Blimey

It has been a busy time for us lately. Anders is working hard on finishing off a marketing course and has been locked away in our little office writing a big assignment for weeks now. Soon it will be finished and he will be free! Free at last! He'll be able to emerge from his cocoon and get some sun on his pale skin. OK, it's not quite that bad, but it's pretty close. Plus he starts his new job today! Good luck Anders!

In the meantime I've been standing in for Anders @ Hello Thor, working hard to help get the Anxieteam record made and launched and up online. It's been really fun and the two launch parties were ace.

Nick & I drove down to London for the first gig last Friday and thoroughly enjoyed our first live experience of the band. It was a little bit nervewracking holding 100 copies of a picture disc for a band on your label who you've never seen live, but they did us proud. I love their onstage relationship. It's a lot like their off-stage relationship, but we get to be a little part of it. Favourite moments... pacman & ghost chase during "Lonely in the Digital World", the Anxieteam song, enjoying DJ miniBurgers' set loads (including a remix of an old Prince Paul track), seeing Nick & Anders appear on the projection screen during the "commercial break" to advertise the new single and texting people I love to tell them I missed them during the "Miss You" track, as instructed by Jon & Jim.

It was a late night drive back for me and Nick, fuelled only by Jelly Tots, Haribo and what Nick calls "Frooty Tooties". I remember demanding that Nick gave me the Haribo in a certain order to eat, an order which only I know, asking difficult questions about his life and loves and lots of "I just want to be at home now" comments. I'm a fun road trip buddy.

The Nottingham gig at the Contemporary was also super fun. Jim & Jon did an interview with LeftLion while we drank tea and watched the Contemporary guys set up the stage and projector etc. That was the relaxed part. After that it was busybusybusy. We were so pleased that loads of people came down for the party, old friends, kind supporters of Hello Thor and new faces. It felt like there was a lot of good hearts in that room and we all really appreciated that. I was in charge of the HT shop, so, tucked away in a corner, I didn't get to see so much of the gig, although I did make a break for it to see the pacman chase scene:

Big thanks to everyone who made me busy by buying the cakes / records / hello thor tees and giving out badges, stickers and Kate's cool Hello Thorzine. It really made my night! By the way, if you loved those cakes check out Star Bakery. It's run by a friend of mine and she makes AMAZING cupcakes (and wedding/birthday cakes too). I follow her on twitter (@starbakery) just to see pictures of them and make myself hungry! Cakes here:

mmmmmmmmmmmmm
Favourite bits:
When I managed to find a yellow HT t-shirt for the nice girl who very patiently tried on lots of sizes & colours til I managed to find the right thing, selling lots of records to nice smiley people, seeing Nick drop a classic Wu-Tang tune on the decks and that propelling Ned onto the dancefloor, the "Donut Batter" song by Anxieteam, wobbling dangerously on a chair to try and see the set from the back of the room and taking lots of "Hello!" pics:

My favourite. See the rest on Flickr.

Unfortunately during all the fun I had randomly developed myself a bad back, so I spent the rest of the bank Holiday sitting oddly upright on the sofa with a hot water bottle, cups of tea, Ugly Betty, a good book and Super Mario Brothers on the Wii. Ok, not so unfortunate, lovely in fact.

I also became addicted to The Great British Bake Off. Firstly, why are so many shows now the Great British this or that? What suggestions would you have for other great titles along those lines? Secondly, how did this show come about, and why are those people SO into baking?? Surely there's only so much drama and emotion you can squeeze out of a macaroon.... apparently not.

Thanks for reading, hope you had a lovely Bank Holiday.

Bex
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p.s. if you didn't get to come/ have any cash on you to buy the "Let's Eat Soya" record you can pre-order it here and we'll send you a lovely picture disc and the digital files too!

Hello Thor presents... ANXIETEAM!

Look what I helped to do this weekend! Muchos Fun-os.


