Painting By Numbers - July 07

I think I’m going to make this a regular, monthly review point, these Painting By Numbers gigs. A good friend of mine, Lorri, and her pal, Johnny, put on lovely shows once a month in and around Dundee, brining together some fantastic bands and individual players from all over our humble little island. And it gets to me every time; there is so much talent out there. Tonight served only to highlight that point, if not exemplify it. So keep an eye out on their MySpace page for upcoming shows.

Tonight took place in the quiet, unassuming basement area of Droughty Neebors, a pub along the Perth Road, just over the road from the Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art; a somewhat fitting setting for an acoustic night. Three musicians, ranging in musical styles and tastes, though all equally as impressive and all of whom have left those present with a warm and fuzzy feeling for the rest of the night. To begin with, the turn out was worrying, being just a few friends and family of the organisers, a close-knit band of hipster kids, looking to support the talent present. However, hope was not lost; by the time out first act appeared upon the stage, the crowd had thickened and a good turnout was promised. So, the first act.

Mr Gavin McGinty gave us quite a show, mixing everything from traditional blues themes to political statements into his tracks, along with some clever lyrics and skillful harmonica playing. It would be an understatement to say that he had a great grasp on the genres he played, and an insult not to mention it. Gavin has an understanding of his instruments, his voice included, and the music he plays with them that would rival some of the greatest names in music. We see so many bands these days whose music leaves a lot left to be desired, who really don’t push the envelope and who are just happy with settling for one style, without even trying to break the mould. Gavin gave us more than this, he hit hard with some of his chosen tracks, such as “Prime Minister, The Scapegoat” which tells the story of Tony Blair and David Kelly, over the shenanigans of the Iraq War, and it’s build up, especially. I have to admit, I was a little taken aback. Some of the lyrics really hit home, and the overall feel of the song is sombre, to say the least. However, to say that Gavin solely depends on the depressing to convey his music would be a lie; there were some very humorous songs, such as “Cinderella” and “Hungover”, as well as my favourite, “Nethergate News.” Overall impressions are high and, because I’m such a big fan of the blues genre, I’d usually be reserved about giving too much credit to someone who attempted it, but Gavin really did a good job tonight, so kudos to him.

Second up was the ever-popular Uncle Fritz, who we’ve not seen in the acoustic scene for a while and, unfortunately, it showed a little. Fritz plays bass guitar for a local band, Alamos, who’ve really skyrocketed in recent years, with BBC Radio1 DJs Steve Lamacq, Rob Da Bank, and Vic Galloway giving “Photograph It” airtime. The video for the single also featured on the MTV2 Daytime Playlist for 5 weeks, so it’s no small statement to say that this is a band going places. But Fritz has been out of the game a while, so far as I’ve heard, and like I say, it showed in the forgetting of lyrics and chords, and the slightly strained vocals for certain higher notes, also. Then again, though, it’s not to say that he’s not talented, or hasn’t got it in him, or should quit while he’s ahead, oh no; Fritz’s guitar melodies are haunting, to say the least, beautiful renditions that are proof that he still understands the vast amount of different and original songs that he can create, and the talent he holds and respects. Still a brilliant performer, with shows peppered by the usual ironic comments and dry humour, Fritz needs little more than a bit of practice to get himself back up to the level that he once attained, not so long ago.

“The remedy to anything – charming, poetic, entertaining and he’s got a great beard… what more do you need?” – Paul J Creegan
I shake my head, reading that last comment. A good friend of mine, Paul never ceases to have something to say about anything, though his usual sarcasm and sharp, scathing wit was held back by our headliner tonight. Ben Goddard, hailing from southern England, travelled all this way to play before a small audience when he is surely capable of so much more. To put it straight, Ben has that rare ability to take emotion in it’s pure, core form and transform it into music. He is the Alchemist of the acoustic scene, with his deep, soulful singing, light and carefully selected guitar playing, laced with perfectly chosen harmonics, not so much haunting as heart warming. The guitar playing was reminiscent of Gordon Giltrap, and reminded me of summer afternoons and quieter times. It would scream of innocence, if it weren’t for the fact that ‘scream’ is the last term you’d think about. Ben displayed passion, skill and affection both for his audience, his music and appreciation for the gift he was given, a matured and humble style, without ego or expectancy. From the heart wrenching and emotional “Broken Hearts” to the reminiscence of “Old Pound Note”, there’s a story behind each of them, either written for someone or about a certain experience, and Ben has managed to lend this talent he has for writing a tale to give his songs not just expressive feeling and a developed style, but a personality as well, making his tracks, himself and his entire performance a singular experience, and one which is not to be missed.

