If it’s a comeback you want, Jetplane Landing with support from Carnivores delivered a set that their ten years younger selves would have been proud of.  

Jetplane Landing’s return to live gigs is still in single digits when they kick off their set. Before we get to that, support act Carnivores deserve a mention.

I’m going to sidestep the OTT metal songs that arguably weren’t clever enough without sounding contrived (compared to say, Dundee’s Kaddish) or catchy enough (whatever commercial metal is doing these days) and end up falling between two stools as the cliche goes.

Instead I’m going to write about the song that got the loudest cheer from the audience, the track that sounded most like the band themselves as opposed to emulating heroes. The song in question is called ‘The Second Wave Of Yuppie Scum’ and thankfully it’s available to hear from their bandcamp page. I’ll embed it here and link to the album at the end of this post.

Hearing it live, you realise that not only do Carnivores have talent but they can write a great song as well.

It makes me wonder how many songs do Scottish bands write before they decide there’s enough strong material to release an album. Any band is only ever 10 songs away from greatness. You almost want to lock Carnivores away in a Cabin in the Woods and tell them they can’t come out until they’ve got 40 songs. I reckon they’d have their 8-10 winners and we’d have a new Scottish rock champion. They have it in them.

JETPLANE LANDING ARE BACK

When doors opened and things were still relatively quiet, I managed to have a wee chat with JPL bassist Jamie Burchell. We joked about the insane tour they did around ten years ago where they played almost every city and town in the UK. They’re older and wiser now and short burst tours make more sense if you’re married with a family. It was, dare-I-use-the-word, nice catching up.

Armed with in-ear monitors and instruments poised to attack, when Jetplane Landing started to play it was clear they were up for it. Within four songs they’d found their top gear, with only the second in the set I Opt Out sounding like it could have used a later slot. This isn’t however the same band from ten years ago and I’m not just referring to the line-up.

Songs from debut album ‘Zero For Conduct’ sounded better as a three-piece when things were less RAWK and more subtle. Those tunes still sound decent but they’re no longer life-affirming. It’s a faded photograph from a previous life that no longer applies.

JPL in 2013 are very much about The Riff. This would explain why the best sounding songs live come from their most straight-ahead rock records, ‘Once Like A Spark’ and ‘Don’t Try’. In particular, Calculate The Risk sounds so intense and brilliant that it gets lodged in my mind on a loop for the next few days!

In case you’re wondering about the new songs from Don’t Try, well – Don’t Worry. They sound unstoppable. Beat Generation…Ha! steamrollers over most other rock bands you’ll hear live this year while My Radio Heart is played with a gleeful joy and unbridled sense of fun that can’t be hidden as Andrew Ferris bounces up and down playing the best thing they’ve ever written.

And let’s not forget the banter. When he’s not telling the audience to “keep her lit“, he’s replying to shouted song requests with gems such as, “too many hits, not enough time”. That one got a huge laugh.

Lasting over an hour, with an encore to satisfy the demands of a crowd chanting, ‘one more tune!’ this was a memorable night at Stereo. Don’t leave it so long until next time.

JETPLANE LANDING’s Album Don’t Try Is Out Now

CARNIVORES Album Is Available From Bandcamp

Gig Review: Jetplane Landing, Carnivores @Stereo, Glasgow

My Radio Heart is the first single from Jetplane Landing’s new album Don’t Try. In the words of N.I. music geek Johnny Reid, it is outstanding. As in, you could dislike this band and dislike this album but struggle to dislike this song. That’s how pop-tacular it is. Summer festival anthem ahoy!  

Moments after I’d posted last night’s update, I found the link to the new Jetplane Landing single My Radio Heart. Hiding in plain sight on my Facebook timeline no less. Grrr. Single reviews aren’t common on this site but as you may have noticed from my Return of Jetplane Landing piece, I’ll happily make an exception.

