“Think of this MP3 as a first glimpse of a glass dorsal fin approaching in the water, then holler Brody like “We’re gonna need a bigger boat!”.”
It was late 2006 when Glass Shark first featured on this blog causing me to exhaust all my nautical fish related puns in one over excited froth of enthusiasm. “Clap your hands, say hit“, “will exercise your grin like an idiot muscles as well as those required to shake your ass“.
You could say I was impressed, even going so far as to jokingly ponder if this was the new LCD Soundsystem LP sneakily released under a pseudonym. Dancefloor mayhem and immediate stardom seemed guaranteed but the Shark seemed unwilling to venture outside of their native Cornwall. A regular check of their myspace revealed the Glass Shark 2006/2007 tour consisted of playing a different Cornish venue 365 nights a year, with no room for a even a solitary trip elsewhere.
Now after 2 years of constant gigging and perfecting their live show, Glass Shark are ready! So watch out world the Shark are on the move, venturing into warmer waters, and like that big rubber fish visiting Antiga Bay in Jaws 4: The Revenge they’ll probably eat your helicopter, dancefloor and for good measure Michael Caine.
They say good things are worth waiting for and boy did we wait, with the support acts intent on upping the anticipation levels by playing endless sets. 10.30 came and went, and to my silent despair they declared “we’re going to play a couple more“! With only the Championship Play Off Semifinal on the pub tv to distract me it was 11pm before Tam hurriedly took to the drum kit announcing “Phew I’m exhausted, I feel like I’ve played a gig already“… perhaps they’re ardent Bristol City supporters!?
Word has spread of the mightiness of the Shark, with a gaggle of Shark-ettes on their feet dancing from the second the first drum beat hit, disappointingly none were dressed as Disco robots (pics here). During the wait I’d also found my own fan - of a less welcome kind - in the form of a very drunk middle aged Irish man who rambled incoherently while swaying and covering my face in spittle as I waited for Glass Shark to take to the stage.
Shamefully I only had opener “I Love my Disco Robot” as the 54th finest song of 2006, it should have been much higher, but what a way to start a show! The awesome bass slaps, clattering drums, “on and on and on” chorus, and singer Tam out James Murphying James Murphy as he spat “You, are a terrible dancer, with your arms everywhere…. you look so hottt!!“. After 2 years waiting to see Glass Shark on stage, cooly clad in all black with pink ties - like The Hives doing a breast cancer awareness gig - I should have been in seventh heaven, but while most saw the track as an instruction to dance, my new found drunken pal chose the moment to lean forward and inform me “you have a lovely smile!!“ I checked if he liked my scowl as much then resorted to intently staring through him at the band.
My recollection of the exact setlist was slightly marred by my new found status as a drunken gay Irish man magnet, especially as he followed up his chat up line with the more direct approach of touching my knees during the second track. Thankfully, and they should put this on their press releases, Glass Shark are so damn good even being touched up by a drunken Irishman wont spoil your evening!!
Oscar Nominations are all well and good, but I’m sure Toni Collette would be far more honoured to discover she now has a song in her name. Not everyone can claim to have inspired a chorus as genius as “Make It Wet, Make It Wet, Like Toni Collette“. With vocoda vocals, lines about drinking and screwing, and Jimmy Green going crazy on the cowbells, it sounds - as do half a dozen Glass Shark tracks - like a smash hit.
With a small but very happy audience either dancing or playing air cow bell, the Shark stormed through other gems such as “You Got Served Again” and “Take It Off“. The latters refrain of “Do It, Do It, Just Dance, Dont’ Don’t Dance” possibly going down the best of all aired on the evening.
Often bands with a drummer doubling as the lead singer suffer from the lack of a focused front man, but Glass Shark just about pull it off due to the sheer energy of Tam Johnstone on drums and vocals.
The only down side of the evening was the shortness of the set, due probably to the extended support acts. “Have we got time for one more” pleaded Tam to a bar manager who was having none of it. No room for the brilliant “Clap Your Hands” or any of the rumoured random cover versions of The Police or Pink Floyd talked about in other reviews.
Fortunately Tommy Flynn’s recognise a good thing when they see it and have invited Glass Shark to bring their “Disco” night back for a residency. As they posted on their facebook “We have returned triumphant from Camden“, Glass Shark are set for many more triumphs across the country. Visit their myspace, add them on facebook, download and buy the tracks, but most of all GO SEE THEM LIVE!
