Scant minutes into the first show by the Good Press Gallery house band, Vital Idles, on Sunday, 24th May 2015 at Glasgow's The Old Hairdressers, I knew they would be a group I would clutch to my heart. Informed by the sounds of the early 80s DIY revolutions in both the UK and New Zealand, they zipped through a succession of ever more adorable songs. 'The Garden' was a high-point. Sensibly, someone saw fit to film it:
Jessica, the singer, is a terrific performer prone to bouts of vigorous dancing and insouciant mic use. Sure, not all the notes she hits are the expected ones, but this ain't opera and sometimes a bit of wrongness makes things right. Each of the elements of their sound is as it should be: rhythms are thumped out unfussily on a minimal drum setup, the bass is tight and propulsive and the guitars have the immediacy of Buzzcocks or Crystal Stilts. Manchester-based label Comfortable On A Tightrope has just released a tape of Vital Idles demos. Get it on bandcamp or from the label. Oh,and if you've ever wondered how the children of Messthetics might tackle The Smiths, then wonder no more:
Their inauguration into playing live was such a blast that I can't wait to see Vital Idles again. Somebody make it happen, please!
There's an art to tagging songs on bandcamp. You don't want to make them too dull/literal but you certainly don't want to make them too wacky. You don't want them to pigeonhole your group nor do you want them to sound like a needy attempt to win cool points by associating your group with a bunch of hip genres. It's a conundrum, for sure. Sacred Paws sidestep these traps by tagging their brilliant "i n s t r u m e n t a l ((DEMO))" as "devotional freak out Glasgow". Having seen them twice in the last week "devotional" is apt as their insistent, highlife resonant guitar shapes and punk rhythms induce a kind of shamanistic dance trance as your brain empties of all its workaday nonsense and focuses on just moving in time. Sacred Paws is two thirds of Golden Grrrls - Eilidh Rodgers and Rachel Aggs (also of the wonderful Trash Kit) - and despite being only a year into their existence they already have enough memorable songs to send most of their more established peers back to the drawing board. Their first release is a split tape/download (Comfort On A Tightrope) with Hannah Lew of Grass Widow. Sacred Paws' songs are roughly recorded but diamonds all the same. Hannah Lew covers The Mantles' much revered "Don't Lie". Get on it! Oh, and should they come anywhere near your house, you must make the effort to see them live.