The idea of putting a number or grade on a piece of music has always struck me as ridiculous. It’s up there with not wanting to buy an album unless you recognise at least two singles from it. Yet websites like Metacritic generate massive amounts of traffic from aggregating these scores. Which is why the video game site kotaku always appeals to me with its should I buy this? yes/no approach to reviews. It’s simple, brilliant, and avoids contributing to the situation where some gamers will refuse to buy a title unless it scores 8/10 or higher. As if somehow reading one person’s opinion was enough to form your own.

For promo purposes it helps a band if their release gets a high score but likewise you could suffer from unfair comparisons to bands who have more money than sense.

Even if you’ve never been all that fussed about Jetplane Landing it’s worth checking out the new single. It’s possibly the best track on their latest album Don’t Try and one that makes you want to play it again on a constant loop. Traditional music review words you’d expect would include catchy, infectious, life-affirming and anthemic. Those words bore me but they are, in this case, accurate.

At Pet Piranha HQ the review test comes down to one thing: how much fun is it to air drum to? And bonus points if it happens involuntarily. For example, opening album track on Don’t Try ‘Cheapskate Tricks…’ has a breakdown section that comes back in at 3:32 and I always come back in too early. My air drumming skills are patchy at best. My Radio Heart opens with a beat you just have to air drum along to.

One of the best bits in My Radio Heart is when Andrew Ferris sings the line, “I do believe you now” and the word now is sung in such a heavy Derry accent that I can’t help but grin and repeat it myself. Thing is it’s not just an accent thing because the whole album is full of local references.

If there was a Single of the Week award this song would surely win it.

LISTEN TO MY RADIO HEART BY JETPLANE LANDING ON SOUNDCLOUD

Jetplane Landing – My Radio Heart – First Single from Don’t Try album

The only reason why there’s a second Alternative Ulster post this week is because Belfast’s YAKUZA have released a work of art. A WORK OF FUCKING ART.  I even used the ‘Awe’ word in the title which is more overused than guys with guns on the cover of video game boxes.  

Not to be confused with Chicago’s avant-garde metal band, Belfast’s Yakuza are longtime members of the Northern Irish scene. Similarly to Fat Goth, they’re all a bit older and wiser than the latest crop of underground bands. Having dayjobs and being closer to (or older than) thirty than twenty will do that to you.

Originality has always been a core part of Yakuza’s DNA.

It’s not that they sound like NoMeansNo or Yo La Tengo but they share a similar desire to deviate from the predictable indie rock template employed by most other bands. The great thing about not being in fashion is that you can never go out of fashion. Yakuza sound as vital and interesting in 2013 as they did when I first heard them around 2000.

TEENAGE LOBOTOMY 

Insane Plight in Plain Sight is the second full length release from the Belfast based Yakuza and with it a bonus e.p. of material recorded live at the BBC entitled “Ride the Bible”.

Their debut album was recorded many moons ago by Jack Endino and if they don’t put it online soon I’ll be forced to dig out my copy and beat you over the head with it.

This is what indie rock would sound like if you removed all notions of careerism. Safe and predictable it is not. I’ve been listening to Big Deal‘s album ‘June Gloom’ of late and while it’s enjoyable, it is created as hipster music polished for radio. Whereas Yakuza sound like they want to smash the radio and have Sheldon from The Big Bang Theory use bits of it to build a rocket and fly to the moon. This is Ramones energy fused with Les Savy Fav’s imagination. It’s giddy from eating all the wine gums and is nipping out to the lobby during the movie for more snacks. It sounds brilliant.

Initially I was thinking if this new record wasn’t decent I’d still write a few words anyway because they’re top guys and all the proceeds go to the Parkinsons research charity www.cureparkinsons.org.uk

Turn outs this post is writing itself such is my enthusiasm for what I’ve just heard. Franz Ferdinand and The Pixies may have released new material last week but both pale in comparison to track 9, Click. That is possibly my favourite track off the album. Verdict? Three thumbs up. A rare achievement.

LISTEN AND BUY THE NEW YAKUZA ALBUM NOW – PROCEEDS GO TO A FANTASTIC CAUSE

Alternative Ulster: Belfast’s Yakuza Release Fucking Awesome Album

Northern Ireland has a habit of creating bands that may not be critical darlings but they know how to rock like their lives depend on it. Can Vanilla Gloom reverse this trend?  

