Jim Jones Revue & Lewis Floyd Henry 02 Academy Birmingham

One man band Lewis Floyd Henry really does look like the most genial of New York buskers – think a down on his luck Hendrix trying to make a buck playing Heavy Trash with a pram mounted amp and a tiny bass drum and cymbal.  If that sounds dodgy, it’s the guitar that saves it all.  Loud, dirty and played with casual abandon.  Lewis is having a party and he really doesn’t seem to care if the audience are with him or not.

In fact most of the audience are.  His brand of fucked up street, punk & blues, gets a deserved good response.  A well chosen support act, worth checking out.  Oh yeah – he talks to the pram as well!

Unless you’ve spent the last 18 months under a rock you’ll know that The Jim Jones Revue have married the maniac piano driven rock ‘n’ roll of Jerry Lee Lewis and the er maniac guitar driven rock ‘n’ roll of the MC5 to magnificent effect on latest album ‘Burning Your House Down’.

For the full Jim Jones Revue effect, of course you have to see them live.  Right from the off you know this band fancy themselves.  And rightly so!  Anyone who comes on to ‘Raw Power’ has to be able to deliver in full and with guitarists circa London Calling era Clash and frontman Jim Jones giving Grinderman a run for the title of ‘sleaziest suit wearer in rock’, they look the part.  But can they cut it?

The answer comes in 2 minutes 30 seconds dead, in the shape of opening number ‘Dishonest John’.  As a statement of intent it doesn’t come much better than this, screaming guitar riffs and falling down the stairs piano hammering compete to demand your full attention.  If this doesn’t give you an immediate adrenalin rush then you’d better get your coat.

Yes it’s clichéd, dumb rock ‘n’ roll, with all the cock rock posing you can handle.  And then more of the same.  But it’s done with such messianic zeal that it works.  It really works.  The twin attack of guitar and demented boogie-woogie piano soon has the band and audience working each other into a sweat as they run through ‘Cement Mixer’, ‘Burning Your House Down’, ‘Shoot First’ and ‘Elemental’.

All that and they have seamlessly brought in a new keyboard player.  With the piano being so fundamental to the band’s sound, it’s a real credit to new boy Henri Herbert that there’s no discernable change to the Jim Jones Revue live onslaught.  Just to prove it the band finished with a devastating version of ‘The Princess & The Frog’ from their debut album.  Still a remarkable song, still a remarkable band.

However, to be absolutely honest (John), this may not have been Jim Jones Revue at their absolute peak.  Being a rescheduled show it felt like it took the band a while to get up a head of steam as they seemed to be battling with a less than perfect onstage sound.  

That quibble aside and despite (or because of?) all the obvious referencing in their music – and along with the usual suspects, Gallon Drunk really ought to get a nod – it’s hard to disagree with the current thinking that right now The Jim Jones Revue are the best balls out rock ‘n’roll band in the country.  Simply unstoppable.

 

 

 

 Go here for live footage from the gig.

What makes humans different..?

Spotted this exchange on Richard Dawkins You Tube channel a while ago, but it still makes me laugh:

Comment 1:

Humans are not the "end product" of evolution, we are not the "goal" we are still evolving and growing (well, some of us are anyway.) aside from a larger brain, what difference is there between us and "animals"?

Comment 2:

Cake! 

It works for me!

You can see Richard Dawkins You Tube channel here

Is Wrestling Fixed?

The media here in Blighty has been full of calls for FIFA to be investigated and / or President Sepp Blatter to stand down or face re-election against an ‘anti-corruption’ candidate.  I'm not even sure what a world football 'anti-corruption' candidate would look like.  Does such a person exist... somebody call Martin Bell.

Perhaps it's just a new way of keeping our attention in the closed season, along with frenzied 'speculation' - you might like to add words like 'guessing' and phrases like 'making it all up' at this point - but I couldn't possibly comment.  Let's face it, the international window didn't even open until July, so in the meantime, it's be mean to Sepp time.

Don't get me wrong, he's a very appealing target and there may well be a whiff of something less than transparent to some of FIFA’s dealings, whether it’s Qatar’s winning 2022 World Cup bid or the ‘Goal’ project, but the rest of the world isn’t listening.

