#i saw the email from bandcamp and screamed

[wickedhawtwexler]

one of my favorite bands came back and released a new song after literally like 7-8 years of no new music!!!! i am going absolutely insane ladies

[rainydawgradioblog]

a covidsation with yufi

Next up in this interview series is Yufi, local plur-core/EDM band. They just released their self-titled album, which is available on Bandcamp and Spotify. Check em out !! Dance to them in yr bedroom !!

Lola Gil: Tell me about your band. How long have y’all been playing together? How would you describe your sound?

Todd Maegerle: I usually describe Yufi as “plur-core”, but apparently that’s not very descriptive lol. Most people would describe the album we just released as a mix of screamo and y2k throwback electronic/trance/digital hardcore/drum and bass. Yufi has been a project for about three years, but has gone through some pretty significant transformations (started as a math rock project lol).

LG: As an artist, how have you been affected by COVID-19? How was your most recent tour affected?

TM: We had planned a tour that would send us down the west coast, over to Austin, TX for SXSW, then up through Santa Fe, Denver, SLC, etc. back to Seattle. We planned the tour to start on Wednesday, March 11th. Those first couple weeks of March seemed to be when the whole COVID-19 thing really picked up. Two days before our tour was supposed to start, we made the decision to cancel all except the west coast leg. It was a really hard decision to make because we had already exchanged hundreds of messages/emails to artists, venues, showcases for SXSW, etc to make what was looking like a super fun tour. At that point in early March, there were so many unknowns. “Is the COVID-19 panic going to die down in the next week or so?” was a tough question to answer at that exact moment (which seems really silly now lol).

The west coast leg of the tour was super fun, but it was also an apocalypse tour haha. Shows we were really looking forward to playing were getting cancelled while we were driving to that city to play. Attendance was fairly bleak with only a couple exceptions. I think the last show of the tour had something like 80 tickets sold in advance and maybe 10 non-artists actually showed up. We were playing a warehouse in downtown LA, and when we showed up the city was an absolute ghost town. It was surreal. All-in-all it ended up being a really fun west coast run, but also was maybe one of the worst times to start a tour haha.

LG: Is Yufi planning on putting out new merch or music soon?

TM: Quarantine is great for writing new music! I could see it being pretty hard for more traditional bands who get everyone in a room and jam-out a new track, but Yufi has become computer music for the most part, so we kinda just have more free time to work on stuff. But also, I personally get a lot of inspiration to write music by attending shows. When I see a performer I really like, I’ll get really motivated and inspired to work on new stuff. So that’s been happening less since all shows are cancelled :^{

LG: How have you been personally affected by COVID? What has your quarantine experience been so far?

TM: I’m pretty extroverted, so being unable to go out and interact with friends has been hard. Fortunately I live with five really super homies; quarantine would be a lot harder for me if I didn’t have anyone to goof around with in-real-life. Still, I really miss going out and dancing and meeting people and all that. The online music festivals have been fun, but experiencing them through Second Life/IMVU/Minecraft/etc is not quite substitutable for actual live music.

LG: What music have you been listening to recently? What has been your go-to quarantine album?

TM:I’ve honestly almost exclusively been listening to live streams. Like, Charli XCX going live on Grindr’s Instagram to do a DJ set? Yeah I think I’ll tune in. A group/collective/entity called “Hurt-free Network” has been putting on really fun IMVU raves with DJ sets from artists I really like. There’s also a 48+ hour long music festival happening right now called Data Fruits; most of the artists are from the west coast USA or Japan, so when one country is (mostly) asleep the other can take over the stream. So even though I really miss going to shows, it’s been pretty awesome to see how people are still coming together in some form!

LG: Were there any spring shows that you were particularly looking forward to attending that got cancelled?

TM: Yessss ughhhhh way too many :’^{Anamanaguchi, Yves Tumor, 100gecs, Dorian Electra, and a bunch more. Fortunately I saw a couple of them last year, so that eases the pain a little bit. But if I don’t see Ecco2k in 2020 I’m literally going to scream. I’m not gonna make it.

