http://www.spannered.org/blog/ Music, art, film and literature from outside the mainstream bubble, a platform for writers. Spread a little mp3 love. en-gb Copyright 2007 Spannered. All Rights Reserved. Fri, 25 Jul 2008 00:00:00 GMT 240 http://www.spannered.org/images/skins/spannered/RSS.jpg http://www.spannered.org/ http://www.spannered.org/blog/1421/ http://www.spannered.org/blog/1421/ Certainly no shortage of festivals in the UK this year — or anywhere else by the looks of it. However, if the thought of flat pear cider, James Blunt, pikeys, mud and paying the best part of ten quid for a foil dish of veggie slop doesn't pop your cork, allow us to suggest a jolly to Bristol's Venn Festival — an ever-expanding, multi-venue annual fixture in the city's calendar, that pulls together a line-up so fresh the flyers almost wriggle. 2008's event inhabits some of the city's coolest venue spaces — Bristol harbourside being the epicentre of activity. Highlights include Mexican laptop legend Murcof spacing … Fri, 30 May 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://www.spannered.org/blog/1422/ http://www.spannered.org/blog/1422/ Quick heads up for anyone who's been checking Camilo Rocha's Globalistas interviews on the site, and who happens to be stuck at home this evening (or tomorrow morning, depending whether you're stateside or not...) next to a broadband pipe and with time to kill. Proprietor of the excellent Beat Diaspora blog, Greg Scruggs (who last year contributed a fascinating piece on Rio's Pan American Games to Spannered's archive), is tonight continuing Harvard Radio Broadcasting's great tradition of all-night-long … Fri, 30 May 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://www.spannered.org/blog/1407/ http://www.spannered.org/blog/1407/ Not content with making some of coolest dance music on the planet, Vienna's Stereotyp does a very nifty job of demo-ing Masayuki Akamatsu's iPhone app akaRemote and artificialeyes.tv's i3L midi bridge code. … Mon, 05 May 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://www.spannered.org/blog/1392/ http://www.spannered.org/blog/1392/ Ok, so last week we finally got around to doing our first mailout of the year. If you missed it and feel left out, it's just here for you.   If you'd like a relatively bullshit-free breakdown of what's new on Spannered delivered in your inbox once in a blue moon, head over to the homepage and sign yerself up! … Tue, 11 Mar 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://www.spannered.org/blog/1371/ http://www.spannered.org/blog/1371/ Want to give the one you love something truly special this Valentines Day?   Well, Spannered's mentor in all things to do with spanners, the delightful Sheila Dibnah, is Ebaying off a very special spanner given to her by her late husband, the great Fred Dibnah, as a Valentines gift in 1998 (the year of their marriage). Along with raising money for the worthy cause that is Bolton Hospice, the auction is also an awareness-raiser for the plight of Fred's memorial in his home town of Bolton. Get your bids in quick — why say it with flowers when you … Mon, 11 Feb 2008 00:00:00 GMT http://www.spannered.org/blog/1327/ http://www.spannered.org/blog/1327/ Spannered is one year old. And what better way to celebrate than by relaunching with a total facelift.  For the past month or so we've had our gimps slicing away strips of pixels and fiddling around under the bonnet, and voilà: Spannered's second incarnation. All the previously featured content is here, but hopefully it's much easier to find everything now. There are plenty of additions, too: you may already have stumbled upon Maga Bo's huge Sambacana Brazilian Music Archive, and we've also set up Spannered's music blog (contributions to which are already trickling in from around the planet). Additionally, we've introduced a site feed to the homepage to help steer you towards the latest news and content, as well as some older items … Sat, 15 Dec 2007 00:00:00 GMT http://www.spannered.org/blog/1274/ http://www.spannered.org/blog/1274/ The third instalment of Spannered's Oddcast series has finally landed. Number three was scheduled to be an exclusive mix of new and unreleased material from Bristol-based musicians, but that's still being cobbled together... so we've a lovely selection of Brazilian music for you instead.   