It may be a little late to do a recap.. a review of 2005.... but really... just want to say a few words about the bands and music and 'people' and things we discovered (and or CREATED!!!) during the last year - not in any particular order:  THE FULL MOON CLUB, STARVATION BOX, The SENSATIONAL ALEX HARVEY BAND (sans Alex, aka 'ZALVATION' the Live CD Title), DEEP SIX, PARANOID MONKEYS, BAND OF RAIN, LEITHFM, ALTRES,  RENEGADE RAYDIO, OCEAN BEACH AQUASURF SHOP, TAYLOR, THE ACUTE, BLACK MEDICINE, http://adbusters.org/metas/politico/antipreneur/,  SANS TRAUMA, POTHEAD SOCIETY and visit www.myspace.com/ledzeppelin for some fun.. and, for a bit of a shock.. visit www.myspace.com/georgewbush.  I kid you not..saw a comment w/ photo.. so gruesome.. I'm gonna put a disclaimer before sending you there.  I SWEAR I had nothing to do with it! or www.myspace.com/suicidegirls.  There's a lot of f*ckin' weird sh*t out there.. and for some reason.. people (and I mean all kindsa people) seem to think it's 'normal'.  Anyway: Here are last year's reviews: 

28, 29, 30 Sept 05  MGCK Music  End of the month - LAST NIGHT AT the GULAG (Downstairs at EGO): STARVATION BOX - At 11pm, I was standing on the steps of the EGO club in the rain.  Doors closed.. street absolutely EMPTY... my mind's lips formed a question: "Is this the place?"   I could see diners in the civil-list funded Halyon Club next door polishing off their roast fox and Niger-child souffle.  An hour and a quarter later we were IN the GULAG and it was HEAVING.. .. wild raucous, loud and even more important.. so far underground.  A word of mouth event.. no posters.. no publicity.. no notice in mag or rag.. it was just the HAPPENING (yes I call on the verbiage of the uber groovy 60’s psychaedelic corps) place to be.  STARVATION BOX were punked to their max and the lead woman/girl guitarist person Sirraya.. Soraya or Sarrria.. do not know her name.. looks like she might be able to pull it off.  The drummer with R-E-B-E-L (maybe his name?) tattooed  in LARGE letters across his throat left no doubts as to his life’s ambitions, affiliations, preferences and how he spends his time.  No day jobbers need apply here.  Means they just might make it somewhere into the music gallactics.  It was good.  Allegedly, the lyrics are a main feature of the package, but inaudible under  the sheer sweaty mass of last night’s heavin’ crowd and punked mic sound. Oh yeah.. and they had the added glitz and gloss of the great man himself - Kenny Brady soothing and stressing his psychaedelic fiddle. .singing into the hole like a newly deranged Jim Morrison  with the ‘killer on the road’… yeah.. good night.  You may need a pedigree of KOOL to get into Gulag on most occasions.. but you can try yer luck at the door on any night.    One thing I know for sure..

SENSATIONAL ALEX HARVEY BAND @ The GARAGE, Glasgow, 16 Dec 05

17 Dec 05 Sat MGCK Music  "ROCK n ROLL or WHAT!!!!!!!!!" [photos© 2005 Robbie Martin]

Last night the Sensational Alex Harvey Band rocked Glasgow's Garage.  The swansong of a 29-date tour, ending in their hometown (a final homage to Alex), with a venue packed to the rafters... You know it's a recipe for a GREAT GIG!

There were all the young 'fringe-pasted-to-the-forehead' dudes hanging 'round, come to watch the Old Masters and there were punters who queued for tickets in '72.  There were people from Sweden and Canada and every one of them sang the words to every song. The pre-band intro, The Shamen's version of 'FAITH HEALER': a 'Rockno' blitz of heavy guitars and Shamanistic techno-logy, bled against a backdrop screen of Brazilian jungle scenes morphing into gig nights.  Apparently, Max Maxwell spent a spiritual sabbatical  in the Amazon, living with the indigents; taking that mysterious hallucinogen Ayahuasca (sp?) before getting this gig.  The trip prepped him well for the larger than life role and yes, he 'almost' fills Alex's boots.  He's definitely the man for the job.  As good as they'll get.

