Yesterday in pictures

Paul Rains of Allo Darlin' waiting for soundcheck

Bill "Moustache/Darlin/Secondary Modern" Botting

Elizabeth Darling and Paul Rains

David Tattersall

Allo Darlin'

Why not visit Nottingham this weekend?

If you're in the Nottingham area on Saturday, why not come down to Lee Rosy's. It's the first Moustache shouw in two and a half month, so is pretty much guaranteed to be a rather shambolic affair.


And of course...the other bands are awesome as well.

Damn you, Sister Ray

So, I went a little crazy in Sister Ray this afternoon. Well, not THAT crazy, but with another week until pay day I really shouldn't have bought three albums. But, but, but...I did and despite having had them all as mp3's for ages I'm still very pleased with each purchase.

First one up was Let's Wrestle - In The Court Of The Wrestling Let's, an absolute gem of an album, recorded by the awesome Simon Trought at Soup Studios. The vinyl is limited to 300 copies and comes in a hand screen-printed sleeve, complete with finger marks and everything. My copy is number 287, and since it's been out for a while I'm sure they must be running out. But, if you hurry up you can still order it from the Stolen Records website and so you should. Go! They really are one of the most impressive London bands out there at the moment. I really need to get my shit together and see them live again soon. It just always seems to clash with something. Then, when I tried to catch them at South By South-West, the PA had blown at the stage, so I had to move on. They're still away in the US, now touring with Quasi , which sounds like a pretty amazing combination to me.

Next one was PENS - Hey Friend! What You Doing? I absolutely love this album. It's loud, messy and incredibly fun lo-fi garage noise pop. It sounds absolutely awful and totally awesome at the same time. Here, have a taster before you run and buy it. This is one of the stand-out tracks on the album.

PENS - High In The Cinema

Then, when you've fallen in love with these London girls, head over to any decent record shop and get it. Or pick your favorite online retailer, for example Rough Trade. Yay!

Finally, I got an old favorite. Pit Er Pat - High Time, an album that was made for vinyl. It sounds just lovely. They're so far from everything else I listen to, still I can't help but loving them more and more each listen. Fay's voice might be annoying to some, but to me it's just spell-binding, strong and and fragile at the same time. The record isn't in great condition (which is probably why it only cost seven quid), but it still sounds miles better than my mp3's. The record is a couple of years old now, so it might not be readily available. However, the Thrill Jockey website is selling it for $10 (for some reason $3 cheaper than the CD) and you really can't go wrong with that. Still have no idea why they cancelled their recent London show. I can only hope it wasn't anything serious and that they'll reschedule it.

Hmm...that's about it for now. Tomorrow, I'm gonna have to take a different route home. The new Quasi album looked a bit too tempting today.

Iranian indie music you say

No One Cares About Persian Cats
Iran | 2009 | 106 minutes | Directed by Bahman Ghobadi | imdb link

So, apparently there's a thriving indie rock scene in Iran. Hundreds of bands playing gigs in abandoned warehouses, on farms, in basements or anywhere they can escape the watchful eyes of the government or bureau of censorship. All non-religious music is strictly banned and rock music is synonomous with devil-worshipping. Negar and Ashkan are two twenty-somethings looking for musicians to join their indie rock band, Take It Easy Hospital, with the aim of going to London to play a gig. The film follows them as they enlist the help of Nader, who convinces them he can sort them out with not only the needed musicians, but also the passports, visas and permits they need in order to get out of the country. They follow him through the underbelly of Tehran's music scene, secret recording studios, rap video shoots and even raves. Things slowly start coming together as their London departure date gets closer and then...well....I'll leave that to you.

I was always going to have a problem with this film. I think the concept of underground music in Iran is incredibly fascinating and definitely something I'd like to know more about, but I don't like the feeling of almost being forced to like a band just because they're making music in a very difficult socio-political environment. And in the end....the band, is just not that special. It's just another average indie band. There's a point in the film where Nader says that there's more than 200 indie rock bands in Iran and I just hope some of them are more exciting than Take It Easy Hospital.

The film would probably have worked better as a documentary, since this fictionalised account of true events comes across a bit like a hand-held infomercial about Iranian indie music with a bit of suspense thrown in. Apparently director Ghobadi is an accomplished documentary maker, so I'm not quite sure why he decided to take the fictional approach. If you want to draw attention to a music scene, and the musicians themselves are willing to be in the film, why ask tem to play characters based on themselves? Some of the more dramatic/moving scenes would have worked much better in a straight interview scenario, rather than as a fictionalised re-enactment. But, what do I know? I'm sure they had their reasons.

In the end the most interesting aspect of the movie for me was just to see what Tehran looks like. It's probably due to my own ignorance, but I was surprised at how "normal" and modern it looked. And all the kids, wearing Converse and Vans and band t-shirts. Where does one go to buy a Strokes t-shirt in Tehran? Hmmmmm.


So, I really don't mean to shit on their parade. Well done for doing all they can in order to make music under such horrible circumstances. It's just not my cup of tea. And since the musicians themselves were very determined to come across as non-political and wanted to be judged on their music alone, I have to do just that....and it's really not my cup of tea. Still, the film was reasonably entertaining. I give it 3 Niks out of 5. Yup.

Take It Easy Hospital myspace

Guess what....another Allo Darlin' post

Photo by Simon Trought
The whole "save 6Music" thing doesn't sit quite right with me. I mean, obviously I'm supportive of anything that at least tries to be a bit different, support upcoming artists etc, but to me personally, radio has never really played a big part. I've never turned to radio for discovering new music, opting instead for zines (back in the days) and thank you lists on albums. These days, it's mainly blogs and myspace. So, it was with mixed feelings I joined the Allo Darlin troops at Broadcasting House on Saturday. I do feel a bit weird protesting for something I really don't know anything about....the only times I've actually listened to BBC6 is when Allo Darlin' have been interviewed....so that's twice.