The obscenly talented Tam also has another band “The General Store” generating feverish press with a sound that couldnt be further removed from the guitar disco of Glass Shark. “Very highly recommended” by Rolling Stone Magazine, “The Best West Coast Pop Record in decades” said Popmatters while Tam describes the sound as being inspired by Neil Young, The Byrds and The Beatles.
A quick post to go with a May mix from music like dirt’s sister site, Stop Me If You Think You’ve Heard This Before (actually my brothers blog, but brother site doesnt sound right).
I’ve a few gig reviews, an Analogue Bye Bye and the return of “Listen To This“ coming soon but for today enjoy a The Wire / The Corner influenced choice of tracks courtesy of Stop Me.
Bloc Party - Silent Alarm Instrumental / The Corner - “We doin’ it to ourselves…”
Immortal Technique - The 4th Branch
Jel - To Buy A Car
Manic Street Preachers - I’m Just A Patsy
The Indelicates - We Hate The Kids
Taggy Matcher - Rapoors Delaught (Dub Instrumental) / The Wire - “Hey Mr Nugget, you the bomb…”
Cake - Nugget
Reggie Ray - What About You?
Radiohead - Bangers + Mash
The Corner - “He was never gonna be who he was…”
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Better late than never, the second edition of the music like dirt podcast. The finest music I stumbled across last month, all badly mixed into one easy to swallow hour. Apologies go to The Raconteurs who were subjected to my first experiments in live Ableton “remixing“… mostly looping and slapping on excessive dub effects.
Tracklist:
Desmond Dekker - “Intensify ‘68 (Music Like Dirt)”
John Fairhurst - “Obnox Stomp” (visit her for MP3)
Christian Prommer - “Can You Feel It?” (visit here MP3)
Justice - “Stress (Auto remix)”
Radioactive Man - “Nothing At All (Instrumental)”
Muscleheads - “Phosphorescence” And The Left Handed - “Disturbing You” (visit here for MP3)
The Fall - “50 Year Old Man” Hedluv - “Intro” - More info & MP3’s @ Headphonesex
Van Morrison - “You Say France & I’ll Whistle” The Natural Yogurt Band - “Voodoo”
Sham Sham - “99 Hearts”
Taurus Riley & Jimmy Riley - “Pull Up Selector”
The Raconteurs - “Consolers Of The Lonely”
DJ Zeph & Azeem - “What If?”
Be Your Own Pet - “The Kelly Affair”
Lucy & The Caterpillar - “Kings Cross (Goldierocks remix)”
Spilt Milk - “Let’s Get Married”
Atmosphere - “Shoulda Known” So Cow - “It’s Over” - Visit HiFi Popcorn for interview & more So Cow MP3’s
TM Juke - “My World Is Empty Without You (feat. Alice Russell)”
Loretta Lynn & Conway Twitty - “You’re The Reason Our Kids Are Ugly“
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Acid Brass sent The KLF to the colliery, Senor Coconut turned Kraftwerk Latin, and now Christian Prommer is taking dance classics to the jazz club. From Jaydee’s “Plastic Dreams” to Kraftwerks “Trans-Europe Express“, Prommer chooses ten of his favourite dance monsters from the last two decades and reinvents them using the piano, drums, percussion and bass of the jazz quartet.
There’s obviously a market (Volume 2 is to follow) for music that appeals to 30 and 40 somethings who now prefer dipping humous at diner parties to dropping acid at warehouse parties, but this is far from a novelty record. Take one listen to Mr Fingers “Can You Feel It?” below and you’ll realise that the reason Volume 2 is in the offing is that Prommer has stumbled on an inspired idea that improbably works magnificantly.
Domino records sent out a very nice Fourtet mix to promote his new Ringer mini LP. Propagate at will they said, so I am.
After last years fantastic Cassetiquette, DJ Wrong Tom is back with his patented cross stitching, killer music combo. Emma Ferguson provides another beautiful hand cross stitched cover (check out her shop for loads of wonderful pressies, badges and other frippery), while Wrong Tom takes in the entire musical output of the legendary J.Saul Kane aka Depth Charge and squeezes it into 30 minutes.
Coincidentally Duke Spook also had a similar idea, and you can grab his “Late Night Kung-Fu Lovers” mix from this blog. Happy times indeed for lovers of kung fu dialogue and huge beats.
Its so good to hear Goooooaaaaallllllllllll again, and Shaolin Budda, and, and, and… heads off to revisit Depth Charge collection.
