Live Music Highlights – October 2012
With the likes of Alexander Tucker, John Cale, Liars and WHY? swinging through town this month, it seems that as the nights draw in, the freaks come out to play
Never to be confused with the French metal progenitors (nor the teenaged Belgian Eurovision contenders) of the same name, Toronto duo Trust have enjoyed a steady ascent since releasing their dreamy debut on Kevin Drew’s Arts & Crafts label earlier in the year. Lead single Shoom sounds like Jan Hammer feat. Dr Evil on downers, but we can get down with that. The zeitgeist might be awash with so-called ‘witch house’ in the wake of Crystal Castles, but nobody’s packing euphoric hooks like this pair. Sneaky Pete's takes the glory of hosting their first
Keeping it Canuck, Nova Scotian stargazers Wintersleep hit Nice 'N' Sleazy (4 Oct) in support of their recently released fifth LP Hello Hum. Featuring the nuanced production chops of veterans Tony Doogan (Mogwai, The Delgados) and Dave Fridmann (eh… Mogwai, The Delgados), it’s an adventurous record of sweeping arrangements, dynamic rhythms and affectingly honest rock’n’roll that will make your life better.
When recently asked in an interview whether he’d considered retiring in these advancing days, Velvet Underground founder and experimental rock OG John Cale quite rightly laughed at the prospect. Now 70-years-young, this month Cale reaffirms his visionary status with the beautifully weird Shifty Adventures in Nookie Wood – his first full studio album in some seven years.
A talented young Anglo-American busker with a penchant for top hats, snakes, leather breeks, Les Paul guitars and dangling fags from the side of his mouth – goes by the name Saul ‘Slash’ Hudson – has finally caught a lucky break and landed a gig at the Edinburgh Corn Exchange this October (7 Oct). With any justice there’ll be some keen-eared A&R svengali in the crowd who can bring this guy to the wider attention of the British public. Until then, you can catch him playing Wonderwall with his dug Axl outside the Barras every other Sunday.
Overseen by Mute founder Daniel Miller himself, this year’s WIXIW was another convincing stylistic transition for the mercurial Liars – walking quickly away from the barbed, obnoxious punk of 2010’s cathartic guitar-fest Sisterworld to a mellower palette with a layered electronic inflection. It’s a courageous u-turn by the LA trio, with results that easily put them in league with Suicide and Radiohead’s glitchier ambient experiments, but never in their shadow. See how they pull it off live at
You saw his mug on the cover last month; now
Shorn of the proggy excess that has often defined their varied output over the last ten years (for the record, we won’t hear a bad word against The Century of Self), the imminent Lost Songs heralds a direct return to furious basics and the sense ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead might finally have reclaimed their mojo, now eight records deep into a career where the highs came very early on. See them soar once again at The Liquid Room, Edinburgh (13 Oct).
In some parallel dimension, Errors are probably saving the planet through the power of celestial music, like Alba’s answer to Wyld Stallyns. Luckily for us (less so for the future of humanity) they’re hidden away at
Coinciding with the Scottish Mental Health and Arts and Film Festival, The Fruit Tree Foundation’s Music Like A Vitamin makes its return to HMV Picture House (25 Oct) after a year’s absence, with sets from Auld Reekie’s adopted alt.folk hero Withered Hand, Sparrow and the Workhop, Fatherson and The Birthday Suit, as well as guest performances from the cast of Fruit Tree’s home-grown indie star-studded First Edition and ongoing New Branch mentor programme. Tickets are a fiver, meaning anyone with even a passing interest in the local scene would be a colossal bawheid to overlook this.
A tireless activist and fearsome battle MC, Harlem’s Immortal Technique has come to be regarded as a spiritual son of Chuck D and KRS One in the new millennium, preaching sharp polemics on the taboos of class, race and inner-city living. ABC 2, Glasgow (30 Oct) is the place to see him throw down on this rare
Do Not Miss: Eastern Promise, Platform, Easterhouse, 5-6 October
Now in its third year, Platform’s annual mini-fest returns to offer a little musical enlightenment to all ages. Night one puts Gerry Love’s Lightships in the room with Chemikal’s dark folk troubadour Adrian Crowley, celebrated jazz pianist Matthew Bourne, minimal guitarist Land Observations and the fledgling Body Parts (a collaborative project featuring Sparrow and the Workshop’s Jill O’Sullivan and Strike the Colours / Eva / The Reindeer Section’s Jenny Reeve, at last given a name).
Like a lesson in post-punk from both sides of the border, the following evening hosts recently resurfaced (and highly influential) London brigade The Monochrome Set, who’ll be in fine company alongside former Fire Engines frontman Davy Henderson’s poppier endeavour, The Sexual Objects. In an inspired billing from further leftfield, genre defying mavericks Richard Youngs and Alexander Tucker will respectively demonstrate why they’ve come to be regarded as masters of creating atmosphere and forging windows into other worlds with experimental song, while Mancunian freeform disciples Plank! (surely a homage to the great German producer in name) bring the krautrock vibe. You can call this a bargain.
7pm, £10/£6 per night, £15/£9 full weekend, £5/£3 under 16s per night. A bus departing Mono at and returning after the last band (around ) is available for £4.