www.list.co.uk/music Music
EXPOSURE
NITE JEWEL The musical project of philosophy student and artist Romana Gonzalez, Nite Jewel filter 80s pop, 90s R&B and new age music through a dreamy lo-fi haze. Following the 12in ‘What Did He Say’ on estimable avant-disco stable Italians Do It Better, debut album Good Evening has finally received a UK release on blog- turned-label No Pain in Pop. Some reviewers have dubbed your sound ‘bedroom dance’. What would you call it?
I was in no way making this album with genres in mind. But if ‘bedroom dance’ means that what struck someone’s imagination is a girl dancing in her bedroom, that’s pretty appealing to me. Is the lo-fi sound a deliberate aesthetic choice?
It wasn’t a conscious decision. An eight-track recorder is just so easy to use. So it’s really not a big deal. It’s just that I chose to produce my record myself, and I’m not a producer. And so it turned out kind of amateurish. The charm of it seems to be in the clear human touch. You’ve worked with Ariel Pink. Have his bedroom pop sensibilities had an impact on your music making?
Absolutely. Before I even met Ariel I was learning from him that you can record however the fuck you want. Moving to LA and jamming with people, recording everything on eight-track or four- track, we weren’t afraid to sit down and just let the tape roll. (Stewart Smith) ■ Nite Jewel plays Stereo, Glasgow, on Thu 1 Oct, with support from Dollskabeat, JD Twitch and Chops.
REVIEW INDIE EDWYN COLLINS & TEENAGE FANCLUB Mono, Glasgow, Thu 10 Sep ●●●●● To anyone with an affinity for Glasgow’s indie music scene, this show was something beyond special. Simply surveying the local dignitaries in the crowd (Stuart Murdoch, Duglas T Stewart, Stephen Pastel, Adele Bethel, Jackie McKeown and more) was like looking at a map of the city’s recent musical history. That’s before Edwyn Collins – originator of the Scots indie style – took to the stage with Teenage Fanclub as his band. The Fannies, themselves already near to a point of deification in the pantheon of Scottish pop, still looked in mild awe to be given this chance. Having convened earlier in the evening to open the nearby Trongate 103 complex with a short set in the foyer, the scratch band here played a longer set of Collins’ songs aimed squarely at those who recognised what a moment this was, including unerringly faithful readings of ‘Falling and Laughing’, ‘What Presence’, ‘Blue Boy’ and ‘Rip It Up’. ‘A Girl Like You’ and newer material still worked, although was perhaps denied the frisson of the Fanclub’s resurgent teen enthusiasm. (David Pollock) ■ www.edwyncollins.com
REVIEW INDIE SCHUH PRESENTS THE NEW BLOOD TOUR Bongo Club, Sun 13 Sep ●●●●● REVIEW INDIE POP CODEINE VELVET CLUB Classic Grand, Glasgow, Tue 15 Sep ●●●●●
REVIEW POP SUGAR CRISIS Apple Store, Glasgow, Thu 17 Sep ●●●●●
Even with the astonishingly reasonable ‘free’ price tag, the prospect of Monday morning seemed to have put many off the idea of heading to the Bongo Club for a night of boisterous new acts. The half empty floor did provide
space for Televised Crimewave frontman Daniel Wilson to strut about, free from the shackles of both stage and inhibitions. His stint atop of a table was sadly short-lived though; perhaps he realised the songs didn’t live up to the excitement he clearly feels in them? It took Glasgow favourites We Are
The Physics to make the crowd as animated as the performers, with their sharp looks, sharp shouts and sharp riffs winning the small throng over. Fun, frenetic and fiendishly amusing. Such epithets cannot be applied for
The Chapman Family however who brought the mood down with flat vocals and something of an uninspired effort to their Interpol-influenced dark rock. It could be blamed on an emptying floor, but all enthusiasm drained, and even the brilliant Physics became a distant memory. (Thomas Meek) ■ www.conversemusic.co.uk
Doesn’t Jon Fratelli scrub up well? Where the Glaswegian rocker’s other band were on a three-man crusade to reinstate denim as the rock’n’roll fabric of choice, he’s adopted a classier look for this new project with local singer-songwriter Lou Hickey. Wearing a modish grey suit which features a tunic coat buttoned right up to the knot in his tie, Jon Lawler (even his name has been formalised) looks the perfect epitome of anyone whose group bill themselves as ‘a rock’n’roll band playing John Barry’. In truth, there’s something more
than a bit Last Shadow Puppets about the whole venture, but Lawler’s raw growl is offset perfectly by Hickey’s beautiful, smoky tones on the psyche pop ‘Time’, the possibly David Lynch-influenced ‘Reste Avec Moi’ and swaggering torch songs like ‘Vanity Kills’ (Duffy with balls, quite literally). There’s also one unrequited rocker in ‘I Would Send You Roses’ and a confounding but ultimately acceptable lounge-style cover of The Stone Roses’ ‘I am the Resurrection’, helping flesh this outfit out as being about more than just the high concept. (David Pollock) ■ www.codeinevelvetclub.com
Even before they’ve played a note, the bubblegum pink guitar onstage seems like a sign that this boy-girl duo could well be about to perform a heady sugar rush of fluorescent pop.
And so it proves – the short and
sweet half hour set reveals a concoction of keyboards, guitars and melodies, mixing simple lyrics and tunes and throwing a few handclaps and foot stomps into the mix. Neil Brunton and Lorna Anthony
started out making music in their bedrooms and got band name inspiration from a Manga comic. So far so Bis – not to mention their similarly DIY sound and sugar-themed songs.
‘We’re going to do some pop
music,’ announces Lorna. Inspiration for one song, she explains, covers being stuck in traffic (handily called er... ‘Stuck in Traffic’). Despite a slightly wobbly start to the
set and a few off-kilter vocals, the sweetness of this band won through. They may to be the band to nurse your broken heart to, but it they’ll definitely satisfy a craving for instantly gratifying sugary pop. (Emma Newlands) ■ www.myspace.com/sugarcrisis
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24 Sep–8 Oct 2009 THE LIST 63