The rhythm section, Chris Glen, astonishingly liquid and heavy, on bass and Ted McKenna, equally astonishingly solid and fast-as-F*CK, on drums (and by the way for all you single bass-drum fannies out there.. this 'old' geezer kicks a double bass drum and kicks it WELLLLLLLL).  The drum solo we begged for, left us begging for more.  Alongside Zal Cleminson (who we'll get to in a moment) they played an immaculate and innovative 2-hour set.  At times with the grinding Art-Metal groove that would give TOOL a run for their money.  First question: How old ARE these guys?  Age has NOT withered.  (I'm writing a lot about them, 'cuz I am now one of the converted.  Saw them in Edinburgh a month ago and it was nothing like last night.  Last night SHOCKED me into complete fanatical servitude to their skills.) One of the founding fathers from Alabama 3, the Reverend D. Wayne Love AKA Jake Black fi' Pollock, joined them for 2 numbers.  This kinda pissed off JM who used to drop acid with Reverend LURVE in the back gardens of Brixton... and thinks it should be HIM, not Jake, fronting the band for the guest spots.

Now to Zal Cleminson:

Zal Cleminson played his guitar like a man on acid pleasuring himself before a beloved idol. His passion for his instrument evident in his every stroke and grimace.  His astonishing attention to every detail to achieve the maximum pleasure from handling it.  His face as alive as his fingers.  His ability last night was staggering.  The fretwork.. the SOUNDS!... the things he did with that guitar.  It was a touch of Hendrix come to Earth for an hour or two.  It seemed all things merged into the crucible of his desire to play.   Did I forget someone?  The quiet man of the troop? Hugh McKenna on keys?  Never a bum note.  Give my compliments to the chef.

So.. This was the Alex Harvey Band.   But they were Sensational.

16 Dec 05 Fri MGCK Music  "Good Day at the office!"

MGCK MUSIC is now proud and pleased to announce it's affiliation with RENEGADE RAYDIO. Visit our weblinked CD SHOP, currently under construction, but soon... UP and RUNNING!!!!!!!! thanks to the yanks! or should that be.. thanks to Alexis in LA.

13 Dec 05 Tues MGCK Music  "A DEEP SPACEY SHADE OF THE UNKNOWN"

And finally... Band of Rain.. yes.. the CD>. I got it in the post.  Have yet to listen.. but the cover's nice.  

(notes at 3 Feb 2006 - BAND OF RAIN are HOT HEAVY PSYCHAEDELIA.  Favourite CD of the moment. No website to speak of but I got this blurb from Rubbish Records: "Band of Rain has been constantly changing over the years. As the songs change so the personnel changed. However the band's founder member and songwriter Chris Gill has found a niche now that seems to suit everybody, and as such is now putting together a new live band for 2005. There is also a new album being written and recorded right now as a follow up to "Deep Space" recorded and released in 2004. Chris's dream bands are Gong & Ozrics, Chris's favourite colour is a deep spacey shade of the unknown.""

Sounds like my kinda guy.  As does the next gentleman.....

January 2005: Albert Hoffman is still alive and, apparently, well.  99 going on 100.  Here's to Albert! Here's to the two Alberts.. Einstein and Hoffman.  Men who changed the 20th Century.

January 2006: One piece of GOOD NEWS>  Albert Hoffman, the creator of one of the most miraculous substances of the 20th Century and, if you believe Graham Hancock's book 'Supernature', a participant in our next evolution, had his 100th birthday this week! Without him, who knows what our world would be like.  Pretty straight up and down.

5 Feb & 5 March 2005 MGCK Music    More Romantic notions

Johnny California has gone to Vegas to watch the Superbowl and get off his face or get some lapdancers on it.  He sent me a photo of his head and I sent him a photo of my heart.

