Posted by Budgie at June 1, 2005 03:28 PM

Guitars + Feedback x Electronics + Trumpets = Happy Boy

I always love going to King Tuts in Glasgow. It's easily my favourite venue for gigs. It's probably down to it's size and intimacy, but it's also down to the fact that I have so many memories of seeing so many great bands in a place of that size and who then went on to bigger things.

"aye, I remember seeing so and so in Tuts years ago wi' only aboot 60 other folk...ah, they're no the same noo they play the Barra's an' that....".

You're guaranteed to hear that sentence in any given Glasgow pub when the topic of music comes up. I've even used it myself...

Jimmy The Flid had mentioned going last night as he wanted to go check out "My Electric Love Affair". I hadn't heard of them, but noticed that the band headlining, Diefenbach, were a band I had heard before and quite liked. So a plan was made. A trip to Glasgow for beer and to see 3 bands all for the sum of five quid. Not bad at all.

Track : MY ELECTRIC LOVE AFFAIR - "(SO) I'M ALONE"

Unfortunately, I never got to see My Electric Love Affair. I got to blethering in the bar to two guys I used to work with who had nipped across the road from work for a cheeky pint. Jimmy went up and seen them though and by all accounts they were very good.

I did buy a 12" & 7" they had for sale, the 12", "As If I Get Confused", particularly caught my eye what with it's fantastic picture of Phil Spector posed above his mixing desk (you can see it on their website) - as MELA's manager said to me, when I mentioned the sleeve, "Aye, a young Spector, before he started wavin' guns aboot..."

This morning I gave both bits of vinyl an airing and was very impressed and wished I had actually seen them live.

"As If I Get Confused" and the 7", "Infinite Mass",are both dark, trippy slabs of feedback that build into huge walls of sound - The Spector link being quite apt... The reference points are clearly there, from bands like Spacemen 3, My Bloody Valentine, Loop and the like, but what sets them apart is that these spacey drawn out excursions of noise are played with the confident swagger of bands like The Stooges and early Jesus And Mary Chain. "(So) I'm Alone", which is the B-side to "Infinite Mass", is a prime example of this.

Next time, I'll definitely make a point of seeing them live.

Track : DIEFENBACH - "MAKE YOUR MIND"

For some reason the band that were supposed to be headlining, the band I wanted to see, got relegated to 2nd on the bill. Still in the throws of a lager fuelled conversation downstairs with my ex-work mates, I managed to miss half of their set.

What I did hear was ok. Nothing really stood out until the finale which was a fantastic shoegaze-esque cover version of the Bee Gees' "Stayin' Alive", which has to be heard to be believed.

Shame I never clicked with them live, as "Make Your Mind" is a great record. A pop gem drenched in electronica and, again, feedback. These Dane's claim on their website that they are "the five bastard sons of Brian Wilson and Prefuse 73". Now that is enough to catch my attention and it's not wide of the mark in describing them - I'd lob in My Bloody Valentine for good measure, but for some reason it didn't really come across that way last night. On record, yes, but not live. Maybe they were in the huff for getting demoted or they were just having a bad gig, maybe I wasn't in the mood. Who knows. But I do recommend the track above and their debut album "Run Trip Fall" from which it comes from.

Track : LUXURY CAR - "THE HEART OF THE MATTER"

I did see all of Luxury Car though, and I'm glad I did. They were a great surprise to me. A 3 piece band, girl on bass and occassional trumpet duties!, a guitarist as singer and frontman and a keyboard player with a love for the Melodica. No drums though. No need. They had a laptop programmed with a whole host of jackhammer beats, occassional drum and bass flourishes and killer percussion. So each track started off with the PC unleashing these electronic blasts while the band played their dark pop over it all.

Some great catchy tunes too. "The Heart Of The Matter" is all post-punk guitars, a singer who reminds me of a very young Ian McCulloch, and 303 burbles. Oh yes, 303's! It's from their first single and you can get it from their website. Well worth £3 of your hard earned cash.

So a fiver was well spent last night, and slightly more was spent on booze. All in all a good night.

Go Visit : My Electric Love Affair
Go Visit : Diefenbach
Go Visit : Luxury Car

Go Buy : My Electric Love Affair
Go Buy : Diefenbach
Go Buy : Luxury Car

Feel free to leave a comment about these tracks in The Pipe section of the forum

Ta,
Budgie.