plug in baby

Imagine a hen night hosted by Tracy Emin and soundtracked by Kathleen Hanna. Or a tea party with friends where all the waitresses are fembots. Imagine one candlelit evening spent sipping wine with your friends, listening to ladies on their laptops and dames behind the decks. Curated by electro-country chanteuse Piney Gir (née Angela Penhaligon) and occasional Chick on Speed and robotic humanoid Anat Ben David, Wired Women is a monthly night at the Spitz, showcasing all that’s delightful and deviant in lady-led machine-music.

When Piney and Anat played on the same bill at occasional avant-nighterie Kosmishe last year, it was, remembers Piney, ‘amazing. Here we were, women, doing our electronic thing, and the crowd just loved it. We realised that this was something special.’

In response they got together and organised the Fair Sex Fair at 93 Feet East, a day of short films and live music performed by them and their friends. The Spitz asked them to make the event monthly and in September the first Wired Women got plugged in.

Where the traditional electronica evening might stroke chins and furrow brows, Wired Women will drop jaws and twitch smiles. So it’s a bit different then. Piney explains, ‘We’re bridging the gap between art and rock’n’roll and we’re doing it with an awareness of a woman’s role in those worlds.’ Recent line-ups have seen solo outings for indie heroines Ann Shenton (Add N to X), Ana da Silva (ex-Raincoats) and Cosey Fanni Tutti (Throbbing Gristle), alongside performances by experimental young artists from across the globe. And of course the audience is occasionally treated to a set from one of the curators themselves.

‘We’re trying to push some boundaries here, to make people think, and challenge the listener to pay attention,’ says Piney, ‘I think it’s refreshing!’

binge magazine - it's over-everything

Binge magazine is for everyone who thinks that too much is never enough.

Binge magazine is and does over-everything.

It will feature the overweight, the overpaid and the overdrugged.

It loves notoriety, greed, superfluous consumption and willy-nilly backstabbing.

BINGE MAGAZINE: never knowingly undersouled

new from the from the hungover recesses of a lost soul

'reader, i licked him'

mmm jane eyre stamps for world book day!

librarian girl

niall bought me this in new york. i nearly died with happiness. naturally i'm probably most suited to life in the library. dusty walls of books, the only sound the scratch of a nib on paper, linen jackets slipping between each other, silence and order. study. this doesn't mean i'm going to go out and start lending books all over london, though, just live out my librarian fantasies in the comfort of my bedroom in the company of de Beauvoir and Plath.

it's my party

more acts have just been added to the line-up for April's ATP festival. so far it's looking far too entertaining - pj harvey, lydia lunch, peaches, suicide...

but isn't atp meant to be earnest, worthy, boring and confusing (as in 'what???')? the highlight of last year (weeekend 1, not the 'ladies' day') was the 24-hour Queen vic pub which saw proper indie discos hook up after the bands unplugged. that's what it's all about.

all sexed down

oh david sexton, one day we will meet and you can tell me ALL about it. no one can be this BITTER, this JOYLESS, this DEFEATIST and ELITIST - i hope. i pick up your newspaper with a wry smile every monday, knowing that once the rest of the news is through and laura craik's had her say on what to wear this week, i still have you to look forward to. monday 14th june west end final page 69. your look says 'yes, you would think so, wouldn't you', not scowling or serious, you sigh across the arts. a sigh that wheezes, 'this is as good as it gets, readers.' although you would never address your readers so directly. i mean, you probably find this terribly crass, don't you?

your best piece last year (ever) was on jessica, the original and prolific bookslut. why? because by covering the literary blogger you hinted that publishing has a future. that books have a place in this world beyond amazon. this singular interview; enthusiastic, optimistic and inspiring (YES, YES you can be ALL THESE THINGS david), won me over (hear my cliches, how you disapprove!).

for me, the future of literary journalism, if there is to be one, must be manifested in a progression beyond the traditional review/interview format. in today's paper a boxed review of Nick Hornby's The Polysyllabic Spree is highlighted on the front page of the arts section. fine. i think. Hornby - native londoner, already overexposed and growing complacent, as his last bloated work demonstrated, but ok, i see what you've done here. the paperback is published by an imprint of the ambitious and earnest young new york journal the believer, edited by vendela vida. how did you describe it, david? '... a division of McSweeney's, the publishing enterprise that believes if you can't say anything nice about books, say nothing at all.' i know you only reviewed Hornby to get this 'dig' in. McSweeney's/McSmug - whatever.

the book world is small. small enough for our paths to cross sooner or later. until next week.

footsie

finding their feet

back in 2004 IDM's original boy band, the Wheels Instead of Hooves collective rolled dejectedly into early retirement. on the cusp of a mid-20-something wilderness of party debts and mcjobs, it looked as though the end was nigh - they'd run out of ideas, patience, and - perhaps most crucially - decent talent to showcase.

now, just three years after the boistrous absurdity of their london debut, they're making a comeback, first in NYC, then in March at their Islington townhouse, Elektrowerkz.

me and my band - march 2002