With the imminent end of the world as we know it nigh, there seemed no better time to hit the road and get as much rock action as possible. From the day the Dirty Three illuminated Manchester cathedral with vibrations infinitely better than the religion that tried to blind John Lydon, until a mere five day countdown to the Mayan poleshift I visited five cities and one south coast holiday camp and witnessed 109 performances from 93 bands. Now it's December 17th and they're all gone dead, except when you read this it probably won't be December 17th anymore and they will have all been resurrected by mad St John on a bad ergot trip to rock the world again in 2013
For those who rocked the nation, I salute you!
Zun Zun Egui, The Dirty Three
Medecine Bow, Hopper Propelled Electric, Bones Shake
Rife, Gaunt, Wode, Sump
Battery Face, Bratan, Queer'd Science, One Man Dance Party
unremarkable Preston band with silly horror masks, The Fall
Nephu Huzzband, Kogumaza, Uzeda (Nottingham)
Former Utopia, Uzeda, Bottomless Pit (London)
Arnold of Zea/The Ex with Xavier Charles, Jackdaw with Crowbar, Terrie Ex/Andy Moor/Mats Gustaffson two guitar and sax trio, Ken Vandermark solo, The Ex (London Cafe Oto, best atmosphere at any gig ever)
Shellac, Helen Money, Myownflag, Stnnng! , Oxbow, Uzeda, Scrawl, Turing Machine, Mono, Prinzhorn Dance School (Camber Sands)
The Cravats, Three Second Kiss, Kash (3 songs), Buke and Gase, Bottomless Pit, Arcwelder, Red Fang, Wire, Melt Banana, Kim Deal, Shannon Wright, Neurosis, KK Null solo, Zeni Geva (Camber Sands)
Rachel Grimes, Nina Nastasia, Bear Claw, The Membranes, Pinebender, Alix, Future of the Left (2 songs), Gay Witch Abortion (2 songs), Mission of Burma, Dead Rider, The Ex and Brass Unbound, Love in Elevator, Shellac (Camber Sands)
Cursor Minor, Future of the Left, Mission of Burma (Bristol)
Broken Arm, Bilge Pump, Mission of Burma (Leeds)
Joe Volk, Boris (Manchester)
Mission of Burma, including soundcheck with a cover of Pink Floyd's "Astronomy Domine" which didn't feature in the set, and a support band whose name I have forgotten in London
Hammers, Doctrines, Dauntless Elite, Throwing Stuff, Pure Graft, Arteries, Calvin Ball
The Dickies, The Damned
Applecore Electronic, Bratan (eleven bands at three gigs in one day in Manchester)
Paper Town, Epic Problem, Subhumans
Micheal Newman (cello) and Paul Wheatley (double bass) performing "Sonata a Deux" by Jean Barriere and "Throughout" by Bill Frisell at the RNCM
Percussion duo Delia Stevens and Le Yu performing "Plato's Cave" by Casey Cangelosi and "Blue Motion" by Stephen Whibley at the RNCM
and later that day:
The Borealis Saxophone Quartet and an eleven piece string ensemble performing "Borealis (Into the Blue)" by Lucy Pankhurst and "Plan B" by Graham Fitkin
And later still that same day:
Wode, The Art of Burning Water and another great metalcore band
Then I returned to Bristol to see
Joe Volk and Boris again
Lost Cherees, Subhumans and another anarchopunk duo whose name I forgot
Then things got experimental at Dulcimer with a quartet of Semay Wu, Richard Harris, Dave Birchall and Kelly Jones, followed by Richard Scott and then Konk Pack
Die Hexen and Hammers in a comic shop
Yossarians, Paddy Steer, N. Racker at Shebeen festival
More statistics
I saw Mission of Burma 4 times (plus a soundcheck) and Uzeda 3 times.
I saw all of these bands twice:
Shellac
The Ex
Subhumans
Boris
Joe Volk
Wode
Bratan
Hammers
Bottomless Pit
I visited these towns:
Manchester
Nottingham
London (twice)
Camber Sands
Bristol (twice)
Leeds
If I rewind back to 16/6 and make it a month (31 days) I can also include perfromances from Aki Onda, Supersilent with John Paul Jones, Sir Richard Bishop and Swans taking the total to 113 by 97 different bands, plus one soundcheck.
