The National @ Fopp

I wouldn’t normally write about gigs in record shops. After all, they’re not proper gigs, innit? But this one on Monday was a bit different. For a start, The National played for about an hour, and even did an encore! None of the usual few-songs-throwaway promo set then. Also, for the band at least, it seemed to be significant. Singer Matt Berninger told us that this was their first headline show since last October (all their recent US performances have been in support of Arcade Fire). There was a muted response from the crowd. “It’s a big deal for us though” he defended. Sure, it’s an odd place to start a tour in support of new album Boxer, but then again, said album was freshly-released that day, and on sale upstairs.

Just because it was an instore show, didn’t mean that The National held back. I’ve already spoken in praise of Boxer and it is (increasingly for me) a great record. But it’s still live that they really come into their element. The warmth on record is still there, but there is added emotional energy and intensity, and Berninger manages to be a compelling frontman without actually doing that much. Even more impressive for me though, was multi-instrumentalist Padma Newsome on stage right, playing keyboards, violin and even more instruments than I could properly see with a pillar in the way.


The band played most of Boxer, which sounds excellent live, and a couple of oldies for good measure – Abel in particular sounded fantastic. Then they rounded off with what they claimed was the very first live performance of Gospel.

So all of that, plus my failure to make it to the Astoria show last night, means that this particular instore is well worth writing about. The National are always well worth seeing live, and Boxer is certainly well worth buying. You know what to do.

Download: The National – Fake Empire
Download: The National – Abel

Buy Boxer.

Picture from the Flickr photostreams of (the appropriately titled) Mr November and Rahaha. I figured my crappy cameraphone wasn’t up to it.

They’re back in London at Shepherd’s Bush Empire on 7 November. Hopefully I can get to that one.

Emmy the Even Greater

Last year, it was hard to move far on this blog without some mention of Emmy the Great, but this year it’s been a bit quiet so far. That’s because she’s been pretty quiet. I don’t think there’s been a London gig since her headline show at the Hoxton Bar & Kitchen back in January. But now things seem to be moving at camp Emmy again.

First, she’s back on stage – first on tour supporting Emma Pollock this month, then at a few festivals over the summer. And hopefully some more dates as well. Then just last week came news which explains the relative quietness. She’s been recording, and there’s an EP going to be coming out sometime soon on a label set up by her friends at ace London dress-up-and-dance club Viva Cake. No more details on which songs are yet, but whatever they are, it’ll be something to look forward to.


However, all this begs a question. Why does Emmy have to get her friends to put her records out? There may be good reasons for this, but about a year after I wondered if anyone was going to sign her it still hasn’t really happened. I mean your Kate Nashes and Laura Marlings and the like are all very well, but they don’t hold a candle to Emmy in the voice, lyrics or just plain good songs departments. But yet, they’re signed and she’s not. It’s an odd world for sure.

Anyway, this gives me an excuse to post a few tracks I’ve had for a while. Thanks are due for these (and more new Emmy demos) to the people who congregate around the Emmy the Great last.fm page. There are a lot of fine songs there – enough for a decent album’s worth and more. At the Hoxton gig in January she played a few songs I’d never heard before, all of which sounded fantastic – more of Emmy’s already established line of sweet folk-pop. Some of these are posted below. I just love the way that she can be light and frivolous with lyrics about S Club 7 splitting up one minute (Canopies and Grapes) and the next minute delivering, at the end of City Song, some of the most devastating lines I’ve heard in recent pop music.

Download: Emmy the Great – Canopies and Grapes
Download: Emmy the Great – City Song
Download: Emmy the Great – Atoms (new demo)

She’s still only got one official release – you can buy it from Rough Trade Digital .

There are new versions of Two Steps Forward and Aiko on Emmy's myspace for your listening pleasure...

Phosphorescent: brightening up my day

Today, the dull grey spring morning in London was brightened up for me by an email waiting in my inbox when I got into work. It was from occasional Daily Growl contributor Reverend War Character, with news about Phosphorescent who he’s been "mildly obsessed" with ever since seeing him plug in a fairy light-bedecked jacket at a gig at Barden's Boudoir at the end of last year and proceed to play a set of what he described as “a twilight zone illuminated by Matthew Houck’s plug-in jacket and iridescent songs”

You see, Phosphorescent is really just one guy – the same Matthew Houck - formerly of Athens, Georgia, now of Bed-Stuy in Brooklyn, where he hangs out with other people in bands like Castanets and Dirty Projectors. Sometimes he has some people who play as his band. Sometimes he’s solo. He’s actually released three albums, as far as I can work out, but he’s only recently crossed my radar.

Anyway, the news was of a new Phosphorescent session recorded by the ever-excellent Daytrotter. There are four songs, and since Daytrotter don't like other people posting their tracks, I'm not going to. Here's the link to the songs. Follow it and you won't be disappointed. What you'll hear is lovely, warm Americana, enough bring a ray of light to the gloomiest day. Sean from Daytrotter describes the feel of the music in an evocative way, better than I ever could. Or maybe as the Reverend described him: "the spirit of Mississippi John Hurt channelled through the soul of a hairy NYC hipster". He's probably right as well.

You can also listen to three more (different) songs at Phosphorescent's myspace.

All of this inspired me to download his latest album Aw Come Aw Wry as soon as I got home. I’ve listened to it already. It's very good. I may become mildly obsessed too. Here are a couple of tracks.

Download: Phosphorescent - Joe Tex, These Taming Blues

Download: Phosphorescent - I am a Full Grown Man (I Will Lay in the Grass All Day)

You can buy this album and his previous two at Amazon.

Elvis Perkins in Dearland

I’ve been writing a fair bit in the past few months about young singer-songwriters. Now many of these are good. Very good even. But lately, I’ve been listening quite a bit to Elvis Perkins, and there’s something about him which just feels a bit more, well, substantial I guess. The youngsters are fine, but sometimes songs about having a good time with your mates, and jumping the barriers at tube stations say less about the bigger stuff of life and feel a bit flimsy when heard alongside someone who’s experienced a bit more and has something a bit weightier to say.

