Matt Geary’s Blog

Valentine

The crux, the stew, this darker dew
The ever-gyre spiralling confetti memories
The kiss upon the breeze
These dangled thoughts aside
Dancing melodies that tease me

And this I wish for you valentine
And this I wish

To slip this skin, to bury deep within
To have, to hold somebody that I’d wish to choose

To raise my arms to open up the skies
Sprawling maps always rain on our parade dear

And this I wish for you valentine
And this I wish for you

(M.Geary 2008)

The Machiavellian Plot

Am I a fool to know the answer?
The machiavellian plot it thickens
Majesty wise men do not go easy
And oh don’t you know?
And oh don’t you know?

She hides behind a black lace veil
Beyond all reason within those shadows of doubt
Sunlight kisses blister and scatter ashes
You stole a dead man’s soul
You stole this dead man’s soul

Singing now I won’t hold on to nothing
For all I need is covered in gold
For all I need is covered in gold
For all I need is you
For all I need is you

(M.Geary 2008)

Eh up.

A lot has been happening of late. We’ve a full band now with Ed Inferno (drums/percussion/magic) there is also Mike Nowland (cello) and Jez Diaper (piano) and some other bits and bobs with which we have been conjuring stuff, rehearsing and generally experimenting with loops/samples/blag poetry to formulate the act and sound. Somewhere between melodic folky songwriter loopy epic melancholic brummie tuneage would be about on the money. All this is in view to record our new E.P, though we are in talks with a few studios we have not yet decided on a set location. We are in need of a photoshoot to show our ugliest sides off to people who dont really care what our mushes look like, though this is a necessary pre-requisite in the music fight game. Any snappers give us a shout, and we’ll turn up suited and booted and will reward your flashbulb skills with a coffee cream. Also, we may be changing the band name but this is also in dispute hmmmm. We’ve a few new songs to be completed and are troubleshooting how to play to loops without losing them in the melee of melody. Answers on a postcard please.

We played our very first gig as a full act at Moseley Folk Festival and despite monitor shortage which meant i couldn’t hear my loops and tuning difficulties creating many-a-sweat-lull-panic-shite-hurry-up kind of shennanigans it was most excellent. (must write simple tunes in normal tunings without capos) Thanks to all the support, Bohemian JukeBox, Ben, wristbands and general tom-foolery culminating in falling over in someone’s garden in Moseley at 7am. An excellent time was had by all. Onwards and upwards Mr Newton you bounder!!

Current Setlist is

Temperance
You’re Still Holding Me On
Dangerous Games
Smile
Machiavellian Plot
Best Kept Secret
Eventually
Level Four
The Dreamers
Good People
Loophole
Sing Hallelujah
Valentine
Touched From A Distance
All I Need Is To Be Loved
Confessors Lament (thats the drum and bass excursion one bassheads)

Next gig will be at the Yardbird on the 22nd September for Matt Tuite’s ‘Birmingham’s Unsung Heros’ night. Also, playing will be Chris Tye and Tom Bellamy, both very talented chaps so do come along for the shnizzle my bizzle or something. Its free and on www.myspace.com/lonewolfpromotions and also the Rainbow on October 24th is rund the corner and Gigbeth. Come on!!! Peace.

Congrats to the very wonderful Elbow (who I had the pleasure to meet and chat stuff with once at the Academy once, top blokes!!) on winning the Mercury Prize, very very well deserved and done. 17 years of graft and wonderful music has paid off, an example to all aspiring musicians.

This week I have been mostly listening to Johnny Flynn, Amon Tobin, Kelli Alli, Heritage Orchestra, Lizzy Parks, John Coltrane, Oasis, Johnny Foreigner, Slow Club, Does It Offend You Yeah?, Cut Copy, James Summerfield, The Verve, Kalli, The Ruts, Fairport Convention, Digitalism, Deluka, Burial, Mirror Mirror, Elbow, DJ Hype, Tricky, Gorecki, Television, The Drip-Dry Man, My Bloody Valentine…..

And eating shit loads of cheese on toast

Emma Cutler is re-launching the Hare Of The Dog Comedy Club back up @ Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath.

It kicks off on Sunday 7th August as a bi-monthly event, with two top acts, one being the headline act. Plus a 5min open spot. All compered by James Cook, formerly ran the highly successful comedy club ‘Birmingham Comedy Kav’ at Patrick Kavanagh’s in Moseley.

7th SEPTEMBER

Paul Sinha is a qualified GP and international stand up comic of many years standing, having performed in all major comedy clubs in the UK, as well as China, Auckland, Singapore, the Middle East, South Africa, Netherlands and Germany.

Paul’s second full length solo show “Saint or Sinha” received widespread critical acclaim at the 2006 Edinburgh Fringe Festival and was nominated for the if.comedy award (formerly the Perrier).

