Jumpstart Trainershoe - new music musings

Sorry for the interruption in service

I'm trying not to feel guilty about the fact that I've not posted since February - at the end of the day I just wasn't putting the time and effort into this to make it worthwhile, but let's see if I can change things from now on... There have obviously been quite a lot of bands that I've been into since Feb (although not as many as you'd think, and this musical drought has possibly led to this blog drought) but I'm going to ease myself into this gently with just three bands for now...

Current favourite new band #1: Ungdomskulen

Insanely intricate yet feisty (see my fave 'Modern Drummer') or joyfully noisy (see 'Spartacus' or 'Ordinary Son').  They're labelled as prog but don't let that put you off - given their outfits at a recent Dalston gig (see pic left and more slightly crap ones on my Flickr page) and the brilliant video to 'Modern Drummer', they definitely don't take themselves seriously.  Hear the current album 'Cry Baby' on Spotify.

Current favourite new band #2: Invasion 

It was a very happy coincidence that my two new favourite bands were playing together in Dalson at the end of September so I also got to see these heavy metallers too.  From our vantage point at the side of the stage, the vocalist's epic voice wasn't as impactful as it is on record - however, we were glad to be in this position once we realised how good at spitting the drummer was.  She can definitely throw some gob when she puts her mind to it.  She was one of those drummers who is just fascinating to watch, so relaxed and fluid at the kit, making you wonder quite how she is generating such a racket whilst looking so calm. Similarly, the guitarist's understated onstage demeanour is in direct contrast to the complex and downright rawkus tunes he is single handedly generating.  A brilliant and cool as f*** way to bring heavy metal BACK.

New track I heard this morning that is dead good #1

The Climbers - Uncommon

This song is good enough that I heard it and it made me think, I need to break months of laziness and blog this. They're made up of people from Absentee and The Coastguards and this track can be downloaded for free from the Willkommen website.  Really rather lovely.

Something for everybody....?

I doubt it but here's a v quick post with some of the tracks that I've played tonight - bear in mind that my bad head cold means I have a lot of snot in my ears which may be to your advantage...

Fenech-Soler - I'd not heard of these until hearing that they were the new Late Of The Pier in Artrocker - they're much less 'clever' than the (really rather complicated) LOTP but given they're only wee bairns, these 80s inspired synth tracks definitely have their moments.  I am reminded a bit of early Les Rhythmes Digitales - but then he was incredibly far ahead of his time in my opinion...  The press coverage of them would have them up there with Klaxons and Friendly Fires in no time at all..

Le Corps Des Minces de Francois - across all the myspace tracks, many girl bands come to mind - perhaps Bananarama and 4 Non Blondes dancing to CSS and Peaches on this particular track.  Great fun though and I like the fact that  they use interesting rhythms and beats to stop it ever getting too twee - kind of like M.I.A without the heavyweight producers. (Anyone who can tell me what the track 'Pollution' really reminds me of gets a prize.)

Another lovely girl is up next - Marina & The Diamonds.  She does have a Tori Amos 'singing/talking over plinky plink piano' vibe about her harmonies and vocals occasionally but she is also distinctly Marina and bloody attractive she is too.  Which will probably help.  There are hints of Florence & The Machine in this track and you can see a videos of her performing here.

Gay Blades are up next and I cannot work them out at all - I'm not the first to point out that nearly every track seems to be different but I think I could grow to like them very much even if their name is truly awful. There is a bit of We Are Scientists about them (particularly on 'Hey She Say') in that they write great tunes but with a hint of irony and pastiche in all of them.  Am a bit gutted to have missed them in the UK... 

Wavves are my 'dirgy' band for the day, let's face it, it wouldn't be a blog post without one... The sound is just awful, I have no idea what the hell is going on with it - it's like someone playing out a Pixies cassette that they've played in their Fiesta for nigh on 20 years, IN that same Fiesta, after they've dropped the tape in a coffee cup.  But you can see how that might also be appealing right?  

Finally (yes! you exclaim!), here is more dancy stuff from The Golden Filter.  It's sophisticated electro pop with female vocals and at first I thought it was lacking in substance and could do with some remix treatment, but this track does build very nicely - although that could just be the snot numbing my faculties... Check them out just in case all the talk about them is correct.

I can never think of good headings...

Quick post to sing the praises of a couple of tracks I am playing lots - 'Gifted' by N.A.S.A which features Kanye and Santogold so it surely reaches 11 in the 'cool' stakes but it has a gratuitously cheesy chorus thanks to the chirrupy tones of Lykke Li.  Very, very catchy and any album that features David Byrne, Tom Waits, Chuck D and Karen O is worth checking out, which I intend to do more fully asap.  Hear the whole album on their MySpace.

