Saturday, October 22, 2005

Hey, the lips move!

Read an interview with a mysterious UFM representative here. And while you're at it, here's a review of Ray Off's Ghost Wolf Of Thunder Mountain and bloody hell, why not just take a look around the whole damn mind-boggling site?

In other news, Ray Off will be supporting the touring tornado that is (excuse any errors) Destroyed/Deranged/Dove/Doppler/Diastima Yellow Swans (info here) at Arc on November the 16th... really, this will be one to see... see YOU there...

Thursday, October 20, 2005

Art noise? Hell yeah!



Heck of a great week for the old art and noise, this one gone. Before we got around to the show mentioned in the post below, there were not one, nor two, but THREE performances of Opraaaaa, a trashcan shitblast of the highest order devised by Boone and held in the formerly None, now Lot 24, basement (scene of so many great gigs in the near past). For locals who are wondering, Boone's the guy wearing the big piece of hot-water-heater insulation on his back who walks around town sticking up posters everywhere. Lily, Sally, Aliki and Tim got done up in skip-scrapings for the 'acting' (more dance/Butoh-esque than anything; and anyone who witnessed Aliki's stunning nothing-but-everything-happening turn in last years' Ghost Train - not to mention Lily's unforgettable vampiress-with-sausage act in the same - will know that these guys know their stuff), while Katrina Thomson and Rory Storm (only 6 gigs this week, Rory?) bashed the shit outta some washtubs and trolleys (using bottles and shovels, naturally) for the soundtrack. Fucking great stuff.



And, a REALLY great time around at 47 Ward St on Saturday.... with giant, mad paintings hung about the perimeter of the barn-like studio; sweet swelling from Ray Off ('it was like walking into church' - thank you, Aliki!!); a great sprawling Rory Storm & The Invaders set (which had some patrons doing the Robot AND the Mashed Potato!); Zero! Fuck, man! Crazed 80's industrial leather-pants cyborg riff-rockets from bloody Christchurch! The sort of band that makes me almost sad that I never put on black lipstick and walked a rabbit on a leash when I was a teenager. And Matt Middleton's Anomie Ensemble finishing the night with the type of insanity that only a damned insane audience could appreciate, and egg the players on to further heights of insanity; and we were that audience. Great to see Jason (sorry dude, can't remember your last name) from The Aesthetics taking the lead - sort of - with the synth in this outfit, with non-stop skronked-the-fuck-out support from Duane's drums and Matt on the home-made shenai.

News from Australia: the Three Forks cd is IMMINENT!!! Gawd bless yers, Dual Plover.

Friday, October 14, 2005

Art noise? Get fucked.

All hands on deck for a sweet, sweet gig this coming weekend at the warehouse studio of not-recovering graphomaniac artist James Robinson. That UFM flagship band of swarthy, renegade hairdressers, Ray Off, will be making a rare big-band appearance with the harp and the wine-glasses and the violins all in attendance. Now, James has gone and advertised us on the poster as 'art noise'. Right.... all-acoustic instrumentation, utilizing the tonal qualities of those instruments, playing an actual composition (a new Currin 'classic', 'Run, Run Like A Tree')...... get with it, mate. For art-noise, try Rory Storm & The Invaders, who will also be playing, or Christchurch's Zero, who I can't tell you much about except that ex-pat guitar-thrummer Peter Wright was once among their ranks (or lived near them or something). Or for total run-for-your-damn-life art terrorism, none other than Matt Middleton will be shaping up with his 'free jazz ensemble', featuring Duane Zarakov on drums; he formerly of the TOTALLY, UNJUSTIFIABLY ignored Say Yes To Apes (everybody say after me: SAY YES TO APES FUCKING RULE). On the subject of ruling, you all got to know just how FANTASTIC that new Rory Storm & The Invaders cd 'Lone Nines' is... get hot CD now!!! As I once mentioned to Dr Storm, 'Lone Nines' is actually an anagram of 'Eno's Linen'. Think deeply about that.

Seriously for a minute, this gig is a send-off for James' latest round of insane hard work, his scores of smudgeoned, bludgeoned canvases making their way to Auckland for sale at the art circus of the damned, and we wish him well. We all know what Dr Dre means when he talks about 'the chronic', right? Well, if you want to see what sir Robinson means by that term then click here to witness the won't-quitness. And look out for his DVD (no, I'm not kidding) for sale from this site soon!!

(47 Ward St, Dunedin, this Saturday the 15th of October, from 9pm. Koha for the musicians, please)

Monday, October 03, 2005

Well, haven't written for a while, lots to cover, some important stuff, lots of waffling; let's jam it all into one gigantic unwieldy post

Thanks for sticking with us through the lean times, the meantimes, those pink and purple hours spent without another fucking new post on some fucking blog somewhere.....



