betamax

Originally posted by Lester Burnham:

Oh yeah, they were the ones that didn;t have the dennis the menace jumpers? (that was Grim Northern Social) yes... I recall them. Tre bon.

dennis the menace band no

grim northern anti-socials

they had a wind chime and bongos (half cousin that is) and were quite trippy n cool

you were drunk i think

Originally posted by Lester Burnham:

Yeah, I was pretty sure they didn't play with us. And to my recollection I didn't see them play.

Though, did they play at the Scottish Invasion afterparty? I think they did, so I think I saw them.... I think. I was rather dazed and there was free booze.

they did play the party and were trez good.....

Originally posted by LonelyHunter Alister:

Of the out of town bands, I would recommend you see Half Cousin. Saw them in SXSW, and they were great. Sound similar, but not the same, as Beta Band.

i saw em too....where you at the party thing they played?

Originally posted by Tam o' Shantie:

will probably get there between 10 and half past, like i do every friday, hopefully i won't have to fork out full price!

youll defo miss any shocksness that nite , but could be a good thing

we had the bizarre choice of playing first or last ?!??? ...but decided on an early start cos we are naturally fond of apres gig drinking and this way it maximises it

and DEMAND a discount

the whole advance ticketing and more expensive tickets on the door thing is a joke imo

and nothing to do with RS

its not the fucking AECC

dont get me started

Le Shocks are playing vee early > 9.30 onstage

so if you you think you might like blurry films, bad fashion, screaming and synthesizers all served with cheese on toast - cum early

Originally posted by craig deadenstereo:

Bannermans in Edinburgh run a good scheme.

No promoters, you deal with the manager direct.

Craig

Aye Bannermans is one our fave places too

and no promoters to steal the bands petrol money ....hooray!

plus the best soundman in scotland with the coolest hair

drakes is aberdeens most precious cultural treasure - value and a half

kef seems a bit crap anytime ive gone in and i cant imagine id pay a fiver to see any of the emo-only based stuff they put on, and drink that disgusting watered down lager

lemon tree puts on some good bands but door tax can be tres expensive and the drinks are even more expensive which really puts me off spending more than an hour in the place....and bands, never do a short notice stand-in slot for them on a rainy monday night, without any Lemon Tree promotion or any other promotion (cos its short notice)....cos theyll actually turn round & blame you for the inevitable low turnout....tsh!

i used to rate drummonds a lot when it was free, but since they charge door fees now and they are generally only promoting ned rock im more sceptical and less likely to just wander in

the moorings is the only venue that comes close to drakes and for a night of drunken debauchery regardless of the music its very hard to beat (that applies to anywhere, not just aberdeen)....but the new 'promoters' seem to be applying their own form of 'pay to play' which is a step in the wrong direction i think

Originally posted by Jesus Wept:

They might like your songs because they like "self indulgent wanking" though. And you could be going up your own arse with the backing of said radio people, witness Mars Volta as an example.

never thought of that

but people generally dont like self indulgent wank music unless the pluggers and music press convince them its fashionable or hip to do so for a week or two, witness also Mars Volta

and theres lies le difference....

its better to fuck with the system that to be fucked because of it surely

if all bands went DIY and refused to work for the corporations more music would actually be cool insted of shit

Originally posted by Jesus Wept:

How is it?(

i suppose if various show producers actually bother to give you airtime for free in schedules packed with songs they are 'sponsored' to play, it means they like your songs....bizarre as it seems

but if you sit at home just telling yourself how great your music is, but theres no confirmation from cynical outsiders (like radio show producers and DJs) then how do you know you are improving? you could just be going up your own arse

Re: Re: Re: Ghost Town by The Specials

Originally posted by Frosty Jack:

Neville Staple? Or was it Lynval something? Can't remember.. Didn't they have 'Sir Horace' somebody too?

And it is a fantastic record, although I may prefer 'Too Much Too Young'. Wouldn't have said so at the time of course, I was a 'metaller' and wasn't supposed to like 'mods', but they really stopped me giving a fuck about 'genres' and just appreciating all music. Weren't they the first band to do it all themselves, and form their own label?

Twas Neville he was talking about....also said he was a genuine hard nut and quite intimidating...but nice with it

Got some good snippits of info about the Buzzcocks of him too....but thats another thread

Originally posted by nullmouse:

Oh you'd be surprised to what cack I listen to

Yar, we booked The Kitchen for their first ever gig (*glowing pride*). Only seen them once since and the sound is coming along in leaps and bounds - Their album is going to be released on Damaged Goods, I believe.

