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What Went On Round Our House…

There’s not a whole lot of examples where the sequel is better than the original but the House Party 2 – not the 1991 ‘hilarious’ film featuring Kid ‘n’ Play but our own take on domestic revelry featuring cheese and pineapple on sticks – seems to have garnered some pretty impressive reviews.

“More of the same from the people who put on the best New Year party we’ve seen in years” The Guardian Guide.

“the one place that can bring back the memories of some of your most treasured teenage nights but with none of the curfew issues” The Manchester Evening News

Sticking with the film analogy that’s wearing as thin as a Hollywood leading lady, the cast list was pretty impressive too. Our papps grabbed shots of members of Elbow, The View, The Courteeners and Kid British variously dancing, cavorting and propping up the bar and we’d got all our favourite DJs under the one roof for one night only.

The doors opened at 8pm when our 12 hours of preparations were completed (all hail the magical powers of The Ruby Lounge’s Sarah) – the teenager’s bedroom sported some groovy new space themed wallpaper alongside the videos, cars and health and safety friendly dartboard. Heck, this time we even has a real life ‘Mum’ perched in bed with rollers, dressing gown and multiple copies of TV Quick. There was a steady succession of overly refreshed party goers taking a power nap on the bed, only to rise Lazarus-like to get stuck back into proceedings by jumping on the beds.

Ornaments got broken and things got nicked – all £3,000 worth of the Boxfresh T shirts, and bags as well as the England shirts, hoodies and training tops from Umbro. Eagle eyed Will Cooper decoded the cryptic message on the postcard from Jamaica on the side of the fridge and figured it was the VIP Kendal Tickets and the lucky person who bought to 100th Jack Daniel’s got the tickets for the JD Set gig featuring Tim Burgess, John Cooper Clarke and The Whip.

The garden was a spring like blast of tulips and daffodils with Ciaran’s hand painted hanging baskets and the tree that just about survived the last shindig. Musical highlights were supplied from the likes of Good Vibrations who partied like it was 1969 and Mind on Fire dropping the brass band version of Snoop Dogg’s finest hour. The Wasted Little DJs not only brought their favourite records but also a bag of gorgeous vintage dresses – one of which was seen on a boy in Burger King at 4AM – Nice!

Will Cooper winning himself two tickets to Kendal Calling festival!

Loose Fit smashed it with their DJ/Live hybrid thang showcasing their new tracks that have been remixed by Greg Wilson and Envy and Eddy Temple-Morris delivered on their promise of something unique for an MC DJ mash up of her new album and his Dance Rocks remixes. The London contingent in the shape Allez Allez and Chop Shop arrived en masse in their very own minibus and brought a little bit of what makes them so popular at Fabric and Cargo – their first gig where the catering is ham sandwiches and space raiders and served in our best 70s crockery.

Any fears that Easter over indulgence would affect anyone’s stamina were put to one side as Juicy and Murkage took over from 2am till chucking out time with some of the best party sounds you could wish for. As quickly as we could sneak more beer into the fridge it was snaffled by the sell out crowd and hot cross buns couldn’t be re-stocked fast enough.

People filed out with everything from washing baskets to all our family snaps and we had two hours of sweeping up the broken ornaments and crushed monster munch till we emerged blinking into the daylight for our walk of shame in all our party frocks and newly acquired garments. Keep your eyes peeled for next time the folks are away…

easter dancing Easter colour busy Easter boxfresh sam dan

Add Comments posted by Same Teens on April 10th, 2010

categories: Events, Music, News, Press

The Growing Pains of Teen Music pioneers…

Here at Same Teens we don’t limit ourselves to the confines of Manchester, we like to get involved with Teens all around the place. If you’re doing something interesting, you’re doing it with passion, and you’re doing it with teen spirit then it’s all gravy to us.

