Dinosaur Pile-Up / The Federals / Littlemores / Ghosts On The Intercom @ The Basement Bar, York. 25th February 2009

It’s been a little while since I went to a gig with guitars involved so rocking out at the Basement Bar was a nice change. Lots of young York talent on show tonight in the form of everyone but the headliner, who come from down the road in Leeds so they didn’t have to travel to far in their, ‘Truck Delorevan Bigland’ as myspace tells me they ride in... Maybe I read to much.

Ghosts On The Intercom open up the night, I’ve seen these guys before supporting Rolo Tomassi in York but accidentally thought they were ‘in’ the intercom instead of ‘on’ it so sorry about that. They seemed a little tighter this time and rocked the hell out with their own brand of mathematical infused rock. I enjoyed it.

Littlemores are yet more young’uns from round the way and apparently this was only their third gig or somat. They played a brand of indie jangle in the vain of The Strokes or Razorlight you know a little bit garage a little bit ska a little bit indie pop. It wasn’t really my thing but it was by no means bad.

The Federals were the last of the support slots and the young York talent. They make a retro garage sound and are tight as hell with it as well. Nice short, dirty garage riffs with a fuck load of energy and throw back swagger they still managed to sound fresh even though it was all retro as hell.

Dinosaur Pile-Up have been making some indie waves in recent times with their own brand of grunge seeped indie rock, that’s equal parts low slung catchy riffs of Nirvana and fun time on form Weezer… kinda. I had almost seen them before at Nasty Fest in Leeds, but the room was so damn packed that you couldn’t get close so I jumped at he chance to see them in the intimate surroundings of City Screen’s Basement Bar. When Dinosaur Pile-Up really unleash the riffs and rock out like grunge never died it’s a joy to hear. The first track to really get the people dancing and people groping was Love is a Boat and We’re Sinking which is one of their ‘mellow’ ones that just happens to have one hell of a catchy riff and dancy drums. This band is tight, fun and can make one hell of a racket; Long live Dinosaur Pile-Up!

All in all it was a good gig full of guitars, bass and drums just like in the olden days. Everything was kind of retro sounding apart from Ghosts On The Intercom who kinda brought something fresh, angular and a little progressive to the night. All the rest killed it though and put in solid performances.

http://www.myspace.com/basementcityscreen

http://www.myspace.com/dinosaurpileup

www.myspace.com/thefederals

http://www.myspace.com/littlemores

www.myspace.com/ghostsontheintercom

Tellison, Tubelord & Ghosts in the Intercom @ The Junction, York, 28th July 2008

It’s a Monday night not much going down round my way, so why not go see a little Tubelord I say. I enjoy their melodic, pop, indie, rock, spazz tunes quite a lot. I had only heard Tellison by name pretty much, but that name suggested metal to me, but a quick look on the myspace soon told me I was wrong. They make some pure power pop indie rock that is both catch and has some inventive flourishes. Ghosts in the Intercom are some local kids as far as I can tell, they might be onto something if they keep tryin’.

Ghosts in the Intercom start proceedings with some kind of hardrock, indie stop start musical journey. I can’t remember a single tune of theirs but the sound has potential and if they practice and get some wicked tunes, they could be a good band.

Tubelord are who I came for and they didn’t disappoint and even had some new tunes since I last saw them. I might be wrong here but I think they had a different bass player this time round and he looked a lot more comfortable and danced like a bastard. I enjoy Tubelord’s moves the lead singer, guitar dude, moves like an indie rock sex flamingo, grinding and on one leg, while smacking out the spazzed out riffs and I mean that in the best way possible of course.

Tellison surprised me and not only because I thought the name meant they were a metal band. They were solid and had plenty of wicked tunes, all be it in a kind of generic indie power pop kind of way, but still done well and with some inventive flourishes that brought them out of the pack a little. All the music was new to me and I couldn’t really hear the lyrics so have no idea what they are about or indeed what many of the tunes are even called, but they had some followers singing along. It was their first time playing York and they seemed to enjoy it and so did the crowd, not that the crowd was huge or anything it was a Monday night in a venue f’ing miles away from the centre of town. Good gig.