Notes from The Full Moon Clubs:  WILDHOUSE from Dundee,  played a good strong and yeah... well.. 'wild' set.. instrumental (were their vocals? actually I think there were..) and crazy.. like Hawkwind – all sounds and wrecked guitar strings and tom toms pushed up to the front of the stage.. it felt like walking into the middle of a strange dayz soundcheck..  Anyone with half a brain would dread going on after them as they were hardcore avant garde rock n roll.  Luckily a poet came on after – Richard Allen, the one who does the Cliff Richard '666' poem.  Absolutely hysterical.  More stand-up than poet.  Electra went on after that and just kinda said ‘fuck it.. this is how I’m going to do it.'  Began her set with 'The Other Day' a  dark and sensitive li'l number and then finished with Amos Moses (A 'JImmy Reed, the Alabama Wildman' via Alex Harvey cover), Fritz joined her on drums.  Stewart Lockhead was there from Leith FM and filming live stuff for Leith TV.  ALTRES from Dundee, led by guitarist Brian Hutton, played an absolutely mind-blowing and storming instrumental set that could have easily gone on for another hour. It got wilder and heavier and yet the unit got 'tighter' as it went along.   They were followed by The G (dot co dot uk) really, his site is www.theg.co.uk, and Norman Lamont supporting him on bass... The G does burst of energy songs and some rampant guitar work.  I can tell he's a bit of a perfectionist (something about the mic sound (feedback probably) bothered him for the first few numbers), but he comfortably hit his stride after that.  I bought the CD and will give it a listen.  The Decibelles came up and gave us tight, pretty acapella harmonies.  Norman Lamont took solo to the stage with some moody pieces created with his favourite appliance, the lovingly named 'Cynthia Roland'.  {Every machine has a soul.}  He created a very dramatic atmosphere which, at first, seemed out of place for the Underworld at Bannermans... then he played a version of 'Hungry Ghosts' and in this soundscape it all fit.................. Following Norman was the much vaunted and awaited ISIS.  Zara is the songwriter/guitarist, Cath (also of Hennisi) on drums and bass-player also from Hennisi.  (Forgive me not knowing your name, but I do know your face!)  ISIS played hot little 3-minute numbers that could easily become unforgettable.  Great hooks, wounded emotions and a powerhouse voice that sails out of that girl like a pure force.  The crowd loved them................  They were followed by Andy 'Mad Dog' MacFarlane and 'Wench Babe' from Nicotene Fingers working through some new tunes together, followed by (have I got the order wrong here?) all I know is that some of the best was saved for last and that was a band called CHLOROPHORM HOOKERS, the drummer from Z28's with a bass player and guitarist/frontman whose names I never learned.  They came on, pissed off that their slot had been moved from an hour and a half earlier to an hour and a half later, but whether the front-man guitarist knew it or not.. his pissed off REALLY fuckin' angry young man FUCK YOU vibe kind of added to the whole event.  The guy had A-LOTTA charisma (can I get your phone number?) and they were one of my favourite parts of the night.  The music raged through a kind of punky nu-metal with numerous stinging scorpion-tail swipes up and down the fret-board, in and out of grooves.  It was, at moments, pure metal-punk and then would switch to incomparably heavy aural assaults on the floor now covered with dancers and reelers and feelers.  They refilled what had been a bar on it's way to closing and ended the evening with a winning note.  In other words, they did good.  [All photos courtesy of Malcolm McLean, our illustrious soundman and talented photo-op guy]

Or, does this man have the right idea?

Wanting to "continue the good name" of his gun, Lt. Gen. Mikhail Kalashnikov is now marketing a vodka under the AK-47's brand. The promoters say that it is "best drunk with friends."

Have you got any?

 

 

APRIL 2005 Fri Whatever happened to.....  hitch-hiking? and the open road?

http://www.bruceeisner.com/new_culture/current_affairs/  Very cool, very interesting and VERY telling website devoted to discussions on/literature about 'hey... whatever happened to the counterculture?'  It became the consumer culture.  Read on.  Scroll down and check out the list of archive articles.. there's mucho interesting stuff there.  Actually, too much. Too much to read and take in.  You'd need three heads and several brains.  Maybe they'll work that out in a lab somewherever, some day soon.

10 & 11 April 2005 Sun MGCK Music    "why not dress up as a wood louse instead?"!

Complaints, complaints... All I ever get is complaints..  people who want me to LIE.. to say they're GREAT all of the time!  Sorry, it's not gonna happen.  Look,  I'm SHIT 70% of the time.. so how the heck are you going to be GREAT all of the time??  I speak with straight not forked nor ass-licking tongue and try my very best not to be vicious, even when they're gaggin' for it. (wellllll... sometimes.   I couldn't control myself with that 'Snag & Mullet Open Mic' thing last month.  But that WAS the depths.  Squid shit drifting to the bottom of the Mariannus Trench...

Anyway.... My suggestions to 'some' bands to keep their shows lively: dress up as wood beetles (plastic carapaces and mandibles would do) and slap each other's bare bottoms with wet lettuce between numbers.  That'll keep it fresh and invite audience participation.  (PS, don't lose the balaclavas.. I really like that bit.)

