3/3

For the final part in this trilogy on scrappy three pieces I had the pleasure of talking to Brighton superheroes and Sex Is Disgusting creators Teen Sheikhs.

The band were playing a gig at the Chameleon for Nottingham promoters New Weird Nottingham, as part of a bill with The Dissolutes , Spin Spin the Dogs and not-so-secret headliners Mika Miko (who completely killed it by the way)

To be honest, it was quite a lot to ask to get three people to stand still and talk coherently after such an inebriated and messy gig, but somehow at 3am I got Andy (guitar/vocals), James (drums) and Will (bass) together outside the venue. Though my alcohol consumption level was nowhere near close to anyone else's and my eyelids were just lead weights at that point in the night it was great to just to let them talk at will (and length) about anything they wanted.

TLL: Alright shall we start with the basics? like how you guys got together?

Andy: Yeah, I'll answer that. Basically, me and James run a label together called Sex Is Disgusting and we decided we wanted to start a band. We were a two piece, it was him on drums, me on guitar and vocals. It didn't really sound... it sounded really crap, so then Will lives with James and he's one of our best friends...
Will: I started to say no at the start though.
Andy: Yeah, he wasn't into it at first, we were like 'please play bass he was like 'naaaaaarghhhhh''
Will: Basically James said like 'we were going to ask someone else, but you're the only guy that understands how SHIT we are, will you come play bass for us?'

Andy: We did that, we asked him (Will) and it was...
Will: No no no, (to Andy) you fucked it over once I finally agreed to it was all 'oh no no no. No. Not if you're that shit'. Then I finally agreed to join, me and Andy got wasted, and he was just like 'I'm just not happy for you to be in a band with me'
Andy: Oh god, forgot about that
Will: ...and then there's this guy (points to james) 'fuck yeah, big brother... someone's telling fibbs, 'you said you wouldn't show' - 'you said you're not into it' what the fuck, come.on.man'.
Andy: It was me, I was too drunk to remember, but I said to Will 'I think we're better as a two piece, don't come to practise' ermm, but he did eventually come to A practise and since then, that's been it.

TLL: And how long ago was that?

Will: couple of months?
Andy: 6 months ago?
James: Noooo, no no no.
Andy: (to James) You and me started practising about 5 or 6 months ago.
Will: What was it March?
James: We started practising just after Christmas and then had about four practises so that was like one a week... so three months, pretty much.
Andy: that doesn't make any sense...
James: Three months. round it up,
Will: Round it down
Andy: Anyway basically, we started January, he joined in March,

TLL: How much of those months are spent practising, is it just once a week?

James: Once a week,
Will: Once a week
Andy: Pretty much
Will: Once a week, Wednesday afternoon 3-6
James: No no, actually, no, the only time we haven't done it once a week is when we've been playing - we've actually done like ONCE a week

TLL: Which makes gigs a bit of practise
James: A bit of a chore
Will: 'Hello, fuck this shit, why are we playing shows I'd rather be practising'

TLL: Gettin it really tight...
Andy: Yeah no, we generally practise our shows...
Will: TIGHT!? Tight has never been and never will be our shtick.
James: I do like that idea of hiding yourself away for, you know, six months and emerging as a fully formed band.
Will: Bullshit! Like we'll try so hard and still come out as just a bunch of sloppy bastards... there's nothing that can change that.
James: Will's been playing instruments for errr... since he was young. I've only been playing the drums for as long as I've been playing the drums, which is three years.
Andy and Will: 'I'VE ONLY BEEN PLAYING THE DRUMS FOR AS LONG AS I'VE BEEN PLAYING THE DRUMS!?'
Will: James' other band, some hot shit.
Andy: I've only been playing guitar for about a year, but I don't know the names of any chords or strings.
Will: I don't know what the fuck I'm doing with this sloppy racket, I used to be a piano teacher, this inane knowledge of technical music's all up here's gone out.

At this point the tape stopped, and conveniently enough Henry from Lovvers stepped in and reminds me that I've been using his dictaphone - had genuinely always assumed it was mine.

-TLL: Can we talk about Sex is Disgusting?
Andy: We can talk about whatever you want.
TLL: Why did you form it?
Andy: What the label?
TLL: Yeah
Andy: Erm, basically because they're not enough promoters in Brighton - who are putting on small punk shows, paying bands well, keeping things low, just generally without being sort of cliche, doing something fun and like being D.I.Y. We try to put records out by like bands that we really like. It's all the same things that ever other label says, but we were really exciting when we heard Human Hair and Graffiti Island and just thought like 'yeah maybe someone else will put them out, but lets just kinda go for it and ask them and do it'. I just wanna put records out that I wanna hear, and go to shows, put on shows rather, that I wanna to go to. And that's how this kind of happened.
James: student loans coming up kinda helped.
Will: at the start of each term 'Ooo! A 7 inch'!
James: Yeah you can tell the release schedule is based around student loan payments

