The Null Device

Today's street press

This week's street press has some interesting articles; InPress has interviews with members of Saint Etienne (who say their new album Finisterre is a concept album about London, and that they have a set of short films that goes with it), Mogwai (who once printed T-shirts reading "BLUR ARE SHITE", and then found out that Japanese and US fans tend to be people who are into all British indie/alternative music as a genre), and Ninetynine, talking about the odd varieties of bands they've been booked to play with on their various tours (i.e., in Europe they have played with hardcore/metal bands a lot, not because they're metal as fuck but because of the pop bands all being signed to labels and them being independent). And there's another Ninetynine interview in Beat as well, which makes a Krautrock comparison; hmmm...

(I've noticed the Mogwai thing, about non-British UK-indie fans clustering into "Anglophile" subcultures, as well. Take for example Steve Wide's show on 3RRR, which plays everything from Oasis/Radiohead-wannabe bands to pill-popping dance grooves to French/Icelandic bands liked by UK-pop fans; or a UK-indie list I lurked on once which was mostly wannabe-Mods exchanging trainspotter-like lists of classic swingin'-60s movies and talking about their scooters. Or cliques of US-based "Anglophile" kids exchanging in-jokes on band-related mailing lists.)

There are 17 comments on "Today's street press":

Posted by: Ben http://rocknerd.org Thu Oct 3 03:53:14 2002

Also a (very short) Ninetynine story in the Hun today and one scheduled for the Age tomorrow.

Posted by: acb http://dev.null.org Thu Oct 3 04:43:46 2002

Hmm... might have to grab a copy of the Hun.. (I already feel dirty just thinking about it, but still.)

Anyway, it's good to see them getting this much press; hopefully it will translate into broader recognition.

Btw, you'll be at the gig, I take it?

Posted by: ninetyninestreet http:// Thu Oct 3 05:30:22 2002

Perhaps 99 have all the publicity they need... Perhaps no one is left in Melbourne who has not already "discovered" them, and decided that they suck.

Still its vaguely interesting to see Laura pretend that she is in a proper band at least... photos of the boys in the band now? we are getting mature...

long live riot... grrrr..

Posted by: acb http://dev.null.org Thu Oct 3 07:22:35 2002

Oh?

Posted by: acb http://dev.null.org Thu Oct 3 07:26:06 2002

Their early recordings were rather rough, and they didn't make an impression on me when I saw them a few years ago supporting the Paradise Motel at the Corner. Though both their writing and performance has evolved a lot since then. (And for one I don't like their old stuff better than their new stuff; I think there is enough three-chord angst in the world as is.)

Posted by: Graham http://grudnuk.com Thu Oct 3 07:49:15 2002

Ninetynine certainly sound a lot bloody different to just about everything else that's going on in the country. There's a certain edge to them that they've honed quite a bit on _The Process_. Call'em the anti-George.

Oh, and apparently "twee" is now a genre. I want to hit someone.

Posted by: acb http://dev.null.org Thu Oct 3 08:31:27 2002

Wasn't twee a genre since (the NME C86 compilation/the rash of jangle-pop bands from Glasgow/The Smiths) in the 1980s?

I must say, it grows on one. I just bought Belle & Sebastian's _If You're Feeling Sinister_, and I ordered the Smiths albums I hadn't had from the chaosmusic.com $10 sale. And I still think The Field Mice are one of the greatest underrated English indie bands of all time. (Though Trembling Blue Stars spread it a bit thin, IMHO.)

Posted by: Ben http://rocknerd.org Thu Oct 3 11:23:45 2002

Yes, I'll be at the gig. In fact, I'm making a guest appearance on stage... let's hope I can remember my part.Oh, and: go the Ninetynine backlash!

Posted by: acb http://dev.null.org Thu Oct 3 11:41:20 2002

Cool. If there's someone with a digital camera near the front, it may be me.

Posted by: jarrod http://listen.to/ohbelgium Thu Oct 3 16:03:01 2002

perhaps you shall be doing drums on popemobile ben? hint hint. heh

if ninetynine have had everyone "discover" them in melbourne and discover...they don't suck. why arn't they touring interstate as well as well as overseas. thats my question

and their first album is really good, in my opinion, though i never saw them live early on.

Posted by: Ben http:// Thu Oct 3 16:13:33 2002

Stop impersonating me! I feel diminished....

Posted by: acb http://dev.null.org Thu Oct 3 16:24:25 2002

Popemobile is rather amusing, though the rest of it didn't grab me.

The first essential Ninetynine track in my opinion (i.e., likely to end up on mix tapes) is Wöekenender; aka the most rock use of a Casio VL-1, ever. (If I make a mix CD for my trip to the UK, that will probably be track 1 or 2.)

Posted by: acb http://dev.null.org Thu Oct 3 16:26:28 2002

You could always call yourself Lev, or use one of your numerous shady pseudonyms.

Posted by: Ben http://rocknerd.org Thu Oct 3 23:57:42 2002

I'm not impersonating anyone - I'm the OTHER Ben! Ha ha...

I don't think I could even play the drums on Popemobile any more - I'm an even worse drummer now than I was then.

Re interstate: Tentatively early next year, but obviously there's nothing solid at this stage.

Posted by: jarrod http://listen.to/ohbelgium Fri Oct 4 10:49:00 2002

i dunno, woekender goes for too long in my opinion. much prefer car song with all those swooshing keyboard noises at the end. short and simple.

but yes, it is the rockest use of that little beat, not even the bow wow wow 'da da da' can fight that claim.

there was this show on triple r which played this song which started off with the same beat in the same manner and then went into a trance style track. kind of weird hearing it like that.

Posted by: acb http://dev.null.org Fri Oct 4 12:49:34 2002

I recently picked up Waldorf's Attack analogue drum machine plug-in for Cubase, and was surprised to hear that one of the demo tracks that came with it started with a faithful reconstruction of the very same loop (then going into trance or breakbeat or something like that). My, that little Casio pencilcase certainly has its fans... :-)

Posted by: acb http://dev.null.org Fri Oct 4 13:52:58 2002

Car Song seems like a good start (good riff and such), but doesn't seem to go anywhere. Wöekenender evolves more and seems like more of a complete work. (And then there's the vaguely early-80s post-punk feel, which appeals to the part of me that grew up listening to New Order and such.)