Gig Review Ketchup - Winter's Tales

Kate Goes/Anarchist Cookbook/Eat Yrself Pretty/Sonic Delays, Island Bar, Birmingham, Friday January 22, 2010.
Falling And Laughing presents: Kidnapper Bell/Theatre Of The Absurd/Cast and Crew, The Victoria, Birmingham, Saturday February 6 2010.
The Scholars/Chapel Club, The Flapper, Birmingham, Saturday February 13 2010.
Los Campesinos!, The Rainbow, Birmingham, Monday March 1 2010.
Blood Red Shoes, Academy 3, Birmingham, Tuesday March 2 2010.
Spotlight Kid/Sea Fields/This/Broadcast, The Victoria, Birmingham, Saturday March 13 2010.
The Autumn Store presents: The School/Pagan Wanderer Lu/Falling And Laughing, The Victoria, Birmingham, Saturday March 20 2010.
Emma Pollock/Josh Pyke, Hare & Hounds, Birmingham, Sunday March 21 2010.
The Failures Union/Joyous/Bronze Medals, Alchemy Bar, Wolverhampton, Monday March 29 2010.
The Besnard Lakes/Wolf People/Mr Bones & The Dreamers, Hare & Hounds, Birmingham, Tuesday March 30 2010.

ADVANCE WARNING: REVIEWS ARE BY NECESSITY OF EXTREMELY DIGEST NATURE. INVESTIGATION OF THE BANDS' RESPECTIVE WEBSITES STRONGLY RECOMMENDED.

2010's gigging started off promisingly with some random, drunk, but undeniably rather attractive blonde punter cajoling your at-this-point-sober altruist into conversation at the top of the Island Bar stairs. But if a more literal icebreaker was needed the cocktail barman provided it by smashing ice shards over your shaken-but-not-stirred so-and-so as he applied a big hammer to a large bag of the stuff. The icicles work in shifting Kate Goes from bar to stage, who provide their usual brand of rather entertaining singalonga-folk-punk thang before becoming Kate Went. Anarchist Cookbook are perhaps still in the process of sorting out all their ingredients (post-punk, emo, stadium rock) rather than providing us with the finished product just yet, but a few technical difficulties aside, they certainly whetted our appetites. Also on the bill were Eat Yrself Pretty (not quite as interesting as their name, but they tried hard) and The Sonic Delays (had to leave after a coupla songs to catch my train, so jury out). Oh, and almost forgot, regular PV commenter Russ L was also in attendance, having not got in somewhere else.

A couple of weeks later, Cast And Crew (a bit of a misnomer for a solo act) are already on when your hustling hack bustled into the Victoria, but we found the act a pleasing 'extra' to the evening's entertainment. Theatre Of The Absurd was meant to be a group thang but just the singer turned up, and without being particularly theatrical or absurd, proved perfectly watchable fare nevertheless. Dunc Autumn Store's band Falling And Laughing provided the missing link between The Wedding Present and contemporary indie-pop, with drummer Darrell providing inspiration and perspiration with a sweatchart to monitor his gland secretions while pounding the skins. Kidnapper Bell stole the show, however, with some rousing, anthemic indie-rock of undeniably commercial proportion.

One week on, and a double-bill of gloom-pop courtesy of The Scholars and Chapel Club at The Flapper proved suitably intriguing, without either band quite nailing it. Works in progress, then, quite apt given their erudite nomenclatures. March brought us new shows by old favourites Los Campesinos! and Blood Red Shoes: we're still not overly convinced by LC!'s 'Romance Is Boring' album but this was possibly their most impressive live performance yet, and we heartily approved of the comely new keyboard player, while your boisterous blogger probably annoyed all around him by singing along to BRS' brilliant 'Colours Fade' but, ah never mind, it'll all come out with the wash...

A triple-bill of shoegaze stuff courtesy of Sound of Confusion at The Victoria saw openers This/Broadcast deliver a taut, powerful but melodic set that swept away the disappointing Sea Fields and stayed in the memory longer than Spotlight Kid's engaging headline turn.

The following weekend belonged to the ladies, your drooling diarist totally spoiled by a one-two of Liz Hunt from The School and former Delgado Emma Pollock. A packed Victoria saw more Falling And Laughing (sans sweat chart, this time) and an impressive solo turn from Pagan Wanderer Lu before The School provided plenty of shimmy and shine in bringing wonderful new album 'Loveless Unbeliever' to life on stage, 'Can't Understand' comprehensibly standing out amongst the newer choons. We managed to snag an advanced copy of said album from Liz herself after the show, unsealed, signed, and delivered with a kiss (OK we're not too proud to admit we had to pester a bit for the latter).

Thanks to some navigational nous from the aforementioned Russ L your enthusiastic explorer made his way for the first time to the Hare & Hounds in deepest Moseley, lured in by the siren call of Emma Pollock with whom we managed to brush shoulders and wag chins after a brave and beautiful performance of the stunning selection of songs she presents on her criminally overlooked second album 'The Law Of Large Numbers', in the afterglow of which we even warmed to Aussie troubadour Josh Pyke's Radio 2-style acoustic anthems.

We just about managed to make it alive to the Alchemy Bar in Wolverhampton for an Out Of Step gig promotion, after being approached by several ne'er-do-wells on the short approach from train station to venue. Bronze Medals sounded tuneful and promising enough maybe to go for gold sooner or later, while Joyous were bouncy and big-beat but somehow left us feeling a little deflated, although touring US band The Failures Union notched things up several levels with a tight, powerful set of heavy, harmonising bar-blues indie-rock, like The Hold Steady on Human Growth Hormones, or something. Join up now.

Was back at the Hare & Hounds by the end of March to witness long-time faves The Besnard Lakes for the first time in the flesh, a flagship event also marked by being on the receiving end of a quite wonderful smile from self-styled professional smiler Rachel Marclar Plant on the door. The support was so-so: locals Mr Bones And The Dreamers charmed and irritated in equal measure, while Wolf People went down well with the crowd, but were a bit too conventional blues-rawk for your hard-to-please hack.

