Pop Scene // Manchester
We all know that Manchester is England’s second city, if not in terms of population then at least culturally- The Smiths, Joy Division, The Fall, The Chameleons, New Order etc etc supply a rich musical heritage that is complemented perfectly by the town’s often strikingly beautiful Victorian architecture. Nowadays if you only got all your music news from newspaper supplements you’d probably think The Courteeners and The Ting Tings are the only thing Manchester has going for it but that’s where you’d be wrong- not only are both those bands actually from London and its only an elaborate fiction that they have any connection whatsoever to my adopted home, but in fact the really big stars are these 6 bands featured here.
Cats In Paris
Cats In Paris pretty much rule over everyone on the Manchester music scene like sick kings who are also really fun to watch and listen to and be around. If nothing else they are pretty much ubiquitous support bands for when any big name PitchDiSoFBESTFiT type band is in town. But Cats In Paris are also great live themselves and Courtcase 2000 was officially last year’s second-best album after Johnny Foreigner. In fact, I could spend my whole day being sycophantic towards Cats In Paris on the internet and whats more this would in fact actively be a good use of my time because they really are that incredible a band.
Whats it like being a POP SENSATION in Manchester? Do you feel inspired by the pop scene there or not?
Ben (Drummer): I wouldn’t know! It is fun playing in a pop band and even more fun when people dance to you. Trying to think about whether we’re well known or not makes my head hurt. Perhaps I’m out of touch, but I can’t seem to find a pop scene in Manchester, at least not in the traditional sense; most bands seem to either a) completely ace and weird and amazing or b) hideous landfill indie. In any case, our sole influence at the moment is R Kelly, so unless he plays Saki Bar I can’t see Manchester having too much influence on us right now.
Favourite venue to play?
I love them all equally but I suppose by default I’d have to say the Deaf Institute, as for some reason we’ve ended up playing there about a thousand times in the last year and it’s always been lovely.
Who else do you rate in Manchester?
Dutch Uncles, Burnst, Hot Bone, Ed Cottam and Jon Thorne Quartet are all wonderful in completely different ways.
mp3:> Cats In Paris: ‘Goojfc’
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Jam On Bread
Jam On Bread is Steve Carlton, a soft-spoken, bearded young man originally from Grimsby with a ukulele and a genuine knack for writing transcendently indie-poppy self-pitying song-form gems using it. The completely wonderful ‘I Wish I Was A Manatee’ is possibly going to be released as a single at some point on This Is Pop records. Other top hits include ‘Its Always Sunny Inside’ and ‘I Heart Labrador Records’, both featured on his recent split EP with Norwich grimness champion Mat Riviere.
Whats it like being a POP SENSATION in Manchester? Do you feel inspired by the pop scene there or not?
I’m not sure I’m really a pop sensation in Manchester, you know. I’m not even a pop sensation in my own flat! But being an average singer songwriter in Manchester is pretty cool. There’s no shortage of places to play and lovely people who want to put you on at their nights, so I like that. I’m not sure there’s really a ‘pop scene’ though, which is a shame. Most Manchester based bands I come across are far too serious and spend too much time trying to sound like Oasis or the Stone Roses or something. It’s all very blokey. An indie-pop scene in Manchester would be ace but I can’t do it on my own!
Favourite venue to play?
Fuel? I dunno. I enjoyed it when I played there but that might possibly have been because it was like playing in someone’s bedroom and I’m most at ease in that kind of situation. Deaf Institute is a beautiful room but I had a nightmare when I played there and gave up half way through my last song. I think I just stopped, said ‘Ah, forget it’ and stomped off in a huff.
Who else do you rate in Manchester?
I really like Amida! Ste McCabe is great too. Aside from them, Cats in Paris and The Empty Set, I can’t really think of any other Manchester bands I really like. Judy and the Blumes are awesome but they seem to be in some kind of turmoil over whether they actually want to be a band or not. I rate them though. Yeah.
mp3:> Jam On Bread: ‘It’s Always Sunny Inside’
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The Empty Set
TLOBF Picks For ’08 (admittedly just courtesy of me who is the very same person hyping them up now but STILL that’s something huh how I wrote two separate things about them?) The Empty Set is a half-Manchester, half-London duo, singer-songwriter Tommy Ogden and violinist Dan Simons, with Tommy the one who lives here. Anyway they’re really top Magnetic Fieldsy indie-pop classicalists with lyrics alluding to science and math and stuff (Ogden is a Physics PhD student of some kind). They’ve got an album, As Neat As A New Pin coming out via Tough Love Records hopefully really soon.