Compiled by Spannered's Al Fresco, who recently returned to the UK from an extended stay in São Paulo, the selection is mostly bossa nova, samba rock, soul and funk goodies from the '60s and '70s. So, pour yourself a caipirinha, kick back and dig in! … Mon, 29 Oct 2007 00:00:00 GMT http://www.spannered.org/blog/1267/ http://www.spannered.org/blog/1267/ As the interweb becomes ever more blog orientated, here at Spannered we stumble craply on with ours, posting with all the frequency of a king penguin's breeding cycle. Occasionally, however, something comes along that shakes us from our virtual slumber — such as this, which is probably the coolest thing on the whole web. Don't say we never give you anything. Despite having nothing at all to do with kung fu or afros, something else that's rea … Wed, 10 Oct 2007 00:00:00 GMT http://www.spannered.org/blog/1250/ http://www.spannered.org/blog/1250/ All those lucky souls who have signed up to our mailing list will have received today our latest mailout — a functional and relatively bullshit-free piece of correspondence rounding up what's new on the site since the last time we bothered to put one together.   For an overview of Spannered's latest news and content, click here to read our September mailout in all it's glory. And if you'd like one of those soiling your inbox every couple of months, head over to our homepage and sign on up! … Tue, 04 Sep 2007 00:00:00 GMT http://www.spannered.org/blog/1251/ http://www.spannered.org/blog/1251/ Do you remember magazines? You know, those paper things with words and pictures in, which you used to read on the bus or train, or sitting on the loo? Well, here at Spannered we are great believers that, despite the bloody internet following you around everywhere these days, the printed word is far from a moribund format. And Woofah Magazine — a soon-to-launch independently produced music fanzine — looks promising. Angled squarely at a bassbin worshipping readership, its pages are set to cover dancehall, grime, dubstep, dub, bashment, roots, 'and all points in between'. It also has some of the biggest brains in bassbin-related blogland chipping in with contributions; and its publishers assure … Tue, 04 Sep 2007 00:00:00 GMT http://www.spannered.org/blog/1246/ http://www.spannered.org/blog/1246/ Spannered regulars may remember that we visited Rio de Janeiro back in April to find out about the internet radio project being set up in the favela of Parada de Lucas for Brazilian NGO/cultural movement AfroReggae. Well, the station is now up and running, with student workshops in full force and plenty of cool content to listen to on the AfroReggaeDigital site. Another 'Fevela Feva' station fundraiser is on the cards for 2 October at Guanabara in London (flyer below). The likes of Felix B from Basement Jaxx, Fabio and Grooverid … Mon, 20 Aug 2007 00:00:00 GMT http://www.spannered.org/blog/1240/ http://www.spannered.org/blog/1240/ Put some beers on ice and crack open your best wholegrain mustard, because Spannered has a special edition of the Oddcast soon to come out of the oven. Comprised solely of new music from the city of Bristol (UK, that is, rather than one of the 20 or so Bristols casually splashed about the US), this was originally on the menu for earlier in the year, but now it's actually coming together — and once again we'd like to put feelers out for folk wishing to contribute. Stirring the pot is local scrote Punksi. He's been busy scampering around finding all the ingredients necessary to make a dish so potent it'll have Heston Blu … Mon, 06 Aug 2007 00:00:00 GMT http://www.spannered.org/blog/1233/ http://www.spannered.org/blog/1233/ Tim Claxton, the photographer and filmmaker who recently contributed galleries of Stockholm street art to Spannered, is helping put together a festival of short films, to take place in the Swedish capital on October 27. The festival team are inviting contributions — drama, experimental, documentary and animation works will be considered. If you're a filmmaker (and we know from our mailing list there are a few of you) and would like to get in touch, you