On the subject of Depth Charge, J Saul Kane now runs DC Recordings, who are primed to release the follow up to the monumentally good “Death Before Distemper” compilation. Volume 2 is worth buying for its “Revenge Of The Iron Ferret” title alone, but its also packed with new tracks from Depth Charge, Emporer Machine, Kelpe, along with some lesser known but none the less brilliant acts.
Timo and Mikko formally of Opel Bastards feature under their “And The Left Handed” moniker. Check out their myspace for more electronic prog rock goodness, and look forward to DBD Vol.2 for another track by them, along with other hugely varied but consistently good stuff.
Rejoice, Roots Manuva just announced a new album will be with us for late summer. On Myspace he declares it’ll be “light and dark, vulnerable and wise by turns, drawing together cruffy anthems, club-shuddering basslines, slime and reason and introspective insight in trademark fashion”.
To celebrate here’s a re-edit of Witness, kindly sent over by Floorman. Its just one of the many re-edits featured on his blog, I’d advise you to visit forthwith.
I know its lazy but if you like The Prodigy chances are you’ll love the Nursery Of Naughtiness. Big beats, loud guitars, sitars, it’s probably Liam and co testing the reaction to their new album before letting the cat out of the bag.
The Winchell Riots apparently formed over a shared love of the novels of Philip Roth and a desire “make girls dance to sad songs”. The press release says “Bjork meets Mew meets Elbow”.
“Do I amuse you? Am I a musical whore? Do you mock me?” Gonzales theatrically implores, drenched in sweat, exhausted after delivering the best 90 minutes this year - outside of their bedrooms - for almost everyone present. Actually even “time spent with loved ones” doesn’t usually pack vaudeville, theatre, comedy, classical piano, rap, power ballads, and actual physical assault into an hour and a half… if it does can I have your number?
Its a few years since I witnessed Gonzales on his Solo Piano tour entrancing an audience with a bizarre mix of classical piano recital, and music lesson. He had the crowd providing basslines, recreated daft punk classical style, donned a lab coat and tutored random members of the crowd in keyboard skills, all while explaining the difference between major and minor (and how Stevie Wonder can make minor sound happy).
The marvel of Chilly Gonzales is that unlike even the greatest of acts, there’s no one easily comparable to him. Nothing else like a gonzo gig. Prince live is a bit like Sly Stone or James Brown, Duffy’s indebted to Dusty, Timberlake feels like Jackson, and U2 like slow painful death. Gonzales is like no one… but himself.
Tonight’s gig, in support of his new album “Soft Power” (even though inexplicably its not out in the UK till September?) is the full gonzo experience, with backing from his Canadian friends the Le Together Ensemble.
Akira The Don - of whom there will be more later - summed up the great mans eagerly awaited return on his guaranteed to make you chuckle blog:
“Chilly was everything he used to be and more. The most entertaining thing you will ever see. The most sweat ever seen on one stage. The cartoon ego. The amazing ballads. The showmanship. The piano skills. The implausibly memorable and hooky raps. A brilliant backing band - SoCalled, Katie Moore, Matthew Flowers and Handsome Mocky doing Animal drums“.
The backing band were indeed brilliant, seemingly capable of switching instruments at will, even with Gonzales hammily pretending to correct SoCalled’s faultless piano. The man known as SoCalled may look like someones balding science professor but he’s certainly got skills, taking centre stage with a fabulous few bars of rap as unlikely as finding Egon Spengler from Ghostbusters suddenly spinning on his head while rhyming isotope with dope. It was so good Gonzales stopped the music and insisted he did the whole thing again.
Relations with his ensemble are not always as smooth and a mock argument broke out after “Lets Groove Again“. The band tiring of Gonzo’s constant criticism and storming off stage leaving a distraught Gonzales alone with just his piano for company. Looks like its time for the solo piano segment of the show!
Stood barely a metre behind his piano stool, the sight, sound and speed of Chilly’s fingers as they dart around the grand is simply mesmerising. From the subtlest almost caress of a key to frantic rushes where it seems implausible that two hands alone can create what youre hearing. One bit in particular reveals previously hidden similarities between classical music and the pounding piano sound of Chicago house.
Throughout the first half of the show one audience member high on drugs or his own self importance (possibly both) took every opportunity to bellow incoherently. At first Chilly responded with only withering put downs “oh look we have a fucking arsehole in the crowd“. His irritation grew as the pin drop silence of an impossibly beautiful piano solo was shattered by another idiotic outburst. One more shout and Gonzales leapt from his piano stool raging towards the guilty party, swearing and shaking the sweat from his hair onto him like a dog freshly out of a stream. Still enraged he aimed two great globules of spit at the neanderthal followed for good measure by a swift kick from his elegant shoe.
