Live music in Glasgow. It’s tricky! You’ve no idea who these bands playing the small venues are and you’re finding it hard to relate to their own brand of groan-wave-death-skiffle, unlike the one friend you’ve come along with who appears to be having an impossibly good time. Having said this however, you should almost certainly persevere. Showing up to support your local scenes is an incredibly wholesome and good thing to do – by feeding your energy, and a small amount of your money, into the various DIY institutions putting on shows around Glasgow you are forging communal identities outside that world of straitjackets constructed by pretentious editors, useless genre terms and beer sponsored festivals. Either that, or its just a lot of fun. I forget. Anyway, here’s five bands you should totally go and see ASAP.
THE COSMIC DEAD
(http://thecosmicdead.blogspot.co.uk)
The Glasgow-based DIY adventure team Winning Sperm Party have taken to renting out the ‘Practice Pad’ rehearsal studios in Maryhill and throwing fairly mental parties featuring hundreds of bands and pretty good falafel. The Cosmic Dead, a revolving line up of musicians, finished off the recent night in one of the studio’s smaller rooms by completely flooding it with smoke, lighting up the place in red, and unleashing a thirty minute sonic assault on the hundred or so ears lost in the fog. There’s an obvious nod to Sunn0))) as the set opens up, with the band blasting the crowd with a distorted, tonally-saturated wave of droning power chords. Then, slowly, there’s an eerie transformation as an entirely transcendent kraut-beat jam unfolds, featuring the kind of effect-heavy guitar work that you’d be more then happy to slowly drown in, all underpinned by a hypnotic, eternally repeating bass grooves. Epic, life-affirming adventures in space, catch them at the Captains Rest, October 25th.
CLOCKED OUT
(clockedout.bandcamp.com)
I don’t even wanna talk about Clocked Out! They’re just really, really, really fun yeah?! That’s it! I swear! Fast, tanked-up, forget-the-nine-to-five funcore? For anyone with healthy punk sensibilities, playing the Book Yer Ane Fest IV DIY punk and hardcore festival in Dundee December 4th.
HONEY AND THE HERBS
(www.myspace.com/honeyandtheherbs)
Lets go surfing with Honey and the Herbs! There’s a good selection of photos detailing what these chaps get up to on their myspace; If you can think of something better to do then traipse around the West end in a Morris Minor with a plethora of instruments and soul-sodden lyrics, I want to hear from you. There is a seriously rich and pleasing garage and psyche-influenced sound to be enjoyed here – plenty of organs, plenty of heart-felt wailing.
ULTIMATE THRUSH
(www.myspace.com/ultimatethrush)
Ultimate Thrush are good at all sorts of things, particularly costumes and some brutal variety of post-hardcore, post-everything party tunes. Go and see them live, its thrilling stuff. Sporadic, spontaneous and bristling with the kind of filthy excitement you usually associate with a prison riot gone wrong. Truly the best kind of totally awful. They’re playing stereo with other Glasgow treasures October 24th.
And thats just the tip of the iceberg. Here’s a few of the countless others; Citizens, Holy Mountain, Second Hand Marching Band, Paws, Bronto Skylift, Two Minute Noodles, PVH, Gummy Stumps, Eternal Fags, Divorce, Les Bof!, Flags Raised, Blue Sabbath Black Fiji, Robbie and the Bastard, Jackie Onassis, Black Sun, Ug!, Cheer, Tangles, Noma, Kylie Minoise, honestly the list and the joy is never ending. Furthermore, there are some truly excellent promotion outfits in the city just now, watch out for shows organized by the likes of Cry Parrot, Winning Sperm Party, Unthank Collective and This is Our Battlefield. So, remember, if meat is murder, then cheesy pop is just plain exploitation – go vegan and reject every stale union vomit-fest. Spend the money on your fantastic local scenes instead.
Jean-Xavier Boucherat
