television personalities

I don't recall the first time I listened to Television Personalities, that I felt the impact of Dan Treacy's broken and utterly fragmented voice, broken by the years and the abuses; the infantile melodies, the duos with a female voice mocking all that melodic, cheesy pop tradition of boy-girl. What I really remember are the songs.

I found them quite late, with the album My Dark Places from 2004 (a good 20 years after their debut album), but the attraction was instantanious. I don't care that they escape from the lyrical and melodic canons that we are so used to, that he sings really bad, out of tune, unable to reach the highest notes that he attempts, that some melodies have a tacky orchestration, hardly arranged. What really matters is that it abducts you. In the same way that Daniel Johnston does. Television Personalities really drag you to their "Dark Places", we want to see that dark and decadent world they promise us.

This week, fate brought me back to them. To their new album A memory is better than nothing. It is yet too early to have a clear, well-informed opinion of it, but after a couple of listenings, we appretiate a continuation of the previous work. Another straight album shouting in your face. Full of irony and criticism, of personal references ("People think that we're strangers"), cultural mockery ("She's my Yoko"), of hald-distorted guitars, of pop-punk-ish that is not afraid to use machines to create their sounds.

If you haven't yet entered into the world of Television Personalities, the door opened by A memory is better than nothing is really appealing: don't let it close.

Mishima live at Fires de Girona

It was cold in Girona. David Carabén mourned about it and, joking, complained about his personal choice of clothing and the bad joke played on them by Sant Narcís.
That's how the Mishima gig started at the Fires de Girona.
They opened with a classic, "L'estrany" that maybe arrived too early, when there was not enough people around the stage.
Afterwards, while the place was filling up, they almost play the whole of Ordre i Aventura, leaving only "Deixa'm creure", "En arribar la tardor" and "Ordre i aventura" out of their repertoire. The songs sounded properly arranged and thoroughly worked after several months of playing them on tour. Most of them were preceded by musical introductions that, in some cases, helped to maximize the power of the song whilst on other cases were mere show-offs. Because Mishima really can show-off, they have the songs and the skills to do it.
Between the songs of their last album, they also played some of their great classics. "No et fas el llit" sounded huge, explosive. "Miquel a l'accés 14" drove us back to the first listenings of that new band that decided to move from English to Catalan and how glad we were for their blossoming, and "Qui n'ha begut" really took us to another planet ("ens transportà a un altre planeta") while dropping golden sparks ("espurnes d'or").
Some of the most famous songs were rearranged for the evening, the rhythms modified, the vocals changed and, unfortunately, in more than one occasion those changes took away the quality of the original song, they darkened our appreciation of the music and the lyrics. They put us in our place, because yesterday Mishima proved that they are not a sing-a-long band full of easy melodies: they are a proper band that play music to be listened to, to be appreciated and to be analyzed.
Until it was time for the reprises. After some shy clapping from an audience unaware of who was on top of the stage, looking only to have a good time, the band reappeared.
The bass set the mood, the guitar followed slowly and, before we even realised, "Vine" was playing. Ambiental, interesting, less darker than the original and, hence, a little less powerful. But powerful nonetheless.
And to end it up, to close a worked out gig, with a list of precise and precious songs, "Sant Pere". Heartbreaking as ever.
A perfect ending.