The Besnard Lakes though, were something else: all crazy hair, ridiculous amounts of dry ice, some fantastic guitar playing, and of course those gorgeous harmonies, all brewed nicely into an intoxicating evening's entertainment. Which is by way of our excuse for being the loudest bellower in cajoling the guitarist from out of the gents and join in with the encore. We'll hand out ear plugs next time, promise.

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.

Junior High

West Ham United v Fulham, Upton Park, East London, Sunday October 4 2009, 3pm.

Digest review due to time constraints.

Pre- and post-match entertainment involved a couple of pints either side of game at the Black Lion in Plaistow with Dave R and Basingstoke Paul. A problem with the membership card (a system issue, apparently) meant your exasperated egocentric had to queue at the box office to get a printed ticket, so Carlton Cole scored the West Ham opener on our entry to the stadium. If the home support was happy then, they were positively blowing bubbles when a big Fulham midfielder got sent off for apparently putting his hand into Scotty Parker's face.

Half-time mainly memorable for Stone Cold Steve Austin coming on the pitch to flog a DVD and fail to convince anyone really that he's a Hammer at heart. He went on about opening a can of whoop-ass and if that sounds stinky 'twas nothing to the opening ten minutes or so of the 2nd half when schoolboy errors by England internationals Matthew Upson and Robert Green gifted the visitors a 2-1 lead.

Thus followed a lot of huffing and puffing from the crowd, and more of the same from the actual team, although minus a lot of the passion and direction coming from the support. Dispiriting stuff, so by the time Junior Stanislas got his deflected equaliser it felt like a point gained and two snatched from relegation rivals rather than a couple of vital points squandered. Whether that feeling will remain come the end of the season, we shall see.

Parallax Premiership Ratings: Green 6; Faubert 5, Tomkins 6, Upson 5, Ilunga 5; Diamanti 6, Parker 6 (Behrami 6), Noble 6, Jiminez 5; COLE 7, Hines 5 (Stanislas 6).

Top Mark

Wolverhampton Wanderers v West Ham United, Saturday August 15 2009, 3pm.

If we recall correctly this is the very first time we've watched our beloved West Ham United play the first game of the season in the flesh. Amidst rumours of rogue homefan hooligans looking to 're-introduce' themselves to the Premiership, we met up with Dave R, Basingstoke Paul, Brighton Ben and Jerry at The Royal Oak, a friendly hostelry about a mile from the station, the other side of the ringroad, to sup Guinness and soak up the sun in the convivial surroundings of the spacious beer garden.

A brisk stroll to the stadium saw us just about get inside the ground for kick-off, with the home support providing huge roars of support every time the newly-promoted Wolves came anywhere near the Hammers' penalty area. A fairly open, even game then took a dramatic twist when Irons midfield tyro Mark Noble was given all the time in the world by a ponderous home defence to pick a vicious, swerving, long-range shot past the despairing arms of Wayne Hennessy into the net to open the scoring.

The early deafening volume of the home support was instantaneously muted by this setback, a seeming mood of resignation enveloping the ground as the Hammers were unlucky not to press home further the advantage before Half-Time. There was a renewed sense of purpose when the Second Half started, however, but England goalkeeper Robert Green provided a stunning salvo of saves to puncture the enthusiasm before it even started.

The game continued, feeling as comfortable for the boisterous away fans as a 1-0 advantage ever can be, Collison missed a near-open goal to raise anxiety levels a little but what tension existed evaporated when central defender Matthew Upson appeared to rise effortlessly over the Wolves defence to nod a second goal halfway through the second period. The home side continued to press but with dissipating conviction, while the pace of Hammers sub Junior Stanislas unsettled the black-and-gold rearguard during the closing stages of the match.

In summary, so far so good for West Ham, with Zola and Clarke continuing to wring out every ounce of team spirit and cohesion from limited resources and a backdrop of continuing financial unease. Wolves will be disappointed at how quickly their belief and purpose slipped away after a promising opening, and will need to be sharper in both penalty areas to accumulate the points they need to secure Premiership survival.

Parallax Premiership Ratings: GREEN 8; Faubert 7, Collins 6, Upson 7, Ilunga 6 (Spector 4); Collison 6, Parker 6, Noble 8; Dyer 6 (Stanislas 7); Jiminez 7, Cole 6. Frank Nouble came on late for Cole, with little chance to register a mark.

Parallax Premiership Predictions

1. MANCHESTER UNITED

2. Chelsea
3. Arsenal
4. Liverpool

5. Everton
6. Manchester City
7. Tottenham Hotspur
8. Aston Villa
9. Blackburn Rovers
10. West Ham United
11. Sunderland
12. Wigan Athletic
13. Fulham
14. Stoke City
15. Bolton Wanderers
16. Wolverhampton Wanderers
17. Birmingham City

18. Portsmouth
19. Hull City
20. Burnley

It's A Gas

Experimental Dental School/Even Atlas/Dream Dreams The Dreamer, It's Just Noise @The Rainbow, Digbeth, Birmingham, Tuesday May 12 2009, 9pm.

An ominous start to the evening when on arrival at the venue there appeared to be no-one about other than the extremely pleasant girl on boffo duties. A quiet start, then, soon to be interrupted by Dream Dreams The Dreamer the new project by Matt Snowden (ex-Esquilax, Doom Patrol), that has developed into a 'sonic orchestra' specialising in experimental, droning post-rock of some portent. When it worked it was pretty terrific, but there was also a few longeurs where your chin-stroking correspondent didn't seem to be the only one shifting about a bit uncomfortably. And while we more than welcome the re-introduction of the trombone into the modern rock canon, we struggled to discern the point if it could rarely be heard above the squalling guitars?

Even Atlas represented something of a shift towards more conventional rock tropes, although with enough of a healthy whiff of pretension (not to mention some discernible Radiohead and Fugazi influences) to keep the serious-minded music fan from frothing in their pint at the hint of a tune. Was an interesting and enjoyable set, but perhaps a bit too eclectic for their own good in terms of a particular style or song really sticking in the mind on first listen. A work in progress, then, but worth keeping an eye on.

