Ted Leo, London Luminaire

Ted Leo - image by Natalie Shaw

May 6, 2010

With new album – Leo’s fifth studio outing – The Brutalist Bricks yet another showing of the dexterously shredded guitar expounded by The Pharmacists against the heady heart of their frontman, tonight’s first live showing of the band (for me) proves an event. The vocals are turned down too low in the mix, but it doesn’t matter.

Unsung hero Ted Leo takes to the stage at the beautiful Luminaire in London’s furthest Kilburn, on a balmy May evening with a set hand-picked from his outrageously consistent back catalogue; the enthusiasm and racket created are quite something.

It’s a beautiful slab of punk, the music here tonight. The set never feels sticky, with enough variation between songs’ subjects (veering from obtuse parody to disconnection and ageing) to make the sound of the chords’ straining all the more captivating.

Now, UK: take note, let the man play something bigger next time.

Best Coast, London Madame Jojo’s

Best Coast

May 4, 2010

A cursory glance at the bands to have graced Tuesday-night London-staple White Heat‘s stage over the years reveals an unbalanced combination of temporary fad bands, and bands who have gone on to far greater things. Hype dictates this, so here I am to see what side of the fence Bethany Cosentino sits on…

Best Coast, by nature of the songs at hand, sit somewhere in between the two. “How so, o’ fence-sitter?” Well, frustrations with the knowingly teenage all-pedals/no-tunes substance of the songs are beset with the admission that this much was obvious. She never pretended to do anything else, and I chose to be here.

The lo-fi is cute at first, short songs all summery and swoony, but the sound here tonight is atrocious – not just because the drummer (borrowed from Vivian Girls, fact-fans) is so busy acting mardy she forgets to sit back and dare I say enjoy the set, but also because the pedal-heavy sounds still-crystalline and not quite messy enough. The young and simple nature of Best Coast and the brattishness of their attitude are a natural, borderline parodial fit, just an exceptionally tiring one to watch for this long.

The idea behind Best Coast’s short and sweet boyfriend-anecdotes is delirious on record but here, it feels frustrating and stretched out. The “when I’m with you/ I have fun” line of ‘When I’m With You’ is adorable but in this too-long set, the songs are irksomely small and cute. The surprise strength is Cosentino’s vocals, which are far more menacing than expected – the delicious leanback on ‘Sun Was High (So Was I)’ sounds blanket-like here, all sunny and beachy.

The venue’s technical problems form a sizeable part of the negative but that aside, a 14-year-old standing on stage talking in a super-high accent about her boyfriend might well have done the trick. But isn’t that the ultimate compliment? I’m torn.

LCD Soundsystem, Brixton Academy

LCD Soundsystem

I’ve been reading about James Murphy rather a lot, of recent. Much of the commentary is preceded with a “but he’s hardly New York cool, is he?”, or a “lawks! he’s a right self-depreciating geek”-type proviso, which is true visually (wow) but strikes me as journalists falling down the trap he’s laid out for them. His songs mince up and freeze and re-shape this ‘cool’ thing near-academically, de- and-reconstructing vogue like maths, which may be ‘geeky’ if you’re a one-gig-a-year punter but for those falling into the other camp, it’s something far more substantial. It’s music, and an intimate understanding of its power. … Continue Reading

Caribou, London Corsica Studios

Caribou - photo by Natalie Shaw

April 20, 2010

Caribou rip apart Corsica Studios tonight. Dan Snaith‘s web of sound gets so fraught and tight that it explodes, leaving a formerly modest crowd fixated on a lengthy set. There’s not enough room in the sold-out venue to physically express this, so a crazedly-focused silence has to do. Snaith is joined by a drummer, bassist and keyboardist, and himself switches between keyboards, guitar and a second drum-kit, mixing old and new input.

‘Melody Day’ from Andorra whips up a fever quite differently to how I’d anticipated. Why? Because the recordings sound so perfect, so compelling, I imagined much of the live show to be drawn from samples rather than this flatly laid-out live show. But no, I’m mind-blown – it’s like all of the layers have just found each other, somewhere deep below, and happened. … Continue Reading

Cats and Cats and Cats album launch – May 15 at The Luminaire

Cats and Cats and Cats

MG faves Cats and Cats and Cats, who headlined our show at The Monarch back in January, have revealed details of their upcoming album launch.

It’ll be taking place on May 15 at The Luminaire in Kilburn, and they’ll be ably supported by Ute – who also played our Monarch show – and Lime Headed Dog. … Continue Reading

Introducing… The Independent Music Podcast

The Independent Music Podcast came from a bout of mutual frustration on Twitter between @GarethBearded and @MonoMusic, better known as Gareth Main and James Elliman, over the lack of dedicated new release radio. They both wanted a podcast that hand-picked some of the best releases of the week and delivered them to your ears every week. … Continue Reading

UKG chat with Oxide… “expect some garage bangers at Thrice As Nice!”

The advent of dubstep has seen a resurgence in popularity for UK Garage, arguably where the new scene’s roots came from. And it’s well timed, being that Muso’s Guide is currently promoting UKG night THRICE AS NICE featuring none other than number-one hit sensations Oxide and Neutrino, of the legendary So Solid Crew.

Here’s more on that:

THRICE AS NICE

… Continue Reading

dEbruit’s in London! TONIGHT!

dEbruit

Our friends over at Brave and Bold are putting on an awesome show at Village East in London tonight, where you’ll find some damn amazing stuff.

After being put onto dEbruit by our chum Wendy Roby at Drowned In Sound, this night became a super-must. If you’ve not heard the magic of dEbruit’s bumpy, hippity-hoppity, stretchy, fizzy, Afrobeat-influenced marvellousness, run along to Spotify to listen to the Spatio Temporel EP.

The rest of the night goes a little like this:

“A diverse night of 21st century beats and bass from digi afro rhythms to psychadelic prog-hop from dEbruit (live), Om Unit, Blue Daisy (live) and Paul White. LOUNGE: From to disco to dub and everything in between from Mr Beatnick, Seldom Seen, Philth Collins, Wrong Tom, Kper and Aspex. 9pm – 2.30am, £5 concs, NUS before 10.30, £7 after”

Yeah, that says “Philth Collins”. Unmissable. … Continue Reading

MillionYoung announces first London date

MillionYoung

Brand new London indie label One Bird Records have announced details of a show.

(I should also add that One Bird Records is mine! I have a vested interest, this is A News Piece and it’s such a coup I’m going to write it in the first person.)

The lowdown: One Bird Records present… MillionYoung, Truman Peyote and Many Mansions at the Stag’s Head, London, on July 7. Tickets are on sale now at http://www.wegottickets.com/event/77883 … Continue Reading

Hafdis Huld/Bodebrixen/Katzenjammer, London Lexington

Bodebrixen

March 18, 2010

With Radio 1′s Steve Lamacq putting together the line-up for this episode of Ja Ja Ja, the regular celebration of Nordic music, the bill proves 66.6(recurring)% spectacular, one-third too whimsical. … Continue Reading