Beerandbands

Promise fulfilled

2011-07-19T15:26:00.002+01:00

There's something about the band Pocketbooks that always makes me think of summer, it's probably the bright sound that lingers in the music, a lyrical hint of it here and there or maybe there's an association there with Indietracks, it could be a whole host of other things too.

What I do know is that it makes me very happy that Pocketbooks have a new free to download single called 'Promises, Promises', a single which is definitely in keeping with the summer ideal.

It's properly excellent. Building on the sound they had on their album Flight Paths, it sounds more mature. Not in a serious boring sense, but in a way that sees them building on the potential they've always had and creating something even better with it. Typically bittersweet lyrically, there's lovely melodies on it, some great violin and best of all a fab tune. It's great to have something new from them, and it's even better that it's as good as this is. The artwork is ace too. If this is anything to go by the new album is going to be something quite, quite special.

You can download the track for FREE (and you'd be daft not to) -
http://www.box.net/shared/e7uipl4kt9l5yu3jkhvs

While your at it you can early order the album from the always excellent Odd Box records right now too. Go on!

Apple Eyes

2011-07-12T15:42:00.002+01:00

Blimey it's been awhile again, hasn't it? I've been (in between bouts of doing nothing) playing gigs with the band I'm in and job hunting, oh and looking forward to the festival at the end of this month of course, speaking of which...

Me and my girlfriend were going through the list of bands playing Indietracks the other day to try and find out which ones we'd not heard before that we'd like to watch; she's not a massive indiepop fan so it's a little difficult. That said we were both interested in the description of Apples Eyes, and had a quick listen to some of their stuff and enjoyed it. Highly fortuitous then that a few days ago, said band got in touch with me to see if I wanted to tell you readers about them; and do you know what? I do.

The band began as the brainchild of Claire Hadidjenar and producer Matthew Walker, who together started putting together a whole bunch of instruments with a dash of electronics before topping it off with some vocal harmonies. They soon had interest from various places including BBC6 music's Tom Robinson (great taste that man has). It's not suprising he paid attention, they share music tastes as diverse as Phoenix, Flaming Lips, Cornelius, Bat for Lashes, Deerhoof and Elliott Smith.

The 2 have now gathered together a live band and are setting out on a tour in support of debut single 'Wild Beasts', which just happens to be released digitally this week, on the 14th to be precise. It's an excellent piece of music too. At it's most basic it's a bang on pop song, with a ace chorus. But there's much more to it then that, musically inventive, it doesn't keep still. It's bubbling with ideas, but they all combine to make a song that is as good as the sum of it's parts and then some? It's it electronic, yes but then it's folky too, and then there's that chorus. Whatever it's ace. You can have a listen to if you like :-

Wild Beasts by Apple Eyes

The other side of the release 'Lost Between The Lines' is just as good, which is a highly impressive feat.

As I say the single is out on the 14th as a download only release, so you'll be able to get that via Itunes and such outlets. You can check out stuff on Myspace too. They'll also be playing some gigs too:-

14th July with Pocketbooks and Wolventrix at The Wilmington Arms, London
16th July with Allo, Darlin' amongst others at The Haymakers in Cambridge.
31st July - INDIETRACKS - Indoor stage 13:45. See you there!

They'll also playing with some bands at Indietracks too in various capacities, but you'll have to find those out for yourself...

Indietracks Compilation 2011

2011-06-14T10:50:00.003+01:00

I tend to mention Indietracks quite a lot on this blog, but that's because it's a truly terrific thing; a festival that does it's own thing, promotes lesser known bands, supports the midland railway charity and puts smiles on peoples faces. Whats not to love?

If I wrote a book blog I'd spend most of it yelling about the 'Great Gatsby' or if I wrote a film blog it'd be full of my enjoyment of the works of Brian De Palma.

Anyway to get back to to that opening paragraph it's the line about supporting the Midland railway that's pertinent to this blog post as you'll find out shortly; you see every year Indietracks puts off a compilation of the band's that are going to be playing; a taster, a veritable smorgasbord of indiepop if you will. This year is no different in that respect. The album is download only, and it's a pay what you want affair with all proceeds going to the Midland Railway charity; which means of course that you can just give what you can afford, whilst helping the site which puts on the festival in the process. It's brilliant.

The compilation itself, as you might expect, is excellent. It's clearly been put together with a lot of love, it's sequenced really well. Like the best mixtape, the one that got worn out from being played so much. The kind of thing that's so good you expect to hear it from every bedroom window and every passing car, and can't believe that other people aren't aware of it. There's so much good stuff here (40 tracks worth), lots of it new to me, that it would be a futile excercise to try and write about every track but from the perfect indiepop of The Procters through the jangle of The Whatevers and giddy joy of Papa Topo it's all ace.

It's being released by Make Do And Mend Records and you can find, listen and download it from Bandcamp

Cults - Cults

2011-06-09T11:13:00.002+01:00

You may have heard of Cults, they're Ep which was on Bandcamp generated a fair bit of buzz; especially the song 'Go Outside' which was praised pretty damn highly. If you have heard the band then, you probably know what to expect from their debut album. If you haven't heard them (or heard of them) then think 60's inspired indie pop with ever so slight sinister undertones and you're pretty much there.

It's a half hour long triumph of an album, full of hooks and joy, and whilst it feels all joyous and happy and lovestruck, the reverb applied makes things feel just a little uneasy (coupled with spoken excerts from cult leader). Then there's the bitterness as well, 'Never Heal Myself' is a case in point with it's lyric "I can never heal myself, so fuck you'.

It's an album of the frustations then, but it never allows that to get in the way of it's Spectoresque musical tendancies or it's melodic joys. Sure there are moments when the album misses a little, and it could have done with a closer with a bit more oomph as 'Rave On' as great as it is, doesn't quite hit the mark. Still there are more than enough excellent songs here - 'Bumper', 'Abducted', 'Never Heal Myself', 'Go Outside' - to make this an album definitely worth getting or making sure you hear at any rate.

Cults have made a great summertime pop album here, taking it's cue from 50's/60's pop and surf and bringing it bang up to date and pointing towards an excellent future.

Here's the video for abducted :-

and here's the album on Spotify

Indietracks announcement 3

2011-04-21T19:04:00.002+01:00

So Indietracks has announced the next bunch of bands and, as suspected already, it really is shaping up to be a cracker. I know this isn't much of an inspired blog post considering I'm more or less just copying and pasting from the indietracks blog, but I think the bands speak for themselves; just look at them:-

Help Stamp Out Loneliness are being raved about across the net, Milky Wimpshake are always great value. Elsewhere there's local boys (the mighty) Horowitz and it's fantastic to see that they'll be back at the festival again. Then there's Haiku Salut, who although they contain former members of the Dierdres are really very different to that band, all beautiful instrumentation and swoonsomeness. It's varied further by the brilliantly named and riotiously entertaining Anguish Sandwich.

So, yeah, it's a varied and brilliant line up this year as you can see from the below plagiarism. So what are you waiting for you've only got another 3 weeks to get those early bird tickets. Snap to it! Announcement follows...

"Help Stamp Out Loneliness, whose Krautrock-inspired poptastic debut record is a clear contender for the album of the year.

Milky Wimpshake, Newcastle’s punk pop legends, with three ace albums and numerous fantastic singles under their belts.

Just Handshakes (We’re British), described by Rough Trade as “officially one of the best UK indie pop bands around”, and with a recent single on the legendary Elefant Records.

Band A Part, a charming Spanish indiepop duo, again continuing our festival’s Elefant Records connection.

Amor De Dias, amazing collaboration between The Clientele frontman Alasdair Maclean and Pipas’ Lupe Nunez-Fernandez.

They’re joined by bundles of other fantastic bands. The following have also been added to the main stages:

Guatafan (Spain), A Fine Day For Sailing, Sloppy Joe (Japan), The History of Apple Pie, Horowitz , Frankie Machine, Haiku Salut, Victoria & Jacob, World of Fox, Ace Bushy Striptease, Heroes of the Mexican Independence Movement, Moustache of Insanity, Anguish Sandwich, The Proctors.

And the following will be playing acoustically on the trains:

The Whatevers, Peru, Oxo Foxo, Graeme Elston (Love Parade/Pure/Slipside), Mat Patalano (The Specific Heats)(US), Remi Parson (Electrophonvintage/The Sunny Street).

Headliners already announced for this year’s Indietracks include Edwyn Collins, The Hidden Cameras, Jeffrey Lewis, Suburban Kids With Biblical Names, Jonny, Ringo Deathstarr and Math and Physics Club"

That's No Moon

2011-04-19T11:45:00.003+01:00

I mentioned a couple of post back posts back that I was looking forward to seeing Ringo Deathstarr at Indietracks, but that was after only hearing a few songs and not the new album. Now that I've heard 'Colour Trip' (over and over) I can safely say that I'm seriously excited.

Like yesterdays blogstars The Midgetmen, Ringo Deathstarr also hail from Austin, Texas, and are also pretty loud. However where the former are primarily punk, Ringo Deathstarr are for the most part shoegaze. Some would say derivatively so (I've seen JAMC mentioned lots of times in reference to the band), and whilst it's fair to say that you can play a fair amount of spot the influence listening to the album it would be unfair to say that that's all there is to the band.

For example whilst opener 'Imagine Hearts' is straight forward shoegaze, the following track 'Do It Ever Time' comes off like Calvin Johnson fronting Yo La Tengo, and contains the couplet "we're falling apart again, she took my cardigan". It's brilliant.

That vibe sort of flows into the next track 'So High' whose giddy pop just makes me want to dance. It's the sort of song that could have been the other A-side to 'C Is The Heavenly Option'.

Other highlights include 'Kaleidoscope' ,which is a utterly beautiful fuzzy pop gem. The sort of song that if it was corporeal you'd hug it to your chest and never let go; 'Tambourine Girl' whose chainsaw guitar kicks into the most joyous melody, and the sweet and tender closer 'Other Things'. It's all great though.

So yeah, even in the course of that review you can see how easy it is to compare the band to those that have gone before (but surely it's that way for most bands) and yes you could play spot the influence or be all snotty and dismiss this as derivative but that would be missing the point; that Ringo Deathstarr have produced a record that is a joyful, heartlifting, humalong, jumpalong, gem of a POP record. More of this sort of thing please!

You can hear the album on Spotify now

Listen to some stuff on Last FM

Oh and maybe see them live at Indietracks

The Midgetmen - Loud Enough

2011-04-18T13:44:00.003+01:00

There's a number of things I love about writing a blog, the chance to be (albeit mildly) creative, and the joy of realising that there are genuinely people reading this, are two of the main ones. Another one is getting to hear music from bands, I may not have done otherwise. A case in point is The Midgetmen.

Until I recieved an email from the band asking if I'd be interested in reviewing their new album, I must confess I'd never heard of the band; and they're just about to celebrate their 9th anniversary. I do ;however; suspect I'm not alone in this, a suspicion backed up by the fact that a flyer which comes with the new record, Loud Enough, confirms. It reads "You've possibly and likely ignored our first three albums. It happens". They're right I have and it does, but I can tell you honestly that I wish I hadn't, because whilst Loud Enough is a truly accurate album title there's much more to this band then just noise.

I could write a bio of the band, but it would seem a little silly since I've admitted knowing fuck all about them, so I'll leave you to read the band doing that themselves on their website.

It opens with 'Beer's Gone'. A high energy opener, which probably proclaims that "when the beer's gone, we're gone". A sentiment I can happily agree with. This is followed by "Unforgettable" whose sing song lyrical melody is defiantly catchy in direct contrast to the title of the track. It's gloriously sloppy punk.

Third track 'King Kong' is the first here to demonstrate that the band are more than just another throwaway punk band here or indeed just "loud enough". Riding a punishing guitar line, it mainlines the same kind of sonic brilliance that the Pixies and more recently Titus Andronicus have peddled.

It contains in much the same excellent vein, 'Glue Factory' is a taut and wiry kick to the face, a less drunken, less Irish Dropkick Murphys. 'Race To The Bottom' is frenetic, 'Honus' will have you attempting to yelp along long before you know the words, 'Sword Fight' will take that even further. Try not to yell "SWORD FIGHT" whilst listening to it.

It doesn't stop there, 'Advice' is an earworm; 'Wheeling Downs' is touching and noisy, 'Sea Shanty' hits the kind of heights that the Replacements did at times, and 'Fly High Fly Low' pounds and shudders.

It comes to an end with 'The Dream' which is as an epic closer as you could ask for.

As I said at the beginning, it's a little sad to think that I've missed out on The Midgetmen until now, but at least I've finally heard them. Yes this record's title is accurate but beyond that the record is also big, fun, and very very good.

You can hear 'Kong' from the album on the band's site right now. You can buy it too and so you should.

Rip it up

2011-04-12T15:38:00.001+01:00

Time flies, dunnit? Doesn't seem to long since I was at Indietracks; less time still since the first batch of bands were announced for this years, and now all of a sudden we have the second batch of announcements, and reet good ones they are too; let's have a look shall, we have (deep breath):-

Edwyn Collins, Jonny, Suburban Kids with Biblical Names (SKWBN), Butcher Boy, Withered Hand, Pocketbooks, Ringo Deathstarr, Chris T-T, A Little Orchestra, Dignan Porch, The Bumblebees, Papa Toco.

That's a nicely varied and this looks to be shaping to be a cracker. Edwyn played a fantastic set at End of the road last year, mixing up old Orange Juice stuff with new stuff, and the obligatory 'Girl Like You' he went down a storm and garnered excellent reviews. He'll be in his element at Indietracks and I would expect a rapturous crowd.

Jonny are Norman Blake, of former Indietracks headliners Teenage Fanclub, and Euros Childs (Gorky's Zygotic Mynci). They make music as beautiful and heart warming as you might expect given their track records. SKWBN's are a band who will get people up and dancing, Swedish indiepop at it's best and one of Labrador Records' finest bands, which is a pretty big deal when you consider their roster.

Elsewhere Pocketbooks return to Indietracks is bound to please a lot of people, their glorious take on indiepop always goes down well. Withered Hand will probably make you cry, but in a really good way.

Of the ones I've not heard or seen before, I'm really keen to see Ringo Deathstarr. I like their name, they are coming a long way and most importantly they promise to be excellent, fuzzy, melodic, shoegaze. What's not to like - check out 'So High' below - short sweet and excellent. A perfect pop tune in other words

As I've said several times now Indietracks is already looking like having one of the best line-ups it's ever had, and considering it's had some fantastic line ups you'd be mad to miss this one.

The festival takes place the last weekend of July and you can find out everything you need to know at their website. Tickets are available at an early bird price until May 7th.

HSOL

2011-04-05T11:09:00.005+01:00

Just a short post today.

WIAIYWA are currently offering Help Stamp Out Loneliness' (HSOL) track 'Record Shop' as a free download of the month, and boy is it a good one.

I've mentioned HSOL recently when I talked about the first 3 tracks from their forthcoming album being up on Bandcamp. I pegged 'Record Shop' as a favourite then and it remains so. A beautiful and catchy paean to stalking and there is definitely a lack of songs on that subject. It hits with a Fight clubesque (musical) hook to the ear and continues unrelentingly until the track finishes and you want to stick it back on again. It has that same instant classic feel that 'The Start Of Something' by Voxtrot had or Standard Fare's 'Philadelphia. By this time you should have already downloaded the track, it's free for goodness sake, but if not go back to the top and click the link.

Also as I mentioned above HSOL had the first 3 tracks of their album available on Bandcamp. Since I last checked, their are now 3 more. All of which are equally excellent. If this continues there is little doubt that 1) we have an album of the year on our hands, and 2) HSOL have the potential to be big. They've already had a mention in the Guardian Don't be suprised if you see them cropping up all over the place fairly soon.

You can pre-order the record from WIAIWYA as well, I suggest you do.

March playlist

2011-04-01T15:08:00.002+01:00

Hello you lot,

Apologies for not updating the blog yesterday; sometimes it almost seems like I have too much time to do everything in and just don't get around to it. That may sound ridiculous, but if you've ever spent a weekend saying to yourself, "I'll do the washing up/painting/greco-roman wrestling practice in a bit, I've got all weekend", only to find that the weekend is suddenly gone and you've not done anything then you'll know what I mean.

Anyway, I do have a few things to review, but as I've not had much more than a cursory listen I'd rather not review them yet. Seems a little unfair to bands who put in time and effort on a release, only to have some cloth-eared blogger listen give it a perfunctory first listen and then cast it aside.

Instead then I've gone to the old fall-back staple and made another Spotify playlist, this time for the best (in my opinion) new stuff released in March. As always apologies if you don't have Spotify. Also the tracks aren't arranged in any real order so it might not flow to well, and of course this doesn't take into account albums released this month that aren't on Spotify. There's a lot of those, sadly.

The link is below anyway, it's not a very long playlist I'm afraid, but I hope you enjoy it and apologies for the lax post. Better things to come next week.

Best of March 2011

Bourgeois Heroes - Olé/Hola

2011-03-30T14:33:00.005+01:00

February Records are a label I've neglected of late; through no fault of their own I hasten to add, they've been consistently putting out great stuff. The latest in a long line of that great stuff is a new 7" single release by Bourgeois Heroes entitled "Ole/Hola"

The band comprises Eloise and Jason who formed the band on a road trip to Memphis, buying instruments when they reached Tennessee. They've released a few EPs up to this point, and currently pass their musical ideas between Austin and Northampton (the American one), this long distance way of working doesn't seem to have any detrimental effect on their music, it's great. Described as "60's inspired jangle pop" this turns out to be very true.

On one side of the single we have the title track 'Olé/Hola' which sounds classic from the off. It does have that 60's sound about it, definitely, but you could class it with more modern bands of the Elephant 6 camp too. I get Apples In Stereo or The Essex Green. It's pastoral/baroque pop and it's an excellent example of how that should sound. It's eminently hummable too, be warned.

The other side is 'When You're Dancing' which if anything is even better. I don't know why but I think the melody is slightly reminiscent of a Roy Orbison song. Again it could easily fit on an Essex Green album or Ladybug Transistor album or any band of that ilk, or going back a bunch of classic 60's records; but make no mistake Bourgeois Heroes have a sound all of their own.

This is a single that does everything you want a single to do. Two short sharp songs that are both excellent, and that as soon as they finish you want to put them right back on again. A vinyl single is made to be touched and loved, and played and played and played, and this one will be.