TLL: Are all three of you students then?
Andy: James does illustration at Brighton, but I do media and cultural studies at Sussex
Will: ...Fisher Price Degree
Andy: That's not a fisher price degree!
Will: I did do music and visual art at Brighton, now I work for a fucking Nathan Barley Advertising company... it sucks. Everyday at work 'oh you brought your pig in, oh you bought your N64,

TLL: What have you got coming up with SID, is there anything in the pipeline at all - have you been asking any bands
Andy: Yeah, like erm, we put out the Human Hair 7" and we were going to put out the Graffiti Island 7" next but erm, they've just kinda of been tinkering around, experimenting and kina being really slow coming up with stuff. Every time that they think that they're like 'yeah yeah, like it's almost ready' - they kinda just change their mind again. Conan's one of my friends, so I just said to him, could we maybe... wait a bit?
So instead, we'll do Mazes next, a band from Manchester sort of musically rock influenced
TLL: It's just one guy isn't it?
James: It was one guy
Andy: The guy who wrote the songs was one guy, Jack wrote the songs. They're a full band now, like a constant line up

Andy: Then after that the Graffitti Island 7", then Thee Fair Ohs from London, they're like a garage band if they played like 10 times faster and liked I dunno.. Swing Kids. They're super fast
James: And Eddies' obsessed with Ornette Cole and John Coltrane, and Matt just really wants to play 60's garage and...
Andy: The drummer just wants to be in a hardcore band
James: He's just playing blast beats
Andy: It all coalesced into a really insanely fast garage band
James: Then after that I don't know. we don't have an order for set list
Andy: No we do! We've got... those are the first four, we set those, and the next two after that are
James: Mazes
Andy: The Bitters, a Band called The Bitter from Canada. who are the first band we've signed from outside the UK. We're generally gonna focus on UK bands, but we really like them and they're nice people. It's like Ben (guitarist/vocalist) that plays in Fucked Up and used to be in a Hardcore band called No Warning.
James: Yeah
Andy: After that, the Pens and Mazes split
James: Yeah
Andy: Everything else is up for grabs
James: We'll do something with Trash Kit, we'll do something with La La Vasquez, probably release something on our own blah blah blah. I dunno, there's just too much good UK stuff at the moment
Andy: SID are gonna like, just stop doing shows over the summer and just concentrate on records until like Septemeber/October - our last show till then is Finally Punk (link for the event). We're just gonna take a break to concentrate on putting records out, cause we've got a bit of a back log and it needs being done basically.


TLL; With the whole Lo fi/UK thing it always seems like all these bands seem to know each other, all really incestuous- do you feel connected to a scene - playing the same kinda music and putting out records...
James: it's wierd like, cause we knew all those people long before their 'current bands' existed. like i've known John from Male Bonding long before Male Bonding or PRE existed. Similarly we've known plenty of other bands like Conan from Graffiti Island and now it seems to be all these...
Will: It's this really amazing happy accident, like oh shit, all these guys I know are making music that I thinks fucking great
James: Some of them have been in really bad bands, we've been in bad bands that they don't like and they've been in bands that I don't like. but suddenly, you're in a band that I like, we're in a band that you like and we're... there's some kind... there is some kind of common thread but i don't think you can sum it up in some certain terms
Andy: I think you put it perfectly by saying 'happy accident'
Will and James: Yeah
Andy: Everyone's friends and knows each other
Will: It's not like a 'Lo-fi' scene, its just like a four tracks a quick way to get music out
Andy: We're all broke and young
James: 'ohhh we need to record really fucking shitty'
Will: That's obviously no one's point of view, but lets start a band

James: It was almost like, it was almost a matter of time, it was a ticking time bomb, people were playing in bands that weren't getting anything released and like, yeah it was just a matter of time. They took it into their own hands, labels like Paradise Vendors start up and House Anxiety - it was only a matter of time before they were like 'lets put these fucking bands out, someone's got to do it, we'll do it ourselves'.

Talking to Teen Sheikhs really was a refreshing a experience and revisiting the tapes over the next few days really highlighted how much energy and positivity the three of them are carrying about and giving to the UK. Mind blowing stuff.

P.S oh yeah, one of the promoters of the show and bassist/drummer of Human Hair James Smith, was going to take photos of the band but was too busy on the night - take a look a james' flickr though - it's very good.

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Mi Ami

Mi Ami are Daniel Martin-Mcormick, Jacob Long and Damon Palermo from San Fransico. Something about Black Eyes, something about African Rythmns, they've just finished a tour of the UK and Europe, perhaps you saw them? Interview here

-Mi Ami seem to be like a Jam band, fleshing out ideas in the live environment - is this how you come up with songs or is the process more traditional?

We write the songs through jamming and leave ourselves room to do what we need to live. I read an interview with Slayer, and Dave Lombardo says that he "wings it" every night, which I think is as good a description as any. We have our parts and we have the songs, but we still just go for it as much as possible. It keeps things fresh.

