Music blogs

Just noticed this good article on music blogs in Sunday's Observer, by Killian Fox. The article is fairly explicit about the increasingly important role the blogs play in spreading the word about new artists. If anyone's thinking of setting up one, don't worry about artists or labels coming after you (as long as you aren't silly enough to post whole albums in perpetuity) - they're almost always more than happy for the publicity. In fact, they're sending stuff out to bloggers constantly, as I'm sure the Manc music blog brigade can attest to.

Even this non-mp3 blog has been getting a lot more requests to post tracks and press releases from music labels and prs lately, most of them Manchester-based. I won't say trying to get me to listen to/post about music is a total waste of time, but chances are pretty slim that I'll end up writing anything. The tiny bit of music-related blogging I do on here is basically me mentioning gigs of bands I like that are coming up in Manchester. These bands are more and more likely to have released their best work sometime in the last century. I'm open to new music but I just don't care enough anymore to spend too much time trying to keep up with musical fashions.

I accept that as a media outlet you're going to get a certain amount of pr spam from club promoters and music bods, and that's fine. But sending me three emails a day about your sizzling band is probably just going to annoy me.

Manchester spring festivals

Yep, it's spring, and you know what that means... the Manc festival frenzy is officially beginning and it won't end until late Autumn. Here's your tear-and-save guide:


Moves08
22-26 April
venues around Manc, and a bit in Lancaster too.

Moves celebrates movement on screen via a shitload of experimental short films, award-winning animation and enough talks n' workshops to keep all the flickheads and aspiring filmmakers in Manchester happy. The biggest event is probably the UK Premiere of the animated short film "I met the Walrus" which was nominated for an Oscar (pictured). But it's really all good. There should be some screenings outdoors, too, so if you walk by the big screen in Exchange Square and it's showing something more interesting than usual, that's probably what's going on. For a taster, check out these "ArtCast" podcasts that Folly has cooked up with Moves, featuring some of the best of the fest.


Futuresonic
1-5 May

This year the theme of our technogeek extravaganza is social networking. In fact, Futuresonic promise us "a city centre overrun with 'unplugged' social networking." So, that's a city full of people talking to each other in the flesh? Hmmm. Not sure about that one. Seriously, though, some of these art projects are kind of cool, conceptually at least. On the music side we've got hip hop with RZA of Wu Tang Clan, old art-punkers Wire, mind-bending electroweirdlet Luke Vibert aka Wagon Christ, and a whole bunch of artists of the electronic persuasion that I'm probably not hip enough to have heard of.


Sounds From the Other City
Sunday May 4
venues around Salford, the Brooklyn of Manchester

The fourth chapter of this one-day blowout sees local bands descend on Salford Rock City, playing churches, random places, and some freaky old man pubs you'd never otherwise enter. Having each venue booked by a different promoter ensures a really bewildering mix of stuff, and this year the venue count has grown to 8. I like the sound of Hey! Manchester's gigs at the Salford Arms, and the eclectic lineup in the arty environs of Salford Restoration Office. Oh, and local heroes Performance and Lonelady are playing at Egerton Arms. But, really, it's best to just pick a venue that sounds good, park there for a while, and then maybe stumble over to another one, and then another one, in an increasingly beer-fuddled haze. You'll see some good bands, you'll see some bad bands. That's how it goes.

Queer up North
9-25 May, venues around Manc

Yeah, remember that whole fiasco this winter in which the Arts Council almost axed Queer up North's funding? But it was saved by a heartswelling groundswell of support and general outcry from the good people of Manchester, who said it was essential to the city's cultural well being? Well now's the time to put your money where your mouth is and book some tickets. We have: the slightly scary Sandra Bernhard revisiting her superfamous one-woman show, Without You I'm Nothing. Marisa Carnesky and Ivo Dimchev bringing the performance art, Justin Bond of Kiki and Herb, the awesome Club Brenda, Lesbian Pulp Fiction, a Scottish jazz singer and a film about a zombie named Otto. And that's just a sample...

Shaken and stirred to do list

1. Anyone who had tickets for the Vampire Weekend gig tonight at the Academy is SOL: they've pulled a sickie. But they ask us to "please send positive health vibes our way." Consider it done.

