HEALTH/ BLK JKS @ Deaf Institute

Readers of this little blog will recall my past grievances the best time to arrive at a gig, not really an issue when you're with friends but when you rock up to a gig on your own it becomes a vital component of your evening. Tonight you'll be glad to know I got it bang on.

I got into the venue just as the Young British Artists started up their last song. A friend had seen them a few weeks before and said that the singers continual use of a loudspeaker for his vocals became very annoying after a while. I could see what she meant, but with only hearing their last track I'm not really gonna comment too much. They seemed decent enough with being sounding earth shatteringly good.

Next up were Banjo or Freakout a strange london band. Their line up promised much; a few floor toms two samplers a guitar and two stringy looking chaps, one of which looked like he knew what he was doing the other looked a lot like James Woods and it seemed it was the first time he'd seen any of the equipment. I'm well into bands using samplers so I awaited their set with great anticipation..."this is the future" i whispered to myself.

It was with great ironic mirth that the first track stuttered to a stop before it had hardly began. The James Woods looking one of the two strumming a mute guitar before stopping the looping sample and getting his obviously more competant mate to come over and somehow switch his guitar on, "sorry" he mumbles into the mic. Not the greatest of starts.

They manage to get it going. the samplers bleep out simple repeating guitar lines, some with glitchy distortions over the top. The 'other' one drums along on floor tom and James Woods strums his distorted guitar and sings over the top. There's an obvious Animal Collective influence going on here but the sound makes you appreciate just how incredible the much hyped AC actually are. Tonight Banjo or Freakout show is beset with wandering sound levels, the guitar overpowers everything and the vocals are hopelessly lost one minute and then the echo effect is warping ear drums the next. The two band members seem to spend most of the set gesturing wildly to the sound man to get things turned up. However, despite these technical issues once the guys found their groove it's easy to see why they've created a little bit of a buzz about them. There's elements of tonights set where I can feel myself getting drawn into the psychedelic edginessof their sound and one track steps even closer to an Animal Collective vibe and it sounds all the better for it. This is definately a band worth checking out, I 'll look forward to see what happens to them in the future because there were glimpses of real quality amongst the shambolicness.

The Deaf Institure is a great venue. It looks incredible, the wallpaper, the speakers above the bar, the huge glitterball. Personally I like the way the bartenders can take 3 drink orders at a time, it just gives you hope that despite the bar que being three deep that liquid refreshment isn't far away. And , Tuborg on tap, despite the plastic glasses is always worth a go.



I happened to check out South Africans BLK JKS earlier in the day and their participation in tonights event was a tipping point for me coming out. After what seemed like an ice age to set up they began their set. Once again I wasn't convinced the sound was balanced right. The bass and drums were driving the songs along but the guitars were lost and the vocals were way too upfront. I'm not sure whether someone bought a new echo effect recently but it was getting a hammering tonight. I'm not sure how wise it is to leave your vocals echoing away for every song, it certainly annoyed me. Another weird thing was that inbetween songs the band seemed to drift off into "incidental music land" noodling away for no aparent reason. Which probably explains why they only played 6 songs in thirty minutes.

Not to get down on them though because, once again when they hit their stride they really were impressive. Stand out track 'Lakeside' sounds like it could be the next TV On The Radio single, the dubby bass and drums are infectious and the afro-pop tinged guitars finally spring to life, even the echo..echo...echo starts to work with rather than against the music. The drummers the star though, he's definitely got some weight behind his drums and his backing vocals are great. In the last song he even starts whistling along and I have to say it's pretty damn great. I hear some guy in the bogs declaring they're the best band he's ever seen in his life, I admire his enthusiasm they were certainly pretty great and I'll be checking out their album when they record one. There's an awesome bit when the guitar player jumps up onto an amp and his hat flies off and sticks on the end of his guitar, but what's really cool is that his afro do is in exactly the same shape as his little beret hat...yeah well it amused me.

So inbetween bands you're always stood around and being on my own I have two usual tricks one is constantly fiddling with the phone. The mobile is a gift for the socially disabled it allows you to look purposeful and occupied without risking exposure. The second and more favourable pass time is eavesdropping on conversations. Tonight we're listening to some young students one of which is proclaiming the value of the newspaper he writes for, claiming that loads of papers rip of the humurous content he and his colleagues write. "It's satire", he proclaims to his really quite bored looking chums, "Which basically means we just sit around being racist". Obviously, you can take anything out of context and make it sound dumb but I thought that was quite funny, oh and he was being deadly serious by the way. But speaking of being racist I thought the bassist from BLK JKS was a dead ringer for Avon Barksdale in The Wire but then realised he was a black guy with a goatee and that was probably where the similarities ended.