Derry being the UK City of Culture and Smalltown America’s continued promotion of new music has helped Northern Ireland’s second city when most of the limelight is often on Belfast.

News headlines in Summer often portray Ulster in a poor light which I have no intention of getting into. What I will say is that no matter what small minded behaviour takes place on either side this Summer, there will always be an ALTERNATIVE ULSTER.

The first week of July saw a name pop up in Scottish gig listings that I hadn’t seen before. By playing shows with bands I know to be more than decent, my curiosity then asks the question – who is Vanilla Gloom?

BRO-DUDES AND POP MEDIOCRITY

In their own words, “Vanilla Gloom are an all female, post-punk/grunge influenced three piece who count Queens of the Stone Age, The Breeders and Babes in Toyland as influences.” They hail from Belfast.

Such is the male influence in the music industry, all-female groups tend to get off lightly when it comes to constructive criticism. The same music being played by only guys would rarely get the same attention. That’s not the band’s fault of course. Hypocrisy comes in all shapes and sizes.

At least it’s not as blatantly sexist as the video games industry which generates horrendous stories on a seemingly weekly basis. An issue that I’ll keep raising because as a gamer, those stories make me livid.

I’m as bored of all the bro-dude characters in video games as I am of auto-tuned, scantily clad pop groups dancing like amateur strippers in music videos.

Only in countries as lacking in proper sex education and lacking a willingness to engage in open sex discussion as there is in the UK & Ireland, do you create the type of environment where such lame titillation can generate an audience for pop mediocrity.

In video game generations past, the 16-bit era gave us imaginative characters like Toe Jam & Earl, Ecco The Dolphin, and Dynamite Headdy. 3D graphics and the rise of marketing as part of the green light process has done a lot to water down fresh ideas to appeal to the lowest common denominator. You only have to read the story about the lack of publisher interest in a new Timesplitters game to realise how far backwards the industry has gone.

VEXED RED

That vexed tangent lasted longer than expected. The good news is that Vanilla Gloom’s latest release, a three song EP entitled Vexed, has more of their own embryonic ideas than those borrowed from 90s riot grrrl bands.

Of the three songs, opener Wolves is possibly the weakest simply due to it sounding like a carbon copy of any of those bands from that movement. Fans of very early Ash may draw comparisons to the song Uncle Pat which featured in a Heineken advert. A harsh criticism you could say, especially when firstly, this is a young band from Belfast still finding their feet and secondly, some fans of riot grrrl bands will undoubtedly love the opening track.

As a fan of Wild Flag, Veruca Salt and The Breeders, let’s not kid ourselves here. Those are very high standards to aim for, especially when recent Glasgow shows by Wild Flag and The Breeders have been truly exceptional.

Vanilla Bloom, much like my take on Min Diesel yesterday, are my kind of band. Tracks two and three from their EP point to a deeper understanding of the canvas upon which they create their art. The verse-chorus-verse trap is slightly less noticeable on Lemons and Wine and Vultures.

That’s not to be confused with the Scottish band Bear Arms whose song Vultures is the best impression of a Biffy Clyro / Thursday hybrid Scotland has ever produced. You can use that as a positive or negative depending on your own taste.

Scotland’s definition of post-punk in the last ten to twelve years would have been defined by bands such as Desalvo, early Degrassi, and Senator. Add wider known UK bands such as Mclusky or Part Chimp to that mix and then the idea of Vanilla Gloom being post-anything as a pigeonhole doesn’t really hold up. If they see themselves as post-punk then they’ll need to try harder to move away from anything vaguely alt-rock and Courtney Love-esque.

They are much closer to noise-grunge or classic 90s riot grrrl punk with lo-fi tendencies. Scottish kindred spirits of 2013 would be Garden of Elks, Pinact, or Miss The Occupier. If I was a member of Vanilla Gloom I’d definitely be chatting to those bands about future gig swaps and mini-tours.

Until they visit Scotland again to make more friends, listen to their EP over on bandcamp and keep an eye out for them. Northern Ireland has a habit of creating bands that may not be critical darlings but they know how to rock like their lives depend on it.

