Showing posts with label Cinerama. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Cinerama. Show all posts

Friday, June 22, 2012

The Wedding Present - Valentina

The Wedding Present can often, if not always, be counted on to give you a solid rock record whenever they decide to release one. The Weddoes have been focusing on their back catalog and companion reissue initiative in recent years (this year:  Seamonsters) and dropping decent records in the interim.

The latest of said decent records is Valentina, coming courtesy of the TWP focal point David Gedge's Scopitones imprint. The band has changed pretty much 100% since the 2008's El Rey, but the sound pretty much remains the same: two clanging guitars, a driving rhythm section and Gedge dropping adenoidal tales of life, love and loss on top. The opening You're Dead establishes that TWP may have a different lineup, the Gedge songwriting has not suffered. Stop Thief is particularly aces, but the whole of Valentina is definitely a labor of love. Pick it up and keep up with all things Gedge, Cinerama and The Wedding Present here at the Scopitones web presence.

R

Thursday, October 9, 2008

Live: The Wedding Present @ Bowery Ballroom 10.8.8

On the heels of my interview with David for Skyscraper, it seemed prudent to drop in the show at Bowery and say hello to the Weddoes. They are touring behind their new record El Rey and (technically) the 20th Anniversary of George Best being released. Seems as good a time as any to check back in. Thanks to Wendy at Hello Wendy!, I managed to breeze right in and get some pretty primo real estate in short order.

Ran into the Windup Records kids and hung for a bit. They are a good bunch. Before I knew it, the Weddoes were on in short order. David was pretty boldfaced about the fact that they are playing the same set every night. Not surprising, given the rotating line-up, and I'm not sure that stating it outright is the way to play that card, but it was a pretty good cross-section of stuff from the new El Rey record all the way back to the beginning of the band. It was a pretty motley crew of thirty-something ladies in publishing, UK ex-pats, and mouth-breathing shut-ins trying to mosh. Lots of too-drunk ladies dancing with guys that thought they were going to get some, some saucy Northern Britain lads and even a guy who fell asleep standing up at stage right. Good times.

I would have liked to have heard Brassneck, but all in all David and Co. knocked out a pretty decent set. If it wasn't going to be the same one tonight, I might think about double-dipping. The Weddoes are at Southpaw tonight. If you don't make it, you can get El Rey here as well as assorted other Cinerama and Weddoe merchandising delights.

Tell David Jaded Scenester NYC sent you for absolutely no discount.

R