I am on a roll with the '...of the year' stuff now.
Firstly, I should mention the criteria the t&g jury (me) were using when the turntable came out and this year's best 7" singles were considered. Any of the following were immediately disqualified..
- Singles released in digital formats only.
- Singles without an authentic 'b side', i.e with another track from the parent album on the b side, or an instrumental version of the a side, or a live version of the a side.
Basically, it is nice to see an effort made. Mentions should be given therefore to Jenny Lewis' 'Carpetbaggers', a great single with an Elvis Costello track featuring Jenny on the b side and all for charity....and Tindersticks' 'What Are You Fighting For?', an exclusive tour 7" with a brand new non-LP track. But in reality, there is a clear and obvious 'single of the year'...
Beck 'Chemtrails'
One of the greatest sounds I have heard this year.
This track is just a blast. Sounding like it is coming from outer space, it is a disorientating but somehow warm and familiar bundle of sound. The reverb dances around, making it seem like the music is going from one ear, through your head, and ending up in the other ear. It seems to float about! The drums and the bassline are old school, the vocal is an otherworld falsetto and it is pure pleasure for the ears, you don't want it to end.....and then when you think it has, you get, from nowhere, a stunning electric guitar break.
Absolutely bloody brilliant. And single of the year by a mile.
Wednesday, 17 December 2008
Tuesday, 16 December 2008
Top 10 Albums of the Year
here at last are the T&G top 10 records of the year....and after all the stuff written on here about American bands, the top 3 albums this year are from English, Scottish and Irish artists...
1- Tindersticks ‘The Hungry Saw’
What can I say about this album that I haven’t said already? A creative, vibrant record that is more than a match for any of their wonderful previous albums. In ‘Mother Dear’ it has the most atmospheric, tension filled ballad they have ever written and in ‘Boobar’, the most magical, Spector-ish pop song. Just fantastic. And album of the year.
2- The Twilight Sad ‘Here It Never Snowed, Afterwards It Did’
How do you top making one of the albums of 2007? If you’re the Twilight Sad, you make a mini-album featuring complete re-workings of several songs from that album. ‘Here It Never Snowed…’ took away much of the noise and the pace from the songs, stripping them down and highlighting James Graham’s amazing vocals. Both sounds work equally well and the band are now combining the two sounds at live shows. The album also featured a new song, plus a cover of Daniel Johnston’s ‘Some Things Last A Long Time’. The best new British band to emerge for a decade.
3- The Sleeping Years ‘We’re Becoming Islands, One By One’
Ex-Catchers singer/songwriter Dale Grundle returned in 2008 with this quietly triumphant set of songs about home, memories and heritage. It didn’t get a tenth of the attention it deserved but these are wonderful songs, held together by Grundle’s soothing voice. ‘Macosquin, Coleraine' is one of the songs of the year, a simple arrangement with acousic guitar and handclaps, I can’t stop playing it!
4- Fleet Foxes ‘Fleet Foxes’
A grower. Initially pleasant but unremarkable (the instantly catchy ‘White Winter Hymnal’ apart), the melodies creep up on you and you finding yourself singing them and then wondering what they are. Gorgeous harmonies mixed with old fashioned guitar sounds and of course Robin Pecknold is an amazing singer. How do they top this though?
5- Beck ‘Modern Guilt’
A 33 minute collection of short, sharp bursts of energy. This is a really exciting record that sounds great from start to finish. Highlight is ‘Chemtrails’ which is perhaps the single of the year and sounds amazing played loudly through headphones!
6- Stephen Malkmus and The Jicks ‘Real Emotional Trash’
Most pleasing post-Pavement album from Malkmus. Stunning guitar jams, especially on the title track, which is a complete tour-de-force.
7- The Mountain Goats ‘Heretic Pride’
Really consistent album from John Darnielle and more up-beat than previous offerings. ‘Lovecraft in Brooklyn’ and ‘Sax Rohmer’ are two of the best TMG rockers to date. As ever, lyrically supreme.
8- Jenny Lewis ‘Acid Tongue’
Beautifully produced with plenty of space for each instrument, this is a great old-fashioned sounding record with some gorgeous ballads. Highlight though is the thrilling duet with Elvis Costello.
9- The Dodos ‘Visitor’
Innovative sounds, great use of rhythm and simply some great sing-along songs.
10- American Music Club ‘The Golden Age’
New line-up, a lighter touch and a couple of bona-fide AMC classics (‘Sleeping Beauty’, ‘The Dance). A couple of filler tracks too though but this is still more gold from Eitzel.
1- Tindersticks ‘The Hungry Saw’
What can I say about this album that I haven’t said already? A creative, vibrant record that is more than a match for any of their wonderful previous albums. In ‘Mother Dear’ it has the most atmospheric, tension filled ballad they have ever written and in ‘Boobar’, the most magical, Spector-ish pop song. Just fantastic. And album of the year.
2- The Twilight Sad ‘Here It Never Snowed, Afterwards It Did’
How do you top making one of the albums of 2007? If you’re the Twilight Sad, you make a mini-album featuring complete re-workings of several songs from that album. ‘Here It Never Snowed…’ took away much of the noise and the pace from the songs, stripping them down and highlighting James Graham’s amazing vocals. Both sounds work equally well and the band are now combining the two sounds at live shows. The album also featured a new song, plus a cover of Daniel Johnston’s ‘Some Things Last A Long Time’. The best new British band to emerge for a decade.
3- The Sleeping Years ‘We’re Becoming Islands, One By One’
Ex-Catchers singer/songwriter Dale Grundle returned in 2008 with this quietly triumphant set of songs about home, memories and heritage. It didn’t get a tenth of the attention it deserved but these are wonderful songs, held together by Grundle’s soothing voice. ‘Macosquin, Coleraine' is one of the songs of the year, a simple arrangement with acousic guitar and handclaps, I can’t stop playing it!
4- Fleet Foxes ‘Fleet Foxes’
A grower. Initially pleasant but unremarkable (the instantly catchy ‘White Winter Hymnal’ apart), the melodies creep up on you and you finding yourself singing them and then wondering what they are. Gorgeous harmonies mixed with old fashioned guitar sounds and of course Robin Pecknold is an amazing singer. How do they top this though?
5- Beck ‘Modern Guilt’
A 33 minute collection of short, sharp bursts of energy. This is a really exciting record that sounds great from start to finish. Highlight is ‘Chemtrails’ which is perhaps the single of the year and sounds amazing played loudly through headphones!
6- Stephen Malkmus and The Jicks ‘Real Emotional Trash’
Most pleasing post-Pavement album from Malkmus. Stunning guitar jams, especially on the title track, which is a complete tour-de-force.
7- The Mountain Goats ‘Heretic Pride’
Really consistent album from John Darnielle and more up-beat than previous offerings. ‘Lovecraft in Brooklyn’ and ‘Sax Rohmer’ are two of the best TMG rockers to date. As ever, lyrically supreme.
8- Jenny Lewis ‘Acid Tongue’
Beautifully produced with plenty of space for each instrument, this is a great old-fashioned sounding record with some gorgeous ballads. Highlight though is the thrilling duet with Elvis Costello.
9- The Dodos ‘Visitor’
Innovative sounds, great use of rhythm and simply some great sing-along songs.
10- American Music Club ‘The Golden Age’
New line-up, a lighter touch and a couple of bona-fide AMC classics (‘Sleeping Beauty’, ‘The Dance). A couple of filler tracks too though but this is still more gold from Eitzel.
Friday, 12 December 2008
Single of the Festive Season
Not just 'single of the week' you'll notice, but 'single of the entire festive season', the best Christmas song I've heard so far this year (and it isn't that effort by The One Show)...
Frightened Rabbit 'Its Christmas So We'll Stop'
I'd somehow missed hearing much from Frightened Rabbit, which is strange as they are on Fat-Cat Records, home of the truly awesome Twilight Sad, but I will be seeking out more from them now, cos this is ace. A Christmas song soaked in 'Fairytale of New York' style realism, this is a grim tale about people deciding to be nice to each other for just one day of the year. However, it manages to sound utterly joyous due to the lovely, simple arrangement and the swooning strings and singalong backing vocals. You just don't want it to end. Plus they are Scottish. Everyone buy this and keep the X Factor person away from the top of the charts. PLEASE.
['Its Christmas So We'll Stop' is out now on 7" single and digital download (if you must, the 7" is much nicer)]
Frightened Rabbit 'Its Christmas So We'll Stop'
I'd somehow missed hearing much from Frightened Rabbit, which is strange as they are on Fat-Cat Records, home of the truly awesome Twilight Sad, but I will be seeking out more from them now, cos this is ace. A Christmas song soaked in 'Fairytale of New York' style realism, this is a grim tale about people deciding to be nice to each other for just one day of the year. However, it manages to sound utterly joyous due to the lovely, simple arrangement and the swooning strings and singalong backing vocals. You just don't want it to end. Plus they are Scottish. Everyone buy this and keep the X Factor person away from the top of the charts. PLEASE.
['Its Christmas So We'll Stop' is out now on 7" single and digital download (if you must, the 7" is much nicer)]
Album of the Year (11-20)
I do find doing these lists difficult. Its hard to sum up how you've felt about an album for, in some cases, 12 months in a couple of easy sentences. Nevertheless I have managed to come up with numbers 11-20, which are below. The top 10 will follow on Sunday, and I can reveal that the 10 will feature, in alphabetical order, records by AMC, Beck, Fleet Foxes, Jenny Lewis, Stephen Malkmus, The Dodos, The Mountain Goats, The Sleeping Years, The Twilight Sad and Tindersticks...
11- Micah P Hinson ‘and the Red Empire’
Gorgeous, warm album of country noir standards. Minimal backing allows Hinson’s deep croon to take centre stage, but when the strings soar and the electric guitar attacks, it all sounds sensational.
12- Conor Oberst ‘Conor Oberst’
Surprisingly fresh and angst free collection of country/rock songs. Oberst has never sounded more confident and never made a more cohesive record.
13- Port o’Brien ‘All We Could Do Was Sing’
Hugely enjoyable collection of songs, sometimes sounding like Arcade Fire, at other times more like Sufjan Stevens. And who needs a log shed….this was written on a fishing boat!
14- Bon Iver ‘For Emma, Forever Ago’
High quality and initially highly affecting collection of folk/soul tunes written and recorded in a….need I go on?? Hasn’t quite stood the test of time as well as some other albums on the list but still excellent.
15- Bonnie 'Prince' Billy 'Lie Down In The Light'
A long way from 'I See A Darkness'. Oldham sounds happy and content and this is a gorgeous, uplifting country record that contains some stunning duets. A light touch and a joyful album.
16- Sun Kil Moon 'April'
A really difficult album to get into. The songwriting is as strong as ever from Kozelek but the melodies take a while to 'click'. When they do, you realise that this is a really beautiful album and an album in the truest sense of the word - it works best played for start to finish.
17- Damien Jurado 'Caught In The Trees'
Slight change of direction for Seattle songsmith Damien Jurado. More upbeat songs with terrific harmonies, makes this his most rewarding set to date.
18- She and Him 'Volume One'
Collaboration between M Ward and Zooey Deschanel. When it was good, it was a joyful, Spector-ish heaven! The 60s girl band style stuff sounded stunning and it was only held back from greatness by the slighly predictable country ballads.
19- Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan 'Sunday at Devil Dirt'
Mixing blues, folk and alt.country, this was a consistent collection of songs, some of which (like the supreme 'Trouble') already sound like standards.
20- Willard Grant Conspiracy 'Regard The End'
A sombre, majestic, return to form from Robert Fisher and co.
11- Micah P Hinson ‘and the Red Empire’
Gorgeous, warm album of country noir standards. Minimal backing allows Hinson’s deep croon to take centre stage, but when the strings soar and the electric guitar attacks, it all sounds sensational.
12- Conor Oberst ‘Conor Oberst’
Surprisingly fresh and angst free collection of country/rock songs. Oberst has never sounded more confident and never made a more cohesive record.
13- Port o’Brien ‘All We Could Do Was Sing’
Hugely enjoyable collection of songs, sometimes sounding like Arcade Fire, at other times more like Sufjan Stevens. And who needs a log shed….this was written on a fishing boat!
14- Bon Iver ‘For Emma, Forever Ago’
High quality and initially highly affecting collection of folk/soul tunes written and recorded in a….need I go on?? Hasn’t quite stood the test of time as well as some other albums on the list but still excellent.
15- Bonnie 'Prince' Billy 'Lie Down In The Light'
A long way from 'I See A Darkness'. Oldham sounds happy and content and this is a gorgeous, uplifting country record that contains some stunning duets. A light touch and a joyful album.
16- Sun Kil Moon 'April'
A really difficult album to get into. The songwriting is as strong as ever from Kozelek but the melodies take a while to 'click'. When they do, you realise that this is a really beautiful album and an album in the truest sense of the word - it works best played for start to finish.
17- Damien Jurado 'Caught In The Trees'
Slight change of direction for Seattle songsmith Damien Jurado. More upbeat songs with terrific harmonies, makes this his most rewarding set to date.
18- She and Him 'Volume One'
Collaboration between M Ward and Zooey Deschanel. When it was good, it was a joyful, Spector-ish heaven! The 60s girl band style stuff sounded stunning and it was only held back from greatness by the slighly predictable country ballads.
19- Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan 'Sunday at Devil Dirt'
Mixing blues, folk and alt.country, this was a consistent collection of songs, some of which (like the supreme 'Trouble') already sound like standards.
20- Willard Grant Conspiracy 'Regard The End'
A sombre, majestic, return to form from Robert Fisher and co.
Wednesday, 10 December 2008
The Innocence Mission 'Street Map'
Well, this is a nice early Christmas present. I didn't even know about this EP until a week ago (see last wednesday's post), ordered it straight away and received it incredibly quickly considering it was coming from the States.
The Innocence Mission have never given the slightest hint that they are even capable of making a bad record and their last two albums ('We Walked In Song' and 'Befriended') have been utterly beautiful, sad but at the same time full of hope and joy, so I had high hopes for this EP, which contains tracks from their forthcoming new album and other exclusive tracks.
There is nothing new here at all, The Innocence Mission are hardly likely to make a drastic change of direction now. Karen Peris sings beautiful lyrics, always sounding as if she is smiling as she sings and Don Peris still plays with his distinctive, expressive guitar sound. Their songs always sound so fresh and wide eyed. In particular, 'You Draw the Streets of Rome'is gorgeous, layers of guitar, piano and harmony vocals over a simple melody and a lyric about seeing the world anew and "being braver than I am here".
Elsewhere 'From A Homeland' is a classic comforting Innocence Mission song, sounding like it could have been on 'Befriended', with Karen Peris opening it by singing "let's not be restless my darlings". 'A Thousand Miles' is a reworking of an old song and the drums and fast pace make it sound like it would have fitted well on 'Small Planes'. 'Pioneering' is probably my favourite though, piano led and featuring really visual lyrics which seem to provide commentary on a tour of a city; "Oh drive on, drive on".
There are eight tracks in all, three of which are really pretty instrumentals. Sounds like the new album, due next Spring, will be something special again.
As ever, impossibly beautiful.
*****
['Street Map' is out now on cd direct from www.theinnocencemission.com ]
The Innocence Mission have never given the slightest hint that they are even capable of making a bad record and their last two albums ('We Walked In Song' and 'Befriended') have been utterly beautiful, sad but at the same time full of hope and joy, so I had high hopes for this EP, which contains tracks from their forthcoming new album and other exclusive tracks.
There is nothing new here at all, The Innocence Mission are hardly likely to make a drastic change of direction now. Karen Peris sings beautiful lyrics, always sounding as if she is smiling as she sings and Don Peris still plays with his distinctive, expressive guitar sound. Their songs always sound so fresh and wide eyed. In particular, 'You Draw the Streets of Rome'is gorgeous, layers of guitar, piano and harmony vocals over a simple melody and a lyric about seeing the world anew and "being braver than I am here".
Elsewhere 'From A Homeland' is a classic comforting Innocence Mission song, sounding like it could have been on 'Befriended', with Karen Peris opening it by singing "let's not be restless my darlings". 'A Thousand Miles' is a reworking of an old song and the drums and fast pace make it sound like it would have fitted well on 'Small Planes'. 'Pioneering' is probably my favourite though, piano led and featuring really visual lyrics which seem to provide commentary on a tour of a city; "Oh drive on, drive on".
There are eight tracks in all, three of which are really pretty instrumentals. Sounds like the new album, due next Spring, will be something special again.
As ever, impossibly beautiful.
*****
['Street Map' is out now on cd direct from www.theinnocencemission.com ]
Monday, 8 December 2008
mutterings
- How am I supposed to get more of the T&G Albums of the Year list done, when all I can do (apart from work of course..) is listen to the incredibly good Tindersticks 'Live in Glasgow' and the unbelievably comprehensive Pavement 'Brighten The Corners' re-issue. I have to admit, I have not yet found time to listen to the vinyl live album, but the second cd is keeping me very occupied. Loving the session tracks and the early versions of 'The Hexx'.
- Heard some lousy news today. Pinnacle Records, one of the biggest UK indie music distributors has gone into administration. Pinnacle distribute(d) for a huge number of quality indie labels including Rough Trade, Fat Cat, Bella Union and Drag City. A lot of quality releases are going to be delayed. This is really sad, as well as worrying. Keep buying records folks, and buy them from independent shops.
