FREE SWIM @ THE STAR OF KINGS 24 November 2011

"That's so new I wasn't sure where to go with it" confesses Matt Emery making up the ending to a song he penned earlier this afternoon. There's a supportive but disappointingly small crowd to support his fresh-as-new-paint opening slot, heartfelt solo acoustic power-pop songs of breaking hearts, weeping moons and feeling alone in hotel rooms.

I wrote about Oh! Gunquit in the new band section in this esteemed organ back in May 2010. The shadowy basement/cave at The Star of Kings is the perfect setting for their high-octane, surftastic garage-rock. Who could fail to love pounding songs called ‘Cindy's Got A Tiger’, ‘Meat Shake’ or ‘The Mentalist Twist’, the latter featuring hula-hooping lead singer. Sadly that moment was not captured for posterity by me. Instead you'll just have to track them down live for yourself. Highly recommended.



It was the 30th birthday of Free Swim’s Head Coach Paul Coltofeanu: "he's the oldest member of the band". But whatever else, he's certainly not the furriest or tallest band member. That honour belongs to the bass player dressed as the titular Giant Panda of the band's second EP “Yolanda The Panda”.


If seeing a band's singer hula-hoop earlier had been an unexpected pleasure, it was dwarfed by the silly-grin delight of seeing a seven foot panda strafe the - sadly still small - crowd with his bass guitar whilst placing one large paw firmly on the monitor. The four-piece band only played seven songs but they ably showed off the humorous and surreal story-telling and chunky rock sounds that made said EP one of this year's unadulterated pleasures.





This was Free Swim’s last gig of 2011 but for next year again highly, highly recommended live. Fun, furious and furry.



The Set List:

The Eureka Moment
I Want To Be A Mountaineer
Harmlessly English
Swooping Swoopily Like A Swooping Swooper
Scoring Bamboo Shoots
Rubik’s Rue
Quality Time With The Wife and Kids

FANFARLO @ DEAF INSTITUTE 23 November 2011

“We are called, for the time being, Netherlands” was not the most confident of starts for this London-via-Southampton four-piece. However if uncertain of name their sound is assured dream-pop, all shimmering guitar, steady floor-tom beats and gorgeous boy-girl harmonies. They may have forgotten a keyboard but if they hadn’t have told us it’s absence wouldn’t have been noticed, their sound felt so complete. Netherlands have a single out next year (“In January...or February..” they weren’t sure of this either) but whenever and whatever they are called it will be worth tracking down.


Christos Fanaras turned out to be a friend of the headliners. And it is not unkind to suggest that’s the only reason he was on this bill – the phrase ‘sore-thumb’ comes to mind. Glowering behind thirty year old keyboards he played a doomy and intense set of instrumentals somewhere between Tim Hecker and Forest Swords and sadly falling a long way behind both.

And then the headliners Fanfarlo. I have spent a good part of this year worrying about Fanfarlo. The initially self-released “Reservoir” is near faultless piece of swooning melodic indie-pop. What could a major label hook-up and a then long gestation for second album (due February 2012, three years after the self-release of its predecessor) mean?


Well from tonight’s gig at the Deaf Institute my first conclusion is Fanfarlo have successfully retained their slightly quirky, slighty bohemian otherness – what a troupe of circus children who form a touring band might look like, especially given keyboard-player/violinist Cathy Lewis’s curious one-piece romper-suit-cum-high-cut-leotard outfit tonight. But as well as near-constant touring the band have also been listening to a shed-load of music from 1979 – 1981 by the sound of it, from that era when post-punk morphed into synth-pop. Four of the older songs played tonight were all re-worked – the intro to ‘Luna’ was a dead-ringer for The B52s’ ‘Planet Claire’ – and new songs featured extra emphasis on keyboards, synth-beats alongside drums and saxophone. Elsewhere amongst new songs I heard snatches – just slight ones – of Devo, The Cure, OMD and even A-Ha. These were just snatches mind – I suspect all those references will be quite misleading when it comes to the full album.





This could have been a recipe for a sloppy mess but Fanfarlo confidently delivered it all with poise, energy and those winning harmonies. Given a long day of driving, caffeine, and a 6Music radio session all before this gig, Simon Balthazar said he felt like a cocaine-addled Stevie Nicks. He looked and sounded far from it - the whole band came across as relaxed, happy and clearly enjoying playing this set that felt as fresh as they looked and pleasingly felt like a true set of Fanfarlo songs.



I’ve the message now: the new record from Fanfarlo will not be a carbon-copy of “Reservoir”. And after tonight’s coherent and confident gig, I’m not just over this but really looking forward to hearing it. “Rooms Filled With Light” is released on 28 February 2012

The Set List:

‘Pilots’ = I Am A Pilot
‘Comments’ = Comets
‘Lunadogs’ = Luna
‘Wee Willy Wilkins’ = Harold T Wilkins
Encores not on the set list were a new song (‘In The Bag?’) and The Walls Are Coming Down.

OKKERVIL RIVER @ SOUND CONTROL 20 November 2011

This evening's support A Classic Education are an interesting proposition: displaced Vancouverite living in Bolgona fronts Italian indie-pop band. As cosmopolitan as their nationalities, the band’s sounds is a weaving together of summery sixties-leaning dream-pop with a hefty, rockin’ rhythm section - and then live interspersed with film dialogue and a range of stuffed and ornamental animals onstage (the jaguar is called Sonny apparently). Very easy on the ear but occasionally on this first date too much so to be instantly memorable – we must spend more time getting to know each other.



