Image: beatenberg.net

Most recently, on 11th February to be exact, their song ‘Pluto (Remember You)’ ft. DJ Clock reached #1 in South Africa on the Entertainment Monitoring Africa airplay chart. The song now hits its second week as the biggest song on radio in the country (beating out Beyonce’s XO this week). The fun collaboration with SA house veteran DJ Clock results in a dreamy-day sound that is subtly local and immediately catchy. In fact, the song is so big right now that just this morning, local A cappella artists Alex Acappella released a beautiful cover of ‘Pluto (Remember You)’. Check it out below.

From their early days as a fledgling band performing at The Assembly, to playing shows with musicians like Desmond and the Tutus and The Brother Moves On, Beatenberg has performed consistently and extensively. After a deal with Universal Music in 2012, they have steadily risen to fame, and are currently finishing up work on their next album – titled The Hanging Gardens of Beatenberg – to be released in the first week of May 2014.

Keep a close eye on these guys. They started from the bottom, now they here.

Words Gosia Podgórska

Image: beatenberg.net

Image: beatenberg.net

In the last two years, well, the band got back together, we decided to do a new album and we did not want to do anything till the album came out. But then Download Festival in the UK offered us a really nice slot, headlining with Def Leppard last summer. So we came back with that gig and since then we have toured the States twice, we have been to Australia and we have done all the European festivals. We have our album coming out in a couple of weeks…evidently, Lady Gaga asked us to support her on her world tour, so we are very pleased with the way things have worked out.

What is the band’s relationship with her?

It’s one of mutual admiration and respect because she does not care what people think of her and she is ready to be ridiculed and, I think, having the courage to be different is the most important thing.

I read somewhere of the groups idea – while touring with her – of having everyone dress a different historical era, why would you have you been a Greek Philosopher?
(laughs)
Haha, well, properly because I am the Philosopher of the band, Bass playing is black art, it’s a different mystery, and for that reason Bass players hold the key, which unlocks the portal of dreams.

What’s your philosophy on life?

Time is a human mind construct and the future and the past are intermingled, that’s what I believe… Deep in our subconsciousness we know what is happening next.

image: The Darkness

Have you ever been to South Africa?

Justin has been there on holiday and he said he had a great time – really nice lifestyle great people, fantastic food and just freedom to be what you want to be. But that the water was really cold!

Did you hear about ticket servers being crashed in a ticket frenzy for the concert here in South Africa in December?

Frankie: Oh? No, I did not hear about that… but that great.
oss: Yeah, fans rushed to web retailer ‘computicket‘ so hard that servers shut down after being overwhelmed by traffic.
Frankie: So there are two gigs? One in Joburg and one in Cape Town.
oss: Yeah
Frankie: It’s the first gig that we picked in the whole of Africa, we are really excited… I remember in 2004 we got a lot of emails from fans in South Africa asking why we had not been there, so this is long overdue….

With your new album ‘Hot Cakes‘ to be realized soon, any chance we can get a sneak peek/favorite line or lyric?

Well, what I can tell you that one of the songs is called ‘She is Just a Girl Eddie’ and it’s all about our younger time and Justin is singing the song to him, on his relationship when his girlfriend broke up, and I think that characterizes a lot of the album because, even though we are being perceived as a cult help-band, our songs are not about fast cars and fast living, although we have a lot of bravado on stage.

image: The Darkness

Who would win a match of tennis between you and Justin?

I used to beat him! But the very last time I played him…his sheer level of fitness…he is such an amazing physical specimen these days he managed to overpower me with sheer stamina. It’s close between us, we have not played this year… We will properly play in South Africa because we will have a lot of time on our hands. It’s quite a big production this Gaga tour, which means there are quite a lot of days off in between two gigs.

Wikipedia tells me that you had worked as a tour guide in the Venezuela mountains, any truth to this?

Yeah it’s true, at one stage I was staying in the Del Orinoco Delta, with a bunch of students, we were sleeping on hammocks in the jungle for two weeks, with the one-eyed Indians – very gentle type of Indians…
And basically I went to collect some wood and I went to pick up a machete in the middle of a wasps nest, there was this jungle of brow bees and I was stung over 30 times by these bees, and I almost died, so I had to give up tour guiding. I came back to the UK and that was when Justin told me he had started to be a singer in The Darkness.

