winners and losers - Tbreak
Saw some bands last night. Hurrah, you cry.
It was the Tbreak heat at King Tuts - must say that I was drawn there more by being at a loose end than being particularly knowledgeable on any of the bands on offer, but hey ho.
Turning 13's demo actually arrived in the afternoon which meant I could acquaint myself wit heir emo/hardcore/delete where applicable on the way to the gig. Fans of Fugazi according to the blurb, they could also count themselves as Biffy acolytes, I'm sure. The most impressive thing, apart from the way they threw themselves into their task, was their sound which was pretty much as on record - tight, jerky and noisy stop-start stuff. Turns out that they recorded at Sawmill Studios - Mark from said facility was at the gig and he told me that the demo was recorded largely live with just vocal overdubs. (So there you go, insider-knowledge fans).
The Cinematics were next, and their name, which suggests something quite horrible, was belied by their first couple of songs - very New York/Rapture in feel, with a singer whose movement caught the eye in terms of his spasmodic movements (curiously pre-empting Keith out of Josephine). Second song featured an outrageous Gang of 4 rip-off intro, but from then on things got muddied, as their style shifted to a mess of catchy but more blokeish rock which eventually veered into U2 wig-out territory.
"The Mods are coming" someone wails before diving headlong through the plate glass window at the front of the venue . OK, not quite, but Aviator Shades... well, I couldn't hear the reference, but their audience included a few punters with 'The Who' patches adorning their clothes. The band themselves are sharply dressed - helpfully wearing the same clothes as in their promo pictures - and make a decent noise for the first couple of numbers, though having heard their demo it may be that these have already lodged in my subconscious. A point which in general I'm sure al the evening's judges are aware of. Anyway, the Shades come across as a slightly more indie-rock version of The Grim Northen Social for these of you taking notes.
The Day I Snapped - and this may be a comparison I've made in the past - make me want to go home and listen to my old Jawbreaker albums. Which is something the band must have been doing when they settled on their noisy, tight, emo-based sound. They don't have the tunes of the aforementioned Jawbreaker, but then again, who does?
The February Solution are greeted by whoops from their fanbase which cut through the opening instrumental which melds Mogwai with Led Zeppelin, while the drummer makes the noise you get when you stand on a cat. Next, a big bloke in a flat cap arrives to bellow into the mike as a grindcore version of Rage Against The Machine rears its head. The venue is *very* crowded by now, which is fortunate as from the bar, the screaming set to a muffled bassy thud sounds uncomfortably like two people beating the crap out of each other.
I said above that I was really there to see Josephine, a band who really should be playing well up the bill on the NME stage rather than entering a raffle for Pixies tickets. So I implore them to play "the hits", but they opt largely for new material, which takes a while to get the audience going. Fortunately after a couple of numbers they really hit their stride, the jangly guitar and Keith's animated-yet-laidback performance winning over the crowd and any judges left, as they finally play something which has the crowd mumbling "I know this one!" - This is Not an Exit's pounding drums and Roz's battering of her bass probably the evening's high point.
It was the Tbreak heat at King Tuts - must say that I was drawn there more by being at a loose end than being particularly knowledgeable on any of the bands on offer, but hey ho.
Turning 13's demo actually arrived in the afternoon which meant I could acquaint myself wit heir emo/hardcore/delete where applicable on the way to the gig. Fans of Fugazi according to the blurb, they could also count themselves as Biffy acolytes, I'm sure. The most impressive thing, apart from the way they threw themselves into their task, was their sound which was pretty much as on record - tight, jerky and noisy stop-start stuff. Turns out that they recorded at Sawmill Studios - Mark from said facility was at the gig and he told me that the demo was recorded largely live with just vocal overdubs. (So there you go, insider-knowledge fans).
The Cinematics were next, and their name, which suggests something quite horrible, was belied by their first couple of songs - very New York/Rapture in feel, with a singer whose movement caught the eye in terms of his spasmodic movements (curiously pre-empting Keith out of Josephine). Second song featured an outrageous Gang of 4 rip-off intro, but from then on things got muddied, as their style shifted to a mess of catchy but more blokeish rock which eventually veered into U2 wig-out territory.
"The Mods are coming" someone wails before diving headlong through the plate glass window at the front of the venue . OK, not quite, but Aviator Shades... well, I couldn't hear the reference, but their audience included a few punters with 'The Who' patches adorning their clothes. The band themselves are sharply dressed - helpfully wearing the same clothes as in their promo pictures - and make a decent noise for the first couple of numbers, though having heard their demo it may be that these have already lodged in my subconscious. A point which in general I'm sure al the evening's judges are aware of. Anyway, the Shades come across as a slightly more indie-rock version of The Grim Northen Social for these of you taking notes.
The Day I Snapped - and this may be a comparison I've made in the past - make me want to go home and listen to my old Jawbreaker albums. Which is something the band must have been doing when they settled on their noisy, tight, emo-based sound. They don't have the tunes of the aforementioned Jawbreaker, but then again, who does?
The February Solution are greeted by whoops from their fanbase which cut through the opening instrumental which melds Mogwai with Led Zeppelin, while the drummer makes the noise you get when you stand on a cat. Next, a big bloke in a flat cap arrives to bellow into the mike as a grindcore version of Rage Against The Machine rears its head. The venue is *very* crowded by now, which is fortunate as from the bar, the screaming set to a muffled bassy thud sounds uncomfortably like two people beating the crap out of each other.
I said above that I was really there to see Josephine, a band who really should be playing well up the bill on the NME stage rather than entering a raffle for Pixies tickets. So I implore them to play "the hits", but they opt largely for new material, which takes a while to get the audience going. Fortunately after a couple of numbers they really hit their stride, the jangly guitar and Keith's animated-yet-laidback performance winning over the crowd and any judges left, as they finally play something which has the crowd mumbling "I know this one!" - This is Not an Exit's pounding drums and Roz's battering of her bass probably the evening's high point.
