Written by Jamie Halliday ( Audio-Antihero Records ) August 2011. Benjamin Shaw and I were desperate men. We had an album we both liked and we knew that neither of us had a prayer of adequately promoting it. We paid, we paid BIG to the PRayola machine. Immediately bigger opportunities came our way. While I generally spent my weekends telling Mancunian students how much I liked their wordpress and that a review would be 'cool', we were getting our press release cut and pasted onto the walls some of the fancier [...]
Benjamin Shaw follows his own psychic urges with the result bringing to mind a particular reflection recalling Sparklehorse and elsewhere. For your own encounter take in "How To Test The Depth Of A Well" from the fine album, There's Always Hope, There's Always Cabernet .
Musically, the year is starting to really kick into gear now and February saw lots of top quality tunes hit the web. Here is our pick of the best of last month's posts along with four brand, spanking new tracks for you to download, sample and treasure. All in all over thirty great songs in one great mix. Download Hoots & Hellmouth – Why Would You Not Want To Go There? mp3 (from Salt) Country rocker with a slow-burn intensity that builds in tandem with some expertly judged flourishes of piano and electric guitar. [...]
Yeah, that's right, 36 friggin' songs for four pounds. Since we just spent four pounds on the Yr Friends EP, Americans, we can tell you that works out to about $6.50. We'll do the math for you -- this compilation, expertly curated by Jamie Volcano of Audio Antihero Records, asks that you pay something like $.18 per song (at a minimum, donations of a greater amount are encouraged and welcome), with all proceeds going to a UK organization that aims to eradicate Sudden Infant Death Syndrome . Even without telling you about the amazing music on [...]
We love the idosyncratic, perverse folk ramblings of Benjamin Shaw and his arsenic laced pathos. It is truly a unique delight. The Birds Chirp & The Sun Shines is the second single from his excellent debut album There's Always Hope, There's Always Cabernet . The song is perhaps one of the sonically lighter moments on the record but sees him threatening to " track him down, make him yell and make him weep…smash his pretty head ", lamenting that he " never wanted to stare into the abyss, Celebrate Good Times, [...]
Such a class song, from such a class album , by such a class guy . audioantihero : Benjamin Shaw live in session for The Line Of Best Fit, playing "How To Test The Depth Of A Well" on a park bench.
The charming lo-fi miserabilism of Benjamin Shaw 's recent There's Always Hope, There's Always Cabernet was one of the unsung highlights of last year. It's a record that's both wonderful and confusing in equal measures - but embrace the chaos and you'll be swept away by its magnificence. We picked (on purpose, of course) one of the most beautiful Saturdays in Autumn for a bit of film-making with Shaw. In the stunning London Fields - a jewel of East London's suburban parks - we set up shop on a bench and Shaw delivered a [...]
Artist : Benjamin Shaw Title : There's Always Hope, There's Always Cabernet Label : Audio Antihero Listen : Bandcamp BUY IT Written by Katrina Davidson-Gray When it comes to singer-songwriters, I'm a sucker for heartfelt delivery and honest lyrics. The kind that you can ponder - layers and meaning [...]
2011 saw the release of There's Always Hope, There's Always Cabernet, the debut LP from the Blackpool born singer-songwriter Benjamin Shaw . The wine analogy is far too tempting to avoid, so we'll tell you that listening to Shaw is very much like working your way through a few bottles of wine. Probably on your own. It's full-bodied at times, with moments of delicacy and sweetness and it's overall effect is to leave you feeling slightly woozy, with moments of optimism counteracted by tinges of sadness and loneliness. If this all sounds a bit full on, well, it [...]
The Fishcast is so called because Dolfinz are here recording for our split 123, and erm, well dolphins aren't fish are they, but umm... well it sounded better than The 'Aquatic mammals which look a bit like fish but aren'tcast. Dolfinz played a pretty big drum kit - three toms, three ride cymbals, a double bass drum pedal, and the result was an absolutely frightening racket which must have been shaking the bloody pictures off the walls next door. We're recording the PAWS songs for the split in about ten days' time, and after that I think we'll [...]
