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SoundsXP Presents

Friday 6th April 2012
All Day BBQ Festival

Sparrow and the Workshop
6 Day Riot
The Nuns
Singing Adams
Y Niwl
Colours
Dignan Porch
+more tbc

The Windmill
Brixton
Price tbc

On Our iPod

Golden Grrrls - New Pop 7”

Chris Devotion & The Expectations - Amalgamation & Capital (album)

Trailer Trash Tracys - Ester (album)

Throwing Up - Mother Knows Best 7”

Howling Wolf - Complete Chess Masters 1951-60

The Ketamines - A Rotten Bond/1 Yr (from Oddbox Singles Club Pt 2)

Cardinal - Hymns (album)

Proper Ornaments - Taking the Gamble Out of Buying 12”

Darren Hayman - January Songs (album)

Various: Marshall Teller EP 12”

Latest Forum Posts

Gig Review

Thee Oh Sees/ Brilliant Colors/ Please
London, Luminaire

Article written by Ged M - Jun 18, 2010

I’ve never seen the Luminaire so rammed, with sweaty bands, sweaty audience and a carpet sodden with sweat, beer and possibly other bodily fluids. I was just glad I have a wall to brace myself against. John Dwyer’s bouffant hair becomes a shaggy mess in the course of Thee Oh See’s amazing set, and his t-shirt has more moisture than a cumulo-nimbus but he never falters, switching from six string to 12 string Burns guitar and turning up his echo and reverb units. When he doesn’t have enough hands for all of that and a beer too, he grabs the bottle between his teeth, upends it into his mouth and spits out the empty container. He has the sort of charisma that reminds me of Lux Interior, with a little less camp. The band have a simple set up - two guitars, plain drumkit, simple keyboard – but they play their garage-punk at maximum intensity. The short, direct and ultra catchy ‘I Was Denied’ inspires mass moshing and the band throw themselves into everything; the only relief from a series of pulsing rockers is the psychedelic 13 minute maze-like ‘Warm Slime’. No wonder they look almost physically unable to continue at the end, given how dehydrated they must be, but what a show!

Fellow San Franciscans Brilliant Colors sound very C86-influenced on their debut album but, in performance, also show off a Riot Grrl sharpness. The DNA of songs like ‘Absolutely Anything’ contain a lot of the Shop Assistants but investigate further and you’ll hear something of the DIY post-punk sound of the Raincoats and Slits too (indeed Michelle Hill was once a touring guitarist with the Slits). There's no danger of it becoming fey, which is a danger with some C86 indiepop, or overly serious, as daughters of Riot Grrl occasionally become. For a three piece they’re really tight, playing short, fast bursts of melodic indiepop that would be supremely suited to a set of 7 inch singles. If you wanted to inspire your daughters to be in a non-stereotypical band, you could do much worse than expose them to Brilliant Colors.

By geographical contrast, Please are from London. The Google-unfriendly named three-piece play a sort of math-rock with an intimation of jazz in the drummer’s playing. Riffs emerge and return regularly in the course of a song, jazz-style, and are accompanied by loud hardcore guitar blasts. The singer/ lead guitarist tries to dance to a couple of his songs but his awkward style just reinforces the quirky rhythms they adopt. Clumsy.

Links:
http://www.myspace.com/ohsees
http://www.myspace.com/pleees
http://www.myspace.com/brilliantcolorssanfrancisco