I'll continue the top 20 of the year, tomorrow...
- Heard some lousy news today. Pinnacle Records, one of the biggest UK indie music distributors has gone into administration. Pinnacle distribute(d) for a huge number of quality indie labels including Rough Trade, Fat Cat, Bella Union and Drag City. A lot of quality releases are going to be delayed. This is really sad, as well as worrying. Keep buying records folks, and buy them from independent shops.
I'll continue the top 20 of the year, tomorrow...
Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan 'Keep Me In Mind Sweetheart'
One could say that Isobel Campbell's record company are finally putting some effort into giving her career the promotion it deserves. Her second album with Mark Lanegan 'Sunday At Devil Dirt' was only released in May, yet last month we had a totally un-necessary re-release with a live bonus disc (and a version of 'Sand' that made it hard to resist) and now we have a new EP of songs from the album's sessions that didn't make the cut.
Far from being a pre-Christmas cash-in though, this EP is a revelation and well worth a fiver of anyone's money. 'Sunday At Devil Dirt' combined some dust ballads with less successful attempts at blues and soul, this EP focuses on the former, with stripped down, simple arrangements that best suit Lanegan's marvellous baritone.
'Keep Me In Mind..', the only track here to appear on the album, is a lovely, gentle ballad but is bested by 'Asleep On A Sunbeam' a woozy lullaby that sounds a lot like a Christmas Carol that I can't quite place. 'Fight Fire With Fire' is great too, a description of the fine line between love and hate that humourously namechecks several dodgy 1980s heavy metal albums. Elsewhere 'Violin Tango' does what it says on the tin, 'Rambling Rose, Clinging Vine' is a country standard and 'Hang On' is a pretty ballad, sung by Campbell who is sounding stronger on vocals with every record she records.
Much of this EP is as good as or better that the material on 'Sunday At Devil Dirt'. The six songs fit together well so there was obviously a grand plan behind leaving them off the album. This is a really warm sounding record with lots of piano, acoustic guitar and of course Mark Lanegan's voice. No song mentions Christmas or has anything to do with the festive season, but it all feels strangely seasonal.
****
['Keep Me In Mind Sweetheart' is out now on V2]
Far from being a pre-Christmas cash-in though, this EP is a revelation and well worth a fiver of anyone's money. 'Sunday At Devil Dirt' combined some dust ballads with less successful attempts at blues and soul, this EP focuses on the former, with stripped down, simple arrangements that best suit Lanegan's marvellous baritone.
'Keep Me In Mind..', the only track here to appear on the album, is a lovely, gentle ballad but is bested by 'Asleep On A Sunbeam' a woozy lullaby that sounds a lot like a Christmas Carol that I can't quite place. 'Fight Fire With Fire' is great too, a description of the fine line between love and hate that humourously namechecks several dodgy 1980s heavy metal albums. Elsewhere 'Violin Tango' does what it says on the tin, 'Rambling Rose, Clinging Vine' is a country standard and 'Hang On' is a pretty ballad, sung by Campbell who is sounding stronger on vocals with every record she records.
Much of this EP is as good as or better that the material on 'Sunday At Devil Dirt'. The six songs fit together well so there was obviously a grand plan behind leaving them off the album. This is a really warm sounding record with lots of piano, acoustic guitar and of course Mark Lanegan's voice. No song mentions Christmas or has anything to do with the festive season, but it all feels strangely seasonal.
****
['Keep Me In Mind Sweetheart' is out now on V2]
Thursday, 4 December 2008
Tindersticks 'Live From Glasgow'
It doesn't happen often that your favourite band make no new music for five years, you pretty much give up on them releasing an album ever again and then they return, sounding fresher and better than ever and make perhaps their most cohesive record to date and become your favourite band all over again.
That is what happened this year with me and Tindersticks. Without giving too much away about my 'Album of the Year' list, 'The Hungry Saw' completely floored me. It is a beautiful, creative album and its the sound of a band falling in love with making music again. Without Dickon Hinchcliffe's violin and string arrangements, missed though he is, the music is allowed to breathe more and David Boulter on keys and Neil Fraser on guitar make their most telling contributions to a Tindersticks album in a decade.
Seeing them play live this year has also been a joyful experience. I've seen them twice so far and will see them again in a couple of week's time. Mixing the whole of the new album with assorted oldies has worked perfectly and the band have never looked happier or more confident.
This live cd is a document of a gig in Glasgow in October. It follows much the same setlist as the gig I saw in Brighton a month earlier, so see that review for a more detailed description of the set. It sounds fantastic. Without a string section, the arrangements are more stripped down and on songs like 'Boobar' and 'The Other Side of The World' this works so well, the guitar really taking the lead. The middle section of the set is devoted to 'oldies' and actually showcases some of the band's overlooked gems from more recent albums, like the pocket symphony 'Say Goodbye To The City' and their most beautiful ballad to date 'Dying Slowly'.
When I saw Tindersticks play in Brighton, I was struck by how happy they looked, particularly Stuart Staples and what a contrast this was from their last few gigs in 2004. This shines through here again. Rather than just running through the songs, each gig at the moment has a creativity and a spontaneity right from the memorable opening with David Boulter playing 'Introduction' whilst the band walk on, one by one. Tindersticks always send an audience home with a slow number, and here they finish with a sparse, intimate version of 'The Not Knowing' from their first album. It is spellbinding.
No mark out of 10 here because I am rapidly losing objectivity when it comes to Tindersticks, but this is a perfect souvenir for anyone who has seen them play live this year.
['Live From Glasgow' is out now on beautifully packaged and designed cd. Onlyy available from shows on their current tour]
That is what happened this year with me and Tindersticks. Without giving too much away about my 'Album of the Year' list, 'The Hungry Saw' completely floored me. It is a beautiful, creative album and its the sound of a band falling in love with making music again. Without Dickon Hinchcliffe's violin and string arrangements, missed though he is, the music is allowed to breathe more and David Boulter on keys and Neil Fraser on guitar make their most telling contributions to a Tindersticks album in a decade.
Seeing them play live this year has also been a joyful experience. I've seen them twice so far and will see them again in a couple of week's time. Mixing the whole of the new album with assorted oldies has worked perfectly and the band have never looked happier or more confident.
This live cd is a document of a gig in Glasgow in October. It follows much the same setlist as the gig I saw in Brighton a month earlier, so see that review for a more detailed description of the set. It sounds fantastic. Without a string section, the arrangements are more stripped down and on songs like 'Boobar' and 'The Other Side of The World' this works so well, the guitar really taking the lead. The middle section of the set is devoted to 'oldies' and actually showcases some of the band's overlooked gems from more recent albums, like the pocket symphony 'Say Goodbye To The City' and their most beautiful ballad to date 'Dying Slowly'.
When I saw Tindersticks play in Brighton, I was struck by how happy they looked, particularly Stuart Staples and what a contrast this was from their last few gigs in 2004. This shines through here again. Rather than just running through the songs, each gig at the moment has a creativity and a spontaneity right from the memorable opening with David Boulter playing 'Introduction' whilst the band walk on, one by one. Tindersticks always send an audience home with a slow number, and here they finish with a sparse, intimate version of 'The Not Knowing' from their first album. It is spellbinding.
No mark out of 10 here because I am rapidly losing objectivity when it comes to Tindersticks, but this is a perfect souvenir for anyone who has seen them play live this year.
['Live From Glasgow' is out now on beautifully packaged and designed cd. Onlyy available from shows on their current tour]
Wednesday, 3 December 2008
new Innocence Mission EP
TracksandGigs couldn't be more excited if we had just been told we'd won the lottery. A new Innocence Mission EP is out....NOW!
Titled 'Street Map' it is their first self-released record since 2000's 'Christ Is My Hope' and contains songs from their new album, due in the Spring, as well as some songs that didn't make it onto the album.
You can order it now from www.theinnocencemission.com and unless you are completely crazy, that is what you will be doing as soon as you finish reading this. You can also listen to a couple of the songs on their site, but as of 2.21pm on 3/12/08, I am trying to resist doing this until the cd arrives.
Track listing? Here you are...
1. From a Homeland
2. Sunshine Roof
3. Pioneering
4. We Wake Up in the Earliest Blue of All
5. A Thousand Miles
6. Fair Hill
7. You Draw the Streets of Rome
8. Suitcase Waltz
Titled 'Street Map' it is their first self-released record since 2000's 'Christ Is My Hope' and contains songs from their new album, due in the Spring, as well as some songs that didn't make it onto the album.
You can order it now from www.theinnocencemission.com and unless you are completely crazy, that is what you will be doing as soon as you finish reading this. You can also listen to a couple of the songs on their site, but as of 2.21pm on 3/12/08, I am trying to resist doing this until the cd arrives.
Track listing? Here you are...
1. From a Homeland
2. Sunshine Roof
3. Pioneering
4. We Wake Up in the Earliest Blue of All
5. A Thousand Miles
6. Fair Hill
7. You Draw the Streets of Rome
8. Suitcase Waltz
Tuesday, 2 December 2008
continues....
17- Damien Jurado 'Caught In The Trees'
Slight change of direction for Seattle songsmith Damien Jurado. More upbeat songs with terrific harmonies, makes this his most rewarding set to date.
16- Sun Kil Moon 'April'
A really difficult album to get into. The songwriting is as strong as ever from Kozelek but the melodies take a while to 'click'. When they do, you realise that this is a really beautiful album and an album in the truest sense of the word - it works best played for start to finish.
15- Bonnie 'Prince' Billy 'Lie Down In The Light'
A long way from 'I See A Darkness'. Oldham sounds happy and content and this is a gorgeous, uplifting country record that contains some stunning duets. A light touch and a joyful album.
14-12 coming soon.
Slight change of direction for Seattle songsmith Damien Jurado. More upbeat songs with terrific harmonies, makes this his most rewarding set to date.
16- Sun Kil Moon 'April'
A really difficult album to get into. The songwriting is as strong as ever from Kozelek but the melodies take a while to 'click'. When they do, you realise that this is a really beautiful album and an album in the truest sense of the word - it works best played for start to finish.
15- Bonnie 'Prince' Billy 'Lie Down In The Light'
A long way from 'I See A Darkness'. Oldham sounds happy and content and this is a gorgeous, uplifting country record that contains some stunning duets. A light touch and a joyful album.
14-12 coming soon.
Monday, 1 December 2008
albums of the year...
between now and Christmas, T&G will count down our top 20 albums of the year. Before I start, I should mention the 'disappointment of the year'. If anyone had told me on January 1st that a new Hold Steady album wouldn't make this top 20, I wouldn't have believed it, but 'Stay Positive' didn't make the 20. The problems with the record just show themselves more and more as you continue listening, the rushed feel, the ugly production and the '...kitchen sink' mastering. Very, very disappointing and I notice that even the monthly music mags are now retreating slightly from their initial, hysterically positive reviews. Anyway, here's the first few from the T&G Top 20....
20- Willard Grant Conspiracy 'Regard The End'
A sombre, majestic, return to form from Robert Fisher and co.
19- Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan 'Sunday at Devil Dirt'
Mixing blues, folk and alt.country, this was a consistent collection of songs, some of which (like the supreme 'Trouble') already sound like standards.
18- She and Him 'Volume One'
Collaboration between M Ward and Zooey Deschanel. When it was good, it was a joyful, Spector-ish heaven! The 60s girl band style stuff sounded stunning and it was only held back from greatness by the slighly predictable country ballads.
15-17 coming up in the next couple of days. 'Film of the Year', 'Single of the Year', 'Reissue of the Year', 'Shop of the Year' and other such stuff coming all through December.
20- Willard Grant Conspiracy 'Regard The End'
A sombre, majestic, return to form from Robert Fisher and co.
19- Isobel Campbell & Mark Lanegan 'Sunday at Devil Dirt'
Mixing blues, folk and alt.country, this was a consistent collection of songs, some of which (like the supreme 'Trouble') already sound like standards.
18- She and Him 'Volume One'
Collaboration between M Ward and Zooey Deschanel. When it was good, it was a joyful, Spector-ish heaven! The 60s girl band style stuff sounded stunning and it was only held back from greatness by the slighly predictable country ballads.
15-17 coming up in the next couple of days. 'Film of the Year', 'Single of the Year', 'Reissue of the Year', 'Shop of the Year' and other such stuff coming all through December.
Friday, 28 November 2008
Dexys Midnight Runners 'Don't Stand Me Down'
Yeah, I thought I'd reminisce.
Browsing on itunes the other day, I noticed that 'Don't Stand Me Down' by Dexys is not on there. Pretty much any album you might want is on itunes, so how appropriate that a record that was all but unavailable on cd for twelve years since it's release should now be one of the last to 'go digital'.
I started listening to it again for the first time in a while.
I was a Dexys 'fan' when I was a kid, in as much as I bought 'Come on Eileen' and 'Jackie Wilson Said', but who didn't? They had no impact on my life at all until the mid 90s when my friend Lee (see recent 'Smiths' post) played me 'Too Rye Ay' and I fell in love with songs like 'Let's Make This Precious' and 'I Believe In My Soul', songs that were much more rich and soulful than I ever imagined Dexys were. As so often happens, I then made it my mission to locate and purchase everything Dexys had ever recorded. A trip to Andy's Records allowed me to acquire 'Searching For The Young Soul Rebels' and a couple of compilations, but had Dexys really recorded nothing since 1983?
In these pre-internet days, quests like this were difficult. I purchased Record Collector and found an advert for a Dexys/Kevin Rowland fanzine. I sent off a cheque and received the new and back issues of 'Keep On Running', a superb fanzine which alerted me to the existence of the great 'lost' Dexys album 'Don't Stand Me Down'. A quite ridiculously long quest followed and finally, after sending off another cheque (for £3. little did the guy know I would have paid ten times that) I received a second hand vinl copy of 'Don't Stand Me Down'.
This would never happen these days. I knew NOTHING of the record before I heard it. No leaks, no online streams, no audio clips, nothing. OK, so it was eleven years since it had been released, but still. I listened to it for the first time on my mum and dad's hi-fi, sat at the dining room table, wearing headphones, nothing prepared me for what I was about to hear.
Seven songs. Seven masterpieces. 'The Occasional Flicker' sets the scene. "Compromise is the devil talking/ and he spoke to me...", sung over a melody that was both soulful and groovy and then for the first time, the singing stops and Kevin Rowland has a conversation with Billy Adams. Kevin is still having trouble with his "burning problem", its not heartburn, its not a bit like that...its just a little matter of a burning.
'This Is What She's Like', all 12 minutes of it, is one of the greatest songs I have ever heard. Opening with an extended conversation, over no backing at all, Adams tried to get Rowland to tell us 'what she's like', instead he tells us all the things she isn't, and then describes her by singing wordlessly. The music is rich and powerful, strings and brass working perfectly together and the instrumental coda is perfection. The nearest we get to an answer is that things can be summed up by "the Italian word for thunderbolt".
Things slow down for 'Knowledge Of Beauty', a laid back ballad, with some gorgeous pedal steel guitar where Rowland sings about his love for Ireland. This is a man who people said couldn't sing and he sounds sensational, controlled and clear, full of joy and passion.
After 'One Of Those Things', a dissection of the music scene and an attack on people's lazy attitudes towards both music and politics at the time, the record heads for home with three moving love songs. 'Reminisce Part 2' a spoken word recollection of an early love builds into a beautiful take on 'I'll Say Forever My Love' by Jimm Ruffin. 'Listen To This' is a three minute, brass led, pop song with Rowland struggling to find the courage to say 'I Love You' but finally doing it and 'The Waltz' is a stirring hymn to Ireland, building into a frantic coda with Rowland repeating "here is a protest".
Nothing I can say about this album can adequately describe how much it means to me. I listened to it so much for the few weeks after I first heard it, recorded from vinyl onto cassette, that even when I listen to it now I still imagine I can hear the sound of the needle on the groove, the way I heard it first. There has been two cd reissues in the last ten years, the second because Rowland wasn't 100% happy with the sound of the first.
Every word and every note on 'Don't Stand Me Down' was worked to perfection. It is the sound of a man making the record he had to make at that point in his life and completely disregarding any worries about what anyone else might think. It is one of the most pure records I have ever heard. It is the strongest thing I have ever heard.
10.0
[copies of this album on vinyl regularly go for 99p on ebay. buy yourself one, listen to it with headphones and discover the most amazing record you will ever hear]
Browsing on itunes the other day, I noticed that 'Don't Stand Me Down' by Dexys is not on there. Pretty much any album you might want is on itunes, so how appropriate that a record that was all but unavailable on cd for twelve years since it's release should now be one of the last to 'go digital'.
I started listening to it again for the first time in a while.
I was a Dexys 'fan' when I was a kid, in as much as I bought 'Come on Eileen' and 'Jackie Wilson Said', but who didn't? They had no impact on my life at all until the mid 90s when my friend Lee (see recent 'Smiths' post) played me 'Too Rye Ay' and I fell in love with songs like 'Let's Make This Precious' and 'I Believe In My Soul', songs that were much more rich and soulful than I ever imagined Dexys were. As so often happens, I then made it my mission to locate and purchase everything Dexys had ever recorded. A trip to Andy's Records allowed me to acquire 'Searching For The Young Soul Rebels' and a couple of compilations, but had Dexys really recorded nothing since 1983?