Acoustics nights are a brilliant way to wind down a stressful period, take stock and just relax with friends. I’d advise anyone reading to go along to more, and to take something away from them, as I have done, be it a new friend, or a new favourite band or even just that warm and happy feeling afterwards. Kudos to all involved in tonight’s gig, to the guys playing, to the audience that turned up, to Droughty Neebors for hosting the venue and especially to Lorri and Johnny, for setting it up.

M_x

How'd ya like them apples?

Man, it’s been a while since I reviewed a band or a gig or an album or even just talked about it to someone who knows what the hell is going on. It was nice, therefore, to have both last night, Wednesday 18th July, at 9pm in the Westport Bar, Dundee. Four local bands, three hours of music, two pizzas and one bottle of wine later, and we’re all set for a good evening.

If only that were the case.

It was one of those nights that, the longer you stayed, the better it got, but I really wish I’d turned up about 10:15 or so, because it was difficult to enjoy what happened before that. But first, a note on punk rock. Now, I’m not really into it all that much. I’m the kind of guy that’ll go to a gig and stand at the back with my arms crossed, tapping my foot every now and then and just enjoy the experience along with three hindered other indie-kids who, god forbid, you make eye contact with. Biggest social faux-pas possible, trust me. But when it comes to rocking the hell out, I’ve done my fair share, growing up with everything from Blink 182, the Offspring and Nirvana through to Megadeath and Metallica, and I can still do it, let me tell you. It’s just that I’d rather not, to be honest.

With punk rock, these days (and I hate people that elongate these genre generalisations to things like post-post-punk rock. Seriously, if we’re going to do that, we’re on about post^7-punk rock.), it just doesn’t appeal to me, the whole smash as many mic’s as possible and try to put your foot through the amp, even though it’ll cost you later. I’ll listen to it, but I don’t make a habit. So, explanation over, you can see my own view of last night will be a little bit skewed. That being said, there were some gems.

And an advanced apology is in order as well. Sorry guys, but the first two bands names have escaped me. Even though I had a hunt through MySpace to see if any one I knew had links to them, it was a fruitless venture. So, if upon reading this, you know you were one of those two, please drop me a line, so I can edit and give you the credit you deserve!

As is always the case with local gigs, they tell us we will be treated to musical delights an hour before they are actually ready to play, what with the setting up and the arguing with the venue staff over whether or not free beer is an option, it understandably takes a while to get rockin’. So, though doors were at eight, upon arriving with fashionable tardiness around the hour of nine, my friend Dean and I found ourselves just in time for the first set to start. And to be honest, it wasn’t that bad at all.

Like I said, I’m not huge on punk rock, but I wasn’t displeased with the performance. It was a little samey to start with, a couple of songs melding together without any real differentiation between them. However, diversity was not dead, and the quad-piece pulled together a last few rather hyped up and jumpy tracks to round off the set. The only pointers I’d have given were to give the set list a bit of a shake down, try throwing in a few slower, more mellow songs if only to show us that you have the talent to write for more than one, distinct genre. There was a fair amount of skill involved between the two guitarists, their timing and queue’s taken from each other were near enough to perfect and the rhythm/lead relationship seemed well founded. Vocals could use a little work, but then, so do most people.

I don’t get to bitch a lot. You’d be surprised, for all the snarky, sassy comments I make and the pointers I give, I really don’t bitch about people a lot. I give constructive criticism, that’s all. But on this occasion, I really can’t hold back. Second band, again, I didn’t catch the name, but who told this guy he could sing and should play in a band? It’s like telling a penguin it can fly, and to go jump off that cliff. The drumming was on time and barely held the performance together, so kudos to that guy and, though the riffs from the guitars and bass were primarily the same for every song, it wasn’t sloppy or broken, so that was a saving grace, I suppose. But the singing; oh, the singing. This guy should take up a different hobby, like balloon modelling, or sculpture, because the only time I’ve had a more difficult half hour of music was listening to the View desecrate the good name of the Dundee music scene. I pray that these guys don’t start stalking Pete Docherty, or we’ll be awash with more wailing over the radio. Practice, for the love of god, before you play live again. You cleared out the audience.

