Sorry for the lack of posts recently, I have been a busy boy. I'm in a massive hurry so I'm going to keep the chat to a minimum and the music to the max.
At the moment I'm mainly loving the discordant joys of the Dresden Dolls. Their songs include every ear jarring chord known to man, but some how manage to combine them in such a way as to end up with enchantingly edgy musical masterpieces.
Moving in a completely different direction, I have been meaning to write about Tellison for ages. I saw them at the Huckster Club in London a while back and was very impressed. Here are a few videos to wet your appetite.
Above: Tellison Tour Montage A La New York Below: Tellison - Reader
Since I'm here I may as well mention that Scouting For Girls next single 'She's so Lovely' is out next Monday. The video is below, go and buy it!
As if all of this isn't enough, we're sponsoring another event!
Firstly, apologies that it’s so long since my last post; I’ve been on holiday, graduated, went on holiday again and been job hunting since we last spoke!
I’m going to jump straight in with tales of the Umbria Jazz Festival in Perugia. Expectations were high, following a solid performance by Sergio Mendes at last year’s festival. I hadn’t had time to check the lineup, so arrived not knowing what to expect. The band we saw is called Funk Off. Wow, they were sensational. This 15 piece band (verging on full orchestra) is known for playing Jazz on the streets of Italy. On their website it is said that Funk Off are "probably the most exciting street band in Italy at the moment". This is contender for understatement of the year. Unwilling to confine themselves to a stage, the band snuck around the back of the audience in the town square and started the set whist marching through the audience, in to the back stage area, finishing the song on stage to rapturous applause. Carnival atmosphere and spectacular, free flowing jazz followed. This band is a unique visual and aural phenomenon, which you have to experience to appreciate.
Below is a 45 second clip of a street performance at the festival, followed by an 8 minute long full parade for those of you with more stamina!
Having returned from Italy, my next stop was the equally glamorous Derby, where I was impressed by Komakino and The Strand Arcade. Myspace links are below so you can check them out for yourselves. Derby seems to have a habit at the moment of generating a lot of very good indie bands, all of which seem to struggle in obtaining excellence. Hopefully these bands will have what it takes to break that habit.
After a disappointing day of trudging through wind and rain to watch mediocre performances from a bunch of bands currently being hyped to death by Radio One, and staring in boredom at one-hit crazes, unable to sing along, I stumbled into a small, semi-crowded room feeling cold, miserable and in need of pizza. A band I’d not heard of was about to play and I decided to join the other 5 people waiting patiently for them to begin. Expecting more disappointment I began to send a text as they started their set. Poor guys, no-one wants to play to an empty room. But as I began to listen I was hit with a joyous sense of relief, and I’m guessing I wasn’t alone as by the end of the first song all the people who had previously been milling around the bar, ignorant of the band quietly setting up in a dark corner, were now crowded behind me and I was pressed against the barriers. In a thick Glaswegian accent the singer shouted “WE… ARE… THE PHYSIIIIIICS!”
40 minutes of rehearsed, perfectly timed, madness followed. Self described as ‘mutant science punk rock’ their sound leaps from poppy punk to an Interpol-esque darkness, and jumps, stomps and thrashes about along all the stages in between. Lyrically, We Are The Physics aren’t trying to change the world; just simple yet fun and quirky lines delivered among various shouts, screams and Buddy Holly style hiccups. They embrace the catchy riffs and musical make-up of The Futureheads, only to fuse it with the craziness and electronic zaps of guitar reminiscent of Melt Banana and the fast, excited rhythms of Polysics. Their combination of dark guitar, poppy melodies and catchy drumming, with the quality of their performance is sure to set We Are The Physics up for greater things. Rehearsed to perfection and completely in sync with each other as lead singer Michael jumped around the stage, confident but not arrogant, and executed humorous tomfoolery with faultless comic timing. After the gig my companions and I all agreed that these guys had put on such a performance that they alone made up for the festival ticket price, and as students paying £25 that’s some feat.
Above: Vanity. The split single “Fear of Words/Vanity” is currently available to buy.
We Are The Physics are signed to small Glaswegian label One Records, have just finished touring with Art Brut and have also recently supported Vincent Vincent & the Villains and Polysics. With two singles already released and an album in the pipeline all that is left is to wait with anticipation to see where these guys end up, and to support them along the way at as many gigs as possible of course!
Check them out on their myspace (although it doesn’t do their live performance justice):
As for my final thought… for any ladies reading this, I never thought I’d say that guys in school uniform are a turn on, but trust me; lead singer Michael looks undeniably hot! ;-)
"The Needles the Space" is the second full-length album form Long Island quartet Straylight Run, following their 2004 debut self-titled LP and 2005 EP "Prepare to Be Wrong".
