Well the Sounds From the Other City headache has just about worn off, and I am back in my chair at Toad Hall staring at the internet and wondering what pearls of wisdom I can possibly add to its infinite pages of bounteous goodness this fine morning. Let's face it, if the internet doesn't already contain all the writing in the world, then it can't be bloody far off, can it. But hooray, here's more. For obvious reasons my focus will be on the two Sparrow and the Workshop album launches this week - on Wednesday [...]
![Listen to 'Is History' by Magic Arm [405 Premiere]](http://cdn.elbo.ws/posts/4894994_lg.jpg)
Magic Arm presents 'Is History', taken from his forthcoming album, Images Rolling , out on 3rd June. For this second album, the multi-instrumentalist has swapped the rattling electro loops of his 2009 debut, Make Lists, Do Something , for a more natural, refined sound with calming strings, heavenly choral vocals and a jingling beat. The right balance of reverb establishes a stunning atmosphere and gives Magic Arm its own style. Once branded by Samuel Beam of Iron and Wine as "the master of the loop pedal," Marc Rigelsford, the talent behind Magic Arm, [...]
Well well, we had an awesome time at the Jonnie Common gig last night, and I am now on my way to SXSW for tequila and fun, and our bloody house is doubtless being turned into an apocalyptic mess of a recording studio by half the bloody bands on the label in our absence. Fuckers. Anyhow, I've been unusually organised with booking Toad gigs this year, and we already have a full schedule of awesome stuff between now and the Festival, at which point I will go into hiding until September. For now, however, we have a solid [...]
The best thing about preparing a gig guide is that you get to find new music while browsing the listings page of venue sites such as The Spirit Store or The Workman's Club. There are some excellent gigs on this coming week around the country. Here's the pick of the bunch: Rebekka Karijord - The Workman's Club Friday 18th Jan Tickets €10 here Norwegian born, now based in Stockholm has a powerful voice and great [...]
Bonjour, je suis nouveau ici mais j'aime beaucoup lire vos articles. C'est très amusant de mettre des « w » à la place des « r » même si parfois on dirait que vous êtes Michel Leeb qui se moque des gens de couleur. Je me permets de partager avec vous ma compil' de l'année. Elle contient plein de morceaux extraits de disques dont vous avez déjà parlé : Ça n'est pas facile de tout faire tenir sur un disque (car comme pour roubignole , le choix d'un [...]
As well as our Top 100 tunes of the year posts over the past five days, each of the MM contributors have put together their own lists. Kicking us off is Polly Pocket ... This has been the hardest year ever to pick the best of - it has been a cracking year for top tunes but here goes..... 30. Sinead O'Connor – The Wolf Is Getting Married a 29. Two Gallants – Broken Eyes 28. Tame Impala – Elephant [...]
Manchester again? Yes, Manchester again. Why Manchester again? Well I happen to be on the way down to London again for MORE MEETINGS! You know what the Cookie Monster is to cookies? Well I seem to be that to London meetings. Anyone would think I actually enjoyed trying to get work done on shitty East Coast Mainline WiFi, which is up and down like a whore's knickers (I got this expression from Mrs. Toad - don't blame me). Anyhow, on the way back I thought I would stop off in Manchester and visit my Granddad who [...]
I'm Magic Arm . I was born in Worthing, Sussex and now living in Manchester. I've spent the past two years recording an album in a big old house. My new single 'Put Your Collar Up' is out now on Switchflicker Records. Listening to: In the past month I've been listening to Killer Mike 'R.A.P Music', 'Apocalypse' by Bill Calahan and in preparation for Autumn and Winter, Vivaldi's 'Four Seasons' by Nigel Kennedy. Reading: Currently reading 'Where did [...]
Today I rediscovered toast. Yes, let it be proclaimed that toast is an awesome snack and that I deserve to be booed and hissed for neglecting it for so long. At university I pretty much subsisted on cups of tea, toast and tins of Heinz Big Soup, but for some reason despite working from home, I haven't resurrected the toast habit. Well today I put that right, and it was awesome. Toast goes so well with jam, with marmite, with cheese and with just plain butter, and it takes a second to make and it's just so darn [...]
Here we are again - a massive free mix containing the cream of last month's posts, a couple of new tunes and, all in all, an eclectic set of top quality tunes to kick off the onset of autumn for you. From folk to garage, from country to psychedelia and from originals to covers, there is a multifaceted, multifarious, heterogeneous, assorted miscellaney of delights for you. Download Simone Felice - War Movie mp3 (from New York Times EP) Haunting, subtle and fragilely beautiful Download Fire Mountain – Black Heart mp3 [...]
