barcelona is hot, slack as ever, beautiful, later than almost anywhere else i've been. as the days wind on, increasingly full of english shit-hipsters filled with too-cheap lager and bereft of indoor voices we are clearly drawing close to the festival proper. i believe these fakes' endless shouting and self celebration whilst sporting pink straw hats constitutes 'fun' in the world of cunt. but, i digress. there have been some bands eh?
at the apolo club there are two label nights occurring simultaneously, one a local label famelic (who have a fuck-wonderful logo which i';ll post ya know, later), the other the uk's memphis industries. though drained by the tremendous heat and too much delicious tapas i'm drawn to see the bands, hardly any of which i've heard of, simply because they're there and in that circumstance i can't really resist.
in the sparsely populated main room (a beautiful cabaret club/dancehall) elephants play a lazy, banal kinda minimalist pop delivered in as disinterested a fashion as it is received. you wonder why they bother.
downstairs to the small, metallic-walled apolo 2 where ohios are muddling through a brief, fun set of open-hearted grunge pop that wears it's influences on it's checkered sleeve. they are a more straightforwardly enjoyable prospect than dutch uncles that's for sure.
they deliver an interesting experience. at the front i'm scribbling away notes like 'electro pop that often threatens to take flight but is too often grounded by practiced cool' and later comes my favourite note from the evening (baffling): 'shouldn't allow a noose of twattery spoil their choke-wank of lovely, carefully arranged pop'. they win me over by having memorable melodies and coming off as genuine geeks instead of the plastic ones you get nowadays.
trotting downstairs i'm getting the last few tunes from locals mates mates. they're dropping hugely anthemic folk-ska music drenched in horns and slap bass. while i'm sure you can imagine my natural disinclination towards this type of behaviour they are endearing, no doubt, guileless and beloved by the vastly increased audience.
last up tonight are new york power-weirdos hooray for earth. powered by alt-rock as heavily as processed electronica and knowing cool as well as they know heart AND with every song they crash out sounding like a forgotten '80s classic they seem to be on to a very good thing indeed. even if they do sometimes sound like phil collins, more often they sound like tangerine dream or talk talk being retold via a filthy, low-slung geetar. i even bought the fuckin' record. great band - though i dont think owens and sureoffoot were overly impressed (they dont like foreigner).
i'll get to last night's weddoes show in a bit. for now? the zoo.
xm
