I had that Econoline band staying at my house the last couple of days and it’s been fun. Knackering as well though – I got home last night, ate my dinner and went straight to bed to sleep for 12 hours. I met 3/4 of them outside the old 13th Note cafe [the 13th NOT, harhar] and then we pointedly crossed the road to see what the new 13th Note cafe [aka Mono] was like. It’s hidden away in the corner of Kings Court beside the retro clothes shops and, as I say, spitting distance from the old Note. Shouting abuse distance as well I imagine. Anyway, it’s very nice inside. A wee bit new looking for a 13th Note venture but I’m sure it’ll get worn in soon enough. At least it was warm and welcoming on a typical Glasgow rainy day; the same friendly faces at the bar, coffee and Irn Bru readily available, Stephen Pastel sitting at the next table, everything how it should be. There’s no venue, sadly enough, but there will be a record shop [run by the aforementioned Stephen Pastel] and eventually a shop shop, one selling foodstuffs and organic things. So all very great and recommended next time you’re in Glasgow city centre.

Econoline were a bit worn out from their early morning flight so we traipsed back to my house where they put on the Sonic Youth video and promptly fell asleep. Ahhh. A few hours later we wandered over to West 13th where Ian Scanlon was found propping up the bar, having driven all the way from Nottingham that day. The first band on were most of Urusei Yatsura, now called Project A-KO. It was good to see them back on stage and with new tunes as catchy as the old ones but with less of the rayguns and glitter. I enjoyed it a lot. Then we had Zebedee Numchuck who seemed to have brought hordes of young people with them. The first time I heard of Zebedee Numchuck was when me and Chris met up with Wil Forbis and they were playing downstairs. We toyed with the idea of going to see them but trips down to listen at the door gave a unanimous decision that they sounded rubbish. Well, if they didn’t have such a stupidly memorable name I’d never have believed they were the same band. This was exhilerating hyper-fast hyper-loud guitar riffage and had everyone in the place happy to hear such mighty rock. Then Econoline went on to widespread inattention. They played well and people seemed to like it alright but no-one got over-excited or came over to the stage area to watch which was a bit of a shame. Good to hear the stuff off the new album though and I thought it sounded great.

Next day we wandered over to SubCity Radio at Glasgow University where Econoline were recording a session. They got all their gear set up and, in hilarious cliche situation, the first amplified guitar sounds brought a huffy old academic rushing in with the immortal words, “you’re not actually planning on playing music in the next half hour are you?”. Discovering that this was against the university regulations we were packed off to the pub for half an hour. Then it was back up for lots of level checking and curious students sticking their head round the door [amazingly, none of them did this during the recording] and then the actual recording. I found all this really interesting, having never been present at any recording situations before. They played a nice selection of tunes off the new album and all went well. Then I escorted them to the station and bid them farewell. You’ll be able to listen to the Econoline session online at the SubCity website soon so look out for that.

Posted: 11|9|02 at 11:41 pm. Filed under: live reviews.
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