SouthScene @ The Joiners 25/11/05

A combination of my legendary tardiness (I missed the train I was planning to catch), being too clever for my own good (I hopped the next train to Eastleigh, it seemed a cunning idea at the time) and a suicide at Surbiton (all the trains were delayed and I kicked my heels on a cold platform for half an hour) meant that I was later getting to The Joiners than I'd planned.

My late arrival meant I missed the first half of The Kiks set. For a Southampton band The Kiks had me fooled; I was convinced they'd just got off the train from Liverpool. The 60's influence and Mersey guitar jangle oozed out of them, accompanied by a cheeky chappy attitude. Now I like The Coral and I love The La's but, whilst The Kiks were obviously having lots of fun being in a band (and I can't fault them for that), they didn't offer me anything different than what I might find on a Cast b-side.

As the set continued it became apparent that they had a couple of good tunes tucked away, but they weren't good enough to sway me from my first impressions (and I'm sure they used "showaddywaddy" as a lyric at one point). So, not quite my bag of donuts (this from the man who hated The Coral when he first heard them but loves the new album) but seeing as I'd only paid a fiver to get in I can't really grumble.

Next up were Dead!Dead!Dead! who, I must admit, were the reason I'd travelled to Southampton on a chilly Friday night. Again another local outfit (well, it was a SouthScene showcase), D!D!D! have a shambolic polish about them that bigger acts I've seen could learn from.

They roared onto the stage, grabbed my attention, threw it around a bit, stopped for a couple of jokes at the drummer's expense (if the music career fails then a future in stand-up comedy beckons for the lead singer), then dropped the speed a notch before revving up for the end (OK, so I've been watching Top Gear).

The band themselves were very tight musically, with the two guitarists\vocalists knowing how to work the stage (something which can't be said of some of the bands I've paid more money to see), so chances are the signed CD I bought at the gig might be worth something on ebay some day.

Third up were Cayto who, strangely for a southern showcase, hail from northern climes (Glasgow to be precise). The lead singer, who bore an uncanny resemblance to Seth Green, built a piano wall to block himself off from one side of the audience and the bass player; with the rest of the band assembled loosely they started to play.

H'mm.

I have to admit that Cayto didn't connect with me. They made music that, to me, was far too clever for its trousers. Yes, they can play. Yes, they're talented. Yes, the lead singer was wearing a neckerchief. Yes, they make interesting music. But it's not music that you can dance to. Or sit still to. Or even do the ironing to. It's music that you have to go away and have a think over and work out whether someone is taking the piss or not.

Just when I heard a tune or a rhythm that I could hook into it was kicked down a flight of musical stairs on its way into the next movement. Maybe I wasn't in the right frame of mind for them; I have a bottle of Absinthe here so maybe I'll give them another try one rainy winter evening (I think a warm-up session listening to The Bad Plus might come in handy).

Mach Schau were the headlining act of the showcase. Unfortunately a combination of a need for beer and my inherent geekiness meant that I missed the start of their set; I was at the bar talking to the guys from Dead!Dead!Dead! about the Evil Office baseball cap the rhythm guitarist had been sporting earlier on. Yes, all very sad.

As I returned with a fresh Grolsch the lead singer of Mach Schau teetered on the edge of the stage, leering out to the crowd in a casually disinterested manner. Sounding not unlike Maximo Park in places, Mach Schau ooze attitude; as they powered through their set the lead singer padded around the stage as if he couldn't give a toss if we were there or not.

He soon had his wish, we had to leave. I'd have liked to have stayed and seen the rest of their set but we had to hotfoot it to the station to get the last train out of the big city. Life is hard when you live in the suburbs, I didn't even get a chance to buy their CD (there are freebie MP3s on their website though).

Both Mach Schau and Dead!Dead!Dead! have gigs in the pipeline, I'd recommend checking them out if you get the chance.

Skin @ The Wedgewood Rooms 22/11/05

By my own admission I'm a gig whore; I love gigs, I just love 'em. That said, I've never being much of a Skunk Anansie fan so, quite unbelievably, I had to be talked into this one (my willpower has the breaking strain of a Kit Kat where gigs are concerned though, so it's not like I had to have my arm twisted that much).

