It says something for the popularity of the War On Drugs that their third London show in six months is in a sold out Electric Ballroom. Despite this the venue does seem to be lacking a little in atmosphere and buzz, and the support slot from Weird Dreams suffers a lot from high volume peaks and leaves most of the audience non-plussed.
As soon as The War on Drugs start to play those sound issues have vanished and although they use the venue's large PA to full effect, they do sound very smooth.
They play a lengthy set, concentrating mostly on last year's 'Slave Ambient' album and gradually building their mix of guitars, keyboards and drums into a powerfully psychedelic wall of sound, which becomes very hypnotic from about 30 minutes in. Perhaps their best known song 'Baby Missiles' is played early on, and they also fire up the strobes early in the set as well.
For all their pyschedelic noise leanings, it is obvious how much they are influenced by Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen and the version of 'I Was There' underlines this was some decent harmonica playing. It is in the middle of the set that things start to get a bit special. 'Your love is Calling my Name' drifts into 'the Animator' and the harmonica adds a bit of ambience toi the overall guitar fuzz, then they go into a very hypnotic version of 'Come to The City' which is one of the real highlights. They extend 'Best Night' to great effect as well, before bringing this dreamy section to an end by re-engaging with the crowd and inviting people to come and play guitar with them.
Some brave guy takes the stage and plays acoustic guitar on 'Brothers', and he does a pretty fine job. 'Black Water Falls' is next, then a (relatively) old favourite 'Coming Through' is given a welcome airing. The real surprise though is a very faithful version of the Waterboys song 'A Pagan Place' which retains a lot of the emotional power of the original version. The main set finishes with a great 'Arms like Boulders', then a couple of fine encores ('It's Your Destiny' was one, featuring great pinao playing) take us up towards closing time and into the night.
There is an old adage about albums "growing on you" or "warranting repeated listens". In my experience this is very true of Tramp. Brutally honest and self-analytical, it sounds best when you are on your own late at night. I'm reminded of that old discussion about “who sings better in the dark?” The answer, at the moment, is Sharon van Etten.
I can't see many fans being disappointed with this as they have updated and added new dimensions to their sound, whilst still managing to sound like themselves. James Graham's lyrics are still intriguing and his vocal delivery totally works within these arrangements. The voice isn't lost within multiple noise guitars, instead it soars above a wall of synths. Impressive from start to finish, they can certainly consider this a success.
Mark Lanegan 'Blues Funeral' Listen via Spotify
A change a direction, some would say even a re-invention for Mark Lanegan. That distinctive bassy voice of his sounds great as usual, though this time around the musical emphasis is on keyboards and synths, which is a surprise, but it works.
Ultimately The Wishes of the Dead works as both a fine collection of contemporary songs and a homage to legendary folk guitarists. The fact that it may make post-rock fans check out the recordings of Blind Willie Johnson or the Rev Gary Davis is an added bonus.
Tindersticks 'The Something Rain' Listen via Spotify
A huge return to form for the Tindersticks, this is their best album since the mid-90s. 'The Something Rain' manages to sound like classic Tindersticks whilst adding little extra things here and there. Almost worth it for the 9-minute story song 'Chocolate' on it's own.
There are no radical departures from earlier Windy & Carl releases, but after eight albums and nearly 20 years into their musical adventure, this is as impressive as any of their releases. For fans of shoegaze, drone-rock and ambient guitar music, this is definitely worth investigating.
'Where It Hits You' is his fifth studio album and is a slice of luscious Americana, not unlike some of the work of Lambchop, in that it is rooted within country music yet it uses such a wide range of sounds and influences that it ends up being something distinct.
Sleigh Bells 'Reign of Terror' Listen via Spotify
Rumours of a change in direction are a bit unfounded although the mock-metal opening track is a bit surprising, this album carries on where their debut left off, it's still essentially a mix of noise guitars and sugary vocals. The difference lies not in the metal influences, but in darker pop songs such 'End of the Line' which show a depth of emotion that their flashy image often masks.
Cloud Nothings 'Attack on Memory' Listen via Spotify
Much more of a coherent band recording than the Cloud Nothings debut, in fact this is somewhere between pop-punk and post-hardcore, and the songs are longer and more developed this time around. This evokes classic Dischord releases and was recorded by Steve Albini, even if the band insist he "played Scrabble on Facebook the whole time" he was in the studio!
Perfume Genius 'Put Your Back N 2 It' Listen via Spotify
A delicate collection of short songs, which deals with some pretty heavy subject matter. It is one thing to set out to write about depression and dysfunction, but Perfume Genius manages to tell his tales with an eye for detail which not only brings you further into the experience, it also rewards repeated listens. It's early days for me with this album, but I expect I will be exploring it more in the coming weeks.
Other honourable mentions this month go to the EPs from Fucked Up, which is on Spotify and Burial, which isn't.
Other non-Spotify albums worth a listen are
Young Magic (my review is here), Minimal Wave Tapes Vol 2 (my review is on the 405)
Lambchop's Mr.M and the long awaited new album from the Dirty Three.
I've lived with a copy of this album for quite a few weeks now and I will admit that it is a slow-burner, but in its own gentle way the tunes creep up on you and get under your skin.
Some of you may know Geoff Farina from his 14 years leading Boston band Karate, or as part of the duo Secret Stars, or more recently from his folk based collaborative albums with Chris Brokaw (Come, Codeine, Consonant). The Wishes of the Dead is his first outright solo album for 10 years, and is closer in sound to those Brokaw albums than anything else he has been involved with. In fact, three of the songs are slight reversions of songs that appeared on Farina and Brokaw's 2010 album The Boarder's Door.
The entire album is an acoustic performance from Geoff Farina, who shows his skills as both a songwriter and a guitarist. He is a musical historian and,as such, he has studied and regularly performed the music of guitarists such as Blind Arthur Blake, Elizabeth Cotton, and Mississippi John Hurt amongst many others. The music on this album will come as less of a surprise to Karate fans when you understand that.
Happily this isn't some obscure acoustic folk record aimed at the purists. Instead it is a collection of very fine songs that would appeal to fans of acoustic Bob Dylan and Elliott Smith.
