The Hearing Aid

Listen up...

2012-01-27T10:53:00.005Z

Time for a few more tracks currently getting a spin at Hearing Aid Mansions and this week's selection's a real kick in the teeth for anyone who keeps trotting out all that guff about how music was "better in my day". With the exception of the mighty, mighty Classix Nouveaux that's complete cobblers of course. Check this out...and yes, it is the scary bald man singing all the high bits too.

Anyway, back to the future. First up, The Cast Of Cheers. Sadly there's no Frasier Crane in the line up, instead you've got one glorious mash up of Battles, first album era Foals and a little early XTC (one for all the granddads out there). Top marks for the simple (but no doubt monumentally time consuming) vid too.

Next up, the new sound of Scotland, Django Django. With bits that sound like a robot having an epileptic fit, bits that sound like the Kings of Leon having a warm up and the kind of catchiness that should frankly be illegal (you'll have kids gathering in parks listening to this rather than downing gallons of White Lightening, you mark my words) it's as good a reason as any for stopping the devolution.

Manchester's We Have Band have been floating around for a while now(makes them sound like pooh...they're not...honest)but with new single Where Are Your People coming off like Depeche Mode getting it on with Bronski Beat I reckon their time has come brothers and sisters.

I've only just come across this one, Trogons...Contina, it's been out a few months but given its distinctly '60's vibe (shades of the B52's too) I guess timing ain't an issue right?

Last up, The Phenomenal Handclap Band with their particular brand of twisted disco.Studio 54 meets Sun Ra...sort of.

PS: Just in case you're the only person who hasn't seen this Ferris Bueller teaser yet relax, it seems as though it's just going to be a commercial or something super lame like that. Arse.

I reckon the world really needs Ferris Bueller's Next Day Off though. Can't you just see Ferris with two ex wives, five kids and a prostate problem desperate to escape some some dead end office job? Hmmmm...just me then. Oh well we'll always have the original...

Pete Williams...Dexys, Loves and Rock n' Roll

2012-01-25T09:59:00.009Z

My hood, Bearwood, has been home to more than its fair share of celebrities, from Julie Walters to Fleetwood Mac’s Christine McVie…in fact the entire band can often be found arguing over the last pots of yoghurt – three for £1 – in Heron Foods to this very day. That’s why they keep falling out. Fact. Anyway, one Bearwood name we’re all about to see (and hear) a lot more of over the coming year is Mr Pete Williams, original bassist with the…and for once I'm not exaggerating…legendary Dexys Midnight Runners, who’s not only been recording the band’s first new album in a quarter of a century or so but has also just released his debut solo long player (long player…hey how old school am I eh?). And it’s really rather special. I was quite frankly delighted beyond belief therefore when he agreed to give an exclusive (well, pretty exclusive…it's also appeared on We Love Bearwood too) interview! So settle down, pour yourself a cup of something (tea, coffee, meths…the choice is yours):

(1) Hi Pete,your new album comes out very soon. What’s it called and when’s the release date?

It’s called “SEE” and was officially released on the 8/1/12. (EDIT: you can get it on iTunes...here)

(2) How would you describe the album?

“A smorgasbord chaffinch of great bustard proportions, catering for those choughs of a particular arctic skua or cormorant frame of mind.” Chuck Paudermilch (Upper Gornal Pigeon fanciers and bantam breeders Gazette). So say the Press, and who’d argue with them eh?...It’s quite a personal record, my take on where I am now as a Black Country father, looking back and moving forwards, referencing places I’ve been and stuff that I’ve been through, accepting that I’m now in my fifties, learning to reach out and accept the things that bring me joy.

(3) I love the track ‘Reconsider This’. What are your favourite songs from the album and why?

Thanks for saying so, it’s hard to say, some of these songs have been with me in one form or another for many years, I do like “Are You Listening?” There’s a very light feel on it, which underlies the subject matter of my sometimes turbulent relationship with my Dad. It features trombone, clarinet and banjo with the rhythm section swinging sweet and hard! Very happy with “Black” a quick look back at my time living and starving in Santa Monica and East L.A. Richard Hawley’s guitar on this is razor sharp. My long time mate and collaborator Fred Skidmore plays overdriven Hammond organ on “Until We Empty Off This Bottle” like Ben Hur controlling his chariot.

(4) This is your debut solo release, why have you waited until now to record and release it?

Actually I released the 3 track ‘Black’ E.P. in 2005 after Mark Lamarr asked me to send him some of my music, the demo was played on Jonathan Ross’ Radio 2 show for 3 weeks running, his producer mailed me after show 2 and advised me to get a web presence quick (!) because “loads of people want to know how to get the track”. But as for SEE Dean Beresford, my drummer, suggested we visit Axis Studios in Sheffield, he had got to know Mike Timm (who produced and engineered this record ) during his work in Richard Hawley’s band.(Mike is the Live sound engineer for Richard). As soon as I met Mike I knew we would get on, he had an agile, open and experimental mind and shared our vision of the kind of record we wanted to make, he had the ideal studio space (a large oak paneled live room) and ultimately delivered it. Things then just started to fall into place, I grew to really like Sheffield and the people that I met ,they have a very understated honesty and warmth that the best Black Country people have, there’s a similar industrial past and like here, there’s no shortage of hills. I’ve been very lucky and feel extremely thankful and proud of all my friends that have helped me realise ‘SEE’.

(5) Has the current state of the music industry made it easier or harder for you to make your album?

Once we started this CD, nothing was going to stand in our way. Obviously it’s had to have been paid for, and that (through sales) has to be squared. Thankfully we managed to source the initial finances “close to home”. The “major” labels are being eaten up or merged and sold and I haven’t approached any of them with ‘SEE’. It would be good to have had a team of radio and TV pluggers, people to manage my website and online presence 24/7, competent and accurate physical and digital distribution, Art dept and all the rest that a label is supposed to provide. But in all my years having been signed to E.M.I., Warners and Island, in my experience they usually royally balls things up. I’m not saying there aren’t good people with real vision who work in the music Industry just that I haven’t met many, I have met quite a few A&R (pronounced Um and Aah?) men and industry execs who have told me candidly that they don’t really care for music, but quite like the lifestyle. It’s a different process now and the Internet and Digital distribution have changed so much, for so many. There’s so much “out there” and available which can be both a blessing and a curse. Social networking and promotion using Tweets, Facebook, You Tube and Blogs like this can’t be overlooked and are powerful promotion tools, giving fans a chance to be close to artists and bands and vice-versa.

(6) Your album launch is at the Glee Club on 21st February, what can we expect from the gig and do you prefer playing live or being in the recording studio?

I’m looking forward to our run of shows at the end of February, I’m confident these will be the best I’ve ever done. The rehearsals so far sound fantastic, it’s great to have the rocksteady Rhythm twins of Al Gare (Imelda May band) and Dean Beresford (Richard Hawley band) in the engine room driving the whole thing. I’ve played music with Fred Skidmore for close to 20 years and he just gets more exciting, expressive and surprising as a player. I’m also over the moon that Shez Sheridan (Hawley band) and Paul Taylor (Snowboy and Roberto Pla) are with us. I couldn’t wish for better personnel. I don’t want to give too much away or talk anything up but this is going to be a powerful, intimate show. I’ve always loved the recording process, witnessing a track grow. As bassist in Dexys and The Bureau, myself and Stoker (Andy Growcott, Drums) were first to record, before anything else was added the Bass and Drum rhythm track has to be ‘nailed’ if there’s a lacklustre feel there it’s not going to happen. The old adage “you can’t polish a turd” is still true, though in this age of autotune and sophisticated digital FX it’s becoming possible. Overall I prefer playing live.

(7) What was your favourite album or artist from 2011?

I saw this bloke at a great little venue The Hideout at Wishaw this summer www.darrenhanlon.com/ also a few months ago at a pretty empty Yardbird I saw this bloke (now being talked up) michaelkiwanuka.com/ a really lovely bloke who I chatted with after his set, great songs, he shows real promise. I’m a big Tom Waits fan and his album ‘Bad As Me’ is very good, also ‘Under Branches High’ the debut by these www.nativeandthename.com/ comes highly recommended. My friend Imelda May very kindly asked us to open for her at Nottingham Rock City and She and her band turned in an outstanding performance, they just go from strength to strength.

(8) Who or what are your musical influences?

Too many and varied to mention but here’s some in no particular order: Bowie, Jacques Brel, Lotte Lenya and Brecht/Weill, John Steinbeck, Knut Hamsun, Jacques Tati, Ludwig Van, Marvin Gaye, Stevie Wonder, Bob Marley, Augustus Pablo,Wes Montgomery, Nina Simone, Federico Fellinni, Willem De Kooning, Holman Hunt, Millais, Arvo Part, Charles Mingus, Gyorgy Ligeti, Laurel and Hardy, Elvis…

(9) Of course you began your career with Dexys Midnight Runners and I believe there’s a new album coming out soon. Is there anything you can tell us about it? What was it like recording with Kevin Rowland again?

Well we recorded together in 2003, Manhood and My Life in England (Mike Hedges produced). Prior to The ‘To Stop the Burning’ tour. But, yes, it’s true there is going to be a new Dexys album released this year. It features meself, Kevin Rowland and Mick Talbot along with some amazing players including Jim Paterson, Neil Hubbard and Lucy Morgan, meticulous in its planning and execution, recorded during 2011, these are very personal powerful songs. Kev’s in fine voice and form and its always a pleasure working with my old mate Mick, All I can say is that you won’t be disappointed, there isn’t a record remotely like this around today.

(10) What do you hope 2012 will bring for you?

Fulfillingness’ first finale.

PS: A slightly longer version of this interview appears on We Love Bearwood.

PPS: Pete Williams plays The Glee Club on the 21st February. Tickets here.

PPPS: It's unmissable.

M83 / Porcelain Raft @ HMV Institute, Saturday 21st January 2012

2012-01-23T11:59:00.002Z

It’s all a bit Eurovision tonight with headliners M83 hailing from la belle France and support, Porcelain Raft, originally from Italia. Ciao bella! All we need is a cross dressing Latvian and a Danish heavy metal band and we’d be sorted...whoops, there I go airing my private fantasies again...

Ahem. Anyway, first up the rather lovely sounds of Italian composer Mauro Remiddi, now trading as Porcelain Raft. With Mauro on keyboards, sampler, other electronic gizmos and guitar backed with a guy on drums it’s a pretty simple set up, but together they’re capable of creating some truly dreamy moments with Mauro’s accented falsetto and fine collection of effects pedals being a particularly impressive mix. Veering from the swirling sonics of the Cocteau Twins through to the jangly indie guitar of The Smiths and onto thrashier sounds (vague echoes of the Jesus and Mary Chain in places) the ‘80’s are clearly an influence but Mauro neatly updates it with a fresh twist of electronica. Beneath it all though is proper emotion with both Put Me To Sleep and Tip Of My Tongue (charmingly pronounced “teeeep of my tongue”) really capturing what it is that makes this particular Raft something that we could all do with clinging on to in these troubled times. As beautiful as their name suggests.

M83 have also been soothing furrowed brows for years now with 2008’s Kim and Jessie becoming a firm favourite on my own personal ‘chill the hell out’ playlist. I’d kind of neatly pigeonholed them as fine purveyors of dream pop with a bit of a kick but, whilst their set had its fair share of heart melting moments, they were clearly in the mood for a bit of a party...actually make that a rave. Yep, who’d have thought it (not me, that’s for certain) but the live M83 show has real teeth...and I’m not just talking about that weird fox / alien creature that wandered on at the start of the show (what the hell is that?! scared the bejesus out of me...). Even more recent stuff like Midnight City (featuring an awesome sax solo this evening) felt like it’d been in the gym for a while and beefed itself up. Maybe it’s the new double album, Hurry up, We’re Dreaming, that’s given the band the confidence to go out there and really blow the place apart but whoever or whatever’s responsible for the added ‘va va voom’ this current touring incarnation seems a world apart from their more shoegazey early days. And I like it that way. Take We Own The Sky as another example. The subtly speeded up live version sounded like it’s got a rocket up its bum compared with the original, prompting one of the many outbreaks of hands in the air bouncing up and down euphoria amongst the sell out crowd. On top of the musical tweaking Morgan Kibby’s vocals on this and many other tracks undoubtedly play a big role in making the live show something special too. Swiftly moving from sweet n’gentle whispering to full on larynx shredding she’s the perfect foil for Anthony’s more subtle instrument. Set highlight and current single Reunion became one glorious sing along this evening, the kind of truly anthemic moment that Coldplay would sell their souls for, and if I’d had a glow stick (thankfully for all concerned I didn’t), I’d have been waving it in the air like a nut job. Not sure what the last number of the encore was called but it wouldn’t have been out of place on a Justified Ancients of Mu Mu/KLF album. A suitably lively ending for an unexpectedly euphoric show. Quelle surprise!

Fierce Festival 2011 – Felix and the Machine(s)

2012-01-20T15:38:00.002Z

Felix's Machines from Felix Thorn on Vimeo.

April sees another Fierce Festival in Birmingham and one thing that’s already caught my eye/ear is the frankly magical Felix’s Machines, music making sculptures straight out of some kind of dreamy fairy tale. Just beautiful. Isn’t this one of the most amazing music related videos you’ve seen in a while? Felix and his machines can be seen at the Birmingham Symphony Hall on Saturday 7th April as part of its 21st birthday celebrations. Awww bless, will there be cake? And goody bags? And pass the parcel? Awwww go on. Anyway, the Fierce Festival itself runs from 28th March – 8th April. Details here.

PS: Sad news about the cancellation (and end of?) The Big Chill Festival. I only made it to three of them (one pre takeover by Festival Republic and two after) but thoroughly enjoyed them all...even if the 2011 bill was perhaps geared to a more commercial market. Shame though...perhaps the era of the big festivals is slowly coming to an end? What’ll they do with all those portaloos eh? Make nice homes for first time buyers perhaps?

Meet Team Me

2012-01-19T15:15:00.002Z

Only just come across this band and track but loving it/them more than Fray Bentos steak and kidney pies. Now that's real love. Team Me is a Norwegian 6 piece that make the kind of life affirming epic pop that I reckon you need in your life right now. That's a massive assumption of course...you could be perfectly happy listening to JLS. Good for you...

Peace of the action

2012-01-19T12:05:00.002Z

Great to see Birmingham band Peace getting some respect in what's left of the mainstream music press with a Guardian New Band Of The Day slot and a listing in the NME's top 100 bands of 2012 (as if such things really matter nowadays but still, it's good and all that). There's not a huge amount of stuff out there by them yet but you can get a decent idea of their sound with last year's BBLOOD. BBrilliant.

Maybe it's just me but it's getting harder and harder to avoid drowning in the deluge of new bands, new music, new mixes...I reckon Warhol got it wrong...in the future everyone will be in a band for 15 minutes. Personally I fancy being in a 47 piece all girl funk group that lives in a converted bus in Las Vegas and plays for wealthy business men who shower them with gold (no, not golden showers, that's a different kettle of pee). I can't play, dance, sing or do anything of much use for that matter...and I'm not technically a girl...but I do have a silly moustache, that's got to count for something right? Anyway...Peace...great band, go listen.

SXSW 2012

2012-01-16T15:11:00.002Z

I've never been to South By Southwest (SXSW)...seemingly the most exciting new music showcase on this or any other planet...but maybe one year eh? If anyone should fancy paying me huge amounts to cover the thing you know where I am. Actually I'd accept small amounts. Scrap that, just get me over there, find me a dumpster to kip in, throw in a bottle of Jack Daniels and a hot dawg or two and we'll call it quits okay? Judging by the videos being uploaded by the organisers there's the usual winning mix of the brilliant and the bonkers, cop a look for yourself at the SXSW Yoo Toob channel.

Here's just a couple that leapt out, first off some Danish art prog from Thulebasen...

...and how's about this then from a freshly re-animated VHS or Beta. That's a nasty case of thrush (1 minute 18 seconds in) you've got there young lady...

PS: All offers of a fully expenses paid trip to SXSW to thehearingaid@googlemail.com

Wanna be Sartain something...

2012-01-13T15:24:00.004Z

Yep, Hearing Aid favourite Dan Sartain's back with a brand new album, Too Tough To Live, and it's all a bit of a departure really, being head bangingly, spit in the eye, hammer a knitting needle through your head punkier than most of his previous stuff. With few tracks making it past the two minute mark there's no excess fat or piffle here, just Ramones-tastic bounce up and down loveliness. As an added bonus he's looked up (not literally...that's his gynaecologist brother, Jim Sartain's job) ex Go-Gos member Jane Wieldin to duet with. Suitably enough, today being Friday, there's also a neat little ditty called Fuck Friday too. Here's a live version from his 2011 UK tour...possibly recorded on a Friday. Hell yeah!

Too Tough To Live is out on One Little Indian on 30th January

Vin Garbutt / Jess Morgan @ The Red Lion, Wednesday 11th January

2012-01-12T12:02:00.008Z

First gig of the year (for me at least) and, incredibly, the first time I’ve been to the legendary (amongst folkies anyway) Red Lion Pub just on the outskirts of Kings Heath (that’s in Birmingham for all you non Brummies out there). On top of winning the Radio 2 Folk Club of the Year Award in 2006 The Red Lion Folk Club’s been going for an incredible 39 years, almost as long as tonight’s headliner in fact. Yes this evening’s show was something of a contrast with opener Jess Morgan being a relative newcomer and Vin Garbutt being...well...40 odd years into his career. They’ve both got something in common though. Within moments of coming out to perform you can kick back with a smile and a pint of real ale (oh come on now, it’s a folk gig, what do you expect) safe in the knowledge that you’re in for a great show.

When you’re a solo artist, especially a solo folk artist, there’s nowhere to hide. It’s just your voice, your lyrics and your playing. I imagine performing to a hardcore folk crowd like this one could be a little intimidating but opener Jess Morgan showed no signs of nerves. Quite the opposite in fact, performance wise there’s a curl to the lip and stomp of the foot that gives her a little more oomph than the average folkie coupled with a vocal warmth (hints of a slight bluesy edge in there too) and ease of delivery that normally only comes with years and years of gigs.

Perhaps this isn’t a surprise. Jess ain’t taking any shortcuts, instead choosing the traditional route of putting in the hours (and miles) playing oodles of self booked tours here and overseas. Her tales of life on the road in the US and its accompanying theme song, Connecticut (so wonderfully descriptive you could almost smell those stale sheets) banished forever the myth that it’s a glamorous lifestyle, but that’s what makes the difference between a good folk artist and a great one. She’s a fine lyricist too, able to refresh old themes like love and lust in tracks like The Most Of All (who knew that spectacle wearing librarians were sexy eh?) and Eels (no, not the Mighty Boosh version) as well as tackling more personal subjects, such as discovering an ancestor was forced to give up her child in one of the many highlights of her set, Workhouse. Simply one of the most promising new folk voices around...proof that Jess is more.

I’m ashamed to say that I’m a bit of a Vin Garbutt virgin. I’d heard the name (which, according to Vin, pretty unusual) and filed it in my ‘people to check out one day’ pile but that’s a pretty long list by now. I knew enough about him to know that he’s held in high regard by his fans but that’s not always a guarantee of quality. It is in this case though. Part stand up (or sit down in Vin’s case), part one man chat show, part masterclass in folk a Vin Garbutt show is like a night out with your best mate. I’ve never laughed so much at a gig in my life. That includes every comedy gig I’ve been too as well. Like one of the Hairy Bikers' dads Vin’s an instantly loveable character and it’s not difficult to see hows he’s managed to sustain a 40 year career despite little or no major media support.

Okay, so he’s loveable, funny and great company but this is all about the music right? Given the light hearted start to the show I was half expecting that this was what people had come for and that the music element would be some sort of a bonus. How wrong can a poor boy be? Vin’s got unique singing style, he almost seems to chew the words like someone tasting a fine wine (oh alright then...a real ale...) which, given the quality of the lyrics, is a pretty apt analogy. Eyes wide shut and lost in song he’s got an incredibly rich, warm, powerful voice (the equal of Phil Ochs I’d say), the sort of vocal that wraps you up from head to toe in a cosy blanket like an audio onesie. The songs are just so catchy too. Pop has The Beatles, folk has Vin Garbutt. It’s that simple. And he’s that good. Just have a listen to The Kilburn Horse or The Land Of Three Rivers for instance (a brace of love letters to his beloved Teeside), both of which he played during his first set. After just one listen I defy you not to sing along. In the grand old spirit of folk Vin’s not afraid to tackle injustice too though. From Darwin To Dili is a blistering attack on the atrocities committed in East Timor by the Indonesians, resulting in the genocide of nearly 200,000 men, women and children. Blimey. Hardly a subject for a jolly folk singalong eh? Somehow Vin manages to even make this stuff catchy, without losing the emotion or trivialising it in any way. It’s hard to think of another artist that could do that. Extraordinary.

Why isn’t he better known? Search me. I’ve long since given up trying to work out why some people make it with little or no talent whilst others, like Vin, operate under the radar for decades. Someone else felt the same way so they made a film about him (Teeside Troubadour), confident that the suits in charge of TV would snap it up. He approached BBC 4, surely the perfect home for such a film, and their response? “Vin who?” Good grief (bearing in mind that he won Best Live Act at the BBC Radio 2 Folk Awards in 2001 this is even more surprising). Vin genuinely doesn’t seem to mind though. He plays all over the world to a modest but devoted fan base and clearly still enjoys playing to them every bit as much as they love watching him. You can add another member to that fan base now Vin...

The (Casio)kids are alright...

2012-01-10T14:14:00.003Z

Sweet as sugar Norwegian synthpop pixies Casiokids kick off their UK tour next week at the Hairy Hounds courtesy of the This Is Tmrw posse.

Support comes from the head nodding / ass shaking combination of Swim Deep...

Isla Vista (Demo) by SWIM DEEP

...and New Carnival...

Ian Curtis by New Carnival

Hurrah!

Tickets for the Brum date here for an Antony Worrall Thompson-tastic £7!

Top of my pops...

2012-01-09T12:17:00.002Z

Watched an episode of Top of The Pops from 1977 the other night. God that was an odd show in retrospect. Where else could you catch a little MOR nonsense one minute, some disco the next then a quick blast of punk eh? I still miss it, even though the show was a bit of a lame duck for the last 10 years or so of its existence at least it was a music show that casual or even non music fans would end up watching...which I can't help feeling was a good thing. Bring it back, that’s what I say. Resurrect Legs and Co, Sir Jimmy (I’m sure those scientists studying that ‘god’ particle thingy could bring him back) and Peter Powell. If nothing else it’s pretty unfair to deny the bands of today the chance to mime along in front of a audience of bored looking teens. Anyway, in the absence of TOTP here’s a few toons currently rocking the charts...well my laptop anyway.

Lana Del Rey - Born To Die

Ahhhh Lana, Lana, Lana...I’d like to watch you eat a banana...or any fruit in fact. Except a kumquat...’cos that just sounds rude. Yes, Lana’s back with another glorious slice of low rent Hollywood glamour. Ignore the haters, who gives a stuff if she’s been airbrushed a little by some big record label...the girl’s a star darlings.

Tennis – Deep In the Woods

There aren’t enough videos of girls murdering their dismembered victims eh? The fact that this pretty gruesome vid’s soundtracked by a some sweet voiced dreamy pop makes it all the more swoonsome.

Pulled Apart By Horses – V.E.N.O.M

Now getting some serious airplay on 6 Music this could be the track that gets PABH over that tricky hurdle from cult act to arena buggering behemoths. Here’s hoping.

Nils Bech - Contemporary Dance (Remix)

Okay, so this track’s a bit of an oldie but the mix is new(ish). Norwegian artist Nils Bech's Great Escape gig remains one of my fave live performances of all time and this track sealed the deal. Crank up the volume and throw some shapes.

Pete and greet...

2012-01-06T14:09:00.002Z

01 reconsider this by petewilliams

Former / current member of Dexys (Midnight Runners...I think they’ve dropped this bit now) Pete Williams has just announced that he’s releasing his debut solo album in February. Hurrah! Dexys were/are of course one of the best British bands of the last 30 years (no arguing...that’s a fact...so there) and Pete played a huge role in their early success. The disintegration of the band and subsequent drug fuelled meltdown of its troubled leader Kevin Rowland have all been well documented, what’s not so well known perhaps is that Pete’s seemingly been busily crafting an album of his own. And, judging by the couple of tracks that he’s popped up on Soundcloud, it’s going to be something pretty darn awesome.

The album’s being launched with a special gig at The Glee Club, Birmingham on 21st February. Tickets here, get in quick.

PS: In other news I believe there’s a new Dexys album coming out this year (with Pete in the line up)...a mere 27 years after their last masterpiece, the criminally underrated Don’t Stand Me Down. This gives me the perfect excuse to post its standout track...This Is What She's Like...all 12 minutes 24 seconds of it.

Album of the Year 2011...

2012-01-05T12:05:00.005Z

This is a bit late but given the fact that I practically OD'd on turkey over Christmas it's a miracle I'm still here. So, what was my album of last year then eh? Go on, I’ll give you three guesses. Nope, nope and nope. It was actually a strictly limited edition CDR (just 30 copies in fact) from the lovely Val Denham. For the uninitiated Val's arguably one of the UK’s greatest living artists. Why the ‘art world’ isn’t drooling all over him/her (she’s now transgender) I’ll never know, but that’s life I guess.

Back in the 80’s she provided the covers for a series of my favourite records by Marc Almond and performed in a number of bands (this fact sadly passed me by at the time...I was soooo very young). By chance a few years ago I came across a painting by her on ebay, not expecting that the seller was also the artist. It was though and she very kindly took the time for a chat on the phone when she found out I was a fan. Over the years I’ve bought a few other bits and pieces as finances allowed and last year secured a copy of Val’s latest opus, Bluelands. Val being Val all of the copies are beautifully hand illustrated, making each one a unique work of art in itself. It was the music that really struck me though. In a world in which genuine emotion seems in short supply and true characters are rarer than decent moustache wax (seriously...damn difficult stuff to find don’t you know), especially in the music biz, Val’s simply a national treasure. The genre’s impossible to categorise (the album embraces a wide range of different musical styles) and I’m guessing it’s not going to be for everyone, but give this little beauty a spin and see what you think.

PS: I can also heartily recommend that you rustle yourself up a stiff G&T and spend an hour or two at Val’s website, especially the autobiography and artwork sections. Genius.

Jan you dig it...?

2012-01-04T15:07:00.002Z

Jess Morgan - Pamela by laurenrazavi

January’s always a pretty quiet one for gigs, I guess because most bands are, like the rest of us, trying to sober up...at least enough to play without either (a) falling over or (b) vomiting all over the audience. There are a couple of immediate must sees here in Birmingham though. First off hotly tipped Americana tinged folkstress Jess Morgan supports all round folk legend Vin Garbutt at The Red Lion (Kings Heath) on Wednesday 11th.

Next (and touring the UK...brave souls), the France-tastic M83. Dreamy hushed vocals meet 80’s synth pop. Lush! Cool enough to get the hipsters nodding along nonchalantly but poppy enough to get the rest of us a little moist they play the HMV Institute on Saturday 21st. Il ya beaucoup de la voiture dans la rue! (that’s pretty much all the French I know...je suis desole).

Ouch...

2012-01-03T09:11:00.002Z

...oh...oh...oh dear...feel like I've eaten, drunk and watched a thousand Christmases...at the very least. Ouch. Traditionally this is one of the toughest days of the year I believe, as millions of us prize our bulging bums off the sofa and waddle back to work. As someone who works from home the waddling is minimal, in fact I managed to shuffle from sofa to computer on my bottom like a dog with worms, but for those of you having to brave traffic/public transport/the office for the first time in weeks I'm feeling your pain brothers and sisters. As ever I always find that a little music helps and right now I can think of nothing better than a quick blast of X-Ray Spex. The passing of lead singer Poly was one of the sadder music related deaths last year, coming just days after the release of her big comeback album after several decades in relative obscurity. Balls. As we all heave our collective asses back into action why not crank up the speakers and get the office bouncing around for a few minutes eh? I'm sure the bosses won't mind...just call it a bit of team building or something...just so long as they don't listen to the lyrics too closely.

PS: Oh, Happy New Year too by the way. Normal service will be resumed as soon as the fog of turkey, rum and endless repeats of Only Fools and Horses lifts...that'll be June then.

Abba New Year

2011-12-29T09:09:00.002Z

Maybe it's just me but I find pretty much every Abba song to be wonderfully depressing. Perhaps it's the knowledge that all of those jolly smiles hid all kinds of marital disharmony or perhaps it's the fact that the blonde one hid herself away for years then ended up copping off with her stalker...who knows...whatever it is no one does post Christmas misery better than Abba do on this little beauty. Makes the average Arab Strap song seem pretty upbeat. Happy New Year!