I can't say enough about Friday night at The Doghouse or Friday night in Dundee.  I am so impressed!  For someone who's been in the town only once (and that was 20 years ago), it struck me as regenerated, reconstructed, renewed.. just a new city in many senses.  Easy thoroughfares, easy access straight up the M90/to A90 and you're in the city centre. (If you've landed here from some US ethernet outpost, I'm not meaning Dundee, Maryland, Montana or Georgia,  but Dundee north of Fife, north of Edinburgh.. just Dundee NORTH!)  Beautiful views across the Tay, clean, no traffic (Edinburgh is choked with ridiculous one-person-per-car traffic); Dundee just looked good all the way around.  And The DOGHOUSE.. I expected a grungy little pit of a dive with a tiny stage at the back or the front or maybe over the bar.  The Doghouse is a good-sized 3-storey building on the corner of Brown Street and Hawkhill Road.  You walk into a massive bar with ceiling 2 floors up and wonder where the band goes, there's so many places for it to fit and there's a separate pool room at one end.  They guide you through another door into a good-sized space with stage and big PA set-up, which has a wall of sliding doors that open out into the bar when the gig starts.  In other words you could easily get a few hundred people in there.

End MAY... almost Moon Spoon  JUNE 2005   

SAN FRANCISCO - Open your Golden Gate

Take me back to Ocean Beach... and don't spare the horses

Whatever happened to.....  the open road?

The surfer knows.  

April ended with a trip to the beach to ponder the curve of the world across the blue Pacific horizon.  Wet-suited surf-dudes plying their trade up and down the waves.  The AquaSurf shop played the best tunes.  "If you're going to San Francisco.. be sure to wear some flowers in your hair.."  

And so.. I'm back.. from outer space.. from the land of sun, fun, hyper-consumerism, super-pollution, teenage billionaires, and nano-technology.   The land where anything and everything is possible from the very worst to the very best.   Just ask George Lucas and Michael Jackson.

JUNE 2005: The surprise of the night was Taylor himself.  He plays the guitar and sings while people are drifting in.  His heartfelt style and natural musicianship almost convince you he wrote some of the great songs he covers.  He actually was the most talented of the bunch on that stage last night.  A complete turnaround from the image he gives when you meet him elsewhere as 'the promoter and band manager'. 

2 July 2005 Sat MGCK Music  From Edinburgh: A letter to a friend via the Pentagon

""The Pre-G8 Summit weekend kicks off in Edinburgh. No fireworks.. not yet.. but thought provoking all the way.

 

JULY 2005: [Playing 'Spot The Review'?']:  The groove had been cool and steady all night.. then the 'next band' - who shall remain nameless to protect the innocent - came on.  No they won't!  They're called FUCKIN' AL-PONCE-OH!!! This was a bit of a shock and something you'd never expect at a pipped as 'groovy' and 'socially conscious' activist induced Bongo Club ' FREE TIBET!' fete. I mean, come on...  TIBET is a HOT P-O-L-I-T-I-C-A-L issue and has been for decades.  I've got a feeling these boys don't even know what or 'where' Tibet is.  The band took the stage like they were playing to an audience of McFly fans or 12-year olds...i.e. launching into cheesy formulaic 'pop-rock'  which did not suit the tone of the event,  or MY expectations.  We've seen it so many million times.  The posturing frontman wants it so bad, WE can taste it.    Paul, the manager, left after one and one-quarter numbers.  Someone else (generously) likened them to 'a bad Ocean Colour Scene'.  Jim and Robbie had to restrain Lawrence who, now quite drunk and a fan of the late great Bill 'when- did- mediocrity- and- banality- become- a- good- thing?' Hicks, kept running to the front of the stage and giving the squealing frontman the one finger rating.  I spoke briefly to another acquaintance I saw in the crowd, but simply had to get outta there.   As an agent in Hollywood once told me, 'I don't have time to watch bad movies'.  Life's too short.  Or you need a paramedic with plenty of morphine to get you through it.  Best done comatose. Try it at home.  Practice giving lousy bands the ONE FINGER rating.

AUGUST 2005: AND WHAT DID YOU SEE AT THE FESTIVAL???