There's a nice video for Olé/Hola too, it looks a little bit like this:-

You can get the single from February records and I suggest you do so at once.

Cats For Peru - We had this problem last winter

2011-03-29T14:52:00.004+01:00

Cats for Peru (much like last time's blog-stars Japanese Sleepers) are a band whose new EP 'We had this problem last winter' has just been released by Sheffield's Thee SPC. I must confess to not knowing too much about the band, I've seen their name in gig listings a couple of times and I know they have a reputation for being strong live. Beyond that I really am at a loss, so I'm going to do a terrible thing and point you in the direction of an old Sandman magazine article for a bit of background, whilst I get on to the meat of reviewing the actual record.

It opens with 'Open House' which buzzes and fizzes before breaking into a punchy chorus and a gleeful shout. It's catchy; it's very very catchy. It's also (mild muso alert) 'sonically interesting'. Typing that makes me wince, but it's the truth. There's a lot going on here musically, and it sounds great.

'Duck In The Oven' is next. It feels almost tribal when it begins, but it sweeps and soars and twinkles, rising majestically. There's magic all over this, hints of winsome Americana, but mingled with a much more modern sound.

Third track 'Sleeping On Tightropes' begins by sounding quite a bit like Radiohead (not a bad thing or an easy feat in many ways) but it goes above mere pastiche in the middle, rising and elevating itself to a plateau of excellence.

The EP rounds off with 'Fear Of Better Things' is a slowy which rides along on some beautiful vocal harmonies to create the kind of anthemic ballad that someone like Chris Martin or Guy Garvey would die for, it's a fine closer to the whole thing.

I don't know why I've ignored Cats For Peru for so long, it's nothing short of lunacy. This EP proves that. It's almost a record of two halves, the first two being poppy and more upbeat, the latter being more introspective and slightly slower. Each showcases the bands strengths wonderfully, and put together make something altogether brilliant. In a just world they'd be massive; given a bit of time and luck and they may well be anyway. http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

The EP was released yesterday so do yourself a favour and get over to the main page of Thee SPC website and give it a listen, and then buy it.

Japanese Sleepers - Little Victories

2011-03-25T15:24:00.005Z

Japanese Sleepers are a band who divide their members between Sheffield and Nottingham. They've been touring on and off for a good while now, and have quietly built up a following around the country; that Thee SPC have seen fit to issue their debut EP is a testament to the effort they've clearly put in.

This effort shows all over this EP too, it sits in it's own little niche; hard to categorise but easy to listen to and enjoy.

The opening track 'Whistler's Breath' is all shimmering synths and ethereal vocal. It works beautiful, there's the slightest feeling of 'Trembling Blue Stars' about the track, perhaps down to a feeling of melancholic treading in the songs wake.

Next track 'Celebrate' is a far more upbeat affair, propelled on by synths, and a machine gun, staccato beat drum. The pulse raised further by a joyous bit which encourages shouting along.

'These Are Our End Times' slows the pace again, it's probably the prettiest piece on here, with it's violin and glock carrying the song along. It builds beautiful too, it's probably the most accomplished track on the EP. There is (at least for this reviewer) elements of post rock about it. That's in a no way a damning comment, you can't make this kind of music without a large amount of skill.
http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifhttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif
There then follows a short interlude (a coda if you will) before final track 'Song For A Satellite Town' kicks in. Though I said the previous track was the most accomplished (and it is) this is probably the highlight. The nostalgic/melanchic tinge to the music, beautifully backs and matches the lyrics, whilst the call and response of the vocal lends the song a rare power.

For a debut this really is an impressive EP, musically strong, it's merging of synths and folk, may be a little unusual bit it works tremendously well. If life is a string of battles then this EP represents more than a little victory for Japanese Sleepers. It's one to return to again and again.

Little Victories is released on Thee SPC on 28th March. You can listen to the record and purchase it here

Indietracks 2011

2011-03-24T09:25:00.003Z

I recognise that I've been a bit lax on the blogging front of late, (life, band practice and government red tape gets in the way) but if there's anything guaranteed to get the fingers jumping in frenzied arcs of excitement it's an Indietracks announcement.

Indietracks for those readers who are unaware of it's magnificence (and I doubt there's too many of you)is an indiepop festival set in the beautiful surrounds of the Derbyshire countryside. It's an unbelievably joyous festival, well run, friendly, fun, with trains and over far too soon; it would be considered lightning in a bottle if not for the fact that it continues to be so amazing year on year, and in it's fifth year it shows no signs of stopping. It's line ups are always a fine blend of the leading lights and lesser known (but just as good) bands of the indiepop scene (as evidenced here) and this year it's no different.

First headliner 'The Hidden Cameras' are as joyous a band as you could hope for. They play irrepressibly bouncy and fun music, and live they do it in almost theatrically. They will most likely create a frenzy of pinwheeling arms, maelstroming legs and motorway length grins. In short they'll be an utterly perfect fit, not just in terms of the music demands of the festival, but also in keeping with the feel of the thing, and if you've never been to Indietracks that's something you will notice almost immediately when you do, the atmosphere (camaderie etc) is as important as any of the bands themselves.

Second headliner Jeffrey Lewis may seem like less of a fit due to his background in the anti-folk movement, but in actual fact he's a superb choice and will also fit perfectly. Firstly because although there is a folk element to the music there's also a large amount of jangly, singalong pop in there too. Something that 'Broken Broken Broken Heart' from his most recent album will happily attest too, and there's a whole load more besides that. Aside from the music however it's also Jeff's aesthetic that fits indietracks, comic book creator (he turns them into 'movies', see below) made a record of Crass covers, and has a DIY ethic that matches Indietracks own. He's great live too.

Aside from those two, other acts announced are equally promising from the full steam ahead pop of 'Math and Physics Club' through shoutyness of 'The Wendy Darlings' by way of the delicate ire and sparkly jangle of 'The Sweet Nothings'

Indietracks, as I've stated countless times in the past has an atmosphere about that no other festival can replicate. In fact in a festival market that is becoming increasingly clogged up by chancers, it's nice to see one festival that remains true to it's roots and continues to book bands that fit in with what it and it's core audience wants rather than reaching out with corporate tendrils. This years lineup is a testament to that, and frankly you'd be a fool to miss this.

Earlybird tickets are on sale now, go and snap one up, it'll be the best purchase you make this year.

Let's Whisper - The Shortest Days

2011-03-01T14:19:00.006Z

Let's Whisper are Dana and Colin who also play with The Smittens. You may have heard of them. This is a whole other project though, not a side project and something they've been doing together since 2003. You might have even been lucky enough to catch them at Indietracks in a small train carriage. They have a their first record coming out in April - it's called The Shortest Days

This record finds the two of them trading songs, and vocals, ideas and words. It works tremendously well too( more of that in a moment). It's being released by Weepop, one of the few records labels that you can place utter trust in, in the knowledge that even if you buy something from them without ever hearing it it will be brilliant; oh and lovingly packaged. It's not just the band's first album, this is Weepop's first ever full-length album release too, and it's a cracker.

The album opens with 'California Girls', a song that may be familiar to some of you. It's immediately accessible. Jangly, with fine harmonies on the chorus and a nod to the Beach Boys for extra points. Fine opener.

'All Happy Endings' follows that - Colin sings and it's slightly faster. Again there's lovely harmonies but I won't need to keep telling you that, it's something that's there on everything. There's a definite dreamy element to it too, especially on the bit that quotes Willow by the field mice. It's instantly hummable and happy; the lyrics "Feel so happy I should be dancing" emphasising that.

Evy and Sarah drifts by with a "do, do, do" refrain, wrapped in melancholy. Whilst Heart On My Mirror carries the slight feel of melancholia through accompanied by a gorgeous guitar line.

It continues in this vein, 'Jackpot' is soft and tender, 'Meet Me On The Dancefloor' sounds like a future crowd pleaser. '2 hours' is beautiful, 'Let's Pretend' is endearingly touching.

Later there's 'Shortest Days' which sounds (to me at least) like The Sundays; certainly in the guitar lines. A splendid instrumental 'when the snow falls' and, of course, 'Let's Whisper' which is just fantastic.

This is such a pleasurable album, it really is. Dana and Colin manage to combine to create something lovely. Dana (it says here) is responsible for the tender, raw songs and Colin for the more upbeat ones, but they work together in such a fantastic way. It's varied enough to keep you listening over and over. It's melancholic, but in an endearing and optimistic way, it's upbeat but with a just a pinch of sadness. The best thing of all though is that it feels right instantly. It sounds like a record you've always owned and loved. Instantly familiar, touching and warming; and that really is a splendid thing.

You can pre-order the record from Weepop here . You really should, it's ace and their packaging and love is always evident in the physical release. Plus if you order one of the first 50 you can get an exclusive poster too.

You can also stream a couple of tracks from the album too (or right click and save as to download):-

California Girls

Shortest Days

Fishboy - Classic Creeps

2011-02-23T11:45:00.003Z

The new (well forthcoming) album by Fishboy, Classic Creeps, is awesome. It's as simple as that.

It's a concept album in the fact that there are a bunch of songs each pertaining to a different character (whose name begins with A), and that over the course of the album the disapparate strands of each characters stories are interwoven to produce an over arching narrative. It's an interesting idea. I can't think of too many similar ideas, I suppose Saint Etienne's 'Tales From Turnpike House' had some similar conceits, but that was more about invidual tales from people living in the same complex, whereas this ties all the stories together.

If that was the extent of the album though, simply it's cleverness then it would be nothing more than a slight distraction, something to mention to a friend in an "oh that's interesting" way and then forget about. The thing however is that it's also a fantastic pop/powerpop/indie pop record. It bounces, it jangles. It has french horn smeared all over and yet with a liberal touch. 'Alberto Simmons' alone is one of the best pop songs I've heard in years, but the whole record is crammed to the vinyl grooves with singalong, smile along, tunes.

The record is being released by Happy Happy Birthday to me records, who are doing some pretty interesting packages for this.

If that wasn't enough (and I should think that the offer of 9 seperate badges, a poster and a vinyl what satisfy even the biggest music and memorabilia and nice things glutton) there's a whole comic, included in the record too I think, telling the story of the record. You can find that on the Classic Creeps website

Oh and of course the important bit, you can stream the record on bandcamp.

Fishboy really should be applauded for the time and efford they've put in, to produce something which is both and intelligent and well though out piece of work which is also a brilliant and downright enjoyable album.

No birds just bees

2011-02-17T18:41:00.003Z

Slow to the party on this perhaps, but I just wanted to post quickly about the new(or newish at least) songs by Help Stamp Out Loneliness up on Bandcamp; a website which is quickly becoming a must-go to.

I liked the Language Of Flowers (the band some of HSOL) were in before, and I liked the little I'd heard from them before, but the 3 songs presented on Bandcamp from the upcoming album are all kinds of excellence. I could easily wax lyrical about all of them, but I think I'd pick track 3 'Record Shop' as a personal favourite.

It's all good though, harmonies, jangling and quite a large element of motorik thrown in for good measure. I don't really need to say more than that, except that if the whole album is as good as the first 3 songs presented there, then we're in for something special indeed. Oh and loving that artwork. See back at the top.

Oh yeah, this is the band camp link

Sensation In The Dark

2011-02-15T11:34:00.002Z

Hello!

I've been listening to the new Gruff Rhys album this morning; it's very good. A lot closer to his previous effort 'Candylion' then to the Super Furry Animals. Or at least the more proggy, psychedelic SFA offerings. It keeps that same melodic, laid back groove as Candylion did and it's all the better for it.

What moved me to make this post though is the excellent single off of the record, 'Sensations In The Dark' It's so good, check out those horns! It's got to be one of the best singles I've heard so far this year. Loving it. You can see the video below.

Sorry about the shortness of the post, I'll try and post again later.

A little plea

2011-02-13T16:46:00.003Z

In lieu of a post about a band today, I'd like to alert you to a worthy cause.

Phil Wilson, formerly of The June Brides and maker of fine solo records - you should go here is trying to raise a bit of cash to take him and his band to America.

It's always sad to see someone having to sell some great records, and it's somehow even sadder when it's to take a band to America when by rights they should be having it paid by some major label. Phil has given the world some awesome music, so it'd be nice to give something back. Just have a look at his ebay list if nothing else, there's some really nice stuff on there.

http://shop.ebay.co.uk/Philjunebride/m.html?_dmd=1&_ipg=50&_sop=12&_rdc=1

Let England Shake.

2011-02-08T10:23:00.003Z

The new PJ Harvey album, 'Let England Shake', is streaming at the moment on NPR (who have had some great first listen albums recently). It's an angry, politicised album aimed at England but with one doomy eye gazing at the rest of the world too. It's all PJ but there's hints of Joanna Newsome here and Kate Bush there. Though to be fair I might just be causally relating Bush and Harvey there because of PJ's 'England' and Kate's 'Oh England My Lionheart', but there's a definite atmospheric feel about this record that recalls some of Kate Bush's finer work.

The music itself sounds as good as anything I've heard from Polly Harvey in ages, the brass works really well, there's a couple of samples dotted about, the whole thing hangs together extremely well. It's full of autoharp and it's definitely pervaded (as said) by an atmosphere, a sense of old Englishness which fits the theme of the record well.

I'm loathe to say more about it until I've listened to it properly, but a preliminary listen makes me think this is going to be one of those records that gets raved about in the press. It does sound excellent on a first run through. We shall see.

You can listen to the record streaming now on NPR. Also Harvey is doing a video for every track on the album. So far there's two

The Words That Maketh Murder

The Last Living Rose

Best of the month.

2011-02-07T17:31:00.002Z

Ok I've just made a new spotify playlist I thought I'd share with you lot, it's only short (8 songs) but it's just some of the tracks I've enjoyed from (what I would consider) the best records of the last month, up to and including today as represented by the Cut Copy song. Like I say it's not long but I think 8 really good records in a month is actually pretty good going and they're varied too, from the garage rock of The Parting Gifts through to the dreampop of Minks. There's no rhyme or reason to the running order I've just whacked things on there. The link is below.

Playlist best of Jan - Feb '11

Apologies if you don't have spotify I tried to find links to all these songs elsewhere online but couldn't but if you want to try and at least listen to some of them I've put the tracklisting below.

1. Understand It All - Cloud Nothings
2. Pharoahs and Pyramids - Cut Copy
3. Rabbit Will Run - Iron & Wine
4. Sleepwalking After Midnight - Wooden Wand
5. January Hymn - The Decemberists
6. Cemetary Rain - Minks
7. You Girls Smoke Cigarettes? - No Joy
8. Keep Walking - The Parting Gifts

Sucky Tart

2011-02-03T11:40:00.004Z

I suspect most of the readers of this blog are familiar with the work of the mighty Hefner, and if not you really should be, but maybe so much with the work of Jack Hayter, Hefner's multi instrumentalist. I wasn't I must admit. Though I was aware that he was in a band called Dollboy I hadn't realised he'd released anything solo (I'm a bit slow), which in a roundabout way leads me to tell you about 'Sucky Tart' the new EP.

At it's heart it's folk music, first track 'I stole the cutty sark' unsuprisingly is as close to sea shanty as you're going to get without running around with an eye patch and a bottle of rum. Hayter's voice might take a little getting used to (I never thought he could sing and maybe he can't, but here he sounds like a possessed beaten down old pirate captain and it works), but once he (and the song) get going it's a very enjoyable slab of maritimey goodness. It clearly doesn't take itself too seriously and it's all the better for it. It's catchy too.

Of the other tracks 'Dolls House' is slightly rendolent of the Pogues, slightly keeling but not quite crashing and falling apart, whilst 'A Simple Song' is woozy in the best possible way.

Last track 'Jacquie I won't mind' rounds the whole thing off nicely, it's lovely. It has a whimsical, sad and touching feel to it that once again reminds me of the more introspective moments of The Pogues, but perhaps Tom Waits too (around Rain Dogs).

What we have here really is an excellent piece of work. Because of the qualities of Jack Hayter's voice this collection has a real downtrodden, world weary feel to it; it washes over in the most melancholic way, and yet does it without ever feeling to sad. Heart and melody. What more do you want?

You can listen to the entire thing on Bandcamp or you can download it for quite ridiculous price of £1.79. Alternatively buy the CD for £3.99. Or do both.

Iron and Wine - Kiss Each Other Clean.

2011-01-26T16:04:00.007Z

Sam Beam, the big bearded troubadour that is Iron and Wine has come a long way since 'The Creek Drank The Candle', that lo-fi, hushed whispered sound had evolved into something far more produced by the time 2007's excellent 'The Shepherd's Dog' reared it's shaggy head. 'Kiss Each Other Clean' the fourth studio proper from Iron and Wine represents another sonic leap forwards.

Lets get something straight from the off though, you might have heard doomy mentions of horns and funk (more of this later), but lets say that musical evolution is a good thing, it certainly is here, and "more produced" doesn't necessarily equate to not as good or a loss of musical intregity. Again sometimes it can but not here. This sounds like the record that Beam has been deliberately working his way towards, not just on record but in a live setting too, becoming more band orientated as time has gone on (though he is still better live on his own)

Make no mistake this is still Sam Beam, the sometimes impenetrable lyrics are still present, a tender evocative way with melody and that voice are present too , but the singing is better and the melodies far stronger. A case in point being opening track 'Walking Far From Home', which juxtaposes beautiful and distressing lyrical imagery whilst being backed by soothing vocal melody, it's a strong message of intent, but you'd be forgiven on first hearing this to imagine that beyond the production values not much has changed. You'd be wrong. There's so much going on underneath it's hard to take it in on first listen.

Second track 'Me and Lazarus' makes that clear, it is, if I may be admitted to use such a term' unrepentantly funky. Some of the vocal melody sounds like 'Islands In The Stream', there's all kinds of strange noises chittering away in the background too, and a sax, but it works. That's the thing, it WORKS and it works well. It's not just here either (there's synth everywhere!) 'Rabbit Will Run' the standout is jazzy. It's full of thumb piano, weird runs, mysterious burblings. It's inventive, it's exciting. Elsewhere 'Tree By The River' is pure joy with a smidgen of Paul Simon. There's 'Monkeys Up Town' with it's strange laid back groove or the straightforward beauty of 'Godless Brother In Love'.

