Look! I made a Plan B YouTube page. At present there’s only a couple of slightly jerky videos of No Age and KIT up there, which I filmed the other night at the Luminaire with my own unsteady hand and digital camera, but when I get a chance I’ll pop up some more footage from Sonar and Faster Than Sound.

here’s No Age

And that there’s KIT

Posted by Louis Pattison on Wednesday, June 27th, 2007
(3 Comments)

…being two rad vid snippets of Daft Punk showing all-comers at the Wireless festival how dance music shd be done - a friend was there and said the encore (not included here, unfortunately) pushed the interlacing of hooks to a ridiculous climax, effectively serving up a megamix of their own best moments in realtime. unbelievable.

Posted by kicking_k on Friday, June 22nd, 2007
(2 Comments)

Punk Planet has gone under. Motherfucker.

Punk Planet was one of the very few magazines of the past decade that I felt genuinely proud to say I’ve written for. It was smart, intelligent and full of informed argument, politics and criticism. Dan always made sure he paid his contributors what he could. I really dug its chunky design too. I’m not sure how many people know this, but when Steve Gullick and I started Careless Talk Costs Lives (the forerunner of Plan B) it was one of the very few magazines that I showed to Andrew Clare as an example of what I liked in publishing. I’m not saying it was necessarily a direct influence on what we did, but I certainly held it as an example that a smart, soulful, passionate magazine based round music could survive and indeed prosper.

And now it’s gone, partly due to some major-ass problems with its distributor (a worry that every independent publisher is acutely aware of - indeed, if it hadn’t been for a fortuitous bit of timing on Plan B’s part a little over a year back, we might not even be here now).

Motherfucker. Suddenly, the world seems that little bit darker.

Posted by Everett True on Wednesday, June 20th, 2007
(No Comments)

Mon 18 Jun
THE SPITZ, 109 Commercial St, London E1. www.spitz.co.uk

Plan B Magazine presents:
SCOUT NIBLETT
+ The Legend!
+ Matthew Sawyer And The Ghosts
+ DJs Ben Ayres (Cornershop), Frances Morgan & Everett True
+ free Rough Trade CD giveaway

To celebrate the release of roving solo artist Scout Niblett’s new single ‘Dinosaur Egg’ (her first UK release in two years) Plan B magazine are proud to present an evening of fine melodies at the Spitz. Plan B wrote that, “Scout is unfathomable, unique and paradoxical. An awkward, shy child-woman in old lady’s clothing. She hides behind her hair but is brazenly exposed by brittle melodies and poignant words. And for all her quiet and subtle charms, she’s prone to acts of thrilling sonic violence, stamping upon the world’s filthiest fuzzbox to detonate grunge-fed Neolithic blues.”

Scout will also be previewing songs from her forthcoming album on Too Pure.

The night will also feature live sets from The Legend! (whom Nick Cave recently declared to be, “More entertaining that Nina Simone”) plus ace lo-fi Stolen Recordings stars Matthew Sawyer And The Ghosts.

DJs include Ben Ayres (Rough Trade/Cornershop), plus Frances Morgan and Everett True (Plan B).

Everyone attending the gig will receive a free copy of a new Rough Trade and Plan B-curated CD, featuring rare, classic and archive material from the likes of Scritti Politti, Detroit Cobras, Oneida, Antony & The Johnsons, Taken By Trees, 1990s, Lavender Diamond and Arthur Russell.

?7 adv Get Tickets

Posted by kicking_k on Wednesday, June 13th, 2007
(No Comments)

Oh. My. God. I thought I’d grown past this shit. I thought I didn’t need music to represent me anymore, I was more into what it could tell me about other people, worlds way beyond my imagination. The last couple of weeks have proved me so wrong as I’ve been getting off beyond belief on sights and sounds from places I’d never expect to relate to so closely.

Most of it’s been hyphy. For those of you playing catchup hyphy is a localised variant on Hip Hop, what crunk is to the dirty south and grime is to the UK, hyphy is to the bay area of California: San Fransisco, Oakland, San José. Scheduled to blow up worldwide a couple of years ago it didn’t happen on schedule so lamesters said it’s never going to happen at all. Of course, like grime, it’s refused to die. When the major labels dropped the ball it just licked it’s wounds and got on with the party.

And hyphy is 80% party music. Yeah, music beyond my imagination, Technicolor tales of hot nights ghost riding borrowed cars with ridiculous rims. I hate cars, even the small ones, and I’d probably shit myself trying to ghost ride one.

But this is something different. For the first time in ages I’m listening to a song, watching a video and not only am I appreciating the (mighty) artistic achievement but I relate. Sure, I could never hope to be half as cool as the Trunk Boiz, but maybe if I could scrape together enough cash for a Scraper Bike I could get half way there. I WANT ONE! Now.

Posted by Ringo on Monday, June 11th, 2007
(1 Comment)

Free show, 8pm

Thursday 7 June
The Hub, Vogue Gyratory, Lewes Rd, Brighton

WET DOG
“Sure, they recall The Raincoats (but where’s the violin?). Also, The Birthday Party (it must be the bass, and scratchy guitar), and Devo; also, the WASP synthesiser-bashings of late Seventies punky upstarts pragVEC (but where’s the keyboard?)…” - Everett True, Plan B magazine

THE LEGEND!
“More entertaining than Nina Simone” - Nick Cave

Posted by Everett True on Friday, June 1st, 2007
(No Comments)