Desperate Journalist, Miscalculations, Keith TOTP and his minor UK Indie Celebrity backing band Live at The Buffalo Bar, Highbury 27.11.14.
This Guided Missile club night featuring two bands that include the promoters of another regular Buffalo Bar club night, Some Weird Sin is a perfect example of what is so great about the venue and why everyone should join the campaign to save the venue right now https://www.change.org/p/save-the-buffalo-bar-one-of-london-s-best-loved-music-venues.
I got into the Buffalo Bar just in time for the start of Keith Top Of The Pops And His Minor UK Indie Celebrity Backing Band and started scratching my head as they all started clambering onto the tiny stage as it was soon obvious they wouldn't all fit on it as no one in all my years of going to the Buffalo Bar has put a 13 piece band on that stage so that most of the brass section was blocking the way to the loos, but once they started to play who would care about going to the Loo really. Oh and yes I could list all the bands they play in but don't have the time.
As they tore into Girl I spent most of the song trying to count how many musicians were up there and how many guitarists they had and it was a shock that they had no less than 8 guitarists, a bass player, Drummer, and 3 piece Brass section that together were playing a sludge Jazz rock epic that seemed to musically marry the late 70's Lou Reed Live band to the sound of 15.60.75. but with tongue in cheek lyrics and a wry sense of humour and damn Girl cooked enough to have everyone in the audience hooked.
It is obvious from Keith TOTP's song introductions that they take the art of taking the piss out of the music scene very seriously indeed and Pretentious Title TBC or the song I called You Not Me is a perfect example as they just rammed the hatred home with a wink and a smile at how pretentious parts of the current music scene is and also how much they hate the new wave of Bland. Oh how Keith would have had a fit at the Grassroots gig I had the misfortune to be at 3 days earlier, at the blander than bland bands being pushed, but his ire was for the band Peace who get skewered by his hatred on Wasted On You.
I think It's Slang was the first of the songs that had band member's frantically swapping keys and chords before it started and was a bit sloppy but it didn't matter as the lyrics had most of us smiling and the brass section just skronked out when they weren't sure what to play. Do You Want Some was a great lascivious indie porno rock tune about having sex in hotel rooms that was just lewd and crude enough to have the object of Keith's desire booking a room at the Travel Lodge as he sang.
Morrisey Will Never Forgive Me takes aim at Mozza a man who is his own parody and having shared a lift with the man in Toronto once needs all the disdain he can get, I do hope he walks on-stage to this song, but I don't think he has enough bottle to do so. Stupid Rules (For Stupid People) is all about people telling you that you can't wear a bands t-shirt unless you've seen them live, which is OK as a rule but what if your favourite band never tours the town you live in? Either way they have a lot of fun with it even as half the guitarists seem to be playing at a different speed to the other half like they are coming apart at the seams and still kind of nailing it as a magnificent mess.
If You Want Twee (You Got It) I'd like to dedicate to Frankie Davies, Red Sky July, Balsamo Deighton and all the other twee and boring as all hell countryish acts I've suffered as a reviewer this year god damn they make Sharon Corr seem interesting!! No none of these are mentioned in the song but Twee is such a big category at the moment with so many easy targets it's no surprise, oh and I'm With Keith we need far less twee.
You Wish You Were In My Band is almost self-congratulatory at the fact that so many folks do want to be in Keith's band even if they don't know the changes they just want to play Proper Music in a proper band in a proper venue like well this one and if possible they want to add a proper woman on guest vocals in this case Jo Bevan from Desperate Journalist who reads proper lyrics from a proper Lyric sheet while Keith and the band play some proper music.
In a year full of tribute songs to musicians and bands Two Of The Beatles Are Dead stands out not for how loose bits are, but for just having the balls to demolish a sacred cow while still being a great tune and far better than the other Beatles tribute song I suffered having to review earlier in this year by an act whose name I don't even remember 3 months on let alone the miserable song about one of the dead Beatles he was singing about. They closed with I Hate Your Band during which Keith lists a whole bunch of crap bands that he fucking hates and well I'm in agreement with him for the most part it was a right rollicking end to a monumentally good fun set.