Los Angeles band HEALTH are last up, their album has been proclaimed as a master piece. I'm not so sure, granted there are moment of sheer noise brilliance and wonderfulness but inbetween it seems to stutter and stall a bit. Not tonight though, it's like men and boys when they take the stage. The stage can barely contain them as they switch instruments effortlessly, handing over floor toms and guitars to each other without ever reigning in the noise loopage that's a constant background. Again the drummer is a big lad and he's worthy of a watch. They are incredible to be fair, like a true geek I'm straining to see what sound is coming from where. I'm pretty impressed when I realise the highpitched ring mod sounds thats been blasting out for the past few minutes is actually the bass player.



They're so good that when I realise its way past the last bus I'm not that fussed. HEALTH seem to have reinvented the sound of the guitar, no other band seems to churn such strangled sounds from their instruments (OK..well maybe MBV) it's blissful in its lunacy. The sheer forcefulness of the show is breathtaking and even when I'm forking over a tenner for the taxi ride home, trying desperately not to work out how much the gig has cost me overall, I can barely hide the smirk on my face. What a master piece.

Easter All Dayer Mad Ferret Preston

Easter is possibly the best holiday weekend around. Without the stress of Christmas and New Year, the Easter weekend offers people to opportunity to get well and truly blotto without having to face the consequences of work or family. Certainly something to be thankful for.

So this weekend I traveled back to Preston, the old homestead. Nothing's changed. The Mad Ferret is easily the best and most popular venue in the fledgling city. Its tight and informal and generally provides an ideal atmosphere for watching some great live music, as well as its fair share of useless local acts. Todays line up is a mix of out of town bands vearing towards the heavier end of the spectrum, so thankfully the the quality of this very high.

First band I catch are the Whip Hand. The sound is powerful for a three piece but I have to admit to only keeping one ear on them, they seemed a little bereft of tunes and hooks, but they haven't been going for too long so I'll let them off.

To The Bones are from Bolton. Their live reputation has brought many out tonight. They are loud and fast and highly predictable but in a great way. "1-2-FUCK-YOU" screams the singer which seems to amuse the two lads who look like IT managers stood in front of me, their heads bobbing along in rock unity. Their set is a blast of 3 minute riff heavy sabbath esque slabs of stooges cool. The singer looks on the verge of collapse by the end, the gormless DJ starts her CD set halfway through their last track, it's all a bit confusing. I've seen TTB play better and harder but this was a late afternoon slot on Easter Sunday. They still rocked harder than most bands ever will.

Next up were Chorley based instrumentalists Elohymn whose music mixes short sharp blasts of noise with intricate guitar lines and vocal samples from what sounds like Ghost hunting with Evett Fielding. The bespectacled front man has about three amps on stage, waaaay tooo mach!! His guitar is slightly overpowering the rest of the bands rhythm and drive although he does manage to conjure some wonderful sounds from his vast pedal board. There is a huge amount of instrumental bands in Preston, many of which are utterly pointless quiet-heavy-quiet-heavy mogwai wannabes. In fact many a night you can see a line up in Preston of bands that are all instrumental and all throughly forgettable. Elohymn are a cut above the rest of these bands, but it makes you wonder how long they can plough such a common trough.

The Great Eskimo Hoax start off very promising. I like bands with unconventional lineups and having a few keyboards and syths knocking about always promises much. Instead what we get is a very thin version of Foals. There isn't really much to grab onto and half way through the set they seem to drift into Yann Tiersens Amelie soundtrack, it becomes all squeezebox and European waltz. It should impress me but it all sounds a little wish-washy!

Next up were O. A strangly named band consisting of a few ex-prestonians. Their set consists of blasts of compex riffary and intricate rhythms. The guitarist keeps swapping guitar for synth and despite the sound being overwhelming loud the weft of sheer pop magic can be heard weaving within their songs. Their high energy set ends with a brooding and dark monster of a track which seems to impress the eager crowd.

Last on are the Leeds based Chickenhawk. As last band of the night they decide to set up on the floor in front of the stage. The drummer lines up with the crowd facing the huge row of amps on stage. Their music is brutal and unapologetic. Yet there seems to be humour and a certain tongue in cheek flavour to what they do. The guitarist takes a stroll around the venue mid set climbing from booth to booth whilst tapping away on his guitar neck spinal tap style, the drummer throws water about and leaps back onto his kit, its the last night of a long tour for them and you can see they want to let of some steam. They look like they really enjoy what they do and that makes it very easy to enjoy it with them. Phenomenally loud and very entertaining, though I doubt anyone went home whistling their tunes.

