She Wants Revenge...

Guess who I'm going to see tonight.. (I'm really excited, as per usual...)

Have you guessed..?

Well, on the way into work this morning, I picked up a copy of the free 'Metro' newspaper and did what I usually do. I jumped to the cartoons page & read Nemi (which this morning was not particularly interesting..) Then I read Sunny’s & my horoscopes, which if truth be told would have been better off unread, so I'll gloss over those..

The next port of call is (and was) the 'Life' section, just to see if I have missed out on knowing about a rare gem of a gig.

Cardiff -based electro pop punksters 'The Automatic' are playing at the Academy tonight, so (in my mind, I’m sure they are very good, etc etc…) Nothing too much was missed. It's also sold out, so even if they were a band in my radar I would have been left wanting or touted...

So, I continue reading and flip onto the next page and there is anther gig listed, I check the name and nope it's no-one I have ever heard of. Not to let that stop me I continue to read "LA duo... blah blah... unflappable self confidence... etc etc.... " Nothing really of interest, then "Both with impressive hip-hop CVs (vocalist Justin Warfield...” and suddenly it hits me.. Justin Warfield, THE Justin Warfield....

I appreciate that he might not mean much to you, but I love Justin Warfield, or to be specific I love ‘The Tao of the One Inch Punch’ an album he put out about ten years ago, it ranks in one of my top ten albums of all time. Yay yay... (It was my birthday in 96 or 97 when we went to see the Sneaker Pimps at the Leadmill in Sheffield I was blown away by ‘One Inch Punch’ in support. Not for last, time I found myself to be the first one bounding energetically onto the dance floor.. When I spoke to Justin a little after that show and he complimented my dancing, nice bloke...)

I have tried to find out what happened to Justin Warfield for a few years now, I even wrote a letter to Q's where they are now, but as he's never been the biggest artist in the world I heard nothing back. (I guess that many people might have only heard of him either through being the 'Bug Powder Dust' guy or due to his track ‘Pretty Piece of Flesh’ being featured, as the first piece of music, in Baz Lurman’s wonderful Romeo & Juliet.)

So to just happen across the fact that he is playing in my town tonight is really rather exciting…

I carried on reading the article.. (The bands name is “She Wants Revenge” by the way)… And it turns out that “When they formed SWR in 2003 their intention was to produce hip hop. Quite how they ended up with the above-average synth pop/post punk of their debut LP, then, is anybody’s guess” Yay… “Warfield’s flat-yet dramatic vocals are cut from very similar cloth to Interpol’s Paul Banks, while their rumbling, monochrome musical move are unmistakably from the Bauhaus/Joy Division/early New Order school of synth-mopery…. More panache and with…” etc etc… It all sounds better and better.

Joaquin Phoenix directed their video too which (I don’t know why, but) impresses me…

So a quick trip to myspace reveals that even though they are a million miles from the fucked up fuzzy guitar hip-hop splendour of One Inch Punch (or the preceding Garage-Rock/Indie-Pop ‘Supernaut’ & Psychedelic Hip-hop ‘Field Trip to Planet 9’ albums..) the three track myspace offer have that Justin Warfield spark. A spark he seems to bring to everything I have heard his involvement in… Each albums shifts genres and he makes music which is just off kilter for each of those several different genres (and all genres that I like), and by being just off I mean more interesting, new twists on great ideas… The facts he has is making dark, dense, intense music at the same time as I am re-enjoying dark, dense, intense music again makes me happy..

Listen to tasters from the CD (which comes out next week for £9.99 or you could buy it on import now for £8.99) on Amazon

In just over three hours I will hopefully be standing watching and having a bit of dance to what I hope will become another of my firm favourites…