Friday, July 21, 2006

Kimberly Stewart/Bondage Fairies/Everything bad is good for you

Kimberly Stewart



i was backstage at a festival recently and had the pleasure of seeing Kimberley Stewart in close up. She was hanging around in a large group of liggers next to me when Mick Rock sidled up to her extoling the virtures of her father. He started reminiscing about when he photographed Rod alongside Iggy Pop and David Bowie and took out a tiny camera and took a few casual photos of Kimberly while he was at it, I thing she was well aware that this was all he really wanted.
Stewart is said to be following her fathers' footsteps and pursuing a music career, but unlike other wannabes she does actually play the violin and piano. She was approached by a producer in 2005, and after doing some test-runs in a studio has since been taking singing lessons. Kimberly believes music is in her blood, and hopes to have an album complete by mid-2007.

She has a tattoo that reads "Daddy's Little Girl Loves Disco" so maybe thats an indication of what any future music may sound like.


Bondage Fairies



With their insect like anti smog cycling masks and their 8 bit punk sound, Bondage fairies are set to mess with your mind. The two Stockholm musicians are Elvis Creep and Deus Deceptor who make music with the help of loud guitars and an Amstrad 6128 computer. Sounding like Hefener challenging The Pixies to a 24 hour Marios Bros marathon session, this is music to melt your Ipod.

Check out numerous samples at their website here including demos and songs from their debut album 'What you didn't know when you hired me'

As their website states 'Bondage Fairies play anytime anywhere as long as you support their habits. Beer, food and CA$H'

MP3: Bondage Fairies - Pink Eye Paranoia



Steven Johnson - Everything Bad is Good for You



Worried about how much time you spend playing video games? watching Tv? Feel it's rotting your brain. Fear not, Steven Johnson tells us it isn't. In fact todays popular culture is actually making us smarter. His concept flies in the face of commonly peheld values about the nature of a postmodern society that is detremental to us. Johnson refutes all with his 'sleeper curve ' argument wherby he states that today's pop culture consumer is required to do more 'cognitive work' (read that as 'thinking') assessing long term strategies in video games, navigating new viusual environments on the internet and that Junk Tv actually requires more work from our brains than we like to think.

(Read Unread Reading)

Thursday, July 20, 2006

Alexis Dziena/The Ballet/Gideon the Cutpurse

Alexis Dziena



Alexis Dziena is the doe eyed starlet from ‘all tease no release’ melodrama Invasion (think Lost meets X files) With the kind of eyes that make her look like a manga caricature and the sultry poise of a girl who knows exactly how she comes across, it was no surprise then that she played Lolita in the Film Broken Flowers, in which she appeared completely naked in front of Bill Murray’s character. In addition to acting, Alexis is a budding playwright and drummer. Apparently.

Invasion, in which she plays Kira underlay, has been axed due to failing ratings, this however hasn’t stopped thousands of fans from harassing ABC into bringing it back, there is an online petition and a ‘Save invasion’ website, plus they even hired a plane to fly a ‘bring back invasion’ banner over the TV networks headquarters.

I liked invasion, but then I’m the one person in Britain still watching Lost. Pity me.


The Ballet



The Ballet are wonderful. Buy everything by them.

You need more info than that? Oh ok…I stumbled upon them last night when I heard ‘ Murder at the Disco’ one of their demos, it quite literally blew me away. It sounds like the Magnetic Fields for a new generation, lyrically beautiful and delivered with the same achingly charming under produced sound. The Ballet, a five-piece from NYC, describe themselves as ‘a sissy pop band’, check out their MySpace site here

Prepare your ears for the delight that is the song below for they may actually climb down off the side of your head and shake you by the hand.

MP3: The Ballet - In My Head


Linda Buckley-Archer - Gideon the Cutpurse



Two twelve year olds, Kate and Peter are hurtled back in time by a NASA anti gravity machine and end up in 1763. A mysterious character know only as the Tar Man steals their only means of returning to the 21st century. Gideon the cutpurse is their own solace in the 18 century underworld as they hunt for the machine in one time zone and are hunted by the police in another.