Missed Dirty Hospital when Del got them up, was much annoyed about that - Look forward to hearing the remix, from what I've heard of DH's stuph it will indeed be my cup of tea. It sounds like the sort of thing we'd play at Elizium (we're 1/3 electrotrash whores, after all).

I'm back from Washington DC on Thursday, so depending on how the travelling affects me I may try and make it out to the Moorings. Ta for the info!

ive heard a fair bit of the new Dirty Hospital album while it was work in progress and its fantastic......super fast electro clash ...almost punk techno...top chaps!

i can get you a copy of the RS v DH disko mix

send me a pm if you are gonna appear anywhere (such as a gig) and ill try and have it on me

Originally posted by nullmouse:

I must admit to having never seen the Real Shocks live yet - It's just been something I've failed to do but meant to for a while. Must... rectify.

I remember seeing an EP on the shelves of some record shop a while ago, are there copies still floating around?

real shocks cds and vinyl are available in all good record shops

ie: not many....most copies are vinyl and not many places stock the black syuff

dunno if you'll like much of our stuff anyway, its kina throwaway ultra retro punk with huge lumps of synthness thrown in it (certainly not as intelligent as The Faint etc), but I guarantee you'll like the Dirty Hospital remix of our next single....its a huge throbbing sequencer robo-disko track and its currently going down well at club nites like Trash in London....i think it will be right up your street sir....its coming out on a one sided 12 inch in June or July, but ill probably get some bootleg cd copies and distribute locally soon

next deen gig is a 'guest appearance' at the Pills/Josephine/CUTS gig on friday 28th @ The Moorings......basically we'll be playing our full set (30 mins) as a warm up to supporting The Kitchen (Manda Bis) in London the week after.....Mooring gig onstage at 9.30.....without a sound check I would imagine

after that theres a few outa town dgigs and then we do the after show ladyboy party for GoNorth (not an official Go North band this year)....details soonly

Originally posted by ragudave:

Was "Ghost Town" by The Specials the first ever Trip Hop track ? Or would Portishead / Massive Attack / Tricky take that honour ?

Of course maybe twas Sons of Arqa ?

Dave

dont know ...but probably

although some Bootsy Collins stuff verges on trip hop....especially played at the wrong speed

but a guy we worked with in England, Jon Rivers produced Ghost Town and has the gold disc on his studio wall

lovely chap too, camper than a camper van but a fantastic bloke

he had fond memories of making the Ghost Town and said non of the Specials thought it would have anything like the impact it had....a lot of it was made up on the spot too....plenty of weed was involved obviously.... and the real genius of the band was the black guy on vocals and not so much Terry Hall, the bands perceived main man

one of the best records ever made probably

top tips!

Half Cousin

RAAR

Hoboken

seems like a good line up to me like you miserable bastards

Originally posted by Jesus Wept:

Your post implies to me that popularity should be the career goal of a band. Isn't it enough to just make music, with no concern for money, popularity, success?

Having national radio airplay means nothing other than you have national radio airplay. I dont see how it makes your band any better than the "no hope career musos".

yes its enough. full stop. you are preaching to the converted on that one.

but yes

radio airplay is cool when it serves to piss off said local muso types who look down on bands like us, because we dont conform to their careerist wannabee marketable demographic

because we naturally work outside and even against those attitutes, but somehow have the kind of accidental 'success' they eat their grannies liver for...it becomes tres amusing when we get the usual relentless ''you cant fucking play, you cant fucking sing, you dont even play proper songs" shit thrown at us from bands, whose actual creative talent amounts to recycling the *insert established act* songbook (badly)

right you are ...radio play or whatever is no real measure of actual success or worth as a creative act....and at what point have I said Real Shocks are 'better' than anyone??? are Keen better than Real Shocks cos they are on the radio 24/7....I think not....point proven. We are not a successful band either......only in our heads when a song really kicks off at a gig do we feel any remote sense of ''success''. I reckon we all think the same on that. Apert from the desperate careerist muso wanks......getting their photos in the P&J is what its all about for those penis heads

but getting one up on the genuine bands in town, dosen't even come into our thinking and why would it? we are mates with half of em, and i do work for free on the promotion and production side for quite a few of em....

erm

and..

