Male Bonding/Pens/Veronica Falls @ The CAMP basement, 27/05/2010

The CAMP, or rather the City Arts and Music Project (or summink), and more specifically, its basement, its firstly and foremostly on of the sickest venues I've been to in London. This is something I say without a hint of irony, which is lucky as there was much on display.

Being massively skilled in London geography as I am, I have no real idea of which universities or art colleges are in the locality of the CAMP, near Old Street, but I think I can safely say there are some pretty close by. The "vintage" clothes, male tote bags and thick rimmed glasses on display alongside the floppiest fringes this side of Brighton. I saw a particular gentlemen with the full on "La Roux" and a completely unironic smile on his face. At least I think it was unironic.

Apart from slagging of the clientele, whose style I secretly wish I could pull off, the venue itself is the perfect grimey indie hole. No awkwardness with seating like a pub gig, small enough to remain intimate and fill out. Brilliant.

First band up are VERONICA FALLS. An evenly weighted boy-girl foursome who extend the art student vintage chic into their music, driven by an insane sound filling rhythm section who round off things nicely, veering them far away from possible "twee-ness".

Next for this art-fest love-in are lo-fi noise-wrangers PENS. And they were amazing for reasons I still cannot put my finger on. Swapping instruments (and occasionally taking their sweet time about it) left right and centre, this all girl trio made simplistic, drum driven noise that is so unironic and endearing that it must be some kind of in-joke. Right? Riiight?

Either way, amazing.

Finally MALE BONDING, joking that this is already a "Don't Look Back" show for their recently released album, tear to the stage like something out of DC in '82. Simple hard hitting riffs played fucking loud. The crowd erupts with movement, with bodies surfing through a curious mix of camera flash and sweat, the most amusing moment of which when one "surfer", attempting to grip to the ceiling is let go by his support and promptly drops back into the melee below, barely to be seen again.

All of these bands, overall, have more balls than any other 3 british bands you would care to name right now, and are definately worth having a look at as the tour continues.

Male Bonding myspace
Pens myspace
Veronica Falls myspace

Vague Follow Up Post #1 - Tall Ships

Well, I have since received said EP in the post and it's as awesome as expected, accompanied with a free poster as well.

Some lovely person called Matt who I may or may not know (sorry, either way) posted a link to a live video which is worth sharing. So I will:

Blam

Enjoy.

New Run Toto Run single + demos

So, I heard you guys asking, what's been going on with DNC favourites Run Toto Run? Well they've been putting some fancy new demos up on their myspace for a while now, with a bold new direction in mind.

Usually when a reviewer says "bold" it's like when something is "interesting" and not necessarily good. This is definitely not the case, the new tracks are capital BOLD and also really amazing.

The new direction is more electronic and more ballsy, tending towards Yeah Yeah Yeah's latest territory, and is exemplified perfectly in brand new single Hater.

Check out this and their more recent demos on their myspace.

Also below is their cover of Bombay Bicycle Club's "Always Like This".

Thom Yorke / Atoms for Peace - LOVE WILL TEAR US APART

Really really really awesome.

Bad gigs

A quick post expressing dissapointment and disillusionment with a gig I went to at Chalk Farm the other night. Really terrible ambient noise mess. Avant garde to the point of ridicule. One of the bands was just two guys dicking about for 20 minutes, with the avoidance of rhythm, melody, structure or interest.

I finally understand how my girlfriend feels about modern art. I don't like "landscape" and I don't care that I don't understand it.

Load of old sh

Tall Ships

Having just announced a free tour with labelmates Men, I thought it would be worth checking out TALL SHIPS, and I wasn't dissapointed.

Signed to Indie-weight label Big Scary Monsters, the Falmouth three piece play low key but complex folked up indie, thankfully with dry irony and none of the naivete you sometimes see from bands from the, erm... provinces.

