Autumn Stored Up

Moseley Folk Festival, Moseley Park, Birmingham, Friday September 4 2009.
StrangeTime/Shana Tova, The Flapper, Birmingham, Saturday September 12 2009.
The Lemonheads, Irish Centre, Birmingham, Tuesday September 15 2009.
LoveLikeFire/Deluka, The Flapper, Birmingham, Sunday September 20 2009.
Autumn Store Disco Night, Island Bar, Birmingham, Friday September 25 2009.
Golden Silvers/Local Natives/Yes Giantess, Civic Hall Bar, Wolverhampton, Saturday October 10 2009.
StrangeTime/The Black And Reds/Bird Eats Baby, Island Bar, Birmingham, Saturday October 31 2009.
Autumn Store presents The Lovely Eggs/July Days/David Leach, The Victoria, Birmingham, Friday November 13 2009.
Yeah Yeah Yeahs, o2 Academy, Birmingham, Wednesday December 9 2009.
Guttersnipe, The Station, Horsehay, Telford, Saturday December 12 2009.

OK, this should prove to be a breakneck digest of the above gigs, really and truly just for the sake of completeness and to give due props where they're deserved, in turn allowing Parallax View to kickstart the 2010 gig reviewing proper.

We'll be none more digest than the Friday night of the Moseley Folk Festival which is now over six months ago. This was your cautious correspondent's first time in the lovely setting of Moseley Park, and while your eclectic eejit is by no means a diehard folkie, the ambience was rather to our tastes, helped by some decent-ish weather for the most part, some really nice real ale, and some good company from Dunc Autumn Store and his many cohorts, including properly meeting some peops such as AttaGrrl fanzine editor/club promoter Claire G and knitwear entrepeneur-cum-singersongwriter David Leach for the first time. Memories of all the acts are now a little vague but we do remember admiring the threads (and in particular, the shoes) of the guy who goes under the name Theatre of the Absurd, as well as his violent aversion to being compared to Neil Young. Pete Green also put in a predictably entertaining set in the same tent, 'Hey Mr Beeching' the outstanding track.

Outdoors, even a surprise shower couldn't dampen our enthusiasm for Rose Elinor Dougall, the ex-Pipette we'd caught live only a month or so back at Indietracks, so little more to add to a similar set other than to muse she seemed much more confident with her material second time around. Sadly had to miss the aforementioned David Leach set to get a rare chance to see the one and only Frida Hyvonen on the main stage (lest ye forget, her 'Silence Is Wild' album later emerged as Parallax View's Album Of The Year). She was as charming and eccentric as you might expect, given stoic support from two female musicians, one of whom tap-danced at one point if we recall correctly. Frida conceded that 'Dirty Dancing' posed more questions than answers, and promised to discuss it in great detail with anyone who wanted to accompany her for the rest of the festival (needless to say your flabbergasted fuckwit got trampled on in the rush). Elsewhere, The Pastels/Tenniscoats reminded us here and there of Yo La Tengo, and Saint Etienne (who curated the outdoor bills for this opening night of the fest) did a live run-through of their recently re-issued album 'Foxbase Alpha' which was all very pop-tastically nice and slightly surreal at the same time. The night concluded with a lift from Dunc and Deb to Island Bar where your dazed dunderhead lounged around with Ian A, Peter J and Claire G to a backdrop of late 70s/early 80s disco. Don't think we've heard Bowie's 'Let's Dance' played in a proper club for a long time, definitely a nostalgic double-take for these elderly lugholes.

But wait a minute, this is supposed to be a breakneck digest, things are going really badly here and not at all to timescale! So let's remedy things byrushingthroughthenextlotwithoutevenbreathingoranypunctuationatall. Well, mebbe not, but you get the picture, so (deep breath), due to the usual fuck-ups missed most of StrangeTime's gig at The Flapper but what we did see/hear was rather good, didn't really *get* the very popular Shana Tova, but our opinion was clearly in the minority on that one. Also got quite late to The Lemonheads gig at the Irish Centre, so didn't see any supports, but the gig was excellent with Evan Dando & co. in no-nonsense mood that saw little in way of banter between rapidfire selections from their impressive back catalogue, and even finding time for 'All My Life' from Dando's neglected solo masterpiece 'Baby I'm Bored'. Despite the occasional temper tantrum here and there from the singer, musically they were on the money all night, and easily justified the hefty ticket cost.

