Lags from gallows even posted up a special Spotify playlist for us. He selected a few of the tracks they were listening to whilst in the studio working on their new album. Click the link below to head to the playlist and see if you can come out the other end with the same face smashing stage set and run of tracks. We tried it but couldnt quite get it right.

The perfect start to this year’s Crawl was catching Toy on the Artrocker stage at the Purple Turtle, whose psychedelic fuzz-pop served to heal any remnants of the pre-event hangover.

Toy. Photo by Kane Howie

Next up was Fiction’s minimalist tropical post-punk, which was so engaging that I lost track of time and missed the Blacklisters set at the Earl Of Camden…

Fiction. Photo by Kane Howie

But the pre-apocalyptic doom-sludge of Black Moth was there to remind us all of why the Artroker stage had the best NEW talent of the whole festival. When ‘Chicken Shit’ went down the place exploded under the behomothic brew of hammering drums, thrash guitar and the charisma of lead-vocalist Harriet Hyde.

It was a ball-crushing end to a manic weekend of modern psychedelica, post-punk, through to electro-pop and proto-punk influenced Rock ‘N’ Roll. Now I know why it’s called the Camden Crawl… although crawling around the Artrocker stage was all you needed.

Before heading back to Artrocker Towers from my recent trip to LA I was lucky enough to see the LA Galaxy for a second time and witnessed my first-ever trademark David Beckham strike – it was quite something. Earlier the same day I’d seen the LA Dodgers ‘hit some home runs’ at the baseball, but after some seemingly uneventful action I told my American friends that I would leave them to their “game of rounders” and “go watch some real athletes” – I thought darts was pretty low impact, but the ground covered in walking up and down the oche to retrieve your darts is pretty labour intensive compared to baseball.

Worn out from all my sporting activities – watching can be just as draining, you know – relief came in the form of a few ‘tall boy’ Pabst Blue Ribbons (affectionately known as ‘PBR’, should you ever want to order one) whilst watching Lee Ranaldo from New York seminal alt rockers Sonic Youth playing an intimate solo gig at Satellite in Silverlake. I’ve never seen quite so many awesome Fender Jaguar guitars in one gig – he must have used a different one on almost every song. The guy’s sound is truly amazing and he drew a crowd that covered every generation, which is testament to Sonic Youth’s continuing influence on new music – true legends. Local LA band Nightmare Air also proved to be a surprisingly good opener with some serious Smashing Pumpkins rock’n’roll sounds.

Nightmare Air

It may only be April but May is soon upon us and with it comes festival season.

We’re getting ready for Liverpool Music Week, our first stop on the festival train, where we have a stella line-up of bands playing our Artrocker stage as we curate three nights at the Kazimier. Already confirmed to play our venue are Death In Vegas, Toy, White Denim, Two Wounded Birds, White Arrows, Revere and Eugene McGuinness, which we are super excited about.

With Artrocker stages at Camden Crawl, The Great Escape and 1234 already confirmed, plus a few more irons in the fire, it’s going to be a busy summer for us at Artrocker, so I better go dig out my wellies and dry out my tent now!

Lee Ranaldo at Glasslands Williamsburg Brooklyn NY Dec 16 2011

Artrocker’s Fly53 Blog #1 - by Marc

Welcome to Artrocker’s debut blog for Fly53, our partners in crime for a third year running as we marry together the worlds of fashion and music.

However, it’s been a bit more of a sporting theme in these parts this last week as I took myself off to LA after the early British summer left almost as quickly as it came. I found myself pitch side at the LA Galaxy with just a strip of grass separating me from the footballing legend, David Beckham – check out the number 23 just over my left shoulder. The Galaxy lost but the Irish Goal Machine (although not whilst he was playing for West Ham, I’m sad to say!) Robbie Keane bagged a goal and it was a very different experience from going to Upton Park on a wet and windy Tuesday night.

And my sporting week continued with a trip to the LA Clippers vs LA Lakers at the Staples Center. Games don’t come much bigger than this in LA, but Arsenal vs Tottenham it was not, as we were treated to a Cirque du Soleil half-time performance, countless competitions, and cheerleading displays, plus images of Billy Crystal sitting courtside beamed onto the big screen every 10 minutes – the Clippers don’t have quite the same amount of celebrity fans as the Lakers! I did see some music though as LA natives The Airborne Toxic Event took to the centre court to perform the national anthem – why don’t you get Chas & Dave doing ‘God Save the Queen’ before kick-off at White Hart Lane?

Coincidentally, I got myself into the LA spirit even before jetting off as the new Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes album landed in the Artrocker office just last week. With its low-fi, West Coast merry tunes it would make even the greyest skies shine. We shall all be wearing flowers in our hair by the end of the summer if Alex Ebert and his motley crew of musical vagabonds have their way… although I’m told the more chilled out ‘Here’ will be quickly followed by a more rocking album. I can’t wait.

Its Coachella time and there’s lots of bands playing intimate LA shows over the next week so I hope to catch The Horrors, Kasabian and Arctic Monkeys by the time I talk to you next.

I’m off for some tacos now before returning to fish ‘n’ chip suppers next week.

Settled in the Fly53 Soho showroom, Joey sports a rather well suited Fly53 ‘I heart Chaos’ tee. The conversation goes from football to politics, to the band. An interesting mix.. its worth a read, make sure you grab the November Issue of Artrocker.

We work in conjunction with Artrocker to produce our bi-annual Zine and they had a chance to talk to Joey Barton and his band The Book Club, so we offered up our Soho HQ as a space that they could take over for the interview. Have to say, the guys were super nice. We don’t want to let on much about what they discussed, or what will be in the article, you’ll have to wait until next month’s issue of Artrocker for that, but we can tell you that the pictures and interview will be interesting.

When they did the photoshoot outside there was a large gang of people that just wanted to shake Joey’s hand and call him a legend. There was quite a bit of traffic stopping and double taking.

So anyway – have a listen to the music below and look out for something special on our twitter tomorrow, as well as the December issue of Artrocker out Mid Nov. Artrocker online – click here

We even blurred the photos (deliberately…) so you will have to see the interview to see it all properly…

FLY53 and Artrocker Magazine team up to bring you a storming 45 minute sound extravaganza. We sample from the best of the new kids on the block, and take some finer examples from world of the musical legends to bring you a glorious love affair of fantastic tunes.

The latest ‘Resist This’ album is easily one of the most diverse, genre-spanning albums that we’ve put together, with our friends at Artrocker, so far! With tracks ranging from indie heroes Darwin Deez, noise masters Pulled Apart By Horses and trip hop aficionado Tricky there is something to delight everyone’s ear, no matter how finely tuned.

As well as our underground warriors, there are some more chart-friendly tunes in the form of We Are Scientists’ ‘Nice Guys’ and The Charlatans’ ‘Sincerity’. These tracks showcase the latest works from the two legends of the indie-rock world. Speaking of legends, the latest single from Nick Cave and Co’s ‘Grinderman 2′ album ‘Heathen Child’ adds a welcome touch of musical royalty to the whole CD.

However, this is just a taste of what’s on the musical menu this season, to find out more and to get your hands on one of our fantastic CD’s, pick up your very own FLY53 fanzine from all of our stockists and they can also be mailed out directly to you, so if you want one, drop us a message!

Alternatively, you can read our FLY53 fanzine HERE

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