Catshoegazing

Upstairs in a pub in Shoreditch, not just any pub but the renowned old blue last. The audience strike me as not casual, they are here because they are in the know, well-informed and well warmed up by the time Dag for Dag hit the stage. And how they hit that stage.

Looking like glitter hippie refugees, headbands, silver scarves and attitude.

Dag for Dag rock like some post punk noiseniks, putting up a wall of sound from the off. It's well formed though, beautifully executed, brother and sister Sarah Snavely and Jacob Snavely trading off each other musically and emotionally. Sarah is the guitar Meister, with Jacob on bass . The band is made up on stage with Chuck Bukowski on drums, and at one point they are even joined by a second bass player to add slap.

They got here tonight from Sweden, where they tell us they live their American lives. It's been quite trip for them to get here, starting out in California, apparently living separate lives until they got together in Stockholm maybe two years ago. They have hardly gone native, from what I can gather they speak about as much Swedish as I do, almost enough to get by.

On that small sweaty stage, they expend energy like it's going out of fashion, like Iggy Pop doubled, despite Sarah being six months pregnant, which she herself tells us from the stage. My new friend Jim, alongside me and himself a grandfather says he will put at more like 5 and a half. Sarah tells us the father is here somewhere in the audience and we all kind of half turn around. Jacob jokes that they are going to get Sarah a 12 string so the baby can join in, Sarah ripostes that until then they were thinking about putting a distorted mic on the bump. All of a sudden 'Distorted Mike' becomes a new comic character.

None of this stops brother and sister trading guitar and bass licks although Jacob does most of the throwing himself around the stage. This is one good night and the crowd are lapping it up, drawn into their raucous good noise.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkqlzoSZMvE

Sarah Snavely
Jacob Snavely
with Chuck Bukowski

They are touring Europe but back in the UK in March

2 Feb The Deaf Institute Manchester
10 Feb Boo Release Party @ Södra Bar, Mosebacke Stockholm
20 Feb Debaser Malmö with Railcars Malmö
22 Feb Molotow Hamburg
23 Feb Bang Bang Club Berlin
24 Feb Groove Station Dresden
25 Feb Orangehouse Munich
27 Feb Rock im Saal Festival Haldern
1 Mar Italian Tour Faenza
2 Mar Rome
3 Mar Teraccini
4 Mar Florence
5 Mar Cesena
7 Mar Back in the UK - Portland Arms - Cambridge
8 Mar The Garage Upstairs London
9 Mar The Cooler Bristol
10 Mar Captains Rest Glasgow
11 Mar The Bodega Social Club Nottingham
12 Mar Hedon Zwolle
24 Mar Les Femmes S’en Mêlent Festival @ Cabaret Electric Le Havre
25 Mar Les Femmes S’en Mêlent Festival @ La Carene Brest
27 Mar Fuzz Yon La Roche Sur Yon
29 Mar Les Femmes S’en Mêlent Festival @ La Maroquinerie Paris

Tales of wearing cheap underwear in fashionable Paris, raw blues rock, Bee stamps, this was a night to remember.

It's always a thing when you've admired a band from afar, and that moment finally arrives. It did for me on Sunday night in London's East End. I've been keen to catch up with She Keeps Bees and their live thing since the first moment I heard them on some dusty corner of the internet. They were very nearly enough reason to drag me to a muddy festival last year, but in the end life got in the way, so it had been a long time coming. Oh, the waiting makes it sweeter.

First up, praise be for 'The Local' http://www.localism.org.uk/ for organising this night. They run regular gig nights but what with me being a London newbie it was the first one I've got to. I've got big admiration for the dedicated few promoters and organisers who keep the likes of me sated with the live experience. On the other hand that pales compared to the respect I have for the bands themselves who build their lives around doing just whatever it takes to get out on the road and connect with their people. And it seems like She Keeps Bees must love the road, the amount of gigging they've got on the go. There were two other bands on the bill, 'Dag for Dag' and 'Something Beginning With L', who were both bloody brilliant if truth be told, but it was lo-fi blues that was going to itch my scratch the most tonight.

She Keeps Bees are a simple set up - Andy LaPlant on drums and Jess Larrabee on guitar. Not much in the way of effects. In fact nothing in the way of effects. Just one pedal, and even that had Jess cursing at one point. It had an indicator LED which caught the girl's eye - "Red light bad, oh fuck, oh fuck, oh the green's come on, that's OK!". That sort of guile-less interaction really marked them out, that total lack of pretence, just being a guy and a girl playing in a room and appearing to enjoy it hugely. I was kind of glad that my first experience of them wasn't in a muddy field, much better in the upstairs of a pub, leaning on a monitor with my sleeve soaked in beer.

Maybe despite the simple set-up, maybe because of it, but there was just so much blues power coming out of these two people. Blues in a lo-fi, garage, sort of way. Mighty powerful but casual and comforting at the same time. Comfort in sound, this is what it means. Sure they shout, whoop and holler, but in a friendly way. And man alive, they get some noise out of that guitar and those drums.

Jess was in chatty mood. Started off telling us that she'd had to buy new jeans. But she couldn't leave it there. The old ones had worn a hole in the crotch, and what use was that to anyone, she wondered? So she'd bought some new ones, but they made her look like she'd filled her pants if you know what I mean. And then there was the underwear. She doesn't see why she should be made to buy girly underwear when she can, y'know, but a ten pack for five dollars from Uniqlo. But playing in fashionable Paris, some random dude had come up behind her and tucked back in the label that was sticking out the top of her pants and said he did that to everyone he saw, wanted them all to be neat. Pervy if you ask me. And then Jess said that she was doing better than her Mom, that she (Jess) actually wears underwear! At which point she wondered why she'd told us all that. What the heck, I think we all found it educational, and it just added to the charm of a charming noisy night.

In a set drawn heavily from recent album "Nests", highlight song of the night for me was 'Ribbon' but in truth it's hard to choose. Gimmie was great as well. Oh alright, there wasn't a duffer in there. There was plenty of variety from more or less a cappella to downright thrash. Voice on it's own or howlin' strings work just as well for me from these two

They played so hard Jess thought she'd broken a string, dumped the guitar on the ground for a song anyway, asked Andy if she'd broken it, decided she hadn't, drove into the final song.

Too quick, it was over too quick.

I was a bit mystified about someone mentioning 'Bee Stamps' until I asked the band to sign a CD cover for me after the show, and Jess ceremoniously produced one of those John Bull printing things with an ink pad and put a lovely stamped bee imprint on the cover. And signed it. And drew a bee as well. Ah.

Their second album "Nests" is out now, but if you like gutsy blues played by real nice people, go and see them now. And get yourself a Bee stamp.

http://www.myspace.com/shekeepsbees

FIRST PUBLISHED AT ALTSOUNDS

It was a lovely and intimate gig - I feel privileged to have seen them there. If anyone is interested in seeing She Keeps Bees live, here's the tour dates - they come back to the UK on 9/10 March before heading off to SXSW

5 Feb 41 King Street Blackburn
6 Feb Dulcimer Manchester
7 Feb Rescue Rooms Nottingham
8 Feb Whelans (upstairs) Dublin
9 Feb Cypress Avenue Cork
10 Feb Roisin Dubh (upstairs)Galway
12 Feb CAI Cardiff
13 Feb Louisiana Bristol
14 Feb Hope Brighton
15 Feb Cafe Video Gent
16 Feb Botanique/Witloofbar Brussels
17 Feb Burgerweeshuis Café Deventer
18 Feb Paradiso Amsterdam
19 Feb Patronaat Cafe Haarlem
23 Feb Peniche Lille
25 Feb La Rockschool Barbey Bordeaux
27 Feb Maroquinerie Paris
28 Feb Astra Stube Hamburg
1 Mar West Germany with David Thomas Broughton!! Berlin
3 Mar Scheune Dresden
4 Mar Fluc Wien
5 Mar Hafen 2 Offenbach
6 Mar Manufaktur Schorndorf
9 Mar The Lexington London
10 Mar What’s Cooking London
17 Mar SXSW Austin, Texas

This band really go to prove that there is huge strength in depth in live indie music now. These were first on stage before She Keeps Bees and Dag for Dag. I actually got there early enough to catch the end of the sound check and that was impressive enough.

Jen and Lucy share lead vocals. I've never heard anything about them before. In fact, their myspace plays would suggest I'm not alone. That needs to change. Just when I was settling in for nice girly harmonies, somebody threw a switch and they clicked over into Dave Grohl mode. Whoa! Well worth seeing again, so I will

There's all of a sudden a buzz around Lonelady, and there should be. The Lady (can we call here Lone for short?) has been bunkered down for a while, and someone at tonight's gig tells me that this is her first live outing since supporting Wire in 2008. The magic detective powers of the internet tell us that Lonelady is aka Julie Campbell. One of her people her tonight keeps referring to her as Julie then correcting himself. I think they like that little frisson of self created mystery or is that something that's eating it's own tail from some press somewhere?

We exchange a minimal number of words with the band beforehand, and I don't know if they're nervous - they just seem ... unfazed and focussed.

I've done my background, but obviously not well enough because I'm expecting another 2009 synth-girl. Perhaps my lazy brain is taken in by her La Roux hair cut. When Lonelady actually get on stage, they kick excellently and in a guitar way. The Roland machine that I expected is replaced by a live drummer, there's keyboards, Julie herself plays guitar. The rhythm back end is as tight as Frantz and Weymouth back in the day. I'm always torn about saying that a band 'sounds like...' so I won't, and they don't, but that Talking Heads thought ain't that far off the mark in terms of precision and quality

Lonelady seem like they come from that art school end of post punk. I'm immediately impressed, they have an easy and relaxed, stage presence and don't need to be chatting up the audience, the music does that well enough. They are as professional as any I've seen, keen to deliver, and the sound delivered in Cargo is way up there in quality.

There's a lot of Joy Div comparison out there, which the band themselves seem quite happy to indulge in. There's none of Curtis's possessed terror, but yes as far as that precise electro rock goes, I'll agree. They're confident enough to start the set with current single Immaterial

Despite the stage time getting brought forward on the day of the gig, and them being up early in the night, there's a decent crowd. I wonder if any of them are the 'London scenesters' that another Manchester female singer told me about, honing in on the latest new thing.

Lonelady has been going since 2005 or so, certainly long enough to play SXSW in 2006, and has spent the last little while bunkered down. You can geek out reading about the process http://lone-lady.livejournal.com/ It's a 4 part blog of setting up her own ramshackle recording process for her upcoming album 'Nerve Up'. I'm looking forward to hearing that, the more so after the live show.

Comparing Lonelady to themselves, their recorded stuff on MySpace is drier, on stage they feel warmer and less clinical.

Worth checking out? Hell yeah - you can anyway without obligation by a free download via their website at http://www.lonelady.co.uk/

Originally published at http://hangout.altsounds.com/reviews/114572-lonelady-cargo-london-live.html

More PHOTOS

We had too much music to see in Wrexham all on the same night. We wanted to see Katy opening at Redi Nights - she's an old family friend but we've never seen her play. And we were also super keen to see Polly Mackey playing again, particularly Tom
and Rose who had not seen her before. That was at another

event on the same night, at the Centenary Club, basically the Social Club bit of Wrexham FC where Polly was headlining so we decided to see both of these.

The only downside was having to sit through a covers band at the Centenary, but then we had the Danny Gruff Band who were genuine at least, and then Polly. It was a bit strange, playing in a social club with the lights up, and from the band's point of view no stage monitors, but our consensus was that they transcended to circumstances to turn in their usual storming set, even if it the sound was a little 'dry' due entirely to the circumstances. I am really looking forward to hearing the new songs in recorded form.

Of the existing songs, 'The Way It Works" really does have the feeling of a classic standard about it, it's that well put together.

The ones the band already have on MySpace have been bubbling in the top 10 of the MySpace all-music chart, which is pretty damned impressive.

I can see they have a set in London supporting the Plastiscines, and I'd be pretty keen to see how they get on there with a bigger audience, proper venue PA etc

Katie opening at the Redi Nights in Wrexham on Dec 27th

10th Dec 2009 - In which Florence climbs speaker stacks and bumps her head whilst manager type fellow looks anxiously on and eventually helps her down

Speak to some of your friends and they will, even in England in December 2009, still not have heard of Florence and the Machine. If they 'kind of' have, and they have you pinned as some sort of amusing muso, they'll get round to asking, half chortling, what exactly is this 'machine' that Florence has. If you're a sad geek, you'll be able to tell them that originally it was a joke of a band name, then it was Dev Hynes and his guitar.

Which is my point at this juncture. Dev, worthy though he is, remains a cult outsider. In the time since he and Florence jumped on hotel beds together, it is hard to believe just how far the girl has come.
Let's talk about pulling power for starters. I've seen Florence three times in 2009. First was the NME awards tour where she opened for White Lies, Friendly Fires and Glasvegas. Opened, as in on stage at 7.45pm when the crowd were hardly in. She was unstoppable on that occasion though, irrepressibly kept coming back on when the, erm, big boys were supposed to be in the limelight. I didn't even stay for all of Glasvegas, it was obvious I'd already seen the star of the night.

Next time round was in a church in Salford in June. Small, intimate, she even posed for photos for a friend of mine. When she played, she asked us all to come down the front please. That was just before "Lungs" came out, and that changed everything. I was even supposed to see her in September. I got double booked by the ticket people and the tour was so heavily over-subscribed they rushed this new tour on. Which takes us bang up to date and a packed Manchester Apollo.

I got there with my two minders half way through the support. After a bit of debate, Alice worked out that it was the Temper Trap. A bonus as I'd wanted to see them and they were pretty damn decent, despite accusations of being the band your dad would rave over. A large number of the crowd were singing along, it won't be long before they are bigger. In fact they are off touring Europe in a couple of weeks time, lasting right through till Feb, and then back to the UK with their own headline tour, supported all the way through by the excellent Joy Formidable. I had my Joy Formidable tee shirt on tonight and had my hand shaken by complete strangers as a result.

And so on to Florence - greeted as she came on with lots of love and excitement. She opened with 'Coffins' and 'Kiss with a Fist,' which says a lot about her strength in depth, these used to be the highlights, kept for the end. Ms. Welch was in fine form, hyped with energy to spare. She was resplendent in a full length gown, the first time I've seen her without her legs out, but this didn't stop her running back and forth. Even from half way back by the mixing desk, you could see she was having a ball and seemed truly stoked to be there. We were encouraged to sing along, it certainly helps to stop people shushing my vocal attempts, if you have the lead to do so from the stage!

She had a few non-obvious, non-Lungs songs in the set and mentioned this. She played 'Falling', a b-side from the 'You've Got The Love' single, and when the words to this were sung back to her with with absolute gusto, she was visibly touched.

I have to say that I expected a lot from this tonight, maybe too much. It might have been where I was in the audience, half way back unlike my usual mosh pit tendencies. But being brutally honest, for whatever reason, it didn't really kick in for me until 'You've Got The Love,' the last song before the encore. When it did, it did properly though, and I was carried along big style. I might not have been alone in this, given that Florence took the time out to 'teach' us how to dance by jumping up and down. A bit of pogo-ing always helps I find.

The stage show was fabulous, thanks largely to the fantastic lighting projecting backdrops and multiple spotlights like a multi-pointed crown of light. Thanks Ed (the lighting guy) not just for adding to the show but for donating his set list to me at the end. The other part of how far she has come is her voice. Always powerful, it's now at the point that I doubt if she really needs amplification, and I'm half surprised there wasn't a traffic incident outside on the A6. Lungs indeed.

Two songs in the encore, 'Dog Days,' by which time I was proper shouting along, and 'Rabbit Heart' to finish.

During this my wishes were fulfilled when Florence started her climbing antics, long flowing dress notwithstanding, up onto the speaker stacks stage left. At the Apollo they've also got those hanging speaker stacks, huge things like something from the Borg mother-ship, and bloody hell but they swayed on their wires when she stood up and banged her head on them. An anxious chap on stage in a sports coat, managerial looking type, looked worried while she pranced atop the stack, as well he might, they didn't look too safe to me either. Eventually he helped her down.

It might have said it all when the woman standing next to me - who had been commenting on my photography skills all night - said "I've seen Kylie and I've seen Coldplay, but that is just the best thing I've ever seen." My two companions Alice and Kate pronounced themselves proper entranced as well. In the hours since then, Rabbit Heart has been the sound track of my weekend, thanks to the internal jukebox. It's still playing now. "Raise it up" indeed.

ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED AT ALTSOUNDS.COM

I'm half guilty as I write this that there has been nothing but a place holder and one single photo here in the blog for the many weeks since the first "Sick!" night at the Zanzibar in Liverpool. The other half of me thinks that end of year reflections are a decent enough time to get this down and out

"Sick!" was a co-production between "Read The Fanzine" and Andy Von Pip. Like me, Andy also writes for www.altsounds.com, and he has a truly wondrous blog of his own over at the Von Pip Musical Express. Hopefully this will be the first of many nights of "Sick!-ness". I've got nothing but admiration for what they've done here, the effort and dare I say it the stress of getting this together, retaining some ethics in the process. Andy writes about it in his own inimitable style at ALTSOUNDS so click on the link and get his POV.

From my perspective, they tried to put on the band night that they themselves would like to go to, great bands that could all carry it in their own right. Although this was the first time I've met Mr Von Pip in the flesh, we seem to see eye to eye on a good few matters, musical and otherwise. Even so, I was way beyond delighted to see that he'd got Polly Mackey headlining, and Run Toto Run on the same bill. Blinkin' 'eck, how d'yer manage that!

It took a bit of effort to get there. Well, if you count having Flip pick me up off the train in Chester, then having her take me out for dinner in Hoole before driving me over to Liverpool. And it was her that was going to be going without sleep too, when she got up for work the next morning.