The album starts off with "The Words We Say", a soft, mid-tempo track that would not be out of place on Radiohead's "The Bends" album, and from the first verse the intertwining harmonies of the Nolan siblings, John and Michelle, which have become one of the hallmarks of Straylight Run's sound, are demonstrated to the listener, with great effect. The album is a progression in many ways for the band, not only in terms of being their first release since parting company with Victory Records, having now signed with the Universal Republic label, but also role-wise within the band, with Michelle now taking a fuller part vocally in the band than in previous Straylight releases - highlighted by her lead performances on the tracks "The Miracle That Never Came", "How Do I fix My Head?", "Cover Your Eyes", "Still Alone" and "This Is The End". This is however not to understate John's impetus in the band and the record. His impressive vocal range and powerful delivery are showcased in many songs on the album, in particular the lead single from the album "Soon We'll Be Living In The Future". This song, sure to become a fan favourite is physically impossible to not tap feet and sing along to after just one listen.
Musically too "Needles The Space" is a progression for Straylight Run, with a wide range of styles, beats and instrumentation, relying less heavily on the piano to drive their songs than on their previous works. For example the album features a polka-like feel in part of the song "Still Alone", as well as various tracks including parts played by cellos, clarinets, mandolins, trombones, saxophones and trumpets, as well as the standard piano, guitar, bass and drum line-up. This is not to say that the album is a an over-produced affair, with some songs, such as "Buttoned Down" and "Cover Your Eyes" being very much stripped down with little more than vocals and acoustic guitar. The lyrical content also is wide-ranging, leaving the listener intrigued to listen over again.
"The Needles the Space" is certainly a more technically advanced record than the band's previous work and many of the songs are significantly differently sounding than a lot of their previous material, whilst at the same time the record should still appeal to the bands existing fan-base as well enable them to gain more new fans. It is also one of those records that is good on a first listen, but is improved by every subsequent play thorough, which reveals new things that had previously not been noted by the listener, which is what turns a good record into a great record.
I’m a very happy man. Editors are my favourite band of the last couple of years and, with this their second album, have produced the masterpiece of which I knew they were capable. ‘An End Has A Start’ transcends their debut ‘The Back Room’, in all areas. Building on that solid foundation of songcraft, and using the lessons learnt to explore their abilities and reaching out for new clarity and expression.
Editors announced their arrival on the music scene in 2005 with the maxim “we’re misery on the dancefloor”, and it served them brilliantly. The stream of singles which Kitchenware Records kept unleashing in their concerted effort to put Editors’ name on everybody’s lips, were consistent in that intent. Like the very best dance music, Editors are rhythmically complex yet sublimely simple. Tom Smith’s deadpan yet mournful vocal delivery, using much repeat phrasing so reminiscent of that indie-dance granddaddy, New Order’s ‘Blue Monday’, fuses perfectly with the angular, sustain-drenched guitar lines dripping from Chris Urbanowicz’s black Rickenbacker. Everything else serves to drive home this dancefloor message, and like all the best things of outward immediacy, the true complexity behind this band, the swelling choruses, lyrics full of hope in despair, are there to be discovered when you’re intently listening to it at home and away from the club.
For my money, Editors have the same musical juxtaposition that The Smiths possessed – the inspired fusing of soaringly beautiful guitars and morose lyrical subject matter. But here, Morrissey’s Mancunian matter-of-factness gives way to a searching lyricism that sounds like myth being created before your ears. Here are lyrics that seem so profound they might echo through time, even if you’ve only just heard them. This, to me, is perhaps the single biggest reason this band get compared to Joy Division, because outside of a certain similarity to Ian Curtis’ own faux-monumental wordplay, they share little in common. The overall sound is very different, with the sparse claustrophobia of Martin Hannett’s production eclipsed by the overwhelming sound we have here. Where Joy Division were emasculated urban alienation, Editors are entirely at home, gushing with all the emotions of 2007 in every chorus.
Here is truly a band who not only how to write a chorus but show it off too. The skill of arrangement these days often seems like a lost art, the MTV-friendly loud/soft aesthetic being all-pervasive since ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ ruled everything. Instead, here is a band who, with producer Jacknife Lee, sculpt songs with swelling reverb fields of guitars or bass, judicious use of multitrack dubbing or, when required, simple silence. Even the gap between songs sounds measured and intentional.
Above: Smokers Outside The Hospital Doors
The drumming on this album deserves a new paragraph. It’s like this all too easily ignored instrument goes through a journey on each song, building from gently tom-tom pattering to some of the most urgent, driving drumming I’ve heard for years. We might journey from crisp precise Bloc Party-esque beats to a spacious wash to match the build-up of the guitar parts. This is an epic record, with the entire band playing equal parts and the drummer no less equal.
In recent interviews, the band themselves were talking along much the same lines. The debut album had the songs, but this time they’ve managed to somehow bottle more of their incandescent live feel and that unique sculpted wall of sound they project. They sound like they enjoyed every second of making it too – the bastards.
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