Blah blah Project Africa blah
I swear I will type in about 500 words of Kapelwa Musonda over the next weekend. I realise that ProZam is in serious trouble (like every other initially well-meaning attempt by OECD liberals to get involved in African politics, I note with irony), mainly due to the credit crumble and am hoping to get it back on the road soon. Meanwhile (and this is not a breach of my self-denying ordinance re: US election coverage as he absolutely does not endorse any candidates for the US presidency, I'll note that in the past I've had a few harsh words to say about Matthew Yglesias's blog, but he has nailed it on more than a few occasions over the last couple of weeks and this post in particular is really rather good.
In unrelated news, while I still fundamentally hate live music, Spiritualized at the Roundhouse yesterday really fucking rocked. I'm always impressed by Jason Spaceman's complete refusal to recognise the even existence of his audience; he's much more of a stereotype black-shades Sixties psychedelic rocker than anyone ever dared to be during the Sixties. Halfway through the concert, Ms Digest asked me "isn't he even going to say something like 'Hello London'?". All I could reply was "it's quite likely that he isn't aware that he's actually in London".
Were they, um, loud? I caught them up at Brookes for the Radio 1 thing in... oh, a while ago (1997?) just after the formal split with Kate Radley that was responsible, sort of, for two of the year's best albums, and couldn't hear more than ringing for the next two days. (That was the gig that sent me to earplugs for anyone promising loudness, which paid a dividend with Jon Spencer a couple of years later.) And no, Jason didn't say a word then either.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, he's Not Dead Yet and that should be celebrated. A friend of mine was somewhat in awe of him back in the day, and ended up nearly dead as a result.
Heh, "while I still fundamentally hate live music". Why, pray tell?
ReplyDeleteWhat was the sound like at The Roundhouse? I've avoided booking tickets there, having heard the acoustics are dreadful.
It was loud but not horrifically so - Ms D had a bit of ringing the next day but I didn't. I was standing at the back though - it must have been pretty frightening up at the front. I thought the acoustics were all right; could pick out individual instruments etc.
ReplyDeleteDid they play "Electricity"?
ReplyDeleteDon't think so, but there were quite a bunch of songs that I half-recognised as coming from somewhere around the middle of LGWAFIS but couldn't remember the name, and that might have been one of them
ReplyDeleteBack in 1993, there was a Lollapalooza tour in the UK which comprised the Jesus and Mary Chain, Dinosaur Junior, My Bloody Valentine and somewhat incongruously, Blur.
ReplyDeleteI doubt there has been a more sonically challenging gig since. There were reports of MBV clearing venues and bursting ear drums. I sometimes wonder if the people who went have any hearing left.
Any tour with Swans on, basically, Tom...
ReplyDeleteHeh. You're right, seemingly.
ReplyDelete"One of the trademarks of Swans' early period was playing at painfully loud volumes during concerts, to the point where some audience members would vomit[citation needed] or the police would stop the show."
A friend, pressing a tape of early Swans into my hand: "You've got to listen to this! It's brilliant - it's unlistenable!"
ReplyDeleteI thought he was half right. God knows what it must have been like to be subjected to that stuff live. (Mind you, I ended up getting not one but three Swans albums, so something must have stuck.)
a swans show was def the loudest i was ever at -- pointlessly, i think, and my ears were ringing for a couple of days (i like their pure-noise releases, viz "cop" and the "raping a slave" ep, top title eh, but i play em quiet)
ReplyDeletebut the hyper-loud swans shows were from 86-87 (ie long before 1993) -- and they went a lot more consciously melodic in their later days
i saw that MBV/Dino Jr/jamc show at brixton academy but don't remember thinking it was obnoxiously loud
(possibly bcz my ears were wrecked back in 1987)
ReplyDeleteI doubt there has been a more sonically challenging gig since. There were reports of MBV clearing venues and bursting ear drums. I sometimes wonder if the people who went have any hearing left.
ReplyDeletePardon?
It was the Rollercoaster tour, and from anecdotal reports, it wasn't as bad as the MBV Cambridge Corn Exchange gig in 1991 that got written up in the NME, because the PA wasn't quite up to the evil 2Hz rumble.
(Swans-mentioning anonymous)
ReplyDeleteSadly, I was too young to see MBV in their prime, and completely forgot to buy tickets for the recent revival (having stopped reading the NME ages back.[1]) The loudest band I've ever seen were probably Mogwai back in the Young Team days. Mogwai Fear Satan became a thirty minute wall of sound...
[1] Also having become an young fogey - the last concert I went to see was Lied von der Erde at this year's Proms.
And rightly so, may I add.
ReplyDeleteI recall (of all bands) the Boo Radleys' 1998 tour as being skullgrindingly loud in a MBV sort of way. I think they got tired of being taken for a bunch of jessies due to their regular sweet melody/bitter words trick and decided to take up noise instead. Not only did my ears ring, I remember distinctly that their roadies had some trouble finding space on the Leeds Met Uni stage for the backline.
ReplyDeleteTo be fair, 1998 would be about the time of C'Mon Kids, which was pretty much their "fuck you" to everyone who'd liked Wake Up Boo!
ReplyDeleteThough I see from their Wikipedia article that they've denied this in interviews.
The Boo Radleys were pretty much known for loud-quiet-loud stuff in their pre-Wake Up Boo! shoey days. They did a joint tour with the Pale Saints in 1991 that was pretty loud.
ReplyDeleteMogwai weren't that loud when I saw them at Camber Sands -- the Bowlie/ATP weekends at Pontin's have a fantastic PA system. How Jon Spencer Blues Explosion managed not to break it, I dunno.
Mogwai would have been about '99 - their first couple of albums were enjoyably noisy, but after Rock Action they became noticeably more gentle. For given values of gentle, I'll admit.
ReplyDelete