Since then Paul has been in great demand, whether on TV shows such as Edinburgh and Beyond, World Stands up ,Comedy Shuffle and Comedy Cuts, on Radio 4’s Loose Ends and the Now Show, or his numerous contributions to Radio 5 Live and Talksport, as well as having recorded for Shane Warne’s Ashes podcasts last year.

This year, Paul takes his show “King of the World ” to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival, performing at the Pleasance Baby Grand at 21.35.

Hare Of The Dog Comedy Club

Hare & Hounds, Kings Heath

Date: 07/09/08

Times: Doors 7.30pm, Show Starts 8.00pm Finish: 10pm

www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=13044214186

www.hareandhoundskingsheath.co.uk

www.paulsinha.com

No tickets, pay £5 on door!

SUNDAY 7th SEPTEMBER PAUL SINHA: Britain’s funniest gay Asian doctor has a rapid fire delivery that builds to a near orgasm of laughter.

Nominated for if.comeddie award at the Edinburgh Fringe.

SUNDAY 21st SEPTEMBER NICK DOODY: If Bill Hicks was still alive – he’d open for Nick Doody. Look at his cold dead eyes, Once called his Edinburgh show ‘Before He Kills Again. Will tonight be the night?

SUNDAY 5th OCTOBER IVAN BRACKENBURY: The sickest Hospital Radio DJ is back with more dedications. You’ll never hear Leona Lewis in the same way again. Nominated for the if.comeddie award at the Edinburgh Fringe.

SUNDAY 19th OCTOBER JON RICHARDSON: From BBC 6music’s coveted Sunday morning show, he’s the most naturally gifted comedian of his generation. Really. He’s THAT good. All shows feature support and compere James Cook Doors 7:30pm Show 8pm-10pm

So do get down for some Sunday cheer you miserable lot!

The Drip-Dry Man.

   The Drip-Dry Man sounds more like he is from the swamplands of the American Deep South rather than Aberystwyth. Along with his nuclear fallout compadres, the Glitter-Dome band, most notably a gas-masked bass player and pot-banging percussionist, I gathered I would be witness to something slightly different when I walked in on Bohemian Jukebox @ Hare and Hounds. Indeed, my suspicions were heeded when panda-eyed, voodoo doll Drip-Dry started the night with a haunting blues accapella which set the gravel tone for the next magical half-hour of chthonian tales. The subsequent performance played host to rasping fuzz bass, Captain Beefheart whore-house angles and darkness-infused chain gang tunes which painted Howlin Wolf and Tom Waits at their growling bluesy-best. Indeed, the watching audience seemed rendered catatonic in wonder and voyeuristic unease by such lyrics as ‘is that a pen or a machine gun?’ and ‘shooting clowns on the merry-go-round’ as heard in the song ‘Devil’s Eyes’. The resounding echo of the evening sounded with the final song, a macabre tale which told of children wishing to burn their parents with gasoline for feeding them whisky.  The Drip-Dry Man provides a refreshing theatre of freakish presentation fusing and perverting old musical templates such as delta blues, gospel and country with contemporary instrumentation; a modus operandi similarly adopted by such acts as Alabama3. However, the music seems to have more in common with the avant-garde expression and sensibility of ‘Trout Mask Replica’ era Captain Beefheart than the electronic dub offerings of A3. I highly recommend all you vampires, vagabonds and lowdown loony tunes jump on his musical merry-go-round if the Drip-Dry delta circus comes to your town; though do not hold me responsible for any ensuing nightmares. You can catch The Drip-Dry Man out at the Sunflower Lounge, Smallbrook Queensway, Birmingham on September 15^th and on www.myspace.com

Review by Matt Geary

Hi ya bods,

me and the lads will be playing Moseley Folk Festival on Friday 29th August at 6.40pm on the Bohemian Jukebox stage. This will be our first gig as a full band including Ed Inferno (drums/percussion/samples), Mike Nowland (cello) and Jez Diaper (piano), so come along for a listen, loads of great acts are playing that night also as well as the weekend including Morcheeba, Jose Gonzales, Scott Matthews and Waterson Carthy. Festival information is at www.moseleyfolk.com

