Hello. First things first. If you register onto Cult Cargo now we are giving you the rights to create polls, post new topics on the forum and upload pictures onto the gallery. We reserve the right to delete anything that is too horrible though.

It was a pretty successful launch of the website last thursday. We met lots of lovely people. Members of The Coral attempted to blag their way in to the gig. I asked for a donation and they had about fourty six pence between them. Luckily one of their friends handed over an acceptable amount. They also promised an interview with us soon if anyone is interested. Local bands aPAtT and The Immigrants provided fine support to the cosmic junkies Acid Mothers Temple. It's just a pity that the Barfly venue believe that putting themselves in your face all night is going to attract promoters back again. It's obviously what they call professionalism.

I've been hearing and reading a lot recently about Wolf Eyes of Sub Pop records. Particularly that they are the best band on the planet right now and are doing things with music not done before. So I bought their new Cd yesterday and it's ultra dark and scary. I'm not sure if it snapped me out of my Sunday blues or not. Good extreme music usually makes me smile for some perverse reason. This did in parts but not completely. Maybe the hype effected my judgement, I don't know. I will subject myself to it for the rest of the week to find out.

U S Maple though.Wow. I love this band. They are the sound of rock music having a nervous breakdown from it's own disgusting excesses. They should be listened to much more, so go to the Skin Graft records website and learn to be a music fan again.

The post launch lull contnues. Oh my word did that make any sense. The post match lilt continues. Any better. Okay, two things you ought to know; the interviews cropping up in the next week or so will include Acid Mothers Temple, Neptune, Jegsy Dodd and Jack Palance (the last one is a lie, but you try and prove it), and we are going to swamp the corpses section with stuff.

I love this section and unless someone stops me I'm going to ask it to marry me. Not in the cold meaningless modern 'let's try to stop our pointless existences from spiralling downwards forever more into an empty tragedy that only intoxicants can provide any respite from by living in the same house together' way, but the lovely '19th century formally ask someone you've never spoken to without the presence of their guardian before' way. You know what I'm talking about, kids.

We get to be on the radio tonight. The Roger Hill Show on Radio Merseyside with a US Maples track, no less. You see, eat all your vegetables, don't masturbate to anything you wouldn't show to your best friend, and you could one day get to play unlistenable music to a handful of people.

Before, I go off and prepare for the Sopranos if anyone has chatted to any of us about writing and doesn't feel we were encouraging enough. It's because we are trying to maintain an air of cool in both social and work situations, and as we are not cool this will come across as disinterest. What, I'm saying is 'we are'. God, please, please, please. we need you. We do. So much. PPPPPPPPLLLLLLEEEEAAAAASSSSE write for us.

We've finally got rid of the Acid Mothers Temple. Jesus, those space rockers love their daytime soaps. An interview with the crazy beards will be online very soon. Get the necessary drugs ready and we'll provide the fonts.

No articles have been added today due to lack of sleep for all concerned but have a look at the pics from Thursday night. 

Our  exclusive interviw give the thoughts of Bill Drummond on Liverpool's lack of one thing or another, and are missing from yesterday's Guardian interview. Do these people not give a shit about anything.

I've got into a bad habit of staying in on friday nights recently and updating myself on what's currently happening in the world of music. And it is a world. Jules Holland and the Channel Four chart show in particular. These are the main culprits for my mental demise. Last night Razorlight were on one of these programmes. They are the dark lords of bland. A pastiche of watered down assimilated copycat shit that was mimicking stuff that was never any good in the first place. I like them. 

On a brighter note listen to The Coughs on Load Records. Mad, tribal, dark menace from somehwhere deep in your soul. We'll get them on the site soon.

I've also noticed that it's still summer. I you don't want to get depressed or flu, then i recommend leaving the windows open, blasting your flat with ice guns and singing a song about a man who saved us from sin. You'll soon get the idea and everything will be back to normal.

Quick quiz...Barfly or T.B.. Answers on a hankie to the usual.

We are off today to see some art with a guide who will hopefully tell us what to think. Thank god for the elite.

See you again tomorrow. If you are really there.

Thanks for arriving in this section of the cyber revolution. What you've got here is the first of a daily updated music and culture showcase experiment in trying to make sense of what the net can provide for people who are now mere cries from the pixelated wilderness but one day may be the attractive blemishes on its soft bland skin. This section will change every day from now on to tell you what happened yesterday, what's going to happen today and what we are worried will never happen unless a man with a large magic culture stick finally awakes from the slumber caused by a million bad luck kisses from a million haunted souls living in a million rotting beef paste sandwiches. I hope that's clear.

Already on the site are some exclusive interviews. Look for the Bill Drummond one. He's crazy. The bit I really like is the Corpses section which hopefully will grow into a meandering, illogical library of cultural tokenism. Also there will be constantly refreshed accounts of what is going on in towns, cities, communes, big trucks across the globe and close to home, in the near legendary Turf section. You will be able to relax, put your feet up and kick out the cables from your computer.