Elvis Perkins is no spring chicken. He’s also experienced the downs of life as well as the ups. For anyone who doesn’t know, he’s the son of the late actor Anthony Perkins (most famous for his role as Norman Bates in Psycho) who died of AIDS-related illness in 1992. His mother Berry Berenson was on one of the planes that crashed into the World Trade Center. Elvis (that’s his real name) isn’t one to go into detail about the meaning of his lyrics, but you can’t help think that some of the heartache he has experienced has informed songs like It’s a Sad World After All (“Follow the sound to the table underground / there will be plenty tears going round”) and Ash Wednesday (“No one will survive Ash Wednesday alive / no soldier, no lover, no father, no mother / not an only child”)

There’s also something quite subtle about his music too. It doesn’t have much in the way of singalongs (except maybe May Day!) or even catchy tunes. But that’s not what makes it great. The greatness is to be found in the less obvious parts. A chord change here. A slight vocal inflection there. Then some well-employed strings. And maybe a little touch of harmonica. It’s not even something that it’s easy to put your finger on, but once you’ve listened to his debut album Ash Wednesday a few times, you’ll know what I mean. It just feels, erm, substantial. And soulful. Heartfelt. Brimming with thought-provoking lyrics. And often, like on Moon Woman II and Emile’s Vietnam in the Sky, pure gorgeousness.

I wrote all the above before I saw Perkins supporting Willy Mason at Shepherd’s Bush Empire last Thursday, which I think just helped to underline the point. His set was both poignant and joyous, as he and his fine backing band (called Dearland) played songs from the album as well as the odd cover version. It was stirring stuff, with all the heart and soul that I’d hoped for. So much so that when the (younger) Willy Mason came onstage, it was a bit of an anticlimax. I actually like Mason, but too much of his slightly lacklustre new album didn’t make for a great show. For me it was all about Elvis Perkins, Dearland, and these wonderful songs.

Download: Elvis Perkins – While You Were Sleeping
Download: Elvis Perkins – Moon Woman II

The UK release for Ash Wednesday isn’t until July, but it’s out in the US, so if you're over here and you really can’t wait, you can get it from amazon.com

More photos from the gig at my Flickr.

Update: Elvis is playing his biggest headline show in the UK so far at The Luminaire on 28 May. That's Monday! Surely the perfect way to end the bank holiday weekend.

Singles going steady 4: It all starts with a !!!

Next up in the series is !!! If I’d been more astute, this one would’ve been first. As all users of iTunes know, symbols trump letters in the alphabetical ordering stakes. So !!! are right there at the top of the ‘artists’ list on my iPod. Which also means that I hear the opening beats of Me and Giuliani Down by the Schoolyard, every time I accidentally hit play. Today on the way to work I hit play deliberately and played the whole song through, something I rarely do. It’s great.

It actually sounds really 'now', even though !!! released it four years ago. There’s so much of this kind of stuff around at the moment as kids around the world take up spiky guitars and synths. But it still sounds fresh and better than so much else currently out there. Kids, take note!

To be honest, although I snapped this up when the hype was building around the New York group, and loved it, I haven’t really bothered to listen to much more of !!!’s output since. But somehow I’m thinking that it’s not been easy for them to top the glorious 18 minutes 11 seconds of the two tracks on this CD. If you can prove me wrong, I’ll be very pleased indeed.

Download: !!! - Me and Giuliani Down by the School Yard (A True Story)

It's pretty hard to find this one now. Best check eBay if you want to buy it.

A Hawk and a Hacksaw and the Hun Hangar Ensemble @ Bush Hall, 11 May 2007

I went to see A Hawk and a Hacksaw play with their Hungarian buddies, the Hun Hangar Ensemble on Friday night at Bush Hall. It was an amazing gig. That plus Electrelane on Wednesday made last week one hell of a week for live music.

Rather than my usual review here, you can read it instead at Drowned in Sound. That just leaves me to say that I should have specified the score when I sent the review (I’d have easily given it 9/10) and post some pictures of the gig, with a couple of mp3s – one from the excellent new A Hawk and a Hacksaw and the Hun Hangar Ensemble EP and one from the 2005 album Darkness at Noon.

I have more pics at my Flickr.

Download: A Hawk and a Hacksaw and the Hun Hangar Ensemble – Kiraly Siratas
Download: A Hawk and a Hacksaw – Portland Town


Buy the EP, and the previous albums.

We don't need to fight or cry

I’ve been enjoying the new Feist album The Reminder after finally receiving it last week. There’s a lot to enjoy – from her sweet ballads to her even better pop numbers. How good is Sea Lion Woman?

But I’m not posting any album tracks here. Rather, I have two live session songs that Leslie recorded with her band at the famous BBC Maida Vale studios for Rob da Bank’s ever-excellent show on Radio 1. There were four tracks in total, but I only managed to record the first two in the early hours of Monday morning. You can download them here, but if you want to hear the rest, you can listen to the programme again on the BBC website until Sunday night.

Download: Feist – So Sorry (live at the BBC)
Download: Feist – Limit to Your Love (live at the BBC)

Buy The Reminder.

The Twilight Sad

Call me biased, but I’m always a little bit more favourably pre-disposed towards bands from Glasgow than others. I mean, given two very similar bands, I’m probably going to give the one from Glasgow a fairer hearing than the one that’s not. Maybe it’s because that when I got into music for the first time in the early 90s, I was both in Glasgow and enjoying the many great bands around there at the time. It was a good time for music.