Puppet Jon & Puppet Jim popped round to help us spread the word about the Anxieteam single launch parties happening this weekend.

Come along to The Lexington, London on Friday, or Nottingham Contemporary on Saturday and experience the (largely) food-based delights of Anxieteam. There will be masks, music, a dance routine, fortune cookies, a ukelele and a chance to get your digital portrait drawn by these two world-famous artists, Jon Burgerman & Jim Avignon, for free!

Support in London comes from caketronica purveyors Yunioshi and in Nottingham from Matthew Stephen Cooper, who sings songs about monsters and murderous birds.

More info on www.hellothor.com or on facebook, search "Anxieteam" or "Hello Thor".

See you at the weekend!

bex
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Anxieteam

BIG NEWS!

A Jon Burgerman poster appeared in Neighbours this week. Yep, Neighbours.

And (even more exciting) THAT means we are now only 1 (tiny) degree separated from Dr Karl and Susan Kennedy because ...

On 20th September Hello Thor Records release the debut single by Anxieteam, the brand new musical collaboration between internationally-acclaimed visual artists Jim Avignon and Jon Burgerman!  The single is a superfun journey to the heart of veganism and computer games - Let’s Eat Soya / Lonely In The Digital World – recorded in New York, mixed in Berlin, mastered in LA - is the band's debut double a-side single. Oh and it's a picture disc. Limited edition. Amazing.

Anxieteam splice together merry electronic pop melodies with dry, sardonic lyrics. It is music as colourful and as full of humour as their art, and equally as fraught with doubt and longing. Through the magic of electronic sounds and fumbled strumming on the ukulele, Anxieteam will transport you to a dreamy electronic, lo-fi, blip-bloppy pop world of anxiety, heartbreak and salads.

They have already played a series of bright, super-fun gigs (complete with masks, dancers, salad-making workshops, and digital portrait-making) in New York, Germany and Italy. We are pretty chuffed to announce that they will now also be playing the UK.

We've got TWO massive parties planned - Hello Thor proudly present ANXIETEAM, live in the UK for the very first time:
 
Friday 27th August
London Launch @ The Lexington (Islington, London)
With support from Yunioshi - £3
Get your tickets now: http://www.wegottickets.com/event/89748

Saturday 28th AugustOfficial UK Single Launch @ Cafe.Bar.Contemporary (Nottingham)
With support TBC - Free

If you want to know more then visit http://www.hellothor.com/ and sign up to the mailing list for exclusive news & updates.

Thanks!

Becky
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Diane Arbus @ Nottingham Contemporary

Hello!

Last Friday Anders & I popped down to the exhibition opening for the new show at Nottingham Contemporary. I still really like that building, for me it has a slightly communist feel about the design and I really love the lace panels, such a neat idea to tie it in to the area and give some decoration to what is quite a harsh facade. Anyway, we went to see the new exhibition which is work by Gert and Uwe Tobias (Transylvanian twins - not to be confused with the Cheeky Girls) and photography by Diane Arbus.

I had mixed feelings about the Gert and Uwe stuff. I liked their colour palette and the graphic/illustration style feel of their work, but I really didn't like the figurative pieces. Here's how the Contemporary describes them:
Gert and Uwe Tobias’ large woodcuts, gouache paintings, typewriter drawings and ceramic sculptures combine influences from traditional folk art and abstract art from the early 20th century. Their vividly coloured images, objects and environments evoke a world that is hallucinatory and strange.
 I think maybe it's the "hallucinatory and strange" part that doesn't really appeal to me. I tend to dislike whimsy and surrealism and particularly find it difficult to respond to art which combines that with "a sense of humour". On the whole I love humour in art, but probably more when it relates to concepts, rather than funny pictures of funny looking people. It somehow feels linked with that sort of venetian carnival mask look and I'm not keen on that either. Anyway, here are a couple of examples:

(Thumbs down from me)

(images just seen - thumbs up from me!)

