Wellllllllllll I got friends in low places.

High Places.

What they do is not so much performance as a sort of twisted midwifery to a very obscured and confused baby. Man playing very low-volume drum pads and a woodblock. Woman talking (not even backwards), or singing without enthusiasm. A table covered in wires acting as a barrier between uninterested band and uninterested crowd. There is no aspect of this that comes across better live than on record. In fact, the most impressive member of High Places, Sampler, would probably prefer not to tour at all.

The best thing High Places have ever done was appear on Bradford Cox's video guide to the Pitchfork festival. And I don't even like Bradford Cox. May this band go away soon, and may their mp3s languish unheard in the mysterious ether of a thousand hard drives till the Great Computer Virus of the Future removes them from recorded history.

No catchy bits. Even their "one good song" was drowned in its own self-conscious muck. This is a totem pole made of its own hype, and it should never be given the twelve euro tribute I foolishly gave it.

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music scene is crazy, bands start up each and every day

A summary is a shortened version of the original. The main purpose of such a simplification is to highlight the major points from the genuine (much longer) subject, e.g. a text, a film or an event. The aim is to help the audience get the gist in a short period of time.

Groom - Not impressed. A little bit OK Computer-y at times, but way less cool. And the song of theirs that kept coming on between bands is something I cannot imagine anyone who doesn't watch rom-coms without irony ever liking.

The Hot Sprockets - I was expecting "folky" and "a whole different buzz altogether", because the girl from Muzu said they'd be like that. But they weren't.

Holy Roman Army - This band needs to get some visuals going, and figure out a more exciting way of playing live. Granted, they were on way too early for the kind of music they play, but being soporific is never a good trait in a live band.

The Vinny Club - Man pressed play on iTunes, then arses around.

Foxface - Their blurb was about ten times as exciting as they were.

Noise Control - 90s rap rock? Seriously?

Heathers - Can't see why everyone is so impressed by these. They have a couple of lyrical turns that make you go "hmm", but if you do everything using terms of reference derived from female American singer-songwriters from the 1990s you're never going to be able to be new or impressive. I also couldn't stomach the fact that they literally did not stop harmonising once in the first four songs.

Carly Sings - Too quiet, venue too loud. Couldn't hear, had to leave.


So there you have it. Hard Working Class Heroes 2008.

Lowlands Notebooks - Sunday etc

Lykke Li:

magnetic personality - eclectic music - tendency towards hit or miss -banging single

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MGMT:

songs all either "bleeeeep or faaar away" (thank you Katie) - limp - bad

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Sigur Rós:

quiet loud fairytale thing - not half as bowled over as my friends - most of the set ordinary - regular gig, not theatre set-up as Oxegen 2006 - highlights did hit the nordic sublime

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The Roots:

sore neck from jerking it and trying to dance to rap - unused to this - virtuouso instrumentalists - guitar/bass solos for twelve hours - rap as part of the music, not over the music - ultimate fun - genius festival closer

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Lowlands Notebooks - Saturday etc

50 Jaar Nederpop (Dutch pop retrospective, see here):

bim bam bom, House For Saaaaaaaaaaaale, Heideroosjes singer, fullest main stage ever, loads of fun


Los Campesinos:

Pete Dohertwee - nothing there - no gap between fun and good music

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British Sea Power:

dull, soft focus, 4/4 rubbish

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Breeders:

halfway between sloppy Sleater-Kinney and less self-absorbed Cat Power, even if they were there first. not very good.