In these pre-internet days, quests like this were difficult. I purchased Record Collector and found an advert for a Dexys/Kevin Rowland fanzine. I sent off a cheque and received the new and back issues of 'Keep On Running', a superb fanzine which alerted me to the existence of the great 'lost' Dexys album 'Don't Stand Me Down'. A quite ridiculously long quest followed and finally, after sending off another cheque (for £3. little did the guy know I would have paid ten times that) I received a second hand vinl copy of 'Don't Stand Me Down'.
This would never happen these days. I knew NOTHING of the record before I heard it. No leaks, no online streams, no audio clips, nothing. OK, so it was eleven years since it had been released, but still. I listened to it for the first time on my mum and dad's hi-fi, sat at the dining room table, wearing headphones, nothing prepared me for what I was about to hear.
Seven songs. Seven masterpieces. 'The Occasional Flicker' sets the scene. "Compromise is the devil talking/ and he spoke to me...", sung over a melody that was both soulful and groovy and then for the first time, the singing stops and Kevin Rowland has a conversation with Billy Adams. Kevin is still having trouble with his "burning problem", its not heartburn, its not a bit like that...its just a little matter of a burning.
'This Is What She's Like', all 12 minutes of it, is one of the greatest songs I have ever heard. Opening with an extended conversation, over no backing at all, Adams tried to get Rowland to tell us 'what she's like', instead he tells us all the things she isn't, and then describes her by singing wordlessly. The music is rich and powerful, strings and brass working perfectly together and the instrumental coda is perfection. The nearest we get to an answer is that things can be summed up by "the Italian word for thunderbolt".
Things slow down for 'Knowledge Of Beauty', a laid back ballad, with some gorgeous pedal steel guitar where Rowland sings about his love for Ireland. This is a man who people said couldn't sing and he sounds sensational, controlled and clear, full of joy and passion.
After 'One Of Those Things', a dissection of the music scene and an attack on people's lazy attitudes towards both music and politics at the time, the record heads for home with three moving love songs. 'Reminisce Part 2' a spoken word recollection of an early love builds into a beautiful take on 'I'll Say Forever My Love' by Jimm Ruffin. 'Listen To This' is a three minute, brass led, pop song with Rowland struggling to find the courage to say 'I Love You' but finally doing it and 'The Waltz' is a stirring hymn to Ireland, building into a frantic coda with Rowland repeating "here is a protest".
Nothing I can say about this album can adequately describe how much it means to me. I listened to it so much for the few weeks after I first heard it, recorded from vinyl onto cassette, that even when I listen to it now I still imagine I can hear the sound of the needle on the groove, the way I heard it first. There has been two cd reissues in the last ten years, the second because Rowland wasn't 100% happy with the sound of the first.
Every word and every note on 'Don't Stand Me Down' was worked to perfection. It is the sound of a man making the record he had to make at that point in his life and completely disregarding any worries about what anyone else might think. It is one of the most pure records I have ever heard. It is the strongest thing I have ever heard.
10.0
[copies of this album on vinyl regularly go for 99p on ebay. buy yourself one, listen to it with headphones and discover the most amazing record you will ever hear]
Wednesday, 26 November 2008
Denison Witmer 'Carry The Weight'
Denison Witmer has spent over ten years making consistently good indie-folk albums and in that time he has made two really excellent records.
'Philadelphia Songs', one of his early albums, is a collection of songs about home, growing up and moving on that anyone would find touching. Mainly consisting of vocal, acoustic guitar and piano, it breaks no boundaries but does what it sets out to do, very well. 2005's 'Are You A Dreamer' was better still. With songs this time about dreaming, sleep and loneliness and contributions from Sufjan Stevens, Rosie Thomas and Innocence Mission's Don Peris, this was a lovely record. In particular, 'Castles and Cathedrals', a sparse, whispered snapshot of a postcard from England was, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful songs written in the last five years. Surely with his next album, Witmer would get the recognition he deserves to stand him alongside better known peers such as Stevens, Will Oldham and the like...
Well, this album may do better commercially that it's predecessors but that won't change the disappointing fact that Witmer has made a staggeringly dull record. From the start it is clear that he has tried to move on from the slow, quiet sound of his previous records and has introduced a fuller band sound. Drums and keyboards are much more to the forefront than on earlier recordings. Opener 'Beautiful Boys and Girls' is jaunty but says almost nothing beyond repeating the title line over and over again. 'Life Without Aesthetics' is similar but better, featuring a nice lyric about bygone days and pretty harmonies at the end.
From here the album follows, almost completely, the formula of ballad followed by upbeat song. He appears to have nothing to say though. 'Carry The Weight' is trite in the extreme, to the point where you can guess the next lines before he sings them, 'From Here On Out' is an attempt at his old sound but is deathly dull and the hookline 'from here on out/ it looks like you and me' sounds more like a threat than a promise. Other songs are forgettable and 'If You Are The Writer' with it's electric guitar flurishes is dragged down by a lazy lyric. Other lyrics seem to try too hard to be interesting, what does 'patches on the elbows of my eyes' mean?
Only with the bittersweet finale 'Chesapeake Watershed' does he get anywhere near the quality of songwriting of some of his previous efforts. This is a real disappointment. Witmer sounds bored himself, so how on earth can he expect the listener to feel any differently?
4.5
['Carry The Weight' is out now on import and on vinyl from Burnt Toast records]
'Philadelphia Songs', one of his early albums, is a collection of songs about home, growing up and moving on that anyone would find touching. Mainly consisting of vocal, acoustic guitar and piano, it breaks no boundaries but does what it sets out to do, very well. 2005's 'Are You A Dreamer' was better still. With songs this time about dreaming, sleep and loneliness and contributions from Sufjan Stevens, Rosie Thomas and Innocence Mission's Don Peris, this was a lovely record. In particular, 'Castles and Cathedrals', a sparse, whispered snapshot of a postcard from England was, in my opinion, one of the most beautiful songs written in the last five years. Surely with his next album, Witmer would get the recognition he deserves to stand him alongside better known peers such as Stevens, Will Oldham and the like...
Well, this album may do better commercially that it's predecessors but that won't change the disappointing fact that Witmer has made a staggeringly dull record. From the start it is clear that he has tried to move on from the slow, quiet sound of his previous records and has introduced a fuller band sound. Drums and keyboards are much more to the forefront than on earlier recordings. Opener 'Beautiful Boys and Girls' is jaunty but says almost nothing beyond repeating the title line over and over again. 'Life Without Aesthetics' is similar but better, featuring a nice lyric about bygone days and pretty harmonies at the end.
From here the album follows, almost completely, the formula of ballad followed by upbeat song. He appears to have nothing to say though. 'Carry The Weight' is trite in the extreme, to the point where you can guess the next lines before he sings them, 'From Here On Out' is an attempt at his old sound but is deathly dull and the hookline 'from here on out/ it looks like you and me' sounds more like a threat than a promise. Other songs are forgettable and 'If You Are The Writer' with it's electric guitar flurishes is dragged down by a lazy lyric. Other lyrics seem to try too hard to be interesting, what does 'patches on the elbows of my eyes' mean?
Only with the bittersweet finale 'Chesapeake Watershed' does he get anywhere near the quality of songwriting of some of his previous efforts. This is a real disappointment. Witmer sounds bored himself, so how on earth can he expect the listener to feel any differently?
4.5
['Carry The Weight' is out now on import and on vinyl from Burnt Toast records]
Saturday, 22 November 2008
The Twilight Sad '...Killed My Parents and Hit The Road'
I may have said this before, but The Twilight Sad can do no wrong.
They followed up 2007's revelatory debut '14 Autumns and 15 Winters' with a mini-album 'Here It Never Snowed...' which showed a completely different side to their sound, offering slower, tension filled versions of some of their songs. Now, they return with a compilation of live tracks, instrumentals and covers released to fund their participation in a European tour with Mogwai.
There are four live versions of tracks from '14 Autumns...' recorded at a gig in Glasgow, all sounding absolutely great and truly ear-shredding. 'Cold Days From The Birdhouse' in particular starts slow and brooding but you are just waiting for the crescendo to hit and when it does the explosion of noise and feedback just makes you wish you'd been at the gig. A live cover of Joy Division's 'Twenty Four Hours' is similar, starting off with an almost jaunty bassline it is drenched in guitar noise before the first minute is over, somehow James Graham's vocal still manages to hold the attention, sounding in turns aggressive and then sensitive.
The cover of The Smiths' 'Half A Person' meanwhile is gentle and acoustic. Their take on Yeah Yeah Yeahs' 'Modern Romance' is quite brilliant, Graham sings softly over a guitar refrain, all sounding wonderfully intimate.
For the third straight release The Twilight Sad sound confident and adventurous. Their next album proper, due in 2009, should be quite something.
9.0
['The Twilight Sad Killed My Parents and Hit The Road' is streaming now at Fat Cat Records's website and is out on mp3 and cd on 8th December from indie stores only (way to go!)]
They followed up 2007's revelatory debut '14 Autumns and 15 Winters' with a mini-album 'Here It Never Snowed...' which showed a completely different side to their sound, offering slower, tension filled versions of some of their songs. Now, they return with a compilation of live tracks, instrumentals and covers released to fund their participation in a European tour with Mogwai.
There are four live versions of tracks from '14 Autumns...' recorded at a gig in Glasgow, all sounding absolutely great and truly ear-shredding. 'Cold Days From The Birdhouse' in particular starts slow and brooding but you are just waiting for the crescendo to hit and when it does the explosion of noise and feedback just makes you wish you'd been at the gig. A live cover of Joy Division's 'Twenty Four Hours' is similar, starting off with an almost jaunty bassline it is drenched in guitar noise before the first minute is over, somehow James Graham's vocal still manages to hold the attention, sounding in turns aggressive and then sensitive.
The cover of The Smiths' 'Half A Person' meanwhile is gentle and acoustic. Their take on Yeah Yeah Yeahs' 'Modern Romance' is quite brilliant, Graham sings softly over a guitar refrain, all sounding wonderfully intimate.
For the third straight release The Twilight Sad sound confident and adventurous. Their next album proper, due in 2009, should be quite something.
9.0
['The Twilight Sad Killed My Parents and Hit The Road' is streaming now at Fat Cat Records's website and is out on mp3 and cd on 8th December from indie stores only (way to go!)]
Friday, 21 November 2008
Single Of The Week
Emmy The Great 'We Almost Had A Baby'
I first saw Emmy The Great supporting The Mountain Goats at Union Chapel about a year ago and left thinking that she was a very talented singer-songwriter and one to watch. Mixing clever and sometimes cutting lyrics with sweet melodies, her set at the Chapel perfectly fitted the folky vibe of the night.
Her album has been a very long time coming. Despite lots of record company interest, she has insisted on making the album her way and self-financing it. Judging by this first single it will be worth the wait when released in January. 'We Almost Had A Baby' is a jangly pop song of the highest order with swooning strings and 60s style backing vocals. It all sounds very accomplished indeed and while the song has a warm, Christmassy vibe, the lyrics are sharp and witty. Perfect for listening to on a walkman as you stroll along on a crisp Winter's night.
I'm going to stop now as I've used the word 'vibe' twice already in this review and it is all I can do to stop myself using 'cutting' a second time as well. This is SINGLE OF THE WEEK anyway.
['We Almost Had A Baby' is out now on 7" vinyl and digital download. 'Emmy The Great' is actually Emma-Lee Moss and assorted helpers, I meant to mention this in the actual review.]
I first saw Emmy The Great supporting The Mountain Goats at Union Chapel about a year ago and left thinking that she was a very talented singer-songwriter and one to watch. Mixing clever and sometimes cutting lyrics with sweet melodies, her set at the Chapel perfectly fitted the folky vibe of the night.
Her album has been a very long time coming. Despite lots of record company interest, she has insisted on making the album her way and self-financing it. Judging by this first single it will be worth the wait when released in January. 'We Almost Had A Baby' is a jangly pop song of the highest order with swooning strings and 60s style backing vocals. It all sounds very accomplished indeed and while the song has a warm, Christmassy vibe, the lyrics are sharp and witty. Perfect for listening to on a walkman as you stroll along on a crisp Winter's night.
I'm going to stop now as I've used the word 'vibe' twice already in this review and it is all I can do to stop myself using 'cutting' a second time as well. This is SINGLE OF THE WEEK anyway.
['We Almost Had A Baby' is out now on 7" vinyl and digital download. 'Emmy The Great' is actually Emma-Lee Moss and assorted helpers, I meant to mention this in the actual review.]
Wednesday, 19 November 2008
what happened to the sound that left you lying on the floor, laughing, crying, jumping and singing
Nothing to review at the moment. Well, there is one cd, but I can't be bothered to do it yet (not a glowing endorsement, I guess).
I've been listening a lot to Belle & Sebastian's 'Dear Catastrophe Waitress' lately. I love the feeling of joyful lethargy (is that a phrase? or even a combination of words that can be used together in any reasonable way at all?) in it. I don't know this, and I may very well be wrong, but I imagine that Stuart Murdoch went through quite a lot before recording this album and instead of dwelling on those things, he pulled everything apart and started again and DCW is the sound of him making those steps. That is how it sounds to me anyway.
It relates at the moment because, career-wise, I feel a bit like that at the moment. Have made some bad career decisions this year and at times in the last few days I have felt a bit like 'Dear Catastrophe Administrator'. I kind of think it might be time for me to strip everything away and start again, although I am a bit old to do so perhaps (34). How I wish I could have made the right decisions when I was 18 and then perhaps now I could be writing about music for a living. Instead of which I'm doing something else for a living and writing about music for a hobby. Badly.
So thats one possible reason why I've been listening to DCW so much. The other likely one is just that it feels like an Autumnal album. Sometimes a record hits you at a particular moment and then that moment in time will always be indicative of the album. DCW, as it happens, really clicked with me over a sequence of 3-4 days back in 2003 when I was delivering some scintillating training sessions at the L&D (scintillating in my head. in reality they probably involved me jabbering, laptops not doing what I want them to do and students yawning). I can vividly remember walking down Leagrave High Street and thinking what a great record DCW was.
Now we're sort of going round in circles cos that has reminded me of a time when I was doing a job I enjoyed. Enough. None of this is 'for here'. Although if I leave this post un-tagged, the fact that hardly anyone (no-one) visits this site on a daily basis, like as a rule by going to the main page means that I can say pretty much whatever I like, cos nobody will read it. Hmmm.
Anyway, if anyone wants me to write about music for them or write bios for bands or do anything at all, you can contact me. Not that I'm desperate for a career change or anything.
Christ, lets hope there's something to review soon eh? If only Amazon would dispatch my Denison Witmer import cd (6-9 days, my arse) we'd be alright and I could just witter on inanely about that instead.
Bye for now 'readers'.
I've been listening a lot to Belle & Sebastian's 'Dear Catastrophe Waitress' lately. I love the feeling of joyful lethargy (is that a phrase? or even a combination of words that can be used together in any reasonable way at all?) in it. I don't know this, and I may very well be wrong, but I imagine that Stuart Murdoch went through quite a lot before recording this album and instead of dwelling on those things, he pulled everything apart and started again and DCW is the sound of him making those steps. That is how it sounds to me anyway.
It relates at the moment because, career-wise, I feel a bit like that at the moment. Have made some bad career decisions this year and at times in the last few days I have felt a bit like 'Dear Catastrophe Administrator'. I kind of think it might be time for me to strip everything away and start again, although I am a bit old to do so perhaps (34). How I wish I could have made the right decisions when I was 18 and then perhaps now I could be writing about music for a living. Instead of which I'm doing something else for a living and writing about music for a hobby. Badly.
So thats one possible reason why I've been listening to DCW so much. The other likely one is just that it feels like an Autumnal album. Sometimes a record hits you at a particular moment and then that moment in time will always be indicative of the album. DCW, as it happens, really clicked with me over a sequence of 3-4 days back in 2003 when I was delivering some scintillating training sessions at the L&D (scintillating in my head. in reality they probably involved me jabbering, laptops not doing what I want them to do and students yawning). I can vividly remember walking down Leagrave High Street and thinking what a great record DCW was.
Now we're sort of going round in circles cos that has reminded me of a time when I was doing a job I enjoyed. Enough. None of this is 'for here'. Although if I leave this post un-tagged, the fact that hardly anyone (no-one) visits this site on a daily basis, like as a rule by going to the main page means that I can say pretty much whatever I like, cos nobody will read it. Hmmm.
Anyway, if anyone wants me to write about music for them or write bios for bands or do anything at all, you can contact me. Not that I'm desperate for a career change or anything.
Christ, lets hope there's something to review soon eh? If only Amazon would dispatch my Denison Witmer import cd (6-9 days, my arse) we'd be alright and I could just witter on inanely about that instead.
Bye for now 'readers'.
Saturday, 15 November 2008
Belle & Sebastian 'Life In Belfast 2001'
See last month's review of the 'BBC Sessions' cd. The 2cd has now arrived containing the live recording from Belfast in 2001...
..and what a good snapshot it is of how a Belle & Sebastian gig was in 2001. Before they decided to become more 'professional' and take playing live more seriously their gigs were often ramshackle and erratic. I remember seeing them play in London around the same time as this recording and they disappeared mid-set for what seemed like an age, while we were 'entertained' by a local steel-drum group that Stuart Murdoch was fond of. From many bands this would come over as arrogant, but from B&S it was just misguided.
