It’s virtually pitch black outside at 4.30pm, the transport system is completely fucked, and one meteorological agency reports it could be -17C by the end of the week. Yes, welcome to British wintertime. To suit the mood, here’s a video of Atavist I shot at ATP’s Nightmare Before Xmas but didn’t get a sec to put up before the Christmas rush. I think this is the one singer Toby dedicated to “all the fucking haircuts”. I haven’t heard their new album II: Ruined yet but if it’s anything like the last one it should be really good.
Happy New Year.
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by Louis Pattison on Wednesday, January 2nd, 2008 (No Comments)
I first heard David Thomas Broughton on record a couple of years back, his The Complete Guide To Insufficiency, and was impressed by the songs themselves: melancholy folk songs of a modern flavour, licks of guitar and smudges of found sound woven into swirling loops, all presided over by Broughton in his mannered, faintly precious croon. What I wasn’t prepared for, seeing him for the first time at Plan B’s inaugural show at Corsica Studios last week, is what an excellent physical comedian he is: engaged in a lengthy struggle with his microphone stand, flopping around the stage trying and failing to pull his trainers on, or interrupting a song about how his heart is cold as snow with a big, mannered yawn and a glance at his watch (well, it was nearly curfew). He can break your heart and make you laugh as well, and that’s a rare trick. This here YouTube video can only approximate the fullness of his abilities, but here, at least, you see an example of how tics, twitches and in this case, a cough feed into Broughton’s grander designs.
Thanks also to Bishi and the Wave Pictures, also captured here for your enjoyment.
Next Plan B show at Corsica Studio takes place February 20 with Vialka, Safetyword, and Shimmy Rivers And And Canal - tickets on sale soon.
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by Louis Pattison on Monday, December 3rd, 2007 (1 Comment)
Puttin’ On The Ritz are on tour in the UK at the moment. They’re from Brooklyn and I think they share members with that band Talibam! who you may have read about in the last Plan B (and will read more about in the next issue). Apropos of little, here’s a YouTube video of them playing a gig in the Atlantic ocean.
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by Louis Pattison on Friday, November 23rd, 2007 (No Comments)
OK, so it was a week ago now but I’m stuck in PLAN B XMAS ISSUE DEADLINE HELL… but I couldn’t let the week go without writing a quick something about Cardiff’s inaugural Swn festival. Being a sort of wristbands and venues affair in the vein of SXSW, there’s no way you can catch the vast bulk of bands, so sorry Edwyn Collins, Beirut, The Cribs, didn’t make it. We did put on an Antifolk (UK) show at Clwb Ifor Bach on the Friday night, though.
ET’s been going on about this lot all year, actually, but it was my first time catching a lot of them in the flesh. Winston Echo played wide-eyed naif indie-pop songs about bureau de changes and wanting a new job. There was mertle and Larry Pickleman, Antifolk UK’s Posh and Becks, her cute and introspective, him abrasive and shouty and blackly funny. There was Crayola Lectern and friend, with their deeply wrong synth experiments, and Cardiff’s Le B (pictured) with a set of intricate guitar minatures including a old folk song about a woman marrying a 14-year old boy. Oh, and ET, who did his The Legend thing and topped off the night with a righteous DJ set back to back with Simon Price.
Best way to get an idea of what Swn was about, though, is probably through the 44-page Swn Festival Flickr page, put together by Plan B photographer Mei Lewis and friends. Here’s some of the best - credits to Mei, Maciej Dakowicz, Kirsten McTernan, Laura Charlotte and anyone I might have forgotten.
Bobby Conn
The Duloks
Beirut
The Bobby McGees
And… White Mice
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by Louis Pattison on Friday, November 16th, 2007 (2 Comments)
That there’s a stripped down Hot Chip at David Shrigley’s Worried Noodles show at the Scala a couple of weeks back. This song is ‘No’, the one with the Shrigley lyrics. It’s about having no arms or legs. They also did a really great sorta acoustic version of ‘Boy From School’ but my camera decided to swallow it and never spat it out again. Curse thee technology!
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by Louis Pattison on Monday, October 22nd, 2007 (No Comments)
Feels like it’s been a year of slow growth and thoughtful consolidation for dubstep, a year where the sound crept outside the borders of the UK (see Melissa Bradshaw’s live review from the US back in Plan B 24), grew its audience (see sold-out FWDs and a packed-out DMZ) or found ways to package and sell itself - see Soul Jazz’s Box Of Dub series, Skull Disco’s Soundboy Punishment compilation, or the likes of Planet Mu’s 10 Tons Heavy.
Keep your ear to the scene and there was the usual microscopic chatter, a spree of fresh dubs every month. But if you were a more distant observer, eager for the next landmark album, 2007 kept you waiting. Then, this week, it all happened. First of all, Underwater Dancehall, the debut album from Pinch, boss of Bristol label Tectonics. Two discs, one dubs and one featuring the same tracks but with vocals mostly yielded from the city’s reggae/soundsystem culture, it’s a record with a real warmth and vitality, a record as identifiably grounded in Bristol as Blue Lines or Maxinquaye. I’ve only listened to it two or three times, but it may also prove to be that good.
And then, the Burial record. Just completing my second spin of Untrue now, but it’s as spectacular as you’d expect - heavier on the vocals than its predecessor, soul boy vox and diva trills altered and tampered, washed out or chopped up, and those euphoric, washy synths moving in slow, gradual tides. They’re both out at the start of November so if you’re compiling your end of year poll, remember (to quote Grace), it’s not over yet.
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by Louis Pattison on Thursday, October 18th, 2007 (No Comments)
As the whole world blows a gasket in anticipation of the new Radiohead album, I’m trying to find a safe way of drying out my trainers on the Plan B radiator - it killed the Plan B hoover, remember - and paying close attention to Electric Eel Shock’s How 2 Fish Rock’n'Roll Style. Soon - soon - I will be ready.
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by Louis Pattison on Monday, October 1st, 2007 (No Comments)
Just got the new Wiley single, ‘No Qualms’, in the mail and it’s actually a re-fix of sorts, putting his new Eskibeat protegee, 16-year old Chipmunk, up the front. And pretty great it is too - see Chipmunk in action below, in action with Westwood.
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by Louis Pattison on Thursday, September 13th, 2007 (8 Comments)
It’s a bit of a weird feeling, to be hit by the realisation that your two favourite records of the year are, um, covers records. But that’s the deal. First, there’s Jeffery Lewis‘ 12 Crass Songs, which is pretty much what it says on the tin: a selection of songs spanning the career of UK anarcho-punks Crass played in Lewis’ typical halting, stammering antifolk style, which frankly could have gone either way, yet somehow boasts a creepily insistent replayability. Gotta write the review of this, so I won’t say too much, but at the end of the day it’s all about guilt, OK?
Oh, and then there’s Dirty Projectors. For some reason I was the last in the Plan B office to get into this band, but their Rise Above - ostensibly a cover of Black Flag’s Damaged but, and here’s the rub, entirely replayed from memory - is a pretty genius feat of juxtaposition, sinewy So-Cal hardcore recast as joyful, harmony-heavy ethno-pop. I love them both and you will too.
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by Louis Pattison on Wednesday, August 29th, 2007 (No Comments)