Whats it like being a POP SENSATION in Manchester? Do you feel inspired by the pop scene there or not?
Tommy: Ha! It must feel wonderful, I imagine. If I really became a pop sensation, I think I would like my very own Metrolink tram to drive about in. I’d let TLOBF on for free.
I do feel inspired here. ‘Scene’ may or may not be the right word for what we have; I can’t decide. There’s all these groups of friends one meets in the city who function almost like unspoken artist collectives, quietly encouraging each other to write, to draw, to play—to *make stuff*. It’s wonderful, and it’s very important.
A critical mass is necessary for this to happen: it means one is able to find people with whom to share one’s little ideas; and it provides the audience to bring every touring band and artist one might wish to see—to study them and draw motivation for one’s own work. In that respect I think any large city will inspire, though Manchester has an untouchable charm. This is the place where Rutherford discovered the structure of the atom and where Morrissey met Marr, so if you’re writing pop songs about unrequited love and science (as I happen to be) there’s probably nowhere better.
What are your favourite discos?
‘Smile’, of course, at the Star & Garter. I’ve met nearly all my friends here through that night, directly or indirectly. Dependably uplifting, like a dutiful old friend.
‘Your Mama’s Cooking’ is a fairly recent addition but already a monthly highlight. After being provided with tea and home-made cake on arrival, you’ll get a lesson in Lindy Hop or the Charleston, during which you’ll get to dance briefly with each of the super-cute girls (or boys) there, before a band plays and finally the old records are put on for you to show off your new move to. It’s invariably a joyous affair.
Who else do you rate in Manchester?
The winsome Jam On Bread, the charming Shrieking Violets and the enchanting Sam & The Plants.
mp3:> The Empty Set: ‘Alice and Bob (Forlorn Photon Love)’
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The Shrieking Violets
The Shrieking Violets are mostly (but not entirely) the vehicle for the songs of Natalie Violet-Bradbury, who mixes equal parts outsider music and classic girl-group pop into some sort of incredible listenable cake that we can all share. Fellow Violets Dom and Sarah provide a perfectly minimal set of drums and a violin respectively. In their current incarnation they’re only just getting started but they should be the most exciting thing here in no time if they keep going in the same direction.
Whats it like being a POP SENSATION in Manchester? Do you feel inspired by the pop scene there or not?
Natalie: I don’t really feel like a pop sensation – I’m just trying to play gigs so people start thinking I am a serious band. I’d like it if our gigs could feel like some kind of occasion rather than just being up onstage and everyone looking at me – I’d like it to have more of a party feel! I like it when people get involved by clapping along (and singing and swaying when we used to do our Pavement cover!). I like it when we give out Parma Violet sweets and have fake flowers on stage with us and dress in purple so it feels like a ‘pop happening’, a real spectacle for the eyes and ears rather than being a passive thing to listen to.
My ambition is to start getting gigs for people like Tears on the Golf Course and Pineapple Folk supporting bands they put on. I feel inspired by cosy gigs by independent promoters like that, when people can sit on the floor. I really like the gigs Jamboree and Other Sounds put on, and the gig we played for Paper Scissors Glue was really fun. I especially like gigs where there are fairylights.
I feel inspired by the venues as well – I love playing at places like the Klondyke and Kro, which are perfect for small gigs (my ambition is to play at the Star and Garter, and the Sacred Trinity Church, obviously!).
I feel really inspired by the pop scene, but I feel like there’s alot of it I haven’t really investigated. For example, I’ve never been to one of the Mushaboom gigs in Chorlton.
Do you think that Manchester still has the same magic as a city it has in the legends of yore?
I’m not sure about whether or not Manchester has the same magic and legendary status. I think partly because it’s such a student city – lots of the bands are only in town for part of the year, or then they graduate and kind of fizzle out. Lots of them aren’t actually from Manchester either (myself, for example), just happened to have formed here. I find Manchester really, really inspiring, though, as a city. I really like the way there are so many venues in such a small area, and such alot going on all the time.
Who else do you rate in Manchester?