I've not been to Zanzibar before. I could truthfully say it has heart. And that it smells funny. And that the black paint has been building up in layers for many years. On the other hand it is patently about the music. Great sound quality, great views of the stage, good lighting, cheap drinks.

We got there in time for a beer and the frankly crap Lewerin Band. Mainly from Sweden I think. Great fuss made of something in that connection. The risible thing was they thought they were wonderful. Having a spiky hair fin doth not imbue anything in the way of punk sensibility. Nor does having supporters who shout "Well done, hurrah, hurrah". Best description (from Felicity) was that they were like that band on stage at the end of the "Back To The Future" films, only much much worse. They would have been sacked from even that gig. To this day I rest easy in my bed only due to the knowledge that Andy was persuaded to give them stage space as some sort of compromise with the venue operators. OMG this sounds like the mob insisting on having the boss's moll onstage in the CalNeva Lodge Casino in the 60s. Except these weren't as good looking as any boss's moll. Ha!

And then we saw the very good indeed MonoLPs. Great rock and roll voice and a just-so-honest attitude coming out of the band, especially when he got into the groove in the last couple of numbers. And they had a cello on stage, top marks. Trust me, cellos will be this year's surprising serious instrument of note, just like last year was the ukulele (if you don't believe me, go talk to John Parish) and the year before was the harp. They were lovely enough even if I won't be moving house just to be near them.

Then the reason for our logistical efforts to get there - Polly Mackey and The Pleasure Principle. I suffered from first seeing these in a bar in Wrexham. Suffered because it made me anxious for a while that they were 'just' a local band that I'd somehow developed an enthusiasm for. Bloody hell, I really should trust my instincts, it IS possible for good things to come out of Wrexham. Polly has got one wondrous voice, smooth, soothing and broken at the same time, vulnerable if that wasn't such a cliche. And only vulnerable until she sings "Lying on my back like I don't give a fuck about". I'm still convinced that it - the voice - glints like some burnished metal from under the grunge and rumble of the band noise. This is serious talent. Their stuff is good enough music that we went and found something approximating the sonic sweet spot half way back from the stage to make sure we didn't miss an ounce of the ear treat. New stuff in the set was impressive, I've only heard it the once but it's up there with the The Wall, The Way It Works and Seriously. It's great when that happens, when a new young band can write more of equal quality to the stuff that's been fulminating and honed for the ten years before they started performing in public. The band have got a revised line-up since I last saw them, enough of the same to keep the dynamic that works so well. They're recording in January and only seem to have a couple of UK dates before SXSW again.

http://www.myspace.com/pollymackey

When I first typed this blog up as a rough note to myself, I added the following words, mainly as a tongue in cheek comment about having seen them 3 times in what seemed a very short space of time. "And sadly we MISSED the lovely Run Toto Run. Poor things, it's really not a gig for them until we are there"
Much to my embarrassment, they immediately spotted it and posted their own riposte that they would not go on stage in future until they made absolutely sure I was there. As they say - LOL. I'm really glad that things are going well for Rachael and the boys, what with their mystery equipment benefactor, doing New Years Eve in London, and two Bethan Elfyn sessions in January. They started off great, have got even better during the year and deserve for 2010 to be their year (along with a few others that I can think of)

Check out their myspace for yet another ripping cover, this time of Bombay Bicycle Club, as well as a growing canon of their own

26th November 2009

I join the small but growing number of people sitting on the floor and waiting. It's a long time since I have done that at a gig and I wonder who the crowd are. I'm impressed by the Luminaire, by the comically stern signs that warn that this is not a place for chatting, that the live music comes first. And amongst the crowd I'm reassured by the number of Converse Allstar's on people's feet in amongst the preponderance towards, shall we say, sensible shoes. It's relaxed and friendly, the right side of taking itself seriously.

Musee Mecanique are Sean Ogilvie and Micah Rabwin. Tonight they are part of a three act lineup, and will later on reappear onstage behind Laura Gibson.

They are ostensibly touring in favour of their album "Hold This Ghost," already out the other side of the Atlantic and not due its European release until February. Everything tonight comes from that album.

Named quite literally in favour of an actual museum of mechanical oddities, Musée Mécanique tell us they are from Portland Oregon but have found themselves tonight by some circuitous route to the Luminaire in Kilburn. Last night was Manchester, oh the glamour and the six-hour drive. A scarce few days before that, the other side of London in Brixton, where they tell a tale with wonder of being able to buy fish, chips, pizza and pasta all in the same shop. You Americans are easily dazzled by our smooth culinary ways.

They start, I grab a few photos and then find myself becoming immersed in music. Soothing with bells on. Well, not bells exactly, but the dulcet chimes of one of those packable xylophones. The lyrics tell of "the things that I know - the winter came and passed away - she sent her letters far away - they arrived today." This isn't meant as some sort of tourist guide, but those lyrics give a good indication of what you will find if you come exploring Musée Mécanique. A world, if not quite set in aspic, then describing some romantic and archaic view of the world when seasons were marked by the currency of correspondence. I find that I have scribbled the words 'gently, rolling, strumming' on my ticket receipt.

At this early point there is little more than two acoustic guitars and duetted vocals. I know this is hardly a hostile audience, but the effect on those listening - rapt is the word that best comes to mind.

As it progresses, Sean and Micah swap back and forth, taking turns behind the keyboard. Up till here in the set they have been a very stripped back and barebones version of their recorded selves, and quite compelling for all that. 'Sleeping In Our Clothes' now brings brings the fullest sound so far, lead vocal and guitar joined by a plaintive keyboard, accordion and kick drum. My little bit of knowledge of American music is a dangerous thing, but despite their obvious West Coast credentials this has a feeling somewhere between Cajun and Appalachian. Perhaps that's a lazy comparison, entirely down to the squeezebox. I find myself doing that thing, that thing I don't like, of wondering how I could describe what they sound like. Vocally, I suppose it's the male voice duet, but they are not a million miles from some early, pre-commercial manifestation of Simon and Garfunkel. That's not quite right though, these two are more authentic, more concerned with the truth and less with the happy whimsical end of the market.

Another song, another swap onstage. I notice the minor buzz of an effects box bringing a touch of modernity. I'm almost surprised by how barebones it is tonight, given that in the studio they do not eschew something akin to a folk version of drone. It works though, drawing the audience in to quite a remarkable level of concentration and appreciation. We are somehow forced down into the layers and fundamentals of the music, to breathe it in, dust and all. The next track now sings of "folk songs on our tongues." This conjures up just what they are, wandering latter-day troubadours. And that was it, over all too soon.

What worked about tonight was that, apart from the briefest check to make sure that it was not going to be totally off my radar, and despite their ten year history, I had not listened to Musée Mécanique before. That can be a hard test, but on this occasion I came out fairly entranced, deep in contemplation on the train home.

first published at ALTSOUNDS

November 23rd 2009

Review by Catshoe - Photos by Cristina M

"What DID just happen there?"
"We danced a little bit!"

Two giggling lads of about 20, chattering loudly and excitedly in the corridor outside the toilets. They have beautifully gelled hair, just the right super cool clothes, and have been quite happy to let it all hang out, have fun and not give a toss about keeping up image. That's the kind of effect that Flamboyant Bella have had tonight, at least later on when things have got properly warmed up and rowdy. The fact that the band shorten the name to Flambo says a lot, they give the impression that they despise and spit on airs and graces. Their accents are pure Herts heartland. Hitchin to be precise, although tonight they are upstairs at the Garage in Highbury.

The small venue suits them, being up close and personal with THEIR people. I'm not going to surmise too much about who THEIR people are, despite my preconceptions. While I was waiting outside for my partner in crime, I was quite surprised at the age mix going in. I didn't even suffer the indignity of being the oldest there. What I did suffer was confusion. You see I'd made the mistake of listening to their recorded output on MySpace, most of which I pretty damn liked and admired. So there I was, expecting some bastard offspring of Los Campesinos and Kate Nash. What we got, rather than my expected nu-folk with a touch of twee, was a full-on onslaught in the spirit of home-made disco pop looking for a night out in the nearest maxi twin nightclub. You'll know the one I mean, on the shopping precinct by Frankie and Benny's, with the laser pointed to the sky.

In fact, take back everything I said about what I was expecting, and I'll use them as their own comparator. Recorded they range from the twee-ness of "Abbi" to that raucous paean to teenage drunkeness "Absolutely Wankered," the latter sounding exactly like it must with that name. They span so wide, it sounds like two completely different bands, and in fairness, that's not such a bad thing. If you're going to see Flambo live, be more prepared than me and expect the starting point somewhere round the delivery style of "Wankered," and for it to get more and more, err, wankered in pretty short order. If this makes sense and won't get me punched, it was a Vauxhall Nova, custom paint, alloys and a Kenwood sticker. Loud and clattery with it, I'm not knocking it, great stuff in its own way, and proud of itself.

Despite the fairly mixed audience, it was the first three rows, yup, that's where the teenage boys and girls were, getting a decent bit of mosh going. But still being nice kids, y'know? Politely letting Miss M grub through to the front with the camera and not, like, slam dancing or doing anything too dangerous or preposterous. Well, not yet anyway.

Flo, front-woman resplendent in a spray on stripy disco minidress, stopped at one point to tell us that they'd been looking forward to this gig for just so long. Then when it came to it, she'd been under the weather just when she didn't need it, sore throat and all that. But here and now, she'd decided "fuck it, let's just go for it, let's destroy it." And being brutally honest, that's sort of indicative of how the gig went. Good enough up to that point, enjoyable but not brilliant, then from there on in, it just stepped up. By the time we got to the end, we had a one woman stage invasion, who having got there didn't look too sure. She half got down off the stage, back up again, and then stood between Flo and James enjoying her moment in the limelight till the end. The rest of the front of the audience also got quite wild for this Monday night venue, kids on each others back, hollering and whooping till it finished.

No encore, Flo declaring that was just too pretentious and poncy.

They are nothing if not genuine, and that was shown by the way they behaved when they put down their instruments, straight off stage and into the audience, chatting, having photos taken, selling 'the world's first frisbee single' and just being there

I've made them come off sounding just a bit ... not tame ... fundamentally nice. That's so English? I'd love to see Flambo pull a much bigger audience, maybe grab a support slot for someone like Blood Red Shoes, and see just how wild they can get with a big crowd. I've got the feeling they could make it lairy. And that would be real fun, to see that critical mass building

flamboyant-bella-relentless-garage-london-live-fb10.jpg

first published at www.altsounds.com

more of Cristina's fantastic photography at www.cristinamphotography.tk

10th November 2009

Right from the start let me say that this was a fantastic gig. On a rainy Tuesday night in North London, Ray Raposa and the rest of his band brought West Coast alternative to life. Alternative is hard to define, somewhere between garage rock and experimental country music, but that no way does justice to the delicacy of sound over which drawly affecting lyrics are draped like the vines on the CD artwork. It has moments of orchestral layering, some where it should be the backdrop to a good day on a Pacific beach, yet others where the quiet gave way to insistent emotional pursuit by way of rhythm. Ray gazed intently out from under a resolutely fixed baseball cap. As things progressed, the sweat dripped and things got intense. Ray took off his shirt and his hat.

Until recently I was a total newcomer to the world of Ray Raposo, the man who is the constant factor in Castanets. I got their latest CD to review - "Texas Rose, The Thaw And The Beasts." I was blown out of the water by the record, the subverted and cracked nature of it all - I'm stealing some of Ray's own words there and I'm sure he won't mind.

Texas Rose remains right up there as one of my top albums of the year. Despite being written up as the most accessible album, this remains sufficiently challenging that I don't think Ray's ever going to be playing the Ryman Auditorium, and I kind of think that's how he wants it. So I went to Highbury with hope in my heart, and it was justified.

They'd been on tour in Europe for weeks by this stage, finishing off a week in the UK with a night in London then one night in Belgium before the big silver bird takes them home. Did I say home? California for Ray, the Pacific North West for others in the band. They only have a couple of weeks before they take it over to Australia.

That rock'n'roll lifestyle eh?

So, back to Tuesday night in Highbury. Believing for some reason that the Texas Rose album was almost a Ray-solo affair, when they eventually made it up on to the small stage in the upstairs hall of the Garage, I was surprised when more and more people kept strapping on guitars. Eventually five of them crammed themselves up there. Or not, as the case may be. The stage being about the size of my bed, two of them took it in turns to stand on the floor at the side. It was largely different musicians than recorded the Texas Rose album, circumstances during the recording being that not everyone could get to the the right place to join in. They were mighty fine.

It was a touching sign of democracy that Mr Raposa positioned himself off to stage right, eschewing any star delusional posturings.
There were some technical problems but for me they didn't detract. We were told from the stage that the equipment had been failing now for some while at this back end of the tour. Thankfully it was all rental gear that had been breaking down. Ray told me later that he was really looking forward to just dumping it all back on the rental company. It's got to be no joke whatsoever to get it all set up in sound check then experience it all going to rats half way through the set. Tonight there was rewiring happening on the fly but, well, they're pros and just got on. In some way, as much as I felt for their difficulties, it also brought us closer, musicians and watchers united in giving some leeway, and some sort of shared adversity.

The set was based largely around that brilliant new album. I'm sure there was other stuff in there, but it was the songs from Texas Rose that I knew and loved. Live, they bore up great. Ray's voice was added to here by a female counterpoint. In 'We Kept Our Kitchen Clean' and 'Thaw And The Beasts' there are a series of scratching and stretchings of strings that add a definite something, a point of reference, a wider context for the more musical bits to sit in. It has me in one when the melody starts to get uncovered from such detritus, like some fossil emerging from the desert.

On the record I'd been taken by these various effects and it was a joy to see them reproduced live, at one point Ray playing the guitar strings with a drum stick. It was though a moment of less, rather than more, accessibility and it saw one or two people taking the opportunity to sit down against the side walls. And isn't it just photographer's luck to put your camera in your pocket and miss a guitar getting the bottle neck treatment with a half full bottle of red.

The crowd wasn't huge but it was enough. Those that needed to be there were there, a self selection of those that deserved and needed to hear Castanets. God knows how I'd needed something tonight, and this was it.

This was a top performance of alt Americana, intense, everything you could hope for on a Tuesday night in north London.

We were satisfied indeed.

First published at www.altsounds.com

Continuing the saga of a long night, we then trogged around the corner to the Deaf Institute, on the promise of a DJ set from Ritzy and a few drinks with the rest of Joy Formidable.

There were though still bands to play before we got to that. I knew that one of them was going to be Airship (read on) but no idea who else was going to be there. That is, until I saw Run Toto Run setting up on stage. I was chuffed to bits seeing as I really like them, but at the same time, I was just a little concerned. "Why?" I hear you ask. Well, this would be third time I'd seen them in only a couple of months. Last time, Flip and I were in Manchester by happy coincidence and went to see them at the Night and Day, and on THAT occasion, Rachael told us that she'd 'worried' when she had spotted us from the stage, that we'd come all the way from Wales just to see them. So seeing them again tonight, hmmm, let's just say that after the set, when Rachael came to speak to me, that I sort of blurted out "I didn't come to see you, I had no idea you were on!". Ha ha ha! But they were excellent, getting better each time we've seen them. I think they were a tiny bit too twee for my oppo tonight, but that's kind of like who they are, and that's fine by me

They are there somewhere but we weren't for very long. I'd liked these on record, but live, well it all kind of merged. We lasted till the interval, but that was it, off round the corner to the Deaf Institute

Wintersleep are apparently WYSIWYG - they don't just look rambling and Canadian, they are the genuine article from Nova Scotia. Pity is every time I look at them, I think that guy over on the left has the same haircut as a girl in the office.
Pretty decent in an alt-folk sort of way, go to www.wintersleep.com/giveaway,, for four free tracks (official). I liked them on the night but the litmus test is that I haven't been back since

Ihese were the support for Bat For Lashes and were pretty good - not immediately striking - and as a result I didn't take too much notice. If I'd realised then that they were contributors to Natasha's album, I would have given much more attention in 'muso' fashion. But I didn't. So there.

Waiting outside, there were another couple of guys talking Gymraeg, and I wondered if they were, like me, front of the queue for a big selling band like Editors but mainly here to see the first support, two of whom come, like me, from North East Wales. Heck, if we were all here, who's at home looking after the sheep?

Nice gig, as good as I've seen TJF. These were actually the first of 5 bands I saw that night - 3 at the Academy and two at the Deaf Inst - and, although I'm biased, by far the best.
It's not easy being first band up of three, at 7.45pm when the most people are there for Editors. I was there specifically for TJF, on the front row, but keen to see what happened. And what happened was that they started playing to something like two interested rows, and half an hour later there were by my estimation (research properly triangulated by M. Heron) about 12-15 rows giving it up for the three of them. That Matt, he's a crazy one, neh? He certainly adds to it on a big stage. In fact all three of them do as well on a big stage as they do in front of 20 people in Wrexham - not phased in the slightest, just bloody impressive.

We stayed up front (ish) for Wintersleep, but stood at the back for Editors. We were leaning on the TJF merch stall, and it was good to see quite a number of people coming up for a look but leaving with tee shirts and merch.

