We asked Birminghams very own answer to John Peel, Little Chris of Brum Cast fame to put together three podcasts featuring a taster of bands performing at this years Supersonic Festival to give you an insight to what’s on offer. This is the first one featuring a great selection for your aural delight, enjoy!

Playlist as follows!
1. Necro Deathmort – I fought the law and the law won because fighting is against the law (4:01)
2. Melt Banana – Mind Thief (1:44)
3. Dead Fader – Autumn Rot (3:46)
4. Fukpig – Die Bastard (0:59)
5. Neu! – Hallo Gallo (10:07)
6. Nisennenmondai – Pop Group (6:21)
7. Khyam Allami – Taqsim Nahawand (4:40)
8. Tweak Bird – Spaceships (3:30)
9. Pierre Bastien – L’Orchestre Thermo-Dynamique (4:57)
10. Godflesh – Like Rats (4:27)
11. Swans – New Mind (5:13)
12. Lichens – Kirilian Auras (11:33)
13. Factory Floor – Lying (5:07)
14. Napalm Death – Continuing War on Stupidity (3:10)
15. Bong – Wizards Of Krull (Excerpt) (6:21)
16. People Like Us – The Doody Waltz (5:54)

More info about the festival check www.supersonicfestival.com
Tickets are available from www.theticketsellers.co.uk

We’ve just come back from a Birmingham City Council consultation meeting about the cities ‘Music Industry’. Over the 10 years we’ve been doing Capsule related activity we’ve been invited to a fair few of these things and still very little seems to have moved on.

It occured to us that based on our breakdown of tickets sales from Supersonic (see above) we have a relatively small West Midlands audience and having spoken to other independent folks within this area this seems to be the case across the creative industries. Birmingham dates regardless of genre always seem less well attended to those in other cities in the UK. There is no doubt there is a wealth of talent and tonnes of great people working really hard to promote stuff, run venues, labels etc. However it seems across the creative industries there is quite a limited regional audience that engages with independent  activity. So my question to you wonderful folks is why do you think this is?  What are the barriers and how do we work towards resolving it?
We’d be really happy to open this debate so – answers on a postcard.

This is our fourth year at SXSW and we have found it invaluable in terms of finding interesting acts for both our year round programme and also for curating Supersonic Festival, it also gives us the opportunity to meet with agents and labels that we work with face to face. Each year we try and approach our time at SXSW slightly differently in order to have new experiences. Of course this is where we had our showcase with Oxbow in 2007 which turned into a full blown bar room brawl (you can read all about that here).

So here is a little run down of what we did at SXSW Music:
Firstly and I guess most importantly was the cupcake van, no festival is complete without some kind of baked delights, this ingenious van was located at convenient places over the course of the week, which meant that I had to try a carrot cake cup cake with cream cheese topping purely as research.
We went and checked out HR from Bad Brains solo project, having been a big fan of Bad Brains we were curious to see what this was going to be like…unfortunately it was a little dull a bit too dub.

This is Flatstock, a huge poster art fair, presented by the American Poster Institute, a truely overwhelming experience when you first enter a huge warehouse type space filled with music related screen prints. Over the years we have purchased many a print, to the point where we no longer have wall space at home. Flatstock features groups such as Burlesque Of North America, Mexican Chocolate Design and Engine House 13.

Teepee records showcase, the highlight was a band called  Black Math Horseman these guys are from Los Angeles and have a female vocalist with a similar vibe to OM in that they are pretty heavy & repetitive, Tee Pee describe them as ambient post-doom.  Also playing were Earthless (who will be at Supersonic this year and feature proloific drummer and skateboarder Mario Rubalcaba, he’s played with Rocket From The Crypt, went on to bang away for the Hot Snakes, was the drummer for hardcore art-punks Clikatat Ikatowi and previously was in the Black Heart Procession.) We first saw Earthless at a Teepee showcase 3 years ago and have been hassling them to play Supersonic ever since, so we’re really excited that they’ll be over in July.

