when skinny jeans happen to indie wannabes...

Gig: The Films, Bar Academy Islington, 15 december 2006.

So, this gig was kind of a random decision to attend... the tickets were cheap, I was in town anyways, and the idea of catching the kooks’ opening act on the recent leg of their european tour at a tiny venue didn’t seem like a bad deal to me (afterall, the noisettes, brooklyn, and second sex were brilliant opening acts for them in paris this spring).

The bar academy, however intimately small the venue may be, was like a commercial, overpriced, polished version of la flêche d’or and the crowd reflected that - slightly pretentious, slightly underaged OR old and pervy (very few joined me among the in-betweens :S ) It definitley wasn’t my scene on the night and unfortunately, the music didn’t make up for it...

If there ever was a band that is not ready to headline, The Films must be it. Their sound wasn’t necessarily bad, but there was just no edge to it, nor to their performance. The little jumps, the ‘rolling-on-the-floor-while-still-playing-my-guitar’ bit have been done before, have been seen before, and only show the complete lack of originality of the band. Despite my numerous brushes with mediocre gigs over the years, nothing ever really prepared me for the complete blandness of this particular gig.

The question that did arise from The Films’ little 35 minute attempt at a headlining show was: does american indie pop/rock work? Yes, The Killers are fab and we all know it, but apart from them, american bands never seem totally sincere when they attempt the typically british indie sound and image. Or maybe that is exactly the problem: the killers seem to have their own take on the indie rock rhythms and beats while many others from across the pond just sound like they are trying to be something they are not. It’s a shame really, because american bands do not need to copy the likes of the libertines or arctic monkeys to be popular over here. Like, look for example at the strokes, cold war kids, clap your hands say yeah, BRMC, death cab for cutie, scissors for lefty, we are scientists (trust me, I could keep going for a while...) – all brilliant bands who deserve all the success and critical acclaim they have received in europe because they, in their own little ways, bring something new and unique to the table.

The Films are proof that indie-sounding guitar riffs and the accompanying image of bed-hair and skinny jeans do not guarantee note-worthy music. And oh my god, learn that just like not all girls can pull off wearing skinny jeans, neither can all guys in bands!!!! If there ever was a band that is not built to wear skinny jeans, The Films must be it. So drop the wannabe image, get over the fact that you are from colorado and south carolina, not leeds or manchester, and produce some original material and I see no reason why you couldn’t be headlining another european tour sometime in the future... I will make sure I catch you at la flêche d’or should that happen.

New breed of post-punk gorgeousness...

The Duke Spirit, ICA, 13 december 2006

Every once in a while, a gig comes along that completely surprises you and makes you remember why you couldn’t ever live without music and why music is vastly superior when it’s live...

...this was one of those gigs.



Walking to charing cross after the gig, I wondered if maybe superior gigs is a London thing. Does london somehow provide the perfect setting for the best gigs? After a bit more thought and flashbacks of Alien Ant Farm’s crap effort @ Brixton Academy in 2002, I think that perhaps I’ve just lucked out when it comes to london gigs this year. Wolfmother were out-of-this-world bloody brilliant @ the Astoria in july. Was any band really gonna impress me as much as they did? Well, apparently yes. And apparently that band was The Duke Spirit.

But before that, we had to endure the opening act, Congregation. My first reaction to them? “wtf?” All they managed to do was leave me wondering as to whether or not this was proof that British country music exists? (and I personally seriously hope there isn’t a genre and a significant market out there... leave it to the americans, they do it properly anyways)

The opening act was followed by the usual equipment set-up and while this was going on, we were treated to some danish musical representation: The Raveonettes’ ‘attack of the ghost riders’ featured in the DJ’s collection. Wooohooo for that!! :)

The next hour (yes, they actually played a full hour!) was pure rock genius. The Institute of Contemporary Arts seemed an unlikely venue at first but it turned out to be perfect setting for a unique, artistic, and incredibly creative rock band. Usually, my taste in music is stupidly predictable (anything with a drum intro, heavy base-line, catchy guitar riff, and one or more band members with big curly hair is bound to catch my interest) but yet these guys completey floored me – amazing energy, wicked beats, and brilliant vocals. The effortless cool of liela moss (yes, she definitely deserves the PJ harvey comparisons) puts her right up there with charlotte cooper in my books.