It's a daring, daring record and there really is so much going on underneath that it's hard to get a handle on it. 4 listens in and I'm just hearing how it all works, it's symphonically wonderful, a real real achievement. A shame then that it's slightly let down by 'Big Burned Hand' following the song it does it's a terribly choice. A big sax cuts it and it sounds like a cheesy offcut from an even cheesier porn movie and is such a sore thumb that for a brief period after the song starts it threatens to derail the record. It doesn't though, the song settles down a bit and everything continues as before, and album closer 'Your Fake Name Is Good Enough for Me' shows that sax can work enormously well with the music Iron and Wine is doing right here.

So it's not perfect but it's close enough. The bottom line here is that Sam Beam has evolved and changed, he's not been afraid to bring in new ideas, production values and instruments. It could have been awful, that instead it is a sonic marvel whilst retaining all the quality, melody, beauty and brilliance that Iron and Wine have always had is some kind of genius.

Oh and PS, the lovely folks over at Team Coco are streaming the whole album at the moment.

White Wishes - Today E.P

2011-01-20T15:42:00.002Z

Shelflife are a record company I admire greatly (as you'll know if you have read this blog on previous occasions), I like the bands they have and I like the fact that quite often they give you something free to download and listen to at your leisure. At the moment you can download the Today E.P by a band called White Wishes.

White Wishes is mostly the work of one man who currently resides in Russia under the name Nikita Pavlov, a couple of people helped him flesh the sound out but ostensibly it's just him. Unsuprisingly perhaps given the location of the recordings, and the cover art (dead trees against a snowy white background) this is a wintry set of recordings.

Wintry though in a warm log fire and glass of wine sense rather then freezing cold hands and dying in a freezing lake kind of winter. In a way this EP shares a fair bit with yesterdays blog stars Minks. There's a similar sort of shoegaze bent to this, the same sort of glacial beauty. Here though it's less buried, and each track glistens much like the snow of the cover. 'Not Today' the 2nd track on this is probably the most straight forward, in the opening sounds there are hints of My Raining Stars, but the vocal is definitely reminiscent of some of the janglier bands of the 1980's. It's good stuff, very good stuff. 'Drops' the 3rd track is sonically much more interesting, hushed vocals and stabbing instruments against a sparse drum beat mean that it's this track that the most rendolent of the winter vibe. The final track is a pretty and touching acoustic piece, a nice way to close off.

White Wishes has produced here 4 fine pieces of music, which work together really well, but standalone just as easily. There's never any excess not to download free music, and there's even less when it's as lovely as this is. Go to the link below and do your duty, oh and while you're there why not shop the website too.

White Wishes - Today E.P

Minks - By The Hedge

2011-01-19T11:25:00.003Z

Minks record label describes them as "Like if Robert Smith gave birth to a baby, and the baby was actually a cassette of Cure demos that had a lot more staying power than actual Cure demos", elsewhere I've seen them describes as "gothic pop"; their album has songs called Funeral Song and Cemetary Rain on it. You know what to expect now, right?

Except perhaps not, because if Minks share anything with the Cure it's the 6 string jangle that permeates the album, certainly there's nothing as dark and gloomy as comparisons to the Cure might draw (and yes I know the Cure didn't just do gothy) and the vocal is not really Robert Smith either. Yeah there is darkness here, but it flits in the corners, kept at bay by the warmth of the music. To draw a poorly defined metaphor, the music is akin to the weak light after a rain shower, rather then the promise of rain itself. Beyond that if comparisons can be drawn to bands of the past it's more likely to be New Order or My Bloody Valentine. There are echoes of Shields sonic cathedral here (but more a sonic cottage perhaps), elements of shoegaze and shimmer give the songs a rare beauty.

Yet there's more than that, the band have been called indiepop too, and yeah you can draw a line between Minks and their label mates Wild Nothing, but in the fuzz and brittle jangle there's the sound of The Pains At Being Pure at Heart too; cf 'Cemetary Rain'. You might want to mention The Clientele when drawing comparisons too. For me though, the sound they make is akin to Sarah records indiepop, in the jangle and the spaces between songs you can hear The Fieldmice or Another Sunny Day, not in terms of lyrics, but in terms of FEEL, the best Sarah records were evocative, rendolent of a moment, a thought, a soft hand on a cold evening. Minks have that, it's one of the things that makes them special.

By now perhaps, you get the sense that Minks are hard to pin down, that or they're just an amalgamation of influences and nothing more; not true. They take these elements and twist them, knowing when to sound like one thing, when another, and yet create something new from the bare bones. Perhaps it's by design, perhaps it's luck, but by creating a record that sounds like it could have been made 20 years ago and that also fits in with the music scene right now, Minks have managed to make an album that at once sounds timeless. It's an impressive thing to pull off with a debut record.

It's impossible really to convey the record through words (as it is with almost any piece of music) so I'd encourage you to listen to the record. It's on spotify if you have the capabilities to listen there. Otherwise you can give them a listen on their myspace page Or there's some links below.

Minks - Funeral Song

Minks - Cemetary Rain

Minks - Ophelia

The tiredness of the long distance worker

2010-11-09T22:01:00.003Z

Good lord, I'm knackered, so forgive the lateness of the hour and the crapness of the post today please. This morning I was listening to an album called White Magic by a band called CEO, (not the rapper as spotify might try to tell you) who are all electropop excellence and well worth checking out if you like that thing or even if you don't, a good ear for a tune is all you need. Anyway without further mumblings here's a video for a song that's been going round in my head all day.

That's it, short and phenomenally sweet. Hope you enjoy.

That was 15 years ago and things were very different then

2010-11-08T22:12:00.003Z

It's not very often that news of a band reforming can make me do anything more than shrug and say "mfffh" in an attempt at appearing interested. The news however that Pulp are to reform makes me genuinely excited. More so that it's the original line-up. Even more so that it's a line up that hasn't played live since 1996. They were rumoured to be reforming for glastonbury last year, but when that didn't happen I sort of gave up.

I first heard Pulp on John Peel way back in 1993, long before I really even knew that much about music, I was tuning the radio looking for some sixties stuff (probably, parents influence was quite heavy back then) and just came across this noise (in a good sense) that I'd not heard before, it was just astounding to me. I bought my first Pulp album in 95 (and probably my third or fourth overall, the others being Blur and Oasis, and let's forget all that shit about those two battling out for number one and all that crap, back then nobody managed to convey what it was to british, disenfranchised, and an outcast better than Jarvis did, and no one managed it til Hayman) and I've loved them ever since. 15 years now. So that's it, I coud go on and on here, but I'm just going to post some of their videos instead.

Lipgloss :-

Mile End (not a proper video):-

I'm a man

Wickerman

That's more then enough, normal service resumed shortly, but for now I'm off to dance like Jarvis

Down by the water

2010-11-04T10:51:00.004Z

Morning! Imagine a world where you don't start work until 1pm and it gives you a chance to uphold your promise to attempt to post more on a middling blog you write. That's the world I live in!

Anyway straight in.

There's a new Decemberist's song available to download for free (well in exchange for an email) on their website, they've been playing it live for a while but this is the studio version and, oh yes, it's called 'Down By The Water'. I like the Decemberists, I like the folky pentanglesque sound of some their stuff, and the more ambitious side, and the chamber pop side too. And now I like the R.E.M sound they make, because that's what this new song sounds like. A little Cuyahoga maybe? Or something else circa 'Life's Rich Pageant'? Maybe just that fact that Peter Buck's guesting guitar jangly on this is unmistakable. Whatever, Meloy has made no bones about this being the direction that The Decemberists are going to take and I like it. See what you think. You can have a listen here

The Pains of Being Pure At Heart also have a new single out, you can hear it on Pitchfork, it doesn't sound a hell of a lot different then anything else they've done, but I doubt any fans will complain.

Elsewhere to delight your ears, noisepop slackers Matt and Kim have released a new record, I've not heard to much of it yet, but 'Red Paint' off of it is undoubtedly excellent. You can listen to it on the pop sucker blog, which is here

That should be enough for a media heavy Thursday morning.

Back, back, back

2010-11-03T16:55:00.002Z

It seems that whenever I've posted here in recent months it's always with an apology about being lax with updates, and once again it's the same routine. I got around to checking my view stats and it amazes and pleases me in equal measure that some people actually do keep visiting. It gives me an immense feeling of schadenfreude and reminds me that maybe I should actually update more, which I will endeavour to do from now on.

Firstly then I'd like to pimp (or promote, delete as appropriate)a forthcoming gig that promises to be excellent, it's Nottingham's own Horowitz plus a couple more, and should be as racously entertaining as they always are, there's a facebook page for it here. There's an added incentive of it being only £3 if you're unemployed which is a fantastic enticement I feel, take that Government! If you need any other enticement (and you really, really shouldn't) there will also be cake.

There's not much other news to report music wise, but I did go to the End Of The Road festival some months back, and am still reeling from the absolute genius that Sam Beam or Iron and Wine to his friends produced, and I can think of no better way of signing off on a dark, wet, November day then to post the song he opened with on an equallly damp and terrible evening in September. I hope you enjoy it, keep reading and expect some proper updates soon!

Dexter Poindexter

2010-08-16T18:18:00.001+01:00

Hello; it's been awhile hasn't it? Put that down to a general malaise caused by joblessness (why is it that when one has nothing but spare time there seems to be no desire to use it), afternoon drinking and too much gaming and lets move on.

It's the curse that when you don't do something things that need your attention start to crop up all over the place. Normally the Beerandbands email is as barren as a nun but this month I seem to have recieved some actual stuff from bands and labels, so rather then waste their effort in contacting me I thought I'd better get round to actually reviewing some of this stuff.

So today it's an FREE EP from February Records called Silver Spings by Dexter Poindexter. Dexter Poindexter is one man from Chicago named Tommy Komorowski, apart from this EP he's also released one with Weepop and their's a forthcoming album on Series Two records (who have released some splendid stuff in the past); a strong pedigree indeed, and one which is clearly evident on listening to the EP itself. I've heard it 3 times in succession and already the songs are stuck in my head.

First song 'Two Cracked Heels and a Ghost' sounds ever so slightly like Bright Eyes in the verse (no bad thing at all) before hitting a chorus that's insanely hummable. It sounds instantly like you've heard it before, even though you know you haven't a sure sign of absolutely quality. There's such a giddy joy to it that I defy any lover of good pop music not to take it to their heart. There's a lovely little rock-a-billy type breakdown here too, just for good measure.

Sandwiched in the middle of the EP is 'From The Midwest' which has a much more countrified swing to it. There's not as much of a hook to this one, but it's as enjoyable as the first one, and shows that Dexter Poindexter is capable of diversifying quite nicely.

Final song 'From The West' is probably the pick of the bunch. Again it has a slightly country feel to it, but more upbeat than the previous tune. Once again it possesses an earworm of a chorus. It rounds off the EP nicely too, and leaves me wanting to hear more.

All 3 of these songs are excellent, it's nice to see consistency in an EP, and considering Dexter Poindexter hasn't released too much stuff so for it's very confident and reassured. There are artists who've been around for years who don't make songs as catchy as this. I get the impression they're might be even better to come from him. Bottomline if you like your bands jangly, a little bit country, and full of joy and chorus that'll stay with you, then this is right up your street.

Oh yeah, you can download this (it's part of February Records free digital downloads) from February and really you should, it's not often you get music as good as this for nothing.

Stuff and then some

2010-07-28T21:05:00.002+01:00

Hello, what's up? In lieu of anything more exciting, here's some stuff I've discovered whilst I've been battling the post-Indietracks blues. It's almost a recognisible medical condition these days.

1. The new Thermals single/song is excellent. I saw it posted on yonder Hype Machine yesterday but apparently it's cropped up on other sites in recent weeks too. Anyway it's vintage Thermals and therefore properly awesome. You can find it lurking here.

2. Whilst googling Indietracks, as you do, I came upon this rather interesting little video nugget. For what ever reason the line "You should your tits to The Felt Tips" amuses me greatly.

3. The Rocky Nest have split up. I think the 'Nest probably weren't as well known as they should have been, but I saw them twice and both times they were highly enjoyable. I'm guessing it's slightly too late now, but if you've never heard them you should at least check out their Myspace and see what you might have been missing.

Finally after the sad news of the demise of The Rocky Nest I was thinking of other bands that I've enjoyed that have died or gone missing in action and I remembered (as I often do in these cases) the rather brilliant Tales Of Jenny. They've been quiet for far too long (and for admittedly a damn good reason) and are another band who are far less well known then they deserve too be, so what better reason then to tell you to head over to their still functioning website and listen to some of the songs on there. Both 'Other Boys' and 'Trotsky Of Our Time' are pop songs of geniune excellence.

Indietracks 2010

2010-07-27T11:29:00.008+01:00

I suspect by now (if you have any real interest in indiepop anyway) you've already read a bunch of blogs/posts/facebook statuses about Indietracks, so forgive me for adding to the outpourings of high praise, but it's almost a law that you have to write about it if you've been.

I wasn't even going to go, I'd been every other year but this time I just couldn't really afford it but come Friday night when I was just moping around the house I was more or less ordered to turn up. I'm glad I did. The atmosphere there is just so special; it don't know if it's the Derbyshire air, the sight of steamtrains or the fact that it's full of great people and bands but the moment one steps off the train onto the platform the urge to dance, run and grin like a massive loon for an entire weekend takes over. It affects everyone from the smallest child to the gruffest, biggest man. It's a beautiful thing to see, and a testiment to the festival itself.

Anyway I got there just in time for Red Shoe Diaries who, as a Nottingham dweller, I've seen plenty, and who I've not seen recently as I thought I'd seen them enough. Turns out I forgot how great they actually are. They were on top form, and the new songs and old songs were equally greeted with joy by the crowd in general and especially by the hardcore fans down the front. A nice way to start off my Saturday.

I didn't see a lot of bands on the Saturday, or if I did I was a bit too drunk to remember (which seems likely) but I do remember seeing The Smittens. They've played 3 years in a row now, and each time they've been terrific. A band who seem absolutely made for the festival, not just for the music and how happy the crowd always are but because for much of the weekend wherever I looked there was a least one of them watching a band or wandering around with a big grin. It's nice to see.

I caught a bit of White Town in the church, where I heard 'Your Woman' and realised it's 13 years since I bought that single; which caused me a quick existential moment when I realised just how much time that actually is, before David Tattersall came on and I lost my train of thought. Despite the fact that the church was so hot, and he was pretty ill or had been (a story he told at great length and hilarity) he played a great set. I must confess the songs didn't instantly click with me like The Wave Pictures do but his songcraft and guitar playing are clearly high level and he had the crowd in raptures.

Sunday dawned with me waking up on the backseat of a car, and wandering round the campsite until everyone woke up. At some point I wandered into a great open field and dead silence, which was a marvellous moment. The quiet realisation that just 5 minutes away there was a whole festival going on and yet here were acres of lush green brought home again just how special the whole thing is. Then I went back down to the festival site to imbibe some more and maybe catch a band or two, bands like..

MJ Hibbett and The Validators. Remember when I mentioned a few moments ago how some bands are made for the festival, this lot definitely are. Mark and the band always look so comfortable up there. An unprecendented FOURTH year playing the festival and yet their enthusiasm for the whole thing only seems to grow. They played a storming set too, opening with the (at least for me) tearjerker of 'Billy Jones' to the mass audience participating frenzy of 'Easily Impressed' they filled every single moment of that set with joy. From encouraging mass tweeting of the word 'happiness' to getting the crowd to do the indiekid, every moment was memorable. So much so that a friend remarked to me straight after that "Mark Hibbett is the greatest man in the world" or words to that effect. The other stages only seemed to have about 15 people watching the band in them, they were that popular.

It got better though because then I saw The Specific Heats. Last year everyone who saw they're set in the church came away raveing about it. This year quite alot of people came to see them on the strength of that, and they were even better. Last time out they blew up an amp, but they're so thrilling they don't need to. Mat (and the bands) energy on stage, whirling like a dervish acts like a lightning conductor and whips the crowd into a total frenzy. I think everyone who saw them praised them as highly as possible when they finished. Brilliant.

Next I see Standard Fare. Their's is an album that I've listened to more than any other this year I think, and when I saw them a few weeks ago in Nottingham they were the best band I've seen too. Here at Indietracks they were even better. I think sometimes they are so suprised to see so many people watching them, I don't know if that's because they just don't know how good they are but to see them smiling so much through their set made me very happy. What a set it was too, despite the fact that album hasn't been out for too long, a lot of the songs seem to have become Standards (ha!), Philadelphia especially has the crowd pogoing and yelling in equal measure, and Dancing does the same. The new songs sound brilliant, and they do a lovely cover of a One Happy Island song, whilst Brad of said band played the ukulele. There's always one moment of a festival that I look back on as the moment, and for me, jumping about in the rain whilst yelling "I don't wanna have to wait a year!" was that moment. I'm sure that particular lyric sums up people's attitudes about Indietracks too, I wish it was next year already

I was a bit drained after that, but I did enjoy watching Shrag jumping about, and especially the antics of The Loves; dancers and Jimmy Cairney (of the Bobby Mcgees) dressed as Jesus is the way to go for next year too I think. I enjoyed Slow Club too, who drew a decent crowd and really seemed to be enjoying themselves. I love the discrepancy between the lady singers voice and her none more Yorkshire speaking voice, but it works and it works well.

Finally The Pains come on and I get down the front and dance for a bit, before the legs give out and I have to wander away, but turning my head whilst stood at the side of the stage, and seeing people stood on the hill whilst the day slowly fades and 'This Love is Fucking Right' belts out is magical.

I've written loads, and probably far too much, but it's so hard to write succinctly about Indietracks when it's so much that makes it special, the bands, the venue, the fantastic food, the organisers and volunteers who do such a great job and the trains. But, and it's a cliche, I guess what really makes the festival each year is the people. Without people it's just a bunch of bands playing in a field, with people it's a vindication of everything that everyone who puts on gigs (or festivals) or puts out fanzines or runs a record label or posts on a forum believes in. It's a moment where turning around to see someone dancing behind you can lift your heart 'til you're feeling giddy or someone you haven't seen in forever gives you a hug, and suddenly you remember that, yes, this is what Indietracks is all about. Roll on next year.

Hexicon - The Blossom Sighs

2010-07-15T13:49:00.003+01:00

I don't know why I haven't blogged about this Hexicon album, or Hexicon in general really, yet. I saw them a little while ago and they were a really good, fun, live band; I hadn't known what to expect from them but I came away really, really, impressed. So yeah it's about I gave them a bit of blog time.

