TRASH OF CAMDEN PHOTO SHOOT

SELECTED PHOTOS NOW UPLOADED & ACCESSIBLE VIA THE FOLLOWING LINK:

http://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.10150670157856098.454541.577106097&type=1&l=904d3546f1

PHOTO SHOOT

***Calling anyone who has ever shown an interest in Trash of Camden***

Due to the kindness and AWESOMENESS of Miss Samm.m Agnew (http://sammmagnew.com/), there is a very good chance that Trash jewellery will appear in The Sun's glossy Saturday supplement, 'Fabulous', a week on Saturday (18th Feb). I want to take advantage of this rare opportunity for national exposure and organise a photo shoot to post online beforehand... in order to show the best of what I've made in the past 18 months. Therefore, I am asking for anyone available and keen to get involved to get in touch with me asap-I'll need models, photography-literate individuals and general SUPPORTERS. Also if anyone fancies filming any of it for a little showreel (and has the relevant recording equipment to do so) then that would be fantastic!

Due to my work schedule, the shoot will hopefully take place on this Saturday or Sunday somewhere in Camden Town. I can be available both days. I'm really keen to avoid the main strip down Camden High Street (especially since it's a weekend) so am hoping to situate it in one of the communal parks. Saying that, it would be nice to have a couple of group shots down by the Lock though.

I know it's late notice but I would be so so grateful of any help. Absolutely no experience necessary, only enthusiasm. Details to follow, please get in touch if you're interested.

Muchest of love,

Kate Trash

CAMDEN UNSIGNED PLAYLIST 07.02.2012

Camden Unsigned (John and Kate’s ‘Unsigned Trash’) playlist, 07/02/2012

1. The Cheap Thrills – Live Now

2. Alistair Sherrin – Take it All

3. Nia – Mescaline

4. Little Luke – Puppets

5. Small Horses – The Last of the Likely Lads

6. Chasing Tigers – Take Me Away

7. The Romleys – Singing to a Stone

8. Everything But Arms – My Dad’s a Super Spy

9. Pink Cigar – Strange
10. The Hops - Shudder

11. Van Howling – Hole in the Wall (Radio Edit)

12. White Rose – Black Magic Box

13. The Madding Crowd – A Glorious Comedy

14. Stone Them Crows – 50s Sex

15. Ron Bowderry – Overplay Red Light

16. S.C.U.M. – Whitechapel

17. Black Hay – I Feel Something

18. The Cellophane Flowers – Belinda
19. Black Foot Circle - Racket of the Records

20. Moist – Scared

21. Pink Cigar – The Throat

22. Changing Horses – I Don’t Need It

THE VAGENDA

I'm extremely excited to be part of a brand new collaborative project called The Vagenda which aims to look at the way women are represented in the media.

Check it out at http://vagendamag.blogspot.com/#!/

It was launched late last night (6th February) and this first selection of articles should lay down the gauntlet for what the editorial team is getting at by establishing this forum for writing and photography/images. Some photography articles like 'Stock Photos of Women Looking Remorseful After Sexual Encounters' are not a far cry away from the realms of VICE magazine. Then again, regular feature, 'American Apparel Ad or Porn?' promptly dumps all over any possible 'hipster' vibes you might get from the blog's content. Personally, I love the way that the design of the blog mimics the cutesy colour schemes of certain womens' magazines like Glamour, or indeed 'Glameurgh' as The Vagenda has rechristened it.

I'm told that the impetus behind The Vagenda all stemmed from two friends' all-too valid understanding that women's magazines rarely if ever seem to address things that real women or indeed, more widely, real people, actually care about. The word 'vagenda' was spotted by one of our editorial team as a terrible composite term used to describe a driven female's ambitions. (For a hilarious and yet biting insight into the linguistic epidemic that is the tendency to 'create one word when two (or none) will do', check out Natalie Cox's 'Chiktionary Corner').

Angry and frustrated by the way that not only language but feminity is becoming increasingly marginalised and pigeonholed within this widespread and wholly demeaning phraseology in the media, it was thought that something had to be done so The Vagenda was set up as a means to 'sift through the shit'. 

For a far more eloquent and erudite call-to-arms about The Vagenda's 'agenda', check out original 'Letter from the Editor'.

I'm hoping that my own contributions will look predominantly at the position of women in music and art but I'm aiming to produce other articles too. My first piece is a short essay called, 'Cut: Revising the Influence and Legacy of The Slits'.

At any rate, I'm so honoured to be a member of The Vagenda's editorial team and thoroughly encourage people to have a look at the diverse and genuinely impressive array of material that's been uploaded thus far.

