NROne Records 5th Birthday Party @ NAC – 12.02.10

by Dan Bleksley

If you’re anything like me then you’re probably a bit sick of everything that’s written about Norwich music referencing that NME future 50 list from last year – you know, the one that says that Norwich is the “home of real indie”. Is it? I thought. Is it really? It was a bit like a guest praising you for the delicious dinner that you thought was burned.

I’ve been following local music for a long time now, and maybe I’m just a little jaded, but I’ve come to think of Norwich as being a perennial underachiever in music. Norwich is the stoner with an MA in English literature and the potential to do anything, rolling another fat one on the sofa whilst watching daytime repeats of Come Dine With Me on More 4. You see, while there are undeniably some fantastic bands in the city, I’d like to challenge anyone from outside Norfolk to name one.

I’d love to be proven wrong though. I want my belief in Norwich indie music back. Tonight the NAC hosts the fifth birthday celebration of NROne, a label that got special mention in that NME article. NROne have done as much as anyone to promote local music, so this should be a pretty good chance for me to get excited again.

Sadly, on this occasion, that doesn’t happen.

I don’t want to be hasty, but come on. Look. The Kabeedies, for example. It’s not just me, is it? They look like a bunch of Blue Peter presenters and young bank cashiers letting off steam. Or maybe like a Christian rock band. They sound like one as well. “Life isn’t like that, so why not relax?” they yelp in unison. I mean okay, they’re really tight and their sound is crisp and precise. I’m not saying they’re terrible – cause they’re not – but please. When I hear a young guitar band, I want to be properly kicked in the balls by them. These Ghosts and The Barlights are a similar affair. Yeah they’re good, sure, but I’m bored. Violet Violet are better, but maybe a bit too oblique for the indie crowd and lacking any real immediacy.

The Brownies are the one exception. Any more ball-kicking from them and I wouldn’t be able to walk for a week. Vocalist Sophie Little owns that stage, with an unruly blend of aggression and mischief. Twins Stevie and Maxie Gedge (eagle-eyed readers may recognise that name) by contrast look like they’ve been transported straight out of an early Hole video, stooped over guitars, all sullen and moody. More of this please. A night with the twins is promised to anyone who can identify the song that they’re about to cover (it was a Yeah Yeah Yeahs tune by the way – no offense for not being vocal about that, ladies, only I was a little scared of what might happen). Listen to The Brownies here. Do it now. They’re looking like the band most likely to escape Norwich and make a success of themselves.

But that’s kind of the problem: the desire to escape. Several years ago, back when I was in a band that was trying to escape Norwich, I was playing a gig at Sound in Leicester Square. After we played, someone asked me if we were from Norwich. I asked her how she could tell and she replied, “You know. You have that Norwich sound.” Somehow that was the worst thing she could have said. I thought that we’d worked pretty hard not to have that Norwich sound and, in retrospect, that’s probably why we weren’t all that good. We can champion Norwich all we like, but nobody really wants to be thought of as a Norwich band.

Here’s what I think: cities like Manchester, like Bristol or Liverpool – cities that have had great influential music scenes – are cities in which bands listen to each other. Each of the bands here tonight, as talented as they may be, don’t really sound like they do that. They might have “that Norwich sound”, but that’s only because they’re writing music in the same place. In terms of their intentions, Violet Violet are nothing like the Barlights or any of the other bands on the line-up. Sure, Norwich is a small city, and it’s geographically isolated – perhaps making for a slightly stagnant musical gene pool -  but I’ll be surprised if it gains the recognition that so many journalists are predicting if we don’t start seeing bands being influenced by other Norwich bands. Maybe then, I’ll get that kicking in the balls a bit more frequently. Listen to The Brownies. Listen to Death of Death of Discotheque (I wrote good things about them here). Norwich, I know you can do better.

tweeOFF! Present Vivian Girls @ NAC – 23.01.10

by Maxie Gedge

tweeOFF! is growing and growing with every gig, bringing the best noises from all over the world to the humble Norwich Arts Centre for a night of enjoyable ear devastation. Team twee seem to transform NAC into an exciting cavernous epicentre of the alternative. And tonight is no exception.

The only local band here, Follow Your Heart have been the subject of some scenester hype, not mainly due to their all-star Norwich line-up, but mainly due to their brilliant twangly, fractured art rock. They have often been compared to Talking Heads, but tonight they are on the more angsty and atonal side of Eno’s back, recalling NY no-wavers Mars with their repetitive drones and tribal rhythms. They stand still and shout hard, full of an awkward ‘I’m-a-geek-but-I’m-actually-really-cool’ edginess that sits well with their sound. Their performance tonight is great – a little less accessible than usual – but I think that’s purposeful and positive.

Ono Palindromes are a three-piece from Exeter. They seem a bit out of their comfort zone at the Arts Centre, which you would hope they would embrace, but instead they squirm and scream all over the shop like little kittens fighting for their mummy’s teat. Indeed, NAC is an awe inspiring venue, but all that macho ‘rock n roll’ bravado does not do wonders in winning over a Norwich audience. However, when these sweaty men get going, their music isn’t that bad, verging on the Nine Black Alps side of new-grunge, but wandering in heavier and more interesting suburbs. Their finest moments would remind us Norwich folk of Kunk, picking slight elements from Pixies, Future Of The Left, some old school Buzzcocks punk, and some new school Pulled Apart By Horses shout. But somehow it doesn’t quite mesh together to create an enjoyable finished product, more a pale imitation, sadly.

Then The Vivian Girls get on board. They blow the other two acts off stage immediately with their air of cool and inviting professional arrogance, swirling up the audience with a thick layer of noise. All three of them sing and lock together, and it’s as if this whole new dimension has been added to their sound. It’s girly and it’s dreamy and it’s fucking great. The guitarist has an entrancing Lux Lisbon vibe, which resonates through the band and through their music.

I had heard that they are supposed to be totally ramshackle live, and their recorded stuff does sound pretty loose, but that’s all a lie – they are REALLY tight. So whilst there’s jangly thin clean guitar, pretty minimalist drums, long plodding basslines, and three gorgeously delicate voices, it just blends perfectly, and produces an absolute onslaught of heavy surf sounds. And it’s not ‘scream-distortion-scream’ heavy, its ‘wow, my ears are FULL of noise’ heavy. A few songs go on longer than they should, and they loose momentum a bit mid-set, but with brilliant tracks like ‘I Have No Fun’ and ‘When I’m Gone’, they bring it all back, and the encore is just buzzing with jerky and sweet adolescent energy.

// http://www.outlineonline.co.uk