How would you sum up your comeback?

I would say it has to do with the collective responsibility to repair the damage we did to ourselves and the band, our reputation towards the end, we are very lucky to have a second chance to come back and hopefully fulfill our potential and repay the fans for believing in us. We are 100% focused on being a great roll model for what we believe rock and roll to be.
You know everyone’s idea of rock and roll is different, our vision of rock and roll is something which advocates/accumulates the ludicrous aspects. So with bits of Jeremy lewis, Lewi Richard and moving along to the more modern aspects ACDC, Queen.

In a dream world, lets go back 30 years, who would you have liked to tour with. ’60/’70

Yeah that’s a good question, 1970s would have been maybe ABBA?! They were actually really amazing, some of their elements were kinda rocking, just the tin planet pop, you know, the aspect of that, to do what we do, just the song idea and the euphonic nature, the songs…

What are you wearing?

Funny enough, now I am wearing the same underwear I did for our Funny or Die sketch, you can check it online, they gave us brown underpants to wear to accentuate what we were doing. I actually kept them and put them on this morning.

It was a great honor to speak to you, the whole of South Africa is very excited for you to come!

Interview by: David Plenderleith

image: The Darkness

image: The Darkness

image: The Darkness

image: The Darkness

image: The Darkness

Audiophile 021 – Triola EP

soundcloud.com/audiophile021/

With Triola, Cape Town-based DJ/Producer, Audiophile 021, offers a meandering journey full of rich and textured sounds. The EP was released on the 25th of June on the Triplefire Music label.

The XX – ‘Angels’

clashmusic.com

In case you missed it, The XX were the biggest new thing in London when they burst onto the scene back in 2009. Their debut album was all soft beats and groovy melodies over which Romy Madley Croft and Oliver Sim would whisper sweet nothings to each other. Since then the young members have been doing their own thing, most notably beat-master Jamie XX’s remix album of Gil Scott-Heron’s I’m New Here. This new track features the nocturnal lovesickness that was the motif of their debut and precedes the September 10th release of their new album, Coexist.

The Antlers – ‘Drift Drive’

pigeonsandplanes.com

2009’s dark and lo-fi Hospice was the breakout album for the Brooklyn-based trio, which they followed up with Burst Apart, one of the best albums of last year. The new single conveys the feeling of aquatic sedation that seems to be the theme behind their new 4-song EP, Undersea, which will be coming out on the 24th of July.
 
 
 
 

Meursault – ‘Flittin’’

sndcdn.com

‘Flitting’ is the new single from Meursault’s third album. They make the sort of heartbroken melodies leaning towards the folk side of indie rock that makes a lazy comparison to Frightened Rabbit easy and quite accurate. There’s a coarse honesty and melancholy in this song that cuts into you like a hot gulp of of whisky. Their new album, Something For The Weakened, was released on the 16th.
 
 
 
 

Errors – ‘Relics’

aaamusic.co.uk

Have Some Faith In Magic was an early contender for my favourite album of this year and in the months since its January release there hasn’t really been anything to knock it from its perch. Now we have the montivagant ‘Relics’ as a precursor to their new mini-album New Relics, with an ETA scheduled for October.
 
 
 
 

Dirty Projectors – ‘Gun Has No Trigger’

2020k.wordpress.com

The last LP by Brooklyn-based indie band Dirty Projectors, 2009’s Bitte Orca, showcased the band’s eccentric and experimental leanings. After a collaborative EP with Bjork in 2010 their new album, Swing Lo Magellan, is coming out on the 9th. The new LP finds them at their most accessible yet still offering an array of interesting sounds. ‘Gun Has No Trigger’ is the first single.
 
 
 
 

The Stone Roses – ‘I wanna Be Adored’

lyrdb.com

The reformation of Manchester legends The Stone Roses has been big news for nostalgic fans  and backwards-looking music magazines. However, to someone like me who was born in the same year as their famous 1989 debut a big reunion like this looks like more ageing rockstars are willing to kill their legacy and pick its bones clean. Cynicism aside, this reunion is something that means a lot to thousands of fans and makes this as good a time as any to remind ourselves why, more than fifteen years after they first disbanded, they are still adored.
 
