tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-36934924610345859942024-02-20T12:58:46.859-08:00Writings On Music, Culture and Other Things That Make Sense By Charlie JonesA logically (if clumsily) titled collection of features, interviews and reviews. On its way to comprehensiveness, and ordered in no meaningful sense.Charlie Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05773771977505902676noreply@blogger.comBlogger49125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3693492461034585994.post-20380586485888975542009-08-10T05:25:00.000-07:002009-08-10T05:27:57.799-07:00The Horrors x DummyVery famous band defend their genius for DummySince they came out, it’s become really standard to slag off THE HORRORS. I mean, I’ve heard people who like Fan Death come down on them for being style-over-substance, for God's sake. Anyway, it wasn’t until the release of Sea Within A Sea , the motorik-referencing, cinematic lead single from their second album, ‘Primary Colours’, that a lot of Charlie Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05773771977505902676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3693492461034585994.post-29867437559859891352009-08-10T04:30:00.000-07:002009-08-10T05:24:55.264-07:00Django Django x DummyPiece on exxxcellent band called Django Django for (yep!) Dummy.In about ten minutes (if you haven’t already seen Django Django around yet) you’re going to have a new favourite band. They’re this a wonderful band from Dalston, who are like something between Orange Juice and Hot Chip, and they’re totally going to be bigger (and more influential, and more relevant) than both of them. The Scottish (Charlie Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05773771977505902676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3693492461034585994.post-38441462432098268082009-08-10T04:23:00.000-07:002009-08-10T04:29:52.532-07:00Aeroplane x DummyA piece for Dummy on Aeroplane. Their first feature, as it happens.1. Stephen Fasano and Vito Deluca make up AEROPLANE , an excellent disco band you probably already really like. They met in Brussels in 2001 in a club, and bonded at the record store where Vito was working. Stephen, already then a fairly big Italo fiend, was buying records. Though they didn’t like each other straight away, they Charlie Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05773771977505902676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3693492461034585994.post-51962876052235559592009-08-10T04:19:00.000-07:002009-08-10T04:23:15.671-07:00Erik KesselsPiece for Dazed and Confused on an excellent Dutch editor who makes books about vernacular pictures of Dalmatians and shooting galleries, thinks that there is something interesting in mistakes.Erik Kessels is Creative Director at an amazingly interesting communications agency called KesselsKramer. Did you ever see that "I AMsterdam" campaign? That was them. As well as their advertising and designCharlie Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05773771977505902676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3693492461034585994.post-57023054685272701422009-04-24T05:37:00.000-07:002009-04-24T06:40:31.184-07:00Fever Ray x DummyFever Ray / Karin was extraordinary in every possible way.Sipping weak coffee backstage at the Southbank Centre on a muggy Saturday, thinking about interviewing Karin Dreijer Andersson. A chat about her music seems a bit prosaic. As an artist, she does not have much time for the niceties of the modern music industry, much less explaining herself to dolts with Dictaphones. For one, The Knife , theCharlie Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05773771977505902676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3693492461034585994.post-18237314007720798022009-04-24T05:30:00.000-07:002009-04-24T06:40:47.224-07:00The Big Pink for DummyWonderful, wonderful, wonderful (wall of) noise-pop from ex-squatter and basically the king of Stoke New. Dummy piece, yep, Next.“He was stood over me with a needle and mentioned in passing ‘I don’t sleep very much’. I kind of stopped wanting a tattoo then.” Robbie Furze from the Big Pink, a tender, scuzzy band who stand somewhere between the Big Black, Love and GZA, is telling a story about the Charlie Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05773771977505902676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3693492461034585994.post-75275683048362191042009-04-24T05:26:00.000-07:002009-04-24T06:41:00.688-07:00Salem Next piece for DummySalem, one of the most exciting bands from the end 2008, in a Next piece for DummyThis duo from Chicago make beautiful, terrifying slowed down crunk that turns every day into night and every night into the Northern Lights. When Merok Records put out the Water EP from the Chicago-Michigan-New York trio (John Holland, Heather Marlatt, and Jack Donoghue), it sold out straight away, as did their YesCharlie Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05773771977505902676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3693492461034585994.post-4902616488470156752009-04-24T05:23:00.000-07:002009-04-24T06:41:14.465-07:00Apache Beat for DummyAnother Brooklyn band, pretty good.Bands should kill boredom. I’m chatting with Apache Beat, a Brooklyn band who play crisp, doomy and slightly tropical rock music before their gig in Camden, headlining a tour here for the first time. They just finished their album, Last Chants, produced by Martin Bisi (who also did LPs by Boredoms, Sonic Youth and Afrika Bambaataa), about two weeks before, and