I'm Baaaaaaaaaack!!!!!!!!

Yep, long after I promised to return and write in this thing more regularily, I've finally followed through on that promise. So what do we have in store for you in this installment. Well, reveiws of all this gigs I've seen this year.

Cairo Knife Fight / True Lovers / The Veils
Sanfrancisco Bath House 13/01/2010

A couple of weeks into the new year and I find myself at the Bath House, on a Wednesday before Big Day Out, to witness the Big Night In, a gig that has been running for a few years now featuring a number of bands performing at the Auckland leg of the BDO.

A large squall of feed back anounced to those present that Cairo Knife Fight, the first band of the night, had taken the stage. Id heard great thing about these guys, especially after their set opening for Gomez late last year, so I was excited to see them. They make a big sound for a 2 piece, a jammy sound built on the band looping themselves live. The drummer in particular plays against multiple loops of his own drumming aa any given time. Very cool stuff. In fact, these guys are quite possibly the best new band I've seen in a long time, tho they have been around for a few years. They have an album out, called Iron, which I've since purchased and am still digesting, and are well worth checking out.

Next up was Dion, ex of Nothing At All and the D4, with his new group, New York based True Lovers. For this band, he has taken the more skelletal elements of the D4s sound, which on paper sounds interesting, but in a live setting, it fell somewhat flat to these ears, tho given that the band hasn't played out much yet, they may still be working out the bugs. I dunno, but I did feel like the one thing missing was the ballance that Jimmy Chrismas provided to the D4 (his group, Luger Boa, from what I've heard has similar issues with their sound, which is a little too anthemic for its own good). The other thing that stood out at this point was the fact that the venue sound wasn't 100% clear. In fact, it bordered on appalling.

This was made clear when the Veils hit the stage. Now, I'm not a big Veils fan, not by a long shot. in fact I think they are rubbish. I lasted one song and had to go home. Not the bands fault however. No, the sound was worse than it has been for True Lovers, all dsitorted and grimey. Now that may be fine for some groups, but it didn't work for the Veils. Plus it was just too loud for the venue. I'm all for ear bleeding volume and all that, but not at the expense of good over all sound.

Overall, a disapointing gig, tho Cairo Knife Fight showed they are a band to watch.

Neko Case
San Francisco Bath House 20/01/2010

After many years of my flatmate raving about her, americana goddess Neko Case finally made her way to Wellington for 2 shows.

Before we go on, I have a confession to make. I almost forgot I had tickets to the first night, instead thinking I'd bought them for the 2nd gig. Thankfully at half past 9 that night, I managed to glance at my tickets that we sitting on a set of shelves in my room, freaked out, put some pants on and hightailed it to thew venue. Thank god I live within 3 blocks, eh? All my forgetfulness meant i missed the support act, which by all accounts wasn't a bad thing.

After an announcement asking us not to take photos during the gig, Neko and her band entered the stage. And Neko has quite a backing band too, with backing vocalist Kelly Hogan and multi-instrumentalist Jon Rauhous being quite well known in their own right in Alt-country circles. The gig was very cool, the band sticking mostly to recent material (I recognised a chunk of stuff from her most recent album Middle Cyclone). Neko has an amazing voice, even if she seemed a tad nervous (she apparently loosened up on the 2nd night). And, tho having an amazing voice, she didn't indulge in what I like to call "stunt singing" the kind of singing done by American Idol contestants. No, Neko sang what the songs required her to sing, and then when she really let rip, WOW!!!!!!!

A great and enjoyable show, now I need to check more of stuff out.

Handsome Family
San Fransisco Bath House 28/01/2010

These guys must really love little ol' NZ, now on their 3rd visit in the past 5 years. Maybe it was this, combined with the fact that AC/DC were playing the same night, and Wellington gig goers being spoiled for choice this summer, that led to the crowd being a tad more sparce than at previous Handsome Family shows.

White Swan opened the evening. With one woman and some keyboards, the songs be cool but a bit spare, possibly in need of a band to flesh them out a touch. That said, we did get covers of The Spelling Mistakes "Feel So Good" (last heard advising Export Gold) and the Toy Love tune "Rebel" (last heard being raped by The Checks. Seriously, if you are going to cover a song to go on a tribute album that has been put out to help cover the medical bils of the person who wrote the song, at least go to the trouble of hearing it a couple of times and trying to learn how it goes. I've always hated The Checks, but now I wanna beat the living shit out them and put them out of MY misery).

Husband and wife combo, Brett and Rennie Sparks, as the Handsome Family are a charming proposition live. The songs are just gorgeous and they fill a gaps between their songs with plenty of spirited banter and whatnot, almost to the point you would mind if they didn't play any songs cos they are so amusing. Then the start another song and you don't want that to end. They have a new record to promote, so we got plenty of new songs, along with plenty of old favourites.