This was mature indie with intrigue and classic rock and blues elements that left the entire room bopping their heads from start to end and me rememebering bands like sonic youth and my bloody valentine who don’t (but should!) feature in my CD collection. Perhaps I’ve been in contact with a bit too much indie pop recently but if there was ever a band to put me back on track, this was probably it...

Sometimes I think you need to be reminded what live music is all about and with the duke spirit, I was. Gigs should be like this, all the time and every time but since they are not, I love the fact that gigs like this one comes along every once in a while. because, imagine if every gig was like this - then it would be so much harder to tell the truly fabulous and talented bands from the rest of them. London doesn’t make the difference, the band does. So for now, all I can hope is that it won’t be another 5 months before I get to another out-of-this-world live show. Edinburgh, the challenge is on...

sometimes bad hair happens to brilliant bands...

The Pigeon Detectives, cabaret voltaire, 10 december 2006.

Some gigs just get off to the oddest starts... this was definitely one of those gigs. Had to show ID at the door and was then given a wristband that would have to be shown at the bar in order to get served... yes, it was also one of those gigs. Once inside, however, I was pleasantly surprised that it wasn’t packed with 14 year olds, flashed my funky paper wristband at the barman, got my pint and headed onto the floor to catch the opening act, living in hope that they were some major undiscovered talent...

...they were not.

It was a shame really because they nowhere near managed to create an atmosphere. Their major flaw, apart from the bland guitar-pop sound they decided to perform for us, was their equally bland attempt at an image. Preppy (posh public school style, not The Ordinary Boys pseudo-posh style) didn’t work. Not for me, definitely not for them.

Their lead singer then did the all-too-familiar MySpace talk (we know you are on MySpace! All bands are on MySpace!! I’M even on MySpace!!! Please just drop the constant self-promotion…) and, when introducing another song, says that he sometimes forgets the song titles... what kind of band are you if your lead singer can’t remember the names of your songs??!! I couldn’t figure out if he was trying to be funny but by then I was so bored of them I couldn’t care less and abandoned their rather poor effort and headed to the bar.

Another gig at cabaret voltaire, another random mix of tunes to fill the time between the bands on stage. No robbie this time but instead we were treated to some heavy-metal tracks... at least it was better than the first band.

Apparently, impromptu booing is a rather effective way to bring a band on stage because right as the crowd started getting rowdy, The Pigeon Detectives are on!

1st thing I’m struck by: the 2nd guitarist’s bowlcut – impressed that someone is trying to pull that off just 10 years after it was the equivalent of today’s indie curls in my 6th grade class. Fortunately, the hair isn’t the only thing working in this band’s favour (although I do prefer the lead-singer’s chosen hairstyle to the bowlcut…) and their non-stop energy, catchy songs, and microphone swinging antics set them a cut above a lot of the up-and-coming indie bands I’ve seen over the past year and a half.

I really wanted The Pigeon Detectives to impress me before I went to the gig and I have to love them for managing to do so. Without gushing about these 5 Leeds lads too much, expect them to be The View of early 2007. and if they haven’t been featured on an MTV2 tour during the next 6 months or don’t grace the stage of a few major summer festivals, I think it’s time to head to MySpace and start the hype... (good thing I feel confident such drastic measures won’t be necessary and we’ll all avoid the ‘the new arctic monkeys’ references that everyone can happily live without)

throw your arms in the air for the chav-rock revolution...

gig review: the sunshine underground, cabaret voltaire, november 21 2006

NME loves them. That, right away, makes me doubt their musical promise. The NME notoriously backs a hell of a lot of posers (im not taking away credit for those brilliant bands that NME has helped along the way, there is just far between those with originality and serious long-term potential) so is it really any wonder I had my doubts about a yorkshire-based indie-dance band that has been referred to as leeds’ answer to hard-fi?

Ready to be proven wrong, I didn’t exactly get off to the best start with the sunshine underground. There is really nothing worse than showing up late to a gig. It’s even worse when the one song that made you sit up and take notice of the band when you first saw the video and heard it on mtv2 months prior is the second song of the set and you almost miss it while fighting your way through the crowd for a decent spot. But it didn’t take away from the energy created by ‘put you in your place’ which soon had most of the room dancing about while screaming along to ‘I JUST DON’T THINK I’M COMING D-O-O-O-O-WN!’ yes, mr wellington, we hear you loud and clear! (and I can’t believe I almost missed it…)

The next 35 minutes are spend in the same gear – we get the guitars, we get the fab base-lines and we get all that happy mondays/the rapture/kasabian sounding gold that makes the sunshine underground work. And while their stuff does sounds exactly like their recordings, there is no denying that ‘commercial breakdown’ is absolutely class and provides us with a real arms-in-the-air moment worthy of NME’s praise...