Charlie Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05773771977505902676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3693492461034585994.post-14139812436832924142009-04-24T05:21:00.000-07:002009-04-24T06:41:43.956-07:00My Tiger My Timing for DummyNext piece on really cool new band called My Tiger My Timing“I made a resolution to take up Pilates and form the band. Now I’m only doing the band.” Anna Vincent is talking about forming My Tiger My Timing , a minimal and earnest London electro band that she sings and plays keyboards in. Jamie Harrison, vocals/guitar/bass, finishes the story: “We decided to set up the band at a New Year’s Eve Charlie Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05773771977505902676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3693492461034585994.post-81490484238271496102009-04-24T05:12:00.000-07:002009-04-24T06:41:57.671-07:00Arthur Russell for ClashOne of many hagiographic Arthur Russell pieces I've put my name to, this little blighter came out in Clash in the Autumn of 2008. New York, 1983. On the Staten Island ferry, a man, alone but not lonely, is gazing into the distance over the water, his head full of music blaring from his Walkman headphones. It’s probably his own – he likes to listen to the songs he made while looking over the Charlie Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05773771977505902676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3693492461034585994.post-37373360312978555722008-09-25T04:21:00.000-07:002008-09-25T04:54:33.613-07:00LOTP for FACTQuick chate with one of my favourite bands of the last few years, Late Of The Pier...Late of the Pier’s space odyssey started in the verdant summer of 2004 under the gleaming spires and proud turrets of Castle Donnington. Since then, they’ve made the kids dance dance dance with their indescribably beautiful hair and chrome-plated squat-suited electro. The debut album, Fantasy Black Channel, is Charlie Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05773771977505902676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3693492461034585994.post-40571812991809285632008-09-22T17:54:00.000-07:002008-09-22T18:02:48.834-07:00F&M review for FactFujiya & MiyageLightbulbsFull Time Hobby Of all the ways to start an album, a bad joke about a rather tragic child star has to be among the worst: the song's called Knickerbocker Glory, and it's about the "ghost of Lena Zavaroni", who died of anorexia nervosa - geddit? Us neither. Anyway, it's strange that such a poor taste begins Fujiya & Miyage's third LP. I mean, few bands have traded Charlie Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05773771977505902676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3693492461034585994.post-22269992756505548642008-09-22T17:24:00.000-07:002008-09-22T17:31:47.273-07:00Coming Soon, Plan BComing Soon are a lovely French band, part of a flourishing anti-folk scene over there. Plan B, September issue:First notes: Small places make big sounds. Coming Soon are a six-piece anti-folk band from the small town Kidderminster in the French Alps. They sound a lot like Ezra Pound and cold winters and hot summers and Bob Dylan cover art from the 1960s. “We grew up listening to birds, waves, Charlie Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05773771977505902676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3693492461034585994.post-20834168508433896762008-09-22T17:06:00.000-07:002008-09-22T17:32:24.563-07:00Face Addict piece for Dazed and ConfusedA chat with one of the greats of modern photography, Edo Bertoglio, for DazedDigital in September 2008:When Edo Bertoglio came to New York in 1976, he was a young film student looking for a ring flash for his Leica and a good time. When he left in 1990, he was a celebrated artist and staff photographer on Interview Magazine, having been part of the downtown scene – the hedonistic circle of freaksCharlie Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05773771977505902676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3693492461034585994.post-7029774308540915422008-08-08T04:28:00.000-07:002008-08-08T08:31:09.713-07:00High Places for Dazed and ConfusedA lovely interview I from months ago on Dazed's ticket. Really, really cool band, and a really sweet couple:High Places are really sick of fighting. "Everything extreme you can think of has already been done. Like if you want to see someone fucking vomit on the floor and beat their fists, you can, but it's done man," says Robert Barber. Rob plays nearly all of the instruments live in High Places,Charlie Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05773771977505902676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3693492461034585994.post-78687241371178666472008-07-18T06:01:00.000-07:002008-11-18T17:08:45.458-08:00Book art piece for InsightSince early 2008, including the amazing Blood On Paper at the V&A, there's been a really pleasing growth in that whole book art thing. In June 2008 we decided to cover its impact in Brighton.A new generation of book artists have been quietly redefining everything you know about the tied and bound for over a decade – and judging many a book by its cover. With an international event on our Charlie Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05773771977505902676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3693492461034585994.post-56703046749559720852008-07-18T06:00:00.001-07:002008-08-08T04:23:49.677-07:00Advertising piece for BlowBackThis little wonder featured first in BlowBack, a sadly missed street-style publication.Late in 2005, everyone’s favourite monobrowed monkey Noel Gallagher was spitting