Thursday 31 December 2009

2009 Closing Credits

So as The Replacements trample upon the very idea that riotous, raw, distorted songs can't include pathos and humour, it's with delight I say that 2009 is probably the year I got this music thing. Yeah, I'm starting to get to grips with it. The form, the expression, the development, the history, the future, the past, the importance, the artistic and the throwaway. It's an incredible form of communication which can cause joy, fear, laughter and arguments to end relationships. It's a fascinating journey through psyches probably as densely packed and dangerous as our own. There have been some incredible records released this year, some intense and personally affecting performances and a whole heap of good and bad news of all types. Music and all it encompasses continues to fluctuate like the very soundwaves it is made of. If anything simulates the real violent punctuation of human life, it's music. That's why I've devoted a lot of my life to it. It's a way of helping to understand me and others.

I've got a few ambitious ideas for the future. Hopefully the seeds will be planted in 2010. I've got two exciting events planned already - one is my first trip to SxSW (hence my alphabetical guide to the bands playing which you can find here: http://everysinglerevolution.blogspot.com/2009/12/sxsw-beginners-guide-1.html)
which will hopefully take in a trip to Mexico and Argentina along the way. The second is the highly anticipated Pavement ATP in May. As for work, well it's too early to say but I'll never rule out the idea that I'll be the one to save music journalism. NEVER.

Happy New Year to pretty much everyone.

Wednesday 30 December 2009

Articles of 2009 - #1 Sonic Youth


With less than 48 hours left of 2009, I can finally reveal (to this lonely audience of pretty much myself) my favourite article and interview of 2009. Given the opportunity to interview Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo - twice, once on the phone and once in person - might as well be the climax of my writing intentions. Getting Sonic Youth on the cover of a magazine may as well signal the end of my fiery passion to contribute cover stories to magazines. It didn't, but it felt at the time as if I'd done everything I'd set out to do. Why? Because this band represent ground zero for music to me. Everything that I admire and adore in my favourite bands stem from the experimental and commercial achievements of this New York quartet. Their seamless blending of art and music, music and noise has been inspirational since my first listen. Every album has something to cling to, or rather something to springboard from. The one thing SY seem incapable of is standing still. It would be churlish of me to say they can do no wrong...so fuck it, they can do no wrong. If thirty years down the line I could write and disseminate anywhere near as well as they craft and play, I'd be the happiest man that ever lived. Every time I feel like giving up, they remind me there's no substance in failure and that each mistake is merely a lesson learned or something to be embraced, because it's still part of you no matter how hard you try and ignore it. Pushing headlong into something because you feel it's right is the only way forward, even if it means alienating hordes of people forever. Sonic Youth are continually unafraid to be unafraid. Meeting them in person only confirmed this - with Thurston standing up halfway through and leafing through the books on the shelf and handing some tomes out to his bandmates to flick through, Lee and Thurston's discussion about my Pac Man-related t-shirt - they seem to be consistently learning and passing on what they learn. If I can carry this into 2010, as I hope I've done every year, then this article will have been worth the paper it was printed on and the time I took up organising it, writing it and the time the band and PR gave up in order for this to happen.

Sonic Youth: even the name sounds like vital intent – Playmusic Pickup gets the opportunity to talk to guitarists/vocalists Thurston Moore and Lee Ranaldo about leaving a major label and the renewed freedom expressed in The Eternal.

Imagine, if you will, hundreds, thousands of lines all intersecting at one point then spreading out again to places unknown. Now, think of each line before the intersection as a different form of rock music, all from different roots and ideas. When we reach the intersection the lines that spill forth from it represent completely different branches of rock and guitar-based music: post-punk, grunge, metal and everything inbetween.
This intersecting of lines, apart from looking pretty and complex, is also rare. You can count them on the two hands in front of you. The one we’re interested in though is formed from a group of individuals in New York around the most fertile time of post-punk artistry and the resulting creative and short-lived explosion dubbed, sarcastically, as No Wave.
It’s hard to adequately explain how much Sonic Youth have done in their 27 year career to change popular music. Perhaps the easiest way would be to say this: it’d be pretty difficult to imagine Kurt Cobain making such a prominent, head-turning racquet – and having the confidence to do so – without Thurston Moore, Lee Ranaldo, Kim Gordon and Steve Shelley’s influence. Sonic Youth were already seven albums in when they started making waves on MTV with their grunge-slacker-inspired video for Dirty Boots on Universal owned subsidiary Geffen Records. In their time for independent labels they had come from a minimalist and experimental sonic background, before moving on to noise sound collages, vicious atonality and gradually incorporating psychedelic and lengthy, spaced out noise passages in otherwise melodic rock songs. By the time grunge had hit, they had already started moving on from the straightforward rock template they had accidentally established with 1990’s Goo and 1992’s Dirty.
With their 16th studio album, Sonic Youth are at a turning point in their distinguished output. The point is that, after 16 years on a major label, they are back on an independent: the much-celebrated Matador Records. Far from being reticent about talking of their former label, as he towers over me, even when he’s sitting, Thurston Moore seems reluctant to stop talking.
“One has millions and millions of capital…and one does not,” he starts, grinning, before continuing. “Matador has a good sense of taste and actual aesthetics whereas major labels tend to get mired down in too much and they release a lot of stuff that you can’t imagine they are really behind.”
Sonic Youth signed to Geffen Records after unsatisfactory stints on independents, unable to offer proper distribution for their records. Thurston explains that Geffen was “a nice little factory” where friends and respected professionals all congregated, including those involved with legendary label SST (started by Greg Ginn, guitarist of pioneering hardcore band Black Flag). Unfortunately the homely feel didn’t last long.
“David Geffen himself left a year or so after we signed with them. Within two years everyone we’d worked with was gone. Just gone. It was all over but we had a long-term contract and we kinda played it out.” Sonic Youth stayed with the Universal owned Geffen until 2006 and released nine albums through them.
“It was pretty unsatisfying over a number of years. We knew that was the risk, it could’ve been worse, it could’ve been better,” shrugs Thurston. “We never spent that much money, we maintained our dignity through the whole thing. There was a core audience there. I think, if anything, when you’re on a label that has a certain vapidity to it, that doesn’t do you any service. I don’t like buying records that I’m kind of interested in on those labels because I don’t like those labels. So that became a little worrisome and I was only too happy to see it end.”
Despite the ‘big labels are bad’ rhetoric, Sonic Youth never let business interfere with their work, keeping a low profile and releasing fairly consistent releases throughout the nineties and early 00s.
“I think we were always maintaining a progression with our work but there was a little bit of a stink on us because of them. At the same time there were some people there who would’ve loved to have seen us succeed but our music is difficult to work with,” admits Thurston. “The industry had changed, there was no such thing as artist development anymore. That still existed when we signed to Geffen but that died really fast and it was all about: ‘if your record doesn’t do a certain amount of business in one week…’”
“They’re on to you, and you’re dropped,” laughs Lee Ranaldo, silver mained, intelligent foil to Thurston’s firecracker humour. “It’s a really stupid system, a really stupid way to judge anything.”
“We got health insurance. It definitely has its merits,” smirks Thurston.
There are no reservations as to what they think about leaving the label though. Thurston tells it like it is: “It’s like being let out of prison after years and years.”
“It feels great,” reckons Lee. “It’s moving from this big corporate entity where music seemed almost like a tangential issue to moving to a place where everyone’s super interested in what they’re doing, super knowledgable about the music super excite to have us and is a label that’s putting out a lot of interesting music that we would honestly listen to. Gerard, the president of the label, you know, he wrote some of the earliest reviews of our band and put out some of our early records so it’s cool.”
Specifically on his independent label Homestead, who put out third album Bad Moon Rising and the Death Valley ’69 12” single in 1985 – arguably their first conventional song rock song. What’s so appropriate about this apparent homecoming is that not only does it suit Sonic Youth now, but The Eternal represents a continuation of the more straight-forward songwriting Sonic Youth began with their last major label release Rather Ripped. It’s as if the records Universal would’ve loved Sonic Youth to make throughout their time with them have now started to be made, (hopefully) to the benefits of Matador. Naturally, Sonic Youth don’t really see this from their perspective, and we wouldn’t have it any other way.
“We see every record as its own entity. It’s definitely part of the progress we were doing. The new songs are always your most exciting. It’s what you’re writing now and it’s relative to what condition you’re in,” explains Lee. Does this mean Sonic Youth don’t see comparisons between older material and newer records?
“Sometimes,” admits Thurston. “Sometimes you’re playing something and it reminds you of something you did. You know, we just did these Daydream Nation tours where we learned all that stuff and that was kinda interesting because it puts you back in this place of how you were playing at that point in time.” These tours were in conjunction with respected promoters/record label/festival organisers ATP as part of their notorious Don’t Look Back series where seminal albums are performed in their entirety by a variety of different artists. Daydream Nation is seen as a seminal American rock record. Released in 1988, Sonic Youth’s sixth album saw the interest in their music from listeners and industry leap, and it’s seen as important enough to have been included in the National Recording Registry by the Library of Congress in 2006.
“We’ve completely changed since then. There’s certainly interesting things we were doing then. It’s certainly more primal. That was inspiring. You learn from your past, things you had forgotten.” Sonic Youth are liable to forget previous states of mind and compositional ideas, simply because they continue to forge new paths each time they re-emerge. Often, inbetween albums, they will have collaborated with noise artists like Merzbow and jazz saxophonists such as Mats Olaf Gustafsson – as captured live on their recent SYR recording SYR8: Andre Sider Af Sonic Youth. – and often these extreme experiments give life to official studio albums. These collaborations and extreme directions are often showcased on their very own SYR label, with SYR8 being the latest. Experimental and improvisational musician Jim O’Rourke joined the band after their dabbling on the third SYR for two of their most recent albums: 2002’s Murray Street and 2004’s Sonic Nurse. In another way, these other outlets have meant that the last two Sonic Youth records have seen far less of the noise jams and atonal experiments of yore.
“In general though when we make a record we don’t think about the last one,” explains Lee. “We don’t compare them or conceptualise what we’re about to do in any way. We seem to have stripped out the improve elements because that side of our music is satisfied elsewhere.”
“We know what we don’t want to do!” exclaims Thurston. “I dunno it’s weird. When you’re getting ready to make a record you start focusing on sitting down and writing songs and I don’t find myself doing that every day only because of the minutae of the day taking up your time. You know, other things your interested in. To make sure you’re playing songs up tot two hours every day must be insane!” Thurston laughs, good humour spilling from him when you just know he’s got to be a little tired from talking.
So what replaces constant songwriting in the days of Sonic Youth’s frontmen? Thurston’s answers first. “I file noise cassettes.”
Hopefully, what you’ve gathered at this point is that Sonic Youth are not simply a band who make music. To clarify, they are four (or five) individuals who have consistently crafted artistic endeavours using different mediums, fiercely championed local and global artists of all kinds, often using contemporary artists for their sleeve art – although in The Eternal’s case, the artwork painting of late folk/bluegrass artist John Fahey – and throughout have maintained their experimental roots. Their stint on a major record label is an important, and huge, chapter in their lengthy careers. More than anything it brought the wilder side of guitar music to a far wider audience than anyone could’ve expected. The significance of moving away from that era cannot be underplayed. The band seem happier in their position now than at any other time and that comes across in The Eternal’s playfulness and, according to Thurston, even in the “audacity” of it’s title. “I was thinking that this band will last forever. It can’t end. Therefore ‘The Eternal’” he explained over the phone in Brooklyn a week before our meeting. With renewed Sonic Life in their post-major label incarnation, their Eternal may not actually be literal, but can easily be traced within the lines that spew forth, unending, from the intersection they began in.

