Parquet Courts | Cody ChesnuTT | The Weeknd | Get The Blessing | Tommy Smith's KARMA | The Gospel According To The Other Mary
*Parquet Courts, London & Brighton*
The greatest trick that indie rock ever pulled was how a decent band can make it look so easy. Pavement and the Strokes had it, and Parquet Courts have it too. A deceptively simple raw guitar clang, and some eloquently tossed phrases; it's not an elaborate conceit, but it's undeniably a precious essence. The wider release of the band's current album Light Up Gold (which was easy to miss first time around) means there's now no excuse to miss these New York-based Texans tunefully and wittily reflecting on concerns such as premature nostalgia and bagel shortages.
*Upstairs At The Garage, N5, Tue; Shacklewell Arms, E8, Wed; Sebright Arms, E2, Thu; Audio, Brighton, Fri*
JR
*Cody ChesnuTT, On tour*
On the cover of his new album, Cody ChesnuTT wears a crash helmet; the better, you imagine, to protect himself from life's vicissitudes. Ten years ago, ChesnuTT recorded The Headphone Masterpiece, a lo-fi, scattershot double album that spoke well of him as an eccentric talent, but poorly of him as a philanderer. A decade on, his personal growth is now to be heard on the superb Landing On A Hundred. Recorded for the most part at Al Green's studio in Memphis, the album tells the story of ChesnuTT's redemption in uplifting spiritual soul, and features the year's best opening line ("I used to smoke crack back in the day …"). It's a work that has more in common with the socially aware music of Marvin Gaye than modern developments, but in a profound way. Rather than simply sampling 70s breaks, instead, ChesnuTT is invested in the artistic conscience of that time.
*Bush Hall, W12, Mon; Concorde 2, Brighton, Tue; Ruby Lounge, Manchester, Thu*
JR
*The Weeknd, On tour*
Before chillwave went disco, around the time Frank Ocean was smoking novocaine with a dental student, Abel Tesfaye was uncovering the darkness at the heart of the R&B dream. Rather than parties, romance and cut abs, in early 2011 The Weeknd unveiled House Of Balloons, a free mixtape that dealt far more extensively with the comedown than the high. Programmed as sensitively as a concept album, it articulated this uncomfortable mood with Tefaye's falsetto croon and samples from UK art rock of the early 1980s. Throughout 2011, he developed his vision into a mixtape, Trilogy, which has now become his debut album, and finds The Weeknd cast as a gothy Phil Collins.
*The Ritz, Manchester, Wed; O2 ABC, Glasgow, Thu; The Institute, Birmingham, Fri; touring to 27 Mar*
JR
*Get The Blessing, On tour*
Get The Blessing, the punchy jazz-rock quartet founded on Portishead's rhythm section, are the kind of band who make jazz fans out of people who don't know or care that that's what they're hearing. Current album OCDC joins dark, Morricone-like atmospherics; clanging, Joe Meek 60s pop; Ornette Coleman-sax soulfulness; and jazz-rock. But for all their deep roots, Get The Blessing never make music sound like a history lesson.
*Kings Place, N1, Sat; Chapter, Cardiff, Mon; Trades Club, Hebden Bridge, Wed; Seven Arts Centre, Leeds, Thu; Polish Catholic Centre, Sheffield, Fri*
JF
*Tommy Smith's KARMA, On tour*
Tommy Smith is the sax prodigy who played his way out of Edinburgh's Wester Hailes district on a scholarship to Boston's Berklee College of Music at 17, toured with master vibraphonist Gary Burton's pioneering fusion quartet at 19, and in 1989 became the first UK jazz musician ever to record for America's revered Blue Note label. As a saxophonist, Smith can play the daylights out of full-on post-bop or explore north European ambience but – though this tour's KARMA band might sound pretty familiar in its hammering backbeats (from ferocious drummer Alyn Cosker), slick unison choruses, and Headhunters-style keyboard and bass effects – Smith's much too smart for jazz-fusion cliches.
*Burgh Hall, Dunoon, Sun; An Tobar, Isle Of Mull, Tue; CCA, Glasgow, Wed; Friends Provident Social Club, Dorking, Thu; Stoke By Nayland Hotel, Colchester, Fri*
JF
*The Gospel According To The Other Mary, London*
At the turn of the millennium John Adams unveiled his nativity oratorio, El Niño. It presented the biblical story of Christ's birth using a libretto that he and director Peter Sellars assembled from both the traditional and apocryphal gospels together with poems by 20th-century Mexican women. Now, 12 years later, Adams has completed a companion piece, again in collaboration with Sellars. Like El Niño, The Gospel According To The Other Mary can either be presented as an oratorio or in a stage production. The concert premiered last May in Los Angeles, while the stage show had its first outing in the same city recently. Now it arrives in London as part of the LA Philharmonic's European tour. "Mary" is Mary Magdalene, and her story is told through a mix of Old and New Testament extracts together with a range of texts which give a contemporary twist.
