Last Friday I braved the rain to check out the Big Salad Records free showcase: spread over two nights. I went to see the bill of Prince Vaseline's début show, Octopuses and Milk & Biscuits before they set off to repeat the same on Saturday at The Old Blue Last, in London. As I arrived there was already a sizeable crowd enjoying Prince Vaseline, whose last two numbers I caught. Containing three members of Milk & Biscuits with the drummer from Vile Imbeciles and really liked the snippet I saw which sounded leaner and a little tougher than the demo recordings I've heard on Soundcloud.
Octopuses were up next and played a rousing set of their bouncy indie pop, upbeat and fun as ever. I've seen this band live several times and this was one of my favourite sets. The vocals seemed clearer and the band tighter than before. There's a lovely dynamic to the group, who clearly enjoy themselves onstage and really embody the wry wit of last years single , the video for ‘Sarcastic’ is an act of hilarious self-parody and we look forward to a potential album release in 2014. They've certainly got the material for it and my money's on ‘Seratonin’ for the next single with it's classic call and response chorus, “where's my seratonin, where's my seratonin?”, “We're still high Tom, stop complaining!”
Milk & Biscuits have been conspicuous in their absence for the last few months and tonight their return live set sounded a lot better organised than the last couple of times I saw them. In the past I've felt they had some difficulties with sound in some Brighton venues; the vocals and subtle layers getting a bit lost beneath loud guitars, synth and drums. Tonight though the balance was much more complimentary and the songs were really able to shine. I like it when a band sounds light and ethereal in the studio and then more solid and powerful in the flesh as long as the material isn't overpowered and tonight I think they really achieved this. No mean feat for a complex seven piece and a testament to the improved sound quality at the Green Door Store. They pulled of a fantastic rendition of early single White Noise, which is really a song in two parts. The predominantly instrumental wig-out outro was sensational, spoken word passages were pre-recorded on a sampler, which seemed to help in making them cut through and the chunky fuzz guitar riff, joyous trumpeting and wild synth-noodling really took off! I look forward to their forthcoming EP on newly formed Lick Records.
Adam Kidd