Brad Barrett



The Highlights of Sonic Youth’s Discography

Sonic Youth (1982)

Is it an album or an EP? Five songs (since expanded to thirteen with the inclusion of an early live set on the reissue) that showcase minimalist intentions in an early incarnation of the band.

Confusion Is Sex (1983)

Originally a single, this caustic, atonal beast arose from those humble intentions and radically changed SY’s sound. All guitars were drastically alternate tuned, starting a discordant journey that would later become the template for so-called alternative rock.

Bad Moon Rising (1985)

Notable for their first ever video for Death Valley ’69, a collaboration with No Wave poet, actress and musician Lydia Lunch, it was also their most conventional song. The album has no gaps between songs, mimicking their live sets which had long periods of retuning needed by each guitarist where silence just wouldn’t do.

Evol/Sister/Daydream Nation (1986 – 1988)

The end of the independent years and three albums in consecutive years which saw melody, and subtlety weave their way into the band’s music. Evol was the first album with now permanent drummer Steve Shelley.

Goo/Dirty (1990/1992)

The grunge years. Solid rock albums with guest stars like Chuck D from Public Enemy (on Kool Thing from Goo) and Ian McKaye from Minor Threat/Fugazi (on Youth Against Facism from Dirty) and a huge variety of ideas throughout.

Experimental, Jet Set, Trash & No Star/Washing Machine/A Thousand Leaves/NYC Ghost and Flowers (1994 – 2000)

Seems a shame to lump these four wildly different albums together, but these records seemed to fight against the very idea of a commercial, major label album. Each one has a different recording style, song composition and in the case of NYC, a different set of instruments – their entire, unique setup, was stolen on tour, leaving them to start from scratch and create their least well-received (yet still amazing) record.

Murray Street/Sonic Nurse (2002/2004)

Jim O Rourke joined the band for these two records, and helped make the most beautiful and startlingly original material. This was twenty odd years into their career, still pushing boundaries.

Rather Ripped/The Eternal (2006/2009)

End of an era, Sonic Youth forge ahead as ever, this time seemingly unable to stop making seemingly classic tunes.

SYR 4 – Goodbye 20th Century (1999)

A nod to their masses of artistic influences, Sonic Youth dedicate an entire double album to covers of avant-garde classical artists – John Cage, Steve Reich, Yoko Ono are just three included on this brave and challenging record.

SYR 7 – J’Accuse Ted Hughes (2008)

As a way of showing Sonic Youth cater for no one but themselves, J’Accuse Ted Hughes is a 23 minute live recording of an improvisational noise piece (then titled New Drone) they opened their 2000 ATP Festival headline slot with. The notorious set continued with instrumental versions of unreleased songs destined for NYC Ghost and Flowers and ended with one song from A Thousand Leaves, Sunday. Amazing.

Ciccone Youth – The Whitey Album (1989)

Combining their rabid sense of humour and adoration of pop, the Whitey Album was a beatbox and sampler experiment which included some Madonna and Robert Palmer covers. It’s insane, borderline genius and an essential element of the many-faceted shape of Sonic Youth.

……and there’s plenty more where that came from.

http://sonicyouth.com/mustang/lp/

Got Daydream Nation? Where to go next (as told by some silly young journalist a few years ago): http://artbaretta.blogspot.com/2007/06/next-album-dilemma.html

There’s tonnes of info about Sonic Youth and their related projects. They’re all worth investigating at some point in your life.

www.sonicyouth.com

Tuesday 22 December 2009

Articles of 2009 - #2 Frank Turner / Frank Turner vs. Chris T-T

It is with great pleasure that I interview Frank Turner on a semi regular basis. As a huge fan of his former band Million Dead - to the point where the two albums they released in their short time together will easily be two of my favourite records of all time - I've watched Frank grow from acoustic solo balladry to full-on rock superstar from the very instant he posted his first two songs online. This year has seen some amazing moments for this man - playing to huge crowds at Reading and Leeds festival on the Radio 1 tent, selling out Shepherd's Bush Empire and a final triumphant, skin-of-his-teeth victory show at the Union Chapel - and it's a real treat to see someone so hard working finally get the love he deserves.
So here's the two interviews I got published this year involving that man. One is a straight ahead story of his success and the other involves a free form debate with fellow excellent songwriter Chris T-T (about to release his new record Love Is Not Rescue in a few months time). I may think about posting the entire transcript at some point but the articles are here for your enjoyment.