Hexicon are Michael and Paul of Allo Darlin' and Tom (who has played horn with Hayman), plus a rotating drum tag team of Andy and Greg with Giles on bass. It's the sort of line up that you can't help but feel excited about. Add to that the fact that Elizabeth Morris (also of Allo Darlin' fame) turns up on the album to add a little help and you've got a release that I can't wait to hear.

It's called 'The Blossom Sighs' and it's out on Haircut records. It's got lovely cover art too, but the main thing of course is what it sounds like.

First track 'Well Done' kicks the album off in a hazy languid style; a fine vocal backed with touches of horn evoke a taste of summer. It has that easy feel that early Belle and Sebastian songs do. A fine beginning.

Second track 'Annie Oh' leads with a keyboard vamp and vocal with far more of a swing feeling, but that summer vibe is very much present, when the backing vocals join in and the whole thing swells it's a thing of joy.

The next couple of tracks change it up again, 'Something Strange Beneath The Stars' has some of the mystery and loveliness of mid-period Yo La Tengo, as has 'Dawn Comes To Save Us' though with a slightly rockier feel.

'Ireland' glitters and sparkles in equal measure, 'She Plays Games' has the same nostalgic and touching feeling to it that a some of the better Sarah Records bands did. Elsewhere 'Blood In Your Eyes' utilises soft slide guitar and lilting harmonies to make an absolute delghtful floating country sound.

The album heads to it's end in much the same way, crafting gorgeous melodies but retaining the it's soft easy going nature, and summery vibe.

At it's most basic then, this album is sublime dream pop. It's the kind of music you can put on and just float away to. It's lovely on first listen, and consecutive plays just draws the listener further in to their tangled web of lucious horn and harmony. If you want a record to soundtrack your sunbathing in the backyard or to drift you off to sleep this could be perfect for you; don't get me wrong though, this is far from background listening, there's a lot going on and plenty to keep drawing you in long after the first blissful hearing. You should see them live too.

You can listen to the album and buy the album on Bandcamp

You can visit the band HERE, and finally you can learn more about the band's label Haircut right HERE

It's already Friday.

2010-06-25T16:15:00.003+01:00

Hello!

Not much happening today, but I thought I'd just pop on a quick update about things you might have missed/not been aware of, and things I'm enjoying at the moment.

Firstly, back to that old staple, Bandcamp. I've been listening to Popical Island #1, I like the name, and I like the slightly scratchy, DIY feel of what they do. I'm not sure the whole record hangs together in any kind of cohesive way, but it's so enjoyable and infectious I doubt it matters.

Next, I imagine most, if not all, of the readers of this blog have seen the new Pains Of Being Pure At Heart video now, but on a similar Fortuna Pop tip, have you seen the Tender Trap one? Well now you can. I particularly like the Tatty Devine Indietracks necklace Amelia has on.

What else, oh yeah; February records (yep them again!) can't seem to stop putting out stuff of quality at the moment. This time it's a duo of free downloads for you to wrap your ears round. One is by Brilliant at Breakfast, an E.P entitled Almost Verbose who make absolutely lovely stuff that you owe it to yourself to listen to, and the other is Secret Charisma which is the side project of Brad from One Happy Island who, by the way, are wonderful. Links below.

Brilliant at Breakfast

Secret Charisma

The 1959 Hat Co - Awesome Sneakers.

2010-06-22T15:58:00.004+01:00

It's always a delight to recieve something in the post from Weepop records, their releases are beautifully packaged and the pedigree of the label (they've released stuff by The Just Joans, Allo Darlin' Transmittens amongst others) means that expectations are always pretty high for anything new. That was the case with this new E.P from The 1959 Hat Co, and I was not disappointed.

The band themselves were previously known as 'the hat company' and hail from various areas of the US (Detroit, Toledo Seattle and Ohio if you're interested) and are described as having influences ranging from Brain Wilson and Phil Spector through Morricone to reach Aztec Camera and the Jesus and Mary Chain. This is no doubt accurate, but there's plenty more to the band then that.

The EP could not be anymore summery if it came with shorts and an ice-cream, it's arrived at the perfect time of year, and is a joy, but you could listen to it at any time of the year and still have a smile on your face.

First track 'Awesome Sneakers' kicks off with a fine jangly guitar line. The verse with it's backing girl harmonies and sweet male vocals is part Smittens, part Beach Boys and contains all the joy you'd imagine a pairing like that would do. A love song about being shy to be around someone (whilst the harmony background vocal goes "you're so cute, you're so cute" it's like a bolt of sunshine. Pure, unadulterated pop joy. You can listen to this one yourself over HERE.

Second track 'Amber Brown Assembly Line' is a little different, the opening vocals on this one do indeed evoke the black spirit of The Jesus and Mary Chain and when the horns kick in you could be standing on a dusty street in the old west. Then the chorus comes in as light and airy as a breeze through a floral garden. It's a lovely, yearning thing.

Final track 'Midst Of Seasons' is a happy, easy going guitar tune with a sense of humour, starting as it does with a line about losing swimming trunks. It's almost vaudevillian in it's jauntiness and again it evokes nothing so much as endless summer days.

The 1959 Hat Co, has managed to grab the essence of summer and press it into 9 minutes of perfect pop. Far more then just the influnces stated at the beginning, it's 3 songs you'll have on constant rotation whilst driving between festivals in the summer, and yet it's sweet and tender enough to keep you warm and cosy when the colder part of the year drifts in. You can get it from Weepop now, and you really, really should.

PS, whilst we're on the subject Weepop are releasing a Stars of Aviation EP next week, and there's a song to here from that HERE. It's great too.

The Cavemen Go - New Lives

2010-06-21T11:01:00.002+01:00

New Lives by The Cavemen Go, is the latest release from February Records (formerly Tweefort) so it probably won't be a suprise to regular readers that although I'm not sure about the bands name, I do know that I like this record quite a lot. I don't know how February do it, they just seem to have a knack for finding great bands.

The album kicks off with 'Forget About it Claudia' a song that takes it's template from 'Blood and Chocolate' era Elvis Costello but plays around with that to create something truly the bands own. Meanwhile 'We're Not That Different' (track 4) recalls the sort of mod rock that The Small Faces made their own.

'Get Back To Me' manages to combine the 60's pop sensibility of someone like Donovan, with the much more up to date sound of bands like The Shins, whilst managing to fit in horns to create something intensely catchy. 'Hey At Least I Tried' could be a mellower Weakerthans and the nicely titled 'Tell Me Something Shallow, Dilettante has the sort of sound (and fury) that The Kinks captured so well.

I could write reams about this album but the bottom line is this, if you like artists like Elvis Costello (lyrics and music), and The Kinks, 60's pop, harmonies and modern indie rock, and you'd like all this to also sound like something new, then this is definitely a record that would only enhance your record shelf. You can buy it now from February and you find the band's Myspace right here.

World Cup Fever

2010-06-08T21:08:00.004+01:00

IS THIS THING ON?

Bloody hell it's been so long since I've done one of these you'd have been forgiven for thinking I'd died, or that my hands had dropped off through lack of use. Happily that's not the case and I've returned to burn your eyes with words yet again.

Anyway in case you've been asleep for the last few months, whether you like the sport or not you can't have failed to notice that it's world cup year. What this means is a whole lot of ball kicking on telly for a month, and sometimes a world cup song or two. England have had some pretty awful ones in the past, but Alayerofchips recently posted a fantastic song by Mark E Smith's side project Shuttleworth which is ace. So on a similar theme and attempting to go one better here's fabulously brilliant band Eux Autres doing "World Cup Fever 2010". It's giddy, be warned.

Also on a World Cup bent, Indiecater records have put together a world cup collection of songs about countries into group order. Band of the moment, Standard Fare's ditto about Mexico is about as enjoyable as you could expect a song to be! It's available to listen to from that link above, and you can buy it too in what sounds like a really nice package; I'd definitely suggest you do that.

I'm off now, apologies for the unreasonably long hiatus, normally service will be resumed shortly!

Birds Of California

2010-04-21T10:05:00.001+01:00

Tweefort records are a label I've mentioned a couple of times already since I've been sporadically updating this blog. They've done a really great job of getting regional bands releasing stuff and have also issued one of the best albums of recent months in 'Like An Octopus', the debut album from Women's Basketball. Taking the local (Connecticut) and making it global is always a fine thing to do. Anyway, due to the wish to be even more inclusive for a broader range of music, the label is changing it's name. By the end of the summer they'll be called February records. A name I like a lot better. Not that I mind Tweefort as a name, it's just that in some circles, rather sadly, the word 'twee' still has a few negative connotations and it almost instantly pigeonholes. The name change can only be a good thing, and if it helps the label sign bands and releases more (and more diverse) records then it's fantastic.

Which brings us nicely to Birds Of California and their Great Expectations EP which just happens to be the latest Tweefort/February free digital single. Birds Of California have 2 of Lunchbox and a member of Boyracer among their number, so they've got a fine pedigree from the beginning. They make a fuzzy, melodic swirling pop packed with melody and harmony and powered by horns. First track 'Great Expectations' being a case in point. Horn driven lines, coupled with little interesting sonic flourishes and a strong melody point the way.

Second track 'Saturday' starts off sounding like Pavement, with a sprinkle of Sparklehorse. It's impressive stuff. The kind of melody you find yourself humming down the street when you least expect it. There's a pretty ace and uplifting guitar solo in their too.

Final track 'Laugh Out Loud' continues with the horn motif, adding a spacier sound with a rousing coda of doo doo doos, and a slight hint of shoegaze.

All in all it's a really fine, really strong offering. which you pick up, well download, from tweefort/february for free right HERE. If this is the kind of stuff they'll be releasing under the new name then the future is very bright indeed.

Media heavy

2010-04-16T16:09:00.008+01:00

I haven't got much to write about today, but I've decided that I'm going to attempt to do a blog post anyway. A decision that could prove to as spectacularly bad as making a television sitcom based around Hitler called 'Heil Honey I'm Home'. What you see below you is no Youtube mockup either, just ask wikipedia. Surely I can't produce anything as bad as this.

Have you heard the new Zipper song? It's up on the bubblegum records myspace. It's well worth a listen, all fuzzpop goodness. Whilst we're on the subject of Bubblegum there's a new Starshy song up too - so you may as well check that out as well here

Elsewhere new Apple Orchard track up on Bandcamp, it sounds a little bit like Ride, it's really rather good.

From Anorak, Elizabeth from the Darlings posted this nice video of them performing at SXSW which somebody sent to them. It's pretty joyous.

If you're around in Nottingham tomorrow, then you could do worse than come to this: -

It promises to be fantastic, Hexicon feature a copy of Allo Darlin (see I don't just throw this stuff together) and Tom from the band has played Horn for Darren Hayman. So worth getting to. Some great songs on their Myspace too.

I'm going to sign off today with the classic 'Throw Aggi from the bridge' for no other reason than the fact I've been enjoying the Slumberland records reissued Black Tambourine record. The song is 18 years old and still sounds amazing. Enjoy.

On Tape.

2010-04-13T16:54:00.003+01:00

As you've probably already read/heard/osmosised, Indietracks have just announced another 2 bands for their forthcoming festival. Both The Pooh Sticks and Love Is All have been announced as headliners, to join The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart atop the bill.

This is great and interesting news. For a start The Pooh Sticks aren't really the best known band around, they're legendary yep, and they've reformed, but I bet they aren't as well known as say Heavenly (whose singer Amelia joined The Pooh Sticks for album The Great White Wonder) or more pertinently The Orchids - who played Indietracks shortly after reforming. I'd say they might be more in line with Mighty Mighty, but I don't know. I just think it's great that one of the headliners is a reformed, perhaps less well known band then is the standard for most festivals. Also The Poohs weren't renowned for being the most professional of bands live, and they're line-up will probably just be Huw and a bunch of recruits, but I think it'll still be brilliant. Why? Because The Pooh sticks are/were brilliant.

If you've not heard them think wry, funny, Power Pop songs often cribbed from other bands. They were a joy. You probably know the song "I know someone who knows someone who knows Alan McGee quite well" They could easily be interpreted as a sort of joke band in some respects. Were it not for the fact that their music is so good. The aforementioned 'The Great White Wonder' is probably seen as their best, but Formula One Generation might also be mooted. Both of which (I think) have been re-released. They're both on Spotify too. I personally would suggest Million Seller is their best record, not to be contrary but because it really is. It's probably harder to find, though Amazon have it cheap. The below song is one of the best from that record.

Meanwhile the other headliner - Love Is All are maybe even more suprising. Because while The Pooh Sticks are legendary (in certain circles) Love Is All are much more modern and despite already releasing 2 great records, not massively well known. This is a good thing. As is the fact that they're art punk/indie rock might not necessarily be what people would expect from the festival. Indietracks has often worked best when it's played a bit with people's expectations - Specific Heats are a prime example, and Art Brut went down very well. I like the fact that there's a bit more of a diversity to the headliners this year. Anyway Love Is All are, as I say great. Some of them were once in classic indie band Girlfriendo. Both records are again on Spotify and readily available. I'd recommend getting them. The below video for 'Turn The Radio off' from their first album is just a taster of what we can expect come summer. I for one am very excited.

Finally in a complete and utterly unrelated note, may I point any of you Sarah Records fans in the direction of this website, it may be of interest. Though I will make a disclaimer that Beerandbands in no way condones downloading music from the internet, but realises that what you do in your own time is up to you.

Monday mix #1

2010-04-12T21:14:00.004+01:00

You wait for one post and then two turn up at once, typical.

I've just had the idea that I could easily make a Spotify mix every Monday. On a theme perhaps, or just a bunch of songs that I like. So I've run with it. Apologies if you don't have Spotify. It's worth getting though.

Anyway this first one has worked out (completely unintentionally as it happens) at exactly 1 hour. It's not exactly inspired, but it features some new and some old stuff that I'm enjoying at the moment. Future mixes might be a bit more eclectic but this will do for now. Please do listen if you have the inclination.

Monday mix #1

I do like Mondays

2010-04-12T15:42:00.003+01:00

Hello it's Monday, or Day Of The Moon if you're latin; which I'm (perhaps wrongly) assuming you aren't. It's also the day that ushers in the rest of the working week and the usual mix of new releases, re-releases and, um, releases. What better day for a round up of goings-on then, eh? Let's go.

Up first this time, Fortuna Pop have just recently released the latest single from London based pop geniuses Allo Darlin'. It's likely that you've heard this already, but I've not heard the mix of sweet singing coupled with Monster Bobby's Calvin Johnson like vocal then you're missing a treat. Either way it's out now, and you can get it for FREE (well for the simple exchange of your email address) here.

Mates Of State, next. I love Mates Of State, I love the fuzzy organ sound they sometimes utilise, I love how happy they can, I love their energy. I also like covers records. What could be better for me then the fact that Mates Of State are releasing such a thing; entitled Crushes; in Summer. You can hear a really cover of 'Laura' by Girls over on the Mates Of State website at the moment. Looking at the track listing I can imagine the band doing a smashing cover of 'Sleep The Clock Around' but I'm most keen on hearing their version of Waits' 'Long Way Home'. A beautiful song which I hope they'll do justice too, someone has made a rather nice Youtube video for it, so I think I should use it.

Exciting me last week was the news that Blur are going to be releasing a brand new track for Record Store Day. Record Store Day is a fantastic idea giving, as it does, a bit of exposure to independant music stores and hopefully getting more people into said stores. There's special vinyl and promotional things to be picked up if you can make it to a participating retailer before everythng is gone. This is happening not just in the States but also in stores across the world. Click here to see if you're country is included and make sure to get there if you can on 17th April.

Where do they get this stuff?

2010-04-06T17:38:00.004+01:00

Hello there, Beerandbands is starting to resemble BBC tv effort'The Bubble' at the moment, I feel; all news round-up and little else, but on the plus side, it means you don't have to surf the internet for random nonsense because you can find it all here. Never say we don't do anything for you, dear visitor.

Firstly today, there's yet another terrific looking popfest on the horizon, and like a lot of the really good musical festivals this year (Indietracks and End Of The Road being notable exceptions) it's not in this bloody country. Yep, it's NYC Popfest, a popfest so good that I'd sell me own testicles to go along. Well maybe one. Sadly it's not going to happen, but to while away the sad hours whilst I think about what I'm missing (in more ways than one) the kind folks who put it on have provided me and you with what is an absolutely cracking mix that you can download from their website/blog. You surely should, featuring as it does a number of Beerandbands favourite artists of recent months. Excellent stuff. If you're a massive indiepop fan you'll love it, and if you're just discovering this sort of thing you'll probably love it even more.

Meanwhile back on these shores, have you seen Mark Hibbett's FAB cover of 'Dreaming' by Allo Darlin' yet? It's been posted on a few blogs and sites that I've seen recently, but it's definitely worth posting again. Hibbett also suggested that other bands playing Indietracks should cover each other. I agree wholeheartedly. Let's have Ballboy doing The Specific Heats, oh and The Smittens doing Standard Fare

Finally today, the new Pipettes song 'Stop The Music' is finally going to be released on April 19th, and now there's a video to go with it. It's all dance moves and 30's glamour and I, for one, really enjoyed it. As for the single, I'm detecting a slight Sophie Ellis Bextor feel to it. It's not as instantly in your face catchy as 'Pull Shapes' was, but turn your back and it'll have run up it and into your ears before you've had a chance to think, "wow this is actually dead good". Definitely good to have them back. See what you think

Thursday, Holy Thursday

2010-04-01T13:58:00.003+01:00

Hello it's Maundy Thursday. The day the Queen gives out some of her ill-gotten gains to the more deserving poor of the country. It's probably about 80p, but y'know she can afford it and that. It used to be tradition for the Queen to get down on her knees and wash people's feet too, but sadly that don't happen anymore. Imagine, the monarchy on it's knees.

Anyway it's time to stop daydreaming and get on with the order of the day, namely a couple of new things for your listening delectation. First up it's the WIAIWYA monthly singles club again. This time round it's a couple of songs from Hillary and the Democrats who played on Hollyoaks you know. That's a recommendation of quality before you even here the songs, and what songs they are. In particular the first of the two 'I wish I'd Taken More Photographs', It starts with a bunch of Ba-bas and has the punch of prime-quality Hefner. It's unquestionably fantastic. Lots of shouting and a really joyful chorus. It's the type of song that as soon as it comes to an end you just want to put it on and play it again, and shout "SNAP, SNAP, SNAP, SNAP" Don't take my word for it though, get it from the website.
Whilst you're there you should pick up the Meow Meow (cutural zeitgeisting at it's best) from last month too.