Now it’s not a rule that can be generally applied (I didn’t give the Fratellis much time and I was right not to) but it has made me more receptive to The Twilight Sad, a new band from ‘just outside of Glasgow’. On first listen, their debut album Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters is fairly unremarkable stuff. Decent, noisy, melodic indie guitar rock, which though listenable, doesn’t have many unique or particularly interesting features to make it stand above the rest of the indie murk. If they hadn’t been from Glasgow, I might just have left it there. But a few weeks later I listened again. And again. And now I’m beginning to quite like it.

Maybe it’s the unembarrassed, clearly Scottish accent of singer James Graham – in the fine tradition of The Proclaimers and Arab Strap (a band they’re very likely to be compared to), Graham’s rolled Rs are there for all to hear. Maybe it’s the intensity – there’s clearly some emotion gone into this – and it’s not only evident in the vocals and lyrics. Maybe it’s the way that they freely borrow from their city’s rich musical heritage – as well as Arab Strap, the pleasing noisy dynamic of Mogwai is there, as is the rough melodic edges of their early 90s forebears.

Whatever it is, I’m liking it, even if listening to the whole album all the way through is still making me run out of patience a bit. My conversion could be complete though when I get to see them live (at least at the End of the Road Festival, if not before), as there have been some glowing reports of their gigs. We’ll see. In the meantime, try a couple of tracks. They might whet your appetite for more.

Download: The Twilight Sad – Talking With Fireworks / Here, it Never Snowed
Download: The Twilight Sad – Walking for Two Hours

Buy Fourteen Autumns and Fifteen Winters.

Electrelane / The Early Years @ The Scala, 9 May 2007

First up, a public announcement. To anyone in Chicago, Portland, LA or Berkley who are going to see Arcade Fire this month. You have to get down to the gig early and see Electrelane! Honestly, you’ll thank me that you did. If Wednesday night’s Scala gig is anything to go by, you’ll be in for one hell of a warm-up.

Last time I saw them, also supporting Arcade Fire in March, they were a bit tentative. It was a good, short set, but I felt that there was something lacking. Two evenings ago they had anything that was missing before and a lot, lot more. OK, it was their gig and their crowd last night, but if this rich vein of form continues, even if they’re half as good in America as they were at the Scala, it’ll still be brilliant.

Anyone familiar with this blog will know of my love for the Brighton band’s new album No Shouts, No Calls. I mean, it’s still a great album, but imagine it to the power of 10 and that’s the live show. They certainly played a good few of the tracks off the new record last night and they sounded fantastic. They also played a good few from their previous LP Axes. Now, in my No Shouts... review, I was quite dismissive of Axes, and now I’m beginning to realise how wrong I was. Some of the slightly unfamiliar but excellent tunes at the gig, I happily discovered later were on that neglected album. After giving a couple of listens again today I can confirm that despite what I might have previously thought, it's a very good record.


But you can listen to the albums at home all you like. You may even love their music as it comes out of the stereo (and you should). But live, I’ve got to say it again, it really comes into its element. The songs breathe new life. It’s louder, noiser, and just much more impressive. With Ros Murray’s bass pounding grooves to rock bodies to the core. Emma Gaze beating out ultra-tight rhythms on the drums. Verity Susman going mad on the keyboards and synths. And most impressively of all, Mia Clarke smiling sweetly as she laid waste to the Scala with monstrous riffs, ear-slitting noise and highly-controlled guitar abuse. I’m sure that she made as much noise with one guitar as the Early Years did with three. But it’s not all just good quality noise. The gorgeous vocals and the sheer beauty of some of the songs were utterly mesmeric.

With the band hitting this kind of form, so clearly enjoying themselves onstage, and with a hugely appreciative, up-for-it crowd, packed closely together round the various levels of the Scala, it all made for a pretty memorable evening.


So much so that I’ve almost forgotten about The Early Years in support. Now these are another band I’ve shown a lot of love for on this blog in the past. And they were good. Their tendencies seem to be getting more prog every time I see them. Last night we got only four songs, but that lasted over half an hour. Still, I’m telling myself that if this dense, noisy krautrock shoegazey stuff is what passes for prog these days, maybe prog isn’t so scary as I thought. They were a band on form too, but the night totally belonged to Electrelane, who were rapturously received for an encore which they finished with their cover of I’m on Fire. Too bloody right they were.

Download: The Early Years – On Fire
Download: Electrelane – This Deed
Download: Electrelane – Bells
Download: Electrelane – Between the Wolf and the Dog

Buy No Shouts, No Calls and Axes and Power Out. All of ‘em, dammit.

Three Pink Monkeys and The Wirewool were also there. And speaking of other blogs, you can read Electrelane's tour blog to find out how the American tour's going. It seems they enjoyed the Scala show too.

I have some more slightly ropey pics on my Flickr (The Early Years ones are better), but TPM has much better shots.

Credit to the re-edit

A quick one today. Just some remixes and re-edits that I’ve been enjoying lately. First up a fantastic re-edit by Pilooski of Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons' Beggin’, which I received via the ever-excellent Bloggers Delight. I must admit that I’d never heard of either Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons or Pilooski before, but now I have. That’s Frankie and the boys above, probably sometime in their 60s heyday, when they were responsible for selling heaps of white-boy soul. Pilooski, as I’ve found out from headphonesex (who was, as expected, one of the first off the blocks with this tune) is part of the D*I*R*T*Y gang. Erm, that’s about it. Anyway you don’t really need all this info – the tune is all you need, in all its Northern Soul glory. In true re-edit style, it’’s not altered greatly, just extended and touched up to make to original even better.

Download: Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons – Beggin’ (Pilooski Re-edit)

Next, a couple of remixes. Beyond the Wizard’s Sleeve is the name under which Erol Alkan and Richard Norris release re-edits of weird obscure old psychadelia and folky stuff, most notably on a series of limited and highly collectable 12 inch EPs. But it’s also the name which they use to remix folk and Americana type songs by other artists. The two finest recent examples of these are their re-workings of Findlay Brown’s Losing the Will to Survive and Midlake’s Roscoe. I think these are remixes rather than re-edits, but the re-edit spirit is there. The tunes are not messed around with too much, just extended and a light touch given on the extras. But it’s enough to make them into something quite lovely. And even if they’re not quite going to burn up the dancefloor, they certainly make the originals twist in a different way.