LG: How do you think the Seattle music scene is going to shift post-COVID?

TM: Every musician is going to be a DJ after quarantine and it’s going to be sick. Jokes aside, I think we’re going to need a lot of people to come together to make up for the impact that COVID has made. A lot of venues that are vital to the Seattle music scene are going to have to close doors as a result of the financial hit they’ve taken. I think there will be a lot of artists excited to play shows once it’s safe to, but I’m hoping there will be venues still around to host.

LG: How do you think artists can support each other during these weird and difficult times? 

TM: This is not artist exclusive, but everyone can email their Seattle city council member to enact a rent/mortgage moratorium. That could help lessen the financial burden that COVID has created, which would certainly help artists (and everyone lol).

Aside from that, I feel like I’ve seen a lot of artists supporting each other by listening to and sharing each other’s new releases, tuning into each others live streams, etc. I hope to see more of that in the coming months!

-Lola Gil

[nedraggett]

Thoughts on 2018

No need for me to be fancier than that!  And yeah I realize that nobody should be using Tumblr any more but until I figure out a proper revive of my old Wordpress site, this will do for now.

So anyway: I wrote this up for a private email list reflecting on the end of the year in terms of things I especially enjoyed culturally. Well, why not share it?

My year went very well — steady at work and in life, being 47 means more aches and pains but you have to learn to live with it.  The state of the world is something else again of course and we need not spend more time on the blazingly obvious.  That said, the history bug in me has been constantly intrigued by the slow drip of the investigations (and revelations) and were it all fiction, I’d be thoroughly enthralled instead of quietly apprehensive, of course.  November did provide some partial relief on that front so bring on the new year.  In terms of my own written work, nothing quite equalled my heart/soul going into last year’s Algiers feature for NPR, but my two big Quietus pieces this year — on Gary Numan’s Dance  and Ralph Bakshi’s Lord of the Rings  — were treats to write, while my presentation on the too-obscure Billy Mackenzie at PopCon was a great experience.

In terms of music this has been one of the most concert-heavy years I’ve spent.  Even having moved to SF in 2015 I only did the occasional show every so often — there was so much going on (even in a local scene lots of long-timers say has been irrevocably changed) that I was almost spoiled for choice, and part of me also just wanted to relax most nights.  But deaths like Prince’s and Bowie’s among many others served as a reminder that there’s no such thing as forever, and you never know what the last chance will be.  More veteran acts than younger ones in the end for me — greatest missed concert regrets this year included serpentwithfeet, Lizzo, Perfume Genius and Emma Ruth Rundle among the younger acts, while being ill when Orbital came through will be a lingering annoyance, still having never seen them live.  But the huge amount of shows I did see outweighed that, ranging from big arena stops like Fleetwood Mac to celebratory open-air free shows like Mexican Institute of Sound to small club sets by folks like Kinski, Six Organs of Admittance, Kimbra and many more, including, for the first time in years, a show in the UK, specifically a great performance by Roddy Frame of Aztec Camera.  If I absolutely had to grade my top picks among shows, Cruel Diagonals, Johnny Marr, Wye Oak, Peter Brotzmann/Keiji Haino, John Zorn/Terry Riley/Laurie Anderson, Laurie Anderson again separately, Nine Inch Nails, VNV Nation, Jarvis Cocker, Beak and, in terms of no real expectations turning into utter delight and thrills, a brilliant set by Lesley Rankine under her Ruby guise, with Martin Atkins on drums.  Best damn combination of righteous ire, hilarious raconteurism and compelling, unique approaches to how performance can work I’d seen in a while.  (As for recorded music in general, uh, endless?)

