A Good Read A Good Listen and a Good Drink: David Majury, Slomatics

It’s a simple yet sublime pleasure, and just thinking about it can make you feel a little calmer, a little more content. Imagine: You bring out one of the good rocks glasses (or your favorite mug or a special occasion tea cup) and pour a couple fingers of amber liquid (or something dark and strong or just some whole milk). You drop the needle on the jazz platter (or pull up a blues album on your mp3 player or dig out that mixtape from college). Ensconcing yourself in the coziest seat in the house, you crack the spine on a classic (or find your place in that sci-fi paperback or pull up a biography on your e-book reader). And then, you go away for a while. Ah, bliss.

In this series, some of NTSIB’s friends share beloved albums, books and drinks to recommend or inspire.


The Slomatics first formed in Belfast in late 2004, and since then have released several records. Recently they re-issued their first two albums, Kalceanna (2007) and Flooding the Weir (2005).

I’ve listened to both of them; my reaction was this is like being run over by a cement mixer and I mean that in the best possible way.

Here is my advice: lie down somewhere comfortable, rest your listening device on your stomach, put your headphones on, and turn it up. It might feel like meditating with a jackhammer, but it’s good for what ails you, I promise.

This is Viking Sea, from Kalceanna:

And, so y’all can see how they’ve grown over the years, here’s The Carpenter, from Estron (2014):

And with that, I turn the floor over to Slomatics guitarist David Majury, who joins us today to talk about a favorite book, record and drink.


Slomatics, live.

Slomatics, live.

A GOOD READ:

Krautrocksampler by Julian Cope.

I’m not a particular fan of Julian Cope’s music, nor was I a fan of Krautrock when I first read this book. I do enjoy music biographies though and will read pretty much anything related, and this book was recommended to me in the mid nineties by a friend. I’ve chosen this book as its one I frequently re-read, often picking it up to read just a chapter, and I cant think of many other books where that’s the case.

I love this book because of how it’s written – Cope doesn’t go for the stuffy, over-earnest approach that makes so many biographies seem like dull lists of facts/events; instead he writes like its a wild ride full of excitement and amazement at this weird music. He makes words up (Ur-punk??), uses grammar as he sees fit and occasionally loses it completely, all with his innate sense of what he deems cool underpinning every opinion. His stories of the formative years of such obscure heroes as Ash Ra Tempel are written as if he were there and it’s impossible not to be transported to early 70s Germany when reading this.

The book also gives me a sense of nostalgia, as I read it pre Internet, when it was nearly impossible to actually hear any of the bands involved. At the time I was permanently skint, and £20 for an import of an album I’d never actually heard was big money in the mid 90s. It reminds me of a time when music wasn’t all immediate, when bands could still hold an air of mystery.

As much as I like the immediacy of YouTube, I remember how it felt like a real quest to hear obscure music, how it took months of searching in ’89 to finally get a badly recorded tape of the Misfits ‘Legacy of Brutality’ and how important that made it feel. I’d agonise over whether of not to mail order Yeti by Amon Duul II, half fascinated by the description of its eastern-sabbath riffs, half panicked by the words ‘folk rock’. That the music described in the book has never disappointed me, and pretty much all of it is now there in my collection, listened too all the time, is testament to this book.

A GOOD LISTEN:

Part Chimp, Thriller.

When people find out I play in a band they always ask what sort of music it is, which is a natural enough question. The difficulty is describing the band without sounding like an arsehole. I’m not claiming that we’re some genre defying band, but to go on about being a fuzz-doom sci fi metal band with a sniff of shoe gaze and Hawkwind thrown in is just too much, so I stick with ‘heavy rock’.

This is usually followed by ‘You mean like Bon Jovi/Iron Maiden’ etc. It makes me realise that although very little of what I listen to is metal, a lot of it is heavy.

This album fits the bill perfectly, it’s unbelievably heavy in a way that no metal band could come close to, but it has absolutely nothing to do with that scene. The guitar tones are just massive, insanely fuzzy and bordering on being totally out of control. The songs are rammed with hooks and melody, yet avoid any conventional structure. Part Chimp are still the loudest band I’ve ever seen live and somehow they’ve managed to make records that sound every bit as loud, which is quite an achievement. It’s completely beyond me why this record wasn’t huge. An absolute classic.

Part Chimp - Dirty Sun

A GOOD DRINK:

Pint of Smithwicks Ale

In the Hipster Age of corksniffing craft beer freaks, this is probably a very uncool beer to drink. I don’t know if you can get it outside of Ireland. It’s kind of seen as an auld lads pint, and for people who can’t handle Guinness. I’m both of those things now, so I’m very comfortable with that.