Brighton's Make Good Your Escape kicked off the evening. From my position at the rear of The Wedgewood Rooms, I could only see three people onstage, I therefore naturally assumed that the muezzin-style introduction was a backing tape. No, though I only realised this as the band's front man slowly got to his feet. In addition to being possessed of a powerful range lead singer Mike Yates also has a comfortable stage presence; he works the crowd whilst the guitar and bass players blur out in time to the music, the drummer hiding at the back (only surfacing to run offstage for a disposable camera, returning to snap a a photo of the audience).

In a "it's late and I'm lazy and I've mislaid my big book of adjectives" way to describe their sound I'd say that they started off with a Mew\Muse feel (power chords, power vocals), changing to a more Muse\U2 sound as their set progressed (slightly more anthemic, mellower lyrics). All good though, and I'd like to hear more of them (luckily there are a few MP3s available from the band's website).

Skin stalked onstage, a woolly hat covering her trademark shaved head, and grabbed the microphone firmly by the stand. Lifting it above her head she began to sing and, frankly, wow. Her vocals boomed though, I must confess, they sounded slightly muffled. All was explained after two songs when, after trying in vain to introduce herself to the audience, she discovered her radio mic wasn't switched on. 

Whoops. 

Luckily a flick of a switch was all it took to fix matters, and then full power of her vocals became apparent (especially in a small venue like the Wedge). Not wanting to take the easy route, and save the crowd-pleasers for the encore, Skin decided to not only sing Weak early on but also to perform it in a mellower style. 

There was no hiding the fact that Skin was enjoying herself, easily evident from the manic grin she sported throughout the set, and she was having so much fun she went walkabout to the back of the Wedge (aren't radio microphones great?). Later, during Take Me On, a new song which is, as she herself put it, "another [one] about fucking", she went crowd surfing too.
A couple of Skunk Anansie tracks were dropped in amongst the new songs to appease te ardent fans, the new material though sounded both very raw and very good; I have it on good authority that her first solo CD was a mellow affair, it appears though that Skin is returning with all guns blazing with the new material which has something of a punk edge to it.
 
The set finished up with a cracking cover of Electronic's Getting Away With It, bang on the stroke of 11. After an all too brief encore Skin bounded offstage, sporting the biggest grin ever. An excellent gig then; I'm very glad I went and I'm looking forward to hearing her new album when it's released early next year. Hopefully she'll be touring it...

Music for Anoraks: Tears Before Bedtime

After a bit of a break, it's onto number three. It's called Tears Before Bedtime and, given that I hadn't punted one out for awhile, is a wee bit longer than previously as I've been listening to so much good stuff (IMHO) lately.

Music for Anoraks: Hung Up

My second compilation, On A Rope, has made it safely around the distribution route and back to my desk. Huzzah! Again a mixture of stuff I'd been listening to a lot at the time, this effort was mostly powered by my getting hooked on MP3 Blogs, hence the following:

01 'Battle of the Planets' by Hoyt Curtin
It was my birthday in May and, thanks to some Amazon vouchers, I bought myself the BotP DVD boxset.

02 'Blood On Our Hands' by Death From Above 1979
Play this very loud. No, louder than that. This is a raucous tune, and was even better when they played it live at The Wedgewood Rooms recently (yeh yeh, I'm a gig whore).

03 'The Gymnast, High Above The Ground' by The Decemberists
I really like The Decemberists. I mean, really really. This track is taken from their second long player, "Her Majesty.." which is, IMHO, rammed to gills with suptuous tunes.

04 'Somedays' by Regina Spektor
I'd never heard of Regina Spektor before, but thankfully someone on the interweb had. Yes, this was posted up on an MP3 Blog for all to enjoy.

05 'Afrolicious' by The Dining Rooms
I know nada about this lot, but I just couldn't stop playing the tune; again, as found on an MP3 Blog.

