I’ve been sort of crazy obsessed with Prurient, aka Dominick Fernow ever since I caught him playing some grotty noise event in Bristol back in 2005 (see above) and picked up his record on Load, Black Vase - a thoroughly despicable mix of tinnitus frequencies, pounding drums and vicious fucking TANTRUM vocals slithering out all cut and bleeding through a bramble of distortion. It was the immediate, visceral thrills that got me hooked, but there’s a certain depth and meticulous care to Dom’s records that separate him from most of the noise crop; these are clearly records about (and conceived in the spirit of) obsession, beautifully packaged and internally complex. I have a good dozen of his releases and keep buying more.

I keep meaning to sort an interview with Prurient for Plan B, but I haven’t got round to it yet. Soon, hopefully. I just stumbled on this one by Kristen Thomas online at Impose Magazine, though, and it’s pretty fascinating, and not at all what I expected: who’d have thought, for instance, that the dark synth undertow of Pleasure Ground was inspired not by black metal - one of the genre mainstays at Dom’s New York store, Hospital Productions - but the album Trance Nation America 3? it’s too tempting to quote a massive chunk and that’s bad blog etiquette but here’s just a little bit. I’d go check it all out, though, it’s a great read and sheds light on his records in a way that enhances them, not demystifies them.

“There’s two ways to look at [noise], the ideology and the philosophy of noise and the genre of noise. And people furiously, as fast as they can, scoop it into a genre. Like any other sort of music, with any other set of predictions and expectations. But at the real core of it it’s supposed to be the freedom to pursue personal obsession outside of audience or genre. So in that sense, making [noise] more musical at this point is further negating that idea of gentrification. But also in terms of lyrical content, there is this emotional sadomasochism or a sadomasochistic quality to it where there is this play between the abused and the abuser. But it’s also, in that sense of yin yang, what makes the yin yang what it is, is not simply the idea of two opposing forces, but that both of those forces and elements are constantly trading places with each other and transforming into the other.”

Posted by Louis Pattison on Tuesday, June 24th, 2008
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Here’s an ILLEGAL VIDEO I’ve uploaded to YouTube which I shot at Plan B’s Times New Viking gig at Corsica Studios last week. HAH! to your intellectual copyright, Times New Viking. They’re pretty funny about that stuff on YouTube, aren’t they. Anyone know what song this is? I skipped through the last couple of albums and couldn’t pin it down. Maybe it’s new.

Posted by Louis Pattison on Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008
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Ever since seeing Chilly Gonzales and the Le Together Ensemble at the ICA a couple of weeks back I’ve been digging through my old Gonzales albums and remembering how back in 2001 I was absolutely convinced ‘Take Me To Broadway’ was going to make him extremely famous (it didn’t). After a couple of years away tinkling the ivories, he’s back with his new album Soft Power, and it’s a little ray of sunshine.

Thing with Chilly is that he’s a big ol’ goof (obviously) but also a massive talent - check out this interview with him circa Solo Piano a few years back.

Full review of the show in June’s issue, so look out for that.

Posted by Louis Pattison on Wednesday, May 14th, 2008
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Hi there! We put on another one of our Plan B gigs at Corsica Studios last night. Vialka, Shimmy Rivers And And Canal, and Safetyword played, and a good time was had by all (yes, that’s my review)

Look, though, here’s Vialka and their famous nose-whistle solo

And that there’s Safetyword singing a song about brimstone

Posted by Louis Pattison on Thursday, February 21st, 2008
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If you’re eager to hear Plan B’s January Album Of The Month, Xiu Xiu’s Women As Lovers - and you should be, it’s great - please accept our quick heads up that it’s streaming in full over at the band’s MySpace page until January 10. No, that’s fine, don’t mention it.