The problem may arise that for some reason on any given Sunday nothing much is happening in the world. At that point this bit may get a little 'made up'. Or we may start chatting about dreams people told us that scared them, or if we are in a really good mood we could chat about what is really going on in the world. Don't panic, though, we will get back to babbling on about insignificant no-marks who think they are great because they can bang a few strings on a piece of wood, as soon as we can.

We have interviews coming up with Melt Banana, Acid Mothers Temple and so much more. And yet so much less.

See you tomorrow.

Whaddya mean you've never heard of....Fred Armisen?

The DVD explosion of ‘Asia Extreme’ has brought many great films to the attentions of the West. However, the idea of an Asian movement has meant one director in particular has not yet been given his rightful place as possibly the most talented director working today.

Botnledja
‘Iceland National Park’
(Trust Me Records)

On lending this album from a friend, it actually took me a few weeks of looking at the front cover before I plucked up the courage to listen to it. For some reason it quite disturbed me, don’t ask me why, maybe some deep rooted ‘massive head’ phobia? Or was it the bared flacid cock? So I felt I had to be in a certain mindset before I could tackle the audio part. Once over this mental hurdle I was blessed with what I can best describe as friendly but disjointed catchy tunes that embrace high octane rhythms and ragged guitars with an uneasy ease. There is a roomy ambience to the almost quirky vocals, and I do actually start to venture back into the front cover induced agitation at times, but in a nice way. Another thing I noticed was that the album seems to get popier as the running order progresses ending with a nice catchy sing-along number to finish, that will repeat on you for days. I have no bands to compare these guys to, which is probably why I find it so appealing. Maybe hints of Bilge Pump or Yo Le Tengo but only glimpses. This is one of my favourite albums but at the same time I wouldn't recommend listening to it too often.

November in Sweden is dark and cold, so, just to confuse you, I’m going to pretend I’m in Barcelona instead.

One of the good things about Barcelona is its live and happening music scene. Even though I have a problem with the expression “underground”, that is exactly what it is; a real underground scene. And the lo-fi state of it is where the brilliance of it all lies; we’re talking tiny DIY labels, demos out everywhere, and a really open scene.

BRIAN ENO AT BBC RADIO 3 FREE THINKING LECTURE – Fri 3rd Nov 2006.

In opening BBC Radio 3’s Free Thinking weekend, Auntie pulled out a Howitzer to blow away the cobwebs, by introducing to an expectant and curious audience, musician, Ambient Overlord, progressive thinker and “Promiscuous artist” as he was playfully referred to – one Brian Eno.

I recently received an email circular that informed of the imminent closure of CBGB, the famous New York Punk club. It was a short obituary for the club in the New York Times by Richard Hell of the Void oids. He spoke of why he thought CBGB had stood out as a gig venue, gained its legendary status and managed to spawn some of the most influential and popular bands in western music. It got me thinking about one of Liverpool's legendary venues, Eric's. This was another venue which had a profound influence on many of the city's young music lovers who became some of Britain's most renowned and influential groups and musicians. What was it about these clubs? Did the people who ran these venues have particular philosophies and ideals which allowed for thriving creative atmospheres. Can club owners, promoters and bands learn from what the owners of these clubs have to say?

The sound of a band has never been as implicit in their name as it is with
Liverpool's Pale Faced Princess. Their music has a self effacing frail
majesty that requires more from you live than a bottle of Bud and half an
ear. They use post-rock structures that float above the limits of the genre
courtesy of often stunning harmonies and arrangements that display some
unusual influences.

I can't begin to tell you how good this band is, but i'll give it a go anyway.

Artists Under Oppression - 1

Artists Under Oppression - 2

Artists Under Oppression - 3

A thoroughly nasty story for Halloween

OK, so you want to make computer music?

JOHN AND MIKE

John Lennon is one of the most famous pop stars of the Eighties. His hits included the controversial songs Im Only Happy With A Warm Gun and Women And Niggers Are All The Same To Me. He denounced these right wing leanings in his later life after finding a more mainstream audience and was rewarded with the building of an airport. His early preoccupation with revenge, violence and prejudice was again in the public eye after the recent publication of his letters to the man who he claims influenced him more than any other artist, the famous film maker, Michael Winner. We publish a brief sample of this 200 page book as a means of allowing you to make up your own mind about the young John Lennon.

"Paranoid stories of being stalked and creating new regimes"

For a long time now I have asked myself: why are the vast majority of Fall records so good? What are the elements that make them stand out from the output of almost every other band that existed since rock 'n' roll started? Of course there are many reasons; Mark E Smith's inventive, rhythmic and utterly commanding use of language; the compelling repetition of drums and bass; the spiky and at times weirdly detuned guitar riffs; and the overall uncompromising expression of who they are and where they come from. Their second LP Dragnet, released in 1978, of course has all of these elements, but for me also has something more, which I'm going to attempt to understand more through writing this article.