Got there on time to see LoveLikeFire at The Flapper, but due to other problems no-one seemed to get the bottom of, they only got on stage a hour-and-a-half later than they were expecting, which meant your bemused blogger had to leave halfway through! Support band Deluka put in a polished performance, but the highlight of a curtailed evening's entertainment was that LLF had time to practice 'Delusion', our favourite track from their Dot-to-Dot show which we'd discussed with them earlier, so they could shoehorn it into the set (oh, and also that your charmed correspondent got to plant a smacker on one of Ann Yu's delectable cheekbones, funny how we remember that bit, right?).

The Autumn Store held a disco night the following Friday, which was rather fun and gave yours truly the opportunity to consolidate some acquaintances from the Moseley Folk Fest, as well as bend the ear of the Waldo Jeffers singer, and sing and dance along rather too boisterously once more to The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart's 'Young Adult Friction'. Couple of weeks later, we went to one of those NME Radar Tour thingies at the Civic Hall Bar in Wolves. We enjoyed nodding our heads to the squelchy electro-funk-pop of Yes Giantess, were left slightly cold (True Romance aside) by Golden Silvers' all-too-accurate take on bored-sounding 80s electropop, so in the absence of a sicknote-pulling Marina and the Diamonds it was left to Local Natives to provide the real (he)art to the night's performances, starting with a truly fabulous 'World News' and remaining equally essential throughout the all-too-short set.

Hallowe'en ball at Island Bar beckoned next, with your costume-challenged chunterer turning up as a scary blogger type (the more things change the more they stay the same, eh, reader?). StrangeTime were in fine spiky fettle and we were also really intrigued by Bird Eats Baby (and only partially because we fancied the drummer) while The Black and Reds finished things happily with some properly exciting blues rock which ended with some virtuoso drumming amongst the crowd (we'll draw a veil there as things were getting very vague at this point).

Couple of weeks later and an Autumn Store presentation finally gave us the chance to see David Leach live. Well, we say *see* but due to our naivete concerning The Victoria layout, we find ourselves in a disadvantaged spot where in truth we can only hear him. But we were sufficiently intrigued to buy a CD off the fine fellow anyway, complete with a hand-knitted woollen pouch to boot. In terms of view, things fared only slightly better with The July Days, having somehow got ourselves into a spot where all we could see of the stage was the girl singer's left breast (not like us to complain, we know, but...). Sonically, they were entertaining, but most impressive when they *weren't* trying to be Birmingham's answer to Los Campesinos! At least we did get ourselves into a decent place to see The Lovely Eggs (unlike at Indietracks, where we espied them through a church window) where we sang along quite loudly to their catchy, loveable choons from their really rather excellent 'If You Were Fruit' album.

Our first time at the all-new o2 Academy on Bristol Street to see Yeah Yeah Yeahs was helped along by meeting up with our old blogging compadre and international poker superstar Phill. Our first impressions of the new venue: better stage positioning, better lighting, better sound quality, slightly easier to get served, overall we approve. Although it of course helps when the band is on such fine form and Karen O and her YYYs certainly put on a show worthy of a venue-christening, bringing the qualities of third album 'It's Blitz!' sharply into focus just in time for the End Of Year lists.

Finally, a brief mention for local punk band Guttersnipe who played a storming set of covers upstairs in one of our local boozers a couple of weeks before Xmas, their versions of The Stranglers' 'Something's Gotta Change' and Dead Boys' 'Sonic Reducer' particularly sticking in the mind. It was a riot, in the best possible sense of the term.

Pulling Power

The first time we played Bombay Bicycle Club's debut album 'I Had The Blues But I Shook Them Loose' our initial reaction was of minor deflation, but it's a record which has built and built in our hearts as something treasurable. Central to the record's attraction is the other-wordly charms of 'Magnet', a song you can really get attached to, which is due for release in single format next month.



The BBC boys are on tour to support the release, and we definitely recommend the live experience.

Paris Is Yearning

Great songs about the French capital city are eifell-y rare but like Number 44 buses, when one comes along they tend to come in pairs (no anagram intended). So soon after Ladyhawke's fiery fave 'Paris Is Burning' this week's Single Of The Week from St. Albans' Friendly Fires is entitled simply 'Paris', a lush, plush promise of a tune that transcends the supposed limitations of their Klaxons-meet-The-Rapture template.

When we first encountered Friendly Fires live, it's fair to report we weren't entirely convinced, but having been lured to their debut self-titled album by the temptations of 'Jump In The Pool' we're coming round big time to their epic, seductive soundscapes, ably assisted on 'Paris' by the swooning harmonies of the girls of Au Revoir Simone (and you've gotta love the girls of Au Revoir Simone, right?).

