Taken For Granted?

The evening got off to a surprising start when it turned out that the gig was taking place in Level 2 at Fat Sam’s rather than in the larger Fat Sam’s Live. It’s a real trip down memory lane for me because it must be the first time I’ve been in this part of the venue since the early 90s.

The venue switch is perhaps another indication that more and more these days Idlewild seem to be taken for granted. They’ve been around for more than a decade now and on the evidence of this show at least their audience has grown up with them. Perhaps also they tour so regularly (and intensively) in Scotland that people reckon that there will be another chance to see them soon. But with the transition from a major to a smaller label complete there’s an unmistakeable air that, at the moment, Idlewild just aren’t cool.

Why this should be the case is hard to fathom. They are a far superior band to many more successful outfits but it may just be the case that being good simply isn’t enough. And Monday’s set illustrated perfectly the amount of strong material they have because it was almost as notable for the stuff they didn’t play as what they did.

There is maybe a view forming within the band that the audience are more interested in past glories than the band’s newer material. Whilst new LP ‘Post-Electric Blues’ doesn’t feature such obvious crowd pleasers as their other LPs, it is nonetheless a strong collection and it’s disappointing therefore that the set features just 4 songs from the record. 

So the public gets what the public wants? Maybe, but as a creative endeavour it is surely less satisfying for all concerned.

And yet whilst the set draws largely on the older material (with a definitely crowd pleasing 6 songs from ‘100 Broken Windows’), there’s still an unpredictability as to what will get played as they close with ‘Blame It On The Obvious Ways’ and ‘Too Long Awake’ (the only tracks from  ‘Warnings/Promises’.) It’s hardly an obvious way to close the set and yet they’re about the highlights of the evening.

And, without any question whatsoever, Idlewild remain a cracking live band. The only real gripe about the show is that Rod’s guitars could certainly bear to be higher in the mix. At one point I thought that this was going to be the best show I’d seen them do but the guitar shortage definitely dropped it a notch below that.

Surprisingly it’s also a very short show – although it certainly didn’t feel that way. I remember looking down after 10 songs and being quite astonished that little more than half an hour had passed since they’d taken the stage. All in all they were on stage for little more than an hour but the only disappointment was that there wasn’t a second encore.

Despite this you wonder what it’s like being in Idlewild these days. They’re such a hard working band yet they haven’t made the significant breakthrough many once predicted. Whilst in recent LPs, they have introduced a folk element to their sound, there’s a definite feeling that you know what the LPs are going to sound like.

You know they’re going to be good but you also know that the mix of faster and slower songs is going to be the same and that the extent of experimentation is going to be limited.

Maybe when the promotion is done for this record, they need to take a break and come up with something different. Because, much as I like this band, and I really do, I just don’t get as excited by them as I used to.

Setlist

1. City Hall  2. Younger Than America  3. Little Discourage  4. I Don’t Have The Map  5. These Wooden Ideas  6. Roseability  7. Idea Track  8. No Emotion  9. A Ghost In The Arcade  10. Actually, It’s Darkness  11. When I Argue I See Shapes  12. Post Electric  13. Annihilate Now!  14. You Held The World In Your Arms  15. Blame It On The Obvious Ways  16. Too Long Awake

Encore
17. Readers & Writers  18. A Modern Way Of Letting Go

Manic Pop Thrills presents …

Tickets are available in Groucho’s now. Or drop me a line.

Test of the Lost Voice

It’s Halloween and TV21 are confined once again to the Bannerman’s crypt. Partly as a response to support from two punks bands (Fire Exit and the Axidents who deliver excellent sets early on), partly  down to the venue itself, and partly down to the time of year it’s a loud, cranked up show.

The setlist is balanced nicely between the old and the new with the recent Citrus Cub set effectively book ending a welcome run through the early singles with a rare appearance for ‘Playing With Fire’ and a bonus of ‘Swimming’ thrown in. The show closes with an encore of ‘Shattered By It All’ and ‘End of A Dream’ all of which marks a welcome dose of TV21 jangle, even if in the circumstances it sounds more like the jangle of a garage band.

Otherwise the set is most notable because Norman’s voice is struggling and does cause him some problems throughout. The band make the most of the circumstances though and deliver a highly enjoyable set with ‘Tomorrow’ as ever the song to benefit from the loudness, bristling with the energy of the Bunnymen’s ‘All That Jazz’.

After a spell when gigs were few and far between it’s been great to see the band back on stage a few times recently and I believe there’s going to be another chance to see them play at the start of December when they play an AIDS benefit at the Caves in Edinburgh on Tuesday 1st.

Setlist to follow

No Happy Endings

OK, I’ll confess it up front. When it became clear that Lucas Renney was abandoning the sort of up tempo material that the Golden Virgins did so well, I was a little concerned. Not at the quality of the early demos but just at how this might translate over a full length LP.

I needn’t have worried – his songwriting is more than strong enough to cope without the need to resort to attention grabbing rock dynamics. I’ve looked everywhere on this record but I can’t find a weak song anywhere.

The pace only once rises above that of the ballad – on the penultimate track ‘Rising Soul’. It’s something of a surprise to suddenly be presented with an uptempo number so close to the end of the record yet it doesn’t feel out of place – it fits perfectly.