Overall, and enjoyable gig, maybe not as good as previous visits, but still pretty cool.

So, that is all for this post. Next time out, more gigs (Yo La Tengo, 3Ds and some unknown band from Australia whose brother was it the Easybeats), some album reviews and the 1st in a series where I reveal my top ten albums from the last decade.

Bye!

I'm still here

Hey folks,

All has been quiet on the western front, but never fear, as far as this blog goes, things are gonna get louder so to speak. As for why so quiet on my part, well there are a number of reasons, the main one being a re-evaluation of what I actually want this blog to be. Basically, I've decided to not update this blog as regularly, BUT each update will feature more stuff. So every month or so there will be gig and album reviews, plus some editorial/opinion stuff, as well as stories from my music fandom/anorak past. So the same but different essentially. So stay tuned for a bit of a "year-ish so far" round-up (featuring such diverse talents as Mountain Goats, Girl Talk, Morrissey, David Byrne, IRON MAIDEN and more). (this round-up will not take 5 months, promise)

2008 - The Albums

So another year, another bunch of albums. As always, it was hard to decide where to rank everything, and if I were to re-assess this list in 6 months time, it would probably be completely different, but then, that's the game innit? So now, here are my top ten albums of 2008:-

1) Portishead- 3rd : After 10 years away, they've delivered a fantastic set of post-punk influenced tunes, still blowing my away after 8 or so months of living with it. Top Stuff

2) You Am I - Dilettantes : Tim Rogers is in a rich vein of song writing form, this being the 3rd brilliant record he's been responsible for writing in as many years.

3) Radiohead - In Rainbows : Yes, I know the songs were released online in 2007, but they were only physically released on January 1st 2008, so it makes the list. A real return to form too.

4) Sloan - Parallel Play : Canada's finest purveyors of power pop goodness. My surprise of the year.....not that it was this good, but that after releasing the marathon effort that was 2007s Never Hear The End Of It, I'm shocked they had songs left over to record.

5) HDU - Metamathics : This has grown on me over the year. After not being blown away initially, having seen them play this stuff live, it all makes sense now.

6) Mogwai - The Hawk Is Howling : A real return to form from these Scottish post-rockers, rather than (over)reacting to their previous albums, they've just gone out and created a masterpiece.

7) The Last Shadow Puppets - The Age Of The Understatement : A rather awesome collection of 60s influenced pop gems.

8) Fleet Foxes - S/T : A late discovery, could possibly have made it higher up the list with a bit more time to digest this album.

9) Sam F. Scott and the Bunnys on Ponys - Straight Answer Machine : Lovely indie pop gems, well played by some of the biggest and brightest names in the Wellington indie scene.

10) The Mountain Goats - Heretic Pride : While not hittin the heights of previous efforts, there are still some great tunes on this album.

There you have it. Unlucky to miss out were albums by Brian Wilson, Mudhoney and School of Language, with albums that, while having their pleasures, were good rather than great.
On the other hand, the latest efforts by Wire and The Futureheads were highly anticipated on my part and turned out to be rather disappointing (tho The Futureheads album featured 3 fantastic singles it must be said)

STAY TUNED FOR MY TOP TEN SONGS AND GIGS OF 2008

Brandy is not a fruit

Building on 2006 return to form Convicts, Aussie rock 'n' roll legends You Am I have return with a new album, Deletantes. An album that is not as rough around the edges as some previous releases, it has a lot in common with lead singer Tim Rogers last solo album, 2007s Luxury Of Hysteria, some of the songs having a somewhat floaty, almost psychedelic feel to them.
The album opens with the title track, which certainly epitomises this floaty, swelling approach, starting with acoustic guitar and building to a massive climax. This slow build approach continues through the next 2 songs, before we finally get one of You Am I's trademark rockers, Frightfully Moderne (Chorus - You Ain't Seen The Best Of Us Yet). Continuing with the fun glam rock action of Wankers, the album delivers tune after tune of You Am I goodness, with honest to goodness rockers mingling with lovely ballads, and in Giving Up and Getting Fat, what sounds like an anti music industry rant. Hell, Tim even half-raps on stand out tune The Big Wheel. The momentum threatens to drop off towards the end of the album, before they close things off with The Piano Up The Tree, a perfect album closer, all swelling and anthemic. Damn this album is good!!!

