Right, I'm off for a few days of snowboarding. First time in four years (aside from an odd little episode in Richmond Park 1 ), so it's likely to be painful and hilarious in equal measure. To celebrate this wintry event, I thought I'd post this from Midlake, whose new album "The Courage Of Others" is a thing of dark, wintry beauty. I'll write more about it when I see them live later this month, but for the meantime, here's "Acts Of Man", as performed live for The Guardian (courtesy of the marvellous [...]
Always look out for the bright new thing. That's going to be the advice I give to my son when he gets a bit older, along with "No, drinking that mescal really isn't a good idea". Yeasayer have been getting loads of good press for "Odd Blood"; people saying it's this year's Animal Collective. I think that's about right. Animal Collective always struck me as a band with big brains but little soul, and without the keen sense of melody and tone that makes ostensibly similar bands like Grizzly Bear so damned wonderful. So [...]
Yo La Tengo are one of those bands that have always made me feel suspicious. That famous Onion story from some years ago 1 "37 Record-Store Clerks Feared Dead In Yo La Tengo Concert Disaster" absolutely nailed it for me. There's the whole indie schmindie aesthetic that made me want to run away screaming "Hair clips! Ribbons! Aaaargh!". I did once venture out into Tengoland and got "And Nothing Turned Itself Inside Out", but "You Can Have It All" aside, it didn't really make much of an impression. [...]
Coming home from another drubbing at the hands of a hated enemy , I was scrolling through my new iPhone , looking for something suitable to ease the pain. Midlake? Far too minor key. Hot Chip? Too cheery. Mark Eitzel? That'll do nicely. There's something in his tone of voice; that soft, gentle warmth that envelops you even as he's singing about how he's been drinking too much and he's down on his luck and all that. Just what you need when you're hacked off spending a grand a year [...]
Ok, I'm starting to push it with these New Year titles. This is the last one, I promise. But what a treat! For me, at least. Because I've finally got a new iPhone - one of the sparkly white ones - with 32Gb 1 . So I can put all the new music that's coming out onto it without removing a whole bunch of old stuff 2 . Huzzah! Vision Joanna Newsom As a celebration of this momentous event, I [...]
Ooh, another biggie. I've been an enormous fan of Joanna Newsom after seeing her support Smog at the Conway Hall in London some years back. Having never heard her before, we were all perplexed by this winsome lady in full Renaissance garb strolling onto stage and playing a harp beautifully whilst wailing in an unconventional manner. You Rawk! Which is lovely if you like that sort of thing. Which, unbeknownst to me beforehand, I did. Isn't music great? [...]
In my Albums of the year post at the tail end of 2009, I mentioned that there were a bunch of records by bands I loved that I hadn't got round to listening to yet. This week, I finally got round to listening to The Twilight Sad's second album, "Forget The Night Ahead". Long-term readers may recall me getting earache following their tinnitus-inducing show at the ICA . Quite frankly, it was worth it. The Sun! It Burns! The [...]
The internet is great, isn't it? Hunting around so good blogs for more information about someone, I stumbled across Count Me Out . I hadn't visited in a bit, but had always rather liked the site, and seeing that there were some albums he was currently listening to were my kind of thang, as you'd expect, I thought I'd click on one of the records I hadn't heard of. The link directed me to a free download of the new album ("We Became Your Friends When You Died") by a band called Bullets In Madison [...]
Here's another biggie. Midlake 's last album, "The Trials Of Van Occupanther", was one of my favourite albums of the decade . I loved the old-age feel to the record, it was like The Band jamming with ELO in a theme park about the Wheeler Survey . And they are back on February 1st with "The Courage Of Others". From what I've heard, it's somewhat more minor key than "Van Occupanther", but carries over that lovely pastoral 19th Century backwoods town feel to it. You'd expect them to turn up in an [...]
Sufjan Stevens , he of the hugely complicated musical extravaganzas , put a secret track onto his last album, The BQE . Personally I find all this secret track thing a bit annoying; if you like the track and want it on your album, just put it on your new album. Or post it on your website for free. Or just save it up for the inevitable rare-and-unreleased compilation. The BQE, Yesterday Moaning aside, it's a lovely sweet song, with [...]