06 'A Friend Like You' by Aberfeldy
It was on an MP3 Blog, the name rang a bell, the rest writes itself. This is just lovely.

07 'Apocalypso' by Mew
New Mew. Nuff said.

08 'Treat Me Mean, I Need The Reputation' by Xploding Plastix
Another track discovered on an MP3 Blog; this is mad, like instruments getting kicked downstairs, but the tune fair bounces along.

09 'Dead Disco' by Metric
Another band "as heard on WOXY", it was a cracking surprise when they turned up as support for DFA1979 at The Wedgewood Rooms (and an excellent set they turned in too).

10 'Imperial March' by Hedrock Valley Beats
It's got Star Wars. It's got beats. What's not to like?

11 'Casserole Efeillaid' by Datblygu
Much like the Ween offering on my last compo, this is bonkers. It's all the fault of the TUBE (RIP) which, ages ago, had a feature on Welsh indie bands (must be at least 15 years ago now I guess). Included was a clip of Datblygu performing this track. Of course, being lazy I never bothered to track the tune down; thankfully the Super Furry Animals included it on their recent Under The Influence CD.

12 'Too Drunk To Fuck' by Nouvelle Vague
Every morning I get a lift to work from Kay. Most of the time we spend the journey chatting about this and that, occasionally Terry Wogan makes an appearance, but once in awhile she'll have a CD on. One day it was this lot; I'd heard some of Nouvelle Vague before on WOXY but there's no way they'd play this track.

13 'The Melting Moon' by VHS or Beta
Apparently these were "doing the 80s" thing long before the current vogue for classy synth-pop. It'd quite happily sit on the Donnie Darko soundtrack and not look out of place that's for sure.

14 'A View Of The City From An Airplane' by Oranger
Not strictly from an MP3 Blog this; Chris Onstad's excellent Achewood strip has its own radio station (sort of). Result.

15 'BMFA' by Martha Wainwright
This slice of Father-bashing-acoustism was downloadable from Ms Wainwright's website. Nice.

16 'On The Bus Mall' by The Decemberists
The Decemberists have a new CD out and, personally speaking, I think it's fantastic. I was tempted to wrap things up with The Mariner's Revenge Song but I think that might have blown the wheels off some members (and not, I'm afraid, in a good way).

17 'Girlfriend In The Tulips' by Tony Hawks
This was a last minute add-on to the compilation. I'm a member of the Wedgeweb Yahoo group and, as such, received an email pointing me in the direction of this Smiths cover version, performed by the guy who travelled around Ireland with a fridge. It made me laugh anyway.

So that was On A Rope. I think I'll rest a wee bit before deciding what to put on the next one.

Music for Anoraks: On A Rope

Seconds out, round two. My second compilation, On A Rope, is now out in the wilds.

Music for Anoraks: A Thousand Long Things

My debut Son of Music Club compilation, Hora, Sem Bon!, has done the rounds and, like the faithful collie at the end of every Lassie film I can think of, come back to me. As the members have, where applicable, passed judgement I can let slip the track-listing.

It was simply a selection of stuff I'd been listening to; so no concept or anally retentive obscurism like the last time around, honest guv...

01 'Any Minute Now' by Soulwax
Despite what Q (and a lot of the rest of the music press) thought, I really enjoyed Any Minute Now as an album. It's not Much Against Eveyone's Advice Part 2, which is kind of the point. Anyway, it was bloody difficult to pick just one tune to represent it. NY Excuse might have been a tad obvious, E Talking was 'the one' right up until the last minute, then the second track just snuck on in there for my opener.

02 'Robot' by The Futureheads
Again, it was hard to pick just the one track. I didn't want to go for anything too obvious, I think I failed in that respect. Then again, who cares? It's a top tune and deserves to be played as loud as possible.

03 'Such Great Heights' by The Postal Service
When I'm sat at my desk at work I often plug myself into the internet and tune Windows Media Player (yes, I know) into WOXY.com. A friend hooked me into this great radio station awhile ago and, since listening, I've found I've had to ration my enjoyment as it has a detrimental effect on my bank account (all those lovely obscure CDs I have to order). The Postal Service is just one of many many bands that I discovered courtesy of WOXY.

