Well, they don’t actually. Ron Woods in rehab and the reason he gave was “tour withdrawal”. The very nature of playing gigs means you’re hyped up and you’re excited. Monday is the fucking shittest if you spent the weekend playing music. This weekend we went and played in London and Brighton with Lords. And every previous weekend in recent memory we’ve played. This band was started for fun and we decided we would only play gigs a) in seaside locations, b) in places we hadn’t been to before and c) with bands we love.

Last weekend we played the majestic Munkyfest somewhere on the border of North Wales. It was massively Led Zeppelin. People dancing in fields, hills, mountains, sunshine, playing in a huge pig shed. It was hard to force the rock from us at 6pm but mincing around Helsby village in cowboy hats avoiding the rock hard locals was a laugh. Phil decided to go the whole hog and camp to maximise his festival experience too.

So anyway we played the 50th Silver Rocket at the Garage on Friday. Felt a little like people should have held up scorecards after every song and MAN what IS it with the comparisons to Shellac? Yeah, OK if you own 2 records and one is Shellac and the other is Simon & Garfunkel then Lords sound like Shellac but people – buy a fucking ZZ Top album sometime. The Garage was extra extra sweaty and minging. Joeyfat ruled as headliner. The SR people have a 2xCD set out to commemorate 50 gigs. It has great stuff from Part Chimp and Joeyfat that makes it a worthwhile purchase alone. It has a slinky Lords track, a very very lo-fi Wolves Of Greece track and a Reynolds live track from 2002 with a hideous bass drum sound made better by the sound of David Crofts yelling throughout it. Ian Scanlon is all over it like a rash as well with an Econoline gay emo live song, a crushing version of Silver Rocket by Hey Colossus and a demo of Ian in his bedroom singing about girls from his days as Drop Bear. Be warned there is also some of the most aggravating bullshit math rock on the CD known to man – REJECT THE MATH!

Anyway, we bombed to Brighton on Saturday and got to Shoreham On Sea nice and early for a swim in the sea. Well, Phil did. I got in to my knees and pussied out. We had fish and chips on the beach. We went and saw Hey Colossus who murdered my ears.

Our gig was super weird. A lady kept slapping my ass as hard as she could everytime I stepped out towards the crowd. I thought I got the weird end of the deal until a young lady who may have been Peaches stepped forward and kissed Phil. Bizarre.

So then it’s back to work today. Stinks.

One of the good/bad things about living somewhere that has lots of good stuff going on is that sometimes there’s no reason to do something because other folk are already doing it very. Like miso. Why would I want to start up a regular electro night when they are already bringing up all the acts I want to see?

Last night they had Marcia Blaine School for Girls and Isan playing. Both playing electronica that sounds too much like fields to have been created digitally. MBSG had a mix of styles and tempos and Isan a vast array of Korgasmic melodies. So good I forgot how hot and stuffy the Note was.

I am convinced the DESIGNER BABIES are on the verge of something. I don’t mean a commercial breakthrough or anything like that. I mean they are close to arriving at a new sound. They used to take two opposing styles and spot-weld them together. The results were always interesting but the joins were always visible.

But last night I saw them play and a couple of points in the set were just above and beyond. If you’ve not heard them before the basic premise is playing heavy, disjointed rock using sounds not usually associated with that. So structurally its Fantomas – blast beats, twists and turns – but sonically it’s all over the shop. Kate employs a theramin, laptop and a turntable with pre-damaged and prepared vinyl. Mark plays a Tele tuned down to A through a bass amp and Nick could play in Napalm Death if he wanted but chances are they’d turn him down for being too damn joyous when he plays. And thats before considering Kushs vocal talents that range from wailing eastern scales to put Percy Plant to shame to ferocious growls and grunts. It’s a strange setup but somehow they are getting some wonderful pop music from it. Serious!