I love playing gigs with Jam on Bread and Cookie Cutterr, I just listened to Judy and the Blumes yesterday and they sound really good too. They all do a similar kind of thing to us! I really like Sir Yes Sir as well, who are quite different to us! I have their songs in my head alot of the time! I’m really annoyed I’ve still never seen Cats in Paris. As far as established bands go, I still love Jim Noir, and Magic Arm is quite good. I used to really like James Blackshaw and Sparky Deathcap and Voice of the Seven Woods, but I think they might have all moved to London now.
I’m never sure if they count as a Manchester band (they’re kind of from the area) or a Norwich band (they go to unviversity there) but I absolutely love The Middle Ones. I went to see them on Tuesday and I was SO jealous, they were so good. They are what the Shrieking Violets would be like in an ideal world!
mp3:> The Shrieking Violets: Shake Some Action (Flamin’ Groovies cover)
The Shrieking Violets on MySpace
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Amanaplan
Amanaplan is the side-project of Cats In Paris’s (frontman and bassist, respectively) Michael & Lorien and together they make different-but-similar headfuck-pop songs, like synthesizers twisting themselves around 270 degrees and looking you right in the face with the eyes of a dying scientist from the far future. Just listen to ‘SilverKeys’ and go berserk with love. Unfortunately they never got back to me with the answers to the questions I asked them so I took the liberty of answering them for them.
DISCLAIMER: not a real interview.
What’s it like being a POP SENSATION in Manchester? Do you feel inspired by the pop scene there or not?
Not-Michael: I feel inspired by everything and anything, from the drops of dew between my toes as I take my barefoot morning jog through Platt Fields park, to the click-click-whirr of a laser printer, to the fresh, content-in-their-recent-achievement smiles of newborn babies (who have, after all, only just learnt to smile). I feel, hear, and look respectively at all these things, and I am content with the world.
So that’s how I write songs. Manchester is pretty good also.
As a side-project, how does Amanaplan relate to Cats In Paris, aims/ideas-wise?
If Amanaplan are Jesus, then Cats In Paris are merely John the Baptist. But that’s not to say Cats In Paris are in any way made obsolete by Amanaplan. No- John the Baptist was pretty rad too.
Who else do you rate in Manchester?
Sex Hands, Dave Jezebel, Needlework, and Cameralot are all top acts so go and see them if you have a chance.
mp3:> Amanaplan: ‘SilverKeys’
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Klaus Kinski
Most of the bands I’ve featured here are either Cats In Paris (or derivatives of) or kind of mild-mannered indie-pop stuff, but Manchester also has a thriving noise scene. By far my favourite (it’s no secret that I think most ‘noise’ is kind of boring and predictable and dull but don’t hold it against this pack of incredibleness) are the Welsh, horse-obsessed doombringers Klaus Kinski, who sound like the mad rantings of medieval plague victims only mostly via the medium of guitars.
Are you actually a Manchester band or are you still a North Wales band officially?
Edwin (Drummer): 4 of us live in this hell. Our singer, James, still lives in Penmaenmawr. So…uuurrr, yeh, we’re technically a Manchester band I guess. Darn Maths. We’re all from around about the same place in Wales and haven’t been living here long so we still consider ourselves a ‘Welsh’ band I think….yeh….but we’re not technically a ‘Welsh’ band….Cymru am biff though.
Is it true you have an album coming out?
We have an album coming out what is called Skelington Horse. It’s being recorded in Doms room by Dom. It’s as usual taking a lot longer than we said it would. Maybe self-released through ‘giant hell’ but most probably by someone that can afford it. It’s hard to find people that actually like us as people as well as musicians or whatever. We have too many songs at the moment so probably another two EPs shortly after that…
Who else do you rate in Manchester?
I can’t speak for everyone but I’m sure Deebo would agree that these are possibly our favourite Manc bands… in no particular order: Burnst, Kong, A Middle Sex, Colins filthy-dirty-horrible back stain, MRBLKRSHRRRRR, Beach Fuzz, Creepy Boners, Serfs, Infinite Light, Alexandra Humphreys and The Minge Binge Band, DBH, Freezing Fog, Stuckometer, Barbarians……..and The Smiths and Joy Division yeh what? I dunno…yeh..
mp3:> Klaus Kinski: ‘Black Bile’
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