THE CARTUNE XPREZ travelling animation roadshow

 comes to town on Tuesday, Jess Higgins made a special poster for it. CARTUNE XPREZ is to animation what Kramers Ergot is to comics- in other words the best of the best of the North-American animation scene. We are so honoured to host their first visit to Manchester. Their will be an exclusive screening of their latest 45-minute long show reel featuring new work from  :Martha Colburn, Adrian Freeman,Shana Moulton, Takeshi Murata, Bruce Bickford, Jeff Kriksciun, Jacob Ciocci ,Amy Lockhart, Peter Burr, Christopher Doulgeris, + Cassandra C Jones and a special live interactive performance  called TRASH featuring animation and music from HOOLIGANSHIP described as "Pure absurd rainbow bliss, Trash is a wacky 

journey into media oversaturation inspired by a hypnotic abundance of digital 

information"and as if that wasn't enough FRANCOIS AND THE ATLAS MOUNTAIN ENSEMBLE featuring ROZI PLAIN and THE BALKY MULE will be playing live too! There are still some tickets left HERE and if you are from an arts or educational group you can email us for SWEET DISCOUNTED TICKETS FOR GROUPS comfortableonatightrope@googlemail.com 

 

 

 

"God Is Alive Magic Is Afoot"

is something Leonard Cohen wrote in Beautiful Losers and Buffy Sainte-Marie sang on her 'Illuminations' LP. It is also something we say when it feels like amazing, special things are happening which make us feel good. Normally we're more or less on this guys side of this particular debate. 

While we don't necessarily believe that God is alive, we absolutely believe that Magic is Afoot.

Regardless of what you believe it's good when good things are happening right? We believe in the MAGIC of human kind, human endurance and desire to create and do good: to survive and then some. There are constant reminders to be happy to be alive and be grateful for each day, this is for sure. The previous post is one such example. 

All of the stuff for sale in  our SHOP is an example. We believe in the magic contained in these objects like other people believe in God. Seriously. 

Katy Flynn took some sweet photographs from last Mondays triple-threat match between Klaus Kinski, Silk Flowers & Foot Village.

And she also just got some amazing photos of IRMA VEP (more of each on her BLOG)

 which reminded us of this  photo of Box Elders

,who you may know are a band  whose music we care about very much and are so excited for their arrival here in a couple of weeks. Here's something we wrote about them for to promote the show, to persuade people to come and see them play, to share in the magic:

"From the first time we heard the first guitar lick of 'hole in my
head', one of four jammers on their debut 45 on grotto, we were
completely sold on their cocktail of Garage-y, surf-y, punk nuggets.
By the time we'd listened to that and 'One Foot In Front Of The Other'
-just over three minutes in total- we'd emailed them to ask them to
come and play here. This was September 2008. They couldn't make it
because of school commitments. And but now a year later and having
recorded and released their debut album 'Alice & Friends'-supposedly
named after their 'favourite cult-run korean vegan barbecue'- and
having played about a million shows with bands like Jay Reatard, Hunx
and his Punx, the Fresh & Onlys, NoBunny and having stole the show at
Goner-Fest in Memphis (which is no mean feat) they've finally embarked
on their first European adventure and we are so proud to host the
Manchester show. This will  be amazing. Like watching the clean
jamming out cramps songs, like going on a beer bust with the cast of
'Dazed & Confused' a year after the film was set and when Randy 'Pink'
Floyd has got his band together.
Box Elders offer a reminder of how irresistible Rock & Roll can be.
How it can quite simply make you forget about your daily woes and
chores, make you wanna grow your hair, get a leather jacket and throw
out all your other records- the one's you loved until you heard THESE
GUYS. This is what your grandparents were afraid of.

Oh yeah, the live show involves loin-cloths and a drummer
simultaneously playing keyboard: both of which are sights to behold.
Don't Miss This."

 Here are some things that other people have written about them:

"chock-full of mid-60s garage rock awesomeness"- the needle drop
"like the Black Lips’ unabashedly dweeby cousins"- SPIN
"raw energy that fuels a good house party"- pitchfork
"Stripping the fidelity off of mid-60's teeny-bopper pop, Nebraska's
Box Elders deliver a garage gem that's full of head bobbing pep and
damn near squeezable melodies." Raven Sings The Blues
"awesomely catchy garage pop sounds, short snappy songs"- VICE
"impossibly catchy and perfect pop gems...buy their records go see
their show, or you'll be sorry"- sailor jerry blog
"instantly classic songs" victim of time
"This sounds like something that John Peel would have liked, and if he
was still alive, I can imagine that he would have added this 7" to his
box of favorite records"-Seven Ten Twelve Press
"bratty punk meets Nuggets-era garage rock... box elders kick ass"-Brooklyn Vegan

"genuinely compelling...great pop songs...something special"-Boomkat

Is that enough to convince you to buy a ticket? Here's a video:

Just a few days after Box Elders play at the Corner, Ariel Pink is bringing his HAUNTED GRAFFITI back to Manchester to play at the DEAF INSTITUTE. Since the last time we had him play, in 2006, he's replaced the 8-track tape with an amazing and versatile band who play definitive versions of the old songs and have conjured a whole bunch of new one's which truly sound like no other band. It's almost as though the beautiful and abstract sounds in Ariel Pink's head have finally found, with this group, a conduit into reality. Now we can hear what he was hearing and it's pretty much the best music ever. Like all the best ART it accepts its place in the lineage (coming after what precedes it), in the never-ending narrative of sounds being shaped into music. Like John Cage (one of those depicted in THE REALEST VOL II ISSUE I) said 'There will always be sounds, one need not fear about the future of music'.

HAUNTED GRAFFITI are a really special band. One whom we find, as we should, especially difficult to describe. The best we've mustered thus far, in all these years of listening is to liken it to some heavenly fm radio where, no matter where you stop the dial, you're ears are confronted with a song that sounds both eerily familiar and completely alien, fully realised and yet enshrouded in mystery. Drenched in fuzz, misery and apathy and yet as joyous as any pop music could ever be. John Maus said  "Ariel exceeds the standardization of genre in that he is not reducible to any of the genres he uses" his records are an "affirmation of multiplicity". 

You can buy tickets for the HAUNTED GRAFFITI show HERE or HERE

Here's a new-ish video:

Lucy Jones just made the best poster ever

for the return of Ariel Pink's HAUNTED GRAFFITI. That's It. 

Ethan From SILK FLOWERS

made this awesome poster for their show next Monday at the Corner. 

The L train has made one too, but the scanner problems persist. It's one of our birthdays this week. If you are our friend you'll come to this show and help us celebrate! You can buy tickets by clicking on the listing on the right----->

Similarly, you can now buy tapes we've made by IRMA VEP, FORMER BULLIES, NATHANIEL & WAITERS by clicking on the photographs.

Here's a video of them and a couple of FOOT VILLAGE: