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.

Forward Marches!

You can't beat a bit of bull-y on a Sunday night, so your bovine blogger has decided to investigate the burgeoning indie-rock scene in nearby cattle town Hereford. Last time your carousing correspondent visited there we remember little other than a drab 0-0 draw between the home town and Telford United, and making cows eyes at a phenomenally-racked barmaid with a twin strikeforce that put the then-Conference outfits to shame. There's clearly something they've been putting in the water since, as guitar thrills are currently spreading like anthrax in an area hitherto best known musically for Mott the Hoople and the dead half of The Pretenders.

Our favourite new band name this week belongs to How To Dress For Cricket who deliver hard rock beamers and may yet have some wrong'un's up their sleeves. Even more promisingly, Pencil Toes manage the impressive feat of recalling Lush with their spiky, spidery soundscapes. Meanwhile, Bayonets offer a slightly less subtle form of attack with their post-rock bombast shown to best effect on the atmospheric 'The Battle Of Hand And Heart'.

Of course, no scene would be present and correct without an iconic club night and an all-girl jazz/techno/dutch supergroup who confess to more enthusiasm than talent. But the act with best chance of breaking Hereford into the mainstream moo-sic scene is cheeky acoustic-pop scamps Rupert and the Robbers whose 'Bad Hour' is set to steal hearts with its swoonsome strum lovely enough to give down time a good name.

Nothing lasts for heifer but Hereford certainly seems to be a happening scene in the here and now. Just don't be asking me Wye, Reg!

Meet The Folkers

Flaxenby/Whalebone, Cinnamon Coffee and Meeting House, Bridgnorth, Shropshire, Tuesday April 22 2008, 8.15pm.

As the vast majority of our gig-going exploits centre around Birmingham and Wolverhampton, it's perhaps high time we sampled some live entertainment from our home county of Shropshire. So went with the singer-songwriter Matthew Hill to check out Flaxenby and Whalebone at Bridgnorth's Cinnamon Coffee and Meeting House. First time at the venue, which surprised us by being exactly what it sounds like, that is a cafe rather than a bar as such (although they serve wine and bottled beers/ciders alongside their trademark spiced coffees) and with the bands playing in front of a seated area not unlike a miniature village hall.

It provided a hushed, civilised vibe that might be more intimidating in its own way to a nervous performer than a crowded bar area where not everyone's attention is focused purely on the band. Luckily Whalebone are regulars here, and have the relaxed air of three people who've just decided to do some impromptu entertainment in their own front room, with frontman Steve never short of an anecdote or quip between numbers. They comprise two guitarists and a fiddle player, and play exclusively instrumentals, a remit that might sound limiting on paper but they do well to expand it into interesting directions, with at least one song entering into post-rock territory and an intriguing cover of 'Hotel California'.

Should declare some sort of interest with regards to the second act Flaxenby, as your curious correspondent knows one of the singers, Sam McLeod, from schooldays and beyond, although this is the first time we've clapped eyes on each other for more years than one suspects either of us would like captured on record. Luckily, Sam manages to recover her composure from the trauma of her past catching up with her in the boggle-eyed form of your bashful blogger, and the last-minute arrival of fiddle player Andy Jones, to deliver a fine show with her band. It's mainstream folk music all right, but played by people you feel have more than a passing knowledge of other genres, and infused with sufficient melancholy to encroach into the blues.

Anyone with an interest in atmospheric folk ballads and/or a taste for male/female vocal interplay would do well to invest in the current Flaxenby CD 'Brand New', which features some memorable tunes (including the title track, 'This Feeling', 'Don't Look Down' and 'The One') and some great singing (Sam has a genuinely beautiful voice while co-singer Chris Buttery supplies earthier, wearier but no less mellifluous tones). Sipping cappuccinos while listening to acoustic folk may have made a change from our usual rock'n'roll antics, but the civilising atmosphere and haunting melodies made for a relaxing and intriguing evening's entertainment, supplying plentiful evidence of cultural life flourishing in the Shropshire countryside.

Fierys Excel Live!

The Fiery Furnaces, Barfly, Birmingham, Friday November 9 2007, 9.15pm.

The last time your crocked correspondent saw The Fiery Furnaces his arm was in a sling in what was then a fashionable wrist fracture. Tonight the limbs are all cosily correct and present, and have the added company of Ben, Jenni, Alison and The Prykemeister, for a gig that's perhaps not been as hotly-anticipated as expected given the sparse attendance which gives the Barfly tonight a cold, cavernous feel.

So maybe there's a touch of sarcasm in singer Eleanor Friedberger's voice when she advises that this could be the best night of her life, though there seems genuine warmth when she invites the collected audience to get right close to the stage so she can see our smiles. Thus the thrill of a packed house is replaced by the sensation of implied intimacy, something that no doubt would appeal to the average Fiery Furnaces fan given their cultish allure.

Eleanor and brother/songwriter/keyboard player Matthew are accompanied by Jason Lohwenstein on guitars and Bob D'Amico on drums and between them they manage a phat and feisty groove that helps propel their perverse and skittish material into the live arena. Eleanor's vocals are a large part of the band's appeal on record even if that isn't always reflected in the production mix, but in the flesh she dominates attention from the word go. All fringe, nose and jaw she's physically a curious combo of Zelda, Ringo Starr and Patti Smith and yet so much more compellingly attractive than that hotch-potch collage might sound. If she's pissed at the turnout it doesn't show in a performance where she seems at once lost in the music and yet passionately embracing every opportunity to connect with the audience through her smiling eyes and bewitching enthusiasm.

The first half of the set is almost exclusively taken from this autumn's Widow City collection, arguably their most consistently pleasing effort since their barnstorming debut Gallowsbird's Bark. Album opener 'The Philadelphia Grand Jury' is also used here to get things going, slowly but surely weaving the listener into their weird and twisted world, while there's also strong showings from 'Navy Nurse', 'Right By Conquest' and 'Restorative Beer'. 'My Egyptian Grammar' puts the high into hieroglyphics, while even the curious omission of the keyboard motif can't put your home-loving hack off his favourite 'Japanese Slippers'. Further into the set there's room for a couple of tracks from the unfairly-neglected 'Rehearsing My Choir', 'Single Again' morphs in and out of 'Don't Dance Me Down' (or is it the other way around?) while a call for requests elicits perhaps their best-known song 'Tropical Iceland' to be extracted from 'Gallowsbird's Bark'.

After the show, Eleanor is in engaging form with the fans that hang by. The Prykemeister tells her she's going to be a big star one day and gets his photo taken with her like the prime schmoozer he is. This just leaves time for a quick pint in The Anchor before catching the train, a brief but memorable Eruption* courtesy of the buxom barmaid giving full and satisfying meaning to the term 'restorative beer'...

*calm down, dear reader, this is simply a guest real ale courtesy of the Salopian Brewery!

The Shape Of Flynn To Come

In Like Flynn, The Haygate, Wellington, Telford, Friday September 28 2007, 10pm.

A fairly regular sight and sound on the Shropshire pub circuit in the early to mid-Nineties were In Like Flynn (aka Millennia) whose dark and powerful lyrics were welded to a fusion of grunge, epic rock postures and Chili Peppers funk to produce a highly danceable cocktail with broad appeal for the county's gig-going public. Your chummy correspondent has known the singer Tim Dwyer and bassist George Willetts for over fifteen years so decided it was about time we recorded something about their recently-embarked-upon comeback trail over here on Parallax View.

Free entrance on the door ensured a decent turnout, a combination of old fans and curious new folk producing a hubbub of anticipation as the DJ sets the period mood with songs including Soundgarden's 'Black Hole Sun' and Pearl Jam's 'Alive' getting us ready for angst-ridden bombast. Relishing the solo slot, In Like Flynn play a longer set than normal, allowing for a couple of new originals and some different covers in addition to songs like 'All Fall Down'; 'Driven' and 'To Be Like You' that have proven to be robust staples to the band's setlist for more than a decade. There are two main revelations to the evening - first surprise being the inclusion of a new member, Keith (The Beef) Hatton, adding muscle to the sound on rhythm guitar, the second being the instant gratification supplied by one of the brand new songs, 'Sea Of Titan' a fast, jangly number with a strong chorus that might give their second coming a timely kickstart. What comes as less surprise is the tightness of the sound throughout with guitarist Del Jones and drummer Clive Beasley completing the line-up with their customary aplomb.

What ILF do best is to get an audience on their feet and start dancing, and by the end of the night fans old and new seemed to be genuinely enjoying themselves. While Dead Kenny recognises that Tim & Co. have loftier ambitions in terms of their lyrical content and career aims than keeping Telford's dancefloors busy it would be useful for them to build up a strong and resilient local fanbase as a platform and the only way that's going to happen is through the sheer hard work of putting regular gigs on and putting these shifts in alongside their existing travel, relationship and burgeoning business interests. On past experience that's going to be a challenge for them but the great reception they received at The Haygate should provide them with the necessary spur to build momentum for their cause. If the rest of the new material matches up to the corking standard of 'Sea of Titan' the tide may yet be ready to turn in their favour.

Parsons Knows

Andy Parsons, Shrewsbury Music Hall, Shrewsbury, Sunday September 16 2007, 8pm.

Being a comedian is hard work, so Dead Kenny took the day off and went to see Andy Parsons live at The Music Hall, in the company of Gisbourne and Neal. Parsons is the balding guy with a high-pitched southern accent who's a regular on late-night comedy panel show Mock The Week and he's a professional comedian for the very good reason he's rather effective at making people laugh.

Reviewing comedy gigs is not a Parallax View forte also for a good reason - we're usually too busy careering from chuckling to chortling to take down notes of which gags worked or didn't, and your crap correspondent can never remember jokes at the best of times, unless they've been directly aimed at his friends. And while Parsons gets mucho mileage from the front row (a lady in a woollen beret with unfortunate toilet timing, a crisp-chombling chap and a fat bloke called Fred and his teacher wife coming in for particular attention) as well as singling out the bloke behind us who shouted 'Woo!' at the beginning, my companions for the night survived unscathed.

So as we can't remember specific gags you'll have to take your hoho-ing hack's word for it that Parsons represents good value-for-money in terms of solid quickfire material that, while remaining topical, should appeal to a broad audience range. Gordon Brown and David Cameron came in for roughly equal amounts of stick with defensive teachers ('I've got marking, you know!') and the good folk of Telford (always goes down well in Shrewsbury!) also heavily targeted. Unlike the likes of Richard Herring though, there were no surreal elements as such in the material so your concluding correspondent will contribute by saying that throughout he laughed like a train.

Must Do Better

Atonement, Odeon Telford, Saturday September 22 2007, 2.45pm.

Joe Wright's film adaptation of Ian McEwan's Atonement (2007) is seemingly this season's middle-brow must-see on the multiplex menu. If, like your clueless correspondent, you haven't read the book, it's difficult to neatly summarise the plot, which spans from the 30s to the late 90s, taking in decadence, Dunkirk and duplicity in its tale of thwarted love, sexual mores and laboured revisionism.

Wright aims to pull off a literary adaptation with as much visual flair as fierce intelligence, and the first half of the film, set in a sumptuous country mansion (Shropshire's Stokesay Court, film location fact fans) on a hot summer's day, shows an acute attention to detail that builds up a palpable sense of dread more in keeping with a noir thriller than a period piece. Unfortunately, for this viewer at least, the tension steadily dissipates through the second half, the lack of authoritive narrative voice necessitated by the project's tricksy conceit resulting in a reduced punch to the wartime scenes. Also, the film's climax, designed no doubt to drain you of every tear, left your head-scratching hack with mixed feelings difficult to describe without revealing the 'twist'.

This isn't to say the film isn't worth watching - the first half is brilliantly enough executed to merit the ticket cost alone, James McEvoy is often sensational as the passionate private and Keira Knightley delivers her most effective performance to date, as well as looking suitably fetching in a wet slip. Would also add another rider that this may be a movie that merits a second or third viewing to fully appreciate all the nuances in a script that strives to work on several levels, so perhaps it should be a case of least said, soonest mended.

Feeding Frenzy

In no way a method of prevaricating further before delivering our Summer Sundae Weekender review, and in no particular order, let the linkdumping commence -

Page2RSS.com will create an RSS feed for this site so Dead Kenny won't have to. It's not hard work, just put the URL in the box provided and they will let you know whenever PV is updated. (info kindly provided by Pete Ashton.)

LiveJournal Community for people to share photographs of Abandoned Places. Wonder if LiveJournal counts as an abandoned place itself these days?

Unedited transcript of interview between authors Toby Litt and JG Ballard.

Birmingham's Pub Toilet Halls Of Shame And Fame.

Cronenberg's Eastern Promises to open London Film Festival on October 17. (trailer can be viewed here.)

Former West Ham player Jeroen Boere dies aged 39.

Cold War Quiz. The world seems to fall around your ears if you anything wrong. Is that how it felt for JFK during the Cuban Missile Crisis?

Another quiz, this time asking How Manky Are You?.

Sheffield's Letters and Colours have seemingly been washed away in the rain.

And finally...Telford thieves think big. That's really a haul of shame (via Phill).