Short Attention Span

Blame TV, blame mp3, blame Twitter.... We're constantly told that music fans have shorter attention spans than ever.

It was only a matter of time before some bright spark released compilation stuffed full of sub 1 minute tracks. Taken from bands that are anything but long-winded even when they're trying to be full-length , Short Attention Span bills itself as “29 minutes of noise, punk and fun from bands you’ve never heard of” [and some that you'll never want to hear from again]. Many of the acts on the record – like the gross out Barf Bag - will be unfamiliar to all but the ’sickest’ scene-kids.

Short Attention Span is the project of a “punk rock” 17 year old boy. He’s got a short manifesto, he’s got some DIY artwork and he’s on [the slacker equivilant] of a mission. So why are “short songs are better than long songs”, why is “free better than paying” and why do bands jump off-board when Pitchfork jump on?

When Harry decided to put the compilation together he was broke and in his early teens. He’d planned a limited edition tape to feature alongside his “immature” zines. Having grown up listening to “really fast punk and hardcore and power-violence and stuff” he had always thought about releasing his own record. He didn’t bank on crashing his car and reducing his budget to practically nothing. “I had to spend 900 quid fixing it, so I decided to make it a freebie comp, which works better as far as I am concerned anyway” he says. “I like free stuff a hell of a lot and fast, short songs a hell of a lot, so getting a bunch of my favourite bands to give me balls-out 30 second songs and releasing them as a comp for all the other like-minded kids out there made sense.” The things Harry says will be familiar to fans of DIY music. Everything in his "scene" is intended to be fun; a celebration of all things under-produced.

“I found a few of the bands while contacting the others, like the Pheromoans and Trash Kit“ says Harry. ” “A couple of bands originally said they were totally up for it and were nice guys, then got massively hyped on Pitchfork decided they would never speak to me again. Thats fine, I only like nice people” .Rather than a look at exciting new bands, or even nice bands, maybe Short Attention Span should be read as a [very short] love note to the music that’s until the last 2 years only been visible to the minority. In reality it’s been going for years. The Smell started in 1998 and has kept going since troubles in 2003. Upset the Rhythm has been poking at the London underground since 2003 and the now defunct Tiny Creatures playing about 2006. That’s even ignoring Guided by Voices, Elephant 6… These tag ends of songs are testament to how some music fans have famously ‘Short Attention Spans’. “But having a “purpose” is not especially something I care about” laughs Harry. “Some people have artistic messages or conceptual agendas they tie themselves to but all I wanted for this comp was some half-decent exciting, fun, loud music by the bands I like...”

Download the compilation: HERE

And check out the [not so short] list of bands involved:

Agaskodo Teliverek, Atom and his Package, Baby Guts, Barf Bag (Members of Best Fwends and Total Abuse), Beards, Best Fwends, Black Time, Brat Poison (Members of Best Fwends + some ladies), Cerebral Ballzy, Chaps, Cruddy, Cutting Pink with Knives, The Death Set, Dumb Haircuts (Members of Best Fwends and Finally Punk), Thee Fair Ohs, Fat Day, Father's Day, Finally Punk, Foot Village, Gay Beast, Gerty Farish, GOTO80, Japanther, Killer Dreamer, Koji Kondo, Thee Makeout Party!, Mongst, Mutators, Natural Numbers, Pens, Pheromoans, Plaaydoh, Rapid Youth, Rocket for Ethiopia, Shearing Pinx, Sissy Spacek, The Sneezes, Squirrels, Teeth!!!, Tigers On Vaseline (Members of Best Fwends and Total Abuse and more), Total Abuse, Trash Kit, Ultimate Thrush and Vivian Girls.