A mixture of stuff today…

Neil Young & Crazy Horse - Live At The Fillmore
This is a great live album, a piece of history and a snapshot of a band that were at the height of their artistic powers and personal understanding with one another. There’s nothing better than hearing talented individuals play fantastic music together effortlessly. Rumour is that this is merely the tip of the iceberg in terms of material sitting in Young’s basement… If it’s all like this, bring it on. Full review.

And some good news: Club Goo, the regular indie night in Cambridge is moving up to the Junction and onto every other Friday! Get in… from the promoter:

Each month we’ll pick some new bands that have excited us in some way as supports. We’re planning on having an established name as headliner, with acts we feel deserving as support. Some of the things we’d (personally) like to see at presently include the likes of Pigeon Detectives, Cold War Kids, Brakes, New Young Pony Club amongst others. If anyone else has anyone they’d really like to see then let us know.

There are some changes from the soul tree stuff however (and not just the venue!):

1. Resident DJ will be Richard from Artrocker (www.artrocker.com)
2. Less concern about crawling into work with a hangover
3. The stage is nice and high so you can see the bands
4. It all kicks off at 9

Winter is mostly certainly here… It’s dark when I come into work in the mornings and dark when I leave in the evenings. Great…

However, to relieve the gloom, I’ve reviewed the new single by Fields called If You Fail We All Fail, and even if the title sounds a little depressing, it’s a fantastic slice of jangly indie-guitar pop. One of the best new bands of the year, they’ve released a couple of singles and an EP and I’m quietly optimistic for their debut album next year. One to look out for. Full review.

On a less positive note, I had to review the new Faithless album. It’s poor.

Bookings for next year seem to be getting earlier… So tickets have been booked for All Tomorrow’s Parties 2007 Weekend Two. Though there’s something a little different about this weekend - it’s chosen by the punters! A couple of bands have already been announced for the weekend: Built To Spill, Sparklehorse, Death Vessel, Brightblack Morninglight, The Notwist, Do Make Say Think, Akron Family and Echo and the Bunnymen, but the others are chosen by people with tickets.

When you get your tickets you get a log in for a voting page that allows you to submit the 10 bands you’d most like to see… for me these were:
Calexico
Band Of Horses
TV On The Radio
Godspeed You Black Emperor
Constantines
Shellac
Sophia
Jim O’Rourke
My Morning Jacket
Beruit

Fingers crossed!!!

No reviews today, just a couple of interesting articles from The Guardian today.

First up is one about the rise and new found power of music websites like Pitchfork and Drownded In Sound. It’s interesting to hear an artists view on being made and destroyed over night by the same website. Full article here.

Next is a piece on the rise of Balkan and “gypsy” influenced music like Beirut and A Hawk And A Hacksaw - the Beirut album is, without doubt, one of my albums of the day and it’s interesting to here Condon talk about his influences. He raises some interesting points as well about just creating music regardless of where is comes fromt, just absorbing it and creating infectious melodies. Full article here.

On a wet and rather miserable afternoon, something to continue the darkness!

The Drones - Gala Mill
On their second, but first internationally available, album Australia’s The Drones lived up to their name - sharp, garage rock drones that flushed out Blues-inspired songs of loss and loneliness. Whilst it had one of the best album titles of last year with Wait Long by the River and the Bodies of Your Enemies Will Float By, their music lacked a certain something on record that stood them out from the crowd. What refreshed my interest in them was a fantastic set at ATP earlier this year. They’d removed their rock-by-numbers approach and developed their sound into something more grandiose whilst discovering a more story-telling approach to their songs. Full review.

And some support for a local artist.

Darren Michelangelo Smith - Same Old Story
Being a Cambridge resident and living in the shadow of the University and all that’s associated to it, it tends to make the people who actually live there (i.e. not the students) stick together. So when you find a local artist you generally what to big them up or at least add them as your “friend” in MySpace before you’ve even heard them. However, listening to Darren Michelangelo Smith (DMS) made me realise you can be loyal but also support a serious talent as well. The songs that DMS writes might be currently in vogue with his east-end drawl bringing to mind Jamie T, Plan B and Lilly Allen but where this rises above the rest is with the original sounding musical arrangements and his honest and open lyrics. The boy may only be 19, but he’s got a way with words. Full review.

A couple of reviews to warm your cockles on a chilly November morn.

