A Fanzine

July & August 2008

With...Darren Hayman...Sonar Festival...Best of Manchester Awards...

French Psychedelia...Musings...Listings...Pretty Cartoons...Puzzle Fun

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Hello!

So, have a little read and we hope that you enjoy. We look forward to seeing you down at Common in the Northern Quarter soon, either to have a chat and listen to some records at our night, or indeed if you are popping in for some food or whatnot.

Dan + Hannah

Pull Yourself Together

PS - None of this would have been possible without the help of Dunk, Chris, Nicola, Jim and all of the amazing people who have offered their words and images. You are all the best.

Welcome to the first issue of Pull Yourself Together, and thank you very much for picking up this fanzine. This zine is the culmination of months of hard work, both on a writing / artwork and organisational point of view. Though this is probably not the kind of thing that you need to know at this stage. In fact, it would probably help if we told you what to expect inside. So, here goes...

Darren Hayman of 90s indiepop fame

Stop Making Sense hit the Sonar Festival

Natasha Oh-la-la talks French. French pop that is.

Best Foot Forward discover strange new technology

The BEST of Manchester. Fact.

And a wordsearch for you puzzle fans!

myspace.com/pullyourselftogethermcr

pullyourselftogethermanchester@gmail.com

pullyourselftogethermcr.blogspot.com

The Best of Manchester Awards exhibition will be on show at Urbis until 25th Septemberurbis.org.uk 3

Best of Manchester 2008This summer sees the Best of Manchester Awards, which aims to honour the city’s creative types, in the fields of art, music and fashion. With Peter Saville at the helm, innovation is key, and the music shortlist showcases the diversity of Manchester’s talent.NB - Yes, we did say there was art and fashion too. However, we are nowhere near experts in these fields, let alone knowledgeable, so will stick to what we know best!

Red Deer ClubManchester’s premiere folk record label represent the quieter end of the city’s music. Starting out putting on lovely little gigs at Fuel, Dunk le Chunk has now focused his sights on releasing records by the best new acts around, including Sophie’s Pigeons, Sara Lowes and George Thomas and the Owls.

High VoltageFrom bedroom beginnings, Richard Cheetham has built his High Voltage empire piece by piece. The fanzine-cum-club night-cum-record label has stamped its mark on the city and influenced countless individuals by showing that if you get off your arse, the music world can be your own little oyster.

I Am Your AutopilotHaving been part of the Factory Records

scene in their previous guise of The

Italian Love Party, Autopilot are well

versed in innovation and creativity. This

latest project is a uniquely English take on folktronica, think Tunng with Nick Drake on

vocals. Expect debut record ‘Robots in the Orchestra’ soon.

Psychedelic music is not everyone’s cup of tea, never mind when it’s in French and somewhat obscure! However, la musique psychédélique is like a fine wine, it needs to breathe a little first. Danyel Gérard, with his beard, country hat and guitar does not look like a guy that would crank out something called Sexologie, but I’m happy he did. Messrs de Bordeaux and Beretta have done a few numbers together, which are truly psychedelic, especially when lyrics mention drugs up front. Bruno

Leys’ space odyssey Dans la Galaxie is almost impossible to find on vinyl, a collector who owns a copy told me that no more than 200 copies are floating around, and that Leys didn’t even know they had pressed a record. Film soundtrack composer Georges Garvarentz, brother-in-law of none other than Charles Aznavour, starts off slow and gets it on with Haschisch party from the film Un beau monstre. And then the quirky Les Papyvores have fun with the reverb in the studio. I can see the kaleidoscope flowers before me now just talking about it.

For some real avant-garde synthesizer music, there’s always Pierre Henry and his album for a ballet called Musique pour le temps présent, which features two major psychedelic tracks, Jericho jerk and Psyché rock. I actually found this LP in perfect condition in a dustbin. And for the novices, you need to listen to Psychastenie by Serge Gainsbourg from the film soundtrack Le Pacha, featuring some serious sitar.

Natasha presents the fantastic Radio Oh-la-la podcast - with French pop music from the 50s, 60s and more.

