Yeah! I just came back from Indietracks, which was amazing as usual. Sadly I don't have time to write it up for you since I'm off to Edinburgh for the Fringe on Wednesday and before that I need to pack my entire room into boxes since I'm moving out while I'm away.
So this will have to act as a stopgap: another mixtape for Pic 'n' Mixx, who were DJing and did their usual mixtape swap fun. Because I'm an idiot I didn't actually manage to get mine in the box and swapped, but here it is for you anyway. Sadly you won't get the amazing/shit/amazingly shit cover art but hopefully you can cope with that.
Robot Boys & PUNK Girls
Have a fun rest of the summer! See you in September when I'll finally keep my new show promise.
Monday, 26 July 2010
Monday, 21 June 2010
p.s. eliot
I don't remember when or where I first heard about p.s. eliot. Somewhere on the internet I'd heard the name, but I never got round to checking them out until the release this year of their new 7", Living in Squalor. Again I stumbled across it on some blog on one of my late-night music-seeking sessions (yeah, I probably should get out more). Within about an hour of downloading it I'd heard the album as well and ordered both on vinyl all the way from America (I couldn't find any UK distros stocking them, sadly). They really are that good.
The last FM page for the band (maybe written by them, maybe not, but presumably reflecting at least what they've said in interviews and stuff) lists Fugazi, Bikini Kill, X-Ray Spex etc. as influences. They're categorised as pop-punk. Both of those are all well and good, but to my ears the punk influences reflect as much on their "ideology" as they do on the sound: they seem pretty squarely DIY, and although they aren't as explicitly feminist lyrically as a lot of Riot Grrrl, they are a band with three girls in, something that's still underrepresented. But then again punk is nothing if not an ideology: but that's a blog post for someone else who's better at writing about music than me.
Anyway to my ears they sound like they're from the punkier end of what we over here would call indiepop, and they'd fit pretty well on a lot of that kind of lineup (the last FM also mentions the unfortunately now-defunct Pens). Uptempo, fairly unsophisticated (but in a good way) songs with really good (and again REALLY indiepop) lyrics: "I write you letters all the time/I never send them, it's just supposed to ease my mind." I like the singer's delivery too, sometimes spitting out words double tempo, sometimes going into charmingly off-key yelps in the high register. It's not a million miles away from stuff like the best bits of Standard Fare or something like that. The new 7" is probably more accessible, five great songs in less than twelve minutes, but the album's well worth seeking out too.
Maybe there's loads of stuff like this happening in America. I wish I knew. For all the good that the internet has done in terms of opening up scenes to people thousands of miles away (the fact I've heard of p.s. eliot at all for example), you do tend to get a very fragmented picture of what's going on. And another thing: from all the pictures I've seen on last FM or wherever, the majority of their shows are basements and apartments (see video below). Why doesn't that happen in London (or in my experience in the UK in general)? Maybe it's that houses in London tend to be a lot smaller and real estate at more of a premium than in a lot of places in the US, so fewer people have the kind of space where you can put on stuff like that. Or maybe there are just fewer established venues for this kind of underground music in places that aren't London, so people look for more unusual places to put on shows.All those pictures look like so much fun it makes me want to move to America. Maybe when I win the lottery (doubly unlikely since I've never bought a ticket) I'll buy a massive house and put on touring bands.
Anyway, the point of this post is that I love p.s. eliot and I wish they would come to the UK. Until then, go buy their 7" and LP.
Obligatory still-photo-with-added-studio-recording video:
Rubbish sound live video:
The last FM page for the band (maybe written by them, maybe not, but presumably reflecting at least what they've said in interviews and stuff) lists Fugazi, Bikini Kill, X-Ray Spex etc. as influences. They're categorised as pop-punk. Both of those are all well and good, but to my ears the punk influences reflect as much on their "ideology" as they do on the sound: they seem pretty squarely DIY, and although they aren't as explicitly feminist lyrically as a lot of Riot Grrrl, they are a band with three girls in, something that's still underrepresented. But then again punk is nothing if not an ideology: but that's a blog post for someone else who's better at writing about music than me.
Anyway to my ears they sound like they're from the punkier end of what we over here would call indiepop, and they'd fit pretty well on a lot of that kind of lineup (the last FM also mentions the unfortunately now-defunct Pens). Uptempo, fairly unsophisticated (but in a good way) songs with really good (and again REALLY indiepop) lyrics: "I write you letters all the time/I never send them, it's just supposed to ease my mind." I like the singer's delivery too, sometimes spitting out words double tempo, sometimes going into charmingly off-key yelps in the high register. It's not a million miles away from stuff like the best bits of Standard Fare or something like that. The new 7" is probably more accessible, five great songs in less than twelve minutes, but the album's well worth seeking out too.