LOADS more photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/catshoe/TJFEditorsGig#

Let's face it, you're not going to get an unbiased opinion out of me, and why should you? I think I've described myself before as one of the Bat-Faithful, but I guess that's how it is with music anyway. I'm really not that likely to go and listen to bands that I don't like, or at least think I'll like in some way. So declaration up front, this was the second time I'd seen them in a week and the fifth time in a year and a half.
My initiation to the live Bat experience was with a previous, interim incarnation of the band, when they were warming up for the dates supporting Radiohead. In some ways, as powerful as this new set up is, I slightly regret the passing of the original band. Back then, it seemed that they swapped round instruments much more, Natasha included, and seemed somehow a cooperative. We all move on though, and the present set up is mighty mighty powerful. I actually wonder how long they'll be able to keep the present line-up together given that Charlotte Hatherley has her new excellent solol material out and drummer Sarah Jones must surely be soon needed back in her full time band New Young Pony Club, who seem to be gearing up for activity. This run of dates goes to early November, so I'll watch with interest for the next iteration

Was it a Bat-faithful crowd? It was certainly nothing like in the kooky early days of 'Horse and I' when there were head-dresses a-go-go. Yes there were people with paint on their eyes, but you can go and see anything now and half the audience will have horizontal stripes on their cheeks. So the visual tribal markings were less prominent, but I think they were still the faithful. In Liverpool on the Saturday, they'd been downright rowdy, even Natasha commenting on this in her polite and charming way, perhaps hiding some frustration. The Manchester crowd were almost as noisy and disruptive. Some charming fellow behind me was bellowing "My name's (insert generic northern bloke name) and I'm obnoxious, I am". Didn't need to be a detective to work that one out. Other shouting though, in amongst very random "Shizzle shizzle mother f**ker" included impassioned cries of "I went to Chicago. I went for you Natasha". The inevitable regular calls of "I love you" earned a pilot "Thank You". surely the ultimate put-down. But pur-leaze, this isn't a football crowd.
I have some internal debate - is it a failing of a band that they don't command their audience into respectful silence? I really don't think so in this case, despite some contrary opinions. Indeed, with Bat For Lashes, I don't consider that they necessarily set out to engage with the audience in the way that Iggy Pop might. The audience are entranced, but more in a way that the band get on with their business, but open a glass fourth wall of the stage to the onlookers, allowing us to look in. It's not private, but it is intense and it's up to us whether we partake of their art. I know it's not them being stand-off-ish - I met Natasha last year outside a gig and that's not the sort of people they are. Maybe they are just stuck somewhere between rock gig and theatre, and that's no bad place to be.
A different stage set now, not set up like it used to be as some Parisian boudoir with tapestries, it's become much more up to date. Alongside some high tech lighting there were simple illuminated pictures of joshua trees, which makes perfect sense in the context of the journey taken in the making of the album.
I no longer have the feeling that they are all going to arrive in style on flying gryphons, although the material is all still going in that direction. The magic more sung about than acted out. They set out to achieve a lot on stage - very careful lighting, never seen a lighting tech checking out the planes and angles before.
The band really are tremendous, as it should be given the dream team Natasha has assembled.
The material is always going to be eclectic, never mainstream, a point poignantly made by the cover of Kings of Leon's 'Use Somebody' included on the special edition of the Two Suns album. Their most mainstream pop song to date is Daniel, and it really is strong enough to be included on the album 3 times. It only got played once tonight unlike a few months ago when it was getting two airings a night in the live set.

Some of the other material, I'm thinking of 'Two Planets' here - demands effort on behalf of the listener, it sure ain't no 3 minute pop song. Persevere though and it's a;; worth while. 'Siren Song' is such a lovely tale of devotion and giving, that is until her hidden twin personality Pearl comes bounding in to the Siren's call, slashing hearts along the way. Just was it was going so lovingly.

Was it technical perfection on stage? I've heard that strange 'criticism' both here and before. For me it just reflects how much is in the CD, that the record is actually music being played rather than a lot of computer artifice if that makes sense. Augmenting the band with two violins certainly filled that out tonight, adding very noticeably.

When it looked for a nano-second like I might get to interview Miss Khan, I had several suggestions for questions from friends. Sadly every single one of these was "Ask her if she'll marry me". That's the kind of reaction she engenders. Despite another heckler suggesting this, she is not channelling Kate Bush, but possesses the same sort of ability to engender affection as dear old Kate.

The set was 15 songs, all from the two albums, and was a reminder of what strength in depth those two records have.

First of the 3 song encore, 'The Big Sleep', had Natasha replacing the album Scott Walker duet to instead accompany herself via a ghostly rendition of alter ego Pearl, reappearing to flicker from a large TV screen wheeled on stage like something your college lecturer might have done. Impressive, and followed by what was for me the song of the night 'Wilderness'. This is a song that had probably been overshadowed for me by more immediate pleasures, but hereand now, the inward looking intensity and concentration encapsulated the experience, Natasha again inviting us to consider her private world before hitting it out into crowd pleasing finale 'Priscilla'

And when the battle was done, I was promised my Sun

First Published at Altsounds.com

Better quality pics here

This one nighter was put together by the people that normally run Evol club nights at Korova in Liverpool. Evol have got a pretty decent history of getting the right up-and-coming bands and this mini-festival looked pretty ambitious with an eventual lineup of eleven bands. The venue was Liverpool Academy, which has got a bigger stage upstairs (For tonight, Room 1) and something resembling a bunker downstairs. They don't sell it as Academy 1 and 2 - I've not seen them running both rooms at the same time before. For years I'd only ever been downstairs, believing that's all there was there. It was only recently that I went to see Animal Collective, went in the usual entrance and emerged inside into somewhere completely different. Talk about disoriented, it felt like a sci-fi movie. From previous experience the sound quality is great in that downstairs bunker, one of the best in the north west.

Organiser Revo Ziganda (actually I suspect that might be a made up name, despite Facebook's rules about that sort of thing) had cunningly arranged the running times so that if you madly ran up and down stairs, you could theoretically see a bit of every single band. In the event I actually saw ten out of the eleven. And improved my running fitness.

The way they had entry to the place set up, it was like a labyrinth. To get downstairs, you had to first climb up stairs like a cliff face to the top of the building then find another set of stairs to descend once more into the bowels. I got lost, found myself wandering backstage, with security thinking I was just blagging it for a laugh.

Upstairs first then, I saw one number by Lightsgoblue. Despite it only being 7.25pm, this thrashy would-be Klaxons two-piece were playing to an already packed crowd of overhyped teenagers with Day-glo wristbands. Forgive me for only staying for one number, they were loud, enthusiastic but not memorable enough to keep me.

Downstairs to room 2. Wow, almost nobody had found downstairs yet, perhaps they were all lost in the backstage breeze block corridors. In comparison to upstairs, there were only a few people, no ADHD teenagers, and my first impression was - this is the arty room. The band already on were Picture Book and they were much more interesting than the two thrashy lads upstairs.

Picture Book are (so they say) Lady Aya, Master ToKo, Lord highOwl. Actually Her Ladyship is aka Greta Svabo Bech and she really is from the Faroe Islands.
Their own myspace blurb says enough. "Last summer, bored musicians Master ToKo and Lord highOwl decided to embark upon a voyage across Scandinavia in search of something New! and Exciting! One morning whilst out searching for firewood, they encountered a frail, angelic creature clutching an enchanted book. Silently she showed them the mystical images within, rendering Master ToKo and Lord highOwl instantly under her spell. They named the girl Aya 'The Goddess of the forest'. She followed them for 3 days and 3 nights, communicating only through song in a language unknown to them. Finding this the most beautiful sound they'd ever witnessed, they agreed to return to their former occupations as music makers and accompany her voice with their creations"

They were completely and utterly fabulous, Aya in some sort of home-made garb, laying dreamy vocals over serious dancey synths and some right pounding percussion, two lots of drums going together at times. Get the violin in there as well interspersed with something that sounds like it comes from the Copacabana - I loved it. Why are we strangers?

I stayed downstairs. In between bands there was a slight invasion into the bar alongside the music space - wandering herds of kids in Hadouken tee-shirts. I got the feeling it might be messy in parts, and referring to my little printout schedule, wrote a note on my hand 'Golden Filter 9.30'. God, I'm organised. You say OCD like it's a bad thing?

Next up were another local band - Hallo I Love You. Thanks for the half price list guys. I've seen them before, at Korova.

That was a very early gig for them and that time round they were full of apologies for some technical issues which to be honest I had hardly noticed. I felt for them tonight. Everyone that had been in the auditorium for the first band had wandered into the bar area off to one side, so the band were setting up to a completely empty room. Unnerving, I wouldn't have liked it. Anyway they got going and, fair dos, their happy noise dragged people back, pretty quickly conjuring a decent sized crowd out of nothing. There was some sort of philosophical moment when lead singer Robert asked from the stage "What does it mean?" Other more prosaic comments included "Has anyone got a tambourine?" (genuinely, they had forgotten theirs) and "Can you just improvise?" while they had some very slight technical hitch on keyboards. Not that I was making notes or anything. Check them out on MySpace Hallo...I Love You! on MySpace Music - Free Streaming MP3s, Pictures & Music Downloads and you will find them sounding all nursery rhyme. Trust me - live they are a lot more rock 'n' roll. They've still got a cheesy organ thing going on sounding at times like the Blackpool Tower ballroom. It's not quite show tunes - maybe house music done on a Wurlitzer might come close? They are pretty aware of this, introducing 'To The Moon And Back' as "possibly the twee-est bit of music you will ever hear in your life". By the time they got to closing number 'Walk Me To The Sea' it was all coming together pretty damn nicely. They've had some decent live experience in the past couple of months and that was showing. I'll certainly check them out again.

9pm, upstairs, Cassette Jam, the rave continues. So many kids with their hands in the air. Still not grabbing me, so back once more into the depths.

Room two appears to be my spiritual home for the evening.

Balloons were up next, starting off with the wondrously titled 'I'd Trade It All In For A Hawk'. These were the replacements for Indica Ritual, and whilst they were apparently not that band in disguise, curiously I noted that they were using Indica's keyboards. Balloons keep themselves all mysterious on the interweb, identities hidden as BBC 1 - BBC 2 - ITV - CHANNEL 4 - CHANNEL 5 with T-shirts to match in case they forget their, err, names. They were somewhere between Rolo Tomassi, free-form jazz and good old-fashioned Oi! (No, I'm not just basing that on the haircuts). I wasn't that impressed, and having listened again since, I'm still not.

Just in time to dash back up the stairs, on first name terms now with the security staff. I burst out into the upstairs room to find The Golden Filter in full flow. Yeah! Immediate knock-out. I've had these listed on MySpace for a while but had somehow lost them in amongst the Golden Animals, Golden Silvers, Silver Jews et al. Anyway I've got to tell you that MySpace samples just do not do them justice. There were just two of them on stage, Penelope and Stephen. At least that's what I thought, I eventually spotted a drummer working there as well. Penelope has got huge stage presence. I'm not making comparisons, but if you love the Go!Team and CSS, then there's a good chance that you will get these as well, especially.

The crowd were ripping for them, although half these 14 year-olds with painted faces might have been up for more or less anything. I loved Golden Filter. Penelope's got some sort of magic treacly breathy sound coming out of her and Stephen is, with all due respect, the stage gimp he needs to be for this moment of nu-rave excellence.

I watched them till the end of their set and headed back down. The security crew invited me to join their tea kitty, as they were seeing so much of me.

In the downstairs space we now had Screaming Lights. They had some lovely 60s reverb coming of the guitar. I am normally bored pretty quickly by indie-lad vocals but lead singer Jay has an impassioned, engaging delivery, halfway to falsetto at times.

I liked them for the same reason I like Kyte, that same interest in the voice. Unlike Kyte though, these were pretty driving rock music. Definitely one of the best bands of the night, totally arresting onstage.

Which made it all the more of an anti-climax when I yet again climbed the stairs to what was now clearly the rave room. Kissy Sell Out, ever heard of them? I'll tell you all you need to know. Two guys, one of playing a key-tar (yes really) and producing some bastard child of Rave and Bounce. Ouch. They also put me in mind of some German poodle pop 80s thing. I had actually being pretty keen to see them and had wormed my way up to the front. I lasted about 30 seconds, then went and stood near the mixing desk for a couple of songs. I hated them. Unlike this great crowd of kids, some of whom looked maybe 11 or 12, and who were having a whale of a time. Oh well.

Back down the stairs. By now I was on first name terms with security and they invited me to their Christmas do. Headliners for room 2 were Wave Machines. I've only just discovered them before this, and I have liked what I have heard.
Tonight they were good enough, maybe 80%. I might have just been getting jaundiced by now but with the Funk cowbell thing going on, the paper face masks with pictures of their own faces (!), the falsetto as well, I'm afraid they were only just the right side of novelty act. The sound was probably post-ironic, but was actually a bit like a lot of 80s chart bands.

One more band, that being Hadouken. These were pretty damn decent, but seeing as they were headlining the rave formerly known as Academy One, I just had to accept they were not the right band in the right place for me tonight, despite the insane brilliance of M.A.D. I'll gladly and willingly try them again.

Okay so this wasn't a battle of the bands, but I inevitably made comparisons. Complete and utter band of the night for me were The Golden Filter, out of New York and on their first trip to Liverpool.

The other big discovery was local band Picture Book (local if you include a girl from the Faroes, but I think Liverpool University might be some sort of connection). These really have got enough going on to maintain more than a passing interest. I think it's called talent.

And an honourable mention as well for Hallo I Love You, if only I could stop my other half spending all day singing their signature tune, funnily enough called 'Hallo I Love You'. It sounds all school-choir-chorus. And I'm humming that damn twee song of theirs, to the point of distraction. Once again with feeling - 'To The Moon And Back'. I don't know whether to buy your records or give you a kicking, damn you!

Themes of the night? Having two drummers and made up names. What's that? Of course Catshoe is my real name

A huge well done to Revo and the Evol team for getting this together. Some of it I hated, some of it I loved. Some of that which I loved, I had never heard before. That's kind of the point of it. Cheers guys.

First published at Altsounds

Wye Oak [Live] Scala London 14 Sept 09

After buying the first Wye Oak CD 'If Children' more or less because I liked the cover, I've been quietly blown away by both Wye Oak's albums. This year's 'The Knot' is perhaps less immediate but is hugely repaying the attention it demanded from me the first time it locked me in the car and made me listen.

When I heard that album, I swore that I had to see the band live. Wye Oak announced a late summer tour in Europe, but there would only be two UK dates, one at the End Of The Road Festival which was just not going to happen for me, and the other a Monday night in London. C'mon, it's a school night and I live in the distant North! I resigned myself and gave in to whinging about it to the band via MySpace. Then a bizarre set of circumstances meant that I just had to be in London for two days, and in a hotel 15 minutes walk from the venue. Talk about the planets lining up. The end result being me sat on the front of the stage at London's Scala gossiping with a chatty couple of people about obscure indie bands. Who says Londoners ain't friendly. It was sold out, a good crowd, even if they were (mainly) here for Okkervil River.

When Wye Oak came on and started up, yup, all the stuff was there that I loved from the album. That song structure, that build up and lovely, droned guitar overlay. A huge part of the appeal, for me at least, is the insinuation of Andy and particularly Jenn's voice. But why Wye Oak in particular? You might be puzzled by me saying this, it's their close observation of family values. Like a shark cunningly disguised as a dolphin - it looks all innocent, but they're deep waters and dangerous to probe. You could lose a leg. Like I say, family values.

I've been intrigued in one respect when I've seen videos of them, and I was not let down. Playing the drums with his feet and one hand, keyboard with the other, Andy does indeed come off looking - not sounding - like a one man band. When he put the melodica tube in his mouth as well, (for comic effect he could have been in Carnaby Street) somebody behind me asked aloud if he could perhaps just get one or two more instruments on the go at the same time. Andy man, I'm saying this with affection, the way that all hangs is just fine, it's just a momentary observation from the front row.

Crowd and band exchanged pleasantries. They told us they were from Baltimore, we responded with quips about the Wire - You feel me? They had the good grace to laugh.

Did they really, really not play 'That I Do'? Perhaps they did and I was lost for a moment in hyperspace. If they didn't, on the face of it, that's an omission. Someone tell me they did, and I'll happily accept that I can go to a gig waiting for this song above all others and then somehow not hear it.

Saying what I've said about the muted tones of Jenn's voice, I'd rather have heard them is some quieter setting, these guys properly deserve reverence. If I'm honest, and I have to be, Jenn's vocal was slightly lost here tonight. I could still hear every word, just not the nuance that's on the recording and that's had me by the guts. Mind you, I was hardly in the sweet spot for sound, knees pressed against the stage, leaning on the monitors. What's it gonna be, close to the front or perfect audio? I wasn't for moving.

Like I say, I'd got talking to the guy stood next to me. He must hold some kind of record for going to an indie gig every night of the year or something, so not some casual bystander. His opinion - good but they didn't have him straight out of the traps. I just don't think that's the name of the game with these two, they take me back to my teenage belief listening to Bolan and Bowie that if it appeals too easily, then that appeal's too easily lost. It's just a pity that what makes Wye Oak's music really stand out was only coming through at 90%. The music ranges from almost acoustic folk to shizzled, buzzed, rocked out reverb, and that's how they were. Andy providing the mainstay, Jenn going from gaze intensive vocals to thrashing and bouncing across the stage, jumping and hopping in her school teacher shoes. It would have been cute if it wasn't so darned impressive.

So did they manage it then, with this audience? If whoops, hollers and hands clapping over heads give an objective view, then yes for sure they did, they made lots of new friends on a Monday night at the Scala in London.

No set list for me to geekily photograph, but they've been on the road in Europe for weeks with the States still to come, so not surprised they know the running order by now. Everything tonight though was off the new album except for the last two. Second to last was a new one that I didn't catch the name of, but it impressed. They closed with 'Family Glue.' That's one of the most powerful off the first record and one of the reasons I love their stuff anyway - "We are family glue, leaving a legacy of 'tell me to' - Behaviour made of lead…" all coming across with a resigned nonchalance that belies the hidden passions and minor tragedies of families and relationships - see what I mean about family values. The hair stood up on the back of my neck and that's one good way to end a set

I found them afterwards flogging CDs - they're still small enough to be doing all that and the roadie stuff themselves. I didn't want to get in the way of trade, but these nice people were keen to exchange a few words about touring and about the review of The Knot that we gave them here on Altsounds. Like I say, I'd berated Andy across MySpace about not doing more UK dates, and he remembered this as well. It was a really good sign that they were running out of CDs to sell. I had the last copy of the The Knot off them as a keepsake of the night. I mean, I've got it on download, but it's just not the same is it?

