Morrissey - Ringleader of the Tormentors Tours 2006
War is over, art is old, I am fat and you are here"

Morrissey! Morrissey! Morrissey! (Think "'ere we go!") bellowed from the balconies and stalls of the Birmingham Symphony Hall as if it were the terraces of a Cup Final game. Mozzer's die-hard fans (you could almost say Fundamentalists) do not like to be kept waiting. Striding on stage to rapturous applause, El Mozzalini (as he's now called due to his Rome residence) and his band greet the audience with a bow and take up their instruments to kick us up the arse with the opener "First of the Gang to Die"

Thrashing his mircophone lead, clutching his chest and reaching down to touch the hands of front row fans, Morrissey seems more comfortable on stage then last time I saw him. More jovial (yes that's right, jovial) and not as forced.

Throughout the gig grown men literally launch themselves towards him, like teenaged girls at a Busted show (I would imagine), but they were mostly deflected by heavy-set bouncers that seemed to have the skills of Ninjas!

One guy manages to clamber onto the stage and embrace Morrissey before being torn away and carried off stage.
He introduces us all to his Nephew Ben, his "Pride and Joy". Ahhhww!

Amazingly pitch-perfect, Morrissey breezes through a cracking set-list consisting of songs from "Ringleader of the Tormentors", "You Are The Quarry" and a few 'Smiths tracks. There are some shirt changes - three, infact and an appearance of his naked chest towards the end, as some lucky fiend catches a shirt tossed to the crowd by the Ringleader himself.

Morrissey is a lot like Marmite; you either LOVE him or hate him, but there is one thing which really cannot be denied by fans or unfans(I know someone who really dislikes him and has agreed with me!) is the fact that he is one of the best entertainers and live acts in the world! He's charming, funny, vocally strong, backed by a tight (if a little premature) band and an amazing showman. Highlight songs were: "Still Ill", "Life Is A Pigsty", "First of the Gang to Die", "Le Me Kiss You" and "In The Future When All's Well". Slightly put-off at first by the venue, but this did not detract at all from the experience and excitement of seeing his Royal Mozzness

Set List:
First Of The Gang To Die
Still IllThe Youngest Was The Most Loved
In The Future When All's Well
To Me You Are A Work Of Art
Girlfriend In A Coma
You Have Killed Me
I Will See You In Far-Off Places
At Last I Am Born
The Father Who Must Be Killed
Ganglord
Let Me Kiss You
Life Is A Pigsty
Trouble Loves Me
I Just Want To See The Boy Happy
How Soon Is Now?

Last Splash - The Breeders

Last Splash is the second full-lengh album from The Breeders. Comprising of Pixies' bassist Kim Deal, Tanya Donnelly (Belly, Throwing Muses), Kim's twin sister Kelly on lead guitar (who couldn't actually play when she joined) and drummer Jim MacPherson this four-piece fuse garage-grunge with surfer-rock coolness.
The mixture of Deal's coy, yet sexy vocal and the raw layering of guitars are perfectly married on songs such as "Roi" and "I Just Want To Get Along" and the songs "Cannonball", "One Divine Hammer" and "Saints", being the singles released are great - diferent in many ways, but all very strong, catchy rock/pop.
I love the sweetness of "Do You Love Me Now?", the sparceness-leading-to-all-out-garage-rock of "No Aloa" and the darkness of "Invisible Man".
Makes me feel like a swaggering-mosher! 5/5

The Flaming Lips - At War With The Mystics


Album number 12 from the Oklahoma 3 piece (or 4 piece if you count Kliph), which has taken them in a slightly different direction then previous albums (Yoshimi and Soft Bulletin). Still keeping the pshychodelic sound that is much loved, but putting it with lyrics that are more mystical and space bound.
I'm not always impressed with the slight re-invention that the "Lips" seem to go through every few years or so, as I favour the earlier, jagged stuff like "Hit to Death in The Futurehead" and "Jesus Egg" but, one has to admitt that "The Soft Bulletin" is one of the finest albums ever created.
This albums feels more concept then reality, but it does drag you back to your seat with " Free Radicals (A Hallucination Of The Christmas Skeleton Pleading With A Suicide Bomber)" (To give it it's full title), " It Overtakes Me / The Stars Are So Big...I Am So Small...Do I Stand A Chance? " and "The W.A.N.D. (The Will Always Negates Defeat)" but if you listen to the album I think you'd say the same. In fact, these would probably be the only songs you'll remember. For the record The Flaming Lips are one of the the best bands in the universe (in my opinion) and it makes me feel bad that I can't give this album a glowing review - reading it back to myself it's all a bit wishy-washy but, I would say that's a good representation. They still remain to be the best live band I have ever had the fortune to see and the "Yeah Yeah Yeah" song really comes alive with audience participation, but on the album it doesn't fit, as it feels as thought it's trying to be the younger poppier cousin to the other songs - trying to ensure a chart position.
Perhaps if I give it just as many listens as I have the other albums, something will hit me and it will become apparent what The Flaming Lips are trying to achieve.

