We Have The Facts And We're Voting YES!

As further proof, if it were needed, that anything can end up on Wikipedia, this humble blog has now been referenced on the 65daysofstatic page. The offending post was that there one all about Slaughterhouse-Five, and seems to be drawing in quite a bit of 'traffic' from teh interwebz. And so, although not peer reviewed or of any referential integrity, it seems Goatwriter has been accepted by the cruel, unforgiving open-source encyclopedia community. That's one less thing to worry about. Thanks!

GoatCast 1.0: Music for Split Jeans by goatwriter

Welcome to the all new GoatCast. This dj-set/mash-up/mixtape of sorts features a range of super-fly new music seamlessly blended into one glorious cacophony by the mixologists at Goatwriter HQ. Such an enterprise has been inspired by the sterling efforts of a friend, who compiles a fantastic weekly compilation what you should definitely check out.

This GoatCast, kookily entitled 'Music for Split Jeans', grapples with the following pieces:

Sufjan Stevens - Introductory Fanfare for the Hooper Heroes (The BQE)
Worriedaboutsatan - I Am A Crooked Man (Arrivals)
Charles Spearin - Vanessa (The Happiness Project)
Fuck Buttons - Surf Solar (7" Edit)
Mr Oizo - Positif (Lambs Anger)
volcano! - Africa Just Wants To Have Fun (XYZR_KX Remix)
Radiohead - Videotape (Phaseone & Frank Heat Remix)
65daysofstatic - Faceoftheearth[clingingonto] (Unreleased/Unreleasable)
J Dilla - Lightworks (Donuts)

Please buy them. You can follow any new GoatCast updates directly from the Goatwriter Soundcloud page.
GoatCast 1.0: Music for Split Jeans by goatwriter

WordLOL

Make your own WORD-LOL here.

Slaughterhouse 65

In a piece of truly excellent programming by the Beeb, Radio 3 are to broadcast the first ever radio adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut's anti-war science fiction fable Slaughterhouse-Five. What's more, EPIC glitch-rockers 65daysofstatic are providing the soundtrack, as they describe here on their mailing list:

65daysofstatic have provided the music for the upcoming BBC Radio 3 adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut’s ‘Slaughterhouse 5’. Some of the music is from our records and stuff, and some of the more exciting bits like the time travel and the spaceship and the firebombing of Dresden during the war have some new music that we wrote especially for it.

To catch this, dust off the old wireless and tune to BBC Radio 3 in time for next Sunday at 8pm.

In a rare second piece of 65daysofstatic/BBC-related news you can listen to an exclusive and rather 'eclectic' (eugh) mixtape recorded for Radio 1's chill-out-gimp Rob Da Bank here. In this disgustingly Dave Pearce-esque 'doubleheader' 65daysofstatic go up against the DJing might of Jónsi (Sigur Rós) under his Riceboy Sleeps moniker. Sweet! Listen out for the likes of Liars, Les Savy Fav and Parts&Labor underneath the all-to-familiar swathes of fuzz. Thanks to 65kids.com for this.

The Duckworth-Lewis Method

As the most important contest in sporting history gets underway once more, it seems necessary to give an honourary mention to The Duckworth-Lewis Method. Coined as a statistical means of calculating the target score for a team batting second in a 1-day cricket match, this term now lends its name to a cricket-themed Divine Comedy side-project . Whilst undoubtedly very novelty, their album of wry folk ditties provide the ideal accompaniment to a day of cricket and earl grey tea.

Photo courtesy of The Telegraph

And The Meek Shall Inherit What's Left

Hello Sports Fans. It's been a while hasn't it? So much to talk about, so little time....so here goes...

Goatwriter's Raucous Summer Releases:

1) Kiss Kiss, Brooklyn's stellar proggy emo-popstars, have released their new album 'And The Meek Shall Inherit What's Left'. See here for a Patton-esque deconstruction of Yellowcard by way of Cursive.





2) The Most Serene Republic's third album '...And The Ever Expanding Universe' has just been released on Arts&Crafts. This is going to be the lead off single...



3) Ex-Mclusky and Jarcrew party-poppers Future of the Left have released their second album Travels With Myself and Another.



Remember to check back with the Goatwriter on Spotify and for gods sake, lets get some SYNERGY going on this thing.

