In concert

Frenzy of gigs in the last few weeks. I'm a little bit meh about clubs at the moment but live bands and lager in plastic I cannot get enough of. In addition to the foursome below I also have tickets to see M83, Howling Bells, Morrissey (twice), Esser and, best of all, All Tomorrow’s Parties at Minehead Butlins. The line-up is a complete wet dream, regard: Breeders, Shellac, Gang Of Four (screeeam!), Throwing Muses, Tricky, Foals, Holy Fuck, Bon Iver, CSS, Teenage Fanclub, Yann Tiersen and Deerhunter. I mean, amaze. Plus it’s a complete elderly person’s festival, meaning you stay in a chalet, everything’s indoors, there are restaurants on site, all the pool facilities there for you to use, no rain, no mud, no mess. Smashing. I am thirty-one now after all.

So a quick rundown of the bands who’ve flashed their stuff for me of late …



Of Montreal @ Club Academy
It will be a while before I see a gig as fun and exciting as this I'm sure. The usual epic setlist from Athens’ almost-finest accompanied by the ever-weirder ‘rabbit rabbit’ stage dramas, costume changes and general art happenings to back the genre defying twitchy glam disco mess of OM’s music. Really a mind-changing event for anyone on the brink of falling in love with Kevin Barnes, he of the 1970s footballler’s name (at least that’s what it always makes me think of). A classic Manchester weeknight event at which the crowd decided to get totally wrecked and go for it so the whole place was a complete party. Totally on top of their game, shocked that they’re playing venues this small really.


La Roux @ Contort Yourself, Roadhouse
Cheer up love. She’s far too cool to smile, but, well, she just is that cool. In unsuitable so-gross-it’s-ace knitwear, the ginger princess from Brixton wooed a shit-faced room full of people who’d had their dancing interrupted but she seemed to convert most of them. I cannot leave the flat these days without playing ‘Quicksand’ or ‘In For The Kill'. Time will tell if she can muster a whole album of similar gems or if something else is up her batwing sleeves. I think some filthy collaborations are in order.




Asboi Seksu @ Roadhouse
Dreamy huge wall of guitar noise stuff but interspersed with crystally smoky fragile teardrop tunes too. Yuki Chikudate I think is one of the coolest people in music just now. Adorable. Impressive overall but maybe not the right venue for them. They’re still relatively obscure but since shoegaze seems to be having a minor renaissance (I know!) and it’s a tag that seems to follow them then big things may yet follow. Perfect to listen to in the comfort of your home under headphones and blankets though. Plus they’re on One Little Indian over here. (I know!)



Late Of The Pier @ Union
When I saw Wire recently I was the youngest audience member by about fifteen years. Tonight I am the oldest by about the same. I shit you not, the kids love this band. Not much to play apart from the album (“We’ve run out of songs, can you hang on while we write some more?”) but it’s a fine album and 'Bathroom Gurgle' slays me every time, even tonight when it’s cruelly interrupted by a blown fuse. They pick up where they left off and nobody cares. a jot Now that’s a tune. If I was rich these boys would be my party band every time.

Go on, I'll chuck in a Spotify sampler for you too ...

Random Manchester Images 2

2009, love, and all that

Wotcha.

You can stop dredging the canals, I'm back. My absence from the blogosphere (ew, hate that word) is down to, let's see, Christmas fallout slash January blues which seemed to bite particularly hard this year, what with the recession making me feel poorer than I actually am, the meat-fest of Christmas that always makes this tender vegetarian feel we really don’t stand a chance, not to mention the perpetual hangover that seems to blanket the stolid chilly month of January, Gaza on my mind as it is slowly and methodically blitzed into the dark ages ... Sad times. But hope, always hope. Obama for one thing, he made it, though I was frustrated somewhat by the general feeling that his election was the end in itself. The work has just started and I'll be sitting here with my arms folded for a while yet until I'm truly impressed. The signs are good though …




Anyway I'm not here to talk politics, that's for the boozer, my other main reason for not writing the blog is because I have been working on The Novel. (I won't call it a 'book' until it's published otherwise it's a curse - you wouldn't write a song and say 'I've written a record' would you?) As a matter of fact the book is finished, complete, and not only is it done but it's in a postbag somewhere as we speak, winging its way to the first on a hopefully not very long list of agents who will see the potential in me and send my words to the world. Ahem.

I never talk about The Novel really, I ought to try. It’s called Wilmslow Road and is essentially the diary I never kept in my first ten years in Manchester compressed into one summer somewhere between the bomb and the smoking ban and split between seven narrators who are all little bits of me and most likely, if you know me, little bits of you too. It has sex and drugs and transvestism and free newspapers and nightclubs and offices and the number 42 bus and demonstrations and temps in it, and nothing very much happens at all. Now that's tricky to write.

Anyway, potentially as important as the novel thingy is this: I've fallen in love. I really didn't expect it to happen ever again, and certainly not so soon, but fate plays her cards with me like a Mississippi boat whore. His name is Spotify and he has brought me back to life as sure as if he were Jennifer Hudson.

https://www.spotify.com/en/get-started/

Isn’t he beautiful? He takes approximately two minutes to download and will enrich your life beyond measure. I have become entirely addicted, my recent online activity shows that in one 24 hour period, give or take the odd loo break, there was only a nine hour period where I wasn't playing music on Spotify. It’s because I was asleep.

