Super Nova Tickle Institute

See that's how easy it is to be psychedelic nowadays.

Thats if your definition of psychedelia is whacking on some tie dyed clothing, spouting nonsense about dreamcatchers and having the ability to string random words together.

Britain is currently gearing itself up for its 15th summer of love... this comes hot on the heels of last summers 14th summer of love both soundtracked by Ketamine.

If you want to get involved then simply purchase one of the following:

1. A MGMT album.
2. A colourful headband (or any kind of headband really).
3. A penchant for buzz words like psychedelic
4. And a Topman card.

And if you live by the coastline... youre laughin (theres nothing more psychedelic than standing on a beach).



If your reading this its probably too late to get on the bandwagon this year... but dont worry theres always the 16th summer of love.

Dumb N Bass in ya face... Comin down like a ten tonne...

Wait on a sec… How come no one ever realised until after the event that Drum and Bass was rubbish?

Hard to believe it now but there was a period in the 90’s when everyone thought Drum and Bass was the future of music.

Even huge established artists lost their minds for a moment and tried their hand at it. If you don’t believe me, then check out this clip from Bowie.

I can just imagine him in the studio with two nobend DnB producers with them both going, ‘No Dave, DnB tracks don’t have a middle 8’ and him crying into crush velvet alien robes. So far away indeed…

I’m sure at one point I even read an interview with Laurie Anderson and she was saying some nonsense like, ‘Oh yeah Lou’s got really into Drum and Bass now’.

HA! Can you imagine it? I think I’d rather listen to Metal Machine Music.

Luckily it never seemed to surface and eventually DnB ended up nothing more than a jingle on a BnQ advert…



Oh and the soundtrack to my nightmares.

The different levels of indie band fame…

It’d be shit being famous. I don’t mean generic indie band famous more Lily Allen chatting nonsense in the tabloids famous.

Now don’t get me wrong having barely legal teenager idolise and throw themselves at me and beg me to help fulfil there ‘My life is like Skins’ fantasies wouldn’t be too bad but I don’t know if I could put up with getting pestered in the street by muppets who think they know me just because they’ve seen me on TV or read something I wrote on the internet.



Then again maybe if I didn’t write so much shit on the Internet?

Someday you will find me caught beneath a landshiiite…

So we were talking the other day and it came to our attention that we hadnt updated the blog in about 6 months... which is a bit slack seeing as how we dont have jobs (well Greggs doesnt count).

Apart from working at Greggs we've mainly been sitting around the house watching daytime TV and eating cereal in our pants.

So there we were sat Watching TV this week when we almost prolapsed at the sight of derivative generic indie band Coulis being interviewed on TV preparing for their big homecoming gig.

Always up for a laugh, down to earth even when they started to make it, always willing to do an interview for us or talking some shit about ‘Ashcroft’.

It seems like only yesterday that you could walk through Widnes town centre and bump into the lads.



Its great to see the guys back in town… see you down the front tonight!

Yo where my squirrels at?

So people keep asking us, 'Hey Extra Mundane, what do two cool guys like yourselves do about from this blog?'

Well normally we just tend to hang around watching TV. However, sometimes we get into such wacky scrapes that they probably wouldn't seem out of place in a sitcom (albeit a particularly rubbish sitcom).

In fact just this week we got stuck in a car.

We also bumped into US Gangster rapper, Akorn who was making the new music video to his recent single Locked In.

And what do you know? He cast us in the video due to our recent experiences.

Method acting or what?!



If you want to find out what else happened to us on that day then please click here.

Extra Mundane V's Extramundane

So this week Extra Mundane caught up with Vegan Spoken Word Electro Rap Duo Extramundane, who are currently promoting their new album Extra Medium.

So guys you’ve been causing a bit of a stir recently with your song Preachin (to the Converted). Can you explain a bit it for our readers?

Yeah it’s basically about preaching… to the converted. So we start off by talking about stuff we like and then we talk about stuff we don’t like, I mean it really does show both sides of the argument. Its also quite condescending and an insult to the audiences level of intelligence.

So would you say you guys are political?

Everything we do is political… hang on I’ve just got to go for a shit.

So where do you sit politically?

Well I’d say we’re in a sort of apathetic middle ground, though we do hate the man.

Would you care to elaborate on that?

Well I mean it could have been a good film but we both feel that the script let it down. And Samuel L Jackson’s abilities as a comic actor were completely wasted.

So to get back to your new album, the titles very clever, can you explain how you came up with it?

Well I wanted to call it Wheat Free Beats but Derek had his heart set on Extra Medium so in true democratic style we flipped a coin for it. Its quite edgy because obviously you can get extra large and extra small but you cant get extra medium. Its basically a paradox.