Monday 7th September: I begin writing this on the very day that Frank Turner’s third album, Poetry of the Deed, is released. Last night, he announced that his biggest headline show to date – Shepherd’s Bush Empire – had sold out. This follows last weekend when his sets at Reading and Leeds filled out the enormous Radio 1/NME tent. A couple of months before, he was supporting The Offspring in arenas across the US and Canada and celebrating signing to Epitaph worldwide. Before that he was doing 24 shows in 24 hours for a video shoot with yours truly. This is, without a doubt, the weirdest and most exciting success story I’ve ever had the pleasure of writing about. As this article goes through daily revisions, hopefully it’ll capture this extraordinary week.
“Life is slightly surreal at the moment but I retain enough of a sense of humour to find the whole thing hilarious,” says Frank, grinning. “That CNN thing was totally insane.”
Of course, CNN. How could I forget?
“That was really very bizarre. Ben (Dawson – friend/ex-bandmate) texted me at 7am and woke me up and said: ‘Could you give me the address of the crossroads at which you sold your soul.’” Frank, this Winchester-bred, hardcore punk enthusiast and former member of several underground UKHC bands, was featured on American news channel CNN with the presenter describing him as “the voice of a generation…except that our generation as so many worthless wankers in it that don’t deserve to be associated with him”. Jaws dropped all round.
So, what’s so strange about a folk and country-based solo artist signing to a punk label and doing extraordinarily well? Perhaps that it’s a testament to self belief, hard work and that it is possible to make a living from something you love doing. That in itself is unusual for most of us. On a recent hourly check, Frank’s album is number 12 in the itunes chart, number 23 in the Play.com chart and 40 in the Amazon.co.uk chart. It’s irrelevant now you’re reading this, but I’m trying to capture the palpable sense of excitement that myself, his fans, his long-term record label and PR team at Xtra Mile Recordings, his friends and family are all feeling at this very moment.
“There’s a real groundswell happening in the States I think and Europe as well. That’s fantastic, that’s what we always wanted. It means it’s working! People are falling for it!” chants Frank with a sincere smile on his face.
Without going too far into the depths of history, Frank went solo in September 2005, played shows everywhere he could for little or no money, from little bars to unplugged nights in pubs via house parties and a thousand shows at North London hangout Nambucca. After sending out bedroom CDRs to anyone who was interested, he released a 7” single, a couple of EPs and two full albums over the past three years, as well as a compilation of early material, split vinyl and various other physical loveliness. The biggest difference between recordings of yore and Poetry of the Deed is that full band performances have been captured this time round. This highlights both Frank’s songwriting and lyrical talents and those of his excellent band – three members of Oxford-based Dive Dive and keyboard player Matt Nasir. It’s almost Frank’s personal acknowledgment that, despite the massive individual efforts of himself, he owes a debt to others who have helped him along the way.
“I played all the parts except the drums myself before, and then taught them to the guys in my band who are all better at their relative instruments than I am. I preferred the live versions of my songs because Tarrant (Anderson) would add a bass lick that was great or Ben (Lloyd) would do something interesting on the guitar and particularly Matt (Nisar) our keyboard player, the newest member of the band is a phenomenal musician and it just seemed to be pointless to do it the same way. We might as well capture the best on the record. Part and parcel of that is that I wanted to make a record which sounded a bit bigger, more rock.”
Tuesday 8th September: Currently sitting at 8 in the itunes chart and 27 in the Amazon chart, Poetry of the Deed is certainly a wider record in scope and sound. You can expect shimmering guitars on top of Nigel Powell’s proficient and well-suited drum patterns, Tarrant’s restrained bass flourishes and Matt’s glorious piano arpeggios on Our Lady of the Campfire. Mandolins and fiddles fight atop each other on the defiant Sons of Liberty. Stabbing, jaunty major chords clash with the minor key feelings and sentiments wrought across Richard Divine.
That this record was recorded live for the most part gives you an indication of the hard work everyone, including producer and unrepentant “taskmaster” Alex Newport, threw wholeheartedly into Poetry of the Deed. “I don’t really subscribe to that whole Bob Dylan first take sort of approach to recording. We did a residency of shows in Oxford and played the album which was a useful exercise for us because there’s an extra tightness you get from playing live. Alex came in and the difference between our playing after just two rehearsals with him was just fucking crazy. He’s just really anal, but that’s the skill you need to do the job he has.”
Wednesday 9th September: While taking a break from typing, I watched a video of Frank playing live on CNN.com that was posted yesterday. It all seems to be getting just a little out of control. The album is now out in America. A message from his PR company yesterday told me that he made No 13 in the midweek UK charts with the album. In fact, Xtra Mile Recordings in the UK and his press team at Press Counsel have all been with Frank since his hardcore days, and right now they must be jumping for joy. In fact, I’ll email them and see. So with Epitaph taking over worldwide duties, how is this going to change things for the pretty independent Frank?
“It’s really good. My experience of working with labels thus far has been working with Xtra Mile who are AMAZING,” he says, at the label headquarters, a week before Reading/Leeds and on the day his single The Road moves from Radio 1 C-list to B-list. “Don’t crush me like a bug!” he shouts across the office. “But it’s familial, one country, one office and, working with Epitaph, it feels great to have an international team. It’s such an industry thing to say but everyone’s on the same page, man! I really feel like they get how I want to be presented to the world. They’ve created a massive buzz but I’ve always wanted to be somebody who’s not at one removed from the promotion of their album. ‘This is me and what I do, these are my songs, check it out and if you wanna come talk to me, come and say hi.’ They’ve been really good at keeping that spirit going.”
Over the years Frank has been playing house parties, meeting fans, and been great at his own self-promotion. Xtra Mile merchandise emblazoned with “I Am The Real Frank Turner” or “Frank Turner Is Coming. Look Busy” have kept everything light hearted, and faintly ludicrous. At his first gigs he’d be handing out bedroom demos, and sending them for the cost of postage from his family home. It’s a far cry from the 2CD and T-shirt Poetry of the Deed packages on the Epitaph website, or selling out Shepherd’s Bush Empire, which has unfortunately curtailed his ability to hang out at the merch stand and say hello. Does he ever feel that Epitaph has taken too much away from his very capable hands?
“Um, ah, actually, interestingly, not if I don’t want it to be (taken away),” he hesitantly replies. “One of the things that has been really great recently is I’ve been learning how to delegate. I used to co-tour manage myself in the UK, and I’m not involved in that anymore. It’s been really nice to be able to step back a little bit from the day to day machinations of what I do. I have to really, if I’m gonna be able to concentrate on the amount of shows and press I’ve got to do.”
Don’t for a minute think this has made him inaccessible or aloof from fans. Bear in mind that the video for The Road involved us visiting people’s houses, Frank playing songs to fans, meeting them, having a beer with them and generally being himself, as he’s always been.
Friday 11th September: So here we are, two days away from getting the official chart verdict, which I’m sure you all know by now, or at least can find out. Frank, during the interview and being his open and chatty self, explains how he already has around 25 songs and ideas for other low-key releases, how he doesn’t want to upset anyone with his songwriting (“Though, I like the idea of Labour MPs crying because of me. That’s a wonderful idea.”) and that he’ll never cross the strict line he has between private and personal with his lyrics. It’s all interesting but you can read that in one of the countless other interviews doing the rounds or even his messageboard at www.frank-turner.com.
Having announced a relatively intimate Christmas show at the glorious Union Chapel in North London yesterday, Frank and everyone around him have had an exceptional week. The guys at Press Counsel emailed me back too, calling the whole experience “rewarding” and that “it's good to know that the good old fashioned method of hard work can still pay off!”.
What’s best to take away from this is that Frank has never compromised his personal beliefs, or his songwriting but has never sold himself short for either as a self confessed “ambitious person”. He gives equal kudos to the people who’ve helped him as to himself and he’s now enjoying his success for all its worth. He’ll never quit either, in case you haven’t heard the lyrics to Live Fast Die Old: “let’s never retire, let’s keep on making mistakes till we’re done. I’m going to live fast and I’m going to die old, I’m going to end my days in a house with high windows on the quiet shores in the South-West.” Not only that but on Try This At Home, he’s urging YOU AT HOME to go out and do better than him. He’s proved his point, now it’s your turn. Listen to it and I dare you not to be inspired. Besides, why should he feel guilty about finally doing well out of something he loves. As he points out: “I keep myself steady by remembering the terrible, terrible bands that have sold more records than me. That makes me feel good.” Frank Turner is exactly what this country needs.

