Reviews & features: Music, Issue 687
BUG Hosted by Adam Buxton
26 Aug 2011
Entertaining but unchallenging music video presentation
The usually BFI-based BUG organisation’s remit is to celebrate ‘global creativity in music video’, and in that respect, this show succeeds admirably. Videos from acts as diverse as US indie-rockers Manchester Orchestra, electro artists The Chase and…
Vive le Cabaret
22 Aug 2011
Fishnets, comedy and clowning share the bill
Made up like a goth-clown in a tail suit, the cabaret ringmaster bounds onto the stage accompanied by glitzy peacock-tailed dancers. There’s a desperate attempt to emphasise the sexiness of this show, with some forced audience interaction and calls for…
Best of the Fest Cabaret
14 Aug 2011
The Noise Next Door, The Twoks and Briefs offer good package
Any festival ‘Best of’ lives or dies on the collection of acts and, suffice to say, it’s a mixed bag of delights, depending on your luck. And so it is here. Gloria, our host for the evening, struggles, her lacklustre attempts at humour flailing, for the…
Fringe 2011 - behind the scenes
26 Aug 2011
Some highlights from the folks who keep the Assembly venues running
Laura Donaldson – press tickets officer This is my first time working for any festival. There’s always good banter in the press office to get you through mountains of last minute requests. Meeting performers such as The Twoks who have blown me away and…
Profile: Best Coast
24 Aug 2011
Californian surf-pop duo set for Edinburgh date
That name rings a bell... Refresh my memory? Gladly. It’s a boy/girl duo of Bethany Cosentino and Bobb Bruno, with Ali Koehler on drums. What does their music sound like? A sad look back at a really incredible, life-changing, but ultimately…
Amanda Palmer, Kurt Braunohler and Kristen Schaal and Mark Chavez
24 Aug 2011
The Americans visiting the Fringe share their reflections on Edinburgh
The Yanks are here, and they’re ready to paint the town red, white and blue. Amanda ‘Fucking’ Palmer of the Dresden Dolls, Kurt Braunohler and Kristen Schaal of variety show Hot Tub, and Mark Chavez of physical comedy duo The Pajama Men take a long look…
Eat sleep breathe: Joan as Police Woman
24 Aug 2011
The singer-songwriter divulges some of her eating habits
What time is breakfast? Depending on the night before, 9 or 11.30. Tea or coffee? Rooibos tea. The doctor swore me off coffee even though I die inside every time I smell it... Smoking or non-smoking? One after the show. Thankfully I don’t long…
Ravi Shankar - Usher Hall, Edinburgh, Mon 22 Aug
24 Aug 2011
A mesmerising show of classical Indian music as part of 2011 EIF
Ravi Shankar crossed over into popular culture with his associations with various 60s musicians, working with and/or influencing the likes of The Beatles, The Kinks and The Byrds. Going on to play at iconic festivals such as Woodstock and The Monterey…
Rod Jones & The Birthday Suit set for UK tour
24 Aug 2011
Idlewild guitarist learns drums for second solo album
When Idlewild took indefinite leave in 2010, it appeared guitarist Rod Jones would follow singer Roddy Woomble down the folk route. After all, 2009’s A Sentimental Education suggested a man at one with his acoustic guitar. When he sat down to write and…
Example
24 Aug 2011
Picture House, Edinburgh, Mon 15 Aug 2011
As Mike Skinner’s sometime protégé it’s easy to pigeonhole London rapper Elliot Gleave as the new bearer of the crown soon to be abandoned by The Streets. Yet what he does is subtly different – where both men are outright crowd pleasers, Skinner’s…
Washed Out
23 Aug 2011
Sneaky Pete’s, Edinburgh, Sun 14 Aug 2011
Okay, we might be calling it ‘chillwave’ up above, but that’s not actually what we were hearing at this, a set which lovers of below-ground music had been hotly anticipating at this year’s Edge festival. Where Atlanta, Georgia’s Ernest Greene makes…
White Mink
22 Aug 2011
The swingingest joint in town
Fans of the swingtastic Vegas! club nights have long been aware that the best parties in the world all took place before the 60s started, daddio. Unfortunately, aside from sporadic events such as The Gatsby Club and Vegas’s own semi-regular outings, the…
Hit Comet
22 Aug 2011
Office keyboard comedy
One of the great pleasures of the Fringe is witnessing all the flyering tactics of cast members – the chap from Hit Comet got us with ‘Do like Mad Men?’ (Yes, we do). ‘It’s like that but for the music industry.’ Half an hour later we’re sitting in the…
