NATW have been spending a lot of time playing in my car recently, with their last album on a continuous loop of melancholic minor sevenths. As the rest of Quims know I like nothing better than a dose of misery which uplifts me no end. The new album sees Charlie Fink emerge from his Post Break Up blues and as has been widely documented brace Americana and with his Springsteen edged synthpop his band have conquered Radio 2 with their upbeat pop song L.I.F.E.G.O.E.S.O.N. Its not unfeasible as Bob suggested to see them achieving success in the States in a Coals to Newcastle export arrangement.

In the meantime we were lucky enough to score some tickets to see them at the world famous (in my world) Brudenell Social Club, where an enthusiastic crowd was shoehorned in to witness a band clearly destined for bigger venues.

Style wise NATW are rocking the Mormon/Open University lecturer 1968 look with jackets and ties and fairly big hair. Charlies brother Doug has left to study medicine (how many doctors would have swapped with him?) and new member Fred appears to have been grown in a petri dish from a piece of Charlies DNA. (Job Specification: Mean Fiddler, Keyboard wizardry, big hair). Fred looked about 12 and could not disguise his delight that he had been airlifted into a band going places, breaking out into a grin from ear to ear. But the drummer was even happier he looked like the happiest man ever seen on the BSC stage at least since Jonathan Richman last graced it.

Music wise we were treated to NATWs now fairly extensive back catalogue, with the accent on the new songs, thankfully (to me) interspersed with some of the heart-tugging laments from TFDOS.

They swapped instruments; they took their ties and jackets off; they got down to business. Charlie commented he was pleased to be back at the Brudenell a Fine Establishment couldnt agree more, and suggest you book a return trip.

Their sound is now big and confident. There is Springsteen Simon suggested Mike and the Mechanics but I asked him not to spoil it for me but to me theres more Lou Reed in the voice and the phrasing. Definitely the reincarnation of the 1967 Velvet Underground

They ended the set with the title song of that album, a quiet number which builds to a crashing crescendo. Magnificent.

Quite naturally they saved the hit singles (Five Years Time, L.I.F.E etc) for the encore. The audience lapped it up. They will be massive. (I remember I once said that about McCarthy which is one of the many reasons why I am a solicitor and not Simon Cowell).

John Murray

I hadn’t knowingly heard anything by them, but the new Deerhunter LP had come No.1 in the Jumbo records chart for 2010 and as loads of people I know rave about them, I thought I’d better go and check them out.

Si, Boy-Lee and I arrived at 8pm and the doors weren’t open. So rather than wait in the queue in the drizzle, we went into the other bar at the Irish Centre where, on the TV, Ireland (Republic of) were getting beaten by Uruguay. All around folks were playing Bodruns and tin whistles and guitars a great atmosphere! After a pint or 2 of the black stuff we could hear the support band start up next door so went to investigate.

Kogumaza were playing, a 3-piece who had tribal, VU type drum beat with a hypnotic/irritating guitar and bass drone – deep dark & mysterious sounds. I couldn’t tell if I liked them or not and swung from “They’re taking the piss” to “This is genius” and back again in the course of one tune.

Next up were Lower Dens who played friendly sounding Indie pop. They didn’t get my complete attention as I was introduced to fellow Podiatrist Mark and got chatting about foot evolution (sorry Lower Dens).

Deerhunter opened their set by saying “This ones from a Manchester band” then seemed to wait an age before playing Magazines The light pours out of me (you cant beat the original but it wasnt a bad try). The crowd were a little subdued which seemed to unnerve lead man Bradford Cox and the next track having a 5 minute jam at the end didnt seem to help.

They have many driving pop tunes but theres an awful lot of noodling between songs which just got a bit tedious..Id rather they did some more tunes. The crowd did warm up a bit by the end but the atmosphere was a bit flat. As Im writing this Deerhunter are playing live on Marc Rileys 6Music show and sound fantastic! Bradford sounds like an ace bloke. Makes me wonder if I just wasnt in the mood last night?

Bob the Chiropodist

I bumped into Mark (as I often do at gigs) and suggested he write it up – often people say “of course” then don’t, so I wrote it up anyway, then today got this email

 

 

Hey there Bob,

At the gig on Tuesday you suggested I write a review, so I did in my lunch break yesterday, then made a few changes today. Youve beaten me to it thoughwhats interesting (and I promise I wrote all of this before I read yours) is how similar they arewell, except for The Lower Dens.

See you round and about,

Mark

Tuesday night at The Irish Centre is home for Leeds Indie Rock glitterati; the cream of local bands, promoters and legendary fanzine editors. And a host of balding, bearded 40-somethings who pay far too much attention to their record collections

The reason? Deerhunter, whove been garnering plaudits left, right & centre for the past 2 or 3 years, and more recently for their raved-about LP of last year, Halcyon Digest. So were they worth all the hype? Probably not, but then is any band ever? Having encountered Deerhunter a couple of times before, theyre certainly more professional now no phone calls home to check in with mom while on stage but the focus that has brought has lost some of the chaos that could both infuriate and beguile while watching them.

Deerhunter trade in guitar-pop songs, built by layers of delicate noise. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesnt. When it does, and the guitars mesh on a two-note riff of barely-controlled distortion, propelled along by a heartbeat bass line for what seems like ages, its quite brilliant. Unfortunately, its not always successful, and a few songs dont really do anything. Its then that the seams become visible a little post John Cale Velvet Underground here, a touch of C86 fey jangling there, and a lot of shoegazing circa 1991.

