Not content with getting Neil Hannon and his cohorts to cover Vampire Weekend in Dublin, the JD Set crew have enlisted the services of Tim Wheeler to pay tribute to the Pixies in London’s XOYO venue on March 24.
"I've chosen to cover Pixies for a few reasons,” Mr. Wheeler reflects. “The first being that they're one of my favourite bands of all time and had a especially big influence during the years when we were starting Ash. My introduction to alternative rock happened when I was 13, some kids older than us played a school concert of Stooges, Mudhoney and Pixies songs. I remember sitting in a friend’s car a couple of weeks later, simultaneously baffled and excited, listening to ‘Bone Machine’ at the start of Surfer Rosa. The weirdness, coolness, backwards drumbeats, discordant guitar notes, tortured lead vocals, sweet female backing vocals, surreal biblical and sexual lyrics… So many strange and interesting elements, it was like nothing I'd heard before and opened up a whole new world to me.
“They were a massive influence on my songwriting and the Ash sound. I became obsessed with the 'Trompe Le Monde' album when I was 16, the sci-fi lyrics kickstarted my own sci-fi phase when I wrote songs like 'Girl From Mars' and 'Angel interceptor’.”
Joining him on stage will be And So I Watch You From Afar, Emmy The Great, The Crookes and Norn Iron shoegazey types Ma Mentor who have a rather fine tune available from [link]aolradio.podcast.aol.com/aolmusic/mp3s/Ma_Mentor_I_Can_Electrick_128.mp3[/link]. Free tickets can be applied for at [link]www.thejdset.co.uk/competitions[/link].