• SchNEWS – Direct Action Newsheet – Brighton University’s Vice Chancellor must be kicking himself. The university was on lock-down yesterday (Nov30), not out of support for the strike, but to prevent a possible occupation. Unfortunately for him, the students waited ’til the 2nd, when the uni was wide open and vulnerable again. Thirty plus occupiers are now camped out in the very public art gallery space and more are expected as the space gets established. They’re protesting in solidarity with the public sector workers, against the increase in fees and the fact that the VC made noises in opposition to the White Paper to please students and staff  – and then signed a public letter to the government in support of fee increases. The uni is also targeted for their lack of transparency regarding links to dodgy private companies.
  Tags: brighton university education occupation
• The Making Of: Flotilla – Edge Magazine – Brendon Chung knows a lot about failure. The Californian game designer of one-man indie studio Blendo Games has whole hard drives full of his screw-ups. “Honestly, I fail like 90 per cent of the time,” he confesses. “My hard drive has all these aborted foetuses of games that are just bad, broken and not even close to looking done. The other ten per cent of the time you hit something that’s pretty ugly and terrible, but you see some potential there and you file it away, hopefully to bring it back and use it in some fashion in a later project. Overall, though, it’s very discouraging.”
  Tags: interview games development indiegames spaceopera
• Ain’t It Cool News: The best in movie, TV, DVD, and comic book news. – Starting almost ten years ago, Jason Yungbluth began a short backup feature in a comics anthology under the title WEAPON BROWN. It takes the tropes and beats of the atypical “post apocalyptic bloodbath”, but filling its cast with clear analogues for the Peanuts gang. The comic has become something of a sleeper hit, gaining more and more attention. I sat down with Jason to ask him how things are going in the industry for him now.
  Tags: interview comics satire pastiche postapocalypse
• Debt: The First Five Thousand Years by David Graeber- What follows are a series of brief reflections (part of a much broader work in progress) on debt, credit, and virtual money: topics that are, obviously, of rather pressing concern for many at the current time.There seems little doubt that history, widely rumored to have come to an end a few years ago, has gone into overdrive of late, and is in the process of spitting us into a new political and economic landscape whose contours no one understands. Everyone agrees something has just ended but no one is quite sure what. Neoliberalism? Postmodernism? American hegemony? The rule of finance capital? Capitalism itself (unlikely for the time being)? It’s even more difficult to predict what’s about to be thrown at us, let alone what shape the forces of resistance to it are likely to take. Some new form of green capitalism? Knowledge Keynesianism? Chinese-style industrial authoritarianism? ‘Progressive’ imperialism?

  At moments of transformation, one of the few things one can say for certain is that we don’t really know how much our own actions can affect the outcome, but we would be very foolish to assume that they cannot.
  Tags: history debt money finance empire war slavery

• BBC – Adam Curtis Blog: DREAM ON- The protest movement that began with Occupy Wall Street is very clear about what it is against – an international capitalism that is cruel, unfair and untenable. But the movement refuses to say what it is for. Much of this refusal comes from a belief that modern capitalist society is extremely skilful at co-opting dissent and that any discussion with the media is the first step in being reabsorbed into ‘the system’.It also has the added benefit of irritating mainstream journalists and commentators.

  I want to tell an odd, romantic, but ultimately very sad story that shows where this fear of possession on the left comes from. It is set during last the time that British, European and American students tried to be a vanguard for revolution. It shows how that fear can easily lead to a pessimistic belief that all one’s dreams for a better future are just illusions – and how that pessimism then came to paralyse the left in Britain throughout the eighties and nineties.

  But the story is not all sad – because I think it shows that the same thing does not have to happen again.
  Tags: adamcurtis history revolutionarytheory liberation politics classwar utopia