This recording is similarly unfocused. A member of the audience joins the band to sing 'Waiting For The Man' and while the selection process and song choosing is edited down here, I can imagine that on the night it took some time. Isobel Campbell sounds completely dis-interested and her vocals are at times, almost inaudible. But still there are some triumphs here: 'The Model' and 'The Wrong Girl' remind you that 'Fold Your Hands Child..' was a decent album in places and 'The Boy With The Arab Strap' is always magical to hear.
This is a pretty good representation of how B&S were at the time and while it is fun and sometimes heartwarming, it also demonstrates why things had to change. Its well worth buying the 2CD to reminisce though.
..and what a good snapshot it is of how a Belle & Sebastian gig was in 2001. Before they decided to become more 'professional' and take playing live more seriously their gigs were often ramshackle and erratic. I remember seeing them play in London around the same time as this recording and they disappeared mid-set for what seemed like an age, while we were 'entertained' by a local steel-drum group that Stuart Murdoch was fond of. From many bands this would come over as arrogant, but from B&S it was just misguided.
This recording is similarly unfocused. A member of the audience joins the band to sing 'Waiting For The Man' and while the selection process and song choosing is edited down here, I can imagine that on the night it took some time. Isobel Campbell sounds completely dis-interested and her vocals are at times, almost inaudible. But still there are some triumphs here: 'The Model' and 'The Wrong Girl' remind you that 'Fold Your Hands Child..' was a decent album in places and 'The Boy With The Arab Strap' is always magical to hear.
This is a pretty good representation of how B&S were at the time and while it is fun and sometimes heartwarming, it also demonstrates why things had to change. Its well worth buying the 2CD to reminisce though.
Friday, 14 November 2008
Tindersticks live album
I'm well aware that I have written about Tindersticks far too much on here this year, but....nevermind.
Not only do they return to London on December 16th at Union Chapel but they will bring with them a brand new live cd. Recorded in Glasgow in October, during the same leg of the tour as the Brighton gig that I reviewed in September, it is a full recording of the gig and will be, therefore, absolutely brilliant.
Only sold on the Winter tour, you can hear a track from it, the magnificent 'The Turns We Took' at the band's Myspace here:
http://www.myspace.com/tindersticksofficial
Not only do they return to London on December 16th at Union Chapel but they will bring with them a brand new live cd. Recorded in Glasgow in October, during the same leg of the tour as the Brighton gig that I reviewed in September, it is a full recording of the gig and will be, therefore, absolutely brilliant.
Only sold on the Winter tour, you can hear a track from it, the magnificent 'The Turns We Took' at the band's Myspace here:
http://www.myspace.com/tindersticksofficial
Monday, 10 November 2008
Fleet Foxes on 'Later...'
My favourite song at the moment is 'He Doesn't Know Why' by Fleet Foxes.
Their debut album has grown on me an extraordinary amount. I'm slightly embarrassed by my initial review of it now. I liked it, but I didn't think it was special, not as good as the Bon Iver album for example. Silly me, although I guess, this is what album of the year lists are for. The best albums generally aren't immediate and many times in the last few months I've had a song stuck in my head and wondered what it was, then realising it was a Fleet Foxes song.
If you haven't seen their performance on Friday's 'Later With Jools Holland', go to BBC Iplayer and watch it now. In particular the performance of 'He Doesn't Know Why' is incredible. I'd heard that they were a lot better live than on record and it seems to be true. Watching Robin Pecknold hit every note and singing with such control and power is wonderful, one of the musical moments this year that has made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck.
I've got tickets to see them at the Roundhouse in February. Counting the days already.
Their debut album has grown on me an extraordinary amount. I'm slightly embarrassed by my initial review of it now. I liked it, but I didn't think it was special, not as good as the Bon Iver album for example. Silly me, although I guess, this is what album of the year lists are for. The best albums generally aren't immediate and many times in the last few months I've had a song stuck in my head and wondered what it was, then realising it was a Fleet Foxes song.
If you haven't seen their performance on Friday's 'Later With Jools Holland', go to BBC Iplayer and watch it now. In particular the performance of 'He Doesn't Know Why' is incredible. I'd heard that they were a lot better live than on record and it seems to be true. Watching Robin Pecknold hit every note and singing with such control and power is wonderful, one of the musical moments this year that has made the hairs stand up on the back of my neck.
I've got tickets to see them at the Roundhouse in February. Counting the days already.
The Smiths 'The Sound of The Smiths'
6am on a cold, wet, grey Monday morning. Walking to the swimming pool and contemplating, afterwards, a day at work. What else could I listen to but 'The Sound of The Smiths'?
If you perused the racks at a record shop (wikipedia it, kids) you would never guess that The Smiths are one of the greatest and most influential bands...ever. Their back catalogue has been left in such a shabby state that all we have are 1993 reissues of their studio albums and a couple of 'best ofs' put together without much thought or care. It was great news then, a couple of years ago, when it was announced that Morrissey and Marr would work together on a series of deluxe editions of Smiths albums and, at last, a proper boxset.
This collection is not actually a legacy of that announcement, although it is endorsed by Morrissey (who came up with the title) and Marr (who supervised the remastering) and it is the most comprehensive and best collection of The Smiths' music yet released.
Everyone should know these songs and to know them is to love them. I remember being introduced to the wonderful world of Morrissey and Marr by my best friend Lee, who made me a compilation tape which I still have. I remember playing the tape and being amazed by how joyous the music was, so far from the popular perception of what The Smiths are actually like. Morrissey's words and singing struck me first, how could they not, somehow it seemed I knew what he was going to sing next before I'd even heard it. Then I listened again and I could hear the most fantastic, innovative guitar playing. What a combination, what a band!
The start of this compilation is spookily similar to the start of the tape Lee made me. Only 'Still Ill' in the place of 'William It Was Really Nothing' changes in the sequence of the first six songs. The running order is roughly chronological, meaning that there is an absolutely stunning run of songs about two thirds of the way through...'the boy with the thorn in his side', 'bigmouth strikes again', 'there is a light...', 'panic', 'ask'. Seriously, how many bands can do better than that?
We can all quibble about some songs that are left out. What would a Smiths 'best of' be without 'I Know Its Over' and 'The Queen Is Dead'? But this is not a 'Best Of', it is the sound of the Smiths, and it is an extremely good representation of that. Listening to the bonus cd is for another day, for now I want the joy of listening to these wonderful songs again to last.
The World has moved on of course. Teenagers used to play Smiths songs on their walkmans while sitting on buses, now they play tinny, barely recognisable music out loud through their mobile phones. To paraphrase both Kevin Rowland and Thom Yorke...take me back to those old days, I wish it was the 80s.
Pop music gets no better than this.
9.8
['Sound of The Smiths' is out now on cd and 2cd]
If you perused the racks at a record shop (wikipedia it, kids) you would never guess that The Smiths are one of the greatest and most influential bands...ever. Their back catalogue has been left in such a shabby state that all we have are 1993 reissues of their studio albums and a couple of 'best ofs' put together without much thought or care. It was great news then, a couple of years ago, when it was announced that Morrissey and Marr would work together on a series of deluxe editions of Smiths albums and, at last, a proper boxset.
This collection is not actually a legacy of that announcement, although it is endorsed by Morrissey (who came up with the title) and Marr (who supervised the remastering) and it is the most comprehensive and best collection of The Smiths' music yet released.
Everyone should know these songs and to know them is to love them. I remember being introduced to the wonderful world of Morrissey and Marr by my best friend Lee, who made me a compilation tape which I still have. I remember playing the tape and being amazed by how joyous the music was, so far from the popular perception of what The Smiths are actually like. Morrissey's words and singing struck me first, how could they not, somehow it seemed I knew what he was going to sing next before I'd even heard it. Then I listened again and I could hear the most fantastic, innovative guitar playing. What a combination, what a band!
The start of this compilation is spookily similar to the start of the tape Lee made me. Only 'Still Ill' in the place of 'William It Was Really Nothing' changes in the sequence of the first six songs. The running order is roughly chronological, meaning that there is an absolutely stunning run of songs about two thirds of the way through...'the boy with the thorn in his side', 'bigmouth strikes again', 'there is a light...', 'panic', 'ask'. Seriously, how many bands can do better than that?
We can all quibble about some songs that are left out. What would a Smiths 'best of' be without 'I Know Its Over' and 'The Queen Is Dead'? But this is not a 'Best Of', it is the sound of the Smiths, and it is an extremely good representation of that. Listening to the bonus cd is for another day, for now I want the joy of listening to these wonderful songs again to last.
The World has moved on of course. Teenagers used to play Smiths songs on their walkmans while sitting on buses, now they play tinny, barely recognisable music out loud through their mobile phones. To paraphrase both Kevin Rowland and Thom Yorke...take me back to those old days, I wish it was the 80s.
Pop music gets no better than this.
9.8
['Sound of The Smiths' is out now on cd and 2cd]
Friday, 7 November 2008
The T&G 11
TracksandGigs is preparing its 'Album of The Year' list. In advance of this, it has nominated eleven albums to form the 'album of the year' shortlist. Each of these records has given T&G an enormous amount of pleasure this year. The list, in alphabetical order, is...
American Music Club 'The Golden Age'
A few weak tracks here but many strong ones and it features one of Eitzel's most beautiful songs, the incredibly visual and moving 'Sleeping Beauty'
Beck 'Modern Guilt'
Short and sweet, his most cohesive record to date. An exciting, tremendously alive set of songs.
Fleet Foxes 'Fleet Foxes'
Deserving of all the hype. A delicious mix of country, soul, pop and folk. Gorgeous harmonies and a great Summer record.
Jenny Lewis 'Acid Tongue'
Unfairly slated by some, this is a luxurious, rewarding album to listen to. It is also a lovely recording with plenty of space allowed and each instrument given room to breathe.
Micah P Hinson 'Red Empire..'
A warm and inviting country-noir album that is all the better for Hinson finally sounding happy and content.
Stephen Malkmus and The Jicks 'Real Emotional Trash'
Just about his best since Pavement. A guitar masterclass and some great songs too.
The Dodos 'Visitor'
Sweet ballads, innovative percussion and great songs. This came from nowhere but will stand the test of time.
The Mountain Goats 'Heretic Pride'
An album of horror, monsters, death and fun from John Darnielle. Some of his best 'loud' songs for years. A really consistent album too.
The Sleeping Years 'We're Becoming Islands, One By One'
Tindersticks 'The Hungry Saw'
Unconcerned with the past, this is a fresh, vibrant piece of music that has formed the centre-piece of the band's shows this year. It has left the band rejuvinated and open to all possibilities for the future. A near-perfect 45 minutes.
Full list soon.
American Music Club 'The Golden Age'
A few weak tracks here but many strong ones and it features one of Eitzel's most beautiful songs, the incredibly visual and moving 'Sleeping Beauty'
Beck 'Modern Guilt'
Short and sweet, his most cohesive record to date. An exciting, tremendously alive set of songs.
Fleet Foxes 'Fleet Foxes'
Deserving of all the hype. A delicious mix of country, soul, pop and folk. Gorgeous harmonies and a great Summer record.
Jenny Lewis 'Acid Tongue'
Unfairly slated by some, this is a luxurious, rewarding album to listen to. It is also a lovely recording with plenty of space allowed and each instrument given room to breathe.
Micah P Hinson 'Red Empire..'
A warm and inviting country-noir album that is all the better for Hinson finally sounding happy and content.
Stephen Malkmus and The Jicks 'Real Emotional Trash'
Just about his best since Pavement. A guitar masterclass and some great songs too.
The Dodos 'Visitor'
Sweet ballads, innovative percussion and great songs. This came from nowhere but will stand the test of time.
The Mountain Goats 'Heretic Pride'
An album of horror, monsters, death and fun from John Darnielle. Some of his best 'loud' songs for years. A really consistent album too.
The Sleeping Years 'We're Becoming Islands, One By One'
Quietly beautiful folk/pop songs from ex-Catchers frontman Dale Grundle.
The Twilight Sad 'Here It Never Snowed...'
Atmospheric mini-album with the band playing in a completely different style from their debut LP. Including a stunning Daniel Johnston cover.
Tindersticks 'The Hungry Saw'
Unconcerned with the past, this is a fresh, vibrant piece of music that has formed the centre-piece of the band's shows this year. It has left the band rejuvinated and open to all possibilities for the future. A near-perfect 45 minutes.
Full list soon.
Wednesday, 5 November 2008
gig of the year.....and it hasn't happened yet
Loads coming up in the next couple of days including, gasp, a gig review! But, you need to know that Tindersticks are playing the Union Chapel on 16th December. Tickets on sale NOW. Get them from wegottickets, they are nice.
So that is the best band in the World playing the nicest venue in the UK, for the first time. Get your tickets now. (It will be the third time TracksandGigs has seen them this year!)
So that is the best band in the World playing the nicest venue in the UK, for the first time. Get your tickets now. (It will be the third time TracksandGigs has seen them this year!)
Saturday, 1 November 2008
single of the week...
Difficult decision this week with three great singles released, spookily all on nicely packaged white vinyl. 3rd place goes to Beck's 'Gamma Ray', he has already released the best single of the year so shouldn't be too greedy. In second place is Jenny Lewis' 'Carpetbaggers', complete with a thrilling contribution from Elvis Costello but single of the week is...
Low 'Santa's Coming Over'
Santa's coming over? Not yet, he's not. Unless Low know something we don't. They may well do, as they are releasing a Christmas single at the start of November and playing Christmas shows a couple of weeks later. Maybe its a Mormon thing?!
Anyway, this is a great single. Beautifully packaged in a snowflake sleeve and sounding NOTHING like Low's previous Christmas music. This is a dark Christmas song with foreboding drums and dirgy guitar and chanted vocals that make the arrive of Santa seem positively terrifying. It also sounds more like traditional Low than anything they have released in a long time. Bizarrely, the b side is a jolly reggae track.
Great single. Everyone should play this on Christmas Eve!
Belle & Sebastian 'BBC Sessions'
If you think of Belle & Sebastian's career thus far as having two pretty distinct phases, one with Isobel Campbell in the band and one without, this BBC sessions compilation is a pretty comprehensive record of phase one and almost works as a 'best of' from that era.
Since 200, B&S have discovered that playing live is fun after all and that making cohesive albums rather than a disparate collections of songs is a good thing. Their last two albums have probably been their best but some of the finest songs came from the first era. This collection of sessions for Lamacq, Radcliffe and Peel gathers most of these up.
The arrangements are sparse and intimate, meaning that a song like 'The State That I'm In' works perfectly, as gentle and touching as it is on record. Elsewhere, Stevie Jackson's 'Seymour Stein' probably wouldn't have got him anywhere on the X Factor but is marvellous; funny, heartfelt and somehow, righteous.
The most interesting session though, is the Peel recording from 2001 (which I vividly remember listening to on my old radio at my Mum and Dad's). The last set of recordings to feature Isobel Campbell, none of these songs made it onto 'Dear Catastrophe Waitress' so are previously unreleased. It is the sound of a band at a crossroads. Stuart Murdoch's tribute to The Go Betweens, 'Shoot The Sexual Athlete', is fun, while Isobel Campbell's 'The Magic of a Kind Word' is perfect pop with a similar sound to their 'Legal Man' single. 'Miraculous Techinique' is the highlight though with Murdoch's shout out to 'JP at Maida Vale' particularly poignant. Hard to believe this was only seven years ago.
Since then B&S have undoubtably become a better band with professional gigs and consistently good records. This is a nice reminder of the old, ramshackle, innocent days. Plenty to love here.
8.6
[This was reviewed from a promo. 'BBC Sessions' is out on cd and 2cd (containing a live recording from Belfast) on November 17]
Wednesday, 29 October 2008
Twilight Sad tour cd
Apologies for lack of updates. Likeanyoneisbothered. Haven't had time to listen to albums, let alone review them lately.
Anyway, news reaches me that the utterly brilliant Twilight Sad (check the archives for reviews) are releasing a limited edition EP which is a marvellous mix of live tracks and covers. TracksandGigs particularly wants to hear their version of 'Half A Person'. Unfortunately, the EP which is brilliantly named 'The Twilight Sad Killed My Parents and Went On The Road' is only available at their European shows, supporting Mogwai. I will eat my hat if it isn't released through their Myspace or somewhere soon though, so keep an eye out. Track listing below:
01 Walking for Two Hours (live)
02 That Summer, At Home I Had Become the Invisible Boy (live)
03 Untitled #28
04 Cold Days From the Birdhouse (live)
05 And She Would Darken the Memory (live)
06 Twenty Four Hours [Joy Division cover]
07 The Weather Is Bad
08 Half a Person [The Smiths cover]
09 Untitled #27
10 Modern Romance [Yeah Yeah Yeahs cover]
11 I Was Hoping the Winter Was Over
Friday, 24 October 2008
single of the week
Before announcing this week's Single of The Week...I have to recommend the film 'Burn After Reading' which is the second best movie I have seen this year. Extremely funny but also very clever and ultimately, strangely heartwarming. Go see it....go on...
Single of the week goes to Denison Witmer's 'Beautiful Boys and Girls', a song which I intitially found disappointing. Denison's last two albums proper, 'Philadelphia Songs' and 'Are You A Dreamer' were both lovely, delicate collections of songs and in the case of the latter, a record to remind you to look for the good things in life and ignore worries. This single, the first from Denison's new LP 'Carry The Weight' (out Nov 10), is a little different. On first few listens it may sound a little repetitive and laboured but once you get used to it, it becomes a hazy, warm Autumnal song...all Jackson Browne vocals and laidback guitar. Its out now on digital release only and can be heard on Denison's Myspace.
