Music EXPOSURE
WARPAINT This all-girl, LA foursome release debut LP The Fool this fortnight. Think breathy Mazzy Star vocals, swaying, woozy melodies and slowed-down guitars. They were on tour in Dallas with The xx when singer/ guitarist Theresa Wayman (pictured, far right) stopped to chat over an iced Americano. . . How’s the tour going? Good. Our job is exciting. We get on really well. We didn’t always – it was shaky at first. There were issues sometimes; we’d get grouchy. But we learned fast that none of this works if we’re assholes to each other. It’s been a busy year since you put out your ‘Exquisite Corpse’ EP last year. What were the highlights? Definitely being asked by The xx to tour. We had something else lined up, but we cancelled it. Tonight’s our last date with them, so that’s kind of sad. We’d really love it if Jamie [Smith, producer of The xx] remixed us. What music do you listen to on the tourbus? Right now I’m digging back into the beginnings of electronic stuff, super early stuff from Germany, krautrock and psychedelic stuff. Plus Brian Eno and Talking Heads, Lizzy Mercier Descloux – she’s sort of like a French Patti Smith, but a little more avant-garde – and Aphex Twin. You and [ex-bandmate] Shannyn Sossamon acted beside James Van Der Beek in Rules of Attraction. Any plans for more acting? I just did a film called Pete Smalls Is Dead. I’d love to do more. It’s tough having two projects though – that’s why Shannon had to quit the band. (Claire Sawers) ■ Stereo, Glasgow, Fri 22 Oct. www.myspace.com/worldwartour The Fool is out Mon 25 Oct, on Rough Trade.
LIVE REVIEWS
REVIEW POST-GRUNGE REVIVAL YUCK Captains Rest, Glasgow, Mon 11 Oct ●●●●●
Yuck frontman Daniel Blumberg and guitarist Max Bloom’s last band, Cajun Dance Party, signed while still in school, then collapsed under heavy weight of expectation after just one album. In forming this new four-piece – revivalists of that less angsty, more melodic wave of indie rock that followed grunge – they seem to be aiming to please themselves firstly, and throw tastemakers off the scent.
That said, you’ll likely hear Alan
McGee shouting Yuck’s name from the rooftops, such is his love for bigging up bands he would probably have once signed to Creation. Yuck would have slotted neatly between Teenage Fanclub and Swervedriver on the label’s early 90s roster.
Powered by a formidable rhythm section of drummer Jonny Rogoff and bassist Mariko Doi, the quartet exuded all the slacker cool and teen awkwardness here of a junior Dinosaur Jr. ‘Georgia’ was a fuzzy explosion of raw tunefulness, while walloping closing ‘Rubber’ resembled a pocket My Bloody Valentine. Leave your quest for originality at the door, and you’ll find Yuck’s own little freak scene difficult to vacate. (Malcolm Jack)
REVIEW INDIE ROCK/ POP OF MONTREAL QMU, Glasgow, Mon 4 Oct ●●●●●
Uncannily akin to Rising Damp’s Leonard Rossiter (Rigsby) dolled up like Frances de la Tour (Miss Jones), Of Montreal’s frontman Kevin Barnes is nothing if not eye-catching. (Though not as conspicuous as he once was at New York’s Roseland Ballroom; he performed there, near-naked, astride a white horse.) Flanked by bargain basement hordes of monsters, angels and animals, the falsetto-trilling disco-rock deity has middle-aged married men (and the rest of us) falling for his coquettish, fabulous dance moves and micro-skirts (off-set with a Rambo head-dress, natch). Despite their hilarious (and brilliantly DIY) stage show and backdrop animations, it’s Of Montreal’s incandescent pop that stakes their claim as one of alternative music’s most striking bands. The Athens, Georgia misfits’ kamikaze R&B and electro-funk bounces off the walls of QMU – along with confetti and bubbles – propelled by three drummers, four guitars, keys, strings and a killer bass. The softcore-groove of 2008’s ‘For Our Elegant Caste’ is a highlight. ‘You should know I take it both ways’, Barnes gesticulates, as men edge further from their wives, and blush. (Nicola Meighan)
REVIEW COLLABORATIVE ALBUM THE FRUIT TREE FOUNDATION PRESENTS MUSIC LIKE A VITAMIN O2 ABC, Glasgow, Sat 2 Oct ●●●●●
For their Music Like A Vitamin event, Idlewild’s Rod Jones (below) and The Delgados’ Emma Pollock have enlisted a Scottish musical dream team to create a fundraising album. Coinciding with the annual Scottish Mental Health Arts and Film Festival, The Fruit Foundation Vol 1 features members from Frightened Rabbit, Sparrow & The Workshop and The Twilight Sad, alongside Alasdair Roberts, Jenny Reeve, Karine Polwart and James Yorkston. They perform the album in its
entirety here tonight and, despite missing Yorkston and Sparrow’s Jill O’ Sullivan, this all-star cast works impressively well together. The set encompasses a variety of moods, though on the whole, it’s fantastically upbeat and powerful. It’s a joy to watch Jones and Pollock lead the charge, fuelled by Dutch courage and excitement. However, Jenny Reeve and Karine Polwart’s duet on ‘Tooth and Claw’, the Scott Hutchison-led ‘I Forgot To Fall’ and his tag team with The Twilight Sad’s James Graham on ‘Splinter’ are all undoubted highlights too. (Ryan Drever)
REVIEW INDIE POP DARWIN DEEZ King Tut’s, Glasgow, Thu 14 Oct ●●●●●
‘OK, we’re a little nervous cos we’ve only done this, like, once before.’
Not to worry, Mr Deez, King Tut’s is
a venue well-accustomed to bands feeling a bit anxious about trying out something new. Although, admittedly, those bands are usually about to roll out a brand spanking new song, not launch into a full-band dance routine, choreographed to the sounds of Enya’s ‘Orinoco Flow (Sail Away)’, mashed up with ‘Testify’ by Rage Against The Machine. The regular dance interludes are as
integral a part of the show as the songs; indeed, it’s the visual performance aspect of Darwin’s stage show that makes it such an entertaining experience. Unfortunately, the music doesn’t always measure up: some tracks – ‘The City’ and ‘The Bomb Song’ in particular – sadly come across as samey and repetitive. However, with crowd-pleasers ‘Bad Day’ and the indefatigable ‘Radar Detector’ up his lanky sleeves, combined with the whole band’s obvious joy in what they’re doing, Deez manages to pull it off with a certain gangly flair and with bitchin’ dance moves to boot. (Niki Boyle)
62 THE LIST 21 Oct–4 Nov 2010