• Britain’s trade union movement: why strike? – The Drum Opinion (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)- Why has it come to this? In a sense, the answer is obvious. ‘Austerity’ involves the most serious attempt to restructure the economy, to the detriment of working class living standards, in decades. It involves reducing wages and pensions, diminishing bargaining rights, cutting jobs and reducing the bargaining power of labour. Everywhere that these measures have been introduced, whether in Wisconsin or Greece, there has been resistance.Yet, there was no guarantee that the British trade union movement would respond in the way that it has. Decades of declining union composition since the serious defeats inflicted on organised labour – notably, on the miners and the print workers – have left unions in a weaker position.
  Tags: britain politics history strikes resistance cuts
• Demon’s Souls and the Meaning and Import of Virtual Death | Blasphemous Geometries | Futurismic- The problem with video game writing is that it tends to be written by fans of video games. The corruption and stupidity of games journalism are not isolated quirks of the system but symptoms of a flawed approach to the medium. Fans, by their nature, approach their choice of medium wanting to fall in love: Good games are filled with good things; bad games are filled with bad things. Love the good things. Hate the bad things.While I think that this approach to art can be intensely rewarding, I also think that it has its weaknesses and the most obvious weakness is a failure to recognise that bad things can sometimes be good.  They can be good because these bad and un-fun things make the good bits glow that much brighter, and because even painful and unpleasant experiences have meaning and importance. This is a column about the role of death in video games and how a more sophisticated appreciation of one of the least fun aspects of the gaming experience might unlock the door to a world of new themes and experiences.
  Tags: videogames narratives death themes
• MOVING NORTH UK ZINE: LUCA BRASI- Touring the east coast of America this year I met a bunch of great people, and a couple of those guys happened to be a pair of awesome dudes from Tasmania. Who else buys you a beer during D4 for remembering drunk names?Anyway, it turns out these guys were in a band called LUCA BRASI and I wanted to check them out so they sent me a link to this song.
  Tags: band music australia
• After November 30th « Though Cowards Flinch- The overall impression I took from yesterday is that we may be getting our tactics very wrong for the war of attrition to come, and that we need to pay attention now to the basics of strike organisaton.I accept that those who marched yesterday generally had a good time, and may have come away from the post-march rallies buzzing with solidarity.  But city centre demonstrations, where we all go to the pub afterwards, will not win us the battle.  Instead, we need to get seriously local, we need to get seriously organised, and we need to get grim.
  Tags: strikes marches protest cuts pensions publicsector tactics strategy classconsciousness
• The shoe is on the other Foot – It’s not Labour’s left that’s stuck in a time warp « Though Cowards Flinch- While many of us on the left did not necessarily agree with the political trajectory taken during the New Labour years, we understood that there was no inherent shame in trying to look like a credible party of government. The political landscape in the ‘80s and ‘90s was undeniably bleak for socialists, and reflected something the outgoing Labour Prime Minister Jim Callaghan had said several years earlier: ‘You know there are times, perhaps once every thirty years, when there is a sea-change in politics. It then does not matter what you say or what you do. There is a shift in what the public wants and what it approves of.’As if by prophesy, 30 years later we are again at a moment of profound political change. The certainties that have shaped political discourse for so very long are again being challenged, if not by the political class then by workers and students right across Europe and beyond. Questions many of us have long been asking about our economic system are today routinely being raised by those with little history of political struggle – people whose sense of injustice has developed as they’ve seen living standards fall and prospects for the future become increasingly bleak.
  Tags: britain politics thatcherism history future labourparty

Anyway, with my hypocritical sell-out loser oldz cred firmly established, here’s a few words about a really awesome show I saw the other week. It was a This One’s For The Crew show and promoter Jay Cross’s own Little Ease opened, but as those in the know will understand this isn’t some tedious act of nepotism. No, Little Ease are – were – an excitingly scrappy and intense melodic fastcore outfit and one which, fronted by Jay, prove highly entertaining. The band are in high spirits firstly because they’re pretty drunk, but secondly because it’s guitarist Luke’s last show with the band. He’s moving to Vietnam the very next day. What better way to see him off than a shitload of pints and an awesome show? Half the people in the room know the band and Jay plays up to it, thrusting himself into the crowd and beaming at familiar faces when he’s not gorilla-stomping about and occasionally forgetting lyrics. The band, with a few slips aside, sound as tight as they are entertaining and kick things with aplomb.

They’re followed by Pompey’s You Me & the Atom Bomb, a band I’ve seen a bunch of times over the years since they formed from the ashes of south coast hardcore favourites Jets vs. Sharks. They’re a real nice bunch of guys, too, and so I feel a little bad when they begin playing to a room only a little over half as full as it was quarter of an hour before. Their more sedate tunes also feel initially underwhelming following the frenetic fun of Little Ease, but fortunately they don’t let it phase them. Within a few songs the room is filling back up and their warm, bright take on the 90s / early 00s Gainesville melodic punk sound has the audience paying rapt attention.

