Headsound: Half Japanese - In Its Pull

Half Japanese are strong contenders for the best new old band of the year. Brothers David and Jad Fair started making music in 1974 and have been influencing the great and the good in alternative music ever since as seen in the mini documentary below. Contributors include Sonic Youth's Lee Ranaldo, R.E.M.'s Peter Buck, the Velvet Underground's Moe Tucker, Wye Oak's Jenn Wasner and more.
They are returning after a 13 year break with album 'Overjoyed'. The first song to be shared 'In It's Pull' is a snappy manifesto.  Jad calls on you to 'Refresh the life you have and be the best that you can possibly be,' over a mutilated bed of rock and roll. It's uplifting, visceral punk rock with a distinctive twist. 

The album is out in September giving a couple of months to catch up on their back catalogue. 

  

Headsound: The Prisoner of Mars - How Can You Boycott a Rainbow?

How Can You Boycott a Rainbow? is the lead track from the latest album by The Prisoner of Mars,  Lavender Larceny and the Dusty Pellet. Lo-fi punk with 60s rock and psychedelia under pin the sound of the Cambridge's Bryan Shore who has slipped beneath the radar up to now. He has a few other Cambridge musicians as ad-hoc band mates and is a favourite on Cambridge 105 show Sonic Delights. Here he explains the song title and illustration:

"This song was inspired by middle-America’s threatened boycott of Oreo cookies, simply because they were planning on bringing out the cookies with rainbow coloured cream filling in support of gay rights. In a Facebook conversation on the subject, someone quite reasonably asked “how can you boycott a rainbow?” 

Headsound: Korean Drama - Jimmy

 Toronto band Korean Drama deliver a rousing 1 minute punk song full of passion and energy that some how comes from a simple arrangement of drum, guitars and vocals. According to the band: "It imagines a world where Drake takes revenge on a world who won't stop confusing him with his character from Degrassi: The Next Generation." It's a great tune whether you get that reference or not. It has the same vitality as the Girl Band track featured a couple of weeks ago.

The band is led by Justin Kinch with a rotating live line-up and that's about as much as I know. I look forward to hearing more.

Headsound: Girl Band - Lawman

The four lads in Dublin's Girl Band confound expectation with their distortion drenched lo-fi rock. The Pixies, Sonic Youth, Jesus and Mary Chain and many more can be heard on their debut release Lawman. The band can deliver hardcore mayhem as well as a sharp lyric to a steady beat. They never go into overdrive just for the sake of it.
The summer is already looking busy with tour dates and festivals including a gig at The Portland on June 10th.
A limited edition 7" of Lawman has already sold out but the single is available as a free download from Bandcamp. Your new favourite girl band comes with added testosterone.

Show: 24.2.13

This show features artists near and far including local acts Beverley Kills and Patrick Sheil who both have gigs on Cambridge this week to Headstand favourite Jerry Gordon in Osaka performing a long with lo-fi sound track. There is also a song from the new album by Robyn Hitchcock, a renowned artist with strong Cambridge connections who plays the Junction this Saturday. We kick off though with some good old fashioned punk from The Stranglers:

The Stranglers - Something Better Change
Beverley Kills - You Can’t Have it All
Nick Cave - Jubilee Street
Patrick Sheil - Race Horse
Just William and The Outlaws - It Ain’t Right
Phil Odgers - The Godforsaken voyage
Django Django - The Hand Of Man
Peter Blegvad and Andy Partridge - Sacred Objects
Four Tet - 0181 (extract)
Jerry Gordon and Taylor Mignon  - Dragon Sparks Poem
Chris Wind - The Persistence of Memory
Four Tet - 0181 (extract)
Jet Jaguar - Mose
Ana Silvera - Painted Horizon
Gaze is Ghost - Firefly
Robyn Hitchcock - Stupefied
John Grant - Pale Green Ghosts

24.2.13 by Headstand on Mixcloud