Alternative Ulster has another emerging talent to add to its collection.

LISTEN TO VANILLA GLOOM ON BANDCAMP

WATCH VIDEOS ON THEIR YOUTUBE CHANNEL

Alternative Ulster: Belfast’s Vanilla Gloom Make Friends

JETPLANE LANDING is back in action with new album “Don’t Try”. The hipsters won’t like it but in Mad Max territory they like their bands not to be afraid of rocking out. Between Refused and Les Savy Fav is a destination carved out over three previous albums which spells HONESTLY, WE DON’T GIVE A FUCK. 

PROLOGUE

Writing about the Derry based band JETPLANE LANDING is difficult for me because as the lyric goes to their song What The Argument Has Changed, “One… I love you too much”. So much for objectivity.

I know of singer-guitarist Andrew Ferris since his days in Cuckoo, a spiky indie band who released one record on Geffen in 1998. I briefly ran a fansite for that band while at Dundee Uni and later, when Jetplane Landing came along, I promoted two of their Dundee shows around the time of their debut album when they were still a three piece.

The night they played a crammed-to-the-rafters gig at the old, now demolished, Westport Bar alongside Senator and Laeto is for me, one of the happiest nights I’ve ever had promoting shows and helping bands out in general. There are framed JPL live photos in my living room that I bought from a photographer because that’s how much that whole first album and consequent tours meant to me.

If there’s one thing bands don’t like when promoting a new record, it’s when biased music reviewers bang on about the good old days. Ha!

The most recent Future of the Left album review on Pitchfork, for The Plot Against Common Sense, was an example of a critic so blinded by the past that he failed to accurately discuss the new record in question. In fact, he made such a terrible job of it that FoTL’s Andy Falkous felt compelled to set him straight on a few points with a level of self-awareness that very few musicians possess. It’s a must-read for anyone in a band, anyone who reviews music, and anyone who likes laughing.

As the cheesy line in the detective show goes, you’re too damn close to this case to think clearly!

But fuck it, write a piece on the return of Jetplane Landing I shall.

BETWEEN A ROCK AND AN ART PLACE

As a three piece JPL’s word of mouth likened them to Pavement, Dinosaur Jr, with nods to U.S. indie-emo bands like Burning Airlines. Debut album Zero For Conduct was art-rock with a certain lo-fi charm and quickly gathered critical acclaim.

So why is it that certain music fans stopped caring about the band from the second record onwards?

From that second album onwards Once Like A Spark, they were a four piece with a second guitarist, Cahir, who also jams in Fighting With Wire. Their collective ideas for the music they wanted to create became less art-pop and more wall of guitars, post-hardcore sounding. For some that’s an instant turn off.

Art-pop or Art-rock/noise is a description you can use for bands like Mogwai, Wild Flag, or Mars Volta. Y’know, the kind of bands that would not look out of place on an All Tomorrow’s Parties type of bill.

Listen to Mogwai’s menacing and brutal track Batcat for an example of the difference between it and say, a melodic post-hardcore band such as Strike Anywhere. As much as the latter track is a quality tune, Batcat fucking destroys it in the last thirty seconds. Intense, brutal yet served stylishly like a fine wine. The Hannibal Lecter approach to noise.

Jetplane Landing’s progression to melodic post-hardcore confused some but it makes perfect sense if you’re familiar at all with the Northern Irish rock scene.

Kicking doors down is in the air, whether it’s early Ash, Therapy? or Fighting With Wire. Northern Ireland doesn’t do twee in the way that Scotland does twee. There isn’t the same emphasis or pretentiousness around art and music that exists in Glasgow.

That Fighting With Wire signed to Atlantic Records and not a Domino, Matador, or Fat Cat gives you an idea how much N.I. bands like to RAWK. How much you think that’s a positive or negative depends on your own taste in music.

You could argue the problem is perception and interpretation.

Evolution to the Refused European Hardcore Template™ can sound like something else to UK pop writers. NME likened the second record to nu-metal. As failing to understand intent goes, it’s up there with the Pitchfork critic thinking The Plot Against Common sense had corporate-slick production. Clearly, it’s bollocks.