-Your sound seems to be about molding together abrasive noises and danceable rhythms - was this the intention from the start?

No, there was no intention. Well, actually, I have always had this abstract idea that I want the band to sound like a rainforest, which to me means a lot of unique sounds happening at the same time, in parallel and also in harmony, each with its own unique character, and the sound creating a sonic space that you can explore. But I think the rhythmic and harsher aspects have for to do with making music that we literally and figuratively feel. With some exceptions, I don't really feel much from skronky, start-stop rhythms, or from smooth guitar playing.

-Daniel, your vocal style seems to push your vocal cords to extremes - how much of a strain is it on your voice?

Not much. I've had some training and I've been doing this for a while. I wouldn't do something that would hurt every night. It's more about expression.

-You've been touring Europe now for weeks, playing shows every other day it seems, can places and gigs sometimes blur into one? What cities have been memorable?

Well, first of all, we play shows every day, not every other day. But yes, it can be easy to forget where you were a night or two ago. At the same time, each place is unique and special, so being spaced out has more to do with a constant stream of new information coming your way, and dealing with the routine of change that is travel. All the cities are memorable in their ways, but I am especially fond of brutal cities, like New Orleans and Belfast, or very old cities like Rome.



Echononecho The Hideout in Chicago, IL - Video by Ben Chandler

-Live, Daniel, seems to try to kick start the audience - pushing, pulling and running into them to incite some movement - do people usually respond well to this stimulation?

Yeah they usually get excited. Sometimes I'm a little harsher; the other night in Copenhagen, there were about twelve people in the audience and I look out and this one tall guy is standing right in the middle, texting. So I ran out and tried to take his phone, but then he did the idiotic "Yeah Yeah!! I'm rocking out with you!" move and tried to bear-hug me so I grabbed him by the neck and got him off me. At least he wasn't texting anymore. But that's a special occasion. Usually it's more of a loving gesture, to get people out of their own world and into the psychic space of the show.

-You guys Dj quite a lot, don't you? What new tracks are Mi Ami enjoying?

There's this young guy from Detroit named Kyle Hall. I think he's only seventeen or eighteen years old, but he is incredible, especially his (corny and amazingly-named) song 'I Love Dr. Girlfriend.' I also really like this Black Cock edit called 'Give It Up'. Otherwise, just classic junk... In the van on this tour, we played some classic Crazy Horse era Neil Young, Pharoah Sanders 'Blind Deaf and Dumb', Aphex Twin Selected Ambient Works 1....

-Apart from Metallica, what other great bands are from San Francisco?

Right now, all the good bands are really small and that's exciting. I think in the next year, you will be hearing from J.A.W.S., Psychic Reality, 0th, Inca Ore (well from Oakland) and a few other newly-formed combos that I don't yet know the names of. People seems psyched on Sic Alps and Thee Oh Sees and stuff like that.

-What do the three of you do when not playing music together?

Work, love, live, learn.

Mi Ami can be found online via their Myspace and Record Label

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Suburban bliss

Suburban Bliss is a London-based clothing line that specializes in intricately detailed, screen printed t-shirts. All of the items are made independantly and environmentally friendly with designs that take elements from African motifs to Black Metal theatrics whilst seemingly rejecting the urban landscape about them. I interviewed founder, Toby Shaull, about the company and it's output.

-You've been operating since 2007, how did the company begin? Is Suburban Bliss just yourself or a team of people?

Suburban Bliss has actually existed since 2000 but the first full line of designs came out in Summer 2006. Suburban Bliss is run by me, no one else does anything to do with SB, just me. My girlfriend and other friends help me a lot but I do everything myself.

-What does a typical day for you entail, is Suburban Bliss the only current project of yours?

It depends what is going on and how empty the bank account is. I do a lot of different shit every day some days are 100% dedicated to SB other days I work doing carpentry. Some days carpentry, art, SB, drinking, riding around, running away. Every day is different if every day were the same I would not be able to deal with life.

-The designs seem to be mostly done by yourself, but with additions from other artists here and there. Do you approach people to participate or are the artists friends of yours?

The collection's change every season but I only work with my friends. A lot of designs are not done by me actually it will always say somewhere who did what on the archive blog http://www.suburbanblissarchive.blogspot.com



-Some of the designs of Suburban Bliss mirror contemporaries such as Aurel Schmidt and the illustrations of Alexander Tucker, but where do you take your inspiration from?

I like art, raw art. That is the main inspiration behind the label. Music, art and the earth are the main things behind the imagery. Everyone who contributes makes art firstly and some are illustrators for a living. I make art that is what I am aiming to end up doing with my life I think. My art is very limited I would not describe myself as an illustrator my designs come from head my mind and my surroundings. The things I draw came to me when I was younger spending a lot of time on the tube and thinking. I have ideas that I cannot illustrate so a lot of time I suggest something to one of the people I work with. Not a brief as such but, for example I told Izzie that I would like her to do a graphic with a skull made from flowers so she went off and did and the end results were one of the best t-shirts I have run. I actually used to work for the same guy as Alexander Tucker doing Polish Plastering and he did specialist paint finishes I have never met him myself he left just as I started when he got signed to ATP.