We were lucky enough to catch the Flower Travellin’ Band and wig out to Endless Boogie at the Knitting Factory showcase, it was a real privilege to witness the antics of the Flower Travellin Band from Japan, they were originally meant to open for the Rolling Stones in 1973 but due to visa issues were not allowed into States, so better late that never, they must have been a really big influence on Acid Mothers Temple.

“Their particular brand of psychedelic rock is delightfully heavy and strange, emphasized by the fact that they have abandoned the electric guitar in favor of the hugely complex, wide-necked sitarla. Vocalist Akira “Joe” Yamanaka’s voice is jarring and alien, but somehow suits the band’s style quite well. I don’t often think of this sound as having thrived across the world in Japan, but FTB’s extensive discography says otherwise.” [JDub Records blog]

More to come…

“Supersonic, in our opinion the best festival in the world right now”
Rock-A-Rolla Magazine

”AS British music festivals go, Birmingham’s annual Supersonic event is the best kind of mixed musical bag, a dizzying assortment of avant rock textures and Heavy Metal thunder on a bill which swings from the sublime to the ridiculous without once seeming ostentatiously eclectic.” The Wire

We are pleased to announce the first confirmations – including HEAD OF DAVID who bring their driving bombast to proceedings for the first time in 23 years – for this year’s festival, which will take place in Birmingham on 24TH – 26TH of July 2009.

Now in it’s 7th year, the event will once again take place at the Custard Factory utilising the many rooms for music, art, film & of course cake.

Additional confirmations will follow in the upcoming weeks, but the line-up is shaping up to be another extravaganza – the rather incredible former Swan, JARBOE; the expansive drone-noise of GROWING; Brighton’s prog adventure, DIAGONAL; the wild avant futuristic jazz of ZU; the stoned pysch of EARTHLESS, the Virginian sludge rock of PONTIAK, the industrial experiments of 65 DAYS OF STATIC, the immense duo that is FLOWER/CORSANO DUO, KHYAM ALLAMI and one of the finest folk vocalists NANCY WALLACE will be featured in the line-up, once again highlighting the highly eclectic booking policy of the festival.

Initial line up :
Head Of David/ 65 Days of Static / Berg Sans Nipple / Caribou / Cave/ Chris Herbert / Diagonal / Earthless /Flower & Corsano Duo / Genghis Tron / Growing / Jarboe / Khyam Allami / Master Musicians Of Bukake/ Nancy Wallace / Pontiak / PRE / Theo / Venetian Snares /Zu / ZzZ’s
Many more to be announced over the coming months

Tickets go on sale early April
https://www.theticketsellers.co.uk/

For hotel deals and to volunteer check
www.capsule.org.uk/supersonic

For too long Birmingham and the West Midlands have failed to celebrate what is rightfully theirs, to claim the city and the region as home of “heavy metal”.

Throughout late 2008 Capsule will be building a digital archive and carrying out a series of open days starting on the 25th October at Wolverhampton Art Gallery as part of “Helllo Digital” We want you to help us create a ‘people’s archive’ of memories, images and pictures to tell the story of this unique moment of Midlands’ musical heritage. This project is being delivered in partnership with, Black Country Arts Partnerships, Wolverhampton Art Gallery, New Art Gallery Walsall, Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery.

Capsule are looking for a small team of dedicated volunteers, with a passionate interest in either local history, music (specific or otherwise) or a desire to be part of a ground breaking project, which aims to bring a sense of civic pride to the region celebrating Birmingham and the Black Country as HOME OF METAL.

In return for your time commitment you will receive the following:
Training in recording oral histories / archiving digital data – including photography
Being part of a team delivering a unique project.
Travel cost will be covered.

For further info + to down load an application form:
http://www.capsule.org.uk/event/home-of-metal

Deadline for applicants: Friday 12th September

This project is led by Capsule in partnership with BCAP, WMAG, NAGW, BMAG as part of Hello Digital