Hello, welcome to the second Coke Music Podcast with me, Adam Buxton.
And me, Joe Cornish.
Thanks a lot for downloading this.
This month we're going to take you once again on a journey through the latest unsigned music from Austria, Ireland and the UK, right Adam?
Yeah, now listen Joe, it's been a month since we did the last one of these.
I've forgotten like
almost all of the things about how the thing works.
What this is, what we're doing here, why people are listening.
Well, this is an exciting team up between Coca-Cola and iTunes and the community of unsigned bands and musicians out there all across Europe.
You go to www.coke.com forward slash music and then upload your track on one of our European muse spurts.
That sounds revolting.
Why?
because it's got spurts in it.
Okay.
It's like the band Muse spurting.
And then one of our regional music experts or Muse spurts.
Yeah, I think you can carry on calling them Muse spurts, they're good.
Yeah, we'll listen to all the tracks, select the very best.
Yeah.
And then if it's the best of the best, it'll end up on this very podcast with you and me listening to it.
Wow.
And some of the tracks will be put up on iTunes.
The best of those tracks from iTunes will be used in a new animated feature about cheeky animals.
Brilliant.
What's it going to be called?
It's going to be called Fuhhrens.
No.
It's going to be called Fuzzy Fables.
No one will go and see it if it's called Fuzzy Fables.
That's like one of those knock-off children's books you get in a pound store.
What will it be called then?
Fuzzy Fables.
It'll be called, it'll be called The Hedgehogs of War.
Folks, seriousness warning, your tune won't be featured on Fuzzy Fables or The Hedgehogs of War.
That was just a little comic riff there.
Right, well we've been joined by Eddie from the Temple of Morris.
It's a religion.
With not very many members.
The Morris Dancers.
They worship at the Temple of Morris.
Eddie, thank you very much for coming along again and sharing with us your discoveries this month.
Excellent.
Well, I wouldn't miss it for the world, gentlemen.
Now, what have you got in your bag?
What kind of stuff have you been listening to?
I've got two bands for you that couldn't be more different.
I have a band called Headland, who describe themselves as electro psychedelic pop something.
and I have a band called Nightbreed.
Well, they're going to be a band.
They're more of a sort of production outfit at the moment.
Clive Barker?
Is he anything to do with them?
Well, you'd think so.
If you saw Sam and Nigel Nightbreed in the street, I swear you would cross over to the other side of the street.
They always sound so harmless though, don't they?
Is that their real second name, Sam and Nigel Nightbreed?
Hello, Mr. Nightbreed.
Here's your electricity statement for this quarter.
Much like Keith Flint from The Prodigy.
Looks scary, but then you couldn't find nicer guys in the whole music industry.
I mean, Keith is lovely and Nigel and Sam are totally lovely as well.
How disappointing.
Well, in one way, but then, you know, in another way not.
That's the way bands are going though, isn't it?
Like the horrors, right?
They look scary, but they're actually nice chaps and they're sensitive and they don't like being punched, like the bloke from the horrors was.
Well, there was the band that you were horrified at last month, The Dead Kids.
Yes.
Who are horrid in every way.
Good.
Good for them.
Well, let's have a listen then.
Who are we going to listen to first?
Headland?
Well, I think, yeah, I don't want to terrify you right at the top of the show, so let's have Headland, because they're more charming.
So let's try Headland first.
And this is nothing to do with imagining a land populated by people who are just heads.
Severed heads.
Severed heads.
This is nothing to do with that.
What's the track called?
The track's called Monster in a Shirt.
Oh, God.
Monsters in shirts.
Heads.
Hit me.
So, Eddie, that was fantastic.
I'm glad you like that.
Have you got your head round the lyrics, because they're quite hard to hear, but I thought I could make one or two things out.
Please do, because I'm one of these people that, I like tracks mostly for the instrumentation, and I hardly ever listen to lyrics, unless it's, you know, Radiohead, and then I sort of cover myself in petrol.
So, are you aware of the lyrics to that song we've just heard at all?
I'm going to spread my seed all over the world was something that leapt out at me.
I think he's going to spill his seed.
He's been collecting seeds, he's dropped them, he's upset about it, and now he's going to abuse himself everywhere.
I thought he was a horticulturalist.
Yeah.
It sounds like Monster in the Shed, isn't it?
But he's Monster in a Shirt, is the name of the track.
Clearly.
Really.
