A lot of people we've spoken to have said that Enablers at Chameleon was their gig of 2011. Can't disagree with that. They enjoyed themselves so much that vocalist Pete is coming all the way back again for this solo show with a stellar supporting cast...
PETE SIMONELLI
"In addition to being the vocalist and co-founder of the San Francisco-based band, Enablers, Simonelli is a published poet, writer, and playwright. A native Californian, Simonelli spent eighteen formative years in San Francisco, documenting, observing, drinking, reading, loving, betraying, working, and writing--- attributes and setbacks that, over the years, have led to many a Second Chance, for which he is very grateful. And call it birthright, boon, or bane, but as one who too often veered in westerly directions (much to the amusement of his friends and bandmates), Simonelli moved east in 2008 and now makes his home in Brooklyn, New York. These shows will see Pete reading from his past book 'One Brittle Nerve' and he will also have new material on offer."
If you saw his spoken-word performance at Lee Rosy's just over a year ago you'll know you're in for a rare treat.
Felix is the musical pseudonym for Lucinda Chua, joined now (in classic power trio style) by Neil Turpin (Yann Tiersen, Bilge Pump, Quack Quack, Enablers) on drums and long-time collaborator Chris Summerlin (Lords, Kogumaza) on electric guitar. This 3 piece line-up has just recorded the second Felix record, entitled Oh Holy Molar to be released on the Kranky label in April 2012 after which the band embarks on a US tour with Yann Tiersen.
"INSECT ARK (NYC) is the brand-new solo project from Dana Schechter (Bee and Flower, Angels of Light, American Music Club). Drawing from her decidedly more aggressive and experimental musical side, INSECT ARK is composed and performed as an analog-electronic hybrid: one woman, a sampler, a bass, a lap steel, and a keyboard. Just off a Fall 2011 European tour with Enablers, she is currently recording her first EP"
If the idea of a band consisting of just 2 drummers brings to mind a hippy bongo nightmare then you've obviously never heard Rattle. Comprising of 2 of Nottingham's most unique and recognisable drummers (Theresa Wrigley of Fists and Katharine Brown of Kogumaza) and aided by Kogumaza's Mark Spivey they create a hypnotic and danceable music form that recalls This Heat or ESG even whilst remaining completely their own.
What a line up eh? We're going to decide on running order on the night. The thinking is to perhaps have Pete's spoken word going on throughout the evening between bands or to somehow mix it up differently to a normal gig. We'll keep you posted on that one.
As usual, we're keeping this cheap and cheerful so it's FIVE POUNDS ON THE DOOR.
Second is this "Moonpack" CD digipack for Diamonds & Hearts by singer-songwriter James Deane. I'd previously worked on some album graphics for James' band Clearfield and he asked me to work on his first solo album too. James wanted to combine a feeling of Americana with more English feeling touches with reference to Victorian sheet music illustration and lettering. As before, James was a pleasure to work with and had clear ideas about how to bring everything together and hopefully the results speak for themselves. More images from the package here at Flickr.
Finally, back in June, Sustrans commissioned me to design this artwork for their Carnival Of Cycling at the Nottingham Trent Uni. It had to be bright and summery and above all it had to quickly communicate what the Carnival was about to anyone viewing it. This type of poster can often present problems in striking a balance between necessary information, fulfilling corporate obligations (logos etc) and making the thing look appealing and uncluttered. I think the end result does the job nicely though. And what typeface says "transport" better than Gill Sans? Eric Gill saves the day again...
Nathan Scott Bell is a banjo player hailing from Baltimore, Maryland via Brazil. You may have seen Nathan play in Nottingham before as ½ of Human Bell with Bonnie Prince Billy sidekick (and now Arboreteum frontman) Dave Heumann, who we had the pleasure of putting on a few years back.
We tried to put him on last year but UK border control weren't so keen though they did enjoy his impromptu gig in the holding cell at Heathrow. Now he's back at the invitation of Capsule for the Supersonic Festival and we've asked him back to Nottingham.
Nathan is perhaps best known for his bass playing in legendary Dischord Records band Lungfish. He manned the low-end from 1996 to 2003, meaning when you put on Artificial Horizon or The Unanimous Hour and find yourself transported to alien, subquatic lands where your balance has been flipped upside down and you get the feeling of “I-should-probably-just-lay-back-down-here-that’s-better” it’s this man you should be thanking.