TV, as ever a bit sporadic, with a few things on my to-do list — still need to catch The Terror for sure, and what I saw of The Alienist looked good; I love both books so I need to see how it all worked out, similarly with the just-dropped version of Watership Down.  Pose I definitely need to catch up with since it sounds like Ryan Murphy stood out of the way to let the best possible team do the business on it, but my real unexpected delight of a show this year was also Murphy-based, American Crime Story: The Assassination of Gianni Versace.  While not down the line perfect, it was absolutely more compelling than not, and in fact at its best was a shuddering combination of amazing music cue choices, a reverse structure that helped undercut any attempt at making Cunanan seem sympathetic or an antihero, and, at its considerable best, a ratcheting up of terror and horror that a friend said was almost Kubrickian, and I would have to agree.  And, frankly, Darren Criss really did the business as Cunanan, a controlled and powerful turn. Only a few of us seemed to be following it at the time, but when it scored all those Emmys, then while it was as much a reflection of Murphy’s status, it honestly felt well deserved.  Meantime, you’ll pry my addiction to all the RuPaul’s Drag Race incarnations from my cold dead hands but it’s the amazing online series that Trixie Mattel and Katya do, UNHhhh, which remains my comedy highlight of the year, with at least a few jaw-dropping/seize up laughing every episode. (Kudos as well for Brad Jones’s The Cinema Snob, ten years running online and still funny as fuck while digging up all kinds of cinematic horrors.) Also, tying back into music a bit, late recommendation for something you can only see on UK TV/streaming so far, but get yourself a VPN and seek out Bros: After the Screaming Stops, in which the two brothers in the late-80s monster hit pop band Bros (never had any traction here but pretty much owned the entire Commonwealth and beyond) try for a comeback.  It’s an unintentionally hilarious and harrowing portrait of two twins who have a LOT of issues, have clearly been through a LOT of therapy, but are still…not quite there.  UK friends said it was a combination of Spinal Tap, Alan Partridge and David Brent and they were ABSOLUTELY RIGHT. 

Movies, less specifically to choose from — I remain an essentially sporadic populist when it comes to what I see in theaters, but I can say for sure that Spider-man: Into the Spiderverse is a hell of a thing and will almost certainly prove to be a real year-zero moment down the line.  Possibly the most affecting watch was Bohemian Rhapsody, in that I also saw this in the UK — in Brighton, which besides making me think of the band’s song “Brighton Rock” is also notably the country’s most LGBT-friendly city; those I was with felt the movie’s themes, successes and flaws/elisions deeply, and the constant discussion of it for the next few days was very rewarding. As for books, John Carreyrou’s Bad Blood, delving into Theranos and the amoral duo behind it, was properly enraging and compelling, while Beth Macy’s Dopesick, if not perfect, nonetheless adds to the good literature on the opioid crisis, while as ever indirectly calling into question who’s getting the focus and care now as opposed to in earlier times and places. My favorite music publications as such probably remain the two I most regularly write for, The Quietus and Daily Bandcamp, while Ugly Things is the print publication that I most look forward to with each issue, and am never disappointed. 

Podcasts now consist of a lot of my regular cultural engagement, kinda obvious but nonetheless true.  Long running faves include My Favorite Murder — Karen and Georgia are an amazing comedy team who have figured out how to reinterpret their anxieties in new ways — The Vanished, which at its best often casts a piercing eye on how official indifference from law enforcement is almost as destructive as their more obvious abuses (recent discovery The Fall Line does this as well, even more explicitly), Karina Longworth’s constantly revelatory Hollywood histories You Must Remember This, Patrick Wyman’s enjoyable history dives on Tides of History, my friend Chris Molanphy’s constantly excellent investigations into music chart history Hit Parade, the great weekly movie chats by MST3K vets Frank Conniff and Trace Beaulieu along with Carolina Hidalgo on Movie Sign With the Mads, and The Age of Napoleon, which really has hit my history wonk sweet spot.  New to me this year was It’s Just a Show,  a really wonderful episode by episode — but not in exact order — deep dive into every episode of MST3K ever, by two fun and thoughtful Canadian folks, Adam Clarke and Beth Martin. (Adam also cohosts a new podcast, A Part of Our Scare-itage, specifically looking at Canadian horror. It’s not just Cronenberg!). Among the excellent one-off series this year: American Fiasco by Men in Blazers’ Roger Bennett on the failed US World Cup attempt in 1998, Dear Franklin Jones, a story about the narrator’s experience growing up in a California cult and how his parents came to be followers in the first place, and the Boston Globe’s Gladiator, their audio accompaniment to their in-depth story of the life and ultimate fate of Aaron Hernandez. Finally, totally new series this year that quickly got added to my regular listening: American Grift, a casual and chatty look at various scams and schemes, overseen by Oriana Schwindt, The Eurowhat?, a running look at the Eurovision competition throughout the year from the perspective of two American fans, and The Ace Records Podcast, an often engaging series of one-off interviews with various musicians, fans and so forth by UK writer Pete Paphides (I highly recommend the interviews with Jon Savage and Sheila B). Hands down my two favorite totally new podcasts of the year were The Dream, a more formal story of American grifting in general hosted by Jane Marie — this first season’s focus was on multilevel marketing, and Marie and company’s careful way of seemingly backing into the larger story makes it all the more compelling and ultimately infuriating, especially in the current political climate — and the hilarious Race Chasers, a RuPaul’s Drag Race-celebrating podcast by two veterans of the show, Alaska and Willam, loaded with all kinds of fun, behind the scenes stuff, guests and an easy casualness from two pros that strikes the perfect balance between going through things and just shooting the shit.  Returning podcast I’m most looking forward to next year: the second season of Cocaine and Rhinestones, hands down.  Check out the first season for sure.

