A Song for the Day #18

Getting slack with these.. going to get it sorted!

Today’s track comes from the rather wonderful Sharon Van Etten and her new album titled Are We There.  The Song is called ‘Taking Chances’ and is the first single to be taken from the album that is due for release on May 26th.

I’m a big fan of Sharon’s and am really pleased that the new album, although a grower, is as good as her previous work.  Much like the album Serpents, I expect that in a live setting is where Are We There will really shine and come to life.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the song and be sure to give the album a go when it’s released at the end of the month.

Future Islands – Sound Control, Manchester – 08/05/04

Being a front-man of a band is a difficult job, they can make or break a group, bring a show to life or leave it feeling flat.  All eyes are usually focused that way and luckily for Future Islands they have a naturally gifted one in the form of Samuel T Herring.

Everything about the day was going badly for me.  I wasn’t feeling great, I fell asleep before the show and missed the support act, ‘Ed Schrader’s Music Beat’ that I had wanted to see and having arrived at the venue as Future Islands started and upon going to my pocket to hand over my ticket, I realised it had come out on my short walk over.  Thankfully the venue let me in though and I only ended up missing the first track.  Still, not a great start

Sound Control was absolutely packed and it was pretty impossible to break through the wall of people at the back of the venue, so I took the best position I could and viewed from there.  The guy in front of me was strangely watching the bands performance on Letterman on his phone, whilst the actual band were performing right there in front of him, but outside of that, the rest of the audience seemed pretty into it.

A Conversation With Arc Iris

Since first hearing it only little under a month ago, the debut self titled lp from Arc Iris has been one of my most listened to albums.  I was already looking forward to the show, but when the opportunity arose to sit down with the band for a chat, I jumped at it.  This was the first time that they have appeared together as a band in Manchester and only their second show in Europe.

The original plan was for me to meet with the band before the show but after a delayed sound check and with a few things to do, it was requested to take place once the show was done.  Once complete and after I’d had a brief chat with the drummer, Ray, and a slightly longer chat with the classically trained cellist, Robin, in which we discussed how she had spent her last three years in Afghanistan having opened a music venue over there as well as a couple of other ventures, I got to have a chat with the vocalist and creator of the group, Jocie Adams.

A Song for the Day #17

I’ve been having a bit of a listen to some of the submissions in my inbox again today and stumbled across a band from Liverpool.

The band are named ‘The Vibes’ and play with an interesting classic rock & roll sound that is still pretty raw but definitely has potential.  The track that I’ve selected is from their debut self titled e.p. and is called ‘Find Another Man’ and hugely reminds me of the early ‘Black Keys’ track ‘Girl is on My Mind’

You can hear the whole E.P at this link (https://thevibes2.bandcamp.com/album/the-vibes-ep), but track ‘Find Another Man’ is available to listen to below.

Arc Iris – Night & Day, Manchester – 02/05/14

This was one of those occasions where you discover a band, really enjoy what you hear and then spot that they’re about to head out on tour.  I love when it happens because you end up being more excited for the show than normal (at least I do).

With the plan to interview the band after the sound check, I arrived at the venue at 6.30, a lot earlier than I would usually arrive for a show. Whilst watching the support, Nicole Atkins, I felt like I recognised the drummer and later learnt that it was current Bad Seed, Jim Sclavunos, which made me feel a little like I was amongst musical royalty.

A Song for the Day #16

It’s rare that I check my twitter dm’s, there’s too many automatic “Hey! Thanks for following me!” that appear for me to properly check through them.  So it was completely by chance that I spotted that the band ’36?’ had messaged me.

They describe themselves as a fuzzy indie-psych candy from Calgary, and who I am to disagree? They’ve got their entire album available to listen to in the the player below, but it was the track ‘Soul Searching’ that stood out for me.

Give it a listen and if you like it, give the album a listen!  I liked bits and bobs of what I heard, but I’ll properly check it out soon.

 

A Song for the Day #15

I’ve been trawling through my emails for a good half hour or so and nothing has really grabbed my attention yet..

However, whilst looking I spotted that the band ‘Abe’, who I have previously done a post about, had emailed me to let me know that they now had an official video for one of the tracks off their debut EP.  It served as a reminder that I really liked the EP and so I figured I’d give them another shout.

Have a listen and a watch of the video for the song ‘Dark & Sweet’ below.  It looks like it’s running along a melted ‘Nobbly Bobbly’ Ice Cream to me!

Blood Red Shoes – Club Academy, Manchester – 28/04/14

The acts chosen to support Blood Red Shoes on this tour should set the precedent on how to choose the correct bands to compliment the main act and further increase the audiences interest in a particular genre.  The genre in question being that of a two piece alternative rock one.