In his interview earlier this year for Drowned In Sound, Will Sheff couldn’t remember how many people had played on the new Okkervil River record: “Oh man. Ummm…40? Something like that, maybe? I’m really bad with numbers – I’m like a mother bird who can’t count all the babies in the nest”. When it comes to touring “I Am Very Far” however Sheff and co stick with the six-person line-up (with new multi-instrumentalist Michael St Clair) that has served all their recent album tours. And although this year’s release may have had more players, it follows the steady progression of scope and ambition from previous releases for their finely crafted, literate indie-rock ‘n’ rock.


Tonight at Sound Control the band open with a fierce statement of intent: ‘The Valley’ is as epic and monumental as on record (I can’t listen to it without thinking about this review and its reference to the ‘gated snare’) but coupling it with earlier songs like ‘For Real’ and ‘Black’ show how similar in power and feel they are. For a band that largely stick to their key instruments – drums, keys, bass and two guitars – it still surprises me how much variety Okkervil River can wring out of Sheff’s song-writing even with Michael St Clair working so hard at the rear of the stage (look he’s playing a trombone! Now the cornet! Next the violin!).





There is banter about Nas-endorsed milkshakes, repeating “granddad stories” about playing their first Manchester gig at The Star and Garter and a brief Steely Dan interlude but mainly the band are about delivering those songs with a mixture of concentration and fervour, precision and passion. And as finely crafted as the songs is tonight’s set-list as the band traverse the new record and back catalogue in a carefully flowing sweep - high energy opening salvo, more reflective mid-tempo numbers, the acoustic interlude, singalong sections and ballads into the dual song finale an epic (that word again) combination of ‘Our Life Is Not A Movie Or Maybe’ and ‘Lost Coastlines’.





Tonight it struck me that Sheff, overgrown straggly hair, thick beard and thick-rimmed glasses, could be mistaken for a younger version of a latter-day Jarvis Cocker. And he certainly inspires the same fan-reverence if more as an arty, askance story-teller than a champion of the misfit. The final two encores simply cement the affection and ardour of the crowd. For some bands the studio is their province, for others it is the live circuit. Okkervil River manage to span both – intricate and expansive records (their back catalogue feels much more extensive than six studio albums) with exceptional and passionate live performances never diminished or fatigued apparently by their near-constant touring. Essential listening. Essential viewing.

The Set List:

The Valley
For Real
Rider
Black
Piratess
Song Of Our So-Called Friend
Wake And Be Fine
White Shadow Waltz
We Need A Myth
Westfall
No Key, No Plan (acoustic)
So Come Back, I Am Waiting
John Allyn Smith Sails
Your Past Live As A Blast
Our Life Is Not A Movie Or Maybe
Lost Coastlines
---
It Ends With A Fall
Unless It Kicks

BIRD "Phantoms" EP

Witches, phantoms, ancient roots, lunar tides – there’s plenty here to justify a Halloween release. But I get the distinct impression that the Liverpool-based five-piece - Adele Emmas, Mick Dolan, Keith Thompson, Ste Parratt and Alexis Samata - are spooky all year round, not just seasonally so.


The stand-out track from this debut release by Bird is the title one. An eerie backdrop of nodding sombre drums and plucked acoustic guitar usher in soaring ghostly vocals, spectral choir and sinister violin – a thoroughly spine-tingling gothic take on alt-folk. ‘Hey Hey Moonshine’ has a woozy feel - but is about reflected moonlight rather than illegal stills – yet in tone and content it maintains the supernatural feel of the opener topped off with some intensely anguished violin squeal. Third track ‘Tides’ is a more sombre rumination, occasionally a little too somnambulant of pace but enlivened by some glacial and wordless Elisabeth Fraser yodelling. ‘The Witch Hunter’ delivers Edgar Allen Poe in song: thunderstorm crashes and falling rain opening before lurching through rolling drums, blood-curdling yodels from Adele Emmas, a soulless children’s voices and then sweeping and ominous strings.



This is evocative, mature if a little earnest gothic chamber-folk music that wins hands down in the atmosphere stakes. Some songs on the EP still show a band spreading its song-writing wings (ouch) but in the fully-fledged spookiness of ‘Phantoms’ they soar high.

 Hey Hey Moonshine by Birdofficial

Bird Phantoms [BUY or BUY]

HIS CLANCYNESS / SHIMMERING STARS Split Single

After their August 2011 debut album mined a rich seam of Everly Brothers pop innocence combined with lofi garage-rock, I pondered where Shimmering Stars would progress next. The answer of course: a split single with a fellow Vancouverite living in Bologna, released on a Norwegian label.

His Clancyness aka Jonathan Clancy (also lead singer with A Classic Education) is new to me in his solo guise. ‘Carve A Peach’ is a woozy slice of dream-pop in the mode of Washed Out, Twin Shadow or maybe even a blissed out Bradford Cox; a sweet ache of soft vocals over keyboard washes and soothing jangles. ‘Don’t Worry, Just Understand’ continues the wistful swoon, elevating wavering guitar tremolo over synth to act like a bridge to the Shimmering Stars songs.

 

Despite the international aspects behind this partnership the two tracks from Shimmering Stars stay firmly in the vein of “Violent Hearts”. ‘Not Growing Up’ opens with rolling tremulous riffs like languid beach breakers before becoming a pounding torrent of widescreen Spector-like teenage anguish. ‘Greyhound Romance’ trips like Buddy Holly with a fuzz-pedal, filled with the sweetness of youthful love and escape suggested by the title before peaking in celebratory fashion. It may be darker lyrically as the reverb swamps the subtlety of Rory McClure’s words but the sounds accurately (I hope) portray the songs emotions.

