11.10.07

(downtown diner, ashford)


The night ends with pretty much the politest stage invasion ever. This Town Needs Guns, fresh from their newly released split with Cats and Cats and Cats, fall victim to those pesky (kind of) midweek noise laws, play only three songs, but it's enough to inspire raucous air punching and risque hip shaking. Their super melodic handclaps and (post) hardcore goes down a treat, making their truncated set all the more disappointing.

But to back track a bit, first band of the night were a polite looking bunch called Instruments. They play a sweet mix of Owls-esque tumbling leads recited over stuttering drums with more post-rock orientated dynamics, i.e. light/shade, tension/release. The zippy interplay between guitarists Ashley and Rob is a highlight, the numerous melodic breakdowns making judicious use of their various loop pedals, the resulting combination of the textured and the brutal lending a touch of the Youthmovies to them. I once read somewhere that "Comparisons are odious." This is almost certainly true, especially in the context of music journalism. BUT! Instruments DO combine the best elements of old Youthmovies and new Youthmovies, the shifting time signatures and musical dynamics of the former twinned with elaborate guitar proggery of the latter. Of course, when it comes to live performance, the goal with this sort of complex, intricate music is to be capable of reproducing it in all it's convoluted glory. This doesn't leave room for much in the way of anything unexpected, but they impress nonetheless.

No such problem for Cutting Pink With Knives, a band you know you're watching. They were supposed to be headlining, but tonight they are missing their singer, and thus they are not. This, it would seem, doesn't matter. They play as a two piece, set up around a sequencer which contains their backing track. They press play, spastic hardcore tempos burst forth, and they proceed to rock in a furious manner, throwing out sleazy glam and punk thrash with schizophrenic ease, jumping, dancing, and generally posing like really excellent bastards. Occasionally, some beautiful, warm electronica burbles out, the kind of which other bands would base entire songs around. Such is the confidence of CPWK that these are tossed out so casually you can't help but laugh at the sheer nerve. "We don't play any one riff more than four times" sayeth the guitarist. Was he joking? I couldn't really tell. I hope not.

So yeah, the bassist then takes the piss out of emotronica, and they launch into another blast of actual genuine hardcore pop disco. I genuinely think that's the best way to describe it. What really strikes you about this trashy, violent music, is just how technical ability actually involved in it. On one hand you have the guitarist playing cock rock solo's whilst doing a weird bo-legged dance through the audience, and on the other the quickquick judderjudder arrangement of each song is bewilderingly intense. They do between song banter as well. Taking the piss out of themselves, their absent singer, and indulging in general surreal tangents about animals, they're pretty hilarious and compelling. Go see them, cos they're incredible.

To complete this fairly ridiculous backwards review, we come to Gossamer Albatross (ahem) the not in any way kind of weird alias of 18 year old Lewis Gordon*. He was actually on first, before Instruments. He plays a sort of nu-folk with lyrical sass not a million miles from the likes Emmy The Great. Where he differs is in the heightened sense of drama in his songs, minor chords deployed like, i dunno, emotional missiles of rock or something. Furthermore, his voice is wonderful, rising and falling like in violin-esque way over his percussive, highly rhythmical guitar playing. It's almost baroque, swooning with drama like a folk Morrissey, if that can be viewed as a good thing. He also plays a song with the sweetly delivered line,"I'll smack you in your fucking face," which is great for a number of obvious reasons. He's a charming fellow, digs Kinsella bands, gives mad props to the aforementioned Instruments, and tells of how he didn't have his (well good) band with him tonight because, as it happens, they're all sixteen and have school the next day. He was also kind enough to contribute to the first of this little series of lo-fi super fun time that I'm hoping to get started here. He played a song for me in a car park, and I recorded it on dictaphone. It's down there, no mastering, compression or owt, just a song, with cars driving by in the background. I don't know what the song is called. He's recording an EP for release in Decemeber apparently. You may want to check it out.

mp3
gossamer albatross (11.10.07)

It may have actually been a McDonald's car park, but we'll gloss over that.

adam gnade and youthmovies tonight. words and music tomorrow, hopefully.

*I think his surname is Gordon, but I may have made that up. If he's reading this, I'm very sorry Lewis. Buds?