Its been a while

Portishead were one of those bands for me that came along at a crucial point in my life and will always remind me of that time. So I was quite excited when news surfaced that after about 10 years, Portishead were about to finally release a new album, entitled 3rd. Now, before I go on, a disclaimer of sorts. Despite having the album since pretty much the day it was released, I've been incredibly reluctant to actually review it, the thought of thinking about it in a critical fashion almost too much to fathom. But here we are.
First off, while 3rd shares DNA with Portisheads previous two albums, there are some important differences. The first difference is the distinct lack of film score samples used. While the album retains that noir-ish soundtracky quality the band were famous for (opening tune Silence sounds like the theme tune to a really cool spy film), they're not relying on other peoples work to achieve this.
The other major difference is just how post-punk the album sounds. Its all quite angular really, with lots of harsh sounds and abrupt shifts during the songs. Hunter is a perfect example in many ways. It grooves along quite languidly, in no real hurry, and then, without warning, a harsh, abrasive keyboard riff spoils the mood in the best way possible, before returning from whence it came and the song resuming its languid pace.
A personal favourite of mine is The Rip, a song that just builds and builds and builds, gorgeous. And then in the middle of the album, there is a 3 song run that just leaves me for dead, with We Carry On (where the band invoke Flowers Of Romance era PIL). into the ukulele led Deep Water with its oldtimey feel, then the albums startling 1st single, Machine Gun, which is all drum machines, vocals and stabby synths.
This album really does live up to the hype, sensational.

When Things Are Spliting At The Seams

My my, haven't Sub Pop been experiencing a renaissance as of late, with great record after great record coming out and actually being noticed, thanks to a certain film and a certain comment about how a certain Sub Pop band will change yr life. And here is another. In late 2007, Band Of Horses released their 2nd LP, Cease To Begin, tho I didn't actually discover it until the middle of 2008, when the opening tune from the album, Is There A Ghost In My House, started getting a large amount of airtime on ALT TV. This song is fairly typical of the album as a whole, with a wide screen cinematic feel somewhat reminiscent of fellow Sub Pop group The Shins(as referenced earlier in this post). In particular, both bands feature vocalists that sing in a particularly keening fashion. 2nd single No Ones Gonna Love You More Than I Do is a particular stand out for me, with keening vocals in full effect, plus a gorgeous chiming guitar and organ underpinning the song quite nicely thank you very much. Other songs on the album betray the influence of the Beach Boys, tho on The General Specific, this influence is balanced out with some nice countryish touches.
Side 2 opens with a cool little instrumental piece called Lamb On The Lam (In The City), before Islands On The Coast kicks things up a notch, upping the tempo with a riff that wouldn't be out of place on a Wolfmother album. And later on, just when you could be getting a touch sick of the chiming guitars, along comes Marry Song, with its electric piano and country style vocal harmonies.
All in all, an amazing album and one of my favourites of the past year or so.

Yr gonna need an ocean...........

Apparently, the best way to organise a freakishly ice cold night in this fair city of ours is to put an All Blacks Test on at the stadium. Seriously, we've had two test matches in Wellington this year, and both nights have been great nights to be inside, in yr bed, under the covers, wearing every bit of clothing you own and watching yr breath freeze before your very eyes. That said, I still dragged myself and some pals to The Mighty Mighty on this cold July 5th to catch one of my favourite bands, The Situations, who were touring around with The Quick and The Dead, and The Transistors. Due to poor road conditions trapping all three bands on top of the Rimutakas for 3 or so hours, none of the bands actually made it to the venue until 11pm, so the night was gonna be a late one, and given the on road difficulties, you could've forgiven the bands for phoning it in, so to speak. But no, they all played blinders.
First up were the Quick and The Dead, a nuggets/british invasion influenced band from Auckland. The lead singer/guitarist was an energetic lad, playing the songs within an inch of their lives, while the rhythm section was totally rock solid. The only real criticism I had was that they under use the back vocals of the bass player, cos they worked really well when deployed.
I was very excited about checking out the Transistors, having heard nothing but praise for them and managing to miss their previous Wellington gigs. And boy were they worth the wait!!!!! Easily one of the most energetic bands I've seen, they sound like early Replacements (a fact hammered home when they covered Customer off the 'Mat brilliant 1st album, Sorry Ma, Forgot To Take Out The Trash). They played their thrashy little garagey Rock and Roll tunes with such force that at one point, the drummer had to play standing up having kicked his drum stool off the back of the stage. Seriously, these guys were sooooo good, I was wondering how The Situations were gonna top this.
I need not have worried, as always The Situtations kicked some serious ass. I mean, come on, I've seen these guys more than most bands and they always blow me away. Having spent x-mas/new years playing gigs in Europe, they were tight as. Didn't recognise many songs, this time they concentrated on new material. By the sounds of the new songs, the next album is gonna be a corker, tho we're not gonna hear them for a while, as while they've finished recording, the band are probably gonna sort out a european release before even thinking about releasing it here, which is sad for me as an fan, but great news to think that the band might actually get to release stuff overseas.
Three great sets from three great bands, on a night where the odds of this happening were slim to none.