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ventaWell, gosh, it's ages since I've been to the sort of pub-back-room gig where they ask you on the door which band you're here to see. They tallied us on the list as being there for:
Ultrasound. Rewind to 1997. July. Term has ended, and ChrisC and I are lurking about in Oxford, killing time. Poor time, it was massacred in a variety of ways. One day we spent entirely in the Turf Tavern. One evening we elected to follow![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
failmaster wherever he went. One evening we went to The Point[*] because it was very cheap and had a band on.
As far as we can remember, we didn't know anything about Ultrasound. ChrisC thinks that, halfway through their set, he might have recognised a song. Really, though, we think we were just there because they were there. And cheap.
Ultrasound made it big (for some small values of big) over the next couple of years, finally got round to releasing an album in early 1999, and by the end of that year had split up messily. I largely missed all that happening.
The album's bloody good, though.
They reformed a few months back, and are even working on new stuff. We packed ourselves into the overheated little room behind the Bull & Gate to find out what they were like. For those who are sticklers for details, I should clarify that the overheated little room is considerably less little and less overheated than The Point was.
Versus the Circus opened the evening, doing the sensible trick of putting their best songs first. Five of them on the tiny stage had the sort of crammed-in look which made me think of the sort of mock gigs you get in the kind of films where the characters are always hanging out in live music venues. Like Scott Pilgrim vs The World which, if you haven't seen, I recommend.
Their better songs had really strong rhythmn and good basslines, but they also have a fairly neglible guitarist and a forgettable keyboard player. I think they have the capacity to be really quite good, but need to work on it. They do get bonus points, though, for carrying on with a song in the face of total keyboard failure (in a song which relied so heavily on keyboards the singer had put his guitar down and wandered over to lend some extra hands to the keyboardist).
If you fancy a listen, they're on mySpace; they seem only to have put their limper songs on there, though, so unless you want to hear something like a very fourth-rate Muse I wouldn't bother.
The Crookes confused me for a while, because I couldn't quite work out how to describe their jangly guitars and goofy rhythmns and slightly 50s twang. Until I realised that, lazily, I can say "rather like Vampire Weekend". Job done. (You are familiar with Vampire Weekend, right? If not, sort it out right now. They're a lot of fun. Just having heard A - Punk doesn't count.)
I liked The Crookes. They make cheerful, lovable pop. And dance stupidly while having floppy hair. And have good tunes. What more can you ask?
I'd recommend giving them a listen on mySpace; Yes, Yes, We're Magicians is the best of their own songs on there. For bonus points, they've also posted a couple of covers.
The room really was surprisingly packed by the time Ultrasound came on stage. All five of them threw their chips in for the reunion and they ambled on stage to huge cheering.
All yesterday it was bugging me how I would describe Ultrasound's sound to you (yes you - I do think of you, you know). I still don't really have an answer (do you?) The main singer's voice sounds like a less punchable Antony (of the Johnsons) run to seed, smoking forty a day and drowning in pies. There are beaufitul, chimey guitar bits and epic wall-of-sound electro wig-out bits. The (female) bassists's backing vocals often blend in like another instrument rather than a second voice, a very distinctive sound.
Pre-gig, ChrisC and I flirted with - then rejected - the idea of calling them prog rock. Their only album was a double album (triple on vinyl) with about ten tracks on it. One track lasts nearly twenty minutes. They have Hammond organs in spades. But they also have catchy hooks and big choruses.
"Ah yes" said a voice behind me after the song that closed their main set. "That's what I expected, bizarre noises and wailing."
(Now, you see, wasn't it simpler when I could just say "sounds like Vampire Weekend"?)
Why don't you just have a listen?
How about the shiny pop of I'll Show You Mine, or the screamy soundscape of Stay Young, and see whatever other songs YouTube proffers at you.
And you know? They were bloody marvellous. There is a phenomenon I've noticed particularly at reunion gigs, where you look round and every single member of the audience (and, in this case, the band[**]) is grinning like a loony. The clean-cut-looking guy to one side of me, in his smart shirt and jacket, yelling his head off in the chorus of Same Band. The lady wiping away tears and runny mascara away as she sang to I'll Show You Mine. The number of people who knew all the words (no mean feat, I can tell you, I have no idea what he's singing half the time).
[*] The Point was (?is) a venue above That Pub on the Plane. I think at the time in question That Pub was called The Hobgoblin. Or possibly The Scream. Or even The Pub. Anyway, it's back to being called the Cape of Good Hope now, which was its name when I first met it. I say "now". It was the Cape of Good Hope when I last checked a few months back. It may well have changed to The Donkey's Elbow since.
[**] Except possibly the drummer, about whom I have no idea. Owing to tall people in front of me, an over-enthusiastic smoke-machine operative, and the main singer actually being very wide, I was completely unable to see the drummer. I merely deduce his existence.