Download: Findlay Brown – Losing the Will to Survive (Beyond the Wizard’s Sleeve Re-Animation)
Download: Midlake – Roscoe (Beyond the Wizard’s Sleeve Remix)

Order a copy of the Wizards’ latest George EP before it’s too late!

New National

I’ve been enjoying the new National album Boxer lately, and I’ve been slow to judge it. Rather I want to give it some time, play it a lot and let it sink in properly. I think this is the right approach.

After all, their last album Alligator was a bit of a slow burner for me and I don’t think I was the only one who found that. In fact I didn’t really appreciate it properly till I saw them live – one memorable evening at The Barfly with singer Matt Berninger almost pulling the air con unit off the ceiling. After that I really grew to love the album.

With Boxer, it might be even better because I’m already beginning to like it before I see them live (they’re at The Astoria on 22 May!). There’s a real warmth to the songs, which after a few spins have already made their way to my heart. It gets off to a good start with Fake Empire and Mistaken for Strangers (the new single), but there are plenty of other pleasures to be found there – in particular the lovely accordion on Slow Show. I’ll post on the album again when I give it even more time. Or see them live.

In the meantime, here a couple of tracks played live on John Kennedy’s Xfm show a few weeks ago, when Matt and Aaron Dessner were over here for some promo duties. Nice acoustic versions of Mistaken for Strangers and You’ve Done it Again Virginia (the b-side of Lit Up).

Download: The National – Mistaken for Strangers (live acoustic)
Download: The National – You’ve Done it Again Virginia (live acoustic)

Pre-order Boxer.

Singles going steady 3: Dot Allison & One Dove

It’s about time I got onto the next in my singles series. I’m doing a bit of an alphabetical skip too, but it makes sense. You see, the next artist I’m coming to is Dot Allison, the London-based singer-songwriter, who first made her name as part of early 90s post-rave Scottish trio One Dove – made up of Dot, Ian Carmichael and Jim McKinven.

One Dove first appeared in 1991 with the 12 inch single Fallen on the legendary Soma record label from Glasgow. That 12 inch in itself became a bit of a legend, probably boosted at the time by the involvement of Andrew Weatherall, fresh from his career-defining success with Screamadelica.

Two years later One Dove’s first and only album Morning Dove White was released. I think at the time people were expecting a bit of a Screamadelica-like impact, which although that never really happened, it was still a pretty decent record. At least I remember it was. I don’t have it any more. But I do have the single White Love which preceded the album. It’s a lovely, lush, rolling groove of a tune. The sort of thing that used to be called chill-out when that wasn’t a pejorative term.

One Dove split in 1996 after abandoning work on their second album, and Dot Allison went solo. Her first album Afterglow was released in 1999, and was a bit of a cracker. Still is. Just listening to it again, I’m still loving its blend of beats, pop and heartfelt ballads. But that’s not my concern here.


Dot’s second album We Are Science came out in 2002. It was preceded by the single Substance which is the second CD featured here. It’s an good enough song, and the album itself was OK. But I think it was a combination of it not being what I was hoping for (she veered off on a bit of an electro/rock route) and the songs just not being as strong, which meant that I just didn’t really love it very much.

About the same time as buying the single I went to one of my disappointing gigs ever. I hadn’t seen Dot before, and buoyed by my love for Afterglow I was expecting a great gig. Instead we got six tracks, all off the new album, and that was it. To say Mrs Growl and I left the 100 Club feeling short-changed is an understatement!

Anyway, there’s a particularly fine Slam remix of We’re Only Science on the Substance single. Here it is, along with an edit of White Love.

Download: One Dove – White Love (Radio Edit)
Download: Dot Allison - We're Only Science (Slam Remix)

The good news after We Are Science is that Dot has been doing some new material, which I must say is sounding particularly fine. More of a return to Afterglow, but with more depth and complexity. The bad news is that she hasn’t got a record deal for her new album Exaltation of the Larks yet. Let’s hope she manages to get it out in the not too-distant future. In the meantime, you can buy her most recent EP – Beneath the Ivy – from iTunes.

Black Lips / Shy Child / The Sticks @ Cargo, 1 May 2007

Sometimes it’s good to go back to basics. Now I’m as keen as big sounds, complex instrumentation and arrangements and multi-membered bands as the next person, sometimes it’s good to strip things back a bit and enjoy music a bit less encumbered by added extras.

So down to Cargo on Tuesday night for the latest one in the ever-excellent list of events by ace London promoters Upset the Rhythm, and three bands happily working with limited resources.


First up, The Sticks. Probably the most basic of the evening. There’s only so much you can do with two snare drums, a cymbal, an electric guitar and three chords. But this Brighton duo do remarkably well with these resources. They meandered through their set of lo-fi scuzzy blues rock, and although there wasn't much variation, I never really got bored. There was enough energy, instrument swapping and fun to keep them interesting. One of the blokes drummed so hard his glasses fall off.

Download: The Sticks – 'No Vocal on Tour'

This is a low bitrate download from their myspace site. Not sure it's even the right title. Their first ever release – a split 10 inch on Upset The Rhythm Records – is out on Monday.


Next, NYC’s Shy Child have similar but different limitations – one drummer and another guy on one of these slung-over-the-shoulder keyboards (I think this is what’s called a keytar). You may think that with an electronic instrument, there would be more scope for variation, but not with Shy Child. About four songs in I realised that their repertoire wasn’t going to extend much past one song, and went to lounge on Cargo’s big comfy leather seats with my friends who were similarly unimpressed. Their stabbing synth sound is pure ‘new rave’, which although unusual for a UTR night, is quite the thing the kids are going to go for. Two years ago they’d probably be laughed out of town, but not now. My friend told me they’re going on tour with Klaxons. Says it all really.

