Break Like The Fast

I'm off on my holidays for a week or so, so this'll be the last post for a little bit. Go and look at Alastair's page instead, over there on the right>>>

He has some Lonely Island videos for you to chuckle at.

SEXY BREAKFAST/ THE EVENINGS/ DIATRIBE - Klub Kakafanney, Wheatsheaf, 12/03

Diatribe look like the quintessential young, local support act. They've got the vast rack of guitar pedals, all of which sound identical; they've got the obligatory Cheech & Chong reference; they've got a mate in the audience whom they namecheck; they've got that strange mixture of self-consciousness and insouciance. Still, for all these signifiers of newness, they're entirely capable of warming up tonight's crowd, with some juicy little indie-rock numbers, boasting all the right crunch and bounce. Sadly they haven't yet got many angles to crunch, or much to bounce off, but another few months spent writing some songs with a bit more character might well find them sneaking effortlessly up the bill.

Damn! If I'd brought my I-Spy Book Of Oxford Pop I could have scored a fortune from The Evenings, featuring talent from Suitable Case For Treatment, Eeebleee, Sunnyvale and Sexy Breakfast. But who cares who they are when they make music so abstractedly, hilariously funky? The pre-programmed sections bang away merrily, whilst the rest of them pummel alongside (wlthough not always exactly in time, unfortunately), and, err, that's it. Except that's more than enough for now. Like their spiritual parents Add N To (X) they might want to think about developing their great hulking soundbeasts, and taking them them a bit further. Having said this, the last tune has a neat Rephlexoid synth line, and a the third, with it's deliriously dumb "la la la" chorus resembles a scranky, mud-caked Bentley Rhythm Ace.

My spellchecker doesn't like the word "scranky"; obviously it's never seen The Evenings.

Don't ask me how, but somehow I haven't seen Sexy Breakfast live for about three years, and I didn't much like them then. And now?

Well, the news (to me, at least), is that they sound like Vanilla Fudge. Alternatively, they're like a cross between Lynyrd Skynyrd, The Longpigs, and A-Ha. Indescribable, in other words. They crash through a bunch of their tunes to a healthy, adoring crowd, and it sounds great, throwing in muso workouts, tongue in cheek musical theatre references, and passages of plain, startling beauty in equal measure.

To be honest, I can't entirely comprehend their continuing deification, but the fact remains that, despite my colleague's dissatisfaction with the new recording, Sexy Breakfast are still possibly the best live act in Oxfordshire. But then, you probably already knew this.