How could Miscalculations top Keith Top Of The Pops, well it was a Miscalculation going on after them that's for sure as following them was not going to be easy so when Mauro Venegas ex of Jonny Cola & The A-Grades and also of The Godfathers and his new compadres hit the stage it's no surprise that it takes them a while to get going with their slightly splenetic indie punk that opens with Live With Myself that seems to be asking how you live with yourself after killing someone else it's OK but just OK as an opener.
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Dead Vocabulary is better as singer Marco Palumbo-Rodriguez seems to hit his stride a bit more and has his gang right behind him as they point Telescopes At The Sun that is particularly difficult to do in a basement at night while trying to keep the Splinters from shattering the sound entirely they hold on and start to sound a bit tighter on the quite brilliant Severing The Spine Of Confidence that was easily the best song of the set it's dark and twisted and Mauro's guitar seems to push Marco right to the edge ready for a full on meltdown.
The Inaudible Pitch is anything but inaudible coming on like a freight train to our brains rammed inside them by Shaun Clark's attempts to destroy the drums a real cool tune. They fail to use Statues as a song in which to pose as statues at every stop and start in the song but that would certainly work on a bigger stage than this one. Predictions As Precise As A Surgeons Blade is a mouthful of a title but a meagre morsel of a song that cut through the place like a king sized scalpel that was damn tasty indeed.
Invisible Uniform flew by me in no time at all and then they were thrashing through Transmission no not that Transmission but another song of the same name that led them on a trip to Asbestos City that could have been about The Garage across the road before they tore all the asbestos out in the re-fit a few years ago and it was the one song that they used Keyboards on that gave it a slower darker feel almost Goth but not quite a cool song before they closed the set with A Silent Defence that went down a treat and was a perfect closer on a pretty decent set.
Finally it was time for me to see Desperate Journalist for the first time and realize I really ought to have seen them several times by now since getting the band's debut single Cristina last year. Oh well this is Simon Drowner's main band since the demise of Jonny Cola & The A-Grades and he's joined by Caz Hellbent on the drums and Jo Bevan on Vocals and Rob Hardy on Guitar and they are busy starting to promote the band's self-titled debut album that is out on Vinyl and Cd through http://www.fiercepanda.co.uk/ on January 26th next year or as a digital download right now.
They opened with the magnificent Control no not the Joy Division song but it does owe a debt to it as well as to Savages and The Marine Girls they are dark delicious and enticing right from the start. O that follows keeps the goth tinged edge to the band's sound and adds a little bit of edge to it as Jo sings Oh No at us repeatedly until we all melt before them.
Happening was I think the song that made them sound most like the Smiths fronted by Tracey Thorn it had plenty of jangle to go round as well as just sounding like a classic indie pop song. Remainder had some great Guitar from Rob that seem to battle against Simon Drowners bass as Jo stalked the stage as she sang and never scowling like Jehnny Beth always seems to these days.
Next up was Kitten that was on the debut Cristina EP and still sounds just as cool live as it does on the EP and with just enough of the spirit of X-Mal Deutschland to sound totally current and like the perfect band to be next year's Savages. A point that Distance only enhances as they are assured and I was still shocked at just how deep and sorrowful Jo's voice gets at some points in this set.
Hesitate was the newest song in the set making it's live debut and sounding just as cool as the rest of the set before they played Cristina that certainly went down well and sounded great all dark and prescient and they then closed the set with the second single Organ that sort of sounds like it wants to be a song by Play Dead but not quite either way a great closing number that left the crowd cheering for more.
If there is any justice in the music bizz we'll be hearing loads more from all three of these acts next year and Desperate Journalists album will help to break them to a much wider audience.
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