Thursday 29 October 2009

Everything Everything at the Flapper 28/10/2009

I know you shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but I'm one of those people who find that if a band have a rubbish name I find it really hard to get over it and enjoy the band, thinking that bad name equals bad music. Fix Monday are a band with one of these names. However, despite the dodgy moniker, they aren't half as bad as I had anticipated and actually had a fair few catchy tracks, such as 'I Change' which got the crowd (myself including) tapping their feet. However, the highlight of their short set for me was their "reverse stage invasion", when the band dropped their instruments and came off stage and joined the crowd to perform a simple yet delicate vocal piece with four-part harmonies and the smallest amount of guitar to anchor them down. What I liked most about this was the way in which it confronted the audience - there was no way of ignoring them when they were stood in front of you. I didn't know where to look and almost felt I should hold my breath, an amazing moment from a band I had written off before even having heard them. Seems that Fix Monday are doing their very best to prove that old idiom wrong.

Next up were Findo Gask, who were the main reason I had come along, after being impressed by their performance alongside Dananananaykroyd earlier in the year at the Xbox Reverb gig at the Rainbow Warehouse. Now, before anyone thinks to say anything, yes they do have an odd name, but it's cool - they're Scottish, and named themselves after a village in Perth and Kinross, Scotland. They throw down a chilled out electro-pop groove which has glimpses of Hot Chip at their most inventive. There's a lot of instrument swapping and often it appears they are so full of ideas that what a lesser band would have milked out into 3 songs, the Gask boys will compress into one brilliantly formed pop gem. Playing through their singles, it is obvious what a talent Findo Gask are: 'Go Faster Stripe' being a personal favourite, as well as the multi-layered, twisting trumpet-led 'Nubo' from the One Eight Zero single, which comes on like a blissed out Youthmovies. They are a band I will definately be keeping an eye our for in the future, as they are a fun band to watch and lovely guys to talk to too. I recomend you hunt down the aforementioned single, it's brilliant.
Last but not least this evening were Everything Everything, who I had heard very little about apart from a few good things from a friend. They stay in a similar world to Findo Gask, writing inexhaustably creative electronic-tinged indie with some amazingly obscure lyrics. They were a bit of a funny looking troop, but have some truly brilliant tracks, namely their trilogy of singles: 'Suffragette Suffragette', 'Photoshop Handsome', and 'My Keys, Your Girlfriend'. 'Photoshop...' is probably my pick of the lot, with its 8-bit gamer tune spliced to a wonderfully catchy vocal hook. I know it sounds crude, but this is probably what The Automatic wish they sounded like if they could actually write decent music.

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