It also shows up Deerhunters lack of stage presence bar an hilarious but failed attempt by the front row of the audience to explain who celebrity smartass Professor Brian Cox was to Deerhunter main man Bradford Cox, their was precious little interaction with the crowdthough at least some of that was our fault. Way too much chin-stroking, not enough dancing. Its probably telling that the best song of the night was the opening note-pefect take on Magazines The Light Pours Out Of Me. So Deerhunter thenyes, their music is quite interesting. Just not as interesting as many pundits (and possibly the band themselves) think.

Honourable mentions should go to the support acts, Kogumaza and The Lower Dens, both of whom were more thrilling to these ears than the headline act. Kogumaza treated the assembling masses to long, droning epics of instrumental guitar noise accompanied by minimal, throbbing drumbeats sort of like Spacemen 3 without all that tedious singing about Jesus and drug habits. The Lower Dens presented a curious mixture of perky, surfy rhythms accompanied by gloomy gothic (but not goth, lord no) vocals and tonights de rigueur guitar abuse.

Postscript; the following night, Deerhunter played a live session on Marc Rileys wonderful 6 Music radio show. Whether they were just in the right mood or BBC sound engineers captured the sound more expertly, they sounded miles better. The subtleties of the songs really shone through in exactly the way they didnt at the Irish Centre.

Mark Pomroy

I bought two tickets for this show because his LP got album of the year 2010 in MOJO magazine. My neighbour John came along……only to find a note on the door of the church to say the gig was cancelled as John was ill and wishing him a speedy recovery. So it was a quick pint then home to practise our chord changes (D to C to G is soooo hard!).

I’ve only ever had 2 shows cancelled on me in the past that I can remember. Adam and the Ants in 1980 (who had a hit single so cancelled the smaller Manchester Poly gig that I had a ticket for and played the Apollo instead – grrrr) and XTC in 1981 who never played live again (thank goodness I’d got to see them the year before). Perhaps with hindsight, the Joy Division show at Derby Hall should have been cancelled…..but selfishly, I’m glad it wasn’t!

Bob the Chiropodist

Mark and I got to the gig a bit late (missing the support sorry!) and were quite surprised at how full the Met was for Iron & Wine. When head honcho, the big bearded Samuel Beam lead his troops on, he too seemed a bit taken aback: “There’s a lot of you in here!” This incarnation of Iron & Wine saw 8 wonderfully talented musicians on stage – how many drummers do you know that can double as an extra saxophone player?

The first couple of tracks had a real Zappa flavour to them with sax and xylophone interweaving. Incredibly complex melodies built around a wonderful rhythm section (with an extra guy on Vibes who was the dead spit of Dr Hope from Holby City). The backing vocals were to die for…….in fact its unfair to draw attention to any one of the band as they were all magnificent.

The last time we were at the Met was (to see the Guillemots) and Mark had got quite irate at all the students gabbing in the quiet bits – what’s the point of paying to get in, then not listen? The quiet bits in tonights show, of which there were quite a few, had no such problem – Samuel had the crowd eating out of the palm of his hand.

If you get the chance, you must go and see them – I just wish I hadn’t forgotten my camera thanks to Mark and his iPhone for the pic

Official web site

Bob the Chiropodist

Testifying with Primal Scream

Bobby Gillespie is the least likely rock God, slightly fey, gauche with limited stage presence and no real sense of rhythm, but boy do his band, Primal Scream, make a magnificent sound. On Monday night at the Academy in Leeds, Bobby asked an expectant crowd whether they were ready to testify before leading an earth shaking set comprising a full reading of 1991’s dance rock psychedelic album, Screamadelica!

Some remember him as the less than visionary drummer (see above for comments on his ‘rhythm’) of the visionary Jesus and Mary Chain, but twenty years ago Bobby and Primal Scream discovered dance, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll and the results were truly memorable for those listening, if not by those making the music! This is the band that nearly finished off Depeche Mode’s Dave Gahan when he tried to keep up with their version of rock ‘n’ roll Babylon.

The album is best known for the singles ‘Moving on up’ and ‘Loaded’, but it is much more than that as the Scream ably demonstrated. Wisely the band didn’t stick to the track listing on the album and ensured that other highlights like ‘Higher than the Sun’, ‘Come together’ and ‘Don’t fight it feel it’ were spread across the set to ensure allow some relief from some of the more self indulgent, psychedelic moments (‘Shine like stars’ being a case in point).

I was keen to see how the band would recreate Andy Weatherall’s stylised production on stage and whether it would limit the power and joy created during those highlights on the CD. Live these tracks offered much more than purely listening to the CD, they were louder, better, more euphoric, more screamadelic, the crowd’s response adding to the experience. At one point during “Don’t fight it, Feel it”, I was truly concerned for Bob’s recently detached retina such was the volume and intensity of the performance. ‘Higher than the sun’, a favourite of mine was rendered brilliantly with us witnessing one great bassist, Mani imitating (initially) the style of the track’s original great bassist, the mighty Jah Wobble. As Mani said at the end, ‘Not bad for a bunch of old c***s.

The set closed with ‘Come Together’ which felt as relevant today as ever given its references to taxation and facing into hardship together. This meant we ended on a high rather than the low that would have been the aforesaid ‘Shine like stars’.

I thought that would be it, but Bobby and the band were up for an encore and for this they returned to their more familiar Rolling Stone/ Black Crowes guise playing us out with stage diving, chant-along versions of ‘Country Girl’, ‘Jailbird’ and ‘Rocks’. All big dumb, grin inducing anthems and so much the better for it!!

All in all a very happy Monday(!) evening, only marred by the realisation that the twenty years since Screamadelica was released have flown by so quickly.

Roger

Of course – not everyones happy about it…..

Thanks to Tony for the pics