2 new songs in particular are just incredible, instantly memorable and amazing. One is a weird shifting single note riff built on a dancehall rhythm with tons of twists but never for the sake of it. The second takes the kind of Son House slide guitar thing that Beefheart stole for I Feel Like Ahcid and just pounds it out really ferociously while Kush makes melody of the whole thing.

Rather than mash it all together but keep the bits distinct it’s like they’ve finally found a way of being all the things they are at the same time. I can’t fucking believe it.

I must have been one of the hundred or so people in the country not watching England sort-of-convincingly sweep the Croatians aside on Monday, ‘cos I was at the Queen Elizabeth Hall checking out Nina Nastasia, plus ‘rare guests’, whatever they are (robot guitarists? Thurston Moore on French horn?). Well, as it turns out, they were, in addition to the already-impressive backing band, two fellas from Tuva (near Mongolia, geography fans) called Kaigal-ool Khovalyg and Sayan Bapa, wielding a formidable array of Tuvan instruments like the igil (cello thing using horse hair), doshpuluur (a long-necked lute) and, er, their throats. And guess what? It was utterly wonderful.

The effect of what are apparently the khoomei (you’ll have to imagine some accents on this word – I’m not sure if Blogger will let me) and kargyraa singing styles was that of an ersatz string section. Thankfully, there was nothing ‘novelty’ about it – Nastasia’s been using saws, dulcimers and that for ages, and this was just a natural extension and a new way to hear her songs. Even better, none of that gorgeous open space that characterises her recorded stuff was compromised by (ahem) coruscating instrumentation – it’s just that when things picked up, it wasn’t just a case of upping the volume, but gradually building up layers of sound, underpinned by drumming that was fabulous in an understated sorta way. I won’t come over all encomiastic about NN’s songs (suffice to say all three of her records are great), but Monday night really was terrific and if you’ve not heard her before, do yourself a favour and have a listen.

Obligatory further information links for the ‘inter net user’:

Nina Nastasia

Huun-Huur-Tu

Contemporary Music Network

Last night I did two monumental things. I took my girlfriend to the airport to fly to Australia, probably forever. I then sped across London, Cannonball Run style and saw The Pixies.

Let’s not go into the first thing but The Pixies were grand. Any fears that the goofing around they do when they come on would mean any fire in songs like Tame would be gone was quickly disspelled. Towards the end in Vamos after Joey had done the big guitar solo by just putting his guitar in its stand and having a fag, Charles/Frank/Black let out a scream that seemed to last a minute or more and was so gutteral that even Kim Deal seemed to break concentration. 3 encores, Wave Of Mutiliation played twice and me nearly crying in Hey and Gigantic. Wow.

No support (Graham Coxon? what happened?) save for Dave Loverings magic show – “I did this show opening for Frank Black & The Catholics on tour last year…much smaller halls”

Sadly I ran over a bunny on the A52 on the way home. A slight dampener.

May I also take a second to advertise the Norwich Pop Underground Convention taking place, shockingly, in Norwich over the weekend of the 19 June. Playing are Twinkie, Quickspace and Wolves! (of Greece). In NORWICH. Like, NORWICH. Where am I from, kind of. So if you’re an eastern type you have no excuse!

*Disclaimer:*

I was right down the front for Noxagt, because they sounded like arse if you weren’t in direct firing line of their amps.

And yes, Andy Abbott for Shellac! Mmm, fretless. I am becoming less enamoured with Kill Yourself every time I see them, so I guess Mr Summerlin and myself are headed in opposite directions in that regard.

Chris gives a far better description than me for the other two bands. I must remember to borrow some Chinese Stars off someone soon.

I feel a desire to balance the opinions voiced below somewhat. I went to the gig with Dave and I thought Noxagt were fucking rubbish. Well maybe not rubbish but the bass just disintegrated at volume and they just seemed to humourlessly bash away for far too long and while being loud had no arse end to them at all.

Chinese Stars were mighty like some sick perverted disco band. Like watching a stranger pelvic thrust and he’s grinning at you and you’re waiting for the bus and hoping he comes nowhere near you but you can see he’s got a semi-on.

