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Plush, live

The thing about liking Plush is that people who like Plush find it hard to accept, on some dreamy level, that actually not everyone else in the world likes Plush (or would, if only they were to hear some). Plush fans know Liam Hayes isn’t really Burt Bacharach or Carole King, and yet - knowing that, we also choose not to know it, and hear and see him through filters as dusty-warm as the light through the window on the cover of Tapestry. We expect his rare gigs to be sold out. We are surprised he is on second, not headlining. We see him in split-screen: one half the awkward man with a shock of dark hair and sharp canine features on a small stage in a full-ish venue; the other half, a super-8 montage, retro furnishings all present and correct and horns blaring to heaven. Looks a little like this, maybe:

That’s a video for a new Plush single, and even I can see how - really - bizarre it is, despite loving the bit with the bike and the bit with the dog and the bit where he looks like Dory Previn etc etc. Even I can see that as I type something right here about how Hayes is so focussed, so much himself, that he transcends his sources and creates his own world, others will just see retrogressive pleasantry. I think that’s part of liking Plush.

I’ve always enjoyed the tensions inherent in Plush’s music, which seem to me to be between the hazy, lush perfection Hayes aims for in his sound, and the awkwardness of his own presence within that; between the full-to-bursting arrangements and lonely voice; and between fantasy and reality - lyrically, he’ll follow classic songwriterly patterns and use a pretty non-specific vocabulary, then throw in something so obviously personal it floors you for a second.

When Hayes plays live, as he did a few nights ago in London, this tension is embodied almost literally in his brittle, nervous stage presence, and his choice of accompaniment - an electric guitar (interestingly - although I know this, having seen him before, nothing semi-acoustic, hollow-bodied, singer-songwriterish, just a Fender), which allows the tough sinews of his songs to be exposed, leaves pauses for you to fill out imaginatively. Hayes plays harder and more rhythmic than you expect, emphasising his songs’ ability to stand up without the frills of arrangement, but the idea of arrangement hovers around them all the time nonetheless, and you find your memory painting in washes of strings and brass, even on the songs you don’t recognise.

The song in the video above was the last one in his set, and my favourite bit was the line “Is it getting clearer?”, which kind of hangs out at the end of the chorus in a really nice way.

Here’s the remaining Plush/Autumn Defense tour dates:

Fri 5th Sep 2008 The Cluny Newcastle

Sun 7th Sep 2008 Clwb Ifor Bach Cardiff

Mon 8th Sep 2008 Brudenell Social Club Leeds

Tue 9th Sep 2008 Night & Day Manchester

Posted by Frances May Morgan on Friday, September 5th, 2008
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“It’s hard to make people faint…”

Apropos of nothing - crowd reactions to ‘The Exorcist’ (1973).

Tremble before THE POWER OF ART.

Posted by kicking_k on Wednesday, September 3rd, 2008
(4 Comments)

das wanderlust: dance like you’re dead

It is the beginning of another week AND WE ARE NOT SAVED (sorry, been reading the King James and watching documentaries about Jewish history all weekend). Above is Das Wandedrlust’s new single, which - you should note - is b-sided with a ‘tape experiment’ of assorted rehearsal room fragments strung together like a sideways-ambling ragbag of non-prog sketches. It is not on their MySpace.

Posted by kicking_k on Monday, September 1st, 2008
(2 Comments)

champagne dance: or, what happened before grime

I meant to write this blog last week, when I was all pumped with excitement for Pay As You Go Cartel’s reformation at Rinse’s 14th Birthday last Friday at The End. In the end, PAYG weren’t all that much cop - Wiley didn’t show up (shocker) and it all felt like it had fizzled out by the end, but y’know, never saw them the first time round so *raises glass*

Anyway, it’s sparked off a bit of a trawl through the state of garage pre-grime, a little of which is still kicking about on YouTube. Let’s investigate what’s going on - still - in my brain!

Pay As U Go Cartel’s ‘Champagne Dance’ - not quite the stone cold classic that ‘Know We‘ was, but still pretty much as fine a piece of post-So Solid gangsta garage as you’ll find. Inexplicably, the video features girls boxing. Doesn’t Wiley look young?

More Fire Crew’s ‘Oi!’ *The* proto grime track. Everyone involved in the making of this record is given an artistic free pass for ever more. I bought this on CD single and felt sort of proud when it cracked the Top 10. The album flopped, but it did feature a pre-’I Luv U’ appearance by a young Dizzee Rascal (which you can hear here). Doesn’t Lethal Bizzle look young?

Heartless Crew. Couldn’t find a video for this. I had a good CD compilation by this lot. I don’t really know what happened to them, although Ringo says they had a 1XTRA show which they never turned up to.

First heard this on white label with the barest of biographical press bumph with it, assumed its creator to be some skinny, young Michael Jackson lookalike and instantly adored it. You laff, but it cropped up on So Solid Crew’s 2CD mix CD of ‘the underground’, Fuck It. That I still really quite like this song now proves the power of context cannot ruin everything.

Posted by Louis Pattison on Thursday, August 28th, 2008
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roots manuva: home video

In which August’s cover star demonstrates how - and where - he do.

Posted by kicking_k on Thursday, August 28th, 2008
(1 Comment)

yacht: celebrate season, interchange labels

YACHT, above, release new single ‘Summer Song’ via DFA nowish. I don’t know what the fee was, but their newfound promotional glitz suggests there were a lot of zeroes in the figure (possibly nearer the beginning than end…)

Posted by kicking_k on Wednesday, August 27th, 2008
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camille: pop will beat itself

My feelings on current pop were enquired after in the forum. What follows is the first of my answers…

I haven’t kept much in touch with the charts just recently (I’m proud to say I flagged that Chris Brown trojan before the story broke, but the piece was never used, so my scoop lay empty, as it were…) Similarly, I more recently scorned Fructis Bleek beyond repair, as you’ll know if you subscribe to the Plan B emailer.

But that’s not why I’m writing. Camille is why I’m writing.

‘Money Note’, above, is a brilliant piece of buffoonery fondly satirising moneyed diva culture (“I want it to sound like silver / I want it to sound like gold / I just want to beat Mariah…”) in search of “F Sharp 7″.

She’s more than just a sketch artiste, though - the album this song belongs to (Music Hole) is itself a texture-rich human swatch of guiding concepts, adventures-in-arrangement, emotional impasto and - through it all - just the most - the most - charming playfulness. I know I sound like an advert, but at least it’s composed with conviction, right?

This second video is part one of a documentary she made to introduce the new record. In conversation, she manages to be both pretentious and earthy, a sublime combo the French could teach us a lot about. Also: a demonstration of body percs (that’s what the title of this entry refers to) and the technical differences in singing French and English. Her joke in answer to the ‘influences’ question is so perfectly delivered that I’ve watched it repeatedly, falling further each time. Le swoon. Part two.

Posted by kicking_k on Monday, August 25th, 2008
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