So the main thing he's worried about is monsters in shirts.
They're responsible for him being covered in blood.
Covered in blood.
Or his friend being covered in blood.
It's a fantastic song though, what an amazing sort of fuzzy, messy sound, sounded a bit like a Beck track didn't it?
Yeah, Beck, a whiff of can even.
A whiff of can, the stench of can, and also great sound effects in the background, it sounded like they were frying up something quite tasty at the beginning.
Possibly.
I think that they're one of these bands who are doing what more and more people are doing and not having a record label and just financing everything themselves and doing, you know, recording an album mostly at home or a blagged in mate studio sort of thing and they're putting it out themselves.
So you can actually get hold of that track.
You can go to headlandmusic.org.
How old are they, Eddie?
You know what, I haven't asked them.
Because one of the lyrics there is, you are the ones we fought for and died, you are the scum.
So maybe it's a group of pensioners who fought in the war.
Furious pensioners.
And now resent the lackadaisical attitude of the youth and have formed a band.
That would be quite good, wouldn't it?
That's right, yeah.
Your dad should form a band, Adam.
Yeah.
Like being rude about young people.
And the monsters in the shirts, that's the kids.
The kids in their polo shirts.
Exactly.
The chav kids.
In their Marilyn Manson shirts.
Yeah.
That is clearly what they're singing about.
Yeah, we've really got to the bottom of that one.
They've absolutely dissected that one.
We've cracked Headland.
Yeah, Headland are listening to this now just going, how did they do that?
Now let's see, what else have you got in your bag for us, Eddie?
Okay, I've got something just a little more frightening than Headland.
More frightening?
Well, Headland I thought would charm you in a sort of left of centre sort of way.
Is it going to be a monster who's not wearing a shirt?
Yeah, two monsters even, perhaps not wearing shirts.
With their nipples exposed.
with their pierced nipples exposed, pierced and tattooed nipples exposed.
They are Nigel and Sam, they are brothers and collectively they are nightbreed.
Are you into drum and bass at all?
I quite like drum and bass, yeah.
I am quite in touch with the drum and bass scene because people drive past my house with drum and bass playing so loudly.
but I think that's how I keep in touch.
Well, Joe's next door neighbour, one of them plays the drums and the other one plays the bass on the other side, so Joe kind of lives drum and bass.
Shall we hear the track now?
Yes, let's.
There we go.
So that was Nightbreed with It's Alive.
Yes.
And a strong horror film influence there.
Not only do we have the title to one of Clive Barker's most important films, but we've got Hammer horror sort of sound effects and Dr Frankenstein stuff going on.
Yes.
It's Alive is even the name of a horror film.
Yeah.
With Devil Baby in it.
A woman gives birth to a little devil baby and he sort of jumps out of his cot and bites people in the throat.
There was a sequel as well.
It's still alive, I promise you, this is all true.
It sounds insane but I'm not making it up.
It's a Roger Corman, I think.
Oh yeah, you're right.
So what have you got to say to that then, Temple Morris?
Well, it's just great to hear them.
What did you think of it?
I really liked it.
Yeah, well, I'm slightly indifferent, I'm going to be completely honest.
I've never really understood drum and bass.
I understand it in the context of a club, amazingly loud, but even then, to be honest, I think I'd have trouble dancing to it.
Because there's so many rhythms, I'd get confused and start behaving like some kind of... Well, it's only one, but it's fast.
Yeah, but it's quite a hard rhythm to dance to, isn't it?
I think what people do is dance really, actually quite slowly to it, isn't it?
You halve it.
You dance to the half beat.
Exactly, exactly.
So kind of the cooler and more relaxed you can look while you're dancing to this frenetic stuff.
If I was a potato and I was mashed, I would dig that in a big way.
No, man, I enjoyed it and I thought it was more eventful, you know, than a lot of that music can be.
There was much more going on.
There was lots of squelchy sounds and I like the long drum fills.
They reminded me of one time I went to a club in 1989.
You know what I mean?
I had a good time.
Do you need to get out more?
Listen, Eddie, really enjoyed both of those though.
Thank you very much indeed for playing them to us.
You're really welcome.
Can I come back next month?
Yeah, come back next month.
Bring something a bit pathetic.
Just a bit slow and like some awful woman in a flowery dress with a guitar.
Bring something like that.
Here's your challenge, Eddie, for next month.