The His Clancyness/Shimmering Stars split is available on 7” vinyl or digitally. Grab it now and pretend that the low winter sun is actually still the blissful glow of a balmy summer’s evening.

Shimmering Stars- Not Growing Up by Splendour

His Clancyness/Shimmering Stars split single [BUY]

LIZ GREEN @ KINGS ARMS, SALFORD 12 November 2011

“If you like watching rehearsals, you must be loving this”. George Thomas and his brother Euan’s afternoon practice session had been lost to the lugging back and forth of equipment. However from my brief previous encounters with George Thomas on record, his faltering, faux-naif indie folk wobbles don’t appear to depend of endless practice. Tonight there was a rough-hewn charm to these wonky songs lent a slight antique air, despite the futuristic glasses and one song about space, from the swish, brushed drums of Euan and acoustic guitar or 60s Ace Tone organ from George. There were some stories of the shared histories of George Thomas and Liz Green and Red Deer Club that I didn’t quite follow but no interpretation was needed for this amiably idiosyncratic opening set.



George Thomas had earlier said that hearing this was Liz Green’s album launch party he had put the emphasis on "party" rather than "slick gig". Liz Green’s approach to her own launch party was to push the dial round to "wild variety". Her set started with her alone on the stage necking a glass of rum followed by playing two covers – Son House and Blind Willie McTell. She was then joined by her band, the freshly christened ‘Team Me’, and the evening continued with rambling introductions and reminiscences, hand-drawn note-book storyboarding of one song, more shambling amiability but then beautifully haunting songs of murder and bereavement. As she put it herself “Enough hilarity, here’s another song about death”.



I first saw Liz Green in 2007 in the upstairs room at Cafe Saki. As she led a cross-legged, mainly student audience in a clap-along acapella number I initially pegged her as a coffee-house folk-revivalist. But as her singles confirmed she sides more with pre-war blues here, and on the debut album, given a subtle jazz flavour by her band – trombone, saxophone, brushed drums and double bass. The surreal almost nightmarish imagery of songs – Joe the half-bird man who loses his fourteen sons (also half bird) in the American Civil War before having to kill his wife Oko and himself with a woodcutter’s axe to end their grief in “The Ballad of Joe and Oko”- was explained matter-of-factly as though such stories stalk the imagination of Liz Green daily. The switch from meandering comic explanation to hushed harrowing tales was often sudden and stark.



Highlights for me were a deathly atmospheric ‘Hey Joe’ and a breathtakingly beautiful solo rendition of ‘French Singer’. For ‘Gallows’ the final song of main set performed solo, she walked slowly away from the microphone still singing, her voice becoming more distant until she disappeared into the wings and into silence. A wonderfully dramatic moment. I would dearly love to see a Liz Green show that emphasises the drama and grand guignol without attempting to lighten the mood. May be just too intense? But tonight was a great combination of a cosy night-in with friends-and-rum plus spooky, sparse musical tales of death and loss. Someone had travelled all the way from Germany just to see this show giving another twist to the album title "O Devotion". But Liz Green’s talent and song-writing do indeed deserve such carefully placed devotion.

The Set List:

Grinnin’ In Your Face [Son House] (solo)
Dying Crapshooter’s Blues [Blind Willie McTell] (solo)
Ostrich Song
Midnight Blues
Displacement Song
Rag and Bone
Hey Joe
The Ballad of Joe and Oko
The Quiet
Bad Medicine
Gallows (solo)
---
French Singer (solo)
Bei Mir Bis du Shoen

THE MISERABLE RICH @ ST PHILIP'S CHURCH, SALFORD 3 November 2011

"A haunted evening... with spine-chilling tales" promised the poster. Well there’s little spine-chilling or terrifying about Golden Fable (Rebecca Palin and Tim McIver late of Tim and Sam’s Tim and The Sam Band with Tim and Sam) but they were certainly spine-tingling. Especially when their seven song was at its simplest i.e. the recorded backing track took a back-seat and the live elements were foregrounded: Rebecca Palin’s glacial, haunting tones and sparse keyboard and guitar accompaniment. After four songs on the raised platform at St Philip’s Church, it was a brave step to move from behind the keyboard and mic stands and perform one song acoustically on the stone steps in front of the pews but it worked beautifully. They finished with current single ‘The Chill Pt.2’ but the whole set was a tasty appetiser for their debut album due next year.





“A performance poet?!” Ms L wasn’t pleased at the prospect of Alabaster de Plume (possibly his real name) but he provided the ghost stories and song in an entertainingly eccentric manner. He veered swiftly and unpredictably from (one third) spoken word to (two-thirds) mannered madrigals all accompanied by some intense glowering eyes, like a young John Malkovich playing David Tibet playing Jake Thackray in his best stage voice. Odd but captivatingly so.



It was also an odd experience to see The Miserable Rich and not be familiar with their latest album “Miss You In The Days” released this week. And odder because the main set compromised nothing but songs from said new album, with the chamber-folk band’s sound rounded out by drummer and guitarist and then made even larger and rounder by the cavernous echo of the high-ceiled room at St Phil’s. However I found the newness of set-up and songs refreshing and enjoyable – and the six piece ably filled the large space comfortably. Singer James de Malplaquet was slightly, only slightly, nonplussed by the setting – “I’m not sure I can say what I normally talk about between songs”. But their songs about ghosts, death and sex, recorded in part in a haunted ‘Jacobean Palace’, felt perfectly at home here.





