Idols to a whole range of skanky people, annoyers of the authorities and long-standing folk-rock legends Levellers played the Wulfrun last night. If you're not familiar with them, you've probably never been a student or an anarchist or been to the Hippy parts of a festival. You've probably also had a wholesome life. Wherever Levellers go, they and their fans leave a trail of drunken destruction, littered with used swearwords and anarchy/peace symbols. But don't think I'm criticising.
They are excellent live. Supporting them, they had chosen two very different bands, one a skunk band ("it's skiffle/punk, nothing to do with what we smoke or the way we smell") called Hobo Jones and the Junkyard Dogs, who came out and played remarkable homemade instruments in true skiffle style, including a washboard and a wobble-board sounding instrument made from a branch and some elastic. They covered The Clash and Green Day amongst others, got a roadie on stage, and sang a song for "our Prime Minister, who's doing a wonderful job" *makes tosser gesture*, Gordon Is A Moron. They were hilarious, from the facial expressions and in-song dialogue to the 'Mine's a whiskey' taped onto the back of the guitar. The second band were a ska or reggae outfit, Pama International. Think The Specials with a soul singer. It went on a bit long, even though it was decent.
Levellers came on, starting with A Life Less Ordinary, and the crowd went mad. The trouble seemed to be started by a whole host of short bald men. I don't know why it was bald men in particular, but it was, and they were all shorter than me. From the very start, people were drinking huge amounts, so when drunken fighting and shoving ensued, I had been expecting it. The music was ideal for it though - Levellers chose all of their most thumping tracks to play. As well as A Life Less Ordinary, they played One Way, Carry Me, World Freak Show, Behold A Pale Rider, The Riverflow, Beautiful Day, Barrel Of The Gun, Death Loves Youth,The Cholera Well, Before The End, Eyes Wide and probably some more. They did 2 encores, playing right up to the curfew.
At one point the lights went and the room was plunged into darkness, but Levellers played on ('we're willing if you're willing'). A highlight was the merch stall man coming out in full fluorescent make-up and a blue mask, in a skirt, pratting about with his huge digeridoo (no pun intended). A sick bastard did decide to feel up all the girls on the second row, including myself. I think he got a slap once, I elbowed him, and he finally got his comeuppence when he decided to touch up a girl in the very centre, and he got caught in a lot of sweaty blokes moshing and shoving him about, without a girl in sight. I laughed.
It was a good night. I'd definitely say Levellers are one of the best live bands I've seen, though they chose their most similar songs to play. Still, brilliant playing, brilliant songwriting, wonderful lyrics - an example of a band that have stayed outside of the system, and stayed good. Go see them.
8/10
Showing posts with label levellers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label levellers. Show all posts
Saturday, 2 May 2009
Saturday, 28 March 2009
10 Songs I Love Right Now - 28/03/09
High time for another of these I think.
Freakin' Out is possibly the most uptempo song about boredom you will ever find. It's about that month when you weren't going through relationship problems, weren't really in love with anything, didn't need money, weren't recovering from a serious addiction - and the absence of anything interesting was driving you mad. Everyone's felt it. This song captures that, with a fantastic little guitar solo and a catchy chorus. If you want to hear Graham at his most sensitive best, outside of Blur, listen to the beautiful Ribbons And Leaves as well.
Bite Hard is the best song on Franz's third album, Tonight, from the gentle but unnerving piano introduction, with unsettling lyrics, to the ambiguous cries of 'Bite hard!', to the fantastic upbeat synth solo. It's perfect to wake you up in the morning, and it's brilliant live, and it encapsulates the singalong silliness of Franz at their best.
The Libertines - What a Waster
What A Waster was not a crap first release. It was not a 'This band have potential, but we're gonna have to wait and see' track. This song, rightfully, gained The Libertines a ridiculous amount of hype as the British front line in NME's 'New Rock Revolution'. This track was, and is, a punk rock explosion of anger and youthfulness, referencing Ulysses and the Beano and the Book of Revelation, shot through with sadness, bursting with expletives and oozing talent...a brilliant song.
Levellers' most recent release, Letters From The Underground, is an angry, rough record, with guitar solos and fast fiddle sections and political lyrics; it is typical Levellers. This song stands out however as being a bit different. It's sentimental, looking at failing love: 'it's just one kiss to build a dream upon'. It's softer, more thoughtful, and has some lovely melodies.
The Strokes - New York City Cops
Like Last Nite, New York City Cops is a snapshot of a moment in time, in New York City, at night. It opens with Julian Casablancas being daft - "Oh! Haha, I meant: Ah! No I didn't mean that at all." This is endearing, especially with his undeniably sexy voice. For once, The Strokes abandoned their extremely repetitive strum-strum-strum-strum formula (at least on lead guitar) until the chorus. It's a welcome break.
Peter Doherty - New Love Grows on Trees
It is hard to sum up the brilliance of this song in a paragraph. It's beautiful, telling of the foolishness of teen promises and decisions ('If you're still alive when you're 25, will I kill you like you told me to? Well I really don't want to.'), telling of growing up, telling of new love growing on trees (?), all sung in Peter's fitting drawl over ambient electric distortion and acoustic guitar. It's so much more than pretty.
