NING STANDARD 204!

** ‘CHEER UP’ – IT’S A THIRD PANDA MISSIVE ABOUT THE ONGOING FIERCE PANDEMIC **

** ALBERT GOLD + MOON PANDA + MEMES DREAM OF A BETTER DAY **

** AND SAVE OUR BLOOMIN’ VENUES **

Hello there panda people. How sail you dreamboats? Since the 203RD edition of Ning Standard sauntered forth on April 15th it seems as though things have got even more sensationally mysterious out there. Markets and car showrooms are set to reopen next week, with retail shops to follow mid-June, but there is still no light on the horizon shining brightly for live music, alas. The Music Venue Trust is behind www.saveourvenues.co.uk which is raising funds for hundreds of paralysed venues across the nation. We’re diving in to buy one of those slinky twenty quid t-shirts – come join us.

For as long as the radio crackles - much like that beautifully gloomy bit in Harry Potter And The Deathly Hallows (Part I) where Nick Cave’s ‘O Children’ creeps through the shadows – the panda shall plough on regardless. Ipso facto, this month we bring news of three unfeasibly terrific brand new releases by Hackney soul boy ALBERT GOLD with ‘Satellite’, and Cali-Dane combo MOON PANDA with ‘Slow Drive’, and Glasgow duo MEMES, who are here to cheer everyone up with their ‘Cheer Up’ single.

We’ve also got a couple of cheeky new additions to the fierce panda Covid Version Sessions, wherein various bands locked into rockdown give the outdoor world reworkings of tunes which have touched them in some way, and all in support of the NHS. We’re overjoyed to say that China Bears and Jekyll have joined the esteemed list, which now looks like this:

NATIONAL SERVICE ‘LAST JANUARY’ (by The Twilight Sad)

LISTEN


DESPERATE JOURNALIST ‘THE FEAR’ (by Pulp)

LISTEN


MOON PANDA ‘CALL IT FATE, CALL IT KARMA’ (by The Strokes)

LISTEN


CHINA BEARS ‘Hackensack’ (by The Fountains Of Wayne)

LISTEN


JEKYLL ‘NIGHTPORTER’ (by Japan)

LISTEN


Don’t forget you can hear originals from all of the above, plus Ghost Suns and Scrounge and Italia 90 and Skint & Demoralised and so many more at the supremely Official Pandamonium! Spotify Playlist right now… 

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* ‘CHEER UP’ WITH MEMES *

MEMES 'CHEER UP' | DIGITAL

So on May 22nd, MEMES, the dynamic Scottish combo who’ve been causing frantic poet-punk ructions with their two man / one laptop sonic assaults, may well have released the ultimate alternative Covid-19 anthem in the form of thunderously fine new digital single ‘Cheer Up’. This is the follow-up to last year’s ‘J.O.B.S.’, back when we could all go to G.I.G.S., and over a muscular motorik groove they encourage various global players such as Donald, Hillary, Jeremy and Boris to “cheer up” (yes, an emergency substitute version was recorded lest Bojo actually failed to make it out of the ICU).

But don’t take our word for it, hear what MEMES have to say here: “‘Cheer Up’ is about cancelled gigs, environmental catastrophe and the importance of staying in to watch TV. It's about heads of states and states of hands. It's about lifting the gloom in an atmosphere of doom. It's about fast food and slow internet. Streaming MP3s at 2MTRs distance. Stay home. Protect the NHS. Cheer Up.”

www.facebook.com/memestheband

 

* MOON PANDA ARE SLOW DRIVERS *

MOON PANDA 'SLOW DRIVE' SINGLE | DIGITAL

MOON PANDA 'MAKE WELL' EP | PRE-SAVE/ADD

So on May 15th Danish / Californian dreamers Moon Panda followed up their eminently sassy Strokes Covid Version by releasing their swoonsome new digital single ‘Slow Drive’ – their second for the panda, and much admired by Lauren Laverne earlier this week. Bloody lovely it is, too: yearning and twanging and melancholic and layered with echoes (echoes echoes) and slinkier than a ferret in a feather boa, it’s off their ‘Make Well’ EP, due out on July 3rd.

Describing themselves as a worldly wise duo fully prepped to gently launch you into the electric currents that govern deep space, when Moon Panda isn't lulling you into a dream with their hypnotic, mellow grooves they're whipping up trippy, psychedelic music videos that coax you into their world and ask you to stay awhile. Their last one, for the ‘Rick F***in Dalton’ single, featured the kind of bulbous papier mache noggins last seen on Frank Sidebottom – see the video here.

www.facebook.com/MoonPandaMusic

 

* ALBERT GOLD IS IN ORBIT * 

ALBERT GOLD 'SATELLITE' | DIGITAL

So also on May 15th Albert Gold – most surely the most heartbroken man in Hackney – released yet another nonchalantly excellent new single bursting with soulpop pain in the form of ‘Satellite’. Over the past few years a stream of supple tunes has proven him to be a brilliantly songwriting talent, backed by a yearning vocal range and a litany of rumpled relationships, and this exuberant tune is no different.

‘Satellite’ glided onto the In Stereo playlist and the lovely Janice Long show and has long been a stellar highlight of the Albert Gold live set. Alongside recent singles ‘GHOST’ and ‘House Of Cards’ it points the way to his third EP release, ‘MOODS’, due on July 17th.

www.facebook.com/albertjgold



It feels like a million moons ago that Albert, Moon Panda and MEMES all played our new year-bustin’ Pandamonium 20 event alongside so many of their panda friends. Last night we were dreaming that we were booking those panda friends for the Pandemicamonium festival. We have some strange dreams. Check www.saveourvenues.co.uk to help keep those strange dreams alive…


Until next time, TTFN

Team Panda