Let me go… save my soul…

Was just using up some downloads on Emusic the other day and I came across this lot…

Triptides

Triptides are three guys from Bloomington, Indiana who apparently began life as the bedroom project of guitarist Glen Brigman. They have a laudable obsession with trebly surf and syrupy psychedelia which could almost make them bespoke PP fodder. I love them already…

What I find particularly charming about this is that I think Indiana is a landlocked state, only having access to freshwater lakes and rivers. Call me a purist, but I don’t think the surfing can be all that good then, no beaches, no riptides, no goofy foot – it’s a … a surfing state of mind…

Triptides brought out Sun Pavilion last year, which is the record I found on Emusic, and is bumper full of jangly rhythms, shrill harmonies and loads of reverb. It’s a beguiling listen for sure, with Summer Festival written all over it. There’s even a liberal and unashamed use of backwards-guitar loops on this track, here. Great stuff!

 

As well as their official debut, Sun Pavilion, there are also three or four other home-produced albums and EPs which are available from their Bandcamp page, as well as a few freebies on Soundcloud.

You can stream the whole record actually, and I heartily recommend at least giving track 6, Overboard, a spin…

Once when we were dreaming, I learnt to spell your name in the stones…

Stunning night at the Exchange in Bristol yesterday…

Suuns

I’ve been looking forward to this gig for a while now. And, I’m thankful to say, there was no disappointment at all. I’ve got very high hopes for these boys…

First saw Suuns at Green Man a couple of summers ago and was, very, very impressed by them. I loved the way they spent most of the set shrouded in dry ice and veiled in distorted feedback. I was (am, still) a chump for the way you couldn’t hear any of the lyrics and the fact that parts you could make out were pretty inarticulate still… It’s kinda what young bands should sound like, I reckon.

Zeroes QC is a brilliant record, my favourite of that year, and the new one, I’m glad to say, has done nothing to smooth out the creases or make things any easier for the listener. (I still can’t make out a word of it…)

Taking the tiny stage (The Exchange is a really small venue) after an earnest but average performance by fellow Canadians, Valleys, Suuns continue to be thrilling, awkward, loud and menacing. A bare minimum of stage “banter” (I approve), lots of experimental noise, some genuinely sinister, rasping (and of course unintelligible) vocals, and all of it underpinned by those bassy, unrelenting rhythms. It’s an ideal cocktail, as far as I’m concerned, and I know people mention Clinic a lot, but I really can’t hear anyone else is doing anything similar. They pounded through a good selection of tracks from Images du Futur, and fitted in muscular versions of Arena and Pie IX from the first record, all of which made a small, sweaty venue seem smaller and, well, sweatier…

Don’t you just love modern music? If I were a younger man I think I could go seriously overboard on this lot – follow them around the country, offer to hold their towels and tune their guitars, and generally lose all sense of proportion and dignity in the name of the band. As it is, I’ll have to settle for drooling from my keyboard and acting like a swivel-eyed loon from the floors of tiny West Country clubs…

A great, great set, and some pretty fair recordings, including the third version of Arena to grace these pages… Wah!!!!

Bambi

Arena

Sunspot

Oh, and I met Big Jef…!

I’ve got some things to do, some proper things to do…

Went to see Low in Bristol, a couple of weeks ago now.

I’ve not written anything about the evening because I can’t say I really enjoyed it to be honest.  I thought they were a bit one-paced and I knew fairly quickly I was going to get bored… I was definitely in a minority, mind, they went down very well with everyone else, and were generally given a massive response from the Trinity punters.

I do have some recordings, though, which I’ll maybe put up some time if people are interested. When I was looking through them, however, I found these from the support…

Hebronix

Hebronix are actually one bloke, it turns out, a feller called Daniel Blumberg, who until fairly recently was in Yuck. I’m afraid Yuck are just another band I missed, really, though there’s no value judgement attached to that. I’m prepared to believe they were/are (I really should find out…) a fine band and certainly some nice stuff has been written about them.

One man and his guitar always sets the alarm bells ringing in this vinegary old mind of mine, but straight away it became obvious that the man also has a loop pedal and is not averse to the odd fiddle with it.

Now, even  the most inattentive, casual reader of this Blog will have hopefully picked up that I am a bit of a sap for funny effects and novelty sounds in a song, and there was more than enough of both, lavishly plastered all over Blumberg’s handful of songs during his half hour set, to keep this sweet-toothed fool happy. Actually that’s a bit misleading – there were real songs in there too, and at times even I began to feel that maybe a little less noodling might’ve been a good thing.

No matter, it was a good set, but why take my word for it? (Credit, Max Eboy)

Mindful of failing batteries, and unaware of how uninspiring Low were going to be, I only recorded a couple of songs, which is a shame, although both were 10-minute meanders. The first recording is the Hebronix single – Unreal – but the second track I got is a real doo-zie , even better than the first. Unfortunately (and this bugs me beyond all reason, believe me) I just cannot find out the name of the track. Maybe some one will drop me a line…

Unreal

Unknown Track

Seville

Just finished my last drop of the bottle of La Ina that I bought in Seville, and I’m reminded of what an excellent time we had there…

 

 

Was that really a month ago?

