Previews: Korn, My Computer

Previews: Korn, My Computer

by Conrad Astley
18/ 8/2005

DESPITE being named after a PC icon, My Computer are one of the most original bands to have come out of Manchester in years.

While most of the city's newcomers seem to have received a ridiculous amount of credit for producing third rate acoustic/rawk carbon copies, this strange Urmston duo have created groundbreaking music which defies easy categorisation.

Because of this, they have been almost completely overlooked.

Their website describes the 30-somethings as a "former dole art threat" and a "liquid crystal authority." Whatever that means, it's clear one of them is a choirboy-voiced singer-songwriter, while the other is a gadget-obsessed studio boffin.

The collaboration leads to a sound that shifts restlessly from manic techno to lush neo-classical compositions, to sweet piano ballads, with apparently no thought whatsoever for consistency. It shouldn't work, but somehow it does.

Recently released second album No CV - so called because neither of them had one - was made with legendary producer John Leckie at the helm.

Having previously worked with The Stone Roses and Radiohead - a band My Computer often attract comparisons with - as well as Public Image Limited, The Human League, John Lennon and Pink Floyd, Leckie may have seemed out of place with the pair. However, he apparently moved into an Urmston b&b for three months to make the record.

And the results speak for themselves.

Their appearance at Night and Day on Saturday follows a show earlier in the month at Dpercussion, and is ahead of a national tour in September.

KORN'S riffs epitomise the nu-metal sound which has been around since grunge hung up its checked shirt in the mid 90s.

The band, who have an annoying habit of spelling their name with a capital R turned the wrong way round, started longer ago than many would expect, as Californian metallers LAPD, who released one album before meeting mortuary science student Jonathan Davis in 1993.

Thinking this was an appropriate qualification, they poached him from a rival band, reformed themselves as the stupidly spelt Korn and gathered attention by supporting the likes of Megadeth, Marilyn Manson, and Ozzy Osbourne - before he became a lightweight TV personality.

The big break came when second album Life Is Peachy went to number three in the album charts and they headlined the touring Lollapalooza festival - despite having to pull out when one of the members went down with meningitis.

A healthy dose of controversy came when a pupil was suspended for wearing one of the band's T-shirts and the outraged principal - headteacher to you - said their music was "indecent, vulgar and obscene."

In an age when popular music rarely offends, such "bigger than Jesus" moments have become all too infrequent. But in another sign of the times, the band went on to issue a legal order against the principal, banning him from saying such nasty things about them again.

Collaborations with Ice Cube followed, and one of the members went on to release a solo gangsta rap album.

The band also once premiered one of their singles on an episode of South Park.

Unlikely rumours circulated that drummer David Silveria, who had been forced to step out of a summer tour because of an injury, was about to leave the band to follow a career in the fashion industry. He didn't.

More bizarrely, guitarist Brian "Head" Welch did leave the band earlier this year, choosing Jesus over rock `n roll.

They are now touring to promote the new album, expected out next month.

Unfortunately, there isn't yet a tribute act called Quorn, so Tuesday night at the Apollo may be the last chance to hear those riffs played live for some time.


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