Magnetic Fields + The Real Tuesday Weld

Did you know that the Magnetic Fields' lead guitarist is called John Woo? Bet he kills people for making jokes about it.

Support today came from The Real Tuesday Weld, whose existence I knew of but music I'd never heard. Turned out to do some truly excellent deliciously chilled out lounge/cabaret, lyrically ranging around the same alleys inhabited by Barry Adamson and Serge Gainsbourg with a little bit of Tammy Wynette thrown in (they cover Stand By Your Man most entertainingly), and with jazz guitar, brush percussion and wind instruments the music fits perfectly their 30s image. Stephen Coates' on-stage persona goes a little OTT with the louche, and his French ain't good, but he and the band managed a great toe-tapping smile-inducing opener in front of a two-thirds-empty hall, so more power to them.

Magnetic Fields (hall now perhaps two-thirds-full): Stephin Merritt, with his flat cap, shirt sleeves, and ukulele could have stepped straight out of a socialist realist poster, or maybe a coal mine. Looked incongruous sitting to the right of half a string quartet (with the pianist balancing him out at the other side of the stage). His voice in real life is deeper than I expected, even though it's pretty deep on record. Claudia Gonson, pianist and occasional vocalist, pretty much led the evening, doing most of the talking and counting in most of the songs — though Merritt was pretty talkative himself, and reference was made to not being able to talk to the audience in English while their tour was in Spain (last four dates, preceded by one in Portugal), so perhaps there was an element of that operating tonight — they were definitely more chatty than most bands I've seen play, which was nice. Comments included stuff about bands who do requests not being worth seeing (!) (although in context of Merritt's profession only to be able to remember the words to Punk Love (three words in more-or-less random order) and 69 Love Songs containing, well, 69 songs, I have some sympathy with their just not wanting to do requests). Both Merritt and Gonson spent the evening fiddling with their ears; they seemed to be wearing badly-fitted earpieces. Twice during applause he covered his ears as if in pain — wonder whether it's really that loud on stage or is there a Problem looming? Mission of Burma spring to mind. Hmm.

Songs were generally very faithful to the records, well played & sung; the duets particularly stood out for the extra visible interaction between Merritt and Gonson. Highlight was a fabulous half-acted performance of Yeah! Oh Yeah! for an encore, but it was a crowd-pleasing set anyway, with loads of 69LS tracks getting cheers on the opening chords, Papa Was a Rodeo particularly so.

Couple of moments of sadness during the show: a minute's silence observed for John Peel <sigh>, and mention of Marc Almond's recent motorcycle accident before singing Strange Powers, which they sang at a gig with him a few years ago.

Overall despite loads of great music and engaging performances the evening felt a bit unsatisfying though, and I think I'm going to blame it on the venue. I'm not at all a fan of the Queen's Hall for general gig purposes: there's something a bit sad about people trying to get really enthusiastic about a song while confined to chairs, and the concert-hall atmosphere seems a bit deadening or something for this kind of music — obviously you've got to try and work out a balance between good acoustics and appropriateness of venue but the "pop" gigs I've been to here seem misplaced.

Very glad The Magnetic Fields visited Edinburgh though, & might yet buy a Tuesday Weld album too..

[Really written much more about other stuff than the music. That seems pretty inappropriate. Sorry.]

Legendary radio DJ John Peel dies

Just in from the BBC.

BBC NEWS: Legendary radio DJ John Peel dies

John Peel was one of the UK's most-loved broadcasters

Veteran BBC broadcaster John Peel has died at the age of 65, while on holiday in Peru.

Peel, whose radio career spanned 40 years, was on a working holiday in the resort of Cuzco with his wife Sheila when he suffered a heart attack.

Top Tip: Micah Hinson + Iron & Wine, Whelans, Nov 4

The things I do for this site. I have (or is that will-on-have-when?) travelled into the future to the Iron & Wine gig on the 4th and yea verily it is great, but not 'cos of Iron & Wine, I've heard almost nothing of theirs. Well ok, I haven't travelled into the future. And Iron & Wine might be great too. But — Listen! You Must Believe Me!

What I really did was go see The Earlies supported by Half Cousin and Micah P. Hinson in King Tut's Wah Wah Hut in Glasgow. This on the strength of MPH's album Micah P. Hinson & the Gospel of Progress, having not heard (of) either of the other bands.

Got there a little while before the gig started despite a delayed train; was queueing for drink when MPH came on stage, abandoned queue due to ongoing battle between all three bar staff and the (dismantled) cash register. MPH's stage presence was endearingly geeky with a vague hint of maybe not usually being in front of the lights, but once he got into his set he certainly gave it his all, cracked voice and paroxysmic jumpy-uppy-downy enthusiasm included. The Gospel of Progress, his backing band, are all (I think all) members of the Earlies, who seem to be something of a driving force behind getting him out to the world (in context of some fairly bleak history, detailed on Coda's web site). Played about half an hour, all but one song from the album. Perhaps I should mention that his album is absolutely top, one of the best things I've heard this year (with competition from cLOUDDEAD, Blonde Redhead, The Books, Fennesz). Sound is basically emotionally open folk-type stuff a la Will Oldham, but with (often but not always) more lush instrumentation (though the drum line was frequently deliciously stark). Audience was hugely enthusiastic, which was nice; I think perhaps quite a few of them had heard him before, but others hadn't & were running off to buy the album two songs in to the set.

Next act were Half Cousin, kind of experimental stuff, more angular sounds and odd rhythms. Could see that they are perhaps good but not my cup of tea - lead singer's voice, manner and hat particularly got on my nerves. Audience weren't quite so enthusiastic either.

Now the headliners: frequently (and not so inaccurately to judge from this performance) described as a mixture of psychedelia and Mercury Rev, The Earlies crammed eleven players onto King Tut's small stage, and duly proceeded to rock out. As well as a bit of the Mercury Rev, there was plenty of Oh Brother Where Art Thou? -type vocal stylings (What's the name of that stuff? Bluegrass or something? I am so ignorant. I am sorry.), and they grew from very sweet mulitlayered loveliness through to complete stomping power. Very good fun indeed, was extremely reluctant to leave to catch the last train, but these Glaswegians aren't big on advice about getting back to Embra after midnight — in fact, I'm not sure that the people I asked had ever even made the journey in daylight — and the last thing I knew I could get was a 23:30 train <sigh>.

So, a quality night out. King Tut's is a great intimate venue (won an award for being so great in fact), MPH kicks arse, and the Earlies rock. Those of you in Dublin can catch MPH with Iron & Wine, and I strongly recommend you do so. I'll certainly be at their Edinburgh gig on the 2nd if I can get in.

William Shatner Has Been

Memories of Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds have been flooding back every time someone's mentioned William Shatner Has Been to me, especially when I think of what he might have done to Pulp's Common People. Now, it could be too much listening to Nouvelle Vague or The Creatures version of "Right Now", but it looks like they might be right. Go listen to it and the interview before "Has Been".

Flashtastic Illustrations & Animations

I found :::: F E R I C S T U D I O :::: via kottke