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Weird Dreams - Choreography (album)

Crocodiles - Sunday (Psychic Conversation #9) 7”

The Hairs - I’ve Been Working Out 7”

King Creosote and Jon Hopkins - Third Swan single

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Veronica Falls - My Heart Beats 7”

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Gig Review

Ty Segall/ Dignan Porch/ Weird Dreams
London, Camp Basement

Article written by Ged M - Dec 23, 2010

There’s a weirdly early start and rigid 10pm curfew for this gig, squeezed in before a club night in an Old Street venue – which is literally a basement beneath an office block. It gives the venue a feel of a janitor’s broom closet, with a sound to match, unless the volume is cranked up, and it looks way better in semi-darkness. If the acoustics are a bit flat though, tonight’s stoked audience compensate by going fucking nuts – which we’ll get to later. First up are Weird Dreams, a London trio, one-third of whom seems to be behind Sleeps All Day Records. Having read an interview in Loud & Quiet I was half-expecting a hipster shambles but they’re a seriously indie band, with crafted songs full of warm reverb and jangle, some 60s garage-pop and even a suspicion of the Smiths at one point. Not what I was expecting at all, but I really liked them, especially ‘Hurts So Bad’ and a self-titled number. Then it’s time for Dignan Porch. Free of all the problems a fortnight ago at the Windmill, they can let rip big, scrunchy, disorientating, woozy rock’n’roll. It’s still minimal in construction but sounds amazing at distortion levels (the default setting in this venue) and they ace it.

Ty Segall’s DIY sound is considerable filled out by the band he’s brought over from California. ‘Fingers’ is a suitably slow-building start to the set, heads frantically nodding when it breaks the sound barrier halfway through. From there it gets messier, as the band ramps up the volume, speed and thrash-factor, dashing through selections from Lemons and Melted like the surf-glam ‘Girlfriend’ and garage-punk ‘My Sunshine’. The first cover, ‘Paranoid’, triggers mass moshing, the second, Beefheart's ‘Dropout Boogie’ continues it and the last 20 minutes are a riot of slam-dancing, crowd-surfing (not easy in a basement) and subterranean mayhem. Segall’s blonde waves are looking sweaty and bedraggled by this stage but he’s up for one final cover: the Vibrators’ ‘Baby Baby’. In response to passionate requests not to finish, he launches into the chorus again, once, twice, three times but he eventually has to give up from fatigue and the reminders of the club’s clock watchers. It's too bad he's not playing more gigs in England and at better venues but this is lightning-in-a-bottle powerful stuff that adds a new dimension to the recorded songs.

Links:
http://www.myspace.com/tysegall
http://www.myspace.com/weirdweirddreams
http://www.myspace.com/dignanporch