The Weekly Froth #20

Ali Love

Just a little bit later than usual, here’s our weekly look into the blogopshere where we talk about six tracks we found out about in the previous Wednesday-to-Wednesday seven-day period.

Ali Love – Love Harder (Prins Thomas remix)

Spaceness by Prins Thomas of course! Who else? None other than the Lindstrom accomplice turns this rather poppy track into a space disco eight minute lovefest. Hips a flailing on that sweet bass, which keeps on coming and coming. Who needs vocals, right? Well they do come in, first kind of high and on the background, but at the half mark (as in, almost precisely the half mark I reckon) they get a more prominent place. This is after you’ve been seduced for a good four minutes by Prins Thomas and his space disco qualities, and after that you’re so into the song that the vocals offer just a bit of variation in this nine minutes behemoth. Prins Thomas makes it pretty easy to start singing along a bit as well. So if you find yourself singing and dancing like a loon, Prins Thomas is to blame, as this is one seductive remix. … Continue Reading

Clock Opera’s wicked-ace remix of The Phenomenal Handclap Band’s ‘Baby’

Clock Opera

Imagine what happened when the amazing Clock Opera remixed our favourite NYC psychesters The Phenomenal Handclap Band?

Before you find out, here are some words: the turn-of-phrase “baby I could move the world” sounds all manta-esque in this remix, the blips are so perfectly timed, the build just keeps giving (so much that I can picture a crowd under strobe lights screaming for its climax), the disco rhythms are bite-sized and delicious and plague-like, and – wait – the whole thing’s damn fine. A marvel. … Continue Reading

The Best of February

tUnE-yArDs

It seems like barely four weeks ago we published The Best of January and that’s because it was – February is only four weeks long. We like to keep it simple, at the bottom of this article is a condensed musical version of what we’ve been talking about last month. That means there are singles from Field Music, Gorillaz, Two Door Cinema Club, Efterklang and Tunng. Tracks from the albums by Midlake, The Archie Bronson Outfit, Pantha Du Prince (with help from Panda Bear) and Hot Chip.

We also saw Shearwater, New Young Pony Club and tUnE-yArDs live as well as taking a second look at Arctic Monkeys. Cate Le Bon waxed lyrical on Syd Barrett’s second solo album (Barrett) and we reviewed her first. Looking back we celebrated Chemical Underground past and present and caught up with members of the long-split-up and much-celebrated Life Without Buildings.

Here it is: Muso’s Guide – February 2010

BBC announces plans for cuts: our open letter

BBC 6Music

The BBC has just confirmed its plans to shed 6Music, the Asian Network and 25% of its online budget. Here’s our writer’s letter, summing up the dire situation. … Continue Reading

Muso’s Guide introduces… Performance

Performance

Here at Muso’s Guide, we particularly enjoy introducing you to new bands. And today, we bring you another of our favourites, Performance – think of us as your ever-convivial host, as the lead singer Joe Stretch tells you a little bit more…

I’ve taken a crap in every toilet venue from The Lemon Tree in Aberdeen to The Joiners in Southampton. I sat on the seat or, if there was no seat or the seat was broken or had piss on it, then I hovered above the bowl. I did this at The Castle in Oldham, The Cluny in Newcastle, Fibbers in York. I did this all over England.

My name is Joe Stretch and I am the lead singer in a band called Performance, a three-piece, hailing from Manchester in the north-west of England. We formed around 2003 and signed a record deal with Polydor in December 2004. We were, in no particular order, a gambling addict, an anorexic, a drug addict and a depressive. We made pop music. I dropped out of university and signed the record contract with a Ladbrokes betting pen. Like everyone else, I regret nothing. … Continue Reading

Life Without Buildings: the catch up interview

Life Without Buildings

Life Without Buildings leapt out of an art school corner of Glasgow at the turn of the millennium, and have since – passively – courted listeners who deem their debut (and only) LP Any Other City among the most precious in their collection. It’s not the sort of album to be absorbed immemorably, instead sticking like a giant earworm. The inner rumblings of singer Sue Tompkins are set against a spiky, coarse backing from the other three members of the band (Chris Evans, Will Bradley and Robert Johnston) and appeared, then, in short and mostly unnoticed bursts that may or may not have been happed upon via the release of three double A-sides and a fourth, distributed only in Australia. The internet wasn’t what it is now, so a quick blink and LwB were gone. … Continue Reading

The best of January

Beach House - Teen Dream

For the intrigued/lazy amongst you we’ve decided to condense a month’s worth of blabber into an easy to digest Spotify playlist. Included are tracks from reviewed albums by Laura Viers, Beach House and Delphic as well as some January singles (OK and some late December ones) from These New Puritans, Late of The Pier, Plan B, I Was A King and The Strange Boys. … Continue Reading

Mike Doughty – London Relentless Garage

Mike Doughty

February 2nd 2010

“I want to be on you”.  Ron Burgundy’s “immortal words” are those chosen by Mike Doughty to sell himself to the British public.

Doughty, formerly of alt-rock band Soul Coughing, is pretty popular in the States, but relatively unknown here.  My question referred to selling himself to us in the style of a dating ad.  His witty answer, I come to realise, is standard.

The American singer-songwriter is a fairly open book, regularly tweeting (find him @mikedoughtyyeah) and blogging on his website, where he comments honestly on his day to day activities and thoughts on the happenings in the world; two recent tweets include “Lousy night. Crowd couldn’t have cared less” and “Salinger gone – perhaps we’ll at last hear his Rock Opera”.  Is it important for him to keep in touch with fans? “I think it ends up being important, but the reason I do it is just my general obsession with killing time online” he says. “I think my crowd feels pretty close to me because of the access I give to myself, but I don’t think it’s necessarily vital to being a musician these days”.

This openness has extended to a book about his previous life as a drug addict, which he’s in the process of writing.  Mike claims “writing prose is a lot more time consuming than song writing” and that “linear thinking”  is not his strength.  He’s currently struggling to write about his time with Soul Coughing, describing it as “pretty shitty”.
… Continue Reading

Whatever People Say I Am, That’s What I probably am, maybe…..

Arctic Monkeys

I’m not really too bothered about who he’s fucking, or where he lives, or even what he gets up to outside music. He can become an actor if he wants, start painting….. whatever. I’m concerned about Alex Turner, ‘the indie icon’, about this ‘genius’ tag that has prematurely been bestowed upon his slender frame. … Continue Reading

Ones To Watch: The Wilderness Of Manitoba

The Wilderness Of Manitoba

We’re into January now which means, for some, more nights in to discover new music. Thankfully, we’re on hand (as ever) to guide you in the right direction – this time towards a breathtaking discovery in Canadian slowcore band, The Wilderness Of Manitoba. Their music is stripped back to a skeleton of stark and slowly-moving opuses, emotion bleeding through the grazes.

We took the band to one side and asked them a few questions which will familiarise you with the background as you fall in love with the music over at the MySpace. … Continue Reading