Track list:

1. Disappearing Boy
2. Talk
3. Build One for Me
4. Soul Sister
5. Serotonin
6. Be There Anyway
7. Mary Anne
8. Broken
9. History Repeating
10. Into the World
11. Roadhouse

Tuesday saw TVH return to the Edge, so we were looking forward to seeing them in the same small venue, to properly assess if we were just deliriously happy the first time we saw them, of if they really, really are that good, that well rehearsed, and that entertaining.

They did not disappoint, with now familiar songs from their debut EP and some new ones, along with a great version of Johnny Cash’s Folsom Prison. Their hour long set was studded with the same tangential harmonic gems and compelling grooves that had previously caused us to sit up and take note. Subtle variations in pace and style on couple of tracks (compared to their debut EP) illustrated just how hard working the band is, and how many gigs they must be rattling through to be so comfortable with their experimentation.

They seem to have all the right ingredients, musical talent, songwriting talent, an engaing stage presence, a charismatic front man, and possibly most importantly, the ability to have fun whilst creating something really special – which will hopefully keep them going long after a lucky record company exec stumbles onto them and gives them an opportunity to meet a larger audience.

The only problem with “making it big” is that, like a tiny restaurant that builds a loyal business based on word of mouth, there is always a risk that the magic could be spoiled and the undeserving may influence the menu and hog the dessert trolley. Ok, it’s a strange and selfish analogy, but TVH are producing an audio gourmet feast and most who see them are immediately rebooking the largest tables in the restaurant, so that their friends can try the menu.

If any record execs are about to offer these guys a contract and happen to read this, please give us prior notice of any deals so we can book our table in advance. If (and hopefully, probably, when) it happens, it couldn’t be to a nicer, more talented or harder working bunch of people.

Catch them live at one of their upcoming gigs.

When we arrived, a dimly lit bloke was quietly and confidently accompanying himself on guitar. We caught the last two songs and he was really very good. Good enough that we’d happily have stayed in the pub all night if he’d kept playing. He really set up a good atmosphere and his songs were engaging, which can be difficult with just a voice and a guitar, it’s easy to get the balances wrong. After the set we’d have bought him a beer, if he’d been old enough… so we got him a a Coke instead. Definitely a talented lad and with his studio début soon, he’s someone we’ll be looking out for. His website has a few songs, but the current quality is not a patch on how good he sounds live [Update: see below]. Thanks Luke Ferre, pleasure to meet you .

The second band on stage (it’s not a stage, it’s the in the corner of the small room) gave us one of those moments that happens rarely in a lifetime – I think we saw a band that’s going to be very successful, in a tiny venue, before they get big. A six piece called The Velvet Hearts, and they blew the pub away. It was an electric performance. From the opening harmony of Heart is Breaking through to the end of the set, the performance was exquisitely polished. At times the vocal work was so good that punters were looking around the pub at each other for validation that the this really was happening. The sound was dynamic and seemed to constantly shift in startling and beguiling directions. Like I said, not a common thing. Their first EP is released next week.

The good news, for anyone Portsmouth based is that Luke Ferre will be back at the edge on 17th July, and before that, The Velvet Hearts will return to Portsmouth on 17th June, playing at the bandstand. If it’s a sunny day, it may turn into the most perfect afternoon in history.

T’was an evening in the company of Feckless who played at The Contented Pig. Its a fairly small pub that’s far enough away from any dwellings that there’s no problem with gigs that push on to the midnight hour, as this one did. We arrived at about 9pm and band were already playing. They took only two short breaks throughout the whole night, which helped the atmosphere to build. In fact they took a break minutes after we arrived so Tony (with the drum and the voice) who we know from elsewhere immediately came over for a quick chat as he relieved his vocal chords with a glass of something. Then is was back to the entertaining, and what started out as a band and an audience ended up merging in to one jigging, clapping, stomping, singing throng of revelers, it was fascinating to behold how a roomful of strangers suddenly became acquainted.

Musically the night ranged from nautically influenced traditional numbers such as Portsmouth and The Trumpet Hornpipe (the Captain Pugwash theme), through traditional celtic songs that we’d not heard before, right up to more “modern” tracks like The Irish Rover and Korobeiniki (the um… Tetris theme… you have to be there, but it really works). Feckless next gig is on Fri 22nd Jun 2007, at The Tap in North End. Not to be missed. In the mean time there’s a rudimentary jukebox in their website: fecklessmusic.com.

Kick-Off

To get the members of this alliance acquainted all of the the sales force, and technical consulting groups were invited to gather at the Hyatt Regency Hotel, near Route 101, just south of San Francisco airport. This involved considerable expense, flying the small consulting groups in from all over the USA, from Europe, the far east, and even Australia. It was, without doubt, an expensive and important shindig.

