Music
ROCK
PRIMAL SCREAM Carling Academy, Glasgow, Fri 16-Sat 17 Jan
Even if you didn’t get it in your stocking for Christmas, you might still have noticed that Primal Scream have a compilation entitled Dirty Hits out at the moment. In the ever-more predictable chart of a band’s life span, this should mean only one thing: a final cash-in before they say their farewells, pack up the guitars and head off into a cosy red sunset of solo projects and magazine retrospectives.
Don’t start writing those eulogies yet, though, because if you want predictability you’re knocking on the wrong door. Confounding critics and delighting fans in equal measure, Bobby Gillespie and co have made a career out of constant, invigorating self-reinvention, which has made their emergence with a new album every couple of years for the last decade-plus an event worth getting down to the record shop first thing on Monday for (OK,
maybe Sonic Flower Groove and Primal Scream excepted). Although interpreted after the
Primal Scream: quietly defining the times
fact as scene-hopping magpies, in fact, the band have quietly, confidently defined the times in a manner which only their music obsessives’ understanding of what makes a good band great can allow. The Stone Roses never saw a sampler in their lives and the Happy Mondays just got pilled-up and handed the clubbiest tunes over to Paul Oakenfold for remixing. But the Scream - in collaboration with Andy Weatherall - actually created the first rock/dance crossover record worthy of the name in Screamadelica. The follow-up, 1994 Stones/Funkadelic hybrid Give Out But Don ’t Give Up, might then have been derided for its backwards-looking tendencies, but it still predated Oasis by six months and gave us ‘Rocks’ - a bona fide tune of the 90s. After that, things got dark. 1997’s Vanishing Point was a brilliant-but-gloomy evocation of the post- Britpop, post-Cool Britannia, end of a century vibe, and a shambling, shoe-gazing dance on the grave of a scene the band involved themselves in but never embraced. 2000’s gobsmacking XTRMNTR, meanwhile, had slept off the hangover, the first great album of the 21st century and a record which already had its passport stamped for Berlin, Detroit and New York while today’s cover stars were still fondling their brothers’ old AC/DC vinyl. Which brings us to last year’s Evil Heat. Hardly a bad record, as it happens, just . . . more of the same, but not as good. For the first time, in fact, it seemed that the Scream’s contemporaries had done it first and better. You wouldn’t bet either way on it being their swansong, but - quite frankly - the Scream have earned the right to do what the hell they want. If that means plugging on until Mick’n’Keef’s age, then so be it. (David Pollock)
INDIE
LONG-VIEW
King Tut’s, Glasgow, Sun 18 Jan
Mind out for misty eyes
44 THE LIST 8 2)? Ja" 730.2
Rob McVey is drIVing down from Manchester to the south coast
With his girlfriend when we speak.
which explains; the occasional references to petrol stations and the enthusiasm With which he announces the arrival of the Boomtown Rats on the radio. The LongView singer is in a good mood — he's about to embark on his first weekend off since his band's debut album came out in July.
Mercury is a record worth promoting. It's not. to he fair, an album for those who dislike
earnest and expansive indie rock.
but it's full of tunes that make your eyes go mist and your heart go boom. And it could well propel LongVIew into the big time.
“I'd love to play arenas.’ says McVey. ‘We got offered an arena tetir ~ supporting. not headlining. but we didn't feel we were ready for it. But if you can play arenas. it's a direct result of being able to
connect With people. I hate the self-indulgent indie thing — music is for people. It shouldn't be anything to do with this culture of sensationalism we've got at the moment where the NME and the media seem to want to reduce everything to a soap opera.’
There's no respite on the touring front. with gigs lined up in Europe and Japan. But the band (McVey. guitarist Doug Morch. bassist Aidan Banks and drummer Mat Dabbs) are hoping to have new material out by the end of 2004. and have already got a stack of songs written. '80 many bands seem to go off the boil With their second album.” says McVey. 'The challenge is to write about things for the same reasons you started out with. to write about things people still care about. But I'm domg enough of real life at the moment. I think. It going down the M6 in a Nissan Micra isn't real life. I don't know what is.' (James Smart)
Genuinel talented and fabulous y funky pop prince, or dim-witted corporate stooge?
Ma be JUSTIN
Tl BERLAKE is both . . .
tolove 1 He’s Justin. Like yer man from the Darkness and. er. the bloke from the Million POund Property Experiment.
2 He’s big. Debut Just/lied has sold over a million cooles in the UK. while 130.000 tickets for his current arena tOLir went in two hours.
3 He’s good. At the Neptunes' Com Exchange gig in November. Timberlake jumped around With obvious glee. beatboxed impressively and oozed charisma. He didn‘t leave the stage all night. 4 He’s $000 over Britney. Since splitting with Miss Middle America. Justin has been linked with Christina Aguilera. Janet Jackson and Cameron Diaz. And he's laid hands on pop's Holy Grail: Kylie‘s arse.
5 The songs are cracking. 'Like I Love You'. ‘Rock YOur Body' and ‘Cry me a River' are sheer genius. Are you saying you've never
to hate
1 His past. He's an ex-boy bander and a pop careerist who's been preened for the top since. aged 12. he starred in the Mickey Mouse Club TV series. alongside Britney. 2 He’s gormless. 'What was the best thing you read all year?’ asked Rolling Stone. ‘What.’ said Justin, “you mean like a book?‘
3 Sellout! He's proud of his starring role in the new McDonald's ads. 'l'm excited to be involved in the campaign,‘ he blabbered. 'I think it's a cool partnership. We've kinda got the same crowd. those that like to have fun.‘ Could the child be any more satanic?
4 He’s misinformed. According to Britney. Trousersnake isn't so huge after all. In an interview with the Sun. she wiggled her little finger Suggestiver and burst into a flood of giggles.
5 He’s a puppet. ‘Like I Love You"? Made by the Neptunes. ‘Cry me a River'? Made by Timbaland. Timberlake is the icing. not the cake: without his producers. he'd be sickening. (James Smart)
231i Justin Timberlake plays the SECC. Glasgow, Wed 74, Thu 75 and Fri 76 Jan.