No Tags

Vivian Host, a pivotal figure in dance music known for her podcast Rave to the Grave, dives deep into her impressive journey through the rave scene. She discusses her early days as a female DJ in the jungle and drum and bass scenes, breaking barriers in a male-dominated industry. Host also explores the evolution of rave culture and its resurgence post-pandemic, navigating the complex dynamics of organizing parties in Los Angeles. With nostalgic anecdotes and sharp insights, she emphasizes the importance of representation in electronic music culture.

With festival season over, it's time we investigated a story that’s been on our minds all year: has the bubble burst? In March it was reported that 21 UK festivals had already cancelled, postponed or closed in 2024. By the end of summer that number had risen to over 50.Industry bodies blame rising costs, which is doubtless a factor – but what else might be at play here? A small cluster of dominant companies contributing to an oversaturated festival landscape, perhaps? Or are festivals simply falling foul of the strategy they’ve employed for years: pushing up live fees to price out their competition?More importantly, how many of these events are actually any good?For positivity’s sake we also spend some time shouting out the festivals we loved this year. Turns out that with clever booking and some attention to detail, you can still put on events that offer an alternative to the homogeny.If you enjoyed this episode of No Tags, we’d love you to spend a minute rating, reviewing and subscribing on your podcast app of choice. We’d also ask you to consider subscribing to our paid tier – cheaper than cheesy chips. Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

We’ve not interviewed too many DJs so far on No Tags, so when we do, it’s a safe assumption that a) we’ve watched them play a few times, and b) they’re pretty tasty at it.OK Williams falls into both categories. We’ve seen her DJ multiple times and have never failed to leave the dancefloor refreshed. But she’s also one of our favourite dance music personalities, as evidenced on her regular NTS show (and, OK, her Twitter account) where she exhibits the sort of energising but healthily realistic attitude that, frankly, more DJs could do with cultivating. Who knew there could be a link between having an engaging personality and making people dance?We sat down with OK Williams for a solid 80 minutes to talk, well, a lot. Is this one of No Tags’ more forensic and focused interviews? No. Is a it a lot of fun? Undoubtably. But OK Williams offers as much insight as entertainment. We talked through her formative raving years, the musical awakening she found in queer clubs, her secret background in journalism (awkward!), her relationship with Andrew Weatherall, and some big picture questions on DJs as public figures and their responsibilities.If you like what we’re doing at No Tags, please like, rate, review or subscribe to us on your podcast app of choice – in their own abstract ways, these things help. You can also support the show in a more literal way via our paid tier, which costs £5 a month and really helps us keep bringing you these podcasts and transcripts. Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

Regular No Tags listeners will notice that we often talk about living through several revivals at once, but indie sleaze is one that doesn’t seem to be going away. So why indie sleaze, and why now? And what do people actually mean when they talk about an indie sleaze revival in 2024?For this episode, Chal and Tom dug out their skinny ties and shutter shades (not to mention some brutal photos from the depths of their personal Facebook archives) to try and figure out whether this is a genuine musical revival or a cynical move from struggling millennial marketeers to reanimate an era when they were still relevant. And are we dealing with nostalgia for a genuine scene here, or simply a yearning for a time when city-focused alternative scenes were actually realistic and accessible? And is there actually a much more interesting scene from this era that we could and should be excavating instead?In summary, this is an episode where we evoke both Mark Fisher and Agyness Deyn – a No Tags manifesto if ever there was one. Enjoy! Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

On No Tags 25, we meet Jonny Banger: T-shirt hustler, avant-bootlegger, visionary rabble-rouser, DJ battle champ and bossman of the anarchic anti-fashion brand Sports Banger.From a certain angle, it can seem like the clothes are the main event at Sports Banger, from the original Free Tulisa tee and bootlegged NHS logos to wearable inflatables and a Chanel toilet seat headpiece. Naturally, Jonny has been asked a lot of questions in previous interviews about his designs and his philosophical take on bootlegs and infringement. But there’s another side to the Banger story that hasn’t been excavated: obviously, the music.Flipping through Sports Banger: Lifestyles of the Poor, Rich and Famous, the book that charts the first decade of the project, you can find musical references on almost every page: pilfered record label logos, Skepta in a postie’s hi-viz jacket, descriptions of his studio’s fine-tuned sound systems, playlists of tunes that inspired the Sports Banger runway shows, and even allusions to Jonny’s previous life in the UK rap scene.We invited Jonny to go deep into the musical side of his story, from tape packs to free parties to the “shit mix jar” that collected fines in the first Sports Banger studio. He told us about his teenage years as a scratch DJ, his previous life as a club booker on Brick Lane, his ravey links with Swamp 81, School Records, Shangri-La and his own Heras label, and how he finally fell in love with free parties. And, most exciting for our resident KLF dweeb, he gave us a hint of what to expect from Sports Banger’s forthcoming collaboration with K2 on the People’s Pyramid.It’s been a wild ride, and he’s got the stories to prove it.If you enjoyed this big fat interview episode of No Tags then we implore you to press all the buttons and like, rate, review or subscribe on your podcast app of choice. You can also support us in a material manner via our paid tier. It’s £5 a month, and it helps us keep doing whatever it is we’re doing. Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

Dance music nostalgia from 2011 takes center stage, stirring debates about its lasting cultural impact. The conversation dives into how social media shapes revivals and influences the underground scene. They explore the rise of an absurdist microgenre, 'Hit Em,' born and quickly discussed online. A new film featuring unexpected musical collaborations garners attention, showcasing a fresh narrative style. The interplay between modern tools and creativity raises questions about originality and innovation in today's music production.