The Dirty Old Folkers Panto / Sylvia / Ola Brown (Compere) @ The Hare and Hounds, Thursday 22nd December

2011-12-23T10:12:00.003Z

Well, nearly there. The turkey’s already on, the mulled wine’s bubbling away and Bad Santa’s in the DVD player. Bliss. Just before I attempt to consume my own body weight in stuffing however time for one last review...almost literally given the sheer insanity on offer this evening. The night kicked off with local folk collective, Sylvia, who endeared themselves to my heart simply by covering Frankie’s Power Of Love track, not a traditional Christmas classic I’ll grant you but for people of a certain age (i.e. ancient) always associated with this time of the year. Covers aside they’ve got some fine self penned tracks too, with gentle harmonies giving way to slightly rockier riffs.

If their name doesn’t give it away then the first few tracks from The Dirty Old Folkers (self proclaimed as Birmingham's only comedy folk cabaret band) sets the tone for the rest of the night. Folk’s always been associated with protest but delve back into its history and there’s plenty of smut, humour and innuendo too. Unlike many of the current folk bands around right now The DOF have...er...seized the rod...creating a unique blend of bile and smiles. Imagine Ewan MacColl crossed with a Viz comic and you’ll have a pretty good idea of what you’re in for. The night kicked off with Old Man Tucker, a tale of an OAP who exacts entirely appropriate revenge on the fat cats for the shit way they have...and what’s pretty unbelievable...continue to behave (it’s a theme the band returned to on one or two other tracks). Second number, Jack Of All Trades, probably the most straightforward protest tune of the night, was a blistering attack on the selling off of what was left of the UK’s industry. This has had a huge impact on the Midlands of course, with Jaguar and Rover being flogged off for a song, Cadbury sold under particularly dubious circumstances and now the rail industry in Derbyshire being decimated by the Government’s decision to award a £multi-billion contract for new rolling stock to a German company. Genius eh? Fair play to The DOF for writing about this stuff, there’s far too little raging against the machine these days (speaking of which they did a rather fine folk take on Killing In The name Of later in the evening...quite brilliant).

Aside from the traditional set format tonight saw a performance of the fourth annual DOF panto, a surreal post modernist take on that old favourite Cinderella. Revolving around a coke snorting Cinders’ attempt to win the X Factor it featured a panda as Louis Walsh (naturally), David Bowie as The Fairy Zigfather, Death (yes, the actual Death...he lives in Kings Heath dontcha know) as The Rev Death and the delightfully foul mouthed spoonerisms of Buttons (sample dialogue “You’re a cucking funt!”). Bonkers? Yes? Enjoyable? You bet. Trust me, you had to be there. Plenty of people were. In fact the place was rammed, adding to the jovial party atmosphere when we were all called upon to join in on the frequent festive singalongs...a task that people strangely warmed to as the booze flowed. Funny that eh? As long as I live I doubt I’ll ever again see anything as strange as Death engage in a dance off with a giant panda to the tune of Sexy Back. Death won by the way, by killing panda, causing one well lubricated punter to call him a “Fookin’ cheat!” Ha! Take that death, you don’t mess with drunken Brummies. There’s something wonderful about having a ruck with death isn’t there? Remind me to do likewise when I’m about to pop my clogs.

After a quick break and a rub down with a damp cloth the hardest working band in show business were back for another set, the highlight of which involved the story of The Hobbit being set to a series of classic tracks, everything from I Will Survive to War Pigs. I’m not sure the ring Tolkein was referring to was the same one that The DOF seemed to have in mind this evening but who knows? A folking great evening of fun from start to finish.

Sirens and Sailors - Deck The Halls

2011-12-22T09:36:00.002Z

It had to happen. After postulating about the possibility of a death metal Christmas mix I've been sent this little metalcore beauty courtesy of Mr H. Genius. Now I know what's going to be soundtracking my hangover come Boxing Day...hell yeah.

Merry Chrismix!

2011-12-21T09:50:00.002Z

Kid Fix Christmas mix 2011 by kid fix

Over the past few years I've noticed a growing trend for Christmas themed mixes to pop up here and there, perfect for replacing that well worn cassette of Now That's What I Call Christmas now well and truly encrusted with bits of turkey, mince pie and various unidentifiable 'stains'. Naturally, being the age of the intermess, they're all free too. Ho, ho, ho! This year there's a whole sackful of 'em, seemingly catering for pretty much every musical fetish. I'm pretty sure if you look hard enough there'll be a Very Death Metal-mas Mix Out there somewhere. Seriously. Personally I like a bit of hip hop n'soul with my turkey n'stuffing, that's just how I roll, so Kid Fix's mix (with added James Brown, Bad Lucc, Kurtis Blow and Al Green) hits the spot nicely. Enjoy.

Circulus / The Burdock Band @ Moseley All Services Club, Friday 16th December

2011-12-19T10:07:00.006Z

So where do you stand on the whole ceilidh thing then eh? I guess that might depend on how many glasses of egg nog / Christmas ale you’ve consumed. For the uninitiated a ceilidh’s a bit of a knees up, involving a bit of the old folk dancing thing (you know, all that taking your partners by the hand dosey-doe business). Whilst some folk are born to dance others aren’t, but at least folk dancing offers those of us with a complete lack of rhythm the chance to get on down whilst looking marginally less stoopid than we normally do, mainly because everyone else is too busy flailing around merrily to notice that you’ve just tripped over your feet/the floor/thin air...again. Tonight The Burdock Band do a fine job of getting this particular ceilidh started, geeing up the surprisingly unreserved crowd (brave souls...it took me a while to pluck up the courage to get up there) and unthawing those parts of the body deep frozen by the wind and sleet and it would be a churlish man indeed to deny the sheer joy of partying like it’s 1599.

Speaking of which, psychedelic medieval folk rock anyone? Yes, verily my lieges Circulus are hereth to geteth on downeth with the kind of tunes that Joan of Arc might’ve shaken a slightly singed tail feather to. Lead by Michael Tyack who, I think it’s safe to say, pretty much exists in his own fantasy world of elves and pixies (beats reality I guess), Circulus are a truly unique proposition. Briefly semi-famous for a while (somewhat bizarrely earning them a two page feature in NME) they’re now over ten years into their career, although they’ve had more members than I’ve had pints of scrumpy. Tonight they were down to a duo, Tyack and a lady on cello/fiddle, but that didn’t stop them from laying down an impressive series of acid tinged folk bangers with Tyack on particularly fine fretwork fondling form. “Wow, almost the end of the world – marvellous...2012 folks!” he announced midway through the set, referring to yet another one of those end of days predictions. He actually seemed pretty excited by the whole prospect to be honest, can’t say I blame him really. Set highlight was a flutetastic version of My Body Is made Of Sunlight, as poppy as the band gets, and a delightful 17th century tale of the Thames freezing over and having holes melted into it by women’s buttocks...which policemen then fell in to...the holes that is...not the buttocks. Quite what these women were doing with their buttocks out Tyack failed to explain but I’m sure there’s a perfectly innocent explanation. Maybe all will be explained in his forthcoming film about ‘energy lines’. There’s a preview at his house this Tuesday evening if you fancy it. He invited all of us along so I’m sure he wouldn’t find a few more people turning up.

After Circulus had done their thing The Burdock Band came back for some more ceilidh madness and only the necessity of having to catch the last bus home dragged me away from it all. Well, that and the fact that I was knackered after just one dance but we’ll gloss over that eh?

Moseley Folk Festival 2011

2011-12-15T09:50:00.002Z

Moseley Folk Festival from junction15 on Vimeo.

Sitting here freezing in the kitchen the days when you could happily run around naked without your bits falling off seem a long, long time ago. Happily the lovely folk at Moseley Folk have just released this cockle warming little video of this year's festival featuring performances from Billy Bragg and Badly Drawn Boy along with some dreamy shots of the site in all its glory that somehow really capture that MoFo magic. There are a few punters talking about the festival too, no idea who that dodgy bloke with the moustache is...

PS: If you fancy a little MoFo Christmas action hop along to Moseley All Services Club this Friday night for merry medieval maniacs Circulus. Awesome.

Speak Up...the comeback!

2011-12-12T11:54:00.002Z

Regular readers will know of my admiration for the lovely Jodi Anne Bickley, poet extraordinaire. A few months ago she suffered a pretty devastating stroke, robbing her of her ability to walk and write for a while. I’ve been ruddy peed off by a bad back (yes, I know, I’m old) for a few weeks so I can only begin to imagine what an impact this would have on someone who’s clearly so stuffed full of life. True to form though she’s battling back to health and this Wednesday holds another of her legendary Speak Up nights at the Hare & Hounds. Hurrah! There’s some top notch spoken word from, amongst others, Polarbear, some tunes from the one and only Tom Peel (plus Martyna Baker and Eva Lazarus) and the whole shebang’s hosted by Jodi and Matt Windle. Oh...there’s cake too. Yes, cake. That seals the deal right? If you can make it then do, if you can’t tell your friends...if you don’t have any friends then you need to get out more...so there’s another reason to go eh?

Tickets from here!

Birmingham’s Musical History...the movie!

2011-12-09T14:23:00.002Z

Wow. Where the hell has this little beauty come from? It’s a 7 part history of Birmingham bands from 1965 to 1985 featuring all sorts of previously unseen interviews with many of the key players. It’s only been up for a week or so and hasn’t had that many views yet (how come a video of some bloke chasing his dog across a park gets millions of hits but only a few dozen have watched this eh?). If you have any interest in music whatsoever...from Spencer Davies to The Move, ELO to Black Sabbath, Judas Priest to UB40 and on to the mighty, mighty Duran Duran...it’s frankly essential. Enjoy.

For more stuff on Brum’s surprisingly rich musical contribution to the world check out the Birmingham Music Heritage website...oh...and spread the word too...this is so much better than Charlie bit my whatever.

PS: By a strange piece of synchronicity this is post number 800 for the Hearing Aid. Happy 800th Birthday. 800 posts. Good grief. I really should get out more...less...more...oh jeez.

Clean George IV...Scot's potential

2011-12-09T11:47:00.001Z

Hmmmm, this lot sound interesting. Take a little pinch of Mark E Smith and Shaun Ryder’s winning ways with words, add a hint of The Pixies and a distinctly Celtic touch here and there and you’ve got something approaching Clean George IV.

Clean George IV 'Real Men Take Speed' by createspark

Hailing from Edinburgh there’s an album out in January and a bit of a hipster buzz building around the band, which I’ll merrily tag along with...being a hipster and all that. Yes, you’re right, who am I trying to kid? Anyway, this lot sound like the kinda band that’ll please the beard strokers (cop a load of those lyrics) as well as the mosh pitters...a neat trick if you can pull it off.

God Save The Clean (see what they did there...Lizzie will be pleased) is out on Tenement Records on 16^th January 2012

Grease @ New Alexandra Theatre, Wednesday 7th December

2011-12-08T14:23:00.002Z

Ahhhhh those chills, they're multiplying...and it’s not just down to the nut shrivelling weather this time. Usually given at least one showing on TV over the Christmas period this year the New Alexandra is offering would be Sandys and Dannys the live version of Grease as an welcome alternative to the old “oh yes it is, oh no it isn’t, it’s behind you” panto business. Oh yes they are, oh no they’re...oh you get the idea.

Now 40 years on from the original stage musical (first performed in an old trolley barn in Chicago...that’s got to be worth a point in a pub quiz one day) and more than three decades since the classic movie version was unleashed Grease is seemingly as popular as ever judging by its four week run here. Whilst this current touring version’s perhaps low on big name stars (unless you count three time Olympic gold medal winning skater Robin Cousins) happily the cast’s high on energy, really throwing themselves into the performance (sometimes literally) to capture that hormone soaked buzz of rock ‘n’roll’s glory days.

Given the iconic status of the movie version it’s tempting to compare anyone stepping up to play Danny and Sandy with John Travolta and Olivia Newton John. Don’t. Approach this version as something fresh instead, with both leads bringing their own unique take on the roles. Danny Bayne plays Danny with a neat little twist of Joey from Friends, getting plenty of laughs along the way but dispensing with the vague hint of menace that Travolta had (although that’s probably down to Mr T’s real personality rather than his acting ability eh?). The virgin turned sex bomb of Sandy is arguably the hardest part to nail (as it were...) but Carina Gillespie makes the transition perfectly, transforming from straight laced to lace me up in a basque in the blink of an eye. The supporting cast were all excellent too but special mentions must go to Laura Wilson for her delightfully kooky Jan, Darren John as the super geek Eugene and Robin Cousins who camped it up beautifully as Teen Angel. Get that man on Strictly Come Dancing next year.

Whilst the solo numbers saw some impressive performances, Carina’s Hopelessly Devoted To You honestly surpassed the original for instance, it’s the ensemble pieces that’ll make you want to come back to this show time and time again. From the explosive opening of Grease Is The Word through to We Go Together and on to a frankly frantic Born To hand Jive that left me knackered these sections of the show are a grin inducing, foot tapping, ass shaking (not easy in a theatre seat but I gave it a go) treat.

All in all a hugely enjoyable production of true musical gem. Merry Grease-mas everyone!

Grease is on at the New Alexandra Theatre until Tuesday 31^st December.

Last of the summer Winehouse...

2011-12-07T15:14:00.003Z

Came across this amazing mini doc and collection of performances from when Amy Winehouse played an ickle church in Dingle, a tiny town in County Kerry. Recorded in 2006, just after Back To Black came out it's Winehouse at her very best. The songs are brilliant, the interview bits just so darn sweet and the whole thing justifies the huge outpouring of grief that kicked off when she shuffled off this mortal coil over the summer. Really well worth a watch.

Sounds of 2012...

2011-12-06T11:30:00.003Z

So the BBC’s annual Sounds of...list is out once more and there’s not a huge amount to tickle the earlobes from what I’ve heard so far. Of the 12 acts the soulful sounds of Michael Kiwanuka are well worth a listen, Friends are real contenders and, on the basis of the following tracks, I’d take a punt on StooShe and Azelia Banks too. StooShe’s track, Betty Woz Gone is a grinningly upbeat mix of Salt n’Pepa meets Lily Allen and, by all accounts, they can cut it live too.

The Azelia Banks track is pure filth, featuring as it does a liberal use of the c-word...and we’re not talking Christmas here. Definitely one to play for Auntie Gladys on Boxing Day. Puts the ho back into ho ho ho...

Who would I stick in there? Well,for starters Dimbleby & Capper would be a shoe in...

as would Saint Saviour...

and Florrie...

...and Goodnight Lenin too of course...

That's just for starters of course, the one thing you can be sure of, no matter how much crap there might be out there right now (and there is a lot of crap out there, I'll grant you that) there's a lot more good stuff going on in bedrooms, pubs and broom cupboard sized venues all over the world, all you've got to do is dig it out. Enjoy...

PS: I've not included Lana Del Ray because, let's face it, she's going to be massive.

PPS: Yes, I know there are a whole bunch of bands I've raved about over the past few months who I've not mentioned here...why not settle down for a week and revisit all of this year's posts eh...your boss'll never know...

Goodnight Lenin / Paul Murphy @ Birmingham Cathedral, Saturday 3rd December

2011-12-05T13:05:00.009Z

Ho ho ho Merry Christmas...what’s Santa got in his sack? Why...it’s Paul Murphy and Goodnight Lenin! Ho ho ho! Yes, it’s that time of the year again, time for the second annual Goodnight Lenin Christmas gig thingy, this year held in the rather lovely Birmingham Cathedral, duly decked out for the festive season with all the good taste you’d expect from the big man and his disciples.

First up Mr Paul Murphy, front dude for The Destroyers and all round local legend. I’ve only ever seen him in full on whirling dervish mode so the fact that he came on and sat down to play took a minute or two to get used to, I kept expecting him to leap up at any moment, kick off his shoes and vault over the pulpit cackling like Beelzebub. Whilst tonight was a much more chilled out affair it gave you the chance to bathe in that voice of his, the vocal equivalent of a 40 year old single malt. A warm, rich thing mellowed out by the years, he could sing a Christmas shopping list and make it sound strangely beautiful. Happily he’s got a better way with words than that and tracks from his new solo album, The Glen, cast a rather beautiful spell over the capacity crowd.

Shoplifters Blues, a humorous tale of Paul’s attempt to nick a Fray Benthos pie, raised a chuckle and a solo run through There’s a Hole In The Universe (a track more usually played with The Destroyers) ended a surprisingly intimate little set, no mean feat in a cavernous Cathedral. Anyone missing the full on Murphy experience though can dance their legs to bloodied stumps at The Destroyers gig at Birmingham Town Hall on the 10th December.

After a series of successful festival dates (including Glasto of course), an EP release and a memorable sell out show at the MAC in July it’s certainly been a good year for the Lenin. Tonight’s set clearly benefited from all this live experience with everyone playing with just that little extra bit of polish. Avid Lenin watchers were in for a real treat with a particularly poignant rendition of After All We Never Changed Too Much kicking things off, after a little bit of the legendary band banter that provides a neat counterpoint to many of the emotionally charged songs of course. Emotionally charged? Oh yeah. Take new song Laughter From a Younger Age with its line about “shrapnel from your shattered heart” for instance. There’s a world weariness to a lot of the band’s material that belies their youth and, like one of their heroes, Neil Young, who wrote the distinctly ‘battered by life’ anthem Heart Of Gold in his mid 20’s there’s a maturity to the writing that’s as hard to find as the object of Mr Young’s seemingly fruitless search.

Edward Colby, the best song never written by Simon & Garfunkel, is another fine example of this ability to sum up complex emotions...or entire lives in this case... in a simple but devastatingly effective song. Even if you’re not religious (and I’m as atheist as they come) the setting and delivery of this track this evening combined to create something quite beautiful. Want something with a bit more grrrrrrrrrr? Ode To Rebellion really grew some cojanes tonight, with some particularly meaty guitar solos and rock solid staccato drumming (from the newly moustachioed Sam...nice work there fella). Of course you can’t play a Christmas gig without a Christmas song and happily the band has one, sort of...well it’s got the word Wenceslas in the title (Wenceslas Square) and that’s good enough for me. Having watched the band for a couple of years now personal favourite tracks change over time, but one’s stayed the distance though. Old Cold Hands is arguably their best song to date and tonight the trio of John, John Joe and Liam sang the pants off it.

Fell’s “relentlessly nothing” line is a real killer (cop a listen and hear what I mean) and you’d have to have a heart of stone (nope, not gold this time) not to feel more than a twinge of gut wrenching emotion. Things ended on a lively high though with the upbeat pew shaker Glory Be and, if there is a God, I reckon he’d have been shaking his beard and tapping his sandals like a good ‘un. I hear he likes a bit of dubstep too, him and the Angel Gabriel can often be seen mashing it up...

So, what’s next for Northfield’s finest? Hopefully an album. They’ve got the songs, they’ve got the live experience to do ‘em justice and now there’s a growing fanbase (tonight’s gig looked like another sell out) to snap it up. Put it all together and a cracking night like this one could well lead to an even greater year for them.

‘Twas the Goodnight Lenin before Christmas...

2011-12-01T15:12:00.002Z

Okay, it’s Christmas now. No excuses. Get stuffing those mince pies and swigging gallons of Bailey’s. Dust off your copy of Now That’s What I Call Christmas as well or, if you’re really cool, James Brown’s Funky Ass Mofo Christmas Get Down Get Up Stay On The (Nativity) Scene Vol 1.

Of course if you’re anywhere near Brum you’ve got to get down to Birmingham Cathedral this Saturday (3rd December) for the second annual Goodnight Lenin Christmas Spectacular too, featuring none other than the legendary Paul Murphy (lead singer of The Destroyers) as support! You’d be...crackers...to miss it...CRACKERS...eh...geddit...eh...? Oh alright then.

Last few tickets available here!

Let it blow, let it blow, let it blow...

2011-11-30T09:57:00.003Z

Loving this track right now, even though it’s currently being played to death on 6 Music. No idea why 'they' insist on using a version the replaces the words ‘blow job’ with ‘snow job‘ though...what is this...the 1800’s? Jeez. The average news report's far more offensive these days and I don’t see anyone rushing to blank out the gibberish pouring from the brain dead chuff monkeys overseeing the decline and fall of Western civilisation do you? No! Exactly. More blow jobs and less nut jobs...that’s what I say. Happily the video version above comes...as it were...with the correct lyrics. Hurrah! Anyway, just listen to the track, one of the best things that lovely Mr Malkmus has done since his Pavement days. It’s really rather spiffing.

Christmas With The Rat Pack – Live From Las Vegas

2011-11-29T12:17:00.002Z

With the three main men from the Rat Pack all having inconveniently finished their ‘last one for the road’ back in the 1990’s there’s a booming industry in recreating that old school Vegas vibe these days with dozens (hell, maybe hundreds) of performers stepping into the shoes of Messers Davis, Martin and Sinatra. Any tribute show comes with an immediate and unavoidable slice of cheese (not always a bad thing), but if the impersonators do a decent job, well, a helluva good time can be had by all. Approaching this current touring version of the Rat Pack show with this in mind the cast did indeed do an impressive job of reanimating the legends. It probably helps if you’re not an obsessive Sammy, Frank or Dean fan...I guess you’d spend most of the trying to spot the difference if you were. As a casual fan of at least two of the three the voices and mannerisms seemed pretty spot on to me though.

There are several Franks, Sammys and Deans in the current touring show and I guess they rotate from venue to venue. Here in Birmingham we got Stephen Triffitt, simply one of the best Sinatra’s in the biz and the perfect leader of the pack for the night’s entertainment. Amongst some fine solo spots (Sammy’s Mr Bojangles was particularly impressive) the group numbers were the most fun, capturing the legendary banter that made the original pack such a riot. The addition of a female trio, The Burelli Sisters, added more than a little sass to proceedings and they’re frankly good enough to carry a show on their own, some superb vocal harmonies, suitably festive and glamorous costumes and simple but effective choreography all delivered with oodles of energy.

It’s da toons dat really make da show of course. On top of the aforementioned Mr Bojangles you’ve got everything from That’s Amore and Volare, slurred to perfection by Dean, to the perennial Christmas party favourite New York New York (normally played just as Cheryl from Accounts has vomited into the punch bowl before copping off with...well...anyone actually). Plus, as this is Christmas With The Rat Pack there’s a flurry of Santa-tastic tracks of course including Frank’s take on Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas accompanied in fine style, as were all the songs tonight, by The Rat Pack Big Band. Trust me, ‘yule’ love it and‘rats’ a fact (how many more puns can I shoehorn into this? ‘Franks’ for asking...).

Christmas With The Rat Pack is on at the New Alexandra Theatre until 3rd December.

The Puppini Sisters – Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend

2011-11-25T14:06:00.001Z

Ahhhhhh the glamour of the past, when even ‘umble street urchins would wear a suit and tie to mug passers by and ladies wore stocking and suspenders. Nothing else. Just stockings and suspenders. Despite the fact that I would almost certainly have had my head blown off by Adolf and his mates I can’t help wish I’d been born in the 1920’s or 30’s. Sadly I was born in the decade that taste forgot, the 70’s and, whilst I did get to enjoy the best years for pop ever, the 80’s, I still hanker after a bit of old school glamour. That’s probably what attracts me to the Puppini Sisters, a trio of delightfully retro dames with three albums already under their (suspender) belts and a forth, Hollywood, due out in December. They’re off on a tour during the same month too (appearing at Birmingham Town Hall on the 7th), bringing some much needed festive cheer to the tired and oppressed masses.

Vintage Trouble / Kill It Kid / The Reverend Soul Shakedown DJ @ Academy 22nd November

2011-11-23T13:55:00.002Z

OWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!! Nope, I’ve not trapped my ‘bits’ in the door again, that my friends, is the sound of Mr Ty Taylor, lead singer of tonight’s headliners, Vintage Trouble, and quite possibly the new hardest working man in showbusiness. More on him (and them) in a momento, first up, after some fine soul tunes from DJ The Reverend Soul Shakedown, Kill It Kid. Like a slightly less grizzled Black Keys, they’ve got da blues brothers and sisters. Formed in the deep south, that’ll be Bath then, KIK have been a howlin’ and a hollerin’ for a few years now and, it has to be said, they make an almighty sound. Notable for having darn impressive male and female vocalists (I mean one of each, they ain’t hermaphrodites or anything...although how cool would that be eh...blues hermaphrodites...they could sing about how they dun themselves wrong), Chris and Stephanie, they’ve also got a decent stash of self penned blues belters. Pick of the bunch were You’re In My Blood, a testifyingly sultry lurve...no, make that lust, song and their last number, Let My Feet Fall Heavy, featuring some rather fine thrashy blues rock guitar solos.

Judging by the pretty decent turnout tonight Vintage Trouble are clearly enjoying a bit of a boost from their Later...appearance earlier this year, I guess touring with Bon Jovi and playing with Brian May didn’t do them any harm either. Apparently they played 80 shows over 100 days in front of a grand total of 400,000 people. Blimey. That would go some way to explaining the sharpness of the show though. Despite looking about 150 at the moment I’m far too young to have seen the legendary Stax tour and soul revues of the ‘60’s. No, honestly, I am. You can get a vague idea of the kind of raw energy from grainy clips on You Tube though. Awesome. There’s something primal about the whole thing that’s difficult to find these days. I’m guessing the ‘newness’ of the music and the hunger (metaphorical and literal) probably had a lot to do with it. Well, tonight Vintage Trouble somehow managed to conjure up that same kind of feel. Boy this band works a crowd. Within seconds they’d got hands in the air, booties shakin’ and people singing along. Kicking off with Hard Times Coming (cue one slightly mournful Brummie voice shouting “They’re already here mate”) they barely paused for breath for nearly two hours with Ty spinning, leaping and jigging about like a man possessed...or, for the Sci Fi geeks out there, like Cat from Red Dwarf. It’s a masterclass in old school soul showmanship, channelling the spirits of Otis Redding, James Brown and Mr Midnight Hour himself, Wilson Pickett.

I’m guessing most of the guys in the band are late 30’s (Ty’s 42) so they’ve clearly put in the hours over the years, hence the tip top performance. I’m also guessing that this relatively late career break means everything to them too. It shows. They played as though their lives depended on it. Highlights? Hell, the whole thing. But that guitar solo by Nalle Colt during a 10 minute plus version of Run Outta You was one of the finest bits of blues guitar work I’ve seen, intricate and soulful one second, blistering and rawkus the next.

Ty’s vocals on some of the slower numbers, stuff like Gracefully, were just sublime too...somewhere the ghost of Otis is smiling down on this dude and nodding approvingly. A frantic run through Blues Can’t Hold Me Down capped off the encore before the Academy disgorged several hundred sweaty Brummies out onto the streets. I reckon even Mr Mournful had a smile on his face by the end of this one. A truly Vintage night out all round.

Mamas Gun / Arabella @ Birmingham Academy, Friday 18th November

2011-11-19T08:06:00.003Z

Capping off a week of frantic gig going (5 in 6 nights...yes...I know...) tonight might have been a bit heavy going had it not been for the mind, body and soul lifting music of both bands on the bill. Bless ‘em. Sadly we missed opener Kristina (it was really early doors tonight...3.30 or something...) but Arabella - a local outfit from Cov with a neat line in white boy soul – were mightily impressive. Well worth a listen or catching live.

Mamas Gun have been around for about 4 years now, delighting small but perfectly informed crowds in the UK with their instantly loveable blend of soul, funk n’pop. The last time I saw them (about 18 months ago) I lamented the fact that they weren’t playing to a much bigger crowd and, whilst numbers were most definitely up, the same gripe applied this evening. As with their last gig it doesn’t seem to bother them unduly though and I doff my proverbial cap at any band that manages to keep up this kind of relentless energy and effort in the face of much smaller audiences than they deserve. That’s a rant for another day though, tonight was an ass shaking joy from start to finish.

With two albums of gorgeous hook laden soul pop now under their belts there’s plenty of material to choose from and tonight’s set was nothing less than a ‘greatest hits’ show...The Life & Soul, Finger On It, Pots Of Gold, Rocket To The Moon, Reconnection...just one awesome track after another. Soul purists and train spotters may point out the influences from previous generations of artists but Mama’s Gun ain’t a covers band merely rehashing existing tracks, they’re genuinely adding some remarkably great music to the whole soul/funk genre. Perhaps more importantly though they’ve got a knack for delivering a 100% satisfaction guaranteed live show too. I’ve been to some gigs in my time. Thousands in fact. This one has to make the top 10. No question. I normally make notes, analyse, do the odd comparison but tonight all I could do was grin like a loon and shake a tail feather...not a pretty sight I’ll grant you but there we go.