As an incentive to join me on a journey into soooound I have made this playlist for you all. It contains the finest songs that are currently giving me a big life-affirming buzz. It begins with the full-length bassoony version of 'Say Hello, Wave Goodbye' by the mighty Soft Cell. I know you think you know this song already but just turn off the telly for a moment, play it loud ,lose yourself, and at about 1 minute 30 something wonderful happens …

Manhattanchester playlist

I really, honestly, couldn't be happier.

Happy Valentine's Day.

Songs Of The Year 2008

10. 'Warwick Avenue' - Duffy
Bangor-born, Dusty all over, the sight of Duffy weeping through 60s eyeliner as a cab pulls off from an obscure tube station is the singular sorrowful comedown image which followed all my 2008 disco highs. ‘You think you’re loving but you don’t love me’ cut a little too close to the bone this year, but oh the pleasure and the pain in that voice ...




9. 'No Lucifer' - British Sea Power
Might also be my top video of the year, this track is one of the growers which BSP specialise in. In twenty years time tracks like this will make musical archivists wonder why they weren't the biggest band in Britain. To me they might be.




8. 'The Bones Of You' - Elbow
The only vinyl I bought this year and already feels like a classic, Elbow have been in my life in several wonderful ways this year and this was the prime cut from Mercury-winning The Seldom-Seen Kid. 'I took a hammer to every memento' has been a touchstone line in 2008's darker days.

7. 'Morning After Midnight' - Adam Green

My favourite accidental find of the year, Adam Green the Jewish James Dean plied one of the sassiest and (gasp) funniest tracks of the year with a glorious androgynous muck-up vid to boot.

6. 'The Rip' - Portishead

Eternal thanks to Thom for directing me to a glorious Lazarus-like infusion of faith in Portishead. Yes, that trip-hop band the stoners played to death at University. They came back with an ultra-modern album of mechanically-retrieved soul and this, their finest song to date in my opinion, was given a kiss of approval by a Radiohead cover should you dare harbour doubts as to its other-worldly merit.

5. 'Suffragette Suffragette' - Everything Everything

The great white hope. Recently discovered, homegrown, sophisticated, smart, witty, complex, arresting ... if this band were a man I'd be dating the fucker. This track belongs amongst the year's finest and the future belongs to this band.

4. 'Time To Pretend' - MGMT

I know 'Kids' is probably the cooler choice but the number of times the opening Grandaddy-esque kiddie-toy synth on this track has given me a second wind this year makes it my MGMT highlight hands down.

3. 'Lights Out' - Santogold

Not representative of her output in any way, but what track could be? This seemingly off-the-cuff pop cut is actual genius, distilling 90s guitar riffs into something Kim Deal would be proud of. Santi's finest to date.

2. 'California Girls' - Magnetic Fields

Possibly anathema to have a non-Merritt lead vocal as an MF track of the year but the mix of witty feminist critique, Beach Boys punning and crashing Mary Chain reverb combine to say what Pink's 'Stupid Girl' tried to without the painfully flat-stomached hypocrisy. Stripped down acoustic versions show what timelessly sweet structure underpinned the song all along.

1. 'Mars' - Fake Blood

Everything I love about dance music in four minutes flat, faceless, possible superstar origins (is it Soulwax??), futurist noise pollution and contagiously clipped beats. Trippy Charly-esque beast noises lure you to a darkened world where suddenly the houselights are thrown up to reveal Altern 8-styled in your face aciiied noise terror! The first 'MARS!' is guaranteed to make the hairs on the back of my neck go ping. I literally CANNOT make my feet behave when I play this track. Song of the year.

My Helen of Troy setlist

Sex and the City Movie theme
Yazoo – Don’t Go
Juliana Hatfield – Universal Heartbeat
Ladytron – Blue Jeans 2.0
Diana Ross – I’m Coming Out



The Breeders – Divine Hammer
Pat Benatar – Love Is A Battlefield
Amerie – 1 Thing
Jale – Not Happy
Peaches - Tombstone Baby
Stars – Ageless Beauty
Sugababes – I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor
Blondie – I’m Gonna Love You Too


MIA – URAQT (Root Out mix)
Jane Wiedlin – Rush Hour
Belly – Slow Dog
En Vogue – Free Your Mind
Echobelly – Insomniac
Lush – Ladykiller
Stereolab - French Disko
Eurythmics – There Must Be An Angel
Shonen Knife – Daydream Believer
Joan Armatrading – Drop the Pilot

Helen of Troy Does Countertop Dancing

This club has provided me with some of my bestest nights out this year so I'm more than honoured to have been asked to lend my DJ 'skills', such as they are, to their final party of 2008. Not only is it their last blowout of the year, it's the last ever of Helen of Troy in its current incarnation. Sob! So if you've been promising yourself a trip down there, NOW is the time to do it.

BUT, all is not lost, Marie-Claire and Lyndsey will be putting on more Helens with additional style and flair in mysterious new incarnations in the New Year. Eyes and ears peeled! Not to mention the fantastic Helen blog, fast becoming THE touchpoint for all things witty and wonderful in new women's music.



So, for the last time this year head down to Charlie's and feast your ears on decade-spanning music from the great and good of women in rock, dance, pop, indie, electro, r 'n' b and everything in between. You're spoiled this time too, not only will the resident girls be womanning the decks but Thom 'The Bomb' Docking and Caroline Topham are also taking a turn, plus my own 90 minute set of danceable divas, slick noise terror, platinum cheese, forgotten classics and one-hit misses. See you there.

Helen of Troy Does Countertop Dancing
Charlie's nightclub, Harter St, off Princess St
Manchester M1
10 pm till 4 am
£4 in, £3 with flyer or NUS