Towards the end of the night after Chickhawk finished a rather furious track a friend asked me what genre of music this was, referring to the sweaty shirtless skinny kids now playing. I couldn't think of a decent response. Boys in skinny jeans and pumps making music so loud and intense that many metalers would be running for the door. It isn't hardcore, it's a variety of punk perhaps, but only in the DIY ethic. In the end I just turned to my friend an said I don't know. He couldn't hear me anyway Chickenhawk had just started up again and we were both going deaf.

Happy Easter.

Wildbirds and Peacedrums/Volcano!/Lonesome Taxidermist 07/04/09 Dulcimer

So last night I headed to Dulcimer in Chorlton, arriving early doors determined not miss any of the bands. Upstairs I heard a rapture of applause for tonights opener The Lonesome Taxidermist. When I get up
there I see a woman who's a cross between the fat one from Gavin and Stacy and Kelly Osbourne. She's singing rather operatically into two mics and has a keyboard droning along with her. She's got the whole mad
eyes thing going on. Things start to get interesting when she adds some keyboard percussion. Three fake wood block sounds are viciously out of time and it's starting to dawn on me that maybe this isn't whats
supposed to happen. All around I can feel concerned and amused glances from people.

"Does anybody want an animal stuffing?" she asks mid set to a baffled silence. "Has anyone ever seen a dead animal? Has anyone ever killed an animal?? Oh you don't kill animals in Chorlton do you!!" I can feel myself staring into my pint, feel my face blush, this is awkward, really awkward I hear the room collectively sucking through its teeth. "This one's called roadkill" she tells us and off she goes again. I get the feeling she's been told she's got an "amazing" voice hence the operatics and over dramatisations, she hasn't though it's very average. The music is rudimentary and bog-standard, yet appallingly out of time, you can feel people wincing as the loops start to repeat over one another. One song sees her screaming the lament "She's on anti-depressants, she's a sociopath" over and over again whilst slapping her head and staring wild eyed at the audience. Fuck it, I laughed out loud, sorry, but I found it funny.

Then it just goes, and goes in a spectacular fashion. Bemoaning the heat on stage she says "I need some fans, not some sycophants" and tries three times to loop a little guitar line. All her instruments are going through a loop pedal and the mix is terrible. Guitar is barely audible, keyboard deafeningly loud. By now I'm at that stage where I'm not sure if this is the worst or best thing I've ever seen, I'm certainly entertained. In many years time we might all be listening to stuff like this, maybe this is what music in the future will be like, at least I can impress my future friends by telling them I was there at the start of it all. "Where's Wallbirds Pipedrums and Volcano?" She asks referring to the other bands on the bill, obviously distressed that they aren't there to see her. She manages to get the guitar loop going and adds some kick drum, only she doesn't count the drums and she ends up playing 5, the fifth is of course recorded on top of the first and naturally it's just slightly out of time, she repeats the same trick looping a keyboard line. Nice. Then as she puts her guitar down she cracks her head against the microphone. Yup that's looped too!! Then as she's singing the mic falls out of the stand at least a dozen times. There's a moment when she laughs and it sort of relaxes the atmosphere but soon enough she's back raging and finger pointing. "Where's Wallpipes Peacepipes and Volaro??" She cries, "Where the fuck are they!!" The embarrassment is compounded by the two bands (that's Wildbirds and Peacedrums and Volcano!) having just arrived after getting some tea, I hear the scandanavian singer from Wildbirds ask the promoter "Is she drunk?" and weirdly it's the first time I consider this myself. "Fuck Food" says the taxidermist. Quite.



I'm kind of shellshocked. I noticed the bar staff all came up during the set to have a look, so I'm guessing that words gone around and I'm not the only one feeling the vibes. "That sounds horrible" I hear the curly haired barmaid tell the one who looks like Elliot from Scrubs. Outside I see a guy I vaguely recognise and I'm on the cusp of asking him "what all that was about" or some such hilarious opening gamut but thankfully i don't because five minutes later he's stood with the taxidermist they're obviouslyfriends. Close shave!!



