news 'zine e-zine  contact links home

 

Mad Library/After The Blackout/Junked Up Newt

Phoenix Arts Centre, Exeter - 25/8/04

Big piles of crap are fun...

Yes, it’s true. I am stalking Mad Library. But they’re not going to be around for too much longer so I figure it’s ok. Tonight they were opening events again with the help of Dom Coyote, who gets better every time I hear him. Tonight he was on astounding form, he’s a born front man with an incredible voice and one of the few individuals capable of eclipsing musicians like Mad Library. The music tonight was as excellent as ever, the new material sounded like it is really coming on and the previously unheard song they played tonight was excellent and they finished off with a brilliant rendition of Sounds Like Time which is always a good thing. Despite all this praise though there was still a certain spark missing that I know they’re capable of that pushes them from the realms of excellent into unbelievable. Perhaps it was just because I was sober.
9 out of 10




After The Blackout are a sneaky band. They try to trick you into thinking they’re really good when in fact they aren’t. They’re good in a bland and forgettable kind of way, they play identikit melodic but heavy alternative rock which is easy enough to dance to if you’re in the mood and is instantly digestible but lacks any real substance. Despite all the Silverchair and Foo Fighters comparisons I’d read, which I guess are understandable, they actually reminded me more of Hundred Reasons at times, though I’m sure everyone and hid dog will disagree with me on that one. The point is though that ATB are good but they’re nothing special. They could be any band, anywhere, any time as far as I’m concerned, and they won’t still be in your head the morning after.
7 out of 10





Imagine Scrapheap Challenge crossed with the best party you’ve ever been to. Or a kind of urban rhumba commune. Or those times back in school where you started playing drums on tables and pencil cases scaled up to gargantuan proportions. Then you’re getting there. But the only real way to understand Junked Up Newt is to go and see them and either stand and stare slack jawed or dance your little socks of. An outstanding orchestrated cacophony of percussion with bits of rock, blues, rap and the odd choral moment thrown in for good measure all played on a variety of junk with a few guitars and vocals on board too they are something else entirely. Oozing good times and charisma from every pore of this eleven strong group they play a good amount of their own material, most of which is dancy party music but in my opinion most excel when playing cover songs, a brilliantly understated version of Massive Attack’s Teardrop for example. Or a twelve bar blues version of Hey Ya by Outkast. Or possibly the best version of Johnny Be Good you’ll ever hear. It’s not without its faults but to point them out would make me more pedantic than an Olympic judge, so I won’t. Just go see them and enjoy, it’s absolute rubbish. You’d been waiting for me to crack that one open since this review started hadn’t you?
10 out of 10