Thanks to Thingsthatlooklikepenises.com for the images

Here is a little known fact about me: I am something of an expert on film. When I was eighteen I undertook a long and arduous pilgrimage to South Belfast, where I studied under the tutelage of the Arts and Humanities professors in Queen’s University. Most of my studies were done under the influence of one too many lunch time pints, which made it hard because the Queen’s Film Theatre seats are really comfy and some of the films are boring as shit, so just staying awake often required serious effort. I soldiered through though, after discovering that if I filled my bladder just so, I would wake up about five minutes before the end of the film. If I was then asked to comment, I would just say that the ending was poignant. This tactic backfired the first time I tried it because I had only ever seen the word poignant in print and didn’t realise it isn’t pronounced ‘po-ig-nant’. I got out of that one by feigning an epileptic seizure and simply never going back to that class. How much could there really be to Film Sound anyway?

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The latest music promo from the makers of Bandwidth – a crazy little thing called ‘Babydoll’ from the upcoming EP Age Of Love by the really rather wonderful Rachel Austin. Roll on..

(..and thanks to all who helped in the making of it)

Made by:
Rachel Austin, Will McConnell, Katie Richardson, Alexandra Moore, Ben Behzadafshar, Korny Devenney, Susan Duncan, Jamie Langston, Lindsey Mitchell, Michael Sampson, and Shauna Tohill with help from Dave Frecknall, Sean Duncan, & Ricky McQuillan

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In Stores Now: a nice gentle place, where bands can take time out of their day to play slow and acoustic versions of their music to an empty room.

Er.. no.

We’re about going to the music and finding it out where it lives, the dirty oil-filled garage or untidied bedroom where it was born, filming it as it’s meant to be.

And in that spirit, Gascan Ruckus are kind enough to just get the rock out, in a garage in Co. Armagh, with a bunch of select fans.

Don’t worry – there’s an acousticy bit too, when after much sweaty moshing, they swapped their guitars for banjos and beer bottles and played into the night (with the appearance, unexpectedly, of a Quarrymen cover).

Now that’s more like it.

[Download Video]

[Download Video]

[Download Video]

[Download Video]

Camera/Edit: Will McConnell
Sound Mix: Ryan McCann
Filmed in Co. Armagh, February 2011

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Illustration by Emma Majury

REM were my favourite band.

And as favourite bands go, they’re a good one to nail your colours to. They have impeccable heritage, they had an unbelievable run of world-beating albums, and always seemed like a band you could really connect with, three pretty regular guys with a substantial record collection, and one artsy, weird guy who made it cool to be an outsider.
Then the drummer left, and it all fell to pieces.

But let’s not start there, let’s go way back to the start, which is a very un-REM-like thing to do, which – in turn – makes it a very REM-like thing to do.

Starting as a bar band in Athens, Georgia, a fairly sleepy American college town, these four guys – Peter Buck, Mike Mills, Bill Berry, and Michael Stipe – began to really enjoy the reaction their band was getting, and hopped in a green van to explore the American south. And so begins a real American underground success story, filled with hard work, sweat, grit, and determination. And no small amount of magic.

After an obscure single release, the first real taste of what the band were capable of came in the shape of 1982’s Chronic Town ep, a five track release with a weird, blue tinted photograph of a gargoyle on the cover. The contents were no less beguiling, subverting every notion of what punk and new wave had been building to. Guitars chimed, rather than chugged, and the rhythm section did everything to avoid just being the rhythm section.
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