Wednesday, 22 October 2008
The Dears 'Missiles'
I've never been a fan of The Dears. I bought their last but one album after being told it sounded like The Smiths, obviously I was disappointed when it sounded like nothing of the sort. I decided to give them another try and purchased this one after hearing that pretty much all of the band had left during the recording of 'Missiles', leaving just singer-songwriter Murray Lightburn, his wife, singer/keyboardist Natalia Yanchak and several new recruits. The resulting record is such a labour of love that the band have posted Italo Calvino-style instructions on how to listen to it on their website.
However you choose to hear it, you won't miss the general air of tension and unease that feels the record. Lightburn sounds like a man trying to keep it together whilst everything falls apart around him. "People are saying you're wrong/ but I think you're on to something" he sings on 'Meltdown in A Major' and there are frequent references to work, keeping going and God.
The music is lush and easy on the ears. Guitars and keyboards are frequently embelished by strings and brass. Several songs have extended codas that take them to a different place entirely- this doesn't always work, 'Lights Out' is a pretty lullaby which is transformed rather disappointingly into a prog-epic but on a song like 'Missiles', the build up of tension leads perfectly into the electric guitar driven finale. Similarly 'Meltdown In A Minor' builds into a stirring crescendo and is a portrait of a man on the edge.
There is a lot to take in and this is an hour long album with several songs longer than 6 minutes but The Dears are correct to say that this is a record that should be listened to as a whole. In particular, the final three songs fit perfectly together leading up to 'Saviour' which is an 11 minute epic with a children's choir and a plea for redemption ....way better and more restrained than it sounds!
Through adversity The Dears have made their best and most original record yet.
7.5
['Missiles' is out now on cd only we believe.]
However you choose to hear it, you won't miss the general air of tension and unease that feels the record. Lightburn sounds like a man trying to keep it together whilst everything falls apart around him. "People are saying you're wrong/ but I think you're on to something" he sings on 'Meltdown in A Major' and there are frequent references to work, keeping going and God.
The music is lush and easy on the ears. Guitars and keyboards are frequently embelished by strings and brass. Several songs have extended codas that take them to a different place entirely- this doesn't always work, 'Lights Out' is a pretty lullaby which is transformed rather disappointingly into a prog-epic but on a song like 'Missiles', the build up of tension leads perfectly into the electric guitar driven finale. Similarly 'Meltdown In A Minor' builds into a stirring crescendo and is a portrait of a man on the edge.
There is a lot to take in and this is an hour long album with several songs longer than 6 minutes but The Dears are correct to say that this is a record that should be listened to as a whole. In particular, the final three songs fit perfectly together leading up to 'Saviour' which is an 11 minute epic with a children's choir and a plea for redemption ....way better and more restrained than it sounds!
Through adversity The Dears have made their best and most original record yet.
7.5
['Missiles' is out now on cd only we believe.]
Saturday, 18 October 2008
Pavement 'Brighten The Corners- The Nicene Creedence Edition'
When ATP asked for fans to vote for the bands they would most like to see play their festival a couple of years ago, Pavement, despite having split up almost a decade ago, were at the very top of the list.
Its easy to see why. Of all the successful alt.rock bands of the 90s, Pavement are pretty much the only ones not to do a reunion tour yet, they also boast the most consistent body of work of any of those bands AND they have kept themselves in the picture by undertaking just about the most comprehensive re-issue series I can remember. Every two years, a Pavement album is lovingly remastered and repackaged with a quite stunning amount of bonus tracks. It is a labour of love taken on by band members and Matador Records. So, 11 years since it was released, we now come to 'Brighten The Corners'.
It is still exciting to hear the opening bassline of 'Stereo' giving way to explosive guitar feedback, heralding one of the great rock songs of the 90s. 'Shady Lane', which follows, is a gorgeous woozy ballad with some left-field but touching lyrics. In fact, 'Brighten The Corners' is probably the high point of Malkmus' Pavement lyrics, there are so many clever/funny lines on this album that it would be wrong to pick a few or even list all of them, they just need to be heard and enjoyed. This is probably the most straight-forward Pavement album, full of anthems (even if they are anti-anthems) and slower songs, there is nothing difficult here.
Along with 'Crooked Rain...' it is also Pavement's most affecting album. Although Malkmus rarely seems to be singing about himself, songs like 'Type Slowly' tug the heartstrings while 'We Are Underused' is the classic Pavement slacker-anthem and simply demands that you sing along. Pavement fans could argue all day about which album is their best, but this is a strong contender. Great guitar riffs, supremely witty lyrics and Stephen Malkmus sounding better than he ever had...up to that point. One of the best alt.rock albums of the 90s.
As far as the extras go....there are 42 songs in total on this release. If you pre-order the album you will also get a bonus live vinyl LP (which we'll review at a later date), but the 2cd's bonus tracks include pretty much everything you could possibly find from this era in the way of radio sessions, b sides, outtakes etc. For me, it is a joy to hear two versions of 'Harness Your Hopes', already one of my favourite Pavement songs and a couple of work-in-progress versions of what turned out to be 'The Hexx'. There are also a couple of previously unreleased outtakes from the BTC sessions, both of which are excellent.
If you are a Pavement fan, you must buy this. If you want to know what all the fuss was/is about, this or 'Crooked Rain...' are the best places to start.
9.5
['Brighten The Corners...' is out in Novemeber, but if you pre-order NOW from Matador Records you get a stream of the album to listen to right now and all manner of goodies leading up the release date. Seriously one of the best reissue packages I have ever seen]
Thursday, 16 October 2008
most annoying song of the week
by a long way...
Keane 'Playing Along'
heard this on Radio 6 on Monday. have no desire to ever hear it again.
just thought i would mention this.
Keane 'Playing Along'
heard this on Radio 6 on Monday. have no desire to ever hear it again.
just thought i would mention this.
The Mountain Goats 'Satanic Messiah'
Nice to see bands getting inventive with the ways they are releasing music. Plenty of artists now have 'pre-order and get a download now' type deals, Matador Records are doing a completely awesome pre-ordering package for the Pavement 'Brighten The Corners' re-issue (which T&G will be writing extensively about very soon) and now John Darnielle and The Mountain Goats have released a limited EP which you can download now at http://satanic messiah.com . Price? No, none. Pay what you like or pay nothing if you are very mean, considering the record wasn't free to make. The site has a paypal and google checkout link and you can choose what you pay, radiohead style. Good stuff. The EP is also out on limited double 7" which currrently seems only to be available at shows in the U.S but will probably be on ebay soon for £sillymoney.
The music itself is nice. Pretty much exclusively acoustic guitar, piano and voice. The songs sound more 'Get Lonely' than 'Heretic Pride', the storytelling in the lyrics is excellent and 'Gojam Province 1968' is the highlight; impossibly sad and pretty. Its also notable for a song which, even for a band who have some excellent song-titles, has to have the coolest name yet.....'Wizard Buys A Hat'!
This is a worthy addition to TMG's mighty cannon and is well worth the standard price of an EP. Would like to see the vinyl available on this side of the Atlantic though...so much nicer than a folder of mp3s!
7.666
['Satanic Messiah' is out now to download at satanicmessiah.com . check the mountain goats website for details of physical formats]
The music itself is nice. Pretty much exclusively acoustic guitar, piano and voice. The songs sound more 'Get Lonely' than 'Heretic Pride', the storytelling in the lyrics is excellent and 'Gojam Province 1968' is the highlight; impossibly sad and pretty. Its also notable for a song which, even for a band who have some excellent song-titles, has to have the coolest name yet.....'Wizard Buys A Hat'!
This is a worthy addition to TMG's mighty cannon and is well worth the standard price of an EP. Would like to see the vinyl available on this side of the Atlantic though...so much nicer than a folder of mp3s!
7.666
['Satanic Messiah' is out now to download at satanicmessiah.com . check the mountain goats website for details of physical formats]
Sunday, 12 October 2008
American Music Club 'Mercury demos'
1991's 'Everclear' seems to have been pretty much universally accepted as the classic AMC album, but some fans have held the belief that the follow up album 'Mercury' contains the better songs. To these ears anyway, that album had huge potential but was dragged down by Mitchell Froom's stodgy production which now makes the record sound ridiculously dated since it is only 15 years old.
This collection of demos for 'Mercury', available at shows and via AMC's website, lets us hear how it could have sounded and the results are stunning. Without Froom's fussy production the songs can breathe and in some cases sound as good as the live versions Eitzel has been playing for years. 'Apology For An Accident' is absolutely sensationalwith a gripping, edgy vocal performance from Eitzel and a terrific guitar break, 'What Godzilla Said To God...' is lighter than the album version, sounding more like Eitzel's solo recording from 'Songs of Love Live' and 'Gratitude Walks' reminds me of the way they played it at the 2004 reunion shows.
As if this wasn't enough there are some songs that didn't make it on the album. Some have already appeared as b sides but 'Crystal Always Knows' is, to me at least, completely new and a great addition to AMC's cannon. The only gripe with this is that there is no demo of 'Johnny Mathis' Feet', one of Eitzel's finest songs and one of the highlights of 'Mercury', but I guess that is because it was written late.
This is not really an unbiased review as I am an AMC fan, but if you are remotely interested in Eitzel, AMC or discovering the work of one of the World's greatest songwriters, you should buy this.
9.0
['Mercury Demos' are out now via Decor Records in the UK]
Friday, 10 October 2008
five years ago...
Laura Barton's mention of The Innocence Mission in the Guardian today reminded me that it is five years since the release of their 'Befriended' LP.
The first few times I played this album, I wondered if it was one of the best records I had ever heard. Five years on, I think it is. I never get tired of it. It is one of those albums that I ended up buying copies of for friends in the hope that they would love it as much as I did. Some did, some didn't.
Written and recorded after the death of Karen Peris' Mother, 'Befriended' was made pretty much exclusively with guitar, bass, piano and tambourine and of course Karen's amazing voice. The lyrics are of course poignant, sometimes sentimental but the music is joyful and on 'Beautiful Change' you can hear Peris smiling as she sings. I have often thought that this record is pretty much perfect. It can make you feel sad but in some ways is the most uplifting album, the writing is simple yet stunning- the first verse of 'When Mac Was Swimming' is...
"When Mac Was Swimming I was running late
Walking around New Orleans looking for a birthday cake
It was a great surprise to him so many people came
Nobody knows darling
Nobody knows how they are loved"
There is so much I could say about this record but if you don't own it, just buy it and find out for yourself. You won't be disappointed and this record will carry you through the Autumn turning to Winter and then when Spring is on the way, you can listen to Karen sing..
"Flower forth,
all you branches of Easter
Why won't the spring come?
Sweep down early, Tomorrow, come.
Tell me that I can just start over again.
Sweep down early, my friend."
And then you can buy the follow up 'We Walked In Song' which is almost as beautiful and then start on their back catalogue, prepare to be blown away by 'Birds Of My Neighbourhood'.
The Innocence Mission don't get the attention they deserve and this is one of the most beautiful records you will ever hear.
[Every Innocence Mission album is available now from www.theinnocencemission.com they are all brilliant. A new one will arrive in the Spring]
The first few times I played this album, I wondered if it was one of the best records I had ever heard. Five years on, I think it is. I never get tired of it. It is one of those albums that I ended up buying copies of for friends in the hope that they would love it as much as I did. Some did, some didn't.
Written and recorded after the death of Karen Peris' Mother, 'Befriended' was made pretty much exclusively with guitar, bass, piano and tambourine and of course Karen's amazing voice. The lyrics are of course poignant, sometimes sentimental but the music is joyful and on 'Beautiful Change' you can hear Peris smiling as she sings. I have often thought that this record is pretty much perfect. It can make you feel sad but in some ways is the most uplifting album, the writing is simple yet stunning- the first verse of 'When Mac Was Swimming' is...
"When Mac Was Swimming I was running late
Walking around New Orleans looking for a birthday cake
It was a great surprise to him so many people came
Nobody knows darling
Nobody knows how they are loved"
There is so much I could say about this record but if you don't own it, just buy it and find out for yourself. You won't be disappointed and this record will carry you through the Autumn turning to Winter and then when Spring is on the way, you can listen to Karen sing..
"Flower forth,
all you branches of Easter
Why won't the spring come?
Sweep down early, Tomorrow, come.
Tell me that I can just start over again.
Sweep down early, my friend."
And then you can buy the follow up 'We Walked In Song' which is almost as beautiful and then start on their back catalogue, prepare to be blown away by 'Birds Of My Neighbourhood'.
The Innocence Mission don't get the attention they deserve and this is one of the most beautiful records you will ever hear.
[Every Innocence Mission album is available now from www.theinnocencemission.com they are all brilliant. A new one will arrive in the Spring]
Thursday, 9 October 2008
Rivulets 'You Are My Home'
I almost fell asleep to this album on the train. This is not a criticism.
'You Are My Home' is the third album by Rivulets, who are really singer-songwriter Nathan Amudson and assorted helpers. I purchased this on the advice of one of those record shop recommendation cards, which said something along the lines of 'if you like Low, Will Oldham, Red House Painters etc, you will like this'. I'm well aware that this usually means the band concerned were influenced by the artists listed and, in fact, the record in question is nowhere near as good as theirs' but I thought I would give it a go anyway. I'm pleased I did.
The sound is extremely minimal, sparse and cold. Amudson has a soft, wistful voice which blends nicely with acoustic guitar and this is the predominant sound of the record. Opener 'Glass Houses' offers a nice melody following this template. That would get dull over the course of an album though and things are kept interesting with the interventions of electric guitar, noise and strings. On the title track and the excellent 'Motioning' both are used to good effect to build songs and create menace and tension. On the second half of the album, things become more accessible with a couple of shorter, catchy numbers.
This is a likeable album. Returning to my near-sleep experience on the train, the quiet noise and nagging acoustic picking of the title track, combined with the slow motion of the train and my new Sennheiser headphones blocking out all sound from the outside world created something of a fuzzy blur around me and with my head resting on the window and everything around me fading away, my eyes closed and.....the train jolted to an unexpected halt at Kentish Town. Oh well.
Anyway, this is a nice album if you like sparse, cold songs, perfect for a Winter's morning. Of the artists mentioned on the record shop card, this is most like very early Low.
7.0
['You Are My Home' is out now on O Rosa]
'You Are My Home' is the third album by Rivulets, who are really singer-songwriter Nathan Amudson and assorted helpers. I purchased this on the advice of one of those record shop recommendation cards, which said something along the lines of 'if you like Low, Will Oldham, Red House Painters etc, you will like this'. I'm well aware that this usually means the band concerned were influenced by the artists listed and, in fact, the record in question is nowhere near as good as theirs' but I thought I would give it a go anyway. I'm pleased I did.
The sound is extremely minimal, sparse and cold. Amudson has a soft, wistful voice which blends nicely with acoustic guitar and this is the predominant sound of the record. Opener 'Glass Houses' offers a nice melody following this template. That would get dull over the course of an album though and things are kept interesting with the interventions of electric guitar, noise and strings. On the title track and the excellent 'Motioning' both are used to good effect to build songs and create menace and tension. On the second half of the album, things become more accessible with a couple of shorter, catchy numbers.
This is a likeable album. Returning to my near-sleep experience on the train, the quiet noise and nagging acoustic picking of the title track, combined with the slow motion of the train and my new Sennheiser headphones blocking out all sound from the outside world created something of a fuzzy blur around me and with my head resting on the window and everything around me fading away, my eyes closed and.....the train jolted to an unexpected halt at Kentish Town. Oh well.
Anyway, this is a nice album if you like sparse, cold songs, perfect for a Winter's morning. Of the artists mentioned on the record shop card, this is most like very early Low.
7.0
['You Are My Home' is out now on O Rosa]
Saturday, 4 October 2008
Lambchop 'OH: Ohio'
Lambchop have always been one of those bands that I felt I should like but could never really get that excited about. I like Kurt Wagner's voice, love it in fact, but the music often seems to meander off down some sort of easy-listening side-street and my interest departs with it. I do, however, keep trying. Every time they release an album.
This, their tenth, seems to be more country-soul than alt.country. The piano is largely to the fore rather than the guitar. This allows them to create some really lovely sounding ballads, such as the title track, which is short, sweet and similar to the gorgeous 'Paperback Bible' from their last album with its "green doesn't matter when you're blue" hookline. Its a shame that Lambchop make concise, pretty songs like this so unfrequently. Elsewhere, songs regularly break the six minute mark but without it ever seeming necessary and while songs like 'Slipped, Dissolved and Loosed' is strong enough to keep the attention, 'I'm Thinking of a Number' and 'Popeye' are seriously hard work to get through.
There are some more nice moments, 'I Believe In You', a Don Williams cover, is simple and touching but a record just shouldn't require as much effort as this one does. If you're a fan of Lambchop, especially the 'Is A Woman' album, you won't be disappointed. I shall just have to try again with the next one.