It's so hard to try and encapsulate your reaction to a piece of art, isn't it? I will definitely go and look at their work more and see if I feel differently. One thing I particularly liked was the hanging of their work and the transfer of small design elements from their pieces onto the walls of the gallery itself. It was only a small detail, but I think it really adds something interesting to the exhibition.

Anyway, the main reason I'm writing is to say that the Diane Arbus work was really inspiring and fascinating and enjoyable - I'd recommend a visit to see it. I love photography and it's not often you get an exhibition of this size and quality in Nottingham, so I hope it brings lots of people in. The Contemporary say:
Diane Arbus is one of the most important photographers of the twentieth century, an influential figure whose compellingly honest style of photography paved the way for the work of contemporary photographers and artists.
They are wonderful images from a specific period of history and a specific place. They have a distinctly Amercian feel and really capture some of the subcultures around at that time, as well as more general images of children, people in the park etc. This image is one you'll see a lot:

It really captures the humour and humanity of all of Arbus' work. We saw only half of her part of the exhibition and I can't wait to go back and see the rest. It feels like I have a real treat saved up.

Check this out! I just found it online! Me and Anders were wondering at the show whether anyone had done this exact thing:

Brilliant!

Her photographs have an amazing mood and quality to them, the tone of the black and white is beautifully dark and distinct. I'd love to know enough about photography to be able to use black & white like that. 

She works often with people on the fringes of society and her aim was to "photograph everyone". I really like that idea.

Here's one more image which I thought was really powerful and beautiful:

Hope you get to go see the show, and hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

Becky

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Yunioshi @ Nottingham Contemporary

Saw Yunioshi play the Nottingham Contemporary bar over the Bank Holiday weekend. We very nearly didn't make it and were gutted to miss Japanese Sleepers & Spaceships Are Cool, but were delighted that we made it in time to hear Team Yunioshi launch their new EP.

What a fun gig! We missed the craft section but luckily there were still a man hanging around with foil wrapped round his head, and one man totally dressed as a robot. The sound was awesome as we came down through the building and didn't disappoint when we got into the bar. I had suspected it may feel a bit cold and sterile for performances, but the atmosphere was fantastic and the bar looked really cool. It was a bit like walking into a super cool party in a film.

Yunioshi sounded better than I've ever heard them sound live before, big props to the sound man for that. The new songs sounded ace, the old songs sounded fresh & everything was perfectly in proportion. Here's some pics:

Bye! Love Bex

Stuff What Is Happening

This went out to the Hello Thor mailing list earlier, and there was such a lot of nice stuff on there I thought I'd post it up here too:

THREE BANDS PLUS CRAFT AND FOOD IN A GALLERY FOR FREE

This Saturday night (29th May), our good friends Yunioshi are launching their new 5 track EP “How to survive a robot uprising” at Nottingham Contemporary. As well as Yunioshi and their super-fun brand of electro funk, there will also be the sunshine pop of Spaceships Are Cool and the indie-folk of the brilliant Japanese Sleepers. Plus a craft competition and, no doubt, something scrumptious courtesy of the Yunioshi catering corps. Free.

TWO BANDS AND US DJING IN ANOTHER GALLERY


Then, the Saturday after (5th June) we’ll be DJing at the launch of the new single by Hhymn at the Refectory (Hooton Street, off Carlton Road, Nottingham). Also playing will be one of our own…the very wonderful We Show Up On RadaR. £3.

TEN ACE SONGS INCLUDING ONE CALLED "LEGO RULES" TO DOWNLOAD FOR FREE


One of the greatest bands we have ever had the pleasure of putting on was the much-missed Death By TV - two 16-year olds from Loughborough who enjoyed drinking lemonade, jumping into each other, and making very exciting, very immature, very fun casio-punk in their bedrooms. They played a few gigs, changed their name several times and then split up to be famous, or clever, or something. We’re super happy that their entire discography is now available to download for free from http://www.methodistleisure.com/deathbytv/. Do it, you won't be sorry.