Capping these two local noiseniks were Portland, Oregon's Experimental Dental School here on touring duties to promote their second album 'Forest Field', which can be downloaded in total for free from their official site. This is probably a good a way as any of getting a grip on their sound, which is reassuringly difficult to define in these subgenre-heavy times, although their own LastFM blurb as 'really nerdy, dirty jazz punk' is probably as good a stab at it as we could muster, with bruising riffs and gentle noodling establishing an uneasy but eventually pleasing friction.

Something had to give sooner or later, though, and eventually it proved to be Jesse's bass string. He asked for any comedians to make themselves known (a dangerous call in Brum pubs, in our experience) to plug the gap, and right on cue a rogueish-looking gent lurched on stage who just happened to have reams of his own poetry stuffed in his back pocket. Things soon went went back from bard to verse, however, with bass string fixed and the experimental tooth doc tutors resuming their rumbling brilliance to a stirring conclusion. Leaving the only gripe from tonight that such a fine band and a well-drilled bill by It's Just Noise didn't tempt more second-citizens out on an otherwise humdrum Tuesday evening.

Tristan's Handy*

Aston Villa v West Ham United, Villa Park, Birmingham, Saturday April 18 2009, 3pm.

Dead Kenny's annual journey to the Villa Park away game often involves more hope than expectation, with a narrow defeat in a scrappy game the median outcome, so fortification was required beforehand in The Wellington, where met up with Dave R, Basingstoke Paul, Big Ray and a sizeable Hammers support contingent, and real ales were quaffed and musings made on a season that is turning out significantly better than it might have done.

Indeed, back in December when the sides last met in a match shown live on Setanta Sports, the Hammers were hovering perilously over the relegation trapdoor, lacking conviction under the unproven tutelage of rookie gaffer Zola, while a victorious Villa looked set fair for Champions League qualification at the expense of better fancied sides like Arsenal. Four months later and a consistent second half of the season has seen West Ham pull clear of relegation torment and have realistic aspirations of Europa Cup qualification, while just one point in six games has seen Villa fall away dramatically from the Champions League placings to be just two places ahead of the Irons before the game kicked off.

West Ham started the game in more positive fashion than is the norm for away encounters, with a lack of composure in the penalty area preventing youngster Junior Stanislas from converting good approach play into goals. Trouble was, we were also looking very vulnerable at the back, with Robert Green having to look sharp on several occasions, and the home side's second substantial goal attempt was converted by Emile Heskey following a sequence of clumsy defensive work from an unusually wobbly back four. Villa steadily gained in confidence and threat as the half wore on, prompting Zola to make an atypical early tactical change, taking off James Collins for Keiron Dyer to partner the industrious Mark Noble in midfield, with Lucas Neill moving back to his regular full-back slot, allowing the impressive Tomkins to move into central defence alongside England international Matthew Upson.

The second half remained relatively open, with the Hammers working hard and gaining a reasonable share of the ball only to find attacking moves petering out in the final third, the veteran strikeforce of Diego Tristan and David diMichele struggling to retain possession against a resolute Villa defence. Many Hammers fans were crying out for Zola to sort things out, but instead of taking off the hapless Tristan it was DiMichele and Stanislas who made way for youngsters Savio and Sears. The extra movement from the young lads seemed to unsettle the Villa rearguard and Hammers started to dominate proceedings until who else but the hitherto negligible Tristan's head steered Dyer's drive into the net for a just-about-deserved equaliser. From this point, West Ham looked the more likely to edge in front, although Villa had a penalty shout which was the far side of your correspondent's viewpoint so, to quote Mr Wenger, I deed not see it. Given that Villa beat us in December with the flukiest deflection in the history of the game ever, no-one should feel sorry for them.

Decent day's work for the Hammers then, given that of the six starting players in offensive positions only Noble could be considered a normal first choice, while for Villa, as the away support mercilessly chided, Champions League they *are* having a laugh. Looks like both sides will be limping towards the season climax, Hammers literally and Villa metaphorically.

Parallax Premiership Player Ratings: Green 7; Tomkins 7, Collins 5 (Dyer 5), Upson 6, Ilunga 5; Stanislas 6 (Savio 6), Neill 6, NOBLE 7, Boa Morte 6; Di Michele 6 (Sears 6), Tristan 5.

*with apologies to the gentleman author Tristam Shandy.

Buffalo Bill And The Indie'Uns

Midori Hirano/Gnu And The Shrew/Muarena Helena, Buffalo Bar, Windsor Terrace, Cardiff, Thursday April 2 2009, 8.30pm.

Your chaotic correspondent has been threatening to make a Loose night in Cardiff for some time, and finally got his act together to make this eclectic and engaging bill, albeit one artiste short with the disappointing absence of Lily Green with throat problems. When in Cardiff, use your Brains, so your ruddy-cheeked rogue sampled some of the brewery's ales in a few local taverns beforehand, the pick being the Reverend James as available in the best of the bars, The Cottage, on St. Mary's Street.

All this exhaustive research already had your stewedshrewd scribe in a jolly mood by the time he made it upstairs at the popular Buffalo Bar, further enhanced by seeing the lovely Liz Hunt from The School on the door, dispensing some Parma Violets and a free compilation CD as she ushered your timeous tinker into the venue to catch the opening moments of East London's Muarena Helena. They're a good introduction to the evening's entertainment, as they combine folk, classical and rock instrumentation but with enough added edge and strangeness to offer a frisson of curious menace to proceedings. Sample song title: Gangland Hand Gesture, so listen to your creaking consigliore when he says watch out for this lot.

Duo Gnu And The Shrew hail from Manchester, and come to Cardiff fresh from Marc Riley's seal of approval on his 6Music show. 'Look at the scary puppets!' points out Liz, as the pair not only deal with found sounds but also a fascinating, mottley collection of vintage/retro bric-a-brac including the afore-mentioned finger furniture. Singer Jennifer Kay has a rasping delivery which may prove an acquired taste, but for your intrigued interloper added to the sense of theatrical oddness that give their predominantly acoustic ditties a distinctive appeal. CD 'Time For Tea', on sale at the gig for a mere six quid, is definitely worth rummaging for, with 'Gasboard Fraud' and 'Bingo' standing out on first few listens.

