HUSH, THE PALANTINES, HI-LIFE - Flapper & Firkin, 23rd June 01
Can't remember too much about Hi-Life, other than I thought they weren't the best band I'd ever heard and neither were they the worst. The Palantines were the band I'd gone to see and they do have memorable songs. They're not the easiest band to pigeonhole - a lot of the songs have a surfy twang but they're no surf band. The singer was wearing a Ramones t-shirt but they don't sound like the Ramones. They're just a great band, playing brilliant song after brilliant song. They aren't afraid to make a noise, but they certainly don't forget the melodies. These are songs that are guaranteed to stay in your head.
Hush were another unmemorable band; they even had to resort to playing a cover (The Beatles' Help) which suggests a lack of own material. The Palantines were the best band by far that night and should have been the headline band. I'm sure The Palantines will go far, and if they don't that would be a grave injustice.

THE UNSPEAKABLE TURKS, BEN CALVERT, JAMIE KNIGHT - Ronnie Scott's, 24th July 01
I'm not used to venues like Ronnie Scott's, it's like going to see bands in a restaurant! Didn't like Jamie Knight, he did very average singer-songwriter stuff which was far too 'easy listening' for me. Ben Calvert is also in the traditional singer-songwriter field but his songs have more soul and more talent. He played a couple of songs from his recent 7" on Bearos as well as a few others in a similar vein. The Bearos catalogue compares him to Nick Drake, a comparison people give to practically every male solo artist with an acoustic guitar and melancholic songs, but this time the comparison is accurate. You could also compare Ben Calvert to Belle & Sebastian.
The Unspeakable Turks are a great band, they can be loosely categorised as indiepop, but only some of their material is really poppy. They also have a number of more sombre songs, and sometimes they venture into almost folkish territory. One of their most poppy tracks is Isobel, I've liked this song a lot since I saw them live the previous time, and it's now finally available on a CD EP called Hopsack, which is highly recommended. Info on this and their other EPs and demos from unspeakableturks@aol.com

THEORY OF EVERYTHING, TWISTED SOUP BEAT - Flapper & Firkin, 4th August 01
Twisted Soup Beat were basically a rap-metal band, but different from bog-standard rap-metal as they had jazz/funk style bass playing, some guy on a deck scratching (an obvious choice of instrumentation for a rap act, but not something usually associated with metallers, showing that this band take the 'rap-metal' idea further than many other bands of this type that I've heard), and the singer actually sang as well as the rapping. When he sang, the songs were more like a doom-laden grunge/alt-rock type thing. Also, the singer dropped his trousers on stage, how cheap. They were far too heavy for me; I could appreciate their willingness to mix up various types of music, but I thought they were basically awful. That's just me though, I generally hate really heavy music. My boyfriend and his friend thought this band sounded great, and my boyfriend's friend even expressed a belief that they'll probably go on to be pretty big! Well, if they do then I'm someone who definitely won't be buying their records.
Theory of Everything were much more to my taste. They're on the fine line between noisepop and indie-rock, with impassioned vocals and just the right amount of noise. My boyfriend's mate didn't like them, he thought they were 'derivative' and they sounded like the Manics. I must beg to differ! If I had to mention any famous band in the same sentence as them, then Radiohead is one that springs to mind, but only because of the falsetto, almost screamed vocals in parts of some of the songs. Overall they're not much like Radiohead and are nothing like the Manics. As for 'derivative', I felt this was unfair. OK, so they're not inventing their own genre, but what bands do? Practically every band has influences, and there are far more bands whose influences are much more obvious than Theory of Everything's.
Watch out for Theory Of Everything's debut single, which will be reviewed shortly in Aquamarine. They also have an album out in September which I expect will be great. I've heard two songs from it already and these are due to appear on Bliss Volume Ninety Eight, out shortly.

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