After a ten song set introduced by Alabaster de Plume (who later joined them on saxophone for 'Pillion') the six piece relocated to pew level of the church to ask for requests for older songs. The band offered a public vote to select just one but graciously played both candidate songs – ‘Pisshead’ and then a particularly lovely ‘The Boat Song’ - the poor drummer redundant whilst the rest of The Miserable Rich played unplugged. Returning to the raised platform they finished with a final new song ‘True Love’. A shame not to hear some more older songs but the combination of newness, gentle spookiness and relaxed bonhomie was a winning one.



The band continue their UK tour up to 12 November before heading off to Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

The Set List:

FRANCOBOLLO Harpholma EP

Faced with a five track EP and a listening public increasingly gripped by attention deficit disorder, many bands would be tempted to shove their best track out first and allow a tail-off in catchiness or immediacy to follow. Anglo-Swedish four-piece Francobollo adopt a different tactic – a more evenly spread albeit eclectic running order with, in my opinion, the best and most ambitious track slap bang in the middle.


That’s not to say other tracks are without merit or catchiness. Opener ‘Future Lover’ mixes languid slide guitar boogie riffs and 90s alt-rock swagger to create a slacker anthem to being alone and losing. ‘Good Times’ continues the 90s vibe in a more optimistic vein: crisply produced, crunchy grunge-pop that is more Seattle than Stockholm in its melodic appreciation of eyes and revelry (not as deep as it sounds – it really is about “good times”).

Then the aforementioned ‘centre-piece'. ‘I Found A Bike Today’ is the sound of Pavement and Wild Beasts fighting over the rights to drag the Syd Barrett nursery rhyme psychedelia of Pink Floyd’s ‘Bike’ into 2011 (or possibly 1994). From muscular rhythms, chiming guitars and surreal falsetto trills, the song steadily escalates into a hefty math-rock work-out that keeps layering on the intensity without ever collapsing in on itself. Dizzyingly epic in a way a song about romancing an inanimate object should not be able to achieve.



If the band have been zigging, they now zag with ‘I Hope Not’ a pulsing, shimmering slice of dance-rock à la LCD Soundsystem. Final song ‘Pretty Colours’ returns to the angular crunch of the opening songs but with a more downbeat repeated plea (“oh how I wish you were here”). This ends up as strained screeching and the song begins to grate in a way that elsewhere Francobollo nimbly avoid. An intriguing and intense set of surreal party tunes that couldn’t sound any less like they were recorded in a cabin in the woods of Northern Sweden (which they were). An EP worth overcoming ADD to spend some time with.

Future Lover by Francobollo

I Found A Bike Today by Francobollo

Francobollo Harpholma EP [BUY]

MANCHESTER GIGS IN MUSIC: November 2011 Pt.1

Gigs don't always have to be sweaty, rufty-tufty affairs as Jamie Harrison shows this month. His album launch - for the rather fine "Get Under The Carpet" - is at the genteel and bijou Art of Tea in Didsbury along with Rozi Plain and This Is The Kit. Of course if you want to get over-heated and strain your neck or legs, there's plenty of choice for that too. As ever a mixtape [54 mins / 62 MB] of bands playing Manchester this November to help inform your gig-going decision-making - link in the post below this one.

Mcr Gigs In Music November: 2011 Mixtape

Bos Angeles Beach Slalom [2.35] (17 Nov Trof Fallowfield BUY TICKETS)
Bass Drum of Death Heart Attack Kid [5.12] (7 Nov The Castle BUY TICKETS)
Jeff The Brotherhood Diamond Way [7.40] (12 Nov The Castle BUY TICKETS)
Jamie Harrison The Bear [9.16] (20 Nov Art of Tea BUY TICKETS)
Golden Fable The Golden Hour [12.36] (3 Nov St Philip’s Church BUY TICKETS)
Twin Sister Bad Street [17.19] (7 Nov Deaf Institute BUY TICKETS)
Stevie Jackson Man of God [20.59] (4 Nov Academy BUY TICKETS)
Cashier No.9 Lost At Sea [25.07] (9 Nov Deaf Institute BUY TICKETS)
Okkervil River Our Live Is Not A Movie Or Maybe [29.26] (20 Nov Sound Control BUY TICKETS)
Gardens and Villa Spacetime [32.36] (10 Nov The Ritz BUY TICKETS)
Duologue Get Out While You Can [36.52] (6 Nov The Castle BUY TICKETS)
Widowspeak Harsh Realm [39.34] (27 Nov The Castle BUY TICKETS)
Thurston Moore Circulation [43.44] (30 Nov The Ritz BUY TICKETS)
Siskiyou Twigs and Stones [46.42] (9 Nov Night and Day BUY TICKETS)
Lanterns on the Lake You’re Almost There [49.49] (27 Nov Deaf Institute BUY TICKETS)
Liz Green Hey Joe [54.19] (12 Nov Kings Arms BUY TICKETS)