This, the first in a trilogy, matches good science and acurate history with expert storytelling.

Visit the website here

(Read Unread Reading)

Tuesday, July 18, 2006

Shelley/The Submarines/But Enough about Me

Shelley



Shelley is a model, actress and singer...well now theres a surprise...plus she's a choreographer and a belly dancer...ok slightly more surprised.....and also a runner up in Miss Ireland..hmm ok, impressed. As well as all this she writes her own songs.
Her MySpace site chirps on about her something like this:

Shelley was introduced to Religion Music 3 years ago when she was runner up in Pop Stars and Simon Cowells favorite. She began recording with Religion Music after turning down an offer from Louis Walsh to be in UK pop band Hear Say.

Ok enough already I was sold on the whole package based on this song alone, its great! Go to her MySpace site and hear 'hit it' , there is a brilliant sample of Serge Gainsbourg's Jetaime that needs to be heard. take me there

Belly dancing huh? hmm...


The Submarines



Peace and Hate is what can be described as a 'failed break up song'. The Submarines are Blake Hazard and John Dragonett (or Jack Drag as he is better known) they both wrote songs and toured together eventually forming a relationship that would last four years until they split up.
Post split they both carried on writing songs and having success independently until the realisation struck that the songs they were writing separately were in fact about each other. They decided to collaborate again and their debut album 'Declare A New State' is the result, with songs such as 'Peace and Hate' , written and sung jointly by them both, leading to a reunion of the relationship.

A great little story and the music is bittersweet perfection too.

"The whole theme of the record is spoken pretty plainly in 'Peace and Hate," says Hazzard, "That conflict is inevitable but you live with it. That you still love each other, so you move on. You declare a new state."


MP3: The Submarines - Peace and Hate

Check out the website here: The Submarines



Jancee Dunn - But Enough about Me



‘But enough about Me’ is Jancee's tale of how - thanks to a spot of 'demented kismet' and despite a really bad perm - she landed her dream job at Rolling Stone magazine and soon found herself sharing fudge recipes with Loretta Lynn, dancing onstage with the Beastie Boys, turning down well-meaning offers of heroin from Scott Weiland and discussing the joys of Spam with Dolly Parton. It’s an insight into the world of the celeb seen through the eyes of a girl who found herself in their company almost entirely by accident, a quirky read full of wonderful character insights.

Having occasionally been privy to the celeb world myself and the mundane elements that are often passed of as glamorous I’m quite intrigued to read Jancee’s memoirs.


Read more via her blog Here

(Read Unread Reading)

Monday, July 17, 2006

Haylie Ecker/Simian Mobile Disco/Dangerous Book for Boys

Haylie Ecker



What happened to bond? And more especially Haylie Ecker(far left) from Bond?

They were seen as the equivalent of lapdancers to the Classical fraternity, with their heady mix of Classical instruments and semi naked flesh. I quite liked the first album, despite it’s appalling Abbaesque cover photo and it’s Vanessa Mae pastiche style…but then I’ve never been a big fan of the way classical music is presented and I think the whole sector needs re-branding anyway, I felt they were a breath of fresh air at the time.

Here’s a very brief extract from an interview I did once with them:

What would you say to your critics within the classical fraternity who perceive you as the ‘Girls Aloud’ of classical music?

"I cant believe anyone in the classical fraternity have ever heard of Girls Aloud ( you've made it up!! - from Haylie) and there is no parallel....... we were once called the classical Spice Girls but it didn't stick - sadly!!"

Shame they were put together by Mike Batt - the chap who gave us the Wombles and Katie Melua – because that scuppered any credibility they would ever have.



Simian Mobile Disco



Simian? Simian? I'm sure I had one of their albums once, wasn't their song on some advert...I forget. Anyway old indie bands aside this spin off band/dj kinda thing is much more interesting. 'Hustler' blips and grinds away like the kind of track that goes down a storm post 2am in lesbian bars arcoss the capital, like being surrupticiously molested by a old spectrum computer in a Missy Elliot track suit. A reviewer from CD times described it like this:

'Hustler drops in with a bassline heavy enough to crush your kid brother and dripping with so much glorious sleaze you'll need to wash your hands twice after pressing play'

I need to point out that my kid brother is quite tall, so it may dent rather than crush. I'd agree with the hand washing though.

