Record Store Day returns for 2010, casting deserved light on the oft-troubled labours of love which act as inspiration, tastemaker and hub of activity for local scenes the world over.  Some heavyweight names lend their two penn’orth this year, with notable vinyl-only RSD special releases including a Thermals/Cribs split single and the first new Blur material in seven years.

Events take place across Wales, from Diverse in Newport to Cob in Bangor (details below), with our own Spillers hosting a full and varied day of live performances (from The Automatic, Christopher Rees and Cosmo) and in-store DJ sets which will hopefully see the place as bustling as it was for the 2009 event.   There’ll be special edition Spillers RSD 2010 t-shirts to purchase, and prize giveaways too – get along there and give them the support we all know they deserve.

Make a night of it by trundling drunkenly along to Clwb later on.  The new-look, five-piece Threatmantics headline, with Wrexham post-punkers Gallops! and the frankly preposterously named Vvolves in support.  Entry is £6, but those wearing Spillers tees will apparently get in cheaper.  Bargain.

THREATMANTICS

GALLOPS!

VVOLVES

+ DJ MEIC P

Clwb Ifor Bach, Womanby Street, Cardiff

Saturday 17.04.10

8pm £6/less with Spillers T-shirt

RECORD STORE DAY 2010 – WALES

CARDIFF Spillers Records:  The Automatic (live), Christopher Rees (live), Cosmo (live), Bullet For My Valentine (DJ), Bethan Elfyn (DJ), DJ Rascal (DJ), Gary Twisted (DJ), Ben (DJ), Sam (DJ)

NEWPORT Diverse Vinyl:  Jimi Alexander (live), Stephen Light (live), Goldie Lookin Chain (DJ)

BANGOR Cob Records: Y Niwl (live), Wirlygigs (live)

CARDIFF Catapult:  Netsky (DJ)

ABERYSTWYTH Andy’s:  Goody bag giveaways

CARMARTHEN Tangled Parrot:  Alex Dingley (live), Y Cyfoes (live), The Conductors (live), Dapper Cadavers (live)

In their own words:

“From a city in which art and creativity amount to little more than tumbleweed, comes Buys You Chips (and shags you don’ I); a pigeon-encrusted, collaborative compendium of photography, biography, poetry and observation inspired by life in Newport. Available now from Diverse Music on Charles Street for less than the cost of a dirty burger and a bottle of pop.”

It has to be said, I’m quite cynical when it comes to zines, sometimes they’re made by people desperate to be cool.  This isn’t, it’s fucking great.  No reviews of some uber cool new band, no ranting, no rubbish, it has some great artwork and a down to earth, informed and funny view on the city that spawned it.  I’ve been slagging off Newport of late for the general apathy of the population but if we’re going to have to begin again from the ground up then this is a great place to start.

It’ll cost you 2 quid and is well worth it.  There is a Facebook group HERE if you’d like to comment or get in touch with ideas or contributions.  The actual content isn’t on there because frankly that would defeat the object of producing a beautiful little zine in the first place.

THE SHITTY LIMITS
The Shitty Limits are one of the most exciting bands to emerge from these shores in a long, long time. The band have a sound that mixes 60’s garage, 70’s punk and 80’s hardcore. Sounding like a speeded up Wire fronted by a less glass punctured Iggy Pop. Their frenetic songs that are backed up with explosive live shows that have gained a formidable reputation in the DIY scene.

Their debut album ‘Beware The Limits’ hit the shelves in July, following a flurry of 7″ singles that are sold out but available to download for free on the band’s myspace site. They were previously picked by Fucked Up to appear on the third installation of the American punk rockers’ mixtape compilation CD series.

THE SICK LIVERS
The Sick Livers play gutter level punk rock and roll with the greasiest of garage ease and sleaze. Any show could be their last; they would die on stage for yours and their pleasure.
Ginge, VJ, Dai and Matty rose from the ashes of the much missed Viva Kinevils to carry forward the punk ‘n’ roll flame, bowling shirts and all. If you want punk rock, swearing, wild entertainment and big shoes, look no further than South Wales favourite rabble rousers.
Doors are at 8pm, it’s open until 2am with DJs after the bands.