04 'Mushaboom' by Feist
And so is this wee gem, a slice of French-Canadian indie that is mesmerising in its quirkiness. The rest of the album is a cracker too.

05 'Disco Infiltrator' by LCD Soundsystem
It was either this or Daft Punk Is Playing At My House (waaaay to obvious). Is it just me or does he sound like Mark E Smith?

06 'Rejected Burger King radio ad' by Ween
It's short, it's mad, it's Ween. This was a freebie download on their website and I just couldn't stop playing it. Yup, they're a bit bonkers are Ween.

07 'Bucky Done Gone' by M.I.A.
Another tune "as heard on WOXY"; I heard it and immediately wondered what the hell it was. I really like it but, having read the reviews on the forum, I think I'm alone in my opinion.

08 'It's For You' by The Wedding Present
The Boy Gedge is back, and he's done good with a cracking album full of angst-ridden-guitar-jangling-indie-pop.

09 '24' by Jem
Them would've been too obivous; most of the rest of the album, though good, is a bit too light and fluffy.

10 'Lonely As Can Be' by The Concretes
The album this comes from is such a lovely thing to listen to. I urge anyone who reads this inane banter to immediately buy it (that's if you haven't already).

11 'Lost In The Plot' by The Dears
I saw these live recently, pretty much on the strength of the one track (this one) available from their website and a mate's enthusing of the album. If you read reviews on the web then they'll say how excellent The Dears are live (in their homeland of Canada they've released a live CD already). Obviously I must be missing something as I really didn't think they were all that live. Conversely, the CD is as good as they say and this is one of my favourite tracks on it. Weird.

12 'Nowhere Again' by Secret Machines
Prog is back, believe it.

13 'Obsession' by Animotion
I'm really enjoying this vogue for the 80s, especially the CD boxsets featuring all the excellent 12" singles I bought (only to later sell when skint). OK, so this probably isn't the best 12" of the 80s, nor the most representative of what I was listening to, but it's a bloody good tune all the same.

14 'The Good That Won't Come Out' by Rilo Kiley
And I finished up with the opening track of the Rilo's sophomore release, an album I played near constantly when I was lucky enough to get my grubby mitts on it (all hail the internet and its many fine record shops). Of course, it's now available in Blighty, natch.

The name of the compilation, "Hora, sem bon!", is (according to my old Manga magazines) Japanese for "Look, a thousand long things!". What that has to do with the price of cheese is anyone's guess. Still, that's one down; I can start on my next one now.

Mike Peters @ The Wedgewood Rooms 11/04/05

The Alarm are generally regarded as the band that were a bit like U2 but not as good nor as successful. Excellent live but never able to reproduce that sound on record, hampered by band in-fighting, let-down by record company machinations and, as Mike Peters mentions on his website, not helped by being welsh. They had it all against them, despite teaching Bono how to play Knocking On Heaven's Door.

These days Mike Peters keeps the flame of The Alarm alive by selling his wares direct from his website to a dedicated fan-base. The current acoustic tour is to plug an 8 DVD compilation of live performances from the Alarm-based festival he runs annually in Wales. These 'Gatherings' started small but now sell out.

Unfortunately it became clear from updates to the Wedgewood Rooms website that this gig wasn't going to be anywhere near sold out. When it says there's 'unreserved seating' it implies so few tickets have been sold that tables will be unfolded to fill up space. The additional "no support" tag didn't help any either.

Thus it was with a slight downbeat "oh well, there's a bar" air that we found ourselves in the Wedge on a murky Monday night. And yes, there were tables filling the venue, but they were all full. The candles gave the proceedings an intimate feel whilst on-stage a video screen showed snippets of previous Gathering concerts as a warm-up. So far, so good.

When Mike Peters appeared on-stage, looking slightly nervous and with spikier hair than he had any right to own, he informed us that it was to be a gig of two halves, with a short interval. This explained the lack of support act.