Spin Spin The Dogs seemed to get a dose of the Bunkers Hill sea legs that immediately quashes any bands ability to connect with the audience but despite that they had some great songs that would have shined through no matter what.

And the Shellac comparison for Kill Yourself is getting lazy these days. Sure they still sound like Shellac but now they’re getting songs together that are as good as the real thing if not better. They played 2 songs in the set that were amazing. One had a cool 70s rock twangy riff that was completely out of place (unlike the other bands where everything was very much in place) and the other was an exercise in restraint and tension that was more Jesus Lizard than Shellac which is kind of splitting hairs but you know. I think the realisation that Shellac would be better with Andy Abbott on bass is what has swung me round to liking KY more.

You went and gave me an absolute din of tinnitus last night. You had a yummy (all-conquering) bass sound though, and your flailing knuckles method of attacking your chosen instruments was highly appealing, so I’ll let you off. It’s been a while since I’ve seen a band stand quite so towering above their recorded output.

I should also give mention to the Chinese Stars, who also played and actually did manage to sound just like Arab on Radar with a disco groove obsession (even if it was pretty much exactly the same on every song). There was also a particularly spunky set from Spin Spin the Dogs, who held their own pretty damn well. I guess I should also say that Kill Yourself opened, but the only thing that comes to mind about them is, “Shellac meets Shellac wearing a gasmask (which renders any vocals incomprehensible), and gets in a fistfight with Shellac at a party hosted by Shellac, where a Shellac is getting sodomised on a stage by Shellac…” or something.

I got to fulfil another years-old wish on Wednesday. I played a gig with a band with Ian Svenonius in it. Every house I’ve lived in has had the Nation Of Ulysses 13-Point Program To Destroy America poster in the front room. I’m still Ulysses through and through. There was a point in time if you met another person who liked NOU you had found a friend for sure. It’s how I know Marceline come to think of it.

Anyhow we supported Weird War in Lords. I’d seen WW the week before in Nottingham and although the touch paper was visible and always in reach they never quite lit it. The sound was weedy and it did them no justice. Whereas Make Up could survive on a bare sound, Weird War needs maximum fatness and a thick juicy sound to make the most of their tunes. Weird War is infinitely better than the Make Up in my book. I’ve caught myself checking out wah-wah pedals in music shops recently. Weird War is my proof that I might be on the right track.

In Leeds they smoked. Getting Alex Minoff together with Svenonius and Michelle Mae is the shit. Minoff is such a white-hot guitarist this band can’t fail. His playing in Golden is like waking up in the morning to find you’ve grown a 15 inch bright blue cock overnight and it’s looking back at you and singing I Feel Good by James Brown. The man rules. He tears shit up in Weird War. Put that with Svenonius preaching like only he can and Michelle Mae actually breaking a grin at times and you’re on it.

If you can’t beat ’em bite ’em

Ooh, I’ve got a new column up on the main page. Aside from apologising about the couple of spelling mistakes in it, I thought it might be worth mentioning a couple of asides:

Firstly, I saw Growing at ATP last week, and they were excellent. Everybody else I spoke to who caught some of them said they were insufferably dull, but I really enjoyed that fact that just a bassist and a guitarist (not sure what happened to the third guy) built up a wall of sound based around precisely one note for twenty minutes, before exploring its textural possibilities for a further fifteen. They even added some proper melodies and everything towards the end, and it was quite entrancing. They were the first band I saw that weekend (after walking out halfway through a song by the pathetic Converge), and a warm introduction to the weekend it was. I also saw their guitarist wandering around as part of a bizarre musical troupe after Shellac had finished on Sunday night, armed with a guitar, candles and tambourines. Welcomely odd.

Secondly, the reference I made to Oneida live dates is sadly now long out of date. Suffice to say, they were great, they did play a couple of long songs, and managed not to be blown off the stage by the mighty Wolves!(OfGreece).

Enough. I’m off to the continent for a week. Enjoy the forthcoming content on diskant.