And not forgetting:
1 Nov Baxter Dury Ruby Lounge / 1 Nov Baby Dee Anthony Burgess Foundation / 1 Nov The Chapman Family Sound Control / 2 Nov Chairlift + Trailer Trash Tracys Sound Control / 2 Nov The Travelling Band Academy 3 / 3 Nov Steve Earle & The Dukes Academy 1 / 3 Nov The Miserable Rich St Philip’s Church / 4 Nov Empire Signal Ruby Lounge / 4 Nov Mad Colours + Peace Signs + Dinner Party Fuel / 4 Nov Money Sacred Trinity Church / 4 Nov Lana Del Rey Ruby Lounge / 4 Nov DOOM The Ritz / 4 Nov Electric Soft Parade Deaf Institute / 4 Nov Magazine Academy 1 / 4 Nov Empire Signal Ruby Lounge / 6 Nov Josiah Wolf Kraak / 6 Nov Vessels Night & Day / 6 Nov Washington Deaf Institute / 6 Nov My Morning Jacket + The Head And The Heart Academy 1 / 6 Nov Throwing Muses Academy 2 / 7 Nov Acid Mothers Temple Ruby Lounge / 8 Nov Ane Brun Deaf Institute / 8 Nov Nils Frahm Band on the Wall / 9 Nov Agnes Obel + Martin Henry John Ruby Lounge / 9 Nov Dog Is Dead Sound Control / 9 Nov Givers Academy / 10 Nov North Sea Radio Orchestra St Philip’s Church / 10 Nov Misty’s Big Adventure MoHo Live / 10 Nov Stephen Malkmus + Girls The Ritz / 10 Nov Kate Walsh Band on the Wall / 11 Nov New Villager Ruby Lounge / 11 Nov Islet Deaf Institute / 11 Nov Fountains of Wayne Club Academy / 12 Nov St Vincent Sound Control / 12 Nov King Krule Trof Fallowfield / 12 Nov Young British Artists + Younghusband The Roadhouse / 13 Nov Charles Bradley Band on the Wall / 13 Nov Washed Out Sound Control / 13 Nov The Dum Dum Girls FAC251 / 13 Nov William Fitzsimmons Deaf Institute / 14 Nov Anna Calvi Manchester Cathedral / 14 Nov The Antlers Sound Control / 14 Nov Trophy Wife Deaf Institute / 15 Nov Cake The Ritz / 15 Nov David's Lyre Deaf Institute / 15 Nov Bellowhead Academy / 15 Nov Yuck Academy / 16 + 17 Nov Wild Beasts + Braids Manchester Cathedral / 16 Nov Portugal The Man Deaf Institute / 16 Nov Wire Academy / 16 Nov KMFDM Club Academy / 17 Nov Fear of Men Trof Fallowfield / 17 Nov The Moons Ruby Lounge / 17 Nov Alabama 3 The Ritz / 17 Nov Hyde & Beast Deaf Institute / 18 Nov The Babies Kraak / 18 Nov The Besnard Lakes + Suuns Deaf Institute / 18 Nov Neon Indian Night & Day / 19 Nov Cults Ruby Lounge / 19 Nov The Dark Lights Night & Day / 19 Nov The Experimental Pop Band + Becca & The Broken Biscuits Gullivers / 19 Nov Shabazz Palaces Deaf Institute / 19 Nov CW Stoneking Academy / 20 Nov The Fall Royal Exchange Theatre / 21 Nov The Field and Walls Deaf Institute / 21 Nov Josh T Pearson RNCM / 21 Nov Gillian Welch Apollo / 22 Nov Jesse Malin & The St Mark’s Social Ruby Lounge / 22 Nov Folks Deaf Institute / 23 Nov Sam Lewis + Ash Mountain The Castle / 23 Nov Mariarchi el Bronx Sound Control / 23 Nov Fanfarlo Deaf Institute / 24 Nov Wreckless Eric and Amy Rigby The Castle / 24 Nov Fixers Night & Day / 24 Nov Zola Jesus + EMA Academy / 24 Nov Wild Palms Trof Fallowfield / 25 Nov Jesse Rose Trip Night & Day / 25 Nov Marcus Foster Deaf Institute / 27 Nov Little Dragon Ruby Lounge / 29 Nov My Tiger My Timing The Castle / 30 Nov Das Racist Ruby Lounge / 30 Nov Little Barrie Deaf Institute

MANCHESTER GIGS IN MUSIC: November 2011 Pt.2

Mcr Gigs in Music Mixtape: November 2011

Manchester Gigs in Music - November 2011 by Follyofyouth on Mixcloud

Or download mixtape [55 mins / 62 MB] here

SINGING ADAMS @ DULCIMER 24 October 2011

Pity the poor opening act. A hot upstairs room at Dulcimer was filled with the hubbub of chat rather than the quiet appreciation of the solitary musician kicking off tonight’s triple bill. Those paying James Kelly some attention were richly rewarded however. Since I saw him last (at this same venue) he’s added some gorgeously soft and wistful melodic tunes alongside his furious finger-picking and gravelly blues hollers. Definitely worth catching live.


The last time I saw Gabriel Minnikin he looked more like a Hells Angel biker spoiling for a fight – white vest, heavily tattooed biceps and forearms, aviator shades, stern black cap. Tonight rather than menace he looked slimmer, softer and was clean shaven – rather than growling menace he conveyed laid-back conviviality. And rather than sparse bluegrass tonight’s set was unashamedly honky-tonk country (“here’s a country song” joked Gabriel; everyone got the joke). Backed by a four piece band – the Walton Hesse rhythm section, Chris Hillman (not that one) on pedal steel and a cowboy-booted guitarist called Adrian – the set included a John Prine cover and a duet with Jo Rose. Mancunian Americana out in force tonight and to excellent effect.