Lead singer Andy Platts is as soulful as a plate of gumbo, ‘The Professor’ (bassist Rex Horan) is possibly the coolest dude in history (check out that ‘tache...), keyboardist Dave ‘Eighties’ Burnell teases out the kind of notes Booker T would give up his MG’s for, Terry ‘Spiller’ Lewis funks his guitar like a man making sweet lurrrrrrve and drummer ‘Union’ Jack Pollitt provides the essential backbeat that drives the whole thang along. It's just a joy to watch and together they put on the show of their lives last night. In fact I positively defy anyone to go see them and not love every single frickin' second.

If you only ever go to one gig in your life, make it Mama’s Gun.

Lana Del Rey / Jake Bugg / Seye Adelekan @HMV Institute, Thursday 17th November

2011-11-18T11:30:00.004Z

Predictably this gig was so sold out that I wouldn’t have been surprised if Lana herself hadn’t got in. Simply the hottest ticket in town. Before the delightful Miss Del Rey though the crowd were warmed up with some fine solo singer /songwriter stuff from Jake Bugg (shades of The Coral’s jaunty scouse pop in there)and Seye (“pronounced Cher”) Adelekan. Particularly liked his Legs Like Beyonce number...even if the subject of the track makes me want to seal up my ears with cement.

This evening was all about one person though. Arguably as famous right now for the endless wittering on about whether she’s ‘real’ enough or merely the product of an undersexed marketing department one thing’s for certain...in Video Games Lana Del Rey has delivered one of THE songs of the year. Oozing fading Hollywood glamour it’s an instantly memorable theme tune for the self proclaimed ‘gangster Nancy Sinatra’, set to become one of those tunes that the world and his wife tries to cover (so far Kasabian and Bombay Bicycle Club are amongst the bands that have had a bash...come on Dappy, what’s keeping you?). Despite her seemingly rapid rise to fame Lana’s actually been around for a while though. In a previous life she traded under the name of Lizzy Grant (her real name’s Elizabeth Grant), playing dates in 2008 and delivering a low key EP back in 2009. After going to ground for a while she emerged, butterfly like and plump of lip, this year with Video Games, an instant You Tube hit (6,185,854 views so far...and counting). Okay, that’s the history and the hype covered, tonight was one of the first chances to see this potential icon in the making in the flesh. Front page news or classified ad?

Flanked by two giant white balloons (acting as makeshift screens for video clips to be projected on throughout the show) she came onstage, uttered a simple “Love You” in response to some similar declarations of affection and launched into Without You/China Doll (there seems to be some debate as to what this song’s called). Boy, the girl can sing. Possessing that same kind of other worldliness that Kate Bush has, and capable of a similar level of vocal gymnastics, she’s also, it has to be said, as sexy as Jessica Rabbit. Now that’s sexy. Being a hottie will only get you so far though and having only one big song does not a career make. The haters can toddle off and diss someone else though, remarkably Video Games isn’t her best one, vocally or lyrically. Born To Die sees the first of her split personality vocals, veering from tough country tinged to little girl lost in a beat. There’s the spirit of the chanteuse in there too and, whilst she’s no Piaf just yet, it’s not difficult to see her developing that same gut wrenching emotional intensity. Oui, vraiment! Next up came Blue Jeans, a David Lynchian trawl through shattered love and the American dream starting with Lana’s full on breathy vocal then moving on to a bewitching Tori Amos wibblyness. Just gorgeous. When she sang “I will love you ‘till the end of time” you could almost hear 600 hearts skip a beat. Next up, a track she introduced as “my favourite”, Million Dollar Man. Again it’s a damaged love song but this time with more of a laid back jazzy feel, a little My Funny Valentine in places. Vocally it was arguably the performance of the night with some truly ‘raising the hairs on the back of the neck’ moments. Video Games got the reception it deserved and was 100% stronger than her slightly tentative live rendition on Jools Holland a few weeks back. I’m guessing it’s not an easy song to sing, being pretty low key for most of the time and calling for tired restraint rather than the kind of powerful vocal Lana’s so clearly capable of. But, to see one of the most strangely magical songs of the year performed with such a light touch was...well...wow. The 40’s Hollywood meets hip hop mashup of You Can Be The Boss was perhaps the least convincing song of the night but no less enjoyable for that.

I guess you can’t expect a two hour spectacular this early on in her career and Team Del Rey are clearly going for the old less is more approach so the set just scraped past the 45 minute mark ending with Off To The Races with Lana imploring to object of her affections to “kiss me on my open mouth” whilst provocatively lifting the hem of her baby doll black and white dress. Ahem...may need to have a lie down for a moment (cue 15 minute ‘break’). Right, back...anyway, quality tops quantity though and there’s simply no denying her talent. The cynic in me almost wanted to find some fault tonight but I couldn’t. Damn. I loved it. Every last second. Whether she goes on to conquer the world or ends up playing in a dive bar somewhere way, way off Hollywood Boulevard tonight’s gig will go down as something truly special.

She might be taking inspiration from some of the most glamorous stars of the past but Del Rey could well end up fulfilling a similar role in the future. Hoo-Rey for Hollywood eh?

Wire / Talk Normal / Chicks Dig Jerks DJ’s @ HMV Institute, Tuesday 15th November

2011-11-16T11:44:00.002Z

You wait years for legendary post punk bands to come along and then two play the same venue in the space of a week. Yep, hot on the heels of Magazine this week’s heroes of the post punk scene are Wire, arguably even more influential than Devoto and co. First up though relative newcomers Brooklyn no wavers Talk Normal. Drummer Andrya Ambro and bassist Sarah Register have been tickling the sweet spots of hipsters for a couple of years now with their raw as an open wound sound and primal skin pounding. Tonight was no exception with tracks crashing into each other to form one continuous thump round the ears. Quite how they keep up the furious momentum without bursting into flames is a mystery. Some years ago the venerable Kaiser Chiefs predicted a riot...this is what it would sound like.

Wire always seemed to revel in shifting styles and tonight’s set was true to form, stopping off at punk rock, post punk, post rock, Krautrock and all stations in between courtesy of tracks torn from most of their albums. We had most of the original band here tonight too, with just Bruce Gilbert missing in action, his place taken by Matt Simms who was obviously tickled pink (Flag) to be there judging by the expression of sheer joy that spread across his face throughout the gig. I’d not seen the band before, given that their last Birmingham gig was over 30 years ago (at Barbarellas apparently) perhaps that's not a huge surprise. In many ways they’re an odd proposition. Lead vocalist Colin Newman looked a little like he’d turned up to deliver a presentation on the Bauhaus movement (1919-1933), with his Apple i-pad fixed on a stand in front of him to remind him of some of the lyrics. Graham Lewis has a touch of grizzled bulldog about him, well and truly adding the punk element to the mix by growling and yelping into the mic at odd intervals and stamping angrily on his FX pedals joined up by, appropriately enough, a tangle of wires. Meanwhile the metronomic Robert Gotobed provided the beats on the drums...although he started off by distractedly tapping against the metal stand of his symbol for the whole of the first track (Believer?). Newman’s not the strongest vocalist out there and it was difficult to make out all of the lyrics in amongst the sonic assault but since when has punk been about chin stroking eh? What you do get from a Wire gig is a rare glimpse of some of the original building blocks behind everyone from REM and The Cure to Blur and Henry Rollins. Capable of giving it a full on punk thrash one minute then knob twiddling wibblyness the next (sometimes in the same song) it’s an intense experience but, buried beneath it all are some killer riffs too which went on to give, amongst others Brit Poppers Elastica pretty much their whole career. Pick of the set included an ear shredding rendition of Drill with Newman firing questions at us like Paxman on speed and the fractured jangle of Map Ref 41°N 93° W which surely went on to influence REM’s distinctive sound. The new stuff stood up pretty well too, with Moreover (from this year’s Red Barked Tree album) seeing Newman’s trademark stream of lyrics in full flow against a bit of a twisted My Sharona meets Rocket From The Crypt’s On A Rope style riff.

Much of the set was short on chat. In fact they didn’t say a word until the encore when Lewis informed us that “If anyone asks for I Am The Fly...they’re fucking dead”. Someone, wisely someone standing at the back, did so prompting a wry smile from him. Happily he decided against beating the joker to death with his bass...for now at least. Clearly Wire ain’t the kind of band that takes requests. I’m guessing they’re not available for kiddies parties neither. They did give us Boiling Boy though, perhaps not the most obvious choice to kick off the encore. At over 6 minutes long it’s a hypnotising slow burn of a track which takes a while to get going but then, when it does, you don’t want it to stop. A krautpunk (if such a thing exists) classic. Thirty five years on from their debut Wire remains as barbed and individual as ever.

Buddy @ New Alexander Theatre, Birmingham, Monday 14th November

2011-11-15T10:12:00.002Z

Given that his career lasted less than the average world tour these days it’s remarkable that Buddy Holly’s still packing ‘em in half a century after his untimely death. Amazingly the musical based on his life and songs is now into its 23rd year, beating the meagre 22 years that Buddy lived. So what’s the appeal? Why does a skinny be-spectacled kid from Lubbock, Texas deserve his place in the rock n’roll hall of fame? Well, it’s simple. Within the space of a few months he practically invented it (albeit thanks to the huge influence of dudes like Bo Diddley). It’s probably quite hard to imagine just what a kick in the crotch rock n’roll was back in the 50’s but with it came the invention of the 'teenager' and a huge surge of adrenaline that gave us (one way or another) everyone from The Beatles and The Stones to The Pistols.

Short of actually inventing a time travelling De Lorean it’s impossible to catch Buddy Holly live but, in the absence of that, this blistering run through the DNA of rock and pop does a fine job. Ostensibly it’s a ‘jukebox musical’, there to showcase the hits, but there’s a brief story of Buddy’s life weaved in between to give a bit of an insight into the dude who gave us That’ll Be The Day, Peggy Sue, Oh Boy, Rave On, Not Fade Away...each one a classic, part of the fabric of our musical heritage. This current touring version of the show perfectly captures that raw energy of these early singles, sweaty, hormone soaked and, in retrospect, surprisingly punky and rebellious. There’s a particularly powerful moment near the start of the show when Buddy and the Crickets are in a studio to record one of the typical Country & Western tunes that were the staple of the American music biz at that time. After a few lines Buddy and the boys suddenly launch into Rip It Up and you get that same shiver of excitement that teens no doubt felt over 60 years ago.

The set’s made up of a giant montage of ad images from 50’s America, a simple but incredibly effective way of transporting you back in time and some swift roll on/roll off mini sets do a neat job of recreating the claustrophobic atmosphere of those tiny recording studios where Buddy and the band worked...often for days and nights on end to nail that illusive perfect take. Roger Rowley (one of two actors taking the lead role during this tour) captured that sense of energy and ambition that Buddy had, truly rocking out like a man (albeit unknowingly) facing his last days on earth throughout the show. Melissa Keyes’ delightfully OTT performance as an Apollo Theatre performer added a lovely touch of humour and Miguel Angel and Steve Dorsett both got the crowd rocking as Ritchie Valens and The Big Bopper respectively. The whole cast put in 100% though and as you’d expect from a show that’s been running, in one form or another, for nearly a quarter of a century there’s little you could find fault with. The one observation, and perhaps it’s an odd thing to mention in some ways, is the demographic of the audience. The show seemed (tonight certainly) to attract an older crowd, familiar with the music from first time round I’m guessing. Nothing wrong with that of course but it would be a shame if Buddy’s music remained the preserve of just one generation. This stuff’s timeless and, with a cast as ‘up for it’ as this lot, anyone with ears should grab a ticket whilst Buddy’s still in town. A ‘Holly' (someone's already nicked "Buddy brilliant" and "Peggy Sue-perb"...that's as good as I get) good night out for the whole family in fact.

Buddy is at the New Alexandra Theatre Birmingham until Saturday 19th November.

Thomas Dolby / Aaron Jonah Lewis @ Birmingham Academy, Sunday 13th November

2011-11-14T11:51:00.004Z

There are beards and there are beards. Opening act tonight, Aaron Jonah Lewis has a BEARD. Big, bushy and possibly home to a family of travellers it’s the kind of beard that threatens to take over a room. If the music thing don’t work out this dude’s a shoe in for one of those Father Christmas jobs one day. Ignoring the beard for a moment, as if you could, wow...just wow...our Aaron’s a bundle of banjo and fiddle based loveliness, playing the sort of stuff that no doubt floored the crowds back in the 1900’s. Fast forward 100 years and it’s still a powerful force. There’s something magical about banjo and fiddles, don’t ask me what, perhaps it’s just that joyful hit of sound that makes you want to jig around like you’re auditioning for Riverdance? Clad in an incongruous red tracksuit (his musical partner had a matching light blue one...nice) Aaron and chum (Ed) fiddled and banjoed their way through a good half dozen (traditional?) tracks to the slight bemusement of some of the more synth based Dolby-ites. I loved it but I guess it’s a huge leap from the electro pleasures of Hyperactive to the 100% organic sounds of the Appalachian trail. This is a point we’ll be coming back to in a moment or two...

Excluding a brief tour in 2007 (I think...my brain’s like a sieve too) Thomas Dolby’s pretty much been away from music for 20 years, busying himself with inventing polyphonic mobile phone ringtone software and, no doubt, making himself a squillionaire in the process. Given his techy background and origins as a synth pioneer some of tonight’s gig might have come as something of a surprise in places then. Whilst he’s not thrown out the digital baby with the electronic bathwater there’s more of a ‘natural’ feel to some of the music this evening, reflecting much of the rather fine new album, A Map Of The Floating City. The evening kicked off by almost going right back almost to the beginning though with a funky run through Commercial Breakup seeing Thomas grab the mic and come up to the front of the stage in full on lead singer style. The decent sized crowd gave it and him an enthusiastic welcome, befitting the return of a bloke that most of them might not have seen live for...oooh...the odd couple of decades or so.

Tonight was as much about the present as the past though and the second track of the night introduced some of the audience to a new addition to the Dolby songbook, Nothing New Under The Sun. Thomas was in particularly fine voice here (he looked pretty buff in his tight t-shirt too...I'm just saying y'know...)and the addition of more ‘live’ musicians added a little extra sparkle to the version on the new album. It was great to see a decent band around him this evening in fact, including long time collaborator Matthew Seligman on bass. Perhaps it’s not all as instantly addictive as hits like Hyperactive or She Blinded Me With Science (what could be eh?) but arguably it’s got more depth and, well, humanity, reflecting a road more travelled now and reinforcing Dolby’s reputation for songwriting that dates back to more thought provoking stuff like One Of Our Submarines, given a particularly poignant airing tonight (today was Rememberance Sunday after all) and beefed up nicely with a little extra live bass. Next another newbie, A Jealous Thing Called Love and here it’s time to pause for a mo to mull over the synth vs live instrument debate. This track’s got a lush Herb Alpert kinda feel (you know, that gently parping trumpet sound) tonight played on a synth (like it is on the record I guess). It works but, given the ‘feel’ of the track, the muso in me couldn’t help yearning for a live trumpet. Of course humping around a band ain’t cheap and I guess that’s part of the issue but it would be interesting to see a...dare I say it...synth free Dolby show, or at least a section of the show that dispensed with the electronic wizardry for the tracks that really suit it, like this one. It's an observation rather than a grumble but, from time to time, especially when Aaron returned to the stage to do his thang, that slight clash between the two worlds was there.

On top of the music the set was liberally scattered with charming little anecdotes about lost lovers, turkey hot dogs, Welsh eco hippies and mad scientists in between a pleasing mix of old and new songs that had plenty to please the faithful die-hard Dolby fans, My Brain Is Like A Sieve, I Scare Myself, Europa and The Pirate Twins, I Love You Goodbye and, of course, Hyperactive and She Blinded Me With Science...surely two of the most joyful hits of the original synthpop era? Several of the new songs are already starting to take hold now too though with Toadlicker, admittedly an odd proposition...Dolby does Bluegrass...and encore opener, the mariachi/techno mashup of Spice Trail both deservedly going down a storm. As bed was beckoning the set ended, appropriately enough with Silk Pyjamas from 1992...Dolby goes Zydeco (he’s got form when it comes to this genre hopping business). It’s blinking great to have him back, as a songwriter and performer, and with a Map Of The Floating City having clearly got his creative juices flowing again let’s hope it’s not another 20 years before his next release eh?

Get Wire-ed up...

2011-11-11T14:46:00.002Z

If you missed post punk legends Magazine in Birmingham this week, Birmingham Promoters have another must see band next week, the mighty Wire in the intimate setting of the Temple at the HMV Institute. One of those bands you really must catch before checking in with the grim reaper, they formed during the white heat of the original punk explosion and went on to release three of the most important of that era, Pink Flag (’77), Chairs Missing (’78) and 154 (’79).

Want to know how influential they were? Recognise the tune above this waffle? How about this one.

Yep, Elastica's Line Up and Blur's Girls and Boys were both, let's say 'inspired' by these tracks. Actually, unsurprisingly really, Elastica got their asses sued for it too.

The current touring line up features 3 out of the 4 original members including vocalists Newman and Lewis as well as drummer Robert Gotobed. I strongly suggest that you...ahem...getoutofbed and get down there.

Tickets available from those lovely folk at Birmingham Promoters.

Wild Beasts / Braids @ HMV Institute Thursday 10th November

2011-11-11T10:26:00.004Z

Tonight’s review is brought to you by the words ‘texture’ and ‘soundscape’. Everytime I mention one of these words you’re heartily encouraged to down a shot of Absinthe. TEXTURE! SOUNDSCAPE! TEXTURETEXTURETEXTURETEXTURE! There, now isn’t that better, blurrier I bet, but better.

First up Braids, who wove a multi-textured soundscape (yes you’re right, I’m just being silly now) with lovely echoes of late 80’s bedroom romantics Cocteau Twins. Possibly the only Canadians who aren’t part of the sprawling Broken Social Scene collective they take dreamy electronica to a whole new level with each member of the band seemingly having their own bit of knob twiddling kit to hand to twist and mutate music or vocals into wonderful new sounds. Amongst all this slightly trippy sonic experimentation lead vocalist Raphaelle Standell-Preston goes all Bjork on our ass, veering from an ickle girl lost quiet voice to a RUDDY LOUD ONE. It’s all quite beautiful, a little like a fucked up fairytale soundtrack...in fact if Disney ever decided to hook up with David Lynch I reckon Braids would be a shoe-in for the music. Set highlight was a glorious track called Glass Deers, a mere 8 minutes long it begins with minimalistic pips (a little like an elongated engaged tone on a telephone) before building into a glittery crystalline landscape that’s strangely interrupted by Raphaelle informing us in her best little girl voice that’s she’s “fucked up”. Then she goes a bit nuts (shades of Bjork again) before reverting back to that sweet innocence of hers. Fan-frickin-tastic.

Now three albums into their career Wild Beasts are finally getting more of the mass appreciation that their particular breed of atmospheric pastoral pop so richly deserves. Notable for, amongst other things, the testicles in a vice (don’t try it kids...trust me) falsetto vocals of Hayden Thomas they’ve quietly crafted some stunningly beautiful tracks peaking with one of this year’s best singles Bed Of Nails. Proper lush. With the room rammed to capacity (seriously, people were hanging off the ceiling) a retina scorching blast of white light accompanied the band’s entry as they kicked off proceedings with that very song. Not even a bit of feedback could dent the beauty of this track, a twisted love song with some truly emotastic lyrics “Ink up the wound for a crude tattoo”, “I want my lips to blister when we kiss”...see what I mean? That’s kind of the appeal of the Beasts, perhaps inspired by the poets of their native Lake District (old Wordsworth, Coleridge and chums) they bring a touch of classical romanticism to the dirty world of pop that’s often more concerned with grinding its....eurghhh...sweaty crotch in your face. There’s a delicacy and subtleness to the whole performance that makes it a pretty intimate affair too, even with a moist sold out crowd rubbing up against you.

Like I say it’s taken a while for the world to catch up with Wild Beasts, a fact that Hayden duly noted early in the set. The last time they played Birmingham (with Adele as support!) the sort of audience in attendance tonight would have been, in his own words “impossible”. Fresh from two months overseas they seemed pretty blown away by this evening’s reception. Hayden even admitted that he found Birmingham “a romantic place...seriously...I’m not taking the piss!” Wow. Never heard Brum called romantic before. Still, we do have more canals than Venice so maybe he’s onto something? Shall I compare thee to a Summer Row? Can I take you up the Outer Circle? Hmmmm...maybe not.

Anyway, back to the music and the band took tonight as an opportunity to revisit some of their earlier stuff as well as tracks from this year’s breakthrough album, Smother. This arrangement saw vocal duties shared pretty equally between Hayden and Tom Fleming, who are kind of chalk and cheese. Whereas Hayden has that angelic falsetto Tom’s more of a gruffer Beast. It’s a rather marvellous contrast though adding (yep, get ready with the Absinthe again) a real texture and depth to it all, particularly effective tonight on early single Devil’s Crayon form the band’s first release 2008’s Limbo, Panto. New single Reach A Bit Further melded a bit of a Tears For Fears Mad World beat with a vocal worthy of Jamie from The Irrepressibles (seriously if you’ve not heard this band do yourself a favour and check them out) and was so beautiful you could kind of forgive the slightly dodgy “Lewd, crude, rude” line. Come, come now boys would what would Wordsworth say eh? A meaty run through Hooting and Howling (or maybe Hooting and Growling given Hayden’s throaty roars during the track) raised the biggest cheer of the night, prompting some spontaneous clapping along from the bewitched capacity crowd. The encore and night culminated, appropriately enough, with End Come Too Soon which, despite extending beyond its 8 minute album version, pretty much summed up the mood of the crowd.

Ba ba ba ba ba ba baaaa...coming soon at The Flapper!

2011-11-10T15:35:00.002Z

November’s a monumentally busy month for gigs, as bands go all out to end the year on a high before stuffing themselves with Quality Street and turkey vindaloo. Possibly both at the same time. Before all that though The Flapper plays host to yet another couple of hot, hot, hot (yes, probably vindaloo hot) bands, kicking off with Retox on Tuesday 22nd. You want anger? You want 200mph vitriolic spurts of punked up insanity? You want to have your brain removed, scrambled, kicked around a bit then shoved back into your head via your left eye socket (these are all good things by the way...). Then Retox, my friends, is the answer. Fronted by San Diego grindcore legend Justin Pearson (formerly of The Locust) the music’s inspired by all the shitty stuff that goes on in the world, so there’s more than enough to have a go at there then eh? Given the speed that the whole thing runs at tracks generally last a matter of seconds but, judging by some of the footage I’ve seen, they’re likely to be some of the intense, insane seconds of your life. Serously. Not so much a gig, more therapy for the dispossessed. That’s most of us right now, yes? Support comes from explosive Stourbridge old skool hardcorers History Of The Hawk and hotly tipped all girl four piece Pettybone, fresh from their interview feature in this week’s issue of Kerrang!

Somewhat quieter (and in many ways the ying to Retox’s yang) Capital Sun play a FREE gig on Thursday 24th.

Shades of the Manic Street Preachers on some of their stuff...classy emotive rock from the backstreets of Birmingham. Support comes from Brother & Bones, fusing folk with a meaty rock edge they’ve been described a Mumford & Sons meet The Dead Weather. You’ve got Rubicava too, on a bit of a Pavement tip. As if that wasn’t enough our chums from Goodnight Lenin are on the ones and twos spinning some hardcore death metal spazzcore...possibly. So there you have it, two nights, two cracking gigs and one lovely venue. Enjoy.

Magazine / In Fear Of Olive @ HMV Institute, Tuesday 8th November

2011-11-09T11:37:00.004Z

One of the original, and hugely influential, post-punk bands Magazine split up in 1981 after an all too brief four year career only to return nearly three decades later. Now that’s a decent break up eh? That’s how you do it Stone Roses...15 years...pah...that’s barely an intermission. During their initial incarnation Magazine cemented their place in post-punk history with the truly seminal single Shot By Both Sides and a handful of critically acclaimed left field albums before vocalist and ex Buzzcock Howard Devoto buggered off to pursue a solo career then form another band, Luxuria in 1988. There, that’s got to be worth a few points at a pop pub quiz one day eh? Here endeth the lesson.

Before Magazine though openers In Fear Of Olive warmed up the crowd nicely with some fine blues rock, Americana and a little bit of good ol' country twang. Not sure of the name of the first track they played but it was a belter, with an extended blues jam threatening to go on all night. I wouldn’t have minded to be honest, I do love a good jam. Elsewhere they made the best use of the fact that all four band members can more than carry a tune with some lush four part harmonies. A spirited cover of Cash’s Folsom Prison Blues won over some of the aging punks in the audience and the set ended with the odd cries of “more”, a rarity for any opening act eh?

With the room stuffed to the rafters with men of a certain age, many of whom had clearly waited the odd decade or three to see the band, Magazine received a bit of a hero’s welcome. The love was handsomely returned with opening number, Definitive Gaze, spiky cut throat guitars, wibbly synths and surprisingly complex rhythms and shifts in timing providing the perfect soundtrack for Devoto to prowl the stage slowly revealing placards bearing the legends “Let’s fly away to the world” and “You do the meaning”. It’s safe to say that Devoto’s not got the most conventionally tuneful voice in the world (although it seems a hell of a lot stronger now than it was back in the day), but then again neither have many of the more interesting artists around. What he lacks in the old ‘do-re-mi-fa-sol-la-si-do’ talent he more than makes up for in effort and charisma though, illustrating the songs expressively with his hands and constantly wandering the stage. He looks a little like Dr Evil from Austin Powers these days, much more preferable to the balding monk look he sported in the late 70’s. “Welcome to Magazine version 6.0” he proclaimed, drawing the number 6.0 in the air just in case we hadn’t got the message. I half expected him to follow it up with by putting his little finger in his mouth and demanding $100billion or he’d destroy the earth. Instead what followed was a masterclass in post-punk, reminding the faithful of just why this band had meant so much to them 30 years ago and introducing a few newcomers (to be honest most of the crowd seemed to belong to the former category though) to a dozen or so musical gems. Most of the tracks were plucked from the original era albums but tonight wasn’t just a history lesson. Yep, they’ve recorded a new album too, No Thyself. “We’ve been around a long time as a band so it was easy this time...I’M LYING!” explained Howard before launching into one of the newbies Always Happening In English, which actually sat pretty comfortably next to its older brothers and sisters. It’s the classics that really got the juices flowing though. A Song From Under The Floorboards seemed even more potent tonight, with keyboardist Dave Formula bashing away dementedly and Devoto spitting the self hating/self inflating lyrics like poison from a dart. Philadelphia combined lush basslines (you can see where Japan got a lot of their sound from) with more gloriously demented keyboard stabbing from Mr F and a post-punk-funk cover of Sly’s Thank You (Falletinme Be Mice Elf Again), first heard on the classic The Correct Use of Soap, neatly fused the funkiness of the original with Magazine’s own unique sound. Genius. Predictably the encore saw the ‘big hit’ (astonishingly it seems that it only got to number 41 in the charts back in 1978...wtf?!)rolled out, a furious run through Shot By Both Sides whipping the aging punks up into something of a fury and even inspiring some mild pogoing. That’s a very dangerous thing when you get past 30...trust me. Covered by such luminaries and Morrissey and Radiohead it still sounds incredibly fresh today and, remarkably, throughout tonight's gig so did the band. Over 30 years on from their original heyday this is one Magazine subscription that’s well worth renewing.

Gardens & Villa...it's Spacetime baby!

2011-11-08T14:51:00.002Z

Hotly tipped Californians Gardens & Villa (signed to the ultracool Secretly Canadian label...always a surefire sign of quality) descend from the skies to the Hare & Hounds tomorrow night (Wednesday 9th). Cop a load of their latest release, Spacetime, a lush mix of Kraftwek, Sun Ra and George Clinton. Cosmic eh? It's enough to get ET tripping off his box...

Tickets available right here, right now for a mere £7. (given that the lovely Mr Branson wants to charge $200,000 for a quick trip into space I'd say that was a bit of a bargain eh?)