Kling Klang - The Esthetik of Destruction
As debut albums go, this is something of an oddity - a collection of all Kling Klang’s official recordings from 1999 to 2005. Whilst this may suggest that they’ve not be able to come up with something new recently, The Esthetik of Destruction contains enough highs to make you hope for something more. Full review.

Day Action Band - Right On Dairyland
Discovering new music is still a thrill. Once you’ve lost that, you’re practically dead. No matter how you discover “your new favourite band”, be it radio, internet or good ‘ole fashioned mix tapes that your mates made for you, I still get excited when I’ve found something new. I became aware of the Day Action Band whilst clicking, randomly, through Myspace friends, their songs loaded instantly and as the dreamy intro to All Comes Down To This echoed through my tinny computer speakers my ears perked up, there was something here, something special about the songs that I’d not come across for a while. A couple of clicks and a few days later, through my letter box pops Right On Dairyland, a lovingly written and recorded album full of witty lyrics and delicate music. Full review.

It’s Autumn at last. The leaves have turned into some amazing shades of yellow, red and brown, the winter coat is out and the only thing to make me leave the comfort of the pub on a cold November Saturday night is the excellent Rachel Unthank & The Winterset. I shall admit upfront that folk music isn’t my area of expertise - I like what I like, but I don’t know a great deal about traditional folk music or the huge wealth of artists in the UK. I was enlightened by the fantastic Folk Britannia series on the BBC this year which sparked my interest in Folk music proper and encouraged me to attend the Cambridge Folk Festival this year (my first time in six years of being a Cambridge resident). One afternoon I encountered Rachel Unthank and her talented sister and band members and was so moved by their blend of folk music that I had to see them again when they announced their tour. Full review.

From the recent “Sunken Treasure” live solo DVD from Jeff Tweedy, one of the highlights. Not from any Wilco album (yet) this is a beautifully simple song that begins with the right way to deal with random drunks yelling at you on stage…

Also, a couple of reviews I’ve written this week.

Foo Fighters - Skin And Bones
Whilst being a big fan of the Foo Fighters the news of them releasing an acoustic live album didn’t particularly fill me with need to rush down the shops to buy it. In my mind the Foo’s have always excelled at playing rock music well - cutting riffs, an enigmatic front man and music played at 11. What could be worse than stripping these songs bare and removing all that made them great in the first place? Dave Grohl hasn’t won any prizes for his actual song writing, more for his ability to make everything rock… hard. But how wrong I was. Full review.

Tenacious D - The Pick Of Destiny
Tenacious D, the comedy metal act from Jack Black, return with the soundtrack to the film about the band who made an album. Now, I’ve not seen the film so I can’t comment on that (probably best to pop over to our sister site, DVD Times, for that kind of thing), but I hope it’s better than the soundtrack. Full review.

So the great man as been a bit busy. He’s “released” eight albums through his website here.

Unlike the thirty-six tracks Ryan added to his site a few weeks back, these are all titled and under Mr. Adams’ three new pseudonyms. Many of the original group of tracks join these ‘albums’, recorded under the names DJ Reggie, The Shit and WereWolph, each with their own unique styles including hints of hillbilly punk, Shania Twain covers and more.

Considering the sheer amount of stuff here, it’s amazing that most of it is actually really good… the man is a sheer genius!

Now regular readers will already know this, along with my friends, that I’m a huge Paul Weller fan. His album Wild Wood is one of my all time favourite albums, it’s just such a varied and ambitious record that flits between heart-felt love songs to guitar based stomps.

I had to review his recent “Greatest Hits” collection, Hit Parade for CD Times this week. With a career that spans over 30 years, this is the first full career retrospective of one of the greatest singer-songwriters the UK has produced. Paul Weller has seen been writing for three decades, beginning with The Jam back in the 70’s through the polished pop of the 80’s with The Style Council until his rebirth as the Modfather during the 90’s. The bolshy-titled Modern Classics from ‘98 covered his solo career to then, but this collection takes in The Jam, Style Council and his recent return to form. Full review.

…”we keep on playing”

iForward, Russia @ Cambridge Junction, 13th Nov 2006
First things first, this was the fifth time I’ve seen these guys in 12 months. There’s just something about their live set that gets me excited(!) everytime I see them live, I never get bored, I’m captivated by their frontman’s microphone cable antics and thrashy guitar lines.

However, before them we were entertained by Pull Tiger Tail. A good fun band who sounded like The Killers but with a bit more energy. They were good fun and whilst the talkative bassist/keyboardist didn’t seem to take it too serious, dropping chords and conducting some banter with the crowd, they still had an air of the “rock star” about them. Could be big this time next year if they play the right places.