Six months on from their last Manchester gig, it was good to see Singing Adams back in town as they can be depended upon to give a great show – even if in a smaller and by now very sweaty venue. Surely we can stop with the references to Steven Adams’s previous band now? Singing Adams can – and continue to show the signs of moving on. As well as songs from this year’s “Everybody Friends Now” album and a B-side, there were also three new songs, one getting only its second ever airing. The band opened with a trio of slower-paced numbers; which also allowed them to get the measure of the crowd: a strange mix of ages, some quite immobile, others more animated plus “drug clapping guy” to contend with. The playing was dependably assured and slick and songs from an album that has only been out six months already feel like old friends.





What also makes Singing Adams gigs such a warm-feeling-inside experience is the none-too-serious banter and self-deprecating moves alongside the super-catchy tunes: singing the first lines of ‘Giving It All Away’ in quasi-pub singer mode amongst the crowd, encouraging singalongs (‘One Hand of the Wheel’) or ecstatic screaming (‘Injured Party’), responding to some surreal heckling (“glass her!”) and of course despite being told not to, mentioning the football or using the C-word on stage.



By the end of this 80 minute set the highly jocular mood nearly proved too much to pull it back for final moving tribute to the singer-songwriter Thomas Hansen with ‘St Thomas’. But they did (“this is for a friend of mine who is dead” helped) and what a fine tribute that song is. There was a hint at the end of the night Singing Adams will be back in January. Let’s hope so. Dependable. Dependably brilliant.

The Set List:

TRIPS AND FALLS "People Have To Be Told"

When Jacob Romero’s voice is at its most audible on this record (say ‘Good People Are So Sure They Are Always Right’) you could be mistaken for thinking he’s an adenoidal finger-in-the-lughole folk balladeer (further reinforced by said song turning out to be a tale of bloody despatch). But these vocal moments and folky allusions are few and are misleading pointers to the overall sound of Trips And Falls – although murder and mystery prevail. The Montreal indie band possess the twitchy lofi minimalism of Flying Nun’s Tall Dwarfs with occasional bursts (as on opener ‘I’ll Do the Dishes, You Do the Laundry’) of de-tuned Sonic Youth guitar noise. For the most part clipped guitar lines, tight restraint and bittersweet disdain carry the day - as well as impressively convoluted song titles. ‘Is That My Soul That Calls Upon My Name’ is a doom-laden jagged shuffle of existential doubt as dark and introspective as its title would suggest. The slow-burn of ‘That Is A Big Door’ is more hopeful in its controlled drift and rippling drones: “take your time, just let me know when you’re ready...it only hurts for the first time”. Well more hopeful.

The claustrophobic moodiness is lightened in part by the almost faux-naif observational dark humour behind Romero’s precise, straining vocals plus the sweetly sung – and utterly charming - counterpoint of bassist Ashleigh Delaye in duets such as the mutual Dear John note that is ‘This Is All Going To End Badly’ or the playfully jangly bickering of single ‘Marginally More Than Mildly Annoying’. The latter is the most light-hearted if not downright funny moment on the record - and curious but timid listeners should start with this (free download) and its plaintive boy/girl plea to “please kill me slow”. But these duets can also turn nasty as ‘That’s What She Said’ shows – a weary, mournful slump of the shoulders that brings the record to a bitter finish.



This is the band’s second album, “a little less weird than the first” according to UK label Song by Toad Records. I haven’t heard “He Was Such A Quiet Boy” so I can’t be drawn on comparative weirdness but even despite its stare-you-down earnest intensity “People Have To Be Told” is also curiously compelling and refreshingly follows its own path. As the band say ‘Why Should Now Be Normal?’.

Trips and Falls - This is All Going to End Badly by Song, by Toad

Trips and Falls People Have To Be Told [BUY]

GHOST OUTFIT Tuesday / I Want Someone Else

If you followed the weekly ‘Ghost Thursday’ videos the band released recently you may have noticed that amongst the pet hamsters, mechanical diggers and dog-walking, when Ghost Outfit do appear, predictably, they are donning white sheets. Literal interpretation and a penchant for dressing up aside, the hand-held, DIY style to the videos (some self-directed) is mimicked in the songs: noisy, often abrasive home-recorded tunes bashed out with shaky, rough edges left intact (see this January's mixtape for an earlier, melodic moment ‘I Was Good When I Was Young’). For their debut official release, on Salford’s Sways Records, the duo of Jack Hardman and Mike Benson are still planting their flag firmly in the lo-fi noise camp but this double A-side single shows Ghost Outfit striking out to some fresh territories.


‘Tuesday’ is pell-mell rush of compressed energy, spiky guitars and booming drums – behind the euphoria, it softly sings of cowardice and love whilst giving a poppy bounce to the sound of early Yo La Tengo or Dinosaur Jr or more contemporary acolytes Male Bonding or No Age . Then to show they’re not simply one gear pastiche merchants the companion track ‘I Want Someone Else’ is all slow-burn malevolence and shadow, a sorry tale of obsession and rejection that skulks along with its misery peaking in swelling thunderous cymbal crashes. Like their masked appearance on film, the vocals in both are not quite fully revealed, their just out-of-hearing presence sending me back for repeated listens as much as the infectious, frazzled melodies.