can email weblinks to them, or send DVDs of your work to the address below. Film Scenario Hantverkargatan 78 112 38 Sto … Mon, 23 Jul 2007 00:00:00 GMT http://www.spannered.org/blog/1232/ http://www.spannered.org/blog/1232/ Although somewhat overshadowed in the news by the worst aviation tragedy in Brazilian history, in São Paulo on Tuesday, Rio de Janeiro has been a world focus for the past week — with the opening of the 2007 Pan American Games. The Games have come under heavy scrutiny across the host country, with spending soaring high over budget and small-scale protests kicking off around Rio against measures implemented by the municipal government. There are, however, bigger concerns, such as Rio's military police stepping up their invasions of the city's favelas, and the government's failure to deliver on promises made to many favela co … Fri, 20 Jul 2007 00:00:00 GMT http://www.spannered.org/blog/1230/ http://www.spannered.org/blog/1230/ We don't make a habit of using Spannered's blog as a clubbing calendar ('Why the hell not? You don't use it for a fat lot else', we hear you cry...) — however, we didn't need our editorial arm twisting too much to give this a quick mention.   Friday 20 July sees Spannered associate, demon tune selector and all-round good egg DJ C dropping into London to large up the dance with local raggamuffins Heatwave. The party runs from 9pm-2am at The Pool, Curtain Road, and won't cost you a penny (unless you want to get drunk that is, or decide to trip over to Brick Lane for a cheeky salt beef bagel). More information can be found at … Thu, 19 Jul 2007 00:00:00 GMT http://www.spannered.org/blog/1222/ http://www.spannered.org/blog/1222/ Music legend does mammoth Q&A with fans on a poker forum. … Tue, 10 Jul 2007 00:00:00 GMT http://www.spannered.org/blog/1221/ http://www.spannered.org/blog/1221/ A quick heads-up on some audio picks from the web over the past few weeks... … Tue, 03 Jul 2007 00:00:00 GMT http://www.spannered.org/blog/1212/ http://www.spannered.org/blog/1212/ You don't always need a good reason to throw a party, but here is one. Tuesday 3 July sees Cargo in London host a fundraising event to mark the launch of Medical Justice, a charity devoted to promoting the rights of those detained in the UK's notorious refugee detention centres. Operating without funding and staffed entirely by volunteers, the organisation includes medics, legal representatives, health campaigners, ex-detainees and detainee visitors, among others. Medical Justice provides potentially life saving independent legal and medical advice to individual detainees and attempts to improve conditions in detention centres. The launch party features hip hop, reggae, dancehall, Asian & … Mon, 11 Jun 2007 00:00:00 GMT http://www.spannered.org/blog/1211/ http://www.spannered.org/blog/1211/ The past month has seen a fair few new faces cropping up about the site, so allow us to make some introductions... The man responsible for the recent slew of live music reviews from the city of São Paulo is Martin Longley, seasoned scribe for The Wire and The Independent, and sites such as bbc.co.uk and The Stirrer. Martin is currently hanging out in Fes, taking in the sights and sounds of the 13th annual World Sacred Music Festival. Lucky git. Those who frequent the darker corners of London's electronic music scene will most likely have bu … Mon, 04 Jun 2007 00:00:00 GMT http://www.spannered.org/blog/1208/ http://www.spannered.org/blog/1208/ Better late than never. Yes, the second instalment of Spannered's Oddcast series is finally with us. Not so much mixed as glued together with burbs and nob gags, Oddcast 2 stumbles drunkenly through the door courtesy of Spannered collaborator Uberdog. There are lots of goodies in there: Wevie Stonder, Exile, Squirrel Nut Zippers and Rolf Harris, to name a few. If you've got 24 minutes of your life to spare, we recommend you head over to Radio Spannered and give it a listen. We mentioned in Spannered's blog a while back that the second Oddcast was to be a 'Bristol' special. Well, clearly that didn't happen, but its still in the pipeline. Watch this space. If you're a Bristol-based artist and you'd like to submit a track f … Fri, 01 Jun 2007 00:00:00 GMT