*Barbican Hall, EC2, Sat*
AC Reported by guardian.co.uk 2 days ago.
*Parquet Courts, London & Brighton*
The greatest trick that indie rock ever pulled was how a decent band can make it look so easy. Pavement and the Strokes had it, and Parquet Courts have it too. A deceptively simple raw guitar clang, and some eloquently tossed phrases; it's not an elaborate conceit, but it's undeniably a precious essence. The wider release of the band's current album Light Up Gold (which was easy to miss first time around) means there's now no excuse to miss these New York-based Texans tunefully and wittily reflecting on concerns such as premature nostalgia and bagel shortages.
*Upstairs At The Garage, N5, Tue; Shacklewell Arms, E8, Wed; Sebright Arms, E2, Thu; Audio, Brighton, Fri*
JR
*Cody ChesnuTT, On tour*
On the cover of his new album, Cody ChesnuTT wears a crash helmet; the better, you imagine, to protect himself from life's vicissitudes. Ten years ago, ChesnuTT recorded The Headphone Masterpiece, a lo-fi, scattershot double album that spoke well of him as an eccentric talent, but poorly of him as a philanderer. A decade on, his personal growth is now to be heard on the superb Landing On A Hundred. Recorded for the most part at Al Green's studio in Memphis, the album tells the story of ChesnuTT's redemption in uplifting spiritual soul, and features the year's best opening line ("I used to smoke crack back in the day …"). It's a work that has more in common with the socially aware music of Marvin Gaye than modern developments, but in a profound way. Rather than simply sampling 70s breaks, instead, ChesnuTT is invested in the artistic conscience of that time.
*Bush Hall, W12, Mon; Concorde 2, Brighton, Tue; Ruby Lounge, Manchester, Thu*
JR
*The Weeknd, On tour*
Before chillwave went disco, around the time Frank Ocean was smoking novocaine with a dental student, Abel Tesfaye was uncovering the darkness at the heart of the R&B dream. Rather than parties, romance and cut abs, in early 2011 The Weeknd unveiled House Of Balloons, a free mixtape that dealt far more extensively with the comedown than the high. Programmed as sensitively as a concept album, it articulated this uncomfortable mood with Tefaye's falsetto croon and samples from UK art rock of the early 1980s. Throughout 2011, he developed his vision into a mixtape, Trilogy, which has now become his debut album, and finds The Weeknd cast as a gothy Phil Collins.
*The Ritz, Manchester, Wed; O2 ABC, Glasgow, Thu; The Institute, Birmingham, Fri; touring to 27 Mar*
JR
*Get The Blessing, On tour*
Get The Blessing, the punchy jazz-rock quartet founded on Portishead's rhythm section, are the kind of band who make jazz fans out of people who don't know or care that that's what they're hearing. Current album OCDC joins dark, Morricone-like atmospherics; clanging, Joe Meek 60s pop; Ornette Coleman-sax soulfulness; and jazz-rock. But for all their deep roots, Get The Blessing never make music sound like a history lesson.
*Kings Place, N1, Sat; Chapter, Cardiff, Mon; Trades Club, Hebden Bridge, Wed; Seven Arts Centre, Leeds, Thu; Polish Catholic Centre, Sheffield, Fri*
JF
*Tommy Smith's KARMA, On tour*
Tommy Smith is the sax prodigy who played his way out of Edinburgh's Wester Hailes district on a scholarship to Boston's Berklee College of Music at 17, toured with master vibraphonist Gary Burton's pioneering fusion quartet at 19, and in 1989 became the first UK jazz musician ever to record for America's revered Blue Note label. As a saxophonist, Smith can play the daylights out of full-on post-bop or explore north European ambience but – though this tour's KARMA band might sound pretty familiar in its hammering backbeats (from ferocious drummer Alyn Cosker), slick unison choruses, and Headhunters-style keyboard and bass effects – Smith's much too smart for jazz-fusion cliches.
*Burgh Hall, Dunoon, Sun; An Tobar, Isle Of Mull, Tue; CCA, Glasgow, Wed; Friends Provident Social Club, Dorking, Thu; Stoke By Nayland Hotel, Colchester, Fri*
JF
*The Gospel According To The Other Mary, London*
At the turn of the millennium John Adams unveiled his nativity oratorio, El Niño. It presented the biblical story of Christ's birth using a libretto that he and director Peter Sellars assembled from both the traditional and apocryphal gospels together with poems by 20th-century Mexican women. Now, 12 years later, Adams has completed a companion piece, again in collaboration with Sellars. Like El Niño, The Gospel According To The Other Mary can either be presented as an oratorio or in a stage production. The concert premiered last May in Los Angeles, while the stage show had its first outing in the same city recently. Now it arrives in London as part of the LA Philharmonic's European tour. "Mary" is Mary Magdalene, and her story is told through a mix of Old and New Testament extracts together with a range of texts which give a contemporary twist.
*Barbican Hall, EC2, Sat*
AC Reported by guardian.co.uk 2 days ago.