www.list.co.uk/music Music
EXPOSURE
This fortnight: Ming Ming and the Ching Chings They’ve been around a couple of blocks on the Glasgow scene together, but guitarist and vocalist Craig Wilson, bassist Gordon ‘G’ Gillespie, drummer Davey Miller, and saxophonist and backing vocalist Chet have created a raw post-punk meets rockabilly thrill with their current outfit. Wilson, Ming Ming himself, tells us more. How did you all get together? Davey, Chet and I were in Big Face before they split up, and we all knew G, who was in Police Chief a while back. G got married and moved to Australia for a couple of years, and I was in Dundee doing a Master’s degree, so we all made an effort to meet up and start writing music again when we got back together to Glasgow. What’s your ambition for the band, musically? I don’t know, at the moment we’re just bashing a lot of genres we like together and seeing what works. We’re also inspired by stuff like The Cramps, The Fall, ESG, The Sonics, lots of rockabilly and surf – stuff which has rhythm, but has a certain rawness as well. And what’s coming up in the future? We’ve been recording some tracks with a friend of ours called Thomas (McNiece, ex of El Presidente and currently playing session bass for Gang of Four), and one called ‘Show Off’ made it onto the last Art Goes Pop label compilation. Being asked to play Optimo back in the summer was probably the highlight, though – so far. (David Pollock) ■ Ming Ming and the Ching Chings play the Pinup Nights Hogmanay Ball, Flying Duck, Glasgow, Wed 31 Dec.
REVIEW SINGER-SONGWRITER ALEX CORNISH The Bowery, Edinburgh, Sat 22 Nov ●●●●●
After the recent openings of the Picture House and Sneaky Pete’s, here’s another new Edinburgh venue that’s ripe with potential. Owned by Edinburgh University, the Bowery lies in the basement of the formerly underused Roxy Art House, and its combination of relaxed bar and reading rooms (open seven nights a week) with an intimate gig space is highly promising. Of course, the venue’s
proprietorship and the status of tonight’s headliner – the Edinburgh- based, Radio 2-touted Alex Cornish – as a singer-songwriter in the James Blunt/James Morrison mould mean that the scarf and V-neck brigade are out in force. We shouldn’t and won’t discriminate though, because Cornish’s stand-out tracks, including the title song of his debut album Until the Traffic Stops, are satisfyingly refined and folksy, and blow the above-named slush-hawking artistes out of the water. The Bowery’s owners have created a venue which brings back memories of the old Bongo Club – hopefully more local artists and promoters will be brought on board to help it live up to its inspired name. (David Pollock)
REVIEW ALT.ROCK NEW FOUND GLORY Barrowland, Glasgow, Sun 23 Nov ●●●●●
It’s really not often you get a band who nail pop punk live. Really nail it. The three supports tonight all try, and fail for various reasons – primarily horrendous sound – but New Found Glory have their own equipment, own sound guy and a decade or more’s experience of killing it onstage. Nothing’s changed since they were at the Barrowland six years ago really: the overweight bassist still insists on taking his shirt off, they still play Hit or Miss and the place still goes off. There’s circle pits, pogoing, a lot of wild hand gesticulation and huge sing- alongs.
Although they’ve got a seventh studio album, Not Without A Fight, on the way, tonight they play a set studded with their best, best-known songs, some dating all the way back to their first album. As NFG have been around long enough to build up a considerable number of fans over the age of 18, those of us able to drink legally don’t have to suffer that feeling of looking like either a parent or a paedo – usually the norm at gigs of this genre. High energy, a crowd pleasing set list and banter that doesn’t make you cringe. Can’t say better than that. (Rebecca Moore)
REVIEW SHOEGAZE ASOBI SEKSU ABC, Glasgow, Wed 26 Nov ●●●●●
One thing people weren’t doing a lot of during Ladytron’s support slot, a shimmering, feedback-drenched set from New York’s Asobi Seksu, was gaze at their shoes. Frontwoman Yuki Chikudate, a stony-faced dainty doll of a girl, kept her small crowd hooked with a minimal and mean performance, while James Hanna’s guitar blurred and roared behind her.
Pouring a syrupy, celestial vocal over the top of Hanna’s distortion and warm drone, they revisited the crashing guitar pop of Japanese-language ‘New Years’ and the sublime reverb-romance of ‘Thursday’ from their last album, Citrus, before dropping in the itchy, pretty ‘Me & Mary’ from next February’s Hush. Even with the battering drums and fuzzy chaos, it still wasn’t quite the unleashed climax their set needed, until ‘Red Sea’, a My Bloody Valentine-echoing roar of quiet- loud-quiet, perfectly showcasing the fragile meets violent sound.
Then, just as it looked like the band were leaving the stage to make way for Ladytron, Chikudate stopped serenely to sit behind the drum kit, before losing her cool, arms and hair flying around her in a blurry two-minute explosion. The combo of calm versus the storm was sweetly sublime. (Claire Sawers)
REVIEW ACOUSTIC ROCK DEAN OWENS The Voodoo Rooms, Edinburgh, Wed 3 Dec ●●●●●
Every singer-songwriter has their holy trinity; those singers who inform what they do at the very core. During this intimate evening, the one-time Felsons’ head honcho, Dean Owens gives away Elvis Costello and Johnny Cash straight off, but such is his range — weather-beaten Scottish soul to grizzled Americana — that his third could be anyone. There’s Springsteen, Dylan, Eitzel in there, as well as snatches of The Blue Nile and Squeeze’s contrasting takes on pop perfection. ‘Blue December’ is as sublime a moment of plaintive folk soul as you will find. He wrings every last drop from his mournful refrain, but it’s cleansing, the breathtaking centrepiece to a warming set. Owens plies the rusty, dusty
everyman lyrical route, citing familiar landmarks — Leith Docks, the Barrowland, Queen Street Station — with sentimentality, but stops short of any mawkish localisms. Stuart Nisbett’s assured fretwork
and the understated piano and harmonies of the equally compelling Kim Edgar give Owens’ blue collar rockisms a bit of spit and polish. They needn’t have fussed; the songs shine through anyway. (Mark Robertson)
11 Dec 2008–8 Jan 2009 THE LIST 75