SOLUTIONS
Solutions are a three piece from Cardiff brought together by a mutual love SST and Rough Trade Records, No Idea, Husker Du, TV On The Radio, Milloy, Future Of The Left, Desparacidos, Idlewild, Planes Mistaken For Stars, Read Yellow and XTC. They don’t sound like any of them. Their energetic, angular punk rock has more in common with Latterman or Fugazi.

The band recently had their support slot at Future Of The Left’s album launch recorded for BBC Radio One.

SATURDAY’S KIDS
At the begining of 2008 four friends, two guitars, a bass and drums came together to form Saturday’s Kids and play music. Influenced by the likes of Sonic Youth, Black Flag, Fugazi, Decendents, Joy Division and Pissed Jeans, they’re in their late teens but making music that a lifetime of angst seems to have informed.

Normally a band this age will be writing pop songs about girls that fucked off with a guy because he owned a Mark 3 Ford Escort, not Saturday’s Kids, they’re less Blink 182 japery, more Dead Kennedys sneering. Staccato vocals and sinister bass recall …Trail Of Dead, for every 1 minute blast of punk noise and shouting, there’s some subtle guitar work and a dirty melody. Usually followed by punk noise and shouting.

£4 advance and a fiver on the door.

The first launch sees the experimental four piece play a stripped down acoustic(ish) set in store at Spillers at 5.30 on Saturday 30th May, this will be straight after the F.A. Cup Final so go along after a few beers and cheer the boys on!!

The second event is in Le Pub and hosted by Diverse Music. It’s on Sunday 7th June and is free to get in. Support comes from Black Cesar and Strange News From Another Star featuring none other than Mark Foley – the most namechecked man in South Wales.

If you know nothing about CRT then this is the band in their own words:
The Band were originally conceived over a telephone conversation between Adam Lewis and Daniel Barnett in November 2005, in which the former party stated that he wanted to “start a doom band” to which the latter party replied, “what the hell is doom?”. The meeting of the two had happened a month or so prior to this conversation in a pub called The Railway in their hometown of Caerphilly. Daniel was front man of the three-piece grunge outfit, The Esoterica, who that night were supporting Adam’s band, Anna-O. After seeing The Esoterica, Jonny Lee Evans, guitarist in Anna-O stated that “I want to be in a band with that guy”, sewing the seeds that would eventually lead to Adam’s call to Daniel the next month.

In January 2006, the three came together at Redrock Studios, where they emerged with a few basic ideas that would eventually become the songs ‘Lice’, ‘Hydro/Claw/Ride’ and ‘Multipleorganfailure’. The initial intentions of the band were to write dynamic instrumental pieces without the aid of bass, choosing the more preferred Boss Octave Pedal to enhance the sound. A sound which inspired the final choice of name. For weeks the three went through the names ‘Rape Technique’ and ‘Spastic Wedding’ before settling on three latin words which had been used as an inscription on Henry VIII’s throne and also by 16th Century Poet Thomas Wyatt, ‘Circa Regna Tonat’, meaning ‘Around The Throne Thunder Roars’.

The band rehearsed furiously for four straight months, getting the songs as tight as possible to gig with. However, the more the band rehearsed, the more dynamic the songs became and that’s when the decision was made to bring in a bassist to allow both Jonny and Daniel to be more experimental. Rhys Griffiths and Daniel had been best friends for years and had started their first band, Franco, together back in 2001, so the decision to choose a bassist was an easy one.
From that point the band started building a strong reputation as a great live act on the South Wales circuit. In the summer of 2006, the band recorded their first e.p. entitled ‘Burning Witches For Glue’, followed a year later by the highly experimental second offering ‘Lightswitch Impulses’, which has gathered a cult following in its wake due to the use of two basses and schizo-noise shreaks mixed with progressive, post-rock instrumentals. During the past three years the band have secured high profile support slots with the likes of Taint, Noxagt, An Albatross, Rolo Tomassi and more recently Manatees, Part Chimp and The Airborne Toxic Event. Mikel Jollett of The Airborne Toxic Event has stated that the band were “by far the best band we’ve played with on the entire UK tour”.