Download: Shy Child – Technicrats

mp3 courtesy of Let's Sexy Fighting.


The main attraction though is Black Lips and their rough ‘n’ raw garage punk. Last time they were in town, their tiny gigs were all a bit of a sell-out, so this time they’re in a much bigger venue than before. And they’re great. Though maybe not quite the rock ‘n’ roll mayhem I was expecting. I’d heard all sorts of tales involving nudity and blood and the likes, but only witnessed the guitarist bizarrely spitting in the air and catching his own phlegm in his mouth. But, antics aside, it’s all very good. On the negative side, the sound was crap, there was poor bass sound, and the band sometimes lost momentum by taking too long between the short ‘n’ sweet power of each song. But let’s not quibble too much. They’re a great live band – all full of mad energy, blustering through their retro rock songs with charm as well as sweat. Somehow the rubbish sound didn’t matter too much. The gig had a suitability chaotic ending with a stage invasion and a piece of very clumsy stage diving (more like falling). Like I said before, it’s all pretty basic, but here basic = fun.

Download: Black Lips – Boomerang
Download: Black Lips – Workin’

The Black Lips most recent live album Los Valientes Del Mundo Nuevo isn’t actually available in the UK. You can buy it from Insound. Or, probably better, you can buy their 2005 album Let it Bloom album from Rough Trade. It has almost the same songs – except more of them.

I've got some more photos (of all three bands) on my Flickr.

Best of April

Album of the month

This month, it’s a toss-up between Electrelane’s No Shouts, No Calls, and Low’s Drums and Guns. I’ve spent more time with the former, so it gets the nod for now. But the spectral beauty of the latter may well win me over by the time the year’s out. But for now it’s all about the four girls from Brighton who have just released a very fine record indeed, albeit with slightly odd artwork. I’ve said plenty about it already, so I’ll just post another track from it. This one is probably my favourite, and also easily one of my songs of the month.

Download: Electrelane – At Sea

Buy No Shouts, No Calls.

Songs of the month

Low – Violent Past

This is my stand-out at the moment from Drums and Guns. I love the way that Low seem to re-invent themselves with each release, yet still manage to sound resolutely and uniquely Low. There’s no other band quite like them. Wonderful.

Battles – Atlas

I had pretty mixed feelings about last year’s Battles release, and there’s no guarantee that their new album (out on 12 May on Warp) is going to be as good as this track. But no matter – I can still be thrilled by the brilliant rhythmic clatter and helium vocals in this immense tune.

Loney, Dear – Saturday Waits

The stand-out track from the oddball but rather lovely album from the affable Swede with the misplaced ‘l’. The soaring melody, the gorgeous harmonies – all enough to make you come over all tingly.

The Young Republic – Excuses to See You

Not a new song, or even a recent one, but one that I’ve become increasingly obsessed with this month as I’ve rejoiced in my finding of this fine group of Bostonians. This is my favourite tune of theirs so far – coming on like an indie-pop Return of the Grievous Angel. If you ever thought that Belle and Sebastian would sound like if they went a bit country, here’s your answer. Perfect.

Joanna Newsom – Crab, Clam, Cockle Cowrie

Another not-quite-new song. Though this one has been re-recorded by Ms Newsom and her touring band and re-released on the cheesily titled Joanna Newsom and the Ys Street Band. But it still sounds amazing, this time with added male backing harmonies, and at a push is probably my favourite Joanna song ever. So I guess that’s why it’s here.

The Young Republic

I’ve been a bit behind with The Young Republic. A few bloggers, particularly Another Form of Relief have been banging on about them for the best part of a year now. But somehow, I only got round to listening to them recently. Maybe it was something to do with the fact that they’ve been recently signed to the fledgling End of the Road Records, run by the same people of impeccable taste who put on the festival of the same name. But now I’m wishing I had maybe got with it earlier.

The band are a group of students from the prestigious Berklee College of Music in Boston, who didn’t waste much time there – meeting and getting together a band in their freshman year in 2004. The group are focused around songwriter Julian Saporiti, but number a total of eight people, playing all sorts of things. Essentially it’s indie pop at its finest, which is bound to get comparisons made with Belle and Sebastian right from the start. But like Camera Obscura last year, they are likely to step out from the shadows of these comparisons and make music that’s better than the more recent output of their more famous peers


Despite only being around for less than three years, YR have been relatively prodigious in their output – releasing no less than seven albums or EPs since then. They’ve also managed a couple of American tours as well. And perhaps refreshingly for an indie band, they’re not one obviously trying to ape their indie heroes. In a recent interview with internet radio station woxy.com, the DJ host teased them about not knowing who Greg Dulli was and one of their number even confessed to not really listening to rock music. Which maybe means they bring a bit of a fresh approach, and I think they do. Saporiti’s songwriting is clear and crisp, and he has an obvious love for 60s pop. And the skill of his music student bandmates in the arrangements and instrumentation in a true joy to hear.

So maybe I am late, but then again, now is a good time to be discovering The Young Republic, as their debut UK release – the 7 inch single Blue Skies is just out on limited 7 inch, and they have a compilation of their recent US releases coming out in the next few months. And best of all, they’re over in this country for a tour in June – hitting the EOTR residency at the Social on the 25th, The Spitz on the 30th, and later of course The EOTR festival in September. I for one will be there at least one of these shows to see if the live experience is as good as I hope it will be.

From the aforementioned woxy session, here are five live tracks, which along with the single and a few mp3s on their website, should keep us in Britian going until 12 Tales from a Winter City comes out. If you want the interview as well, download the whole thing from woxy.

Download: The Young Republic – If You Are a Salesman (live)
Download: The Young Republic – Autumn’s in the Trees (live)
Download: The Young Republic – Blue Skies (live)
Download: The Young Republic – Girl in a Tree (live)
Download: The Young Republic – Goodbye Town (live)

You can get a hold of the 7 inch at Rough Trade, but if it's sold out, you can buy Blue Skies and Small Town in a World War at Rough Trade Digital.

