BRISTOL BIG JEFF: CUTTING FROM THE EDGE (MAY 2011)
April was a busy month for me but I must hark back to the end of March to mention how, in one night, I managed to see both John Grant and Patrick wolf, by pegging it half way across Bristol, this even meant me pegging past people I hadn’t seen for years. You see, I have more of a physical interaction with music than I do people, I feel pretty feeble without music.
At the moment there seems to be a really huge glut of young math rock shoegaze kind of bands from Bristol, not that is a bad thing, its great seeing bands like Archimedes packing out the Louisiana and The Naturals really developing their sounds along with the likes of Holy Stain and Austere doing exciting things with the guitar. From just outside of Bristol there are ace bands such as the bass and drums duo Run Walk, who sound pretty much like a youthful Lightning Bolt – having spasmodic nervous attacks, a bit like being blind folded on a thrill ride because you didn’t know when the drops were going to kick in. The bassist/singer had his bass covered in blood from where he had cut himself whilst playing. There is also Lost Laika, who are a complete attack on the senses, kind of like a cross between the Blood Brothers’ ravaging vocals and the Locusts’ absolute drilling guitars and drums, I cant really physically put it into words what I like about them, but hey, I do.
I did my usual stalking of bands – turning upto venue, like about 4 or so hours before the doors so I can annoy the performing artists in question. Being a moneyless git, I can’t often afford the ticket price entry. Most people think that I just turn up and flash my moobs at people, I have tried that and it doesnt work. However, sometimes I get completely tongue tied. I went completely gaga in front of Lykke Li and could feel my tongue swell up to twice its size. But she did put me on the guest list for her show, I obviously had said something right as she pretty much spent most of the show stairing at me, I think she found it quite funny my attempts to talk to her, because I got such bad nerves. She had the brilliant Sarah Blasko supporting her who had an absolutely cracking voice
I did a days worth of extras filming for a film called 8 Idle in Minutes, which featured various young actors from Misfits and Skins. It was one of those weird scenarios where I just turned up on set and pretty much the entire cast and crew knew me. I still find this very weird and very flattering. I am an unashamedly bashful person. One of the actresses screamed when they saw me, this made me cringe and feel slightly scared.
It was independent record shop day on the 16th, so that meant I spent the entire day at Rise drooling over various albums, which I could not afford or rare vinyls from Radiohead and Nirvana. I also saw the always brilliant Minotaur Shock, SJ Esau, Hi Fiction Science and Nicholas Stevenson play upstairs. Nicholas Stevenson’s beautiful whimsical songs sounded like an ultra nice Bright Eyes and he gets bonus points as he gave me his album. And for all those who think I get stuff for free all the time, I bought a Minotaur Shock album and a Marnie Stern album – which are both amazing.
May comes about with a huge bang, kick starting off with The Simple Things Festival to help us get over the sickening Royal Wedding with some of the best alternative electronica acts around including Jon Hopkins, Deadelus and The Correspondents. There’s also Anna Calvi and Grouplove do the NME tour, Fucked Up at The Croft, Fight Like Apes, Leisure Society, Rolo Tomassi, Atari Teenage Riot, Das Racist, Wave Pictures, Warpaint Ariel Pink’s Haunted Graffiti to name a few.
Plus as per usual there is Dot to Dot with its massive smattering of good bands like The Joy Formidable, And You Will Know Us By The trail Of Dead, so that will be the usual sprint half marathon around Bristol with stop offs for a few bands. Last year, I managed to do 15 bands! By the end of it I was hobbling like penguin because my feat hurt so much!
