Books and Music

November 2009

Damien Jurado, John Vanderslice, Brudenell Social Club, Leeds

Great gig with John Vanderslice almost upstaging Jurado with a terrific set of Americana ranging from full-on rock to the humour of their last, acoustic, song (see below). Why isn’t this guy better known? I’d heard a couple of songs on his MySpace page but found them too jokey. However, with a wurlitzer and moog keyboard and full drum kit they blasted out a brilliant set.

Jurado, on the other hand, relied upon his voice and guitar alone; that’s all he needed. Jurado is probably the gloomiest songwriter I know, after John Dowland, and his ‘What Are the Chances?’ is (probably) my ‘break up’ song: what did he start with?! While it lost something without the female voice mirroring his thoughts, it was still terrific.

After half an hour of (brilliant) gloom Michael and I (and no doubt most of the attentive audience) were worrying about the guy’s sanity; all we’d got our applause were a grunted ‘thank you’. Then he opened eyes and apologised for the songs being so ‘heavy’, and stated he never listened to this stuff himself (he prefers ’80s rap). Brilliant!

He also said he only ever plays songs he remembers as he never rehearses; that’s a new one for me. Great set; great gig.

October 2009

Green Day, MEN Arena

Billy Joe can work a crowd; he had 16000-odd in his hand within 30 seconds of this gig starting. Some achievement. Maybe he peaked too early…? Not for the fans but as a disinterested bystander I enjoyed the first 30 mins; but there was two hours more. Value for money.

Was it actually a gig, though? More like theatre with the props of melodrama: flames, lights, water pistols, cannons, Billy Joe’s mincing walk etc. There was even a Benny Hill riff; nearer Music Hall than a gig. And getting members of the audience on stage to sing! Brilliant; especially if they were as good as the lass.

Even in an uber-loud rock gig I did manage the spend half the encores next to blokes who insisted on talking. Didn’t say anything though… And Northern Rail excelled themselves with a two-carriage last-train to Huddersfield which couldn’t move due to the bulk of people. Amazingly, I’ve never seen this before, they found a three-carriage one! Well done someone however didn’t they know there was a gig on that night?

The Unthanks, Halifax Paris Church

This has to be one of the best gigs I’ve ever been to. I’ve got the new album and Rachel Unthanks’ previous one; like them, some great tracks but live… Maybe it was a mixture of the Unthank sisters’ gorgeous harmonies and the very reverberant acoustic of the church or maybe they’re always like that but the music was spine chillingly good. The support acts seem to struggle with the acoustic but the Unthanks exploited it and Annachie Gordon, with its Steve Reich-like accompaniment on marimba(?), was one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever heard.

Not sure I like the venue though. Impressive as the church is, didn’t sit in the pews (originally designed to stop people dancing in church), it did distance the group from the audience. Despite the stunning beauty of the sound some people where there only to talk: they should go down the pub! And to be accused of bullying, and asked outside to ‘continue the discussion’, having asked one (at first pretty politely) to shut  up… Well it didn’t spoil the concert!

Sisters in harmony

Bellowhead, St George’s Hall – Bradford

Third time I’ve seen this brilliant group, lead by the charismatic John Boden. He is so cool that the flop of the high octane start (‘nothing like good timing ladies and gentlemen’) didn’t fluster him. Adding a horn section to a folk group gives the band a massive sound that never threatens to overwhelm the virtuoso subtlety of the players.

They’re not promoting a new album but some of their earlier stuff has been reworked, keeping the gig fresh. There can’t be many folk gigs where in front of the stage resembles a, very polite, most pit as everyone joins in the Rochdale Coconut dance. Fantastic.