First published at ALTSOUNDS

Altsounds Q&A Interview: Emily Haines of Metric

When we all met we just had this idea of “let’s fuck things up”, in a friendly way. A friendly 'Fuck You'.

August 30, 2009, 12:39 AM

We met up with Emily Haines of Metric backstage at the Edinburgh Picture House. It's 6.30pm. Metric have just finished sound checking. The rest of the band have popped out somewhere in a taxi and I get to sit down to chat with Emily

Altsounds: So Scotland…

Emily Haines: Yeah I love it

You seen anything of it?

We've done a little bit of exploring - we've walked around you know

When did you get here?

Yesterday. Rest is always the most treasured thing. Rest and a pint(with a surprisingly English sounding accent really coming through on "pint"). We arrived on the ferry in the morning. We had to get up at four in the morning to cross the border, and then 8 AM again, you know, life on the road on the tour bus is taxing a little bit.

Where were you last then?

It's always funny when I cross borders and people ask me where I'm coming from, It seems like THE most existential question... because I can't often remember. We played in Belgium, Holland and Germany at festivals and before that I was in New York.

You've been back and forth the Altlantic many time haven't you since the album came out?

Yeah we hadn't really spent a lot of effort on the UK and Europe - so this time round we thought we'd make a bit more of an appearance. Most of our energy goes into North America which I guess is normal.

It must be quite a thing to just come and plug all the stuff in and it works alright? That gone okay tonight?

Yeah its fine, but I know what you mean though; we were loading up the bus in Paris, where we flew into. We'd shipped all our gear and we had a bus and a trailer. We were in this dark parking lot and I was just standing outside the bus getting ready for this next chapter, looking at - even at our scale - what an undertaking it is. All the gear. We have a great crew. Everyone's happy to have this as their job instead of you know, killing people… Or working in an industrialized farm… or a slaughterhouse back in the States (Emily laughs).

I was just listening to you sound check - I've got to ask, I've listened to the lyrics quite a few times - who is it that is going to get you and "eat you alive" if you stumble?

Ah that. Can’t answer that because then the riddle would be no fun.

The Edinburgh Festival - I was thinking - is a sort of precursor to the newer town and city-based music festivals like SXSW or Liverpool Sound City. Do you prefer it like this or the two to four days camping in a field like say Coachella?

It's funny we're not very good as a band at favourites. We generally feel like big fans of biodiversity. We feel like we need everything, you know. Certainly playing Coachella for musicians is a great experience, because the backstage is beautiful. It is held in one of the most coveted locations in the United States, a holiday destination. They take really good care of you, the margaritas are delightful and it's an all-round excellent experience with zero mud. B ut at the same time, coming to play Glastonbury this year and feeling the history of it and the spirit of it, and the fact that its farmland and the family behind the tradition of the festival. Seeing Neil Young performing ‘A Day In The Life’ to 150,000 people is also totally necessary so when it comes to saying whether one thing is better than the other I'm just going to flunk out.

It's all good.

It's all good or it's all shit depending on how you're feeling!

What's the best and the worst of touring for you then? Just this being lost existential thing?

I don't know, I'm feeling a bit melancholy today, the best and the worst... the whole premise of making music and playing concerts is I suppose to overcome the mundane life that we've all got in front of us, regardless of our stature and the idea that music could somehow have this magical power to unify people to create open-mindedness and raise consciousness and have all these wonderful therapeutic effects. So I would say the best thing about touring is feeling that we are participating in that legacy and that's contributing positively to the human experience by us making some music.
And I'd say that what sucks about it is that sometimes I feel as though we are the last band on earth that is doing this out of love and that makes you feel like a bit of a sucker.

What do you mean by that, out of love?

Well because it's sort of like - in an age of American Idol and Britain's Got Talent, you know it's a pretty crass commercial climate right now. It's all fine. Everyone enjoy themselves.

What do you think of that - Britain's Got Talent?

I think it's sad, funny and clapped.

I think it finds people who can sing but they're just singing other people songs.

It illuminates the nature of what we are looking for as people from our artists in 2009 which is someone you can feel superior to and ultimately, you know, have as a clown for your entertainment. It's not as though we are looking to our musicians and artists, it seems, for inspiration. I feel it is so few and far between on a mass scale that we have that. We can say - oh thank you - as musicians. Me and my friends we just cling to those few people whose lives meant something, or it seemed as though their purpose was to have their life mean something.

You connect to a completely different audience to Britain's Got Talent though!

Well exactly - I'm just answering the bigger question than you asked.

That's okay I'm really interested.

I just think it's, as I said, it's a strange time in music to be making music out of love, for the love of music. It doesn't seem like that is the motivating factor for most bands out there right now. It is for us. Of course there ARE people, but they are probably toiling away in relative obscurity right alongside us (Emily laughs). Bless them for doing it for love.

I came to see you in Manchester.

Oh you did?

And I was queued up outside early - front row. You seem to have a pretty strong connection with the front row.

We do yes we have a really good connection with - I almost just want to say listeners instead of fans. I try to play along with the vocabulary of my profession.

And you said you really wanted to try and concentrate on the UK this time?

Well no, we're not going to concentrate on it; we're just trying to give it a little bit more of our time. I'm not sure why, the world is a vast place. We're very excited to go to Australia in a couple of months, and Japan.

Have you done Japan before?

Just once as part of a festival with a bunch of Canadian bands, a thing called Canada Wet which was great. And we have a huge thing happening in South America so as you can imagine for us, it's a difficult decision to weigh where our love is best spent. Right now I'd say South America and Australia, as well as all of North America, as they are all larger land masses.

I did notice that the video for ‘Sick Muse’ you brought forward because of the attention it was getting in the UK?

Yeah it seemed like people like that song so we thought we would make a video for it.

I said I came to see you in Manchester; I'm going to give you an observation. A couple of weeks before that I'd been to see Yeah Yeah Yeahs, and I guess I came up through Punk. I came out of your gig just thinking. I actually drove home recording into my camera what I thought of it. And all I could think was, yeah that was PUNK. I blogged that and I wasn't the only person who thought it was punk. How do you react to that?

I would say - glad you noticed. This is part of getting back to what we were discussing earlier. Perhaps that's the spirit that I'm referring to - that I feel that perhaps it's just a bit too subtle or something. But to me, the idea - if you have a punk attitude in 2009, you're not going to be getting up on stage with a fucking Mohawk obviously. It's a FEELING that I'm very happy that you picked up on. Punk is sort of the theme that runs through the project. When we all met we just had this idea of “let’s fuck things up”, in a friendly way. A friendly 'Fuck You'. Just to see what's possible without automatically pandering to the existing industry people who present themselves.

And for me as a woman, or as a girl, or just as a person even – I wanted to not do what would be the appropriate and expected thing of me. I wanted to be a musician that would make everyone uncomfortable, you know? That was definitely part of the plan. To have some fun and part of that was inspired by musicians whose musical genre is punk rock but also musicians who have done things on the business side. Obviously we're right along with everyone else having maximum admiration for Radiohead, and others who have found a way to navigate and to do something unconventional. I would say they have the benefit of 10 years of major label marketing behind them, but still.

But people are going to throw money at them anyway?

Well they are, and they're not a good example of anything other than themselves, but that is the point - believing in individuality and the power of the individual and the power of ideas over the existing establishment. That's definitely the point of this band and I'm awfully happy that you noticed.

I think you can be a folk singer and be punk - I think it's about attitude

Yeah I agree. It's nice though - I've not heard anyone else... I'm usually the one initiating that. I'm glad we see eye to eye on that.

Well it's funny because I blogged it, then I thought I'll see what other people have written and I wasn't the only one to think that. Maybe it's something to do with UK audiences, that we've grown up listening to the Clash or something.

Maybe it was the crowd surfing in the Stranglers T-shirt. There are a lot of possibilities.

I didn't see you crowd surfing.

No, it's a chapter that is gone.

I was kind of wondering about that. Does it have to be a home crowd?

No it's been all over the world. It was just a chapter. You know I saw Jesus Lizard at Pukkelpop and it was so funny to watch him crowd surf all the way out into the audience with the microphone and it was still in tune – well - in tune as in singular note melodies, but still. And making his way all the way back was so funny to me.

Was it like - "turn me around now, deliver me back" (Emily laughs). I was going to ask you one last thing - I was watching the video documentary you did, about the making of this album, “Fantasies” and you talked about stripping things back, going camp fire. I wondered when the last opportunity you had was to do that.

We've actually been doing it a lot with this record. In fact tomorrow our nice little window of hanging out in Edinburgh has been cut short because Jimmy and I are going to perform acoustically for Grimmy on Radio 1 (Nick Grimshaw). So Jimmy and I are going to go and play Gimme Sympathy acoustically for him and probably a couple of other songs.

That acoustic version - I've heard that. Is that you stripped down or does it get any more elemental than that?

In the writing process it did. Every single one of the songs was subjected to that test earlier on without necessarily the intention that we would perform them in that way. It's a nice feeling, it's like the architecture is there and it's not just a collection of production gimmicks taking you from the verse to the bridge to the chorus.

I think it's great to hear how the two versions work together

On the other hand one of the interesting things I think about this TIME, culturally, and in music, is that there is this possibility of the behind-the-scenes of everything, and the mask has been torn off. The mystique of idolizing our musical heroes or others has changed. It's almost at this point that anyone who is pretending to be that much different from anyone is going to look a bit silly because they can so easily be revealed for their regular daily self. I think it's a very interesting thing. Can you be - is it possible to have, post Kurt Cobain when everyone says he was the last real rock star? I'm very excited to see the next generation and our generation come up with people you can admire BECAUSE of everything you know and BECAUSE they are human, not because they've been able to create an artifice. Certainly the death of Michael Jackson is the end of a certain capability of artifice and a sad testament to the side-effects sometimes.

I think I know what you mean. There is this connection that people can now have. You can message people on MySpace and they write back. I sent Annie from St Vincent a message and it was Annie that wrote back. .........10 years ago that sort of connectivity wouldn't have happened.

Yeah that just wouldn't have happened. To take this conversation further, I think that absolutely the most corrosive and terrifying development in social networking is Twitter. I don't know how much people are into it in the UK but (I tell her I have an account I've never used) I have the same point of view as you. It's like a gateway drug. For example I know that before I had even changed out of my stage clothes at a concert in Massachusetts a friend of mine had already received a photograph of me. It had already come up on their Twitter of the show and my friend was e-mailing me in response to that. I was still wearing the same thing. That was a little too instantaneous for me. You try to find the positive in this but it does take away some of the fun, spontaneity and the possibilities for subversiveness out of a live show because there is no privacy, there's no private MOMENT. I could play a concert for 50 people in Oxford and footage of that could come up before our David Letterman performance or before our $100,000 music video that we've made and so far as the intimacy with the crowd of being able to say this is ONE night which has kind of always been our mantra. It's like here we have an hour and a half, what are we all going to do with it. Who cares? We might as well sweat our asses off or make fools of ourselves and be uninhibited because it's just an hour and a half but now that's not really the case. It was slowly eroding over the last few years but now it's definitely documented.

Two years ago I saw Stars in Dublin and Torquil was shouting off as he does....

.....as he does yeah....

......about people videoing and saying “is that going to be on YouTube before I get home?”

Well you know this is the thing. You can't have a negative attitude towards it, people are embracing it. People are having a good time and if their idea of a good time is to film it or photograph it - knock yourself out, enjoy yourself! It's just that I would personally rather have a memory that I could perhaps romanticize with a little bit.

You've talked about the close connection with our fans, that has taken a few years to build. Sometimes I feel bad because it was really like three years of touring which is not that much. In those times, say for example someone had taken some pictures and then got home and decided what they were going to do with them. Maybe put them up on Flickr or MySpace or something. At that point the wall was still there. There was still a sense that once the thing was over, THEN maybe you can do something with the content. Nowadays this is as its happening. The possibilities for very interesting things to come of that I think are massive, but right now it's the most mundane and trivial thing.

(I relate to Emily the story of Levi Leipheimer in this year's Tour de France who was tweeting photos of his own wrist surgery while he was actually still being operated on)

Do you know what? It all takes us back to Philip K Dick, which is fine with me. It takes some of the wind out of your sails trying to come up with fantastic extreme examples of how the world is, when the world just keeps trumping me. The things that happen are just - wow - that's beyond what I could have even cynically anticipated. (Emily laughs). It's an interesting moment and sometimes it would be great to care a little less, to be a little less invested, but this is who we are. This is the band we are. The payoff is so huge for us - in so many ways that is not the case for other people, but it does take an extra sort of something - especially if you are an atheist, you need something - it takes an extra sort of FORCE to keep believing that there is a point to it all.

But you keep believing?

I do.

Cool. Do you know what, I've taken up loads of your time? (I’d been told I had a strict 15 minutes which had long gone)

Yeah, you're basically my therapist, you've saved me a hundred quid.

So where next after tonight?

Well we've got to go to London for Grimmy which will be good, then we go to Reading and Leeds, we go to Rock-en-Seine, I've got a couple of days in Spain to relax which will be lovely. Then we're playing. We're playing in North America and Australia then in Japan.

It’s time for me to go, damn, I could have talked all night but they have a gig to play!

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Later on I am watching the gig. The band has really lit up what might have started out a slightly indifferent audience. Emily has made great play about this being a Tuesday night, which we might otherwise be at home watching House, but “tonight is all we've got”.

Emily does a sort of ‘one arm crossed in front of the other’ gesture, which she repeats, robot-like. Then she stands right on the edge of the stage, turns her back to the audience and spreads her arms out wide. She stays there more than a few moments. There's a pit, there's a barrier, so she is physically removed from the audience, but I am CONVINCED that in her mind Emily is just dropping backwards into the crowd. “Crowd-surf off a cliff.”

Off stage and then back on for the encore. I've been at the back dancing by myself. Now I can't stand it any more and have to burrow my way back into the crowd, heading to the front again. This crowd is in a monstrous frenzy for a Tuesday night.

Joules and Josh go off stage leaving just Jimmy and Emily for the moment. This has become (this year at least) their traditional ending. A stripped down version of ‘Live It Out’. Just vocals and guitar. Would that be “camp fire” I wonder? Emily tells us “ If you know the words sing along, for the love of God, sing along” and we do.

Emily climbs down into the pit, then onto the barrier, making her way shaking hands along the front row, climbing up on the railing to say hello or thanks to those further back. She holds that special connection to the audience and this girl is as good as her word. Joules and Josh come back, the song builds to the glorious end of a Tuesday night in Edinburgh. We stumble outside into the night. It's stopped raining.

Last edited by catshoe : August 30, 2009 at 08:46 AM.

ORIGINALLY POSTED AT ALTSOUNDS

PHOTOS

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Knutsford 22 August 2009

There's something about the moments when Rachael Kichenside pauses for a microsecond, looking half upwards, small smile playing, that encapsulates the act of making this particular magic. This is a great place to see Run Toto Run. Performing a gig on a terraced roof garden, the place small enough to feel like they are playing just for a few friends. This is a charity event arranged a little while ago. Reflective of recent progress by the band, Run Toto Run are tonight elevated to the top of the bill.

The music is built around Rachael's voice and presence. The voice is clear but comforting, scratching the itch in the right bit of our brains. The song build is elegant enough, the structure is there. Much as I hate to make comparisons, it's unavoidable, and if you take a combination of the influences they themselves cite, specifically Sufjan, the Postal Service and Passion Pit, that will get you onto the map of what to expect. Indie that could equally well be played on synths or violins and acoustic guitars and mandolins.

This is the trick that Run Toto Run manage. Inevitably it is the quality of the writing and the engagement of Rachael's voice that has to work if they are going to succeed. And succeed it does, raising this right up there with the best of what's out there at the moment, certainly in the up and coming ranks.

Even without the animal heads and the fairy wings in their tremendously impressive 'Sleepyhead' video, there is a real theatrical bit of magic going on here, a Midsummer Night's Dream for an electro-generation if you will. Yes it's that 'Sleepyhead', the Passion Pit one. In their cover, Run Toto Run pull off the rare feat of both remaining true to the original and utterly reinventing it and look like they are just having the world's best time while they do it.

Chatting with Rachael after the gig she comments that their recent EP represents where they were maybe a couple of months ago. Hearing them live tonight, and then listening to the EP in the car again, I think I know what she's getting at. The recorded version is whimsical and folky, a twee little moment; what we heard up on the terrace was layered with keyboards and synths. Apart of course from 'Sleepyhead', which they closed their live set with, and for which they reverted to the traditional instruments. Maybe that actually is their thing, that colliding moment of voice, mandolin and a Korg synthesizer.

Rachael also tells me that although they have been going as a band for well over a year, it was only 10 weeks ago that she lost her job at Channel M in Manchester as the local TV station drastically stripped down their music channel. She had worked there as a music booker. As she says, it is time for her to put what she learned there to good use. Inevitably then, the last 10 weeks have seen things ramping up. They are now reduced to a three-piece, and two of them have gone full-time, only one of the guys is still trying to combine the band with "ordinary" life. So this is it for Run Toto Run, it's make or break time. No pressure then.

While we're talking, someone else shouts across and wants to know how old Rachael is. " How old do they think I am?", "21" they reply, "That's nice, I am older than that, but still a long way on the right side of 30" and she tells me that in London at least, the buzz has started. Scenesters checking them out to the extent that she's been 'press-aged'. All of a sudden, I'm the press and us lot will 'just make it up', printing stories that she loves graphic novels when she's never even read one. What an odd thing to make up. As if...