Monday, 17 December 2012
Wednesday, 5 December 2012
Welcome to my Nightmare Top Ten
I just returned from an extended version of the Shellac Nightmare Before Christmas. The Fall played the first Shellac curated All Tomorrow's Parties but not the one at the end of 2012, however I went to see them for the first time since the "Fall Heads Roll" era at Factory, Manchester the night before I headed off to Nottingham to see Uzeda, Kogumaza and Nephu Huzzband. I then travelled south to London for another Uzeda gig, supporting Bottomless Pit who like Uzeda had been invited by Shellac to play the three day event at Camber Sands. The next day I saw one for the best gigs I've ever heard, the Ex at Cafe Oto, supported by Ken Vandermark solo, a trio of Terry and Andy of the Ex on guitars and Mats Gustafsson on sax, Jackdaw with Crowbar and Arnold of the Ex playing Zea songs acompanied by Xavier Charles. Chairs got folded up and piled high in front of Ex guitarist Andy Moor, as the people wanted to dance!
The first song Shellac played as they opened their return to All Tomorrow's Parties was "The End of Radio" in which Steve Albini sings, "Welcome to my top ten." So here is my top ten of the 35 bands witnessed that weekend, having seen at least two songs from all bands performing:
1. The Ex and Brass Unbound
2. Mission of Burma
3. Uzeda
4. Shellac (twice)
5. Wire
6. Melt Banana (who would maybe rate higher had they not clashed with Wire, meaning I missed the first half of their set)
7. Nina Nastasia (who regrets eating valuable Twinkies and dislikes Snotsuckers)
8. Rachel Grimes
9. Scrawl
10. Turing Machine
None of these ten bands were new to me, but there were in fact 15 bands who played who I had never heard before. Only Alix, Buke and Gase, Bottomless Pit and Bear Claw made it into my top twenty...
11. Mono (marred by too much drunken babble)
12. Zeni Geva (preceded by a short KK Null noise set)
13. Shannon Wright (with full on rock trio)
14. Alix
15. Kim Deal (with funny fuck ups)
16. Buke and Gase (with Bob Weston on bass for one song)
17. Oxbow (with orchestral musicians)
18. Bottomless Pit
19. Bear Claw
20. The Membranes
The best song of the weekend was Rachel Grimes rendition of a song written by the late Jason Noble of her band Rachel's, on which Shannon Wright sang. Here is a video of "Last Things Last"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bv6og-PvKAg
The new songs played by the Ex suggest their next album will be their best one yet. Here they are catching shoes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NucZzhCKgIU
Shellac had enough new songs to suggest that an album could maybe appear next year? My favourite one featured Steve screaming in an anguished manner. Here they are perfroming "Steady As She Goes" for the second time that festival.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nda-5GN7Zus
And here's a new song they played twice which sounds rather like "In A Minute" slowed down
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6W0i9Po4-g4
Wire have rewritten the lyrics for "Underwater Experiences" and Graham Lewis told me it was now known as "Attractive Space." I came it was so, I wanted to go see Melt Banana downstairs...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZ2pK0ZA0UA
Melt Banana are now a duo of Yako and Agata and played a great fast cover of Louis Armstrong's "Wonderful World."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CF5duQoBXA
The worst band were Kash, who put me in mind of a Lynyrd Skynard tribute with Eddie Vedder on vocals, and I endured them for three songs.
When it was over, I met Scrawl at the bus stop and sat next to Marcy Mays on the bus back to Rye railway station. I then travelled to Bristol for more Mission of Burma, and then to Leeds where they were supported by the ever wonderful Bilge Pump and Broken Arm. I also interviewed Mission of Burma before the Leeds gig.
Here they are at the Nightmare. I was right at the front on the Roger Miller side.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qvxh9HeatI
The first song Shellac played as they opened their return to All Tomorrow's Parties was "The End of Radio" in which Steve Albini sings, "Welcome to my top ten." So here is my top ten of the 35 bands witnessed that weekend, having seen at least two songs from all bands performing:
1. The Ex and Brass Unbound
2. Mission of Burma
3. Uzeda
4. Shellac (twice)
5. Wire
6. Melt Banana (who would maybe rate higher had they not clashed with Wire, meaning I missed the first half of their set)
7. Nina Nastasia (who regrets eating valuable Twinkies and dislikes Snotsuckers)
8. Rachel Grimes
9. Scrawl
10. Turing Machine
None of these ten bands were new to me, but there were in fact 15 bands who played who I had never heard before. Only Alix, Buke and Gase, Bottomless Pit and Bear Claw made it into my top twenty...