6.0
['OH:Ohio' is out now on City Slang on cd/vinyl and download from 7Digital]
This, their tenth, seems to be more country-soul than alt.country. The piano is largely to the fore rather than the guitar. This allows them to create some really lovely sounding ballads, such as the title track, which is short, sweet and similar to the gorgeous 'Paperback Bible' from their last album with its "green doesn't matter when you're blue" hookline. Its a shame that Lambchop make concise, pretty songs like this so unfrequently. Elsewhere, songs regularly break the six minute mark but without it ever seeming necessary and while songs like 'Slipped, Dissolved and Loosed' is strong enough to keep the attention, 'I'm Thinking of a Number' and 'Popeye' are seriously hard work to get through.
There are some more nice moments, 'I Believe In You', a Don Williams cover, is simple and touching but a record just shouldn't require as much effort as this one does. If you're a fan of Lambchop, especially the 'Is A Woman' album, you won't be disappointed. I shall just have to try again with the next one.
6.0
['OH:Ohio' is out now on City Slang on cd/vinyl and download from 7Digital]
Friday, 3 October 2008
Gig Dilemma
Have now got an absolutely awful gig dilemma.
I have tickets for Micah P Hinson at The Scala on November 6th, supported by Retribution Gospel Choir. Was very much looking forward to it, but now I find that Damien Jurado is playing the Union Chapel on the same night and.....The Sleeping Years are supporting.
Have seen Micah a few times but none since the new LP (which I love), have never seen DJ but would like to and have never seen TSY but am absolutely desperate to. Plus Union Chapel is my favourite venue.
Its a nightmare! Any advice?
Damien Jurado 'Caught In The Trees'
Damien Jurado has been making intelligent singer-songwriter records for over ten years now without ever really breaking through in the way Bon Iver did this year. He is superb at affecting acoustic ballads ('Medication') and can do powerful rockier stuff ('I Break Chairs', 'Texas To Ohio') but when he sticks to the middle ground, as he has done on his last couple of albums, he can get a little lost and sound like 'just another Americana singer'.
This album is a slight change of direction and is his best since 2003's 'Where Shall You Take Me'. Much more of a band recording than recent efforts, both Eric Fisher and Jenna Conrad, who adds harmonies throughout, were heavily involved. He also mixes acoustic and electric guitars to excellent effect, allowing the songs to sound far more energetic than previously. Opener 'Gillian Was A Horse' is upbeat and extremely catchy with it's 'I'm no lie detector/ He's no bullshitter' hook and 'Go First' takes an introspective lyric and turns it into an almost anthemic song.
Fans of old-school Jurado will probably turn to 'Last Rights', a really gorgeous ballad with a nagging melody and 'Best Dress', a lovely country sing-along to start with, but also featuring some driving electric guitar as the song builds. This is a feature of the record, Jurado keeps the storytelling and touching lyrics of previous albums but 'Caught In The Trees' has an added energy and vibrancy. This may win him a lot of new fans.
7.5
['Caught In The Trees' is out now on import from Secretly Canadian and out in the UK on 27/10]
Thursday, 2 October 2008
Juliana Hatfield 'When I Grow Up'
First ever book review on T&G and probably the first music related book I have read since I started this blog.
I've been a fan of Juliana Hatfield's for 15 years now and of all of artists I like she would possibly have been the one I would least have expected to write an autobiography, or 'memoir' as it is described. She always seemed, from her lyrics, her interviews and her communication, or lack thereof, with fans, to be an extremely private person who would hate the idea of something like this. Over the last few years though, she has seemed to open up a little, posting demos on her website and writing short descriptions of the new songs, finally touring Europe and recently starting to write a fascinating and brilliant blog where she takes one of her songs each week and writes a lengthy explanation of the song. Really interesting and very personal stuff. With that blog (its called 'An Arm And A Leg' by the way) in mind, I had high hopes for this book.
And it sort of disappointed me. A little.
It isn't written in chronological order. There are two narratives running side by side in alternating chapters. One is a long and detailed, night by night, account of a 2003 tour with her side-project 'Some Girls', the other is an account of her career in the form of snapshots of important moments, such as signing her first record contract (an account which will be familiar to any fans of her song 'Lets Blow It All'), recording 'Only Everything' and her (major) label refusing to release 'God's Foot'.
To start with, this works really well because both parts are fascinating. It is really interesting to read an account of a gig from an artist's point of view and this is the most detailed account I've ever read. Anyone who thinks that it is a glamourous life for anyone not selling millions of records ought to read this, so ought anyone who regularly downloads music for free but claims they are not ripping off the artist. The trouble is though, this account is more or less repeated chapter after chapter with just a small amount of variation and small things like an argument with her merchandise guy are built up into really long sections with Juliana repeatedly asking rhetorical questions such as 'Why am I so mean?', 'Why can't I just be happy?' etc etc. At the same time, really interesting things like the whole 'God's Foot' episode (I know this is terrible blog etiquette but...check Wikipedia if you don't know the story) are covered in a couple of pages.
I enjoyed this book and found it very readable, if a bit frustrating. The tour part of the book does serve as an interesting account of the life of someone making a living from music but not selling millions of records. It reveals a lot about Juliana as a person and about the way the industry can chew people up and spit them out. If you're a fan though, you may find the lack of much insight into Juliana's music pre-2003 a little disappointing. Possibly Juliana has done this to make the book accessible even to people who aren't familiar with her career, in that sense it works- if you're not a fan the book is still a good read, and if you are a fan, you're going to buy it anyway!
['When I Grow Up' is out now from old good, and some bad, bookshops. 'God's Foot' still hasn't been released.....]
I've been a fan of Juliana Hatfield's for 15 years now and of all of artists I like she would possibly have been the one I would least have expected to write an autobiography, or 'memoir' as it is described. She always seemed, from her lyrics, her interviews and her communication, or lack thereof, with fans, to be an extremely private person who would hate the idea of something like this. Over the last few years though, she has seemed to open up a little, posting demos on her website and writing short descriptions of the new songs, finally touring Europe and recently starting to write a fascinating and brilliant blog where she takes one of her songs each week and writes a lengthy explanation of the song. Really interesting and very personal stuff. With that blog (its called 'An Arm And A Leg' by the way) in mind, I had high hopes for this book.
And it sort of disappointed me. A little.
It isn't written in chronological order. There are two narratives running side by side in alternating chapters. One is a long and detailed, night by night, account of a 2003 tour with her side-project 'Some Girls', the other is an account of her career in the form of snapshots of important moments, such as signing her first record contract (an account which will be familiar to any fans of her song 'Lets Blow It All'), recording 'Only Everything' and her (major) label refusing to release 'God's Foot'.
To start with, this works really well because both parts are fascinating. It is really interesting to read an account of a gig from an artist's point of view and this is the most detailed account I've ever read. Anyone who thinks that it is a glamourous life for anyone not selling millions of records ought to read this, so ought anyone who regularly downloads music for free but claims they are not ripping off the artist. The trouble is though, this account is more or less repeated chapter after chapter with just a small amount of variation and small things like an argument with her merchandise guy are built up into really long sections with Juliana repeatedly asking rhetorical questions such as 'Why am I so mean?', 'Why can't I just be happy?' etc etc. At the same time, really interesting things like the whole 'God's Foot' episode (I know this is terrible blog etiquette but...check Wikipedia if you don't know the story) are covered in a couple of pages.
I enjoyed this book and found it very readable, if a bit frustrating. The tour part of the book does serve as an interesting account of the life of someone making a living from music but not selling millions of records. It reveals a lot about Juliana as a person and about the way the industry can chew people up and spit them out. If you're a fan though, you may find the lack of much insight into Juliana's music pre-2003 a little disappointing. Possibly Juliana has done this to make the book accessible even to people who aren't familiar with her career, in that sense it works- if you're not a fan the book is still a good read, and if you are a fan, you're going to buy it anyway!
['When I Grow Up' is out now from old good, and some bad, bookshops. 'God's Foot' still hasn't been released.....]
Friday, 26 September 2008
Single Of The Week: Tindersticks 'Boobar Come Back To Me'
Predictable? TracksandGigs?
'Boobar' has to be single of the week because it is one of the best songs I've heard all year and I never, ever get tired of hearing it. A beautiful song about trying to find something you have lost, it builds from a slow, acoustic start to a massive Spector-esque ending that will make you fall in love with Tindersticks just a little bit more than you already had. Absolutely stunning, but I have said this many times already this year so...
The 'B Side' is 'Tout L'Amour', which is a re-recording of 'All The Love' from 'The Hungry Saw'...but sung in French....by drummer Thomas Belhom. It is very nice indeed.
This is a limited 7" single with only 600 copies available worldwide. You could of course buy it digitally on itunes but how soul-less would that make you? No, what you want to be doing is popping over to www.piccadillyrecords.com or www.normanrecords.com and giving them £4 in exchange for one of these little beauties. You'll feel so much better about life if you do.
You'll be ecstatic to see that we have now managed to have a 'Single of the Week' two weeks in a row and three weeks out of four!! Next week is well and truly up for grabs though because we had pencilled in 'Carpetbaggers' by Jenny Lewis but thats been put back to the 13th so if you have any suggestions, drop TracksandGigs a line.
['Boobar' is out Monday on 7" and download]
'Boobar' has to be single of the week because it is one of the best songs I've heard all year and I never, ever get tired of hearing it. A beautiful song about trying to find something you have lost, it builds from a slow, acoustic start to a massive Spector-esque ending that will make you fall in love with Tindersticks just a little bit more than you already had. Absolutely stunning, but I have said this many times already this year so...
The 'B Side' is 'Tout L'Amour', which is a re-recording of 'All The Love' from 'The Hungry Saw'...but sung in French....by drummer Thomas Belhom. It is very nice indeed.
This is a limited 7" single with only 600 copies available worldwide. You could of course buy it digitally on itunes but how soul-less would that make you? No, what you want to be doing is popping over to www.piccadillyrecords.com or www.normanrecords.com and giving them £4 in exchange for one of these little beauties. You'll feel so much better about life if you do.
You'll be ecstatic to see that we have now managed to have a 'Single of the Week' two weeks in a row and three weeks out of four!! Next week is well and truly up for grabs though because we had pencilled in 'Carpetbaggers' by Jenny Lewis but thats been put back to the 13th so if you have any suggestions, drop TracksandGigs a line.
['Boobar' is out Monday on 7" and download]
Thursday, 25 September 2008
Low 'The Black Session'
Not a cd this, or an LP, or an official release, but something so fantastic that I have to write about it anyway.
The frustrating thing about Low's last LP 'Drums and Guns' is that it is their weakest to date, not because of the quality of songwriting or performances from Alan, Mimi and BassistNotZak, but because of the god-awful and downright weird production by enemy of this blog, Dave Fridmann. See my rantings about this in my review of the 'You May Need A Murderer' dvd. If you've seen Low live lately, you'll know that played live, these songs are just as beautiful as those on the likes of 'Secret Name' and 'Things We Lost In The Fire'. I always wondered how the album might have sounded without the strange production.
To a certain extent, wonder no longer.
Go here:
http://www.archive.org/details/Low2007-04-23.Black_Session.FM.flac16
Last year, Low recorded a wonderful Black Session for the Frenchman with the impeccable taste, Bernard Lenoir. It is a remarkable recording. Songs like 'Sandinista' and 'Dragonfly' are transformed into brooding, slow, beautiful pieces with trademark harmonies from Alan and Mimi. It is the classic Low album that never was. And if that isn't enough, there are stunning versions of 'Sunflowers' and 'Laser Beam' too. How much better can it get?
Sunday, 21 September 2008
Jenny Lewis 'Acid Tongue'
Rilo Kiley singer and former child actress Jenny Lewis returns with her second solo album. The first, 2006's 'Rabbit Fur Coat' was a lovely country/soul affair complete with singalong version of Travelling Wilburys' 'Handle With Care'. This album is something else altogether.
There have been some great records released this year, but few can match the ambition and vision that is present here, or the songwriting and performances. 'Acid Tongue' was recorded in three weeks, live in the studio (no pro-tools) with friends and collaborators including M Ward, Zooey Deschanel and Elvis Costello.
In many ways the opening couple of tracks serve as an introduction for the amazing songs that are to come. 'Black Sand' and 'Pretty Bird' are simple and pretty, neither would have been out of place on 'Rabbit Fur Coat'. Things get interesting with 'The Next Messiah' a huge, 10 minute epic taking in four separate musical pieces and featuring some superb electric guitar from Blake Mills. After the soulful 'Bad Man's World' the album builds into a simply incredible sequence of songs.
The title track is almost entirely vocal driven, featuring confessional verses and a big, gospel sounding chorus. You'll be singing it all day. 'See Fernando', a wry song about a drug dealer, is a blast, guitar led and catchy. 'Godspeed' is a beautiful piano ballad with a touching lyric about a friend on the wrong path. 'Carpetbaggers' is an upbeat country romp with a thrilling vocal from Elvis Costello.
After another couple of songs that sound like soul standards...almost motown country, if that genre exists, the album ends with 'Sing A Song For Them' a kind of updated version of Dexys' 'I'll Show You'. Simply gorgeous.
This record is a revelation. I expected to like it but the sheer quality of the songwriting and performances and the scale of ambition make this one of the albums of the year so far. Superb.
9.0
['Acid Tongue' is out now on Rough Trade. Jenny Lewis tours UK in October]
Friday, 19 September 2008
Emiliana Torrini 'Me and Armini'
The only things I knew about Icelandic singer-songwriter Emiliana Torrini before listening to this album were:
1. She wrote 'Slow' for Kylie.
2. I was considering buying her last album, 'Fisherman's Woman', but my friend Jason bought it and texted me saying "don't buy this. it is really boring".
Not facts that would normally inspire me to buy a record but something about the blurb for this one and the reviews it got made me think it might have some of the edge of a Stina Nordenstam record.
'Fireheads' which opens and 'Gun' which comes near the end are not far off fulfilling this promise. Dark and tense, acoustic guitar mixed with beats, they make for engaging listens. In between, the album attempts a number of different styles rather like a poor cricketer so desperate to get in the team that he claims he can bat, bowl and keep wicket. We have upbeat electro-pop ('Me And Armini'), strange songs that remind me of 1990s Australian pop band Frente ('Big Jumps') and absolutely bizarre mish-mashes with vocal immitations of drums ('Jungle Drums').
Virtually everything else is bland, mid tempo coffee shop music. It won't disturb you but it won't interest you enough to stop you reading your paper and drinking your coffee. Nothing wrong with coffee music of course, but you wouldn't want to buy it. I have nothing to add to this, except to say that before anyone accuses me of only listening to this once, I made several attempts to like it and that meant that I had to listen to 'Jungle Drums' on more than one occasion. Not easy.
3.0
Wednesday, 17 September 2008
Single Of The Week
yes, its once again time to pretend that we come up with a Single of The Week every week....but anyway....this week, by a country mile, it is...
Micah P Hinson 'We Won't Have To Be Lonesome'
Micah P Hinson's latest album '...Red Empire', is a stunning collection of country-noir ballads. If ever an album merited the description 'warm and beautiful' this is it. Hinson's deep, texan croon sits perfectly on top of sparse acoustic arrangements with the occasional orchestral flourish and burst of electric guitar. Needless to say, it is a fine album.
'We Won't Have to be Lonesome', the second single from it, is one of the more traditional sounding country songs on the record and given Hinson's trials and tribulations over the years, it is lovely to hear him singing a simple love song. Micah proposed to his girlfriend at a Union Chapel gig (attended by TracksandGigs) last Christmas, they are now married and this warm (sorry, i was trying to only use that word once in this review) guitar and organ led ballad pretty much tells the story. It soulds like a standard.
B Side 'You Ain't Calling The Shots' is spikier but equally good.
Hinson's music, intimate and lo-fi as it is, sounds better on vinyl so you should definitely be buying this on 7" vinyl, out on Monday 22nd, and available to pre-order from Norman Records and Piccadilly Records, TracksandGigs' recommended vendors.
Hinson tours the UK with Retribution Gospel Choir supporting (or thats the plan anyway) in November.
Micah P Hinson 'We Won't Have To Be Lonesome'
Micah P Hinson's latest album '...Red Empire', is a stunning collection of country-noir ballads. If ever an album merited the description 'warm and beautiful' this is it. Hinson's deep, texan croon sits perfectly on top of sparse acoustic arrangements with the occasional orchestral flourish and burst of electric guitar. Needless to say, it is a fine album.
'We Won't Have to be Lonesome', the second single from it, is one of the more traditional sounding country songs on the record and given Hinson's trials and tribulations over the years, it is lovely to hear him singing a simple love song. Micah proposed to his girlfriend at a Union Chapel gig (attended by TracksandGigs) last Christmas, they are now married and this warm (sorry, i was trying to only use that word once in this review) guitar and organ led ballad pretty much tells the story. It soulds like a standard.
B Side 'You Ain't Calling The Shots' is spikier but equally good.
Hinson's music, intimate and lo-fi as it is, sounds better on vinyl so you should definitely be buying this on 7" vinyl, out on Monday 22nd, and available to pre-order from Norman Records and Piccadilly Records, TracksandGigs' recommended vendors.
Hinson tours the UK with Retribution Gospel Choir supporting (or thats the plan anyway) in November.
