Fri 28 Mar 19:30pm
The next Des Was a Bowie Fan takes place on Friday March 28th at Paper Dress Vintage, where we shall conduct mass for the vampire girls and gods of Pop for the sounds that break our hearts.
There will be a ceaseless show of dancing till the milkman’s bottles shake outside and Dai Disco’s eyes are like piss-holes in the sand waiting for the morning tide, his denim shriveled in sweat.
Special guests on this night on the shop window stage are Mammoth Penguins, a jubilant assault of pure loveliness with bubbling guitar lines and vocals that ride on like Mordacai and Margaret chasing shooting stars on Vespas. Singer Emma until recently commandeered the delicious Standard Fare, and last month joined Darren Hayman in a trademark duet released as a 7-inch single on Fortuna Pop!
The Penguins will be joined by The Choo Choo Trains, with a sound rich in a special kind of melancholy, shy rhythms that pop up all over and make you want to grab them in a big hug, delicate melodies that chime like a music box in the corner of your dreams, and The Drink: a rampaging three-piece with a sweetly-pitched, magical-mystery sound that’ll tear you apart all summer.
Then at 11pm, Kerouac’s bandanna will wind round the lamp with the ecstatic touch of a Crystals chorus, the light will go down, and the ghosts of swing jazz, 60s girl groups, garage and rock’n’roll will join the sweetest new wave, post-punk, riot grrrl and indiepop till the last Vespa has followed the final star down Curtain Road.
All flaming limbs at the front line x
www.facebook.com/deswasabowiefan
❤ Expect to hear: Veronica Falls * Pulp * Flock of Seagulls * Little Richard * The Ramones * Helen Love * Blondie * The Supremes * Le Tigre * Patrick Wolf * Bowie * Siouxsie and the Banshees * The Smiths * The Pastels * The Cure * Half Man Half Biscuit * Johnny Cash * Talking Heads * Joy Division * The Sonics * The Fall * Beirut * Belle and Sebastian * Buster Bailey * Of Montreal * The Shangri-Las * Hefner * The Beach Boys * The Ronettes * Tullycraft * Alpaca Sports * Art Brut * New York Dolls * Arcade Fire * Japandroids! * Paul Simon * The Spook School * The Go-Betweens * Los Campesinos! * New Order * Jens Lekman * Jonathan Richman * Depeche Mode * Ballboy * Felt * Crystal Castles * Comet Gain * Velocette * Pixies * Nick Cave * Camera Obscura * Springsteen * The Just Joans * Rolling Stones * Pavement * Les Savy Fav * Kim Weston * The Indelicates * Flowers * Dexys Midnight Runners * Pet Shop Boys * Colour Me Wednesday * The Del-Vikings * Dion and the Belmonts * The Bobby McGees * Coco Rosie * Monochrome Set * Sonic Youth * Let’s Wrestle * Neutral Milk Hotel * Tyrannosaurus Dead * Ghetto Ass Witch * Tigercats * The Death Of Pop ❤
Entry is free before 10, £3 / £5 after.
MAMMOTH PENGUINS
The Penguins are Emma, Mark and Neil. They have – put simply – a crack-a-jack sound that’ll bowl you over like a lawn green blitzer from Andre the Giant. They’re fresh from playing the Fortuna Pop! Winter Sprinter in January, and have been described as having “a fuzzy warmth that goes for your heart like Frank Fish heading for the river in his latex waders” (Dai Disco, Fishing Rod Reel Handle #7)
THE CHOO CHOO TRAINS
The Choo Choo Trains are Emma, Catherine and Veronica. “They paint all their songs with dreamy 50s nostalgia and sweet as candy vocals. If they were a stick of rock they’d have dream pop running right through them.” (The Girls Are) “There’s the spirit of 60s girl group pop at the heart of this tape. Colours reaches for the Spector sound on a budget and Rocket Bicycle captures the innocence of the Brill Building sound with a wink to Carole King’s songwriting.” (Did Not Chart) “Skeletal, minor key pop ballads and sad, strange guitar instrumentals” (Stereo Sanctity) “So you saw Marine Girls 30 yrs ago? Well tonight I saw The Choo Choos. In your face gramps” (Did Not Chart). This, we think, says it all.
THE DRINK
The Drink are Dearbhla, David and Daniel. Outside of The Drink, Dearbhla is also one-third of The Wharves, and one-third of Shield Your Eyes. David and Daniel were the rhythm section of London pop-post-rockers Fighting Kites. The band’s “dreamy, evocative guitar pop” (Ian Watson, HDIF) has drawn comparisons with Throwing Muses, The Breeders, Madder Rose and Electrelane.