Parts & Labor, Nice N Sleazy, Glasgow, Saturday 6th October 2007

Parts & Labor's drums, bass and keyboard line-up may not seem like a recipe for rock enlightenment, but the New York trio create a noise that belies their humble stature and nerdish appearance. With amps turned steadfastly to 11 and everything pushed deep into the red, theirs is a gloriously fuzzed-up and feedback-drenched sound, shuddering on the edge of melodic collapse. Their strength lies in the marrying of this raucous noise with a wonderful ear for anthemic, danceable tunes and infectious pop hooks, pushed to near breaking point by the walls of distortion. Anchored by the rock solid drumming of new recruit Joe Wong and the distorted bass of BJ Warshaw, overlayed with Dan Friel's melodic keyboard and guitar lines, they strike a near perfect balance between chaotic frenzy and pop nirvana. For those who always wished that Lightning Bolt were less intimidating and more catchy, Parts & Labor could well be the answer to your prayers.

Parts & Labor

Matthew Bower, Chris Corsano & Heather Leigh-Murray, Glasgow University Union, Glasgow, Saturday 24th February 2007

Matthew Bower, Chris Corsano, Heather Leigh-Murray... any one of these names alone should be enough to bring a joyful sparkle to the eye of any discerning fan of experimental/underground music. But tonight Glasgow University Union's the Hive was the incongruous venue for the spectacular treat that was their debut live trio performance. Matthew Bower is one of the veterans of the UK musical underground, having released a truly daunting body of elegiac heavy rock, drone and noise, most notably with his Skullflower, Sunroof! and Hototogisu projects, and to see him play with Volcanic Tongue honcho Heather Leigh-Murray and Chris Corsano, one of the world's most exciting and talented free drummers (soon to be heard on the new Björk album), promised to be a truly special experience.

Thankfully, this was a dream line-up that more than lived up to even the most hyperbolic expectations. When the visceral raw energy of Matthew Bower's monolithic walls of feedback and guitar distortion, Chris Corsano's kit-destroying thunderous stabs of percussion and Heather Leigh-Murray's primal howls and ravaged pedal-steel reached their awesome peak it was as if the world was collapsing around your head. Ear splitting, brain melting and emotionally draining, this was a night not to be forgotten.

Photos of this gig available here.

0° Of Separation (Juana Molina, Vetiver, Vashti Bunyan, Adem), ABC, Glasgow, Tuesday 16th January 2007

The idea behind the 0° Of Separation tour is one that is sadly relatively rare. There is no support or headliner and the lines between the artists are blurred, as musicians come and go in fluid combinations and collaborations, experimenting with old arrangements and new compositions.

That said, Juana Molina's solo sets were easily the highlight of the night. Alone on stage she created hypnotic rousing folktronica, starting from simple guitar lines, looped and layered, with beats behind, all driven along by her wonderfully strong vocals. Even with the snow that had started to fall outside, it was easy to get lost in the foreign warmth of her Spanish and be transported, at least temporarily, to a different place.

Vetiver's rootsy Americana was similarly able to bring energy levels up and to get even the seated crowd moving, and it is just a shame that neither act was given more of a presence during the evening, as, unfortunately, neither Adem, nor rediscovered folk songstress Vashti Bunyan, were anything like as entertaining.

In comparison to Juana Molina's strength and vitality, Vashti Bunyan's voice was weak and lifeless, a failing not helped by her apparent nerves and lack of confidence onstage, nor by her overly sentimental and uninspiring songs. Adem fared better in the bigger group collaborations, but stripped down, neither did his songs really have the strength to fill the hall.

Bringing like-minded artists together in an innovative way, 0° Of Separation is a great idea, but sadly there was too much distance between the strength of the performances that night to really do it justice.

Photos of this gig available here.

Birchville Cat Motel, with Alex Neilson & Richard Youngs and Opaque, 13th Note, Glasgow, Tuesday 9th January 2007

Sonic terrorism is probably the best way to describe what Opaque do tonight, as four sinisterly masked men, dressed all in black, stand motionless in front of us, their guitars screaming beautiful symphonies of feedback and aural desctruction in the darkness, building to staggering crescendos of white noise.

Though without quite the darkness and violence of Opaque, Alex Neilson and Richard Youngs give just as ferocious an assualt on rock's confines. Jandek's original rhythm section perform tonight as a free-rock drums and guitar duo, Neilson's driving percussion melding perfectly with Youngs' e-bowed and distorted guitar work, the highlight coming when they are joined by Birchville Cat Motel's Campbell Kneale on additional guitar.

With a table full of equipment and tangled nests of wires it's perhaps not surprising that there are technical complications before New Zealand's Birchville Cat Motel can start weaving his powerful layers of drone. Soon overcome, he masterfully balances beauty and violence, shreaking almost unheard through distortion over his loops and electronics, and the only thing that's missing tonight is the truly transcendental volume of 2005's Instal performance.

Photos of this gig available here.