What the hell was that? That was the uncrowned King/Thing of Dunedin, Dr Rory Storm; just a typical night, you know, perched on some cushions, strange black hookahs around him, winnowing out the deathless ethnic electrobeat of the gods... yes, we all had fun this Saturday past at Arc Cafe laying down some ultra-chilled jams in our new 'combo' Jo Jo ef Steve, supporting the shaman munt of the mighty Futurians. This is the grouping that took shape on the radio a couple of weeks back - see post below - of Cockburn, Currin, Storm and, although she couldn't make to the radio gig, finally we got to play with the awesome Eddie Stevens WHO you can also hear on the BRAND NEW Rory Storm and the Invaders cd 'Lone Nines', out NOW on Celebrate Psi Phenomenon (click here for a rather thoughtful review of the Invaders' last gig...)! A good time was had by all - Ryan got to wear his bunny suit (unfortunately NOT one of the ones made of dinosaur wallpaper) - and thanks to everyone who snaffled up our t-shirts, cd's, beer coasters and coffee mugs. Also, thanks to The Futurians for the gig and SPECIAL thanks to the below-pictured sweetie who came perfectly dressed as Velma from Scooby Doo and laid in the moves somethin' rare.



Nerves and passions are all atwinge this week as we prepare to send our first REAL CD off to the plant, Three Forks' 'Seven Layer Ape'. It's been a long hard road but I think we all agree that it's been worth the pain and the shouting matches to get here; this baby is a gem. You'd drop several hundred hard-earned dollars on it right now, too, if you could only hear it. Contains some astonishingly great, shortish jams that sound like composed 'pieces' - about which we said 'fuck, that sucked' straight after we recorded 'em - and the legendaryish 'Drunken Traffic' performance at the Community Gallery in the centre of town. Which member of the band was actually having trouble standing during that gig? You'll never guess...

Also, nestled screaming and bewildered on Ryan Cockburn's stomach, umbilical knife at the ready, is the Spit cdr 'Trash Music Spitacular' which I'll rave out about at length once he lets me listen to the whole thing. Suffice to say for now that it'll come in a hard-card printed inner sleeve, screenprinted outer sleeve, with a booklet, and features recordings that'll have you saying things like 'I've never heard asphalt sound quite like that before' and 'interesting, I didn't know you could perform S/M/bondage on a pile of furniture', etc.

Now it must be pointed out that although there seems to be no end of out-of-print, You-Missed-It-Muther items listed on this page, quite a few of those ARE still available via our esteemed, gentle, worthy, handsome distributors whose links you will find on the right-hand side of this page but whom I'll mention here again in all-capitals: ECLIPSE, FUSETRON and VOLCANIC TONGUE. Search around these lovelies' sites and you should find all of these:

Sinking Infinities 'Forever Young' cdr
Ray Off 'I Am Not In The Racing Sky' cdr
Sinking Infinities 'Thousand Year Reich' cdr


as well as these non-UFM, yet affiliated, out-of-print releases:

Co.,Inc 'Hollows Time' cdr (sdn)
Three Forks 'Firewood' 3"cdr (metonymic)


Also on Metonymic, in the same series of 3"ers, and still available is Nathan Thompson's 'The Extinction Suite' which you can find at Volcanic Tongue or order through us ($6nz plus postage). Here's a bit of the nutty hyperbole I wrote about it after I'd spent all day listening to it: "....It's an evocation of the bones, and the overgrowth. You could put this on at home and almost think you're hearing distant traffic, or your refridgerator, before coming to and realising that you're actually hearing the desolation of eons and the deep brain-stem memory of flailing death in a lizard's skin....". Yeah. And I stand by that.

All day today I've been listening to a cache of releases from Auckland's CMR label, who I want to mention especially as 1) the discs fuckin' rock; 2) Richard Francis (aka-Eso Steel), who runs the concern, is a good guy; and 3) he's such a good guy that he's also now doing UFM distribution up in that stinky, overcrowded metropolis. AND he's releasing, in the fullness of time, cdrs by our very own Three Forks and Eye, as well as QUITE a number of other things, in his own extremely attractive packaging style (either woodblock or screenprint onto handmade paper - gorgeous!).

Well, that wasn't as much waffle as I'd suspected.... OH, please note there are now 5 mp3's up on the site; Three Forks' 'Baby Ives' has been added. More soon hopefully from Sinking Infinities, Eye, and who knows..... Jo jo ef Steve?

(NEXT TIME: actual, useable information about some of the recording artists affiliated with this 'label')
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