Opening song Prick Up Your Ears sets an inviting tone, with light, deft guitar lines carrying an infectiously catchy tune. Prelapsarian is one of the older songs, it is more downbeat and strangely poetic as it observes a life of drug addiction. Hammer and Spade, which I keep calling the Wishes of the Dead because of the lyric that gave the album its title, is another great song with a singalong refrain and a little guitar run straight out of the history book. Scotch Snaps takes the interest in older instruments even further, as it is actually a song about playing antique instruments and passing on songs through tradition. "can you show me just how to play the snaps on that old Strathspey, cos when I do it, it doesn't sound that way"
While that is a personal song about his musical interests, Twilit paints a picture of domestic drama. There's even a burst of electric guitar on this, which somehow makes the tale more modern. Evergreen is more a folk ballad with soft finger picking and lyrics that tell of a trip to somewhere cold.
Both Stems and Semantics have more modern playing inflections and hint at a connection between the post-rock of Karate and the more trad influences. The Dove and the Lamb is another tune dating from the Farina/ Brokaw album and it is complex yet melodic and almost hints at ragtime in places.
Ultimately The Wishes of the Dead works as both a fine collection of contemporary songs and a homage to legendary folk guitarists. The fact that it may make post-rock fans check out the recordings of Blind Willie Johnson or the Rev Gary Davis is an added bonus.
The Wishes of the Dead is out today on Damnably records in the UK. We will be publishing an interview with Geoff Farina later this week.
"The Triffids remain one of Australia's best-loved, post-punk groups [...] McComb was an authoritative singer and accomplished songwriter [...] he infused his melancholy songs with stark yet beautiful and uniquely Australian imagery. Few songwriters managed to capture the feeling of isolation and fatalistic sense of despair of the Australian countryside"
These are the words of the music historian Ian McFarlane, as the Triffids were inducted into the Australian Music Hall of Fame in 2008.
Hardly unknown, and thanks to a reissue campaign from Domino records a couple of years ago they aren't exactly forgotten, but the Triffids effectively ended their music making in 1989. Due to the early death of front man David McComb in 1994 at the age of 37, it is impossible for them to fully reform.
Once again, a remarkably detailed Wikipedia article on the band makes retro pieces such as this slightly unnecessary, so once again I will just offer up my personal account of what the Triffids mean to me.
The band called it a day the year I left school but I listened to them a lot during my sixth form years, largely due to late night radio plays from the likes of Dave Fanning on RTE Radio 2. I got even more interested when I found that the brothers David and Robert McComb were born near Ballynahinch in County Down, which is actually only about 10 miles from where I grew up. Their family emigrated in the early '70s and ended up in Western Australia.
No-one at school quite 'got' them though and I didn't meet another Triffids fan for years. The first place to start for Triffids novices is with their 1986 single Wide Open Road, which actually dented the lower reaches of the UK chart. Now officially recognised as one of the Top 30 Australian songs of all time, it is a song which perfectly evokes the great spaces in the Australian outback. The Triffids regularly drove from Perth to Sydney and Melbourne for gigs and recording, and that space must have been a constant fixture of that journey.
Wide Open Road
That song comes from an album called Born Sandy Devotional which is one of my favourite albums of all time. The band were big enough to warrant live performances on prime time Channel 4 such as this 'Stolen Property' from The Tube.
After many years of indie releases they signed a big deal with Island records and released 'Calenture', another great album, although it turned out to be a difficult one to make, due to label interference and swapping producers. It is an epic, almost OTT album, with songs coated with string arrangements, and intensely personal, passionate lyrics. It was a total contrast to their last indie release - 'In the Pines', which was more folk-based and recorded on a 4-track in a shed in the Australian countryside.
Compare and contrast different versions of Blinder by the Hour
The label also insisted that they record their next record in England and the result was 'the Black Swan'. David McComb intended this to be a double album but the 1989 release was a single album. It was a sprawling, flawed masterpiece which only really made sense when re-issued with tons of extra tracks by Domino in 2006. On 'The Black Swan' they flirt with traditional songs, country, catchy pop and hip-hop and you never quite know where it is going to go next. This song is one of the most Triffids-like on it.
One Mechanic Town
The band split up soon after and David McComb suffered substance abuse related health problems, which led to a heart transplant at the early age of 34. He made a solo record called Love of Will and shortly after a promotional tour to support it he had a car accident in Melbourne and died 3 days later, in February 1999. The coroner's report stated "McComb's mental and physical condition had deteriorated after his (car) accident but his death was due to heroin toxicity and mild acute rejection of his 1996 heart transplant."
The other Triffids have performed their music over recent years in Australia, usually for special events, and with guest vocalists such as Steve Kilbey of The Church taking lead vocal duties. Martyn Casey from the band became a permanent member of Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, a band who I'm sure would acknowledge the huge influence of the Triffids.
One of the best things about compiling features like this, is that I get to stumble upon some things I hadn't heard or seen before. This last video is something very special and I had never seen it before. It is for one of my favourite ever Triffids songs and has some lyrics to live your life by. Enjoy.
Save What You Can
It is a total coincidence that this re-exploration of John Peel's Record Box comes at the same time as the exciting announcement that John's record collection is to be made available as a digital archive.
Arts Council England and the BBC will add his tens of thousands of LPs, singles and CDs to a new digital service called The Space. The full news story is here
Meanwhile here are the next five 7" singles....
5.Anemic Boyfriends - Guys Are Not Proud + Bad Girls in Love (RED SWEATER RECORDS) 1980
Female punk/ new wave group from Alaska who made two singles then vanished. This is their debut single, and there's a pic of the sleeve on this collector's site.
This has a Slits-style punk/ reggae feel to it and the best refrain yet - "Guys are such creeps/ They'll even do it with sheep". Only five records in and I'm already discovering hidden gems like this. The Bside is more punky like Johnny Thunders or something which changes the bad guys for the bad girls - "I got a tight little body/ and I wanna get naughty". This was the hardest one to find so far (I've just got mp3s), but well worth hearing!