It is a folk group ladies and gentlemen

Halle Orchestra, Mark Elder, St George’s Hall – Bradford

The top orchestral date of the season in Bradford with Shostakovich’s 5th as the highlight. Mark Elder explained current research into the symphony, explaining that while it might be a ‘Soviet artist’s response to just criticism’ it was also a howl of lost love. The (unhearable) Carmen quotations refer to a lover who’d left him for Spain and the repeated A at the end of the symphony also referred to her. I’ve always found this symphony overwhelming but the knowledge that the climax is an expression of his pain at losing a lover…

Mark Elder has made the Halle a top outfit and although I didn’t find the intensity of the first and last movements in the middle two, it was still a terrific performance. He was unable to convince me of Strauss’ Horn Concerto 2 though; but the opener, Dvorak’s Noonday Witch, was brilliant.

Dmitri's despair

September 2009

Richmond Fontaine, New Roscoe, Leeds
A great band in such a small venue?! Packed with everyone melting with sweat? Could have been somewhere else but you can’t beat the intimacy of a small place for music though Richmond Fontaine’s brand of Americana has a rock sound that could fill a field.

Five nondescript looking guys playing music about losers in small town America; brilliant. They came across as really nice guys too, bandying banter with the crows and infusing their musicianship with great enjoyment.

What is it with some people though? Why go to a gig, stand near the front, and talk during the support act?

Willy Vlautin, of Richmond Fontaine, outside a venue similar to the New Roscoe

Bingley Music Festival
Well done to Bradford Council for getting a good line up at very reasonable prices (£25 for the weekend). I caught most of Sunday starting with VV Brown, who was obviously starstruck… by herself. Her celebratory ‘we’ve sold the sync rights to this song in America and we’re so excited’ probably didn’t mean a lot to the audience. However, she can sing, though I’m not a big fan of her rock ‘n’ roll pastiche.

Maybe the only thing I can say about The Qemists is that they were loud. No, to be fair, they also had a few excellent heavy rock riffs. Their lead singer thought it was cool that the mosh pit was full of youngsters while the parents were far away, as she put, thinking ‘what the  hell is this?’. I’ll have you know, Ms. Whateveryournameis, we parents were head banging 30-years ago and had heard it all before.

Reverend and the Makers upped the macho ante and the invite for us to join them in the ‘up yours’ gesture to the BNP was very welcome. They sounded like a mixture of Stone Roses and Happy Mondays, which is not a bad thing. He tried his acoustic set, something he normally does in the carpark, near the stage but seemed more keen to upstage Calvin Harris, the next act…

…which I didn’t like…

I was primarily there for The Editors; their post-Joy Division rock has a melancholy strain that appeals to me. Good as most of the previous sets had been, The Editors cranked up the rock voltage. Lead singer Tom Smith doesn’t exactly twitch like Ian Curtis used to, but his bendy gyrations do suggestion a slightly unhinged mind. Despite the melancholy that infuses the music, Smith’s seemed to be enjoying himself; leaning  out from the stage and looking up as if checking out the rain. The big guitar sound of U2 is also evident, ideal for a festival venue, rounding off a cracking gig.

June 2009

The White Tiger, Aravind Adiga (Atlantic Books, 2008)
I’ve tended to steer clear of Booker books in recent years as I rarely enjoy them. I made an exception to this due to its ’state of the nation’ theme. As India and China grow in dominance it would be daft not to engage with those countries’ cultures.

If the book had been written by a westerner I might have found the portrayal of Indians (big-headed or kowtowing) dubious. However, unless Adiga was simply pandering to an international market (doubtful), we should take his representations at face value (which, of course, doesn’t mean they’re accurate).

An excellent read that critiques Capitalism in a way that Slumdog Millionnaire didn’t (not a criticism); together the texts make an interesting portrayal of (new) India.

May 2009

Uncut, July
This month’s issue of Uncut has a terrific CD from the Honest Jon label; it’s hooked onto the Blur cover as Damon Albarn is involved with the label. For many years the Uncut CD was full of crap but recently there’s usually been a lot of good stuff. I don’t rate the magazine very highly, I much prefer Word, but it’s worth buying this issue for the Honest Jon sampler. Stand out is Abdel Hadi Halo & the El Gusto Orchestra of Algiers.