Next up are Cornwall’s Bangers, who are fast becoming a regular fixture in UK punk rock – and deservedly so. I’ve written about them before when I reviewed their collection Dude Trips, and I’m currently working on a review of their latest effort, so I won’t say too much here except to note that I made the mistake of nipping out for a smoke before they played and can’t get anywhere near the front. Instead I stand behind an enormous skinhead and try not to sing along too loud into the back of his dome. The new songs, too, sound great, but no more on them for now huh?

Finally, it’s the band that – awesome support acts aside – everyone is waiting for: Long Island’s Iron Chic. The band seem to have shot out of nowhere over the past year, with their superb album Not Like This finding a spot in any discerning pop-punk fan’s regular rotation. Really, though, they’ve been toiling away for a few years, and on top of that the band began as a side project for members of Latterman and Small Arms Dealer. They’re old hands, which is a relief because although they also look pretty tired and a little drunk they don’t put a step out of place, delivering punk rock anthem after anthem. I’m not sure if the whole room was singing along because I was too busy singing along, you feel me? By the end of the set my throat’s a little hoarse and I’m soaked in sweat, despite barely having moved from the same spot where I’ve stood, slamming my heel up and down like a fucking piston and waving my fist in the air. And then it ends, and I wish it didn’t, even as I eagerly queue to get outside and experience some blessed fresh air.

• Fucked Up – Ship of Fools by Consequence of Sound on SoundCloud – Create, record and share your sounds for free – 3rd song from Fucked Up’s forthcoming new record… stoked.
  Tags: band music
• Junior Battles – Idle Ages – June 28 on Paper + Plastick – New song from Junior Battles. New album in June…
  Tags: band music
• New Statesman – This England, 29.04.2011 – So this is England, on the 29th of April, 2011. The marriage of the heir to an archaic and largely powerless royal dynasty is celebrated with pomp and circumstance, whilst dissent of any kind is suppressed on the smallest pretext, or none. If you step outside the system, if you refuse to stand and shout hurrah, if you question the narrative of easy privilege, if you offer an alternative or try to live one, you are a dangerous freak and you will be punished. The poor get poorer. The rich get richer. And England Prevails.
  Tags: britain bread&circuses democracy police
• SchNEWS 769 – 29th April 2011 – Tes-Cop-Oly – Tesco have been the masters of this technique, championing the complete corporate takeover of their consumers lives – out to sell them their housing, everything they ever need to put in it, providing their recreation facilities, the financial services to afford it all and, of course, stuffing them full of crap food.
  And yet they are still upping the ante. To the above list you can now add paying for the means to keep everyone in their place on the Tesco-treadmill: As part of the bribe needed to secure the rights to build the biggest Tesco in the country in West Bromwich, the supermarket is not only building a cinema, restaurants, a hotel, a petrol station, shops and a new ring road but also, for the first time, a police station.
  Tags: police britain corporatism capitalism
• SchNEWS 769 – 29th April 2011 – Georgian Facade – “The not St George’s Day march by the not EDL was, for a family event, remarkably short of kids. A hilarious attempt to liberalise their image by carrying a rainbow flag foundered after the mob began chanting “You lot take it up the arse!” The march was interrupted by anti-fascist demonstrations throughout the day and the MFE didn’t quite get the stroll in the sunshine they may have been hoping for.” What was this, an attempt to regain face and antagonise Brighton after that abortive march last year? Sad fucking bastards.
  Tags: fascists britain edl brighton
• Monsters – DVD review for VideoVista – We are a supremely competent culture. With universities desperate for any revenue they can lay their hands on, the last quarter century has seen an explosion in the number of people attending graduate school, business school, art school and film school. Year after year, these institutions turn out eminently competent individuals who have learned the tricks of their trade whilst having little or no idea as to what to do with these tricks. Film schools in particular seem incredibly adept at producing filmmakers who know the vocabulary of film, and know how to put pretty images on the screen, but lack the sort of vision that makes for great cinema.
  Tags: film cinema review criticism education
• Diary of a Benefit Scrounger: Who is the Most Deserving? – Yesterday and today, the Telegraph and the BBC carry yet another DWP story trumpeting the great “success” of Employment Support Allowance. They are delighted to announce that of 1,175,700 new claims since 2008 a massive 887,300 failed to qualify for assistance. That’s 75%. Isn’t that wonderful? Hardly anyone was sick or disabled after all!
  Tags: disability benefits britain fuckingtoriesfuckofffuckoffdiediedie
• Charlie Brooker: The AV campaigners have created a stupidity whirlpool that engulfs any loose molecules of logic | Comment is free | The Guardian – Both sides are treating the public with outright contempt
  Tags: av democracy britain electoralreform
• Gamasutra – News – Interview: Making The Fun Meant Taking Out The Fun In StarCraft II – The lead designer, who previously worked on real-time strategy games in Electronic Arts’ Command & Conquer series, said he had to make creative adjustments when he joined the StarCraft II team. For him, the main hurdle was learning how to take some of the “fun” stuff out of the game.
  Tags: gamedesign esports
• Penny Red: Riots and romance: thoughts on journalism, revolution and the anti-cuts movement. – On the charge of romance, I hold up my hands, with the caveat that the struggle of citizen versus state is essentially a romantic one. If one cares about accuracy and linguistic craftsmanship, it is very hard to describe these active clashes in a way that does not provoke passion on both sides. This is because the events themselves are moments of high emotion and challenge. Whatever their affiliations, a person’s political passions are drawn with fierce accuracy when they are asked for their opinion on a given police ruckus- and every time it happens is another chance to take the political temperature of the nation.
  Tags: journalism writing reportage romance struggle protest activism