12 August Fri MGCK Music  You WILL be AMAZED!!! ""But where are the puppets??""

I can confirm here that no entertainment compares with men shaking their willies in your face and making sea anemones, baby kangaroos, famous landmarks, wind-surfers, bulldogs, Eiffel Towers, Einstein's brain!, KFC chicken nuggets and Big Mac's out of their genitalia; all these marvels magnified onto a giant screen for closer scrutiny and increased amazement.  Puppetry of the Penis was hysterically funny.  My friend Fifi J wrote to a colleague at work (a man!) who'd been to see the show earlier in the week.  She asked him if he'd tried to recreate any of the scrotal twists and turns he'd witnessed.  His reply: "does a bear shit in the woods?"  Her theory is that the men who've seen the show will, indeed, go home and attempt the nearly unattemptable and once they've cracked it, pass this lore down to their sons and maybe even their daughters too!! This could change western mating rituals: "I can make Arthur's Seat out of mine!"

20 August Sat MGCK Music    And what did you see on The Fringe??

'Puppetry of the Penis' @ The Gilded Balloon 8:55pm, 'The Forbidden' 7:30pm The Holyrood Tavern Venue 84 - 'The Fourth Wall' at Venue 54 (C Central by the Calton Hotel on the Bridges 4:45pm), 'FourPlay' at the Hill Street Theatre, Venue 41 5.45pm - Wanted to see 'Grey Gardens' at the Filmhouse but the queue for returns was a mile long.. settled on 'BREATHE'.. an actorless theatre production using smoke, lights, mirrors and sound (breathing) at the Traverse Theatre 2b, Grindlay Street Venue 324.  Tonight to see the film 'STONED', the life of the REAL Rolling Stone - Brian Jones, at the Cameo.. wanted to see 'GRIZZLY MAN' but it was sold out both nights.. Werner Herzog takes on the life of that guy, Timothy Treadwell,  who was a surfer, speed-dealer, social fuck-up and marvelously homeless drop-out, struggling actor and sometime recovering alcoholic/drug addicted soul hanging around the fringes of Malibu for 20 years.. somewhere near the age of 40 he landed in Alaska and saw his first BIG bear... and that was it.. love at first bite.  He became one of the foremost authorities on the habits of the grizzly and at the very last, he and his girlfriend, naturalist _(can't remember her name -_ were eaten by the subjects of their admiration.  I so hope this film goes on general release.  I read the story in Vanity Fair in an airport last October.  A definite must see if only for the staggeringly beautiful Alaskan wilderness scenery and Timothy's still-crazy-after-all-these-years wild eyes.

PS: in the midst of all this 'Edinburgh Festival Lurve'... take a minute's silence to remember:

 THERE's NO PLACE LIKE HOME!!!!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And Don't YOU FORGET IT!!!!!!

Now.... back to the local stuff: ** Went in search of MUSIC during the festival.. Tried the Left Bank Open Mic.. which seemed to be closed although there was an 'acoustic showcase' going on in a room upstairs.  I'd rather eat my own head than have to sit through an acoustic showcase, so went to Bannerman's which was packed and paid my £4 to enter the pit having no idea who was playing.  The girl at the door listed bands I could contribute my spending power to.. I opted for 'Guantanamo Bay' having seen the name on a flyer.. I  walked in and, good timing, they were on stage!!   A standard raunch-grunge loosely-edged heavy-riffed girl-singered indie-three-piece (ad reads: we need a bass player who RAWKS!) And they weren't bad and they weren't good and it was ok to sit through a few numbers and the Underworld was WARM.. which beat freezing my ass off walking through the Cowgate.  Yeah.. they were OK.. and then they came to their last number.. 'Burn Me Burn You'.. and it was powerful.. so powerful that I sang the hook walking all the way back up the street to the Left Bank to see if the Open Mic was.. uh.. OPEN.. but it was still closed.. so back to Bannerman's and the next band.. 'Lords oF Bastard'.. another standard Pantera-esque throat-scream, raunch-rawked, gnat's-arse-tight drums bass guitar 3-piece. But it was a little bit like.. does it matter? BUT OF COURSE IT DOES!!!!!  It's new!  It's inspired! It's the ANGRY YOUNG MEN!!!!The best bits were the bass-player's odd one-liners between songs and his accent (Irish?). 

