Well, I suppose it’s down to me to make the first post of 2003 and wish all our readers a happy new year! Everyone at diskant’s new year resolution is to blog more..ahem! Not that I’ve got anything to post, unless you want to hear the intricacies of postal sorting. You do? Ah, great. Oh, wait, I’m bound by the Official Secrets Act and can’t tell.

Err, right. Well, let’s bring back THINGS I LIKE.

Things I like:
– boingy retro sounding dance music [Yummy Fur, 808 State, Autechre, Pet Shop Boys]
– my new sandwich press. mmm, toasted sandwiches
– my old keyboard which apparently is the same one Low use!
– the enormous pile of books sitting by my bed waiting to be read

Things I don’t like:
– digging out old 7″s and discovering they’re not really that good any more
– not getting anything edible for christmas [unless yellow flower bulbs count]
– waiting for the diskant badges to arrive
– WHY ISN’T THERE ANY SNOW?

It’s markedly less glamorous than Adrian’s though since I am, woo, a christmas postal sorter. I’m doing mail for London so if you’re expecting anything from the Glasgow area and it’s late you can quite possibly blame me! Now, the more mail there is making its way through the Glasgow area, the longer they’ll be needing to keep me on. So if you all send me a christmas card you’ll be wishing me a merry christmas AND keeping me in a job. In fact, send me a mix tape as well so I’ve got something new to listen to on my rather long and boring walk to and from work. I appear to be walking along the route of the Dodgy Pub Crawl – there’s about 12 of them, none of which I would set foot in on fear of stabbing. Email the diskant Robot for the diskant postal address. Also, me working 6 days a week for the next while means diskant updating/mail replying may go somewhat out the window. My advance apologies for being a lazy slacker. I need the money though. Blub etc.

I was enticed out on Friday to see the Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster but I was far more interested in the local support bands Torqamada and Fighting Red Adair. Anyway, I got there to find the bar packed with lots of trendy student types which always depresses me. It’s not that I like smaller gigs ‘cos I’m an elitist snob [well, okay, maybe a bit] but mostly because popular bands = loads of people in small space = me feeling claustrophobic and having the choice between squishing myself into the front of the moshpit or having a nice view of someone’s back for the whole gig. It was okay for Fighting Red Adair as people were still arriving and stuff so we stood near the front for moral support. Mind you FRA kind of do better when the audience is a bit unfriendly – gives them something to be offensive about and puts a bit of a hostile edge on their performance. FRA were good – they played a few new songs, a few old ones with an extra guitarist/keyboardist [the latter instrument adding an amusing new dinky facet to their sound] and were sounding rather impressive and powerful until Jim did the inevitable bass string breaking and it all faltered into heckling and frustration. If they were famous they’d be the kind of band that missed an important TV appearance because they were throwing stale doughnuts at eachother in the park down the road or something.

After this, things got very packed and I only got to watch the top of Torqamada’s heads. Which was a damn shame as from what I could see they had some pretty impressive make-up and outfits going on. Torqamada truly believe they are the reincarnation of an American 70s punk metal band and they do it with style and conviction. All makes for a hilariously enjoyable show. I’m not the biggest fan of squealy guitar solo metal but this was fun. Will be huge by this time next year if I’m not mistaken.

And then it was time for the final act. I’m not overly impressed with the 80s Matchbox Your Name Is Too Long – from what I’ve heard of their records they’re a damn sight better than a lot of the stuff the NME is hyping but they still have that ‘why?’ element. Why are they so popular? The songs aren’t that great, they’re not particularly attractive or exciting. I just don’t get it. So they come onstage and play a song that I recognise and it sounds pretty good. Then they play another song and it sounds pretty much the same. And then they play another song and it also sounds pretty much the same. And then I got bored and went home.

