THE LEMONHEADS – The Gate, Cardiff – Fri 2nd Oct 2015

1993 saw The Lemonheads at the peak of their powers. One year on from their gold-certified It’s A Shame About Ray album, and with its follow-up Come On Feel The Lemonheads imminent, the band had also just resuscitated Simon & Garfunkel’s Mrs Robinson for the college rock generation. A cursory glance around The Gate tonight reminds you 1993 was a long time ago. Evan Dando is the only original Lemonhead onstage, and while the Bostonians were always at the more subdued end of grunge, this venue has – whisper it – seats.

After set opener Hospital, a nostalgia-chasing Cardiff crowd are already baying for more familiar fare, but they needn’t worry; Dando’s in no mood to ignore them, and Dawn Can’t Decide, Down About It and a raucously cheered It’s About Time all make early appearances.

Seven songs in, the band leave their erstwhile slacker king and his audience alone. One of Dando’s charms in the age of autotune is his dedication to the idea that tonight you will hear unique versions of songs you happen to own other unique versions of at home, and which he’s played a thousand different ways before. So a perfectly imperfect Into Your Arms has the crowd near rapture, and the undimmed esteem It’s A Shame… is held in means one of its more obscure ditties Frank Mills quickly transforms into a mass, unaccompanied singalong.

At times tonight, the sound quality is inescapably poor. The Gate’s swirling church hall acoustics conspire with a crackling PA and some occasionally ham-fisted playing, but do you know what? It doesn’t matter. Because suddenly everyone remembers where they were when they first heard Confetti, Alison’s Starting To Happen, My Drug Buddy and Rudderless. The mood is unifyingly euphoric and knocks 20 years off the mean age of the audience in an instant.

As his band leave him alone again after a raucous encore, you sense Evan Dando would sing all night if he could. The man’s a troubadour, and with songs this engagingly natural, he could shamble into any room in the world and find an audience willing to join in.

www.thelemonheads.net

(this review originally appeared on buzz magazine’s website on 5th Oct 2015 www.buzzmag.co.uk/uncategorized/the-lemonheads-live-review)

 

 

 

 

ASIAN DUB FOUNDATION – ‘More Signal More Noise’ (ADF Communications/Believe) ★★★

Asian Dub Foundation have weathered some lineup changes in recent years – most recently the addition of flautist Nathan Lee – but More Signal More Noise finds them as innovative and politically amped as ever. The band describe Lee as “the Jimi Hendrix of flute” and his virtuoso riffing takes centre stage for most of the album, often steering it into Flobots territory, while his bandmates kick popular culture’s apathetic arse with that ragga-bhangra-big beat-punk collision they have down pat. Solid work.

www.asiandubfoundation.com

(this review was originally published in the July 2015 edition of buzz magazine)

SLEAFORD MODS / Y PENCADLYS / GINDRINKER – CF10, Cardiff – Tue 10th Mar 2015

Cardiff duo Gindrinker (★★★★) are used to being the curiosity on largely alt-rock bills, but in Sleaford Mods have found such a well-suited kinship, they should be installed as permanent support for the entire tour. Like Sleafords’ Jason Williamson, DC Gates’ witty and acerbic street poetry is delivered with such singular vehemence, you get the feeling he’d be doing it regardless of musical accompaniment. So while DC rants about cyclists and dog Valhalla, Gareth Middleton arm-wrestles a drum machine and two guitars into submission with moves learnt from Slayer, Tad, Big Black and My Bloody Valentine, and shit-eating grins spread across faces in response.

Whether it’s a willful compromise to this largely English-speaking crowd, or a more permanent new direction, electronic wünderkind WH Hughes, aka Y Pencadlys (★★★), has his vocals running through so many effects tonight that even Welsh speakers would be hard pressed to tell what he’s saying. Always an animated performer, what his mouth is doing is so unrelated to the sounds coming through the speakers, it’s like watching a mute screaming in an echo chamber. It’s not unsuccessful, and trippy as fuck, sitting somewhere between Drums Of Death and Aphex Twin, but a similar effect could be achieved at home watching Chris Morris’ Jam after too much Lemsip.

CF10 is now impressively full and quite the culture collision, with a mix of aging punks, mods, clubbers, hipsters, students and football supporters illustrating just how divisive (or unifying) Sleaford Mods (★★★★) are. There’s no denying the Notts duo hold an exposing, albeit wry, mirror up to modern Britain, and as much as Andrew Fearns’ blips and beats conjur The Streets when Mike Skinner still had something to say, Jason Williamson’s heart is pure rip-it-up-start-again punk. You do have to wonder just how many people their moniker misleads – “What a load of fucking shit,” announces one mod in his late 40s before marching out after opener Bunch Of Cunts – but particularly caustic renditions of Mr Jolly Fucker and Jobseeker soon have the Cardiff crowd pogoing with the best of them. Williamson’s ire seems so universal you wonder who he doesn’t hate, but as tonight’s gig-goers chant along to rapturously hooky closer Tweet Tweet Tweet, it’s clear that behind a subterfuge of chaos, Sleaford Mods are very calculatingly borrowing pop structure from the very thing they’re seeking to destroy. Clever bastards.