-There are strong visual themes running through your t-shirts, turning away from the built environment around you embracing the natural one, for example the heavy use of animals and faces as well as the outdoor fashion shoots. Is this intentional? Why focus on this particular idea for your designs?

The untouched Earth is the real world - we live in the Human world, the fake world. We are animals who have forgotten what we are we have made a world we control or so we think I just don't like it that much. The Lostalots, the woods it's where I like it is true and beautiful. I am haunted by Nature, I am followed by my past, I live in the city I don't know why anymore one day I will flee. I will escape the entrapment that we have created for ourselves.


-It's entertaining here to see you talk about the processes of t-shirt making, something that I've never really given a moments thought - how hard can it be to get the designs you want onto a shirt?

Most people that make clothing especially printed clothing such as t-shirts make what ever art work and slap it it on a t-shirt. Most of the prints out there are screened in Plasticol which is a plastic based ink it is totally chemical/synthetic and sits on top of the fabric. You know when you get a t-shirt and feels like it has a piece of sand paper stuck on it, I hate this, so 90% of what I make now is using discharged water based ink. This is not to harmful to the environment when washed off the screen and it embedded into the fabric so you can't feel the print. Screen printing is an art like any creative method it can become as complicated as you you want it to become. We print everything in London by hand, every print is inspected and tested, Stuart who prints my stuff is in a place where other screen printers all work in the same premises they rent the space from an artist called Rob Ryan all of them have been screening for many years. So they are the dons of screening no one can touch them.

-DoBeDo.co.uk, seems like an incredibly help/useful website, how did your association with it come about?

DO BE DO is my friends Tyrone Lebon's web site, we have an arrangement, so he is my online shop he helps me out - he is an amazing human I love him. DO BE DO is trying to put creative stuff out there, helping creative people who are making/doing stuff show it. Ever since I met Tyrone he has always helped me and everyone around him, he is a good dude I am stoked we are both doing are own thing and trying to survive.


-Was your background in skateboarding a way of leading you into the work you do now: how you met contacts and creative people etc?

I used to be a professional skateboarder I was involved with the industry side of skateboarding since quite a young age so yeah definitely. I helped launch 2 skateboard companies. I grew up skating at Harrow Skate Park where this distributor used to be based. I remember doing work experience there when I was 15 and folding t-shirts.

-What are your plans for the rest of the year, are you working on a new collection already?

I have been working really hard finishing of summer 2010 line I am making shirts 100% inside the M25 everything has been made inside London's perimeters printed, sewn together and all components have been purchased inside the M25. Keep on going stay alive and I am going to Italy on a long planned Art sabbatical. I am so excited about that I am gonna work on my own art one day i will do show just need to finish all the work.

Suburban Bliss have a brand new website launched this week, of course it's incredible

And for all you London tykes out there's a sale on this weekend, with prices going from just £2.50



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1/3

London band, Male Bonding are the classic three piece of guitars, bass and drums. Except that they throw in such ridiculous levels of restlessness and energy to each instrument and then take away any kind of studio refinement that the results can end up sounding like a tin can version of The Mae Shi or a Liars on Drive Thru records.

The Band also run Paradise Vendors Inc label, who've put out tapes and 7"s by peers such as Rapid Youth, Graffiti Island, Hand Jobs, Pens and Talbot Tagora.

Guitarist and Vocalist John Arthur Webb lovingly answered some questions about the band, the label, not playing SXSW, having Health to stay and scenes. Click below for the interview in full

Basic, basic, basic - How did Male Bonding get together, what do the three of you do with the rest of your time?

We were friends, we all liked the beach boys - so we started playing together. We all live together now, so in our spare time we do things like moan about our poorly fitted kitchen, practice in Robin's room, play host to touring LA bands (last night was the return of HEALTH) and chase each other around the garden flicking each other with rolled up tea towels. You know the vibe.

-You guys, Pens, Graffiti Island etc seem to be all good friends and play similar music, do you feel attached to a scene at all?

I feel attached to any band that wants to take there music and handle it in their own way, and keep control of what they do. There are some great UK bands emerging that deserve to get some of the spotlight that US bands get. Graffiti Island are my favourite band in London. I have utter respect for them as people, and the way they handle their business. they are not competitive and are totally supportive. Conan from Graffiti Island is like our 4th member. If we're not sure about playing a show or doing a release, then we ask him. There was a time when he was being cc'd on all our band emails.

'Pumpkin' Live

-Your sound seems to be something akin to pop-punk but tinny and rough around the edges, what is it about this lo-fi sound that you like? Do you think you'll always record this way?

My heart lies in lo-fi diy recordings. Sometimes we think it would be nice to record properly, so you can hear all the vocals etc but we always revert back to "live" sounding recordings. I always think "lo-fi" recordings hold a lot more mystery, and are generally more exciting.

