Mars To Stay. I like. They made me crave Stray Borders. Singing drummer evoked Phil Collins. Balding, black polo neck. Waiting to see if he fucks off to Switzerland mid-set. I want him to whisper more. Or cry. They sound as if Galaxie 500 fell down a well and kept playing. Or Mazzy Star’s little brother. The last song sounded like Weezer if they’d not only taken, but only listened to Codeine and Morphine. I like.
R.Seiliog are fucking great. After being mocked, justifiably so by Steen due to my general antipathy toward instrumental music, I had low hopes. This is like Kraut-Groundhogs. Steen knows fuck all. It’s like the early seventies but with the technology to make music that sounds brilliant after 4 pints of Silent Slasher. This may be be pretty specific. If you like Wolf People or Endless Boogie you’ll lap these fuckers up. If Kraftwerk listened to a little more Quicksilver Messenger Service they’d sound a lot like R.Seiliog. Who are better than Y Niwl. Just sayin’.
The visuals are fucked. It’s either lower league football or blue screen. People are sat on the floor. They have their legs crossed. Let’s begin.
It’s hard for me to take the piss because I genuinely think that Hail! The Planes are amazing. Only partly due to Holly’s ‘hotpants only’ policy. The sound guy is having issues. Post-folk issues. Fuck knows where to go with comparisons, let’s say Sigur Ros/Beirut/Explosions In The Sky/Dirty Three. Sometimes you just need to see a band. Even when they’ve replaced a filthy centre back on bass with a huge, morally sound centre back. Like Terry for Carragher. Jazz drumming, there’s fucking jazz drumming and I still like them. Bastards. Does anyone remember Hope Of The States? They were great.
To balance my review, my mate, Hefin Rees*, said, ‘If she wasn’t wearing hotpants I’d’ve left ages ago’. A lesson to you all there.
*Hefin insisted on being name-checked here. Although he was shitfaced.
