THE ALASKA DIARY

[thealaskadiary]

GIG PLASM EVENTS

WORD ladies and fellamen, we have new giggles to announce. We'll be levelling the crops at

21 February @ Urban Outfitters, York/ Circulation Issue Launch

24 February @ The Brudenell, Leedsw/Traams

21 March @ The Bell, Sheffield w/ Temple Songs

3 April @ Belgrave Music Hall, Leeds w/ Goldheart Assembly

3 May @ Live At Leeds - Brudenell Games Room. 2.30pm

21 May @ Wharf Chambers, Leeds w/ Wanderlings

31 May @ VEG OUT, Wharf Chambers, Leeds

Many more to be announced we're sure,

STAY FROSTY OUT THERE

[thealaskadiary]

INCOMING GIG MISSILE.

ALASKA SUPPORT YOUNG HUSBAND @ COCKPIT

FRIDAY 20TH SEPTEMBER

[thealaskadiary]

GIG ENTRY 6: W/THEMSELVES @ DOTS PRINTHAUS STUDIO LAUNCH PARTY

On this, the day the earth stood still. Wall street threw the first stone. fundamentalists blamed so US could secure the dollar-peg on oil. Happening again. 

First off, let me tell you that the humans at Dots ARE human and not reptilian in disguise. They look the part, but they have all the minute behavioral facets embedded in them so deeply, they can't be fake. These are men that will work for anyone, and work without passivity, no matter what the content. They always strive to be the best at what they are doing, and they do not draw lines in the sand around them. 

The boys have expanded their enterprise in such a magical way that it would fill me with inspiration, if I knew what inspiration was. As it happens, I am from another era, where biology made it's natural progression into the mechanical and ethereal realm. Where inspiration isn't a process that my individual being can follow, as everyone in my race has every idea that they can have at the same time. We all adjust ourselves accordingly and in synchrony.

Anyway, that's why I come down here. I can see how the ancient ways unfold themselves. 

Our boys ALASKA have had a very firm and friendly connection with Dots from the outset, having been friends with them for years now. Dot's are the gentlemen who printed ALASKAs merchandise and offer wisdom and council when needed, and the band offers the same service and comradery to them. The band were asked to provide the live music amongst the various DJs providing the vinyl vibrations. Being the only band of the night, it was a rare chance for the boys to flex almost all their songs in an hour long set which was, to my jelly, one of the best they've played.

Brendan clearly had found his elixir of life tonight. After various experiments, the balance of the gods was in his veins as he pounded the meat of the ice white kit. Beneath the glow of the strip light. On which Dougie had taped a yellow plastic filter. He had in him the same concocted potion that perhaps an earthly Wizard would have given to his King in the days of yore. The morning that their horses pounded the ground before them, as they bore them into battle. Cooked in a cauldron of light and geometry.

Anyway, it worked well for him.   

I am the wiz in the sink, the dead fox totally obliterated into the road, the face in the sun and the wind eater.

~wiz

  Photos by Miles Taylor, thanks friend.

[thealaskadiary]

[thealaskadiary]

GIG MISSILES INCOMING

1/6/13 ALASKA perform as HONG KONG WIZARD HAWK @ Wharf Chambers, Leeds

http://www.wharfchambers.org/june/

9/7/13 w/ Harriet Jones and others TBC @ The Library Pub, Leeds

[thealaskadiary]

GIG ENTRY 5: W/KING TUFF & PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTING - 11+13/5/13

Ah May, season of love making and pairing. ALASKA played with two great bands. If those bands had sex with each other, their offspring would be so unusual... Well it just wouldn't happen. I mean, I have the equipment up here to MAKE it happen, but just getting them to agree to it and then the costs involved in getting them up here... I mean, not monetary costs, it's all down to energy, and all the energy here, and the red tape. I mean, I'd like to get King Tuff and Public Service Broadcasting to have sex with each other and reproduce some kind of new unthinkable band, I really would but, its really not an option in this reality, OK? I've been in trouble previously. This is all besides the point. When I bred ALASKA it was a mistake and we had to flee our galaxy. Exile. Anyway, I digress.

The main point is that the band... I don't come down anymore, I watch it in my head. Too many bad guys in big cars... The band rocked in Sheffield with King Tuff, which was cool for them because they 'like' him, in social networking sites, and in real life, anyway. Public Service Broadcasting, it's the same deal, the band 'like' them too. Also in real life.