Australian duo, DZ Deathrays were the first act of the night.  I only caught the last four tracks that they did and they did enough to make me want to check them out.  They sounded a little different to the other two acts of the night and although they cheated the theme by using a second guitarist on the final track of their set, they brought an interesting few tracks to the table.

Slaves followed and although not really the kind of stuff that I’d usually listen to at home, they were hugely entertaining.  From the stories and jokes that they told, to the energy and effort that they put into performing their songs, Isaac, the drummer and vocalist, had a ton of charisma and a great chemistry with the guitarist Laurie.  One track that stood out for me, titled ‘Where’s Your Car Debbie?’ was introduced with a story about how they had believed there was a sasquatch living in the local woods when they were younger.  There was a song about girls fighting and plenty of chatting between the short songs.  Steven from Blood Red even ran out from the side of the stage at one point during the final track to join in with the vocal as Laura watched on from the sound booth next to the stage.  The small group of people that were jumping around, singing every word,  grew larger as the band played through their set and gave them a huge applause as they departed the stage.

A Song for the Day #14

I’ve not really been posting one of these each day, but now is the time to get back on track.

Today’s track comes from the Swedish band The Amazing and their 2011 album Gentle Stream.  The track is called ‘The Fog’ and is one of decent tracks from that album.  There wasn’t any kind of music video for the song on YouTube,so I’ve gone for a live version, but it’s just as good.

I got into the band purely by accident.  I was shopping at FOPP in Manchester a couple of years back and they just happened to be playing the CD over the speakers and it was good enough to warrant inquiring what it was and then purchasing it.  I’ve not managed to see them live yet, but with a new album due this year, I’m hoping it won’t be too long before I can see them.

Anyway, I hope you enjoy the choice.  Stick with it, it’s a builder upper!

Brody Dalle – Academy 2, Manchester – 22/04/14

Brody Brody Brody.. what happened here, hey?  After a near 5 year break since her Spinerette album and 11 since the last Distillers record, Brody Dalle has returned with a new solo album Diploid Love and tour in support of it.

This was a show that I was looking forward to.  I had always been a fan of The Distillers but had never actually managed to catch them live whilst they were about, so potentially getting to see some of the tracks was the most appealing reason to go.  I arrived at the venue just in time to catch the last few songs of the Australian support act ‘Beaches’.  They were an all-female four piece, that weren’t all that bad to listen to but weren’t all that special either and closely resembled the sound of Hole.

Timber Timbre – Roadhouse, Manchester – 17/04/14

As much as I love Timber Timbre, I was hugely sceptical about how good they were going to be before going into this show.  I had seen the Taylor Kirk front band twice before this occasion and both times had walked away pretty unimpressed from what I’d seen.

Working against the group on this occasion, was the choice of venue.  I’ve never been a fan of The Roadhouse and had actually managed to avoid going there for a number of years.  If you’re not there early you spend the show either looking at the back of someone’s head or behind one of the many walls and pillars blocking the view to the stage.  For this reason, I got down early and caught the entire act of the support act,

Thee Oh Sees – Drop

I was always taught that the pillar that steadies great journalism is unwavering objectivity, and music reviewing is no different. When conducting a verdict you’ve got to look at an album as a standalone piece, opinions cannot be edged in favour because the buzz of their record released two years previous is still whirring around your skull. With this in mind, reviewing San Francisco quartet Thee Oh Sees is a situation where this mantra must be unyielding; mainly because frontman John Dwyer has been fronting approximately 7000 bands since 1996, all of which have pioneered the psych-garage genre in one way or another.

It seems to me that Thee Oh Sees acts as Dwyer’s experimental punching bag project, a melding of all the ideas he’s been incubating throwing themselves against the inner layer of his head, like a mental patient against a padded cell, and because of this, Drop’s influences are overtly present. In some instances it’s as if we can hear what Dwyer was listening to on his iPod on the ride over to the studio.

An Introduction to Ben Kweller

Ben Kweller was one of the acts that benefited from the early noughties anti-folk movement.  Around that time he was held in high regard along with the likes of Adam Green, The Moldy Peaches and Jeffrey Lewis.

Back in 2006, I remember seeing him in the Night & Day cafe with Kate Nash in support.  From that point things seemed to flip for Ben, as she unfairly went on to become a huge artist while Kweller faded into relative obscurity.  At least over here in Britain anyway.  He was an artist that I had actually forgotten about myself until I heard the song ‘Out The Door‘ in the fantastic movie ‘The Way Way Back‘.  It comes from the album Go Fly a Kite that was released back in 2012 and although not quite on par with his earlier stuff, it’s still a really decent album.