That this ability to alter perception should continue will come as no surprise if you’ve heard the music Nathan makes on his own and as part of the Brassa Bell ensemble. Those same transformative qualities are richly abundant but now, instead of the bass, Nathan uses the banjo. Whereas former Lungfish bandmate Daniel Higgs uses his own banjo as a grounding point for his vocals or as a raga-like instrument that always insists upon the moment, Nathan uses it’s spectral tones to explore melodic possibilities that hang in the air and bury into the brain. Whether picked, bowed, sung into, scraped or drummed-on, he uses the banjo to somehow dislocate you from the present. But this is no flashback or nostalgia trip. He might use tools from a past century but it’s the future you’ll be hearing. Don’t be afraid.
Where to start to describe The Horse Loom? The best acoustic guitar player in the country? Maybe. The most unique marriage between British folk music, avant garde guitar playing and punk rock spirit? Certainly. Wonderful? Definitely. Under-rated? You’ll have to ask him about that.
Northumbrian guitarist and singer Steve Malley would doubtless be extremely embarrassed to read any of these things. That says a lot. Steve played guitar in Crane in the early 90s, whose post-Husker Du take on The Byrds-meets-DC hardcore earned them a deserving reputation as one of the UK's finest live bands. He would go on to play in Kodiak, Four Frame and then most notably The Unit Ama. The Unit Ama existed in direct contrast to their (musical) peers from America. Whereas a cold and cool approach was favoured by the bands from across the pond, The Ama dropped any of this façade and opened themselves and their music to possibilities of accident and misfortune creating a live experience that was truly inspiring. I say with total sincerity that they changed a lot of people’s musical outlook forever.
The Horse Loom sees Steve take this approach and apply it to his love of folk music. Combining folk structures and melodies with his incredible guitar playing has made The Horse Loom something truly unique. Getting Steve (a fireman by day) to play gigs these days is next to impossible so don’t miss this rare adventure to Nottingham.
Black Octagon brings together musicians from the same bubbling underground music world in Liverpool that brought you bands like Mugstar and Kling Klang. Take that sense of unravelling psychedelia and export it to the wilds of the countryside and you might start to imagine what sounds would occur. 2 guitars intertwine over bobbing drum patterns recalling something somewhere between the Neil Young “Dead Man” soundtrackisms of later Earth and the beautiful, layered melodies of Aerial M. But always sounding distinctly British and distinctly rural.
This is all happening at Lee Rosy’s Tea Room. We’ll open at 8pm and kick it off at 8.30 and try and bring things to a close at 11. Lee Rosy’s will be serving teas, coffees and the usual waistband-disaster that is their cake display. There will be a full Lancashire & Somerset record stall with limited vinyl releases, books and artwork: http://www.lancashireandsomerset.co.uk/
DAMN YOU! AND GRINGO RECORDS VERY PROUDLY PRESENTS; FROM SAN FRANCISCO: ENABLERS
ENABLERS are from San Fransisco, CA and are without doubt one of the most powerful and amazing live bands on the planet right now and one of only a tiny handful of bands that we all agree on as being truly something special. They combine a sinister tautness (somewhat akin to Slint maybe - and by that I mean dark, heavy, dry, bare, economical and not the dreaded "post rock" tag) with a love of heaviosity and weird riffery that sits them somewhere between the ritualistic displays of the mighty Lungfish and the more cathartic explosions of Nottingham's own Bob Tilton . They employ a 2 guitars and drums set up to maximum effect whilst vocalist Pete Simonelli delivers spoken-word beat monologues and moods that either whisper below the surface or fight hard to be heard over the band's righteous racket. The addition of drummer Doug Scharin (Codeine, June Of 44, HiM etc) and an increase in activity culminating in the new LP "Blown Realms And Stalled Explosions" (on Exile On Mainstream/Lancashire & Somerset) and a genuinely triumphant final-night set at the Pavement-curated ATP has seen Enablers hone and perfect their already considerable skills to the point where they are truly unstoppable.
Kogumaza formed in Nottingham in 2009. They use primitive rhythms, patterns and riffs to create dense and mesmeric song-cycles. The band’s live sound is manipulated through dub delays and echoes, allowing what is basically a heavy rock trio to expand and willingly lose control of the sound they make as they make it.
The resulting music marries fuzzed-out psychedelia to an ambient aesthetic, placing the band somewhere between the infinite repetition of Moondog and the thick gloop of Master Of Reality-era Sabbath. They have recently released their first LP on the Low Point label and toured Europe with Zomes. A split 7" with Hookworms is in the pipeline and October sees shows with Nathan Bell, Enablers and an appearance at the Supersonic Festival.