Seth Lakeman, Victoria Hall – Saltaire
After the less than wonderful sonic experience of Dylan in Sheffield, last month, I was alarmed to hear I couldn’t understand Lakeman’s words here either. Usually the sound at SaltaireLive is excellent so ‘it must be me!’. Decrepitude may be advancing but those with me confirmed his vocals weren’t clear at all.

So that spoiled it. However, the second half was much better – though I still couldn’t make out the words. The music was terrific with Ben Nichols, bass, particularly shining. The pre-encore finale was Lakeman playing Kitty Jay: fabulous virtuosity; though the drum machine, played with his foot, was a peculiar hybrid: folk-techno.

Stonephace, Stonephace (Tru Thoughts)
John L Walters described this best, in The Guardian: ‘bring(s) Brit-jazz muscle to the world of beats and blips.’. It’s a fantastic mix of stuff.

Let the Right One In, Jonas Ajvide Lindqvist (Quercus, 2007)
Politics less to the fore, in this Swedish genre novel, than Larsson’s below, but nevertheless left wing values are still in evident. Lindqvist adapted this for the terrific movie and it’s fascinating to see how faithful the film is, until the final 100 pages or so where the novel goes far more vampire than the film. An excellent read.

The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo, Stieg Larsson (Quercus, 2008)
If it sags a bit after 100 pages that’s a minor criticism of what is mostly a page turner; no surprise as it’s been a worldwide bestseller. What a particularly liked was the political edge; the book’s disgust with financial shenanigans shows that there really should have been no surprise when everything went ‘belly up’ last year.

April 2009

Berg, Orchestral Music, Gothenburg SO – Venzago
Fabulous double CD offering the Violin Concerto (with Isabelle van Keulen) and the Lulu Suite, plus a lot more. Best performances of Berg I’ve heard in a long time.

Bob Dylan, Sheffield Arena
This should have been the year’s highlight for me: I’ve been a Dylan fan for 40 years but have never seen him live (a contradiction in terms you might think). I know Dylan’s reputation for mangling/reinterpreting his songs, so that wasn’t problem, and I know arenas are soulless venues… but I wasn’t prepared for the terrible sound. It wasn’t Dylan’s voice, which is knackered; I still love Dylan’s voice. It wasn’t the the volume: loud but tolerable; it was the brashness of the sound – it was extremely ugly.

The set was very ‘rock n roll’, guitar and drum-led, so that didn’t help with subtleties of sound but after the first song (which I enjoyed) I just couldn’t get into the performance. Only during the final song Like a Rolling Stone (didn’t stay for the encores) did the genius of Dylan shine through.

Incidentally Bob did play guitar on one piece and it was great to see him rocking on the keyboard.

Show of Hands, with Miranda Sykes; Victoria Hall – Saltaire
There can’t be many groups who can get the audience happily singing along with the first piece but Show of Hands effortlessly had the sell-out crowd doing their bidding. The best was the political stuff Santiago and a new song about corrupt bankers. Classy stuff.

What Would Google Do?, Jeff Jarvis (Collins Business, 2009)
Google evangelist Jarvis argues persuasively how the search engine has changed everything (except lawyers and PR). Well worth reading.

Tracing Arcs, Fin LP (Dusted Wax Kingdom)
If you fancy some laid back, trippy jazz influenced music got to http://dustedwax.org/dwk030.html and you’ll find an album to tickle your and not set you back a sou.

March 2009

Jon Boden, Brudenell Social Club (Leeds)
Jon Boden’s touring his new album, Songs from the Floodplain, and what a treat his  set was. As the fantastic photography, in and on the CD, suggests the song cycle (that may sound pretentious but that’s what it is and to call it a concept album connates it’s crap which it isn’t) is set in a post-Apocalyptic world. Like in a JG Ballard novel, we don’t know what’s caused the breakdown of society (the title suggests environmental catastrophe) and Boden focuses on how the ‘everyday’ of boy-meeting-girl would continue; it’s grim and great.

Among the support was John Smith whose opening song, about an axe murderer, had the intenstity of Nick Cave and the melancholy of Damien Jurado.

