noisyzine

I've been wading through the Internet Archive's mighty fine audio collection - if you've a hankering for a particular type of tune and no cash it can scratch your itch. Today, I fancied some harmonica tracks and it duly served up a nice collection of tunes to stick on my mp3 player, it looks like musicians/radio shows etc. put up their music for free downloading.
It also has a pretty large live music archive, and some recordings of interest to readers include:
Robyn Hitchcock
Lydia Lunch
Kimya Dawson
Meat Puppets

Last week in ASDA I was surprised to see they were stocking Maxwell blank cassette tapes in their tecchie section - packs or 4 or 5 I think. (I mention this because people in my friends list have asked if anywhere still stocks them).
Here is a link to a free download album of Riot Grrrl mp3s - I haven't listened to it yet: This is What Feminism Sounds Like.

There have been some happenings over the past few weeks.
Last weekend, I went to see the exhibition by local musician Phillious Williams, you can read a short report about this and see some photos I took in the gallery at the Noisy site here. The book featured in the exhibition is currently being auctioned on EBay here.
On Friday, US musician Thomas Truax played the Railway Hotel in Southend - he plays really atmospheric music with homemade instruments in a steampunk vein.


He is currently touring the UK - dates are on his website (as well as a few free downloadable mp3s too) I recommend going to see him if you can. I have uploaded a short clip I took during the gig onto youtube here although it doesn't do justice to the amazing instruments he played - especially one weird tube/can concoction which had lots of whistles attached, used whilst singing a song about Halloween!

Lastly, Noisy! gets a small mention in the March issue of glossy fashion mag Elle Magazine - there's a small article in there about how 'fanzines are making a comeback' and apparently, even being stocked in stores like Marc Jacobs(!). I won't hold my breath for my zine to reach such lofty heights, but I must say the free mascara with that issue came in handy.

It's really only occurred to me today that it's actually been just over two years now since Noisy! #9 emerged and although my original intention was to leave it a good 9-12 months before doing another one in order to give that issue a good chance of selling/making sure as many people as possible got to hear the CD; well, it's now considerably longer than that and seeing as I've been saying "I'm working on issue 10" for a rather long time now and the website does come across as being in an annoying state of limbo, I probably should just write a blog to update properly.

I have no idea where most of 2010/2011 went, but it certainly saw a decrease in the number of gigs I attended/music listened to/e-mails answered etc etc. due to a combination of plain old apathy/computer problems which makes updating/downloading anything a nightmare/day job/a few family issues.. Anyway, rest-assured issue 10 is being worked on. It's a bit of a weird one because there will be gig reviews & articles in there spanning the last months of 2009 to the summer of 2011 and beyond, perhaps giving it the feel of an 'annual' (or perhaps just plain out of date) and I'm going to squeeze in as many record reviews as possible - some requests for reviews will have got lost in the ether/some people have been waiting months (well, years now) for their articles to appear in print and for that I apologise, but there really is an abundance of Essex-made music out there and it's a nigh on impossible job to keep on top of it all!
After that I will endeavour to update/slim down the website (which - by the way - you can still purchase an array of back issues from) and I'm mooting some sort of print-on-demand 'best of' thingy but really, not sure if the effort will justify the interest, if any.

In other news, incase anyone reading is interested, here a few updates on related projects:
Southend Fringe Festival - on hiatus at the moment, not sure if/when it will occur again!
Ten Tigers had a launch gig for their debut album Milk Teeth in December, it's not actually out yet, but you can see photos & video from the night on the excellent southendpunk.com site here.
Gig Listings Yes, I have been very bad with updating my page so I would recommend the page maintained by the great southendsites here for up-to-date information.
Southend Punk/Noisy Zine Comp For many years now, Noisy & Southendpunk.com have been planning a printed compilation on Essex music fanzines, I can honestly say I have no clue if this will see the light of day!
Issue 11 Well, I think it's safe to say that the chances of an issue beyond #10 is unlikely, although the website/back issues 'shop' will stay online for some time to come; if & when Noisy closes it's proverbial doors, I'll be sure to announce it to the mail list/here etc, first!

Lastly, I was sorry to hear about the demise of fellow fanzines Beat Motel and Bubblegum Slut over the past few years, as I genuinely loved reading those zines and miss Alison and Andrew's writing a lot. Ice Cream For Quo is currently my favourite music zine and I really recommend buying a copy - not just because I was interviewed in it a while back - but because Stephen and his team write about music in a genuine, passionate yet balanced manner which really makes it a joy to read. Here's the website for that.

I've uploaded a couple of videos from recent gigs over at the Noisyzine youtube channel - The Priscillas in Southend (which unfortunately is really dark) and Jez Kemp in Chelmsford from a gig at Hooga last week.

Rock's Backpages, the world's largest online library of rock journalism, announces the launch of its new Backpages eBooks division, headed up by former MOJO editor Mat Snow.


Backpages eBooks consists of two series:

• Backpages Anthologies collects key interviews and other articles about important acts, and gets under way with The Bob Dylan Electric Omnibus and The Nirvana Electric Omnibus. The subsequent two volumes will be devoted to John Lennon and Led Zeppelin.

• Backpages Classics brings back to life essential music books published over the last 40 years and kicks off with seminal titles by Simon Reynolds, Barney Hoskyns, Bud Scoppa and John Pidgeon.


The two series further establish Rock's Backpages as an electronic publisher of premium rock writing. All titles are currently available in the Amazon Kindle store.
For more information, visit www.rocksbackpages.com

Matt Cardle will be signing copies of his debut album ‘Letters’ from 3.30pm on Monday 17th October at

Sainsburys
Stanway
Colchester

This is strictly a wristband only event. 500 wristbands available. Only one per customer. Anyone without a wristband will not be granted access. Wristbands will be available to pick up in store at the customer service desk from 7am on Sat 15th Oct.

1pm - 6pm The Railway Hotel have organised live music on Southend Pier, two stages (electric and acoustic) at the very end of the pier - normal pier admission prices apply.

Last week Adam Ant played in Southend and there are some photos and video up now on the great Southend Punk website.

More info here: http://ukfeminista.org.uk/events/all-events/2-local-event/396-ladyfest-essex.html