We heard some mutual friends down in Exeter were sorting out a night of new music and that another were starting band, as it turned out said band (now going under the name of Pablo Picasso) were being put on the line up for ‘Freshly Baked New Music’ at Exeter’s premier art-y venue The Phoenix we couldn’t help but automatically think of getting diary accounts, Adrian Mole style, of two sets of teens trying to do something new, bold, and most likely all time-consuming and money-losing. Ah well. As is the true face of the music industry, it all starts here…

Blaise is promoting the new music event, and Henry talks about the trauma of actually trying to write a song. Delve in… (all artwork by teens too)

Pablo Picasso artwork by Henry Johns

THE BAND
Aspirations? How many aspirations can a teen in a band have among the dirty sea of today’s industry?

Upon entering the household of the drummer (of whom’s parents believe me to be a smack dealing animal of some sort (maybe dog)), and taking my place on an amp, the silence commenced; the dreaded, inevitable silence always prior to any musical genius. After the practise had truly began, pistons started moving. A drone could see the confidence seeping back into our veins.

The ridiculousness drove us through the evening along with a bare few fairy cakes, each of us vouching that being hammered, indisputably, would prevent us from being able to put things together properly. Guitars seemed intact for the time-being and the ability to improvise was undoubtably a must. As we came to the decision that we’d entwine the whole set together with the manic chorus of “The trees”, I could certainly imagine the crowd losing their minds along with the burdens of embarrassment always strung along with dancing sober…or maybe they’ll all be drunk anyway. As the session continued I couldn’t help but find myself losing momentum due to the Jay Reatard-esque screams and jives; the death of the 29 year old and his enviable music hadn’t left me untouched, I suppose.

As the session was nearing an end, Sam’s announcement of “I’ve got an idea” was music to my ears, much like sounds subsequent to it. The song laid itself in front of me: the idea so bizarre, the chance of a frowning mop droning around in the crowd suddenly plummeted. A sunbeam suddenly fell on the equally anti-aquiescent Kaossilator from Korg and huge wheels began to turn. Unfortunately every steam train has to reach the end of its tracks and the looming morning forced us to come to a halt and part ways.

So, there I found myself, nearing my destination and nearing the gig; Beginning the band. We are definitely not like other bands, which is exactly what I longed for. The bottom line: need more practise. Back next month.
Henry JohnsTHE EVENT
When I first thought of the idea of putting together a gig at a local venue last November, it was fuelled merely by a slight annoyance at the limited number of opportunities for local, young bands to play live, but there was no real drive, no real ambition, no real hope that it would ever take place. However since that moment it has snowballed into an event that will (all fingers-crossed) go ahead within the next two months.

Now that it is an actuality, the stress has started to set in for several reasons:

· Will the bands fall to pieces and have a collective panic attack on stage?

· Will the (ever growing) costs overtake the potential revenue?

· Will I even sell any tickets?

I’ve had to think about public liability insurance, booking fees, technician hire, stewarding, venue hire, dates etcetera etcetera…at time it would appear easier just to stop, and get on with revising for gcses like everyone else is. But I guess its that challenge that keeps me going- I told myself I’d make it happen before the end of Easter, and since I settled the date of 16^th April a few weeks back, I’m over halfway there- the end is in sight. Just gotta hope I can hold it together until then.
Blaise Radley

Event poster design by Romek Harley Boyer

View Comment posted by Same Teens on February 28th, 2010

categories: Collaborations, Masterclasses, Music, Press, Uncategorized

Love and Disaster

Love and Disaster group shot landscape

Picture: Sebastian Matthes

Around our NYE house party; inbetween the awesome free clothes, beer, pizza’s and pineapple & cheese cocktail sticks you might’ve also found something very exciting. It’s about 10 inches in diameter, black, plastic and came in a beautiful gatefold parcel. It was the ‘Love and Disaster 1′ vinyl, of course. Packing the uprising Manchester zeitgeist onto the music lovers’ favourite format. Including tracks from Airship, Dutch Uncles, Jo Rose and an Everything Everything remix of Delphic – this is the first essentail compilation of the year.