2. The Viva film festival, featuring the freshest cinema from Spain and Latin America, hits Cornerhouse next week. Have seen some great films there over the years that I'd otherwise have been completely ignorant of. Get your tickets early as each film only screens a couple of times and it's usually quite deservedly mobbed. And don't sit in front of me and talk to your friend or check your texts.

3. Ever wondered about those shadowy figures writing for Manchester's literary journals? You know you have. You can see some of them for real at a mega reading event featuring way too many writers from Ugly Tree, Lamport Court and Parameter, and enjoy the cool malty tipples of the ever-reliable Briton's Protection at the same time. Monday night 6:30 for 7.

4. Got a bike, unicycle or frankenwheelie? Grease it up and join the hordes for Manchester Critical Mass on Friday. Meets at 6pm at the Central Library.

5. If you're the least bit obsessed with the Obama-Clinton primary (and may I say, what's wrong with you people? I at least have the excuse of being a US voter) you might get a kick out of watching this campaign commercial that's currently airing in my home state of Vermont, which votes on Tuesday. Hear that heart-stirring theme swelling up in the background? Remind you of anything? Aww. It's amazing how close you can get to the West Wing music without actually playing it.

6. The ill-advised Manchester supercasino has once-and-for-all bit the big one. But maybe we'll get some more money as a consolation prize. And did anyone read this Jonathan Jones piece in the Guardian about public art and, specifically, the B of the Bang?

"...it's bad art; in fact I think the word "art" overpraises it. It's a piece of design, like a decoration devised for a shopping centre. There's something planned and corporate about it."

I couldn't agree more. What say we keep that money in East Manc and use it to fund a groundbreaking project that would recycle B of the Bang into another totally different artwork that neither quietly crushes your soul nor threatens passersby with grievous bodily harm? Schematic proposals on a postcard please.

7. As a follow up to the bewilderingly popular post about Manchester restaurants, I ate at Isinglass in Urmston for the first time last night. Everyone says how good it is. It was good. It's also a lovely place, with very atmospheric lighting and branches on the walls for decoration. I tried rabbit pie and venison but they had a smoked eel and beetroot tart on the menu too which I faintly regret not getting. If you haven't been, maybe you should go sometime.

Random cool stuff

Sorry, I realize I've been all business lately at The Manchizzle. With the festival almost upon us, and the blogstory project going strong (chapter 4 is up now) there are so many important things I have to blog about.

So here are some things I don't have to blog about. They don't have anything to do with Manchester, but whatever.

This is weasel and ferret week at the Manchizzle. Why? They seem to keep popping up in conversation for some reason. And any discussion of ferrets always reminds me of Rudy Giuliani's insane ferret rant on the radio, during his time as NYC mayor. Anyone who thinks he might make a good president should listen to this.
Actually, everyone should listen to it.

As nutty as Rudy clearly is, I have to admit there is something distasteful about ferrets. I'm sure the pro-ferret brigade would set me straight. Sure, maybe ferrets get a bad rap, and bad press. But they also get lots of good press. In fact, there's a magazine called Ferrets, and they publish centerfolds every month that look like this:


I just thought you might enjoy that one.

I've gotten really into this web comic called Achewood. It describes itself as a cartoon of modern life as lived by a retarded otter, an alcoholic tiger, and two bears. But it's so much more than that, really. The characters also have their own blogs. You can read what Ray Smuckles, the thong-wearing, potty-mouthed cat has to say here.


I've also gotten really into this band called Vampire Weekend. They're from New York, and in addition to having a great name, they make amazingly catchy and smart afrobeat-inflected indie music. Kind of like if Jonathan Richman was in The Shins and they got knocked up by Orchestra Baobab. Yeah, I know that's a horrible description, that's why I'm not a music reviewer. Just go listen to them. If there's any justice in the world, they're going to be HUGE. And when I was putting the link to their site in, I just now saw that their first ever Eurotour stops at Manchester Academy Nov 8. With... wow. The Shins? Am I psychic or what.

