Prog Banjo Party

Anything, be it man, beast or otherwise, that describes itself as progressive bluegrass has got to be worth a look as far as I'm concerned. And when Man Aubergine are involved, it does exactly what it says on the tin - which for the briefest moment makes me think what came first, the music or the idea, but in all honesty, it matters not.

It matters not, because even if it is a pre-meditated, prescriptive approach, it works, oh yes, it works.

Now I'm no expert on the bluegrass, I'm still a bit afeared of the prog, and if I'm offending anyone with my rudimentary knowledge then you're on the wrong page, but we have banjos, and we have campfire harmonies. There are songs about bastard brothers, wrong twin sisters, and on Embalmed, possibly the love that dare not speak its name, between a cowboy and his horse.

Then, riding alongside, you get the time and tempo changes, the improv-sounding rhythm sections, the guitars and the chanting. It's enough to convince me that Earl Scruggs and Robert Fripp are long lost brothers.

It's best displayed on their just-about-cover of Home On The Range, which is probably making Dr. Higley turn in his grave, but turn on my man, turn on, because it's a beauty.

Man Aubergine play tonight at Barden's Boudoir, and are touring with Cleckhuddersfax from 5th of August, check the snazzy flyer for where and when. An imminent single is also due to rear its head in August or September on Run Of The Mill Records, which can be pre-ordered from here. Which you probably should do. If you can’t wait that long, hear more on their Myspace.

Man Aubergine - Embalmed

Man Aubergine - Home On The Ranger

Greasy Little Angels

When I was but a nipper, my sister was four years older than me. She's still four years older than me now, but up to the age of about 13, those four years were worth a lot more. A combination of complex mind games (seeing how quickly I could get down the shops and buy her a Mini-Milk, seeing how quickly I could get down the shops and buy her Smash Hits, etc. etc.) and the threat of a swift kick from her powerful legs pretty much meant I had to do what she wanted me to. And if that meant watching Grease or Dirty Dancing every single day of the summer holidays for at least three years, so be it. I was in no position to argue.

As a result, I know Grease word for word. It's engrained in the dark recesses of my brain, through sheer repetition. The dialogue and the lyrics to the songs mean nothing, they merely are - a procession of sounds, one after the other. Occasionally, a crumb of comprehension will fall through, but not often. This might be for the best.

Recently though, something good has come out of this. Because of my enforced imprisonment with Travolta, Newton-John et al, I can happily sing along to the latest compilation from that finest of little labels, Filthy Little Angels - namely, Down To Grease On Holiday. Nicely, they've asked their favourite bands of the moment to each cover a song from the Grease soundtrack, which they've then put up for download on their website, complete with artwork and bonus tracks.

So, you get Neils Children offering up a space-dub version of Tears On My Pillow, The International Karate Plus electro-trotting through the Grease Reprise, and Ant tenderly wandering along Those Magic Changes. All over the place, all cracking.

They’re all on the Filthy Little Angels download site, and you should download them all, but here are a couple of my favourites – Gay Against You’s Bontempi powered hurtle though Greased Lightning, and From Mars shimmying and shouting their way through Born To Hand Jive, which on reflection, was one of the best tunes ever.

Filthy Little Angels are currently signing people up for their next extremely limited Singles Club, which is a basic requirement for anyone with a pulse and a stylus, so I recommend you get right along there and pay your money a bit sharpish. Alright.

Gay Against You - Greased Lightning

From Mars - Born To Hand Jive

Cock And Balls

It would appear by common consensus that Cock E.S.P. are twatting about. No-one seems quite sure, except the Cocks themselves, if they're laughing with us or at us. Actually, when they're pitching electrical hardware into the audience for the majority of their 5 minutes sets, probably at us.

Personally, I like the bastards.

Let's deal with the downsides first, and there are plenty. Aerial assault by food mixer aside, their 20 second maximum bursts of noise, screaming and bleeping are sometimes rubbish, sometimes interspersed with child-like vocals set against an overtly sexual pretext, and they make no attempt to contextualise their noise away from the base stupidity they foster. There's nothing big or clever about it, and they're the first to admit it, before donning a stuffed animal head and dry humping an amp.

But I don't believe them. Not completely. Amongst the fog of pointlessness are sparks that transcend the noise for the sake of noise pretense. The concise blasts, in the same vein as certain metals, are all you need to know, before moving onto the next one. Let's not waste three minutes doing the same thing over and over again, let's do something different. And when it's good, it is big, and it might be clever. When it's not? Well, it's only 15 seconds long.

I could well be wrong though. So I'll leave it up to you. These five tracks are taken from Greatest Dicks 3 - The Best And Worse of Cock E.S.P. 2001-2003 (20 minutes long, 40 tracks including a 4 minute remix and a 6 minute interview), and summarise all I like about the Cock. I've put up the Burning Star Core remix as well, for anyone looking for a bit of prolonged exposure. It's also rather good.

There are a load more downloads on their website, which is also the best place to make a purchase, and they've got a Myspace. They rarely perform outside of america, and to be honest, that might be a good thing. I'm not as quick as I used to be.

Cock E.S.P. - Noise Communes Work In Theory, But Not In Practice

Cock E.S.P. - Yankin' The Powercord

Cock E.S.P. - Shut Up Sometimes feat. Eugenics Council

Cock E.S.P. - Dirty Cocks

Cock E.S.P - Smash 'Em, Crash 'Em

Cock E.S.P. - Cock's Promise (Burning Star Promise Remix)

Sail Away With Me To Another World

Due to technical difficulties (in short, an ever increasingly fascistic IT department at work, and lack of the appropriate facilities in new flat), updates are a little bit few and far between at the moment. For this, we are truly sorry. From the bottom of our hearts. Oh yes.

There might be one or two things popping up, but for the next couple of weeks, not a lot will be going down, whilst we sort the aforementioned difficulties right out.

In the meantime, as our way of apologising, feel free to have a bit of this beauty. Now this is what we call music.

Kenny & Dolly - Islands In The Stream