spellchecker

what time do you think the first band will be on? Is it still 3 quid on the door?

arse... thanks for telling me though.

Can anyone confirm roughly what time The Silver Pill may take to the stage?

This made me think. For deaf people, all they have is silence - yet they are surrounded by vibration, much of which they still feel. I can't begin to think what it would be like to be deaf, but I imagine your perception of vibration would change radically (well, if you were once hearing and became deaf). It's like when someone is approaching you from behind, and you can feel them before you can see or hear them. It's not always sound.

And with that, Philip ascended into the ether. The End. Please.

Hmm, I don't know. What do you think? When you hear the amps click off at the end of the night in Drummonds, don't you think, "That's music to my ears."? Personally, music is anywhere I can hear or imagine a melody or a rhythm. I've heard beats in people coughing in a waiting room before, I can hear melody in bus brakes screeching. Real or imagined, it doesn't really matter, because I thought about it, and for a split second wondered where the music came from. So I suppose I think, it is music, not like music.

definitely "that's music", because we are trying to define music. in saying "that's like music", we are comparing to a definition of music we have not yet established, and hence not identifying, clarifying or defining anything whatsoever.

good move with the striping, it can make a big difference, especially if trying to dodge dropouts etc. i recently did software raid-0, albeit with smaller partitions of 2 120gb disks. are you using a hardware raid card? is the omni the one with 8 ins and 8 outs? i was thinking of buying a delta 44, it's time to upgrade.

i was going to say that music is when your interpretation of changing air pressure provokes an emotional response. but then, i wouldn't call listening to a couple of neds fist fighting 'musical'.

Re: Re: Re: For ANY mods!! Thats moderators!! I don't think we've fallen apart, at least we hadn't last time I checked. Mind you, I haven't seen my fellow bandmates since yesterday, so anything could have happened since then. We're "good" enough to be alongside My Mind's Weapon on the last fudge fanzine cd, though I admit that's perhaps not the greatest accolade. We're track 15 I think, incase your cd player got stuck on track 3. We have changed names mind, and I admit we haven't played a gig in Aberdeen since last September - you got me there Sheriff!! So I suppose, in an Aberdeen sort of way, we really are falling apart.

black sun were crushingly dirgy last time i saw them, but i'd be willing to give them another go just to see the silver pill again. perhaps it's better to watch black sun whilst drunk? i did really like the silver pill though, need to drag my bro along to this one...

oh yeah, nice work shaz!!!

Hah! Good old jimbob. We saw him at 13th note last october, he was brill, and i'm not even a carter fan! he did the intimate acoustic thing very well, was very funny, but also very sincere. this should be a hoot! scott'll cream his pants, he's like carter crazy! and when in the 13th note, he did play prince in a pauper's grave, sherrif fatman, granny farming in the uk, and i think he even played GI Blues. when i said i wasn't carter fan, i mean, i just don't own any records by 'em...

Ahh, but maybe the make-up artist was really good and knew what to do, and smacked him hard in the face x 2. Which is maybe what he really wanted, but didn't quite know how to ask for.