Troumaca – Fire

2011-11-07T09:52:00.002Z

Fire by TROUMACA

I’m well behind the curve here (no change there then) but it seems that a new band has risen from the ashes of rather fabulous local legends Scarlot Harlots. Troumaca (named after a town on the island of St Vincent...that should help you with your geography homework) is a dubbily tropical five piece featuring, I do believe, all of the former Harlots. Musically there’s not much out there to listen to yet but this incendiary gem’s just popped up on Soundcloud. Seemingly inspired by the recent riots and the systematic rotting of civilisation caused by the pursuit of filthy lucre it’s an all too rare example of a current band tackling some of the bigger issues of the day. And boy oh boy are there some big issues out there. Quite why we’re not seeing a rebirth of the kind of anger and energy that birthed the whole punk scene and, a few years on from that, Billy Bragg and the whole Red Wedge thang, is a mystery to me. Maybe, tough as times may get over the coming years, things aren’t as bad as they were back then. Or maybe, just maybe we’re all far too busy Facebooking, Twittering, X Factoring our lives away to see what’s actually going on eh? Hmmmm. Anyway, this ain’t a political blog, not yet anyway (come the revolution brothers and sisters...just as long as the revolution involves a nice G & T, some nibbles and the Antiques Roadshow). The important thing is that music could and should provide a mighty voice of protest right now and, well, Troumaca could well be it. Failing that they’ll still be a darn good bet if you just fancy shaking your rump as the world collapses around your ears. One’s to watch. Fiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiirrrrrrrrrre!!!!

PS: There's a rather fine free Troumaca mixtape to download too.

New Music Roundup Thingy

2011-11-02T12:18:00.002Z

Time for another whizz through the mighty, mighty inbox of tunes and some rich pickings once again this week, kicking off with Seattle based multi-instrumentalist Anomie Belle (featuring Mr Lif...can't forget Mr Lif). Take a bit of a jazzy laid back hip hop groove add a little Tricky-ish growl and Ms Belle’s slightly deranged fading screen siren delivery and you’ve got an oddball but particularly timely anti-capitalist anthem for the St Paul's crowd. Bonus marks for including the word ‘unconscionable’ in a song. Love it.

Machine’s out on November 14th on Anomie Belle Records

Next up Crystal Fighters Basque Hop belter Champion Sound. Yeah, alright I know this tracks been around for a while now but it’s being re-released with a pretty new video so that’s enough of an excuse for me to stick it up again. If you’ve been lucky enough to see ‘em during the festival season this’ll bring back some mightily happy memories. I have it on good authority that they’re off to record their second album any day now. The soundtrack to Summer 2012 by any chance?

Champion Sound is released 14th November 2011 via Zirkulo/P.I.A.S

Coming off like Eartha Kitts granddaughter Ruby Goe’s Get On It is pretty much the perfect 'getting ready for a Saturday night on the razzle' record. A bit of dubstep, some vocoder, a party, party, party chorus and a neat build to climax with that last swig of Lambrini just before you head out the door. Yes, Lambrini, I'm a classy girl. Actually I'm neither classy nor a girl but what the hell.

Ruby Goe - Get On It by rubygoe

Get On It is out on the 14th November on Goe Music.

This is great. Seriously. Roman Holiday by Fanzine. Slacker pop of the finest order. Scuzzy lo-fi guitars, ever so slightly stoned vocals and the sort of vibe that makes you want to make bongs out of beer cans. Play this to your mates and be instantly at least 86% cooler. At least.

Roman Holiday from Fanzine on Vimeo.

Roman Holiday is out on Fat Possum on 22nd November and the band’s on tour in the good old UK throughout the month.

Where the Wild Beasts are...

2011-11-01T10:29:00.002Z

Help! Help! The wild beasts are coming...run to the hills, grab your pitchforks, light some of those flaming torch thingies that the villagers always have in Frankenstein movies...oh...what’s that...ahhh...Wild Beasts the band. Oh. Righty ho.

Yes, Wild Beasts are on the loose again, roaming the UK and drawing in unsuspecting punters with that bewitching falsetto of theirs. If you’ve not seen them live yet you’ve missed one of the best bands around right now and, with their third album Smother containing the simply sublime Bed of Nails, they’ve delivered the record of their career to date.

With a voice like a less histrionic Anthony lead Beast Hayden ends more shivers down ya spine than an ice cube enema whilst his fellow Wild ones weave an atmospheric multi layered tapestry of pure beauty.

Good eh? They play the HMV Institute in Birmingham on Thursday 10th November, a suitably beautiful venue in many ways, and at the time of writing this tickets are still available I think. Hang on. Yes. Still available. I’ll just check one more time. Yes, still there. Go see’em, trust me on this one. Awesomely good.

PS: Support comes from the hotly tipped Braids too. A little like an edgier Cocteau Twins...ask your granddad...he’ll tell you.

trioVD - 'X' hits the spot...

2011-10-31T12:23:00.003Z

If you need waking up cop a listen to this track from Leeds based metal math jazz (experi)mentalists trioVD, it’s the kind of noise you’d get if a jazz band and metal band went on a two day speed bender together. For that added epileptic touch why not try watching the video at the same time eh? Bonkers but really rather brilliant n'est ce pas? It’s made me see Tulisa is a whole new light...

They’ve got an EP out on Naim Edge on 14th November. Entitled X it’s their...er...tribute to the current judging panel on everyone’s favourite ‘talent’ show. Tulisa’s the maddest one but Barlow comes a close second. Life imitating art imitating life etc.

Man Like Me / HEARTS / Resistant Regime @ The Rainbow, Friday 28th October

2011-10-29T10:00:00.013+01:00

It's Friday! The clocks go back this weekend! An extra hour in bed. Hurrah! But then again it gets dark at lunchtime. Boo! I don’t know about you but I always find the effort required to prise my sorry old ass off the sofa to go out to a gig increases exponentially (yes, I’ve been reading the dictionary again) once BST does one for another year, especially given the dazzling entertainment on offer on telly these days. Is every area of Britain going to get its own ‘reality’ show? Where’s Birmingham’s eh? I vote for calling it ‘Taking It Up The Brum’, an in depth look at the lives and loves of the strange creatures that inhabit Broad Street. Watch with amazement as ‘Big’ Steve cops off with Cheryl from Accounts on a work’s night out, hide behind the cushions as Kylie, Tracie and Stacy totter unsteadily between the rows of illegal ‘taxis’, trying to negotiate a trip home for a handjob (do you know how hard it is to get jizz out of a Primark boobtube?) and pluck out your own eyeballs at the vision of some old biffa in a thong flashing at Nick Owen enjoying a cheeky half of real ale at Spoonies before vomiting all over the fruit machine. ‘Taking It Up The Brum’, come on Channel 5, let’s make the magic happen.

Anyway, happily The Rainbow is as far away from the festering river of filth that is Broad Street as you can get in the City centre and tonight’s bill kicks off with the slightly scarily named Resistant Regime. This is the kind of music you get blasting out of pimped up rides down the mean streets, beat heavy, lyrically edgy and in thrall to the great gods of rap. A bit of a Birmingham collective they’ve got some decent sounds and words going on with Take Notes and Everyday (shades of the great Ice T’s It Was A Good Day in there) really hitting the spot. I’ve said it before...and I’ll probably say it again...but whilst Birmingham’s clearly a bit of a hotbed of talent when it comes to the whole rap/hip hop thang there’s still a bit of a disconnect between the core live music scene in the City and dudes like this though. Kudos to Birmingham Promoters for giving them a slot. Let’s see more of it eh?

Next up HEARTS (in CAPITALS...that’s most IMPORTANT). Last seen supporting Cults earlier in the year at the Hairy Hounds I’d kind of forgotten how good they were. A boy/girl synth/guitar duo with a little Crystal Castles/The Knife/The Kills in the mix they blend the rocky element with the more clinical electro feel better than most bands I’ve seen. The female vocalist is blessed with one of those voices that sounds slightly detached but capable of conveying strong emotions at the same time, adding in the odd Florence-ish flourish for good measure. Pick of the set once again was the piano driven Ice, an instantly catchy piece of atmospheric rock n’bass.

Finally and, finger on the pulse as ever, a new name to me despite having been around for a few years it’s Man Like Me. As soon as I found out that they were dudes who’d bought Jona Lewie’s antisocial anthem You’ll Always Find Me In The Kitchen At Parties back to life I was pretty much sold on them. A quick trawl through You Tube uncovered some of the most fun tunes laid down since Madness went one step beyond. Rap, brass, synth, joyful laugh out loud piss taking lyrics...what’s not to like. Sure their tongues are embedded firmly in their cheeks for a lot of the set but who says music’s gotta be serious all the time? Boy, we could all do with a laugh right now eh? That being said, whilst some of the tunes sail pretty close to the rocky cliffs of ‘novelty’, they manage to be catchy without making you feel all, you know, dirty inside. A neat trick if you can do it. In fact, a little like fellow rap jokers America’s Ugly Duckling, they’re sort of cool despite all that larky humour.

From the instant the three of them bounced onstage The Rainbow was Party Central. Recent single Peculiar, a wry look at how fast things change (how old are this lot...late 20’s?...jeez, you should try being 117 like me), is arguably the best thing they’ve ever done. A crotch thrusting, hip shaking, hands in the air party banger it’s a glorious mix of tropicalia, rap and brass with just the merest snatch of grime for da kids. Seriously it has to be a contender for single of the year. Chucking such a massive TUUUUUUNE into the set so early might’ve backfired but to be honest the three of them put so much into the live show that there was no danger of peaking too early. The core duo of Johnny and Pete provide the jumping around rap stuff, with the Tigger-ish Johnny gradually stripping off as the night wore on (steady now ladies), whilst (and I’m not sure if he’s a full time member of the band or not) a third dude adds more of a soulful vocal. Looking at some of their other live gigs there’s sometimes up to 7 of them up there, with live brass really adding to the party atmosphere. Tonight that was all on a backing track but it would be churlish to deduct points on this score...I can’t imagine it’s easy carting a brass section around the country in the back of a van. Still pretty fresh to my ears Oh My Gosh and encore London Town came across like old mates but, to be honest, even the stuff I’d never heard has that same kind of instant appeal.

You know what, in some ways Man Like Me could be the spiritual descendants of Madness. Both are sons of Camden and both have that rare knack for fusing social commentary with bouncy, fun pop songs. Whilst Suggs and co took the sounds of Ska house parties onboard Man Like Me are inspired by the pirate radio era...jungle, drum and bass, rap, grime and all that schnizzle. But, just like the Nutty Boys, they bring something fresh and unique to it all. Hell, let’s not overanalyse it. Right now Man Like Me are the ultimate party band, a three man jukebox stuffed full of pop gold. The best night out in town? Could be...

Doll And The Kicks...RIP

2011-10-27T11:36:00.002+01:00

Sad news reaches the Aid about the demise of Doll And The Kicks. Happily they're not dead or anything...but sadly as a band they've decided to call it a day after 7 'unsigned' years.

They're one of far, far too many bands who genuinely deserved to 'make it' (whatever 'it' means these days)but who, for whatever reason, have ended up being passed over in favour of, in my humble opinion, lesser (but perhaps more lucrative in the short term)talents. A bloody nice bunch of people too.

Oh well, what can you do eh? At least, for anyone who's seen them live, they've given an all too small bunch of people some particularly memorable nights.

Good luck to all concerned and shame on the 'music biz' for getting it wrong...yet again.

Man Like Me...live at The Rainbow...this Friday

2011-10-26T14:18:00.002+01:00

Loving this track at the moment. Man Like Me's Peculiar is a poptastic mix of Madness, Vampire Weekend and Talking Heads. And if that's not enough to float your boat they were the people who breathed new life into Jona Lewie's seminal Always In The Kitchen At Parties for that Ikea ad too. You know...this one...

Happily they've made it out of the kitchen, well I'm assuming they have as they're appearing at The Rainbow this Friday night. Either that or its all round to Jona Lewie's place...bring your own bottle, no shagging under the stairs and if you have to be sick please don't do it in the fishpond.

Tickets from Birmingham Promoters for a mere fiver right now (more on the door).

Michael Kiwanuka / Vijay Kishore / Tara Chinn @ The Yardbird, Tuesday 25th October 2011

2011-10-26T12:08:00.005+01:00

What a bill. What a bargain too. Free. That’s a bargain in my book. Yep, thanks to the good folk at Birmingham Promoters tonight’s show presented three of the best voices in the business right now, for absolutely bugger all. Result.

Despite a self confessed obsession with melancholy songs (most of which seem to about break ups and crappy men) Tara Chinn’s set left me feeling like I’d been wrapped up in a duvet and fed chocolates for a week. That’s a very good thing by the way. She’s got a soulful, jazzy tinge to her voice, perfectly suited to the anthems for the broken hearted that form the core of her self penned material. All of the songs impressed but it was Cigarettes and Gin that stole the show. With echoes of the legendary Patsy Cline and Billie Holliday it’s the greatest song Amy Winehouse never wrote and tonight Tara’s vocal on this track just dripped tears. Beautiful stuff.

Next up the angel voiced Vijay Kishore, arguably one of the most understated talents you’re ever likely to see. Whilst most singers, especially ones as special as Vijay, would kick off their set with a bit of a “Hello The Yardbird, how ya doin’ out there...nice to see you...looking good etc”, Vijay just wanders on and begins to strum his guitar like he’s tuning up or something. It’s only when he opens his mouth that you know the set’s underway. Even then you’re not sure. Maybe it’s this lack of razzamatazz that’s holding him back (come on, let’s face it, he should so much bigger than he is right now)? It certainly isn’t his voice. Vijay’s blessed with one of the most heavenly male vocals on the planet, imagine a more angelic Jeff Buckley crossed with Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and you’ve got some idea of the sound. Seemingly lost in music throughout yet another stunning set you get the impression that singing’s a kind of therapy for him. Anyone who tunes in to listen might well feel the same way...

Last up, and frankly a huge surprise to catch someone so obviously on the cusp of massive success at a freebie gig on a damp Tuesday evening, it’s Michael Kiwanuka. You might’ve heard one of two of his tracks already, especially the folky I’m Getting Ready and Tell Me A Tale (the twin highlights of tonight's set)...which sounds so authentically 70’s on record you’d swear it’d just been unearthed by some obsessed crate digger in the US. Bringing a little reggae, a little folk and whole load of soul to the table Kiwanuka’s music’s a much needed salve to these troubled times (as I write this the European...and quite possibly the global economy...seems on the brink of total collapse). In other words it’s a case of right sound, right time and, whilst it’s far too early to herald his as yet unreleased debut album as a classic, judging by tonight’s set the signs are good. Kicking off with the distinctly Bill Withers-ish I’ll Get Along (Michael makes no secret of the fact that Withers is a huge inspiration to him) its laid back charm and his easy delivery chill the stressed out soul and warm even the coldest hearts. Unusually for a gig (especially a freebie) the packed out room was generally as quiet and still as St Paul’s, not many artists these days command (or receive) that kind of respect. Of course this is a bit of low key tour, warming up the world for the full on Kiwanuka experience at a later date no doubt, so all of the songs were stripped back, just Michael on guitar and his buddy on bass. Without its frankly top notch Van Morrison meets Stax production Tell Me A Tale was still awesomely fine but I couldn’t help yearn for the icing on the cake. Perhaps that’s the only mild criticism I can level at tonight really (the upside is that get to hear the voice as naked as newborn), I kept wondering just what all of these tracks are going to sound like on record (or with a full band...now that’s a mouth watering prospect). Get that right and, with these songs and that vocal, you’ve got a debut that’s going to be well worth raving about.

Summer Camp - Better Off Without You

2011-10-24T09:43:00.003+01:00

Breakup songs...dontcha just love 'em eh? So much more interesting that all that lovey dovey guff. From the Human League's Don't You Want Me to Cee Lo Green's Fuck You the breakup's a rich throbbing vein of pain, hate and regret. Brilliant! Summer Camp's latest release (yes...I know it's been out a while but I'm a bit slow sometimes) is a frankly essential addition to the greatest hits of breakup ever, fusing a bit of surf twang with a twist of 80's pop and just the right dash of venom. Like all great breakup songs it's as catchy as a dose of the clap following that instantly regrettable one night stand revenge shag too. Enjoy!

The Foxes – Last of Many

2011-10-21T10:47:00.002+01:00

There are two ways of looking at this album. On the one hand you can listen to it purely on its merits as a collection of songs. On the other (and this relies on knowing a little something about the band itself) it’s two fingers to the ‘traditional’ music biz, general apathy, the ups and downs of life and giving up on your dreams. Either way, it deserves your ears. I first saw The Foxes live a few years back (2007 I think...wow, tempus fugit). An instantly likeable bunch they already had a good half dozen classic sounding tunes, taking in influences from a range of truly great Brit bands, everyone from The Kinks to The Small Faces, XTC to Joe Jackson and, more recently Noel Gallagher's...er...High Flying Birds.

Packing in the security of their day jobs they boldly set off to play America on a shoestring and a prayer, then came back to do the same across the UK, putting in the hours as a covers band (weddings, bar mitzvahs, 100th birthdays parties etc) to pay the bills. Okay, so perhaps they’re not the first band to take such a risk but the fact that they’ve stuck with it, for years now, well, that’s something I genuinely admire. And, judging by their grin inducing, foot tapping, head nodding debut album it’s all been worth it.

From the early Beatles on speed wig out of Suzy all the way through to the album’s climax, the brooding meltdown of Sorry To Leave You the album’s jammed full of one classic sounding track after another. There’s something really accessible about it all. Listen to Sweet Little Wonder for instance. It’s what your granddad would call “proper songs with proper lyrics”. That’s not a criticism by the way, putting out an album that’s going to appeal to several generations of music lovers is a shrewd move (no doubt honed by their alter egos as a covers band). Lyrically much of the album seems to be inspired by the life and times of lead Fox Nigel, boredom, poverty, regret, bitterness, love/hate, a bit more bitterness (I do love a bit of bitterness) ...all human emotion’s on offer here folks, often wrapped up with a dash of wry wit. Musically it’s pure British pop gold, from the Oasis meets George Harrison of the aforementioned Sweet Little Wonder to the spiky Joe Jackson new wave era feel of Send Me Nothing.

Perhaps in the current climate (folk bands, female singer songwriters, copycat rappers and...good grief...Dappy) this album’s a little out of step. Who cares? The band’s done what they want, the way they wanted and in an age where far too many are willing to do whatever it takes to ‘make it’ (is it me or has the X Factor descended...tough, I know...to new lows recently?) that’s a really, really refreshing thing. Last of Many? For a whole bunch of reasons I really hope it’s not...

Last Of Many is out on The Foxes own label (naturally), Room 10, on 5th December.

Joanna Briggs – Balloons EP

2011-10-20T15:41:00.002+01:00

As a Midlands based kinda dude I’m always three flavours of chuffed when I hear something or someone new from my...er...‘hood. It’s even better when it’s being released on a Midlands based label too. Imagine the moistness (actually don’t, that’s a bit grim) when this dropped into my bulging inbox (steady now) then, a new EP on a Birmingham based label – LoveRock!Records – from a Midlands artist, singer songwriterJoanna Briggs. Balloons is an eclectic mix of tracks kicking off with the equally eclectic Spiders, part electro, part rock, part folk it’s an odd mix in many ways, jerking twitchily from one genre to another, but it's all the more refreshing for it. Elsewhere, Free has a nifty funk driven bass line, lush strings and some gorgeous, gorgeous vocals. Nice O’Jays reference in there too. Arguably the highlight of the whole thing though is the EP’s final track, the piano lead Another Lover. Just under three minutes long it’s the kind of track that the lovechild of Tori Amos and Stevie Wonder might well come up with. And if that’s not intriguing enough to get you to have a listen then there’s no hope. As a showcase for Joanna’s talent it’s an impressive debut, top marks for the production too. Balloons and party poppers all round in fact.

Joanna Briggs - Balloons by LoveRock!Records

Balloons is out now on LoveRock!Records.

Miles Kane / Folks @ HMV Institute, Tuesday 18th October 2011

2011-10-19T15:20:00.003+01:00

Still only 25 years old Miles Kane’s now in his forth incarnation having started out in The Little Flames before becoming a Rascal then a Last Shadow Puppet (with his best bud Alex Turner). Now he’s trying the old solo approach, albeit with an impressive band behind him (including Eugene McGuiness...himself a fine solo talent), a couple of Cherry Ghost and...er...the son of Beady Eye’s drummer.

First up though, Folks, fronted by rock god in waiting Scott Anderson. Long hair, leather jacket, tambourine superglued to his hand, he’s part Rod the Mod, part Steve Marriott...with a voice to match. Songwise the highlights included the Verve-ish We Are All Dead and the blues / rock of My Mother. The undeniable highpoint though was Say Something, which Scott claimed they’d only just written last week. It’s got all the makings of a classic, big phat meaty bits, heartfelt bits, catchy bits, singalong bits...it’s a bit brilliant.

With the room pretty much rammed I’d positioned myself up on the balcony next to a small but vociferous trio of young ladies, one of whom made her intentions quite clear, “Oimgonnafoooookyoumileskane” she screamed as he appeared on the stage. As chat up lines go it’s not the most sophisticated approach but full marks for effort eh? Lest he was in any doubt she went on to flash her bra at him now and then during the set too. I didn’t know where to look. Well, that’s a lie but anyway...back to the object of her affections. You can see the appeal. He’s got a real old skool pop star swagger, coming to the front of the stage during the opening number and pulling off the kind of guitar hero pose that Elvis used to strike before he deep fried and ate Memphis. The crowd go three shades of mental and a small but vigorous moshpit breaks out in the centre of the room. If Paul Weller’s the Modfather, meet Miles, the Modson. Sharply dressed and immaculately coiffered (at least he was at the start) he’s got the kind of voice (and look) that perfectly suits the 60’s feel of the material, albeit with a hint of Liam Gallagher’s sneering vowel stretching delivery. Looks are important of course but it wouldn’t mean jack if he didn’t have the tunes. Happily (with a little help from his friends) his solo album’s stuffed full of ‘em. Kane, of course, is from Liverpool. So it’s hardly surprising that the ghost’s of that city’s most famous sons haunt some of his stuff. I’m not just talking about the obvious ones either. You can trace influences of Gerry & The Pacemakers on stuff like Counting Down The Days for instance. Every single track goes down a storm, from the well known stuff like Rearrange (Beatles meets The Faces) and the edgy mod foot stomper Come Closer (during which a couple of audience members do just that, spilling over the barriers straight into the loving arms of the security) through to arguably the night’s highlight, a new track called A Woman’s Touch. Imagine The Jam doing a Northern Soul track and you’ll have some idea of what it sounds like. Could well be the big hit he’s looking for. An attacking cover of The Beatles Hey Bulldog (from the Yellow Submarine soundtrack) sees Miles paying his dues, with fine support coming from the criminally underrated Eugene McGuiness. Encore, Inhaler, prompted such wild moshing that a fair number of the crowd probably needed one and then he was off, presumably persued by a young lady on heat. Run Miles, run!

This is the resurrection...

2011-10-18T15:28:00.004+01:00

So, The Stone Roses are back! I guess how you feel about this depends on your age. For anyone who was around and interested in music back in the early 90's it's probably a pretty big deal.I Am The Resurrection remains one of my favourite tracks of all time, mainly down to that ruddy funky break just before the 4 minute mark before the whole track drifts off into mind melting 60's meets 90's workout. Just glorious.

On top of a pension busting world tour they're promising new material as well. Should be interesting. When they split up there was a general feeling that they'd blown it, big time, let's hope they get it right on their third coming eh? In the meantime dust off your baggy jeans, dig out your Reni hat and cop a listen to 8 minutes and 15 seconds of musical...ahem...ecstasy.

PS: Confirmed dates include Manchester's Heaton Park, 29th and 30th June. Ebay ticket touts must be creaming their grubby little selves already.

Lite / Maybeshewill / IO / Dying Giant @ The Flapper, Sunday 16th October

2011-10-17T10:46:00.005+01:00

Is post hardcore (for the tidy purposes of this review let’s make the sweeping generalisation that all of tonight’s band were/are post hardcore) the new jazz? I only ask ‘cos there was plenty of head nodding and beard stroking going on this evening and, like jazz, the music itself has a similar level of complexity that you either get or...well...don’t. Stripped of vocals (pretty much all of tonight’s tracks were instrumental) this is music that you need to LISTEN TO rather than just passively absorb. Do that and it all makes a hell of a lot more sense.

First up Dying Giant. Playing just two tracks (granted, each one lasted around ten minutes) they’re masters in the art of ‘the build’, with gentle strumming rising to a crescendo of piledriving noise. HELL YEAH! An impressive performance from the whole band but special mention to the drummer who managed to move seamlessly from funk to military to rock beats, in the same track, but still made it all sound coherent. One of the most attentive crowds I’ve seen in a long time gave ‘em a suitably ‘giant’ whoop at the end of it all too.

Next up IO. Again, as seems to be the vibe in the post hardcore scene, their tracks burn, flicker, fade, then burst violently back into flames again, helped along by the occasional Beelzebub screams of their lead singer. With an array of FX pedals that looked a little like the control panel of the Starship Enterprise the band set up and explored an alternative universe which, in my deranged mind at least, is filled with giant machines that mince up the human race to use as fuel (maybe they could start with Wayne Rooney?). But then again that could just be me. Their current album, Materioptikon, collects some of this evening’s best track together and is heartily recommended, not least because it offers, in my amateur opinion (I’m no hardcore/post hardcore/ expert...can you tell?) someone new to the genre a pretty accessible intro into the whole scene.

Before the headliners, Lite, who came all the way from Japan, it was time for Maybeshewill...who came all the way from Leicester. Clearly local favourites the already packed room swelled a little more at this point. Moist. In addition to the three guitarists who twisted and thrashed about in some kind of demented union (this is a good thing by the way) Maybeshewill use odd snatches of dialogue (from old movies I’m guessing) which adds a little more richness to the traditional post hardcore pallette. It’s used sparingly but it lends the music more of a filmic quality. Keyboards add, at various times this evening a jazzy, almost synth pop vibe and, on more than one occasion I was reminded of odd bits of Mike Oldfield’s gazillion selling Tubular Bells. Hmmm...Mike Oldfield as the daddy of the post hardcore scene. Now there’s a wild theory. New song (hell, they were all new to me) To The Skies From The Hillside moved from noodly tranquil bits to full on doom rock riffs, changing pace more often than Kanye West changes his socks (368 times a day apparently).

Last up Japanese four piece, Lite. After a couple of endearing false starts (one of the guitarists had a bit of a tuning issue) and a brief thanks to the crowd for coming (bless), the band proved themselves to truly be masters of time and space. Nope, I’m not talking Dr Who here, it’s the precision with which they play and the way they allow the music to ‘breathe’, using moments of silence to punctuate tracks in a way that I’m guessing few bands would or could attempt. More math rock than post hardcore the sound’s a little more complex than anything else on offer tonight and the natural sense of timing and rhythm (downright funky in places) was frankly unbelievable. From the sparse piano playing to the immaculately executed riffs and drummer’s staccato machine gun ferocity it was a close to musical perfection that you’re likely to get in their genre. Pick of the night (I think it was called Image Game) showed the band at their best, the use of timing and space fused to a surprisingly accessible track. Elsewhere the band inspired a bit of a clap along (how often does that happen as these kind of shows eh?) and the bassist even threw in a bit of slap bass. Brilliant...Level 42 meets math rock. The band last played The Flapper in 2006, let’s hope we don’t have to wait another five years for a return visit.

Oxjam Brum Takeover 2011

2011-10-16T16:55:00.005+01:00

Violet spill blood (literally), sweat and beers for Oxjam 2011

31 artists, 7 venues, one aim...to raise loadsa cash, dosh, wonga...call it what you will...for (cue 70’s DJ voice) charidee. Yep, some of Birmingham’s finest gave up their Saturday to physically and metaphorically rattle the ol’ tin, giving warm hearted punters the chance to catch up with a pretty dazzling range of genres...everything from the gentle and acoustic to the LOUD AND THRASHY.

As with most of these multi-venue jobbies it’s impossible to see everything and a date with 6 Music’s Stuart Maconie (not literally, although he’s a fine looking man) took me away from the action for a while in the early evening. What I did see of it all was confined to two venues, Cafe Blend (an upmarket coffee shop near the Mailbox) and The Flapper (slightly less upmarket, but none the less one of my favourite venues in the whole wide world). First up at Cafe Blend, Louise Petit, a sweetly voiced singer songstress who bravely battled against a cackling punter (clearly either unaware that someone was performing or just plain ignorant) to deliver a beautiful ukulele powered set of originals and covers (including The White Stripes classic I Think We Are Gonna Be Friends). With the country twang of Raindrops at Sea and the footstomping homage to love, Marry Me, the name might be petit but the talent’s a whole lot bigger.

After a quick break another chance to see Young Runaways (replete with the Wolverhampton Symphony Orchestra...both of them!) who’ve just recorded the song of their career (so far) in Closer, a soaring brass gilded pop folk classic (it was released as an EP last night). With a couple of covers, a wonderful run through Fleetwood Mac’s Second Hand News and a spirited Message To You Rudee, and the unveiling of a rather fine new track from the next EP (they don’t hang around this lot eh?), Room With a View, they deserve to be...oh I can hardly bring myself to type it...what the hell...a...runaway success. Yes, you’re right, there was no need for that was there?