Otherwise the big strength of the songs are their gorgeous melodies. Whilst the arrangements can’t all be described as lush, there’s a distinctly late night feel to some of the material, there is nonetheless a luxurious feel to the songs. Yet despite the attractive arrangements, lyrically the songs deal with familiar Renney territory. They may all be songs about love but mainly these are songs of obsession, regret and maybe even death – rest assured there are no happy endings.

‘Strange Glory’ is nothing less than a triumph. In fact IMHO it deserves to be considered in the same breath as the best two LPs of the year  so far De Rosa’s ‘Prevention’ and the Lord Cut-glass LP. I would urge you to investigate!

Listen to tracks from ‘Strange Glory’ here. Buy the album here.

A (very quiet) live version of ‘Lord Knows I Do’:

Long Time Coming

Apologies for the lack of posts last week. I had planned on doing a number of things whilst I was away but although they were largely written I wasn’t able to upload them due to “internet connection” issues. So expect regular posts in the next few days!

One of the very first posts I wrote for the blog was about former Hüsker Dü drummer Grant Hart titled, unless I’m much mistaken, ‘Waiting For The Man’.

At that point, it had been more than 7 years since Grant had released an album . Well there was almost another three years of waiting to ednure before his new LP ‘Hot Wax’ was finally released a couple of weeks ago.

Despite the fact that I rate Grant as both a terrific songwriter and brilliant singer, my expectations of the record weren’t necessarily high. The first song from the record to see the light of day was a demo version of second track ‘Barbara’ which appeared a few years ago around the same time as Bob Mould’s dance influenced ‘Shine Your Light Love Hope’. The Sugarlist reaction was interesting – the Bob song was derided in comparison to Grant’s song. But my take was somewhat different. I thought ‘Barbara’ couldn’t surely be a serious Grant record.

Then four years later the preview clips from ‘Hot Wax’ weren’t that exciting either. Nonetheless a new Grant record is such a rare event, it had to be investigated. Well I’m not sure it merits the description classic, but ‘Hot Wax’ is better than I was expecting – much better. And it seems to improve with every listen.

‘Barbara’ is not the joke song I once feared. It’s certainly a song that broadens Grant’s range touching on the sort of whimsical psychedelia that Julian Cope once majored in. Another tracks that heads off in a new direction is ‘I knew All About You Since Then’ a slow burner with a faintly Gallic atmosphere. Both actually work really well.

Otherwise the new LP is fairly uptempo. Opening track ‘You’re The Reflection of the Moon on the Water’ actually nicks its principal riff from another late 70s Liverpool standard ‘Books’. However there’s no further extension of the Liverpool Explodes era – the rest of the LP sees Grant on familiar territory with an organ fairly prominent on a number of songs.

As I’ve said before Grant’s voice is fairly unique, truly one of rock’s wonders, so to be able to hear it over the course of a full LP is tremendous. But as ever with Grant’s records, ‘Hot Wax’ is a little frustrating.

Firstly it’s really short clocking in at under 35 minutes (unless you download the re-recorded version of Hüsker Dü’s ‘Wheels’ from Amazon). Secondly, and more importantly the production leaves something to be desired as it’s on the thin side, with one or two tracks little better than demos.

Nevertheless the fact that the record is here is something of a miracle. It might not quite touch his classic LPs ‘Intolerance’ and ‘Last Days of Pompeii’ but, even without the 10 year wait, it is a record that is a welcome addition to Grant’s catalogue.

A solo live performance of the aforementioned ‘Barbara’:

Panda Su Too

The final act confirmed for the MPT show on Sunday 29th November at the Westport Bar in Dundee will be the wonderful Panda Su. I’ve seen her perform twice this year in Dundee and Edinburgh and a fortnight ago she held the launch for her debut LP ‘Sticks and Bricks’.

The EP was somewhat delayed but was finally posted out last week. What’s surprised me about it is that live her sound is quite stripped back based principally on her voice and acoustic guitar. The record though is far more layered. There’s an electronica undertow to opener ‘Eric Is Dead’ with its samples, whilst ‘Pot Kettle Black’ features keyboards, bass and drums.

The songs are all familiar from the live shows (a good sign in itself) but one thing I hadn’t noticed was that the opening to ‘My Sorry Little Heart’ is very reminiscent of Kristin Hersh even if the chorus takes it off in another direction entirely.

As something of a novelty for this day and age, the EP has been released on that quaint format, the CD. I think it’s actually my first CD single of the year but the format allows Su to pull off that old CD trick – the hidden track. (How many times have you left a CD running to be scared witless when the hidden track finally kicks in) Anyhow after 6 minutes of silence a rather funky banjo led reprise of ‘Eric Is Dead’ finally starts and what it does is illustrate rather niftily the range of Su’s talent.

Highly recommended.

Here’s a live, make-up-less performance of ‘Eric Is Dead’ from Homegame this year which is akin to the ‘hidden track’ version on the EP.

Footnote

The full listing for the MPT show is:

Saint Jude’s Infirmary
Kid Canaveral
Panda Su
Hookers for Jesus

It’s fair to say I’d pay to see that show and I’m rather excited by it.