We want something with a ukulele in it and another one with some yodelling.
And lyrics about peace.
Yeah.
And knitting.
You want pathos.
Yeah.
And yoghurt weaving and things like that.
Yoghurt weaving.
Yes.
Specifically.
We want you to bring us something woven out of yoghurt.
Either that or Hugo weaving from The Matrix.
Yeah.
Okay.
Thanks a lot Eddie, we'll see you next month.
All right, will do.
Cheers Eddie.
What's up, dorks?
It's the Leveler here with music news so up to date, a lot of it hasn't even happened yet.
Spatchcock.
Last week, of course, saw the 15th Annual 100 Watt Music Awards at London's Panty Pad Apollo.
And as you'd expect from an event sponsored by Edison Lightbulbs, the place was completely rammed with bright lights, thanks to the hundreds of bulbs in and around the building.
In fact, Dan Tonsel from The Vessel in the Pestle, who picked up three awards that night, had this to say when we caught up with him after the show.
Well, it's probably the most well-lit awards ceremony I've ever attended.
I hate awards when it's too dark.
You can't see the table numbers.
Often end up accidentally sitting next to someone from a band who come from the north of England or even Wales.
It's very hard to understand what they're actually saying.
And they often want to fight you or steal your hat or your shoes.
As far as I'm concerned, the more bulbs, the better.
Dan Tonsel there, who picked up awards for Best Face, Best Marketing and Best Blasphemy, although they lost out on the award for Best Song About a Dutch Girl to Stroud newcomers Axis of Weevil, whose smash hit, Make a Pass at the Dutchie, was also voted Best Song with a title that sounds similar to a musical youth song.
Last year's winners in that category were of course The Bobbins with The Youth of Torbay and they were back again this year to present the award for the band that sounds closest to another band from the 60s to The Skinks.
However Skinks lead singer Jay Ravis seemed underwhelmed by the honour and let rip at the audience with a volley of four letter words including loft,
dust, buns and lamp.
Unluckily for him, Tina Fugash from Emergency PP Records, who signed the Skinks last year, was sat in the front row.
Her father was of course the legendary producer Mike Fugash, who was killed by a lamp while eating buns in a dusty loft.
The Skinks are now looking for a new label.
I suggest dry clean only.
Cheese plant.
That's the Music News.
That was the Music News, thanks a lot Jazz Level.
Now it's time to go over to our Austrian music expert, Mickey Gaismeier.
Wow, that's really sort of like a kind of rockified version of something you might have heard in the 80s, do you not think?
Yeah, I think it sounds pretty contemporary, but very kind of complete.
I didn't understand.
I mean, I know that it's stupid to talk about the lyrics because it's just supposed to be about the vibe of the thing, but I can't help thinking about it.
He's got to get away.
He's got a sandwich in his mind.
He's got to throw away.
Is that what he says?
Yeah.
Got to get away.
You see, that kind of song.
I've got a sandwich in my mind.
I got to throw it all away.
He's just bought a really rank sandwich.
That's the kind of theme that I can really appreciate.
Relate to, yeah.
Relate to, yeah.
Things I thought were impressive about it was it started with a pretty fast beat but then when the melody came in it kind of had a slow rock beat and the two sat quite well together.
The problem I had with it from the get-go was that there's a lot of European bands that tend to sing too close to the mic, you know what I'm saying?
So they start off and it's kind of like...
They've just woken up and they're kind of really close to the mic and they're kind of singing like this because they had too much to drink last night, you know?
And then what happens?
What happens when they get to the shouty chorus?
They kind of try to have a gobb and spit out all the phlegm.
Oh, like that.
That was the Los Compadres with full moon.
Now I'd call that inoffensive, right?
But some people might think that was derogatory.
All it means to me is that I liked it and it didn't offend me.
Do you know what a good direction for The Lost Compadres might be?
What?
To go lyrically much more violent or obscene.
Then there'd be more counterpoint.
You'd have a sort of soft, plucky, gentle bit of music, but very angry, violent lyrics.
Yeah.
I'd like to maybe mix those two bands up a bit, get them working together.
I'm gonna find you and bash you in the face.
Exactly.
Because you stole my girlfriend you great big pons.
That kind of thing.
Yeah, you could work on the rhyming.
Yeah.
But that's exactly the direction I'm suggesting.
I'll use a shotgun to blast off both your legs.
Yeah, something maybe about knife.
