Blast

The Edge Festival – Malcolm Middleton, Cabaret Voltaire, 27th August 2009

I’ve seen a fair few Middleton gigs in the last couple of years and it’s fair to say that this was far from the best technically but it was still a cracking show. OK, there were plenty of cock-ups, usually with Jim’s keyboards or laptop, plenty of bum notes and words getting forgotten. In fact when Malky forgot the words at the start of encore ‘Run To You’ he even had a slight domestic with Jenny over whether or not she should sing the lot! It really was far more entertaining this way.

The main set was identical to the Tut’s show, so again it was very Gibbous heavy, angling towards new classics such as ‘Box & Knife’ and ‘Shadows’ rather than oldies such as ‘F*** It’ and ‘Devastation’ which were missing once again. The only deviations came in the encore which Malky started with a solo new song possibly called ‘One More Song’ (or ‘Sitting On My Fat Arse on a Tuesday’, which would be better!).

Musically a dramatic ‘Speed On The M9′ was probably the highlight. But there were some oddities too – some serious riffing on the outro of  ‘Box and Knife’ and even an impromptu jam at the end of ‘A Brighter Beat’ which Malky rather sheepishly brought to an abrupt end.

And there was no coyness about ‘Run To You’ this time and it has to be said that they gave it the treatment that it deserves. After a competent performance in Glasgow this time they caught the right note – they slaughtered it. As well as the early song domestic, there was a horrible mistake on the synth riff all adding up to something of a shambles, albeit a magnificent one.

This playfulness may have been because it was a significant one for the Middleton band – as it was Michael Scanlon’s last show ever apparently and Jenny’s last for a while. It will be a different band that hits the Scandanavian shores next month (if it is a band and not Malky solo).

Maybe I’m making this sound terrible. It certainly wasn’t – it was a blast from start to finish.

Malky signed off with ‘See you – some time’ – hopefully not before too long passes.

Still alive – just

No, it may have seemed otherwise recently but certainly not dead.

I’ve been in something of a bind – a lack of time, no resolution to the Fileden issue and a lack of a clear idea of where I want to take the blog (if anywhere) . These have all contributed to the unprecedented gap between posts.

Normally in situations like this I would do a quick post and shove up an MP3 to tide me over. But the Fileden problems scupper that approach.

So finally a little about a couple of albums I downloaded in June, in amongst the deluge of good CD purchases.

Now, I may have used the word ‘twee’ about Zoey van Goey at some point (I’m pretty sure I did) but if their debut LP ‘The Cage Was Unlocked All Along’ does little to dispel that notion, it’s still a fine pop LP. And there’s a little more darkness perhaps than might have been expected. As the video for ‘City is Exploding’ illustrates:

Spookily enough, just as I was drafting this post, the LP has been picked up by Chemikal Underground for a wider release in October. Well deserved.

Another LP to catch the ears in an unexpected way in June was Beerjacket’s ‘Animosity’. Initially I was disappointed in the record,  not because of the quality of the songwriting but because it seemed just to consist of voice and guitars. Paying more attention, however there is a subtle backing to the two leads and after a few listens it’s kind of wormed its way into my consciousness. So, again, it’s highly recommended. [Download it]

I promise there won’t be two more weeks plus before the next posting.

Svensk Post

Thanks to the eagle eyed Mrs MPT, I was able to spend some time at the Sonic Youth exhibition ‘Sensational Fix’ in Malmo. Or rather I should  say Sonic Youth etc exhibition since it doesn’t just focus on the band but also on influences, NYC contemporaries and those influenced by SY.

Nonetheless Sonic Youth themselves are at the heart of the exhibition both in band multi media exhibits, photos, sleeves, guitars and even the entire SY back catalogue available to listen to on a couple of PCs. The band members are also involved with some of their extra curricular art on display, such as Kim’s painting and Lee’s collaborations with his wife Leah Singer. Amongst these are ‘Drift’ a 57 minute collage of sound and  images mixed with Lee’s spoken word passages. The portion I saw was engrossing and I had to tear myself away. But I was a bit surprised to find out that it’s actually commercially available.

Much of the non SY stuff featured artists whose names were more familiar to me than their work. Some of the images are a little surprising, some a little bizarre (Marnie Weber’s bunny pictures and Kathy Temin’s films of people miming to Kylie spring to mind) but some were quite striking.

All in all it’s an ambitious project and its credibility is emphasised by the fact that this run is being held in a prominent Scandanavian gallery. That emphasises that the exhibition goes way beyond a collection of paraphernalia about an influential American band.

In a lot of ways this is a side of Sonic Youth that I don’t think of much, which is pretty evident from these incoherent ramblings. It wouldn’t have interested me had it not been a band I love but clearly the exhibition is intended to reach beyond the SY rock audience. If you’re reading this, then  the chances are you will be interested in and enjoy the exhibition which is in Malmo until 20th September. A possible venue for the UK in the autumn has apparently fallen through but it moves to Madrid in January 2010.

Dansk Post

I’ve never heard back from Fileden as to what’s happened to my account and since I’ve not had the time to make alternative provision there will be no MP3s on here for a while. But I wouldn’t have been posting this forthcoming single anyway and if there’s a song guaranteed to lift spirits then Mitchell Museum’s ‘Tiger Heartbeat’ is surely it.

There was something about Mitchell Museum’s debut single ‘Warning Bells’ which suggested a band of real potential. Follow-up single ‘Tiger Heartbeat’ more than confirms that. Plain and simple, it’s a brilliant infectious pop song. Whilst the arrangements of the songs released so far offer up a degree of indie credibility, at their core these are songs about melody, melody, melody.

So whilst live they may lend themselves to Grandaddy comparisons, listening to the records reminds me more of the sugar rush of the likes of Oppenheimer. Which is a good thing.

Bizarrely enough the physical release of the single is going to be on C10, which is surely no more than an attention grabbing gimmick. I mean it was hardly the best of formats when it was commercially available but can many people actually play cassettes these days? Having said that even on the tinniest of portable cassette players I suspect that Tiger Heartbeat will still more than hold its own.

Mitchell Museum are playing at the Edge Festival later this month – catch them before they’re huge. The single is out now – in a limited edition of 100 copies! Get it here