A Brum Do
It's a sombre time here at Parallax View following the news that Traffic drummer Jim Capaldi has come to the end of the road and we're feeling even more vulnerable now we've lost our Mis-teeq. I know the girls are too modest to admit it but the highlights of their career were surely One Night Stand making Parallax View's 34th best single of 2001 and Scandalous getting 39th best single of 2003 in these same pages. Meanwhile So Solid Crew star Megaman is on a murder rap. Let's hope it's more tuneful than his usual rubbish, eh?
We don't normally like to go for the obvious with our Singles Of The Week, especially if it's a song that has been similarly garlanded by the NME but occasionally there must be exceptions to every rule, So Here We Are. 'Banquet' aside, I didn't think there was anything particularly out of the ordinary about Bloc Party last year, but this final taster for their debut album confirms their place at the head of the table. It's the sound of four anorak-clad lads taking the journey from bedsit miserabilism via C-86-era jangling guitars before speeding up into an ecstatic epiphany of baggy psychedelia. Kele & Co. having done and dusted the 80s within the space of one four-minute song, can we all move along now?
The Duke Spirit clearly seem to think so, chanteuse Liela Moss opining in this Sunday Times interview that “I certainly don’t feel an affinity with music by, say, the Kaiser Chiefs. I hear that ‘ning-ning-ning’ post-punk thing, which was great when Gang of Four did it, or the Strokes, but I kind of feel there’s an overload now. I’d quite like to wave a little flag and go, ‘Do you want a breath of fresh air? We’re wigging out over here.’”. The Duke Spirit's full debut album is now set for release in April. Also slipping further down the release schedules is the third album by Ladytron which is as-yet-untitled and now due in May.
Finally, we need to make overdue reference to the past weekend which found Dead Kenny in the bostin' metro that is Birmingham. First up to catch Editors at The Flapper and Firkin with Ben, where the free entrance ensured an 'intimate' evening for all concerned. We're not saying there was a young audience out that night, but there was a major pre-gig incident upstairs when one unfortunate was on the receiving end of a 'dead leg' by the pool table. Of the supports, Chester Road were suitably loud, energetic and hairy while Needless Alley diverted us into a gratuitous gutter of PJ Harvey-style indie blues and could be worth watching out for. And if it's fairly obvious to state that Editors are the British Interpol at least let's be reassured by the fact that they sound for the most part like Interpol very near the top of their form. And the problem with 'original thinking' like the hapless NME journo who compared them to Coldplay, of all people, is that it makes you like an arse when you are so evidently and comprehensively wrong.
Then your humble correspondent staggered over to a club where the bouncer initially refused entry on the basis that Dead Kenny wasn't 'goth enough' despite his black overcoat and faraway, melancholic stare providing ample evidence to the contrary. He wasn't going to budge even after a cracked 'a capella' rendition of The Sisters Of Mercy's 'This Corrosion' but once assured that Dead Kenny had 'Unknown Pleasures' back at his place he couldn't have pushed him through the entrance quick enough, muttering 'freak' under his breath as he whipped the fiver from his nervous clutches. We dunno, there's no pleasing some people. Inside, there was Phill and Fincho whose plans to look louche and glamourous respectively were thwarted by Dead Kenny bellowing in their ears about Indians In Moscow gigs at Preston Clouds and his refusal to dance unless the DJ played 'You Spin Me Right Round' by Dead Or Alive (the only tune he knows the goth moves to).
Having popped back to Parallax View Towers to avoid the visiting Tottscum support for their cup tie with Albion, Dead Kenny re-emerged into the Second City on Saturday night to sup some beers for a few hours in the good company of Ben, Jenni, Phill, Fincho, AI boffin Andy and the bella Donna. Now, we know what you're thinking; that sounds suspiciously like a blogmeet. But even if it was, and we're not admitting anything mind, it was nothing to do with us, honest guv'nor, so if you weren't invited it's not Dead Kenny but Ben who doesn't like you, or even worse, just plain forgot about you. Got that straight?
Related: Ben explores the Craic and writes a love letter to the Editors while Phill offers his own unique perspective on events.
And are you goth enough to get past a bouncer on a Birmingham gothclub nite? Why, find out for yourself by submitting a photo to Goth Or Not? If you receive 7 out of 10 or more, why not print out the page and take it along with you as positive verification of your Goth ID?
