Lyrics to an unrecorded song by The Drains (Andy Barding g/v, Mike Morgan b/v, Slim Short, d). Other drummers in The Drains' history include Carl Bevan and Steve Evans.
Sleepless In The New Seattle
In the year 2000 I'll be 36
Bald as a coot maybe but filthy rich
You could spend the weekend at my mansion in the sticks
When you see my gold discs you'll be pig sick
Pig sick
You'll be so jealous of my runaway success
You'll be leaking pictures of me to the gutter press
That's me with my head kicked in. And my house in a mess
You will betray me like some Judas.
And that makes me Jesus.
I'm the one
I've been having too much fun
Want to go to sleep but it can't be done
I'm sleepless in the New Seattle
I'm the Bruce Pavitt of your New Seattle scene
That's what they said about me in Spin magazine
And like the Sub pop mogul I started with a 'zine
Free 7" from Novocaine and Flyscreen
Flyscreen
Three singles from Five Darrens
One by DVO
I did the 'Gwent Boy' album
As if you didn't know
I'd like to do a Volume Two
And some more by Rollerco
But now that I've been dropped by Vital
And I've dropped my Nytol
I'm the one... etc
Sleepless in the New Seattle
All you children look like cattle
Wanna go to sleep but it's a losing battle
Sleepless in the New Seattle
Now here comes a shamless plug
Frug! Frug! Frug! Frug! Fuckin' Frug!
Wanna go to sleep without taking any drugs
I'm sleepless in the New Seattle
Now.
Friday 9 October 2009
Nobody loves a drummer. So...
Western Mail review. Nova Mob and Zuzu's Petals at The Legendary TJs, Newport.
SO what's with all this melody stuff in Gwent's hallowed house of noise?
Self-confessed 'dork magnets' Zuzu's Petals are a threesome of sassy'n'classy rockistes from the States.
They rip through the crusty-rock-chick stereotype offered up lazily by the likes of fellow Americanettes Hole, L7, Lunachicks and Babes in Toyland, to give us a mouthful of something far more palatable.
Their music is far removed from your typical US all-female three-piece band as you're likely to get, which I suppose affords them some sort of pioneer status.
Tra-la-la singalong 'White Trash Love' sounds magnifique bouncing off these punished walls, and the masterfully inept fretwork of singer-guitarist Laurie on stuff like the lovely 'God Cries' or 'Cinderella's Daydream' somehow works. It shouldn't, but it does.
On they bounce, with an unrelenting set that leaves me open-mouthed with admiration, and assured in the knowledge that Zuzu's Petals are the business.
Rock history buffs will already know that in the olden days there existed a quite brilliant American melodicore band called Husker Du.
'The Du' made a stack of great records then split up, singer-guitarist Bob Mould forming the equally cool Sugar and drummer Grant Hart doing his own thing with his next lot, Nova Mob.
Sadly, nobody loves a drummer. So in this incarnation, Grant has shaken off his former tub-thumping image to sing and - blimey - play guitar.
He does this very well - perhaps the sly sausage has been sneaking in a few lessons, eh readers?
Nova Mob's set rocks, rolls and sometimes goes very quiet.
Some of the songs are pretty long too, not the sort of stuff that that we're used to from America these days at all, but by golly it's a welcome tonic from the usual mayhem we get in this place.
And then again, once you're lulled into this transient state of aural bliss, Grant and the boys don't think twice about putting the boot in where it counts, just to check you're still awake.
Nice stuff.
Andy Barding (published 22.2.93)
SO what's with all this melody stuff in Gwent's hallowed house of noise?
Self-confessed 'dork magnets' Zuzu's Petals are a threesome of sassy'n'classy rockistes from the States.
They rip through the crusty-rock-chick stereotype offered up lazily by the likes of fellow Americanettes Hole, L7, Lunachicks and Babes in Toyland, to give us a mouthful of something far more palatable.
Their music is far removed from your typical US all-female three-piece band as you're likely to get, which I suppose affords them some sort of pioneer status.
Tra-la-la singalong 'White Trash Love' sounds magnifique bouncing off these punished walls, and the masterfully inept fretwork of singer-guitarist Laurie on stuff like the lovely 'God Cries' or 'Cinderella's Daydream' somehow works. It shouldn't, but it does.
