Thursday, May 30, 2002
|
 Atari Teenage Quiet anyone?
Good overview article from Wired News about the burgeoning lowercase movement here, including a selection of MP3 clips. Don't believe all the stuff about having to have a Mac to do this stuff though. Here at 12 Apostles we don't buy into any of this platform elitism bullshit. It ain't the medium - it's the message and you don't necessarily have to have a glowing apple logo on your hardware to make great sounds.
If you want to learn more or get involved then a good place to start is the lowercase mailing list. |
| [posted in Bow :: London at 12:15] |
Monday, May 27, 2002
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Bali-MusicNotes
The new style. It's coming to you soon. Forget Deep Forest or Transglobal Underground.
Underground in a grimy club on Double Six road Legian there is a purveyor of the latest in world dance sounds.
DJ Wayan Budha or Johnny as he's know to his European friends is pumping out the newest in hypnotic trance.. there's no synth wahes, the 4/4 beat sits back and the multiple layered sounds of gamelan pile one upon another to take you to another deeply ancient and ritual world.
To its few afficianado's the religious experience of Prog Gam is unbeatable on the dance floor and they niether know or care whether the rest of the world will pick up on it.
As yet it is only a live experience, no cassettes, no CD's of this wonderful sound exist. |
| [posted in Bondi :: Sydney at 02:41] |
Sunday, May 26, 2002
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The Great Ticket Price Swindle
What is all this booking fee bolloxs about? What happened to the notion that booking on-line is an automated activity and thus has a reduced overhead for the ticket agency and hence little or no addition to the price of the ticket? It certainly ain't happening in London. True to form it seems its just another example of the music appreciating public being bleed dry by the industry suits and their assorted hangers-on.
I once heard some feeble minded individual claim that the booking fee helped pay for the band. Wrong. The price of the ticket covers the hire of the venue, the cost of the bands, the PA and lighting rig, the wages of the bar and security staff, the insurance and other such stuff and the promotion of the event. Meanwhile the booking fee covers the cost of someone answering a telephone, logging the sale on the ticket availability database and sticking the ticket in an envelope (cause don't forget they'll probably charge you for the postage on top). Assuming the tickets are bought on-line the costs to the ticketing outlet are even less.
Part of the problem results from the fact that venues have increasingly moved away from running their own box offices and have instead allowed a limited number of players such as Ticketmaster to control the supply. This means that the chosen ticket agencies know that the number of sales outlets will be limited and there will be no chance of their exorbitant booking fees being undercut. So why do the venues allow it to happen? Easy - most of them are in cahoots (announced or otherwise) with the booking agencies.
In the last week I bought 5 tickets on-line through Ticket Web for a gig at the Astoria and got charged a booking + postage fee of £17.75! That's £17.75 for someone to get a notification that my payment had been authenticated, collect the tickets and address card from the laser printer and stick'em in a pre-franked envelope. I also bought 5 tickets for a gig at The South Bank and yet only had to pay £1.50 booking + postage fee. The big difference here is that The South Bank do their own ticketing and have no real interest in fleecing their paying punters.
Needless to say you don't get this kind of treatment going to see bands cutting their teeth at The Bull and Gate , 93 Feet East or The Dublin Castle where getting a rubber stamp on the wrist is about as sophisticated as the ticketing gets. |
| [posted in Bow :: London at 19:04] |
Friday, May 24, 2002
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Dance, dance, dance to the radio
Looking for something new to listen to with your newly 12 Apostle skinned Winamp player? Give Grrl Radio a try - the play list is a mixture of 80s/indie from the likes of the Sundays and more recent stuff from Le Tigre, Sea&Cake and I Am The World Trade Centre (who's Out Of The Loop album was entirely recorded, mastered and mixed on a laptop). Try it - you might just like it....
[ instructions start winamp, press 'Ctrl' + 'L' to open location and use this address :-http://205.188.245.133:8068/ ] |
| [posted in Bow :: London at 07:44] |
Thursday, May 23, 2002
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Second city sights
Representatives of 12 Apostles were recently up in Birmingham for the opening of the Fierce festival and called in at Saathi Night where there was pleasing selection of Bhangra, Hip-Hop and Bollywood Beats being laid down by DJ Perdes Simplay to a appreciative mixed crowd. Worth a visit if you're in the area. |
| [posted in Bow :: London at 12:45] |
Travel Notes - Rock'n'Roll Bali
So, is there a Rock 'n' Roll Bali ?