The sunshine underground can entertain a crowd, no doubt about that, but there is too little variety in their sound for my liking (unlike those southern staines-boys they have been compared to). But if nothing else, their hoodies+jeans+white trainers definitely conjure up images of hard-fi and while their music isn’t quite up to the same standard, they will undoubtedly have the ‘yawksheer’ natives on their side should they ever find themselves in a good old-fashioned funk/ska/pop brawl over which band has the whitest trainers...

I think that with this band, you just have to take it as it comes – their long-term potential remains to be confirmed but if hard-fi started this genre of rock’s revolution, the sunshine underground are surely among the first to join the ranks. And props to them for that...

Rave - editing without borders...

they only went and did it, those Rave Magazine editors... they actually mailed me a copy of the october issue! I know they said they would but considering how they seemed to think of us while we interned this summer, i doubted this was anything more than a ‘uh-I-really-should-try-to-be-polite-and-provide-a-copy-of-the-magazine-they-have-contributed-to’ gesture.

But then yesterday, it actually got delievered... i was quite excited to see how the final edit of the kooks article I wrote would be. i expected them to make changes but what i didn’t expect was them re-writing the entire article apart from 2-3 sentences (literally!!!) and still putting my name in the by-line. They wanted to get a certain opinion and perspective on the band and their music across (which is fair enough, it’s their publication) and mine were clearly different – but I would rather they had NOT put my name on something i in no way want credit for and that i in no way want to (or can) answer for...

but, on a positive note, they did use a few of my album reviews (which weren’t edited quite as heavily!) – enjoy your 2 stars, razorlight. They also used shaun’s duncan james review which is just pure genius...

a little less sixteen candles, a little more ego and art-rock...

gig review: the blood arm / the low miffs, cabaret voltaire, november 6 2006


for some reason, it wasn’t untill this year I first set foot in the cramped underground cave-like venue that has played host to many an up-and-coming band on scotland’s live music circuit. And although I have my issues with the layout of cabaret voltaire, there is little doubt that even not-quite-sold-out gigs (such as this particular one) will create a seeting atmosphere (but forget trying to get to the bar for another drink – I guarantee it will be near-impossible to re-capture your spot at the front where it’s all happening and a drink just aint worth missing out on that atmosphere over!!)

so after handing in my final course assignment of the semester, I was ready for cabaret voltaire and for the latest american indie-influenced band to hit the airwaves of radio 1...

the opening act, the low miffs, were surprisingly good (but while we are at it, yes, I admit it, I always have shockingly low expectations of opening acts… it must the consequence of having seen we are scientists open twice and still thinking I have seen them headline – no opening act will ever be that great, therefore they must all be terrible, right? Nevermind, my logic barely makes sense to myself :P ) – semi-local (they are glaswegian…) and experimental with a fab rock/pop flavour, they definitely got the majority of the crowd on their side. One to watch if you ask me...


while waiting for the california-natives we were really there to see to take over, we were treated to one of those DJ sets/mixed tapes all too familiar to anyone who has been to any type of gig... pretty standard, pretty run-of-the-mill, pretty inoffensive… EXCEPT that they, on this occasion, chose to include robbie wiliams’ version of ‘freedom’ :S – scary, scary experience…

and thus, the blood arm took to the stage with a short story of 'quadruplets blah blah musical instruments blah blah blah here we are as a band' that I was a few pints short of finding amusing and interesting (points for effort though). They had a pretty hard act to follow and their first few tracks didn’t seem totally on point with the lead singer struggling to hit the right note. However, it didn’t take him long to relax and conjure his best julian casablancas, and ‘suspicious character’ soon helped cement the band’s credibility in terms of delivering top-of-the-line indie-chanting disco stompers. It’s as infectious live as it is on the radio and everybody loved it...


thinking back, I do believe this is the first american band I have seen that didn’t make me recall my high school years in the musical company of something corporate and fall out boy... the blood arm were rock but not emo-rock, they sing with emotion and passsion yet without misery and whining, and perhaps most important of all; they attracted an audience but not a single group of overzealous 16-year-olds were forming a wall of bad haircuts at the front of the stage…wow, that is surely some achievement...