We are still friends though, and we exchange notes on London versus northern audiences before I leave them to it. They've got a stack of dates coming up and I will certainly be making a point of seeing Run Toto Run again.

http://www.myspace.com/runtotomusic

Originally published on Altsounds at http://hangout.altsounds.com/reviews/110501-run-toto-run-live-at-the-canvas-lounge.html - go there for more photos

Golden Animals were not scheduled to come on stage until midnight, and by this time the audience had thinned out, leaving a preponderance of 40+ musos. American vocalist / guitarist Tommy Eisner and Swedish-born drummer and vocalist Linda Beecroft were onstage promptly enough but were still setting up.

Man these guys look fried, the hippy vibe being taken to quite some extreme. Pants frayed to within an inch of their lives, Tommy with one boot undone and the other completely worn through the toes. Linda in a smock and leggings and playing the drums with bare feet on the pedals. The necessary entourage were in similar garb, headbands, embroidery, almost the polar opposite of glamour. I wrote a little note on my hand which read "knitting glitter out of lentils", this being a reference in part to the now almost obligatory cheek paint. There followed a deal of faffing, leading to a fellow gig go-er to ask "How can it take just 2 people so long to set up?"

The promoter of the tonight's gig was on stage, half thrilled to have snared Golden Animals first-ever UK gig, and more than half anxious about the delays. He explained that Golden Animals had almost not got here at all. Somewhere along the line today their car broke down in what he amusingly described as the 'Northampton Desert'. Tommy and Linda were so keen to play Manchester that they stumped up £140 in taxi fares just to get here. So hey, in that context what's a bit of a wait between friends?

By now the delays of the day felt as though they were building up. Linda on the drums was warming up playing along to the DJ set, specifically '15 to 20' by those Handclap people, and Tommy got to the point where he looked like he just couldn't hold it in. The promoter valiantly tried to introduce them but Tommy - in some random moment at the back of the stage - just started playing. I was frankly amazed that anything was going to come out of the amps and mics but it surely and certainly did.

You have to bear in mind that at this point I had no idea whatsoever what to expect, except for preconceptions based on appearances. Which meant that, when they eventually produced sound, I was totally not expecting the raw garage blues that emerged from this pair. The quality was a bit glitchy for the first track but quickly got dialled in. I can safely report that Tommy and Linda can play.

As soon as my mind could overcome its disorientation, my single and repeated thought was that Golden Animals are most definitely the real deal. It's possible to analyse too much about the sources and influences of music, but if I had to pin this anywhere, think very early Stones or the point where the Yardbirds started. I wrote another note on my hand which simply said "Howlin' Wolf crossed with a Beach Boy". If you are familiar with the London Sessions you'll understand what I'm getting at. I'm not any sort of committed fan of the genre so this is quite some praise.
Reluctantly but necessarily I will make the inevitable comparison with Jack and Meg White given the blues-rock drums-guitar girl-boy reference points and all I can say is that Golden Animals to me were a completely separate development. Golden Animals were ploughing their own furrow in some continent of their own making. Linda's backing vocals added enough to lighten what might have otherwise been testosterone fuelled. That and the West Coast desert infusion gave it quite a gorgeous feeling.

It's only the second time I've been to the Deaf Institute and the venue is fabulous for its size. Respect to promoters Akoustik Anarkhy for pulling this off in advance of the band's appearance the next day at Summer Sunday. The monitors and stage gear looked (like the band) to have been hanging around from the mid-70s but the sound quality was great after the initial faffing and Golden Animals are more akin to warm analogue vinyl than your crisp clean digital rubbish.

Golden Animals weren't on stage for that long, but to be honest, much as I really enjoyed it, by the time they came off I'd heard enough. It was maybe sufficient to have a Golden moment from the Animals, although I will readily acknowledge that my lack of familiarity with their material was probably the factor in that. In fact it's worth relating that we bought their Free Your Mind and Win a Pony CD on the way out, stuck it in the car stereo, and by the end of the weekend must have listened to it four or five times straight.

More photos at http://hangout.altsounds.com/reviews/110145-golden-animals-live-deaf-institute-manchester.html

Originally published at www.Altsounds.com

"Excuse me blonde lady is that for real?"

The guy playing on stage was stopped in his tracks. Friends had told me about Beth Jeans Houghton and that she changes her appearance constantly. Tonight she had certainly outdone herself, appearing in a leopard print leotard, a massive white fright wig and make-up to match.

"You were talking to me just a minute ago before I got changed" Beth pointed out - slightly exasperated - before disappearing out onto the roof terrace for a rollie. Just to top off the appearance, while they were making the final preparations on stage, someone specially delivered a pair of ridiculously high black platform shoes and placed them centre stage, like performers in their own right. These were worn only on stage, as if maybe they were magic of some sort. Is it right to comment so heavily on Beth's appearance? All I can say is that it forms such a huge part of her performance persona that it would be rude not to. I've never seen porn star pumps on an effects pedal before.

The voice here is northern tinged, somewhere on the indie bluesy side of the Folk Festival. The sound that surrounds that voice contains guitars, brass, and pretty simple drums. It was no apparition, they really did have a suitcase instead of a bass drum. In some moments the brass added an oompah feel, redolent of the Sally Army or even something you might hear in the Blackpool Tower Ballroom. Beth Jeans Houghton's voice though came through clear. The words were prosaic, telling of curry, breakdowns and AA men. Ralph McTell, but in girly form, with a leotard and a much much better voice.

It is somehow important that the people on stage are likeable, that we can identify with them.

Top marks then to Beth for:

providing party bags for the audience. Sweeties and party poppers anyone?
being only too happy to sit down at the end, chat, and sign autographs. Just as soon as she got those shoes off, that is!

Let's hear it again for Beth Jeans Houghton, or as she says it Beth Jeans 'Owton, and to Akoustik Anarkhy for getting this night together.

Originally published at www.Altsounds.com

More photos at this link http://hangout.altsounds.com/reviews/110198-beth-jeans-houghton-live-manchester-deaf-institute.html

Local promoter Revo Ziganda puts on his EVOL night in the basement of the Korova Bar in Liverpool. We braved the rain and the hordes of Friday night hen parties this end of town, incongruous in trainers and combats. We arrived soaked by the rain at Korova barely knowing who was on, much less what to expect.

Support band "Hallo I Love You" were themselves lovable enough, only their fourth gig and apparently having a few problems on stage. If truth be told, they were actually what attracted me to go, but we'll leave reviewing them till another time. I'm not even sure who the next support were, they were dire pub rock, so we'll leave that as well.

I do like the way that on this sort of night, very local support bands bring their own very local supporters, so that between acts, as well as the stage getting re-built, there is also a sort of flushing out of that band's supporters, only to make room for this lot.

Headliners MY TOYS LIKE ME spent quite some time getting set up on stage - all of them apart from vocalist Frances Noon who did the star bit and hid in the dressing room. When they did eventually come out, it was initially just Noon and keyboardist Lazio Legezer. These two originally WERE the band, but have now added two more members, presumably to round out the sound live, which is how it worked out tonight.

As much as the rest are musicians, it is clear that Frances Noon is the one with the artistic bent. The whole schtick, the glittery glasses, the spangly jewelled chain for said glasses, the wedding-veil thingy made into a ruff, but only on one side, coming off like a single winged fairy. This was slightly reminiscent of the hen nights up above on the street, but much, muchcooler. It was enough to draw in the art school / fashion crowd to add to the more usual habitués of the Korova cellar. All night Frances kept up the dancing, gyrating, posing, climbing on the speaker stacks.

And the music? I could describe it best as electronic bleepery with breathy vocals over, which doesn't really do the actual sound justice. They are nothing at all like La Roux, or Little Boots, or Chew Lips; they are much more vaudeville. Electro-vaudeville. Actually that description does the job, but it was the way it was delivered. They were clearly having fun, they just as clearly know what they are doing as musicians. It was near enough to MIA played over Casio keyboards to appeal to my indie sensitivities.

Maybe I am just constantly listen to the wrong kind of stuff, but I managed to convince myself that I really hadn't heard anything exactly like it, and 48 hours later I still think the same.
And yet, if there was one thing missing, it was that Frances and the boys really are different enough to other bands, but their output, tonight at least, was all pretty similar to itself, one song to the next.

Overall, totally glad I saw them. I wasn't an instant convert, but I'll watch with real interest over the coming months.

MORE PICS

Labels: 31 July 2009, Korova

I first found Wye Oak - Jenn Wasner and Andy Stack - 2 friends from Baltimore - via their last album If Children. This was a frankly random purchase from the Indie / USA bin at the excellent Vinyl Exchange Records in Manchester. What drew me then was Jenn's hoarse, sweet, personal vocal set over hazy reverb, classic americana. Add to that some astonishingly good lyric writing and it quickly became a fixture at the top of the pile of CDs on my car passenger seat.

I was doubly keen then to see how far the new Wye Oak record, The Knot would live up to the promise.

I'd already had the chance to listen to it streamed pre-release via Merge Records - and being brutally honest, somehow it didn't demand that I went back more than once or twice. That was to do with the listening environment - laptop, streaming, headphones. It might work for bright pop music, and this is the opposite. When I was a teenager I used to have a firm belief that songs that had you first time would soon fade and that it was the stuff that demanded time and attention to start with that would eventually see you through long months of listening. So I applied my own logic, gave it a damn good listening to, loud on the car stereo, stuck in torrential rain and stationary traffic on the M6

It started out reasonably familiar on first track, Milk and Honey - that hazy wobbly reverb buzz - sightly burying things to give the listener the joy of hearing them dig themselves up again. I'm sure there's a cliche niche term for that - slow-core or drone-folk or something.

The first three tracks implanted themselves nicely enough. Track 4 - Siamese - came across as too easy, soft / loud / soft and I was almost disappointed, but carried on past the one I'd heard before "Take It In". It got better, I heard the differences from the last album, a rockier base.

And then Track 9 happened - "That I Do" -- "I wish you didn't need it any more / I understand exactly what you use it for /and better isn't always doing well" sung hopelessly but with love and affection across a guitar base that might well have come from Rust era Neil Young. This truly feels like part 2 of something that was started in 1974 when rock guitar players all had long hair and played as much for their own benefit as the listeners. Squalling amp noise over a solid drum part making it sound like a bigger band than just the two of them "See it's true / I need it too / but not the way you do", it is just sooooo plaintive. A single discordant piano note in there somewhere as it plays out, just to make it feel modern.

Another highlight revealed by repeated listening is Sight Flight, bringing violin over jangling semi acoustic guitar and hints of mandolin. All of a sudden I was looking out for Scarlet Rivera to come and join the party

I played the whole album again and discovered that my theory held good - the more I listened the better it got, this really was going to be the gift that keeps on giving. By the time I'd got past Birmingham I'd had it over four times.

I HAVE to get to see these. There's still time, 2 dates in the UK, one of them the End Of The Road Festival, the other supporting Okkervil River in London

I've read some other reviews of The Knot. I think it is classic Wye Oak, building on the last album. What I would say is - if you think it might be for you - give them a chance, not to grow on you, but to see (hear) the wood for the trees (bad pun time). And whatever you do, make sure you listen to Track 9, loud, in a car, in the rain.

www.wyeoakmusic.com

My piece for St Vincent as banner advert at altsounds.com

Labels: 22 July 2009, Central Station Wrexham

Wrexham - where's Wrexham? It's a small North Wales town - so can anyone who plays here be any good? or is it just a local place for local people?

The only venue of note, Central Station, has a decent history of getting the right up and coming bands - recently Pains of Being Pure of Heart and Cage the Elephant, further back New Young Pony Club, even Kasabian for god's sake. Promoters Don't Die Just Yet deserve a mention for making the more interesting stuff at the Central happen.

So, rainy Welsh Wednesday night, paid the money, got the stamp on the hand, braved the posses of teenage girls, sat through some pretty average support bands and one that was better than expected. There is a twist here - The Neat were originally down as headline - even the posters said so - but somewhere in the week before they got moved down the bill. Sadly I wouldn't drive an hour in the rain on another Wednesday night to see them again despite the Ian Curtis like pose.

And on to the main attraction - Polly Mackey, and as she phrases it on myspace - her band The Pleasure Principle. By now there were maybe 150 people here, the stage set up in the bar with those lights they used to advertise on the back of Mad Comic - torches that shine and make the light darker.

Polly Mackey. One to watch out for? Worth watching? On the verge? There are just so many good musicians around , that really is the question

Polly Mackey and The Pleasure Principle been making their own luck going to SXSW (where they got some great reviews) and then via a competition won the right to play at Benicassim. Funnily enough I know something about competitions - you have to get yourself to the start line, buy the ticket, whatever, no one else will do that for you, Svengalis don't come listening outside your bathroom while you sing in the shower.

Starting off the set, Polly Mackey was, if not nervous, maybe a little hesitant. Put yourself in her shoes. Yes - she has her band and plenty of support but she is still, what, 17, 18? I know that's nothing in the music biz, but in real terms it is. The venue is decent enough but you are on a small stage in a bar with people walking back and to to buy drinks, and if there aren't enough audience, the view from the stage is directly of the entrance to the toilets.

Polly Mackey and band started off muzzy, that's the word, for the first two tracks. Hoarse but sweet female voice, good to average indie pop veering more to rock than anything else. During which Polly's guitar decides it's had enough. She seems half expecting this. Rather than messing about she asked for the guy who was on stage first , he was still in the house, she promptly borrowed his guitar. All done pretty quick, plugged in, quick strum, guitar still warm, no need to tune up.

And into third number "The Wall". Whoa - ears, pay attention, what was that? I'd heard this one as a rough mix whilst checking out the Polly Mackey myspace, where it is showing a mere 320 plays but it wasn't just familiarity, this and next track "The Way It Works" really were in the next division

Polly's voice really came through. I'm no musician, I can best describe it as a minor chord shining under the rust and creating its own space. That essential slight imperfection that makes lead singers stand out, that imperfection that makes for perfect

The band are young, thank God they haven't got that studied dirty rock star attitude yet. They were moving in waves on that tiny stage, bobbing up and down in rhythm. Fantastic

The next song was a cover of Fake Plastic Trees. Sadly, this was so-so, nothing added to the original. I looked round and the audience had started talking. Drop the covers Polly, they're no good unless you reinvent them, write something else of your own as good as "The Wall".

Thankfully next up was the third song that's also on myspace, "Too Real" and we were back into quality territory. One more song after that and it was over, as they say, all too quickly. Enough people dashing up to stage to press the flesh, I left to spend the drive home deciding what I'd just seen.

It might still be in patches, but Polly Mackey isn't just a local young singer. That voice is enough on its own. I don't want to use cliches like "warm" and "bruised". I've read the comparisons and I'm avoiding those as well. I disagree with the "Chan" one, that's just lazy. Yes my friends laugh at my ongoing enchantment with female singers. But there is a definite something. Polly Mackey's voice tonight, when it all came together, it was personal, it reached through, the hook was there. And put it all together, if they keep making their own luck with the way they have....this lot, Polly Mackey and her band the Pleasure Principle really could be on the cusp.

www.myspace.com/pollymackey

originally published at ALTSOUNDS

I've liked Annie Clark, aka St Vincent, ever since seeing her supporting Sufjan Stevens a year or two back. Well, actually, doing the support slot and playing in Sufjan's touring band. On her CDs maybe the truth is more 'admired' than 'loved'. Although there is definite progression from one to the other, her newest recorded offering Actor shares a lot with first album Marry Me. St Vincent's recorded music is complex - nothing wrong with that. The 'Actor' album is supposedly the result of infatuation with film, but for me it was most reminiscent of pure 'musicals', circa 1958. More than a few of the songs actually seem to start out as musical film scores, nice enough, and then break down, deconstruct and are reassembled into something the same but different. So I looked forward to tonight with enthusiastic interest.

It was a hot night in the Night and Day Cafe in Manchester's Northern Quarter. That said, it's always a hot night in there. It's a lovely scruffy place, slightly falling to bits with the stage lighting consisting in part of a reading lamp hung on an extension lead. The good thing is there is always a chance of a decent view.

We arrived in time for both supports, both well worth the effort

First up was Table - a Manchester band that could easily be mistaken for trad Irish, although in a refined rather than raucous way . Their biggest trick was getting six of them and a huge array of acoustic instrumentation including a double bass and cello onto the not very huge stage at the Night and Day. The sound went with my misconception about their nationality - if it's not too big a comparison, they put me in mind of Avalon Sunset era Van Morrison. I could just imagine them doing "Have I told you lately".

They were followed by Blue Roses, which is actually Laura Groves, sometimes on her own, sometimes (as tonight) with a bit of help. They have a healthy diary filled with upcoming dates like Latitude - apparently I narrowly missed seeing them / her supporting Ladytron a few months back, or I might have discovered them a bit sooner. Blue Roses started out tonight with delicate folk in a trippy vein. I actually liked them better as they worked towards their closing number Rebecca which was still indie-folk but fully instrumented with keyboards, drums and guitar.

By the time St Vincent came on the place was pretty well ram packed, we were lucky to be at the front leaning on stage. I could see the set list (complete with planned encores) so I could see it was going to be a mixture of tracks from both albums and the intervening EP. First song was Marry Me and I was straight away struck by the immediacy of the song in this live environment. This set the tone for the whole night. Like her old touring partner Sufjan, St Vincent was just an entirely different experience live. Maybe I just don't play my CDs loud enough but it really was chalk and cheese. It was as though the only way properly experience the complexity of St Vincent's music was to see it unpacked on stage. The things that make the recorded output ever so slightly 'challenging' were all still were. The sweeping changes, the sudden shift from melody to jarring, shaking, trembling rock-out - but it all came together on stage tonight. The there were even elements of jazz and Stax era soul showing through. I've read comparisons to the Flaming Lips, but if Annie is not insulted by this I could see further back to Frank Zappa.