King Tuff has this real passionate rock feel, it taps into the old, original vibe of rock music. The whole, 'We're out to forget and shake our hair about'. Not 'We're here to get girls and money'. Like, 'We're hear to scream and shout and help you out!'

It must have been quite upsetting for the King of Tuff to have had a punter completely miss the point of rock music right in front of his very eyes. A boy, texting in the front row. Which I guess is excusable. Some one might have been, 'Has it started? Can I get in to rock out? You know, forget my troubles? TB x'. Still, the sooner everyone is telepathic the better, that stuff just takes time, you know.

However, the boy then sat on the stage. Texting. A full conversation. Possibly a problem about toner, or an observation on the colour of Doritos packets. The heir to the throne of garage rock saw this and his eyes exploded yellow and he performed one the most powerful put downs I've seen in live music. With an almost cosmically timed guitar solo, he strode up and placed his foot firmly on the guys back, like a human speaker wedge, and launched into an emotive wail of high notes.

The image was so domineering and beautiful, in a non violent or ugly way. Like music is itself the laser beam power weapon, but the only damage it does, is to bad things like cancer or conservatives.

Back at the Brudenell with PSB, what a stage set up - looked like an old school version of my squid's cock pit. One of the most complicated looking shows I've seen! Public Service Broadcasting are a strange thing. This band have re-birthed a dead thing. That sounds really bad and fucked up, but that's not what I meant. When they started out, these PSB announcements that they sample into their instrumentals probably hadn't been actually listened to for at least a few decades, and would likely slipped further and further into fringe consciousness.

What's interesting to me, is that this band have got really big really quickly, the debut album is, on release, in at number 20 in the UK. That's like most of England thinking, 'Oh yeah, I actually don't want to forget about those Public Service Broadcasting messages.' A lot of it is obviously pretty relevant now. 'Dig for Victory'. Most people should listen to that like a lesson. What happens if your supermarket doesn't get stocked. There's no food in the UK BABY!

~i am the wiz in the corona of the sun BABY!

PHOTOS BY ROB JULIAN. THANKS BROTHER!

[thealaskadiary]

GIG MISSILES INCOMING

You can spectate on very enjoyable ALASKA shows at the following events!

28th March - Cardiff, Gwdihw

http://www.facebook.com/events/316956425094185/?fref=ts

12th April - Leeds, 360 Club (Library Pub), w/ ULTRASOUND

http://www.facebook.com/events/144934859006691/?fref=ts 

  26th April - Leeds, Packhorse, w/THE EXPERIMENTAL TROPIC BLUES BAND

http://www.facebook.com/events/422923461129480/?fref=ts

  11th May - Sheffield Bowery, w/ KING TUFF

https://www.facebook.com/events/167572306738595/ 

  13th May - Leeds, Brudenell, w/PUBLIC SERVICE BROADCASTING

http://www.brudenellsocialclub.co.uk/Event/Details/846

[thealaskadiary]

Gig Entry 4: The ALASKA Single Launch Party - Wharf Chambers

This is a notable gig, for it is lodged in time as an event marker. This is the evening that ALASKA's and Tellus Records' (The label set up sepcifically to release their material) first release was birthed into the universe. A 7" Single no less. Coloured blue even. Here are a couple of pictures taken from the night. You can see there are pictures of the band near this text. Thanks to Helen Brown for sending me her shots. ALASKA played Wharf Chambers' busiest gig yet. There were over 120 bodies in the room, all making lots of noise and providing a proper jovial atmosphere to compliment the release of the band's new single. My friend got thrown up on her back mid ALASKA set - that's how rock and roll the evening was. There were visuals, ranging from Thai dancing type folk to abattoir footage to a man molesting his face with various paints and powders. The support bands were cosmic, The Reacharounds especially rocking on that evening. 

You know, sometimes, as I sit in my oscillating micro vehicle, I feel my present like a word that has been rubbed out too my times, and re-written. Unclear and faded, like the original writing would have been better in the long run. With that then, I think, what should I do? For instance, do you get a fresh bit of paper? Or are you only allowed a rubber? 