11. Mono (marred by too much drunken babble)
12. Zeni Geva (preceded by a short KK Null noise set)
13. Shannon Wright (with full on rock trio)
14. Alix
15. Kim Deal (with funny fuck ups)
16. Buke and Gase (with Bob Weston on bass for one song)
17. Oxbow (with orchestral musicians)
18. Bottomless Pit
19. Bear Claw
20. The Membranes
The best song of the weekend was Rachel Grimes rendition of a song written by the late Jason Noble of her band Rachel's, on which Shannon Wright sang. Here is a video of "Last Things Last"
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bv6og-PvKAg
The new songs played by the Ex suggest their next album will be their best one yet. Here they are catching shoes
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NucZzhCKgIU
Shellac had enough new songs to suggest that an album could maybe appear next year? My favourite one featured Steve screaming in an anguished manner. Here they are perfroming "Steady As She Goes" for the second time that festival.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nda-5GN7Zus
And here's a new song they played twice which sounds rather like "In A Minute" slowed down
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6W0i9Po4-g4
Wire have rewritten the lyrics for "Underwater Experiences" and Graham Lewis told me it was now known as "Attractive Space." I came it was so, I wanted to go see Melt Banana downstairs...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZ2pK0ZA0UA
Melt Banana are now a duo of Yako and Agata and played a great fast cover of Louis Armstrong's "Wonderful World."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CF5duQoBXA
The worst band were Kash, who put me in mind of a Lynyrd Skynard tribute with Eddie Vedder on vocals, and I endured them for three songs.
When it was over, I met Scrawl at the bus stop and sat next to Marcy Mays on the bus back to Rye railway station. I then travelled to Bristol for more Mission of Burma, and then to Leeds where they were supported by the ever wonderful Bilge Pump and Broken Arm. I also interviewed Mission of Burma before the Leeds gig.
Here they are at the Nightmare. I was right at the front on the Roger Miller side.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-qvxh9HeatI
Monday, 12 November 2012
An Open Letter to Satan
Dear Lucifer, Lord of the Flies,
I don't get out to gigs as much as I should as I like to spend my evenings thinking of new and interesting ways in which to kiss your mighty stinkin' ass. If there is any chance of a bit of advertising revenue for my blog, so much the better. It really is a shame that your chosen representative on "Earth" the Anti-Christ Mitt Romney has failed to gain nominal control of the world's most grossly over-consuming and hypocritical nation. We (and when I write "we" I refer to myself, my drummer, and my valet for my sharpest of sharp suits) watched the US elections with immense fascination and when we saw that Muslim fanatic Obama win again, we knew it must be time for Armageddon.
We have followed your adventures on Radio 4 with great joy, and know you have demons at your command. Please send Scum Spawn and the rest of your vile hord to teach Obama a lesson. The sick people must pay to be sick, and the more the better as we all know it is money that makes the world go round, not gravity as proposed by that god fearing fool Isaac Newton-Bomb.
That peace loving war criminal Obama must be stopped before he taxes the rich! Please nuke his homeland Iran and return us quickly to the Dark Ages so that we can get on with the serious business of hoarding more Lovely Money instead of using it to facilitate barter, the purpose for which it was invented by that famous Dutch playboy Socrates in the thirteenth century.
Your unfaithful servant,
Ron McJobs
I don't get out to gigs as much as I should as I like to spend my evenings thinking of new and interesting ways in which to kiss your mighty stinkin' ass. If there is any chance of a bit of advertising revenue for my blog, so much the better. It really is a shame that your chosen representative on "Earth" the Anti-Christ Mitt Romney has failed to gain nominal control of the world's most grossly over-consuming and hypocritical nation. We (and when I write "we" I refer to myself, my drummer, and my valet for my sharpest of sharp suits) watched the US elections with immense fascination and when we saw that Muslim fanatic Obama win again, we knew it must be time for Armageddon.
We have followed your adventures on Radio 4 with great joy, and know you have demons at your command. Please send Scum Spawn and the rest of your vile hord to teach Obama a lesson. The sick people must pay to be sick, and the more the better as we all know it is money that makes the world go round, not gravity as proposed by that god fearing fool Isaac Newton-Bomb.
That peace loving war criminal Obama must be stopped before he taxes the rich! Please nuke his homeland Iran and return us quickly to the Dark Ages so that we can get on with the serious business of hoarding more Lovely Money instead of using it to facilitate barter, the purpose for which it was invented by that famous Dutch playboy Socrates in the thirteenth century.
Your unfaithful servant,
Ron McJobs
Saturday, 10 November 2012
Dead Sea Apes
Friday night: one of the many Manchester (and Stalybridge) based bands, the heavy instrumental psyche-rock trio Dead Sea Apes were kind enough to put me on the cheap entry list for their support of an old German experimental prog rock band called Agitation Free who turned out to be very good indeed, kind of like Pink Floyd immediately after Syd but way better. I was surprised that a bottle of ciderin NQ Live is less than four quid, at least there is one venue not intent on totally fleecing the drinkers! The Deaf Institute is charging a massively greedy £4.75 for a bottle of Weston's Wyldwood organic cider, and their "Trof cider" is actually Strongbow isn't it? Someoen should have a word with trading standards... Where do they think they are? Paris?
Hello to all the friends old and new who I met in the Castle afterwards. Hope the hangovers aren't too bad, especially Mr Chavez-Dawson.