First stop is the Hard Rock Hotel in Kuta. Only the 2nd Hard Rock Hotel built, the other one is in Vegas and has Sid Vicious poker machines. Well, there aren't that many surprises at the Bali version, It's all the standard US entertainment industry's version of rock 'n' roll. On the wall in the bar we have one of Tony Iommi's many guitars, a local band playing a soft rock cover of " I Will Survive" and US navy personnel trying to pick up anything that moves. We move to the cafe and eat bananna splits whilst having to listen to Guns & Roses and System of a Down. US corporate rock culture triumphs and we give up after an hour and disapear into the night.
Jimbaran Bay and seafood on the beach brings a refreshing Indonesian take on 50's-70's pop music... imagine freshly cooked tuna and snapper to a soundtrack of Roy Orbison, Elvis, Dylan & Marley played by a Balinese version of a mexican Mariachi band with Double Bass, Violin and Conga players moving from table to table. Ok it's for the tourist but at least it's fun and they do have soul.
Indonesian Kulture really kicks in when we are surrounded on our Honda 125 by the Balinese Mod / Rocker bike ride as we zoom through Denpassar, there is at least a hundred of them. The style is new. Everybody rides Vespas straight out of Quadrophenia. Mirrors, Union Jacks and lots of colour. Personal style though, is something different. No sharp suits, instead it's t-shirts with native American indian motifs, fringed jackets and black leather boots with aviator sunglasses. These guys might look funny from a distance but close up its mean and moody and they have the police escort to proove it. Suwito from Java, whose bike I'm on the back of is a little scared and we let them past with no comment.
The Apostles are off to Cafe Del Mar Bali style for our Asia Ibiza experience next... report soon |
| [posted in Bondi :: Sydney at 02:36] |
Monday, May 20, 2002
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Word up
Proving once again that the devil really is in the detail, 12 Apostles brings you a glimpse into how it could all have turned out if The Wicked Bible had ever got into widespread circulation. |
| [posted in Bow :: London at 07:45] |
Wednesday, May 15, 2002
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Artistic intent
Sounds like Soho's resident urban cowboy Dave Stewart has been reading our manifesto: "The music industry is all about picking up some talent, fucking it up and then dropping it. We want to actually develop artists over time - provide an alternative to the mass-produced and meaningless product being churned out by the music industry, to things like Pop Idol. We're the opposite of that. [source FT - read full article here].
Dave may have more wealthy and powerful friends than us (though personally the thought of having anything to do with arch-phoney Anita Roddick revolts us) but does he have the soul to do the right thing? Only time will tell. Remember Dave - it's about the music not the money, the art not the applause. In the meantime we wish him and Artist Network well. |
| [posted in Bow :: London at 09:19] |
House Burning Down
No, not a Talking Heads story instead something we dug up on the wires.
The Cape Cod home of Aerosmith bassist Tom Hamilton was destroyed in a fire over the weekend. No one was in the house when a fire started just before 7 p.m. Saturday, firefighter James Murphy said. An addition to Hamilton's home was under construction.
What a shame, he'll just have to build another house, all those gold records up in flames. Send us any stories or rumours about rock stars and their houses, especially if something bad has happened. |
| [posted in Bondi :: Sydney at 06:42] |
Tuesday, May 14, 2002
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Twelve Apostles Sometimes Charts
12 Apostles celebrates the start of the UK Bank Holiday season with the Bow & Bondi Charts
| BOW CHART | | Patti Smith / Land (1975-2002) | | Shelly Devoto / Buzzkunst | | Psychedelic Furs / First LP | | Cannibal Ox / The Cold Vein | | Cornershop / Handcream for a Generation | | Kurt Schwitters / Ursonate |
| BONDI CHART | | The Vines / Highly Evolved | | Waikiki / New Technology | | DJ Fuckwit / Electro Pop Apostles Compilation | | Parallex Corporation / Lift Off | | Cornershop / Handcream For a Generation | | The Bees / Sunshine Hit Me |
New Tip: Sydney's Katalyst has just released his album "Manipulating Agent". He's already been a contributor to the Dope on Plastic series, Cafe Del Mar and a guest of Blackalicious. This album confirms that the southern hemisphere now has its own DJ Shadow. Katalyst is Sydney's answer to Melbourne's Avalanches, the beats are a bit dirtier and the vocals more R'n'B. The first half of the album is sublime and although it tails off a little towards the end it really is worth the investment. |
| [posted in Bondi :: Sydney at 08:34] |
Saturday, May 11, 2002
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Mute Joins Global Economy
After twenty five odd years its finally happened, Mute Records, home to Depeche Mode, Nick Cave, endless techno artists and a haven for experimentalism in the music industry has joined the global economy. EMI announced yesterday that it had acquired Mute for over £23 million plus up to £19 million of "potential performance-related payments" over a period of four years.