6. Ann Peebles - I can't stand the rain + i've been there before (LONDON) 1972
After Alan Price, this is only the second A-side in the list so far that I can sing along with. I'm pretty ignorant about 70s soul and RnB but most of that material in this list stands up incredibly well, especially when compared to some of the ropey punk bands around (see next!). I never realised how evocative that little pizzicato guitar at the start of 'I Can't Stand the Rain' was, the arrangement is just about the perfect accompaniment to her voice. The Bside is even more melancholy and has some nice gospel touches. Solid gold and one of the best so far.
As far as I know this 7" contains their entire recorded output and we can be thankful for that. This is dull dull punk rock from the self-styled "most violent band in the world" as this biography tells us. Skip this one.
8. Arthur K Adams - Wildwood flower + It's a wild, wild, wild, wild wildwood flower (JETSTAR)
LISTEN Arthur K Adams- Wildwood Flower
Initially this was one that I couldn't track down, but since I first explored the record box in 2006, I have come across an mp3 of 'Wildwood Flower'. It's a lively rockabilly tune, perhaps traditional?
An initial google search for info on Arthur Adams back then was similarly fruitless, but now we have wikipedia! He's not as obscure as I initially though, he is mates with BB King too.
9. Big Stick - Drag racing + Hell on earth (RECESS RECORDS) 1985
I love this. I can remember Peel playing this quite a bit over the years. 90s listeners may remember the Festive 50 fave 'Broadcast booth' which was credited to Drag Racing Underground; well, that was Big Stick as well. Official biography is here. This is basically cut-up samples and distorted drum machine, think Colourbox meets Big Black and you're in the right area. The right era too. While you might believe the Aside is slightly sinister, the Bside takes the same backing track and gets even darker. Short, thrilling and plenty creepy.
Well, as I said last week, it is a tough act to follow the efforts of Robin The Fog, who provided our debut mix, so I'm going to upload one of my own mixes, which is probably one of my most unusual and challenging.
As I'm looking forward to the forthcoming Jeff Mangum ATP, I have been doing all sorts of revision for it, and perhaps most obscurely of all I have become intrigued by the set of radio shows Jeff did back in 2002 for WFMU. They are a challenging mix of sound collages, drones, world music, field recordings, and quite a lot of John Coltrane!
I thought it might be fun to edit these down, but then I realised that they actually do belong to WFMU as original shows and that wouldn't be fair, so instead I went through the tracklisting to see which tracks I had, or more correctly, see which tracks I could acquire. That's what I have done, I have reversioned some of Jeff's musical choices by means of my own little primer or sideshow to the forthcoming festival. I guess it is a challenging flipside to the spotify list that I will publish next Friday. Please listen and enjoy, although this is yet another deliberately uneasy listen.
Contains audio from John Coltrane, A Hawk and a Hacksaw, Blind Willie Johnson, Lee Hornby, Robert Wyatt, Charles Barnett, Clara Rockman, and some low frequency field recordings by S. P. McGreevy.
Billed as a "21st Century rock n Roll Party" night, in reality this was a pretty cool way to kick off Bo Ningen's latest UK jaunt.
After a decent DJ set concentrating on familiar classics (Sabbath, Sonic Youth, Beefheart, Patti Smith, the Damned), unpronounceable Japanese band 世界的なバンド take the stage. This 3 piece look and sound like a 60s garage-punk band, complete with immaculate mop top hairstyles, all-black clothes and a singing drummer.
They play an impressively tight set and win the crowd over, but they aren't really going to make much of an impression with that name. I asked someone who has Japanese parents what it said and she was unsure. For the record she said "nabasodo", so that's what I'm calling them until I hear more!
As I said, Bo Ningen are back in the UK for a string of shows, including March's instalment of British Sea Power's Krankenhaus event, and it is obvious from the start that they are in great form.
With their well conditioned waist length hair they look like a typical metal band, and one of the guitarists does that Slayer thing where he whips his hair around. Of course, they aren't a typical metal band, but they are obviously influenced by the more psychedelic elements of '70's metal in particular. In fact they are a post-script to that type of hard rock, it's as if it took a direct route towards the noise bands of the '80s and '90s and bypassed the ghastly mtv-rock which influenced a lot of modern metal.
They are amazingly tight and controlled, despite the hair-flying histrionics on stage and the songs are lengthy and ambitious. They clearly love playing live and get a great reaction from the crowd. The parts where they went into overdrive and the venue's mirrorball was spinning red lights around the ceiling were my highlights. I have to give the sound people a big thumbs-up as well, because it can be so easy to let noise bands like this revel in extreme volume. Tonight the sound was powerful and enveloping without being painful, and that's always a bonus.
Some lovely shots in this new video for Gonjasufi's the Blame, directed by Neil Krug with cinematography by David Myrick. I'm a sucker for films of empty cities. Slightly disappointed that my favourite rhyming couplet of the year has been mangled in a 'radio-edit' style but hey, it's a family show (I guess).
In other news, my review of Errors and Remember Remember from XOYO last week, is online now at Londonears new blog. It has some pretty pictures too.
It's not a very wordy post today, but I have a ton of reviews to finish and in order to do them all justice I will upload them together on Saturday. I'm interviewing Geoff Farina tomorrow and going to see Bo Ningen tonight so it's a bit non-stop at the moment.
This was one of those shows you feel privileged to be at. The last time New Jersey band Real Estate played in London they sold out the Scala, but tonight, as a prequel to their Koko show in support of Kurt Vile, they are playing the downstairs room in a renovated East End pub off Hackney Road.
I wasn't sure what to expect from the Sebright Arms but I was hugely impressed. It's a basement with a low ceiling but they have added a decent PA and painted the walls black. Add a sold-out crowd like tonight and you have a venue full of atmosphere and buzz.
Real Estate take the stage after 10pm - for the benefit of you non-London types, that's almost a late show! - and play for over an hour, packing their set with songs from both of their albums.
They open with 'Fake Blues' from their debut, although it sounds slicker and updated and those guitars are already starting to jangle. The first crowd-pleaser, 'Easy', follows soon after and then the band are joined by Louis from Spectrals on guitar for the next bunch of songs which adds even more power to their wall of sound. 'Green Aisles' and 'Out of Tune' suggest that they are sticking to the familiar songs early on and the crowd are lapping it up. Bass player Alex sings 'Wonder Years' and the band start to resemble prime period Byrds. The powerful instrumental 'Kinder Blumen' is the climax of the three guitarist section of the set.