-You went to SXSW this year, how was your reception?

We went to sxsw, but didn't end up playing any MB shows for various reasons. We got offered to play one of the Killer Bridge shows, but Kevin almost died one night, which kinda knocked the wind out of our sails. We were there doing our thing with another band also, so we didn't have much time for MB.

Male Bonding in America

-Male Bonding has a pretty great blog, is it something that's important to you?

Blogs are fun. I'm so not into anything negative - people that use the internet, blogs etc to blow shit at other people / bands etc should take a long, hard look at themselves. It's so easy to hide behind a screen. Don't go out of your way to get involved in something you don't want to be involved in - that's my problem with the internet. Our blog could be better, and hopefully it will be one day. We are lazy though.

-Paradise Vendors Inc is the record label you run, with it there seems to be an emphasis on physical releases that are well-designed, colourful products - would you agree with this?

Yeah - our label is very important to us. It's important to us to help out bands that we like. Our releases have all sold out so far, which is a pretty great achievement. If you are going to the trouble of paying to press a 7", then you might as well make it look nice - it's not difficult, we all love records. If we can do it, then anyone can.

Split 7" w/ Pens

-What upcoming releases do you have with PVI?

Well, the next release is just about to come out. That's a split with us, graffiti island, and 2 US bands, Rapid Youth and Old Blood, both of whom are awesome, and we are super happy to be putting out their songs.

The next release looks like it will be another 4 way split. We are just waiting to confirm the line-up. As it stands, it's pretty amazing.

-What are the future plans for Male Bonding?

Drink more coffee. Move to LA. Put down some turf in our garden before summer kicks in.

Male Bonding are online at myspace.com/malebonding
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'Laziness is the mother of invention'

The Journal of Popular Noise is a semi-annual audio magazine founded in late 2007 and inspired by 'the traditions of pop music, printed periodicals, and the delight of a finely crafted artifact'.

The Journal contains bespoke recordings on 7" vinyl by musicians and collaborators such as: Climax Golden Twins, Past Lives (former Blood Brothers), Pontious Pilots, Copy, Dutch Dub, Na + Jenko, Bora Yoon + Ben Frost and will soon include Andrew W.K amongst its list of contributors.

I was fortunate enough to not only pick up one of these brilliantly crafted packages from New York recently but also to get a interview with The Journal's founder and NYC Parsons School of Design graduate, Byron Kalet.

-The JPN began as a project at University, what was the original stimulus for the project?

As it was my final project at Parsons, I was trying to make it a culmination of everything I liked making. The assignment was totally open so I just tried to fit everything into one project. I had been trying to focus on sound design and publication design so it seemed like the natural thing to do.

-Your background's in design but do you have any history in creating music zines etc?

I had never really thought about making a music zine in the tradition of DIY punk zines before. I was in bands all throughout my teens and early twenties, so I was very involved with music but I wasn't that interested design or magazines back then. I liked making everything else though, t-shirts, stickers, flyers, record art, and all that. I guess I saw it as more of an outlet for the literary people in the punk scene who weren't musicians. I already had so much going on that I didn't feel the need to mine that territory, plus it was pretty well worn territory before I even got into that stuff. I've definitely drawn on some of the ethos in terms of a means of production but aesthetically I've made a conscious decision to avoid that connection.

Issues 4-6

-How do you go about approaching bands for the project, is there a selection process?

When I first got started, I just asked my friends who I grew up playing with if they would be interested in being a part of this ridiculous idea I had. I expected everyone to blow me off but what happened was quite the opposite. I ended up with more music than I could publish, which I think pissed some people off. I eventually put it all out there though. I just happen to be lucky enough that my friends are amazing musicians and artists. Now I'm expanding into working with people I haven't met before. I think that there is an editorial voice within the people I choose to work with, but its sort of serendipitous. We also have a list of dream contributors, maybe we'll be able to get someday.

-For the recordings you set down certain guidelines for the artists to follow, how receptive are they to these suggestions? Did you find that some followed them and others strayed away from your intentions?

Well the biggest surprise is how excited people are about having constraints. I thought that no one would want to have someone tell them how to write a song. It's sort of like the cliched scene of the bigwigs at the record label trying to inhibit an artist expression so they can squeeze a hit song out of them. But in my case, everyone is really eager to comply! I don't understand it. I guess for most of them it's just something they've never done - it's a new challenge so it's fun. And obviously not motivated by finances. A few people have strayed from the format but I like that too. I imagine some kid in front of his stereo racking his brain trying to figure how how some crazy thing fits the format when it's actually off in some another world.

-Do the guidelines vary from issue to issue, do you play about with the rules at all?

I keep them the same in every edition. I think this one of the most interesting parts of the series. My favourite moment is when iI get a new recording in from someone and I get to see how they interpreted the rules. Every new record makes all the ones before it more interesting. Does that make sense?

