The Maybes

Saw these guys supporting Brakes at the 100 Club last night, and they were fantastic. Really quite mesmerising, with a fantastic lead singer who was full of cheeky Scouse stage presence. They finished with one of the most amazing things I've heard from an 'indie' guitar band - a ten minute sun-drenched ibiza house instrumental. Looking around at the time, there were very few people without big grins on their faces during it.

http://www.myspace.com/themaybesliverpool

They have the potential to be huge.

The greatest band in the world are .... SPARKS!

And I say this with complete conviction. What other band has created 21 of the most exciting, innovative, and beautiful albums over a 37 year period, never falling back on a popular or well-proven musical template at the cost of exploring new sonic possibilities? What other band with anything like such an extensive back catalogue would undertake to play each album sequentially, over 21 nights in a four week period? That's 264 songs, requiring four solid months of rehearsals. And before you think that all the music may simply be programmed and delivered by computer, its not. They are doing this with a full band. And to think that we sometimes get excited when our other favourite bands throw in an old song they haven't done for a while!

Which brings me to Saturday night's performance of Plagiarism. This was their 1997 Sparks 'Tribute' album, which saw the band returning to some of their own favourite Sparks songs and reinventing them with new time codes, full orchestation etc. Listening to the album again yesterday morning, I worried that they may simply not be able to do it live, so musically complex was it, but boy! how wrong I was! For this 'one night only' gig they had drafted in and fully rehearsed a string and brass section from Trinity College of Music. Just imagine reheasing a 12 piece orchestra whilst also yourself rehearsing 264 songs worth of material. Mindboggling.

And you would perhaps think that performing so many albums, night after night, might render the performances a little rough around the edges, lacklustre or even a bit slapdash? But this is absolutely not the case. Each of the four albums I have seen so far (Music You Can Dance To, Gratuitous Sax and Senseless Violins, Plagiarism, and Balls) have been performed with utter professionalism, verve and exuberance.

There are still a few albums to go this week. If you are able, I would highly recommend you try to catch as many as you can. These gigs are very special indeed.

Ancient voice, caught in soot

I think this is magical, and all the more so for the fact that the recording was made but with no way of playing it back until now.... so it feels like it was recorded as a message to the future.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/7318180.stm

All of which reminds me of something I got in a box of Ready Brek when I was quite a young child - no more than six years old. It was a thin plastic strip, probably about 12 inches long and no more than a centimetre wide (you can see how my age means I continue to mix up imperial and metric!). The strip had little ridges along its length, and, when it was pulled through a slot cut in the side of the cereal box, the ridges created vibration, which carried the voice of Churchill saying 'We Shall Fight Them on the Beaches.' I really wish I still had it, as I have never come across anything similar since.

Chris Garneau

Having just discovered Chris Garneau (think Sufjan Stevens meets Will Young - and I say that in a good way), I am a bit miffed to learn that, not only did he play London a few weeks ago and I missed him, but he'll be playing again in May - when we are on holiday in Romania. Bah!

I've ordered his album, 'Music for Tourists', so at least have that to look forward to. You can watch the video for a greta track called 'Relief' here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3VHoYBvmTsg .

Movie Co-incidences

So last night we settled down for a quiet night in front of the telly, with the intention of dipping into our considerable collection of as yet unwatched DVD movies. First up, Almodovar's 'Live Flesh'. A fantastic, richly rewarding film, which, as it turns out, includes a central performance by Javier Bardem, which I hadn't realised until he appeared on screen. IMDB attests that the his co-star, the wonderful Liberto Rabal's career has not been quite so glorious. After that, we had a dinner of trout and kale, and then settled down to watch the Coen Brothers 'Blood Simple'. A great movie, but for me, much less enjoyable than the Almodovar film. I pondered on the fact that the three most enjoyable films of recent times that I have watched at home have all been European - The Lives of Others, The Edukators, and Live Flesh. Anyway, the random selection of the two films from our shelves threw up the interesting coincidence that both had at their hearts the theme of marital infidelity, photos being taken of supposedly secret liasions, and lovers being shot. So once I realised there was a patten, I ended up watching Blood Simple entirely through the filter of looking for links with Live Flesh. That is all.