Whoa! An absolutely splendid evening last night at the Frog & Fiddle inCheltenhamin the magical company of Trembling Bells with Bonnie Prince Billy. A terrific event - one of the best… I can't imagine how Richard at Kiss My Face managed to get Will Oldham to come to the intimate surroundings of the Frog & Fiddle in Cheltenham, but a glance around YouTube shows that this must be one of the smallest gigs he's played for a long time – the previous time I saw him was in the relatively palatial setting of Colston [...]
I'm beginning to get my teeth stuck into this pile of recordings left over from last summer, and finding some real gems… Wooden Shjips Somehow I missed this recording, again made by my good friend Marcus, again at End of the Road. As before, can't say a whole lot about the set, other than that the performance seems pretty faithful to the records (remarkably so, to be honest) and that the sound is a bit muddy (but that's OK it kinda favours Ripley Jonson's playing….) I've only fairly recently grown to love Wooden Shjips, [...]
I had some time on my hands yesterday and was feeling a little idle, so I started rummaging through the pile of untouched recordings I have from last summer, including a few that my friend Marcus made for me at last year's End of the Road. Turned out there were a few unidentified ones (I say "unidentified", but let's be fair, I'd not really looked at them at all) and amongst them was a set from one of the Austin Psych Fest bands, Austin's marvellous Black Angels. The Black Angels To be honest, I'm not really [...]
We first told you that Reptar 's debut full-length album, Body Faucet , will be released May 1st via Vagrant, about a month ago . At that time, we had a free mp3 for you, their first single "Sebastian". Today they are back with their 2nd, called "Orifice Origami". Per the band: "It is about exploring the possibilities of our physical and social forms. How do we place limitations on where our bodies and minds can take us? There are casio keyboards. [...]
One of our newest readers to get involved with our site is a great photographer from Austin named Bryna. We were able to give her a chance to chat with Josh "Scruffy" Wallace from the Dropkick Murphys . He has played both the bagpipes and tin whistle for the group since 2003. They stopped by the Texas state capital on their current tour, in support of their latest effort, Going Out In Style: Fenway Park Bonus Edition [...]
So, anyway, the Wiyos were OK, a tad disappointing. Next ticket on the board was for a much anticipated War on Drugs set at Thekla., which I enjoyed at the time but to be honest has been lost at sea in my memory. Again, it was … ok , but not quite the majesty I had been expecting. (This may also have something to do with the fact that I failed miserably to record the evening. I do like to listen back…) The third evening, perhaps the least promising of them all, was [...]
Where to start with all this? (I'm really terribly behind…) Well, since I last posted I've been to three gigs, all of them very different to each other, and a couple of them not quite as great as I'd hoped, to be honest. The Wiyos Last time I posted, I think I was going off to see the Wiyos in Bristolamid high hopes and fond memories of a fantastic evening at Slack. The evening was ok but not quite as amazing as I think we'd all hoped. Seems as if the Wiyos [...]
I'm a little apprehensive about writing this post about best gigs of the year, partly because I think I've seen less this year than many others but mainly because I seem to know a few people who seem to go to a mindboggling number of gigs. I know of a couple of people who are nearly into three figures for the year. Think about it, pretty much two gigs a week… {prostrates himself on the floor} But, anyhoo, for what's its worth here are seven cracking live experiences from this year. In no particular order… [...]
Got to thinking about a couple of the self-deprecating comments I made in the last post, and thought "I'll put a couple of them right at least…" So here's the first Lucky Seven for a good while, and it's made up of some of the recordings I made during 2011, which are currently languishing unattended on my hard-drive. Summer Holiday – Wild Nothing Chinatown– Destroyer Undegpedwar – Y Niwl BatteryKinzie - Fleet Foxes Queen of Eyes – Robyn Hitchcock Don't Want Love – Antlers [...]
Dashed off to Thekla the other night, in the distinguished company of habitual gig-buddy Coleser, ostensibly to see Canadian rock icons theBesnardLakes, but in reality much more excited by the prospect of seeing fellow Canucs, the magnificent Suuns. In the end, it really was a dash from the car park to stage side as we heard promising sounds eddying from the famous old boat, and just about made it on time. I love Suuns; and I may as well say now that Zeroes QC may well be my favourite record of the year. They were great [...]