 
 
 

Ill Skillz –  Skillz That Pay Da Billz 2

ill-literate-skill.bandcamp.com

Cape Town hip-hop trio Ill Skillz exhibit the ego, pride and partisan attitude of hip-hop, but with an explicitly South African heritage. Their 8-track album Skillz That Pay Da Billz 2 is available as a free download from their bandcamp page.
 
 
 
 

Big Space – Brown Bag E.P

facebook.com/pages/Big-Space

Big Space is from Cape Town. Aside from beats, he also shares some words on his SoundCloud: ‘I could just name drop all the famous people I’ve worked with who are waaay more famous than me but that would just be stupid. I make house music but I don’t make house music. I don’t think a lot of people like my personality but its okay… I love everyone. I also have an adopted cat and an E.P. coming out this summer on BOMBAADA records’ ALSO, I WILL STILL FUCK SHIT UP. CHENIN NON BLANC BABY! BOURGIE BOYZ!’ (Big Space, SoundCloud)
 
 
 
 

The Wave Pictures – ‘Eskimo Kiss’

imgur.com

The Wave Pictures make guitar music that’s familiar yet invigorating. The prolific London three-piece follow up last year’s excellent Beer In The Breakers with their new album Long Black Cars, from which ‘Eskimo Kiss’ is the first single.
 
 
 
 

Joey Bada$$ – 1999

pigeonsandplanes.com

1999 is the debut project from Brooklyn’s 17-yr-old Joey Bada$$. This 15-track mixtape features members of his Pro Era crew – a collective of 18 rappers, producers, graphic designers and studio engineers – such as Capital STEEZ, who makes an appearance on track four – ‘Survival Tactics’. From A$AP to BadASS, NYC keeps rolling out that old school hip-hop grit
 
 

Killer Mike – ‘Big Beast’ (Feat. Bun B, T.I., and Trouble)

musicya.net

The rapper Killer Mike (born Michael Render) released his sixth studio album called R.A.P. Music, produced by Definitive Jux’s El-P (Jaime Meline) and released by William Street Records. Spin mag’s Christopher Weingarten says it perfectly: ‘A child of the ’80s and a student of the Internet, Killer Mike is as exciting and wildly unclassifiable as hip-hop gets: New York noise and country shit, nods to when rap was punk and crunk was pop, Ice Cube before he needed hooks, David Banner before he needed to whisper, and Willie D before he needed anybody.’

Images from: soundcloud.com/audiophile021/; facebook.com/pages/Big-Space; aaamusic.co.uk; sndcdn.com; clashmusic.com; pigeonsandplanes.com; wordpress.com; lyrdb.com; imgur.com; ill-literate-skill.bandcamp.com; pigeonsandplanes.com; musicya.net

image: berniechase.com

New York City’s Symbolic Collection gallery – one of the world’s greatest collections of 20th Century pop culture – presents a collection of fine art works by legendary music icon and Rolling Stones guitarist Ronnie Wood. The exhibition – Faces, Time and Places - premiered on Monday 9 April and will run until 30 June 2012.

Ronnie Wood. A name most of know as being the lead guitarist to legendary rock ‘n roll band Rolling Stones. What we might not know is that Ronnie Wood is an artist and has been practicing painting, drawing and printmaking for over 35 years.

I apply musical theory to his art. I build limited edition silk screen prints in much the same way as studio overdubs, the more defined ones are things that stand out in the mix. (ronniewoodexhibition.com)

image: hungree.com

image: timesofmalta.com

image: cbsnews.com

noun
1.
an art of sound in time that expresses ideas and emotions insignificant forms through the elements of rhythm, melody, harmony, and colour.

Music is ‘an art…’ This could not be truer for Wood. His subjects are his friends, his family, and his music. In many mediums, he has captured legendary rock n’ roll, pop and rhythm & blue performers including Jimi Hendrix, Chuck Berry, Jim Morrison, Elvis Presley, Bob Marley, Eric Clapton, John Lennon and Madonna.