Although shocking it seemed strangely justified, so much effort, soul and concentration is poured into Gonzales on stage that gobbing on a member of the audience IS transformed into a hugely endearing act!? Stunned audience members pondered whether their own spittle could be put to good use, although thankfully the perpetrator was ejected before a mass phlem-fest could break out.
The band slowly reemerge with Katie Moore and Gonzales singing “You Are” to each other and then Gonzo issues an “Apology” to the band (one of my favourites off the new album):
“I’ve failed as a lover and I’ve failed as a friend”
“You want hits… oh I got hits” Gonzales proclaims before “Let’s Groove Again” his 1999 Kitty-Yo smash, but its “Take Me To Broadway“ that gets the biggest reaction. Gonzo is more Groucho in full Jewish Supervillain MC persona as he bounds the stage, crazy inventive rhymes bursting forth. His Fiest collaboration “Shameless Eyes” keeps the pace suitably high as well as offering Matthew Flowers the chance to step forward and demonstrate his perfect R&B vocals.
When Akira The Don sent me his wonderful unofficial remix of Gonzales’s “Working Together” he probably didn’t imagine a little over a month later he’d be onstage performing it with the man himself! By all accounts the band have been playing it to death on the tour bus, and why not its a work of genius. Akira explodes on like a man who’s spent all evening poised in the wings! After being chastised by Gonzo for bringing a drink with him, he spent most of the song airbourn, twisting, leaping, and crashing down onto the stage. All this and he only did half his verses. Sadly the lyrics were a little lost in the mix but “Working Together” is still the finest song Rolf from the Muppets never wrote.
A faithful cover of “Easy Lover” reminded even those that celebrated Phil Collin’s recent retirement that the guy wrote some great tunes. “Do you really like that!!??” demanded Chilly as the crowd went mad. With braces dangling by his side Gonzo then grilled the audience over what they thought of him, finally admitting that he was only talking so much because the guy backstage said he’s only allowed to play one more, and he wanted to piss him off.
The final piece of pantomime for the evening sees the band trying out that old management bonding technique of standing with your back to a person and then trusting they’ll catch you when you fall back. “You Snooze You Lose” was a fine ending to another magical night with Gonzales and his cohorts.
As Akira The Don deftly concludes:
“Go see them, your life will be enriched”
Setlist:
Unrequited Love
Map Of The World
So Called Medley
Why Don’t We Disappear
Slow Down
(The Band Thinking)
Let’s Groove Again
Solo Piano
You Are
Apology
Salieri Serenade
Take Me To Broadway
Shameless Eyes / Friend
Working Together (feat. Akira The Don)
—-
Easy Lover
You Snooze You Loose
What’s worse than not going to the Camden Crawl? Answer: Not going and unknowingly giving them your mobile number. There’s nothing like an hourly text message telling you the length of queues at the various venues to remind you just what you’re missing.
Fortunately London offers plenty of alternatives to the £50 Crawl, Rough Trade celebrated World Record Store day with over a dozen acts performing in their East End store, and the mighty Superimposers put on a night in Kings Cross. Total cost = Nowt.
More importantly no trip to Rough Trade is complete without stumbling across a release the existence of which would otherwise have passed you by. Visits have to be strictly rationed as its impossible to leave without £50 quids worth of music you had no intention of buying when you went in.
JOHN FAIRHURST
Humble Soul is not a label with a huge release schedule, but you can guarantee that everything they put out is just that little bit special. Last year, they produced a meagre 500 copies of Denis Jones’s “Humdrum Virtue” album, but 500 people will not have heard much that surpassed it in 2007.
Despite all this I failed to notice their latest release “Joys of Spring” by John Fairhurst until idly passing time on a Rough Trade listening post while waiting for Lykke Li to come on stage.
Its the sound of the spirit of Django Reinhardt, Ravi Shanker, Bukka White, and Nick Drake all channeled through the body of a humble soul from Wigan. Thanks must go to John’s dad who introduced him to slide blues at an early age, while he was obviously a late comer to indian classical music, getting in K.Sridhar at the age of 8 (an age at which my tastes were more Shaky than Sridar).
Instrumental guitar albums can flag over the course of a dozen tracks, but John takes his broad musical upbringing and mixes it with years of travelling the world and South East Asia in particular. His website says he “worked alongside Maori gangsters, played slide guitar in a Bangkok blues bar, wrote for a traditional Thai dancer, and was tattooed with protective blessings by monks.”
