July: Do it Yourself

28 July, 2008
by: Domzig

Finding myself uncharacteristically bored recently, I watched The Refused are Fucking Dead, which, if you don't know is a 40-minute documentary chronicling The Refused's last, calamitous tour of the US. Despite being nowhere near as good as that Fugazi road movie, in there the guy who managed to convince the band to play their last ever show in a shitty basement somewhere says one of the most insightful things I've ever heard about punk-rock. It was something like 'for most of the time punk is a stupid clique for adolescents to talk shit about, but sometimes, it's something awesomely powerful and beautiful'.

Cut through the straight-edge fanzine rhetoric, and this basically translates into saying that there's nothing more punk-rock than throwing a few amps into a basement somewhere and getting a few bands to go gnarly whilst you and some of your friends get nailed on Morrison's vodka and cheap coke.

Last Saturday proves my point exactly. It was my mates Steve's birthday and we all headed over to a party in Manor House where Matt from Tropics was sticking on an all-nighter with An Emergency, Super Tennis, Male Bonding and Breakneck Static. Because of the ramshackle arrangement and the fact that everyone there was stupidly into it, the crowd and the bands went completely nuts, and quickly it turned into a love-in where everybody was hi-fiving and acting like we did back when we sneaked out to watch some Fat Wreck band play our local dive club. It's always nice to see that kids can build scenes out of nothing but a few crayolas and a Myspace page.

Anyway, back to the present, and on the subject of warehouse parties, The Shitty Limits are a band that aren't adverse to the odd beer-soaked throw down. If you haven't heard them, then you've been missing out. They remind us a lot of Restless Youth and early Replacements, and totally ruled a Manor House party a couple of months ago; making even Jay Reatard look a bit ordinary. They're pretty busy with shows with Blotto and Fucked Up early on this month before jetting off to do Europe.

I'm probably most excited about the Fucked Up show. I saw them once at the Old Blue Last and it was the closest thing to a riot I've ever been in. People were throwing furniture, the light got smashed down and the lead singer was pissing blood everywhere. If that was anything to go by then the show on the 14th with Lovvers and 'the Limit's will probably be utterly insane; I can imagine the guys at the Water Rats freaking out a bit afterwards though.

Elsewhere, Shoreditch seems to have gone thrash crazy, despite the absence of the Chaos Vs Cosmos gang who are busy with exhibitions at the Aquarium. The Old Blue Last has SSS, The Down and Outs and Cold Ones playing on the 12th and Sexbeat is throwing an all-dayer at 93 Feet East that will feature Pre and Dananananackroyd providing the sounds. Even This Is Music, who has been fairly sedate recently, are kicking it up a notch with Mirror! Mirror! new wave mentalists Comanenchi, and Brighton noise kids Epideme who are like a more schizoid version of Jesus Lizard.

But it’s not all going on in the East End you know. Other bands to watch out for this month are inventive Texan garage rockers White Denim who are playing a few shows around London, experimental pop guy Yacht who is down at the Amersham Arms and Brooklyn based experimental indie act Parts and Labor down at Corsica Studios. There are also shows from grunge architects Mudhoney and Brazil's answer to the Beastie Boys; Bonde do Role to round off what’s looking to be a pretty busy month.