Thanks
Matt

   Bohemian Jukebox has an uncanny habit of uncovering gems from around the globe and presenting them to the ears of discerning Brummies. In the midst of mid-week doldrums I ventured to the musical cauldron which is the Rainbow to witness one-time Moldy Peaches guitarist and legendary lo-fi anti-folk New Yorker Toby Goodshank.
  Centred around his solo guitar exposing his soft affecting voice and delivery, Toby portrays the isolated urban spirit searching for love and sky amidst the smog and concrete. Cut and paste lyrics relay graffiti trains of thought which produce an ease of flowing reason akin to William Burroughs but much more accessible. As in ‘What I Learned There’ Toby presents ‘fragments of storybook arranged and converged’ in unconventional song structures conjuring emotional, melancholic landscapes both pornographic and beautiful as seen when he encourages us to ‘Staple my penis shut and nail it to the wall.’ Also a visual artist, underground art and musical influences prevail through visually affecting realism and imagery which is brutally honest and void of decoratio. Lyrical artistry entwines with this visual artistic sensibility convincingly telling of intimacy, closeness and degradation rarely approached by songwriters. However, these ’thoughts of hope and death’ are far from depressing, Toby’s soulful pained portraiture retains humility due to his sincere, sweet sentiment and wry humour which sees light at the end of dark tunnels, hugging loneliness only to throw it down the fire escape.
   Highlights of the evening occurred in his duets with touring support Dizzy and the Martian whose gentle female vocals subtlety sprinkled magic dust, and an impromptu animal-like drum performance by wondrous Brummie Greg Smith of Theatre Of The Absurd who helped cap an excellent nights music. 
   Both a riveting and abstract voice for the disenfranchised, fans of Conor Oberst and Jeffrey Lewis should definitely further investigate Toby Goodshank’s weaving tales of intense reflection and refraction. Visit www.olivejuicemusic.com and www.myspace.com/tobygoodshank

   For those who deem live music the highest desideratum for their lugholes, I am proud to announce the launch of my column in the Nighttimes music magazine which aims to champion and give scope to the vast richness and diverse talent presently playing notes in the Midlands musical melting pot. Built upon a premise of positive and constructive coverage, all and sundry tuneage will be featured in order to provide you the reader and listener a regular comprehensive overview of what is happening in your local venues, pubs, clubs and street corners.

    So to the chase. These coming months have much to offer, a few choice cuts being the regular Tuesday nights run by Bohemian Jukebox @ the Hare and Hounds  which features wonderfully diverse and reputable songwriters from near and afar. As well as providing it’s staple funk and jazz, August sees the launch of  a new night at The Yardbird called Birmingham’s Unsung Heroes which specifically spotlights Birmingham songwriters starting on the 25^th  with Kristy Gallagher, Aaron Yorke, James Summerfield, Matt Tuite and Flame of Furvor and continuing every Monday.
   The 444club @ The Rainbow (every Friday) is the flagship night of the Kamikaze! Promoters. Featured artists can be any prominent touring artists coming through alongside rising local acts. 22^nd August sees electric noise monger trio and NME favourite Untitled Musical Project headline, indie-electro experimentalists The Dead Fish play the 29^th, whilst September introduces punk rock anti-folk legend Lach on the 15th and Brummie indie rockers Electric Animals on the 19th. All further listings and information can be found on myspace.com/kamikazeeventssite.  As ever the Academy plays host to some excellent acts large and small with August hosting N.E.R.D and Crystal Castles, also catch one of John Peel’s most beloved The Wedding Present on 1^st September at the Barfly in the heart of Digbeth. Highly recommended gig is cosmic yee-haa songwriter Danny And The Champions of The World, catch him at the wonderful Kitchen Garden Café, Kings Heath August 24^th www.kitchengardencafe.co.uk

    Highlight of the month has to be the ever-burgeoning Moseley Folk Festival 29-31^st August held in Moseley Park, which maintains an exceptionally high standard of performers this year featuring Morcheeba, Jose Gonzales, The Bees, Scott Matthews, Seth Lakeman and Waterson:Carthy plus local troubadours Mickey Greaney, Richard Burke, Ben Calvert and Vijay Kishore. Matt Geary and full band will also be playing the event on the Bohemian Jukebox stage. Further information can be found on www.moseleyfolk.com. Oh yeah ! Finally, some legend called Stevie Wonder who is apparently quite good and had three of the most seminal records of the seventies is playing Birmingham NIA on 8^th September. ‘I Just Called To Say I Love You’ anyone?

Due to a few requests here are the lyrics to new song ‘Best Kept Secret’:

Best Kept Secret

There’s no path just overgrown old roads
White rabbits dive down man holes where ghost children played

Did I exist? Amidst the lust and the shrewdness
Cinnamon and crushed velvet told in your eyes

For I’ve learnt that nothing lasts forever at all
Was everything that I did so wrong?
So wrong

A mass brawl, broken glass in the concert hall
I guess that we were not so pure after all

Blown tyres, love letters and tapped wires
Burning on this funeral pyre, your photograph

For I’ve learnt that nothing lasts forever at all
Was everything that I did so wrong?
So wrong

For I was your best kept secret
A dirty thought that you frequented
Under moonlight I was lost
Forgot

(M.Geary 2008)

Martin Mullaney’ s next podcast has just been uploaded at http://www.communitypodcastradio.co.uk/martin/martin.html