The first set was taken up with a sprinkling of more recent songs, with only the odd old tune in between. Also, as this was an 'interactive' tour, the songs had been chosen by visitors to his website. Mike dedicated these but, it must be said, seemed rather uncomfortable doing so. He only really came alive between tunes when recalling a rock'n'roll anecdote; for instance explaining how When The Ravens Left The Tower was inspired by The Alarm's bass player, self-medicated to the gills, watching nothing but a tourist TV loop in a hotel room for a weekend.

The evening's first half wrapped up nicely with The Stand. During the interval we were treated to more Gathering footage, including the classic 68 Guns. We also met some Alarm "groupies", one of whom had come all the way from Bedford just to see her hero. And she'd dragged her mates along as well, which was nice.

In the second set a now slightly more relaxed Mr Peters rolled out the old favourites. Rain In The Summertime sounds so much better live than on record (where it suffered from 80's over-production). It also helped that the crowd had raided the bar in the interval so we all were freer and easier when it came to singing along. Things moved up a gear with the raucous Absolute Reality, after which came the bizarre appearance of a Prince cover.

Then it was into the final stretch with Rescue Me, Spirit Of '76 and 68 Guns (which, to be honest, I didn't think he'd play, it having been part of the interval entertainment). There was a brief respite from the singalongs with the mournful Walk Forever By My Side, then everyone joined in with Blaze Of Glory to draw the evening to a close. Well, nearly to a close.

After singing his guts out for two hours he was out of the stage door and into the crowd for much taking of photos and signing of autographs. And there, forever by his side, were the Bedford ladies. Rock'n'Roll eh?

Mercury Rev @ Southampton Guildhall 13/03/05

Any review of a gig at Southampton Guildhall (aka The Bucket) must acknowledge the venue's appalling acoustics; the ceiling is too high and the room is too long, giving a strange echoey effect to the sound. Some bands can just about cope with this, relying on either a decent sound engineer or a packed venue to change the sound for the better. Unfortunately for Mercury Rev, the venue was less than half full and the jury was still out on the sound engineer.

When I arrived the support act, The Duke Spirit, were gamely trying to enthuse the crowd. They had some success but, despite being less than 20' away from me, it sounded as though they were playing at the far end of a long tunnel. This didn't fill me with confidence for the main event so I strolled into the deserted bar for a cold Grolsch.

Mercury Rev's entrance to the stage was heralded by someone playing around with the dimmer switch, the lights above dying then flickering back into life almost in time with the engineer's warm-up tape. Finally the lights went out properly and the band strolled onstage, Jonathan emerging last from the wings, looking other-worldly and receiving more applause than the rest of the band put together.

One polite greeting later, delivered in a voice not quite as squeaky as that of his singing, and the band kicked off the proceedings. First up was the new single, Secret For A Song, which is also the first track on the new album, The Secret Migration.

A few bars in and it was clear that Mercury Rev were playing at the far end of the same tunnel as The Duke Spirit had just occupied (maybe the engineer was rewinding his tape, or he was getting spanked for playing with the light switch). This was a real shame, and perhaps next time they tour a smaller, more intimate venue for their fare can be found. Even the Mayflower would be better than The Bucket.

I'd read a review prior to this gig that the set on the current tour is made up mostly of new material. I was slightly perturbed by this as I didn't have the new CD but I needn't have worried. The new stuff holds up well to the classics and, perhaps because I wasn't as familiar with the material, I found myself being drawn in to their psychedelic world (OK, and the Grolsch was helping).

For a large venue it had all the makings of an intimate gig; in an ideal world someone would have been selling velvet cushions for us to lounge upon as we soaked up the strangeness. Instead I had to rely on a wall to lean on, handy for the bar (only one of which was open, and half of that was closed down midway through the set due to lack of business).

A problem some bands have with larger venues is the size of the stage: it's big, wide across and high (The Bucket is a prime example of this). Some bands use strobes to expand their presence, others invest in pyrotechnics. Mercury Rev, not exactly the most animated of bands (the lights on Grasshopper's keyboard moved more than he did) splurged on films to accompany their tunes. This worked well, up to a point.