Lots of musicians happen to be artists because you find, especially if you’re a Gemini like me, that you’re blessed with two things: music and art (Wood, CBS News)

 
Ronnie Wood’s current art exhibition, entitled Faces, Time and Places, coincides with this weekend’s Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio, where Wood will be celebrated for his pioneering influence as a guitarist for rock band The Faces. It was in 1989 for The Rolling Stones when he was first inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

image: blog.joshwongphotography.com

It’s a great honour. It’s a great time for The Faces. It’s a great time for me. It’s a great time for my art. (Wood, CBS News)

With assistance by Brandon Coburn, the art exhibited was selected by Wood himself and will take the viewer on a voyage that is both intimate and full of rhythm. A candid rock ’n roll retrospective, Faces, Time and Places is Wood documenting the evolving world of popular culture, a world that is often centered on fame and music – from the ’60s until the present.

The exhibition includes paintings, drawings and limited-edition prints available for sale, many of never having been showcased to the public. One of the gems is a 1979 drawing of Woods, Mick Jagger and Keith Richards.

About this, Wood says: ‘Jagger is very hard to capture… I like the challenge.’ (CBS News)

image: cbsnews.com

image: zimbio.com

image: cbsnews.com

Talking about challenges, and liking them, the Stones’ studio days are not yet over. According to Wood, ‘the band is heading back to the studio this month to toss around ideas and try new material.’ (CBN News)

In fact, 2012 marks the 50th anniversary for the Stones. Wood’s been voicing his hope for a tour – one that would not only celebrate this half-century milestone, but also pay tribute to the fans worldwide.

Be lovely, wouldn’t it? That’s what we’re on the verge of. I dunno what the hell is gonna happen yet but we all feel we owe it to ourselves and to the people to do something. Basically, get the boys feeling comfortable with each other, ’cause we’re all ready to go individually. It’s just a matter of tying up loose ends and coming together as a unit. (fansshare.com)

It would be lovely indeed. 2012 is already seeing The Cult and The Stone Roses touring, let’s hope The Rolling Stones will be added to that list.

image: aceshowbiz.com

Source: artnet.com, cbsnews.com, hungeree.com, ansshare.com, timesofmalta.com, aceshowbiz.com, berniechase.com, cbn.com,

blog.joshwongphotography.com, ronniewoodartexhibition.com

Released on 21st of May 2012 on their new UK label, Cooking Vinyl, the album’s 10 tracks reveal the band at its rawest and most visceral, encapsulating cinematic visions and themes of love, revolt, and redemption. The track ‘Lucifer’ is available as a free download through the band’s website www.thecult.us, while details are being confirmed for a worldwide tour and will be announced soon.

Choice of Weapon is the follow up to the critically-acclaimed 2007 release Born Into This, which UK magazine, Mojo, called ‘a wholehearted, utopian and irrefutably exciting record.’ Long-time Cult collaborator and producer Bob Rock (Metallica, Bush) – who produced one of The Cult’s most successful albums, the platinum-certified Sonic Temple, put the finishing touches on the foundations that were laid by co-producer Chris Goss (Queens of the Stone Age, U.N.K.L.E., Masters of Reality).

The album was written by Ian Astbury and Billy Duffy and recorded in New York City, Los Angeles; the California high desert and the band’s Witch Mountain studios in the Hollywood Hills, between July and December 2011. The new release features founding members Astbury on vocals and Duffy on guitars, with drummer John Tempesta and bassist Chris Wyse.

We have had the opportunity to work with two of the most influential and talented producers in the world today. They pushed us beyond our comfort zone, and helped us craft Choice of Weapon. (Astbury)

The album is aimed at the heart of The Cult’s loyal following. It reflects the current discontent and destruction of our eco systems, the search for individual meaning against a tide of rampant materialism, narcissism and disconnected lives.

We went deeper . . . we worked a bit harder on this record. We have great fans and they deserve our best, and I feel this is one of our best records, maybe the best. (Duffy)

 

The album is released as a special edition fan pack on May the 14th, followed by digital and double vinyl on May the 21st, with the CD and deluxe CD’s on June the 4th.