The Hair, now Club Smith, are one of the better new bands to make use of the fashion for electronic synths and samples in British music right now, because they combine it with catchiness, great percussion and some really (dare I say it) funky songs. Half Cut is a walk-along-the-road-smiling track.
Sonic Youth are still up there in my favourites, and now I've found Dirty, that's where they're staying. Purr growls along in two-chord sultriness: it's violent, youthful, brilliantly played garage rock. The opening riff is life-affirming and gives me the shivers. The lyrics are simple but definitely thought out. Almost as brilliant are the melancholy Wish Fulfillment and Chapel Hill from the same album.
A new track from the new album Quicken the Heart, due out in May, Wraithlike has the lo-fi edginess of A Certain Trigger without the polish of album number two. It's a return to their roots, only faster, angrier and with more interesting time signatures.
Peter Doherty - Broken Love Song
Played with 4 guitars onstage live, Broken Love Song is a very pretty track, with lovely lyrics about loneliness and a chord sequence to die for. Nice vibrato on the electric guitar makes this track, as well as Pete's voice, which works very well on this softer album. Want more of Peter being poetic? Try I Am the Rain, it's not as good musically but it's got nice introverted lyrics. Lots of metaphor.
I've been listening to a lot of music this month. Last week last.fm told me I'd listened to about 2 full days of music on my iPod and computer alone. Check these songs out, they might do for you what they do for me.
Saturday, 7 February 2009
10 Songs I Love Right Now - 3/02/09
This is a great one to kick off with. The riffs in this song are turbo-charged, and there are loads of them. Besides this, the great lyrics: "So they say you're a troubled boy, just because you like to destroy all the things that bring the idiots joy, but what's wrong with a little destruction?" And it has a la la section! No pop rock song can be complete without a la la hook. Oh, this song - how can it not give you an angry high?
This song takes a while to get going, starting with those sultry chords and characteristic raw guitar noise, and then the brittle vocals, atmospheric and unsettling. It's repetitive and absolutely mesmerising. It builds up half way through, until suddenly it rocks out into this maddeningly irresistable chant of "You got your dirty boots!" over the backing and then fades out into soft, gentle strumming. Heaven.
The Clash - The Guns of Brixton
I couldn't decide whether to include this or London Calling, but everyone knows London Calling, so I decided to put this in instead. It's dark and it was so new when they released it - this fusion of reggae and rock, with those almost comic sound effects and samples. It captures a moment in time so perfectly; seventies London, down and outs being hunted down by the racist police, taking sides to survive.
Of course, the Babyshambles versus Dirty Pretty Things debate...I'll just add my two pence. Pete had the talent and the poetry, while Carl had the passion and the technical skill, in my opinion, although of course it's more complex than that. Neither follow-up band is good as The Libertines, but Babyshambles are better than Dirty Pretty Things. It's sad to think that the latter are gone now, as they did have something, but not quite the something that Babyshambles have. Take this track, Fuck Forever. He is just a master of choruses, no? This is not to be mistaken for background music; asymmetrical bar layouts, out-of-tune shouting and most of all, great great lyrics.
Parklife gained Blur their fame, though it is a little clean for me. This song is a standout though. The slightly on-edge synths and Damon's mocking, neutral tone. The chorus I especially love about it. The harmonies just work so well, and the way he puns on misery and mystery, and the last line which always trails so poignantly into the next chord sequence...
The Drop is not the best on the album Random Acts of Intimacy in my opinion, but it seems to be the one I'm listening to most. The beautiful guitar playing throughout, and the lovely lyric "The days fall slow, like summer rain" I just want to listen to over and over again. When it breaks down at 2:50 as well, into a softer quieter bit - that's pretty. Very pretty.
A'Rebours is a deliciously upbeat track, especially that bassline which comes in at the very start and dominates the rest. I love bands who make liberal use of tambourine. Also here, I know this is cheating, but I'd like to say 8 Dead Boys is worth a nod. It's Hellishly angry, clearly a jibe at former bandmates of Peter Doherty, but the guitar licks are very well-played and the emotion in it is so wonderfully breakable.
The Stranglers - No More Heroes
Yes I've been raiding my mum's CDs again, and yes I liked it. No More Heroes is a synth-punk masterpiece damning idolisation - or is it the words of a dissolute young man who has found all his heroes to be fools? A young man whose heroes have failed him? Of course it is told from a disdainful third person view, making it even more sneeringly great.
Is there anything happier than a ditty driven along by typical chords and a metronome? It's one of the little things I can never pin down, why a happy song like this sounds so happy - is it the major chords, the lyrics about friendship, the unusually great singing for Pete Doherty, or the little drum solo at the end? I don't know, but it really is so uplifting, and if you like the Don't Look Back Into the Sun side of the Libs, really check this out. "I'm still lining them up and knocking them down with you." ♥
This is my soothing choice - a soft, eerie folk song with a twist, it starts calmly, slowly, with instruments humming and an inverted dialogue of whispering in the background. It's the bass and the fiddle which do it for me: they are at odds, spooky, and give the relatively regular melody of the song a real edge. Looking for a more upbeat, political Levellers song? No? Well I s'pose you should be. See Social Insecurity.
I had the audacity to put way more than 10 song references in there. Oh well. I love all of them. Take a look, as ever, they are all worth a listen or ten. Hope you're having a good 2009 so far, wherever you are.
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