The movies fitted the music, the occasional promo video was even re-used, with shots of CGI cell structures and the countryside slotting in well. The only problem I had was the quotes sprinkled liberally throughout. These jolted me out of my listening experience, appearing to be at odds with the songs and, in all honesty, making them try to look far too clever for their trousers. Still, tucked away at the back of my brain somewhere are some ancient sanskrit thoughts which may one day come in handy (though I doubt it).

You may at this point be thinking that I didn't like the gig. You'd be wrong. Mercury Rev were awesome (though that doesn't make for a gripping review, unless you're a gnarly dude). The old material (and one track was VERY old indeed) fitted in well with the new, showing that whilst the band has matured they've not deviated too far from their wistful and psychedelic path.

All in all a fine evening, though I just wish they'd have played somewhere slightly smaller (and closer, so I wouldn't have had to leave right at the end and miss the second encore). Anyway, for an alternate take on the gig, here's what the Daily Echo had to say:

ANYONE not familiar with atmospheric art-rockers Mercury Rev may have doubts over live performances of music best suited to soundtracks. But those fears immediately disappeared against a backdrop of huge video projections and a dazzling light show. The result was a night of powerful tracks played against a montage of images ranging from the surreal to the sublime.

The band, originally formed in the late 1980s, took the audience on a journey through sunsets and stars as they played tracks from their new album The Secret Migration. Despite the often cliched use of dolphins and spacedust on screen, the atmosphere never lulled as they wisely picked up the pace two-thirds of the way through with new song In The Wilderness.

Thanking their audience for coming out on a Sunday, and giving a superb second encore with a repeat, light-enhanced performance of The Dark Is Rising, Mercury Rev are probably best seen on the day of rest, and will no doubt be welcomed back to the Guildhall with open arms.

Well, they would say that, wouldn't they?

Music for Anoraks: Hora, sem bon!

OK chaps, I've pieced together my first Son of Music Club offering, Hora, Sem Bon! Iit's 14 tracks of goodness (well, 13 plus a weird thing) and it's headed Andy's way first.

Who we are and how we came to be..

Once upon a time there was a group of guys who worked for the same company. They all liked music, loved it, all different kinds and flavours. One day, over a beer, they came up with the idea for the Music Club. The plan was that each of them, in turn, would punt round a CD of what they'd been listening to for the others to enjoy.

All concerned thought this was a lovely super smashing idea, and they all set about making compilations of what they'd been listening to. Witty names were thought up, covers were laboured over, record collections were plundered. Soon enough a raft of CDs were meandering through the internal post, arriving on people's desks, sometimes battered by the journey.

Sadly though, the wheels soon started to come off this charming enterprise; CDs went missing in the internal post, or remained static on certain member's desks. And, as if that wasn't bad enough, the reaction the compilations could cause when listened to often incurred the umbrage of their creators.

It's a given that no-one likes their taste insulted, or even questioned, and a flurry of emails usually followed. No-one had time to read the spam; people soon got bored of their inboxes filling up with more than the usual rubbish. Coupled to that was the increasing obscurity of the compilations (I've got to put my hand up on that one) and the speed at which they were appearing.

Like a badly run brewery tour, the Music Club soon collapsed. No tears were shed, and it had a good send-off. It was a good idea though. And good ideas often need a second (or third) chance in order to work. And we'd learnt from our mistakes, so we'd not repeat them.

So, after a goodly time, the idea was raised again. This time though, there'd be rules. And regulations. No more would CDs linger long on desks unlistened, or disappear on their journey, or arrive all at once. Most of all, there would be no spam and no "spitting of the dummy" when people passed comment. Thus the Son of Music Club was born.

Now, you may wonder why we don't have a proper MP3 blog, or some such. That'd ruin the mystery (and we're lazy). We don't know what's on the CDs when they land on our desks, hence we (ahem) 'listen without prejudice' (for the first few bars anyway). Will this grand enterprise succeed? Who knows. Will we end up buying more music anyway? Most definitely.