We were treated to a little story from Annie. Apparently they had come over that morning on the ferry from Dublin. She apologised that this would probably only make sense to "indie geeks". She needn't have worried about that, she was among kindred spirits tonight. The basis of the story was that they'd ended up sharing the same ferry with Of Montréal and and also with Fever Ray. Gosh they could have a mini ATP going on there! I've done the same crossing myself once or twice to see bands and the most exotic thing I've ever seen was a guy in his 60s with the word 'bastard' tattooed across his forehead.

The audience were hugely enthusiastic - at least the front row knew all the words. The St Vincent touring band take their job seriously indeed. There was a notice pinned up just before they came on explaining that Annie uses in-ear monitors and therefore the vocal sweet spot for the audience was likely to be a distance back from the stage. That's pretty serious. I have to admit I stayed where I was, it was a sweet enough spot being three feet from the band.

Set list
• Marry me
• Strangers
• Save me
• Now now
• Actor
• Paris is burning (from the EP)
• Bed
• Laughing
• Black rainbow
• Marrow
• Just the same

Encore
• Party
• Lips

St Vincent's music really came together for me last night. The net result was that today I found myself whistling and humming Marry Me - and enjoying it rather than admiring it

Result!

Lots more photos CLICK HERE

originally published at ALTSOUNDS

IMG_0959a
Originally uploaded by catshoemike

Was this a just lovely moment or an Echobelly resurgence? Is it ever a good idea to revisit your idols and heros? Not that I was ever an obsessional Echoblelly fan, but they sure had something back in the Britpop day

Tonight at MoHo, it being an acoustic set and all, I was expecting something like a folk club night, so was somewhat surprised that there were going to be four support bands.

A quick run down of the rest of the bill, in the order they appeared -

Bleachbaby - girl fronted pop band, competent enough, but I'm sorry to say way off the mark in comparison to recent new bands like Marina and the Diamonds, Rosie and the Goldbug et al. Is it a competition? Well yes, I guess it must be. They must have some confidence though, as they came ready equipped with T-shirt stall, and you could only have a badge a sticker if you bought a CD, so there! Maybe I'll be proved wrong and they will be the next big thing. Maybe not. They seemed like nice people, and that really is damning with faint praise.

Next up was Jade Assembly. This was slightly wonderful in a minor way. Grating buzz guitar harking back to 70s rock and powerful vocals from the main man John 'Foz' Foster had me there for a minute or two, and this from someone who (all my friends will tell you) only really listens to female vocalists. Mention too of bassist James Halliwell who shone through and was too cool for school, looking like an extra from Apocalypse Now. The only problem was Foster's ego. Given that they were second in a line-up of four support bands, Foz's disappointment at the lack of instantaneous applause was really quite funny. He actually called us, the audience, " miserable bastards". Get over it already, be a pro, try playing to 10 people in Crewe...

They were followed by Faker Junior, who were actually pretty darn good and the only ones I followed up. They are the mating of a Mancunian band looking for a singer, and Canadian singer looking for a band. I try and avoid comparisons, but in a live setting they had me somewhat in mind of Lloyd Cole and the Commotions. I've listened to them since on MySpace and the production on their recorded output is much too generic, makes them sound like any other Woodstock era American guitar band. Those vocal qualities need teasing out. In the flesh, singer Ryan Lamey really does have a delicate, not quite plaintive but slightly keening quality to his voice that made them, for me, the find of the night. I'm trying to find words to pigeonhole their genre. No, all I can say is if you like Lloyd Cole or even Elliott Smith you might like these.

Final support were Our Fold. A very competent rock band I'm sure. Well actually I'm not sure at all. It was my own fault for being perched on the barrier directly in front of the stage, but this lot were loud. And I mean loud - as in Spinal Tap's knobs go to 11, Our Fold must go to 12. The unfortunate effect was that I could hear the guitars through the stage monitors, but when the singer opened his mouth, I did not hear anything whatsoever. No vocals at all. Nothing. Actually he himself commented to a supporter in the audience that he thought he'd just gone deaf. So (a) not my kind of music anyway and (b) I just couldn't hear it. It genuinely made me quite worried for my hearing.

And on to Echobelly, or more accurately Sonya Aurora Madan and Glenn Johansson, who have anyway been the essential soul of Echobelly over the years.

Glenn did all the stage setup - that being two stools, two mics and one acoustic guitar, with all the time me rattling my head trying to get my hearing to readjust in time for something rather more unplugged.

Sonya waited in the wings until all was set and then came on to fairly rapturous applause.

It's hardly a new thing to go and see bands five, 10 or even 20 years later. Certainly I've done it and never given it a second thought. For Echobelly though I inevitably return to what it was that hooked me in the first place. Yes it was crunching guitars, yes it was those excellent pop hooks, yes it was thought-out lyrics, even if sometimes the politics in the early writings were so earnest as to be a bit risky. I mean for heaven's sake anyone who can work the words " half the population, 1% of wealth " really is deserving of awe. More than anything though, the thing that had the Echobelly hook into me back in the 90s was Sonya's voice. Back then I always thought it was just so archetypally English and, if not powerful in a Shirley Bassey kind of way, then certainly wide open, clear as a bell and full of confidence. That was what Echobelly had then. The risky thing was to see what Echobelly have now.

Sonya made quite a few telling comments. She told us that it was Echobelly's first ever acoustic gig, she told us that it was the first time they had played live in five years, but that they were looking for more. I'm pretty certain that she said it was the first time she had sung at all in five years, although that was a bit of an aside and perhaps poetic licence. She also said that she felt naked, and that I can understand.

Echobelly had obviously not been sitting in a time warp, as the set was a mixture of old favourites such as Cold Feet, Warm Heart but also new writing. One of these was second song of the night Word's Out.

There was a lot of love for Echobelly coming from the audience tonight. Sonya commented that she was quite touched to realise that her words were being sung back to her by the audience. I think she was almost surprised to still have devoted fans, but they were there singing every word and some even looking a tiny bit choked and emotional. Sonya's comment encouraged more, created a virtuous circle, so that by the time we got to Great Things it was more or less a singalong, that being no bad thing as that song has a fabulous chorus, empowering easy to remember. Sonya was very deliberate in her phrasing all night, she reminded me a little of a primary school teacher at times, making sure the kids get all the words.

They played maybe ten numbers, and when they finished, took the set list with them. I was close enough to half read it though, and they definitely cut it short by a couple of songs.

All of this leads me to the inevitable comparison of Echobelly then and Echobelly now. Bearing in mind that five year gap, my ears ruined from the support band, the fact that it was just two of them and an acoustic guitar and no studio polish, it bore up pretty damn well. Sonya's voice has changed and matured but it's still very much her. I have to say the voice went on the blink once or twice tonight which might well be why the set apparently got shortened and there was no encore. But overall, yes this was still very definitely Sonya Aurora Madan singing with her band Echobelly. Furthermore, it's a going concern, not one of those awful nostalgia things. I'm sure Sonya and Glenn are sitting somewhere making the same comparisons, and they should be reassured.

I'm looking forward to seeing what Echobelly do next. Don't leave it another five years, that's all!

A COUPLE MORE PHOTOS HERE

Originally published at ALTSOUNDS

.

A quick round up of my own personal Gig List - July 2009 on

the summer and autumn is shaping up!

Echobelly Manchester 9 July 2009 - got tickets inc 1 spare

St Vincent, Night and Day, MCR 13 July 2009 my first Photo pass - yay

THE NEAT, Polly Mackey & the Pleasure Principle Wrexham DDJY 22 July 2009

Grammatics at EVOL, Liverpool 22 July 2009 - maybe

Polly Mackey, Frog and Nightingale, Chester 25 July 2009 - maybe

Run Toto Run in Knutsford 22 August 2009 pretty definite, but no tickets yet

Florence ATM Manchester 25 September 2009 - got tickets! Family outing planned for that

The Joy Formidable, Garage, London 30 September 2009 - that's a definite maybe

Bat for Lashes 10 October 2009 Liverpool - got tickets! Another family outing

Bat for Lashes 14 October 2009 Manchester - - got tickets!

St Etienne 15 October 2009 Manchester - got tickets! Well, they're doing Foxbase Alpha, it's gotta be done

Editors / TJF at Manchester 16 October 2009 - got tickets!

... at which point I realised that I had accidentally booked 3 nights on the trot....

Passion Pit MCR 24 October 2009 - that's a maybe, trying to line up a photo pass

Los Campesinos Deaf Inst Mcr 26 October 2009 - haven't got tickets yet, must do so, it's a tiny venue for LC

Bleech, The Cavern, Liverpool 27 November 2009 - that's a maybe

I'm stealing someone else's comments here (apologies Mr Gray) but yes they do add to the sum total of human happiness

I've been knocked out every time I've seen this lot. It's a toss up between the first time I saw them producing that wonderful wall of fuzz in Wrexham, or tonight. I think tonight wins....

.... and for a few reasons. New songs, a longer set, no sense of "Oh, 30 minutes?" , a GREAT crowd, despite the gang of old duffers in the front row (that'd be us then), much better sound than in Wrexham.....

Rosie, Tim and Natalie went to see them in Birmingham 2 nights later and I think had just as good a time.

I'm convinced the time isn't far away when they will be huge and famous, and Matt won't have time to look at the photos on my camera, and Ritz won't be as easy to persuade to sign posters and CDs

Enjoy them while you can, and you'll be able to say "I knew them when....."

there's a couple more photos inc the set list at http://picasaweb.google.com/catshoe/TheJoyFormidableTheRubyLounge#

This was a bit of a special night. One of those where I really didn't want to go. Too much work on, a Monday night in a church in Salford, come on. So I went of course. Queued up outside with well dressed children and indie kids. Said hello to someone I always see at gigs. Got in, got sat down in a pew - 3rd row, 3rd in from the centre, not too shabby. What's this? Serving beer in church? And a really nice crowd. Getting better, glad by now that I'd made the effort

Support band, the fairly well-hyped Golden Silvers were OK but that's all, although they seemed a really really nice bunch of boys. Had a chat in the interval with another person I half know who has been kind enough to give me some photography help. He had a press pass and tonight, he had asked to sneak in early for some general shots and ended up being able to take a load of great photos of Florence pre-gig sitting on the steps etc. Didn't he do well? Add to which that he just won one of the free golden tickets for life from Joy Formidable and I begin to think I should ask him for lottery tips to go with the photography ones.
On to the main event. By now I was much more in the mood. Great sound in there. Like the lady herself said, she should insist that all her future gigs be in churches. We remained dutifully sat in pews for a tune or two until Florence said that we could stand up if we wanted - in fact why didn't we all come down the front? No need to ask twice; this was turning into a pretty special event. In fact Florence told us that this was the best night of the tour, but I wonder if she says that to all the boys? I was one of the audience in the palm of her hand right through to the closing number, her cover of You Got The Love which is by now one of her standards.
I've seen her before, opening on the NME tour and this was so much better. I don't even think her songs are that great in themselves. On the other hand the sense of event and enjoyment was all that it could be.
New rule - all gigs now have to be in churches in Salford on Monday nights.

pics at http://picasaweb.google.com/catshoe/FlorenceStPhilips#

According to Ritzy speaking in the bar afterwards, they were experimenting with the set tonight, expanding it ready for the main tour. According to the set list that I nicked off the stage, the second track was Hell House, which is new to me. I'm not sure if the set list is exactly what we got though...

Still not enough people there, despite Huw Stephens' excellent efforts with this Swn tour, diolch yn fawr iawn Huw, bendigedig. I'm frustrated on behalf of this band, Wrexham is 10 miles from home for two of them, there was a decent enough crowd but there should have been a lot more there.

I've got to say that keen as I am to support my local venue, the sound was harsh tonight, that big humungous box of speakers to the left of the stage has lots of volume, enough to shake your trouser legs, but that doesn't necessarily cut the mustard.

Anyhoo, good enough set, plenty of intensity, but I got the feeling that they ended frustrated. Certainly Ritzy flung her plectrum into the effects box as the left the stage. On the other hand it was her that made it out into the bar afterwards to chat enthusiastically with several of us (and autograph a poster for me).

The rest of the photos are on the link. I was messing around far too much with the new G10, I'm sure I'll get the hang of it eventually

http://picasaweb.google.com/catshoe/TJFWXM#

Excellent set from Scottish band. Never heard them before but will be looking to hear more of them. It's going to be folk-ish tinged but at times had a great coming together of coalescing sound. Sweet

More photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/catshoe/MyLatestNovel#

Kristin - one of those people that you are just going to have to go and see. I'm surprised in retrospect that I never made that flight over the Atlantic to the Brattle show, Lancaster was going to have to do for me. A bit of debate over how long it would take and a fairly quick 100 mile drive got us there in time to see the support (folk singers should only try to be funny if they are, err, funny, but pleasant enough) and get a decent spot in the audience. We surmised that 80% of the audience were in fact lecturers at the university? Well, it amused us. Last time (the only other time) I saw Kristin it was with a full band, including the lovely McCarricks, this time was just K and a very well loved Les Paul. When she sings, Kristin always shows such concentration, she is in her own space. In between though we were treated to the back story to a song about a blind schoolfriend rope climbing who was left hanging by her hands for 45 minutes, then given a medal for it. K told it much better than me, and yes, it was a funny story. The joy of PE class. Earlier, "Strange Angel" Tim, from Chester, got special mention as "the strangest angel of them all" which clearly pleased him. For those that don't know, this is the name for the people that subscribe to support the band, who do their utmost to plough a non-industry furrow via cashmusic.org. They show the highest ethics, which I hope gets returned. On the way home we discussed which records my friend Tom doesn't have and I offered to do him, y'know, an evaluation copy. "Oh no, that wouldn't be right" said Tom, he would properly buy and pay for anything he wanted. That's the kind of respect Kristin and Throwing Muses deserve.
The gig - being solo suits Kristin's intensity. Slippershell was introduced as a new song, but there was also older stuff. Someone shouted for Hips and Makers in the encore "What, the whole album?" asked K - oh yes please, that would be great. We got Cuckoo, which is always a lovely song. I will try and get my head round recalling exactly what was played, but for now, enough to say it was an excellent night. I still cannot imagine a situation where Kristin would tour and I wouldn't go and see them. My photos of varying quality (from my birthday present new camera) at http://picasaweb.google.com/catshoe/Kristin#

Thunder clouds of piano over electronica, a voice that goes from haunt to howl
Soap and Skin is the alter ego of a young Austrian lady named Anja Plaschg, who I personally find quite astonishing. A friend and I saw her last week in the modernist Union Chapel in Manchester. T wasn't that impressed, I was exhilarated. She is only 18 and I am convinced we are witnessing the start of a notable career. I love her album, which I find strangely comforting. I was surprised to see it on sale in Picadilly Records in Manchester a few weeks ago and even more so to find that it was their last copy - that it was sold out and waiting for new deliveries. Maybe it's a portent....

This is more or less verbatim as dictated into my camera straight afterwards - thought I'd try for the immediate reaction, so bear with me. I'm not reviewing the gig here necessarily in terms of how the band were, I'm more interested in getting over what it's like to be a fan and at times what it's like to be a middle aged bloke in the front row.
So .................................. what a sweaty girl! I guess if you're on stage you're gonna be. One of the factors of being in the front row (certainly tonight) was that Emily likes to shake hands, hold hands, high five. So I had my hand hung up as you do in the general direction and realised with a jolt that Emily was holding my hand for a few moments. She had a glittery cloth band round her wrist and that was just horribly, clammily soaked in sweat. Live it out, sweat it out. And all I could think was I hoped I didn't give them all my flu.
That's got to be one of the most punked up gigs I've been to in a while and that includes the Yeah Yeah Yeahs. Surprising we talked about this specifically beforehand and didn't think Metric were going to be that physical a crowd. I don't know why I thought that. Certainly I was chatting to a girl outside in the queue who for various reasons can't do rowdy crowds, or can't risk getting damaged in crowds and she thought Metric was going to be a safe gig for that. How wrong we were.
I've been reflecting on what I get out of this whole live music and partly I guess I'm a sort of 'willing addict' to the endorphins. Live music in itself also certainly switches something on for me.
Tonight thankfully i wasn't the only bloke, and not even the oldest bloke in the first few rows.
So what was the whole experience like? Got there early, 7-ish, fifth in the queue to get in. The Academy 3 is tiny. I counted up - how many people can you get shoulder to shoulder in front of the stage? Well - twelve to be precise, which ain't a lot. Sold out - good crowd. Young fan base. Quite a lot of Canadians in the audience, some wearing the national uniform of Westbeach sweatshirts, and giving it loads of "OMG, my friend in Toronto is just so jealous".
Support was unusually a DJ who came on the minute he was supposed to, and played lounge / jazz stuff. Was down to play for half an hour. He never said a word, played for 29.5 minutes, went off. Suppose he was alright. Then half an hour till Metric came on, so more records and those records were actually pretty good.
Metric came on stage bang on time, and yeah, there was just a huge rush. Josh, Jules, Jimmy, all brilliant, but there's a slight sense of you could have hidden just about anyone on stage with them, all eyes were on Emily. Moment marked by being drenched with beer thrown from behind, at least I hope it was beer. Ms Haines herself was both twee and pretty damn rock and roll at the same time. She was quite chatty during the set, asking the girls in the front row if her hair looked alright, as she hadn't got a mirror. The band seemed slightly confused where they were, London or Manchester, but they knew they were in the UK so that's OK. Set was as I've said on the loud side of things, very very energetic, helped at times by major strobe lights. Sound quality was not good, I put this down to being leant on the kick bins in front of the stage, but reading other reviews afterwards, others were not that impressed with sound either. That didn't matter too much because the crowd were absolutely mental, people trying to climb over us to get to the stage, got slightly crushed legs on that account but it's OK, that's what we were there for.
The band went on at 9.30 on the dot. After an hour or more they went off and there was only a very short interval before the encore. There seemed to be some slight but genuine debate on stage as to whether the audience were actually showing enough love in the form of applause and yelling and all that stuff to deserve the encore, but they inevitably came back out. They then played until maybe five minutes before the 11 o'clock curfew, so pretty good value.