Choice of Weapon Track Listing:

01   ‘Honey from a Knife’

02   ‘Elemental Light’

03   ‘The Wolf’

04   ‘Life & Death’

05   ‘For The Animals’

06  ‘Amnesia’

07   ‘Wilderness Now’

08   ‘Lucifer’

09   ‘A Pale Horse’

10   ‘This Night In The City Forever’

Choice of Weapon – Bonus Tracks:

• ‘Every Man And Woman Is A Star’
• ‘Embers’
• ‘Until The Light Takes Us’
• ‘Siberia’

Source: 2 Feet Music, Sheer Sound & Musketeer Records, media.photobucket, YouTube.com

Tell us a bit more about your musical backgrounds and where it all started.

Musically, our backgrounds differ greatly. Whereas most of the band is classically trained, technically fluent musicians, I taught myself to play based largely upon what sounded good to me. This contrast in style and origin allowed us to fuse raw rhythm with considered grace, which ultimately forms the cornerstone of our work, and follows the larger theme of the “de-polarisation of dichotomy”, around which many of the lyrics revolve…
Mike (Plaxton-Harrison) and I started fiddling around recreationally in 2007, and performing together as a duo from 2008-2010. Midway through last year the outfit expanded to include Jamie Acheson on bass and Steven Bosman on drums.

You classify your sound as ‘medievolutionary’. Please elaborate.

The ability to classify the noise we make has constantly eluded us. In a category-crazed society, definition appears to be the gatekeeper of marketability. “Medievolutionary” is a tongue-in-cheek deference to this obsession. I have always been interested in medieval times, particularly in the way minstrels travelled between kingdoms, regaling paupers and noblemen alike with songs of adventure, vice, humour and wisdom. In an age before mass communications, these musician/storytellers were essentially ‘singing the news’, however abstract or exaggerated the details may have been. What mattered was the thematic universality of their content and the emotion with which it was conveyed. It is from a modern, constantly unfolding perspective of this art form that the term ‘medievolutionary’ arises. But we don’t eat it for breakfast…

Michael-Plaxton Harrison

Your lyrics are dreamy, poetic, with prolific metaphors in songs like Holy Grail. Tell us a bit about this. What inspires you to write like this and what is the message in your music?

For me, writing is its own inspiration. As I mentioned above, I love a song that unfolds like a tale of old, rich with imagery, morality and wisdom. By experimenting with this style, I started subverting the wisdom, questioning the morality and twisting the imagery toward the patently abstract. In this way, with much of the traditional syrupy distraction removed, a binding skeleton of dichotomy emerged – dichotomies that define humanity by framing it on all sides. Conceptual examples are past-future, magic-science, love-hate, addiction-abstinence etc. The polarisation of these concepts interested me, particularly in the way that we define ourselves according to our perceived proximity to such opposing poles. Within the context of metaphor, the lyrics explore the nature of opposites and attempt to reveal that all is not as it seem. And sometimes I just write about STD’s…

A lot of your songs are written like love stories. Are these based on real life experiences?

Sure, but most of them not on a surface level. I find a lot of lyrics that tackle the concept of love on a purely situational level tend to be conceited and irrelevant. It is the lyricist’s task to mix the personal with perspective, as a means to photosynthesise their experience into something externally valid. When love (not self-indulgent pining) travels through both ends of a song, it’s a love song…
You obviously have a strong understanding of the English language… why is this important to you? What kind of tool can it be used for?

Language adds colour to communication. It creates imagery, incites humour, unlocks meaning, engenders understanding, represents style, facilitates discovery and powers the imagination. It also gets you punched in the teeth for not shutting the fuck up…

Dayne Rothbletz

What is it like working with Naming James and people like Shawn Phillips? What other artists inspire you?

It’s been the most surreal part of the sitcom so far. We used to watch Jamie (Naming James) spewing the truth from the crowd, then he offered us our first gig, and now he guest stars for us on the bass…The Shawn experience was also far out. One minute you’re listening to a song on an LP as a kid, and a decade later you’re playing that song with its creator onstage…Connecting with those who inspire you is all the gratification anyone really needs…

Tell us more behind the name of ‘Some Grow Young’.

The name is an invitation. It champions the concept of a life lived light, presents the search for wisdom as rejuvenation, and preaches mischief in place of salvation. If you like…

What are you guys up to at the moment and can we expect a visit to Cape Town?

We’re currently in studio working on our first full album, and will be Capeside as soon it drops… In the meantime, we’re conjuring up something normal for Afrika Burn…

Jamie Acheson

Jamie Acheson

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