Volcano! sorted me out. Singer looks like a skinny Bill Murray it's him on guitar, a drummer whose mouth hangs wide open when he's playing and a guy hunched over a keyboard and a laptop. Drums and guitar pound a mixture of hardcore stomps and jazz influenced breaks whilst the third member produces a frightening range of squeals, rumbles and glitchs that twist from floor shaking bass to ear piercing treble. It's brilliant. Opener from the last album "Performance Evaluation Shuffle" thunders through stops and starts, shifts in melody and tempo. There's something afrobeat about the guitar lines, twiddly high pitched and at odds with
the thrashing drums overly complicated and wonderful for it. They throw in a version of Otis Readings 'I've Been Lovin' you' and make it there own, stopping mid song and declaring "We're gonna skip to the next part
of the song now" and thrashing out the chords while an undercurrent of digital bass and buzz trembles the fixtures and fitting..two girls get the fright of their lives when the fairy lights fall from the roof on their heads. The gig is slightly spoiled by the family of toffs behind me, looks like two oldies and a son. The son is reviewing the gig as we go along in a voice that's way too loud for public usage, so all I can hear at one point is him going "Awesome, this is the best thing I've ever heard, it's so funky like acoustic ladyland but funky..not as scatty, this is marvellous, a little bit King Crimson in places" Obviously I want to kill the ruddy faced twat, push his pint of organic homebrew into his toff face and get him the hell out of there. "Oh god that sounds like an hallucinagenic nightmare" he declares of one songs intro, "Sounds like bad come down" says one of his chums who has to be in his fifties. I wonder how much acid gets consumed out in the country and maybe I should schedule a visit. Volcano! end the short but magnificent set with the killer "Africa Just wants to have some fun" it's essentially all the tricks in their bag in one 6 minute song. It's incredible, they're incredible.



Wildbirds and Peacedrums are a two piece. One guy on drums, a girl on a steal drum. Never really thought that'd work as a line up and I'm still not convinced. It's pretty, it's nice. It's pretty nice. Cute in places. She's small and pretty hot although she's a got a look of the Winehouse about her, at one point she steps off the specially constructed stage and into the crowd and starts singing. People who are into this sort of thing call it enchanting and intimate. I think it's a bit creepy and weird. The audience is here for this, they're twee ...of course they are this is the oppressingly liberal lefties of Chorlton we're talking about! The last song is easily their best it's got a catchy melody and I recognise it from their myspace. She sings and plays a wood block, he
drums. I find myself wondering how much they practice...how often do you need to rehearse the wood block?? I'm not sure, but at least this one was in time.

Dirty Projectors/Polar Bear Mint Lounge 01/04/09

So the last gig I went to I turned up at 9 and the band I wanted to see weren't on until 11...ballache so I turned up at 8.40 at Mint Lounge last night and first band I see are Polar Bear who are supposedly headlining plus it was the other two bands I wanted to see most of all! A quick investigation tells me that they've switched around and while I've missed the promising Lucky Dragons the Dirty Projectors are on after the imminent Polar Bear.


A quick tour of the band...Big silver sax is played by a guy that's Ade from TVOTR twin (not really), the dull bronze sax is the guy in the 1920's gangster film with the rat like features and a propensity for knife fights. The guy on the upright bass is Nick Frost with a beard, the guitarist is a 12 year old stoner and the drummer has a face full of apologies holding up a mountain of wild hair. First song is a rowsing and bawdry cocktail of mambo latin moves and roaring jazz hooks. Every member of the band seems to be adding odd lines that individually don't do much but collectively spin the entire tune on it's head. The whole thing's on the very edge of turning into an improv mess but it's just wonderfully and masterfully kept in line. Next up is a more brooding jazz ballad, reminiscent of Mingus' concept pieces and early Tortoise in places it's a touch Western a little bit cowboy..it's been a long time since I've heard the saxophone played this beautifully...the 12 year old stoner kid is playing his guitar with a paint brush, just tickling the strings, creating a shimmering background. Then he's obviously bored so for the next song swaps paintbrush guitar for a playstation joypad which triggers an insane collection of bleeps, whirs, glitchs and whooshs that underpin the frantic jazz that's played over the top.

Soon enough stoner boy swaps again. This time for a pink balloon which he blows up and grabs the neck of. Balloon boy squeeks it into the microphone along with the sax's. Gradually the instruments drop out leaving one sax and the balloon squeeker honking along to each other. After about 8 minutes of this I decide it's time for a smoke.

Going to gigs on yer own is an interesting experience..voyeuristic, awkward and liberating. Having left the Polar Bear balloon boys to it I returned apres tabac into the no mans land of band change over...trying to afirm the constant "I'm here alone; that's not weird it's cool" vibe that lingers around you but then again the types of people who go to gigs on their own are always a little bit geeky, a bit sad a bit needy. Well that's me!



Dirty Projectors are massive Talking Heads fans that's pretty obvious. The guy singing and playing guitar has mastered David Byrnes tall awkwardness to a tea, his vocal imitation isn't bad either. The three girls are playing basses, guitars and keys and do a fantastic set of vocal harmonies that really steal the show. From right to left the girls go...bit fat and plain, cute but a bit witchy, uberhot cool chick!! While the format isn't anything new, the mix of slightly afro pop guitar lines, art infused lyrics and driving bass and drums leads me to the cul-de-sac of comparison; Arcade Fire meets Vampire Weekend, but edgier and better. There's still (and i blame the contingent of women for this) something a bit twee about them though and they never seem to fully let go, always holding back a little. There were definitely moments of brilliance, but I somehow expected more from this years SXSW buzz band!