Maybe there's loads of stuff like this happening in America. I wish I knew. For all the good that the internet has done in terms of opening up scenes to people thousands of miles away (the fact I've heard of p.s. eliot at all for example), you do tend to get a very fragmented picture of what's going on. And another thing: from all the pictures I've seen on last FM or wherever, the majority of their shows are basements and apartments (see video below). Why doesn't that happen in London (or in my experience in the UK in general)? Maybe it's that houses in London tend to be a lot smaller and real estate at more of a premium than in a lot of places in the US, so fewer people have the kind of space where you can put on stuff like that. Or maybe there are just fewer established venues for this kind of underground music in places that aren't London, so people look for more unusual places to put on shows.All those pictures look like so much fun it makes me want to move to America. Maybe when I win the lottery (doubly unlikely since I've never bought a ticket) I'll buy a massive house and put on touring bands.
Anyway, the point of this post is that I love p.s. eliot and I wish they would come to the UK. Until then, go buy their 7" and LP.
Obligatory still-photo-with-added-studio-recording video:
Rubbish sound live video:
Wednesday, 9 June 2010
Mixtape
OK, this time I promise, new show pretty soon.
In the interim here is a special mixtape I made last week for the mixtape swap at a gig I went to (Pic 'n' Mixx, Pocketbooks headlining). Good show and hopefully a good mix, so download it here.
It's mostly indiepop but with a couple of curveballs in there too.
Sounds Just Like a Foreign Movie
In the interim here is a special mixtape I made last week for the mixtape swap at a gig I went to (Pic 'n' Mixx, Pocketbooks headlining). Good show and hopefully a good mix, so download it here.
It's mostly indiepop but with a couple of curveballs in there too.
Sounds Just Like a Foreign Movie
Tuesday, 6 April 2010
Cameras in the Sky
Yeah, we haven't had a show for ages now (a combination of the studio being down, me being busy etc). But rest assured there will be a good one (well...) coming up soon.
In the meantime, here's a band I've been listening to a lot recently, Prolapse:
A band from Leicester from about ten years ago, somehow including a very Scots singer (maybe ranter would be a better term). They come off like a mix between the Fall and Stereolab. A horribly twisted motorik version of indiepop. It works though. A lot of their songs have an interesting contrast between the stream-of-conciousness type stuff and some actual singing from a female vocalist, maybe sort of reminiscent of the earlier MBV stuff but with more grounded guitars.
I really like this one, more sedate musically but the free word association is pretty interesting.
You can get their albums on Amazon for about a quid each, I'd say "The Italian Flag" is the best (the tracks I've posted are all from that since there's not much else on the internet).
Since we last did a show I also went to see A Silver Mount Zion at the Electric Ballroom in Camden. Good as usual, mostly stuff from the new album but with 1,000,000 Died to Make This Sound, God Bless Our Dead Marines and Microphones in the Trees (given some of Efrim's recent blog posts, perhaps a comment on the ubiquity of CCTV in the UK). Microphones is probably my favourite SMZ song I think, fantastic propulsive bassline and some room for lovely violin improvisation at the end. SMZ (or whatever variation of the name they're currently trading on) seem to spend an inordinately long time tuning between songs, and Efrim asks the crowd to make any points they might want to air: predictably, the first shout was to "Bring back Godspeed!", to which he replied: "You fucking bring back Godspeed. It's easy, just four chords and a long runway."
Worth seeing next time they're over.
From the new one:
I never realised how much of that was played on the violin before seeing them.
Anyway, there you go. Be careful when searching for "Prolapse" on YouTube.
In the meantime, here's a band I've been listening to a lot recently, Prolapse:
A band from Leicester from about ten years ago, somehow including a very Scots singer (maybe ranter would be a better term). They come off like a mix between the Fall and Stereolab. A horribly twisted motorik version of indiepop. It works though. A lot of their songs have an interesting contrast between the stream-of-conciousness type stuff and some actual singing from a female vocalist, maybe sort of reminiscent of the earlier MBV stuff but with more grounded guitars.
I really like this one, more sedate musically but the free word association is pretty interesting.
You can get their albums on Amazon for about a quid each, I'd say "The Italian Flag" is the best (the tracks I've posted are all from that since there's not much else on the internet).