I got dragged out to West 13th last week by Will to see some band called Cayto. I got there a bit late and he casually mentions that the BMX Bandits are opening. Like, the real actual BMX Bandits, reformed after god knows how many years. Blimey, was I excited. I remember seeing the BMX Bandits in Aberdeen ages ago. I’ve even got the setlist somewhere. Everyones’ soundchecking and setting up went way way over time so the BMX Bandits did their first song as a soundcheck, happily concluding that this was the first time they’d ever been applauded for soundchecking. Ahhh. Duglas was his usual sparky/funny self, telling silly anecdotes between every song and generally acting like they were playing in front of ten thousand adoring fans. They played a couple of old songs and some new ones and it was all very jolly and adorable. Apparently they’ve got a new album out soon so I hope to see them play again soon. Their leisurely pace left little time for Cayto to squeeze in their set which didn’t work out too well for them. Neither did the 4cm of space they had to move about in. I’m still in two minds about Cayto. I like them when they’re loud and crazy, when they skip through genres six times in a song but when it gets a bit Epic Radiohead I’m not so keen. And covering a Kylie song is a major faux pas when you’re following the band that wrote ‘Kylie’s Got A Crush On Us’. But Cayto are still A Good Band with interesting intriguing ideas, they’ll just never be one of my favourite bands. After that the Cranebuilders played. They were nice unassuming, understated indie pop. Kind of like Smog playing a bunch of early Creation singles. Early Creation b-sides if I want to be mean. I enjoyed them but they could have played twice as many songs or half as many and I wouldn’t really have noticed. No stage presence. BMX Bandits stole the show really.

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.

Will, you missed Mogwai, Empire-Builder, March of Dimes, The Boy Cartographer and probably some others I’ve forgotten. This is going to send our Google referring stats through the roof….heheheh….

It was kind of a while back now though so forgive my memory if I start telling complete lies. First off, Eska were playing a gig with El Hombre which was a treat not to be missed. First on were Hex who I’d heard good things about but not yet seen. Two kids and drum machine and they made the loudest, heaviest ear bleeding noise I’d heard in a long time. I could feel my brain slowly turning into mush. Then they had a bunch of sound problems and decided to take it out on their instruments with almost painful results. Someone with a wicked sense of humour should plug them into Mogwai’s equipment and see how many windows they can shatter. I recommend them. It’s always great to see Eska and I was expecting a preview of their Fugazi support slot. But, no, we got lots of new songs instead! Eska have really developed into a fearsome rock monster but with those little intricate bits to make sure they never fall into some stodgy black hole of doom. By the sounds of things, the next Eska release should be fantastic. Hurray! I’d not seen El Hombre Trajeado for ages and had almost forgotten how cheery they are. Lots of quirky twisty turny instrumentals and the night seemed perfectly complete.

Couple of night later I walked miles and miles in the pouring rain to see some bands promising ex-Yummy Fur members. When I finally arrived at the door, the price had mysteriously risen to six pounds in a canny ‘wet people seeking refuge’ plan. Worked for the most part as well. Inside I was overjoyed to spot John McKeown himself helping out with the first band Michael Dracula, a rather sparky new wave disco band fronted by a glamorous blonde straight out of a Yummy Fur song. Hang on, that makes her sound like a prostitute. Umm. I guess I mean she looked like one of Lung Leg. She looked great anyhow and if we could have a Lung Leg revival that would be completely fine by me. They were quickly followed by Alex from the Karelia and the Yummy Fur’s new band whose name I have forgot and they were pretty great too. There was something a bit jarring about the vocals though that was putting me off a bit so I didn’t like them as much as the first band. The audience insisted on an encore though which I always love when local bands are supporting supposedly more famous American bands. For Gogogo Airheart were headlining. They were a bit odd really. Steven pointed out that the singer looked like Jon Bon Jovi which then made it difficult to take the band seriously. There was also lots of mucking about going on in the audience which was rather funny so I was pretty distracted throughout. I was too busy thinking about that six pounds as well.

