The most recent entry in the City Sonic video project feature Brian Borcherdt of Holy Fuck on Toronto, and specifically about Sneaky Dee’s, the divey Mexican restaurant and indie music venue that is probably (or about to be) most famous to non-Torontonians as the backdrop to climactic scenes in the comic book Scott Pilgrim.
More Holy Fuck on z=z.
The new Röyksopp track, “Happy Up Here” (from the upcoming album Junior), and a remix by z=z faves Holy Fuck were leaked. I normally wouldn’t post leaked tracks, but I did hear about it in a tweet by Holy Fuck’s manager, so it carries a certain imprimatur. Enjoy!
MP3: Röyksopp – Happy Up Here (more Röyksopp)
MP3: Röyksopp – Happy Up Here (Holy Fuck remix) (more Holy Fuck)
[via Discopunk]
[image: Kayfabe Design]
A side effect of the rise of digital distribution on the Internet and the concomitant decrease in the influence of traditional media appears to be the rise of bands with ‘fuck’ in their names. Fucked Up, the Toronto-based punk band, got a head start (not surprisingly, given the genre) with their founding in 2001. Fellow Torontonians (and z=z faves) Holy Fuck and Bristol, UK-based Fuck Buttons were both formed in 2004. Even Yo La Tengo has gotten into the four-letter-word act, with a live performance March 2008 as Condo Fucks, and an upcoming album, Fuckbook, under the same pseudonym (although it’s not surprising that Canadian and British bands came first).
MP3: Holy Fuck – Lovely Allen [buy]
MP3: Fuck Buttons – Sweet Love for Planet Earth [buy]
MP3: Condo Fucks – What’cha Going to Do About It? [preorder]
A dispatch from guest blogger Scott:
With all the talk of the demise of the music industry, it’s easy to forget that this has all happened before. And, equally importantly, all not happened before. Television heralded the demise of the music industry, as did cassette recorders. And while they unquestionably changed the industry, they didn’t kill it. As debcha has noted, for better or for worse, the industry will continue to find ways to change.
Last week, MTV began putting its catalogue of videos online. As the article rightly notes, most of this stuff is on YouTube, so it remains to be seen whether people will actually make use of the site, but I think that ignores two factors, one good and one bad. First the bad: MTV actually contracted, at some point, to use these videos in some context. And, presumably, their lawyers believe they still have the right to use them in this way. They probably do – I don’t know. YouTube leaves the stuff up on a “so long as nobody complains” basis. Now that there’s an “official” and “licensed” Internet presence of this material, I’d expect to see an increase in complaints.
But second, YouTube functionality is great if you either a) know what you’re looking for; or b) don’t really care that much what you see. It’s not well designed for browsing or separating music video from poorly filmed concert footage – you can do it, but it’s easy to get swamped in a deluge of “not really what I wanted”. MTV’s site is better suited to wandering the aisles and stumbling across things you’d never seen or forgotten about. So, whether I want a combination of horror movies and newsreel, or puppets, or bands that it’s hard to imagine being talked about on MTV, I know I’m more likely to discover it here than on YouTube. On the down side, they don’t yet have XTC’s The Ballad of Peter Pumpkinhead, one of the very few videos I can actually remember watching on MTV, but then YouTube only has the UK video, not the one I remember. And the Crash Test Dummies cover just doesn’t fill that void. Sorry, Canada.
But this Web site just serves as a reminder that MTV has seen better days and that changing an industry is sometimes better for the industry than it is for the agent of change.
Image: Take your pick! by Flickr user hisham_hm, reposted here under its Creative Commons license.
Last year I wrote about Holy Fuck doing a split 7″ with their tourmates Celebration – each of them covered a song by the other band. They handed out the vinyl at the concerts, and also made the songs available for digital download. They must have been pretty happy about it, because they are doing it again, this time on their UK tour with Oxford math-rockers Foals (above). Holy Fuck covered Foals’ “Balloons” and Foals covered Holy Fuck’s amazing “Super Inuit.” The 12″ vinyl is available for purchase (limited edition of 250), or you can download both MP3s here.
MP3: Foals – Super Inuit (Holy Fuck cover)
Previously: Concert notes: Holy Fuck
Tomorrow (Monday) night is the announcement of the winner of Canada’s 2008 Polaris Music Prize. Modeled after the Mercury Prize, it’s given for the best Canadian album, ‘judged solely on artistic merit, without regard to genre or record sales.’ This year’s shortlist of ten albums includes Stars‘ In Our Bedroom After the War, Caribou‘s Andorra, Holy Fuck‘s LP, and the Weakerthans‘ Reunion Tour (a full list is here). As well as glory, the prize comes with $20 000 Canadian, which is real money these days. The awards ceremony is being held in Toronto, and will feature live or video performances by all the nominees. The whole thing is being being webcast on CBC radio 3, starting at 8 pm Eastern time. If you do happen to be in Toronto, the official after-party starts at 10 pm at the Drake Hotel, and members of nominee and z=z fave Holy Fuck will be among the DJs.
webcast link (8 pm Eastern on Monday, September 29th, 2008)
[embedded YouTube video; if you can’t see it, click here]
[Middle East Upstairs, Cambridge, MA; March 21, 2008]
I wrote about Holy Fuck the last time I saw them – they are utterly phenomenal live. You can look at the clips on YouTube, but they don’t really capture the experience (that’s why that’s a video above, not a live clip). Unfortunately, they are wrapping up their North American tour – but if you happen to live in the UK or Ireland, you should definitely try to catch one of their shows.
And I’ve decided that Rachael Ray can’t be all bad if she’s a fan.
[Middle East Upstairs, Cambridge, MA; November 29, 2007]
Holy Fuck lived up to their name at their show last night. Their music is like the bastard lovechild of Battles and Dan Deacon – while less virtuosic than the former and less straight-out batshit than the latter, they possess a tremendous anarcho-punk energy. And they were clearly really, really having fun onstage. Plus they were handing out free 7″ singles – a split disc, with a Celebration remix of their song “Frenchy’s” on one side, and their remix of a Celebration song on the other. If you’re not lucky enough to catch their act and pick up your own copy of the vinyl at one of their shows, you can download both MP3s here.
Image: Holy Fuck in Philadelphia PA, May 2007. Photo by Oliver J. Lopena, reposted here under its Creative Commons license.
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