Blog: Loft And Lost

Ding Dong

Apr 8, 6:55pm Loft And Lost

'Nuff said. George Square Thatcher Death Party by Mogwai Buy "Hardcore Will Never Die, But You Will" by Mogwai Filed under: Music , News

• Mogwai - George Square Thatcher Death Party

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Artist:	Mogwai
Title:	George Square Thatcher Death Party
Link Text:	George Square Thatcher Death Party by Mogwai
File Name:	07-george-square-thatcher-deat h-part.mp3
Bitrate:	320 kbps
Genre:	Rock

Through The Static And Distance

Mar 20, 5:58pm Loft And Lost

Music does many things. It can make you dance, it can make you cry, it can make you sing along through joy or loneliness or redemption. Jason Molina’s music was often more complex than a simple dance or expression of sadness. His music was strung through layers of grief and pain and sunlight and understanding; rarely an easy ride, but with a depth and richness than few others can reach, sung by a voice that spoke to you with a bare humanity, with beauty and gorgeous closeness. My own involvement with Molina’s music was through [...]

• Songs: Ohia - I've Been Riding With The Ghost

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Artist:	Songs: Ohia
Title:	I've Been Riding With The Ghost
Link Text:	I’ve Been Riding With The Ghost by Songs: Ohia
File Name:	02-ive-been-riding-with-the-gh ost.mp3
Bitrate:	192 kbps
Genre:	Rock
Year:	2002

When I Go Deaf

Mar 4, 3:48pm Loft And Lost

Time flies. Whilst I've been away, all sorts of things have happened. A new Yo La Tengo album that sounds like the last ones! 1 A new My Bloody Valentine album that sounds like the last one! 2 A new Thom Yorke/supergroup album that isn't as hideously, tooth-clenchingly dreary as you'd expect it to be and is actually, at some points, almost fun ! 3 A set of Kraftwerk shows so exclusive that I had to cadge a ticket off a mate, and then found another mate [...]

• Low - So Blue

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Artist:	Low
Title:	So Blue
File Name:	SoundCloud
Genre:	Indie Rock
Year:	2013

Album Of The Year – M Ward

Jan 1, 5:10pm Loft And Lost

Once an artist has released a few albums of pure gold, those albums that get an easy 100 plays, they have a nasty habit of plummeting downhill faster than Bode Miller on PCP. Very few bands manage to keep up a level of quality that sets them apart from their peers, and almost all disappear back into the gloom and mire and a possible 2015 reunion tour, remembered by a few loyal fans and few others. The first sign is normally an album that just seems listless, lifeless, lacking in energy and vim and verve and other lively [...]

• M. Ward - Primitive Girl (Single Version)

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Artist:	M. Ward
Title:	Primitive Girl (Single Version)
File Name:	SoundCloud
Genre:	Folk
Year:	2012

Albums Of The Year – James Blackshaw

Dec 29, 2012, 7:05am Loft And Lost

As I idly flicked through my iPhone the other day, looking to see what I’d been listening to this year, a thought struck me. The thought was this: In this year of being unadventurous, not actively seeking out much new music, retreating into known acts releasing their umpteenth album, a record that I would choose as one of my favourites of the year would be one by a largely unknown English guitarist whose album takes its name and song titles from a somewhat obscure SF writer named James Tiptree JR. Or rather, Alice B Sheldon . [...]

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Albums Of The Year – An Introduction

Dec 28, 2012, 5:50pm Loft And Lost

This year, I haven't been listening to that much new music. Combination of things, I suppose - tinnitus, laziness, Skyrim, fecklessness - but by and large it's been trawling through older music and the cursory listen to favourite artist's new records. And so there hasn't been much action round here, which means my normal end of year round-up would seem a bit odd, what with me going on about records that I haven't really talked about. And there only being about four of them. So instead follows five short-ish essays about the bands who have [...]

• squidrobot - daniel rossen // "golden mile".

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Artist:	squidrobot
Title:	daniel rossen // "golden mile".
File Name:	SoundCloud

There Ain’t No Sanity Clause

Nov 24, 2012, 11:29am Loft And Lost

It must come as no surprise to anyone to know that Sufjan Stevens loves Christmas. I mean, really, really loves Christmas. If he loved the Great States project anything like as much, he'd be on Rhode Island by now. But no, he loves, loves, loves Christmas and he wants you and your cat to know all about it. This is not necessarily a bad thing, when he makes videos like these to promote his new Xmas album: What a whopper it is too - five [...]