Did you know I am a dancer?

I’ll tell you something, the Prince Albert in Rodborough, just outside Stroud. is a cracking little pub. More than one of a happy band of four of us commented wistfully on what it would be like to have a place like this on your doorstep…

Sweet Baboo

We’d ventured out on a school night to see Welsh singer, songwriter and serial guest-spotter, Stephen Black aka Sweet Baboo doing his own thing, and promoting his new record, Ships. I’ve written about Sweet Baboo before, seen him do a couple of guest spots with Gruff Rhys and seen him play bass with both Cate le Bon and H Hawkline, but this is the first time I’ve seen him take centre stage himself.

He’s an unassuming chap, for sure, small, chubby and regrettably not wearing the shirt, face paint or cats ears from the cover of Ships. In fact, he looked a little nervous as he stepped onto the Prince Albert’s tiny stage to set up the equipment with his two band mates. Once on stage though, any awkwardness emerged only in his sharp, sometimes brittle, lyrics. Instead, the three of them were confident, friendly and occasionally boisterous and gave us a really enjoyable, likeable set.

I enjoy the way Baboo delivers his songs, all uncertainty and self-deprecating humour, whilst at the same time bouncing his way through a series of loping, exuberant rhythms. At one point, one of the bar staff got a message through to the band that the landlord and had agreed to stand them each a drink every time Baboo mentioned tequila in his songs. No second invitation needed.

He played a couple of songs from the I’m a Dancer release, but most of the evening was devoted to the new record. I bought it afterwards and have been playing it since in the car, and a feature of it is the brass arrangements that frame most of the songs. Obviously the three of them couldn’t replicate that sound, but to be honest I rather preferred the simpler arrangements of the evening to those of the record.

A lovely occasion all round – charming band, charming songs, charming venue.

Simple, really…

The Morse Code for Love

I’m a Dancer

Cate’s Song

Shelter Song – Temples

Been listening to this track from the Mojo Psych cd all week. Seems particularly apt, in the midst of the Freakbeat frenzy I Was experiencing a few weeks ago

Could be straight out of the Perfumed Garden records, but apparently not. Looking forward to hearing a bit from these chaps…

Dope…

Won’t You Come Out To Play?

I’ll admit I hadn’t given a lot of thought to Friday night’s Pere Ubu gig in Bristol, and to be honest I’m not sure I would have had particularly high expectations if I had done.

The new record’s a good ‘un, for sure, although it’s one that’s an interesting listen rather than something I’m going to love for years to come. I’d also heard a bit of more recent stuff and can’t say I was particularly grabbed by it. (There was also an uncomfortable incident at Green Man a couple of years back when myself and Coleser had attempted to sneak out early from a book-reading David Thomas was giving and found ourselves berated by an angry, old man from the stage. (In truth, “off the wall” would be a generous description of his prose style – “crap” would be a less forgiving one. An abiding memory of the incident was the “take me with you” looks other audience members were giving us as we slunk off…)

Pere Ubu

But anyway, here I was again, sipping a Guinness, standing around considering the increasingly down-at-heel surrounds of Thekla, when the big feller traipsed on stage with a clipboard and a pint glass of red wine, with a dubious old-man chic about him, dressed as he was in dumpy trousers, a stained checked shirt, braces and for a while a bright red beret.

He introduced himself uncertainly and started off on an unpromising ramble about the real world and our dreamings. But as soon as his band kicked in, everything was different. I’m not sure who the personnel was (by the end of this piece I’ll go to the trouble to look them up – they deserve it), but I’m pretty sure there are no other original members of Pere Ubu still standing.

Tough, awkward and at times pleasantly aggressive, they trotted purposefully through most of “Lady from Shanghai”, enthusiastically supported by an earnest, if slightly irritating guy whose job it was to muddy the musical waters and wave his arms around a theremin – indeed I don’t think I’ve ever seen as much theremin action in one evening. Images of Blake’s Seven and Doctor Who spring to mind…

After a shaky start, Thomas himself came across as witty, self-deprecating and even amiable as he worked his new material around a few older songs that sounded as good as ever.

It was a great set, far outstripping the ill at ease, difficult evening I might’ve been expecting. To make the evening perfect, he would’ve had to include Chinese Radiation, which would’ve rolled the years back to a callow youth making his first purchase at Gloucester’s long gone (and little-lamented) Backstage Pass. But you can’t have everything, and an evening of tough, knowing post, post-punk was more than enough for this old soak…. First class.

Mandy

Musicians Are Scum

Modern Dance

Oh, and the band…Keith Moline – guitar; Michele Temple – bass;  Robert Wheeler – keyboard; Steve Mehlman – drums, and Gagarin (effects)

Very good they were too…