Anti Folking hell it's good.

I'm not sure whether it was the whole falling under the spell of Peggy Sue but of late the musical genre that is Anti-folk has well and truly lodged itself deep into my Grey matter and barring a drill to the head Saw 3 style it aint-a-comin-out.

Our love-in was confirmed on Wednesday night in deepest darkest Bethnal Green where Laura Marling,with her swelling heart and mercury shortlisted album in tow , produced the gig of the year to a awe-inspired audience, Anit-folk it has to be said, stepped it up a notch.

With the likes of Marling, Noah and The Whale, Peggy Sue, Jeramey Warmsley, Mumford and Sons and Johnny Flynn all making big moves in the 'game' this year, it wont be long until Anti-folk's taking over your life and you'll find yourself in the New Forest with an acoustic guitar making up songs about superhero's, crazy burgers and lovers crawling out of the sea.

These are some gems you need to get you ear ol's round:

Peggy Sue-Superman
Johnny Flynn-All The Dogs Are Lying Down
Moldy Peaches-Downloading Porn With Davo
Mumford and Sons-Awake My Soul
Noah and The Whale-Give A Little Love
Laura Marling-My Manic and I

All this talk of Anti-folk does make me feel like I'm cheating on Post-Punk so I found this clip on You Tube of Jeffrey Lewis documenting the life and times of The Fall.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tP_Dk81f9fg&feature=related

You know it's summer when...

a clap of thunder rumbles indiscriminately over Vampire Weekends' Mansard Roof' ceasing any enjoyment of the record from the outset.
This happened yesterday, on a day when the weather was about as consistent as a Glastonbury punters bowl movements.
I tried to listen to the rest of the album but it's sunny disposition failed to sit comfortably amongst rain battered window panes and heavy,brooding skies. So I put on 'Hits' by
The Birthday Party and Nick Caves antagonistic, gothic drawl became somewhat of a fitting repost to a slate-Grey London afternoon that teetered on the edge of pathetic.
























Like many bands evolving from the defunct-punk scene, The BirthdayParty reveled in a creative freedom that saw their mutant concoction of punk and jazz-blues vie for space in an already over-crowded melting pot of post-punk, new wave and new-romantic bands.
There distaste for commercialism and insistence for making music on their own terms, i.e. a hybrid of dark-wave and post-punk meant the door that welcomed the likes of The Fall, Gang of Four and Joy Division was held firmly shut in the face of The Birthday Party. This only had the effect of spurring Nick Cave on to push their experimental sound even further,which ultimately made The Birthday Party one of the most influential bands of the last 40 years.


It's only been apparent in the last 2 years just how influential The Birthday Party were.
Int he summer of 2005, The Horrors spawned from the dark breeding's of Cave&Co released their debut LP 'Strange House' to a generation that thought interpol were as dark and dangerous as it got. The album was an instant cult hit and a string of live shows and support slots, notably with the Arctic Monkeys, caused ripple's of discontent amongst the Fratelli loving beer-boys but galvanised the art and book club recluses into kick-starting a scene that reeked of individuality and creativity.Since then, a whole host of bands have not only picked up the baton but they've run with it, passed it on and smashed it round the head of every irrelevant scmindie act out there, leaving them bloody and useless on the strobe light-lit dance floors of the UK.

Here's our pick of the bands that are heading the most exciting scene in music today, Dark Wave:

Ipso Facto











Televised Crimwave













Lord Auch












KASMs
















SCUM