Next up was one of the reasons I went along last night, Help She Can’t Swim. I’ve read and heard a lot about these guys, but they’ve not played Cambridge before which, on evidence of last night, is a real shame. Ploughing some lost furrow between Siouxsie and the Banshees, Add N To X and PiL, they were an obvious support act for Forward, Russia. Full of energy and madness, the front woman showing the crowd her full range of pouting and “can’t be arsed” dancing. Entertaining again and, although the mixing didn’t seem quite right for all the instruments and vocals, an impressive set that didn’t quite capture the imagination of the young crowd. Stand out lyric being “There are no revolutions, just rotting corpses”. Nice.

Then there was the main attraction: iForward, Russia. Now, having seen these guys a few times already, I was a little concerned over the setlist, but it’s been tweaked and their sound has been honed and tightened over their continuing touring. They sounded fantastic last night, the louder the better. I still can’t understand a word that the frontman is singing, but it doesn’t matter. The energy that he displays on stage is amazing, thrashing around to the post-punk noise flowing from the rest of the band, it’s as if he feeds on it, he has some monster inside him that needs the music to burst out and throw the human body around the stage. Controversially, they played a new song and it had a name (though I can’t remember what it is now)… no more numbers?!? The illusion has been shattered!! That aside, it sounded great and hopes for another album is high.

A great nights entertainment then and one that’s left my ears ringing this morning. Best live band at the moment? Most definitely.

http://www.myspace.com/pulltigertail
http://www.myspace.com/helpshecantswim
http://www.myspace.com/forwardrussia

To avoid more complaints of me not actually “blogging” but just posting useless videos and links to my official reviews, I thought I’d big up a record I’ve loved recently.

Slowlands - Never Was There A Town
I came into contact with this record a number of months ago, played it, but never really thought much about it. My life was rather busy then and I had too much music (is that possible) to listen to. However, a trawl through my iTunes library last week made me realise I hadn’t really given this a good listen. Pressing play opened up a fantastic record brimming with ideas and brilliant hooks that I missed the first time around. It’s very definitely an “American” record, it’s musical background steeped in Americana from Bruce Springsteen to Neil Young. There’s also a hint of the recent Canadian scene and influence of The Arcade Fire in the full on orchestration of some of the tracks. From the gentle acoustic intro of Lighthouse and the hushed vocals you know this is something special whilst the production wraps the whole album is an air of Autumninal nights - there’s something warm and glowing about it. Listeners Dilemma with it’s harmonica interludes and duelling picked guitars is a beautiful song before the drums kick in and the song builds into something more. One More Fire reminds me of something a little different, echoes of very British acts like New Order with a touch of later-era Waterboys with it’s Big Sound and fuzzed up guitars.

With no UK release for this album yet, it’s hard to get hold of, but can be ordered from Insound, but whilst you’re waiting, pop along to their Myspace site for some aural treats.

Official Website | Myspace

Murder ballads, Pixies-esque quite / loud melodies, and Jazz-fusion - and thats just in the first two minutes, The Karabal Nightlife sure know how to kick start an album. What follows is an intense, but often enjoyable 45 minutes of thought provoking indie rock.

The nice thing about this band which sets them apart from their peers is that they obviously are strongly influenced by classic rock n roll but arent afraid of putting their own unique stamp on it - rather than doing the easy thing of conforming into todays current trends. Most of the songs here could be garage rock stompers, but the band choose to challenge the listener instead - and it pays off. Though, its not for the occasional music listener - apart from the straight-ahead rockers “I Know Too Much” & “Short Years” you really have to work at this record to get the most out of it. Its full of rich harmonies and musical tapestries that only reveal themself to the listener after repeated plays. Album highlights “I Need A Girl (Who’s Light On Her Feet” is a tender love song that puts frontman Jesse Davis’ cracked vulnerable vocal to use beautifully, while “Sea Of Sleep” explores the bands obsession with Beatle-esque harmonies perfectly.

All in all its a strong debut, but I do have one small critiscm, though not to do with the music, and arguably it shouldnt matter, but to me it does… Its the very amatuer front cover design - looking like it was knocked up in Microsoft Word inbetween song takes. Album artwork is very important, and can often put people off the music before they’ve even put the disc in the player. Luckily, the inlay makes up for it and suits the style of the band perfectly - acting like a postcard from another era.

I urge you to investigate these guys futher. Visit the bands official website here, where you can purchase a copy of the album. Or preview tracks on their myspace page here.