The take the pace down a little with 'Suburban Dogs' from the first album and then tease us a little bit with the bassline from 'It's Real' before launching into the full song, claiming that it's only the fifth time they have played it. That's hard to believe, as it has become their anthem and it's no surprise that someone calls out "play that four more times!"
A normal show would have peaked here, but it seemed like Real Estate just went up a gear after this. The last section of the show seemed short but in reality lasted well over half an hour and made me remember what it is like to get lost inside great guitar sounds. This wasn't a noise guitar barrage or challenging improvisations, instead this was beautiful chords and intricate lead passages that never lost sight of the song. Lead guitarist Matthew Mondanile (also of Ducktails) seemingly never stopped playing throughout. I was so entranced by it that I forgot to note down what the last few songs were, but I'm pretty sure 'Suburban Beverage' and 'All The Same' were in there.
This morning I listened to Real Estate again on a sunny bus journey into work. I had a big smile on my face and it was all their fault.
A few years ago I flirted with the contents of John Peel's Record Box after I watched a Channel 4 documentary about it. This was the box of 142 singles and EPs that John kept with him most of the time, which reputedly contained what he considered to be his favourite singles. The full list is here. I began to write about the releases that I was able to find, but this was circa 2006, so it was before the birth of Wikipedia and You Tube and it got harder and harder as I went deeper into the list. Some of the reference links I added went to geocities (RIP) and both the original list and definitive piece are now hidden behind the Times's paywall. I figured it was time to revisit and update my journey into the box.
As for my personal collection I only have a battered copy of Laurie Anderson's 'O Superman' (an 8 minute A-side for starters!) and Pavement's rare 'Demolition Plot J-7' (a six track EP), although I have some of the tunes on CDs. It was exciting that even as a long-term listener of Peel's show there were a lot of titles in the box that I didn't recognise. So, eyes down for a Peel box A-Z...
1. Al Casey – Surfin’ Hootenanny + Easy Pickin (Pie International records, 1963)
This single was a huge Billboard hit in 1963 so it may even be possible to track down some vinyl copies.
This isn’t your typically Trashmen/ Dick Dale surf guitar tune, it is lighter than that, with female vocals and a very wide stereo sound, courtesy of the production by the legendary Lee Hazlewood. I think he also wrote it. They pay homage to a lot of the other surf acts (like Dick Dale) in the song. The B-side is more throwaway, but then that was half the idea with b-sides I guess.
2. Al Ferrier - I'm Not Drinking More + Don't Play Blue Eyes' (Master Trak records, 1980)
LISTEN: Al Ferrier- Don't Play Blue Eyes
Originally a Louisiana rockabilly/ cajun artist who was on Goldband from the mid-1950s, this is a much later recording and is pure country. I had assumed it was a 1980 reissue, but this interview shows that he was recording at Goldband in the early '80s so it probably is a 1980 release.
This is very hard to find nowadays, I have a dull sounding mp3 of the A-side which was transferred from vinyl, and the B-side is an mp3 taped off the radio which I have uploaded above, complete with Peel back anno! The best thing about submerging myself in this list is that I feel like I have entered an epic lost Peel show, full of surprises, songs you love and songs you would fast forward if you had taped the 2-hour broadcast. As this reminds me too much of the country n western I was brought up with, I would have wind it on past this, but a few listens later I'm kind of impressed by Ferrier's slightly off-centre delivery. It is country but not (quite) as we know it.
3. Alan Price Set - I Put a Spell on You (Decca, 1966)
A big hit in the '60s and relatively easy to get your hands on as it is on a few compilations. This is the first artist in the list I’ve heard of and the first track I recognised as well. Things I know about Alan Price - he was in the Animals, he wrote the music for the 70s movie 'O Lucky Man' and he appeared in DA Pennebaker's Don't Look Back alongside Dylan. The A-side is a busy organ-dominated British blues take on the classic song, and it does have a similar arrangement to 'House of the Rising Sun'. B-side "Iechyd Da" is a standard jazzy blues instrumental, dominated by the organ and horns. First Welsh language title in the list, although Price was from the North East and this has no words!
4. Andy Capp - Popatop + Reco - The Lion Speaks (Treasure Island, 1969)
Now that I'm old I'm supposed to know a lot about jazz and reggae and the like, and I do know a bit, but not an awful lot, so feel free to correct me by leaving a comment.
This is early dub reggae dating from 1969, Andy Capp was engineer Lynford Anderson, who helped a lot of Lee Perry's early dub experiments happen. This was actually siting in my iTunes under Lee 'Scratch' Perry as it was on his Battle Axe compilation. This sits nicely with the Perry material of the same period, and they although do experiment with a stop/start dubby rhythm it's actually infectiously catchy.
I didn't know much about Rico and the Rudies, except that Rico was a trombone player and had releases on Trojan records, but via Wikipedia I found out that he has recently been playing with Jools Holland and was awarded the MBE in 2007. This song sits eccentrically amongst all the other reggae in the box as it has Rico's trombone all over it!
I was delighted by the announcement last Wednesday that The Make-Up would reform for ATP's I'll Be Your Mirror yet also surprised by the fact that some people I was talking to didn't know who they were! Their wikipedia entry is pretty good at filling in the facts.
From my experience I can tell you that in 1997 they played a storming gig in the Duke of York in Belfast which was so oversubscribed and raved about that it passed into local music legend. I was there and it was quite an experience. Iain Henderson, who wrote for my fanzine The Weedbus, went down early and managed to grab a chat with the band, which I am shamelessly reproducing in it's entirety below....
This interview dates from 1998 and first appeared in Weedbus fanzine, issue 13
Do I really need to mention The Nation of Ulysses here? No? Okay then. Ladies and gentlemen, please be upstanding for Washington DC's Make Up. Since forming in February 1995, Make Up have released three damn fine albums, as well as a handful of singles, but you'll know this already. I talked to Ian F. Svenonius and James D. Canty before their storming gig in the Duke of York. Considering Ian's rather energetic behaviour on stage and the fact that they're near the end of a long stretch of dates, I began with the only question a concerned journalist in my position can.
