|
|
||
| I
like a whole variety of different music. From the beautiful acoustic
balladry of Sufjan Stevens latest album to the frenetic tuneful
punkiness of Spring King's live show; the sinister sounds of Post War
Glamour Girls to the polished singer songwriter skills of Laura
Marling; the slacker poetry of Courtney Barnett to the abandon of
Brawlers. And that's just some of the stuff I've been listening
to in the last month. Sometimes though I just want to go to see some proper honest rock n roll. And one of my favourite purveyors of such stuff are Cry Baby Cry. They launched their latest ep with a great gig at the Brudenell Social Club the other week. This was one of those shows that pulls in a varied crowd from ligging Leeds musicians through to rough diamonds from Wakey via geeky indie fans. I don't think I've been to a gig where I've seen so many familiar faces in a long time. Talking of familiar faces first up was a cut down Ainsley Band. Michael together with Harry Rhodes just about made up a quorum and I was dubious that the song would be strong enough without the ramalama Ramones style energy of the full band. I was proven wrong as Harry (who is my long suffering guitar teacher by the way) teased out hidden depths in the songs with his trusty Jazzmaster. Next up was Ryan Spendlove who I've not seen in ages. Thankfully impending fatherhood doesn't seem to have put out the fire in his belly. He played a solid set ending with a very powerful version of 'Change My Mind'. Lets see if he can still do it once he's been changing nappies for a few weeks! The final warm up band were the Rupees and I've not come across them before. I believe they are from somewhere down South and I wasn't impressed. I'm not being regionalist here - some of my favourite bands & artists are southerners (Courtney Barnett for example is from Australia) - but they just didn't float my boat with their attempts to rock out and lack of interesting tunes. I also didn't like the look of their keyboard setup. Finally we got the main act. For those of you not in the know Cry Baby Cry consist of Jonny on guitar and vocals; Rosie on bass and vocals; and Nicci on drums and backing vocals. Rosie and Jonny both have previous as solo artists of some talent. Musically they are not a million miles from acts like the Black Keys. Its blues based music not a million miles from Jonny's solo stuff. The newer songs (such as the lead track on the new EP - Spin City) tend to be a bit heavier and remind me a little of Jack White's recent solo stuff. Rosie and Jonny are both in fine voice as usual as they swap verses on the songs. Jonny's guitar playing seems to have become more expressive at recent gigs whilst Rosie's bass playing gives the songs a solid base. Meanwhile at the back Nicci drives everything onward with her thuggish glam rock beat - often segueing between songs without missing a beat.  Perhaps its a blessing that singles seem to be passe these days because every song in the set is a catchy earworm and I've no idea how the band would pick which one to represent themselves. The only slight critiscm would be that the words are a bit slight and full of cliches. But to be honest you don't go to Cry Baby Cry gigs for deep meaningful lyrics. They seem to be gigging pretty heavily at the moment so I would recommend you keep an eye out and go to see them if they play in your neck of the woods. Check out their song 'Spin City' here. **
Every
week I get an email from Facebook giving me stats about my Yorkshire
Windbag page. The numbers in question are usually pretty small so I
don't dwell on them too much. The other week I saw something I've not seen before. The number of 'likes' went down! Or in other words 3 people 'disliked' my page. This happened shortly after my last issue came out. So I looked back to see what might of put people off. I'm guessing it wasn't my mention of the Doghouse in Halifax so I can only imagine it was because I was saying rude things about Nigel Farage. This of course as given me pause for thought. I will be getting in some image consultants and we will be brainstorming outside the box with some blue sky thinking as to how I can become more inclusive and rescue my tattered reputation amongst UKIP supporters. |
Back Issues
Send your comments, articles, insults, poetry, pictures, outpourings of love etc
Click above to go and like this on Facebook
The Credits |
|
38