New releases are coming thick and fast, and hot on the heels of last week's Round Up , comes part II - ten more tracks of genre-spanning goodies for you to download and delight in. We kick off with All You Can Eat, a little taste from south Philly art rockers 722 , whose new EP, Haunting Me , is set to be released on 31st October. Screaming guitars, classic cars, tattoos, and cigarettes — Los Angeles based outfit Angels Heart has taken the punk rock tradition and crafted something entirely [...]
Bon, sérieux, les bordelais, 1) vous n'avez plus rien à jouer, 2) la fierté c'est un truc de naze et 3) y en a marre que vous ne gagniez que contre Paris. Le match aller, sérieux, ce fut une honte. Je préfèrerais encore perdre que de gagner comme ça. Bouuuuhouuuuuuuu! Quitte à mal jouer, autant [...]
A song for Sunday. Magic Arm: "Six Cold Feet Of Ground" [ mp3 ]
I've read about the comparison with the Beta Band and while such a notion seems a little daft at first the fog does lift as the brass kicks in towards the end of 'Widths And Heights'. Yep, an unmistakable ring to the climatic end of 'Dry The Rain' with the result that Magic Arm is not entirely in a league of his own. Pretty close though for Manchester based Marc Rigelsford spins the kind of ingenious melodies that we normally associate with giants such as Grandaddy. 'Outdoor Games' is a thing of beauty that originally surfaced on an EP of [...]
Feb 21, 2011, 2:24am
Fmly
Magic Arm - Outdoor Games The most remarkable aspect of the transition we are living through is not so much the passage from want to affluence as the passage from labor to leisure. Leisure contains the future, it is the new horizon. The prospect then is one of unremitting labor to bequeath to future generations a chance of founding a society of leisure that will overcome the demands and compulsions of productive labor so that time may be devoted to creative activities or simply to pleasure and happiness. [...]
Photo credit: Jill Faure Ah, Twitter, how useful thou art. Having spotted that Grizzly Bear are playing a show in Hyde Park with an excellent support lineup including Efterklang, Magic Arm, Memoryhouse and Here We Go Magic, I went a-knocking on the email account of righteous TLOBF editor Richard "The Thane" Thane, and manage to shoehorn myself in last minute as someone's plus one. I imagine an idyllic park setting, dappled sunbeams playing over the grass, sipping cold cider under the pink sunset as Grizzly Bear take the stage… a perfect summer evening. [...]
I know I moan about them constantly but this is probably proof that bands need PR people - or at least someone in the band who is willing to take on that job, tedious, depressing and repetitive as it may be. I really like Magic Arm, having first seen Marc Rigelsworth play at the first Fence Club at the Caves a few years ago. I saw him at Homegame the following year, and I even bought the Widths & Heights 73, but somehow this 2009 album release managed to completely pass me buy, in the absence [...]
This is all about my beepy-bloopy tendencies and how I got into the stuff in the first place. I better point out, right at the beginning, that I don't see there being any difference between indie and electronica exactly. Or at least, the dividing line is so blurred and there is so much crossover that the distinction is completely pointless, really. I think the only reason I really make a distinction myself is because I became a music obsessive by listening to the likes of Dylan and Tom Waits and so on, and then moved onto [...]
C'est curieux chez les bloggers ce besoin de faire des listes en fin d'année... Mais c'est chouette. Mon bilan de 2009 ressemble à celui de roubi à quelques détails près : j'en ai rien à battre du PSG j'ai pas vu macca (*ouin*) Et j'ajouterai : les wewant ont probablement bu en mouk le PIB du Kiribati (et y a pas de quoi être fier). Cela étant mon pH est resté neutre (c'est important). Compil 2009 à écouter sur [...]
2009 s'achève et, avec elle, (encore) une année plutôt pas mal pourrave du psg... Au niveau musical, je n'ai pas l'impression que 2009 fut un excellent cru non plus... J'ai pu heureusement m'enflammer pour quelques albums... J'y ai fréquemment trouvé mon compte au niveau concerts, mais, soyons clairs, un bon concert n'aura jamais la même valeur qu'un bon album. 2010 devrait être supérieure avec normalement des nouveaux Tahiti 80, Fugu, Field Music, Sufjan Stevens, These New Puritans, Daft Punk, Rufus Wainwright, Foals... mais aussi on l'espère des premiers albums réussis (Hook & The Twin, WHEEL...) et [...]
Song, by Toad
The 405
2 U I Bestow
WeWant2Wigoler
Mad Mackerel's Blog
Last Gas Station
mp3hugger
The Line Of Best Fit
[stream] Smith Westerns // 3AM Spiritual
The Dodos – “Confidence”