The number of various anti-racist, anti-fascist and queer activists, Brighton folk, socialists and trade unionists was a bit more impressive with something like 2-300 people joining the main march, plenty of other people showing support as we passed, and I think a few dozen anarchists running about and trying to block / tussle with the ENA.

The police forced us to move on from the station (I think, I joined the march just as it got going) and we headed along Queen’s Road, then down North Road to Victoria Gardens where we found ourselves penned in. Great. This was pretty shit but spirits were pretty high and most folks were having a laugh, enjoying the sun, listening to a few short speeches and generally not being reprehensibly awful human beings. The reprehensibly awful human beings took about an hour to show up, possibly due to interference from the anarchist bloc, police management or just through being too stupid to walk about 15 minutes to their destination.

When they eventually arrived they spent about 20 minutes listening to some speeches – thanks to getting ourselves penned we had no idea what was going on so consoled ourselves with chanting at them. Hmm. After that was up they were escorted back to the station, surrounded by a cloud of onlookers, hopefully a few of whom were sharing their opinions of the ENA and the EDL. Eventually we were let out of our pen but not before a few spirited attempts to break through the fence were made. A few people were arrested, mostly for being mouthy as far as I could see, and hopefully have been / will be released without charge (I didn’t know any of them).

After that I headed homewards and found the remnants of the ENA arrayed outside the station with a bunch of the remaining counter-protesters chanting at them. I left at this point but apparently the fun continued for a while longer when the ENA got themselves an escort to a nearby pub (would that the police offered this service to regular folk) which was again surrounded. Well, I imagine they got the idea that they’re not welcome here and easily outnumbered, even with an almost total lack of promotion for the counter-demo.

A bunch of photos and a very short video follow. I am not a good photographer I’m afraid, so suck it up.

The front of the column

Setting off from the station

Behold my ability to frame a shot free of extraneous clutter

The view from the front of the column (horsies!)

I'm not convinced the cost of putting a chopper in the air was really justified

Somewhere behind all the cops and gawkers there are about 30 racists, fascists, idiots and (one hopes) deeply misguided people

After we'd been stuck in a pen for a few hours and were done shouting and chanting, people began to get a bit bored 'n rowdy...

...so long, security fence, we barely knew ya.

Not that what's already in that fountain is much worse.

After a few fences were tugged out we got a solid wall of vans across the park and three mounted officers came into the pen. Briefly toyed with fishing the fences out of the fountain and setting up a rodeo; felt it wouldn't go down so well.

Afterwards the ENA were escorted back to the station which was quickly surrounded by more people shouting and chanting. Look at that Israel flag there. What a bunch of idiots.

My camera isn’t very good at doing videos.

