The Gaslight Anthem - The '59 Sound
I’m not sure what to make of The Gaslight Anthem. They appeared from nowhere with their up-beatly miserable single ‘The ’59 Sound’, which I definitely saw on MTV2, think I heard on Radio 1 and was a free Single of the Week on iTunes. Then nothing. None of the usual media saturation or gormless interviews made by a band who have been told to say nothing by their chaperones. … Continue Reading
Motion City Soundtrack - Commit This To Memory
From the opening salvos of ‘Attractive Today’ and lead off single ‘Everything Is Alright’ to the heartbreaking leaving note of ‘Hold Me Down’, Motion City Soundtrack (Justin Pierre, Joshua Cain, Jesse Johnson, Matt Taylor and Tony Thaxton) take you through an emotional rollercoaster.Â
Informed by lead singer/guitarist Pierre’s well documented problems (I’m not going into it here – just listen to the albums), MCS’s sophomore effort (produced by Mark Hoppus of Blink 182 fame) is pure pop genius.Â
Some lines come across as so silly it’s unbelievable, but listen again and they just make sense. Take the first line heard – “I am wrecked / I am overblown / I am also fed up with the common cold†from ‘Attractive Today’. … Continue Reading
Phantom
“Low-lit music, a voice to still your beating heart, a torched romantic soul, smoke and mirrors”
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Aha! For any of you that have read my Her Space Holiday review, THIS is how country music should sound!
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I am really disappointed with this album. Gone is the trademark processed laptop-pop, all the myriad sounds slightly detached but sitting together beautifully, in comes organic instrumentation, all sounding like they belong together but all somehow sounding slightly wrong…except Matt Bianchi’s voice. He has, in the course of production, run his vocals through the same filters as he always has previously. Whereas this echoic delay fitted the tone of earlier albums it sounds completely wrong on this, his eighth studio album.
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Hurray! The Research are back! And they sound as lusciously lo-fi as ever!
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It was a while ago I first came across You Me At Six. Disappointed with Funeral For A Friend’s Tales Don’t Tell Themselves, I went searching for some good old British emo-pop-rock. ‘Save It For The Bedroom’ is what I uncovered – played heavily until I got the next new “toy”.
Forward to today and I am sat here with Take Off Your Colours, You Me At Six’s debut. I will be honest, I had lost them from my radar after my initial fling with the Surrey based quintets musings on love and life and my interest was piqued again when I saw in my local music superstore that their album was due for release.
The fact that it was listed on the wall behind the till in said type of shop (normally reserved to tell the unfulfilled when the next manufactured chart superstar releases their labels new cash cow) was enough to make me take a second look.
Released on Slam Dunk Records (my previous knowledge of Slam Dunk was as a club night at The Cockpit in Leeds…ah, memories…!), You Me At Six have obviously built up a reputation and a dedicated following to get such advertisements.
As I listen to the CD for the first time (on my way to work – I’m a busy man!) I find my mind wandering. It’s pleasant enough, but sounds kind like it could have been done by any number of similar bands, both British and American – all chugging guitars, big breakdowns and genre-specific vocal stylings.
Then…Hark…What is that? The alarm call guitar that is the introduction to ‘Save It For The Bedroom’, that’s what it is. Now it may be familiarity that reeled me in, but, hell, it got my attention drew me inside for a further listen.
Next up is the albums title track. Slamming straight in with the line “Those eyes you bought have gone to my head / But they wont take you to my bed” adds to the building sense of sex and short-lived relationships.
This theme is kept up over the next couple of tracks, including ‘If You Run’, which features this rather damning assessment of a former acquaintance: “Run around, just running your mouth / You’re by the hotel / Who’s doing you now? / And you’re so cold, so cold”
Things get a bit heavier on ‘Tigers And Sharks’, conjuring a sense of pain and betrayal to go with the cutting put-downs, vocalist Josh Franceschi demanding to know why everyone he knows was faking it from the word go.
The album’s unrelenting pace slows up for the obligatory acoustic number, ‘Always Attract’. Guitarist, one of Max Heyler or Chris Miller, or perhaps both (no liner notes, no concrete info), do a good job providing an understated melody allowing Franceschi to emote – this time longing for his loved one to return, enlisting the help of an unknown female (see previous comment regarding liner notes) to add backing vocals. The guitarists get to revert to their electrics for the ending, as the rest of the band join in for the crescendo of a finale. As I said, ‘Always Attract’ breaks up the generally fast paced album – but not for long.
Reverting to type for the final two tracks, ‘Nasty Habits’ bemoans another girl who, while not wanting to be “bad news”, seems to be just that.
Live favourite and traditional set closer ‘The Rumour’ ends the album in anthemic style, inviting the listener to “Hold your hands in, into the air / Hold your hands up as if you care”, but not before admitting that “We try to show some love and / It’s a skill that we lack”.
You Me At Six are writing good pop-infused rock music, the press release likening them to Fall Out Boy and Paramore. If that’s what the band are aspiring to (certainly no bad thing…and, oh, haven’t You Me At Six just been added to Fall Out Boy’s UK tour…?) they are certainly going the right way about it.
