The New Moon are a familiar-looking local duo. Their lively, pacey songs
are a bit too 80s-like in their use of wacky word-play and funny chord
changes, trying to come over a bit too clever and knowing. Nice bass from a
fella who looks like Barney Sumner but sounds like Peter Hook, but they
need something extra to make the leap from pub duo to a proper band.
If it's wackiness you're after, then Anton Barbeau turns the wackometer up
to 11. Apparently quite well known in his native Sacramento, he's produced
eight albums of intelligent, offbeat country-tinged pop with a heavy, and
openly acknowledged, debt to XTC. Curiously, he acts like a returning hero
playing to a packed stadium whereas he is of course, addressing a crowd
who've never heard of him, in the smallest venue in town. Look beyond the
hyperactive showmanship and there's a real song-writing talent here. If he
could calm down a bit, he might come across more Andy Partridge and less
Kenny Everett.
The Jazz Butcher, AKA Pat Fish, lived here as a student and his May morning
busking sessions outside the Radcliffe Camera are still fondly remembered
by many. Twenty years on and he's hardly changed a jot, from the foppish
haircut to the magpie-like collection of classic pop influences. He
introduces his set as a karaoke session, which takes the form of an
electric guitar, a backing track and a trip through the catalogues of such
luminaries as Lou Reed, Wings and er, Grandmaster Melle Mel. Fun though
this is, we could have done with more than the solitary Jazz Butcher song,
as he has always been savagely underrated. It's all over too soon but great
to see him back.
the black watch (no capitals for them) is, tonight, main man John Andrew
Frederick on his lonesome. Another Californian with a love of classic
British pop, he's combined a career as an English professor with a sporadic
output of seven albums over eighteen years. Well-crafted pop gems in the
style of Robyn Hitchcock and our own Jazz Butcher flow effortlessly forth,
but there's a certain unmistakeable American expansiveness. Though bigger
on the enthusiasm than variety, new single "Innercity Garden" has the
makings of a summer anthem.
Tonight's theme has been well-crafted pop with elaborate, imaginative
lyrics. Throw in the free black watch single and you've got the bargain of
the month.
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