Dead C 'the damned'

oh man, r montgomery too! last time i saw them they were totally bringing the rock in a tiny little hall. unfortunately no footage of morley playing the curtain rail.

Played Secret Earth and Unknowns to celebrate and I didn't know Morley started singing again!

They seem to alternate between singing and non-singing recs these days

All three nights at Cafe Oto now SOLD OUT - hope you got yr tix, xyzzzz

Ah missed this.

Yup got 'em for today and Wednesday. The day is here!!!

well jell

Hope to see you there xyzzz

Oto are live streaming the Wednesday show for a fiver btw

Yes will be on the lookout Ward.

Great to see Xyzee, and Keenan and Leigh in the audience - meant I wasn’t the only person who’d traveled down from Scotland for this!

Not sure I can really be ‘objective’ with these guys but yeah they were great last night. There’s something about their interpersonal jollity that actually adds to the noise experience - I thought it was really interesting that Bruce Russell was watching Michael Morley quite closely whenever Morley was singing (it was quite ‘songy’ a lot of the time ), you know like ‘real’ improvisers and shit. There is something quite moving about the way the three of them have kept their sound always different always the same - you can map whole lives to the buzz and spit of their amps. old noise dudes 4ever

Great to see Xyzee, and Keenan and Leigh in the audience - meant I wasn’t the only person who’d traveled down from Scotland for this!

Not sure I can really be ‘objective’ with these guys but yeah they were great last night. There’s something about their interpersonal jollity that actually adds to the noise experience - I thought it was really interesting that Bruce Russell was watching Michael Morley quite closely whenever Morley was singing (it was quite ‘songy’ a lot of the time ), you know like ‘real’ improvisers and shit. There is something quite moving about the way the three of them have kept their sound always different always the same - you can map whole lives to the buzz and spit of their amps. old noise dudes 4ever

Sorry I don’t think I’ve ever had a double post before, fucking iPhone

I forgot to buy a ticket so missed out on this, glad it's been good though. I only managed to see them live once before at ATP in 2006.

Just an incredible first night. Great to see you too Ward. Can't wait for tomorrow.

I kept thinking how marvellous Yeats' drumming was...I couldn't help but think of someone like Elvin Jones in those late Coltrane groups, just bringing something more grounded to Russell and Morley's trading of amorphous sounding, ribcage-digging noise grenades. With the other grounding element being Russell's voice.

I was also thinking how it's a very hard sound and process to capture on records. I'll have a re-listen and further reflection in the weeks after the Wednesday show but after maybe Tusk they got their 'technique' just right for the stage but I don't know how easy it is to transfer on the records so much. After The Dammed I did drop out a bit...

I loved the little details of their playing together. Then Russell getting his phone out later to look up the lyrics and singing one line, going to his phone (on top of the amp), singing another line, going back etc.

I forgot to buy a ticket so missed out on this, glad it's been good though. I only managed to see them live once before at ATP in 2006.

― Colonel Poo, Tuesday, 20 June 2023 bookmarkflaglink

There were returns for yesterday's show so worth having a look on their social media (if you follow) for any tickets

Last night was darker, slower, heavier - surprising amount of low end rumble.

I was sat outside reading my book waiting to get in and Robbie Yeats turned up to chat with friends. I really wanted to say to him that someone compared you to Elvin Jones on Monday, but I’m never kind of person.

Also Roy Montgomery getting choked up while reading a poem to Hamish Kilgor was heartbreaking, you just wanted to hug the guy.

I wouldn't have said anything to Yeats either.

Playing Tusk to get ready for this evening.

What a night! To do this in the year of our lord, 2023...it was a miracle to watch.

jealous, in a good way!

I do hope they’ll play the USA another time or two, been very few and far between lately

I was seeing friends in Chessington (!) yesterday so it took me forever to get to Dalston. Arrived just as Roy M was finishing - xyzzz, I did see you near one of the video/livestream but then lost you. I went and stood by the bookcases, on the Bruce Russell side of the stage after being on the Michael Morley side for the other two nights. Definitely the loudest and hardest of the three sets, last night of the tour so they really went with it, I guess.

Tuesday I overheard Robbie saying they’d really enjoyed the tour but had to go back to the day jobs now, and that they had no further plans for live shows at the moment. So yeah, a rare treat.

Ah ok, I was looking out for you Ward just couldn't see you in the end got lost in the crowd. Have a good trip back.

Yeah it was all out to the guts last night. Such a shame those guys can't tour like The Rolling Stones or something.

Miss these guys

Yeah was feeling sad when I caught some of Glastonbury playing in the pub last night. Why can't music be like this instead of that?

I’m so jealous of you all! Hopefully they get back to the U.S.

Been listening to Rare Ravers this week and it captures their current state quite well.

All three Oto gigs have been uploaded to YouTube. It's interesting the way the vocals come through much clearly on the video footage than they did at the gigs.

Will check it out later

I don't think I've actually listened to this band, and maybe I would like them?

I think you would! my faves are Operation Of The Sonne and the Helen Said This 12"

Pretty sure I've not heard a Dead C record right the way through, but saw them at an ATP and it was a beautiful, monstrous noise.

perfect descriptor, I have probably said this upthread but I always loved the Seymour Glass description "like Sonic Youth in a wind tunnel with broken microphones"

i think i stumbled on the white house in a used cd store somewhere in my early 20s. i catalog-ordered harsh 70s reality shortly after. those albums felt like major accomplishments to get through, just the most dejected, misshapen, filthy, obscure, depressing audio garbage you could imagine. the name of the band and the fact that there wasn't much info about them i could find at the time added to the allure. it's been forever since i listened to them, i feel like i'd probably get something totally different out of them now.

for a few years there i was convinced that the country of new zealand had authored the highest apocryphal gospels of indie music in existence, and i was reading them folder download by folder download via someone's irc fileserv

I walked in on the Dead C out of a bright afternoon and there was just this *thing* in the room. No recourse to stage art that I remember, just harsh lights on and a wall of filthy, misshapen (exactly that!) creeping noise. It was perfect, tbh.

My sister is married to a Dunediner. He can be a bit like that Dead C show when he's had a few.

yeah they really had a knack for creating noise that really gives you pause. like, this shouldn't be allowed - people shouldn't be able to make a sound like this - it's not right, it's not wanted in any way, by anyone. and then that bleak feeling becomes drawn out and concentrated and turns into these overwhelmingly beautiful vistas. it's a feeling like seeing something you're not supposed to see and being stirred by it. and here i am, waxing poetic about a band i haven't listened to in more than a decade lol.

Sarahell: you would LOOOOOOVE them, and it’s a big discography

Concur you'd like them Sarah. You pretty much start with Harsh 70s reality and the comp on Shock is really good but might be harder to find

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Peace_Hope_et_al.

Not sure what happened to that link but you can see that through the dead c wiki.

Dunediner

ahem... dunedinITE

per wiki: "Driver U.F.O." is performed over a recording of Douglas Lilburn's "Poem in Time of War". how did i not know this?!

Funnily enough I knew but never looked up the composition.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dd1QQEsu4jY

ahem... dunedinITE

I knew I should have checked!