MP3: Simian Mobile Disco - Hustler


Conn Iggulden - The Dangerous Book for boys



Can't help feeling 'Con Iggulden' has to be anagramatic, surely no-one has a name like that?
I overheard someone at work recommending this book to a friend for his sons, as a father/son bonding style book. It's like a cub scout/SAS survival guide book on everything a young man should know, from writing secret messages to skinning a rabbit.
I'm tempted to buy it now and learn everything so my son, now 2, will be dead impressed when I can do all these 'man' tasks. I have a feeling though he'll be too busy downloading informercials directly into his cerebral cortex and having his retinas tattooed to even pretend to be interested by then.

(Read Unread Reading)

Saturday, July 15, 2006

Marie Serneholt/Lily Allen/Michel Houellebecq

Marie Serneholt



Marie Serneholt was the oldest member of the Swedish teen pop band A*Teens, who after 6 years together and more than 9 million albums sold (to who? when? seriously?) the band broke up....now Marie is going solo and you can check out two of her songs on the fluokids blog take me there, 'I need a house' is pop in it's purest form, want to hear it? Sing Marie

I'm sure you don't want to see any more photos of Marie, but just in case you do you can see some: Here and Here and Here

Lily Allen



Lily Allen is the daughter of actor/comedian Keith Allen, but in all honesty that hasn't got a fat lot to do with anything. I've heard snippetrs of Lily's music but this Kasier Chiefs cover is so much better than the original and highlights what a talent she has that I just had to post it.
Here's hoping the music industry doesn't take what was good about her mixtapes and 'wrap it up in Topshop vouchers' - mass market her as yet another pop stralet with a smackrel of attitude.

I think she's worth more than that.

A great Lily fan site: Here

MP3: Lily Allen - Oh My God (Kaiser Chiefs cover)


Michel Houellebecq - The Possibility of an Island



Platform was a great novel, disgusting in places but ultimately it had a lot to say and said it with gusto. Possibilty of an island looks like Houellebecq in familar territory, he's created another grotesque character for us to unwillingly emphathise with in the form of Daniel a hateful stand up comic. The book deals with Daniel's increasing detachment from the world at large and his growing interest in the Elohimites - a cult who claim to have cloned this first human being (based on an actual cult, the Raelians) The story is interspersed with chapters from two of Daniel's cloned descendants living 1,000 years later, Daniel24 and Daniel25.

Atomised, one of Michel's other novels has just been released as a film.

(Read Unread Reading)

Friday, July 14, 2006

Kate Bosworth/Megaman/A Keeper of Sheep

Kate Bosworth



Ok, so here's the summer and another comic book movie hits our screens , this time supergirl! Huh, whatdaya mean it's not Supergirl, it's got Kate Bosworth in it? Why would anyone make a film with 'Super' in the title and her in the cast and not make Supergirl. Next you'll be telling me she's brunette in it.

Yes alas, the movie is indeed Superman, and 'men not so super' once again show the folly of mankind by miscasting Kate.
Oh well, apparently Misha Barton is in the running for the Supergirl remake if this Homoerotic claptrap does well at the box office. Not a total loss then.

Spidergirl anyone?

Staria Iscariot (Megaman)



In the mid 80's i spent nearly ever tuesday evening after my school swimming lessons in a chip shop near me pouring 20ps into an arcade machine with my best friend Stephen. The game was Double Dragon and between the two of us we backwards elbow upcutted our way to the end of the game.
Somehow the other night I found myself on 'Overclocked Remix'- the unoffical game music arrangement community, which funnily enough does exactly what it says, they remix old game music. I found some Double Dragon remixs on there but the one i liked most was by a remixer called 'Injury' or possibly 'Staria Iscariot'...hard to tell...and it's a remix of the music from Mega Man. It's also from 2001, so this post is anything but up to date.

It brings it all back. The smell of chips, the damp hair, the lack of money and going home with aching thumbs.