(The Penthouse above the ‘butt will be still be running, though, so do keep heading there. It’s a scrappy little bar that I’m still really fond of, and it has some cool esoteric DJ nights.)

This rapidly follows confirmation that The Providence is being sold by the Barracuda chain, quite likely to Tesco. Make of that what you will; it’s been pointed out that several other Tesco branches are about 5 minutes walk away, and there are already 11 Tesco shops in Brighton (plus there’s the one they’re considering building in Lewes Road too). I wasn’t hugely fond of the Providence as a pub but the sound was decent enough and some long-standing promoters put on a lot of shows there.

In the last month we’ve also heard news that The Engine Room has been closed. No official statements have been released as far as I’m aware, although the word on the street is that there just wasn’t enough money for some payment or another. Anyone reading this got the facts? [UPDATE: minutes after I posted this, an article popped up on the local paper's website explaining that the venue is up for sale. Balls!]

And of course earlier this year came the end of the Hobgoblin, a genuine Brighton punk rock and metal institution, which despite eking a few more months of life after its initial closure late in 2009 has been bought by another chain. They’re currently in the process of entirely revamping it; initial rumour was that it was being turned into a gastro pub (ah yes, no shortage of those in Brighton) although its new exterior paintjob does still tout “live music” as a feature. It seems unlikely that they’ll want to play host to the same D.I.Y. promoters and touring bands as in the past, though.

Several years back the Pressure Point was sold to a developer following a lack of interest from purchasers who wanted to keep it running as a venue. It’s since been converted into a hostel with a bar. The Brighton Gloucester / Barfly remains closed and unused following Barfly / MAMA’s abortive attempt to break into the local music scene around the same time. I assume they still own it and may intend to reopen it in brighter economic times.

The saddest thing is that most of the venues that have bitten the dust were the ones doing the most to support relatively unknown outfits, small touring bands, local groups and musicians and so on.

SIGNS OF LIFE

On the positive side of things the Hydrant (was the Hare & Hounds) is making a huge and laudable push into supporting local music with both a large upstairs function room for shows and regular gigs in the downstairs pub as well. Then there’s Hector’s House which seems to have picked up a lot of the punk and metal shows the Hob would once have hosted – and good on them, speaking personally it’s greatly preferable to the student drum ‘n bass crowd I remember from 5 years ago! Finally one of my current favourite venues, the Prince Albert, is also keeping on rocking – and their P.A. is one of the best I’ve heard in a small venue.

And of course there are other venues like Jam, the Greenhouse Effect, Audio and larger venues like the Concorde 2. So live music in Brighton has taken some major blows, but there are still plenty of places to go and play.

If you’re involved with a local venue, whether as an owner or a promoter, please get in touch via email or the comments below. I’d like to do a round-up of venues in a separate post in the near future, and counteract some of this bad news with a reminder of how Brighton still has a lot to offer!

The Freebutt today.

This news broke last Wednesday but I’ve been busy recently and so I’m only writing about it now! One of Brighton’s longest-running venues, the Freebutt, is under threat of closure as a result of a noise complaint and subsequent Environmental Health Office investigation. As I put it on Facebook:

Many of you will have seen this already, but so what, it’s important. The Freebutt is facing closure due to ONE noise complaint. They are doing everything they can to solve the noise problem, but the EHO and the neighbour are preventing them from doing so. For a venue with decades of history to be shut down for such a bullshit reason would be a travesty.

This summary is a bit unfair on the EHO – they’re helping, just somewhat slowly – and the neighbour – who presumably has a legitimate complaint, but they’re not helping get it resolved except in the sense of “if the venue closes, the problem goes away”.

The Freebutt is presently owned by a small group of local music fans and entrepreneurs. They’re put a lot of work into ensuring the venue is shipshape and this is the only noise complaint since they took ownership. Although since the redesign the giant pillar in the middle of the room is still a source of constant complaint, Brighton’s live music scene wouldn’t be the same without the ‘butt.

The Freebutt circa 1968.

You can read the full story from the Freebutt here. The Argus has an article covering Brighton Council’s statements and some tedious, reactionary reader comments. There’s a petition you can sign here and a Facebook group here. The MP for the area is Caroline Lucas (Green) and the city councillors can be contacted from here.

The venue’s owners sent out an update 24 hours after the news and campaign broke which you can read below the cut.