Monday, 15 September 2008
tindersticks at brighton- setlist
for those of you who love setlists....here's tindersticks set at Brighton t'other night...
introduction
yesterday's tomorrows
flicker of a little girl
come feel the sun
e type
other side of the world
drunk tank
dying slowly
16 summers, 15 falls (townes van zandt cover)
say goodbye to the city
she's gone
sleepy song
the hungry saw
mother dear
boobar
the turns we took
her
my sister
the not knowing
introduction
yesterday's tomorrows
flicker of a little girl
come feel the sun
e type
other side of the world
drunk tank
dying slowly
16 summers, 15 falls (townes van zandt cover)
say goodbye to the city
she's gone
sleepy song
the hungry saw
mother dear
boobar
the turns we took
her
my sister
the not knowing
Sunday, 14 September 2008
Tindersticks at Brighton St George's Hall
Since the release of 'The Hungry Saw' in April, Tindersticks have played a small amount of live dates and festival appearances, including the Royal Festival Hall gig in May which was enthusiastically reviewed here. From now until the end of the year, they will tour as seven-piece, allowing them more diversity in setlists.
After an assured support set from Sara Lowes, they began their set at this beautiful church in Brighton with the first six songs from 'The Hungry Saw'. Stuart Staples and co immediately seemed very relaxed and at ease and the set flowed beautifully from the acoustic jangle of 'Flicker Of A Little Girl', through the brass-led powerful instrumental 'E-Type' to the superb ballad 'Other Side Of The World'.
Mid-set the band played a succession of older songs including some surprises. 'Drunk Tank' from Tindersticks 1 had not been played for some time but was perfectly suited to this stripped down line up, with the brass and David Boulter's superb keyboards to the fore, '16 Summers, 15 Falls' a Townes Van Zandt cover which Staples had previously played solo was another surprise, while 'Say Goodbye To The City', a pocket symphony from 'Waiting For the Moon' was stunning, Staples completely losing himself in the song at the finale.
The main set ended with the magnificent sequence of songs from the end of 'The Hungry Saw', minus 'All The Love'. 'Mother Dear' was a highlight, Staples stalking the stage while Neil Fraser performed his memorable and unique solo. It is a haunting song, one of their most beautiful pieces of music to date. 'Turns We Took' ended the set on a high and the band left the stage to a long standing ovation.
They couldn't really go wrong with the encores. 'My Sister' was as wonderful as ever but finishing with 'The Not Knowing', which had not been played for several years was a masterstroke.
If you saw Tindersticks earlier in the year, you knew you were going to get an assured set and a mix of old and new material. Now, the band are able to experiment more with their setlists and this gig saw them looking happier on stage than I can ever recall seeing them. This was a wonderful gig and I never wanted it to end.
After an assured support set from Sara Lowes, they began their set at this beautiful church in Brighton with the first six songs from 'The Hungry Saw'. Stuart Staples and co immediately seemed very relaxed and at ease and the set flowed beautifully from the acoustic jangle of 'Flicker Of A Little Girl', through the brass-led powerful instrumental 'E-Type' to the superb ballad 'Other Side Of The World'.
Mid-set the band played a succession of older songs including some surprises. 'Drunk Tank' from Tindersticks 1 had not been played for some time but was perfectly suited to this stripped down line up, with the brass and David Boulter's superb keyboards to the fore, '16 Summers, 15 Falls' a Townes Van Zandt cover which Staples had previously played solo was another surprise, while 'Say Goodbye To The City', a pocket symphony from 'Waiting For the Moon' was stunning, Staples completely losing himself in the song at the finale.
The main set ended with the magnificent sequence of songs from the end of 'The Hungry Saw', minus 'All The Love'. 'Mother Dear' was a highlight, Staples stalking the stage while Neil Fraser performed his memorable and unique solo. It is a haunting song, one of their most beautiful pieces of music to date. 'Turns We Took' ended the set on a high and the band left the stage to a long standing ovation.
They couldn't really go wrong with the encores. 'My Sister' was as wonderful as ever but finishing with 'The Not Knowing', which had not been played for several years was a masterstroke.
If you saw Tindersticks earlier in the year, you knew you were going to get an assured set and a mix of old and new material. Now, the band are able to experiment more with their setlists and this gig saw them looking happier on stage than I can ever recall seeing them. This was a wonderful gig and I never wanted it to end.
Saturday, 13 September 2008
Belle and Sebastian- BBC Sessions
Just a quick update with the news that Belle & Sebastian, still to release a follow up to 2006's brilliant 'The Life Pursuit', issue a 2cd BBC Sessions/ live recording in November. The cd includes 2001's Peel session which featured the band's last recordings with Isobel Campbell. Track listing?
CD1 - Radio Sessions:
1. The State I Am In
2. Like Dylan In The Movies
3. Judy And The Dream Of Horses
4. The Stars Of Track And Field
5. I Could Be Dreaming
6. Seymour Stein
7. Lazy Line Painter Jane
8. Sleep The Clock Around
9. Slow Graffiti
10. Wrong Love
11. Shoot The Sexual Athlete - Previously Unreleased
12. The Magic Of A Kind Word - Previously Unreleased
13. Nothing In The Silence - Previously Unreleased
14. (My Girl's Got) Miraculous Technique - Previously Unreleased
CD 2 – Live In Belfast:
1. Here Comes The Sun
2. There's Too Much Love
3. The Magic Of A Kind Word
4. Me And The Major
5. Wandering Alone
6. The Model
7. I'm Waiting For The Man
8. The Boy With The Arab Strap
9. The Wrong Girl
10. Dirty Dream # 2
11. The Boys Are Back In Town
12. Legal Man
Thats all for now. Check back tomorrow for a review of Tindersticks in Brighton.
Friday, 12 September 2008
Okkervil River 'The Stand Ins'
Okkervil River return with 'The Stand Ins' which is an extension of last year's thrilling 'The Stage Names'. They have form for this kind of stuff, following up 'Black Sheep Boy' with the accurately named 'Black Sheep Boy Appendix' and releasing a few mini albums over the years. The story behind this one is that 'TSN' was originally intended to be a double album and this is the stuff that got left off when it wasn't....but also 'The Stand Ins' focuses mainly on music and musicians as a theme, whereas it's predecessor was mainly interested in films and actors.
The band have certainly embarked on a change of direction in recent years. The country noir of their first three albums is now largely gone and this new record continues the in-your-face indie rock of recent years, musically this is one of their more interesting releases though. Opener 'Lost Coastlines' starts quietly and acoustically before building into an expansive sound with a motown feel and a 'la la la' finish. 'Singer Songwriter' and 'Pop Lie', both condemnations of knowing rock singers writing cynical sing-along choruses that don't mean anything, enjoy rollicking guitar licks.
Elsewhere 'Calling and not calling my ex' relates a tale of an ex-girlfriend appearing on the cover of a magazine, which reminds me a little of J Geils Band's 'Centerfold', a favourite of mine when I was a child! This is nicely done. 'Bruce Wayne Campbell Interviewed...' is slow burning and bittersweet.
Its not a perfect record by any means. 'Starry Stairs' is an inferior update on 'Savannah Smiles' and 'Blue Tulip' is forgettable, save the stunning guitar break at the end. The instrumental interludes meanwhile are interesting but, y'know, not that interesting and sound like filler. Despite the fact that the themes are different, although similar', a mix of the best songs from here and 'The Stage Names' would have been quite some album. There is enough that is good to make this an essential buy for fans and anyone interested in some superb and very clever songwriting.
7.5
The band have certainly embarked on a change of direction in recent years. The country noir of their first three albums is now largely gone and this new record continues the in-your-face indie rock of recent years, musically this is one of their more interesting releases though. Opener 'Lost Coastlines' starts quietly and acoustically before building into an expansive sound with a motown feel and a 'la la la' finish. 'Singer Songwriter' and 'Pop Lie', both condemnations of knowing rock singers writing cynical sing-along choruses that don't mean anything, enjoy rollicking guitar licks.
Elsewhere 'Calling and not calling my ex' relates a tale of an ex-girlfriend appearing on the cover of a magazine, which reminds me a little of J Geils Band's 'Centerfold', a favourite of mine when I was a child! This is nicely done. 'Bruce Wayne Campbell Interviewed...' is slow burning and bittersweet.
Its not a perfect record by any means. 'Starry Stairs' is an inferior update on 'Savannah Smiles' and 'Blue Tulip' is forgettable, save the stunning guitar break at the end. The instrumental interludes meanwhile are interesting but, y'know, not that interesting and sound like filler. Despite the fact that the themes are different, although similar', a mix of the best songs from here and 'The Stage Names' would have been quite some album. There is enough that is good to make this an essential buy for fans and anyone interested in some superb and very clever songwriting.
7.5
['The Stand Ins' is out now on import via Jagjaguwar. Out in the UK in October]
Tuesday, 9 September 2008
American Music Club 'All The Lost Souls Welcome You To San Francisco'
Singles. Back in the day, they were exciting previews of albums to come or a chance for collectors to pick up some unreleased b-sides. Now, any tracks that don't make the cut on albums seem to end up as bonus tracks on the record itself and rarely do bands release singles before the album itself is out. Its a shame.
Apparently, radio stations won't actually play songs sent to them as promos unless the track is released commercially in some form. AMC wanted some promotion for their UK tour and so, 'All The Lost Souls...' is releaed as a digital only single. The song itself is a good choice, being one of the more upbeat and memorable songs from 'The Golden Age', although not in the same classic league as 'Sleeping Beauty' or 'The Dance'. The 'b sides' (such as they are) are demos of 'Stars' and 'Who You Are'. Both are nice enough, just Eitzel singing and playing acoustic guitar. In the case of 'The Stars', it just leaves you wanting to listen again to the superb fuzzy distortion on the LP version, but 'Who You Are' is actually an improvement on the album version; delicate and sad whereas the 'Golden Age' offering is upbeat in a forced way and a touch repetitve. Probably the weakest track on a great album.
So, if you're a fan its probably worth a couple of quid as you'll probably listen to the demos a couple of times. Its sad though that singles have come to this point- fans buying mp3 files with a couple of clicks of the mouse just to hear a couple of demos, so that a radio station will give a song a few spins.
Single of the year so far incidentally, and a sign that the old days haven't gone completely, is Beck's 'Chemtrails'. A stunning single even out of the context of the album with a brand new unreleased song as the b side....and available on vinyl!
Apparently, radio stations won't actually play songs sent to them as promos unless the track is released commercially in some form. AMC wanted some promotion for their UK tour and so, 'All The Lost Souls...' is releaed as a digital only single. The song itself is a good choice, being one of the more upbeat and memorable songs from 'The Golden Age', although not in the same classic league as 'Sleeping Beauty' or 'The Dance'. The 'b sides' (such as they are) are demos of 'Stars' and 'Who You Are'. Both are nice enough, just Eitzel singing and playing acoustic guitar. In the case of 'The Stars', it just leaves you wanting to listen again to the superb fuzzy distortion on the LP version, but 'Who You Are' is actually an improvement on the album version; delicate and sad whereas the 'Golden Age' offering is upbeat in a forced way and a touch repetitve. Probably the weakest track on a great album.
So, if you're a fan its probably worth a couple of quid as you'll probably listen to the demos a couple of times. Its sad though that singles have come to this point- fans buying mp3 files with a couple of clicks of the mouse just to hear a couple of demos, so that a radio station will give a song a few spins.
Single of the year so far incidentally, and a sign that the old days haven't gone completely, is Beck's 'Chemtrails'. A stunning single even out of the context of the album with a brand new unreleased song as the b side....and available on vinyl!
Monday, 8 September 2008
two new Mountain Goats EPs..
John Darnielle has been busy. Not content with playing End of The Road this coming weekend and London ULU next week, he has recorded two brand new EPs!
The first, entitled 'Satanic Messiah', is a four track vinyl only affair with the following tracklisting...
A1 Satanic Messiah
A2 Wizard Buys a Hat
B1 Sarcofago Live
B2 Gojam Province
Its apparently a low-key solo recording rather than a full band sound. More 'Get Lonely' than 'Heretic Pride' by all accounts. Out soon.
The second EP is a recording with Kaki King, who added drums, glockenspiel and vocals to the songs. This is likely to be out in October and has the following track listing...
A1 Black Pear Tree
A2 Mosquito Repellent
A3 Bring our Curses Home
B1 Supergenesis
B2 Roger Patterson Van
B3 Thank You Mario but our Princess Is in Another Castle
Vinyl only too. The wonderfully named final track, which is a lovely piano ballad with some nice harmony vocals, can be listened to right here...
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/download/145282-premiere-the-mountain-goats-and-kaki-king-thank-you-mario-but-our-princess
Thats all from me for today. I need to get ready for the best week of gigs I can remember for some time. Reviews....next weeekend.
The first, entitled 'Satanic Messiah', is a four track vinyl only affair with the following tracklisting...
A1 Satanic Messiah
A2 Wizard Buys a Hat
B1 Sarcofago Live
B2 Gojam Province
Its apparently a low-key solo recording rather than a full band sound. More 'Get Lonely' than 'Heretic Pride' by all accounts. Out soon.
The second EP is a recording with Kaki King, who added drums, glockenspiel and vocals to the songs. This is likely to be out in October and has the following track listing...
A1 Black Pear Tree
A2 Mosquito Repellent
A3 Bring our Curses Home
B1 Supergenesis
B2 Roger Patterson Van
B3 Thank You Mario but our Princess Is in Another Castle
Vinyl only too. The wonderfully named final track, which is a lovely piano ballad with some nice harmony vocals, can be listened to right here...
http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/article/download/145282-premiere-the-mountain-goats-and-kaki-king-thank-you-mario-but-our-princess
Thats all from me for today. I need to get ready for the best week of gigs I can remember for some time. Reviews....next weeekend.
Friday, 5 September 2008
Bonnie Prince Billy 'Is It The Sea'
Tracks and Gigs has acquired a promo of the new Bonnie 'Prince' Billy album. Yes, another one! Not content with releasing a live album and a covers album last year and a new studio album this year, here he is with another live album. This is a very different concert recording though. 'Is It The Sea' documents a 2006 gig in Edinburgh where BPB was joined by Scottish drummer Alex Neilson and the (also Scottish) folk group Harem Scarem. I have never heard of this group before, but they clearly contain female singers and all manner of flute, banjo, accordian and fiddle players. It adds a Celtic flavour to the Bonnie Prince's songs and completely changes the feel of some of them.
Will Oldham, like Dylan, seems to regard his songs as ever-changing living things that don't necessarily, on any given night, have to sound anything like they originally did on record. This is why his live albums are rarely dull and why this record reminds me an awful lot of Dylan's incredible Rolling Thunder tour recordings.
The set features songs from throughout Oldham's career as well as a couple of traditional numbers. Highlights include an epic version of 'Cursed Sleep' and a harmony rich reading of 'Ain't You Wealthy, Ain't You Wise'. A take on the traditional Irish folk ballad 'Molly Bawn' steals the show though, building from a waltz into a frenzied finish, it is both haunting and rousing and like nothing else you've heard on a Bonnie 'Prince' Billy album before.
The best live albums always make you wish you had been at the gig and this one does. Its even worse for me because I was in Edinburgh about a week after the show took place! This serves as a wonderful document of the music Oldham and his guests were making on this particular night. He sounds so full of energy and enjoyment from performing the songs in this way, but it wouldn't surprise me if his next gig after this one was a solo acoustic performance. He is one of the great talents in music today and this is an innovative and enjoyable exploration of some of his songs.
8.3
['Is It The Sea' is out in October on Domino on cd/2LP]
Will Oldham, like Dylan, seems to regard his songs as ever-changing living things that don't necessarily, on any given night, have to sound anything like they originally did on record. This is why his live albums are rarely dull and why this record reminds me an awful lot of Dylan's incredible Rolling Thunder tour recordings.
The set features songs from throughout Oldham's career as well as a couple of traditional numbers. Highlights include an epic version of 'Cursed Sleep' and a harmony rich reading of 'Ain't You Wealthy, Ain't You Wise'. A take on the traditional Irish folk ballad 'Molly Bawn' steals the show though, building from a waltz into a frenzied finish, it is both haunting and rousing and like nothing else you've heard on a Bonnie 'Prince' Billy album before.
The best live albums always make you wish you had been at the gig and this one does. Its even worse for me because I was in Edinburgh about a week after the show took place! This serves as a wonderful document of the music Oldham and his guests were making on this particular night. He sounds so full of energy and enjoyment from performing the songs in this way, but it wouldn't surprise me if his next gig after this one was a solo acoustic performance. He is one of the great talents in music today and this is an innovative and enjoyable exploration of some of his songs.
8.3
['Is It The Sea' is out in October on Domino on cd/2LP]
Tuesday, 2 September 2008
interview: The Sleeping Years
I'm going to attempt to do some interviews with some of the artists who have made the best albums of the year so far. First up is Dale Grundle from The Sleeping Years. 'We're Becoming Islands One By One' is a TracksandGigs favourite (I'm also really enjoying the EPs, especially a beautiful song called 'Untroubled'), I asked Dale some questions and he gave some really interesting answers so they are reproduced here in full....
T&G- - Catchers were one of TracksandGigs' favourite bands of the 90s. In the days pre-internet, I discovered them by hearing 'Cotton Dress'playing in an indie record shop and asking the staff who it was. Would never happen these days. What are your best memories of Catchers and why did the split happen?
DG- Well, I started Catchers while I was at school so we managed to go from sending crudely recorded demos out to record companies to moving to London, to recording our first singles, right up to touring with well-known bands. We were very young - Alice was about 17 or 18! So at the beginning even just being able to play in London was such a huge thing for us.
