“Bank holiday comes with six pack of beer” as Blur once sang. Adjusted for inflation and self loathing, it begins to account for the varying levels of drunkenness over this weekend, of which this Loose gig forms a nice bubble of quietness. Of the two Joy Collective scribes present, one is possibly a little more ‘relaxed’ than the other, but as always, all we care about is bringing you, the reader, the truth only. Maybe the odd knob gag too. But the truth about Hail! The Planes is they operate in a very classy, almost stately space, where the skeletal rustling of Young Marble Giants gets overlaid with cut glass vocals and a little folky guitar. All decent, bewitching stuff, but it never gets better than their great, instrumental opener: little waves of violin and guitar, built up and up by shy people in cardigans, towards some weirdly brilliant twee post rock climax.
Drunker JC-er version: Twee post rock! Twost rock! We should invent a new genre EVERY REVIEW.
We could. In which case, The Loose Salute‘s would be ‘overly bland country rock Fleetwood Mac-ness’ and record shop dividers would have to be much longer. TLS have that strange inversely proportional talent to self satisfaction ratio that I haven’t seen since Hemme Fatale last year, and spread a dreary, accomplished smell through the venue. So dreary in fact, they unleash the inner Gok: that boiler suit on the singer? No way honey. Shaggy haired guitarist? Get it sorted! And as for the shambling, emaciated backing singer and percussionist in dungarees and baseball cap…
Drunker JC-er version: She looks like a crack whore! Good band though. Can we get the phrase ‘Will play tambourine for crack’ into the review?
Yes. And maybe ‘ace hushed loveliness’ too. Woodpigeon come from Calgary, Canada, and are practically begging for some sort of tortuous metaphor that links their music to some still Canadian snowscape. Serene, autumnal breaths, gentle harmonies that whistle through leafy braches… Or: Calgary’s a big city and they cover Abba. Woodpigeon play low volume folk music that brings to mind similarly noisy bands like Radar Bros and Horse Feathers, which is top drawer praise in my book. Four-way harmonies merge over softly played guitar and ukelele, enveloping stuff that gives chills in the right way.
Drunker JC-er version: GREAT. Now I’ve made these fake flyers to leave around…
