Shield Your Eyes - S/T - Album Review

Shield Your Eyes – S/T Debut LP
Available now on vinyl and CD from the band’s website.


I spent my first Friday off in a long time doing little other than looking on the internet for some new music that I might like. For nostalgia’s sake I looked to see if Skin Graft or Touch and Go had released anything lately that might point towards some exciting guitar-based rock music. Dischord, Load records and even some trusted online fanzines and record shops threw up little of interest and I began to give up hope. Little did I know that in the recesses of my back yard, left by the postie the day before and fast becoming damp, was a copy of Shield Your Eye’s debut album on vinyl that would have satiated my cravings and then some.

If you haven’t had the pleasure of experiencing London’s Shield Your Eye’s in either recorded or live format as yet then allow me to do them some injustice: they are a power-trio in the best sense of the term. Stef’s guitar work is as inventive and mesmerising as it is emotive and tasteful, Toby’s bass playing both melodic and driving, and Henri’s jaw-loosening drumming has the planned precision that keeps young men and women worshiping better known but no less deserving acts like Battles or Don Caballero.

The music they play is a distinctive, exhilarating mash of styles taking in the mathy hardcore of Melt Banana, raucous energetics of Pink and Brown or Coachwhips and the craftsmanship and pin-point execution of Shellac, Karate or Pinback. The fact that I’m reminded of such a heady cocktail of personally significant bands whilst listening to the album can only be to Shield Your Eyes’ credit. On top of this stunning instrumentality the lyrics and vocal delivery advance a strong heritage of sincere and emotive British post-hardcore that harks back to the days when emo wasn’t such a dirty word. Bands like Spy Vs Spy, Bob Tilton and Wolves of Greece, had they stuck with it and retained their sense of urgency and contemporariness, could have hoped to sound something like the superb album Shield Your Eyes have produced in 2008.

Well recorded, perfectly paced and released their fucking selves this album has truly restored my faith in the sphere of guitar-based rock music whether it be American, British, DIY or otherwise. If there’s a better release this year then I will eat my disease-incubating rusting aluminium guitar.

Buy it from http://www.myspace.com/leavethetapesrunning

Andy Abbott

Blacklisters Interview

Even though I spent a good 25 mins probing these guys about the difficulty of fitting in one's local music scene, fears and aspirations for the future and upwardly facing male genitalia, I still walked away with a sense of not knowing whether I had actually connected with them or not.

During the interview I thought there might have been a chance for the three of us to bond through the mutual release of anger and frustration, a feeling so common in a metalhead's life. So I decided to spill my pint over their clothes, but they both seemed fairly jubilant about it and were keen to keep the ball rolling despite the sodden crotches.

More than once I made inferences to them enjoying reciprocal manual labour with undressed men, but this only added fuel to their fire and spurred them on to even more explicit descriptions of themselves accompanied by roarings of hearty laughter.

In the end I failed to beat them and so I joined them instead, which is why the final 5 mins of the interview can only be described as schoolboy smut. My sincerest apologies go out to my Mum and Dad. I know you like to keep up with what I'm doing in Leeds but I'm not normally like this I promise.

Love you both,

x

www.myspace.com/blacklisters

That Fucking Tank Interview

Andy Abbott and James Islip combined make That Fucking Tank, a polyrhythmic unit of seismic proportions and before the interview I pre-interviewed them about a few niggling points that needed clearing up.

1. Why are you called That Fucking Tank?

It was a joke name for a joke band - others included 'Diners Club International', 'I'm Trapped in Cupboard' and '(Don't) Tell me About the War'. It was the best of a bad bunch.

2. I know the band was created for one gig, but what was the context of this gig?

We were organising a gig for our continental chums Vialka (who are a two-piece) and Like a Kind of Matador (also, at that time a duo) and thought it would be novel to have a gig of just duos. That probably is almost unavoidable nowadays.

3. Could you list a few other bands that both of you guys were in before this one.

The pair of us? Our first gig was when we were 13/14 as 'Grin' - James sang and played guitar and I played bass, doing covers of Nirvana, Therapy?, Sabbath, Green Day etc. Then we did 'Mad Things' (a badger-obsessed hardcore band), then 'Kill Yourself' (in Leeds with Giles) which was the first band to do 'proper' tours and release records and go to Europe etc.


Cheers son.

www.myspace.com/landsandbody

Wonderswan Interview -06/09/08

Yes this is an interview of sorts, if one is able to condone the guffawing nature of your host.



Wonderswan Interview - 06/09/08 from Ben NCM on Vimeo.

Chops video for ILL EAGLE ready at last

This is the finished video me and Herod McHugh did for CHOPS with the help of the guys from Uprights, Jon Nash, Dicko, Katie Moore, Aurora Fearnley and Charles Robert Arthur.

Here's an edit of the rough footage we incorporated into the final thing:

Dancing the Cake from Ben NCM on Vimeo.


And here's the finished final thing

Untitled from Ben NCM on Vimeo.

Photos of the last video shoot for Chops.

I'm really gutted that I didn't get more photos at the time because everyone was really looking the part and it was excellent fun. Despite their obvious intoxication and general lethargic presence, I could see that those people who had scolded themselves into turning up for the shoot looked like they intended carrying out their jobs with an effervescent aplomb.

Of course! I should mention the gist of the video round about now. I've written this description and copy and pasted it so many times on other blogs and forums that I really can't be arsed doing it again right now but I'll be brief. On the island where my parents are from everyone forms a massive circle on the day of a wedding, the more confident women from the crowd take turns dancing with the wedding cake erotically in the centre. I don't know why they do this but I wouldn't be surprised if one of my aunties told me that it improved the flavour as they're quite a superstitious lot over there. When I visited (Petite Martinique) one time I filmed a wedding and have used this footage as material for the one we made on the day.

I took on the central role of chief erotically dancing woman and imitated to a certain extent some of the moves they were throwing in the original film which in turn my servile drones surrounding me would imitate. As for the idea behind it all I think it was about wanting something really badly but in the end not getting it in the form that you wanted, and also about forgetting what's best for yourself as a person and spending the bulk of your time gorging on simple pleasures to the point where you choke to death on them.

Anyway, check out these shots and be sure to get involved in the next venture which should be mid October in the Hyde Park area of Leeds for a great band called Cowtown - http://www.myspace.com/cowtownsuperstars

Do check out Chops too if you like your Can beats - www.myspace.com/mightychops

Helpers and werewolves needed for Cowtown video

Me and Herod will be making a video for Leeds favourite Devo-esque partytime band Cowtown in October and would like for you guys to get involved.

As it stands at the moment, the premise of the video is based on the family comedy film Teenwolf and the moment when he is starting to get hairy in his bathroom. There is a knock on the door and to his amazement his Dad is stood there also with a werewolf's face! Then Teenwolf realises that everyone in his street are in fact werewolves and so all the werewolves in Hyde Park have a dance down Pearson Grove and that's it. This is the rough template I've been given but it will be perverted in some way. Teenwolf really couldn't have been played by anyone other than Dave Shields as he has the perfect hair, but a lot more people will be needed to create the illusion that every person in the world is a wolf. It will be also important for the video to contain a lot of wolf oriented imagery and visual gags so if there are any funnymen or women on here then we need to get together and have a laugh.

This production will be bigger than the last one so I'll be updating this space in the next few weeks with additional info.