DAILY FIX: Joan Of Arc, "Robot In The Rain"

Joan Of Arc played an excellent set last night at Strange Matter. Despite being asked nearly half a dozen times whether I was there to write a review, I was only at the show as a spectator and fan of the group. However, their performance was so outstanding that I feel it deserves commemoration in some form. And so, here is a video filmed during a show in the Netherlands back in November. "Robot In The Rain" is one of about eight as-yet-unreleased songs that Joan Of Arc played last night, and as much as I've enjoyed almost all of their material over their fifteen-year history, the new stuff they were playing surpassed any expectations I might have had for them. It's got the quirky song structures and complex, off-time rhythms of their more difficult material, but driving uptempo riffs and melodic choruses make these new songs among the most accessible of their career. Their newest album, Oh Brother, drops in a couple of weeks, but it's just a collection of previously recorded sessions by various side projects of Joan Of Arc leader Tim Kinsella. When the material they were performing last night will be released is a mystery, so for now we'll all have to make do with this live video. Fortunately, it's a high-quality recording of an excellent song, so with any luck it'll tide us all over until their next album of new material is released.