Todays other lovely news is that Cloudberry records have just released Bonne Idee's debut 7" and you can listen to some of it over on their website if you wish too. If dreamy, shimmery pop is your thing then you definitely should.

That's it for today, I'm off down the pub.

Indietracks band preview thing part 3.

2010-03-30T16:55:00.003+01:00

Next up in the sporadic look at bands to play Indietracks is Be Like Pablo. I'm looking forward to this one because I've never heard them before. In one sense I suppose I'm taking a little bit of joy out of the festival by hearing them now (it's always a delight when one discovers a band for the first time in a live setting) but the line up for this little Derbyshire festival is looking shit hot this year, and unless I can somehow manage to listen to ever band I'm bound to miss something great, which would be a massive shame.

The band themselves are from Forres and Edinburgh up in that Scotland, I believe. There's 3 boys and a girl, quite a lot of fantastic synth, and they've been around since last year. I think that's correct. Not that it matters, the main point for the moment is what the music is like.

What is it like? Great, actually. Really great. I'm listening to the songs on their myspace as I type this, and just smiling and feeling quite sunny. At their heart I guess they're powerpop, which is a wonderful thing, there's not enough bands doing powerpop (or GOOD powerpop) at any rate. This lot are happily redressing that balance. 'Julianne' for a start is a cracker of a song, that opening synthy line just reaching out and pulling me in; it's sound like Weezer or Silversun when they were really good. It's just dying for a crowd who know all the words to yell them back at the band. 'Without the Pain' mixes it up a bit with some spoken (or almost) word. 'Oh Emily' sparkles like Teenage Fanclub and 'The Post-It song combines really nice boy-girl vocals with a heartfelt message.

There's magic here, and more importantly huge promise. I think their will be quite a few people at Indietracks who catch them by accident and come away thankful for it.

The rain falls down

2010-03-29T17:55:00.004+01:00

Aha, British Summer time. One always knows when it's arrived. The clocks get changed again, the days get longer, someone misses an important function because of said clock changes and it RAINS. Yep, it rains and rains and rains, on humdrum towns all across the U.K; indiscriminately drenching everyone and rudely splattering it's drops across my window panes, it's enough to bring anyone's mood down, or it would be if not for so many wonderful things happening. Call it reasons to be cheerful.

The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart are playing indietracks. It's a match made in heaven really, The Pains take their influnces and push, poke and mould them into something heartwrenchingly and heart drenchingly wonderful. Indietracks does the same. It's not hard to understand the sheer buzz of exciting from certain corners in regards to the festival this year.

Elsewhere The Hot Toddies are releasing a new album on June 15th. I've been waiting for an official announcement and looking at their Myspace almost everyday for any kind of word so this is great news for me. Just hoping to hear something new from the girls really soon now. If you're not familiar with The Hot Toddies spiky brand of surfy girl pop, then familiarise yourself immediately. If you are familiar, take the time to reacquaint yourselves. I'm taken the chance to post a nice live video of them too

The new School album is sounding terrific, can't wait to get it. In the meantime you can hear it here as long as the link still works.

On top of all that, the summer and beyond looks excellent for gigs, Alayerofchips has some lined up (more on that soon) including another Nottingham alldayer, this time on the 25th September. One for the diaries.

Finally, I've also returned for another scout around Bandcamp today. Presented for your musical delectation are today's band you may or may not have heard of 'Bourgeois Hereoes'. I like the quirky nature of the band, in particular the wooziness of 'The Postcard Collector'. That said, I can find something to love in all the songs presented on their Musical Postcards album. Go and give it a listen

At the heart of everything

2010-03-22T13:40:00.004Z

So the next band in our whistlestop tour of who's who at Indietracks is Ballboy. Like Allo Darlin', Ballboy are well known within the indiepop community, and beyond thanks to people like John Peel.

I first came across Ballboy through 'The Sash My Father Wore and Other Stories', perhaps not the best place to approach the band from, since it's obstensibly a Gordan McIntyre solo record, but it hooked me, I was especially taken by the cover of 'Born In The USA' given I'm a rather large Bruce Springsteen fan. From there I got the next record 'The Royal Theatre' which IS a band record. It's brilliant too, it has something that I think a lot of scottish artists have; a melonchalia mixed and juxtaposed with uplifting music, it's also a showcase for McIntyre's special brand of writing about people. It's life under a microscope. The first track being a case in point.

After hearing that record, I was able to copy it for someone who in turn copied me 'Club Anthems' an earlier Ballboy record. An aching, soothing, heart battering slab of a record. 'Donald in the bushes with a bag of glue' and 'A Day In Space' are songs I never tire of. If either of those are played at Indietracks I'll be very happy.

Ballboy or Gordon at least, have played Indietracks a few times already and I've not seen them, though Gordon is responsibly for one of my favourite moments of last year. Standing in a tent whilst everyone is singing along to an acoustic version of 'What do we do now' by The Just Joans, my girlfriend is bumped into by the man behind her. Turning round in a fury she is met by Gordon McIntyre himself who simply states "If I do that again, punch me in the face", which I think is a lovely thing to say. I also think it's a good indicator of what Indietracks is like for someone who hasn't been. Where else could you get a performing artist to suggest you punch them? Nowhere that's where.

Anyway, that's Ballboy then. I suspect you've heard of them. If not then you really should. Most of their back catalogue is waiting to be raided on Spotify. I'll leave you with the rather fantastic 'I hate Scotland'

The Start Of Something Else.

2010-03-18T17:35:00.003Z

So bands have already been announced for Indietracks, suggestions of who people would like to see headline are filtering in and expectation levels are already being racheted up. Due to this I've hit on the idea of profiling each of the bands that have been announced(to a greater or lesser degree). I'll try and do this in alphabetical order, though of course as bands get added I'm bound to have to back that rule. I just think it's a good way to give me something to blog about most days, and in a selfish way, I imagine it will help me familiarise myself with the bands I don't know before Indietracks arrives, maybe it'll help you too. If you're not going then it might just turn you on to bands you wouldn't of heard otherwise. Who knows? I think I'll give it a go though. There may well be none indiepop festival related news too.

Anyway first up is Allo Darlin'. I imagine if you're the kind of person who wants to go to Indietracks, is going to go, or has any interest in Indiepop at all, you've probably heard of Allo Darlin, so I'm not really going to do much profiling on this one. Instead I recommend that you: -

A) Read Alayerofchips' review of the forthcoming record.

B) Check out the band's Myspace and listen to the new single 'Dreaming'. Check out Monster Bobbys, slight Calvin Johnson type vocal. It's aces.

C) Watch the really fun live video of 'Henry Rollins Don't Dance' below and do the opposite of Rollins himself.

So there you go, admittedly not the most indepth of profiles but I'm well excited, and they're only the first band to listen to of many.

Slight return

2010-03-16T11:39:00.005Z

Really quick entry, though I'll try to blog again later today, but did you see there's a new 'A Smile and a ribbon' single being released by Cloudberry?

I love the band and I've been waiting for something new for awhile, I still isten to 'The Boy I Wish I Never Met' often, but a new record would be greatly appreciated. Until then we have the new single, which sounds lovely to these ears, loving the little "ba,ba,ba" harmonies. Great stuff.

Anyway you can give it a listen via this LINK have fun.

R.I.P Mark Linkous

2010-03-07T15:38:00.007Z

It saddens me immensely to have to be writing another r.i.p blog entry so soon after the death of Jay Reatard, but the passing of Mark Linkous formerly of Sparklehorse deserves a blog entry.

Mark took his own life (he had attempted such a thing in the past), his family issued this statement "It is with great sadness that we share the news that our dear friend and family member, Mark Linkous, took his own life today. We are thankful for his time with us and will hold him forever in our hearts. May his journey be peaceful, happy and free. There's a heaven and there’s a star for you." I don't really think I could say anything else as eloquently as that, but I'd like to try.

I came across Mark and Sparklehorse through the single 'Hammering The Cramps' which I'd heard played on radio 1, but it wasn't until reading a review of 'Good Morning Spider' in the NME of all places that my love for him and his music really grew. I bought that record in the summer of 1998 and I've played it at least once every couple of months every year since. I think it's that good. It's lo-fi and experimental, but it's poppy and punky. It has heart in spades too. It's a dark record, but it's a joyful record, and contains some of the loveliest music and lyrics. Words such as "There will come a time gigantic waves will crush the junk I've saved. When the moon explodes or floats away, I'll lose the souvenirs I've made.
Anyway I loved it, and that record carried me through some quite sad times.

After that I followed Mark Linkous through his musical life and numerous collaborations. From his, perhaps, overlooked collaboration with Nina Persson (of the Cardigans) as A Camp; through to the record he made with Dangermouse last year, whilst taking in the 2 subsquent Sparklehorse records he released. The music of the man has permeated my life for so long it seems a little wrong to think he won't be with us.

My saddest moment, is that a few years ago I lived with my parents in Blackburn and never went to again gigs (I had no friends living near me). After years of nothing, Sparklehorse released 'Dreamt For Light Years In The Belly Of A Mountain and toured it. I got a ticket. I was so excited, then the day came and I chickened out of going taking the 1hr train ride to Manchester to see them. I regret that to this day, and it hurts that I won't ever get to see them now.

Another terribly sad thing is that Mark had apparently almost finished a new record, and that 'Dark Night Of The Soul' the album he recorded with Dangermouse was going to get an official release. So much promise still to come. I really feel that we've lost one of the greatest musicians of the past decade or two, and that's the saddest thing of all. But I hope that something good comes of his death; I really hope that people who have never had the fortune of listening to some of the wonderful stuff he did will discover it posthumously.

Nothing else to say really, I'm sorry I couldn't be more elegant or eloquent. Instead I want to leave you with some videos of a couple of my favourite Sparklehorse songs.

I like 'Hundreds Of Sparrows' best I think. "I'm so sorry, my spirits rarely in my body" Sadly accurate today. The song tells someone that they are "worth hundreds of sparrows" Mark was worth thousands.

Lazy Lines

2010-03-05T10:09:00.004Z

What's that you say, where have I been? Just being lazy I'm afraid, but I'm back to darken your Friday.

First up, a little self indulgence. I'm rather excited about the fact that Belle and Sebastian have announced tour dates and the fact that they're going to be recording a new album this year. I'm still a big fan, even after the lacklustre 'The Life Pursuit'. I still think they have it in them to pull off something beautiful and wonderful (if Stuart's 'God Help The Girl' stuff was anything to go by they do) and I can't help but really look forward to that. Anyway here's the self indulgent bit; I'm only talking about this so I can post this video of 'Is it Wicked not to care'. It's one of my favourite songs of theirs from my favourite record. The album just reminds me completely of spring, which fits in perfectly with the weather today.

Elsewhere this week I've been listening to the new Morning Benders record, I mentioned them a few posts back, which you may remember of you are one of our infrequent visitors. Anyway the new record 'Big Echo' is really from good indeed. It sags slightly in the middle of the record, but for the best part it's all sweetly sung harmonies, glossy production, hooks galore and happiness. Better still you can stream it all here. I hope you enjoy it.

Continuing my theme of arriving at bands/artists slightly later than other people I've just encountered Zee Avi who makes sweet and soothing solo music, just the right thing for an early morning.

That's it today, I'll attempt to update this blog a little more regularly again from now on. Oh yes, one finally thing.. I've been told that the M.J from M.J Hibbett actually stands for Michael Jackson, as he's such a big fan.

Shorty

2010-02-25T16:26:00.003Z

Hi. Let me apologise in advance for the extremely short blog post I'm going to deliver today. Just seems that music news, or more importantly music news that I want to report, seems a little thin on the ground today.

So because of that I've retreated to the refuge of Bandcamp again. This time I want talk about 'The Curiously Strong Peppermints', they're aren't new so perhaps you've heard them already, but I guess there's enough people out there who haven't to make posting about it worthwhile.

Anyway, apart from the rather strange name, the band make music that sounds a little like the Beach Boys, and wouldn't be out of place working with Elephant 6. Pop harmonies and strange sounds abound. My personal favourite is 'Flannery O'Connor' and not just because it's named after the fantastic southern gothic author, in fact it's pop sensibilities and sunshine are a world away from the darker elements of O'Connor's work.

You can have a listen right here if you should have the inclination.

Shirley Lee

2010-02-24T11:20:00.003Z

Do you miss Spearmint? Or perhaps more importantly, do you remember Spearmint? You should. They had a fair bit of airplay in the mid 1990's, in particular with the song 'Sweeping The Nation', album 'A Week Away' was critically acclaimed all over the place, and then they seemed to drop out of the public conciousness. Which is a terrible shame because they followed it up with more cracking records, not least 2006's 'Paris In A Bottle' a concept album of sorts, packed to bursting with hooks and singalongs. If you've never heard them or forgotten how great they can be, you might want to listen to 'A Week Away' on Spotify - Spearmint – A Week Away (Special Edition). Why? Because towards the end of the year, the band release a new album and I expect it to be great; the reason for this is that lead Spearmint Shirley Lee (or Mr. Shirley Lee) as the press sometimes dub him, has just released his eponymous debut album with backing from the rest of Spearmint, so obstensibly a Spearmint record. It's good too, or as much as I've heard of it. It sounds like Spearmint, which is a great thing. Songs tinged with melancholy and nostalgia that occasionally sound a bit like the Lightning Seeds or at times a lighter touched Belle and Sebastian. It's definitely worth a listen, and it's quiet brilliance is quite likely to suck you in, plus rather brilliantly there's a fair number of tracks to listen to HERE, so you've really got no excuse.

Elsewhere I've been keeping an eye out for news of 'The Bundles'. The band lineup is a certain kind of indie-kids wet dream featuring as it does, Kimya Dawson, Jeffrey Lewis and Jack Lewis. Plus Anders Griffin who has played with Regina Spektor amongst others. With a line-up like that there's a chance that they could produce something brilliant. The album itself is due in March, I think, but I managed to find a song called 'Pirates Declare War' which promises some good stuff. It sounds like most of the songs from Jeffrey Lewis' '12 Crass Songs' album or some of 'City and Eastern Songs', which is of course a great thing. You can hear it by following the upcoming link.

Pirates Declare War

Finally, simply because I've got the urge to listen to more Jeffrey Lewis now, here's a short film for Lewis' song 'Champion Jim'. Like many of his short film songs I don't think that this has been officially released, but it's brilliant.

(put) Your hands (together)

2010-02-23T16:30:00.003Z

Hiya. Once again it's a bit of a digest today.

First up, have you heard the first single from 'The New Pornographers' upcoming album? I have. I really like TNP, it's hard not to. Ostensibly a supergroup they make some really great spiky pop tunes. That said, although I liked some of last album 'Challengers' it didn't really resonate with me as much as previous albums like 'Twin Cinema' or 'Mass Romantic' had. That said, both Carl Newman, Dan Bejar and Neko Case have seperately all released brilliant new material recently, so I have high hopes for this new record, so let's go back to the single; it's called 'Your hands (together)' I must admit it didn't quite click with me on first listen, although I think that's partly due to listening to it on a netbook with slightly tinny speakers. Having listened to it since I've come to love it already, I think it's closer to 'Electric Version' or 'Mass Romantic' in sound (particularly with the Neko vocal) and that is a really good thing. If you're a New Pornographers fan, I think you'll love it, and if you're not a fan or have never heard them before, then give it a go eh? It can be heard here:-

http://www.thenewpornographers.com/media.html

In other brief news, there's some freebies out there on the net for you.

Tweefort records (who i've mentioned briefly before) have a compilation series to download for absolutely nothing, which is nothing short of wonderful of them. It's great too.

Oh yes, and the hugely anticipated London Popfest!! (explanation marks bloggers own) have a compilation playlist to listen to. That's available from this link :- http://www.mediafire.com/?v2zqemozllj

I've not listened to it yet, but with the line-up of bands for popfest being as good as it is, that compilation is liable to be nothing short of brilliant.

Bad Poetry

2010-02-18T17:25:00.003Z

Haiku Salut make
very beautiful music
I really like them.

Apologies for that poor attempt, I'm no Basho , though I think the poem says everything I feel about the band anyway.

Elsewhere, Bandcamp continues to prove a rich gold mine for great bands. Apple Orchard are one such, 'Hit or Miss' and indeed the rest of the new E.P puts me in mind of Sarah records, which is no mean thing. It's reflective and beautiful, I hear echos of Bobby Wratten in some of the vocals, and ghosts of indiepop past in the guitar. I really like this.

Oh and lazy and (borderline) plagiarism means I'm not afraid to just steal things straight from an anorak thread and whack them up here. So, may I also present to you Playpeople. I've heard the name before, but not the music before which is quite remiss of me, especially because they are jolly good.

Righto, sorry to cut this short but there's a rabbit to look after. See you soon.

Band Camp

2010-02-16T16:48:00.007Z

Look at that title up there. Look at it and tell me what it means to you. Perhaps it makes you think of an American feature film circa 1999 featuring a gone to seed ginger girl and a slightly chubby guy, or perhaps you're thinking of the kind of summer pastime we don't seem to have in England. Though I wish we did. Anyway this post is about neither of those things, though a few days ago I'd have thought the same. Nah THIS band camp is a rather nifty website where bands can share music and people like you and me can listen to it. That's a good thing right? Yes, I know what you're thinking, "aren't there lots of these sites?" There are, yeah, but this one is really great because it seems to be a lot more diverse, and importantly it has a fairly good smattering of indie-pop bands (as well as other genres) sharing stuff on there, in some cases whole albums. Admittedly I have no idea how to get an account for it that isn't an account for bands, and I've not found a search bit on there either, and have had to use google BUT I have found some new (or new to me) bands and I thought I'd share a couple with you.

Firstly the rather brillant 'The Super Cutes'

I love this, I love how the first line of the first song is 'I dream of fluffy kittens' and how tongue in cheek it is, mentioning Zac Efron carries extra points too (as does having a song called Ice-cream and Nazis). I love the whole do it yourself sound of the thing and just the sheer joy and exuberance of it. I listened in a half-awake state this morning, and almost instantly had a big smile on my face and was wide awake, so there you are the musical equivalent of caffiene. I hope you like them as much as I do.