On a totally different note, crawling out of some kind of 70s swamp, here come The Tap Collective.  NME thinks they are like Bo Diddley meets Nirvana and I can see what they mean - somewhat shamanistic drums and guitars under a Cobain style vocal - there's definitely something about their sound that has intrigued me as I keep revisiting these tracks... 

Saw Flashguns and Hockey live this week at Dublin Castle - there is no doubt in my mind that Hockey will reach meteoric levels of fame. Even if it's not really my bag overall, that doesn't mean anything (see The Killers for starters). Flash Guns are more up my street definitely - a sort of math-rock Smiths - and on stage they demonstrate a musical sophistication that seems way beyond their very young years and isn't necessarily conveyed on record.

Have added lots of stuff to iTunes this week so hope I have more to report soon. I now have 70 days of music on there - this and the advent of Spotify are making me reassess the value of ownership quite a bit - although not enough to chuck out the vinyl and cds yet, NO WAY.

Kings Of The Stone Age?

Currently can't get enough of Brody Dalle's new band Spinnerette and their track 'Ghetto Love' - it's rock with a credible pop twist, just as hubby Josh (off of QOTSA) would play it - to the point where you can 't help but wonder how much involvement he had in the track, actually... Unfortunately Brody does sound a bit like Courtney Love when she sings - I say unfortunately because I think she's interesting enough in her own right and could do without opening the gates to obvious comparisons.  Anyway, it's ace and it'll stick in your head til the morning 

I also played The Virgins' album today at work and whilst there was the usual situation of not really being able to pay proper attention to it, I ended up playing it three times because a number of the tracks had a hook that 'bit'. I've not spotted a particular stand out track yet but it's the overall feel of the album that made me think it was promising - Strokes meets Elvis Costello vocals meets Haircut 100.  Or something like that.  

Bits and bobs

OK, so tonight I'm trawling through old NME and Artrockers to find *stuff* whilst keeping an eye on the BAFTAs and waiting for Ross to say the word 'salad' (it's a Twitter thing).

Anyway, I might be behind the times but I've just heard the new Doves track (available for free from their website) and on first listen, I am really impressed even if it is a bit...er...'big' in places. You know, like U2 'big'.  Given I'd totally fallen out with Doves after going to one of the worst gigs ever at Brixton at the end of one of their tours (their hearts weren't in it, so mine certainly wasn't either), this is a great return to form - and I mean 'Lost Souls' form which to me was the best one they had. That said, NME informs me that they plan their new album 'Kingdom Of Rust' to be a replacement soundtrack for Blade Runner.  To put it bluntly, I wasn't aware it really needed replacing...

Whilst I'm here and before Slumdog wins every award going, another couple of worthy mentions:

Chew Lips - The Guardian were right back in November when they say that they aren't beating off their many rivals yet (they're one of a splurge of female fronted synth acts), but their MySpace tracks have kept my attention and given they're not signed yet, they're definitely promising...  

Abe Vigoda - all round murkiness from this lot, although apparently they're no longer 'no-wave' but 'tropical punk'.  That description in no way describes this track for me, but check it out anyway... 

In other news, I've just got back from a wedding where the musical highlight was dancing to this amazing record... given Ian was at the bar at the time, I had to drag my mate Filkin up to dance with me and he didn't know the routine but he coped ok.  For a 'pop' record, it has totally bonkers rhythms which were still bouncing around my head when I woke up the next morning, making a flight home after little sleep almost bearable.  I can't easily find the embed code for the video but over 38 million people have checked it out, so I suggest you do too - although this could be just 38 young girls watching it a million times to learn the dance routine...

Probably just a list of songs...

Another long gap between posts so am determined to stop making such a meal out of this and just get on and post about music godddamit.

I heard We Have Band in session on Huw Stephens' show and really liked the sound of this track - it's sort of uplifting yet still a bit moody indie-pop. The fact that there's a cover of 'West End Girls' on their MySpace is a definite clue as to their general vibe. 

I was really pleased to get to see O Children (mentioned in a previous post) at The Windmill the other week  (their singer is the tallest man I have ever seen in my life!).  Also on the bill were this band, Plastic Passion, who were really great even though they looked like they should be in separate bands.  This track is their 'tribute' to Tracey Emin but really you have to see them live to get the full benefit of these boys. 