“At times Kogumaza sounds like the future or the strange murmurings of the universe; at others, the cyclical pounding of drums conjures ghosts of ancient rituals, as if drawn from the very centre of the earth” Fluid Radio
"Without Maps hail from Nottingham, they consist of four people who sing, play guitars and drum. They came about through a desire to create music that was as direct as it was engaging. Initial practices began in late 2010 with three mutual friends mapping out their first creations. A decision was made after these first sessions that these songs needed to sound as big as possible and a fourth member was subsequently added. Late January this year saw the band making their first trip to the studio to record their first audio offering “The Cellar Tapes EP” and February marked the bands first live appearances. In the coming months the band hope to see themselves playing many more shows and write and record as much as possible whilst holding down low paid jobs"
Another wedding invite, this time for one of my best and oldest friends who finally found a lady willing to put up with him and for that we should all feel suitably warmed. I normally run a mile from the words "soft", "pencil" and "portrait" but I'm willing to give anything a go when it's for someone who has helped me out of many tight spots, usually involving pouring me into the back seat of a car and getting me home from some gig or another in our teens. I guess I lucked out on this one as it turned out very nicely, if I say so myself. I suspect the wedding party concerned might not end as softly or as tastefully...
2 new posters for shows on the upcoming Daniel Higgs Tour. The top one is for Nottingham on April 27th (solo performance) and the bottom one for Cardiff (Trio performance). The Cardiff poster recycles and re-jigs an old illustration I did for Plan B Magazine for a playlist chosen by Tony Sylvester (Aurora Borealis). I did it with the "I vomited up a blinking eye" Lungfish lyric in mind. It's somehow supposed to represent how the important details can be so subtle as to pass you by, or at least not be the first thing you notice. If you catch my drift. It goes without saying that I'm an enormous fan of Higgs' art and music. There are some photos from the opening of his solo show at the 96 Gillespie Gallery a few years ago here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/sumlin/sets/72157602758905434/with/1773774989/ The temptation was to go for something ancient, or pseudo-mystical in terms of imagery. But Higgs isn't really that much older than I am. He's just got a better beard. So I drew a Cosmonaut for the Nottingham poster. Hope you like it.
Another one for The Brute Chorus. This one absolutely broke my brain (not entirely the fault of the poster, more the timing of it's desired completion date!) but luckily it all turned out nice in the end. Some Gris-Gris style Day Of The Dead witchdoctor shit. In yer breakfast...
Pete Fletcher at First Love Studios really saved our collective hides recently with some very generous studio time to complete the Kogumaza LP. Nice to return the favour and be asked to put together this sleeve for the first release on Pete's label Denizen Recordings by Nottingham's own Hhymn. They supplied the wonderful Ian Chatburn underwater photos and some design direction. Maybe my hungover brain was operating on half power but it was a real struggle to find space and colours to make text work well over such detailed and high-contrast images without ruining the images or making the text illegible. I thought about resorting to boxes or worse still, shrinking the pictures and putting the text underneath. Some Monster Munch and a lie-down later and I went mental with the crop tool and cut the images to quite extreme levels in an attempt to place the divers contained within them on the periphery of the image, making it somehow a little spooky and taking the emphasis away from the human involvement in the images (and isn't that always the best music too: made by humans but with as little trace of their grubby paws as possible, like something in nature just laid it right?). Some blue and red tints later and I'm very happy with the results. I think Peter Saville was on my mind or at least a low-rent version of him. Out soon. In the meantime watch Hhymn's video here: http://vimeo.com/21108423 and marvel at the lovely blue Fender Jaguar contained within...
Here's some more images of the sleeve, click them to be magically transported to a world where they're bigger.
Forthcoming on Low Point on clear vinyl. Katharine Eira Brown took the cover image (of the coast at Aberdyfi) on Kodachrome slide film and I added the minimal graphic elements.
2 new pieces of work from the last month. At the top is a significantly scaled-down version of a one-off piece done as a commission by my friends Matt and Kerry who wanted something for their living room wall and liked what I'd done for the band The Slow Life. The actual piece is framed and measures something like 3 feet across.
Below that is a gig-poster-as-wedding-invitation for Anna Storakers and Per Winroth. Anna has commissioned me to do lots of gig posters in the past and she really wanted something for her wedding that was funny. And has Basset Grifon dogs on it...
My friends Jenny & Kate wanted a humorous and memorable Save The Date card to send out prior to the invitations for their wedding. A little bit of jiggery-pokery with a playing card and some penmanship later and here we are. Printed on glossy card at playing card size too.