~Wiz

[thealaskadiary]

ALASKA ANNOUNCE THEIR SINGLE LAUNCH PARTY. The band release their new 7" single on limited edition coloured vinyl. To celebrate, they plan to party like it's every year since the dawn of time! Support comes from THE REACHAROUNDS & THE SEE NO EVILS! Links to their tunes are under the poster. ALASKA are now in the process of plotting a short tour of southern England following the release. Stay tuned for the intinerary!

https://soundcloud.com/tellusrecords/sets/baker-boy-ghost-in-your-mind

https://soundcloud.com/the-reacharounds-leeds

https://soundcloud.com/see-no-evils

[thealaskadiary]

Gig entry 3. Made In Leeds Shop Opening

Yes, from the gritty streets high above the planet, the cosmic pathways weaving novel tapestries through the tides of time, I bring another gig entry. The first entry of a proper nature, in the sense that this one isn't a retrospective. Well it is, but it's the bands most recent endeavor. Whatever though, I live in the fourth dimension so time isn't really an issue that can't be manipulated. I stepped through that great thick tarantula infested Burmese cobweb into the three dimensional last thursday because my favourite screenprinters in the world, Dots Printhaus, were celebrating their first foray into your high street consumerist megalithic currency based ecology, by being involved in the Shop 'Made In Leeds'. They had asked ALASKA to play and I went along. Having not seen them since they fought Ebola in the African jungle. 

The venue here was situated on the upper floor of the majestic and ancient CORN EXCHANGE in Leeds, where they used to exchange corn. I was very impressed at its funny design. There was a rather off putting restaurant downstairs and it was particularly pleasant to see the vibrations were amplified in the space and moved whirlwind like above the christmas bookings in the lower ground floor. Music of this ilk needs to be hovered above a restaurant like this to help remind diners of what is real, and of course, what is not. The band's music was so good that I feel lions inside. 

It was great to see the old team. Peace on forever, take a peace of my mind, I offer you peace of mind, a peace of my mind, forever, that's what happens when I penetrate the universe, good aftermankind.

-wizz

[thealaskadiary]

Gig entry 2.The Brudenell Social Club - Leeds

HERE I AM AGAIN, the Galactic Wizard, in his tiny shrunken Space Squid, with his unbiased gig report.

[dictated] Back in their home town the band got to play with Cate Le Bon and H.HAWKLINE. She was cool, and Hawkline was doing lino prints during sound check. Way to expand the universe man. The band had never played with a smoke machine before but thoroughly enjoyed the smoke. It obscured their view of the audience which left them feeling comfortable like practice. Maybe you should read this, it keeps tickling my squid. http://www.haarp.alaska.edu/

~WIZ

[thealaskadiary]

Gig entry 1. Green Man AUG 17-th19 2012 - WELSH - Black Mountains I, The Galactic Wizard Lord, Cousin of ALASKA, come with gig dairy entry ONE

[dictated]

I have inside me something of calcium respect for the Welsh, I mean I feel a twinge in my bones, or what would be my bones if I had bones (calcium veins) when I think of all their great psy-conc music. So I was happy to take the holiday and come down. The band made me bring them their weed and raincoats for the festival, and then didn't spend any time with me at all. Raven was overcome by some kind of cosmic ray twice. The first time was a purely psychological switch, but the second time the beam struck it seemed to have total physical freakout type spasm effects. I have tangible light memory of this stored some where in the a membrane of the squids mainframe but will have to dig it out for proof and posting. The band played well and left the stage amicably, having actually changed the atmospheric conditions of the valley.

~WIZ

[thealaskadiary]

THE WIZARD IN THE NIGHT ABOVE YOU

Good Tidings HOMOSAPIENS! I bring forth news from aboard my transcendental space squid, jiggled and rocked bewitchingly by the ionospheric variations high above your green, blue and grey planet! I shall begin beaming images of my cousin's band ALASKA and annotating the performing endeavours THUSLY through the medium of your pseudo col-con tool; INTERNET!! They asked me because I get free internet up here! We'll start by a little reminiscence concerning two of the quartet's summer gigs, a Welsh pair in vibrosense. I am talking of the band's protruding, curling proboscis of a set at Green Man in Wales, followed by the the dying star shaped prism meeting of ALASKA, H.HAWKLINE and CATE LE BON at the Brudenell two weeks later. Very Welsh indeed. What is the look in the eye of a dragon when killed by a laser? Only I can know on purpose, but these three bands knew by accident.

~Wiz