Ultrasound. Rewind to 1997. July. Term has ended, and ChrisC and I are lurking about in Oxford, killing time. Poor time, it was massacred in a variety of ways. One day we spent entirely in the Turf Tavern. One evening we elected to follow
failmaster wherever he went. One evening we went to The Point[*] because it was very cheap and had a band on.As far as we can remember, we didn't know anything about Ultrasound. ChrisC thinks that, halfway through their set, he might have recognised a song. Really, though, we think we were just there because they were there. And cheap.
Ultrasound made it big (for some small values of big) over the next couple of years, finally got round to releasing an album in early 1999, and by the end of that year had split up messily. I largely missed all that happening.
The album's bloody good, though.
They reformed a few months back, and are even working on new stuff. We packed ourselves into the overheated little room behind the Bull & Gate to find out what they were like. For those who are sticklers for details, I should clarify that the overheated little room is considerably less little and less overheated than The Point was.
Versus the Circus opened the evening, doing the sensible trick of putting their best songs first. Five of them on the tiny stage had the sort of crammed-in look which made me think of the sort of mock gigs you get in the kind of films where the characters are always hanging out in live music venues. Like Scott Pilgrim vs The World which, if you haven't seen, I recommend.
Their better songs had really strong rhythmn and good basslines, but they also have a fairly neglible guitarist and a forgettable keyboard player. I think they have the capacity to be really quite good, but need to work on it. They do get bonus points, though, for carrying on with a song in the face of total keyboard failure (in a song which relied so heavily on keyboards the singer had put his guitar down and wandered over to lend some extra hands to the keyboardist).
If you fancy a listen, they're on mySpace; they seem only to have put their limper songs on there, though, so unless you want to hear something like a very fourth-rate Muse I wouldn't bother.
The Crookes confused me for a while, because I couldn't quite work out how to describe their jangly guitars and goofy rhythmns and slightly 50s twang. Until I realised that, lazily, I can say "rather like Vampire Weekend". Job done. (You are familiar with Vampire Weekend, right? If not, sort it out right now. They're a lot of fun. Just having heard A - Punk doesn't count.)
I liked The Crookes. They make cheerful, lovable pop. And dance stupidly while having floppy hair. And have good tunes. What more can you ask?
I'd recommend giving them a listen on mySpace; Yes, Yes, We're Magicians is the best of their own songs on there. For bonus points, they've also posted a couple of covers.
The room really was surprisingly packed by the time Ultrasound came on stage. All five of them threw their chips in for the reunion and they ambled on stage to huge cheering.
All yesterday it was bugging me how I would describe Ultrasound's sound to you (yes you - I do think of you, you know). I still don't really have an answer (do you?) The main singer's voice sounds like a less punchable Antony (of the Johnsons) run to seed, smoking forty a day and drowning in pies. There are beaufitul, chimey guitar bits and epic wall-of-sound electro wig-out bits. The (female) bassists's backing vocals often blend in like another instrument rather than a second voice, a very distinctive sound.
Pre-gig, ChrisC and I flirted with - then rejected - the idea of calling them prog rock. Their only album was a double album (triple on vinyl) with about ten tracks on it. One track lasts nearly twenty minutes. They have Hammond organs in spades. But they also have catchy hooks and big choruses.
"Ah yes" said a voice behind me after the song that closed their main set. "That's what I expected, bizarre noises and wailing."
(Now, you see, wasn't it simpler when I could just say "sounds like Vampire Weekend"?)
Why don't you just have a listen?
How about the shiny pop of I'll Show You Mine, or the screamy soundscape of Stay Young, and see whatever other songs YouTube proffers at you.
And you know? They were bloody marvellous. There is a phenomenon I've noticed particularly at reunion gigs, where you look round and every single member of the audience (and, in this case, the band[**]) is grinning like a loony. The clean-cut-looking guy to one side of me, in his smart shirt and jacket, yelling his head off in the chorus of Same Band. The lady wiping away tears and runny mascara away as she sang to I'll Show You Mine. The number of people who knew all the words (no mean feat, I can tell you, I have no idea what he's singing half the time).
[*] The Point was (?is) a venue above That Pub on the Plane. I think at the time in question That Pub was called The Hobgoblin. Or possibly The Scream. Or even The Pub. Anyway, it's back to being called the Cape of Good Hope now, which was its name when I first met it. I say "now". It was the Cape of Good Hope when I last checked a few months back. It may well have changed to The Donkey's Elbow since.
[**] Except possibly the drummer, about whom I have no idea. Owing to tall people in front of me, an over-enthusiastic smoke-machine operative, and the main singer actually being very wide, I was completely unable to see the drummer. I merely deduce his existence.
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Date: 2010-09-28 11:24 am (UTC)I think the heatedness was more to do with July than internal plumbing :)
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Date: 2010-09-28 11:48 am (UTC)