We at Same Teens hooked up with the artists featured to get in on this homeground talent and asked them some questions. Catch ‘em while you can.

Delphic

Delphic

What would you say was the love of your life?
If music wasn’t the love of your life, then there is no way you could do it at a professional level as it is completely all-consuming.

What’s the biggest disaster you’ve been involved in?
As Delphic, we haven’t experienced a disaster as of yet, but we don’t like getting on small planes…

What was the highlight of 09 for the band and what’re your hopes for 2010?
In terms of 2010, our history has, in a way, already been written. The album comes out at the start of January and then we go off on tour for about 8 months. We want to do this album justice as we put a lot of work into it, but we will also be looking forward to the next Delphic record.

If the track on the EP was a film what would the tagline for it be?
‘Being the adventures of a young man whose principal interests are rape, ultra-violence and Beethoven.’

What 3 ingredients do you think Manchester gives to musicians here?
A passionate local scene, something to live up to, and people are always looking for the next good thing coming out of a city that has produced so much.

Dutch Uncles

What would you say was the love of your life?
Depressing questions would be our first love, but as a band we share a mutual appreciation for the compositions of steve reich. The biggest disaster we have been involved in would be our upbringings, naturally.

What was the highlight of 09 for the band and what’s the hopes for 2010?
Our Highlight of 2009 was opening for Maximo Park at the Manchester Apollo in October. It was the first time we’d all been nervous in a long time, and felt like our first gig again.

If the track on the EP was a film what would the tagline for it be?
Five bands. One cup.

What 3 ingredients do you think Manchester gives to musicians here?
A dash of feudalistic heritage with a spoonful of decent venues and a light sprinkling of impossible standards.

Everything Everything

What would you say was the love of your life?
The biggest loves of our lives are our friendships (with each other and with others). And music, inevitably.

What’s the biggest disaster you’ve been involved in?
The Biggest disaster we’ve been involved with is NOW; being alive at a Fairly Bad Time For Humanity

What was the highlight of 09 for the band and what’re your hopes for 2010?
Reading Festival was great. We did a stripped-down set at Union Chapel in London for Mencap with a string quintet that was genuinely special. We wrote the arrangements and string parts ourselves which felt like an achievement. 2010: A great record is paramount, plus lots of fun touring in exotic places.

If the track on the EP was a film what would the tagline for it be?
I would like to quote my favourite ever tagline from universally-panned and instantly-forgotten Marky Mark Wahlberg vehicle ‘The Event’: “An Event appears to be happening.” Glorious in its total meaninglessness.

What 3 ingredients do you think Manchester gives to musicians here?
A sense of community that can make you feel quite safe and valued. A thriving and cooperative infrastructure. A gradually emerging scene that acknowledges the city’s many past glories but doesn’t rest on those laurels. I think that the scene has been neatly encapsulated by Love & Disaster on this 10″.

Jo Rose
My cat.

What would you say was the love of your life?

What’s the biggest disaster you’ve been involved in?
My cat running away.

What was the highlight of 09 for the band and what’s the hopes for 2010?
The highlight of 2009 was my cat, but he ran away. I hope he will come back in 2010.

If the track on the EP was a film what would the tagline for it be?
“IT was a west-coast american state, overused as a symbol for the prospect of absolution and peace. HE was an excessively introverted romantic who wrote a song employing this symbol. THEIRS was a relationship that would…. somethingorother”.
I can’t finish that.

What 3 ingredients do you think Manchester gives to musicians here?
Sand, sun and surf.

Airship

What would you say was the love of your life?
I would say the love of my life is the art of great LP Record.

What’s the biggest disaster you’ve been involved in?
The biggest disaster I’ve been involved in is the decline of the Record and pop music as a whole.

What was the highlight of 09 for the band and what’re your hopes for 2010?
I would say my biggest highlight of 2009 was playing Leeds festival and expecting about 10 people and walking out to see thousands that totally blew me away. My hopes for 2010 are to make the best and exciting album we can possibly make at this time and take it out to explore the world.

