My Bloody Valentine
By the time you read this I will have seen MY BLOODY VALENTINE three times and having been lucky enough to see their comeback show at the ICA I was literally floored by the revival flavour of the month.  They’re doing “Slow” and somehow they have managed to make “Soon” sound even better, which is something I previously thought unimaginable.  Earplugs are for wimps (and those with hearing). [JGram]

Monotonix
I can’t remember the last time I saw a band where you would never buy a record but could never forgive yourself if you missed the live show when they rolled into town. At the Rose for England gig in  Nottingham they started their set by setting their drums on fire and finished by playing on the shelf above the bar. Absolutely bonkers. [Dave Stockwell]

The Night Marchers / Obits / Monotonix
Digging the post-Hot Snakes bands The Night Marchers and Obits a lot right now. The Night Marchers are far less immediate than Hot Snakes or even Rocket From The Crypt but reveal a more subtle, tuneful, hell – soulful side to things. Obits are awesome, matching Rick Froberg’s hoarse yelp to Creedence-esque riff-jams that bop along to the listener’s total satisfaction. Also liking new sounds by Broken Arm, Mob Rules, Helm, Awesome Color, Zun Zun Egui as well as some old sounds from Sister Rosetta Tharpe, Bo Diddley, Flower Travellin’ Band, Jimi Hendrix… Monotonix live were also an event that I cannot recommend highly enough. [Chris Summerlin]

Please
London 3-piece Please played an immense set in Oxford earlier this year; tribal riffs + messy Lightning Bolt-style yelps = MASSIVE TUNES. [Pascal Ansell]

Icebreaker International
Pretty much the only bonus of all the diskant reformatting work was re-reading some of the excellent and hilarious content from years long gone, and digging out the records for another listen. Icebreaker International are still one of my favourite interviewees – we went into it not having a clue about how much of what they claimed was truth and how much was audaciously ridiculous nonsense, and left in pretty much the same state. Their second album, Trein Maersk, was supposedly recorded on a container ship travelling between Yokohama and Halifax and is probably the only real musical documentation of globalisation. I’m a total sucker for lies, manifestos, uniforms and instrumental electro-pop so of course I love this. Sadly they never did much else after this and now seem to have parted company. Alexander Perls now writes Europop chart hits for a number of faceless acts. It seems right somehow. [Marceline Smith]

Shield Your Eyes
Very, very loud and very, very lo-fi brainchild of hairy maverick Steph Ketteringham (see Candles, Guns or Knives). Because I’m a lazy bastard, I’ll copy from my earlier review of them: “riotous, colossal noise… SYE employ the warped, reversible structures of Hella with the crunchy lo-fi sound of Lightning Bolt… Stef is an absolute maestro, teasing out grimy squeals with intricate fingerpicks and uplifting riffs aplenty” (Nightshift). Myspace. [Pascal Ansell]

Hot Club De Paris
Hot Club De Paris are only in their mid twenties but are at the core of Liverpool’s ever burgeoning musical output and exhibit an indefinable sound. If you had to try you might describe their work as two-minute tracks of elaborate quick-fire pop punk with American math rock tendencies, quirky barbershop style lyrics and racing harmonies. Their narratives often consist of surreal analogies and odes to inanimate objects.  HCDP are currently at the end of a nationwide tour promoting their second album ‘Live at Dead Lake.’ which was recorded in Chicago. From it comes the best song about a piece of masonry ever written, the single ‘Hey! Housebrick.’ Both are released on Moshi Moshi.  Highlights of the album include ‘Mr Demolition Ball’ with Soweto inspired instrumentation and lyrics as incisive as Billy Bragg, with odd stop start arrangements and chord progressions of the ilk of Field Music. ‘My Little Haunting.’  Is a ghostly tale ‘why do you wear these clean white sheets,’ their singer Paul Rafferty inquires. Imagine the scene, the suit of armour in the corridor; a skeleton tumbles down the stairs through cobwebs and over banisters – wooo hoo, spooky! ‘Boy Awaits Return Of The Runaway Girl,’ is about the boy with big ideas who sold them all for pizza and weed. Rafferty’s chanty chorus leapfrogs the fidgety guitars and tinkly keys. The two-minute tracks flow really well into one another and before you know it you’ve spent an enjoyable half hour getting re-acquainted with Liverpool’s hottest export. [Mandy Williams]

Sunnyvale Noise Sub-element
Because fuck it, it’s my band and we’ve got new product to sell. [Simon Minter]

Posted: 06|27|08 at 4:00 pm. Filed under: catch-ups, live reviews, record reviews.
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