Live
This was going to be easy. You were gonna get the punka-party line. Picture for a moment eight persons, playing instruments including a mandolin and harmonica- no doubt you know what they sound like. Trashy pop? Winsome folk? Well, you'd be wrong. Joined by an acute appreciation for the blues, magnified by the desire for pure enjoyment, founding Mules' members James Lesslie (mandolin), Tim Burke (piano) and Ed Seed (vocals, drums) soon found others to share their vision, with Van "Carney" Rothschild and Duncan Brown (guitar) being followed by Dave O'Brien (Double bass) and trumpeters Helen Gibson and Rhydian Griffiths. Yet as Seed explains 'Our meeting was fairly organic; there was nothing suprising in how we met.'
With the obligatory Dylan, musical influences prove as diverse as The Specials and Ry Cooder. As a result The Mules remain difficult to categorise. Sure it's low down'n'dirty swamp blues, with a generous dosage of guitar and harmonica, but their fractured songs are intimate and memorable giving them a new vituperative edge. 'Ed's definitely the next Phil Collins' Lesslie asserts confidently. Which is nice. At Sunday Roast the assembled fashionistas are treated to a handful of country-fried originals. Seed's vocals swing nimbly from a whisper to a wail, from the sweetest come-ons to the lustiest blood-gorged growls. Tunes are subtly soaring ("Jesus On The Main-Line") or rutting in the muck ("Open Up Now Lady"), but not every sketch is an exercise in melodic crunching blues, as the slurred wordplay of "Seasonticketholder" gives way to the cranky rhythm and lulling grace of "And Then Again." It's an engaging soundtrack of liquor'n'machismo, but an appreciation of '60s clichés shows through when they ditch the stylistic conservatism.
We humbly suggest you indulge to the full. So, pull up an armchair, uncork the bottle and get deliriously drunk with The Mules. We imagine they have already.
Emma Byrne
Kit Cat is a time-capsule. The comperes. messrs Noble and Parker Brown escort you back to a happier, more gentle era, where kitsch is de rigueur, and where dreams come true. Taking place every wednesday night at Jongleurs, this is like no other Oxford clubnight. Every week sees six or seven live acts are plucked from Oxford and Brookes to London by the enthusiastic comperes. And these student singers are no amatueurs. Hannah, Elkie, Jo, Amy, Natalie, Barney, Becky, fill the room with voices that would not be out of place in a West End musical, and dressed to impress, this kabaret show is kitsch, but undoubtedly pure glamour. The Kit Cat band are weekly regulars, enthralling the lively crowd with lounge room classics such as Marvin Gaye and Andy Williams, while the DJs will spin out evrey genre from mainstream pop and funk to Motown and 80s grooves. The atmosphere is lively and energetic, spurred on by the comperes who will give away all manner of prizes from biscuits to Wadham ball tickets to the frenzied onlookers. Come Thursday morning, making sense of it seems impossible. The crowds, the comperes, the band, the singers whose words spin to document the moment, lyrics both making the history and biographical of the occasion.
There is nothing like it, and you're welcome every Wednesday. KITCAT, @Jongleurs: Live soulful music for live soulful people. Contact laurence.parker-brown@st-catz for guestlisting.
The highlight of Oxford's summer's music scene is the Truckfest, now celebrating its 5th Birthday. On the July 19 and 20, Hill farm in Steventon hosts a wide range of bands and clubs over two days on four stages (Trailerpark, Acoustic, Main, and Barn).
Promoters promise an alternative festival experience, with cheap food, cheap drink, no corporate sponsors and a wide range of acts. Goldrush are headliners and should be well supported by their tour support and ex-Ride guitarist Mark Gardener.
Ex-Oxford students Meanwhile Back In Communist Russia É return to play the festival for another year, and other acts confirmed include Dive Dive (ex-Dustball), British Sea Power, Buck 65, Electric EelShock, Broken Family Band, Black Nielson, Laura Veirs, Jesse Sykes and the Sweet Hereafter, Butterflies of Love, Fonda 500, KTB (full band), Psychid (who in a previous form, supported Radiohead at South Parks) , Finlay, Vera Cruise, Misty's Big Adventures, Chris T-T, MASS, Byrne, Fujiama And Miagi, Simon Barron and Ros Brady, Magoo, Winnebago Deal, Tracking Farrago, Saloon, Cayto, Days Of Grace, Mr Duck, Gunnbunny, Thursday of Vegas, Whores Of Babylon, Justified Tyranny, Caught On Tape, The Keys and Easy Tiger.
Tickets are priced at £20 before July 1 and £25 thereafter and are available at: www.wegottickets.com.
The June 15 sees student favourites Big Thursday playing upstairs at the Wheatsheaf, with support from At Risk. With Big Thursday being formed phoenix-like from the ashes of two-time student band winners Malkovich and At Risk being photographed lots at the Wadstock festival, this could be a gig well worth going to.
Ninth week sees the rearranged Coral gig at Brookes S.U. on the June 26. With a new album due to be released sometime over the summer, the gig should feature a mix of new songs, older favourites and sea-shanty singing scallies . Enjoy the gig, just keep an eye out for your hub-caps.
Highlights at the Zodiac over July include Longview (July 2, £5 advance), who 'sound a bit like R.E.M.', ska-punk stalwarts Spunge (July 26, £9 advance) who play the Zodiac once again and Atreyu (July 12, £6 advance) who are named after the white horse in 'The Never-Ending Story'.
12th Jun 2003