing setting up, which was good as it meant it was easy to move around the aisles of tressle tables. On the otherhand for a shy person like myself, it meant the zine-makers attention was on me, making me selfconcious. There was lots of interesting literature on show from obviously handmade comics and art zines to comic anthologies and books, lots of creativity on show, sometimes it's difficult to know where to start in a situation like that. I didn't find much in the way of what I would call fanzines, that is to say self produced writing about a person's passions, like music, films, books, work or hobbies. There were alot of self published comics though, which made up all of my purchases, which I'll talk about shortly. The festival was alot of fun, and allowed me to indulge in something I don't always get time to. I'm already looking forward to going again next year, and hopefully have more time to spend there, to got to some of the workshops and talks.

As I mentioned before in my Harvey Pekar blog, I'm a newcomer really to the world of comics, so these reviews shoulldn't be given too much weight. With that cautionary warning out of the way let's take a look at my purchases...

New British Comics #3
This is an anthology of short comic strips, between 1 and 10 pages long, there are plenty of different sorts of comics here from the humourous to social commentaries, science fiction to artistic. 'Ink vs Paper' by John Miers is an interesting art-comic that makes use of monochrome black and white to clever effect. 'Here Comes The Neighbourhood' by Matthew Craig & Richard Johnson takes mainstream tv's obsession with reality tv and talent contests to the next level with neighbours competing to move to a better home. My favourite strips in this anthology are Lawrence Elwick & Paul O'Connell's 'Alfred Hitchcock: Master of Suspense' and 'Charlie Parker Handyman', all of three of which are short, and more playful and fun.
80 Pages b&w / £4 / website  / Jon's Rating: 3.5/5

ink + PAPER #2
Ink & Paper is another anthology, this time in full colour which does push the price up, it also written articles. These include a spread reviewing comic books/graphic novels, an analysis of Jinty overs,and interviews with a screenprinter & a fashion illustrator. Again I loved the variety of styles of art and of subject matter, from the existentialism of AJ Poyiadgi's 'On Reflection' to Sean Wilson & Carl Thomson's strip about violence in American/British culture compared to Japan, or Rick Eades simple & cute 'Darth Vader Buried In The Sand' about his childhood caravan holidays, the addition of colour in this book really adds an extra dimension and makes the extra cost worth it. My favourite strips were Jon Riordon's retro sci-fi tale 'The Inventor of Colour' which is about exactly what the title suggests, and Andrew Waugh's series 'Old Lady vs...' which like 'Charlie Parker Handyman' in New British Comics is short simple & fun, in each strip the Old Lady takes on a fictional monster (Nosferatu, A Werewolf, Seamonster) and domesticates them.
96 Pages full colour / £8 / website  / Jon's Rating: 4.5/5

Browner Knowle #6
Browner Knowle is a one man affair, written and drawn by Paul Ashley Brown, it is a more artistic maybe existential work. A series of one or two pages pieces that feel like illustrated poems on subjects like watching birds, watching people, break-ups, arguments. There is an overall feeling of loss, sadness that is quite beautiful. There is one longer piece entitled 'Two Years Later'an artist endures the opening night of his exhibition haunted by the meory of his ex, when she appears at the show, it leaves you wondering if it is autobiographical or not.
22 Pages b&w / £3 / email  / Jon's rating 3/5

Spandex #1-6
What can you say about Martin Eden's Spandex? At turn's daft, funny, sad, rude & action packed, his gay superhero gang never fail to entertain. I bought the collected issues #1-6 on the spur of the moment and certainly don't regret it, colourful with short adventures and an overall story arc that builds over the issues it is no wonder it was nominated for a best british comic award. For a newbie like me, it reads like a homage to the well known superhero comics whilst reminding me also of 'Beyond Palomar' which I recently read and (oddly) Kill Bill. I'll definately be waiting for the
seventh and final isssue to complete the story.
26 Pages each Full Colour / £15 issues 1-6 / website / Jon's Rating: 4.5/5