Islington Mill Salford reviews by real event-goers

New Weird America

The whole New Weird America genre throws up some really interesting bands and Jackie-O MF are at the forefront. For this tour they have a new album out which i have just bought and as reveiwers have already said there is an 'Americana' feel about the Jackie-O sound on this album. And it works very well.
This was a terrific gig.

Oneida @ Wotgodforgot

For once the NME got it right! This WAS the gig of the week.
Oneida were awesome!

Jabkie-O Motherfucker @ Wotgodforgot, Islington Mill

Ive seen Jackie-o Motherf**ker (JOMF) four times now over a period of six years or so twice at ATP festivals and twice in Manchester, both times for Wotgodforgot Promotions.

To be honest Ive never really been a big fan of the band. When I first saw them at ATP they were part of a line up that had been hand picked by whoever curated that particular event. I still enjoyed their performances even though they were not on my list of bands I must see.

Their shows have always been different, thankfully. They are often described as a collective which accounts for why each time Ive seen them, the line up is never the same and the only constant throughout my sightings of them has been Tom Greenwood the singer and obvious leader of the group.

Over the years JOMF have had a number of releases to promote and tonight is no exception. Theres a new album out Ballad of the Revolution - but you wouldnt really know it because promotion is so low key that its not even mentioned.

In the past the bands strengths have been their improvisational, experimental, slightly psychedelic sound, which has had performance problems, and is not to everyones taste. The new album has a more folky direction about it and, certainly with the inclusion of a lap steel theres even an americana feel to it. Without doubt the album will have a wider appeal than previous releases and to this end I think they will gain quite a few fans and more record sales.

The 45 minute set tonight is lifted straight from the new album and the opening number is a soft, lazy, folky version of a traditional song which builds and builds in a typical JOMF style with the lanky Tom Greenwood stretching uncomfortably to reach the microphone which I swear is set at about 7 foot high. The new album offers a mix of electric folk, americana, pyschedelic space rock and heavy drone and thats exactly what the band offer up tonight. A Mania is a delicate, slightly cosmic, americana number with swelling wah-wah guitars, Skylight is a 9 minutes throbbing, heavy drone number with delay pedals, that the crowd seems to feed on and The Crying Sea is a 12 minute finale of experimental, psychedelic head nodding, toe tapping rock which finally has the drummer working up a sweat.

Jackie-O Motherf**ker seem to have matured with age to me and this time around theres a definite shift from New Weird American to psychedelic rock which sits quite comfortable with them. Who knows what they will be like the next time I see them.

Max Steinberger