And seriously, it was more of a gathering than a "protest". The weather was terrible, so the turn-out wasn't great....and to top it off....there was a group sing-a-long to The Beatles Hey Jude....with the organizers clevery having changed the words to "Save Six"....oh dear....it was just a tad cringe-worthy.

Anyway, Allo Darlin' played a couple of acoustic songs in front of Broadcasting House. The ukelele really isn't the loudest of instruments, so I doubt many people heard what was going on, but the people standing closest to the band seemed to enjoy it.

Sooo....save 6Music...down with the evil Mark Thompson and all that jazz...

New Allo Darlin video

Woo-hoo....allow me to present the video for Allo Darlin's upcoming single, Dreaming.



The video was shot on Super-8, using Kodak's beautiful VISION3 500T Color Negative stock. It's a bit rough, but you know, that was the whole idea...and it's a bit jerky...well....it was the evening of the London Popfest, so a fair bit of alcohol had been consumed.

Song: Dreaming
Artist: Allo Darlin'
Single Release date: 29th March 2010 (7" vinyl and download)
Label: FortunaPOP!
Filmed, directed and edited by Nik Vestberg

South by South West - Messing with Texas (part 2)

Thursday 18th March

On Thursday Allo Darlin' had an early show at Waterloo Cycles, a small bike shop located north of central Austin. With too many of us to fit in a normal taxi, I decided to take the bus and walk to the venue. It turned out to be quite a trek, but it was a lovely afternoon and walking is such a great way to get your head around a city.

I got to Waterloo Cycles just in time to see Standard Fare.

There really is something special about this band. Every single song on their album is great and live they're just so charming and sweet and well...just great.

Allo Darlin were on next and again, they played a great set. Again, there wasn't a huge amount of people there, but the people that were there seemed to appreciate it.



The sun was shining, there was free beer....what else could you ask for? More music! The Lovely Eggs were up next and despite having been promised a drum kit, there was none to be seen. They're not really a band that would let a minor thing like that stop them and they soon managed to collect some bits and pieces for a makeshift drum kit of sorts.

The band was great as usual and I don't think the crowd knew quite what hit them. Again, I tried to convince them to play Tyrannosaurus Rex For Christmas, but they weren't having it. I guess I'm just going to have to wait until they play a December show somewhere.

After they finished we made our way into town. Me and Elizabeth rushed off to catch Say Hi (formerly Say Hi To Your Mom) who was playing a solo show. I absolutely love this guy, but was a bit disappointed to see him play his whole set on acoustic guitar, rather than the usual warm synthy keyboard malarky. He played a few old songs, including Let's Talk About Space Ships, and it was just nice to hear some music that wasn't loud for a change.

Eric Elbogen of Say Hi
In the evening it was time for the Cakeshop/Slumberland Records showcase and I headed over early to make sure I got in. Summer Cats were on as I arrived and they were quite fun.

Frankie Rose and The Outs were up next. Frankie Rose is the drummer from Dum Dum Girls and her own band does a similar(ish) thing, but with ALOT more reverb. Fuzzy 60's style girl-pop with bucketloads of harmonies.


Frankie Rose and the Outs
They were followed by Grass Widow, who I really like and was very excited about seeing live. More of that fuzzy reverby girl pop that is so popular at the moment, but with a rockier edge to it. Their new album is a cracker and well worth checking out.

Grass Widow
Eventually, it was time for the headliners of the evening, The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart. By now the place was mobbed and it was great atmosphere. The Pains get better and better every time I see them and it was just a great show.


The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart

Saturday 20th March

The final day of SxSW, this was always goning to be a busy one. Allo Darlin' had three shows lined up, the first of which was at the British Music Embassy at noon. Despite the early start the place was busy. The promise of a free bar and free food always ensures a good crowd.

Allo Darlin' played an amazing set, probably the best I've ever seen them do. Everything was just spot-on and the crowd loved it.

Fortuna POP! head honcho Sean with Kip and Alex from The Pains at the British Music Embassy

Four bloody Marys later I left the British Music Embassy and headed down to far east of 6th Street, where Adam Green and Let's Wrestle were meant to be playing. Unfortunately, they were having technical difficulties to say the least. Both the PA speakers and the monitrs had blown and theyr were running several hours behind.

But all was not lost. Instead we found The Vivian Girls playing an acoustic set in a tiny room.

I've only ever seen them once before and that was an insanely loud show at The Old Blue Last, so it was nice to actually be able to hear their melodies for once.

The rest of the afternoon was spent walking across town trying to catch Math The Band, only to find out that they had cancelled. Instead, we watched a sweet band called Candy Claws playing outside in the freezing cold.

Made a second attempt at seeing Dum Dum Girls, this time at a small venue called Spider House. Luckily, the cold must have been keeping people away, so we were actually able to see the band....and they sounded just as great as they looked.

The busy and freezing afternoon soon turned into an equally busy and cold evening. Allo Darlin' played their final Austin show, this time at a Mexican restaurant. The band was great as usual, but the crowd was mainly there to have their Saturday dinner, so there was not much of an atmosphere.

In the evening it was time for the closing night party, again at the British Music Embassy. Hosted by MOshi Moshi Records, it featured Best Fwends, Still Flyin', The Wave Pictures and Slow Club.

Dave from The Wave Pictures

Slow Club

It was just a brilliant way to finish off an already great week. All the bands were great and Still Flyin' joined Slow Club on stage for a big sing-along to finish off the evening.

That's it really....we went home to catch some sleep and on sunday morning it was time to say goodbye to Texas.


I'm pretty sure I'll be back next year....