How are your knees?
Ian: "My knees? (laughing) No, no, no, I've all new moves, man. It's the hips and the arched back. Yeah, it's more simian and less baptismal really."
How has the tour been so far?
I: "We've had a lot of different digestive experiences."
James: "Yeah, it's great, man. The continent it's beautiful."
What do you think of the small stage here?
I: "Not a lot of space. I think the acoustics might actually be very good. That wooden ceiling over there."
J: "We like the concept of playing small places. It definitely creates a better atmosphere."
I: "Like Sammy Davis Jr, you know, he was the greatest entertainer of his time. He just played clubs all the time. He never played arenas. He wasn't so cynical as to try and get as much money as he could from a single night. Yeah, those massive rock concerts have a fallacious side to them."
Do you think you could play larger places?
I: "we could with the same extent of success that people do, which is unsuccessful. You know, you go to these things and they're more like idiot pall gatherings. They really have very little... the featured group becomes an aside."
Could you see yourselves on a major label?
I: "I don't know, you know, 'major label', that's one of those terms like drugs. It's something I've never really understood.
I mean basically, you know, we only want to be involved with things, people that we like, things that create things that we like. If you mean the Sony corporation (pointing out my dictaphone) I don't know the last time they put out a good record, so I wouldn't really trust the way they approach making a record, you know what I mean? (his face getting closer and closer to the dictaphone) To me they just make odious filth, but I don't want to use the term 'major label', I mean, what's that? People have to start thinking about the terms they use, because if you're going to talk about major and minor labels, all you're thinking about is petty bourgeois and major bourgeois and as far as I'm concerned there's nothing essentially noble about either capitalist venture, you know what I mean?"
Is there anybody you feel an affinity with?
I: "Lungleg, we've played with. And Royal Trux. They recorded our new record which is coming out in October. Fugazi and another DC band called the Warmers. Blonde Redhead."
What do you think about the seemingly constant comparisons with the Jon Spencer Blues Explosion?
I: "I think that that's fallacious because I think... I've never heard them. I've never really heard any other rock bands like us. We're from the gospel tradition. They're from the blues tradition, like rock n roll is. Naturally I've heard that they are fantastic. But we're steeped in the gospel tradition. Rock n roll is just a foreign language."
I even read one early review (of 'Destination: LOVE; Live! at Cold Rice') where they thought you were Jon Spencer.
I: "They have a lot of trouble with us black-haired types!"
Make Up have also been compared to James Brown and MC5 a lot.
I: "Sure"
In what aspects do you think?
I: "We're gospel as far as I'm concerned. Our shows have a lot more to do with a gospel ritual than any rock show. We don't step ourselves in the tradition of rock n roll. We're not constantly making references. We're not defined by rock n roll. We're not a homage to other rock bands. That's really limited and boring. What's rock n roll? Rock n roll doesn't mean anything. It's a term that doesn't mean anything. It has no parameters, not like salsa music. We're part of the gospel tradition. We speak in sermons, catharsis, call and response. It's a spirit of oration and voodoo ritual combined. That's what gospel is."
What about the outfits Make Up wear onstage?
I: "It's a means to an end ad that's what we use it as. A device to submerge individuality to the greater idea. We're uniform fetishists."
Is there anybody more stylish?
I: "Than us? No."
Does anybody even come close?
I: "Oh, Lungleg, who else? The Dirty Birds."
You're not wearing the suits you wore last year?
I: "No, we've new suits."
What's the new stage wear?
I: "You'll see."
No sneak preview?
I: "No chance! (laughing) We have to maximise our effectiveness."
J: "He's gonna write it anyway so we should tell him how we interpret it. An ode to what?"
I: "Our outfits may be misinterpreted. We're kind of a homage to Mao sensibility, a cultural revolution, but synthesized with a Beatles at Shea Stadium thing. For us there's two similar strains going on, which is the subversion of the individual, the idea of the communal mass mind, the insects, the Beatles, the bug, the Mao..."
What happens after this tour?
I: "Well, we go on tour in America from July and our new record comes out in October."
What about this new record?
I: "It's more constructed. It's a more studio constructed record. It's produced by Jennifer and Neil from Royal Trux. They took it and shaped it."
J: "We're going to be releasing a couple of singles before it comes out."
What can we expect tonight?
I: "I don't know. Anything can happen now we see ourselves as sort of providing an infrastructure and the night is responsible for everything else."
How long do you see Make Up lasting? Is that something you have thought about?
J: "Like an expiration date or something?"
I: "Well, we figure a lot of people retire into the church from rock n roll, because it's not subject to the whims of the market place. So that's what we're doing right now, so we've basically already retired. This is our retirement. The church always provides steady work."
Interview by Iain Henderson
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and in case you don't know what the Make-Up sound like, here's a video.
Alasdair Roberts has been performing as a solo artist for over ten years now, and his distinctively Scottish flavoured blend of ancient and modern songs was well showcased at this intimate Sunday night show, during which he carried out his stated promise to perform “songs from 15 years ago as well as songs from last month. It will also feature songs from about 200 years ago.”
Concentrating on his acoustic guitar for most of the set, he began as far back as he could, with an unreleased version of what he said was “one of many” Scottish songs about incest, 'Brother Seed', which featured haunting lines like
“And she a youngling in her bud/ The green wood waxes early
She's lain with one too near in blood/ Where the deer go running yearly”
He already has us hooked and he continues with another traditional tale about the Highland clearances of the early 19th century 'The Year of Burning.'
The first of his newer material was 'Gave the Green Blessing' which of course fitted seamlessly with the ancient tales he had told at the start of the set. Another new tune 'The Merry Wake' weaves more modern influences in, with some jazzy inflections curiously reminiscent of the folk music made in California in the 1960s, and the very end of it actually reminds me of Arthur Lee and Love.
Roberts changes tack for 'Lord Ronald', bringing out an elderly Casio keyboard which has a story attached to it and a connection with an audience member as well.
