NME | Music Zeitgeist

With Pigeon John
October 6, 2008
Week Of Shows, Episode 10

Did you hear the one about the English folk-pop group and the hip-hop artist that met in a bar?

No punchline here. Just a great night of music at Spaceland Monday night.

Ringin’ Everyone Else’s Bell: Kenan Bell with a few friends at Spaceland. (photo by the author)

Coming off their blustery appearance at Saturday’s LA WEEKLY Detour Festival, BBC and NME darlings Noah And The Whale were greeted by an overflowing, industry-studded crowd when they took the stage early in the night. Though their set was plagued by a variety of audio and technical difficulties, they represented themselves well, converting those who might have cried “hype!” before their performance. While Noah’s release Peaceful, The World Lays Me Down is pleasant enough in a near-twee, Belle and Sebastian-meets-Vampire Weekend sort of way, their live mission equates to a far more involved, cinematic experience. As was the trend this week at other concerts, the unsated audience called for an encore at the conclusion of Noah’s set. For their efforts, they were rewarded with a not-essential but certainly fun and in-the-moment cover of The Smiths’ “Girlfriend In A Coma.”

Providing a bit of an aural sorbet after Noah And The Whale, L.A.-based act Pigeon John treated the waning crowd to lighthearted trek through some of their latest material, introducing hip-hop to the evening and paving the way for Spaceland’s October resident, Kenan Bell. Lyrically astute yet comedic, Pigeon John’s set highlight was a number about women who make connections with men just to get access to their famous friends – a representative indictment of life in Hollywood if ever there was one.

Closing out the night, emerging local hip-hop luminary Kenan Bell presented a tight and energetic set, his live band rendering an infectious platform for his effortless rapping. Though at times sounds in voice Bell can sound a bit like Eminem, his subject matter is decidedly his own and he excels at making certain both his flow and music are laden with hooks. Providing further proof of The Morrissey Unifying Theory Of All Things, Bell followed up on Noah And The Whale’s own Smiths nod with a performance of his song “Save Your Life,” which contains samples from “The Night Has Opened My Eyes.” Bringing out Noah’s horn player as well as inviting half the audience on stage for his final number (including a member of local act The Deadly Syndrome), Bell made certain his inaugural residency show went out with a bang. Bell’s Spaceland residency continues every Monday this October. Admission is free.

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Announcements are percolating through the metaverse that positively seminal po-mo alternative rockers My Bloody Valentine are not only returning to the live concert stage, but in the process or recording a new album!

Kevin Shields, quoted in the January 2007 edition of NME stated: “I do feel that I will make another great record. We are 100 per cent going to make another My Bloody Valentine record unless we die or something.” Well don’t all artist hope and believe that, but how many do? To put this in context, MBV’s last record “Loveless” was released in 1991. The album took over two years to complete, and cost well over $100,000.00, bankrupting the band’s label. The next we heard from them was Kevin Shield’s original contributions to Sofia Coppolla’s “Lost In Translation” soundtrack.

For those of us who were permanently transformed/ruined by our first listen to Loveless, fifteen years is a long time to hold your breath. I have found the strangest things to tide me over in the meantime: live MBV concerts in PAL format that I bought on the streets of Chile. I staked out an indie concert in LA a few years ago listing Kevin Shields as the headliner only to discover that it was the name of a band that made noise-core in tribute to their heroes. I repeatedly cite them in interviews as a fundamental influence in all of my musical output, not so much in an auditory sense as in one that is philosophic. The other day, when LA’s Indie 103.1 radio played “Only Shallow” I nearly crashed my car. Despite the fact that people invoke the holy name of MBV as an influence the way film students cite Tarkovsky, catching direct glimpses of the band in the popular market is not unlike spotting Bigfoot in Yellowstone.

But now that is changing. My Bloody Valentine is set to headline the All Tomorrow’s Parties Festival in upstate New York the week of September 20th. The event will be “curated” by Kevin Shields himself, which means the lineup will astound and amaze and likely irrevocably transform a small legion of young listeners and aspiring indie music mavericks spawning a new generation of John Cage-minded experiments. According to The Daily Swarm the band’s long-time booking agent Frank Riley has confirmed that after a brief European tour, the reformed group will launch a U.S. tour, stopping at 6-8 cities.

In NME Shields went on to say “I’d feel really bad if I didn’t make another record. Like, ‘Shit, people only got the first two chapters, but the last bit is the best bit’.” Lord knows the indie world, the music world, needs an injection - despite the massive upsurge of indie output and its availability, the music is reflecting back on itself in a weird self-parodizing manner that threatens to gentrify the very definition of creative freedom into a certified and predictable genre in the manner that befell the term “Alternative.”

So, welcome back Kevin shields, and My Bloody Valentine, I hope you fuck shit up and good.

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