And here we are at the end of 2011. If you had told us a year ago that the things which transpired this year were coming, we would not have believed you. While for much of the year, and much to our frustration, music had to take a back seat to real life, that only increased its importance to this writer. Cross-country flights soundtracked by Broken Shoulder . Getting up to speed mornings listening to Rival Schools . Quiet weekends with J Mascis , summer vacation with Algernon Cadwallader and The War On Drugs [...]
And here we are at the end of 2011. If you had told us a year ago that the things which transpired this year were coming, we would not have believed you. While for much of the year, and much to our frustration, music had to take a back seat to real life, that only increased its importance to this writer. Cross-country flights soundtracked by Broken Shoulder . Getting up to speed mornings listening to Rival Schools . Quiet weekends with J Mascis , summer vacation with Algernon Cadwallader and The War On Drugs [...]
Christmas is here in two sleeps, and today the good folk at Audio Antihero are the featured advent calendar slot over on the lovely yuletide idea CHRISTMAS IN HAWORTH . There is plenty of xmas cheer to be had for free (including this Benjamin Shaw + FIghting Kites gem ), so go fill up your digital stocking now .
After a 405 Focus piece, and his incredible 'Fill Me In' feature, we thought it would be good to lock in Benjamin Shaw for an 'Under The Influence' piece too. So that just leaves a guest mix, artist picks and disposable 405 article, before this site becomes the unofficial second home for Mr Shaw. In the Fishtank – Sparklehorse & Fennesz I have long been a devotee of both Sparklehorse & Fennesz, so to find out they had worked together on this was a [...]
There's an awful lot of Christmas tunes out there this year beyond the usual gubbins of Carey, Como, et al. Some deserve to sit lonely and ignored in the further reaches of the interweb, like some cyber version of Eat Me dates, but some have piqued our Yuletide cravings and misgivings. Hence we've given over the second instalment of Sack of Streams to some big baubled tunes. Santa's perspective on the season he gives so much to is often ignored amongst the cacophony of pissed up jeers and board game family disputes. The Narrows have taken his viewpoint [...]
Well, rock fans, it was a really strange year, one in which we personally and professionally -- and, yes, even to a certain extent here on the blog -- accomplished a great many big things. And all the ups and downs -- transcendent live sets on local stages, solitary post-midnight walks across frozen parking lots in the midwest -- had their soundtrack. Below are our picks for the 10 best songs of the year. These, as usual, are largely determined by our raw ITunes playcounts, although we also gave a little more weight to recent releases that would have been [...]
[* We accidentally deleted this post from late December; here it is in all of its glory once more. -- Ed.] Well, rock fans, it was a really strange year, one in which we personally and professionally -- and, yes, even to a certain extent here on the blog -- accomplished a great many big things. And all the ups and downs -- transcendent live sets on local stages, solitary post-midnight walks across frozen parking lots in the midwest -- had their soundtrack. Below are our picks for the 10 best songs of the year. These, [...]
As the year wears on and the nights draw in, so Benjamin Shaw offers up a debut album to provide succour and solace through the darkest weeks ahead. Well OK, perhaps not - but it is a rare thing, a record that offers a venting of desolation alongside odd doses of hilarity. The consequence is a magnificent shambles of an album, which at times has one foot in noise and the other in performance art, straddling the two slightly apologetically. Generally, though, it's just a man with a guitar and an insatiable appetite for [...]
There's probably nothing that divides and angers music lovers more than a list. So on the day the BBC announces the long list of its 'Sounds of 2012' it seems the music twitterati are already up in arms about who's in and out. What better way then to quell the collective fever than to get a load of blogs to produce a list of what they consider should be 'big' in 2012? It was nice to be asked, but given our USP and general tardiness we're still slightly bemused why we were solicited to contribute to [...]
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The National - The Rains Of Castamere [Game of Thrones Soundtrack]
M.I.A. - "Bad Girls" (Urban Noize Remix)
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