Within the first 24 hours of our petition going live we have managed to get over 2400 signatures, that’s over 1.5% of the entire population of Brighton who are opposed to the unjust treatment of the Freebutt by the Environmental Health Department of the Brighton & Hove City Council and the single complainant.

It has been brought to our attention via the freedom of information act that in the 12 months since we took over the Freebutt there has only been one officially logged noise complaint against the venue, that’s over a 400% reduction in complaints logged to Environmental Health since we took over on 24th June 2009. Between 2004 and 24th June 2009 there was an average of 4.6 complaints per year.

Both of Brighton’s key independent record shops ‘Resident Music’ and ‘Rounder Records’ are now stocking physical petitions for people to sign.

Early supporters to have come onboard in the past 24 hours include:

National Radio DJs:
Steve Lamacq (BBC 6 Music) / Huw Stephens (BBC Radio 1) / Lauren Lavern (BBC 6 Music) / Rob Da Bank (BBC Radio 1) / John Kennedy (XFM)

Bands:
Kaiser Chiefs / Foals / Blood Red Shoes / The Pipettes / Dan Le Sac / Caribou / Esben & The Witch / Chris T-T / Chesney Hawkes

Record Labels:
Witchita / Bella Union / FatCat Records / Big Scary Monsters / City Slang / Sub Pop / Memphis Industries / Holy Roar / K Records

National Press:
NME.com / Pitchfork.com / CMU Daily

National Promoters:
SXSW / Eat Your Own Ears

Local Brighton Institutions:
Resident Music (record shop) / Rounder Records (record shop) / The Source Magazine / XYZ Magazine / The Komedia (venue) / The Brighton Centre (venue) / Concorde 2 (venue) / The Duke of Yorks (cinema) / Melting Vinyl (promotions) / Lout Promotions / The Great Escape (music festival)

I’m not much of a thrash metal fan but my friend Tommy, bless his beard and genial metalhead nature, has been making some effort to convert me. This included getting me to join him for a show headlined by Irish thrash metal legends Gama Bomb. It’s all thrash, all night… and all I’ve heard of any of the bands is Gama Bomb’s album Citizen Brain.

First up is Driveby Shark, who are fronted by a ridiculously tall screaming bloke with ginger hair… or a dark blond, I guess, maybe it’s just the light. Whatever – he reminds me of my friend Ric from black metallers Iceni, who is also a ridiculously tall screaming frontman with ginger hair. It must be a metal thing, right?

Anyway, I like Driveby Shark. They’ve got a lighthearted attitude and clearly don’t take themselves too seriously, with songs like ‘Wanna Get High’ (yup, a reference to Towelie, South Park’s worst character ever) and a six-second blast of fury called ‘Reduce, Reuse, Recycle!’ Besides which their name is utterly daft even by the standards of metal bands.

They’re followed by Crypsis, a local outfit. I’m told that of all the bands playing tonight they’re the only one that play ‘old school thrash’. I’m not too sure what the difference is to be honest with you except that it seems a lot more serious, and since they’re the band that amuse me the least they’re the band I enjoy the least. They sound pretty good but I’m not really feeling it. Today, though, listening to their tunes on MySpace, I’m liking what I’m hearing. Huh.

Next up is Mutant, who have a song called ‘Turbo Hyper Ultra Mega Power’. I don’t know what it’s about, but I figure it’s pretty fucking powerful. They have some cool riffs and, like every band who has played tonight, the pace is pretty relentless. That’s about all I can remember. Their MySpace page is grotesquely coloured; I suggest you check it out if you want your eyes to be sick and your ears to thrash their little lobes.

It’s Gama Bomb that people are really here for tonight, and the reaction when they take the stage is pretty enthusiastic. My friend Marc disappears almost immediately up to the front of the crowd; I hang back. I don’t need someone’s hair in my pint, right? The band have a lot of personality onstage, with their singer cracking jokes and generally being amusing (funny guys plus Dublin accents, always killer). Of all the frontmen tonight he also has the craziest range, occasionally belting out vocals in a ludicrous metal squeal. The band are also tight as fuck and throw out some proper cheesy solos. Normally I get a bit bored by solos but when they’re laid over riffing at the pace Gama Bomb are playing at, it works.