Headliner Midori Harano is a petite Japanese solo musician whose made her home amidst the electronic scene in Berlin. She offers predominantly keyboard music which produces pretty, pastoral, hazy soundscapes but with enough beats and glitches to add some swooning movement to the ambient electronica. Midori had also arrived in Cardiff entirely free of entourage, which made me rather fancifully think of her like a William Gibson character, a tough cookie in vulnerable guise, trotting the globe with her particular brand of techno-alchemistry. The result was even more intoxicating than the Brains' beers.

In conclusion, a roaring success for Loose, with three apparently very different acts making some logical connections with each other, a friendly, civilised vibe permeating throughout and all the artists concerned proving approachable, even to your Brains-dead blogger's blether!

Next day, had another wander around Cardiff before heading home, getting an 'above-par' cappuccino in Starbucks, taking a walk up and down the impressively reconstructed Roman castle that is slap-bang in the city centre (the audioguide is voiced by the BBC's Huw Edwards) and sampling the Wheat Ale at the nearby Zero Degrees microbrewery that is located opposite from the Millenium Stadium. Don't think it'll be too long before your restless rascal will be gig-going in this neck of the woods again.

Gig Review Ketchup - Emote Icons

The Walkmen, Barfly, Birmingham, Wednesday February 18 2009, 9.30pm.
Popfest All-Dayer, The Macbeth, Hoxton Street, London, Saturday February 28 2009 4pm.
Future Islands, The Old Blue Last, Great Eastern Street, London, Sunday March 1 2009, 10pm.

Sometimes a great and memorable gig is all about the peripheral details - the company; the ambience; the chance encounters and the general craic. The Walkmen's gig at Barfly was not like that at all. A nightmare journey (packed train, only seat available saw your puce-faced peacemaker caught in a ruckus between a reeking drunk and two wannabe gangstas), a heaving crowd and under-resourced, apparently under-trained bar staff made for one of our less comfortable gigging experiences for some months. So it's good to report that The Walkmen were in good enough form to make you realise why you bother.

Their fondness for vintage musical equipment is well recorded, but it's Hamilton Leithauser's voice that's the truly distinctive instrument at their disposal. No-one can hold a roared note quite like the grizzled frontman, and the band play with the confidence of knowing their latest record (You&Me) has defied all expectations and proved every bit as essential and revelatory as their earlier triumphs. Hamilton's academical background clearly didn't include local British accents though, as his improvised Brummie micktake sounded like Dick Van Dyke at his most hackneyed. Though we'll concede 'One more song, then we'll skedaddle' was a great closing line.

The lead singer of Baltimore's Future Islands has a similar impassioned angst-ridden drawl as The Walkmen vocalist, but it's allied to a frothy synth-and-bass backdrop to create a surreal vibe like the musical equivalent of 'Twin Peaks'. At the end of a long, great day which included a football match, catching up with friends and attendant beers, maybe it was our tired, emotional state that left us seduced by their woozy late-night ruminations, but later inspection of 'Wave Like Home' reveals gems like 'Beach Foam' and 'Old Friend' would resonate vividly on even the gloomiest of evenings.

The previous day we'd been round the corner celebrating all things bright and shiny-eyed at the Popfest All-Dayer. This allowed us to reacquaint ourselves with Sweden's Liechtenstein, who have trimmed down to a three-piece since last year's Autumn Store gig and delightful singer Renee's gained a blonde rinse and a Mo-dettes t-shirt into the bargain. Electrelane's harmonies are pleasingly grafted to an early 80s bed-sit pop feel to diverting effect, we recommend you buy their new Everything's For Sale ep now and start salivating for the debut album due later this year.

The Scandinavian presence didn't end there, with Action Biker proving the other revelation on the night, a pretty young lady in a beautiful dress cooing conversational melodies to pre-recorded music that would have strong appeal to fans of Saint-Etienne. Suppose it could be glibly dismissed as 'laptop karaoke' but she had the presence and charm, not to mention voice and hooks, to coax something magical and entrancing from the simple set-up.

Elsewhere on the bill The Pete Green Corporate Juggernaut offered barbed topical popcult anthems in the mould of Half Man Half Biscuit; Town Bike delivered a lively but surprisingly melodic set that would appeal to fans of HMHB and Helen Love; The Loves brought a harder, druggier feel to proceedings with some driving rock songs and no popfest is complete without a spirited, entertaining set from the marvellous Smittens. Only Help Stamp Out Loneliness failed to ignite our passions, but this emptiness may have had more to do with our hunger at this point than the band's lacking - with no food on the premises even the most inimitable indiefans need refuelling and as hard as we tried, sustenance by Guinness alone didn't quite see us through to the end of the night.

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!

Dead Kenny's Behrami Army

To celebrate our beloved West Ham finally making their first major signing of the summer in Valon Behrami, a Kosovan-born Swiss international right back, whose crazy hair and tats should see him fit in well with our long history of 'eccentric' full-backs, Parallax View sees fit to empty our favourites folder for you to pick 'n' mix -

More reasons to be cheerful as Joe Lean And The Jing Jang Jong shelve their debut album. Seems like an 8/10 rating from the NME doesn't amount to a hill o'beans these days!

We've cut back our gig/festival-going in the last month or so, but some good folk have put the hours in during our absence -

Drowned In Sound review Supersonic 2008.

Ben SWSL's Glasto 2008 Diary.

Sweeping The Nation reviews Truck festival.

Last Bus Home reviews the Lovebox Weekender at Victoria Park.

Troubled Diva reviews White Denim at Nottingham Bodega.

In other news -

Rock drummers are top athletes.

Attachments' Amanda Ryan is to play Cathy in Birmingham Rep's upcoming Wuthering Heights adaptation.

Twenty Major's cure for another boring summer.

Scary Duck on passive-aggressive notes.

Lydongate? Johnny's Behaviour Rotten? Swells on the 'racist' rickus (via RussL)

Careless Genes shows us how to make home-made peanut butter.

Birmingham's Flapper and Firkin faces demolition. (via Pete Ashton)

NOT SAFE FOR WORK eye candy if you like the idea of a Japanese Cheryl Cole lookalike with F-cup depth to her personality - Suzuka Ishikawa (20): REMINDER: NOT WORK SAFE.