If the track on the EP was a film what would the tagline for it be?
“The Younger The Better”

What 3 ingredients do you think Manchester gives to musicians here?
Rain, Trains and Automobiles

Add Comments posted by Same Teens on January 12th, 2010

categories: Collaborations, Mix Tapes, Music, News, Press

Flavour magazine – Review of Volume in Silence LP

Received this earlier today and I wanted to share it with you all…

Please click here

Thanks.

Add Comments posted by GREEDS on December 7th, 2009

categories: Music, Press, Uncategorized

Emerging talent: The Darlingtons

The Darlingtons

Being based in Manchester, the beating heart of the music industry in contrast to London’s industrial cogs of it, we normally don’t have to go that far to find great new music. That is until The Darlingtons headed up from middle Somerset (via one of our contributors), with their recent EP ‘Glitch’. Being described as somewhere in between Echo and the Bunnymen and U2 (before all that God persona and ‘feed the world stuff’ kicked in), with a hint of recent euphoric bands such as The Temper Trap. So everything that made indie worth noting back in the day before it was a cursed word. They’ll remind your dad of the best bits of the 80s, and with youthful energy on their side will give us young ‘uns a new up coming band to relate to. Best of the both worlds then, welcome these new darlings onto the scene then. No pun intended.

Below is a link to the video to the title track of their EP, which was filmed in three days, and, as the video states, barely any budget.

The Darlingtons: Glitch

Same Teens

Add Comments posted by Same Teens on November 30th, 2009

categories: Music, Press, Video

Small talk with Mikill Pane

Mikill Pane @ TOTR

Mikill Pane is a rapper from London, TOTR favourite and all round funny guy. We recently caught up with him for some ‘Small Talk’.

Coke or Pepsi?

Pepsi (I like confusing cocaine dealers).

Limewire or iTunes?

Limewire when I feel wicked and iTunes when I remember that karma is a motherf***er like Oedipus.

Cinema or DVD?

Cinema with my little Chinese mate and his video camera = DVD.

KFC or PFC?

KFC. Tastes better than the real thing. Authentic chickens are slacking.

Dizzee Rascal or Wiley?

Dizzee…but I think them two should kiss and make up. There’d be no Dizzee or Tinchy without Wiley. Obviously their parents paid a major part but Wiley seemed to take them under his wing.

Magazines or Blogs?

You can get porn blogs?!

iPhone or Blackberry?

Neither. Nokia E71, thanks. I don’t want an exploding phone nor a phone known for its defective balls.

Westwood or Semtex?

Hmmm…Westwood for the irritation yet entertainment factor.

Skinny Jeans or Baggy Jeans?

Skinny jeans, man. Apologies to all to the Hip-Hop fans that think I’m disobeying a golden rule. Baggy clothes are obviously one of the elements…

You can catch Mikill Pane at our next TOTR event the ‘Xmas Special’ on Dec 4th. Mikill Pane will also be featuring on our compilation album which is dropping on the same day so look out for that.

To keep up to date with Mikill Pane check out his myspace or follow him on twitter.

Add Comments posted by T.O.T.R on November 18th, 2009

categories: Music, Press, Uncategorized

Souls Of Mischief Interview

16.SOM - SOM3

16 years since their classic hit 93 Til Infinity, we catch up with Souls Of Mischief as they drop by London for their European tour.

Souls of Mischief are the stuff of hip-hop legend. You’ve either heard them or you haven’t, there’s rarely a middle ground. Hailing from Oakland, California the four strong crew formed back in the early nineties. Tajai and A-Plus met when they were just eight at Elementary school and picked up other members Phesto and Opio during their school years, forming Souls of Mischief officially when they were in Junior High. They erupted onto the scene with the now classic, ‘93 Til Infinity’ on jive records in 1993, which catapulted them into the spotlight and now firmly holds it’s own in the Hip-Hop hall of fame…

Read the full interview here.