This deal extends an existing licensing deal that the two companies have had for the past 15 years.
The press release says that Daniel Miller "will continue to be responsible for the company's global activities".
As a consumers and fans of Mute product we hope that EMI don't try and water down Miller's talent for bringing the leftfield into the mainstream.
Here at The Twelve we will celebrate by playing our Silicon Teens LP, "Music For Parties" where Miller helped a bunch of musicians create tinny electro-pop covers of rock'n'roll songs. |
| [posted in Bondi :: Sydney at 01:51] |
Friday, May 10, 2002
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Twelve Apostles Guide To Conquering the Music Industry For Free
At the 12 we know the power of information and wherever & whenever we can get it for free, we will. Here's a great little e-mail subscription service for those wanting to keep up with the latest big US & UK music deals and finance.
Go to these guys and register for their newsletter on the entertainment industry and delivered to you inbox are endless nuggets of useless megabuck music industry news.
We found out today , for example, that HMV's share float didn't go as well as it should yesterday trading at only 180.5 pence instead of the listing price they were hoping for, 192 pence.
We hope it drops even further as that'll teach them to not do what they've done here in the Sydney store. About two months ago the 12 noticed that they'd really cut back on decent new stock and stayed with teeny bop pop or rock classics. In the dance dept they've stopped ordering in inventive new albums and built the coffee table compilation selection. HMV in Sydney used to be quite a good record store now it's just another supermarket. We hope they haven't made the same mistake in the Oxford St store in London and followed the dire example set by the Virgin megastore opposite Tottenham Court Road. May their stock price plummet.
Also we found out today that Mariah Carey has signed with Vivendi Universal who will pay her $US7.5-8 million dollars for three albums. It hasn't changed our world but I'm sure Mariah's happy. |
| [posted in Bondi :: Sydney at 07:40] |
Thursday, May 09, 2002
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The Bees: Sunshine Hit Me
This wonderful album hit a few stores in February. The mags all reviewed it and gave them the : "the lads have done well.. but its not a classic."
Here at the Twelve we say buy this album and let it be your summer soundtrack. It just grows and grows and actually has songs that will sound as good next year as they do this year. I'm not going into all the references and telling you what they sound like because here is a band that sound like themselves.
While everybody else rushes around with the Hives & the Vines , we say go to the creators... The Bees.
The fact that such great beauty can come from the Isle of Wight is astounding.
|
| [posted in Bondi :: Sydney at 07:57] |
Judge Jules: When Will It All Stop
In my local record store today and I see Judge Jule's latest offering to the world, Clubbed 2002 is its title. As it was on the CD station I gave it a quick listen. The first track was pretty good the rest sounded like, well, it sounded like all the stuff that he mixes on his compilations. I don't know what they call this form of house these days but its been the same for a number of years and is designed for people who can only get E's that are loaded with cheap amphetemines.
That though, is not the reason we write. What's worrying is the front cover. JJ as we shall call him, is in the "Cammo" look. I thought we'd just been through that look and it's back again already. As far as I can work out it means one of two things, firstly JJ thinks he's a hardcore DJ from Ghent or even more terrifying is that he thinks he's the SAS of the DJ world and is supporting our boys out there in the field.
The Twelve say give it up JJ and get back into the flimsy shirt look a la Ibiza 1998. Although you looked pretty silly them this new look really is a worry. |
| [posted in Bondi :: Sydney at 07:48] |
Wednesday, May 08, 2002
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Papal Attraction
Feel the need to find out some interesting pope related facts? Try here. Whilst you are there check out the Pope Chart - "a poster sized illustration showing on one page the 'unique direct link' Catholics have to Jesus" - order your copy now and receive a free full colour chart of all of the Papal Coats of Arms from 1198 to the present day... |
| [posted in Bow :: London at 13:03] |
Monday, May 06, 2002
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Houses of The Holy
Feel the need to see some of the best bits of the Good Book beautifully rendered in Lego? Then go check out The Brick Testament. Recently added vignettes include Esau's Birthright (Genesis 25:21-33 complete with 14 illustrations), Isaac is Deceived (Genesis 27:1-41 complete with 33 illustrations) and Hittite Intolerance (Genesis 26:34-28:9 complete with 7 illustrations). Luckily each vignette comes with a handy rating system that forewarns of any nudity, violence, sexual content or cussing. |
| [posted in Bow :: London at 15:13] |
Sunday, May 05, 2002
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Current darlings The Hives were in town at Brixton Academy last night and 12 Apostles were there to give you the dope, so here it is. But first a word or two about support act The Soundtrack Of Our Lives, who must surely rate as one of the most ludicrously pompous and musically moribund acts to entertain a capacity crowd in living memory. Shame the guys in the band hadn't devoted as much time and energy to broadening their repertoire as they obviously had to perfecting their rawk posturing. The world already has one Glitter Band and certainly doesn't need another. Just when it looked like it couldn't get any more foolish a double necked guitar was produced....