So your on tour at the moment, is there anything you specifically ask for in your rider?

Well we both have nut allergies so we normally ask for everything to be nut free. But apart from that we also ask for pulses, grains and frozen vegetable sausages.

So final question… the name, did you steal it off us?

No.

Are you sure?

Yes.

Come on…

We didn’t steal it.

I think you did.

Didn’t.

Did.

Didn’t.

Did.

Didn’t.

Did.

Well at least we know how to spell it.


Extramundane will be touring around the UK over the next month to promote their new album. Or alternatively check back here to catch a glimpse of their tour diaries which they will be recording especially for us. Check out the first installment below!

'I'm influenced by Fat Les'

Not content with being the toast of the art world, notorious urban graffiti artist Blankstain is now turning his attention to music.

He said recently, 'I'm really influenced by people like... erm whats his name? You know the guys behind Fat Les. The way they makes the transition between art, comedy, acting and music and yet they manage to master them all. Their truly multi-disciplined artists. Thats what I'm aiming for. Except with crude drawings of cocks and balls and rap music. I've mastered graffiti, now I'd like to try my hand at music. The first song I'm going to release, Word Up I'm Blankstain, is basically my manifesto.'

Blankstain went on to add, 'Its no Fat Les but its easily as good as Swamp Thing.'

Judge for yourselves below!



The only thing Extra Mundane can say is, IS THERE NOTHING THIS GUY CAN'T DO?

Anyway we're off to watch that video again. On our laptop. In the toilet.

The Woes of the 80's Alternative Comedians

You know what I don't understand about 80's Alternative comedians?

Why we're were they all so pissed off with Thatcher?



I mean what's so bad about Carol Thatcher?

Copyrighting all the way to the Blankstain!

It must be awful being a talented urban graffiti artist, with an international reputation, working away on your totally original and groundbreaking images only for some no mark twits to come along and reapproriate your designs on some tacky products

Don't get me wrong its not like I think that Blankstain's work is even that original anyway.



Still I can't believe he's a registered trademark.

Coulis V's Marmelade

So Extra Mundane caught up with generic indie band Coulis this week, who were in the studio putting the finishing touches to their new album, Fifty Years Of Culture – Diluted!

EXTRA MUNDANE: So what would you say your main influences are.

COULIS: Well we like everything from The Beatles to Oasis.

EXTRA MUNDANE: Cool! So how did you come up with the name Coulis?

COULIS: Well originally we were called The Marmalade but our manger said that it was a bit close to The Jam, so we thought, what’s a diluted form of jam? Hence Coulis!

EXTRA MUNDANE: Wow! So on your new album there’s a lot of songs on there that I would describe as deep. Can you elaborate on this please?

COULIS: Sure, it’s basically because we read the encyclopedia a lot so I guess its obviously going to come through in our songs. It just seeped through like osmosis or summat. In fact we've got one song called The Encyclopedia and another one that’s called Philosophy, which is all about thinking and that.

EXTRA MUNDANE: Amazing. So how did you guys meet?

COULIS: Well it’s actually a really interesting story. We both worked in Comet for six months after leaving school and we basically met there on our first day… Our first day! We got on boss and then we started talking about music and we were like 'boss we like the same bands. Wouldn't it be boss if we were in a band or summat.' So we started to write some songs and we were like these are boss. It was like fate of something.

EXTRA MUNDANE: So how do you deal with the accusations that although you sing about drudgery of working class life you don’t really have any real experience of it?

COULIS: Well… we worked in Comet for six months.

We tried to transcribe the rest of the interview but it was so garbled that the only words we could work out were Widnes, Our Kid and Two's on that. So here's the rest of the interview on video (We should have subtitled it.)



You can catch the boiler-faced idiots on their nationwide tour, which starts next month in support of their new album.

Low brow High Tops!

So this week Extra Mundane caught up with Nerd Hop duo Twin Geeks at their mums’ house.

These guys are really creating a lot of buzz right now and are blazing a head of their peers.
Whilst everyone else on the Nerd Hop scene is talking about modern pursuits such as getting text-pested these guys are really carving a niche for themselves by banging on about when mobile phones were the size of a suitcase.

We were going to attempt to ask them some questions but instead they spent the whole time slagging each other off and whittering on about their new haircuts.

Club Wank!

So this weekend Extra Mundane went to uber cool club night Club Wank.