And then finally it was Fugazi night, which seemed though it would never come, ticket #00002 having been stuck on my pinboard since June. We got there super early to get a good spot for taking photos although lengthy discussions with the promoter about whether our cameras were too professional and whether we’d leave them for Fugazi to check held us up a bit. I totally agree with all Fugazi’s venue demands [no barrier, no photo passes, not allowing huge telephoto press cameras, lights on in the audience etc.] but we were just fans with half decent cameras fitted with normal short lenses and prior permission from Southern. Hardly worth giving us the third degree over. It all got sorted out though but by the time we got upstairs Senator were on their last song which was a bit of a shame. More of a shame though was the fact that there was still a barrier up in the venue so Fugazi were seperated from the audience by a huge gap and it was almost impossible to take any good photos that didn’t have acres of barrier or stage in them or some security guy’s fat head. Bah. I am not fond of the Barrowlands. Eska looked great up on that big stage though and sounded even better. Glasgow gave them loads of support and it was all just heartwarming really. Ahhh. Fugazi themselves were simply amazing. There’s just no other band with such sincerity, kindness and a sense of their own power. It’s rare I don’t find my mind wandering while bands are playing, especially when I’m taking photos, but I was transfixed the whole time. Fugazi are the only band I go all guitar geek over. I’m just constantly in awe of how Ian and Guy play and interact wth each other. I got to hear pretty much every song I wanted to hear and it was pretty much perfect. Couple of songs were let down by bad sound but they were minor glitches in a set that kept getting better and better, culminating in a staggeringly great Shut The Door. And then they came back on and did a whole extra bunch of songs and you just wished they’d stay onstage forever. If you missed them this tour then go bang your head against the wall for being an idiot.

Either that or they’ve been doing really boring things like going to see Fugazi and to the cinema and stuff. cough cough etc.

I’ve been doing some exciting stuff but it was ages ago now and I can’t remember much about it. Fugazi tomorrow though and the mighty Eska supporting. I just wanted to mention a couple of things. Firstly, the nice people at Instal [hopefully they’ll update that website soon…] are offering YOU a 2 for 1 ticket deal for this year’s event. It takes place at the Arches in Glasgow on December 1st and features all manner of exciting and innovative ‘brave new music’ including perfomances by Ryoji Ikeda, Stephan Mathieu, Koji Asano & the Paragon Ensemble and Phill Niblock. We’ll be previewing Instal 02 in next month’s ZINE but there’s details on the event, the line-up and the ticket deal here. I suggest you get yourself along.

In other news, um, there’s a really interesting interview with ME in the latest issue of Tasty zine. You can also email Sam for your own free copy! Okay, I’ll shut up now.

Hurray, I’ve finally been doing something I can blog about. We grabbed some handily placed kids today and went to see The Powerpuff Girls Movie! It was really great as well. And don’t say it’s not topical since it has a theme tune by bis [which they nicely punked up for the film]. It was basically just a long episode of the cartoon but considering how rare it is for cartoons not to get messed up in the movie version, that was pretty ace. They used the time to explain the origins of the Powerpuff Girls in proper detail and also how Mojo Jojo came to be an evil monkey genius. It was hyper brightly coloured, almost excessively loud and packed full of monkey smacking action and actually funny jokes. It also had the best newspaper headline ever: FREAKY BUG-EYED WEIRDO GIRLS BREAK TOWN. We also added our own brand of hilarity to the showing by bringing along Rhiannon’s talking Pikachu who has master timing for shouting ‘pika-pika!’ during quiet moments. I’ve yet to find a situation where this isn’t funny. So, yeah, go see go see!

Well, I’m home and sulking cos I ain’t got no money to go and see Erase Errata. Damn Sleazy’s for not ever doing tickets. If they’d sold tickets I would have bought one weeks ago and I wouldn’t be in this jam.

So, anyway, I’ve been wading through the visitor referrals and have found some new reading for you.

– The Rub looks jolly nice and reads rather well too. Plus every week it offers some darn good MP3s to download.

– Stumpshaker doesn’t seem to get updated too often [but who are we to talk…] but there’s some interesting stuff in the archives though, lots of it film related which makes a nice change from all the music blogs.

– Jill who I met at Audioscope has an ace Oxford-based website Nunuworld with local music stuff, a blog and a rather fantastic gigblog of every single gig she’s been to this year!

– The always great Skippy’s Cage has a Cat on Form Tour Diary by Dan of their recent UK jaunt which makes for amusing reading of bodily damage and giant watermelons. Good luck to Skippy as well who is off to live in the US of A shortly. How will London manage without him?

– I’m not entirely sure what Transmission Disorder is but it looks like quite a good thing. Obviously keen on the new wave of garage rock bands, there’s news and reviews, interviews, quizzing rock stars on how ROCK they actually are and lots of little bits and pieces.

– Eroding Empire is a website full of information on DIY action and events in London and they can have a link purely for calling diskant “for the indie kids”. Cheers.

If that’s not enough for you then there’s plenty in the diskant links pages to keep you occupied. Check the New Links page for our latest finds or the Go See Sites for our current favourites.