Then Beat radio. I don't quite know what it is about Beat Radio, whether it's the vocal or the crisp drum sound in the background, but there's something there that just gets it's hooks into me and won't let go. There's a hum and a buzz to the music that makes me think of cities (unsuprisingly Hefner's We Love The City pulls this off too), it gives the songs an underlying energy that keeps me wanting to listen. It's something I can see myself coming back to quite a lot.

Anyway, so there you go, Bandcamp. If you figure out how it works any better than I can, let me know.

Smorgasbored

2010-02-15T17:02:00.003Z

Welcome back to the blog that no-one is calling a veritable musical smorgasboard. Apart from me of course, I'm getting t-shirts made up with that on them.

First up, yet another band that I've only just discovered that you may or may not have heard of. I like how this keeps happening, it suggests that there must be even more bands out there that I've yet to here, and that is a very warming and comforting though. The band I've stumbled across are called The Very Most. In grand 'Beerandbands' style, I know nothing about them, apart from the fact that the banner on their myspace says they had a new record out in January, and that the songs on said Myspace are very nice indeed, delicious indiepop of a fine order. Get over to their myspace and lend them your ears.

Billie The Vision and The Dancers on the other hand are a band I'm very aware of. I'm still unsure on whether I like their name, but I know that their last 'I used to wander these streets' was as good a record as emerged from Sweden in 2008, or indeed in the last couple of the years. It's great to hear, then, that they have a new single out called 'I'm alive'. Sadly I couldn't find an MP3 of it, but there's a nice live version of it up on youtube, so here it is :-

Finally 'The Morning Benders' are another band I'm quite a fan of, they make fun nostalgic pop to sing and swoon along too. Their covers album from a few years ago is a cracker too. Their website is currently offering a free mp3 from the new album to download, so i'd check out that if I were you, and here's the link to the page that has the covers album to download if it's still available - HERE. Oh and if you'll forgive me for posting yet another video, then you should watch the below, right now. It's wonderful.

Lovely things

2010-02-11T14:27:00.004Z

Hello there! How are you today, good I hope.

Today I've been having a quick read of some of the Anorak forum, I never pay as much attention to some of the stuff on there (and it's a great site for finding out things first), but I stumbled across Pebble records. It's really nice to be able to browse (and buy records from) a whole lot of indiepop artists in one place. It's good work, and I therefore encourage you to go and have a look as soon as possibly.

Elsewhere, Laura Marling has announced that she'll be releasing another album of folky goodness, 'I speak because I can' in the UK and Eupore on March 22nd; Australia on the 19th March and the US on the 6th April. There's an official video for 'Devil's Spoke' a track of the album available on the 'net, but I've got it here for you. See what you think. I'm getting overtones of Beth Orton, but loving that guitar sound underneath, it's great.

Next, if you're lucky enough to live in London, then I've spotted a pretty good gig that you might not have been aware of. Owl Parliament. Just LOOK at that line-up. Mount Eerie solo, Aidan Moffat, Hayman. If you're able to go to this and you'd don't, I would suggest that you are extremely foolish.

Sadly that's it for today, sorry there's not more to report.

Seethers Digest

2010-02-09T11:37:00.007Z

Hello! Sorry I've been away, my excuse this week is a passport form debacle and a new rabbit. Anyway to get back in the swing of the typing thing I thought I'd just write a quick digest on things that might interest you.

Firstly if you're in London and not doing a lot tonight, you could do a lot worse than dragging yourself down to THIS. Not only are there fantastic bands playing that, but it's for a good cause too, namely helping Allo Darlin' to play South By Southwest. In addition, I think Darren Hayman and Amelia Fletcher doing some songs from 'We Love The City' is not to be missed, if they do 'Good Fruit' that alone will be worth the price of admission. It's something I doubt we'll see again. Now would be a good time to post the wonderful 'Good Fruit' video actually, so I shall.

So anyway, yes, get yourself along to that, you won't regret it.

Elsewhere, The Melting Ice Caps have a rather lovely new single out now. Even better it's all for free. I've listened to the first song 'Our Lovely Afternoon' and found the band adopting a degage attitude mingled with a pleasant warmth. It's well worth hearing, and since it's a freebie you've got no reason at all not too. Get it from the website.

Continuing on the free theme, Where It's At Is Where You are, have just put up the next in there series of free monthly download singles. It's a goodie too, get over HERE and give it a listen.

Finally, and I hope she won't mind, a friend of mine puts together a lovely zine called Intercity Baby. More copies have just been reprinted and are on sale again. It's really such a pretty thing and definitely worth a read. Here's a little blurb

"The zine is full of wistful reminiscing on journeys – be they by train, car, or airplane – and the wonderful people and pop events that await us on the other end. I cannot fully express how genuine and fascinating the stories are. I really can’t wait for you to read them!

Some of the contributors include Laz of Bubblegum Lemonade, Pete Green, Jenny of Strawberry Fair, Charlie of Bears and The Golden Rule, and Pete of Horowitz.

I posed five questions (see them here) to a number of glittering international pop luminaries. Some of those who thoughtfully answered these questions are from The Orchids, Summer Cats, Pocketbooks, One Happy Island, Friends, The Foxgloves, Very Truly Yours, and more!

"I've always wanted more people to read the heartfelt stories, the daydreams through drizzly skies, the real-life wanderings through which I've lived vicariously while reading. So I'm hoping you might want a copy! We can do an exchange - send me anything you've made, be that a zine, a small piece of music, a poem, a postcard, a drawing. Or if you want, you can simply PayPal me 2 (popchicago@gmail.com) "

So, yeah, do your bit for the independant fanzine writer, and get yourself a copy.

Until next time then..

We Disappear

2010-02-01T16:36:00.004Z

This morning I went downstairs to discover a little package from the lovely folks at Weepop. Said package contained the new Transmittens mini-album, a badge, a sweetie and a really lovingly designed envelope to hold the 3 inch CDR. It's nice to get something so delightful through the post, and I love it when a label puts such a lot of love and effort into what they do. With Weepop this extends to the bands, and Transmittens are no exception.

I mentioned that Transmittens had a new record, 'We Disappear' coming out a few posts ago, but now that I've actually recieved it, I think it definitely deserves a larger post and it's a good excuse to post the lovely looking artwork again.

What can I say about the record except that it's fantastic? It's really very short, 10 tracks and 20 minutes, but when has that impaired the quality of a record? I think A Smile and A Ribbon's first record was similarly short and similarly brilliant. Also when it's that short, it's a great excuse to put the record on again, like I'm just about to.

Music wise, where talking tinny, bouncy, happy keyboards and cute girl vocals for the most part, though there's some nice boy/girl vocal harmonies thrown in for good measure; this is especially evident on 'Summer won't End'. Every song is catchy as hell, and the keyboards helping to suck the listener in with more hooks then a Peter Pan convention. Elsewhere, 'Too Right To Sigh' carries a calypso feel, whilst the short but sweet 'Hot Dog Suit' is ridiculous and ridiculous lovely. As the aforementioned 'Summer won't End' may have led you to suspect, this album just vibrates with the feeling of hot days and long drinks. It'll be one to play over and over (and will sound fantastic) with friends in the park, or on summer lawns or in the car on the way to another festival. There's a slight sad and nostalgic feel to some of the songs too, just right to capture that wistful mood as the sun slowly fades and casts long shadows of dusk across a city park.

That said, there's no reason why you shouldn't be listening to it now. There's already been mention of albums of the year in indiepop circles (Standard Fare being the main one), but 'We Disappear' should definitely be up there. As I say I think it's a record a lot of people will be listening to for a large part of the year. Do yourself a favour and go and order it now. Oh and once again, if you missed my post from the other day, then you can listen to opening song from the record, on Weepop. I left the link at the top for you.

My Secret Favourite

2010-01-29T10:24:00.004Z

Once upon a time there was a brilliant, but rather undiscovered, band from Long Island called My Favourite. They released some absolutely fantastic record and a bunch of great singles, combining nostalgia with a rose tinted view of the world. Just watch the video below and revel in the brilliance. Or listen to 17 Berlin.

They were wonderful, and when they finally called it a day it was a sad one. That could have been the end of it, if not for the fact that Michael (the main lynch pin) from the band started another group called 'The Secret History', who've been quietly gathering praise and fans for a little while now, they played NYC popfest last year, and are doing so again this year. I've been enjoying their 'Desolation Town' EP for a little while now, particular the song 'The Haunted Hearts' fervently awaiting the advent of new material. Thankfully that wait is over because they've just put up a new song called Johnny Anorak over here on their Myspace. It's predictably great, when the chorus comes in it's as swoonsome a song as I've heard this short year. Even better they've announced a new album for March. You can download the song and read about more on this blog. I'm really excited. I think 'The Secret History' are going to get a lot bigger this year. I've got my fingers crossed for them to play Indietracks. I suggested them on Anorak but like most of my post, it got ignored. Maybe they've already got them. Here's hoping.

Oh yes, If you want to listen to their 'Desolation Town' EP, then click below.

The Secret History – Desolation Town

IRM

2010-01-28T16:30:00.005Z

Often I think that my musical life (or at least this blog) can be likened to a man stumbling around in a darkened room until his hand alights on an object which can illuminate the darkness, except in my case it's music not objects.

One such band who've managed to permeate the deep dark of my musical ignorance this week are The July Days. I've never heard of them before, though I guess and hope that they're named for the events that occured one July in Russia over 90 years ago. Anyway, I know a little bit more now thanks to their Myspace. They are from Birmingham and have supported The Lovely Eggs and My Sad Captain as well as winning a Battle Of the Bands at Birmingham University. See what I mean about stumbling in the dark? This lot should have been on my radar ages ok, still I'm just glad I found them. Hopefully you will be too. I think one listen to 'I Said, You Said' should be enough to convince you. I can't quite explain why, but that song makes me giddy and tells my feet they want to dance, and only the best songs can do that. Give 'em a listen over here.

The other thing I've been listening to today is the new Charlotte Gainsbourg record. Charlotte of course is the daughter of the legendary Serge, in fact her first musical outing came on a Serge single. She's an actress as well as a musician and such a fine pedigree comes over on the record. Her current release IRM, is written, arranged, produced and parly played by oddball Beck.

In places it has elements of Beck's slightly darker pieces mixed with a chanteuses touch of the sublime. It's arranged beautiful, and Charlottes voice, although not perfect fits the music very well indeed. It's a lovely, fragile, thing to listen to, and I'd encourage you to do so if you get the chance.

Charlotte Gainsbourg – IRM

Transmittens recieved

2010-01-25T17:17:00.005Z

Hello. First up I'd like to introduce you to a band I've been listening to a fair bit today. They're called 'The Devil, My Pocket'. I don't know much about them (for much, read nothing), there was a brief mention on The Icicles homepage and so I thought I'd check them out. I liked what I heard too, there's a certain element of Will Oldham/Smog to them, especially on the song 'While The House Burned' As is obligatory there are songs to hear on their Myspace, as well as a 4 song demo thing on the website, here. You should go listen.

In other exciting news I've just noticed that Weepop are going to put out the new Transmittens mini album (though 10 tracks feels like an album to me) on the 29th January, though they have it up for pre-order now. You probably know Weepop through such other great bands as 'The Smittens' and 'The Just Joans', the label has a high pedigree. So do the 'Transmittens'. Weepop released there last record 'Our Dreams' as well, and it was a cracker. Ignore the cuddly name, you won't find anything too overly twee or cutesy here. I say the band are more of the vein of The Magnetic Fields, or maybe Mates Of State. I have little doubt that this record is going to be superb, the first track (and the track available to listen to HERE on the weepop website) Marfa Texas is splendid and the second track 'The Sea At Night' is also great and on their Myspace. I can't wait to listen to the whole thing. So what now? You go to Weepop and pre-order the record that's what. It's ridiculously cheap and will almost definitely sell out. I've just ordered mine.

Upcoming stuffs.

2010-01-20T18:29:00.003Z

So not much in the way of news from me today, I was going to review the 'Women's Basketball' album, but looks like Alayerofchips got there first. Go have read.

Speaking of the aforementioned blog, Sam from Alayerofchips is putting on another gig soon, and it looks likely to be another great one. I know that most of the people who read this blog probably read that one too, but it's worth a re-post, and if you haven't heard about this yet then you really should read on.

Look at that poster to the left there, isn't it lovely? The bands playing are just as lovely. Withered hand have been garnering praise from all quarters of late, obstensibly one man from Edinburgh he creates beautiful folky music to die for. There's a nice video up on the website here. Go and listen.

Elsewhere on the bill, The Pete Green Corporate Juggernaut keep rolling on (see what I did there), they're always great value, songs with heart, played with joy and viveur and returned in kind from every audience I've seen them play too. Go here for loads more fun. The other band on the bill are Red Shoe Diaries, from right here in Notts. They sometimes sound like Hefner, they have the same soulful, emotional feel as Belle and Sebastian and they're playing all over the place at the moment.

So if you've not already seen or heard of the gig, are in Nottingham or the surrounding area and like what you hear/read, then definitely go to the show, you won't regret it.

If you again look to your left, you can see a poster for another gig. This time a tribute to the ever wonderful Darren Hayman and Hefner. This also promises to be another good one. We Show Up On Radar are just about to release a new single and know all about writing songs which are emotional and fragile yet witty and warm, much like Darren really. Elsewhere Vom Vorton, or Tom from Lardpony and latterly of Of Mice And Mental Arithmetic has previous form having contributed a fantastic version of 'The Sad Witch' to an 'Alayerofchips' compilation a fair old time ago.

Anyway it promises to be a good old night and it's on February 5th. Did I mention it's for charity, will it is, Battersea dogs and cats home and the DEC Haiti earthquake appeal to be precise. What more reason could you need?

I realise of course that these two events are both Nottingham based, but I'm local so perhaps it's to be expected. That said I want to do a weekly UK gig listing thing, hopefully starting this Friday. So keep a look out for that, and if you have a gig you'd like to be added onto it then let me know.

Make It Kinetic.

2010-01-19T11:46:00.006Z

Morning! Yesterday morning I stupidly banged my little toe on a doorframe and managed to break it. As a result I'm currently in a painkiller induced fugue, and not up to concentrating too much on writing the blog. Hopefully then, you'll forgive me today for falling back on an old staple; the classic album. This may well be number 1 of an indefinite series.

Note I said classic album, not forgotten classic. Most albums that get classified as forgotten or 'lost' really aren't, they're just languishing outside of the mainstream. I mean if I was to mention 'Snowball' by The Field Mice to the majority of people on the street they'd not know what I was talking about (and their loss really) but if I talk about The Field Mice on anorak or any other indie pop type forum, then pretty much everyone will know what I mean. It's not a lost or forgotten record, it's found a niche. So yes, which pontification brings me nicely to my own little post on a classic album today. I've chosen Thunder Up, by The Sound.

The Sound were active between 1979 - 89 musically they're more often then not pegged as post-punk which in terms of when the band were active - if not completely in regards to their, ahem, sound - is pretty accurate. The band shared a record label with Echo and The Bunnymen and played with, Sheffield's mostly forgotten men, The Comsat Angels.

The Sound released 5 record between 1980 and 1987, most of which met with plaudits and wide critical acclaim, but the band never seemed to make the leap into the public conciousness, the way other bands of the time like Joy Division and The Bunnymen did. I mention those two in particular, because they were the most similar in musical style to The Sound yet managed to break out of the niche I mentioned earlier, whilst The Sound didn't. I don't know why.

There is much to The Sound's story I've not mentioned here but I would advise reading up on them if you listen to the record after I've yammered on about it and enjoy it. As I've mentioned The Sound released 5 records, they are all different. 'From The Lion's Mouth' is the best known one, it's the album that should have made them huge, and didn't. I've decided to focus on Thunder Up, because it's probably the most accessible. It's also my favourite.

It opens with 'Accleration Group' a rowdy, fast paced song which lives up to it's name and should grab you within seconds. Followed by torch aloft ballad, 'Hand Of Love' it's a sternum breaking one - two punch of an opener. Elsewhere the yell of "make it kinetic" on 'Kinetic' will worm it's way into the internal jukebox, as will the upbeat and lively horns of 'Iron Years'.

It is a really uplifting album, despite it's sometimes darker lyrics. It's got a nostalgic tinge to it, but the overall feel is one of searching for, and reaching for joy. Nowhere is this better exemplified then in lyric to Iron Years. "I'm on your side, a friend deep inside. Like the times we were so close to joy, we were so close....... I know you will be there soon"

I could go on and on about this record. But I think it's best to just leave you with a spotify link and the ability to make up your own minds. See you tomorrow.

The Sound – Thunder Up

Non-Atrocity Exhibition

2010-01-15T16:11:00.005Z

One of the joys of being a blog writer, apart from the obvious one of pure narcissism, is that from time to time, people/bands/record labels will send you demos/tracks to listen to. This doesn't often happen to me so it's always a nice suprise when it does. Even more so when the tracks in question are really worth listening too.

One such arrived from Of National Importance Records recently in regards to a band called 'The Exhibition' and their new 4 track demo EP. I'm very pleased they asked me to review it, because it's really very good indeed.

The First Track is - 'The Boy And The Tearaway' The title has the slight ring of Morrissey about it, and so does the vocal on immediate listen, but once the pounding drums, swirling shoegazey guitar and impassioned vocals all start to gel, you get the sense that this isn't going to be a copy cat band, The Exhibition have a sound in their one right.

Second track - 'Things That Hide In The Dark' starts with a guitar line that reminds of 'The Rapture or maybe Factory records circa '81/82. It's tremendously catchy too, whilst retaining a dark sound that's pretty prevalent throughout the whole EP.

'Reaction' is the third track and to these ears sounds a bit like The Cribs. This is no bad thing in itself, but the band then take that as a starting point and dart off in entirely different directions. Again the strong drum sound propels this on to great things.

Final track - 'Bright New Worlds' is probably my pick of the bunch, mainly because it's anthemically catchy, a bit brighter, and perhaps slightly more rounded, but there's not much between the tracks to be honest.

All in all this is a really impressive release for a band who are still in the early days of their career, especially since it's tagged as a demo. The instrumention throughout is uniformly great as are the quality of the vocals. Yes it's possible to play spot the influence here and there, but what the band do and do well is to take those influences and mould them into something different and new. There's no reason why The Exhibition can't build on what they've done here and go onto even better things. Definitely a band to look out for in the future.

If you want to listen yourself, and you should, then you can find the EP on Last.FM here and on Myspace here

R.I.P Jay Reatard

2010-01-14T12:04:00.006Z

I had my blog post all lined up for today, but I was having a gander over at Pitchfork and some messageboards and found the very sad news that Jay Reatard is dead at 29.