A Song for the Day #13

With this being the thirteenth entry, I thought I’d go for a huge favourite of mine, a song titled ‘Thirteen’ by Elliott Smith.

The song was originally written and performed by the group Big Star and has been covered a number of times since its release in 1972.  I’ve only ever heard the original and Elliott’s version, but it’s one of my favourite tracks that Elliott Smith did.  It was available to find online a little before the New Moon album was released, but you fan find it on that posthumous record that features 24 previously unreleased tracks.

Green Man 2014 lineup

 

Having been born in Wales and living there for 27 years, along with the fact that I usually like the lineup at the Brecon Beacons festival, it might come as a surprise that I have never actually attended Green Man.

This year however, is when that will hopefully come to an end.  With each announcement that has taken place, my want for attending has increased.  As recurring readers of the blog/twitter may already be aware, there’s at least 25 bands on that lineup poster that I would want to go see.  The End of the Road festival usually has the best lineup in the UK each year for me, but this year I think it the Welsh festival has mostly equaled and in some cases even bettered it.

I hear a lot of positive things about Green Man, location and the general feel of the festival being the usual aspects praised.  The event isn’t sold out yet but I can’t see that remaining the case for too long.  Tickets are priced at £166 for standard adults (with booking fee) and can be bought from here – http://www.seetickets.com/event/green-man-festival/glanusk-park-brecon/767345

Manchester Orchestra – Club Academy, Manchester – 11/04/14

Most of the time when you really enjoy a gig, it’s down to the energy and the performance of the band.  Sometimes, it’s the crowd that take the show to that next level and really carry the night.  Manchester Orchestra managed to combine and orchestrate (sorry) the two terrifically.

I wasn’t a big fan of the Georgian five piece going into this night.  I’d seen them once before supporting Kings of Leon at the G-mex back in 2007 and wasn’t hugely impressed by them, however, after giving the latest album Cope a listen in the week leading up to the show I was optimistic that I’d at least enjoy them a little bit this time around.

A Song for the Day #12

Today’s song comes from a band that I only discovered on Thursday and excitingly, this is the first time I’m attempting to do an update from my Ipad (in preparation for Primavera).

They’re called Arc Iris and their debut self titled album was released at the start of April.  The band is led by Jocie Adams, formally of the Low Anthem, and covers so many different styles over the course of the album that it’s impossible to pigeon hole them into one genre.

The song I’ve chosen is called ‘Canadian Cowboy’ and has been stuck in my head since I first heard it.  It’s a piano driven number that builds and grows as the track goes on, gradually introducing various instruments before utilising them all for the final couple of minutes.  The album is full of great songs and it tends to be the longer ones on there that stand out the most with this track being my current favourite.  It was between this and the track ‘Swimming’ for today’s choice, but this one comes with a nice little video.

If you enjoy it, definitely check out the record! It’s certainly different to anything else that I’ve heard this year and I highly recommend it.

‘Too Many Blogs’ in The Guardian

Yesterday, a piece that I wrote for The Guardian a few weeks back was featured on their website.  You can read the article at the link just below or alternatively, just read it all in this post by clicking the ‘Continue Reading’ button.  I hope you enjoy it!  I was pretty made up with it.

http://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2014/apr/09/10-of-the-best-musical-side-projects

A Song for the Day #11

After all the excitement of being featured on The Guardian music website yesterday, it’s back to normality.

Today’s track is from an artist that only has one ep  to his name so far, titled Berlin.  His name is Ry Cuming, otherwise known as Ry X and he became pretty well known for a month or so because of the title track from the ep, ‘Berlin’, which was featured on some TV advert around Christmas time.

Vocally, Ry reminds me a little of Guy Garvey slash Justin Vernon and the ep is made up of four tracks of acoustic and electro folk.  He played in Manchester at the Salford Church (a great little venue) in February and unfortunately I didn’t find out about it until the day after it had taken place which hugely disappointed me.

The song below is called ‘Shortline’ and is three minutes of acoustic, atmospheric, haunting loveliness before growing in the final minutes into a bit of an unexpected electric guitar driven loud noise.  My description doesn’t do it any justice.  Just stop reading and click play on the little youtube box, listen to it, it’s great!