Which was a shame, because the third act were a breath of fresh air. Cole Appleyard (got that one!) are a three piece that have just laid down their first EP and, to be perfectly fair to Coop, Kieran and Dave, it’s pretty damn good. It’s jumpy, catchy, full of life and balanced, not too samey and not so diverse that you’re left wondering what style they are trying to go for. I have to admit, I was a little worried, because I had heard a fair bit about them and, judging from the description of their genre and style, I wasn’t salivating. But, though it didn’t make me want to run to HMV and buy album upon album of similar tastes, it was still enough to keep me in my place rather than leave after the previous act. I only picked up on one or two botched notes, both vocally and on the guitar, but they were quickly rectified, showing the singer, Dave, as one who knows his capacity, and is capable of controlling his voice well. A good job, guys.

And that takes us to the last band, State of Affairs, and again, I’d been told all sorts of things about these guys, good and bad, light and dark, sarcastic snipes as well as praise, so I didn’t really know what to expect when they came on, which is best, I think. Not having a predisposed opinion of someone is the best and quickest way to get to know them, and after hearing their opening song, I’d like very much to get to know these guys. Where as the rest of the night so far, as I’ve said, had been mainly punk-based, State of Affairs brought with them a much more balanced and mature form of music, combining some really mellow vocals with harder riffs as well as showing the crowd that they knew what they were doing. A truly commendable performance, I saw a lot in the set that I enjoyed and I will certainly be keeping an eye out for future performances.

So a somewhat varied night, in terms of everything from musical taste to talent, but in the end, it’s the overall picture that will out, and my overall feeling is that I still love the Westie for it’s gigs.

Back from the dead, Fopp and missing gigs...

Jeese, it's been a while, huh. To say the least, I've been somewhat absent from the music scene, what with all the writing I've been trying to do, the art I've been trying to draw and the dropping-out-of-uni-to-get-a-full-time-job-only-to-realise-it-was-a-mistake-and-re-apply-to-the-same-course, *breathe*, well... you can tell I've been kinda busy.

I tried to write a novel; twice, in fact, but they both fell through. It started out with one story line, based loosely on a role-play world I wrote for at the time before I got bored of it, realising that the genre was outdated and not as reflexive as I originally thought they might be. Then I moved on to possibly the most original story line I have ever concocted in my life, called Redermia, a steam-powered future city built under the surface of a post-apocalyptic Earth. It was fun, but I just didn’t seem to have the patience for it. Still in the works, Redermia will most likely become my final year project in uni, so all is well that ends well.

I was going to make a webcomic based around it too, but that also fell through. Instead, I’m currently laying down a storyline for “Finding Tokyo”, a story about a boy (me) who goes to Tokyo on holiday but ends up staying there, as he loves it so much. I have a few online friends in Japan who are going to help me with stuff like geographical and cultural references so it should be a laugh.

As for the music, well, I’ve been on the hunt. Did you hear about Fopp? Oh Noes! I used to love that shop! And it shut down over night. I mean, seriously; they were only accepting cash in a lot of stores as their “card systems were temporarily down” which translates into “we are so sure we’re going into administration, we won’t have the time to process payments.” Kinda funny, really.

I’ve been getting into The Mars Volta in a big way, recently, after a friend of mine leant me their ‘Deloused in The Comatorium’ album. I was blown away, frankly; it was somewhat awesome. And from that, stemmed the seeds of venture, finding such bands as The Sleeping, People in Planes, Mars Volta’s predecessors At The Drive In and a great band I have to mention at least three times today to anyone who’s listening, Wax on the Radio. Seriously, get out there and buy an album, I’d recommend ‘Exposition’. Big thanks to the guys are Pandora.com for their ever vigilant updating of the site and music databases. It really is the best way to find new music these days; eat your heart out Radio 1.

So I’ve been trying to take in a lot of gigs locally recently, also, due to encouragement from many people to start this back up again (thanks to Casper and Lorri especially), and I was absolutely outraged to find that I missed Nine Black Alps in the Westport Bar on Monday night. I really need to keep an eye on Groucho’s ticket sales for this kind of thing, because that’s no small amount of awesome, with a band like that playing in the Westie, as all who frequent affectionately refer to it. But I did take in a good one last night, Wednesday. I’m not going to rant about it here, I’ll put up a review later on today, as this is a “hullo, I’m back from them dead” post and not a “woo! Music!” post.

It’s good to be writing again, though. I’ll update the blog and the myspace as much as is humanly possible from now on. Also, with money being as tight as it is, gigs are difficult to get to, but more on that later, too. Keep an eye on the myspace bulletins, as they’ll tell you where and when and, more importantly, whom I’ll be reviewing. Link to the myspace is on the right, there. Add me, I love friends!

Love and that.

M_x