M.I.A. and Santogold Get It Up together.

Cat With A Theremin (via just about everybody, it seems).

And finally, we did get to a gig last night, review to follow shortly, but here as a taster is one of the bands, Red Pony Clock, and their silly promo for My New Best Friends. If you like what you see/hear, they'll be playing the Indietracks festival in Ripley, Derbyshire this weekend -

Tennessee Silly'uns

Everything we've ever heard before from The Hold Steady has left us feeling 'hmm...okay'. Until now, that is, with the release today of 'Sequestered in Memphis' (streamed in full on their MySpace page), which takes their Springsteen/Costello schtick and delivers it several levels up with a barnstorming chorus which we intend to roar loudly when we're drunk very often indeed.

More fist-pumping fun than a Nadal/Federer five-setter, then, but if you feel the need for intellectual justification for enjoying a choon, wordnerds can glory in the bands' purloining of 'sequestered' into the rock lexicon, stealing for themselves a Parallax View Single Of The Week, in the process.

Summer Night City

Richard Prince: Continuations @Serpentine Gallery, Hyde Park, London, Sunday June 29 2008, 11am.
Female Agents, Odeon Covent Garden, Sunday June 29 2008, 6.25pm.

Spent the first weekend in a while down in London, the first couple of days mainly taken with meeting up with and getting to know a certain voluptuous Brazilian online friend of mine, who, amongst other things, introduced me to the delights of pacoquinha, an intensely sweet hit of peanut taste textured somewhere between biscuit and fudge, good with tea or coffee as long as long as you have a sweet tooth!

Sunday represented an opportunity to soak up some culture, and went along to see the Richard Prince exhibition Continuations at the Serpentine Gallery in Hyde Park. Prince may be best known to alt.music fans for providing the striking sleeve art to Sonic Youth's Sonic Nurse, but, although there were a few of his nurse paintings included, as well as a drumhead autographed by Thurston, Kim and Lee from SY, the exhibition presented a broader overview of his work that spans over four decades.

Just as the nurse pictures are appropriated images from pulp novel covers subverted and fetishised by Prince, much of the rest of his work involves customising found objects such as car hoods, and in one stunning case, an entire Buick adorned with objectified images of naked women. Elsewhere, there are a series of photographs of cowboys and biker chicks, and Prince isn't even beyond appropriating other peoples' jokes, with stylised paintings featuring looped one-liner gags. The result is an impressive, arresting collection worth a half-hour's browse for anyone in London with an interest in modern art.

Then headed off on the District Line to Brick Lane, where visited Rough Trade East for the first time, renewed my taste for octopus, wine and chocolate dessert at a tapas festival and wandered into 93 Feet East where there was supposed to be an all-dayer happening, but found no punters to be seen or music to be heard!

A quick change at the hotel later and then into the West End to see Female Agents, which follows in the sly, saucy footsteps of Paul Verhoeven's Black Book by looking at the derring-do of undercover female resistance agents in World War Two. In this case, Sophie Marceau's crackshot recruits/conscripts some dodgy distaff divas into the SOE's female operative branch (known as, we shit ye not, FANY) to distract the Nazis in France long enough for them to help the escape of an Allied geologist doing important groundwork paving the way for D-Day.

It's fairly derivate stuff, suffering from some erratic levels of characterisation that means you don't always care as much during episodes of jeopardy as perhaps you ought, but it says much for the zip of the production and the committed performances from the game, gallic cast that, despite some obvious flaws, the resulting film manages to be thrilling and poignant for the most part, particularly recommended for filmgoers with equal levels of passion for wartime heroics and the female form.

Turned out to be a bad time of it for Germans all round, as got back to the pub beneath the hotel in time to watch the second half of the Euro2008 final in which Spain vanquished the 1996 champions 1-0 to become worthy winners of a surprisingly entertaining competition, a particularly welcome result given that many of the bar's patrons seemed to be Spanish or Portugese speakers.

School's Clout

The School/Flicklisten/The Puncture Repair Kit, Swiss Concrete @ The Bullingdon Arms, Oxford, Thursday June 19 2008, 8.45pm.

The Bullingdon Arms is a short taxi ride away from Oxford's main rail station, a smallish pub with friendly, fetching bar staff and a big backroom area where the bands play. Ben and your long-distance lurker meet up with a couple of the SWSLer's charming co-workers, and get waylaid watching Germany beat Portugal in the Euro2008 Q-F so only catch the last few songs from The Puncture Repair Kit. Their boisterous, slightly ramshackle take on indie-pop reminds your comparison-crazed correspondent of The Strange Death Of Liberal England, but we hope the rest of the set was less impressive because a) we hate to have missed out on anything and b) we'd just lurve to be able to say The Puncture Repair Kit flat-tyred to deceive.

Flicklisten is a guy who comes from Ohio but has lived in Oxford for four years, a singer/guitarist occasionally accompanied by a young lady who plays a violin shaped like a pair of scissors (a cut above the usual instrument, natch). He has a good voice, knows how to get a meaningful, sombre strum from his guitar, and has a droll line in tinder-dry banter, but his songs, on first listen anyway, are more interesting than truly memorable.

This last charge is certainly something you could never level at our learned friends The School, who've happily mastered the knack of catchy tunes addressing bold sentiments, embellished with 60s girl-pop stylings yet undertowed by savvy indie knowingness. They seem to be a Rosie and at least one Ryan short of the line-up when we last saw them, but Liz is in good, giggly form, describing Oxford as very pretty once you've found it, a reference to the maybe-Multimap-induced mayhem of their journey into the city. Of tonight's set, the songs from last week's Single Of The Week 'Let It Slip' ep prominently feature, there's a mystery cover version that no one gets, and the small matter of a dedication to their 'longest-travelling fan - Ken!' for their closing number 'All I Wanna Do'.

