The Forum, London
26 July 2008
They’re certainly not 22 going on 23 any more, but the Butthole Surfers have taken measures to ensure their set goes down in properly deranged psychedelic hardcore style tonight. First, it’s the classic late Eighties lineup of Gibby Haynes and Paul Leary at the front and centre, with the rhythm section filled out by Theresa Nervosa and King Coffey, still managing to stand up and drums like being posseessed, and the heavily-bearded, flying-axed bass courtesy of Jeff Pinkus provides a suitably weird backwoods presence, especially as the rest of the band seem to have grown into a look which harks back to their meeting as accountancy students all those
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Glass used to have more members, but tonight they’re a duo who make their presence felt as is, shimmering and rattling their soft motorik way through a set which shows copius affinity for the soporific psychedelia of Spacemen 3 and Harmonia‘s elevated drum machine rattle and hum. Guitarist Ben keeps the mood vibrant on a cluster of simple yet effective strokes of the strings, while Chris (sometimes cupping his ear intently as if he is listening to signals from a different world) at the controls of the keyboards and sundry electronics brings a bright set of curvaceous drones and tones to life
London Fields Lido, London 19 July 2008
NWW and Andrew Liles were
I dunno quite what you call the sub-genre of music which seemed to spring fully-formed from the head of Lee Hazlewood a long time ago before being kicked into touch by the punks and goths, but you know the one I mean. It’s got the Bad Seeds, Gallon Drunk, Tindersticks, Crime And The City Solution and other such magnificent acts in it, and they’re drinking whisky, listening to blues and country, and making wonderfully beautiful music from misery and humour. Anyway, whatever you call it – probably alt- something, or swamp- something, or something equally and unfittingly banal – there’s a new recruit to the posse in the shape of The Long Dead Sevens. Coming very much from the spaghetti western end of the spectrum, they still