Sunday, December 30th, 2007
Album of the year goes to Kings of Leon - Because of the Times, very closely followed by Malcolm Middleton’s ‘A Brighter Beat’.
This year’s ‘Wake up and smell the genius, Iain!’ award goes to Arcade Fire - if I’m to recommend one song to demonstrate said genius, it has to be No Cars Go.
Gig of the Year?
Well when you’ve seen Prince and Led Zeppelin in the one year, it’s not really fair to include them in the running. So this award goes to the stupidly intimate and ridiculously sweaty White Stripes gig at the Rivoli Ballroom.
Sunday, July 1st, 2007
The Cribs - slagged off global warming hippies. Modest Mouse - made the sun come out. Bright Eyes - didn’t slag off John Peel this time. Bloc Party - were as good as their last album. The Fratellis - forgot to switch the speakers on. Arcade Fire - are my new favourite band. Bjork - sang a ballad about a pregnant suicide bomber, but other than that was awesome. Seasick Steve - didn’t shoot his step dad. The Pipettes - are hot. The Long Blondes - have one good song, and yes, they played it last. CSS - … . Paul Weller - made me have weird dreams while I was sleeping in the tent. Noisettes - came on half an hour early and I missed them. Rodrigo y Gabriella - needed seven roadies to fix one guitar and started half an hour late, but it was worth it! Willy Mason - played on a stage about seven miles away from anything else, and then didn’t even play either of my two favourite songs. The Who - didn’t even smash their guitars.
Sunday, April 8th, 2007
The handy thing about the Pleasure Unit is being able to nip back to the flat between bands and say, check emails, or put a washing on. On average you can catch about two and a half bands without putting too much of a dent in your Wednesday evening. I arrived halfway through a loud and uninspiring set from a band who’s name I can’t remember/couldn’t make out (”…check us out at mumblemumble.co.uk…”).
Following that, it seems we have three young ladies suitably punked up taking to the stage - the lead singer in standard issue Ramones t-shirt. “Of course”, I recall from the poster I passed at the front door, “this must be The Ramonas”. Oh dear another substandard Ramones tribute band. To my surprise, they actually turn out to be pretty good. Secondly, they’re not a tribute band at all - shit, these are actuyally their own songs! The final twist? They’re not called The Ramonas at all, they’re also called mumble mumble.
It all becomes clear when the headline band take to the stage, all brown leather jackets and bowlcuts and keyboard players - crucially though, their singers speaking voice is clear as day. They’re called “For Ramona”. My mistake. But they’re definitely rubbish, time to go hang that washing up.
http://www.myspace.com/thecutoutsband
http://www.pleasureunitbar.com/
Saturday, February 17th, 2007
You’ve gotta love eBay. A week before the gig, with all the standing tickets sold out, I noticed that the support act was none other than Malcolm Middleton. Maybe worth the effort after all, I thought. Luckily there’s always some poor bugger who cant get rid of his tickets, and has to flog them for half face value. Cha ching!
Malcy’s short set goes down quite well, but without a full band it struggles to carry the same liveliness of Into The Woods. New album sounds good though.
The thing about the Damon Gough live experience™ is his ability to reinvent his songs such that you give that bop of recognition to a new song you’ve never heard before, yet go for a wizz just as he starts playing a ska rendition of your favourite b-side. But the crowd has no such trouble with his solo intermission of Once Around The Block, The Shining and probably my favourite BDB track A Minor Incident. Of course I stand corrected during the encore when the piano breaks into my actual favourite ‘You Were Right’, tonights obituary verse namechecking Steve Irwin and Richard Whiteley.
All in all a superb (and lengthy - 2+ hours!) performance from the badly drawn one, and the best tenner I’ve spent in a long time!
