Rock Special
Creed: Human Clay
29th January
*
It must be the name. Every time you mention Creed to anyone, you get the same reply: Are they Christian? If the devil really does have the best tunes, there can only be one answer.
From the opening dirge-like 'Are You Ready?' to the closing dirge-like 'Young Grow Old', via the dirge-like 'Never Die', Creed are clearly on a mission to put the death back in metal. And, such is the familiarity of the sound, we're not talking so much about Second Comings, but Ninth, Tenth or Eleventh Ones. And it's not so much the old Cobain/Vedder/Corgan combination, either. No. Musically, if not vocally, there's a real bizarre mix, peaking with 'What If', whose introduction shamelessly rips off the guitar line of Chris DeBurgh's 'Spaceman Came Travelling'. But then, as on practically every other track, Scott Stapp's heartless vocals come in, spouting all the usual drivel about 'human pride singing a vengeful song', or whatever. Thirteen times a similar pattern is followed. It's such a shame-practically every track has the potential to be a haunting soft-rock classic, something of real worth. But then they have to go and ruin it with their soulless, uninspired, cliched, implausible babble, surely appealing only to vulnerable fourteen year old outcasts who they will only fuck up even further. It's all so depressing, made worse by the fact that they sound so smug at making other people's lives so miserable. And to think I doubted they were Christians...
Martin Sainsbury
Amen: Too Hard To Be Free
5th February
****
Incontrovertibly Amen are oral sex. Not 'cos they're damn hard to come by. Not 'cos everyone else gets more Amen than you, not even because 13 year olds in hooded tops get a surprising amount of Amen, but because the divide between Amen live and Amen on record is like the divide between giving someone a good gumming and watching someone else get a good gumming. Live they are to music what sledge hammers are to brain surgery. On record it all gets a bit shit. The fact that this sounds so painfully similar to the theme music from Mortal Kombat doesn't help much. Without Casey 'Care in the Community' Chaos to hold your attention, it's all mouth and no trousers (told you Amen were oral sex).
Andrew Mettam
Lolita Storm: Slick Slits EP
29th January
****
'Slicks Slits' is a concept EP: all of the track titles are different girls' names ('Annabelle', 'Rosaline', 'Omelda', 'Suzy', 'Candy', 'Natasha'), each a different tragic tale. This, the girls' first new material since last year's brilliant Girls Fucking Shit Up LP, is a massive musical leap forward. The sound is much less drum (machine) heavy than the LP (probably because Alec Empire's not mixing it this time), and sounds a lot better for it.
At times the EP, especially on the best tracks, sounds more like Shampoo than ATR. Whether Shampoo would have a 'noise version' of their catchiest track ('Suzy'), which has the unforgettable refrain 'where's the cunt, who killed my baby?' is another matter, but it is lyrics (and sound) like that which make Lolita Storm one of the best bands, and most exciting future prospects, in British music today.
Mayer Nissim
At The Drive-In: Invalid Litter Dept.
5th March
*****
The perfect antidote to the hordes of nu-metal wannabes, At The Drive-In are both righteous and intelligent, both tuneful and seething with barely-concealed rage; true leftfield American punk Fugazi-style. Though 'Invalid Litter Department' is at the more 'pop' end of the recent album, its powerful spoken-word lyrics dwell on corpses, contraband and conspiracy, and the hollered chorus leaves you in no doubt of the band's conviction. With the haunting melodies a perfect and unsettling complement to the tightly restrained yet threatening vocals, this single is a fine way to sample one of the 'next big things'. Go buy.
Caroline Hutchinson
NME Awards Gig
London Astoria
3rd February
****
This year's NME awards gigs have offered nothing if not an eclectic range of artists, and tonight's show is no exception, giving us the sublime, the ridiculous, and much in between. Peaches begins events, clad in pink spandex, screeches loudly and tunelessly and masturbates with her microphone. The brilliance of The Strokes more than makes up for her; their appearance the epitome of studied cool and their spiky sound entirely borrowed from Magazine and other demi-gods of the post-punk era, except that they've rejected angst and despair in favour of outrageously good tunes.
Next are greasy Elvis-impersonators Rocket From The Crypt, who display a vast array of unpleasant, about to shoot their load facial expressions. 'On a Rope' is the only song anyone in the audience with any self-respect knows, and their pathetically tame rock soon stops being amusing and just becomes boring.
And then to And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead, whose appeal was never about the vocals, the lyrics, or even the tunes, but the Sonic Youth-inspired wall of guitar noise which hits you somewhere in the stomach. The stomach-hitting only happens a couple of times tonight, since the band experience a lot of 'technical problems' and it just isn't loud enough as a consequence. When everything comes together, though, as on 'Mistakes and Regrets', it's great. From pink hotpants to the Trail Of Dead in four hours; a truly bizarre journey, but ultimately an unmissable one.
Polly Dunbar
Pitchshifter
Oxford Brookes
8th February
****
Pitchshifter, critically acclaimed, commercially successful and an innovative force in British rock have been dropped from their label. In the face of renewed interest in the genre and the new wave of US bands, I think this is an absolute fucking disgrace. But don't despair, before the last song of a blinding set, J.S Clayden confirmed that 'yes, we have been dropped, yes we are talking to other labels, no we are not splitting up'. Good.
The gig itself justified a new contract. There was support from 2 UK bands. First up the Lost Prophets delivered a competent, energetic performance which could have gone on longer if Earthtone9 hadn't had to come on. But they did and they were utter shite. The lead singer in particular looked and acted like an absolute dick. The prominently positioned drummer seemed to be enjoying himself in much the same way as any other elbow biter, compelled to bang things whilst grinning maniacally. The result was a succession of dull, nondescript pieces which all tended to blend into each other leaving me bored and disillusioned.
But then Pitchshifter came on, ready to prove a point (and with a new peroxide blond look for J.S. They rattled through a great selection of tracks from the last 2 albums which really got the crowd going. The delivery was powerful, and hadn't been polished to the stage where it lost its edge. Highlights included Chump Change, Forget The Facts and WYSIWIG.
And it's always good to see a band who knows how to interact with the audience. We were encouraged throughout to shout more, sing along to the chorus 'cut, dried and microwaved' and to make the security guards work harder.
Then at the end they skipped the bit where bands go off and everyone shouting until they come back for an encore - we were just told where that bit would have been, because they're 'not like any other fucking band'. And it's true, they're not, so I hope they get their new deal soon.
Richard Brooks
15th Feb 2001