musicGlist.co.uk
lNDlE INTERPOL King Tut’s, Glasgow. Tue 20 Aug
You should always be very wary of bands that appear in the style mags before anywhere else, the suSpicion being that they’ve been working so hard on the image, the music has taken a back seat.
Interpol have garnered a lot of attention in the kind of publications that favour style over content, but to suggest that they employ the same philosophy is to do them a disservice.
Formed four years ago in New York, the glamorous four-piece outfit have inevitably drawn comparisons with the Strokes. But while they do favour a strangely modern retro sound, that’s where the comparisons end, as the band’s excellent debut album Turn On the Bright Lights proves.
Mixing the earnest indignation of late 7OS/early 805 post-punk bands such as Joy Division, the Cure or even early U2 with ambient post-rock and wonky- willed pop, the album has an edgy, unsettling feeling which founder member Daniel Kessler reckons is down to the band’s origins. ‘I think living in NewYorkCity [he says this like something of an artistic intellectual cookie, no it’s one word] there’s a certain sense of anxiety and surprise considering the band members all met at pressure that one has to deal with on a daily basis, university. and I feel that on the record.’ But for all their art rock leanings, there is a vibrancy
Of course it didn’t help that the band made and immediacy about Interpol that have been honed recording hard for themselves, locking themselves over years of perfecting their live shows - the only away and working against tight deadlines. thing, Kessler feels, that they have in common with
‘We were always working against the clock and the other NYC bands they’re continually being running behind schedule, and there was always a bit compared to. of anxiety about decisions that you have to make in ‘There isn’t really a scene here, NewYorkCity is too seconds that can effect the whole record. It was vast for that,’ he says. ‘The one common link all stressful, but I think that’s good. If you do it that way, NewYorkCity bands have is that they’re pretty good then the overall band aesthetic comes out.’ live, they have a great performance presence.’
Kessler uses words such as ‘aesthetic’ a lot during A confident claim worth checking out at King Tut’s, our interview, and clearly fancies himself as to be sure. (Doug Johnstone)
Substance over style
ROCKN'RCMl THE PATTERN King Tut’s, Glasgow, Sun 18 Aug
'Pure punk boogie Wllll poetry.’ That's how Chris Appelgren lead singer with the Pattern. Oakland's latest addition to the US punk—pop invasion — would describe his music in one sentence. Now. a lofty claim it might well be. especially when you consider that everyone and their mutt is hitting the punk pop trail these days. But then. anyone who saw them shamefully relegated to the bottom of a hill featuring the unimpressive Vex Red and the woeful (Zrackout on last year's N/W tour Vllll know only too well that they have the three chord money to go With the mouth.
Citing everyone from Deep Purple and AC DC to the Beach Boys and the Byrds by way of Black Fiag and TCIOVISIOH ~ as influences on their iiiipressi\./e debut album Heat fee/Hess. Appelgien (:laiiiis: 'I like to Strokes or the Hives iboth of whom we want to put out records which will inject a certain psychological delicacy they've supported live recentlyi’? '| feel be totally memorable in 90 years time. to our lyrics, Just to fly in the face of more excited than challenged. And I know it's a tall order. because
Your new favourite band? The Pattern hope so
the sort of macho posing that people because it means that things are thousands of hands are out there normally associate 'Nllll i'o<:k'ii'ioll.' opening up in whole new ways. We doing comparable things but what But do the hand feel overawed by Just have to he stronger and do better. we want is people to decide ‘~.'.«'e'i'e
the success of. for example. the and not skimp on anything. I mean. their favounte.’ iDayid Pollocki
Bono? Oh no, no , no, no . . .
ince l have been given
the week!y as
opposed to bi-weekly task of writing this column. I'm going to reprint something from the All Tomorrows Part/es web-site. written by Foundation's arch wide-boy Barry Hogan. regarding a certain bunch of pompous. bible thumping spunk stains from Ireland. I hope you like it.
‘Last week I saw that idiot Bono preaching to the masses about how we can prevent poverty in Africa. Is he taking the piss? I mean. after he bores a few officials in Rwanda peering over his Gucci sunglasses. he probably gets in his private jet and flies back to his castle full of coked up supermodels in Dublin and then phones up his manager. to see how much money his expensive Dublin hotel has made him. And he keeps asking how we can reduce the African poveny?
‘Here are some ideas Bono: do a sponsored walk. drown your band for charity (yOu'd get my donation there) or sell yOur fucking hotel. you fat cunt. Even donating the royalties from your last LP would help a lot and you'd still have tons of money so Bono. put your money where your mouth is and stop patronising us. You're as bad as Phil Collins making millions about singing about the homeless.‘
That having been (particularly well) said. I'll leave your good selves with a wee brain teaser. It seems that Damon Albarn of Blur after having hired Norman ‘Fatboy Slim' Cook to produce his latest atrocity made the proclamation that he didn't like any dance music. Arse-piece.
‘5: .‘.’ A...) .‘ ‘C.’ THE LIST 21