You! Me! Fuzztival!

Hiem/Grammatics @ Fuzz Club, Sheffield 25/10
Fuzztival @ Fuzz Club, Sheffield 27/10
Rolo Tomassi, Actioner, Jonny Park @ The Casbah, 31/10

So you're probably thinking "What's a Fuzztival?" Well, it's a clever combination of Fuzz Club and a festival, hence Fuzztival. See what they've down there? Dead clever. Anyway, spending a whole day in Fuzz Club can get a bit much so it's best to pace yourself and maybe avoid the breadcakes. As for the bands, Situationists were good, Pete And The Pirates definitely played, You Say Party! We Say Die! suffered from the terrible Fuzz sound, Calf By Calf sounding almost exactly like Lightning Bolt which is no bad thing and then there was the headline bands, Los Campesinos! who may be one of the indie-est bands in existence at the moment. They name check K Records, Calvin Johnson, Ian Mackaye and Henry Rollins all in one song. They are twee as fuck. They even play an obscure Pavement song. And their drummer is shit. Does it get any more indie?

Prior to seeing LC! I'd had some reservations about them; the fact that they sound quite a lot like Broken Social Scene, the fact that they got signed after 14 gigs, and the whole twee, self referential nature of their lyrics. After seeing them, I conclude that, whilst they do sound a lot like BSS (not a bad thing) they're not just a carbon copy. Their set included nods to post-rock, a brief Sonic Youth style noise section and Pavement. Lots of Pavement. That they got signed after only 14 gigs does come through in their performance - had they had a bit more time to develop their sound they probably wouldn't be stuck with some of the dud songs that pepper their set and being so obvious in some of their lyrical references; naming your only ballad "Knee Deep At ATP" doesn't exactly scream subtlety. But what can you do? In this Web 2.0 age, LC! might be the perfect band - they're big on the internet, their songs are about other songs or bands, they all wear band t-shirts, they're actually pretty good, there seems to be at least a little sense of irony (maybe) - in fact, I may christen them "Blog-Rock", which is a new genre I have just invented. So watch out for that. It's almost as good as Puzzle Pop.

As for Hiem, a special thought should go out to them. They've been playing Fuzz Club ever year for the past 4 years, always playing the same songs, still dining out on "Chelsea" being NME Single Of The Week a couple of years, always sucking and seemingly never playing a gig any where else all year. But this year they came on to a Sigur Ros song. That's about it. I think they may be slightly fatter. Good work guys.

And a final word on Rolo Tomassi. For a group of 18 year olds they can play. Good costumes as well. I think the guitarist might have been dressed as one of Sunn o))). The Casbah was hosting the rock society's Halloween party and they seemed to freak out quite a few heavy metal types so that must be quite an achievement. If you take anything from this slightly crappy entry, it should be to go and see Rolo Tomassi. They're always on tour so it's not like you won't have the chance. Although if you don't like The Locust then you probably won't like them, so go see Los Campesinos!



BYE!