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Thursday 22 September 2011

**FROM THE ARCHIVES**



There are so few videos of Bratmobile from this time in their career that when I found this today I knew I had to share it immediately.

Great video of Bratmobile playing in Manchester in 1992. Heads up to Chunkletguy who also has some great videos of other 90s bands including Huggy Bear and Versus.

Girls Get Busy Mixtape Want Your Demos


Although I officially make the best feminist mixtapes this side of South London, don't believe me check my track record, I'll allow someone else to have a go at it. Sisterhood and all says I should doesn't it.

Girls Get Busy, a feminist collective supporting female musicians, artists and writers, is searching for bands to fill up their second Chixtape mix tape.

Given the brilliance of their first mixtape, available here, I have high hopes that their second mixtape is going to be just as amazing.

If you wanna get in on the feminist mixtape action then send over your demos to girlsgetbusyzine@gmail.com.

For more information: girlsgetbusyzine.tumblr.com

Monday 19 September 2011

**MIXTAPE ALERT** My Alternative Workout Mix


I hate to admit it as a feminist, a rational human being and a lover of things coated in chocolate I have a problem with my weight. I'm a tad bigger than I should be and no amount of positive thinking can console me when I'm crying in a Topshop changing room because a pair of size 14 jeans won't fit my 'curvy' behind.*

So I did the most unfeminist thing I could do along with being a serious drain on my bank account. I joined the gym. Now although I joined about 5 hours ago I already feel better but there's one thing that's bugging me. The club-tastic, uniform yawn-inducing music that gets belched through the gym's enormous loud speakers.

It's just SO awful. Who believed that we had to be numb to workout properly. I rebel, I say no I don't want to listen to Akon, I don't want to hear the god awful David Guetta more than once and I certainly don't want to find out what N-Dubz actually sound like.

You can work up a sweat and listen to some meaningful music whilst you're at it so here is my personal gym mix which I'll hopefully be using 3-4 times a week to lose around 13lbs over the next 2 months. Wish me luck.

Tracklisting:
1. Freak Like Me- Sugababes
2. 4th July- Kelis
3. Bloody Ice Cream- Bikini Kill
4. Youth Decay- Sleater-Kinney
5. Clara Bow- 50 Foot Wave
6. Sound of Kuduro- Buraka Som Sistema
7. Stutter- Elastica
8. Lime House- Breeders
9. Deceptacon- Le Tigre
10. Bulletproof- La Roux
11. Counting Backwards- Throwing Muses
12. Infinity Guitars- Sleigh Bells
13. Credit Card Babies- MEN
14. Hot n Cold- Katy Perry
15. Dusk Til Dawn- Ladyhawke
16. Just A Song About Ping Pong- Operator Please
17. Alala- CSS
18. Talk To Me- Peaches
19 Pretend We're Dead- L7
20. Bootylicious- Destiny's Child
21. Honeybear- Yeah Yeah Yeahs
22. Swan Lake- Thomas Tantrum
23. Celebrity Skin- Hole
24. Got Body If You Want It- Gossip
25. You'll Find A Way (Remix)- Santigold
26. Ice Cream- New Young Pony Club
27. Club Action- Yo Majesty
28. Declare Independence- Bjork



* This didn't really happen... it was a skirt and I didn't cry on account of me being dead inside.

Wednesday 7 September 2011

**UNDER COVER** No I Don't Have A Gun











PJ Harvey Wins Her Second Mercury Prize


PJ Harvey became the winner of the Mercury Prize 2011 and the first person to win the prize twice last night at the Mercury Awards.

Beating off artists such as Katy B, Adele and Tinie Tempah Harvey won the £20,000 award with her critically acclaimed album Let England Shake an album influences by the horrors of war and the intricacies of her home England.

Harvey first won the Mercury prize in 2011 for her album Stories From The City, Stories From The Sea. In her acceptance speech Harvey thanked her management, her band and mentioned that the last time she won the Mercury it was 9/11 and she was watching the Pentagon burn from her hotel room in Washington.




Now in my opinion although Adele, Katy B and Tinie Tempah and made amazing albums they were no competition for Harvey. It was almost unfair to pit artists who just made their debut album against one with a 20-year career.

Over the years Harvey has released 10 studio albums including 2 collaborations with John Parish.  It has been a good year for Harvey as she was recently awarded for outstanding contribution to music at the NME awards and has spent the last few months playing shows that had sold out in under 10 minutes.

Harvey fans are crossing their fingers in the hope that Harvey will do what other artists have done after winning the Mercury and embark on a new tour though Harvey's notorious dislike of big tours suggests she won't.


Tuesday 6 September 2011

**ONES TO WATCH**


So this Ones to Watch may be a tad premature. The only online evidence, which is the only evidence that matters, of this band's existence is a bandcamp account with three demos on it. You may think I might be rushing it a bit but wait....these demos are immensely awesome. They are so awesome they've made me use the word awesome three times in the last minute, and I hate the word awesome. Hate it.

This band that I've bigged up to ridiculous proportions are Sneakpeek and this is all I know about them. They are an all female band from Echo Park in LA and they are currently working on their debut EP which is rumoured to be coming out later this year.

Even though I've not been able to drag up much from my investigative work on Google I do know that Sneakpeek make fuzzed out, reverb drenched lo-fi tunes straight from the 90s. If you begin your days wondering why everyone doesn't wear plaid anymore or how you could fashion a pair of dungarees out of your mum's old curtains then you are, like me, a 90s addict and you need a dose of Sneakpeek to get rid of your 90s blues. Take a peek at their demo 'Walk All Over Me (Live)' to help you get by. Trust me I'm a doctor.




For more information: sneakpeek.bandcamp.com

Monday 5 September 2011

**SONG OF THE MONTH**


In my humble opinion there's not enough written about The Raincoats. The post-punk revolutionaries were one of the best bands to come out of the aftermath of the London punk scene.

The band broke up after the release of their third album Moving (1984) but reformed in 1994 after Nirvana frontman Kurt Cobain sung their praises and offered them an opening spot on his tour.

More than a decade later though they have not released any new material since Looking in the Shadows (1996) the band are still going strong. They are preparing for a North American tour and are playing ATP in December.

Here's my favourite Raincoats song 'No Looking' which, if you can truly trust YouTube to be an accurate source of information, is a song based on a poem called 'Breakfast' by the Jacques Prevert about a Father.