Album Review: Storsveit Nix Noltes - Royal Family Divorce

Storsveit Nix Noltes sit somewhere in the murky peripheries of that ill-defined genre ‘world music’, a brush with which lazy hacks tar those artists who exist outside of Camden. This is definitely true of Reykjavik’s finest purveyors of traditional Bulgarian folk music, whose latest album sees its UK release courtesy of venerable indie stalwarts Fat Cat. The 11-strong Storsveit (or ‘big-band’) feature some key alumni from Iceland’s indier-than-thou fraternity, not least Múm keyboardist Kristín Valtýsdóttir. Balkan-tinged indie has been en vogue for some time (see Zach Condon’s Beirut or Gogol Bordello’s gypsy-punk) however none could accuse the staunchly traditional Storsveit of jumping on any such bandwagon. Upon first listen Royal Family – Divorce explodes as an impenetrable torrent of mathematical orchestral noodling. However, as one’s lazy western ears adapt to the Slavic racket the tight, focused musicianship and intricate melodic interplay become evident. Storsveit weave effortlessly through complex, almost polyphonic, textures in their zealous pursuit of Balkan authenticity. The album plays out like the soundtrack to some raucous Romany barn dance, with the bombast at times becoming rather overbearing (see: chaotic opener Wedding Rachenitsa). Other moments allude more towards the post-rock heritage of the collective’s other ventures, as in the gloriously static ridden trumpet tirade of Cetvorno Horo. Indeed, the driving percussion and rickety orchestration of album highlight Elenska Rachenitsa is reminiscent of a more succinct A Silver Mt. Zion. It is in these moments of more cohesive composition that Storsveit touch on something special, a quality far removed from many of Royal Family – Divorce’s ramshackle folk ditties.

Once again, this glorious piece is published today in Bristol Universities Epigram.

New Star Trek Trail...ZOMG!

Hello All. Sorry to lower the tone of this otherwise very reputable and muso-orientated blog to the sweaty realms of science fiction, but after watching the new Star Trek trailer I was left with little choice. Having recieving very positive reviews, and with a sequel in the pipeline already, I too am beginning to get very excited for the May 8th release..

Bonjour...is this thing on!!??

Hello friends. Various pressing commitments have confounded my efforts to keep this blog updated, so by way of an apology here is something really quite special....

Sigur Ros performing 'Vid Spilum Endalaust' in a French restaurant for the brilliant Take Away Shows courtesy of La Blogoteque. Check out the lady on the phone, she doesn't know what's going on!!


Sigur Ros - Við spilum endalaust - A Take Away Show from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

So Many Lemons

Greetings friends. The rather excellent art-rock noiseniks Volcano! have just unleashed the video for their new single So Many Lemons (out today). The video features a 'nanopus' costume which volcano! hope to bring on stage during their impending short European tour.

Dot to Dot Festival 2009 Line-up Annouced

The first batch of bands for this years Bristol/Nottingham based indie-fest Dot to Dot have been announced today. Quite a mixed bag...

Friendly Fires
Ladyhawke
Annie Mac
Patrick Wolf
Cage The Elephant
Little Boots
AC Newman
Tommy Reilly
Crystal Stilts
The Big Pink
Shapeshifter
The Pains Of Pure Of Heart
Vivian Girls
65 Days Of Static (Nottingham only)
Boys Noize (Nottingham only)
Brodinski (Nottingham only)

As usual the thing is heftily biased towards Nottingham, with the only *real* big name 65DaysofStatic not being booked for a Bristol show. I mean come on CAGE THE ELEPHANT?! AGAIN? On top of this for your money you can dance the night away with a DJ set from Radio 1 no-hoper Annie Mac and lollop around to washed up Lord of Kook Patrick Wolf. Yawn. Got to Field Day instead. In fact, this line-up is so bad I can't even think of a suitable yootube video to end with. A dark day indeed.

None Of You Will Ever See A Penny

As of today the honeymoon period is over between Goatwriter and Google. After a lengthy legal battle and extensive negotiation, talks with everyone's favourite multinational have regrettably broken down. This turn of events left only one option if the fine moral fibre of this blog was to be upheld. All advertising has been removed. To celebrate the freedom of Goatwriter from its corporate shackles let us indulge in a rendition of Young Dre's Money Can't Buy You Love (brought to you by the Google corporation via Youtube..)