CRT in other people’s words:
Adam T. Walton (BBC Radio Wales): “Excellent, original tunes” “Pretty Remarkable”

‘Buzz Magazine’: “(CRT) can lurch out of the light and in to the shade with a snap of a chord, often to fine effect” and have described the music as, “Fat-arsed Instrumental Heaviness”.

‘Metro’: “Whether it’s the name of a black metal band or a Tool album, the deployment of Latin in modern music is almost invariably shorthand for po-faced heaviness and absurd portentousness. Happily, though Circa Regna Tonat have a name that would set the darkest of metallers aglow with envy, the Caerphilly quartet are cut from an altogether more colourful cloth. That’s not to say they’re not loud- they’re very, very loud- but their experimental noise rock has as much light as shade, instrumentals marked as much by the subtle build up of tension as the pummelling, drum-dominated roar of their full stride. Their eight-track 2006 EP, Burning Witches For Glue, provides a decent introduction, but CRT are best sampled in the more visceral environment of a live show.”

We booked them twice (or three times?) for Joy and have followed their progress like a proud father. Sort of. The album will be on sale at both gigs and proceeds will basicall pay the sound guy so come along and support a fantastic band.

On this day, all of these stores will simultaneously link and act as one with the purpose of celebrating the culture and unique place they occupy both nationally and most importantly in their local communities. Over 50 independent record shops across the UK will participate in Record Store Day and special events are being planned for those participating. These include free in-store performances by some of the best live acts and DJ’s around, signing sessions, free label samplers, goodie bags promoting new formats, releases and exciting information on music, as well as some very collectible Record Store Day exclusive vinyl and CD releases. The singles will be limited to less than 500 copies and only available on the day from 10am onwards. Working with our partners, stores will also run extensive marketing campaigns both on a national and local level.

Record Store Day UK is proud to announce the participation of the following labels Matador, Rhino, Anti, nonesuch, Numero, Holy Mountain, Forte Distribution, Transgressive, Thrill Jockey, Secretly Canadian, Domino, Touch And Go.

Diverse Music will be celebrating the day by letting the boys of Goldie Lookin’ Chain take over the shop for the day. They’ll be spinning some tunes, serving customers and probably standing outside smoking fags. Their new album ‘Asbo 4 Life’ is released on 30th March and they’ll happily sign any copies previously bought from the shop. They’ll be in store from 12 o’clock after they’ve rushed back from their appearance on Soccer AM that morning! Eggsy promises to be there earlier to make us all coffee.

Once the shop is locked up, we’re off down to Le Pub for a free Diverse gig. Opening the evening are fairly local boys Ok (who seem to have deleted their myspace, I’ll update when possible!!), hailing partly from Newport and partly from Swansea. Ok have a pure English pop sensibility. Reference points include The Smiths, The Kinks and Syd Barrett era Pink Floyd.

Next up are a London band named Local Girls, founder member Stephen used to front Stuffy & The Fuses and can often be found drumming for Graham Coxon. Deadpan female vocals overlay, in their own words, ‘B52s, The Ramones and Adam’s original Ants’.

Headliners are Cardiff’s Picture Books In Winter. They come across like a funk/folk Foals/Decemberists hybrid. They have a violinist, a hypnotic crazy dancing singer and a rhythm section that’ll get you dancing without you realising what your feet are doing. They’re a force to be taken very seriously whilst simultaneously giving you the most entertaining night you’ve had in a long time. Destined for great things.
Doors open at 8pm.

And it’s FREE to get in. FREE. Did I mention FREE?

Diverse is also a ticket outlet for most local venues but relies on promoters to bring up tickets, if you’re putting on a gig in the area and want your tickets to be readily available to the public, you know where to go. There’s also a range of Diverse Music t-shirts and they sell magazines such as NME, Kerrang and Rock Sound plus specialist titles like Maverick, Jazzwise and Country Music People. They’ve also started to sell second hand music books which are well worth a browse through.

Diverse can be found at 10 Charles Street, up the hill from Body Shop and past the Job Centre. If you get lost or want any information on anything written above, give them a ring on 01633 259661.

www.myspace.com/diversemusicnewport