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Iron and Wine:

Vote For Pedro t-shirt brigade vs. my Dublin jersey - unfolding and uncertain - jam sensibilities - virtuoso drummer - Woman King opener - a little too spacey

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No Age:

bedroom noise - attack! - youth abandon punk

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Diplo:

mix mix mix - combining rhythms - Soulja Boy and Lil Wayne and Paper planes - Baltimore to bhangra

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Modeselektor:

boring

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Lowlands Notebooks - Sex Pistols

senile grand aunt being bitten by vipers into singing the hits

but perversely ENJOYING it.

clap along everything

anarchy breakdown singalong

absolute travesty

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About as much use as a cuntless whore

Okay, the title is a little strong. Fight Like Apes releasing Something Global in Tower Records. It's pretty much a consensus opinion from people I've talked to that the single is bad and sounds like sickly polished pop-punk. It sounds like that live too. Even their good songs (including the one that contains the line this blog is named after) are losing edge and gaining polish. I really, really, really did not want to be sitting here saying "I liked their early stuff" before the album even came out. But it's hard not to.

Their best songs have been the same ones since way back when. Jake Summers and Lend Me Your Face. They're still good, but the bite's not there any more. It used to seem like May Kay was going to climb off the stage, grab your skull, put a foot on the wall for leverage and rip your face off whether or not you wanted her to. It's not like that any more.

Without the roughshod, grinning lunatic side, they're just another band. Just another Hooray For Humans. That minute change in mood makes the kitschness and the pop culture pillaging seem more contrived than inspired.

I assume the album's going to sound like Something Global, production-wise, and have the boring songs (i.e. anything not on the first EP or some of the second EP) on it. There's still a chance they could write 10 great songs in the next year or so and come out with a good second album, because all the things that made them so good are still hanging around somewhere underneath the Mr. Muscle approach. But as it stands, I don't know. I'm really sad about making this post. But whatever.

Grand Pocket Orchestra, you're up.

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Got up late, no room to breathe (Monday, pt. 2)

So The Mae Shi at Crawdaddy on Monday was really good. But the real reason I left the house on Monday was to go to Times New Viking. Whose new album I really like.

Long story short, there was a mix-up with times. We assumed the Mae Shi would be done early because they were a support act in a Pod venue where curfew is king.

And we assumed Times New Viking would start late. Because it was in Andrew's Lane, which has a theatre licence. And because of an anonymous tip-off (probably not anonymous, I just don't know who it was).

We left the Mae Shi at about 10.20, before they were finished. Thinking Times New Viking couldn't have started earlier than 10, and more than likely would be a little late.

Plus, promoters were pretty accommodating about Sunset Rubdown/No Age and Liars/Thurston Moore. And The Mae Shi and Times New Viking seem like they would have a fairly big crossover. So it would be okay.

Not so.

It was raining. We ran all the way down Harcourt St.

We got there.

"SHIT! Is it over?!"

"Yeah dude, you guys missed it", quoth the drummer from Times New Viking, smoking outside.

Fuck.

HWCZ - Bands I didn't really like.

I didn't want to dedicate a full post to caning everything I didn't like, so I'm going to put them all into one. The picture is unrelated to anything.

The LKs were the first band I saw on Friday and I didn't like them because: they kept falling slightly out of time with their loops, they didn't really have any melodies, they seemed to take themselves more seriously than their sort of light-souled music should allow. They're Swedish, just so you know.

Alphastates had the mitigating circumstances of having their drummer being away delivering a baby "somewhere far away", but playing basically a full-on set just without drums doesn't really work. Also, I don't think I would've been into their "alt" thing very much anyway.

A Kid Hereafter is Danish and as a Swedish photographer said to myself and my friends "he is more about the entertainment than the music". So I committed the cardinal sin against politeness by leaving the barrier right in front of the stage at Tripod during his third song after he had waved at me. I'm sorry, A Kid Hereafter, I just wasn't into it.

Gavin Ryan was sort of a Nick Cave-lite. I saw the first half of his set but left after he said "this is a new song" and then played what is basically by this stage a template blues-jazz song about his baby or something like that. Did not capture my imagination at all.

The Radio weren't great either. I wouldn't have them in the minus category if I wasn't expecting them to be really good, but that was the information I had. Their last song was a post-rock epic which I actually really liked, but their music was a little bit too "rock" to be as credible as it seemed to think it was.

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