The Hives delivered a near-faultless exhibition in showmanship backed up with 3 or 4 genuinely great tunes - and some accompanying filler. Excelling in self-promotion and playful self-aggrandisement they provide a slick spectacle proving once again that style over substance can still be a winning formula. Their manufactured punk ethos provides all the right moments, though always within a sanitised environment. Beer and water are thrown around but a diligent roadie with a towel is always on hand to make sure that nothing disrupts the look of the show and the only ones spitting at the stage are the band. The set is basically a run through of the 'Your New Favourite Band' album with a couple of older numbers thrown in and is hard and fast and fun. The crowd love it.
Perhaps the only moment when the sleek Hives machine falters is when during the encore the drummer abandons his kit to climb onto a speaker stack behind it and then, after a few nervous minutes, has to clamber back down again. As my mate Steve says "if you ain't gonna jump don't get up there in the first place". |
| [posted in Bow :: London at 11:51] |
Saturday, May 04, 2002
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Unknown & Unsung: Part 2
Black Star Liner I don't know as much as I should about this band and by the end of this piece I'll dig up some links for you to explore some more.
Saw them at the ICA one midweek around 1996/7. It was The Jam and the Damned circa 1977 meets Lee Perry downtown Bombay. They should have been massive. The album Bengali Bantam Youth Experience was released on Warners in 1998 but sadly got lost, due I imagine to a complete lack of understanding at the Warners marketing department. This album really is a killer and distilled what so many others were trying to do at the time with the perfect marriage between Bombay, London & New York. It needed a band out of the north of England to show everybody how to do it.
You can't go further than low bmw or superfly & bindi. Untouchable records were on the same tip 1993-1997 but it's all dried up these days and now all we get are Bollywood compilation albums from them and a slightly more mature Asian Dub Foundation who still shout too much.
The Twelve were hoping to be able to provide you with more information about the great Black Star Liner, but a quick search has unearthed the fact that the band website no longer exists. There are a couple of German links that don't enlighten at all.
Try this page where you'll find a better discography than ours and contact details for Tandoori Space Records (what a great name) who might be able to give you more information or even stock their stuff.
Black Star Liner releases include:
Halaal Rock EP (1996)
Harmon Session Special XI EP (1996)
Yemen Cutta Connection LP (1996)
Rock Freak EP (1997)
Bengali Bantam Youth Experience ! LP (1998)
Superfly & Bindi 12" (1998)
|
| [posted in Bondi :: Sydney at 05:48] |
ROC New 12" Has Arrived
The New ROC 12" is in the stores; well you can get it from Rough Trade records in Portobello to be more precise.
This is what they say. roc and solah i want you i need you i miss you 12" £ 4.99 a collobaration between roc and the master of the seductive groove solah.perfect funk heathaze with cool vocals and sonic quirks.includes a stunning garage/breaks mix by slangton
Buy online at Rough Trade record shop |
| [posted in Bondi :: Sydney at 04:42] |
Thursday, May 02, 2002
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DJ's DJ's & Yet More DJ's
You'd think we'd be bored of them by now, and still they keep coming. There's DJ courses, DJ magazines and of course DJ websites.
12 Apostles has just visited The DJ List . The Twelve were hoping to find out where they manufactured DJ's in the 21st century. Instead all we got was a list of the top DJ's as voted by you.
We love to de-construct here at 12 Apostles so have taken this list and created a couple of our own. Firstly: there's nothing that amuses us more than silly DJ names and so we've compiled our own top twenty. Please send in your suggestions for publication.
Bad Boy Bill
Ferry Corsten
Richard Humpty Vission
Diesel Boy
Edgar V
Mad Maxxx
Caffeine
Sven Vath
Kryogen
Doc Martin
Johnny Hardkore
Psycho Bitch
None of these people deserve to succeed in life with stage names like this. Sven Vath was big in 1993 and has a very silly beard to go with his silly name and I'm sure it's not Ferry's fault his parents called him that.