One of the moments that stand out for me is the 2nd La Route du Rock Festival that we played in St Malo (in '98). We had played there about 3 or 4 years before just after recording our debut album 'Mute'.In 1998 we had been playing at the Water Rats in London and got a call from our agents in France asking if we would be available to appear at the La Route du Rock as Cornershop had pulled out at the last moment. The line up that year was incredible - Portishead, PJ Harvey, Spiritualized, Yann Tiersen, etc. The only problem for us was that our drummer Peter could not come with us. We decided in the end to gamble and phoned a drummer that our guitarist knew and got him to drive down from Derby to London that night. He had never heard our music before so he spent the journey to France sitting listening to both our albums on a walkman. We ended up being able to sound check just three songs with him and went on to play 9 songs for the very first time with him live to about 7 or 8,000 people. I'm not sure if I would be brave enough to try that now but we did ok!
Catchers had a lot of amazing experiences - we moved to New York and toured from coast to coast, played with people like Dr John, recorded with Robert Kirby. In the end however, as with a lot of bands, priorities began to change for people. We had problems with our label and didn't feel the support was there as much as it had been. Also I had been in a relationship with Alice for a few years which had broken down. Everyone seemed a little exhausted by Catchers and as future plans were being made I looked around and felt it was not right to continue like that.
T&G- - Pretty much everyone I played Catchers songs to liked them but hadnever heard of them until then. 'Beauty Number 3' used to go on all of my 1990s mix-tapes! You seemed to get great press in the UK but never got all that well known. Was that frustrating?
DG- I think it's more frustrating now than it was to us at the time. We had people like Mark Radcliffe playing us on BBC Radio 1 and the music magazines seemed to be behind the records but there were lots of other elements not in place for us. We never had management and we did not have a booking agent for the UK until the 2nd album. So even though we would get good press and radio it was hard to follow it up in the UK. They are good records that I am very proud of. I love the fact that they have have a bit of a cult following but of course it would have been better to sell more copies. The thing I love about Catchers is that we managed to exist within the Brit-pop era but made music that was very out of line with what was happening around us. We came from somewhere very small and quite removed and I think that had a very important influence as to how we saw what we were doing. I am sure our label would have been happier if we had hung out with NME-adored bands but it was never what we were about.
T&G- - I had pretty much given up on hearing music from you again with such a long gap after 'Stooping To Fit'. What did you do post-Catchers and what made you return to music with Sleeping Years?
DG- I kept on writing music but just never released anything or tried to look for another deal. I think I needed time to reassess everything as I had been working as Catchers for about 6 years and didn't really know what else to do. 'Stooping to Fit' was a very difficult album for us to record - the band were not in a very good place at that point. So we all needed a little time to heal. I got a job, read a lot of books and kept my head low. I had some health problems as well which delayed things but really I just needed to step back and figure out what I wanted to do. Eventually my fingers itched to the point where I needed to be playing and everything slowly made sense again.
T&G- - The songs on the EPs and 'We're Becoming Islands...' seem to focus a lot on home and family. Was that a major theme when you wrote the songs?
DG- When I started writing the songs for The Sleeping Years I kept thinking of the line in 'Clocks and clones' - 'old souls all rapt in wonder for the arc of them'. I liked that idea of looking back at a life's journey - about how random the starting point could be. I looked at where I had been born and what my homeland was like and my language and culture.
I am originally from a small village in the country so nature has always featured in some way in my work. I wrote 'Broken Homes' and tried to tie in a sense of the physical to the geographical - 'brittle maps of my ribs bowing...'. I also sent a dictaphone back to my parents and asked them to record themselves talking about their lives and wrote 'Dressed for rain' and 'The lockkeeper's cottage' based on their stories. I felt like I was starting again from the beginning and because of that I needed to try and understand where I came from. 'Macosquin, Coleraine', 'Strays', 'Human Blues', etc all contain elements of the language that I grew up with. Up until this point I had tried to stay away from writing too directly about Northern Ireland. Unlike some of my friends I never read Irish writers as I grew up because I didn't want to be influenced by them. I needed to find my own voice first before I could talk about my home.
T&G- - The two Catchers albums ('Mute' and 'Stooping To Fit') sound quite different to each other and 'We're Becoming Islands...' has more of a folk feel to it. What music are you listening to these days and who are your influences?
DG- I think the Catchers' albums sound differently also because of how the songs were written. I started teaching myself piano around the 2nd album so the songs grew in new ways. The TSY songs were demoed at home on my studio so for the first time I was able to arrange everything myself. The Catchers records could have sounded a lot different though. We had Dave Fridmann lined up to record 'Stooping to fit'. This was before 'Deserters Songs' as I really liked 'See you on the other side' at the time. I was even speaking to him on the phone but then the label ran out of money and could not afford to send us to the states to record with him. Mike Hedges was suggested by Setanta for 'Mute'. I had wanted to go a little more left-field withg our choice of producer.
The last bands that have genuinely excited me have been Grizzly Bear and Animal Collective. I also discovered the Alan Lomax Southern Journey series and Harry Smith's American Folk Anthology while I started writing The Sleeping Years' songs. I listen to a lot of different genres though - I grew up listening to soul music on my mother's side and folk/country on my father's. Vocally I am influenced by people like Mark Hollis - the last two Talk Talk records and his solo album are all stunning. I love Moondog, Ivor Cutler, Can, Captain Beefheart, Low, some of the Anticon artists, Davy Graham, etc.
T&G- - So far, TSY live dates have been mainly one-off gigs. Are there any plans for a tour? I am absolutely devastated that I missed you playingThe Union Chapel, which is my favourite venue. Did you enjoy playing there....and any plans to return?
DG- Yes, I have actually played the Union Chapel three times so far. Once with Catchers (supporting Edwyn Collins), once on my own and once with Michelle. I love playing there - it's such a beautiful venue. I have had a connection with that venue since I came to London. I will be appearing there again this year but it will be for the Arctic Circle Xmas show which will feature me singing to music written by Ted Barnes. It's going to be included on a forthcoming Arctic Circle Xmas EP which will be arranged by Harry Escott and feature a choir and some other artists. Pika Pika (who have created all the TSY artwork) will be involved as well.
T&G- Whats next for TSY? Are you working on new songs at the moment?
DG- We have a lot of shows coming up right until the end of the year (all listed on our myspace page). We will be travelling to Austria and Italy for the very first time and we have a rescheduled trip to Beirut in November.Aside from that I have been recording demos at home for the next album which will hopefully be out some time next year.
Thanks to Dale for taking the time to answer the questions. Sleeping Years play The Social in London on 5th November and TracksandGigs will be in attendance!
T&G- - Catchers were one of TracksandGigs' favourite bands of the 90s. In the days pre-internet, I discovered them by hearing 'Cotton Dress'playing in an indie record shop and asking the staff who it was. Would never happen these days. What are your best memories of Catchers and why did the split happen?
DG- Well, I started Catchers while I was at school so we managed to go from sending crudely recorded demos out to record companies to moving to London, to recording our first singles, right up to touring with well-known bands. We were very young - Alice was about 17 or 18! So at the beginning even just being able to play in London was such a huge thing for us.
One of the moments that stand out for me is the 2nd La Route du Rock Festival that we played in St Malo (in '98). We had played there about 3 or 4 years before just after recording our debut album 'Mute'.In 1998 we had been playing at the Water Rats in London and got a call from our agents in France asking if we would be available to appear at the La Route du Rock as Cornershop had pulled out at the last moment. The line up that year was incredible - Portishead, PJ Harvey, Spiritualized, Yann Tiersen, etc. The only problem for us was that our drummer Peter could not come with us. We decided in the end to gamble and phoned a drummer that our guitarist knew and got him to drive down from Derby to London that night. He had never heard our music before so he spent the journey to France sitting listening to both our albums on a walkman. We ended up being able to sound check just three songs with him and went on to play 9 songs for the very first time with him live to about 7 or 8,000 people. I'm not sure if I would be brave enough to try that now but we did ok!
Catchers had a lot of amazing experiences - we moved to New York and toured from coast to coast, played with people like Dr John, recorded with Robert Kirby. In the end however, as with a lot of bands, priorities began to change for people. We had problems with our label and didn't feel the support was there as much as it had been. Also I had been in a relationship with Alice for a few years which had broken down. Everyone seemed a little exhausted by Catchers and as future plans were being made I looked around and felt it was not right to continue like that.
T&G- - Pretty much everyone I played Catchers songs to liked them but hadnever heard of them until then. 'Beauty Number 3' used to go on all of my 1990s mix-tapes! You seemed to get great press in the UK but never got all that well known. Was that frustrating?
DG- I think it's more frustrating now than it was to us at the time. We had people like Mark Radcliffe playing us on BBC Radio 1 and the music magazines seemed to be behind the records but there were lots of other elements not in place for us. We never had management and we did not have a booking agent for the UK until the 2nd album. So even though we would get good press and radio it was hard to follow it up in the UK. They are good records that I am very proud of. I love the fact that they have have a bit of a cult following but of course it would have been better to sell more copies. The thing I love about Catchers is that we managed to exist within the Brit-pop era but made music that was very out of line with what was happening around us. We came from somewhere very small and quite removed and I think that had a very important influence as to how we saw what we were doing. I am sure our label would have been happier if we had hung out with NME-adored bands but it was never what we were about.
T&G- - I had pretty much given up on hearing music from you again with such a long gap after 'Stooping To Fit'. What did you do post-Catchers and what made you return to music with Sleeping Years?
DG- I kept on writing music but just never released anything or tried to look for another deal. I think I needed time to reassess everything as I had been working as Catchers for about 6 years and didn't really know what else to do. 'Stooping to Fit' was a very difficult album for us to record - the band were not in a very good place at that point. So we all needed a little time to heal. I got a job, read a lot of books and kept my head low. I had some health problems as well which delayed things but really I just needed to step back and figure out what I wanted to do. Eventually my fingers itched to the point where I needed to be playing and everything slowly made sense again.
T&G- - The songs on the EPs and 'We're Becoming Islands...' seem to focus a lot on home and family. Was that a major theme when you wrote the songs?
DG- When I started writing the songs for The Sleeping Years I kept thinking of the line in 'Clocks and clones' - 'old souls all rapt in wonder for the arc of them'. I liked that idea of looking back at a life's journey - about how random the starting point could be. I looked at where I had been born and what my homeland was like and my language and culture.
I am originally from a small village in the country so nature has always featured in some way in my work. I wrote 'Broken Homes' and tried to tie in a sense of the physical to the geographical - 'brittle maps of my ribs bowing...'. I also sent a dictaphone back to my parents and asked them to record themselves talking about their lives and wrote 'Dressed for rain' and 'The lockkeeper's cottage' based on their stories. I felt like I was starting again from the beginning and because of that I needed to try and understand where I came from. 'Macosquin, Coleraine', 'Strays', 'Human Blues', etc all contain elements of the language that I grew up with. Up until this point I had tried to stay away from writing too directly about Northern Ireland. Unlike some of my friends I never read Irish writers as I grew up because I didn't want to be influenced by them. I needed to find my own voice first before I could talk about my home.
T&G- - The two Catchers albums ('Mute' and 'Stooping To Fit') sound quite different to each other and 'We're Becoming Islands...' has more of a folk feel to it. What music are you listening to these days and who are your influences?
DG- I think the Catchers' albums sound differently also because of how the songs were written. I started teaching myself piano around the 2nd album so the songs grew in new ways. The TSY songs were demoed at home on my studio so for the first time I was able to arrange everything myself. The Catchers records could have sounded a lot different though. We had Dave Fridmann lined up to record 'Stooping to fit'. This was before 'Deserters Songs' as I really liked 'See you on the other side' at the time. I was even speaking to him on the phone but then the label ran out of money and could not afford to send us to the states to record with him. Mike Hedges was suggested by Setanta for 'Mute'. I had wanted to go a little more left-field withg our choice of producer.
The last bands that have genuinely excited me have been Grizzly Bear and Animal Collective. I also discovered the Alan Lomax Southern Journey series and Harry Smith's American Folk Anthology while I started writing The Sleeping Years' songs. I listen to a lot of different genres though - I grew up listening to soul music on my mother's side and folk/country on my father's. Vocally I am influenced by people like Mark Hollis - the last two Talk Talk records and his solo album are all stunning. I love Moondog, Ivor Cutler, Can, Captain Beefheart, Low, some of the Anticon artists, Davy Graham, etc.
T&G- - So far, TSY live dates have been mainly one-off gigs. Are there any plans for a tour? I am absolutely devastated that I missed you playingThe Union Chapel, which is my favourite venue. Did you enjoy playing there....and any plans to return?
DG- Yes, I have actually played the Union Chapel three times so far. Once with Catchers (supporting Edwyn Collins), once on my own and once with Michelle. I love playing there - it's such a beautiful venue. I have had a connection with that venue since I came to London. I will be appearing there again this year but it will be for the Arctic Circle Xmas show which will feature me singing to music written by Ted Barnes. It's going to be included on a forthcoming Arctic Circle Xmas EP which will be arranged by Harry Escott and feature a choir and some other artists. Pika Pika (who have created all the TSY artwork) will be involved as well.
T&G- Whats next for TSY? Are you working on new songs at the moment?
DG- We have a lot of shows coming up right until the end of the year (all listed on our myspace page). We will be travelling to Austria and Italy for the very first time and we have a rescheduled trip to Beirut in November.Aside from that I have been recording demos at home for the next album which will hopefully be out some time next year.
Thanks to Dale for taking the time to answer the questions. Sleeping Years play The Social in London on 5th November and TracksandGigs will be in attendance!
Monday, 1 September 2008
Bowerbirds 'Hymns For A Dark Horse'
TracksandGigs is now adopting a policy of 'spending a significant amount of time' with an album before writing about it. We have probably over-rated the Mountain Goats and Bon Iver albums this year and under-rated Fleet Foxes. Of the records I gave 9.0+ reviews to, Tindersticks, Beck and Sleeping Years records have shown themselves to be well worthy of this as time has moved on. These would be the records of the year so far.
This policy has suited Bowerbirds well, because here is an album that simply requires perseverance. Bowerbirds are a folk trio from North Carolina who have recently supported both Mountain Goats and Bon Iver, this is their debut album, finally released in the UK with a couple of bonus tracks.
After the first couple of listens their songs, full of accordion, guitar and violin, sound pretty but unremarkable. It takes time for the melodies and the feel of the songs to shine through. The arrangements are delicate and sparse, but it is the harmonies and the insistant melodies that will pull you in to this album, 'Human Hands' in particular is ridiculously catchy and hummable. Not surprisingly, given the band's name, the themes explored are largely focused on the natural world and man's influence on it. Its hard to think of another album that does this so well. Frequently joyous sounding harmonies are juxtaposed with damning lyrics, most notably in the aforementioned 'Human Hands', where a line like "there is hate all around" is sung with such love.
In many ways this album sometimes comes across as a lament for the lack of spirituality in modern life, as well as our lack of thought for the natural world. Certainly listening to 'Slow Down' on the tube is a thought provoking experience. 'In Our Talons' is a condemnation of what Man has done to the environment, with the killer line "we're only human, at least thats what we've learned".
You may, however, decide you want to ignore all the themes and messages and just enjoy the music, in which case this is a lovely, relaxing record which is very pleasing on the ears. The harmonies and delicate arrangements do indeed make the songs sound like hymns and while the songs take a while to 'click', long-term this is a rewarding album. I suggest you buy this, switch off your computer and TV, relax and enjoy it.
7.9
['Hymns for a Dark Horse' is out now on Dead Oceans on cd and vinyl. Bowerbirds tour and support Bon Iver in September and if you are in Ireland, you're very lucky because they play Belfast and Dublin at the end of September with Sleeping Years supporting]
This policy has suited Bowerbirds well, because here is an album that simply requires perseverance. Bowerbirds are a folk trio from North Carolina who have recently supported both Mountain Goats and Bon Iver, this is their debut album, finally released in the UK with a couple of bonus tracks.
After the first couple of listens their songs, full of accordion, guitar and violin, sound pretty but unremarkable. It takes time for the melodies and the feel of the songs to shine through. The arrangements are delicate and sparse, but it is the harmonies and the insistant melodies that will pull you in to this album, 'Human Hands' in particular is ridiculously catchy and hummable. Not surprisingly, given the band's name, the themes explored are largely focused on the natural world and man's influence on it. Its hard to think of another album that does this so well. Frequently joyous sounding harmonies are juxtaposed with damning lyrics, most notably in the aforementioned 'Human Hands', where a line like "there is hate all around" is sung with such love.
In many ways this album sometimes comes across as a lament for the lack of spirituality in modern life, as well as our lack of thought for the natural world. Certainly listening to 'Slow Down' on the tube is a thought provoking experience. 'In Our Talons' is a condemnation of what Man has done to the environment, with the killer line "we're only human, at least thats what we've learned".
You may, however, decide you want to ignore all the themes and messages and just enjoy the music, in which case this is a lovely, relaxing record which is very pleasing on the ears. The harmonies and delicate arrangements do indeed make the songs sound like hymns and while the songs take a while to 'click', long-term this is a rewarding album. I suggest you buy this, switch off your computer and TV, relax and enjoy it.
7.9
['Hymns for a Dark Horse' is out now on Dead Oceans on cd and vinyl. Bowerbirds tour and support Bon Iver in September and if you are in Ireland, you're very lucky because they play Belfast and Dublin at the end of September with Sleeping Years supporting]
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