Overall impression - just huge excitement, fabulous band, very very loud, absolutely in your face, I can't understand why they are not huge in the UK. I haven't got an exact set list but it was mix of new and older songs, culled from 3 albums. Best songs of the night were Help I'm Alive or Dead Disco, although Gimme Sympathy got huge audience participation as well.

And reading other reviews afterwards, I'm not the only one to come out with the 'punk' tag. Great minds, 'eh?

More photos at http://picasaweb.google.com/catshoe/MetricManchester#

I'm not sure just where I was up to with PJ Harvey. Certainly I had been a VERY committed fan in the past. I loved Uh Huh Her to death and was probably the only person in the Pitchfork reading world to do so. On the other hand White Chalk - well it was important and all that, and I enjoyed it, but it wasn't my go-to play. In fact I found myself listening to, if anything, the Peel Sessions CD. So how glad am I that Polly did this with John Parish, returning to what I, and perhaps others, see as a more roots, rock and roll era. And I would certainly have never got to see anything from Louse Point performed live.

We made a bit of pilgrimage of it, got into town early, quick burger which we took round and then sat on the steps of the Ritz from about 530pm with a couple of like minded souls. We got to see all of the band, JP included but minus PJ, nipping across the road for a pizza. We had bought tickets to pick up which almost proved a mistake as when the doors did open we had to endure the girl in the booth sorting out her handbag, then having a bit of a look for our tickets, then opening the envelope as slowly as humanly possible. I say 'almost' as we still made it up to the front row.

Howe Gelb was good, kind of reminded me vocally of Lou Reed circa Magic and Loss, albeit disguised as a farmer.

Polly and John were just lovely. All the males in the band apart from the drummer had fedoras on, so looked really classy. Polly was in a simple black dress with no shoes. I honestly thought to myself 'I hope they've swept the stage properly' as there was no carpet down for them, and lo and behold I could see her wincing and rubbing her foot, and at some point she had to sit down, Androcles like, to pick out the whatever it was. In fact she said 'there's no blood so I'll carry on'

It's funny that it was a joint effort, John Parish and Polly Harvey, yet from so many of the photos I've seen, you might think it was PJ Harvey alone up there. John looked happy, stoked even. PJ commented that she could see 'So many lovely, lovely, lovely faces' from the stage. Replay that with her Dorset accent in mind for a moment of minor magic.

We even had a bit of crowd trouble. Like I said, we were there very early. There were a couple standing right behind us who had also been queuing and that was fine until some person (a girl I think) decided to push in front of them and try and rip my daughter off the barrier and get herself to the front. That just wasn't going to happen with me there and R's partner as well, but this woman got really aggressive, to the annoyance of the couple stood behind us. The answer is, if you want to be in the front row, get there early. I took half a day's leave for this. Rant over. And the good thing was, that the security guy in front of the barrier saw it and gave this woman a verbal 'what for'

I was impressed with the band, nice to see Eric Drew Feldman up there. I wonder what's happened to Rob Ellis these days, he always seemed to be a constant in touring bands, till a couple of years ago anyway. I loved John's banjo playing and the ukulele, well, that had to be the most serious uke playing ever in the history of the instrument, seeing as it was used for 'The Soldier', a pretty serious song. Bizarrely, the staff at the Ritz must have been upset at how quiet and mesmerised the audience were for this song, so they made their own addition by emptying the glass skips. It made both PJ and JP laugh, such is life

Being very polite, she thanked the audience for clapping, so I piped up at salient point 'No, thank YOU!' which got a smile out of her.

Highlights for me? Rope Bridge Crossing, Un Cercle Autour du Soleil, The Soldier, 16, 15, 14 and Black Hearted Love, which they opened with. And Taut, did I dream that, did I really get to see that?

Anyway, it's clear your not going to get any objectivity out of me, infatuation re-established

more pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/catshoe/PJHarvey#

set list

01. Black Hearted Love

02. Sixteen Fifteen Fourteen

03. Rope Bridge Crossing

04. Urn With Dead Flowers In A Drained Pool

05. Civil War Correspondent

06. The Soldier

07. Taut

08. Un Cercle Autour Du Soleil

09. The Chair

10. Leaving California

11. Woman A Man Walked By/The Crow Knows Where All The Little Children Go

12. Passionless, Pointless

13. Cracks in the Canvas

14. Pig Will Not

Encores

15. False Fire

16. April

checking out whatever she'd stood on

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Punk is alive and well and inhabiting the body of Karen O. Sure there is a lot more polish since the early days. Sure the album has more synths than guitar, but it's about the attitude and the excitement.
Talk about excitement for a moment - I'm pretty cynical these days, aware of the whole thing, but when they came on stage and opened up, I just screamed like a good 'un.
I'm not going to dissect it too much more. I bounced around like it was 1977, managed to not lose my glasses and sweated till my shirt dripped.

Yeah Yeah Yeahs - Punk is alive and well

Karen looking....errr....scary in something between Mexican wrestler and gimp mask. Unfortunately also the best photo of the night as the mosh pit got messy after that

I was lucky enough to see the fabulous Natasha Khan and entourage on the opening night of the tour on my lonesome in Manchester on Tuesday night (7 April) and again with friends and family in Birmingham on Easter Sunday (12 April)

Manchester was at the Ritz - got there a bit last minute as it was a school night, but dived straight to the front and ended up about six rows back. Birmingham was a much more genteel affair at the Town Hall, seated right at the back of the circle, but also excellent in its own way, no jostling, just some muppets who wanted to talk all the way through. And people nipping out for a drink, so the whole row had to get up to let them pass. What's with that? Both of 'that' in fact...

School of Seven Bells (SVIIB to their friends) supported at both - they were just as good as last time I saw them in the much smaller Night and Day, I'm a fan for life. Full on rock and roll loud that is also somehow soothing. So Ben Curtis left the band he had formed with his brother to join up with two (twin) sisters. As an only child I suddenly feel slightly lacking. I feel the need to see them one more time. I just wish they were playing nearer to home again before they depart for the US again, but the Rainbow in Birmingham next month will just have to do. The best thing about them, apart from the fantastic noise of course? Ally's fabulous grin that just keeps breaking through, she just looks so stoked to really be there, on stage and in front of an audience.

We also had Caroline Weeks supporting in Birmingham. She is from the previous touring band incarnation of BFL and plays on the new album to boot. She also came back on to help out the full BFL band at the Birmingham gig.

At the first night in MCR, Natasha showed well, err, first night nerves and said so. She even dropped her glass with 'lots of whisky in it'. There is of course quite a deliberate magic about what she does - NME said we should expect her to arrive on a jewel encrusted unicorn. They are quite right about that, even if they are behind the times also telling us to expect 'lots of headbands'. When Natasha had technical problems with the piano (enough to put a lesser mortal off their stride) , someone shouted that maybe the piano was poorly? Natasha agreed that indeed must be the case, and asked everyone to wish really hard for it to get better. Which, with a moment's slight pause, everyone duly did. And guess what? The magic worked and the piano got over its minor illness. And who would expect any less? Wishes trump stage techs every time.

If the problems with the piano didn't put them off their stride, it certainly caused much impromptu changing around of the running order. The set list was an even split from the first album and the new one, although they were playing stuff from this album on the last tour. I was curious to see the new touring band, with Charlotte Hatherley (of Ash and solo fame). Great band, really worked well. One thing different from last time I saw them, when they were warming up to support Radiohead and had the old band. Well, that time round it seemed like musical chairs with who played what, where at the end of every song and several times during, everyone nipped onto a new instrument or gizmo. With the new band, it was much more fixed, although Charlotte was back and to on the piano and swapping guitar and bass.

So Manchester was magic, but by the time they got to Birmingham 5 days later, wow, things had really clicked. Hugely more confidence, and terrific presence even up there in the back row. By the end I was doing my best to dance in my seat and I wasn't the only one. We got a more or less solo version of Prescilla which I don't think Manchester got, and a completely re-worked Daniel, with Ben coming forward to accompany Natasha (just the two of them) on the sort of barrel organ that was last seen strapped to the back of a travelling preacher's wagon in the old west.

Two encores. After the first, they went off and loads of the audience were making that dash for the exit. I said to Tim to hang on - the house lights hadn't come up. Sure enough the band came back out, catching the crowd like a goal in injury time.

Natasha said there was only one thing left they could play, so they did. It was Daniel again, but this time the full rock and roll version with the whole band. I wonder if they had rehearsed that?

It would be difficult to say if either gig was "better" so I won't; both were magic in all senses of the word.

all pics up at http://picasaweb.google.com/catshoe/BatForLashesApril09#

SVIIB at Birmingham

Caroline Weeks at Birmingham

The excellent School of Seven Bells at the Manchester gig

Animal Collective, O2 Academy Liverpool

I really wanted to like this lot. I have to be the only person who reads Pitchfork who wasn't bowled over by the new album. I've realised that there's a huge difference for some bands live, so I thought it was well worth the ticket. But no, have to admit, the emperor's got no clothes, it did nothing for me. I managed to nod along, thinking that I was into it as much as, say, a randomly encountered Spanish fiesta. Ho hum

just a short clip to give the flavour - actually I'm amazed by how decent the sound is off the little camera. I am not one for video-ing whole gigs or even whole songs, but I'm always grateful to people who do

there are some much better vids of this gig than mine on youtube at

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOaCp9-_JD4
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MsJiNUUNFH8

Enjoyed this, they seemed really nice people, played for ages, got loads of stage presence, especially Juanita who is the obvious shining star in their firmament. She had a keen desire to climb up on the barrier and get close to her audience

I love the sign behind her, warning about crowd surfing. It'll get you thrown out, apparently

There was good sound quality, I thoroughly enjoyed it, it was difficult though for me to pull melody out of the music. It actually sounded more cohesive on the tiny bit of video I recorded. I think that may well just be lack of familiarity with the music, bearing in mind we were there mainly as TJF's middle aged fan boys and certainly I was new to Howling Bells. I've been listening to the album since and I think it's safe to say they have a new fan here.

Fourth time we've seen them now. Were blatantly cheeky enough to go and stake a place on the barrier. WOW - they were fantastic first time we saw them playing to 15 people in Wrexham, but they have just grown so much musically. Very hugely self assured, specially with a decent sized audience. I wasn't the only one mouthing along to the words either. Great sound on them tonight, although I have to say the Liverpool Academy is pretty 'enabling' in this respect. Matt has merged into the band really well, I don't think I've ever seen anyone hitting drums harder than he was tonight. He was a bit drunk afterwards, last night of the HB tour and all that.
The thing with this band is that they can play to an empty room and still give it 110% (believe me I've seen it) and I think this has enabled them to develop for themselves

Sorry, I seem to have missed Matt off the photos, or rather the ones with him on didn't come out that brilliant. They had the drums set off to the right

Microwave engaged! I was dead curious to find out what they were up to, even shouted to ask Rhydian when they were setting it up but don't think he heard. They very carefully miked it up, and then set it going towards the end of the last song. Can't say I could make it out, but was stood right in front of the bass bins anyway

Rhyds whacked the drum so hard at this point that the stick split, flew through the air and impaled itself into metal mesh of the crowd barrier where my mate Tom promptly retrieved it as a souvenir. Honestly, I could have been well and truly impaled by a drum stick!

Ritzy leant her guitar up there, no repeat performance of it standing up on its own like in the JD vid. Actually I noticed she now has 2 guitars on stage, although the new one is hardly, err, new

Overall, fabulous performance. It was great to see tee-shirts and CDs heading out of the merch stall .

Matt / Rhyds were having a bit of a chat afterwards and there is suggestion of some own tour headlining in May. Just don't clash with Metric or I'll never forgive you.

Cheers guys

First band up tonight were Chew Lips. Electronics and a girl singer, a few of these around so it must be hard to stand out from La Roux (who I saw the night before) or Little Boots, or Appaloosa, or... or...

But I think they DID stand out. Tigs (the singer) was in sharp contrast to Joy Formidable in that she really really needed the audience. She commented that she had never played to such an empty hall - although it filled up nicely once they got playing. Tigs also commented to the audience "You're not sure about us yet, are you?", but like I say it started to cook a lot better. Last but one number she climbed over the barrier into the crowd, great stuff. And funny, as the barrier there has something like steps on the band side so easy enough to get over but, bless, she couldn't get back.

Yup, if your tastes run to girl fronted electronica (which mine does) then these are well worth listening to.

They've just about got their debut 7" out on Pure Groove http://www.puregroove.co.uk/itemview.aspx?item=786 It's a band signed single for 4 quid, can't be bad. I really appreciate Pure Groove and what they are doing to promote new bands

Lily knew I was there tonight and would have my best specs on, so wore these as an homage

Hmm, Lily Allen, what to say?

Great night out with the family.

I can't say I'm as struck with the new album as most of the critics. There seem to be too many 'novelty musical styles', although I think 'The Fear' is phenomonally good.

I'm not being carpy, I DO like this girl and what she stands for, but I have her down as an entertainer rather than a 'serious artist' whatever TF that might be. Tonight was sort of self fulfilling in that respect as the numbers were belted out in a slightly monotone 'belt'. Dsepite having listened to the first album 'like a zillion times' I had real difficulty telling which song was which. Maybe it was just me. So enjoyed it, hugely, just didn't come away thinking Lily was the next Kim Gordon. Encore was 'Smile', 'The Fear' and a cover of 'Womaniser' which was a giggle

Good but overpowered by a big audience waiting for their heroine. Will be playing smaller venues soon on an NME tour, will be well worth checking out then

I have only been to the Night and Day once before but I had certainly worked out how it is really crushed by the bar but tends to open out by the stage. Which meant that by the time the headliners were on, I was literally leaning on the stage front with my knees jammed into the speaker bins.

I didn't see much of the first support band Apache Beat, so no comment except that they were exciting in a CBGB's sort of way. Which is a good thing

Next up were Kyte. I don't really know them except from their trading re-mixes with Joy Formidable, so I kind of already liked them by association. Friends of friends if you like. So I admit I had a kindly pre-disposition, but I liked this lot. The vocals were kind of....fey....but not in a bad way. Perhaps sensitive is more the word. I could imagine him successfully covering Amy Millan songs. And how he fought with that silver Elvis-style mic. Will have to listen to their recorded stuff some more

School of Seven Bells are, I have to admit, right up my particular street. Female harmony vocals that wouldn't be out of place in a Paisley Underground setting, sitting on top of an east coast post-rock dance groove. Works for me...

There was some delay while they got the sound sorted at the start. I have to say I had been watching the sound techs and thinking it must be a bit of a leap of faith turning up at random venues across the world, plugging your kit into theirs and hoping it will work. It did, eventually.

SVIIB were just totally fine. I've thought about this for days and I really don't want to make up words for the sake of it. If your likes are anywhere between Ladytron and Mazzy Star with a healthy dollop of fuzz, you'll love these. I was standing right up close and what struck me was the BIG smile that kept coming up on Alejandra's face. They just looked so stoked to be here in sold out club in "Manchester England"

Looking forward now to seeing them supporting Bat for Lashes next month. They are also supporting White Lies in the UK with a brief nip to Australia before heading back for more live dates in the States. They are looking like one of 2009's hardest working bands so I hope Claudia's voice holds up

getting the sound sorted at the start

Alejandra Deheza

Claudia Deheza

School Of Seven Bells. 27 Feb 2009, Manchester Night and Day Cafe

School Of Seven Bells. 27 Feb 2009, Manchester Night and Day Cafe

Ben Curtis explaining that Claudia's voice is a bit knackered tonight. As a result we only got one encore and Ben was suggesting they 'just turn the reverb up' on Ally's voice. Sounded fine to me

Kyte 27 Feb 2009, Manchester Night and Day Cafe

There is a tremendous amount of hype around Emmy right now, and it looks like she has played a blinder in terms of keeping her album till the right moment, getting the tour right and all those things. It IS about managing the buzz just as much as having something decent to say and play. And I guess it was the buzz that got Tom and me along there on a Tuesday night

I haven't been to the Ruby Lounge before. As a venue it gets 9/10 - There is a great downstairs where it all opens out at cellar level. It's a tiny bit cramped around the stage with a couple of badly placed pillars. There's a crush barrier and then the stage at floor height, which made me immediately think 'zoo' and said so to Tom. Which is really funny because Emmy said exactly the same thing from the other side of that barrier. But a NICE venue, 350 capacity for gigs, great vibe, great happy friendly staff

The support - God's Little Eskimo was rather more than a twee folky bloke who sang most of his songs about the sea. I really liked the way he built things on stage with sound loops and layers. Next up Younghusband were a pretty good band for the night, a nice injection of rock-ish-ness. They probably just needed a tiny bit of focus, but already have some engaging sub-pop-nirvana-ish strangled vocals

So Tom and I haven't driven all the way there to stand at the back. As soon as the support go off and there is all that on-stage jiggery-pokery to be done, we go and stand behind the peeps that are already there, so about two rows back.Unforunately the guy in front of us had his hair done by Side Show Bob, and his girl had obviously been so impressed that she decided on imitation.... so we were close to the stage but not a totally brilliant spot. And while we're still waiting Tom decides to get rid of our two beer bottles. There's a kind of unspoken convention that provided you've left someone there to keep your place, you can get back through the crowd to where you were. Not tonight though, this group of about 6 girls who had got there after us - delayed I think by visits to the beer shop - decided they weren't going to let Tom back through. "You're too tall, you should stand at the back. We're huge fans" so we're not already? - Anyhoo, we didn't argue too much, I stepped back as well and we ended up being able to see much better anyway now that Side Show Bob was off to one side. And these real huge fans? Spent the whole gig chatting to each other. You know who you are, girl in red dress.....