VOTE VAN HOWLING

Just a very quick post encouraging everyone to vote for the mighty Van Howling on Uni Music League at the link below:

http://www.unimusicleague.com/index.php?rid=66&title=bresult

Van Howling truly is an awesome and unique band. Check out my previous review for a more comprehensive description:

http://trashofcamden.blogspot.com/2011/09/behold-van-howling-hear-him.html


Also, I'd thoroughly recommend catching this marvellous quartet live at The Hideaway on Thursday 15th December.

DECEMBER DELIGHTS

Here's a little round-up of some exciting events going on during December 2011:

1. If you haven't checked it out already, then the first part of The Palace of Justice's sophomore effort, Once and For All is available for your listening pleasure at the band's myspace page so give it a listen via the link below:

www.myspace.com/thepalaceofjustice

For anyone who's familiar with the band's debut, The Album of Justice, this second album is a very different listening experience altogether, and tracks have been tinkered with, remixed and, in some cases, entirely re-recorded with a level of devotion that's pretty damn impressive.

Part Two will be accessible and up for download via bandcamp (http://thepalaceofjustice.bandcamp.com/) on Friday 9th December (that's THIS friday) and will be launched at a gig on the same day at The Good Ship in Kilburn. Attendees will be given a code that entitles them to a free download of the album. Here's the facebook event for further details:

http://www.facebook.com/#!/events/258863960833181/

2. Following a mighty comeback tour included in which was a gig in the Bowery in New York, Special Needs have released their new single, 'I Agree With Nick' (B-Side: 'Stuck in Human Resources') and it's available for download via iTunes Store and Amazon MP3 store at the link below:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/I-Agree-With-Nick/dp/B006AOUFXC

Everyone should download this exciting single with its storming "Your country hates you and so do I" refrain. It brings together all the vivacity and joie de vivre of classic Funfairs and Heartbreak-era Special Needs with a sense of musical and political urgency that's agitated but, at the same time, full of the indie-pop momentum we've come to expect from both the band's recorded material and incendiary live shows. Plus, the cover art is really excellent.

DOWNLOAD IT. I have.



3. Citing rock n roll stalwarts like Dylan, the Stones and the Beatles alongside literary influences from Edgar Allen Poe to Charles Bukowski, Paddy Griffith is a singer-songwriter of unquestionable quality and well worthy of your esteemed attention.

Check out Paddy's Facebook page for more info:

http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Paddy-Griffith/203511569666850

Trash was fortunate enough to sit in on the recording of a fantastic track called 'Dream in Sterling' when it was recorded during a twelve-hour stretch at the Turnpike Lane studio. What started as an idea for a song based on a series of chord progressions soon flourished into an incredible psychedelic Tarantino-esque stomp complete with moody guitar solos and group hollering, featuring the musical and recording talents of POJ members as well as 'vocal contributions' from other assorted layabouts.

Have a listen to the result at the following link:

http://soundcloud.com/paddygriffithdemos/dream-in-sterling

What's more, Paddy is playing a gig supporting The Louis Jordan Factory Band at The Enterprise in Chalk Farm this Friday. Yep, it's the venue with the cool sound guy and the shaky floor boards. Just don't head downstairs needlessly unless you need to buy a drink or go to the toilet. It's pretty rank down there on a Friday night.

Again, I hate to be a Facebook whore, but here's the event:

http://www.facebook.com/#!/events/190855751001448/

4. And for anyone who's been wondering whatever happened to Killer Blob live music nights and promotion, fear not. Killer Blob returns to its spiritual home, The Hideaway, on Junction Road, for a super-dooper Christmas party with a line-up that's practically salivating. Thursday 15th December will warmly welcome back...

...TH'SHERIDANS

...VAN HOWLING

...and THE PALACE OF JUSTICE  for a night of joyous frivolity, top-class music and festive merriment. All for £3. Plus, there are promises of mince pies and rumours of Christmas live-musical chairs.

Here's the Facebook event with more details:

http://www.facebook.com/#!/events/192765790798944/

Also, Killer Blob is teaming up with Trash and various wonderful friends and compatriots to create a compilation CD of Free New Fucking Exciting Music to be released early next year so keep your eyes and ears open for news about featured artists and celebratory gigs. It's all very exciting. Hurray for December!

HURRY UP, WE'RE DREAMING

“Yeah, I’ve got a question. Does John Hughes know you raid his soundtracks?”:

M83’s Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming (2011)

This new M83 album is completely excessive in practically every way. Not content with being the most shameless 80s homage conceivable – the synths and cleanly click-drummed tracks sound like they may as well have crawled into 2011 off a John Hughes film soundtrack – Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming is a DOUBLE ALBUM of this kind of material.

