Plan B magazine

I was going to see Marnie Stern tonight, and I was excited but it has been re-scheduled. Again. Damnit.

Abe Vigoda in London tomorow night, crazy thrilled. Anyone else going?

Yeah not quite sure what happened there because she was at ATP so was already in the country. Odd.

I'm in the middle of 2 ATP weekends so no other gig action for me this week.

Was going to attempt to scab into Marnie Stern/POBPAH/Vivian Girls on Thursday but ATP overdoings has made me not try...the rest is essential, and have run out of money pretty much.

Bearsuit at 3pm on Saturday next up, then Ariel Pink on Tuesday.

I missed this - Conflicts in a vaguely hectic social life and all that.

T'was Retribution Gospel Choir last night, which was good, and I'll be at The Halt for the Radiation Line thingy. Breeders whenever that is, and Primavera soooon!

Kenny! You're at Breeders ATP and Primavera? Yay!

Flying home for my birthday, and the Veils/Basia Bulat at The Lexington on Monday. Yays.

Me too.

If I can do enough revision to justify myself, Melt-Banana at the Rainbow this Friday. I think the next one after that will be the Sublime Frequencies show in Brum on the 21st, then poss. The Necks at CBSO Centre, and Prurient/Cold Cave/Beestung Lips/Nicholas Bullen at Vivid. Coventry is utterly bereft of decent gigs at the moment, and yet Birmingham is packed with them; go figure.

Not the Breeders ATP, sadly - they're playing a couple of nights in Glasgow beforehand and I'm going to one of those. I'll be at Primavera though - we should do a Plan B Le Weekend/Primavera link-up where we get the Stirling peeps to climb to the top of a hill and wave to the Primavera peeps as we sit on the beach and wave back.

i really wanna see holy fuck tonight at the scala.. hmm.

I saw Holy Fuck in Glasgow on Monday night. Although not an absolutely amazing gig, it was still pretty awesome.

i am going to see holy fuck tonight, just got me two tickets!

Saw Wintersleep at Portland Arms in Cambridge last night, on their way down to the Brighton thingymabob. Preetty much the poor man's Arcade Fire as expected, but we take our kicks where we can get 'em out here in the musical wastelands of East Angular.

The drummer was a HAIRYMONSTER. HE smashed them bad boys like he was Grohl in QOTSA at Madison Fuckin Square Gardens, rather than backing some gentle college boys in the backroom of a likkle English pub.

I think he is in Holy Fuck, no? Should be good if so.

I was considering this. Yet even after being given the chance to DJ at the event, I still chose Eurovision over it.

Very exciting - Psychic TV on Sunday, then Deerhunter followed by Ariel Pink and Prurient (I bought tickets for Prurient as headliner, but never mind)

wtf though I'm gonna see Gen.


I really never have incorporated the above symbol in a board post or email before. I am not sure if it is wildly inappropriate, or incredibly appropriate.

I cannot believe I slept on getting a Psychic TV ticket. If anyone has or knows of anyone who fancies selling their ticket at a tidy profit lemme know!

Aren't PTV shit nowadays?

Nope.

Fair enough. A few people have told me they're not worth investigating anymore, but since when did I believe what anyone tells me?

Friday is a big night in Glasgow. I'm off to Sublime Frequencies at Stereo, but Akron/Family are also on at the Captains Rest and Prurient is playing at the 13th Note. It's actually frustrating when this kind of thing happens. Three great gigs that I'd love to go to, but they're all on one night - can't promoters coordinate better?

Anyway, I'm kind of hoping that Sublime Frequencies finish relatively early, so that I can leg it down the the Note and try to catch Prurient if I'm feeling frisky. Anyone else up for it?

Then there's VOM & PYRAMIDION at the 13th Note on Saturday - well excited for that one too. Going to be a good weekend hopefully.

It's my birthday tomorrow, but I'm skint so there's a big chance that I won't be making the Sublime Frequencies thing, which makes me a big prize winning douche (any idea how much tickets are). Prurient should be ace as well, I read somewhere that it was going to be more Cold Cave than Prurient though?? I will definitely be at the note for Pyramidion/Vom.

just sublime frequencies for me. hate to miss YET ANOTHER vom gig (is this the fifth or sixth in a row? whatever, it's shit...), but my finances will really not allow it.

I hope Sublime Frequencies doesn't start too early, cos I'm at my mindnumbing work until 9pm. Just over the river though, so I can leg it to Stereo in 15 minutes. Hugely psyched about this gig.
Not convinced by Cold Cave at all. It's a slipperly slope to Darkwave people.
Going to Stag & Dagger on Saturday as a media whore. Sadly the Glasgow leg doesn't have Abe Vigoda, but there are still some goodies and the schedule is working out well for me. Mika Miko then down the road for Danananaykroy and Mae Shi, before popping up to the Art School for Clark, Dolby Anol and all kinds of goodness.

i'm playing matt//team brick's fest on sunday and i'm so unbelievebly scared its untrue!!! had 'final' practice last night with rob lye (chora boy) helping me out and i got totally prang and freaked half way through but had a little beer and calmed down a bit. i'm worried and hope it goes ok, its for a great cause! any bristol kids should get their asses down to the team brick album launch party festival this weekend - 4 days of ace musics! good luck to you matt if you read this before i see you.

