NARC. #140 OUT NOW!

This month’s cover stars are Newcastle noiseniks Okay Champ. Linsey Teggert talks to the disaster-prone quintet ahead of two releases this month. Suitably oddball imagery comes courtesy of Wolfgang Paradisio.

As always, it’s a busy ol’ month for music and culture lovers. Our News section will tell you all about Drahla at The Cumberland Arms; Party at the End of the World at Georgian Theatre; DJAZZ at various venues in Durham; Music Box Festival in Darlington; Salt The Snail at Little Buildings; The Primitives at The Cluny; Go-Kart Mozart at Star & Shadow Cinema; Ceiling Demons release; Himalayas at Ku Bar; Women Are Mint series at Alphabetti Theatre; Moonlight Crusade release and gigs; Mechanical Mouse Organ EP launch at The Cluny; Ghostface Killah at Riverside; Zak Younger Banks at Little Buildings; Ty Segall at Boiler Shop and much more.

The Culture pages are chocka too, featuring Fertile Ground’s Fully Grounded at various venues; Crossing the Tees book festival; profile features on theatre makers Reece Connolly and Jade Byrne; Tim Key at Northern Stage; Hal Branson at The Stand; Nasty Women Art Prize Exhibition at PRAXIS Gallery; How To Survive A Post-Truth Apocalypse at ARC; Woven Bones at various venues; Glenn Brown at Laing Art Gallery; The Believers Are But Brothers at Northern Stage; The Unbinding at Alphabetti Theatre; Doug Stanhope at O2 Academy; John Kippin at NGCA; Benjamin Zephaniah at Sage Gateshead plus reviews of Patrick Monahan at The Stand, Catch 22 comedy club at ARC, Zero by Humanhood at Dance City, TESTOSTERONE at Arts Centre Washington and much more.

We’ve got a MONSTER of a feature on Great Exhibition Of The North, packed with all the best bits of the three month festival. You can’t afford to miss it! There’s also features on the OTHER Great Exhibition Of The North, in which local creatives and communities show their artistic side, and if it’s even MORE festival stuff that you want, have a look at our comprehensive feature on Evolution Emerging festival.

Interview-wise, Ali Welford talks to E’Spaniel about drum machines, ironic songwriting and their debut release; Sammy Sadler talks to Tyneside trio Ten Eighty Trees about their new single; with their debut album just out and their first Newcastle show this month, Lee Fisher got to ask Manchester dayglo ‘disobedient noise’ outfit ILL about improvisation, misogyny and weaponised sarcasm; Ben Lowes-Smith talks to Throwing Muses musician Kristin Hersh about the process of creating her new solo record and an appearance at The Cluny this month; Laura Doyle talks to up and coming musician Curtis Longstaff who has big aspirations; Laura Veirs bring science and comedy to her Americana folk, Catharina Joubert chats with her ahead of a show at The Cluny and Lee Hawthorn talks to veteran rapper Rex Regis about coming out of retirement for a brand new release. Curating our Mixtape this month is artist Narbi Price.

In the Review section, we rate demos by He Knows She Knows, Conor Michael, Rayne, Badger and Hot Sex For Boys; there’s album reviews of new cuts from Virginia Wing, Ghost, Leon Vynehall, Evil Blizzard, Hilary Woods, Gruff Rhys and more, plus track reviews of Holly Rees, Save The Bees, The Lake Poets, The Old Pink House, Swine Tax and Salsola among others. We report back on live shows featuring Elisabeth Elektra, Manic Street Preachers, SLUG, Behold A Pale Horse, Mary Ocher, Steven Adams & The French Drops and many more.

Enjoy!