Fast forward a few hours and I’m plunged into the screaming world of Violet, a post hardcore band from Derby. One vocalist sings, the other does his best to rip what must be left of his throat, into ribbons. I rather liked it. Loud, trashy and as energetic as a nuclear power station on meltdown they delivered one of the most rock n roll moments I’ve seen in a while when the screaming bloke accidentally smashed into the nose of the bassist. Pretty soon a torrent of blood was dripping down his t-shirt, over his bass and splashing onto the floor. Did this stop him headbanging like a loon? Nope. Now that’s rock n’motherfunking roll. Ultra violet.

After a crack team of cleaning specialists had mopped up several litres of O positive Conquistadors punk math rocked the place. The self penned stuff was great but they surpassed themselves with a math rock cover of Cat Stevens Matthew and Son (Mathrock and Son anyone?). Quite brilliant.

Next up God Damn, a testifying blues grunge prog rock pop (yes...pop...) metal thrashup...and if that sounds like a pretty awesome combination you’d be right. It is. Their theme tune God Damn, veers recklessly from brooding noodly bits to full on aural assaults, toying with your senses like a bulldog with a kitten. Neat. Wigger does a similar trick of luring you in with a gentle opening section before kicking in your ears with some dirty bruising guitars. Makes Queens of the Stone Age sound like pussies. A (skull) cracking performance.

Last up Romans. Like the night’s opening band, Violet, they use the dual vocalist approach, with bare chested drummer Denny providing the screeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaam element. Around this throbbing heart the band’s lead guitarist and bassist (who did a staggeringly good job in his first gig with the band) provide some surprisingly intricate flourishes, icing the kick ass cake. Whilst it ain’t a new trick the ying and yang of the two vocalists works particularly well. The contrasts are as black and white as you’ll get with the ‘singer’ having a pretty decent harmony and the ‘screamer’ tearing his tonsils out whilst drumming the bejesus out of his kit. So furious was his drumming that he lost a stick part way through a song (hell...maybe it just disintegrated) but kept on playing without missing a beat. Nice work there fella. Given his showmanship (and vocal role) I’d like him up front but it’s a minor gripe. When they hit their stride, on the smash hit in waiting Coffee for instance, like their historic namesakes, they’re a frankly unstoppable force.

Mo’ new music

2011-10-12T14:14:00.003+01:00

In a distinctly unusual, ‘keeping to my promises’ shocker, here’s another batch of new music coming out over the next few weeks. Share the love people, share the love...

First up, seemingly less of a new band, more a manifesto...it’s Metamono. Consisting of Paul Conby (Bomb The Bass), Jono Podmore (The Shamen) and ‘fine artist’ Mark Hill they’ve produced this handy little video to fill you in on their...er...mission.

Musically it sounds like a bizarre experiment between the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, early Human League and one of them Krautrock bands. Depending on who you are this will either get you slightly moist or send you off to the shed to sand off your ears. Anyway, they’ve called it ‘analogue technopop’. Easy listening it ain’t, but if you fancy a soundtrack to your complete mental disintegration I can heartily recommend it.

METAMONO - TAPE EP from Metamono on Vimeo.

Next, and somewhat less challenging, it’s ex Zero 7 songstress Sophie Barker with a suitably autumnal take on The Cure’s A Forest.

Sophie Barker - A Forest by Cannonball_PR

‘Delay soaked pop’ (that’s what it says on the press release) anyone? Edinburgh’s PET release their second single Middle Child Syndrome on 7th November and it’s a bit of an angsty cracker. Booming drums, wailing backing vocals and an anguished lead wrapped up in a bit of a 60’s psych anthem. Ace. It’s backed by a broodingly sludgy cover of Shocking Blue’s Love Buzz (as covered by Nirvana) that should give old grunge heads an aneurism too.

Middle Child Syndrome by PET

I’m just loving this right now. The Bandana Splits. Ricky Dee. Doo Wop girl band heaven. How cute is this?

I can’t find a ‘proper’ video for this White Denim track but this isn’t a bad live version...if you can excuse the slightly shaky camera work...but I’m guessing the dude shooting it wasn’t meant to be...

Finally it’s From The Kites of San Quentin (seriously...where do they get these names from?) a Mancunian collective with a bit of a Portishead/Moloko/ Massive Attack thing going on. Their Mitochondria EP is out on 11th November but i’m streaming the bejesus out of it right now. Lead track Stoopid does a particularly good job of mashing up old and new skool flavas (I’m sooooo street it hurts) with a bit of a late 90’s meets 2011 dubstep vibe. Here’s an ancient video of the band to whet your appetite.

NME Emerge Tour featuring Wolf Gang / S.C.U.M @ The Academy, Friday 7th October 2011

2011-10-10T14:10:00.002+01:00

It’s NME Emerge Tour time once again and the venerable (but pretty crap these days to be honest) old institution dishes up some new bands for your delectation and delight. Tonight was supposed to feature the lovely Niki & the Dove but I believe she had some family related business to attend to and was unable to play. Shame. Happily S.C.U.M made it though, bringing their particular brand of floppy fringed gothy tinged ice pop to the masses. Lead singer Thomas Cohen comes across a little like the lovechild of Nick Cave and Brett Anderson with the odd dash of Bowie thrown in for good measure. Was that a bit of a Bowie / Ronson thang going on when Thomas knelt down in front of the band’s guitarist? Could be. Whatever the references (for the record they’ve namechecked Throbbing Gristle, Ghosts and Liars), the hazy vocals, sparse synths and distorted guitars added a neat dreamlike quality to the set, with Cohen sinuously writhing barefoot (now that’s brave...can you imagine the bodily fluids that end up on the average venue floor?) across the stage like a viper. They’ve been around in one form or another for three years now but their debut album, Again Into Eyes, has only just come out (on Mute, suitably enough given their synth fetish). Fans of everyone from Jesus and Mary Chain to, more recently, the mighty O Children would be well advised to check it...and them...out.

“I like the fact that there’s TV on in case we get a bit boring” observed Wolf Gang’s Max McGelliott referring to the TV’s scattered across the Academy’s walls. He needn’t have worried. Wolf Gang (initially Max’s solo project) are a pop lover’s delight with a seemingly endless line in catchy, anthemic choruses all taken from their rather fine debut album Suego Faults. I’m not a fan of Coldplay (hell, that’s an understatement) but I’ll grudgingly admit they do anthemic pretty well. Wolf Gang have the same kind of knack, minus the preachy, whiney shit. Just check out The King And All Of His Men. Awesome eh? You've got to love the whoohoohoos. If you’re looking for reference points, good luck to you. There’s a bit of Foster The People in there, some Stars, a little MGMT (before they went a bit nuts, bless ‘em), Duran Duran (Close In For The Kill is pure Le Bon and co) and even a dash of Queen (on Midnight Dancers for instance). Max is a natural frontman, as cute as a pixie (actually he looks a bit like a pixie) and, despite the relatively small crowd, committed to giving it 100%. Some particularly enthusiastic bouncing around by one or two (new?) fans at the front showed he’s clearly getting something right. Ending the set with bombastic recent single Lions In Cages it’s easy to imagine this particular gang getting a hell of a lot bigger.

Robyn Hitchcock - Chronolology

2011-10-07T14:52:00.007+01:00

Robyn Hitchcock...is he one of the most underrated musicians around? Judging by this, his first proper ‘best of’ collection in his 40 year career, you'd have a pretty convincing argument there. His devoted fans (and they do seem to be a particularly devoted bunch) would probably argue that everything he does is his best and that such a compilation is therefore redundant. For the more casual listener though here, at last, is a ‘best of’ and, given that it’s been carefully selected by the man himself it’s probably as definitive as you’re likely to get. Then again, as Robyn puts it, “Chronolology is one of many possible orbits through my world, see where it takes you..."

I’m a relative newcomer to Robyn’s work (given his limited commercial success I’m guessing most people are), only really taking the time to check him out in the last year or so. For some reason I had him pinned down as a ‘difficult artist’ but, surprisingly, a lot of the tracks on offer here are (whisper it) quite poppy, albeit a slightly twisted form of pop occupying a world obsessed with sex, death and creepy crawlies.

Embracing his time as a Soft Boy, Egyptian and one of the Venus 3 the whole thing kicks off with the distinctly punk/new wave I Wanna Destroy You (from all the way back in 1980). Grrrrrrr. It’s a cracking track, dripping with vitriol and raw energy but still pretty tuneful at the same time and, if you glean only one thing from this review, that’s the big point really...in a better world Robyn Hitchcock would be a bone fide pop star. Only The Stones Remain could almost be a track by The Fall, with Hitchcock adding a distinctly Mark E Smith-ish “ah” to some of his vocals. God this is great stuff...and we’re only at track three. I Often Dream Of Trains channels the spirit of lost genius Syd Barrett before Robyn ramps up the weird with a surprisingly upbeat little ditty entitled My Wife and My Dead Wife. Take a bit of Bowie, a subtle reggae beat and some Psychedelic Furs, mix it all up in a cocktail shaker and...well...that’s as close as I can get to it. What do you reckon?

Bonkers but brilliant n'est ce pas? Time and again, track after track you find yourself thinking why the hell isn’t this stuff better known? Even the more low key tracks, I Feel Beautiful for instance with its rather lovely glockenspiel groove, has enough going on to hook you in. Bringing things almost up to date the album ends with Goodnight Oslo, a track from 2009’s album of the same name by the Venus 3 (with REM’s Peter Buck lending his distinctive guitar to the whole shebang). Genius. So, is Robyn Hitchcock one of the most underrated musicians around? Download this gem of an album and judge for yourself.

Chronolology is out on October 25th on t’interweb.

Sweet Sweet Lies – No One Will Love You (Like I Do)

2011-10-06T09:11:00.003+01:00

Like a bit of the old chamber pop eh? Chances are you’ll love Brighton based Sweet Sweet Lies then. The band release their second single, a rather lovely hybrid of The Divine Comedy meets Devotchka, No One Will Love You (Like I Do) on October 31st (through Something Nothing Records) and it’s accompanied by this rather sweet little video. More waltzing in pop that's what I say. Never mind getting your kit off in fields and scaring the bejesus out of little old Irish farmers Miss Rhianononon, strap yourself into a big fluffy dress and get waltzing m'luv. So much classier. Anyway, while you’re at it why not check out another of their tracks too, The Day I Change, a little darker but still rather gorgeous.

TEETH / Seams / Neon Asylum @ Vudu, Monday 3rd October 2011

2011-10-04T14:19:00.003+01:00

A rare night of firsts this evening. First of all the first time I’d seen any of the bands on the bill (that’s getting to be a rarer event these days) and secondly the first time I’d ever been to tonight’s venue, Vudu (formerly Mint and...unless I’m very much mistaken, Pagoda Park about 100 years ago...). Birmingham seems to have been blessed with new venues recently, what with the old Academy reopening as The Ballroom (giving us three new/old venues back) a few weeks back and the similarly three roomed HMV Institute last year. Vudu’s mainly a club but there’s a great room set up for gigs here too, replete with a gut wobbling sound system (and it takes a lot to wobble my gut these days).

First up this evening Neon Asylum, one man and his laptop unveiling the fruits of many nights knob twiddling back in his bedroom. No...now you’re just being smutty. There’s a bit of an old skool 90’s rave feel going on here and, given the awesomely 'bangin' tunes' it was a real struggle to resist pulling some shapes. No one wants to see a middle aged man throw shapes so I made do with some mild hipster head nodding instead. “Hello, I’m Kanye West” muttered Mr Asylum after a couple of tracks, given his recent bonkers rantings maybe Kanye should start saying “Hello I’m Neon Asylum” instead eh? I suggest the two of 'em hook up, Kanye Asylum...I can see it now.

Next Seams. Unlike Mr Asylum Seams is a little more chilled, favouring glitchy skittering builds up to his full phat dubsteppy beats (the kind of sounds that would give James Blake a good shoeing). A crush of fans at the front witnessed an aural artist at work, with one or two tracks recalling a similar master of sound, Ryuichi Sakamoto, at his very best. As a visual show there’s not much to it (I guess you could employ a VJ to add a little something), but with sounds as gorgeous as these it’s probably best just to shut your eyes and let your imagination do the work.

Finally, TEETH, a lively three piece fronted by Californian no-raver Veronica So. Comparisons with Crystal Castles have been made but, to be honest, you could equally lob in riot grrrllllllllllll bands like Bikini Kill too and a healthy dash of Late Of the Pier. The key to stopping this kind of stuff turning into a bit of a shouty mess (not that there’s much wrong with the odd bit of shouty messiness) is having some decent tunes and happily TEETH have more than filled that particular cavity. See Spaces, with its naggingly insistent synth line and steel drum style flourishes really hits the spot whilst Care Bear draws you in with some sweet n sparse old skool keys before beating you into submission with pile driving bass and nutty knob squelching (again...cut out the smut already). Now that’s the ‘bite’ stuff (bite stuff...geddit? oh alright then).

TEETH...tonight...live...at Vudu

2011-10-03T12:10:00.002+01:00

Yes, tonight hotly tipped shouty oddball electro trio TEETH (allegedly Karl Lagerfeld’s favourite band...strange but true...maybe he’ll pop along?) play Birmingham’s Vudu club. Attracting comparisons with everyone from Crystal Castles to Throbbing Gristle they’ll probably force your brain out your ears like one of those play-doh sausage machines but hey, it’s Monday night so that’s a very, very good thing. Support comes from synth tickling beatmaster Seams and sonic mentalist Neon Asylum. Essential. Tickets (a mere fiver) from our good chums at Birmingham Promoters or, I imagine, on the door too. Selectah! (nope, no idea why I wrote that, I blame the heat).

Back to the 80's with Force Majeure

2011-10-03T10:38:00.002+01:00

After hitting you up with some new music last week let’s turn the clock back a quarter of a century or so with this little know gem (hey, I love the 80’s...I can't help it) from Bristol’s Force Majeure. Released in 1984 it’s one of the most 80’s tracks I’ve ever heard, cramming in drum machines, synths and some of that poodle hair rock guitar that was massive back in the day. I love it. Seriously. Why the hell wasn't this on the Karate Kid soundtrack eh? What makes it even better is the (recent) video that goes with it, an emotive series of grainy photos of the band playing live, on tour, mucking about... for anyone over the age of 40 it’s a real nostalgia trip, if you’re a little younger this is what your parents used to get up to...

The band itself was from Bristol and formed in 1983 (from the ashes of a post punk group, The Agents), before disbanding (no doubt in a blaze of hairspray) in 1989. By the looks of some of the photos they seem to have had a decent enough following for a while and were signed to Hansa, Japan’s record label. According to Wikipedia they were even guided by Howard Jones’ management for a while too. Brilliant, how ‘80’s can you get? Anyway I’ve been listening to this track on repeat for around an hour, so now it’s your turn. I warn you though, it's seriously addictive. Enjoy.

Oxjam Brum Takeover 2011

2011-09-30T14:07:00.003+01:00

As most of my wardrobe comes from Oxfam (seriously...I draw the line at pants and socks but everything else is up for grabs as far as I'm concerned) it only seems right to give the Oxjam Brum Takeover thingy a massive shoutout. Taking place on Saturday 15th October loads of awesome bands (25 in fact) play an equally awesome number of gigs across Brum. Awesome.

Of course it’s all to raise money for Oxfam with bands giving their time for nothing and last year they raised just over £6,000 on the day. I’m going to say awesome again. Awesome! Tickets are a mere £6 which is so ridiculously cheap that you should buy at least one...even if you can’t go.

I know how John Peel felt...

2011-09-30T12:01:00.003+01:00

John Peel famously felt a huge amount of guilt at not being able to listen to the huge pile of demo tapes that flooded into through the hallowed letter box of Peel Acres on a daily basis. Somewhat less famously I now get a dozens of emails from PR companies, record labels and bands with free downloads to listen to. This is a very good thing. I listen to as many as I can during my waking hours (9am – 11am...if I’m feeling particularly energetic) and even post up the odd one or two but many sadly get added to the virtual pile in my inbox. In an effort to assuage my guilt, and an attempt to fill you in on the good stuff I’m lucky enough to get to hear, I’m going to make a concerted effort to post more new tracks up here, starting right now. They may come without my sparkling wit (like that’s a great shame eh?), but rest assured each one will have been given the official Hearing Aid thumbs up.

Ready? Ok. Hey ho, let’s go.

Sun Ra meets Kraftwerk...possibly...thanks to Santa Barbara’s Gardens & Villa. Trippy!

"Spacetime" by Gardens & Villa from Secretly Jag on Vimeo.

Debut single from London 5 piece Zulu Winter, a touch of Wild Beasts perhaps, even a shade of Japan to the bass line. Impressive. Me Like.

Never Leave by Zulu Winter

Psychedelic drum pop anyone? Welcome to Beatyheart.

2Good by BEATYHEART

Descended from Liverpudlian executioners and rag and bone men (or so it says in her press release...and who am I to doubt it...don’t fancy being decapitated by a Scouse Albert Steptoe) Liz Green’s mix of The Decemberists meets Devotchka meets Alela Diane has been described by the Sunday Times as “haunting and beautiful”. Now that’s the kind of insightful cliché free writing I really aspire to. Jeez.

If the Ramones had been adopted by Brian Wilson this is probably what they’d have sounded like. Big dumb brilliant surf punk. Fun fun fun from Two Wounded Birds

Young Runaways - There Is A World Outside

2011-09-27T15:45:00.002+01:00

Closer by Young Runaways

The lovely Young Runaways release their equally lovely new EP There Is A World Outside on October 3rd on Commercially Unviable Records. Rich strings, heartfelt vocals and enough of a kick ass rock backbone to drive the whole thing along at a fair old pace it’s another in a fine series of releases from the band and, being the good folk that they are, they’re celebrating with a brace of gigs in support of the annual Oxjam Takeover event on Saturday 15th October. They’ll be at Cafe Blend during the day and the Yardbird in the evening.

Tellison – Edith

2011-09-27T09:26:00.001+01:00

Lettttttts get ready to ruuuuumble!! Yes, indie rockers with a light punk twist Tellison release their new single, Edith, from their Wages Of Fear album, accompanied by this rather fun new wrestling based video. Bonus points for the band’s acting ability, some nice ‘reaction faces’ there chaps. Musically there’s a touch of The Decemberists to it all along with a neat smattering of the Young Knives knack for a catchy hook. The song itself is apparently inspired by American novelist Edith Wharton and, according to frontman Stephen how real life ain't as “compelling, powerful, ordered, dramatic or satisfying as fiction (particularly hers)”. I guess he’s never watched Deal Or No Deal then...

‘Edith’ is out on October 2nd and Tellison hit the road throughout October.

Thomas Dolby – A Map Of The Floating City

2011-09-26T10:15:00.008+01:00

It’s been almost 20 years since the last album of original material from Thomas Dolby. Not the longest gap ever (wasn’t that Vashti Bunyan’s 35 year between album sojourn?), but long enough to get the fans positively drooling at the prospect of a new release. He pretty much gave up music for most of his exhile, preferring to focus on launching a business that gave the world polyphonic ringtones. Hmmmm...thanks for that. Happily he began playing again a few years back and now, after making a brace of EP’s available to his fans, here’s his first new offering of the 21st century. Being Thomas Dolby of course it’s not just a new album. Hell no. That would be far too easy. It was/is a ‘multiplayer online game too’ apparently. Given that the last computer game I played was Hungry Horace Goes Skiing on a 48K ZX Spectrum in 1983 I’ll gloss over that and just focus on the album, okay?

First off, don’t expect a return to his synth-tastic Golden Age Of Wireless era. He’s been pretty clear on the fact that he’s moved on from all that, boldly declaring “I have zero desire to add to the myriad of machine-based, synth-driven grooves out there”. I think that’s pretty clear don’t you? So anyone who’s coming to Dolby via the really old stuff then is likely to be a little surprised. For the more devoted Dolbyites there were hints of where he was going on the distinctly synth free Astronauts and Heretics album way back in 1992, not to mention its funk drenched older brother Aliens Ate My Buick (which, for the record, I kind of loved despite its brashness).

This new album’s apparently divided into three sections forming, according to Thomas, “a travelogue across three imaginary continents: In Amerikana I’m reflecting with affection on the years I spent living in the U.S.A., and my fascination with its roots music. Urbanoia is a dark place, a little unsettling . . . I’m not a city person. And in Oceanea I return to my natural home on the windswept coastline.” That’s the background to it all then, but is it any good? Well, yes, it is rather. It’s taken a few listens to get into it and, here and there, it does sound a little like it was recorded by one man in a studio converted from an old lifeboat (which it actually was), but boy it’s good to have him back. The album’s an eclectic mix of styles, in the first three tracks alone you get a little bitter MOR with Nothing New Under The Sun, the deliciously squelchy electro gypsy / middle eastern feel of Spice Train and, bizarrely, a track called Evil Twin Brother which features Regina Spector as a waitress and a Jacko impersonator that Dolby found on the internet (depending on your view of Jacko it’s arguably either the highlight or the nadir of the album).

Maybe after such a long time away he’s just in the mood for playing around with the genres. And why the hell not eh? After all arguably it’s this genre hopping that made him such an interesting artist back in the day, happily leaping from sparse synths on one album to full on funk on the next, seemingly without batting an eyelid. Here he takes this one step further, creating an album that’s prett much designed for the shuffle generation. Don’t like MOR or Jacko? Stay tuned then, there’s A Jealous Thing Called Love with its Burt Bacharach meets Herb Alpert feel, some gentle jazz and classical strings with the sophisticated Cole Porter-isms of Love Is Like A Loaded Pistol and this...The Toad Lickers, which goes seriously bluegrass on your ass.

If all that leaves you a little shagged out you can chill to the mystical theramin, sax, congo fest of Simone, which noodles on nicely for nearly 6 minutes (I read somewhere that this track’s inspired by his son Harper, who was born a biological female but had a sex change last year and now lives as a male).

Thomas leaves us (hopefully not for another 20 years this time) with To The Lifeboats, which starts off with some nice mellow guitar before exploding into a sudden squall of sound. Delving into the lyrics there I’m guessing these are metaphorical lifeboats we’re talking about here. Is this anything to do with Michael Ruppert (the dude who says the world is screwed, the climate’s buggered, there’s less oil than anyone wants to admit and the financial system is one giant ponzi scheme...which seems a pretty accurate assessment of things to me) and his Lifeboat Hour radio show? Could be. Anyway that would explain Dolby’s rather resigned “There are no fucking lifeboats” as the song reaches its peak. Whatever the meaning it caps off that rare beast, a comeback album that’s actually worth coming back to.

A Map Of The Floating City is out on Lost Toy People Records on October 24th and Dolby’s off on a UK tour (probably by spaceship) throughout November.

Odonis Odonis...Hollandaze are here again...

2011-09-19T11:30:00.003+01:00

Imagine being stuck inside a huge cement mixer full of speed with Dick Dale, Link Wray and The Ramones, crank it up to several hundred revolutions a minute and lob in a bottle or two of Jack for good measure...that’ll give you some idea of the source of Hollandaze (I just couldn’t resist a cheap pun eh?), the debut offering from Odonis Odonis. Punk meets Surf in a dark alley and gives it a good kicking, Punk takes Surf out on a bender, Surf drunkenly shags Punk...yes, it’s a whole big Punk/Surf thang. Hailing from Toronto the whole shebang was recorded home alone in a tiny studio by a certain Dean Tzenos who’s now formed a band to bring the whole thing to life. I imagine that’ll get messy...anyway, for now we have an album that’s screams out to be played LOUD...actually make that FUCKING LOUD (turn it up to 11 then just keep going), preferably through a pair of battered old speakers, whilst pogoing around like a nutjob. Take a look at the songtitles and you get even more of a flavour of what you’re in for...Busted Lip, White Flag Riot, Blood Feast, We Are The Leftovers...you get the idea. Some of the tracks flash by in less than a couple for minutes...it seems faster...others noodle on for a whole 3 minutes 14 seconds. Dripping in reverb it’s the soundtrack to a world on the edge and, if we all end up blowing ourselves into oblivion in a mad orgy of riots, strikes and Cheryl freakin' Cole, I can think of no better song to go out with than the album’s standout number White Flag Riot, a dirty protest of a track slamming together blues, punk, surf and some truly throat ripping vocals into the kind of noise that might well wake Joe Strummer from the dead.

Odonis Odonis by Odonis Odonis

Hollandaze is out on FatCat Records on 7th November.

All The Fun Of The Fair @ The New Alexandra Theatre, Friday 16th September

2011-09-17T08:54:00.006+01:00

Take one of the biggest sex symbols of the 70’s, add half a dozen genuine smash hit singles and set it all in the slightly seedy world of a failing funfair and you’ve got the recipe for one of the most enjoyable new musicals of the past few years. Of course there have been oodles of musicals based on existing greatest hits recently, ranging from Abba’s Mama Mia to Madness’ Our House, each one pretty much a readymade smash, just as long as the band or artist still has enough fans. Perhaps David Essex has been a little bit out of the public eye over the last few years hence, I’m guessing, his profile raising role as dodgy antiques dealer and silver haired lothario Eddie Moon in Eastenders. He’s got a genuinely impressive back catalogue of hits though (23 top 30 songs in the UK and a pair of number ones from the days when this actually meant something), many of which have made it into this incredibly likeable tale set in the fading glory days of the Great British funfair. Happily Essex has got some impressive form in the world of musical theatre too, having taken the lead in the West End production of Godspell in ’71, appeared in Tommy in ’73 and played Che in the debut run of Evita in ’78 before co-writing and starring in Mutiny in ’85. Not a bad CV eh? Add his traveller heritage (his mum, Olive, was an Irish traveller) and you’ve got the ingredients of something a darn sight more substantial than many of the recent back catalogue cash-ins.

A funfair’s musical gold as far as settings go, packed full of opportunities for some neat tricks (I loved the cup and ball sketch), great characters (gypsy fortune tellers, spivs and a runaway from a children’s home) and a bit of low rent glitz and glamour. Essex plays Levi Lee, a recently widowed funfair owner with a wayward son (shades of the Eddie Moon character in there in fact) and the plot’s the classic boy meets girl, girl’s dad ain’t too impressed...well, you get the picture. It’s Romeo and Juliet meets The Greatest Show On Earth meets Eastenders.

Essex was in great form. He’s always had a bit of a smouldering quality to his vocal which the passing years have mellowed nicely. He’s a natural actor too, not too theatrical and OTT, which is an easy trap to fall into in musical theatre. His brief It’s Gonna Be Alright interludes were subtle but genuinely moving. Clearly ladies of a certain vintage still have the hots for him too, cue much whooping from time to time, especially when he was talking about his character’s younger days “I had long black curly hair in them days”. I swear you could smell the oestrogen in the air.
The songs rarely felt shoehorned in and, given the setting, seeing the cast burst into song every few minutes didn’t seem all that incongruous. Everyone was in fine voice with Rob Compton (as Levi’s son, Jack) and Tim Newman (as the simple soul, Johnny) putting in an excellent Nightclubbing. David Burrows and Barry Bloxham were suitably menacing as the heavies and Louise English neatly captured that smouldering passion between her character, Rosa, and David’s Levi. There’s a nice blend of pathos and humour too, perhaps a little more could be made of the setting...a few more tricks or some subtle background sound effects to conjure up the atmosphere of the fairground...but these are minor quibbles.

This musical’s name says it all really, it’s FUN, FUN, FUN, a couple of hours of escapism with one of musical theatre’s underrated talents. People of a certain age will love wallowing in Essex’s hits, newcomers to his music will get a neat introduction to some fine rock and pop classics (actually I reckon Essex is due for serious revival, check out this current cover of Rock On by super cool Texas band Love Inks) and you’d have to have a heart as hard as a coconut to avoid feeling some genuine emotion at the end. Roll up, roll up for a great night out.

All The Fun Of The Fair is on at the New Alexandra Theatre in Birmingham until 18th September before hitting the road (in true funfair fashion) for a UK tour. Check out the website for dates. 15% discount for bearded ladies and a free goldfish in a plastic bag...possibly...

Brian Wilson @ Birmingham Symphony Hall

2011-09-15T11:07:00.008+01:00

Brian Wilson is a legend. He's right up there with the greats. No question. Equally indisputable is the fact that he's had severe mental health issues for decades (some self inflicted through the drugs, others the result of that unique brain of his), so the mere fact that he's able to turn up and function at all is pretty miraculous. The first time I saw him live (at Glasto a few years back) I had to walk away. He looked downright confused and the backing band (actually a fine group in their own right...The Wondermints) were doing at least 98% of the work. Tonight he seemed a little better, a bit more with it, but still showing serious signs of the wilderness years, the need for the teleprompter, that glazed shark eyed expression and a lack of much meaningful interaction with his band. I only mention these things because there's a nagging concern in my head about who's driving him to tour these days. He seems vulnerable to me but, who knows, maybe he's a bundle of laughs backstage? I spoke to one chap who'd been to see him this evening and Brian happily signed a guitar for him so perhaps he's a bit more with it than he sometimes seemed on stage.