Brad Barrett

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Folk Academy

You know, we reserve the right to get lazy here at Playmusic Pickup. We break our backs introducing you to the finest (and admittedly, the not so fine) music we can find, signed, unsigned or somewhere inbetween, and occasionally, we want to sit back and let the artists do the talking.
Frank Turner and Chris T-T are both artists we’ve featured or mentioned extensively in the last few years at Playmusic HQ. We’ve busked with Frank, got Patrick Eggle to make him a guitar and we’ve chatted concept albums via email with Chris T-T.
For those of you not in the know, Frank and Chris are two of our finest songwriters. Chris has just finished his trilogy of London-based concept records with this year’s Capital, a fine rock record in its own right. Frank, meanwhile, has just finished a sell-out tour of the country in promotion of his heartfelt second album Love, Ire and Song. Purchase everything they’ve released forthwith, it’s all brilliant, and then sit down with us while two mighty intellects do (heavily edited) battle. Sat in the middle bar of the King’s Cross Scala, Frank starts with his first question for Chris.

Frank: I’ll start with one of my serious questions. How important is place, culture and nationality in songwriting to you?

Chris: It’s almost everything. I think that one of the things that I’m not able to do is write without that there. I just couldn’t write a song about a physical place I’ve never been unless it’s a totally crazy story. For me, it’s not so much that one writes ‘here’s a place and I’m gonna write about it’. It’s that every single song, whatever it’s about, has a place in the back of it for me. I’m really trying hard right now to make a bunch of songs that aren’t about anything and aren’t about a place but that doesn’t work.

Frank: So being English is important to you?

Chris: Oh, massively important. I would always call myself English. But that’s the opposite of being tied to a right wing thing because I definitely believe in open borders and the free movement of people. The Maggie Holland songs about England - A Place Called England, A Proper Gardener - are the ones where it’s Englishness to do with the land, which you do really well on stuff like Nashville Tennessee and To Take You Home, and it’s where we’re from and yet there’s this massive cultural weight on us as pop musicians to almost try to pretend to be something else. It’s really important that we don’t.

Frank: I’m satisfied with your answer.

Chris: You come from a much more punk/alternative background than me. Do you feel, given that your music is now very tuneful and in some places soft, do you miss the punk thing and do you still think that you’re either a punk or an anarchist?

Frank: Good question. Punk infuses everything I do because I learnt how to play music along with that style and it was my doorway into music, both listening and playing. So I’m never gonna stop thinking about it. When I think about heavier sounds I think of them in a punk way, and when I think about melody… It’s just the bedrock of it and that will never cease to be and I don’t want it to cease to be. I think that it’s a great scene and ethos and something that I’m proud to have put a lot of my life into. I guess there are days when I miss the pure rage and aggression but the problem is there’s nothing worse than fake rage and aggression which is kinda why bad hardcore bands are worse than bad bands of any other genre. So to be in a band like that and make it worthwhile and good you have to be pissed off in the right way – 300 days a year. I just can’t.

C: Something that happened on this tour that I hadn’t seen on previous tour, is that you at the end ditched the guitar and went back into the crowd and I think a lot of fans are really overwhelmed by that, being, in a way, being back to Million Dead days but also it’s much more uplifting than it would’ve been a few years ago. It’s like a totally joyous moment.

F: I think that’s true. In Million Dead* we were, to a certain extent, trying to fight the audience. Now I’m just trying to hug them! But punk is vastly important to me and also the other thing is people always ask what punk and folk have in common and I think one of the things they have in common is that they describe both an ethos and a sound and that the two aren’t necessarily linked all the time and I think I incorporate elements of all four into what I do.
Would I call myself a punk? It depends on who I’m talking to. If I’m talking to the kind of person who wants me to be a singer/songwriter: yes. If I’m talking to the kind of person who’s a punk scenester warrior writing a ‘zine then: no fucking way. I think the point of punk was that it had a degree of contrarianism in it anyway. So I’d call myself a corporate singer songwriter punk rocker. I’m not sure I would describe myself as an anarchist anymore. What I would say is that my essential first principles that got me thinking about the realm of politics, which was an essential distrust of power and human beings organised into hierarchies aimed at hurting other human beings, those things are STILL my first principles. The difference is that I’ve decided I’m more interested in practicality and pragmatism than in high falutin’ – with no G – idealism. So yeah it’ll be wonderful if we could overthrow the state and have non-hierarchical systems and organisations. It’s not gonna happen. I’ll state this as a simple fact: any attempt to try and make it happen will end in pain and death for lots of normal, innocent, ordinary people. What I think we should do instead is concentrate on ways of minimizing the impact on ordinary people’s lives and allow them to get on with their lives and not be bothered by the state. Then you’ve suddenly got a range of things to talk about that ARE achievable. Like everything from not having ID cards and trying to dismantle the surveillance system we’ve put together in this country; trying to remove government from people’s lives, letting people be freer. To me, liberty is the highest intellectual achievement of the human race.

Chris: It’s a great answer.

Frank: The music that we make, both of us, let’s be blunt about this, is both quite middle class and quite white and probably predominantly male. I remember when I was younger at a particular phase of my development wishing, hoping I was gay because that would mean I would be part of a minority. (Uncontrollable laughter from Chris, their PR Dani and me) Personally, at this point of my life, I’ve reached a state of karmic calmness about the fact that I make white boy guitar rock and I don’t give a shit. Are you bothered about it?

Chris: No I’ve never, ever been bothered about it at all. Sometimes when I’m having a row with my wife, one of the things she calls me is middle class. It just really makes me laugh. My parentage on my mum’s side is really working class but my parentage on my dad’s side is really middle class. It makes a mockery of the whole thing really. No it doesn’t bother me at all. I don’t think about it so much as you’ve put it into words.

Frank: Not just the politics but in terms of influences. All my influences are all white boys with guitars. I like listening to Public Enemy, but it has nothing to do with the music I make.

Chris: My influences are far more pop. Not even influences, music I love. I go a lot more into the cheesy mainstream than you do and you’ve still maintained a lot of the hardcore stuff, which I love, but definitely aren’t my roots.

Frank: You know Matt our new keyboard player had never heard of Fugazi? I nearly cried.
Emily Barker (tour support) had never heard of Dinosaur Jr.

(General disbelief follows)

Frank: Yeah I know. I’m starting to hang around with proper…

Chris: …Folk people.

Frank: They don’t shower and they drink too much.

Chris: Don’t let them near the cider. It causes problems.

C: I was gonna ask you about songwriting. You said something interesting the other day about lyrics. You definitely, to a greater extent than me, separate lyrics and music in the compositional process. So, is it that you write all the lyrics first then go and turn them into songs.

F: No, music always comes first. I have phrases that come up and I jot down and I have things I want to write about. One of the funny things is that, quite often when I’m coming up with a melody, I end up singing something random but that I quite like. I’ve got a new one which is ‘he cast no shadow in the morning sun’ and that’s just how my brain spewed out that melody.

C: There’s a new song you introduced last night quite late in the tour that you’ve been soundchecking. You had the music right at the beginning, which sounded amazing, but you didn’t have any words. Is that right?

F: Well, you see, the thing is I had a couple of the lines here and there. It’s called Live Fast, Die Old although my band have started calling it Die Hard With A Vengeance now. It’s definitely a case of lyrics, I spend forever on and I kick cases, and tenses and pronouns around ad infinitum.

C: You write almost always about you and very truthfully I think. Do you ever try writing stories about other things that don’t include you and if so do you find that it compromises your truthfulness?

F: I’ll start this by saying you do a lot more of the storytelling which I love and I love it when Springsteen does it and I love that approach to songwriting because I think it’s perfectly possible to tell an emotional and artistic truth through the medium of fiction,
I’m just no good at it. I’ve tried and it always turns out a bit shit and you know I’m still fucking trying and I’m just not very good. I always feel a bit of a fool singing about stuff that hasn’t really happened. I’m gonna write a concept album sooner or later. I’m gonna write a concept album about me and you.

With that promise/threat, we leave Frank and Chris to soundcheck, and prepare themselves for Frank’s sold out headline triumph at Kings Cross Scala, where two folk heroes – who I’ve seen play acoustic nights in pubs – play to a crowd of about a 1000, all singing the words back to them. It’s a sight to behold.

Transcribed, edited and narrated by Brad Barrett



* Million Dead was an incredible post-hardcore band existing from 2002 – 2005 which Frank was the singer and lyricist for. Check out their two albums A Song To Ruin and Harmony No Harmony for some (semi) serious righteous punk fury.



Quotes that we couldn’t fit in, but just had to be printed:

“People say you haven’t got any regrets because you don’t self-examine enough, but I’m not gonna waste time wishing I’d done things differently, I’m just gonna change the way I do things now. I think that’s the only sensible way of living life really.” Frank on eating meat after years of being vegetarian

“I want Castlereigh back. He was great. Worked really, really hard, then cut his own head off in 10 Downing Street. If only Gordon Brown would do the same thing.” Frank on awesome politicians.