February 2009

Courtney Pine, Transition in Tradition
Wonderful jazz album that has is a tribute to Sidney Bechet and so resounds with the aural melting pot of New Orleans. Anyone who thinks they don’t like jazz needs to listen to this!

Bright Shiny Morning, James Frey (John Murray, 2008)
This was the geezer who made up his life in the well-received ‘autobiographical’ A Million Little Pieces. Bright Shiny Morning shows how well suited he is to fiction; this is a brilliant portrait of the hell that is Los Angeles. The characters may by ‘flat’ types but this doesn’t detract from caring for them. Th city’s portrayed on a broad canvass, mixing fact, history and several narrative strands. LA is obviously a unique place brilliantly ’served’ by this book.

The Big Nowhere, James Ellroy (1988) (Arrow, 1994)
Noir writ long – a plot so convoluted that there is a several-page coda explaining how everything actually fitted together! I struggled in patches but other sections flew by with cracking dialogue and hard bitten (literally) men.

Emma, Jane Austen (1815)
Failed to complete for a second time. I DON’T CARE ABOUT THESE PEOPLE!

Bodies, Susie Orbach (Profile, 2009)
Absolutely terrific book. Orbach (of ‘fat is a feminist issue’) unpicks the ideological basis of society’s obsession with bodies and the panic about obesity. As she notes, the massive growth in diet products proves one thing: they don’t work. Although she doesn’t state as much, it’s clear that our relationship with food, and our bodies, is a political device ‘designed’ to take attention away from the way we are exploited. It’s not a conspiracy but the nature of capitalism.

Netherland, Joseph O’Neill (4th Estate, 2008)
Terrific almost ’stream of consciousness’ – it is written in sentences but meanders with the narrator’s thoughts – novel about personal crisis (mid life and marital) and a New York we rarely see based around emigre cricket. This was amongst the most-mentioned in critics’ ‘best of year’ lists and that’s an accurate assessment.

Alela Diane, Every Path (Uncut, March 2009)
The current Uncut magazine CD has a pile of Neil Young covers. Standout is Alela Diane whose track has been haunting me all week. So her new album, out on the 16th, will be a ‘must’.

January 2009

McMafia: Seriously Organised Crime, Misha Glenny (Vintage, 2008)
Absolutely brilliant expose of how globalisation has stimulated the rise of organised crime. Glenny’s epilogue, when he calls for greater regulation of financial markets, was of course spot on; and he wasn’t writing retrospectively. If you want to know how the world works then read this book.

Fresh, Mark McNay (Canongate, 2007)
Wonderful slice (of chicken – much of it is in a chicken factory) of proletarian, Scottish life that convincing portrays how social circumstance can be completely entrapping.

Granta 104: Fathers (Granta, 2008)
The usual intriguing mix best of which are Siri Hustvedt’s, Ruchir Joshi’s and Francesca Sagan’s investigation into their relationships with their fathers. The photo essay, ‘Wrestlers’, is disappointingly prosaic (better if it’d been shot in the gym). If you don’t then you should… subscribe.

Oliver James, The Selfish Capitalist (Vermillion, 2007 )
Tremendous analysis of the malaise caused by free market economics. Using research from Psychology James shows how, in the English-speaking world, we are afflicted by stupid materialism.

Richard T Kelly, Crusaders (Faber & Faber, 2008)
Brilliant ’state of the nation’ novel set in Newcastle mostly on the cusp of the arrival of the pathetic New Labour.

Joe Sacco, Palestine (Jonathan Cape, 2003)
Brilliantly conveys the misery inflicted upon Palestinians by the Israeli government. Sacco’s funny and portrays the situation with muted anger. He is also conscious of his own role as a reporter who’s seeking a good story and as a westerner who’s, necessarily, an outsider. Needs reading by anyone who wants to know what’s going on in the world. It is a comic and the visuals both accompany and elucidates the story.

