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lllblf: Hoar“ GLASVEGAS AND THE X1 Barfly, Glasgow, Sun 30 Apr 000
A band that .' a.e View,” T' e 2 ’.
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Unless you happen to “an: Tt‘e' utter dedicated to ,(iu. as lw; A" 4r '2' narr' as Glasvegas put it, (ll’l left, mung :riars themselves they took it well erwirtr‘. rr‘ their stride. hrirsing on WITH their our: brand of bluesy garage indie and resisting the temptation for petty retort, Not that it was to the audience's gain, a 'r 't banter might have gone acme to relieve the letlltirn (if the Llllft'lil‘tf'i'tllnt" pull rock tug.
Love it or loathe it. a little fil‘itrétl) controversy can go a long (Malcolm Jacki
if. “Mirth,
ROCK
DE ROSA
Usher Hall, Edinburgh, Thu 27 Apr 0...
This Lanarkshire tourscme looked nerxous. but them would have been a good few converts in the crowd b, the errd of their gratefully received set.
De Rosa's debut album Mend is out next month on Chemikal Ur‘rdergrnund and the. produce a rich and sgualling sound. but one that's based more around pastoral lyriCism and short. sharp psych-rock thrusts. Martin Henry's Scots-accented vocalsaccentuate their lineage on songs like 'New Lanark'. yet — for all the niches they may half fall into - De Rosa deserve gigs like this because they're another addition to Scotland's Current canon ct bands who sound like no one but themselves. iDaVio' Pollock)
[’XPLHIMENTAL LIGHTNING BOLT Grand Ole Opry, Glasgow, Sun 14 May
A term so relentlessly flogged to the point of becoming near inevitable non-sequitur, bands like Lightning Bolt remind us that something called Art Rock really does exist. Not that the two Brians (drummer and vocalist Chippendale, and bassist Gibson) would necessarily care what anybody calls them, with hard nosed insouciance having been their gambit since emerging in 1994 from the Rhode Island School of Design that spawned Talking Heads two decades previously.
Peddling savage but intricate bursts of thick distorted bass, driven by Chippendale’s machine gun drumming, vocals processed to the point of near indecipherability (abetted by his eschewing a stand in favour of holding the mike between his teeth) the duo
fife BAD PLUS
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have led a notoriously wild and erratic path through the US underground music scene, their riotous guerrilla gigs - set up and played in the middle of the crowd - being their major legacy to date. Never particularly enamoured by the idea of studio recording, releases have been generally hard to come by. Initially limited to a scatter shot of compilation appearances, live recordings and 7”s until their eponymous debut LP in 2001, it took them until last years Hypermagic Mountain to actually achieve something they approved of. And then only by virtue of it finally living up to their infamous live sound: frenzied, spontaneous and generally chaotic.
Oh, and loud. So loud in fact that Gibson was actually diagnosed with hearing loss in 2004, declaring that he wished he’d never started playing music in the first place. Whoever said you should suffer for your art? (Malcolm Jack)
Queen's Hall. Edinburgh, Tue 23 May
The Bart Plus are ham. The :conoelastx, Yorkliased Inc have been to Scotland sexeral times since the, made a sensationa; debut at the Hub ill 2002. never failing to make a big impression. This trme 'ound they're touring behnd last year's Susprcrous Acfiiitt T) aiburtt. and are definitely a band who come over best of all in a live setting.
\‘Jhiie the band mimics the conuer‘tronal instrumental line-.ip of a Jazz piano trio. their ltl.lS:tT takes that "()llOll and runs 't through tne shredder. Groap interaction remains at CON}. out it's all a long way from the norm. as pianist Ethan Iverson explained.
'Je ’ ' a." ensemble music. and for me it's always about the .vhole scenario that's on stage. narrateier the setting. The Bad Plus is entirei, a cooperative trio. and Our concept s very far removed from the traditional roles of our instrumentation. The idea of hang the band out front with two sipporting acco'rtpanists on bass and drums is ..;;.etel\. foregri to what we do that it's srmpl, gcneT igersart acted b, Reid Anderson and David Kng .‘JllCSe roots are in the mid-.vest 'CQK scene 'at'ter than metropolitan York. although tre pianrst came at it the other wax, round. from a razz and classical perspective.
"rte lime a kind of llllO-‘.‘J€Si€lll anarchy to our SOLJHC. and .ve're proud of that. David and Reid "‘a.e their own rock bands. but .ve meet somewhere in the middle.’
Til". le most of titer material Is ongrriai. they are iinitamous for their versiOris of "Smells Like Teen Spirit and iron Man'. albeit given the trademark Bad Plus treatment.
'Peope notice that we play wnat l call music off the radio; tunes 0, Abba. Blondie. Net Young. Km Cobain Bleak Sabbath and Vangels. rrusic that has that element of tam ar.t,. Dal is :itr'iCult r’or ,azz musicians to play without it sounding COmpIetely inane.
'0..’ answer to that was to pia, them mm a maniacal edge. usmg a vocabulary that is our Cum. ACOut the only tning we don't play is iazz standards MuCh as l love them. I Irwin it would fee: pretty tame to do standards in this band.‘ lKenny Mathieson;
11—25 May 2006 THE LIST 61