“I want politicians who have taken drugs making drugs policy coz otherwise its fucking charlatanism. It'd be like me trying to make up laws for families tax breaks for people have children when I don’t have kids. I want politicians who are skagheads! Sorry, ex-skagheads.”

“If you start looking at where we’re at now, we’ve got massive poverty around the world - which we don’t mind because it’s foreigners. In fact, the infrastructure in the United States is dangerously close to collapse, and they’ve all got guns. I don’t even think it matters who becomes President. I wrote a little thing yesterday. I think whoever is president in six days time might be the last president of the United States as we see it. I really think we’re really close, 4 or 8 years from now, the United States could easily be in a state of collapse, with individual states succeeding and people shooting each other left right and centre.” Chris on the consequences of multi-national corporations, tongue in cheek, but deadly serious on the future of the US.

“What is the single fastest growing youth movement in the country? It’s Conservative Future, the group for young Conservatives, and one of the reasons (for that) is that they’ve been able to detatch themselves from social oppression, from moral bigotry of the old school Tory. So they are very socially liberal, they’re into their drugs, drink and shagging each other, and they don’t mind so much if you’re gay as long as you’re quiet about it and they like a few black people here and there…” Chris on growing youth movements.

“Gordon Brown is an absolutely terrifying human being because he doesn’t seem to be able to get it into his head that some things aren’t his fucking business. One thing I’m very big on is the concept of liberty and freedom and in a peculiarly English way, I like the way the English conception of freedom is almost based around people minding their own business.” Frank on freedom.

Friday 4 December 2009

SxSW Beginner's Guide #4 - The Golden D

Typos and syntax errors not withstanding, this SxSW guide experiment has gone pretty smoothly so far. My fourth day this week extracting the value from that modest list on SxSW.com involves artists beginning with the letter D, predictably. This post also marks the first time of going live in conjunction with Artocker.com, the web-only version retaining the values of the original magazine, which has since gone on to greener pastures. To see the rest of my rantings tempered by considered evaluation go straight here: http://everysinglerevolution.blogspot.com.
Anyway onwards...

David Dallas (www.myspace.com/daviddallas)

Auckland rapper David Dallas does very little with the blueprint but follow it - soul sample, typical beats, cliched delivery yadda yadda. There's nothing wrong, but it'd be nice to have something that is rooted in real experience and culturally relevant rather than sounding as if it could've come from the USA at any time in the last 10 years.

Dappled Cities (www.myspace.com/dappledcities)

I was alerted to these Australians by an exceptional individual a while back, and while not appealing to my finer senses, I can appreciate their lush string-sewn pop music. Somewhere inbetween the occasional falsetto and earnest lyrics is a slightly manic dramatist aching to turn heads. Entertainment is almost guaranteed.

Daveman (www.myspace.com/davemanmusic)

The amusingly naive moniker doesn't betray the unexpected German take on reggae-flambe pop. However the formulaic, uninspiring rhymes and melodies mean that while it'll sound significantly spicy in the heat, in the cold wintery temperatures of England in December it sounds shockingly insipid.

The Daylights (www.myspace.com/thedaylights)

If you can imagine the musical backdrop to those indie-approved semi-love scenes in teen soaps like The OC and Dawson's Creek and match it transparency-style with the arena ambition of U2, you have the awful travesty that are The Daylights. Almost hilariously bad.

The dB's (www.myspace.com/standsfordecibels)

Perhaps the least new band here, the dB's were a short-lived proposition from the 70s-80s who reformed last year. They deal in fairly dated laid-back rock-pop with finger clicks, saxophone, and lyrical inanities. Nevertheless, they're still ten times more skilled than the majority of what I've listened to so far AND AT LEAST THEY CAN SAY THEY WERE THERE AT THE TIME YOU IDIOTS!!

Dead Sexy Inc. (www.myspace.com/deadsexyinc)

This French and German hybrid are barely worth a mention, seemingly formed as a joke - at least that's what these heavy synth-encrusted pieces of shit they call songs or remixes, and that horribly clunky name - indicate.

The Deaf (www.myspace.com/thedeafspace)

From one of the worst names to one of the best - unfortunately these Netherlands dwellers or a complete facsimile of The Hives, their dress and sound bleeding black and white. Having said that, this 50s/60s garage hybrid is pretty timeless, and it'll be a riot anyway. the teasingly named Miss Fuzz has an excellent voice too.

Deer Tick
(www.myspace.com/deertick)

As the world lumbers under the combined weight of every Bella Union-inspired folk-rooted harmony group that has sprung trapdoor-spider like from Bon Iver's and Fleet Foxes' accomplishments, Deer Tick at least lend a Two Gallants country-esque roll to what they do. It's seriously listenable, and that harder edge at least distinguishes it from those unimaginative acoustic troubadours.

Delhi 2 Dublin (www.myspace.com/delhi2dublin)

Perhaps the most self-explanatory name ever, Delhi 2 Dublin's bhangra via Celt electro-folk is the ultimate culture clash. With Punjabi vocals rubbed across flourishes of fiddle playing, it's a shockingly natural mix. It could've sounded forced but it blends well. Nevertheless it still somehow sounds a novelty, however serious they may be. Might be worth visiting to up your culture points.

Paul Dempsey (www.myspace.com/pauldempseysolo)

From Melbourne band Something For Kate, Paul Dempsey is tedium personified with his lightweight, unambitious acoustic singer-songwriter pop songs. So dispiritingly dull it's hard to express my boredom in a vaguely exciting way. Sorry.

Diplomats of Solid Sound (www.myspace.com/thediplomatsofsolidsound)

Jazz and hip-hop flecked soul music, fronted by the iron gloved, bellowing vocals of two leading ladies it's gloriously funky stuff, but sounds devoid of any touches which will make me anything other than reminiscent for soul's golden age. Still glad they're trying though.

DJ Car Stereo (Wars) (www.myspace.com/carstereowars)

DJ Evil Dee (www.myspace.com/djevildee)

DJ Revolution (www.myspace.com/djrevolution)

Probably best if you listen and make your own minds up before I utter the immortal words "This isn't even music". Coz obviously it is, they're just spinning records is all.

Daniel Francis Doyle (www.myspace.com/danielfrancisdoyle)

Ever felt like you've been slapped right in the face but you don't care because you deserved it and you've been waiting for it in masochistic style for a while? Well when I finally reached DFD's myspace after the swathes of awfulness today, I applauded this sudden rush of awkward guitars and untrained croon. Thoroughly original, frenetic yet almost soothing, DFD's music is almost as unweildy as his full name. An excellent surprise and a must see. Lovely.

Adiam Dymott (www.myspace.com/adiamdymott)

Swedish solo artist Adiam Dymott throws a ragged garage-punk swagger in with her sugary vocals, a surprisingly enticing mix. Ultimately the vocal melodies are far too radio-attuned to really engage with, but it's still a refreshing nod to the commercial possibilities of guitar driven sound. Still one to miss, but perhaps with a guilty feeling of "indier-than-thou".

That's the D's over with. Next will be a double barrage of E's and F's, so bring your best mac lest you get splashed with disapproval.

Thursday 3 December 2009

SxSW Beginner's Guide #3 - C-C-C-C-C

The most percussive letter in the alphabet, sounding like a snare hit or a rimshot, it's possibly also the most appropriate. Is 2010 THE YEAR OF DRUMS? If we think about bands like Foot Village, Wildbirds and Peacedrums, Vampire Weekend, Liars, HEALTH, Vessels - all vastly different but all with emphasis on their beaty backbone. Anyway, this has very little to do with me embarking on the letter C with SxSW's preliminary list, but there might be some drumm-y bands in here, alright?

Canja Rave (www.myspace.com/canjaraveofficial)

This Brazillian duo seem like enormous fun. Badango has a fairly standard garage-tilt racket with the male half gurning out a second riff which sounds hilarious. Aqui Agora has a Thermals tint to it which is immediately brilliant. Chega has a Jack White-esque pitch-shifted flurry but strikes into a much heavier and, thanks to the male/female harmonies, more melodic territory than White's current Dead Weather incarnation. Could be worth a look-see.

