It's been a while. But despite my lengthy(ish) absence from the internets, there is little to report on aside from school, gigs and Pixies.
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School
I had to finish and hand in my individual project, an undertaking ever bit as breathtakingly exhilarating as its title "The Evaluation and Optimisation of a Master Side Stay Bracket" might lead you to believe.
Once my pulse had stopped racing from the excitement of all that, it was time to revise for three exams. One of them turned out to be fairly easy, on account of the fact that the questions we had been provided with to practice on were pretty much the questions in the exam. The other two exams were altogether more horrifying affairs, in which we were not provided with answers and were instead seemingly expected to work everything out for ourselves.
They didn't go so well. I'm trying not to think about it.
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Gigs
There have been lots of these.
8/5/10 - 65daysofstatic. Euphoric post-rock electronica, splendid as always. But for me, the band of the night were the first support act Nedry, who cranked out a bizarre hybrid of dubstep, jazz guitar and Bjorkisms that was nowhere near as awful as I make it sound. There was a second support act, whose name I forget; but the more I think about it, the more it puts me in mind of this cartoon...
(from www.picturesforsadchildren.com - thanks to The Boy for flinging it my way)
11/5/10 - Mouth of the Architect sound like Neurosis playing Explosions In The Sky covers; but since nobody knows who they are either, that's probably not such a good reference point. For some sense of the sheer beautality these guys serve up, listen to Baobab (fast-forward to around the 8 minute mark if you're impatient/have little tolerance for shouting). Support came from screaming-brutal-sludgecore-types The Mire, who played in complete darkness punctuated by complex sequences of stark white flashing lights. It was all quite atmospheric and impressive, until you realised that the lights were being controlled by a guy frantically plugging and unplugging them all at the side of the stage. We also got Merrick, a local mob of fat shouty men that seemed quite good at the time; though this could be because the band that preceded them (whose name I have chosen to forget, for reasons of tact and drunkenness) were so bloody awful.
14/5/10 - Enablers. I've been desperate to see these guys for years, and they did not disappoint. Doom-laden beat poetry backed by post-rock-esque guitar and drum meanderings, one moment softly introspective, thunderously apocalyptic the next. Need to see them again. I also need to see the second support act The Wailingest Cats again. It was like being violently assaulted in a dark alley by a jazz quintet. The other support acts included a bunch of people that I didn't get there in time to see (though I'm assured that I missed precisely nothing), and an unnervingly tall/skinny/half-naked "performance artist" that was hopefully just taking the piss.
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Pixies
Sweet, sweet Pixie.-----------------------------------------
And in other news; my sister gets married on Saturday.
