So long Fred

R.I.P.

Gay for Johhny Depp

Gay for Johnny Depp's second album is not for rock for your mother, unless she's really fucked up. GFJD's arrangements evoke At the Drive in to my relatively uneducated ears, but with a good thick extra layer of distorted, urgent screaming, a dangerous whiff of sexual confusion and pointed evocations of self-harm. While the production, the piercingly distorted guitars, the fast and precise drums parts would place GFJD on the hardcore/mathcore shelf, their imagery, their lyrics, their universe, their clothes and hairstyle associate GFJD with more sophisticated (and generally more literate), UK rock acts. This said, lyrically as well as visually the band takes the expression of violence and sex well beyond the tasteful innuendos of your average well-mannered art rockers à la Velvet Underground (incidentally, they have the coolest song titles ever. )
There's a fundamental disequilibrium there that makes it worrying and fascinating at the same time, like that good friend of yours who's just come back from 2 years at a psychiatric hospital and is officially cured. Of course you can take him to your girlfriend's birthday party...

Here and there, the band hints at a more melodic, more 'sung' kind of punk rock but they quickly chastise themselves for such indulgences. I can't say I wouldn't like to hear more of that, but as it is I'm impressed.

You can catch GFJD live in the UK, tour dates are given on their Myspace.

miracles of chemistry

PBHP compilation: it's now or later

The submission deadline for the PBHP compilation has been extended to 4th December.

PBHP 4: still a few copies left

For those of you who've missed PBHP 4, we still have a few copies to sell.

And for a limited time only, here's a preview of issue 4. Go get it quick before we remove it.

Gay For Johnny Depp

GAY FOR JOHNNY DEPP have released ‘The Politics Of Cruelty’, their debut full-length album on Captains Of Industry.

Gay For Johnny Depp are: Marty Leopard (vocals), Sid Jagger (guitar) Fabrizio Coxboi (bass) and JJ Samanen (drums).

The single ‘You Have A Theory, I Have A Gun’ was released October 8 2007. Gay For Johnny Depp will tour the UK in November 2007.

This is angry music.

Speaking of Chris Killen...

Help Chris along his way to rap-mogulship by recording yourself saying 'i like Raymond Carver' and sending him the result. You'll feature on the next Wig of Blood recording.

Sometimes making it in the business is as easy as dat.

On a more literary note, Chris's next novel will be published by no less that Canongate! Does he puff his chest? No he doesn't. Should he? You bet he should.

You really need to use torture to get some self-promotion out of Chris. Did you know that he won the 2007 Manchester Blog Award for Best Writing?

PBHP in Manchester

We hear that PBHP 5 may still be found (free) in Manchester in the following places:

Piccadilly Records (oldham st.)

Magma (oldham st.)

Vinyl Exchange (also oldham st.)


Thanks go to Chris Killen.

Mental fight choreography

courtesy of Randall Munroe.

The Error Corporation

The Error Corporation is now in business.

Blatt Novel of novels contest

The finalists for the BLATT Novel of Novels contest are :

Michael Graham – Auto Immune
Clarence Bard Cole – This is Where My Life Went Wrong
Jason Price Everett – UnFictions
Peter Wild – Espionage
Eugene Lim – Fog & Car
Eckhard Gerdes – White Bungalows

The winner(s) will be announced by next week. Each of the finalists will be published in a forthcoming issue of BLATT.

The next BLATT Book, a collection of poems by Aleš Mustar called C(o)urt Interpretations, will soon be published.

You can read selections from this book online, courtesy of the following virtual publications:

http://www.blesok.com.mk/tekst.asp?lang=eng&tekst=974 http://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/excerpt-court-interpretations/ http://www.brindin.com/pomuspri.htm http://gloomcupboard.blogspot.com/2007/10/3.html http://blatt-blatt.blogspot.com/2006/09/happy-birthday-to-me-by-ale-mustar.html

Lee Rourke on J.G. Ballard over at the Guardian.

Is the Guardian Offbeat or what?

PBHP compilation

We're now accepting audio submissions for the downloadable compilation that will accompany the publication of PBHP 5.

This is for unsigned artists.

There is no genre limitation, except that the tracks mustn't be longer than 5:10 (we're funny that way), that we're usually not interested in mainstream/soft rock/classic rock stuff and that we tend to prefer something with vocals, but that's not absolute.

Nine tracks will be selected.

Please submit via a link to the track, which must be hosted online somewhere. To make things easier, make sure to place your work under this Creative Commons license. We can't afford a lawyer.

Extended deadline is 5th December, 11:59 pm Paris Time.

PBHP 4 Review

We love Dogmatika for many reasons, and Darran Anderson's review of PBHP 4 is just another one to add to the list.

Darran Anderson

Sein und Werden, Summer 2007

We're a bit far into Autumn now, but the summer issue of S&E, 'Rejectamenta', is still available.

Editors Rachel Kendall and Spyros Heniadis take us through a beguiling literary/artistic jungle full of bizarre sideshows that looked for a shortcut, exotic literary plants that drank the wrong liquid and poisonous species hiding in the branches.

Sein und Werden is getting better, wilder, more ambitious each time. This issue is a rough, relentless, perplexing, worthwhile collection of literary slaps, from the stylistic exercise performed by Juliet Cook, who offers a poem and then its "office" version, to Matina L. Stalakis's and Spyros Henidadis's "automatic writing" poems, from Corinne Holmberg's all-encompassing "Things I Have Put in My Mouth" to the absurdist/existentialist/Dadaist "bedrock" by Michael Loughrey, from J.J. Steinfeld's postmodern/nouveau roman/surrealistic story of a man haunted by a firing squad... to all the rest.

Get it while you can.

And since it'll leave you wanting more, have a look at the online Autumn issue, too!

And so...

...the cycle comes to a close again. Submit before tonight 11:59 (Paris Time) for PBHP 5.

oulet update

PBHP # 4 now available in New York City from :

McNally Robinson Booksellers

52 Prince St.

New York, NY 10012

in the foyer.

Go grab them before they're all gone.

v

PBHP in Paris

Issue 4 of the Paris Bitter Hearts Pit is now available in Paris at Shakespeare and Company (on the racks immediately to the left of the entrance) and the Village Voice bookshop (behind the counter, you have to ask for them!)

Matthew Wascovich's new book of poetry

DEVOID OF DECLARATION - New words (poetry + lyrics) from Matthew Wascovich.
Hab Discontent Books, 2007,#1.

Wascovich plays music with Thee Scarcity of Tanks.

61 pages. 8.5 x 11.5 inches, stapled. Art by D. Banhart (yes, him).


"I don't know how Matthew Wascovich wrote these. I don't even want to know. It's enough just to be taken up in the beams of dark light which come from them. [...]
And I just meant to say thanks, without laying a burden or, by the same token, seeming completely unaffected. Face to face, I would probably slam the breast with a fist and stumble backwards. "-
T.L. Kryss, poet

Wasco in all his bearded glory.

PBHP 4: Outlets update

PBHP 4 Availabe from Foyles, Soho, London. Some copies can also be found at Crockett & Powells andthe mighty Calder Bookshop, pictured above (thanks to Lee Rourke at Scarecrow )

Keep posted for availability in Dublin, Belfast, Edinburgh, New York City and elsewhere.