#hamamama

[indiehorse]

[hypewriteruk-blog]

New Post has been published on http://hypewriter.co.uk/?p=706

Live - Jealous Lovers Club (Playlounge, Joanna Gruesome, HAMAMAMA) - Clwb Ifor Bach 06/02/13

Jealous Lovers Club celebrated it’s first birthday on Wednesday by putting on 3 fairly young and very interesting bands. With some great gigs already in the hat the night, fittingly taking place at Clwb Ifor Bach, saw Playlounge headline a veritable feast of grunge-soaked indie pop.

I promise I’m not calling you twee, Joanna Gruesome.

Openers HAMAMAMA provided an interesting mix of psychedelic guitars, melodic yelps and some very intricate guitar lines. . . Played on a bass. Unfortunately their admittedly skilled music failed to translate to an enjoyable sound, often the high grade (It’s over 9000!) bass playing simply ended up producing mess. The band’s lighter moments however showed a lot of promise, the crooning vocals for instance were a high point. Slower songs such as ‘I’m Gonna Write The Saddest Song For You’ made an impression that HAMAMAMA failed to reproduce for much of the set. Certainly an interesting proposition and experience the opener’s did just that, opened the night.

Then a surprise in the form of Cardiff band Joanna Gruesome came, a group whose accumulated ages may well be less than any single member of the reformed Stones. After taking a gamble and deciding to come to this gig to see Gruesome (I am a huge Joanna Newsom fan, why not?) I was given one of the most arrestingly fresh experiences of recent times. Gruesome’s grunge-tinged, angst-ridden take on indie pop (I’m not calling them twee, honest) was immediate, colourful and full of intent. A band who can mix the shoegaze styles of My Bloody Valentine whilst creating pop hooks such as standout track ‘Sugarcrush’ is rare, especially one so young. I’m excited, you should be too.

  It is testament to Playlounge’s headline performance that Gruesome didn’t manage to completely steal the show. The two piece managed to make quite an impact with just as solitary guitar and drummer/vocalist whilst managing to avoid the clichéd comparisons with Blood Red Shoes or DFA1979 that often knock around with such a set up. Playlounge instead sounded like a more visceral version of US punks Title Fight, the guitarist’s fuzzy yet emotional sound certainly brought to mind hardcore punk. The vocal’s were also strong, perfectly suited to the noise created by the two piece the vocal’s cracked and faltered in all the right places recalling popular noise-makers Male Bonding and bringing a distortion heavy night to a gripping close.