-The layout of the magazine is something that people always seem respond positively to, how did it come about, who designed it?

I designed that also, although I feel like I can't take too much credit for it. Basically, the packaging came about because it was the only way I could figure out how to put 3 records together in a sleeve without having to cut or glue anything. Laziness is the mother of invention. Once I had that worked out, I just used the die-lines to dictate the typographic grid. It all kinda fell into place. I did draw a new typeface for the titles, which was based on the main text typeface - Avenir. I wanted a super thin sans-serif that would be really unique and graphically identify The JPN.

-Rather than tapes or Cds The JPN uses vinyl only, what do you prefer about it?

Well, I've written a lot about this topic. Basically, vinyl records are such an elegantly simple way of listening to sounds. Since vinyl records were invented we've seen a wide variety of other methods try to replace them, but nobody seems to be able to top it. One of the main tenets of the Journal is to create a really powerful physical relationship with music and vinyl is just the best way to do it. Same story with the letterpress printing, I don't want people to see this thing as a nostalgic throw back. The methods of production are just what I consider to be the best way to achieve my goals.

-What have been your favourite releases or songs so far?

I have to say I think they're all outstanding. Most of these artists are old friends of mine and I've heard every record they've done. The records they've done for the Journal have to be some of their best work. A few stand out, Past Lives (issue 7) are one of the most amazing new bands out of Seattle. Linda & Ron's Dad (issue 12) made their entire record out of David Bowie samples, which came out amazing. And Dutch Dub's record (issue 2) is also an old fav, he ties the whole issue together with a narrative sailor theme. It's like a tiny opera, so cool. I feel like the issues that are most successful are the ones where people bring another concept or element to it.

-What music have you been enjoying recently?

Most of what I'm listening to at the moment is 70's German Krautrock, Electronic, and Prog. I have a good friend who has been compiling all the best jams for me. Beyond that I've been into Blank Dogs, who are a really scrappy sounding lo-fi band out of Brooklyn, sort of in the same vain as Wavves and other bands like that. I've been really digging the last Matmos record (would love to have them contribute to the JPN).

Issue 1-3

-The way JPN works is somewhat akin to a record label, do you ever think you'll go down that path?

Yeah, actually I co-released the debut record from Truckasauras with Seattle label fourthcity and I'm about to release an EP from another Seattle band called Flexions. Both bands had contributed to the Journal in the past under different names and it seemed like a natural progression to continue that relationship.

-JPN is reaching its 2nd birthday this year, how long you plan on keeping it going? What's changed in the time that you've been running it?

I'm trying to keep this thing going for as long as I can. But that remains to be seen. It still seems to be gaining momentum and I think the spring/summer edition is going to really kick it up a notch. Its going to be an all spoken word edition featuring Andrew W.K., Ian Svenonius, Walker & Cantrell. I just got the Andrew WK record this morning and it is insane. Couldn't be more excited about it. I think the biggest change is that we're more confident in what were doing! At first it was like this little thing i was making in my living room but before I knew it we've been able to reach people from Japan to Australia. It's a really great feeling to know that you're a part of something that people from all over are enjoying and as excited about as I am.

The Journal of Popular Noise can be found online at popularnoise.net.

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The 90s

What the hell is wrong with Kate Moss's voice?

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"Thanks, thanks a lot"

Probably missing the boat on this one by about 30 days but I'll paddle along anyway. The video above is of Joaquin Phoenix appearing on The Late Show with David Letterman last month. The painfully funny and curt interview generated quite the stir at the time - even prompting this dire little skit by Ben Stiller at the Oscars.

Less unimaginative parodies, however, have been made of the interview Phoenix conducted on the same day with Katey Rich of Cinemablend.com. In it he speaks candidly (and more importantly clearly) about his move to hip hop and his dissaffection with acting.

There something about Phoenix that makes him such an endearingly tragic character, despite the media's (I say the media's, I of course mean EVERYONES) incredulous speculation over his new vocation he seems completely earnest about it, even slightly losing his temper with the interviewer for second guessing him.

Maybe it's his involvement with The Children of God or the death of his brother, but even generic I'm-a-celebrity-get-me-out-of-here comments such as:

"In some ways I wish that I wasn't a public figure, I wish that I didn't have expectations"

Just completely slay me every time. Heartbreaking stuff.

Click here for interview in full

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P-rock

Launched in 2002 with the tiniest of budgets, P-Rock was a independant digital music channel set up by two South Londoners. It's playlist consisted of mostly pop-punk, ska, skate punk, emo as well as some hardcore, and as a result proved a unexpected success at the time averaging out at 600,000 viewers a week.

The channel, run by a small team of staff with no previous experience in television, differed greatly from other music stations: just one type of specialist rock music, no presenters, only one type of regular 'show' (a weekly countdown) and little to no advertising - a factor that would lead to the channel being taken off air numerous times, eventually for good in November 2003.