No track on the album sounds the same, yet it all gels perfectly together like a wondrous journey around the globe. The Blues bar romp of “Obnox Stomp”, the plucking English folk harp on “Passing Time” and the slide blues of “Yew Tree Blues”. That Indian classical influence is very much in effect on several tracks, so much so that one listener subjected to me playing the album for the umpteenth time penned her own mini review… “Jesus Christ…thank god thats over I thought I was trapped in a bloody Indian Restaurant!“ Not a review that musiclikedirt would of course endorse… buy this record!
Lykke Li (along with Billy Bragg) was one of the main draws for Rough Trades all day celebration of Record Store day. She’s been likened to both Robyn and Bjork, and both hold true as she combines a lovely quirkiness with a definite pop sensibility.
She’s destined for huge things, having progressed from bloggers favourite to Jools Holland in the last week alone. This short set contained most of the future hits from her debut album Youth Novels, produced by the Bjorn from Peter, Bjorn and John (”Young Folks”).
While it wasnt a performance that will stay long in the mind, the quality of the songs and hints of her inventive full show were on display.
The Superimposers are putting on a free night every 6 weeks or so at The Duke in Kings Cross. Last weekend I caught them live for the second time in a month, and in the Duke’s tiny basement room you can’t help but be sucked in by their charming sound (which I’ve already raved about on this blog quite enough).
Soon to be released single “Northern Song” is an undoubted highlight but in truth there’s not a duff track all evening. On top of that they always invite along a favourite band to support them, in this case The Occasional String Band featuring Mick Talbot on Keys (but I cant find anything on the internet about them?).
Check The Superimposers site below for news of the next freebie gig, and a release date for the single.
The Superimposers are guests on Jonny Trunk’s OST Resonance FM show this weekend. OST is two hours of radio dedicated to the soundtrack - this includes film music, TV music, library music, film music cover versions, advertising sounds, film stars singing, anything that can be placed under the broad banner of soundtrack music.
Saturday 26th April 4:30pm - 6:30pm LIVE
Wednesday 30th April 3:00pm - 5:00pm REPEAT
Heading off on a slight tangent can I recommend Jonny Trunks, Trunk records website. Its a great way to lose a few hours with his incredibly off the wall taste in music, sex and nostalgia!
Ranging from Dirty Fan Male (the letters blokes sent to glamour girls), the shortest and catchiest ever hit single 36 seconds of “Ladies Bra’s“ (youtube), to gems from The Radiophonic Workshop. There’s also Dereks dishes featuring themed collections of 60’s and 70’s nude and semi nudes organised under headings such as “Making tea”. Very kitsch!
It’s like stumbling into the craziest most fascinating second hand shop, finding bizarre new oddities with every click. 1970’s celebrity cook books anyone!
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They say good things are worth waiting for and boy did we wait, with the support acts intent on upping the anticipation levels by playing endless sets. 10.30 came and went, and to my silent despair they declared “we’re going to play a couple more“! With only the Championship Play Off Semifinal on the pub tv to distract me it was 11pm before Tam hurriedly took to the drum kit announcing “Phew I’m exhausted, I feel like I’ve played a gig already“… perhaps they’re ardent Bristol City supporters!?
Often bands with a drummer doubling as the lead singer suffer from the lack of a focused front man, but Glass Shark just about pull it off due to the sheer energy of Tam Johnstone on drums and vocals.
Throughout the first half of the show one audience member high on drugs or his own self importance (possibly both) took every opportunity to bellow incoherently. At first Chilly responded with only withering put downs “oh look we have a fucking arsehole in the crowd“. His irritation grew as the pin drop silence of an impossibly beautiful piano solo was shattered by another idiotic outburst. One more shout and Gonzales leapt from his piano stool raging towards the guilty party, swearing and shaking the sweat from his hair onto him like a dog freshly out of a stream. Still enraged he aimed two great globules of spit at the neanderthal followed for good measure by a swift kick from his elegant shoe.
When Akira The Don sent me his wonderful unofficial remix of Gonzales’s “Working Together” he probably didn’t imagine a little over a month later he’d be onstage performing it with the man himself! By all accounts the band have been playing it to death on the tour bus, and why not its a work of genius. Akira explodes on like a man who’s spent all evening poised in the wings! After being chastised by Gonzo for bringing a drink with him, he spent most of the song airbourn, twisting, leaping, and crashing down onto the stage. All this and he only did half his verses. Sadly the lyrics were a little lost in the mix but “Working Together” is still the finest song Rolf from the Muppets never wrote.
JOHN FAIRHURST