Whatever it was, the lo-fi charm was gone. You couldn’t imagine it at All Tomorrow’s Parties. The hipsters walked away.

The more I listened to Once Like A Spark, the more I would often find myself singing the line “I must reconcile your absence“.

GET THE FUNK OUTTA HERE

Around the time of their third album Backlash Cop, the band said they wanted to move away from making a record that could be said to sound like Biffy Clyro. With the bands of that alt-rock ilk all dropping like flies (Million Dead, Hundred Reason, Reuben etc) it made sense. Plenty of highly influential music released through U.S. labels in the 90s and 00s like DeSoto and Dischord promotes jazz-rock and funk rhythms. Bands such as Les Savy Fav and Q and Not U have recorded several brilliant albums. JPL even wrote a song for the album called ‘why do they never play Les Savy Fav on the radio?‘

The best I can say about JPL’s third album attempt is that it fell short. Great idea, not a fan of the execution.

I’ve listened to Q and Not U’s debut album ‘No Kill No Beep Beep’ so often that I’m probably overly critical when I hear bands such as Hot Hot Heat copy that style and make it more pop. JPL didn’t make that similar approach more pop but they didn’t make it truly their own voice either. There are fans who love the record. I’m not one of them but not because I’d have preferred generic alt-rock by numbers. I’d rather listen to James Brown!

And so the long wait for another album began.

TO SUFFER FOR ART IS THE DULLEST PART

If you’re still reading, congrats. As I often say, I’m not writing any of this for negative attention. I love the band and was chuffed to hear there was a fourth album, Don’t Try, coming out. All of this is my honest take on following the band over the years.

In an era of indie record shops closing, kids not buying records, and Spotify continuing to be a double edged sword I figure there’s no harm writing a piece on JPL.

Everyone has an opinion. It’s when you shove yours down people’s throats as absolute fact that you have to ask yourself where that need to do so comes from.

To a long-term fan, Don’t Try sounds like a lot of things finally clicking together.

Instead of having to defend itself from accusations of plagiarism from primary sources (the harshest and most honest review of Hundred Reasons simply said go listen to Sunny Day Real Estate and Drive Like Jehu instead), Jetplane Landing have carved out their own thing.

Don’t Try opens with the speed and raw riffery we’d expect from Kvelertak or a famous Scandinavian hardcore band. There are a few breakdown sections which are closer in guitar sound to dirty garage rock. Not even public school hipsters writing for NME could mistake what’s going on here. If you don’t rate it, SAUNTER ON BIG MAN!

HEY MAGGOTS GET OFF MY TURF

There are a few cracking songs on Don’t Try such as Beat Generation Ha! which sounds like Motorhead with Dave Grohl on guitar. Yes, it’s that rocktacular.

For me the highlight of the album is track four MY RADIO HEART which is the point where everything about Jetplane Landing clicks. It’s a great song, one with huge potential to help them find a new audience. It makes most other big name UK bands output this year sound fucking dire by comparison.

There aren’t slow songs on this record, merely variations in melody and approach. It’s part math, part garage rock, all heavy riffs.

The hipsters won’t like it but in Northern Ireland they like their bands to not be afraid to rock out. JPL have finally gone for the jugular. And any band that could potentially share a stage with METZ or Kvelertak without embarrassing themselves deserves major kudos.

These guys must be carrying their balls around in a wheelbarrow they found up on the Derry walls. Let the siege begin.

ORDER THE NEW JETPLANE LANDING ALBUM DON’T TRY

VISIT THEIR RECORD LABEL SMALLTOWN AMERICA / FACEBOOK

2013 gig dates at present:

19th July – Eagle’s Rock, Draperstown – Glasgowbury Festival
2nd September – Sheffield – Corporation
3rd September – Glasgow – Stereo
4th September – Manchester Soup Kitchen
5th September – Nottingham Bodega
6th September – London Lexington
7th September – Cardiff – Clwb Ifor Bach
13th September – Derry – Glassworks
14th September – Belfast – Limelight

The Return Of Jetplane Landing