Orkestra Simbolika
22 Aug 2011
Vibrant, rough-around-the-edges flamenco mash-up
It’s clear from the moment you walk in the door that Orkestra Simbolika are not the straight-up flamenco group the venue name suggests. From the individual sartorial choices of each bandmate, you can see they’re a mixed bunch: the guitarist sports a…
Evelyn Evelyn
19 Aug 2011
Adorable freakshow from Amanda Palmer and Jason Webley
Part comedy, part freak show, and part Americana folk, this act from Amanda Palmer (she of Dresden Dolls fame) and Jason Webley presents, as our host Thomas Truax claims, the world’s first conjoined-twin singer-songwriters. Born in 1985, the twins are…
Interview: Chad VanGaalen
18 Aug 2011
Illustrator, musician and Sub Pop labelmate of J Mascis
Illustrator and musician Chad VanGaalen’s no frills lo fi approach is winning him fans, including his own grunge idol J.Mascis, finds Claire Sawers ‘Ever since I was about five, I was really into comic books. For years I’d been going to this comic…
Le Gateau Chocolat
17 Aug 2011
Moreish cabaret feast
With his delicious charm and La Clique credentials, Le Gateau Chocolat’s solo debut is an evening treat that leaves you wanting more. Enter the fabulous Bosco tent, and the gentle strains of ‘The Way We Were’ are just audible, a feast of colour and…
Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra at 2011 Edinburgh International Festival
16 Aug 2011
Programme of Messiaen, Tchaikovsky and Unsuk Chin
When it comes to Edinburgh’s festivals, most Koreans have an upside-down view. Thanks to enormous hit shows from Korea such as the Matrix-style circus spectacle Jump! and last year’s Chef!, the Fringe has a huge profile back in South Korea. What goes on…
Rich Hall’s Hoedown
16 Aug 2011
Country and bluegrass gig from the gravel-voiced comedian
There’s a reason Rich Hall has two shows at the Fringe – let’s get that out of the way first. His stand up show is his outlet for the majority of his jokes; his Hoedown set is an opportunity for him to flex his musical muscles, in the company of friends…
The Cabinet of Dr Caligari, with live score by Minima
16 Aug 2011
Expressionist horror flick with live soundtrack performance
‘It’s a truly, truly amazing film,’ is the simple reason given by guitarist Alex Hogg as to why his band Minima chose to create a live score for Robert Wiene’s classic 1919 German expressionist silent horror film The Cabinet of Dr Caligari. ‘Even more…
Sound installation the Ethometric Museum set for Edinburgh Festival
16 Aug 2011
A world of sound, where science meets music
Enter Ray Lee’s Ethometric Museum and be transported to a science fiction world of cosmic tones and esoteric technology. ‘Ethometric instruments represent the pinnacle of the little known – and some would say questionable – science of Ethometric…
Sebadoh set for UK tour
16 Aug 2011
London, Manchester and Edinburgh dates for alt-rock pioneers
When Lou Barlow was kicked out of serial noisemongers Dinosaur Jr. in the late 80s he was hardly going to sit idly by as they milked the burgeoning alt-rock cash cow without him. No, instead, Barlow, along with friends Eric Gaffney and Jason…
Bert Jansch set for 2011 Edinburgh Festival date
16 Aug 2011
Returning folk hero, pal of Neil Young and Devendra Banhart
One of the great acoustic guitarists, Bert Jansch comes to Edinburgh fresh from an American tour with Neil Young and a London show with folk-jazz supergroup The Pentangle. Jansch has been doing an annual Festival show since the mid-90s, touching base…
Interview: Henry Rollins on his eating habits
16 Aug 2011
Rollins set for Edinburgh Festival Fringe spoken word show
What time is breakfast? Even though I am not hungry when I get up, I try to eat to get me ready for the day. Within an hour of getting up. Tea or coffee? Both. Usually tea in the morning, coffee after that. Smoking or non-smoking? Non.
The Qatsi trilogy at the 2011 Edinburgh International Festival
15 Aug 2011
Godfrey Reggio's film trilogy with Philip Glass Ensemble live score is a masterpiece
It’s been twenty-eight years since I saw Koyaanisqatsi, twenty-odd since I saw Powaqqatsi, and almost a decade since Naqoyqatsi. The first two I saw in empty art house cinemas on wet afternoons, I watched the third in a somnambulistic state from my sofa…