its also worth considering that when XFM, Virgin, Radio 1 and Euro/American Stations play your tunes without bribes, its a good indication that whatyou are doing is not just self indulgent wanking

it also pays royalties which come in handy for keeping things going when you are operating on a DIY basis outside the conventional music industry

even on the outside you have to be realistic sometimes

Originally posted by This Is Music:

The use of that word is rather funny coming from a member of Real Shocks!

i know

we have a perfect zero credibility rating with the local 'serious' muso wank set

its something we find equally funny

no hope career musos apeing *insert boring established act* really hate the way we cant play and dont actually give a fuck, but still manage to consistently grab more national radio airplay than the rest of the 'proper' musos put together

oh the irony!

now that IS funny

*gets out Danse Macabre for another listen in case Ive been too critical*

Originally posted by josef k:

You kidding betamax? Danse Macabre is truly awesome!

some of it is fantastic but some of it is a bit crap too ...to me anyway....thats what I mean by patchy

kind of frutrating when you think something is almost wonderful if you know what I mean

but they are potentially world beaters

and Im looking forward to the new LP too

i think they are a touch over rated (like most elecro rock cross over bands)

good ...but over rated

the last album was fairly patchy and too much a replicant of early Ultrvox in places to be totally credible

imo

also heard some reports of quite bad live shows

they can only get better

...but they are both fat

Originally posted by Keilan 303:

What attracts me to that minidisc 8 track isn't that it uses minidiscs, its that its laid out like a multitrack should, 8 inputs for the 8 channels (although only 2 are XLR) with are mic/line switchable, 4 band EQ on EACH channel, seperate gain, fader and aux outs on each channel, with seperate aux return channels.....its just a proper fucking multitrack, ie all 8tracks can be recorded at once. If there are any HDD multitracks that do that I would love to see it...as most products i see have only 2 inputs, 3 faders, 1 knob for EQ all shelves on all channels which you have to fart about with....fine if you're recording a vocal along to a sequencer or something, but shite if you want to record a full drum kit....

have you tried the fostex vf-160

simultaneous 8 track recording to hard drive and tres portable (does 16 track simultaneous with an ADAT adaptor)

Originally posted by Ibid:

Real Shocks do indeed turn out some fine tunes. BedHead's Stu is a programming genius too. The only man I know who can make sequenced stringed instruments sound like the real thing. His sequenced accoustic guitar sounds are awesome.

making sounds out of synths that sound like real instruments is not something I would do, but its tres admirable if it works....all that velocity, aftertouch, and gate programming / randomising / humanising is mega time consuming, but does add realism....i have a mate in France who does it on string samples and makes it sound like a Michael fucking Nyman record, amazing basically

my thing on the other hand is just creating sounds that are very non-real.....anything from stuff that can go grrrrrrrr! and have the same energy as a road drill or wee bleeps as cute as the Clangers....but mostly in yer face squelchy stuff...and electro drums too (not the real sounding type either)

we usually program synth sounds as part of writing the song....Flava playes the tunes in time to our drummer like the robot sequencer she really is, and I manipulate the program in real time untill we all like it. Then the sound gets saved and is often exclusive to that that song as it would probably sound bollocks on another song

we only really use guitars to back up the synths, not the other way round as someone bizarrely said it should be done earlier

and the best synths weve used.....

Waldorf Pulse (the ultimate squelch box)

Nord Lead 2 (thee fucking uber synth!!!)

Electron Sid Station (sounds like a super nintendo)

Casio VL Tone (bedroom fun)

Moog MicroMoog (otherwise called the squelch organ)

we actually had a huge synth sale a while ago and the microkorg went with lots of other stuff even though it was a decent synth

future synths we aspire to are the Electron Monomachine and the Nord G4......we'll just have to get rich first...bastardo!

synths vs guitars?

>both

Originally posted by lepeep:

Sure, its fucking crap when your favourite band get dropped for a label, but, its "partly their fault" for :

1, siging with the devilspawn / shit record co in the first place

2, blowing all the record co's money on lavish recordings, videos, crack, hoes etc ! (an "advance" in most bands eyes is : "free money"...not in the long run it ain't mate...

yeh that....

Sony's biggest mistake was Betamax!

all the Mazzy Star albums have at least 3 or 4 fantastic tracks on em .....so any of them

Originally posted by valley69:

betamaz u love the posthardcoreness!

i want to lick posthardcore and emo like the gorgeous fashion disasters that they are