'Anatomy Domine' is a gently building and brooding electronica number from Sourya which made me prick up my ears - it's from a mystery 'Taste Of Things To Come' album that's on my iTunes and I can't remember where it came from but it's gone awol now - it was probably Artrocker.  My iTunes played the intro to The Source 'You Got The Love' after this finished due to the way I'd sorted it and it sounded like part of the song... 

I'm not necessarily ready to embrace all of their tracks quite yet but I really like 'Converging In The Quiet' by Crystal Stilts which I heard on Rob da Bank's show... Yet another Brooklyn band who are psychedelic - but this isn't in the twee, slightly bonkers way of MGMT et al.  This is way more murky and morose and it sounds like it was recorded aeons ago - and it's all the better for it. 

See, I knew I shouldn't have started this because the gap in between posts means that I have to make this the longest post ever - I really should learn to do this as I go along.  

Burningpilot are definitely very interesting and they become even more intriguing when last.fm informs me that even their record label don't really know who the band are (which seems a bit remiss to me, but there you go).  This track makes me think of Devo even though it shouldn't but it definitely has a teutonic dance feel to it. Their other tracks are a bit more 'grown-up bloke' rock - the vocal style and unfettered organ meloldies of the other tracks are definitely reminiscent of The Stranglers - which I clearly why I like them. Check out 'Accelerate' which isn't anything like The Stranglers.

They're in all the 'tip for 2009' lists but sod it, 'One Night In October' by Little Comets is totally joyful and it won't be long before they come totally ubiquitous and therefore possibly hateful, so enjoy them while you can.  

These are not even vaguely to be confused with the above but Little Boots were also in the Sound Of 2009 list - formerly of Dead Disco and cute as a button, she is basically a Pet Shop Girl, but that's just the start of what is good about her.  

Off of all of the 2009 list nominees, it is La Roux who I think I am falling in love with. Her visual style is so individual (without appearing at all forced), that I find her utterly compelling. This track is rarely off my ipod these days and you can watch the thoroughly 80s video (it even includes a gymnast!) at her myspace. 

Last up from the girls, Catherine A.D vocally sounds a lot like PJ Harvey during the 'To Bring You My Love' era and KD Lang and 'Carry Your Heart' sounds like it was sung on a moor in a time, far, far away with a bodice probably heaving somewhere nearby.  But it's gratuitously marvellous so I'll share it with you even if it's a bit of a self indulgent guilty pleasure. It's like the Evanescence of good songwriting. Actually, that makes it sound awful but maybe you'll see what I mean.  

Other worthy mentions:

Nice bit of promising indie rock (apparently influenced by ...And They Will Know Us...) - 'Nurse! Nurse! from Nephu Huzzband. 

Moody but uplifting girl rock in The Breeders vein from Sky Larkin 

Foals go electro? - yes, it's Gallops!

Fan Death will probably go far because they really have the look (Human League girls having raided Goldfrapp's wardrobe) and Erol Alkan is already remixing their stuff. 

Right, that'll do for now - and I really must learn to write about these bands when I hear them to save you having to trawl through posts this long...  I haven't even begun to mention how utterly, utterly amazing Grace Jones was on Wednesday night... 

Not much to say

Just a quick update given I was logged in while adding my Twitter feed to my page... I have nothing much to report as my plan to read the unending pile of NME/Artrockers has not come to fruition but I can recommend White Belt, Yellow Tag who sound a little bit Coldplay I think (but don't let that put you off, they were good once, come on you remember it). 

I also went to The Lexington on Friday to catch a few bands - the night was called White Light and it's a sister night for White Heat (see what they did there VU fans?), the weekly night at Madame Jo Jos which always has a great line up and I often regret not heading down there more often. 

Anyway, for this one I mainly went to see Televised Crimewave (who have nearly made it onto this blog a couple of times but I don't think they've appeared yet) and White Rose Movement (who I unashamedly LOVE) but actually it was the band I hadn't heard before, LR Rockets, who piqued my interest most.  Weirdly enough, we bumped into the lead singer at a kooky craft fair we went to the next day, recognisable by the fact that he was still sporting his stage garb, having not been to bed yet.  Rich and I had a chat with him and we were both very good and managed not to say 'You sound JUST like The Young Knives' in our review of the gig, as we weren't sure if he would agree with us that this is a good thing. 

I managed to get one of the free cds they were handing out so will put up a track when I stop Christmas partying and actually go home. WRM were great, although the anthem that is 'Love Is A Number' was a bit messy - but the new stuff was really, really good so happy days.  TTFN.