Salsa Celtica, Victoria Hall, Saltaire
Caught these here a couple years ago and they were good. Tonight they were terrific. Not sure what the difference was but their two-set performance mixed irresistible (except to those sitting down) rhythms, virtuosity and showmanship (they started part two in the audience – a street performance for a few minutes). There was also a bagpipe solo that sounded more Free Jazz than tartan; extraordinary.

Amadou and Mariam, Welcome to Mali
‘Poppier’ than their previous album but that’s not a criticism as the sound’s infectious from the Damon Albarn produced opening track through to the end.

Pixieguts, Walking on Mercury
There’s no excuse not to listen to this healthy dose of trip hop because it’s terrific and free: http://www.jamendo.com/en/album/26686.

December 2008
Lloyd Jones, Mister Pip (John Murray, 2006)
Ultimately frustrating as the politics are never clearly delineated (1990s war in Papua New Guinea).

John Gray, Black Mass: Apocalyptic Religion and the Death of Utopia (Penguin, 2007)
Fascinating, and convincing, thesis about why our politics are a mess. Religion is at the root of our trouble but, as Gray, suggests it is probably integral to humanity. Grim that.

David Peace, The Damned United (Faber & Faber, 2006)
Was the great Brian Clough such a ‘piss-head’? Apparently. Love the description of the football but there must’ve been more to Clough than we see here.

Portishead, Third
The first Portishead album was a landmark – it didn’t appear to sound like anything else and it came from nowhere. The extreme melancholy that infused it heightened the emotional experience of listening. I never got into the second album and it seemed as if they would be a Stone Rose-like one-album wonder. Now Third.

Although it’s been out for months I resisted it buying it; what is the point being disappointed by the group again? Well I’ve only listened to it once but it’s like hearing the first one again. Not that it’s the same, though Beth Gibbons plaintive vocals are characteristic; however, like the first it invites the listener into a stunning sound world. There are echoes of other bands (‘We Carry On’ – Joy Division) but combined in a wholly original fashion. Could be album of the year.<

Beethoven, Symphonies, Berlin PO – Abbado (DG)
Do I need another cycle of Beethoven symphonies? After: Haitink; Harnoncourt; Karajan; Klemperer; Norrington; Toscanini. Well on first listening… yes.

Tchaikovsky, Manfred Symphony, Voyevoda, Royal Liverpool PO – Petrenko (Naxos)
I first started concert-going at the Liverpool Phil over 30 years ago; I have no idea whether they – under Charles Groves – were any good in those days but reports suggests the Vasily Petrenko has reinvigorated the orchestra. This recording certainly suggests so: terrific drama.

November 2008
EL Doctorow, The March (Abacus, 2006)
Terrific evocation of the American Civil War switching between a panoply of characters; mixes the horrific with the hilarious.

Nick Lacey, Image and Representation (Palgrave, 2nd edition, 2009)
You might think it sad, reading your own book, but I had to for the index. It’s a peculiar experience as I find things I (thought I) didn’t know. That’s memory for you. For the record I think it’s good – out in March.

Brahms, Symphony No. 1 and Schicksalslied; John Eliot Gardiner conducting the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique and the Monteverdi Choir (SDG)
Whilst the performance of the symphony is excellent, the choral works are fabulous too and rarely recorded.

Their Finest Hour compilations @ http://phlow-magazine.com/
Free downloads and a wonderfully eclectic mix of indie-avant garde sounds.

Vikki Carr, The Way of Today (1966)
I stumbled across this on a dodgy download blog and I remembered loving her song ‘It Must Be Him’; I must have been six at the time! Carr (born Florencia Bisenta de Casillas Martinez Cardona) has a terrific voice: more like a ‘flame thrower’ than a torch singer.

Huw Warren/Maria Pia de Vito, Dialektos (2008)
I struggled with this initially, I’m not a great fan of skat, but once I ‘tuned in/the tracks got better’ this proved a jazz delight.

Henry Flynt, Purified by Fire
I don’t know where I got this from; it popped up on my shuffle. A 45 min. drone of wonderful combination of disparate sounds? The latter – see here.