I don’t know how many of you have read the Red Dwarf books, but basically at the end of the second book when Lister, Rimmer, the Cat and Kryten realise that they’re in BTL and they want to leave, they’re shown an exit which they step through into what they assume will be reality.

Lister wakes up in bed feeling great, has a shower, and then goes to make some breakfast. As he’s making toast, he drops the a buttered slice on the floor and it lands buttered side up. Now it’s obvious that in the real world, if you drop a slice of toast on the floor it’s going to land with the butter facing down and get full of shit. It’s then that Lister realises they’re still in BTL and is finally allowed to leave.*

It’s the same sense of distorted, too-good-to-be-true reality I’m feeling right now. As if the Slint reunion wasn’t enough, apparently Hoover are playing together again and indeed touring. Dates:

NOVEMBER
Mon 29th England, Southampton Lennon’s Bar
Tues 30th England, Exeter Cavern Club

DECEMBER
Wed 1st England, Manchester Star and Garter
Thurs 2nd England, Newcastle Art Centre
Fri 3rd Scotland, Glasgow Nice and Sleazy
Sat 4th N. Ireland, Belfast TBA
Sun 5th Ireland, Limmerick TBA
Mon 6th Ireland, Dublin TBA
Tues 7th England, Bristol The Croft
Wed 8th England, London Camden Underworld
Thurs 9th England, Norwich Ferryboat Inn
Fri 10th England, Nottingham The Maze
Sat 11th England, Leeds Brudenell Social Club

What the fuck is going on??

Ian Mackaye’s new ‘band’, The Evens, are also touring:

NOVEMBER
Mon 1st England, London St Cyprian’s
Tues 2nd England, Exeter Tempex Gallery
Wed 3rd Wales, Newport Burleigh Hall
Thurs 4th England, Leeds Brudenell Social Club
Sat 6th England, Newcastle/Gateshead St. Joesphs Emmaus Centre
Sun 7th England, Nottingham Nottingham Boat Club
Mon 8th England, Cambridge Cambridge City FC Social Club

* Boothy will no doubt correct me on this Red Dwarf shit. I don’t have the books handy right now.

I’ve upped some photos I snapped off at the Hot Snakes gig last night in Nottingham here, and I’m definitely stoked on how these turned out with my new setup. The only downside to this is how bad it makes the other photos I’ve taken at shows in the past look.

As for the gig itself, it was fucking incredible. They kicked off by playing the first few tracks from ‘Suicide Invoice’, and then switched to most of ‘Audit In Progress’, with the odd track from the first album thrown in for good measure. From start to finish they were just all out, with Rick Froberg looking look like he was about to collapse towards the end. No Jehu cover unfortunately, but that’s probably because Mario hasn’t been in the band all that long.

Next up, Shellac!

Holy shit. At least four people need to be up for this, and personally I’d fucking kill to see Slint play again. Anyone?

There’s a pretty awesome interview with J. Robbins centred around his new band (Channels), but also some stuff on why Burning Airlines broke up and so on. Check it out here.