So this has been another heady week of heavy gig going that saw me drag my gradually deceasing body and feeling as dead as a donkey. Things start off something decidely underground in every sense of the word heading to the Broad st Crypt for the Cacophonous Sarcophagus night of pure noise and artistic improvisations. It was a unique experience raving on a whole load of toomb stones felt some what apt to be kicking with a line up that boasted manic dual drumming improvisers Action Beat.   There was the aptly named genius Doomstep duo Necro Deathmort who played an absolutely phenomenal set of minimalist intense claustrophobia inducing mass droning tunes. Think if of the musical offspring of Godflesh and Burial and you might get an idea. Minimalist electro from the also apropriately named Dead Fader. Bringing up the noise rock were Henry Blacker and Pohl. All in all it was a very grave experience, kaboom tish but I would higly recomend going to one Cacophonous Sarcophagus nights, because it is a real experience.

Sunday Funday saw me start what was to be a week of me reliving my mid twenties with Maximo Park and Teleman at the Academy. This show had been rescheduled from the other week due to Paul Smith having to have an eye opperation and technically shouldnt have even been onstage performing, what with all the lazers and jumping around movement.

Support came from the ever dependable brit pop influenced indie Teleman.

Monday I went to see. one of Sub pops latest signings take to the Louisiana, a young female alternative pop artist by the name of Lyla Foy, who impressed a sparse crowd with her pretty remarkable vocal ability, sounding like a lofi Regina Spector with beautifully constructed songs bouncing delecately between sparse atmospherics and down pours of melody.

Support came in the form of the ever wonderful lofi off beat folk songstress Alessis Ark

And the equally impressive Mouse Deer soundcloud url=”https://api.soundcloud.com/tracks/106032623″ params=”auto_play=false&hide_related=false&visual=true” width=”100%” height=”450″ iframe=”true” /]

I also managed to hop skip and run over to catch the very tail end of Stanley Brinks set with the Wave Pictures over in Start The Bus.

Tuesday saw me venture over to the Academy For another one of my glorious mid 20’s flashbacks provided by Scotish indie stalwarts Franz Ferdinand. They delivered a career spanning set from their triumph of their debut album through to their testing difficult 3rd album, although they felt very much refreshed after a 3 year break. You very much got the sense that Alex Kapranos was very much enjoying fronting the band, acknowledging the audience  for their enthusiasm and support. 

Support came from one of my favourite bands of the moment Eagulls. It was so exciting to see this band play on the big stage delivering merciless bomb blasts to the un expecting audience. It really was thrilling to see, so much so that my feet barely touched the floor during their set. It really is great to have working class indie delivered with a sonic middle finger up to the world, like it or lump it.

because of things ending pretty early as per standard I managed to peg it over to Start The Bus to catch LA’s stoner punks White Fang, who were deleriously entertaining before collapsing in physically drained heap.

Wednesday saw the third and final of my mid 20’s flashbacks at the Academy with the indie pop stalwarts We Are Scientists who despite playing to a half full room managed to do an admirable job entertaining people. I must admit I was feeling a bit under the weather and was only waiting for the hits Like Nobody Move, Nobody Get Hurt.

I must admit I was really there too check out their main support the excellent Brit pop styling of Superfood, who sounded like the early rumblings of Blur and Seafood mixed together. Their set was great It felt like every song was a single or a potential single!

also opening up were The Heartbreaks.

On Thursday I was feeling dead in the water with body cramps so I need the musical equivalent of of comfort food, you know something you know your going to enjoy and its not too complex, so I headed down to the Louisiana to check out up and coming Indie rockers Dexters and one of this cities firm favourites Towns. Dexters pretty much delivered the kind of show you would expect from the denim jeaned up indie but with added 3 part vocal harmonies and big hooks smacking people in the mouths. It was simple but effective comfort food music.

As good as Dexters were there was no getting away from the fact that the band of the night were Towns. This was the first time I had seen them this year and boy have they come one since the last time I had seen them, it felt self assured nosedive into Brian Jonestown Massacre and Lupine Howl styled Psychedelia played with the hard knocked attitude. Nearly stepping away from their Stone Roses style comparisons.

Friday saw me in a bit of a conundrum because I had promised Idles I would be at ep launch show at the Louisiana, but I also wanted to check out the much hyped Jungle who’s show sold out the Exchange weeks in advance. So I forced myself to squeeze in both and boy it was a tight and badly fitting squeeze.

Jungle are one of the most hyped up bands this year and they were pretty fun, kind of like white man disco. Dragging up reminiscence of early Jamiraquai before they got ruined by one of the biggest egos in 90’s pop. It also felt like they were playing a bit of a tribute to the grand Adonis of Disco and pretty much every big hitting pop record since the 70’s Nile Rogers. With hand claps four part harmonies, four to the floor rhythms, razor thin guitars and big percussion mixed with squelchy Chromeo sounding Synths. Big and indeed fun, well more fun then the band Fun. 

Supporting were Peckhams loveable nerdy left field popsters Beaty Heart, who happily fell between the missing link of Friendly Fires and Metronomy, in an un ashamedly nerdy style.

but then I pegged it over to the Louisiana to catch up with Idles who were in absolutely formidable form. Like Towns the night before they really delivered a set that was built full of perfect hammer blows of controlled aggression. it was great to see kids really responding to the music. I never expected them to be so good, especially as I had been sceptical of them. But what can I say other then what I saw left me gob smacked especially the new songs, they could quite easily rival Eagulls with their blow for blow acounts.

well that was one hell of a week!