The tracks on their Myspace are a preview of their forthcoming eponymous EP and are a good slice of what to expect. From cheeky irony laden synth noise ("Books") to soaring atmospheric scapes channeling latter day British Sea Power ("Vessels") via melodic post-rock ("Words are pegs onto which we hang ideas").

I've ordered the EP, maybe you should too.

Myspace

Stop Gap Posting Glory

No, it's not an awful band name, but a statement of fact. While I was looking forward to spending my mountains of free time between jobs (trying to freelance into film) looking up bands and posting on here, I'm ill. Not life-threatening, dying, but urgh-I-can't-be-bothered-just-wanna-stay-in-bed ill. AKA Studenti-itis.

It always means I've been slack on getting the next big album (for me) this year, in the form of Sigur Ros' lead singer Jonsi's (now completely) solo album. I have heard nothing. Mainly through lack of enthusiasm on my part. But hey, I'm ill, innit.

So rather than speculate on what that album probably sounds like (plenty of big words like soundscape, orchestral, reflecting the beautiful yet troubled natural environment of his mother country, Iceland), I'll leave that for another time. What's also for another time is for me to realise that its an album of balls-out metal that relates to none of the description I made above, but I hope that isn't true.

Instead, then, the onus is on me to find something interesting to talk about. A Myspace hunt seems to be in order, and where better to start than those Russian ex-president-o-philes, Someone Still Loves You Boris Yeltsin.

Unfortunately, they seem to be reliant more on their, unique - I'm sure, name rather than making half decent noise to get along. Sub-par Indie Pop all the way. Which is a shame. Luckily, it isn't the worst Band Name/Quality inverse ratio out there. Bono Must Die have the best band name ever but sound somehow worse than their intended target. If anything, this teaches us not to judge bands by their names. (see also, Alcoholic Faith Mission)

With this in mind, and searching through SSLYBY for a likely candidate, The Shrimp Boat Pirates hover into view on the radar. This bedroom wonder is actually a rather pleasant sounding solo project, although it seems to have been ditched for now. Ironically sounds a lot like SSLYBY, but with a crisper, more minimal sound. What is off-putting is that the other project being promoted here is the musician's other project, The Oceanic 4. Erm... yeah.

I'm starting to lose hope, and the best traditions of writing, give up.

Alcoholic Faith Mission

So I've been trying to go to more gigs recently. Well, I've always wanted to go to smaller gigs in and around London and since a friend of mine moved down to London I've been going to as many as I can.

Sometimes literally not knowing where we are going until we are there, many of these gigs seem to end up in the "Islington triangle" between Angel, Farringdon and Old Street stations. One these place was the pub/venue The Wilmington Arms, and one of the bands was Alcoholic Faith Mission.

These Scandi-Indie-Pop-Folk things are by a country mile the best of these smaller bands we've seen so far. So much so, I had to raid the merch table and by a copy of their latest album on my exit.

Called Let This Be The Last Night We Care, it's a welcome, yet confusingly good entry in what is a wealth of ploddy punk and woeful, er... whimsy that you usually find at this level. The fact that this Danish band were on a European tour was certainly deserving, especially as they were playing Paris not two days after this night, but the fact they called in such a small space for an international gig made me respect them even more.

They even managed to have an effect on the crowd, which again, at this level, is quite the achievement, when nine times out of ten, this movement is of drunk boyfriends, girlfriends and various hangers-on. The type who make song requests greeted by awkward faces and mutters of "trying new material tonight...", embarassing the band who are struggling to spot faces in the audience that they don't recognise.

Luckily, AFM are above this. Awful name aside, the music is raucous, original and most importantly, awesome. Traditional indie instrumentation is occasionally joined by a trombone and a sampler; neither are overused or overpowering, nor underwhelming or unnecessary. Their sound typifies that which is difficult to describe. Brooding atmosphere, stark piano are built up with vocal harmonies and electronic precision, at least on track one.

The only dissapointment comes that not enough people have heard of them, now as they are on their third album. So to correct that, go out right now and buy all of their albums.

Please.