My stubbornly autonomous imagination has just refused to leave last week's tired Welsh-music-scene-as-episode-f rom-Pobol-y-Cwm metaphor well alone. I can't help filling in the scenery further. I've been imagining other Welsh luminaries living round the corner and former tenants made good moving out to greener pastures but coming back to visit regularly. This is all very well but unavoidably leads to concerns over parking and then questions about whether the parish council can afford to run the library service as well as keeping the Post Office open in the current climate. Honestly, if I still had the kids' Lego kits [...]
OK. This has taken an absolute age to get sorted, but I think it's worth it… White Denim @ End of the Road So, I was too tight to buy a ticket for End of the Road this year, and have spent a good month regretting it now. Terrific line up, loads of bands I wanted to see and loads of friends going without me. Next best thing, was obviously to persuade one of said friends to take my Zoom recorder along (take a bow, Marcus) and then prevail upon [...]
Filed under: News Frazer Harrison, Getty Images There's a long tradition of politicians "borrowing" classic tracks for the campaign trail: Ronald Reagan used Bruce Springsteen 's 'Born in the U.S.A.,' Sarah Palin blasted Heart 's 'Barracuda,' John McCain turned to Jackson Browne 's "Running on Empty,' and Mitt Romney pulled out Whitesnake 's 'Here I Go Again.' And now, according to the CBC , the New Pornographers ' song 'Moves' [...]
I'm not getting on with this as quickly as I'd hoped but here are a couple of new Green Man sets for you… [Sorry about the asterisks - I'm a bit concerned about the search engine issue] Holy F*** I'm not what you'd call a die-hard fan of this lot, although there are times when their second album "LP" really hits the spot. So I wasn't really sure how I was going to find what promised to be a really raucous Saturday night headlining set from Holy F***. [...]
It can't be a week ago already, can it? But I still have loads of recordings…! Treefight for Sunlight (This was an early contender for Best Set of the Weekend, until Suuns came on and stole the show. ) Treefight for Sunlight are a Danish band that I'd never have heard of if it wasn't for Green Man, and for that I'm extremely grateful. They have a beautiful, eponymous, light and airy album out at the moment which I can recommend to you. It's full of [...]
I've also got a few tracks ready by a band I've featured in these pages before: Treecreeper Probably not the headlining act I was dreaming of whilst pitching my (very modest) tent on the Thursday afternoon, but a rather nice Wilco-ish set nonetheless, which was the first of Green Man for me. And a lovely time it was too, sitting in the sunshine with cider and friends, taking in the first tunes of the weekend… Ahhh…. Yesterday, I got a message from Adam Killip of the band on Twitter to say he'd [...]
Ah… Another Green Man has come and gone, and one of the very best it was. Possibly the best weather of all, and some great company, plus a bunch of new and old friends met there. Ahhhhh… I have a wheelbarrow full of a recordings I'm going to bore you with, but this time I'm going to get them out quickly (no more waiting for the muse to visit) as, for once, (get this…) a few people are actually waiting to hear them (can you imagine?). Less words, more recordings! Loads of terrific sets [...]
I'm trying to tidy this old place up a little, and one of the things that's needed doing for a fair while is to update all my recordings, a lot of which have lost their links. So I've been going through some of the gigs I've been to in the last few years and renewed the links. In some cases, I've put up the whole set, where as before I'd only posted a few tracks (I have no idea why I didn't do this at the time. I suspect idleness). So here [...]
Well, it's been an interesting week, involving quite a lot of work, a broken elbow and a trip to Thekla. Which would you like to hear about? I thought so… Avi Buffalo @ Thekla The aforementioned elbow, with arm in sling, meant I was feeling a bit ginger as Martin and I made our way below deck and bought drinks. We were met with the sight of Master Buffalo himself manning his own merch stall, which is kinda stirring when it's the likes of David Gedge or Laura Cantrell, but even more charming here, [...]
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