Skinner / Canned Pineapple
The Shacklewell Arms, London
nineteenth February 2025
Dublin-based Skinner return to London to carry out a number of tunes from the just lately launched debut album New Wave Vaudeville. Paul Grace (pictures) and Keith Goldhanger (phrases) went alongside to East London’s Shacklewell Arms.
“Don’t overlook to feed the cat”, “Put on one thing heat”, and “Don’t overlook to observe the assist acts!”, are smart phrases which can be handed down from era to era.
It’s a chilly mid-week night (we failed step two and don’t have a cat) and we’re paying one other go to to considered one of our favorite haunts to expertise the band whose debut album New Wave Vaudeville has been on rotation round the home since its launch only some weeks in the past. One other thrilling new band awaits us.
Skinner is the challenge of the Dublin-based multi-instrumentalist, singer and producer Aaron Corcoran and tonight he pops into East London’s iconic venue The Shacklewell Arms so as to add much more nice recollections to those already skilled between these 4 partitions over the previous few years.
The recommendation concerning the assist band wasn’t actually needed as a result of watching anybody do no matter they wish to do on this stage has all the time been worthwhile. Tonight is not any completely different. We uncover earlier than leaving tonight that Brighton primarily based band Canned Pineapple are what we discovered ourselves smiling at as we fell in love with a set of songs we’d by no means heard earlier than. The frontman’s look is half Garth from Wayne’s World and half Kurt Cobain. He has a powerful Irish voice, has rather a lot to say, faucets his ft furiously while singing, wriggles his arse and belts out some immediately lovable catchy songs. It’s like watching Blur again within the Camden Falcon in 1990. Songs are as shambolic as The Libertines and as immediately lovable as among the Supergrass songs that by no means left our heads. Both aspect of the Garth/Kurt determine stands a guitarist and bass participant who add backing vocals in a method that backing vocals have been all the time meant to be delivered. “La la las”, “Woooo Wooooos” and “Shoobiee do woo’s”, come from both aspect of the singer who’s a minimum of a foot smaller than his two companions standing both aspect. A second guitarist makes noises like a loud bleeping synth and the drummer….nicely Drummers simply drum actually, don’t they?
We’ll come again to those as soon as we get house to research extra. This was what some may modestly describe as a bit good…a second serving to is certainly on the playing cards.
The very first thing you discover once you first take heed to Skinners’ latest tune (and what was the primary style we had from the latest album), Calling in Sick, is the similarity in Aaron Corcoran’s voice to that of Dara Kiely of Dublin noise-rock outfit Gilla Band. It seems that Dara taught Aaron tips on how to scream successfully whereas singing with out shedding his voice. If that is the end result the place the pupil finally ends up emulating the Gilla Band vocalist, then a minimum of yet another of us on this room is eager to be subsequent within the queue.
Influenced by New York’s no wave scene within the late 1970’s tracks from New Wave Vaudeville are brief, loud, largely quick and barely discordant. We get to listen to most of it tonight. Frontman Aaron is furiously sliding the tremolo arm alongside the strings of his guitar earlier than changing it again into his instrument and thrash away while offering some nice lyrics to sit down alongside the noise the guitars and saxophone are making. When he’s not thrashing his guitar he’s dancing round with a cowbell or including beats with a set of bongos sat subsequent to his microphone stand.
Throughout Bitter Milk he’s singing;
“Waking up on Tuesday, I believed it was a Thursday, I couldn’t discover my hat
So I began sporting lampshades”.
“Work like a canine and get handled like shit….” we get on the aforementioned Calling in Sick. It’s a music that may be described as sounding like Gilla Band’s Dara singing alongside to The Younger Fathers’ I Noticed. Make up your individual thoughts by hitting the play button to listen to the explanation why the phrase “Banger” was invented to explain such a monster of a music.
The slower songs have a pleasant Sonic Youth really feel to them, Jesus Wore Drag from the album begins like Kool Factor. Geek Love is accompanied by hand claps a cowbell and bongos, one other music reminds us of Interpol’s Sluggish Palms. It’s loud, frantic, thrilling to observe, and in months to come back might have individuals dancing once more in a method they haven’t since The Rapture stopped visiting these shores.
We’re witnessing one more band with one other bunch of very good songs. It’s bonkers at occasions, compelling, marvellous to witness reside and makes us wish to expertise the entire present once more.
Ensure that these two bands get added to your checklist of bands to go and see for those who get the possibility. They deserve your consideration and deserve to sit down and stay in your play lists throughout the remainder of 2025 on the very least.
Canned Pineapple could be discovered on Instagram right here. Watch their video Jessie met Jane right here (Reviewed right here)
Skinner could be discovered on Instagram right here
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Phrases by Keith Goldhanger. Extra writing by Keith on Louder Than Struggle could be discovered at his creator’s archive. You also can discover Keith on Fb Instagram and Bluesky
All pictures © Paul Grace. For extra of Paul’s writing and pictures go to his archive. Paul is on Fb, Twitter, Instagram and his web sites are www.paulgrace-eventphotos.co.uk & www.pgrace.co.uk
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