a lot of fun! bumped the King Gizz thread to mention it, didn’t get as long a set in Dublin as London and Manchester did, sadly, they didn’t do the whole two sets thing (it did allow me to get the bus home at a reasonable time though), was slightly disappointed at not getting any Mind Fuzz but otherwise wonderful. a nice best-of-2017 set essentially followed by a bit of Nonagon and Quarters. packed out and lots of crowdsurfing (not from me).
off to Thee Oh Sees at Castlemania this week which i’m also v excited about (as long as the snow doesn’t spoil my flight). was supposed to be catching Hookworms at Brudenell over the weekend too but might not be anymore as i’ve just found out we don’t have tickets and it’s sold out…
In my mind, it’s probably a bit from column A and then a bit column B. I seem to recall when reading The Big Midweek that Steve Hanley wasn’t too enraptured with the way that the sound was heading, was he?
Ah ace - Glad to hear you enjoyed it! Just looking over the setlist now and it nice to see a healthy dollop from four of the 2017 releases (didn’t imagine that they would air much of Sketches without Mild High Club though The Book was definitely a highlight from that record for me) plus HEY you got half of Quarters which I’m pretty jealous of! Think I’ll start to revisit those records again soon now that sometime has passed since their releases. I picked up a vinyl copy of Polygondwanaland the other week and I still think it might be my favourite of the 2017 releases though I think I’ve only spun Gumboot twice so maybe I should give that more of a chance.
Fingers crossed that the snow doesn’t affect your trip man! I’m properly gutted that I can’t make either of these shows, that line up is absolutely INSANE! Also keep on an eye out on social media for spare Hookworms tickets or do you use the app Dice? If so maybe join the waiting list and you might get lucky with someone returning one of theirs…
well Mild High Club were the support act so the singer came out to play guitar on one of the Sketches tracks (i think it was The Book?) with them supporting i’d thought it might have been a very Sketches-heavy tour but sort of relieved it wasn’t as it was my least favourite of last year.
i don’t know Quarters all that well but i think they only did a couple of minutes of God is in the Rhythm at the end of The River, rather than the full thing. looking at the UK setlists though we were the only show that didn’t get Cellophane, i’d have happily swapped both Quarters tracks for that tbh (they did a little bit of the bassline at the end of Lord of Lightning but then stopped). also a couple of them got almost all of FMB including Open Water and Billabong…mustn’t complain though as it detracts from a great show. i’ve had Digital Black in my head constantly since. i’ll need to catch them again sometime to fill in the gaps.
i enjoy Poly but it’s not a huge favourite for me, Crumbling Castle sort of towers over the rest of it, i find, though the last few tracks are pretty strong too (the way CC ran straight into Fourth Colour live was a great moment) so i’m happy to stick to my free download. have also only listened to Gumboot 2 or 3 times, i think so far for me there’s a handful of excellent tracks (the 2 they did live sounded fantastic) and some lesser ones (Beginner’s Luck is shite). Flying Microtonal Banana is very easily my favourite from last year, followed by Murder of the Universe.
sounds quite silly but i checked out Nonagon early on and wrote it off a bit as samey and overrated and didn’t give it another go until last week, but it really is excellent isn’t it? not sure what i was playing at there.
cheers yeah, my housemate was able to fly to Glasgow last time it was snowing so hopefully should be fine as long as it doesn’t lie. i’ve joined a waiting list on another site but forget which, i’ll try Dice as well. turns out my friend was relying on guestlist coming through but it’s now a bit up in the air cos it’s already sold over capacity apparently, i’d have just bought tickets if i’d realised. i’m not that bothered about not seeing Hookworms as i’ve seen em before, but Castlemania’s on Thursday and i don’t fly home til Sunday cos i was waiting around for that so i’ll be a bit annoyed to now not have anything to do for the rest of the weekend and could have got a much cheaper flight home on the Saturday!
Ah I see! What did you make of Mild High Club as a live outfit, I would have thought they would have been of studio / on record kind of band? I did see that they were supporting and likewise imagined that it might also be a Sketches heavy tour…
That sucks about Cellophane though as that really is a certified banger! Agreed with Crumbling Castle setting a high bar for the rest of the tracks on Poly to compete with but like with FMB, I felt the album flows really well and perfectly sums up a lot of their styles even if they’re weren’t as many stand out tracks per se! I couldn’t resist the vinyl copy of Poly as it was a reasonable price pressed by a local label plus the wax had a cool purple dripped design that looks ace when spinning!
Probably stick it on more than any of their 2017 releases and it ranks very highly in their catalogue for me. Every track is proper little ear worm!
Ah gotcha! Well I’m sure there’s gotta be other shows going on in either Manchester or Leeds! Dice is always my go to when buying tickets - just such a handy app! Easy for purchasing and returning tickets without those pesky booking fees…
had only listened to MHC’s latest album once before the gig, i thought they were pretty decent and tight with a nice airy sound but my attention did start to wander after a few tracks.
yeah it’s gone right up in my rankings. what your number 1 be? i do salivate over lovely coloured/patterned vinyl a lot but never shell out for it if it costs more cos i’m a cheap bastard.
i’ve only used Dice once before i think and i’m not sure it’s really in used much over here, but seems handy. wish there was a web version too though, app space is at a real premium on my shitty phone these days.
Yeah that’s kind of what I imagined with MHC as a live experience, I can’t imagine them haven’t much stage presence. Their music would be paired nicely with some projections or video loops etc.
I’d probably say that Nonagon & Quarters are joint favourite for me as they represent both sides of the band rather nicely but it honestly changes all the time as they keep finding new ways to surprise and excite with every record.
With vinyl it’s rare that I cough up for new stuff, more often than not I just pick up second hand stuff whilst occasionally splashing out on some fancy like the above
Yeah not sure why Dice don’t have a web version because they could just as easily email over the code that needs scanning…
Peter Gabriel 3/Melt is my discovery of the year so far! Never thought I’d like his music. And actually, I’d re-evaluated Oddfellows, it’s not as crappy as I had thought. Still not up to the quality of the first two Tomahawk albums but it’s decent enough.
I had another shoegaze bender this week, after Kindling came up in my Discover playlist, so listened to a lot of their similar artists, like The Stargazer Lilies and Blankenberge amongst others. The one you mentioned, though, is a Hardcore band called The Armed. I saw someone compare them to The Chariot, so figured I’d like them. I do.
Only just got round to listening to the Loma album the other day, it’s really great isn’t it? Some of the quieter moments kinda reminded me of Julie Byrne’s record from last year.
Only one album by The Fall in rotation this week which I didn’t really give much attention to when it was released. Initially was a tad put off by MES’s vocals which I found to be a bit more of the grisly-ier end of the MES performance spectrum but found the rest of the bands performances to be very tight throughout. But listening this week I was definitely taken with the album as a whole. Fol De Rol is an absolute heavy beast!
New discoveries this week in the Loma, Still Corners and Efrim Manuel Menuck records.