The original Sound of the Suburbs

It seems fitting that I follow up yesterday's post on A Hawk and a Hacksaw with another piece of Eastern European folk goodness. This time it’s real gypsy folk. That is, played by real gypsies.

This album I’m posting from here is by legendary gypsy singer Romica Puceanu, who performed with the even-more-legendary Gore Brothers in Bucharest in the 1960s and 70s. The CD is in the Sounds From a Bygone Age series, from which my previous post on Dona Dumitru Siminica was taken. That was volume 3. This album is volume 2. And interestingly, in a seamless link with yesterday, the last post on A Hawk and a Hacksaw’s myspace blog revealed that they were listening to volume 1.

Anyway, back to Puceanu. She was known as a singer of traditional ‘cantece de mahaha’ or ‘songs of the suburbs’. These suburbs, on the edge of Romanian towns, were where gypsies settled following the abolition of Roma slavery in 1864. There they entertained people in garden cafés with songs with rustic themes, but given ‘urban’ arrangements. Romica recorded her first album with the Gore Brothers in 1964 and was apparently known for turning up at the studio with a teapot filled with cognac! She was said to be a lively funny woman, and despite her inability to read had a vast repertoire of songs which she sang with her unique, haunting voice. We can all hear that.

Unfortunately Romica was killed in a car accident on the way back from a wedding performance in 1996. This album has lovingly restored some lost classics, which probably most of her fellow country-people don’t know, let alone the rest of the world. Let’s hope the re-release belatedly brings her music to a wider audience. I’ve enjoyed listening to these. Hope you do too.

Download: Romica Puceanu & The Gore Brothers – Doi Tovarasi Am La Drum
Download: Romica Puceanu & The Gore Brothers – Balanus

Order Sounds from a Bygone Age Vol 2.

If you're interested in further listening, there's a heap more Romica Puceanu mp3s at this website.

A Hawk and a Hacksaw return - with more folk(s)

Last year some of the phrases on the lips of many bloggers were ‘Balkan folk’, ‘gypsy folk’ or (perhaps more correctly) ‘Eastern European folk’. In almost all cases, they were referring to the rise and rise of Beirut, the project of Zach Condon, formerly of Albuquerque, now of NYC. In some other cases there were some mentions of Zach’s fellow home-towners Jeremy Barnes and Heather Trost, together known as A Hawk and a Hacksaw.

It’s right that they should be mentioned, not only because they plough a very similar furrow to Beirut, as well as being friends. They don’t have Condon’s gloriously mournful vocals, but in some ways they’re more authentically Eastern European. After all, they did record their last album When the Wind Blows with celebrated Romanian brass band Fanfare Ciocarlia. Then, after receiving some acclaim for that, and touring the UK with Calexico and their Beirut mates , they set off back to Eastern Europe – to Budapest.


There, after visiting Fono, a music shop and venue for Hungarian folk music, they met a group of musicians who soon became The Hun Hangár Ensemble and recorded some tracks with Barnes and Trost in December. The fruits of their work are now about to see the light of day on the self-titled A Hawk And A Hacksaw & The Hun Hangár Ensemble EP. To be honest, it’s one of my most anticipated releases of the year, and I was pretty damn pleased to get a couple of tracks off the EP (there are eight in total). And I’m also pleased to say that they sound good. Not a massive departure in sound for AHAAH from the evidence of these two tracks, but pretty good nonetheless. I’m looking forward to hearing the other six tunes.

But not just an EP – a tour as well. Barnes and Trost are bringing the Ensemble to the UK, starting next Saturday (5 May). They hit Bush Hall on 11 June. Can’t wait!

Download: A Hawk And A Hacksaw & The Hun Hangár Ensemble – Ihabibi
Download: A Hawk And A Hacksaw & The Hun Hangár Ensemble – Zozobra

And speaking of Beirut, they’re back in London on 24 June for their first proper headline show here (after Zach couldn’t sing at the original one last November). If you’ve not got their new tracks, head over to Rough Trade Digital now for them. I’m not going to post any – it’s Rough Trade’s wee exclusive, apparently done for them by Condon in return for making The Gulag Orkestar their number one album of 2006. They’re certainly less gypsy folk, more lo-fi Casio beats, but still well worth a listen.

Pre-order the EP.

Thou Shalt Always Kill it off

You either love it or hate it. It’s a Marmite kinda song. But now there’s a third option creeping in – getting tired of it. You see, Thou Shalt Always Kill by Dan Le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip is a bit like a great joke. It’s brilliant the first time you hear it. And the next. And the next. But somewhere down the line, after many, many hearings it begins to wear a bit thin. I think so anyway – I haven’t got there yet (I still like it), but I think it’s possible.

So possible in fact, that the song’s creators have stopped playing it. On the radio at least. I’m not sure how many radio shows they’ve done, but when they came into Xfm last Wednesday to play live on XPosure again they suggested that they’d done it a bit too much and that night was going to be the last time they played it live on the radio, back on the show that first gave them an airing.

I wouldn’t even have bothered posting it again, if it wasn’t for the fact that Pip went into an impromptu ‘karaoke’ (as he called it) slot at the end of the track, singing excerpts from Kate Nash, Adele and Jack Penate songs over Le Sac’s beats. Kind of like a much nicer version of LDN is a Victim. But then, Scroob seems like a pretty nice guy. But he can’t really sing. Apparently he also does a ‘classic hip hop’ karaoke ending as well. I’d like to hear that too.

So I’ve posted it along with two other tracks they did that night – Development and Angles, which should provide enough evidence to the doubters that these guys aren’t one hit wonders.

