FAG : Saturday September 3rd. Fractured and The Shimura Curves

-- emsk (vomit.quif...), August 8th, 2005.

you realise of course that you run the risk of "drinking things" being forcibly drunk by a HORRIBLE DOG don't say we didn't warn you

Backstage gets crowded enough without all our rubbish gear in there as well.

http://bloggers.ja.bz/katou/archives/hooch-thumb.jpg

Kate - yes no probs. I'll check with Andy and Id tonight, but they're usually fine about it. We have a Marshall JCM-900 100W for guitar and a big trace elliot mutha for bass. We might have a Roland Cube with us if I play some guitar too.

Cool. This will be excellent and rock indeed. (God, that sounds like such a Ned-ism.)

I've seen Shimura Curves go heavy metal before and totally approve!

DAS IS NICHT MEIN NEUFRIEND!!! DAS IS NICHT MINE NEUFRIEND!!!

NEUFREND!!! NEUFREND!!!!!

::insert terrifying Germanic Valkyrie scream here::

wait, no there hasn't! (You and AMP headbanging aside...)

(I'm not sure she actually has a bass amp - we tried to use hers at practice but it, also, was blown. Maybe Mr. Knight has one we can borrow. Which will be an excuse to get Mr. Knight out of the house to pester him about maths and dronerock.)

I'm in France.

Kate, I'm never going to see your band.

Ever.

:-(

But point taken, I should probably post about it to the 22 list.

Cuh.

Friends getting married, parents' wedding aniversary... sheesh! It's not my fault people insist on this love and marriage bullshit.

Oh, my!

Surely you mean bump!

WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

::weeps bitter tears::

Ha-ha, sounds like you are being a good manager, Emsk and earning your 15%. (Well, 15% of pink wine at least, tee hee.)

(Lex, we will just fill you with one of our rider bottles of pink wine and I'm sure you'll be dancing on the ceiling in no time. And no, you can not ride home in the tour van because we do not have one.)

Yes I should be able to come along. It's high time I saw Fractured and I'm also intrigued by Diary.

No, not going to Iggy tonight - will have waaaayyy too much of that later this week with my sisX0r. In fact, not doing anything except rehearsing because we have ONLY TWO WEEKS UNTIL THE GIG!!!! and I will have no time to rehearse because I will be too busy drinking with my sisX0r (and Iggy). Argh. And I've written two new songs. Which we will never learn in time.

Well, maybe Noyfriend because Krautrock is so easy to play.

I was thinking it was more in homage to Throwing Muses (another band sans The who always get one stuck on.)

Anyway, the definate article makes sure no-one confuses you with any other Shimura Curve knocking about.

I just feel like I've done my time in The bands after The Lollies and The Kissing Time.

The only other band I ever had this problem with was The Dreaming Spires, who had a definite article that people forever left out, because I guess shoegazing bands weren't supposed to have definite articles. I don't know.

(as in: question mark part of the name, a la The Alan Bown! in the '60s)

Actually, I can't think of a single shoegazer band with a definite article. Not even the minor ones, like The Revolver or The Spitfire. The Hurricane Number One?

I rest my case!

Where where you on Saturday, Marcello? I was looking out for you!

-- last train (petethane...), September 6th, 2005.

You really don't want to know, Dr C (not for sinister reasons, but because the reasons I didn't make it to the B&G were boring ones).

How were Diary? Did Ben & Esther show up?

xpost

Yes Diary were musically v.interesting. But post-set beer was calling.

**Please record a proper version of Collina so I can play it at Seal okthxbye.**

Matt we have a very good version from the mixing desk at the B&G. That might be good enough to play out? Let me know if you want it.

http://www.playlouder.com/feature/+its-the-moffat-s-0/

The Pipettes comparison makes me SO CROSS that I can't even speak. (calling The Lollies "proto-Pipettes" is a bit like calling Radiohead "proto-Travis") But he's such a sexist cunt he mentions Diary having a "drummeress" - does he go to a Doctoress when he's ill?