These two songs alone would be reason enough to invest in this release (7” white vinyl or digital download) but if ordered via Bandcamp both come with 13 extra songs from the home-recorded Young Ghosts EP. And for a mere £2 on top of the price of the vinyl you also get a cassette tape of these extra songs plus additional artwork AND a plushy handmade ghost. ‘Tuesday / I Want Someone Else’ is not released until Monday 31 October (Halloween spookily enough) but be advised to pre-order - a very limited edition that is likely to vanish into air.





Ghost Outfit Tuesday / I Want Someone Else [BUY]

HERMAN DUNE @ ISLINGTON MILL 15 October 2011

Tonight’s support was Sean Flinn and The Royal We who had travelled all the way from Portland, Oregon to accompany Herman Dune on their UK and European jaunt. A good match for the headliner, the four piece combined a downbeat folk-rock not unlike M. Ward (who Sean Flinn passingly resembles physically) with a more edgy, almost new wave rawness. Some of the earlier slower paced songs and then a broken guitar string didn’t help with the continuity but the final two songs – ‘Fossil Radio’ and ‘Patriot Heart’ were particularly impressive.



It’s four years since I’ve seen Herman Dune and they’ve not aged. By which I mean they still inhabit a bohemian midpoint between youth and maturity, between carefree and fucked up, where I find it impossible to put an age on either of the core members David-Ivar Herman Dune on guitar or Néman Herman Dune on drums. The white-washed brickwork and bare stage of Islington Mill suited them to a tee – nothing fancy and a blank canvas for their apparently effortlessly simple songs. But what the intimacy of tonight’s show highlighted was the effort and musical skills behind those songs as well as the deep love and appreciation felt by the crowd for the French band.


Performing here as a trio, the band played a set largely drawn from their last three albums with one foray into 2005’s “Not On Top” - plus a few (older? cover?) songs I didn’t recognise. Whatever era or album they were drawing on, the gig was a series of constant highlights: the infectious chug of ‘Pure Hearts’, Néman’s dexterous drumming or delicately funky bongo playing, the extended intense guitar solos for ‘Your Love is Gold’ or ‘The Long Long Run’ and an acoustic solo rendition of ‘Ah Hears Strange Moosic’ with the crowd providing the backing. From the latter onwards, the communal love for the band was tangible and vocal but it was taken to a higher level a few songs later with a celebratory sing-and-dance-a-long version of ‘I Wish I Could See You Soon’.







David talked of his love of Manchester – buying Northern Soul records or going on a Smiths pilgrimage to Salford Lads Club on previous visits – but the band’s main focus was on playing not talking: a hot and sweaty set that, including encores, was close to an hour and three quarters long. The final song of the main set was a near seven minute version of ‘When The Water Gets Cold And Freezes On The Lake’ – showing even songs about mortality can be life-affirming – then two solo songs performed unplugged on banjolele – a cover of ‘Blue Moon’ and ‘I'd Rather Walk Than Run’. A joy thoroughout – and undoubtedly one of my gigs of the year.



The (Partial) Set List:

Lay Your Head On My Chest
My Home Is Nowhere Without You
?
Pure Hearts
Tell Me Something I Don’t Know
Your Love Is Gold
Not On Top
Ah Hear Strange Moosic
[Once a Friend Once a Beggar?]
I Wish I Could See You Soon
?
123 Apple Tree
In The Long Long Run
The Rock
Be A Doll And Take My Hand
When The Water Gets Cold And Freezes On The Lake
---
Blue Moon
I'd Rather Walk Than Run

Y RECORD GOCH

I first spotted this record through the throng at Green Man Festival as Y Niwl finished their set at the Green Man Pub. Initially asking the man holding such a fine looking piece of vinyl where he’d bought it, I discovered he was Mr Recordiau Lliwgar label head himself (rudely I forgot to ask his name) and that he was selling it. Upon seeing the bands on the vinyl compilation, not buying a copy off him was never an option.

“Y Record Goch” is a simple concept beautifully executed: four Welsh bands contribute two tracks each to a 10” double vinyl release. As an physical item alone this is worth owning: the classically minimalist geometric design of the cover that first attracted my attention contrasts with the abstract slash of blurry electric blues inside of the gatefold sleeve, a commissioned piece of artwork by Elfyn Lewis. The whole package oozes classiness and a loving attention to detail.

And then there’s the music: what a great and diverse showcase for contemporary Welsh language music. Y Bwgan (the band unknown to me) offer slowly unfurling post-rock mysticism and sampled (film?) dialogue in ‘Niwl Y Nefoedd’ and chill-wave synth-pop beats and wordless incantations in the equally atmospheric ‘Dali Lawr’. The crunchy, slacker psyche-pop of Sen Segur leans to that moment in late period Brit-pop when it became in swoon to Atlantic cousins like Pavement for the excellent ‘Bloedd 33’(an infectious shouted ‘Oi!’ in lieu of a chorus) and then triumphantly slouches into wonky-pop mode for ‘Temig O Delynor Fflur’.


Cowbois Rhos Botwnnog charge through the reeling hoedown rowdiness of ‘Mae Hi Yn Hoff O Nodio’ before settling into a more sedate, reflective pace for the banjo-and-heartbreak of ‘Cân Y Capten Llongau’. And Dau Cefn deliver mechanical robot-pop geezer rap and synth squiggles for ‘Bish Bash Bosh’ (rhymed with ‘Captain Pugwash’) and a more maudlin slice of spoken word blues for ‘Sbaen’. From dream-pop to DIY beats over four sides of vinyl and 32 minutes – an impressive span.

