Scene Report: Cardiff January 2007
By: Sofie Jenkinson
Cardiff. It rains here quite a lot, that much is true, but there just isn't any better excuse to tuck yourself away in a cosy corner of a dirty little music venue with a creamy pint and try to forget about the grey water-splattered pavement outside. There are many bands in these parts who do their bit to try and help you forget, sometimes even donning cat / rabbit / panda / dog etc. ears and spinning tales of the 'Twee Core Underground' (Gareth Campesinos!, '06) and some do their best to drag your face right back down to those well trodden and dangerously under-maintained grey flag stones.
So, a lot has been happening. The tail end of 2006 has played host a new Cardiff bands compilation, a battle over a new South Wales FM licence, a secret gig or two and some old faces.
Somewhere in Cardiff there is a murky little cobbled ally, one which faces the clock tower of the grandiose castle opposite, and is centre point of much musical excitement in this rainy city. Wind your way down this ally and you will pass the legendry Clwb Ifor Bach (we'll be coming back here later) and go too far and you may accidentally stumble across the mystical Millennium Stadium which does its best to hide (even though it's massive).
This ally is also the home of fabulous Do-It-Yourself indie disco Twisted By Design, where an army of sorts has recently been forming. Brainchild of a member of local band Little My, there was spawned a compilation which took 22 local bands and squished them all together on one tidy disc. Clwb Ifor Bach, no stranger to holding greatness between its thighs, then hosted a marathon of a launch evening, showcasing a melting pot of much fabulous local talent; Los Campesinos!, Attack + Defend, The Wave Pictures, Gin Drinker, The Loves, Threatmantics, Stray Borders and Little My. And gosh, it hurt the feet, but it was worth it.
It seems that the sleepy eyes and ears of the world are gradually starting to wake up and smell the potential buried in these here damp hills. With Ofcom announcing a new licence was up for grabs here in South Wales the battle began between Kerrang and Xfm. Local magazine Buzz plumped for Kerrang while local entertainment moguls The Pop Factory teamed up with Xfm. No stone was left unturned, no street left unlittered with flyers and every person had an opinion on it one way or another. With all the bids done and dusted, all that remains to be seen is who will be successful.
Back we go to the spirit churning Clwb Ifor Bach for the rest of the yuletide affairs in these parts. First things first we've seen some old faces rattling around these dusty hallways of late, and no one is more happy than I to enjoy the recent influx of McLusky and Jarcrew reincarnations. In a recent dual gig both Trucker's of Husk and Future of the Left (pictured above) reminded us just how much we've missed all these guys. Future of the Left houses Kelson of Jarcrew and Falco and Jack of McLusky and their debut single 'Fingers Become Thumbs' rips the seat from your pants in a way only they can (released on 29th January) . Hywel of Jarcrew even played around with the Left boys for a while before deciding to post-rock it up with Truckers of Husk. So hell yes...the good stuff is back - watch the f**k out world.
Imminent Christmas time saw four little Welsh boys, slightly less pale than before, stumble back in to Cardiff and through the doors of Clwb once again. The Automatic have been very busy little musical elves this year, but what with no rest for the wicked they were first on on this cold December evening. Playing under the guise of White Rabbit the boys whipped out a mere 5 songs, consisting of new material and a Talking Heads cover. The rest of the evening saw the fantastically sharp and bass driven Boom In The Diamond Industry and youngsters Viva Machine take the stage, but it was the headliners who delivered the real surprises, as eerily quiet as this gig was it was a damn good reminder that they are at heart not in fact the annoying popsters they have so cruelly been manipulated into being. There's some real grit in there somewhere, I promise, and hopefully some day soon everyone will get to see it.