Download: Dan Le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip – Thou Shalt Always Kill (Xfm live ‘karaoke’ version)
Download: Dan Le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip – Angles (live)
Download: Dan Le Sac vs. Scroobius Pip – Development (live)

Download the Thou Shalt... single. It’s out on 7 inch too, but it’s probably long gone by now…

Photo from cowfish's Flickr.

And like the artists themselves, I’m going to kill off posting on this track too. Before I do, one last video clip. You’ll have all seen the proper vid for the song, but here’s a version shot live at The Social a couple of months ago.

Devastations / The Kissaway Trail @ The Spitz, 22 April 2007

Expectations. They can go a long way to determining your enjoyment of a gig, can’t they? Have you had high hopes, only to see them frustrated? Or low hopes only to have them blown away? Well, I had both the other night.

The disappointment came in the shape of Devastations. I’m not sure what it was. Maybe it was the rather thin Sunday evening crowd (was the warm weather and beer gardens and barbeques more attractive than an evening upstairs at the Spitz?) and consequent lack of atmosphere. Maybe it was that the Aussie band played a set comprising mostly unfamiliar songs. Now, I only know their latest long player Coal and I initially assumed that they were playing old tunes off their self-titled debut record. But no. Towards the end, bassist and singer Conrad Standish said that they were playing a lot of new songs, because they had “just come out of the studio” and they had “new toys and are going to use them”.

Maybe that’s it then. Devastations must have thought that they were playing to their own crowd, who would be comfortable with all the new stuff. But I wasn’t. There was none of the lovely sweeping melancholia that made Coal so good. There just weren’t the decent tunes and emotion that I expected. Only What’s a Place Like That… from Coal was aired (I think). And the “toys” seemed to be devices that made electronic beats which added little to the music. And I don’t think I was the only one not feeling it either. At the end of the set, the crowd was markedly thinner than when the band took to the stage. Who knows, maybe these tunes off the album are growers, but on the night they weren’t doing anything for me.

Here’s a little reminder of the quality of the songs on Coal.

Download: Devastations – Terrified
Download: Devastations – Take You Home


On the other hand I had no expectations of support band The Kissaway Trail. I hadn’t heard any of their songs. I hadn’t even any time to check their myspace. So I was pleased to be immediately transfixed when the four guys in tight skinny jeans stepped up to their mics and launched into the first number. It’s probably a good thing when you can’t work out who the lead singer is after the first song. They all sang, even the drummer. Big-sounding indie rock with decent tunes, bah bah bah singalong bits and some fine riffing and general noise. With three guitars in action you’d expect a bit of that though. These five Danish lads are probably not a band who’re going to change the world, but for a support slot on a quiet spring evening, they were as good as I could have hoped for. Their self-titled debut album is out on Bella Union this week. Who knows, I might even get it.

Download: The Kissaway Trail – Smother + Evil = Hurt

Buy Coal and The Kissaway Trail.

The Daily Growl posts intermittently, goes electro

My posts of late have been a bit thin on the ground. That’s because I’ve been mad busy with home improvements and a heap of other stuff going on. But hopefully now something resembling normal service will be resumed.

Here’s some things that were keeping me type faster at work last week, as I combined working my way through a pile of unlistened-to promos with my day job. It’s a direction that I don’t take too often on this blog, but hey, a bit of a change is surely a good thing.

I’ve spent more than my fair share of time in the past dancing to repetitive beats in packed and sweaty clubs, but these days I’ve reverted much more to my indie default. However, it was good to catch up on some of the new electro stuff that’s keeping the kids moving these days. I’d normally leave this sort of thing to much better informed bloggers like headphonesex, but I was enjoying some stuff from the so-hot-right-now Parisians from the Ed Banger label (that’s those crazy moustachioed dudes in the photo above) and here we are. It’s label head honcho Busy P with his recent Rainbow Man tune and one of the other Ed Banger luminaries DJ Medhi with his widely remixed Lucky Boy track. I’m not going to show my ignorance by commenting further – just enjoy these.

Download: Busy P – Rainbow Man
Download: DJ Medhi – Lucky Boy (Outlines Remix)


A bit further east to Germany next, and a couple of blokes who should be delivering one of the most eagerly anticipated albums of the year. This is just the radio edit of Digitalism’s new single Pogo, so I expect the full length version to be a bit more satisfying that the truncated 3:06 one I’ve posted here. It’s no Zdarlight for sure, but still decent enough to keep me going till Idealism drops. And rather than being so-called ‘faceless’ producers, these guys look alright. Pop stars almost.

Download: Digitalism – Pogo (Radio Edit)

Finally back home to the UK, but not quite to the mainland. Just off the south cost on the Isle of Wight, is home to Shakes (not to be confused with The Shakes of course), who deliver probably the best dirty electro in evidence on this post. Their recent single Disneyland, coupled with their fine tune Sister Self Doubt from last year, assures us that the homegrown electro is every bit as good as their continental counterparts.

Download: Shakes – Disneyland
Download: Shakes – Sister Self Doubt

Good though all of this sounds through the headphones, it’s obviously going to sound far better coming out of large bass bins in these packed and sweaty clubs I used to frequent. Time for a return?

No Shouts, No Calls

When Arcade Fire cancelled the rest of their European tour lately it wasn’t just a shame for their fans from Norway to France, it was probably also a bit of a blow for Electrelane, who Win Butler and co. had invited to support them on the tour. With their new album No Shouts, No Calls due to be released soon, it was the perfect opportunity to expose their stirring sounds to a new and much bigger audience.

One of these big audiences was at Brixton Academy last month, where I was almost as keen to see Electrelane as the more illustrious headliners. Particularly since I hadn’t seen the Brighton band for about three years, around the time of their debut album The Power Out (Arcade Fire connection anyone?). I was totally won over by its blend of fuzzy guitars and lovely melodies and it was one of my albums of 2004. They were pretty good live too. The next year, they released Axes, which wasn’t really the album I was expecting. It was definitely Electrelane, but it was just a bit too experimental, a bit to hard to love for me to stay too interested.