I’ve kinda struggled with things to say about this show… I just don’t know enough thrash metal to tell much of it apart. That’s not to say it all sounds the same. As with any musical genre (or any area of entertainment or art) it’s familiarity that allows you to pick up on nuance and recognise distinct personality. That aside I had a pretty good time drinking and watching a bunch of excessively hairy men play fast, cheesy metal to a room full of mostly blokes, and I figure I should start on my thrash metal education… it’s not like it’s that different from going to punk shows! So, old school or new?

MySpace linkdump: Gama Bomb | Mutant | Crypsis | Driveby Shark

Essentially, the band ended when Alex (bass) decided to leave. The others opted to continue as a band but to make some changes. These included one of the band’s two guitarists adopting bass duties (at the moment Chris and Pinder share, swapping over on stage for different songs), Alec adding keys and synth to his distinctive vocal slurs and screams, ditching all of the old tunes and writing entirely new ones, and changing the band’s name to WW2 vs Dinosaurs.

(The name, incidentally, span out of a drunken conversation at our old house. As far as I can recall I was recounting an old dream which was the ultimate teenage boy’s dream because it featured Terminators, Predators, Aliens, WW2-era battleships, battalions of soldiers, and of course Jedi. It could only have been better if it had involved dinosaurs as well. World War II versus dinosaurs!

…well, it’s as good a name origin story as Snuff, at any rate.)

So far WW2 vs Dinosaurs have played a couple of shows which have been storming; the songwriting is as technical and off the wall as ever. Everyone hates the label “spazzy” but it really fits this band: brilliantly tight drumming with ludicrous guitar riffs laid on top, with sinister keys and three sets of vocals interspersed. At the moment they’re including a Devo cover (‘Mr. DNA’) while they work on more songs, and I’m really looking forward to seeing what they do in the future. Probably my favourite song is ‘Trying Times’ which ends with a demented riff that, paraphrasing a Brookerism, I likened to being chased through a deserted fairground by an evil clown with a massive erection.

It’d be a real shame to see the Offcuts entirely vanish into obscurity, so in the interests of avoiding that I’m writing this post and uploading an EP that was never released. Chances are some of the band will be pissed at me uploading this because they don’t like the recordings, but 1.) I do like them, and 2.) you won’t tell them, right? Right.

1. Flesh
2. See Through Your Eyes
3. Round the Town
4. Fucking A Random

These were recorded at some London studio or another, I forget which. I also can’t remember who produced them. Sorry!

Here’s a full Offcuts discography:

2005 – A Very Good Question (the ‘demo’ album; closer to trad. hardcore punk though still uniquely demented with ska and jazz influences on display)
2007 – Untitled EP (you should already be downloading this)
2008 – Pig On Pig (the officially released version of A Very Good Question, with a different track order and title)
2008 – White Horses & the Unicorn (the camply titled album that collects up some of the most experimental tunes the band ever recorded; they were pretty much at the heigh of their creativity here… oh, and did I mention that my band played the album launch party? It was our first show and we were rubbish)
2009 – Structures Built by Peasant Hands (a great swan song for the Offcuts; every tune on here is fucking fantastic especially ‘A Burial’, my favourite Offcuts tune and the only one the greasy bastards ever dedicated to me)

You can still buy the last three on the list; drop me a line if you want to get copies through me. The band themselves are pretty fucking disorganised!

Finally, here’s the video for ‘Flesh’, which is a brilliant video unfortunately backed up by a much-too-quiet version of the song (click through for an embiggened version):

R.I.P. the Offcuts, long live WW2 vs Dinosaurs!

WW2 vs. Dinosaurs @ MySpace | Facebook | Satanikbatwingdeath promotions / label

• The rest is noise: Throats’ guide to metal – “…we turned to Alex, Thom and Mark from Holy Roar’s newest noiseniks, Throats – who are well and truly flying the flag for rage and bile with their debut EP, Throats – for the lowdown on their favourite bands.”
  Tags: metal music
• The Encyclopedia Of Decency: The White House Tapes – (Rush transcript – Oval Office recorder 1.4 – start time 14.29, 1/23/10)RAHM EMMANUEL: You wanted to see me, Mr. President?

  PRESIDENT OBAMA: Yes, Rahm. Take a seat. We may have… (Oratically brilliant Presidential pause) …a rather significant problem.

