www.list.co.uk/music Music
EXPOSURE CODEINE VELVET CLUB Like a Scots Last Shadow Puppets, chanteuse Lou Hickey has reformed Jon ‘Fratelli’ Lawler to a life of John Barry-esque epics with Codeine Velvet Club. Just don’t call them a side-project, says Lawler. How did Codeine Velvet Club get together? ‘Lou’s a friend of my wife’s [Hickey sings at Club Noir, where Lawler’s wife Heather, the original “Chelsea Dagger”, performs as a burlesque dancer]. She asked me if I’d be interested in working on something together, so we sat down and wrote “Vanity Kills” [the debut single]. A friend later compared it to Nancy Sinatra and Lee Hazlewood or Scott Walker, but these weren’t on my mind when we were writing.’ How does it feel to write songs that are a bit less laddish than The Fratellis? ‘I don’t know what “laddish” is, but I’m certainly not it. Any good man knows that we’re second class, really, men are pretty poor in comparison to women. So the male half of our lyrics is pretty, I dunno, grovelly in comparison to Lou’s. I could be talking nonsense, but that’s how it feels.’ What’s happening with The Fratellis right now? ‘Baz was in Japan last I heard, while Mince is in a really kick-arse metal band. I’m dying for them to play so I can go and see it. I don’t know, a lot of people say Codeine Velvet Club is my “side project”, but I’ve invested too much in it to think of it like that. I’ll be doing this as long as it can stay afloat, whether that’s until tomorrow, next year or whenever.’ (David Pollock) ■ Club Noir at the Academy, Glasgow, Sat 5 Dec.
REVIEW ART ROCK DISCO POP TEENAGERSINTOKYO Sneaky Pete’s, Edinburgh, Sun Nov 15 ●●●●● REVIEW INDIE POP FIELD MUSIC Captain’s Rest, Glasgow, Sat 21 Nov ●●●●●
REVIEW ELECTRONIC GARY NUMAN HMV Picturehouse, Edinburgh, 26 Nov ●●●●● REVIEW SCOTTISH ROUND-UP HOMECOMING LIVE SECC & Clyde Auditorium, Glasgow, Sat 28 Nov ●●●●●
Before the second of two Scottish dates by what is possibly Australia’s glossiest female-led quintet, the uber- cool members huddle side-stage for a pre-show toast of Jameson’s, no chaser. Not an uncommon pre-gig ritual, sure, but here it oozes self- contained sass. Not that vocalist Samantha Lim doesn’t want to get close, as she beckons the audience to fill the space in front of her for a short but perfectly formed set that sounds tougher than on new single, ‘Isabella,’ already honed by Bat For Lashes producer David Kosten. Beyond the gloss (and acronym the band name would make if the words were separated) this is catwalk art- rock disco pop in exelcis, like New Young Pony Club reinventing Penetration. The rhythm-friendly mix of Sophie McGinn’s jangular guitar and Miska Mandic’s English New Wave keyboards are pulsed along by Sydney radio DJ Linda Marigliano’s bass and woolly-hatted drummer and sole male Rudy Udovich. There’s a yearning vulnerability to Lim’s vocal, especially on Plath-esque paean to self-nullification, ‘End It Tonight.’ A full- on percussive wig-out does exactly that, only in triumph rather than despair. (Neil Cooper)
‘Pretending to be a band since 2005,’ claims Field Music’s MySpace page modestly. Well, The List can reliably inform you that this is the real deal. Returning after a three-year hiatus, Sunderland’s Brewis brothers, along with their two new bandmates, have a packed Captain’s Rest in raptures from the first precision-placed note. Field Music take to the stage
exuding that sort of ordinary-bloke down-to-earthness that sets the crowd immediately at ease, and ensures that the music is left to speak entirely for itself. And speak it does, in a complex and beguiling language of in-your-face time signature changes, criss-cross harmonies and unusual rippling drum beats. At times not unlike White Album-era Beatles with less psychedelia and more social awkwardness and daily grind mundanity (oh, and Mackem accents), their guitar hooks are twangy and retro, yet the sound is fresh and still unmistakably theirs and no one else’s. It’s a shame that the marimba parts have been dropped from the live show, but you can forgive Field Music that in their effortless, tight and endlessly engaging performance of richly layered jigsaw pop. (Laura Ennor)
Genuine innovators who also become successful in their own lifetime are pretty hard to come by. Gary Numan not only wrenched the synthesizer from the grasp of the neo-classicist aesthetic of prog and retoolled a generation of artists disillusioned with the musical shortcomings of punk; he also managed to get singles in the charts too. 1979 album The Pleasure Principle (the fans’ favourite, and showcased in full tonight) and the single ‘Cars’ were both number one in the UK and big hits in the US.
There’s certainly a poetic circularity in Numan influencing Trent Reznor, Marilyn Manson and Al Jourgensen, whose work in turn inspired Numan’s mid-90s rebirth. Hearing the eerie, utopian, androgynous urgency of this 30-year old album delivered by modern Numan’s industrial masculine persona doesn’t jar at all, as it might do – although some key historical elements (the signature violin on ‘Complex’) are simply not there. In fact, the industrial-era second half of the set provides a real lift, aided by phenomenally good lighting design and peppered with great reinterpretations of back catalogue tracks including set highlight ‘Down In The Park’. (Hamish Brown)
The cynic may have viewed this musical finale to the Scottish Government’s grand attempt to reel back ex-pats in terms of all the iconic and available Scots bands who weren’t playing. Where were Franz Ferdinand, Sons & Daughters, Mogwai, Glasvegas, James Yorkston, Malcolm Middleton, Aidan Moffat or anyone else on Chemikal Underground? Even Travis, for god’s sake? In which case, the cynic might have missed out on all the good stuff. The Clyde Auditorium catered to the older fan – there was good (Deacon Blue’s reliably nostalgic set) and grim (Hue & Cry’s dated soul) found therein. The SECC main stage meanwhile, was tailored to the more alternative music fan, despite optimistic over- promotion of shiny young things Alex Gardner and Pearl and the Puppets. Taking to a stage deserving of their talents if not their usual audiences however, the iconic Vaselines and Teenage Fanclub, a surprisingly breakneck Idlewild and typically modest King Creosote all shone. Headliners The View, meanwhile, provided inspiration for those most Scottish of gig-goers – the pint- chuckers and the flag-wavers. (David Pollock)
3–17 Dec 2009 THE LIST 67