Monday 27 October 2008

No Age - Nouns (2008)



No Age are two skaters from San Francisco who are signed to Sub Pop and make slightly wanky distorted music. This album came out in May but i hadnt heard it until i went to see them play with Times New Viking and Los Campesinos a few weeks back. They were a pretty good live band, if slightly samey, but this album has some really fucking good songs on it. Its all feedback, distortion, vocals low in the mix, instrumental songs and other things i generally fuckin hate but these guys can actually write some good tunes. This album is, however, pretty hit and miss. "Songs" such as 'Keechie' sound like Fuck Buttons b-sides and they sometimes appear to be trying too hard to be a bit edgy, but then songs like "Cappo", "Ripped Knees" and "Teen Creeps" sound like the lovechild of unreleased Sonic Youth demos and Minor Threat. Which is definitely a good thing. Basically what im trying to say is they should've cut out all the pretentious wank and just made this an EP. It would be much more spunk-worthy.

Heres some video someone made for Ripped Knees:

Tuesday 14 October 2008


So during the last couple of weeks ive gone on a bit of a gig rampage so instead of writing in detail about each one and boring the shit out of you, i thought i'd write a brief overview of each show:

Lykke Li @ Concorde 2 - Well the electro pop ice queen bought her quirky scandinavian set up down to brighton and needless to say, it was a great gig. All the "classics" sounded great, and she mixed it up with a few covers. She even had a breakdown in one of her songs which went into KRS-ONE's "Sound of da Police" while she stood there drinking a mug of tea. Which is pretty cool in my book.

Sam Sparro @ Corn Exchange - Cant really work out whether i enjoyed this gig or not. Im not a fan of him on record and hes obviously a fuckin knob'ead, but i was still there, drunk and dancing about so who knows really. And 4 costume changes in an hours set, thats pretty impressive..

Hot Club De Paris @ Audio - Supported by Lyrebirds and Heels Catch Fire, this was definitely a case of the support bands being better than the headliners. Never been a fan of HCDP really, and this just confirmed it more. "Shipwreck" is an ok song but thats about it. They just seemed to spend half the time mumbling in scouse. Meh.

Friendly Fires @ Audio - Not the biggest fan of their Bloc Party/LCD Soundsystem ting on record, apart from a few exceptions, but actually quite enjoyed this show. Its just harmless indie grabbing onto the coat tails of the New Rave CRAZE, and in my opinion, thats not as horrible as it sounds. It did get a bit wanky when a pathetic glitter shower went off during "Paris" and the guitarist started using a Dust Buster to play guitar (!?) but it certainly knocked away some post-weekend cobwebs on a rainy monday evening.

Blood Red Shoes @ Freebutt - Having been knocking around Brighton for ages now, and apparently touring for the last 73 years, its quite odd that i'd never actually seen BRS live before. This gig was a warm up for a big tour that includes venues such as The Astoria, so it was quite good to see them in a tiny venue before they BLOW UP. Apart from the fact that the freebutt has no air conditioning and it was actually stupidly fucking hot, it was a pretty good gig. Nothing special if im being honest, but certainly worth a fiver.

Holy Fuck @ Audio - Having not remembered the majority of their Loop Festival set, i was really looking forward to seeing this lot again. They didnt disappoint either. Restlesslist supported who i have seen too many times to mention, but i actually thought their set was one of the best ive seen them do, so props for that. Holy Fuck's slightly improv electronic MADNESS was just fucking brilliant. One of my best gigs of 2008 so far.

Simian Mobile Disco @ Digital - This doesnt really count as it was only a DJ set, but honourable mention because it KICKED OFF BLAAAAD.

Cajun Dance Party @ Concorde - So yesterday i went to see those public school indie pop upstarts, Cajun Dance Party. Its quite sickening how young they are. Anyway, enough about my bitterness towards them, they were just crap. To be fair they do a couple of catchy tunes, such as "The Next Untouchable" and "The Races" and if they can fit 450 15 year old indie kids into the concorde on a monday night, then they must be doing something right. It just all sounded so pathetic. But hey, what do i know? They get laid a lot more than i do.