All round neglect

OK, I've been delaying this post for the ridiculous reason that I just feel guilty that it's been so long and I'd like to be able to post something decent when I do. This is ridiculous because 1) no one reads it anyway and 2) this is supposed to be fun goddamit, FUN!!!  That said, the empty blog has been a very clear sign of the musical drought that I feel I am currently in - I've definitely gone through a low point of not listening to much new music at all, and even though there are some great bands out there, they just don't seem to be for me.

Soooo, I'm going to get this sorted out rather than just gripe and get bowed down by it (some famous music industry type person once said that when looking for new music starts to become hard work, you should just call it a day so sod that for a laugh) and writing about a couple of bits and bobs on here will definitely start a positive chain of new music events methinks - that and finally getting through the ridiculous pile of unread NMEs and Artrockers that are currently residing in my lounge. 

Thinking about it, of course there has been some music that I've enjoyed listening to lately so here is some of it.  I'm afraid there are no photos as I've just not been to any gigs since Bestival (and anyway my decent cameraphone ended up in a pint of beer in Mallorca at 8.30 in the morning, never to take a photo again).  But I am going to resolve the first of these problems tonight - I am armed with a credit card and enough drink to make me reckless and I'm going to book me some giggage.

Soooo yes, the new Shortwave Set album is totally delightful, this track pays serious homage to glam rock whilst still remaining distinctly Shortwave - and it is utterly uplifting, lovely stuff.  

Thanks to NME's Radar feature, I also have been deving into the new Shoreditch Goth scene which is a strange proposition for me - I'm sure I've mentioned before on this blog how much I detest Shoreditch - but I can't escape the fact that I'm also an old goff.  But there is definitely a 'scene' of fantastic looking moody arses out there making some seriously depressing music.  A lot of it is incredibly derivative - but then that's why I love it.

Here's Ipso Facto (the 'lighter' end of the scene) and O Children (the middle patch) - and just be grateful I haven't subjected you to An Experiment On A Bird In An Air Pump, S.C.U.M or Ulterior... Remember people, you cut along the vein, not across... 

I did see this band live earlier in the year - The Week That Was are clearly very influenced by the extraordinary living legend that is Kate Bush - and they also really remind me of a band I really liked called Clor who sadly disbanded after their first album.  'Learn To Learn is a particularly good 'Sat In Your Lap' inspired piece...

She's been mentioned before on the blog before, admittedly a long while back, but since then thecocknbullkid has REALLY smoothed out her style and now makes polished, 80s inspired tracks that are very catchy yet still cool enough to inspire pouty, handbag dodging, angular dance moves from people with too much blusher on.

And for a bit of light(ish) hearted indie, I'll finish up with Frightened Rabbit who are perhaps a *little* twee but if I a cynic like me likes them, they obviously can't be THAT twee.

On top of this, I have been playing Friendly Fires and Ladyhawke incessantly since my last post so if you're even slower than daytime Radio 1, then make sure you get them into your life soon.

I'll be back SOON I promise - with a clutch of new music goodies and hopefully a seriously depleted bank account thanks to Ticketweb.

Reading Revelry

Just a quick one to run through who rocked at Reading - now that the fog has cleared enough for me to remember what happened there.  

This might sound like rubbish but pretty much everyone we saw rocked at Reading because one of my favourite things about the festival is that it's small enough that if you decide you're not feeling a band, you can be watching another one in a few minutes.  Not that this happened very often because another one of the good things about Reading is that the crowd are so up for it all of the time - it's totally infectious and makes seeing bands so much more fun than perhaps at other festivals where people tend to just nod their heads along to the music.

I was there to do a twitter feed of the weekend (along with a colleague Jane) so you can get the gist of what I did by Reading through that - but here are the bands that stood out...

Bands I've not seen live before that I particularly enjoyed seeing:  The Joy Formidable (moody Pixies rock), Flashguns (Wedding Present meets The Monkees sort of), Black Tide (a new Iron Maiden with very, very long hair), Friendly Fires (special mention to them, totally, totally brilliant with carnival dancers thrown in), Esser (great pop going on), Cancer Bats (rawwwwk), Fucked Up (rawwwk with utterly amazing frontman), Santogold (looking and sounding great - NME calling her music genre-buggery is so appropriate), Yeasayer (sooo soothing after the brute force of...), Bring Me The Horizon (more heavy metal, amazing voice), The Whip (fat bassy repetitive beats on a pop tip), Holy Fuck (beautifully hypnotic live), Johnny Foreigner (utterly delightful indie that should be too twee but isn't) and Seasick Steve (drinking Jack on stage, how blues can you get?)

