By The Landlord
“One good thing about music, when it hits you, you feel no pain.” – Bob Marley
Hello, and a Merry Christmas to you all!
This week, being the holiday period for most, we’re taking a break from the usual single-topic format to grab a little perspective on the past year of music. While the world lurches from farce to catastrophe, while the internet is rife with division and self-consuming nastiness, and politicians fiddle while Rome burns (well if not there, then certainly the Australian bush, Africa, and the Amazon rainforest), and waters continue to rise, but here at the Bar at least, where people are always convivial, friendly, and keen to share their musical knowledge and personal stories, we’ve had a fantastic year. It’s a haven.
There’s been a huge increase in reader numbers again, right across several countries, particularly the US, and many new faces who have chosen to comment, share music and, with wonderfully varied voices and styles, also take on the challenge of the guru’s chair and create with playlists from hundreds of nominations. We’re hitting the right notes in all sorts of ways.
Something of a miracle happens here each week. It truly is a magical place. The interaction on show, both candle-lit and electric, funny, anecdotal and confessional, conjures a sense of infinite knowledge and invention, the collective results of which shouldn’t really be surprising after all this time, but remain a revelation. Hive wisdom combines with delightful individuality and eccentricity. The spark comes from imaginative, divergent thought and the sheer energy of how you all connect, not only with each other, but through a mix of great memory and sudden association, inspired and illuminated by each weekly topic. So my great thanks goes out to all of you – the many loyal regulars, some long-time old-friend occasionals, and vast numbers of silent readers who watch us like avid fans, some of whom decide to dive on the our stage and join us.
So this week, running into the beginning of 2020 until next Thursday, I’m simply inviting you to look back at 2019 and in comments, share music you’ve discovered here at the Bar, as well as outside it. So that could be new music from the year, or older releases, or anything experienced at live music events. I used the stage metaphor to describe the Bar for a reason, as 2019 was a particularly prolific year for me in attending live shows, some of which was certainly fuelled by enjoying that music at this establishment.
“Live music is the most primal form of energy release you can share with other people besides having sex or taking drugs.” said Kurt Cobain. more than one study has been released indicating that attending live music increases your life expectancy. That’s a cocktail that could seem contradictory, but we’re hardwired to commune and share joint experience, and that’s certainly worth living for. One of the most energized gigs of the year for me was the Australian pub-style punk band Amyl & The Sniffers, fronted by the tiny, impishly grinning Amyl Taylor who is like a cross between Kylie, Blondie and Daryl Hannah in Bladerunner. I caught a bit of them at the All Points East Festival earlier this year, certainly a highlight there slightly above headliners The Strokes, but then more recently at a 300-person venue in east London where the atmosphere was so anarchically charged, there was no part of the venue that wasn’t a happy, support-each-other mosh pit.
But I have also enjoyed many gigs in 2019 that have been sublime in a different way. The sensual songstress Weyes Blood aka Natalie Mering, for example, playing her album Titanic Rising, to the ghostly voiced stillness of Scottish pianist Kathryn Joseph, the fabulous sensitive, inventive and funny Richard Dawson, the mesmeric Sudan Archives with her violin loops and towering figure, the power and glory of Anna Calvi’s voice and guitar, the melancholy of Julia Jacklin, the beautifully intimate Vera Sola, the eccentric, bell-ringing Islet, the otherworldly, utterly extraordinary Gazelle Twin, and the weirdly walking, strangely staring Aldous Harding.
Richard Dawson at The Moth Club
And talking of staring, as well as staring and talking, I’ve had many great chats with artists. I can’t recommend this enough as part of the experience. For example, I spoke to Cate Le Bon, for example, after a gig, remarking that she had a certain presence on stage that made me feel like she was looking right at me throughout the gig, a bit like how the Mona Lisa’s eyes follow you. “That’s because I was staring at you,” she said, with an ironic wink. “I bet you say that to all the boys,” I replied.