What really worries the Twelve is that this list contains in its top reaches the following corporate whores whose boredom factor rates very highly, the Dave Lee Travis's of the dance world. I'm sure Fergie doesn't like being lumped in with these guys, admit it Fergie if you were around in 1982 you'd be Iron Maiden. Get a grip guys. Yes Oakie's one of the lads, he was top DJ and yes once he was cool , but that was before he became the DJ version of the Stones circa 1992.
Judge Jules
Pete Tong
Tall Paul
Fergie
Paul Oakenfeld ( not his fault he's past it )
Yet as we dip into the lower reaches of popular DJ's we find find the instigators, the geniuses and the outsiders. Think for a moment.. none of the artists listed below acheive a higher ranking than those listed above.
Daft Punk
Derrick Carter
Armand Van Helden ( I still smile when I hear he attempted to play 3 hours of hip hop in Ibiza)
Jeff Mills
Dave Clarke
LTJ Bukem
Yet again mediocrity wins the day, no mention of DJ Shadow, Aphex Twin or Jerry Dammers who could spin a tune. But's that's what we get when the e'd up corporate boys get a hold of something. Remember kids it's all about branding. |
| [posted in Bondi :: Sydney at 07:10] |
Sydney - There's A New DJ in Town
Yesterday's Mayday marches in Sydney have brought a new DJ to our notice.
DJ Deckhand has installed a car stereo & speakers in a wheelie bin and was seen and heard in the middle of yesterday's march playing some rather retro sounds to the marchers. These included Louis Armstrong's "What a Wonderful World", Stompin at the Savoy by Benny Goodman and Glenn Miller's, In the Mood.
Why does he do it? " I just want to bring a happy vibe to what sometimes gets a bit stressed" he told the Sydney Morning Herald.
For those of you who want to know why he's DJ Deckhand... it's an Australian thing and refers to our Government's despicable and sad actions last year when SAS troops boarded the Tampa, a Norwegian ship with a cargo of helpless refugees and a confused crew. |
| [posted in Bondi :: Sydney at 05:54] |
Wednesday, May 01, 2002
|
Fans of laptoperism, electronica and gaming culture who made it along to The Barbican on Saturday for the last night of this year's Only Connect series were in for a treat. The premise of the evening was an exploration of the inspiration of the computer game on electronic music and featured Plaid, Coil and Mouse on Mars along with Scanner who provided 'incidental auditorium music and jingles'.
All three bands have good web sites which are worth checking out if you are not familiar with their stuff or are trying to understand the ins and outs of the history of Coil...
# Plaid
# Coil
# Mouse on Mars |
| [posted in Bow :: London at 13:14] |
Remember Socialist Rock
It's May Day 2002. The youth will riot and the media will report with plenty of bias towards the police and the capitalist roaders. 12 Apostles has already had to complain directly to Sky News Corporation in Australia for their blatant beat up of a few middle class students and their final shreds of humanity as they protest against a US owned corporation employed by the Australian government to lock up and dehumanise refugees. By the way the same corporation owns prisons, our apologies..."correctional management units" in the UK as well.
12 Apostles celebrates May Day by reminding you of the glorious days past when Britain was in the throes of Thatcher and we actually had artists who believed in politics and had the conviction to write about their beliefs. The Twelve searched the net in vain for interesting facts and stories about the Red Wedge Tour, or the beliefs of the RedSkins. All we got were pictures of old tour posters and bootlegs for sale.
So, instead here's a few names and songs for you to search out. Remember, the music may not always be pretty but within
lies conviction.
The Gang of Four
Search out the Damaged Good EP and the first album That's Entertainment. This Apostle's favourite is the Another Day Another Dollar EP & the song, Capital It Fails Us Now
The Redskins
NME darlings in their time. Early funky punk with plenty of horns and well meant if slightly dull lyrics.
Paul Weller
Yes the Eric Clapton of the new wave generation is a socialist, this will only be news to those who thought he liked hanging around in fields and smelling flowers
Billy Bragg
It'd be remiss of us not to mention the bard. Is it art ? His heart's in the right place and he gets my vote for his love of Woody Guthrie.
Other Stuff
7" Development Corporations / The Now 1978
7" I Don't Want to Work For British Airways / Scissor Fits 1979
12" Slates / The Fall ( inc Prole Art Threat & Middle Mass) 1981
7" Run Run Run / The Third Rail 1967 "General Chaos is up a Quarter.. The Great Society is Down 5 Points"
|
| [posted in Bondi :: Sydney at 06:14] |