I guess music is in a cul-de-sac or a time warp.. but obviously it's one that's pleasant to the listener as the place was not empty.  Saw a guy with great fire-engine dyed red hair and goatee.. the crowd was more interesting than the bands.. but only just.

ANother Night... at the Underworld.... MAGDALENE.. .. if I had 5 thumbs.. they'd get 5 thumbs up! A vocalist/bass-player led 3-piece...(with his mic tilted a la Lemmy)... who WERE (ARE???) MEMORABLE.. They RAWKED.. they had TUNES.. they had a GREAT VIBE... they had HOOKS! and they were f*ckin' CUTE!!! oh yes.. they score a big 9, or maybe an E-L-E-V-E-N on the richter scale.  I don't know what 10 is in a club like Bannerman's but they almost hit it.  Actually, I do know what 10 is.. while the bands were changing over for the last act - Lord Bishop - the soundman played one of my favourite UNSIGNED TRACKS of ALL TIME.. 'AMERICAN PORNOGRAPHY!' by Last Great Wilderness.  That track is a 10.  It sounded amazing and I thought.. Lawrence.. get your finger out.. you guys could be HUGE..  anyway... LORD BISHOP (a fellow New Yawker 'from Rockland County!') hit the stage and rawked and rolled and Souled us with a little sexed up Jimi H meets James Brown-esque funkadelica...(I did a review of their track 'Nice Ass'? last year) it was a good sweaty boogie with a rock-hard heart.. Yeah.. tight band.. I'd see them again.  So.. that was my night..

21 August Sun MGCK Music    'S-T-O-N-E-D'

Whatever happened to LSD?  And trips on the Marrakesh Express???  How did it all go so far out of Vogue? when it was just so FAR OUT???!!.  The film 'STONED' directed by Stephen Woolley ('Company of Wolves').. about the life and death of Brian Jones is a killer of a deja vu.. vu-ja-dé.. deva ju.. a trip! oh man... what so many of us missed by being born too late.  The film was such a clear view on a cloudy day of how wacky and wild and ultimately deathly yet so desirable that race to hell can get.. yet I did NOT know that Frank Thorogood.. the 'builder' who'd been working on Jones' house and partaking of the lifestyle which really wasn't his style.. admitted (on his deathbed in 1993) to having drowned Brian Jones in his swimming pool on that fateful night in 1969.  The things you learn by going to the movies.. Far Out and spectacular and the actors were.. yeah.. I believed I was looking at the Rolling Stones.. and music.. before the film came on they ran half an hour of Stones' classics and then the soundtrack of the film had so many unusual covers of great Stones classics by other artists.. well made.. well done.. and if you like your rose-coloured glass psychaedelic.. you must see it.

Fri 14 Oct 05 MGCK Music  THE ULTIMATE TRIBUTE TO JOHN PEEL: 

Experimental Space: Beam me OUT THERE Scotty! Last night ALTRES @ The Mills Observatory, Balgay Hill, Dundee, Scotland, United Kingdom, Planet Earth, Milky Way. This event was the ULTIMATE tribute to John Peel:  A band of musicians playing on the balcony of the Mills Observatory on the highest hill in Dundee, under a swelling moon and stars; transmitting galaxy wide.

What a night.  What a venue.  Following the 'Thistle' marked signs for 'Observatory' was like a treasure hunt.  Driving up the leaf covered tree sheltered lane... climbing upward on the winding mystery road; coming out at the summit to a full blast of psychaedelic spaced rock.  In the dark at the foot of the sandstone observatory and  scattered in groups around the park, an audience of unknown number were standing, seated, children playing: all eyes skyward checking out the universe and the ALTRES light show reflected on the dome of the Observatory and surrounding trees. Nothing prepares you for a new sensation; the combined aural experience with the incredible flipping VIEW; SPEC-TAC-U-LAR.  The moonlight and stars, bouncing their gazillion beams all the way down the hill across the Tay and beyond.  A perfect night.  ALTRES were already well into their second set and Electra joined them for the last portion of it.  An unrehearsed, boundary-less, experimental, free-flowing jam.  Superb.

The wonderful thing about ALTRES: they ARE out there.. genuinely out there and seeking to go further.  Electra's vocals complemented the concept and made a brief but welcome introduction to what could be a new and beautiful sonic relationship.  If only all gigs were like this.