Hello to all the friends old and new who I met in the Castle afterwards. Hope the hangovers aren't too bad, especially Mr Chavez-Dawson.
Friday, 9 November 2012
Pere Ubu
Here is a new song from Pere Ubu sounding wonderful to me today
http://soundcloud.com/firerecords/02-pere-ubu-free-white
http://soundcloud.com/firerecords/02-pere-ubu-free-white
Ty Segall Deaf?
Ty Segall and Hookworms well and truly rocked the Deaf Institute last night ad a review will appear in All the Time whenever Mick Middles can get it together. The night before Al Doum ad the Faryds brought some gorgeous north Afican influenced psychedelia to Dulcimer, supported by a stripped down Desmadrados de Soldados Ventura and a rather too short set from Rapid Pig. Sadly Nick Mitchell told me it would be the last gig he is ever going to put on, so Fat Out or Buried Bones had better book one for his Twenty Guitars composition pronto!
Anyway when I first heard Ty Segall this was the song and I listened to it for around fifty minutes straight.
http://soundcloud.com/drag-city/ty-segall-the-hill
Anyway when I first heard Ty Segall this was the song and I listened to it for around fifty minutes straight.
http://soundcloud.com/drag-city/ty-segall-the-hill
Way Better than Frazer King
Following Gentleman John Robb's hilarious proclamation that Frazer King are the best "up and coming" band in Manchester, here is an inevitably ever expanding list of Manchester rock bands who I consider to be way better than Frazer King. I saw Frazer King at the Night and Day 2012 new year bash and they weren't even the best band on the bill! They were completely upstaged by the Yossarians and solo guitarist bluesman Jim Adama was also more enjoyable.
How many of these better bands have you heard Mr Robb?
Easter
Queer'd Science
Warm Widow
Plank!
NASDAQ / FTSE 100
Burnst
Wode
Pine Barrens
Last Harbour
Lonelady
Gnod
Gilded Palace of Sin
Stray Light
Our Man in the Bronze Age
Desmadrados de Soldados Ventura
Rapid Pig
Float Riverer
Hotpants Romance
No Womb
Irma Vep
Sex Hands
Klaus Kinski
Salford Media City
Stranger Son of WB
Gaybus
Bratan
Yossarians
Day for Airstrikes
Hot Bone
Stuckometer
Whole Voyald Infinite Light
Former Bullies
Dead Sea Apes
Claw the Thin Ice
Pooch
Well Wisher
Bones Shake
Cherry Pips
Jesus Kneivel
Balotellis
Hopper Propelled Electric
Black Fiction
Factory Star
Heroin Diet
Revenge of the Psychotronic Man
Sea Man
Mr Heart
...although Gnod, Last Harbour, Lonelady, Stranger Son, Hotpants Romance and a few others could be considered to have come up already, whatever that means. The list will inevitably grow, and there are probably other bands I have not yet heard. For example Tim the drummer of Wode was amused by John Robb's comment, "A black metal band from Manchester, who'd have thought it?" There are in fact several others besides Wode, although I have yet to hear any of them.
How many records and/or CDs must a band sell to come up?
How many gigs must a band play to come up?
How big are the venue capacities for an up and come band?
What is their comeuppance?
How many of these better bands have you heard Mr Robb?
Easter
Queer'd Science
Warm Widow
Plank!
NASDAQ / FTSE 100
Burnst
Wode
Pine Barrens
Last Harbour
Lonelady
Gnod
Gilded Palace of Sin
Stray Light
Our Man in the Bronze Age
Desmadrados de Soldados Ventura
Rapid Pig
Float Riverer
Hotpants Romance
No Womb
Irma Vep
Sex Hands
Klaus Kinski
Salford Media City
Stranger Son of WB
Gaybus
Bratan
Yossarians
Day for Airstrikes
Hot Bone
Stuckometer
Whole Voyald Infinite Light
Former Bullies
Dead Sea Apes
Claw the Thin Ice
Pooch
Well Wisher
Bones Shake
Cherry Pips
Jesus Kneivel
Balotellis
Hopper Propelled Electric
Black Fiction
Factory Star
Heroin Diet
Revenge of the Psychotronic Man
Sea Man
Mr Heart
...although Gnod, Last Harbour, Lonelady, Stranger Son, Hotpants Romance and a few others could be considered to have come up already, whatever that means. The list will inevitably grow, and there are probably other bands I have not yet heard. For example Tim the drummer of Wode was amused by John Robb's comment, "A black metal band from Manchester, who'd have thought it?" There are in fact several others besides Wode, although I have yet to hear any of them.
How many records and/or CDs must a band sell to come up?
How many gigs must a band play to come up?
How big are the venue capacities for an up and come band?
What is their comeuppance?
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