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.

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