It's a sombre time here at Parallax View following the news that Traffic drummer Jim Capaldi has come to the end of the road and we're feeling even more vulnerable now we've lost our Mis-teeq. I know the girls are too modest to admit it but the highlights of their career were surely One Night Stand making Parallax View's 34th best single of 2001 and Scandalous getting 39th best single of 2003 in these same pages. Meanwhile So Solid Crew star Megaman is on a murder rap. Let's hope it's more tuneful than his usual rubbish, eh?
We don't normally like to go for the obvious with our Singles Of The Week, especially if it's a song that has been similarly garlanded by the NME but occasionally there must be exceptions to every rule, So Here We Are. 'Banquet' aside, I didn't think there was anything particularly out of the ordinary about Bloc Party last year, but this final taster for their debut album confirms their place at the head of the table. It's the sound of four anorak-clad lads taking the journey from bedsit miserabilism via C-86-era jangling guitars before speeding up into an ecstatic epiphany of baggy psychedelia. Kele & Co. having done and dusted the 80s within the space of one four-minute song, can we all move along now?
The Duke Spirit clearly seem to think so, chanteuse Liela Moss opining in this Sunday Times interview that “I certainly don’t feel an affinity with music by, say, the Kaiser Chiefs. I hear that ‘ning-ning-ning’ post-punk thing, which was great when Gang of Four did it, or the Strokes, but I kind of feel there’s an overload now. I’d quite like to wave a little flag and go, ‘Do you want a breath of fresh air? We’re wigging out over here.’”. The Duke Spirit's full debut album is now set for release in April. Also slipping further down the release schedules is the third album by Ladytron which is as-yet-untitled and now due in May.
Finally, we need to make overdue reference to the past weekend which found Dead Kenny in the bostin' metro that is Birmingham. First up to catch Editors at The Flapper and Firkin with Ben, where the free entrance ensured an 'intimate' evening for all concerned. We're not saying there was a young audience out that night, but there was a major pre-gig incident upstairs when one unfortunate was on the receiving end of a 'dead leg' by the pool table. Of the supports, Chester Road were suitably loud, energetic and hairy while Needless Alley diverted us into a gratuitous gutter of PJ Harvey-style indie blues and could be worth watching out for. And if it's fairly obvious to state that Editors are the British Interpol at least let's be reassured by the fact that they sound for the most part like Interpol very near the top of their form. And the problem with 'original thinking' like the hapless NME journo who compared them to Coldplay, of all people, is that it makes you like an arse when you are so evidently and comprehensively wrong.
Then your humble correspondent staggered over to a club where the bouncer initially refused entry on the basis that Dead Kenny wasn't 'goth enough' despite his black overcoat and faraway, melancholic stare providing ample evidence to the contrary. He wasn't going to budge even after a cracked 'a capella' rendition of The Sisters Of Mercy's 'This Corrosion' but once assured that Dead Kenny had 'Unknown Pleasures' back at his place he couldn't have pushed him through the entrance quick enough, muttering 'freak' under his breath as he whipped the fiver from his nervous clutches. We dunno, there's no pleasing some people. Inside, there was Phill and Fincho whose plans to look louche and glamourous respectively were thwarted by Dead Kenny bellowing in their ears about Indians In Moscow gigs at Preston Clouds and his refusal to dance unless the DJ played 'You Spin Me Right Round' by Dead Or Alive (the only tune he knows the goth moves to).
Having popped back to Parallax View Towers to avoid the visiting Tottscum support for their cup tie with Albion, Dead Kenny re-emerged into the Second City on Saturday night to sup some beers for a few hours in the good company of Ben, Jenni, Phill, Fincho, AI boffin Andy and the bella Donna. Now, we know what you're thinking; that sounds suspiciously like a blogmeet. But even if it was, and we're not admitting anything mind, it was nothing to do with us, honest guv'nor, so if you weren't invited it's not Dead Kenny but Ben who doesn't like you, or even worse, just plain forgot about you. Got that straight?
Related: Ben explores the Craic and writes a love letter to the Editors while Phill offers his own unique perspective on events.
And are you goth enough to get past a bouncer on a Birmingham gothclub nite? Why, find out for yourself by submitting a photo to Goth Or Not? If you receive 7 out of 10 or more, why not print out the page and take it along with you as positive verification of your Goth ID?
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