And how was Emmy? Well, I was impressed. She is quite quiet, not in her voice but in her demeanour. And incredibly self-assured. I could only describe it as like all the girls I knew when I was 17 who went to local girls' public school (that's English for dead posh) and just knew the world lay at their feet. She obviously expected an informed audience. At one point she said "Did you see what I did there? It should go 'fill your head with memories and I sang it as memory, like a computer'.." Er, OK..

The band were very tight considering they all seem to be in other bands. One song sounding like they were all jamming to their own tune then kind of miraculously coalesced at just the right moment. Nice.

And it was all almost very engaging. I enjoyed what I recognised from MySpace and the hastily iTunes'd album. Standout was probably "we almost had a baby" which is also IMHO quite funny. She does one song which is an homage to Hallelujah, but also nicks the riff (if you can describe anything by Leonard Cohen as having a riff). Is that valid? Can you nick the riff? or the sentiment? or is that a cover version? Don't know, but I liked it anyway.

She ended by thanking people who knew all the words, which wasn't us. I'm still yet to be convinced what it is about Emmy that'll lift her beyond all the other Amys and Anyas, but it was a decent enough night out

so what's coming up?

I've come to the conclusion that this is what I do instead of watching football or rugby. That's my excuse anyway

Anyhoo, this is what seems to be in the offing, bearing in mind that I'm not ACTUALLY going to All Tomorrow's Parties even if it is curated by the lovely and (almost) unmissable Throwing Muses

20 February The Joy Formidable promoted by HED at the Mad Ferret in Preston
OK, so this would be the 4th gig of theirs that I've been to. Just have to see how we feel by Friday, Preston ain't really that far. It's a free gig with 4 bands, TJF are headlining

www.myspace.com/hedmagazine
http://www.themadferret.com/

Tues 24 February - Emmy the Great at the Ruby Lounge in Manchester
I ain't got tickets for this, and it's mid-week. But I'm already regretting missing her in Liverpool due to a work social that TBH I would not have missed either. So if I've got rid of this stupid hacking cough by then and I can persuade someone else they want to see her as well...

Friday 27 Feb School of Seven Bells at Night and Day Manchester
I have ticket for this already. Looking forward to this, loving the new album muchly. It turns out I'm going to be seeing them twice as they are supporting Bat For Lashes in April. Be nice to contrast the 2 gigs. I like the Night and Day, ace little venue
www.myspace.com/schoolofsevenbells

Sunday 15 March Lilly Allen in Manchester Family outing, tickets already bought. Support for this is LaRoux so that's great. We'll be there early and queue for a decent spot. It's sold out now and the minute they were, tickets started going up on Seatwave for £65 for £19 tickets. I will not repeat what I think of ticket profiteers. Not in writing anyhow...

Monday 16 March The Joy Formidable supporting Howling Bells
In fact it's a national tour for Howling Bells who are a bit of a favourite of mine as well. Just checking out TJF's myspace they have 23 gigs listed between now and mid-May. Hope they enjoy life on the road as much as they claim to
http://www.myspace.com/thejoyformidable

Thurs 26 March Animal Collective at the Academy, Liverpool. This was originally being put on by EVOL (who are promoting some great nights at Korova in Liverpool - they were responsible for getting Le Corps Mince de Francoise there. Now that's a group worth seeing again....)

I think it became apparent just how popular this is going to be - recent dates in Manchester sold out in a trice. So it's been moved to the Academy and we have a couple of tickets - safe.

Weds 1 April POLAR BEAR, DIRTY PROJECTORS and LUCKY DRAGONS at the Mint Lounge in Manchester. I haven't bought tickets for this...yet.

Tues 7 April Bat For Lashes, Manchester. I can't imagine anyone more worth seeing. I'm still struck by just how nice a person Natasha is, having time to spend time with fans after the gig in Liverpool last time round. Supported by School of Seven Bells so that's good. Ticket already bought...

Thurs 16th April Rolo Tomassi wt Grammatics & Pulled Apart By Horses
at Central Station, Wrexham. Well slap me with a wet fish, that's an amazing thing. Rolo Tomassi in Wrexham! Is Wrexham ready for the noise attack this will involve?

Friday 24 April PJ Harvey and John Parish, at the Ritz, Manchester
We made Tim stay home from work and be on the interweb at 0900 when the tickets went on sale. They actually lasted a few days but are well and truly sold out now. I am really looking forward to seeing what the two of them will come up with. It could be Louse Point MkII but knowing Polly I would not bank on a repeat of anything any time at any point in her musical life

Saturday 23rd May. Kristin Hersh playing at the Library in Lancaster........really...

In fact quite a few people have played there before, not least the aforementioned Bat For Lashes. Still, Kristin, in a library, just how cool is that? It really was a toss up whether to make a bid for ATP just to see the Muses, but at £150 and no-one else being minded to go with me, it would have taken a lot of resolve. So this is a fabulous chance to see the wonderful wonderful Kristin. I was just now watching video of the Manchester show in March 2007. I was actually at the gig the night before in Sheffield, with my son. I can't quite believe it was 2 years ago. This has the potential to be REALLY special

Monday 1 June Florence and the Machine at St Phillips Church in Salford. Having seen her recently at the NME shindig, this just had to be done, even if I have to go on my own. Ticket bought, a mark of commitment I think.

Oooh, that looks like a spring / early summer to look forward to, till it all goes quiet due to everyone being out at all the festivals. I don't really do festivals, although there is always IndieTracks........ and the Green Man........

I want to listen to Lily Allen but I CAN'T STOP listening to Crystal Castles. It's taken control of my headphones.....

Morning

My current fave band The Joy Formidable have put their whole new CD up for free download if you're at all interested. You know the ones - two of them come from North Wales, going to be huge, much praised in the music press, really do deserve to play to more than 100 people.
I just had an email back and to with their Mgr, Joel, and the free download was a decision they came to. Of course they hope to get more people to go to gigs, buy tee shirts, limited editions etc. It was already up for free on loads of blogs anyway and like he said trying to stop that is like trying to get pee out of a swimming pool

Knock yourselves out and tell me whether you like them as much as I do

http://www.nme.com/blog/index.php?blog=122&p=5719&more=1&c=1&tb=1&pb=1

UPDATE - link has now gone. You can get 5 tracks for free from a link via myspace but if you want the whole album, you'll have to pay for it. It's more than worth it for Ostrich which isn't on the free download

Having missed Florence and the Machine on her own recent tour (boo hiss), I was right glad to see she was doing the NME Awards tour (yay). The Manchester show sold out straight away (boo hiss again) but luckily they realised they had missed me out and put on another night just for me (yay again). I met fate half way and bought a ticket. Was I mad to buy a ticket to this whole thing - White Lies, Friendly Fires and Glasvegas - just to see the much hyped Florence? Who knows, but White Lies get my vote for taking JoyFormidable out on the road with them, and in recent years I've got round to the idea of seeing bands I just don't know and sometimes 'we just click'.

So I'll do the bands in some sort of random order, as they stack up in my mind.

White Lies - nice lads, not quite my thing, but great fun. Interesting to see a band whose debut has just gone in at number one. Actually someone who should know was telling me how much investment there is from the record company behind them. I can believe it, the back cover ads in Q and all that stuff. I was close enough up front to feel the excitement, but that was it, a one night stand for me.

The band I knew least about were Friendly Fires. I still know nowt about them, except for one thing. That one thing is - they completely blew me away. What did I make of them? I was quite surprised actually by the slap bass and the jazz funk undertone. That coupled with with a drummer and a bass player who played more drums, a whirling singer with a his sleeves rolled right the way up tight, and a certain mad dance attitude - well yeah. I'm still a bit dazed. Stand aside Justice and Metronomy, this is what you should be aiming for.

Glasvegas were the headliners. By now they have their 'faithful' and are pretty magic, just not my kind of magic. That anthemic distinctly Scottish vibe had me first time round with Big Country. Sorry, don't wish to insult either party, they're both fine bands that I might well be mad keen on in other circumstances.

And Florence Welch and her Machine? In my catshoe mind these were definitely the biggest hugest highlights despite being the openers. Florence just has monstrous attitude and energy. Legs adorned by nothing more than a large bruise. Jumping out of trees again? Mad hair. Actually it seemed like half the audience had mad red hair to match, don't know if it were wigs or henna or she just gives confidence to a sometimes maligned trichological minority. Fabulous in any event. Florence was wearing a short leather dress that seemed to be made out of slits, most cool in both senses. And you gotta respect any band that has a harp on stage. The new ethos of rock'n'roll, I think that's three harps I've seen in the last year. Florence has some excellent songs. She can be pretty much blues in her delivery, but with loads of range and variety. As I've already hinted, the biggest thing is attitude and energy. D'you know, in guilty moments I can imagine that I'm some sort of sci-fi creature drawing on the life force of all these young bands. Well, maybe that's an exaggeration.... The biggest crowd excitement tonight was for Kiss with a Fist and set-closer Dog Days. Right through from the opening drum thwack which bounced a whole heap of glitter off the drum skin, past Florence climbing down to serenade a young blonde thing in front of me, to that closing note of Dog Days, she had the lot of us. Not bad for gig openers on an awards tour I think. I'm looking hugely forward to seeing her own gig in Manchester in June.

Here's a link to Florence joining White Lies on stage for Unfinished Business. Florence has posted the link on her own blog as well http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FxjAjogSOhw

Glasvegas, White Lies, Friendly Fires

NME Awards Show, Manchester, 7th Feb 2009

Excellent gig at the Magnet in Liverpool on Friday. Nice club in Hardman Street, like their blurb says it's well out of the rat-run of hen nights etc but is still a lively enough bit of town. The club itself is interesting. A bar with booths upstairs and then a basement with a stage. It used to be called the Sink Club and has a proud history as a pioneering black music venue. Good history, good vibes but bloody freezing upstairs. Just for a change I was not driving so I had a few beers. I'm a real lightweight when it comes to booze so it was an interesting perspective to see TJF with a 'beer drunk soul'

Support band on were nice enough boys - they seem to have had great things behind them but still had mums and dads with them. Some good moments actually. Anyone know who they were? I'm not being clever saying that, I can't find it anywhere unless they are really called 'Plus Support'

And onto our heroes. Totally on form. It's the third time I've seen them and it seems like whatever / wherever they play, they give 110% The Magnet had just enough people in there to make a decent crowd. Said crowd were interested enough in the band when they came on, but it seemed like at a certain point in the first song, people stopped half listening and gave it their full attention. There was certainly a push to the front, filling up that 'too cool for school' space in front of the stage.

New drummer Matt added a distinctive dimension. I'm not a big drum head but I certainly knew the difference. You could hear that thing he added without it being overwhelming.
I read that at a recent gig (Wilmington?) Ritzy took her feedback antics out into the audience. Tonight she contented herself with falling over but stayed on stage. Still she's young enough to find it funny rather than painful.
Like I say, third time I've seen them and still wowed with that feedback fuzz, and with that excitement inducing, intense look Ritz gets while delivering the vocals. Still time for a bit of joshing with Rhydian though. I think the tease is that he's going to 'interfere with her guitar playing'. Hmmm
There was a bit of a litmus test, we took along a couple of people who had never heard anything of the band before. They've both got enough history to know what they are talking about. Scott enjoyed it but rightly pointed out that they were only just getting going when they stopped. Yes, I can see that, we need to crank them up to three quarters of an hour on stage. And Dave? Oh, I think he's won over.
We had the obligatory chat afterwards, what nice people they are. Their 7" of Cradle is now out, although they have a week's delay getting it to those who have pre-ordered. Also just about ready, but already sold out on pre-order, is their 8 track CD. I think the only way to get a copy now would be to get to the in-store at Pure Groove in London on 17th Feb

Looking forward now to seeing them supporting Howling Bells in March - although they still have other live dates between now and then - see http://www.myspace.com/thejoyformidable

UPDATE - Just seen on myspace that yes, the whole run did sell out on pre-order, but yes again, they are doing a reprint, although it may not have the same artwork package.

Here's a win-win thing - Neko Case, when not recording on her own or with the New Pornographers, appears to be a bit keen on animal welfare. To such an extent that she is giving away the first single from her forthcoming album Middle Cyclone, which is due out in March. The single is 'People got a lotta nerve' which seems pretty darned nice on first listening. Very pleasant indeed (I can just hear myself saying this, and it is coming out in the voice of Terry Wogan, eeek)

The deal is for everyone that re-posted the link, Neko will donate $5 to Best Friends Animals Society which is I think a fairly local-to-her version of the RSPCA. This is like the current trend to give away music taken one stage further - they will not only give it free but pay to charity for anyone that'll take the darned stuff away. Neko has a sufficient reputation for her ethical stance that I am in no way suspicious of this - face value I reckon. Anyhoo, better get this posted before the deadline in a couple of days

here's the link for the download
http://www.anti.com/media/download/708

and here's the link to her website so you can watch her video about the charity. There's no compulsion or anything, we've already got the five bucks by posting the link
http://www.antilabelblog.com/?p=1301

You know I normally avoid downloads of the the 'argggghhh Jim lad' variety, so knock yourselves out with this one

Friday 23 January 2009
Club Evol Liverpool

Now look where MySpace gets you... In fact there are people in my MySpace (or is it just 'my Space'... no, that sounds just wrong) and I don't know where they came from. Yes I know, I must have 'accepted' them as 'friends', but where did they come from? How did we get to, er, meet? I have no idea. And some of them are truly worth having found. Oh yes, it's coming back to me, 6 degrees of indie separation, got from Ladytron to Korova (the club in Liverpool) to Evol who put on club nights there, to someone on their list by name of LE CORPS MINCE DE FRANÇOISE. And they sounded 'interesting' - for which read somewhere between indie and dance, and with girl singer, in fact all three of them are girls, and from Finland. What more do you need?

So, although their songs on MySpace are good, I'd only given them a brief listen, and it was more or less a stab in the dark to get myself over to Liverpool.

Sat through supports of varying goodness.
First up were A CUP OF TEA. These were actually pretty great. Two lads with keyboards and a MacBook each, and very listenable. Inevitable comparisons with Kieran Hebden, but that's no bad thing they stood well up to my mental comparison. Will add them to MySpace and watch. Oh, can't find them on MySpace - they musn't exist. Oh, hang on, found 'em now www.myspace.com/acupofteaforyouandme
So next up must have been YOUR ATTENTION PLEASE. Standard lad rock. OK, not my thing, so that's all I'll say
Then the quite strange and slightly wonderful MELODIE DU KRONK who seemed to make a thing of sexual politics. Well if you must introduce yourselves as 'Liverpool's premier lesbian interest band'. Slight tinge of novelty / cabaret / vaudeville (others might say freak / buggy) with moogs and trumpets and stuff. And got joined on stage for final disco number which was so good I've emailed them to ask more

....and onto the main act LE CORPS MINCE DE FRANÇOISE. While they were setting up, most of the audience on maybe 100 - 150 had gone upstairs to the bar. The 3 girls seemed competent but nervous. Another MacBook on the stage, LOL to see it getting gaffer taped to an upturned beer crate. Some faffing, the audience returned, the band started, and wow, how they started. Nerves gone, singer (I don't know which one is called what) totally wild eyed, jumping up and down, like a punked up cross between MIA and Lovefoxx but just with huge amounts of energy. Yes they get that CSS comparison a lot, maybe lazily based on 'foreign all girl dance band'. This lot are different but have done their own thing with Bitch of the Bitches which is a re-hash of the CSS song so they have themselves to blame. And that kitsch rapping in English as a second language with a Finnish accent just helps. The other two in the band (which two are sisters? I don't know) are on keyboards and guitar and are much more grunged up in look and attitude. This is a long way from the bedroom acoustic stuff which is where I think they came from. I recognised Ray Ban Glasses but in a much rawer form. And another one they said was new for the tour sounded at least as good as Ray Ban which shows they ain't a one trick pony. The audience warmed up pretty damn spontaneously, crowded up to the tiny stage (funny to see people's feet walking about through the street window above the bands head, this being in a cellar). And considering none of us can really have been closet obsessive fans, people seemed to get switched onto the whole thing pretty damn quick. Much jumping from all three of them on stage, and the crowd getting pretty frenzied too. I love it when you don't know the words. Are they in fact singing 'we're only in it for the hot dudes'?

They just got better through their set. Totally justified getting myself over to see them. Disappointed at no encore but at this stage of their career, they can't have that much repertoire.

They have got more dates in the UK, including supporting the Wombats on the current NME shows up and down the country, so if you get half a chance they are more than worth it.

The photos just don't do justice to the energy on these three

www.myspace.com/lecorpsmincedefrancoise

Friday 23 January 2009
Club Evol Liverpool

Catshoegazing

Saturday, 6 February 2010

Saturday, 30 January 2010

Thursday, 31 December 2009

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Sunday, 4 October 2009

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Sunday, 30 August 2009

Altsounds Q&A Interview: Emily Haines of Metric

When we all met we just had this idea of “let’s fuck things up”, in a friendly way. A friendly 'Fuck You'.

August 30, 2009, 12:39 AM

Knutsford 22 August 2009

Saturday, 29 August 2009

"Excuse me blonde lady is that for real?"

Monday, 3 August 2009

Sunday, 2 August 2009

Saturday, 25 July 2009

Thursday, 23 July 2009

Tuesday, 14 July 2009

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