Capsula (www.myspace.com/capsula)

Hailing from the Basque region (Bilbao) of Spain this female fronted trio engage in hypnotic guitar textures and seductive intonation. At times though they descend into horribly derivative and dull garage-indie inspired thrashes. If they stick to the experimental stuff, they could well capture the audience with psychadelic flashes of brilliance.

Carsick Cars (www.myspace.com/carsickcars)

Brilliantly, the first track the myspace player chose on this Chinese trio's player is simply entitled 'C'. All reverberating guitars and shimmery percussion it soon pounds into atonal Thurston Moore-esque yelling and scouring repetitive guitar squeals. You Can Listen You Can Talk is straightforward crescendo driven noise rock, while Invisible Love has that aching, string tapping metallic intro SY made their own. Again, a band adrift in influences, still searching for the right path, but I can see myself enjoying their 'panda noise' live.

Caucus
(www.myspace.com/caucus)

Leaping from lovely acoustic pop to rawkus electro-city and back again (as Caucus do on In Vain You Are) is nothing new. Nevertheless these Japanese young'uns have use a naive weaving of melody that is inherently charming and exhilirating. Sing sounds far more generic though again the main melody is joyous and underlying warped guitars glue some intrigue to the mix. You can't help but think these guys would be fairly big in the UK. Might be worth some time as a lightweight indie-pop refreshment.

The Chevelles (www.myspace.com/thechevelles)

Initially everything from song names (Summer Fun, Stacey Loves Cocaine)to their profile picture makes me think I'm going to hate this. While I don't hate it, it's predictable, summery, vitamin C splashed power pop. Which is what I expected. Ridiculous fun though f'shure.

CHEW LiPS (www.myspace.com/chewlips)

Already pretty sick of these lot, Londoners that they are, with their self proclaimed "8-bit casiotone drone disco". Which actually sounds like an ace description, but the over-egged vocals, lamentably cliched arrangements and saccharine pop makes me feel ill.

Suzanna Choffel (www.myspace.com/suzannachoffel)

Stolen By Birds is all lounge-laden, jazz-flecked coffee table fodder. It doesn't get any better either.

Chris T-T (www.myspace.com/christtuk)

Chris T-T is one of the best songwriters in the UK already, and with a new album out in March (Love Is Not A Rescue out on Xtra Mile Recordings), a bunch of Acid Piano Improvisations and a Christmas EP due, he's a busy guy. He just finished his London trilogy of albums with last year's Capital. It's time for everyone to catch up.

C-Mon & Kypski (www.myspace.com/cmonandkypski)

Four lads from Amsterdam/Netherlands, the first track Turn of the Tides is a sample-cut extravaganza indebt to Daft Punk's heavy distorted synths and vocoder use. China seems like a choppy debt to UK and US indie, but a smooth harmony, odd samples and imagination makes it seem more like a lavish experiment by Avalanches with instruments instead of expensive cleared samples. Splashing soul, dance, electro, guitars, banjos, the kitchen sink all over the place, these guys will be fantastic fun to dance to.

The Coathangers (www.myspace.com/fuckthecoathangers)

The Coathangers' debut album was a sparse, lo-fi yet rotten flourish of a record and checking them out live is a priority.

Simon Collins (www.myspace.com/simoncollins)

When did it become acceptable to sound like an X-Factor dropout whose music inspires nothing but post-traumatic stress disorder? *shudder*

The Constellations (www.myspace.com/constellationsatl)

Atlanta, Georgia's The Constellations have a glam-esque stomp begin Perfect Day, while bluesy organ licks slip in over that faux-grim dark vocal that seems to inherit music which can be described as 'southern gothic'. The chorus is pure pop, but awful. I've already sunk into a stupor.

Contra Coup (www.myspace.com/contracoup)

An excellent name (named after a brain injury) this reggae outfit are playing it safe, sticking to the rudiments of the genre and adding very little else. Fine, but there are bound to be more original and exciting groups of this ilk out there.

Cotton Jones (www.myspace.com/thecottonjonesbasketride)

Cotton Jones is stripped bare, languishing country-esque downtempo....well...shit really. Sorry. I can't be any more articulate than that.

The Crystal Method (www.myspace.com/thecrystalmethod)

That dance duo with the dodgy name that have been around forever. Still be pretty good I reckon if their new album is anything to go by.


That's it for c's. Pretty interesting letter this time. Much better than B's. STAY TUNED FOR THE NEXT LETTER WHERE I'LL INvESTIGATE HORDES OF BANDS SO YOU DON'T HAVE TO.

Wednesday 2 December 2009

SXSW Beginner's Guide - #2 THE BEST LETTER OF THE ALPHABET THAT IS 'B'

Continuing my selfish self-reference guide to finding some actually good music to watch at SxSW continues with THE BEST LETTER OF THE ALPHABET. Why is 'B' the best? Well coz it's curvy, has the best sound (BUH! for B!) and my initials consist of two of the fuckers. So, it's with some excitement that I delve into SxSW's current list of B's who have been pretty much confirmed as playing that Texan extravaganza of industry excess.

Bare Wires (www.myspace.com/thebarewires)

You know, it's fine if you want to head through a time warp and embrace retro as your raison d'etre but this doesn't make me want to join you. Sorry.

Julian Berntzen (www.myspace.com/julianberntzen)

Elaborate chamber pop from Norway, regal strings announce Julian's arrival before his sweetly intoned vocals slather themselves across this Beatles-esque orchestral arrangement. Definitely wonderful pop music, if a little lightweight. If he has some string players with him, this could well be delightful.

Best Fwends (www.myspace.com/bestfwends)

Clearly mental, Best Fwends begin their myspace music player with a mash up between Green Day's Brain Stew and the indie/emo rap cover of choice Ginuwine's My Pony. Amusing. The rest is heavily synth-drenched garage/DJ mix ups that sound like an ADHD dreamer's animated feature theme tune. Can't imagine this being anything other than fucking ace.

The Black (www.myspace.com/theblack)

Xeroxed country music with a more fey-indie vocal - almost as if a Pavement fan got dragged into a pedal steel band. I DO NOT LIKE.

The Black Atlantic (www.myspace.com/theblackatlantic)

Baiulus begins with airy piano and vocals, seemingly washing across my acute tinnitus. Fragile Meadow is mandolin-pinging folky lamenting, which as everyone knows post-2008/2009 is either extremely boring or spot on. It builds up nicely with Justin Vernon-type vocals and nice harmonies. Nothing we haven't all heard before, done better.

Dan Black (you don't want to listen to his myspace)

Dan Black's myspace froze on Google Chrome, saving me from having to remind myself how much I hate his music. This is a note to myself to remind myself that no matter how drunk I make myself I am NOT going anywhere near Dan Black. The fucking charlatan.

Black Tide (www.myspace.com/blacktide)

These Miami kids only have samples on their myspace, and boy am I glad because their histrionic hard-rock fakery is vomit inducing and I only have so much bile I can throw up across their disgusting faces.

Bliss N Eso (www.myspace.com/blissneso)

Australian hip-hop eh? Generic as you'd expect (DISCLAIMER: yes Australians are capable of making incredible music, no we never get to hear any of it pumped over here unfortunately).

Boom Boom Satellites (www.myspace.com/boomboom satellites)

Ignoring the Tahj and Flo Rida collaboration, for obvious reasons, it seems this Japanese duo admire Pendulum's bid for rock stardom, and a bit of vocoder action. This is of course severely bad news and this kind of arena/dance bollocks need cutting off before their braindead semen seep into the public consciousness...Pendulum are from Australia, you know? Also the most boring interviewees I've ever had. Far too arrogant to answer questions. Cunts.

The Boxer Rebellion (www.myspace.com/theboxerrebellion)

You either like em or you don't. Do you really need to ask me where I stand?

Break Of Reality (www.myspace.com/breakofreality)

A moniker which makes you spontaneously spurt tears of despair, this New York quartet seem to deal in instrumental post-prog, which involves spindly guitars, brittle strings and urgent dynamics. Spectrum of the Sky is fairly stirring stuff and the overall effect is Tool crossed with Rachel's. Which is odd and a little uninspiring frankly, but might well be worth a look.

B-Real of Cypress Hill

God knows what he's up to these days really, and as long as he's regressed into his bong-strewn reclined rapping as opposed to that nu-metal spined shit Cypress Hill dug up on Skull & Bones and the like, I'd be happy to pay him a visit.