Watch out for a new podcast very soon, and there are rumours of a La Rentrée party in Amsterdam in September.

oh-la-la.nl

Natasha’s top 5 psychedelic picks in no particular order

Danyel GérardSexologie

Richard de Bordeaux et Daniel BarettaLa Drogue

Bruno LeysDans La Galaxie

Georges GarvarentzHaschisch Party

Les PapyvoresLe Papyvore

Radio Oh-la-la : Psychedelia Special

withNatasha Cloutier

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Strange news on the horizon, and if you’re holding this inaugural issue of parchment in your hands then you probably already know all about it. But for those that don’t (and may God have mercy on your souls), I’ve recently been informed that there’s a innovative method of publishing available for writers, where instead of drafting posts into your web browser, attaching JPEGs and clicking “create new post”, you can “submit” a piece of writing in advance to an “editor”, who, under the agreement of providing said piece before the passing of pre-ordained “deadline”, can choose to “publish” stories, articles and general high jinks/tomfoolery onto printed pieces of papyrus.

Well, this is brand new information for me, and I can’t help but be intrigued. I’ve been asked to dip my toe in the water, but you’ll have to bear with me, and my old blogging ways. So for those of you that don’t know, I run <a href=”http://www.bestfootforward.info>Best Foot Forward</a> (hopefully you can click that to go to our website, if not then I assume the people who make the magazine are working on fixing it). It’s a Saturday night hoedown,

and it’s where people who like music like to go out to in order to find and hear music that they really, really like (to go out to). It’s the longest running night in the Northern Quarter, and is used by myself and some close friends as a general excuse to get away with playing the sort of stuff that got you kicked out of home when you were 17. Although that may have been the drugs.

At Best Foot Forward we post MP3s for people to get their ears around, to get a feel for the records we love, and when readers have an opinion on our selections they often comment as such (As an aside, I’m not sure how commenting is going to work in this paper format. I believe there may be two options – either send a letter to an address located somewhere inside this publication, or take a pen and scribble comments at the bottom of this page). Sometimes people comment nasty. But most of the time we have beautiful people showing us, as Sir Tim of Westwood might term, “serious mad love”.

One peculiarity of this “editor/deadline/papyrus” behemoth is that, once I finish writing this and send it to the faceless gods above, I’ve lost control. This goes against everything that I’ve been used to in my internet publishing bubble. Inside this safe cocoon I can retract my statements with glee, secretly change ill-informed facts, and completely remove whole articles that make me look like an idiot. Now once this is out there, in your hands, and you’re thinking I’m an idiot, there’s nothing I can do to stop it.

Yes, I’m an idiot. But wait, there might be something we can do. Look at that man sat across from you. Yes, him! Ask him if you can use his lighter. Yes, that’s it, now take this page out, and joyously cackle as you ignite the bottom corner, and watch it slowly become immersed in flames. And now it exists no longer.

Now, if only I could do that with the internet we might be on to something.

- Hi Darren, how has the tour been? Did you recover your voice after it going missing towards the end of the

Manchester show?

It wasn’t really a tour as such, more just a run of five shows. They went fine, excellent in fact. My voice was fine after

Manchester. The throat is a muscle so it was like having a sprain because you haven't stretched properly.

I stretched properly for the rest of the shows and things worked out fine.

- Did it feel strange being a tour of Hefner songs, but not a Hefner tour?

Yeah a bit. I loved doing the shows, and I got used to playing the songs, but I'll also be glad to move away from it as well.

- How did the Hefner re-issues come about? Did you start this 'Hefner revival' (NB- This isn’t just in our

heads!) or was it more fans driving you to get back on the saddle?

The records weren't available so I had to re-release them. I don't know that there's a revival as such. We Love The City is the next

one out, should be in January / February next year.

On a different musical note, where did your bluegrass leanings begin?

My friend Dave started learning Banjo. It all started there. It’s fun music and impossible to play without smiling.

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In which Pull Yourself TogetherAs you may or may not have worked out, Pull Yourself Together are very much inspired by the work of Britain’s biggest small band, Hefner. Whilst they may not have soared up the popular hit parade back in the 1990s in the same manner as Elastica, Gene and Menswe@r, they hold a very dear place in a lot of indie-hearts. Recent times have seen front man/solo man/bluegrass fan Darren Hayman revisiting the good old days with his ‘Darren and Jack play Hefner’ tour, as well as those bluegrass leanings seeing the light with his Hayman, Watkins, Trout and Lee album. Pull Yourself Together had the pleasure of invading Mr Hayman’s inbox with a few question recently, and thankfully found a reply from the man himself the next day. Here begins the interrogation, but you know, not like in ‘nam or anything…

- Can we expect a Hayman, Watkins, Trout and Lee 'tour' at any point? Having seen you in the woods at End of the Road, is this more of a play-in-a-clearing-at-nice-festival kind of live project?

