Tomorrow's music today. This issue: Crash My Model Car
Formed from the ashes of local tunesmiths Poor Old Ben, Crash My Model Car’s new moniker, re-jigged line-up and recently signed publishing deal with Universal have given new impetus to one of Scotland’s best underground indie pop purveyors. Bassist Alistair Whitty explains why the band are in the fast lane to success.
We're currently in negotiations with a few majOr record companies and should be signing a deal pretty soon. It's been a lot of hard work and we feel it's the next logical step to take. It's not like this big Spinal Tap excitement; it's more of a progression. and we feel that we're ready for it now.
You’re now a stripped-down trio. How does that compare with before?
I think we were always trying to gloss over stuff with instruments that we didn't really need before. Since taking it back to a three-piece we all try a lot harder instead of relying on someone else to sprinkle the magic dust over a tune.
What are your influences?
We're influenced heavily by folk like the Lemonheads. Neil Young and Ben Kweller. Our s0und's a combination of that and more acoustic stuff. We're not a rock-Out band; we've got a real accustic side as well as the poppier side of things.
Are you ambitious?
I think we're incredibly ambitiOus: we're prepared to go as big as we can possibly be. We want to keep the indie ethos and keep control of the music. but I think we've got songs with commercial value. Obviously the publishing and record companies can see that. (Doug Johnstonel
I King Tut's. Glasgow, Thu 8 Dec.
70 THE LIST l-tz') Dec 200:")
INDIE
THE RONELLES
Liquid Room, Edinburgh. Sun 30 Oct .0.
Playing second fiddle to Goldie Lookin' Chain at an intimate Beat 106 competition winners' show. impudent yOung Glasgow turks the Ronelles all but managed to steal the show. Now it might be hard to gauge Welsh comedy hip hop against Faces-style guitar riffery on an appreciable level. but the fact that the half-cut guartet managed to outchav the tracksuited Taffs and reduce the audience to stitches says a lot.
The Ronelles offer precisely nothing new to music. yet go about returning the wheel with ferocious verve. Singer Raymond Meade careers across the stage wrapped in his own mic cable. bellowing 'coome ooon!‘ in time- honoured Gallagher fashion. About three songs later they were too spent to carry on. yet the memory of this glorious. invigorating debacle Will live on for wrtnesses. (DaVId Pollock)
INDIE
CLAP YOUR HANDS SAY YEAH
ABCZ, Glasgow, Sun 20 Nov .00.
The Brooklyn quintet are currently carrying the bu// of expectation around like a Ready Brek glow but that shouldn't prejudice anyone against them either way. although stepping carefully is always advisable
EXPERIMENTAL JUSTICE YELDHAM
when a brand new band are so relentlessly hailed.
In truth. the softly-softly approach reveals there's much to like about them. and not just that charming Beat proverb of a name. Alec Ounsworth is flitting between a defiant sneer and a tender warble as only lvlorrissey before him could and they capany slij_)stream the superior and fast-approaching- real-greatness Arcade Fire for drama and feeling. A cover. in particular. of Neil Young's 'Helpless'. whose warmth saw most of us home through the chill. (David Pollock)
ROCK
THE WHITE STRIPES Carling Academy, Glasgow, Tue 15 Nov com
Jack White's obsession with threes is well documented — this is the third of the three-night residency in Glasgow — but some numbers don't ali-xrays add up at White Stripes shows. The trio of elements he utilises (instrument. voice. percussion) rarely combine to be just a sum of their parts: they reSuII in so much more. The silent movie Villain garb. plant pots and stage names may be fluff and fun. but there's little gimmickry involved in their truly humungous sound.
The other three that's apparent tonight is in the three sides of Jack White. There's blues Jack. a demon slide player and deft soloist. trawling the bayou for tales of heartbreak and retribution. There's country Jack. preening. pleading and howling. mandolin in low. And there's rock Jack. stomping. shronking and conjuring up an incantation of lommi and Page. The White Stripes are still among the greatest live acts around. and shows like this aren't going to change that one little bit.
(Mark Robertson)
Henry’s Cellar Bar, Edinburgh, Wed 16 Nov 0000
Glassing offences are more readin associated these days wrth binge-drinking. For Aussie madman. Lucas Abela (AKA Justice Yeldhami. however, being raised in an outback environment of XXXX tinnies was clearly crushing enough for him to embrace more extreme forms of social ritual.
Yeldham's shtick is simple but painfully effective. Balancing a pane of glass on his shoulders. he presses his \«Vlr()(l-f()l'-S()llll(l face up close. pumps up the volume and lets rip. Before long. the glass splinters and flesh wounds inevrtably occur. Yeldham doesn't give up there. however. and keeps on pushing the sound (and pain?) barrier until the whole thing falls apart in his hands. And face. which takes the brunt of the onslaught.
In a more formal arts centre enVironment. this could have ended up little more than a sterile piece of voyeurism. Seen up close and personal in the ramshackle confines of a half-built Henry's Cellar Bar. the whole thing becomes a compelling peep show into a form of body art that's part stigmata. part Jim Rose Circus. As a spectacle. it's messy and desperate sounding grunts. llll[_)|(}2tSlelI groans and spit-s ains aren't unlike the pantomimic appeal of professional wrestling. where the sheer leakage of the blood—smears comes from the mutually agreed nick of a fresh ra/or blade. It hurts. yes. but not
really that much.
What's most startling is how the post-show crowd form a scrum of phone camera wrelding )_)aj.’)arazzi desperate to capture a drip of some real live Rhesus Negative. Smashing. (Neil Cooper)