Your marathon-man mitherer hides his blushes for just long enough to grab a few words with Liz at the end of the show, as the band pack away their equipment in readiness for a trip to Spain for a festival performance. She insists the recent departures were amicable and not the result of a Mark E Smith-like hire-em-fire-em ethos, and reveals a new band member is forthcoming who will cover both instruments. Talking of covered instruments, we don't have to get our twelve-inch ruler out as Liz very kindly autographs our copy of the 'Let It Slip' ep before we wave her off to Spain. But not before she reveals an addition to The School timetable: a debut album due early next year!

Ship Shapes And Bristol Fashion

Dot-to-Dot Festival, Various venues in Bristol, Saturday May 24 2008 and Sunday May 25 2008, 2.45pm-11pm.

This is your erudite explorer's first time at Dot-to-Dot, and on only our second expedition to Brizzle itself, and special thanks are due to new city resident Alison for providing the hospitality, company, laptop access and orienteering skills as we traversed the city in search of indie-rock thrills. Bristol seems almost unfairly blessed with unusual venues, with things kicking off on a moored-boat-cum-nightclub Thekla, and other sites including a converted church (Trinity) and prison (the appropriately named Fiddlers), all adding to the sense of adventure and discovery.

All aboard the good ship Thekla, our first band of the fest were Telepathe (pronounced by the band as telepathy as if spoken in a foreign accent) who featured (running theme alert!) an androgynous lead singer who looked for all the world like a cabin boy until she opened her pipes. Technical difficulties bedevilled the New Yorkers' set, which had something of a shambolic air (the sexy drummer abandoned her instrument for most of the set), but somehow through it all, by combination of sullen cool and some beautiful, fascinating songs, they seem to just about get through it all with their allure intact.

Then caught a couple of songs by serious young men The Detachments, which was enough to make you walk the plank, so headed off to rockpub The Fleece where Dublin's Fight Like Apes turned Bristol into the Wild West for half-an-hour, striding across the bar counter and wrestling each other in the moshpit during a cathartic and hugely enjoyable set, with former Parallax View Single Of The Week 'Jake Summers' the crazed centrepiece amongst their other harder, slightly grungier material. FLA also afforded us our first encounter with Bristol's most noteworthy superfan, a tall ginger bearded fellow called Geoff/Jeff whose propulsive stage-front duracell-dancing antics were a significant ongoing feature during festivities.

Downstairs at local roots venue The Louisiana, Sid Delicious were offering some skewed, off-beat thrills, while upstairs met back up with Alison to catch some of Eugene McGuinness' more traditional folk fayre, which should offer some appeal to fans of the Norwegian troubadour Sondre Lerche. Much more to our liking was Esser back over at Thekla, who looked tetchy and preoccupied during the soundcheck, but with his band got everybody dancing with jerky, infectious, and ever-so-slightly ridiculous pop music all set to create waves everywhere if there was any justice in this world.

We should have followed Geoff/Jeff's purposeful gait towards the Fiddlers, but instead got slightly lost and so despairingly missed Southampton's Thomas Tantrum performing former Parallax View Single Of The Week 'Shake It! Shake It!' (dispatching your most famous song early in the set seems to be another emerging trend) although what remained was nevertheless impressive, albeit more conventionally rockin' than their strop-pop SOTW. Top marks too to the very pretty lead singer for taking the time to publicly thank Geoff/Jeff for his sterling dancefloor exertions, and the dishing out of the free badges afterwards.

We elected to stay in Fiddlers to catch Micachu, who've been recording with Matthew Herbert and are starting to make a noise in London. They make heavy weather of the start of the set, the singer appearing to be in the 'attitude' stage of a day's drinking, and our attention wanders to the consideration of whether the drummer is a boy or girl (the former, if you're interested). Things do improve as the set goes on, and maybe in the studio with a disciplined producer their recorded output might be worth exploring.

Sunday morning was spent trawling MySpace to identify some bands worth catching, and the day eventually took us by surprise in terms of offering an even wider array of thrills, despite getting lost in one of Bristol's less salubrious spots in search of Trinity, where we saw a couple of uninspiring bands kick the day off amidst the anti-climax of Team Waterpolo pulling out. Much better was to follow, however, with Woodbridge's Cheeky Cheeky And The Nosebleeds proving a genuine revelation back at Fiddlers, despatching urgent (East-Angular?) guitar pop with energy, enthusiasm and that raw fearlessness you get from a band that's twigged they're on the cusp of something transformative. Daft name, then, but brilliant choons, particularly the marvellous anthem 'Slow Kids'.

This inspires your adrenaline-rushed arsehole to stuff in quick snatches of bands during an intense period of shuttling between venues and a strict three-songs-and-then-you're-gone policy which we only break for Red Light Company at Fleece, because they are excellent value, because 'With Lights Off' is a majestic classic, because the lead singer looks like an even skinnier Tom Petty, but also because by this stage we're knackered. Bonus points for the ecstatic group hug afterwards, too, which seemed genuine and this gang mentality will serve them well in the music industry travails that are sure to follow.

Around RLC we also found ourselves rattled by the rush of Pack AD's butch, bruising take on modern blues in Louisiana; impressed with the colossal high-energy post-rock guitar squalls of Leicester's Maybeshewill at Fleece; smiling like a silly-'un to the giddy 80's guilty pleasures of Cornwall's Rosie and the Goldbug at Thekla and left feeling slightly cold by moody Swedes Dag for Dag back again in Louisiana.

Things were then topped off in Thekla with The Mae Shi nearly stealing the whole weekend in a suitably scurvied piratical style, their jittery, attention-deficited noise-pop keeping everybody hugely entertained. We've heard of bands canvassing their fans before, but we've never seen it quite so literally demonstrated as when the band haul a sheet of tarpaulin over the moshpit and all dive inside under it, where they find themselves, amongst others, rubbing pneumatic shoulders with the omnipresent Geoff/Jeff. All in all, a wonderfully in-tents performance, then.

Cutting Pink With Knives have the opposite effect to The Mae Shi's inclusive gestures, in one of their last ever live performances, with frightened punters scampering away for safety as the lead singer took off his shirt and attempted to bully those at the bar into the moshpit. The music was slammin' and powerful in a kind of Beestung Lips-with-the-brakes-off intensity, and although we weren't really in the mood for it, it was kind of fascinating to watch as a piece of theatre, even though the search for anything remotely resembling a melody proved a fruitless task.