And there ya go!  Keep fighting all your respective good fights.

[chiseltipzine]

“People have been waiting to hear music like ours” - Screaming Toenail Interview

[Photo: Artwork for Screaming Toenail’s 2015 Territorealities EP]

There’s nothing more comforting than reading the words “ANTI COLONIAL BELLIGERENT QUEER SCREAMING PUNK SASSY TOE NAILS” when you randomly click on a band on facebook. London-based SCREAMING TOENAIL are your social justice dream. They confront bigots, colonised minds and general shitness all through a fun accessible jazzy punk sound. You could even potentially play this with your mum present and she wouldn’t tell you to ‘turn that racket off’. It’s a more interesting kind of punk than sheer angry noise. Their music moves around like a giant water slide and you follow it, learn things and just like that you have a new favourite band. With one EP under their belt (Territorealities released in 2015) and the next one due out in just under two weeks, they answered some questions via email on their history, the response to their music, challenging spaces, paying artists, identities and more!

I couldn’t find much background info online about Screaming Toenail (apart from Jacob’s other brilliant work), so will have to start with a more boring question: could you give me a brief rundown of how you all got into making music and how you all crossed paths and formed and named Screaming Toenail? We actually all went to school together, but we didn’t become Screaming Toenail until a couple of years ago. [Guitarist] Niadzi and [singer] Jacob were bunking off school and  writing songs way back in 2005, obsessed with Le Tigre and Gravy Train!! [Drummer] Moon was this mysterious person in the year above, Jacob specifically remembers seeing her walk into a teenage house party and asking each guest, “Are you real?” perfectly in time to this minimal electro track. It was weird but like, very cinematic and musical. Years later Alice ended up banging the drums real good in a shared flat with Jacob. A Screaming Toenail was born in their kitchen as they yelped nonsense at each other. “MOULDY GUTS!” – “BOOTY SCIENCE!” – “*SCREAMING TOENAIL*”  The topics you address in your songs are serious but your music is animated and accessible. Was this deliberate to get your message across more easily or did it naturally fall into place that way? Our first song, Bigots, was a response to the Nicki Minaj song, ‘Looking Ass (Explicit)’ and as such is FULL OF ANGER, but anger directed at problematic white boys. So we are angry and have allot of fun when we are together because making fun of the things we hate is a way of coping with all the incessant  barrage of shit. Also we wanna make music that makes people happy, music that helps other people laugh, dance, survive and enjoy life <3 How have you found the response to your music? It’s been really inspiring to see the overwhelmingly positive response. We get a sense that people have been waiting to hear music like ours, (anti colonial, queer, femme) because we have been waiting for it too. Another really cute thing has been hearing other bands like TFQBMT (Those Fucking Queers Broke My Teeth,) Big Joanie, Xana, Tuffragettes, Dream Nails and Petrol Girls say they are fans of or inspired by our music because we are huge fans of theirs so it makes us feel well special. Political bands who operate in an independent, DIY context are sometimes criticised for ‘preaching to the choir’. Have you ever worried about that? Or do you think that’s inevitable anyway? The audiences at our gigs have always been really amazing, encouraging, supportive. There’s a great community of DIY queer anti establishment bands in  London. Our gigs are usually quite mixed in terms of gender, race, sexuality and age – we are reflecting the voices of people who are also opposed to white cis-hetero patriarchal shit. We don’t really feel like we are preaching – just expressing ourselves and having fun at the same time, hopefully that’ll encourage other people to do the