Argh, now I remember why I just shouldn't read my own press, it just makes me so cross. Like a band can't be flirty and female, but also dark/intelligent at the same time? Grrrr.

A later jaunt takes us to another haunt we've not haunted for a while as, contrary to some of the more scurrilous rumours that were rumbling at the start of the year, the Bull & Gate is still very much with us, and playing host to some stuff best filed under "chuffing remarkable". For instance, they're hosting what we discover - and could perhaps have guessed - is the fifth ever gig by Shimura Curves, an offshoot of early-noughties proto-Pipettes The Lollies, and what rum larks these are. The look is rather more TV's Bad Girls Go On A Day Trip To ATP than Girls Aloud, but, ooh!, those harmonies! It's a four-way fiesta! The whole affair's mighty lo in fi-ness and, dare we say, low in finesse, but there's some starkly dark songwriting at play that sits teasingly ill at ease with their Bananarama bounciness and very own feather-boa-flapping guest Bez figure. Verrrrry selective appeal, we reckon, but, with some inevitability, we rather admire the Curves.

But not as much as we fall for The Fractured. "Where is my mind? Where is my mind? I lost it at a Pixies gig in 1989!" You might well assume from a lyric like that that they're not exactly springy of chickenness. You'd have a point. Still, there's an oddly Albarny charm to their lead singer (we're reminded of when Damon actually did cut a charming figure in his human form, of course), a not-wholly-self-conscious punkoid ramshackleness to their tuneage, and, in their favour, loads and loads of songs that are fantastically, caustically comical and still find room to quote Philip Larkin. Smart! They may very well be scuppering their own prospects by having a song called 'We're The Support Band', but it actually serves them very well indeed. Firstly, it thaws anyone in the building who'd been off-put by the Inspirals tendencies of the organist - not a problem for everyone, inevitably, but a noticeable feature. Second, it's their funniest offering by far. And third, it hammers home why we think they're as great as they are: to all intents and purposes, they're Art Brut's dads!

Anyway, I've calmed down now. I will not read my own press. I will not read my own press. I will not read my own press.

(And even if Dr. C is Clint Boon, at least the review wasn't about what *he* was wearing.)

Anyway, I'm over it now. Emsk is right, it's SSRI withdrawl comedown.

I am heartily encouraged by Clint Boon reference, especially since organ isn't really my instrument. Wait until they hear me on guitar!

Should I get a bowl haircut?

Dr C = yes!

Heh heh, see, that's what Jane Lollie used to do when we got bad press - she'd review the reviewers, and, having been a subeditor for many years, she could get quite vicious. It was hillarious.

Have read emails, agree with Francis re: pipettes comparison, but cannot spend too long in hotmail at current desk (ILE could be anything).

I guess what hurts is that there is a grain of truth in the Lollies/Pipettes comparison, especially with early Lollies stuff. But it's like... dude, get the CHRONOLOGY right. We were ripping off the Shangri-Las and trying to synchronise our handclaps and our guitar playing when the Pipettes were still writing their GCSEs.

I mean, my personal opinion is that the Pipettes are just kind of ... missing something that makes that genre of music appealing to me. (The Schla La Las definitely do have it - I guess it's that sense of *fun* - of it being a world of their own that they are inviting you into, while the Pipettes just come off like dress up dolls.) BUT FOR GODS SAKE, THE LOLLIES WERE THERE FIRST!!!!

Not true!

A bit of shameless self promo here:

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3366/3640308669_aa89343170.jpg?v=0

http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3528/3723436904_aed6c9af3b.jpg?v=0

We're launching our new single and it's the first gig with the new line-up. Proxy Music are a Roxy Music tribute band who play stuff from Eno-era Roxy, and The Fallen Leaves are fantastic garagey pop-punk. We're on at 8.30/8.45 ish.