August Reviewed

My monthly round-up of albums, songs, gigs and posts.

I just want to say a huge thank you for listening to my weekly Recent and Decent playlists. They continue to be the posts that are engaged with the most, and it’s probably the element of my Substacking personality that I’m most proud of. Please keep reading, listening and sharing and let’s keep the love of new music alive, burning like an raunchy ember of hope.

Albums I’ve Enjoyed in August

It’s really difficult to pick a favourite from all this lot. I think it’s a three-way tie between Racing Mount Pleasant, Little Simz and Deki Alem!

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Songs I’ve Shared in August

It’s a tight one but I think my favourite Recent and Decent playlist might have to be the playlist I shared in R&D #85, featuring Milo Korbenski, Deki Alem, Little Simz and more!

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Artists I’ve Seen in July

On August 1st I saw IDLES supported by Soft Play and Lambrini Girls and I’m not entirely sure if that can be topped. I also saw a show of local artists doing their version of Beach Boy covers.

1st August - IDLES - Block Party, Bristol

I mean, what a line-up, in a brilliant venue. My friend drove us for 7 hours to get there and it was worth every second. The crowd were amazing - clearly everyone was there to enjoy themselves and I’m sure everyone did. We met an Australian guy with a black eye in the pub afterwards and even he seemed happy.

Lambrini Girls

They created a mosh-pit half way through their first song, at 6pm. That says all you need to know about their infectious passion. They spoke out against our politicians and their complicity in the war on Gaza, not to mention police, TERFs, homophobia and much else besides. Punk music has a long history of resisting fascism and racism, and this was punk as fuck. It was fun, it was urgent, it was powerful. In short, they were phenomenal. ⍟⍟⍟⍟⍟

Soft Play

Lambrini Girls made a massive noise with just three of them. Could Soft Play match them with only two? The answer is yes. The mosh pit got wider and it was only a matter of time before I got swept in. It was all a bit of a blur but I recall the crowd chanting “Fuck the hi-hat,” in support of their limited drum set-up. The whole set was, once again, a thing of beauty. ⍟⍟⍟⍟⍟

IDLES

I can’t express what it was like to be in such a chaotic, flailing delirium. The crowd were so expressive and present and in-the-moment that you couldn’t hear much of Talbot’s snarley vocals. I’m pretty sure they sounded amazing though. IDLES started with Colossus, as usual, and ended with Rottweiler, bookending their set with their trademark destruction. I felt that feeling I felt after seeing IDLES last time: the sense that I have just witnessed something special. And that live music must have passion. Joy As An Act of Resistance indeed. ⍟⍟⍟⍟⍟

9th August - Beach Boys ReWork - The Garage, Norwich

Tiger Night

He really committed to it like an artist should. He wrote surf songs especially for the show, one of which included the lyrics “Shove that mother fucking surfboard up your arse.” He played Good Vibrations with a handmade knitted penis. He played some frigging awesome, messy scrappy own material. He wore a fez. All of it was kind of surreal and impressive in equal measure. I spoke to him before the show and he was suffering from Carpal tunnel syndrome so the fact he managed to play such an involved set should get him a lot of credit. ⍟⍟⍟⍟

Molly Willis

Molly didn’t quite do it for me, I’m afraid. I would love to say otherwise but some of the chord transitions, for what were relatively simple songs, were inaccurate, maybe owing more to her nerves than to her ability. I think her guitar would have suited a more intimate venue - a loud electric amp meant it lost the potential for intimacy. My personal highlight was her interpretation of the Beach Boys’ ‘And Then I Kissed Her,’ which offered a different strumming pattern and had a bit more bounce to it. It is mega brave to perform and I hate being in any way critical, especially of a local artist. If it counts for anything, my Dad absolutely loves her material and if you’re into acoustic folky pop, then definitely check her out. ⍟⍟

Wazlo

Mostly surreal, unexpected, disco dance stuff. In the past, I’ve thought of their music as quite Beach Boys in their length, silliness and complexity but, in true artistic fashion, their set was different to any of their usual type of material that I had heard before. I thought their Beach Boys covers were particularly adventurous and joyous, complete with high bpm and plenty autotuned of falsetto. They ended with a song that sounded like Flight of the Conchords collaborating with Jarvis Cocker to write a Christmas song. Weird and pretty wonderful as always. ⍟⍟⍟

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Posts I’ve Sent Out in July

As I’ve mentioned, it’s been a pretty chilled month on Substack because it’s been busy outside of Substack, in the real world. 4 of the 5 Substack posts I sent out were just my normal, weekly Recent and Decent playlists and even two of those were guest playlists! I also sent out a compilation of all the Community Playlists I’ve made so far, so feel free to check that out if you haven’t already:

All Community Playlists!

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Coming Up in September

Things are hotting up again, with at least three gigs currently planned. I’m also planning on writing up a piece on how to unsuccessfully leave Spotify and I’ll be sharing more news about the next gig I’m organising with the amazing Janani.fx.

Think that’s about it from me. The questions I have for you are:

1. What’s been your album/song highlight from August?

2. What’s been your gig highlight from August?

3. What are you looking forward to in September?

Answers in the comments :)