Home Cookin' at Filthy McNastys

Dig this cats, it's Sunday evening. It's hot and sticky inside your pad and out. And yet you have a real gone urge to jump up and shake your feet. Like, too much! A no-goodnik would lie naked in front of a fan. But you have this beastly desire to dance - and not sedately. Wildly!

It's time to fall in and dig the happenings at Home Cookin', where the chicks and gators beat the boards to the crazy sound of the gonest lacquer crackers dished out with flair by El Nino and Jean-Paul Séculaire. And it won't cost you a cent.

Retro TV W/C 30th May 2008

Barry Murphy returns once more trawl the TV and radio guides (so you don't have to) to find anything worth tuning into this week. All listings are for UK terrestrial TV, Freeview and national radio, with the shows running from Friday 30th May to Thursday 5th June.

Highlights of the week

Shane Meadows' powerful drama This is England gets its network premiere on Film4 on Monday 2nd June at 9pm. The film is a look back at British working-class life in the early eighties through the eyes of young Shaun and his new gang of skinhead friends, and deals with the bitterness of outside influences such as racism and xenophobia, of mass unemployment and the fall out of the Falklands War.
Other TV highlights this week include a night devoted to the original Man in Black Johnny Cash (BBC 4. Friday 30th, 9pm onwards) with a new documentary The Last Great American and a compilation of performances and duets from his late 60s/early 70s ABC show. Finally, Dennis Potter's infamous Play For Today Blue Remembered Hills gets a rare screening (BBC 4.Thurs 5th, 10.30pm). The play concerns a group of seven year olds playing in the Forest of Dean one summer afternoon during 1943, with adult actors taking on the roles of the children.

On the radio this week, Mark Lamarr (BBC Radio 2. Fri 30th, 12Midnight) has Northern soul star Jimmy Thomas in for a live session, Steve Lamacq looks at the legendary late-70s Liverpool club in Eric's - the Story of a Liverpool Club (BBC Radio 2. Sat 31st, 7pm) while Live at Two (BBC Radio 6. Sat 31st, 2am) features a 1970s live performance by Gladys Knight and the Pips.

Vertigo Double Decker in Manchester

See above for the details of the next Vertigo Double Decker in Manchester, taking place on Friday 30th May 2008.

Two floors and free entry, with  60s Beat, R'n'B, Early Northern sounds, Ska and Blues i The Attic, with modern 60s influenced Indie, 2 tone, Mod revival and Classic 60s in the basement.

It runs from 9pm until 3am. To find out more or to get a DJ spot, email allthatjazz_mcr@hotmail.com.

Belle Vue Press + Gonks 45

Out now is the latest edition of the Belle Vue Press, which comes with a free copy of the new Gonks 45, released on the Belle Vue 45s label.

The new magazine (volume 8) includes reviews, photos, a preview of the forthcoming Belle Vue weekender, Dutch artist Bert Bluehipster, Richard Berry, The Gonks, DJ Henry from Milano Mods and comic strips courtesy of Mauro Cao and Miss Geanie.

The only thing we don't know is the price and how to order. To find out about either, drop them a line via the website below.

Belle Vue Situation website

New bands: The Beep Seals

Time for something a bit different here on Modculture. With summer threatening to rear its head at any moment, it's time to enjoy some laid back, good time harmony pop-psych. For this, we look to Manchester's The Beep Seals.

It is an enticing prospect, for here is a band whose eclectic influences recall recent chart botherers The Bees as well as alt-rock heroes Super Furry Animals and Pavement. Since forming a couple of years back the band have built up a steady fanbase and are ready to unleash their debut album 'Things That Roar'. The album was recorded in the bands' native Chorlton over ten days in February with Norman Blake from Teenage Fanclub and Tom Knott from fellow Mancunians The Earlies. It contains both the fuzz of heavy psych rock alongside the soft mellow touch of pop-psych nuggets you would expect to hear on an old Rubble compilation. Often within the same song, such as the brilliant pastoral  'Biting Glass' and the Teenage Fanclub love letter 'Use Your Other Head'. Listen closely to the lyrics too, and you'll discover some biting wit and dry humour in there too.

You can hear The Beep Seals on their Myspace page here, or visit their official site here. Things That Roar is out on the 23rd of June and is available to order from the Heron Recordings website here. The band are on tour promoting the album throughout the summer. Go see if you can.