Since we last did a show I also went to see A Silver Mount Zion at the Electric Ballroom in Camden. Good as usual, mostly stuff from the new album but with 1,000,000 Died to Make This Sound, God Bless Our Dead Marines and Microphones in the Trees (given some of Efrim's recent blog posts, perhaps a comment on the ubiquity of CCTV in the UK). Microphones is probably my favourite SMZ song I think, fantastic propulsive bassline and some room for lovely violin improvisation at the end. SMZ (or whatever variation of the name they're currently trading on) seem to spend an inordinately long time tuning between songs, and Efrim asks the crowd to make any points they might want to air: predictably, the first shout was to "Bring back Godspeed!", to which he replied: "You fucking bring back Godspeed. It's easy, just four chords and a long runway."
Worth seeing next time they're over.
From the new one:
I never realised how much of that was played on the violin before seeing them.
Anyway, there you go. Be careful when searching for "Prolapse" on YouTube.
Tuesday, 16 March 2010
Show 07/03/2010
Friends, sad news. Due to technical issues, last week's show is lost forever. It has vanished into the empty (internet) radio waves.
We may never know what really went on that day, but here's one (unconfirmed) suggestion:
Wilco - Handshake Drugs [Kicking Television version]
American Football - Never Meant
Shellac - Song of the Minerals
Pavement - Gold Soundz
Richard Thompson - Calvary Cross
Crash and Britany - Nora's a Mirror
Teenage Fanclub - Verisimilitude
Rocket From the Tombs - Ain't It Fun
Mazzy Star - So Tonight That I Might See
Art Brut - DC Comics and Chocolate Milkshake
Sparklehorse - Cow
RIP Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse, a truly exceptional songwriter.
We may never know what really went on that day, but here's one (unconfirmed) suggestion:
Wilco - Handshake Drugs [Kicking Television version]
American Football - Never Meant
Shellac - Song of the Minerals
Pavement - Gold Soundz
Richard Thompson - Calvary Cross
Crash and Britany - Nora's a Mirror
Teenage Fanclub - Verisimilitude
Rocket From the Tombs - Ain't It Fun
Mazzy Star - So Tonight That I Might See
Art Brut - DC Comics and Chocolate Milkshake
Sparklehorse - Cow
RIP Mark Linkous of Sparklehorse, a truly exceptional songwriter.
Monday, 8 March 2010
Show 28/02/2010
Sorry it's taken so long to put this show up! There'll be a new one probably tomorrow. Soon anyway.
This was our 60th ever show.
mp3
Broken Family Band - Mother O' Jesus
Absentee - Something to Bang
Loose Fur - Laminated Cat
Arab Strap - Stink
AA Bondy - Witness Blues [Daytrotter Session]
Sebadoh - Perverted World
Quasi - Sea Shanty
Lucksmiths - The Chapter In Your Life Entitled San Francisco
Retribution Gospel Choir - Kids
The Band - King Harvest (Has Surely Come)
Tall Dwarfs - Think Small
Silver Jews - Federal Dust
Neutral Milk Hotel - Where You'll Find Me Now
Roky Erickson & Okkervil River - Goodbye Sweet Dreams
This was our 60th ever show.
mp3
Broken Family Band - Mother O' Jesus
Absentee - Something to Bang
Loose Fur - Laminated Cat
Arab Strap - Stink
AA Bondy - Witness Blues [Daytrotter Session]
Sebadoh - Perverted World
Quasi - Sea Shanty
Lucksmiths - The Chapter In Your Life Entitled San Francisco
Retribution Gospel Choir - Kids
The Band - King Harvest (Has Surely Come)
Tall Dwarfs - Think Small
Silver Jews - Federal Dust
Neutral Milk Hotel - Where You'll Find Me Now
Roky Erickson & Okkervil River - Goodbye Sweet Dreams
Saturday, 27 February 2010
Show 21/02/2010
This week's show:
mp3
Playlist:
Belle & Sebastian - Mayfly
Gliss - Sleep
Wive - Come Join the Sea
Mission of Burma - Einstein's Day
Shrag - Forty Five 45s
Fugazi - Cashout
Dylan - Idiot Wind [original version]
Hefner - May God Protect Your Home
lift to Experience - Falling From Cloud 9
Galaxie 500 - Pictures
long Fin Killie - Godiva
The Velvet Underground - After Hours
Have fun! New show tomorrow.
mp3
Playlist:
Belle & Sebastian - Mayfly
Gliss - Sleep
Wive - Come Join the Sea
Mission of Burma - Einstein's Day
Shrag - Forty Five 45s
Fugazi - Cashout
Dylan - Idiot Wind [original version]
Hefner - May God Protect Your Home
lift to Experience - Falling From Cloud 9
Galaxie 500 - Pictures
long Fin Killie - Godiva
The Velvet Underground - After Hours
Have fun! New show tomorrow.
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