Animals and Men - gig en France

Here's the poster for our show in Lyons on the 19th September. See ya there?

Venue reviews Animals and Men gig

"Not often you see a guitarist who's a ringer for Mark Lawson. If you do, it's most certainly not in anything as thrillingly vital as this. To gauge an idea of the Animals and Men purity level, check out the drums, a full kit save for cymbals, those peskily autonomous creations wont to generate unsupervised sound for a good millisecond or two. This is all about economy, each track two minutes and out, everything absolutely bone lean, from bubbling bass to chopped guitar to utterly unfussy deadpan vocals, together concocting a post-punk brew that makes its key benefactor - the Bo Diddley beat - sound frivolous by comparison. That the band are relatively newly reformed, gigging Bristol for the first time in 18 years (More like 29 or something around that - Ralph), seems barely conceivable, with every track a prospective national anthem for the utopian nation of Utilitarianism. Venue leaves silently uttering a single mantra: bring back discipline. (Julian Owen)."

also

http://www.crackerjack.co.uk/bristol/events/animals-and-men/fleece-music

Davie Allan & The Arrows - The Six Best Songs from the DEVIL'S ANGELS Soundtrack

Cleverly carrying on the biker theme and being bang up to date too I am as track 2 'Devils Rumble' is on the new Tarantino 'Inglorious Basterds' soundtrack. What a blogger hey?

Animals and Men at the Fleece

Photo by Caryne Pearce - more on the Myspace page. Thanks to all who came along - hope it was good for you.

Gig in Bristol -

See ya there music lovers! Also there's a great review of our new ep on Rate Your Music... it starts off
It makes no sense, but after about twenty-five years apart, Britpunk also-rans Animals & Men reassemble and make an EP that may be even better than their old stuff. This thing rocks.
Phew!

Another Animals and Men review

Great review for our ep in the Fader.

Pocilga DeLuxe

Browsing the Serge Gainsbourg videos (like you do) I came across this really top notch cover of his 69 Annee Erotique by a Brazilian band, Pocilga DeLuxe - thought I'd share it with you as they do the bass riff justice playing just how you wanna hear it - I'd love to see them do it live. Great film too

The Leather Boy 'On the Go'

So you're making a motorcycle compilation cassette - what do you start with? This'll do for a kick-off. Read about Milan aka The Leather Boy here. After that you could have Davie Allan and the Arrows 'Blues theme' - add a dash of a few trailers from the Wild World of Mondo Movies and a Gene Vincent track - dunno - got any other ideas? Don't say Leader of the Pack it'll kill the mood... I am thinking 'On the Road Again' Canned Heat - they were very popular among Hell's Angels and I can imagine that would be the one to choose.

Girl on a Motorcycle trailer (1968)

Bit of European motorcycle exploitation featuring Marianne Faithful - this makes a great 'sound down' movie if you have a suitable soundtrack to go with it.

Gene Vincent 'Rocky Road Blues'

Clip from 1963 in Brussels. Capturing that phase when GV was big in Europe - this is a truly great clip and is kind of following a general theme of motorcycles and the link with rock and roll.

Animals and Men in Venue

Hey! Our gig on the 13th August at the Fleece got a half page write-up in Venue Magazine.

Chantays 'Pipeline'

Have you heard the current pop single 'Diamond Ring' by Chipmunk? It's got the same tune as this surf classic...do you think they're coughing up for nicking it? Anyway I hope we can bust some moves like this when we play the Fleece on 13th August.

Wild Angels (1966) opening scene

I've put this one up for my son who likes his biker movies...this one I suppose is the daddy of them all. Watch this clip at least until the music rocks in ... Davie Allen and the Arrows 'Blues theme' ... you'll recognise it I expect. The credit list is pretty much a list to end all lists - I wonder why it's not more famous? Maybe the logo? Watch another clip here that shows the sequence that was heavily sampled for the song 'Loaded'. Another clip is here which shows a groovy biker party. Peter Fonda has been over in the UK recently reprising his 'Captain America' character for the Goodwood Festival of Speed and celebrating the anniversary of Easy Rider.
Wiki entry

Ralphus' History Blogs

I have a new blog - Flintlock and Tomahawk which is gradually filling up - it's a kind of a look at the art and impressions of American frontier warfare. I'm still doing my Wars of Louis XIV blog too which is about a year old now and is going great guns. Check them out if you like old wars and stuff.

Donovan 'Hey Gyp (dig the slowness)'

This is another song we tried to cover recently - think it might be something we can record as it isn't going to be possible to play harp and guitar at the same time. It's a great great song though - if you haven't heard it - give it a spin - as I like to say.