I'm sure it'll be fine Sof and you'll rock everyone's socks. This looks like a brilliant event. Bricky, when you coming back up to Glasgow?

i'm gonna put rocks in their socks so that they run out of the building to empty the stones out and i can play by myself in peace

Unbelievably great sets from Omar Souleyman and Group Doueh last night. Omar had pretty much the whole crowd dancing, which is really encouraging. Seems that Glasgow has finally shaken off its too cool to dance post-rock chinstroke posturing. Shit was banging. The electric saz player was awesome, while the sampled Syrian instruments all warped and pitch bent through the synths give his music a wild, freaky quality.
Really beautiful set from Group Doueh too. His phased guitar sound is incredible, like a Saharan Richard Thompson on Venus.
We drove home in the Garymobile, blasting out Omar Souleyman's Leh Jani with the windows down. It was like a post-internet Dazed & Confused.

Any reports from the Prurient/Cold Cave tour? Was gonna go down the other night but too knackered after No Fun (where both played, but separately).

Cold Cave were a little iffy live but I like the records a lot.

xp: yes, an ace night.

souleyman was cool for a while, but the four-on-the-floor techno beats eventually bored my very bones. the intricate saz and mad keyboard runs were amazing though. and (almost) everyone went absolutely wild for it, which left me all bewildered and alienated. but having never understood the appeal of dance music, I'm pretty used to that feeling by now.

group doueh easily took it for me...totally meditative but utterly thrilling and dramatic at the same time. the twin vocalists were beautiful, especially the female singer, who threw in some really mesmerising hand-drum counter-rhythms too. again, the programmed beats were a bit naff, and a lot cheaper-sounding than souleyman's, but at least they didn't dominate - the spidery, impossible guitar fractals were very much at the forefront.

great music, cheap vodka and cokes, and a lift home = me a happy camper.

You're just getting old Matt

Soulyeman rocked the house down. Really didn't expect the crowd to get that into it but it was awesome. Group Doueh were great as well.

Stereo does seem to be the hottest (temperature wise) venue in the universe though...

harrumph. I've been old since I was a child.

apparently stereo's air-con is unusually noisy, so it's turned off while the bands are on...

Colour me old as well -

The first band - BLUES ROCK. BLUES ROCK WILL ALWAYS SUCK, NO MATTER WHERE IT COMES FROM, OR HOW WELL IT'S PLAYED

BLUESHAMMMMMMMMMEEEERRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The second band - OH YEAY, A SAZ I thought. I left 5 minutes after BECAUSE THERE WAS TOTALLY NO NEED FOR THOSE UNCE UNCE UNCE UNCE UNCE UNCE UNCE UNCE UNCE UNCE UNCE UNCE UNCE STUPID BEATZ TO PATRONISE ME. Good player though (again, good players of bad music)

AND EVERYONE WAS LOVING IT
AND DANCING
AND I THOUGHT IT WAS LAME
AND NOBODY ELSE THOUGHT IT WAS LAME

OH WELL

So incredibly looking forward to Jamie Stewart tomorrow night in London, and am theoretically excited about seeing Prurient with Cold Cave, tho in actuality am getting a bit wary of the possibility of it being lame.

Then it's Matmos, twice!, over Tuesday and Wednesday, with the London Contemporary Orchestra playing arrangements from 'Supreme Balloon' which I'm just going to go ahead and say will rule so much.

Did Stag & Dagger last night. Was quite good fun. Mika Miko were ace, rockin' and very danceable. Black Lips, in contrast, were utterly charmless and unswinging. Spirit of Nuggets my arse. Chicken McNuggets more like. Pish.
Couldn't get into Danananaykroyd. They were on at the tiny Captain's Rest and it was one in one out with a massive queue. So went to the Art School for Phantom Band: meh. Tim Exile was dead good though, although I'm not quite sure about his vocals. Awesome splattery beats though. Clark was pretty decent, although Wingnut and were too deep into a boozy conversation to get up and dance. What old men we are!

your succinctness is a joy to behold.

Heh - it's the sofas in the art school. They're just too comfy. And, um, the vast quantities of booze I'd consumed meant that by that point in the night, everything was very, very blurry. The evening was mostly spent having another pint with my mate before heading downstairs to see who was on, except never actually making it downstairs much. Alkies. We did make it into Danananaykroyd -we got there halfway through the band that were on before, and didn't budge. T'was good!

ADF in Manchester tonight.

Sheeeiit and yowsers.

Haven't quite got my head around it yet. They were fierce. And righteous. And ace.

I'm dribbling at several thousand miles an hour.

Sublime Frequencies was great fun. I preferred Omar Souleyman to Group Doueh, as the dancing party atmosphere was so good. Some dubious keyboard action and beats, but what the hell, I had a laugh.

More self-promotion - finished up my photos from the Glasgow show now: Sublime Frequencies Tour @ Stereo, Glasgow



Omar Souleyman

p

Group Doueh

Vom and Pyramidion at the 13th Note on the Saturday were even more awesome. Will have some shots of that later...

Ducktails in Hove on Saturday, albeit with popping over to an indiepop night round the corner going on inbtwn bands and that.