AND FINALLY

Actually, that’s about it for now. We’ll be back soon, but in the mean time, look out for Fists and We Show Up On RadaR at various festivals this summer (Summer Sundae, Y-Not, Splendour…plus more to come), and don’t forget you can buy their records from our website.

Also remember that we hold court at the Alley Café on the third Thursday of every month with Nottingham’s finest, funnest, free-est felt tips & folk night, Jumpers For Goalposts. Next month (Thurs 17th June) Japanese Sleepers are playing live. Hope to see you there.

 
Bex
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Stuff we've been up to

Isn't it nice when people visit and you have a special reason to do fun things at the weekend instead of boring chores? We had friends up from London this weekend and we:

... cooked goats cheese and onion tarts and drank wine on Friday night.

... slept late and then wandered round town drinking "the best hot chocolate in the world" (TM) from Aubreys (the crepe place), before heading up to Nottingham Contemporary for the Star City exhibition. I made a "hilarious" joke about the big wheel in the city centre and how our visitors would never have seen anything like it. I'm funny. Anyway, the exhibition, firstly, don't see the exhibition backwards, we did and I regretted it afterwards. Secondly, it's pretty big/long, so don't linger too long over stuff you're not bothered about. Highlights for me included:
- the machine making noises as water droplets fell - it was like a dystopian sci-fi scene, a bit menacing, like it should be in the basement of a multi-storey car park in a horror film.
- the old Russian posters promoting space travel, really made you imagine how people must've felt about space in the old days. It was such a magical, almost spiritual place then.
- the collages of religious icons & rockets - I love icons stylistically and I really like space imagery, so this just really worked for me!
- the 'doctor's surgery' bit made by a husband/wife team who were some of the first installation artists
- And finally, the quote from Valentina Tereshkova, the first woman in space, near the giant spacesuit in the bottom of the building:

"Those who have already been in space yearn with all their heart and soul to return there again and again. With every single day passing, time leaves my flight in the past. Occasionally the wind will whisper something from the tops of tall pine trees and then everything becomes silent. In such minutes I remember the most bright and wonderful experience in my life: the flight into space."

I can't get over how beautiful that is, and how well she captures a moment and a feeling that pretty much no-one else has experienced.

... saw the most random performance I've seen in ages at Nottingham Playhouse. It was called Pregnant?! and involved a PowerPoint animation with a live performance from a Japanese artist which was about being impregnated by rabbits. I can't really explain any further than that to be honest, as that's pretty much the extent to which it made any sense. Despite that, it was brilliant, really funny, the interaction between the animations and the artist was great, surreal and confusing but great. Plus we learned that bunnies ovulate even when pregnant, so that's a new fact for us all there. It was insane, like someone saying "I had this really weird dream, right", only without it being the most painfully boring conversation in the world, because it actually recreated that dream world for you. Ace.

... ate breakfast late, enjoying John's discovery of bacon and eggs on crumpets instead of toast. Super nice, especially when you get lovely local bacon from JT Beedham's instead of horrible, watery, over-salted bacon from Tesco. Then we wandered round the cemetery next to the forest in the snow. It was lovely. I took some photos and me and Anna Ray made this tree:

... Finally, on Monday night we saw Hot Horizons at the Social. They're really good, strong vocals, interesting guitars and some really good tunes. I'm looking forward to hearing the recorded stuff later in the year. Then we popped over to say a quick Happy Birthday to Andy from We Show Up On Radar who was celebrating with an apple juice at the Orange Tree. We heard about his visit to Maida Vale at the weekend to record tracks for the BBC, it's really exciting! Don't know when they will be on the radio yet, but we've heard that they sound really good.

Anyway, enough rambling from me, hope you have a nice week!

Bex
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