Reunion fever seems to have taken over pretty much every vaguely important band of the last 20 years. Some, like Jesus Lizard, I'm not really too fussed about, but others, like Pavement, I'm well stoked about (to use the current terminology). And on Thursday, in the Grauniad , came news that Swans were reforming. Or sort of reforming. For those of you who have never heard them, Swans made possibly the loudest, most brutal, most angry music ever. Not the loudness of AC/DC, that made you want to party. Not [...]
Hype, it's a bitch for your band. At best, you'll get lots of attention, which hopefully will bring with it legions of music lovers who will buy your records and come to your shows and give you all sorts of love, making those years of slog worthwhile. At worst, it'll turn everyone against you, picking at you until you can take no more and you break up, disheartened and disconsolate. Most of the time, it goes for the worst. But even if things go well at the start, it'll probably all go horribly wrong for the [...]
Animals are everywhere in music these days. Fleet Foxes , Grizzly Bear , Department of Eagles, Animal Collective , Frightened Rabbit , Startled Ocelot and Disgruntled Goat 1 have all made their mark in recent years. If you are from Brooklyn (or Stirling) and need to give a funky, trendy name to your band, you'd better make sure you name it after wildlife. Which is the route taken by Queens (eg nearly Brooklyn) band Freelance Whales. When my old chum Andrew contacted me to tell me about this great new [...]
Now here's a biggie. Beach House have been around for a few years now and released some well-received albums, regularly hitting people's end of year best-of lists, if not achieving mainstream success. They've got a new album out on January 26th entitled "Teen Dream", and it expands their woozy brand of dream-pop still further. I've been lucky enough to hear it and I tell you what, it's a right grower. First few listens were pleasurable, nothing special, until suddenly you find your brain is full of these narcotic snippets of songs, nagging your synapses and [...]
Hmm, it's good to see that my New Years Resolution is going well. Six days into the New Year and I've only managed two posts so far. And only one in the series of New Year New Music . I'm blaming the snow. *Sigh* Right, time to remedy that with a new tune by those chirpy Swedes Aerial , who have a new single out. Entitled "Velvet Light Trap", it's not quite as immediate as their last single " All Refrain ", but it's still a fine bit of indie-pop, sounding [...]
New Year Resolution #1 (the first in a series of one, to be honest. I can't be bothered with them): Post More, Especially Good Stuff I Get Sent Some of the best new music I heard last year got emailed to me, so I thought, right, this year I'm going to try and post more of it. I probably won't write big spiels about them, unless it's something really, really special (like the marvellous Frightened Rabbit ). First off, it's a band from that hotbed of musical talent, Yeovil. [...]
So, my son's been playing with my iPhone a lot recently. I plug it in today, and notice that he's been playing one song quite a bit, ten times in the past few days, in fact. And rather appropriately, given the day, it's Willie Nelson's version of that old Merle Haggard track, "Reasons To Quit". Good, eh? He's a talented boy, I tell you. Hope you are all feeling chipper after last night's partying. I'm feeling hungover, which is bizarre given I only [...]
I didn't originally intend this to be a two-parter, but when I got to twelve songs with the distinct impression that I'd forgotten a bunch, I thought I'd be safe and do this in two sections. That way I can bung stuff in at the end that I forgot first time round. Part one is over here . Bonnie "Prince" Billy - I Am Goodbye Just about the only good song from his "Beware" album. A rollicking stompalong, with more than a touch of wit and humour, with a great video thrown [...]
Or rather, great songs from good albums that came out this year. Or great songs that weren't on an album at all. Or great songs that were on albums that I never got round to listening to. Oh, just great songs, alright? (Some of my favorite songs are actually on favorite albums, so see here for them.) Old Stalwarts Bill Callahan - Jim Cain "I used to be darker, then I got lighter, then I got dark again" Bill wraps [...]
A very quick post today, as I have to go and eat lots more food, following up on last night's Wigilia Extravaganza. No more vodka for me, thanks. *boilk* Hope you all have a fantastic Christmas, and that you can't move by four o'clock this afternoon. Ah, gluttony is such fun! In the meantime I shall leave you in the capable hands of Mr Sufjan Stevens, with a couple of his seasonal tunes: MP3: Do You See What [...]
Yeasayer – Odd Blood (Review)
Hot Chip: One Life Stand
TOUR: The Tallest Man On Earth Announces U.S. Dates
[mp3] Joanna Newsom - "Kingfisher"
New Releases V2.9