Visualizer: PHASES, Betty Blue

PHASES, formerly known as JJAMZ, put out a new record called For Life a couple of months back. Below is the visualizer video for Betty Blue, one of the tunes on that record, which I like because it looks and sounds like TRON on acid.

Also, y’all should know that while they sound like synth-disco recorded, live they have darker, jagged edge.

PHASES - Betty Blue [Official Visualizer]

Father John Misty: Live on KEXP

And now, an NTSIB Thanksgiving tradition: an extended session from one of our favorite artists. This year it is almost a full hour of one of the finest folk balladeers / shit-stirrers / magnificent trolls working today: Father John Misty, recorded live at KEXP in the summer of 2015. The songs are all from his latest, I Love You, Honeybear.

Happy Thanksgiving/Thursday, NTSIBberss.

Father John Misty - Full Performance (Live on KEXP)

Video: Family Force 5, Sweep the Leg

Family Force 5 are something of a chameleon, by which I mean every time I catch up with them they’ve changed their look. This year’s style appears to be a complex fusion of “video games” and “’80s nerd.” This time around there’s also been some line-up changes: their lead singer (Solomon Olds) retired, and their drummer, his brother Jacob, has assumed frontman duties.

The infectious jams are the same, though. I saw them earlier this year at Warped Tour, at the end of a long, hot day, in front of an impatient crowd awaiting headliners. Family Force 5 started with Sweep The Leg and never took their feet off the pedal. The thing that really stood out: despite the heat, and the impatience, they had ’em dancing all the way to the back.

Family Force 5 - Sweep The Leg (Official Music Video)

Video: Dignitary, Demon Beside Me / Destiny’s False Turn

Dignitary, of Los Angeles, has what can only be termed a cinematic aesthetic, genre: punk noir. Mike Cuenca, their frontman, was at one time a filmmaker, so this is not an accident. The two videos below are for Demon Beside Me and Destiny’s False Turn, both from their recent EP The Tautology; together, they tell a creepy tale of love and murder.

Demon Beside Me: the tale begins, with a coven of witches, and a few of the seven deadly sins:

Dignitary - "Demon Beside Me" Music Video [Goth, Post-Punk]

Destiny’s False Turn: things take a turn for the murderous at a Halloween party:

Dignitary - "Destiny's False Turn" Music Video (2015)

Video: Missy Elliott feat. Pharrell Williams, WTF (Where They From)

As April tweeted a few days ago: The Queen is back.

Here are Missy Elliott and Pharrell Williams with WTF (Where They From) and a video that includes a broad variety of hot dance moves, amazing costumes, and even some puppets. The parts of New York City visible in the background are not where I am from, but – those places, or places like them, felt like home for a long time.

Missy Elliott - WTF (Where They From) ft. Pharrell Williams [Official Video]

Video: Brooks & Dunn, Boot Scootin’ Boogie

I’ve recently taken up square dancing, and, while Brooks & Dunn‘s Boot Scootin’ Boogie hasn’t been on during class (yet), it invariably serves as my internal soundtrack.

Also, check out that hair and . . . well, pretty everything happening in this video. The ’90s, it was a time, y’all.

Brooks & Dunn - Boot Scootin' Boogie

Video: Seth Bogart (feat. Kathleen Hanna), Eating Makeup

There are a few things to recommend this new tune from Seth Bogart, thee Hunx of Hunx and His Punkx, from his album due for release early next year:

1) it features hero Kathleen Hanna (BTW, if you haven’t yet viewed the documentary, The Punk Singer, about Hanna (currently available on Netflix streaming), it is not to be missed),

2) it has magnificent glitter eyeshadow,

3) it has a woman eating lipstick like it’s corn on the cob,

4) it is a fantastic tune to shimmy to when preparing for your weekend activities.

 

Seth Bogart "Eating Makeup (featuring Kathleen Hanna)" Official Video

 

Seth Bogart official website (check out that Pee-Wee’s Playhouse aesthetic)
Seth Bogart @ Twitter
Seth Bogart @ Facebook

Johnny Cash and June Carter, Jackson

Dad would have been 74 today. Johnny Cash was one of his favorite singers, by himself and with others. I picked this one to play for him today because both June and Johnny are in such fine form, clearly enjoying themselves and the song. Happy Birthday, Daddy. Miss you.

Johnny Cash and June Carter - "Jackson"

Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell, The Traveling Kind

This is the title track for Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell‘s most recent joint effort, The Traveling Kind. I had been listening to it somewhat obsessively just before I left New York – as anthem, as inspiration, as comfort, as reminder that I am the traveling kind – and a couple days ago, after a particularly long day, it popped up on shuffle while I was in the car, as if the universe wanted to remind me I really did take the right path.

And if I needed that reminder, maybe some of you fellow travelers do too. So here it is. Enjoy, darlings.

Emmylou Harris & Rodney Crowell - The Traveling Kind