The song “from fifteen years ago” turns out to be 'Frozen Blight' which was recorded by his first band, Appendix Out, and it's great to hear it again, and also to realise that it does actually connect with Roberts's sound now as well.
A couple more new tunes follow – 'Fusion of Horizons' and 'The End of Breeding' – at least they are
new to me, and then he plays a very faithful version of 'Sonny Brogan's Mazurka' on his guitar.
'The Sacred Nine and the Primal Horde' closes the show and once again shows how well his songs work within a traditional folk setting. He had treated us to an hour and half of this music, so it's a pleasant surprise that he returns for an encore, and he chooses one of his most well known songs 'Come, My Darling Polly'.
Although the songs are lengthy and Roberts tried out some unheard material, his skill as a performer and storyteller made the evening fly by. It had been quite a few years since I had been to see Alasdair Roberts live; I will be sure not to leave it as long again.
I'm having to deal with a bit of a traffic jam in terms of mixes and lists at the moment. With the Jeff Mangum ATP looming, there are a couple of playlists and mixes related to that to come, so they will be online over the next two Fridays. At the moment I'm looking at hosting one per month. Don't forget last week's guest mix from Robin The Fog, which was a great way to kick things off.
Anyway, this Friday is the last Friday in February in which I could do a monthly playlist,so here it is - a Spotify based summary of all that has happened on the site this month. It includes new releases from Sharon van Etten, Fucked Up, Jim White, Windy & Carl, Peepholes, Francois and the Atlas Mountains, Young Magic, Errors and Twilight Sad, plus much older material from A.R. Kane and Bark Psychosis. There are also a three tracks from David Shrigley's Worried Noodles compilation, plus Remember Remember, Imbogodom, Gentle Friendly, Tim Hecker, and the Cairo Gang. Click below to listen.
As someone who has enjoyed David Shrigley's work for a few years now, it is quite a thrill to pass this original new sign on the way to my work, clearly visible from the bus crossing Waterloo Bridge. It's a thrill because it heralds the arrival of Shrigley's largest exhibition to date, the major retrospective Brain Activity....
I know a lot of people interested in the sort of music featured on this site will be interested in this exhibition. David Shrigley is a well known supporter of non-mainstream music and the last time I saw him in person he was DJ-ing to a small early evening crowd in the Rough Trade Shop near Brick Lane, and some of his works have graced the sleeves of the likes of Deerhoof and Malcolm Middleton.
I was delighted to see that the cover of Middleton's 'A Brighter Beat' (a Shrigley photo entitled Balloon) is on display here.
As I climbed the stairs to the upper galleries where the exhibition begins I followed the sound of a drummer playing fills that could fit on any album by the Fall or the Oh Sees. The intitial effect is disorientating, as you enter via a room full of some of his sculptures that play with our sense of scale, such as the tiers of ceramic boots. I found that drummer around the corner; he was animated and he was headless and filled a whole wall.
It was curious that something so rowdy should introduce the section of the exhibition centred around death, but then the gravestone made me laugh, and that doesn't usually happen either. The cute Jack Russell terrier is in this room too, announcing 'I'm Dead' by means of a helpful placard.
I should issue my personal disclaimer that this is a music blog and I don't pretend to be any expert on art, but I can spot the influences of artists like Duchamp, Baldesarri and Magritte on Shrigley's work. I've no idea about Shrigley's relationships with other artists, but his animation Light Switch in which a finger flicks a switch over and over is surely a nod to Martin Creed's Turner Prize winning 'The Lights going on and off.'
I am most familiar with Shrigley's drawings and animations, but there is a lot of sculpture here and the entrance to the wall of colour paintings is through an iron gate which carries the instruction, "Do Not Linger At The Gate." A common theme throughout his work is that sense of instruction - his early photograph of the Clyde Auditorium, or Glasgow's “Armadillo” is here, complete with the cheeky sign that reads "Ignore this Building".
A lot of the other sculpture is misshapen, or it deliberately places life-sized objects beside distorted, abnormal things, such as a taxidermy squirrel holding it's own detached head like a nut. The bronze Swords and Daggers were apparently carved in wax with a potato peeler to give them an imperfect look, before being cast in bronze. On the wall beyond the large display of mis-shapes a selection of even more unusual drawings pass along his animated Conveyer Belt.
A lot of his familiar drawings deal with relationships, some dysfunctional, some unusual. I hadn't seen his short animation New Friends until this exhibition, but it summarises things nicely.
It's very rare that I walk around the Hayward Gallery with a broad smile on my face, so this exhibition was a first in that respect. I wasn't terribly engaged with the large floor display of insects but that was my only grumble, and I think people who have complained that a lot of these works have been seen before have missed the bit that says this exhibition is a retrospective! The wall of drawings was my personal highlight and is well worth a re-visit. When you have done with the main exhibition hang around in the foyer for a listening post and a chance to hear all of the Worried Noodles CD and the exclusive 7" single that comes with the official exhibition book. One side is a chaotic indie-clatter with the artist himself shouting "This is my house!!" a lot, the other side is a humourous story about a monkey, told as a surreal "Do you remember when?" tale.
The exhibition is on until the 13th May and you should all go. I'll even come with you as I am a member of the gallery. Tickets and more information can be found at http://ticketing.southbankcentre.co.uk/david-shrigley
Young Magic may come across as a typically current Brooklyn-based band, with obvious hints at the likes of Animal Collective and Grizzly Bear, but the reality is that their palate of wide influences has been gained from their travels and upbringing, as opposed to merely being picked up from hanging out with hipster friends in Williamsburg or wherever.
Two of Young Magic are Australian, one is Indonesian, and this album has been collected from recordings made in several different countries over the past few years. It isn't the greatest debut album that you will hear in 2012 but, given that it is assembled from earlier singles and their B-sides, it does sit together as quite a coherent whole.
Part of this cohesion comes about because the previous releases are linked by shorter new pieces which work very well. The familiar tracks are my favourites though and it begins with my personal highlight, 'Sparkly', a laidback psychedelic drift built around a simple melody overlaid with harmony vocals and clattering, rattling percussion.
