Image Courtesy of Digital Spy, nice one.

As a fan of The Small Faces, The Animals and other such epicentres of authentic British music you can understand (once you’ve listen to them of course) why I was pleasantly surprised by The Shoestrung. Drawn in by “I’d Love to See You Get Knocked Down” (which I assume isn’t an inference to Vehicular manslaughter and is shown below) which harks back to the era of said UK greats. However, there’s more here than a simple revivalist movement; “I Only Smoke to Burn A Hole In You” brings it down a notch which suggests their upcoming acoustic gig at the Queen Boudicea (5th May) could hold some surprises. Bleed Steam for Blood will get the crowd going but the stand-out track for me is “I’m Blind You See”.

Check out their myspace here.

My pick would be their gig at the Good Ship in Kilburn on 30th May due to the fact their gig at Proud on 29th June is likely to be full of an unbearably high hit-rate of cunts.

Aside from mass paranoia, I doubt ravers have a stringent review process of their raving. It’s hardly like they sit down with their boss and rate their glow stick waving, evaluate their gurning and pour over their shit-talking abilities. Maybe that’s all going to change with “How’s My Raving?” this Friday at Cargo. Cargo continue to deliver the freebie Friday frolics, which has seen it soar up the infamous Irregulars ‘respect’ chart (which may or may not exist and may or may not have something to do with me dressing up as a cat and pretending to be George Galloway). This Friday expect madhead dubstep, old school rave, a side portion of that Shoreditch staple Electro and more confused looking preppies than you can shake a big stick at.

Having checked out Girl Talk at La Scala last week, I’m intrigued by the “WeAreLive” night this Friday which sees a load of live acts (including Trash Fashion – remember them of nu rave demi-fame?) with Cagedbaby and Meat Katie doing some live sets. If they manage to attract the herds, this could be a real goer, especially with it finishing up at 6am…fingers crossed as there is a real dirth of decent late, late nights at the moment.

The crazy kids over at Cliche are throwing another sublime party at the Horse & Groom this weekend. We went to their first about a year ago (maybe longer!) with a Nerds theme and it was off the hook. A really great party vibe with the DJ hitting the revellers relentlessly with golden dancefloor bullets like some kind of warped disco sniper. As regular readers will know, the Horse & Groom used to be the Irregular Local, so props to the Landlord Charles who, according to urban legend, is what one might call a sound geezer. There is a theme for Friday night’s session, I’ll update you as soon as I’m updated…UPDATE…it’s a Wild West theme, so bust out those chaps and pistols…ooh er!

Another thing going on over this packed weekend is a party this Saturday via the guys at Greco Roman, which we stumbled across on the consistantly sublime, Pinglewood. Another chance to see Drums of Death, who’ll you remember we reviewed a little while ago. We were going to be interviewing him but turns out his PR people are tards.

It’s a bit surreal when you consider the above fact alongside the likelihood that only a small percentage of Londoners will make it down to see the Rodchenko & Popova exhibition that is running at the Tate Modern until 17 May.

Rodchenko and Popova were some of the founding fathers of constructivism which was an artistic movement loosely based on the premise that art should feature in every strand of life, from political messages to film posters using avant garde methods for the time (early 20th century Russia). This bred an exciting period of Soviet art which merged the mundane of everyday life with abstract and thought-provoking output. Albeit the celebration of which is somewhat subdued by how events transpired afterwards (i.e. Stalin) and the fact that constructivist styles were often used to carry the message of Communism. The style remains influential today across many disciplines. Below is one of Rodchenko’s more famous works, which you recognise as it influenced Franz Ferdinand’s first album cover.

If you are too lazy to pop down and see it, at least check out this 8 minute documentary about Rodchenko and the Russian Avant Garde…

Thanks to Art of the State for the image of Dragon Bar, as was on Leonard Street.

Whilst the arrival of more South West London remedials won’t warm the cockles of the ditch’s faithful, the return of an old friend should more than counteract the negative vibes.