Avey Tare’s Slasher Flicks – Enter The Slasher House

Among enthusiasts, the general consensus is that slasher movies are a lost art. The horrific violence and over the top dramatics have been adored by blood thirsty adolescents since the 80s but have yet since declined. Similarly, Avey Tare’s tactlessly named supergroup of Dirty Projectors and Pony Tail alumni fails to provide any real thrill, and the occasional glimpse of sensation is ironically sullied by poorly executed production; comparable to a fair haunted house where what you thought was a murderous succubus stalking your every move was actually your own distorted shadow because the operator forgot to fix the curtain.

Within the Animal Collective dynamic Tare played the role of disruptor while Panda Bear retained order and jovial appeal, like the ying and yang of art-pop. Left to his own devices and on his second official endeavour, Tare indulges in himself too far, saturating tracks with gloopy effects and souring melodies leaving the listener feeling bloated and off-balance. And his vocals suffer as well, the spontaneity and cascading charism of Tare’s voice is frequently fogged by over-zealous instrumental layering.

A Song for the Day #10

After a unintentional break, I have a new song for you.

Today’s song comes from the husband & wife music making team, Decent Lovers.  Based in Providence, Rhode Island, the duo are an experimental pop outfit that have been likened to the sounds of Foals, Animal Collective and Tom Vek.  Below is their newest single ‘Compromising Young Thing’ and it’s a rather catchy number with the band describing it in the following way – “It’s got chunky autoharp over vintage Moog synth/bass and fun beats”.

It’s short and punchy and definitely worth a listen.  The band have opened for the likes of Foster the People, Darwin Deez & Danielson in the past and are one that I’ll certainly be keeping an eye on.

Elijah (The husband of the group) provided me with one other single which has been featured in NME as well as on various other online publications and I really like this song too.  It’s called ‘Keep It Together’ and can be found here – https://soundcloud.com/decentlovers/keep-it-together

Enjoy!!

An Introduction to The National (lesser known tracks)

The National are the biggest band that I will have done one of these ‘an introduction to’ posts about.  Everyone who currently likes and knows of the band will have definitely heard the likes of Alligator, Boxer, High Violet  & Trouble Will Find Me but what I’m going to concentrate on in this post is the B-Sides and lesser known tracks that are as good as anything else that they’ve released.

The reason that I chose to cover The National for this edition was because after waiting a year to see their documentary Mistaken for Strangers, I finally got to see it last week.  It’s as good as I hoped and Matt’s brother, Tom, completely steals the show, coming out with various pieces of humourous dialogue over the course of the 70 minute long movie.  The band are easily one of my favourite current bands and I’ve managed to catch them live around seven times now.

A Song for the Day #9

I had a day of listening to stuff that I hadn’t listened to for ages during work today, which is why my choice may seem a little random.

When this album first came out, I expected absolutely nothing from it.  I was working at HMV at the time and, if anything, put the record on partly for novelty value and partly out of curiosity.  The album is Anywhere I Lay My Head by Scarlett Johansson.. yep, the actress Scarlett Johansson.  If you know nothing about it, the album is eleven Tom Waits tracks, covered by Scarlett herself and even features Mr David Bowie on a couple of the numbers.

My first impressions of the release weren’t great.  She doesn’t have the greatest voice and at the time I wasn’t that sure about Tom Waits either.  However, as time has passed, I’ve come to really enjoy the album, and despite not listening to it for at least two years I actually really enjoyed it when I gave it another listen today.

Below is my favourite song off the lp, ‘Falling Down’ featuring David Bowie.  It was a close call between this one and the title track as to what to choose for the post, but this won because of the Bowie factor.  Anyway, enjoy, and if you get a chance, go see Johansson’s latest movie ‘Under the Skin’, it’s arty and strange but it’s very enjoyable.

A Song for the Day #8

The song today is another that I’ve picked up from my inbox and is another that really surprised me with how much I enjoyed it.

It’s called ‘Albatross’ off the Samuel the Phoenix EP and comes from the Canadian band Dark Mean. Musically the band are a folky kind of outfit with some warm melodies, light drumming and occasional horns mixed with the raspy vocals of frontman Mark that remind me very heavily of Rancid’s Tim Armstrong.

After a little research online it appears that the band have released this record off the back of a small hiatus, which makes the email that they sent me a little more understandable. “We’ve released a new EP, but the truth is this: we’re not going on tour, we’re not going to try and get “signed”, and we may not even play a release show.” they state.  Well, if you do ever tour and head toward to the UK, up Manchester way, give me a shout!

You can hear the rest of the release at the groups bandcamp account – http://darkmean.com/

The Best Releases of the Year, Jan – Mar

We’re only 3 months into the year of 2014 and it’s looking like a great one for music with some really top class albums released.  I thought I’d put together a little list of the best music that’s been released in the opening quarter as a little guide to some albums that you may have missed (considering that two of these albums were released today).  This is listed in chronological order, starting at today’s releases.