kicking up the fire...

gig review: the cooper temple clause, liquid room, October 30 2006


on October 30th, i made my way, once again, to that wonderful Edinburgh venue known as liquid room. The reason for the trek from the comfort of my marchmont flat all the way across the meadows in the cold October weather? my second encounter with the brilliant cooper temple clause in the space of 5 months…

the coopers were the last band i saw live in paris before i left in june and i was hooked immediately. Their electro-garage sound is both so-late-90s and so-now that i am amazed they haven’t had the mainstream success so many other (less talented) bands have had lately. But then again, knowing me, i probably wouldn’t have liked them as much as i did if they did fall under the mainstream popularity definition :D


They didn’t disappoint this time either and the home-turf advantage (they definitely have more british fans than french :) made for a brilliant atmosphere – one that far surpassed the paris-gig. Everyone could sing along to the older tracks, like ‘been training dogs’, ‘panzer attack’ and the brilliant closing track ‘blind pilots’ (even me!! That’s the reward for all those hours of listening to them on itunes and on my mp3 player when walking to uni). It was really quite refreshing to be at a gig where it seemed like every single person was there for the music (whether as a hard core fan or just because they recognised the band name) and were up for a fun night. Liquid room is also a far superior venue when packed with enthusiastic listeners (which didn’t happen with the walkmen in september unfortunately…)

The cooper temple clause have now joined the kooks as ‘bands I have seen live more than once’ and are most definitely deserved company in that category. They came they saw, they attacked the audience with some brilliant riffs, synth lines and their abrasive rock/alt-metal sound and for that, I have nothing but love for these fab berkshire-boys…

this week: what rocked..., what sucked...

• Jamie T 'if you got the money' - brilliant track, much more haunting (in that positive way only purely genius songs are) than 'sheila'. in fact, his tales of modern surburbia are some of the best lyrical contributions to what is currently being played on the radio in this country. im disappointed in the general record-buying UK public since this track only went to #13 while My Chemical Romance spend a 2nd week at #1 and Razorlight stayed in the top 5...

• Razorlight 'america' - love, love, love the guitar riff. hate, hate, hate the poor lyrics that completely ruin this track's musical promise. johnny borrell, i blame you...

• My Chemical Romance 'welcome to the black parade' - i just don't get the fuss over this track... it is so incredibly unoriginal. it sounds like 4 songs crammed into one and conjures up comparisons with everyone from Blink 182 to Queen but it just doesn't work. MCR seem to want to embody all things emo but i can't help but feel that they are too aware of the emo-trend in popular music today and offer nothing beyond catering to that specific market. bring back musical originality, i say...
  

• 
  

oxjam - let's make some noise...

british charity oxfam has always been incredibly good 
at generating attention for their causes (remember the white 'make poverty history' wristbands that we all wore in 2005 when bob geldof was trying single-handedly to change world politics?) and it's a charity that deserves immense credit for the work they do and aid they provide. and their latest project: OXJAM. it is described as oxfam's biggest, most-ambitious, music event ever and judging by the activity going on just in edinburgh this month, i don't think they are far off with that description... it's basically 31 days in october dedicated to live music, raising money to tackle poverty, and changing lives (yep, i admit it, they convinced me, i think it's an absolutely brilliant way of getting people to help raise the money for the people across the world who dont have the privilege of having access to even such basic as fresh water, health care, and education).

the oxjam event at edinburgh uni's student union on wednesday was a pretty ambitious one (just check out the flyer!)



and considering it had all been organised by students, it was quite impressive (i also happen to think this had a huge effect on the fact that the whole event did not come across as a moral lecture where people felt guilted into donating money for the cause).

could have done without seeing edinburgh uni's cheerleaders but they were rather amusing with their enthusiasm yet lack of talent and i did have to try very hard not to laugh (reminded me soooo much of high school where we were forced to sit on those uncomfortable bleachers for a 1 hour pep-rally while the not-quite-as-talented-as-the-cheerleaders-in-american-movies- cheerleading squad jumped about waving pom-poms and smiling from ear to ear, generating very little pep from their not-at-all-captive audience).