If the allegations have any weight at all, why isn’t the story being picked up abroad?

The sad truth is, it’s England's own fault. With no friends in World Football, England always comes late to the party and then complains about the rules, before reminding everyone that as the home of football  the next World Cup should be hosted in England, before adding that England is also home to the most commercially aggressive league in the world.

  

Yet England still took part in the rather opaque bidding process for two recent World Cups – losing out to Germany and Russia – and for all I know employing some of the questionable lobbying tactics now being complained about.  In short, England are seen as sore losers.  Unfortunately, with good reason. 

England need to start developing and coaching much younger, move the focus from winning at all costs to taking part and encourage a real passion for the game.  Then maybe in 20 years time we might start to see some results... 

Players? Well yes they could do with all that too, but I'm talking about administrators here.

Of course we could just take our ball home and set up our own 'World Football Union', with er, the USA, Scotland, Australia and Wales.  Better odds I'll grant you, but here's two words of warning; boxing and darts.

OK, all a bit do bears shit in the woods I know, but I'm not the only one in the greenhouse chucking bricks.

For a much more considered view of this - and most other football related issues, for that matter - you could do worse than check out When Saturday Comes (WSC 293 in particular).

Black Sabbath

Enough of footballers lawyers (actually, there might be a Channel 5 series in that...), it's time to squeeze out a quick post about the weekend on the pitch, before Sky Sports subscriptions are cancelled en masse and we all scramble to find a favourite summer sport.

Talking of Sky, they will inevitably be dubbing tomorrow 'Survival Sunday'.  As usual.  I rather liked the alternative 'Black Sabbath' I heard suggested on the radio earlier this week.  Then the usual montage of how the protagonists reached this sorry state could be sound tracked to  'Paranoid'.  Perfect!

Our Lips Are(n't) Sealed... pt 127

Tedious as this is becoming at one level - the identity of a millionaire footballer playing away from home ZZzzzzz - it is becoming something of a lightening rod for the whole issue of the control of information and the rights of the individuals involved.

It's also setting the battle lines for a fight between the judiciary and Parliament as legal experts - such as Vera Baird QC (Solicitor General 2007 - 2010) - queue up to 'deplore the use of Parliament to wreck the properly decided judgment of the court'.

While MPs such as John Hemming point to Article 9 of the Bill of Rights which he says make it clear that the dealings of Parliament cannot be questioned.  In effect, Parliament remains sovereign, which was certainly what I was brought up to understand.   Of course it's not hard to find someone who will take the opposite view, especially where British and European law collide.  But it is a serious point - who has primacy, the those who make law or those who interpret the law?

Our Lips Are Sealed (slight return). Or Superinjunction, on and on and on...

It's the story that won't lie down.  Big Brother 'star' Imogen Thomas has been back in court seeking to get the superinjunction stopping her publishing details of her affair with a footballer, amid counter claims of blackmail demands.

She lost.  The footballer - whose identity is already known to anyone who wants to know - won.  They sound like lovely people.

Meanwhile Lord Stoneham, the Liberal Democrat peer (yes, you know, that Lord Stoneham - er no, me neither) waded into the whole mess naming former Royal Bank of Scotland Chief Executive Fred Goodwin as having taken out a superinjunction to prevent publication of his affair with another high profile banker at the time RBS was collapsing.

The argument used by Lord Stoneham is that Goodwin's affair meant the CEO did not have his mind on his job at the time RBS collapsed and required bailing out with tax payers money.

A very weak arguement in my book. It looks like a case of using Parliamentary privilege to blow a hole in superinjunctions as a whole.  Fine.  A laudable aim and Lord Stoneham picked a good target.  Even if it feels a bit like 'we can't get you for anything else Fred, so let's at least embarrass you in public.'  Still there are lawyers all over the radio complaining about it, so Lord Stoneham must have done something right!

Is this what Nick Clegg means by 'muscular liberalism'?

Gig Review: Our Mountain, Guile, The Yams - The Rainbow, Birmingham.

If it's worth doing it, it's worth overdoing it seems to be The Yams attitude. Three guitars and keyboards crammed onto the stage at The Rainbow does seem ambitious, but with all the guitars and some growling bass present in the mix, they quickly show their audio arsenal is not just for show as they quickly reveal a capacity for some heavy slabs of sound.

