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Unfortunately, I am only in time for about a song and a half from Sparkola. They sound good, with catchy tunes and strong singing, and I'm pleased to see that the cute guy from The Irresponsibles has joined them on guitar and backing vocals. He has an excellent voice, so I'm glad to hear him sing again.
The Fly Seville are a very good band with just two problems. The lead singer's voice isn't great, kind of pinched and nasal. But I can get used to that, and the bassist's backing vocals are beautiful; they should use him more. The other one is The Mid-Tempo Rocker Problem, which isn't even necessarily a problem, per se, just a stylistic feature that I really don't like. But all of their songs are calm and gentle and kind of slow, and individually they're all lovely, but in the aggregate they make me want to scream. They're great songs, though, hooky and inviting, with some interesting violin and keyboard parts. But gentle.
[munk] is next. When last I saw him, years ago, he was rapping over some fairly techno beats, which is not the way to win my heart. (Besides which, it was the Rumble, and he was competing against Loveless, whom I desperately wanted to see win, and so I was predisposed to dislike him.) Tonight, he has changed completely. He's more of an R&B crooner for the first couple of songs, and then ramps up the energy to a kind of heavy funk. The bassist, who has a whole lot of strings, is powerful and mixed way high, as he should be in a funk setting. This still isn't my genre of choice, but [munk] sounds good doing it, and he and his guitarist duet together really well. They are also joined by Jonny from Asect for one song.
Finally Count Zero, whom I came to see, and who set up in record time. It's been some months since I last saw them, and they've been working hard on their new record, so they start off with several of the new songs. They seem--dare I say it?--more accessible than the Count Zero material of old. Still smart and weird, but with a bit more of a pop sensibility at work. "Bite Off the Roses" should, in a fair world, be the song that finally gets them the public acclaim they deserve. Then we get some older stuff, including "Cure of a Kiss" and "Bachelor #3," two favorites of mine from their last record. Then there's, I think, another new one, which may be called "Astral Plane." Any concern I may have had about them getting too accessible for my tastes is immediately dispelled by this jumpy, mathy masterpiece.