Album Review: Mono – Hymn to the Immortal Wind

A decade since their formation, Japanese post-rock dinosaurs Mono release their fifth full length recording, their first since the widely championed You Are There in 2006. Evidently, ten years on the job and Mono have made some friends, with the line-up expanded here to accommodate a 23-piece orchestra, but with production duties remaining in the safe hands of long time collaborator Steve Albini. Regrettably, Hymn to the Immortal Wind finds Mono in something of a midlife crisis; less new sports car, more new symphony orchestra. The music reeks of an ageing band alluding towards maturity through “complex” arrangements and thick symphonic textures, but invariably ends up drowned in neoclassical pomp and faux sentimentality. The sledgehammer drums, piercing guitars and exciting dynamics of One Step More and You Die are largely gone, replaced with slow burning melodies and string-drenched crescendos, some of which would be more at home accompanying the emotional climax of The Lion King. At times, this more understated approach manifests itself in glorious consonance (the thrilling finale of Burial At Sea), but these moments are diluted by mostly obvious chord progressions and overbearing orchestration. The spark of Mono does, however, remain, and at times breaks through the turgid Rachel’s-esque texture to yield some of the ferocious intensity which Mono are famed to exhibit live. A case in point is the stunning album highlight Pure As Snow (Trails of the Winter Storm), a brooding eleven minutes of delicate guitar interplay and driving percussion which provide a stark reminder of Mono’s phenomenal grasp of melody and timbre. Thankfully, these moments of pre-eminence save Hymn to the Immortal Wind from getting lost in its own pomposity, and Mono continue on their post-rock pilgrimage unscathed. Mono play The Croft in Bristol on 25th March.

If you would prefer to read this review in the physical domain, pick up a copy of this month's Epigram.

The Hope That House Built

What ho! It looks like those noisy welsh anger-merchants Future of the Left are to release their new single The Hope That House Built on 4AD this month. Contrary to various idiots on the interwebs it does not sound like The Young Knives, but it is a definite departure from the vitriolic chaos-pop of Curses. FOTL are also to release a live album Last Night I Saved Her From Vampires later this year, but if you were planning on downloading it then think again. Heres a rather cryptic message to all indie-pirates from FOTL frontman Andy Falkous:

The next person, male or female, who accosts me at a show, incredulous at our lack of success then tells me that they illegally downloaded all of our music gets punched squarely in the t*ts. No exceptions. Be a feckless, short-sighted f*cking thief all you like but self-righteous hypocrites with no sense of the absurd are valid, vapid targets.

In the meantime, check out the yootube video for The Hope That House Built right here!

Gig round-up (Bristol-centric)

There are lots of great gigs coming up in Bristol over the next few months, so when better to provide a round-up. If you aren't cool enough to know all the bands listed below then you can shamefully click THIS handy link for a Spotify playlist which contains a choice track from each band (the ones Spotify has at least..). Otherwise rock out to the embedded yootube/myspace musics. Also, if anyone was heading to the Gang Gang Dance show (w/Fuck Buttons DJ set) at the Fleece this Friday then don't because it's been cancelled due to all of GGD's artsy/bloopy equipment being lost in an electrical fire on the first leg of their European tour. Unlucky.

INGUE RECORDS PRESENT MT + DEAD MAIDS + CONSTELLATIONS at The Cube Microplex on Fri 06 Mar 09

New Mt. track available here (it's great)

PEOPLE IN PLANES at Academy 2 on Fri 03 Apr 09

PURE REASON REVOLUTION at The Cooler on Sun 15 Mar 09

THE ACORN at The Cooler on Mon 04 May 09

MONO at The Croft on Wed 25 Mar 09

M83 at the Fleece on Wed 06 May 09

PREFUSE 73 DJ SET/ SCHOOL OF SEVEN BELLS / KYTE / APACHE BEAT (BROOKLYN) / DJ SET FROM NADIA KSABIA at Start the Bus on Sat 28 Feb 09

JEFFREY LEWIS & THE JUNKYARD at The Thekla on Mon 27 Apr 09

AND YOU WILL KNOW US BY THE TRAIL OF DEAD with support from Middle Class Rut at The Thekla on Wed 22 Apr 09

ANIMAL COLLECTIVE + SPECIAL GUESTS at Trinity Arts Centre, St Philips on Sun 22 Mar 09

MOUNTAIN OF 8 (A MINI FESTIVAL ) at The Arnolfini (Auditorium and Dark Studio) on Fri 03 Apr 09 - Qu Junktions presents. 'Mountain of 8' (A mini Festival ) with Dirty Projectors + Polar Bear + Wildbirds & Peacedrums + Matt Elliott + Gary Smith + Lucky Dragons + Silver Stairs of Ketchikan + Silver Pyre

Also, lol-worthy gig listing of the moment goes to:

THE SLACKERS + THE SKINTS (!) at The Thekla in on Mon 18 May 09

Non-lol worthy satellite news

It all started so well for NASA's new Orbiting Carbon Observatory, which launched in the early hours of this morning from Vandenberg Airforce Base in California..