Anyways, decided for yourselves by viewing the promo, which contains more morphing magnificence than a Tony Hart boxset. Not sure about the Nantes-y neckerchief, though.

Parallax View Gigs Of The Year 2007

What makes a great gig? The tunes, the chutzpah, the charisma, the company, or the ambience? Or maybe a combination of all those factors? But in 2007, many promoters hit upon a cunning ingredient: just let 'em eat cake...

1. BEESTUNG LIPS! @Supersonic, Custard Factory, Birmingham (July)
2. Rilo Kiley @Carling Academy 2, Birmingham (August)
3. Interpol @Carling Academy, Birmingham (August)
4. Los Campesinos!/Sky Larkin/Johnny Foreigner/Kate Goes @Barfly, Birmingham (March)
5. Mika Miko/No Age @Sunflower Lounge, Birmingham (June)
6. StrangeTime/Cellardoor/Sub Rosa @Actress & Bishop, Birmingham (October)
7. The Cribs @Carling Academy, Birmingham (October)
8. Monarch! @Supersonic, Custard Factory, Birmingham (July)
9. Emily Haines @Glee Club, Birmingham (June)
10. I'm From Barcelona @Carling Academy 2, Birmingham (September)
11. The School @Island Bar, Birmingham (November)
12. Kings Of Leon @Birmingham NIA (December)
13. Maps @Summer Sundae, Leicester (August)
14. The Fiery Furnaces @Barfly, Birmingham (November)
15. The Whip @Summer Sundae, Leicester (August)

Hissy Hit

It's been a while since we've introduced a new band to you here at Parallax View so please step forward Thomas Tantrum, all the way from Goattee Beach (?!) with the superior strop-pop that is forthcoming single 'Shake It! Shake It!' (released via Marquis Cha Cha on November 26).

With lyrics that appear to be some kind of dippy deconstruction of nightclub smalltalk half-sung half-spoken by vocalist Mega, it's another love-it-or-loathe-it proposition suitably impossible to ignore we make it Parallax View Single Of The Week. Whether you've got good hair or not.

Jeremy Gawp

Maps/Jeremy Warmsley, Carling Academy 2, Birmingham, Saturday October 6 2007, 7.30pm.

In what is becoming something of an increasingly self-referential Parallax View trend your chaotic correspondent arrives at the venue just as the first support act finish the last song of their set. All we can relate is that there are quite a few of them and they made a pleasing post-rock din but due to the on-the-go demands of the weekend (the gig is sandwiched in between the Villa v West Ham game and going to see the Ian Curtis biopic) don't get the chance to do the research to find out who they are. Parallax View is very, very sorry.

There's something naggingly familiar about the second act as he makes his meek but quietly assured way to the stage, and your hapless hack lets his face drop slightly on the realisation it's Jeremy Warmsley again, who we've seen twice before (at Summer Sundae and supporting I'm From Barcelona) in the last seven weeks. Now the problem with the fact that there's a sparse attendance so far at the venue is that you're a little exposed to the artist and embarrassingly Jez seems to clock my aghast expression and keeps a close eye on me for the rest of the show.

If this ensures your busted blogger remains on his best behaviour the same can't be said for a young man at the front who'd obviously started the pre-gig celebrations a little earlier than perhaps he should, and is sadly making a bit of a dickhead of himself. Warmsley asks him to behave himself and then heads to the barrier and has a quiet word in his ear while keeping an eagle eye on your studious scribe at the same time. We called on our lip-reading expertise and can advise with no degree of certainty whatsoever that what he said to the unfortunate young man in question was 'see that bloke over there, you're going to end up in his blog if you're not careful'. These wise words don't appear to do the trick, however, and Jez justifiably drops his calm reasonableness for a marvellously stroppy 'oh, just FUCK OFF!' instead, before finally security takes the matter out of his hands and escorts the nuisance off the premises.

Perhaps it's the distracting circumstances making us more pre-disposed to giving Jezza a fair hearing, but we find ourselves enjoying his show a bit more at the third time of asking. He seems to get the balance right between the slower and jauntier numbers, but does frustrate us with telling us there's a good joke hidden in the lyrics of one of his songs, because your attention-deficited amateur just can't concentrate for long enough to get it.