I'm surprised this gig was so empty, I thought it sounded like an interesting line up. There was definitely a fairly varied assortment of music anyway. Apraxia were the first band up. Hadn't heard anything very consistent about this band. Some said they were shite, some said they were amazing, but most said the bassist was really good. Which was true. Before the end of the first two songs, the phrase "Reef Hot Bungle Peppers" came into my head. Odd. But anyway, after a few songs, I heard bits that made me think of Incubus, RHCP, Reef (only early stuff mind), Mr Bungle, and some other stuff which I have now forgotten. I'm sure I read Apraxia described as "Funk Metal" somewhere, which is not entirely inaccurate. I'd say they swing closer to the funk than the metal, though there was definitely some rock out moments. Some of the funky riffs on the guitar were fairly trademark and the drumming to match wasn't unheard of, but just as you thought it was going to be predictable, the song may change, and would regain your interest. The singing bassist had a really good voice at times, even if it did sound a little too brandon boyd at times. but he was changing the dynamic of his vocals and to be honest, i was just impressed with the basslines he played at the same time as singing some quite complicated vocal melodies. The things that I think let Apraxia down was their confidence. It wasn't that they were shy - as they were definitely getting into the vibe of their own songs - but they definitely had an air of "are we doing this right, oops i fucked that up, shall i keep singing" etc. etc. When they were tight they were tight, when they were slack they were slack, and when they were only half slack tight they were half slack tight again. Sorry. It didn't help that they broke a string half way through the set. Hindsight's wonderful isn't it? Take spare strings next time, because you can't always borrow someone else's bass, but more importantly, you lose confidence when playing someone else's instrument. I felt sorry for Apraxia, because the song they played after sorting their bass problems out seemed to be one of the better ones, and had they had the confidence of having had a good set underway, i think it would have peeled some eyelids. I'd say the singing guitarist needs to put a bit more muscle or effort into his vocals, they were vastly overpowered by the bass guitarist's. The drummer had some really cool fills and rhythms at some points. Funky, I thought. Next up were Spike Pile Driver. It's hard to describe or rate Spike Pile Driver, because it's not like most bands I go to see. For a start, there is no bassist. Though on reflection, there doesn't seem much point. Most of Spike Pile Driver's songs have a common pattern. If there were a musical dictionary, under Spike Pile Driver would read, "The art of dancing around the precipice of the abyss". What I mean by that journalistic wank is that many of the songs have a conclusion, peak or climax that involves a very heavy double-kick-drum intensive beat and an undecipherable growl from the vocalist. The guitar parts are actually rather varied. It would be easy to denounce Spike Pile Driver and say that it's arrogant metal improvisation, but it actually seems extremely rehearsed and co-ordinated. I don't know how long it'll be until the next time I voluntarily choose to see Spike Pile Driver, but I've got to say, the set was short, but rather sweet. There were moments that drifted off the hardcore metal edge that most of the set adhered to... one song in particular had a really weird over-chorused guitar, and in general, the guitar parts didn't take the average thuddy thuddy bar bar bar chord nature that I actually expected. Though If i hadn't been in the visual vantage point where I was sitting, I don't know if I'd have noticed exactly what the guitar parts were, such was the deafening clamour of the drum kit. The drummer was good actually. For me, Spike Pile Driver are like the sandwich that was nice to try, one that I might know a friend who would like, but one I doubt I personally would eat again. Then came Findo Gask. Who? I hadn't heard of these, and alas, they were out of towners. Fife, I think they said. I always love judging bands I haven't seen before they go onstage. My guess was that I wasn't going to like these guys: the decidedly emo haircut of the singer, alongside the waist-worn scarf of the bassist... I was actually relieving myself in the toilets when they started. As I passed the last of the past two cokes in the gents, I thought my ludicrous fashion orientated judgementalism was vindicated when some rather dodgy drums came echoing off the tiles. However, it must have been the dodgy bezial curves of the porcelain, because when I took my seat again, I was pleasantly surprised by the noise that was coming from the third band. The idlewild influence was immediate both aurally and by the sticker on the lead singer's guitar. However, at the same time I was thinking pablo-honey radiohead, courtesy of the delayed guitar and vocals. I don't know if they took their own effects unit or if it was the Drakes PA, but the soft delay/reverb they had on both vocals sounded great. It helped that both the bassist and singer had good voices... they kicked out some brave harmonies that worked, a hard thing to do sometimes when noise is all around in drakes. There was lots of sounds in their music that i thought I recognised but didn't know the music well enough to place similar bands. At times (and this kind of perplexed me) the guy sounded a little Morrisey like. Perhaps it was all the sugar going to my head though. these guys were far and away the best band of the night. they were very tight, but not anally, if you get my jist. they were very loud and tight, loose but tight, argh...... do you know where i'm going with this one? the thing that probably glued it all together was the drummer, the person i originally thought was the weakest link. he was hitting those drums so hard, and i mean really beating the shit out of