Myspace

Cloud Nothings

So I finally got round to checking out this band properly. Having had their new/soon to-be-released album for quite a while now. (It's available from the band themselves, but is yet to be officially released, or summink)

It's called Turning On and is quite simply, superb. Less than 30 minutes of lo-fi pop gems complete with cassette quality vocals, harking back to a simpler time, when the indie "biz" was no more than some spotty teens sending their mixtapes through something called the "postal service" (I've no idea either), for only the kudos of their fellow acne-ridden penpal and the hope that you receive something equally amazing in return. At least according to some books I read.

If I were to receive Turning On in the post, on a C90 with a handwritten label and (maybe) a tracklisting, I'd have been pleased. If I were to hear this on vinyl, the medium it was clearly recorded for, I'd be in love.

They tap into the warmth and sound of contemporaries such as Black Lips without attracting the controversy and the wankiness. This is some guys having fun, and it sounds amazing.

Far from fashionable Brooklyn or the Bohemiam Bay area in Cali, this Ohio 4-piece (or just Dylan Baldi on a four track recorded) are worth a look.

Myspace

Plastic Beach

So I got this album the other day, pretty much the first big album of 2010, for me at least. I don't what has happened to me, but I feel as if I've reached the stage where if it sells in HMV it doesn't interest me, but if it's harder to get hold of I'd rather not bother.

Either way, this album came pretty much out of the blue, albeit with the heavily previewed single "Stylo" complete with awesome video. The single itself, however, possessed the distinct side effect of making me want to listen to lots more Mos Def. Lots and lots.

But before I get onto that its time to listen to the album itself. Its pitched somewhere between the zany Blur-like experimentation of Gorillaz and the polished conceptualisation of Demon Days. There are colloborations yes, including a verse-long cameo from (whatever happened to?) Snoop Dogg, which, as I read somewhere else, is possibly the best music he's made in a decade.

Others included are the aforementioned Mos Def, The Fall's Mark E. Smith (As opposed to Mark E. Smith's The Fall) and a rather pedestrian Clash reformation between Paul Simonon and Mick Jones. And many more.

The only danger here is that Plastic Beach is so colloboration heavy that 2-D's (or rather, Albarn's) vocals occur so infrequently that you forget its a Gorillaz album at all. Upcoming single "Superfast Jellyfish" could well be just the last in a long line of crazy collaborations by both De La Soul and Gruff Rhys.

What's happening here then, what with the dramatic shift between albums as well as the change of production (Albarn himself here, taking over from Dangermouse on Demon Days and Dan The Automator on Gorillaz), there's a danger of this virtual band losing their soul.

While you can hardly accuse them of running out of ideas, as the way this band are marketed and performed is still as startingly original as they were when they first came to prominense almost a decade ago, there's a danger of the gimmick taking over.

That said, the vast majority of this album is absolutely fantastic, with "Stylo", "Empire Ants", "Plastic Beach" and "On Melancholy Hill" all brilliant tracks in their own right, there's something vaguely wrong.

I would suggest it could perhaps be Albarn and Hewlett's loss of enthusiasm in this project coming across here. Both claimed that Demon Days would be the last Gorillaz album and Monkey essentially their last colloboration, whilst we, as fans screamed and protested the injustice as much as we did beg for "More films like the Matrix". Luckily, we have spared quite what we wished for this time, and there is more than enough here to satisfy those who have been with the group from the beginning.

It just all feels a bit... half-hearted.

Still, enough for a 7/10.

Liars

Now, don't get me wrong, I think Liars are ok, and that self-titled album of theirs is pretty solid, but they've always been a bit style-over-substance for me.

They Were Wrong, So We Drowned, is one of my all time favourite album names (up there with Tomorrow We Will Run Faster and This Is A Long Drive For Someone With Nothing To Think About, so yeah, I'm a sucker for long album names, so shoot me), but I found it musically lacking. All texture, no soul. Or something.

