HEALTH + BUTTONHEAD + GENTLE FRIENDLY
WHITE HEAT vs. NO PAIN IN POP
Madame JoJo’s, Brewer Street, W1
Tuesday 10th June, 8:00pm
Hey, I should talk about music while I’ve got the energy to type constructive things instead of googlinglyrics that could be used in foreign court cases, soooo here’s some more visual proof that I have little disregard for my hearing and/or wallet. HEALTH are the kids from The The Smell scene that are possibly the most image-conscious, although I only made that assumption because of the deep-V neck shirts and the fatuation with chiptune-thieving hipsters Crystal Castles. Are these accusations founded? You decide! The self-titled album (available now) flits between pounding your head with electronics and hitting as many things as possible, and pounding your head with WOAH WOAH DURGING DURGE; in live performance the same applies but with pure kinetic vitesse and thrice the volume. Couple that with two atrocious supporting acts (Hello Buttonhead! Hello Gentle Friendly!) who were akin to sixth form drama students except with worse clothes and the sobering fact that White Heat requires at least eleven units of alcohol for me to operate with a smile on my face and you have a night out.
…What? If you were expecting something approaching journalism then read a magazine. Like Artrocker. They know the score.
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HEALTH return with No Age in August thanks to Upset! The Rhythm and I need to find employment so I can afford the train fare down because that could well be the gig of the summer. Or you could buy me a ticket?
roman david
Just some visual proof that I haven’t spent all of last month failing my studies, develop emotional attachments to people that don’t exist and generally drink myself stupid; last month was the month of seeing bands and then seeing them again a short while afterwards, preferably in a different city that doesn’t house tramps that offer your drunken buddies bananas. Pissed Jeans, No Age, The Mae Shi with bands such as Mob Rules, Statues and The Shitty Limits in tow - it’s been a good month for standing in darkened rooms watching men writhe.
Pissed Jeans and Mob Rules at the Fenton, Leeds on the 16th.
Only went to Nastyfest at the Faversham (17th) for the latter half of the evening, just in time to catch everyone going crazy to No Age, The Mae Shi and (unpictured) others such as Japanther and Cadence Weapon; a tip to London crowds… the north is making you look like miserable tossers. Dancing is better than judging, you know.
The PJs at the Old Blue Last. Had to include the last one for shits and/or giggles. My, does my friend (right) look sweaty.
And finally, No Age at The Dome. Stage invasions ahoy, including that Japanese guy who you can see being taken off after he tried to take a monitor amp with him. Goodness. Their performances cemented the quality of their new LP and and whatever horrible metaphors the NME used when reviewing the thing (’Teen Creeps’ is “a brash, off-key blast of eardrum-searing Superchunk-style fuzz-pop”, apparently).
There were countless other support bands but if they’re not up there then they’re not worth your time - thereby suggesting that Mob Rules are worth your time. MOB RULES, you could say. Soft Skeleton has some exclusive tracks on their latest podcast, so head there for some fine fury. Nearly typed ‘furry’ there, which would have sent a different message entirely. They’re playing a gig in Brighton and a gig in High Wycombe and then you’re stuck till October.
Here’s to June and here’s hoping I actually post things instead of hoarding them and forgetting any critical elements therein.
THE MAE SHI + JOHNNY FOREIGNER
Kings College WC2
Tuesday 13th May, 8pm
Yes, them again. But first! Johnny Foreigner tried to break the ice by asking if anyone had commited suicide. And that was the highlight! The world already has Help She Can’t Swim and Los Compesinos!, so it doesn’t need another person to sing in that bloody voice. The rest of the night panned out as follows:
Apologies, 56Kers, if there’s any of you left! This lot play Nastyfest at the Faversham in Leeds with No Age and Yeasayer and some other dates in the UK before running away screaming back to ELLAYY.
Reviews — roman david on January 30, 2008 at 2:15 pm
The Mae Shi are an example of why you should go to a show based on things you’ve heard from the room next to you. They’re from Los Angeles and sound like a birthday party where everything is going wrong, things are getting broken and your friends are sat in the corner wondering what to do with their lives, and you’re just watching all this happen and yet you’re too busy grinning ear to ear because you know this kind of carnage is WHAT THIS WORLD NEEDS.
After about five years and a load of records and members and Betamax synths have flown by whilst I busied myself with Razorlights and Carling Weekends before throwing such music at my siblings and fleeing to London, they’re now with Moshi Moshi (purveyors of kawaii glory from the likes of Architecture in Helsinki and Best Fwends) to present a new LP that I hope garners some delicious attention or at least a few more starry-eyed followers who know their way around WordPress. ‘HLLLYH’ indeed.
Seeing as my head has appeared to blend their three performances (at Barden’s Boudoir, the Old Blue Last and the Macbeth respectively) into a single singalong entity, I’m not in the best frame to write seperate reviews; instead I recommend you look at these pictures of the past few days, give them a listen and catch them before they hop back across to play The Smell (8th March, US types!) - your last port of call for now is at indie club juggernaut probably Push a week today (2nd Feb, details) playing alongside if-math-rock-was-twee Hot Club de Paris.
30/1 update: I don’t tend to follow bands around for more than three shows but I went to see t’Shi again at Upset! The Rhythm’s Gramaphone show on the 30th, where it was more of the delightful same, except in a cosy basement and in front of a satisfyingly kinetic audience. As it says above, you’ve got one more chance and if you’re the kind of person who turns his or her nose up at half an hour of glee every now and then you should shimmy on down. Over the past four shows there have been some excellent new bands who mostly fit under the pigeonhole of happy-go-lucky hardcore; synopses and songs tomorrow I reckon.
Reviews — roman david on October 15, 2007 at 6:14 pm
Okay, so it appears I’m into the whole ‘let’s update once a week if I can be arsed’ mode. That won’t do! Media and communications I think has decided to get all hard and abstract on my behind, which I guess is nice but at the same time easy things are better. Sigh. On Saturday I went to the Silver Rocket 100th show spectacular at Imperial College’s student union and had a ball. Main attractions were bands who I’d seen before or liked before: Meet Me In St. Louis were tight as an unpleasant simile to the point where they could end up actually famous; Charlottefield were thankfully back on form in that they were excitingly laid back instead of seemingly apathetic. Lords were the band that fitted the birthday party atmosphere (bunting! birthday cake! Parma Violets!) and I think didn’t mind me nicking a certain song title for my own devices. The rest of the bands were as follows (I missed Joeyfat and 3hostwomexicansandatinofspanners because I knew that the tube would be a sod. It was…) - Future Corpses did the slow post-rock thing quite well; Superman Revenge Squad was like Bob Tilton meets BARR, aka conversational + emotional + a bit of dry humour does wonders;Big Joan were noisy and sassy; Silent Front were louddddd; Underground Railroad were a bit too SY-ey, but then again if I were in a band so would I; Cove should have utilised the clarinet more than they did in the end but were still grand.
Oh dear, that just all looked like a Wikipedia entry with all those links. As for Silver Rocket itself, you’ve got to like a club that’ll play ‘Prayer To God’ at a birthday party. They’re usually at the Buffalo Bar up in Highbury, every third Friday, clicky for details.
I took a load of photographs and none of them were any good. Still, if you want to have a look stay here after the jump:
