Music
Only three of these people are actually in Future eX Wife; can you guess which?
ROCK CAPTAINS OF INDUSTRY NIGHT
Venue, Edinburgh, Sun 6 Jun
‘A couple of major labels approached them,’ says Pete Splby, lead singer of Future eX Wife. ‘These record Industry execs said to them that they’d Inject a bit of cash into the set-up. In return the major would take any bands off their hands if they liked them. Captains told them to fuck off.’ Spiby may have global ambitions for his own band but he has no small admiration for the proud petulance of Captains of Industry, a label which has put out two of his mini-albums and which brings a showcase of bands to the central belt, kick starting a truly tantalising summer of music.
Captains was established by rock Journalist Ben Myers, who ploughed the meagre advance from his book American Heretics: Rebel Voices in Music (together with some funding from Northern Arts
Council) into the label. Aided manfully by his brother Rich, Captains has already hammered a nail into the biubbery mass that is our contemporary music scene since It became a bona fide label at the end of 2003. it has put out stuff by Minus before the Icelandic metallers went on to a big deal with Sony. It
put out the mini album Miss September by Future ex Wife - a burst of sinister, swaggering Soundgarden-esque rock recorded In one day in Sheffield last year. Each release was accompanied
with the words of Ben Myers, goadlng his contemporaries into action.
‘We want to take a bite out the ass of art,’ he writes. ‘We want to remind people that they are alive. We want to lead by example - which is why essentially who we are, how old we are and what we do is Irrelevant. We’re aware that most people in the 20th century let themselves be defined by their jobs - something we hope to avoid. This will never be a job. This is way more Important. We are the Captains of Industry and we have come to lead by example.’ Label co-founder Richard describes his brother’s stirring words as ‘propaganda’.
But as Pets Spiby - his eye on a big deal with a US label - puts it, ‘they practice what they preach.’ On top of the clued-up rock of Minus and Future ex Wife, Captains put out the slow-burning brilliance of post-rockers Peace Burial at Sea and the schlock-rock fun and games of Blood Valley. if the 1990s taught us anything it was that independence can frequently be an Illusion in the record industry. Right now, however, Captains of industry is a rock. (Tim Abrahams)
FOLK
RUFUS WAINWRIGHT Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow, Fri 28 May
Out of the ivory tower
He's the hugely talented son of Kate McGarrigie and Loudon Wainwright. The name's got an archaic ring. but What's With the fold-out CD sleeve pic where you're lying in a full Suit of arrow at Le
50 TI'II LIST 27 May-‘0 Ju" 2004
Mort D'Arthur? “It was essentiain an un-mediated idea.' he admits 'l fancied seeing myself in that heroic role. And I love the Pre-Raphael'tes. So I took the two elements and son of spruced them up for the present. lt's me saying that yOu have to be your own saviour.’
Produced by Marius deVries (Bjork. Madonna. Bowie etc) Want One. the third album by the young. New York-based songwnter/pianist/guitarist. is passionately opulent in its orchestration and arrangement: as when the opening track swings into an arrestineg skewed version of Ravel's Bo/ero. Rufus is ruefulz ‘We had to run it past the Ravel family fOr approval. Expensive.“ Interestingly. and probably because of his parent's strong roots in the wide world of ‘folk'. Rufus has always surrOunded himself With classical muSic. 'I love Opera and I want my songs to be as good as
arias. Pop songs have only lasted abOut 50 years. but l'm going for the 200'
He's talking from the Royal Albert Hall. where he's supporting Sting. “His audience are ready fOr my chord changes.‘ he quips. We had to go down many different channels. My parents grew up in a very different time. They lived in an ivory tower. Mine's was very cut- throat but l'm constantly infected with a showbiz bug. and luckily I don't mind playing the game. I don't have any modesty.'
On tour With his mum and aunt. aka The McGarrigles. and his Sister Martha. Rufus has been looking forward to the Scottish visit. 'My mum and dad used to take me to Skye where we stayed with a woman who played a harp. Maybe she was a witch. And I love Charles Rennie Mackintosh. l'd love to visit one of his tea rooms'
(Norman Chalmers)
JAZZ
ERIK TRUFFAZ QUARTET Queen’s Hail, Edinburgh, Tue 1 Jun; Tolbooth, Stirling, Fri 4 Jun; Tron Theatre, Glasgow, Sun 6 Jun
Erik Truffaz is the second jazz artist to feature in the opening round of the Scottish Arts Council's Tune Up tours. Like the first one. Paulo Fresu. he is a European trumpet player often linked with the legacy of Miles Davis. but while Fresu’s project invoked Miles directly. Truffaz has a more indirect link with the post-1970 music of the jazz legend.
‘I play trumpet and I have an electric band. and from the early 70s to the end of his life Miles did this too. so yes. there is a connection there. The second thing is that I try to keep the information of the new music around me. and Miles always tried to do this. He is one of the jazzmen who really tried to listen to what was happening in music around him. and there are not so many who did that. So there is a kind of connection there, but after that I cannot compare. because he is a maestro.’
Erik sates himself on Miles
Truffaz has won an international reputation for his experiments in fusing jazz. rock and contemporary dance grooves within his music. as demonstrated on The Walk of the Giant Turt/e, his latest album for Blue Note.
'We tried to obtain a live sound in the studio. Most of the time I record the concerts we play. and sometimes there is more life in the music than in the studio. so we tried to capture that sound on the record. We were looking to try to get some of the rhythmic power of rock as well. When I was a teenager in the 70s I was really fond of British music — Led Zeppelin. Deep Purple. .Jimi Hendrix. Pink Floyd. It began for me with the Beatles. and finished around the time of Massive Attack.
‘I discovered Miles“ music on records like Bitches Brew and On the Corner with the wah wah trumpet and so on. and suddenly it oc0urred to me that I can play rock with the trumpet. and I always tried to do this. to capture that energy and also the emotion.’
(Kenny Mathieson)