Anyway this new track (and video) is actually rather awesome. From their upcoming album Sisterworld (rather forgettable in terms of album names, isn't it?), this is Scissor:

Liars - Scissor (Official video) via Stereogum

Oh and HAI.

I'm baccckkckkcc

Ok so Two weeks in Japan = two months of no posts. Erm, what can I say?

If we were dating, and I didn't call you for two months, you'd have dumped me by now. And I wouldn't blame you. Not one bit.

But please re-consider. Think of all the good times we had. The top 10 list for 2007? The top 15 list for 2008? That's right, this year, it'll be a top 20!

So where have I been I hear you ask? Erm. Busy. Job-hunting and general maintenance of a thoroughly offline nature mean I've not had 5 mexican minutes to write anything for this blog. But I've figured a solution.

Rather than pretending to be some big-shot music blog, looking to be the next Pitchfork or Drowned In Sound, it is simply becoming a personal stash of music I'm enjoying or have enjoyed.

On that note, I've been listening to Indie-folk. I put this down to becoming
a) older
ii) more positive
3) more annoying
four) all of the above
E) mexican

So two lovely indie-folk bands to listen to. The first is All The Fires from Falmouth, whom I saw at the Hope and Anchor in Islington with my girlfriend and some of her workmates. Alongside them (and far inferior) were a band that needed to be told that the 90s were over, and a generic metal band. They're pretty cool and I'm seconds away from ordering their EP.

http://www.myspace.com/allthefires

Secondly, its London-based and Pavement/Ugly Cassanova inspired (tick, tick, tick) group Lofty Heights. Eye Contact is out on 7" now.

http://www.myspace.com/theloftyheights

enjoy

Holidayyyysssss

Hello reader(s). I am on holiday in Japan as of tomorrow and so will not be updating this blog for the next two weeks. Which means you miss out on my awesome review of the mum album (because I haven't written it yet).

Luckily there is a whole world wide internet out there to discover, and why not start here.

Toodle pip.

EP REVIEW: Modest Mouse - No One's First And You're Next

Modest Mouse are one of those bands who demonstrate the uncannily ability to completely change between albums yet remain immediately recognisable as one of the world's greatest Indie bands. Even Johnny Marr agreed, with this EP marking the end of his short-lived and highly sursprising tenure with the band.

It is a collection of B-sides and unreleased tracks from the sessions surrounding the release of their latest two albums, Good News For People Who Love Bad News and We Were Dead Before The Ship Even Sank, continuing the tradition of the prolific band to release almost everything they ever record, with most being of such impressive quality you can see why it befitted release.

Opener "Satellite Skin" is classic Modest Mouse, rip-roaringly anthemic without screaming to the stadiums, obliquely negative whilst being depressingly optimistic. One of those tracks that never seems like its loud enough, with Brock's vocals competing with the carefully crafted, yet excitedly delicate arrangements behind. Modest Mouse songs are veritable house of cards of a strong breeze, constantly on the brink of falling apart but ending up being stubbornly amazing.

"Guilty Cocker Spaniels", released as a single as well as the previous track, is not quite as impressive, and as the EP continues it becomes clear that many of these would have, indeed, not fitted very well with the latest two albums, and hark back somewhat to the Modest Mouse of Lonesome Crowded West or This Is A Long Drive... days, especially with whose video was to become Heath Ledger's directorial debut, "King Rat".

The final track exemplifies Modest Mouse's skill for the quietly self-effacing tracks which litter their amazing discography, but only brushes with the brilliance of tracks such as the understated "The Good Times Are Killing Me".

Overall, this EP is far from the poppy introduction to the band that the last two major label albums have displayed, but is of interest to any and all fans of the band already. Although, arguably, completists will have all these tracks in some form already, this collection is still a worthwhile purchase.

6/10

No One's First And Your Next is out now on Epic.

Radiohead EP update

Ok, so it wasn't an EP.

But the song was theirs.

And its being given away for free.

We still live in hope