Line Bo Ningen Against The Wall...

I was supposed to have interviewed London-based Japanese acid psychers Bo Ningen last week, but due to unforeseen circumstances I missed the boat. Which is a shame, as new record Line The Wall is as wailtastic as you could possibly imagine. Brought out by Stolen Recordings and newly-minted Aussie label Black Night Crash Records (run by one third of awesome Melbourne band Iowa, no less), Bo Ningen's second LP is a face-melter. There are moments when I feel like I'm listening to At The Drive-In mechanics driving The Mars Volta flights of fetid fantasy - single 'Henkan' truly embodies such celestial clusterfucks of flailing sonic frisson. There are moments where the four-piece take things into a more chugging, 70s psych mode - 'Daikaisei Part I' is the perfect encapsulation of that, at least in the beginning - further into the album and Parts II and III strap you to the fuselage of a ship destined for a distant sun. The repetitive squall of '32 Kaiten' on the other hand will always get my pulse racing...

I've seen these guys a few times when I lived in London. Once in the 100 Club - I think they supported Pulled Apart By Horses? They blew everything to smithereens every time, and they do so again here with Line The Wall - buy it here. They are playing Big Day Out right now, and they are going to play Primavera Sound (alongside the most excellent Courtney Barnett, an incredible coup for her!) in May. This hallucigenic mind melt is only getting started...

C'mon, Lets Get Low!

C'Mon is the title of the new Low album due out on April 12th on Sub Pop. From all intents and purposes we might be seeing a much brighter outlook from the revered Minnesotans, which is good or bad news depending what quarter you come from - Alan Sparhawk says that the album will be “warm, pretty, large like Nashville without the country. Mim (Parker) and I are talking to each other in the lyrics, sometimes it's not pretty, but it's as honest as love.”...

Any new release from Low is amazing news,and we even have a taster in the form of 'Try To Sleep', which is as breezy as these guys can get. And it gets better - besides an intimate show at St David's Sanctuary at SXSW, they are playing Radio City Music Hall in April with Explosions In The Sky (if you are anywhere near New York on the 6th of April, this gig is an absolute imperative!), plus playing at Primavera Sound and a headlining show at the Barbican in London on June 3rd. Ive seen Low a number of times - an intimate show at Brisbane's The Troubadour being an absolute highlight, where they employed Mick Turner of The Dirty Three on support duties - and these will be unmissable events.

Low - Try To Sleep

Touching up the Monotonix

Monotonix are playing Camp Basement tonight. If you know about Monotonix then I don't need to tell you that the Israeli trio have overwhelmingly carved out a place as the most entertaining live band currently touring. Who else plays their drum kit on top of the crowd on such a consistent basis?

I could go on about Monotonix's insane and riotous live sets but that would be missing the point. You really have to take part to understand. Even some pics and a vid from this year's Primavera might give you a better idea. But the point I wanted to make is Monotonix don't seem to attract the same amount of column inches about their recorded wares as they do their live exploits, so I thought their London show tonight would be a good reason to post a track form their twin 7"s, Never Died Before and Fun Fun Fun, out on Drag City, from back in April, and the legendary Set Me Free for good measure.

So now you can listen to a bit of Monotonix as well as 'feel' them live! And if you don't get to see the Israelis tonight, try crowd surfing with a hairy tramp on the top deck of an overcrowded tube replacement bus with these tunes cranking out your headphones, its the closest you're going to get!

Monotonix - Never Died Before
Monotonix - Set Me Free

More pics and Vid after the drop...

Interview with No Age

The folks at Dummy mag have posted today an interview with noise punk rockers No Age. Check it out here.
Having seen them a few days back at the Primavera Sound Festival (I'm sure Paul will be uploading some pretty amazing pics soon - better than seeing mine, believe me!) for the first time, I'm still under the hypnosis of it all and had to share it...

No Age will be playing Field Day in Victoria Park on July 31st... don't miss out!