Current mood: BRAINLOVED
Category: BRAINLOVED Music
X2
It's a Tuesday evening and I'm in the strangest bar. This bar is sat atop a roof in Camden. It has no walls or roof as such – it's a marquee atop a building. The walls are dressed with classic front covers of The Sun and they flap when the wind gets up. This bar has one whole wall of beds. Yes boss, double beds in a fucking bar. Is this some kind of intelligent brothel?? Is whoring to become like trilby hats have become? Fashionable and wise??
I take myself a table in the middle so I can keep an eye on things. I'm no fool: If there's fucking going on I most certainly want to be watching it...
Meanwhile I try and drink beer. Maybe there's some rule about selling beer form kegs atop brick buildings, or maybe there's more money in bottled beer. I nurse it and work out the pace I need to stick to. I exceed this pace. Nursing a beer is not relaxing.
As usual, none of this really matters…
I'm in the tent to see a band called Junk Planet 2. JP2 is a collaboration between John Brainlove: Prime mover and functer of the fine Brainlove records and Christopher Alcxxk. I'm not sure what to expect. I've had very little time to hear their stuff before coming - in fact none. I can't even remember who or what the band look like or their names. I have no idea if I'll recognise them play..
Well, after that performance I remained unsure of JP2. They had a stage set that looked like my girlfriends Dads garage: Full of rubbish, found items, displayed like trophies around the instruments. The sounds were dissonant. Both members sang, made vocal noises. There was a little too much Ukulele and cowbell for my liking but John Brainlove drank wine out of the bottle and there were good moments. There was a flag waving anthem at the end and I had the feeling that there was plenty behind it, but that it hadn't quite clicked (at least for me) that night..
I have a MSN messenger chat with JP2 trying to understand what they do and how they do it. I find this helpful in getting to the bottom of most experimental stuff: Knowing the technology and what they're getting out of it helps split the pretence and the wheat…
A month and a half later and I'm back for more LIVE action. This is the frinkmusic night on Easter Saturday. It's New Cross: Aptly named. What is the point of New Cross? I wonder as I try and find a cash machine that isn't going to charge me to get at my own money. A big road goes through the middle and there's an art school, The Venue, and that's more or less it.
I meet John Brainlove, he tells me I'm more confident than he expected. I say I'm only confident between pints 3 and 6, the rest is a front and/or silence…He's excited to play...
Well, this time Junk Planet 2 play a set that I find to be very pleasing indeed. Maybe it's because I have familiarity. Maybe because there was less Ukulele and cowbell and more structure, beats and songs. I certainly got pleasure from the harmonious yelling and from JB banging his head with a drum stick – I'd love to have the balls to get up on stage in a pub and whack my head with a drum stick. The man in front was shaking his head, but by the look of him he'd think Kasabian were worthwhile so ignore him.
It was good anyway, double good. There were ideas and fresh sounds and you had the feeling the whole thing could go any which way it was taken. It was exhilarating ..+*+*+*+*+*+*+*+
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