Image: Charlie Whatley

Add Comments posted by Hot 110 on November 16th, 2009

categories: Press

The Independent: Are today’s black youth really influenced by underground music?

ChockABlock - (Matt Benson)

Last year, journalist Dotun Adebayo had written a piece for The Sun about listening to grime/rap music for 12 hours and after he was left feeling violently angry, almost as if he could have knifed someone, I personally think he was a bit over the top, but I would soon have to question it myself. I re-visited this topic when earlier this month a young man by the name of Nathan Harris, 16, was sent down for life due to committing two murders on fellow young people. He was said to have been caught on the social networking site Facebook, boasting about what he did to his victims by putting his violent rap lyrics up on the site. The report then went on to say that Nathan was a big fan of guns and violent music, which made me ask myself; does underground music really influence the minds and actions of our black British youth?

Read the rest of this article over at The Independent: HERE

Add Comments posted by JP on October 27th, 2009

categories: Music, News, Press

Meet Meleka

When it comes to Funky, I think we’re all skanked out. It’s now time for the ladies to take the spolight with their sexy and soulful bangers. In last month’s SUPER SUPER I wrote a feature about some of the first ladies of funky and how they’re going to take over the world. I also recently caught up with Meleka to find out what she’s been up to. With her debut single GO set to be released on the 26th Ocotber it seems it’s all, well…GO for her these days.

21 year-old Meleka from North West London was born to be involved in the music scene. “My dad was producer in the late 80’s early 90’s for reggae and soul artists like Janet Kay. I always had a flair for music, dancing, performing so it was kind of predetermined” she says.

Her first single Go has made a scene in the world of music videos as it involves Meleka killing her boyfriend! “Doing the video was so much fun. It was directed by Ben Jones at Davey Inc. who have also done videos for people like The Streets and Lily Allen. I was actually handcuffed in the car to add more realism because obviously if you were arrested you’d be handcuffed” says Meleka. The song itself is pretty self-explanatory, “It’s about when you’re with someone and it’s not working and out and they just have to leave, they have to go. Exactly what it’s saying is exactly what it means”. It’s impact on the clubbing scene is most evident is the way it has post heartbreak raver girls in nightclubs skankin’ out and screaming at the tops of their voices “GOOOOO HOMEEEE… I DON’T WANNA BEEEE WITH YOUUUUUUUU”. (Being one of said girls I can assure you it’s very liberating…)

Last year Meleka won Hugo Urban Rules – a music competition which allowed her to open for Estelle and which helped her find her managers and in turn enabled the single to be released on a promotional basis. The Crazy Cousinz remix was probably what made the track so successful on the club scene. “Working with Crazy Cousinz was really cool. Paleface just let me be myself and be creative,” says Meleka.

She has already recorded a number of tracks and has explored a number of different music styles. “I have some pop songs, some more soulful ones, I have one called My Life Song which has more acoustic sound. I’m currently looking for new inspiration and buying albums by people like Madonna, Kings of Leon, the Beegees, even Abba. I’m trying to get into people that the industry consider as being the best,” says Meleka. As an up and comer in the UK music scene Meleka hopes to work on an album and see how far her music can take her. “People like Chipmunk, Ironik and NDubz are all doing really well and it’s very encouraging for the up and coming people like myself.” I’m sure we can look forward to great things from Meleka.

Make sure you get your hands on acopy of the single which is released on the 26th of this month.

Add Comments posted by Loukia on October 16th, 2009

categories: Music, Press

Zigfird – Von – Underbelly

Hi all, our next gig is as near as this Friday/9th/Oct/09

Come on down to 11 Hoxton Sq on Friday evening to catch us and others, rocking out and drinking till we drop!

Check the Below flyer for details.

By the way you got to be quick if you want cheap tickets. Door price is a stupid amount!

Zigfrid

Add Comments posted by The Winter Kicks on October 6th, 2009

categories: Events, Events, Music, News, News, Press

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