Man, this house is so *gushy*

[shermarama]

Once again it's only now I'm out of it that I realise I've been in an unusual situation. My ex-flatmate has been single for a very long time, barring occasional dalliances with Swedish sailor girls. Now I'm living with three people with, shall we say, a little more social grace, and they're all quite distinctly not single. Small Blonde Housemate (using designated katstevens terminology) is in the kitchen with her boyfriend, putting the finishing touches to meal she's been cooking for about three hours, complete with candlelit table and red killer heels. The Kat herself was heard to squeal delightedly when her bit of stuff arrived here earlier ('but we haven't seen each other *all day!*' ) and then there's The Man Of The House (I'm  living in a girl-majority house (indeed with girls in the house that aren't me) for the first time in over ten years, it's really weird) who has just acquired himself a nice young lady, and has been up to similarly coupley malarkey. It's not like I didn't spend a lot of the weekend in bed with a nice young man myself, of course, and it's all very sweet, but it's taking me a short while to adjust.

I went down the gym instead, like. Now I'm going to read some more papers about hydrogen spltting and high-throughput experimentation. *heaves forlorn sigh* No, okay, not really fair; I'm planning on going out tomorrow night to see Kn0wn down in New Cross and may or may not be accompanied by aforementioned Nice Young Man, Wayne's coming up at the weekend and booze- and Anarchist-Book-Fair-fuelled smashing arguments promise to ensue, and anyway what of last weekend I didn't spend in bed I spent at some good gigs. One of them was even ours, it was a technical nightmare down at the Hatcham Social Club but we had an audience of bouncy teenagers and it was lots of fun. The night before was Volt, at some hoky hippie-shed in Greenwich called the Utrophia Project Space, and for sheer musicianship they blew the top off the scale. The Art Of Splitting Water, the first band, had an excellent angry drummer, hitting the kit like someone deeply outraged, and unfortunately the second band were End Of Level Boss who only have half a trick, and that's mainly a bassist that deserves to be in something much better, but Volt were astounding. Like the Melvins, where I mean unusual-length loops and abstract creepy vocals and odd angular riffs but all formed into real music, tied together in musical, deft ways rather than being pointless technical wankery, only without the long slow bits the Melvins are prone to and, in a small room and right in your face, more energetic. They've been touring round most of Europe, mostly to about ten or twenty people at a time, but they are tight as hell and are having fun with it. As an experience it threw into painful relief that I'm really not a drummer, I'm just the only person I have to hand who can even do this much of a job of it; man, Volt's drummer is a real drummer, and if I could find a guitarist who had some real grasp of rhythm I'd go looking for a real drummer and be back on bass like a shot. Ed and Paul are neither of them bad at rhythm, for guitarists; they've both got enough of a grasp of it to be not-bad bassists. I'm a bassist with enough grasp of it that I can get away with being a not-bad drummer. That's all, though. It's not enough. Hmmph.

I wish Volt had recorded this album after they'd finished the tour, or even that I could get a recording of one of these gigs. I can hear how all the songs on this turn into what I saw live but at the very least it needs a remix, this is all too restrained. The best it can be is a reminder.

Comments

[mzdt.livejournal.com]

Ah, K&R. They're not still joking about 'going back to the tent', are they? ;-)

The Anarchist Book Fair's this weekend?! It is that time of year, I suppose...

[katstevens.livejournal.com]

Still soppy, six months later. Ph34r our mushiness.

[martinlitmus.livejournal.com]

Gushy? Well, I guess it can happen to the best of us! Apparently. (Says Martin - old bloke, lives alone...hee hee...)

Anyway, I rather like End Of Level Boss, though I may be slightly biased as I know them and they are a lovely bunch of geezers (and lady.) Harry's also jamming with Bill Steer's Firebird at the moment, which is pretty good fun.

[shermarama]

I don't *dislike* End Of Level Boss, but they seem to me a good illustration of the maxim 'never form a genre band, just form a band'. Harry can sing and play a guitar and wants to have his own stoner/psych band. Okay. But a band is a collaboration, it's about the process of working together right there on the spot (why am I telling you of all people this! *grins*) and I don't feel much of an actual band there. I somehow managed to randomly sit down at the next table to Harry and the bassist and half of Firebird in a random pub in Soho last weekend, which was odd, and chatted to the bassist for a while, which was cool, she said she thought that had been a bad gig of theirs, so maybe I was unlucky, but they're not doing anything that hasn't been done before and they're not building out of particularly interesting bits, perhaps apart from the bassist having a good sound going on. I wouldn't walk out of an End Of Level Boss gig, but I wouldn't be running down the front either.

[martinlitmus.livejournal.com]

I think I'm more relaxed than most people about genres, but then I have to be. Litmus might have many failings, but I don't think being a "spacerock band" is among the more serious ones! The funny thing is there's not really much in the way of spacerock bands around any more, or not ones that do the kind of thing I enjoy hearing from a spacerock band, anyway.

As for EoLB, it's only fair to point out that the original drummer left fairly recently and the original guitarist (and Harry's long-time sparring partner) very recently, so you've probably very perceptively identified that there's still a bit of "bedding-in" to be done. As for Elena, she apparently only picked up a bass for the first time a few months before they started the band, so she is obviously just irritatingly talented!!!

Anyway, I fully intend to come and see one of your gigs in the near future, and hopefully will be able to now the worst of the flat-moving chaos is starting to subside...