That similar percussive drive is there on 'You With Air' which manages to make tribal chants and hip-hop/ dubstep phrasing work together. 'Night on the Ocean' is the centre-piece of the album, it is a dreamy melody with subtle stuttering beats and an overwhelming wash of fuzz guitars. 'The Dancer' is another highlight, with an eerie disjointed beat and vocal delivery somewhat reminiscent of Salem. 'Driving Down The Moon' is the most consciously dub-step track here and it again highlights that contrast between the skittish beats and the steady psych-drift that makes their music so intriguing.
As I said earlier, this isn't an album of the year, but in terms of having interesting new music packed within it, it is definitely worth investigating. Ones to watch? Very definitely.
Unfortunately I have no time for an totally original blog post today, although I have had a couple of reviews published elsewhere, so I'm linking through to those instead.
First of all, hot on the heels of my interview with them last week, my review of the François and the Atlas Mountains album 'E Volo Love' is up on the 405. Have a read HERE.
Secondly, my review of the Upset the Rhythm tour from last week at Cafe Oto, featuring Gentle Friendly, Way Through and Peepholes is published on the (relatively new) London Ears blog, HERE.
I may as well flesh this post out with some audio-visual samples of their work....
Is it still ok to refer to Fucked Up as a hardcore punk band? With their extensive and ambitious discography it seems unfair to pigeonhole them into just one genre. In 2011 they released one of the albums of the year, "David Comes to Life" which was in their own terms a "rock-opera" set in Thatcherite Britain. The album was a lot to take in on its own, but they also produced a fake compilation as a companion to the main release - "David's Town: 11 Original Hits From Byrdesdale Spa, UK!" - and create an intriguing set of accompanying videos.
Now they have released the latest in their series of Chinese Zodiac singles, which is something they have been doing on most Chinese New Year's since 2006. This year it's the Year of the Tiger, and it's another epic - a 15 minute song with lots of time changes and sections, and guest vocal appearances from Austra and the movie director Jim Jarmusch. The band's relationship with Jarmusch extends back the day the director curated at a New York ATP, when he memorably talked about their perfomance on WFMU and called them 'Smurfed Up' throughout.
Fucked Up have a bit of previous regarding experimental and epic single releases. The Looking for Gold 12" from 2004 was 16 minutes in duration, had 18 guitar tracks, a three minute drum solo and five minutes of whistling. 'Year of the Tiger' isn't as out there as that release, and musically it carries on from where the 'David...' album left off.
It's slower in tempo but it has the familiar swell of guitars that characterised last year's album. This time the first voice you hear isn't the familiar rasp of Damian, it's the spoken words of Jim Jarmusch. Their two voices then work together for the first few minutes, and as the pace increases Katie Stelmanis from Austra provides a female vocal for the closing section. It's pretty great, and once again it makes me think that the best adjective to describe Fucked Up's music is "ambitious".
You can stream all the Chinese Zodiac singles from the Matador/ Beggars promo site http://widgets.beggarspromo.com/zodiac/
Not so much a case of a "great lost band", but more a case of "great band gone missing, last seen 2005".
Bark Psychosis were a London based band who were active between 1986 and 1994, although they issued their long delayed third album in 2004 and they are officially still a going concern. I didn't realise this until I was doing my homework and I checked their wikipedia entry
That entry is pretty conclusive so I'll just add my own personal experiences of Bark Psychosis. I wasn't that aware of their first few releases, but in retrospect they stand up as a fine bunch of EPs and singles, collected together as the album Independency, which was confusingly issued not long after their major label debut Hex.
The band's history is riddled with record company woes and hassles. I became aware of them during the period around 1991-92 when they released two amazing singles, 'Manman' and 'Scum', which pretty much cemented their status as one of the founders of what became known as post-rock.
Manman
If 'Manman' gathered some buzz and some radio play for them, the follow-up single, the uncompromising 21-minute long 'Scum' was hailed by critics as a masterpiece but it was difficult for people to hear, as its length and extreme dynamic range effectively ruled out radio play. It was recorded from improvisations in the band's rehearsal space underneath St John's Church in east London and still stands up as a beautiful and timeless piece of work, which ultimately comes from the same place as late-period Talk Talk.
Scum
Fans will argue whether 'Scum' or the subsequent album 'Hex' was their masterpiece, and it's hard to split the two. 'Hex' was recorded in the same church and sounds very similar, and it sustains it's brilliance over 7 tracks, whereas 'Scum' is a single 21 minute piece.
I was fortunate to interview the band around the time 'Hex' was released, and you can read the results here. In Simon Reynolds revie of the album for Mojo, he coined the phrase post-rock, and that was that.
Absent Friend
The pressures on the band during the recording of 'Hex' took their toll, and after one more single 'Blue', which touched on more danceable elements within their sound, the band split. Main member Graham Sutton began to release drum and bass singles under the name Boymerang, and has worked successfully as a record producer with the likes of Jarvis Cocker and British Sea Power.
In 2004 a long awaited follow-up to 'Hex' emerged under the Bark Psychosis name, entitled 'Codename: Dustsucker'. It was a major progression in sound, and came across more as a Graham Sutton project with diverse collaborators, but there was enough of a connection with previous Bark Psychosis releases to please old fans. Fortunately it was also very, very good.
The four musicians that make up Bonnie “Prince” Billy's band tonight make the most unassuming entrance, shuffling on stage and effectively rigging their own equipment in front of us. Maybe it is a deliberately amateur move to distract us from just how special their performance is going to be, or maybe it's just something that they do, and the fact they are about to play in front of a sell out crowd at this ornate old music hall doesn't bother them at all.
Over the years, Will Oldham has performed his music under many aliases, and although tonight is billed as simply a Bonnie “Prince” Billy show, his fully acoustic band comprise two regular members of the Cairo Gang. Emmett Kelly is there with his excellent guitar skills, as is Angel Olsen who acts as a co-vocalist with Will himself and nearly steals the show a few times.