There might be more from the new (to me) stuff but that'll do for now...except for Metallica who'd I'd not seen before but were simply awesome - I can't really say much more than that to be honest.  Unbelievable.  Rage Against The Machine were fantastic but the sound was pretty crap where we were so we just couldn't get the full impact of it...plus it felt like they really lagged after the first few tracks, although admittedly they were back at full steam for the encore.

As for people we'd seen before: QOTSA, Justice and Gallows were totally superb - although Josh's new crew-cut is the subject of some debate.  QOTSA played a fan's set, missing out many of the obvious hits in favour of some longer. more noodly tracks.  Justice did a shortened set which upset Ian (who loves a bit of 'Phantom' but if you watch the video before it goes offline and check out the crowd reaction, you'll see that most people didn't seem to mind). Crystal Castles, Foals and These New Puritans were also as good as ever.

What a line up eh?  It was a great chance to see loads of brilliant music with a lot of people who were up for hearing it - one of the reasons why it remains one of my favourite festivals of the year. 

Roll on Bestival in a couple of weeks! 

Er yeah....hi!

Ok, this is very bad I know... but I have been busy. Since the last time I wrote I have been working at Download, Glastonbury. and, would you believe it, in Mallorca (see some pics from two of those events here), ventured on holiday to Corfu for a week, been to Wireless and Field Day festivals and seen My Bloody Valentine and Justice live - all of which looks a bit feeble when written down but it felt busy at the time, believe me.  I'm not going to bother revisiting all of those things - there will be photos of some of them my Flickr page when I get around to putting them up. 

I've not done much new music listening in that time weirdly enough, and a lot of the bands I saw at the festivals were ones I already knew about in the main, simply because I couldn't get the time off when I needed to but if I think of anyone of note as I go along, I'll let you know... 

I've been desperately playing catch up and here are SOME of the results - if I try and make this list exhaustive, I'll just stress myself out so I'll just the best of the best of the best up for the moment... Fingers crossed you vaguely agree, eh?

The Friendly Fires - 'Jump In The Pool' - a band guaranteed to put a smile on your face, they're sort of an indie-ier version of Klaxons and this song is very dang catchy. They're hugely hyped and even though some people think they've only got a couple of tracks, I've heard the album and there are more than that.  Anyway, this song is so good I couldn't care less :)

The Joy Formidable - 'Austere' - never one to shy away from gothy sounding, bass driven bands, here's another one!  Starting off with (slighly annoying) girly 'ooh-ooh'ing with a fuzzy bass, this builds up into a nice journey into Throwing Muses/Pixies territory.

Esser - 'Headlock' - this guy is clearly a little bit bonkers and the first time you hear it you might think 'eh?' but I'm afraid once you do hear it, it will be stuck in your head pretty much forever (approx).  He's clearly an utter pop genius and if he hits the Top 40 (which I think he will), it will be a wonderful thing. 

Micachu - 'Just In Case' - I love this girl  - her voice has a strange surly quality to it that makes her very listenable to me - and she knows how to screw up acoustic guitar music better than most. There's also a bonkers dubstep break down in the middle of the track.  Reminiscent of hearing Santogold/M.I.A. in those early days too - check out Golden Phone too, it's also brilliant.

Ladyhawke - Paris Is Burning - not exactly THAT new on the scene but worthy of a mention given my blog drought of late.  This track is so 80s Bananarama cheesy that it becomes an instant classic in my book... Much has been made of her Stevie Nicks obsession and check out this not so good quality copy of 'Back Of The Van' to see EXACTLY what I mean, imitation being the sincerest form of flattery and all that... Expect people to be blowing coke up her ass real soon.

White Denim - 'Let's Talk About It' - one of my big regrets in the past couple of months was deliberating too long about whether to get tickets to see this band, only to find when I went to buy them, the gig had sold out and there was absolutely no way I could persuade the record company that I was important enough to be there given the illustrious queue that had already formed.  Anyway, their garage rock is so authentic, it sounds like the tracks were unearthed from a derelict recording studio somewhere (apparently it was a 1940's Spartan trailer if that means anything to you).  Pure and dirty rock and roll. 

Lord Auch - The Dig Inn - Last up an artrocker indie band demo that I rather like - I don't think it's gonna be a big hit but something about the vocals that REALLY remind me of loads of bands I like, none of which come to mind.  If anyone can help me out, that would be great... 

OK, so that'll do for now although other things of note over the past couple of months - 1) HOW GOOD were My Bloody Valentine at The Roundhouse? Oh my days that gig was inspired. 2) I simply can't seem to stop playing the new Beck album - it's just brilliant, even if his Wireless performance would lead us to suggest that Scientology has sucked the joy out his stage persona and 3) roll on Reading and Bestival!