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There is a pretty good chance that you haven't heard of Tattie Toes. They don't have a record label at the moment and have done about a dozen gigs around the country so far. And, horror of horrors, they don't have a Myspace page. They are a four-piece based in Glasgow. Drummer Shane originates from the city, while vocalist Nerea is from the Basque country, bassist Howie is from Bolton and violinist Rafe is a Welsh lad. Their music is an awe inspiring mix of each members distinct musical sensibility and dexterity. Howie and Shane's rhythms swing, twang, rattle and shift in all manner of directions in an avant garde spirit, but they are essentially about hooking the listener. Rafe's violin is a mixture of melody and effects from different ethnic and folk tradtions, and Nerea brings Basque wildness, beauty and stiring dance and performance. Cult Cargo invited them to play at their Christmas party and so we hooked up with them for a chat.
‘I’m just that lazy, no-good-for-nothin’, long haired, four-eyed son who wrecks it all,’ is how former Tramp Attack front man Matt Barton describes himself in his song ‘Short back and sides’.
I meet him in the Lago bar early on a Saturday afternoon, he chose here because ‘you get a cheap pint’. This is a fact not lost on the various drunken men already holding confused conversations around the bar, despite it being only 1.30.
With Liverpool’s musical landscape now colonised by drainpipe wearing fashionistas, Barton cuts a humble figure in his lived-in parka coat and blue jeans.
“Is it all finished for the band now? Yeah, pretty much. I wanted to do one last gig but none of the others wanted to do it,” says Matt.
Neptune are a three piece band from Massachusetts U.S.A. They make their own instruments and electronics, very strange looking guitars, basses and percussive oddities that make the band a true sight to behold. Maybe what a post nuclear war band may look like. And the sounds that emit from the instruments are just as surprising. You sort of recognise them as conventional sounds, but ones that have decided to communicate with brothers and sisters in different dimensions. Cult cargo met up with founder member Jason to chat about his unique band.
"I stumbled into the world of music despite myself"
Half Man Half Bicuit's Nigel has for twenty years filled in the gaps between the miserable romantics and the cocky wannabe scallies in North West's rich pop legacy. Presenting the band as a throwaway novelty act he has got away with some of the wittiest and sharpest documentations of British culture and lack of, that has been set to a beat. What we really want to know is how much of his unique vision is down to the band's background in Birkenhead, a very different cultural existence from the city close by as Nigel explains.
It seems quite appropriate that Bill Drummond has proposed a day of no music. He ceased his considerably active participation in music in the late 1990's to concentrate on less high profile and artistic projects. His management of Echo and the Bunnymen had helped them to become one of post-punk's more intriguing and atmospheric bands, and with KLF he helped spread revolutionary mayhem in the world of pop for a good few years. Always one for a provocative idea, Mr Drummond proposed the No music day, which he set for 21st of November. The concept came from his ever increasing discontent with how music works and is presented in our society. In 1994 he invented for himself a way of listening to music in a different way. He created a lottery system, which was basically putting the letters of the alphabet in a bag and picking one out for each year. In that year he would only be able to listen to musicians and bands beginning with the letter picked out. And once the year is over he can't consciously listen to anything beginning with that letter again until after he has gone through the whole of the alphabet. This year he is on the letter G. I spoke to Bill on the phone to find out what he was really trying get at.
Understanding who the Acid Mothers Temple are takes a little bit of research. They are not a band in the normal sense. They are a collective of musicians from Japan who form into different projects, such as Acid Mothers Temple and the Cosmic Inferno, Acid Mothers Gong and Acid Mothers SWR. They have released many records on almost as many different record labels around the world. Each collaboration plays it's own version of space rock cum ambient and each has the talents of AMT leader Kawabata Makoto within it. The incarnation on tour at present, Acid Mothers Temple and the Melting Paraiso U.F.O. , played the Cult Cargo Launch Party very recently, and along with DJ Roger Hill From radio Merseyside I spoke to kawabata about all things Acid Mothers. Fortunately for us translator Minako Ueda was also there to help the interview along.
This month's Liverpool Acoustic Live event takes place on Friday 23rd April 2010 at the View Two Gallery on Mathew Street. The doors open at 8.00pm and the music starts at 8.30pm and finishes at 11.15pm.
30 years ago, the anarchy that had spawned punk was dead and young people, fed up with the depressing social economic climate of the late seventies, high unemployment and strikes were looking for a scene of their own. The stalwarts of that Liverpool scene have got together to create a reunion night called Retropective.
OggCamp10 is preceded by a special gig on Friday April 30th
Tickets are £5 in advance and can be bought from the Rathole Radio website right now. It's sure to be quite unlike any other gig you've ever seen before and it will be the start of something unique.
Legendary star Gil Scott_Heron to play the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall.
Legendary American poet, musician and author, Gil Scott-Heron has announced a rare UK show, with a date at Liverpool’s Philharmonic Hall opening this year’s Liverpool Sound City music festival.
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Announcing the physical release of his latest EP Heavy Clouds, Shane Beales invites you to join him with his band and special guest performers at the Zanzibar, Liverpool for the official launch party on 19th March.
Liverpool Acoustic Live - Friday 26th February 2010
Written by Defnet Media
This month is Liverpool Acoustic Live's first birthday. It takes place on Friday 26th February 2010 at the View Two Gallery on Mathew Street. The doors open at 8.00pm and the music starts at 8.30pm.
This very special birthday bash features the return of Stephen Langstaff. Since playing at the very first Liverpool Acoustic Live last year Stephen has gone on to become the first unsigned act ever to headline at the Liverpool 02 Academy main stage. This was followed by a support slot for The Lightning Seeds at The Phil, and a support slot for Deacon Blue at Liverpool Arena! However, Stephen hasn't forgotten his unplugged roots and is looking forward to debuting a number of brand new songs in a rare solo acoustic outing.
Diabolical mayhem from the largest number of Bonzos still playing together anywhere on the surface of the earth. The boys bring their show to Live Lounge @ Baby Blue on Sunday 18th October. Born in a distant art school past somewhere in the sixties, Three Bonzos and a Piano unleash their Bonzo Dog classics with energetic zip and palaver... Ali Baba’s Camel, Hunting Tigers Out In India, Alley-Oop, Trouser Press, Speedy Gonzales, Monster Mash, Tent, Can Blue Men Sing The Whites? and many, many more.
Bright new blues star Oli Brown plays Live Lounge on Sunday, so decide for yourself
Oli Brown and his band (Fredy Hollis, bass and Simon Dring, drums) start their tour of the UK October 1 and play Liverpool Live Lounge on Sunday 4th October, now it is your opportunity to see and hear for yourself what everyone is talking about.
Oli Brown is just 20 and only been playing for six years, he has toured in the UK, Europe and the Mid West, he has opened for a who’s who of big names in the Blues world, including Buddy Guy and Joe Bonamassa.
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