MP3: Staria Iscariot (injury) - Megaman: Set me up the Bomberman



William Carpenter - A Keeper of Sheep



A young woman called Penguin who "has never even been responsible for a hamster," becomes involved in caring for a composer who is dying of AIDS and struggling to complete his final work whilst under increasing pressure from his neighbours.

I bought this book many years ago whilst holidaying in Norfolk in a place called Beccles. The Bookshop in the tiny village was one of the ones you don't see much nowadays, small, pokey, dusty and riddled floor to ceiling with books nobody will probably ever buy. I read this in the stillness of a static houseboat, stopping every now and again to row up and down the river, it's a beautiful book from what I remember and I must go and dig it out and reread it. Somehow I think it captured a moment for me then though that canot be repeated, a moment of isolation yet quiet enlightenment about life.

Having said all that I also remember accidently lobbing a fish slice into the river trying to swat a spider out of the window.

(Read Unread Reading)

Monday, July 10, 2006

Natasha Hamilton/Soho Dolls/Haruki Murakami

Natasha Hamilton



Two princes for the price of one today, firstly:

Natasha of Atomic Kitten fame recently stepped on Kate Middelton's toes at the Princes Trust Charity Concert by seemingly trying to slip the future king of England the tongue. "He has a girlfriend and I have a boyfriend," she explained, "it's just an unfortunate picture, I'm so embarrassed by it" explained Natasha.
Natasha, who has two kids now, has rather unfortunately disappeared of the face of the earth other than appearing in the odd heat magazine and some road traffic safety awareness adverts . I guess its only a matter of time before she follows suit and appears on 'celebrity love island' too though.

See the photo and decide for yourself: here


Soho Dolls



Secondly:

Prince Harry, you know, the other one who has no hope of ever being King so he just partys. Like a young Prince Andrew really. Anyway 'Prince Harry' is also a perfect slice of electro pop sleaze from the band Soho Dolls, that rings out like a stalker's calling card. Check out their website here

MP3: Soho Dolls - Prince Harry


Haruki Murakami - Blind Willow, Sleeping Woman





25 stories written over 30 years by the outstanding master of the surreal Haruki Murakami, and this his third volume of collected short stories doesn't disappoint. Who else could write a story purely about vomiting, "Nausea 1979" and yet infuse it with such beauty and meandering wonderment.
Each story is prefaced with an introduction by the author and his quirkiness is evident throughout the book, If you haven't read Murakami before this looks like a wonderful place to start, you'll delight in becoming immersed in the fleeting yet mesmerising characters he creates. If you have read his work before you won't be disappointed either.

(Read Unread Reading)

Thursday, July 06, 2006

Mandy Amano/The Wombats/Infernal Devices

Mandy Amano



Mandy Amano, the girl that launched a 1000 blogs! And all because of her 30 secs of fame in a Pepsi/i-tunes advert.
She is cute though.
Personally I didn't know anything about her, what with me not living in the states - the ad first aired during the 2005 Superbowl - It was only due to stumbling across this rather strange blog that I even heard about her: That Pepsi Girl

See the adverts: Here and Here



The Wombats



Big in japan? No. Big in China? Yes.

The Wombats, although virtually unknown in their native UK are huge in China! The band are students at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts, which helped fund their trip to China under a partnership with the organisers of Beijing's Midi festival. They have played three gigs: one in Shanghai and two in Beijing and went down a storm. The three piece play traditional punksy indie with quirky lyrics, ‘Lost in the Post’ is jaggly and sounds like how The Wannadies would have sounded had they been born in Liverpool.

also worth hearing 'derail and crash', check them out Here


MP3: The Wombats - Lost in the Post



Infernal Devices - Phillip Reve



Infernal devices is the third book in the mortal engines series, the two main characters have had a child and it follows her (Wren) and her entrance into the world her parents used to inhabit, that of traction cities, airships and regenerated dead pre nuclear soldiers. It still reads like a modern sci fi famous five or swallows and amazons but with lumbering tank like cities instead of boats, it’s still very absorbing for my childlike mind though.

I picked this up at the library, they only had it in hardback, it’s like carrying a dead body around.

(Read Unread Reading)