Monday, September 29, 2008  12:05 am 

Pretty lights in my pocket

Hello there, you looking all miserable under the neon lights of the tube, you perusing through vacuous magazines while the screens of Oxford Circus and Victoria Station announce the imminent apocalypse, you lost in the trebly vibrations of an ipod configured to switch the world off, you kicking mangy pigeons off your way, advancing through invisible ley lines in the pavement towards another disappointing destination, yes, you. Come here, look at what I have inside my closed fist, check this out, this is not a trick, or at least not the sort of trick you are used to. I don’t want your money, I just want you to listen for a second, look at this, look at these bony fingers closed around something you can’t see yet, look at them, how they slowly unravel, there is something hidden here, check it out, look at this, my hand is opening slow and a pretty light is emanating from between my fingers, look at the pretty light, and listen.

‘The World is Lousy with Ideas’ 7” series is an excellent barometer of the state of affairs in the thriving lo-fi damaged pop wave U.S. Underground, that space of excitement where no wave, garage rock, fucked up folk and good ole noise collide like primeval beasts drowning bloody in a steaming tar pits. In their latest issue we get choice cuts from Eat Skull, Psychedelic Horseshit and our favouritest Little Claw.

The vibe is one of melodic fuzz, this is as close as any of these bands has got to delivering a ballad with which to swoon your sweetheart, and we fucking love them as the temperature rises, a radiation which throbs slightly mellower. This goes a long way to show these kids’ extreme levels of talent and application, say, for example Little Claw, who have blasted us with all sorts of fucked up droning shamanic incantations and transcendent wailing down the dark paths of that forest Suzy Bannion never dared to enter, look at them transformed, if only for tonight, into lovely ghosts of a C86 revolution that never quite succeeded, but still illuminates our lives with its echoes.

Little Claw- The Empty Mirror

Internet Forever make one of those sublime rackets that sound like falling in love as it happens, not when you think about it in retrospect and your cognitive system orders the chaotic maelstrom of sweet memories into a story you can tell your friends and family, nah, this is the sound of every moment of doubt, lines of sight connecting for a moment like a golden bridge which crumbles a second after, enthusiastic agreements and shared hates and staring at a figure that disappears on the distance, or materialises in the place of that date like a mirage or a miracle, 2 minutes and a half before you gave up on everything, a jumble of sensations and impressions and hopes and fears swirling around a pillar of light which finally shines full strength on you like rays of sun in a quiet beach, in spring of all seasons, that would be a happy ending, maybe better, a beginning soundtracked by a trembling glockenspiel which wouldn’t have been out of place in one of those placid moments that illuminated the seedy errands of the Velvet Underground.

Internet Forever just arrived to our house and it seems as if they had always been here, an old action figure, friendly faces in a slightly out of focus polaroid staring benevolent from a cluttered shelf, the one who saw it all happen, and watched over us as we went to bed, knowing that it was all going to work out at the end.

Special times, indeed.

Internet Forever- 3D

labels >> Internet Forever, little claw, xxjfg