But now they’re about to release No Shouts, No Calls, which really is the follow-up to Power Out that I’d been hoping for. And it’s very good indeed. There may be no male voice choirs on this album, and no singing in French, but it does these ace guitar riffs and melodies again. Electrelane are equally at home on instrumentals as well as songs with actual singing. They’re also pretty hot at these wordless vocal ah-ah type tunes too. The harmonies are right on the button. The lyrics are emotive and interesting. And there’s some of the best use of keyboards /piano/ organ that I’ve heard on a recent rock record.

So back to Brixton then, and a somewhat tentative opening. I don’t think that Verity Susman, Mia Clarke, Ros Murray and Emma Gaze are used to a stage of this size. They seemed a little over-awed. But they got on with it and I was impressed. Verity apologised for playing a lot of new songs, but let’s face it, all of these songs were new to most of the early Arcade Fire audience. And any Electrelane fans there, if they were like me, would have been bursting to hear the new stuff played live. And we weren't disappointed. It all sounded good, but I’ve got a feeling that it’ll sound a whole lot better in the more intimate surroundings of the Scala (well more intimate than Brixton!) on 9 May. With Brakes and The Early Years as well! Can’t wait!


Download: Electrelane – The Greater Times
Download: Electrelane – Tram 21

Pre-order No Shouts, No Calls. True the cover is a little odd, and reminiscent of Blue Peter or something, but the vinyl version is a very nice package indeed. Songs themed by types of knots! What more could you ask for?

More of my photos of the Brixton show (plus Arcade Fire) at my Flickr.

You can keep up to date with Electrelane's current tour on their tour blog.

Laura Marling

At the start of the year, when I was doing my list of singer-songwriter tips for 2007, I kept getting recommended Laura Marling as another good ‘hopeful’. But I never really got round to checking her out. Until the other night. On Monday she was in the Xfm studio, playing a live session for John Kennedy and I was again on hand to hit ‘record’ on the radio. So now I have a couple of tracks to judge her on.

And the verdict? She’s alright really. Nothing special or remarkable, but she manages a decent tune. On She’s Changed, Laura actually reminded me a wee bit of Beth Orton. But in today’s music world she’s much more likely to get compared to Kate Nash, what with her playing acoustic guitar, not singing in the Queen’s English and having a song called London Town.

However, despite the capital-centric title of that song (and the lead track on her new EP, out this week on the so-now Way Out West label) she actually hails from Reading (for overseas readers, it’s a dull commuter town west of London, and home to one of Britain’s big corporate rock festivals). A fact that she’s actually quite proud of – “I’m quite patriotic about Reading” she declared to John Kennedy. But let’s not hold that against her too much.

Anyway, make your own mind up. I think she’s promising at least. I’d probably have gone to see her play for free tonight at Fopp on Tottenham Court Road if I wasn’t stuck in DIY hell again. Maybe there’ll be another time.

Download: Laura Marling – She’s Changed (live acoustic)
Download: Laura Marling – Heartbreaker’s Handbook

Order the London Town EP.

Photo from Laura’s myspace via Chess Club DJs.

PS. Sorry that the quality of the mp3s isn't as good as I'd normally post. Forgive the faint digital burblings and I'll have a stern word with my radio.

Emma Pollock

Today I’ve been listening to The Delgados' album The Great Eastern for the first time in what seems like years. I’d forgotten just how good it is. An indie classic that really should have been massive. Then my mind turned to what the band were up to now. I’ve no idea what the three blokes are up to (I saw some of them in Malcolm Middleton’s band a couple of years ago), but Emma Pollock is very much back on the scene. I've been intending to post on Emma for a while now, but never got round to it until now.

She started off her solo career last year, playing a few support slots and signing a deal with 4AD Records. This year sees the release of her debut album, preceded by a single sometime soon. In the meantime, here are a couple of songs which may or may not be on the new album. Limbs is a lovely fragile little number, with the acoustic guitar and Emma’s voice nicely augmented by piano. Paper and Glue was recorded by Xfm in a hotel in Austin at the recent South by Southwest festival.

Although both these songs are acoustic, I can imagine them getting a Delgados-style orchestrated expansion, and even benefiting from it. But as they are, they're pretty good. I’m looking forward to hearing more.

Emma’s on tour in May with her new band (dates here). Londoners can catch her at The Borderline on 24 May. The same night as James Yorkston at the Union Chapel. Ooh – tough choice for me!

Download: Emma Pollock – Limbs
Download: Emma Pollock – Paper and Glue (live acoustic)

And just a bonus from that great Delgados album.

Download: The Delgados – Aye Today

Buy The Great Eastern (you can get it quite cheap now).

Magic Arm

Here’s a new band today. Or rather that should be a new artist. For Magic Arm is really just one guy – Marc Rigelsford from Manchester – who is pursuing a very pleasing and interesting line in psychedelic alt-folk music.

Unusually for a British artist, I first found out about Magic Arm from an American source - via the excellent blog by Grizzly Bear’s Ed, who recently posted the song Outdoor Games, which seems to be the only track currently available out there. Since then both Said the Gramophone and that ever-reliable source of good UK music Nothing But Green Lights have both been on Magic Arm’s case.

And rightly so. It’s no surprise that Marc’s music is liked by someone out of Grizzly Bear, as there is a definite kindred spirit there, in the way that the song moves from lo-fi warmth into the expansive echoey sound used to great effect by the Brooklyn band. But there’s also harmonica, wheezy organ and tinkling piano to add to the heady mix of what is one of the best songs by a new artist I’ve heard in ages.

This and the three other songs streaming on the Magic Arm myspace all bode well for the debut EP, also called Outdoor Games, which is released on 11 June. It seems just too far away at the moment. Can’t wait.

Download: Magic Arm – Outdoor Games.

According to the website, there’s also a Magic Arm cover of Daft Punk is Playing at my House. Gotta hear that!