MUSIC preview
VENUES The 13th Note
It was great while it lasted. There were funky times, stimulating times, indulgent times, overheated times, exciting times, happy times. But it had to come to an end. You knew it, I knew it. It was just a matter of picking the right time and the right place.
For a start, there was the feeling of restlessness, the need to spread wings and the frustration of being confined. Then there was the cost involved in maintaining things as they were. But mostly there was the need to serve a veggieburger after 7pm.
For these valid reasons, The 13th Note, watering hole for the cognoscenti of Glasgow's grassroots music scene, has flitted. The Glassford Street premises m where we loved, laughed, got trousered — have been sold and two new establishments have been up and running since December.
You’ve got the club, venue and all- round late-night drinking den on Clyde Street — two floors of relaxed hang-out Space which may look different, but has managed to transplant the atmosphere of the original pub. Then there's the stylish cafe bar in King Street, handy for the struggling artists of the parish, who can bolster their creative juices with veggie and
'
Bis: wouldn't be where they are now without 13th Note veggieburgers
vegan food at any time of the day.
There's also no doubt that they will be able to build up a history and reputation as formidable as the Glassford Street bar, where Emma Thompson, Evan Dando and Placebo‘s Brian Molko have all stopped by for a pint. There will be the same support to new bands, local and not-so-local. Where would Green Day be today if they hadn't played to about ten people in The 13th Note basement in early '93? Probably an internationally successful punk-pop band, but at least the Glasgow Music Collective caught them in their fledgeling days.
In addition to significantly furthering the careers of
local combos like Bis, Urusei Yatsura and Mogwai, there was support for the oldsters too. American songwriting dudes Alex Chilton, Dan Penn and Kim Fowley all played special gigs to packed houses — now they can return to a larger venue. Pre-club nights can be club nights due to the 3am license on Clyde Street.
The Glasgow music scene will be fertile, united and ecstatic. World peace and an end to famine, war and disease will surely follow. But that’s for later; in the meantime — let’s rockl (Fiona Shepherd)
3 The 73th Note Club, Clyde Street, 227 0474, The 73th Note Cafe Bar, King Street, 553 7638.
Idlewild: ‘Everyone wants the fast. jumpy-about ones'
ROCK Idlewild
Faster than a cheetah in Nikes, spikier than a hedgehog with a spear, more grumpy-sounding than a bear who's pinched a picnic basket full of Stoli, tanned the lot, and woken up with the mother of all hangovers and a Boo Boo tattoo. Animal analogies are Just the thing for describing Idlewild, Edinburgh's up-and-coming young punk pups.
These are the cool things Idlewild have done since forming in January
58 "IE IJST 9-22 Jan 1998
1996: released two independent singles of unapologetic punk mayhem, knocked the socks off Steve Lamacq; come second in the music industry's In The City competition despite playing incrediny badly; recorded a solid mini- album — Captain — which is about to come out on respected indie label Deceptive; Signed to Food Records. So why do all their songs SOund like the band dog iust died?
'One of my friends said we sound like totally everything's gorng wrong in the world,‘ murmers singer Roddy Woomble. 'When we play live there’s a
real tension and anger, although I'm not actually that pissed off about things. But for some reason we create this noisy stuff when the fOur of us get together’
’NOisy stuff’ is a falsely modest euphemism for the IdIeWild sound They’ve the angular atmospherics of FugaZi, the pulverising tunesmithery of Husker Du, and a grasp of dynamics which Suggests extensive study at the knee of The PIXIE‘S Yes, they sound American.
But hidden Within the abrasive shell of the songs, there is always a tiny, delicate melody struggling to make itself heard, Could this suggest a more chilled-out future for these nifty n0iseniks7
’We’vc got loads of poppier songs which we haven't recorded yet,’ Woomble confesses as if it was a sin. ’But we don’t usually play the pop songs because nobody wants to hear slow, melodic numbers. Everyone wants the fast, lumpy-about ones '
Keep your ears open for IdleWild. They're like a kangaroo on speed. (Peter Ross)
3 Captain is released I 2 January on Deceptive
ROCK
Headswim
Glasgow: King Tut's Wah Wah Hut, Mon 19 Jan.
Finding a name for your shiny new band must be a bugger of a thing. It's got to say so much about your combo's philos0phy, attitude and music and linger in the listening public's memOry Questions are still asked why Simple Minds bothered to change theirs from Johnny & The Self-Abusers, so what was the thinking behind HeadSWim ~ a love of drowsy cough mixtures, or something a bit stronger and less legal, perhaps7 ’We iust thought, "God we've riot to think of a name for the hand, what are we going to do With it7’” explains keyboard player Nick Watts. 'Aiid it Just evoked the kind of music we were into, sort of psychedelic and Vinyl trips and it seemed to go well With that sort of idea.’
The Essex boys 9 brothers Tom and Dan Glendining (the main songwriter), Clows Taylor and Watts have come a long way since those less than heady early days of 1994 when their first releases made nary a dent on the public or the charts. 'I think we've all matured and become a lot more confident about What we’re domg,’ confesses Watts 'On our earlier material, we were very aggressive and nOisy and hid behind a great wall of sound. We thought we were being really experimental but we weren't, really. Now we’re managing to get our genUIne influences out '
And, despite the press hanging on about yet another new Radiohead or Manics, the boys would rather they were tongued in the same breath as U2 or The Who, Now the quartet have been added to the ever expanding list of 98's hot young things, admired by the stars -— well REM, Pearl Jam and Depeche Mode anyway -- and have seen the Wild blue yonders of the USA touring With Kula Shaker. 'That was Our first time in America and it was jUSl an amazing expenence,’ recalls Watts 'Just travelling around and touring, playing to sold out audiences every night. Mainly young girls '
HeadsWiin —- a band Who Will either
turn your tide or give you the bends, (Brian Donaldson)
fl Headswmi release a new Sing/e ’Tourniguet' on Epic on 26 Jan,
Headswim: no business like shoal business