Birchville Cat Motel
Opaque

Melvins, with Big Business, The Garage, Glasgow, Thursday 14th December 2006

You would think that with a drummer as good as Dale Crover, the Melvins wouldn't feel the need to add another. That they've done exactly that is evidence of what makes them such a special band - their desire and ability to take straight-up rock & roll and push it further than almost anyone else.

With their latest album, (A) Senile Animal, (The) Melvins have added bass and drums duo Big Business to their arsenal, expanding to a four-piece, twin drummer line up. On record the sound is huge enough, but it really cannot compare to the live assault they present. The power of the two drummers is incredible. For the most part playing in sync with each other, they are at times almost earth shattering and, at the very least, ear shattering, propelling King Buzzo's guitar and Sideshow Bob hair and the fuzzed-up bass of Big Business' Jared Warren tirelessly for over an hour of gloriously heavy rock, with riffs and hooks aplenty. Tonight Glasgow, you have been very much rocked!

Photos of this gig available here.

Melvins
Big Business

Josephine Foster, with Zaimph and Tight Meat Duo, Downstairs at The Captain's Rest, Glasgow, Wednesday 6th December 2006

For the second time in a month David Keenan and Alex Neilson's Tight Meat Duo tear the small space Downstairs at The Captain's Rest apart with their short intense blasts of free jazz, creating a high-energy freedom of expression from the manic clattering and pummelling of drums and squonking of saxophone.

Marcia Bassett is a hugely prolific presence in the world of drone and noise, part of, among many other projects, Hototogisu and Double Leopards. Tonight, in her solo Zaimph guise, she plays a wonderful set of subtle guitar atmospherics. Constructed from layers of e-bow and delicately manipulated guitar, it is dark and brooding, like the sounds of lost souls wailing into the void.

Despite a series of excellent albums in various incarnations, Josephine Foster has remained very much on the underground of the so-called 'new weird America' movement. She is definitely a true free folk spirit. Her songs here are often delicate and beautiful, though she is joined tonight by an incredibly energetic and expressive electric guitarist, who almost steals the show with his freaked out psychedelic guitar work, before drifting back to leave just her fragile roughly-hewn wisps of folk song. She is still a minority taste perhaps, even in these Joanna Newsom-enraptured times, but it is the lucky few who are here on this rainy Wednesday night.

Photos of this gig available here.

Josephine Foster

Bardo Pond, with Jackie O Motherfucker and Alexander Tucker, Mono, Glasgow, Tuesday 28th November 2006

Tonight's trio of consciousness-expanders begins with Alexander Tucker, who builds walls of textured drone that belie his lone, seated figure. With bowed guitar, acoustic arpeggios and wordless vocals, interspersed with occasional bursts of heavy noise, he masterfully begins our night of psychedelia.

Live, Jackie O Motherfucker are quite a way from the relative accessibility of last year's 'Flags Of The Sacred Harp'. They play long improvised organic jams, formed from a multitude of bowings, scrapings, drifting ghostly voices and shamanistic chanting. Over the course of an hour, their shuddering drones slowly rise and fall, coalescing every so often into half-songs and melodies

Bardo Pond’s similarly trance-inducing sounds are of a wholly different kind. The air is thick with their heavy riffs, the sound so dense it seems to tune the whole venue into their monolithic bass-heavy grooves. With the unstoppable juggernaut of Clint Takeda's bass and Jason Kourkounis' drums and the deep fuzz of the Gibbons brothers' dual guitars, all overlaid with the barely-heard whispers of Isobel Sollenberger's flute and vocals, Glasgow is treated to a wonderful dose of the finest psychedelic rock around.

Photos of this gig available here.

Bardo Pond
Jackie O Motherfucker
Alexander Tucker

MV & EE Medicine Show, with Tight Meat Duo and Meursault, Downstairs at The Captain’s Rest, Glasgow, Friday 17th November 2006

In most artistic circles, performing with ones back to the audience would be a definite no-no, but for aptly named Glasgow drone artist Meursault it was all part of the performance, as he created mysterious walls of melancholy noise from layers of looped and bowed guitar, infused with the same kind of aching, slow-moving sadness that makes William Basinksi and Andrew Chalk so wonderful.

Fresh from a stint touring America with Bonnie 'Prince' Billy, this was very much a homecoming gig for drummer extraordinaire Alex Neilson, performing tonight with fellow Volcanic Tongue David Keenan on saxophone in their free jazz Tight Meat Duo incarnation. The energy and enthusiasm with which they played was a real delight to watch, with their short but glorious set positively overflowing with joyous freedom and expression.

MV & EE's brand of free folk is a vintage bluesy one, conjuring images of evenings on new-weird-American communes bashing out long drug-infused tales and analogue valve-driven jams. Soon overcoming initial amp problems, they played a set in which all the best of retro-feeling forward-looking psych, folk, blues, country and rock came together. The highlight of the night, however, was when they were joined for their final song by Alex Neilson, who again revelled in his return to freedom, driving forward a huge shuddering blast of gloriously free rock. With this catharsis, as the night wound up towards its ecstatic conclusions, there came a wonderfully Glaswegian shout from the shadowy recesses of the room; "awww man, this is pure head music!" and goddamn were they ever right.

Photos of this gig available here.