Then it was back to The Fleece for our last show of the festival: Metronomy, who seemed to be trying to be Klaxons so hard it hertz, wacky light circles emblazoned on their chests, and all. They were OK, to be fair, a reasonable soundtrack to the last few drinks of the weekend, but nothing to write home about in comparison to The Red Light Company, The Mae Shi, Fight Like Apes, Cheeky Cheeky And The Nosebleeds, Esser, Rosie and The Goldbug and Thomas Tantrum, who made up my magnificent seven from this delightfully dotty weekend.

Gotta Be Startin' Somethin'

The Ting Tings/Modernaire, Irish Centre, Birmingham, Tuesday May 20 2008, 8pm.

This is your curious correspondent's first venture into the Irish Centre, and our findings are mostly favourable. It's just about the only large gig venue in Brum where you can buy draught bitter (and a choice between two or three at that) and the bar staff seem reasonable in number and interested in disposition, another welcome change. There's also the novelty of a carpeted floor, but on the downside the bar side of the auditorium finds the view restricted by the speakers on the right side of the stage, meaning we only get to see two-thirds of support act Modernaire, whose lively and noisy brand of electro-rock seems short of memorable melody until set closer 'Bloodshed In The Woodshed'.

Since booking our ticket for this gig, The Ting Tings have only gorn and re-released 2007 Parallax View Single Of The Week 'That's Not My Name' and gone to Numero One in the real life pop charts, meaning a sell-out (officially, anyway...) gig and a triumphant mood in the air. Wasn't sure how their perky pop would fare in the live area but The Ting Tings soon reveal themselves to be natural performers, confidently getting in their stride with 'We Walk', giving 'Great DJ' an early spin and taking a gamble on 'Fruit Machine' giving them three hits in a row. The only halting moments are provided by ballad 'Traffic Light' which seems a bit pedestrian in comparison to the propulsive pop of the rest of the show.

Singer Katie White makes light of the full house and semi-restricted view by prancing for much of the time on the raised end of the stage where everyone has a decent view (why don't more pop stars take the trouble to do this most obvious of moves?). This allows everyone to share in the triumph of Numero Uno 'That's Not My Name', a strop-pop sensation with more hooks than a Peter Pan convention and one of the most completely satisfying tunes of the decade with its steady build of feelgood tropes spiralling into the giddiest of climaxes. Almost impossible to top, although a belting rendition of album title track 'We Started Nothing' has a damn good try, leaving the crowd to head home with a more pleasing than usual ringing in the ears.

How Soon Is Nou

Keef's Stag Weekend, Various Bars, Restaurants, Football Stadiums, Clubs, Barcelona, Spain, April 4-7 2008.

One of the reasons for a quiet time here on Parallax View earlier this month was that your esteemed entertainer's presence was required on Keef's stag weekend in Barcelona. It seems rude to visit a new city and not post about it, although as is the normal way with stag weekends, events tended to proceed in an in-the-moment blur of food, alcohol, casual tourism and lively behaviour that prohibits too much in the way of detailed recollection.

Overall, the experience of Barcelona was a positive one and it's somewhere your jaded journeyman would definitely consider visiting again. The weather helped, bright sunshine throughout accompanied by a pleasing breeze, temperatures of around 20 degrees celsius contrasting with sub-zero conditions and three inches of snow back home at the time. Aside from the weather, however, the visit was distinguished by some fantastic tapas (including octopus!); some fascinating Gaudi architecture; meeting some lovely young women (including a gorgeous Asian girl from Brighton and a lovely lass from near Aberdeen) and a trip to the Nou Camp.

The weekend co-incided with Barcelona's home game with Getafe, for which we managed to procure tickets. On collecting the tickets the team coach roared past, too fast to clock individuals that well, although the overall impression was that all the players looked freakin' miserable. The Nou Camp (or should it be Camp Nou?) is an impressive stadium to be sure, but the match itself was an anti-climax, Ronaldhino and Messi were out injured and Thierry Henry looked far off the sort of form he showed during his Highbury heyday. Certainly nothing contradicted the notion that we were witnessing the tail end of coach Frank Rijkaard's controversial tenure.

Getafe dominated possession and chances during a dismal first half, but things picked up after the break although the home side's more fluid passing failed to trouble the scoresheets and the game ended 0-0. It would have been good to witness (and join in) some local goal celebrations but it wasn't to be, and it was still a good feeling to watch a match in such a famous stadium, particularly a domestic game that, at that stage, still had a possible bearing on the final outcome of La Liga.

Still Smokin'

StrangeTime, The Rainbow, Digbeth, Birmingham, Friday March 14 2008, 9pm.

This is your bashful blogger's first venture into The Rainbow since staggering in for some much needed grub during the Supersonic Festival back in 2005. It's a longer walk from New Street than remembered, so just as well there's long-suffering Toon Army trouper Ben along for company during the hefty stride to the venue. It's a big sprawling pub that's had something of a makeover in the intervening three years, and the bands play in what clearly used to be a backyard with a new roof, with an adjoining can bar and an open-plan kitchen area where burgers and other hot sundries are being cooked.

It is, of course, not just the beef patties and onion strips sizzling once Kate Finch and StrangeTime arrive on stage in bold, if slightly belated, fashion. Technical issues with distortion pedals are brushed to one side as they launch into 'Profile' (aka their 'MySpace song' with the lines 'so you've guessed/I'm self-obsessed') from their new ep, and yet as technically impressive as some of their new songs are, it's one of their oldest tunes, 'Ex-Boyfriend', given an extra roar of feeling tonight that someone's ears must be burning (and we don't mean from the barbecue smoke, either) that seems to get the neutrals right behind them. Our normally reliable source, the good General Hubbub, advises us the band have won quite a few new friends tonight with no prisoners taken (including John's drumstick at one point) during a feisty, fiery set.

Ben and your hurrying hack then need to make a fairly hasty exit to Wok'n'Roll, a cosy, boutique Chinese restaurant with a karaoke adjunct, to say a boisterous bon voyage to Alison who's escaping her role as occasional gig-going companion to your socially-challenged so-and-so for a new life in Bristol. We hope the local shops have had advance warning to stock up on Haribo!

