Live Music Highlights – March 2012
The drone daddy himself, Dylan Carlson brings the second half of his Angels of Darkness, Demons of Light opus to the capital as Earth take to The Caves on 8 Mar – an inspired venue choice for a band so adept at stirring atmospherics. As the influence of folk music increasingly seeps through Carlson’s latter-day output, it’s fitting that the frankly chilling Mount Eerie and Ô Paon will be there to set the mood. The stars are aligned for this one.
Glasgow's Captains Rest is your only destination on 9 Mar as Chemikal Underground’s latest export (via Song, By Toad) Loch Lomond swoop in from Portland with last year’s intimate, folk-inflected gem Little Me Will Start A Storm. Also playing Edinburgh Sneaky Pete's on 10 Mar (with support from ever-enchanting Vaselines’ co-pilot Frances McKee).
By the way, the new album from Killing Joke is playing on the office stereo as we prepare this here guide to the month in gigs – and by Jaga’s beard that shit is epic. It is MMXII, after all. You can have a sneak peek ahead of its April release yourself when founding fathers Jaz Coleman, Geordie, Youth and Big Paul bring the thunder to Glasgow ABC on 12 Mar. As important to new wave and post punk as they were to industrial rock, there’s simply no overstating the importance of this band. Joe Cardamone presents his reassembled vision of the incendiary The Icarus Line on the side.
Can the same matter occupy the same space at the same time? The crook in Timecop says 'no', but eerie Italian doom-core mothers Father Murphy will find out first hand when they meet their like in Glasgow on a bill with Citizens and Fat Janitor (featuring members of the mighty Vcheka and Sunsmasher) at Nice 'n' Sleazy on 14 Mar. Yo’ ears gon’ bleed, son.
When all the Tinie Tinchy Dizzy Rizzle Dappy Bizzles of this world just sound like the same old over-produced Hollyoaks-hop shizzle, who are you gonna call on for a proper fix of rugged beats and vivid metaphors? Fortunately, an elite team of vintage funk-freakers called Souls Of Mischief are being flown over from Oakland especially this month, paying a rare visit to Auld Reekie in another coup for the Electric Circus on 13 Mar. Kicking out bangers since their seminal 93 ‘til Infinity landed, 2009’s Prince Paul produced Montezuma’s Revenge proved that these Native Tongues still represent the essence. Weegies, dinnae greet, they’re playing the Classic Grand the following night.
Living a Wu life, as we do (C.R.E.A.M and all that), it was perplexing to learn that there’s actually a band of Mancs called Wu Lyf out there – skulking in the shadows, declining interviews and wearing masks to bamboozle the press. Hats off to them for trying to retain a bit of mystery in an age where everybody’s all in each other's online shit, so to speak. The tunes? They sound a bit like Chris Rea lost his mind on E. Oh you're into that? Righto, Glasgow SWG3 on 17 Mar.
If you’d asked any discerning, natty-dreaded back-packing art student back in 1998, they’d tell you that – alongside Mos Def – Talib Kweli had truly arrived with an underground classic when the once untouchable Rawkus label served up Black Star. Fast-forward to 2012 and his fanbase might have settled down with kids, but the prolific New York MC has consistently delivered on that early promise, from his work with DJ Hi-Tek on the equally acclaimed Reflection Eternal and Revolutions Per Minute (delivered a decade apart), to a recurring partnership with Madlib. A consistent poet and performer with a revolutionary spirit, get schooled at The Arches on 23 Mar.
A wee bit Mew, a little more Unwinding Hours – Happy Particles are an ambient rock treasure whose self-released album shamefully slipped under The Skinny's radar while we were passed out in a hedge last Christmas. Counting members of Remember Remember, Stapleton, Prayer Rug and Tangles in their number – you know this is a recipe for greatness. Flanked by North American War and Olympic Swimmers. they get together for a rare show at Glasgow’s 13th Note on 31 Mar.