Broadway Calls (www.myspace.com/broadwaycalls)

Oh great. Bolshy, slightly whiny boy-pop-punk. Hideous. Dated. Excruciating.

Broken Records (www.myspace.com/brokenrecordsedinburgh)

Big fuss about these Scots a year or so back, their maudlin, string-driven songcraft is dark and spirit-crushing, in a fairly positive way. Not exhilarating but definitely worth a look.

VV Brown

Despite the bad critical and commercial reception, I have a soft spot for her live doo-wop funtimes. Plus she wears pretty dresses.

The Brunettes (www.myspace.com/thebrunettes)

This New Zealand duo are all drum machines and twee instruments like xylophones and Casablancas drawl/keening female vocals. It's pretty much processed pop, but somehow they were sent the wrong way so that they got caught between the PURE POP and LO-FI SHTICK conveyor belts. My verdict? Meh.

Buckshot (www.myspace.com/buckshot)

A RAPPER??!! FROM BROOKLYN???!!! REALLY??!! WOW???!!!!!


For the best letter in the alphabet, there's an 'alf some shite here.

ATP Excitement Fortnight # 3


So my last ATP Excitement post was pretty lacklustre, but this one is a doozy because the timetable for ATP's 10 Years celebration has been released today. It can be found here.
The disappointments that arise are inevitably from the clashes of which there are a few important ones.
BAD: First is sine-wave-collapsing destructionists Growing seeping half an hour of their no-doubt hypnotic set into Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks' set. But then with Pavement reforming is anyone actually that bothered by this?

GOOD: THey managed to squeeze Yeah Yeah Yeahs' Fever To Tell (and more) set nicely between J Mascis and the Fog and Mum. SUPERB SCHEDULING.

BAD: Dirty Three and Shellac clash badly on the Saturday.

GOOD: Shellac ALSO play Sunday! YESSSSSSS!

REALLY REALLY BAD: Gonna have to decide between Melvins or Battles and The Breeders or Modest Mouse. Sad face infinity.

REALLY REALLY GOOD: The Sunn O))) set is on at a nightmare enducing 2am - 3.15am slot. Miss this at your peril.

EXTRAORDINARY BADNESS: Set leakage includes Mudhoney into Explosions In The Sky, and Lightning Bolt into Polvo

EXCELLENT GOODNESS: Shellac open Sunday. Also switching between Mars Volta and Sunn O)))'s second set means for maximum brain meltage. YESSSSSS!

Overall this is going to be the best thing ever.

Tuesday 1 December 2009

SXSW Beginner's Guide - #1

This is a misleading title (that one up there ^) because I'm actually a beginner. I'm guiding myself so it's of little use to youze out there. Besides you've all been at least twice and I've NEVER BEEN so stop showing off yeah?!

So my idea is to try to listen to all the bands in one letter category every time I post about Sxsw. So here goes A in REAL TIME.

Aa (www.myspace.com/alittlea)
They are from Brooklyn. Thirteen is already excellent, all stuttering sounds, wild percussion and some soused shouting. The skittering sounds bound and elope. Thumper starts far more restrained, clicky and clappy. Far more minimal. Yum. Manshake = more drums. 2010 could be the YEAR OF DRUMS. More wild bubbly sounds and some shouting. I'm definitely seeing this band.

A Classic Education (www.myspace.com/aclassiceducation)
First thought is that there's a super hyped film called An Education. Anyway, first track What My Life Could Have Been starts pleasantly, all shimmery guitar jangle (with the trebely antics dialled out) but the vocals are merely functional. Further investigation finds that simple Vampire Weekend inspired jauntiness. Might be worth checking but definitely a back burner.

Alpha Rev (www.myspace.com/alpharev)
THIS IS POOR. Emotive voice, piano medicority and a chorus that soars over The Killer's heads. The setup though is thoroughly disgusting. AVOIDED BEFORE I EVEN GET THERE.

Amaral (?)
Couldn't find a direct link to music but found a website with a song. Pretty standard Spanish language singer songwriter fare. Meh.

And So I Watch You From Afar (www.myspace.com/andsoiwatchyoufromafar)
This is not for my reference, it is for yours. I already know they're excellent as do Rock Sound who made their debut album their sixth favourite record of 2009. Nice one Rock Sound.

Apostle of Hustle (www.myspace.com/apostleofhustle)
Another great Canadian band whose second album Anthem of Nowhere captured my imagination back in 2007. Classic Canadian/indie songwriting worth of applause along with Arcade Fire et al. Worth seeing if you haven't already.

Arms (www.myspace.com/armsongs)
More Brooklyn action. The Frozen Lake smears a sparking guitar across pretty dreary-toned yet exhiliratingly-pitched vocals that help the oblique synth swells build up across the length of the track. Kids Aflame is far too folk for my liking. Tiger Tamer is more standard indie fare. Could be a successful live draw, but have a feeling it will drag like Plants and Animals do.

Olof Arnalds (www.myspace.com/olofarnalds)
Olof (sorry about the lack of umlauts and accents over the o) is Icelandic folk rooted songwriting and is thoroughly beautiful. Sung in her own language her heart-tugging understated vibrato really strikes a chord. Not likely to be a SxSW highlight, but certainly someone who will stand out as an emotional high on the day she plays. Maybe I'll pretend she's singing just for me, and it'll be ultra special then...or maybe something marginally less creepy.

Art vs. Science (www.myspace.com/artvsscience)
Who the FUCK wins that battle? Science has gravity and the atom bomb on it's side while art has the Mona Lisa and the Sistine Chapel. It's a no brainer really, which is probably why this New South Wales Australian band are pretty fucking shit. Shit name, shit concept, boring synths but probably a riot live nonetheless. Boooo.

A Shoreline Dream (www.myspace.com/ashorelinedream)
From Denver (or Barnum as it says on their Myspace) these guys begin their track New York with haunting, old school prog type synths with titanic emptiness. It's all let down immediately by the limping vocals and dull-as-something-very-dull-indeed guitars. Seattle sees a driving guitar punch bring a more emphatic, growing track that seems intent on wind-tunnelling your aural vision. Aftershocking reminds me of a lightweight Depeche Mode. The track with Ulrich Schnauss is fucking excellent though.

Nicole Atkins and the Black Sea (www.myspace.com/nicoleatkins)
Hailing from Asbury Park (YES SPRINGSTEEN FANS YES!)Nicole is doing pretty pandemically-alarming dark balladry. Really quite boring to begin with, The Way It Is soon leaks into an arresting vocal performance for the chorus. The live version of The Tower confirms she can perform, but this sort of elegance is unlikely to be noticed, even by me. Seems a shame but she's not gonna divert my attention from something even a little bit different.

Autumn Owls (www.myspace.com/autumnowls)
Hailing from Dublin, Autumn Owls are the latest in the new species of animal monikered bands taking over from the overused Tiger and the relatively anonymous Animal. Gruff Lanegan-esque vocals don't do much to hide this anemic, dragged-out music, even when the singer sounds more like E from the legendary Eels. However, I may keep an eye in case the songwriting gets a little more quirky live...

That's it for A's for now. I'm sure a whole heap will be added next week and I'll have to update. Next B's where I will continue to write reams of words for no money. BRILLIANT.

ATP Excitement Fortnight # 2

What has been exciting me about ATP today? Well the announcements for the Matt Groening ATP look very nice, but I am not going to that one. Balls. I listened to some Explosions In The Sky today. That's a nice start. They curated last year and came up with this stellar lineup. Lovely.

I'm not even warmed up yet (and I'm not just saying that because I can see my breath as I exhale in my fridge nay room).

Articles of 2009 - #3 Future Of The Left


Christmas might as well be here now. The rest of December should be abolished so that we can get to the New Year quicker and back to more clement weather. However this would mean I couldn't tell you about my top 3 articles of this year by...err...me. So without further 'ado' here's my Future of the Left article from the June issue of Playmusic Pickup If there's a more articulate, passionate, sarcastic, friendly and angry man in music today than Andrew Falkous formerly of mclusky, now of Future of the Left, then I haven't met him yet. I was ridiculously terrified before this interview, yet enjoyed it muchly. All three of the band were total gentlemen (which actually isn't as rare as you might think in this business, but still). LOOK BELOW.