Whilst we were there we bumped into comedian turned actor Quentin Christian Papoosay.
In between frottaging inanimate objects and screaming nonsense in Victorian Mockney slang, Papoosay told us about his growing interest in modern art.
Recently he splashed out by spending £250,000 on an old door that notorious urban Graffiti Artist Blankstain sprayed his, now famous, cock and balls onto.
The floppy hair tit says ‘Blankstain's just so hot right now, everybody wants a piece of him and I’ve got his cock and balls hanging on my wall. The resonance really… resonates.’



And Papoosay's right Blankstain is really hot right now with even Hollywood stars like Chad Fitt saying’ ‘I just really love the way he’s anonymous, its so brave and the way he’s always spraying his cock and balls of stuff, that’s genius.’

Extramundane like us!

So this week Extra Mundane discovered an awesome new band called Extramundane. Coincidences huh!

Anyways, we caught up with them at a service station whilst they were on tour recently promitng their soon to be relaesed debut album, Extra Medium.
This much we know, Vegan Spoken Word Electro will never be the same again.



Remember, you heard about these no talent pricks here first.

Too much mediocrity will kill you... Everytime!

There’s soooo much happening in music right now that its hard to keep up! So I thought to help you out I would list some of my new favourite genres:

1. NERD-HOP: This is a style of Hip-Hop where instead of banging on and on and on about bling, guns and bitches, rappers like Twin Geeks, pictured above, bang on and on and on about computer games, trainers, skateboards and/or BMX’s. In short it’s the musical equivalent of spending the afternoon in the library (in the reference section).

2. TWEE-CORE: Awfully, insipid, twee indie music subject matter like riding the bus home or being in love with some girl who thinks you’re a twat, accompanied by noisy guitars that are out of tune and badly played.

3. FOLK-STEP: Basically just traditional Folk music but with crap, tinny Breaks N Beats and midi drums mixed in.

4. SKIFFLE-BEAT: There are loads of Skifflebeat artists around at the moment. They're ten a penny Guv'nor. Think normal indie music but with washboards and songs about Dear Old Blighty. The real legacy of Chaz and Dave – Have a banana!

'Our kid loves Starsailor'

So this week Extra Mundane were lucky enough to hook up with boiler faced indie band Coulis.

The facial sand blast victims were in the studio putting the finishing touches to their new ep 'Working down the Call Centre' when they treated us to a spontaneous acoustic performance of some of their new songs and dribbled some nonsense about some of the painstaking processes they have to go through just to pen a two mintue pop song.



Laughed? I nearly jizzed. Literally!

The State of the Balkans!

So this week Extra Mundane caught up with musician Balkan States, who is over from the US in support of his new album, Do you think I’m going to rob ya?

EXTRA MUNDANE: So can you start off by telling me about some of your influences?

BALKAN STATES: Sure, I was basically on holiday in Eastern Europe and I was listening to a lot of Gypsy music and I thought, Wow this is really good, I should steal this style. I mean I’m American and we don’t really have any real culture or history of our own so it seemed like the obvious thing to do.

EXTRA MUNDANE: So do the influences end with the music?

BALKAN STATES: Well I’m touring in a caravan nowadays and when I’m not doing gigs I sell heather and pegs by the side of the road, basically I do anything that is a stereotype of Gypsy culture.

EXTRA MUNDANE: So what do you put your success down to?

BALKAN STATES: Well its weird because basically all I have done is take elements from the Romany music and lifestyle and have repackaged it in into a format that is acceptable to the wider general public. I guess in that sense I’m kind of like a modern day Elvis.

EXTRA MUNDANE: So what’s next for you?

BALKAN STATES: Well I’ve just been nominated for the Saturn Music Award for Innovation in Music, which is kind of ironic really. And then after that I’m off back to America where I’m going slowly start expanding the perimeter of my land into my neighbours. I mean its important to keep it real.

Catch Balkan States this month at venues (and the odd car park) all over the UK.

Retro-Aging-Neurone Disease!

So Extra Mundane were surfing the internet this week and came across an article on a new disease that’s threatening to kill off the music scene!

Its called Retro-Aging-Neurone Disease!

As you can see from the image it mainly afflicts indie kids who are obsessed with dressing like it was the 50’s.

Here are some of the symptoms:

1. 1. An unhealthy interest in Indie Music
2. 2. Only owning clothes from second hand shops
   
3. 3. Being Obsessed with Vinyl
   

So if you find yourself suffering from any of these symptoms take note; you may be dead by the end of the week!!!

Either that or you'll have a record contract and a massive crack habit.

Blankstains on walls!

Here's a video of Urban Graffiti Artist Blankstain spraying his now infamous cock and balls all over a wall!

This guy is so subversive and cutting edge.



I was going to post a link to his website but all it says is Coming Soon!