Music
Ah, the Zodiac...a place Oxford indie kids can call their own. It's seen The Strokes, it's hosted Radiohead and it still insists on booking obscure Swedish death metal novelty acts. But the question remains: exactly how tragic is the shit due to be going down this particular term? I'm glad you asked, young one, for the shit is ill indeed, which is nice.
First band of any merit whatsoever is Haven, hailing from the land that Britpop never forgot, Manchester. Anthemic, chorus-driven indie workmanship, they rock like a little piece of pumice, quite frankly, and have a singer who sounds like a girl. They pitch up on Friday. On Saturday, though, are an Icelandic band called Mum. Dubious name, but superb tunes: like Sigur Ros without the pretension. They are good; you should go. On Sunday, arch-Canadian noble rock doom merchants The Stills arrive. These guys are absolutely spiffing - I simply can't get enough of them, and my taste is impeccable of course.
Now, on the 26th, it seems to be King Adora time. Surely the best band ever named after a big prosthetic penis, they are nevertheless not exactly going to change the world. On the 29th, Seafood rock up. Fairly standard fast-paced indie. You either quite like them or you don't. Nothing to hate here, let's move on. Band of the moment Franz Ferdinand play Brookes on May 1st. You can't go: there aren't any tickets. Unlucky. Paydirt is firmly struck, though, on May 4th: Mclusky are in town. Your existence is meaningless and flaccid if you don't go and see these chaps. Superlatives fail me: perfect in every way. The same could be said of Explosions In The Sky, who appear on the day after, but in a completely different way. Four very serious Texans playing very intense post-rock of an especially incandescent and starkly beautiful manner.
Come 9th May, come The Delays, who are the latest band to sound a bit like Coldplay. I saw their record on sale in Tesco the other day though, so they're quite clearly down with the kids. The Icarus Line play the same day. Scary but good Cali-hardcore. The choice, cats, is yours. Emopop chancers Reuben on the 15th, the next 'new Radiohead' Hope Of The States on the 16th and ace melancholic electro new-wave honkies The Killers on the 21st. Surely it's worth seeing all three.
Don't go and see InMe on the 31st. They suck like the cold hard vacuum of space. Wait until the 3rd of June and bust a groove with ex-Blur troubadour Graham Coxon. Avoid Bowling For Soup as you would a suppository made entirely of acid, but do make sure to check out Taking Back Sunday on the 9th, who are earnest emo gents, because we all love emo. And that's the end of that. A corking line-up - well done Captain Zodiac, I'm practically creaming at the gusset with all the excitement.
Westside Connection, the trio consisting of Ice Cube, Mack 10 and WC (he must have got bullied at school with a name like that), have been quiet for eight years since their last album Bow Down. From the look of the three big black guys, they were probably too busy getting involved in drive-by shootings and arrests, such are their gangsta credentials. It doesn't sound any prettier either.
Their new album takes a swipe at the state of modern rap music in their absence - all the 'fake ass gangsters in love' on the radio, who like flowers and pretty music. Mind you, this isn't actually all so non-commercial itself. 'Gangsta Nation' (featuring Nate Dogg) is surely a future single, with the most infectious 'nah nah nah nuh nah nah' since Beyoncé's 'Crazy in Love'. Meanwhile on other songs, such as the commercial rap-dissing 'So Many Rappers in Love' and 'You Gotta Have Heart', one of the group demonstrates that he can actually sing as well as rap.
OK, so most of the rest of the album is filled with the usual generic bad ass fucking niggers and the usual rap clichés you expect.
There's the usual bravado: pledges of allegiance to the 'gangsta nation' and flag of the Westside Connection. No doubt this album isn't something that will win over any new fans, but it suggests it's not time for Ice Cube to give up and focus on his movie career just yet.
Brace yourselves, dear readers: for those who haven't heard yet, there is shocking news to impart. Our favourite scouse pop trio Atomic Kitten are no longer. Officially the band are only on 'indefinite hiatus', while they take a break. The odds are surely against hearing anything from them again though. Yup, these three have used the last of their nine lives.
After the recently crowned queen of the jungle Kerry Katona left the band early on, they were in danger of being dropped for a run of poor singles. Indeed, one may wonder at why they weren't anyway. Whole Again gave them the breakthrough of a massive number one and changed their fortunes. To be fair, it wasn't a bad pop record. But then the girls realised it was easier to maul old covers than write their own songs, or at least have them written for them. Hence we got their screeching vocals all over previous hits from The Bangles (Eternal Flame) and Blondie (The Tide Is High - never one of their best anyway).
I'd like to say they'll be sadly missed in the music business, but, well, it frankly wouldn't be true. Ok, they're the first long-running girl band we've had since the Spice Girls, but look at their solo careers and chances of reforming.
The only people who miss the Kittens are the dirty old men who like seeing three pert young girls in low-cut tops gyrating all over Top of the Pops trying to sell a few more records. And they'll just have to make do with S Club 8!