Weekend: New Islington, Mayflies

Remember last year's New Islington festival? Uh... I remember that there was one... something about a spurting man and a barge? This year its being billed as The Urban Folk Festival for Urban Folk. Urban as in Urban Splash, developers of that rebranded bit of Ancoats, geddit? Anyway, it's 2-8 pm around Old Mill Street, and it's free.

And the music is by (drumroll please) D.percussion, making a "secret return" after saying this year's fest was the last. Not sure this is a real selling point in Manc these days. The list of performers, spread over three stages, doesn't ring a lot of bells for me. Psychedelic outfit the Beep Seals, Magic Arm and a bunch of other local bands and DJs. Contrary to what the "urban folk festival" tagline leads you to expect, there are only a tiny handful of folk performers including Mancunian folkstress Kathryn Edwards. Would've been nice if they actually had given us an urban folk festival, instead of the usual teeth-grinding mix of Manc djs spinning the usual thumpy whatever. Basically, it's going to be D.Percussion with fairy cakes.

Fortunately, there's the indie-tastic Manchester Book Market, where you can meet some of those hardworking literary magazine editors and small press folks. There's readings from Anthony Joseph, Lemn Sissay (though he was a no-show last year) the brilliant flash-fiction writer David Gaffney, Tony Walsh, John Siddique, and a mess of poets and writers you may not necessarily have heard of before but you never know one or two of them might be pretty decent, all compered by Chloe Poems. There's also a series of specially commissioned shorts from local filmmakers.

There's also some twee activities involving vintage cakes, wellies and eek, pedalos on the canal. Yeah, that canal in the picture above. A lot of it sounds harmlessly annoying along the lines of Mr. Scruff's sodding tea tent. But then there's the nu rave sheep pen. "Graffiti artists will spray designs on live sheep while listening in the best in nu-rave club sounds." Oh sweet Jesus, that's wrong in eleven different ways at once.

At the same time, across town in Cornerhouse, Mayflies flits into town to bring us a day of arty hijinks. Between 11 and 5:30, artist BBB Johannes Deimling will perform Don't Hurt Me in the public spaces of the Cornerhouse building. His works often "provoke unconscious fears using an undercurrent of bizarre humour." Scary and funny? Sounds good. Up in the gallery they'll be screening Kleinodtotsod, a video work by John Bock that hints at the malevolent nature of domestic space. Then at 6 there's a screening of the Mayflies film programme, with works by George Barber, Deborah Bower, Wojciech Bruszewski, Michelle Handelman and Ben Rivers. (entry to the films is £3 and includes a drink, booking reccomended.)

Oh, and you can't get in if you've been within ten feet of the nu-rave sheep pen. They'll be checking.

It's quiffs at dawn!

Panic on the streets of London! The Star and Garter's revered-in-Manchester-among-people-who-like-that-sort-of-thing Smiths Disco has a challenger for the title of place in town you're most likely to meet a pale girl in pearls who has the words to English Blood, Irish Heart tattooed on her thigh.

(For those who haven't been, it's an ecstatic group singalong rather than a disco - Of course you can't really dance to a Smiths song; it's more a matter of bobbing around either archly or despondently as the song requires.)

Young upstart "Malajusted" bills itself as a new Morrissey/Smiths night on the third Thursday of the Month. Unfortunately, it's at Overdraught, which is a bit shit, and definitely can't compete with the pitch-perfect shabbiness of the upstairs room at the S & G, where the Smiths disco is held the first Friday of the month. Or can it? Maybe we should organise a showdown. God, could you imagine that?

Wednesday is art day

I've been terrible at the posting. Really, what kind of example am I to young bloggers? But I've been recovering from a week at Arvon's Science Fiction and Fantasy writing course (which I highly recommend) along with a bunch of lovely people including Graham Joyce and Liz Williams. Go buy their books! Though I've now let my alter-ego as an SF/Fantasy writer out of the bag. Shit. My alter ego has its own blog, and I may even start posting on it one day. Finishing novel more important, though.