I asked one of the co-founders, Mark Shipman, about this saccharine anomaly in my teenage viewing schedule. Shipman who is now respected economist and soon to be celebrating his 47th birthday, has published books, holds seminars, advises banks and other institutions as well as infrequently appearing on television as a guest expert. Still pretty punk rock though.

-What were your first memories of the punk scene in the 70's, how did you get involved? What were your favourite releases/clubnights?

I remember just how scared everyone was of the punk movement. The “establishment” genuinely thought this was anarchy and they were very worried. Being a teenager and part of such a movement was a real buzz. Having had to grow up with Gary Glitter and The Wombles, punk was a breath of fresh air. During the 70’s, although I lived very near Bromley, I wasn’t part of the Bromley Contingent although I knew one or two of them. To be honest, I was just into the music and went to gigs like most people. My favourite bands at the time were Generation X, UK Subs, Pistols, Buzzcocks, The Damned and a couple of local bands (Rodney & The Failures and Fucking Useless) who never made a record.

-How did you go about setting up the channel initially? What were the protocols like to get it on air?

Setting the channel up was hard work. We had to jump through a number of hoops with Sky and the music collection/copyright agencies. What made it harder were we were just a couple of South London geezers as opposed to some suited corporate outfit. It took us a long time to be taken seriously.

UK acts that would normally never get any airtime on other stations found an audience on P-rock. Jesse James (here with 'Shoes') show off two of the main themes that these British bands usually shared: a cheaply made video and love of ska.

-How many people were involved in the running of the channel? How hands on was the process?

The channel was set up by two people, myself and my good mate Lol Pryor. It was Lol who had idea for the channel. Just before we went live, we recruited a third person, Russell Aldrich (former Epitaph Europe Records head of marketing).

-The channel and website came about before the days of mainstream broadband, youtube and viral videos, would you have been able to do p-rock online if it was created nowadays?

Yes, I think it would be a lot easier to do on-line!

-Was it simpler to have a channel run entirely by fan votes rather than the way that every other music station does/did things?

P-rock used a computer software package (similar to the one used by the other channels at the time) to record the phone votes and then adjust the play list. This was the easiest way for us to operate, especially as there was only three of us running the channel.

Millencolin - Fox (Epitaph Records))

-P-rock's playlist consisted of mostly American bands, mostly playing skate punk or ska, mostly on American labels, did you have any connection to these bands or was it a case of enjoying what was being selected and popular at the time?

When we began to turn the idea of a music channel into P-rock, most labels never even returned our calls. Therefore, we could only play the videos we were sent. The American labels got the idea better than most and in particular Epitaph were very helpful. Hence the American dominated play list.

-P-rock were quite liberal in the videos they played in terms of adult content, did you care much that you were showing 18+ videos?

We always-pixilated videos to be shown after the 9pm watershed. I remember spending hours on an editing machine taking out tits, dicks and such like. That said, we know a couple got under the radar, but it didn’t do too much harm to the channels reputation.

-At what point did P-rock no longer seem financially viable?

Running a satellite channel is a very expensive business; the monthly broadcast fee to Sky just to use a satellite was over £40k a month. Our plan was to have enough funds to cover the channels operating costs until the advertisers come in. We anticipated this would take a few months.

However, the problem actually came from the channels success. Within just two weeks of launchinh and with a marketing budget of only £2k, we were receiving 50% of Kerrang TV viewing figs and it was similar for MTV2. This obviously pissed off the owners of these channels, who we believe then operated, a cartel on us with advertisers.

No reasonably large advertiser would place an ad on p-rock because they wouldn’t be allowed to have ads on the other 11 music channels run by the two big corporates. At that point, we knew our days were numbered. Our viewers loved the fact there were hardly any adverts but as a channel we couldn’t live on thin air and the revenue from phone votes was just too small. Something had to give and in the end we ran out of money.

I'd like to think that other people have as fond memories as... wait what I am talking about. This song is still fantastic, Home Grown -You're Not Alone

-Odds are probably against you getting recognised in the street but do you ever think about the legacy that P-Rock left?

Now and again I read or get sent something about P-rock and it does make me feel proud. When you think that two blokes, who knew absolutely nothing about TV other than watching it, had an idea, wrote it on the back of a fag packet and then turned it into the fastest growing music channel in Europe, I’m very proud. Also, to have influenced as many people as it did is a nice legacy.

-What advice would you give to someone trying to set up an independent channel in 2009?

My advice to anyone thinking of setting up a channel - start with a large fortune and expect to have a small one at the end. The journey is great but it’s not a cheap one.

Looking back, P-Rock can seem incredibly dated and of its time. Yet with the effect that it had, in shaping the musical tastes and ears of countless impressionable youths across the country and also in providing hours upon hours of sheer joy and entertainment to hundreds of thousands, the channel and its creators should be remembered with warmth and fondness rather than the embarrassment and shame that you would associate with other teenage escapades, like not any reading books and liking Static X.