• Sufjan Stevens - The Midnight Clear

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Artist:	Sufjan Stevens
Title:	The Midnight Clear
Link Text:	The Midnight Clear by Sufjan Stevens
File Name:	sufjan-stevens-the-midnight-cl ear.mp3
Bitrate:	320 kbps
Year:	2012

Not The Stump Song, Sadly

Nov 14, 2012, 6:06pm Loft And Lost

alt-J are one of those bands that somehow come from left-field and suddenly do something unexpected like, oh I dunno, win the Mercury Prize. Now there have been some pretty damn fine winners over the years - PJ Harvey and Portishead, anyone? - and the less good artists that have won have managed to at least be successful, like M People, or the actively awful Primal Scream. alt-J are up there with Roni Size as a "What? Eh?" winner 1 , and it would be remiss of me to not have a bit of a listen. [...]

• alt-J - Buffalo

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Artist:	alt-J
Title:	Buffalo
File Name:	SoundCloud

Play It All

Nov 13, 2012, 5:48pm Loft And Lost

Shamefully, Caitlin Rose is one of those artists that I somehow managed to miss posting about after a single solitary post back in the day . Why, ask you? Because "Shanghai Cigarettes" and "For The Rabbits" 1 were two of my favourite songs of 2010, I reply, and shamefully I forgot at the end of the year . But that was then and this is now. For she has a new record coming out, named "The Stand-In", and lead single/track/download/Soundclo ud whatsit is "No One To Call". And it's bombastic, passionate, melodic, [...]

• Caitlin Rose - "No One To Call"

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Artist:	Caitlin Rose
Title:	"No One To Call"
File Name:	SoundCloud

That Lovely Idea

Oct 4, 2012, 8:34pm Loft And Lost

One day, I will be rich. One day, I'll win a big, big lottery win and with that money, I will call M Ward and ask him for some guitar lessons. I don't care if I'll have to fly to Portland to see him. I don't care if I'll have to pay him much money for this honour. All I'd care about is spending some time with this marvellous individual, just to see how the hell he plays his goddamn guitar. Because, frankly, there aren't many people out there who can play like him. [...]

• M Ward - I Get Ideas (Lauren Laverne Show 200312)

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Artist:	M Ward
Title:	I Get Ideas (Lauren Laverne Show 200312)
Link Text:	I Get Ideas (Lauren Laverne Show 200312) by M Ward
File Name:	m-ward-i-get-ideas-lauren-lave rne-show-200312.mp3
Bitrate:	192 kbps

The Peely John Peel Show

Sep 12, 2012, 7:09pm Loft And Lost

So, some bright chap decided it would be a ripper wheeze to post 458 of John Peel's shows on Soundcloud . For those of us of a certain age, this is manna from heaven. You pretty much have to resort to cliche when describing John Peel's influence. He was the kindly uncle who took us under his wing and played us strange, wonderful, charming, ugly, quirky, alien, familiar, and most of all different music. And The Fall. I have no idea what my musical tastes would be without him. Sure, we [...]

• The Undertones - Teenage Kicks

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Artist:	The Undertones
Title:	Teenage Kicks
Link Text:	Teenage Kicks by The Undertones
File Name:	teenage-kicks.mp3
Bitrate:	192 kbps
Genre:	Alternative & Punk
Year:	1979

A Mite Caledonian

Aug 20, 2012, 5:23pm Loft And Lost

It all got a bit Scottish there for a bit. Driving back from some random pigeon shelter in Sarf Lahndan I thought I'd give Twilight Sad's last album a bit more of a try; being something of an unsuitable record to listen to on earbuds due to the noise! the noise! and the ringing of the ears and all that. And then on my Certified Mobile Communication Device Named After A Fruit appeared a note from those charming fellas at Frightened Rabbit saying they had a new record out: [...]

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Again?

Aug 10, 2012, 5:40pm Loft And Lost

By jove, do I love Grizzly Bear. Their first proper album as a band, Yellow House, was one of my favourite albums of the Naughties 1 . I've probably posted about them more than anyone else I can think of. And as I've posted before , they've a new album, named "Shields", out on September 17th. And are going on tour . And as is the way with these things, they've released a second track, named "Yet Again", and as is the way with these things, I'm about a [...]

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Chained To The Past

Aug 9, 2012, 5:57pm Loft And Lost

As is patently clear to anyone who has half a brain and quarter of an ear to the ground, Putney's finest heartbroken Chris Isaac/Burial mash-up tribute act The Xx are back, back, back with a new record, called "Coexist". 'Tis out on September the 10th, and already the Internet Hordes are out in force proclaiming that it sounds JUST LIKE THEIR LAST RECORD. Well, of course it does, you pillocks. When you release a debut album, out of pretty much nowhere, which sounds pretty much unlike anything else out there, you're going to have [...]

