BRISTOL BIG JEFF: CUTTING FROM THE EDGE (OCTOBER 2011)
How can I go about summing up the events of the past month? The last time you heard from me was the end of September and Brisfest had just happened with a very climactic ending. Since then, I have been bumbling around like a fat loping slug and feeling sorry for myself – mourning the fact that I can’t really still call myself mid 20’s anymore.
October will be mostly memorable for me, for making a twat out of myself in front of a number of female musicians. Firstly, there was me virtually not being able to speak in front of Alison from The Pierces. She did look very bemused and a little puzzled to see me stood outside the Anson Rooms in what was almost zero degrees. And then there was the Charlotte Hatherley incident, where the erstwhile female guitarist from Ash came and gave me a hug and I virtually blacked out, my little heart seriously couldn’t take it! It was pounding like a hamster at 5000bpm and I blushed heavily. It was also a great gig she played with Ash, which brought back lots of teenage-like dreams.
On the same night as Ash, I made my first voyage of the year to Motion – for the Blowpop In:Motion night. I don’t often go to Motion because I can’t often afford the ticket price but I reviewed this one for 247 Magazine, read my review HERE. I also fell in love with a three-piece all female psych folk band called Stealing Sheep, who I saw support Emmy The Great at the Fleece, and as per usual she really was great. Roddy Frame wasn’t bad either. In fact, I was given his lyric book – which made for interesting reading. And I thoroughly enjoyed Ghostpoet’s show at Start the Bus at the begining of the the month. There is something interesting about his songs and lyrical style. It is almost like he’s slurring his words, it’s a kind of slow, distilled style that he has, which has drawn comparisons to early Roots Manuva mixed in with maybe a bit of Saul Williams.
I saw Gold Panda play for the umteenth time with Dam Mantle, he is someone I can’t really put it down in words what I like about him, but his music is very infectious with almost psychedelic Flying Lotus style qualities. I remember the first time I saw him, I compared him to German electro film score style artist Ulrich Schnause, but thinking about it now, he sounds quite different really! The night after that I was having a bit of an electronica week, and so I was at the hipper-than-hip SBTRKT, whose audience was ultimately full of ‘being a dickhead’s cool’ styled Mockneys and one or two Bristolians. It was almost as bad as James Blake Gig earlier in the year. I don’t know why, but as soon as you put the word dubstep next to anything then you have all these London geezer neanderthals crawling out of the woodwork.
Speaking of electronic wizzardry, I saw Silver Apples – the guy who was pretty much responsible for the development of Krautrock and all forms of electronica. Basically, without him you could probably wave bye-bye to pretty much half of the music ever made. He played a cracking show at the Fleece, using mostly equipment he used on the original recordings from the 68-69 period. It was quite awe-inspiring watching his frail fingers orchestrating sound.
November is looking pretty exciting for me. I am foaming at mouth about going to see the Melvins, one of the bands that single-handedly kick started Grunge, The Dwarves, Shabazz Placaces, Turbowolf, Bastions, CW StoneKing, Pure X, Opeth, St Vincent and many more!