That's the negative stuff out the way (and I'm not criticising the guy by the way, merely reflecting what's pretty clear for all to see). On the positive side, hell...this is Brian Wilson, one of the few people I've seen who got a standing ovation before he'd even sung a note! The writer of some of the most beautiful songs ever. BRIAN WILSON! We had to wait a while for his stuff though, the first half was given over to his latest project, the Wilson-isation of another fine songwriter, good 'ol George Gershwin. It's a bit of a weird concept at first but some of the tracks lent themselves pretty well to a bit of a surf twist or some lush strings. I Got Rhythm, It Ain't Necessarily So, S'Wonderful, Summertime...you can't go far wrong with songs like these. "If you don't like it, yell at us and we'll stop" read Brian from his teleprompter (at least it looked like he did...he seemed unable to function without it). No one did, so I'm guessing the fans were happy enough.

After an intermission the faithful got the real fix they were looking for, one full on Wilson classic after another. You just can't knock the songbook and, to be fair, Brian can still sing 'em pretty well, albeit often with the safety net support of his co-vocalists Jeffrey Foskett and Darian Sahanaja firmly in place. The crowd were up and dancing for most of the second half, a furious run through many of the big hits and favourites, Surfer Girl, Do You Wanna Dance?, Darlin', Sail On Sailor, Sloop John B, California Girls, Good Vibrations. It's all great fun, I just wish Brian looked like he was enjoying himself a bit more. The real highlight,God Only Knows, has to be one of the greatest songs ever written and, given Brian's obvious frailty, it takes on added poignancy this evening with perhaps a flicker of life sparking up in his eyes as he sings "my best one". The encore rolled out more musical gold including Jonny B Goode, Barbara Anne and Help Me Rhonda before Brian Shuffled off into the wings. Should you go and see him? Absolutely. The band are superb, Brian can still sing and, let's face it, there aren't many legends of his stature left these days. Shut your eyes and the show's a blast, open them and, if you're anything like me, you may feel a little uncomfortable from time to time though...

Home Of Metal...YEAH!

2011-09-14T15:21:00.005+01:00

Finally spent a very enjoyable few hours at the Home Of Metal exhibition yesterday and can thoroughly recommend it to anyone with even a passing interest in music (metal or otherwise). If you want to see what Ozzy’s living room looked like or fancy sniffing the crotch of one of Rob Halford’s stage costumes then Home of Metal’s definitely your bag.

Smell my groin you muthas! Sadly it’s only on until 25th September, when the ticket stubs, plectrums, guitars, fanzines and vinyl will return to the various bedrooms of the fans that kindly lent them to the organisers. Shame. I reckon Birmingham deserves a permanent museum dedicated to the music that sprang from streets of the Midlands. On top of being the birthplace of metal there’s Duran Duran, Dexy’s, Fuzzbox, Slade, ELO, Moody Blues, The Move, Traffic, The Charlatans, Editors, Wonderstuff, PWEI, Pram, Broadcast, Ocean Colour Scene, Misty’s Big Adventure, Dodgy, UB40...you get the idea. I seem to recall there was a plan to do something like this at the old Futurist Cinema some time ago before it became another lap dancing joint. What happened eh? Personally I'd be quite happy to pay a fiver to get up close and personal with Simon Le Bon's hairband or Vix from Fuzzbox's hot pants...drool...hot pants...

Anyway. Home of Metal. Go. Now. While you still can. Or Ozzy'll come round and piss on you. He does that you know.

Bearwood Shuffle...The Second Coming

2011-09-12T14:19:00.002+01:00

Yep, full marks if you got the Stone Roses reference in this post title because this Sunday we're chuffed to have none other than the legend that is Mr Aziz Ibrahim (Stones Roses guitarist) together with the equally legendary Mr Dalbir Singh Rattan (the guy who's on Paul Weller's speed dial when it comes to tip top tabla). Whoo and indeed hoo! But that's not all. Oh no it isn't...oh yes it is...oh no it isn't etc (soon be Christmas eh?) We've got a whole bunch of other great bands on offer too... Little Liam, The Nortons, Rudie and the Revolvers, The Sharp Darts, Mr Naylor, DJ Craig Anthony on the ones and twos...and possibly threes.

Incredibly the whole thing is free, free, FREE and we've even had a word about the weather. Yes, sunshine is guaranteed (probably) so all you have to do is pop along with a picnic (scotch eggs, cheesy nibbles, sausage rolls, maybe some hummus if you're a bit posh), a rug or chair (or sofa if you're feeling particularly energetic) and enjoy the show. Bargain. The fun kicks off at 2pm and winds up at 6-ish so you'll be home in time for Songs of Praise. Hurrah!

To keep up to date with all the latest info why not follow our Twitter thingy @bearwoodshuffle or befriend us (befriend us? good grief I sound like a Victorian) on Facebook.

Joe Goddard unleashes Gabriel

2011-09-12T09:29:00.003+01:00

Joe Goddard feat. Valentina - Gabriel (Official Video) from Greco-Roman on Vimeo.

Perhaps better known as one of the key players in hip electro nerds Hot Chip Joe Goddard’s just come out with a cracker of a track, Gabriel, featuring some lovely lady called Valentina. It’s one of those low key numbers that creeps up on you and becomes naggingly lodged in your central lobe, a bit haunting in places, a little soulful in others, all driven along with a bit of old skool synth and instant Hot Chip-piness. Splendid stuff.

This slightly oddball catchiness is as good an excuse as any to randomly drop this one in your lap too, Roy Vedas and his Fragments of Life from way back in the day. Whatever happened to him eh? Answers on a vocoder to the usual address.

Enjoy...

Moseley Folk Festival Friday 2nd September – Sunday 4th September 2011

2011-09-06T16:04:00.019+01:00

Mo Fo Fo and a bottle of rum! There aren’t many festivals where you’re greeted by a bunch of pirates offering you ship’s biscuits (with added weevils...nice touch) or a 'spray' of graffiti artists but then again in the six years since it began Moseley Folk Festival’s grown into something pretty special. The organisers have pulled together some pretty impressive bills, but this one’s the best. Hands down. No diggity. It’s not just the obvious treats though – Gruff Rhys, Tinariwen, Billy Bragg – nestled in amongst the big names were plenty of other gems too, all served up in the rather magical surroundings of Moseley Park (seriously, it’s like another world in there...I could swear I saw a hobbit or two...that may have been the Festival Cider though).

Friday kicked off in the sun...yes...I know...SUN...where’ve you been this year fella... with 9 Bach (sadly we missed the heavenly voiced Vijay Kishore...bit of a queue getting in...) who, in between songs about hangings, informed us that there’s no Welsh word for greenhouse. There’s a fact to wow ‘em down at the local tonight. Yes, 9Bach, in case you were wondering, sing purely in Welsh, a beautiful lyrical language, well suited to traditional tales of suicides, death, murder, a bit more death...and some added death for good measure. Somehow some of it sounds surprisingly upbeat, due in part to the lead vocalist’s ‘clear as a Welsh mountain stream’s’ voice.

The Mariner’s Children were next and you had to feel for them. Due to a serious of unfortunate incidents (dog ate my homework, an overturned lorry load of treacle on the M5 etc) they’d arrived late and only had time to play three songs, which was a real shame judging by their lively alt folk feel. Have ‘em back next year eh?

Next up a bit of a festival exclusive from one of this summer’s big success stories, Anglo/Spanish collective Crystal Fighters. Today was their first ever fully acoustic show.

Despite being bereft of their techno techno techno pulse they still managed to encourage a huge number of the crowd to get up and dance and the stripped back set up actually gave more room for the lyrics to breathe (can lyrics breathe? Balls...they can now). Champion Sound worked particularly well, encouraging two wasps to ‘get it on’ on the lead singer’s mic. There you go then, Crystal Fighters, Viagra for wasps.

After a quick toddle over to the Bohemian Jukebox tent caught Ben Calvert’s solo set, including a fine version of Jackson C Browne’s underground gem The Blues Run The Game. Ben’s own stuff’s every bit as good and Flee (delivered, once more, at “a fair old pace”) remains a firm favourite. There’s a new album out (Festive Road) too, which you can buy on a stress ball. Seriously. It comes with a download code. Now that’s creative. More Ben (with his band, The Swifts, later...).

Winner of an Ivor Novello award for Becoming A Jackal Conor J O’Brien and his Villagers continued their mission to tingle spines (not an easy trick on a warm afternoon). Conor’s dark lyrics and eyes wide shut delivery made for one of the most emotive sets of the weekend. When this dude sings I Saw The Dead you actually believe him...

Are Malpas signed yet? If not, why not? No, I don’t think they are. Good grief, what’s the world coming to? They’ve still got that magical slightly twisted fairy tale quality to their music but there’s a harder edge creeping in, maybe even more of a pop sensibility. They just seemed to have more oomph than ever before today, with one or two tracks hitting the kind of groove that folk rarely gets anywhere near.

Right. Abandon your marbles. Take off your shoes and socks and prepare to leave planet earth for a bit. It’s time for the greatest living Welsh man (Sorry Tom), Gruff Rhys. Sure, he’s a random as a bluebottle in a tumble dryer, but that’s all part of the charm. In amongst the meandering intros (including details of his 8 hour journey to the festival) there were some of the most magical pop tunes of the last twenty years.

Even the motorik Welsh language track Gyrru Gyrru Gyrru (that’s Welsh for Driving Driving Driving) is as catchy as hell. After a number of solo projects he’s got loads of this stuff and he’s one of the few artists who genuinely seems to be getting getting getting better better better. If you’re in any doubt just have a listen to today’s set highlight, the mariachi tinged Sensations In The Dark from his latest offering Hotel Shampoo. Genius.

A bit of a new name next. Well, new to me. Tom Martin’s been performing for over 40 years and it shows. Combing the grizzled majesty of Van Morrison with a little Bob Dylan in the mix and some fine guitar playing he played an intimate set in the Bohemian Jukebox tent. One track in particular, Visiting Time, about those we’ve loved and lost deserved to be heard right up there on the big stage.

Speaking of which you got the feeling that tonight’s headliner, Badly Drawn Boy, kind of feels like he shouldn’t be up there. “I hate this song” acted as the introduction to arguably one of his best loved tracks About A Boy, whilst later on he revealed that “I hate writing songs” and that he was “sick of talking about my wife”. Cheer up chap, it may never happen. He makes Morrissey seem like a bundle of joy. Of course Damon’s always been a bit of contrary bugger, I seem to remember him sitting eating a banana instead of playing songs at Glasto a while back, then calling him mum for a chat.

Tonight there was none of that and, despite playing down his talents, the set was (perhaps despite of his best efforts) a celebration of one of Brit Pop’s (god, I bet he hates hearing that phrase too) golden boys. After a bit of a lull of late he seems to be back writing again and one of his newbies (still helpfully untitled) is right up there with classic Gough. Although I guess he’d probably disagree with that as well...

Day Two – Saturday 3rd September 2011

Day two and, shrugging off a scrumpy head, managed to make it on site in time for Ben Calvert and The Swifts (or should that be the larks?) indecently early set (11.10 am...). Despite being breakfast time there was a decent crowd in attendance though, brave souls. Those that made it were treated to Ben and the band’s Nick Drake meets Morrissey meets Syd Barrett vignettes of modern life including the delightfully named Popstar Sits Alone At Home Crying Eating Hob Nobs (inspired by a Peter Andre inspired tabloid headline). Lovely stuff.

Any lingering hangovers were given a bit of kicking courtesy of Oh Ruin’s Doors-ish sludgefests (that’s a good thing by the way). Slow, dirty blues workouts lull you into a false sense of insecurity before the band explodes into some stomach rumbling kick in the gut rock outs.

There’s something lovely about starting your set with a track called A Nice Cup Of Tea, happily things got even better from there on in for the Bonfire Radicals, a hugely talented 8 piece that cleverly weave middle eastern and Jewish Klezmer influences into more traditional English folk. Not sure of the lead singer’s name but her voice was astonishing, particularly on the acapella number I Wish. The ability to play two recorders at the same time was pretty impressive too. Go on, you try it. Not easy eh?

Remember Nizlopi? A few years ago their track JCB song hit the number one spot and shifted half a million copies or so. Well after 17 years together the band split up last year and singer Luke Concannon upped sticks to Galway then went on a bit of a walkabout around Palestine. As you do. Like Sunday night’s headliner, Billy Bragg, Luke’s one of the life’s good guys. Someone who genuinely believes that the world could...and should...be a better place for all of us. Joined onstage by Birmingham’s own MC Jimmy Davis this manifesto’s best captured in Change The World, a rousing call to...well... you get the idea. A touching tribute to his nan, I just Want a Cup Of Tea, revealed the kind of heart of the sleeve emotions that a lot of songwriters struggle to pull off.

The set ended on a high with the big hit and Luke jumping off the stage to wander around the crowd, barefoot, singing away. So happily lost in the music was he that I wouldn’t be surprised if he’s still out there somewhere...

A bit of a scheduling clash sadly restricted the time we spent with the legendary Michael Chapman but some fine guitar picking on Memphis In Winter captured the essence of a dude that produced one of John Peel’s favourite albums, 1970’s Survivor. Now that’s a real guitar hero there. Well worth investigating. Dust Motes were calling though and after a memorable performance at their Hare and Hounds gig (supporting Patrick Duff) last year I was determined to catch a second helping. Richey Edwards had to carve 4 Real into his arm before people would believe he was genuine, all Dave (the Motes singer) has to do is open his mouth. Fragile folk with a dark melancholy heart Dave’s lyrics and soft, almost haunted delivery can be devastatingly powerful. Take Smash Yourself To Pieces “I don’t know why these brittle arms can’t hold you” line for instance. Ain’t that a beautiful lyric?

Pinned to our seats (not literally...oh you got that...good) The Cribbler (aka Jim from meat loving mentalists Mills and Boon) amused with some fine story based songs including the unusually titled Long Nail and Big Toe about an eventful camping trip. There’s not enough story based songs around these days. Good work Mr Cribbler. Not a mention of meat neither...

Willy Mason arrived a little late so he ended up on the smaller stage but it didn’t make a jot of difference. Despite still only being 12 years old (oh alright, he’s 26) he sounds like he’s lived at least a dozen lives and his slo mo (fo) twangy blues n’country kept 2000 or so people entranced. Even the once ubiquitous Oxygen (which, let’s face it, was played to death when it came out) seemed a little fresher today. Previous festival headliner Jose Gonzalez was back for more as part of his new band Junip, fleshing out the sparse but effective sound that made him the intelligent pop lover’s wet dream. It’s actually better than a lot of his solo stuff for that very reason. There’s more going on in there, a Krautrock / Canned Heat feel on the sets key track Far Away for instance.

Fancy spending some time in heaven but aren’t so keen on the whole dying business? Just listen to The Staves. They’re three sisters and rarely have a trio of voices harmonised so perfectly. Wow. Just wow. They’re out on tour with Willy Mason soon so you can judge for yourself but trust me on this one. Possibly the best female vocal trio in the world right now? Could be.

I hate wasps. The little buggers were out in force on Saturday. No good to man nor beast. Bees on the other hand are lovely. Both the furry little critters and the...well...furry big critters from the Isle of Wight. Now ten years into their career their mashup of 60’s psychedelia, folk, soul, ska...you name it... is like a huge blast of sunshine through the ears.

Perhaps best known for two big covers A Minha Menina and Chicken Payback they’ve contributed more than their fair share of classics too, with Wash In The Rain, Listening Man and I Really Need Love all going down a storm tonight. Winners of the biggest cheers of the weekend competition.

After catching a tiny snatch of Pram’s twisted 60’s soundtracks for films never made the second day culminated in the mesmerising desert blues of Tinariwen which, for an hour and half, transformed a tiny corner of a darkening Moseley Park into the shimmering expanse of the Sahara.

Day Three – Sunday 4th September 2011

Day three and another early kick off with Bellevue Rendezvous playing a rather splendid hangover clearing selection of traditional folk tunes from Sweden, Norway, France, England...Mars...probably.

They certainly had a distinctly alien looking instrument in the form of the Nyckelharpa, a bizarre looking fiddle thing with keys. Elfyn impressed next with a beautiful cover of US folk tune May Blooming Fields before Sam Lee provided what was, for many early birds, one of the highlights of the festival. Sam’s a rising star of the traditional folk scene with a voice that’s folky enough to appeal to the real ale beard strokers but with a bit of modern feel too. He’s one of the few really traditional folk artists (by which I mean someone who sings traditional songs set the odd century or two before today) that you could imagine crossing over into whatever the mainstream is these days. This is a big deal. Whilst younger folk bands are big news these days there aren’t that many interpreters of ancient songs...the stuff that tells the history of this country...played on the radio or telly...or bigged up by Zane Lowe. It’s a bit of a shame. There can be more sex, death and violence in the average traditional folk song than a Biggie Smalls and 2Pac duet. Anyway, it seems that Sam’s been spending some time with the old skool traveller community (nothing to do with big fat gypsy weddings thankfully), learning some of the songs that they’ve kept alive from generation to generation. Sam and the band (again featuring one or two curious instruments) shared some of these (probably the first time most of them have been heard outside the traveller community I’m guessing) in an all too brief set that left me wanting to hitch up a wagon and dig in to some of this stuff for myself. The real gem of the set came when the power went off for a moment or two though. This happens at gigs and festivals from time to time and different artists handle it different ways. Some go off for a fag and a hand job, others embrace the opportunity to sing as nature intended (no...not naked...perverts). Sam and co fell into the latter camp. It’s not easy to sing to hundreds of people, unplugged, but he gathered them round the stage and sang like as clearly and crisply as you’re ever likely to hear, communicating the warmth of the human voice that electronic amplification blots out.

It was...cliché ahoy...a magical moment. But it really was. After the power came back on the crowd stayed glued to the stage for a rousing rendition of The Ballad Of George Collins...a charming ditty about catching the clap off a water sprite. Whilst that’s not something you want to catch, Sam Lee certainly is.

Over the weekend Oxfam were selling raffle tickets to see some of the performers play intimate gigs in a shed. What a lovely idea. Happily we won and were treated to an up close and personal show from the equally lovely Jim Moray.

Like Sam, Jim’s passionate about bringing traditional folk tunes back to life and he sang one of the best of these (unplugged again), rather beautifully too, Lord Douglas. Some beautiful lyrics in there, all about death...naturally...this is folk after all...and how a rose and briar grew together out of the graves of two doomed lovers.

Back over to the Boho Jukebox stage for Ebenezer Pentweazle’s delightfully ramshackle and low key set. “None of these songs have titles” he explained, fiddling with an out of tune borrowed guitar. That may be the case but I reckon there’s more to Eb than meets the ear. Like much of Daniel Johnston’s output it sounds a bit haphazard at first but there were some real gems in there.

Ian Campbell memorably played his last gig at Mo Fo a few years back and today one of his sons, David, kept the family’s folk flame alive with some of his dad’s songs (originals and covers) including a poignant (particularly given the economic hell that’s about to be unleashed on us all) Brother can You Spare A Time and a cover made famous by his old man, D Day Dodgers. Back over to the Boho tent for one of the most original band’s of the whole weekend, Village Well. A little like a mini Imagined Village they pop some Caribbean, Middle Eastern and Indian influences into the melting pop, stir it up and bit and serve nice and hot. Set highlight Kurdistan almost achieved a kind of lo tech ravey vibe whilst the Redemption Song / One Love mash up was one of the more adventurous covers I’ve heard for a while. Ain’t music wonderful eh?

Caught Jim Moray for the second time in one day, this time he’d moved from the 1880’s to the 1980’s with an awesome version of XTC’s All You Pretty Girls. That dude must have a fascinating iPod. Cut A Shine’s hoedown disappeared in a haze of hay leaving the stage set for local boy made good Scott Matthews. New song Walking Home In The Rain invoked a bit of the spirt of Jeff Buckley, The Man Who Had Everything embraced country twang and Dylan harmonica but it was Ballerina Lake, a real slow burner of a track that suddenly burst into a bit of a 60’s blues/beat rock out before dying away again like the last embers of Summer that impressed the most. A vastly underrated talent.

How many bands do you know with 4 PhD’s? No, me neither. I do now though. Yes, Stornaway have brains by the bucket load and they were intent on sharing some of this wisdom with the crowd. Did you know that you can make diesel from a lamb? I prefer a nice roast myself but it seems that you can get about 10 miles to the...ahem...lamb-on. In amongst the facts and random stories of renegade cows on the run was a fine set of indie folk with newbie The Bigger Picture sticking out as one of the best. Still reading? Wow. Bless you. Right...onwards...nearly there...

Does John Presley gargle razor blades and Jack Daniels? I reckon he does, that’s the only explanation for that extraordinary voice of his. It’s the perfect weapon for delivering his scuzzed up version of the garage blues though, the kind of stuff you’d expect to hear in a divebar somewhere way off Route 66.

Other people attempt to do this kind of stuff but JP’s amongst the best of the bunch. Can’t help feeling that Jack White would cream himself silly over every single one of his tracks. A new signing for his Third Man Records label perhaps?

Okay, last but by no means least, Mr Billy Bragg, the bard of barking...or Dorset now apparently. I love Billy Bragg. Perhaps he’s not the best songwriter or singer around...some of his lyrics are downright ridiculous (and he knows it) but he’s written more than his fair share of modern classics and...and this is an important point...he’s one of the few artists who’s had the balls to keep politics and social issues in his material. Granted he had the benefit of coming up through the ranks during Herr Thatcher’s reign of terror but he’s stuck with it over the years. Tonight’s set, as ever, combined some of these early classics (Levi Stubbs Tears, Greetings To The New Brunette, To Have And To Have Not) with plenty of raging against the machine, some newbies and a couple of covers (including Woody Guthrie’s I Ain’t Got A Home In This Land Anymore”). He was on fine form too, perhaps because, after years of labour rule, the ‘other lot’ are in. Whatever the reason the fire’s clearly still there in the belly and a particular pet peeve right now seems to be our in built cynicism, the subject of new track Tomorrow’s Gonna Be A Better Day. Billy (bless him) wants us to, as Gandhi put it, be the change we want to see. I’m normally a cynical sod but for a few moments in Moseley Park it actually felt like a practical suggestion. It wasn’t all serious haranguing though. He found time to take the piss out of Mick Hucknall’s claim to have slept with 1000 women...and to apologise for to the three women he slept with over the same period. Bless him. The obligatory encore included Power In The Union and rousing singalong version of A New England (replete with a verse dedicated to the late, great Kirsty MacColl). Here’s hoping we can all make one eh?

There we go, three days, more fine acts than you can shake a pint of scrumpy at and the kind of late summer weather that Moseley Folk seems mystically destined to bask in every year. Remarkable. Congratulations to all involved in the organisation, everyone who played and the ruddy lovely crowd too. What a folking great festival.

PS: Mo Fo's as big as it’s going to get now (short of annexing Kings Heath) and routinely sells out so early booking for 2012’s a must...

Espirito Brum

2011-09-01T14:36:00.002+01:00

Ola! If you’re not off to Moseley Folk this weekend (if not, why not...shame on you...what’s that...oh you live in Burkina Faso...oh alright...you’re excused) there’s another great Birmingham based festival coming up soon, Espirito Brum (16th-18th September)! It’s part of a global celebration of all things Brazilian (except waxing...as far as I can tell)that also links in with local artists, people like the legendary Paul Murphy, 360 and Goodnight Lenin here in Birmingham for instance. There are other Espirito events across the world but the only one in the UK is right here in Brum! Hurrah!

Looking at the blurb it seems like there’s all types of music on offer (from Afrobrazilian Hip Hop to folk), graffiti artists, food (and drink I’m guessing...lots of drink...Brazilian’s know how to party), spoken word and various other hip happenings across several venues in Birmingham’s equally hip and happening Digbeth. I can’t find a full programme yet but here’s a nice mix tape of some of the artists you can catch during the festival.

Latest tracks by Espirito Brum

Tickets are a very reasonable £20 for the three day wristband...which is as cheap as salgadinhos as far as I’m concerned. For more details head over to http://www.espiritobrum.org/

Ate mais!

Mamas Gun make the Reconnection

2011-08-30T14:34:00.002+01:00

Okay, so summer might be pretty much finished now (not that it really got started this year eh?), but here’s a perfect slice of summertime soul n’ pop from the lovely Mamas Gun. Citing Queen (the band, not her Maj) as a bit of an influence it appears that they sent the track to none other than Brian May who not only gave it his thumbs up but is now set to collaborate with ‘em on some stuff soon as well. It’s taken from their equally fine second album, The Life & Soul (highly recommended), and you hear it live, as nature intended, as they’re off on tour across the UK this November. Satisfaction guaranteed.

Cults / Fanzine / HEARTS / Victories At Sea DJ Set @ The Hare and Hounds, Wednesday 24th August 2011

2011-08-26T11:34:00.002+01:00

Wow...just noticed that it’s nearly the Hearing Aid’s 5th birthday (28th August). I’ve been ‘doing this’ for 5 years. Good grief. Scarily the gig going’s been going on for a lot longer than that...23 years and counting...(oh my ears) albeit with some serious money related lean patches along the way...but 5 years seems like a hell of a long time in blogging world. Train spotters may wish to note that the first band to be reviewed on the Aid (in an alarmingly slapdash fashion...even more slapdash than usual) were CUD (at the old Academy 2). Ahhhh happy days...

Anyway, back to the future, and after some fine tunes from Victories At Sea DJ’s HEARTS kicked off proceedings with (in their words) some “trip-rock garage pop”. The lady HEARTS has a pretty powerful vocal which works well with the more understated male voice in the duo. Musically there’s a touch of late 90’s dance act Republica in places, mixed with a little of the XX’s dreamy brand of electronic and Hurts’ classy pop. Sparse guitars stab in and out of the synths like finger nails in a lover’s back. Yep, finger nails in a lover’s back (you’d think after 5 years I’d be getting better at this wouldn’t you?) Judging by the enthusiastic young ladies at the front of the crowd and some generous applause at the end of an all too short set the band succeeded in winning over more than just a few hearts tonight, but then they’re an easy band to fall in love with.

Next up Teenage Fanzine...no...hang on, just Fanzine. Yep, more than one person tonight pointed out a bit of a Teenage Fanclub vibe to Fanzine (just check out their track I Wanna Touch Your Hand for instance) and clearly they must’ve been a bit of an inspiration, just as The Byrds inspired Norman Blake and co before them. With vocals so laid back they’re virtually horizontal and a distinctly lo fi feel to the music there’s a pleasantly soporific quality to Fanzine. If that sounds like a bit of an insult, it ain’t. Whilst Fanzine won’t get you pogoing off the walls if you’re in the mood for drifting off and losing yourself in some timeless West Coast sounds there are few bands that do this stuff better right now.

Last up, and no doubt responsible for a 23.6% hipper crowd (at least) than even the Hare and Hounds normally pulls in, it’s Cults. Originally an indie-pop duo formed by a couple of New Yawk University students they’ve now swelled to a five piece for this, their first major UK tour. Some bands are born cool, some bands achieve coolness and some have coolness thrust upon them. Cults pretty much tick all three of these boxes. Signed to Lily Allen’s record label and attracting drooling hipster column inches across the world they’re the kind of band Phil Spector might well be producing these days (if he wasn’t...allegedly...blowing the heads off hookers). There’s a distinct 60s girl pop meets 80’s indie feel to a lot of their stuff, from the edgier opening number Abducted (as loud and thrashy as they get) through to the glockenspiel-tastic Go Outside, currently being heard on the Brothers Cider ads (you know, the one with the exploding fruit). Lead vocalist Madeline Follin neatly treads the fine line between being as cute as sack of kittens and sickeningly twee which, whilst doing that side to side knee dance thing that teenage girls do, ain’t easy to pull off. She can belt it out when she wants to though, which comes as a surprise on one of tonight’s best tracks, You Know What I Mean. Just when you’re gently swaying from side to side, lost in some sweet, dreamy lady pop you’re clobbered round the ears with a surprisingly soulful and gutsy chorus. “We’re amazed to be so far from home and to see so many people here” says Madeline as the set draws to a close with Oh My God (no, not the Kaiser Chiefs song) another slice of glockenspiel sprinkled pop. It’s no surprise to the hipster crowd though. It’s still early days of course, Cults are barely a year old in their current form, but they’ve got the makings of a band that could be a great deal bigger than the name implies...