I only came to Jay Reatard last year, so I can't eulogise or wax lyrical about how much I knew him, or tell you anything about his personal life. Beyond the fact that he was known as a hell raiser I have no idea what he was like. It doesn't matter, what does matter is how great his music is or was, however you want to put it.

Just before we were due to travel down to the End Of The Road festival last year I put together a mix-tape. One of the songs on it was 'Screaming Hand'. The instant it came on I was tapping my foot and singing, me and Kerry just exchanging glances and clearly both thinking "wow this is amazing". Since then I've discovered that most of his music is like that; fast, frenetic, giddy and gloriously bright. He reminded me sometimes of Guided By Voices, they have that same way with a catchy melody and a short simple tune. Both were also massively prolific.

Actually that's the saddest thing for me, apart from how young Jay was; it's that he was so prolific. 'Blood Visions' in 2006, two singles collections spanning the years '06 - 08 and then 'Watch Me Fall' from last year. That he was so prolific whilst retaining musical quality only leads me to believe that there was a lot more to come.

It's always sad when a clearly great talent is cut short before reaching full potential, but he left some amazing music, (and mentioned above great memories with it) which I'll always be grateful for.

R.I.P Jay Reatard, you will be sadly missed.

I smell winter

2010-01-13T10:53:00.004Z

Where does the time go? Despite my best intentions, my computer happily informs me that it's been 5 weeks since I last updated this blog. I blame christmas.

Anyway in the spirit of New Year's resolutions (and only about 12 days late on that, hurray!) I'm going to try and post something on here every single day. I can't promise it'll be anything special; maybe just a track I like, but at least it will be something.

From where I'm sitting I can see how cold it looks outside. I know that in other parts of the world it snows all the time, and it must seem odd to some just how much complaining England is doing about snow at the moment, but when it's like this all I want to do is curl up with a cup of tea and listen to something bright and happy. Thank goodness then for the new 'Ruby Suns' song.

I really like this band, I've got both of their previous records (presuming they have done two and I've not missed something), with 2008's 'Sea Lion' just shading it. I'm not necessarily sure how to describe the band, the last record had quite an african instrumental feel to it, but themed with electronica and symphonic pop. This new single, to these ears at least, sounds like Grizzly Bear or Animal Collective, and yet not quite. That's a terrible description isn't it? It's a great song though and everything I want this morning. It's over here on their myspace.

In a different but equally warming way, I've enjoyed the new 'Burning Hearts' single this morning too. It's called 'Night Animal' and it's being released by, the always excellent, Shelflife Records on 26th January. The song itself has a bit of a Saint Etienne feel to it, I think, which is obviously never a bad thing. You'd do well to hear it for yourself though, and you can do so by heading over to Shelflife now.

The 'C' word

2009-12-08T11:12:00.005Z

Well, it's been quite some time since I've been around this manor, hasn't it? I've no real excuses, blame the new Xbox, a few trips to the pub or sheer laziness if you must. Me, I blame Thatcher.

Anyway enough of that, I've popped in firstly to draw your attention to a little Christmas Comp that's available, at the moment. I suspect anyone who actually reads this aware of it, but if not the link to read about it follows : -

here

I've not heard it, I will be honest, but I'm going to get it as soon as possible, as should you, especially since it's a run of 500 copies. Also it's going to be great, I can't think it would be anything but given the list of bands on there.

I should get a copy for my mum too, anything to avoid the waking terror of Cliff Richard this year.

Secondly, may I draw your attention to yet another new gem from MJ Hibbett. It's called 'I Got You What You Want For Christmas', it's has that classic opening christmas sound. Hard to explain but I think you'll understand when you hear it. It's also got two splendid videos. You can see the videos yourself over at the Hibbett and Validators website which you can find HERE. Enjoy, but be warned it's intensely catchy.

Something wicked this way comes.

2009-10-07T15:51:00.005+01:00

The last time I mentioned the band Dead Man's Bones was in this post. I'd not really heard much news from them of late, but knew their album was coming out this month. Well, I was just skimming Spotify earlier this week and discovered that the album is up there already (it came out yesterday) so I listened and enjoyed it enough to want to blog about here.

If you want the short version, it's really a very good record and worth your pennies, or at least a listen on Spotify (you'll have to search for Dead Man Bones, since spotify seems to have a grammatical disaster on the name), or Myspace; it's streaming on their page I believe. If you want the long version, read on.

How best to describe what they do? Well I came to the album armed with the knowledge that there's is an oscar nominated actor in the band, that the songs were originally slated for a 'horror' musical and that there was fair amount of singing from a children's choir. Pleasingly all these elements are there and they all fit really nicely, if in a rather weird way.

The record starts quite slowly, it has to be said. There's an spoken word intro followed by first song proper 'Dead Hearts'. The first line of which is 'I woke up whistling by your grave'. That kind of sets the mood nicely for the record, we aren't looking at the giddy joy of 'I'm From Barcelona' here. Anyway 'Dead Hearts' is a good mood setter, the beat in the background sounding indeed like a pumping heart, there's odd percussive crashes like breaking glass and a sound not dissimilar to The Arcade Fire. It's a good start, if for me, it drags on a little too long.

The next song 'In The Room Where You Sleep' has been available on Myspace as a demo for quite a long time. Here it sounds fairly similar, the creepy organ sound intact, but it's more polished and all the better for it. The rhythmic organ line and the repeated downbeat 'you'd better run' makes the song.

After that there's 'Buried In Water'. A slow burner, which becomes something special in the last minute of the track, when the Silverlake Children's Community Choir join in and raise it into the realms of the euphoric. Actually the children's choir are a great addition to the record. It could easily have been gimmicky, or even worse like a horror version of the Saint Winifred's Children's choir (youtube at your peril) The next track, 'My Body's a Zombie For You' being a case in point. It is the epitome of what the band are about I think. A tune that sounds like it plays endlessly on the calliope at Dr Death's Circus Of Disaster, Ryan Gosling's odd 50's vocal, and some "ooh ooh ooh" backing vocals are made even better by the giddy children calling "I'm a Z.O.M.B.I.E, ZOMBIE" at the end. It's infectious.

'Pa, Pa, Power' follows, again made lovely by the harmonious calls of the children's promise that "We won't destroy you". 'Young and Tragic' follows that and is one of the definite high points of the record for me. The sole track powered only by the childrens' choir, a rolling drum and a lovely tune make it a deeper song then the young voices might have you believed. After this comes 'Paper Ships'.

'Paper Ships' sounds like it was played in a haunted cafe some 60 years ago to zombie greasers and vampirella prom queens. It's period apeing is spot on, but it creates a little bit of magic all of it's own. The 6 tracks from 3 - 8 are so strong that the rest of the record can't quite stand up to them, which stops it being an all out outstanding record. Of the final few tracks though, the title track comes close, channelling the same well of darkness that Nick Cave has mined so successfully for so long.

In closing then, as I said at the beginning it's a damn fine record. It's understandable if you've read through that review, and alarm bells are ringing in your head whilst your brain shouts "gimmick" but it's really not. Yeah, a children's choir and songs which were intended for some horroresque musical performed by an actor sounds like a gimmick, but the songs stand up for themselves. Is a gimmick needed when they could probably shift records on the strength of Ryan Gosling's name alone, I don't think so. It comes down to this. Fill a cauldron with some 50's doo wop, a pinch of Arcade Fire, a large dash of Langley Schools Music Project, elements of Beck, Beirut, and a whole dollop of weirdness, bring to the boil and then filter through a cone of evil and you might just get this record.

It's catchy, it's strange, it shouldn't really work, and yet somehow Dead Man's Bones have managed to make one of the best records I think I've heard this year. If it sounds like your kind of thing, you should definitely make time to hear it.

Guided By Voices

2009-09-21T14:16:00.005+01:00

There seems to be a fair bit of excitement (read, slight hysteria) building up around these forthcoming Pavement shows on the internet at the moment. It's fair enough I suppose, I enjoy most of their stuff myself and I'd probably go and see them given the chance, but I found myself thinking about who else I'd like to see reform and realised that I'd much much rather see Guided By Voices (with Tobin Sprout, of course) then I'd ever want to see Pavement. It's unlikely to happen, though Robert Pollard has never ruled it out, but one can dream.

Then I got to thinking that there's probably still a lot of people who've never heard GBV before, and so I decided to try to put together a little Guided By Voices 101. It's not easy, for a start they did a lot of records (how many other bands have a top 100 songs, dedicated solely to them?) and the first thing a lot of people find out with GBV is that even on the best of their records there can be a fair bit of filler. That said most of their records are over 20 songs long and there are a lot of them, so even if only half of the songs on every album are great that's still be a pretty big hit ratio, lucky it turns out to be more than that. All I'm trying to get over from that sentence really is that it can be hard for the uninitiated to know where to start with the band; it's like dipping your hand into a newly opened box of Cadbury's Roses having never had any before. Everyone tells you they are lovely, but you end up getting a chocolate one for your first try. It'd be enough to put you off for life.

I could do a whole potted history of the band, but it would take up too much space, I'd miss things, I'd get things wrong, so I'm keeping it simple. The bands website will tell you all you need to know anyway. It includes mp3's, setlists and chords too (if you are musically inclined in that way). It's here

So I thought I'd try and help along by making a spotify playlist of some of their best stuff. It's a thankless task in all honesty. Being a band with so many songs, there's always going to be disagreement on what deserves inclusion and what doesn't. There's also stuff that isn't on Spotify, like 'Bee Thousand'. In fact go and find a copy of 'Gold Star For Robot Boy' off that record now, and hear the strength of things that couldn't be included. There's more too.

If you want to buy GBV records though, the best place to start is definitely 'Human Amusements At Hourly Rates'. It's a collection put together by Robert Pollard himself. There's not really a bad song out of the 32, so it's well worth a listen. It's on Spotify too, which probably makes things easier. As are a whole bunch of other albums.

Or if you want a DVD then 'Guided By Voices, The Electrifying Conclusion' is for you. Capturing them at their last ever show, all 4 hours of it.

Anyway I've written more than I'd planned to so without further ado, here's the playlist link

P.s if you like the whole spotify playlist thing, then check out indiefy, they do this kind of thing, but better.

It's the End Of The Road as we know it.

2009-09-18T18:01:00.011+01:00

That my friends is an exceptionally terrible 'pun' of a title, isn't it? Sadly I couldn't think of anything better. If you haven't guessed yet the title is referring to the festival of the same name, one I visited last weekend and if you'll permit me a blog entry of self-indulgence I'll tell you all about it (there may even be some pictures, albeit poor ones).

So anyway, we get to the festival at around 12 in the afternoon on the Friday and I'm immediately struck by the beauty of the place. It's very impressive. There are woods (lit up in parts by fairy lights at night) which contain a piano and a library tree; it's got shelves on it and books to read if you feel the need to chill out. There's a light up disco floor in there as well, and some games. Elsewhere there's peacocks wondering round, oh and peahens, and even a baby peacock (peachick?) I wasn't sure I'd ever see one of them.

Anyway needless to say it's idyllic, even the main stage (the garden stage) is set in lovely surroundings. It is a garden stage after all. Anyway I could ramble about the settings for ages, the main things about the festival are these, it's a small capacity, it's in beautiful surroundings and it's got some great, great food stalls. Oh yeah, and bands of course.

So, yeah, bands.

Friday I start with Ohbijou, they're in the big top stage (it's a marquee) and they're a pretty good way to start, nice and soft and pretty. I catch a bit of Mumford and Sons after that, not much, but enough to hear some startling harmonies, it's really very touching.

Later I catch David Thomas Broughton, he's been brilliant the last couple of times I've seen him, but that's been in small venues where he's able to move around the audience playing tunes on whatever is avaliable, or sticking his microphone into his shirt and looking like a scarecrow. This time he's on a big stage and I'm worried if it will work. For the most part it does, his voice is excellent and the backing band are great. It's just sad it's not quite so intimate. There's a nice moment when he brings out some children to play with him, only to (mildly) appear to berate them a bit later for playing too long.

After that I see Shearwater and I'm completely underwhelmed, followed by Dirty Projectors who've been pretty hyped this year, but who again fall sadly flat for me. Maybe I'm just not in the mood? The headliners of the day are Explosions In The Sky, I hear them from the woods and they sound very good, but I'm happy where I am. I later catch Herman Dune, who are quite good, but I'm tired by now and it's tentwards rather quickly.

Saturday dawns and I'm up bright and early because for some reason it's really bloody hot. I rush off to the main stage to catch a bit of The Leisure Society who are quite good. There's a nice cover of 'Something' by The Beatles to end their set. I always think it's a Beatles song I really don't like, but for some reason it sounds great.

Following that there's Darren Hayman. He's terrific. He's got a full band with him (including Nik from Moustache of Insanity, I believe). There's Secondary Modern Stuff, and some Hefner B'sides. There's witty banter, rock shapes pulled by Darren and great tunes. Darren is running a battle with a wasp who insists on flying near his mouth everytime he sings, but he wins. It's a really fantastic set. I turn to my side at one point to find M.J Hibbett, who is clearly enjoying it. He tells me he's never seen Hayman before, which is almost unthinkable! Also surely Hayman should be on later than 2nd on the main stage, a fact he eludes to himself. I think he says something about indie hasbeens. Anyway, the set is great, and Darren mentions he's playing a 'secret' set later on at 1am.

After him there's The Low Anthem who I don't really click with, followed by The Broken Family Band who I just don't get. I liked the first album (and I've admittedly none of the others) but they don't play much off it, and the set leaves me a bit cold to be honest. Shame. After I catch Dent May and his Magnificent Ukelele, who sounds pretty good and Malcolm Middleton who is really quite boring. Another disappointment.

Bit of a gap and then I catch Alela Diane. She's good, very good. She reminds me of Kate Rusby a bit, a fair bit like Beth Orton in the vocal. She has her Dad playing in the band, which I like, and a pretty insane looking bassist who I can't stop watching. Following her are Okkervil River. I've heard a few of their songs on record and always had them down as semi-boring alt country, so my hopes aren't that high, but I've heard good things about them live, so I go along.

I'm glad I did, they're amazing. Suprisingly they play like a stadium rock band, and really know how to work a crowd. I love all of it. It's sometimes hard for me to totally enjoy a gig when I don't know most of the songs, but it doesn't matter this time, a sure sign of something special. Fleet Foxes are the headliner, but we just can't be bothered; it's a good thing. Apparently they aren't as good as expected and also, apparently, the main stage security stops letting people in to see them as it's too busy! Told you it was a small festival. Instead we wander round for a bit only to be stopped by the arresting sounds of what sounds like Nick Cave coming from a big top. It's not, it's Josh T Pearson. He used to be in Lift To Experience, he's a last minute addition, and he's a revelation. He stands on stage like some backwoods preacher in a black cowboy hat and seems to be completely unaware of the crowd, staring at the canopy full of stars at the top of the marquee like it's the heavens and he almost certainly appears to be undergoing a religious experience. It's the most otherwordly thing I've seen in a long time. Tremendous.

After that I rush to the 'Tipi Tent' to see Hayman and am hugely disappointed. It's 'L' shaped, so there's a sort of funnel which means that there's only a few people at the front of the tent who can see, whilst everyone one stands around talking loudly. It's not helped that there's only one entrance (of which it appears to be one in one out) or that everyone who comes in is caught in a bottleneck and seems intent on pushing through to the front. There's a keep clear sign on the floor, but it's ignored. It's a shame really because the bit I heard of the set was nice. Wu Tang Clan was played and the Greedy Ugly People. The latter replete with Darren climbing on something (I couldn't see what) to conduct the crowd from on high through the coda.

The final day arrives and I think I'm most excited about this one. The first person I see is T.Model Ford. T.Model is an 88 (though some sources differ) year old blues man from Greenville Mississippi. He has a walking stick and needs to be helped onto stage by his drummer, I'm worried he's too frail to play. He's not. He's brilliant, his eyes twinkle as he announces that he's "T-Model Ford't the ladies man" before proceeding to make eyes at every women photographer and audience member. Besides that his music is pure blues and I feel honored to see him. He's great not because his music is 'authentic' but just because it's so good.

Following him is Sweden's Tallest Man On Earth. No that's not a circus act. He's not actually very tall but he is damned good. Sounding like a cross between M.Ward and Bob Dylan he plays a great set to a big crowd, all his songs catchy and delightful in equal measure. He has a new album out this year apparently, I'm looking forward to it. The first two acts have been so good I'm already thinking they can't be topped but I didn't count on Bob Log III.

Bob Log is mad. He comes on stage in suit and space helmet, and ends up in a skin hugging gold number. He plays incredible guitar whilst banging drums with his feet (like some odd one man band), sings about wanting people to shit on his leg or put their boob in his scotch, and is just a very funny and consummate showman. That sounds crap in the description but I can assure you it isn't. It's just the most amazing performance.

Following him is Dan Sartain. Dan Sartain is pure 50's rockabilly action. He's got vintage amps and a vintage mic and a massive quiff. Oh and cheekbones you could cut your fingers on. In fact he looks a wee bit like a young Johnny Cash. He's full of delirious energy too, although he looks slightly unwell. This could be the reason his set is cut short by a disappointing 15 minutes, but the other 30 are some of the weekend's best.

I miss Magnolia Electric Company and only catch a bit of Steve Earle, which is sad but there's eating to be done. Eventually Neko Case comes on. I love her new album but not some of her other stuff, so I'm not sure how this one will go. I needn't worry, the new songs are really rocky live, and the older stuff is beautiful. It's helped that she has a full band and that her other female vocalist is a bit of a live wire. There's fine banter too, which more or less involves Neko taking the piss out of oncoming headliners The Hold Steady for much of the set. They have Louis Vitton bags apparently.

Finally the aforementioned Hold Steady come on. I've been really looking forward to this, I like they're music and they are supposed to be great live. Except, for some reason, they aren't. The band are great, but Craig Finn leaves me a bit cold. It's not the vocal delivery really (i know from records that he's a bit of a mumbler) it's more the dancing like a dad at a disco stage moves. Or pointing at the crowd and mouthing stuff. I can't quite explain, it feels like someone has made a list of 'rock moves' but not explained how to use them properly. The sound is fairly disappointing too. It's a great, great shame because the festival ends on a slightly flat note.

