The rise of the m...
The rise of the machinesJAPANDROIDS / 4 OR 5 MAGICIANS / WILLIAM, LONDON MADAME JOJO'S, 27TH OCTOBER 2009Tell someone you're off to Madame Jojo's in Soho for the night and they'd be forgiven for thinking you'll be spending the evening naked and face down on a plastic-sheeted bed while a 50-something-year-old wench who looks like EastEnders' Mo Slater dressed up like Catwoman, with dinner lady arms and a fag hanging out of the corner of her mouth, slaps listlessly at your arse with a tawse for £20 an hour. They'd be wrong, of course.Madame Jojo's, on Brewer Street, may be surr

Cool for catsCOUG...
Cool for catsCOUGAR / ELAPSE-O / BALLS DEEP, OXFORD JERICHO TAVERN, 21ST OCTOBER 2009By way of a prologue, a general observation: the Jericho Tavern - or at least promoters You! Me Dancing! - have a serious love affair with the Japandroids album. Not that I'm complaining, of course - it's entirely understandable, gawd bless 'em."Like Bob Marley forcing out a 4am shitwank after a night on the smash with Lightning Bolt at Blackout Crew's pad"? Self-penned descriptions on MySpace sites don't come much better than that. So kudos to Balls Deep, the genetically malformed offspring of t

Feel good hits of...
Feel good hits of the 25th November1. 'Bang' - The Raveonettes2. 'The Train From Kansas City' - The Shangri-Las3. 'So Bored' - Wavves4. 'Yeah' (crass version) - LCD Soundsystem5. 'It's Thunder And It's Lightning' - We Were Promised Jetpacks6. 'Sonny Liston' - Elapse-O7. 'Rehearsal' - It Hugs Back8. 'Stay Famous' - Cougar9. 'Lovely Rita' - The Beatles10. 'Dreamer' - Lightning DustReviews of recent Wavves and We Were Promised Jetpacks gigs to

Know Your Enemy"I...
Know Your Enemy"In 2004, Bevis Hillier, the venerable biographer of John Betjeman, was horrified to discover his arch rival, A. N. Wilson, was also planning a biography of the poet. Spotting an opportunity to pay Wilson back for a series of insults and slights over the years, he decided to forge a love letter from Betjeman to a (real) woman by the name of Honor Tracy.This sexy missive, which included the immortal line 'Tinkerty-tonk, my darling', was in fact a cunning acrostic, the first letter of each sentence spelling out a hidden message to his enemy. To Hillier's 'jig-dancing, air-punching' glee, the letter duly appeared in Wilson's biography

Quote of the day"...
Quote of the day"What we need is more contemporary rock music that addresses or mirrors the chaos, the gray areas and the uneasiness. Just go listen to The Stooges or Bikini Kill for a second to remember what that sounds like. I enjoy sweet songs as much as the next person, but I'm tired of passive music that allows us to merely sit back. I want music that makes me sit up. Personally, I think it's time to shave the beard and risk getting a cut or two."Ex Sleater-Kinney member Carrie Brownstein laments the fact that rock has gone "the way of the bear