However at 10.11am GMT NASA implemented an undisclosed "contingency plan" as the payload failed to separate from the Taurus XL Rocket, thus ending the mission in failure. This satellite system could provide a key holistic insight into the processes acting on carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, and therefore help in the battle against climate change. Follow the NASA OCO blog here as to the status of the mission.

New Additions

Regular followers may have noticed a couple of additions to the Goatwriter layout. To your right you should now be able to see the Goatwriter last.fm radio station, press play and listen to some choice tracks whilst perusing the blog. Also, excitingly, the page now has a music-themed novelty hit counter. I'm not sure how many hits Pitchfork have had, but I can't imagine its many more than 80,000!!*

*it could be more than 80,000

Spotify the Goat

Spotify, accesible here, seems to be the next candidate to enter the contentious world of free online musics. Although not perfect, and nowhere near as novel as the old muxtape was, Spotify has a huge and ever expanding archive of artists who are freely accesible to listen to in gloriously high quality. As ever (!) you can rely on the trusty Goatwriter to be at the forefront of such new technology. Please follow the link below for a Spotify playlist which, although by no means complete, gives an idea of what Spotify has to offer (which seems to be mostly live/rare/alternative versions of songs). Let us hope that alternative music becomes higher on the list of priorities for the people at Spotify, with notable omissions including: Grandaddy, Slint, American Football and, oddly, Pink Floyd. Your guess is as good as mine as to how now defunct Derby-based math-rockers The Little Explorer made it onto Spotify - let us hope that this is a sign of things to come. See below for their award-winning music video.

GOATWRITER SPOTIFY PLAYLIST FOR Y'ALL

Point to B(us)!

Exciting News! Prefuse 73 + School of Seven Bells (ex-Secret Machines poppy shoegaze) + Kyte(Post-rock for post-rock's sake) + others to play Start The Bus in Bristol, 28th February. Tickets can be ordered for a measly £4 from here. The big cajone Prefuse is going to be "off the meat rack" with his blend of schizophrenic trip-over hop (lol) in the form of a Dj set until 3am. If you dont know Prefuse then get your ignorant chops around this bad babysittter:



This evening is likely to afford many an opportunity to make an angry dance music face, along with whatever face you might make when listening to post rock. Try watching this shimmering little Múm-esque ditty from Kyte, and please report back with whatever face you pull. Im struggling to get beyond glazed at the moment.

Transformer!

It's been a slow week on the old blog, so by way of an apology and also a reminder of just how good she is here's Marnie Stern performing Transformer for Pitchfork this week @ Cakeshop...WHAM

Radio Distalgesic

Tonight you can hear the Goatwriter on BURST Radio. Listen from 8pm London GMT by clicking on this handy link (or by tuning in to your AM Radio to the frequency 1134, adjacent yet unrelated to a Spanish pirate radio station)

Music from the likes of Gregor Samsa, Mogwai, Final Fantasy and Rivulets as well a pithy review of 2008.

You and Whose Biography?

Further to the continued effort to profit from the alt-rock cash cow that is Radiohead, The Independent Music Press has today announced that an unofficial Thom Yorke biography is to be published. The venerable author has previously penned such classics as Steve Irwin: The Incredible Life of the Crocodile Hunter and the companion novella to reality t.v romp I'm A Celebrity...a writer from good stock.

Quite what the opinion of the big man himself will be remains to be seen, following the continued effort of Radiohead to peddle their altruistic credentials (See: the In Rainbows pay-as-you-please release). No doubt the book will feature heavy rhetoric and vague tales of Thom's troubled upbringing from the perspective of someone completely detached from the band - and more equipped for writing Kylie's seminal biography Kylie Fever.


Thom Yorke: Radiohead & Trading Solo will be available from all bad bookshops from 26th February - or head over to DrownedInSound to try and win yourself a copy if you so please. For now, let us hope that such literary sacrilege triggers Thom to respond in kind with an insight of his own...perhaps going someway towards explaining this behavior.

Welcome To The Carnival..

And so, on this auspicious day, as a new era of political freedom is realised, let it be known that the first pillar of hope and liberty has been laid. And its name is Goatwriter. This long overdue arrival in the 'blogosphere' aims to address a number of tough issues, some of which you may not yet be prepared for. These may or may not concern:

1. Music, Film and their discussion on the Radio
   
2. Satellites and Science
3. Things that grind my gears
4. My blog
5. A handbook for living the dream
   

In partial fulfillment of criterion 2 let us celebrate Obamarama with some satellite pictures of yesterdays inauguration (courtesy of GeoEye-1)..