Despite that it has been huge fun though, some great performances, and I've come away with another list of favourite new bands. The atmosphere was wonderful (on a lovely with Indietracks I think), the food, ale and general facilities were all awesome, and even the weather held out. If they keep the low capacity (and the organisers seem adamant that they will) then I for one will be making the long trek down to Dorset again next year.

*the photo of David Thomas Broughton is by a user called Rollinstone on the End Of The Road forum.

Slow news day

2009-09-04T19:32:00.003+01:00

xHmm, a bit slow with this I guess but seeing as we are over three quarters of the way through the year now (more or less) I thought I'd do a bit of a retrospective and list what I think are my albums of the year so far.

Well I thought I'd do that, but then I realised that it would be a boring way to end the week and writing a list is never as fun as I think it's going to be so I did something else instead. I've picked favourite songs from favourite albums of the year and put them into a spotify playlist.

I know that there's probably things I've missed and there's definitely albums I couldn't use due to them not being on spotify (The Pains, Grizzly Bear) but hopefully you'll enjoy listening to the little thing I've put together. Oh yes, also I've not really paid attention to tracklisting here so don't know how it runs in terms of listening, hopefully it'll be ok.

Linkage HERE.

Sorry about the short post today, normal service will be resumed as soon as possible.

Acting up

2009-08-27T13:49:00.007+01:00

Being a actor/actress and being in a band should usually be mutually exclusive things. I once had the misfortune of seeing Keanu Reeves' band 'Dogstar' at Glastonbury. It was long, long 35 or so minutes, punctuated by a few moments of brightness when the crowd preceeding to throw various pieces of fruit, I will never get that time back. There are other, greater, offenders (bruce willis for one or the truly terrifying '30 odd foot of grunts') but that's a whole article for another day. I want to talk about the brighter side of actor/band relationships, in this case Ryan Gosling and Dead Man's Bones.

You may know Ryan Gosling from his acting work, he's very good. Both 'Half Nelson' and 'Lars and The Real Girl' are well worth watching if you get the chance. Especially Lars. You might not know that he and another actor Zach Shields have a band called Dead Man's Bones and that in recent months they've signed to eclectic record label Anti, whose roster includes such luminaries as Os Mutantes, Tom Waits and Nick Cave.

The band actually started as a sort of play about monsters and the like (which is unsuprising for thespians) but expenses caused the project to be shelved, but having the songs already, they decided to continue. I've heard three of the songs now; there's a new (or recent) one on their myspace which prompted me to write this, and they are all great. Ryan Gosling sings in a crooner sort of style, it's rather 50's. The music that goes along with it is sometimes a bit doo wop, I guess. Certainly on 'Your Name In Stone'. Add the fact that they recorded with The Silverlake Conservatory Children's Choir and that all the songs are monster based and you get a kind of 50's b movie type album crossed with The Langley Schools Music Project and what's not to like about that? To top it off the band are using local choirs for all american dates, and having a battle of the bands type thing in each city to decide their opening act. Hopefully growing a sense of community along the way. I've seen this called gimmicky, but really I don't think a hollywood actor really needs a gimmick to sell records.

Anyway the bands music can be found here, and here is the video for 'Name In Stone' too. I think this is their best song, and it might not even be on the record.

What else?

Oh yeah, I really like the band 'Boat' They're quite hard to google because of the name, so it's sometimes hard to find info on them. Anyway Boat are great. Their last album 'Songs You May Not Like' was a bit of an overlooked gem. If they were being classified I suppose they could be lumped in alongside Tullycraft in terms of where their sound is coming from, but there's a bit of Pavement in there too perhaps, and there's elements of 'The Soft Wonder' by A.C newman in there too. The whole of the last Boat record is available to listen to on Last FM right here if you have a chance to listen, it's worth your while.

To get back on track though, I was searching for Boat, when I stumbled across a blog called 'You Ain't No Picasso' which has a new Boat song called 'Name Tossers' available to listen to. The song is great, they sound a bit more fleshed out on it, if anything, but with no loss of melody. I suggest going to the aforementioned blog and listening to it. Here's the link you need.

Finally, and quite excitingly, Slumberland have finally, finally released 'Dream On Daisy' by the sorely missed Parallelograms. If you've never heard the Parallelograms, and I envy you the delight of discovery, think The Rosehips, Talulah Gosh, the best bits of C86 and Subway records, girl vocals and more than a touch of charm. You can listen to some stuff on their myspace, but you should probably rush over to cloudberry and buy it right now. Who knows it might be worth a fortune one day. Even if it's not, if the band sell enough of them, they might be able to pay Markie's airfare and get him to come back. You know it makes sense.

Summer in the city

2009-08-19T16:27:00.006+01:00

There's certain kinds of music that evoke time periods or memories or times of the year, and I always seem to associate psychedelia (especially 60's psych) with summer, perhaps it's because the whole 'summer of love' thing is far too imprinted my conciousness thanks to horrible tv adverts; I prefer to think it's more to do with the bright, sunny sounds myself.

You're probably already wondering where this lenghty preamble is going, well I was just listening to Viva Voce and decided to have a quick look at their official web page where Kevin from the band has been more than lovely enough to offer a summer mix tape for your listening pleasure. I have since been to listening to it, and it's exactly the kind of summery psychedelia I mentioned only a moment ago, imagine that! Anyway I would heartily recommend giving it a listen, it's a perfect sunny afternoon mix, and if, like me, you don't know that much about this kind of music outside of 'Tomorrow Never Knows' it's a great way to start. You can download the mixtape direct from this linky. Oh yes, and listen to Viva Voce too, because they are also well worthy of your time.

Thinking of psych makes me thing of garage, which is no suprise since the terms seem to be juxtaposed together quite often, it's also useful because I want to mention a garage alldayer I went to on Sunday.

It was called Weirdapalooza, and was held at The Bodega Social in Nottingham. It's a weird little place to hold a garage alldayer really, it's never very big (up or downstairs) and feels quite cramped whether it's massive busy or not. Thankfully (and perhaps rather selfishly) for me it wasn't that busy at all, so it was easy to watch the bands (of which there were 7) in comfort. I don't want to go into detail of all the bands, but I do want to single out The Hipshakes for praise. I was told before hand that they were going to be good, and they really were. They sound like other garage bands (a lot of garage does) but not in as derivative sense as some of the other bands who played on Sunday. On top of that they have masses of energy, a fantastic rhythm section and great tunes. After the set both Trev from oddbox and Ian Horowitz were full of praise, with Trev telling me that the band didn't even have their proper bassist and that their set didn't even contain their best tunes. I definitely want to see the band again. You can hear The Hipshakes here.

Animal

2009-08-18T15:36:00.004+01:00

For the last few days I've been listening (when I've got the chance) to a band called Horse Shoes. You've probably heard of them but I must admit, beyond the fact that they're from America and have a record coming out on Shelflife and played POP!Mayhem in Florida at the weekend, I don't know anything about the band at all. Sometimes though, that's a good thing. If nothing else it stops me weighing this blog down with lengthy descriptions when all you really need to do is listen to the band. They cite their influences as New Order and spent their formative years listening to lots of The Smiths, which does inform the sound slightly. There's more than a hint of Sarah Records about them though, a whiff of Labrador (the Legends, Club8) and I think I detect just a hint of My Raining Stars about them too.
If any of that sounds like your thing (I hope it does) then a couple of the songs are streaming over at shelflife or you can listen to some songs on the bands myspace page.

Aside from Horse Shoes, another animal related band I've been enjoying this week are Denim Owl. Denim Owl are a duo from Melbourne (Janita Foley and Aleks Bryant or Denim Owl and Brain Cobra if you prefer), they have a song called Kitten Gloves (with a kitten sample at the beginning) and a penchant for melodica, but let's not tag them with any disparaging genre labels here. At heart, they make keyboard driven pop with some loops and effects. Oh and they do a superb version of Springsteens' 'I'm On Fire' so I was always going to love them. If you're inclined to listen to them you can do so here. They're playing a gig in Melbourne on 2nd September, with the Motifs (who were great when I saw them in Nottingham last year) so if you live anywhere near there, it should be well worth a look.

Finally if you're in the sort of person who likes to wallow in a bit of list making/nostalgia then you'll probably enjoy Pitchfork this week. Their counting down their top 500 records of this decade, with a few articles as well. Even if you don't like Pitchfork it'll at least provoke a "how the hell did that get in there" from you at some point, which isn't a bad thing.

Mini Round-Up

2009-08-12T15:28:00.007+01:00

Ok, so it's been a while since I've updated this. It's not for want of trying, I can promise you. It just seems that lately every time I sit down at the keyboard and ready my fingers, some distraction gets in the way. Recently this has been ukulele/guitar related as I try desperately to gain some talent before playing at a 'not really bands' night, very soon. That's another story. Anyway, I thought I'd use today's entry as a bit of an update on some of the music I've been listening to/been made aware of recently.

Firstly to Slumberland. Slumberland records have already put out some great music this year, Leichtenstein's 'Survival Strategies In A Modern World' is already being hailed in some parts as a record of the year. Then there's Summer Cats' 'Song For Tuesdays' which is also garnering high praise. There's an ace review of that over at Afogofideas, which you should definitely read. Not content what that, Slumberland have also put out 'Blue Genes' which is the infectious, ramalama, fuzzy pop debut from The Champagne Socialists. There's a very fine interview with the music makers themselves over at Alayerofchips, that's also recommended reading, by the way.

That's a great trio of bands to listen to and love right there, but that's not enough for Slumberland. They've just released the next two volumes of the 'Searching For The Now' single series; volumes 5 and 6. Volume 5 is a Swedish affair, featuring Liechtenstein and The Faintest Ideas. I've only head the Leichtenstein half, but it's as good as anything on the new record, which means of course you should definitely check it out. Volume 6 veers a little further from home and has Washington Brown (former Kenickie man, Johnny X) on one side, and The School, on the other. The School's song is a cover of 'And Suddenly' by The Left Banke. It's great too, all keyboard drive and sweet vocals. I cannot wait for their debut album.

If any of that has peaked your interest then you should rush over to Slumberland now to read proper descriptions of the bands, and hopefully buy everything they have. You could do a lot worse then checking out this thread on Anorak, too.

I've already mentioned AfogofIdeas and Alayerofchips, but there's been exciting news coming from their twin camps this month too. In short, they've announced the 2nd annual Nottingham Indiepop alldayer (exciting title isn't it) for November. The line up is predictably great, with Standard Fare, The School, Mascot Fight, The Just Joans, Tender Trap and The Red Shoe Diaries all confirmed. I've been privy to news of other bands who've been approached, and I can tell you there's some very exciting announcements on the horizon. Last year's Alldayer was exceptional fun and this one looks to be even better, so you should put the date in your diary - it's the 15th of November - and start getting excited already. You can read about the alldayer here, and there's a last fm event for it here.

I've also been listening to 'In The Dream Of The Sea Life' by Candy Claws. It's coming out on recently fledged, Dublin based label Indiecater records. It's a lovely record too. Soft dreamy electronica with blissful vocals and samples of the sea. The samples of the sea work beautifully, and it doesn't sound like a CD you might buy for £2 in a New Age shop in Glastonbury. It's well worth checking out, and the label are currently streaming the entire thing for free, so you have no reason not to really.

Finally, one of my favourite bands; The Mountain Goats, have put a new song on their website called Genesis 3.23. It's typically Mountain Goats, a great guitar riff, John Darnielle's distinct vocal, and a terrifically catchy melody. You can listen to it here. The idea behind the album sounds great too, you can read about that on their website. John Darnielle is also doing a solo tour in October, which includes dates in Manchester and London, I'd highly recommend going.

That about wraps it up.

June is in the water.

2009-08-03T14:08:00.004+01:00

I often feel like I've missed the boat on a lot of bands, occasionally it's missing the boat by a few seconds, just in time to watch it sail into the distant whilst I stand on the shore and lament being a little too slow. Other times, (and this is far more often the case) and to labour the metaphor a little more, I'm so slow that the boat has been around the world a few times; retiring from service before I've even heard that it was sailing.

This last happened to me with The Passmore Sisters. I was stumbling wide eyed around the world wide web one slow morning last christmas when I decided to take a look at Takethepills, a fantastic, fantastic blog. Taking a quick look through the archives, I stumbled across this entry and was suitably intrigued to find out more, so I downloaded the album to give it a listen. I'm glad I did because it's a terrific record. They've got that sort of mid 80's jangle that belonged to a whole bunch of bands from the same period, but if that was all there was to them, I wouldn't have been that bothered; there's more depth than that. The lyrics are strong, a piece in point is 'June In The Water' a song that belies it's poppy sensibilities by being about pushing someone in the water and watching them drown. Whether it's intentional or not is never fully clear (the target of the pushing laughs as she falls in), it's just how the song manages to be so uplifting whilst bleak that makes it so special. They were political too, see 'Red Star, Blue Heart' which sounds quite a bit like The Housemartins, with (dare I say it) a slight touch of Morrissey around the chorus vocal.

Beyond that album I don't really now much about them, I know they were from Bradford, that they've often been compared (as I just did) with The Housemartins. Whilst writing this I've just been reading a piece about them on Foxdude Records which sums them up a lot more succintly then I just have.

Anyway, if that slightly poor description hasn't put you off, you can download the album from the Takethepills link I mentioned earlier, or if that isn't your thing then Last FM has a fair few recordings or even better if you do want to download the album but fear ripping off the band then it's available for FREE download through The Passmore Sisters myspace, which is HERE.

So that would be the end of a slightly pointless wallow in the well of nostalgia if it wasn't for the fact that the other day I was googling The Passmore Sisters, and discovered that the members of the band now record under the name of Fever Hut. I was so pleased not only to find that they were still recording, but more importantly that they still sound great. I like it when bands reform and can still perform brilliantly (see Friends and Mighty Mighty from this years Indietracks) but it's somehow even nicer to find that a band can do something new and still sound great. I'm not the only one who thinks so either. They did a single for Cloudberry at one point (052).

According to their Myspace (give them a listen it's worth your time) it seems that they've already released an album and have another one coming, so I've not quite arrived right at the beginning, but this time I'm going to make sure I'm on the deck looking back at the harbour and not the other way around.

Their Hearts Were Full Of Spring

2009-07-30T17:37:00.000+01:00

Today I've mostly been sitting in front of the window, reading blogs and watching the rain fall, like so many watery arrows, to earth. Well, I was doing that until I listened to a large proportion of the debut album from'Their Hearts Were Full Of Spring'. I think it's out in early August.

I must confess I first heard the band maybe a year and a half ago, and then missed them at Indietracks 2008 and sadly since then I've criminally ignored them, which is pretty unacceptable of me really because they are genuinely a very good indiepop band indeed.

Just listening to this record has raised me out of weather induced doldrums and lit a little musical spark in my heart again. I suppose it's the sort of feeling you get when you eat a nice hearty bowl of soup on a cold autumn day, or when the bad news you've just been given ebbs away the instant you step into the pub and your friends are sat their waiting for you, to give you a hug, buy you a pint and chase the day away. It's that kind of heartwarmer, melodic and warm, slow and languid but summery and lazy too.

Sadly I couldn't find the music anywhere but myspace, but if you're inclined to give it a listen, and you really should, then go here post haste.

DIY Gigs

2009-07-29T18:34:00.000+01:00

I've been following this thread with interest on Anorak today.

I know nothing about putting gigs, or at least nothing beyond the minimum of book a band, pay a band, sort a venue, get equipment sorted etc, etc. It sounds like a whole bunch of hard work though and the people I know who put on gigs always seemed to be knackered by the end of it and so stressed at the start of it that even though I've thought about doing gigs it puts me off. It shouldn't but it does and it makes me sad.

You see, the latter part of that thread seems to be centred around slight disillusionment with putting gigs on and I can understand it especially if no-one is turning up to gigs, or it's 5 people, or it's just two bands and not much more (ala hibbett), it hardly seems worth it. It must be gutting struggling to pay bands, feeling guilty because they've come a long way for not very much, or just wondering why hardly anyone wants to come and watch music you love.

Aha, but there in lies the crux of it I think. I love it when I go to gigs and people are there because they're there for the music, and you know that someone has travelled all the way from London to Nottingham (or Sheffield or Glasgow) just to see a band they love, even if it's only one song they love. That point where you look around the crowd and you see everyone smiling or just one person swooning and it fills you with joy because they're feeling exactly what you're feeling. Or you know that the promoter has put that gig on not really to make money (although I'm sure it would be nice) but to spread the word of a band around, to get likeminded people in one place and to see a band that no-one else has put on, so they've got to do it, otherwise they'd never see them.

It's a total labour of love, and it's DIY and it's brilliant. The effort people put in, so that someone else has a brief moment of joy. I hope that no matter what little gigs like this keep on happening. It's a salute to the efforts of Afogofideas, alayerofchips, DSFAR, Spiral Scratch, HDIF, Half My Heart Beats, The Autumn Store, and all those other people who make sure the boom we've experienced in the renaissance of the music we love won't go bust anytime soon.

Indietracks 2009

2009-07-29T11:33:00.000+01:00

Well first of all, why bands and beer? Why not? I suppose it's what a large majority of my life is about. They kind of go hand in hand as well. Anyway that's pretty much what this blog will be about, with a few other things thrown in as and when I feel like it.

This weekend I went to Indietracks. I've been for the last 3 years, no doubt if you're reading this then you're probably familiar with the whole thing, but if not then you should have a look here.

I've said on other parts of the internet just how great the bands were, The Specific Heats for a start or watching a man in a white helmet make a whole crowd go crazy, so I won't really do that again.

All I really want to say is that now the weather has turned to shit and the world is crowding back in after being kept at bay for the weekend, my lasting thoughts aren't just about the music but at just how well run the festival was this year. The atmosphere too was amazing, it's been said before, but really what other festival can you go to, stand at the front of the bar, turn away to talk to a friend for a few minutes; turn back and still no one has pushed in front. Or, as we did, how many places do you go where you meet someone for five minutes, then the next thing you know you're on a steam train chatting away like old friends. Later on I see the lady again, mention we're seeing Pete Green and drag her along. It turns out this is one of her favourite perfomances of the weekend. Again, indietracks is like that. One more, where else do you see a litter-picker on the day after the festival, actually smiling. Nowhere, that's where. The staff deserve all the congratulations, as do the organisers, and so do the fans. Yeah it's a music festival, but if it weren't for the people involved and the people who go, the whole thing would be a lot, lot, different.

I think everyone of the people who was there came back with a piece of derbyshire in their heart.