As I did with my end of year lists, I’ve included what I consider to be the best song from the album below the description of each entry.  You’ll also find a lovely little Spotify playlist that I’ve been compiling as the year goes on at the very bottom of the post.

We should be getting a very good second quarter of music too, with releases coming from Conor Oberst, Eels, Brody Dalle, Hamilton Leithauser, The Horrors, Owen Pallet, Kishi Bashi, Black Keys, Jolie Holland, Coldplay, Sharon Van Etten and the long awaited comeback album from The Afghan Whigs.  I must admit, I’m pretty excited for it all.

A Song for the Day #7

Something a little different to what I usually post for my song today.

I’ve always been a pretty big fan of Nine Inch Nails, dating back to my days as a sixteen year old kid who loved Coal Chamber, Spineshank and Linkin Park, etc.  There’s not many bands that I still listen to from then, but NiN are one where I still look out for new releases and will go see them when they tour.  They’ve got a pretty large back catalogue with nine albums being released over a 25 year period and plenty of great songs.

The track below is from Hesitation Marks which was released last year.  Although it’s not the greatest thing that Trent Reznor has released, it still has a few pretty decent tunes on there.  ‘Copy of A’ is one of the better tracks but ‘Came Back Haunted’ is my favourite.  It’s a pretty good track for a Friday anyway and a pretty good song to ease yourself in if you’re not too familiar with Nine Inch Nails.

Below the video you can find a Best of NiN that I put together a while back on my personal Spotify account.  Feel free to follow it or check out one of the many other playlists I’ve made.

Wild Beasts – Albert Hall, Manchester – 26/03/14

Wild Beasts are a band who are slightly growing and evolving their sound with each record that they release.  The likes of ‘Wanderlust’ and the closing couple of minutes on track ‘Daughters’ are moments that possibly wouldn’t have come into existence pre Present Tense. With that in mind, the live show is evolving as well, growing in stature as the group themselves grow in popularity.

This was the fifth time that I’ve seen the group over the last few years and although there was a few of the old favourites missing from the set, this occasion was certainly the most accomplished that I’ve seen the boys from Kendal.  The stage set up differed to previous times, with vocalists Hayden and Tom no longer facing each other when at their respective set of keys, as well as having a half segmented half moon set up behind them that lit up in all kinds of different colours.  More effort had been put into the light show as well and with the inclusion of lasers (yes, LASERS) the effects rather enhanced the show.

Howler – World of Joy

Listening to the sophomore record of this Minneapolis four piece was a throwback for me. Following the sultry wipe-out of their debut America Give Up, World of Joy is a fresher, more authentic take on organically grown garage rock. The faint scent of mildew and cracked paint crept into my cerebrum and I was transported back into my school’s claptrap practice rooms. 5 watt amps and broke-arse covers of Nirvana were the order of the day, it sounded abysmal but we were just stoked that we could actually make music; bands like Howler were founded on this philosophy.World of Joy  is a unrelenting record for the curb-sitters and the dishevelled, past and present.

At only twenty-eight minutes long, Howler race through this album at a blistering velocity, tearing through tracks like Hulk Hogan tore through yellow tank-tops in the 80s. From the first disjointed chord crunches on ‘Al’s Corral’Howler are channeling some more visceral punk icons while remaining true to the sham-surf domain that they established back in 2011, think of it as Raw Power for the more sensitive age.

A Song for the Day #6

I spent last night working through the 40 odd unread emails that I have been sent recently in hopes of finding something to write about for today. After around 15 emails in of reading and listening to the songs that the emails had recommended, something grabbed my attention.

Today’s track comes from the Sheffield band, Abe.  I ended up listening to the entire E.P and actually really enjoyed it.  I couldn’t find much about them online so I can’t provide much more information about them, however, the track ‘You Are Me’ is the final song off their debut release, Heave-Ho, and probably stood out to me the most.  If you’re a fan of Wild Beasts then this band should be right up your street, the vocals are very reminiscent of Hayden Thorpe’s and although clearly influenced by the band, they create a sound that entirely justifies the comparison.

Check out ‘You Are Me’ below and if you like it, hear the rest of the Heave-Ho E.P here – http://abesmusic.bandcamp.com/

A Song for the Day #5

Today’s choice comes from the 2010 Becoming a Jackal album by the band Villagers.  There’s really not a bad track on the album so choosing the song was actually quite tough.  The band have released one more album since, 2013’s Awayland which was good, but not quite on par with the debut effort.

Not much more left to say, give it a listen and enjoy!