It’s more of a play-in-a-clearing-at-nice-festival kind of live project.

- What are your festival plans for the summer? Any plans for doing the punter side of things?

We're doing the Jack and Darren play Hefner thing one last time at the End of the Road Festival.

- Are there any non-musical things going on at the moment which are exciting you? Dan is reading 'The Abortion: A historical romance 1966' - it's dead good! And Hannah is finally reading Lady Chatterly's Lover - likewise.

I wish, it’s all music here really. No time for other stuff at all!

- Perhaps no time for TV then, but Dr Who. Yay or nay?

I'm a Doctor Who fan but the new series has gone from ridiculous to plain awful.

- When did you last tell someone to pull themselves together?

I say it to Dave Tattersal (of Wave Pictures and Hayman, Watkins, Trout and Lee fame) all the time. He knows I'm only joking though.

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interrogate... Darren Hayman

Darren is playing the End of the Road Festival, 12th-14th

September at the Larmer Tree Gardens, Dorset. The

Hayman, Watkins, Trout and Lee album is out now on

Fortuna Pop! and there are hopes for a new solo record

in 2009. Head over to myspace.com/

darrenhayman and hefnet.com for music and

whatnot.

Saturday we attend Sonar proper. The Field's live set is disappointing; almost uniform material gaps are left between the tracks and, jarringly, the live drumming often fails to keep time. The opposite is true of Soulwax. ‘PART OF THE WEEKEND NEVER DIES’ is illuminated behind the stage in huge typeface as they take to the stage. With a well oiled live performance they manage to conquer the monstrous void of Sonar By Night’s main room.

At 5am Ricardo Villalobos takes to the outdoor stage. Two hours of largely self produced, unreleased material from the Chilean minimal wizard provides the perfect end to the festival. Yet, to call this minimal, techno or house is misleading. It’s as if Villalobos takes a stencil of each and leaves only the faintest blurred outline. White space and restraint underlie irresistible, maddening funk. Sparse synth lines become carnivalesque latin horn sections while arid drum-machine clicks and snares slink and slide around the proceedings much like the man himself.

Due to a catalogue of errors on the half of a well known

budget airline we arrive later than planned for the

inaugural off-Sonar party at Razzmatazz. Entering the

heaving main room just before 2am it becomes

apparent we’ve arrived en punto, as our Iberian brothers say. Matthew Dear initiates his

set with the monologue from Godspeed! You Black

Emperor’s ‘Dead Flag Blues’ bathed in white noise.

What follows is an hour and a half of enjoyable, but unmemorable, bouncy

minimal techno-pop. The apparent centrepiece comes when Dear drops two of

his most well known tracks back to back, signature piece 'Mouth to Mouth' and recent

big-hitter 'Noiser'. Played back to back by their creator to a baying, sweaty crowd,

produces an uneasy ‘rockstar DJ’ moment. Later Vitalic seemingly revels in similar

moments - the dancefloor jumping around to over-anticipated renditions of 'My Friend Dario' and 'La Rock'. These tracks, which

helped formulate the electro/ nu-rave sound of the last few years, now sound particularly dated. Tiring of the stifling heat we call it a

day.

Friday night at Nitsa and there is never any doubt that Kompakt luminaries Justus

Köhncke, Tobias Thomas, Michael Mayer et al will deliver anything but crowd-moving,

bold, prismatic blocks of techno. Köhncke's disco inflected set opening and Burger / Voigt’s unrelenting live performance are

most memorable, the only slight disappointment being Mayer's decision to

drop the tempo and pare back the music to its bare beats. Though given time this

redeployment towards the lower end of the aural spectrum serves to sharper focus the

closing set.8

Stop Making Senseat Sonar 2008

commonsmsmessages.blogspot.com

ListingsYou and I both know that there’s treats-a-plenty in Manchester, no matter what month it is; but sometimes we all get stuck. To help you along, here’s PYT’s best of the bunch for August and September

A Day at the Races– 2nd August, Night + Day / Moho Live

The Pineapple Folk team take the step into festival-land with this split venue day of fantastic music. Kicking straight into things with Labrador Records’ Suburban Kids With Biblical Names (odd name, great music) the tempo will be well and truly set. Standout sets are likely to come from, well, everybody on the bill. This line-up has no compromise as far as quality is concerned, so the likes of The Mae Shi will garner just as much praise as Los Campesinos! and Múm higher up the bill.