“Y Record Goch” (‘The Red Record’) is the first in a planned sequence from the label which of course translates as ‘Colourful Records’. You can buy this release digitally but for an extra fiver you get the physical release as well as the digital download – no brainer AND you can add yourself to the Facebook photo library of people holding their purchase. I’ve never overcome my suspicion of part magazine collections (“builds into a handsome collection over 48 issues”) as expensive and unnecessary. On the basis of the first edition from Recordiau Lliwgar, I can’t wait to collect the entire set.





Y Record Goch [BUY]

EMMY THE GREAT + STEALING SHEEP @ DEAF INSTITUTE 10 October 2011

Last time I saw Stealing Sheep was at the Cloud Sounds + Red Deer Xmas Party. Then they had just released ‘The Mountain Dogs’ EP on Red Deer Club; today it was announced they had signed to Heavenly Records. And the trio were glammed up like it was, well, Christmas – spangly dresses, head bands and velvet hot-pants.


Of course it’s the music that counts – and as well as a distinct growth in their musical confidence there’s also a darker, more atmospheric, even psychedelic quality to their folk-pop forays as evidenced on latest EP ‘I Am The Rain’. Sadly poor planning meant I only caught the second half of their thirty minute set but it was enough to confirm Heavenly have made a wise move following the group’s support by micro-indies like Red Deer Club.



Emmy The Great has also moved on since simpler one-foot-in-the-anti-folk camp days. If first album "First Love" had a DIY collage feel to the cover artwork, this year’s "Virtue" has a sequence of sumptuous mise-en-scène photography of Ms Moss with props and allusions drawn from the album – very classy and pointing to the intricacy and layered approach to the music. This was repeated tonight with a four piece band (guitar, bass, keys and drums) that gave a warm, shimmering backing to a mixture of old and new songs.


The gig started with an expressionless solo rendition of ‘Eastern Maria’ before Emmy was joined by band for a first half of largely new songs. The band remained very much in the gloom and background, the only spotlight was on Emmy The Great, and despite her apparent impassivity whilst singing, it was clear who was the star of the show here. It was a muted crowd reception for this sold out show I thought, even a name-check of Manchester as her second home barely raised a cheer. I’ll give everyone the benefit of the doubt and say they were respectfully rapt rather than dead (at least there was no-one chatting which does suggest the former).





As set progressed Emmy loosened up between songs dedicating ‘MIA’ “despite it being about a car crash” to Stealing Sheep and a cover of Weezer’s ‘Island in the Sun’ to the band’s former bassist Mikey Welsh who had died two days earlier. Whilst singing, she occasionally glanced outwards and upwards to individual crowd members, and when freed from playing guitar she would hold her arms out in front of the microphone almost beckoning the listener in. But what really held the attention was her soft-strong, magical voice and these intensely personal songs. The first encore was a solo ‘Canopies and Grapes’ which showed flashes of those anti-folk leanings but overall this was confirmation of Emmy The Great’s new stage of ‘greatness’ and alluring maturity; and an ability to stop hearts and mouths with captivating, emotional performances such as ‘Trellick Tower’. A sublime evening.





The Set List:
The solo encore was 'Canopies and Grapes'

REDLIP "Dan and Headless Bill"

Redlip is a collaborative project “between Northern Ireland’s Flymo Folk purveyor Adam Leonard and Welsh noodler Ash Cooke”. Familiarity with Pulco (aka Ash Cooke) and his “casio outbursts and found sounds” is a halfway house in understanding Redlip (I wrote about the last Pulco album “Small Thoughts” in June). But I’m not sure “Dan and Headless Bill” is an album you can ever understand in a conventional sense. It is not a difficult album to listen to, far from it, it’s the very picture of soothing-on-the-ear, chilled out amiability. But it is also a curveball oddity that defies categorisation. How possibly can you summarise a record that includes recitation of a biographical portrait of folk guitarist Bert Jansch, spoken word description of a Carry On comedian’s on-stage heart-attack, faux-medieval madrigal, acoustic folk devotional and the setting to music of an extract of Ovid’s Metamorphoses?


I repeat this is not a difficult or obtuse record; nor is it wilfully trying to show off its intellect. Instead it is a through-the-looking-glass scrapbook of fragments and collages devoted to curious incidents, tall tales and to real people past or present, all played out over chilled out grooves and easy-going folky ramblings. Although ‘Jansch’ the tribute to the Pentagle founder is a straight reading of a Wikipedia-style entry, others are less obvious or complete non sequiturs. You would expect a homage to great British eccentric and Bonzo Dog Doo-Dah Band founder Vivian Stanshall to be unconventional but after a brief sample of an interview (in which Stanshall explains to the confusion of his inquisitor that his inspiration is “toads”), ‘Viv’ turns into a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it sixty second instrumental casio-squiggle. Whatever format they take or convention they ignore, all the titles are bluntly specific and accurate – ‘Jaunty Mexico’ is indeed a travelogue about the central American country complete with fielding recording of mariachi band that can only be described as well “jaunty”.

In the same way Redlip never state whether this is a mini-album or a full album (it’s the former), the music never tries to define itself. Imagine a concoction of Lemon Jelly, Ivor Cutler, Donovan and Raymond Scott and you’ll be heading in the right direction. But it’s inadequate to capture fully this droll and soothing celebration of the oddball, the overlooked or the familiar from an unfamiliar perspective. Or as Ovid has it “Enchanted notes, in times of happy peace”.





Redlip Dan and Headless Bill [BUY]