There are many trends, but the ones that spring to mind are just how many great solo or band-fronting female artists there are to see, how punk, or at least a kind of righteous anger is definitely prevalent, and that eccentric Welsh acts are particularly going strong.
So many gigs are infused with such joy and raw energy, it is palpably obvious this is a release of tensions so prevalent on the outside world. The jazz-rave craziness of The Comet Is Coming, particularly that astonishing saxophone from Shabaka Hutchings. The non-stop complex musicianship of White Denim, Moon Duo and Holy Fuck. The utterly old-school hip-hop joy of Chali 2na & Krafty Kuts. The unstoppably shouty Jim Jones & The Righteous Mind, and Jon Spencer & the Hitmakers. The ups and downs of the self-destructive YAK. The Joy Division/Stiff Little Fingers-inspired Dublin band Fontaines DC, those tree-camouflage wearing mysteries, Snapped Ankles, and the sweatiest of fun dance-punk-funk live experiences with !!! (Chk Chk Chk).
I’ve also reacquainted myself with several bands from my youth or early adulthood – The Wedding Present, The Yummy Fur, Future of the Left, Cake, Low, Futureheads, Peter Perrett and the Young Ones, and the veteran folk legend, Michael Chapman, but perhaps most of all Iggy Pop, including a live, hilarious interview by Will Self. And there was massive joyous singalong to every song in Brixton with The Specials.
Iggy Pop chats to Will Self
Equally I’ve caught many great much newer bands, from Black Midi to Self Esteem, Pozi to Pom Poko from Norway, Steeling Sheep, The Mysterines, Squid LIFE, and another to watch for their songwriting skills – Pregoblin.
Perfect pop with Pregoblin
Connected to Pregoblin, the Fat White Family, with their new album have been fabulous this year and it’s been great to strike up a friend connection there, having performed at the same gig with frontman Lias at the beginning of the year. I’ve enjoyed hitting the stage myself too guesting in established acts and with new ones too, a dozen or more times in six or so different groups or solo personas.
But some of the best gigs have not only been brilliant musically, but also simply amusing too, such as the louche Warmduscher, the lovely Du Blond, the glamorous Priscillas, the excellent pop of Parenthesis Dot Dot Dot or the fantastic array of solo artists on show the strangely wonderful Double RR Club, presented by Benjamin Louche. There’s the psych-rock of the hilarious The Hare & Hoofe. The all-female Fall-covers band Ye Nuns are always fabulous, as the laugh-a-minute TV-themed comedy band Dream Themes. And Cabbage continue to entertain with raw, witty, Mancunian energy.
There are so many others, too many to mention but I throw in Creep Show (John Grant’s side project with Wrangler) to the glorious International Teachers of Pop, the brilliant garage-rock party band Oh! Gunquit, the hilarious space alien band Henge, BC Camplight, the ever-inventive comedian musician Reggie Watts.
Out there: Henge
And these don’t even count the festivals I’ve managed to attend, catching Kraftwerk’s 3D show under the magnificent big dish at Jodrell Bank during Blue Dot Festival, going to Glastonbury to catch acts I normally wouldn’t go out of my way to but was very glad I did for the experience – Stormzy, Billie Eilish, Dave, Janet Jackson, Lauren Hill, Slowthai, and also seeing again Hot Chip, Chemical Brothers, Janelle Monae and Kamasi Washington among may more. And as for Lizzo - just wow!
Lizzo burst even bigger onto the musical scene in 2019 and rocked the world
Of all the small festivals, I loved the local London free ones, like Somers Town and Clerkenwell Green, as well as in Margate, Hipsville Soho A Go! Go! featuring the hilarious costumed band The Stags, but of the outside smaller ones, I think Supernormal was the best, strangest and friendliest, but really at any festival the biggest act is always the weather, which almost always bright and hot.
So then, that’s enough of my year. How about yours? Music discovered, bought, simply heard and shared, or seen live? Feel free to add YouTube links, or you own pictures or videos. Thanks again for all your contributions. Enjoy the rest of your Christmas, have a great new year and see you in 2020.
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