Former Siouxsie and The Banshees’ co-founder, bass-player and all round musical genius, Steven Severin is currently touring the U.K. with his brilliant score for Jean Cocteau’s 1930 debut film Blood of a Poet

Since 2002 and the demise of The Banshees, Severin has been writing soundtracks for TV and cinema, including superb scores for London Voodoo and Richard Jobson’s The Purifiers.  More recently, Severin has composed and toured with his compositions for The Seashell and The Clergyman and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari. His four treatments for Caligari was one of the highlights of last year’s Edinburgh International Festival.

Now, having successfully toured with Blood of a Poet across America and Canada earlier this year, Britain has the chance to catch one of the must-see events of the year.

It is always possible to subvert, to rebel.  A strong idea can be a salve, an inspiration to some whilst the very same idea is an irritant, a disruption to others.  I just try to do things that move and excite me and hope I am capable to transmitting those emotions in the most eloquent way possible.

                                                          -  Steven Severin

York CITY SCREEN 7th. Oct.
Bradford PLAYHOUSE 8th. Oct.
Leeds HYDE PARK 9th. Oct.
Liverpool FACT 10th. Oct.
Norwich CINEMA CITY 12th. Oct.
Kensal Rise LEXI 15th. Oct.
Southampton HARBOUR LIGHTS 16th. Oct.
Brighton DUKE OF YORKS 17th. Oct.
Brixton RITZY 19th. Oct.
Greenwich PICTUREHOUSE 21st. Oct.
Derby QUAD 28th. Oct.
Cardiff CHAPTER ARTS 29th. Oct.
Oxford PHOENIX 30th. Oct.
Exeter PICTUREHOUSE 31st. Oct.
Bath LITTLE THEATRE 1st. Nov.
Bristol WATERSHED 2nd. Nov.
Inverness EDEN COURT 4th. Nov.
Croydon CLOCKTOWER 8th. Nov.
Sheffield SHOWROOM 11th. Nov.
Nottingham BROADWAY 12th. Nov.
Birmingham ELECTRIC 14th. Nov.
Leicester PHOENIX 15th. Nov.
Edinburgh CAMEO 18th. Nov.
 

 
Steven Severin’s ‘Cesare Variations’ after the jump…
 

 
Looks like it’s mid-60’s day at Dangerous Minds. So be it ! Here’s both sides of this moody/self-loathing/noisy/lysergic 1967 single from Minneapolis band The Calico Wall. Looks like there’s next to no information about this anywhere, but have a listen to this glowering beast. It’s perfect for the rainy day here in Los Angeles
 

 
Even wilder B-side after the jump…

 
Sixties Japanese garage band The Cougars perform “Aphrodite” in this beautiful black and white video. Go go heaven. This looks like it could have been directed by Seijun Suzuki.
 

 
This is rare and I can’t find any info on it. Reputedly it was shot in 1968. Anyone know where?
 

 
Go-go time. Spike Priggen unearthed this poppy medley from Hullabaloo, 1965.  Michael Landon singing “You Were On My Mind’  is a smooth groove.

 
Taking their cues from Devo, Yellow Magic Orchestra and The Plastics, Japan’s hardest-touring band, Polysics, have a way with retro-futurism. From the looks of their amazing “period piece” music videos and fashion sense, you’d just assume this was a Japanese New Wave group from the 1980s that you never heard of, but no, that’s not the case, they formed in 1997. Much of the time they sing in a made-up “space language” so you don’t even have to speak Japanese to appreciate the lyrics. Their briskly played tunes and odd time signatures also sound like The Fall (to me at least) in a playful mood, so what’s not to like here?

Here are a couple of great examples of the what Polysics do. First up is “New Wave Jacket.” I love this song and video:
 

 
Below, “Each Life, Each End.” The Devo influence is rather unmistakable here…
 

 
Polysics tour outside of Japan frequently. Don’t miss their energetic show when they’re in your neck of the woods on their next tour.

 
Jerkin’ on the Lower East Side. Music by Heavy Feet.
 

 
New York garage-psych band The Druids Of Stonehenge on the Joe Franklin Show 1968.

Vocalist Dave Budge, guitarists Carl Hauser and Bill Tracy, bassist Tom Workman and drummer Steve Tindall came together in 1965 as r&b ravers The Druids. In 1968 they went psychedelic and changed their name to The Druids Of Stonehenge. This clip of the band on the Joe Franklin Show has to be one of the weirdest of the 1000s of weird moments on Franklin’s loveably nutty TV program. Franklin, who knew alot about music and film pre-dating the sixties, was comically clueless when it came to rock and roll, as evidenced by his inept attempt to be “with it’ in this wonderfully warped video.

The Druids Of Stonehenge had a good rep for their live performances at New York nightclubs like Ondine’s and Cheetah, but this performance on the Franklin Show is pretty dreadful. Their take on Billy Holiday’s ‘God Bless The Child’ borders on the sacrilegious, but the arrangement, a total rip of ‘Paint It Black’, is the kind of wackiness that makes rock and roll the unruly mess I love.  
 

 
I got an advance copy of Ladies & Gentlemen: The Rolling Stones on Blu-ray yesterday from the publicist for Eagle Rock Ent. and I must say, it’s probably the best longform Rolling Stones performance on the market or that we’re ever likely to see.

Originally shot on the 1972 USA tour in support of the Exile on Main Street album, during four separate shows in Ft. Worth and Houston, Texas, the film was shown theatrically in midnight screenings throughout 1974. The “QuadraSound” four-channel magnetic soundtrack required a a 3300-watt sound system to be delivered on a truck to the cinema which was run by professional sound engineers who tailored the mix according to how big the venue was (and also how full the seats were). The releasing company, Dragon Aire Ltd. had four of these systems touring at once.

The 1972 North America tour was the Stones at the absolute pinnacle of their powers as live performers—as even Mick Jagger admits, they could be a pretty sloppy live band at times. Here, with a setlist culled from their best albums, (Beggar’s Banquet, Let It Bleed, Sticky Fingers and Exile on Main Street) they really putt their shoulders into it, clearly full of piss and vinegar to spare . It’s just a great Rolling Stones performance, full stop. If you are a fan, this is exactly what you want.

This film hasn’t really been seen (except for an Australian VHS release that’s been widely bootlegged) in about three decades, so the experience of these performances hasn’t been devalued by constant repetition on Vh1 Classics. Aside from that, let’s not forget the presence of virtuoso guitarist Mick Taylor (arguably the best musician ever to play in the band). And it sounds very, very good in the newly remastered 5:1 surround. (I’m a little less sold on the picture, which looks fine, but has that slightly jagged looking quality that always results from a 16mm film getting blown up to 35mm).

All in all, I’d say that if you are “so inclined” that this should be a definitive “buy,” fanboy. I didn’t feel that way about the recent Exile on Main Street reissue in the least, but this DVD, especially on Blu-ray, really can’t be beat.
 
Here’s a somewhat murky—but asskicking—clip of “Happy” from the film.
 

The Residents’ 1976 version of The Stones’ Satisfaction is nearly everything the better known version by Devo from a year later is not: Loose, belligerant, violent, truly fucked up. A real stick in the eye of everything conventionally tasteful in 1976 America. Delightfully painful to listen to thanks to Philip “Snakefinger” Lithman’s completely unhinged lead guitar and mystery Resident member’s menacing vocal, this is a timeless piece of yellow plastic.
 

 
Check the B-side and a demented live version after the jump…