I am missing the Oxford live music scene right now. Leaning awkwardly against some kit bags in the Library while chewing all the Maoam I can fit in my pockets; my favourite window-ledge in the Fusion Arts; the lottery of whether the fruit machine will be out at the Florence Park Community Centre or not. Hell I even miss the Wheatsheaf, maybe? Maybe not but yeah. I’m feeling the distance right now.
So here are a couple of excerpts from awesome local types what I spoke to for issue 4 before all this kicked off. In a moment, Nico & Jakes from Upcycled Sounds/Limpet Space Race talk about chips, but first death-balladeers Death of the Maiden assign tracks from their album to food:
Horses
TAMARA (gtr/lead vox): A kinda burger or some shit
JEN (bass/vox): But it’s got a lot of foreboding. Like a danger burger.
HANNAH (gtr/vox): Like a reallllyy spicy thing
T: Like one of those Atomic Burgers where they put all the hot sauces on it.
H: A competition burger. Done.
Tess
J: Heavy. So something that’s pretty epic...
EMMA (drums): Mashed potato
H: Done. With wholegrain mustard
T: Proper country type food. Like Olde English, regional..
E: Toad in the Hole
J: With a bit of horseradish
H: Oh yeah you can definitely tell where the horseradish is in that song
Waiting for You
J: Maybe like really hot Thai food. The kind that makes you cry.
T: I cried when we played that song at the Cats are Gods gig.
J: But you know when you have really hot Thai food and you cry, and afterwards you just feel really cleansed?
T: Yeah, the chilli tears
H: The best tears
J: Like, when you’ve got to cry….
H: ….you’ve gotta have Thai!
Soldier
J: It’s more peppy, more kinda spicy, right?
T: Fuckin’ noodles.
J: Yeah. “Going to war” so like a carb load
T: Singapore noodles
J: Yessssss. Little bit o’ grease
T: Last meal kinda vibes
J: Specifically Red Star Singapore noodles
Listen to the record here / send me yr guesses for what food the rest of the album would be. Also singer Tamara has a solo single out which you can check out here
If Limpet Space Race were a food, what food would it be?
NICO: We’re talking about doing Limpet cocktails
JAKES: We’re not gonna eat our children! Gotta be something spacey. Maybe like seaweed crackers?
N: Zuppa di pesce. What do we always eat?
J: Chips.
N: Yeah chips.I mean, chips and cheese are the food that’s most associated with any music I make.
J: Yeah when we forget to eat and panic and pass the chip van.
N: One of the plans we have if everything else fails is to open a gourmet chips and cheese van. Different types of chips, different types of cheese. Somewhere nicely lodged in front of one of the colleges
J: “Heirloom Potato and Camembert, that’ll be 14 pounds please”. Ah! The best chips we’ve ever had were from this bloke in France who runs a chip van on the seafront.
N: Esta’Frites at Veulettes-sur-Mer
J: We met him at a festival in Normandy. The most blindingly amazing chips - I think he like blanches or purees the potatoes? They’re like creamy. But yeah, we were so obsessed, we found out his home turf and went there on our way back.
N: I tried to invite him to Tandem festival. He said it was a bit too far. We should bring the festival to him.
J: [To Nico] What would you choose if you had to choose between food and music?
N: Depends
J: If you can only eat - uhh what food do you think is really bland? Heh, if you could only eat badly cooked pasta for the rest of your life, or play music what would you do?
N: I kinda wanna say music, but then the music I make would be very forlorn. I think I would be happy with lots of tasty food and doing something other than music. But no, I just don’t think the brain can live with only shit food
N: What would you choose? Food or music?
WELL?!?! FIND OUT WHETHER JAKES CHOOSES FOOD OR MUSIC IN THE EXCITING CONCLUSION COMING IN CHEWN ISSUE 4, WHICH I AM WORKING ON VERY SLOWLY BUT I’M HOPING TO HAVE DONE BY THE END OF JUNE SO CHEWN TUNE IN THEN
Listen to some Limpet Space Race here, and check out the Upcycled Sounds crew here
SOME THINGS THAT PEOPLE HAVE MADE RECENTLY (*that childrens TV show gallery music plays* [Left Bank Two composed by Wayne Hill - ed]):
John from Sky:Lark’s Twin Peaks inspired cherry pie:
Sarah Tini (Dublin Food Guide in CHEWn 3) made some vegan Korean bao
Colette (Frau/Woolf) stuffed some conchiglioni full of vegan sausage
The grammers behind Witness Zine’s veggie mince tacos
Keep em coming - was quite last minute this bit, might explore drawing/tiling submissions so they’re a bit more compact but yeah. Boast @ me.
THE BUFFET TABLE:
Multi-millionaire DJ is gentrifying fuck shocker! But seriously, take a moment to familiarise yrself with Nour International Cash and Carry in Brixton and its threatened status under proposed developments helmed by this Hondo Enterprises owner Taylor McWilliams (shoutout to the ppl who crashed his zoom party). Music and food don’t always go together. Follow the Save Nour group here, sign the petition here.
In case you’ve ever wondered what’s in Joan la Barbara’s fridge, what Deradoorian does with paneer, or what Suzanne Ciani looks like wielding a big knife while wearing onion goggles, Korg Germany have compiled a cookbook/’self-feeding’ guide with a bunch of electronic music types, which you can download for free here.
Blixa Bargeld is perhaps best known for cooking squid ink risotto on 80s German TV, but he has also apparently played in a band or two. Anyway. He has been reliving his culinary demonstration heydays via vids on the Einstürzende Neubauten insta (they have a new record out). Most recent edition features cacio e pepe while he dances around his kitchen / serenades you.
Bom Carrot from Supernormal veterans/weirdo Korean pop group Trilikatops has a cooking youtube! Rustle up some Vegan Crispy Tofu Padubu in yr most extravagant fashion here
Got the first issue of the Another Subculture spin-off newsletter Alternative Strategies in the post this week! Real good read, featuring Plastics, John Fletcher (the band not the person) and The Remote Body, among others. Go check the Patreon!
Daylight Music (see CHEWn issue 2) have gone online! Check them out on the ‘book for Daylight Savings, a curated rummage through their archive footage to soundtrack a gentle Saturday afternoon (maybe dress yr living room to look like the Union Chapel a bit). And yeah, sadly no Margins Kitchen, but they’re supplying you with a recipe to make yrself each week. Week 1 a Sweet Potato cake by some dude who writes a zine called chewed or something...
This is neither music nor food related but I finished reading Amateur by Thomas Page McBee this week and everyone should read it - especially dudes. A trans man trains to box for a charity fight at Madison Square Garden, picks apart masculinity, gender and ‘why do men fight?’ along the way. Utterly essential reading.
Food! Bit of an uninspiring week in my kitchen, which is cool. Not every week has to be the Bon Appetit feed. I finally found custard doughnuts in the shop again the other day though, which are the best doughnuts and if you think otherwise you are mistaken.
Music! Nice lil package from Harbinger Sound with the Mentira 12” (Brazilian ‘fuckwave’ two piece - clean bass, radioactive everything else) and the new Massicot LP (Swiss trio, hyper-caffeinated intricacies, alien linguistics blabbering through cracks). Also the awesome Claire Rousay and More Eaze tape, Guided By Voices, this and everything that was on the Heinous Whining livestream last Saturday (I am somehow on the one this Saturday).
Send me cooking pictures, playlists, tunes, life advice, whatever you’ve got! Take care x