Sexy Moseley Folkers...

2011-08-24T14:37:00.002+01:00

Blimey, tempus fugit. It only seems like 5 minutes since the last Moseley Folk Festival and now it's nearly time for the next one (2nd-4th September). I have to say that this year’s bill is, for me, arguably the best ever. On top of desert blues superstars Tinariwen, Brit Pop troubadour Badly Drawn Boy and folk royalty Eliza Carthy you’ve got the Welsh wizard of tunes Gruff Rhys and...and...

the bard of Barking himself MR BILLY BRAGG!

Shit...just noticed they’ve got Crystal Fighters on the bill too...they were awesome at the Big Chill a few weeks back. Hope Sam Walter will be there (he usually is)...you’ve got to catch him if you have the chance.

It appears that tickets are close to selling out (they normally do) so if you want to be sure of one...or two...or three...hell...why not buy four...you’d better pull your folking fingers out.

Poly goes disco

2011-08-24T12:13:00.002+01:00

The late lamented Poly Styrene continues to release tracks from beyond the (g)rave and the latest, Ghoulish, (out a few weeks back) includes a suitably haunting (but danceable at the same time) Hercules & Love Affair remix. One for those Halloween discos me thinks...

While you're at it check out a track by track interview on her last album that Poly gave just a few weeks before she finally shuffled off this mortal bondage forever.

Cults at the Hare and Hounds...this Wednesday!

2011-08-23T12:25:00.002+01:00

Been meaning to bung up a post about this gig for a while...but I forgot...I’m doing that a lot these days...that’s old age for you. Anyway, this Wednesday (that’s tomorrow if you’re reading this today) New Yawk indie poppers Cults play the Hairy Hounds in Kings Heath. Notable for having a band member called Brian Oblivion (how rock n’roll is that? I may change my name you know...I quite fancy Derek Devoid...hmmm...no you’re right...needs more work) and releasing a sack full of indier than thou singles. Cute lady vocals climb under a duvet with woozily lo fi-ish 1960’s instrumentation...the audio equivalent of a Polaroid picture of two lovers sharing a bottle of Jack Daniels. Whatever the hell that means. Cultdom surely beckons...

Tickets from our good chums at Birmingham Promoters for the bargain price of £7.

Flyover Show 2011, Saturday 20th August 2011...under a flyover in Hockley

2011-08-22T14:28:00.008+01:00

Once again the fourth annual Flyover Show showcased a fine range of musical talent in a decidedly unusual venue, from established acts through to complete newcomers (including some nervous pre teen rappers...bless ‘em). Coming just a matter of days after some of the worst, most pointless ‘riots’ in this country’s history (let’s face it, they only succeeded in dividing what’s left of our ‘society’ even more than ever before) this could easily have felt less like a celebration and more like a wake. That it didn’t is probably down to the endless enthusiasm of Mr Flyover himself, Soweto Kinch, and a small (it looked like a slightly smaller crowd than in previous years to me) but perfectly well informed cross section of the people of Birmingham.

As with previous years the bill was a real mix of genres, from the soulful old school sounds of Omar (there’s still Nothing Like This) through to a bit of drum n’bass courtesy of Goldie, some jazz from Julian Joseph, Jay Phelps and Soweto and rappers a plenty...step forward Juice Aleem, Why G, Try My Angle, B City Collective, Ghetts and Jonzi D. This eclectic blend of styles reached its peak with Goldie’s Band, a random bunch of young musicians recruited for a BBC TV show. Only half the band were here tonight but it was enough to give a flavour of how successfully they (and Goldie) had somehow managed to combine everything from fret melting rock guitar to sitar and harmonica.

New Yorker Baba Israel also deserves an honourable mention for introducing the crowd to the wonders of hip hop didgeridoo as well as generally spreading the message of peace, love and understanding that we could all do with heeding right now. Impressive beat boxing too.

The undisputed highlight though was a stunning headlining set from Akala, kicking off with a frenetic 8 minute rap covering everything from his troubled upbringing through to the dangers of celebrating gangster culture in rap and the brain numbing influence of MTV. It was inspirational stuff... best summed up simply as ‘knowledge is power’...let’s hope the youth were listening eh, they seem to need all the help they can get right now. Smashing stuff is easy, smashing the system takes brains.

Flyover Show 2011 - the Soweto is over...

2011-08-19T15:34:00.003+01:00

Okay, you can ignore the useless pun but please don't ignore the Flyover Show itself...especially this year. Having moved from its regular May slot to August this FREE one day festival (held under Hockley flyover) comes just a couple of weeks after the riots that, for several days, threatened to tear the entire City apart. I've not written much about the riots...it's all just too depressing. Protesting over social injustice is one thing, trashing businesses, burning down homes and running people over is something altogether different and, quite frankly, UNFORGIVABLE. Hopefully, as in other years, this year's Flyover Show though will be a celebration of the good side of our City, a time when everyone, irrespective of their background, age, colour blah blah blah, can just get together and listen to some great music. Please...

Free Download! Greg Bird & Flamingo Flame - Statuette / Fire & Horses

2011-08-18T10:05:00.003+01:00

"Statuette/Fire & Horses" by Greg Bird & Flamingo Flame by Speech Fewapy Records

I grew up in the ‘80s, reaching the dizzy old age of 10 in 1980 and a decidedly ancient ne ne ne ne ne ne ne ne 19 (that’s a dodgy Paul Hardcastle reference for anyone under the age of 30) in 1989. No matter how hard you try, the music that’s around during these formative years gets hard wired into your brain and elicits some kind of Pavlov type response whenever you hear it...or something like it. That’s why the last few years have been pretty awesome, musically speaking, with loads of new bands (big up La Roux, Everything Everything, Metronomy, Hercules & Love Affair, Mirrors and the late lamented Findo Gask for instance)discovering the 80s for themselves and coming up with their own twist on, arguably, pop's best ever decade. That’s probably why the first 5 seconds of Greg Bird & Flamingo Flame’s new double A side (double A side...how 80s is that!) got me grinning like a loon. Both songs have echoes of Duran Duran, Heaven 17, Blancmange and loads of other 80s loveliness plus more than a gentle nod towards current indie darlings Wild Beasts in places (especially with Greg's slightly breathy, come to bed vocals). Thanks to the good folk at Speech Fewapy records you can even download the whole thing for free (I used to have to pay £1.15 for a 7 inch you know...jeez...)! Of course if you’re really dedicated to all things ‘80s you’ll probably copy it onto tape, pop it in your Sony Walkman and go roller skating in a ra ra skirt too. Just a thought.

PS: Greg's playing at The Rainbow on Friday 18th August with the rather excellent Free School.

Wilderness Festival, Cornbury, 12th – 14th August 2011

2011-08-17T14:16:00.017+01:00

Day One – Friday 12th August

Within minutes of arriving onsite at the very first Wilderness festival I found myself blindfolded, smothered in theatrical slap and about to bid goodbye to my old self...for the weekend at least. Yep,Wilderness is a little different. Putting the “oooooh” into Boutique it sticks art, theatre, fine dining, debate, music and ginger beer into a great big blender and whips it up into a surreal mix of luxury and the ‘back to nature’ spirit that a lot of festivals try to achieve but few really manage. Six years in the planning and bought to you by the good folk at Secret Garden Party it’s a brave and much needed reboot of the festival experience...Festival 2.0 if you like...retaining the insanity of most festivals whilst adding some glam, culture and theatricality to proceedings. Hence the facepaint and blindfolding, dished out by the Old Vic Tunnels (part of the Old Vic Theatre lot) who encouraged us all to embrace our alter egos.

Clearly mine is a slightly camp middle aged bloke with a cardboard hat on crossed with a reject from a Kiss tribute band. It was great fun though, especially if you got into the spirit of the thing and, after a few glasses of vin rouge and a pint of Aspall’s cider, my spirit was worryingly willing. The rest of the first evening was spent in a merry haze of rave folk (courtesy of We Were Evergreen in the London Folk Guild tent), gymnastics and fire (the gymnasts may even have been on fire...it's a bit of a blur) in the Secret Garden Party’s woodland ‘Where The Wild Things Are’ mash up. Made the mistake of going to bed still wearing my make up...ended up looking like a drag queen who’d fallen on particularly hard times. No change there then I guess...

Day Two – Saturday 13th August

Determined to expand the old grey matter popped along to The Forum tent for An Optimists Guide to the Future by Mark Stevenson (roughly based on his book of the same title). Given the carnage that unfolded, seemingly unchallenged by the authorities for several days, across large parts of the country I can’t help feeling that the future is pretty ruddy grim right now. Stevenson, perhaps wisely, ignored the social meltdown of society and focused more on the scientific, technological and medical breakthroughs that are going on right now, often behind the scenes. It was fascinating stuff and, if only ‘they’ could find a way to stop worryingly large numbers of people from going feral...and equally large numbers of liberal excuse-niks from blaming the rest of us for the troubles then we might actually have something to be optimistic about.

Optimism is something that Hayseed Dixie have by the pintful. As long as they have their beers, birds and distinctive brand of goodtime country they’re happy enough.

They’re the perfect festival band too, chucking in some Dixie-fied covers of Love In An Elevator and Ace Of Spades alongside their own classics like the by now legendary Poop In A Jar. Now that’s a song title eh? Coldplay eat your heart out.

In retrospect getting involved in the ‘how many people can you get in a one person tent’ competition in the Bearded Lawn area wasn’t the best of ideas.

Certainly deciding to be the first person in the tent, swiftly followed by 10 enthusiastic teenage boys, was a recipe for a serious spinal injury. But we won and were rewarded with a generous swig of Sambuca that took my mind off the 4 crushed vertebrae. Happy days. All Sambuca’d up it was time for CW Stoneking, 30’s throwback and singer of ‘hokum blues’. He’s an odd looking (and sounding) character, truly a man out of time, but it’s all done with such conviction that you really could be listening to some dude in the 20’s or 30’s banging out tunes at some state fair in the deep south.

Backing up this high-fallutin’ claim, his loving cover of an old Trinidadian Calypso tune, Brave Son Of America (originally by Wilmouth Houdini?) nestled neatly next to Stoneking’s own stuff like Jungle Lullaby and Handyman Blues.

Next up Bugs, a play that’s performed ‘blind’ by the actors involved (from The Factory Theatre), by that they mean that each person knows their own lines and cues but not anyone elses...at least I think that’s what it means. It certainly added a frisson of excitement to the piece, a tale set in the future in which we’re all able to communicate with each other via the power of thought, thanks to some hi-tech implant. Scarily it’s the kind of thing you can imagine happening. I’m sure Apple’s busily working on something like this right now. If it can happen, it will happen. Back to the old school with reggae and ska legends ‘Toots’ & the Maytals, responsible for such smashes as Pressure Drop, Funky Kingston and Monkey Man of course, which prompted much skanking amongst the crowd.

There must be something in the water over in Jamaica as ‘Toots’ himself is still in remarkably fine form having reached pension age last year.

Despite a desire to explore some of the many other gorgeous treats across the Wilderness site (including the spa area...with its saunas and hot tubs...that would’ve sorted out the tent related spinal collapse) the pull of Gogol Bordello was impossible to resist. Eugene Hutz (one of the few men to give me moustache envy) and co have been gypsy punking it up for over 10 years now and the energy’s every bit as infectious as the first time I caught them (way way back in 2005). After leaping from the stage mid-set he leered over the crowd urging them to get a “muthafokin’ serklepeet” going, not an easy thing to do in rammed festival crowd. Still, it’s a measure of Hutz’s charisma that the crowd duly obliged and some kind of “serklepeet” did indeed seem to break out.

With The Masked Ball Big Top fit to burst the rest of the night was spent wandering the site catching the odd gig culminating in a dude called Stompin’ Dave who plays the banjo whilst tap dancing on a wooden plinth plugged in to an amp, providing some basic percussion. Awesome fun. He should team up with Stoneking...

Day Three – Sunday 14th August

Day three and idled over to the Idler Academy (suitably late so we missed the start of it all) to catch some kind of camping related talk with Mathew De Abaitua (promoting his new book The Art Of Camping) and The Idler’s Editor Tom Hodgkinson. I’ve not read The Idler much but the whole ethos of it...enjoying life’s journey rather than stressing about keeping up with the Jones...really appeals. As you’d expect from a pair of chaps who’ve worked out the secret of turning slacking into a career it was particularly well informed and witty stuff, clearly those years spent lounging around reading and pontificating were well spent. I could quite happily have idled the rest of the day there but Robyn Hitchcock was calling. Not literally, he don’t have my number, he can have it if he wants...reckon he’d be fascinating to chat to for an hour or seven though.

Can’t for the life of me work out why Robyn’s not HUGE, given his Lennon meets Barrett at a Mighty Boosh convention brand of surrealist pop. Half of the joy of a Hitchcock gig is the between song banter and he was on fine form today, wittering on about being from the future and how his song Tarantula would give you a baby if you listened to it. Happily it didn’t but you wouldn’t rule it out. From a national treasure of our own to one from the States, Daniel Johnston. This guy’s story is pretty extraordinary. Despite, or maybe because of, suffering from mental illness for most of his life he’s become something of a cult with a string of naive but touching tunes about what’s going on in that head of his.

“It’s great to be here” he commented after playing a couple of songs “What country am I in?” The audience laughs but I’m not totally convinced he was joking. After playing most of the gig solo, his slightly shaky guitar playing matching the trembling hesitant vocals, he was joined by his band, fleshing out his sound into something approaching a more commercial vibe. After receiving some wild applause he came back on stage to do an encore only to find his mic tuned off. Disconnected again eh? The story of his life I guess.

Guillemots were here in all their usual high pomp pop glory, effortlessly knocking out some of the classiest tracks of the last decade. Fyfe is, quite frankly, a genius when it comes to this stuff and despite one or two slightly sniffy reviews their new album (Walk The River) is the kind of grown up pop that few bands bother making these days. This afternoon, on top of the older hits (including a rowdy run through Trains To Brazil) the band showcased some of the spiffing newer tracks courtesy of the album’s standout Vermilion and a Fyfe only stripped back I’m Not Amazing. Yeah you are dude.

Next up Laura Marling who’s maturing nicely both as a songwriter and performer with her new songs having a real 60’s female folkie feel (Joni Mitchell in particular) especially on pick of the set (and new single too I think), Sophia. She attracted an impressive crowd too, some of which inexplicably wandered off at the end missing the biggest musical treat of the whole weekend, Mercury Rev’s run through their seminal Deserter’s Songs. With the sheer volume of free music that we’ve all got access to these days it’s increasingly hard to remember (well it is for me anyway) how magical album releases used to be. Now tracks seem to dribble out months in advance, whether on You Tube via shaky gig footage or record company teasers or on Spotify, MySpace, any one of a trillion music blogs...it’s great but it sucks at the same time, like catching a peek at your Christmas pressies early. Anyway, Deserter’s Songs dates all the way back to 1998 and I can still (vaguely) remember hearing it for the first time, as nature intended. It was a strange and beautiful thing and, thankfully, tonight’s gig only enhanced that memory. Like the bottle of red wine that Jonathon manfully glugged from throughout the set the band simply seems to have got a lot better with age. His vocals are still a little fragile in places but it’s a fragility that he’s more in control of. He’s grown a beard too which, combined with an infectious grin and wilfully camp stage moves makes him look like a mischievous little pixie.

Bless. Goddess On A Hiway and Delta Bottleneck Stomp (two of the singles from the original album release) were as close to musical perfection as you’re likely to get here on earth and, judging by the Cheshire cat smile on his face at the end of the gig JD was pretty chuffed with how it all went too.

The final set on the main stage was down to Antony Hegarty, tonight backed by The Heritage Orchestra. Now I love Antony. He has one of the most beautiful voices of his...well...any generation and several of his songs can get the old eyes watering in seconds. He does like to chat though and this evening was no exception. His big theme is that the world should be run by women. Women are, according to Antony, the future. Us men have generally messed things up rather a lot (what with inventing electricity, computers, the combustion engine, a whole world of medical breakthroughs...not to mention high heels and handbags) and it’s high time we stepped aside and let the sisters do their thang. Interesting. Totally sexist (the idea that the world should be run by either gender has to be) but there we go, judging by the number of times he returned to his theme it’s something he’s pretty passionate about. Anyway, masculine emasculation aside, that voice of his was in fine form this evening, benefitting no doubt from being freed from behind the piano, yes, tonight Antony was out front which he didn’t always seem that comfortable about.

The backing of the Heritage Orchestra gave him the chance to really let rip though and tonight was as good as he gets in a live setting. I Am A Boy, Cripple and the Starfish, Hope There’s Someone, Fell In Love With a Dead Boy, You Are My Sister...one emotional knuckle duster after another. The one criticism I might have, and it’s a minor one, is that perhaps festival sets like this one would benefit from one or two more upbeat numbers? Just a thought. Even the Beyonce cover, Crazy In Love is delivered as a kind of funereal lament and beautiful as this set was (and it really was) I was crying out for a bit of a foot stomper by the end of it all, a lively orchestral run though the Hercules & Love Affair collaboration Blind would’ve well and truly scratched that itch.

Happily spent the rest of the evening wandering about chatting to well lubricated (alcohol wise I mean...there was no KY jelly involved...not that I can recall anyway) random strangers in the kind of way that only happens at festivals and was genuinely sad when my time in the Wilderness came to an end.

Despite my best intentions I failed to indulge myself in the spa area, stuff my face in one of the three banquets (mainly because they had all sold out before the event had opened) or join in the naked conga through the woods (watch those nettles). Still, it gives me a jolly good excuse to go back again next year eh?

Back from the Wilderness...

2011-08-16T08:46:00.003+01:00

Two weekends. Two festivals. Too difficult coming back to reality...

There's something strangely liberating about living in a tent. For a few days at least. Everything you own (or everything you seem to own...that 'other' world of a house full of 'stuff' just doesn't seem real) can be packed up and carried around with (relative) ease and you spend your days just wandering around indulging the senses in everything the great festival infused outdoors has to offer. Inevitably I come back harbouring some weird idea about buying a 1963 double decker bus and living off the land but pretty soon end up back in Co-op queuing to buy houmus and pitta bread and lounging on the sofa watching Snog. Marry. Avoid. Oh well.

Anyway Wilderness 2011 was/is a delightful addition to the festival season for so many reasons. A full review (as ever) will follow, but in the meantime here's a pretty picture of Mercury Rev's Jonathan Donahue. Ain't he the cutest?!

The Big Chill 2011, Eastnor Castle, Ledbury 4th-7th August 2011

2011-08-11T14:06:00.022+01:00

Day One

Location. Location. Location. If Kirstie and Phil were looking for the perfect place to hold a festival the Big Chill’s site, nestled in the cleavage of two little hills near Ledbury, would come pretty close to the top. Big enough to pose more than a few annoying ‘who do we go and see out of X and Y’ clashes but compact enough to get from one side to the other in a matter of minutes it’s also (as the name implies) got a pretty chilled out vibe too. No hassle, no attitude, no gangs of marauding nut cases...we’ll save all that for our big cities eh? This year’s Big Chill provided more than its fair share of weird and wonderful festival moments though, from ranting rappers to a highly amusing non stick nipple pastie...

As with many festivals these days the traditional three day format is gradually seeping into a fourth, with Thursday seeing dubstep poster boy James Blake deliver a glitchy, kidney bruising set...seriously, anyone standing near the speakers stood a fair chance of haemorrhaging when the bass kicked in. Elsewhere on the site the White Rabbit Tent played host to Last Man Standing, a glorious mix of prime era Bowie, Bolan and Sensational Alex Harvey band on a bender round Soho, fronted by the enigmatic Max Vanderwolf. The rest of the evening blurred in a haze of Drambuie cocktails and Burrow Hill cider, not a combination that’s to be recommended if you wish to retain your dignity...or dinner. As one day oozed into the next we did manage to experience the voyeur’s delight that is the Electric Hotel though, a dance event set across several floors of a hotel, built in the grounds of the festival.

You, the audience sit and watch the action unfurl through the windows, listening in on wireless headphones. It’s a weird feeling, you’re taught not to do this kind of thing but...well...isn’t there a bit of voyeur in all of us? Just me? Oh. Okay.

Day Two

Friday kicked off at some unholy hour in fine style with the 11 piece Balkan beat machine Mahala Rai Banda which, literally translated, means “dance your asses off”...probably. There’s some kind of primordial link between the ears and feet that makes it pretty much impossible to stand still when you’re listening to this kind of stuff. Happily respite was in hand with the return of scuzzy kraut-psych girls Electralene, fresh from a three year hiatus, who won the ‘unexpected cover of the weekend’ award thanks to their rocked up version of Small Town Boy. Caught a little of Here Be Magic and Fenech Soler (thanks to the proximity of the two main stages at The Chill it’s pretty easy to toddle between the two) before one of the big surprises of the festival, the shroud wearing pint sized goth popette Zola Jesus.

Think Florence with a bit more of an edge singing a bit of Sisters of Mercy and you’re only halfway there. After running backwards and forwards across the stage pressing her hands against the speakers, literally feeling the music pump through her body, she humped one of the sets of wheels used to move speakers about and lay down on it, scuttling about like a bug. Brilliantly bonkers. She’s got one of those Tardis voices...how the hell does something so big come out of something so small? I guess studying opera for 10 years helped.

Next up, embracing reggae, ska and soul, rising New Zealand rapper Ladi 6 came to party, fresh from a gig supporting Erykah Badu. Appropriately enough there’s a touch of Badu-ism to her vocal too, reaching its peak on the pick of the set, the soul meets hip hop beats of Bang Bang. Classy. Bonus marks for wearing a glittery top hat in the middle of the afternoon too. Nice touch.

Meanwhile back over at the main stage Ariel Pink, wearing the kind of dress your nan might donate to Oxfam, was doing what he does best..having a bit of a hissy fit.

In between some fine ramble pop (that’s a new genre that Mr Pink seems to specialise in...singing in a blah blah blah kinda way) and some kind of twisted Zappa-esque mini musical of a track called (possibly) Get ‘em, We Got ‘em, he smashed his mic stand up, wandered off stage, came back, lit a fag, then taught his microphone a lesson it’ll never forget. Finally he just walked off leaving the rest of the band to play on. Clearly the bassist had soon had enough too as he unplugged his guitar. Arial wanders back on, surveys the wreckage and starts unplugging stuff as well. There’s at least 15 minutes left of the set but, in the immortal words of Bugs Bunny, that’s all folks. Seemingly he does this kind of thing a lot. Always leave ‘em wanting more eh? Smart guy or whack job? Go, see him if you get the chance and decide for yourself.
After the mayhem must come calm. Kicking off with the self sacrificing Bed Of Nails (half Antony and the Johnsons, half The Associates) Wild Beasts were a shot of beauty straight through the cortex.

Echoes of the clever end of 80’s pop (Tears For Fears, Japan, The Associates, Talk Talk) ran through the set, a perfectly judged mix of the old and new culminating in a spine chilling Hooting and Howling. Blissful.

Providing the kind of weird juxtaposition that you only get at festivals like this Neneh Cherry (yes...she’s back, back, back) reminded those in the crowd old enough to remember her heyday (late 80’s) just what a talent she was...and happily enough still is.

In contrast to a lot of artists she’s wisely updated some of her better known tunes, delivering a more funked up Man Child for instance and an ass pleasingly bass heavy spin on Buffalo Stance. The first of many tributes to Winehouse came with an acknowledgment that “it’s been a tough year for the girls...Ari Up, Poly Styrene and Amy” and a spirited cover of Martina Topley Bird’s Too Tough To Die. Cherry impressed...ahem.

Prime era New Yawk disco anyone? Oh go on. You know you want to. Tough. ‘Cos even if you didn’t Hercules & Love Affair are irresistible. The brainchild of New York based DJ Andy Butler they’re unashamedly OTT, fronted tonight by a rather lovely camp black queen with the biggest calves I’ve ever seen. Must be all that dancing. Oh...and voguing too. Remember that? Girlfriend vogued herself into another dimension. Of course none of this would matter a jot if the music weren’t any good. But it is. It’s brilliant, shimmery glitter in the eyes, sweat down the back, unmentionable bodily fluids up in and around every orifice D I S C O. If Sylvester (legendary disco queen) were still alive this is the band he’d give up his high heels for.
Top that. Empire Of The Sun gave it a pretty good shot with a spectacular orgy of costume changes, dancing fish creatures and some good old rock n’roll guitar smashing. In amongst all the eye candy the Fast Car (Tracy Chapman) influenced Walking On A Dream was pretty damn special.

After a quick break for refuelling, a Levi Roots chicken wrap soundtracked by the equally soulful Aloe Blacc in the background, day one closed with the Chemical Brothers doing what they do best...one big party tune after another, all performed in front of a huge screen featuring BIG, BOLD GRAPHICS. Music for the ADHD generation...and their mums and dads. God, have they really been around for 20 years? Jeez.On the way back to the tent we ended up stumbling into the White Rabbit Tent again for another show by Last Man Standing. This time it appeared as though the entire cast of Alice In Wonderland were in the audience, off their tits and dancing like loons. But then again that could’ve been the cider...

Day Three

A near full tent at 12pm is an unusual thing, but I guess there’s a lot of attention on Dionne Bromfield right now. Vocally she’s got more in common with lighter soul voices, the likes of Duffy for instance, rather than her godmother but she won the hearts of every single member of the crowd with a confident and, hell, let’s say it, brave performance just two weeks to the day since the death of her inspiration, Amy Winehouse.

After a sassy run through first single Foolin’ the applause went on for a good minute and a half, almost moving her (and me...I’m a soppy fool sometimes) to tears. I’ve rarely seen such a reaction after a track. Bravely she even tackled Winehouse’s Love Is A Losing Game, dedicating it to “my mentor, godmother, boss and an amazing person”. Somehow she kept it all together, doing the track, and Amy’s memory proud. Now that’s soul.

Out on the main stage Crystal Fighters continue to beat new fans into submission with their curious mix of pop, folk, rave, rap...you name it really. They’re a pretty perfect festival band with an alarmingly large number of tracks that you’ll already know without knowing it was by them.

Solar System, Champion Sounds and the summertime anthems for teens Plage had all lodged themselves in the collective brains of the crowd who kept muttering to each other “I didn’t know this was by them...”. “Here’s some motherfucking noise for your British Summer” yelled the lead singer, literally just as the sun came out in one of those magical festival moments. The track in question, Be alone (almost an old skool rave up) was pretty hot stuff too.

Bullits, seemingly a concept driven group featuring Lucy Liu, Jay Electronica, Jeymes Samuel and Idris Elba (Luther and The Wire) played their first show live here today and, whilst the concept may have been lost a little (there’s a bunch of mini movies on You Tube right now...something about Amelia Sparks, murder, bent detectives...I need to watch ‘em all really) there was no mistaking the energy of the show.

In true hip hop style a bunch of ‘em got down and dirty at the front with the crowd with Jay climbing over the barriers (brave soul) mid performance.

One of the big hits of Glastonbury this year was Janelle Monae, a one woman Outkast who’s seemingly quiet comfortable slipping between showband tunes, soul, jazz and Bond movie style theme songs (during which she theatrically defeated some bad guys on stage...KAPOW!).

A bit of a musical chameleon she’s not adverse to plundering from the masters either, so a spot of moonwalking, a cover of I Want You Back and the whole James Brown dance routine (replete with cape draped on her shoulders at the end) all seemed to be fair game. A seriously impressive show. Believe the hype. It’s well and truly on the Monae.

Metronomy’s take on Miami Vice meets Torbay delivered some of the biggest grin inducing tunes of the weekend with the double header of The Bay and The Look entertaining a growing crowd getting set for Ms Jessie J. Some performers make a decent stab at engaging with an audience but Jessie’s a natural. After limping onto her throne (that broken leg still clearly a long way healing) she bantered with everyone from “dem bad men” down the front to random passers by at the back of the field “they probably think a cat’s being tortured” and even the photographers leaving the pit after their allocated trio of songs “just cracking off one last shot eh mate?”

You can’t help but love her. After dedicating Who You Are to “Amy and the many other innocent people who’ve lost their lives recently “ Do It Like A Dude and Price Tag saw several thousand teens joyously singing along...even “dem bad men”.

Job done.