Posted by Louis Pattison on Tuesday, January 8th, 2008
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It’s virtually pitch black outside at 4.30pm, the transport system is completely fucked, and one meteorological agency reports it could be -17C by the end of the week. Yes, welcome to British wintertime. To suit the mood, here’s a video of Atavist I shot at ATP’s Nightmare Before Xmas but didn’t get a sec to put up before the Christmas rush. I think this is the one singer Toby dedicated to “all the fucking haircuts”. I haven’t heard their new album II: Ruined yet but if it’s anything like the last one it should be really good.

Happy New Year.

Posted by Louis Pattison on Wednesday, January 2nd, 2008
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I first heard David Thomas Broughton on record a couple of years back, his The Complete Guide To Insufficiency, and was impressed by the songs themselves: melancholy folk songs of a modern flavour, licks of guitar and smudges of found sound woven into swirling loops, all presided over by Broughton in his mannered, faintly precious croon. What I wasn’t prepared for, seeing him for the first time at Plan B’s inaugural show at Corsica Studios last week, is what an excellent physical comedian he is: engaged in a lengthy struggle with his microphone stand, flopping around the stage trying and failing to pull his trainers on, or interrupting a song about how his heart is cold as snow with a big, mannered yawn and a glance at his watch (well, it was nearly curfew). He can break your heart and make you laugh as well, and that’s a rare trick. This here YouTube video can only approximate the fullness of his abilities, but here, at least, you see an example of how tics, twitches and in this case, a cough feed into Broughton’s grander designs.

Thanks also to Bishi and the Wave Pictures, also captured here for your enjoyment.

Next Plan B show at Corsica Studio takes place February 20 with Vialka, Safetyword, and Shimmy Rivers And And Canal - tickets on sale soon.

Posted by Louis Pattison on Monday, December 3rd, 2007
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Puttin’ On The Ritz are on tour in the UK at the moment. They’re from Brooklyn and I think they share members with that band Talibam! who you may have read about in the last Plan B (and will read more about in the next issue). Apropos of little, here’s a YouTube video of them playing a gig in the Atlantic ocean.

Posted by Louis Pattison on Friday, November 23rd, 2007
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OK, so it was a week ago now but I’m stuck in PLAN B XMAS ISSUE DEADLINE HELL… but I couldn’t let the week go without writing a quick something about Cardiff’s inaugural Swn festival. Being a sort of wristbands and venues affair in the vein of SXSW, there’s no way you can catch the vast bulk of bands, so sorry Edwyn Collins, Beirut, The Cribs, didn’t make it. We did put on an Antifolk (UK) show at Clwb Ifor Bach on the Friday night, though.

ET’s been going on about this lot all year, actually, but it was my first time catching a lot of them in the flesh. Winston Echo played wide-eyed naif indie-pop songs about bureau de changes and wanting a new job. There was mertle and Larry Pickleman, Antifolk UK’s Posh and Becks, her cute and introspective, him abrasive and shouty and blackly funny. There was Crayola Lectern and friend, with their deeply wrong synth experiments, and Cardiff’s Le B (pictured) with a set of intricate guitar minatures including a old folk song about a woman marrying a 14-year old boy. Oh, and ET, who did his The Legend thing and topped off the night with a righteous DJ set back to back with Simon Price.

Best way to get an idea of what Swn was about, though, is probably through the 44-page Swn Festival Flickr page, put together by Plan B photographer Mei Lewis and friends. Here’s some of the best - credits to Mei, Maciej Dakowicz, Kirsten McTernan, Laura Charlotte and anyone I might have forgotten.

Bobby Conn

The Duloks

Beirut

The Bobby McGees

And… White Mice

Posted by Louis Pattison on Friday, November 16th, 2007
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That there’s a stripped down Hot Chip at David Shrigley’s Worried Noodles show at the Scala a couple of weeks back. This song is ‘No’, the one with the Shrigley lyrics. It’s about having no arms or legs. They also did a really great sorta acoustic version of ‘Boy From School’ but my camera decided to swallow it and never spat it out again. Curse thee technology!

Posted by Louis Pattison on Monday, October 22nd, 2007
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