The dubious honour of being the subject of my first proper article goes to Glaswegian lads Mitchell Museum. The story behind how I came to discover their music is a bit odd. A bass playing chap, who I met shortly after moving through to Glasgow, informed me he had a band, and from that moment on I received plenty texts about gigs and such like. It is to my shame that I never properly checked out who his band were (not even their name! Disgrace, oh disgrace) and what they did, until I followed a link from Song, By Toad on Mitchell Museum- about whom I had heard good things - and peering at the thumbnail I recognised one bass playing chap. Whoops. That would be them then.
Shortly after, another text is received, about another gig upcoming. Therefore, with a combination of guilt about not having seen a friend’s band and the knowledge that Mitchell Museum were somewhat promising, I trotted along to the Mill at the Oran Mor to make amends. First things first, why oh why did it have to be Miller. Bloody Miller. The shiteyist of the shiteyist of lagers. Out of a can it is vom-worthy, whilst out of a bottle it is only marginally better, at least being tolerable enough not to end up regurgitated on the floor. On the other hand, they are doing a decent thing by putting on all these fledgling, and mostly unsigned, Scottish bands for free. However cynically it can be viewed, in my opinion the benefit of the doubt is theirs. Basically, let’s just take it at face value. Good music for free and an excellent platform for unsigned bands to get their music ‘out there’.
So, to the music, and supporting the Mitchell Museum boys were an outfit called The ID Parade. A bit up and down to be honest with a few decent touches and a guitarist/backing vocalist who could “really wail” as a nice chap next to me put it. Band members were highly disparate from the trendy lead singer to the bear like guitarist who appeared to be my more musically able alter ego. The tunes didn’t seem to know quite what they wanted to be either, ranging from almost gospel rock to traditional psychedelic Stone Roses freak outs. Anyway, the point is, I’ve seen worse. Worth checking out live, certainly entertaining at least.
Mitchell Museum on the other hand, form a very tight unit and this is the first of many contradictions. All positive I should add. Sadly I’ll sound like a sad indie snob here but the music would come across to many ears wildly bizarre and without focus. The lyrics are unusual and unexpected, the music whirls between the instruments over the top of fantastic vocal melodies. But they’re direct too. One of those bands that land in the niche of pop gold that results from being experimental whilst holding fast to the roots of a good tune. Namely, it's catchy. There are hints of Wolf Parade and an obvious touchstone would be the Flaming Lips, but of course that’s just lazy journalism and very rarely to do such comparisons hit the spot. And they’re named after a building that was founded by money donated by my great-great-great-great-great-great (give or take a couple) Uncle. I’m practically their benefactor, and surely heir to a large amount of reference books?! I’ll need to look into this.
Shortly after, another text is received, about another gig upcoming. Therefore, with a combination of guilt about not having seen a friend’s band and the knowledge that Mitchell Museum were somewhat promising, I trotted along to the Mill at the Oran Mor to make amends. First things first, why oh why did it have to be Miller. Bloody Miller. The shiteyist of the shiteyist of lagers. Out of a can it is vom-worthy, whilst out of a bottle it is only marginally better, at least being tolerable enough not to end up regurgitated on the floor. On the other hand, they are doing a decent thing by putting on all these fledgling, and mostly unsigned, Scottish bands for free. However cynically it can be viewed, in my opinion the benefit of the doubt is theirs. Basically, let’s just take it at face value. Good music for free and an excellent platform for unsigned bands to get their music ‘out there’.
So, to the music, and supporting the Mitchell Museum boys were an outfit called The ID Parade. A bit up and down to be honest with a few decent touches and a guitarist/backing vocalist who could “really wail” as a nice chap next to me put it. Band members were highly disparate from the trendy lead singer to the bear like guitarist who appeared to be my more musically able alter ego. The tunes didn’t seem to know quite what they wanted to be either, ranging from almost gospel rock to traditional psychedelic Stone Roses freak outs. Anyway, the point is, I’ve seen worse. Worth checking out live, certainly entertaining at least.
Mitchell Museum on the other hand, form a very tight unit and this is the first of many contradictions. All positive I should add. Sadly I’ll sound like a sad indie snob here but the music would come across to many ears wildly bizarre and without focus. The lyrics are unusual and unexpected, the music whirls between the instruments over the top of fantastic vocal melodies. But they’re direct too. One of those bands that land in the niche of pop gold that results from being experimental whilst holding fast to the roots of a good tune. Namely, it's catchy. There are hints of Wolf Parade and an obvious touchstone would be the Flaming Lips, but of course that’s just lazy journalism and very rarely to do such comparisons hit the spot. And they’re named after a building that was founded by money donated by my great-great-great-great-great-great (give or take a couple) Uncle. I’m practically their benefactor, and surely heir to a large amount of reference books?! I’ll need to look into this.
The Mill is a great event, i write frequent reviews for them. They have Broken Records next week, check it! xx
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