Opening with a song that sounds like it's about to break into a cover of ‘California Uber Alles’ gets the attention, although it never does launch into a full blown version of the Dead Kennedys classic,  it quickly settles into a pleasing riff of its own.

But the beauty of The Yams is their disciplined sound, simple in terms of finding a heavy, stoner rock groove and sticking with it, but take a closer look and beyond the initial pull of the heavy riffing and there's a lot more going on.

Each guitar contributes a different layer to The Yams sound, making is surprisingly clean, for all the weight it carries.  Keyboards however, were sacrificed before the wall of guitars. Or perhaps the keyboard player has more of 'Bez' role, playing in the hole just behind the strikers, as it were...

Impressively build riffing is the hallmark of The Yams, if they can get past the inevitable Queens of the Stone Age references and perhaps convince people they're from southern California rather than South Staffordshire, they might get the audience they deserve.

 

Next up are Guile stretching their legs and taking some new material out for a run, giving us a tantalising peek into their work in progress, while delivering a haunting set of beautifully crafted psychedelic blues punk, drenched in slide guitar and held together by thundering bass and drums.  Over it all the cracked, wounded voice of Neal Sawyer, sounding like a man with the weight of world on his shoulders and the pain of rejection in his heart.

Kicking off with the repeated jab in the face that is relative new song 'Kill Your Dreams' Guile then tore up the set list to preview new material for a small but attentive audience.

Showing a willingness to experiment with rhythm and texture that suggests a capacity to add a whole network of B road detours to the Guile motorway, this set at The Rainbow certainly offered some intriguing glimpses into the future.

One thing we do now know, is that the insanely infectious 'Deep By The Dockery' will be released as a single in September. Yes a single. You know, complete with b-side tracks. Proper old school!

Tonight 'Dockery' was played with glorious abandon, competing with a stretched out epic improvised take on 'I Wish I Was Heartless' for highlight of the night. Although both may have been eclipsed by a tight, nasty, urgent take on the set closing howl of alienation that is 'Alone On The West'.

Which is a good place to leave things, 'Alone On The West' is also going to be the title of Guile's forthcoming album. For my money their potent mix of blues, country, punk and psychedelia, continues to mark them out as one of the great unsigned hopes.  Only problem is, I'll have to find something new to say once the album does come out!

What to make of Our Mountain?  They try, they really do.  And in places they almost pull it off. Mainly with some dirty, '60's garage rock & roll with a set closer that felt like they finally dropped their art-house guard.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves.  The nucleus of Our Mountain hail from Australia and the rhythm section could easily pass for Nick Cave alumni.  Which I'm sure they are sick of hearing, but it's the sound of the Bad Seeds that's playing as they take the stage.  If the cap fits...

Well there are certainly echoes.  Our Mountain seem to have one foot in performance art and the other in a greasy garage doing up old motorbikes. Frontman Matthew Hutchinson comes on like the man who was thrown out of The Monkees for being too rock & roll - the man in the silk shirt and pudding bowl haircut is a ball of energy, pulling a variety of unlikely guitar hero shapes before exiting the stage mid-song to continue playing as part of the audience.

But then he has to, with statuesque, blond Abbey Lee, doing her ice queen, keyboards and er, dustbin lids routine, stage right, there's a fight for attention going on.  Which is no bad thing!

Our Mountain have some good ideas and better riffs, but ultimately didn't quite convince on this showing, perhaps trying a little too hard, while Guile and The Yams gave us honest from the heart rock & roll.

Longships

Currently enjoying the Wonders of Iceland season of programmes on BBC Four (rapidly becoming my favourite channel!).

Which is a good excuse for some pictures of the Hugin longship, which can be found at Pegwell Bay in Kent.

It's actually a replica, built in Denmark and sailed to England in1949, to mark the 1,500th anniversary of the voyage taken by Hengist & Horsa which is considered the starting point of the Anglo-Saxon invasion of England.

When I was a lad, I just knew Hengist & Horsa as cross channel car ferries.  Ah the ignorance of youth!