www.sleafordmods.com

www.peski.co.uk/artist/302/y-pencadlys

www.gindrinker.bandcamp.com

(this review originally appeared on buzz magazine’s website on 11th Mar 2015 www.buzzmag.co.uk/uncategorized/sleaford-modsy-pencadlysgindrinker-live-review)

PHOTO © Simon Ayre

KERBDOG – ‘Congregation’ (Pledge) ★★★

The intentions behind this release are entirely sound, heralding – as it does – the return of Irish post-grungers Kerbdog, 17 years after apathy inexplicably felled them in their prime. Like most live albums though, the sound quality on Congregation is less than remarkable, and including only one new studio track means it will just about provide the requisite nostalgia boost to old fans awaiting the comeback album proper. Newcomers would be better off discovering the real gold on 1997’s On The Turn.

www.kerbdog.com

(this review was originally published in the Oct 2014 edition of buzz magazine)

BRODY DALLE – ‘Diploid Love’ (Caroline/Universal) ★★★

You know the drill. Punk band prematurely breaks up under a cloud, lead singer spends a few years making babies and discovering synths, then re-emerges with an eclectic solo album showcasing their more reflective side. As classy, laidback and QOTSA-influenced as you’d expect from the Alain Johannes/Josh Homme stable, Diploid Love is the natural successor to Dalle’s short-lived Spinnerette project, with little sign of The Distillers’ trademark snarl’n’roll. As such, it’s all right – but it’s no Sing Sing Death House.

www.brodydalle.com

(this review was originally published in the May 2014 edition of buzz magazine)

THEN THICKENS – ‘Tiny Legs’ (Hatch) ★★★★★

Ex-Kong mainman, Magpie – aka Jon-Lee Martin – has expanded his home tinkerings with melody into a fully-fledged band called Then Thickens. The darker end of the Manchester sound forcibly sieved through the brain of a kid brought up on Elliott Smith and Steve Albini, Tiny Legs is damn near perfect pop. Seriously.

www.facebook.com/thenthickens

(this review was originally published in the Apr 2014 edition of buzz magazine)

SKATERS – ‘Manhattan’ (Warner Bros.) ★★★★

It’s been long enough since Is This It captured turn of the century New York so perfectly that the factory can unveil its latest model. Featuring ex-The Paddingtons guitarist Josh Hubbard (from Hull), Skaters are a transatlantic dream team, and while The Velvet Underground’s post-beatnik haze certainly haunts Manhattan, at its core is a punk duel at 20 paces between The Strokes and The Clash. A warm, fuzzy 35-minute saunter round the East Village you’ll want to take again and again.

www.skatersnyc.com

(this review was originally published in the Mar 2014 edition of buzz magazine)

65DAYSOFSTATIC – ‘Wild Light’ (Superball) ★★★

A press release about disregarding preconceptions – name-checking two early Tool albums – suggested a more dramatic volte-face might have been on the cards. As it is, Sheffield’s 65daysofstatic develop on the synth experimentation of 2010’s We Were Exploding Anyway, dipping a toe into Squarepusher territory. Thoughtful and evocative, Wild Light suggests they could easily follow Mogwai into soundtrack composition, but without the big riff kick-ins of ASIWYFA or Adebisi Shank, it may prove a little too reflective for instrumental post-rock’s current tastes.

www.65daysofstatic.com

(this review was originally published in the Sept 2013 edition of buzz magazine)

ARCANE ROOTS – ‘Blood & Chemistry’ (Play It Again Sam) ★★★★

Hailing from Kingston-Upon-Thames, Arcane Roots actually have a very Northern Irish reverence for The Riff™ and an American understanding of modern hardcore. While guitar-wielding frontman, Andrew Groves, can scream with the best of them, when he actually sings, the band soar compellingly. Akin to a uniquely aggressive Circa Survive or Brandon Boyd fighting a room full of punks, the resultant din is as original as anything British rock has heard since a perplexing apathy saw off In Case Of Fire.

www.arcaneroots.co.uk

(this review was originally published in the May 2013 edition of buzz magazine)

THE STROKES – ‘Comedown Machine’ (Rough Trade) ★★★

Like NY contemporaries Yeah Yeah Yeahs, The Strokes continue the flirtation with synths and 80s new wave they started on 2011’s Angles. Some sunny vocal interplay reminiscent of Everything Everything makes for a noticeably fresh, crisp and funky (yes, funky) sound, but some fans will definitely mourn the passing of their debut’s scuzzy charm and the darker vibe of First Impressions Of Earth. They do sound like they’re having fun though, which by album number five is half the battle.

www.thestrokes.com

(this review was originally published in the Apr 2013 edition of buzz magazine)