REVIEW: tUnE yArDs AT BRISTOL FLEECE (20/06/11)
This sold out tUnE yArDs gig was tipped as one of the ‘must see’ gigs of the year and the cream of the Bristol music crop was there to witness it, fronted of course by Big Jeff. tUnE yArDs is the baby of Merrill Garbus, an unlikely musical hero. Like Wye Oak, she has that understated creativity and enviable craft when it comes to making music but she doesn’t subscribe to the school of thought that you need to dress up like a ho and writhe around like some sort of siren to maintain people’s interest (think Florence and the Machine, Marina and the Diamonds and that Ellie Goulding and co). In fact, here we have one of the most original acts to come out of the States in a long while and it’s just a bonus that this act is a female fronted one.
When a band succeeds such underground hype as tUnE yArDs have, they have to pull something pretty spectacular out of the bag to prove they are worthy of such praise and these guys sure did that. Opening with Do You Wanna Live, the crowd looked on wide eyed as an equally wide eyed Merrill looped what can only be described as contemporary tribal wails over some primal drum beats. This was complimented with some forceful vocals almost screaming ‘Do You Wanna Live’, seemingly demanding a response from the audience and of course they got one…hell yeah! I for one, have never seen anything like this before and it proved a telling sign of things to come during this memorable gig. As the band buzzed off the crowd reaction, Merrill urged the relatively stilted folk to use their knees, before they hit their 80s and weren’t able to.
It’s an age old cliche, but here it’s true. You simply cannot box tUnE yArDs into one category. While they wouldn’t be out of place in some African ritual with their opening track, they followed it up with Gangsta, which as the name suggests, takes much more of a contemporary hip hop turn. Add in some sax and uke action and this is a sound explosion, organised chaos. The tempo was brought down a notch with Powa, where Merrill’s softer, sweeter vocals shone through and taken right back to the top with Killa, where Merrill spits ‘I’m a new kinda woman, I’m a ‘don’t take shit from’ kinda woman’. No shit. Other highlights, for me at least, were the beautifully executed FIYA, the mesmerising, grin-inducing Hatari and of course the current addictive single Bizness.
There were a handful of moments where tUnE yArDs could’ve been deemed slightly pretentious in a ‘look at me being all experimental’ kind of way, such as when they used beer bottles and a saucepan as percussion instruments or when Merrill made the whole crowd howl like wolves to accompany her spellbinding and impressively long yelp, but tUnE yArDs are far too down to earth and welcoming to warrant any of that criticism. Honestly, the only thing tUnE yArDs are guilty of is a undeniable originality and creativity, which puts the rest of the music industry to shame. If you don’t believe me, check out their recent video for Bizness.
Words: Laura Williams
Photo and video: Yatin Amin
