hell yeah!
Right, yesterday was Womb, at which Gary was playing. A nice change from all that fucking poetry I'd say. We were all out of it in one way or another - although he's exhibited work and posted it on his MySpace Gary hadn't done any performance before so was really nervous, Helen had spent something like 10 hours from 36 on a coach to and from Scarborough with probably little sleep in between, and I'd been out 12 evenings from 13. Mildly altered states all round.
Wings & Claws opened proceedings with a wide array of wooden toys, melodicas, thumb pianos, bells, vintage looking stringed instrument thingies (I'm not a fucking musician, ask them), laptop, pedals and assorted other bits. It was every bit as great as it looked. Standing up is so 20th century, and when you've got so many wires dance routines are out of the question. They also give really good CD art.
They were followed by Gary who did interesting things to a guitar with tools and household implements first, then with contact mic-ed metal and plastic lids all run through pedals. He got some fantastically abrasive sounds with a metal scrapper thing on the metal lid - although I would have liked even more abrasiveness. But I don't even know what year it is, so I'm no judge. Apparently a couple of guys were talking all the way through, and when Helen spoke to them afterwards they said something like "Why not use a guitar the way it's meant to be used?" I can't even be arsed to comment on the stupidity of that.
Then PNAK were up. They were good, and indisputably good musicians, but for me it all got a bit close to psychedelia, which seems kind of unnecessary forty years after the fact. That said I'd be happy to see them live again, and I could even be persuaded to buy or download a record. But anyway, I'm not your guru, you're all special unique little snowflakes who can follow links and make up your own fucking little snowflake minds. Man it's melting my brain. So yeah, they were good, but least interesting to me.
And finally Blood Moon, who made an outstanding noise with drums, bass, guitar, electronic thingies (I'm not etc. ask them), and pedals in whatever combination the two of them could manage. And they played in the dark. With quite the mildest strobe settings I've ever seen. Which did initially lead to problems when they couldn't see the controls on their pedals. Not that you would have known if they hadn't said. With the exception of PNAK they seemed to be the most structured, playing what might well be classified as tunes. Albeit loud, bass heavy, vocal-less tunes that were often pretty abrasive themselves.
It's a real shame that gigs like this only take place to crowds of less than two dozen, most of whom are bands and their friends. It's also a little weird that there were more people around for the beginning than were there when Blood Moon came on - they missed some top noise. But now, by the magic of Web 2.0 you can go to their MySpace pages and get a flavour of the night. Send them all your appreciation - especially monetary - especially in the direction of Blood Moon who's album launch it was, and who pulled the whole thing off.
.
standing up is so 20th century
Wings & Claws opened proceedings with a wide array of wooden toys, melodicas, thumb pianos, bells, vintage looking stringed instrument thingies (I'm not a fucking musician, ask them), laptop, pedals and assorted other bits. It was every bit as great as it looked. Standing up is so 20th century, and when you've got so many wires dance routines are out of the question. They also give really good CD art.
They were followed by Gary who did interesting things to a guitar with tools and household implements first, then with contact mic-ed metal and plastic lids all run through pedals. He got some fantastically abrasive sounds with a metal scrapper thing on the metal lid - although I would have liked even more abrasiveness. But I don't even know what year it is, so I'm no judge. Apparently a couple of guys were talking all the way through, and when Helen spoke to them afterwards they said something like "Why not use a guitar the way it's meant to be used?" I can't even be arsed to comment on the stupidity of that.
why not use a guitar the way it's meant to be used?
Then PNAK were up. They were good, and indisputably good musicians, but for me it all got a bit close to psychedelia, which seems kind of unnecessary forty years after the fact. That said I'd be happy to see them live again, and I could even be persuaded to buy or download a record. But anyway, I'm not your guru, you're all special unique little snowflakes who can follow links and make up your own fucking little snowflake minds. Man it's melting my brain. So yeah, they were good, but least interesting to me.
make up your own fucking little snowflake minds
And finally Blood Moon, who made an outstanding noise with drums, bass, guitar, electronic thingies (I'm not etc. ask them), and pedals in whatever combination the two of them could manage. And they played in the dark. With quite the mildest strobe settings I've ever seen. Which did initially lead to problems when they couldn't see the controls on their pedals. Not that you would have known if they hadn't said. With the exception of PNAK they seemed to be the most structured, playing what might well be classified as tunes. Albeit loud, bass heavy, vocal-less tunes that were often pretty abrasive themselves.
the mildest strobe settings I've ever seen
It's a real shame that gigs like this only take place to crowds of less than two dozen, most of whom are bands and their friends. It's also a little weird that there were more people around for the beginning than were there when Blood Moon came on - they missed some top noise. But now, by the magic of Web 2.0 you can go to their MySpace pages and get a flavour of the night. Send them all your appreciation - especially monetary - especially in the direction of Blood Moon who's album launch it was, and who pulled the whole thing off.
.
Comments
this was a great post to read, i like the tone & technique employeed here, to the bone, as it were,
an interesting review & i'm curious myself when i witness musical upheaval worthy of out-of-body experience, that only a few punters ever show up to soak in the aural atmosphere -- it seems many folks are just plain unwilling to accept the myriad variations music can embody, the poor saps --
oh yeah,
happy belated birthday!
'69 was a damn good vintage.
Thanks also for birthday greeting. A few years ago it would have scared me a lot, now I'll quite welcome getting to 40. I'm not reconciled to aging or dying or anything, I'm just more comfortable in myself, and less bothered about being cool.
We're planning on holding some more similar events in the near future, so we'll keep you posted.
Cheers, Graham (of Blood Moon).
Blood Moon
Womb