Photos: JACKIE-O MOTHERFUCKER

Portland's Jackie-O Motherfucker live @ Newcastle's Star & Shadow, July 8. Photos by Ben Jeans Houghton. Amazing show; especially the support slot from Jackie-O's Brian Mumford's solo project Dragging An Ox Through Water; killer surprise split between Dirty Projectors-style vocal gusto and free noise. Cool subterrainean low-freq noise set from locals Jazzfinger, too. Full review @ Tiny Mix Tapes.

Photos: POCAHAUNTED & SUN ARAW

June 16, Head Of Steam, Newcastle Upon Tyne. Photos by Ben Jeans Houghton.

Photos: DENT MAY

Dent May @ The Cumberland Arms, March 30, Newcastle Upon Tyne, UK. Photos by Ben Jeans Houghton. PS THAT'S ME SITTING THERE DOWN THE FRONT.





[Review @ Isolationist]

Photos: HIGH PLACES

Hey guys here are some real oblique and non figurative photos of High Places live in Newcastle Upon Tyne at the Head of Steam. It was an amazing show, even though their equipment suddenly cut out (thanks to a faulty US to UK power converter) just as the chorus of their second song dropped. BUMMER. Luckily us Northerners are so down to earth/friendly/enthusiastic cos we hummed along all the basslines for them.

(Photos by me and Ben Jeans Houghton)

Live review/photos: MOMUS

MOMUS @ Star and Shadow Cinema
July 23, 2008

All I knew of Momus before this show was a half-listen to his recent(ish) album Ocky Milk and information given to me by my friend Ella in the form of sentances that started out along the lines of 'so I was reading this blog and there's this interesting cultural theory/weird art concept...'. It was Momus' blog, always, but I never actually read it until a few weeks ago. And yes, it turns out he's pretty conceptual. At this show, which was at a small space here in Newcastle specialising in cult film screenings and the wackier side of art and musical performances, he mentioned that 'it's more about the imagination than the song itself' or something like that and this was so right, more than I ever would've thought as he moved his way through a song from each album of his 22 year (!) musical career. While to some extent I enjoyed his tinny hamfisted Pet Shop Boys karaoke and weird Casio Baroque stylings, I for some reason expected more than just him singing over iPod backing tracks and I wasn't a huge fan of his ill-fitting shirt and short-trackpants and black rubber clog/Croc combo. Between the quiet songs he footnoted and explained each song with skittering pretend hyper-literate chatshow banter with his mannequin which he pretended was Michael Parkinson, who interviewed him about various personal and musical things and exchanged ideas about Jeff Koons and chicks and getting sued. It was odd and humorous but for all the concepts behind these wacked-out and sincere ballads, musically it wasn't that good. But that's probably why he's named after the Greek god of mockery. It's a good joke and an interesting notion of performance, I just wish the music was better.