the friday 7 8 November 2008

It's been a funny week musically for me, two nights DJing, two gigs, one of which was on Saturday lunchtime and was a jazz band. Now I detest jazz, but the lady I was seeing them with loves it, and on a date the lady gets what the lady wants. So I headed down to the Birmingham Symphony Hall for the weekly Sax In The City event with a massive hangover and the inability to eat anything. Drinking fresh orange and having to stand on wobbly legs because the chairs had gone to the large crowd that I wasn't expecting, me and the lady watched the session, and I actually enjoyed it. None of the rambling sax solos, none of the bu-ba-bi-bah dah vocals, just good easy listening played live in a really relaxed environment with an appreciative audience, though how many were in there to avoid the horrific rainstorm and how many went specifically for it we'll never know. Compared to the act I saw on Wednesday, it was a gig of extremes. Here's this week's 7

The Wonderstuff - Unbearable

I went to see the Stuffies last Thursday with my old mate Andrew Pack,my boss and a bloke from work, doing the Eight Legged Groove Machine 20th Anniversary tour, and it reminded me of how great a band they were. With Miles Hunt swigging from a bottle of red wine, two really long encores and a special aftershow performance with an extra four songs it was one of the best reunion gigs I've been to, which gives me hope for the Carter gig later this month. Here's an old one that they played on the night, and like all the best songs it's about hating people




Jesus Jones - Info Freako
The support act I missed at the Wonderstuff, they were always a more commercial version of Pop Will Eat Itself, but still always worth a look and listen. The pioneers of Stupid Hat Indie, they had a few hits then vanished, and like Shed 7 became the joke band of their scene




Rage Against the Machine - Renegades of Funk

I play this every week, and it's great fun, with RATM covering Afrika Bambaataa and the Soulsonic Force. Not what you'd expect and you'd probably think it wouldn't work, but it does and it breathes a different life into the old hip hop classic




Kunt and the Gang - Men With Beards (what are they hiding?)
The act I saw on Wednesday, and possibly the cleanest of his songs. K&TG are a comedy song writer with a penchant for Carol Vorderman, as seen on his song Carol Vorderman where he explains how he'd defile the dodgy loan selling maths genius, and Alleged Jill Dando Killer Who Was Innocent Barry George. Childish, puerile and very funny live when put in content.




Beastie Boys - Sabotage

The best thing that they ever made was Ill Communication, and that's scientific fact, proven by scientists and all that. Matched with the Spike Jonez 70s cop homage, the guitars and bass rip through you like a bullet through Kurt Cobain's bonce. Forget the early frat boys era Beasties and the free Tibet preachy version and listen to what is just a great song.







The Cure - Why Can't I Be You?

There's a common known fact about me, and that is I love nutters. Proper nutters, and here's the nutter I liked most as a teenager, Robert Smith, doing his best Bobcat Goldthwaite impression in one of the great pop songs of the last century.





Glam Chops - Are You Ready Eddie?

All hail the leaders of Nu Glam, the supergroup of cult indie bands including Art Brut and David Devant and his Spirit Wife. This has nothing to do with the Emerson Lake and Palmer song of the same name, but is a Sweet style stompathon about a man who sleeps in the park. All done in classic Eddie Argos style, including getting the words to your own song wrong..