And now it's competition time here at the Adam and Jo Coca-Cola New Music Podcast, right Adam?
Yeah, exactly.
Now we had some amazing ideas for competitions and the most amazing of all of them
we decided we wouldn't do this week.
So we went instead for this one and this is, we've called it canthums, okay?
Now that's... Why?
Why canthums?
Right, okay, that's partly blowing your mind, isn't it?
Yeah, it is.
Well, the word canthums is made up of two separate words.
The word can and the word anthems.
We've put them together to make canthums.
So what we want you to do, folks, is to record a track using only a Coca-Cola can.
And it has to be a Coke can, okay?
because Coke cans sound unique.
You can't use any other brand of soft drink or beer or anything like that because we'll know and then you won't get a prize because this is about the glorification of Coke and not about any other brand.
Do you understand me?
Good.
Now we've got that straight, we can proceed.
Now by way of example, I recorded a little demo last night with my Coke can and my computer.
Right, because to be honest, I'm sceptical that one can get any kind of listenable music out of a Coke can.
No, Joe.
I created something extraordinary which I'd like to talk you through right now.
OK, so here we go.
I begin by just tapping the can.
This is just tapping.
That's tapping with a metal ruler.
Really?
Yeah.
Because it sounds like tapping with a metal ruler.
Yeah.
And that's, of course, achieved by opening the can with the ring puller.
I'm thirsty.
Yeah.
And that is just pwanging the ring pull.
That's the pwanging.
Pwanging.
Yeah.
And I've layered it up.
Okay, now when I say go, I want you to start freestyling all over its arse.
Okay.
One, two, three, go.
EasyJet, EasyJet, cheap flight, cheap flight, EasyJet.
I am going, I am going to visit my cousin in Ealing.
Oh, wiggity boggity bo, visit my cousin in Newlink.
Oh, wiggity biggity bo, fly in my cousin in Newlink.
Have to pay for drinks on the flight, £1.50, tiny can of coke.
Have to pay for drinks on the flight, time my motor up doobie woo.
Okay, that's enough.
That's enough.
I've just been reduced to baby noises.
So there you go.
If you can do better than just baby noises and random sort of Soweto-esque singing, then maybe you could win the big prize.
Yeah, exactly.
We want you to get as creative as possible.
I'll tell you one thing we didn't do during that track was actually sing into the can.
Hello, can you hear me?
It makes a great big difference when you're singing into a can.
It's extraordinary.
There's a good reason.
And listen, if you make like a new instrument out of the Coke can, okay, that doesn't sound like a can anymore, you're going to have to prove to us that you're actually using a Coke can by sending a picture of yourself playing the track.
And if we get proof of that, then you will almost certainly win a prize.
Anyway, the person that comes up with the most creative track, it doesn't have to be like ours, obviously, but you get the idea.
We just want to see what you can come up with.
And the weirder and funnier, the better.
The winner
will receive 50, count them, 5-0 iTunes song credits.
Wow.
That's a lot of songs.
That's almost £50 worth of songs.
And the address to send your efforts to is Adam & Joe, that's Adam A-N-D J-O-E rather than the ampersand,
Adamandjoeatcokemusicpodcast.com.
Adamandjoeatcokemusicpodcast.com.
Okay, now we're going to speak to our Irish new music expert, Jenny Houston.
Hello, Jenny.
Hello there, guys.
How's it going?
It's going very well, thanks.
Good to speak to you.
Ireland is kind of new to the Coca-Cola new music family because you're just about to do your first podcast over there, aren't you?
completely brand new.
We launched the Irish site on October 2nd and the Fratellis are coming over to help us party.
They're going to be headlining the gig and Irish fans will be able to upload music onto the Coke Music website from October 2nd.
So it's going to be great.
Did you like the way I described it as a family?
Yeah, I did.
I do.
It's a lot of love in the room.
Exactly.
I've put my head on Joe's shoulder now.
Yeah, I've sort of pushed it off now because there's some dribble.
All of Europe can go, ah.
Yeah, there is a little bit of dribble on his shoulder now.
Sorry about that, man.
Now, Jenny, you're going to play us a couple of tracks today, aren't you?
Yeah, the first one's kind of a full on rock song, a band called Boss Valenti, and I think it's an unbelievably impressive track for a band that are brand new and have put it out themselves.
It's called Ain't No Use and it's sexy, funky party music.