So, we flew in, we transferred, we checked in and headed for the bar. Our bodies were telling us it was midnight, but the wallclock said 4pm, we had to stay awake, so social interaction provided safety in numbers, and beer helped explain the woozy disjointed feeling of a timezone shift.

A corporate kickoff is a very special time if you’re a consultant because you get the opportunity to meet people who have only ever been email addresses up to that point. In many cases these email addresses have been really helpful and you owe them a pint for their troubles, or vice versa. This can result in the corporate kickoff being a rather happy and celebratory affair.

Added to this mixture was the fact that there were a whole bunch of new people to meet and politely buy drinks for, and vice versa, and, well, you can see how things might expand to the point where, upon counting the empty bottles the next morning, one could be forgiven for thinking that the hot-tub had played host to several hundred people until well after 4am; all supping on cold beers gazing at the stars and wondering if there is a better or happier place anywhere in the world.

Not everyone can make it for the first night of course, so it would be churlish not to welcome the late comers with similar bonhomie, so generally every night is party night.

The Auditorium

Picture the scene then on the first morning after: 9am in an auditorium below the hotel, the lights are mercifully dimmed and an expectant hush descends on the seated crowd, a great number of whom are rather hungover having continued the celebration with the email-addresses-made-flesh and new-best-friends until the bitter end, because it would be rude to duck out on such a good vibe.

This is an audience that has pulled itself from a strange bed, eaten a strange breakfast, had a strange hot brown beverage, and is strangely out of sorts due to an ill advised combination of timezones and alcohol.

Nobody is quite prepared for the audio visual assault of a max-volume inspirational music video projected onto the 50 food screen above the stage.

Know How

The offending audio-visual feast was called “Know-How”, a specially penned ditty describing “the truth in the net economy” and “technology borderin’ on mythology”, it was made for this specific occasion.

Whoever commissioned it had not bargained on the two companies being so friendly and generous around the bar the previous night.

During the following two and a half minutes, the entire assembled auditorium first wondered if there was a quieter and happier place anywhere in the world, then made an honest resolution to never ever drink alcohol again, then realised that they might need alcohol to get over what they were witnessing and resolved to drink more, as soon as the bar reopened.

It was seat gripping stuff, and pop-music dynamite, but, a typically bad corporate anthem. “Bad” because corporations should not force phrases like “right on course, primary source, in a technology evolution” into pop tunes. “Pop-music dynamite” because it was…

Some years later, I heard a song by an American performer called Justin Timberlake, and couldn’t help but notice the similarity. I remarked upon it to a couple of ex-netscape folk at the time, but without being able to compare the tracks we never really got to point the finger.

MC Sun|Netscape Alliance vs Justin Timberlake

Then today I found a copy of the video on an old hard-drive; so here, for your enjoyment, is the track in its entirety.

Without the volume and the hangover it’s entirely palatable, though still remarkably bad, and thanks to the wonders of you-tube, I can now compare and contrast the aforementioned Justin Timberlake track too.

They are remarkably similar, so I’m assuming that the guitar riff must be sampled from a common source – or was Justin Timberlake a secret Sun|Netscape Alliance fan?

[Update: The video is no longer embeddable, probably for copyright reasons, so it's available here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5cPQ75fgWhk ]

I wouldn’t normally mention the anniversary of the death of a rock star, but, Mat, who sits next to me in University happens to run a Nirvana website. It’s something he set up when he was a kid and wanted to play on the web, and because he’s not changed it over the last 9 years (bar the odd kick to keep it standards compliant) it’s become a bit of a famous resource for Nirvana fans everywhere.

Nirvana have two apparent faces – their breakthrough album, Nevermind, has enough noise and anger to satisfy the most ardent mosh; whilst their last studio album, In Utero, with it’s more melodic tracks, showed that when Cobain wrote honestly, his vocal phrasing and composition somehow stripped his soul naked and left him vulnerable, something which gets picked up on by post-Nirvana fans. Since Cobain’s death, their music appears to get adopted by those with an angst surplus; those yearning to show their individuality, but still not fully comforable with (or perhaps capable of) the kind of exposing self expression that Cobain managed.

It won’t change your life, but if you have five minutes to kill I recommend perusing the guestbook to witness the over emotional, under poetic and badly phrased ramblings of kids who were too young to listen to Nirvana when Kurt jellified his brain with a single shotgun cartridge. It’s kinda sweet, and if you were young and dug Nirvana first time around you may see something of yourself.