www.lisgt.co.‘uk/musicg _ ..
Tomorrow's music today This issue: No Age
Set to be the breakthrough band from Los Angeles arts space The Smell, No Age have unleashed a scuzzy noise- pop masterpiece in their Sub Pop debut Nouns. Guitarist Randy Randall and drummer/singer Dean Spunt crank out a joyous racket that suggests a skate-off between Hiisker Dii and My Bloody Valentine. This band could be your life.
Tell us how it all started, Dean?
We wanted to make music we could listen to. Randy and I love to play music together and it happens so naturally that we
decided to make it a two-piece.
How has being part of The Smell scene, along with bands like Abe Vigoda and Mika Miko, shaped you?
In my mind The Smell has been the coolest punk club around for the past ten years. so I have always seen it as mystical and awesome. The amount of attention has nothing to do With us as people or as a band; we would still be dorng the same thing if
nobody had heard of us or The Smell.
Some bands are ‘all about the music’ but you seem keen to represent more than that.
It is important for us to represent ourselves. to be honest and just make music. The other things are important because they are what we do. and become what we are. We are both vegan. we enjoy playing in places other than rock clubs and we like art. punk rock. etc. But we are ‘all about the music' too.
(Stewart Smith)
I No Age play Opt/mo at the Sub Club. Glasgow. Sun I8 May The album Nouns is out now on Sub Pop.
REVlEW INDIE
THE VASELINES AND EMMA POLLOCK
Mono, Glasgow, Thu 24 Apr .0000
‘We‘re The Vaselines.‘ chirps Eugene Kelly by way of introduction. And perhaps. given that he and Frances McKee are backed by tom members of Belle and Sebastian. this is as much to prevent any confusion. The significance of this reunion is such that — apart from short solo appearances from both McKee and Kelly — Support for the show is Emma Pollock. whose full-band set is itself worth the entrance fee alone (the evening, rock history-making aside. is a benefit for a Malawran orphanage programme).
The turbo-charged headliners put to bed any memories of less-than-stellar past gigs — thanks to the band who reinvented their twee. slightly shambling indie pop with Belle and Sebastian's Stevie Jackson. Bob Kildea. Richard Colburn and Sarah Martin adding flesh to the simple chord structures and boy- girl harmonies found in The Vaselines' back catalogue. In partiCular. three songs recorded by Nirvana: 'Son of a Gun'. “Molly's Lips' and ‘Jesus Don't Want Me for a Sunbeam” unsurprisingly receive a response befitting a Second Coming. Next stop Seattle. for another display of what Kurt Cobain saw in them in the first place. (Stuart McHughi
Review GARAGF ART- PUNK TELEVISED CRIMEWAVE Fast @ the Bongo Club, Edinburgh, Fri 18 Apr 000
No band of skinny-jean art—punk terriers wants to appear like they're trying too hard. but that doesn't work when your audience are simultaneously reclining away from looking like they give a damn. A few lively young types danced in the void between Leeds guartet Televised Crimewave and the bulk of their crowd, who rocked back on their heels in slurring semi-approval. Singer Daniel Wilson tried hard to incite some kind of connection. but it just wasn't happening.
It's a shame really. because Fast generally makes a habit of playing host to fiery gigs. and Televised Crimewave -- who used to ply their trade around their home city under the name Black Wire —- aren't too shabby. Or rather they are. but that's surely the point. Their finest songs. tracks like ‘Kids' and ‘Objects of Desire'. lie somewhere in between capability and enthusiastic amateurism. fitting in perfectly with such a grimy late-night venue. The Fall and Gang of Four probably started off much like this. and the lesson here is that they no doubt very quickly learned to force a reaction from their crowds. (David Pollock)
REVlEW ROCK
THE PHANTOM BAND Is This Music? @ 13th Note, Glasgow, Thu 17 Apr 000
Back in early 2005. few people were shouting about Mother and the Addicts. ditto De Rosa in early 2006. yet both of these bands went on to promptly release cracking debut albums through Chemikal Underground. Two good reasons at least to feel confident. then, that while Chemikal's latest signees The Phantom Band are yet to fully assert themselves as a live outfit. the six-pieces own first long player —- currently breWing in a Glasgow studio — wrll equally light up 2008 when it arrives.
Stylistically they're are as slippery as they come: one minute they sound like The Doors chugging along a Krautrock autolxahn, the next they're tribally banging wooden percussion to bowel— movrng synth-bass. or sawrng at your auditory canal wrth gnarled riffs Sabbath-style. The loose. scattershot delivery of these ideas live makes it all sound a bit scabby. but lashed together with more consideration on tape it could add up to something pretty special. Note that the sextet are also occasionally prone to indulging in a freaky eight—minute riff on the theme tune to Crocodile Dundee. It seems unlikely that this one will make the record. (Malcolm Jack)
REVtE «r ROCK IND MITOS
Nice'n’Sleazy, Glasgow, Sat 19 Apr 0...
From the moment they take the stage with a dry 'gOOdnight. we are lndOmitos’. to when they amble off the stage having delivered a pitch-perfect set of rattling. rumbling and reverb- drenched garage punk. it's obvious that this band is something special. A three piece. originally hailing from Vigo in Spain. two thirds of IndOmitos used to be half of the short-lived. Glasgow- based band Noon. This. unbelievably, is their debut gig together (and drummer/ vocalist Paula's first ever).
With guitar pitched somewhere between Sister-era Sonic Youth and the Birthday Party and bass alternating between a rhythmic drone and thundering. propulsive energy, lnddmitos employ the same inventiveness with a tried and tested formula that first made the Pixies so ear-catching. Undoubtedly. the fact that they are singing entirely in Spanish endows lndOmitos with a certain quality of detached mystery but the fact that they could be singing about practically anything and still be so thoroughly enjoyable probably speaks for itself.
Word is that IndOmitOS may be returning to Vigo. so catch them while you can. And if you do see them. try to persuade them to stay. (Sean Welsh)
8-22 May 2008 THE LIST 75