This week, Henry Bruce-Jones joins us to run down the best music of 2024 so far.With the caveat that we didn't think it was worth revisiting the albums we've already discussed (and Brat summer's over anyway, babes), we start with the gaseous moods of Naemi, Bianca Scout and Chanel Beads. Are we in the midst of a brave new wave of shoegaze, or has the NTS early morning schedule pumped one too many Cocteau Twins songs into the water supply?We compare and contrast Erika de Casier and Clara La San’s throwback R&B styles, and dive into some of the year’s most interesting hip-hop records with both feet: They Hate Change, Jawnino, and Cooper B. Handy & Surf Gang.In club corner we celebrate recent releases by Facta, Parris, Emma dj, Verraco, Less-O, Jabes, SOPHIE and Actress (his best album in years?). We get into the various sides of Mica Levi and Henry goes deep on recent efforts by Nudo, Hafeez and NMNL.Finally, we close on some of our most bonkers Bandcamp discoveries of the year. Unfamiliar with Lust$ickPuppy, FIN and Phil Geraldi? No matter – these are the sort of discoveries that, in Chal’s words, are a reminder that we love music. Jaded insiders? Us? Never!If you like what we’re doing on No Tags then please like, rate, review or subscribe on your podcast app of choice, and if you really like what we’re doing, consider supporting us via our paid tier. It’s only £5 a month, and seriously helps us keep doing what we’re doing. Enjoy! Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

We’ve become so accustomed to bad news that Labour’s landslide victory in the UK general election has been a hard one to process, despite it being a dead cert. The Tories are actually gone? Can it be real? So this week we decided to piece together our memories of the last 14 years of cuts, corruption and chaos, and see if we can identify the sound of Tory Britain. We’ve spent most of our music careers toiling under the long shadow of George Osborne’s turbo-cuts to public spending – not to mention Brexit batshittery, the crazy days of Corbynism, the aftermath of the Grenfell disaster and Black Lives Matter, and of course the lockdown years and attendant Covid conspiracies. But the politics of austerity Britain also changed the nation’s musical culture, and in this episode we talk about the dominance of festivals at the expense of clubbing, the sound of the student protest movement, the emergence of drill in the hollowed out communities of South London, and the political backlash to the five-headed monster of Cameron, May, Boris, Truss (lol) and Sunak. We also have a think about why Keir Starmer seems to have forgotten his musical roots, and what we might expect from a Labour government that’s appointed Lisa “Towns” Nandy as culture minister.Remember that this Saturday 20th July we’ll be in Glasgow for a live No Tags experience, hosted by Feena and Wheelman at Glasgow University Chapel! Tickets are available on the door, or you can sign up for membership of the Events Research Programme for just £3.50. If you like what we’re doing on No Tags then please like, rate, review or subscribe on your podcast app of choice, and if you really like what we’re doing, consider supporting us via our paid tier. Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

This time we’re joined by Meaghan Garvey, author of America’s #1 vibes-based newsletter, SCARY COOL SAD GOODBYE, and one of the best writers in the game. Meaghan started off as an illustrator, laundering a semi-successful weed-dealing operation through an Etsy empire before becoming better known as a music journalist. Whether writing pin-sharp profiles of megastars like Lana Del Rey and T-Pain or getting deep in the DIY weeds, Meaghan has long been a BS-free voice in a sea of mediocrity. And ahead of the curve, too – she broke up with Drake in 2015.In 2020 Meaghan launched SCARY COOL SAD GOODBYE, a Substack that’s somewhere between a confessional travel diary and a photo album of nostalgic Americana. Recent editions include a rundown of Milwaukee’s oldest dive bars, a crash course in train-hopping and a visit to House on the Rock, “Wisconsin's tweaked-out Graceland.”When she returned to Pitchfork for a flagship review of Charli XCX’s Brat, we knew the timing was right for a No Tags interview. We talked about stan culture, the pantomime of vulnerability in modern pop music, nostalgia for 2011, learning how to write about yourself, and searching for honesty while fleeing from the discourse.Plus, Tom and Chal report on more examples of payola in underground music and get into the Glastonbury debate: should people be losing money to play it? Why is it so crowded? Is Glasto finally… cooked?Hit that like, smash that share, bosh that review, and be free. Get full access to No Tags at notagspodcast.substack.com/subscribe

Investigating payola in underground music, the hosts discuss its prevalence and impact on editorial coverage. They also touch on the sensitive topic of artist criticism and explore the music industry dynamics, including controversies and cultural impacts.