Logo design for the Nottingham Critical Pedagogy student group, commissioned by David Bell and completed at the end of last year. We spoke a little about trying to convey an idea of there being power in critical thinking and David expressed that he wanted something lively to offset what is seemingly a very dry subject matter. From this we somehow got onto emblem design from the Soviet space programme and we ended up with this bear and pencil design. They have it in a variety of different configurations to use in any application they like, including in a circle so they can get it embroidered onto their space suits when they get them. Which they should.
It had to happen. I picked 2 esoteric choices for the first Car of the Day entries and so now I have to pick a Ferrari. Sorry. I’ve been nuts about Italian cars since I was a kid. Blame my parents. Blame Magnum PI or Miami Vice. Blame Beverley Hills Cop II. Blame Cannonball Run (One and Two, but mainly One). However: in keeping with the spirit of these vehicular outbursts, I’m going to select one of the most unpopular cars to ever leave the Maranello factory gates – the 365 GT4 2+2/400/412 series. Even at the height of the car boom of the late 1980s, these front-engined four seaters were tricky to shift. And this was at a time that people were paying over list-price for anything with a prancing horse on the bonnet and it was possible to sell a brand new car for a huge profit just by taking delivery of it.
You can trace the disinterest in the series through the history of 2+2s that the company have made (2+2 meaning “2-in-the-front/2-in-the-back”, or “not quite a 4-seater really, unless you’re really short or you don’t have legs”). The wonderful 250GTE was the first mass-production car that Ferrari produced. An elegant but muscular saloon powered by the same V12 as the more sporty and desirable models but able to take the kids and the luggage to the summer house (at exceptional speed). It had the poise of a street rod but the simple and beautiful design details of it’s more valuable (now) siblings like the 250 GT SWB. Crucially, it’s a subtle car. It’s easily in my Top 10 Ferraris, maybe even my Top 5. As someone who can name over a thousand minor variations in the marque and who wrote several thousand words (for no real reason) on the great “0846 debate”, this is high praise indeed. I really think about these things. I really am that much of a loser. However, take a quick look online and you’ll see the majority of these lovely cars have been scrapped, with the mechanical aspects cruelly stripped out and used to build either replicas of more valuable models like the GTO or kept as spares for the real thing by wealthy vintage car racers. Recently an absolutely perfect condition GTE showed up on EBay minus its engine after it was bought at auction solely for items which were to be used as spares for a more financially valuable car. At least someone has the chance to salvage something from this one, elsewhere GTE body shells lie in coachbuilders’ backyards acting as accidental flowerbeds:
It’s heart breaking.
The 400 series (I’ll call it that for shorthand) has a similar story. Brought out in the early 1970s as a replacement for the 365 “Queen Mary” it roughly echoes the equivalent changes to Ferrari design of the period in that the curves and open lights of the older models were replaced with slightly more angular styling and sleeker, pop-up lights (see the 275 GTB to Daytona, or the Dino to 308GTB later on). Today, it’s possible to pick one of these up for less than a Nissan Micra but the hideous costs of maintaining a 30-something year old, V12 engined Italian car mean few people are wealthy (or brave) enough to take the risk. Specialist breakers’ yards (such as http://www.eurospares.co.uk/) are full of these things. In fact, take a look at this widely circulated photo of the recovered wreckage from the tragic Lockerbie bombing:
That’s right; in the foreground is the remains of a Ferrari 400.
I can’t remember the last time I saw one of these things on the road, moving. That is a pity, as that’s where they are in their element. Modern cars are designed with the photographic image in mind. Most people will see their first glimpse of a new supercar in print, not in the flesh. So you end up with cars like the Ferrari F50: it looks like a bazooka battleship on a glossy page but it just sits wrong on the road, ending up looking like the outpourings of a just-pubescent male in the back of his maths book. The 70s period for design house Pininfarina acts as a textbook example of how to design a car that looks great on the road.
Recently I saw a first series Ferrari Mondial (a car similarly maligned in Ferrari aficionado circles) on the road and it looked fabulous. Squat, hunched forward, clearly defined and unfussy in detail compared to modern Ferraris. The 400 perfectly illustrates this line of thinking, though you can see why it isn’t universally considered a design classic.