He’s been around the block, up the charts and over to California. But now, with the release of a singles collection, the Charlatans’ Tim Burgess is kicking back and reflecting on those important matters: like pomegranates, Christmas and underpants.

Brought to you by the nice people @ Guardian Unlimited Music.

More genius that you can shake a stick at… he can even dance, who’d have thought it!

As well as releasing a 45 minute workout song for Nike, James Murphy has been busy putting the finishing touches to his second, as yet untitled album. Due out in March 2007 he will also take his band on tour in the UK and Europe next year.

Dates as follows:

March 2007
07 Birmingham, England - Academy
08 Leeds, England - Metropolitan University
09 Glasgow, Scotland - Barrowlands
10 Manchester, England - Academy
11 Norwich, England - UEA
13 Bristol, England - Academy
14 London, England - Astoria
15 London, England - Astoria
16 Brussels, Belgium - Ancienne Belgique
17 Amsterdam, Holland - Melkweg MAX
19 Cologne, Germany - Stollwerck
20 Berlin, Germany - Postbahnhof
21 Munich, Germany - Kleine Elserhalle
22 Milan, Italy - Rolling Stone
24 Toulouse, France - Salle de Tourefeuille
26 Barcelona, Spain - Razzamatazz
27 Paris, France - Bataclan

A couple of reviews today - one is of Beirut’s Gulag Orkestar which is one of my favourite releases of the year, full of mystery and wonder.

When you hear a piece of music for the first time that just haunts you, that sends shivers down your spine, you realise that this is why you listen to music in the first place. The first time I heard Beirut’s Gulag Orkestar was one of these times. An amazingly beautiful piece of music that, in equal measures, conjured up echoes of the past and images of the future… In my occasional “Across The Atlantic” articles, I wrote about Beirut back in June as a record that just blew me away, something truly original that I’d not been able to stop playing. Now it’s received an official UK release, we’ve even been blessed with the inclusion of The Lon Gisland EP as a bonus disc. Full review.

The Magic Numbers - Those The Brokes
So they’ve returned. The bunch of slightly related, easily offended, Fleetwood Mac influenced The Magic Numbers. The twee goodness of their debut never quite caught my imagination, but I caught them live at the V Festival back in 2005 and was impressed with their energy and genuine love for their audience - the songs had a sparkle that could do nothing but draw those thousands of people in a field together in unison. Full review.

John Cale has announced a date at The Junction for Sunday 28th Jan 2006.

I will beg, borrow and steal to ensure I get to this - a pioneer of music, originally coming to prominence with The Velvet Underground with Lou Reed, I might be slightly biased as his Welsh, but he’s been working and the cutting edge of music for 40 years now… A living legend.

More info on his Official Website.

So… more apologies for the silence of this blog, I’ve been ill yet again. Grrr… this sudden change in temperature obviously causing a few problems for my immune system. This has meant me missing Calexico on Sunday night at The Roundhouse in London, which I’m pretty gutted about as Beirut and A Hawk and a Hacksaw were supporting. Bugger.

However, before the illness struck I’d written a couple of reviews that may be of interest…

Deftones - Saturday Night Wrist
So it begins with a hush of feedback, lulling you into some kind of security before the wall of guitars thrash through the haze followed by a yell of excitement. This is how Saturday Night Wrist, the fifth album by the Deftones, begins with Hole In The Earth. A rapturous mix of heavy riffs, wistful guitars and ambient feedback. Those listeners expecting the rest of the album to continue like this, however, will be sorely disappointed. This is the Deftones most ambitious and cohesive work to date and matches White Pony in its vision and execution. Full review

Brakes - The Beatific Visions
The debut album from Brakes was one of the highlights of last year - rip roaring tails of drunken drug taking, dancing with gypsies and those annoying people at gigs who’ve seen every band… ever. Drenched in garage-punk edginess and recorded in five days completely live, it was full of energy, drive and plain good laughs that you could do nothing but enjoy. And this was all with a band just seen as a bit of something on the side for Eamon Hamilton, keyboardist in one of the south coasts finest, British Sea Power. However the success of Give Blood made Hamilton quit BSP and give Brakes a full shot, culminating in their second album The Beatific Visions, recorded in Nashville with a little more care and attention. Full review.

And CD Times have also started a weekly column reviewing singles. In an attempt to trawl through the vast amount of stuff out there, we’re here to help you, dear reader, and advise you on how to spend your hard earned readies. Full article.