Dragon bar is like a brother that was sent away as a shabbily dressed yet lovable rogue during an unnamed war to an unnamed land (read the old Dragon Bar was demolished in March last year to facilitate the redevelopment near Old Street roundabout). Just as the memories and heartache began to fade, in jaunts said toerag having undergone a spivish makeover. Whilst the red, perma pulled-closed curtains give the impression that the seedy allure of the original Dragon Bar remains, a sharp yank on the curtain shows that the new interior is more Oliver Letwin than Oliver Reed. As per the review of “local” Fred here (Fred appears to be a hot blonde (who’s reviewed pretty much everywhere in East London) rather than a rotund 50yr old, as the name may conjure), the DIY, “fuck you” attitude of the Dragon’s residency on Leonard Street seems to have been replaced by that oft-replicated, never convincing, high-end yet “eccentric” look which the Grand Union chain has officially raped, pillaged and killed over the last 5 years or so. However, out of respect and love for the old Dragon Bar, I’m willing to put my neck out and say that this place will, over time, have ditch-doers carving “I heart Dragon Bar” in trees around Hackney once again. The original Dragon Bar evolved around those that frequented it, Darwin would have been proud. The new Dragon Bar may have that “shiny new shoes” feel at the moment, but if they can ward of the cunts and find the magicians and miscreants that formally called it home, they’ll be staving St. George off for a fair while yet.

Mark my words; this guy is going to be molesting your eyes and ears in 2009 and for once, you’re going to be thankful for the molestation. We were saying after the gig that he’ll be upstaging acts left, right and centre across the festival scene this summer and getting your motors burning.

PS. The support act were Lesser Panda. We instantly wanted less of Panda.

drums of death

Image courtesy (well at least via) Pinglewood.

From financial meltdown to dancefloor meltdown, we can’t recommend Drums of Death’s free gig at Cargo tonight more highly. We saw DOD at the Macbeth around November time and firstly he had everyone looking around thinking it was time for Jeremy Beadle to jump out due to his crazy on-stage antics, next he rocked the place to it’s dirty Hoxton Street foundations.

Check out his BBC Maida Vale sessions below…

As we said in our article last year on the death of Shoreditch, we anticipated a move away from the environs of Old Street etc and the clubs that now seem less ‘cooler than thou’ and more ‘only marginally cooler than Slough’. We envisaged the hedonista movement branching further into Hackney, Dalston and beyond and the less eccentric crowd heading down towards London Bridge and returning to Islington. Much of this has happened, with the growing clammer to get onto the 149 being testament to Dalston’s rise to prominence amongst the “n’e'r do wells” of the Capital.

Read on for the roadmap of Dalston hangouts.

This review fits kindly into the format of the matrimonial ditty “something old, something new, something borrowed and something blue”. Dalston Jazz Bar is indeed the wise old head of the Dalston scene, having kept the oddities that wish to be out until 6am well lubricated for as long as I can remember. Now for something new. Efes Snooker Hall will be hosting an warehouse-style rave to mark NYE, Florence & The Machine are doing a DJ set, the flyer sound like someone has scatter-gunned the genres from 1970s to now to derive the line-up. My advice would be to wear your best underwear just in case you don’t come out the other side…

Now the first time I went to our next featured bar, I assumed I had stumbled across a 1980s porn reunion. It was wall-to-wall with hairy-lipped Lotharios; bushy ones, long ones, curly ones and clearly some borrowed ones unless I missed a pandemic of excess hair growth amongst hot arty chicks. The Moustache Bar is a tight, basement venue which is popular with a flamboyant crowd, if you’re the cool kid from accounts, maybe give this one a miss.

Finally something blue, well at least I think it’s blue. Something there was definitely blue, either that or I was visually challenged through my exploits in Holloway before heading to this place. Visions Video Bar is another basement bar who’s spiritual possession of this former film stockist just feels kinda right in a kitsch way.