In photos it’s hard to determine its “face”. Its curious bi-level nose is the culprit – making it hard to define the crucial eyes and mouth recognition that makes a car appealing to us weird human types. That face recognition is why we see the Morgan Aeromax as cross-eyed, the Citroen DS as “Shark-like” and the Fiat 500 as unthreatening. The 400 is just confusing – from standing eye-level at least. It looks like it should solely have pop ups like a Bitter Coupe or BMW 8 Series; or a more defined and stepped up nose like the latter Pininfarina concept car the Ferrari Pinin, or other equally luscious Farina creations like the Lancia Gamma Coupe or the Fiat 130Coupe. The Aston Martin Lagonda suffers from the same styling problem (among many others – though it too looks incredible on the road). Plus, the need for 4 seats makes it all look a little stretched and poorly balanced. In photos it’s only the rear ¾ view that appeals.
Put it on the road next to the cars of the time (or now) though or crouch down and look at one from a seated perspective and it looks fantastic. I remember going to the coast in Norfolk with my parents and seeing a black 400GT heading towards us on the other side of the road with its lights up. It stuck in my mind like a photo. The car’s width and poise make it look perfectly aggressive whilst still being strangely subtle (for an enormous V12 supercar). It is the absolute antithesis of the F50 and I am willing to stake money that it will age significantly better than either the current 599 or its direct descendant the 612 Scaglietti, both of which are too big, too ostentatious and too sloppy looking to really work. The 612 in particular looks like the early stages of an omelette. The angular, sweeping 400 is confident and bold in comparison and represents the perfect gentleman (or woman) express.
It’s also the only Ferrari I have ever been in. My late Granddad called me up to say I should pay him a visit with my Dad when I was about 13 or so. He took me to see a mechanic neighbour of his who had borrowed a late 70s 400GT from his work to offer rides to kids at a garden fete. I think it was registered APG 58T. It was £55,000 back then. You could get one for a tenth of that now. It was in a perfectly 70s metallic silver blue/green with tan leather inside. I went for a ride in it and it felt like it was taking off on the road between Northborough and Peakirk. I remember looking at the speedo and it saying 130 mph. Judging from Ferrari’s optimistic speedos it was probably closer to 100 but that’s still plenty on an A road in a car that weighs the same as a bungalow. It was a carburetted model too so the noise was deafening – even though this was supposed to be a more civilized Ferrari. It left quite a mark on me. The registration doesn’t show on the DVLA database as being taxed anymore. I wonder where the car is - probably languishing in a parts yard somewhere or, worse still, re-born as several hundred Coke cans.
So why is it so unpopular? I’d guess it’s because people who want a Ferrari tend to lust after one for years and it signifies that they have somehow “made it” when they own one. So they inevitably buy a red one and want it to be as striking looking as possible so the neighbours get the message. The 400 just doesn’t fit with that. For one, it looks terrible in red (a lot of Ferraris do, oddly) and despite its gargantuan power train and enormous grunt it’s hardly a sports car. It’s aimed more at the discreet Mafia boss than the freshly-famous pop star or footballer. Its cheapness tempts owners new to the marque who then find they don’t have the pit of funds required to maintain it as it should be maintained so lots of these cars are in a serious state of disrepair now and with the values so low they’re more liable to be broken for spares than they are restored as working on a V12 Ferrari costs the same amount regardless of whether that car is worth 10 thousand pounds or 10 million. Which is a shame.
I went to a Ferrari car show recently and in amongst the sea of red wedges - all with their owners in red polo shirts with red golfing umbrellas - was a solitary 412GT in a deep bronze colour. It was driven by an elderly gentleman who rolled up – not in an explosion of exhaust noise and tyre screech but in relative calm – and sat reading the paper in it before donning his panama and leaving as quietly as he had arrived.
That is why the 365GT2+2/400/412 deserves a re-evaluation – it’s a car with real class.
Value now: you can get a good one for £20,000
Pub quiz trivia fact: Jeremy Clarkson might have called it "awful in every way" and relegated it to an entry in the Top Gear Crap Cars book but Daft Punk didn't agree with him and made a black 412GT the star of their film Electromain 2007:
As you can see, I finally got to see a De Tomaso Mangusta as well. Maybe I need to write an entry about how I've never seen a million pounds in non-consecutive notes sitting on a pallet wrapped in clingfilm and then I'll stumble across one of those in a car park too? It looked just as good as I thought it would:
"Come and enjoy a rare show in the old gallery space upstairs at The Hand and Heart pub, which will be transformed into a haven of comfort and entertainment.
FELIX Sharp pianist and cellist Lucinda Chua leads a star ensemble through playful and brooding musical fantasies on dancing, heartbreak and rebellion. Playing songs from the Kranky release "You Are the One I Pick" and more...
POPPY SEED "Gone electric" Hold on to your pants and hold on to your wives. 2-piece now 5-piece band from Nottingham with influences from Chris Isaak to Etta James.
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