Friday, July 11, 2008

Dot's Ugly Cadence


So last night's gig then, put on by new Analogue Magazine Promotions/etc guy Daniel Gray in conjunction with Hefty Horse. I resigned my part in the casual comedy at about nine o'clock (it went well I thought) and then went for a short walk to buy a quarter of fizzy cola bottles before returning for Disconnect The Dots.

Their deal is mostly instrumental, with effects on the vocals so that they sort of become part of the music rather than on top of it. There is a core of really intelligent songwriting in what they do, and at various points they sounded to me like Sunny Day Real Estate, certain of the louder Smiths songs and High Places, but always with the sampler beeping time in the background. Between the mix, the guitar sound and certain moments of uncertainty, they may not have acquitted themselves quite perfectly, but I, knowing the pair of them but not knowing what their music would sound like, was quite impressed by some of their songs, particularly the Dan-on-guitar, Cáit-singing, no sampler one (which was the Sunny Day one) and the last one.

Ugly Megan headlined, and I'm still a big fan. They had toys and thumped acoustic guitar beats, and twee melodies to the hilt. I described all that stuff in the last entry I did about them so I won't do it again. What came across to me the most this time was how much they're into rap and rap culture. I don't know how I missed it before, I thought the Snoop cover was just one of those twee jokes. But no.

They did a cover of American Boy which was in fact better than the Snoop one by a fair bit, and one of the highlights of their set was a song that goes "I'd give you all the love that a pimp can give a ho, because you're my favourite ho, my favourite ho, fo sho". Over the twee-est Moldy Peaches strummy backing ever. Their "encore" was probably my favourite though. Intricate guitar-thumping beat that reminded me of The Caterpillar by the Cure.

After dumping my stuff in the apartment of someone I don't know (sorry!) I ended up at Cadence Weapon in Club NME, which was surprisingly empty. I hadn't heard much Cadence Weapon, but I was disappointed. The dancey beats and "jump!" parts do nothing for me. I was expecting a sort of MF Doom type thing for some reason (because people were calling him the saviour of rap occasionally + he's a nerd) but his actual lyrical skills are nowhere near as good. Nowhere near. I was also disappointed that he played mostly dancehall in his DJ set. So down with Cadence Weapon

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6 comments:

Gardenhead said...

Really sorry I missed you last night Karl but there was a genuine reason. I'm sure I'll catch you again though dude. Club NME was empty? I'm not surprised. It was a daft idea to launch it on the eve of Oxegen.

Karl said...

It's cool man. Yeah, maybe NME thought they had the EP crowd down. And didn't. Or maybe booking Cadence Weapon for a Club NME gig was a terrible idea.

Gardenhead said...

well considering that the average age of yer NME reader is about a year older than yer oxegen goer and 13 years younger than yer coffee table music listening electric picnic boffin they were spectacularly off the mark on all counts. Add in that it's middle of summer, we have a recession, and they launched with a trendy canadian hip hop merhcant who pitchfork readers would be more au fait with than cribs worshipping NME poppets and you have what is in my eyes the most bonkers launch night this summer. Plus it was in button factory, which i think i saw ireland's first ever piece of genuine tumbleweed in once. Maybe see yis in the race-course on Sunday.

Dan said...

Wowies! Our first review at the hands of our second-favourite reviewer (Andrew Booth pips you, I'm afraid).

A Sunny Day Real Estate comparison never once crossed my mind, but it's far better than the rather senseless "The Smiths" and "Sonic Youth" ones we got elsewhere. I like that we have elements of proto-emo. In a way I think you have some of these elements too. Your articulation and wit was wonderful, and your last song especially has me as excited as... Loreana in a panda cage about where your music is going.

You made an interesting point a few weeks ago that your friends never do anything but placate you about the music you make or perform. This paragraph is the most constructive assessment we've gotten, and thank you kindly for taking two minutes to write it.

However, serious boos for not sharing any cola bottles with us. Pffft.

Dan said...

Wait. You said the Smiths too. Heaven knows I'm miserable now.

Karl said...

lololol

It's true though, a little bit.