On they bounce, with an unrelenting set that leaves me open-mouthed with admiration, and assured in the knowledge that Zuzu's Petals are the business.
Rock history buffs will already know that in the olden days there existed a quite brilliant American melodicore band called Husker Du.
'The Du' made a stack of great records then split up, singer-guitarist Bob Mould forming the equally cool Sugar and drummer Grant Hart doing his own thing with his next lot, Nova Mob.
Sadly, nobody loves a drummer. So in this incarnation, Grant has shaken off his former tub-thumping image to sing and - blimey - play guitar.
He does this very well - perhaps the sly sausage has been sneaking in a few lessons, eh readers?
Nova Mob's set rocks, rolls and sometimes goes very quiet.
Some of the songs are pretty long too, not the sort of stuff that that we're used to from America these days at all, but by golly it's a welcome tonic from the usual mayhem we get in this place.
And then again, once you're lulled into this transient state of aural bliss, Grant and the boys don't think twice about putting the boot in where it counts, just to check you're still awake.
Nice stuff.
Andy Barding (published 22.2.93)
Riot Grrrl rock a flop
Western Mail review.
Bikini Kill and Huggy Bear at The Legendary TJs, Newport.
THE MUSIC was OK, but for once that's not important.
Both bands are exponents of the Riot Grrrl movement, an uncompromising pro-female cause with the stated aim of promoting an explosion of artistic activity from women, and an end to boring 'boyrock'.
It's generating a lot of publicity, and a lot of dialogue in all the right places. The national music press is taking it very seriously. It's being compared to the 76-77 punk rock thing.
Brits Huggy Bear take their first brave steps outside their small, insular circle, and find to their horror that they can't handle it.
They seem genuinely disturbed that their carefully rehearsed poems and confrontational stance on everything is not lapped up by the masses. It gets a reaction they don't like.
Suddenly their carefully rehearsed speeches are falling apart around them.
They want the audience to stop moving, to stop shouting, to move back. They want girls at the front, they want this, they want that. They want an awful lot.
They want the audience to show some respect. No way. Earn it.
Finally, the grrrls can't take it any more. They storm off in a huff. In just 30 minutes, Huggy Bear lose every scrap of credibility .
Bikini Kill pick up where Huggy left off.
They insist that only girls should be at the front of the stage. Why?
No doubt, this will end up as some bizarre twisted victory for the Riot Grrrls against the Welsh boyrock activists or something by the time it hits the music press.
But I see it as a British band who cannot handle an honest reaction to their own highly confrontational attitude, and an American man-hating band hell-bent on building barriers between the sexes that didn't previously exist.
Andy Barding (published 1992).
Bikini Kill and Huggy Bear at The Legendary TJs, Newport.
THE MUSIC was OK, but for once that's not important.
Both bands are exponents of the Riot Grrrl movement, an uncompromising pro-female cause with the stated aim of promoting an explosion of artistic activity from women, and an end to boring 'boyrock'.
It's generating a lot of publicity, and a lot of dialogue in all the right places. The national music press is taking it very seriously. It's being compared to the 76-77 punk rock thing.
Brits Huggy Bear take their first brave steps outside their small, insular circle, and find to their horror that they can't handle it.
They seem genuinely disturbed that their carefully rehearsed poems and confrontational stance on everything is not lapped up by the masses. It gets a reaction they don't like.
Suddenly their carefully rehearsed speeches are falling apart around them.
They want the audience to stop moving, to stop shouting, to move back. They want girls at the front, they want this, they want that. They want an awful lot.
They want the audience to show some respect. No way. Earn it.
Finally, the grrrls can't take it any more. They storm off in a huff. In just 30 minutes, Huggy Bear lose every scrap of credibility .
Bikini Kill pick up where Huggy left off.
They insist that only girls should be at the front of the stage. Why?
No doubt, this will end up as some bizarre twisted victory for the Riot Grrrls against the Welsh boyrock activists or something by the time it hits the music press.
But I see it as a British band who cannot handle an honest reaction to their own highly confrontational attitude, and an American man-hating band hell-bent on building barriers between the sexes that didn't previously exist.
Andy Barding (published 1992).
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