Still it does get a 3 1/2 out of 5!

Amazon Recommendations.....

What's the most bizarrest thing Amazon suggests you purchase?

I went thru a stage of checking and editting my recommendations every day. Now I've got down to about four albums (a couple of Modest Mouse CDs, one by Aphex Twin and one by a band called Tunng, which I'm very curious about) and they don't seem to be recommending any more. I even found myself searching for stuff that I'd like, but haven't got and marking them off as "I own" just to make my recommedations more interesting. Tho, I suppose by doing that I'm canceling out stuff that could be suggested.....ho hum!

Be Your Own Pet - Be Your Own Pet

This is a very powerful debut album from Nashville teenagers (I think the total age of the band is 43!) Be Your Own Pet.
An amazingly raw and exciting collection of songs, which you really shouldn't like or listen to out of choice. But, strangely enough it's very easy to keep going back for more!
The sound sometimes seems like an unfocused, raucous banshee-blast which could probably induce a nose bleed if the dial were turned up to 11.
The production is very basic, making the overall effect vicious and clean.
I'm not usually keen on female punk vocalists, but Jemima does well to use her screechiness like a finely tuned instrument. There's also the added bonus that most tracks fight to reach the two and a half minute mark.
The "stand-out" track is the ultra-commercial "Adventure", which I feel shows the band at their most capable and concentrated. Had they have used the same noggin power for the rest of the album, this really could have been something superb, instead "Adventure" is the black sheep of the track list, showing up the other songs like a diamond-clad princess in amongst a crowd of homeless people. 3.5/5

The Concretes - In Colour

Another indie-pop nugget which has been on the Dirtychurch playlist is the second album, In Colour, by a pretty band called The Concretes.
Hailing from Switzerland, this eight piece group have made some very sweet music. Again, good melodies are the drawing force, combining some elements of motown with bubble-gum pop, girl-groupesque vocal style and the instrumental arangement of Arcade Fire (played like not wanting to be heard in the next room) creating a twee love-child as if spawned from the loins of The Carpenters and Belle and Sebastian (there's a thought!)
I bought this album after seeing the video, without sound, for "On The Radio", the album's opening track and I'm not disappointed. You'll be hard pushed not to sing along after a couple of listens.

It's not an album that beats on your noggin door like a baliff, more hesitantly rings the doorbell like an old-aged Avon lady. 4/5.

Welcome one and all......if anyone is actually reading this??


What was once a blog filled with filth and innuendo is now a place of some use (I hope).
It will probably start off as an aimless ramble, but I'm sure a stucture and a purpose will come to me soon.

From now on I'll be writing about something that I didn't realise was so important to me: Music. It wasn't untill four months ago and a chance meeting with a fine fellow, in a dodgy Birmingham night club that I understood what it meant to me and how much I enjoyed talking about it.

I'll mostly be reviewing stuff new and old (albums, singles, videos and gigs etc) and pretty much wittering on about how much I love Morrissey! :D

The Spinto Band - Nice and Nicely Done.

First off I'll start with this fine album here. The Spinto Band's "Nice and Nicely Done". There is a bit of a fond memory attatched to this album, but I'll keep that stored in my noggin's filing cabinet, if you don't mind?

This has been pretty much my staple listen for the past two weeks and I'm yet to get sick of it. It would be hard for me to talk about this album and not mention the similarities in sound to Pavement, Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and The Wannadies, so I will mention it. Not so off-kliter as Pavement, the vocals are very similar to those of Alec Ounsworth (in a recent NME review of their (CYHSY's) new sinlge, his singing was described as sounding like "a man whose girlfriend has just been raped by dogs ...ahaha) and the songs have the touching summer-breezed sentiment that The Wannadies are very good at. I really rate a band who are able compose really strong melodies without being too obvious.

I suppose the sound fits in somewhere between catchy pop and indie (tho "indie" is fast becoming the vaguest genre!) It's really hard to get the songs out of your noggin, once they are firmly set, but as I say this only makes me want to listen to the album all the more. This is definately one band I'll be making the effort to watch at Reading.

Nice and Nicely Done, is indeed, just that and I have no quarms about giving it a grand old 5/5!