To make amends for being a bad blogger I bring you some arty, Manchester-specific news:

This Friday there's a pretty cool gig at Greenroom. In connection with the launch of Castlefield Gallery's show To The Left of the Rising Sun, Iceland-based artist and composer Ben Frost performs work from his latest album. They say: "Influenced by the stark natural environment of his new home country and the contrasting abysmal winter darkness and endless summer light, Frost’s soundscape references the Baroque and the sublime and carries its audience into unexplored territories."

Next door same night, it's the opening of the Cornerhouse's ArtRadio project, which looks interesting.

There's a call for participants for a performance event as part of the Manchester International Festival. They say:

We are looking to find 90 people by Friday who are willing to share stories about someone who has vanished from their lives (either because of a relationship breakdown, death, relocation, paranormal disappearance, etc.) Artist Michael Mayhew will then use these stories as the basis for his performance piece. If you would like to share your story, please contact ag at michaelmayhew.com to book a slot on June 29th.

Also, Manchester-based artist Paul Harfleet has a great blog where he writes a lot about his practice, which I'm adding to the blogroll. Some of you may know him as one half of the duo behind Apartment, the artist-run exhibition space that happens to also be Paul's council tower block flat.

The Birdman cometh

The amazing Andrew Bird is playing tonight at the Academy. If you're not familiar with him, his website has a streaming radio station that only plays his songs. Just thought someone might want to know. I'm going and I'm dead excited.

The picture is of a male passenger pigeon.

Burnt to the Ground report

Burnt to the Ground was a lovely afternoon out, very chilled and pleasant. I heard a few people saying how much it was like D.Percussion used to be, before it was overrun with menacing scallies and scarily wasted people. Plus when you paid your donation you got a nifty orange sticker that said "Are you the God of Hell Fire?", which I loved.

The few bands I saw were good, though the DJ area (with one bloke doggedly dancing solo) was too close to the main stage, Stevie Square not being all that big really, and if you hung out in the middle your ears were hurt by clashing-music-din. And watching the skateboarders take turns on the ramp trucked in by SkateMCR was strangely mesmerising.

There were older people, younger people, and even plenty of kids there. Loads of kids, in fact. In the middle of Broke n'£nglish's set of full-on Manc rap there was a tiny little boy sitting on the ground in the middle of the bouncing crowd filling a notebook with painstaking drawings of superheroes and video game characters. It was the kind of place where that could happen, and it would be okay. Though after talking to my friend Hazel, I'm half-convinced that the only reason some people bring their kids to these things is so they can smuggle in contraband beer in the stroller (apparently they never check 'em.)

Sadly, I missed out on Arthur Brown's performance, because I was eating what I now firmly believe to be the best dim sum in Manchester over at Pacific. But yes, he did bring his awesome flaming helmet. Wish I'd seen it! The above picture comes from laptoppingpong. Spinneyhead has loads up too.

I am the god of hellfire!

Remember that fire on Lever Street a few weeks back? Some of the folks who work in the damaged buildings haven't gotten back into their offices. Others are facing some heinous financial consequences due to water, smoke, burning or firefighting damage.

Fortunately, the promised benefit concert is going on this Sunday, June 3, from 4-11pm in Stevenson Square in the Northern Quarter. It's being organised by D.Percussion folks Ear to the Ground, who, in cooperation with CIDS, will distribute all proceeds to affected businesses and the city fire department. And yes... they've embraced the camp, funny side of having the building that houses your offices almost burn down, have called the gig Burnt to the Ground, and promise a flame-themed stage and fire trucks. The best part is that the Arthur Brown, he of The Crazy World of Arthur Brown, will be performing his scary 1968 song "Fire." That's a picture of him above. Let's all pray that he brings his awesome flaming fire helmet.


Also performing will be a whole slew of musical acts including... Mr Scruff, The Unabombers (who've graciously put up with their 24 Lever St. offices being the alternate entrance for the entire building for weeks), Polytechnic, Broke n' English, Marc Riley, Rita & Sue, Magic Arm, Peter & the Wolf, The Mekkits and the deejay stylings of clans Fat City, Tramp, El Diablo, Rockers, Jayne Compton, Solja and Flotsam & Jetsam. Loads of these people work in or around the buildings, or are otherwise connected with them.

It'll also be worth going to see if they can actually fit 5,000 people in Stevie Square. £2 suggested donation.