Manchester Mega Photo– until 9th December, Urbis

Manchester - it is a bloody beautiful city. Head to Urbis to see Aidan O’Rourke’s massive 10 x 27 foot collage of the city, shot from the Beetham Tower. I still haven’t found my new flat on it…

Green Man Festival– 15th-17th August, Glanusk Park, Brecon Beacons

Wondering whether festivals can grow in size without shrinking in charm? The search ends with the Green Man Festival. Now in its 6th year, the festival, tucked into the mountains of South Wales, has branched out from its folk roots without

betraying the originality of the acts it hosts. Manchester’s own Damon Gough will be there, along with fellow locals Cats in Paris and Sara Lowes, and Red Deer Club have been given free reign over the Green Man Café for a whole afternoon. Elsewhere don’t miss Pentangle’s reformation show, the bizarre vocal acrobatics of Wild Beasts and the heart-shattering beauty of The National. And don’t forget the waterproofs – there’s rain in them there hills…

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Manchester getting a feel for the place ahead of this show or life size sculptures. Osang creates complex collages of photographs and stark surrealism in the form of human life, which range from the 808 State’s Graham Massey to a GMP Mounted Officer in this new exhibition at the Art Gallery. All looks very interesting to us, well worth checking out.

Conquest of Imperfection: Masaki Fujihata – until 19th October, Cornerhouse

With a basis in 80s Computer Graphics, Masaki Fujihata’s interactive art and virtual reality deals with issues of media and environment in a thought-provoking medium. The emphasis of this show is likely to be what reality actually is. Think interactive and philosophical, likely to keep your brain working all day.

Russell Howard’s Dingledodies– 28th September, The Lowry

Having sold out two dates here on his last tour, don’t miss out on Russell Howard’s Dingledodies (no, we’ve not got a clue either) tour in September. Russell’s 6music Sunday morning slot is a big hit here at PYT, so we’ll see you there!

August + September

Bon Iver– 15th September, Academy 2

We all need to relax once in a while, and Justin Vernon, aka Bon Iver (pronounced like the French for ‘good winter’, in case you didn’t know) gives you ample opportunity. Since the release of album ‘For Emma, Forever Ago’ in May this year, Bon Iver has been washing calmly across the land with ripples of minimalist, folky charm. Expect a hushed and reverent silence in Academy 2 for this one.

Jeffrey Lewis– 15th September, Academy 3

New York anti-folk hero / comic book artist Jeff Lewis is a long time PYT favorite, and always welcome back to Manchester with open arms by a forever growing band of fans. With subject matter ranging from zombie brains, Mark E. Smith and the pain/pleasure of LSD, Jeff is an incredible storyteller, so head to Academy 3 to check out his low budget videos and more.

Urban Gardening– until 7th September, Urbis

We may be indie-pop fans but everyone loves a good garden too, and this exhibition proves that you don’t need a country pad to get involved. No space is too small, get over to Urbis before 7th September to find out more…

Deodorant Type: Sculptures by Gwon Osang– until 21st September, Manchester Art Gallery

In 2007 Korean artist Gwon Osang spent a month in

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Quiz Time

Carefully crafted by the fantastic people of ever excellent Common Knowledge, held every first and third Wednesday of the month at Common.

Artwork

Our cover art and poster are the work of the wonderful Nicola Chipman. Nicola is best known for her photography, including a show as part of the recent MAPS Festival and soon to be iconic images of Manchester’s own The Answering Machine and the Tim and Sam Band.

Our corner art is courtesy of Jim Medway’s Busy Busy Records collection. Jim’s animal comic book style is always a joy to see, kind of like Richard Scarry for grown ups.

papershapes.blogspot.com

jimmedway.co.uk