ROCK
MICHAEL DRACULA Optimo, Sub club, Glasgow, Sun 1 Jul 000.
After countless line-up changes and an absence for a year or so from playing live. Michael Dracula made a long overdue return to Glasgow with a tight set at the Sub Club's Optimo. It was difficult to figure out just what the fuss was about at a recent outing at Sleazy's: the vocals were so low in the mix that only the occasional flirtatious 0000' could be discerned. with the throb and chug of the rhythm section reduced to plop and fug. But with the lead guitar turned up and Emily's voice now audibly more confident. the wit and vim that characterised their releases on Ze Records came to the fore.
MD's countrified dirty pop tunes come on like a cross between the growling sound of The Leather Boys and the whaling of a filthy-mouthed girl in the garage (possibly the best lyric ever written being: ‘l'd rather be a king in a cave than a c”t in a castle‘). The band smiled throughout the performance. with the occasional ironic cry of ‘Not bad!‘ from the crowd punctuating a selection of the best tracks from their new album In the Red. (Alexander Kennedy)
pop
UNI AND HER UKELELE Fence Club 2 @ The Caves, Edinburgh, Thu 14 Jun 000
The ukelele's place in contemporary pOp is usually second, um, fiddle to more conventional. less novelty- inclined instrumentation. Where George Formby and Tiny Tim's eccentric schtick was strictly Kodachrome. however, Uni and Her Ukelele. AKA Heather Marie Ellison. is a day-glo riot of candy-coloured tutu. kids TV presenter tights and sparkly silver eye make-up.
The San Francisco belle may be at the bottom of the bill of this latest and increasingly homogenised Fence Records love-in. but. with her uke Sally Luka in tow, she's by far the most interesting thing on it. Because. behind the rosy-cheeked apparel. chorus girl ditziness and wonky dance moves is a handbag full of classic 19608 girl pop that could have shirnmied out of The Brill Building. loaded up on bubblegum and busked its way into y0ur heart with would-be Wall of Sound power-pop show-tunes pared back to one-gal-band basics.
Somehow. miraculously. Uni manages to apply such sugar-sweet sensibilities to The Smiths' heartbreaker. 'Please. Please. Please Let Me Get What I Want‘. Swoonsorne as it was. where. oh where. were the roller-skates?
(Neil Cooper)
IMPROV
TATSUYA NAKATANI RAYMOND MAcoou’ALo AND NEIL DAVIDSON Classic Anxiety Dream
@The Meadow Bar, Edinburgh, Mon 18 Jun 0000
Edinburgh last hosted a weekly improv night in the mid—19908. when Lindsay Cooper's Free Underground took over Monday nights at Henry's Cellar Bar. Classic Anxiety Dream OCCupies similar terrain and. judging by the amount of bodies squeezed into The Meadow Bar's bijou upstairs function room, is filling a serious gap in the musical calendar.
Nakatani is a Japanese. New York- based percussionist who previously worked with Glasgow-based sax player Raymond MacDonald and guitarist Neil Davidson on the recent Aporias album. The final date of this UK tour finds the trio exploring similar percussive avenues. as Nakatani largely eschews conventional drumming in favour of bowls. gongs and rocks. while Davrdson attacks his fret board with a paint stripper and MacDonald skitters busily into his horn. For the second set. Phil Bancroft adds melodious tenor sax.
Sods law. Classic Anxiety Dream returns to a post-refurb Meadow Bar on 23 July. Support your local noise- makers. www.myspacecom/ classicanxietydream (Neil Cooper)
EXPERIMENTAL
DIRTY PROJECTORS King Tut’s, Glasgow, Sat 30 Jun 0...
Brooklyn-based Yale dropout Dave Longstreth is an odd fellow. The fact that he once wrote an entire concept album based around the life of Eagles singer/drummer Don Henley provides pretty decent proof of that. He's currently working under the moniker Dirty Projectors. in cahoots with guitarist Amber Coffman. bassist Angel Deradoorian and drummer Brian Mcomber. and such overt weirdness is really starting to take him places. This show marked their arrival in Scotland as part of their first European tour.
They're at once strikingly original. Broad comparisons to Frank Zappa might be relevant for the psuedo- operatic swooping vocals and use of weird. jazzy time signatures. Longstreth's guitar playing is unlike pretty much any you've heard though, as he teases out skewed. discordant melodies that seem to incorporate just about every note but the right ones. while still sounding great for it. Coupled with Mcomber's crashing beats and Coffrnan and Deradoorian's sugary sweet harmonies. they form the spine of some fascinatineg twisted experimental pop tunes. Henley would hate them, so they're definitely doing something right. (Malcolm Jack)
Tomorrow's music today. This issue: Reverend and the Makers
Ex-call centre worker Jon McClure, all Gallagher swagger and Mike Skinner rhymes, wants his indie funk to make people think - and dance. The band's single, ‘Heavyweight Champion of the World’, is currently all over radio and TV. We chatted to him during a fag break.
Your song’s about escaping the rat race. Have you?
Totally. This jobs a proper toss-off innit? People shouldn't settle for second best. The world needs more people making a stand and saying: ‘l'm not having this.‘ I hope all the people who told me to 'get a proper job' are eating their words now. You’ve toured with the Arctic Monkeys and written songs for them. How did you become friends with Alex Turner?
We met on a bus SIX years ago. He liked my music. so I asked him to join my band. J0urnalists talk about the Sheffield music scene. and there isn't really one. There's healthy competition but we're completely separate. Alex does guitar music; I do
electronic stuff.
Your song’s about unfulfilled ambitions. Still got any?
FOur A&R guys offered me record deals to copy the Arctic Monkeys' formula. I
refused. My ambition is to make people question things. I've achieved my goal. People come up and tell me they jacked their bullshit job or went travelling after
hearing the song.
Is it true you fancy Carol Smillie?
I've got a masswe crush on her! She's a sexy woman. A bit of a Milf. Our drummer used to live on her road and saw her in her garden in a bikini. I would have
exploded. (Claire Sawers)
I Reverend and the Makers p/ay King Tut's. Glasgow, Monday 23 July.
19 Jul» 2 Aug) 2007 THE LIST 61