  EMMANUEL: Yes sir. Can I take it you’re referring to the column in today’s London Observer?
  Tags: funny nickcohen satire decentism

• British Newspapers Make Things Up | Psychology Today – In April 2008, I wrote that British journalists interpret “freedom of the press” to mean that they can make up anything they want and publish it as fact in British newspapers. Now another evolutionary psychologist has learned the lesson the hard way.
  Tags: britain journalism newspapers lies news science media
• Mass Effect 2 editorial « The Cynical Brit – When is an RPG, not an RPG? This is what it boils down to. There are certain people that believe Mass Effect 2 sacrificed too many RPG elements from its predecessor and became at best a fancy cover-shooter and at worst, a Gears of War rip-off. Hyperbole and enraged, impotent screaming aside, is there any merit what-so-ever to these accusations? Let’s take a look at the so-called ‘RPG elements’ of the original Mass Effect.
  Tags: gaming rpgs masseffect2 review
• The Myth of Meritocracy – Of course, there is no culture large or small which is able to hold a purely unbiased view of the people who participate in it. Gamer culture is no exception. Personal characteristics that count against you in the real world and its dominant, mainstream culture carry over into the virtual world. Gender is one of the largest biases which skew the meritocracy most gamers try to abide by, leading to a culture where hard work and practice pay off – but they pay off much less for some people.
  Tags: gaming gender sexism
• Overton window – Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia – The Overton window is a concept in political theory, named after its originator, Joe Overton, former vice president of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. It describes a “window” in the range of public reactions to ideas in public discourse, in a spectrum of all possible options on an issue.
  Tags: politics psychology theory propaganda society marketing rhetoric
• Why I Think RaceFail Was The Bestest Thing Evar for SFF – So here’s what I think. RaceFail was a good thing. In fact, I think it was a necessary thing — not just for me and other writers/fans of color, but for the SFF field as a whole. Bear with me; I’m going to have to put on my psychologist hat to explain this.
  Tags: racefail09 race writing genre fandom sff
• McGOP: The Virtues and Vices of Sameness – I’m not going to comment too much on the topline findings of the Daily Kos / Research 2000 poll, of Republican identifiers, which many others have written about extensively. What I found more striking, actually, were the cross-tabs. On just about every question, the results showed essentially no difference based on age, gender, race, or geography — once we’ve established that you’re a Republican, these differences seem to be rendered moot.
  Tags: statistics analysis republicans usa rightwing conservatism
• Daily Kos: State of the Nation – As I’ve mentioned before, I’m putting the finishing touches on my new book, American Taliban, which catalogues the ways in which modern-day conservatives share the same agenda as radical Jihadists in the Islamic world. But I found myself making certain claims about Republicans that I didn’t know if they could be backed up. So I thought, “why don’t we ask them directly?” And so, this massive poll, by non-partisan independent pollster Research 2000 of over 2,000 self-identified Republicans, was born. The results are nothing short of startling.
  Tags: usa republicans rightwingbullshit batshitcrazy
• Kid Pix: The Early Years – Ben: Dad, what have you been doing upstairs?
  Dad: Writing a short history of Kid Pix.
  Ben: Do you really think anyone is going to want to read that?
  Tags: software history computers childhood parenting education mac
• Dirty Scavenger on MySpace Music – Dirty Scavenger are a grungy 3 piece band, based in England, performing songs written by Jo Maultby about her experiences of life on the streets, protesting, and other adventures. (She has a pretty awesome voice.)
  Tags: band music
• Brighton Pavilion: A Green leap forward? – John Harris voyages to the seaside seat where Caroline Lucas could become Britain’s first Green MP
  Tags: politics electoralpolitics greenparty labourparty conservativeparty britain brighton sussex carolinelucas
• No cops, no parks, halted economic activity: conservative paradise – We often wonder what a conservative paradise would really look like on the liberal blogs, and it looks like Colorado Springs—home to many defense contractors and to Focus on Family—has become a shining star in the much-desired collapse of basic government services that Grover Norquist and other anti-government fanatics have always wanted. Unfortunately, it seems less paradise to have much-slashed government, and more stinky, ugly, boring, and scary.
  Tags: taxes publicservices civicplanning business industry economics usa
• LEATHERFACE on MySpace Music – New song from Sunderland’s finest!
  Tags: band music hotdamn!

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