same. Do you think ideas surrounding intersected oppressions are making relatively good progress? Both in music scenes and generally-speaking across the left. Maybe visibility is a tiny bit better but in short No. Absolutely fucking not, the music industry is fucked. People of colour, queers, women and other marginalised groups need to be paid better and given more platforms in every facet of our society. So in a way we do operate within an echo chamber and we are still looking for ways to break out. We are encouraged by acts like the internet, Xana, Big Jonie, Young Fathers, Cakes The Killer, L1ef, Mykki Blanco, and countless artists who are challenging so called norms and taking up space in predominantly white, cis, male straight scenes.  When I first saw your Territorealities EP was £5 on your bandcamp, I thought that was slightly expensive for a download, but then thought about the importance of what you are doing as artists and realised it’s definitely worth it. Correct me if I’m wrong but I believe Jacob does all the artwork for the band. Have you always done visual art and music together or did one come first? And do you think there’s a problem with artists being underpaid? We think a fiver is pretty good value for five tracks considering all the work that went in to writing, rehearsing, recording and mixing our songs and we hope you’d get a priceless amount of joy out of listening to it ;) We rented a studio to record the EP and were hoping to break even! Yes there’s definitely a problem of artists being underpaid – and often not paid at all! You can listen to our demos for free on sound cloud. Jacob is an illustrator and we’re a DIY band so it makes sense that they would do our artwork.  A question for your guitarist Niadzi  – I really love your style, what sort of influences inspired your guitar playing? And can you tell me a bit about your other project Rainbow Corp? Guitar playing – I was inspired to pick up a guitar by Bikini Kill and Babes in Toyland – Kathleen Hanna and Kat Bjelland. Seeing them play made me think I could probably do that! Eddie Hazel (Funkadelic) is a big influence, and Jimi Hendrix obviously. These male players came a lot later, it was the women players who actually inspired me to get a guitar. Rainbow Corp is a constant work in progress of exploring being creative for being creative’s sake. The visual art and the music go hand in hand. What would you say to the kind of people who see ‘identity politics’ as overly-labelling and regressive? 1. Eat a dick! 2. Don’t label us. 3. Intersectional identities are not something people choose, we can’t peel our gender away from our sexuality or ethnicity and all those things effect the lives we are able to live, it’s regressive to ignore that fact. As Audre Lorde once said “It is not our differences that divide us. It is our inability to recognize, accept, and celebrate those differences.” Three bands you would happily tour the world with. Le Tigre. Teenage Caveman. XANA!!!! How can we decolonise punk?  Support indigenous bands in colonised countries. Call out racism in punk scenes even if it means creating an uncomfortable situation for white people. Keep on making it. Don’t worry if you have a succinct political message or a “good” singing voice, be patient with yourself and the other poc in your life. Listen to people if they call you out on something like racism, sexism, ableism and remember that we all fuck up sometimes but we can forgive ourselves and do better next time. Encourage everyone everywhere to start a band if they want to and don’t worry if you feel like you don’t know what you’re doing – do it anyway. What can we expect from your next EP and what are your future plans? Lots of musical creatures. Swarms of bees. Undying tardegrades. Cop killing Robot horses… BABIES!!!! Some really cute stuff and some really sad stuff too. More glistening surreal scifi toenails!!!

Screaming Toenail’s next EP, Food Chain, is due out on 11th March with a launch night at DIY Space for London (Facebook event here)