If you have been in Cardiff’s smashing arts centre Chapter or one of the city’s many gigs, you may well know Claire. She knows all about film, art, music, food and booze, and has a terrifying kitten.
Recorded music highlights of 2008:
There hasn’t been a whole lot that has grabbed me this year, I’ve preferred visceral live music experiences. Santogold’s album made me feel a bit more cool than I really am, Heartcore by Wildbirds And Peacedrums a bit feral and sexy, Neon Neon’s Stainless Style made me want a keytar and a trophy wife with shoulderpads. To be honest I’ve mainly been listening to Rhodri Viney’s often heartbreaking Broken Leaf recordings (not available anywhere yet, sadly), and Theo’s pretty little EP “Order, Echo”, dancing around with Steen to Devo and The Fall on vinyl in his kitchen and listening to Liz’s free Loose cds, complilations people have made me and all my usual folk, jazz and new wave schick.
Live music highlights of 2008:
A very good year for gigs and a year of amazing discoveries, very difficult to pick just a few. Venn festival (sadly the last one ever this year) on the Saturday was the best day of the whole year and introduced Hauschka and Fuck Buttons (two very different but wonderful experiences) to name just two, and Green Man’s magic was typified by the bit where 50,000 people went off to see The Peth, we stayed to see what was in the café tent only to find Wildbirds And Peacedrums and then Sefa, moments of delicate beauty only made more poignant by the mud and rain and by 50,000 people traipsing back from the Peth shaking their heads in misery. Boy genius Rhodri Viney continued to bend the laws of physics with the quality and quantity of projects he had on the go, being nothing less than amazing in Right Hand Left Hand, Spirit Level and the solo Broken Leaf as well as the innumerable instruments he plays in other people’s bands. Truckers of Husk continued to make me dance like a loon every time they played. The ever-reliable Loose brought Thomas Truax, The Rosie Taylor Project and Silence At Sea (in the same night!) and PeppermintPatti continued to demonstrate greatness in having Wet Dog, Betty And The Werewolves, Kania Tieffer and Golden Disko Ship. The Pedigree Falcon alldayer was eardrum bleedingly good and Acid Mothers Temple in the Point, dividing the night into 5 different side projects was pretty spectacular. The Big Pink, Agaskodo Teliverek, Young Marble Giants and Clinic at Sŵn finished the year off a treat.
What else did you enjoy this year?
I lost my heart to a nice young man this year and I have mostly been enjoying his company. Luckily he likes doing pretty much everything I do which is going to gigs, seeing amazing films in Chapter (My Winnipeg, Waltz With Bashir, Persepolis, Man On Wire) and going to art shows such as the many art museums of Madrid (Guernica! Las Leninas!), the Bacon retrospective in the Tate, the Venice Biennale show in Chapter and Rebecca Spooner’s White Stag exhibition in g39. The superhero sized good works of the very lovely Lisa Jones (Scrabble Sunday, Junket Club, Bounceathon/Little Christmas) has punctured my year with bullets of pure joy. It was also the year that my American wife sent almost daily updates in how excited she was getting about the idea of this bloke called Obama as a potential candidate then President and came to visit me. I went to two ace weddings and watched three of my friends swell up and pop out gorgeous babies. If this is getting old I quite like it. More years like this, please!
2008 was…
An exploration
2009 will be…
Exciting