Now we know what you're thinking, it's all very well for Dead Kenny to go on hobnobbing hi-jinks in intimate, fashionable ethnic eateries, but what about the other bands on the StrangeTime bill that we've casually left in the lurch of potential internet obscurity? Luckily then for your unreliable uberpundit the good Baron has swooped into view to review the whole fandangle and ensure the completists aren't hard up for comprehensive content. Huzzah!

Deadly Sears

West Ham United vs Blackburn Rovers, Upton Park, East London, Saturday March 15 2008 3pm.

It's been a while since your Midlands-based mitherer has ventured to a home game for the Hammers, during which time his pre-match drinking buddies have found a new watering hole. Namely The Black Lion, which you can find by turning right outside Plaistow tube station and walking about 400-500 yards. This Plaistow public house doesn't contain anyone we could find by the name of Patricia, but does have an archway entrance; attractive, hard-working barmaids and a decent selection of real ales, including the always welcome Adnams' Broadside. Good to get an early result under the belt.

Manage to get into the ground just about on time for a change, to see the Hammers get off to a bright enough start, passing and moving with a reasonable amount of fluidity without much in the way of penetration. Scotty Parker goes on a good run but his final ball is poor and easily intercepted, resulting in a sweeping counter-attacking move that's despatched into the net by one-time Irons target Roque Santa Cruz. The home crowd tense themselves for another debacle (my beloved West Ham have lost three games 4-0 on the trot prior to today's game) but the players themselves seem to regain their spirit, shape and belief unusually quickly and the steadily churning pressure finally converts into an equaliser with Dean Ashton making Rovers' centre-back Samba look a bit gormless with a neat turn and finish past Brad Friedel.

Your cheerful correspondent amuses himself at half-time with a quick flick through the match programme, which contains some considered thoughts from gaffer Alan Curbishley, the revelation that American defender Jonathan Spector's nickname is 'Specs' (should've seen that one coming) and midfield kingpin Hayden Mullins confessing the one thing that really annoys him in life is Anton Ferdinand's face. Then it's a polite conversation with the trendy-looking geezer in the next seat and away we go with the Second Half, the Hammers continuing with most of the pressing, but with the visitors physical in defence and always looking threatening on the break.

The game is in danger of petering out when a clearly-not-yet-match-fit Scott Parker and an unusually ineffective Nolberto Solano are replaced by young local heroes Mark Noble and Freddie Sears. Eighteen-year-old Sears is making his debut, but his scorching form for the youths and reserves this season sees his introduction greeted with a huge roar of approval from the home support. Young legs and hungry hearts soon add a bit of zip to the game and the Upton Park faithful are soon rewarded when some more good work by Ashton guides the ball into the path of the onrushing Sears, whose initial shot is parried by Friedel only for the impressive youngster to follow through with a diving header that steers the ball into the net. Mayhem justifiably ensues with everyone seeming to feel they'd witnessed an iconic introduction to the first-team game of a real local find and former Hammers hero Geoff Hurst being shown on the screen joining in the celebrations.

The Hammers have to survive a few scares before the final whistle, a smart save from Robert Green and a woeful finish from Jason Roberts however means that the home side put a rapid halt to a potential mini-crisis and take all three points, just about deserved in a bright, breezy but largely unexceptional game that will be remembered mainly for the birth of a new Upton Park star. Freddie Sears may be short in physical stature, but his pace, persistence and presence-of-mind, if cultivated correctly by the coaching staff, gives him every chance of making a big name for himself in the professional game.

Parallax Player Ratings: Green 7; Neill 5, Ferdinand 7, Spector 6, McCartney 6; Solano 5 (Sears 8), Mullins 6, Parker 6 (Noble 7), Ljungberg 7; Ashton 7, Zamora 6. Pantsil came on for Ljungberg very late on, but too late to register a rating.

Songs To Learn And Sing

The School/Somebody's Mind/The Screenbeats, Oakford Social Club, Reading, Saturday March 1 2008, 8.30pm.

Your carousing correspondent has visited Oakford Social Club before, but this is the first time, in the company of Raimundo, that we've seen bands here. It's an unusual set-up, in that rather than playing in upstairs or downstairs areas, the groups play on a bandstand centre-pub with general drinking/eating areas either side. With this being a free gig, the benefits to the bands are that they have the incentive of drawing in passing punters who've just popped in for a pint.

You couldn't blame Newbury's The Screenbeats for wanting to partake in some alcoholic sustenance themselves, given the technical glitches that bedevil and foreshorten their set. Vocalist Faye has a fashionably big, bold voice which drives forward songs of a definite 60s-leaning sound and we certainly heard enough to make us want to re-investigate them at a happier time. Tilehill's Somebody's Mind also owe something of a debt to the 60s, but their psychedelic rock takes us on a much wilder ride, albeit with a sound sense of melody intact. Raimundo definitely approves.

Without wishing to sound like Teacher's Pet, however, we're only really here for The School, who, despite being a guitarist down due to transport snafus, chalk up another brief but successful showcase for their spangly pop gems. In contrast to their Autumn Store show last November, Liz is centre-stage where she should be, but also the whole band seem to be operating with an extra sheen of polish and confidence despite the unplanned axeman absence.

Although their songs have an undeniable 60s girl-group feel it's not just nostalgia that's at the heart of The School's appeal. Tracks like Summer's Here and All I Wanna Do have the delicious soft, sweet texture but added zing and sharpness of the perfect lemon mousse, with the robust quality of the songcraft providing the biscuit base, the structure that holds everything together and prevents what otherwise could be a gooey mess in less expert hands. Like the Oliver we are, we cry for more, but for now we must settle for this tantalising aperatif before we receive our just desserts of record releases and a full tour in the spring and summer. But we do get a quick chat with Liz herself, and co-organiser Dawn, who are as glamorous, friendly, and downright lovely as you could wish for, before the Newcastle Browns finally kick in for your tipsy tipster and hometime beckons.

Also, thanks to Painterman DJs for spinning the discs between bands, and Sam Dinsmore for taking some great gig photos.

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)