found myself positively surprised by the first band we caught live on the main stage. kiDDO (no, i didn't really get this name either...) has been described as the strokes on speed and they did loose slight marks in the originality department because they did seem to try to sound like the strokes a bit (covering 'last night' (poorly) probably didn't help). however, there were loads of energy and genuine desire to be there and play some live tunes so overall they did rock. they also donated ½ the money made from the sales of their EP to oxfam so props for caring about the reason they were there playing. since i have no clue how to post mp3 files for people to download, im just gonna post the link to their myspace page: http://www.myspace.com/kiddoband




we were then informed that the second band on the main stage was one of radio 1's new bands to watch this year which naturally generated a fair bit of excitement. caught a bit of the african drumming beforehand and felt like we had taken advantage of oxjam's offering of world music at least a tiny bit. another pint at the bar and back upstairs to the main stage we went. this new band to watch was called the permissive society. dont know exactly what they were granting permission to on the night but it seemed they were quite happy to permit the lead singer to act like the new johnny borrell... there was a fair bit of 'im-such-a-good-frontman' attitude coming across and the music just wasn't impressive enough for him to get away with that (neither is razorlight's by the way...). listened to them on myspace after the gig though and i actually think their music is better in the recordings than it was live (which i very rarely do with any bands). perhaps they had an off night, perhaps they are a bit too up themselves because radio 1 and NME think they have something, i won't judge too much. check out their myspace page (http://www.myspace.com/thepermissivesociety) and if you are in manchester this coming week you can make up your own mind about their live set when they play In the City.




and with that, i'll finish my little evaluation of this oxjam event... had such a fab night and loved that what was essentially a fundraiser was such a pleasant experience (not like those bakesales in the school cafeteria...). i hope people go searching for their white 'make poverty history' wristbands or head to oxfam to get a new one - not to attempt to make it a craze again but rather to show support for oxfam's big noise campaign and the work that still needs to be done
concerning world poverty. http://www.oxfam.org.uk/

the magic of glowsticks and rhythmless dancing...

NME is the bible for most 17-year-olds as they desperately attempt to stay at the front of the pack of followers of today's trendy music (as determined by who? why, NME, of course). i kind of missed the whole NME phase of my teenage life on account of being surrounded by good charlotte obsessed americans in my tiny little high school bubble (which, on the upside, does mean that i know they were capable of making decent records before they became MTV-darlings and released songs like 'i just wanna live'). So i was both slightly apprehensive about what i might encounter on the glasgow leg of NME's club tour last thursday and excited to see how well, if at all, the klaxons could transfer their ecclectic electronic style from 80s-looking music videos to a live set. admittedly, i did help raise the average age of the girls in the audience by a couple of years but i still have to give NME credit for drawing attention to some of these acts. i think its time for electro-rock, glowsticks, and 80s hair (the big curls, NOT the mullet) to make a comeback...



... and what beats waving glowsticks about and dancing around without following the beat even the slightest? in my opinion, not much... which is why this gig was fab. the klaxons could have done with playing a longer set (30min? that's not even a full album!!) but they sounded brilliant. glaswegian shitdisco, clearly a local favorite of the crowd, were really impressive (despite the poor choice of name) and sounded wicked!



and thus, for a short while, it was like i was 17 and believing that NME is, in fact, the music bible. i predict this belief will only be temporary... NME will clearly run a story soon that has the automatic on the cover with a headline along the lines of 'the automatic will do what arctic monkeys didn't: break america' and anyone over the age of 17 (or at least with a mental age over 17...) know for a fact that the automatic will never have another top 10 hit, let alone break america... but for now, i am quite happy to go along with the electro-beats of NME's latest sweethearts because, this time at least, they seem to have gotten it right...

the downside to student nights...

oh how horrible student nights can be. yes edinburgh is wicked and yes edinburgh does have some fab clubs and bars. but tonight proved just how horrid student nights can be. no one should suffer through 1½ hours of shit dance music maskerading as entertainment... no one!!! stereotypes were arife... girls with blonde hair-straightener-damaged hair and far too much make-up wearing hotpants (how on earth did shorts become such a fashion must-have??!) and guys drinking WKDs and smirnoff ice and keeping any and all hair gel companies in business. admittedly, the cav was never my scene... tonight definitely served to establish that as an undisputable fact. but optimism remains that next week will re-establish my faith in student nights! :)

jumping on board with the blogging phenomenon..

i may well be person #3'128'746'736 to set up a blog but who cares if it gives me a chance to rant, make judgements, and generally share my sarcastic comments about anything and everyone without all my friends immediately being updated on what im thinking (thank you for that, facebook)? i know i don't...