Sponsored By Ennui

Whether emasculating hecklers or journos, or simply looking menacing in murderous press shots, Future of the Left remain the UK’s most exciting and creative three-piece force. Here’s why – unlike a lot of other beat combos - hyperbole fits them quite nicely…

There are few more daunting moments in life than when you’ve built something up in your head and the time to face it arrives. Perhaps worse though is if that moment never arrives – it gets stolen from you and you’re left feeling angry, empty and like the tension, anxiety and excitement was for nothing.
Future Of The Left – which this writer will now take the opportunity to state as one of the best live bands he’s ever seen in this tiny little country of ours – could be furious. They could be miserable, petulant and sarcastic. They could brush off questions with sneering disdain and vicious spite. They would be well within their rights to and it would be expected and even accepted. Anyone familiar with Future of the Left’s aggressive, seething music – brutality wrapped in slabs of concrete riffs and lethal one liners – will understand. Their 2007 debut Curses was unfathomably brilliant because of the heads down cynical savagery on offer. A trio of Welsh lads renowned for metallic guitar stabs, yelled sandpaper vocals and an exceptional talent for berating hecklers at shows, they are both feared and revered by those who have heard and believe in them.
That’s why whoever decided it was a good idea to leak their record should be quaking in their very skin and bones. For it was Andrew “Falco” Falkous – mild-mannered, eloquent, intelligent, passionate in person, confrontational and terrifying on stage – who uttered on his well reasoned, if understandably disgruntled blog about the premature leaking of the band’s second album: “I'm not angry (in fact I don't blame you, unless you leaked it, in which case I WILL KILL YOU)”. He also said in the same blog post about the show they played at the “laughably bad Camden Crawl “ that “next time somebody tells me that I can't drink my rider in the building I'm playing in, I'm going to fuck them with their own shoes.” So maybe you want to take it with a pinch of salt….at your peril.
“It was more a question of giving the perspective of a band in our particular situation as opposed to the usual way its viewed in very simplistic terms as a Robin Hood good versus evil, robs from the rich gives to the poor,” explains Falco, thoughtfully, about the blog post heard around the microcosm of the UK music scene. “The people that are usually vocally opposed to downloading are the representatives of the music industry who come across in such a business-like manner that it rather alienates music fans because they have nothing in common with those people. That or you’ve got some guy from Metallica who’s just a little bit perturbed that he won’t be able to afford a second yacht that quarter.” A serious matter broken by a cheeky aside is still a serious matter.
“Having said that, it still doesn’t change the principle. I just felt it was important to show it can affect a band, not just financially, but in terms of emotionally as well. There’s always been a sense of an event about a record being released, a certain sense of the moment which is literally stolen away from you. The record is a very special thing for us and hopefully it’ll be special to a few more hundred people. Having that taken away cheapens the whole process. Some people say: ‘it’s a fact of life, get over it’ but rape and murder are facts of life. It doesn’t mean that the affects shouldn’t be addressed and doesn’t mean the morality shouldn’t be picked at and pruned.”
Amen. Read the blog opn their myspace – under the title Jim Fork - now. Let’s absorb that for a second shall we? ….. Done? Got an impression of just how the band feel? Good. We can move on then, constructively and without the ridiculous, yet justifiable, feeling that we’re dealing with the monstrous bogeymen of Welsh rock.
Travels With Myself and Another is the second record from Future of the Left and it is, quite simply, massive. Threaded with noises and ideas intended to shear inappropriate haircuts from heads and, at times, make feeling uncomfortable fun, it’s going to be pretty difficult to find a better guitar-heavy record in 2009.
“The mindset when you begin an album is a combination between some kind of sexy clamminess and cloying desperation,” announces Falco. “The thing is, we were so proud of the first album - that WE managed to record THAT - and all three of us thought it’d be very difficult, in our own terms, to better it.”
Curses is indeed a splendid record which saw people rise from their self-induced stupor after the demise of Falco and (drummer) Jack Eggleston’s band Mclusky and (bassist/backing vocalist) Kelson Mathias’ Jarcrew in 2005. They combine a twisted sense of humour, seemingly abstract yet direct lyrics, fierce screaming, harmonies, guitar and bass interplay and mighty percussion; frankly everything you’d ever want from a three-piece rock band. They still do too. Though for a time it was difficult for even the band to imagine how they could better what came before.
“Until the beginning of December, the writing had gone slowly to say the least. The benefits the hard work is bringing you aren’t always immediately apparent. The months and months of writing definitely helped us break the back of the writing, but then, all of a sudden, the songs flowed out. It happens; you work and work and work you hit a certain peak and you write a couple of songs and the pressure disappears. In the end it was a piece of piss,” reckons Falco. Still, despite the dam breaking eventually, Falco is fairly philosophical about the need for consistent hard work.
“Being in a band, the secret of writing for me, is it’s about working hard but it’s being mentally ready and open enough so, when new ideas do come up, to be able to take full advantage of them. Unfortunately there’s nothing that says if you work for x hours you write y songs. I just wish there was.”
Regardless, the quality on offer shows that whatever circumstances and factors come into the writing and recording process, something went awfully right. Whether it’s the joyous, juicy harmonies in highlight Throwing Bricks At Trains or the dramatic, drawn out synth-scourging of You Need Satan More Than He Needs You, there’s clearly what you might call progression here. The real point though is that Future of the Left have simply found more ways to stamp our heads into amusing shapes.
“They expand upon the first record and, if it was at all possible, trim off even more of the fat. Also, I remember saying at the end of December we didn’t have any keyboard songs and within two weeks we had four ready to go.”
Keyboards seemed a big deal for a lot of fans of their previous bands, with both negative and positive reactions. Was it a big deal to fit some keyboards on this record too?
“Not necessarily. Just by virtue of it being a keyboard it gives it a different sound which creates that little bit of sonic variety rather it being very dull. Interestingly, a lot of people think some of the keyboard songs are guitar songs. The songs Chin Music and Land of the Formers, for instance; a lot of people think they’re keyboard based songs and they’re not. They‘re guitar songs.” It’s here that Falco’s menacing glint appears in his eye, the invisible smirk almost forcing itself out of his very face. “I’ve seen a review of the song Yin/Post-Yin which had a reference to ‘squalling guitar feedback’ which is interesting because,” he pauses before the coup-de-grace, dropping the emphasis of his sentence to the end syllable “there are no guitars on there at all. It’s simply a keyboard. It shows years aren’t really the best judge of music at all. Maybe it sounds better written down, I don’t fucking know.”
Is it simply a case of people not listening properly? Falco looks Playmusic Pickup straight in the eye, smiling: “I’d go as far as to say that’s the answer.”
Keyboards and backing vocals may not sound revolutionary – and to suggest so would be folly nay complete stupidity, especially as they were present on Cruses – but within the context of Future of the Left, there’s definitely something to be said for these flexing of musical muscles.
“We’re all really into backing vocals in general which comes from a lifelong obsession with Queen more than anything. I’ve always self-recorded stuff that has tonnes and tonnes of backing vocals and it’s a nice way of giving the song a bit of extra lift. It does unfortunately mean that that song is gonna be quite difficult to play live,” Falco admits of Throwing Bricks At Trains. “Sometimes it is a challenge to work out how the hell you’re gonna do them justice live. We may have to loop the keyboard part as it’s impossible to sing the lead and play the keyboard but we’ll find a way because we’re intrepid young men and we refuse to face defeat.”
So could it be said that there are restrictions to the strict three piece format?
“I see it more as a pro than a con,” shrugs Kelson. “We don’t go over the top. It’s not like we put sitar and bongos and a peacock on the record.”
“There’s no backward masking or samples of crowds of Irish people baying for sectarian blood or something,” points out Falco. “It’s still doable while still staying true to the format of what a live band in general stand for.”
When not being sponsored by ennui (and yes, I know what Falco said now, I’d just never ever heard ‘ennui’ in conversation before, damn my limited knowledge of the pronunciation of French/English nouns) Future of the Left are simply getting down to the business of being in a rock band. Leaks be damned – Travels With Myself and Another is a triumph, a record merely thirty five minutes long which has more longevity than most albums which exceed that runtime. This album and the band that crafted it deserve your money and support – for the entertainment of them crucifying hecklers at shows, if nothing else. If this is selling them short, they’re used to that. None of us quite have the eloquence or grasp of the English language to do them the justice they deserve anyway. Let’s hope this helps compensate for the loss of that moment for them.

Brad Barrett