The tales of girls and boys and love and hate that make up Take Off Your Colours are distinctly teenage in content. But they are full of energy, enthusiasm and, most importantly, tunes. Good tunes make a damn good listen. Let’s just hope they stay as unlucky with the ladies…
Tah Mac
 It’s Kanye West’s younger brother! Not really, but if he was, he would be one of those brothers that idolises his older sibling…
Like an ever attentive host, Mac begins by welcoming us all to “Tah-land” over the type of old-school soul beat that West made his trademark early on in his career.
‘Time Of My Life’ lyrically follows that age old rappers trick – he is basically introducing himself to the world as a rapper (much like Eminem [My Name Is], The Cool Kids [Mikey Rocks] and, um, Yes Boss [Meet The Boss] amongst others, have done) after production duties for the likes of Leona Lewis and Artetha Franklin. Mac greatly enjoys telling the world how great his life is at the moment and how he’s been on MTV…
The remix on the b-side shows versatility, kind of… Tah Mac shows us that he loved the last Kanye West album just as much as the first by paying homage to West’s electro-tinged dabbles. I may sound like I’m being a bit down on Tah Mac. I certainly don’t mean to be. I like the track – it’s a nice, soulful slice of hip-pop. No, that is not a typo. This is a hip-hop track made for the pop charts.
It may not have the hooks to become an instant hit, but there is enough there to bed in Tah Mac as a name to look out for, as both producer and artist. I mean, having someone doing so well what West has set the standard for is certainly a good thing. Especially if you have heard West’s ‘Love Lockdown’…
September 21, 2008
On the July 29, Zane Lowe announced a tour on Radio One that heralded a return to the Guildhall by a band that had graced the said stage little over 7 months ago. Glasvegas were coming, in support of their self-titled debut.
Fast forward to the night (21/09/08) – the show is a sell-out, and there’s a genuine buzz about the place. People gather around in their groups, certain among them extolling the virtues of the night’s entertainment to their unknowing friends, having seen them on their previous visit. They’re expecting big things.
First, however, is the support band. Written up on the board the Guildhall uses to direct people to the right rooms as Mad Skull, a guy walks across the darkened stage and takes his place behind a banner bearing a smiley in a Petr Cech-style scrum cap and starts playing a Billy Connelly sample. As Billy serenades the crowd with tales of Glasgow, the rest of the band take the stage, barely visible behind a smoke-screen. The song stops and the front man comes on the mic; “Alright Gloucester, we’re Madskull. One word, not two like they wrote up there”. Not that I think anyone will remember. They sound like a poor man’s Happy Mondays, with a Glaswegian Shaun Ryder wannabe shouting down the microphone. Not sure what he’s shouting, mind, but whatever it is he was repeating himself a lot. I tuned out until he announced it was there last song – a cover of Glasvegas’ poignant spoken word ode to wielding a blade, ‘I’m Gonna Get Stabbed’. It’s certainly worthy of inclusion into a report on knife crime… The lights come up, the roadies do their thing and the theatre starts filling up, people ready themselves for the main event to a soundtrack of 50s pop. The appointed time comes. The lights go down and a projection of static is beamed to the back wall of the stage.
Sauntering slowly to their places came Glasvegas, dressed all in black (drummer Caroline shamelessly wearing the band’s own merch) and lead singer James sporting sunglasses. The reason for these optical accoutrements becomes clear as the band launch into first number ‘Flowers And Football Tops’, as blinding lights illuminate the audience. Equally as stunning is the perfectly balanced wall of sound that emanates from the four-piece. The excerpt of ‘You Are My Sunshine’ that serves as the outro to ‘Flowers And Football Tops’ garners the first of many crowd sing-alongs, the second of which arrives with the opening lines of former single ‘It’s My Own Cheating Heart That Makes Me Cry’.
Bathed in mirror ball style projections, this tale of paranoia and self-doubt does everything for the crowd but bring it down, prompting bouts of arms aloft swaying. Bona fide chart hit ‘Geraldine’ is greeted just as enthusiastically by the now adoring crowd, leading into live favourite ‘Go Square Go’, which is turned into the terrace anthem it is when James Allan steps back from the microphone to admire the band’s handiwork, local accents being replaced by Scottish inflections. Pausing for breath, Allan address’ the gathered masses; “Gloucester, you know I love you don’t you?”.
The rapturous applause and cheering that follows this statement is rewarded with a slowly swelling, churning address on Glasgow’s religious divide, ‘Ice Cream Van’, which builds and builds and then crashes back down into the quiet and blackness that envelope the hall. Allan makes the band’s ‘thank yous’ and announces the final number for the evening – current single, ‘Daddy’s Gone’. The crowd bounce and sing it right back, pouring as much into their appreciation as Glasvegas are into their performance.
As I walk away, I overhear one punter’s comment; “Well, that’s the last time they play anywhere small“. Perhaps not quite true, but I wholly agree with the sentiment. Especially on the back of a performance like that.
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