Nine Feet Underground

Back to SUB89 for the third time this year: The Jesus and Mary Chain supported by a relatively new band from Bath, Swimming Girls. SUB89 is the most crowded I've seen it - clearly the JAMC are still quite a draw, helped no doubt by the strength of this year's new album 'Damage and Joy' as well as the strength of their back catalogue, not to mention their "mainstream" rock credentials which gives them pretty broad appeal. First up, as tradition dictates, the support act, Swimming Girls, clearly a new band (they only seem to have one song out there on SoundCloud) but, as their playing shows, a band used to playing together.  Ahead of the gig I listened to the one song I could find, 'Tastes Like Money', which was OK, certainly enough to make me want to hear what they were like live. As is often the case, live, the band were better than I expected with a late '80s / early '90s sound - a cross between maybe shoegaze / dream pop with a...

Mac DeMarco has a pretty bad reputation for being a bit of an arsehole, though an arsehole capable of writing great songs, each album being blessed with several intoxicating songs.  His latest, 'This Old Dog', is no exception and one of the standout tracks is the summery 'On The Level'.   Opening with a woozy keyboard sound over a loping beat leading to Mac's trademark even-more-laid-back-than-a-hammock-swinging-gently-in-a-Caribbean-sea-breeze vocal style, this is a song to lose yourself in.

There is a beauty in the bleakness of these soundscapes and, when they work, the lyrics and the singer's broken weariness only serve to plunge the listener deeper in. The occasional crass lyric aside 'Cigarettes After Sex's' self-titled  album is a journey into a glacially sharp lovelorn despair that can only serve to draw you down into its crushing core. 'Each Time You Fall In Love' encapsulates the feel of album with songs like 'K.', 'John Wayne' and 'Apocalypse' being amongst the standouts.