March 8, 2009
It’s taken me ages to put this review (written for Orange) up here…spending too much blogging-time on Twitter and over at my tumblelog.
14th February @ Liverpool Guild of Students
It’s a scientifically proven fact that no rom-com has ever featured a Brummie lad-rock band’s live show as a major plot point. But a sold-out Valentine’s night gig with no shortage of snogging student couples might suggest that Hollywood’s missing out on something.
And just like a screening of the latest J-Lo blockbuster is unlikely to attract hordes of cinephiles waiting to draw comparisons with Citizen Kane, it seems that those who aren’t here with a partner are more interested in throwing pints on each other’s Ben Shermans than admiring some of the baggy cast-offs and U2 “me-toos” from The Twang’s forthcoming second album. Nonetheless, when the band stumble into their second single, 2007’s hit Either Way, early on in the set – a brave move, given that they’ve not exactly got a huge repertoire of anthems to save up for the encore – romancers and beer-boys alike are united in a stirring singalong.
The band’s odd double-lead-singer dynamic does afford them the luxury of being able to show particular onstage energy, but only the most casual gig-goer would be fooled into thinking that running about and shouting “come on Liverpool!” constitutes stagecraft. That doesn’t matter though, as the band know their crowd is more V Festival than All Tomorrow’s Parties, so their polished and competent, yet derivative, dirges are well received. And in a world where Mamma Mia DVDs have sold more copies than The Bible and Bride Wars can top box office charts, perhaps catering to the lowest common denominator with no regards for quality or originality is a recipe for success.
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Live reviews, Music | Tagged: Birmingham, Entertainment, Liverpool, Music | 
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Posted by Jonathan Deamer
December 31, 2008
Just a quick post: I’ve realised that I’ve not yet put online the research paper I spent much of the first half of the year writing. As 2008 draws to a close, it’d be a shame not to unleash it on the world under a Creative Commons licence. Maybe someone will stumble across the wise words of one of my interviewees via Google and find them useful, so here’s the full thing in PDF format. Feel free to share or adapt for your own works.
I think the paper’s abstract does a pretty good job of summing it up:
Read the rest of this entry »
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Blogging & tech, Rants and misc. | Tagged: business, Creative Commons, Podcast, research, technology | 
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Posted by Jonathan Deamer
July 28, 2008
“System of a Down are not breaking up. We’re just gonna do like Kiss and put out our own solo records”. That was what System guitarist Daron Malakian said in 2005 when he first mentioned his Scars on Broadway side project. And now there’s finally a debut long-player from SoB, it’s less one-man studio doodles and more of a fully-fledged band, featuring as it does System drummer John Dolmayan among others.
So while the “solo records” part of Malakian’s statement may not be correct, the Kiss comparisons could well be. His band produce the sort of powerchord-heavy FM-radio rock indicative of a childhood spent listening to Gene Simmons and co. There’s barely a track over three and a half minutes, with 128-second opener ‘Serious’ sounding as if it would sit comfortably on daytime Radio 1 and those “pretend-to-be-a-rockstar” computer games alike.
But it’s by no means a Fischer-Price attempt at playing rock music. It’s just that while System were at times progressive and political to the point of alienating their more casual listeners, this album keeps to the point with its sheer head-banging thrills. The occasional creepy vocal refrain (’Chemicals’), bit of pulsing synth (’Funny’) or even post-punk jangle (’Enemy’) attempts to give the record a layer of depth and intellect, though on the whole it remains accomplished but one dimensional, often verging on samey.
That barely matters though. Hey, this is the age of the iPod! And there are more than enough bite-sized chunks of downloadable rawk on here to keep you shuffling for weeks. But while the individual tracks are great, in its entirety this is an average album.
Scars on Broadway fans: you might also enjoy my reviews of KoRn and Slipknot.
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Posted by Jonathan Deamer
July 17, 2008
16th July @ Manchester Apollo
Seattle’s Death Cab for Cutie might just be four scruffy lads with a bit of dodgy facial hair, but they somehow exude a vibe of sheer Americana cool. Their first few songs alone name-check more US cities than a Jack Kerouac novel. So when singer Ben Gibbard announces “Oh Manchester, how we’ve missed you” shortly into the set, it’s difficult to know how much he really means it.
False humility or not, at first it seems Manchester really has missed them. The reception given to tracks like New Year can’t indicate anything else. Whereas on record it’s twee-and-whimsical college indie, in the live setting it becomes quite a powerful rock beast. But soon enough, such crowd-pleasing singalongs give way to dirgeful slow-burners and too many of the dreaded “here’s one from our new album”.
So while the front row obsessives mouth along to every word regardless, and the indier-than-thou hipsters murmur about how different it is from the band’s first album tour in 1998, the fair-weather fans are the real barometer of how entertaining this is. They may have only discovered Death Cab when the group soundtracked a repeat episode of The OC last week. But they know the truth: tonight is mostly boring, with the odd flash of melodic brilliance. And don’t let anyone – Death Cab diehard or muso snob – tell you otherwise.
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Posted by Jonathan Deamer
Posted by Jonathan Deamer 
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