8 Nov 05 Tues MGCK Music  ...   MORe....   good.... Oh god...

Got a shock last night: a GREAT gig at Bannerman's with three excellent bands (BLACK MEDICINE, GRAYSTAR and Lee Graham's 'RoCKno' project ISLE OF ME) playing one after the other.  When was the last time you went to Bannerman's and ALL the bands were amazing??? And the SOUND on the night.. I congratulated the engineer 'Joe' on his remarkable achievement: great sound beneath the Underworld's low stone ceiling.  

So.. a night of great musicians, making up great bands, with a great sound engineer.  Ok.. so WHY was it all great?  Musicianship comes first, for me, as the most important ingredient plus a Great Groove, in the context of Great songs and a cool front-woman with BLACK MEDICINE.  Emotive, evocative, sexy and strong.   And the other guys?  The bass player (John Reynolds), drummer (Jamie), guitarist (Lee Graham) the switch-skilled drummer/trombonist (Tim who also plays with The Ruffness - now you're gettin' the picture), the vocalist and the other guitarist who's names I don't know.. made a perfect package.  John Reynolds came back in the next set playing bass for GRAYSTAR (beautifully crafted songs) and Lee Graham came back in his own solo incarnation as 'ISLE OF ME' with drummer Jamie and a hard-drive for companionship as the storming last act of the night.

I took notes: something about Lee Graham reminding me of a vocalising Joe Satriani surfing with his own aliens.  That's probably the wrong comparison.. but there was something about the enthusiastic 'innovation' of Lee's 'ISLE OF ME' set that just was hugely compelling and satisfying.  Yeah ROCKNO!!!!... and Jamie the Drummer... can I steal all of these great musicians please.. I'd better stop talking now.. 

DECEMBER 2005: Electra song 'JONNY CASH' is (oh my GOSH!) currently number TWO!!!!!in the competition to be Radio Six Int'l Song of the YEAR 2005!!!!*****Never the Bride are NUMBER ONE!  Effing Heck!  Didn't you people vote for Electra or not????  Anyway... it's over now... it was nice while it lasted from 17-23 December.  Jonny Cash was Number one for Six Days.  visit www.radiosix.com 

Last night... LEATHER ZOO at Studio 24, fresh from their Discover Dundee gig @ The Post Office in Broughty Ferry.  The far north may have been kinder to them, but they battled uphill all the way in Edinburgh... an intoxicated Bass player, who I'm sure really CAN play.. a frontwoman (Mel) with great legs beneath a micro leather pelmet covering the other bits, a serious drummer and a guitarist who was trying to keep it all together.  Mel had the best comeback line to a guy hassling her from the back.  She was offering CD's for sale and he said, 'Do you take credit cards???' She answered, 'only if you swipe it between my bum cheeks.'  .. that kinda left him speechless.  Musically.. last two numbers were best.. and the bassist was STILL drinking!!!  Check them out and if they come 'round again.. see them..

EVEN MORE IMPORTANT: SAVE STUDIO 24 - The confused powers that be, are trying to take away their license.  This is one of the last 'real' venues in Edinburgh.  Visit www.savestudio24.com  and find out how you can help.

30 Dec 05 Fri MGCK Music  "Last Night's Playlist LEITHFM Electra's 'Unsigned Hour'

1) Delta Mainline: 'Beautiful Sunshine EP' track 2 (name?)

2) Tommy MacKay: '666 Great Junction Street'

3) Transmit This: 'This Is Not A Drill' (vocals Electra) hear it at www.myspace.com/deepsixxxxxx

4) The Acute: 'A Moment's Brightness'

5) Sans Trauma: 'Rollergirl' hear it at www.myspace.com/sanstrauma

6) Black Medicine: ''Heaven Spent'

7) Tommy MacKay: 'Beyonce Is My Fiancee' from 666 Great Junction Street

8) Shock And Awe: 'Wasted In The Park'

9) Shock And Awe: 'Feel Like Shite!'

10) The Makos: 'Out of Phase'

11) The Mandrakes: 'The Camel Tree'

12) The Makos: 'British Cokehead'

13) Fuck-Off Machete: 'Warm Electricity'

14) Jimmy Miller: 'Walls'' (unmixed track) others tracks from ALL GONE TOMORROW on www.myspace.com/jimmymilleredinburgh

15) Disciples of Panic Earth: 'Track 1 

 

A moment's silence for GIG on Lothian Road, Edinburgh which has now closed.