them. at the end of the set i thought the kit was going to disintegrate, dissolve, explode, something. their own songs were good, and would have been good enough on their own to make this a great set. However, they did a cover of "love will tear us apart" by joy division. they quite correctly guessed that it would be the only joy division song i would know. they reworked it sufficiently that i didn't even recognise it until the chorus. the chorus, oh the chorus, it was really good. really, really good. reallllllyyy.. christ. It's not usually the sort of music I'd listen to but the energy and tenacity of the band just didn't give me the choice of liking them or not. the best thing about this band was you could see that when they were playing, they were really enjoying at. not in a laugh at your mates kind of enjoying it way, more in a "if i catch my eye at high speed on that cymbal stand, i'm probably not going to notice" sort of way. good, if these guys came back, i'd see if i could squeeze them into my extensive social calendar. headliners tonight were starfall. the last time i saw starfall was in henry j beans, a good few months ago. perhaps three or four months. a while anyway. i wasn't impressed by them then, but i figured after four months, they'd have sorted out their live sound and dynamics in terms of vocals, live guitars and the mix of the backing track/synthesizers with the general live sound. i have to admit i was quite excited when i saw the kit at the side of the stage, the computer, the korg synthesizer/midi controller/thingy, and the effects units. it's a strange thing, i think i want to like starfall because they are trying to use synthesizers in with a live sound. unfortunately though, it just didn't work tonight in my opinion. the good points about starfall are generally the synth stuff/backing tracks. Although some of the sounds were very Reason-esque (i could have sworn i recognised at least 2 voices from the subtraktor synth), they worked with the sound of the other backing tracks, and it was generally just nice to hear a departure from the normal live rock guitar band sound. however, the problem was that there was so much coming through as backing tracks and synths (including guitars and bass), that anything generated onstage sounded tinny and very layered. the live bass was so quiet and/or indistinguishable at times that during the first or second song, i could actually hear the noise of the plectrum hitting the bass strings. unless of course that was a sample... i don't think starfall have managed to successfully recreate live what their are trying to do on record. because of the clear and disconcerting disparateness of the live sound and the backing tracks, the stage performance has the eerie reminder of (a) dubbed performances on top of the pops or worse still (b) milli vanilli. at times, both the bass guitar playing and lead guitar playing seemed not to match what was heard coming from stage. the final nail in the coffin for me was without a doubt the vocals. some of the starfall tracks i have heard recorded with vocals sound alright, but tonight, live, it seemed like a painful drawl, fading in and out at random. i'm not sure if there were compressors at work (i assumed there was some, in that effects rack) , but the over-exagerrated disappearing and then re-appearing of the vocals tended to suggest some slow attack fast release compressor doing bad stuff to the vocals. the vocals that i did hear were really quite monotonic, and except for once or twice, i doubt whether the whole vocal performance ever outstretched a single octave. of course it's all down to personal opinion and if that's what you want to sing live, then that's what to sing. However, the vocals didn't have the power in the range the singer had chosen, and no amount of compressor on a basic sm58 is going to fix that. the singer sounded like he should be singing lines from placebo/cyclefly melodies, in terms of pitch. that's conjecture at best though. i could also say that the songs have very similar drumbeats, but most new/unknown material does have that effect on new/unaccustomed listeners. I could furthermore say that the dynamic of the songs didn't change much, that the songs were nearly always very loud and lacked diversity, but again the previous point applies and is down to favour in the end. i've got to say that i was quite bemused to see starfall asking their friends to say which song they should play next. it gave me the impression of a band that didn't care too much about their set (seemingly confirmed by the performance in general after the third song), or a band making a lack lustre attempt at audience participation.

hah, they were drunk. did you also spot the guy with the t-shirt on that just said "DICK" in big letters across the chest? Saved me the bother of reminding him.

was good last night. not much of a crowd, but that definitely didn't put her off. i'd seen her before briefly at glassel gig, but the wee tent she was playing was packed out so i left. great voice. interesting cover of wave of mutilation too.

i'm sure i saw plan a supporting therapy? at the cathouse. is that the band of jef that used to be in the wildhearts? they were alright actually. sounded punky in a good punk sort of way.

oh i like em. see dave gahan in the video for barrel of gun, he looks fucking fucked like. properly. great song too.

what were 67 like? i saw the girl from 67 singing at open mic at drakes once, she has a beautiful voice.

i just wasn't sure about them. i kind of got to thinking that the only reason they were there was to make 30-something women cream their pants. I thought they played okay and held it together, given their age etc., but i just kept thinking, what's the point? it's not like they're exciting, or dangerous, or outrageous... they're just... back.

not one song from pablo honey?

any times for the bands coming on? i'm at college till 9:30pm.

urgh, that sounds like a gig i cannot miss

killer angels sound a bit like RMW, but a bit faster and rockier.