They play material from all stages of Oldham's career over the course of their lengthy set, although the song choices do tend to favour material from their most recent albums. The soaring vocals on “Beware Your Only Friend” set the tone and show from early on how well these musicians gel together. Will is on fine form throughout, full of humorous stories and anecdotes about the horrors of the ageing process, the forecasted Mayan apocalypse and the posturing of RnB star Jason Derulo. He is also openly delighted at discovering the taste of whisky in his moustache.
There are many, many highlights, such as the old Palace Brothers tune “Pushkin”, a lovely version of “Master and Everyone” and the intricate duet between Will and Angel, “You Want That Picture”. Arguably his best known song “I See A Darkness” is given an uptempo treatment and he admits that due to the ad-libbed approach to the set-list he doesn't get around to anything from the new album “Wolfroy Goes to Town” until 40 minutes into the set. That approach also means that the extraordinary “So Everyone”, which would be fit to close anyone's show, is played mid-set and brings forth such rapturous applause that it's actually hard to follow.
They're undaunted by this and they peak again with the intense American gothic “The Seedling”, only to contrast sharply with a very moving version of “Three Questions” which closes the main set. When they return for “Merciless and Great” it becomes clear what a skilful guitarist Emmett Kelly is, but also how impressive Oldham's voice is these days. It has come far from the fragile warble of his early days and is now a much more powerful and controlled style of singing, and in combination with Angel Olsen, their voices totally fill this hall.
He finally brings the show to an end by announcing that he has a train to catch to Scotland as it is Burns Night, and then the band launch into Richard Farina's old folk song “Pack Up Your Troubles”, which is about as Scottish as Greenwich Village, but it's a great carefree tune to go out on.
So well over 90 minutes after shuffling onto the stage the band are gone; Will Oldham the last one to be seen, shuffling towards the back of the stage, guitar still around his neck, coiling his own cables. A remarkable songwriter and showman as well; tonight we were privileged to be here. This was one of those shows that just stays with you long after it is over.
As I explained in previous posts, Friday is "mix-day" here at Slow Thrills, and today I am delighted to be hosting the first in series of guest mixes. This one is by the London-based sound artist and DJ Robin The Fog and is EXCLUSIVE to this website. I asked him to do a mix as a bit of promotional activity for his new cassette release in collaboration with Guy J Jackson, "Notes on Cow Life", as this is also the first release on his new label The Fog Signals. Well, he has done that, and so much more! The 35 minute mix includes a unique remix of some tracks from the album, as well as audio from the likes of the Focus Group, Imbogodom, Hills Have Riffs, Gum Takes Tooth, Roj, Gregory Whitehead, Ekoclef and Ken Nordine. Put some headphones on have a listen, I think it's fantastic.
So, Robin The Fog has set the bar a bit high with this, but if you would like to contribute a Friday mix please email me at slowthrillsj-blog@yahoo.co.uk. It needs to contain at least eight tracks and musically it should fit in with the overall content of the site. If you enjoyed Robin's mix, be sure to wade through his extensive website robinthefog.com, as there is plenty going on over there.
"Notes on Cow Life" by Guy J Jackson and Robin The Fog is available as a digital download or a limited cassette from The Fog Signals website.
Today I am in the land of nod after an eighteen hour shift, so there will be a slight intermission. Happily, the 405 have published an interview I did for them with François, from François and the Atlas Mountains. Click HERE to read it.
Meanwhile here's a summary of some recent reviews....
Brooklyn-based Sharon van Etten has been steadily establishing herself as a folk-rock songwriter with two fine albums, Because I Was In Love and Epic. For her third album Tramp she finds herself with a wider musical palate to work with, courtesy of producer Aaron Dessner of the National and a stream of indie-rock collaborators including Zach Condon of Beirut, and members of Wye Oak and the Walkmen.
All the pre-publicity for Tramp has dealt with the album's difficult gestation period, as it was largely written and recorded when van Etten was not in a relationship and was living a transient existence, touring and sleeping on sofas.
It initially comes across as a very bleak album and it took a few listens to click with me. Doleful and dirge-like are two words to describe this, and that isn't meant as an insult. A quick glance at the track listing shows the titles are all short, and are often just mono-syllabic words. In contrast, the overall sound of Tramp is fuller than her previous releases although Dessner's production is very subtle and this clearly isn't a National record with a female vocal. Far from it in fact. Van Etten comes across as assured though slightly fragile in her delivery, and the overall sense of bleakness is only lifted by the odd lilt in her voice and some very striking lyrics.
'Give Out' is the finest example of her lyrical craft, and much like the rest of these songs it sees her lost and alone and over-analysing her past relationships. One verse in particular in worth quoting in full,
“I’m biting my lip as confidence is speaking to me. I loosen my grip on my palm, put it on your knee. In my way, I say, you’re the reason why I’ll move to the city or why I’ll need to leave."
Those two lines in themselves are enough of a reason to investigate this album; the way that they sum up her feelings about that relationship in such brief detail is a skill rarely found outside prime-period Go-Betweens, for example.
Next track 'Serpents' is the rockiest arrangement and it works really well, and the sad but pretty 'Kevin's' brings the tempo back down. 'Leonard' is another beautiful song and her vocals weave such a great folky melody over more relationship analysis. “I am bad at loving you,” she sings on the refrain.
Her vocals are often double-tracked or accompanied and I actually think that this larger sound works well for her, although I guess some may complain that the rawness is diluted. I wouldn't agree, I don't think Tramp is an easy listen at all.
“We Are Fine”, which is essentially a duet with Beirut's Zach Condon, is musically more upbeat but the refrain of “I'm alright” seems to be coming from the perspective of a best friend or a professional counsellor, it's more a case of “we will be fine”, really.
“Magic Chords” is musically a bit different, built from basic snare drum and keyboards into a sing along refrain of “you got to lose sometimes.” It's also one of Sharon's strongest vocal performances here.
“I'm Wrong” is a gentler song which just floats without any rhythm track to anchor it; the lyrics are adrift with daydreams about someone else, she is letting us hear her thinking aloud.
There is an old adage about albums "growing on you" or "warranting repeated listens". In my experience this is very true of Tramp. Brutally honest and self-analytical, it sounds best when you are on your own late at night. I'm reminded of that old discussion about “who sings better in the dark?” The answer, at the moment, is Sharon van Etten.