It is melodramatic and overblown, like a lot of teen drama I suppose, Hughesian or otherwise, and M83 mastermind Anthony Gonzalez certainly knows what he’s doing in creating such shiny, syrupy-sweet dream pop. However, sometimes glistens so much with the glow of nostalgia that it can only ever really sit on the surface of its own veneer shell. This is essentially where Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming differs from M83’s triumphant Saturdays = Youth of 2008, which remains one of the most perfect pop confections I’ve ever lapsed ears on. Tracks like ‘Kim & Jessie’ and ‘Graveyard Girl’ were certainly Hughesian, there’s no denying that, only I’d argue that theirs was a tribute that employed the tropes within films like The Breakfast Club and Pretty in Pink to create valid electronica for the C20 which, whilst nostalgic, felt both gorgeous and fresh.

Don’t get me wrong, a lot of the tracks on Hurry Up are listenable enough. Some, like ‘Reunion’, are fairly excellent examples of Gonzalez’s unmistakeable style. The “You make me feel myself” refrain, vaguely UB40ish in its delivery, is a joyous declaration against teenage angst set against Simple Minds-friendly channels of golden electro beats and feather-light guitar-play. Others however, just don’t do, well, anything. And that wouldn’t necessarily be a bad thing only on some of the songs on this double album, much of the euphoric, soaring synthesisers and interspersed spoken word fragments are so recycled that they almost suggest an homage of an eighties homage rather than the ode itself.

Compared to Saturdays = Youth, the vocals used on Hurry Up are less woozy and in general, considerably more shouty (‘Claudia Lewis’) which are not nearly as effective as the teenage utterances that formed the bedrock of Saturdays = Youth.

I hate to say it, but, on the whole, Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming feels a little contrived. The unusual, childlike ‘Raconte-Moi Histoire’ is all well and good but, whilst I’m well aware that Gonzalez is French, the casual, sporadic use of French language smacks a bit of unnecessary pretension, especially when you consider that it’s a story about a frog. When songs do work however, like the aforementioned ‘Reunion’, it makes for enjoyable fare. Quel dommage. The female voice saying “You hit my face like a lightning rod, capsized me and doused me in your bay” sounds like a sample of Carry On film innuendo, but is nonetheless somehow sugary sweet given this most candi(e)d of treatments by M83. What’s more, listen to the song’s opening chords and then put something like ‘Thieves Like Us’ by New Order straight afterwards and I’ll guarantee you’ll marvel at the authenticity of the drums of the former when placed beside an actual example of 80s electronic pop.

It remains difficult however to view these occasional treats in isolation when the greater whole of which they are a part is so lacking in substance beyond the initial splendour of an opening synth-laden overture.

To give Gonzalez his due credit however, some of the short minute-and-a-half interludes like ‘This Bright Flash’ and ‘Where the Boats Go’ are nice enough and do unite the tracks and their romantic fairytale quality; an insatiable number of references to the sea making for an Owl and the Pussycat of shiny synth-pop fables. This, I would say, is the double album’s real saving grace, its naivety. Whilst bordering on superficial a lot of the time, this is, I think, largely a result of an unwillingness to stray from a winning set of sonic, aesthetic and atmospheric formulae.

I have to wonder if Gonzalez had gone out of his way to do something wildly different from what he usually does, whether the reviews of such efforts would be as unimpressed as some have been of Hurry Up (though, obviously for reasons based on unfamiliarity rather than the call of ‘same old same old M83’).

There’s a lot to be said for the age-old adage of ‘It it ain’t broke, don’t fix it’. However, this becomes problematic if the thing in question maybe needs a crack or two on its surface for us to know that there is something underneath risking damage. There clearly is something under M83’s retro-print, gold lame façade, but it would easily be skirted over based on this latest effort and without any knowledge of Gonzalez’s earlier work.

On the whole however, Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming isn’t a bad effort. Then again, it doesn’t really feel like an ‘effort’ as such at all. If it weren’t for the fact that Gonzalez demonstrates such acute and diligent sensitivity to his recreation of the tonal nuances of ‘typical’ 80s synthesisers, their often chiming quality and the cinematic connections of such, I’d say it was almost a lazy album. Gonzalez does at least replicate a Hughesian dream pop with an incredible sense of panache that’s, in my opinion, superior to any neighbouring contemporaries producing comparable music today.

Indeed, there is no doubt in my mind that I’ll find myself listening to this album as an antidote to the imminent change in temperature we’re facing now that winter is fast approaching. Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming is like that feeling you get at the start of summer when you’re a kid when it feels like the holidays could last forever. It’s misinformed, but at the time, it feels so real. At times, this album sounds so innocently virtuous and that’s always been the real beauty of M83, for me at least. In this double album, Gonzalez hands us an opportunity for pure dream pop escapism and there’s a lot to be said for that when the days start getting shorter and it’s the nights, rather than the summer, that seem to go on forever.