Then things went a little weird. It’s safe to say that Kanye West’s set divided opinion somewhat. It began promisingly enough with Kanye appearing not on stage but on the giant viewing tower in the middle of the crowd. A few moments later he was onstage...as if by magic. How did he get there? Three theories were doing the rounds. Theory One – he had a tunnel built under the crowd according to one of the security guards. Er. No. I think not. The idea that Kanye West had a 100 foot tunnel dug under a Herefordshire field just for that one trick is a little far-fetched. Plus I got that bloke from Blackadder to do some investigative digging. A load of Baldricks. Theory Two – he just ran through the crowd one of the photographers suggested to me rather sniffily. Had he seen this? Well, no. But he thought Kanye West, one of the biggest rappers in the world dressed in a flashy white suit could negotiate his way through several thousand fans. Hmmmm. Theory Three – it was a lookalike. That’s my favourite. Maybe the whole gig was done by a lookalike. That would explain a few things. Mr West explained that he was late (45 minutes or so) because he was screaming at people to get the show as he wanted it. Judging by his voice (which sounded pretty shredded at times) he wasn’t kidding. That wasn’t the weird stuff though. That all came with a rambling 10 minute speech (seriously) about how hip hop’s not dead, how he wants to give a better product to y’all, how he was jerked around by some award organisers recently and, most bizarrely of all, that people look at him like he’s Hitler. Wow. Hitler? Dude, get a grip. Get therapy. Crack open a Babycham or something. Unsurprisingly after a lecture like that a good 50% of the crowd were decidedly in an un-Kanye kind of mood. This is a bit of a shame as he actually seemed to have made a real effort with the show, employing a nest full of Black Swan style ballet dancers, a huge backdrop and, rather modestly, a big plinth for him to stand on.

I’ve seen a few hip hop shows (is Kanye still hop hop?) and few artists bother to put so much effort into the frilly stuff so I guess that’s to be applauded. The music? Oh yes, almost forgot about that. Well the big hits, stuff like the King Crimson raping Power, Diamonds From Sierra Leone and Goldigga (all of which have their roots in previous tunes of course) still went down a storm. Our Kanye loves the old vocoder though doesn’t he? Track after track was vocodered to eternity until you began to wonder whether you were watching a man or a Dalek. I’m gonna exterminate yo ass, mo fos. After nearly two hours, and with a substantial number of people actually booing him (a trifle harsh really), he paid tribute to a special lady he met at a house party four years ago, Margaret Thatcher. No. Not really. Amy again. Bless her. Rather than attempt to sing one of her tunes though he got his DJ to play a couple of snatches of Tears Dry On Their Own and Back To Black while he wandered about the stage, looking for what was left of his reputation perhaps? He left us with an ominous “Media lighten up on your artists who are still here!” Judging by other reviews of this show they clearly weren’t listening. Maybe he should’ve vocodered that bit too eh?

In need of a little fun the Enchanted Garden provided some light relief in the shape of three ladies wearing very little and performing some kind of comic burlesque skit. The highlight came when one of their nipple pasties (the thing they stick over the nipple to protect their modesty...’cos no one knows what a nipple looks like eh?) started to peel off. She vainly tried to stick it back by massaging her breast, making it look like part of the act before giving up and tearing it off to loud applause. Bravo young lady. If life gives you lemons whip out a nipple. As the night wore on a wander through the Art Trail (a series of installations running up and down a small hill) revealed a small group of young chaps performing The Decemberist’s Mariners Revenge Song...all nine minutes of it...in the hazy moonlight.

Day Four

Up with the larks again and just in time for About Group, a curious new-ish confection from Hot Chip’s Alexis. White boy soul, funk and krautrock style freakouts all rubbed shoulders in the reimaging of Terry Riley’s 67 tune You’re No Good. Classy stuff.

Speaking of classy stuff Birmingham’s Steel Pulse delivered a master class in roots reggae, even somehow getting the sun to turn up and shine. They are, of course, pioneers of the UK reggae scene, responsible for arguably one of the greatest albums of all time Handsworth Revolution (little did any of us know at the time that Handsworth and large swathes of the UK were just about to be plunged into the worst riots for generations).

Ku Klux Klan, “still rocking against racism for old time’s sake” observed lead singer David, remains a stunningly powerful piece of work and, whilst things are a whole lot better than back in the 70’s it’s sad that, all over the world, people are still fighting over skin colour, religious beliefs, tribal loyalty or even which postcode they live to. Good grief. Standing there in the sun though, listening to the gentle reggae beats and watching a band that’s seemingly even better and tighter than they were 30 years ago the whole world seemed a nicer place. More thoughtful inspirational reggae and less mindless wannabe gangster posturing and perhaps the world actually would be.

As the crowd bayed for more (sadly festivals rarely allow for encores) the sun actually went in for a while. Spooky. It came back out for Norman Jay MBE though. Legend has it that it’s never failed to shine for Norman’s sets ever since he started appearing at The Big Chill way back in 1754. A dedication to “our number one soul sister” and a spin of Rehab got some of the crowd up on their feet but most were quite happy to lay down in the sun and let Norman do what he does best. Good times. Great tunes.

Afrobeat legend anyone? Femi Kuti is as close to Afrobeat royalty as you can get, being the eldest son of Fela. He’s continuing his father’s good work too, with Africa for Africa providing a rallying call to corrupt African leaders to stop squandering the wealth on the people. Yes. We’re looking at you Mugabe. An impromptu award ceremony capped the set off with Femi getting a Songlines award, live on stage, for Best World Music Artist. Thoroughly deserved judging by the serious amount of booty shaking going on in the crowd.

No stranger to shaking his rump the godfather of rock and one quarter of one of the biggest bands of all time Robert Plant chose the Big Chill as the scene for the last ever gig by his current outfit, Band Of Joy. The original Band Of Joy existed for a pretty short period of time (less than a couple of years), way back in the mid 60’s. This new incarnation hasn’t exactly hung around either, 13 months or so according to Plant. Whether this now leaves the way open for ‘that reunion’ (for which Plant and co were offered an eye watering $200million for in 2007) remains to be seen. What’s clear is that, at 62, the voice and stage moves are all still well and truly in good working order.

It’s a real shame in a way that The Band Of Joy has come to an end though. They’re a seemingly odd crowd, Patty Griffin (40 something country / folk rock), Buddy Miller and Darrell Scott (50 something country boys) plus a percussionist (Marco Giovino), bassist (Byron House) and, of course Robert. But then again, given Plant’s genre hopping post Zep career and recent folk/country direction maybe it’s not such a strange combo after all.

Whatever your thoughts on the make up of the group, it works, with Plant seemingly more than happy to share the vocal spotlight with Patty, Darrell and Buddy. The set was a mix of covers including a generous smattering of Zepplin tracks (including a crowd pleasing Misty Mountain Hop), a Richard Thompson number (House Of Cards) who Robert acknowledged was a “beacon of light” and a Porter Wagner song (A Satisfied Mind) sung, rather movingly actually, by Darrell Scott. Emotions also ran high as the set came to a climax with Plant looking genuinely touched about the whole thing, although he did find a moment of humour when he presented Patty with a Wolverhampton Wanderers FC hot water bottle to keep her warm. After furious applause the set, and this particular Band Of Joy, finally came to an end with Zep’s Leadbelly inspired Gallows Pole. Waving one last time to the crowd Robert shouted “Whooooo are ya!” and vanished off into...well...who knows where he’ll go from here. $200 million would buy a hell of a lot of hot water bottles though...

Right, nearly there. After witnessing the pocket sized new Queen of Soul Sharon Jones a few years back the chance for a return visit was impossible to resist. For the uninitiated she’s part of the Daptone stable, a New York based record label run the proper old skool way (recording on analogue kit, pressing vinyl releases, writing and recording original soul and funk tunes that already sound like classics). Each gig pays homage to those old soul revue shows too, with the band, The Dap Kings playing samples from the Daptone’s greatest hits and the group’s leader Binky Griptite whipping up the anticipation. After soulful solo tracks from two of the label’s latest signings, The Dapettes, Sharon Jones exploded...almost literally...onto the stage and, for a good hour or so, blew the roof of the place. Dammit it that woman can sing, dance and woo a crowd better than anyone on earth. Seriously. The highlight of the show had to be her recreation of dances from the 60’s, a frantic 6 minute run through everything from the Funky Chicken to The Railroad. Just awesome, out-dancing even the Godfather himself, Mr James Brown. Appropriately enough (given that the Dap Kings played on the Back To Black album) Sharon stopped singing Lucky In Love mid song and touchingly paid her own tribute to Amy Winehouse, watching us “up there”.

The Big Chill had echoed with her music all weekend long and, out of all the tributes paid this one, from one true soul queen to another, perhaps struck the biggest chord of all.

Chill we meet again...

2011-08-08T11:05:00.003+01:00

Had an unreasonably great time at The Big Chill 2011. Soooooo much good music, a relaxed atmosphere and just the merest hint of drizzle. Review to follow over the next few days (when I've deloused myself and sobered up...a bit), but in the meantime here's a pretty picture of Mr Robert Plant esq during his last ever set with The Band of Joy. Historic.

Some new stuff...

2011-08-02T15:09:00.005+01:00

Yes, witty as ever, here's some...er...new stuff. Well some of it's new, Matt & Kim's track has been out for a few weeks but what the hell eh? You just can't keep a good video down...

Matt and Kim Block After Block

This is one of those vids that makes you want to pack your bags and move into a loft apartment in Noo Yawk...unless you already live in an apartment in Noo Yawk...in which case you were probably in this vid. Well done. Jealous? Moi? Hell, you should see Bearwood High Street on a Saturday night. Dancing girls, A list celebs, supermodels...you can’t move for ‘em. Anyway, here’s the latest offering from Noo Yawk DIY dance punks Matt and Kim (not to be confused with SAW popettes Mel and Kim). It’s a great track. It’s a great video. Put the two together and you’ve got one of the most joyful 3 minutes and 15 seconds on the interweb right now. Enjoy.

Baby Monster - Fear Of Charlie Sunrise

Not sure who Charlie Sunrise is but let's hope this slightly dreamy 80's pop helps alleviate 'em eh? Again, as with the Matt and Kim video I'm guessing this cost about £5 to make (that's about a $billion now isn't it?)but it's all the better for it. Turn on, tune in and bliss out...or find a deserted theatre somewhere and do a bit of a Flashdance thing with a pigeon. Personally I like nothing better than doing the lambada with a sparrow...

Sensorites - Slipstream

Slipstream (Single) by Sensorites

God this is so catchy. I apologise now. You'll be humming this for the next sixty years or so. It sounds like the kind of track Pans People would've danced to on Top Of The Pops back in the 70's. That's a good thing by the way.

Pete Williams - opening track from Light Metal Forgings

01 reconsider this by petewilliams

You know I love Dexys right? Well Pete was/is the bassist with the band. He shared vocal duties with Kevin Rowland back on the last Dexys tour too. Anyway he's just posted this beauty up and I LOVE IT. Play it, share it, blog it, talk about it...go up to random strangers and make them listen to it. Please. I thank you. Apparently he lives near me in da 'wood. Wonder if he'd play the Bearwood Shuffle one day...? Hmmmmm...(that's the sound of me plotting stuff).

Bearwood Shuffle # 1 @ Lightwoods Park, Sunday 31st July 2011

2011-08-01T15:12:00.003+01:00

There were just a few at first. As the clock ticked and tocked towards 2pm the gentle trickle became a bit of a flood and pretty soon there were hundreds of happy Shufflers sitting on the grass chilling out to the very first Bearwood Shuffle.

(Missed the back story to all this? Here’s a (very) brief potted history. Group of Bearwoodians reckon there should be more live music in Bearwood. Groups meets in pubs and bars. Quite a bit. Not a lot happens. Group has a bit of a rethink. Group decides to put on a free afternoon of music in an old, long neglected bandstand in Lightwoods Park. Working on a bit of a shoestring budget group assembles all the kit, fills in all the forms, books all the bands (7 in total...7...ambitious eh?) and does the whole promotions thing. Restoring the group’s faith in human nature around 500 people turn up to watch. Blimey. Slightly sweatier group returns to bar to plan the next one).

With a mysterious yellow orb in the sky (it’s called ‘the sun’ apparently) the very first Bearwood Shuffle kicked off with the lovely Esther Turner’s spirited cover of Gloria Jones’/Soft Cell’s Tainted Love. Despite having her guitar run over just a hour or so before the event (relax, it was in a case, the guitar’s fine...the case might need some minor surgery though) Esther powered through a crowd pleasing set of covers (a bit of Pink, a slice of Perry, a light dusting of Lavigne) culminating in a fine version of Joan Osbourne’s What If God Was One Of Us? Actually God was there. Saw him sitting on the grass sipping a cheeky Shiraz. True story.

Next up Boomshadow who rocked up in a variety of outfits including Darth Vader (on the Flying V) and recruited their kids into the band for the day, winning the very first Bearwood Shuffle “Awww Bless ‘em” award. After rocking up they well and truly rocked out, blazing through a half dozen or so self penned tracks before hitting The Cure (not literally, although that would explain Bob Smith’s look these days) and unveiling their rather fine version of A Forest. Tree-mendous.

Rising singer songwriter Alex Lanyon got the crowd singing along (not easy on a mellow Sunday afternoon) in the extravagantly titled (deep breath here) If Talking Is Acting Thank God No One’s Yelled Cut. There’s always a moment when a performer tries to get an audience involved when it could all go a bit wrong. It’s a measure of Alex’s talent and bloomin’ lovely personality that a few hundred people happily sang back at him when he tried it.

Two double acts next. Gaz and Chaz then Kim and Joe. Git it? Good. Gaz and Chaz’s twin guitar powered acoustic rock created a neat wall of sound that added an extra layer of oomph (that’s a technical tem by the way) to their set of impressive original tracks. Kim and Joe (can't find a link for them)took things in a more soulful direction. Never seen Kim before, but boy can she sing. Kicking off with a soulful rendition of Summertime she went on to nail Feeling Good, Cohen’s classic Hallelujah, Adele’s Rolling In The Deep and a fun rattle through Hey Ya! Powerful vocals are all well and good but it’s control that really matters and Kim seems to have a knack for knowing just when to take the foot off the gas.

Right, a real treat next, ChickenBone John. I’ve not known this dude for long but he’s got me yearning to take up the guitar. Not just any old guitar mind you, one of his magical creations. You see Ol’ ChickenBone makes guitars out of anything. Seriously. Today he bought along one crafted from an oil can, “The tuning’s difficult but you get fantastic mileage out of it” he quipped and another made from a cigar box. It seems there’s a whole ‘Cigar Box Guitar’ scene out there, men in sheds crafting guitars from all kinds of crazy stuff. A toilet seat’s the best one I’ve heard of. Song wise he (and his double bassist Ken) gave us a bit of Booker White’s Jitterbug Swing, some Eric Bibb (Long Vacation) and John Lee Hooker’s classic Boom Boom before launching into an oil can guitar (naturally) powered Route 66. The man’s a legend. “Bearwood’s answer to Seasick Steve”. Go see him at Boxstock 2011, a cigar box guitar festival featuring some the genre’s biggest international names at The Public, West Brom, 1st October and you’ll see what I mean. In the meantime here's a video of him playing around with some African Highlife sounds...

Unexpected guest time. Earlier in the afternoon we’d been approached by a heavily tattooed Rastafarian dude who asked if he could play. Why the hell not eh? So we slotted him in after ChickenBone for a few numbers. Smart move. He was damn good...Kumari I think his name was (apologies if I’ve got this wrong...leave a comment and I’ll amend it if I have). Bringing the same kind of good time vibe as prime time Michael Ferranti his trio of tracks left the crowd gagging for more. On the final one of these he was joined by a couple of dudes from the nearby skate park who’d worked on a song together that afternoon and performed it live for the first time at the Shuffle. Impressive stuff.

Finally, as the sun peeped out from behind the clouds again, Gucci Pimp closed the whole thing in fine style, kicking off with Right Now before powering through one rifftastic track after another. There’s a distinct garage rawness to the Pimp sound together with a bit of a late 60’s psych rock flavour. They put their heart and soul into the performance too, wringing every bit of energy out of an album’s worth of self penned songs.

So that’s it. Bearwood Shuffle # 1 done. All we had to do was clear up and push the chemical toilets back where they belonged (not as pleasant a job as you might imagine) and we could all retreat for a well earned pint or two. Huge thanks again to all the performers who played on the day and everyone who turned up to watch. We’re doing it all again on September 18th!

PS: Picture from Bob Piper...more shots to follow. I'll post links n'stuff.

Big Chill Festival...here comes the sun!

2011-07-28T09:36:00.005+01:00

The Big Chill’s got a pretty good track record when it comes to the sunshine, especially when Norman Jay hits the decks in his traditional (and legendary)Sunday slot. Ahhhhhh...heaven! This year the weather seems to be warming up nicely for another hot one, but even if it piddles it down (no chance...seriously...I’ve sorted it) the line up’s one of the best so far. On top of the biggies, Kanye W, Jessie J and Chemical B(ros) there’s a whole bunch of other ‘must see’ treats. Here’s my pick of (some of) the best of the rest:

Wild Beasts

Purveyors of one of the most gorgeous singles of the year (Bed Of Nails) Kendal's finest continue to tingle the spine and tickle the fancy with their lush dream pop/post punk cocktail. Mine's a large one.

Hercules & Love Affair

21st century disco kings/queens Hercules & Love Affair will bring a large dose of Noo Yawk cool to the Chill. If Anthony Hegarty shows up to do Blind I may well spontaneously combust with excitement. Either way their show will be GLAM to the max.

Femi Kuti & The Positive Force

With Fela Kuti (the godfather of Afrobeat)doing his thing up in the heavens his oldest son, Femi, is carrying on the family business in fine style. Can music get much more joyous than this? I doubt it.

Ladi 6

The name might be new over here but Ladi 6 has been wowing audiences back in her native New Zealand and across the US as part of the fat Freddy's Drop crew. A real deal rapper with a soulful twist. See, I've resisted the urge to say she has '6 appeal' too...oh...bugger.

Sharon Jones and The Dap Kings

The undisputed queen of soul n'funk (in my eyes at least) Sharon Jones takes it back to the old school with the kind of pure, raw passion that most singers would swap their grannies for. It's also a little known fact that her band, The Dap Kings, provided much of the musical muscle for Amy Winehouse's Back To Black. A tribute number from Sharon and the band could well be on the cards. Now how special would that be eh?

Metronomy

Winning the 'Shit, Where Did That Come From' Award for 2011, Metronomy have released the album of their career this year with the instant pop classic The English Riviera. I couldn't just post one of their tracks, so here's another one...filmed in Torbay.

So, there you have it. Just a few picks from a Big Chill that's stuffed full of musical loveliness. See you by the cider bus...

PS: I think tickets are still available but, as ever, I'd get in now if you want to be sure of getting in.

Goodnight Lenin / The Travelling Band @ MAC, Saturday 23rd July 2011

2011-07-25T15:19:00.007+01:00

Outdoor gigs are always a bit of a risk in the UK, but there was simply no chance of any rain ruining this evening. Yep, whoever controls the weather up there is clearly a Goodnight Lenin fan too. After days of damp misery the sun shone on a sold out MAC as the inexorable but thoroughly justified rise of Goodnight Lenin continued with this, their biggest hometown show to date, slap bang in the middle of a summer that’ll see them play over a dozen of the UK’s best festivals.

First up though The Travelling Band. There’s a touch of the legendary American country rock act The Band to this lot, albeit with more a pastoral English folkiness.

It’s a winning combination especially on pick of the set Battle Scars, a gently trotting track that neatly fuses some country sounding guitars with a nu folk vibe. The perfect festival band, a fact suitably reinforced by getting their big break as Glastonbury’s New Talent award winners back in 2008.

That left the stage set for Goodnight Lenin. Like a fine wine they just seem to be getting better, tighter and more polished but without losing the playful sense of fun that lifts them high above so many other folk flavoured bands. After coming onstage to Three Lions (see, there’s that playfulness) they whipped through a dozen or so self penned tracks covering all bases from the joys of youth (Wenceslas Square) to “fictional tales about real people we know nothing about” (Edward Colby). Tonight they were supposed to have been joined by footballer turned musical maverick Dion Dublin who’s invented his own instrument, the Dube. No, it’s true. I’ve seen him play it too! It seems that he went on holiday instead. Shame. He missed the chance to be part of something really special. Maybe next time eh?

Missing celebs aside there were some truly spine tingling moments this evening, with John Fell’s “there is relentlessly nothing” refrain for example lifting Old Cold Hands to new heights of emotion. Those glorious three part harmonies continue to dominate the band’s sound though, acquiring a richness and depth that only comes from gigging like crazy. There’s no substitute for putting in the hours and I know just how frantic their summer schedule is. It’ll be the making of them, not only in terms of their performance but also spreading the word further afield. John, John Joe and Liam shared the fruits of all this effort this evening in a magical acoustic number (Sober Eyes), where they ditched the mics and wandered offstage to sing together.
It’s the obvious friendship that the band have for each other and the in between song banter that makes every Lenin show a real treat. Tonight was no exception. Perhaps it’s that old light and dark thing. Some of the sounds are deeply emotional and the fun side just seems to balance it all out perfectly.

Whether debut single Crook In The Creek actually reached number 37 in the Bolivian charts as the band claimed this evening is up for debate. What’s beyond dispute is that there are few acts around right now who’ll break your heart one minute then have you chuckling the next. A good natured (and band encouraged) stage invasion capped off a strong contender for gig of the year. As Dion Dublin might've put it, the boys done good.

PS: Check out some awesome shots of the gig from Shakey Pix!

Off The Cuff Festival 2011 Day Three

2011-07-25T14:43:00.005+01:00

Screamin' Al from The Computers...er...screamin'

Sunday 24th July

Dananananaykroyd / The Computers / Tall Ships / Flash Guns / Venice Ahoy / Talons / Victories At Sea / Peace / Pharoahs / Death Ohh Eff

Oh my days. I think I’ve broken myself. It’s my own fault. Actually, scratch that. I blame the pairing of The Computers and Dananananannanananannananananaykroyd. That’s just a recipe for bruised limbs, banging heads and a complete footprint shaped mark on the back of your head isn't it eh? Anyway, before a possible trip to A&E (I’m joking...I need ICU) here’s how the day’s dizzying parade of bands (11 in 10 hours) went down.

It all kicked off with Death Oh Eff’s particular brand of shouty electro math-pop. There was a lot of shoutiness going on today. This is a very good thing. It’s always hard being the opening act, especially when you’re playing in a cellar at 2.30pm on a warm summer’s day but DOE pulled in a decent crowd who were rewarded for being up, conscious and there with a lively run through some of the bands best stuff, including the suitably tropical Mother. Pharaohs kept the energy levels high with some enthusiastic leaping about and a song about Gary Glitter, best demonstrating their knack for rocking out one second then scrambling your brain with some complex guitar noodling the next.

Peace were one of those rather brilliant festival surprises, like Vampire Weekend fronted by the lovechild of Robert Smith and Yannis from Foals. Clearly strong believers in the old adage “always leave ‘em wanting more” they only played for about 15 minutes but it’s the quality that counts (actually I believe that’s all the material they’ve got right now). Cop a listen to Blood and see what you think.

Victories At Sea played their first gig at Off The Cuff 2010 and now here they are a year later showcasing the development of their...muso wank alert...shimmering soundscapes...sorry....I’ll never write that again...and ever so slightly ominous vocals. “We’ve only played about 5 gigs since our first one, ‘cos no one likes us except Sammy and Rhi” (two of the lovely ladies behind OTC). I’m sure that ain’t true. As one gorgeous layer of sound built over another it’s hard to imagine anyone with ears being immune to them. I wrote in my notes ‘like Joy Division on speed’ (yes, incredibly I write notes for this shit) and there’s something about the slightly Hook-y bass lines and faintly doom laden sound that kind of backs this scribbling up. After ‘shimmering soundscapes’ Venice Ahoy blasted the assembled masses with some loud thrashy pop punk. I believe it was their last ever gig. Shame. Tall Ships married Mr Twisty Math-Rock to Miss Heartfelt Vocals, resulting in the birth of some rather epic tunes. They had a lush song about evolution (it may have even been called that) with a snatch of keyboards that sounded a little like Walter/Wendy Carlos at his/her finest. Clever, but surprisingly moving at the same time, stuff.

Still with me? Good. ‘Cos it starts to get messy in a bit. Imagine if Lemmy kidnapped a couple of violinists from the London Philharmonic, then locked them in a room with some mind bending drugs, I imagine the result would sound a little bit like Talons. DEATH ROCK VIOLINS I scribbled in my note pad, using the blood seeping from my bleeding ears as ink. Somewhere Antonio Stradivari is thrashing about in his grave grinning like a man possessed. Awesomely good. Next up Flash Guns, with a bit of a Strokes-y U2-y feel they got heads nodding (at least the heads that still remained in place after Talons had finished). They’ve already released a clutch of catchy singles including the pick of tonight’s set Passions of a Different Kind. Stadium glory surely beckons?

Right another band that may have been playing its last ever gig tonight. This time sadly it’s Youves, a band I’ve known since their days as Mirror Mirror. The Fall meets PiL meets Happy Mondays meets Late of The Pier...plus ingredient x. How the hell did they never ‘make it’ eh? Tonight might have been their swansong but they got the swan off its beak on E and dancing like a maniac. Ruthlessly plundering their Cardio-Vascular album they beat the living daylights out of Fully Erect and ‘the hit’, Aladdins Rave, before bizarrely debuting a new track. Cool. That’s the way to bow out. Predictably they got their tops off one last time sending flecks of manly sweat all over the mourners.

“More people are sad about us splitting up than Amy Winehouse” observed their lead singer. Well, at least they can always make a comeback....Amy might find that one a bit trickier.

Right. This is when it got messy. Devon’s finest punk rock combo The Computers simply won’t take no for an answer. When they want a crowd to go mental the crowd has little choice. I’m sure there’s some kind of subliminal Derren Brown kind of hypnosis at work here but from the second they launched into Group Identity a sizeable percentage of the audience began pogoing into the ceiling and thrashing about like someone going through an exorcism. The gig was a glorious blur of flailing limbs and pints of sweat culminating in the near death experience that is Teenage Tourette’s Camp. The spirit of their musical mentor Rocket From The Crypt’s Speedo is all over this one and, having seen them back in the day, The Computers are every bit as awesome. Now that’s one hell of an accolade. Top marks for the Jewish related banter by the way. After the band’s lead singer had jokingly castigated us for dancing to punk on the Sabbath he revealed he was Jewish and it was okay for him ‘cos Friday was his holy day. “Where’s your foreskin?” yelled one of the crowd “In Valhalla” he replied laughing maniacally before ripping into another tune. Hmmm...try as I might I still can’t get the image of a strange world inhabited by snippets of men’s privates out of my mind.

I was a broken man by this point but Off The Cuff wasn’t done with me yet. Having sworn never to attempt bouncing up and down in a low ceiling cellar ever again I was at it 15 minutes later thanks to the infectious Glasgow pop punksters Dananananananananananananaykroyd. Damn them. Like The Computers they won’t take no for an answer either and pretty soon the whole room was bouncing up and down risking severe brain damage in the process. Brilliant.

There’s something glorious about the Glaswegian accent screaming at you. It’s vaguely threatening but bloody chummy at the same time, that’s why a lot of banks have all their call centres up in Scotland. True story. Anyway, the band rattled merrily through one thrashy anthem after another with recent single Muscle Memory getting the biggest reaction of all. They’re a friendly bunch. Not even some mildly racist “Och eye the noo” could phase ‘em and they even arranged a ‘tunnel of love’ where the room split into two and was then encouraged to rush headlong into an embrace with stranger opposite them. The result was carnage but it had a cool soundtrack so that’s alright then. “Some guy’s had his balls stood on” yelled someone in the crowd “That’s okay” replied one of the band helpfully “a nice risk free ride for the ladies”. Safe sex the Danananananananananakroyd way. Stamp on some guy’s bollocks.

So, there we have it. 11 bands in 10 hours. From full on sonic assaults to glitchy synths and death rock violins Off The Cuff has firmly established itself as a dizzying introduction to the kind of music that puts an insane smile on your face and...if you overdo the pogoing...possibly a brace on your neck too. Get your tickets to 2012’s event as soon as you can. I get the feeling the Californians will be coming next year too...and they might well be bringing some of their mates.

PS:I missed Saturday's OTC ‘cos I was off seeing my chums Goodnight Lenin play outside at the MAC. I have no doubt that it was, of course, awesome. I’ll post a link to a review of Saturday when I find one.

They tried to make her go to rehab...

2011-07-24T11:29:00.002+01:00

Shit. What a waste. Recently it was pretty clear it was a case of 'when?' not 'if' but the death of Amy Winehouse at 27 (yep, another member of the 27 'club') still came as something of a shock. Thousands of words have already been written in tribute and there's not a great deal I can add. I came across this shaky You Tube footage just now though, her last public appearance dancing along to her god daughters show in Camden on Wednesday night. If that was one of her last memories as she breathed her final breath then at least it was a good one eh?