list.co.uk/music Previews | MUSIC
INDIE POP THE PASTELS Saramago, CCA, Glasgow, Sat 1 Jun CITY-BASED ONE DAY FESTIVAL STAG & DAGGER Various venues, Glasgow, Sat 18 May
When confronted with a promise he made in his last interview with The List, Stephen McRobbie, aka Stephen Pastel, smiles and squirms a little. ‘There will be new Pastels music released this year,’ he had assured us in 2007, referring to his band’s by-then already long-awaited fifth studio album. The aptly-titled Slow Summits finally arrives this month. ‘I think we just sort of put it on ice a bit,’ McRobbie concedes, somewhat understatedly. It’s easy to forgive that fairly spectacular deadline fail, considering the
myriad other ways in which he and Pastels drummer Katrina Mitchell have kept their share of Scotland’s creative lifeblood pumping in the meantime. Eg, recording 2009’s spellbinding collaborative LP Two Sunsets with Japanese duo Tenniscoats, managing Domino imprint Geographic (most recent release: Electric Cables by Teenage Fanclub/Pastels member Gerard Love’s Lightships) and co-running Monorail, one of the UK’s last great independent record stores. Musically, this elapsed time has resulted in a move away from their original
trashy aesthetic towards a sound on Slow Summits that’s sunnily melodic, softly psychedelic and, well, pretty groovy. What would the Stephen Pastel of circa 1987 make of those songs? ‘Some things I’d find quite hippy, maybe,’ he laughs. (Malcolm Jack) ■ The Pastels perform at Doune the Rabbit Hole, see page 91 to win tickets, and page 90 to win copies of the new album.
It’s uncertain whether anyone remembers the Sauchiehall Crawl event of a few years back, which attempted to do for Glasgow’s busy thoroughfare what the Camden Crawl does for an iconic London area. Well, it seems that Stag & Dagger has mutated into a kind of Sauchiehall Crawl of its own. The recent opening of Broadcast next door to Nice‘n’Sleazy has turned the west end of the street just before you hit Charing Cross into Glasgow’s nexus of live music. Those venues join the Art School union, the CCA and both rooms in the ABC as hosts of this year’s seven-stage event with Stereo virtually acting as an outpost. Although it feels somewhat scaled-back this year (in 2011, Warpaint, Wire and Clinic were among the bigger names), there’s still the sense that the event – now in its fifth year – is a place where important and exciting acts from across genres and the local/national divide come together.
At time of writing, 33 acts have been announced, with more to come. We’re most excited about the ghostly electro-soul of How to Dress Well (pictured), the understated torch balladry of Matthew Houck’s Phosphorescent, Midlands psych revivalists Temples and the ever cathartic aural violence of Glasgow noise-metallers Divorce. Meanwhile, Randolph’s Leap, Fatherson, United Fruit and We Were Promised Jetpacks are among the high-quality locals this one- ticket-admits-all festival is encouraging you to check out. (David Pollock) ■ For line-up info, see staganddagger.co.uk.
ROCK NEIL YOUNG & CRAZY HORSE SECC, Glasgow, Thu 13 Jun
A grizzly bear of a man wrings sublimely heavy tones from a battered old Les Paul and a chain of massively overdriven amps while his seasoned companions sweat and toil to forge the most elemental of grooves: such is the lumbering majesty of Neil Young & Crazy Horse live. It’s been 12 years since Young last rode the Horse into Scotland, and with the band all approaching their seventies, the Alchemy Tour could well be their final outing together. All the more reason to throw on an old plaid shirt and submit to their slow-burning power. Notoriously dismissed as amateurs by the coke-addled
LA hippy rock aristocracy (all the more reason to love ‘em), Crazy Horse have a knack for summoning Young’s most torrential energies. Their tender side shouldn’t be overlooked, however: Billy Talbot and Ralph Molina’s rough-hewn doo-wop harmonies are an essential component of the Crazy Horse sound, an embodiment of human frailty in the face of Young and Poncho’s guitar hurricane.
After a decade-long separation, Neil Young & Crazy Horse
reunited last year to widespread celebration. In a typically perverse move, their first album since 1996’s underrated Broken Arrow was a goofy set of cranked-up folk covers, Americana, followed in October by the double-album Psychedelic Pill. Beyond the meandering and lyrically eccentric 27-minute opener, ‘Driftin’ Back’, lie two of the best Young songs in years: ‘Walk Like A Giant’ and the gorgeous ‘Ramada Inn’. Reports from the recent Australian leg of the Alchemy Tour
tell of hard-rocking three-hour sets featuring brand new songs and some unexpected revivals. If this is the end for Neil Young & Crazy Horse, then they’re going out in a blaze of ragged glory. (Stewart Smith)
16 May–13 Jun 2013 THE LIST 83