Fashionably late doors mean few are inside to catchDubliners Bell X1, who start wistfully, with singer Paul Noonan barely accompanied for the first song. It's looking as though it could be a little dull, but thankfully after easing the crowd in, the set picks up. Initially the band sound like REM, with the somewhat cheeky lyrics of Next To You ("I'm not over you, can I get back under") and harmonica solo. They build up to the multi-layered crescendo of their penultimate song - they're more convincing when rocking - before calming us down again with their finale, where Paul's voice sounds scarily similar to Alanis Morissette.
When Aqualung took to the stage, Matt started on guitar for Left Behind, before taking his place at the candle-lit piano centre stage for the rest of the show. Drawing mostly from his second album Still Life, he treats us to the likes of 7 Keys and Easier To Lie, with a few old songs such as Good Times Gonna Come and Falling Out Of Love sprinkled in.
It occurs to me this is probably the first gig I've been to where no one's even dancing, much less moshing. Perhaps it's a sign I'm getting old, though at 22 I'm one of the youngest in the crowd. It's not lost on Matt though, who introduces Another Little Hole with talk of getting old and the announcement he's due to become a father in June. That doesn't mean he's lost his sense of humour though - another digression on an underwater theme leads to a quick rendition of Octopus's Garden and Yellow Submarine before we get back on track with You Turn Me Round.
After this, the band depart the stage, but Matt is soon back to give us a solo rendition of the Coldplay-esque Extraordinary Thing, before being joined by his comrades again to round the encore out with If I Fall. Perhaps what stops Aqualung reaching Coldplay status is that though they have the songs (which go some way to setting them apart from the other bands tonight) it takes some effort from the listener to get into and appreciate them. Still, Matt comes across as a genuinely nice guy. It's off to USA and Germany next - Matt claims to be the UK's answer to David Hasselhoff - so let's hope they can get in on the act.
Ben Saunders
Snow Patrol hit the stage to an absolutely enraptured welcome. Frontman Gary Lightbody is grinning from ear to ear, and well he may: this time last year no one had heard of his band. Now he is getting this kind of feverish adulation, and he's lapping it up.
The band play almost exclusively from their third and most recent album, Final Straw. This is clearly what the crowd is here to see, though, as whenever they do make a foray into the older material, no one appears to have a clue what is going on. This is something of a pity, as their older stuff isn't too shabby by any means, but the new songs are good enough.
Everyone knows the words to the single Run - the cynic in me realises that this is probably because it's the only song most of them will have heard, but their enthusiasm is clear, and it won't be long until Snow Patrol will be hearing all their songs sung right back at them, word for word.
Everyone tries to label them 'Coldplay lite', and the two are often compared unfavourably. This is silly: Snow Patrol are grungier and better, really. While Chris Martin can only do choruses on singles, every song on offer here is nothing short of anthemic. The band won't be playing venues of this size for much longer.
Noughth week of Trinity must be the worst time in the Oxford academic year to find any activity on the classical music scene, least of all student-initiated concerts. With the threat of collections, finals, prelims and mods (sorry to remind you!) looming on the horizon like a huge library of unread books at the end of a corridor, what are the chances of any undergraduate being organised enough to revise and put on a concert at the same time?
Never fear though, the music scene isn't that bleak and lacking in reasons to take an evening off work. The UK Shostakovich Society have organised a concert for the end of noughth week. It even includes a pre-concert talk, so one can be in the desirable state of still learning, whilst not actually doing any work! Perfect!
The talk will be given by Judy Kuhn of Manchester University, who will examine the presence of Jewish elements, such as Jewish subject matter and Jewish musical inflections, especially the influence of klezmer (Jewish instrumental folk music), in Shostakovich's compositions.
Shostakovich himself once said: "Every folk music is beautiful, but I have to say that Jewish folk music is unique." This fascination held for Jewish music by Soviet composers is evident in much of the music of this time and is the broader context for the subject of Shostakovich's personal relationship with it.
The concert which follows will feature the UK premiere of Moshe Weinberg's Fourth Piano Sonata. Weinberg was a Polish Jewish composer and a good friend of Shostakovich, so the inclusion of his work next to Shostakovich's own Second Piano Sonata should complement the talk well. The final item on the programme will be excerpts from Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet.
It originally started life as a full-length ballet, from which Prokofiev lifted two orchestral suites for performance in concert. It will therefore be most interesting to hear how well Prokofiev's score adapts to being played on the piano alone. Of further interest regarding this piece is the fact that the programme notes have been written especially for the concert by Sviatoslav Prokofiev, the composer's son.
The pianist for this concert is the internationally-acclaimed Marina Primachenko. I don't want to depress any struggling musicians with her success story but she began as a child prodigy making her first public performance at the age of four, then gave her first full concert performance at 13 before entering the St Petersburg Conservatoire.
She is now based and teaches in Paris and performs solo recitals and concertos throughout Western Europe.
From such an impressive biography, we may naturally be confident of a spectacular performance. Combine that with an exciting programme and this concert will definitely be worth a few hours off the revision grindstone.
22nd Apr 2004