blood at Jack White for writing a song for Coca-Cola. "What the f**k is he playing at? He dresses like f***ing Zorro on doughnuts! What the f**k is that about? He ceases to be in the club. He's supposed to be the poster boy for theCharlie Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05773771977505902676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3693492461034585994.post-42996089589193906272008-07-18T05:59:00.001-07:002009-04-24T06:40:09.235-07:00Foals FACT 7 of the yearIn which I get very excited about Hummer, Foals' unmistakably brilliant single, and interview the singer Yannis, for FACT magazineHummer dropped in April, and – to be frank – it wiped the bleedin’ walls with us. Eight months on, it still leaves us gasping. Despite being an attempt to transcribe minimal techno’s precision and rigour to fuck-up the peculiar mixture of try-hard laziness that infectsCharlie Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05773771977505902676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3693492461034585994.post-1314771803753495452008-07-18T05:58:00.001-07:002009-04-24T06:46:16.478-07:00Nancy elizabeth review for FactNancy ElizabethBattle and VictoryLeafNancy Elizabeth sounds like the most extraordinary hit-your-head-off-your-desk, whimpering-like–a-demented-man-child minimal folk that comes out of nowhere, like ghosts from the battle of Hastings playing samurai harps made from widow’s hair, and it’s awesome, till you realize she’s on Leaf. When you’re share a label with Murcof, Colleen, Susuma Yakota and Charlie Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05773771977505902676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3693492461034585994.post-50001210486692009042008-07-18T05:57:00.001-07:002009-04-24T06:46:40.519-07:00Arthur Russell doc piece for DazedA news piece in Dazed and Confused’s October 2007 issue“Another Thought: The Arthur Russell Revival Peaks With New Documentary”Arthur Russell has always cried out for a biography. An obscenely gifted classical cellist, singer and disco producer, he was a student of north Indian music in Buddhist communes who moved East to NY when disco was bubbling under and collaborated with everyone from Charlie Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05773771977505902676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3693492461034585994.post-33300329553803372832008-07-18T05:54:00.002-07:002009-04-24T06:48:26.314-07:00Radio review, ThreeWeeksA theatre review, published in ThreeWeeks, Edinburgh, August 2006:Radio - KandinskyWhen I was 6 my dad told me that the gold sheet around the lunar module that sent those to the moon in 1968 was thinner than the plastic film round his packet of B&H. For some reason I remembered that halfway through 'Radio': the idea that something so everday and simple could be trusted to perform that Charlie Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05773771977505902676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3693492461034585994.post-9502796584551117212008-07-18T05:54:00.001-07:002008-09-22T17:52:23.248-07:00Taher Deghayes, InsightTaher Deghayes’ brother Omar was illegally held in Guantánamo Bay for five years by the US military, and I drank tea with him on the day on after Omar's release, in his Saltdean living room while his brother slept upstairs in his bed for the first time in half a decade. One of the most surreal and, I'm almost ashamed to say, moving interview's I've ever done. Insight, March issue:CommunityFor theCharlie Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05773771977505902676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3693492461034585994.post-46382047202858958382008-07-18T05:48:00.001-07:002008-09-22T17:54:08.247-07:00Cosmic architecture for insightA quick chat with one of the most foremost architecture professors of his generation back in February 2008:If you’re looking for insight into the world around you, you could do worse than speak to John McKean. After a lifetime teaching, practising and writing about architecture, the Brighton University professor was chosen for a once-in-a-generation job: to rewrite the architecture student’s Charlie Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05773771977505902676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3693492461034585994.post-91188211363074002082008-07-18T05:47:00.001-07:002008-11-18T17:08:46.068-08:00Reviews: Crystal Castles, Sebastian Tellier, Big Dada CompHere's a few assorted reviews from the last year. All Fact Magazine, would you believe:Crystal CastlesCrystal Castles(Last Gang)Though their 2007 credentials stand – Klaxons and Uffie remixes, a ne’er-more-oblique myspace yelling “murder, blank looks on girls, knives” as influences and are fond of saying “taxidermy” in interviews – Crystal Castles’ debut sounds so unashamedly electroclash it’s Charlie Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05773771977505902676noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3693492461034585994.post-78739178443441937012008-07-18T05:45:00.000-07:002009-04-24T06:53:39.542-07:00Doing fine for InsightAn art feature on the growth of fine illustration in street art, printed in Insight under the title: Doing Fine: OContemporary favours finesse this monthIf Olivia Connelly, gallery director at OContemporary is right, then what could loosely be described as urban art is the most globally significant movement since Pop. And, seeing as her new exhibition of delicate illustration and fine graphic artCharlie Joneshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05773771977505902676noreply@blogger.com0