The beauty of Dalston junction is that if you go down Kingsland Road you’re in Shoreditch, if you go up Kingsland Road you’re in good ol’ Stokey…if you go East you’re in Hackney Central and West you’re in Essex Road/Islington. That puts Dalston firmly in the centre of the North East London nightlife compass for me. Also as noted in our earlier piece on ‘free buses’ in London, Dalston and it’s surrounding areas are serviced joyfully by a bevvy of bendy buses for the thrify/risk-seeking amongst you.

To recant some epic scenester fail we heard on the way to Today is Boring last night, we overheard this statement:

Failing Scenester dude: Yeah I know how the Sunday night vibe goes down, Secret Sundaze, Brick Lane (languishing scenester looks over the road to Herbal) and er, Herbal.

Us: Fail. Although two outta three ain’t bad.

As regular readers will know, we’re fans of the occasional blip and beep and fellow Shoreditch residents will know that if you can’t deal with a bit of minimal house, fidget, techno and the like then you might as well stay in and watch Britain’s Got Talent.

Last year you may remember it was electro of a Parisian flavour via Sebastian, Kavinsky (and most things coming out of Kitsune come to think of it) that had us bouncing around like bunnies but since they denied us a response on Myspace, they are officially dead to us.

Now, there seems to be lots of hype swelling around the WYS vibe, and along those lines, we tip our hat to Peter Pixzel , who is often in situ behind the 1s and 2s, churning out tasty strands of ocassionally 8-bit infused tracks for party robots and night time ghouls at the Wet Yourself! sessions. To see him in action, check this Youtube video or conversely, you could get your lazy asses to Field Day to see him in the flesh alongside the glitterati that is the painfully cool line-up for the East End festival.

Check out the track below and remember to take your speedos if you do rock up at Aquarium to catch his shit.

Kitsune are releasing a new record mixed and compiled by Digitalism which has essentially been put together to get us suitably riled up for the Summer. The symbolism of the “Tabloid” moniker of the record is that (and I paraphrase) “the music symbolises the newspaper whilst the DJ takes up the role of editor in chief “- yep, so it’s like a mixtape yeah? Thought so.

On the upside, the rather flimsy Gallic symbolism does remind me of a blinding track from yesteryear by The Departure – All Mapped Out, check it out below:

The Kitsune compilation is released on 30th June and available from their store here

You can try the micro mix right here [See post to listen to audio]

Check out their Maison Series also, which is worth it for the funky sleeves alone (the tracks are pretty epic also).

However as if by magic, something that tickles my musical, literary and typography tastebuds has arrived to fill the aperture. Those of you in the know, will, er know, that The Sect is a monthly soirée put on at the best free club on Kingsland Road near Dream Bags, Catch.

Avid readers of the site (ED: as if!) may have picked up the fact that I’m a bit of a book geek, especially Victorian literature and the like, therefore I find that The Sect’s typography and wordsmithery is The Sex.

The club night’s myspace site gives an insight into the kind of music that gets thrown down to the painfully hip crowd that assembles. Reading the list under the “music section” gives a frankly intimidating peek into the musical knowledge of the people behind the night; perhaps the highest quality hat-tipping to artists I have ever seen written on the interwebs!

The night is an offshoot of the Southend scene which has thrust many kooky dressed starlets in front of vast audiences around the World in recent years. In particular These New Puritans (whose song, Elvis continues to be one of my favourite existential-tinged songs of recent times) and the Horrors, who are epic winners.

So there we have it, if you’re bored of the same old Shoreditch electro, check it out but don’t forget to make an effort…

On a related note, i stumbled upon this guy’s blog dating back to 2004 when he saw Doherty at Pleasure Unit, Neil’s Children in Brighton and the Rake’s manager asked him to post the Strasbourg video on the internet for them. Andrew Kendall, we salute you!