OK, well, let's hear it.
And Adam and I are going to have a sexy, funky party while we're listening to it.
You know, if someone says to me, sexy, funky party music, I think of Right Said Fred.
No, I don't know.
This is kind of stomp and rock and roll with a bit of Steven Tyler of Aerosmith thrown in on vocals.
Great.
OK, well, what Adam and I are going to do is we're going to strip naked and we're going to dance and something sexy might happen.
Who knows?
So we'll tell you what state we're in after the record.
Whoa, that was amazing!
Boss Valenti with Ain't No Use.
And do you know anything about these guys?
Do you know, are they youngsters or are they sort of... Well, the band are young and the thing that's kind of cool about them is their drummer is quite experienced in music and he heard them, thought they were brilliant and offered his services.
The drummer's Graham Hopkins.
He used to be the drummer in the metal band Therapy.
Do you remember Therapy?
Oh yeah, of course.
They're still going, yeah.
So, I mean, Graham's kind of got the know-how.
He'd be friends with Chad Smith from the Chili Peppers and things like that and I think he's sort of really helped them step up a gear.
It's a very sort of tightly arranged song, isn't it?
And when I listen to it, I can kind of imagine the lead singer doing quite a lot of sort of slightly arrogant strutting.
Okay, so what's the next record you've got for us, Jenny?
It's totally, totally different.
Her name's Anne Scott, and she's one of those singer-songwriters, and normally that term would sort of put dread into my heart, you know, the sort of whiny, whingy singer-songwriters.
There was a viral epidemic in Ireland for a long time with them.
And now what's happened is only the best have survived.
And I think she's at the top of the undiscovered or sort of generally undiscovered.
Hang on a second.
There was some kind of viral epidemic, some kind of Dustin Hoffman style outbreak.
This is 28 days later.
Killed only singer songwriters.
Man, it killed everyone but the singer songwriters.
That was what's so horrific about it.
Well that's what did happen and there was a backlash and nobody wanted to hear singer-songwriters for a long time so you had to be really kind of determined to stay with it and Anne's been floating around in the background doing backing vocals for bands like, well I mean she's worked with David Kitt and Mark Geary and The Frames and people like that, The Adlam Brothers who produced Gemma Hayes, so she's kind of been a backing vocalist and singer-songwriter on her own and now all of a sudden she's come out with this album called We're Smiling and this lead track called Mountain and I just think it's fantastic.
It's converted me to singer-songwriters.
There we go, that was Anne Scott with The Mountain.
That was lovely, Jenny.
It is better than most, isn't it?
I think it's good.
No, it's absolutely good and it's not as sort of introspectively whiny as a lot of that kind of stuff can be.
What I love about the track is that it's not just guitar, it's kind of sexy instrumentation and it's just, I don't know, I really think it's very cool and I think people are going to go mad for it.
Well, the chorus is where it really sort of comes together, isn't it?
Because it starts out sort of semi-conventionally, and you think this is nice, but I'm going to have to judge you on your chorus.
And that's what sometimes, if you get a really bland chorus at that point, you just think, no, I'm not bothered.
But actually, it was really unusual and interesting, the tune that she had there.
Well listen Jenny, thank you so much for talking to us and playing us those tracks.
We loved them and best of luck out there with the Irish podcast.
Yeah, we look forward to hearing it.
Yeah, October 2nd's the big day.
Thanks very much.
Well that just about wraps it up for us this week.
Thank you very much indeed for listening.
Don't forget that there are regional podcasts as well.
That's correct.
Even more to listen to.
If you visit www.coke.com forward slash music you'll find a podcast of the best new music from your region.
Exactly.
It might not be as good as our one.
But it's probably a lot better.
I mean, I know that's hard to believe, because we've had some amazing music this week.
And, you know, we've been amazing.
Yeah.
We've had Anne Scott and her mountains.
Yeah.
We've had the extraordinary Opium with Signs.
It's been a Euro music roller coaster.
And we've also had the extraordinary Soweto Township sounds of the Coke can.
Yeah, I would say that musically, we've managed to offend almost everybody.
So if you'd like to come back for more of the same, we'd be delighted to have you.
Don't forget to upload your own new music as well on that same website.
www.coke.com forward slash music.
Something for everybody.
Yeah, so from me, Adam Buxton.
And me, Joe Cornish, we'll see you next month.
Bye, love you, bye.
Goodbye.