Mark Shipman can be found online at trendfollewer.com

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Looga, Barooga

Chris Pell is an illustrator and student currently living in Brighton, he creates intricately detailed and irresistibly grotesque drawings and videos. I interviewed him recently and asked some questions here and there, read and enjoy -

-TLL: You've been drawing now for years, how would you say your style has developed? 

No, I totally agree. It's funny, I never really see my self change the way I work but in retrospect it has changed a lot. Studying in Brighton was the biggest influence, I stopped listening to certain types of music and got into others and just meeting other people around other courses introduced me to other influences. The whole sort of focus on human contortion and figurative work came from loving fantasy art I think. It's just so great, I grew up with a book of the works by Boris Vallejo, I kind of imagined illustration would be something like that until I came to uni and got my dreams shattered.

Flyer designed for Crystal Antlers show in Brighton

-You've had links with plenty of bands/musicians, being commissioned to do cover art and graphics, how did you get approached to draw these works and how do you go about the illustration., do you try and stick to the feel of the song/band or just create and see how it goes?

Bands would generally stumble across my page or a blog and sometimes ask for work but most of the time I would approach artists I really like and ask if we can work together. I was lucky with university that it gave me a chance to work with musicians like Joe Howe (Germlin, Ben Butler & Mousepad) and not worry about money or time because it allowed me to manipulate any piece of work into a self-initiated project. But yeah because I was contacting people like Joe I was able to generally do whatever I wanted, I think making the drawing or animation fit the music is generally the golden rule.

-Looking at your website recently, I have to ask who these commissioned photographs are for and what inspired the project?

As a matter of fact the two photographs were part of course project to re-design a chosen album cover. I chose Witch's self-titled album and worked with graphic designer Joe Porter to help set up each photograph. The music fitted quite well with what we had in mind and I was getting into the body paint stuff a lot. I'm hoping to use these images further and possibly make a music video of some sort in the near future.

'Mary'

-For an illustrative artist a website can be quite restricting, how do you choose to present your work to an audience/the viewer?

At the moment Chrispell.co.uk isn't what I want it to be, there's going to be a big re-vamp on the horizon with a much nicer interface. I agree it's difficult to properly show what you're about on a monitor screen, so I've got a few fingers in various pies trying to get my work out there. Generally for the internet though I've been setting up all kinds of accounts, flickr has been the most recent and also vimeo.

'Will to Power' - Print available for purchase

-Your work always seems so creative and eclectic, do you draw inspiration from any non-artistic influences?

I suppose it depends on what you mean by non-artistic. I like looking at anything really that's genuine, I try my best not to look at other illustrators, its like poison that is, can't get out of your head. I watch a lot of films and listen to a lot of music which both help me draw, I also like the internet. a lot. It's pretty bad but I like going on blog binges and youtube sprees, its amazing how much effort people put into things that never have any point. Like the other day I found myself searching "me singing..." and watching videos of people filming themselves singing, then watching people crit them over webcam.

-And whilst on the subject of influences what aural delights have you been surrounding yourself with recently?

Without namedropping I'm listening to a lot of hip hop recently like Big L and also bands like Abe Vigoda and Pavement but that's when I'm in a good mood, when somethings wrong like I'm skint or its raining I'll put on some wolves or hot cross.

Music Video created for Germlin

-You've been experimenting with videos, creating for bands and artists, why did you choose to branch out in this way? do you think you'll be continuing your work in this medium?

I'm not really sure, as I've said I'm looking to do a music video of some sort but in terms of my animations I think I'll come back to that. I started playing around with after effects when I wondered what it would be like to animate my drawings, it was fun but very time consuming. I'd usually take a few days on a drawing but it takes me weeks to do a small animation, a lot of drive gets lost and I find myself trudging along, drawing trees and mountains for ages. I make it sound like I don't enjoy it but I do though, nothings more satisfying than seeing your pictures move.

-Your current residence, Brighton always seems like such vibrant and busy city, how has living there affected your work and yourself?

Brighton is crazy, I grew up in Shepshed which was a small town near Loughborough, and came here after foundation not knowing anybody. Coming from such a dry, angry town to a tiny city full of art school kids was funny. I got used to it pretty fast but its like a little shielding bubble, you meet pretty much everyone who lives here and no one can misbehave otherwise everyone knows about it. It's a lively place though, a couple of years ago I co-started a club night called which is taking a lot more shape. It gives me the chance to vent any other work I want to do to use through club night flyers and posters.

Flyer designed for Angry Dance Party VI a clubnight Chris runs

-What have you got coming up in the future? You mentioned moving to New York, do you think you'll ever make it to there?

Wow I wish. It's been on my mind for the last year or so but I'd love to stay in America for a few months. Money seems to have issues with me (as opposed to the other way round). I think I may stay in Brighton for another year and maybe think about moving to the big grey LDN and hopefully get a job doing what I enjoy, drawing and taking fantasy pictures, then who knows, land of the free I think.

For more details as well as prints for sale, see chrispell.co.uk and for more images see his flickr
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