• The Xx - Chained

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Artist:	The Xx
Title:	Chained
Link Text:	Chained by The Xx
File Name:	chained.mp3
Bitrate:	128 kbps

Elizabeth Fraser at Royal Festival Hall

Aug 7, 2012, 8:19pm Loft And Lost

So be honest now. When you first heard that Liz Fraser was coming out of retirement and doing a one-off (ok, two-off) show at Anthony Hegarty's Meltdown series, did you think: a. OMG! It's going to be amazing! She'll do all old Cocteaus stuff and sound just like the records and everything! Or b. Oh Christ. I hope it's not a godawful mess. ? Reading the comments about last night's show on Drowned In Sound , The Grauniad and elsewhere , the consensus appeared [...]

• Elizabeth Fraser - Moses

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Artist:	Elizabeth Fraser
Title:	Moses
Link Text:	Moses by Elizabeth Fraser
File Name:	01-moses.mp3
Bitrate:	320 kbps
Year:	2009

I Just Never Could Quite Tell You No

Aug 6, 2012, 3:56pm Loft And Lost

So there I am, driving around in the Florida heat in a rental car listening to some country music station (I don't know which, K-ROQ or Q-UIM or somesuch), when on comes a familiar song. Well, familiar in one sense; it was a version of a Bonnie "Prince" Billy cover 1 . I'd never hear the original version of "Just To See You Smile" off somewhat obscure EP "More Revery", but I'd loved the cover and chucked it on mix CD's left, right and center, back in those heady pre-blogging days. Bonnie Billy's version is all [...]

• Bonny Billy - Just To See You Smile

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Artist:	Bonny Billy
Title:	Just To See You Smile
Link Text:	Just To See You Smile by Bonnie Billy
File Name:	06-just-to-see-you-smile.mp3
Bitrate:	192 kbps
Genre:	Rock
Year:	2001

I Can’t Hear Myself

Jun 6, 2012, 6:23pm Loft And Lost

Woke up this morning, got an email from Songkick , that email tell me that Grizzly Bear are comin’ to town Oh yeah, Grizzly Bear comin’ to town That great big bear must have some new tunes, I’m a guessing So I hightail it off to their website, that big bear website And sho’ nuff there’s an album, a brand new album, hailin’ in the month of September And there’s a song, a brand new song Woke up this morning to a brand new song An’ it has guitars, [...]

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You Should Hear Me Play Piano

Jun 5, 2012, 3:46pm Loft And Lost

So today I finally cracked. Three days of this Jubilee malarkey is all well and good, but the whole thing started to get on my nerves after a while. By this afternoon I was starting to wonder if the French had had the right idea. Still, if the alternative was President Thatcher then I suppose I can take a Queen for a bit longer, especially with one who has spent much of the weekend looking like she'd rather be sat in front of a roaring fire with a nice cup of tea. And the extra [...]

• The Smiths - The Queen Is Dead

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Artist:	The Smiths
Title:	The Queen Is Dead
Link Text:	The Queen Is Dead by The Smiths
File Name:	01-the-queen-is-dead.mp3
Bitrate:	160 kbps
Genre:	Rock
Year:	1986

Squeaky Ears, Squeaky Voice

May 28, 2012, 6:40am Loft And Lost

This whole tinnitus thing is having a strange effect on my brain. Because I'm not spending the best part of two hours a day on public transport listening to music, my brain is filling in the gaps by dredging its memory banks for most unexpected items. Last week I had "It's The End Of The World As We Know It (And I Feel Fine)" by REM, this week it's been, rather less welcomely, "Pure Morning" by Placebo. Now Placebo aren't a band I have much cause [...]

• Placebo - Pure Morning

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Artist:	Placebo
Title:	Pure Morning
Link Text:	Pure Morning by Placebo
File Name:	placebo-pure-morning.mp3
Bitrate:	192 kbps

Cascadia

May 7, 2012, 5:22pm Loft And Lost

You can't beat a bit of dreamy folk-tinged oddness. Mount Eerie hail from Anacortes, Washington, that green and rainy and woody land hugging the Puget Sound, somewhere betwixt Seattle and Vancouver. The kind of place I can imagine makes you hole up in a freezing garage for months on end making slightly ominous fuzzed out space-pop. The kind of music in which you can hear the damp cold air swishing past the microphone, chilling everything around it. Music for long, cold, dark, soggy nights; music for a landscape of forests and mountains and a sea that [...]

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