Troubling eye contact isn't an issue with main act Maps as they make the sort of symphonies that induce your blissed-out blogger to close his eyes and wig-out to the pulsating waves of sonic splendour. There are people who get paid decent money for writing about music who'd have you believe that Maps can't cut it in the relatively uncharted uncharted territories of the live arena, but take it as read from this Parallax Viewer these idiots don't know what they're talking about. If tunes like 'Eloise' and 'It Will Find You' can inspire this unco-ordinated upstart to shake a limb then these rhythms are chancers that will prove that fortune always favours the brave. Top marks for the roadie wearing a Medium 21 t-shirt as well - further proof that not everything coming out of Northampton is cobblers.

Related Link: Sweeping The Nation's Friendly Chat With...Jeremy Warmsley from last year. He's had a haircut since then, mind.

Ouch! My Cribs!

The Cribs/Bobby Conn, Carling Academy, Birmingham, Friday October 5 2007, 7.30pm.

Hmm...we're having difficulty relating to The Cribs' audience. Here at Parallax View we're used to rough business, heck in our pugnacious youth we even occasionally started some, but it's the squealing, squabbling and tag-team stampeding up and down the staircases that's leaving your hassled hack yearning for the days when ADHD was just plain cheatin' at scrabble. So seek solace in support act Bobby Conn whose lively set of pseudo-glam stomp is entertaining without providing much in the way of memorable tunage. Instead it's their matching bleached-denim jackets and the female violinist (the delightfully-named Monica BouBou) who seems to have a smile for each and every one of the massed crowd which stick in the mind.

Don't mind admitting that, prior to 2007, Parallax View paid scant attention to Wakefield's The Cribs but triumphant third album 'Mens Needs, Womens Needs, Whatever' shrugged our ambivalence aside with its cocksure combination of catchy tunes, rough charm, US alt. influences and indie insularity sweeping all aside to be our favourite new album of the year at the half-term point. It seems like we've been waiting all our lives for a band to come along and confirm the previously-unspoken truth that the essence of evil is revealed in the continuing worldwide success of Razorlight.

For all their louche demeanour The Cribs put on a pretty tight set, getting on with the business of provoking the crowd to jump up and down as often and as quickly as possible, with 'I'm A Realist'; 'Moving Pictures' and an awesome 'Ancient History' particularly standing out on the night. Towards the end Ryan Jarman moves to the back of the stage, removes his shirt and then takes a huge running jump right over the barricades, launching himself like the loon he is into the moshing masses. Before you can say 'aw, that's gotta hurt!' the security staff are leading his limp, lifeless frame back stage, although somewhat predictably a mere minute later a lazarus-like recovery sees him back on stage for 'Shoot The Poets'. The bad news, then, is that Kate Nash is still taken...

Spanish I's Are Smiling

I'm From Barcelona, Carling Academy 2, Birmingham, Monday September 10 2007.

Maybe it's 'cos it's Monday, maybe it's 'cos your mardy mitherer is a misanthropist at heart, or maybe it's 'cos your late-running linkdumper's tragi-comic lack of organisational skills sees the last conceivably viable train streaked with the scrapings of the skin of his teeth, but your jaded jobsworth has definitely felt more up for a gig than tonight, despite our lingering love for last year's long-player 'Let Me Introduce My Friends'.

Wander into the venue in time to catch the last few numbers from Jeremy Warmsley but sadly we haven't warmed to his wannabe-Wainwright warblings any more than when we caught his show at Summer Sundae last month. It's all very technically proficient but leaves us colder than a frigid igloo, so it's lucky the half-empty venue means at least we can get served our beer much quicker than normal.

This might have just as much to do with the fact that many attending are clearly better prepared for the I'm From Barcelona live experience than your clueless correspondent, because from the moment the supernaturally splendid Swedes burst into 'Treehouse' on stage, the barrage of balloons and confetti released in the Academy is best enjoyed as 'hands-free' entertainment. Even a lithe leopard like your supple scribe struggles not to spill his beverage while flicking a balloon up with one foot and punching it into the air with his fist in a dizzying display of dexterity doomed to descend into dampness.

No such squibs on stage with your unusually curmudgeonly correspondent eventually bullied into bonhomie by the band's good-natured banter and stout-hearted harmonies. Ginger-bearded singer Emanuel Lundgren bemoans the fact that the Birmingham crowd are balloon-murderers but a look around at the grins and bouncing limbs of the crowd and it's clear that the burst vessels are more to do with the Academy's low roof than any murderous intent amongst the mild-mannered massive. Lundgren dedicates 'Oversleeping' to the next morning's hangover, there's a mirthful mosh to instant anthem 'We're From Barcelona' and an impromptu kazoo orchestra corralled on stage for the contagious 'Chicken Pox', all making for a memorable evening from initially less-than-promising circumstances.